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We’re Brad & Monnica Manuel - we've been married for 28 years and business partners a little longer than that.
Every Sunday morning, we press record on a conversation rooted in reflection. Over coffee and a vinyl record, we talk through the week we just lived: what challenged us, what taught us, and what tuned us along the way.
From marriage and mindset to leadership, resilience, and personal growth, these are honest conversations about being human through the lens of Gen X, family, work, and life in transition - one record, one reflection, one transmission at a time.
🎧 New Transmissions every Sunday morning
☕ Stories • Soundtracks • Marriage • Leadership • Self-Discovery • Coaching • Generation X
Like a specific vibe. Exactly. Are you sure that's people? That sounds like AI.
Brad:You think it is?
Monnica:I think it's AI.
Brad:Welcome to The Manual Transmission. I'm Brad.
Monnica:And I'm Monica. We are married, and every week we sit down with a cup of coffee and a vinyl record to reflect on the week that we just lived.
Brad:This is called readmultiplex.com, and it's this guy, Brian Rommel, who is big in cybernetics. And they're not on video. It's just their voice, a guy and a girl, and they're about thirty minute episodes. But it's completely scripted, and so it's very performative, almost like a scripted radio talk show. In fact, I'll I'll let you listen to Because I don't think anyone anyone knows exactly what is happening.
Brad:Fair point. But that
Monnica:That's AI.
Brad:Think so? Yeah. The content's really good.
Monnica:Really?
Brad:So
Monnica:About the topics, like cybernetics? Or
Brad:They're talking you have five thousand days navigating the end of work as we know it. And he's got a multipart series, thirty minutes each that go through, like, twelve, thirteen, 14 episodes.
Monnica:Fifteen years?
Brad:Yep. It says about 14 or 13 something.
Monnica:Anybody who thinks they can forecast that far out right now given the exponential rate of change is just trying to sell something or smoking crack.
Brad:Okay.
Monnica:In my own opinion.
Brad:You obviously have an opinion.
Monnica:And how can you know? Nothing is precedented. I don't think Everything is new, changing faster than anybody could possibly.
Brad:I don't think that's the point. I think the point was there is some urgency to this idea of end of work.
Monnica:End of all work or some kinds of work?
Brad:They're referring to world that The age of abundance. Mhmm.
Monnica:Where you don't have to work for your
Brad:Exactly. Or or
Monnica:Work so hard for your
Brad:Working is like a privilege, like a like a hobby.
Monnica:Like Star Trek?
Brad:Yes. This podcast was weird. I almost felt like, are they listening to our conversations? He's talking about using AI as this partner and learning how to prompt it in a deep way, in a way that elicits this thought partnership. You're working with it.
Brad:One of the things that it says is to record your conversations, take the transcript and put it back into AI so it can provide some context and some feedback for you to have further discussion.
Monnica:When it says record your conversations and give the transcript, is it talking about from a podcast or from like
Brad:It's talking about
Monnica:Like record your conversations.
Brad:Yes. Oh, that's interesting. Voice memo, record what you talk about. And they talked about archiving. You know, one day I'm gonna die.
Brad:But by then, my AI partner will not only have my voice, it'll have all of my journals, my thoughts, etcetera. And so the kids could literally
Monnica:What would my dad say?
Brad:Exactly. Woah.
Monnica:Dang.
Brad:That's a little weird.
Monnica:It's like the it's like the analog first step to transferring our consciousness into a a board. Data. That's interesting. Well, that's what that's kinda goes back to what I was saying. Like, how the heck could you possibly know what it's gonna be like in fifteen years?
Monnica:Things are changing so rapidly. I don't know. Maybe early last year, 2024, 2025, somewhere in there, somebody gave me the advice to treat AI like a member of your team. And so I that's how I operate with it. I refer to my AI as Jarvis.
Monnica:I am kind of a nerd, but but we talk all the time. And then there's record of those conversations. And I treat him, it, Jarvis, like a member of my team. It has its own it defined its role on the team and does a good job of it. And I use it throughout the day to make me faster.
