Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - December 19, 2024


You Deserve a Friend Trip (Live from Iceland)

Topics
Penis Museum Vamsik hot springs
The Ambitions of a Teenage TikTok Star How to Pivot in 2025

Episode Stats


Length

26 minutes

Words per minute

163.75

Word count

4,286

Sentence count

181

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

28

sentences flagged

Hate speech

13

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
00:00:00.660 Hey all! Joe here, and you are listening to Under the Influence live from my hotel bed
00:00:07.120 in Iceland. In Reykjavik. Yeah, it's noon, and I still have not gotten out of bed. And
00:00:14.840 it doesn't really matter because I'm pretty sure that the sun just came up. Yeah, yeah,
00:00:21.200 it starts creeping over the horizon around 11.30, and then it goes down around 2.30. Which,
00:00:28.620 to be honest, since I'm here without kids, having a having a tiny day, a short day where the rest of
00:00:35.160 the time you just sit in a warm, cozy wine bar or duck in and out of shops and try on many, many
00:00:41.920 sweaters. That's pretty much living the dream. It is. It is. I am on this trip without kids, which I
00:00:50.340 highly, highly recommend. I mean, I can't recommend it enough, actually. And one of my resolutions for
00:00:57.300 next year is to really lean into friendship and community and cultivating those things for myself
00:01:05.120 because we take so much time helping our kids cultivate community, making playdates, making
00:01:12.300 sure that they're getting along with everyone in school, shuttling them to and from all of these
00:01:17.920 activities to make sure that they're well-rounded, wonderful little human beings. And then we don't
00:01:24.560 think about the same things for us. We don't think about our own play dates or our own
00:01:30.000 activities. So what if we prioritized our friend dates and our activities, you know, hobbies or
00:01:40.280 whatever? What if we prioritized those as much as we prioritize the things that we do for our
00:01:46.600 children? And I'm not saying more. I'm not saying we have to do it more than we do for our kids.
00:01:51.600 But what if it was equal? Wouldn't that be great? I think it would. I think it would. So, you know, in this spirit, I decided to come to Reykjavik for four days with my friend Casey. It's not a crazy destination for a girls weekend away. It's only four and a half hours from Newark Airport, okay, which is way faster than I typically get to the West Coast.
00:02:17.820 And once we got here, the first thing that we did was we went straight to the Blue Lagoon.
00:02:24.180 It's open again.
00:02:25.860 For a while, it was not open because a volcanic eruption, you know, as it does, a volcanic eruption set their parking lot on fire.
00:02:37.020 And so the Blue Lagoon shut down for a while, but it's open again.
00:02:40.380 And we got right off the plane and drove to the Blue Lagoon and saw the sunrise over the Blue Lagoon, which was a really great way to to kick off this this vacation.
00:02:54.060 It really I mean, it just it kind of set the tone for the whole thing, which was how about we just do the things we want to do?
00:03:03.240 I know that Iceland is is famous for so many beautiful things, and I've been to most of them.
00:03:09.140 I've been to Iceland before. I've been to the Golden Circle. I've ridden the Icelandic horses.
00:03:13.640 I'm obsessed with the Icelandic horses, by the way. I would even like to buy an Icelandic horse
00:03:18.020 if I had a place to put it that wasn't my backyard. But this time around, we didn't do
00:03:25.380 any of that. We did all of the things that we couldn't do with children, with our kids.
00:03:31.360 Things like go in these hot springs, go to saunas, spend hours in a bookstore bar just browsing
00:03:38.500 browsing and sipping on tea and then eventually when the sun goes down at two o'clock sipping on
00:03:44.060 a cocktail we tried on hundreds of sweaters hundreds because you know what you just can't
00:03:52.020 try on clothes when when you're with kids all the time they hate it they hate it so much and and a
00:04:00.160 lot of the time Casey and I just didn't even talk to each other and we did we talked so much but but
