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Why don’t more companies offer affordable international shipping? The answer is because navigating the world of VAT, customs, international duties, and other intricacies make this too much of a headache for most eCommerce operators. Additionally, technical components, payment options, logistics and, yes, varying holiday calendars are all variables that a company needs to consider when it is expanding globally. It’s nearly impossible to do without some sort of help.  So the question becomes how do you face this nightmare ready and prepared? That’s where Matthew Merrilees comes in. Matthew is the CEO, North America for Global-e, and they solve these problems. On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, Matthew shares the ins and outs of what it takes to equip your ecommerce brand for international expansion.  Whether you need to address currency concerns or want to understand the data that drives your competitors to success in the market, Matthew shares those secrets and more on today’s episode.  Main Takeaways: Is It a Holiday? — When brands expand internationally, it’s important to know and plan for holidays that affect customers in every single market. There are opportunities being missed by companies who are too focused on the big international holidays and not enough on local strategy.  Pay With Ease — Customers want transactions to be simple. Anything that makes a transaction hard, or confusing, will almost certainly result in an abandoned purchase. Implementing an integrated, hyper-localized payment and taxation strategy is one of the first things companies need to consider when expanding internationally. Plan B — Companies and individuals are currently experiencing many unexpected disruptions in life and business. Being able to navigate through those disruptions is necessary in order to continue providing the best possible customer experience. Creating contingency plans and backup systems to deploy if there is a disruption in your logistics or backend operations will take you a long way.   For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length. --- Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce --- Transcript: Stephanie: Welcome back to another episode of Up Next in Commerce. I'm your host, Stephanie Postles, co-founder of Mission.org. And today on the show, we have Matthew Merrilees, the CEO of North America at Global-e. Matthew, Welcome. Matthew: Hey, pleasure to be here Stephanie. Thanks so much for having me. Stephanie: So, I want to dive in a bit into your background. It looks like you've worked at a lot of different logistics companies. Before we touch on Global-e, I was hoping we could go over your background a bit and how you got to where you are. Matthew: Yeah, for sure. It gets a bit about me, and my background, definitely started, I would say from call it my family history, just the family history of fathers and brothers. And call it family members who grew up in operations logistics, and obviously [inaudible] Ecommerce. So, I think as I followed the family tree and fell into place, I think all in all it definitely did kick off and start my career at DHL Express, where I spent quite a number of years in various different positions, leadership roles, and such. And then made the transition to FedEx where I definitely did a lot of the same. And obviously, now here at Global-e. I think when you look at the background, straight from university into the logistics arena, was quite exciting. Stephanie: Yep. Very cool. So tell me a little bit about Global-e. What is the company? And what kind of customers do you guys have? And how do you interact with them? Matthew: Yeah, for sure. What we are is a cross border enablement platform, right? We focus primarily in three different arenas that support our brands, which is in boosting international conversion rates, which is boosting overall sales and revenue of course. And then most importantly, boosting customer satisfaction for an international transaction. Right? So I think when you look at the vast portfolio of brands that we work with from a global perspective... I mean, we worked with over 350 enterprise global brands, right? Matthew: So when you look at some of the likes of, let's just call it Forever 21, Reformation and Anastasia Beverly Hills, Marc Jacobs, Hugo boss, Versace. But, I think when you look at the broad gamut of brands, I mean it is something that is, for me, always eye opening. Just how we're able to help take an international transaction and really, truly localize it to a way that consumer in that individual market would really expect to buy online. And I think there's a lot of barriers when you look at the international market and how we help these brands really position that data, that knowledge, that insight, and that expertise is really I'd say where we come in and help. Stephanie: Cool. And what stage does a company need to be at to partner with Global-e? Do they need to be as big as Forever 21, or could a new DTC company also utilize your great services? Matthew: Really it's any size, shape or brand. I would say just over I think seven years ago now we deployed the business, right? And I think we came out of the gate with a very strong enterprise focus. But, I think as we evolved we saw the demand in market for small medium enterprise type brands. Really it's any size, shape or brand who has let's just call it an Ecommerce platform running an online digital storefront. And it is someone that obviously has an Ecommerce strategy in place today. So it's not just the Bigs that I think you see in the market that we continue to focus on and then come into the portfolio. I think it's also those brands that are digitally native, that are really looking to capture revenue outside of their home market. So I think it's really any size, shape or size customer that could lead to that discussion. Stephanie: Cool. I was hoping we could kind of start the episode there around what are maybe some international fails you see happening with brands right now, or hiccups that maybe new companies would encounter if they don't use a solution that figures out all the different challenges when selling across borders. Matthew: Yeah, for sure. I think sales are important. Obviously, I think brands all have different approaches to sale, right? There are some heavy sale brands by design. There are some flash sale businesses out there that really drive high, heavy traffic to a limited amount of inventory. And then I think there's your typical sale holidays where everyone's on sale, which is typically your Black Friday type periods that we recognize here in the North American market. But, I think as brands start to think internationally and think what sales exists outside of just this US home market. For us, we start to really get into the education process, which is number one; what are the holidays that are happening outside of the USA? Is it Singles Day? Is it Boxing Day? Is it Click Frenzy in Australia, for example? Which I think is the beginning part for a lot of the brands that we tend to work with. Matthew: I'd say number one, what are the holidays? What and where do these holidays exist? And then number two, how do you get prepared in order to approach that consumer? Is it a similar approach that we have to a domestic customer here in the US? They're going to need to be spoken to and treated in a unique way that more relates to them in that market. So I think sales are critically important. But, I think with branding awareness of when they're happening, why they're happening, and how to really give that consumer, let's just say the customer satisfaction experience that they would expect, is important. Stephanie: Yep. Are there any holidays that come to mind that you've seen a bunch of brands missing? Because I've heard of a couple of them like Singles Day. I think especially more recently, we started hearing about these other sales that go on around the world. But, is there any big opportunities or a time when you say, "Hey, there's a sale happening." And a lot of brands are like, "Oh, I've never heard of that." Or, "That's never come across my radar before." But, it's like a big important one? Matthew: Honestly, the three I listed, and the reason for listing them is because they are the most important, that typically I would say a lot of brands are just not aware of. And believe it or not, don't have strategies planned around. They used to be sales, and I think that specifically the two in both Boxing Day, and I'd say most importantly, Click Frenzy, is probably the one that is most highly missed out of the portfolio of brands. Just saying, "Wow! Click Frenzy, I didn't realize how large it was." And it's something that we absolutely want to help tailor to our market, which is such a key focus market for a lot of US brands in Australia. Stephanie: Got it. So what kind of strategies are you maybe suggesting to them? Maybe we'll focus on those two. How would you walk a brand through these holidays and maybe how to approach it to get into that market? Matthew: I think it all begins with the communication. So number one, we talked about the education, the awareness, which is obviously going to be key. And then I think with the brand. Every brand, as I mentioned earlier, the approach sale differently. So I think when you look at whether it be a flash sale business, whether it be a traditionally just natively sale business, who's very highly discounted down to high luxury brands that like to go on sale at certain times per year, typically two times or so per year, I think it all begins with their engagement. And obviously a lot of the brands, they free up their time for these marketing efforts. And we help break down a lot of barriers to get them to focus their time on the strategy. But, I think it begins with a setting strategy for each one of these markets. Matthew: And it begins with communication. How are you going to touch that consumer? How are you going to touch that consumer in a way that relates locally to them? And then obviously making sure that you have all the tools in place to execute on that sale so that when that consumer hits for an Australian day like Frenzy, they're seeing their currency in Australian dollars. They're aware of GST and the 10% that has to be captured on every single order that is being built in your product price. These are things that you need to communicate, "Hey, we've got a great sale going on. But, hey, also we accept your local currency. You can come buy with confidence." So I think as long as the marketing strategies within the brands are executing them the way they typically do, I think the next step there is to make sure that they've got the tools and the site in place to then obviously relate to that customer. Stephanie: Got it. And are you helping them implement those technologies? Or are you more giving avenues of like, "You couldn't implement this tech stack or you could go with this one." Matthew: So we typically implement it. Right? So all of our brands, even all of the ones that I've spoken about in the entire portfolio, basically what Global-e is doing is helping, let's just say arm and equip their site to be able to speak to an international consumer. And I'd say a lot of brands, come to us and say, "Hey, we view you as our international outsource Ecommerce team." Because we need to understand not only that I need to equip my US site to be able to speak to a consumer in China versus Singapore, versus Thailand and Canada and Australia and so on but, I also need to know what's the right proposition. How do I take insights and data and duty and tax? And what do I do with all of these different elements that are barriers to that customer buying? And how do we break it down so it's local to that consumer and market? And these are when I say quick to site and be ready for that type of volume to be hitting your site so that you're able to convert that customer, that's where Global-e comes into play. Stephanie: Got it. It seems like, you mentioned data earlier, it seems like you would have access to a ton of data from working with all these brands and seeing what works and what doesn't work. Tell us a little bit about some of the insights that you guys are seeing and also teaching your brands when it comes to selling internationally. Matthew: Sure. So I think the first thing that in an engagement with a brand that we have, right? Because there's brands of all different verticals, as you can imagine whether it be fashion and retail, whether it be beauty, whether it be footwear, streetwear and so on and so forth. So I think the one biggest insight in a lot of brands I would say, come to us for is, we want to understand what the rest of our vertical's doing. How are they being successful? What are they doing to target consumers? And let's just say all these parts of the world. So we really, I think from a data perspective, we consolidate it. And we sit on mountains of data that we can then drive from an insight's perspective to the brand that, "Hey, based off of where you're selling today and based off of where you should be selling tomorrow, we're going to help you build a strategy on let's just say end to end perspective. Right? Matthew: So it all starts from when the consumer hits the site, right? Currency, how are you going to show it? How are you going to also locally round that currency to make sure that it's a number that that consumer can relate to in that market. Down to duty and tax strategies, shipping propositions, and all of the elements that we know are going to have an impact to a consumer buying. And as an example of that for a few key markets that we can at least relate to, Canada. Canada is a market that acts very much like the US. And I'd say far too many US brands that we tend to see will typically treat, let's just say a Canadian shopper as they would a shopper within Singapore. And basically just take that product that they're selling and sell it at the same experience worldwide and say, "Okay. But, did I think that a Canadian customer is used to paying tax when they hit a local shop to buy the shirt?" They never ever see the term duty in market experience. Matthew: So on your site, you should never ever display duty and taxes as part of an overall transaction. Otherwise, that consumer's going to be shocked to see extra costs and abandon. And there's other elements to, how do we factor in duty into the product price? Because that's typically going to be a conversion driver for that Canadian consumer. And that goes even into markets like Europe and the UK, where it's that inclusive. The typical buying experience for a European consumer. So the second that a US brand now puts at the point of checkout duty and tax and breaks it out, it's going to cut their conversion in half. So these are the insights on a market by market basis where every country is and has to be looked at independently. And as far as too many times when we come into these conversations, our brand's just taking a single strategy for the world. And I think that's kind of one of the biggest opportunities to help our brand succeed. Stephanie: Got it. Yeah. That's great. How are you all staying on top of consumer preferences or making sure that you're staying on top of what's hot? You can think of WeChat, it came up pretty quickly. And how people are using it changes all the time it seems. How is you guys' company able to stay up with what people are expecting in different markets, and how they're buying? Matthew: Yes. I think honestly it has evolved over the years. I think as a mature business with a lot of mature brands that obviously we rely on and rely on us. Depending on which aspect you're looking out of the business, we've got a lot of robust technology internally that will help with that. So from a payment perspective, this is not going to be a single payment provider that's going to be able to take it to offering every single payment method that you need in your arsenal to be able to let's just say, service the world. I mean, enabling WeChat, Alipay, UnionPay into China's is critically important. But, to be able to enable that is a big challenge. So I think typically what we do to stay ahead of let's just say that front is we work very closely with our brands. Matthew: Like I said, there is a knowledge base out there with our brands that we've built up over these seven years that really drive and are a piece of driving our overall roadmap. So I think the voice of our customer is so critical that we continue to evolve, to adapt and definitely change. And then I think also internally with our focus only being cross border and international, we've built out the expertise, the knowledge and the data to understand that. And I think between the combination of the two, I think what we tend to do is always stay multiple steps ahead where a US brand can then focus their efforts on marketing on their US domestic market. And so for European brands, which is also no different. Stephanie: Yep. Makes sense. When I'm thinking about everything that's happening right now, it seems like there is a lot of buying shifts happening. But, I haven't really thought about maybe internationally, how the buying behaviors are changing. So I was hoping you could maybe touch on any trends or opportunities that you're seeing overseas right now that maybe other