Peeved About Pet Peeves, Time Travel Tips, and More with Dan LeFebvre

Dan LeFebvre: 00:00:00

But it was very unexpected. I got the call while I was grocery shopping and I just left the cart there, just walked out and left.

And by the time I got to the house, he had already passed. So it was very unexpected. That was probably the most difficult time of my life.

Danny Brown: 00:00:22

Hi, and welcome to 5 Random Questions, the show with unexpected questions and unfiltered answers. Hi, I'm your host, Danny Brown, and each week I'll be asking my guests five questions created by a random question generator.

The guest has no idea what the questions are and neither do I, which means this could go either way. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode. Today's guest is Dan LeFebvre.

Throughout Dan's career, he's produced hundreds of tutorials covering topics such as productivity and project management, 3D modeling, fluid dynamics, and visual effects. Dan is also the host of Based on a True Story, an excellent podcast that compares Hollywood with history. So, Dan, welcome to 5 Random Questions.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:01:04

Thanks. I'm glad to be here.

Danny Brown: 00:01:05

And your bio I mentioned there, it's really cool. I love that teaching visual effects are part of it. Or vfx, as you mentioned in the green room while we were chatting before recording.

Given your podcast is about Hollywood and how it portrays moments in history, is there an effect in a movie that you thought, wow, that made that moment stand out and really put me in that time and place?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:01:28

Probably the first thing that comes to mind is the twenty-nineteen movie Midway.

They had some really good visual effects that, like, from the airplane's perspective, there was one in particular where there was like a plane dive bombing and you kind of follow it, which I've covered that on my show and that actually happened.

But with visual effects, you're able to see what it's like from the plane's perspective, which is obviously something that you're not going to see in authentic or real footage or anything like that. So I thought they did a really good job with that.

Danny Brown: 00:02:05

Yeah, I can be like, grinding, for want of a better word, or discombobulating, I guess, when an effect is so in your face that you know it's an effect. But the best ones, like you say, like that one, you know, it really takes you in and shows you, you know, a.

What it was like from the plane dropping these bombs and then I guess, what it was like on the ground for them seeing these coming towards you.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:02:26

Yeah, the best effects are the ones that you don't notice or effects, but then you, in retrospect, you're like, well, Obviously, that was an effect that wasn't actually real, but yeah, if you don't notice it right away, then that's a good thing.

Danny Brown: 00:02:38

Well, I always remember when Jurassic Park came out and people were saying, well, and I'm sure it's just like, you know, being stupid. But how did they get real dinosaurs? No, they didn't get real dinosaurs. They didn't actually bring them back to life with this one.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:02:52

And they act so well.

Danny Brown: 00:02:54

Right, exactly. They don't flub their lines or anything, which I've done many a time.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:02:58

They roar on command.

Danny Brown: 00:03:00

Well, and speaking of flight camp, speaking of movies, though, because obviously your podcast, a big part of it is Hollywood and its interpretation. And it's in part of the random questions. We'll get to that very soon.

But I'm curious, of all the movies that you've covered on your podcast, which one would you love to have starred in?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:03:19

Starred in? Oh, wow.

Danny Brown: 00:03:20

Now you don't have to be the lead. You can be like a really cool sidekick that gets all the awards because they put in the great performances. But, yeah, any movie that you've covered.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:03:30

Well, I mean, my favorite books and movies are the Lord of the Rings. And so probably there's a Tolkien biopic that I covered. And I don't know, I mean, I just. I love the worlds that Tolkien has created.

And even though the movie wasn't great, I'll put it that way, but I just. I mean, I love his world. And so I think that being a part of something like that would.

Being a part of helping to bring that to the screen, I think would be amazing.

Danny Brown: 00:04:04

Yeah, I know the actors, when you see the directors cutting and getting views, etc.

The Vogue, you know, it seems such an amazing experience because it was such a big period of what was like five years or something in total from start to finish for the original trilogy.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:04:17

Yeah, it was something like that. And then of course, you throw in the Hobbit series, too, and then that, you know, and then the new one that's coming out.

Danny Brown: 00:04:24

Yeah, yeah. And then the Amazon Prime TV show and all the other stuff. Exactly. Have you been in New Zealand by just out of interest.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:04:31

I haven't. I have a good friend who lives there and he sends me pictures and I really want to go, but I.

Danny Brown: 00:04:36

Haven'T a bucket list. Bucket list. Well, speaking of bucket list, it's my bucket list to have another guest on five random questions. And today that is you.

So if you're ready, Dan, I'm going to bring up the random question. Generator and we'll kick on off. Okay, question number one. Interesting one. To kick off the the show with Dan, question one.

