83. We're Back! 2025 Recap & What Comes Next

**Calvin Rosser** (0:03)
It's time to get back to work.

**Steph Smith** (0:05)
Recap our ups and downs and sideways.

**Calvin Rosser** (0:07)
We've been scurrying all around the world.

**Steph Smith** (0:10)
I've always just had this little bit of FOMO.

**Calvin Rosser** (0:12)
This is so unequivocally worth the extra money.

**Steph Smith** (0:16)
When I was growing up, that was a shit ton of money.

**Calvin Rosser** (0:20)
I've surfed 147 days. I've spent almost 300 hours in the water. I've caught 1,600 waves.

**Steph Smith** (0:27)
I've spent around a month of my life playing Blitz Chess.

**Calvin Rosser** (0:30)
All of a sudden, a wave comes behind me and slams me. All I feel from there is I go underwater, my head hits the reef, and then I feel the nose of my board snap. Rash guard is all cut.

**Steph Smith** (0:42)
I don't know if you ever told me this story.

**Calvin Rosser** (0:44)
The highs and the lows of life come all in this one moment.

**Steph Smith** (0:48)
We're heading in to the rough patches.

**Calvin Rosser** (0:50)
The ultimate debate, are we the grandmas and grandpas, or are we the spring chickens with time?

**Steph Smith** (0:55)
You're navigating the smile curve.

**Calvin Rosser** (0:59)
Welcome back to the Shit You Don't Learn in School Podcast. This is Calvin Rosser.

**Steph Smith** (1:03)
And this is Steph Smith.

**Calvin Rosser** (1:04)
And today we're going to be bringing the pod back with a little bit of a recap and a preview of what's to come for this upcoming season.

**Steph Smith** (1:17)
All right.

**Calvin Rosser** (1:19)
All right. Steph, it's been 330 days since we last published an episode. That's not a full year, so I think that's pretty good, and I think it means our podcast is still active. But it's time to get back to work. We've been screwing all around the world. We've been hibernating at home in San Francisco. We've been doing all kinds of things, thinking about some stuff, not thinking about other stuff.

**Steph Smith** (1:40)
Everything but podcasting.

**Calvin Rosser** (1:43)
Well, we've been thinking a little bit about podcasting, but now it's time to actually get to business.

**Steph Smith** (1:49)
Speaking of business, we have several categories that we have put together that are going to recap our year, recap our ups and downs and sideways and all the things we got to do in. And also we'll tee up a bunch of the topics that we want to go deeper on.

**Calvin Rosser** (2:05)
It's a little bit of a teaser, if you will.

**Steph Smith** (2:08)
A teaser. Okay, first category. What is something from the last year that you, Calvin Rosser, did not see coming?

**Calvin Rosser** (2:15)
I didn't think you were going to take another job. This was supposed to be our year before Children, where at least the way we planned it was we were going to take some epic trips, and you were maybe for the first time in your life going to take a sabbatical from work. We were going to have at least six months. Go back to Bali like you've been asking me to do for years. Live the dream, digital, no matter around the world, and get a taste of that sweet, sweet freedom. And then in April, you took a job when an opportunity came up, and that made the year a little different than I expected.

**Steph Smith** (2:52)
I also had that as my thing I didn't see coming because earlier this year, I was feeling a little tired from my last job, and my husband comes to me and he goes, Steph, you've been working really hard the last 10 years, a whole decade. You haven't taken a single break, and now is your time. We want to have kids, so take this really important time. Let's go. Take time off work. We'll go to your favorite place. Bali? Okay, let's go. We'll move there. We'll digital nomad again. You don't have to worry about time zones. You can eat your amazing smoothie bowls every single day. You can exercise in beautiful Bali gyms, and we got nothing to worry about. And somehow, I said no.

**Calvin Rosser** (3:43)
Well, you said maybe for a long time, but then you said no and you joined a company. What did you do, Steph? What did you do?

**Steph Smith** (3:52)
You're bringing me back to this picture-painted, that for some reason I said no to. But yeah, I guess I decided that I wanted to work for this company that I'm now leading growth at called Grok, Grok with a Q.

**Calvin Rosser** (4:07)
Wait, is that Elon Musk company? Grok, like the AI thing?