Podcast Summary: Holmberg’s Morning Sickness – August 28, 2025

Episode Title: Alicia Silverstone Sick From Wild Cherry Reminds Us To Not Make 9s Out Of 6s – Meat Shower BO
Date: August 28, 2025
Hosts: John Holmberg, Brady Bogen, Bret Vesely, Dick Toledo
Podcast: Holmberg's Morning Sickness, 98KUPD | Hubbard Radio

Main Theme and Purpose

This episode of Holmberg’s Morning Sickness delivers a wild blend of pop culture talk, grotesque oddities, and irreverent humor. The primary focus is an incident involving actress Alicia Silverstone, who fell ill after eating a toxic berry in London, as well as a deep dive into the infamous 1876 Kentucky "meat shower." The hosts riff on the absurdity of both stories, exploring topics from Hollywood’s fading starlets to bizarre weather phenomena, never missing an opportunity for banter and punchlines.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Alicia Silverstone's Wild Berry Mishap (01:42–07:45)

• Summary: The cast discusses Alicia Silverstone’s recent health scare after consuming a "street berry" (later identified as a toxic Jerusalem cherry) in London and sharing her experience on TikTok.

• Key Details:

  • Silverstone, described affectionately as “the original Taylor Swift” and relatable girl-next-door, was wandering London when she impulsively ate an unknown berry and crowdsourced its identity online.
  • The hosts express disbelief at eating fruit from street trees, emphasizing risks of unwashed produce and public fruit, especially in urban areas:

    “Dogs piss on those. You gotta wash food. I don’t eat grapes at a grocery store. Not eating a street berry.” – John Holmberg (02:21)

  • A list of possible poisonous side effects is shared for comedic, cautionary effect.
  • Side conversation: Holmberg recalls an old story about a friend consuming oranges off a golf course backyard tree and suffering immediate gastrointestinal consequences (03:51–05:53).
  • Concern is jokingly feigned for Silverstone’s fate, but relief comes when the team learns she’s “okay because she’s a spitter, she didn’t swallow.” (06:54) – launching a run of crass, tongue-in-cheek jokes about proper etiquette and swallowing.

Notable Quotes

• “If it’s in your mouth, you basically swallowed it.” – John Holmberg (07:11)
• “Don’t just spit it out. That’s gross. Swallow. It’s a glass… Who raised you?” – John Holmberg (07:21)

2. The Perils of Celebrity & “Making 6s Into 9s” (07:45–10:18)

• Topic: The conversation transitions into musings on celebrity culture, referencing Alicia Silverstone’s career arc, and cautioning about artificially inflating less remarkable stars to “hot” status, only to lose interest and watch their public personas unravel.
• Examples include Kathleen Turner, Bridget Fonda, and Kelly McGillis—former beauties whom, according to the hosts, society hyped up then discarded, leading to body image and personality changes.
• Holmberg’s take:

  “That’s the danger of making, you know, a six feel like a nine… when the attention goes away... they just become the exact opposite.” (07:56)

Notable Moments

• “Being ugly is easy. When you’re ugly you never have to…” – John Holmberg (10:04)

3. Kentucky’s Great Meat Shower of 1876 (10:18–16:44)

• Exploration: The gang becomes obsessed with the bizarre real-life 19th century event in Kentucky, where meat (possibly vulture vomit) rained from the sky.
  • There’s considerable speculation and disbelief—how could a vulture orgy create so much meat fallout, and why has nobody solved this mystery?
  • The hosts lampoon Kentuckians for making the “meat shower” a point of pride, much like Boston’s syrup flood (“If you can’t outrun some syrup, you deserve to die.” – Holmberg, 11:57).

Notable Quotes

• “The closest thing they can figure was vultures went over her house and threw up. That’s the Kentucky way.” – John Holmberg (11:19)
• “Multiple people smacked with meat, and the only thing they can say is vultures probably puked that up.” – John Holmberg (14:09)

4. Vulture Mating, Bird-Watching, and Brady’s Missed Video Opportunity (15:17–24:56)

• Discussion: Inspired by the meat shower theory, the hosts debate vulture biology. Brady recounts witnessing a local “sky dance” of up to 200 vultures in Gilbert, AZ.
  • The group ribs Brady for not capturing this phenomenon on video, comparing it to UFO sightings and rare animal porn.
  • The talk devolves into play-by-play of a found video of vulture mating, complete with laughing, sexual innuendo, and vivid (and intentionally uncomfortable) dialogue.

Memorable Exchange

• “If I see 200 birds air…I would have invented the camera.” – John Holmberg (19:41)
• “I like getting on the back of their heads first…just like that vulture.” – John Holmberg (22:30)
• “Either Brady’s trying to make Gilbert sound appealing for the first time ever, or he went an hour without eating and started to hallucinate.” – Listener email (24:22)

5. Miscellaneous Banter and Callbacks (24:56+)

• The group continues their running joke about the “meat shower,” imagining going to Kentucky’s meat shower museum, making Grindr jokes (“I’ll bet there’s a guy named Meat shower on there.” – 25:04), and poking fun at pursuing this trivia at parties.
• They repeatedly call on Brady to prove his vulture story, teasing him for “missing a gem.”

Memorable Moments & Quotes with Timestamps

• [02:21] – “I don’t eat off street trees, ever. You’re in London, go to the store, eating street berries. Dogs piss on those.”
• [05:34] – Vivid comedic story of a golf partner’s regrettable choice to eat an orange off a stranger’s tree, culminating in a public bathroom emergency.
• [06:54] – “She’s okay because she’s a spitter. She didn’t swallow.”
• [07:11] – “If it’s in your mouth, you basically swallowed it.”
• [08:31] – “Kathleen Turner discovered the old country buffet.”
• [10:04] – “If I was ever hot…in my older days, nobody thought I was hot anymore, I’d balloon…I’m not gonna keep that facade up.”
• [11:19] – “The closest thing they can figure was vultures went over her house and threw up. That’s the Kentucky way.”
• [15:59] – “Vulture orgy. Oh, they were throwing up. One of them had just eaten then got into an orgy…Wait 30 minutes before you get into an orgy. You’ll throw up on everybody.”
• [19:41] – “If I see 200 birds air…I would have invented the camera.”
• [22:30] – “I like getting on the back of their heads first.”
• [24:22] – Listener: “Either Brady’s trying to make Gilbert sound appealing…or he went an hour without eating and started to hallucinate.”

Highlighted Segments with Timestamps

• 01:42 – 07:45: Alicia Silverstone’s berry incident and discussion of the dangers of random public produce
• 07:45 – 10:18: Celebrity worship and “don’t make a 9 out of a 6”
• 10:18 – 16:44: The Kentucky meat shower, vulture vomit theories, and regional oddities
• 16:44 – 24:56: Vulture mating habits, bird-watching, missing footage, and comedic animal commentary

Tone and Style

• The hosts are irreverent, sarcastic, occasionally crass, and unfiltered.
• The show is a mix of pop culture riffing, personal anecdote, and blue-collar observational humor—very much an "anything goes" morning show energy.

Conclusion

This episode of Holmberg’s Morning Sickness brings together the right blend of absurd news (Alicia Silverstone’s botany blunder, raining meat), comedic riffing on pop culture vanity, and goofy nature talk (vulture orgies and bird-watching fails). For listeners, the show offers quick-witted banter, running gags, and an unapologetic approach to the week’s weirdest stories.