Las Vegas: Mother Cabrini

think it literally gave rise to all of Vegas. So it's where Vegas began. This is because like water and power, basically exactly right. See these power lines right here. Yes, that's the juice that the damn sending that keeps those lights on and those fountain spinning, and those little guns that shoot like Coca Cola and diet Cola and ginger

Allen Seltzer. They're all powered by all I can think of our the little pulses traveling through those lines all the way to a casino into a slot machine where I will then also be inserting money and winning hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars and it all starts out here. So you know what you've You've actually convinced me this is Vegas, baby, this is not lost. Each episode, a friend and I travel somewhere to see the sights and try to get invited to dinner. I'm Brendan Frances Newnham,

not in real Vegas, but out of here. And that's my friend Luke Burbank. We've known each other since we were cub radio producers stilled the wild West, and this episode we're in Vegas. Well look at this, and behold, look at this. We are coming around the bend here and looking out on it. Would this be Lake Mead and in the distance then the Hoover dam This is I mean, this is genuinely gorgeous. Wow, where it is? Everything around us is massive, like this damn is massive.

That bridge we drove under his massive. Brendon's anxiety is massive, That's all massive. Yes, it's been a minute since I've driven on a narrow highway without guardrails overlooking a canyon. But I've been to Vegas before. When I used to live in Los Angeles, I'd sometimes hop a short flight over to meet up with friends. We drink too much, play cards, and as my fifth grade teacher, mister Bicello

used to say, act like knuckleheads. But that was a while ago, and lately I've been trying to leave my knucklehead days behind. Meanwhile, Lucas kept up his love for Since you're not you've been to Vegas before like a bunch, right, yeah, Like, I mean probably thirty five or more times. He has a preferred hotel, a system for winning roulette, and a tattoo of two playing cards on his arm. And that's just the gambling tattoo I can see. But we are going to the casinos later, right, I mean staying not

far from the strip now. Luke is newly single and it's Valentine's weekend, so I thought it'd be good for him to join me here. Would allow him to take his mind off things in one of his favorite places, and it would allow me to record an episode of my show. Instead of a dinner party, I thought we could just have dinner for two. It'll be happening somewhere now with my knucklehead days in the rear view, I

built an itinerary that avoided the strip altogether. The only thing is I didn't tell Luke that, so I picked him up at the airport. I hate to break your heart, but if I have my way, we won't even send foot in the Gazino. Did anything in the contract I signed with you stipulate that I have to be physically near you this whole weekend? Well, also speak of this weekend. It is Valentine's Day weekend, and you know you were one of the people who could join me. Yeah, because

of the fact that I'm going through a breakup. So once again I am back on the market. And I thought, where should I spend the most romantic day of the year out in the desert with my friend Brendan Holy shit? Or in Arizona. Are we supposed to be in Arizona right now? I don't think that's for the purview of this podcast. We might have to go dark for this

portion of the ride. Really well, I'm gonna see if I can keep keep things rolling here in Vegas this weekend as part of Operation Luke Gets his Groove Back. We're back in the bottom of update. Hoover dam Bill under time and under budget from nineteen thirty one to nineteen thirty five during the Great Depression, back in the thirties that was all about you know, man over nature

and great things, and Hoover Damn definitely represents that. Patty Aaron is a public affairs officer for the Federal Department of the Interior, whatever specialties Hoover DA did. They build this because they needed it for like hydroelectric power, or because people needed jobs. So the Colorado River was a really wild river and ran extremely high or extremely low, so that actually the primary reason that it was built

was for flood control. How do you even like, do you have this huge rushing river when you don't have a dam. How do you get the beginnings started? Well, you start by building tunnels through the two sides of the canyon. So as you can look over here, it's scary. It is scary. Luke and I stare over the lip of the dam. Behind us is a massive lake being held at bay. And in front of us, or rather sixties stories of sheer concrete below us buys a river. Wow.

From here, you can see the bottom of the generation deck. Yeah, we're going down there. Oh my god, how do we get down there? We're going to go down in the dam. Wow, they're an elevator. Yeah, Patty points to the middle of the walkway running over the ridge of the dam, and in the midst of the backdrop of blue sky and brown canyon sit two gleaming brass doors marked off by a velvet rope. It looks like an entrance to a fantastical time machine. You guys, go ahead and go in there. Oh,

this is incredible. So as you see here, we're at elevation twelve thirty three. Yeah, and we'll go down and we'll see other elevations set. Do you want to guess, Luke and see who gets closer to how far we've descended. I'll see how far we've descended. Yeah, times weekends. Yeah, we're still in the elevator. Yeah, I could feel like the humidity changing. Have we gone below them of a rochic boundary? Yet that's a layer of the of the

Earth's crusted dark cloth. Yeah, we're gonna now walk through the dam now all right, so we're gonna walk down this hall. We're gonna walk down this hall. I feel like we're going towards something angry. We're going towards the generator deck. We're gonna see where the power is generated, Like how this is gonna be noisy for you. Are you kidding me? Are we in a sci fi film? Right now? You can see lights on on top of

a few of the generators. That means that they're generating power right now that is being spun by the pressure of Lake Mead and the Colorado River coming through. Yeah. So those large generators are the ones that generate power for Arizona, California, and Nevada. Okay, now we are in what is a hallway that is carved out of solid rock. Yeah, I mean this is something out of some kind of jewels vern. See. You can see the dynamite holes, holy gow.

And so we're walking through the mountain to the tunnel that was blasted out. Wow. Wow, it's skinny smell, it's like dank a little bit. Well, you see the salt crystals here on the walls. Is water through the rock? No, it's what it's what nature does, water seas. But nature also had a river that was untamed, but man tamed it. Yeah. I mean, do you think we'll ever do something like this again, Patty? No, I don't see how we would.

This is a door. You gotta be kidding, You're right, probably the thickest like steel doors just opened longer at the bottom of the Damn. Yes, we are, Holy cow. We are looking at the Hoover Dam from river level and it is quite something. It's hard to come out here and not be completely amazed. You know, I didn't even know that this part of Las Vegas existed them. It's like, of course Vegas has a Chinatown, but it never occurred to me to go to it. You're welcome, Luke,

Thank you. What a voyage of discovery. This is turning into Brendon. We're on our way to Big Dan. Chauncey Taste, a tiny food counter inside a Chinese supermarket, which itself is inside a double decker strip mall filled with immigrant jasper of restaurants. It's like a Turducan of conference because it looks like we've got an intersection of a supermarcano and then a Vietnamese name, and then we're going to

a Chinese restaurant. This is a rule. We're here to meet Kim Foster, a critically acclaimed food writer who moved to Vegas with her family a few years back and surprised herself by falling in love with it. If we're going in here, so we're entering a grocery store. He there, she is Hello. Kim has bleae, blonde hair, an easy laugh, and she's cool, not in and off putting way, but in that I want to be near her way. She's

joined by her food buddy, David Claire. He's a samolier from a buzzy restaurant named Esters, but he loves coming to this food counter for its taste of cuisine from Shuanca Province, a place he used to visit regularly. It turns out cuisine from most regions of China are available with Vegas. Is Some people would disagree with me, but I think our Chinatown rivals New York and San Francisco in terms of Chinatown. Can you can order for the table?

I mean, how do you want how do you want to tackle this hunt is definitely order the cold noodles. I think a lot of people think about food in Vegas. This is not the neighborhood they're thinking of. Star chefs. Tell me about the evolution of your relationship to food in Vegas. One of the big surprising things about Vegas is that it's one of the most diverse cities, and Nevada is one of the most diverse states. There is

a huge Mexican, Filipino, Chinese. This is the ninth island for Hawaiians, and there's strange diversity, like because we have struck to slay, we have a community of Mongolians here, so with that comes these food experiences. So that's n P. So what did we get here? Delivered? So this is limpeak. So Lenpe is very classically associated with the city. Ission he's kind of hand pressed wheat noodles literally translates to cold skin. Las Vegas is this place where people think

that the strip is like Times Square. So it's like saying New York is like Times Square, right, that's just a tiny tiny part of New York and that isn't even like a way to define New York. And the same thing happens in Vegas. Would like the first time Tim was like where do you live? And you were like,

Las Vegas? Because that's a whole statement unto itself. Right, you know, it's still kind of weird every time that I say, because you know, you have to kind of go a ends what people already think they know about Las Vegas. You're living a penthouse and you're maybe a male hooker, or some kind of something like that. But like you know, I now want to mention that I live in Las Vegas. Nobody would think that about the

physical condition d versus me. Our physical conditions were all in jeopardy due to the slurpy deliciousness of these hand press noodles. But I didn't meet up with Kim and David to just talk about food. A couple of years ago, Kim wrote a series of articles called The Meth Lunches about the man she and her husband had hired to fix up the house they live in with their foster children. It turned out he was a meth addict, and every day she would prepare him lunch and sit with him.

