The Williams Bros' Podcast

Snowy Florida and Evil Elon or Batman Musk?

Garr, Stephen, Neal & Shaler Williams Season 6 Episode 7

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A hard freeze rolled through the South and set the tone for a wide‑ranging ride: frost‑nipped gardens, wind chills that felt like two degrees, and the strange satisfaction of stepping onto “snowcrete” that refuses footprints. 

Then we dive into the EV story everyone’s whispering about: Chinese electric cars that industry insiders rave over but Americans can’t buy. We get specific about range and charging—think 136 miles in five minutes, 317 in fifteen—plus modular interiors, panoramic HUDs, and price points that undercut premium competitors. 

The culture thread runs through it all: is Elon a caped crusader or a chaos merchant, and what happens when Tesla reshuffles its lineup while robotics looms larger? We also savor the small stuff that actually shapes a week—Girl Scout cookies and the eternal Thin Mint‑in‑the‑freezer hack

Hit play for sharp takes, practical tips, and a few laughs as we navigate cold snaps, fast tech, and faster change. If you enjoyed the show, follow, rate, and share it with a friend—then tell us: what would it take for you to switch to an EV?

Kicking Off And Audio Fixes

SPEAKER_03

That's a very handsome name you have, Stephen. That is the most handsome name I have heard. And I've never told anybody that before. Yeah, wherever she was, they apparently didn't have air conditioning because she she said that it was very hot there and she was very sweaty.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, good to know. Steven Swifty right now.

SPEAKER_03

I just want my internet fixed. Maybe it was being recorded or something. I don't think he's like a big gulp. You pulled like a waitress deal right there where Gar takes it. How's anything?

SPEAKER_02

Okay, we're good.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. Hey everybody, it's the Williams Brothers podcast. I'm Gar. I'm Steven. I'm Neil. I'm Shaler. We've spent the past 20 minutes working on Shaler's audio.

Deep Freeze Across The South

SPEAKER_06

So he's gonna say it's working amazing. Hey, I think the topic is the cold. Holy smokes. That's a good topic. It is cold. Chilly. So let's real, real cold. Apparently, they saw snow flurries in Haynes City, Florida, which is not far from here.

SPEAKER_03

I saw Savannah got some. Charleston got some snow. Yeah. Little dusting. A little dusting here, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yep. Yep. So Orlando snow or just really cold?

SPEAKER_06

It was it was cold. It was 20. My thermometer said 22 this morning, and then the wind was blowing too. So I was spending yesterday covering up as many plants as I could. And I walked around the house today and I got all kinds of stuff that's dead now. It's unbelievable. Oh now. Oh wow. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. And then it's getting down on the 20s again tonight, so I'm just keeping it all covered up. I love the cold weather. I just don't get enough of it. There's no snow, so it's kind of like it looks snowy outside. It was cloudy yesterday. Wind was blowing, cold. It was like everything was like lining up. And of course, we're not going to get snow here.

SPEAKER_03

But I wish it'd be cool if you did, but yeah, you never know.

SPEAKER_06

I think you're right. This maybe not the cold, but when it's cold and the wind is blowing, because we were having gusts up to 50 miles an hour. Yeah. Yeah. It was rough yesterday. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we it it was bad. This morning it felt like two degrees here. That's that was how the wind chill was. It was 16, but it felt like two. Man.

Snowcrete And Icy Mishaps

SPEAKER_05

So let me tell you about snow crete. So snow creet is when it snows and then it gets cold and the snow freezes.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, and the ice.

SPEAKER_05

So you can walk on the snow and then you leave no footprints at all because it's just a solid mass of ice and it's like concrete. So they're calling it snow crete. Because I've got a little snowblower that it does really well if you're just you know blowing off the driveway and the snow's real powdery. It does fabulous with ice, it doesn't do very well at all. It just kind of stops. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, nothing happened. Unless you have a heated snowblower or something. Right. Nothing's gonna touch that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Or one of those torches. What was it? The flamethrowers that would test the soul for a while. That would have been super helpful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Probably kill all your grass, but it'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_05

Burn the house down, but yeah.

Shoulder Rehab And Staying Safe

SPEAKER_03

That's exactly what my surgeon told me not to walk on. My shoulder surgeon, do not go out in the ice. So how's the shoulder? Shoulder's good. Been doing the rehab thing and getting better and better, more and more flexibility.

SPEAKER_05

Are you gonna be able to play piano? Is the question. That's always what you have to ask.

SPEAKER_03

I never could before, so if I can, that would be great.

Travel Health: Masks And Immunity Hacks

SPEAKER_06

When you guys travel, because I don't travel a lot. I did have to travel for work this past week. And I said, I'm gonna wear a mask because the flu's going around, nasty cold's going around, COVID's probably still lingering out there, too. So I wore a mask once I got to the airport the whole time in the airplane, most of the time in the in the airport when I got where I was going and on the way back. The whole trip, the whole trip, I saw one other person with a mask on. That was it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, people are done with masks. Yeah, but it's smart to do that because it's flu season. So if you didn't get the flu, then not too bad.

