It was an early morning in Indiana.
Steven, 18 years old, was on his way home from an overnight shift at work. Around 6:30 am, he got into the first car accident of his life – a minor fender bender – and was exchanging information with the other driver.
He had no idea that his second crash, a much bigger one, was about to happen.
Music credit:
Industrial Cinematic by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3909-industrial-cinematic
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Episode transcript (download transcript PDF):
911 Operator
- What’s the location of your emergency?
Man 1
59 northbound. It looks like we’re at marker 207. I’m not involved in it but there’s a car at the side of the road. There’s someone laying in the street.
911 Operator
Alright. What is your name?
Man 1
(Hidden information)
911 Operator
All right. What’s your callback number?
Man 1
(Hidden information) There’s a semi sitting back there. I was gonna go back and check on him, but there are people back there at the side. It looks very dangerous. He’s laying right outside his open doors.
911 Operator
It looks like we have help on the way out there. Okay?
Man 1
Okay. All right.
911 Operator
Thank you
Scott
You remember the movie Saving Private Ryan? Came out in 1998, starred Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, and some other big name actors. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Really incredible movie, one of my favorites.
The first several minutes of that film is a graphic war scene. It’s June 6, 1944, which is known as D-Day. US soldiers are coming in to Omaha Beach, and they are immediately under a lot of fire. Bullets flying by everywhere.
I haven’t watched this movie in years, but there’s a brief scene that stuck with me for some reason. One of the soldiers there is in the heat of the battle, and he gets shot – in the helmet. The helmet literally just saved his life. This is the first time he’s been shot, and you can see he is amazed at what has just happened. He takes off the helmet to look at the spot where it was struck by the bullet. He’s clearly thinking, wow – I just got shot and this helmet saved my life. And while he’s holding the helmet in his hands, another bullet hits him in the head and immediately kills him. The essence of this really brief scene is that he was in awe of the first thing that happened, but what happened next was much bigger and much worse.
That’s kind of the underlying theme for what happened with my guest today, Steven. He’s a teenager, and recently he had his first car accident. It was a minor one – just a little fender bender. But it was something he hadn’t experienced before, so at that moment, while he was exchanging information with the other driver, it seemed like a pretty big deal.
But he had no idea that the REALLY big thing was about to happen.
Scott
I know this just happened a few months ago. How old are you?
Steven
I am 18. I turned 18 on January 2.
Scott
When this happened, you were a senior in high school and you had just started a job, right? You were brand new on this job.
Steven
Yeah, I was literally, like, fresh off the conveyor belt – like, 3 days in.
Scott
What was this job?
Steven
I worked at an Amazon warehouse. It was very exciting. Actually, it was a lot of hard work, which I really enjoy. I was ready to get into it. I was very excited for the new job that lasted 3 days.
Scott
Do you know if they are going to take you back when you’re ready when you’re able to work again?
Steven
They said that I can reapply but depending on how I feel. I don’t know if I will just because it’s a lot of hard labor. After all the injuries, it might be hard to go back.
Scott
Yeah, you got to ease your way back into it. So, you were actually working overnight.
Steven
Yeah, I had night shifts at Amazon, which were from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning. So, it was a pretty intensive shift especially for me being my first real job. I was just not used to that night shift.
Scott
So you were on your way back home after getting off work. Was it still dark then?
Steven
Yeah, it was still dark. It was around 6.30 in the morning, so the light was just coming up but it was not bright enough at all for me to see much.
Scott
So you’re going down Interstate 69 in– what’s the big city in Indiana? South Bend or Indianapolis?
Steven
It’s Indianapolis. It’s close to Indianapolis. It was closer to my small town of, like, Hamilton County, but it’s close to Indianapolis.
Scott
So you got into a little fender bender with another car. How did that happen?
Steven
Because I was so new to having a night shift, I was starting to get a little drowsy at the wheel. Thankfully, the worst thing that happened was the fender bender coming out of that. I was a little heavy on the gas when I drive, I’ll be honest, and that didn’t mix well with the fact that I was drowsy. So, I kind of tapped her. Thank goodness, it was only a bit of a tap. She was definitely going the proper speed limit and I was just a bit too fast and tapped her.