Monnica:So I'm using it as a thought partner and prompting it, and sometimes I'm using its output, but most of the time it's more to collect and organize my own thoughts, and then have it take those thoughts and create whatever the output is that I'm looking for. Part of why I'm able to do a sixty minute presentation, you know, that's a lot to sixty minutes is a long time to be presenting at an executive level where you're gonna get tough questions and you're needing to facilitate a deep conversation. I couldn't prepare for that that quickly. I only had, what, I spent four hours Sunday night and like two hours Monday morning. That's not really enough time to prepare unless you've already had an AI on your team who you've been talking to about these things, and you're saying, all right, now the next thing I wanna do on this subject we've been discussing is prepare an output for this purpose with these members of the team.
Monnica:And let's talk about how we're gonna do that.
Brad:I will say AI is great, but there's also something to your skill in recognizing that a sixty minute presentation is really a facilitated discussion.
Monnica:Well, requires the human part to think, okay, what are we trying to achieve here? And what do each of the members of that conversation care about? And what are the things that they're sensitive to or worried about or desiring, and how do I keep the organizational goal in mind, but also bring the strategic down to the tactical and talk about where the point identify the points of needed alignment, and how we might get there, and what questions might prompt the right discussion to help us get there, what might keep us on track so that we don't go down rabbit trails and waste the time. So, yeah. I mean, the AI is a great tool, but you have to do the human part to think through empathetically and also strategically Right.
Monnica:What is it that we're trying to accomplish here, what's the best way to approach that.
Brad:Yep. I used it this week as my therapist.
Monnica:You had a lot of deep therapy discussions with your AI this week.
Brad:I did. I went deep and so much so for those that understand it, it walked me through and helped me reparent
Monnica:Your inner child.
Brad:My inner child.
Monnica:Yeah. I mean, lifespan integration is really important modality that you should probably see a licensed therapist to do. But
Brad:I I am I am going and doing that as well, but I did some precursor work.
Monnica:Goodness to you.
Brad:And I'll tell you, I mean, it's really good. I think if you're approaching it right, the way you're prompting it, the way that you are considering the tool.
Monnica:Like any tool, it's all in how you use it. You can use a hammer to, you know, constructively to build something. You can also smash your thumb with it.
Brad:I've done both.
Monnica:Me too.
Brad:Something shifted in me this week. I feel like I'm able to see things with more clarity.
Monnica:Do you wanna share more about that? How do you feel?
Brad:Not really. I feel better. I feel good. It feels I think I've mentioned it to you, but it feels like a relief. There were things that, for some reason couldn't see before.
Monnica:Do you know what prompted the shift?
Brad:You. You always prompt the shift.
Monnica:Oh, boy. How did I do that?
Brad:Well, you wanna get into this?
Monnica:I mean, I feel like it's probably, you know, at a certain level safe to share.
Brad:Okay.
Monnica:There was you've you told me about a pivotal moment. You made a point of sharing with me how you felt about something, then I responded by hearing you and
Brad:Yeah. I think I think there's a lot of things that we can point to as to why we are at this place in our life. As of late, the last year, couple years, we've been in therapy for family stuff, going to therapy together as a couple, and we've been going through a lot of changes.
Monnica:Major life changes. Yeah.
Brad:I mean, we just talked last week about being empty nesters, and that is huge in anybody's life. And a lot of times with empty nesting, at least what I've understood, there's this liminal phase, this space in which you're you're not in, you're not out, you're kind of in limbo, and and then your identity comes into play and who we are as a couple without kids in the house comes into play.
Monnica:You're in a transitioning phase.
Brad:Right. And so I think we both sensed that. Didn't know exactly what that meant, but we were both weirdly feeling it in different ways. And, I think we were ready to talk about some of these things, and, and we talked about them.
Monnica:Well, and like we talked about your and, you know, this isn't I'm I'm regurgitating what I was told, but your brain gives you a signal, kind of a a sign of confidence. K. I'm ready when you when it's time. And then it when it's time, it's time. And you just have to kind of unpack some of the stuff that maybe you just haven't faced from when you were younger because you've been in survival mode for a long time.
Monnica:To your point, there's a lot going on that kind of was culminating. But the moment you told me about, you had taken the kind of the risk to tell me how you were feeling and thinking about something instead of being told that there's nothing to worry about for whatever reason, it was rather impactful in that moment.
