Spaz Kitty, Haggis vs Poutine, and More with Evo Terra

Evo Terra: 00:00:00

We were called Spaz Kitty.

Danny Brown: 00:00:02

Right.

Evo Terra: 00:00:03

Why? I don't know. I don't know. But we had. There were two female singers who were in their early 20s and they were great.

I mean, these women could really, really sing. And there were three boys, us, who were all in our 30s. So you might figure out why it is that the band broke up after about a year and a half.

Danny Brown: 00:00:24

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 Evo Terra.

Evo is an award winning podcaster and member of the Podcast hall of Fame, an author of both Podcasting for Dummies and Expert podcasting Practices for Dummies, and He had the 40th podcast ever published way back in October two thousand four. He's been the host or co host of over twenty different podcasts and has either consulted for, edited, or advised on over one thousand podcasts.

So a little bit more than me there.

He runs a strategic podcast consultancy called Simpler Media, teaches podcasts in Arizona State University, and curates the best fiction podcast at the end, the only listener focused directory for completed audio fiction. I feel we need to take a breather there, Evo. Welcome to five Random Questions, mate.

Evo Terra: 00:01:29

Well, thanks for having me, Danny, and excellent job doing a live read of that very long bio that I have written for myself. And I'm sorry, also you said this is Random questions. I thought it was random answers.

I said I was just supposed to throw something out, but I guess I'll figure it out as we go along.

Danny Brown: 00:01:43

Yeah, yeah, no, I will ask the random questions and then we will just talk about that question.

Evo Terra: 00:01:48

Gotcha.

Danny Brown: 00:01:48

Let's do it. We're all good. And like I say, it's whatever way it goes, we're in it together.

Obviously you're in the hot seat, so I've got a little bit of a leeway there, but it's all good.

Evo Terra: 00:01:57

Understood.

Danny Brown: 00:01:59

And we've been speaking in the green room briefly before coming on the recording here.

Evo, we've chatted before on a previous show of mine way back when, and I'm curious, are you still following the beer diet or even the beer and sausage diet with Dr. Simpson? Terry, the Dr. Simpson?

Evo Terra: 00:02:14

Yeah, yeah. So no, I have not done that that was a whole lot of fun to do the beer diet. I did that, what, three, three years running, I think.

You know, every October, nothing but beer and sausage were my entire caloric intake for the month. And that was a blast. Terry and I are still very good friends. Actually. I still produce his podcast called your doctor's orders. But yeah, it is, it is.

It was a fun experiment to do. I, a friend of mine here in town who still does it, which is crazy.

I went to his birthday party a couple of weeks ago and his wife said, I hate you because you are the one that he says, but Ivo does it every time it comes around, so. But no, I'm out.

Danny Brown: 00:02:57

It's good enough for Evo, it's good enough for anybody.

Evo Terra: 00:02:59

I like this plan.

Danny Brown: 00:03:01

I like it.

And as I hear when introducing you there, you're a podcaster who's kind of on the other side of the fence now in that obviously you're on the production side, but you also curate the very popular audio fiction directory. The end. So for you, what makes a great audio fiction podcast?

Evo Terra: 00:03:17

You know, that's a great question.

I think everybody's going to have a different answer to what makes a great fiction podcast because, you know, look, people like movies I don't like, people like TV shows I don't like. So I have to be very careful in putting too much of my bias into the directory that I run that you mentioned at the end.

But for me, what I think is important for a show, what, what I like, what, what gets my own commentary on a show is sounds great and when it is performed, great, and it is a great script, I think those three elements need to be there. And if it can hit on those three marks and entertain me for, I don't know, half an hour to 16 hours or even longer.

We have some shows listed which are pushing 200 hours worth of content. That's when it'll get my stamp of approval. And in the, in the audio fiction.

Danny Brown: 00:04:17

Space, I was chatting to one of the earlier episodes of this show. I was chatting to a giant over in the US who produces sorry, edits audio fiction podcasts. And he was mentioning.

It took him about sixty hours just to create a one hour episode with all the tracks that you've got, all the, you know, the narration, the reset and all that. And I thought, wow, that's crazy.

Evo Terra: 00:04:38

Yeah, it is. And to me there's a huge range, right?

You have those people that are spending sixty hours, you know, just on the audio engineering piece, you know, making sure that the soundscaping is right. And balancing out and normalizing. I don't just mean that from a volume perspective, but from a sound level perspective.

Actors in disparate places around the country or the world, actually, that aren't recording together at the same time. So, yeah, you have those which are very complicated. But then you also have the shows that are much. Well, I don't want to say easier.