SPEAKER_06

I hadn't gotten it yet, so we'll see. I don't know how long it takes to actually happen, but I just thought, am I being too cautious? Because I I don't even want a cold. I don't want anything, right? So I got the mask, I got the hand sanitizer going on every five minutes.

SPEAKER_03

And at least now it's not the political statement it was, you know, back in the like 2020, 2021. If you wore a mask, or there are people that are like, F you, buddy, you know, you and your effing mask, you know, and you're like, I'm just wearing a mask.

SPEAKER_06

It's actually like a big Joe Biden mask, is what it says. Oh, is it? Oh, it's like a Biden 2020 or something like that. But yeah, no, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, so I don't do the mask, I do these gummies. They're like vitamin C and zinc, coldies, or it's one of those. I can't remember the brand, but they're these gummies that you take like three a day. Um, so I I do those before right before I travel, and then when I get back, and it I don't know. It I guess it works. I don't know if I would have gotten sick otherwise or not, but so I was curious to know. You know, we I don't want to get political. We talked about Venezuela, I think, in the past, and Greenland, and and I understand one of us is headed to Alaska soon, so I was curious if we're gonna be taking that over too sometime.

SPEAKER_03

Well, so taking over Alaska, yeah.

Alaska Plans, Cancellations, And Jokes

SPEAKER_06

No, well, see, the story behind it is that you know, Denmark, in revenge for the whole Greenland thing, they're trying to take Alaska, so we have to go and defend it. That's I see. Oh, that's not really not no. Actually, uh the trip actually got canceled for me because someone else was already going up that way. So the the things that had to be done could be done by someone else. And actually, it's a relief because it would have been a really quick trip to Alaska, and I really didn't crazy about going because it would have literally been, yeah, like a 10-hour flight or whatever to Alaska, spend the night, and then come back like the next day or the day after, or whatever. It's a long flight.

SPEAKER_03

I saw a post that said they should just get Trump to fly to Alaska, tell him it's Greenland, and plant a flag in it, wave, and then go home. Done. Earth thing would be over with.

SPEAKER_06

Have a press conference for three motors. Right. Right. And move on.

Pivot To China’s Electric Cars

SPEAKER_03

It's build a golf course, whatever it is. Exactly. No big deal. So speaking of uh, I don't know, uh, speaking of uh what are we talking about here? I don't know. I was speaking of China. I'm gonna get on China. We're not speaking of China, but I'm gonna pull China. We can do that. I just I know I had this topic and I was trying to segue to it, and I just I couldn't figure it out. I thought I was close to pull one out. I thought I was close. I read this article in the Wall Street Journal about the Chinese electric cars. Has anybody read this stuff?

SPEAKER_06

I saw the headline.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. China China apparently is way ahead of the U.S. in electric cars. And Ford, the the the CEO of Ford, drove one, a Chinese electric car for a while and said he hated to give it back because they're outlawed here, which is weird to me. Outlawing a car because it's better than what's here. Anyway, they they have like magnetic click-on add-ons to the car. So if you want to add on like a like a cooler in the back seat, it'll just click on automatically, you know, magnetically and hook up with the with the system, you know, the battery and everything in the car. It they're they're super fast, they're comparable to like a Porsche Panamera or something like that. They have a huge display. They're made by a company that makes phones and everything but cars. So it's not from a car company at all. And they're supposed to just be incredible. They have very long range and they cost about 42 to 48,000.

SPEAKER_06

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

I mean that's for like the really cool one, you know.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I would guess that it might be, and I'm not sure. I mean, this is kind of a guess more than anything. It might be the safety features or lack thereof. I don't know, but we have a very strict safety thing when it comes to cars in the US. I my that'd be my first guess is if it costs$48,000. Yeah, you know, is it is it up to snuff when it comes to safety and you know, crashing and all that stuff? I don't know. No idea.

EV Range, Charging, And Adoption

SPEAKER_03

It has rear tablet mounts. So if you have your tablet, you can just click it on and it'll uh plug in automatically. Rotating dashboard when you start the car, the seven-inch driver instrument cluster physically rotates to greet you. Wow, a 56-inch heads-up display. 56 inches? What? So the whole windshield windshield that covers navigation and driving data so you don't need to look down.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, oh, oh. So it's a heads-up display.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Okay, gotcha. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

A 16-inch central screen, 3K, extremely high resolution.

SPEAKER_06

Well, let me ask you this. This is the most important question. Does it charge as fast as putting gas in a car? See, that's that's that's what turns me off, and why I don't think electric is ever going to is really going to dominate.

SPEAKER_03

I liked mu Elon Musk's idea that uh Tesla had a while back where they would just change the battery out. You pull in, it takes your battery out, puts a new battery in, and off you go.

SPEAKER_06

I think that's great.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and then it charges that battery.