Would you rather be the smartest moron? And maybe change that word. The smartest, not smartest person or dumbest genius.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:05:07

Smartest moron or dumbest genius.

Probably the dumbest genius, mostly because I feel like that would surround me with a bunch of other geniuses and I would get to learn from them and I would never want to be the smartest person in the room. I think that I always love learning from other people, and if I'm surrounded by genius, smarter geniuses, I'm going to learn from them.

Danny Brown: 00:05:34

Well, that's the thing. I know in business especially, everybody sees our good bosses say that you want to have smarter people around you because that's how you succeed.

And that's.

Like I said, I always feel sometimes when these questions pop up, maybe that the wording isn't quite the best, which is why I was trying to correct on the fly there. Let me see if we can, like, because, yeah, I 100% agree. If you can be, you know, surround yourself with smart people, that's awesome.

But that doesn't mean that you have to be not smart. It just means that you know your, your weaknesses and your strengths, et cetera.

Like, I mean, obviously your podcast is very, very well produced, so let's take it to that. This is all done by yourself. You have a team with it, or is it all done by yourself?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:06:18

By myself.

Danny Brown: 00:06:19

Right. But you've, You've worked with teams before, you got vfx, et cetera, where you do tutorials.

Have you worked with teams before where you might have been, say, the smartest person, but people can always come to you, obviously, with the, with, with new thoughts, etc. That you may not have had prior to that?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:06:36

Yeah, I guess maybe I don't, I don't. I don't like thinking of myself as the smartest. I think maybe there are things that I have more experience in than others, but there's.

That doesn't mean that they're not smart. They just have different experiences.

And so, like, speaking of, you know, with visual effects or video, I have a lot of experience in that, but there's a lot of other things that I don't have experience in that I've worked on teams where other people have better experience in business or in other things. And so, you know, I can share my knowledge in the video side and they can share their knowledge in business.

And that, I guess, is what makes up a good Team. But I guess that's where I like being able to learn from others.

And I'm obviously happy to share my own experience, too, but I love soaking in the knowledge of others. So that's why, you know, if I'm around a bunch of geniuses, I'm gonna learn a lot of stuff from them, I would hope.

Danny Brown: 00:07:37

Well, hopefully. I know.

I mean, yeah, this show's not political at all, but I know there's, like, discussions about certain people online being geniuses that may not do genius things.

So it's interesting when, you know, when a term's thrown about being a genius or the flip side of that, does that person actually live up to what the public perception or some part of the public perception is as well?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:08:00

Yeah, I guess I can give an example from my own career experience.

I used to work for Department of Defense for the Air Force, and I worked in a materials lab where I was surrounded by some of the smartest people I've ever known. And they're just insanely smart. And I learned a ton of stuff from them. I'm sure I've forgotten it all since then, but it was.

It was fascinating to learn about elements of. In this case, you know, aircraft and. And engineering and all of this. That is not my background at all, but I just loved learning it.

I just love learning different things.

And so that was, you know, probably one of the best experiences as far as, you know, a job in my career from learning from others, because it was so far outside of podcasting or video or anything like that, where they came to me for that. But they had just this completely different skill set that, you know, they're. They were geniuses. They were insanely smart.

And so I love learning from them, even if it was something that I haven't used since then. As far as engineering, I'm not an engineer, but it was. Yeah, no, I guess that would be the answer to that.

Danny Brown: 00:09:09

Yeah, no, I hear you. It's like my wife and I. My wife and I, even not. Hi. Hi. My wife and I have this conversation back and forth about our kids.

We've got two kids, both teens, so obviously one's in high school, one's going to high school next year. So a lot of it's about education at the moment and learning and grades and all that kind of stuff. And I'm more a fan of.

Grades are important, education is important, don't get me wrong.

But I feel if we can have maybe lessons on being a good person and life skills, etcetera, you know, so economics Cooking, I guess you get cooking in that school, but stuff that you need to actually survive in life as opposed to being a super smart person at algebra or you know, trigonometry. And we have this kind. We don't have an argument. But I wonder, what's your take on that?

Do you have a preference, exact tie back to, you know, do you need to be super smart to be a good person? You need to be, you know, can you be a good person and super smart? Of course you can. But I'm just curious about your thoughts on that.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:10:12

Yeah, I think it depends on how you define smart because you know, there's so many different skill sets and so many different things that people. Elements of knowledge.

And I guess it kind of goes back to, you know, street smarts or book smarts and that element where you can be smart, you can be street smart and maybe not book smart, but that doesn't mean you're not smart, you're just a different type of smart. Right?

