3min chapter

The Bill Simmons Podcast cover image

Utah's Good, the 49ers Aren’t Dead, Nobody Believes in Minnesota, and More—With Michael Pina, Peter Schrager, and Benjamin Solak

The Bill Simmons Podcast

CHAPTER

Can Luca Wear It Out?

The Dallas Mavericks beat the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night. The game was also a Murray's not quite ready yet game because basically Murray could have won that game for them. I don't like Spencer Dinnwidy as my number two ball handler. Christian would have been okay.

00:00
Speaker 2
I'm just wondering if you have any tips for someone who works on the road a lot. I'm a uni lecturer and I have got probably about once a month I need to travel to our other campus, which is on the other end of the
Speaker 1
state and sit in a hotel and spend my mornings, my nights working in a hotel and then conducting. Um, yeah, so it got cut off there, Ben. But thank you, Ben. We got the drift because, and then when I heard this, I'm like, oh, this is Jason's experience of going to Singapore and teaching. Hong Kong. Yeah, Singapore,
Speaker 2
Hong Kong,
Speaker 1
Shanghai. Yeah, so you've done a lot of this. And also my experience of commuting to ANU for a year in 2013. So I worked in both places before Zoom was the thing. So well familiar with the travel routine. We thought we'd broaden it out a bit and just talk about travel generally, because we do travel for conferences, to consult with other people, for field work. And we're just thinking about travel tips, really. And this might be just the start of a conversation about that, because I think there's actually a lot to say. And I have on my notes that I took while we were eating lunch, Stalitites. I've got three things that we want to talk about in relation to travel. We want to talk about preparing to travel. We want to talk about kit things to take with you. And then I've got top tips for having fun or the worst thing that ever happened to you or both. That's the other thing that got. So shall we talk about prepping for a trip first, Jason? Did you have anything, do you want to start us off, talking about prep? Yeah,
Speaker 2
I think you think about this in two different ways. If you're doing international travel with the university, chances are that there's somebody inside the university who is going to be involved in that. So it might be that you have to organise your own tickets and do all that sort of stuff now. They used to have whole departments of people who would organize all your travel for your book tickets, do all that sort of stuff. That seems to have gone away now. They've either outsourced that to commercial entities external to the university or they've just forced it back onto the academics and made them kind of organize their own travel and then justify their expense and all that sort of stuff. If you have to work with other people, preparation is make friends with those people and make sure that you've got a whole bunch of lists that you can share with those people. So your preferences, for example, in written format. So for things like food, if you happen to be a vegetarian or you have other dietary requirements, those sorts of things, people forget that stuff. That stuff gets left off. And the last thing you want is to be on an eight hour flight somewhere, and then they come around to give you food and it's not suitable for your particular dietary requirements. So prep for me has always been make sure that you've got your lists organized, even if they're ones that you refer to yourself. Don't forget to pack X, don't forget to pack Y, but also lists that you can share with other people for things like preferences. I like to sit on the aisle rather than the middle, or I like to sit on the windowseed, or whatever. Those sorts of things. That's the quickest one for international travel, I would say. For domestic travel, if you're on the road, a lot. Prep for me, I would go out and I would buy the perfect bag. So you will know how much stuff you need to lug around to be able to go and be a lecturer in different campuses around the state. Make sure that you've got a bag that supports that activity. So that might be one that has special laptop holding areas or I've got one where it's got a super secret, it's kind of zip built into the backpack part of it. So if you imagine putting a backpack on, in the middle of the back, it's got a little pocket, the zip pocket. And it's big enough for you to put your wallet or whatever into that pocket. And it keeps it nice and secure and safe and those sorts of things. So it's a really handy little thing. I always know that my wallet's there. I can get to it if I need to, but just making sure that you've got a bag that supports your travel beyond what you would pack in terms of clothes and those sorts of things. Can
Speaker 1
I pick up on the bag thing because I'm obsessed.
Speaker 2
Yes, I'm sure. Yes,
Speaker 1
of course. I've never quite still got exactly the right bag, but I'm always on the hunt for it. And so this is then an excuse to just end up with a closet full of different bags, different purposes. But one thing that I've learned to look for is expandability. So both my suitcases are the ones that have that extra zip out so that when you've bought lots of goodies, i .e. books at conferences, one can like expand and give a bit more height to the bag. Also, I bought a great backpack in Japan that's got like a roll top so that it can roll and unroll so that you can like stuff your dirty laundry in there as you go and it gets bigger. Any kind of like extra pockets that pop out, I'm obsessed with bags with lots of different pockets and expandability. And I'm pretty wrapped at the moment. My like current handbag is a crumpler bag and it is one of those ones you can fold over when you haven't got much stuff in it. And you can just walk around with just the sunglasses and the, you know, umbrella or whatever, but then you can unfold it and it fits my laptop in when I want to carry my laptop with me, which I don't always want to do. So like bags, I agree. Best bag, but it takes you a while and you might have to buy many bags along the way.
Speaker 2
Yes. And think about modularizing. Modularizing, did I make up a word?
Speaker 1
Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2
Modular elements to your bag. So camping stores are really good for this of stuff because they, you know, people have to carry stuff around all the time and so you go to a camping store you're likely to find all sorts of really cool little nifty gadgets that will help you. So one of the things that we've got that I find really useful, it's a little, it's a little kind of mesh bag. It's not very big. Think this kind of the size of like a little tote bag or something like that. And it's got a pair of underpants kind of stenciled on the front of it. And that's where you put all of your dirty underwear and stuff like that, right? So everything stuffs into this bag. And it just like it's separate. So you don't, you know, after a week of living out of a suitcase, you got crap everywhere and all your, like, it's just everywhere.
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah. By
Speaker 2
having these little kind of bags within bags, it's just a really easy way to organize yourself.
Speaker 1
My whole suitcase is that, and can I recommend at this point, Muti, has a bag, has every kind of zippy travel bag you could want. I've got one for my bra or knickers. I've got one for my socks. I've got one for my belts. I have one for my bracelets because I like wearing bracelets. I have this little one here, Jason, which is just for my headphones. Most used plug -in, the thingy that you plug in. What is that thingy called that I'm pointing at? That you plug in to? Oh, a brick? No, no. It's like an adapter. Oh, yes. yeah. Yeah. So it's the most used one for presenting. It's got a USB, one of those pin ones, 16 pin and a HDMI thing. Yeah. A long charging cable for my phone and my ear pods and my very special Blackwing pencil sharpener that costs $40. No one knows why, but I have it. I've got also, in the other side of it, it's like a little square, like it's a little A5, half of an A5, I suppose, mood you think. It's got a pen and it's also got a little pocket here, which I keep those little things that you stick on the end of your headphones that always go missing. Those little rubbery bits. You know those little rubbery bits on the end of your headphones, that like the headphones that go in your ears? I always lose them. So I have a little
Speaker 2
packet of them there.
Speaker 1
I don't have in
Speaker 2
ear headphones. I
Speaker 1
noticed you've got your fancy bone conductor ones that you're wearing. Yeah, but I just stopped that
Speaker 2
years and years and years ago.

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode