Aladdin (2019) and Hopeful Resilience | Mouse Ears Movie Thoughts Siblings

0:00 Welcome to Yes and Land, where we say yes to the reality of yesterday and today, and we say and to the possibility, growth, and imagination of tomorrow. Welcome to Yes and Land. We are very excited about our conversation today. We've actually got the hosts of another podcast that we came across that we think really does a great job of putting some great content out there, fun, engaging content. And these are the hosts of Mouse Ears Movie Thoughts. And these three hosts also happen to be siblings, which good for them that they were able to start a podcast with siblings. So they must get along to some degree. So welcome, you guys. Welcome to our podcast. Yeah, thanks for having us. Thank you for having us. This is amazing. Well, so let's start out here real quick. Why don't we start out with a quick introduction of each of you?

1:07 So just kind of your name. and what role you play in the podcast that you guys do. I know obviously all three of you host the podcast, but I think that you each kind of have some distinct roles or focuses that you have. So names and kind of what your role is with the podcast. Well, my name is Riley, and my role is just kind of like the media person. So I am uploading stuff to Instagram and YouTube and just trying to really get like our name out there and promote us. a lot of images and media yeah fantastic uh i'm caleb and i'm the editor so i'm pretty self -explanatory i just edit all the stuff uh i'll get like audio clips and send them to her if she needs them for marketing something but that's kind of what i do and i'm hannah i really like to say that i'm kind of the manager of it i tend to be the one planning the meetings and making sure we have episode ideas i also do the scheduling coordinating all of our schedules and then putting them in calendars for everyone to do we're i'm also the one uh running the website yeah perfect so i mean as as you can tell there's a lot that goes into a podcast and um you know one of the things that obviously y 'all are doing well is Dividing and conquering, setting up yourself for your

2:38 strengths. I'm guessing that you each kind of do those things because you've found some degree of strength or inclination towards those things that you can all kind of maximize what you get to do to put on your awesome podcast. So what we're going to do today. Well, actually, sorry, why don't you explain to you what your podcast is? So obviously, I mean, Mouse Deer's Movie Thoughts, that might be self -explanatory, but maybe not. So give us a little bit more about what exactly your podcast is and what you guys talk about. Yeah, so basically we're a Disney podcast, but specifically a Disney movie podcast. We talk all about Disney movies, Pixar movies, Marvel movies. pixar theory and easter eggs we do movie reviews but then we also like to do um like games so trivia and like drafts uh we like to do punishments and rewards with our games and we try to keep it really fun um top 10 or top 5 rankings where we compare to each other and a lot of it is kind of collaborating our ideas about different disney movies and debating different opinions that we have yeah we even do some like themed episodes if it's like near Christmas or I don't know any Thanksgiving you know stuff like that try to do some theme episodes basically we have always loved Disney and we've loved talking about Disney with each other and so we decided to make it a podcast yeah and it's been really really fun and now what started as

4:10 like a passion project has really become even more than that And it's something that we look forward to every week and something that we're really trying to grow and expand, even if we're still young siblings. Yeah, and y 'all have been doing this for quite a while. Did I get this right that you're more than 160 episodes in? Is that right? Yeah. We've been going since the fall of 22. And of course, we were planning in like the summer of that year. Wow. I didn't know it had been that long. It's been a while. Yeah. That's three and a half, almost four years you've been going. So obviously you're doing something right. And that kind of leads us into really what we're talking about today, which is hopeful resilience. And we're going to be talking about that through the lens of Aladdin, but not just Aladdin. through the live action Aladdin from 2019, which was just a gem and a movie that y 'all selected. So we're going to dive into a little bit of why Aladdin and why the live action over the original animated movie back in the early 90s, long before y 'all were born, but was my growing up, was my childhood. And so it's going to be really fun for us to dive into that.

5:30 Let's start here. Just in case someone's listening to our Disney podcast that doesn't know Aladdin, which would be wild, but just in case they don't, why don't one of you kind of set the stage for the overarching story of Aladdin? Well, yeah, sure. I mean, Aladdin, to summarize it, it's like the story of this... First of Aladdin, the main character, who kind of comes from a not so great background in terms of like royalty and like possessions and stuff like that. And he kind of gets thrown into this interesting situation of finding a genie that can make his dreams come true. But he kind of has to balance what he truly wants to live with and what he can obtain. But it might be like fake. It might not be actually. real because it's just a wish that the genie granted for him but he kind of has to balance what is actually valuable in life and what's not and then through that you know we get all this comedy and we get Jafar trying to I mean really stop him and get the genie for himself and then Aladdin ends up finding love and finding what he really wants in life and realizes that the love for Jasmine is more important than the wishes themselves and what fake things he could have obtained. Yeah. And maybe a note

7:02 on why live action specifically. In this version, Jasmine has a bigger role in this hopeful resilience topic that we wanted to talk about. And also, Riley specifically likes the live action Aladdin more than the original. And so we wanted to... It ended up being a really great option because of Jasmine's... pertinence in it and kind of some additions that they added in yeah yeah i mean also um aladdin his whole upbringing is just like keep keep going keep doing what he knows he has to do and what's right even when he's not in the best situations Yeah, for sure.

7:42 So Riley, I think you just said that Riley, you're the one that preferred the live action version. So we got to dive into why, right? Give us the breakdown, like defend the live action over the classic animated feature. Well, first of all, I think that the soundtrack is better. I mean, there's at least one new song in the live action than the original. It's Speechless. And I love that song. I think it's great. I think it adds to the movie. and I think that I like the live action more honestly because it was just like more in my time and so I think I just have kind of a better nostalgic like relationship with it maybe if that makes sense I just like it a lot better wow yeah I think what's interesting with the additional songs is there's been times when certain movies have been done and have additional songs that I just felt like they were fillers.

