Extraordinary vs. Extra Ordinary

It's just potential. But over time with the Make RBC Training Ground your breakfast. Start your journey to Team Camp. BC Training Ground.ca AI was supposed to take over the parts of the job you hate. Turns out, it made your job even harder. Instead of doing the work, it gave you homework. ServiceNow's AI specialists get work done from start to finish. Cases get resolved. Loops get closed. With ServiceNow, you can do the parts of your job you're best at and delegate the rest.

To put AI to work for people, visit servicenav.com. WBUR Podcasts. Boston.

Producer Grace Tatter, how you doing? Great. Host Anne Marie Sievertson and Ben Brock Johnson. I'm doing great because I got to follow a tip that one of our listeners gave us. So you might remember this email. It's from a while ago, but it was from a listener named Jordan Sewell. And Jordan had written to tell us about how he and his wife were traveling around Iceland a couple of years ago. Uh best place. Ah, I know, I'm jealous. Have you been? I have. You must go. You will go.

Someday. Someday. For now though, I'm living vicariously through Jordan and his wife, who um were doing lots of hiking too during their trip a couple of years ago. So every evening they check Google Maps to plan the next part of their road trip. And almost always a person going by the name of Ridiculous had reviewed the next few hikes on their route. So I'm going to send you one of Ridiculous's reviews from that trip. Okay. I see a picture of somebody in a draft.

And they're also in quite remarkable scenery, right? Against a quite staggering backdrop. And it's they're they're wearing those shoes. What are those shoes? Valentinos, is that a thing? Nice try. You're close, you're close. Those are Louutons. Oh Louutons, of course. Which is where I think we can assume Ridiculous gets their screen name. Ridicules L O U B, yes.

And can I say I've seen these shoes before? I've heard of Louboutons. I have seen these shoes before. I have never put the two together that that like I didn't know what a loop gun to my head I couldn't have told you what a Lou Buton looked like. But it's the it's the black shoe with the bright red heel, like stiletto, the black stiletto with the bright red bottom to the shoe. So for anyone who needed a visual, just because I I didn't know and now I do.

And they're very high, very skinny. They look like a weapon. The heel looks like a weapon. Okay, I haven't seen them that up close, but It's like uh yeah, it's like a red mouth with one very long sharp tooth if you look at it. bathroom. The back. Yes, and they also look very hard to walk in. So this review of this person wearing these very high heels in gorgeous mountainous places, it turns out this is not an anomaly.

Because fast forward two years and Jordan and his wife are in the Dolomites in Italy, and once again, Ridiculubes has been on the trail. And once again, Ridiculubes has been wearing their signature Louvatons. How is Ridiculous always just one lube step ahead of them? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. And how are they walking on this terrain in those shoes? I know. The snow. On a flat wooden floor in.

Crunching they're crunching around on the snow. They're up. Hey, is it okay that I'm forwarding through these photos? Yeah, I was going to say scroll through the photos but also like some of the reviews. Yeah. So they're th these are like your classic hiking photos where you're on the top of X Mountain or you're on the you know, you're amid the incredible landscape except this person is doing it. Some form of a dress or skirt and these ridiculously high heels.

Yeah. It's very surrealist, I feel, like in a way, or like vaguely surrealist, where it's like, Oh, this person is wearing an outfit that does not make sense in this location, but it's very striking. Lots of questions here. Right. So like you all, like me, Jordan, our listener, wanted to know why. Why if you're going to these like beautiful but very rocky, steep places are you wearing such high heels? Um and and why

Why Google Maps? Why post these pictures on Google Maps reviews? Because you're only going to come across these reviews if you're traveling to these places, right? It's not like they're going to get a lot of attention inherently. So why are they doing this? Are they trying to become a meme? Are they hiding little Easter eggs across Google Maps just so fellow hikers like Jordan will stumble across them?

And also how are they doing this? Like these are serious hikes with like cables and stuff. Um have they modified the Silettos with gripper spikes to make them all terrain? Like how are they getting out? That was that was that was what I was that was my big question too, is like, is there a little

Is there a little backpack with their other clothes just outside the frame? Cause I lube's looks pretty pristine in these photos. Like I don't I I'm not seeing the dust of the hike on Lube's outfits here.