SPEAKER_06

And you know, the electric cars that they like the ones that Tesla makes, and I'm not sure about Ford and the others, but it's probably the same. It's 300 miles on a charge. Yeah. That's six hours of driving, roughly. You know, five to six hours of driving. I'm ready to stop for 30 minutes and get something to eat.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

So I think it's just, I mean, I hear you, Shaler, but I think it's just adjusting your adjusting your driving patterns a little bit and saying, you know what, here's where we're gonna stop here. There's a charger here, we'll be charged up in 40 minutes, 30 minutes. In the meantime, we'll go to Cracker Barrel and get something to eat. Right. I'm not there yet. And I it depends on your driving habits, I guess, but yeah, my ratio of city driving to taking trips, yeah, I do a whole lot more city driving. Sure. Not many trips, and then when I come home, I'm just plugging it back in.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. So effectively it just kind of fills it up, fills up the tank every time I come home.

SPEAKER_05

I think long term the question is if somebody buys an EV, do they ever go back to a regular gas car? Like, like do people kind of become won over by the technology, like, you know what, I'm never buying another gas car, or do they say, you know, it was okay, I'm gonna go back? Because if you have this, even if it's slow, if you have this trend of people who are converting over, then over time it'll it'll go that way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Personally, I'm not being a snob about this, but personally, I wouldn't go back. I'd I really this is I mean, I've I haven't had a lot of cars in my life, but this is the first car I look forward to driving somewhere in.

SPEAKER_03

I've got those those answers for you, Shaler. Now the the range is highway is 340 miles.

SPEAKER_06

Okay. This is the Chinese car.

Is Musk Batman Or A Villain

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, Chinese car, yeah. The official range is 497 miles. That's what the sticker says. On the highway, it's 340 miles. Mixed driving, it's 400 miles, and it will go 317 miles on 15 minutes of charging. Wow. That's five minutes of charging, 136 miles.

SPEAKER_05

That's pretty good. That's very good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So everybody that has driven it, including the the writer of this article and the CEO of Ford, has said when they had to give it back, they were really sad that they had to part with it. But if they did sell it here, I mean that would be it for yeah, Tesla'll have to figure out another business model.

SPEAKER_06

I think the the main reason at this point in my life why I don't think I'll ever go electric, is I'm afraid to you don't think you'll ever go electric? I don't think so, because I'm afraid to leave my computer in my car now because it has a battery. And I'm I'm a little I'm a little gun shy about granted. Yep, I don't blame you.

SPEAKER_03

I'm hoping they figure that out.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, you know, if they haven't yet, yeah, that's uh that's an important so I tell you, every supervillain on these shows growing up, you know, the guys a billionaire, uh robots, rockets, yeah, he is Dr. Evil. I'm sorry, he just is. I like him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at Dr. Evil.

SPEAKER_06

Batman was, I mean, you know, he's the same, but used his forces for good, I guess. So is Elon Musk a villain or Batman? I don't know. That's that's the question. It's a good question.

Tesla Lineup Moves And Competition

SPEAKER_03

He ain't Batman, I promise you that. I'm pretty sure I mean when you're fighting for a trillion dollar package, you know, to it's like, why, why? Why? What are you even why?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, why not? Heck, if you spend somebody else's money, all right.

SPEAKER_06

I wouldn't too can't live on nine.

SPEAKER_03

It doesn't even matter anymore. I mean, I mean, a trillion dollars, I mean, it might it could be 800 million, 800 billion or whatever.

SPEAKER_05

In Elon's defense, he has to come up with the next thing he's going to bet all of his money on and almost completely go broke. That's what happened with Tesla. I think that's just how he works.

SPEAKER_06

He gambles it all, and they should do what you said, like taking Trump to Alaska. They should just tell Elon, okay, you're making a trillion dollars. He'll never know the difference.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, he's not checking his bank account. Hey, you know, I was going through the register in my checking account. I guarantee whatever he wants, his card always works. He has no problem. Right.

SPEAKER_05

I was doing the math. There's 24 pay periods, so a trillion dollars would be Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

I should be getting like so. Every pay period he would get 41.67 million dollars every two weeks. That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_03

I see that's all right.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It's like I noticed I got 41.1 million this week.

SPEAKER_05

Honey, you've been doing DoorDash. What's the deal?

SPEAKER_06

I'm looking at the account and uh so that's half that's half a million dollars an hour is what he makes.

SPEAKER_05

I was really surprised though about taking the model S and the X off of his lineup. Like, like, I mean, that's not where most of his cars are sold, but still they're established products, they're expensive, people buy them.

Wild Predictions About Future Humans

SPEAKER_03

That surprised me too. I mean, I I understand going headlong into the robot thing because Boston Robotics or whatever, and then China, and then with this, when I read this article about this Chinese car, I was like, okay, that kind of makes sense then because it's a high performance vehicle in line or better than those high performance Teslas. And so he's probably thinking, well, if that gets here, then you know, I don't know if it will, but I mean, maybe he's thinking and plus worldwide, you know, he's not selling them anymore in Mexico and Canada. I would guess because they're buying this Chinese car.

