Episode 85 features David Snyder, who as he slows down in his career is doing more than he expected. We talk about his career and how in his quote retirement unquote he’s not only doing more but loving it.
We also discuss building and creating, honey, maple syrup, baseball, giving back, learning as a generalist educationally, and much much more.
Throughout the conversation, we discuss:
- Renaissance Man
- Bees and Honey
- Maple Syrup
- The paradox of slowing down and being busier
- A career in Television
- Brandissimo!
- Bespoke Localized Content
- Problem Solving
- The Fun vs Stress Equation
- An American in England
- Cricket
- Sports
- Chaloner Children’s Charity
- Giving Back
- Being Reflexive
- And much more
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
Music created and provided by Henno Heitur of Monkey Tongue Productions.
–End Show Notes Transmission–
–Begin Transcription–
00:00:00:08 – 00:00:24:16
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent Palmer dot com quips. References. And empty Space Jpod still thought provoking almost 20 years later, untold attempts to answer the question whatever happened to And1? and we could all be better students and we should all strive to be better teachers. This is The Palmer Files, episode 85 with David Snyder, who, as he slows down in his career, is doing more and more and more and more.
00:00:24:23 – 00:01:14:34
Agent Palmer
We talk about his career and how in his, quote, retirement, unquote, he’s not only doing more, but loving it. We also discussed building and creating honey maple sirup, baseball, giving back, learning as a generalist, educationally and much, much more. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:14:39 – 00:01:46:00
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to the Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic, also known as Agent Palmer, and on this 85th episode is David Snyder. He has been an executive and producer at Disney and as an independent. And now he is doing more than you would expect for someone who is slowing down. I met David when I was contracted to produce and edit The Good Government Show, a podcast that David is executive producer on and one where we get to work together, which is just code for us, making quick show decisions and spending the next period of time discussing sports and life in general.
00:01:46:05 – 00:02:05:57
Agent Palmer
And now I get to share one of those conversations with you, dear listener. But before I do know that there is a lot of things you’ll hear us discuss, but one that is nearest and dearest to David’s heart, and one which you will hear him talk about is the Challoner Children’s Charity, which builds schools to support education, some of the poorest and most disadvantaged countries in the world.
00:02:06:12 – 00:02:32:54
Agent Palmer
You can learn more about that by going to see a hello and er charity.com. So bees, honey maple sirup, baseball, cricket, problem solving, moving from thing to thing. And of course giving back is headed your way as you continue to listen. But first you can find more information about the work David is doing with Challoner Children’s Charity at CHL on air charity.com.
00:02:32:54 – 00:02:57:20
Agent Palmer
Or listen to The Good Government show that David and I work together on. Wherever you are listening to this podcast or at Good Government Show. Com. Don’t forget you can see all of my writings and ratings on Agent palmer.com. And of course email can be sent to the Palmer files at gmail.com. So without further ado, let’s play ball.
00:02:57:25 – 00:03:24:23
Agent Palmer
David, you and I have a working relationship, and every time we talk on the phone about work, we end up spending a lot of time talking, not about work. And every time I hang up the phone, I go. That guy is one of the more interesting men I’ve ever met. Because you’re either traveling around the world or telling me about the TV shows you’ve you’ve written, or you’re harvesting maple sirup and.
00:03:24:23 – 00:03:31:14
Agent Palmer
Honey, can I can I classify do you classify yourself as a Renaissance man?
00:03:31:19 – 00:03:35:48
David Snyder
No. I am not a, self-proclaimed Renaissance man, but it’s.
00:03:36:01 – 00:03:41:00
Agent Palmer
But I just listed a few things, and that’s not nearly everything. You are.
00:03:41:05 – 00:04:19:16
David Snyder
Yeah. No, it is interesting. I will say. I think it’s a function of finally slowing down. And that’s, paradoxically, that’s given me a lot more time to get busy in a lot of different areas. And so I have always been fascinated by bees. And, and so I now have some hives and, I, I went to work with a friend of mine who was a beekeeper and, he, he and I spent a summer chasing swarms, around Greenwich, Connecticut.
00:04:19:16 – 00:04:46:59
David Snyder
There was a whole bunch of hive death and, the bees were really agitated, and they started swarming. This was my first year as a beekeeper. And, we would get calls. I think we did 13 or 14, like, major swarms, all of which we were able to bring, to, our hives and repopulate, you know, like, they, they, they settled down once.
00:04:46:59 – 00:04:50:07
David Snyder
They got into an environment that was healthy for them.
00:04:50:11 – 00:04:55:41
Agent Palmer
That can’t be normal. That’s got to be like a weather guy chasing tornadoes the first time around.
00:04:55:51 – 00:05:18:00
David Snyder
It’s. It was really very, very strange. And, I’d say the first 4 or 5 weeks, in this guy, he gets, you know, you get stung every time you go out practically. Right? Yeah. And, I’d say the first four weeks, they didn’t touch me. I was feeling like, you know.
00:05:18:02 – 00:05:20:16
Agent Palmer
This is something I said.
00:05:20:20 – 00:05:47:30
David Snyder
I was feeling like the queen bee. Right? Okay. And, and then, I, I picked up a hive. Incorrectly, and the bottom had stuck to it because they seal the hives with, propolis to keep them warm. And, you know, safe in the winter. Yeah. And, I didn’t, I didn’t separate it from the, I didn’t separate the deep from the one above it.
00:05:47:35 – 00:06:12:53
David Snyder
And when it dropped, they were completely agitated. Sure. And, and so that was my first, major sting. I was, I was pretty covered, but, I didn’t have proper, like, leather gloves on, and so both my hands swelled up. It was pretty exciting. Okay. All right. Yeah, well, I won’t get arthritis in my hands.
00:06:12:53 – 00:06:18:07
David Snyder
Like, apparently bee stings will inoculate you from arthritis.
00:06:18:07 – 00:06:20:48
Agent Palmer
That’s exciting. That’s good. That’s good to know.
00:06:20:53 – 00:06:47:44
David Snyder
So that’s a good thing. On the sirup I married into a sirup making, brother and sister act. My wife and her brother, and they make sirup. And so they. I have A.D.D., and so I’m really not allowed to sit in the sugar shack while they’re boiling the sap for 6 or 7 hours until it kind of boil.
00:06:47:44 – 00:07:20:04
David Snyder
You have to boil? Yeah. Down to it’s like 50 to 1, 50 gallons of, sap makes one gallon of proper make maple sirup. And, you know, it’s a I want to open my wrists when I, when I contemplate sitting there watching sap boil. But, I started going up, and I got very good at tapping trees and, checking lines and schlepping, heavy buckets of sap around.
00:07:20:04 – 00:07:31:42
David Snyder
And so, you know, there’s, there’s activity that I can, that I can manage without, without, you know, ruining my marriage. How about that?
00:07:31:42 – 00:07:46:13
Agent Palmer
But all of this is you’re slowing down, so to speak. And obviously, your involvement in the podcast is one thing, but you’re still in television. What was television, the career for you that you’re now slowing down from?
00:07:46:18 – 00:08:17:50
David Snyder
Yes. Okay. I, I was a, I was a TV executive for, I don’t know, 20, 20 years or so. I, I then moved from, from, that career to an independent producer where I ran my own production company. And we had, it was an animation and gaming company called brand SML. And, we made hundreds of quickplay, you know, digital games.
