We trade college stories and current-life updates with Scott’s old roommate Bones, then veer into what arbitration really is and why it feels nothing like TV courtroom drama. The conversation zigzags through 1970s music, knees that will not cooperate, California’s complicated history, whale spouts in Bodega Bay, and a limo job that ends with a rock star reveal.
• turning a busted Pinto armrest into framed “art” and what people project onto it
• what an arbitrator does and why “private judge” is the simplest definition
• why arbitration rarely produces funny stories and the one oath moment that lands
• a college job selling “half a cow” and the slogan that still kills
• testing 1970s song lyrics knowledge and arguing about deep cuts
• a Whidbey Island weekend with matcha French toast and brunch nostalgia
• knee injury mysteries, torn meniscus talk, and getting back to running
• plant breeding history, diversity, and uncomfortable ties to eugenics in California
• whales spouting in Bodega Bay and the fine art of prattling
• a “Joe Garcia” limo pickup that turns into a Steve Perry story
You need an arbitrator, give Bones a call.

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We start with garage-life banter and accidentally wander into Frank Lloyd Wright, Aldo Leopold, and why certain landscapes make us feel more alive. We end with a surprisingly practical story about building a tiny contract R&D company that helps pay for med school and sets the stage for early self-driving tech.

• half-story houses, attics, and the strange logic of real estate listings
• Taliesin and building on the brow of a hill
• Aldo Leopold, land stewardship, and the Wisconsin savanna idea
• whether conversations can be graphed and why Poisson shows up
• Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini and refusing unpaid beta testing
• garages as storage for deferred projects and “suspended dreams”
• Seattle versus San Francisco light, color, and messiness
• Sea Ranch, seasonal mood shifts, and the relief of sun
• why meadows feel like home and forests feel like introspection
• “make it real” as a rule for poetry, storytelling, and improv
• BlueSky as a place to release thoughts without dumping them on family
• Triple Vision, contract R&D, and early freeway car detection systems
• med school logistics, pickups at HCMC, and the calm of being late together

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We start with a real question hiding inside a joke: what anxiety looks like when you’re good at covering it up. Then we wander through photos, music, engineering, bad gadget design, and the strange ways our parents’ lives quietly steer our careers.
• Podcast anxiety versus baseline life anxiety
• Describing tree-ring images and lichen wall art as forest design
• Acoustic treatment ideas and turning decor into function
• Macro photography versus photomicrographs and choosing lenses under weight limits
• Arctic tundra textures, color, and making prints you can swap out
• The career question: who we’d be without our parents’ jobs
• Growing up around community music, sound booths, and engineering projects
• Why microwaves and touchscreen cars have terrible user interfaces
• Choosing ecosystems and land over medicine and money
• PCC breakfast sandwiches, free samples, and the Fremont troll detour
• Big-picture idea of salvaged wood and local wood economies

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