Well, fortunately I talked to Ridiculubes and they were down Ridiculous was down to reveal. Libs? I swear did. All right, Grace, tell us more. Okay. So Ridiculubes signs his emails as Riddy. Loobes is a great nickname, um, Ben, but Riddy is how he signs his emails, which is a little less of a mouthful than Ridiculubes. Um riddy first discovered women's fashion when he was a little kid. I'm a guy, but I like dressing up.

This is an aspect of Riddy's life he doesn't always share with everyone, so that's why we agreed to use his nickname. Around twenty years ago, he started dressing up sometimes when he was out of the house. Of course back then the social climate was a bit different. But every time I went out I took some photos as photographic evidence and that started a trend. And eventually I built up my confidence, started going out during daytime and different places in public and uh

Yeah, it it was a process of getting used to the looks that you might get. And you know, some of the looks may not be so charitable. Riddy developed his confidence and style over time. He started collecting Lou Batons. He now owns about twenty pairs. I would say I'm jealous, but I really don't think I could walk in them. So I guess that's fine.

At the same time, as he's developing his new sense of style and gaining the confidence to go out and about more dressed up, he's also developing a passion for nature and the outdoors. Riddy can work remotely, so he regularly travels to hike and camp in some of the world's most scenic places. I was driving through Austria at one point. So I was thinking around Easter time.

And there's still snow in the ground and I decided, Oh, I haven't um dressed up while uh being on snow or and on a snowy path and I did that and that was one of the earlier explorations, I suppose. It kind of became a thing because I looked at it like, Oh, this is actually quite nice. It just worked out because these are things that I love and I um and I can do both at the same time.

Riddie doesn't have a photography assistant. He uses drones to capture these images. He tries to pick times of day when there aren't other hikers around, so he doesn't disturb them with drone noises. And he does not wear stilettos for the entire hike, usually. But there are moments where I am just like, okay, I'm just gonna take this video and uh yeah, I can um massage my feet a little later.

But wearing stilettos is not without its risks, especially in nature, which Riddy was reminded of one day when he was setting up for a photo in a beautiful but remote location. I stepped out into the rock in order to get. the um the spot where I think, okay, this would look nice. As I stepped out, I I slipped. I couldn't stop myself. I w I kept sliding and sliding and I looked ahead and in about like five feet there was a drop-off.

And I internally I'm panicking, but I was still trying to look for a way out and I kept trying to stop myself with my legs and my hands and it wasn't working. Fortunately, Riddie saw a tree branch. I went up and grabbed it. I hung onto it and it um, you know, it held my weight. And thanks to it I was able to yeah get out safely. Nobody was there, I didn't see anyone. He also didn't have any cell phone service.

So if something has happened, if I broke my leg or hit my head and got unconscious, then I've no recourse except to just drag myself out.

When Riddie leaves a Google review, it's not just so he can post his pictures. He's also sharing detailed information about these hikes because he actually uses Google reviews. In addition to Google Maps, Riddy posts his pictures on Instagram, also under the name Ridiculubes. He hasn't gone viral. He's not really trying to become a meme. He genuinely enjoys dressing up, taking pictures and hiking just for himself. But he was delighted that Jordan had seen his reviews more than once.

Wow, it feels great to actually have people notice and um and the fact that um you're your listener had traveled to the same place as I have, I feel like there's a lot of kindred spirits out there. So yeah, that's ridiculous. I'm personally manifesting a trail run-in between Jordan and Riddy. I think that would be very fun for everyone. Oh man, maybe maybe Jordan and his wife can become the like human support team. Like the drone kick. Together.

Yeah, you can't argue with some of these drone shots and how high up they are and the perspective that they offer, but I do for Riddy's um safety want want him to have some hiking. buddies along uh along these trips so as long as we don't hear some horrible news headline about Riddy falling to his death I I love the spirit of of this.

Yeah, respect to Riddie for taking something that he loves and another thing that he loves and putting them together in a way that a lot of people probably wouldn't think about. And that also gives other people joy. That always gives also gives other people something to love following his journey. Yeah. I love it. Well thanks, Grace. Thank you. Safe trails. Happy trails. Yeah. Indeed.

