Ultimate Road Trip

All About Audio

With many hours on the road over the last month and a half, we’ve had plenty of time on our hands to listen to music and podcasts. The genre varies a great deal.

When Ryan and I met at the climbing gym, our first point of connection was music. Our music taste is similar; we both really enjoy any artist or band that’s got an alternative/pop/indie edge, like Remi Wolf, Dayglow, Still Woozy, and Ruel. Ryan has gotten me more interested in artists that have a bit of hip-hop, rap, and reggae to them, like Connor Price, Russ, and The Holdup. Meanwhile, I’ve introduced Ryan to indie groups like Hippo Campus, Clairo, and Bad Suns. There are countless singles that we’ve shared with each other and many artists and bands that we discovered together and started following relentlessly, like Alt Bloom and Johnny Stimson. I have attempted to compile all of these into one massive playlist. It’s now nearly 19 hours long. Ryan deejays for the most part, but when I take over, I just put this playlist on shuffle.

While on this trip, Russ released a new album, so Ryan has been playing that from top to bottom pretty regularly, in addition to new music by Dominic Fike. On some car rides that feel particularly “country,” he’ll opt for country tunes or simply play songs by the band Flatland Cavalry, which I have come to really enjoy. Whenever I can, I listen to my Spotify Discover Weekly or Release Radar to gather new tunes that both of us would like. My current playlist, “My forearms are tan AF,” is nearly complete — I cap each playlist I make at around 100 new songs.

Outside of music, the podcasts we listen to are also wide-ranging. Both of us are interested in exercise science, so we’ll listen to The Huberman Lab, High Intensity Health, Ben Greenfield Life, The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Show, or The Rich Roll Podcast. As part of our quest to become influencers, we’ll listen to The Garyvee Audio Experience to learn marketing tips. One show we’ve more recently gotten into is Modern Wisdom, which is hosted by a guy named Chris Williamson. He’ll interview thinkers in different fields, including controversial figures, to discuss world views and ideologies, modes of being, life lessons, etc. This one is really good. Not only are the pods usually around 2-3 hours in length, we’ll frequently pause to discuss topics that come up in further detail.

Sometimes we want to listen to something more frivolous, in which case we’ll listen to This is Important, hosted by the stars of Workaholics. That one is utter nonsense in the best way. I personally always like listening to Alex Honnold’s podcast, Climbing Gold, and I recently have gotten into Films to be Buried With. In it, Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent on Ted Lasso) interviews someone famous, telling them that they died. The interviewee explains how they died and when, then proceeds to discuss three movies that impacted their life greatly. It’s a cool concept and he’s a solid interviewer.

Very rarely do we just drive in silence. If nothing is playing, we’re talking about something. I can’t handle it any other way, and I don’t know if Ryan can, either.

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Lucky Number 7

September 15, 2023