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135 Back In Black
What happens when your best friend loses her passport in Seville, Spain — and has to spend four extra days navigating police stations, the U.S. Embassy, and a purple temporary travel document just to get home? That's where this episode of The Set List of Life begins.
Kirsten, Leslie, Aaron, and Christine — the bandmates of Dolly 4 Sue — are all back in the same room, and the stories are flying. From a medieval UNESCO town with no rideshare app, to a tiny Lisbon restaurant where Kirsten somehow runs into a girl from her hometown, to the time Leslie accidentally scared an EPA director into thinking she was mob-connected — this episode has no shortage of "you cannot make this up" moments.
Then there's the American Pie revelation. A listener shares a first-hand family story connecting Don McLean's "sacred store" lyric to a real music shop in New Rochelle, New York — and the whole group loses it.
Plus: the live Google rabbit hole that confirms cows genuinely struggle with stairs, how wild turkeys are apparently easy to catch, and why one band member still firmly believes in dragons.
Classic rock fans, road-trip survivors, and anyone who's ever had a trip go sideways — this one's for you.
Subscribe to The Set List of Life for new episodes every week.
Insights- Losing your passport abroad is less catastrophic than you think — if you know the steps. Most people assume it ends a trip. Kirsten's story shows the U.S. Embassy emergency passport process is faster (about 1.5 hours) and more accessible than the panic suggests. The real challenge is the weekend gap — and knowing to file a police report immediately.
- A 50-year-old lyric mystery can still yield new information. In 2026, most people assume everything about "American Pie" has been analyzed to death. The Frank's Music Store story — told from direct family memory — proves firsthand oral history still creates new semantic layers that even the most saturated search topics can't fully capture.
(What the listener can do)
- Before international travel: Photograph your passport, carry your passport card separately, and know the address of the nearest U.S. Embassy. File a police report immediately if anything goes missing — don't wait.
- For road-trippers with kids: Leslie's childhood trauma-by-car-door is funny in retrospect, but the underlying insight is real: setting clear, communicated expectations before a long trip (stops, snacks, bathrooms) dramatically reduces in-car stress for everyone.
(How to think differently)
- Language fluency isn't about grammar — it's about dreaming. Kirsten's realization that she was rehearsing her Spanish explanation in her sleep is a recognized cognitive milestone. Functional survival in a foreign language is often triggered by high-stakes necessity, not study.
- The "coincidence" of running into someone you know abroad says less about luck and more about how small the interconnected world of a mid-sized American social network actually is. Lisbon, a city of 550,000, still managed to put a hometown face two tables away.
- The stories we think are "too small" often contain the most specific, searchable truth. Leslie's nut roll neighbor turning out to be an EPA official isn't just funny — it's a perfect illustration of how our childhood geographies follow us into our professional identities in ways we rarely anticipate.
🎸 Backstage Wisdom"We left for Portugal with a carry-on and came back with a painting, a purple passport, and the unshakeable knowledge that cows can't see their own feet. Growth."
0:00 – Track 1: Welcome Back — Why This Band Picked "Back in Black" as Their Theme Song
2:10 – Track 2: Tids & Bits with Kirsten — The Sound Effect Origin Story
3:45 – Track 3: Lost Passport in Seville — What Actually Happens When You Lose Your ID Abroad
6:00 – Track 4: Dreaming in Spanish — Is This the Real Sign You've Learned a Language?
8:30 – Track 5: The Tiny Town With No Rideshare — When Google Maps Completely Fails You
11:00 – Track 6: Moorish Palaces & Medieval Walls — Discovering UNESCO Sites You've Never Heard Of
13:15 – Track 7: The Bathroom Door Hall of Fame — Road Trip Rules, Childhood Trauma & Why Leslie Won't Pee Outside
18:00 – Track 8: Purple Passport — How the U.S. Embassy Actually Gets You Home (Step by Step)
22:30 – Track 9: "I Know Where You Live": The Time Leslie Accidentally Terrified an EPA Director She Grew Up Next To (While Connected to the Mob Was Involved)
29:30 – Track 10: The Frank's Music Store Story — The True Origin of "The Sacred Store" in American Pie (You Won't Believe This One)
33:45 – Track 11: The Rain, The Restaurant & The Girl From Home — Running Into Someone You Know on a Tiny Side Street in Lisbon
38:30 – Track 12: Library Door Crisis — When Your Whole Day Goes Sideways at Work
42:45 – Track 13: Preschool Story Time & The Art of Doing Voices — Why Effort Changes Everything
46:00 – Track 14: Butting the Line at the Seville Cathedral — Why Americans Get a Bad Rap (And It's Kind of Earned)
48:30 – Track 15: Can Cows Walk Downstairs? The Group Goes Full Google Rabbit Hole Live on Air
53:00 – Track 16: How Do You Catch a Wild Turkey? (Apparently It's Easier Than You Think)
55:30 – Track 17: Year of the Fire Horse, Lizards Spitting Fire & Why One of Us Still Believes in Dragons
- What do you do if you lose your passport in a foreign country?
- How do you get an emergency passport at a US Embassy abroad?
- What is the American Pie song really about? The hidden meaning behind the lyrics
- Can cows actually go downstairs? The surprising answer
- What happens when you meet someone you know in a random place abroad?
View all episodes
By Leslie, Kirsten, Christine, & AaronWhat happens when your best friend loses her passport in Seville, Spain — and has to spend four extra days navigating police stations, the U.S. Embassy, and a purple temporary travel document just to get home? That's where this episode of The Set List of Life begins.
Kirsten, Leslie, Aaron, and Christine — the bandmates of Dolly 4 Sue — are all back in the same room, and the stories are flying. From a medieval UNESCO town with no rideshare app, to a tiny Lisbon restaurant where Kirsten somehow runs into a girl from her hometown, to the time Leslie accidentally scared an EPA director into thinking she was mob-connected — this episode has no shortage of "you cannot make this up" moments.
Then there's the American Pie revelation. A listener shares a first-hand family story connecting Don McLean's "sacred store" lyric to a real music shop in New Rochelle, New York — and the whole group loses it.
Plus: the live Google rabbit hole that confirms cows genuinely struggle with stairs, how wild turkeys are apparently easy to catch, and why one band member still firmly believes in dragons.
Classic rock fans, road-trip survivors, and anyone who's ever had a trip go sideways — this one's for you.
Subscribe to The Set List of Life for new episodes every week.
Insights- Losing your passport abroad is less catastrophic than you think — if you know the steps. Most people assume it ends a trip. Kirsten's story shows the U.S. Embassy emergency passport process is faster (about 1.5 hours) and more accessible than the panic suggests. The real challenge is the weekend gap — and knowing to file a police report immediately.
- A 50-year-old lyric mystery can still yield new information. In 2026, most people assume everything about "American Pie" has been analyzed to death. The Frank's Music Store story — told from direct family memory — proves firsthand oral history still creates new semantic layers that even the most saturated search topics can't fully capture.
(What the listener can do)
- Before international travel: Photograph your passport, carry your passport card separately, and know the address of the nearest U.S. Embassy. File a police report immediately if anything goes missing — don't wait.
- For road-trippers with kids: Leslie's childhood trauma-by-car-door is funny in retrospect, but the underlying insight is real: setting clear, communicated expectations before a long trip (stops, snacks, bathrooms) dramatically reduces in-car stress for everyone.
(How to think differently)
- Language fluency isn't about grammar — it's about dreaming. Kirsten's realization that she was rehearsing her Spanish explanation in her sleep is a recognized cognitive milestone. Functional survival in a foreign language is often triggered by high-stakes necessity, not study.
- The "coincidence" of running into someone you know abroad says less about luck and more about how small the interconnected world of a mid-sized American social network actually is. Lisbon, a city of 550,000, still managed to put a hometown face two tables away.
- The stories we think are "too small" often contain the most specific, searchable truth. Leslie's nut roll neighbor turning out to be an EPA official isn't just funny — it's a perfect illustration of how our childhood geographies follow us into our professional identities in ways we rarely anticipate.
🎸 Backstage Wisdom"We left for Portugal with a carry-on and came back with a painting, a purple passport, and the unshakeable knowledge that cows can't see their own feet. Growth."
0:00 – Track 1: Welcome Back — Why This Band Picked "Back in Black" as Their Theme Song
2:10 – Track 2: Tids & Bits with Kirsten — The Sound Effect Origin Story
3:45 – Track 3: Lost Passport in Seville — What Actually Happens When You Lose Your ID Abroad
6:00 – Track 4: Dreaming in Spanish — Is This the Real Sign You've Learned a Language?
8:30 – Track 5: The Tiny Town With No Rideshare — When Google Maps Completely Fails You
11:00 – Track 6: Moorish Palaces & Medieval Walls — Discovering UNESCO Sites You've Never Heard Of
13:15 – Track 7: The Bathroom Door Hall of Fame — Road Trip Rules, Childhood Trauma & Why Leslie Won't Pee Outside
18:00 – Track 8: Purple Passport — How the U.S. Embassy Actually Gets You Home (Step by Step)
22:30 – Track 9: "I Know Where You Live": The Time Leslie Accidentally Terrified an EPA Director She Grew Up Next To (While Connected to the Mob Was Involved)
29:30 – Track 10: The Frank's Music Store Story — The True Origin of "The Sacred Store" in American Pie (You Won't Believe This One)
33:45 – Track 11: The Rain, The Restaurant & The Girl From Home — Running Into Someone You Know on a Tiny Side Street in Lisbon
38:30 – Track 12: Library Door Crisis — When Your Whole Day Goes Sideways at Work
42:45 – Track 13: Preschool Story Time & The Art of Doing Voices — Why Effort Changes Everything
46:00 – Track 14: Butting the Line at the Seville Cathedral — Why Americans Get a Bad Rap (And It's Kind of Earned)
48:30 – Track 15: Can Cows Walk Downstairs? The Group Goes Full Google Rabbit Hole Live on Air
53:00 – Track 16: How Do You Catch a Wild Turkey? (Apparently It's Easier Than You Think)
55:30 – Track 17: Year of the Fire Horse, Lizards Spitting Fire & Why One of Us Still Believes in Dragons
- What do you do if you lose your passport in a foreign country?
- How do you get an emergency passport at a US Embassy abroad?
- What is the American Pie song really about? The hidden meaning behind the lyrics
- Can cows actually go downstairs? The surprising answer
- What happens when you meet someone you know in a random place abroad?