Okay, Ben, so that was nothing short of extraordinary. But when we come back, I'm gonna tell you about a different corner of the internet that is utterly ordinary. Sup Nords? I mean nerds? Or do we in fact mean Nord? We do. If you're a nerd like us, you probably know about Nord VPN. The company has 9,000 servers across 130 countries, and you can use one of the fastest VPNs out there with a single click of a mouse. You don't even have to be an iOS user. You could be an Android like this.

Whatever operating system you use to get Nordy, you can use NordVPN for sports or entertainment, or for privacy protections, covering 10 devices across your whole household. NordVPN has your back and they don't track you online. To get the best discount off your NordVPN plan, you can go to NordVPN.com slash endless. Our link will also give you four extra months on the two-year plan. There's no risk with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee.

Again, that is NordVPN.com slash endless and the link is also in our show notes. By Nords. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry, but but But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. Stories about policing or Politics. Hockey. That's Of bugs. Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers. And hopefully make you see the world on the world.

Radio Lab, Adventures on the Edge of What We Think We Know Wherever you get your podcasts. Hey Threadheads, more than 3 billion people around the world regularly use WhatsApp for all sorts of things. I, for instance, call my aunt and my nephew in Australia. And there are those kind of standard family chats and one-on-one conversations, but there are also chats with more than a thousand people in them.

Chats about yoga, politics, pretty much any other topic under the sun. People use WhatsApp for all sorts of things, and we want to know. How do you use it? What is your favorite group or a crazy group that you're in or a group you had to leave because of drama? You can write us an email, you can send us a voice memo. Just say what's app to us at Endless Thread at WBUR dot org.

Okay, we're back. And Ben, I'm gonna send you a few Facebook posts for you to take a look at. Oh boy. All right. Headed back to Facebook, the place I try to avoid at all costs and barely know how to log into anymore. Fair enough. I log in so you don't have to. How about that? Perfect. Perfect. Okay, why don't we start with this one? Wait, are these Brussels sprouts the same size as avocado? Yes! What is happening right now? Look at these giant Brussels sprouts. Would you look at that?

Or do you mean or do you mean tiny avocados? Ooh, we can't know, can we? We've we've only got an avocado for scale. We need a banana for scale. I'm sorry. Send it back. Okay. Send it back. Here's another post I want you to take a look. Okay, this one's a little more complex. Mm.

This is it, the very last drops of my preferred smell of blue dawn. They changed the scent a little over a year ago, and it's just not the same. The old one, this one, was clean and fresh. The new one is perfumed and just not. The right one. This is relatable, right? When you just they were d she's talking about Dawn dish liquid and the scent changing. And I feel like we've all had that product in our life where Something that you think you can rely on one day.

Yeah. For me that's just pants generally. Yeah. Cancer. I just like you get a pant you get a pair of pants, you're like, damn, these is good pants. And then you go back and they're like, No, it's all bell bottoms now. And you're like, Really? This is we're doing this again? Ha ha ha. You know what I mean? I'm not I am not taking a bite of that apple. I'm not on the bell bottom drain.

I mean my legs are my best trait. So like I I gotta show off them stems, you know what I mean? And like if I'm if I gotta if I'm going back to boxy pants, that doesn't help me. Your um elaboration on this is really tapping into something that is quite relevant. We are dancing around the topic. But do you have any guess as to what Shared space on the internet, these posts were made in. They belonged to one particular group. Um the not interesting subreddit. Ha ha ha.

Essentially yes. These were all made in something called the Dull Women's Club on Facebook. Oh the Dull Women's Club. Okay, fair. Which is a place on the internet to post about ordinary life, so just celebrating the ordinary, really.

This is self-proclaimed Dole Woman Sarah Jones Green, and she created the Dull Women's Club group on Facebook. She works as an actor and a singer in London. Oh I'm a shoe size eight. Ha ha ha. And Sarah wants you to know that she wears size 8 shoes because most posts in this group include the poster's shoe size. And that can be traced back to the Dull Men's Club, which started as a website in the mid-90s, but now also has a Facebook group.

So, perhaps the shoe size thing is a reference to the male anatomy I suggested to Sarah? Had you thought of this? I'm I'm quite the thing is I'm quite innocent as well. I don't always get these jumps. People also often post a picture of a banana, um, which as you said, banana for scale, that's that's also just become part of the bit now.

