The Case for Not Panicking

Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money. Oh, this thing's a life on free. But you can get up to the present.

From cool global headquarters, this is Motley Cool Money. It's the Motley Cool Money Radio Show. I'm Chris Hill, and I'm joining me in studio this week for Million Dollar Portfolio. Jason Moser, Simon Erickson, and Matt Barcussinger.

Good to see you as always, gentlemen. It's the all-MDP team. It is the all-MDP team. Let's wrap up the show so you get back to actually running that service.

We've got the latest earnings from Wall Street. Former marketplace radio host Tess Vigland is our guest this week, and as always, we'll give you an inside look at the stocks on our radar. But we begin with the market in general as the S&P 500 fell more than 5% this week than NASDAQ falling more than 4%. And Jason, we talk all the time about how we're long-term investors.

We like to view these opportunities as that buying opportunities. But I got to be honest, it's a little hard to concentrate when it seems like everyone on Wall Street is freaking out right now. It does. It seems like everybody on Wall Street is freaking out.

I mean, we talked about this earlier in that, you know, when in good times it's very easy to feel great about things, and you're happy, go lucky, you're portfolio's going up, and every day is a green day. And we talk about sort of that beef green, even others are fearful, sort of, bromide that Warren Buffett loves to espouse. And we do it to a degree, but it's easier to set it to none, I think in many cases. And I think this really goes back to making sure we understand what we're investing in.

We're talking about this, you know, just as a team here. The less you understand about a business, the more emotional you're going to be in conditions like these. When the market is selling off and everything's going down, you look at those businesses that you don't really know a whole heck of a lot about. You say, oh my God, why did I just invest in this?

I just don't know what they do. I don't even know what they do. I got to sell. I just got to get out of here.

You know, I understand. I mean, we invest in things that maybe we don't understand, and we really shouldn't do that. So I think it's really a good lesson learned here is make sure that you understand what you're investing in before you actually do it. And I think that's the time when I think you investors become investors.

You know, everyone's an investor, I think, when the market's going up. You know, all your buys that you made six months ago, and once they're all in the green, you're feeling great, and you're putting more money to work, and everything seems to be coming up roses. But this is how you react to situations like this, when your favorite companies are really getting hit hard. What you do, the kind of emotional state that you get yourself in, I think that's when you become an investor.

Because if you can take advantage of these opportunities smartly, you know, I think like Chris said at the beginning, we love to buy on dips. We think that's a good strategy over time. Sometimes, you know, it's good to stand back, be calm, steady-handed, and say, okay, the market's pulled back a lot, my companies are down a lot. But be smart about what you're adding to.

Don't necessarily rush in. I was going to say Simon, I mean, if you go on a case-by-case basis, then it probably becomes clear pretty quickly that not everything is automatically a buying opportunity. Yeah, we shouldn't downplay the fact that there are risks on a company by company. It's not saying that the sell-off is completely unwarranted in certain cases.

We're just saying make a list of those in advance so you know what to look for for each of these companies. I think the big opportunity is seeing a disconnect between strong operational performance and herd mentality that just price pushing down the stock prices in mass. Yeah, I just say one more thing. And this was somebody on Twitter this morning hit me up with a, I think it's a really good piece of advice.

And so I want to make sure I give credit here that's Twitter handle is at DR973. And he said, I've learned the hard way to only check my portfolio when the market is closed. And that way I can't make knee-jerk reactions and hashtag long views. So this is a guy who I think sees investing the way we do.

And I think that's actually a very good piece of advice because it is easy to go in there during the market hours and see all of this red and again become more emotional and make sort of a knee-jerk reaction. I think that's a neat way to check yourself and make sure you keep from acting too sort of hastily. Now let's also put this weekend, some kind of context. I mean, this is kind of the biggest correction we've had in a while.

I think the Dow is certainly negative for the year. I know the S&P 500 I think is also negative for the year. So it's a bit volatile out there. And of course that's what we've been waiting for.

That really hasn't happened in a while. It seems like forever we've since we've had a meaningful pullback like this one. So it's certainly something we decided about to take advantage of. Absolutely.