And meth is really like a big problem here. So the piece that I wrote is really about my relationship of feeding this addict and going through his addiction with him. And we ended up becoming foster parents. And I would say that probably three quarters of the kids that came to us came to us because of a drug addiction meth related issue in their house. Our meth is extremely addictive, It's very very difficult for people to get off, and there's not a lot of you know, services are tricky.

You know, we are a state. One of the reasons it's reasonable to live here is because there's not a lot of taxes. We don't pay city taxes, we don't pay state income taxes. But we're not thick with programs either, because we don't have the revenue for Yeah, so things like if you have a problem and you can't afford to be shipped off to you know, a really expensive yeah, exactly, then you know you're then you're scrambling for your own stop. Awesome?

Is that like the shadow of the libertarian ethos that purvades this area? Right? Education is fifty out of fifty in Nevada, where the bottom with number fifty in the US. That's interesting because I was gonna say, I remember a statistic, which is this town, if you only have a high school diploma, you have the highest quality of life than any other city in America because there are good unions

and a lot of hospitality jobs. But it's interesting to contrast that, so they don't invest in their schools because maybe having a certain level of aptitude isn't necessary for business here. It's like we're like discussing the sort of civic infrastructure of Vegas while eating some of the best food of all time and not commenting on it. But instead of getting into like tax district. Is that is welcome? Welcome,

welcome to my nerdy brain. It's true, a big part of my nerdy brain does like to chop it up about public policy, but another part likes to rustle up dinner parties with near strangers. Now I'd imagine Luke and I would be dining solo tomorrow, But I can't help but ask what Kim and David, what are you doing? What are you doing tomorrow? Um, it's Valentine's Day. My husband and I are going to go to Esther's and have pasta and homemade bread and a lot of carps.

But what about you? What are you? What are you doing tomorrow? I'm gonna be slang in a sparkling roseate. Right, you're working, You're working. It's every every service industry person's favorite night of the years. It's like amateur, Yeah, it's amateur. It's the night that everyone goes to a restaurant who never goes to a restaurant and any See, this is my thinking. So when I booked this trip on Valentine's I was like, no one, really, it's not a real holiday,

you know. And I asked my girlfriend if it was okay that I came out here, and she was like, it's fine that you left her on Valentine's Day? Yeah, are you sure about that? I learned this in marriage one and two. Yeah, after leaving him and David. My belly is full, but my mind is racing. Perhaps I should have taken Valentine's Day more seriously. Also, why didn't my girlfriend take it more seriously? Doesn't she want to

spend Valentine's Day with me? Anyway? You know what's funny to me is I feel like we may be passing each other Brendan in terms of like, I, you know, usually keep it on the strip and I have all the places I go to, and you're very anti, but I think that there's also some fun and excitement to be had on the strip for you. Oh, I just want to say I'm not anti strip as much as I'm just like, I feel like there's those are simple,

big pleasures that right I've I've partaken in. I just had a real big gulp of being single, and now I'm trying to be in a real relationship. I'm just like I think the quieter different pleasures are. I'm trying to lean into them a little bit. That could be a little bit of what's happening in the background. That's fine with me, man. You know, I'm in a sort of fragile place in my personal life, and I think you me book it a BEPO in front of the

ex caliber. But now I kind of hear what you're saying, like that, you know this is uh, this is Sin City, like we gotta do. You know, you can't not touch upon that. And so I'm taking us now to talk to someone who has insight into it. M That doesn't sound very fun. The chapel at Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center is just a rhinestone throw away from the strip. Now Vegas might seem like a thankless place to battle

sin the Father Daniel tells us there are advantages. I always say that, you know, coming to Sin City is job security for me. And the reason I wanted to come here is, as you may know, I'm also a magician. So I'm a priest who does magic. I made an agreement with Jesus I don't do any of his material. He doesn't do any of mine. But do you like kerchiefs or or or? Yeah. So the type of magic I do is called parlor magic. This is happening. I'm

