467: BONUS Coffee with Mom—They Couldn't Get Enough of My Groin

After a six-month hiatus from TWIHI and on the occasion of her 88th birthday, multiple New York Times bestselling author Peggy Rowe https://mikerowe.com/momsbook/ (a.k.a. Mike's mom, a.k.a. America's grandmother) drops by to tell us where she's been, what she's working on next, and the groin-intruding procedure that took away her double vision. Who says "you can't get there from here!?"

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  A cup of coffee with my mom. Well, well, well, well as I live and breathe.

• 0:11Speaker 01

  Hi.

• 0:12Speaker 00

  Hi.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  How's everybody?

• 0:14Speaker 00

  Great. Well, living and breathing, I think, is the operative word right now. Welcome back to the land of the, of the what?

• 0:21Speaker 01

  Land of the living.

• 0:22Speaker 00

  The seeing?

• 0:23Speaker 01

  The land of the seeing?

• 0:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  Oh, today was another red letter day.

• 0:28Speaker 00

  Tell me.

• 0:29Speaker 01

  Well, um, we went downstairs and they had a buffet today. And for the first time, I went, when I say we went downstairs, that means a hallway, an elevator, another hallway, and another hallway. Pretty good walk. I went down without using my rollator. I've been using a walker and a rollator for the past three or four months because I've been a little unsteady, um, a little unbalanced.

• 1:05Speaker 01

  But today, for the first time, I went down without my rollator and I made out just fine. I didn't have to hold on to anybody or grab hold of anybody and that was good.

• 1:18Speaker 00

  That is good. I need to ask, though, is, what is a rollator? I think I know what it is, but I'm not sure.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  It's a fancy walker. You know what a walker is? You, oh, you've seen old people lean on walkers and they have two wheels in the front and gliders in the back.

• 1:34Speaker 00

  Right.

• 1:34Speaker 01

  Well, a rollator is just an upgraded version of a walker and it has four wheels that turn very easily. It's like their own ball bearings and, well, I'll tell you, I missed my rollator today, not because I needed to steady myself. It has this wonderful seat on it that lifts up and you can store so much under there.

• 2:03Mike Rowe?

  Chuck, you don't understand. In the world of unintended consequences, the rolator occupies some lofty place on a throne. I mean, it's, it's so well intended. We'll put wheels on a walker.

• 2:16Speaker 00

  Right.

• 2:17Mike Rowe?

  But then we'll put a seat on it, and then we'll put a cage in the front of it.

• 2:21Speaker 00

  And storage underneath, yeah.

• 2:24Mike Rowe?

  Right. So the entire, you know, facility feels like a safe way, you know, on a, on a Saturday morning. Everybody has a cart that's kind of a walker, but it's filled with stuff. And so you get these terrific traffic jams of rolators. And this is like pandemonium at the elevators, you know, just getting people on there situated with these things. It's something to see, Mom, but yeah, let's back up. It's been four months since we've done one of these. You've been through a, a medical

• 3:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:02Mike Rowe?

  gauntlet, a crucible of things. People ask me every day how you're doing. I tell them as best I can, but it's, you know, where are you on this? And how much of your latest health odyssey do you, do you want to share? Asking yourself before you start to talk that it's so important to be entertaining.

• 3:26Mike Rowe?

  If you work in boots all day long and your feet sweat, I feel your pain. And I'd recommend trying the socks that I wear every day from Camel City Mill. These guys sent me a box as a gift long before they sponsored this podcast. And I started wearing them and eventually I reached out to them because I love the product. And I wanted more sponsors on the podcast who make things in America. And now here they are again sponsoring another episode. Camel City Mill makes their socks in North Carolina with American wool in an American factory. Their merino wool blends help wick sweat away from your skin and their no sweat vent lets heat and moisture escape. That helps keep your feet dry and comfortable when you're spending long days

• 4:09Mike Rowe?

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• 4:49Speaker 01

  Well, actually, there is a lot of humor incorporated in these past three or four months. You know, it began with headaches and nausea and several trips to the hospital.

• 5:03Speaker 01

  And finally, a neurologist was able to help me. And I was in the hospital and they discovered that I had something called a fistula in my brain up in my head. And a fistula is when

• 5:25Speaker 01

  blood vessels clumped together. So I had arteries and veins that for some reason clumped together.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  And prevented my blood from going up to the capillaries in the top of my head as it's supposed to do to distribute oxygen. I believe I'm getting it right. I might not. If my doctor sees this, I'm sorry.

• 5:52Mike Rowe?

  As all this was happening, just so people understand, and I I'll wager 90% of people listening have been through maybe not a fistula, but this sudden panic that happens when a diagnosis comes out or something like a diagnosis. And you're not quite sure you're trying to figure out what it is. And the thing that's changed more than anything is AI. And so of course I'm on chat GPT right away. My mom has double visions. She has headaches, right? There's this, there's that. What could it be? It could be myosinia gravis. It could be this fistula. What would the fistula be? Well, you know, it could be this, this thing in the carotid, right?

• 6:35Mike Rowe?

  That feeds the cavernous sinus that's creating amount of pressure that's blah. And suddenly you're just like. Good God, man. I mean, it's an endless rabbit hole of possibilities. And so all this is happening well before the holiday. You know, well before Christmas, we're trying to figure out why you have double vision. And it's just week after week with the headaches and yeah, God, everybody who loves you was in such a panic and you went dark on social media and oh, yah, yah, I'm just so glad to see you sitting there looking like your old self.

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Well, it's good to be back among the living, breathing and and I'm active, you know, I get up and I go around and I walk, I walk places and well, the one good thing about this was that even with my double vision, I did not have it up close so that I could continue to write and read with normal vision, which really was wonderful. It kept me from going crazy, I think. But last week, one day I got up and the doctor had told me, the surgeon had told me

• 7:51Speaker 01

  and the other neurologist had told me that there was a strong possibility that my eyes would, my vision would resolve and I would again not have double vision and see normally. But you know, after a couple of months, you begin to wonder, were they just giving you false hope? But your brother Phil was here last week and his wife and and I walked into the living room in the morning and I said, I think there's been a miracle. I'm not having double vision. Phil, you just have one head. You don't have two heads this morning.

• 8:36Speaker 01

  There was just one picture on the wall and one mirror and one telephone and you know, it was, it was really like a miracle. It was welcome.

• 8:47Mike Rowe?

  Well, speaking of miracles, I mean, the whole, the team over at Hopkins was amazing. I got a chance to go over there a couple of times, Chuck, and you know, meet the doctors and meet the nurses and I mean, it's, there's really not much new to say, I don't think, about the miracle of modern medicine, but when you see it applied and when you see it work.

• 9:09Mike Rowe?

  For me, the most shocking thing is you're always optimistic. You're always hopeful. It just doesn't matter what. You can always find a silver lining in a cloud. You can always find the, you know, the glass is always half full with you. And I just saw you in a place where I hadn't seen you before. And it just seemed, it's just horrifying to see someone so completely.

• 9:36Mike Rowe?

  I don't want to say helpless, but, but just waiting. Yeah.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was. But you know what? Even so, there is humor, Mike. I, so the way that they got up into my head, you would never, I mean, they took the scenic route. They went in through my groin. And they went in through an artery all the way up into my head. Mike said, Mom, you can see all the pictures and read about it on the internet. And really, I don't care to. Thank you. I'll just take their word for it. But they came in and went, the first time I had to bleed. And so they had to abort the surgery. And they did it the following day.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  So they went in through my groin, went up to my brain.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  Well, in the hospital, you hear tales about the hospital. You don't get much rest because there are people who care about you and are responsible for your recovery. They keep coming into the room. I mean, every time you turn your head, there's another team of doctors coming in. Specialists.

• 10:53Speaker 01

  I'll tell you, my groin was the most popular attraction in the hospital that week. Teams of doctors came, they couldn't get enough. It was like, it was a tourist attraction. And I think, I think I know how El Capitan feels. And, um, you know, the Statue of Liberty. They, they couldn't get enough of my groin. And so finally, on the last day, this team of young, I think there were three young doctors coming into the room. I knew the drill.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  I pulled off my sheet, lifted my gown, and they said to me, hi, Mrs. Rowe, we're the I team. We're here to check your eyes.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  Well, as I recall, we all smiled. They probably wanted to laugh out loud, but.

• 11:50Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, this is all fascinating, but if we could, my eyes are up here.

• 11:57Speaker 01

  So I covered up again, and they took care of my eyes. Another young doctor came in. I'm telling you, I wanted to FaceTime my children, but I got a glimpse of myself in a mirror.

• 12:12Mike Rowe?

  So we groin timed.

• 12:14Speaker 01

  In fact, Mike took took our picture one day, sent it to his brothers, and one of them wrote back, who is that? Who is that in pit? I wasn't recognizable. I looked horrible. So this young doctor came in one morning and he said, well, it was probably the middle of the night, and he said, I guess you know why I'm here, Mrs. Rowe. And I said, well, I hope you're here to do something about my hair, because I've never looked so bad in my life. He just laughed, and he didn't agree with me, but.

• 12:50Mike Rowe?

  Well, from my perspective, you know, I was there a couple hours after you went in. I think you'd been in there one or two nights or three. I don't even know. By the time I got to DC and then got up there, they had already failed on the first attempt, and they were going to go through your groin again, but in the other leg, and we were waiting for that to happen. And yeah, the parade of doctors and nurses who come in to check out your lady, but it's just constant. And it's difficult for, you know, what does the oldest son do? You know, you're sitting there like a spectator.

• 13:24Speaker 00

  Look away, for God's sakes.

• 13:26Mike Rowe?

  That's not enough, Chuck. The risk of catching a reflection in the glass is simply too high, right? You leave, you leave the room, and then they leave, and then you come back and you sit down and get situated. And literally, three minutes later, a new team comes in, you gotta get out of there. And then, uh, it just so it goes. And I saw it.

• 13:46Speaker 00

  You got your steps in that day.

• 13:48Mike Rowe?

  What's that?

• 13:49Speaker 00

  You got your steps in, walking in and out of the room.

• 13:52Speaker 01

  The funny thing is, Mike, you took a picture.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  And showed it to me later. I didn't even remember that you were at the hospital. And I said to you, you came to the hospital during this procedure? And you said, yeah, Mom, here's the picture. I, I wasn't remembering.

• 14:15Mike Rowe?

  I never left your side. I was there for a week. Never left.

• 14:20Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 14:22Mike Rowe?

  You're welcome.

• 14:23Speaker 01

  You should have brought a comb with you.

• 14:27Mike Rowe?

  It was beyond traditional retail hair care products at that point.

• 14:32Speaker 00

  I have a question, Peggy. Wh- when they are going through your groin and doing that little snake thing up to your brain, are you conscious when this is happening?

• 14:43Speaker 01

  Oh, no. I was totally under and I was intubated. So I was, I was somewhere else. And this happened two days in a row. So I'm telling you, my whole system, and this might be TMI, but my whole digestive tract was put to sleep. And five days later, nothing was working below the waist, if you get my drift.

• 15:13Speaker 00

  I certainly do.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  And it was so unpleasant. And really, I came home from that surgery in time for John's birthday, for Dad's birthday. And that was on the 19th. No, that was on the 21st of November. It was, it was not a, it was not a happy, it was a happy time to get home. But it was not generally a happy time. And that's been, what, almost two months? It's been two months since then. And my system, my body, my normal functions are just back to normal. And that has taken two months.

• 16:01Speaker 01

  Thanks to a product called Sena, another product called Mirilax, another product called Metamucil. And I did everything right. They, I did everything they told me to do. And still, it's a process. I walked, I walked a lot. I'm a good walker.

• 16:25Mike Rowe?

  Coffee with Mom, brought to you by Sena, Miramax and Metamucil.

• 16:29Speaker 01

  Mirilax, Miramax isn't.

• 16:31Mike Rowe?

  Mirilax, sorry. Miramax.

• 16:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, we wouldn't want this on film.

• 16:36Mike Rowe?

  That was Harvey Weinstein's company. That's a whole, whole other conversation.

• 16:40Speaker 01

  That's a different conversation. But anyway, so I'm back to normal.

• 16:44Mike Rowe?

  I just have to ask you something. I mean, you're a private person. At least you always have been, as far as I can remember, and you're, and you're somewhat circumspect. And now, you're gonna be, well, you're 88. We're releasing this podcast in honor of your birthday, and it's just, it defies my imagination. It's, it's incredulous to me that you would be sitting here at 88, talking about your lower GI tract, your groin, your sphincters.

• 17:24Mike Rowe?

  Here's a crazy idea. What if there was an academy out there that paid students to learn, instead of the other way around? Specifically, men and women who want to work in the skilled trades. And what if this academy not only paid for your training, but also covered all the expenses associated with your training? Like travel and food and lodging? And finally, what if this academy guaranteed you a job at the end of the training period? Well, that's exactly what's happening at America's Workforce Academy by Meta. This is a five-week, highly immersive, pre-apprenticeship program that gets you all the necessary certifications you'll need to start a career in the skilled trades immediately. I'm talking about AI-proof, six-figure jobs,

• 18:09Mike Rowe?

  helping to build out the new infrastructure that our economy is depending on. Electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, welders, fiber optic technicians. These jobs, they are all in demand like never before. And again, every graduate of America's Workforce Academy is guaranteed a job on a Meta website. I first announced this program a few months ago, and I have been watching the response ever since. It's extraordinary. This is a nationwide, unprecedented fast track to a long-term career in a skilled trade. If you, or your spouse, or your kid, or your grandkid are looking for a straight path into a career with no cost at all, check out the opportunities for yourself

• 18:53Mike Rowe?

  at meta.com/america'sworkforceacademy. That's meta.com/america'sworkforceacademy. And, you know, I just wonder, I mean, how do you even imagine that this could happen? That hundreds of thousands of people are very worried about you, and they've been bugging me constantly for months for some kind of update. And now you're giving them one. And, you know, I mean, we haven't even, you know, and dad, between the urologist and the cardiologist and all the medicines and the drama, and you've been a caregiver and a receiver of care. And, you know, just as many people are listening who have been in your position, but I would dare say no one

• 19:38Mike Rowe?

  has been in your position who is also writing about it every day and talking about it to their son. And is this weird? Is it pleasant? Is it therapeutic?

• 19:51Speaker 01

  It's been educational, honey.

• 19:53Mike Rowe?

  How you doing? How you doing, Mom?

• 19:57Speaker 01

  You know what? It really has been an education. A trip to the hospital with surgery and a life, you know, a life-threatening procedure or ailment is such an eye-opener. And you've heard this before, going into the hospital for that, you lose all modesty. And you talk about things that you never imagined you would talk about. I mean, not long ago, I came out of the bathroom and I went up to your father and I gave him a hug and I said, "Oh, John, I heard a plop."

• 20:37Speaker 01

  Now, that might be TMI, and I'm sorry if it is.

• 20:42Speaker 01

  I hope nobody's eating while they're, while they're listening to this. And John, and there was rejoicing in the land. John hugged me and turned me around. He said, "Oh, that's wonderful, honey."

• 20:56Speaker 01

  Oh my goodness, the things we talk about. Um, but yeah, being in the hospital was such an eye opener. I, I have lost, well, I haven't lost all my modesty, but I find myself talking about things that I, I would not have talked about previously.

• 21:16Mike Rowe?

  To people that you would typically not talk to at all. That's the thing. It's not, it's not just the immodesty of it. It goes from, look, I don't want to talk about this to I'm going to talk to everybody about this all the time. That, that's what's so interesting. That's like, I mean, when you wrote about dad's hydrocele or whatever the thing was that led to, you know, the enormous swelling of the scrotum. And so like, it's impossible that we're talking about this now. I get embarrassed, like just saying it now makes me blush. But then I think, wait a minute, you wrote a whole chapter about it. And you've given speeches about, about my dad's scrotum.

• 22:01Mike Rowe?

  And so, I don't know. The world is full of shocking people who say shocking things to get a reaction. You're not one of those people. You're just my mom who is just playing the cards that she's been dealt. It's just amazing to me.

• 22:19Speaker 01

  Well, Mike, another reason this has been such an exceptional time is that your father has been going through a traumatic experience also. In the last 20 years, your father has had bladder cancer six times and has been treated for it. The cancerous tumors have been scraped from his bladder. They know that they're cancer and they know that they're going to grow back, but it's a slow process. And rather than remove the bladder or do extreme surgery, they go into the bladder by the only path possible without making an incision. I'll leave the rest to your imagi- your imagination.

• 23:04Mike Rowe?

  The pre-existing, uh, let's call it aperture, a pipeline.

• 23:10Speaker 01

  A pipeline and they scrape it off. And dad is used to having that done. But one day, a couple of months ago.

• 23:21Speaker 01

  Dad went into the bathroom. Again, if anybody's eating, you might wanna just put it aside or watch this later. And he called me in and he said, "Look at this." Well, the toilet bowl was just filled with red blood. And you don't wanna see that. So of course, our doctors are wonderful and they have given me their email. Uh, they allow me to text them on their personal phones. And so of course, I called our doc, uh, texted our doctor right away. He worked us in very shortly after that.

• 24:05Speaker 01

  And did a cystoscopy where they went in with a camera. Micro, oh, you know, and discovered that Dad did have another cancerous tumor in there that was larger than the preceding ones and could not be scraped off. Well, at the age of ninety-three, Dad is not a candidate for anesthesia. You don't wanna put him out because of his heart history and his age and anyway.

• 24:42Mike Rowe?

  Two years earlier, again, right around Christmas, he has a heart attack.

• 24:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:48Mike Rowe?

  So there's, you know, the Afib thing. So now he's on blood thinners.

• 24:52Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:54Mike Rowe?

  So it's the thinning blood that is causing the tumor to bleed that's in his bladder that's too large to be scraped.

• 25:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 25:05Mike Rowe?

  And by the way, how big is the camera on the device?

• 25:09Speaker 01

  I hope it's very small.

• 25:12Mike Rowe?

  Thing that goes up, up in, through the pipeline. There's a camera on it?

• 25:20Speaker 01

  And a tool.

• 25:21Mike Rowe?

  A whole crew.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know. Well, it's not a pleasant experience and Dad.

• 25:29Speaker 01

  Hopes not to have to go through it again, but but he will. Um, well, anyway, that's what Dad's been going through and it seems like it's been one thing after another and poor thing. So we've had to, we're trying to balance his blood thinner. So we've decreased that. So in the meantime, it's one thing after the other. Poor Dad. He's been such a trooper through it all and has remained positive. And through it all, he continues shooting pool and playing shuffleboard. Um, so shortly after this business with

• 26:12Speaker 01

  the blood thinner, oh, he bit down on something and hurt his tooth. He had to have dental surgery. For the dental surgery, he had to go off his blood thinner just when he's coming back on it. Also, he broke his hearing aid. We had to go to the audiologist. So I jumped in the car with him and we went to the audiologist and

• 26:39Mike Rowe?

  It's so awesome that you're both driving. This is great. You do have everything. He's bleeding and here.

• 26:46Speaker 01

  No, honey. I was in the passenger seat and Dad said it's quite a miracle that I can still give him driving advice with only one eye at a time. I've been wearing a patch. I mean, for months, I wore a patch over one, one of my lenses in my glasses. And he said,

• 27:05Mike Rowe?

  This is the vision that I think people need to understand. Again, just Right. From my perspective, sometime before Christmas, after his birthday, I'm there, I'm getting up to speed. I got the AI. I got a doctor in my pocket. Okay, we're surrounded by new doctors and new names. There's a urologist, there's a cardiologist, and these two guys, Chuck, with their enormous brains, each have the same goal, which is to keep my dad alive. But one of them is focused on the tumor, which needs to stop bleeding, and the other is focused on the heart. Which will be exposed if he throws a clot, which could happen if the blood thinners, right, if he goes off the blood thinners. Or stopped, yeah. So one guy wants to keep him alive by getting him off the blood thinners.

• 27:48Mike Rowe?

  The other wants to keep him alive by keeping him on the blood thinners. My mom is trying to make sense of this. He breaks a tooth in half. The dentist wants to fix the tooth, but that's going to involve bleeding. So now the dentist is involved. My mom is trying to broker the whole conversation and she's like a pirate. She's got her glasses on, but she's got double vision. So she's got a patch over, like on the lens. And so it's a Sunday and we get the doctor at the home, a wonderful guy. We sit down and we're trying to try, it's impossible. We're trying to triangulate all of the different calamities with the best advice from each ologist that there is. Yeah. Now there's a dentist thrown in there too.

• 28:31Mike Rowe?

  There are rolators everywhere, flying up and down the hallways. It's just, it's a kind of pandemonium. I mean, if you've been through it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't, you just have to see it to believe it and hope to God you never experience it firsthand. It's extraordinary.

• 28:49Speaker 01

  There's been a lot going on and the only other side effect that worries me about me, now dad is in good shape right now. In fact, he's down shooting pool right now with the guys.

• 29:00Mike Rowe?

  Good for him.

• 29:02Speaker 01

  The only thing that I'm still experiencing is my hair is falling out and that scares me. I can rake my hands through my hair and I get hair and it's getting thinner and thinner and, and that scares me. I don't want to be bald. My hairdresser has a nice term for it and she says, well, I'm going to do a little undercut in the back where you're going sparse. I'm going sparse.

• 29:33Mike Rowe?

  I got you.

• 29:34Speaker 01

  So anyway, so I go past this wig place on Honeycomb Boulevard and I I'm tempted to stop in there and see what the process is.

• 29:44Mike Rowe?

  I don't think you're close to a wig. In fact, your hair looks pretty good to me. They got some bangs going there.

• 29:52Speaker 01

  I'd like to have one in place if I need it. Well, I still have some hair. It's thin.

• 29:58Mike Rowe?

  Now, what'd the doctor say about that? Is that a logical?

• 30:01Speaker 01

  Well, I asked the neurologist and he said, you know, it could be a result of the anesthesia. Um, and so I went to a dermatologist. It was time for my annual visit to the dermatologist. She looked through my hair and with a magnifying glass and she said, I don't see anything that could be causing hair loss. There are no rashes or um, nothing going on up there. And then I went to have my hair trimmed and my hairdresser said, I have this complaint a lot from people who have had anesthesia.

• 30:43Speaker 01

  And she said, but usually it comes back, so you know, don't, don't get down about it. So, so anyway, we're dealing with a lot of stuff, Mike. But otherwise, things are pretty good. Oh, my gosh. Things are good here at the home. I met a man this afternoon and I got his contact because he's so interesting and I want to talk to him.

• 31:13Mike Rowe?

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• 31:56Mike Rowe?

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• 32:01Mike Rowe?

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• 32:35Speaker 03

  Pure Talk.

• 32:41Speaker 01

  He stands out here. He comes to visit his father, and I've seen him several times, but I've never spoken to him. He has 26 holes in his ears. He's got these little circular silver things hanging from both ears. He wears a bandana around the top of his head, and he's got a bushy beard, bushy beard. So he really attracts attention. So I made a point of stopping him in the hallway when I was on my way here today, on my way home from the buffet. And I said, "Hi, you don't know me, but I've seen you around a lot."

• 33:25Speaker 01

  I said, "Tell me about your earrings. Is that one piece, or do you have like 26 holes?" He said, "Oh, I have 26 holes." He said, "I like to hear the sound." Well, he's from Arizona, but he comes to visit his father frequently, and he hunts rattlesnakes. Well, anyway, his phone rang while we were talking, and he said, "Oh, this is my friend. I haven't talked to him in five years. I can't talk to you anymore." I said, "Well, this is my name. Give me your phone number. I want to give you a call, and we're going to have a talk." So I'll give him a call later on, but it sounds like a story. He's an interesting person.

• 34:10Mike Rowe?

  I've worked with rattlesnake hunters and I know a lot of people who have done things to their ears that you wouldn't believe. Do you remember my friend Dan from New York? I lived in his house.

• 34:21Speaker 01

  Oh, I do.

• 34:22Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. Did you ever meet him? Or just remember me talking about him?

• 34:26Speaker 01

  I think I'm remembering a different Dan. I knew, I met a Dan from QVC, but that was a different Dan.

• 34:34Mike Rowe?

  Oh, no. No, that's a different Dan. This guy, Dan, owns a beautiful brownstone downtown. And you remember Katie, who I used to date? Well, she had a sister and those two used to date.

• 34:48Speaker 01

  Oh, I remember that.

• 34:49Mike Rowe?

  And we were all friends. And then they broke up and it was kinda awkward. And I was staying with Dan when I was in New York. And Dan, anyway, fell in love with some girl in Paris. He left. And I wound up living alone in this house for the longest time. And uh, this is pretty great. Dan was getting some work done on the recording studio that he owned down in the village, Greenwich Village, and asked me to go down there one day to check on the construction. And the lead carpenter was a guy named Don. And he sounds just like this guy you described. His beard was red and about a foot long and braided. And he

• 35:33Mike Rowe?

  was bald. And he didn't have earrings, but he did have a piercing in one of his lobes. And in the piercing, and I swear to God, Mom, on a stack of bibles, in the piercing was an empty can of Budweiser.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  You mean a regular sized can of Budweiser?

• 35:56Mike Rowe?

  Yep. A 12 ounce can of Budweiser. And he had it in his ear lobe, just like an earring. And I swear, it did, I know it doesn't seem possible. And I was so fascinated by this guy. I did the same thing you did. I said, Don, your, your carpentry work is incredible. Dan sends his regards, but I need to talk to you about how this is possible. Like, and he said, well, it took years. It took years of every day, every week, putting something just a little larger than the last thing in the hole.

• 36:33Mike Rowe?

  You know, from, I think he said he used like, you know, Smarties, they come in a little wrapper, you know, the, like a little tube of Smarties. And then he said he had, like, went through a whole candy phase. He had a Snickers in there for a while. So he put, every day, he'd put something different in this hole in his lobe. And it got to the point where he had a Budweiser can. And the skin around it was just as thin as it could be. Just a thin little bit of skin. But it's tough, and it was enough to hold the beer can in place. So, you know, I'm with you.

• 37:13Mike Rowe?

  There are certain things you see in certain people and you, you, I don't, you just can ignore it, look past it.

• 37:20Speaker 01

  Oh, my goodness, I can't imagine.

• 37:22Mike Rowe?

  Or walk up and get their phone number.

• 37:24Speaker 01

  I can't imagine.

• 37:25Mike Rowe?

  You know. I mean, 26 holes in your ear, that's a thing.

• 37:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:30Mike Rowe?

  Are you gonna follow up? Are you gonna write a story about this guy?

• 37:33Speaker 01

  Well, I think I will because I said, well, another neighbor had passed me in the meantime. I had come home and then gone out again, and I'd seen this guy twice. And in between our two meetings, the other neighbor told me about the rattlesnake hunting. So I said, I hear you're a rattlesnake hunter. And he said, no, I don't kill them. I just look at them, I'll take their picture, and I'll write an article. So I have a feeling he's probably a writer and connected with some college. Um, it sounds like a story, and if it's not, I won't write it. But people are interesting, and you never know who you're gonna run into here at the home.

• 38:18Mike Rowe?

  How has it been for the last four months with your writing? I, I know that it was a chore for a while, but do you feel like you're back? Do you feel like you have a, I mean, you know how you used to just wake up agitated because you hadn't been writing for seven or eight hours and jump back into it? Do you have that, is that still with you?

• 38:36Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, it's, but it has returned. I lost a couple of months, the first couple of months when I had these terrible headaches and nausea and double vision. It was very discouraging and, and I was obsessed with myself.

• 38:55Speaker 01

  And with dad's treatment, because we were, you know, side by side in peril. But um, as I'd say, as of um, the beginning of December, maybe, yeah, the beginning of December, I'm really back on it. And I'm about two thirds finished my next book. And the material just keeps coming. And I've got three stories that that I need to work on. And uh, so yeah, I have a lot to do. It's wonderful. I can't explain how exciting it is.

• 39:30Mike Rowe?

  You see that? Yeah. I just Googled extreme ear piercings. That's at least, that's a couple dozen in there.

• 39:40Speaker 01

  I didn't have nerve to take a picture of this guy, but I so wanted to. But I didn't want to.

• 39:46Mike Rowe?

  I guarantee, Mom, he would have been fine with it.

• 39:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:50Mike Rowe?

  There's just no way people do that to their ears and then say, what are you looking at? Don't look at my ear. Don't take the picture. That's, that's weird.

• 39:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, you know, I know one thing about him. He's a good son. I see him sitting with his father a lot, having dinner and they're engaged in conversation. And, you know, any kid who comes to visit a parent.

• 40:14Mike Rowe?

  Now, look at that. That's about the size, somewhere between a quarter and a silver dollar. And that's what that looks like. That is exactly what Don had in his ear lobe, except it was the circumference of a beer can.

• 40:29Speaker 01

  Mike, I was somewhere, I don't remember where, and I met a young man who had one of those, I think they call it a spreader that they put in the ear lobe.

• 40:38Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 40:38Speaker 01

  Just spread it. And he was a musician.

• 40:42Mike Rowe?

  It's a speculum.

• 40:43Speaker 01

  What?

• 40:44Mike Rowe?

  Is it a speculum? Speculum.

• 40:46Speaker 01

  Well, I don't know about that. That's a tool that an obstetrician uses, gynecologist.

• 40:54Speaker 01

  You might wanna look that up. But anyway, this young man had his earlobes, hmm, large. And he was a musician, and apparently he was a pretty good musician. And he decided he wanted to go into the military and be a part of the military band. They would not accept him because of his earlobes. So if anybody's tempted to do anything extreme,

• 41:23Speaker 01

  you might consider the ramifications down the road, you know? It could affect your future, um, if you alter your appearance, like that.

• 41:33Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. No, I guess it's the same conversation with tattoos, right? I mean, for the longest time, that was, no, no, no, no, no, that's for sailors. You know, sailors and whores or whatever, but now, suddenly, everybody's got a tattoo, seems.

• 41:48Speaker 01

  I know some very nice people who have a lot of tattoos.

• 41:52Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, me too, me too. Not personally, I don't have one.

• 41:56Speaker 00

  No, I wouldn't hang out with them kind of people.

• 41:58Mike Rowe?

  No, body's my temple.

• 42:02Mike Rowe?

  Hey, um, I'm sorry, were you gonna say something? Cause if you weren't, I'm gonna change the subject.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  I just wondered what you've been doing lately, you've been so busy. You're on the road all the time.

• 42:15Mike Rowe?

  Yeah.

• 42:15Speaker 01

  And I've been curious about one thing, Mike. When you've shown me, every once in a while, you'll send me a picture of an audience and thousands of people and... When you speak to people who are, say, administrators or people who have obviously had college educations, do you feel at all awkward that you are, um, hyping the trades the way you do and, um... I mean, do these other people still accept you? Like, would you be called on to give a graduation speech from a university?

• 42:54Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, I've been invited by, um, I think, well, two schools in the Ivy League over the years. A lot of trade schools, a lot of state schools. I mean, probably a hundred, to be honest, and we've never really done it because it's such a, if you do one, like, you know, my own alma mater has invited me back.

• 43:17Speaker 01

  Oh, have they?

• 43:18Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, both of them, the community college and the and the university.

• 43:22Speaker 01

  And so has your elementary school, but you've declined.

• 43:29Mike Rowe?

  I did a graduation speech during the lockdowns for all trade schools. And I posted it and invited people to use it if they wanted to, because I did have a very specific message for for trade school grads. But what's happened, Mom, today, everything has changed. I mean, after 17 years of micro works, where this year is a whole new era. It's like a memo went out in a lot of ways. Big college institutions get it. Big corporations, CEOs are, you know, the people that are most involved now in micro works are what you would call white collar companies.

• 44:11Mike Rowe?

  Big banks are being very supportive right now because the headlines have caught up to what we've been talking about. And the shortages that exist today are enormous and they're, you know, AI is a real threat to a lot of jobs, but not the kind of jobs that we typically talk about in the foundation. So, no, I don't, I don't feel squeamish talking in front of large groups of highly educated people because most of them now realize that, you know, a balanced workforce is two sides of the same coin. And they, they invite me to come and kind of lecture them, to be honest. It's really fun, but it is very different talking to, you know, like a big Silicon Valley

• 44:56Mike Rowe?

  company versus US Steel. You know, those audiences are different. And, you know, you, you kind of have to be mindful of that when you go in.

• 45:06Speaker 04

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• 45:34Mike Rowe?

  You know, when I saw you in the hospital, I had just come. Up from the Pentagon. I had meetings there all day. I've talked to the different cabinet heads in the administration, simply because they they're looking around and saying, yeah, we we need to do something. We need to close the gap. And so it's it's really nothing new from our perspective, but it's been pretty interesting to see people around us, you know, kind of kind of take the temperature or look at the lay of the land and go, oh, yeah. So, yeah, sorry, I've been busy. That's what I've been doing. I'm out. I'm out talking about this stuff every day now.

• 46:15Speaker 01

  Well, it's not as though you say to people, don't go to college. College is a bad thing. Colleges, you know, don't do that route. You don't say that. I've listened to your message. So.

• 46:29Mike Rowe?

  Well, I appreciate it. Thanks.

• 46:30Speaker 01

  Well.