SPEAKER_06

So yeah. The the S is a nice car. I've driven an S before. It's a nice car. I I wouldn't mind having one. I mean, it it's it's one of those things where you never appreciate what you have when you have it. Right. So I I got my car and I thought, oh, it's the greatest thing in the world. Yeah, you drive it for three years and you start looking at the S and it's like, oh, that'd be nice to have. You know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So on a different note, totally different note, another another great Instagram post. It was a historical newspaper clipping from 1913 about what the last human baby would look like. J. H. Kellogg, MD, who believed humanity was quietly engineering its own dys extinction, which you know, jury's still out on that, but thought that within two centuries from 1913, humans would be hairless, chinless, bat-eared, four-toed, long-armed, duck-legged beings. And he and he actually put a picture of what a baby would look like. So that's what babies are gonna look like. Oh, this is in 2012. Oh, that's what they're gonna look like.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, well, that that's come and gone.

Girl Scout Cookies And Freezer Debates

SPEAKER_03

So they it's a big head, huge cranium with a probably a massive brain inside, uh completely hairless, huge shoulders. Yeah, man. Enormous shoulders, tiny legs. It's sort of what you a little bit like like Wally. You know how all the people in Wally were like ginormous and couldn't walk?

SPEAKER_05

It's almost the classic alien out of the world. I was thinking you see an alien. I mean, his torso is a little bigger than you might think.

SPEAKER_06

Some heavy lifting going on, maybe, but otherwise with the small mouth and nose and the big eyes, and yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And the ears like oyster shells. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05

That's was he was he concerned about the influence of flappers? You know, was that what was corrupting society? Could be the dancing. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I'd love to get more information on why he thought they were gonna be hairless, chinless, and bad ear.

SPEAKER_05

And what was the cure? Like, did he have some was he had some agenda he was pushing to try to do that? I think it was cornflakes.

SPEAKER_03

I think you had to eat cornflakes.

SPEAKER_05

Ah it was J.

SPEAKER_03

H.

SPEAKER_05

Kelly big marketing thing.

SPEAKER_03

Maybe I don't know.

SPEAKER_06

I'm gonna I'm gonna go out on a say that in 2126, a hundred years from now, humans are gonna look pretty much like we do right now. It's whatever the machines decide to put into the matrix. Well, that's a good point. In a hundred years, we may not exist because machines will be.

SPEAKER_05

When they're breeding us, whatever they need us to be like.

SPEAKER_03

Well, all babies will look like Elon Musk because they'll all be related to him in somehow.

SPEAKER_05

He is working hard on that as we speak, I think.

Nomad Life: Six Months Of Airbnbs

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, he can afford so it's not like anyone's hurting the disseminator of something. Something. Figure it out yourself. Right. Through Starlink, somehow he will devise a plan. Right. Starlink and Neurolink.

SPEAKER_06

Bunch of very smart babies that are slightly on the spectrum.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

unknown

Yep.

SPEAKER_06

No real emotion.

SPEAKER_05

Gonna put Ancestry.com out of business entirely. Right.

SPEAKER_06

Exactly. Then everything emerged to what we call the Econ factor.

SPEAKER_03

Once he gets Neuralink into everybody's brain and Starlink, you know, the two could put together, he will seem very attractive to everyone.

SPEAKER_05

Buy some Girl Scout cookies. Cecilia is selling Girl Scout cookies, and it's all, you know, e-cookies, whatever it is. You can do it online on the app. There are shipping charges, which makes the cookies a little expensive. But you can also just buy cookies to be donated to someone if you don't actually want the cookies, you just want to do it.

SPEAKER_06

So and we'll I think Elizabeth's mom is gonna buy some because she loves them. But we were wondering how she would get them. So they ship them and there's a fee.

SPEAKER_05

They ship them, or you can check the box where Cecilia delivers them and then Haley has to approve that they're gonna deliver them, you know. So probably not in Orlando, but um unless you don't want them for a while. Right, right.

SPEAKER_06

Holidays, maybe you'll get them, but she'll be on planes traveling by herself with all these cookies, and it just turns into a whole thing. Yeah. Go to Disney while she's here. That'll be fine. Right. And if you want, if you want, Neil, I'll include the little link thing on on the Facebook page for all of our mini listeners. Man, nice. Our whole listener base. Yeah. Fan base. Sorry, our fan base. I want to buy cookies from Cecilia. They can official Williams Bros podcast Girl Scout cookies. Yes. Exactly.

McConaughey’s Birmingham Poem

SPEAKER_03

I already ordered mine. Awesome. We got two thin mints. We got uh what's the what's the peanut butter one called? Can't remember what it's called. Samoas? No, we did get the Samoas, but then we also got the tag alongs or something.

