Sziasztok, Jánó vagyok. Közép-Európa első világraszóló podcast csatornáját hallgatjátok Magyarországról. Ez a Budapest.fm. Hi, my name is Ray, and you're listening to the number one podcast station in Central Europe, Budapest.fm, podcasting to the world from Hungary. Ladies and gentlemen, lányok és fiúk, welcome back to episode two of Talking with Willie. We are here today once again with Bob Tamás. Hello. Super happy to be here. Back for part two. And we have along with us two of my very dear friends, my neighbors, and interesting Budapesti, I would say some of the most interesting Budapesti I've come across, and that is Terez and Nausika. So we can start with Nausika. Would you like to introduce yourself, tell the people in the audience something about yourself, where you're from, and who you are? Thank you. I'm so excited to be here with you now. So I am from Budapest. I spent most of my life in Budapest, except for the very beginning when I lived five years at the western part, Őrség. Should I speak in Hungarian? Oh, you can do both. I mean, we can switch back and forth. It's a bilingual program. Bilingual program, két nyelvű program. So I went to university to Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem. Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem. Yes. And where is that actually? There is one building at Kálvin Square, near to Kálvin Square, like in Ráday utca. I went there and also to Dózsa György út. Dózsa György, I love Dózsa György. He's one of my favorite Hungarian historical figures, led a peasant rebellion in the early 16th century. Lots of nice statues of him. You can see one down in the part right where the Erzsébet Bridge comes out into Buda, and then you get that little back view of the castle. Emphatic Soviet-era statue of Dózsa György holding some sort of mallet or hammer, and it's just delightful. So thank you. I learned from Dózsa György, like from you. Many things that I didn't know about him. Well, I hope they were correct. I did my best. But he's been someone that's actually captivated me because he has sort of this view that's changed throughout history, that there's a lot of Marxist ideology about his perspective and how he led the working-class rebellion. But then there's also some other—I don't know, you can go in any direction. But I don't know, that's where the school was, on the Dózsa György út. No, but Dózsa György út is on the Pest side, so it's not where the statue is. It's near Hősök tere. Hősök tere. Yeah. And, Terez, where are you from, Budapest? Yeah, so thank you. I'm very excited to be here and a little bit, you know, this is the first time to speak, yeah, over here. And, yeah, so I born in Budapest, and my whole family is from over here, and, like, especially from Buda side, so, you know— Your family is especially from the Buda side? Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, so I was traveling a lot. I was studying in Moholy-Nagy Art University, so— Well, that's how actually I met you, Terez, because I met Nausicaa first, and she told me that she was doing this documentary film production with her roommate slash friend, Terez, and then I met you one day on the stairs. We were walking up the stairs together, and you were telling me—eventually I learned that you're making this great documentary film. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? What is the documentary about, actually? Yeah, so it's gonna be about the millennial generation. So it's mainly kind of about our age, and so we are focusing on the Balkan and the post-Soviet region, like the V4 countries and the Balkans, and so we want to see how this— Like things are going over there and who they are and what they want to do, where they are going ahead and so on. And so we had this kind of fact. So you're interested in the people that live in the Balkans and how this millennial generation—actually, I have a question for you. Tom, Bob Tomash, over sitting perpendicular or diagonal from me, caddy corner, as we would say in Iowa. Caddy corner. He is actually, along with being from Iowa, very interested in the documentary that we're making. I was telling him basically that we're looking at these people from the Balkans and they have all these transformative experiences of being in millennials. So my question is, Tom, a millennial? He's 26. Does that count as a millennial? Yeah, yeah. I mean, we were building—we built our own, like, yeah, kind of... We tried to narrow it down. Yeah. Officially, or I think most of the literature says that millennials are from '82 until '95, '96, but we are trying to do it like—not that broad generation, so only 10 years, like from '85 to '95. Well, that's what attracted me to the project, is this idea of thinking about things generationally, especially—how do you say generationally in Hungarian, actually? Generációs. Generációs. I like those easy ones. So, well, actually I don't, because they can be even harder than the Hungarian words. But either way, to think about things generationally is a very compelling concept, especially in a time like this with the coronavirus. I don't really know if all the generation is very conscious about, you know, being millennial or being Y, but I think there is an effort to be conscious about it. I mean, I can see the media, like an Economist article or whatever. You can always see that there are—why is Y generation so narcissistic? Or why are they so rootless? Or why are they whatever? So you can always see that there is an effort to see them together and to somehow identify with the generation, and that is somehow also our aim, you know, to see the similarities. Between us and the Y generation or Generation Y in the Balkans, and also, you know, to export it to the U.S., like to Iowa and see what we all have in common. What we have in common as a generation. As a generation, yeah. And is Hungary part of the Balkans? Would you say that Hungary is part of the Balkans? No. No. Like, we are really, really out of this Slavic circle around us, but yeah, I mean, we have common roots in the sense of traditions, and, like, instead of the language, we have everything common. Like, or not everything, but I mean most of the things. So, like, if we are going back to these shamanic ages, like 100,000, yeah. So it's like they had this too. And also, if we are thinking about the traditional clothes, it's like everywhere these roses, and all the music is like very similar around. It's like, you know, this very deeply sad, unsatisfied lyrics and songs. Yeah, so, and yeah, and one more additional thing. So we are looking for, because, you know, all the generation has its own traumas and so on, and we really want to see it, what is this in the Balkans. And actually, it's really interesting because just yesterday I had a very interesting talk with a Serbian guy, and he was telling like, yeah, it was very hard to be in the war and then these 2,000 years in Serbia, you know, that kind of revolution. I mean that revolution. The Bulldozer Revolution, with Slobodan Milošević. Yes. One of my favorite revolutions. I just love the name Bulldozer Revolution. I know. It often gets grouped in with the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia. And the Velvet Revolution. And the Velvet Revolution. But I love that Bulldozer Revolution. I mean, so Serbian as well. I just love it. They just toppled him on bulldozers. Yeah, so yeah, just one sentence. So this guy was telling me, like, yeah, we can think like it was very hard, all of these wars and all this ethnical diversity and everything, how we are trying to deal with our problems. So we're here, but our generation biggest trauma in Balkans too, this transition time from the communists to the capitalism and all these things. So he was telling the transition and all this, like everything is changing. This is our biggest trauma. And I felt something. It's something really, really close. I like that. That's really cool. And Nausicaa, tell me about the name Nausicaa. Where is that from? Where does that derive from, Nausicaa? It's from Greek mythology. Greek mythology. My mother is Greek, so she chose it. She was a princess. Nausicaa was a princess born from the sea in the Odyssey, or Ulysses, you could read about her. I guess it was the ninth chapter, but I'm not sure of that. In the Odyssey by Homer, she was in that. Wow, that's very compelling. That's a cool name to have. I mean, just to go out there and say, I'm Nausicaa, derived from a Greek princess, is a very nice character to have. Yeah, I had a tough childhood with that. Really? But now I like it. I'm actually very interested in childhood in Hungary because that's something that I've been exposed to through probably the mese and the folk tales and some of these things that I've seen peripherally. Like I watched the movie Sáfi the other day, and I'm starting, I watched Ludas Matyi. What were those animated films that you found on YouTube that were translated into English, old Hungarian? Well, they have the mese, the népmesék. Magyar népmesék. That's much better than... that's much better. It's like a different—what I just saying was like hardly recognizable from a Chinese soap opera, and that was the beautiful, beautiful Magyar népmesék. Magyar népmesék. Perfect. Yeah, sounds perfect. Igazából Tom és én tanár... Ugyanaz. Ugyanaz. Ugyanaz. Tanár, Tom és én, orsi. Orsi goes to the same teacher, you know. Ugyanahhoz a tanárhoz járunk. Megyünk ugyanahhoz. Járunk. Járunk. Because, you know, you go on a regular basis. Yeah, like commuting to work. So how's that going for you, Tom, the Hungarian language instruction? It's super fun. I just need to make it more of a daily thing, like smaller amounts of time daily rather than trying to do a huge amount of time doing my homework right before the lesson. But it's super fun. I like the challenge. How long have you been here, like in Hungary? It's about three years now. Three years now. It's due time for me to speak more, so. And it's fun. I really enjoy speaking another language. It's fun to have to force yourself to work within a different structure of— Will you try to force yourself now? No, probably not. I mean, you know, just a little here and there where it comes. I don't want to be pushy. Okay. We'll see. It'll happen. Yeah, I mean, for me, I've just started to get to the phase where I can talk a little bit more Hungarian, like subconsciously almost. I had an experience earlier today where I ordered a croissant, and I just realized afterwards, like, wow, I'm actually not thinking about what I'm saying, and that was a very cool breakthrough. But language is something that's very integral to this project about the Balkans, and to the region, forgetting about the project, but just the region as a whole is this idea of language. And I just want to hear your guys' thoughts on language or what you think linguistically the Balkans... Has to offer a lot of differences, a lot of similarities. Like you mean with the Hungarian? Is Hungary linguistically, the Balkans are all tied together as a Slavic place, right? Yeah. So do you see mostly Slavic languages in the Balkans? Is that what you would say? No, I wouldn't say so. I mean, I don't know. But no, they are completely different. I mean, there are Slavic languages, there are similar languages like Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, whereas... Can be around instead of Albanian, all of them, no? Even in... I mean the ex-Yugoslavian languages. Yeah, just Albanian is really, really far. Really, really far. Yeah, it is very different, and I think what North Macedonia speaks, it will be also very different. Oh, and then that's what I wanted to ask you before, Nausicaa, was that Nausicaa, as you said, is a Greek name. Is Greece part of the Balkans? Would you say that Greece is part of the Balkans? Yeah, in a lot of sense, Greece is also part of the Balkans, and in a lot of sense it isn't, as well as Hungary. So it is, you know, you can say it is part of it, but you just don't. Yeah, that's interesting. I always love this idea of different nationalities, and that's something that I love about Hungary, is it's this giant melting pot, and you have all sorts of different regions. Particularly, if you look at the pre-Trianon map before World War One, you see you have the Felvidék, you have Vajdaság—Vojvodina. Vojvodina? Vajdaság. Vajdaság. And where is Vajdaság? It's in Serbia, and this is an autonomous region in Serbia. It's a little bit similar according to the rules to Kosovo. To Kosovo. Yeah, this kind of autonomic thing. Oh, wow. Meaning they're not a part of the Serbian government, or they have their own kind of governmental structure. Yeah, they do have their own government here. Yeah, I think autonomy and the idea of, like, borderless societies is something that's very interesting about the millennial generation because we've all traveled so much, and we've existed in sort of this social system that is potentially a little bit apolitical, I would say, where we kind of just have this idea of traveling and working in other places, especially with you guys living in this Erasmus European Union era of Hungary. And I know that you've both traveled a lot, right? Where else have you lived besides Hungary? Either one of you can start. What does it mean to live? Have you lived somewhere on, like, a more permanent basis outside of Hungary's borders? Yeah, I mean, I've been in Erasmus, with Erasmus program abroad. It was in Tel Aviv and also in Aarhus in Denmark, and I was living in Germany for a longer time. Tel Aviv, Israel, Aarhus in Denmark, and you also were living in Germany? Yeah, and I was traveling. So you've had a little bit of a nomadic existence. Yeah. That's pretty cool. And what about you, Nasika? Where are some of the places that you've lived? Well, for a longer period, I only lived in Croatia, in Slavonia, and I spent a lot of time in Italy and in Greece, of course, but that's mostly, like... What part of Greece? Your family comes from the north of Greece, you said? Yeah, they come from the north, but, you know, in '42 my grandparents came to Hungary. In 1942? Yes. And when they went back in Epirus, this is the part of Greece where they came from, their, you know, their lands were bombed down, so they had nothing left there. So most of them moved to Athens or Thessaloniki. Oh, wow. And then they came—part of your family came to Hungary. Yeah, no, part of my family stayed, so never went back, or went back but decided to rather stay in Hungary. Oh wow, that's cool. I'm very intrigued by this generational question, especially when it relates to, like, nomadism. And I feel like we've all probably benefited from this idea of open borders and traveling. Is that something that's been challenging about this coronavirus situation, to not be able to travel? Yeah, we had to, as I guess, like most of us. So we had to, like, replan everything from scratch, basically, you know. By the way, if you guys can hear that growling, that's our fifth guest of the podcast. His name is Momo, and he's a beautiful half white, half black little dog. I think he's a mix between a few breeds, right? Yeah, she's a border collie Jack Russell. Did I just say he? I apologize. A border collie Jack Russell. Yeah, and she also have identity problems, so she can be a he sometimes. So she also sort of represents the nomadic millennial generation of border collie. Yeah, and we can be grateful for the virus because she came before, like, in May or June. June, yeah. Uh-huh, nice. I would have gone to America, to the Midwest. So before the virus, you wanted to go to the Midwest of America? Yeah, just on the, I think the 12th of March would have been my date. Oh wow. Was it for the documentary? No, that was another— I had other reasons for that, so that was canceled. And then we decided on doing the Balkan thing. But yeah, so back to your question, what was it? To be honest with you, I lost my track of that when we were talking about the travel restrictions that we couldn't really travel. Yeah, for a few months we couldn't really travel, and so we replanned everything and started the millennial project in the summer, like more seriously, after I came back from Portugal. After she came back from Portugal. Where were you in Portugal? I want to hear about— Tom's been to Portugal also. Portugal. No? I love Portugal. Yeah, me too. Yeah, it's, I mean, I've been just there just one time, but it was amazing. Where were you? Firstly, I've been in the island of Faro. This is the most southeast point. And then I went to Porto to visit some friends, and then we had half of the team over there. Yeah, right. Half of the documentary team lives in Porto. Yeah. The co-director with you— it's a co-directed project, correct? That's cool. Yeah. Cool. I love Faro is down in the Algarve, and I love the Algarve. That's a beautiful place of the world. Lots of amazing rock formations and beautiful beaches, and Sagres on the coast is wonderful. I mean, the whole strip down through Lagos and Faro and all those places is really remarkable. Yeah, and also there was not, you know, all these people from around the world, so there were just really the people from the villages, and it was so— Oh, cool. So you traveled there in the post-COVID world. I mean, it was in this summer, so— Yeah, right, right, right. It was between the first wave or the second wave. I don't know how to count this anymore. Yeah, now we're on the third, right? This is the third one, or I don't know. Yeah, so it was between those two. Cool. And was that interesting traveling? You mentioned traveling in a post-COVID environment, there's a lot less people, because I remember when I went to the Algarve, for example, in Portugal, and that was 2000 and, I don't know, I want to say 17, and it was beautiful. I loved it, tremendous time. One thing that I would say, though, was it was just choked and suffocated with tourists. And I think that's something maybe, I don't know, I mean, obviously we don't want this situation because this is terrible for everyone, especially from a business level. But when we look back towards the post-COVID world, maybe finding a middle ground between the two. Well, I found Budapest just lovely. I mean, I so loved it. In April, it was so nice to walk on the streets and see nobody. And, you know, the Danube was blue, actually blue, not the brown. The sky, you could see the sky. All right, they have that song, ‘The Kék Duna,’ and it's never actually blue. Usually I thought it was zöld. I think it's more like green. Yeah, it's greenish-brownish most of the time. Yeah, and now there's no boats down it. You used to get all these European river cruises, and I mean, that's something— I like that fact. You like that there's no boats? Yeah. I mean, boats are okay, but so many of them always. I don't want to sound so pessimistic about it. Do you guys think the Hungarian mentality is a bit pessimistic? Would you say that? Compared to what? Like generally? Generally. I think yeah. You think yeah. What about you, Nausicaa? I think so. There is something in it. I think, yeah, I think there is a Hungarian, a bit pessimistic mentality. It is also cynicism. Cynicism? Yeah, cynicism. I've always tried to more refer to it as being critical or cynical than being necessarily pessimistic. Yeah, but we always see the bad sides also. So we make fun of it, but, you know, you have to highlight it. Yeah, if you're Hungarian, you do