And when you take the broader view, you look at the bull market run that we've had now in year six. But then you also factor in what's happening in China, what's happening in Europe, how it continues to be sort of sluggish. I mean, this has been sort of expected for a while and now we're sort of seeing it. Let's just go around the table real quick as we wrap up here because as you said Simon, you want to look for the companies that have strong operations, etc.

There have to be those stocks out there that each one of you look at and you're just sort of shaking your head saying, OK, I get that this is down off its highs, but I just don't really think it should be trading as low as it is or it should have fallen as far as it is. What's a stock that not necessarily you're saying buy on this dip, but you are sort of shaking your head at how far it's fallen. Well, I think the market is risk off right now. So any companies that are investing in themselves or spinning heavily have been punished, especially in the last couple of months, coming on my radar is Baidu, which is the analog to Google over in China.

They've got a huge market opportunity. I think it's been a little unfairly punished and it's taking advantage of the time to gain market share. Jason, right in line there with what Simon said, as far as the market being sort of a risk off, I think that's right. I think when you look at businesses like LinkedIn, that's one that's caught my eye.

It's down 22% for the year. We obviously had a very strong reaction during the last earnings quarter, but I think when you look down the road here, I mean, this is a business. They're really the only ones doing what they're doing. And I think there are a lot of catalysts there for them to grow.

I think they're continuing to build out a presence in China, which is encouraging. They've grown that membership that the member base up to 10 million plus. And I still think that acquisition of Linda.com is going to pay off big time. But when you look at their cash flow statement, virtually all the cash they're making, they're reinvesting back in this business today.

But I think there's plenty of room for optionality there. I think multiple future, so to speak, with this company. So I think if you can take the long view, this is certainly one to keep your eye on. One that stands out to me as one of my largest personal holdings is Mercado Libre.

It's lost almost a third of its value so far this year. It was trading at 150 just last fall. And here it is just over $100 a share. And I think certainly it's leading a commerce company in Latin America.

There's a lot of volatility in emerging markets. Simon mentioned Baidu. I get that. But if you look at all the internal metrics of this business, item sold, registered users, transactions over their payments, I mean, it's growing by leaps and bounds.

It's just been sort of overshadowed by the foreign currency issues and the political economic situation in Latin America. But wow, I look at it as an opportunity and certainly it's come down a lot. All right, let's get to the earnings this week and we will start with the big box. Retailer shares of Walmart hitting a 52 week low after Second Quarter profits came in lower than expected.

Targets Second Quarter profit and revenue higher than expected shares up ahead of the market this week. Mattie Walmart is bigger, but Target sure is looking stronger these days. I think with Target, well, both of these companies, I mean, if you look at the revenue for the sales for both of these companies, they're kind of flatish year over here. But I think what Target has at Walmart does is I think Target has a little bit of a better experience.

They've got better customer service. They've invested in themselves and their e-commerce platform more than Walmart has. I think Walmart's playing a little bit of catch up here. The shocking thing for me about Walmart was the US sales were up 5%, comms were up a little bit.

International sales fell almost 10%. A lot of that is due to foreign currency changes. I've always questioned whether Walmart is truly a brand that can travel abroad. I just don't know if they can really cut it there.

Their e-commerce sales were up 16%, which is nice, but coming from the small base that's coming from, I'm not very impressed. I mean, I certainly think they lowered earnings guidance for the year, making a lot of investments in customer service. I think that's overdue. They're paying their employees more, and that's way overdue.

I think they're investing a lot of e-commerce platform, which to me is far too little and a decade too late. So if I look at Walmart, 14 times earnings, not very excited about that one, Target I think is a little bit better situation. The comms are growing better. They've invested themselves better, but even Target at 17 times earnings.

I can't get excited about these big box retailers even at the lower prices of the area now. Although you do have to give it up for Brian Cornell, who wraps up his first year as CEO with Target and let's talk about 30% during his first year. Nice spot to be in. Nice spot to be in.

Now, I guess shareholders are just hoping he has a really good sophomore season. Second quarter profit and revenue for the gap were about what Wall Street was expecting earlier in the month of the parent company of Old Navy and Banana Republic had lowered its sales and earnings guidance for the government. And Jason, when I look at this, I don't know. It's not great, but I really was expecting it to be worse.

