Re:Building Together EP 255 — WBW on the Waterfront

Host: CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) · Wed, 08 Jul 2026 · ~1:05:08 · 6 speakers (plus a music break)

TL;DR

• A "Way Back Wednesday" episode with no alpha and no market talk — just a nostalgic, no-agenda chat about summers, pools, lakes, oceans and the memories attached to them.
• Host CEELOS is comedically germophobic about shared water ("human soup") but admits he plans to sneak in some knee-rehab laps in his apartment pool if nobody else is around.
• Regional roundup: Baked (@Bakedmetax) on Florida springs, gators and saltwater crocs; Ghostin (@zGhostin) on Ohio creeks; Val (@valeriekates_) bouncing between California and Texas; Slick Ric (@richj530) calling in live from the car en route to a water park.
• Everyone shared a near-drowning story to close the room out.
• Community housekeeping: SoCal meetups floated for the 18th and 25th, and CEELOS previewed the week ahead — AI news Thursday, People Over Pictures Friday, NFT banner prompts Saturday (Creation Corner), collectibles Sunday.

Highlights

[5:07] The premise. CEELOS opens episode 255, dubs it "the realist space in all of web three," and sets the Waterfront theme — pools, lakes, rivers, and whatever memory each one unlocks.

[6:39] The flauta wars. A running bit ignites over whether flautas are made with flour or corn tortillas — CEELOS ("live from the capital of Mexico, Los Angeles") vs. Val on the Texas border. It recurs all episode and is never truly resolved.

[9:26] Human soup. CEELOS lays out his pool philosophy: pools are basically communal germ broth, so he takes a shower before and after, never dunks his head, and quietly exits the moment strangers climb in. He'll still get in for the sake of his kids, though.

[12:06] Sneaking into pools. His fondest teenage summer memory — scouting apartment complexes for pools, sneaking in, and swimming until a manager or tenant chased them off, then moving to the next one. The pool, he notes, was the one place tough-neighborhood teens were allowed to just be kids again.

[22:39] Springs 101. Val's ocean scare at age eight (following the water out, getting rolled by a wave, then being told "all you had to do was stand up") leads into Baked explaining Florida springs — cold underground-fed water, too cold for gators, hence swimmable.

[26:27] Cemetery creeks and ashes. Ghostin recalls his mom banning him from Ohio's Alum Creek — allegedly built over four cemeteries. CEELOS answers with MacArthur Park's grim body-count reputation, then admits he added to the lake himself: he scattered some of his late dad's ashes there so "he gets to hang out with his homies in the afterlife."

[37:24] Slick Ric, live from the car. Ric joins mid-commute to Sun Splash with all his kids, shares a story of losing his two-year-old for ten terrifying minutes (now everyone gets wristbands and a pre-entry photo), and recommends Bridgeport in NorCal — but only when it's 105° out.

[42:38] Tattoos, thongs and flamingo trunks. Ric jokes about "pulling out the thong," then gets real about regretting old tattoos and wearing a shirt around his kids. CEELOS confesses this was his first year in a swim shirt out of dad-bod shyness — and that his trunks are pink with flamingos "so my kids can slap me from a distance."

[57:12] The drowning-story round. Everyone offers one: Baked found at the bottom of a pool at age three, Val's wave at eight, Ghostin flipped in a kayak at twelve and stuck upside down for 30–40 seconds. CEELOS caps it by "almost drowning" on dry land from chugging water too fast.

Topic timeline

Notable quotes

• "It's like human soup." — CEELOS [9:26]
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  0:38
• "The pool is for rehab, not for swimming." — CEELOS [47:39] (Baked, immediately: "No, it's always for swimming.")
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  0:38
• "The skater from out of town gets eaten by a gator." — Val [51:06]
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  0:38
• "Yeah, the skater and the gator. That's the name of the movie." — CEELOS [51:09]
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  0:38
• "If you get in trouble out there, you better put your hands up… because I will fucking drown if I have to save you." — Val [59:32]
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  0:38
• "If you don't have a pool, fill up your tub, close your eyes, and just imagine." — Baked [1:03:02]
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  0:38

Who said what

• CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) — host; drove the nostalgia, played self-aware germophobe and grumpy-but-loving dad, kept the flauta bit alive and closed with the week's schedule.
• Baked (@Bakedmetax) — co-host and Florida correspondent; springs, gators, saltwater crocs, beach loyalty, and the toddler near-drowning story.
• Val / ValerieKates (@valeriekates_) — regular; California/Texas childhood, ocean scare at eight, meetup logistics, and the running gag about NFTs covering faces in group photos.
• Ghostin / zGhostin (@zGhostin) — Ohio; cemetery-creek lore and a kayak flip, and left inspired to actually use his own pool.
• Slick Ric (@richj530) — called in live en route to a water park; lost-kid safety tips, NorCal swimming spots, tattoo regrets.
• Sam (likely @pressedcurl) — younger voice; grew up at grandma's aesthetic hillside pool in Monterey Park, skipped public pools entirely.

Worth a full listen

• [26:27]–[28:03] — The cemetery-creek and MacArthur Park stretch, ending with CEELOS scattering his dad's ashes; a genuinely tender beat that a summary flattens.
• [37:24]–[44:52] — Slick Ric phoning in from the car sends the room into its best free-associating run: lost kids, thong jokes, tattoo regret, flamingo trunks and blistering hot asphalt.
• [57:00]–[1:01:00] — The near-drowning round, where each person's story tops the last and Val's "I will drown if I have to save you" lands perfectly.