8:43 It felt like the songs were there but didn't do a lot for it. But I agree with you, Riley, which is in this particular one, Jasmine's additional song, I think really brings a bit more heart to the story. I think it really expands a bit more on the understanding of Jasmine as a character and what she's going through and experiencing. That's one of the major differences where there is something to this live -action version, which is seeing more of the character arc and story arc of Jasmine, which you get a glimpse of in the original animated feature, but really more focused on Aladdin and what his journey is. This one, it's bringing in Jasmine, and I think it adds a layer of complexity that I think is really good. I think it just really enhances the story overall. Yeah, I agree. Okay, so let's dive back in a little bit about y 'all's story. So you're three siblings who clearly love Disney, and you guys have been passionate about Disney for a while. What made you decide to go from just three siblings that enjoy Disney, enjoy talking about Disney, to actually starting a podcast and putting your conversations out there for the public to consume? Yeah. Well, I think for a while, each of us separately even wanted to create something and put it out there, whether it was even just

10:13 a YouTube channel or a podcast. We kind of just wanted to be creative in that way and share that. And nothing was really immediately striking for any of us. I think we all kind of nothing was really filling that as much as we wanted. we never got off to a like strong start and then eventually we like had an aha moment where we realized we love we talk about this with each other every time we watch a disney movie we talk about this with each other for sure every week at least and why not make that a podcast it would be so easy to take our conversations that we already have and put them onto a podcast yeah and share that with everyone else we really enjoy having like passion that imagination and kind of a time to free your mind from any real world stressors and it's still like good thought work and yeah that's something we want to share with everyone else yeah I think it just kind of like it happened I just remember one day you guys going like hey what if we just like start a podcast on this and I'm like yeah sure can we like I guess doesn't cost any money we just need a mic and yeah we started out with a single mic On a very small table that we all were leaning in over and just made it work. And then eventually as our passion and like intensity for it grew, we each got our own mics. And I mean, yeah, it just has really developed and transformed. For sure. Which I love. And I think it ties in really

11:47 well to something that Aladdin says at the very beginning of the movie. And I'm going to read this this quote and get you guys take on it specifically as it relates to what you guys did initially. So at the very beginning and he's talking about being a street rat and he says, if you don't have anything, you have to act like you own everything. And and so, you know. Talk me through what that means to y 'all when you're starting this podcast and initially you don't have anything. I mean, you've got some ideas, but you actually don't have anything. And what so what did you have at that point in time? What were you betting on that you could build to put out there? Yeah, I mean, I think that that quote really hits home for us in our podcast, especially in the beginning, because like like you were just saying, we don't really have anything, especially when you first start. and but the one thing you do have is your voice and your content and what you're going to talk about and I think that is really what we focused on of like as long as we can have good um good discussions good content and we can just talk and I think that really helps having three siblings is we have three different opinions and we're very close so we can bounce off one another and like really do like a deep dive while adding some laughter and fun into the mix so i would say focusing on the content itself and

13:20 then you know the the mic and the softwares and like everything builds around that but if we didn't really have anything good to talk about it wouldn't really matter yeah a little bit of our beginning days was like make it till you make it like we don't have anything else but we have ideas and so we're gonna pretend like our quality is our like our mic quality is good when it was it was so hard to work with we're gonna edit things like the night before because we're having problems every time but it's still coming out like no one has to know and then eventually we're not faking it anymore we understand what we're doing we get a week out we know what's expected of us yeah because then before you know it it's just the truth like once you're getting consistent like consistent downloads then you're just going to grow bigger and then we were able to get more mics and now we never looked like we were struggling because now we aren't struggling it's almost funny to look back and think of those days where i mean we keep looking over there because the one mic is sitting in the corner and rejected now but yeah it's just insane to think of where we started with one mic we we really had nothing else like this It's kind of like you have nothing else. All you have is, yeah. It's kind of like a fake it till you make it type of situation. And I mean, don't get me wrong. You can definitely like hear the difference.

14:42 Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Throughout the podcast. But I mean, even when I remember way back when we were recording our first episodes and we were trying to figure out how long should we make this. And we expected to be like a 20 minute conversation or something. And then we ramble on for like 45 minutes and like. we don't realize how much we have to talk about an offer until we hit record yeah yeah i think that's one of the keys for for people and you know what i think what people listening can take away from that is that it's okay to just start you know y 'all believed in what you could do and one of the things i really heard too that that i think is really important is that you also were just going to have fun like you weren't taking yourselves too seriously you weren't And it sounds like you hopefully weren't overthinking it as well, that you're just getting into it like, hey, we have fun conversations. We enjoy it. We feel like we have something good we can put out there.

15:36 So we're just going to do it. And when you when you're willing to take those steps, then, yeah, you're going to stumble along the way, but you can learn from it. And, you know, it's it's then you don't have any regrets of not taking that opportunity to try. And then as you go, like you said, now suddenly you've. Your quality is going up. You're suddenly discovering what your voices are. You're discovering that you actually have more to say than maybe you even initially thought. And none of that discovery would have happened if you hadn't been willing to say, hey, look, maybe we don't have anything right now, but we think we do. And we're going to build towards it. So one of the things I wanted to ask you about that I heard in some of the prep that we did, which is that you had numerous difficulties and setbacks along the way. And so maybe talk to us a little bit about like, what were some of those setbacks? What were some of those difficulties that you had along the way? Who wants to start?