00:04:07.020 we also just sat in beautiful, gorgeous silence, and we read books. There is a tradition in Iceland
00:04:15.900 where you gift books for the holidays, and I love that. Books are pretty much the only thing
00:04:23.420 that I gift to my friends. Books, books, and sweatpants jeans. Okay, that's, sorry, spoiler,
00:04:30.700 that's what everyone's getting for Christmas this year. So we just sat and read together.
00:04:35.180 I did a little bit of writing.
00:04:37.720 And then once in a while, we'd also get up and be like, we should go to a museum or something. 0.94
00:04:41.000 So we went to Iceland's, actually, the world's only penis museum. 0.93
00:04:48.560 You heard that right. 0.99
00:04:49.720 Yeah, the world's only penis museum. 0.99
00:04:52.080 Here is actually, I recorded a little bit of us walking into the world's only penis museum. 0.99
00:05:01.220 Oh, dear. 0.90
00:05:06.140 I'm not going to describe that for a podcast.
00:05:08.160 I don't think we should describe that for a podcast. 0.97
00:05:09.980 It's the Penis Museum, people. 0.98
00:05:11.460 We're in the Penis Museum. 0.99
00:05:13.580 Oh, it's a gift shop. 0.98
00:05:18.980 Oh, huh.
00:05:21.420 Yeah, this can't be described.
00:05:25.720 It's a family-friendly podcast.
00:05:28.280 Sometimes.
00:05:30.180 Wow. 0.98
00:05:31.520 The official shirt of the Penis Museum is 1.00
00:05:34.100 This museum is not for pussies. 1.00
00:05:36.820 Men have signed the wall with the length of their penis, 1.00
00:05:39.720 which feels on brand for men. 1.00
00:05:43.360 I just want to note that the Penis Museum has a bar, 0.96
00:05:47.420 and they suggest you get a drink before you go in. 0.98
00:05:50.380 As if, hey, you're going to need it.
00:05:54.360 And there's a jar for tips that does indeed say,
00:05:57.940 just the tips. 0.98
00:06:00.460 What I do want to tell you about the world's only penis museum 0.99
00:06:03.160 is that there is a plaster cast of Jimi Hendrix's penis. 0.99
00:06:08.780 And yeah, I mean, it's a thing to behold, is what it is. 0.99
00:06:12.560 It's a thing to see. 0.98
00:06:14.360 And then there's also a lot of animal penises in formaldehyde 0.99
00:06:18.140 and eel-skin condoms. 0.99
00:06:22.120 I don't know if I'll ever go back,
00:06:25.760 but look, it was a thing to see.
00:06:27.960 It really was.
00:06:28.680 And Casey and I agreed that if we were going to create a museum like this, I'd like a boob museum.
00:06:36.640 I think I'd enjoy a boob museum a lot more, just like the history of boobs, the anthropological and economic, sociological, you know, just all of the stuff about boobs.
00:06:53.320 I think that would make a great museum. If there is one already, let me know because I
00:06:57.360 have never, never heard about it. In addition to the Blue Lagoon, we decided to devote ourselves
00:07:03.920 wholeheartedly to hot springing, to just hot springing and then sauna-ing and then hot springing
00:07:11.040 again. Like I said, we went to the Blue Lagoon, which was lovely, lovely. They also let me snooze
00:07:18.140 a little bit in their relaxation room, which is exactly what I needed after that, that overnight
00:07:23.440 flight. But then we went to a place that I'd never been before, and I'm going to totally
00:07:28.880 mangle this because Icelandic is a crazy language called the Hvam, Vamsik. Vamsik? It starts with an
00:07:36.420 H, but I think the H is silent. Vamsik, hot springs, which are about an hour north of Reykjavik,
00:07:42.220 And they are hot springs overlooking a black lava beach.
00:07:48.140 Yeah, no, I mean, it's everything that you think it's going to be.
00:07:52.320 And we got there and it was snowing.
00:07:55.320 But how amazing is it to be in a hot spring in the snow overlooking a black lava beach?
00:08:05.100 Yeah, we drove up and the bus driver was like, yeah, don't drink too much,
00:08:11.180 which is very good advice because hot water and a lot of booze definitely don't mix. I mean,
00:08:16.980 I can pretty much only stomach one or maybe a half glass of wine these days in my perimenopausal
00:08:23.660 world. But I will tell you, there were a lot of young'uns getting pretty hammered 1.00
00:08:30.600 at that swim-up bar. And good for them. Good for them. Here we are just soaking, 0.99
00:08:36.040 Just soaking in the hot springs.
00:08:39.900 So we made it.
00:08:41.020 We made it to a hot spring.
00:08:42.660 We did.
00:08:43.540 And it is hot.
00:08:45.160 But it's snowing.
00:08:47.040 So it is also cold.
00:08:50.760 This is yet another thing we couldn't do with our kids, though.
00:08:53.620 Oh, yes.
00:08:54.100 Absolutely.
00:08:54.780 No, no.
00:08:55.940 Independent adults only.
00:08:57.240 Independent adults only situation.
00:08:58.960 Still no whining.
00:09:00.720 No whining.
00:09:01.320 No whining here.
00:09:01.800 But when we got off the bus, my favorite thing that the bus driver said was,
00:09:05.100 I'll pick you up at 2.
00:09:07.140 Don't drink too much.
00:09:09.460 It's good advice.
00:09:11.020 Good advice.
00:09:15.360 Yeah, that's the water from the hot springs.
00:09:17.260 We're here.
00:09:18.480 This is voted timeout.
00:09:19.540 It's the number one thing to do in the world.
00:09:22.720 And it's a black lava beach
00:09:24.500 with hot springs
00:09:26.500 overlooking the ocean.
00:09:29.360 Which is wild.
00:09:35.100 I really like these colors it's noon and now the Sun is up for a couple of
00:09:55.720 hours. It's a small slice of boot. Small slice of boot. Small slice of sun. No arctic fox yet.
00:10:05.500 But there will, you know, we've been told there might be an arctic fox. Listen, we spotted
00:10:10.120 Icelandic ponies on the way over. We did. It is. We're also wearing a faux turtleneck sweater,
00:10:20.880 which is called 0.98
00:10:22.860 it's a dick 1.00
00:10:23.920 it's dicky 1.00
00:10:24.440 it's dicky adjacent
00:10:25.620 called a snood
00:10:27.760 in the hot spring
00:10:31.760 I like it here
00:10:39.700 gotta keep it hot
00:10:42.820 in the hot spring
00:10:43.360 I mean we're
00:10:44.240 we look hot
00:10:45.000 we look hot in our snoods
00:10:46.380 and we finished our day
00:10:49.680 with a magical bookstore bar called i'm gonna i'm gonna butcher this i'm just i should i should
00:10:56.840 get an icelandic person to pronounce this for us uh mening malz og munninger malz og munninger
00:11:04.720 and we just sat there we sat there and we browsed the shelves and we ignored each other i love a
00:11:11.640 friend you can go on vacation with and ignore them i mean that's the best best vacation friend
00:11:17.420 the ones you can have these incredible conversations with, but then also ignore them for hours at a
00:11:23.300 time. And we read and I wrote parts of the lost masterpiece and it was just good. And it was just
00:11:30.680 good. So I wanted to make this episode just to encourage anyone who has been thinking about
00:11:36.980 planning a girlfriend trip or planning a solo trip even to just pull the trigger. Just pull
00:11:42.820 the trigger because we cannot be the best mothers, the mothers that we want to be or the partners
00:11:48.560 that we want to be unless we seriously invest in ourselves. And I truly believe that traveling
00:11:55.000 with friends and filling our cups, that is one of the things that makes us our best self. And that
00:12:00.440 is why I did this 10 days before the holidays, because I'm ready to go back. I'm ready to go
00:12:06.340 back and freaking do this. And you know what? I'm going to kill it. I'm going to kill it when I get
00:12:12.080 back. So if you've been thinking about planning that trip with a friend, with a group of friends, 0.65
00:12:17.320 just do it. Just do it. Ask for it for a gift for the holidays. You know that your husband
00:12:22.960 probably hasn't finished shopping yet. Be like, book me a plane ticket. Book me a plane ticket.
00:12:29.120 Okay, we're going to take a quick break now. And when we get back, I'm bringing Casey on the show.
00:12:33.880 She's coming on and we're just going to talk about our delightful trip and be in here.
00:12:42.080 Hungry now.
00:12:48.160 Now?
00:12:50.360 What about now?
00:12:52.540 Whenever it hits you, wherever you are,
00:12:55.380 grab an O'Henry bar to satisfy your hunger.
00:12:59.200 With its delicious combination of big, crunchy, salty peanuts
00:13:02.860 covered in creamy caramel and chewy fudge with a chocolatey coating,
00:13:07.720 swing by a gas station and get an O'Henry today.
00:13:10.380 Oh, Hungry, oh, Henry.
00:13:20.100 Hi, Casey.
00:13:22.660 Hi, Joe.
00:13:23.960 What's your favorite thing about traveling with me?
00:13:26.660 Oh, my God.
00:13:27.900 Everything.
00:13:29.580 I mean, just us right now with wet hair and our cozy PJs.
00:13:33.960 Wet hair in a bed with two comforters.
00:13:38.120 we just did bedtime routine and nobody cried nobody cried nobody whined nobody whined
00:13:44.640 you miraculously didn't need anything once you were in the shower for me when i was out here
00:13:49.620 or vice versa no one wanted to hang out with me while i pooped yeah yeah no one did no one did and
00:13:57.320 we the first night that we were here we slept for 14 hours 14 hours straight 14 hours straight
00:14:05.360 like didn't even open my eyes no and i've learned i've learned that casey sleeps on her back
00:14:11.740 which is a thing that you can only learn about a friend when this is our first
00:14:16.340 trip together yeah our first overnight trip i have to admit it's not just on my back too 0.68
00:14:21.480 it's on my back extremely stiff like i'm in a coffin like you're like you're a vampire like
00:14:26.540 it turns out i'm a secret vampire maybe that's why i said we should go to iceland for a vacation
00:14:30.740 you did in the winter you chose this I just want to say you did you did we both chose this
00:14:36.180 and but I think it was perfect because it was four days in a city where there was the smallest
00:14:44.880 most walkable city the weest most adorable the weest most adorable city in the world
00:14:49.900 we spent an entire day shopping yeah I I mean like we were talking on that day I can't remember the
00:14:57.040 last time i shopped like that as just like an activity since maybe i was like a middle school
00:15:03.180 girl and we were just shopping for lip gloss totally all day like we was just in and out of
00:15:09.080 dressing rooms and trying things on and you're a good tryer on i appreciate this yeah yeah i love
00:15:14.640 i love a try well because i you know i'm like really sad about buying things on the internet
00:15:20.180 now yeah i love being able to try things on oh totally love being in a store um and touching
00:15:26.320 things finding surprise things finding surprise things i would not have snooded online you
00:15:31.620 wouldn't have snooded no i'm gonna explain what a snood is the snood is like the dickie of the
00:15:37.320 future so the dickie are those like mock turtlenecks that my grandma used to wear
00:15:41.540 but they would like it was just like the cloth turtleneck and you would always wear them under
00:15:46.480 something so it looked like you were wearing we're bringing we're bringing the inside out now
00:15:50.800 now it's yeah we're bringing the inside out like now it's cool to wear and this is a snood
00:15:55.200 right they call it snood in iceland and a snood is also the gobbly gloopity necky part of a turkey
00:16:03.640 which we don't really have to focus on it's certainly not a thing i'm aiming for i don't
00:16:08.200 know if that's the best branding but um whatever whatever and so we both bought snoods yeah never
00:16:15.260 would have tried on a snood no no absolutely not no yeah and i love there was there was no rushing
00:16:20.820 i mean we fully at the red cross shop both fully checked out found our treasures and then when we
00:16:28.760 were walking out something glittery caught your eye and you were like wait a minute wait a second
00:16:32.900 you know and with many of other people it'd be like oh that's cool but too bad we're already
00:16:37.700 leaving now too bad i'm already fully dressed again yeah yeah no no too bad it's us we're
00:16:42.560 going back in the dressing room i tried on that gown and did you get that gown i got that gown
00:16:46.480 Yeah, you did.
00:16:46.980 I got that gown.
00:16:47.680 Could you snood that gown?
00:16:50.180 I could snood anything.
00:16:51.360 I mean.
00:16:52.000 I can snood anything.
00:16:53.460 And it just takes a whole new twist on the outfit.
00:16:55.600 It does.
00:16:56.600 So the amazing thing was I was wearing my snood when we went out to a fancy bar last night.
00:17:02.640 Oh, yeah.
00:17:03.260 We tried to go out.
00:17:04.660 We tried to just rip it up.
00:17:05.960 We tried.
00:17:07.020 And I wore my snood to a place where people were indeed wearing sequins.
00:17:11.200 Where there was a rope.
00:17:13.780 A rope.
00:17:14.340 A velvet rope. 0.88
00:17:14.920 And a bouncer.
00:17:15.480 and the man clearly looked us up and down but let us in let us in let us in and we got to sit at the 1.00