Um, but the idea for the Dull Women's Club started with the Dull Man in Sarah's life, or at least a member of the Dull Men's Club, her husband, who was scrolling through that particular Facebook group one night. We were on a night out and he was drinking the beer and I was drinking hot chocolate and I said, I'm a dull woman. And I thought Well I know women can join this page, but women want their own page, so yeah, I set up for Dull Women's Club.

Sarah's also said that she came across an article about a couple who met as a result of the Dull Men's Club. So that was further motivation to set up a similar page for women. So Ben, you've gotten a sense of the kinds of posts that are made in this Facebook group. But I asked Sarah what being a dull woman means to her.

And she said it's someone who likes their creature comforts and and wants to celebrate the simple joys of life. And in that way, it's kind of the opposite of ridiculous, you know, it's like the antithesis to the traditional approach to social media, we might say.

Yeah, fair. Now, this isn't to say that there aren't some momentous things that happen in the Dole Women's Club Facebook group. Like like this post that I just sent you, Ben. Take a look. Okay, okay, just purchased my first home at sixty. It's a nice looking house this person bought in what looks like rur m suburban rural New England. A lot of golden leaves, some jack o' lanterns, beautiful house. See what I love about this is like

You know, for some people they would say, Whoa, you're just buying your first home at sixty? And it's like No, man. She just bought her first home at whatever age, you know? This is the big this is the big event. This is the big accomplishment. And I I think we um We lie to ourselves so often on social media in in accepting that what we are seeing is the whole picture. And this is a space where not only can you post the whole picture, but it's so it's so relatable, right? It's like

what other space on the internet can you post about your favorite dish liquid changing scent and have a bunch of people chime in and go, Oh man, I know. Like it's such a I hate when that happens. And we don't have a lot of spaces on the internet where we can just commiserate about that and celebrate those things with strangers.

You know, that is an excellent point. When you're in this world of y uh actually having to click buttons to like things and upvote things and comment on things and there's this real kind of um you know, priority placed on like just how much people love it and how crazy it is and how it makes you angry or it makes you um m blows your mind. You know, like I do like

a an area of the internet where you can just be like, Yeah, this is just a thing and I I like it. And people can be like, that's great. without having to like hold you to some like crazy standard of like, oh well your post isn't a picture of somebody like chugging an entire jug of oil and then throwing up everywhere or so you know what I mean? Like I I I I do like that that I I I like this as a concept. I'm warming up. I'm warming up.

Yeah. And and these people know that that these posts are otherwise like Dull. You know, I just shared one more with you. The caption is just very dull indeed. My toast was launched so precisely. Okay, this one is my zone. Okay. This is my zone.'Cause it's dull but it's also incredibly unlikely. Yeah. So explain this.

Okay, it says very dull indeed. My toast was launched so precisely. This is one of those vertical toaster ovens where you pop the toasts. I guess it's a toaster. It's not a toaster oven. And it says my toast was launched so precisely from the toaster that it landed just so on its platform. And so like on top of this toaster, there's a bread standing perfectly vertically on end. If that happened to you in real life.

It's a little out of this. It's like it is dull because it's just like your toast. It's just like today's piece of toast. But it is also remarkable. Right. Like this is the sort of thing where I would take a picture of it and I'd probably send it to my husband or I'd send it to, you know, my family. I might send it I might send it to you, you know, and be like Yeah, that's...

Look at my toast. But this is a community of one point six million strangers around the world where you can post this and you will find your people who are like, Man, that toast is amazing. How did And you'll feel and you'll feel validated. And and Sarah says there are about like two hundred posts submitted every day that she and five of her friends comb through as moderators.

