RideShare RoadTalk: Conversations In Motion

You're My Bourbon Swilling Lesbian Friend

• Foundation Digital Media

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The ride begins with a clean car, an open window, and a quick laugh about the lingering scent of the passenger's last ride—then slowly opens into something deeper. 

Some social chemistry can make the city feel alive. By the time we pull up, we’ve figured out a pretty solid way to move through the world—curious, kind, and open. If you’re into bourbon, DC restaurants, immigrant food stories, or the simple joy of a good conversation, this one’s for you. Tap follow, share, and drop a quick review!

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About: Foundation Digital Media | Kuna Video

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to another episode of Rideshare Road Talk, Conversations in Motion, a podcast where we create unfiltered talkspace that examines the meaningful lives of my passengers while engaging in personal and topical discussions. I'm your host and driver, John Fondis, and we're cruising the streets of Washington, D.C. Buckle up. Let's drive. How are you?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm good, man.

SPEAKER_00:

Good, good, good. You know?

SPEAKER_02:

And it smells decent. Oh my god. Okay, the last car I had smelled like cigarettes. And you know when you leave clothes out too long? And it gets that moldy smell in the washer? You know what I'm talking about. People people have that odor. Okay. Alright.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I smell nice. That's good.

SPEAKER_02:

It's like so it smelled like mildew and cigarettes. And then he asked me, Do you want the windows in?

SPEAKER_01:

I was like, Yeah, just crack it, please. Just crack it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, you want the mic drop moment?

SPEAKER_01:

What's up?

SPEAKER_00:

I do this for a podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

You do this for a podcast? That's all I do.

SPEAKER_00:

I come down twice a week. I have this podcast. It's like a combination of DC tourism and talk-space therapy. It's the craziest thing I've ever done in my life.

SPEAKER_02:

Therapy. Oh man, are you an emotional fella?

SPEAKER_00:

I can be.

SPEAKER_02:

I feel it.

SPEAKER_00:

I make people cry.

SPEAKER_02:

I know. I feel it. Um I actually beard groomed. Just like how it's groomed, it's like, okay, if you had the connecting with the chops and the beard like separated, that's like tough guy energy.

SPEAKER_00:

Is this your husband or boyfriend?

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, no, no. It's a friend.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, you're my spirit animal already. Just letting you know.

SPEAKER_02:

I have a lesson.

SPEAKER_00:

You and I are like, Well, perfect! Perfect.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah, we could totally check out ladies together.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no pretense uh drink on me.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, nice. I love it. That's excellent. Man, if we had an extra ticket, actually just a poetry reading, um, you would have been totally invited. I wish we were going to a club because I would kidnap you.

SPEAKER_00:

Want you to listen to the podcast at some point. I'll give you the name and all that. All right, my stay in touch. It is the most fascinating study in sociology. It trumps any master's level degree you could get.

SPEAKER_01:

It's I believe you can.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a good everyone's got a narrative.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think it's a good idea. And if I can coax it out of you. No, you don't ever coax anything.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, not you, but I mean, there are some introverted people in the world for sure. Wait, not you.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean your average Joe. Not whatever ridiculousness I just felt so close to. It's a matter of two minutes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You're my bourbon swelling lesbian friend.

SPEAKER_02:

I just had bourbon earlier.

SPEAKER_00:

Say? That's gonna be the title of this episode. We just had a big one. If you'd like to be on.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, man.

SPEAKER_00:

What's uh what's your favorite uh bourbon? What do you like?

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know. Like I can be anything. I know. It's not a quiz. I know, I know. Okay, the one that has like a deer.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, don't you dare say Breckenridge.

SPEAKER_02:

God damn it.

SPEAKER_00:

That would have been really creepy.

unknown:

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00:

However, Breckenridge is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02:

I think I just have to see the logo, my guy. Does it have a deer logo?

SPEAKER_00:

It might. Maybe it's a mountain. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's a deer.

SPEAKER_00:

It might be.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a good. They have like different classes and stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

What's your what's your friend's name?

SPEAKER_03:

George.

SPEAKER_00:

George. George, Google Breckinridge Bourbon. What's the what's the label?

SPEAKER_02:

No, I I didn't. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

See, George is feeling left out of the conversation. I feel guilty.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's fine. I'm I'm the extrovert here. He's he's gonna be so entertained. We did this last week. I made friends with the DJ and the bartender, and then the next day he's like, I had a great time. And I'm like, you know what? Yeah, it was Tuesday night.

SPEAKER_00:

That's awesome. Um wait, Lincoln Theater. Who's there tonight?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh Jesse Reya. She is a songwriter, but then she also does spoken word. She wrote a poetry book. So we're just okay, okay, okay. I'm an old person. I don't know who that is. It's okay. I honestly I just go on random adventures.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm uh again, spirit animal. I love it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00:

I I'm trying to relearn that.