00:08:17:55 – 00:08:29:25
David Snyder
And, we built a couple massive, MMO RPGs. We did one for the National Football League called, NFL Rush Zone.
00:08:29:34 – 00:08:30:13
Agent Palmer
Okay. Yeah.
00:08:30:14 – 00:08:59:35
David Snyder
Which has, a rabid, following, when we started, our target audience was eight year olds. And so. And that was in 2007. So you do the math. Like they all started kind of, wanting it again, you know, in, 2018, 2019, we had, we had a nice ten year run with the NFL, with that, with that property, they moved.
00:08:59:40 – 00:09:04:28
David Snyder
Ultimately they moved to, a big game app.
00:09:04:33 – 00:09:05:13
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:09:05:18 – 00:09:15:15
David Snyder
And, and then they moved out of the kids business. I think that, they just weren’t monetizing the way they they wanted to, but it was a nice it was a nice long run.
00:09:15:15 – 00:09:48:19
Agent Palmer
You you diversity seems to I like, identify you with your career is is the word I’m getting an I having been, a sedentary career figure for a while. I’m in this consulting vein where I’m just kind of helping out wherever there’s something to do. It’s. It’s not the most what I’ll call stable of environments, but, I’m not bored, and I.
00:09:48:24 – 00:10:04:15
Agent Palmer
When I talk to you, you give me hope that, like, well, it’s not a safe career path. It’s a, it’s a, it’s an okay career path to just kind of go from thing to thing and, and find new avenues along the way.
00:10:04:20 – 00:10:33:26
David Snyder
Yeah. I was really spoiled in the early part of my career. I was with the Walt Disney Company and their international TV business, and we were building, you know, it was a building job, right? It wasn’t, hey, manage this business for us. You know, we were literally, you know, figuring out how to move this Disney Channel franchise into individual countries.
00:10:33:26 – 00:10:54:59
David Snyder
And, in Europe and in Asia, and in Latin America and, and so as a result, the, you know, the tasks that were in front of me, I was in charge of creative content. And so I had a role in the marketing. I had a role in the TV acquisition. I had a pretty big team under me.
00:10:54:59 – 00:11:16:50
David Snyder
We produced original content. All of these, all of these channels needed to like in some cases, it was legislated, you know, where they needed 60% local content versus 40%, you know, international or, paid in. Yeah. Or EU content.
00:11:17:03 – 00:11:22:41
Agent Palmer
I’m guessing that just translating it is not enough. That’s not considered local content. Right.
00:11:22:46 – 00:11:48:13
David Snyder
That’s that’s correct. And so, however, we ended up making we, we pioneered a couple different production formats that enabled us to make, a series of shows, in, bespoke, you know, local shows in, in, you know, 11 different languages.
00:11:48:25 – 00:11:48:51
Agent Palmer
That’s.
00:11:49:00 – 00:12:17:25
David Snyder
And so, yeah. And, and it’s interesting because like, you know, we did Portugal and Portuguese, Brazil. Right? We did a southern feed, in, South America and a northern feed with a Mexican, accent. You know, we had a Spanish channel that was, more Catalan, right? Like, the the languages, changed for for each of the channels.
00:12:17:30 – 00:12:42:25
Agent Palmer
Were you were you always a problem solver? Because I’ll be honest with you, I, I have grown into the role. There are things I do or I have done in the last 5 or 10 years as far as, like, just either passion projects or creative projects that are a lot of problem solving that I feel like probably I couldn’t have done when I was younger.
00:12:42:29 – 00:13:01:30
Agent Palmer
Or were you always like, cause, like, I don’t know that. I know, I know there’s people that like when I was younger, like they were always, that’s who you go to with a problem. And now I feel like I’ve grown into that role. Like all the things that you’ve done in your career. I’ve basically been problem solving to one degree or another.
00:13:01:35 – 00:13:28:01
David Snyder
Yeah, yeah. You’re you’re right. I think that, there’s a couple of things that pop into my head. One, I, I lost my dad as a young boy. I was a I was 16, okay. And, and so, it was, you know, we had four kids. I’m a twin. And we were the babies.
00:13:28:01 – 00:13:57:07
David Snyder
Right? So at 16 years old, you know, our pop dies and it was, you know, everybody kind of mustered, support for my mom. Okay. And so, what we ended up doing is. And, and so my older brother was, living on the West Coast. My sister was away at college. And so Debbie and I were the problem solvers, like, to use your, you know, your your, expression.
00:13:57:12 – 00:14:10:16
David Snyder
And, and I think that that probably, said, a couple things. One, my ambition to get the hell out of there right at some point.
00:14:10:16 – 00:14:12:01
Agent Palmer
Sure. Yeah.
00:14:12:06 – 00:14:41:03
David Snyder
And then the other was, you know, there is a when you’re the baby, when you’re the last in the birth order, and, you have two parents, both of whom, by the way, very happy, a very happy marriage with, you know, alcohol issues, you know, pervading both of them. And so I think I became, a peacemaker, right?
00:14:41:03 – 00:14:52:04
David Snyder
Like, the guy who, listens well and, and tries to figure out how do I get out of this or how do I get through this, or how, you know what I mean? Yeah.
00:14:52:08 – 00:14:53:05
Agent Palmer
Absolutely.
00:14:53:10 – 00:15:28:51
David Snyder
I do think that that, kind of forced diplomacy education is maybe one of the things that, has served me the best. And, and then on the problem solving part, I think, I think a big part of that is I didn’t have any, you know, specific I had a generalist education, right? I didn’t I didn’t go through, college with a real hard core specific thing.
00:15:28:51 – 00:15:32:47
David Snyder
I had a general humanities kind of education. Right. Okay.
00:15:32:47 – 00:15:34:13
Agent Palmer
So you and I are in the same boat.
00:15:34:18 – 00:16:02:52
David Snyder
Yeah. And, and so as a result, like, I think I can hold a conversation. I’m curious. I read, you know, like, it’s all of those things that I think ultimately served me better than any kind of specific class or course that I may have taken. You know, I think it’s the I think it’s the variety, and breadth of my education that actually paid that out.
00:16:02:54 – 00:16:31:08
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I think the thing for me that is the most interesting about that is and I’ve, I’ve talked about it, I guess at length, especially when I end up networking professionally, which is, I always run into two schools of thought. One is that I’ll be fine because I am a generalist and I am well-rounded. And then there’s the people that are like, well, you’re not specialized in anything.
00:16:31:13 – 00:16:59:25
Agent Palmer
Pick a specialty. And I, I come from a generation in between Gen X and millennials that if I’m going to be frank, 99% of us had ADHD to some degree. Okay. No matter who everybody in and around my class, my, my, my age range that I’ve ever met, it’s a for us, it’s a spectrum. It’s not. Do you have it or don’t you.
00:16:59:25 – 00:17:23:08
Agent Palmer
It’s how bad is it. Right. And so I think that part leads me to maybe double down on the generalist side of things. Like I don’t want to be like I’ve, I’ve learned, and I kind of, I guess the best word would be curated, a set of specialized skills. But that’s only because that’s where I’m at at the moment, right?
00:17:23:19 – 00:17:50:57
Agent Palmer
It’s not where I’m planning on being forever, and I will build upon those skills. I mixed the sound for a movie that would came from the skills of editing a podcast. Like, right, it’s a build. What’s the next step? I, I don’t know, and I feel like that’s the thing to where. And this is a question that I, I deal with on, what feels like a regular basis.