• 46:31Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, no, no, never. I go out of my way to say that my my liberal arts education has been a godsend, you know, what you and dad did for me, you know, helping me get through the community college and Towson after that. And that was a giant gift. But what was it? It was like $14,000 in 1980.

• 46:53Speaker 01

  It wasn't much.

• 46:55Mike Rowe?

  I mean, it was a lot then in relative terms, but it's $100,000 today for the same, you know, the same basic education. And I I still think a liberal arts degree is really, really, really useful and valuable, but not at any cost. It's been interesting for me to to be able to carry that that message. And I get a lot of grief for it, as you know, because I, you know, I did go to college and my message. We've got how many Chuck now? Thirty four hundred people have gone through MicroWorks, I guess?

• 47:26Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 47:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, about that.

• 47:27Speaker 01

  Oh, my goodness.

• 47:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, and giving away over 14 million.

• 47:31Speaker 01

  So they've gotten scholarships, all those people?

• 47:33Mike Rowe?

  Oh, yeah. Yeah, all of them. We're going to do $10 million this year for trade schools just this year. And we're able to do that because a lot of these companies we're talking about are realizing that. You know, their, their business is also connected to the trades, not directly, but indirectly. And it matters. So it's, no, it's been super gratifying to see people start to pay attention.

• 48:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, my goodness. I'm sure.

• 48:03Mike Rowe?

  I mean, I so wish your dad were still around to see this.

• 48:06Speaker 01

  I was just about to say the same thing. I wish my father could see the impact or realize the impact that you've had on society, you know, with.

• 48:18Mike Rowe?

  Well, that he's had.

• 48:19Speaker 01

  That he had on you and you in turn have shared it.

• 48:24Mike Rowe?

  Well, look, Dirty Jobs doesn't go on the air, obviously, without him. Microwork doesn't happen without him. None of it happens if you don't call me when I'm at Evening Magazine, when your dad is like 90 and say, you know, wouldn't it be great if he could see something on TV that looked like work before he dies, you know, that, that started it in so many ways. It's all of a piece, Mom, you know?

• 48:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:50Mike Rowe?

  It's all connected.

• 48:52Speaker 01

  This is true.

• 48:55Mike Rowe?

  Hey, um, do you, do you want to make a Pure Talk commercial with me?

• 49:02Speaker 01

  No, I could do that because I've had Pure Talk for a couple of weeks now and my golly, the other day when another certain provider went out, I was very grateful that I was.

• 49:17Mike Rowe?

  Rhymes with horizon.

• 49:21Speaker 01

  Shh. We don't want to badmouth any other providers, but, um, yeah, my friends were in a dither. Oh, my golly, they couldn't get, they couldn't get their email. They couldn't, they couldn't get calls. It's like people were at a loss just because their provider went down. And there I was with my Pure Talk and I hadn't had it for very long. Honestly, Michael, I can't see any difference in Pure Talk than another provider that I used to have, except for the price, except for the cost.

• 49:59Mike Rowe?

  It's the same towers. Yeah, it's the same towers, same 5G thing. Let me tell you what's going on. This is so weird. Chuck, did I send you this thing from, uh?

• 50:09Mike Rowe?

  There's this agency that ranks the effectiveness of.

• 50:14Speaker 00

  Oh, you told me about it. Yeah.

• 50:16Mike Rowe?

  So mom, what they do is they'll look at, you know, everything from toothpaste to automobiles to wireless and they'll evaluate all of the commercials that go on TV, right? And in the wireless category, the second most effective and popular ad of all of them for last year was an ad that I did for Pure Talk. When I'm, I was literally sitting in this exact spot, talking about a Medal of Honor winner, a guy named Clint Romiché, who is an ambassador for Pure Talk, who was on my podcast.

• 50:56Mike Rowe?

  And in the commercial, I basically talk about Clint and I hawk the book he wrote, Red Platoon. And then I mentioned Pure Talk, right? It's a real simple ad that cost $0 to make. Literally, I, it's filmed on my phone, sitting right here, just exactly like this. This ad goes on the air and it's the number two performing ad in the entire year in all of wireless. Now here's the funny part. In the ad, I talk about the fact that I like Pure Talk because they give a damn about the vets, right? They stand for something. And I talk about, you know, I had Verizon

• 51:39Mike Rowe?

  before this. And I just casually say, in the course of this ad, look, I'm not saying Verizon doesn't stand for anything. I'm sure they do. I just don't know what it is. And then I go on. Well, this creates an absolute drama with the advertising agencies at the various networks. Cause Verizon spends $12 billion a year with a B in marketing, advertising and promotion. Pure Talk lets me film these ads on my cellphone.

• 52:15Mike Rowe?

  So I filmed this ad, it goes on, and it is now like, it's a big deal. But at the same time, I film another ad on my phone about you. I talk about you asking me if Pure Talk was really that great, and how they could be so much cheaper. And in that ad, I explained that I tell you Verizon spends 12 billion a year. That's why they're so much more expensive. Long story short, because of that ad, I'm getting a bunch of questions now about whether it's like, did you really switch to Pure Talk? Do you really have the service?

• 52:56Mike Rowe?

  So these are like people in the ad sales departments at the networks, people at Verizon probably, they need to know that you really switched.

• 53:09Speaker 01

  When you say you, you mean you, Mike Rowe, or me?

• 53:13Mike Rowe?

  No, no. You, Peggy.

• 53:14Speaker 01

  Oh, I really did. I really did.

• 53:16Mike Rowe?

  I know.

• 53:17Speaker 01

  In fact, it says Pure Talk right at the top of my phone.

• 53:19Mike Rowe?

  Show me, show me. Put it up at the, put it right up at the camera. I want to see it.

• 53:23Speaker 01

  I want to see if there's anything personal on there. Can you see the word Pure Talk up in there?

• 53:29Mike Rowe?

  Oh, I saw it, but it just blinked off. Hit, refresh the screen again.

• 53:33Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 53:35Mike Rowe?

  There you go. Okay, yeah, there it is. Good, you did it. All right. All right, that's good. So what I want to do when we're done recording this, let's make an ad for Pure Talk where we just confirm that you're actually my mother and that you really did switch. And we'll prove it. And then I'll send it to them and we'll see if they'll put it on. They probably will. Pure Talk is, I mean, it's a great service, but they're so cheap that they won't spend any money on advertising. So I'm going to send them an ad with you and me in it.

• 54:09Speaker 01

  I was worried. I mean, not worried, but you assured me that your service had not diminished, that your service was as good as ever.

• 54:19Mike Rowe?

  That's great.

• 54:20Speaker 01

  But I was afraid that maybe I wouldn't have enough little bars here. You know, I don't know, but.

• 54:29Speaker 01

  But I do. Like I say, nothing, nothing has changed, except the price.

• 54:34Mike Rowe?