Danny Brown: 00:10:37

Yeah, exactly. It's like you mentioned Lord of the Rings there. It's like the, the hobbits and the dwarves and the elves and then the man and etc.

And you know, everybody's thinking, well the smallest person, how are they going to get the ring to Mordor and destroy this evil warlord? Well, yeah, but the little person actually got it done. You know, like the, the country living person is the one that got it done.

So yeah, it's like, you see, there's so many, you know, nuances to what is good, bad, smart, strong, weak, etc.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:11:03

Which again using that example too, who were the ones that took the ring from Sauron to begin with? You know, it was the smart leaders of all the different races that took the ring.

And so were they smart because they were the ones that kind of doomed the entire world and then it was up to them to, it's up to the hobbits to fix it. You know, that's I guess a matter of debate.

Danny Brown: 00:11:25

100%. 100%. Well, speaking of debate, that is the first question down the line. And appreciate that, Dan. Let's have a look at what question number two is.

Okay, Dan, you strike me as a fairly level headed person, but let's find out. Question number two. What is your biggest pet peeve?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:11:46

Ooh, my biggest pet peeve? This might sound maybe like circular logic, but pet peeves are my biggest pet peeve.

I, I feel like pet peeves come when somebody just doesn't understand somebody else. Or they don't, maybe they don't agree with them. And there's a lot of, especially online, you know, there's a lot of people who.

You call them trolls or whatever, but it seeps into real. The real world as well. And I feel like pet peeves are kind of something that gets under your skin. But I mean, it doesn't really have to.

Like, you can be okay with not agreeing.

You can be okay with, okay, somebody else does something that might bother you, but you're probably doing something that bothers them too, and, you know, let's all just get along. And so I don't see. I don't feel the need to call that out, I guess.

And so when people, when people do that, when people have those kind of pet peeves, I guess that just, that's the thing that kind of bothers me. Like, okay, well, you're probably doing something too, and let's just agree that we're different and that's the end of it.

Danny Brown: 00:13:01

Well, that brings me to two things there then. So I. Yeah, pet peeves, like you mentioned, it can be based on our perception and our understanding and our approach.

I was watching a YouTube video the other day, and it was Bill Burr was.

There's a comic online that his whole shtick is bringing other lesser experienced comics that are just starting out, I guess, comedians into, like a stage area and then basically just ripping them, you know, for ripping their act, ripping them, etc. So Bill Burr was on the panel. There's a whole like three, four of them in the panel that judge if you like, the new comedian.

And he stood up and pushed back against this main comedian saying, well, who says you're funny? You know, how come. How do you know this guy's not funny? That just came up and you haven't even let me speak yet.

But based on what your perception is, this is like a crappy, horrible show. Why'd you do that? Why? So that was like a nice sort of example of what you're on about there, where it's pushing back and understanding.

Well, just because I don't find X doesn't mean that Y is wrong, for example.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:14:05

Yeah, I think comedy is a great indicator of that. We all find different things funny.

From my own background in visual effects, in the creative world, that's another element where you look at something creative, you look at. Movies are a great example. We all like different movies, and there may be common denominators, but there's, you know, what's a good movie?

You go to Rotten Tomatoes and look at movies that are rated horribly but you might watch one and be like, actually, I liked it. There's nothing wrong with that. We all just have different tastes.

Danny Brown: 00:14:37

Well, as a Star wars fan, I 100% buy into what you just said there. 100%. And especially over the last few years with the new sequels, et cetera.

Um, you know, just like I've never known, like the Star wars fandom to be so divisive as it is currently. And it's sad to see because, I mean, it should be a celebration, like you say, mate.

You know, it's movies, it's entertainment, it's, you know, it's what makes you feel happy.

And just because you don't like, you know, a character or a plot point that didn't meet your specific why take or why try take that away from someone who is enjoying that plot point or that character and maybe seeing an underrepresented, you know, part of society that's on screen that wouldn't have happened otherwise had this movie not been made, for example.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:15:23

Yeah, yeah, I think. And that's. Everybody wants to have their own opinion.

And if somebody else doesn't agree with that opinion, then some people just get upset about that instead of, okay, other people have different opinions.

You might like the way this character was in this movie or the direction their character arc and whatever, you know, turn that took, somebody else might not. Or vice versa.

Danny Brown: 00:15:50

It's all good. It's all good. The follow up I mentioned it had two parts to this for the pet peeve. So the follow up, I feel where you can have a pet peeve, maybe.

So my pet peeve is dog owners that don't pick up after them. Not after the dog, obviously, not after the owner. That'd be disgusting on so many levels. But yeah, I've got the dog.

And if you're walking at night with your own dog and something happens, you stand in it. Obviously that, to me, that's a pet peeve, which I feel was like a valid one where it can be a pet peeve. That's not a perception of someone else.