That's the wrong word. But they're much more straightforward where it's one or two voices, where the soundscaping is very minimalized.

They're not trying to make a cinematic audio experience, which some do. And those are great. I love those too. But I also like the straightforward. Even just straight narrated stuff can be great as long as I'm.

And whoever the listener is, is entertained.

Danny Brown: 00:05:39

I hear you. Well, speaking of hopefully the listener being entertained, let's see how entertaining your answers are.

Evo Terra: 00:05:45

Let's give it a shot.

Danny Brown: 00:05:45

Five random questions. We all good for this, Evo?

Evo Terra: 00:05:47

I'm ready.

Danny Brown: 00:05:48

Alrighty. Let's bring up the random question generator. Okay. Yeah, I think we're good for this.

To kick it off, question number one, Evo, if you could be any age, what age would you pick?

Evo Terra: 00:06:01

Well, the age that I am in my head is 27. I have been 27 since. Well, probably since I was 27, I guess.

And I don't have a real good reason for why there wasn't something that happened to me at 27 years of age that was like a stellar moment. It's just. I feel that's when I grew up. And much like as. As you and I, you know, everybody grows up to a certain height. I think that was my height.

I'm not saying I peaked at 27. That's not what I'm trying to say. But my brain says 27 is how old I am. And then I look in the mirror and realize that I'm 30.

30 years past that very soon. But, yeah, I like 27.

Danny Brown: 00:06:47

And you'd mentioned there. There's not anything that kind of sticks out because we're the same age, I feel. You just mentioned that was 30 years ago.

I turned 57 this October, so I believe. I feel we're probably on the same age there. Pretty close. So, yeah, 27, that would have been. What would that be? 19?

Evo Terra: 00:07:02

97?

Danny Brown: 00:07:04

96?

Evo Terra: 00:07:05

No, 6.

Danny Brown: 00:07:06

My math. I can't do math.

Evo Terra: 00:07:08

I can't do math in my head that fast. In the late 90s. Yeah. So in the. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, in the 90s, I was L.

In Los Angeles, which Was great to be in LA during the 90s because, you know, the alt music scene, the alternative music scene in LA was pretty, pretty amazing. I'm originally from a farm in the middle of the country, so, but I never wanted to be a farm boy at all.

Big city life was always what I, what I wanted. And we did that, you know, and in 92, I think we moved to LA. And then in 97 we moved to Phoenix where, where I live live currently.

But yeah, it was just, you know, I was young, I had a good job, we were doing things, it was exciting. So, yeah, 27 and again, like I said, it's just kind of locked in my brain.

I continue to say that that's how old I am until I'm reminded by my 57 year old bones that that's not the truth. That's the case anymore.

Danny Brown: 00:08:01

I hear you on that. Everything hurts in the morning when you wake up 57. Everything. Even if you've done nothing before.

Evo Terra: 00:08:07

Well, I tell you, the trick to that is, I mean, my wife and I, she's only a year younger, we have a personal trainer that comes to our house and works three days a week to keep a lot of that aging stuff at bay, or at least the detrimental effects, I guess, if you will, you know, making sure we can still do things like bend our knees completely and walk for a long time. So hopefully we can keep that going as long as we can so that we can maintain our youthful vigor, I guess.

Danny Brown: 00:08:37

Yeah. And we were again, we were speaking in the green room before the recording you mentioned.

Currently in Arizona, It's a high 30s temperature wise, so I'm guessing it really helps to keep a good level of healthy fitness for these kind of temperatures as you advance in years as well.

Evo Terra: 00:08:51

Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, heat affects us all more as we get older.

And look, I live in Phoenix, as you mentioned, which we are, everybody knows is a miserable place to live for about six months out of the year. And they're not wrong about that. And we tend to vacation in spots, you know, like Belize.

We're actually looking to buy some property down there that's also very hot. You know, that's Central America, but, you know, I prefer the heat to the cold.

You know, there are these weird people that live in places like Canada or are from Scotland and you know, very, very cold and damp places. And my body just says, I'd rather be, I'd rather be hot outside than cold outside. I can make it cool inside or jump in a pool. And I'M fine.

Danny Brown: 00:09:37

Yeah, that's fair. I was going to say you can. It's easier to warm up than cool down. But like you say, if you're indoors, you've got ac. Get a pool or something.

You can go down that way. Right. So, yeah, that's fair enough. And I have no idea who you're on about. Scottish people living in Canada. No idea. But. All right, so there we go.

If you want to remain on Ivo's good side. Have you met him? Just call. Hey, you look great for 27. I think we'll all be good there. Perfect.

All right, let's have a look then at question number two. I like this. I always like musical kind of questions and especially with your background, you just mentioned there, Evo played the indie scene.

So Evo, question number two. What is your favorite song of all time?

Evo Terra: 00:10:20

So that's an unfair question. I always despise the question, say, what is my one favorite thing? Because I have lots of favorites.

It all depends on my mood and what I want to listen to on any given day.

The crazy, weird, eclectic music tracks that we have in this house that I've collected over the years, and all these playlists are put together, some pretty avant garde stuff. There's very few musical genres I. I don't care for, but I certainly do gravitate to, to certains.

So I think the way I'm going to answer this question is change around and talk about, you know, favorite favorite songs, multiple of those things, kind of depending on the years. So I am a big fan of a song by the Rolling Stones, sympathy for the Devil, one of my all time favorite songs. Just, I just love it.

It's very, very fantastic. That's from like the early 60s is, is when that is when that song came out. There's another song from the 70s which I think everybody has probably.

Well, everybody my age has probably heard, although they probably don't know the name of it. And it's called Pink Moon. And it's just this nice little guitar person singing from the 70s, pink moon.

And it's just a great fun little song without, without much, you know, I guess many stakes in the song. It's not, it's not one of those things you want to go dancing to. It's just more of a mellow, chill out type type song.

You know, I clearly, I was a kid of the 80s and so, you know, pick an 80s song. I'm probably, probably a fan of that. We still see a lot of the bands when they're, when they're still touring and coming around because that's.

That's always fun. Yeah.

But then, you know, when it comes to the 90s, as I think again, back to why, maybe like why 27 works for me, you know, 90s music is not the music I grew up with, but it's certainly the music I listen to the most over time. So, you know, things like Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, Presidents, United States of America, Cake. Yeah, there's so many great.

Rage against the Machine are some great tunes, but if I had to pick one, Danny, because you did ask a favorite song of all time. I'll pick a favorite song of this time. It's probably. It's going to be a Rage against the Machine song, probably.

Which one do I want to say is my favorite one right now? What makes me the most angry when I listen to Rage against the Machine? Maybe Bulls on Parade. Maybe that one. So, yeah, great stuff.

Danny Brown: 00:13:03

And so you're a bit of a rebel down when it comes to. Because the Banjo lane like lined off there and I'm guessing maybe.

Did you get into the punk scene at all when you enter some of these on the us Because I know it was like slightly different from the punk scene in the uk.

Evo Terra: 00:13:14

Yeah, yeah, it certainly was. And to a very slight degree, there weren't punks where I grew up in a little bitty tiny town in the middle of the country that I was in.

But I was certainly aware of the punk scene. But yeah, I know you're the Black Flag and the other crazy stuff. What doesn't really rise up to mind now? Scott Punk. Big fan of Sky Punk.

s, early early: 2000

You know, modern today's current bands, even though we're still playing back then, like Green Day, for example, is a good example of that. But there are lots of other ones, especially from the uk.

You know, there's bands of the Slackers and then the Pie Tasters and just, you know, me and SCA are tight as well.

Danny Brown: 00:13:59

I love that you're ringing off names that I sort of kind of grew up with back in the uk. It's like, this is what I love about this podcast, mate.

I never knew that obviously, about you, but it's always fun to get, you know, an example like that. I go, oh yeah, I know these guys. So what was the name Yushka band in? Where do you take inspiration from?

Evo Terra: 00:14:16

We were called Spaz Kitty.

Danny Brown: 00:14:19

Right.

Evo Terra: 00:14:20

Why? I don't know, I don't know. But we had. There were two female singers who were in their early 20s and they were great. I mean, these were. These.

These women could really, really sing. And there were three boys, us, who were all in our 30s. So you might figure out why it is that the band broke up after about a year and a half.

We were. And it was me playing bass. Friend of mine played on the drums. And then we had Gilbert who was a guitar player. And yeah, we had. We.

About about a year and a half we recorded a couple different recording sessions. Played out live here in Phoenix, two or three venues, you know. So, yeah, feeling pretty good about it. And I've. My fingers are now lost.

I've my chops completely. Playing again is like, how do these things work again?

Danny Brown: 00:15:06

Yeah, yeah, I could never pick up. I tried guitar as I feel every teen boy probably does.

It's dry guitar because you want to impress girls or boys or whatever, whoever we want to impress. And I could never get. I couldn't take the pain of trying to get my fingers hardened to be able to play strings.

Evo Terra: 00:15:23

That's one of the things that reason I switched to the bass guitar because I also played guitar as a kid, you know, and was terrible at it. And I picked up drums when I was in school, high in. In high school and was great at that. But I switched to bass guitar and like, oh, the.

I don't have the first off, there's a lot of room in between these strings for my fat fingers that I didn't know that I had. And maybe I don't. I just don't have that much individual dexterity and control to take the little strings.

But yeah, playing bass was a much different experience on the guitar without. No, no massive calluses required. Some calluses required, but certainly not to the level that most guitar players have to deal with.

Danny Brown: 00:16:04

Perfect. Well, I like that. And as I say, I found out something new about you today, which is always good to find out good stuff.

So let's have a look then at question number three. You kind of strike me as a studios person. So, Ivo, have you read anything good recently?

Evo Terra: 00:16:21

Yeah, I have. My wife, who is a lifelong educator, has started building a collection of banned books.

So when places like Texas or other morons get in and say, oh, you shouldn't be reading these books in the classroom, you know, my wife buys a hard copy of those because we read most of our things electronically, right through ebooks. But for these banned books, we are keeping a physical library.

And for the first time in My life for the people who are in probably Americans only had to read this. Most children and of my age, not children. But back then we had to read kind of the same books that everybody read.

It was just kind of a very, very common thing to do in the States.

as To Kill A Mockingbird from: 1960

I really wish I'd have read this in high school, but I also, at the same time, I can understand why high schoolers hate it because it's. It's not. Yeah, it's just. It's. It's rough to get through.

And you don't know that all of the boring part up front is actually key to the story that's going to unfold later. You know, nothing is just like any good book. Nothing is randomly placed in there. Everything has a purpose and a reason. And it was fun.

It was fun to read that and kind of catch up on what I missed from, you know, back again through the 40 years ago, I guess it would have been for that.

Danny Brown: 00:18:19

Yeah. And it's always interesting to me when I see, like, governments banning books, whatever the government may be. And there was like.

There's like a sort of meme, I guess, or it might be the good liars, actually, the comedians that are online. They've got their lives like that. And they speak to people in states that have got, you know, banned books.

So the libraries are taking books up, schools have, et cetera, and they're talking about, well, this, this is why the book's been banned. And then they. They share quotes from another book, which is the Bible, and it's like the stuff that the other books are being banned for.

So it's kind of interesting to see that sort of dicker.

Evo Terra: 00:18:56

To me, yeah, it is. It's pretty insane how we kind of go overboard on protecting the children, you know. But regardless, yeah, banned books are a thing. Who knows?

hought we got rid of those in: 1945

Danny Brown: 00:19:16

And To Kill a Mockingbird, that was the movie version. That's the Gregory Peck movie, correct?

Evo Terra: 00:19:20

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And you know what's funny because I watched the movie, but it was a long, long time ago.

You know, the book and the movie are very different because in the, in the movie version, you know, it's, it's very much centered on the trial, but in the book version it's, it's not, it's centered on the kids who are his, his children that, you know, Atticus's children are what the focus of the book is about. And they, they do talk about the, the trial.

And it is certainly an important part that in fact it is, it is, it is the most important part of the book, but told from the eyes and the experiences that they had, which is, which is quite, quite different than what we saw in the movie, but still highly recommended.

Danny Brown: 00:19:58

I've never read that.

It's like it was one of these books that kind of floated about high school when I was in the uk, But I was into history then, so I was learning about World War I, World War II, conflicts, etc. But yeah, I mean, I didn't know the book was from his kid's point of view. So I definitely going to check that out because I really enjoyed the movie.

Evo Terra: 00:20:18

I mean, it's not a long read either. I mean it's. I don't know what the word count is, but it is a, it is a.

If it's 60,000 words, I'd be surprised which is the standard length for a novel. I'd be surprised if it's even that long. I think I read it in like four days. So it's, it's definitely something worth picking up.

Danny Brown: 00:20:33

I will check that. I've been going through a bit of a book reading phase. I got into Elmore Leonhard recently primarily from the Justified TV series on Prime.

I think it is.

Evo Terra: 00:20:44

Yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:20:44

And I just thought it was such tight writing, you know, and the actors like Walter Goggins and Walter Goggin is my hero, Tim Olafin. Just these two relationships was amazing. And the more he read into the background of the books that, you know, the series is based on, the.

More I realized I really want to read this guy. So I started reading him. And it's so tight. It's like you say, it's just when someone draws you into a book and just you forget about everything else.

That's. Yeah, that's gold.

Evo Terra: 00:21:11

Yeah. Yeah, that's what I want. That's why I almost exclusively read fiction, because it's.

Today I exclusively read fiction and I didn't for the longest time, but now I do because it's great for an escape and exactly. When a book is tightly written and really captures my attention, I just disappear into it and it's pretty fantastic.