that, I think. Well, Hungarians always tell me that they're pessimistic. Like, that's one of the favorite things that Hungarians always say: Oh, we're much more pessimistic than you. I mean, I choose to view it sort of as realistic in some ways. And I think, in some weird ways, it almost has an edge of optimism or at least nihilism to it. Like during the coronavirus pandemic specifically, people have been a little bit more just like, Oh, what the fuck are you gonna do? You know, this is get on with your life. It's gonna be maybe a little bit shit either way, so we might as well just make the best of it. And that's something that's very attractive to me because— or do you disagree with that? I heard a quote at work once that tried to describe the difference between American and Hungarian mentality with people, specifically when working with them, and it was saying that if you think of a trust bucket, everyone has a trust bucket, which is like how much trust they have for the people that come to them and the things, the ideas that come to them. The Americans, just to put everyone in a box, this isn't completely accurate, start with— everyone's trust bucket is full. So you come, you hear an idea, and you immediately trust it, and you're excited about it, and you want to go forward, and, you know, you're supportive. On the other hand, the Hungarian trust bucket starts empty, and you need to work to fill it. So that's the cynicism. So it's not necessarily pessimistic. It's maybe more realistic, and it needs more proof for, you know, support. The trust buckets. But I don't even necessarily trust who I heard this from, but I liked this way of looking at the situation. Yeah, I like this way. Well, obviously. I mean, it sounds nice. It's, I don't know, compelling. Yeah, everyone is an individual, of course, and you can get a given Hungarian that's so optimistic he thinks he's going to the moon tomorrow or something, and then you can get an American that is just, like, cursing his luck every day of the week. I know a few of them, but— As a generality, I guess there maybe is something to be said about the Hungarian mentality. Do you think that that's a consequence of history? I mean, our history was, like, really hard, and we all the time did, like, you know, not putting our energies together but separated. So, I don't know, maybe it's—or maybe our history was like this because we were, like, pessimistic, so maybe it's the way around. I don't know, but I really feel something like this. But personally, I have friends who doesn't have this because I don't like the pessimistic people. So I have this girl and some others and some guys who are not about this, you know. But that's also—to go deeper with the Hungarian personality for a moment, or potentially the next hour, who knows—but, like, when you read about these stories, as I was last week, about Kopán and István and this idea of this pagan past— You love this. Well, I love it also because you can see it manifest through the Hungarian, like, rave culture. Like, Kopán was just this, like, pagan guy with multiple wives who was, like, doing—I mean, obviously we know that maybe he was actually a Byzantine Christian and worked within the system just as much as István. Maybe he didn't even exist. But, for example, in, like, the artistic displays of him in, like, István, a király rock opera, you see that there's this sort of rave pagan mentality, and I can see that in festivals like Ozora Festival, or just the whole Hungarian ideal of enjoying life, and just—it's sort of weird, right? Between this pessimism, you also have, like, a real joy of life and a real, like, love of partying and celebrating. Yeah, you know there is a saying in Hungarian that a magyar sírva mulat. Yeah, a magyar sírva mulat. You know, what does it mean? No. So, you have fun crying. So you do the party, but you're crying meanwhile for some reason. I like that. I think we really like to complain. And I think this is something really Hungarian, but I don't know, because now I started to have a very little experience with Balkan and the people from there, and they are really, like, open-minded. And when I write to someone, Hey, I got your contact from someone else, so can we have a talk? Like, Yeah, sure, when? And it was not in Hungary too, so I also asked some friend of mine, but not so close, but more far, and it was like, Yeah. And from Oberda, yeah, let's do this for sure. We are very happy, and they were like, you know, and sometimes I don't understand it, so I think it can be something between us. But that's also, to just offer a counterpoint, I agree with you that there certainly is. I enjoy looking at things sort of stereotypically, even though it can obviously lead to some negative things, and when people take stereotypes and they use them in a negative sense. But just from a literary perspective, grouping people into these different categories, there's something interesting about it for me. But then again, there's also something to be said for going in somewhere as an outsider, because as an outsider, I happen to experience many of the most amazing things about the Hungarian personality, because there's sort of this ideal of you welcoming someone as a guest, or the same for you if you go to the Balkans or somewhere else. Yeah, I don't know. Somszéd füve mindig zöldebb. What's that? Szomszéd füve mindig zöldebb. I don't really know why you said that. Mítélant. The grass of the neighbor is always greener. The grass is always greener on the other side. Yeah. And it's greenest of all in Iowa. Always. Minde. Always. Everybody else's yard looks brown to me. Tell us about Iowa, but sorry, just for... Nowsheka's very excited about your state, by the way. About Iowa? Yeah, you were going to—where in the Midwest were you headed? Iowa, for instance. Seriously? Why? She loves corn. I love, yeah, and pigs. And pigs, yeah. Kukurica. By the bunches. Why were you going to the Midwest? I wanted just to see, you know, Midwestern white working-class people, mostly from the rural parts. Or, for instance, Iowa. Huh. What was your—did you have a plan, or were you just going to go walk around and knock on people's doors and just say, ‘Mostly that, yeah, and, you know, go to bars or pubs or diners. Diners. I wanted to go to diners, meet people, talk to them, and, you know...’ Well, when this trip ends up happening, you need to go to Kenny's Garage in Waukee, Iowa. That's where I grew up. That's my hometown bar. It's amazing. It's a garage, and it's run by a guy named Kenny. And there's a pool table and jukebox, and there's live music on Thursdays. It's everything you want from a Midwestern bar. I will definitely do so. You've got to go. Thank you. Yeah. Iowa's great. What do you drink when you go to Kenny's? Jim Beam and Bud Light. Jim Beam and Bud Light. That's what the taste, the bad taste of beer. Yeah, it's what it sounds awesome. Yeah, when you go to America, you just kind of change your—your taste buds change. Like when you cross the border, it's just like a little transition that you have to go through. Beer's very different. The Palinka is whiskey. Yeah. Or moonshine. Moonshine. Yeah, and there's not nearly as much, not nearly enough moonshine compared to what it's like here. Do you guys like palinka, Teresa? Yeah, I mean, only in the morning. Yeah, sure, definitely. Have you had palinka? Yeah. What do you guys like to try some? We have a nice kürtő homemade from my friend, whiskey bar. Definitely try it. My friend, his name is Whiskey Barlang János, because his name is János and he has a whiskey cave. Barlang means cave. Whiskey Barlang János. Whiskey Barlang, yeah. Yeah, he's from Komarom, and he made this palinka for me, him and his father. Thank you. And I've tried it. I found it to be phenomenal. I'm excited to see what you guys think. You've already had it. Well, you can see there's, you know, at least three shots. Yes, party monster has struck. Willie and I used to live together, and, you know, late night I would just hear rustling in the kitchen, and I would say that the fridge monster had arrived because Willie was rummaging through the fridge. Alexa calls me the same. Yeah. Yeah, but I think that is that thing, you know, you do that. Open the fridge and just go through it. Do you guys have a favorite midnight snack? Is there anything that you would eat if you woke up in the middle of the night? Hűha. Anything I can find. Yeah, it depends on what. There is at home because, you know, now when shops are closed after seven, it's really tricky to get something from there, because I loved those midnight shops. All right. Wow, that's... We can skip it. Here's to jó beszélgetés. Jó barát. Jó baráttok. Jó új barát. Whiskey barlangianos. Baráttok. Jó új barát. Egészségetekre. That's the patented Willie swirl. It's good because I like that they put the whole fruits in there, the curd, but what do you guys think? I can carry it. If you smell it afterwards, you can actually smell the fruit. So never before, but after. It's actually very good. Yeah, not that sharp, actually. That's the one thing. Palinka can be painful, and then at the end, yeah, you kind of have the whiff of fruit just coming off the alcohol, but that's very, very good. Yeah, I was delighted to receive it right off the bat. János, he goes, Willie, Nizu, and then he just hands me a bottle of palinka. I go, okay, we're best friends, thank you. But him and his dad handmade this in Komárom. I always find that the handmade palinka is more often better, right? Yeah, házi palinka is always the best. Házi palinka. I've always been fascinated with the kind of why palinka, why it's so prevalent. Do any of your family—I guess you grew up in Budapest, so not necessarily in an agricultural— But did your family have any kind of agricultural background? No, unfortunately not. Not an extended family or anything? No, no. Everyone is from the city, mostly. Like, yeah, they used to do in Greece. But, but no palinka. That's actually something that I love, is the sort of moonshine culture in every country, because everyone has their own. I mean, in America we have moonshine. Here, obviously, palinka. Somewhere like the Balkans, they have a lot of rakia, or rakija. Yeah, it's nice. I like experimenting with the different ways to try to kill yourself by drinking. And what did they do in Greece? Yeah, I am thinking of the name. Okay, it's palinka. It's very similar to palinka. But it's not that. What is really warm? What? What is warm, like so warm? There was a drink that was, I don't know, a dirty person. Yeah. Ouzo? Ouzo? Ouzo is not warm. Ouzo, yeah, ouzo tastes bad, but if you drink it with a lot of ice and some water and with the small fishes, you know, baked, then it tastes great. Or next to coffee, it's nice as well. Yeah, with coffee maybe. Raki. It's made of raki, which is, I have no idea. The Greeks, you guys have so much. You have so many different cool drinks and artists. I guess when you're such an old society, is that something you find that's prevalent in Greek society, this idea that we're like the cradle of Western civilization? I don't see that. Like, you can feel it in a way, I think. But I am also an outsider in a way there, so I, you know, I see in it. And when I talk to people, I somehow imagine that, yeah, yeah, you are much older than me, like in spirit. And do you like this idea of mythology in Greece? Is that something attractive to you in your own identity? It is. It is. Also being Greek, like half Greek, it is very important to me. I mean, I never lived there. I spent like most of my summers when I was a child there, but I never lived there for a longer period. I was also planning to afterwards in America, I was planning to move to Greece, and I still plan to sometime. Oh, that's great. Where in Greece, in the north where your family is from or down south by the islands? Haven't decided yet. First to the north. I really want to go around the place where, you know, where my family came from. I really want to explore that. It really became very important to me, you know, to my identity, to my— So, yeah, I find Greece very important to me, but also the islands. I want to see the islands, and I want to live on an island. You Greeks are spoiled for choice. Just to even say, I want to live on an island. I mean, I guess it’s open to all of us. We could all retire to Greek islands. That sounds not too bad. We could all transplant to Greece. This is actually coming back to what we talked about this last episode. It’s kind of similarities between Iowa and Hungary that are weird. This idea of transplanting is really common in Iowa because it’s a relatively cheap place to live. There’s a good public school system, and it’s very safe, so a lot of people move there to live, like, you know, a middle-class nice life and raise a family. And as far as I can tell, there’s a lot of transplanting that goes on here. It sounds like your family transplanted from Greece to Hungary at one point, and there’s a lot of other people that have found their way to Hungary. I think the origins of the country in general was basically just people transplanting here and calling it the land of the Magyars. What was it like for your family? Like, were you welcomed in as, you know, Greek immigrants? You obviously don’t know, but maybe you have some insight. Yeah, it was very, very well organized then. I mean, there was a revolution in Greece then, and so my grandparents, the village where they used to live and all the land where they used to live, they were bombing it, the fascists. And so they had to escape or flee. And so they, you know, they started walking, but I don’t know who exactly, but many countries worked together to help them, to help all these refugees. And so Hungary took in… I don't know how many, but many children. So they were organizing trains and buses and everything to collect children together, families together, and take them to safe places. And that's how they got to Budapest. And they were welcomed, and children got their own school. They could learn Greek in Greek, and also they could learn Hungarian. So I think that was a very good time in Hungarian history, that they were actually welcoming, compared to, you know, like 2015. Also, that's an interesting analogy that you make between the Greek refugee crisis of 1942, and then to the Syrian refugee crisis of today. Because, you know, I think it is important to make that, and because I don't think that— I think Hungary is welcoming. Yeah. And I think we can manage it. Yeah, that's true. I mean, the Hungarian mentality, and that's something that sort of ties this whole region together, I think, is this idea of welcoming visitors in some respects, at least on the positive side of things. You have, like, the dichotomy between the very non-welcoming people, but if you look back in the culture, there's a lot of tradition of welcoming travelers. Maybe it goes back to nomadic steppe horse lords. Yeah. On the other hand, you can also understand the fear, why we fear, because, you know, Hungary has been invaded. Invaded, yeah, so many times. Yeah, it's easy to sit there in, like, the Western European capitals and say, Oh, welcome all the stuff, when you have natural borders that make the process a little bit easier. But Hungary does have quite stark lessons in the past, particularly like 150 years of Ottoman domination and things of that nature. You can see why being this chunk of meat in the center of Europe that's overlapped with a lot of different empires, you can be a little bit more cautious. Yeah, and you also try to, you know, save everything for yourself, I think, after a while. But I really don't know, but I think that this is why the message can resonate. Right. That's cool. And so, what is your role on the documentary? Unfortunately, Tadeusz has just gone to the bathroom, but I am curious what you're doing with the documentary. I am doing the background research, mostly millennials and, you know, the psychological patterns that we were talking about, like narcissism, borderline, whatever. And on the Balkan region, Willie used to help me with that, and scriptwriting, mostly. Narcissist is a researcher, which I find to be a very interesting—something that I think people would be interested in—is what is the day in the life of a researcher? How is my day? Well, because, you know, I see you in the park. I research a lot, so I sort of feel like I know how it works, but I'm curious as to, like, how your research habits are. Like, I see you in the park, you tell me that you've been working since three in the morning, burning the midnight candle, and I'm just wondering, what's the process? What are you doing in those long sessions of research? Well, I read a lot. So I read the literature, like recent research, to know where to begin. I also—well, social media is a very good source. All right. You told me that you're very interested in researching propaganda techniques, correct? Yeah, it is correct. That is super cool. I just found out, like, a few years back that propaganda is something that really interests me deeply. And I actually don't just want to, you know, research it and understand it. I really want the opportunity to once, you know, try myself in it. As a propagandist. Yeah. You know, mass communication is a very, very interesting thing for me, and I think— I really want to give it a try. You mean you want to give it a try to produce propaganda, or— Yeah. Okay, cool. You know, yeah, it would be nice. I just have to find the cause. Yeah, well, in a sense, that's like, I feel like I'm a propagandist for myself sometimes. Or maybe not sometimes, maybe all the time. But that's sort of inevitable when you're in this world of creative production, I suppose. You end up being your own propagandist fueled on by things like social media. Propaganda is a word. What is the difference between propaganda and just traditional making of content that, for example, you do or anybody does when they post on social media? Like, what makes propaganda? Well, propaganda, first of all, in my impression of it, sometimes has a negative connotation because it gets tied back a lot, this root word, to like 1930s European fascism with Mussolini and Hitler and things. And it's like Joseph Goebbels was a propagandist, for instance. So it has this negative connotation. But maybe the word itself, if you look at it, it just means what? What does propaganda even mean? It is, you know, it is sharing information to everyone. So it comes from a Christian tradition. So propaganda used to mean that you go and spread the word and make them understand and, you know, help them think the way you do. And so what separates propaganda from evangelism then? To me, what you just described is evangelism in my mind. Yeah, and you are right. I think that's basically it. So you build a mindset, and there is long-term propaganda, there is short-term propaganda. So in the short term, you want to get people do something right away or change their mind right away. Long-term propaganda, you know, helps you, or not helps you, but, you know, makes you— Makes you understand what's the style now. So if you are, for instance, a businessman or whoever, you watch the movies and you just know how your flat should look like. You just know how you should spend your days. And so there are many types of propaganda. It is not just one thing, and it is not just that pejorative thing. It can be also, you know, what Greenpeace tries to do to, you know, call your attention to. It also has a dictionary definition, which I've just learned. The first definition: Propaganda, capital P, a congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions. So it goes all the way back to ancient Rome. And the curia, I'm not exactly sure who the curia were.
But the curia, they had the propaganda. And that's quite cool thinking about their jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions, particularly because Budapest was one of those missionary territories where the propaganda would have had influence all the way back in the days of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, who wrote his Stoic Meditations on the banks of the Danube. And propaganda has had its role in society since the ancient times. Yeah, you know, to spread the word, to keep society together, to have the common line of thought. A common line of thought. That's interesting. And you're also a linguist, right? No, I mean, I learned linguistics, but I am not a linguist. Okay, well, that's good that you have a careful appreciation for the meaning of language, and you need to correct me there, because I think that's a very linguistic mindset. But you're quite interested in words and the origin of them, would you say? Yeah, that's true. That's true, yeah. That's super cool. But I'm a bit more interested in the present state of the language. So, yeah, the history of the words, it is very interesting, and yeah, it is exciting, and yeah, it has significance. But, you know, the change that you witness actually in your life, it is also very interesting, and it is also part of the propaganda. You know, like words that you use, and they start to fill in your everyday life, and you don't even realize. Like, let's say fake news. How long has it been that you actually used that expression? It didn't start when you were five. It started a few years ago. Actually, I read about that it was starting the war when it was in Ukraine, like 15. It was connecting with that. But I think all this thing in propaganda and everything, I started to be really interested because of Nausicaa. And all this, like the words and the linguistic part, like we had a lot of talks during Corona. Like, you know, a lot of new words are coming because of this situation, and we had something to write about. Everybody is waiting for the vaccine in Hungary. Yeah. We used to call it oltás. Yes. Everyone knew, I think it was, you know, part of the passive vocabulary that you knew that it is vaccine, it is called vaccine, but no one told that. You went to get your oltás. And today no one is waiting for the oltás, the corona oltás. Everyone is waiting for the vakcina. Yeah, but also pandemia, no? I never use, like, pandemia. Okay, it was not pandemia before, but— Epidemic. I mean, epidemic was the biggest word I ever used, but pandemic. Yeah, epidemic, yeah. Epidemic, I just know it from Lars from Three Years of Syria, but yeah. So, yeah. Well, just to read the second, because we're still talking about propaganda, to read the second definition, the one that is maybe more broad, which I also just found out. So the second definition is the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, cause, or person. So it's like super duper broad, clearly, and it just makes me think that you guys are already creating propaganda. If you're creating a documentary, it is— Yeah, I mean, if you are, like, let's say there is a camera, and if you are going to shoot this picture, not that one, you are kind of making your own reality. And after this, you are making, you know, something what you see and you want to show, and then it can be a propaganda. But this film, I think it's more about— I really like this definition about normality, what we were speaking about. Like every generation has its own normality, and the other generation, let's say the older generation, say we are not normal, and this is not normal what we are doing, but this is actually really normal, how we are, like, reacting to the world but surrounding us. Yeah, it just doesn't fit in the norms. Yes, yeah. Well, that's interesting. When we think back to the start of our conversation, we were talking a lot about the— Differences and similarities of certain nationalities. But now we think about things from a generational point of view. Potentially, even though all four of us are from different countries, I mean, two of us are from America, but even different states, and two of us are from Hungary, different family backgrounds. But regardless, we all have a tether to this idea that we're all millennials. So it's cool to look at connections and societal interactions as, like, this balance between, I think, generational differences and similarities versus national and pan-national and ultra-super-hyper-national differences and similarities. What's always hard for me with this, because when we started talking about millennials and everything, I've always been challenged by this idea of generations, and your idea of normalization, and this also brought it up for me, is, like, when—so we are going to be the ones that think the Generation Y is not normal at some point. Like, when is that point where we are the ones who are saying the people acting now are being not normal, you know what I mean? Like, it's just a rolling—it's going to roll. The window is going to roll, and we're going to be on the side where we're saying, Hey— About the next. Yeah, about the previous generation. About the ones who come—we're younger than us. We're younger than us. I think we already started that, so. We're old enough to say that Generation Z is common. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah, they don't know how to read books. They don't know how to write normally, and so on. We are so grandmother from their point of view. They're TikTokers. Yeah, but maybe they're super—I mean, we might be dealing with, like, five-year-olds who are hyper-smart computer programmers already, and we don't even know about it, and they've already, like, launched off into super space and controlled the whole economy. Yeah, but that's like three generations from now. Three generations from now, the kids are going to be in charge. Might as well let them have at it. I mean, the way that it's going sometimes, you might think, well, let the kids get involved. They might have some innocent solutions. That's an interesting thought. Yeah. I'm not willing to die now. I love it. Yeah, and let's have another shot. It's a good way to fill dead air time. Yeah, that's... I really haven't ever thought about that before. I didn't either until last week. But it's nice, actually, because this is a delicious palinka. Thank you again. It is. Thank you. Our good buddy, Whisky Barlang János. Whisky Barlang János. We are propagating Whisky Barlang János. This is a big propaganda for it. Everyone should go and see Whisky Barlang János. I mean, he deserves it because the guy just has a heart of gold. A heart of gold. I really, really like him a lot. Okay. Well, let's say if I can be at home before eight. Yes, to be home before eight. Yeah, before eight. And if not, another shot of palinka should... Egészségedre. Egészség. Whisky Barlang János. Whisky Barlang János. I can't really hear. His actual name is Whiskey Cave Room on Instagram. I think it's whiskey underscore cave underscore room. But I call him Whiskey Balanyanos because I just think it flows really well. Yeah, sure. Do you think people will find him by that name? I don't think they need me to find him, to be honest. He's all over the place. Whiskey Balanyanos is his own best propagandist. I'm just, like, chipping in with a little bit of cheers here and there. I'm curious, what kind of— would you be going— I'm just coming back to the Midwest thing because I can't get over that. Now it's going to be in Iowa. Are you going to be collecting— are you going to just be collecting information there? Or, I mean, if you went— Collecting perspectives. Okay. And is this kind of a fuel for you to understand and educate your desire to eventually propagandize, like, to just to figure out how people think and how best to spread? I really want to see their perspective, you know? So now, okay, so these are the people that they say— I mean, yeah, not they say, the numbers say that these are the people who in 2016 decided the election. So they were those swing voters who aren't really Republicans, who aren't really Democrats, who are, you know, who vote based on mostly issues. And I really want to see how they decided to— what convinced them. You know, now I think I have an understanding on that, but I really didn't have the opportunity to talk to them. I mean, I read so much. I listened to so many of them, but I never had the opportunity to ask them personally what you personally think. And now I can see that— A nézeteik nagyon árnyaltak és nagyon személyesek, szóval tényleg szeretnék velük találkozni egyesével, és egyesével meghallgatni, miért. És szóval, ezt gondolom, ez is az, amit most csinálsz ezzel a dokumentumfilmmel, amit most csinálsz, és szóval már megtudtuk, hogy mit csinálsz most, Sika, a dokumentumfilmmel, és mi a te szereped ma ezzel a dokumentumfilm projekttel? A Balkánnal. Igen, mert a másikban én csak cheer girl vagyok. Több dokumentumfilm is van. Bocsánat, bocsánat, eltévedtem anélkül, hogy tudtam volna. Ő a rendező. Oké, igen. Szóval én fogom rendezni egy portugál sráccal, és azt hiszem, igen, úgy kezdtük, hogy, tudod, nagyon nagy szívvel, mozgást akarunk csinálni a Balkánon, szóval mindenkinek a Balkánon írok, hogy interjúkat készítsek, szóval alapvetően most interjúkat készítek, weboldalakat csinálok, próbálom kitalálni, de igen, próbáljuk megosztani ezeket a dolgokat közöttünk, szóval most alapvetően mindenki mindent csinál. Igen, amit mondani akartam, hogy te is a projekt művészi üzemanyaga vagy vizuális és esztétikai szempontból, mert te is animátor vagy, festő vagy, és csak a általános dizájn varázsló vagy. Mint egy polyhistor. Nem, viccelek. Mi az a polyhistor? Aki mindent tud. Egy polihisztor? Ez egy magyar szó, polihisztor? Nem, polihisztor, mint poli az, ami tényleg görögből származik. Poli az, mint többes, és, hát, hisztor, nem tudom, polihisztor, nem tudom. Mert tudom a polymath kifejezést. A polymath, igen. Da Vinci. Da Vinci was a polymath. Oh, we call him like polyhistor. Okay, so it's the same. There we go. The linguistics. Okay, so yeah. Thank you. So, and then it's gonna be a next challenge to make the visual of the film. You know, it's what can call the millennials. Like, we really want to do the film for them. So it's very... so we don't want to make a movie just, you know, like with some interviews and, like, following some people to the kitchen and then to the street and so on. We really want to get to know what's that really good visual, what's catching them. So— And will you be talking to the— so you're interviewing a lot of people from the Balkans about all these subjects, but it sounds like you're more talking to the millennials as an entire generation, not just you're trying to show that there's similarity just within the generation, or are you talking to the Balkan millennials specifically? Yeah. When we started this, we had this idea, like all the books and articles and so on about the millennials, it's coming from America. And I think, we think that it's more depending on geographic. I mean, if we say, like, the Americans' millennials' biggest trauma is 9/11, I mean, we heard about that and we had something to do with that. But I think if you are going to Serbia, it's much more about the Bulldozer Revolution. Was their trauma exactly kind of exactly from the same time, because it was in 2000. So, so it's— and so we have other things, and also we have this common past, this Soviet Union. You had other things over there, so we really tried to... To understand. I think it’s a contextualization. What you would just hit upon is the contextualization of the millennial development in the Balkan context, I would say. And they have some individual historical patterns. And as well, what I was very intrigued with what Teres was saying before is this idea of the new media and using something visually interesting and aesthetically interesting for this generation, because we really have the attention spans of goldfish. Like, we’re so just stimulated: this place, that place, this place, that place, and it really is like going down to the nanosecond. And we actually test our ideas on you. Like, could Willy really pay attention for that? No? Okay, let’s drop it. Yeah. Willy the goldfish. Oh, great. That’s always my dream, to be a goldfish. So is that Willy’s only role so far? He’s just the guinea pig goldfish? Or, Willy, what are you? No. Well, let’s see what. I would say that my role now, as I see it, is the propagandist. Yeah, yeah, you are the propagandist. He’s making our social media. Okay. Yeah. And he will be our host in… In the social media. Yeah, I've just really started. I did a six-block social media post. For the first time, there's nobody following it, but it's Why Am I Here. dot world, and there is just six-block post of a guy from Bulgaria talking about his times. People often forget Bulgaria, similar to Greece, but it's very Balkan in the sense that it is a post-Soviet place. Because one of the interesting things about this hour-long interview that I listened to that Therese conducted with this Bulgarian guy was he was talking about the border between Greece and Bulgaria, which you never think about. During the Soviet times, you think about Berlin Wall, but the Bulgarian-Greek border was an extension of the Berlin Wall because a lot of citizens in the GDR and the Eastern Bloc, they would try to get to the paradisical wonderlands of the Greek coast via Bulgaria. And you can even see there's this big canyon that's carved out and a really deep river valley where you had to cross it, and you can imagine the people that were willing to risk their lives back then. But either way, yeah, that was what I posted about, and I posted about Indiana Jones because I think the guy was an archaeologist and he fell in love with a Ukrainian girl in Portugal. It's a very interesting conversation, actually. But Therese is going through a sequential series of conversations from around the Balkans, whether it's Bulgaria, former Yugoslavia, even Hungary, because Hungary is sort of this Balkans extended. As we said, it's not really part of the Balkan region, but if you look at the Hungarian borderlands, like Vojvodina or Vojvodsag, that's certainly Balkan. And even if you look down in Croatia, there's a huge history of Hungary in that region. So, again, the contextualization of all of that is incredibly intriguing. And I love kind of what you were touching on, Therese, that it's, yeah, and Willie, you highlighted that it's—and what I was asking is that it's not just for the Balkans, not just for the subjects of this documentary. It's about contextualizing for the whole millennial generation. Yeah, that would be the ultimate goal. This is the propaganda that's being created. Wow, that's crazy. Well, it's interesting that the propaganda, the first definition, was something from Rome, because their propaganda is timeless. We're even following it today. That's crazy, right? Like, we're still using all of their words. I mean, I think then... We started to be in groups, like at least with three people, then started the propaganda, no? Yeah, basically. Yeah, now it's much more easier because we have media and so on. But anyway, the mass is much bigger. Yeah, yeah. You need those instruments. Yeah. So we need to be very loud about our project. Not kidding, but... But in general, that is interesting to think about: do people have to be loud nowadays? Because I think there is something to be said for, like, a more minimalist approach, and something that I certainly struggle with, because I think I propagandize myself quite a bit. But either way, I'm still very intrigued and attracted to minimalist advertising and stuff that's a little bit more, I don't know, has an air of secrecy and allure to it. I mean, isn't, like— so, I mean, I think the epitome of success, and for people who aren't like Disney and Marvel and these people who have huge money, who can propagandize on an insane level, I mean, virality is the— and that is, I mean, depending on your interpretation of minimal, it's sort of minimal because it's, you've made it interesting enough for somebody that they want to share it again. And it's like, so you create the propaganda and it lives by itself, like it has to spread by its own fodder, it has to spread by its own— Yeah, but you should have, like, multiple starting points. So not just one type, like one person who shares it over, but another type also with another type of person, with another type of circle, with a different message that still resonates with yours. So I think it is, yeah, it is that complex, more complex. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So I didn't, that's very cool. Yeah. So the different groups and the different starting points have different messages that all tie to the same context, which is fascinating. Wow. Cool. Do you guys feel like the Roman history of Budapest is something that you are interested in? The idea that Budapest used to be a Roman colony? Yeah. It never... honestly, it doesn't really, you know, I don't really feel that. You don't think about it too much. Not really. I mean, you know, we live close to Aquincum, and we know some stuff of Budapest is from those times, but I don't really feel any Roman. Yet you feel that? Well, yeah. I mean, I spent quite a bit of time amongst the Roman ruins out there, and like I was very interested in Roman history specifically. But I can, that being said, I can see, like in the Hungarian, most Hungarian people would agree with Násika that there's not really too much of a Roman past because you don't see it passed down in the same way you do in Italy, of course, and even places like France, which was Gaul, and even Germany. I don't know. Hungary was really a borderland, which is interesting going back to that definition of propaganda. It said specifically that propaganda was used in these border territories to sort of preach the gospel of Rome abroad. And so many things happened since then, you know. So we had to suffer through so many propaganda. We had to, you know, conform so many times and... So, so, so that was the sword. I think what Nausika said, it's really, really true, because I just started to feel it during these interviews. Like, the last strongest thing is the thing, what you experience and your nation experience. So I can really think about the Roman Empire because we have now this, what we have. Yeah, and Turkish and Slavic and, and, and whatever. So, so many things and so many people, so many tribes since then. Yeah, it's true. But there still is a cultural appreciation if you go out to Aquincum. You can see some nice ruins, and even the idea that the bathhouses, the Romans, they just celebrated and loved the baths. Do you guys love the baths? Do you love those? Yes, yes, that's something I am so grateful. And I really hope they are going to open very soon. It was supposed to be March 15th, like just around March 15th, middle of March, they said, but now I don't know because they shut down everything else, so I can't imagine. The baths, controversial to go there during the corona times. I went. We went. We went. I went too with my mother, yeah. But if you had to, you know, give one, the Blue Ribbon, or the, you know, the number one, the gold star, you know, what's the best bathhouse in Budapest? I think it is Gellért, like in objective terms, but my favorite is Király. Yeah. Okay. My one too. Well done. That's good. Four points for Király. Four, four out of four. Okay, four. I'm glad that you said that. And you know, they say that Király is zarva, zarva, and not nemcsak zarva, mint mint egy most zarva, de Király zarva, zarva, és nem tudom, de nagyon-nagyon... How do you say that it's closed? I don't know, just read Thomas, I think. Yeah, but what? No, no, no. Because usually, they do nitva, bathhouse open, and usually lukács nitva, gellért nitva, Széchenyi nitva, many. But today, király nem nitva, and I think as mondták, király zárva, zárva. Yeah, maybe they don't want to open anymore because I was reading something like that too. So I think zárva, zárva is, there is not going to be an opening anymore. You mean that? Oh, you guys are trying to figure out what I mean. Yeah. Zárva, zárva and… Willie. It's closed forever. Zárva, zárva. So shut down. Never open again. I think that's something that I just made up. Zárva, zárva means that it's closed forever. Does it? That's what I heard. That's what I heard. I'm very… I thought this is coming from a legitimate source that Király is dead. But I heard it. It's a source. Okay, then. I heard it, it's a source. Where's the source in that sentence? There was an article about it. There was an article about it. Some sort of article. We'll look into it. Okay, I just don't want to believe that, okay? Well, I hope not, but if it's true, I want to mobilize just some people to think about, I don't know, petitioning to not shut down a 16th century monument to the art of bathing. Definitely not. Yeah. Okay, cool, cool. I'm glad we're on the same page. Four for four. On this podcast, four for four. Király is király. What does király mean, by the way? King. King. Cool. Again, again. Tudom, de talán mindig… all the people on that episode. Yeah. So it has a meaning of a király, the king, and also cool, like király. Yeah, yeah, we have this slang. That's true. Király is like, you say if it's something really cool. Menő is also cool. Yeah, yeah, I think. Yeah, like menő is in the same level as király. And then aszta is like wow. Aszta. Yeah, yeah. Last week I made my own translations with my teacher for the first time, because usually I got this guy Cornell that does it for me, and he does a great job with the translations. But last week I just wanted to try it, and so I learned a lot actually doing that. Like with Orsi, our wonderful teacher, she was listening to me say the English transcripted version, so I typed out all the words in English, and then I would say, Oh, I think that most vagyok... and Orsi Google Docs, on Google Docs Orsi would then write in, like, the correct way. By the end we had to rush a lot more, but it was a very interesting process. It taught me the word asta. Wow, because I'm just saying these, like, weird things all the time, like wow or super. I learn actually a lot about English because I start every sentence with and and but, and it's terrible. What are you gonna do? I'm gonna carry it away. Yeah, but it's okay, you know? Linguists actually say that starting the sentence with but and and, it is okay. You know, you are thinking while you are speaking, so you don't have to say always meaningful words. You will have to say sometimes a but, a then, a while, I think. So, yeah, you have to feel your sentences with that and give yourself time to think about what you are going to say. Wow. So that's not a problem. You can say and and but at the beginning of the sentence, I think. And you've just propagandized linguists as the arbiters of the language, that you guys get to make all the rules. I think that's very important because I think linguists, you know just know better. Like, you know, if a linguist is okay with you starting a sentence with but, then, you know, why would anyone else tell you not to? Ah, that's true. I like that. Why would anyone else? Why should anyone else? Why should? They simply shouldn't because, you know, the experts say that it is okay and it actually helps you to make the sentence that you will. Linguistics is an interesting study actually because it really brings in a whole lot of different fields, like philosophy, logic, history, social sciences, things that you would even think about. Linguistics is a very diverse topic. I think there's a lot of famous linguists. Right? Who's a famous linguist? Give us a famous linguist. I would say Nádasdy Ádám, who is also, you know, a poet. What's his name? Nádasdy Ádám. He has very good poems also, and he's a very good linguist. I mean, you know, I don't know him personally. He's alive, so he's— You guys ever hear of the Cunning Linguists? Cunning? The Cunning Linguists. It's a rap group in America, and it's like a play on words on cunnilingus. Okay, yeah. I thought you were trying to catch me there. I don't know this rap group. Are they good? I think it's in America. Now I'm saying everything's in America. Like the other day I made an episode about István Akirai rock opera, which— So you saw that? I saw all three versions. I saw it in 1984, I saw it in 2003 in Csíksomlyó— Yeah. I saw it in 2008 with Fekete Pál. And they were all tremendous. I mean, I loved it. I really loved it. I'm a big Copán guy, and— You should listen to Naplegenda. Naplegenda? Naplegenda, yeah. It was a show of Illényi Együttes with the music made by Nikola Parov. And, yeah, that is— yeah, music from the east, from Hungary, from the Balkans, you know, mixed together. Oh, wow. It is really a very good musical experience, and also the dancers, like the dance show, it is based on, like, folk dancing, but, you know, it's a very good show. Yeah, you really should listen to it. The title, Naplegenda. Naplegenda, yeah. Cool. I'm very interested in this Hungarian cultural history as well. It's really cool just to see all the layers. I mean, István Akirai, which is so, so cool to learn about. And I love the— there's two Zsulas. There's two guys named Zsula. There's Deák Bill Zsula, who plays the Taltos, the Hobo Bill's band. He's got— he's this one-legged guy. He lost his leg when he was 11 years old, and he became the leading blues singer in Hungary. And he has the voice like a rock god, like, I mean, a blues god, excuse me, of course. You should listen to Fekete Jenő if you want to listen to blues music in rekláma. Okay. Sorry. I have a good friend, he's Fekete Jenő. He's, you know, an older guy, but he used to be a blues star in Hungary, and he really plays good blues music. So as Americans, I think you will— you will. Check it out. We'll write down. What was the second? Facette? Janu. Janu. You have very good, no? How to say it? I can just intimidate people really well. I can do it if she didn't just say it. But anyway. Yeah. And then the other jula was Vicky Dahljula, who plays... Oh yeah. So there's two julas. There's Beak Bill and there's Vicky Dahl, and I want to know from you two, Teres, you can start: which one, Vicky Dahl or Beak Bill, who do you choose? Oh, this is not really my... But if you had to bring one of them with, like, on a team of yours, that you were playing some competition and you wanted to win the competition. I have to? What kind of competition? Because, you know... Yes. If it's running... Swimming. I know, I'm not... Swimming? No, it's not. If it's a swimming competition, I would choose Vicky Dahl. Swimming competition, you would choose Vicky Dahl because he's like a gigantic Nordic guy, Hungarian guy that plays copan. But if it was a singing competition, that's probably the better question because they're both singers, they both have great voices, but if you could just choose one voice: Vicky Dahl or Beak Bill jula. Phew, huh. About a night out of the town at the karaoke bar at Kenny's Garage, who do you bring with you? That's a much better question. I like that a lot. Night out at the bar, Kenny's Garage, Bud Light. Karaoke night. Okay, I don't know because I just heard Vicky Dahl in this project, so I don't know anyway how he's doing with this job, so I could, yeah, I... Okay, no. So no visit to the karaoke bar then. That's what we call in America, we have a term called the filibuster in the Senate. And basically, I mean, this is a real rule, believe it or not, in American politics, is that when the senators, they want to stall on a debate basically and not have anything get voted for, they can do a filibuster where they literally just talk and talk and talk and talk. That's the impediment of it. That's the origination, back in, we're talking early 20th century. Now you don't even have to talk; you just say, I'm going to filibuster, and that means you need 60 votes to pass a bill instead of 50, and to get a 60-vote majority in the American Senate is very difficult. So the filibuster, anyway, Teres is filibuster. Nice move. Nice move. And last question for you: they have Bill or Vicky Daljula? In Kenny's garage. In Kenny's garage, karaoke night, Thursday. I think I would take the Bill. The Bill. Maybe, you know, I think he's like singing and talking at the same time, so that's the style we need there in Kenny's garage. That's the style people are asking for in Kenny's, especially after all that Jim Beam. Yeah, yeah, and I think he would be good with Jim Beam. Yeah, and we could talk and sing, that's the both, a Jim Beam. Actually, I was thinking about this the other day: Jim Beam, Jack Daniel's, your name, Tom Beam, to be a good whiskey. Yeah. Can we talk to the Hungarian whiskey from you? Whiskey Barlang János, Tom Beam. Whiskey Barlang, but okay, you now have to admit that Whiskey Barlang János is not the name that you are looking for in the next round. It is so hard to memorize. No, no, no, that's not true. I saw someone out in the day the other day, and they told me, Oh, I love Whiskey Barlang János. They remembered. We're having a farewell shot. Thank you to Whiskey Barlang János. Thank you to Whiskey Barlang János. I don't know if you want a full one. No, no, no. A farewell shot. So, to wrap this conversation up, after we take our shot, I just want you guys to think about the future. And after our shot, we will go from there, and then probably about ten minutes left of conversation. Only future. Ten minutes left of the future. What would you do? Yeah. Wow. You only have ten minutes. But ten minutes, remember, it could be an ever-expanding amount of time. You never know. We're talking about relativity here, Einstein. Here's Einstein. Here's to the universe expanding and eventually dying in a cold mess. Finally. Wow. Oh my God. Here is Kenny's Garage. I will be passing it around just for everyone to fully conceptualize the future and what is the beauty of Kenny's Garage. Maybe you should take Fakete János to Kenny's Garage. I really do want to. I mean, you know, I have this. So, like with Fakete János, the last album that you will see, a solo album of Fakete János, it's a very good album, and the best musicians of Hungary are playing on it. It's so authentic. And I've been working with him. Kenny's Garage. This place looks great. János, Fakete János would fit right in there. I think so. Have you ever seen Fakete János? No. But he would anyways. But I can just tell. János is an interesting name. Is that like a name, János? I wanted to ask you if you knew that jula used to mean... I don't remember if it was the religious or the military leader. I think it was the military leader. Yeah, in Hungary. It was. You know, I'm calling, as you say that, I'm calling Kenny's Garage to see if we can get them on the line. But the jula was the military leader in Transylvania. Yeah, thank you. In Erdély. Okay. And I think that's why you see a lot of towns out there named like Júlafehérvár. Oh, I see. This is the dial tone that everyone's hearing. This is Willie typing in. If you want to know the number for Kenny's Garage... Is it Kenny's Garage? Yeah, they are closed now. Maybe the phone will work. Oh, I just called them in Hungary with the plus 36. The Americans is slightly different. Thanks, whiskey. Barlang. Barlang, yeah, there we go. I needed to start. But you know, this is the best. It's really, really good, yeah. It should be this, because full of vitamin K, these things are... Oh, the kerte, the pears. We can have that for breakfast tomorrow, a little kerte. Is that a saying? This is the Hungarian. This is a Hungarian saying, that palinka, csak reggel, bon? Or just csak reggel. Csak reggel. Like you said earlier. Just in the... oh, reggeli. Reggeli. No, it was a joke. Okay. But yeah, you drink a palinka in the morning, so, you know, your blood pressure goes up, and better than coffee. Through the roof, it lifts the spirits. It gives us one more reason, because we are really an alcoholic nation. So, like, you know, when you do physical work or whatever and it is cold outside, you just drink a palinka and it helps. It improves the circulation. I hear it's the best defense against the virus. Everyone says that Hungary is an alcoholic nation. Is that true? All the Balkans is alcoholic. I mean, they say so. About themselves, and I think, like, you know, everyone is. Who's not? What nation is notoriously not alcoholic? Well, that's the thing, is that every nation has a big drinking problem. I mean, I've lived in... I mean, besides Australia. Yeah, and also that is a generational problem. And also this is the first generation that explicitly talks about it. You know, when you admit that, okay, fuck it, I am an alcoholic and I'm 30 years... What about Genghis Khan and the boys drinking fermented mare's milk out in the 12th century Mongolian steppes? They were just blind drunk every day of the week. But I don't think they, you know, they didn't mind. So it wasn't diagnosed as neurosis. Nowadays you have, like, certain... Rules to conform to, and now you— and not just the rules, it's also, you know, the fear of it. So you actually mind that you are an alcoholic, if you are. Do you think it's a good change, or do you think it's better to have a bunch of Genghis Khans running around, their heads falling off from fermented... I don't know. I mean, it depends. I think it really depends on the age, and it really depends on you. And I don't think that alcoholism would be necessary, like, in today's society. Well, that's interesting. I mean, it shouldn't be, because alcoholism means today, it means that there is something wrong, very wrong. It is not like that, you know, instead of coffee, like making a coffee, you are drinking palinka, so you have the spirit to go to war and, you know, it's— and you don't... So, no, I don't think it is okay in today's society to be an alcoholic. I mean, it is okay because everyone is an alcoholic, but it shouldn't be that way. In some ways it's celebrated. I mean, I've found that, like, a lot of people in the content that I'm making, they relate to the drinking sections a lot because it's, like, compelling cultural context is how we all... Cultural drinking is different, but when you are a lonely drinker, and a sad drinker, or a depressed drinker, I think that's a problem. Like fun drinking, I'm all for it. But then there's some argument to be made that maybe drinking is more likely to be fun in your twenties and your thirties, and that it can be habituated and used as a crutch later on in your life when things might, you know, we have pretty rosy existences as millennials. Obviously, we all have our own problems, but we're still, in the grand scheme of things... In a nice position to be more optimistic, but you hear some stories—a 60-year-old woman who's had two kids die and is on welfare or something. You know, that's a lot different. Yeah, yeah. This is actually one thing about the normality thing that I was thinking about. So, like right now we have an idea of what being a millennial is, and we have ideals about what is our generational understanding. Does that change over time? No, we want to explore what exactly is that ideal about our generation is, because we can see what the outside world says. So what the boomers say, what the X generation say, what baby Zs say. But we don't really know how we actually, the generation Y, identify ourselves, and that's what we want to see: how we define our generation, and how we define it from a personal point of view. And perhaps how our generation defines us as well. Yeah, I think yes, included. Well, I'm excited to see the final product, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot about my own generation and my own understanding of where I stand. Well, we definitely hope so. And also we definitely hope that we can, you know, somehow connect the Balkans to Iowa at a certain point. For episode two. For me, I'm probably gonna have to go on and talk about this a little more next time, but I have a very close personal experience in the Balkans. I lived—actually, my first experience living in Europe was living in Sarajevo for three months in Bosnia. And that's the most interesting people. I'm sorry, I had to add that was when I've been there. It was like one year ago. That was the first time in my life when I could touch the history. I don't know why, but I had the feeling, I had this skin— Goosebumps. Thank you. Yeah, that—and I was like, wow, so now this is history. I felt more when I was speaking with my grandparents who lived through this '56 revolution. So I was completely out of the word when I was in Sarajevo. I had that thing. Yeah, Sarajevo is a crazy place. I mean, on my street there was a mosque, an Eastern Orthodox church, a Roman Catholic church, and a synagogue on one street. And the Jewish cemetery next to each other. And they still have this whole, I mean, we could go on. Everyone has a story about divorce. Everyone has a story that, you know, I've been digging the tunnels and, you know, now I'm, I don't know, a football trainer or whatever. But, you know, I remember when I was digging those tunnels and was saving children. In a way, the Balkans are a connection to our past because we have a generation, the millennial generation, that has lived through what all generations used to live through before the end of World War II. Every generation—I mean, there were some golden periods in there, like mid-19th century maybe—but regardless, more often than not, a generation was defined by their war experience. Whereas for us, that's a little bit different, except in the Balkans, in the European context. You look at the whole world and we're still living in a little utopic blissful dot that doesn't really have any relation to anywhere else. Yeah. So we couldn't say anything about the future. No, we've said a lot about the future. We're looking forward to the future release where many of these questions will be answered and many more questions will arise. Yeah, it's more than directly. Very sophisticated. All right, filibuster, if you will. Let's dance with that just once. Well, Peres and Nausicaa and Bob Tamash, Kosonom sepen, Kosonyuk sepen, and thank you very much to our special guest star, whiskey barlang János, who is here more in spirit and spirits than anything else. Kosonyuk sepen, and we will see you next week. Yes, much love.