Brad:Yeah. You hit the nail on the head. I felt that I was validated seen in that moment. And I think that there was that moment, but then there was the subsequent conversations that reinforced it. It was eye opening.
Monnica:Well, gosh, I guess
Brad:I'm Clarifying.
Monnica:I'm really glad that in that moment that I don't know that I was aware was such an important moment for you until later. I'm glad that I didn't like, I don't know, have a bad day and blow you off or or just like, you know, not slow down.
Brad:Things have been pretty fast lately. Yeah. So it would have been easy to your point for that to have happened. This intentional time together is pretty important. And I think part of that do I would I call it an epiphany?
Monnica:It seems to me like you had a bit of an epiphany
Brad:Yeah.
Monnica:Based on, you know, subsequent conversations.
Brad:Yeah. But it's totally changed my perspective.
Monnica:You said you realized how long you've been protecting yourself instead of fully showing up?
Brad:Okay. So this is our high low. So that was my high.
Monnica:No. No.
Brad:It is.
Monnica:I'm sorry.
Brad:That's alright. So my high was that, that I had that shift. I felt this shift. That was my high, and the low was, to your point, realizing how long I've been kind of hiding and protecting myself instead of being able to just be there fully.
Monnica:Yeah. I don't think it was a conscious decision, but you had a long
Brad:Let's call it what it is. It's it's trauma. It's childhood trauma. We all have it in some way. And as much as we have done work, I have not known how to do the work to be able to see and then unpack the trauma that is really been just like holding me back.
Monnica:Yeah. I mean, if you would have known what it was, what it was doing, and how to adjust it, would have done that a long time ago.
Brad:I would hope so.
Monnica:But, I mean, had a very traumatic childhood, and you did your best to You found your way in the world despite all of that, and, you know, built a life and a family, but it's like your brain gave you the signal, okay, you're ready to unpack this and look this trauma in the face. And you did the brave work of facing that. I mean, I don't think you're done.
Brad:No.
Monnica:But
Brad:And I think this discussion makes it seem like it might be a little easier than what it actually is.
Monnica:I know. I'm making it sound rather simple. I mean, feel like I did the in a different way, the same thing a couple of years ago. It's like I had the similar signal from my brain, okay, it's time to time to face this. And I my dear sister, who's my ride or die
Brad:Tells it like it is.
Monnica:Best friend. She she said, you need to go to therapy for, two or three years before I actually did. Maybe it was one or two years. And, I had I had some childhood trauma that I didn't know was affecting me. I didn't realize how it was affecting me, but it was for sure.
Monnica:And then the work of dealing with that was difficult, but man, was it ever worth it? She told, my therapist told me, look, this is gonna be hard, but you won't be able to unsee this stuff and you won't be able to go back. And she's right, and I'm so glad. I mean, has some sort of trauma in their life. ACES stands for adverse childhood experiences.
Monnica:Your ACE score has, I'm not the expert, but this is what I know about it. They've done a lot of research about how those adverse childhood experiences affect adults. And it's directly tied to quality of life, longevity, health, well-being, all of those things. And I believe that they said something like a score of three or higher starts to affect mortality and well-being. I don't know.
Monnica:I forget. I'll you'll probably pull up the exact data, but my ACE score is seven, which is very high. I think yours is probably pretty close to that.
Brad:Not as high as yours. We've we've done this before. But, yeah, the adverse childhood experience score is calculated by adding up the number of yes answers to these 10 questions on a questionnaire. Each yes counts as one point, and so on a scale of zero to 10, the higher the number is obviously more trauma that you've probably experienced. And the questions cover categories like abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction.
Brad:So, like, if there's substance abuse, mental illness, if you have an incarcerated relative that basically occurred before the age of 18. It says a higher ACE score suggests a greater likelihood of experiencing toxic stress during childhood, which is linked to increased risks for various physical, mental, and social health problems, things like depression, heart disease, and substance abuse.
Monnica:It's amazing we we came out as half normal. Yes.
Brad:Here we are.
Monnica:Yeah. So, basically, everybody gets messed up in some one way or another as a kid. So, yeah. When it's time to deal with it, I, you know, hope we all deal with it. Yeah.