  No, good, no, but I mean, it's, it's great, but we'll do it just like this. We'll do it on Riverside. All right. We'll just put like a quick little script. It'll be fun and I'll send it to them and we'll see if they'll put it on the air. It'd be hysterical if you're game.

• 54:49Speaker 01

  Well, sure, I'm game. You're gonna pay me for it?

• 54:52Mike Rowe?

  All right.

• 54:56Speaker 00

  Let's get your agent in here.

• 54:57Mike Rowe?

  And so it begins.

• 54:58Speaker 01

  No, you pay me with your time. This means two more visits.

• 55:07Mike Rowe?

  Oh, dear.

• 55:08Speaker 05

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• 55:40Mike Rowe?

  Well, look, the main purpose of this, A, happy birthday.

• 55:44Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 55:44Mike Rowe?

  B, it's been such a hard few months for the people who love you and everybody's been so worried and I'm, I'm just, I'm just so grateful and glad to see you sitting here and the fact that you're, you only see one of me and I assume just one of Chuck, or do you still see two of them?

• 56:03Speaker 01

  Well, I still, oh, just one of Chuck and I can look out my window and see one flag across the parking lot. That's, that's such an improvement. I can't tell you. And also, I mean, the worst thing is it makes you dizzy. I mean, it, it makes you unsure of your footing and where you are and everything is just a little bit wonky, a little bit blurry, a little bit, you're a little bit unsure of things. But listen, that patch, oh, those patches, cutting those patches out of construction paper, putting the Scotch tape on there, sticking it to my glass. I finally stopped wearing them because they kept falling off.

• 56:48Speaker 01

  One fell in my vegetable soup one day. And I couldn't just take it out because it's construction paper and it bled in my soup and so much for my vegetable soup.

• 57:03Speaker 01

  But you know, the brain is amazing. It really allowed me, when I was walking down a long hallway, I would see two hallways, but instead of going straight, they crossed over.

• 57:18Speaker 01

  And it was so disconcerting.

• 57:22Speaker 01

  It just has given me an appreciation for normal eyesight. And you know what, Mike and Chuck? It has given me an appreciation for what other people are going through. I've met people here who are blind, several people who don't see.

• 57:44Speaker 01

  A woman came up to me at the Lakeside Cafe one day and she said, "I see you're wearing a patch. Tell me about it." I told her about it. She sat down and she said, "Let me tell you my story." She said, "When I was thirty-five, I had a pain in my, in my right eye and went to the ophthalmologist, the doctor, or another doctor, I don't know where. And they determined that I had, he said, "The bad news is you have a cancerous tumor behind your eye and you're going to lose your eye. The good news is I can save your life by taking out your eye."

• 58:29Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, that was really bad news, good news.

• 58:36Speaker 01

  And she said, "They took my eye out. I watched them make my new eye. I watched an artisan paint the exact color of my iris. It was so interesting." She said, "There's nothing I can't do. I drive."

• 58:53Speaker 01

  She said, "It's all about attitude and gratitude." Well, she just made me feel guilty for whining, you know? And I had done some whining about my double vision, but...

• 59:08Speaker 01

  I just have such an appreciation and a feeling for people around me now who are struggling and have challenges that I can't imagine.

• 59:21Speaker 00

  Peggy, I have a friend who is going through something that's very strenuous. He has a, he had no hearing in one of his ears his whole life. And he just had that cochlear implant.

• 59:35Speaker 01

  Oh, the cochlear.

• 59:35Speaker 00

  You know.

• 59:36Mike Rowe?

  Cochlear, I believe.

• 59:38Speaker 00

  Cochlear? Oh, my gosh.

• 59:40Mike Rowe?

  Without so much cock in it.

• 59:41Speaker 00

  Yes, yes, a cochlear implant. And they did the surgery and something went wrong. And now, not only does he still not hear in that ear, but he has a terrible vertigo and dizziness.

• 59:59Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 1:00:00Speaker 00

  A dizziness that's worse than vertigo that where, you know, he's not sure-footed. He needs a walker or a cane to get around. And he's going through this very, very similar thing where, you know, he thought, oh, this, things are going to get better. And in fact, they got worse. And now he is struggling with, with the gratitude part. He has come around to that where he is just really thankful that he still has hearing in one ear. And he's grateful for, you know, that he's not one of the people who is, who's completely deaf.

• 1:00:31Speaker 01

  Right. Oh, there are, and living in a place like this, I am surrounded by people who have challenges that I don't have. And they're worse than mine, you know?

• 1:00:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:47Speaker 01

  I know a lot of people with cochlear implants, and I didn't realize they could go wrong.

• 1:00:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, I would assume that this guy saw really good doctors out here in LA. And for whatever reason, something went wrong. I don't know if it was, if it was a mistake, malpractice, or what. But it's been difficult for him, but he has, I talked to, he wouldn't even talk to me for a long time. Wouldn't talk to a lot of people. But I recently talked to him, and he went through this whole thing where he, you know, he was just really. Down, depressed, sad that this had happened, angry, you know, and it finally he he tapped into his gratitude and decided to let go and just be grateful for what he did have and

• 1:01:37Speaker 00

  not be pissed off by what he did not have.

• 1:01:40Speaker 01

  Well, yep.

• 1:01:41Speaker 00

  And yeah, he's a lot better now.

• 1:01:43Mike Rowe?

  Yeah. It's such a conscious choice, you know, that's the thing that's, I look, we, our little sweat pledge, our foundation, the whole thing starts.

• 1:01:54Speaker 00

  Pledge eight.

• 1:01:56Mike Rowe?

  No, pledge one.

• 1:01:58Speaker 00

  No. Oh, the gratitude, right, right, right.

• 1:02:01Mike Rowe?

  Yeah, yeah, I don't know, it's the easiest thing to forget.

• 1:02:05Speaker 00

  I was thinking pledge eight because of the, the, you know, I will not whine or complain. I think that's pledge eight.

• 1:02:12Mike Rowe?

  Sorry, I'm coughing. Tag on it.

• 1:02:17Speaker 01

  Oh, I know.

• 1:02:18Mike Rowe?

  I'm not grateful.

• 1:02:19Speaker 01

  You've had a cold.

• 1:02:20Mike Rowe?

  Oh, God. Yeah, I'm okay.

• 1:02:26Speaker 01

  I'm glad. Don't make me worry about you.

• 1:02:28Mike Rowe?

  Well, you know what? You probably haven't worried about me in months. That's good because there's nothing to worry about. I'm great. I'm fine.

• 1:02:39Speaker 01

  And the next time you come to visit me, we now have a bed in our second bedroom. You can come and just flake out right here.

• 1:02:48Mike Rowe?

  Flake out?

• 1:02:51Speaker 01

  Well, whatever. Is that not a word?

• 1:02:53Mike Rowe?

  No, it's a word. It's an expression.