people can't spot because they don't have access to all the data that you do. Matthew: Where I was heading with it a minute ago is having a chat with myself. I think when we look at the brands, I think there's a lot of elements that we do bring from an insight's perspective. So when you look at the data, it's really a methodology around duty and tax we talked about. That's one very big element. How and what to do with duty and tax in every single market to showcase it. I think when you look at payments, another very big element like Alipay, you mentioned WeChat pay, UnionPay, all very important into China. But, then into other markets like Germany, where Klarna is a highly adopted installment type pay methods on all throughout the Nordics, it's critical and key. And you have to have that there in your arsenal to be able to convert a consumer or even acquire a consumer within that region. Matthew: And then I think we even get into let's just say the Netherlands, over 58% that as we see through our platform of all odors or within the Netherlands are paid with ideal. I think these are the elements when you look at duty and tax strategy, when you look at payment strategy, when you look at overall shipping strategy, right? You mentioned logistics carriers and the challenges that they're having today. Matthew: I think another element of that is from a logistics suite, offered your consumer a checkout, you need to make sure that that multi carrier approach is ready, equipped, and able to handle the volume that is going to be coming their way, especially as on a daily basis that can tell you our operations team is keeping up with the overall feedback from every single carrier from lane closures to lane impacted. Even just down to value, limitations and free ship thresholds and when to offer what. So I think as you look at the price strategy, the payment strategy, the duty and tax strategy, and you bring literally all of this together from a full end to end solution, that's really what obviously makes this a successful approach to brands. Stephanie: Cool. And are there any opportunities you see right now that are popping up? Or you're like, "I see a lot of maybe consumers internationally looking for this type of product." Or there's an unmet need here that could be solved. Any secrets that you have about these international markets? Matthew: I think for me, and typically what we tend to see in our market here is yes, brands come out of the gate saying, "Okay, I'm going to go international." What does that mean? That to a lot of our brands ends up meaning I want to focus my efforts on English speaking countries, such as Canada, UK, and Australia. And I think that's a good approach for brands to splash with. But, I think when you look at our business globally and we start to look at markets and regions, and then you call it... Any insights of secrets, I think right now what we've seen is the Gulf region. The Gulf region through COVID is a region that really has not decreased at all. And only seen a positive growth trends since, call it January of this year. Matthew: So when we let's just call it, are reaching like the peak of April, we saw over a 575% growth in year and year sales [inaudible 00:19:48], which basically the trend has only continued and accelerated May through June. So I think for me and a lot of what we're seeing, even specifically in that Gulf region with luxury with the UAE really accelerating with Saudi Arabia, with Kuwait, with Qatar. These are markets that brands never think in the US markets to put a strategy behind them. We're seeing such a huge growth globally that I think they're starting to rethink their strategies. Stephanie: Oh, that's a good one. And have they always been part of your arsenal or is that something also that you guys are pivoting a bit more into that area? Matthew: So, I think the beauty of what Global-e does with our brands is literally with a single integration, whether it be the currency, the hundred plus currencies that we enable. Or whether it be the 150 different payment methods that we offer, the duty and tax guarantee for limiting risk and liability to our brands, all of that pulled together in single integration, opens them up to the world. So the first thing is, make sure your site is set up for success. So that should a consumer from a certain market hit your site, then they're able to convert. And that is what Global-e does. And that enables let's just say, even the Gulf region out of the box. Matthew: And then it becomes, "Okay, now we've got a proper offering. Now conversion and sales is accelerated where we want it to be." And I think those second level conversations begin with the brands, their digital marketing teams, and how do I start acquiring new customers? How do I start really pushing my efforts to markets where I know that the demand is there and that I should not just waste my time trying to cover off all 220 countries and territories out there. Let's focus in major and majors. And let's really get a strategy together. This can have an impact to our overall celebration for business. Stephanie: Cool. So I'm thinking when it comes to international sales, the metrics that maybe you're providing back to your customers, or that you guys are looking at frequently, maybe differ a bit than US centric sales. What kind of metrics do you guys look at to see if things are going well? Matthew: So I think from our perspective that the major metrics that we tend to focus on with our brands is always going to be conversion rate. Conversion rate is something that as a hosted checkout solution, Global-e has a full impact on. So our brand's checkout is powered by Global-e as simply put. Meaning that we have hyper localized every element of that overall checkout. Which means if they're going to put in all of the effort from a marketing perspective to get that consumer to a point of checkout, we are going to make sure that they are going to buy. And I think when you look at the ability and the approach of that let's just say localization, conversion rate is always a forefront of what we look at with our brands. Matthew: And then I think sales growth, right? Sales growth as revenue is always going to be a second team metric that we 100% I would say, study and operate, and look at with our brands. And just full circle rounding it off as customer satisfaction. Even down to NPS scores with our brands that we share. And we look at down to the market level to make sure that if we're getting from some negative feedback in a certain market, why? How do we help better equip that experience from an Ecommerce perspective, to make sure that we're not just seeing and hearing that feedback but, we're actually it. Stephanie: Cool. When talking about negative feedback, I was just thinking about when launching a new product, it might be easier to think like, "Oh, I should go international." But, oftentimes people internationally don't like the same things maybe as the things that we like here. So, is there any advice or guiding that you do for these brands who maybe are like, "We want to go international, we want to go everywhere." Is there ever a time when you're like, "Actually, I'm pretty sure people in Asia would never use that." Like they don't like that. Matthew: No, I think from a brand perspective our approach is typically always going to be as a brand, it's the continuing drive to say the way that you've invested and looked at the domestic market. Not just from a fragmented perspective but, from a full end to end perspective, from the way that you talk to your customer, the way that you show them products, the way that you position products, the way that you promote products or free ship thresholds or show tax into certain markets. You can't do anything differently when it comes to international. The way that your strategies are built here domestically are not different than that of international. And when we really interact with our brand, it's specifically to help educate them on that overall fact because you're right, consumers expect different things in different markets. Matthew: And if you're not setting up your site for success to complete that, which is obviously what our biggest value add is, is that when our platform sits on top of your website, you don't have to worry about that anymore. Right? And you can now focus your effort on acquiring new business and new customers, which is really where brands want to be spending their time, especially the small and midsize ones who don't have these robust teams as some of the larger brands out there. You're talking to owners, you're talking to founders, you're talking to literally the folks that built this business from the ground up. Matthew: So they're involved on every single ticket that every single consumer puts through the site and they're reacting to it. That's why I think for them to not have the burden of thinking about currency, thinking about, "Hey, I have to now register my business in Australia or Norway, or Switzerland." Or what's happening in the UK with Brexit and how are duty in that threshold changing in a market like Canada, which is so important. This is stuff that they no longer have to think about. That's typically where we see the brands heading and we opened them up to the world so that they're truly giving an amazing experience for their consumers the first time it ever hits their site. Stephanie: Got it. Yeah. So it's essentially on the brands to make sure that they have a product that's good and that will sell internationally. Then you guys come in and take care of everything else. But, it's kind of up to them to do that due diligence and make sure that the product that they're about to bring internationally is actually a good fit for that market. Matthew: Absolutely. And I think when you look at the brands, obviously, product placement performance, they own and control the brand, right? At the end of the day the customer is the brand's customer. It's their data. They have access to all of this data. It's not ours, it's not our approach with the brands. It's always "Listen, we're going to push and give you all the bits of information that you need in order to market to that consumer." And then we also help through partnerships and other marketing channels, even let's just say bringing eyeballs to their site. And I think those are elements when you look at how can you help brands and how can you obviously look to convert that brand, it's super important. Stephanie: Cool. So you just mentioned bringing eyeballs to their site and that piqued my interest in what kind of effective channels are you guys seeing right now to bring new international customers to these brands? Matthew: Yeah. I'll give you one example that I think is a relevant one. And we mentioned because it kind of ties into the overall payment perspective that we mentioned with offering Klarna in Germany and the Nordic region. And Klarna is getting very active in the payment space, which we've just been following very, very closely. But, I think Klarna has done a very nice job of securing some dominance in that European market. So one of the elements that we've done is we've partnered with them. We said, "What can we do from a payment perspective to outreach to consumers?" How can we take our brands and put their products within the Klarna network of consumers that exist out there to let them know that this small little mid sized brand in the US exists? And that is something that we've done to help the brands just as an example, that is super important. And we've seen a lot of value and a lot of return from that where this is something in a market that just typically these brands have not even thought about putting dollars into. Stephanie: That's really interesting. It reminds me of earlier, when I was talking about products and may be opportunities. I mean, you hear that stuff happening, of people going on a vacation to Thailand, or like the guy who created red bull. They're oftentimes overseas, when they see something happening, they're like, "Oh, I see a method of doing this." Or I see something that people really enjoy. And they may sometimes bring it back to the US. But, that's also really interesting, kind of creating in a way an exchange that says, "Hey, here's a bunch of brands that you may not know about." And these overseas brands actually might want to tap into them as well. Matthew: Precisely. And then I think you get into a whole digital marketing effort that the brand really at that point takes a strong hold on, which we even sometimes will help them with. And I think when you look at it as, what are you doing from a marketing perspective? Is it Facebook? Is it Instagram? And how are you taking it from that digital perspective? And a lot of the brands that we market are specially through the times that we've had now, just really focusing hugely on Ecommerce. And how to tap into Ecommerce in two ways, either domestic or international. Because that's the world we're living in at this time which is supposed to really push the brands that had not had a firm strategy in Ecommerce to get there even quicker. Stephanie: Do you see any successful marketing efforts that are going on, that are similar themes among brands where they've shifted their marketing to this effort or another effort? And you see traction happening that maybe wouldn't have happened before COVID? Matthew: I think just more of the adoption of digital marketing efforts and spend into more markets outside of the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK. I think the first thing is really getting that digital marketing effort through whether it be Google, whether it be Instagram, whether it be Facebook. I mean, that is the traditional trend that I see as highly adopted right now across the brands that we work with. Each of them do it very differently. That's for sure. But, all in a unique way that's unique to their brand, where they build a personalized approach to build that trust with the consumer to get them to return. Matthew: So, I think for me, the channels have been pretty consistent in the adoption, like the ones I just mentioned. And then I think it's more about how do I now start focusing on where to do this next? And that is traditionally what I spend a decent amount of time with our brands, just talking about what is your strategy? What's the next market that you're going to push money into, where you can get a return? And here are some that we see as focus markets for your industry, leveraging what we've seen globally across the vast portfolio brands that it is that we work with. Stephanie: Cool. So when thinking about some of the challenges with cross border shipping, I'm thinking about the high shipping rates and maybe local return options. And like you mentioned earlier, duties and taxes, how would you go about stack ranking these priorities for a new Ecommerce shop? And starting to think about this, what are the things that you just need to have as number one priority because if you miss that you're done, whereas the other ones can get figured out along the way? Matthew: Yeah. So for me, I think the biggest aspect is having a full end to end approach. I know we talked about it a bit earlier where the customers from a US perspective are not going to miss a single instance of the way that the customer needs to be communicated to, talk to. And even down to the element of shipping checked out with. But, I think when you look at the backends and prioritization of what's most important internationally, I'd probably put a duty and tax pricing strategy first. I think when you look at the overall elements and barriers that may differ between that of a domestic transaction and that have an international one, duty is not something that many brands are equipped to handle. Matthew: And I think duty is something that brands can most likely understand how to find a solution to calculate. But, then I think the question comes into, how do I calculate duty and tax into every single market throughout the world? But, then most importantly, how, and what do I do through being taxed to make sure that the consumer see it in a way that they will buy. And we mentioned Europe being a really key market for that. If you're in Germany and you want to buy a sweater, you go into your sweater store and you buy that sweater, the experience that you're going to receive is that sweater will be valued at a hundred euros. And you're going to have nothing more to pay outside of that a hundred euro, call it VAT inclusive experience. Matthew: So, if you now try to talk to that German consumer in a way where you're saying, "Hey, check out my website. And I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to break out duty for you. I'm going to break out tax and another line item for you." That consumer's not going to relate to it. So I think if I had to stack rank them all, even though I think pulling the full end to end is necessary to truly make it work from payments to currency, to communication, to customer satisfaction, all of those elements, even down through checkout and translation of checkout. And the ability to recognize city where there is a city, or recognized state where there is a state, or province where there is a province. These are all elements that should be pulled together. But, I would put the duty and price strategy first because I think it is the