Southern Charm fan favorite and author Shep Rose joins us at Mall of America to talk about his memoir, Nothing in Moderation: A Psychedelic Reckoning With Excess. Shep shares what inspired him to tell his story and reflects on his journey toward recovery, self-discovery and a more intentional life.
We also look back at more than a decade of Southern Charm, including the friendships, relationships and unforgettable Bravo moments that have shaped his experience. Plus, Shep talks Minnesota State Fair adventures, meeting fans in person and which Bravo series he would join for a season.
1:35 Shep introduces himself as just a guy from an island in South Carolina
3:00 How outdoor sporting, hunting and fishing became part of his life
5:15 Thoughts on the Minnesota State Fair, and what to eat there
10:30 About Nothing in Moderation, how it came about and lessons learned
25:30 All about Southern Charm, favorite memories and stories
Visit: https://www.sheproseofficial.com/
https://www.bravotv.com/southern-charm
Guests: Shep Rose, author, actor, celebrity
Hosts: Daniel Jasper, Ashley Hofmann (Bravo TV Superfan)
Presented by Bloomington Minnesota Travel and Tourism the official destination marketing organization for the city of Bloomington, Minn.
00:00 --> 00:04 Mall of America. It's home to world-class shopping, great dining,
00:04 --> 00:08 and amazing attractions and events. And these are our stories presented
00:08 --> 00:12 by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism. Welcome to So Much More. I am
00:13 --> 00:16 your host, Dan Jasper. It's nice to have you back again. I am joined by
00:17 --> 00:21 my colleague, my friend, Ashley Hoffman, leasing director and a dedicated
00:21 --> 00:24 Bravo superfan is what I understand. And today
00:24 --> 00:28 we have a very special guest, Shep Rose. Shep is
00:28 --> 00:33 a longtime fan favorite of Bravo's Southern Charm. Some fans.
00:34 --> 00:37 Okay, not all fans love him, but many do, right?
00:37 --> 00:40 Even secretly. Everyone's great. Shep's in Minnesota.
00:41 --> 00:44 He's going to make an appearance later today at Mall of America to do
00:44 --> 00:47 a special book signing for guests. And he spent some
00:48 --> 00:52 time this morning at the great Minnesota get-together, the Minnesota State Fair. So we're
00:52 --> 00:56 gonna learn all about that as well. We're gonna talk about his new book,
00:56 --> 00:59 which is Nothing in Moderation: A Psychedelic Reckoning with
00:59 --> 01:03 Excess. And we're also gonna talk about Southern Charm. We're gonna talk
01:03 --> 01:06 about his life. Life, his expectations, what he looks forward to,
01:06 --> 01:10 and we're going to dig deep and just have fun. Shep, welcome to the show.
01:10 --> 01:13 Thank you so much. It's nice having you. And Ashley, welcome to you as well.
01:14 --> 01:16 Thanks, Dan. Happy to be here. What's it feel like to be a big fan
01:17 --> 01:20 and having Shep here? I'm going to start with her. Is that okay? Oh,
01:21 --> 01:24 you're going to ask me a question? Yes. I mean, it's exciting. People have been
01:24 --> 01:28 stopping by my office all day. Oh, cool. Yeah, I've been told that. I've walked
01:28 --> 01:30 by her office several times and everyone's in there. What are you going to ask
01:31 --> 01:35 him? What are you going to— it's so wild because I, um, I hope this—
01:35 --> 01:38 I'm not, I'm not, uh, being humble for the sake of being
01:38 --> 01:42 humble, but I, I just always view myself as
01:42 --> 01:46 just a guy from an island in South Carolina. Like, I just—
01:46 --> 01:50 it's so— it tickles me when people are like excited. I'm like, really? Me?
01:50 --> 01:53 Like, why? But that's
01:54 --> 01:57 honestly— it's a testament to the power of Bravo and the power of TV
01:58 --> 02:01 in general, which is a double-edged sword, isn't it? Like some of
02:02 --> 02:05 these people that we think are,
02:05 --> 02:09 you know, oh my God, they're on TV, like back down a little
02:09 --> 02:13 bit. They might not be the best people. You know what I mean? Like let's
02:13 --> 02:16 look at teachers and, you know— Some of the heroes in society,
02:17 --> 02:20 right? Yes, primary care physicians and things like that. Absolutely,
02:21 --> 02:24 I love that attitude. Before we dig deep into your book and into
02:24 --> 02:27 the show, let's talk a little bit about your time here in Minnesota. Have you
02:28 --> 02:31 been to Mall of America before? No, I've never been to Minnesota. The airport.
02:32 --> 02:35 Okay. It's a lovely airport. It's a great airport. And I, and it's,
02:35 --> 02:39 um, I've been through on my way to Alaska because I'm
02:39 --> 02:42 a big Delta guy and this is like a huge Delta airport.
02:42 --> 02:46 And, um, I'm leaving on Friday morning to go
02:46 --> 02:50 back to Alaska to meet my dad and brother and cousin and some other friends
02:50 --> 02:53 to go fly fishing for salmon and rainbow trout and
02:53 --> 02:56 other things. And outdoor sports and fishing and stuff has been a big part of
02:57 --> 03:01 your life, hasn't it? Yeah, it has. My grandfather And
03:02 --> 03:06 grandmother had 2 acres. It was ancestral
03:07 --> 03:10 in Boykin, South Carolina, which their name was Boykin.