it's excited when he saw that deca card. I mean, honestly, this is the closest I've gotten to a gambling situation this trip, So it's it is pretty exciting. Well, this is what I took off the deck of cards was some rubber bands. Oh, okay, okay, I know. So so you have two rubber bands, two rubber bands, but they're intertwined so that they can't get out. Yeah. So I say, sometimes we get ourselves into situations in which we think we're free, but then we're not. Yeah, no, because the

other rubber band's restricting that one rubber band. There are boundaries in our lives, boundaries which prevent us from being all that we can be. But Jesus sets us free. Whow And so the one rubber band penetrates through the other, and now they're free. In the illustration, we are, honestly, we are like like ten inches from your hands right now. Yeah, and I do not know how you did that. We haven't had a drink in a while, Like this is we are clear eyed, and I don't know how you

did that. Is there a different kind of clientele or parishioner being in Vegas? The people who are off the strip generally are you know, for lack of a better way to say, a run of the mill center, to get to run of the mill center status that he's coming down, I'm moving up. Yeah, you know, with people who are traveling to Las Vegas, those can questions that I hear, you know, really speak to a lot of loneliness, pornography, some gambling addictions, but a lot of that is from

the people who are visiting. Do you ever have occasion to be walking around the trip in your color? I feel like you would be like really standing out on the strip if you're dressed as I would do. They think you're promoting a comedy show, right, you know, it's like, oh, this must be the Friar from the ex Caliber, you know, Um no, I don't want people thinking, oh, my father was that the collection this Sunday? And yeah, I wonder

if security would rush you out. You're like, Harry comes, He's going to really put it dead in our earnings. They're all gonna scatter. Or people are like, oh, you know, father, bless my machine or whatever, Mother Cabrini, Mother Cabrini, bless my machine? Anyway? Um, who can we just back up a minute? Sure and a lucky chance. No, No, that's it's a made up thing. Well, that sounds legit to me. When you're counseling couples, is one of the major issues that one of the people did a bad job at

remembering Valentine's days. That come up a lot, not particularly, but it's a symptom of lack of communication, and that's the number one problem with couples. Yeah, what's your I'm you know, I'm embarking on single, single, doom, single hood. I'm going back out in the world. Father. Do you have any advice for me in terms of seeking a partner or just relationship stuff or I know, how can I not get divorced again? Okay? Well, I think one

thing would be to take time for yourself. And I don't mean like all right, party, No, I mean take time to get to know yourself and make sure that you know what it is that you're offering to another person. In every relationship, there's something really wonderful and really good and you really want to treasure that. And then there's stuff that you just really need to let go of and maybe change within you or know that that was that person's stuff so that you don't bring it into

the next relationship. Okay, okay, thank you for that. All right. I feel like I need to bow to you or something. I don't know. You can just shake my hands. This has me very much, Father Daniel, and also with you. After our visit with Father Daniel, we'd go back to our lodgings. Luke begins to play online poker and I call my girlfriend, but it goes straight to message. When the desert sun begins its descent, we hop in our rental car and head to the strip and then keep going.

I feel like every time I think we're gonna do something fun, we start driving again away from the city of Las Vegas. So we're currently doing that is what's happening. We're getting into the lake. Things that didn't bounce back from two thousand and eight districts, all right, So next stop. I wanted to do something fun in the evening that wasn't gambling, and so I was looking around, Yeah, and I found this. Only I have no idea who she is and she gives tours of the stars okay, and

she also claims that sometimes they see UFOs. Nevada has long been considered a UFO hotspot. So when I came across a nighttime UFO tour in the desert, I signed us up. Luke might prefer playing poker, but I was betting a close encounter of the third kind beats a royal flush. I'm glad to get into this spirit of things. Yeah. Well, I looked to our left. I didn't see those mountains and that pink sky. I mean, you hear it all the time. We really are in a valley. I guess

it's never even occurred to me, the geography of this area. Yeah, you know, like I've never been out here. One forget. I mean it's it's designed to forget. You fly in right, airport's so close, and then you're in just this sealed warren of pleasure. Look at that. See those balloons, they're Valentine's balloons. Someone let them off in the desert. I was poetically. Yeah, I think your day away from this trip is really no enaching your soul. We're in a