Maybe we could just say it's solid. That seems to be sort of the word for the season. I think it was a decent quarter. I still kind of wonder if they shouldn't even think about changing their name to Old Navy because I mean, Old Navy really is the story here.

We were talking over the week about the challenges that fashion retailers like Gapface versus your discount retailers that are much less tied to sort of a brand name and sort of what that brand means to consumers. I mean, we know that those brands can go out of style faster than you can say pantsuit. And so if that's the case, you see these margins getting hammered, they have to cut pricing and the business is really really take a hit on the profitability. Now with Gap, I mean, I like the fact that they have a number of different ways that they can make their money and that they have Gap, they have Banana Republic, they have Athletic.

But really Old Navy, as I said, continues to be the story here. They've picked up over a billion dollars in their market share over the past three years. And I think that's set to continue because it is really a value that I think consumers, they value that proposition that Old Navy offers. I think they've witnessed a lot of trouble in the Banana Republic and Gap side in their supply chain, being able to get sort of up-to-date fashions out in the stores quickly and being able to sort of change as their consumers' tastes change.

Now they're really working hard on improving that supply chain. And ultimately, that's what we want to pay attention to over the course of the next couple of years in regard to Banana Republic and Gap. They continue to do okay as far as e-commerce sales, about 15% of overall sales. But again, I think we really need to see material improvement in the Gap namesake before we can really see this stock in the better days.

Let's move on to Home Improvement, shares of Home Depot hitting an all-time high this week after strong second quarter results. Low second quarter profit, higher than a year ago, shares up ahead of the market this week. So Simon, some nice indication of what's happening in Home Improvement, but it seems like once again, Home Depot's got the edge. Yeah, both solid results.

This is a good time to be a do-it-yourself retailer in America right now. One employment's about 5.3%, so there's more discretionary income at play for people to spend. And then the housing market's been very strong, too. We saw the number of new housing starts in July, the fastest-paced in the last eight years now.

So this is great if you're a company like a Home Depot or a Lowe's. As you said, Chris, I think at Home Depot it's just been crushing it a little bit more than Lowe's for the last couple of years. We saw both of them report same-store sales that were higher than expectations, both a greater than 4% year-over-year in comparisons. And Home Depot's actually about 5.7% of the US where we mention those macro factors at play.

So I think Home Depot's got a higher operating margin. If there's something a little bit less on overhead and a little bit more, and a dividend, that's my favorite of those. Up next, Sporting Goods, a few stocks on our radar. Stay right here.

You're listening to Motley Fool Money. I don't have my mother's mind. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. So don't buy your stocks based solely on what you hear.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Chris Hill here in Studio with Jason Moser, Simon Erickson and Matt Argersinger. Second quarter profits for Dick's Sporting Goods came in higher than expected. The company also raised guidance, and Jason, that's the one-two punch we love to see, but shares down on Friday despite all of that.

Yeah, well, the guidance raised was just very marginal. It went from a range of $3.12 to $3.20 to a range of $3.13 to $3.21. So it was basically a penny on the range side there. It was a decent quarter.

Same sports sales were up 1.2% versus 3.2% a year ago. But I think the biggest challenge of the Dick's Sporting Goods face is today. And the reason why the market isn't gaga over these results is, you know, when you consider the forward guidance, and then we look at the big players in sporting apparel and equipment, your underarmors, your Nike's, even the D is to a degree. We see how they're growing their direct-to-consumer businesses, and they're really doing a phenomenal job of it.

This really takes a lot away from why Dick's Sporting Goods exist in the first place. And so, you know, we've seen them, you know, trying to establish some, you know, better relationships with underarmor and Nike, try to get some of their new equipment out there in Dick's Sporting Goods stores first. But they're also building out more of their own private label brand, which is good. I mean, that's going to help them, at least on the margin side, and it's going to give people a reason to consider going there, albeit for more of a value proposition, and they may not possess certainly that same kind of brand power that underarmor and Nike possess.

But, you know, we'll look at inventory here. I mean, inventory is outpacing growth here. Sales grew about 8%, inventory is at 14%. You don't really like to see that.

That's a sign we might see some margin trouble here down the road. So, one worth keeping an eye on. I'm not sold at these guys. They're necessarily out of the woods, though.