SPEAKER_06

Tagalongs, yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_03

Tag alongs.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I had to look at the I wish they would just name it like peanut butter so I can figure out what it is. I'm looking at all the names on my phone and I can't see the cookie. So I didn't tell what it was.

SPEAKER_05

Just show me icons of the cookies and I'll pick them out.

SPEAKER_06

Do you put the thin mints in the freezer? Oh, yeah. See, I've never done that. Everybody talks about that. I've not done that. I actually have I've already purchased some cookies. I'm gonna have to purchase some from Cecilia too, but I just purchased some from my neighbor because her daughter is doing the whole Girl Scout thing. So, but I'm gonna have to order some more, I guess, now. But I've got to figure out I mean, I've I've never had the cookies in the freezer, and everybody keeps saying thin mints in the freezer.

SPEAKER_03

So that and York peppermint patties in the freezer.

SPEAKER_06

Ooh, man, that does disgust.

SPEAKER_03

Snap when you eat. It's just so good. I mean, just so good.

SPEAKER_06

It's almost like a thin mint. Let's see if I have any. The York peppermint patty.

SPEAKER_03

It's like that, but it's got more, it's sweeter. You know, it's got that gooey white center, you know.

SPEAKER_06

So uh my son and daughter-in-law started off on their adventure this weekend.

SPEAKER_03

I was gonna ask you about that. I saw a post. Uh Julia posted something on uh Instagram, I guess, like they were on their way.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, yep. Their their first stop is the thriving metropolis of Pooler, Georgia. Nice. That's the first stop. That's the first stop. They're gonna be there for two weeks and experiencing all that Pooler and Savannah have to offer. Things are cooler in Pooler.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, well, Pooler is cooler now, apparently.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, a lot of people have on their bucket list too, man. Gotta get to Pooler. There's a spankies there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, everybody loves Pooler.

SPEAKER_05

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_06

What's there? Sorry. Spankies. Oh, there is a spankies in Poolers. Oh, nice. There's a Carrie Hilliards up there, too.

SPEAKER_03

In Pooler.

SPEAKER_06

Yes. Oh, yeah. Wow. Man.

SPEAKER_03

Times they are changing.

SPEAKER_06

It's like brand new. It's really nice.

Ads, Image, And Cultural Memes

SPEAKER_03

That's great. Yeah. Pooler. So are they staying at like you know? Motel 6 or something or Airbn or whatever.

SPEAKER_06

They're Airbnb in it all, like for the next six months, they've got all their Airbnbs paid for. So they got no rent for six months, and they're just gonna travel up the East Coast and up they go. So they they were renting before. Did they just close out that and then they've yep got all their furniture probably stuck in your garage or something? No, no, no. It's in the storage facility. It's in their storage facility. We got a few things that they left here. It's not a ton. Yeah. And then their car was just like packed to the gills. Yeah. So it's just a car. They're just in a car. No, they're there. It's an SUV.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, still, I mean, that's yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, no trailer. They didn't do like a rooftop carry-all or anything like that. So that's it.

SPEAKER_03

So they know where they're going after Pooler, or do they get to Pooler and then have a discussion about where to go next?

SPEAKER_06

No, they have it all planned out. They have all their Airbnbs like all scheduled out and verified and all that stuff. So they're gonna they're gonna go to North Carolina and and then they're gonna go to DC and then they're gonna go up, I think up in the Boston area. They said the Airbnbs in Boston were outrageous.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

So they're gonna be outside of the city somewhere in an Airbnb.

SPEAKER_03

And they're working the whole time.

Stayable Hotels And Expectation Setting

SPEAKER_06

Oh, yeah. Yeah, they both work from home. So they'll set up their laptops wherever they are and work during the day and go sightsee at night. That is so cool. That is so cool. Cooler.

SPEAKER_03

I just you know, I mean, I guess it's less expensive than downtown Savannah.

SPEAKER_06

So yeah, I think this is kind of a launching point too, right? Savannah's kind of familiar a little bit, and that's where he was born. So they'll go do some sightseeing, probably go see mom and dad's old house, go to the bluff, go do all that stuff. So they're they're on their way. Yeah, that's that's fun. That is neat. I mean, I it's so cool that that today, unlike our our day, you can just pack up and go travel and still good internet.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you're good. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Get a Starlink, stick it on the roof of your car, and you could just, you know, whatever. Sure. No, no big deal. Go anywhere. Yeah, exactly. That's just wild.

Phone Carriers, Plans, And Savings

SPEAKER_03

Starlink, there again, proof that he's an evil villain. Forgot about that. Nothing worse than having internet. We're hurling towards Terminator at breakneck next speed.

SPEAKER_05

It's only a matter of time.

SPEAKER_03

So I just read this about Birmingham, Alabama. Matthew McConaughey has a new book of poetry.

SPEAKER_04

All right, all right.