Scott
So you both pulled off the road. Were both of your cars off the freeway?
Steven
Yeah, both of our cars were, I think – or mine was 4 feet off and hers was a foot off the white line. Thank goodness, my father taught me right – he taught me to turn on my hazards whenever I get out of my car, so I turn the lights on. Then, she did the same. It was the first accident I had ever gotten into, which was a blessing because it was such a minor one. So I was sitting in my driver’s seat and freaking out because I was like, “Oh, no, I really hope I didn’t just destroy the back of this lady’s bumper.” She came over to the side of my door, tapped my window, and she was like, “Are you okay, hon?” I was like, “Oh, thank goodness. She’s so sweet.” I was afraid to just get, like, chewed out by someone and she asked me if I’m okay. I explained to her that it was my first few days and I’m not used to the night shifts. I was so glad that she understood me so well.
Obviously, because of the accident, I had to exchange information with her, which is normal with every accident that happens. So, I went through my glove box and grabbed the proper stuff. She went back to her car to grab what she needed. So, I got out of my car and walked up to hers. Her window wasn’t working because her car was a bit older. So, the window just didn’t work. She was like, “Here. Just come over to the side of the door.” So, I was sitting there and talking with her. We exchanged information. Then, we were just, kind of, shooting the shit for a bit because we both work at the same place, so we’re both talking about it.
Scott
She’s sitting in her car with the door partly open. Is that right?
Steven
Yeah, just a bit because of her window not working. You blinked and you miss it – a semi-truck smears me against the floor, like, instantly. I didn’t even know it was going on. It was the most shocking thing I’d ever been through, unsurprisingly.
Scott
Did you see it coming at all?
Steven
The lady who I had a fender bender with saw me look at it and my last words would have been, “Oh shit!” Then, it hit me. So I had no time to react to anyone.
Scott
So what did the truck actually hit?
Steven
The truck hit a mixture of my right side and her door. So the door of her car got pretty mangled – it wasn’t insane but you could tell it had been hit by a semi. I was right there, like, at the door, so it hit me perfectly square, I think, either at the shoulder or the back.
Scott
And this was a full-size tractor-trailer?
Steven
Yes. This was an 18-wheeler hauling some big cargo. It was as weighted down as you can make it.
Scott
It’s amazing that it’s even possible you could survive that.
Steven
Yeah, I’m very lucky. I had done research after I learned what had happened to myself. When you hear about someone getting hit by a semi, normally there’s an obituary afterward. For me, it was just so insane that I actually lived. From what I remember from some pictures I have that the police had given me, I had just dropped. I didn’t even get, like, flown. It just, like, floored me. Obviously, the truck driver stopped because he had assumed that he hit someone. So, from the second I was hit to when she called the police was 11 seconds, which was astonishing. She was on it.
Woman 1
Oh my god. Don’t move! Don’t move! Please help me. This kid hit me from behind and then he came up to my side, and a semi hit him when he was at my door. He hit on my door!
911 Operator
Take a deep breath.
Woman 1
Oh my God!
911 Operator
Take a deep breath, ma’am. Where are you at?
Woman 1
Oh my god. Could you see where the mile marker is right there? (Inaudible)
911 Operator
Take a deep breath, ma’am. Are you northbound or southbound?
Woman 1
Oh my god. I’m going northbound.
911 Operator
Okay. Are you on the 307?
Woman 1
I’m on 69. Oh my God! We need an ambulance!
911 Operator
Tell me exactly what happened.
Woman 1
I worked at Amazon. I was coming home. Anyone on the phone with 911? Are they coming? Oh my god! Oh my god!
911 Operator
Ma’am, tell me exactly what happened.
Woman 1
I was coming from Whitestown and I was coming on 69 and– (groaning in the background) Oh my God. Stop moving! Don’t move, please!
911 Operator
Okay. Did somebody get hit by a vehicle?
Woman 1
He hit me.
911 Operator
Okay.
Woman 1
He fell asleep as he was driving.
911 Operator
Okay. So it is a car crash?
