THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 107 — A Thoughtcrime Thanksgiving

Summary

Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec

Thoughtcrime Ep. 107 — A Thoughtcrime Thanksgiving

Date: November 26, 2025
Theme: Gratitude, tradition, and reflection during Thanksgiving, with spirited debates on American rites of passage, Thanksgiving food rules, cultural change, and remembering Charlie Kirk.

---

Episode Overview

This special "Thoughtcrime Thanksgiving" episode brings together the regular hosts for an in-studio conversation (running the Tuesday before Thanksgiving). The group reminisces, debates Thanksgiving traditions and American culture, and reflects on personal transformations and the impact of their late friend and colleague Charlie Kirk. The episode is rich in warmth, nostalgia, and banter, with heartfelt moments of gratitude balanced with lively debates—especially over the "correct" way to celebrate Thanksgiving.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Upcoming Content and Behind-the-Scenes

• The hosts preview upcoming episodes, including interviews and analysis segments involving topics like the Tyler Robinson “Turkey Tom” leaks and psychoanalysis with Dr. Chloe Carmichael.
• There’s a discussion about handling sensitive drug and mental health issues exposed in online controversies, with references to “nesting” behaviors and black market HRT (04:05–05:41).

2. China and Black Market Pharmaceuticals

• The group discusses the prevalence of Chinese black market hormone therapies, linking it to unregulated global pharmacies.
  • Notable Quote:
    • “China... they are amoral neutral in terms of this, where they will sell you anything and they don't care.” (05:34, A)
  • They muse on the hypothetical idea of a “zero liability store” (05:41–06:18).

3. Book Talk & Hillsdale College Influence

• The hosts reflect on the influence of the Hillsdale College online courses and classic literature, especially on Charlie Kirk's intellectual development (07:08–08:26).
  • Notable Quote:
    • “Literally, it was Hillsdale.” — D, on Kirk’s transformation (07:17)
  • Books discussed include "Darkness at Noon" and C.S. Lewis's "That Hideous Strength."

4. Thanksgiving Gratitude & Reflections on Loss

• The group shares what (and who) they’re grateful for amid a difficult year, with personal stories and appreciation for the team and for Charlie Kirk.
  • Tribute to Charlie Kirk, reflecting on his leadership, influence, and character:
    • “It’s a real blessing because he was a great guy. The best.” — D (18:21)
  • The challenge of gratitude after loss:
    • “It’s tempting not to be grateful this year, but we have to practice it as a discipline… there are many things to be grateful for.” — D (17:03)
  • Discussing the impact of Charlie’s faith, humility, and legacy:
    • “He was always very eager to turn it into praise towards God.” — B (24:09)
• The tradition of reading Charlie’s Thanksgiving tweets is revived, with some going back to 2012 and only a handful of likes/retweets.

5. Heartfelt & Humorous Moments

• The hosts tease each other about their fashion, baldness, and possible adventures (such as “Blake’s Tijuana Hair Transplant,” 12:14–16:28).
  • Notable Quote:
    • “If you have a full head of hair, that's a blessing from God. But if you're going bald, that's a blessing from God too. It's God telling you that you're getting uglier and you're going to die soon.” — True story from a Hillsdale paper, relayed by B (11:47)
• Banter on “no homo” jokes in the context of giving compliments (11:00–11:12, 17:53–17:57).

6. Rules & Debates: Thanksgiving Food Traditions

• Vigorous, comedic debates on the proper Thanksgiving meal (38:09–45:36).
  • Controversies:
    • Is it ever okay to serve steak? (Consensus: turkey is required; ham and steak are optional supplements.)
    • Must cranberry sauce be from the can and served in its shape? (Yes.)
    • Dressing vs. stuffing: Must be cornbread-based; in or out of the turkey is debated.
    • Green bean casserole: Polarizing; some insist on plain green beans only.
    • Pumpkin pie is non-negotiable; pecan pie is welcome but pumpkin is the “must-have.”
  • Notable Quotes:
    • “It is un-American not to have either turkey, some sort of dressing, cranberries…” — C (39:49)
    • “Thou shall have pumpkin pie. With whipped cream.” — C (46:18)
  • Heated defense of food tradition over individual preference:
    • “Thanksgiving is not about what you want to do. It is what your ancestors did.” — C (43:09)

7. Reflections on American Rites of Passage & Cultural Change

• The group laments the loss of old-school American coming-of-age experiences (55:59–66:13):
  • Black Friday: Once gritty, now ruined by online convenience and retailer greed.
  • Pre-smartphone childhood: Waiting in lines, retail jobs, memorizing phone numbers, riding bikes—now largely gone.
  • Social and technological rites: Calling a girl’s house and talking to her parents, using MapQuest directions, getting lost, playing video games until they overheated.
  • Changing traditions and brain science: The London cabbie “knowledge” and how GPS is making us spatially “dumber.”

8. Historical & Political Nuggets

• Thanksgiving’s date: The story of how FDR moved it to expand the Christmas shopping season, leading to partisan “Democrat” and “Republican” Thanksgivings for several years (59:54–61:52).
• Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation of Thanksgiving in the bloody midst of the Civil War, as a precedent for finding gratitude in hard times.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s tempting not to be grateful this year, but we have to practice it as a discipline, because there are many things to be grateful for. I’m thankful for this team.…” — D (17:03)
• “He was always very eager to turn it into praise towards God. He was not one to collect praise on himself.” — B on Charlie Kirk (24:09)
• “Thou shall have pumpkin pie. With whipped cream.” — C (46:18)
• “Thanksgiving is not about what you want to do. It is what your ancestors did.” — C (43:09)
• “It used to be you’d get home at 3:30 in the morning—you’re like, I got a good deal on a TV. It was a teenage rite of passage in suburban Chicago.” — C, on the old Black Friday (56:58)
• “I don’t know of another nation that has a day of gratitude.” — C (50:31)
• “Happiness is impossible if you are not grateful.” — C (51:08)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment/Event | Timestamp | |-------------------------------|------------| | Preview of upcoming episodes & content | 00:19–02:33 | | Turkey Tom drama & psychoanalysis | 02:33–03:58 | | Black market HRT & China discussion | 04:05–05:41 | | Hillsdale College courses & literature | 06:42–08:26 | | Book discussion: "Darkness at Noon" | 08:28–09:08 | | Team gratitude and tributes to Charlie | 09:22–18:21 | | Reading Charlie Kirk’s Thanksgiving tweets | 21:09–24:34 | | Thanksgiving food rules and debates | 38:09–47:04 | | Historical perspective on Thanksgiving/Black Friday | 54:24–61:52 | | Nostalgia—rites of passage, tech, and culture | 61:52–72:21 |

---

Tone & Style

The episode is a blend of irreverent humor, personal warmth, and sharp cultural commentary. The hosts strike a balance between nostalgia and critique, with energetic debates and affectionate ribbing. Heartfelt moments—particularly around gratitude, teamwork, and Charlie Kirk’s memory—add genuine emotion alongside the comedic banter.

---

Summary for New Listeners

This episode is a time capsule of a dysfunctional but loving team hashing out the importance of tradition, shared memory, and gratitude. From dissecting the "one true" Thanksgiving meal, to reflecting on lost American rites of passage, to contemplating the impact of lost friends and leaders, it's both playful and poignant.

Listeners will come away with:

• Classic food arguments (cranberries: canned or bust! green bean casserole: yes or no?)
• Stories of how technology and retail have changed holidays and growing up in America
• Honest reflections on grief, gratitude, and carrying forward the legacies of those lost
• A passionate defense of Thanksgiving as “one of America’s greatest traditions,” rooted in gratitude to God, even in years of loss or hardship

---

For Further Exploration

• Charlie Kirk’s books and courses
• Hillsdale College online courses referenced
• Real Raw News, discussed satirically in the episode

---

Conclusion:
Thoughtcrime Thanksgiving is equal parts comedy roast, family dinner, and American cultural seminar—spiced with stories of Charlie Kirk, debates over the sanctity of canned cranberries, and a call to gratitude regardless of circumstance.

Transcript

[A]

From the age of Big Brother. If they want to get you, they'll get you.

[B]

DNSA specifically targets the communications of everyone.

[C]

They're collecting your communications.

[A]

All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a special Thanksgiving Tuesday edition of Thought Crime. We decided we'd go live today because for one we're actually all in studio, which is cool. We're all here. And of course, Thanksgiving itself is a day we're definitely not going to be working. So I think we've got. We're doing pre tapes. Are you guys going live?

[D]

We've got.

[B]

We have a Charlie episode.

[A]

You're doing Charlie?

[D]

We have a Charlie episode. We also have some. We have some interview. We have an interview with Kelly Shackelford and then we have an interesting autism conversation.

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[D]

So we've got two. We've got two sort of.

[B]

No, not indicate that it's an actual doc here in.

[D]

Yeah, a doctor here that's described some different treatments and drugs that have been approved. Really builds off some Maha. Some Maha energy. Yeah, that's a Maha energy.

[C]

That's great.

[D]

So, yeah, it's going to be good. We've got. So we got some content in the can and then.

[A]

And then we've got. We're actually going to be doing. I've got in the can two episodes about Tyler Robinson and the. The Turkey Tom, like the leaks and like some of these messages that came out. One, it's me and Liz Wheeler. We just kind of go through all of it. So for people who hadn't seen this, this is a. One of the former roommates of Tyler Robinson comes forward to this YouTuber that I guess he followed and talks about their friendship and how it became toxic and just.