Danny Brown: 00:21:32

Now did you get into. Because obviously just as like a sort of side, you're heavily into audio podcast, audio fiction podcast, audio podcast, duh. Or your fiction podcast.

Evo Terra: 00:21:41

Yeah, yep.

Danny Brown: 00:21:41

Fiction podcast. Did that come before getting into the fiction reading or vice versa or in reverse?

Evo Terra: 00:21:46

Oh, no, no, no. I was, I was. I've been a fiction, a voracious fiction reader since I was a baby. Well, maybe baby is maybe a little bit long. But you know, I.

I was reading Dragon Riders of Pern and all the fantasy stuff I could get my hands on when I was in middle school and high school, switched to reading more hard science fictiony stuff as well as a lot of other books on politics and the environment and science based and SK books through my 20s or from I guess to my 30s. But in my 40s, I really focused in back on the, on the fiction books.

A lot of things that are, that are just fantastic and out there because there's such a. Such a wide range of it. The audio fiction side. Fiction.

odcast I ever did way back in: 2004

So every week my partner and I would get, I don't know, dozens of books in the mail from all of the publishers because this was before Amazon sold ebooks. There were no ebooks back in the day. They were just weren't a thing. Everything was a physical copy of a book.

And so we had all these books coming in and I would, you know, go through and find the ones that I really enjoyed and read them as fast as I could.

hat happened from there is in: 2005

What if I were to read a chapter of my audiobook and release that as an episode and then the next week I'll read another one and then go on and so on and so on. So I said that's brilliant. And again, three different people came to me the same week to said this. So I helped them get started.

I was, I ran all the technical stuff. I said, you Guys are responsible for recording yourself. Here are the tech specifications I want you to meet.

ind so complicated, I will do: 2004

I helped 700 books get out there through. We called them Patio Books of lending of podcasting and audiobooks. We had a website, patiobooks.com at the time. So that was.

That really solidified me because I was listening to a lot of those things. So now that I'm running the end and curating audio fiction that's reached a season finale or the entire series conclusion, I listened even more.

I mean, I, I listen, you know, every lunch, I listen. You know, if I'm going out to, like, pick up the trash or things like that.

That's, that's, that's a listening time for me because there's so much, so much content. There's. There's so much content out there.

Danny Brown: 00:24:51

It's always interesting that I, I don't see more authors release their books as podcasts.

I know they have their audio version on Audible, for example, but to do it just a podcast, like you say, do a chapter as each episode and have a bit more control over the distribution and revenue that comes in, et cetera.

Evo Terra: 00:25:07

Yeah, yeah. And they, the reason I think that they did that at the beginning was because there were no ebooks.

You know, you wrote a book, you had that book hopefully edited by someone, and you're ready to publish it. But, you know, back in the day, there wasn't an Amazon Kindle, there was no acx, there wasn't any of that.

So in order to get your book read by people, you had to be picked up by one of the big publishers. And that's a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the authors that submit their stuff ever get picked up.

So that was why putting it in a podcast form was great back then, because it was, I mean, almost the only way to really get your story out there. Unless you wanted to send a whole bunch of PDFs. But look, reading PDFs on your computer screen sucks. Nobody wants to do that.

It's a horrible experience. So, yeah, that's why they turned to podcasting. But, you know, just a few years later, Amazon puts up their Kindle store.

now, in fact, just from, from: 2010

There are now distribution methods that did not exist previously that are a whole heck of a lot easier, Danny, than going in and narrating yourself, because you and I know this. But it takes some time before you're any good at reading your own words and editing stumbles and all that kind of fun stuff.

So it was just a bridge too far. You know, some people still do it. There are still plenty of authors that still release their.

Their books for free as an audio version that they themselves are narrating. But most people aren't doing that any longer.

Danny Brown: 00:26:48

No, that makes sense. I always say, like, a great. I don't know, there's like an analogy there somewhere. That's okay.

You can be a great offer, as you say, but not a great podcast. You can be a great, you know, speaker, but not a great podcast or whatever. So. Yeah, I hear you. And that makes complete sense, mate.

Well, speaking of making complete sense. And that was a terrible segue, but it's time to have a look at question number four. Okay. Yeah. Okay. If you could. Question number four, Ivo.

If you could try out any job for one week, what job would you choose to try?

Evo Terra: 00:28:47

I think you're picking these questions specifically to me. I don't think they're all that great.

Danny Brown: 00:28:50

Now, come on now. I'm random and you can see my screen.

Evo Terra: 00:28:52

Yeah, I can see the video that you're playing. No kidding. Kidding. I don't want to be conspiracy theorists. We have played way too many of them in this country as it is.

So it's interesting this question comes up because I have been.

This is going to sound crazy, but when my lovely wife and I are heading to Belize in just a couple of weeks, one of the things that we are doing is looking for a place to buy. And we are thinking about buying a place that has. Upstairs would be the house and downstairs would be a bar. Just a little beer bar.

Here's the challenge, Danny. I've never ran a. I've never been a bartender. I've never ran a bar.

My entire experience of working in a restaurant was being a busboy when I was 18 years old. I certainly have been too many beer bars in my life. I do that quite a bit, but I don't know how.

I mean, this is going to sound terrible, but I'm not sure I can pour a proper pint. I mean, I just have. I mean, I. I open up a can or a bottle of beer. Important. My pint glass here at the house.

But I mean, the number of times I've pulled from a keg or, you know, from. From a tap is. I don't know, three in my entire life. So I don't know those skills.

So there is a local craft beer place just down the street from us that has just recently switched owners and we have become friends with the new owners as well as we just friends with the old owners. Because why would you not be friends with the people who are serving you drinks? It was. Will always work out in your benefit.

So I was asking them, can I come in and like intern just for like a week? Exactly. What else are they going to do?

Can I just work here and you teach me how to do things like pour a pint and how many glasses we go through on a certain hour and all those various ins and outs? So I'm going to say. I'll say bartending. But what I mean specifically by that is pouring beer in a tap room.

Danny Brown: 00:30:45

It's funny you mentioned crap. I'm a huge craft beer lover and one thing I learned about pouring beer, funnily enough, at least craft beer and maybe even macro beer, who knows?

But you want to pour it hard and follow the head up so that you want a big head and let it settle. Right.

Because that gets rid of all the gases and stuff that can be in there and it doesn't leave you with a bloated stomach or a gassy stomach or something.

Evo Terra: 00:31:10

Ah, yeah. Get some of the CO2 out, obviously. So it has a foam action. Yeah.

And you know, every different types of beer take a different kind of pour and also preferably a different kind of glass. And then there are the nitros, which is a wholly new ball game of how you have to do that.

I mean, the good news for me is if we do follow through with this insane plan to open up a beer bar in Belize, it's not going to be a craft beer place because there really isn't a craft beer scene in. In. In there. So it will be.

There's basically one beer in Belize and so I will have that one and then probably a whole bunch of rum because that rum is popular there as well and made it in house. But I won't have to worry about the complexities of the craft beer scene. Should this be in a tulip?

Should this be in, you know, whatever those glasses are called? Nah, it'll just. It'll probably just be whatever I can buy at the local shop and that's going to be good enough for everybody.

Danny Brown: 00:32:06

Yeah. And so you'll just be opening up for Will that be holidaymakers, primarily locals, or what would that be?

Evo Terra: 00:32:11

Yeah, I mean, it depends. We're going to a new area of Belize that we've not been to previously.

We've spent most of our time down in the beachy areas with just a little bit of time up in the mountains. But that's where the population lives. And the population doesn't live on the beach. The population lives other places.

So we're going to be further inland up in the mountains. This area's in the Cayo district. Little town called San Ignacio is going to be our. Our base for there. We say little town.

It's the third biggest town in Belize. It's actually a full population. So there are some expats that live there. Not just American expats, but Canadian and English and.

And from everywhere else, honestly, here in the town.

So I think it'll be mostly locals, but I will not be at all surprised if most of those locals turn out to not be true Belizean locals, but are actually the more of the expat style. But we want to make it available for everyone.

Danny Brown: 00:33:06

Well, I'm sure, like, it's funny, Belize is one of these places I've wanted to go to because it's always sounded exotic to me. And the Belize I know of, and this could be totally wrong, totally bad stereotype.

The Belize I know of is like a port of call for special forces, generally. Special forces that are, you know, planning something. We'll go through Belize airport.

This could just be the movies that I've seen, you know, like, I've probably seen one move and it went through Belize or something. So I probably thought, oh, everybody must go through Belizes.

Evo Terra: 00:33:38

I don't know if that's. If that's real or imaginary. I mean, I've never seen Special Forces in. But, but, but who knows? I. I suppose anything is possible.

It was an ex British colony, so who knows what deal they still have worked out, so who knows?

Danny Brown: 00:33:52

I will try put that on my itinerary then, mate. Let me know if you do do that. And then you open up the bar next stairs.

Evo Terra: 00:33:58

I'll have to have you come taste it. Make sure I did a good job.

Danny Brown: 00:34:01

See how you poured it. Okay, well, we're doing really well here, Ivo.

We've got up to question number five, and this is a nice, simple one I feel, to ease the conversation out. So, Ivo, question number five. What is your favorite store in the mall?

Evo Terra: 00:34:17

The store that I want to go buy one thing at and then leave because I hate them all the Mall is just a terrible, terrible place now, you know, I should say in Phoenix. It's a little bit of a respite because you know, it's a cool place to go wander around and we do that on occasion. But yeah, we're. I don't really do.

I mean when I was a kid, obviously, you know, the mall was the thing to do. Again, I was a kid in the 80s like you and the mall was where all the cool stuff happened according to the movies.

But yeah, but nowadays look, we go in and get one thing and we get out. I don't know if I had to pick a store that I frequent in the mall. I don't know, the Apple Store. That's probably all I could think of.

Danny Brown: 00:34:58

Yeah, that mall was a funny place.

We never really, I mean we did have malls in the UK when I was, you know, back in the 80s when I was like a teen that would have been attracted to malls but there were more kind of just like supermarket plazas. Whereas anytime I think of malls I always think of the John Hughes movies and the proper malls in the US etc. But we never really had that in the UK.

It may be different now. I've been away for almost 20 years now, mate, so could very well be different.

Evo Terra: 00:35:24

I'm not sure I can tell you this. What I thought was a mall was all American based.

And then when my wife and I lived abroad for the three and a half years we did, we got to go to malls in other countries and not, not western countries. Right. When we went to. We went to huge malls in China, in Thailand and in Hong Kong. Oh my gosh. Yeah, they're massive.

There are malls that exist completely underground in a lot of these cities. At the transit stations, you know, where two or more train lines get close to one another. Build out an entire underground mall.

Which is really just how you get. Totally change my opinion on what, what malls actually are. Like you, I'm John Hughes movies, that mall is what I'm thinking of.

But even now the big malls here in Arizona and Phoenix specifically, a lot of them are shutting down. We have a lot of big, empty, huge malls that just aren't frequented any longer by people.

And I don't know why, but I'm no longer in the retail game so I have no idea what the economic challenges there. But yeah, they have a.

Most of them, I shouldn't say most, but I can think of many that are now completely shut down and several other ones that are mostly abandoned except for like one or two anchor Tenants, and that's about it.

Danny Brown: 00:36:42

I wonder if the rise, you spoke about Kindle and ebooks, et cetera, earlier. I wonder the rise of Amazon. I'm sure that's going to have had some impact on it.

Evo Terra: 00:36:51

Can't imagine it's done anything but that. You know, we. Amazon's gotten larger. You know, the Walmart that you might have went to when you were a kid is not the Walmart of today.

They're all huge, massive, super center. Same thing for Target, you know, the other big, big shopping centers.

So we have these already, these locations and, and now with mail order as you're talking about, you know, order something online and it arrives in your house that day through that, you know, the, the giant monster that is Amazon. Yeah, that's changing things a lot.

And also I think all the subscription box services that we have now, either for meals or clothing or housewares, you know, there are just different ways of buying stuff today that we didn't have 40 years ago.

Danny Brown: 00:37:30

Yeah, there's, there's an E commerce platform. I can't remember which one it was or which one it is. It's still around. It's very popular. It's in, I believe it's in India.

I think it's a large Indian E commerce. And the promise is if you buy something, it will be delivered to you within 90 minutes no matter where you are.

And it can be anything, a ridiculous thing that you'd maybe search for that's really remote and you know there's one in the world and they'll still promise to have it to you within 90 minutes, which is crazy.

Evo Terra: 00:37:58

I'm not sure exactly how they do it it. But yeah, but that's the reality that we live in now. Everything is. The timing has been shortened on things, so we need that instant gratification.

So the idea of just wandering around, I mean, I wander around a bookstore, sure, I'll do that. But wandering from store to store to store, not really my bag.

Danny Brown: 00:38:16

Yeah, I hear you. My, my wife's friend, she has a little bookstore and the little village where she lives, independent bookstore. And she's done really well.

She, she uses social really well. She does author events, brings them in, has a little nook gathering where the author reads for a bit, has tea with the invited guests, et cetera.

I'd love to go back to a lot more of that as opposed to the big conglomerates of the retail world.

Evo Terra: 00:38:41

Yeah, we have a very small, very local shop just about a mile or so away from us and that's where we buy our books from. Because I want to support Cindy, that's the owner. She's been connected with me for, I don't know, two decades now here in Phoenix area.

Yeah, I think it's important that we shop local, you know, and the pricing, really, when you look at it, I mean, if you spend a buck more, is that really a big deal?

You know, especially knowing you're helping out someone who's actually providing jobs in your community as opposed to one that's building giant data centers and taking away jobs. You know, not to be pointed on that, but I'm talking about Amazon in.

Danny Brown: 00:39:17

Case somebody missed it, in case somebody misses that. And we won't put on the show notes, we won't put big Amazon links except in the show notes for this thing. But yeah.

So Evo, we've reached the end of the five random questions there and I really appreciate your answers there. As is only fair, I've had you on the hot seat there for about 35 minutes or so now.

As is only fair, it's now time to hand the baton over to you for your question for me.

Evo Terra: 00:39:40

Yeah. All right.

I've been thinking about this a lot today, Danny, to figure out which question I wanted to give to you and because you are a Scotsman who is now living in Canada. Haggis or poutine?

Danny Brown: 00:39:53

Can I have poutine topped haggis?

Evo Terra: 00:39:57

I mean, you probably can. I think everybody else is now vomiting in their mouths a little bit.

Danny Brown: 00:40:02

I know, right? That's actually a tough one, mate. I love haggis. A really well done, good haggis.

It's cooked properly and got the proper size with the tatties and neeps, etc. And a little dram beside it. You wash it down with can't beat it. And I went for my 50th, I went back to Scotland with my buddy.

We did a 10 day tour of the Highlands and Islands.

So we did like a whiskey tour, then a sightseeing tour and one of the distilleries we went to, I think it was probably Ardbeg, and they brought lunch out and what they had was haggis topped mashed potatoes with whiskey strewn over it, which was like the weirdest concoction, but it was so good. But then you get a really good poutine if you go to Montreal. You have to go to Montreal and it's just amazing. My wife loves poutine. And. And it's.

You're meant to say poutine, but I always say poutine. I'm bad. I've been here 20 years, still can't say it right. I'm gonna say, oh, I hate this.

I'm gonna say haggis only for the reason when done properly, the spices and that. You just don't get that with a poutine. But, you know, who knows?

Maybe I'll try open like a little specialty shop that just sells haggis infused poutine or vice versa.

Evo Terra: 00:41:15

I think that's a great idea. I've never had haggis. I have no idea what it's supposed to taste like. So good or bad? I have no idea. But yes, on the chips with brown gravy and curds.

Let's just call it that since I can't pronounce poutine properly. That's how we say in America. Yeah, I like a good poutine when I've had one. Never had poutine in Canada, so I probably haven't had Fantastic.

I've had what I think is great poutine. But then again, I mean, it's French fries and gravy and cheese curds. How could it not be good?

Danny Brown: 00:41:46

I mean, I. I think the. The secret is in the gravy, the curds and the fries and chips or whatever you want to call them. I call them chips.

We just call them chips or fries, whatever you want to call them, they're pretty easy. Anybody can do that. Right? But the gravy, whatever spices you put in the gravy, whatever herbs, etc, I think that's where the difference comes in.

You can get crap poutine here in Canada.

Evo Terra: 00:42:03

Oh, sure.

Danny Brown: 00:42:04

I've had bad, bad poutine then I've had some amazing poutine. So, yeah, I think wherever you go, the grave is the secret. The secret sauce, if you like.

Evo Terra: 00:42:11

Right, I see what you did there. It literally is the secret in the sauce.

Danny Brown: 00:42:14

The secret and the sauce. Well, Levo, as I mentioned, I really enjoyed this episode, mate.

And I learned a few new things, which is always a bonus when you have something like this for anybody that wants to check out the End and your directory for fiction podcasts. Want to know more about yourself, even reach out to you and ask, how can I do the beer and sausage diet?

Where's the best place for them to connect with you online and just catch up with what you're doing, mate?

Evo Terra: 00:42:38

Yeah, if you go to evoterra.com, that's kind of the central hub for all of the things that I do. I'm changing that to evotera me because I'M not a company, I'm just a me man. But of course I'll still keep the.com and direct it in there.

That will have links for all the things that I am doing in life. And if you want to check out the the End, which is that book service or the fiction audio fiction service that you mentioned, that's at the end, FYI.

Danny Brown: 00:43:03

And that's really easy to remember. And if you love fiction and fiction podcasts especially, that's a great resource.

So I'll make sure to leave notes to that I will make sure to leave links to all that in the show notes.

So whatever app you're listening to this on, or if you're listening to this on the website, just check out the show notes as normbo and all the links will be there. So again, Ivo, really appreciate you coming on five Random Questions, mate.

Evo Terra: 00:43:25

Thanks Danny.

Danny Brown: 00:43:27

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@fiverandomquestions.com.

review. And if you know someone that would enjoy the show as well, be sure to send them this way. It's very much appreciated.

Until the next time, keep asking those questions.