03:12 --> 03:15 King George III granted the land. I was hoping you would get to that.
03:15 --> 03:19 1700s. And so it's,
03:19 --> 03:23 yes, the outdoors was a very big part of my upbringing and
03:23 --> 03:26 hunting and fishing and things like that. And so you get to go back to
03:27 --> 03:29 Alaska and enjoy some of that. Oh, I'm so excited. The lodge is so lovely.
03:29 --> 03:33 It's called Tikchik Narrows. And it's
03:33 --> 03:37 beautiful and remote. And we've gotten to be
03:37 --> 03:40 friends with the owner and the guides. And so it's like a big
03:41 --> 03:44 happy family. Sometime maybe bring them back to Minnesota,
03:44 --> 03:47 especially Northern Minnesota. Yeah, it's beautiful. But I think we have more fishing
03:47 --> 03:51 licenses per capita than any state in the country. Yeah. Big fishing state.
03:51 --> 03:55 Yeah, this guy named Mitch, he works for
03:55 --> 03:58 Outdoor Channel, or he did. I still think he does.
03:59 --> 04:02 And we went to Saskatchewan to hunt mule
04:02 --> 04:05 deer and big whitetails about a year and a half ago.
04:06 --> 04:09 And he lives here and he's a very nice guy. I think I'm gonna
04:09 --> 04:12 hang out with him a little bit tomorrow, but he was like,
04:12 --> 04:16 you gotta come to the great ice fishing weekend
04:16 --> 04:20 in February. He's like, it's the biggest party, which is like the best way
04:20 --> 04:24 to get me to do anything. And so I'm planning on doing
04:24 --> 04:27 that. I'm gonna return and I have to do this, right? Yeah. Oh, you do.
04:27 --> 04:31 And I bring cameras, maybe not, Braavo cameras, but some cameras
04:32 --> 04:35 get some content. And ice fishing is awesome. First of all, some people
04:36 --> 04:39 deck it out so much, right? They have ice fishing houses that are more like
04:39 --> 04:42 mini castles. It's like a village in LA. And they have TVs in there and
04:43 --> 04:47 bars and everything. But the real— that's what I heard. The real Minnesota ice
04:47 --> 04:51 fisher people sit on a bucket. Yeah. In the middle. Honest to God.
04:52 --> 04:55 I'm not doing that. Okay. Don't do it. I'm going to the palace. Yeah.
04:56 --> 04:59 Take me to the Ritz. It's a little easier, right? Yeah. Four Seasons on the
04:59 --> 05:03 ice. Yeah. As far as being an outdoorsman, I'm, I'm, I don't like roughing it.
05:03 --> 05:06 Right. The, um, talk a little bit about your morning.
05:07 --> 05:10 You spent some time out at the Minnesota State Fair this morning. What did you
05:10 --> 05:14 think about that? Yeah, I'm curious. Yeah, no, it's amazing. I love fairs. I've been
05:14 --> 05:18 going to fairs my whole life. And, uh, as a kid,
05:18 --> 05:21 I mean, I walked in and I saw the arcade and I was
05:21 --> 05:25 like, ah, the kid that lives inside me, which is maybe more prevalent than
05:25 --> 05:29 most people should at my age have. But I,
05:29 --> 05:32 I firmly believe staying young at heart is a good
05:33 --> 05:36 path. But anyway, so I was very,
05:37 --> 05:40 very happy to see all the different foods and the games and
05:41 --> 05:44 the rides. So I was very pleased. Well, I love to hear that you say
05:45 --> 05:48 the get it hard thing, because I saw several people online refer to you
05:48 --> 05:51 kind of as Peter Pan. Yeah. Right? Never wanting to grow up.
05:52 --> 05:55 And you can take that more ways than one, right? Yeah. But you enjoy life,
05:55 --> 05:59 right? I do. I do. And when— and this is a part of
05:59 --> 06:02 being here. Yep. And to a
06:03 --> 06:06 certain extent, Alaska, even though I've been there several times, or I was just in
06:06 --> 06:09 Australia. You become a child when you're in
06:09 --> 06:13 a new place. You're seeing things for the first time, you're processing
06:13 --> 06:16 it, you're stimulated, you're excited, you're meeting people.
06:17 --> 06:21 And you're— it's all very new. There's something about it that really, I would
06:22 --> 06:25 tell anybody to travel and maybe even travel by yourself,
06:26 --> 06:30 because it really Gives you some time to think. It's a different experience.
06:30 --> 06:33 Yeah. What did you eat anything out at the state fair? Oh man.
06:34 --> 06:36 And then I gotta ask what you eat at the state fair, but go ahead.
06:36 --> 06:40 Yeah, I mean, everything's on a stick. It is. Yes, it is.
06:40 --> 06:44 I, uh, I saw— well, I got a pup.
06:45 --> 06:48 Uh, where are the— Pronto Pup. Yeah, the pup. Pronto Pup. A corn dog would
06:48 --> 06:52 have been a better choice, but you're fine. Yeah, really? Oh yeah, there's this big
06:52 --> 06:56 debate. You should have had both. What was the pup made out of?
