Podcast Summary: Holmberg's Morning Sickness – Nov. 19, 2025
Theme / Purpose:
This episode is classic Holmberg’s Morning Sickness: irreverent hot takes, local Arizona color, and male-driven banter about daily gripes, oddball news, and a sprinkling of absurdity. The team dives into the real importance of "working from home," draws hilariously inappropriate parallels between hiring TV news anchors and staffing a strip club, pokes fun at the LA Clippers’ “Visit Rwanda” sponsorship, and reacts with both horror and fascination to a viral news story about a woman sweating milk from her armpit. The typical mix: social satire, local references, raunchy humor, and panel chemistry.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Work-From-Home Culture & Its "Importance"
- The team rips into the much-debated pandemic-era staple: working from home.
- Listener emails defend their productivity, but the crew remains skeptical and sees WFH as “the greatest grift on the planet.”
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- “People who work from home are running the greatest grift on the planet. I get to work from home. You’re sleeping till 9 and you’re keeping the phone on high.”
— John Holmberg [08:00]
- “People who work from home are running the greatest grift on the planet. I get to work from home. You’re sleeping till 9 and you’re keeping the phone on high.”
- They dissect workplace excuses – especially weather – and mock the loss of “rainy day” breaks for remote workers.
- Anecdotes about people allegedly working while running errands (Jill at the mall) illustrate perceived abuses.
Notable Quote:
- “Nobody who works from home is like, ‘Yeah, I didn’t do much.’ They all are, like, justifying their whole... And it’s the busiest day of their lives.”
— John Holmberg [09:31]
2. Rainy Day Comforts: Grilled Cheese and Cheese Preferences
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A rainy Arizona day triggers nostalgia and debate on comfort food: grilled cheese.
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John confesses a liking for “bougie” Velveeta singles, and the team and listeners recoil at what they see as off-brand taste.
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The virtues of various grilled cheese styles are debated, including a plug for Beckett’s Table’s gourmet take.
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“I got no problem with grilled cheese. I’ve gotten more emails and more people talking to me about how off-brand it is that I don’t mind Velveeta individually wrapped cheese... I didn’t realize how bougie everybody was about Velveeta.”
— John Holmberg [06:11]
3. The Strip Club & Newsroom Analogy
- Holmberg launches a gonzo rant comparing hiring TV news teams to staffing a strip club: both, he says, demand a “diverse roster” to attract a wide clientele.
- Characteristics listed include the need for “a white one, a black one, a Mexican, a blonde, brunette, redhead, fat one, skinny one, and a short one.”
- Panel agrees that even “body positive” TV anchors match the same logic.
- The team calls out specific local TV personalities, especially Jamie Serretta, with juvenile fixation on her physique (notably, her “huge” attributes, which are the subject of repeat gags).
Memorable Moment:
- “You hire news people the same way you hire a strip club. It’s a diversity... you have to have your fat white girl crew for, like, in case Mike Tyson’s in town and he brings his crew in. You have to have your Mexican crew, and you have to have a tall one, you have to have a short one with a fat ass. News is no different.”
— John Holmberg [12:13]
4. LA Clippers' Jersey Sponsor: "Visit Rwanda"
- The panel explodes at the idea that a country best known in recent decades for genocide is spending sports marketing dollars to lure American tourists.
- John recalls searching for Rwandan hotels online and being confronted with “pictures of dead people everywhere.”
- They wonder aloud if anyone has ever booked a trip to Rwanda because of the Clippers’ ad patch.
- Humor is mined from the incongruity: “It would have been like in the 60s if Germany did a, you know, come see Berlin. It’s totally different now. You’d be like, I don’t know, you’re kind of known for that.”
Notable Quote:
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“Visit Rwanda is the hardest thing in the world. Even Travelocity is like, are you sure?... Rwanda’s trying to redo that whole 1994 terrifying slaughter that their country’s most known for.”
— John Holmberg [18:09] -
“Do you think anybody@visitRwanda.com is like, ‘This Clippers thing is gangbusters, people! We’re booking flights like crazy!’ Nobody’s booked a flight based on that. No one.”