00:17:51:02 – 00:18:09:23
Agent Palmer
People ask me what I want to do. Now, you are not in the twilight. I think you’re slowing down and you’re doing what you want, which is a blessing. Yes. Everybody asks me what I want. If I’m being honest outside of the paycheck, I’m doing what I want.
00:18:09:28 – 00:18:10:31
David Snyder
Well, that’s good for.
00:18:10:31 – 00:18:39:48
Agent Palmer
You, you know, for right now. Like, yeah, it doesn’t necessarily pay the bills as I would like. I don’t I can’t build up a savings and you know all that. But but I get to wake up energized in the morning. Yeah. Between the podcast we do together and this podcast and my blog and the movie and, you know, the book, I like just the creative projects and helping people and I, you know, the last job I held, I didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning.
00:18:39:53 – 00:18:50:03
Agent Palmer
Right. And one of the things that keeps me from just collecting a paycheck is that I don’t know if I ever want that feeling again.
00:18:50:08 – 00:18:50:53
David Snyder
Yeah.
00:18:50:58 – 00:19:01:13
Agent Palmer
I don’t you know, your career has been varied. I’m sure there were more moments when you didn’t want to get out of bed, but generally speaking, you’ve kind of weathered that, right?
00:19:01:13 – 00:19:43:56
David Snyder
Like, yeah, but by the way, you weather it or you get out of the weather, right? And so, you know, when we were, when the situation got too crazy and political and we had to put our tools down and we stopped building and all we were doing is defending our territory, and. Yeah, right. Like, we had just crossed like, 1,000,000,005 in a, you know, in our, in our, you know, revenue and every other division in the company that seemed was sniffing around our PNL, right.
00:19:43:56 – 00:20:12:01
David Snyder
Like they wanted they wanted us in their group. And so, you know, there we sit. I was, based in London and, you know, I flew back once a month, it seemed, I think every single month for, I don’t know, a year and a half just expressly to defend the choices that we were making, to make sure that the cast that we had just put into this show was okay, like everybody was.
00:20:12:06 – 00:20:22:18
David Snyder
Everybody was creating this tension. And I realized that all of the fun of the job I had to delegate out.
00:20:22:23 – 00:20:22:59
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:20:23:04 – 00:20:35:48
David Snyder
So that I could defend our territory. Right. Like, so that I could be part of the team that would go over and, you know, convince them not to hand the reins over to somebody else. Right?
00:20:36:01 – 00:20:42:41
Agent Palmer
So that’s is that how the independent, your independent company get started?
00:20:42:46 – 00:21:32:54
David Snyder
Actually, there was, in the, in my last year at Disney, I had, one of these formats that we had put together that we were producing 11 different, bespoke, shows. Yeah. For the Disney Channel, that was a big hit for, for our international group and the company that I had, taken this concept to, they actually offered me a position in New York, and so I, I, I was at that time when I was just so freaking miserable, and, you know, the 80, 20 fun was now 2080, right?
00:21:32:59 – 00:21:33:24
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:21:33:33 – 00:21:55:26
David Snyder
And, you know, Jenny, my wife said, you know this. You’re not you’re not happy, right? Like. Yeah, you’re, you know, you’re if you if you want to look at it on paper, it’s one thing. But if you want to look at it in the mirror, you are not happy, right? Yeah. And, and so I took this job.
00:21:55:26 – 00:22:32:26
David Snyder
It was a great it was a great job. My, third day on the job was 911, 2000 and, one and, you know, was like, I walked into the office and told everybody to go home, like, I. I was as shocked as anybody else. Yeah. And, you know, just kind of like you’ve been hit by a by a board, you know, you just have no idea what what what end is up and what’s going on with, you know, all of these projects that we were, you know, getting ready to put into play, you know, the world changed.
00:22:32:31 – 00:22:34:06
David Snyder
And so it.
00:22:34:11 – 00:23:01:13
Agent Palmer
It was the. For content, but but more for people. It was the great equalizer because you and I, despite our, our, our, our age differences, we both had the same reaction to that where it’s, you know, I was I was a, a college sophomore. I was a sophomore in college, and, it changed for us, too.
00:23:01:13 – 00:23:22:41
Agent Palmer
And you’re walking around. It’s maybe the first time in my life, maybe the only time in my life where my age didn’t matter. Like I was walking around just as dazed as my professors and the administration and everybody else. And, I, I don’t know if.
00:23:22:46 – 00:23:41:49
Agent Palmer
This may be the most political thing I’ve ever said on this show, but, like, I don’t know if we took enough lessons from that, for where we stand now, but. Every year on September 11th, I think about where it was. It’s hard not to.
00:23:41:53 – 00:23:43:53
David Snyder
Oh, yeah.
00:23:43:57 – 00:23:48:46
Agent Palmer
But it’s the only thing my generation has. If they don’t remember Columbine.
00:23:48:51 – 00:23:50:48
David Snyder
Yeah.
00:23:50:53 – 00:23:56:55
Agent Palmer
But you finally get back to New York. Like, were you always in New York? New England?
00:23:57:00 – 00:23:59:21
David Snyder
I actually grew up in new Jersey.
00:23:59:25 – 00:24:00:16
Agent Palmer
Okay. So.
00:24:00:17 – 00:24:07:31
David Snyder
So south of Philadelphia in a town called Pennsville, new Jersey. So exit one.
00:24:07:36 – 00:24:15:14
Agent Palmer
Would you would you consider the gig in New York, homecoming? Or is that enemy territory like, I guess.
00:24:15:18 – 00:24:16:39
David Snyder
No, totally a homecoming.
00:24:16:39 – 00:24:17:23
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:24:17:28 – 00:24:53:11
David Snyder
It was time. I had to. I had to, Boys, 11 and six and, they had only really had that English, context. Okay. Yeah. And so it was, on the vacation before we before I made the decision to move back, I was thinking, oh, my God, I’ve got to we’ve got to see, you know, Gettysburg and, you know, Washington, D.C. and, you know, like, I was trying to give them American civics, by the way, at the age of nine and five.
00:24:53:11 – 00:24:59:37
David Snyder
Right. Like, you know, you know, it didn’t land as well as I had intended, but,
00:24:59:42 – 00:25:02:46
Agent Palmer
It’s, you know, you tried you tried though, so that’s. Yeah.
00:25:02:50 – 00:25:35:27
David Snyder
Right. Exactly. But then, you know, when we did move back, it was, you know, yeah. I mean, that the, the monumental, you know, earthshaking events of 911 were, I was using more as an anecdote to describe the first, the third day of my new career. Right. Yeah. But, the truth is, I was I was super happy to be back home.
00:25:35:34 – 00:25:47:51
David Snyder
I was super happy to be, you know, my wife, on the other hand, I think she would have moved back on any given Saturday if I said, hey, do you want to do you want to move back? She would have been like at the airport.
00:25:48:02 – 00:25:58:55
Agent Palmer
Now, I know from our conversations that you’re a baseball guy, but in England there cannot be that many baseball people.
00:25:59:00 – 00:26:07:25
David Snyder
Oh, no. Yeah, I, I lost track of, I, I started watching a lot of, Premier League, football.
00:26:07:29 – 00:26:08:34
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Okay.