06:56 --> 07:00 Pronto Pup is wheat flour. Corn dog is chewed in I'm supposed to not do
07:00 --> 07:04 gluten too. Damn it. All right, we're gonna go back. Who's driving?
07:05 --> 07:08 Let's go. Yeah, anything else? And I had a donut,
07:08 --> 07:12 an Amish donut. Those are good. Yeah. And, um, some cheese curds.
07:12 --> 07:16 Okay, so yeah, I'm full. When, uh, when you
07:16 --> 07:20 walked around the fair, did people recognize you? Yeah, I got stopped, uh, like 5
07:20 --> 07:24 or 6 times. Super nice. Everyone's always so nice. Awesome. And then I
07:24 --> 07:28 did a little, um, TV show there. And, um, there was some fans
07:28 --> 07:30 all excited to meet me. And honestly,
07:31 --> 07:36 that's the part that's so cool. Um, the— you're able
07:36 --> 07:39 to make somebody happy, if, if only for a few minutes,
07:39 --> 07:43 but— or a moment. But they have this picture, right?
07:43 --> 07:46 And that's great. I'll pose for a picture. That— how, how painless is that
07:47 --> 07:50 of a request? But that— what that picture does is have a ripple effect
07:51 --> 07:54 because their friends, their, their boyfriends, husbands,
07:54 --> 07:57 you know, everybody's like, get out of here, that's that guy Ah, you see it,
07:57 --> 08:01 you know? Yeah. And everybody, it puts a smile on everybody's face. So I'm,
08:01 --> 08:04 I'm very appreciative of the, um, ability I have
08:05 --> 08:08 to do that. And it's a special gift to them. And it really is.
08:08 --> 08:11 It's a story that they now own. Correct. Correct. It's part of
08:11 --> 08:14 their life, which is— and I, by the way, it'd be a story for me
08:14 --> 08:18 if I ran into somebody that I want, like, oh my God, I saw George
08:18 --> 08:21 Clooney. Or like, of course I'm not that level at all,
08:21 --> 08:24 but you know what I mean. Yeah. I think I, I went to, um,
08:25 --> 08:29 the NBC upfronts at the first few years of the
08:29 --> 08:31 show with Cameron, sweet Cameron. Yep.
08:32 --> 08:35 And there we were amongst these actors and athletes,
08:35 --> 08:38 like Hulk Hogan was right there. I was like,
08:38 --> 08:41 ah. And then the guy from Lost, Sawyer,
08:42 --> 08:45 the bad guy. Yep. I was like, look who's
08:45 --> 08:48 here. Yeah. Thinking he, I was like, he was acting, he was acting,
08:48 --> 08:51 stop it. Yeah. No, I went up to him, I was like, can I have
08:51 --> 08:54 a picture? He could have been nicer. So yes, it happens to all of us.
08:54 --> 08:57 We all are, get excited about, Well, I love that. Fun fact,
08:57 --> 09:01 you may not know this, but when Saturday Night Nitro first
09:01 --> 09:05 happened, it happened here at Mall of America with Hulk Hogan. And in the
09:05 --> 09:08 early years of the mall, Hulk had a restaurant here. Oh,
09:09 --> 09:12 a noodle shop. Yes, actually. Yes. Yes. A pasta shop.
09:13 --> 09:16 Yeah. Carbs. Pasta Mania.
09:16 --> 09:20 Yeah. That is a fun fact. A little-known
09:20 --> 09:23 fun fact. Yeah. He's been here a lot of times. A lot of celebs.
09:23 --> 09:26 None, none as charming as you, I might,
09:26 --> 09:29 I might say. Ashley, I got I gotta ask you quick, have you been to
09:30 --> 09:32 the fair yet this year? No, but I will be there with the team tomorrow.
09:32 --> 09:36 And what are you gonna eat? Okay, so the honey ice cream is my
09:37 --> 09:40 favorite. And I have to get— Martha's cookies
09:41 --> 09:44 I had. Yes. Sweet Martha's cookies. Sweet Martha's are always a must.
09:44 --> 09:48 And I do like deep fried pickles. See, okay, so there was
09:49 --> 09:52 olives on a stick. Yes, I had that too. That is so unappealing
09:53 --> 09:56 to me. It's hard for me to even describe. I don't like olives or pickles.
09:56 --> 10:00 So none of those for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They are like my 2 staples
10:00 --> 10:04 in life. See? Not I. I love
10:04 --> 10:08 it. Let's talk a little bit about the book, please. If you talk about why
10:08 --> 10:11 you wrote it and what it's about and the journey that you took,
10:12 --> 10:15 um, I would love to hear that story because you're gonna be talking
10:15 --> 10:18 about a little bit more later today with some fans here at the mall as
10:18 --> 10:21 well. Um, so yeah, I mean,
10:22 --> 10:26 the show came along when I was 33 years
10:26 --> 10:29 old. And it happened
10:30 --> 10:33 to come along and during a time where I was, well, I went to business
10:34 --> 10:36 school at Vanderbilt and I had a job lined up in Dubai.
10:38 --> 10:41 And then the financial crisis of 2008 happened.
10:41 --> 10:44 All of a sudden I had a business degree, which didn't mean a whole hell
10:45 --> 10:47 of a lot at that time. I mean, people were really running for cover to
10:48 --> 10:51 keep their jobs, especially in the business world and finance and the,
10:51 --> 10:54 and, and real estate development, things that I was studying.
10:55 --> 10:59 So I had a big like, oh damn,
10:59 --> 11:02 what am I gonna do moment or longer than a moment? It was like
11:03 --> 11:05 a year and a half living at home, age 30.
11:06 --> 11:09 And then I worked on something else. It's a long story,
11:09 --> 11:13 but that fell through, which is very frustrating.
11:14 --> 11:17 And then this came along, the show came along. And so all of a sudden
11:18 --> 11:21 I'm 33, by the way, most of my friends have a pretty established
11:21 --> 11:25 career. They're married, maybe they're starting to have kids. They're in their early 30s.
11:25 --> 11:28 Like that's, I'm from the Midwest. In the South, that's probably how they do things
11:29 --> 11:33 around here too. Oh yeah, oh yeah, very traditional. And so I was always gonna
11:33 --> 11:36 take a different path. I mean, nobody ever thought anything different than that,
11:38 --> 11:41 but so here I am and I'm all of a sudden,
11:43 --> 11:45 whatever, famous, notorious.
11:46 --> 11:49 And I'm glad it happened when I was 33, 'cause God knows what it'd be
11:50 --> 11:53 like if I was 20 or younger, these child stars, I really
11:54 --> 11:57 feel for them 'cause it really distorts your world. And with
11:57 --> 12:02 our show, it was about us having fun and cutting up and misbehaving.
12:03 --> 12:07 And so your life after the show,
12:07 --> 12:10 not that, by the way, I'm really good at those things. I'm not acting.
12:10 --> 12:13 You do it well. Yeah. This is the role I
12:13 --> 12:17 was born to play. And so,
12:17 --> 12:21 but I felt like, okay, that's who I am.
12:21 --> 12:25 And of course, people I meet who are fans or whatnot, hey, it's that guy,
12:25 --> 12:29 that's Shots, you know? And this happened for years. And boy, did I
12:29 --> 12:33 have fun. And luckily nobody got hurt,
12:33 --> 12:37 you know, but I skated on a lot of razor's edge
12:37 --> 12:41 and thin ice over the years. And so fast
12:41 --> 12:44 forward to when I'm, you know, 43 or 44,
12:45 --> 12:49 I just got out of a relationship that was, it was tough.
12:49 --> 12:53 And I was sort of searching and
12:53 --> 12:56 in the process of doing that, I was just partying too much.
12:57 --> 13:01 And just, and another part is physiologically, I couldn't do it
13:02 --> 13:05 the way, that's what I learned later. Like I can't process, I can't do it
13:06 --> 13:09 the way I did 20 years ago because I was, I've been pedal to the
13:09 --> 13:13 metal for a long time, you know, and old habits very much diehard.
13:13 --> 13:16 And you still convince yourself that you got this and you don't,
13:17 --> 13:21 and you don't. I found that out later, or I came to that realization later.
13:21 --> 13:24 So I knew I wanted to do something to somehow see the
13:24 --> 13:28 light or get some insight into what's
13:28 --> 13:31 going on with me. Because I was like, man, I'm getting too old for this.
13:31 --> 13:35 So I went and did ayahuasca. My friend told
13:35 --> 13:39 me that I would really like it. She, her name's Bailey.
13:39 --> 13:42 She had done it several times down in South America and had
13:43 --> 13:47 a vision of me one time, which is pretty apropos. She said, I see you,
13:47 --> 13:51 I saw you as an exit guy. And I was like, exit guy? She goes,
13:51 --> 13:55 yes, you're always looking for the exit in a lot of situations. That aren't
13:55 --> 13:59 pleasant. And so I see you jumping from mountaintop to mountaintop
13:59 --> 14:03 and not dealing with the valleys. And I was like, oh, she just nailed me.
14:03 --> 14:07 Yeah, nailed it. Yeah. So I looked into it. I talked
14:07 --> 14:11 to some friends, a Navy SEAL friend especially,
14:11 --> 14:14 and he was like, go here to this place called Rythmia. I think you'll really
14:14 --> 14:18 like it. My wife and I went, you know, it helped me get through PTSD
14:19 --> 14:23 and we really, And it was nice and they've
14:23 --> 14:27 got it all figured out down there. So I
14:27 --> 14:30 looked into it, I signed, you know, I put down my credit card and off
14:31 --> 14:34 I went all by myself. What was,
14:34 --> 14:37 we talked about ice fishing that you wanna go to the palace, not the bucket.
14:38 --> 14:42 The place you went, Rythmia, was also very nice beyond the
14:42 --> 14:46 journey. Yeah. It was a good experience, right? Yeah. Beyond that. Yeah, I mean,
14:46 --> 14:50 they've got it dialed. They've been doing this for 8 years, I think,
14:50 --> 14:51 and they do many weeks per year and so,
14:53 --> 14:56 They've seen it all and they know what—
14:56 --> 15:00 how to prepare you and let— and make
15:00 --> 15:04 you feel at ease as much as at ease as you can before you hallucinate.