• 1:02:56Speaker 01

  I think it might be two words.

• 1:02:57Mike Rowe?

  Well, when you flake out, you like, don't show up. He flaked out, you know.

• 1:03:03Speaker 00

  He was supposed to be here at noon. It's five o'clock. We haven't seen him. He must have flaked out.

• 1:03:09Speaker 01

  Oh. Yeah, well, I think of it a little bit differently, but, but things are okay here. You don't have to worry about us. Well, our kitchen sink did get stopped up the other day, but other than that, everything else is okay. Two, two men came in and fixed it. Their names were Donald and Chuck, and they talked for quite a while, and they are such fans of yours. They felt privileged to clean your mother's kitchen drain.

• 1:03:41Mike Rowe?

  What was clogging it, do you recall?

• 1:03:45Speaker 01

  Well, I don't know.

• 1:03:48Speaker 01

  But I think when you live in a place like this, the apartments are stacked, one on top of the other. So you have common pipes that are used by the people above, and we're on the third floor, and there are two, three floors above us. So I never know if a clog is coming from above or coming from below. But anyway, it took them a while, but I think they wanted me to tell you about them. But they were chucking Donald, and finally, after a half hour or so, they left. And Donald said, "Well, I have toilets to plunge." And out the door they went.

• 1:04:32Speaker 01

  But you know, that, I mean, yeah, there are some disadvantages of apartments laid out like this. However, there is a phone number, a phone. All I have to say is, she'll probably do it, "Hey Siri, call General Services." And they are on the line in no time. And they send somebody right up, and no matter what your problem is, they take care of it. So, living here doesn't mean you'll never have problems, but it means that there's a solution, a phone call away.

• 1:05:06Mike Rowe?

  Well, I'm glad you're there. I'm sorry I'm not. I'm glad there's a bed there for me to flake out on next time I'm in the zip code. What are you gonna do now? You gonna join Dad for a game of pool, or you gonna write?

• 1:05:18Speaker 01

  No, no, Dad should be back very shortly. He might have come back and has flaked out in his lounger. I don't know. But he has, oh my goodness, this is shuffleboard tournament time. And he has a tournament, two games at 6:15. His partner is Richard, our friend Richard, who never played shuffleboard until a couple of months ago. And boy, they've practiced and practiced, and they're pretty good. So I'll go down and watch them play.

• 1:05:53Mike Rowe?

  You go down and root for them. If you have time, I'm serious about that Pure Talk ad. It'll be funny. We can make it lickety-split, and we'll see if we can't get it on the TV. Because...

• 1:06:03Speaker 01

  Oh, okay. You know what? People here are always talking about, "Oh, did you see your son on TV? Your son was a..." "I just saw your son on TV this morning. He was talking about..." And I say, "Pure Talk?" "Yes, he was talking about Pure Talk."

• 1:06:19Speaker 01

  And so

• 1:06:20Mike Rowe?

  Actually.

• 1:06:21Speaker 01

  Actually, I caught, I caught on ABC the other night, I think. Last night or the night before, for the first time, we don't watch much TV. And um, I saw your commercial and it looked like you were rucking, like you were walking fast and talking, probably had your cellphone.

• 1:06:45Mike Rowe?

  I swear, people don't believe it, but that's the whole, that's the campaign. There's no ad agency, there's no production company. I walk around with my phone. I get to say whatever I want in my own words. And, you know, it's working. But now, people, I need to prove that it's you.

• 1:07:04Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 1:07:04Mike Rowe?

  That, because I make, I made a claim in an ad that said, my mom switched from Verizon to Pure Talk. So.

• 1:07:14Speaker 01

  Well, I'll tell the truth, you know, I always tell the truth.

• 1:07:18Mike Rowe?

  I know.

• 1:07:18Speaker 01

  Painfully, sometimes, but.

• 1:07:21Mike Rowe?

  I know.

• 1:07:21Speaker 01

  I do tell the.

• 1:07:22Mike Rowe?

  I know.

• 1:07:24Mike Rowe?

  It's been over an hour. Happy birthday.

• 1:07:27Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:07:27Mike Rowe?

  Many happy returns.

• 1:07:29Speaker 00

  Yes, happy birthday.

• 1:07:30Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:07:31Mike Rowe?

  On behalf of all your many, many fans, we're, we're so glad to see you and so glad you're only seeing one of us.

• 1:07:39Speaker 01

  One of each of you, yes.

• 1:07:42Mike Rowe?

  Yes.

• 1:07:42Speaker 01

  Well, when I went to my dentist, I was still having double vision and he was across the room because he was taking care of dad and I, and I said, I told him he had two heads and he said, well, then, you're getting the expertise from two dentists here. And I said, well, they better hadn't send me two bills.

• 1:08:05Speaker 01

  And they didn't.

• 1:08:07Mike Rowe?

  That's good. Good. All right, mom.

• 1:08:12Mike Rowe?

  Oh, you know what? I just got a text from your sister.

• 1:08:16Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:08:19Speaker 01

  How's Jan doing?

• 1:08:22Mike Rowe?

  Pretty good, I think.

• 1:08:23Speaker 01

  I haven't talked to her for a few days. But she tells me you're very popular down there, where she lives in another Erickson community, and that people read my books.

• 1:08:35Mike Rowe?

  This is so nice. She says, "Well, Mike, it's wonderful to join the celebrities and not have to do anything to get there. So many people are reading your mom's book about the home. So of course, people I don't even know are telling me how much they enjoy it or how it makes them laugh and then cry. All good. Then one day, a young waiter here came up to me and said, 'Are you really related to Mike Rowe? And yesterday, a woman that I met for the first time said her sister's friend's son was a roommate of yours in college, but she did not know his name. She said when she finds out, she'll tell me, and I'm sure she will. It's a very exciting life I lead here."

• 1:09:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, Jan, it's great. And she's had health issues. So we, you know, we, we commiserate sometimes.

• 1:09:30Mike Rowe?

  Well, you're in good company, Mom. I'll respond to your sister for you.

• 1:09:36Speaker 01

  Oh, yes, you do that. We talk frequently.

• 1:09:39Mike Rowe?

  Good. Say hey to Dad.

• 1:09:41Speaker 01

  All right, honey. Well, this has been fun. Nice to see you again, Chuck.

• 1:09:46Speaker 00

  Same here. I'm glad that you're only seeing one of us. I mean, one of each of us. Right. Yeah.

• 1:09:53Mike Rowe?

  Love you, Mom.

• 1:09:55Speaker 01

  Love you guys, too. See you. Bye-bye.

• 1:09:58Speaker 03

  If you leave some stars, could you make it five? And before you go, could you please subscribe? If you leave some stars, could you make it five? And before you go, could you please subscribe? If you leave some stars, could you make it five? And before you go... Before you go... Could you please subscribe?

• 1:10:33Speaker 05

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