biggest barrier that brands struggle with. Stephanie: Cool. Yeah. That's great. It's always good to know where to start. But, agree on having an end to end solution. So this is a little bit of a higher level question. But, I know there's been obviously a lot of shakeups when it comes to logistics, like we mentioned early on. Is there any new ways that you hear brands or that you're advising brands to prepare for? If there's another pandemic, if there's something else that happens that maybe interrupts the logistics and supply chain and all that kind of stuff, do you hear anything behind the scenes of like, okay, going forward, we have this new kind of model or strategy to kind of future-proof us a bit more? Matthew: That's a good question. I would say through COVID, what it's taught me and where I spent a lot more, let's just say time conversing than I thought I would have with brands was building contingency plans, when I came to realize that a lot of portfolio brands out there heavily reliant on a single logistics fulfillment center to manage their DTC business. And I think that as COVID hit and volumes doubled because stores closed and then fulfillment centers' staff had to be cut in half, I think that posed for a huge logistics challenge that not many brands retailers or 3PL fulfillment centers were quick to handle. Basically double peak volume in a non peak period, completely unannounced. So I think when you bring that all together, I spent a lot of time with our global brands specifically, who really came to us and said, "Hey, we have some opportunity here. Meaning we've got product in many different markets throughout the world." Matthew: So, if in fact, my facility in New Jersey shutdown tomorrow, obviously Global-e controls the technology elements of it but, the fulfillment piece they still own. So can we point our website for every single transaction, not change a thing for the consumer so that they're not impacted. Let's start pulling that product out of Hong Kong. And the answer is yes. I mean, it's something that we could have easily done and we did do. And I've built more contingency plans than I ever thought I would have had to with our brands to support them should this have happened. But, as I landed my plane, I think the biggest kind of lesson learned here for me, if I'm sitting in on the brand side is to say, what is my contingency plan? Should something like this come up again. And do I have... Or can I turn inventory, or one in another market or another destination or location should my facility in New Jersey get shut down? Stephanie: Yeah, that's great. So are there any disruptions that you see coming maybe to Ecommerce after all this kind of settles down a bit, that you've built contingency plans around? Matthew: I think for me, the acceleration that's going to continue, that started the second COVID hit to continuing to let's just say accelerate as each one of these markets, typically that got hit hard. Six to eight weeks post that time, really, we saw the recovery. And it's almost like the far East started and then Europe happened and then the US was kind of the latest to the table, which was super interesting. But, I think for me, what I'm seeing a lot of now is I speak to all of our brands on a regular basis, is we're seeing a lot more brands now equip their business to be more digitally native. I think the old model of taking product and putting it in inventory, in market next to that consumer and having a very highly driven brick and mortar strategy, has changed. Matthew: And I think that the more personalized brands that are equipped to continue to accelerate their digital strategy, is either doubling down or it's accelerating. And I think that that is to me, the biggest disruptor that I see coming in this landscape, which is the digitally native brands that exist out there that are highly emotional and personalized to their consumer, are really thriving during these times. And I think that we're seeing a lot of the larger, more complex brands that are out there start to really build accelerated strategies to make sure that they keep up. Stephanie: Very cool. So, if I'm a newbie with, I'm building my new Ecommerce company and I'm starting to think about going international, where can I actually look to find out what's happening behind the scenes at some of these brands? Maybe to see how are they operating their logistics or what is their playbook? Is there anywhere or communities or anything like that, that I can learn from other brands or see the behind the scenes of how it's working? Matthew: Yeah. I think typically there's going to be, from an education perspective, we see a lot of brands adopting different cross-border publications, different cross-border strategies through a lot of the conferences that have now become digital and more I would say highly even access. It's in the past, these trade shows and all these things that used to really thrive on required a lot of time, a lot of dedication, a lot of effort, a lot of money to be able to access. Matthew: And I think now what I'm seeing with these all go virtual is you're starting to see a lot more of adoption into these channels which is a lot easier to access. And I think when brands typically come and they're looking in the enabled arena, they learn quite a bit. And I think that is one of the things every time we do talk to a brand it's the first thing that they ask us. How is our peer group performing today? And are you happy with our conversion? And what changes can I make to be able to improve? And I think that's just one of the biggest I'd say value adds from a data and an insight perspective that brands look for. Stephanie: That's great. Yeah. I really liked the idea behind the virtual events are leveling the playing field. So now everyone can get access for either cheaper or free and not have to travel. And that's a really good point and a great place to start. Matthew: Yeah. For sure. Stephanie: Before we move on to the lightning round, is there any topic that you really wanted me to touch on or cover that you were hoping I would bring up? Matthew: No. I think a very wide gamut of everything, which is great. No, I am fine. Stephanie: Okay, cool. Yeah. I do like to go in different areas of the conversation. Matthew: All good. Stephanie: Yup. The lightening round, which is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I'm going to ask you a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Matthew, are you ready to go? Matthew: I am as ready as I will be. Stephanie: Alright. What's up next on your reading list? Matthew: Poof! My reading list, I would have to say Peppa Pig is one of the next books because my daughter is begging me to read it to her. So I will be most likely reading that this evening with her. It's between either Peppa pig or Star Wars books. I'm trying to twist one way, I'm not going to say which way. Stephanie: Peppa Pig. Matthew: Exactly. Peppa's super popular right now. Stephanie: Oh, I know. Matthew: That is the next step on my reading list. I have to be very honest. Stephanie: That is probably mine too. I like it. Yup. My son is obsessed with that as well. Alright. What's up next on your Netflix queue? Matthew: Netflix queue? Stephanie: No kid stuff. Matthew: No kid's stuff. Right now, I would say Dexter has been recommended highly to me and seems to get a lot of good ratings. So I think that with COVID now in place, my wife and I will saddle in and watch. And begin to accelerate the number of views that it seems [inaudible 00:42:42]. Stephanie: That's cool. Stephanie: So, if you were to have a podcast, what would it be about and who was your first guest to be? Matthew: I think if I were to have a podcast, I would say my podcast will probably focus something around sustainability. I think that right now with everything that's happening in the world today, and when you look at just the impacts of COVID, and everything else that has happened in the world, I think that you're going to see a lot of brands really adopt sustainable activities and life in general. Even down to our arena, which is call it shipping and how to package materials and stuff. So I think when you look at it, that would be for sure my approach. Who would my first guest be? I think my first guest would probably be my mentor and my father. I would give him the opportunity to be the first guest on my show and at least jump in and be able to share that memory should that podcast take off. And I know that I could say that I started with a family member. Stephanie: Well, I like that. Yeah. We have been actually talking about starting a sustainability podcast. So now I have a perfect host. You're it. Matthew: You let me know. Stephanie: We'll call you up. Alright. One more. What is A, your favorite piece of tech or a new Ecommerce tool that makes you more efficient, or you're having success with? Matthew: What is the most? I would say right now for me there is a tool called Monday that we had used that has brought us a lot of efficiency in the overall arena of project management. So I think managing the level and the amounts of projects at a single time can be at times overwhelming. So within our project group it is a tool that we've adopted that I actually find very insightful because it really gives me a nicer view and a view and a clean view of the overall working structure of what we currently have to deploy and make sure that we continue to support each one of the brands in the queue, whether it be small, whether it be large. And get them out on time to hit their overall deadline to celebrate their Christmas. Stephanie: That is great. I will have to check that out. Well, Matthew, this has been an awesome conversation. We really did go all over the place. And I think our listeners will love it. Where can people find out more about you and Global-e? Matthew: So for me, I would say Global-e obviously hit our website, www.global-e.com. I think you'll learn a lot, right? I think a lot of the statistics, a lot of case studies, a lot of country market reports, a lot of different case studies and things that we've done is going to be there. You can engage us there. And obviously, we are happy to help any brand of any shape and size. So, if this becomes something that you'd love to engage us on, hit the website, submit your information, and we've got a team member in pretty much any part of the world that's going to be able to help you. This is an incredible thing to be part of at such a cool global brand that we are. Stephanie: Amazing. Cool. Well, thanks for effort. Thanks for listening everyone. And we will see you next time.  

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听Matthew: So these days there are warning labels on everything from CDs to cigarettes to fast food, everything. What do you think about that? Should people be warned all the time about everything or do they need to not really have that warning on it?Kat: I think nowadays they are really overdoing it. People are not little children and you don't need to warn them of everything. An intelligent person should be aware that fast food isn't healthy.Matthew: But even though fast food isn't healthy so many people consume it and they know that it's unhealthy, putting a warning on it might change their minds at least a little bit.Kat: I don't think that's going to work. Just putting a warning label on it didn't work out too well with cigarettes did it?Matthew: I think it has. I think that there are many countries where they have increased the warning labels, the size of it, the degree of it, with some countries they even have pictures of horrible looking teeth and nasty lungs cut open and deformities[身体畸形，发育异常] on babies, I think those sorts of things actually do help. But I don't like those. Those are a little bit over the edge, a little bit too far. But I don't know, for example, when you go to McDonald's or you go to a fast-food restaurant and you order a hamburger, wouldn't you like to know how much, how many calories you're ordering at one time rather than getting two or three hamburgers and then it turns out ooops there are two thousand calories right there?Kat: I think the calorie information is important and should be printed on things, but a warning label like this burger might kill you I think that's a bit over the top.Matthew: What about things other than calories? There are certain nutritional information that could be very damaging to you such as cholesterol levels or too much sodium, too much salt but do you think that should at least be on there?Kat: I think there should be a differentiation between warning labels and nutritional information. I think there is a difference.Matthew: Then which one are you for? Do you think that, I can understand you saying warning labels are taking it too far and I can understand you eat this burger and you're going to die is a little bit too far but do you think having the nutritional information on it is a good solution?Kat: I think having the nutritional information on it is a very good idea. People should be better informed about this.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听Matthew: Hey Kat, you were just telling me about all the pros and cons of different renewable energies and you just got me thinking we're going to run out of oil in the next couple of decades. There are reports that say we're going to run out of oil in the next twenty years, but I'm guessing that in fifty years or a hundred years we really will run out and we'll need some sort of other energy sources. What do you think's going to happen?Kat: I think it's going to be a combination of all the renewable energy sources we have right now, but there's a lot of development going on especially into solar energy. Solar panels are becoming more and more efficient. There are now solar panels that are flexible and you can actually bend them around objects and the newest ones are actually made by biodegradable materials and they start to be see-through so you can actually apply solar energy harvesting tools to windows and I think that might be the future of renewable energy.Matthew: What about as far as cost performance goes and sustainability?Kat: Well when it comes to sustainability, I think these new forms of solar panels that are made of biodegradable material, I think they are definitely going to be the future.Matthew: It seems like it's a lot of resources. We use a lot of energy every day. Every person uses a lot of energy every day. Do you think that there's going to be a time where all houses are run by renewable energy? Do we have space, the capacity on this planet to actually fit every household with solar panels or wind energies?Kat: Well as far as the resources go as how much solar energy actually hits our planet, we can provide energy for the world a thousand times over. That is not a problem but I think financially it's going to be very difficult. At the situation we are at right now, I think it won't be possible.Matthew: I'm sure that scientists are going to figure out something but I just think solar panels, wind turbines, everything, they actually use plastics and metals and in order to produce those you need oil. Now if you have zero oil, how are you going to produce these renewable energy resource products?Kat: I have been trying to explain that earlier with biodegradable materials. There are actually solar panels being built from renewable materials themselves.Matthew: You're in the industry, you've been working there for a while and I am just wanting to ask you do you think that it's going to be successful? Will there be renewable energy throughout the globe or are people going to be too stubborn?Kat: Well as the situation stands right now, renewable energy will not be able to take care of our energy needs and I truly hope that there will be scientific discoveries in the next fifty years because as it is right now we will not be able to go on as we are just supported by renewable energy.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听Matthew: I heard that you work at a renewable energy company. Can you tell me what kind of company it is?Kat: My company is a wind energy company but there's a lot of other options.Matthew: What are the other options and what are the pros and cons of each option?Kat: Well let's start off with the wind. Wind energy is great. It doesn't take away a lot of space. You can have one wind turbine in a very small area but on the other hand you really need some strong wind to have a good output. Then you have solar energy. Solar energy is great but you also need a very good location and solar exposure is normally just a couple of hours a day so you need a very big solar panel so it takes away a lot of space. Then we have the option of geothermal energy which is great but once again depends on where you live. Very few areas have what it takes to have a productive geothermal system and it's very expensive. There's a lot of drilling involved. Then another option is bio-energy which is where you actually take the animal waste and use that to make energy. I think it's one of the better ones but once again the set up is highly expensive. Then the last option would be hydro-energy. Hydro-energy I think is best in very large setups, government-run or run by large electricity companies. It's very expensive to set up but once it's set up, it's a very, very productive way of making energy.