15:04 --> 15:07 Right. And it was from what I've read and seen,
15:07 --> 15:11 it was— there were some challenging aspects, but some really rewarding insights,
15:11 --> 15:16 correct? Yeah. You know, I have— I've had quite
15:16 --> 15:20 a bit of experience in psychedelics over the years. I'm a big live
15:21 --> 15:25 music fan and Boy, have I had fun, right? But I
15:25 --> 15:28 think it really helped me. The big thing they say there
15:29 --> 15:32 is surrender and let it happen,
15:32 --> 15:36 let it wash over you, don't fight it. And so I
15:36 --> 15:40 knew that from all my experience. So when things got pretty intense,
15:40 --> 15:44 I was like, okay, it's okay. This is not forever. Just let
15:44 --> 15:48 it happen. And so that was important for me. Yeah. What did
15:48 --> 15:51 you take away from that time? Yeah.
15:53 --> 15:56 Many things, many things. Chief among them
15:57 --> 16:01 was gratitude. Gratitude. I would— how
16:01 --> 16:05 lucky am I? You know, and part of that was the
16:05 --> 16:09 other attendees at Rhythmia sharing. It was
16:09 --> 16:13 a very sharing environment. And I heard some very
16:14 --> 16:17 traumatic, horrific stories of their past and their
16:17 --> 16:21 trauma and their pain. And it made you say,
16:21 --> 16:24 oh my God, my mom and dad were the best. Brother and sister
16:25 --> 16:29 are great friends. Childhood idyllic.
16:29 --> 16:32 And I mean, that's, that's not the norm. Sometimes you think that's the norm.
16:32 --> 16:36 Yeah. Right. And so you're like, oh, well, it's a minor inconvenience. Like, why me?
16:36 --> 16:40 Got it. Which we all still do, you know? Right. But the real why me
16:40 --> 16:44 is, should be reserved for somebody who's really had some terrible
16:45 --> 16:49 things go their way and not by their own fault, just merely
16:50 --> 16:53 by, you know, life. Yeah, life and who they were born to.
16:54 --> 16:57 I learned that from a lot of people. It was
16:57 --> 17:01 my parents. My dad was a common
17:01 --> 17:04 refrain for men and women alike. Like, he was a bad guy. You know
17:05 --> 17:07 what I mean? I'm like, oh shit, we should get a license to have a
17:07 --> 17:10 kid. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, we had a license to get everything
17:10 --> 17:14 else. And some classes. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like, wait, an evaluation.
17:14 --> 17:17 Right? Yeah. We, um, I,
17:17 --> 17:20 I can't remember if I, if I read it or if I heard you talk
17:21 --> 17:24 about it elsewhere that one of the journeys that you took,
17:24 --> 17:29 you, um, kind of pictured yourself on a ride.
17:29 --> 17:32 Yeah. Can you talk about that a little bit? Because we have that in our
17:33 --> 17:37 theme park, by the way. Yeah. You can do it downstairs. Yeah. Oh, that one?
17:37 --> 17:40 We do. Okay. Well, so today when we got to the fair,
17:40 --> 17:44 literally walked into the thing and there's the ride with the swings.
17:44 --> 17:46 I was like, Guys, girls,
17:47 --> 17:51 this is crazy. Like, I mean, look, it's not crazy. We're going to a fair,
17:51 --> 17:54 we're gonna see rides, but it was the first thing that we encountered.
17:54 --> 17:57 And I said that this was in my book. I wrote all about it.
17:58 --> 18:00 And so I took a video of it and put it on and said,
18:00 --> 18:03 if you know, you know, thanks for reading and/or listening.
18:03 --> 18:06 So I think the universe works in interesting
18:06 --> 18:10 ways. And so that was a sort of universe
18:10 --> 18:14 moment that I liked, but yeah. So the vision I had was of a bunch
18:14 --> 18:18 of swings hanging down from a, sort of a fulcrum and they
18:18 --> 18:21 go around and around and everyone's done the ride. It's pretty benign,
18:21 --> 18:25 not too scary. And I
18:25 --> 18:28 had all my loved ones in the swings and
18:29 --> 18:31 having a good time. And then I looked closer and I was the pole.
18:32 --> 18:34 And to me, that meant, you know,
18:35 --> 18:38 this could all collapse if you aren't careful, you know?
18:39 --> 18:42 You have to hold it together. And look, and again, it's not physical harm
18:42 --> 18:46 isn't gonna come anyone's way, but, Their love for
18:47 --> 18:50 me and support for me, I don't wanna challenge that. I want them
18:50 --> 18:53 to be proud of me, you know? So that was, I was
18:54 --> 18:56 really touched by that story and it made me think, 'cause we have the same
18:56 --> 18:59 ride here in our theme park.
19:00 --> 19:02 And I loved how you put yourself because we are at the center of so
19:03 --> 19:05 many different lives. Well, we're the center of our own universe. That's for sure.
19:05 --> 19:09 Yeah, that's right. We all are, right? And that's how we see ourselves. And I
19:09 --> 19:12 loved that the, you said something
19:13 --> 19:16 like the answer's inside me or? Yeah, yeah.
19:16 --> 19:20 There's another thing that happened. The shaman came
19:20 --> 19:22 around to perform her little ceremony,
19:23 --> 19:26 and I was all excited. And she, are you okay? And I said,
19:27 --> 19:30 yeah, I'm okay. And she's like, you are okay, and skipped me.
19:31 --> 19:35 And I was like— Interesting. And I was like, my selfish
19:35 --> 19:39 self, like, ah, I got passed over.
19:41 --> 19:45 I need that little part of that ceremony. Or I want the private ceremony.
19:45 --> 19:49 And so then I thought, it hit me like a bullet between
19:49 --> 19:53 the eyes. Oh, she's saying that 'cause she's implying
19:53 --> 19:57 that I don't need any external stimuli or any
19:58 --> 20:00 special ceremony. It's all right here. And I went,
20:01 --> 20:04 and that was like, bowled me over. And then I went through a really
20:05 --> 20:09 intense session of, you have a blanket,
20:09 --> 20:12 a mattress and pillow, but you can go outside where
20:13 --> 20:15 there's a bonfire and a bunch of hammocks. And I went to the— I don't
20:16 --> 20:19 know why I went to the lawn and put my blanket down
20:19 --> 20:23 and just was, want, want, what do you want?
20:23 --> 20:26 Why do you want? Look how much you have.
20:27 --> 20:30 And just tore myself apart for about 30 minutes,
20:30 --> 20:34 cussing at myself. And I can't tell you much more.
20:34 --> 20:38 I know that my friend there, my now friend, I met him there. He was
20:39 --> 20:42 like, dude, I wish there was something I could do. I was watching you for
20:42 --> 20:45 a few minutes and I was just like, damn, he's going through it. But that
20:46 --> 20:49 was good. To go through that. I had to untie that knot within me.
20:51 --> 20:55 Yeah, I was just gonna say, so my brother does a lot of these medicinal
20:55 --> 20:58 journeys and healing. And like, when he comes
20:58 --> 21:01 back, he's having these profound experiences. Was there like a
21:02 --> 21:03 tough adjustment period when you came home?
21:07 --> 21:10 Yeah. Adjustment, I don't know. They say it's important
21:11 --> 21:15 to do integration, which means you apply and then you actually get
21:15 --> 21:19 some therapy around what you came
21:19 --> 21:23 to find out about yourself and all this. So I
21:23 --> 21:26 came back and I found a therapist that specialized
21:27 --> 21:30 in alternative medicine. And we had a really good session and
21:30 --> 21:34 we started filming like 2 weeks later. And I was like,
21:34 --> 21:38 they were like, oh, really? Well, we'd love to film that. And I texted her,
21:39 --> 21:42 hey, I know this is a little out there, But, you know, can we come
21:42 --> 21:46 film it? And boy, it was an emphatic no.
21:46 --> 21:49 And that was the end of that. That was the end of that. So I
21:49 --> 21:52 should have been better about it. And I say this in the book, it is
21:52 --> 21:55 not a magic bullet. It's not some, you know, pill you can
21:56 --> 21:59 take and you're all better. Like, it's a process. So I'm gonna go back.
21:59 --> 22:01 I'm gonna go back. Yeah. What— soon.
22:02 --> 22:05 Talk a little bit more. Who would benefit most from reading
22:05 --> 22:09 your book? Who do you think your audience is? Who would
22:09 --> 22:12 gain insights from this? Well, it's— I can't—
22:12 --> 22:16 all I know is that when, during the process of me writing
22:16 --> 22:19 it, nearly, I would say,
22:19 --> 22:23 50% of people that I may have been chatting with at
22:23 --> 22:27 a cocktail party or a restaurant, as soon as I brought
22:27 --> 22:30 it up, there was a keen interest. And, hey, hold on, wait, what?
22:31 --> 22:34 Sit down, I want to talk to you about this. Like, I think there's a
22:34 --> 22:38 real healthy curiosity about all this. And I
22:38 --> 22:41 mean, I talk about the trauma that
22:42 --> 22:45 people confront. I mean, I don't have much trauma
22:45 --> 22:48 really. I mean, unless I'm missing something.
22:49 --> 22:53 And they say it can be 10 years
22:53 --> 22:57 of therapy wrapped into a week of taking the medicine. That's powerful.
22:58 --> 23:02 And there's a lot of reckoning going on. So I
23:02 --> 23:05 guess I would say someone who's gone through or been
23:06 --> 23:09 through something to try to find peace about it.
23:09 --> 23:12 That's probably the best idea or one of
23:13 --> 23:16 the ideas that you should explore. But if it's just someone
23:17 --> 23:22 like me and just trying to curious
23:22 --> 23:25 about yourself, curious about the world, and really
23:26 --> 23:29 get to know yourself. And a lot of the times we don't like
23:30 --> 23:33 what we see, so we avoid it or do
23:33 --> 23:37 certain behaviors that make us forget about the things, the ugly
23:37 --> 23:39 things about ourselves. We often keep ourselves so busy so we don't have to.
23:41 --> 23:45 Yeah, look at that. Yeah, and that's what drugs and alcohol are, are masks
23:45 --> 23:48 as well is, and I had that,
23:49 --> 23:52 like, what am I doing here? How am I of value?
23:53 --> 23:56 And so, yeah, if you have any sort of,
23:57 --> 24:00 I mean, it's for people who wanna go below the surface, you know?
24:00 --> 24:03 Yeah, dig deeper. And for a long time, I was just a surface guy.