SPEAKER_03

And he exactly he wrote us, he wrote a poem called Birmingham. He was in Birmingham shooting a movie, and we were all born in Birmingham, by the way, if you're wondering what this has to do with anything, and most of our families from there. He said he found Birmingham on a film he did called Rivals of Amzia. And he said, I did not know that that place existed in the state of Alabama. Okay, sure you didn't. I mean, it's the biggest, it was the biggest city in Alabama before Huntsville got really big. And it anyways, and it did, and we fell in love with it and met a lot of great people there. And his poem is called Birmingham, and it's it says, see here.

SPEAKER_06

Read it like me would though. Read it like I just have a little bit of it.

SPEAKER_03

I wanted to find the whole thing, but you have to buy the book for that. Manicured and manner manicured and mannered, honored and clean, rugged and tough without being mean. Red enough to work, blue enough to dream. Like southern royalty without the queen. A great sense of humor, not afraid to eat crow. It's aspen in the south without the snow.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. Good stuff.

SPEAKER_03

I don't know what he's talking about.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. Good stuff right there.

SPEAKER_03

But you know, Matthew McConaughey wrote it, so there you go.

SPEAKER_05

He's an actor, by the way, not so much a writer, but right, right.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, right or or or or someone that specializes in geographies. So apparently, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Apparently not.

SPEAKER_06

Birmingham is.

Internet Support And “Handsome” Names

SPEAKER_03

He says there's a lot of great music. Muscle shows shoals is right up north of there. Yeah, a lot of good music. That was a quote from him. I'm like, are you sure you didn't just finally hear the song Sweet Home Alabama and put it all together? Like Birmingham, Muscle Shoals. Too funny. I don't know. Anyway, yeah, that was. How do you not know about Birmingham? Sweet Home Alabama alone would do it for I mean you know about it, so I don't even know. Anyway, it's all in his in his poems and prayers book. Oh, there we go. Yeah. All right. Pick that up.

SPEAKER_05

More gems like that, huh?

SPEAKER_06

Whole book full of them. Yeah, some good rhyming. Yep. Gonna run out and buy that one about that's a good one. Yeah. Talking about beans. There's old Cyrus. There's Cyrus eating the beans. Throwing tea in the river.

SPEAKER_03

I love those Lincoln commercials. They were so great. So funny. Just made no sense at all. You're like, what does it have to do with buying a car?

SPEAKER_05

It's an image. It's all an image thing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Oh well. He's making hay well sunshines. Good for him.

SPEAKER_03

You're like, if Matthew McConaughey will do our ads, he can say anything he wants. He wrote the ads himself, I would imagine. Not a great plan. Not gonna do that.

SPEAKER_06

Oh well, hey, it got attention. It did. I mean, like everybody talked about that car commercial.

SPEAKER_03

That's true. Yeah, there were there were funny takeoffs of it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's hard to be funnier than the actual thing.

SPEAKER_05

And it made our podcast. So clearly it had really exactly.

Mic Levels, Gain, And Recording Setup

SPEAKER_03

It finally got here.

SPEAKER_05

The zeitgeist.

SPEAKER_06

I'm gonna make a note to have Matthew McConnell McConaughey do a uh a promo for us. I think that would be great. There we go. Yeah. That won't get a good one.

SPEAKER_03

His voice.

SPEAKER_06

I'll just give him a call and say, hey Matt, what you doing, bud? Can you uh pick us up?

SPEAKER_05

I'm sure he'll can I get a voice sample quickly? Do you mind? All right, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_06

Sure he'd be happy to do that. Could you just say these words out loud? Yeah. Just over the phone, it's fine.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Driving down 27 the other day, highway 27, which is you know down here in Florida, and I see a hotel that's got a just a stellar name. The name of the hotel is Stable. Stayable, okay. So that's I thought, that's all right. I wonder if they have a restaurant that's called Edible Big, you know, or Edible. Maybe, maybe.

SPEAKER_05

Clear expectations going into that place.

SPEAKER_03

We got a bed, we got a door, we got a bathroom. You you can stay here. Stable. This is much better than I thought. Stable. It's stable because my expectations were so low. Right. You won't you're probably not once you check in, you're probably not gonna check out a meeting. Right. Yeah, exactly. Probably will stay low.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. I got a quick question on it on a different topic. And by the way, Shane, my my levels are are low, it looks like, somewhat. I mean, they're okay. We're there's gonna wing a bit low. Um, anyway, yeah, cell phones. Who do you guys have for your cell phone providers?

SPEAKER_06

Xfinity, ATT, US Mobile.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, then. We we've had ATT for a hundred years, and we're looking at bills, and Robin's like, you know what? I'm tired of this. So she calls, tries to call ATT and gets a bunch of voicemail stuff or you know, passed around. So she calls Verizon, who answers. And at the end of you know how these things go, a couple of hours. We're gonna we're gonna save about a third on our our cell phone bill each month, and they're giving us free phones, free iPhone 14s, and and we got a three-year contract, you gotta stay with them for three years, but it the phones don't cost anything. The phones are free as long as we don't leave for three years, and then the you know, the rate's the same, so I was okay with that. But okay, but uh I just in December re had the battery replaced in my phone because I'm like, I'm keeping this phone forever, and then next thing you know, it always happens that way. Yeah, next thing you know.