— John Holmberg [20:17]
- The reality of coups, civil wars, and sketchy travel advisories are gleefully mocked.
- They riff on how American Chamber of Commerces from ‘challenging’ Arizona areas (Maryvale and Guadalupe) could copy Rwanda’s optimistic approach to tourism.
5. Wacky Medical News: The Woman Who "Sweats Milk"
- The show’s final act is dedicated to a viral medical oddity: a woman whose armpits sweat what turns out to be breast milk, due to “overlapping breast tissue” with no nipple, leaking into the sweat glands.
- The story is equal parts gross-out and juvenile fantasy, with raucous speculation about smell (“Just pour milk on your counter... go back in about an hour and just give it a whiff”), and imaginings of what cereal might best pair with ‘armpit milk.’
Notable Quotes:
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“Could you imagine the smell on a hot day if she’s in Phoenix?... I smell like sour dairy. Like, that bitch stinks. She sweats milk.”
— John Holmberg [35:59] -
“I wish I was making this up—which is why I believe the simulation is broken.”
— John Holmberg [41:49]
- Would you taste it? Predictably raunchy lines ensue:
- “You’re in the throes of passion with the milkmaid, okay. And you look down and you start to notice…she’s producing…”
— John Holmberg [39:07] - “Yeah, I’d give it a shot.”
— Brett Vesely [39:19]
- “You’re in the throes of passion with the milkmaid, okay. And you look down and you start to notice…she’s producing…”
- Cereal favorites for armpit milk: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Booberry, Cookie Crisp.
Timestamps for Important Segments
- Rainy Day, Grilled Cheese, and Comfort Food: 03:27–07:54
- Velveeta and Cheese Discourse: 06:11–07:54
- Work from Home Skepticism & Jill at the Mall: 07:54–11:33
- TV News Hiring = Strip Club Auditions: 11:37–16:46
- Jamie Serretta & Local TV Lurid Banter: 13:53–15:12
- LA Clippers ‘Visit Rwanda’ Rant: 17:15–29:28
- Maryvale & Guadalupe Chamber of Commerce Satire: 29:28–35:09
- Woman Sweating Milk from Armpit: 35:48–44:41
- Cereal Pairings & Armpit Milk Fantasies: 38:00–44:41
- Music & Final Banter: 45:12–end
Notable Quotes
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On Work from Home:
- “Working from home is the biggest grift alive.”
— John Holmberg [07:56]
- “Working from home is the biggest grift alive.”
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On TV News Diversity:
- “To hire newscasters is a lot like being a strip club owner… it’s a diversity.”
— John Holmberg [12:13]
- “To hire newscasters is a lot like being a strip club owner… it’s a diversity.”
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On Rwanda Tourism Marketing:
- “Do you think anybody@visitRwanda.com is like, ‘This Clippers thing is gangbusters, people!’”
— John Holmberg [20:17]
- “Do you think anybody@visitRwanda.com is like, ‘This Clippers thing is gangbusters, people!’”
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On Woman Sweating Milk:
- “Your husband’s sweating on you in your sleep from a very specific area. Wouldn’t that be great, though, if it turned out the husband was just pouring milk in her armpits at night?”
— John Holmberg [35:59] - “Could you imagine the smell…? She sweats milk.”
— John Holmberg [35:59]
- “Your husband’s sweating on you in your sleep from a very specific area. Wouldn’t that be great, though, if it turned out the husband was just pouring milk in her armpits at night?”
Tone & Language
- Irreverent, brash, local-radio rowdy: The crew loves to needle each other, lean into stereotypes, and chase every joke angle.
- Casual and conversational: Lots of loose banter and real-time riffing.
- Adult, edgy, sometimes juvenile: The armpit milk cereal brainstorming exemplifies the show’s tendency to take absurd premises as far as possible.
For New Listeners
This episode is quintessential Holmberg's: fast-paced, provocative, and Arizona-centric. It features biting satire about remote work culture, an eyebrow-raising comparison between TV news and strip clubs, lampooning of questionable sports branding, and a viral medical oddity that goes off the rails but sticks its landing in hilariously disgusting territory. If you’re game for edgy humor, local references, and banter that walks the line, it’s classic morning radio chaos.