24:03 --> 24:07 Like, I remember a girlfriend in the past being like, all you wanna do is
24:07 --> 24:09 talk about things on the surface. This is when I was in my 20s.
24:10 --> 24:14 I was like, yeah, 'cause I don't wanna deal with anything else, you know.
24:14 --> 24:17 So this is easier. I like this. I'm good at the surface.
24:17 --> 24:20 Yeah, like, what— how's the weather out there,
24:21 --> 24:24 you know? So we're actually taping this on September 2nd, and I know viewers are
24:25 --> 24:28 going to see this after the fact, but, uh, this afternoon,
24:28 --> 24:31 this evening, you're meeting with some fans here at Mall of America. What are you
24:31 --> 24:35 hoping that they get out of that interaction? I mean, I just hope that people,
24:36 --> 24:39 uh, get people talking and talking about trying to be better and get
24:40 --> 24:43 better and and having your eyes wide open and being
24:43 --> 24:47 curious about the world and your place in it.
24:48 --> 24:52 If you're incurious, I don't really wanna know you. Yeah. Yeah. You wanna
24:52 --> 24:56 dig deeper. That sounded negative. Yeah. No, it sounded real. Yeah.
24:56 --> 25:00 Honestly. Yeah. Or you're doing something very, very wrong if you're incurious about the
25:00 --> 25:05 world. Yeah. Ironically, we're already running out of time, but I wanna talk
25:05 --> 25:08 about it. No, no, no. Let's do some— I'm here for you guys. However long
25:09 --> 25:10 you wanna keep me here. This might be a 2-parter for all we know.
25:11 --> 25:14 That's fine. Yeah. What about, can we talk about the TV show a little bit
25:15 --> 25:18 and your experiences there? And you're kind of an expert. What would
25:18 --> 25:21 you like to know about Southern Charm? Oh gosh, I don't know. I mean,
25:21 --> 25:25 I think my favorite part of the show is that some of the cast members
25:25 --> 25:28 have been on almost the whole time. So, it's fun. You've been on the whole
25:29 --> 25:32 time, correct? Okay. Just like watching the evolution of all of
25:33 --> 25:36 you has been interesting to me. But like, what do you have, like a favorite
25:36 --> 25:39 memory or? Um, yeah,
25:39 --> 25:43 I mean, Whitney was putting the show together,
25:44 --> 25:47 and I met him at a rooftop party on New Year's Eve. I just realized
25:47 --> 25:49 that I didn't know he was like the original creator of the show. Creator,
25:49 --> 25:53 and he casted the show originally, which is a testament to
25:53 --> 25:56 him. He found us maniacs and threw us together.
25:57 --> 26:01 But it was a process. But it was a process finding other cast
26:01 --> 26:05 members who we— he knew right away, I think, when we met at that
26:05 --> 26:08 party. And, uh, And then we went and filmed.
26:08 --> 26:11 We had lunch the next day, and we went and filmed it at my family's
26:12 --> 26:16 farm, a bunch of guys and girls and steaks and shotguns and
26:16 --> 26:20 whiskey. Very Southern. Yeah. Yeah. And so
26:21 --> 26:24 right off the bat, he's like, you're exactly who we're looking for. I was like,
26:25 --> 26:28 who's we? And by the way, I've never even been in a school play.
26:29 --> 26:30 I don't know anything about this. He's like, that's why it's going to work.
26:31 --> 26:35 And he was right. It was— we— my fondest memories are the early ones where
26:35 --> 26:38 we really didn't know what was going on. Yeah. Had a brand,
26:38 --> 26:42 what it was going to be. Nobody had a brand. Nobody had any big aspirations
26:42 --> 26:46 of, uh, grandeur or whatnot. I'm not
26:46 --> 26:49 saying there's anything wrong with that, but like, we were just so innocent. Yeah.
26:49 --> 26:53 And trying to figure it out. We weren't even in the, you know, the Vanderpump,
26:53 --> 26:56 uh, guys and girls, they were all trying to be actors in Hollywood, you know?
26:57 --> 27:00 Yeah. A little bit of a different outlook on things. So, um,
27:01 --> 27:05 I really enjoyed that part of it, the early part. Yeah. Yeah. When you're on
27:05 --> 27:09 a show like that, you're putting yourself out there and people see an image of
27:09 --> 27:12 you. What part of you do you think they didn't see?
27:13 --> 27:16 Right? Because that is a persona. It's funny. I mean,
27:17 --> 27:20 I, it's mostly, I mean, it's me, but,
27:20 --> 27:23 you know, I did a podcast not long ago,
27:25 --> 27:29 actually a few years ago with this gal, Juliette, and we
27:29 --> 27:32 talked about politics, current events,
27:34 --> 27:38 literature, cinema, and all this stuff, she was like,
27:39 --> 27:42 hold on, I had no idea you have this in
27:42 --> 27:46 you. You know the show doesn't really focus on
27:46 --> 27:50 that. And I was like, yeah, I never really thought about it that way,
27:50 --> 27:54 but I'm happy that I have that knowledge
27:54 --> 27:58 or enthusiasms. But sometimes it can be boiled
27:58 --> 28:02 down to just just, um, conflict, or hopefully more than conflict,
28:02 --> 28:05 happiness and joking around. But who are we kidding? It's— we
28:05 --> 28:09 know what sells, I guess. Yeah, it— conflict and fun stuff and
28:09 --> 28:13 craziness, that sells. I know. And I don't want to be— I don't want to,
28:14 --> 28:17 uh— it doesn't come easily to me to,
28:17 --> 28:19 to confront. But, um,
28:21 --> 28:24 honestly, in a way, it's cathartic. Like, if I have a problem with
28:25 --> 28:28 I'm certainly gonna voice it, you know, where in real life you're like, you know
28:28 --> 28:31 what, just put this under the rug. Yeah, brush that under the rug. See you
28:31 --> 28:33 later. Maybe I'll see you down the road. But now you gotta be like,
28:34 --> 28:37 and this is why, you know? And then
28:37 --> 28:41 you open yourself up for the retort, and that's
28:41 --> 28:44 kind of scary too. So yeah, it's all good though. So I had one question
28:45 --> 28:48 that I had several fans ask me to ask you. I'm not certain what it
28:48 --> 28:52 means, but I'm guessing you will, which is how many pieces of furniture
28:52 --> 28:56 have either been broken or spilled on at Patricia's dinner parties?
28:56 --> 29:00 I'd say the dinner parties are always my favorite. Wait till you see this
29:00 --> 29:04 year's. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, there's a little— there's the little tea. Yeah,
29:04 --> 29:08 there's a little tea for next season. Um, the place is like a freaking museum,
29:08 --> 29:12 you know? So antique stuff. Yeah. I don't know where to sit
29:13 --> 29:15 and how to sit, you know? I'm, I'm a bull in a china shop.
29:16 --> 29:19 I think we all kind of are. So several— 5,
29:20 --> 29:23 6, 7 articles. And then one time Um,
29:23 --> 29:27 like a leg of a coffee table was loose and my dog, little Craig,
29:27 --> 29:31 grabbed it like a bone and started running around and we had to chase
29:31 --> 29:35 him. So that was off camera, but that, that happened. Oh, what's your— what breed
29:36 --> 29:39 of dog? It's a French Bulldog. Okay. Oh, fine. He's great.
29:39 --> 29:41 Um, we are going to have to wrap it up because we have to get
29:42 --> 29:45 you ready for your, your appearance here with our fans, and we're so, so grateful
29:45 --> 29:49 for that. If you could give one piece of advice to either
29:49 --> 29:51 people that are going to read your book or or just in life in general,
29:52 --> 29:55 what would you give them? Well, I mean,
29:56 --> 29:58 I always like the saying, tomorrow is promised to no one.
29:59 --> 30:02 And, but that doesn't give you a license to be a
30:02 --> 30:06 maniac, even though that's kind of, you know, like be careful with
30:06 --> 30:09 that one, but also be mindful of it as well. It's very Stoic.
30:10 --> 30:13 Yeah. Oh, I love the Stoics. I do too. I love Marcus Aurelius
30:13 --> 30:16 and all that stuff. Yeah. Okay. And we could talk politics. We could do like
30:17 --> 30:19 3 more episodes. Yeah. Because trust me, I could get there too. I agree with
30:19 --> 30:22 so much of what the, You know, none of this,
30:25 --> 30:29 everything's inside you. Just like I had, like, forget about the
30:29 --> 30:33 world around you to a large degree. You know, make sure you
30:33 --> 30:37 know what's important and who's important and everything else is white noise.
30:37 --> 30:41 And you can't change what happens to you. You can change how you react
30:41 --> 30:45 to it. Well, another, okay, I'm gonna go one more. At Rythmia,
30:45 --> 30:49 they said, life doesn't
30:49 --> 30:51 happen to you, it happens for you. Yes. Yes, so that's very important to remember.
30:54 --> 30:58 Remember. Again, though, you— one could say, well, sorry, I, I,
30:58 --> 31:02 um, you know, screwed you over, but that's just life. But no, that's not
31:02 --> 31:05 a license to do that sort of thing. I agree.
31:06 --> 31:08 Shep, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today.
31:09 --> 31:12 We're honored to have you here and to join us at Mall of America.
31:12 --> 31:15 And thanks for going to the great Minnesota get-together this morning. I love it.
31:15 --> 31:18 I love it. What fun I've had. And come back— when you come back for
31:18 --> 31:20 ice fishing, we want you to come back and visit us. Well, I'm going to
31:21 --> 31:23 stay tomorrow and have it open. I think I'm going to go to Paisley Love
31:24 --> 31:28 it. Yeah, I love that one. You will enjoy that. Yeah. One of our faves,
31:28 --> 31:31 right? Good. Thanks so much. And for all of our fans watching,
31:31 --> 31:35 we wanna thank you for joining us on this episode of So Much More.
31:35 --> 31:38 Special thanks to Shep Rose. Get the book, read the book.
31:38 --> 31:42 Yeah. But just remember— It's funny, it's somewhat insightful,
31:42 --> 31:46 but funny. Like we could all use laughter, right? We need laughter
31:46 --> 31:48 in our world. Thanks, Shep. You're welcome.
31:50 --> 31:53 Thanks for listening to So Much More, a Mall of America podcast.
31:53 --> 31:57 Subscribe wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Podcast. This show is presented by
31:57 --> 31:59 Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism.