The Subtext: Paradise Got Renewed! Let’s Talk About Nuclear War!

**Lee C. Camp** (0:00)
Hello, Savannah. Welcome to our show.

**Savannah Locke** (0:03)
Welcome to our show, Lee.

**Lee C. Camp** (0:04)
How are you today?

**Savannah Locke** (0:05)
I'm doing great. I'm just thinking about what I'm going to get into this summer.

**Lee C. Camp** (0:11)
What are you going to get into this summer?

**Savannah Locke** (0:13)
That's what I'm trying to create some sort of adventure.
So I'm going camping this weekend for a friend's birthday. It's my first time sleeping in a tent.

**Lee C. Camp** (0:21)
Really?

**Savannah Locke** (0:21)
I don't know if I'm going to like it.

**Lee C. Camp** (0:25)
Well, I look forward to hearing that story.

**Savannah Locke** (0:27)
Are you a camper?

**Lee C. Camp** (0:29)
No, I've camped a few times in my life, but no, I would not call myself a camper.

**Savannah Locke** (0:33)
On the ground?

**Lee C. Camp** (0:34)
Yeah.

**Savannah Locke** (0:35)
How did it feel?

**Lee C. Camp** (0:37)
I felt stiff when I got up each time. I have recollections of being wet and recollections of being cold, and recollections of, as I said, of being very stiff when I get up in the morning.

**Savannah Locke** (0:52)
Yeah. I mean, the only way to know is to try.

**Lee C. Camp** (0:54)
That's right.

**Savannah Locke** (0:55)
I'm just going to give it a try.

**Lee C. Camp** (0:56)
I wish that I had learned to do that kind of stuff well when I was younger, but it's okay.

**Savannah Locke** (1:06)
Because there's a bougie form of it.

**Lee C. Camp** (1:08)
Yeah. But there's also just people who know how to do it well, that's not bougie, but they invest in the equipment, but they develop certain skills and habituation around that that make it very viable for them. And I never learned all that.

**Savannah Locke** (1:24)
Yeah. I'm also completely skillless.

**Lee C. Camp** (1:26)
Are you going with someone who knows what they're doing?

**Savannah Locke** (1:28)
Yeah. It's for my friend's birthday. And she said that she knows that this is not my strong suit. And so she's going to bring me everything I need.

**Lee C. Camp** (1:34)
Oh, that's great.

**Savannah Locke** (1:35)
So all I need to bring are clothes and water shoes.

**Lee C. Camp** (1:39)
Well, that's great.

**Savannah Locke** (1:40)
And I'm going to give it away.

**Lee C. Camp** (1:41)
I might do it more if I had people who would say, just come along.

**Savannah Locke** (1:44)
So true. I know the dream.

**Lee C. Camp** (1:46)
We'll have you a little mat, you know, a thin mattress underneath your sleeping bag.

**Savannah Locke** (1:51)
Lee, what are you doing this summer? Do you have anything planned?

**Lee C. Camp** (1:54)
Well, you know, I'm entering into my, what I've decided is my third season of life. And I'm thinking.

**Savannah Locke** (2:02)
How many are there?

**Lee C. Camp** (2:03)
Well, I'm suspecting there's three for me.

**Savannah Locke** (2:07)
Lee, you're not that old.

**Lee C. Camp** (2:09)
Well, let me explain real quick.

**Savannah Locke** (2:10)
Okay, go ahead.

**Lee C. Camp** (2:12)
So I just quit my job as a professor, 27 years being a professor.
And so one day I was walking at Percy Warner Park, thinking about it, and I was doing my little gratitude list thing of 27 years. And then I started feeling a little kind of down in the mouth and negative, poor, pitiful me thinking, because I was thinking, I'm stepping away from this. It's been my identity for 27 years. I'm 59 Oh, Lee, you're a has-been. You have nothing else to contribute to the world. And so I was running down that route for a bit. And then I thought, wait a second, 27 years? My father is 27 years older than me, and he's had 27 really good years.
And then I thought, wait a minute, it was 27 years from the time I started kindergarten to the time I finished my PhD. And I started 27 years of being a professor. And so it's like, okay, this is my freshman year of my third season of life. Here we go.

**Savannah Locke** (3:08)
I actually kind of love that.

**Lee C. Camp** (3:09)
So it changed my attitude completely and I feel a lot more excited now. It's like, okay, what are you going to do with this third season of life?

**Savannah Locke** (3:16)
You're in 27 year increments.

**Lee C. Camp** (3:18)
Yeah.

**Savannah Locke** (3:19)
What happens if you go longer than in another season?

**Lee C. Camp** (3:21)
Then it's just even more bonus.

**Savannah Locke** (3:23)