Have they named their own, their white label brand? I mean, I'm just trying to think what the brand could be from the audience. I don't know. Dick's, you know, Dick's underarmor.

Radio at full.com is our email address, email from Gary Carr in Oakland, California, who writes, as one of your dozens of listeners to the radio show on your Market Foolery podcast, I'm often left with this question. Given how often you talk about restaurants, aren't you all hungry during and after every show? Yes. Chipotle, Bojangles, Shake Shack, Taco Bell, and let us not forget the man behind the glass Steve Broido's favorite, Olive Garden.

They seem to come up every other day, or perhaps this is all product placement, and these companies, thanks to Alison Southwick's PR Magic, are sending over free samples in return for the mentions. If that's true, she's truly firing on all cylinders. Don't you think? Reveal the secrets, please.

Boy, I would love to say that we're getting free samples in exchange for all this, but no, that is sadly not the case. We're just Gary. We're just hungry. We're just hungry.

And in the case of our man behind the glass, there's just a great deal of affinity for Olive Garden. Speaking of our man behind the glass, let's ring in Steve Broido as we get to the stocks on our radar this week. He'll hit you up with a question. Matt, your up first.

What are you looking at? Sure. I'm looking at now, Inc. and tickers DNOW.

This is a supplier and distributor of things like Pikes, Vals, tools, mainly for the oil and gas industry. In fact, I think it's safe to say, guys, we're really early into the oil and gas space. We saw in the spring where oil prices were, we made some investments, and now was one of them. Here, we have a company that's trading really at its all-time low after being spun off from National Oil, a little while back.

And I just think when oil and gas prices rebound, which they certainly will, this is one you might want to take advantage of. Steve, question about now, incorporated? Is it possible that oil and gas may not rebound for another 10 or 20 years? It seems like it's going on forever.

Wow. Well, 10 or 20 years, I would say no. They will definitely rebound before then. But the question is, is the next year or two years, three years, that is the ultimate question.

I think we're seeing a lot of drillers continue to drill even at these low prices, particularly from Middle East. So it is an open question. Jason Moser, what are you looking at? Sure.

Going back to the well here on Wayfair.com. That's what I talked about before, but they are a home furnishings e-commerce platform with brands like Wayfair, Johnson Main, all modern, Duel Studio, Birch Lane. They had a really solid quarter here and solid, really, in fact, least solid for us. I think we saw the stock really pop 30 plus percent over the course of the next couple of days at the release.

That was a little bit of a short squeeze going on there. There's about 34% short interest before the earnings release. But this is basically a logistics slash customer service play as they connect the suppliers all around the country with customers all around the country. They play into the logistics side of it, getting those goods to their customers and very, very customer service oriented.

They see orders from repeat customers up to more than 56% and they see record growth in new customer ads. I think it's interesting because there is a firm out there known as Citron who apparently is not so enamored with this company. They're going to come out with some short research apparently soon. It may be an interesting opportunity sooner or later.

So keep an eye on it. And the ticker is simply W. Steve, would you buy furniture that you've never sat on? I just have a chip to your home.

Would you be comfortable with that? Hey, if they have a friendly returns policy, Steve, I'll buy anything online if I haven't sat on it. Simon, we've got about a minute left. What are you looking at?

Chris, I'm going to get Amberrella. Ticker is AMBA. This is a perennial favorite of ours at Rule Breakers. They're creating the systems on a chip for high definition video.

They are powering the GoPro cameras, which have been selling fantastically well for the last year for action sports enthusiasts. But they're really a crucial part of this move to high definition video. Everything that I've seen from Facebook and video, GoPro and a bunch of other companies is at HD Video. It's going to be a very big trend.

Amberrella is a crucial part of that. I think that today's market cap of $3 billion in opportunity. Steve, can all this stuff just happen on my iPhone at some point? If you're carrying it around for action sports, yes.

But the other thing they're getting into is security cameras and a whole bunch of other opportunities to it outside of just sports cameras. I don't think that phone cameras are going to be participating as much as you think Steve. Alright guys, thanks for being here. Coming up after the break, a conversation with former Marketplace radio host, Tess Vigeland.

Stay right here. This is Motley Fool Money. Nothing quite as wonderful as money. There is nothing quite as beautiful as that.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Chris Hill. Whatever you do for a living, imagine being one of the best. Not just where you work.

Imagine being regarded as one of the very best in your profession in the entire country. Now imagine quitting your job with no idea of what you want to do next. That is what Tess Vigeland did three years ago. A long time host from Marketplace radio, she walked away from the anchor's desk and began a journey she shares now in her new book, Leap, leaving a job with no plan B to find a career in life you really want.

Tess, good to finally have you on Motley Fool Money. Chris, it is entirely my pleasure. I don't know why you didn't ask me a long time ago, but I'm glad we finally got around to it. Let me ask the question that I know you've fielded many, many times before, but seriously though, what were you thinking?

I remember three years ago reading the news online that you were walking away from Marketplace radio and just thinking, I don't know what's going on there. Well, a few things were going on. First of all, I was in a workplace that just wasn't working for me anymore for various reasons that I've declined to go into in public. Second of all, I know this is going to be very hard for you to imagine, but I've been covering business and economics for more than a decade, personal finance for six years.

I was a little bit sick of it. Again, I know you cannot fathom that yourself, but it really was something where I just felt like I needed to do something different, but the problem was I didn't know what that was. I didn't know how to translate my skills. I didn't know if I wanted to stay in journalism or radio or wanted to go do something entirely different.

I did what you were never ever, ever, ever supposed to do. I quit without having something else lined up. Yeah, that is the thing that you hear all the time. No matter how old you are, certainly when you get your first job right out of college, you hear that all the time.

Well, look, if you're going to leave, make sure you have another job lined up before you quit whatever your current job is. But one of the things that struck me reading your book was the fact that the people closest to you in your life, your husband, your parents, they were instantly and unfailingly supportive of you. But as you write about in the book, not only is this not nearly as comforting as one might think, but you admit that on a certain level, you kind of don't believe them when they say no. We don't think you made a mistake.

Why was that? I think that we are also inculcated with this idea that we have to stick with things. Even if maybe they're not perfect with us. We have to have this linear trajectory in our careers.

We have to do it the way we've always been taught to do it. So when I didn't do that, when I basically went against the crowd, I went against the grain, I was sure that everyone was just think I was bonkers. I thought I was bonkers. I wondered if there was something wrong with me.

And so when my family, when my friends all immediately expressed support, and essentially the only things I heard were, oh, you're so brave. And boy, I wish I could do that. When inside, I was just telling myself, your bananas, you have just committed career suicide. It makes it really hard to believe anybody else.

It makes it hard to listen to anybody else. And I think our friends and family always want to support us. So automatically my thought was, oh, they're just being nice. Because I would say the same thing to somebody.

Oh, you'll be fine. Good for you. You're doing what you need to do. But inside my head, it was the opposite.

And I just, I couldn't really believe I couldn't absorb what everybody else was saying, which was that, you know, you've been doing this for a long time. You're an adult. You'll figure it out. And we're not worried about you.

Well, as I said, my first thought upon seeing the news that you were leaving was, you know, what is she thinking? But my second thought was, well, you know, someone's going to hire her in a heartbeat. But one of the things that you get in the book is, and you end up meeting people who have done the exact same thing as you, seeking out these people. And one of the things that comes up is that, yeah, it's great to have the support of family and friends.

But if you're going to make this kind of leap, you actually need to find sort of a new circle to help you. Yeah, this is a piece of advice that I would really encourage people to start thinking about. And, you know, even if you really love your job, you never know how long it's going to last. You never know what is going to happen in your workplace, in your industry.

It's always good to at least have something in the back of your mind. Even if you don't have a actual plan B, you need to think about what would happen if it went away. So one thing that I think is really valuable is, you know, we hear this word networking all the time. And I think it's a very squishy idea, you know, yeah, talk to people who are in your industry and get to know people.

I think it's actually much more valuable to see if you can really spend some time asking people what their work life is like. So you're not just trying to meet people for the sake of making connections and people who might introduce you to someone at their company. You really want to get a sense for what their work life is like and what their life is like outside of work. You know, I had thought maybe I would go do something entirely different outside the realm even of journalism.

I'm, I love gardening and I thought, well, what if I, what if I really just sank my hands into the dirt and became the master gardener? And I think if I pursued that, the really smart thing would have been to go see if I could spend a couple of days with someone who does that. For a living. So not just go and meet them for coffee, but I think a lot of people are open to having you spend time with them.