00:26:08:39 – 00:26:33:37
David Snyder
I got into cricket, in, you know, kind of the second half of my stay over there. And it was, it’s it’s it’s not gripping yet. You know, there’s an adage in, television scripts, scripted television that, confusion breeds alienation, right?
00:26:33:44 – 00:26:34:09
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:26:34:24 – 00:27:02:53
David Snyder
And so, when you’re watching cricket, you don’t know what the hell is going on. It’s alienating. Right? Yeah. And so I sat, during a test match between Australia and, England. And a guy from Wales was in my office with me, explaining to me the game because he was just so rabidly interested in it and,
00:27:02:58 – 00:27:36:06
David Snyder
Oh, my God, we must have spent six hours watching this test match. Day one ended with, you know, Australia up by 100, you know, runs. Yeah. And, I’m like, well, that’s it, you know, and he goes, I don’t know. You know, like it’s probably, you know, probably. Right, right. But the next day like England came roaring back, you know, and you sit there and you know, like it’s like, in the American context.
00:27:36:08 – 00:27:41:34
Agent Palmer
No, I get this because. So, Estefany moved in with me, and I turned her into a sports person.
00:27:41:34 – 00:27:42:02
David Snyder
Right.
00:27:42:13 – 00:28:16:17
Agent Palmer
And and then turning her into a sports person. It has been multiple sports. Right? So it’s, I’m. I’m a college football guy. I’m a college basketball guy. I’m a baseball guy. Like, there are plenty of sport, F1, maybe a little bit of NASCAR in Indy throwing around all that. And so, you know, in the context of her having just kind of a general sports sense, I’ve been giving her a slight education and so we’re watching a college basketball game.
00:28:16:21 – 00:28:49:45
Agent Palmer
There’s a team that’s up by eight with 30s left and she’s like, it’s over. It that the it’s not over that, you know, like there are there are contexts that you need to and, and some of it is, because of who we are. Right. And we’re sports fans. So we have that memory where maybe other people, remember equations and they remember date, you know, like history, historical dates and figures and names.
00:28:49:55 – 00:29:22:28
Agent Palmer
And I can tell you that in, I don’t know, I think it was 2001. Jay Williams scored 12 points against Maryland for Duke in the final minute. Right. And they won that game. So to me eight points with 30s is still doable. And so I think that there’s this context. So in the context of cricket, like I don’t know what you know is that is that 30 points in 30s or is that ten points in 30, like, I don’t know what the context is.
00:29:22:28 – 00:29:50:03
Agent Palmer
Right. And I will tell you cricket’s the one sport I’ve, I’ve never I can I, I can sit down and even somewhat talk a in a, in a in a reasonable manner about almost every sport on the planet, excepting cricket. Yeah. It’s my one weakness. I just, I, I it’s, I’ve never, I’ve never met that man from Wales who spend six hours with me.
00:29:50:08 – 00:30:03:34
David Snyder
Yeah. His name’s John Keeling and boy did he freaking teach me so and so as a result I, I kind of have, I can lean in a little bit and watch it and not be alienated.
00:30:03:39 – 00:30:10:16
Agent Palmer
Well, that’s pretty good. That’s pretty exciting. So it’s still. Does it sound to me like you’ve slowed down?
00:30:10:29 – 00:30:14:57
David Snyder
Oh, I, I don’t think I have. I just stopped making money.
00:30:15:02 – 00:30:26:23
Agent Palmer
Yeah. But that’s. Yeah, I mean, but from a guy who’s literally not making money and is feels like he’s speeding up. I feel like you and I are in the same spot.
00:30:26:27 – 00:30:29:40
David Snyder
You know what? On that level, yes. Most certainly.
00:30:29:54 – 00:30:37:53
Agent Palmer
And I, I, I think that maybe that’s one of the reasons we get along so well. Maybe it’s one of the reasons that we’ve never had a five minute conversation.
00:30:37:58 – 00:30:39:51
David Snyder
Yep, I agree. I agree with that.
00:30:39:57 – 00:30:49:22
Agent Palmer
And, and and yet and yet, you know, we we are divided when it comes to sports somewhat.
00:30:49:27 – 00:30:51:28
David Snyder
Although I was just in Baltimore.
00:30:51:32 – 00:30:52:36
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:30:52:41 – 00:31:18:22
David Snyder
And, there was, a guy from Durango, Mexico, with his, son, in his arms and his wife and, we were staying they were staying at the same, hotel that I was at. And, he had an Orioles hat on. I said, where are you from? And he said, I’m from, you know, we’re up from Mexico.
00:31:18:22 – 00:31:44:55
David Snyder
I’m from Durango. And, I said, what are you doing in Baltimore? And he said, I came to see a couple games this week. Right. And so he saw the last two games of the season. Yeah. And, I was like, I was just thinking, God almighty. Like, I just can’t imagine a fan for the Baltimore Orioles in Franco Mexico, right?
00:31:44:55 – 00:32:07:00
David Snyder
Like, it’s just like it’s such a funny. Yeah. And, and then he tears, he puts his, like, little his kid, he pulls his kid away, opens a shirt like Superman, and he’s got a Ravens shirt on. And he said, and I’m going to the game tomorrow night. And so they were, the Ravens had the 830 slot last Sunday.
00:32:07:00 – 00:32:15:09
David Snyder
Wow. Okay. And I’m like, wow, man. That’s that’s a heavy bit of, fandom for, for a, Mexican native.
00:32:15:17 – 00:32:27:12
Agent Palmer
Yeah. And and, you know, considering the year the Orioles had and the year the your Yankees had, you and I had some amazing baseball conversations this year.
00:32:27:27 – 00:32:29:22
David Snyder
It’s a it’s been a good year.
00:32:29:27 – 00:32:52:14
Agent Palmer
Which is makes this year unique because I don’t think you and I would have had the same conversation with my 100 losses for the last few years. You know, it’s oh, it’s always but but it’s always nice, especially in the Al East, to be able to trash talk a team that you can, that you beat, you know, when you’re just constantly getting beat down like it’s it’s not as fun.
00:32:52:19 – 00:32:57:41
David Snyder
No. I know, you guys have Kryptonite in your, locker room. Well.
00:32:57:46 – 00:33:11:40
Agent Palmer
I, I would like that to be the case, but, the anniversary of, the not home run happened not too long ago, and I,
00:33:11:45 – 00:33:14:19
David Snyder
I cursed I don’t know what that is.
00:33:14:28 – 00:33:39:09
Agent Palmer
The, the the, you know, the the the home run Jeter hit to Jeffrey Mayer in the stands. That was not a, you know, home run. And I like it. It still hurts me because it happened when I was, you know, like 13. I was like, a rabid child fan. That is a moment I will never forget.
00:33:39:13 – 00:33:45:30
Agent Palmer
You grew up a Yankee fan, and I know that there were some, some dire times.
00:33:45:35 – 00:33:46:42
David Snyder
Yep.
00:33:46:46 – 00:33:48:04
Agent Palmer
But you had some good.
00:33:48:09 – 00:34:00:46
David Snyder
I don’t know, the 1970, early 1970s, I would say all of the 1970s. But then Reggie, in 1978, there was a pretty big resurgence.
00:34:00:46 – 00:34:12:11
Agent Palmer
Okay. But but like, you remember those things, right? Like. Yeah. Like if, if that comes up in like, like when you’re watching a broadcast, you, you’re instantly transported back.