Episode 5 - Podcasters Choice - Anything goes on this edition of What the Lyric. Becky and Matthew choose their favorite bad lyrics from any decade and and genre. One is from 2016 and the other is from 1978. Who will be victorious? Podcasters Choice   [Start 00:00:00]   [Music playing 00:00:06]   Becky: Welcome. To What he Lyric? the podcast that confirms, yeah, that actually made it to radio.   Hello and welcome to What the Lyric? Today and What the Lyric? podcasters choice, we pick apart whatever song we want, it's a free for all. And I have picked something recent.   Matthew: Oh.   Becky: I think it still fits into the me-too movement theme I got going on.   Matthew: I do have to ask first though. Most hated bands…   Becky: These guys.   Matthew: Across the board…   Becky: Yes.   Matthew: Do not tell me yet. But any others like…   Becky: These guys.   Matthew: Was it an easy choice for you to make?   Becky: Yes. It was so… The first song that James Arthur, horrific train wreck of a wedding song that people are using. That one and I think this one are the reason that this podcast exists.   Matthew: Wow.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: There was no other song. That popped into your head?   Becky: Nope. This one. I was like and this is it. There are a couple others. That I thought of because they were funny, but I was like, no, I hate this one immensely. Like. So much, so much   Matthew: Fascinating. See! Mine was less generated by hatred and more confusion. Because I do have… This is again a favourite song of mine.   Becky: Kind of how bizarre confusion?   Matthew: Yes.   Becky: Okay.   Matthew: It is precisely how bizarre. I think everyone has heard the song and everyone has been like the fuck. I am excited to get into that.   Becky: Then I am going to let you go first, because…   Matthew: Really?   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: End on the hatred note but start with confusion.   Becky: I have got a heavy dissertation going on over here.   Matthew: I mean, it is going to take, you no time to get…   Becky: Okay.   Matthew: What this song is. I am trying to think. Let me find. Oh, the songwriter is Jimmy Webb. And you know what…   Becky: Jimmy Webb?   Matthew: You’re going to have to think of more of the 70s. This is coming out of the 70s. I am breaking my millennial streak and also my 2008 streak.   Becky: Does it have to do with pina colada?   Matthew: It does not, although that is a fantastic song and I will not hear a word about those lyrics. I am going to skip the part where the song title is. Well, let's just start at the beginning. Spring was never waiting for us, dear. It ran one-step ahead as we followed in the dance. Blank is melting in the dark. There is your first clue.   Becky: Is this MacArthur Park?   Matthew: Yes, and I…   Becky: And I can't tell you how much I love this song for craziness of it.   Matthew: Right, but precisely right. If you look at the lyrics and this is a fantastic song by Donna Summer.   Becky: Oh, no. It is not, have you read the history of this?   Matthew: I have read a part of it. I don't know all of it. I love the Donna Summer version.   Becky: Oh, that is the classic. That one. Yes. Then Anthony Clark, a comedian, did a version. Well, he did a part about this song and his bit, which always made me giggle.  We used to play this at work, I looked it up, and there was somebody that did a cover of it. That we then spent a good half an hour trying to find so that we could play it. Now I get to look it up. But yes, MacArthur Park, genius.   Matthew: So I already knew off the bat, like, this is going to be low on the yikes scale. because…   Becky: Oh, it is so good.   Matthew: It is a phenomenal song if you have not heard it. But again, the entire thing is about MacArthur Park.   Becky: Cake out in the rain.   Matthew: And supposedly, it is supposed to be about the park because it says MacArthur's park is melting in the dark.   Becky: Yep.   Matthew: All the sweet green icing flowing down, presumably foliage.   Becky: Yep.   Matthew: And then it just goes off the fucking rails and it is like someone left the cake out in the rain. I don't think that I can take it. Cause it took so long to bake it.   Becky: Oh, my God.   Matthew: And I will never have that…   Becky: Here is when I hear the disco [Making noise 00:4:48] noise, yeah.   Matthew: There is so much going on in the song and this person is lamenting it took so long to bake it and I will never have that recipe again. And the series of oh no. Like you cannot describe the depth of emotion captured by that no.   Becky: So good. It is so good. And it's a seven minute long song. Also my favourite, it was Waylon Jennings. Matthew: I did not know Waylon Jennings.   Becky: Including a 1969 Grammy winning version by Waylon Jennings. And you can hear how pissed off he was singing that. Like he's fuckin lyrics don't mean shit. He was probably drunk or stone or whatever.   Matthew: [Inaudible 00:5:30]   Becky: Yeah. Oh, amazing. Waylon Jennings, Grammy won a Grammy.   Matthew: Did not know that. Also, I apologize, it was not in the 70s but it was in the 60s.   Becky: Yeah, 69. Yeah. I had to look it up.   Matthew: General area.   Becky: 68 was when it was first recorded. But you were close. It is a known area for the Donna Summer one.   Matthew: Right.   Becky: My mom had that album by the way.   Matthew: I mean it is phenomenal. And the thing is, there aren't many lyrics here. And I would argue that none of them are terrible. It is just so fucking weird. Like I recall the yellow cotton dress. Okay, that makes sense presumably someone wearing it, foaming like a wave. That makes absolutely no sense. And the ground beneath your knees, even less sense. Like how do you track and create lyrics that make absolute zero sense when you take three sentences together.   Becky: Let's be honest. Late 60s, the whole summer of love coming up soon.   Matthew: Wholesome non-drug usage   Becky: Probably a lot of drugs happening. Why is there a cake reference? What the whole cake reference? Matthew: Like looks at a park and says, you know, I really want to go to the cake.   Becky: It looks like a cake.   Matthew: Everything that I walk around this park screams cake.   Becky: I have never had a park look like a cake. Yeah,   Matthew: I would want to go the park more if it did.   Becky: That's again, that's an acid trip. And I may or may not have seen things that looked unlike that.   Matthew: It’s just like so weird because someone… Interesting fact, though, if you look at the lyrics, the first time you hear about the cake. It says someone left the cake out in the rain. She says it again; someone left the cake out in the rain. A little bit later on the song, the final stanza…   Becky: Does it becomes her cake?   Matthew: It does. It said someone left my cake out in the rain. And I don't think that I can take it because it took so long to bake it. And I'll never have that recipe again.   Becky: I will tell you what. After the whole cake off that we had at work, I understand that layer…     Matthew: There was a cake off?   Becky: We had the cake off. The Halloween theme, Friday the 13th, cake off.   Matthew: Well, we should clarify that this cake off was not for October Friday the 13th. It was a September Friday.   Becky: Yeah it was September, Friday 13th, a Halloween. It was more horror Friday 13th inspired cake off that we did it work. And yeah, I get that. I get that. The It cake I did was rough. I will never do that one again. And I hope I never remember that recipe because it did take so long to bake it.   Matthew: And you will never do that recipe again.   Becky: And I will never do that recipe again. Yeah. So yeah, I get it. I understand where she's coming from on that. I mean, I get it. I am with her.   Matthew: I know. All of them get it. I mean I personally don't understand the analogy of a park to a cake.   Becky: So good.   Matthew: The emotion in it, regardless of how…   Becky: She is good.   Matthew: batshit crazy the lyric are.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: I honestly give this zero yikes. Because it is, weird but I just wanted to bring it because it is a favourite song.   Becky: It is so good.   Matthew: And it make so a little sense.   Becky: Yeah. It makes no sense whatsoever. It is so good. So good. All right. So mine.   Matthew: Who do you hate? Oh, it might be recent. I might get it.   Becky: It is from 2016.   Matthew: Ariana Grande?   Becky: Oh, no, it’s a group and then another singer. These guys are known also for being producers, but they do all these collabs, as the kids say. And this was the first time that I heard them. At first I was like, well, this is kind of bland. Then I start listening to lyrics and I wanted to punch them in the face.   Matthew: I am intrigued.   Becky: Okay let me read some of the lyrics. Here is how it starts. Hey, I was doing just fine before I met you. I drink too much and that is an issue, but I am okay. No. hey! tell your friends it was nice to meet them, but I hope I never see them again. I know it breaks your heart. Moved to the city in a broke down car. In 4 years, no calls. Now you are looking pretty in a hotel bar. And I can't stop. No, I can't stop.   Matthew: I remember vaguely the song and I would not remember it if I had not heard you. Months ago talking about how much you hate this band.   Becky: Eviscerate this band. Yeah.   Matthew: I forget what the song is called, but is it The Chainsmokers?   Becky: Oh, it is.   Both Speakers: And Halsey.   Matthew: That is it.   Becky: I necessarily have issue with Halsey. I have a lot of issues with the fucking Chainsmokers. First off, let us just start with. I drink too much and that is an issue, but I am okay. No, clearly you are not. This is what AA is.   Matthew: I have issue but I am okay.   Becky: I'm okay. No, it is intervention time. Then like he sees you looking pretty good in a hotel bar? This is the dude that broke up with you because you got fat. Then comes back and is like, whoa! Somebody lost some weight. And wants to get back in on it. No, and then it goes in to baby pull me closer in the backseat of your rover that I know you can't afford. Come on. You don't know that. You have been away from her for four years. She could be doing well because  she did not have that frickin rock of an ex hanging around her.   Matthew: Dragging her down.   Becky: Yeah. Pull the sheets right off the corner of the mattress you stole from the roommate back in Boulder. There are several issues here. First off, bed bugs.   Matthew: Absolutely riddled with them. There is no way she is not.   Becky: God knows what else is on that mattress. Or has been on that mattress. There is not enough steam cleaning. or defogging or what you do with a mattress to kill anything that is on it. You should have just left that out in the backyard or on the side of the street somehow. No, gross. So gross. I can’t even.  How is that a lyric in a song way?   Matthew: Wait, pause because technically wait. Not only bed bugs would be a concern, but she…   Both Speakers: Stole it.   Becky: From her roommate.   Matthew: Yeah, at what point…   Becky: We don’t know.   Matthew: Did she just decide to up and leave while the like roommate was at work. Oh, shit this is a nice like Caspar mattress. Caspar if you would like to sponsor this podcast.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Please contact us.   Becky: I picture like the tablecloth trick. Roommate sleeping whip the mattress out from underneath there. Drops 0n the box spring and runs.   Matthew: Done, love it.   