This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:01] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Today on Support For This Podcast.

[0:03] Chris Ross: The offer was an email, basically a thank you email.

[0:08] Chris Ross: And I waited about a couple hours, didn't happen.

[0:11] Chris Ross: I thought maybe it would be an automatic thing.

[0:12] Chris Ross: And then I waited a couple days, didn't happen.

[0:16] Chris Ross: And I thought, okay, not a big deal.

[0:18] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: We speak to code proofer and reluctant philanthropist Chris Ross, a young man with a harrowing tale of what can happen when you never receive your Kickstarter reward.

[0:27] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And highlights from his time at the likely uncredited Tampa Bay University.

[0:32] Chris Ross: It's a competitive place.

[0:33] Chris Ross: Uh, not a lot of people realize that, but it has a great stripping and architecture are our two great biggest sort of exports.

[0:43] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Join us, won't you? I'm Emily Amy Lauren Becca, and this is Support For This Podcast.

[1:01] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Thank you so much for joining us.

[1:03] Chris Ross: No problem.

[1:04] Chris Ross: Uh, really appreciate it.

[1:05] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Um, now before we get started, I think this will be crucial for our audience. Can you just give us a quick overview of what Kickstarter.com is?

[1:15] Chris Ross: Right. So, um, Kickstarter is basically a platform that allows people to ask people they know for money for projects that they want to make.

[1:25] Chris Ross: Uh, and you can pick from a variety of amount options.

[1:30] Chris Ross: And based on that amount, you get some sort of reward, some sort of prize.

[1:35] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Now, what was the name of the Kickstarter project that you donated to?

[1:38] Chris Ross: It was called The Five of Us.

[1:40] Chris Ross: It's a, it's a TV, it's a web series, I should say.

[1:42] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Wonderful.

[1:43] Chris Ross: Yeah.

[1:43] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And what did you have any kind of personal connection to the project?

[1:47] Chris Ross: Yeah, so, uh, a friend from college, we've sort of stayed in touch, but not as much as we used to.

[1:53] Chris Ross: Um, I just got an email from him out of the blue about a year ago.

[1:56] Chris Ross: And, uh, you know, I always liked him. He was a good guy, and I think he's a really talented guy.

[2:00] Chris Ross: So I said, hey, absolutely.

[2:02] Chris Ross: Um, and, uh, you know, I like to patron the arts as much as I can.

[2:06] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Sure.

[2:06] Chris Ross: And it seemed like a good opportunity.

[2:08] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Wow. And now are you involved in the arts at all?

[2:10] Chris Ross: No.

[2:11] Chris Ross: Um, I've thought about it.

[2:14] Chris Ross: I have sort of occasional daydreams about it, but no, I'm, you know, I'm really boring in corporate.

[2:23] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Yeah. What is it that you do?

[2:25] Chris Ross: Anytime a companies are engaging in any kind of transaction, there's like a lot of um code that is transferred back.

[2:32] Chris Ross: This is really technical and sorry.

[2:33] Chris Ross: I'm boring everyone.

[2:34] Chris Ross: I know, I know, I know, but this is what I do.

[2:37] Chris Ross: Um, and, uh, and I basically proofread the code.

[2:39] Chris Ross: I'm a code proofreader.

[2:41] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Fascinating.

[2:41] Chris Ross: Yeah.

[2:42] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Now, when your friend asked you, did you feel obligated to donate?

[2:46] Chris Ross: Um, I felt sort of a friendship urge to help out, you know.

[2:52] Chris Ross: I felt sort of guilty for having fallen out of touch with him in the first place, and I felt like, oh, maybe this was a good way to reconnect, you know.

[2:58] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Not to get too personal, but what dollar amount did you end up donating to the Kickstarter?

[3:03] Chris Ross: I think I donated fifty dollars.

[3:05] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Fifty dollars.

[3:06] Chris Ross: Wonderful.

[3:06] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Yeah, full of good.

[3:07] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And did you get any kind of offer of a gift for that price point?

[3:11] Chris Ross: The offer was an email, basically a thank you email.

[3:16] Chris Ross: Um, and I waited about a couple hours, didn't happen.

[3:20] Chris Ross: I thought maybe it would be an automatic thing.

[3:22] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Sure.

[3:22] Chris Ross: Uh, it didn't happen.

[3:23] Chris Ross: And then I waited a couple days, it didn't happen.

[3:27] Chris Ross: And I thought, okay, not a big deal, but so if you gave less than fifty dollars, you wouldn't even get a thank you email?

[3:33] Chris Ross: I think the fifty dollars or less was a thank you email.

[3:35] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Interesting.

[3:39] Chris Ross: Yeah.

[3:39] Chris Ross: So you'd be weird, because why would you do fifty dollars if all you were gonna get was a thank you?

[3:44] Chris Ross: You might as well donate a one dollar and then get a thank you email.

[3:46] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: But you, yeah, you weren't doing it for the reward.

[3:50] Chris Ross: Right.

[3:50] Chris Ross: I was doing it absolutely.

[3:52] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And yet, how long ago was this?

[3:54] Chris Ross: This was about a year ago, I believe.

[3:56] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And have you received a thank you email?

[3:58] Chris Ross: I have not.

[3:58] Chris Ross: I have not.

[3:59] Chris Ross: And, um, you know, as time went on, I was expecting to care about it less and less.

[4:03] Chris Ross: The truth is I cared about it more and more.

[4:05] Chris Ross: The absence of this thank you email really started to weigh on me, and I started, you know, I texted my friend, I was like, hey, how's it going?

[4:14] Chris Ross: Just to see if he'd bring it up himself.

[4:16] Chris Ross: He did not.

[4:17] Chris Ross: One thing led to another.

[4:19] Chris Ross: I ended up having sort of a face-to-face with him over lunch about not getting this thank you email, and he seemed genuinely perplexed that I cared so much.

[4:28] Chris Ross: I mean, he first was like, oh, sorry, there must have been a mix-up and maybe the system wasn't working, but I didn't accept that.

[4:34] Chris Ross: I frankly wanted an apology, and he wasn't giving me one.

[4:38] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Now, up until that point, before you saw him face to face, had other things changed?

[4:42] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Were you still liking posts of his on Instagram or retweeting tweets of his?

[4:48] Chris Ross: I used to, you know, he's a very funny guy, and I used to retweet him a lot.

[4:52] Chris Ross: I started to do that less and less.

[4:55] Chris Ross: Um, I eventually muted him on Twitter, did not unfollow him, but I muted him so that he wouldn't show up in my timeline.

[5:01] Chris Ross: And I felt like that was a big step.

[5:03] Chris Ross: I unfollowed him on Facebook but didn't unfriend him.

[5:05] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Sure.

[5:06] Chris Ross: Didn't want to take that drastic a step.

[5:07] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Do you feel like this person needed to do a Kickstarter for their project?

[5:14] Chris Ross: To be frank, he is of some means.

[5:17] Chris Ross: His family is of some means.

[5:19] Chris Ross: Uh, I was surprised that he needed that he felt the need to go this route.

[5:23] Chris Ross: Um, but I didn't question it.

[5:24] Chris Ross: I felt like, you know, maybe he's trying to do it his own way.

[5:27] Chris Ross: You know, he's a struggling artist, you know, he's not rich, so I thought, hey, but no, in retrospect, he could have gotten it from any number of people.

[5:36] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: What did you eat and or drink when you got together face to face?

[5:41] Chris Ross: Oh, great question.

[5:42] Chris Ross: Um, I had a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato.

[5:46] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Mm-hmm.

[5:47] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Were you at a diner?

[5:48] Chris Ross: We were at, uh, yeah, sort of a gourmet diner.

[5:52] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Now let me ask you this. Did you split the check?

[5:55] Chris Ross: We did.

[5:56] Chris Ross: We did.

[5:57] Chris Ross: And not only that, our meals were very different prices, but we split it fifty-fifty.

[6:02] Chris Ross: And I was like, oh fifty, the amount of money that I donated.

[6:05] Chris Ross: I didn't say that at the time, but that's what crossed my mind.

[6:07] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I can only imagine how tense that moment must have been.

[6:09] Chris Ross: It was pretty charged.

[6:11] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: So, uh, why don't you let us know a little bit more about the project and maybe even though you haven't gotten the thank you email, where what you know of its success moving forward.

[6:21] Chris Ross: Yeah.

[6:22] Chris Ross: Uh, the project was, like I said, called The Five of Us.

[6:24] Chris Ross: Uh, it was my friend, uh, have I said his name yet?

[6:27] Chris Ross: No.

[6:27] Chris Ross: Jeff.

[6:28] Chris Ross: Uh, my friend is named Jeff and his four friends who I don't know.

[6:33] Chris Ross: I think he became friends with them since leaving college.

[6:36] Chris Ross: And you know, they're all either aspiring actors or aspiring writers, something very much in the arts.

[6:42] Chris Ross: Um, and it's about their friendship.

[6:44] Chris Ross: Each episode is, you know, the different storylines of each friend and how they interact in the end of the episode, how those storylines sort of converge.

[6:54] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: So not exactly reinventing the wheel.

[6:56] Chris Ross: No, no, but by no means.

[6:58] Chris Ross: Um, but you know, it's a good wheel, and if you can merely copy the wheel, it should be okay.

[7:06] Chris Ross: So I thought you need at least four.

[7:08] Chris Ross: Exactly.

[7:09] Chris Ross: Or two.

[7:10] Chris Ross: Well, one maybe as a spare.

[7:13] Chris Ross: So five.

[7:14] Chris Ross: The Five of Us.

[7:16] Chris Ross: Yeah, exactly.

[7:16] Chris Ross: The Five of Us.

[7:17] Chris Ross: The Five of Us.

[7:18] Chris Ross: I didn't even put that together, I'm sure.

[7:19] Chris Ross: So maybe the idea has more merit than I had given it credit for.

[7:23] Chris Ross: Absolutely.

[7:23] Chris Ross: Um, so yeah, you know, not an original idea.

[7:27] Chris Ross: Um, but I feel I felt like, you know, put the right elements together.

[7:32] Chris Ross: You got yourself a Friends or a Seinfeld, or hey, even who knows, uh, Everybody Loves Raymond.

[7:39] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: May we all be so lucky.

[7:40] Chris Ross: Exactly.

[7:43] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Support for Support For This Podcast is brought to you by this.

[7:47] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: We get it. You're busy straining cashew water through a cheesecloth.

[7:51] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: You don't have time to read and share every important social and political article that fits your brand.

[7:56] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And yet, you need your followers to know that you take social activism as seriously as that baby moon to Nashville last month.

[8:03] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Introducing this.

[8:05] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: This is the revolutionary new app that cuts out the middleman or woman when it comes to posting and sharing the latest news.

[8:11] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: You.

[8:12] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: That's right.

[8:13] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Sign up and answer just a few simple questions as to the social and political persona you want to portray to your followers, and voila, you'll wake up every morning with top stories specially curated for you to post, so you don't have to read them in the first place.

[8:26] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: You can even select how many articles you want to post per week.

[8:30] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: One, two, two times a day for our especially woke participants.

[8:34] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: As you post, use the special drop-down menu to select from a series of already crafted headings, like an important read, worth your time.

[8:43] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I'm not one to usually post stuff, but dot dot dot.

[8:46] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And of course, this period.

[8:49] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And the best part, join the elite membership, and this will go through your online history and sprinkle it with backdated articles to show that you've always been interested in the appearance of social activism.

[9:00] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Not just since November 9th.

[9:02] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Use offer code What Bubble for 10% off your first six months of elite membership.

[9:07] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And for an extra $10 a month, this will automatically sign every petition you get and delete it from your inbox.

[9:14] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: This making the resistance fit more smoothly into your crazy busy schedule.

[9:21] Chris Ross: Did you also feel like on some level that you wanted to give $50 to show your friend, hey, I have $50 to throw away?

[9:29] Chris Ross: Being a code proofreader, um, is not a fulfilling job.

[9:34] Chris Ross: It's not the kind of job that gets me on the cover of People or USA Today or what have you, but, um, and I know that that's something that Jeff very much values.

[9:45] Chris Ross: You know, he's in the arts, he likes that, and so I thought, you know, if I send him $50, which is the maximum amount for merely a thank you email, so it sort of shows how little I care about the $50 because all I'm getting is a thank you email.

[9:57] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Exactly.

[9:57] Chris Ross: I thought if I sent that fifty dollars he would see, you know, maybe I'm not famous but I'm doing better than you and I sort of wanted him to know that.

[10:07] Chris Ross: I again this was not conscious at the time but now that you're bringing, now that you're asking me these questions.

[10:12] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Absolutely. So now this web series, where are they in production?

[10:18] Chris Ross: I believe they're in um, their location scouting.

[10:18] Chris Ross: I say I believe because I've sort of tried to keep my distance.

[10:18] Chris Ross: I felt very hurt by the lack of the thank you email and I sort of tried to cut them out of my life.

[10:29] Chris Ross: The truth is I can't help but sort of keep tabs on where they are.

[10:29] Chris Ross: They're trying to find various, you know, they're according to Instagram, they're trying to find, you know, the place where the coffee shop will be and sure the apartment.

[10:41] Chris Ross: I don't know why they can't just use their own, but right, okay, so Jeff is a college friend.

[10:45] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And remind me where you went to school.

[10:48] Chris Ross: So I went to a school I'm always a little embarrassed to say it because no one has heard of it.

[10:51] Chris Ross: I went to uh, Tampa Bay University.

[10:53] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Oh.

[10:54] Chris Ross: TBU.

[10:54] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: T B U.

[10:55] Chris Ross: Yeah.

[10:55] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Oh, have you heard of it?

[10:56] Chris Ross: No, no, I just said what the letters are.

[10:58] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Got it.

[10:58] Chris Ross: Got it.

[10:59] Chris Ross: Yeah.

[10:59] Chris Ross: That's great though.

[11:00] Chris Ross: Yeah.

[11:01] Chris Ross: Our rivals call us tuberculosis just to mess with us, which I think is rude.

[11:06] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: That must have been terribly unfunny a hundred years ago.

[11:09] Chris Ross: Yeah, exactly.

[11:10] Chris Ross: How insensitive.

[11:11] Chris Ross: But we didn't exist.

[11:11] Chris Ross: We, uh, we actually my first year was two years after the university was founded.

[11:17] Chris Ross: Yeah.

[11:18] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Wow, so it's new.

[11:19] Chris Ross: It's very new.

[11:19] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And did you enjoy your time there?

[11:21] Chris Ross: I did. Um it's a very, you know, it's this it's a it's a competitive place academically.

[11:26] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Really?

[11:26] Chris Ross: Yeah. Not not a lot of people realize that, but it's has a great stripping and um stripping and architecture are our two great uh biggest sort of exports student wise.

[11:37] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Well they need to they need to strip somewhere.

[11:39] Chris Ross: Right, yeah, you can't do it outdoors.

[11:42] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I mean you can, but who would want to?

[11:44] Chris Ross: It's cold.

[11:44] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Although in Florida you could probably have more outdoor stripping than most other places.

[11:48] Chris Ross: That's true.

[11:49] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: That's true, and there is.

[11:50] Chris Ross: So yeah.

[11:52] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Indoor outdoor, maybe decks or um Architecture can be outdoors too, you know, you can make um tents or of course.

[11:59] Chris Ross: How small minded of me.

[12:00] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Exactly. What a good reminder.

[12:01] Chris Ross: No problem. The depth and breadth of modern art.

[12:04] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Depth and breadth.

[12:06] Chris Ross: So your college classmate Jeff um, he asks you through Kickstarter to donate.

[12:12] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Yeah.

[12:12] Chris Ross: Do you think if he had asked you to lunch and asked you directly, do you think you would have been willing to donate?

[12:17] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Yes and no. I mean, on on the one hand, you know, um yes because it's it's it's less confrontational, you know, it's less in your face.

[12:25] Chris Ross: It's not like walking up to you and saying, Give me fifty dollars.

[12:28] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: So I feel less pressured to do it and maybe more amenable to doing it. On the other hand, when you ask a hundred people to give you money, it's very easy to feel a lack of responsibility to do so 'cause you're only one of a hundred people.

[12:40] Chris Ross: So maybe it's maybe it's a better idea to just, you know, hold me at gunpoint. Not actually.

[12:44] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: God forbid.

[12:46] Chris Ross: Exactly. One day.

[12:48] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: No. Well I'm just saying I don't want it to happen, but it might happen one day.

[12:52] Chris Ross: It could, but it hopefully won't.

[12:54] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Hopefully.

[12:55] Chris Ross: Hopefully. Not again.

[12:57] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: When you donated to Kickstarter, did it say um Mr Chris Ross has donated fifty dollars? Were other people did you feel a uh were you compelled to donate because you could see oh my classmate Samantha and oh Tiffany and oh Ron, they all donated.

[13:12] Chris Ross: Right. I can't be the only one who doesn't.

[13:14] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I I think what initially it was was I think I didn't even uh put my name I wanted to be an anonymous donor.

[13:20] Chris Ross: I wanted him to know that it was me.

[13:23] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And so I put in my email so that you know I sort of wanted him to feel like I was doing it purely for him, not to get my name on a list.

[13:31] Chris Ross: You know and so I I made it anonymous. In retrospect uh that sort of haunts me because I want everyone to know that I did donate and that I didn't get the email you know it it sort of brings to light how unjust the response was.

[13:48] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Yeah.

[13:48] Chris Ross: But it also shows in the way that you donated that you wanted him to know that one, you have um extra income.

[13:55] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Yeah.

[13:56] Chris Ross: Two, you don't need the fame and the fortune.

[13:58] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I mean you have the fortune.

[13:59] Chris Ross: I have the fortune. You don't need the fame.

[14:01] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: No, I do not.

[14:02] Chris Ross: The Kickstarter generated right fame.

[14:05] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: And if I'm being completely honest, I think I resented his ability to pursue his dreams.

[14:10] Chris Ross: You know, like I said, code proof rating is not my dream. It's some people's dream.

[14:15] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: But it's not mine.

[14:17] Chris Ross: Now did your friend ask you to spread the word about his Kickstarter campaign through other social media platforms?

[14:24] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: He did.

[14:24] Chris Ross: Um and I did.

[14:26] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Um I don't have a lot of followers on on Twitter.

[14:30] Chris Ross: But I I did tweet uh the link and uh even said, you know, donate to my buddy's uh project with the link.

[14:38] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: That's lovely.

[14:39] Chris Ross: Yeah. Big deal for me.

[14:40] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Now have you checked in with anyone else? Do you know anyone else who's donated? Could you check in and see if they got a thank you email?

[14:47] Chris Ross: I I can and um I think I was afraid to hear the answer.

[14:52] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: You know I was afraid that the answer would be yes.

[14:55] Chris Ross: And so I to avoid the pain I didn't but I wanted to.

[15:00] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Now and when you when you had dinner with with Jeff how did you how did you leave it? Did have you gotten an email since?

[15:07] Chris Ross: No, oh no I don't think I'll ever see him again to be honest.

[15:12] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Um it did not end well.

[15:14] Chris Ross: Um things were said you know to be honest I I don't I don't know that I should have ever been friends with Jeff.

[15:22] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I I think he maybe wasn't the person I thought he was and I think this Kickstarter really brought that out you know it brings out the worst in people.

[15:30] Chris Ross: Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant there it is.

[15:34] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Which I guess kind of has nothing to do with what we're talking.

[15:37] Chris Ross: No it's a it's unrelated but it's also true you know do you ever watch the television show Shark Tank?

[15:42] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Oh I love Shark Tank.

[15:43] Chris Ross: Me too.

[15:43] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Yeah yeah it's great.

[15:45] Chris Ross: Why do you ask?

[15:46] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: That's all.

[15:47] Chris Ross: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[15:48] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: No, I was asking, just kidding.

[15:50] Chris Ross: Yeah.

[15:51] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Chris.

[15:52] Chris Ross: I was asking because when I watch it and they say we're asking five percent equity in our company and we're asking for $175,000.

[16:00] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I never know what that amount totals.

[16:03] Chris Ross: I'm not good at math and I don't choose to figure it out.

[16:07] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Do you know what it is?

[16:08] Chris Ross: No, I um Shark Tank is a great example of a show where I understand basically none of what's going on, but I'm obsessed with everything that's going on.

[16:18] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Absolutely.

[16:20] Chris Ross: Support for Support for This Podcast is brought to you by Mom, what's my password again?

[16:26] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Ever heard of a little issue called cybersecurity?

[16:29] Chris Ross: It seems like everywhere we look, we're reminded that our data is unsafe, and our personal humiliation and financial ruin is just one hack away.

[16:37] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: The best way to protect against such dangers?

[16:40] Chris Ross: Really long and complicated and varied passwords.

[16:43] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: But who has the time, energy, or actual brain capacity to remember them all?

[16:47] Chris Ross: No one.

[16:48] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Except maybe your mom.

[16:50] Chris Ross: That's where the app, mom, what's my password again, comes in.

[16:54] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Download, mom, what's my password again? And never worry about remembering your password again.

[16:59] Chris Ross: Got a new zip car account? Can't remember the new password you made because they have that thing where they say it's weak, and then you add 15 numbers and capitalize random letters and tell yourself you'll just magically remember it?

[17:10] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: You never do, and you won't have to anymore.

[17:13] Chris Ross: Just log on to Mom, what's my password again? Using your fingerprint, and our app will tell you.

[17:18] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Well, it won't be your actual mom.

[17:20] Chris Ross: The answers will sound just like her.

[17:22] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Popular audio clip options include, fine, don't do it. What do I know? Insert password here.

[17:26] Chris Ross: And oh, now you call me back.

[17:30] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: It's insert password here.

[17:33] Chris Ross: Use offer code Emerging Adulthood for 25% off your first month.

[17:37] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Mom, what's my password again? The app.

[17:39] Chris Ross: The only thing more powerful than the dark web might just be a mother's love.

[17:46] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Do you feel like the website Indiegogo gets less attention than it deserves?

[17:53] Chris Ross: It gets less attention for sure.

[17:55] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I think it gets the amount it deserves.

[17:57] Chris Ross: Now finish this analogy. Kickstarter is to soul cycle, as Indiegogo is to.

[18:04] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Bari.

[18:06] Chris Ross: Bari.

[18:07] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Meaning like the bar class?

[18:08] Chris Ross: Yeah.

[18:09] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Yeah, I think the E is silent.

[18:11] Chris Ross: I thought it's I think it's I'm pretty sure it's Bari.

[18:14] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: It's either Bari or Barry, but it's definitely an E.

[18:16] Chris Ross: Well, it shouldn't be either because the word is French and it's not Bari in French.

[18:21] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Well, I'll leave that up to the skinny girls who do that.

[18:24] Chris Ross: Sure.

[18:25] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Sure.

[18:26] Chris Ross: Good thing for it.

[18:27] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Good thing their calves are so exercised.

[18:30] Chris Ross: $37 a class.

[18:31] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Okay, easy does it.

[18:33] Chris Ross: Now, obviously, this has been an upsetting situation for you.

[18:36] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Why did you agree to speak to us about it?

[18:38] Chris Ross: I just wanted people out there who have lost friends over Kickstarter or lost spouses over Kickstarter.

[18:44] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Um God forbid lost children over Kickstarter.

[18:47] Chris Ross: I just wanted people just to out there to know that they're not alone and that um, you know, there's a network of people out there, a network not online that is there for them, you know.

[19:00] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: That's wonderful.

[19:00] Chris Ross: That's beautifully put.

[19:02] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Thank you.

[19:03] Chris Ross: Do you anticipate that you would donate again to a friend's Kickstarter campaign?

[19:07] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Unfortunately, I I think I will.

[19:10] Chris Ross: Um Yeah.

[19:13] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Great.

[19:14] Chris Ross: Um, now, not to get too personal, but are you currently in a monogamous relationship?

[19:19] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Oof, that is personal.

[19:21] Chris Ross: Um I I'm not.

[19:23] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Uh I was recently broken up with.

[19:25] Chris Ross: Um I'm so sorry.

[19:26] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Oh no, absolutely. That's not your fault.

[19:29] Chris Ross: Not that I know of at least.

[19:30] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Um what happened?

[19:32] Chris Ross: You know, uh, we wanted different things.

[19:34] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Um I I'm at the office a long time and and she wanted someone who was be around more and and um Maybe an actor who's unemployed.

[19:45] Chris Ross: Yeah, honestly, you know, and and what I was gonna say was I think m maybe this this Kickstarter was a way to reconnect with someone at a in a moment of my life when I was feeling pretty pretty alone and and pretty sad and uh And how long ago was this?

[19:58] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: This was two years ago.

[19:59] Chris Ross: So it it's been a while.

[20:00] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Sure.

[20:01] Chris Ross: Um I'm still not over it.

[20:02] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Now now let's just say hypothetically, let's say when when the right next, you know, lady does come along, um or gentleman.

[20:11] Chris Ross: Uh lady.

[20:12] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Lady, sorry.

[20:12] Chris Ross: Um or gentleman.

[20:14] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Oh.

[20:15] Chris Ross: No, a lady, but you know, it I I guess I was trying to say that I like that you said or gentlemen.

[20:19] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Oh, sure, sure.

[20:20] Chris Ross: But for you personally.

[20:21] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Per personally at this point.

[20:24] Chris Ross: So when the next, you know, uh person to fill your heart um comes along.

[20:30] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Let's just say hypothetically they asked you um to participate in a Kickstarter of their own.

[20:36] Chris Ross: How would you feel? And at what point in the relationship would you have to get to to feel safe?

[20:41] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Yeah.

[20:41] Chris Ross: To trust that you could do that.

[20:44] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I it would take a while.

[20:46] Chris Ross: It i you know, because of this experience, it would take me some time.

[20:50] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I would hope that I could be maybe an admin on the on the Kickstarter page itself so that I wouldn't feel the responsibility to to sort of you know, to pardon my French, but to poop where I eat, you know.

[21:03] Chris Ross: I would hope that I, you know, it could be a co-managed page.

[21:07] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: That's beautiful.

[21:08] Chris Ross: Yeah. I hope that we could have and then, you know, next step is is is baby.

[21:12] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: You know, after that.

[21:13] Chris Ross: Right.

[21:14] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Well, if you can have a Kickstarter together.

[21:16] Chris Ross: You can pretty much do anything.

[21:18] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: If the world could have its own Kickstarter.

[21:21] Chris Ross: Yeah. What do you think it would be?

[21:24] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I would hope it would be to raise money for world peace.

[21:28] Chris Ross: But my heart tells me it's to it's to watch cat videos.

[21:33] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: To sort of finance your fantasy cat videos and and watch them.

[21:39] Chris Ross: Well, thank you so much for joining us.

[21:41] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Thank you.

[21:41] Chris Ross: This was great.

[21:42] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: This was great.

[21:43] Chris Ross: It's been informative.

[21:44] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Yeah.

[21:44] Chris Ross: Couldn't have had a better guest.

[21:46] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Okay.

[21:46] Chris Ross: Okay.

[21:46] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Well easy does it.

[21:47] Chris Ross: I uh And you are you're single.

[21:49] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I am single.

[21:50] Chris Ross: I I'm married.

[21:51] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: You're married.

[21:52] Chris Ross: Great.

[21:53] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I'm so overwhelmed right now.

[21:55] Chris Ross: Thank you.

[21:56] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Since recording this podcast, Chris Ross has assured me that he's still single and hoping not to get mugged.

[22:02] Chris Ross: Again.

[22:03] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: Find him online at Chris Ross dot TBU dot EDU slash alumni.

[22:09] Emily Amy Lauren Becca: I'm your host Emily Amy Lauren Becca. Thanks for listening. And as always for supporting support for this podcast.