00:17:20.480 bar um and this very drunk lovely young icelandic woman came up to us at the bar and saw my snood 0.97
00:17:28.420 and was like you snood you have a snood and she also had a snood um well what's the word for it
00:17:34.900 where it's not just the turtleneck but it's a has a hood hood yeah it's got a neck and a hood
00:17:39.820 and she was just so excited to show me because there was a chance that you had never heard of
00:17:44.920 this before i hadn't seen it before and that she was gonna change your life and i've sincerely
00:17:49.620 wished that we had told her about jumpsuits yes yes do you like pants and a shirt together do
00:17:57.100 you like one thing put together yeah you might also like you might also like jumpsuits yeah she
00:18:02.020 uh yeah that was i mean i think the snood the snood is the perfect accessory we wore it into
00:18:08.700 the lagoon today into the hot springs today into the hot springs today and i'm real glad i did
00:18:14.560 I was warm it was better than not having a snood yeah yeah yeah and you know I think that people
00:18:22.040 were looking at us and they were jealous they were curious at the very least their necks were
00:18:26.940 cold yeah their necks were cold when it started hailing and listen the guy with the GoPro and the
00:18:32.460 Feliz Navidad hat yes yeah knew that we had to have our pictures taken yeah yeah yeah totally
00:18:38.460 totally i mean it was just we i mean we were just broadcasting it we needed to take snoods
00:18:44.720 snoods i want to take some snoods no one thinks that's funny that's funny about us
00:18:49.660 yeah yeah it's true not even our husbands no no they're like what you took some snoods are you
00:18:57.260 what what's going on when are you coming home can you come back we've been doing bath time
00:19:02.520 ever since you left ever since you left uh no the yeah the husband's about the kids there's no kids
00:19:08.480 here iceland is a different trip without kids like we walked past so many playgrounds and we're just
00:19:15.820 like suckers i mean did we even see them no didn't even see them didn't even the kid ice skating rink
00:19:21.740 i'm like absolutely not for me oh yeah no way no no way i didn't see that either no no and like 0.83
00:19:29.100 you can't hot spring with kids oh gosh no you can't i mean we could have ruined a lot of people's
00:19:34.620 good times i wonder if anyone tries no i think it must be 18 and over maybe yeah i actually i think
00:19:42.420 the blue lagoon said two plus really yeah but for the big pool for the big the party pool the party
00:19:48.300 pool the party pool yeah all the lagoons do have a swim up bar uh which people are always very
00:19:55.200 enamored by as if they've never seen a swim up bar ever before or heard about it or as if they're
00:20:00.840 really excited to get extremely dehydrated yeah says the bar owner but the bar owner but yeah
00:20:07.880 yeah i uh i loved it i loved every part of our trip no this has been fantastic fantastic and
00:20:14.240 even though there's only four hours of sun a day it's all i needed it's all it's really all that i
00:20:20.200 needed for this i mean listen once we were in the coffee shop you bookstore bar like i don't care
00:20:26.300 if it's laid out that was the other thing the other thing we could do without kids is we just
00:20:29.420 sat in the coffee shop bookstore bar um and just didn't leave no no no because you can just stay
00:20:38.900 in one place we also did not abide by normal meal times no no no no no no one got hungry i
00:20:46.360 couldn't have told you if we had breakfast or lunch or dinner or brunch or what was a snack
00:20:51.760 there was just food consumed when we wanted it if we wanted it if we however we wanted it when we
00:20:57.720 wanted it yeah yeah it was just it's freaking magic is what it is yeah yeah y'all should go
00:21:04.580 on vacation with joe piazza no you should just go on vacation with casey cheska um or no you
00:21:12.500 should go on vacation with your girlfriend just book it that's when just book it actually just
00:21:17.280 book it that's the when your husband inevitably asks what you want for the holidays nine days
00:21:22.820 before the holidays friend trip um i want you i like i know we have miles book me a friendship