[B]

It's so crazy. Like they just really crazy. That guy is who you get now because people who have interest, you know, interesting stories, interesting evidence, they're like, who could I take this to? And they're, you know, and then, yeah, they're not reading the Wall Street Journal. They're thinking, I'm going to go to this YouTuber who does really detail basically documentaries.

[A]

He did a great job.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And he does like, if you see his stuff, video documentaries, he makes these two hour documentaries on Internet drama. Sounds like he's great for this sort of thing.

[A]

I know he did a great job. And so we, we go through it in the first episode and, and in the second episode I've Got Dr. Chloe Carmichael and we do like a psychoanalysis kind of situation. So it's like, hey, if these guys came to you for, you know, relationship therapy. What would you do? If I was able to get out.

[D]

Of the relationship, Some of the details that are exposed in the Turkey Tom coverage was. It was really revealing. I mean, as far as there was lsd, the kid was like this. The Lance Twigs guy, right. Is he's vaping THC constantly. He's drunk a lot. He had these nesting fits where he would just basically.

[B]

Nesting phases.

[D]

Yeah. Where he would just basically go down into the. Sounds like the downstairs pile a bunch of blankets, pillows, and then just garbage, gunk, junk food, drinks, and just. It was almost like a little bit hoarder esque, I would say, and he would just not leave.

[A]

Well, and what's interesting though is, and Turkey Tom mentions this in his video, Theo Vaughn said the exact same thing about when he was using cocaine that he used a phrase of. I was like an owl building a nest. And he says this on Joe Rogan and he said something similar when he had Trump on. And it's like, you know, I don't know that he was on coke specifically this. This guy, but it's just. It's interesting that they use kind of the same phraseology.

[D]

Yeah, well, it, I. It must be something that happens when you're exposed to a massive amount of drugs and stimulants or uppers or down downers.

[A]

Tyler, you're familiar.

[E]

Yeah, totally.

[D]

Tyler, resident expert of nesting. Tyler doesn't leave the house for months on. On end.

[E]

Yeah. Never touched a drug. So I have no idea.

[B]

Not even once?

[E]

Not once. Caffeine. But I don't think.

[B]

I don't.

[E]

I don't think Utah is the place you should be experimenting with drugs.

[D]

So this is black market hrt, Jack, explain what that is.

[A]

Yeah, right. Well, what's interesting is that. So you got to put it together because in the first video he was talking about how his mom was using like Venmo to pay for his. His transition therapy and so. And his prescriptions. But then I get. I don't know. I don't know if this. His mom cut him off. This is twigs, by the way. I don't know if his mom cut him off or whatever happens. But then by the time of the second video, they're talking about how he's using black market hrt. And I scratched the surface of this a little bit, but apparently this is actually really well known that there's like, there's like Chinese stuff that you can order from these like, like fake pharmacies do. You don't need a prescription or anything. And they Just mail it to you. And it'll be like some pharmacy that's like headquartered in Vanuatu or something like that. And you know, obviously it's an Internet based business. They just need an address somewhere to set up the website. And. And you just get this like really random like Chinese medication and then you start taking it because you know, either you can't get an actual doctor to prescribe you, and this is hormone replacement therapy. So this is in. If. If you are transing, this is what you would take.

[E]

So China is transient.

[B]

Our.

[E]

Our kids.

[B]

I. I think it would be safer to say just China is doing black market pharmacy.

[E]

Yeah, more.

[A]

More like the. More like. I mean, it's. It's anything. Right.

[B]

So.

[A]

Because China, it just, you know, they're. What do they call them? The amoral neutral in terms of this, where like they will sell you anything and they don't care.

[B]

It reminds me, there used to be this cool idea I read once, like, what if there was one store in every state or one store in America where it was just the zero liability store and you could buy things that were otherwise illegal, like drugs or substances and such.

[A]

You mean Silk Road Fireworks.

[B]

But categorically illegal to ever sue or have any liability for stuff you bought.

[A]

So not like Silk Road.

[B]

Yeah, like it could be. So it could be like, for example, a pharmacy where you can buy anything, no questions asked, but it's only in that place. You have to physically travel there to get it. You can't order it off the Internet.

[E]

So like a BUC EE's, but for illegal.

[A]

Yeah, this was. Sorry, Ross Russell Bricks. Right, right, that. Well, that was the whole point of Silk Road, though. Silk Road was like ebay for stuff that you can't put on ebay. And then of course, obviously there were legal ramifications to this.

[B]

Oh, man. We have someone who says. Dylan Ivey in the chat says. He says, enjoying the totalitarian novels course. There you go.

[D]

Hillsdale History.

[E]

Dylan Ivey.

[B]

What is it? The great works of literature.

[C]

Yeah. So history.

[D]

The great works of literature. Did you study these things?

[B]

Did you study these things in school? No. So now he's reading.

[C]

Probably not.