SPEAKER_02:

You're trying to relearn to be so open? You are open.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I mean, just to kind of try. The world is your stage and just.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah, especially when you see there's a lot of under stuff that you're like, whoa, how did I end up here? And you're just just go with it, man.

SPEAKER_00:

You know where I went the other night for dinner, and I had probably the best old fashioned I've ever had in my life.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00:

At uh Shoto.

unknown:

Oh!

SPEAKER_02:

I know where that is! It does have a great old fashioned.

SPEAKER_00:

It was like it was, I guess their Japanese, whatever it was. But it was almost like the orange peel was frozen inside of the ice cube like like amber, like Jurassic Park.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00:

So as it melted down, the aromatics of that would kind of dilute into the water. Sensitive? No, I'm just descriptive.

SPEAKER_02:

No, man, that takes sensitivity. What the heck are you talking about? Sensitivity doesn't mean you cry every time. Sensitivity just means that you are um sensitive and you're heavily impacted by slight things. That's sensitivity.

SPEAKER_00:

I like that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, people always associate it with like the act of crying.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it's like a gluten intolerance. I'm just sensitive the other way.

SPEAKER_02:

You're just like you notice the small things, and that is sensitivity. That's important. Yeah, but not everybody. Like I I go outside and look, smells like winter. And then how do people live 30 years without like understanding there's like sense to different like um weather, like the seasons?

SPEAKER_00:

The precipitation and all that.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. And all like you just not smell air.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, hold on one second. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, who's bestie calling us?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, that's my son, Basil.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, can we talk to your son?

SPEAKER_00:

No.

SPEAKER_02:

How old is your son?

SPEAKER_00:

He is 18, senior in high school.

SPEAKER_02:

Let's not do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We still gotta be strict. Okay. 21, you you can be like, what yeah, my other kid's 20.

SPEAKER_00:

He'll be 21.

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, no. 23, you could be yourself. But 21, you're like, you're creeping them into like, oh, this is how Pops really is.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, they know, they know. They get like, they get like Yeah, they get like 50% like no peaks every now and then.

SPEAKER_02:

23, you get to be yourself. And then when you're like yourself, well, I'm 31 now. I feel like you're 12.

SPEAKER_00:

What are you talking about? You're 35.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm Asian, Asian no raisin. It's okay. Until we hit a certain age, and then that's so funny. Then it was just downhill.

SPEAKER_00:

It's all the omega 3 and 6. It just is.

SPEAKER_02:

It is. I but I think Asian people just live. I don't know. Maybe it's the rice cooker, giving those extra energy.

SPEAKER_00:

Maybe um, I try to really, I don't preach, but I try to just lay it out for my kids, like the simple pleasures of life. It's so easy to go through with this wide.

SPEAKER_02:

Like 21, I'd be like, shut up, man.

SPEAKER_00:

From like old guy perspective, right? I just turned 57. And so when I mean simple pleasure, I mean like playing golf with a caddy, a walk unobstructed.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Or a hot razor shave, like old school, where you think you might get whacked, but you know, with the actual straight razor shave.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, simple satisfactions over life.

SPEAKER_00:

Little tiny simple pleasures like that. That's because we're you know, a sip of a bourbon and a good conversation.

SPEAKER_02:

100%, just meeting good people.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't need the dun dun dun dun dun again.

SPEAKER_02:

I just saw your car and I was like, you're here?

SPEAKER_01:

We didn't have to walk. You know how excited I was? Talk about simple pleasures of life.

SPEAKER_00:

There was a magnetism. I was being drawn in to that radiant wherever that cul de sac was. It was a little sketchy for about a half second time.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it was gonna jump you.

SPEAKER_00:

I was like, eh.

SPEAKER_02:

You were like, I can handle message.

SPEAKER_00:

If I was if I was writing the script, this is where I would wake up missing a kidney, would be in that kind of an environment.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It had nothing to do with your race, by the way, George. No, no.

SPEAKER_00:

That was just the general how long have you guys lived in the city here? Or do you?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I live near Dulles Airport. Oh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, we can't be friends. You're in Virginia.

SPEAKER_02:

I know, I know. It's a terrible thing. I'm very not Northern Virginia. I've got Northern Virginia taste, but like people say my personality is vile.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, it's not Nova, I know that.

SPEAKER_02:

I know, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

It's not that.

SPEAKER_02:

I know. But I do have pretentious days. I'm just like, mmm.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm picking up like San Francisco.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, people think I'm a beach kid a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

San Francisco, but like a Vegas transplant thing.

SPEAKER_02:

Like you're ready to roll. I like it. I like what you smell in there. Where are you originally from?

SPEAKER_00:

Here.

SPEAKER_02:

DC.

SPEAKER_00:

Born in DC, grew up part of DC. Grew up in like Rockville, Bethesda area. Went to school in Florida, came back, never left.

SPEAKER_02:

We got the Florida and beard.

SPEAKER_00:

The what?

SPEAKER_02:

The Floriden beard.

SPEAKER_00:

This? No, no, no. This just breaks up the monotony of my face.

SPEAKER_02:

You didn't get that from Florida? You didn't get inspired by Floridians?

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, no. When I was in Florida, all I did was to do drugs and not study. That's all I did.

SPEAKER_02:

What undergrad? Did you go to undergrad there?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh yes, it was Lynn University. Um, which I mean it's like between West Palm and Lauderdale, mile from the beach. There was nothing happening there.

unknown:

Oh.

SPEAKER_00:

Education-wise. Who was at the Warner tonight?

SPEAKER_02:

Is that why you're very your brain is very open because of the drug?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think so. I don't think so. I just think it's my curious nature.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm just I'm just asking. Maybe you had a spiritual awakening, you know. They used to do that in the old days, is they get plastered with drugs to have a spiritual awakening.

SPEAKER_00:

Full disclosure, someone tried to convert me like two rides ago to being a born-again. Oh I was like, I'm good.

SPEAKER_02:

Were you conveyed? Were you persuaded?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I mean the lady, she was very nice.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, she worked at the World Bank, she was from West Africa, I think Ghana, I think.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Schooled in the UK.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Very intelligent. Great conversation.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And then she just asked about me and my background, and I don't know. All of a sudden she thought it was okay to bring me in.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, yeah, I don't think it works that way. In their tree.

SPEAKER_02:

In their perspective, that was love.

SPEAKER_00:

I guess.

SPEAKER_02:

I know. I know. Well, coming from immigrant parents, they display love terribly. Um, but we're here. We're alive.

SPEAKER_00:

My my immigrant parents uh spell love F-O-O-D.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, same. Food. Yeah, they don't apologize, they cut you up through.

unknown:

Got you.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you know what it is? I mean, I mean, and uh see honestly, it my families are from Greece and from Italy.

SPEAKER_02:

And they each say apologize in food all day.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, I had no chance of being skinny. That's one of the episode names of one of the recent episodes. Yeah. Oh my god. Um I can cook too.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no, you have to! Yeah, otherwise it's an insult.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct, right.

SPEAKER_01:

Um it doesn't even matter if you're a man in those two cultures. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I couldn't all I grew up just hanging out with my mom in the kitchen, just bullshitting. Um, but like the hold on one second. We're getting lost in the conversation.

SPEAKER_02:

Not in translation, but he said we are getting lost, or you are getting lost.

SPEAKER_00:

Um that mentality, like both were occupied during World War II. They fled those countries to come seek a better life.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So the the the grand women, the the mothers and the grandparents, when they came here and assimilated, they never forgot what they went through. And so they realized that every day isn't promised, tomorrow can be taken away. And so, in the moments where you have, you give, and you eat, and you celebrate life because the next day isn't promised. And that's why stereotypically Italians overfeed their families or Greeks. That's the that's the core essence of it.

SPEAKER_02:

And like on top of that, I somebody asked me.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like I'm going up a wrong way street here, but I'm gonna go with it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Someone asked me like why I love to cook so much, and I feel like cooking, especially like my cultural food, so I'm Filipino. Like, I feel like closer with the ancestors. Like, as crazy as that sounds, there's something ancestral, like on the act of cooking.

SPEAKER_00:

You're second Filipino this evening, by the way.

SPEAKER_02:

Who?

SPEAKER_00:

You're the second Filipino in the car this evening.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're everywhere. We like to populate. We travel in packs.

SPEAKER_00:

That's true.

SPEAKER_02:

You see a group of Asians all the time, like we travel in pack. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

But here's the question the other person couldn't answer. What makes Filipino cuisine Filipino? Is it is it is it a certain protein? Is it an aromatic? What makes it Filipino by by definition? Compared to say Korean or Japanese? What's the what's the core ingredient that makes it such?

SPEAKER_02:

It's like sweet and savory. It's like found a lot throughout the Filipino, like cuisine that's native. And like like the sour and peanut butter, but I do notice like a lot of it is in terms of like preservatives, because not a lot of people have refrigerators, so they'll dry their fish often. Like the things that we cook in and like vinegar is things that can be stable outside the fridge, too.

SPEAKER_00:

Good point. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

So like a lot of the cuisine some people think that like it's not really fresh, and I'm like, yes, like yes, our fish could be fresh if you like live through it, but like a lot of things like trans like grasses into like how the the livelihood could it be outside of a fridge.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Now see, I I find that fascinating. Because certain cultures are like that, absolutely. Yeah, you don't have an ice box where you're gonna learn how to preserve your food.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh-huh. So, like, some of it's like soury taste because it's like vinegar and sweet because of this, like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Sweet savory, sour is like the most flavored product.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you have family back in the Philippines?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you go back often?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, last time I was 16, so it's been 15 years.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a brutal plane ride. It has to be.

SPEAKER_02:

It is. Um, but I went to Spain um earlier this year. Okay. Sorry, I'm traveling. I just haven't been to uh the motherlands in a while.

SPEAKER_00:

Spain seems like a cakewalk compared to being on a plane to the Philippines. Oh, yeah, it was great.

SPEAKER_02:

I was just chatting up um with my like the person who sat next to me. And apparently me and her were talking so much. Her husband moved seats. Her husband requested to move seats because we're chatting too much.

SPEAKER_00:

That's the best.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, and then I don't know why. Like the the lady.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I know why.

SPEAKER_02:

No, the Air France. Okay, we only get one little bottle of like Chardonnay, okay? The Air France is like included. But she was just like, the lady's like, hell have another one. And it just like was free. They were just still giving us and we're still chatting up. Um, but yeah, man. I think the best compliment I got from an Uber driver was it's like, you have this weird like gift that you feel like talking to an old friend.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm like, Yeah, that's a life skill.

SPEAKER_01:

That's the sweetest thing we've ever heard of. That is life. George Hyundai's so sweet.

SPEAKER_00:

See, George is the one I'm I'm interested in. George has nothing to say, but he's got everything to say. No, there's a story there. There's a story there, George.

SPEAKER_02:

I will say that, George.

SPEAKER_00:

See?

SPEAKER_02:

So if I feel like you end up in adventures because you don't mind getting dragged into nonsense. But like it's not just me. It's like different people too. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you both compliment each other, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02:

I like how you said we are getting lost here.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we are together for this short time, so you know.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not the pilots here.

SPEAKER_00:

Start I know it's either Howard or Lincoln where they're doing some like jazz thing now. Like a jazz club. Something.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but they've been doing that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It's in um it's at a restaurant and it's the downstairs speakeasy thing. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, a lot of places in DC are like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm like, we gotta eat separately.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, here's a I like doing this, I call them like Uber dates, where you get downtown somewhere, I'll park the car, and then we just do like some Uber blacks to a place for appetizers. Like Shoto, go sit at the bar and have like the little the taco, the sushi tacos are fucking nuts, by the way. They could be$50 a piece and I'd still pay for them. Um and then bust out of there like rock stars, have a drink, and then go to like some other place for an entree, and then go to some other place for dessert, and then another place for a nightcap or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_02:

When we hung out last week, I was.

SPEAKER_00:

You're moving.

SPEAKER_02:

You're so cool.

SPEAKER_01:

You're like me.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm just saying, I don't need one giant meal at one place.

SPEAKER_01:

I want to go around and just No, but we make the most interesting people. People love us, man. Because we notice spots, we take them to kidnap, and then they just have the small time.

SPEAKER_00:

Have you been to Balos?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

I fucking love that place. Those are my people, man. That's as close to actual, like real, authentic Greek food as I would send anyone.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, now I know I'm eating the good stuff. I haven't had someone vet it yet. I just love it. I just haven't had the second dairy, like, hey, I know Greek food.

SPEAKER_00:

Octopus is spot on. And the chocolate cake. Weird combo. Just roll with it.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, okay, hey, I'm down.

SPEAKER_00:

Let me do a quick little U-turn.

SPEAKER_02:

Man, the princess treatment is so strange.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my god. Man, if I actually did this to do it, I'd be like, yeah, you're just get out of here.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. A lot of people just do it to do, and that's okay. They're just living life.

SPEAKER_00:

No, they're not. They're just making honest money.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, it's honest money, man.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, sir. We're coming in.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't you know we're in DC? He don't care. Look at him, throw his hands up.

SPEAKER_00:

Alright.

SPEAKER_02:

Alright, thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Cool. It was great chatting with you. You have the name of the podcast?

SPEAKER_02:

Alright. So I got up until and then I tried to look for it. I couldn't find it. So I'm on Spotify.

SPEAKER_00:

But if you go to my website, there's a link for the podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm still gonna stalk you later. Please do.

SPEAKER_00:

George. Good talking to you.

SPEAKER_02:

Good talking to you. George, release me.

SPEAKER_00:

Stick your hand in there. There you go. Cool. Have a great time, guys. All right, thank you very much. Have a good night. Thank you for listening to this episode of RodChair Road Talk. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, we'd love for you to review the podcast on your favorite listening platform like Apple or Spotify. Your support helps us so much, and don't forget to reach out on Instagram with your feedback or topic suggestions. Until next time, let's drive.

Head Shot

John Foundas

Host