SPEAKER_03

So who is it with? Verizon. Overizing.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, so it's great. Can I ask you how much is how how many phones do you have going on that that phone line? Are you gonna quote me?

SPEAKER_05

You give me a quote? Yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_06

Shaler's got another side job he's working. I don't know. I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_05

It's three three phones and two watches.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, all right, gotcha.

SPEAKER_03

So you got a cell phone watch? You got an actual watch, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

It's like it's like uh I think it's eight dollars a month or something like that.

SPEAKER_03

I'm never far enough away from my phone to need that, but that is right, that's bougie.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. So I just want to look and see. I know, I know. Because I think there are there's only like three real carriers, right? AT Verizon and T-Mobile.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, Xfinity is Verizon.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, so US Her US Mobile uses all three, and you can choose at any time if you want to go from the ATT network to the T-Mobile network or the Verizon network, you pay like five bucks or something like that, and you switch. Oh, and it's literally that simple. I can do it on my phone. Wow, and I'm paying$20 per line, unlimited everything.

SPEAKER_05

Wow. I may have to look at that.

SPEAKER_06

So US mobile. But it's a little late for you now because you're you're in for three months.

SPEAKER_05

I don't know if we've done it yet. We haven't actually done it yet, but uh now I don't think they're gonna give you free phones or anything, but yeah, we didn't even we weren't even going in for the free phones. It just it was just it was the a perk of doing it. It was getting free phones.

SPEAKER_06

Shaler, do you do you have like a hotspot on your phone too? Yes. Wow, yes, uh, it's not unlimited, but yeah, I I think it's some like seven, it's I don't know, it's some crazy more than you'll ever use. Yeah, I never use hotspot, but yeah, I do have it. Yeah, and then it's 70 gigs of high speed per month. And I'm never gonna use 70 gigs. I use like three maybe in a month, right? Yeah, and then unlimited calls and all that stuff, and then they have a pretty good plan for doing like uh overseas calls and stuff as well. So interesting. And you pay the the only thing is you it the cheapest way to do it stuff you pay annually, and so you just pay one fee for the whole year, or you can pay a little bit more and you pay monthly. But um and it's all eSIM, so you don't have to actually have a SIM card or anything, you just do the ESIM thing and US Mobile, US Mobile. Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_03

I thought you said there were no commercials.

SPEAKER_06

Sounds like we just did one. So that's that's what we use now. Hey, you know, I'm not gonna recommend it because anybody, you know, I I could be wrong. Maybe it's a terrible phone company. But you can change no issues with it.

SPEAKER_03

I called, you know, Xfinity used to have this terrible robot lady that would answer the phone. And every time you called her, she was like, Do you want to reset your modem? No, I don't want to. I think resetting your modem will help your internet problem. No, I don't want to. Please stand by while we reset your modem. Do not call back within the next 15 minutes while your modem is resetting, you know. And then when you try and call back, we have that your modem is resetting. We cannot, you know, you can't talk to us right now. So, anyway, they fixed all that. So now you if you need somebody, it'll send you to somebody. Probably in in this case, when I called, because I kept having my internet like cut in and out, in and out, in and out. And so I I called and I had called several times before, and I was at the end of my rope. And so I called, and it was a lady that answered in the Philippines. Because while we're talking, while she's waiting for things to like read my modem and stuff, she's asking me questions about where I am, and you know, I'm asking her questions about where she is, and what's like what do you do for Christmas in the Philippines and stuff like that? And so by the end of the conversation, I'm not lying. She says, Stephen, that's a very handsome name you have, Stephen. That is the most handsome name I have heard. And I've never told anybody that before.

SPEAKER_01

Great. All right.

SPEAKER_03

And I have no Stephen, so I'm gonna be calling that hilarious. Greg Ripp, I'm like, did you, you know, uh, isn't this being recorded or something? I don't think you should talk like that. Feeling a little on brother, Filipino. Yeah, that was pretty funny. And the most handsome name? I don't even know what that means. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Steven, that's the most handsome name. I've kind of always thought that Steven was a handsome name, Mistel. That isn't very handsome.

SPEAKER_03

Uh that was pretty funny, though. I was just like, handsome name? What does that even mean?

SPEAKER_06

That's great. Yeah. That is so funny.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, wherever she was, they apparently didn't have air conditioning because she she said that it was very hot there and she was very sweaty.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Okay, good to know. Stephen's twisty right now.

SPEAKER_03

I just want my internet fixed. Uh I don't know what's going on over there.

SPEAKER_05

I don't want the visual, please. Just don't write.

SPEAKER_02

Don't help me.

SPEAKER_00

The Williams Brothers podcast is made possible by a grant from the Saunts Group. Do something good every chance you get. And by the Williams Foundation. The theme song is Five Card Shuffle by Kevin McLeod.