16:36 Start. I think in each of our areas of expertise, we probably had different setbacks. So for, oh boy. So I guess I'll go with, I'll leave editing for Caleb because that's a whole different one. That is. I guess for me, one of the biggest ones we've come into. one of our first biggest problems was running out of our initial episode ideas we didn't know we didn't realize how often we were going to be recording and how much we would have to say and once we kind of ran out of those initial I don't know it was maybe about a year of ideas we really had to like rethink reimagine what we were going to be doing what was the real like purpose of this podcast what did we want to talk about and that did a lot we did I would say that was one of the biggest leaps forward for our podcast. That was when we introduced Marvel, decided we were going to have more of a complete Disney picture. And that was really like a springboard that made us into the podcast that we have today. Because it was almost like we were limiting ourselves without even realizing it. And it took us hitting that wall of... We don't know what we're recording today. Like, we don't have something to put out in two days.

17:58 So it really took a couple months, maybe, of struggle before we freed up our minds. And it's so much easier for us to come up with conversation topics and everything else. Yeah, for sure. I would say for the editing point of view, at least for me, it was just learning how to edit. I mean, I've never, like... taken a audio editing class or anything so like just watching a lot of videos and editing a lot of episodes and then you know as you get higher up it's like well hey what if we have like some like we create a little intro music little outro and then it's like well hey what if we like cut out that part and add in like a little background music or something and like over time it builds and builds and Yeah, I would say it was a big setback, a big struggle at the beginning of like, I don't even know what app to use. I don't know how to edit this. But then it kind of builds over time. And I would say another thing for you would be the scheduling.

19:06 Yeah, that was the other thing I was going to say. Having three of us makes it very difficult at times to set up. Yeah, three people who are teenagers and have sports and school. It's almost harder to plan. I guess this is our opinion, but because we don't have regular work hours, there is almost never a time that is, like, completely, everyone is guaranteed to be free every week. So that was hard to find a guaranteed reporting time. And a huge setback was when you went to college. That would be the other one I was going to say. We had to figure out, okay, when is she coming home? Okay, we got to record now. But then we also need to figure out when to edit. And then, like, we just had to get that routine.

19:48 We... Do you want to go? Well, I was going to say a big thing that we like learn, if not learn, like started doing after that was pre -recording a bunch of stuff. And then I can just edit it whenever and set it to upload on a certain day at a certain time. So we don't have to be confined to doing the same like routine every week so that something comes out. But like if someone has to go on a vacation for school or something like that. then we have an option now where we can still make that work. Yeah. And so much of this is like, we didn't even realize, like with Caleb, when the editing, we didn't realize what editing software we had. And so we like had to discover what we had. We didn't know how many ideas we had. So we had to force ourselves to find them. We didn't even realize that we were still going to be doing the podcast by the time I went to college. And so that was a whole other thing of like, we're at this point and we didn't think we would even still be going. But we want to keep going. Before we jump back in, can I ask you a quick favor? If you're enjoying the journey so far, will you like, rate, and subscribe to our show? It helps us reach more people like you. We can design and create and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it takes people to make the dream a reality. Jumping back into kind of where we were. One of the things that I wanted to ask you all about when it comes to, you know, when you're starting something new,

21:20 especially creatively, professionally, is I'm going to bring you to another quote from Aladdin. And this is a quote from the genie. And he's talking to Aladdin and he says, I made you look like a prince on the outside, but I didn't change anything on the inside. Prince Ali got you to the door, but Aladdin asked to open it. So I want to get your guys' take on that when we're talking about this idea of hopeful resilience and when you're starting out with something and just having to take a step and a stab at it, even when maybe you don't have it fully developed or don't yet have the confidence to accomplish something. That's a really good quote. And I think that is very much true, like kind of with our podcast, like you can. keep on putting out episodes, especially in the beginning and everything.

22:12 But there does come to a point where if you want it to get more, you have to do more. And so that's why we started media and, you know, really putting a lot more effort into our editing and stuff. Yeah, I think with anything that you're trying to do, it's really easy to get started and like, you know, make the goals and all these things. But I think it's really hard to consistently keep it going or like Riley was saying, grow and like strive to do better. And I think there's a lot of things where it can, like the quote was saying, get you through the door. But I mean, eventually you kind of got to push hard and make it happen yourself. You can't expect it to just work out for you. You have to put in the effort because nothing comes just easily. Yeah. The hope for resilience ties in of like, you need to get your immediate. enthusiasm and joy can't get you everywhere and you really need to sit down and sit with yourself sit with your friends your siblings your colleagues yes your colleagues to work out how you're going to move forward and you can't just give up at that whatever you did that got you to the door is good but you need to develop almost a new skill set to be able to get through that door yeah i think that's exactly right there's another quote it's a quote from mel robbins She's an author and she's got a really popular podcast. And she said something that I think is exactly in line with this. She said, life is gritty and hard. And then suddenly

23:42 it is brilliant and amazing. I just love that because there's times where it's just hard. You know, you're just pushing through. You're finding a way to push through. And if you continue to do so, especially if it's something that you believe in. That you'll suddenly turn around and be like, wait a second, I'm actually doing something really great. I'm doing something really brilliant. And it's really fulfilling. And I really love it. And if you stop too soon, you don't get to that point. If you give up too early, you don't push through that grittiness and the difficulty. You never find that brilliance and that amazing that's sometimes just. just around the corner. Uh, it will only push through. So, okay. So one of the things I wanted to get your take on as well as is, I think it was rather that you brought it up at the beginning, which is this idea of hopeful resilience, especially when it comes to Jasmine and the, the nuanced difference here at the live action versus the animated. So maybe talk to us a little bit about what, what did you think of when, when you thought about this topic and y 'all came up with this topic and you thought about Jasmine? I think that you can see, especially in the live action, you can see just like kind of her life and kind of like, I don't know, her personality, maybe a lot more, especially with the song Speechless in the live action. And I think you can just see how like her dad and there's her royal family and everything. And there's that she has to choose

25:12 between them, but then also Aladdin and like this completely different world. And so you can just. really tell like a lot more into her life and how she has to pursue what she really wants to do yeah and i think uh in the movie when she keeps you know rejecting these princes who are coming from all these other lands and you know she's saying no to them knowing that eventually she either has to marry one of them or she's just going to be living you know in the castle her entire life And so she's rejecting them knowing that she doesn't know what's going to happen in the future. And I think that is kind of the essence of hopeful resilience is keeping going on what you are trying to do, even though you may not know if the outcome is even possible.

26:04 And then the live action ties into she goes out and gets it herself. And I think that's the whole point of Speechless, her song. It's like she believes in what she's doing and she goes and gets it. Yeah. Nothing's ever going to come or be something if you don't work hard for it or get it yourself. Yeah, this reminds me of a quote as well that I'd written down. This is from a guy named Daniel Pink. And he's another author, public speaker, kind of thought leader out there. And he has this quote, says, asking why can lead to understanding. Asking why not can lead to breakthroughs. And I was recently having a conversation with Bob Weiss, who is the former president of Walt Disney Imagineering. And I asked him what his personal why was. And he said, it's why not?

26:55 And that was kind of his approach and the creative endeavors. I mean, he's worked on every Disney theme park there is. He headed up a Disney Shanghai, a Disney Tokyo Sea and worked on all the others as well. And I love this idea of why not? And I think that's in part what you're kind of describing here with Jasmine is. And it's, okay, why do I have to go meet with these princes? Why do I have – we have to have this law in place that requires me to marry a prince. Why do I have to do these things? And then suddenly she starts asking herself, why not? Why can't I do it different? Why can't I do something different? Why can't I be the one that breaks this trend of having to follow this ridiculous rule that's in place? And when she does, then suddenly it opens up a world of possibilities for her on things that – maybe others would have assumed wasn't possible.

27:46 What do y 'all think about that? Yeah, I think a lot of our podcast has been, why not? Why we have an idea and we think, oh, well, that's just an idea. That's just something to throw out there. I really think, why not? Why don't we add YouTube or Instagram? Why don't we add a website? Why don't we include mini episodes, which are just 10 to 15 minute episodes? and I think it's just so helpful we we notice a problem and we think gosh it would be so nice if we could solve this problem just by doing this and well why not do that like I think I think that a lot of people when they like think about I don't know doing something new or you know you get into a routine and then they try to overthink that and go like oh but then you know there's all this and this and that that comes with doing that but like just why not just do it like why not yeah and you you don't need to necessarily jump into whatever you want to do and expect yourself to be professional at it immediately but i mean jasmine i don't think knew that eventually this magic guy would come along or that her dad would change the law but like you know she says no she rejects it she knows what she knows is right and what she wants to do even when she doesn't necessarily know what might come of it yeah she kind of sees this third option of well i have to either say

29:16 like yes or i'm just doomed forever like eventually i need to or else the legacy of the kingdom is never gonna keep going but she kind of sees of well there is a third option it's just not easy it's going to be hard no one is going to appreciate this decision that i'm making but it is still there and that's one of the hardest things about going through with difficult process is realizing those third options and taking advantage of them yeah and like nowadays things that people think are just everyday conventional things at some point someone had to think why not Why don't we have whatever the thing might be? And then someone went out and made it and now it's normal.

30:04 So I'm like, gotta go do it. Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, I think so many people can adopt that more in their lives, learning the lessons from Jasmine or from Aladdin, from the story that you guys have. And that's one of the great things about Disney movies and storytelling is it helps open our eyes. for the things in our lives if if more people who have let self -doubt and fear hold them back suddenly changed their mindset to say why not to try something different to try something new or to go out for that promotion or try that new side hustle or try that new venture or start their own podcast then suddenly What we start to do is we start to build something much more fulfilling in our life. And, you know, one of the things I was thinking about with this, especially with the three of you together, is doing it as a team. You know, certainly Jasmine had to have that self -belief to try to do something different and more. And also she needed... kind of a team around her, right? Those around who did believe in her so that she could accomplish something different and better. And there's a quote from one of my favorite people, Simon Sinek, and he said, leaps of greatness require the combined problem -solving ability of people who trust each other. So I wonder if you can comment on

31:37 that about the trust that the three of you have had to have with each other, even if you have disagreements, even if you've had things that are difficult that have allowed you to continue creating this podcast, continue putting it out, continue improving it and making it something really great. What does that look like? How have you built that trust? How have you fostered that trust and work together? Yeah, I think that's something that I mean, Simon Sinek, I've heard a lot of his videos and whatnot in my in college. And I think it is something that we've had to implement a lot, especially in my like role as manager of kind of organizing things, getting people together. It takes a lot of it's hard to find a balance sometimes of trusting your teammates. Yeah, I mean, trusting Caleb, he's gonna edit trusting Riley that she's gonna post.

32:29 Trusting me that I'm going to let them know what they're doing before the day of, it takes a lot of trust. And I think that's been something that we've navigated throughout the years is finding that balance between each other. Yeah, I think that that is pretty much big. I mean, she basically stole the words out of my mouth. like you said it is it's hard because you want to like like say Caleb I want to like oh remind him okay you got to edit today you know we're uploading tomorrow but I need to trust that like okay he he got he's got that done you know like he's got my back and he has to trust that I'm you know uploading consistently to media and then I have to trust Hannah that you know she's getting our website done and everything there's just so much to trust and specifically with me and Riley you just reminded me of this um I will when I'm editing I will find like time stamps and like audio like clips snippets where we can post them and it'll we have like little audiograms that we'll put up of like clips of our podcast and I will just go in and put the time stamp in like a note for Riley to see And she has to trust that I'll find it and put it in there. But then I also have to trust that she'll make sure that she sees that and goes and puts it up. And sometimes we don't even have to tell each other that it's there. It's just kind of a consistent routine that we trust. As long as everyone's doing our job, everything's run smoothly. And part of that

34:01 comes from reliance on each other. You kind of develop a trust because you're... You have to put in work yourself because you know that two other people are depending on you and that they're going to be expecting results at the end of the week. And so it's a way of external motivation, but really from yourself too, because you don't want to let down your teammates and you really don't want to let down your siblings. Yeah, and I think part of that is when you have clear goals, clear responsibilities, and the team functions through that clarity, then the trust comes a little bit easier because then it is clear, okay, hey, you know, here, this is when the episode comes. This is when it's edited. This is when we need to have it. This is when it needs to be uploaded. These are the steps that need to be taken. And you can apply that to any project that any team has, you know, in any industry.

35:00 Whereas if you have clearly defined roles and it's clear about what is expected, then, then, It's clear that the things need to happen. And you do, you have that trust with each other because it's clear. And you also, exactly like you said, you don't want to let down the rest of your team. You know what your job is. And you know that in order for somebody else to complete their job and their portion to bring this greatness and this magic to the table. you have to do your things on the time that you committed um and so that you don't let them down and and that becomes a really helpful way for a team to build that trust is because you do you like you want to support each other you want to make sure you empower the other people on your team to be able to be successful as well and that requires you to do everything that you can do and that you need to do um one more quote i want to take you to before we hit some fun segments here is That's a quote from Jasmine since one of our big topic series, Jasmine, and something that she said really stuck out. And she said, our greatest challenge isn't speaking up against our enemies, but defying those whose approval we seek the most. Isn't that interesting? Let me read it one more time. Our greatest challenge isn't speaking up against our enemies, but defying those whose approval we seek the most. Let's get your take on that. yeah I mean I think it's a lot easier to to speak up and talk to someone who I mean if you're being honest you might not care what they have to say about you or what you say to them because like you know you if you disagree

36:31 you obviously aren't the the best of friends I would imagine but you probably it's a lot easier to talk to people and stand up to them when you don't care what they think of you yeah when that's something that we've had to work I think that we've built really well actually over the years when we have discussions about okay it's time we gotta make episode ideas or something like that and we have to like present these things to each other over every month or so and it's it's hard but you do need to stand up of I don't think this is gonna work I don't think we're gonna be able to have 30 minutes of conversation or if someone has an episode or an idea for the podcast itself even it's a lot of give and take and there's reminds me of another movie quote but um in harry potter the quote of it's takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies but a great deal more courage to stand up to your friends and i think that is something that we've really strengthened i would say that yeah i think it's hard because you You care what they think, you know? Like, you want them to like your idea. I'll be honest, a lot of the episode ideas I throw out there, they get shut down.

37:47 I don't know about that one. I think so, but just because, like, you can't talk about them for that long, you know? Yeah. Like, oh, sure, yeah, we can talk about that right now for five minutes, but you can't turn it into a full episode. But we can make a mini. And so I think a lot of that is negotiation and compromise and, I don't know, I think a lot of working with each other and being honest. You need honesty if you're going to be a part of a team. You do. And I would say whether you're the one saying something that someone else is saying back at you or if you're the one who's commenting on the original thought, I think you have to be open to the other person might just disagree with you. And you have to be open to the fact that you guys don't have to completely agree and you can still come to a conclusion that's for the betterment of the whole system itself. That is something we really enjoy doing on episodes itself. We just had an episode about live action remake and it was a debate between Caleb and Riley because they have different opinions of what a live action remake should be about and what makes a live action good. And so much of our podcast is debating each other and like having differing opinions.

39:00 And we all know by this point after years, we know some of our like hottest takes for each of us. And it's really like, a fun center of our podcast. At least for me, I really enjoy when those things come up. I mean, they're bound to be almost every episode. I have a hot take. Riley does have a lot of hot takes. Hot takes are great. I mean, I think at the end of the day, you just, you come together and you realize this isn't like the end of the world. If we disagree on this subject, it's not, you know, it's not going to break any friendships. We're still going to have a good time. Yeah. Yeah. And as you build that team and you have that trust, it, then then somebody's not threatened by somebody else having a different opinion um and and when we can embrace that that somebody else can have a different perspective a different opinion without threatening our you know safety or sense of being because it doesn't because it doesn't have to we don't have to stand in our own way then suddenly we come with better ideas we can come up with greater solutions we can problem solve in a more effective way if we'll do it and not be afraid to put our ideas out there okay so here's what i want to take you to so we do a couple of fun segments towards the end of each episode the first segment is called this or that right classic this or that everybody knows what a this or that is There's no right or wrong answers, but you may have to defend your controversial opinion, especially if it's a hot take. Especially if it's a hot take. Okay, so we'll have each of you answer

40:30 each one of these, okay? And then we'll have to see if there's any healthy debate about them. Okay, here's the first one. Magic carpet or the genie's lamp? Magic carpet. Magic carpet. What about it? Like you get it. Yeah, you get it. I'm assuming. I'm going to go genius lamp because I'm afraid of heights. Yeah. Okay. That's an acceptable answer. I do think the magic carpet is a fun personality that makes the carpet pretty fun. And it lasts longer. For sure. So, okay. Let's say the Agrabah marketplace or the palace rooftop. Rooftop. Yeah, I think it's got to be rooftop, honestly. Yeah, I go rooftop. Yeah, I think the rooftop's the place to go. Just the views are going to be awesome, and you can see all of Agrabah. I mean, the marketplace is certainly an interesting place. It would be kind of fun to walk around the different shops and stuff there, but it'd be something majestic about the palace rooftop. Okay, here's a tough one. Abu?

41:44 The monkey or Raja the tiger? A boo. Wow, that was awesome. Are you kidding me? This isn't even a question, guys. I'm going to go with a boo. Just because the convenience of a monkey being on my shoulder I think is a lot easier than a tiger walking into me. But a boo is the start of all Aladdin's problems. And Raja has a lie detector built in. He's pretty awesome. But he's cute and he can climb around. He'll think it's not saying I don't want anything stolen. I don't want anything stolen. But you know, like, convenient. I don't know. I mean, yeah. It's cool to have him on his shoulder. He could be like a security guard for you all. It's cool to have him on his shoulder, but I think I might take Raja. I also just like big animals like that. Yeah. Okay, I like it. See, I was thinking we might have some disagreement about some of these, so I like that one. I like the take on Raja being kind of the built -in lie detector because you're right, that is one of his superpowers, isn't it? Okay, here's another one. Here's the next one. The Prince Ali entrance and song or a whole new world and the carpet ride? I think I know Caleb's because he said he didn't like heights, but we'll see. Yeah. I'm going to go the Prince Ali entrance just because it's just so grand.

43:12 It's like a Disney parade but with elephants. Okay, it depends on if I'm watching the parade or in the parade. Oh yeah, I don't know. Let's say watching. We'll go watching. Okay, yeah. I think I might have to take the whole new world. Oh boy. It's a good one. I mean, Whole New World's pretty amazing. It is pretty amazing. Yeah, and you get to see, like, everything. Like, oh my gosh. Yeah, okay. I'll do the Whole New World. Yes, good job. Okay, I like it. I like it. Okay, here's the next one. This one might be tough.

43:56 Will Smith as the genie or Robin Williams as the genie? Oh, this is hard. This is very hard. I almost feel like each one was the perfect genie for the type of Aladdin they were in. I think it's tough because in the Will Smith one, they just have CGI and it's just him flying in blue. I think Robin Williams gives a lot more character to him. Personality? Yeah. But at the same time, that is a tough, tough choice there. I feel like I'm leaning towards Robin Williams, but I might pick Robin Williams. That is really hard. But again, I feel like each one fit the different roles for like a live action versus an animated.

44:52 Yeah, I agree. I might take the Robin Williams role. Who doesn't love Robin Williams? Yeah. And see, this is one where my age over y 'all is a defining one here, because for me, it's a piece of cake on this one. It's definitely Robin Williams, because I grew up with it. Right. I mean, Robin Williams was the heart and soul of that movie. Absolutely hysterical. I mean, I think the one that I don't know if y 'all have ever seen. Aladdin, the musical, either on Broadway or in the traveling ones. But every time I see a genie on there, they're drawing so much of the Robin Williams humor that just makes it so funny. And I just love it. And it's not that Will Smith is bad, but boy, I love me some Robin Williams genie. He is hilarious. Oh, yeah. It's his own character. He really does steal the show.

45:46 Yeah. Okay, here's the next one. And I don't know if y 'all are big Disneyland folk or not, but we're going to take a stab at this one, okay? Disneyland or California Adventure? Disneyland for me, personally. Okay, name me some of these California Adventure. Didn't California Adventure just open up like Marvel Campus a few years back? Yep. Really? Oh, gosh. I think I'm up to date on my California Adventure. California Adventure has Cars Land, right? It does, yeah. The Cars ride has Cars Land. It has the Spider -Man ride now. Yeah, California Adventure. I do love me Radiator Springs Racers. Mm -hmm. I think I'll go Disneyland just for the history and nostalgia of it. But they've really been doing some good things to California Adventure. I think I have to go with California Adventure because it has Tower of Terror, right? Or was it? Which is now Guardians of the Galaxy. Yeah, Guardians of the Galaxy. I think I have to go with California Adventure. Yeah, Pixar Pier is really great.

46:59 Yeah, this is a much tougher question than it used to be. It used to be, especially when California Adventure first opened, it was a piece of cake Disneyland. But boy, they have just put out some killer rides and lands at California Adventure because Radiator Springs was not original to California Adventure. That was an addition later on. Tower of Terror was amazing. Love the update with Guardians. They now have the Spider -Man ride in Avengers Campus. I love the re -theme on the roller coaster to the Incredicoaster. Just such a fun re -theme there. I'm probably slanted California Adventure now, which I never would have thought when it first opened. It's so wild, but it is our blast. It almost feels a little traitorous, but it's pretty good. Okay, here's another tough one for you, I think, because y 'all have talked about kind of expanding your podcast into Marvel stuff. So I decided to dive into a little bit of Marvel here. And this one may be a tough one. So Iron Man or Captain America?

48:04 Iron Man. That is a question. Iron Man. Captain America. Wait, wait, wait. Are we talking about like with the Civil War debate? Like, or just their characters? Just whatever, however you want to take it. Oh, gosh. I'm just going characters. I think I'm going to go Iron Man. Yeah, I think it's Iron Man. Oh, my gosh. I think that his character arc is just insane. Okay, sure. The first time I'm ever agreeing with Caleb. I do think he has a great arc. Although I can respect Captain America for what he believes in. Yeah. He's just so consistent. But I could see if you liked Iron Man's arc, that would be a difference.

48:49 I mean, he did make the ultimate sacrifice at the end of his nap. He did. I mean, yeah. Yeah, I think I have to go with Iron Man. Yeah, me too. Iron Man's kind of funny because he's so, like, doesn't care. Yeah, he doesn't really care. Yeah. So we have, did I hear two Iron Mans? yes yeah yeah and then that one captain america i think so yeah okay okay see i knew that was going to be a tough one uh because honestly they're both so great i mean honestly they're they're just two absolutely fantastic characters i i have to go iron man for me i uh enjoyed marvel before the first iron man it wasn't that i didn't love like them but i didn't love it i didn't yeah i kind of knew spider -man but i didn't really know much beyond that and then suddenly once iron man the first one came out oh i was all in on marvel and just love iron man from that time going forward um I do think Captain America is a real close, close call there, but there's something about Iron Man that was pretty fantastic. And you're right, made the ultimate sacrifice at the end, right? It's a good call.

50:02 Yeah, I might be convinced. I think even the other, what you're saying about his movies specifically, I think his movies are more like consistently have everything I want with like the humor and action. I feel like Captain America movies, Captain America movies are more like, It's not all at once funny and action. But, I mean, Pepper Potts even in Captain America. Iron Man. Oh, boy. Yeah, I think I'll be convinced by that. Yeah, Pepper Potts is pretty awesome. Okay, here's our rapid fire. So we're just going to run one right after the other and get you all's answer on each of these, okay? You ready for this? Yep. Okay, here it is. Favorite Disney movie. Tangled, live action, live. Okay, all three different. I love it. Favorite Disney song? Oh. Yikes. I just can't wait to begin. Makes sense, because Lion King. That's a tough question. That is an insane question.

51:12 One Jump Ahead. Oh, that is so good. I don't even know if I have one. We'll say if we're going from my movie. I might do The Circle of Life. I don't know. Same movie? Well, I love the movie. All right. I don't know. We'll do just I See the Light. that's a good one that's good it is a good one and entangled i think was a little underrated when it first came out uh you know interesting about lion king i know this is a rapid fire but i gotta go off on the side i love lin -manuel miranda like he's just one of my favorites and i remember when mufasa was coming out and he was talking about lion king and and he referenced lion king being a soundtrack that was a no skips soundtrack like every single song on lion king is terrific And so I totally get why you're like one and then the other, because like, oh, everyone, you just can't skip. You have to listen to every single song on that soundtrack in Lion King because it's so good. Okay, Lin -Manuel Miranda. I do want to pick one from Encanto, but I kind of can't pick right now. I mean, that's probably where I'd go. Encanto is actually my favorite Disney movie. Um, and, but which, which song you go with in that movie is really hard because I think the scale of the initial song, Family Madrigal, where he finds what introduced every single character and what all of their things are is just such a clever song. But we don't talk about Bruno was like, I mean, it was the number one song on the charts across the

52:44 country, right? Like amazing. Then you had Dos Oroguitas, which is this sweet song that like. Yeah, that's my favorite movie, y 'all. That's my favorite. I love all those songs, so they're all great. Hannah loves that movie. I really love that. Well, Hannah, you and I were right there. Girl, I got it. That's a great movie. My favorite movie. I love it. Okay, favorite Disney princess. I wanted to say Moana, but she's not a princess. Is she not? Nah, she counts. Really? She counts. Okay. Moana. For a while, it was Jasmine, but I think now... Oh my gosh, I forgot about Jasmine. I think now it'll probably be Rapunzel. I think I'm going to go with The Little Mermaid. It's still Moana. Moana is pretty good. Moana is really good, actually. When you bring up Moana about being a princess or not, isn't it in that movie? Doesn't Maui call her a princess? He's like, I'm not. And he's like, no, you are. You have a sidekick. Like, you're a princess. Yeah, I agree with Maui. I think she's a princess. Okay, how about favorite Disney villain? Scar. Yeah, I hate to go from the same movie, but Scar. Oh, interesting. Scar's a great villain. Yeah, he is. I was going to go Ursula or Scar. Yeah, Ursula. Ursula would be another good one. How about Ursula? So we got Ursula,

54:17 we got Scar, and then what is another one? Scar. Oh, we got two Scars. Okay. Well, you guys are going all in on Scar. Be Prepared, great song. Again, back to the no skips. Be Prepared is a great song, but also Poor Unfortunate Souls is also a great villain song. Terrific. Those are really high in my list. Just for sake of a different one, I also really like Hades from Hercules. I think he's funny. I think he's a good time. Hades is a good villain. Okay, how about we'll end with this on the rapid fire. Favorite food at Disneyland or California Adventure, in case maybe. The funnel cakes are so good. Well, the churros. The churros. The churros are really good. The churros are really good. Yeah, Cars Land churros. I haven't been in so long on Main Street. Do we get two churros? All the bakeries have, oh, yeah. I'm going to do the funnel cake.

55:19 Yeah. Funnel cake, okay. Those are good. I'm a churro guy. The churros there are just like, I don't know. Nobody does a churro like Disneyland. They're just so good. I love the churros. Okay, so what we like to do at the end of every episode is we like to give our audience three actionable takeaways. In other words, three things that we recommend that they could put into effect in their lives today or this week. And in this case, on that topic of the hopeful resilience, finding a little bit more of that hopeful resilience in their lives. What are three specific suggestions you all would have that somebody could do to have more hopeful resilience in their life starting this week? Yeah, one that I have, and I think all of ours are kind of habits, but definitely something you should start now. Continually make achievable goals, but never a final goal. I would say this week, make a goal list maybe for your next year of whatever project it is. and kind of think of think of what is actually achievable think of where you'll be in the next quarter the next three months the next six months and the next year but don't think of that as the end of your whatever in our case the podcast like you shouldn't ever think of your goals as a capstone so put a goal but never make like

56:49 okay this is where we want to be in five years. I think if you do a five -year goal, it should be more general. I would be very wary of placing that much precision in a goal that far out. It could just, you feel limited yourself and you shouldn't feel that. You should bring yourself up. Yeah. I think, you know, what's interesting is for somebody so young, that's actually very insightful. um because i've heard a lot on this recently you know traditionally in the business world in the corporate world it's you know you set your 10 -year plan your five -year plan your three -year plan and then you work from there and and i think what a lot of research is showing is that you just have no idea where you're actually going to be in five years or even three years that being a little bit more generic and you could have it be a big goal, but a little bit more generic that far out actually can be helpful.

57:38 And you're dialing down on the specifics in your quarterly goals and in your annual goal. So it's actually really insightful. I really liked that one. So excellent. So we've got a great actual takeaway there of, of kind of setting those goals and kind of those, those dialing in those quarterly goals three, you know, a three month and 90 day kind of period. Excellent. What else? Well, I would say, Whatever you're doing, whatever you're striving for, whatever your hobby is, write down your milestones, whether they're big or small. Write them down so that you can, one, see how far you've come for motivation to keep going, and also to track your growth, to see how you're doing throughout your time. Because I think it's really easy to, kind of like how we've been talking in this episode, just start something, but not really go through with it, or to lose the passion as you continue on with it. And I think writing down those milestones of whatever you're doing really helps you with seeing where you've come to kind of convince yourself that you actually are getting better and growing at whatever you're trying to do. But it also really motivates you to continue on with the goal. And write the date with those milestones so you can really see how fast you're progressing and how far. Yeah. It's an excellent one as well. I mean, what they say is that what you measure, you can improve. And so if you don't have them written down, you have no measurement against which to compare it in the future. So it's hard to track whether or

59:11 not you've grown or you've made improvements. But by writing those goals down and then reviewing those goals when those time periods come, then you can see, okay, where did I come? Where did I fall short? What can I do to improve on? the the next goals that i set so it's an excellent one perfect okay how about number three so for this one i would say don't be afraid of reimagining your process when things don't go as planned instead use those challenges to re -innovate new pathways don't just dig deeper to strengthen a new one so like say you get a challenge you know or setback like we were talking about earlier in this episode don't like use that as something that like oh man that like that stinks you know don't let that tear you down but instead use that as like almost advice like hey this is what you can work on okay now we're gonna you know change this and change that and make it better and obviously this might not be having a difficulty but this week you can still to have a contingency plan or whatever it is um usually our contingency plans revolve around who's going to edit Riley and I ended up learning a little bit ago how to do the baseline bare bones of editing as a contingency plan for when Caleb can't do it.

1:00:26 And so I think having a contingency plan and then, yeah, when something goes bad, think of three out of the box ways, kind of those why nots that we were talking about earlier. Why not? Why can't you do something else to overcome this problem? It was exactly what came to my head when you said that. was the why not so that's perfect i love that you you wrecked it right into that because that's that can really you know expand what the possibilities are so we don't get too stuck in a rut um and we can think beyond that and really open up the world of possibilities well you know thank you so much those are some fantastic um actionable takeaways that people can really put into effect in their lives to to help, you know, really bring a greater degree of happiness, of joy, of fulfillment through this hopeful resilience as we push past struggles, as we find hope in the things that we're doing in building for a great future for ourselves and for others. Been an absolute pleasure speaking with the three of you today on the challenges you faced, the resilience you've had as you've built a wonderful podcast and stuck with it for a substantial period of time, which is so impressive.

1:01:37 And it's also so impressive that you've done so at a young age. And I think it just goes to show that, you know, regardless of somebody's age or background, that there's so many things we can learn from others. And so I appreciate the willingness that the three of you had to share your story, to share your experiences with our audience. I'm better off for it. I know that our audience will be better off for it. So really appreciate your time that the three of you took to be on with us today. Yeah, thank you for having us. Yeah, it's our pleasure. We really enjoy getting this chance to share our story and tell everyone more about us aside that they don't get to see on the, or hear on our podcast. Yeah, I don't even think the people who listen to our podcast are getting this much in -depth on us.

1:02:19 As you lead this conversation, remember that yes, the past can hurt and you can either run from it or you can learn from it. So here's to learning and finding joy in the journey. See you real soon.