Becky: That is what I am picturing. Gross, cooties. You don't know what that roommate's done on that mattress. What if that roommate blacked out, drunk, peed on the bed or…   Matthew: Worse?   Becky: Worse or, you know, maybe…   Matthew: There are so many imagination.   Becky: There is so, many fluids that could be on that bed.   Matthew: And likely are.   Becky: Again, not enough steam cleaning or de-fogging or whatever you could do.                                       Matthew: When they say get a new mattress every eight years, they mean get a new mattress from the factory, not a new mattress to you. So don't steal your roommates mattress.   Becky: Yeah and no amount of mattress bag or pads could get me further away. I am like the princess and the pea. I would be like, I still now that there is pee there.   Matthew: Wow! Again, well done.   Becky: Yeah. Then he just like we ain’t ever getting older. You are, you are, you are, you turd, you are, you are. I can't stand these guys. Then now all of a sudden he is like, you look as good as the day I met you. I forgot just why I left you. Cause you are a turd. I think we have established you are an alcoholic turd. Because you have a drinking problem, but you are okay with it. The first reason to leave the guy, I don't know why you even went back. I mean, granted, maybe your whole revenge plot was the mattress did have some sort of cooties and you put him down there first was like, I will be right back.   Matthew: Good lie. Becky: While all the bugs jump on him.   Matthew: Abandon ship.   Becky: Yeah, I mean, I can't. I would not. Then he says, stay and play that Blink-182 song, right there   Matthew: Yeah, which is it...That one?   Becky: I’m out.  Blink-182. Are we that old?   Matthew: Wait, which one is it?   Becky: Blink-182. There is so many. Oh, it's the one that they beat to death in Tucson. Did they beat the Blink-182 to death?   Matthew: Blink-182 death.   Becky: Then it just goes the course. I know I broke your heart. I know it breaks your heart. Moved to a city in a broke down car and four years later didn't call. I don't know why? Why?   Matthew: This go back into your craw.   Becky: I was like, what the…This is bull shit. You don't know I can't afford a Rover. I am paying for your sad ass. And not four years later I've been able to save up for a Rover and then bite the tattoo on your shoulder. No, you ain’t touching me.   Matthew: Gross don't?   Becky: Get your get your shit away. Get your…   Matthew: Bed bug infested.   Becky: You need to get back to the hole. Just get on track. Now I am looking pretty in a hotel bar.   Matthew: Wait, he is saying that?   Becky: That is her singing it now.   Matthew: Oh, yikes.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: No.   Becky: I mean. I am sure you are Halsey. You are a good looking gal. But…And I and I can't stop. No, I can't stop. Yeah. It is called self-control.   Matthew: Yeah. No, I have…   Becky: I can’t stand this, I can’t… everything.   Matthew: What I love about this. Going back to the we ain't ever getting older because I'm like, wait. You already admitting you have a drinking problem. So like, that is for sure. Aging your liver.   Becky: You are going to get aged quick.   Matthew: But your band is The Chainsmokers. Yeah, like all are 100 percent getting old just because you are going to die young. Does that mean you are not getting older?   Becky: Yeah. Then they have a collab with Coldplay that I just hear everywhere. Is that I want something just like this. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. I can't.   Mathew: Oh, I never heard it.   Becky: Oh, you have.   Matthew: Have I?   Becky: You have. Yeah, it is fucking everywhere. That one, they have another one, and I was like, oh, this sounds like…oh it is The Chainsmokers. This feeling maybe. I don't know. I can't. They just need to stop. They need to really take stock of what, the hell they are doing. I am sure they are great producers. I don't give a shit. Just don't sing anymore. Don't write any more lyrics. Just produce the music. Be happy with making that money. You are good looking guys. You get whatever you want.   Matthew: You will be fine.   Becky: You will be giving the ladies. It is not a big deal. Just stop singing and putting out this piece of crap.   Matthew: Now the question I have. Is, how many yikes you assigning it? One is the worst. Are you going for one?   Becky: There are a big fat one for me, across the board. You could go, hey, The Chainsmokers. Nope. one. I don't like it. I don't like it. They could do something with Pavarotti. And I'm still like, no. They could bring Elvis back from the dead. And I will still say, no. Beatles back from the dead. Nope, nothing. There is nothing. Yeah.   Matthew: What, if they cured cancer?   Becky: Maybe   Matthew: That is hard maybe.   Becky: Maybe if they cured cancer and never recorded again…   Matthew: Deal.   Becky: I would pump it up to two. But they won't stop producing crap.   Matthew: No.   Becky: It is in their blood now. They have had like two or three hits. So now they're like, yeah,   Matthew: We are band.   Becky: We fucking rock. Everything we touch turns to gold bitches. Yeah. No.   Matthew: Yikes.   Becky: I hate them. I hate them. Oh, my God, they make my skin crawl. I hate so much.   Matthew: It is important to have that. I was like, okay, this is good, you know. James Arthur,   Becky: James Arthur and The Chainsmokers.   Matthew: Wait for that collab. When that does inevitably happen. We will have to talk about it here.   Becky: Oh, it is going to happen. You know it is going to happen.   Matthew: If it has not already.   Becky: The sweet, sweet dulcet tones of James Arthur followed by the. I don't even know what the producing style of the…   Matthew: The Chainsmokers   Becky: The Chainsmokers.   Matthew: We know that there singing style will be slurred because both of them have drinking problem.   Becky: Yes. It is all about alcohol, and I am pretty sure it'll take forever because I have to keep stopping for a smoke break, run out side. Then come back in and be like, all right, let's do it.   Matthew: Ah, the wheeze.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Just wait for the smokers hack.   Becky: Before, okay. Let me just clears out. [Making coughing hacking sound 00:19:20] All right I am ready, and then…   Both speakers:  That is the dulcet of James Arthur.   Becky: Yeah. Oh, yeah.   Matthew: Wow! Cause there, you know. Puff, huffing and puffing.   Becky: I am trying to think. They don't even really singing that song. It is like doing just fine before. Like mumbling of, yeah.   Matthew: [Inaudible 00:19:40-45]   Becky: Yeah. It is like a teenager who's doesn't want to talk to his parents. That is what it is like. That is how they sound to me.   Matthew: They just get close to the microphone [Inaudible 00:19:57].   Becky: I am pretty sure that's how they do it.   Matthew: You know the mumblers.   Becky: Yeah. Oh my God. Oh…   Matthew: Mumble core.   Becky: I dislike…the mattress you stole from…What is wrong with you people? Have we not heard of hygiene? I mean.   Matthew: They, no.   Becky: Bleach? anything. Please, dear God.   Matthew: You have the money. Please buy a new mattress.   Becky: Yeah. You could buy 50 or 40, however.   Matthew: I think we should make several pleas here. The first is please send us pizza or cake whenever you so desire. Check out the Website.   Becky: Oh, yes.   Matthew: whatthelyrics.com.   Becky: Nice one. I am glad you pulled that one because I didn’t. I was not even thinking about it.   Matthew: And specifically, we are going to make a plead directly to The Chainsmokers to use their money, put their money to good use and buy a new mattress. You deserve it, Casper mattresses.   Becky: Just buy a new mattress every year because if this song is any indication of what you are going through and doing. Maybe even every six months.   Matthew: Wait; was the name of the song? Remind me.   Becky: Closer.   Matthew: That is a closer. Well, that will be.   Becky: I don't want to get closer. I don't want to get closer to that mattress. I don't want to get closer to them. I don't want to get closer to anything in this song. I don't understand. Why are we just glossing over your alcoholism? That is like a one-liner. Like yeah! I know I drink too much. It is all right.   Matthew: No, it is not a problem.   Becky: I am a throw up on that mattress you stole from your roommate. Then I am going to pass out, blackout and pee on it like…   Matthew: You are going to love it.   Becky: Oh and why do you want to take that back?   Matthew: No, instead of closer. That was will be our closer.   Becky: Oh, I like it.   Matthew: Well, what will we be talking about next time?   Becky: Next time. Its party anthems.   Matthew: What kind of party anthems?   Becky: Yeah, it’s kinda open… children's birthday party. So party anthems I took to mean a song that everyone sings along to has their own kind of version of it when they sing. Or is like the go to karaoke one or like the end of the night drunky song that everybody sings drunk to. That is what I kind of took as the party anthem.   Matthew: I have mine. I don't know if it's from 2008, but it's probably close.   Becky: Minds of course, from the 80s. This I believe, is the first one that does not fit into the me too movement theme. I finally found one.   Matthew: We’re doing good work.   Becky: Maybe I can work it there. I got to look at the lyrics again, but I'm pretty sure it's not really, me too. It is more stalker-y.   Matthew: Okay, in the family of but not directly under the category.   Becky: Yeah, there is no overt booty references.   Matthew: Mambo number 5?   Becky: There is no donkey… ass   Matthew: With a monkey   Becky: Yeah, no big old butt kind of thing.   Matthew: Not yet.   Becky: Not yet. Although I don't know. It would be hilarious to have this. Yes next time. Party anthems. I cannot wait for mine.   Matthew: Well, I am excited and we will talk ‘atcha then?   Becky: Yes. Talk to you soon.   [Music playing]   [End 00:24:00]

This was a question and answer session with 3 of the seminarians from Sacred Heart. This recording was on December 20, 2019. During this recording we were also making a Facebook LIVE video which you can find on our Facebook page, the link is on our SoundCloud home page. 2:25- (Noe) Can you explain your cassock and the symbolism of it and how it different from Darren's cassock? 4:15- (Darren) Do you have a house cassock and what does yours look like? 5:34- (Darren)Can you explain the years of formation? 9:56- (Matthew)Can you explain your college formation works? 14:00- (Fr Eckert) What changes in that last year of seminary, the deaconite year? 22:00- (Noe) Walk us through a day in the life of a seminarian. 25:50- (Darren)What are the Liturgy of Hours and why do you pray them? 29:45- (Matthew) Can you explain the green sash (fascia) on your cassock? 33:35- (Fr Eckert)How did your family, and specifically your siblings react to you being in seminary? 43:15- (Noe,Darren)What are the pros and cons on your respective seminaries, being so close to home or being far away from home? 49:50- (Matthew) What have you heard from your fellow seminaries about the transition from college to major seminary? 53:50- (Fr. Eckert) We all choose a Confirmation Saint, can we change this saint later in life? 59:05- (Noe) How do you thinking growing up Catholic (cradle Catholic) effected your call to seminary? 1:02:50- (Darren) Do you have any fears of loneliness as your prepare to make a vow of celibacy at ordination? 1:16:10- (Fr. Eckert)What would be your one piece of advice to a young man who is discerning the priesthood?