Woman 1
He ran into me. Yes.
911 Operator
Okay.
Woman 1
After he pulled over to the side of the world, he was coming up to give me his information and he was gonna go.
911 Operator
Okay. I’ve got help coming. Just stay with me.
Woman 1
Okay.
911 Operator
What’s your name?
Woman 1
(Hidden information)
911 Operator
Okay. Take a deep breath for me, okay?
Woman 1
Oh my god. Please God.
911 Operator
I got help coming.
Woman 1
Oh my God, please…
911 Operator
Take a deep breathe for me.
Woman 1
Please don’t move. Please don’t.
911 Operator
Where’s that male at?
Woman 1
He’s right at my driver’s door.
911 Operator
Okay. Is he still there?
Woman 1
Yes.
911 Operator
Okay, are you able to turn your hazard on?
Woman 1
It’s on. My hazard and his are on.
911 Operator
Okay. What car are you in?
Woman 1
I’m in a white truck. He was in a white, like, SUV or GMC or something. Oh my God. Honey, please don’t move.
911 Operator
Is he awake?
Woman 1
Yeah, sort of.
911 Operator
Okay. Did the semi stop?
Woman 1
Yes.
911 Operator
Are you guys at the right shoulder or the left shoulder?
Woman 1
Right shoulder.
911 Operator
Alright. Oh my God, man.
911 Operator
Is he awake? Is that male awake?
Woman 1
I’m on the phone with him right now.
911 Operator
Is that male awake?
Woman 1
He is. He is trying to move.
911 Operator
Alright. Do not move him unless they’re in danger, alright?
Woman 1
(Speaking in the background)
911 Operator
Listen to me. Where is he at?
Woman 1
We’re outside the driver’s door.
911 Operator
Okay. You drive a white van. Is that correct?
Woman 1
No. I drive a white truck.
911 Operator
Alright. So he’s in front of the white truck? Is that correct?
Woman 1
The GMC is behind my wife’s truck. He is the driver of the GMC – the person on the ground. I don’t even know his name.
911 Operator
Okay. You did the right thing. I got help coming your way. I need you to be here with me. Okay?
Woman 1
All right. Oh my God. Holy Jesus. Oh my God. (Siren in the background) He was coming up on the pass and he slammed right into the back of me. We pulled over, and he walked to my truck. Then he was at my door when the semi hit him. Oh my God! Help him!
911 Operator
Are the officers there, ma’am?
Woman 1
Yes.
911 Operator
Okay. I’ll let you go, okay?
Steven
So it hits me and I went on the ground and passed out for – I think was – about 5 or 10 minutes. Then, finally, as I was coming to– I had no idea what happened. I was just laying on the ground and like, “I fell over? What’s going on? I went to pick myself up but my arms just do not support any weight. So that’s the first sign of like, “Oh, something bad happened.” Thankfully, I was in such intense shock that I didn’t feel anything at that time, which was just the biggest blessing because I’m sure that I would have passed out again if I could feel anything at that point. So, I was on the ground. I couldn’t get up. I was very confused, so I just start looking around.
Because my glasses flung off, I couldn’t see anything, so I was just looking for, like, lights or anything I could see. Lo and behold, that’s when the police officer arrived on the scene. He assumed that I was dead because I was on the side of the road and a semi-truck was in front of me. He walked up to me and he went, “Are you okay, son?” I just looked up to him and went, “Oh, good evening, officer. How are you doing today?” He was like, “Oh, goodness.” He was very surprised, as was I. He did the standard thing the police officer does – he checked me to make sure that I was not, like, dying, literally. He was like, “Are you okay? Can you feel anything? Do you know what’s going on?” He basically just calmed me down so that the paramedics can get there and start assessing me to see what’s up, which was awesome of him because I was sure that if I knew anything was going down, I would have freaked out. So, he was just making sure I was alright for the first few minutes.
