Horse Milk Drunks

YYZ starts as a random question and turns into the kind of ride that reminds us why we talk to strangers at all. One minute we’re nerding out over a Rush song and airport codes, the next we’re comparing “math brain” and “art brain” while swapping stories about a nine-year-old who wants to do animation through coding. We get real about creativity, burnout and the need to get drunk on horse milk.

Transcript

Welcome To Rideshare Road Talk

SPEAKER_02 0:11

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

Why YYZ Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:36

And why it is YYZ.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

YYZ is two things. It's the airport code for the Toronto Airport.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Oh, Canada?

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Uh-huh. And there is a rock band who's one of my favorite bands of all time, and they have a song that's called YYZ.

unknown 0:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

And so if you if you knew the band, you would I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

What type of band is that?

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Uh it's called Rush.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Rush, no.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Yeah. Um. Anyways, one of those silly things where you get- I know Smokies.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Who's that? UK? Like the UK band? It was smoke Smoky or Smokey's?

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Like, see?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

I'm teaching me something too.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

It was, I think.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Um what kind of music is the band you're referring to?

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Like that. I'll meet you at midnight. Do you remember that song?

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Oh gosh. You're gonna have to sing it for me. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

I have a nice voice, so I don't know. I can look it up on YouTube right now.

A Kid’s Path From Art To Code

SPEAKER_02 1:39

We'll do uh what's the uh carpool karaoke. That's so funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Yeah, and then actually my daughter, she's she likes she likes she's very artistic. She goes to art school on Bethesda.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

She's only nine. Oh wow, but she says she wants to do animation.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Like coding through coding. Of course, yeah. Yeah, drawing, and then I say, Well, I don't understand that. And she says, I'm gonna have a lot of money. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Yeah, I mean, coding really does make the world go round, and it's in everything AI and computer chips and everything. It's very smart.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Because I'm a mathematician, I'm like a straightforward person. I'm like, do your math, do your math, let's do math. Of course. Well, I said, if you want to be doing coding, you need to be good at math too.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

You do.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Because it needs some math.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Yeah. But there is there is a certain amount of creativity with numbers too, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Um I'm always amazed by people who have that left side brain with mathematics. I find that so fascinating. Um I'm horrible at math. You know, basic finance stuff, fine, but yeah, anything beyond that, it gives me a headache.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Um, but it's also imagination.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

It can be, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yes, it's creativeness, yes. Yeah, especially when you look at different geometrical shapes. Yeah. You need to find out the area or perimeter or whatever the things.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

The ratios of two things. Of course.

Loving Physics Until The Math

SPEAKER_02 3:18

You know what my curse is? Is that I'm fascinated by physics. Oh, yeah. Like quantum mechanics and things like that. And when it's explained to me as a lay person, I find it so engaging. But once you actually get into the quantitative math, I was like, oh my god, stop. Yeah, because physics is very related. Oh my god, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Calculations. Um But that's physics is also fun. It's it's I don't know, it's it's so beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

I think so too, yeah. I must have missed that year at school when maybe astrophysics is also good.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Astrophysics, like the body.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

There's a couple of like Carl Sagan. I used to love reading Carl Sagan, because he wrote very complex theories for the average person, like myself, right? As far as all the average, yeah, um, but anyone that can ignite your passion about something that you're uncomfortable with and and uh so smokey is this one, it's very old.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

It's like like I don't know. I like this. You know this?

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Is that smokey Robinson?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

No, it's it's smoky. Smoky smoky, yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

I like it.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Oh it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

It's kind of there's like there's like a little Italian, there's like a little Greek in there, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

This is UK.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Yeah. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Okay, yeah, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

I love it.

Music As Creative Fuel

SPEAKER_00 5:05

I mean, it's nice.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

You know, but with my work, you know, I'm right brain, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

And so, but when I get burned out, uh-huh, you know, you have to recharge your battery, right? Because you run out of using, you know, creative side of your brain. You need ideas and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

So what I've found music helps.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

It does, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Um when is your birthday?

SPEAKER_02 5:33

My birthday is uh May 6th.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Okay, six. Oh, six is yeah, six, you are uh a creative person. You're Venus.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Well, you already know that. You cheated.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

You're Venus. Six.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

You cheated.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

And you like everything beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Well, sure.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yeah, and you're like partnerships, right? Like you're but some people they work alone, like they they like working alone, but some people very good at you know working together with uh I I think I'm in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

I think I'm in the middle. I like collaborating. I like collaborating, but I do like that process of working through something individually as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Um do you speak any other languages for interesting?

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Barely. I mean a tiny bit of Greek.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Um not a lot.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Yeah, my father's family was from Greece.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

From Greece.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

And my mother's family was from uh from Italy.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Italy.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, so I can cook.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Yes, you can cook, definitely. Mediterranean.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Where are your family from?

