3. Discussing Home & Being a MORON

Wherever This Is With Mike Okay

Mike O'Keefe records from the Seven Sisters cliffs, recounting a series of logistical failures involving forgotten gear and dead batteries.

Key takeaways

Mike forgot his camping chair despite specifically planning for it during his trip to the cliffs.
His podcast equipment failed because the AA batteries ran out during the recording session.

Main topics

Logistical mishaps
The meaning of home

Notable quotes

I literally don't know how I travel around the world by myself.

Conclusion

A raw, stream-of-consciousness look at the nomad's struggle to find be

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:10) You are quite literally not going to believe how much of a frigging moron I am. I don't want to start this. I really don't want to start this off on a negative note. By the way, if this wind ruins this podcast. Speaker 1 (0:31) then I'm going to try my best to not care about it. But unfortunately, it's going to be an unlistenable podcast, but I'm not recording it again because this is the third time I've had to try to record this. So I had this idea to come and film this podcast in possibly the most scenic location in all of England. I mean, look at it. That's the Seven Sisters. And they call it the Seven Sisters because... There's seven of them. And apparently a farmer had seven wives and they were all sisters and then they drowned. And then their souls went into those cliffs. Anyway, I came up here. I had the idea to come up here about three weeks ago. And I was like, well, what's the one thing I need? What are the three things I need to do a podcast? Number one, I need a frigging microphone. Speaker 1 (1:28) Okay. And the second thing I need is a camera, i.e. my phone. And the third thing I need is, say it with me, three, two, one, a camping chair. Because everybody needs a camping chair when there is nothing to sit on outside. So I go to my friend, Ollie. He lives in here. I'm staying with him. My best friend, aka business partner, Oliver Lloyd. And I say, Oli, I need to borrow a camping chair because I'm going to go and shoot a podcast on top of the cliffs. And he goes, no problemo, Mike. I've got 14 frigging million of them. in my shed and I go, sweet. So I wake up this morning, I go for a run along this, along the sea. I went for a, just a, just an easy five kilometer run. I was like, I'm going to start my day with a run and then I'm going to clear my head so that when I do the podcast, I don't know how the, how this sounds, the wind could be fucking this entire thing up. When I do the podcast, I'm going to have a clear head. Anyway, I come up to the top of these cliffs. I set up my phone. Speaker 1 (2:44) I set up my microphone and I realize I don't have the camping chair. I didn't get it. I didn't pick it up from my friend's house. So I thought, you know what? I don't need a camping chair. I'll just sit on the grass. I'll sit on the, and the weather, there was no wind. The weather was gorgeous like it is now, but there was no wind. And I lie down on the grass. Let me just check. I'm definitely recording because last time I forgot to press record because I'm an idiot. See, I hate to be so self-deprecating, but I am an idiot. Please, wind. Please, wind. If you ruin this frigging audio. Speaker 1 (3:31) I'm going to throw myself off the top of the cliffs. Anyway, so I lay down on the grass and I'm recording and 18 minutes into my podcast, my microphone equipment ran out of battery. And I didn't really know. I didn't know exactly when it ran out because I wasn't watching it. I just looked down and it was off. And then I found out that the batteries, because it takes double A batteries, the batteries. Also, by the way, who's making a frigging in 2026. Who's making podcast equipment that takes double A batteries? And I hate to rant as well. I'm sorry that this is just going to start off in a bit of a rant. And I don't want to be, it's so easy to rant about stuff. You know, I don't want this to be a ranty podcast, but I just am going to rant about myself. Okay. And then I'm going to rant a little bit about England. So the podcast equipment runs out of battery. And I said, you know what? It wasn't meant to be. Let's go home. And I will. Have some lunch. I will charge my, I will replace the AA batteries. I will go to Tesco's and I will buy new AA batteries and I'll replace them with my podcast equipment. And I will pick up another, I'll pick up a camping chair and we will, and I will drive back here again, about 15 minutes. I'll drive back here and I'll shoot my podcast. Speaker 1 (4:44) And I go home and I take the AA batteries and I replace them in my podcast equipment. And I go into the shed. Ollie goes, there's 14 million camping chairs in the shed. Help yourself. And I pick a bright orange camping chair and I come in and I put it inside the house. I pick up my bag. I go and get in the car. I drive 15 minutes to the car park to where this cliff is. And I get a call from my friend Ollie and he goes, are you serious? And I said, what? And he said, there's a bright orange frigging camping chair. Oh, this wind is going to just suck, isn't it? There's a bright orange camping chair. There's a bright orange camping chair in the house. And I go, fuck. Speaker 1 (5:40) I say, don't worry, Ollie, I'm going to drive back again now and I'm going to pick up the orange camping chair. So I drive all the way back. I pick up the orange camping chair. I get back in the car. I come back. I walk about 10 minutes down to this part of the cliff and I open my bag and I've got my phone. I've got my podcast equipment. I've got my camping chair, but I don't have the stand like the tripod that my phone goes on. So currently my phone is kind of, there's like a little pouch I've got where my microphone goes and I