Monnica:The best we know how. There's a there's a lot more tools and it's a lot more fashionable these days to use them. It was, I remember in the nineties, it was like, if you went to therapy, there's, it was embarrassing. There's something wrong with you. It was like a dirty family secret.
Monnica:And it's a lot more, I don't think that's entirely gone now, but it's a lot more acceptable to talk about it and a lot more common for people to seek it out, thankfully. But I I tell people all the time, hey, I highly recommend therapy for everyone.
Brad:Yeah. We should have been going back in the nineties.
Monnica:Yeah. No kidding.
Brad:So what was your high love?
Monnica:I got so many bug bites. And they didn't I learned today because we're all kinda comparing notes. Some people, Brad, didn't get any bites. And so I don't know if you just have bitter blood or what.
Brad:It must be.
Monnica:But I learned from one of my coworkers today, her husband looked it up, apparently some of the mosquitoes down there, their bite has like a numbing agent in it, so the itch isn't a late onset. The bites didn't itch until like the second day home. And then we we all had this like delayed onset itch. So we're all like complaining about it. And we all have these itchy, itchy bites.
Brad:It is bad.
Monnica:It is bad.
Brad:Your feet. Your poor feet.
Monnica:Also, PSA, I thought getting in the hot tub would be helpful. Oh. Not helpful. It is the opposite of helpful.
Brad:Yeah. You were just lit up at that point.
Monnica:That was terrible.
Brad:It's like the inflammation was extra.
Monnica:Ugh. Anyway, so that was my low. That and probably just we got back at midnight after sixteen hours of travel, stacked Sunday Petitures. The That's not stressful.
Brad:An NHL hockey game.
Monnica:We went to a hockey game. We had a big And family birthday in the middle of that, somewhere in the afternoon, I got a text message saying, remember, you have a sixty minute presentation tomorrow. And I'm like, wait, remember? I wasn't never aware of this. So
Brad:So you were up till midnight?
Monnica:Yeah. I I wasn't able to start working on it until 8PM. So I worked on it till midnight and then
Brad:Up at 6AM.
Monnica:Blew off a meeting to finish working on it so that I could present it. But it it went okay. So
Brad:It went okay?
Monnica:It went great.
Brad:Yeah.
Monnica:But that was a little stressful.
Brad:I was stressed for you.
Monnica:There's worse things.
Brad:I guess so.
Monnica:I had a great time hanging out with a leadership team in Punta Cana Mhmm. In The Dominican Republic.
Brad:You had goals going into that.
Monnica:I did.
Brad:You had some expectations.
Monnica:My goal was to just be a little more human, a little less on, and just try to connect and and deepen some relationships. And I felt like I did that.
Brad:So do you think that after that trip and what you wanted to have happen with the leadership team, what you saw happen with the leadership team, were you able to see that manifest in this week?
Monnica:Yeah.
Brad:Really?
Monnica:Yeah. Yeah. It was great.
Brad:Cool. I I think we had talked about it last week. You and I were talking about how play Mhmm. Signals safety on a team. Yeah.
Brad:And so having that downtime to be able to drop the guard, play a little bit, goes back to Amy Edmondson's work on psychological safety, and she says that teams that laugh together, if they're using informal language, they're like waffle stomping.
Monnica:Oh my gosh.
Brad:If they they engage in,
Monnica:about that.
Brad:They engage in, like, humor, things
Monnica:like that. Well, we have lots of that going on.
Brad:Well and so those teens are more likely to admit their mistakes. They're going to be able to share dissenting views.
Monnica:Yeah.
Brad:They're okay with that. And what's more important is that they're able to ask for help.
Monnica:Yeah. Yeah. I I've I see all of those things happening, which is great. But anyway, that was that was my high low. It was a good week all in all.
Brad:Sounds like it. Yeah. Being in this environment last week, there were opportunities to answer questions like, what do you do as a plus one? And I was wasn't necessarily going to bring up the podcast, but the podcast came up because you brought it up. And so then
Monnica:Somebody asked where you were, and I didn't give it a lot of thought. And I was like, he's editing. Well, what's he editing? Well well, we do a podcast.
