Holmberg’s Morning Sickness – Episode Summary

Episode: 09-19-25 - Concerned That Something Weird Will Happen This Weekend During The Kirk Memorial At Cardinals Stadium

Date: September 19, 2025
Host: John Holmberg with Brady Bogen, Bret Vesely, Dick Toledo, and Emily
Podcast: Holmberg’s Morning Sickness on 98KUPD (Arizona)

Episode Overview

This episode centers on John Holmberg’s anxious, satirical take about the upcoming Kirk Memorial at State Farm Stadium, which expects to draw massive crowds and national attention. The hosts discuss the unease and potential risks of hosting such a highly charged event in Phoenix and—true to the show’s irreverent tone—riff on the best ways to discourage outsiders from falling in love with Arizona and deciding to move there. Throughout, the crew blends dark humor, pop culture references, local color, and societal critique while processing anxieties about safety, media spectacle, and Arizona’s booming growth.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Anticipation & Fears About the Kirk Memorial Event

Themes: Security concerns, crowd management, civic pride vs. dread

• Holmberg expresses discomfort about attending the upcoming memorial, citing potential for trouble: “You couldn’t pay me enough to go there this weekend. I know it’s for a nice thing, the Memorial, but that is a gigantic target...” (03:06)
• Concern that with “100,000 anticipated people” (03:37), the crowd will attract not only mourners but also “protesters and jackasses and maybe even paid by some other organization.”
• References official worries about possible violence, sabotage, and unrest, including a mention of Antifa and the newly classified 'terrorist group' label.

2. Social Media and the Modern Outrage Cycle

Themes: How information spreads, inability to hold unity, decay of discourse

• Reflects on how quickly collective grief devolves into infighting due to the “complete and utter inability to get along.”
• Holmberg: “We should all take a little bite of that orange ice cream, cleanse our palates and go, ‘we’ve all kind of lost the plot...’ But we’re incapable.” (04:12)
• Laments that the modern news and social media environment would have made past national tragedies (MLK, JFK) much messier, with extreme and callous reactions instantly amplified.

3. Comparisons to Past Protests and Outrage

Themes: Shifts in protest culture, nostalgia for "simpler" antagonists

• Emily and John playfully reminisce about the infamous Westboro Baptist Church:
  • “Them’s the good old days...they were the only ones you could drive by and go look at. These mother— Lunatics should be jailed anyway. Ah, well, they got overrun by society being weirder than them.” (09:11)
  • Contrast to today’s “loud and on purpose” protestors who now feel threateningly unhinged.
• Discuss other oddballs from past protests (PETA paint-throwers, small local wage complaints, tame signs), missing when outliers were harmless and the mainstream was less radical.

4. Arizona’s Image War: Keep Outsiders Away

Themes: Satire of civic pride, resisting “progress” and population growth

• Running bit: urging “hillbillies, Mexicans, and Indians” to “make our city look terrible” to scare away potential transplants from seeing nice TV shots and wanting to move in—“Just drive around and draw in the ice. Hillbillies. We need you. Need you more than ever. Make our city look stupid this weekend, please, without violence…” (12:31)
• Playfully proposes plans to mislead real estate hunters: “Drive them right over to Maryvale. This is about as good as it gets...Paradise Valley is a joke name. We made it a joke because it’s…so the opposite.”

5. Real Estate and Growth Anxiety

Themes: Urban expansion, “old timers” resisting newcomers

• Holmberg remembers the 1980s resistance to light rail and freeway infrastructure:
  • “Those old people, they hate progress. They don’t want to be a big city. They were right...You build freeways and people show up.” (21:21)
• Satirical recommendations include renaming Phoenix “Closed for business,” giving out Native American Free Budweiser, or hosting a free Slayer concert on the Great Lawn.

6. Cynicism About Unity and Media Response

Themes: Political dysfunction, mistrust

• Major skepticism that the event can foster actual unity: “At its core, it’s an actual beautiful thing...but it won’t be, because we’re human. And the thing that’ll wreck that is people who wreck things.” (26:32)
• Frustrated by FCC overreach into free speech: “They’re basically saying The View is now a news operation...that’s strong-arming. You can’t do it...you can’t change, you can’t move the goalposts.” (27:08)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [03:06, John Holmberg]:
  “You couldn’t pay me enough to go there this weekend. I know it’s for a nice thing, the Memorial, but that is a gigantic target...going to have an unprecedented amount of people that are going to try to get into that State Farm Stadium Sunday.”
• [04:12, John Holmberg]:
  “We should all take a little bite of that orange ice cream, cleanse our palates and go, ‘We’ve all kind of lost the plot.’ But we’re incapable. All of a sudden, we’re arguing that Jimmy Kimmel and the FCC...It’s out of control.”
• [09:11, John Holmberg]:
  “You’re remembering out loud that glorious Westboro Baptist Church...They got overrun by society being weirder than them.”
• [12:31, John Holmberg]:
  “Make our city look stupid this weekend. Please, without violence, almost sickness.”
• [16:29, John Holmberg]:
  “Kennedy was very Trump. ‘I want to thank you for getting me elected there mob. Now I’m also going to try to dismantle you from the inside with my brother.’...He was very Trumpy. And I’m going to hammer every girl that comes in this White House.”
• [21:21, John Holmberg]:
  “Those old people, they hate progress. They don’t want to be a big city. They were right...You build freeways and people show up. They realized way back in the day how beautiful this town was.”
• [26:32, John Holmberg]:
  “At its core, it’s an actual beautiful thing that’s going to happen this weekend and a bunch of people uniting...but it won’t be, because we’re human. And the thing that’ll wreck that is people who wreck things.”
• [27:08, John Holmberg]:
  “They’re basically saying The View is now a news operation and they are held to the standards of news...that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. If they’re not breaking the rules that are set right now, you can’t change...you can’t move the goal posts. I don’t like this at all.”
• [31:19, John Holmberg]:
  “Now everybody’s wearing it on the outside...everyday people are now nutballs.”

Time-stamped Segment Highlights

• [02:00-03:32] – Show opens; discussion on why Phoenix always gets a “clean-up rain” before big televised events, blames that kind of PR for making outsiders want to move in.
• [03:32-07:05] – Holmberg’s unease about the Kirk Memorial; worries about protests, violence, and security.
• [07:08-10:25] – Commentary on social media’s effect on public sentiment and remembrance; historical analogies with MLK, JFK.
• [10:25-12:54] – Remembering the Westboro Baptist Church as a “simpler” era for public protests; fears today’s crowds are actually dangerous.
• [12:54-16:54] – Satirical advisories for locals to act extra “crazy” to keep outsiders away; joking strategies involving cars, noise, and spectacle.
• [21:21-26:18] – History of local resistance to “progress,” highways, urban development, “they were right!”
• [26:18-29:04] – Event nostalgia, editorial critique on FCC overreach and how media gatekeeping is changing.
• [31:19-35:17] – Final riffs on how Arizona should make itself unappealing to outsiders; playful shots at real estate, local culture, and nervous speculation for the weekend.
• [35:14-36:54] – Goofy proposals for scaring off scared white women with Hellcat cars, loud music, and urban chaos.

Tone and Takeaway

Throughout, Holmberg and team blend sharp wit, dark satire, local pride, and a dose of real concern. The episode’s main message: Arizona is bracing for a national spotlight and the hosts—loving their city but wary of what attention brings—would just as soon it be portrayed as an uninviting madhouse, rather than a paradise for potential new residents. Underlying humor masks a deeper anxiety: the fear that unity is fleeting, anger is always lurking, and that the more things change, the more they stay the same.