Then, the paramedics got there and they did their thing. They cut off my clothes – which sucks because I had a really nice shirt on – and made sure that I was okay. At that time, I had no idea what’s wrong with me, so I was just gonna let them do what they need to do. They assessed my damages. They flipped me over onto, like, a gurney. Then, they put me into the ambulance, which was probably about 5 or 10 minutes in real-time. For me, it felt like an hour of them just feeling me and making sure that I was, like, breathing. By the time everything had been said and done, I was in the ambulance when the pain started to kick in because I was calming down and starting to, sort of, catch my bearings. I was like, “This really hurts. What’s going on?” He went, “Oh, that hurts?” I went, “Yeah,” and he went, “Don’t worry. Give it, like, 5 seconds.” I went, “What do you mean?” Then, I woke up 2 weeks later.
Scott
So what was hurting? What kind of pain did you have?
Steven
The pain came mostly from my back, my arms, and my leg. A lot of the injuries that I sustained are very visible on my body. You can see where the bones inside of my arm had been broken. You can see on my left side where my bone had come out of my arm and how it had basically torn up the entire side of it. My entire pelvis was fractured – I mean, it was in two or three pieces at the time. The lower part of my back had been broken as well.
Scott
That’s a lot of bones. Have you ever broken any bones prior to that?
Steven
No. It was my first time. I really dived into the deep end.
Scott
It’s interesting. You say that the fender bender was the first time you’ve ever been in an accident – good thing it was a minor one – but, boy, you had no idea what the major one was about to happen.
Steven
Yeah.
Scott
So both of your arms were broken. Your back– you had some ribs broken as well?
Steven
Yes, I think I had broken – I don’t remember exactly – a couple of my lower ribs.
Scott
And your pelvis and your legs. One of your big injuries was particularly your right leg. What happened there?
Steven
We don’t know exactly how it happened. Somewhere during the accident, my leg was taken off at first below the knee. Through surgery, it ended up becoming an above-the-knee amputation just because of a lot of complications and how dirty the cut was because it wasn’t a prepared amputation. So, it just ended up becoming an above-the-knee.
Scott
So your leg was actually severed at the time of the accident.
Steven
Thank goodness, it wasn’t clean. The main artery that runs through my leg was the only reason I was alive because it didn’t break – it just stretched. If that had broken, I would have been dead by the time the police got there. So really, that was, like, a one-in-a-million shot.
Scott
How do you think that may have happened – your leg being severed? Did the truck ran over it with one of the wheels? Do you have any idea?
Steven
I don’t know exactly. There was a lot of, like, AI simulations that they ran to try and guess but we don’t really know. My guess and my father’s guess – because my father drove trucks for well over 8 years – was that the stairs on the side of the truck hit me directly in the leg and it just took it off.
Scott
Was the other driver of the other car injured at all?
Steven
No. She was shocked by it like anyone would be, but she was fine. Otherwise, really, it was just her car and me that got injured. Thank goodness, too.
Scott
So your car wasn’t damaged?
Steven
The back tail light of my car that was facing the road shattered, but that’s it. It just barely tapped it, we assume.
Scott
So you were brought to the hospital and put into a coma for 2 weeks. Do you remember any of that time?
Steven
I remember near the end of the 2 weeks because that was when I was really starting to begin to wake up. I just remember being awake for, like, 5 or 10 minutes at that time. Then, every time, I would blink and I would have a dream. I would pass out for, like, an hour every time I just closed my eyes and it was the worst because I dreamt I was at work. It was never a good dream. It’s just like, “Why am I back at the warehouse? What’s going on? I guess it’s my shift now.”
Scott
Can you describe coming out of the coma?
Steven
It was slow in the beginning. When I first started coming to, I think the person that realized that the most is my father because he’d get about 30 calls a day from me, telling him what had happened to me. I basically woke up and forgot everything that happened to me. When someone would tell me, the first thing I would do would be to call my father and tell him. Then, I’d fall asleep, wake up, and repeat ad nauseam. It wasn’t really the accident that I was doing that. It was more just the medicine they were giving me. I still haven’t seemed to have any form of brain damage from it – thank goodness. It was just a lot of the intense pain meds I was being given that would basically just, kind of, give me a memory wipe every time I fell asleep.
Scott
Talk about when they told you about your leg.