You just have to ask. And I think it's really wise to do that so that if you do decide to make a radical change like that, you have a much fuller sense of what that's going to mean for you, for your work life, for your life outside of work. You're listening to Motley Fool, money talking with Tess Vigland, her new book is Leap, Leaving a Job with No Plan B to Find a Career and Life You Really Want. You say right off the bat in this book, like, look, this is not 10 steps to quitting your job, but you do offer practical tips for anyone who's thinking about self-employment.

Things like dealing with expenses, taxes, etc. I think for me, the most challenging part of something like that would be setting up a daily schedule. What was the most challenging part for you? That was a challenging part for me.

I thought that I would just set up a daily schedule and I would be able to stick to it. And apparently I'm not that kind of person. So that did not work for me. It might work for some other people.

And you have to find what works for you. The biggest challenge for me, believe it or not, Chris, was managing my money. When you've spent your entire career salaried, or at least with a very regular income, it's really tough to figure out how you're going to make it work when it's irregular. Especially in the first six months to a year where you're not even sure what kind of work you're going to get.

You maybe don't have any regular contracting work, freelance work, that sort of thing. And you don't know how long you're going to be independent. It's really scary to look at the quick account and say, I don't know when the next thing is going to come. But I worked through that.

I'm a smart gal. I figured it out and it wasn't easy. But it is a challenge. And I think when you haven't had to essentially drum up business for yourself, it is something that is new and different.

And that's the biggest challenge that at least I faced. And you know what, the different people will face different challenges. But that was a big one for me, which is so full of irony. Right?

What the fact that you hosted a nationally syndicated show about money and your biggest challenge was handling money? Yeah, I think that's... I know you talked to a lot of different people when you were writing this book. I'm curious if making this type of leap is...

And I'm sure it's challenging for anyone to matter their circumstances. But I'm wondering if it is slightly easier for people who are younger. I'm just thinking mainly about millennials. But do you get that sense as well?

Absolutely. I think that people of a certain age, I'm in my mid-40s. I think even people in their 30s and certainly people older than me, have grown up with this notion of what your work life, what your career is supposed to look like. And again, it's this very linear idea that you figure out what you want to do even before you pick a college and in college you study that.

And then you get a job out of school and then you get a better job after that and get a better job after that. But you keep going on a career ladder. That's what our parents did. That's what our grandparents did.

But I do think that's changing. You know, the millennials are all... They're staying in their jobs like two years at the most. So for them, quitting is no big deal.

For them, leaping from one idea of a job into another is not something that prompts an exuberance. For those of us who are a little older, it does. And I think part of that is because we grow into an identity. You know, for me, it was...

I had been a radio person for 20 years. And that's who I was. That's how I identified myself every time I met new people. When I didn't have that, I didn't know who I was anymore.

And we're getting into kind of squishy psychology now. But it does really come into play. You know, I would say that was... The money was a very practical challenge for me.

But I would say the larger kind of 30,000 foot challenge for me was figuring out who I was outside of what I did for a living. It's not something that we, especially here in America, really think about a lot. It's the first thing we talk about when we're with people is what we do. And I hope we change that because I think that we are all much more than what we do for a living.

But I do think that there is a generational shift going on. A, millennials... I don't think they see their job as the entirety of who they are to a much greater extent than when I was in my 20s. And B, they're just much more comfortable with change.

And I'm not sure why that is. I'm sure some social psychologists would have some ideas on that. But they just... It's no problem for them to think about, well, you know, if I'm not liking what I do, I'm going to go over here and try this and see how that works out.

For people like me in their mid 40s, it just sounds crazy. But I'm really glad that that's changing because variety is good. And I love that there's a generation coming up that does not believe that work is the only thing that's important about you. Coming up more with Tess Vigland.

Stay right here. This is Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Chris Hill talking with former marketplace radio host Tess Vigland this week.

You have interviewed hundreds of authors throughout your career. Now that you've written your first book, any newfound sympathy for those authors? What do you know now about writing a book that you didn't know a year or two ago? Oh man, I didn't know anything about writing a book.

And as a journalist, I'm sure you will relate to this. I was so used to daily deadlines, weekly deadlines, and I'm a procrastinator. So journalism is perfect for me because it forces me to get things done. I had a year to write the book.

And I procrastinated and procrastinated. I mean, I had other work to do, so it's not like I was sitting around doing nothing. But having that year-long deadline was weird. And I did not handle it very well.

So that was one thing. If I ever wrote another book, which I don't think I will, I'm one and done for me. But if I ever did write another book, I would force myself to get a little more of it done a little earlier. Pretend like I had only three months to write it.

That's what I need to do. I need a three month deadline for a book. It was crazy. I also had no idea.

I probably shouldn't say this publicly if I'm going to anyway. How stuck in the 90s publishing is, I had to send word documents back and forth to my editor. This 72, 73,000 word book that I've written went back and forth in a word document. I thought for sure that they would have some sort of shared server that we could use, or maybe Google Drive, but they don't.

That's not the only way in which they're kind of old, old school. You're saying the book publishing business is not on the cutting edge of innovation in this? I know this is a shock to everyone, but yes. Before we wrap up with a round of buy, seller hold, I know you're not retiring, but reading your book, I cannot help it reflect on some of the stories that you have covered throughout your career.

Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan in the 90s, certainly 9-11 when you were in Boston and the financial crisis of 2008, 2000, 90s. When you think back, is there a story that stands out or has any sort of special meaning for you for any reason? You know, it's so funny. I'm surprised that this popped into my head.

No one has actually asked me that. I did a story in 2000, I want to say 6, so it would have been a couple of years ahead of the actual financial crisis. It would have been a couple of years ahead of Lehman, maybe it's 2007, where I went to Central California, and it was just the beginning of the housing crisis. And there was this town where I walked in and it was essentially a suburb in the middle of nowhere, right on I-5.

And I walked around the neighborhood with this family that had gone into foreclosure, but was still basically squatting in their own home because there weren't enough people working in the Sheriff's office. And the mortgage department to kick them out. So I went and visited them and they walked me around their neighborhood with one child and a stroller and the other playing ball around us. And we walked through this neighborhood that was essentially just for closers everywhere.

There were a couple of houses where there were people, but the rest of them had overgrown lawns, some of them had windows that had been broken out. And it was the first time I really started to get a grasp of what might be going on. And that story has stayed with me ever since then. That family has stayed with me ever since then.

I wish I'd followed up with them to know where they are now. But seeing that subdivision out in the middle of, I mean literally in the middle of California, just south of Sacramento, was terrifying. And I wish that we had all paid more attention to those warning signs because they were everywhere. I think the news media really fell down on that whole story.

And that was a lesson for me because our job is to observe and to report. And I don't think we did enough of that. Alright, let's wrap up with around. Bicellar Hold, they have one of the worst records in all of Major League Baseball, but of course, Hope Springs Eternal.

Bicellar Hold, the Boston Red Sox making the playoffs in 2016. You're cruel. You know I'm a Red Sox fan, but I'm going to say sell. I'm a Red Sox fan.

You're hurting my feelings. Come on. They can turn it around. Worst of first, right?

No, you can't. No. Alright, let's move on. Last weekend in Los Angeles County, four different cities experienced record high temperatures.

Bicellar Hold, living in LA. Bye. I still love it. I think the temperature is actually the least of our worries.

We're going to run out of water in a year, but I still love it. It's a great place to live. This celebrated group has been a cultural influence for five decades and even coined their own word in the Oxford English Dictionary. Bicellar Hold, the comedic stylings of Monty Python.

Oh, so I don't get it. I think you're in the minority on that one. Come on. They got their own word.

Python-esque. I mean, you can't beat that. I don't laugh. I never laugh.

Finally, I know you're fans have asked this because even I am getting questions from listeners on this topic. Bicellar Hold, Tess Viglin, returning to radio as a full-time host one more time. Oh. Hold.

That'll have to do. The book is leaving a job with no plan B to find a career in life you really want. It goes on sale August 25th. So check it out.

Tess Viglin. Thanks so much for being here. It's entirely my pleasure, Chris. Thank you.

That's going to do it for this week's show. Our engineer is Steve Royno. Our producer is Mac Greer. I'm Chris L.

Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.