00:21:29.500 maybe book my friend's flight too and then my friend will book the hotel like you get the ball
00:21:33.860 rolling exactly when you get the ball rolling you got to just get one piece going so that everyone
00:21:38.200 has to you just commit you've got to get one piece going and i think that is the perfect thing to say
00:21:42.220 to your husband because nobody wants a lexus oh yeah no one wants a surprise lexus nope no one
00:21:49.700 wants a surprise lexus nope i certainly don't um thank you for coming to reiki with me thank you
00:21:55.180 for coming to reiki with me this is the perfect way to dive into the holidays yeah it is i mean
00:22:00.500 i'll see you in 10 days what did we decide i love this i love this for us there's also going to be
00:22:06.580 like seven hours of daylights at that point right seven hours of daylight back in the catskills maybe
00:22:13.560 what will we do with so much daylight that's like we've been when you well when you think 14 hours
00:22:17.900 it's already kind of daylight here the sun has really been coming up at 11 30 yeah and it starts
00:22:24.440 to go back down around 2 30 so during our four hour tour to the hot springs today we both saw
00:22:33.060 the sunrise and the sunset yeah the light started to change toward the end of it we were like wow
00:22:37.940 is that the end of a storm is that the end of the day the end of the day at 2 p.m the day's over
00:22:45.080 but no but that's the thing it doesn't matter you're just like all right now i'm gonna go in
00:22:48.780 a warm coffee shop and i'm gonna get like a nice extremely dark icelandic beer oh my gosh yeah
00:22:55.580 that was a well we sit in a bookstore bar yeah yeah it's the and by we bought the greatest puff
00:23:03.020 and sweaters of all time yes yes i mean i can't say i knew about other puff and sweaters to
00:23:10.160 compete with these sweaters before but that's because no puff and sweater can compete with
00:23:14.600 these puff and sweaters no i mean i can't believe we even wavered the first time we saw these puff
00:23:21.160 sweaters but then shame on us shame on us shame on us but the next day we committed we just needed
00:23:26.900 14 hours of sleep to think straight 14 hours of sleep and then we went clear-eyed straight there
00:23:32.300 straight there also filed under things you can't do with kids no because we set out saying we will
00:23:37.400 go get breakfast and instead we tried on 10 000 puffin sweaters shopped for 90 minutes before we
00:23:43.940 put any food in our mouth yeah yeah and i stand by it stand by it didn't have to stop didn't have
00:23:50.400 stop for a potty no no yeah you're really good at taking care of your own needs too you're so
00:23:57.100 grown up such an adult adult grown-ass lady we did feel a little adult in the sauna tonight as
00:24:04.240 well when we overlapped with some possibly fresh out of college-ish kids possibly fresh out of
00:24:09.820 college-ish kids who were so psyched to talk about their swim up bar experiences in the lagoons
00:24:15.420 all the lagoons that we had been to as well but joe and i chose to not we chose to not speak
00:24:22.700 we chose to not not chat not and you know because they were psyched and they wanted to share about
00:24:28.780 it and we didn't wanted us to share and we didn't about our days well i don't know if they wanted
00:24:32.660 us to that's kind of why i didn't say anything because i felt like they wanted to be the lagoon
00:24:36.640 experts and you know what they can be the lagoon experts in the sauna well that's the other thing
00:24:41.660 our hotel has a sauna and so we've saunaed every night before bed we just sauna yeah yeah which I
00:24:51.540 think has been helping us get 14 hours sleep also like our sauna journey where the first time we
00:24:56.800 went down maybe even in clothes and definitely shoes the next day we were like well oh I guess
00:25:04.080 I'll like wear shoes but I won't tie them and I'll just be in my suit and then this time we
00:25:08.460 just in suits and barefoot
00:25:09.980 just walking around the hotel
00:25:11.480 like we live here
00:25:13.840 because we live here now
00:25:15.120 also hi dear husbands we live here now
00:25:17.680 hi miss you Nicaster
00:25:19.620 Steven Weinberg
00:25:38.460 Thank you.
00:26:08.460 You