SPEAKER_06

There's a few things that are gonna get chopped on this weekend.

SPEAKER_05

That's alright.

SPEAKER_06

We'll we'll figure it out. Is your is your mic, is your on your audacity? Is it still cranked up to 100%? It is. Huh. Interesting. Something is playing with your levels.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, motive is probably doing, but I mean, I'm almost red on motive when I get loud anyway. Maybe we just cut out motive.

SPEAKER_06

I'm using the I'm using the sure, the old motive. I'm not using the motive mix. Yeah, and I've just got it on automatic. Yeah. And so I don't know how my levels are, but seems to be all figured out.

SPEAKER_03

So Neil, you're so you're using the motive to record off of, and then just the microphone in oh no, you're using the other microphone.

SPEAKER_05

That's I got another little clip on.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. I'm using the motive to record on, and then I'm using the Sure 7 for Google. Right. Is that working for you? Yeah, so far it's working fine. My my levels on Audacity have stayed solid.

SPEAKER_03

You should do that, Neil, next time. I may do that next time.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, and it allows me to plug in so I can actually hear myself and y'all.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I can hear it with it.

SPEAKER_06

Which is which is nice. Nice, because before I couldn't hear myself. So what is your what is your motive mix set for levels? My my motive mix is so the the Sure 7 is just it's up to like zero on my level. And then it's about negative 12 or so, I guess, on the meter, somewhere around that. Yeah. And then I'm 100% on Audacity. Well, what are you on the main?

SPEAKER_05

The main out on motive.

SPEAKER_06

The main out is the same.

SPEAKER_05

Okay. Because I'm at six, plus plus six, which is louder than zero.

SPEAKER_06

Plus six. I don't even see a plus, I just see minuses. Oh, oh, you're talking about the the volume thing.

SPEAKER_05

That's what it's talking about, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh those are both on plus six and interesting things. Oh, yeah. I just need to be closer to the game, I think.

SPEAKER_05

But you guys aren't that close to your mics. It doesn't look like I don't know.

SPEAKER_06

Mine goes to 11. Could you just make 10 the level? Okay, but click on the little microphone settings thing at the bottom there, Neil. Okay. For your for your motive thing, and then mine's on auto level.

SPEAKER_05

Mine's on manual.

SPEAKER_06

Ah, see, there we go. Now we have a difference. So, Steve, how's it going?

SPEAKER_05

Wow. It's going pretty good.

SPEAKER_06

You know what? Mine said monitor mix 50, mic position far, tone natural.

SPEAKER_05

The mic gain was way down. Oh. Oh, see, now we know. I mean, it doesn't look well, it's a little bit louder.

SPEAKER_03

Didn't we say something about that last week? That gain.

SPEAKER_05

That's I think it's auto level is the way to go. Auto level.

SPEAKER_04

Absolutely. Yeah. Auto level.

SPEAKER_05

It's not too bad. I think you can still hear me. You just have to turn it up a little bit.

SPEAKER_04

That's fine. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06

I'm doing auto level and far and bright. And I'm pretty, I'm like, I'm I'm two, I'm two inches from the mic. And even though I've even thought I've got as well, but I'm not that far from the mic. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, I'll do some far. Yeah, it does actually got louder when I went to far.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. And then if you do the close, then it doesn't pick up like the residual sounds in the room.

SPEAKER_05

I'm gonna do far natural. There you go. It does sound, it sounds better now in my ear. Let me go see.

SPEAKER_06

Good. Let's do it over. Steve, what are you doing? Tell me about you, Steve.

SPEAKER_05

How's your changed my mic here too? The Williams brothers have a gripe.

SPEAKER_03

Don't you hate when people talk about setting their levels up? Like that's all they talk about. Levels, levels, levels. Just nothing but levels.

SPEAKER_05

And games. This is my motive mic output coming into the meeting.

SPEAKER_06

Sounds good. Okay.

SPEAKER_05

Sound loud now.

SPEAKER_06

I gotta turn it out. Sound good. You sound good. Okay. Man, you sound good. Pretty hot. All right. Sound you sound handsome. You do sound very handsome.

SPEAKER_05

That was a handsome sounding name. Then this is the MV7. This is not going through motive mix. Is that quieter or is it still loud? It's good. Quier. Sound sounds good. Sounds good. Okay. It's fine. Well, if we can just start over, if you don't mind. Yeah, let's just come on auto gain now.

SPEAKER_03

Well, now, see, the good thing about auto gain is now you're taking advantage of your compression too, because your gain, higher gain, means more compression.

SPEAKER_05

So far, I never would have guessed far mic setting. I don't know. Far.

SPEAKER_03

It sounds really good.

SPEAKER_05

Thanks.

SPEAKER_03

Too bad we can't go back because it didn't sound good at all before. I mean, you sound really bad.

SPEAKER_06

So I'm driving along and there's this lady with a sign. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Okay. That's all right.