Steven
I remember waking up, sort of, for the first time in a while and feeling, kind of, there. Every time I would wake up, I remember feeling a very intense sense of not understanding what was going on or where I was at all because the lights were always off in my room. I just had no idea what was going on. This lady walked in and she was like, “Good morning, Steven.” I went, “Hello. What’s going on?” You could tell she’s been through the works with me because she came in and had, like, the script ready. She was like, “You’ve been in an accident. It’s currently–” I forget exactly what day it was. It was about two weeks after May 4. So she was like, probably, something along the lines of like, “It’s May 28. You’ve been in an accident. You’ve broken a lot of bones and you’ve lost your right leg. So you’re here at the hospital.”
She kind of just breezes past it. Because of that, I kind of just didn’t catch it the first time. When she was done talking, I went. “Did you say I lost my leg?” She went, “Yes, son. You lost your right leg.” I went, “No way!” I flipped over the blanket, looked at it, and I went, “Oh, I did.” The first thing I do – because I was finally awake and I got told what was going on – was I called my dad. He was like, “Hey, buddy. Are you about to tell me you lost your leg?” I went, “Oh, you already know.” He was, “You’ve told me quite a few times. I already know.” I went, “Well, yeah. That’s what I was calling to tell you.” He was, “Okay. How you feeling?” I was very sick. In the beginning, I had a lot of infections in my leg just because of the accident, so it was hard for me to eat and it was hard for me to, like, keep anything down just because I always felt so sick. Thank goodness, I did wake up at some point, though, because there was a chance my family told me that there was a big chance that I wouldn’t.
Scott
I guess, when they put you into a medically induced coma, there’s always that chance, I suppose, but you have youth on your side.
Steven
Yes, I do. When I was in high school, I had gone on the fencing team, so I was rather fit at that time. My body wasn’t in perfect condition, but it had been used to training, so I was healthy. Also, I just started a job at Amazon, so I was constantly on my feet.
Scott
Can you talk about the thought process when you realize that you’ve just lost a good part of your leg?
Steven
My first thought was, “How is this going to affect the rest of my life?” I thought about that for a long time because when you’re very young, you have a naive thought about what the rest of your life is going to be like – you don’t know exactly, but you have an idea of what you want it to be. I was like every other kid. I had this idea of, like, going into college, getting a job, having a family, and all that. This accident kind of tore that all up and made me have to reconsider the entirety of my life. Then, after that, I tried to think about what it was going to be like, personally, because a lot of my friends had been told about the accident while I was out. When I had woken up, it all hit me at once. So, it was very insane to see the idea that my life before the accident had been, like, smashed to what it is now.
Scott
You’ve been out of the hospital for how long now?
Steven
I’d say one or two months. I was in the hospital for, I think, exactly 5 or 6 months. I had finally gone home, like, on September 4, I think. So, it had definitely been an extensive amount of time in the hospital.
Scott
Have you fully processed life without your right leg?
Steven
I still have moments where it’s a surprise to me, but I’ve always been able to take things as they happen. I’ve never really had anything get hung up with me often. Because of that, I was able to, sort of, understand quicker than I think a lot of people would.
Scott
I saw a picture of you in the hospital and you were smiling. You seem like a person with a very positive attitude. Is that something that you’ve always been or have you deliberately trained yourself for that?
Steven
That has been my entire life. For some reason, I’ve always just been able to find the bright side of things. When I was a baby, I’ve never cried. My dad described me as the perfect baby because I would just sit there, eat, watch the TV for a bit, fall asleep, wake up, and do it again until I eventually learned how to talk, then it just went downhill from there. I have just always been able to find the good side to things and I think a lot of that also comes from my desire to be a comedian. Every class clown wishes that they can be on the stage, and I tried it out a few times before the accident. So, I think I’ve always been able to take good jokes, and this was the funniest joke I’ve ever been in ever because I just It’s hilarious to me. I don’t know how but it is.
Scott
Yeah. Can you explain that? If this happened to some people, this would be like the beginning of a long depression. Now, you’re saying this is, like, the funniest joke that’s ever happened. How does that work?
Steven
Yeah. I’ve always been able to make fun of myself. That’s how all great comedians find out that they’re funny – just self-deprecating jokes. When I figured this all out, I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is gonna be great material. I’m the sit-down comedian, not the stand-up one.” So, it was just ways for me to figure out, like, “I can’t be depressed about this. This is too funny.” I also do imagine the future quite a lot. Right now, I don’t have a prosthetic leg, but when I do, it’ll be awesome to have, like, a robot leg that I can walk up and down the street with.
Scott
One thing I wanted to ask you about was what’s the prospect of a prosthetic? Have you looked at different ones? Are there different models? How do you do that?
Steven
We’ve talked with a few prosthesis people about prosthetic legs. There’s still some stuff on my stump that has to heal first before I actually go into looking at them. Nowadays, technology is so advanced that the top-of-the-line prosthetic leg is, like, amazing. There are these types of legs that have pre-built modes in them – there’s one for, like, walking, biking, and driving where you just, kind of, put weight on the back of your foot and it just changes modes for you. So I was very shocked to figure that out because whenever you hear about a prosthetic leg in the movies, it’s like, “Here’s this stick with a bone joint in it. Have fun!”
Scott
Yeah. Now you push a button that goes into running mode and then you hope you can keep up with it. Right?
Steven
Yeah. It’s gonna be more advanced than I am, at this point.
Scott
I read that you tried to avoid pain medication.
Steven
Yes.
Scott
Why is that? Talk about that.
Steven
My family had some trouble with addiction. My mother died when I was 8, which was sad at that time. I miss her. I think I’ve gotten over it as much as you can. She died of a drug overdose, which is a big wake-up call. You’re like, “Wow, this runs in my family. I have to be mindful of this.” So I was always, like, “Don’t give me all of it. If I need more, I’ll talk to you about it. But if I can take it, I’ll take it.”
Scott
Were there ever times when you were in severe pain and you just decided to take the pain rather than take the pill?
Steven
There were times when I was in some intense pain that I was like, “I can do this, but it’s gonna be a rough ride.” When they had first started initially wrapping up my stump, they would knock me out for it. They put me under and changed my wrappings, and then I’d wake up in my hospital later. One day, the doctor was like, “We’re gonna try this without you going to sleep. I just want you to know it’s gonna hurt.” I was like, “That’s gonna be fine.” My dad had finally been able to visit because of COVID restrictions. Yeah, he was gone and away from me for, like, a month or two at least. So, he was standing there with me for the first time when I had ever had to go through this while I was awake. I was being all high and mighty. I was like, “This isn’t gonna hurt. It’s gonna be fine”. They started taking off the bandages – I remember very vividly – and I looked over at my dad, grabbed his collar, and I just go, “I would stab him in the heart and watch the life leave his eyes to never feel this pain again.” He went, “Would you like medicine?” I went, “No, I’m good.” I just I think I’m crazy sometimes for it, but that definitely helped them in the long run. I don’t rely on it as much as I thought I would if I took it that much.
Scott
That’s a good thing. If you can avoid it, that’s definitely good. Do you have full movement of your arms and your hands and your other leg and everything?
Steven
My other leg as well as my right arm are completely fine, but my left arm currently has a lot of problems when it comes to its extenders. Basically, if anything involves moving up on my right hand, it can’t be done on my left. But everything downwards motion works – like clenching fists and moving the wrist down. The elbow is completely fine on that arm. I just can’t move my wrist up or my fingers up.
Scott
And what’s the prognosis on that? Can you have therapy to bring that back?
Steven
They tested it a while ago and it hadn’t been healed yet, so they’re going to give it a little bit more time. If it does start showing signs of healing, they almost let it do its own thing. They have been talking about surgery to get it to start working again if it still shows no signs of healing.
Scott
So you got some possibilities there either way. Any idea on your total medical bill?
Steven
Yeah, I don’t know exactly. I don’t remember the last time I checked. We believe it is in the tune of 1.5 million. It’s shocking. I am literally the million-dollar man right now. I can’t believe it. Thank goodness for insurance because it’s wild.
Scott
Have you ever spoken to the truck driver?