00:34:12:11 – 00:34:13:09
David Snyder
To 100%.
00:34:13:09 – 00:34:14:32
Agent Palmer
Younger. You.
00:34:14:37 – 00:34:15:39
David Snyder
Yeah.
00:34:15:44 – 00:34:34:57
Agent Palmer
Do you like, as you’re slowing down, do you find yourself paying more attention or did you hear it? Did you pay any attention? Like where, you know, when you were, you know, traveling around every weekend and, you know, on the planes and stuff? Like, were you able to keep track? Were you able to hold on to that, like fandom, you know?
00:34:35:02 – 00:35:04:15
David Snyder
Yeah, especially baseball, which doesn’t get any coverage at all in, overseas, you get, in the, you know, in the International Herald Tribune, you know, you would get box scores, but very, very little coverage. Almost nothing on television. Right. And so and it’s I was there in the 90s. Right. I was there through the 90s.
00:35:04:15 – 00:35:05:51
David Snyder
And so it was,
00:35:05:56 – 00:35:09:06
Agent Palmer
That was before the streaming really even started.
00:35:09:18 – 00:35:40:25
David Snyder
Before YouTube. It was before, you know, like, all of that. And so I, you know, when I came back, I, when I, when I brought my kids back that night, I guess it was 2000, we went to a Yankee game. I was able to get, seats in the, in the ABC, ESPN box, which then it was an on field, but they have ESPN has quite a few seats at Yankee Stadium.
00:35:40:25 – 00:35:41:21
David Snyder
I don’t know if you know that.
00:35:41:21 – 00:35:46:42
Agent Palmer
I’m, you know, based on their coverage of so many Yankee games, I never would have guessed.
00:35:46:46 – 00:36:10:58
David Snyder
So, you know, there we sat, like, in between, Hum. And first, you know, four, four rows off the field. And it was insane. And, I, I looked over at my two boys, and my wife sitting next to me, and I’m just thinking, oh, my God, my dad would have gone bananas. You know, sitting here in Yankee Stadium, it was a red Sox game.
00:36:11:03 – 00:36:13:27
David Snyder
Wow. And, that was.
00:36:13:27 – 00:36:28:32
Agent Palmer
During the height of the, like, that was the height. Like, I know people talk about the Yankees Red Sox rivalry, but from, like, from 98 to about oh six was like the maybe the high watermark for that particular rivalry.
00:36:28:37 – 00:36:50:01
David Snyder
I agree, I agree with you. And it was a it was a it was it was fantastic. You know, like it it choked me up, you know, the, the whole it was father’s sons and me and my dad, like, we, you know, the first game I ever went to was at Yankee Stadium. We drove all the way up from exit one of the Jersey Turnpike.
00:36:50:06 – 00:37:10:05
Agent Palmer
That’s I, I mean, my first baseball game was at Memorial Stadium, out in right field with my father in the bleachers, like, yeah, you know, those are. You’re right. Those are things that, I mean, that’s, you know, I’ve, I’ve lived in Pennsylvania my entire life. How did you become a an Orioles fan? Well, my father’s an Orioles fan.
00:37:10:05 – 00:37:14:57
Agent Palmer
Like, that’s that’s how it works. Like, I don’t know any other way.
00:37:14:57 – 00:37:19:33
David Snyder
Like I say, when made, by the way, I should have been a Phillies fan.
00:37:19:37 – 00:37:20:46
Agent Palmer
Approximately.
00:37:20:51 – 00:37:30:07
David Snyder
Yeah, because all of our coverage, we in fact, we only looked north like the Orioles don’t exist in Philadelphia. Papers.
00:37:30:12 – 00:37:47:37
Agent Palmer
Yeah. No, that makes, No, I mean, yeah, that’s fair. I mean, I will say that the. I don’t know if you found this to the benefit being that it was easy to trade for Orioles baseball cards. Yeah, I just had to give up the Yankees and the Phillies, which I was willing to do.
00:37:47:42 – 00:37:48:05
David Snyder
Yeah, yeah.
00:37:48:09 – 00:37:59:12
Agent Palmer
And I just, you know, that part was easy. So being an out of market fan, well, back then it wasn’t like you had like MLB.tv and stuff and you could watch every game. You did have some benefits.
00:37:59:16 – 00:38:00:56
David Snyder
Yep.
00:38:01:01 – 00:38:18:00
Agent Palmer
And you know, at a certain point, you know, you, you, you have equal, you know, when it comes to the World Series, you know, you pick Al or NL, but it also depends on who’s playing. So I was a Phillies fan when they were going against the Jays. Yeah I mean it didn’t didn’t work out so well.
00:38:18:09 – 00:38:20:37
Agent Palmer
But that’s it’s what.
00:38:20:37 – 00:38:32:00
David Snyder
It’s the way the Phillies like that that that was the longest championship drought I think in the history of professional sports.
00:38:32:05 – 00:38:51:47
Agent Palmer
It was one of them. And it was my favorite one, though, because it was I was told for the longest time that it was a it was a something that the city of Philadelphia did to itself, because they were never supposed to build anything higher than Ben Franklin statue in the moment they built something higher than Ben Franklin statue was the moment they were cursed to never win another championship.
00:38:51:47 – 00:38:59:16
Agent Palmer
And then the Phillies finally came along and broke that curse.
00:38:59:21 – 00:39:05:32
Agent Palmer
And and this is the thing that makes me, like, enjoy talking to fellow sports fans because, like.
00:39:05:43 – 00:39:14:30
David Snyder
It’s, It is so funny, though. I and I grew up in that area, I’d never heard the Ben Franklin statue thing, but that makes total sense to me.
00:39:14:35 – 00:39:18:44
Agent Palmer
It it it’s it’s. If you’re not a sports fan of any kind.
00:39:18:47 – 00:39:20:17
David Snyder
That it’s a story.
00:39:20:19 – 00:39:40:17
Agent Palmer
Yeah. No, no, that’s what I mean, though. Like, if you’re not a sports fan of any kind, even if you don’t like baseball, that story resonates with you on some level in some league for something. Yeah, but if you are not a fan of sports like you hear me say that and like immediately go, wait, what? What are you talking about?
00:39:40:22 – 00:39:53:33
David Snyder
Yeah, but the curse of the bambino, you know, like that, that, you know, and by the way, that that was easy to support, right? Because they really didn’t win.
00:39:53:38 – 00:39:56:20
Agent Palmer
Yeah. That’s. Yeah.
00:39:56:20 – 00:40:09:40
David Snyder
And then they were losing ignominiously. I mean, that’s me mean like they would, you know, Bucky Dent home run like like a lot of that stuff was just like scraping egg off of their faces. Right. So it was just awful.
00:40:09:40 – 00:40:32:31
Agent Palmer
You may be the first Yankee fan that I can ask this to, so I’m going to. Was there a small part of you that was happy to see them win that way? Like to come back from oh three to come back from the 17 to 4, whatever that ridiculous number was in game three. And like kind of claw their way back to game four, game five games a, game seven.
00:40:32:31 – 00:40:36:32
Agent Palmer
Like, I know they beat your team, but the way they did it.
00:40:36:37 – 00:40:38:41
David Snyder
I thought it was fantastic.