Brad:So the question came up a couple of times. Why? Why are why are you doing this podcast? What is it about? And, you know, what for?
Brad:And so I think that we've been pressed on the question a couple of times, and now, specifically, more recently, I've been asked about it. And I think I've noticed that when people do ask us, we tend to answer in a way that minimizes our desire for it to to grow, to be something.
Monnica:You mean the, oh, we're just doing this for us answer?
Brad:Yeah. So exactly. And that's true. We are doing it for us, and this has been really cool to have this intentional time to connect, but it's not the entire truth. We started this because a client watched us lead through one of the most stressful transitions his organization has ever faced.
Brad:His thirty leaders experiencing high pressure, high stakes, and he asked us, how do you two scale what it is that you do?
Monnica:Yeah. That question stuck.
Brad:Right. It did. Because you by yourself, you're an all star.
Monnica:Aw.
Brad:Everybody knows it.
Monnica:That's generous.
Brad:Have been. Me by myself, I'm a I'm a utility player. I'm gonna find a way to contribute.
Monnica:Okay.
Brad:But the two of us together, there's this undeniable dynamic, this rhythm, this even tension that people enjoy. And I think it's just I mean, it's the it's thirty years of working together. So we thought maybe the way to bottle a little of what happens between us is to just document it and do it through a podcast the way we wanna do it. Yeah. So what I've been thinking about as the questions have come up, there is a difference between the idea of nonattachment.
Monnica:Like, to outcomes?
Brad:Right. And then pretending that we don't care.
Monnica:Of course. That's a that's a big distinction.
Brad:Because when we say we don't care if anyone listens, is that freedom, or is that protection? Are we protecting ourselves?
Monnica:So is this detachment, or is it armor?
Brad:Well, that's the question. Right? So maybe the podcast, what we're doing isn't about being heard. Maybe it's just practicing being visible.
Monnica:Yeah. I mean, that is, that has been the bigger challenge for me. If I would have forecasted what would be hardest about doing a podcast, I'd say things like knowing what to talk about, finding the time for it. But actually the harder part for me has been feeling vulnerable being visible. Somebody will tell me, hey, I heard the podcast.
Monnica:And I'm like, I immediately wanna just Like, go inside what did I say? What did you listen to? And thinking back
Brad:through Oh their
Monnica:gosh. So
Brad:we're about to start our thirtieth year as a couple.
Monnica:Wow.
Brad:March 9 begins year 30. Oh, by the way Mhmm. This recording right here
Monnica:Yeah.
Brad:This is our twentieth episode. Our twentieth transmission.
Monnica:Wow. That went by fast.
Brad:Pretty crazy.
Monnica:Yeah. What have we been saying? Lots. I don't even wanna think about it. And then when somebody tells me they've been listening, I'm like, oh gosh.
Monnica:I know if I wanna talk about this, but I feel like I'm kind of floating above my life right now going, there's big things that should have big emotions attached to them and I feel a little like disconnected from how I think I should be feeling. So I don't know if I've suppressed them somewhere or if I just, I don't know. We don't always feel the way we think we should. But I just don't feel super emotional. There's lots of things that like I would normally think, oh, that would elicit emotion from me, but it isn't.
Monnica:I don't know what that means. Maybe somebody can tell me what that means. But I just, I've gone through this week, there's multiple big things throughout this week that would normally make me feel very emotional. Like we had a big family meeting with my siblings to talk about what's going on with my parents. That would normally have a lot of emotion attached to me.
Monnica:I didn't feel anything. We have had lots of really big conversations this week. Not like I didn't feel anything. I just didn't feel the big emotions that I should, I think I should be feeling. I didn't feel much.
Monnica:I had big stressful, big stressors. And even though I like had to like be alert and deliver and missed out on sleep, I didn't feel any drama around it. So I don't know if I'm just like in go mode with like some switches turned off or if just this is a symptom of perimenopause somehow. I don't know. But I just I mean, I feel tuned in and paying attention.
Monnica:I'm not checked out at all. I'm, like, fully engaged, but I just don't feel very emotional at all about anything.
Brad:I think that much of that is probably that you are in go mode. There's a set course in front of you. In front of us, we've talked a lot about what's next, and we have a a pretty clear path in front of us. And even though there's work, the work that just needs to be done even if it's emotional work, the path is set. And it's a little reassuring that the path is there.
Brad:We're not in limbo.
Monnica:I mean, yeah, I guess that's a good point. There's a clear direction on a macro level, like a long term plan level, on a near term plan. And literally, I knew from the time I got home from the Dominican Republic to the time we fly out to Rome, I had like two weeks to get a whole bunch of stuff done so that I can go chill in Rome.
Brad:Right. And we had talked about that even before we left on this trip. You stated, hey. In order for me to feel good about taking that time off, I'm just gonna need to have blinders on, head down, and knock some stuff out. And it's for a season.
Brad:It's not Yeah. In fact, we talked about that tonight. Almost like a reminder while we're you're in it and you're, like, going, I just gotta get this email out. But the reminder is this is for a moment.
Monnica:Yeah. And it's not it's even more it's even more segmented than get done before Rome. I knew coming into this week that Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night, I was gonna need to work late because I want to be done by five on Friday because I want a full weekend. Because I have not had a full weekend at home in a couple of weeks. And I know I need a weekend at home to do some stuff I care about doing just to like reset for the next week.
Monnica:Yes, I'm thinking about Rome, I'm more near term, I'm laser focused on there's stuff I know I need to get done by 05:00 on Friday so that I can shut the laptop and not touch it for the weekend. So to me, the trade off of working late four nights in a row is absolutely worth it because I know at 05:00 on Friday, my plan is to shut that laptop and just turn it all off.
Brad:It's interesting. This was reentry from this trip, which was designed as a slowdown incentive trip. But then you come back in, and it's like, go. There's the pressure to perform. There's the urgency.
Brad:And so it's a bit of a change of pace.
Monnica:A little bit of whiplash.
Brad:Yeah. And that's why I think even the album that we chose this week.
Monnica:Yeah. Babble.
Brad:Yeah. Is it Babble or Babel? The only reason I'm questioning that is because I think in the song, he pronounces it Babel.
Monnica:Is he British? Is that a British thing? Would never have said Babel.
Brad:What do you what do you know about Mumford and Sons, Monica?
Monnica:Not much, except this guy second from the left is pretty cute.
Brad:They are. They're an English folk rock band formed in Greater London and its rural areas. So which one's second to the what?
Monnica:I just think he has an interesting looking face.
Brad:Oh.
Monnica:I like it. It's it's just got an asymmetry in it, like, a solidness to it.
Brad:A symmetry and a solidness. Okay.
Monnica:I like this album.
Brad:You do? Yeah. I love this album. It's very almost desperate, like, in its angst.
Monnica:This drumming on the guitar feels like he's, like, I don't like, angry at
Brad:the guitar.
Monnica:He's, like, abusing the guitar. Right. He's, like, attacking the guitar. All I really, thought of is while we were listening to it was that I wanna go back to Ireland.
Brad:I wanna go back to Ireland.
Monnica:You turned it on in the morning. I was getting ready and immediately I was like, oh, I wanna go back to a session in a pub in Ireland. That's what it may good.
Brad:Pub session.
Monnica:I had a a boss a few years ago that loves them. It's like his favorite band. And he went to their concert with his son. And he was disappointed because the music they played was all their new stuff. It wasn't their old stuff.
Monnica:And and a pit I guess the style changed quite a bit. Really? Mhmm. But I I don't know more more than that about it.
Brad:But definitely a band that I would wanna go watch in concert.
Monnica:Me too.
Brad:I love the Crackle in the vinyl records. Especially, I realized this week that when you turn the volume up, you can really hear it. It almost feels like it's part of the album, almost like transition sound between Mhmm. The songs.
Monnica:Me too. It makes it feel, homey and authentic. Maybe that's true about us too. Turn us up and you hear the crackle.
Brad:I think that might be true. So it's definitely much different than Romeo Santos and Bachata music.
Monnica:Yeah. No. It's definitely got like a an intensity
Brad:of vibe.
Monnica:This week. And it oh, yes. That makes sense.