Sam Mendi's film. You're making keen observations. Now we're going off, and now we're really going into what they call in Nevada, the rurals. You know that. No, no, all right, we're taking a left, but there's no road right now where we're about to take a left. Yeah, we are leaving, all right, the paved road. Okay, there we are. All right, we're coming in. There's other people. There's two people. There's a malamute dog, a shovel. Oh. I bet to tell you, Brendan,

I've got some gambling beds. Um, I'm gonna put my car out front. There. You go on for it. Yeah, that's smart, all right, what's our safe word? Run? Hey, our guide Misha greets us with the big smile. She's wearing a Patagonia fleece, and I suddenly realize we are probably underdressed for the cold desert night. Behind her are a handful of camping chairs, and a couple of other folks have come along. So we're sitting in a little

semicircle here with the crew. We're wearing night vision goggles that are military grade because we're looking up at the stars, but behind us we're seeing the allure of the strip and like the beautiful skyline of Las Vegas and the stratosphere, and we're trying to identify unidentified flying objects. Marty seeing more stars than I see in New York City. I'd like to share with you this area. Oh, of course

you've heard of Area fifty one. That's two and a half hours from here, But just about an hour and maybe five minutes is Creachair for space. Go into it another fifteen miles you'll find ets, actual texture, terrestaurants or etis. Yes, along with leading night tours, Misha is very active in what is called the experience or community. So she tells us about the kind of ets that might be hovering above us. So you'll find two different types of ets

that many people have seen. The first being the tall whites, which I'm going to show you a picture of, and then there's a couple of great types out there. These are some of the beings that I had encounters with. Really, I was a child in toront my life. Here this is a this is a tourist spot for them. Basically, they come from their planet. So you're saying, basically, this is their Vegas, this is their Vegas. Absolutely, it's true. They come here because they love the desert, and believe

it or not, these ets like to gamble. So there's been sightings of them here in the casino and the casinos, and they also have a system, and they also like bling. They like that jewelry and fancy and hats, and that's how they the women have come to Vegas and be unseen for When you recount these experiences and people are you know, skeptical about it? What does I feel like for you? And and I mean are you years of doing this? That doesn't bother me anymore? Years of talking

about this. It's my truth. It's what I know, what happened to me. And if people are skeptical, well that's on them. It was part of the impids of leading the tours to kind of show people this reality. That's why I'm doing this. What do you think if people accepted that there were ets more widely? How do you think that could do you think like humans would be kinder to each other or something? Well, yeah, because they said disease would be around, dedicated age, you would be

gone stuff like that sounds really appealing. Yeah, But what they wanted us to do is drop our worrying ways. We have been watching you and you have been worrying since your civilization began. Stop your battles, stop your wars, and live in peace with the galactic, and you'll be able to join the Galactic. But until you stop that, stop the violence, violence, you do not get to join the Galactic. Go ahead and focus on for yourself. Look up,

oh man. What we're looking for is things that don't flash, Okay, that are just moving along. Okay, whoa, Oh my god, I see something moving right now. Can you see that? Is that a satellite where you looking? Okay it Luke, No, I can't. It's going into a cloud. Oh I see it. Yeah. Oh I see another one. Yeah. Oh we got a good right there. Yeah, look at that thing. Is there two parallel? You're seeing it again? Oh? I see one? Yeah, definite one. O. Ryan is a very hot spot because

all right, he's going fast right up. Yeah, and he's going up. That is it? Definitely it is where there is some kind of a wormhole there that that's where we see him coming in all the time. Yeah, even just looking through these goggles into the night sky, and they're all of the things that are moving up there which may or may not be accounted for. Yeah, this is really cool, and yet from where I am, I could turn around and just like I could almost throw a rock and hit the strip is wild. It's like

this whole trip has been so close but so far away. Lookye, yes, I totally see it, right, Yeah, exactly. Well, dude, we started it with man made wonders and now we're like staring at the mystery. Yeah. I think Father Daniel would like get out here. Yeah, we should get him out here next time. Look, there's one. Yes, I see it. It's straight up like really, I know, if we stay out here much longer, we are turning into serious, true believers, and I don't know if I can handle that. Before

our minds get abducted, we call it a night. On the way back to our place, we passed through the bling, bling and human spectacle of Vegas night life and Luke doesn't even turn his head. If the goal was to show him another side of Las Vegas. Well, we've made contact the NPR News and Facebook is Evadam Public Radio. Do everyone out there have a great weekend. This is State of Nevada. What happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas is one of the most recognized ad slogans in history,

but it's time for a change. What happens here only happens here. Arnie to George is with R and R Partners, which came up with both the Old and the New campaigns. Arnie, welcome back, Thank you, thanks for having me. What do you think made that what happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas slogans so successful in the first place. Oh, it was the truth of it. I mean people were coming here for years. I mean when it all started, just

to hide away from the rest of the world. And so once it got into people those heads, I mean, it is the truth, and it, you know, inspired them to come here and try and have those moments. You know, what the where am I? Why is everything so orange? Orange is the color of the future, future future? What is this place? I feel like I'm in some sort of rat Pack fantasy clubhouse. Well, I was born and raised here and I've always loved the rat Pack and Frank and Dino and Sammy. Wait, this is Vegas. It's

it's kind of all around, all around. The experiences you can have you can't have anywhere else. You're just not going to get the same energy because the energy is insane. Yeah, I mean, the energy is insane, which is partially why I've been trying to explore the non hedonistic part of Las Vegas. I just think Vegas helps you get out of your skin. It isn't a thing where you have to go and get drunk and projectile vomit. And you can go to a lot of different vacations and you're

expected to do things. You go to Europe and you go to Paris, you're expected to go see certain things and do certain things. You have to go see that time. Vegas is a much more kind of It's just more free, you know what I mean. It's like it's like you don't know where it's going to take you. Yeah, but it seems like where it takes you is always the strip. And isn't that a bit silly and a little obvious. I still, I still say you got to go down to the strip and to the strip, But do you

know you just can't go to the other place. I mean, you have to go to the strap of the strip. I love this town, and I love a lot of parts in this town. It's unlike any other place. You know that something's going to happen, you don't know where it's going to take you, and you don't know what that thing is. You lose a little bit of control, and it's energy. Can say it's a little bit more like I said, it's just more free. It starts really slow.

You go to dinner and you're and you're having fun at dinner, and then you might have a drink and then like a pool cocktail party, you know, and then you're ramping up, ramping up, and then you go and you hit the table. Oh and you win side, and then you're all excited and you're all running around like ll. It takes your gettle club. I mean, you don't know where it's gonna take. It goes pretty quick. Of the

time you're done with the evening. You can't believe how it just kept reaching a new level, reaching a new level and energy, you know what I mean. You have to go to this trip, all right. It's more about letting go and enjoying yourself and maybe this place can inspire you to a lesson if you had something going on your head that would fit a lesson. I'm learning this trip is that when your girlfriend says it's okay

to travel on Valentine's Day might not be the case. Well, it's probably you probably made a mistake doing that one. You should have brought her with you, you know. I mean it can be a kind of a romantic place too, But what'd you do? It didn't brig her. You're gonna go down the tubes probably on that one. No matter what you do, how you do, what happened here? Only atmosphere is black. Vegas's new slogan, Arnie to George is

with R and R partners. When you came up with the campaign Arnie to George, thank you so much for your time today. All right, here we go. Hey man, Hey, good morning. How did you sleep? Um? Well, great? Which is not the point of being in Vegas. That's right. This is probably the most you've ever slept. Yeah, if you go to sleep at eleven pm. While I guess it's good that I'm rested and refreshed, it's to what end?

Because what is it like? The Today's the Stamp museum or something where we're supposed to go to the Neon Museum in an hour, I'll be I'll be full of vim and vigor for that. Honestly though, I've been thinking and I think, um, I feel like it's nay on the Eon Museum. I think it is. It would be like journalistic malpractice not to play cards and do some of the nightlife activities on the strip. This is a very exciting development for me. I know, sorry for feeding

us vegetables. I will still I accept your apology and your money. What is the pre dym on this, by the way, because I am going to double that easily in the first like twenty minutes. Oh clever plus honestly, like I was gonna go regardless of if you work. I feel it like I was laying in bed this morning and like a little voice in my head was like, dude, you should really just do it. So so what that

means is basically the day's free. M one other thing. Though, not to like get serious, but I know that you know how to play blackjack and stuff. But if things go right, okay, we may end up in some semi high stakes situations. And that's like, don't like step on anybody else's cards. Don't do the wrong thing. So if you don't need I've been to the strip before, man, I know how to play cards. I think you just need to make sure that you write the checks you're cashing.