But I don't know. How do you feel?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:16:24

Yeah, I could see that. I think that's valid. I think a similar one too.

That could be the whole concept of leave no trace when you're going in parks and such and you see trash around there. I think that's valid. That's a valid one.

Danny Brown: 00:16:40

Thank you. I'll take that as I went. I'm going to put a little notch on my board there, but yeah, that's a good one about the Trash.

I went on a trip to Scotland a few years back and we were in the Highlands and Islands, and we were on like a little sort of minivan stroke tour bus, and the driver was a local that knew all the best places to go, and he'd always stop every 20 miles or so and get out with a trash bag and just pick up trash on the side of the road to keep the landscape beautiful and clean, etc. Which I thought was amazing. It sucked. He had to do it.

But I thought it was amazing that someone wanted to do that because he loved the place he lived in, for example.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:17:13

Yeah, no, I think that's great.

And I think that's something that is maybe a small microcosm of a bigger thing, because you think of any sort of waste or any sort of pollution or trash or things like that, in a much smaller sense, dog excrement could be a form of trash or waste that's left behind. And we have much bigger scale elements of it too. So I feel like that's almost putting it into that same sort of category.

It's bad when it happens, but also that opens up for other people, or hopefully the same person, but for people to right that wrong.

Danny Brown: 00:18:03

Yeah, no, 100%. 100%.

Well, hopefully the rest of the questions and the rest of the answers we are not going to throw to the side of the road and we're not going to class him as pet peeves. But yeah, 100%. I like that one, Dan. So let's have a look at question number three. Okay, I'm curious. Question for you, Dan.

What three adjectives would you use to describe yourself? Wow.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:18:31

I've always been horrible at bios and describing myself in any way, so I'm very forgetful. And man, that's actually a really tough one. That's probably one of the hardest questions. I'm not good at describing myself.

Danny Brown: 00:18:54

Well, I think, as you mentioned, if you're not good with bios and pushing yourself or selling your strengths, it can be really hard to, like, say, come up with one, never mind. Three, right?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:19:04

Yeah, no, I mean, I tend to be very, I guess, shy, quiet, reserved. I guess.

I don't know if those are all adjectives or not, but there's a reason why I guess being a podcaster is easier for me because I'm not going live in front of a huge, you know, public speaking and such. I've done Toastmasters and found that that is not for me. So any.

Anything along those lines, I guess insert any three adjectives that are very Shy and reserved. And it's not an adjective. A podcaster.

Danny Brown: 00:19:46

Be an adjective, I feel describes you as a person, what you do. But it's interesting. You're like.

I think when I speak to podcasters, you know, like this, one of the overarching traits that I find a lot is being an introvert. You know, being shy. Like Tom Webster, who's very well known, obviously, in the podcasting space.

You'd expect him to be confident when you see him speak on stage, etc. At events. He knows what he's talking about, he's got loads of data, etc. But he admits he feels it.

He's so awkward when he goes into events like that and he goes to networking afterwards, he'll be in the corner hoping to spot a person he knows so he can speak to that person for the comfort, as opposed to having to introduce and break the ice, et cetera, of other people. So it's interesting to see how many creators and people in the creative space, whether it's podcasters, et cetera, are shy, reserved, et cetera.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:20:42

Yeah, I think that would be me too. I mean, I've been to many conferences and it is a lot easier to sit in the corner.

I also do like the people watch too, which is fascinating, but I guess I haven't interviewed nearly as many podcasters as you have here on this show, but I could see that it's definitely the case. I mean, it's the case for me.

Danny Brown: 00:21:04

But you think that makes you and you generic. It's not you specifically, but you think that maybe makes you not better.

Because that'd be a disservice to people that aren't introverts in the creative space. More. I don't know, I'm trying to think of the right word here now, maybe more focused on what you're doing at the time.

Because you've not got the worry of people being around. You've not got the worry of trying to send the right thing to someone you're speaking with that's in front of you, etc.

So you can just focus on the content and the story you want to tell, whatever that looks like on your shows. And creative wise, I could see that.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:21:42

Speaking from my own experience, knowing friends, I have friends that are extroverts and they can have a hard time sitting down for as long as I do.

I mean, I can sit behind a computer for 12, 16, 20 hours a day and, you know, really get locked in and focus on something and have no issues with that whatsoever. Whereas others you know, kind of get antsy and have to go out and talk to another human. Whereas I'm perfectly fine not doing that for a while.

So I could definitely see how that then would lead into just 10. That was the mastery, 10,000 hours. Right. Just redoing things over and over and over again.

And you just get better and better and better at that and not breaking that. It's easier to get in those 10,000 hours when you're sitting in front of a computer, doing it for a lot of time, isolated from people.

Danny Brown: 00:22:37

Well, that's it. I mean, you've got.

This isn't a video show, but if the listeners could see your background, you've got a very lovely, well designed studio and, like, it looks comfortable and safe. And I can imagine that obviously helps as well.

If you're introvert and shy, you don't have external pressures, again, because you're in your safe space and you can just sit down and do what you want to do then.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:22:59

Yeah, definitely, yeah.

This set that you see here on the video side is not usually where I work, but yes, there's being able to control, I guess control your environment a little bit more is easier to do when it's, you know, your own environment as opposed to somebody else's.

Danny Brown: 00:23:17

Well, I give you kudos for putting that amount of time in.

I don't get antsy to meet people, but I'm of an age now where if I sit on a chair for more than two, three hours, never mind 20 hours, my bones start to tell me that's not a good thing, Danny. That's not a good thing.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:23:34

Well, to be fair, it's not 20 hours straight. I mean, I'll get up and, you know, refresh the water, the restroom, that kind of thing, but then, you know, get right back to it.

Danny Brown: 00:23:43

Okay. Yeah, I was going to say because that's a good marathon there. That's an awesome marathon on there. But yeah, still again, though, kudos to that.

And I'm going to just throw a little bit pros. And it shows in your podcast. The production quality is always top notch, mate. So it shows.

So it just goes to prove that, yep, you might be introverted and shy, et cetera, but what you're putting out in the public face is good for everybody.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:24:07

Well, I appreciate that. Thanks a lot.

Danny Brown: 00:24:09

You're very welcome. Let's move on and see what question number four is.

I think I've had similar to this before, but I like this question, so I'm going to keep it for you. Dan, question four. If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would that be?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:25:39

Change one thing. Wow. Wow.

I mean, there's so many various wars and things, but because there's so many of them, I don't know that changing one of them would make that much of a difference. Not to get too. Well, I don't know about changing it.

I was going to say, not to get too religious about it, but I've always thought it would be fascinating to go back in time to witness pretty much any, any of the major moments in Jesus's life because his. Whether or not you, you're a Christian, whether or not you.

You believe, it's undeniable that he's had such a major impact or his followers have had such a major impact over the millennia. And so it'd be fascinating to go back. I don't know that I would. This almost goes back to the Leave no Trace.

I've watched too many movies where people go, like, I just watched Back to the Future, introduced my daughter to Back to the Future. And the whole concept is you're ruining everything by changing things in history. So I don't know if that would just.

That would just cause such a butterfly effect, which is another movie. But that would cause, you know, so many unknowns that I don't know that it would make it.

Make the world a better place by changing anything by, you know, so many people say going back in time or. And taking out baby Hitler or something like that. And despite all the horrible things that that might.

Might fix, it might make things worse because there might be somebody else that picks up that, you know, picks it up and is a known name that is even worse. Who knows, right? I guess I would love to go back and observe history, but I don't know if I would change anything.

Danny Brown: 00:27:27

That's a really good answer. I like that. And like you say, it's that paradox, right? You can go back and you can make that one change.

And you said yourself there's so many movies that show, you know, the effects of that.

Family Guy did an amazing episode when Huey and Brian went back in time and all the things they had to sort out when that happened, it was just crazy because it's doing. On a butterfly or whatever.

But yeah, it's like you say it's like it's hard because you might be doing good by stopping the first World War from happening and all the damage that did. But then if you do that, does that then create an issue for the population there?

Because now that person that was responsible if you like, for most of the stuff that went on, or the assassination, if you stop the assassination, the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand and it stops the first World War from happening, something else happened because that person that assassinated him no gon assassinate someone else. That causes untold chaos elsewhere, right?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:28:25

Yeah. I mean, yeah. Would. Would that even stop it? I mean, that's what was kind of the trigger that. That caused it.

But tensions were so high that maybe some other sort of event would just trigger it anyway. And then you've stopped this one thing but didn't stop the war overall or.

Yeah, that's one of those things where I feel like I would love to go back and witness a lot of history, but I'd probably leave no trace. And I don't know that things would be better by changing any of it.

Danny Brown: 00:29:00

So flipping that a little bit just right of center. So completely agree. And changing bad things might make things even worse, but stopping something for good. I know it doesn't sound different.

I'm getting there. But let's see you go back down. Let's see. You're a massive fan of Buddy Holly and he died in that plane crash after the Winter Concert.

If you could go back and stop Buddy Holly, Richie Valenson and the Big Bopper from getting on that plane and they continue, would that be worth doing to see what.

Because they were really just getting starting kick starting their careers at the time, then they were just about to be huge, I guess, and then they got taken away. Would it be interesting to see how their careers would have gone? Or would that have maybe stopped others from taking their place?

Because now Buddy Holly's here. So you might never have had Elvis, you might have had the Beatles, that kind of thing, you know, So I don't know.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:29:49

Yeah, that's. That's a tough one. Fun fact, my best friend is actually a distant relative of Buddy Holly.

But yeah, that, that might be something that would be worth changing. Like one of those.

you change this, this is what: 2025

Because then you get a much better indication of, okay, this is the. The right thing to change. Like going back to the movies, back to the future. Right. And Back to the future 2.

I think it was where Doc is like, oh, I already went into the future and figured out everything stems from this one event where he gets put in jail and that triggers a chain reaction. Right. So he already kind of figured a lot of that out.

So if I could do something like that, of course, well, maybe a bad example because things still go wrong about the future.

But if I could kind of figure out, okay, this is where that one thing happens and then, yes, things actually will be better, then, yeah, I could make some changes then, yeah, that's a doable one.

Danny Brown: 00:31:18

It does offer the ethical side of it. Then do you change it to your own satisfaction and it ruins it for other people? It continues. It just never ends then. Right. It's like.

Well, it's like that. I think Reacher, Not Reacher. Justified, a TV show I watch, it's based on Elmer Leonard books for Raylan Givens and that. Love the TV show.

And there's a. In season five, I think, or season six, there's some bad guys, and one of them was in Iraq, I think, doing a tour.

And he got shrapnel on his head, so it's giving him some brain damage. So he can't speak quite as freely or think quite freely. And he's trying to process what would happen if he had to kill someone he's supposed to kill.

Because if there was a witness came by, then he'd have to kill that witness. Well, what if another witness came by? Now you've got to kill that witness and it's just. It never ends.

if you could see what happens: 2025

Or now is there something else happen because of that, you know, preferred result initially, if that makes sense.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:32:27

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's kind of what I was alluding to of being able to see what those changes are.

I don't think it would be a good idea to go make changes willy nilly without knowing what it's going to affect. Because, yeah, things could be worse or it could. Yeah. Cause this chain reaction of you're going to have to.

If you do this, you're going to have to do this and do this and do this and do this. And that is the plot point of so many movies where they try to do one thing for good. And then it's, well, now you got to do this.

Now you got to do this to cover it up. You think of things like Breaking Bad or Ozark, where it's like things start off where he's trying to do something good.

He's going about it the wrong way, but he's trying to do something good for his family. And then things just get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse.

And before long, I mean, you have a great TV show out of it, but I don't know that that's a good ending.

Danny Brown: 00:33:21

It's not a lesson you want to teach. Kids say, well, look after your family, and this is what happens. Right? No. Yeah.

Well, speaking of, you know, going back and not going back and change things, one thing we can't do is go back to the four questions we've had so far, and we're not changing them anyway, because I love your answers, Dan. So perfect. But let's have a look then. The final question for today's episode for you, Dan.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:33:44

Thank you.

Danny Brown: 00:33:44

Question number five. Question five. What was the most challenging time of your life?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:33:53

Ooh, okay.: 2018

Danny Brown: 00:34:04

And it was. Did that come out the blue then? It wasn't like an illness.

I know sometimes it's never easy when someone passes, but if you're aware ahead of time, it maybe makes it easier, for want of a better word.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:34:16

Yeah, well, he had cancer, so I guess. I don't know that. I mean, I guess eventually. I mean. Well, eventually we all do, but it was very unexpected.

I got the call while I was grocery shopping, and I just left the cart there, just walked out and. And left. And by the time I got to the house, he had already passed. So it was. It was very unexpected. It was.

That was probably the most difficult time of my life.

Danny Brown: 00:34:50

And I've not lost a parent, so I can only imagine how that felt at the time. Does it make it. I'm going to try be respectful here. Does it make it easier if your parent was suffering? You said he had cancer.

Does it make it a little bit easier that that's now not hurting him anymore?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:35:13

Yeah, I could see that. I think, being removed from it by many years now, I think I am glad that he didn't go in a way that was much worse. There could be a lot worse ways.

I mean, he passed away at home, so there definitely could be a lot worse ways. It was just such a shock and such a. I mean, anybody who has lost a parent or a loved one, you know, it's a difficult time. And it was a very.

It was a very difficult time, for sure.

Danny Brown: 00:35:49

And you have, like, do you have siblings? Yeah, yeah. How. How do you like when something like that happens? Was your mum still alive then?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:35:58

Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah, she's still alive now, yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:36:01

Was it then not up to the children? Because obviously everybody's very close. Everybody's, you know, it's a particularly loved person. It's gone.

Did you feel like you and your siblings rallied around your mum, your mum rallied around you? Everybody's together. How did that.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:36:17

Yeah, so I. I live in Oklahoma, and my parents lived in Oklahoma at the same time, too. But the rest of my family was kind of spread around the United States, so I was the closest one who could drive there, which is what I did.

I didn't make it there in time, but everybody else then came pretty much immediately. One of my brothers came, drove that night, drove across the country that night and ended up coming.

And then we helped with all the paperwork and all that kind of stuff that happens with my mom. And then the rest of the family flew out and helped. They lived in a country house, you know, way out in the country.

And so it was too much for just my mom to handle on her own. So we helped her pack up and move and all that. So we all. We all did come together and rally around her, for sure.

Danny Brown: 00:37:08

And I know you mentioned it was obviously, obviously a challenging time of your life.

One of the things that I find often is when you have something that is challenging, that's had such an impact on you, you know, it can give you lessons, if you like, afterwards, and how you approach life, how you approach moments, because you can't have them any more with that person, but how you have moments with other people that you may not have had, did that change your approach at all as to being there in a moment of time, so to speak?

Dan LeFebvre: 00:37:42

Yes, I do. I do think so. So I can give two examples just off the top of my head that I know it changed.

One was to not be afraid of saying I love you to the people that you love, and to say that because, unfortunately, last time that I did see him, I'm not really sure if I actually said that to him right before leaving. It was just another day. But one thing I did do before, and this is the other lesson, is don't put things off.

So, as a podcaster, I have a plethora of microphones, as I'm sure we all do.

And I always thought my show being based on a true story with movies, I always thought it would be fun to do kind of an episode with my parents based on a true story. My life. What is the story of my life? And so I was going to interview my parents and kind of get a. What was, how did you guys meet?

How you know, were each of my siblings born and all of this and interview, interview them. And we kept postponing it and postponing it and, you know, something would happen or, you know, work or whatever.

There was a million reasons that things got postponed. And then one weekend I was like, I'm going to come up and visit and I'll bring my equipment and let's just do it.

I mean, they had some stuff going on. They're like, well, should we really. Maybe we should just do it the next weekend. It's like, no, I'll just bring the stuff. Let's do it.

So I interviewed him on Saturday. We had so much fun and ended up continuing into Sunday and got hours of just family history. And then he died six days later.

So there would never have been that next weekend. So I didn't know it at the time, but that really was like something that instilled in me. Don't wait.

Just take advantage of the moments that you have because you don't know if you have tomorrow.

Danny Brown: 00:39:40

No. And especially in today's fast paced world, we're always on whether it's online, doing stuff like this, work, whatever.

It always seems that we have much less free time than we may have had 10, 15, 20 years ago.

I think that's an amazing legacy that you got to chat with them as well about where you came from essentially, you know, what is my background, why am I who I am, you know, so that's awesome. Have you released that? Do you plan to release that or.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:40:10

So at the time, he passed in: 2018

I was recorded about a month ahead of time, so there was about a few weeks. I had to kind of figure out what I was going to do. And I ended up putting the show on an indefinite hiatus.

And as part of that, I explained to my audience why. And then I released part of that interview with my parents.

Then as I kind of read his obituary and, and, and mention that, and I haven't released the whole thing, I've shared it with my family, but there's a lot of personal stuff in there that I don't know that I, I don't know that they would want that out there public. I don't know that I would want that out there public. But I definitely shared it with my family, for sure.

Danny Brown: 00:41:06

That that's amazing. And I guess it kind of ties in a little bit. As to your.

Your previous answer about going back in time and changing something was like, well, you can change certain things, but there's other things that you can no longer change and fix afterwards because one person isn't here to ask you, hey, I really didn't want that out there. So it's good that you have that.

You know, obviously what you want to share, what you don't want to share, which is you can't ask for more and your parents can't ask for more, I guess.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:41:33

Yeah, yeah. And once you put something on the Internet, it's out there, you can't bring it back.

Danny Brown: 00:41:40

I cannot grow up today, mate, as a teen.

Like, I, my wife and I try educate our teens on the perils of being online, but we don't want to stop them either because they'll just go anyway and do it anyway. I'd rather be able that they can trust us to come and ask us stuff and then we can hopefully, you know, guide them and lead them properly.

Like obviously your parents did with you and your siblings. Yeah, I hear you on that, mate.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:42:02

Yeah, yeah. It's a difficult thing. And sometimes I guess that's something that, as with any kids, they gotta learn with experience.

Hopefully that experience is not too bad, but hopefully it's something that will help them learn. Like, oh, yes, this is out there forever and maybe I should be a little more careful.

Danny Brown: 00:42:21

100%. 100%. Well, Dan, we have reached the end of your time in the hot seat and thank you so much for sharing your answers. Really appreciate it.

As is only fair, because you have spent that amount of time in the hot seat, it's now time to hand over the question and baton to you, good sir.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:42:36

Okay, well, let's say you're given the budget to direct any movie that you want. What is a quick synopsis of your movie?

Danny Brown: 00:42:47

That's a good one. Because, like, I've got so many tastes in what kind of movies I like. I feel like I'm a big history buff.

I love history and I love stuff about the first World War, funnily enough, because that was my history, my main history class at high school. I had an amazing teacher, history teacher, who really like new stuff, obviously, but really made you passionate about learning.

So I feel if I had unlimited budget, I'd love to do something that ties in and I think you mentioned it earlier, maybe even pre recording about Your approach to the Pearl harbor, you know, part of history. I think I'd like to get and really film one of the backstories that led to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and all that came from that.

But really, you know, make it a real period timepiece so there's no, you know, it's use materials from the time. Right. Use technology from the time, if that's the right word. You know, really make it a lived in.

If you think of like going back to Star wars and the visitors of Star wars fans, a lot of people, whether you like the news movies or not, most fans agree that andor the TV series was the best thing that Star wars have done for a long time. And part of that was the fact it was all done live on location with live sets, live action, etc. As opposed to loads of blue screen effects, etc.

So I'd love to do something like that, but for the lead up to the First World War and that period of time and everything that was going on.

But try make it, and this is going to sound crass and I apologize to historians everywhere, try and make it like a spy thriller where they're trying to race against time to stop this guy because they know it's coming. And then maybe even tie into your answer from the last one. Someone has the opportunity to take a shot. Does he? I don't know. Something like that.

That would be my interesting question. I think that's where I would go with that one.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:44:47

Okay. Have you seen 27 days or 37 days? I can't. Well, this is where my forgetfulness comes in. I have to look that one up.

It's about the, basically the assassination and then the spiral effect that led into World War I. It's a little, I think it was a BBC. Was it BBC miniseries? Maybe it wasn't BBC, but look, look it up. That'd be interesting.

So would you end with the assassination or would you. Would that be somewhere in the middle?

Danny Brown: 00:45:17

Yeah, that's a good one. I mean do you open with that and then go back? I don't know. That's a good one. I've.

This is why I'm not a movie director or a script writer etc, but yeah, I feel. Because how many people know about the, the origins as well. Right.

And how it started as like I, I feel certain generations have different history lessons based on, you know, where you are now. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But I also feel that because of that sometimes older history can get lost.

And it's just as important because it's let us where we are today. So I don't know, maybe open with it like a really short five minute.

Hey, let's get you up to speed because we know what audiences can be like trying to, you know, keep their attention and then get into that sort of, sort of spy thing or whatever. I don't know. I'll have to think about that. And maybe I will send you a script you can read, mate.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:46:11

Sounds good. Well, if you get that made, let me know and I'll cover it on my show because that would be fascinating. I'd love to see it.

Danny Brown: 00:46:16

I would definitely give you first rights, mate. First exclusive rights.

So, Dan, I really appreciate you coming on the show today and I really enjoy chatting to you and hearing the answers to your five Random questions.

For anybody that wants to check out your awesome podcast, get to know more about you online, check out some of the tutorials that you mentioned or I mentioned in your intro. Where's the best place to connect with you? Check out the podcast, et cetera. All the good stuff.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:46:40

Yeah, podcast is at basedonatruestorypodcast.com you can find everything there, including how to contact me. My tutorials are not there. You can find those over on my company site, that's lefebvre llc. But you can find all that over there.

Danny Brown: 00:46:56

And I will be sure to leave all these links in the show notes as normal. So if you're listening on your favorite podcast app or online on the website, just make sure to check out the episode show notes.

The links will be there and it'll take you right through. You can check out Dan's podcast tutorials, any other thing you do, and maybe even reach out to him and pitch him a script.

So, Dan, again, thanks so much for appearing on today's five Random Questions.

Dan LeFebvre: 00:47:18

Thanks for having me.

Danny Brown: 00:47:20

Thanks for listening to five Random Questions. If you enjoyed this week's episode, I'd love for you to leave a review on the app you're currently listening on or over at 5randomquestions.com.

Review and if you know someone else that would enjoy the show, be sure to send them this way. It's very much appreciated. Until the next time, keep asking those questions.