Rhett & Link On Getting Lost
And finding your own way...
Greetings to all you Mythical Beasts & Wandering Souls!
On this week’s episode of the Soul Boom podcast, Rainn talks to two of the most mythical, marvelous men of the internet—Rhett & Link. You know them from Good Mythical Morning, from their legendary friendship, and maybe from that time they made a life-size gummy version of themselves. But in this episode, we dive into something a bit more, dare we say… spiritual.
From the outset, you’ll notice the conversation takes an unexpected turn. Rainn is surprised to hear that the duo left Christianity—a faith that had once been deeply woven into their public identity. But as they share, their journey isn’t so much about rejecting faith itself as it is about moving forward in authenticity, leaning into mystery, and following their convictions wherever they lead. That search for truth isn’t just personal—it extends outward, shaping how they engage with the world.
That same spirit of exploration is at the heart of their creativity. From their childhood adventures in rural North Carolina to their unpredictable career in internet entertainment, their approach has always been about embracing uncertainty—about getting lost in order to find something new.
In this edition of the Soul Boom Dispatch, we’re sharing an excerpt from Rhett & Link’s Book of Mythicality, where they reflect on what it means to journey without a roadmap, to embrace the unknown, and to see where curiosity takes you. As they put it, “moving forward without knowing a specific destination can lead to some pretty remarkable adventures.” We hope you enjoy—and that your GPS malfunctions at just the right moment.
Now, go forth and get lost,
The Soul Boom Team
GET LOST
From Rhett & Link's Book of Mythicality: A Field Guide to Curiosity, Creativity, and Tomfoolery
By Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal
WE DIDN’T HAVE GPS growing up, just directions. We’re not talking about a robotic lady in our pockets telling us exactly when to turn left. We relied on a handwritten list of turns, road names, and distances, like this:
We would take this sheet of paper with us in the car or on our bikes. If we misplaced it—or a rogue wind blew it into a ditch—we probably ended up lost. We may have even had to stop and ask another actual person for directions. THIS IS HOW WE LIVED. It was so barbaric.
Things are different now. It’s difficult to get lost. Sure, you might read a news story about some dude spending a year lost at sea, having to decide whether or not to eat his dead friend or his own legs, but that kind of thing doesn’t happen to you. No, you can pull out a phone and find your exact location on a map of the entire world pretty much anytime. If you’re asked how long it will take to walk to Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, from virtually any location in North America, you can give an answer in under twenty seconds (assuming you know how to spell Fuquay-Varina, which is never a sure thing).
We were lucky to have grown up during a unique navigational era—somewhere between the present day and a forgotten time when people used the stars, the sun, or the old “licking your fingertip and holding it up in the wind” technique to get around. (That last one might actually just be for kicking field goals but whatever.) As kids, it was pretty easy to get lost, and we did it a lot. Turns out that getting lost with a friend is a pretty Mythical thing to do…
WE DIDN’T KNOW it at the time, but our tendency to drive without a destination prepared us well for adulthood. When we set out into the recesses of rural North Carolina years ago, we were fostering a sense of discovery that scratched our Mythical itch of curiosity. We were reinforcing the idea that sometimes the most important part of the journey is just deciding to go. (We have gone through the trouble of creating an inspirational quote poster for you because that last sentence was so good....)
To be clear, we haven’t done much literal “pick a direction and drive” lately. The smog levels in Los Angeles are already bad enough without us taking joyrides across town. And if we decided to ride bikes instead, getting lost and hitchhiking might turn out a little differently here than it did in Harnett County. We might get a ride home, but we’d probably have to give up our bikes for it (or at least the front wheels).
Instead of driving, we've applied the principle of getting lost to our careers. Since starting our business together, we've sat down a number of times with the intention of planning our next steps. This has always been a relatively difficult exercise, because we're much better at picking directions than destinations. In 2007, when we decided to try to make a living on Youtube, there was no guidebook to follow. We didn't know anyone who had tried it. We didn't even know what to call it. "Internet comedy" sounded like some sort of pyramid scheme that you recruit your friends into. You can be an Internet comedian without leaving your house, adding hundreds of dollars a week to your pockets! Join today! We ended up calling it "Internetainment." Regardless of the name, if we had really thought about trying to make a living through online video, we might have convinced ourselves that it was incredibly stupid for two men with wives and children to try such a thing.
All we knew was that we wanted to continue creating together for a small but growing audience, so we kept heading in that direction. As we kept moving, the pieces began to fall into place around us, and most of it was outside our control or ability to predict…
Since the beginning, nearly every significant development in our career has followed this rule: moving forward without knowing a specific destination can lead to some pretty remarkable adventures.
Excerpts from Rhett & Link's Book of Mythicality: A Field Guide to Curiosity, Creativity, and Tomfoolery. Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal are best-selling authors, lifelong creators, and the comedic masterminds behind Good Mythical Morning, one of YouTube’s most beloved shows. With a background that includes engineering degrees, an unshakable childhood friendship, and a deep love for curiosity-driven storytelling, they have built a media empire rooted in humor, creativity, and a relentless pursuit of the bizarre and fascinating. Their books, including Rhett & Link’s Book of Mythicality and The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek, blend wit, nostalgia, and heartfelt reflection, challenging conventions while embracing the quirks of life with laughter and authenticity. Through their videos, live shows, and the Ear Biscuits podcast, they create a space for curiosity, connection, and good old-fashioned tomfoolery—offering a vision of entertainment that delights, surprises, and reminds us all to stay just a little bit mythical. Dive deeper into their world at mythicalsociety.com.