You know what I'm saying, Yeah, it's good, and I hope you're bringing that kind of smack talk to the table. Is there smack talk involved? I mean, ideally not. That's what I'm saying. We got to cut like a medium profile. Let's just have fun and not embarrass ourselves. We'll catch a brown dinner. Yeah, totally, so I'll see on the strip Valentine. Happy Valentine's Day. We make plans to meet up at six o'clock in the heart of the strip.

Luke looks up something on his phone, then leaves in a cab, and once he's gone, I peek in my watch. I have seven hours to learn how to play blackjack. A Casino Quest is a gambling school in the ma All in the center of Las Vegas. My instructor is one of the owners, Alex Kids. Everybody wants to learn how to play the games. We're not interested in losing money. So that's what Casino Quest is. That's the quest I'm on right now. Yeah, Alex, we're on the quest to

help you save money. Well, yeah, which is hardily why I've been ambivalent to even enter the arena. Yeah, what is it about gambling that makes it like so attractive. Everyone thinks that they're the one that can beat the casino. Everyone thinks somewhere along in the line, oh I'm the one. You still have that in your heart. No, meanwhile, I don't know what's happened to Luke never told me where he was going, and he's not responding to my text.

Welcome to regenerating the impidration. So what are you looking for? If I understand this right, this is a place where if you have a very bad hangover, you guys will basically cure it. Yes, we give you like a hangover rescue. Now, I actually am about to go out tonight and do it up. What do I need? Help me not die tonight? So it would be the party. Party prep is something that a lot of people do before they go out for the night, like insulate my system a little bit

against the delaterious effects of too much party. Absolutely off the bat, what's the worst game for players? Roulette? By far? You got all the numbers together, it equals six six six. It's called the devil's game blackjack depending on how the blackjacks set up. I wanted you to give me some blackjack tips, But is that naives? Should I not mess around with like, now I can help you. Blackjack's a very good game. It just depends if it's like eight

decks continue shuffler black jack space six to five. That's what the house gets their edge back on you. Right, So you just lost me at the end there, but I leave you, which we're going to skype in with a doctor basically. Yes, we have to do that with every patient. Hi are you? I'm good? Getting part that correct? Yeah? Any allergies to medication no, and any menimbal conditions like chronic disease. No. Is it Valentine's Day? Where you are? Hues? What?

That's the saddest answer of all time? What's going on with you? Did I pass? Okay? Cool? Thank you? Happy Valentine Night? All right, so let's go all chips that circle. I'm gonna be going big. Yeah, there you go. Ten dollars okay, so you have a thirteen so it says the hits yep. Okay, we're gonna give you a card up too many, so you have a twenty three total to deal with to take the money. Can take it a little easier on me, man, That was firsthand. You're

supposed to build confidence. You just beat me with the twelve? Is this the part where I'm gonna get stuck? Yes? Okay, do you have a special thing you said? Quick? Poke? Okay? What are some other things do you think I need to know that would make the person think I'm really good what I'm doing? Play at a three to two table, don't play at six to five, don't play at a continual shuffling machine. Yeah, just tell everyone you're a dj dgen slank for degenerate dgen. Yeah for real? Wait are

you trolling me as a joke? Yeah'd be like when you press your bed up, You're like, man, I'm getting the dgen tingles. Right now we go. This is a much more clinical approach to partying in Vegas. Then. Let's say I would have been doing twenty years ago as a young man of twenty three. Is there a phrase I just say, like booyah, or like just don't say winner, winner chicken dinner. Yeah, you say that every dealer wish upon you to lose. Yeah, never ever say that. Yeah?

What about? What about? What was it? Cabrini Cabrini Moderini. If this works too well and I am just able to have copious amounts of alcohol, and stay up late and then wake up find tomorrow you could have re unleashed a dragon. Oh blackjack twenty one baby. So you say that as a game of chance, but I feel like I have a certain bring the turnal neck to the table and you'll be there in no time. This has been awesome, man, Thank you. So ut is it normal for me to feel right now, like very close

to peeing my pants? I mean a full leader of fluid. So just all the I mean, let me ask you this is an important question. Where is the bathroom? Literally straight down there? Okay? Feeling confident in my blackjack skills, there was one last thing I had to resolve before meeting back up with Luke. Hey, baby, I thought I might get your voicemail again. I've been trying. Yeah, I guess I thought I checked. Since it was no, Well we're gonna go out tonight. Yeah, no, I guess It's