In this episode Becky and Matthew delve deep into the late 80s and the early 2000s hip hop.  Will it be a hip hop battle to end all battles?   What the Lyric? Rap/Hip-Hop   [Start 00:00:00]   Music: [00:00:07]   Becky: Welcome to What the Lyric?, the podcast that confirms. Yeah, that actually made it to radio.   Welcome to What the Lyric? Today we are talking about hip-hop, the rap. I don't know what else I'd call it.   Matthew: The rap.   Becky: The rap.   Matthew: I mean you are talking to the two white people in the room talking about hip-hop. That is what this episode is.   Becky: I know. Oh, this is going to go down horribly. Although I do love my 80s, rap and I love the old Run DMC stuff before Aerosmith. Who else is in there? I am trying to think. A tribe called Quest. Although I cannot remember if they were 80s or not. It all runs together now for me. Then, of course, Public Enemy. I don't think that was 80s. Maybe they were 80s. Oh, my God. Yeah. Oh, there is a lot in there. 3rd Bass. That is right; I pull out 3rd Base, which you will never know. But the one guy in 3rd Base, a white guy is now like a baseball historian at Cooperstown, if I remember correctly.   Matthew: That is a turn career.   Becky: Yeah, Pete Nice. Was it Pete Nice? Oh I don't think it was Pete Nice. I cannot remember who it was now.   Matthew: Was it was not Pete Townsend? Becky: No, now I am going to have to look it up. Who were the members of 3rd Base? Yeah, so that is where I am coming from.   Matthew: Interesting. Mine, you know. Like, that is all I really need to say. We actually had a very interesting discussion at the end of the last episode talking about where does R&B begin versus hip-hop specifically.   Becky: Yes.   Matthew: I approach hip-hop from the more R&B side. So I am thinking Beyoncé, Lemonade.   Becky: All right, okay.   Matthew: To an extent, Drake, although he is not my favourite.   Becky: Oh God!   Matthew: And then smaller artists, particularly from the HBO show Insecure, has some very good hip-hop…   Becky: See I don’t know that.   Matthew: References. TT the artists. What is the name of the song? Is featured in it. She is great. Now I will have to introduce you to it. Then, of course, where would we be? But two people, two white people talking about hip hop. Also, listen to the entirety of Hamilton and needed to get said. There it is. It has been said we can now glaze past it.   Becky: I only know the Alexander Hamilton [Making sound 00:2:56]. I don't know anything else.   Matthew: That is all you need to know. That is what the musical is.   Becky: Yeah, I. Oh, man. I think I was right with Pete Nice. What did I say? Oh, my God.   Matthew: You did say Pete Nice.   Becky: Yeah. There is MC Serch and Pete Nice, but I feel like. Yeah. Pete Nice. Baseball historian, I had it right the first time.   Matthew: Well, with a band name like 3rd Base, you kind of have to.   Becky: They had a song called The Cactus.   Matthew: Why?   Becky: I can't even remember. I just remember The Cactus. I am sure I still have that CD somewhere. But yeah, The Cactus.   Matthew: I love.   Becky: I cannot even remember. It is all gone. It is so bad; they did have a big hit. What was their big hit?   Matthew: Was, it baseball related?   Becky: No, surprisingly. You would think with a name like 3rd Base. Pop goes the weasel.   Matthew: Oh.   Becky: From 1991. I remember that. That sounds like a hit. I did not have that one. I had the Cactus album and that was eighty-nine derelicts of dialect, which had the pop, goes the weasel. Yep, that was ninety-one. That was when I graduated high school.   Matthew: I won't say where I was at the time.   Becky: And a hoodie [Laughing], moving on. All right. I am going to let you go first this time.   Matthew: All right. So like I said, my primary job on this podcast is to serve as millennial ambassador.   Becky: And I am the only.   Matthew: There is a generation, obviously listen to this podcast. Who is waiting for your songs, too?   Becky: I am sure.   Matthew: But I want to bring them up to speed in case they hopefully missed it.   Becky: I would also like to point out I am representing old school with my older school tortoiseshell old schools.   Matthew: Wow! Well done. Actually…   Becky: I did not even think about that. I just put them on this morning.   Matthew: I should as a side note, give Becky more credit for being much more fashionable than me. I mean, because I have just got like these shitty Nike…   Becky: No   Matthew: Running shoes and blue jeans.   Becky: It is Old Navy jeans and Adidas. It is not really fashionable, it is just comfortable.   Matthew: As we should.   Becky: As my vsco [Inaudible 00:5:26] said.   Matthew: Oh, I forgot the vsco queen of this podcast.   Becky: Yeah, the old lady vsco queen.   Matthew: So really, this song I remember driving to high school, I think senior year of high school.   Becky: Okay.   Matthew: This song is being played a lot.   Becky: 2008?   Matthew: 2008   Becky: Okay.   Matthew: Right. I was graduating high school that year.   Becky: Lord, have mercy, okay.   Matthew: And more specifically, I am trying to think. Where do I go with this? I am not really sure, but let me just say…   Becky: 2008 [Inaudible 00:6:09]   Matthew: There you go. Very fluent in Spanish.   Becky: Is he like Pitbull?   Matthew: Oh, nailed it, yes. And it was his first song. Because I was going to say, like oh! He is like…   Becky: The one with Robin Thicke?   Matthew: I did not know there was one, but that really disturbs me.   Becky: Where he sing I don't like it. I love it, love it, love it. Oh, is that Pitbull? That is Pitbull.   Matthew: Probably.   Becky: yeah, oh boy.   Matthew: This is his first one. He speaks a lot of Spanish and again, since I am incredibly white. Even though I grew up in Texas, I know no Spanish. Because I took French in high school for whatever…   Becky: Yeah, I took German.   Matthew: For whatever godforsaken reason. But my favourite my favourite thing about Pitbull is the fact that he can't decide on a nickname. He is either Mr. 305 or he is Mr. Worldwide, which therefore implies that the entirety of the 305 area code is actually the world to either him, which could either be very sweet, or the fact that he doesn't travel a lot.   Becky: 305, Miami, I am assuming?   Matthew: Yes.   Becky: Yeah, okay.   Mathew: So that is where he is from. I am assuming he is Cuban. No offense to Mr. Pitbull, if he eventually listens to this podcast…   Becky: I think he is.   Matthew: Which I highly doubt.   Becky: I am sure he is a big fan.   Matthew: Obviously.   Becky: Can't wait to get fan mail about that one.   Matthew: So really, the song that he chose was I know you want me. Becky: Mm hmm.   Matthew: Which makes several assumptions that I think Pitbull has not quite figured out. I am not sure there, is a huge audience who is craving his music, but nonetheless, he still posits that people do want him. Again, most of it is in Spanish. So I will skip those parts because quite simply, I just did not take the time to Google translate any of it. The bad lyrics for it. I give it minus one point for repetitiveness…   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Because some of it is simply. I know you want me, want me. Then it is like…   Becky: oh, God, I don't remember.   Matthew: You know I want you, want you. Then it just repeats multiple times. I will not go into that. There is a lot of just, word association.   Becky: Yeah, okay.   Matthew: I know that Good hip-hop. You can do word association. And it makes sense and it flows. Pitbull just being like, oh, shit. Got it right. Like you can you can hear him like a train barrels towards the end.   Becky: Those are make the favourite raps. Post Malone, I hate that guy so much for this. At one point, he says something. He is trying to rhyme something. Instead of saying Luck Roy, he is says Lecroy, so he can rhyme it. First off, I hate that damn drink anyways. Second, you cannot even pronounce it right. Why? Just so you can fit in your little rap. Mr. Syracuse? I don't think so.   Matthew: Oh, he is from Syracuse.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Congrats. Another New York native like Becky.   Becky: Yeah. I did not get all the face tats, though.   Matthew: Not yet, you are young.   Becky: Working on it. I am working on it.   Matthew: Pitbull goes on to say, you know, stick to the clock on my way to the top, which I am like, okay. He is being timed. One assumes.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: I do not think that is necessarily a bad lyric. Then there is just a weird word association, so like Pit got it locked from Bruce to the lock her. The bruise, b-r-e-w-u-s according to the lyrics, I find that amusing. RIP so rest in peace…   Becky: Yeah.     Matthew: Huh, Big and PAC. P-A-C, I don't know if that's like the…   Becky: Biggie and Pac? Biggie and 2Pac   Matthew: That is what I am assuming, right?   Becky: Yeah, okay.   Matthew: So it is like ok, he is doing due diligence as one does in hip-hop by making references.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: So far he has not necessarily run afoul of anything, he said premise.   Becky: He is also hitting both coasts like he's trying and play Sweden…   Matthew: Right?   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Even though he very clearly raps the east coast by being like Mr 305 checking in for the Remix.   Becky: Yet it is also Miami like it's not New York vs LA…   Matthew: You can calm down.     Becky: Hip-hop, yeah.   Matthew: He extends his condolences to both of them, and then disses himself.   Becky: Many years kind of late too, by the way.   Matthew: This is where I started to get concerned. As far as bad lyrics and also his self-esteem, because he immediately feels like R.I.P too Bigg and Pac. That he is not, but damn, he is hot. So what that implies to me is, Pitbull is actually saying that, oh, actually I'm not nearly as talented as Bigg and Pac, which I was like…   Becky: Truth,   Matthew: Which is just truth.   Becky: Truth.   Matthew: I do appreciate it. Then he has to saddle himself like, you know, I can never be them, but I am attractive. And that's still a stretch.   Becky: Yeah, I would say to 2Pac is probably better looking than him in my opinion.   Matthew: I would agree.  I am inclined to agree. Pitbull, He has a face like a pit bull.   Becky: He does, there is a reason he have that name. Yeah.   Matthew: I don't know what it is, but I can assume it's his face.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: And so continuing. What is even weirder is that he is like the label flop. So he's already saying that like whatever label he's on is going to flop presumably because of his songs like that doesn't inspire confidence. So it's like again, a diss at the start. Then he says, but Pitt won't stop. Label flop, but Pitt won't stop.   Becky: Wait a minute. Maybe what he is saying is, you know, I like when you would be like, oh, my God, I am totally failing this test. Then you nail it like he's psyching himself out, like I am the shittiest rapper. Then boom! Platinum.   Matthew: Huge fame. I don’t know if this ever went platinum. I would be surprised, but also not surprised if that were to happen.   Becky: You never know.   Matthew: But he is always starting with the dislike that he is not. But damn, he's hot. Label flop. But Pitt won't stop. And I'm like, ok. Then very left turn. Got her in the car playing with his como. And that's where he answered Spanish. Oh, wait, why are you having sex in a car? I am not surprised.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: But he was like, I am going to be an amazing rapper. Oh no, getting my dick sucked in a car.   Becky: Well, all right. I mean, you know, to each his own is all I am saying. You granted it back in the day…   Matthew: So, we should let Pitbull have his own.   Becky: Whatever makes him happy? You do you. Live your best life.   Matthew: Right. And this is where the associations continue because right. In two lines, He has gone from being like, I am sorry that Biggie died…   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: And Tupac died. The label is going to flop. I mean, but I am going to keep making music. I am receiving oral in our car. Then he says, watch him make a movie like Alfred Hitchcock. Ha! Enjoy me.   Becky: Has, he made a movie?   Matthew: No, not at all. None. I don't think he's directed his own music videos. If he has, I can tell you the music one for this one. Looks like it was directed by…   Becky: I might know somebody who has done a video with him.   Matthew: Did they direct it?   Becky: No. He is a cinematographer. Curious at least he picked a good director.   Matthew: Right.   Becky: Alfred Hitchcock.   Matthew: He was not choosing…   Becky: One of my favourites.   Matthew: I am trying to think of who would be a bad director.   Becky: Well, the guy did. Oh, God. What is that movie that? James Franco did a movie about him that won an award, but he did not.   Matthew: Tommy Wiseau.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Watch him make a movie like Tommy Wiseau. Huh! Enjoy me.   Becky: See, that works a little better for this.   Matthew: It actually does.   Becky: If he could have just let us edit his words, he would be spot on. Yeah, either him. I am trying to think Ed Wood.   Matthew: What does he do? I don't think I know, Ed Wood.   Becky: Oh, you have to go back and watch an Ed Wood movie. I think one of my favourites, which is called Jail Bait. And there's this weird 1950s. There is this weird, depending on which version you get. There is this weird kind of like guitar piece in it that keeps showing up randomly throughout and you think it is there to like build tension, but you are like, [Inaudible 00:15:01] just threw that guitar riff in there for no real reason. It is like you have flamenco, kind of. I don't know how to describe it, but it's hilarious. Johnny Depp actually starred is him in a movie called Ed Wood. He was pretty epic at making like B movies where you're like, what! is going on here? Plan 9 from outer space, I think is him…   Matthew: Oh! Okay,   Becky: Yes. Jailbait is probably my favourite.   Matthew: I will have to check these out. Thank you for the movie recommendation. The last time I recommended Repo the Genetic Opera.   Becky: Yeah. Plan 9 from outer space…   Matthew: Jailbait first.   Becky: Jailbait though is my favourite and I used to own it on VHS. That is how old I am.   Matthew: Oh yeah. If it makes you feel any better. I was acquainted with VHS.   