Steven
No. Because of legal stuff, I was advised not to – as well as the lady. They just wanted to make sure that everything had been taken care of beforehand. When this is all said and done, I’ll be able to but, for now, I haven’t been able to yet.
Scott
And I’m sure he’s probably been instructed to not contact you as well. Any other insights that you’ve had from this happening to you?
Steven
A lot of people will tell me, like, “Oh, my gosh. If I was in your position, I don’t know how I would do it.” At first, I was like, “That’s understandable.” It’s a very intense thing that happened to me but, definitely, after living through it, I can say that you get a lot stronger mentally. I think a lot of people could go through what I’m going through right now if they went through it. For me, there’s no chance for me to be able to give up if I wanted to. It’s my life. Now, I got to live through it. If there was a button that was like, “Would you like to give up?” I’d still consider it but, I think after all this, I wouldn’t press it just because I got too many good jokes. I can’t give up this. Are you kidding me?
Scott
What would you think about a What Was That Like podcast t-shirt. Or face mask. Or a hoodie, a sweatshirt, or coffee mug, or a phone case, or even a pillow. Well, all of that is now available at WhatWasThatLike.com/store. You can get all kinds of stuff with the podcast logo, and you know when someone sees that, the first question will be “What Was That Like – what’s that all about?”.
All of the clothing comes in all sizes and colors, so there’s definitely something for everyone there. My plan eventually is to have some designs made for specific EPISODES of the podcast, so you might see some kind of graphic of a plane crash, or an alligator attack. Or maybe just a foot, if you’re a fan of episode 28. Yeah, you know the one I’m talking about.
Anyway, check it all out at WhatWasThatLike.com/store.
And here’s something you probably didn’t know. What Was That Like has a podcast voice mail line. You can call it anytime day or night and leave a message, and you might end up hearing it on a future episode. The number to call is 727-386-9468.
And recently a listener called in to talk about one of the recent episodes, and this was about episode number 65, which is called Brandon Was Dragged by a Horse. And here’s what she had to say:
Woman 1
Hi, I just wanted to call and tell you that I was so happy to hear, I think, “Brandon was dragged by a horse” – the episode before the newest one, the one before the last. Oh my god, I can’t even talk. Anyway, I was happy to hear how well they treated the horses and how much kindness and effort was put into the horses’ health and well-being at the renaissance fairs and stuff. My family and I really try not to go to anything that utilizes animals for entertainment, mainly, based on really terrible punitive practices that they use in order to get the animals to do these unnatural kinds of things to entertain us. Everything really seemed to be about the happiness and the health and well-being of the horses. Then, I remember you made a comment within that podcast or that story where you were saying, like, “It came before the well-being of the people” or like, “You would think that the people came first,” and I totally understand what you were saying because that, kind of, popped into my head too as I was listening.
Then, I was like, “But the horses didn’t really choose to go into that situation. The people are really in charge of the whole circus of it.” I don’t mean it in a mean way, but you get the idea. It’s like the horses are not wanting to go and do these performing kinds of things, so their health and well-being really should be number one. Anyway, I just really wanted to stress and emphasize how happy I was to hear that. That was so awesome. So if you can pass along the message to Brandon, “Thank you so much.” It makes me feel so much better because my husband loves to go to the Renaissance Fair and Festival when they come to town. We don’t go very often – only every few years – because I have such a hard time seeing the horses. So that made me feel so much better. So please tell him, “Thank you,” if you can. All right, keep up the good work! I love, love, love the podcast! It is really remarkable! Thanks! Bye!
Scott
So once again, if you would like to call in your comments, you can do that by calling 727-386-9468. If you can’t write down that down right now, you can also find it on the website on the Contact page. And that number is never answered by a human being, but I do listen to all messages that are left there, and I just might play it on a future episode.
And if you’d prefer a group conversation with other listeners as well as past guests that were on the podcast, just join our private Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook. Really great discussions on there, and we don’t talk politics AT ALL. Maybe that’s why it’s fun.
So that’s a wrap, and I’m gonna go start working on the next one. Stay safe, and I’ll see you in 2 weeks.