nice to have the whole bit to yourself. You have to go, okay, okay, have fun. Finally, I was ready to let the energy of in city the way mister Burbank Happy Valentine's This is definitely one of the weirder Valentine's days I've ever had Valentine's Day that I have not been in a relationship in probably sixteen years. Right, So I don't want to put too much pressure on you, but this is the first Valentine's Day in years that I actually have someone to celebrate with. But and you're

stuck with me, and I'm stuck with you. So so we're here in Caesar's Palace. So tell me why you picked this bottom all spot. Well, yeah, I Caesar's has a kind of a special place in my heart because to me it represents a real like iconic Las Vegas strip spot right across streets of the Flamingo, which it seems like an old casino has classic old Neon Museum of Neon if you will, sure got the Eiffel Tower.

I see fountains from the Blagio shooting up over there. Like, Hey, you were kind of tepid on the idea of this trip, but as you stand here and look around, you have to kind of appreciate the whateverness of this whole thing. This is cool. I'm glad this isn't the only thing we did in Vegas. I think I'll appreciate it more knowing that there are other pleasures. But the lights are bright, the night is crisp, there's people around have been fun. Yeah, so we're right in the heart of it. Man, I'm

ready to go. Here's my only thing. I assume they have blackjack here. That's my game, and I hope that it's kind of a fancy one. I hope they don't have computer generated shuffling, because that's bogus. I don't want tables to six to five odds. I just want to

do coming out of a boot three two. I might get a little d gen tonight, Luke, I'm okay curious, but hey, seriously though, before we stop recording, I just want to say I've been coming to this town for twenty two years of my life on the regular, and like, in this forty eight hours, I have seen a side of this city that I have never seen before. So thanks for bringing me along. Has been like this has been really cool. I'm blushing. And as for this on

it thanks. Yeah, I'm psyched. And I I didn't just bring your hair to like gambling finished, I was gonna say, but if I have to do one more non gambling thing I want, so can we go in there? Please? All right, let's do it. I'm eager to see your Vegas. A little scared frankly, Yeah, well as well you should be, and just make sure we catch the flight tomorrow. Yeah all right. So we're about to go in here. As

we've learned. One of the things about Vegas, it's about freedom, and we need to be free from being monitored by microphones because we're about to engage in some adult behaviors. So this is where the radio microphone has to stop. Say goodbye, Luke Burbank, goodbye, Luke Burbank, good eye crazy. Oh there's just one thing left to say, which is the classic gambler's blessing, which is, of course Kbrini. Help us on the machine right now in that topi area

in a minute. The lead producer on this episode of Natloss was the fantastic Bart Warshaw. The show was also produced and written by me Brendan Francis Newnham. Our associate producer was Jackson Musker. Our story editor was Mira Bert went Tonic. A big thanks to my friend and this episode's travel partner, Luke Burbank. Yes we survived. We left Las Vegas alive. Do yourself a favorite and go listen

to his show. He's got a couple shows. One is Live Wire, the other one is called Too Beautiful to Live. Natloss is a co production of Pushkin Industries, Topic Studios, and iHeartMedia. It was developed at Topic Studios. The show's executive producers are me Christy Gressman, Maria Zuckerman, Lisa line Gang, and La Tomlade. Production assistance on this episode also came from Jacob Smith, Amy Gaines, and Julia Barton. Our theme song was created by Alexis g Orchropolis aka ARP. He's

got a new single out now called New Pleasures. Check it out. Thank you to everyone who showed us Vegas life beyond the Strip, Patty Aaron, Kim Foster, David Clare Father, Daniel Misha and all our fellow UFO seekers UFOs Arnie to George, Alex Kim and the folks that regenerate me ivy hydration. I wish I knew that was an option before our last night there. You made sure that Luke didn't die, and that's a great thing. If you want to see some pictures or learn anything about our guest,

head to not Lawshow dot com. And if you're still listening to this show you've either fallen asleep or you really like it, and if it's the latter, just please do me a favorite. Head to Apple Podcasts, rate and review it. It seems like a dumb, silly thing, but it is actually an important thing. It matters and I would really appreciate it. After you do that, you can learn more about Topic Studios at topic studiviews dot com. To find more pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Brendan Francis, Newnham. Until next time, bon Voyage