There will be certain crazes where like everyone will start posting pictures of their tattoos or one time people were posting a bunch of close-up pictures of their eyes, which I'm not into that. I can't do eye stuff. Um but there are all these spin-off groups. There's like a dull women's vegan group that's been served up to me in the algorithm before. There are fake versions of the group because the real one is so popular that other people are trying to sort of like

capitalize off of that momentum, so that's shady, don't do that. Um but there is one key rule that Sarah told me about. I can't really allow posts of a political or religious nature just because well all the unrest in the world, there's going to be a lot of rows and this isn't really the place for rowing. Isn't the place for rowing, Ben? No rowing. She's actually had to ban

No hullabaloos. She's had to ban certain um the names of certain American politicians, a particular one that you can probably imagine to minimize. What? W they they should make merch and it should be Make America Dull Again. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, please. Peace. Let's get a make America Dull hat again. It may be in sad beige. And sad beige. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And I yes, I love that because part of like part of the essence of dullness is just feeling like

uh comfortable with your dullness. Safe. Safe from being judged and feeling judged and from judging others once you see other people's kinds of posts. And this is like Really um a a point of pride for Sarah. This is what she hopes she has created. Just feeling safe, happy and secure, like a place online that they can call home where they can be themselves and Just just celebrate there every day. Ben, did you watch season three of The White Lotus? The one in Thailand? Yeah, of course.

So I have to say, in preparing to talk to you about the Dole Women's Club, I was thinking back. to this monologue that Carrie Kuhnz's character has at the end of the series, where she's talking to her friends, one of whom is like a movie or T V star, another one you know, has is in has married some wealthy guy and has beautiful children and has this life that Carrie Coons either wants or thought that she wanted.

I just feel like I As you get older you have to justify your life, you know, and your choices. And When I'm with you guys it's just so like Like transparent what my choices were and my mistake. As I'm thinking about the Dole Women's Club, and I'm thinking about this monologue. I was just tearing up because, you know, she she says, her character says I don't Need religion or God to give my life meaning. Because time gives it meaning.

And that it's not the fabulous things that you've done or places you've gone or the extraordinary accomplishments. It's just the fact that you have lived each day. and you've gone through the the joys of accomplishing small goals and the frustrations of having your, you know, your dish liquid fragrance change. It's just like There is value and meaning just in the living and in the passing of time, and experiencing what we do just in the everyday, dull as it may be.

Um and so that's that's what I want to leave people with is just a as one writer put it, talking about the Dole Women's Club, like Contentment is seriously underrated, and there's value in that contentment. I like that. And I would say like for me what this makes me think about is um is akin to that, which is You know, at this period of my life, essentially my happiest times, my times of my m being feeling most content.

are things that like are fundamentally dull in some ways. Where like I for me, like going on a walk in the woods with my family, and that's I feel like So much of we experience on the internet is is sort of like mm curated to be the opposite of that, like the most incredible meal. The most A person hiking in Louboutons on the top of a mountain. Sure. Yeah. Sure. Although, you know, I ain't mad at that either. No, no, there's room there's room for both of that.

There's room for both. And I I guess like I do I think where our lives are the most rewarding are in things that are like the sort of like quiet moments, the things that are um, less likely to be posted on the internet in some ways. And it's a nice reminder that Um, a lot of what fulfills us exists offline. Um, but also there are on online places to celebrate those those offline moments as well. Yeah, it's not one or the other like I want ridiculous and I want the toast person.

on my internet. And without both things, the internet does not feel like real life. It feels like only a place for the extraordinary.

So thank you for going on this journey with me and uh Absolutely. Send us and listeners, please send us some dull photos. Yes, what's your dull thing? What what dull thing have you done or relished in lately? Yeah. Um Tell us. But always make sure you add a banana for scale. Yeah. And shoe size if you want. Or not if you don't. But don't send me your eyeball. I don't want that. I won't receive it well. Uh

And we'll be sure to link to both the Dull Women's Club and Ridiculous, because as we've established, we we need both on the internet. We'll put that in our show notes. Endless Thread is a not dull production of WBUR in Boston. This episode was produced by Kalyani Saksena, hosted by me, Ben Brock Johnson, and Me, Amory Sevardson, and producer Grace Tatter. It was edited by Meg Kramer, mixed and sound designed by Marquise Neal.

The rest of our team is Dean Russell, Chiosna Bernadot, Emily Jenkowski, our production manager Paul Vikas, and our managing producer, Samata Joshi. Endless Thread is a show about the blurred lines between your favorite scent of dish. And the new one, that sucks. And why did they change it? Terrible. If you have an unsolved mystery, an untold history, or another wild story from the internet that you want us to tell, you can hit us up, endlessthread at wbr.org.