Becky: Yeah. I am the VHS. Oh God! That movie was so good. So bad, it was so good. I am sure it is him, Jailbait. It has to be. He has done so many, and I think he did with like Vampira. Yeah, that is Ed Wood. Oh, so many. Oh, yeah. Glen or Glenda? Also a classic. Mm hmm. Genius of a man.   Matthew: That is incredible.   Becky: I wish there were more like him out there that could do these kinds of movies.   Matthew: We can only aspire too. But I mean, also Pittbull could aspire to, be the Ed Wood but currently he wants to be Alfred Hitchcock.   Becky: That is not happening.   Matthew: But when I was really thinking about this, I was like, what? You know, in my limited experience with hip-hop, what lyric stand out to me is like the worst things I can think of.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: And this one stood out in my brain, has not left my brain for the past eleven years, and presumably will not be my brain until I die. It is this line.   Becky: Okay.   Matthew: Because remember, the rest is repetitive. Mommy got an ass like a donkey with a monkey look like King Kong. Welcome to the crib. Now, granted, also, I do need to…   Becky: Okay.   Matthew: Make a very specific point that when I say mommy, it sounds like I am talking about…   Becky: Mom. Matthew: Right.   Becky: And actual Mom   Matthew: Its spell M-A-M-I. It is Spanish. I am incredibly white. I cannot make this work. I need you to know...   Becky: Mommy and Pappy.   Matthew: Yes. Exactly. Like he is clearly talking about an attractive young woman.   Becky: A lady friend.   Matthew: Quite honestly, does not make me feel any better about it because he's dancing. She has an ass like a donkey, which I do. I will give him credit for the association…   Becky: That is good little…   Matthew: Word played.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: It is like saying like, oh, hurray. I can do this wordplay. But I forgot that this is implying that I would fuck a duck.   Becky: Yeah. Yeah, like a donkey got a sweet booty. Yeah…ewe.   Matthew: An ass like a donkey and he says monkey. Like a donkey with a monkey. Then why with a monkey? She specifically has an ass like a donkey that has a monkey. Look like King Kong. Now, does he mean the woman? Does he mean the monkey? Or does he mean the donkey?   Becky: It is all very offensive. However, you look at it, every part of that is offensive. Like there is not a moment where you go, well, that is very flattering. I appreciate that. No, nothing like. Where does the monkey come in? That is just to make the rhyme, clearly.   Matthew: Now, would you be flattered if a man would actually say you have an ass like a donkey.   Becky: That is like Sisqo she got dumps like a truck, truck, truck.   Mathew: Okay I did forget about that.   Becky: The Thong Song, and then there is Wreckx-n-Effect with the rump shaker. There is another one, actually. This is a perfect lead in mine.   Matthew: Done, I was like, honestly, that I just want to say for the audience at home, that lyric haunts me to this day and I truly wish that it haunts you as well.   Becky: Great. Okay and mine is from 1989.   Matthew: That was prior to around the time of conception but definitely not [Inaudible 00:19:48].   Becky: Okay. So mine is from 1989 and I remember this song so I'm going to read the first part of it. I was at the mall sipping on a milkshake, playing the wall, taking a break. Admiring the girls with the bamboo earrings, baby hair and bodies built to swing. That is when I seen her. Name was Tina. Grace and Poise, kind of like a ballerina. I say how you doing? My name's big L don't ask me how I'm living because yo, I'm live in swell. But then again, I am living kind of foul because my girl don't know that I'm out on the prowl. To make a long story short, I got the digits.  Calls, one that drives me crazy. Calls her on my car phone and paid her a visit. I was spanking her, thanking her, chewing her, and doing her. Land like a king and sat on sheets of Satin. Well, that is what time it is. You know what is happening? She had a big old booty, and I am doing my duty.   I mean, yo, I admit that girls cutie. But Tina was erratic, Earl is my witness with the kind of legs that put stockings out of business. I went home. I kissed my girl on the cheek, but in the back of my mind was this big butt freak. I fat my girl down. I could not hold it in, and that is when I said to her, with a devilish grin. Tina got a big old butt. Matthew: That was a perfect Segway. Becky: Yeah, then it goes on. I know I told you I would be true. But Tina got a big old butt, so I'm leaving you. So this is LL Cool J, big old butt.   Matthew: This is LL Cool J?   Becky: Oh, my God. He has another one called Backseat in my Jeep, which is another one of my favourites, one of the lyrics said. It is like backseat of my Jeep. We swing an ep. So you could not say episode, he had to shorten it down to ep to sound hard.   Matthew: Wow   Becky: But yes, the whole song has him bouncing around from girl to girl with big old butts. So then, he moves on to I believe it is Brenda. Who he met at high school. Mm hmm.   Matthew: That's, you know, usually where this occurs.   Becky: Then he goes to Red Lop, so he started at the mall. Then he goes to the high school.   Matthew: Have we confirmed that he too is in high school?   Becky: Oh, I don't think so at this time.   Matthew: Oh, yikes.   Becky: Yeah. Mm hmm. He went to the high school about three o'clock. So clearly, he is not in high school.   Matthew: Oh.   Becky: To try and catch cutie. Riding my jock.   Matthew: That is a popular line.   Becky: I have not heard that a long time. She had that kind of booty that I always remember. I would say to my man, stop the jeep. She is only 17, but yo, don't sleep. So again, I have a theme for this series, apparently.   Matthew: You sure you do. I like 2008. You like rape song.   Becky: Yeah. I don't know what it is. Then he put the big booty on a bearskin rug.   Matthew: Wow! Why the fuck does, he have a bearskin rug?   Becky: He got satin sheets and a bearskin rug. LL…   Matthew: He just fuck so much.   Becky: He is on point as far as like 70s porn house.   Matthew: Easily. He call Hugh Hefner and I was like, can I fuck as many girls in your house as possible?   Becky: Yeah. I like I scope the booty like a big game hunter. I said to the girl, you, you look tired. Let's go get some rest. Relax by the fire.   Matthew: Oh, okay. Naked.   Becky: Apparently.   Matthew: But that is a terrible way to lay naked, because let us all remember that fires only come in one direction.   Becky: Yes, so half of you is sweating to death. The other half is freezing and you are on a bearskin rug. So now, half of you is sweating with bear fur stuck to you. Everything about this is wrong.   Matthew: That is so erotic. Becky: Then if you move to like the satin she. She just like right off. like nothing about it is good. Yeah. Oh, he also grabbed a pack of bullets and pulled out the steel. So how about that?   Matthew: The steel?   Becky? How about that for slang for putting a condom on?   Matthew: Okay.   Becky: Yep. Then he gets back, and he goes to Tina. I am going with Brenda now because she got a big old butt. So he's leaving you.   Matthew: Wow!   Becky: Later on, he goes to Red Lobster. For shrimp and steak, as it says, it must be the next day because we are at lunchtime now, because this is around the time when the waitresses are on lunch break. You know, he is hanging his bro, then he meet Lisa, one thing leads to another. And he's got to tell Brenda.   Matthew: It is time for her to go.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Wait! What is the name of the song? Remind me.   Becky: Big ole butt.   Matthew: Big ole butt. It is just butt?   Becky: This was on the radio.   Matthew: Constantly.   Becky: Yeah, I remember this. Yeah.   Matthew: This is…   Becky: Big ole butt.   Matthew: Fascinating.   Becky: Hmmm. LL Cool J 1989.   Matthew: Assinating that is what I am going to call it.   Becky: It is assinating. I mean, he just. You know, I out and about. Maybe pulled in the parking lot, and parked his car. Somebody shouted out. I don't care who you are, I pay no attention. I walk inside because Brian had a nine and he was chilling in the ride. I got to be honest, I don't know what the hell that means.   Matthew: That is so weird.   Becky: Shrimp and Steak was not the only thing cooking.   Matthew: What?   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Although this does make you feel better that like consistently hip-hop artist, do you go to Red Lobster after they are fucking because, you know, Beyoncé is like… like,   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Fuck him so good. I don’t remember.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Basically the sex so good that she's like, I take his ass to Red Lobster and now turns out LL Cool J originated the like lets go to lobster.   Becky: I feel Beyoncé is lying on this one.   Matthew: She would never…   Becky: Jay Z…..Red Lobster.   Matthew: There are multiple things like really…   Becky: For reals, yeah. But this girl Lisa was like, you got a girl and it don't matter. You are looking tastier than a piping hot pizza. Then he of course, I don't know why this was something he thought the ladies are going to enjoy this line. When she walked out the door, I threw my tongue down her throat.   Matthew: Ewe.   Becky: No.   Matthew: Also, that is a terrible verb for it. Like I threw it down her throat.   Becky: I don't want you touching my tonsils. The doctor is the old one who should be touching my tonsils and my uvula, and I love that term uvula.   Matthew: Even there on him fucking ice when they touch your tonsils.   Becky: Yeah. Dentist if necessary. No. And of course, this is the 80s. Late 80s after he has done his business. He grabs his pants and put on his kangol.   Matthew: Wow. It is the 80s.   Becky: Yeah. Then who did I see? Oh, yow it was Brenda. Yow, she worked at Red Lobster but I did not remember.   Matthew: Wow!   Becky: Lisa got a big ole butt. Matthew: Wait, he bring Lisa to Red Lobster.   Becky: He picked up Lisa a Red Lobster, but forgot Brenda also worked at Red Lobster.   Mathew: LL Cool J, what the hell are you doing.   Becky: I mean you just getting yourself into a train wreck. Yeah-Big Ole Butt.   Matthew: Wow! That is…   Becky: I can still hear the whole thing in my head. Brenda got a big ole butt it is awesome. I will listen to it tomorrow at work.   Matthew: See what I appreciate. I feel like with very few exceptions, most of the songs that we choose are so lovable.   Becky: Oh, I am still going to listen to him.   Matthew: In spite of the bad lyrics.   Becky: Except for two. The first one we did. Which is that James Arthur piece of trash.   Matthew: Yes.   Becky: That one, never. Like I will listen to it because I am being forced to. Because somebody wants to see me go what the fuck is? Does anyone not listen to this.   Matthew: Is anyone hearing this?   Becky: Yeah. Then there is another song. That is right up there for me. That every time it comes on I am like no. There is no way, no how, nope.   Matthew: What is it?   Becky: Oh, you will find out because it is going to be, I think, on our next episode.   Matthew: Oh, this will be interesting.   Becky: Yeah, yes.   Matthew: Actually. You know what. I realized we mistakenly forgot to do for our last episode.  We need to give…   Becky: We keep doing this.   Matthew: We have to assign a yikes.   Becky: We did not assign a yikes. Then we also forgot that we do have a Web site.   Matthew: You, know what? People who are bingeing this up.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: You will been binge these episode…   Becky: And you will know. It is just whatthelyric.com. I mean, really make sense.   Matthew: Exactly.   Becky: The yikes factor on this one for me. Oh God. I love it.   Matthew: Yeah. That is the thing where it is like honestly.   Becky: Hmm.   Matthew: Well, it depends. Right. Because it is like infidelity.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: That is not pleasant. But lyrics purely on lyrics alone. I think that is where we have to go with.   Becky: It is a little like that holiday song. Baby its cold outside where people like, oh, my God, that is awful.   Matthew: Oh, yes.   Becky: We should never play it again, but we remove it out of the context of the time that it was done in. And granted, it's never okay to be pushy with a woman at the same time. Is 1940s much like shipoopi with 1950s. It is not like somebody is writing up, redoing shipoopi.   Matthew: To make it…   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Hip and also consensual.   Becky: Though maybe I will give it a go.   Matthew: I hope you do.   Becky: I am going to do the female version of it.   Matthew: He poufy?   Becky: What would that be? Oh, no.   Matthew: He is shitty.   Becky: Oh that, I am writing it down. He is shitty. Okay I am writing down he is shitty, and then this is my assignment. Okay, it is going to take a while, but I will come up with something.   Matthew: Love it. That should be the season finally.   Becky: [Inaudible 00:30:35] shitty. Matthew: Debuting.   Becky: Oh, if only I knew someone who could get like Peter Griffin to read it. It would be amazing. Yeah, so on the yike scale. For me, I just…sigh, [Inaudible 00:30:56] is a tough one for me because I have seen interviews and he's just Mr. Positive.   Matthew: I know.   Becky: So you cant really hate him, but God. His lyrics are awful.   Matthew: The lyrics are bad. I give it, trying to be unbiased, but I can't.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Like I would say a solid 3, I'm almost out of 4. But the positivity and honestly the rest of it is like huh! Most of this is in Spanish. You just mistakenly said that you wanted to fuck a donkey with a monkey around or on the donkey.   Becky: Yeah, Maybe it is just the setting. He did not express what the setting was. Like they are out on a beach, some tropical beach where there is wild animals.   Matthew: That is true, and also, I feel like it's one of those things where it's like Pitbull is the Tobias Funke of hip hop.   Becky: Really? He is.   Matthew: Because he said shit where he is like, oh, I want it. It sounds like he wants to fuck this animal. But really, it's like I just blow myself.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: That is the equivalent.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: I just blew myself.   Becky: Yeah, I think you are right. I think he is. Yeah. Matthew: So I will give it a three.   