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Uh I'm from Kazakhstan.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

We are next to Russia. Of course. Yeah, you know Kazakhstan, right? Yeah, so my husband from Istanbul.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

Okay. Very beautiful, very beautiful country.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Yeah, he's he likes he likes cooking too. He does. He does, yeah. Salads. Yeah, that is um that's a very interesting part of the world.

Kazakhstan Food And Horse Milk

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Right, where Europe meets Asia, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:15

So back home in my country we eat horse meat.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Do you really?

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yes. Well, it's like ever a horsemeat is actually it's very it's lighter than beef and um lamb.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

I can probably see that. But lamb for sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Lamb can be very because horse horses are very picky.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

They're very muscular too.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Yes, they're muscular, picky, and they don't eat anything like uh trashy stuff. They also they don't even drink if water is not clean, they don't know. Interesting. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Okay, so I'm familiar with like basics of French provincial cooking.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Tougher, tougher cuts prepared slowly.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Uh-huh, yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Is it similar?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Similar, something like that, yeah. For one, two hours, like simmering it.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

But I can't imagine like doing uh hot and fast on a grill would be effective for for a horse. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

And we also drink horse milk too. No. Yes. And it's it's so good. Nutritious.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Okay. I'm gonna be very you should visit Kazakhstan. Yeah, I'm gonna be very ignorant for a moment. It never occurred to me that horses had milk to begin with.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Yeah, they have, they do.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

That's so funny.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Horse milk and uh fermented horse milk is also alcohol.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

So you really get dizzy like tipsy, like you know, when I was a kid. And also, you can't do it. You can you can drink it and it is not it's fermented, right? Oh my god. And it's not bad for your health because it's healthy. And um actually, as a matter of fact, it helps for TB, you know, disease TB. Of course, yeah. So some people when they get that, uh if they drink that fermented milk, horse milk, which is what we call kummus, okay, they get better. Huh. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

You know, and and this is the beauty of random conversations. Yeah, yeah. We learn something new every day.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Um I love Italy too. You know, when I came to the United States first in my life, for the first time in 2007.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

To Massachusetts, Boston. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Sure. What school?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Uh Brandeis. Of course, yeah. Yeah, you know Brandeis University, yeah. So my you know, there is a like uh they were families that a family that assigned to you. So they like we call it host family.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

So my host family were uh Italians, so loud, so fun, so helpful. I love them, I still love them, and I'm still friends with them. Yeah, they're so nice.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

You know, obviously, yeah, it it's a stereotype, right? But you know, it is a very vibrant culture, very vibrant culture, very passionate, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Very passionate, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

I know some words like eat, uh, manja manja, yeah. They would always tell me manja, manja. I'm like, what eat, eat.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Every now and then I'll I'll talk to my dog in just very little bits of Italian. Like, you know, Signor Buddi, andiamo, you know. Yeah. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Yes. I I picked up some Italian, actually. I love Italian. I know.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

So was that uh that experience with the host family? Was it uncomfortable at first or were you fairly optimistic right from the get-go when it wasn't awkward or uh the host family were this whole I mean I don't know, like I was I was between Jewish family and Italian.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Okay. And I thought, well, Jewish must be boring. I don't know to Italian.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

I don't know, then you get the right family. I mean, they're all pretty fun.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

And one of my friends said they got Jewish, and then they got like, it's so boring, we don't do anything. I'm like, yeah, I knew that.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Orthodox Jews, I'll give you that. But uh yeah, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

And no food, barely. I'm like, yeah, I knew that with Italians, it's fun. Yeah. Oh my god. And they're from the south. Um tell me what kind of places are there? Down south? Yeah, down south.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Um you have uh Napoli? Napoli, yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Yeah, she's from Napoli.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Lots of people from Naples.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

She would say yeah. Big family. Yeah, my mother's mother, brother, sister, cousins, everyone. And then at some point, they're like, Let's marry you. Like, let's go! They were trying to marry you off, really?

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Yeah, oh my gosh, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah, around the corner there isn't family. Maybe we should introduce you to her. I'm like, well, and then one day she's like, Well, he has a girlfriend already. He's taken. I'm like, oh that's fine.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Everybody slow down.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yeah, that's very similar to our culture too, a little bit like and Turkish too, I think. Well, these people are all Greek and they're so how to say warm, you know. They they they love this life. Yeah, very passionate, very passionate, yeah.

Warm Cultures And Cold Stereotypes

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Yeah. There's some cultures that aren't like that, like Russians.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Well, I have friends. I you know what? I have some even family members who are Russians. So, like my sister-in-law, so they are so cold. So they don't even smile. Uh I was several times in Russia, in Moscow in particular. So St.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Basil's? You've been there? In Moscow?

SPEAKER_00 13:55

No, I was in Moscow, yeah. I was in Moscow, and then there is no one even to if you if you are lost, no one will give you directions. Because everyone is seems like busy and uh unfriendly, you know, so you're like, what?

SPEAKER_02 14:14

You know, I haven't been, but I've heard the exact opposite is is true of like Japan.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Is it the same thing? No, it's the opposite.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Like they will go out of your way to help you. Like I have a friend that went and they got lost, and there was a gentleman that helped them and got on the train with them an hour the other direction of where he was going. Just to help them, and then wound up like inviting them to his home for dinner a couple days later. Like that kind of communal. I love hearing stories like that.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Yeah, but Russians are not like that, but um Russians and the Germans, and maybe Jo yes, Germans. I was in Munich, and uh I also got lost again, and I asked, I did I couldn't find any single person, and then I finally found someone. I asked that, and then that gentleman, um apparently he's he was Turkish from Turkey. See?

SPEAKER_02 15:12

I see where you're going.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Yeah, it's like I said, oh my god, okay, now I you know. Like, so it's interesting. Yeah, Japanese people are nice, yeah. They're very loyal. Well, maybe not all of them. Again, you know, uh among Russians you can find good people too. That's a stereotype, for sure. But majority is like that, yeah. The general picture.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

I don't go late at night. I don't want the drunk crowd, right? You know, I don't want the horse milk drunks in my car. I just don't. Sorry. You can bring your you can bring it in. Them no.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yes. I you know what? I heard that uh in Germany they started selling horse horse milk. I don't know how. Maybe they export it. I mean they imported.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Respectfully, I'm just I'm just not gonna try that. I'm just not.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

You'll just have to let me know.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Which is um interesting how so in Italy, anything or Greece, tell me, like um something that not mainstream food, like something Oh, this is disgusting.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

My dad? Oh my god. Like for Greek Easter, which is you know orthodox is just a couple weeks later, right? Like uh they just don't believe in the Pope. Everything else is the same. Um traditional lamb on the on a spit, the whole thing, right? Um he would take the eyes and eat them. Eyes is but he would put the eye in his mouth and then walk around the whole party and be like tap you on the shoulder and go ha ha ha ha ha. And then he would like and then ch Oh, it was so disgusting. It was so disgusting. I don't think it's like a delicacy, but some people do that. Well, typically like uh in Jewish culture, tongue, yeah. Yeah, and um also I don't know. Japan and China have a lot of stuff that I wouldn't touch like.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Yeah, oh my god, yes. Like um snakes, right? Snake. I've had I've had rattlesnakes.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

They I think they do eat, right? Some cockroaches.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

I've had a grasshopper before.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Well, that's okay, grasshopper, but how about uh cockroaches similar.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

I mean, I haven't had it, but you'd think, I think. They can't be and also they eat, I think, an ants, like ants, like I don't know, maybe special kind, or is it regular? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

You know, to be fair, you're you're ruining my appetite for dinner tonight.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

No, well well, like French people frog.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Right, escorgone, no thank you. I get it, not for me.

Italian Comfort Food Done Simple

SPEAKER_00 18:14

But I like when I first came to the United States, I was I wasn't ready to eat everything because it's very uh different. No, no, different, right? Let's say. So the only place that I would go was Italian restaurants. Sure. There was like on campus, there was this Italian oh, I like it's very good.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Yeah, well, you can there's certain there's certain dishes that you could strip down to two, three ingredients and keep it very simple for your palate.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah, um italic. Olive oil. That's it's simple. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

I always I gravitate towards a um like an olive oil-based sauce more than a red sauce, just for that simplicity. Um a little fresh parm, a little olive oil, uh, some garlic, then toss.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Fine.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Okay, now I'm hungry again. I've recovered.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

That's okay. I'm just never gonna live.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

You live in Bethesda.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

No, I used to.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

You used to beautiful place.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

I used to live right here on uh Bethesda. Uh in Woodmont, on Woodmont Avenue.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

In the 90s. I loved it. You know, single, had a nice little apartment, lots of stuff going on. Now it's a little too, yeah. You know, the the it's the personality conflict I have with people.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Yes. Sometimes you have to.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

People can be a little entitled down here.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Yeah, we used to live in Bethesda over there, but now we live where you're driving in. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

A little bit more residential, a little less high-rise. It is nice to be able to get out and walk to whatever you need.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Yes, because there are a lot of why I I am asking, but there are a lot of restaurants here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Always has been.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Yeah, always has been. Yeah. A lot. Like very nice.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

Yep. I miss that. Like I'm entrenched in the suburbs, and the options are limited, and even when you do go, it's all kind of just corporate, like I could see myself moving back into an area where it's high density like that. Just for that reason.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

You can drop me off some way here.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Oh, okay, sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Um, let me just get over here by this by the bus stop.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Thank you so much. Um thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

It was lovely chatting with you.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Yes. Have a good month. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Everyone struggles with it. Oh, yeah. There you go. Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

It's hidden.

unknown 21:08

Woo!

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Thank you for listening to this episode of RodChare 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.