00:40:38:43 – 00:40:49:18
Agent Palmer
And you worked for Disney, which makes me feel like there’s somebody at Disney that if this had been a script that was pitched to you guys, you would have been like, no not yeah.
00:40:49:23 – 00:40:51:41
David Snyder
Not yeah. Not believable.
00:40:51:43 – 00:40:57:05
Agent Palmer
Not believable. But I mean, that’s the I guess that’s the power of sports, right? Like that’s there’s.
00:40:57:05 – 00:41:04:37
David Snyder
A lot of Emerson grads at Disney, a lot of Harvard too. So like, you know, Boston could have it could have been a good pitch.
00:41:04:42 – 00:41:07:54
Agent Palmer
Okay. I mean, I guess it depends. You have to read the room, right?
00:41:08:09 – 00:41:09:59
David Snyder
Right.
00:41:10:04 – 00:41:31:05
Agent Palmer
Now, I know you, talked about, children’s programing. Are you, was it just working around it that kind of, you know, you were like, I’ll take this on and I’ll. I’ll do a little creation, too. Like, was it just so, I don’t know, osmosis.
00:41:31:10 – 00:41:59:24
David Snyder
I, no, I was, I was producing commercials, and one of my partners was, Linda Stewart, who was, just a sensational, producer. She had produced the live cereal ads. She had produced, the groundbreaking Oscar Meyer, you know, with the little boy. Okay. You know, I baloney. And she produced us with a guy named Jack to sort who was the, director.
00:41:59:29 – 00:42:29:57
David Snyder
And so she had this, like, quality with kids and kids spots, right? Like, that was a sweet spot for her. And so she and I, started brainstorming an idea, and we ended up, going to the studios, and, like, I was a I was a bartender and, a sales executive. Now, I was a secretary. I wasn’t an executive, at CBS.
00:42:29:58 – 00:42:52:38
David Snyder
And so I was I was making $211 a week at CVS and, cashing my boss’s checks out of my pocket because I was making so much money and tips as a bartender. Right. And so, but Linda had, she she had this concept, and she had access to, agents and stuff like that because of her work.
00:42:52:43 – 00:43:31:01
David Snyder
And, I eventually became a partner in her business, and we ended up producing a whole bunch of national TV commercials, and we put this pitch together. Right. And so I left CBS and started working with her. And, one of the ideas, we took to my old boss at CBS who had just moved to Disney. So when Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg and, you know, Rich, Frank, those guys took over when the Paramount crew moved in and took over Disney.
00:43:31:06 – 00:43:34:23
David Snyder
My boss was one of the original executives.
00:43:34:27 – 00:43:35:22
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:43:35:27 – 00:44:07:09
David Snyder
My boss from CBS. Yeah. And so I called him and said, hey, can I pitch you an idea? And he goes, sure, come on over. Right. Like it was one of these things. And, I walked in, I pitched my heart out and he said, you should go over and pitch this guy like. And he told me this guy’s name at, another part of the, company, and, and then he said, but I want you to work for me, like, I want you to come and work for me.
00:44:07:09 – 00:44:32:11
David Snyder
And so I left my commercial production job. Yeah. And move, I followed him. His name is Jamie Bennett, and I followed him into Disney production. And so it started with a pitch, and, for a kid’s show. And, that was kind of the that was kind of the that put me and I, it put me in a category that I found interesting.
00:44:32:11 – 00:44:57:43
David Snyder
I find kids really interesting. I find, educational. Even though Walt Disney called educational. Don’t use the word like don’t make it. Yeah. Educational on its face. But I find that, you know, purpose driven content is appealing to me. And so, you know, I did I did quite a lot of work, in that, in that.
00:44:57:48 – 00:45:14:16
Agent Palmer
I would argue that some of that comes back to the fact that you yourself are a generalist and you’re you’re a reader and you’re still always looking because, like, I, I, I think one of the best things I did for myself in the last 20 years is start reading again.
00:45:14:21 – 00:45:14:48
David Snyder
Oh, yeah.
00:45:14:48 – 00:45:16:48
Agent Palmer
And I it went away.
00:45:17:01 – 00:45:21:38
David Snyder
Like what you’ve been doing. But yes, the answer is yes. It’s one of the best things you’ve done. Yeah.
00:45:21:49 – 00:45:48:52
Agent Palmer
Because I don’t like I don’t feel like I missed out when I wasn’t, but like I feel that I’ve got so much more because I have. Yeah. Right. And I think that that allows you to have an interest in, you know, educational anything. Really. Yeah. Because you’re fiction or non like you learned something from the book. It’s true.
00:45:48:54 – 00:46:11:57
Agent Palmer
It’s just it’s just the nature of reading like yeah. So I did want to ask though with all of this stuff, like what’s left. Like what? I mean, you know, that you, you, you farm, great sugars of what I well, I will call North America.
00:46:11:57 – 00:46:23:08
David Snyder
No, you know, the farming thing is just, it keeps me together with Jenny. Okay? Like, when she goes, she goes for six, 6 to 8 weeks, you know.
00:46:23:13 – 00:46:25:11
Agent Palmer
For the harvest. So. Yeah.
00:46:25:15 – 00:46:50:00
David Snyder
You know, I better figure something out to do, you know? Or, I’m going to be without her, you know, for for quite a while. And, and so it’s, it’s less it’s, it’s that’s sort of less, that’s, that’s what the major appeal is, you know, it’s kind of going up and being in that space. I, I work when I’m there.
00:46:50:04 – 00:47:20:29
David Snyder
Right. And so, like, I have a couple, like, I’m, a guest lecturer at a couple different schools. And so I did, you know, my share of zoom classes and things like that. Which is super fun and rewarding. And, but I think what’s next is, you know, but, and I hate to sound so reactive, but, you know, I do let things come to me, right?
00:47:20:29 – 00:47:55:10
David Snyder
And, and so, you know, I’m on my way to Uganda. Next month, with a, school building, charity, that I joined the board of this past February. And, it was a friend who founded it, and, she she just has this belief that without, an education, you’re never getting out of your situation, right?
00:47:55:10 – 00:48:32:52
David Snyder
Without the ability to read, without numeracy, without literacy. Yeah. You’re just. You have no agency at that point, right? Like you have no. And so, she is not an educator. She’s a financer. Right. And so she said, I, I can manage partnerships and I can manage money. And so she, has a charity that builds schools and then, the partner NGOs or charities, provide the teachers and the training and the schools, the books and stuff.
00:48:33:07 – 00:49:06:09
David Snyder
But that big initial expense is the build, right? And that’s what that’s what she manages. And, it’s interesting because she started in 2019 and she started in Sierra Leone because it’s at the time it was like the second or first poorest country in the world. Right. And so she said, let’s just start there. There’s no money. And the country has been ravaged with, the Civil War ravaged by Ebola.
00:49:06:14 – 00:49:43:47
David Snyder
Right. That outbreak swept through it. And then Covid, right. Like, on the on the doorstep of them opening this charity. And so she, you know, just sort of dug in and said, I, I’m going to pick partners that I can trust, and we’re going to make schools and, you know, we’re. When I was there in February in, Sierra Leone and they were putting the finishing touches on like number 210 of the schools that she’s built in rural, Sierra Leone.
00:49:43:52 – 00:49:54:59
David Snyder
And so that educates over 55,000 kids, right? Like it’s a gigantic, like it’s a society changing, you know, activity.
00:49:55:03 – 00:49:55:41
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:49:55:46 – 00:50:25:33
David Snyder
And so I, I’m kind of smitten with this, group. Right. And so, next month, we’re going out to the palace back, which is, just south of Sudan, in northern Uganda. Uganda is like the second largest importer of, not an importer, but, you know, receive our, refugees from, the DRC and from, Sudan and, in the back, they’re just walloped.
00:50:25:46 – 00:50:33:45
David Snyder
Right. There’s, over 50% of the kids that, well over 50% of the total population is of school age.
00:50:33:50 – 00:50:34:26
Agent Palmer
Oh, wow.
00:50:34:27 – 00:50:35:00
David Snyder
Right.
00:50:35:05 – 00:50:35:58
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:50:36:03 – 00:50:51:36
David Snyder
And, and then the other kind of key fact is that when they moved to a refugee camp, they’re in for, you know, 15 years or 20 years, like, people don’t leave. It’s not like a temporary thing. It’s home. Right?
00:50:51:36 – 00:50:52:11
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:50:52:16 – 00:51:07:27
David Snyder
And so you need to make, you know, that, like with education, you can actually start to make your way, you know, and, and, you can make your way out of the camp or make your way in the camp.
00:51:07:36 – 00:51:09:11
Agent Palmer
You just make the camp better. Yeah.
00:51:09:13 – 00:51:39:46
David Snyder
And and create, create an economy and and live within that structure. And so it’s, I will say it’s amazing. I’ve been to, a camp in Uganda with this other, charity that I’m on the board of. And, we went to Gulu, which is, another Sudanese, refugee camp. And, you know, if you give people safety, right?
00:51:39:49 – 00:52:08:54
David Snyder
Yeah. Like, nobody’s trying to cut your head off, right? Yeah. And, food. Right. Just enough to eat and enough seeds, some plants, some things to make your way. Right? Yeah. And, a little bit of money so that you can transact in the marketplace. I never heard a single child crying in that camp. Well, not one like.
00:52:08:55 – 00:52:33:17
David Snyder
And it’s not because they beat them because they’re crying, you know what I mean? It’s not. Yeah. It doesn’t. Coercion. Unless they’re really fucking happy. Yeah, right. Because they’re they’re safe. Right. Like it’s a you’re at a level where if, if you are providing a safe place and you’re feeding them then like they’re and that’s, that’s my high mark, right?
00:52:33:24 – 00:52:56:36
David Snyder
Yeah. Then then and then there’s not much to cry about. Right. And so, you know, things like possession, you know, things that, you know, you have to be you have to be careful with these, you know, super vulnerable populations not to like giving is an interesting thing, right? Like you can, you know, it’s like the gods must be crazy.
00:52:56:36 – 00:53:17:21
David Snyder
This, old Peter Yates movie where, you know, a pilot throws a Coke bottle out of the window of his, crop duster. Right. And it changes the society that it lands on, you know? And, you know, and I’m not saying it’s that, but you can see, you know, there’s there’s ways to give and there’s ways not to give, right?
00:53:17:26 – 00:53:24:49
Agent Palmer
All I’ll say is if if this is your being reflexive, we should all be more reflexive.
00:53:24:54 – 00:53:37:10
David Snyder
Yeah. That’s a I like that.
00:53:37:15 – 00:53:56:28
Agent Palmer
David’s reflexive path is not the same as my own, but I can relate to it. It’s not just that you have to be open to things as they come around, but you have to be looking for them. Or at least have your antennae up so that you can identify them when they appear. And that doesn’t mean that everything that comes your way is an opportunity.
00:53:56:33 – 00:54:18:00
Agent Palmer
But as we meet new people, or as we are put in new situations, things will arise and you have to be willing to ask the questions that are necessary. For example, David and I met through a friend named Jim who knew I was in podcasting when the Good Government Show was in its very early pre-production. David and the others in that meeting asked me if I could produce and edit the podcast.
00:54:18:13 – 00:54:43:38
Agent Palmer
I said yes because I could, but they asked the question and I in turn asked questions about expectations and a whole host of other things before I said yes. But the point is, no matter which side of the equation you are on, you can be reflexive about opportunities. But asking questions is an important piece of the decision making process, and for that matter, asking questions is a great way to learn.
00:54:43:43 – 00:55:07:38
Agent Palmer
It’s also a great way to make friends. David and I, while often being many hours or even many time zones or countries apart, our friends. A lot of that started with questions and their corresponding answers, and I’m thankful for that. Always ask questions. Always. Thanks for listening to The Palmer Files episode 85. As a reminder, all links are available in the show notes.
00:55:07:38 – 00:55:33:41
Agent Palmer
And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays. If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can find all related ways to contact myself and David Snyder in the show notes for this episode. You can find more information about the work that David is doing at the Challoner Children’s Charity at C.H., along near charity.com or listen to the Good Government show that David and I work together on.
00:55:33:41 – 00:55:56:57
Agent Palmer
Wherever you were listening to this podcast or at Good Government show.com email can be sent to this show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com. And remember, you’re home for all things. Agent Palmer is Agent palmer.com.
00:55:57:01 – 00:56:04:51
Agent Palmer
You.
00:56:04:56 – 00:56:33:00
Agent Palmer
See?
00:56:33:05 – 00:56:35:23
Agent Palmer
All right. David, do you have one final question for me?
00:56:35:25 – 00:57:00:47
David Snyder
Yes, I do, I, know you as Jason, and, we’ve worked together, and, although work is really you helping me with my, with my NFL Pick’em league and, and, you know, talking baseball, etc.. Yeah. Also college football. You’re very good with college football.
00:57:00:52 – 00:57:02:40
Agent Palmer
It helps to watch a lot of it.
00:57:02:45 – 00:57:27:41
David Snyder
Yeah. In fact, it’s almost imperative. And so it’s sort of like watching, it’s sort of like, oh my gosh, I really want to see Game of Thrones, but there’s like eight seasons of it. Right? And so it’s like so daunting a mountain that I don’t know if I can even start. Right. It’s like Breaking Bad, another one, you know, it’s like, oh my God, it’s a thousand episodes.
00:57:27:41 – 00:57:37:06
David Snyder
I’ll never stop watching. Yeah. You know, but, my question to you is why Agent Palmer?
00:57:37:11 – 00:57:53:35
Agent Palmer
I so the derivative is, is straightforward and, and that’s just simply that, you know, I was very big fan when I started the blog. Originally, I was a big fan, and I had just gotten into the Chris File movie.
00:57:53:40 – 00:57:54:38
David Snyder
Haha.
00:57:54:43 – 00:58:19:18
Agent Palmer
Starring Michael Caine as agent as well as Harry Palmer. Okay, so. And this is the thing, right? I’ve always been in love with the James Bond motif and spies and that kind of stuff. And when I had first started the blog, I needed to. I was working a real job and I was writing for their blog as Jason.
00:58:19:23 – 00:58:40:45
Agent Palmer
So when I started this, I didn’t know if I should be still be Jason Wright and I, I so basically it was just like, all right, I’m going to be Agent Palmer because I didn’t want, I don’t know, maybe there was a part of me that knew enough about IP to not just be like Harry Palmer. So I was like, I’ll just be Agent Palmer.
00:58:40:45 – 00:59:07:54
Agent Palmer
And I thought I had a nice ring to it. And so, I’ve leaned into it. The interesting part is that now, decades on with the blog and, you know, I, I, I didn’t hide it away. Right. If you went to Agent palmer.com/about it was always. My name is Agent Palmer. I’m Jason Sturges. Like I, I never yeah, I never really hit it.
00:59:07:54 – 00:59:33:09
Agent Palmer
But it’s on the about page. And how many people actually click on the about page of a blog. Okay. Very few. But when I started the podcast, that was the real unmasking because it was like, I’m Jason Searcher, also known as Agent Palmer. And this is and I, I, I kind of that was when the mask fully came off and he was like, all right, I’m just who I am.
00:59:33:14 – 00:59:41:54
Agent Palmer
But you’re talking to a guy who’s literally Jason to, like, a handful of people.
00:59:41:59 – 00:59:42:56
David Snyder
Oh, really?
00:59:42:56 – 01:00:07:22
Agent Palmer
So what you got to remember is that for the internet, in the podcast stuff, most of the people know me as Palmer. They know the moniker first. In fact, my Stephanie who lives with me knew me as Palmer first. And like, as I was introducing her to people in my life, he’s like, well, this person no, doesn’t know me as Palmer.
01:00:07:36 – 01:00:31:30
Agent Palmer
Like, they know me as Jason. But my best friend’s name is Jason. He’s a potter and I’m star. So in in that circle, we don’t use Jason because there’s already two. And in fact, if you expand that circle by a factor of one, there’s five. Jason’s boy, one was my roommate, one was a drummer in a band I was in like that.
01:00:31:35 – 01:01:00:52
Agent Palmer
It gets complicated. And then when I was on campus as a freshman, a 17, a very young college freshman, fresh back from my adventures overseas in Jerusalem with my long hair, my beard and my sandals. Wow. They knew me as desert. They knew me as Jesus. Like, that was the nickname. As sacrilegious as it may have been, that was the nickname.
01:01:00:57 – 01:01:03:32
Agent Palmer
And so I.
01:01:03:37 – 01:01:06:09
David Snyder
I don’t think that’s sacrilegious, by the way.
01:01:06:14 – 01:01:36:07
Agent Palmer
And I don’t either. You know, the Jew coming back from the Holy Land, but like, it’s it’s one of those things where I now. I feel like, I don’t care what you call me. I guess, like, I know names are important like that I get. But at the same time, I can stand in a room with five people on the other side and have somebody go, Jesus, Derek, Jason Palmer.
01:01:36:12 – 01:01:37:18
David Snyder
And I can respond to all of.
01:01:37:18 – 01:01:58:55
Agent Palmer
That and I can respond to all of them, and that’s fine. Right? And it’s just kind of like, yeah, it’s not even different phases of my life because there are still people in my life from way back when. So I hear it all the time. I’ll, I’ll be honest, though, I got lucky with Agent Palmer because it’s.
01:01:59:09 – 01:02:01:05
Agent Palmer
I didn’t get sick of it.
01:02:01:10 – 01:02:19:48
David Snyder
Oh, no, it’s a good. It’s a good name. And it’s funny that I, Because it doesn’t. Your your podcast isn’t about. No under the hood governmental, you know, shenanigans or Ipcress Towers. You know, like, it’s not you’re not talking about any of that stuff.
01:02:19:50 – 01:02:51:20
Agent Palmer
No, I, I guess this is, this is ego. Maybe. But, like, I had ten years. Nine years of 8 or 9 years of the blog is Agent palmer.com, and I was I knew I was going to start a podcast and it was it was eventually going to happen. And, I, what I’ll tell you, one of the also rans was the conversationalist, because that’s all we do.
01:02:51:20 – 01:03:11:25
Agent Palmer
I try to I try and stay away from the interview stuff. I try and have a conversation, but it it didn’t work very I didn’t I didn’t like it. I don’t know why. It just didn’t it didn’t feel right. Plus, I’m not separating it from my blog. So you end up with The Palmer Files as the podcast just because I wanted to keep it in in.
01:03:11:28 – 01:03:13:50
David Snyder
The brain, like, espionage kind of realm.
01:03:13:50 – 01:03:38:20
Agent Palmer
Yeah, it’s in it’s in the realm. And that and at the same time, it tells you absolutely nothing, which is what my podcast is. It’s not Seinfeld by any stretch. But at the same time, I’ve had too many different people on to have conversations with that. There is no one common theme. So if I say to you, listen to the Palmer Files podcast, come on the Palmer Files podcast, you go, what is that?
01:03:38:25 – 01:03:54:51
Agent Palmer
I can’t think of another like, well, I show the Jason show, like, I’m sorry. Like there’s no it had to be, just a name and the rest is just in the listening. Right. So keep it on brand, you know, just, keep it on Brandon. That’ll be,
01:03:54:56 – 01:03:56:39
David Snyder
Well, it’s a good name.
01:03:56:43 – 01:04:00:50
Agent Palmer
Well. Thank you. I’m. I’m. I’ve grown into it.
01:04:00:55 – 01:04:10:01
David Snyder
Yeah, well, you know, and it’s a big there’s a big umbrella there to the way you’ve defined it. It’s a big there’s a lot of room to play with.
01:04:10:05 – 01:04:33:26
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I, I’ve, I’ve toyed with I’ve toyed with the idea of video. I’m not against video. I think I could write for it. I think I could, having helped with a movie, I think I can now produce it if I really wanted to, but I, it it’s just there in the periphery. I’m as a creative.
01:04:33:26 – 01:04:36:09
Agent Palmer
I’m content with the writing and the talking.
01:04:36:14 – 01:04:36:23
David Snyder
Yeah.
01:04:36:37 – 01:04:41:07
Agent Palmer
If I feel the need to move on to moving pictures, I know it’s there.
01:04:41:12 – 01:04:43:20
David Snyder
Yeah.
01:04:43:25 – 01:05:09:37
Agent Palmer
And and and it will go where it goes. I the other thing I guess I’ve being reflexive too, in a sense because I’m, I’m out there like I’m out there, you know, and even in your reflectiveness, it’s the people, you know, and it’s the people you’ve met where these opportunities present themselves. It’s, you know, it’s me. Reflective is just you’re talking to the right person at the right time, but you have to know them first.
01:05:09:42 – 01:05:10:49
David Snyder
Right? I agree with that.
01:05:10:49 – 01:05:16:30
Agent Palmer
And I think that that’s it’s kind of where I’m at. And if, if, if some of these things make enough, it.
01:05:16:30 – 01:05:20:06
David Snyder
Be open, you know, you need to be open hearted about this stuff.
01:05:20:19 – 01:05:47:54
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I think that if you also can’t look at everything from like, this is the thing that bothers me the most right now is people always look at it from a monetary perspective. And maybe it’s my privilege showing, but like I immediately go back to I was making a lot of money and hated waking up in the morning and and is is that feeling worth that money.
01:05:47:58 – 01:05:48:25
David Snyder
Right.
01:05:48:25 – 01:06:06:48
Agent Palmer
And I, I don’t think it is. So if if the Palmer brand and my Jason consultancy is my the rest of my career, I’m I, I’ve come to terms with the fact that that’s enjoyable and I will it will get me out of bed in the morning.
01:06:06:53 – 01:06:10:16
David Snyder
Yeah. That’s what it’s all about, man.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).