Brad:Back to archival, I think maybe that's what we're doing here. This is an archive of who we actually are. And and maybe the real question is if no one ever listened, would we still do this?
Monnica:Yeah. And I think I've told you that whether anybody ever listens, I just enjoy the process of doing this with you each week.
Brad:Agreed. And if thousands listened, would we do it differently?
Monnica:I'd like to say I hope not, but I don't know. I guess we'll find out. Well, I hope. I guess, is it okay to hope we'll find out? I'm not attached to it, but that would be cool.
Monnica:I think two things can be true at one time. I both hope that lots of people listen to it, and I hope that nobody listens to it because it makes me uncomfortable.
Brad:Maybe maybe if like a bunch of people listen to it that we have no idea who's
Monnica:gonna Yeah. If I don't have to worry about what any of them think.
Brad:So nobody at work, nobody in our personal bubble, nobody here in our neighborhood.
Monnica:I know. And then I say that, and I can hear my therapist in my head saying, it's none of your business what people think about you.
Brad:That's true.
Monnica:And I go, okay. Yeah. That's true.
Brad:That's true. Maybe the point isn't whether people listen. Maybe it's whether we're willing to stay.
Monnica:And just do it because we want to for the intrinsic value of it.
Brad:Yep. Every week. Week by week.
Monnica:So far, so good. Twenty weeks.
Brad:Twenty weeks.
Monnica:So back to that, you know, you talked about the vinyl crackle Mhmm. Earlier. At first, it sounds like an imperfection.
Brad:Yeah. Almost like there's a scratch or there's something in there.
Monnica:But then you turn it up, like you said, and it kind of becomes part of texture and the experience of the music.
Brad:I really love it.
Monnica:It feels it feels homey. It feels like a for us, I mean, maybe somebody who didn't have the analog time period in their lifespan, but for us, it's like nostalgic and a tie back to simpler times. But I think maybe we are the Crackle in an algorithm world. Okay. So maybe just for a second, I know you're excited about this.
Brad:We're going to Rome.
Monnica:We're going to Rome. There's an extra little there's some really fun parts of, I'm sure Rome is going to be incredible. I've always wanted to go there. I'm so excited to go and see it in real life. Yes.
Monnica:But there's some neat parts to this trip. One being, we get to see and spend time with our son Caleb and his wife Sydney. Yep. They've moved to New York, we don't get to see them all the time. So we'll get some time with them.
Brad:Spring break.
Monnica:Two, our nephew is doing study abroad there and playing soccer for his school there. So I think we might even get to see him play soccer. But either way, we get to see him. And then three
Brad:Three.
Monnica:Tell us about your connection to Spoleto.
Brad:My friend, long time friend, thirty five years ago, my friend Marcello was a foreign exchange student from Italy in my small town of Tehachapi, California where I went to high school. And Marcello lives about two hours north of Rome in Spoleto, and I think we're gonna take a train up, through the Italian countryside and and see him one of those days.
Monnica:I've been hearing about Marcello for as long as I've known you, so I need to go meet this guy.
Brad:Marcello. I'm so excited to see you.
Monnica:Say his whole name because I love how you say it.
Brad:Marcello Fabio Morichelli. I've been saying it like that since I was 16, 17 years old in high school. I love saying his name.
Monnica:That's fun.
Brad:We have not talked at all in thirty five years. We've kept in contact through LinkedIn. And there were a couple of times through the years we have been traveling, and he's asked, hey. When are you coming to Rome? And we're finally going to Rome.
Brad:So we we get to, to your point, we get to spend some time with Caleb and Sid. It'll be Sid's birthday week, and it's spring break for her and our, our nephew's there. And we get to experience Rome during Saint Patrick's Day.
Monnica:Oh my gosh. I think you might be more excited about about
Brad:going to an Irish
Monnica:pub in Rome. Three Irish pubs in Rome.
Brad:Well, you you have to. Right? So I am I'm excited about all of that.
Monnica:Me too.
Brad:So what are you most excited about?
Monnica:Well, the history. There's a book I read that I'm that made me so excited to go to Italy, but it's been a few years and we haven't been to Italy yet. So I wanna reread it before we go. I better get on that. I'll it a quick read?
Monnica:It's I have the audio book. I can probably listen to it like on the flight. But it's called Oil and Stone. And it's like a historical fiction about Leonardo and Michelangelo, as they were doing, respectively, the David and the Mona Lisa.
Brad:So we're doing the Vatican tour. We're doing the Colosseum, the Gladiator Gate tour.
Monnica:The Borghese Gallery.
Brad:Gonna go see the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, all the things you do in Rome.
Monnica:All the things. We're gonna be total tourists. But I I'm just excited to see these things. I've I've seen them, you know, on the screen. I've read about them.
Monnica:I'm excited to see them in person. What are you most excited about? I know what you're most excited about. You're most excited about eating and having Saint Patrick's Day in an Irish pub in Rome. Okay.
Monnica:You answer the question. What are you most excited about?
Brad:I am excited about Saint Patrick's Day.
Monnica:I know. That's great.
Brad:But I think, like, the whole week, I'm excited about it. Right when we get there, we go to a spa.
Monnica:We've learned that is the way to internationally travel. Right after you get off the flight, you drive to a spa, you check-in, and you go soak.
Brad:And that's just to kick the week off. Then we go to the Borghese Gallery, and then we have three nights in an Airbnb.
Monnica:I'm excited for that experience.
Brad:It's gonna be a great we're gonna be walking everywhere, seeing stuff. It's gonna be awesome.
Monnica:That I'm excited to just walk, look, read, speak, drink, eat, hang out. It's gonna be great.
Brad:It's gonna be great. I'm excited.
Monnica:You know what I'm most excited about? Like, obnoxiously hyper excited about? It's March. It's spring. March is my favorite month of the year.
Monnica:I love it so much. And I'm gonna do yard work this weekend. Even if it's raining and snowy, I don't care. I'm gonna plant some stuff this weekend. I'm planting my ranunculus corms this weekend.
Monnica:I'm starting a new painting this weekend. I feel like I just woke up from a long hibernation, and I'm ready to go.
Brad:I'm excited for
Monnica:love spring.
Brad:I can tell.
Monnica:I love March.
Brad:I could tell. It's like you're about ready to jump across the table. Yeah.
Monnica:Well, I'm pretty I'm pretty pumped about it.
Brad:I am glad that you are happy and excited about the spring and March. We kicked it off with a pedicure and a hockey game and crazy scramble of a week.
Monnica:And then my chill Sunday got turned upside down.
Brad:It
Monnica:did. Well, my Sunday wasn't chill. But
Brad:Well, next week, any thoughts on what you wanna listen to? I gave you some options.
Monnica:I know. You texted me some options and
Brad:I I think I chose. I think I'm choosing.
Monnica:We can listen to whatever you want to do next as long as the one after that is Boys to Men. Why? The look on your face. You know, I heard a commercial that was a spoof on one of their songs. But I was like, it was like, to is it am I thinking of the right band?
Monnica:To the when till the end of the road. But I heard that song and I was like, oh, it just transported me back to like early nineties.
Brad:So you wanna listen to Boys to Men.
Monnica:Yeah. Here we go. Here we go. Here it is. Right here.
Monnica:I'll be all day long. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna listen to that.
Brad:So where did you hear this?
Monnica:I don't know. Some commercial. I told you. They, like, did a spoof on the song.
Brad:Okay. Boys to Men.
Monnica:That's what I wanna listen to. Hey. What are you excited about?
Brad:I'm excited about recording another one of these tomorrow or Saturday so I have it
Monnica:Okay.
Brad:Done for Rome, and I'm excited about our second half together.
Monnica:Me too.
Brad:Same time next week?
Monnica:Same time next week. Thanks for being here.
Brad:This is season two transmission 10.
Monnica:Over and out. No. Over
Brad:and out. Roger will go.
Monnica:Raker. Raker. Breaker.
Brad:Rubber ducky.
Monnica:I don't know. I said Raker. Raker. Breaker.
Brad:Breaker. Breaker. Rubber ducky.
Monnica:Nobody under the age of 40 would have any clue what you're talking about.
Brad:You think so?
Monnica:I don't think so.
Brad:This is another one of those references.