Re:Building Together EP 327 — People Over Pictures / Let's Chat

Host: CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) with cohost ValerieKates (@valeriekates_) · Fri, Sep 18 2026 · 1:04:39 · 5 speakers

TL;DR

• ValerieKates landed an "intern" spot in the stonk brokers mint and ran the table at an Ape Church poker stream the night before, walking away with close to 500 ape [6:00], [6:53].
• CEELOS learned the hard way that Spaces get auto-recapped — including the joke space he opened on his main account [11:34].
• toomazingTM called in from the car, SLICK RIC from a van headed to the pumpkin patch with wife and four kids, and Pharaoh with a One Piece card connection in Mexico at half US prices [24:35], [30:19], [33:14].
• SLICK RIC shared his recent buys — four Nightshades and Del Mundos, the latter up ~40% on the day after a long slide from $400–500 to around $35 [30:19], [32:05].
• The back half turned into a long, honest stretch about kids growing up, losing pets, Día de los Muertos altars, body image and 90s fashion — the "people over pictures" part of the title doing real work.
• Tomorrow is EP 328: Creation Corner, with a brand new prompt [1:03:08].

Highlights

[6:00] — Val gets hired (sort of). ValerieKates opened with news that she'd been "in the trenches" all morning trying to become an intern and got one: stonk brokers can mint two interns each, and a guy named Kevy — local to Vegas — took her on. Her own assessment: "I really don't know what's happening. I have to get myself caught up on it."

[6:53] — The trap artist. She also streamed poker with the Ape Church team and won almost 500 ape, which she didn't realize at the time — a good thing, she said, since knowing would have wrecked her head. Her style: check, check, let someone build a hand, then take the chips. CEELOS briefly thought she meant she made trap music.

[9:53] — Contributing before buying in. Val is driving to Arizona for the second Scottsdale meetup dinner with Maha, and admitted she still hasn't bought a Frankie or a nibbles. Her approach: interact with a community long before buying in, and contribute other ways — she's been filming the dinners and plans to cut all the footage into one video.

[11:34] — "Only on the burner account now." CEELOS opened a joke space the night before — chat was bullying toomazingTM to open one, so he did it himself with an unserious title — and woke up to a full AI recap of everything said in there. Val's immediate reaction: she's going to go find it [12:59].

[27:22] — The cookie lady situation. toomazingTM, on the road and hungry, mentioned he's seeing his cookie lady today — then admitted he hasn't seen her in three weeks. CEELOS, gravely: "Oh no, bro. She forgot about you." A Dr. Dre lyric followed, then a two-step misfire where Val said Chronic 2001 was her favorite album as a kid and CEELOS ribbed her twice in a row before conceding: "Val can't win."

[32:05] — Del Mundos and handmade clay. SLICK RIC checked his bags mid-drive: Del Mundos up about 40% on the day, after a run that peaked around $400–500 a piece and bottomed near $35. What sold him wasn't the chart — it's that the art is handmade and they posted videos of the process. CEELOS said that's exactly why he's into the playstones too, and noted the artist keeps hinting about "the pigs getting slaughtered" — which is a little alarming when you own a pig.

[34:06] — Dog sitting, unsolicited advice. CEELOS floated that he wishes someone would ask him to dog sit. Pharaoh, deadpan: "Nah, you don't want to dog sit." Then, the simpler solution — "Buy one fool." CEELOS's constraint: wife said no more dogs until they get a house. SLICK RIC is out entirely — he lost a dog once and called it "an unnecessary death you don't want to experience" [34:37].

[37:12] — Grief with an extra layer. That pivoted into the most affecting stretch of the room. CEELOS said what scarred him about losing Snowman wasn't the loss itself but hearing Chrissy crying in the background of the phone call — the dog had been there her entire life. Val shared that they lost two dogs right before moving, and keeps their urns in the alcove by the front door ("I call it the Jesus hole"), where she'll set up the ofrenda this year [38:58].

[50:32] — "She's the hood friend." Samantha, who just turned 13, goes to school in a wealthier neighborhood. While watching White Chicks, she mentioned the Wayans brothers are her friend's uncles. CEELOS googled it. One grandpa is Damon Wayans, the other is Reverend Run. Another friend's mom is a cosmetics CEO; a best friend's dad has a Grammy and worked on "Old Town Road."

[58:45] — Style defense. On seeing posts telling 40-year-olds to stop dressing like they're 16: he's been dressing the same since 1993, the style goes out and comes back, and it's currently back. Which rolled into an origin story about trying to sneak into raves at four foot ten, failing, hating the music anyway, and concluding the girls there were all looking for older guys [1:01:16].

Topic timeline

Notable quotes

• [7:11] ValerieKates: "I trap them on the table. They think they're safe and then they realize oops."
  ▶

  0:38
• [11:34] CEELOS, on the auto-recap: "So only on the burner account now. Holy hell."
  ▶

  0:38
• [34:13] Pharaoh, solving CEELOS's dog problem: "Buy one fool."
  ▶

  0:38
• [37:12] CEELOS: "I think when you mix kids and pets, you know, there's that extra layer, right? Like not only are you mourning, but you gotta kind of see how your kids react to it."
  ▶

  0:38
• [51:48] CEELOS: "What world is my daughter living in? … she's the hood friend."
  ▶

  0:38
• [1:01:16] CEELOS, on raves: "I don't dance. I don't do drugs, you know. What are we doing here?"
  ▶

  0:38

Who said what

• CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) — Host, and the main voice of the episode. Carried long stretches on parenting, grief, memory and fashion, roasted coffee in the background, and kept the door open for anyone to grab a mic.
• ValerieKates (@valeriekates_) — Cohost. Brought the week's wins (intern spot, poker), her philosophy of contributing to communities before buying in, and the episode's most quietly devastating detail about where the urns live.
• toomazingTM (@TooMazing265) — Called in driving, no headphones. Free food on Fridays, Wednesdays and every other day; a cookie lady possibly lost to time.
• SLICK RIC (@richj530) — Six deep in the car heading to the pumpkin patch. Reported on Nightshades and Del Mundos, and explained his no-pets policy.
• Pharaoh (@spade_pirates) — Sourcing One Piece cards in Mexico at half the US price, dog sitting for his son's dog this weekend, and dispensing blunt pet advice.

Worth a full listen

• [36:39]–[45:13] — The grief run: Snowman, Val's two dogs, the ofrenda, and CEELOS scrolling back through old DMs with a friend's daughter until he had to stop. No summary holds this.
• [50:32]–[52:43] — Samantha's friend group reveal, which lands funnier and more bewildered in real time, then softens into a dad realizing his last baby is 13.
• [54:12]–[1:01:16] — Childhood haircuts, body image, being called Skeletor, and the "we invented this style" fashion manifesto, ending at a rave door he never got through.