Becky: See, I am going four. I feel like he's never really offended, like he's not. There is nothing super offensive about it. Like the donkey, butt thing is probably the worst. But that kind of rolls back on him, I mean.   Matthew: He did let these lyrics…..he both…   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Helped write and perform these lyrics.   Becky: Yeah. I am going with a four on that one.   Matthew: [Inaudible 00:32:30]   Becky: LL Cool J on the other hand. He is like right up there. I am going with like one is like the end all be all the yuck factor. Is that what we said before? I probably do it all around.   Matthew: No. I forget… honestly I do also forget what the scale is. For the purposes of this podcast and moving forward.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: One is the worst. Five is the least offensive.   Becky: I am saying Pitbull is low grade offensive.   Matthew: Yes, okay. I would agree.   Becky: Yeah. On the scale, he is low grade. LL Cool J In the 80s, full on offensive like that whole song is epically like wow! In every way. I feel like I need a crying game shower after listening that. Also same deal with backseat of my jeep. But I still listen to them.   Matthew: You got to love them.   Becky: Kind of Religiously. Yeah, so I would give them. Backseat of my jeep, which I really wish I had kind of done too. And big ole butt more like two for me. Matthew: Okay, see I was leaning much more toward four for with this.   Becky: Oh!   Matthew: I will say I am a product if nothing but of my generation.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: You have to remember, like, boom. Twenty-three. Robin Thicke Blurred Lines come out.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Suddenly someone being like I am having sex with a lot of these women and in really inconvenient places. But I'm only referring to their butt, I'm referring to their butts as butts and not like she's got a fine ass on her like a donkey.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: So I am kind of like this is heart-warming. He is only calling it a butt. And, you know, it's like he is problematic in different ways, but not as bad as…   Becky: Oh.   Matthew: You know, raping people, raping and pillaging.   Becky: Yeah, he was definitely rapey. Yeah, I'm going…     Matthew: I like spread, though.   Becky: Apparently so did LL Cool J. Seems to be a common theme in the rap.   Matthew: They all like the spread.   Becky: Even some of the ladies. Yeah. God, I am trying to think who is the one. There was one Lil Kim who you can't even… doesn't even look like she used to. I was like that's not a Lil Kim. Oh, my God, it is. Yeah, she liked the spread, so to speak.   Matthew: Oh, I agree. But I feel like this is product. I feel like we hit some high notes in hip-hop. Becky: Yes. We went with the tried and true. The old school, like one of the godfathers of hip-hop, sort of. More popular hip-hop.   Matthew: And one of the parasite's.   Becky: Yes. Exactly I mean, God love your Pitbull.   Matthew: But is he even making music? I am sure he is.   Becky: Guarantee tomorrow we will be like, oh…   Matthew: The newest Pitbull song.     Becky: He just drop the deuce, so to speak.  That is kind of wrapping it up on the hip-hop. Oh, I pull a dad joke. Next time, we are just going rogue and we are picking whatever, the hell we want. And I will tell you, I have a doozy.   Matthew: I have no doubts. Oh, I should have thought of No Doubt.   Becky: No   Matthew: [Inaudible 00:36:06] hole But we will save that for next.   Becky: Oh, all right. So next time it is our free for all. And we will talk to you guys then.   [Music playing]   [End 00:36:35]

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号:VOA英语每日一听Matthew: So, MB, with Habitat For Humanity, can you kind of describe for us a normal day at one of the work-sites?MB: Sure, so we usually get up very early in the morning, probably around 6:30 in the morning and when we were in Papua New Guinea we had to walk to the area where we were going to have breakfast so we had to walk through the village and say good morning to all the villagers and then we shared breakfast together with our team which the villagers prepared for us.Matthew: What kind of food was that?MB: In Papua New Guinea they eat a lot of potatoes and sweet potatoes and and some fish and some noodles but mostly their staple... and also bananas. They have a lot of plants or fruits that they grow on their property we ate a lot of that and then after breakfast we usually have a short orientation about what kind of jobs we're going to do that day and we're usually broken down into different teams and then we work for maybe two hours and then we have a short break and then we work again until lunch time. These jobs can be anything from planing wood or cutting wood or helping to lay the floor or putting up the walls or painting the walls or anything like that. And then we have lunch with the team and also with the villagers usually and after lunch we, in the past, we usually play with the children after lunch for a little while and then we go back to work for maybe about three or four hours in the afternoon. And night-time is cleaning up as well as having dinner again together with our team, or with the villagers. It really depends and then we usually have a meeting where all the team members get together and we have a reflection time about what happened that day or any problems, or we get a chance to talk to each other about the different jobs we were doing, so it's a very busy day, every day, but it's really satisfying and a lot of fun and we learn so many things, so many new things every day.Matthew: That's great. You did mention that during the reflections, you talked about any problems that occurred. What kind of problems have occurred?MB: Not so many, but in the past sometimes students get sick or they don't adjust to the heat of the country were in or they're not used to working physical, doing physical work every day or, so they're getting tired easily or something like that, or sometimes we just talk about problems in adjusting to the new culture. Sometimes it's very hard and very sad to see such poverty and to see people suffering but if we have a chance to share our feelings with each other it makes it easier to talk about and to think about.

How does the endless scroll of Netflix impact our desire for sneakers? How does the manufactured scarcity of shoes influence a billion-dollar secondary market? What is a sneaker bot? The difference between iPhones and Sneakers: This week Paul Ford and Rich Ziade sit down with product designer Matthew Famularo to talk about sneaker appreciation, manufactured scarcity, and the second-hand marketplace built around sneakers. We get acquainted with sneaker bots and discuss the ways that teens unknowingly carry out digital strategy for their favourite brands. We also listen to Rich’s admiration of Paul Newman’s good looks. [podcast player] ►iTunes/►SoundCloud/►Overcast/►Stitcher/►MP3 /►RSS 5:25 — Matthew: “Part of this multi-billion-dollar industry of sneakers winds up being sold because the supply is so incredibly limited and the demand is so high.” 7:25 — Matthew: “People will camp out for sneakers… It’s like Apple products, it’s like when the iPhone comes out.” 9:40 — Paul: “There was kind of a larger trend of athletes going from cool hometown celebrities to global mega superstars where everything is affiliated with them, like when Steph Curry came out with his sneaker and everybody made fun of it — I don’t follow basketball or sneakers, but that was big news.” 10:00 — Rich: “It’s fully baked at that point. You’re not wearing a sneaker to go play basketball in the schoolyard. You can, but it became fashion.” 16:18 — Matthew: “It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry, sneakers. It’s a marketplace. Because of this multi-billion-dollar industry and supply that doesn’t meet with demand, there’s now a billion-dollar secondary market that StockX is participating in, that eBay is participating in, that people are using platforms to sell sneakers.” 16:30 — Paul: “There’s a low cost of entry, it’s connected to street culture, there’s an element of hustle to it, and there’s a key thing you’ve just described which is that you’ve got this marketplace over here, you’ve got this waiting room here, you can automate this — or you could, theoretically.” 16:55 — Matthew: “There are a lot of different kinds of sneaker bots that you can get and it depends on the shoes that you’re looking for… Some bots do all of them. Some bots only do websites that use Shopify. Some bots only work on jailbroken iPhones because they work on the Nike SNKRS app. You have to understand what you’re looking for, and dependant on that, there are a number of options available.” 17:35 — Paul: “Everything you can do with the web has ended up in sneaker bot development territory.” 19:25 — Matthew: “We are now exposed to digital objects more than types of physical objects.” 20:05 — Matthew: “What you have today is between the digital objects [of music, TV, and film] is the notion of scarcity has exploded. Netflix will just pour content over your head until you drown in it so the perceived value is gone. I think that this is almost in a way a reaction to it, because you actually have this thing you can cherish in a weird way because not everyone has it. You know for a fact that because of the marketplace that there are just not a lot of them.” 20:50 — Paul: “That aspect, that sort of raw capitalist consumption part of street culture got really into the brains of cool rich young kids who are like, ‘Oh yeah, $1500 for a cool pair of sneakers, that’s no big deal. I’m a DJ and my parents are funding the next 30 years of my college education.’” 22:00 — Paul: “It’s not such a big market that serious, giant players are really deeply invested in it so it stays kind of ground level. Even the fact that there’s this whole sneaker culture and the bots and so on becomes part of the mystique. The marketplace is now connected to the big public branding event… They’re seeing this growing marketplace as feeding into their overall big brand efforts. Matthew at some level is pulling off the digital strategy around perceived value in the adidas and Yeezy brand for them.” 22:50 — Matthew: “One of the key points is that demographically you’ve got teenagers who fully understand that everything’s disposable. Everything. My Instagram, my Snapchat.” 27:35 — Paul: “Watches are very specific. Watches are rich people catnip.” 28:25 — Rich: “I just it’s cool that there’s this appreciation for this thing that there aren’t just endless amounts of.” 28:35 — Matthew: “There’s a separation between how widespread it can be. On social media, you can see photos of the shoe everywhere. But you go to… Ohio, and you’re not going to see that.” 29:30 — Paul: “When we’re having our kids play Pokemon Go, we’re training them to be sneaker drop consumers.” 31:10 — Paul: “As a species we find scarcity. I think it’s really exciting and I think it’s because we like having access to everything and then we get really excited about rich people having access to things we don’t and we’re like, ‘well why don’t I have it?’” LINKS Matthew Famularo, product designer StockX Virgil Abloh x MoMA x Nike The Story Behind The Air Menthol 10s YEEZY 500 | adidas + KANYE WEST Supreme Paul Newman’s Rolex

Sun, Jan 21, we discussed the Biblical Question from Matthew: What is faith? Jesse addressed a couple of YouTube comments about not thinking about your life — living without doubt. We talked about evil, about the need to forgive your mother and father. You cannot be born again or know God unless you forgive — especially the father, who represents Christ on earth. Simply saying, "I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior" means nothing if you do not forgive — Christ said that we should pray, "Forgive us as we forgive others." New people showed up, including the girlfriend of a 25-year-old man who was at Church last week with his mother. Some black young ladies also visited. All really appreciated Jesse, even though they had thoughts about life that were not right. One woman was emotional but wanted to touch others with love. But love is not emotional. Another remained with her boyfriend to make him a better man — but that does not work! Jesse urged that people practice the Silent Prayer available on http://rebuildingtheman.com/church

Is it possible that the â??young menâ?? who grabbed hold of the fleeing â??young manâ?? in Gethemane (in Mark) were the basis of the hypothetical â??12 legions of angelsâ?? in Matthew? What are your thoughts on Danielâ??s 70 weeks prophecy that apparently was fulfilled by Jesus to the day? And if we are to imagine that Jesus actually was a historical figure could he hit have self-fulfilled this himself? Since so many denominations of Christianity claim they are saved by grace alone, how do Christians get around all the works righteous passages? How do you suppose Lutherans are able to keep Lutherâ??s treatise "On the Jews and their Lies" under wraps? When Luke says "Jesus was the first to rise from the dead" in Acts, is he talking about rising out of hell, which is what I've heard at least one apologist say, or did he actually mean the first to rise from the dead, forgetting about all of the previous folks that were raised in the OT and the people Jesus raised himself? Why is liturgy important, and also, why are there seasons to the church year, like Advent, Lent, Pentecost, and so on? I recently read your article â??Was Jesus John the Baptist Raised from the Dead?â?? How have your thoughts about this idea changed since you wrote the article? What type of reaction have you received from other critical scholars? It's my understanding that Marcion believed in the dual Gods like the Gnostics and that Jesus was sent by the "Good" God as a spiritual entity. He felt that Paul was Godâ??s chief apostle and Marcion collected Paulâ??s letters into a canon. In my opinion this is damning evidence that Marcion felt Paul believed in a spiritual Christ and not a human one, i.e. Mythicist's are right! Why do you suppose Matthew, writing for a Jewish audience, does not mention the circumcision of Jesus but Luke, writing for a Gentile audience, places it at the proper 8th day? Seems to me it would be the opposite of this. Could you talk about the Gabriel Revelation stone?

Matthew - What do you have in your hands to give to God to use?

Can you summarize the Gospel of Matthew? What is the Gospel of Matthew all about?