[D]

But even that hideous strength, Even if you did, it's probably time for an enjoyable refresher. Let the good folks at Hills. I know it by heart.

[B]

That's great stuff, all of you, by the way. Even if you're not taking it. You can look up the books that are on that. You could read one of those every day over this weekend, by the way.

[D]

Shout out to Hillsdale like, people don't understand what a transformational, like, moment that was when Charlie started taking the Hillsdale online courses. It's like, yeah, they're.

[A]

You mean. Because he wouldn't shut up about him.

[D]

The sponsor. They sponsor the show. But it's really more than that. Like, Charlie, really. It's funny because I've had two interviews with people asking me about Charlie's transformation over the years, and I'm like, literally, it was Hillsdale.

[A]

Different kind of transformation, folks, than the one.

[D]

Not the. Not the.

[B]

We might need a black market. Maybe the Chinese one day.

[A]

Ruben G. Was talking about those in some text messages, wasn't he Zyler, about transformations?

[B]

I'm sure in an alternate universe, China, the China, as amoral neutral, could be supplying us with, like, black market books.

[A]

Black market books. After. After.

[B]

In the universe where Khar becomes saints from your. Your Chinese publishers.

[A]

Exactly. So. So Darkness at Noon, actually, Charlie was really, really into that novel. And he. I remember he got like. As Charlie typically would. He would. He got like, super into it. And he was like, jack, you need to read this article.

[D]

You.

[A]

You're the book. You need to read this book. Read the book. We're going to do a podcast about. We're going to break down everything. Just. I need you to read the book right now. Just read the entire book.

[E]

And I.

[A]

And I literally did that. So I just spent this whole weekend reading. It was a great novel, by the way. And a lot of, like, the communist novels do have, like, a kind of similar, you know, setup. But this one was actually interesting.

[B]

What if the guys who said that they were good were actually bad?

[A]

Yeah, but this one was actually interesting because it had an interesting dynamic where you see in communism where, like, the old revolutionaries are being purged by the new revolutionaries, which you kind of see actually happening in the Democrat Party right now. I got to meet Mandami the other day, for example. Hey, what up, Zoran? And we had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun. And Charlie and I were. He had always said that we were going to do a podcast on it, and then we never did. So I. I actually have potentially a. A plan in works to actually cut a podcast on that, because we just. We just never did it.

[B]

Yeah, no, that'd be great.

[C]

Yeah, man.

[D]

I should. I should just.

[B]

I haven't read it yet. I should go read it.

[A]

All right, Just go read it.

[B]

It's not that long. It's like 100.

[A]

No, no, it's not long ago. None of these are. It's like, they're like, in 19.

[B]

That hideous strength is kind of long. And it's the third book. Book in a series.

[D]

So I'm thankful for Hillsdale.

[B]

Oh, yeah. That's part of the gimmick here. That's part of the gimmick. It is Thanksgiving. And especially we talked about this earlier today, especially because this has been a tough year, a tough fall for us. We have to be thankful to God because pilgrims did that. They held their Thanksgiving through a period of immense trial and suffering. Immense suffering. Many of them did not live another year or two after the first Thanksgiving.

[D]

And.

[B]

We must be the same way.

[E]

Yeah, I was going to say I'm really thankful for. While we're talking on the topic of gratitude, I'm really thankful for everybody here, but especially Andrew for holding down the fort with the show and keeping everything going. I know everybody in this building here is incredibly grateful for the work that he's put in and picking up his life and moving it here.

[D]

It's a big deal and couldn't do without Blake. He's our not so secret weapon.

[B]

You have to come up with something else to call me. Like, it. It works. But we say it every day.

[D]

Blackpool Blake.

[B]

That works. We could go with that black pill. Blake.

[E]

The Blake.

[D]

Definitely the not gay Blake.

[B]

Wait a minute.

[C]

Hold on.

[D]

I'm super thankful that you're not.

[A]

You are wearing a turtleneck.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

First of all, that. This is because I have entirely ceded all control over my sartorial choices. Someone else. Which is certainly a man thing to do. A straight man thing.

[D]

Well, the glow up is helping the glow up.

[A]

It does actually look nice.

[D]

Blake.

[A]

Blake. Actually, I'm going to say this because I saw you for the first time. We were at. We went to church the other. The other day, and I was. I turned to Tanya and was like, Blake's looking kind of. Kind of good.

[D]

You know what it is?

[A]

No homo. But, like. So hold on.

[B]

I'm the one getting called out here.

[A]

Surprisingly, I'm secure in my sexuality enough to say that. Blake, you look like you lost some weight.

[D]

You look.

[A]

You're looking trim. You're looking good, man. Man.

[D]

To quote one of my favorite Charlie isms, as someone with an unblemished record of heterosexuality, I can say that. Well, you know what's funny? I saw Blake.

[C]

We.

[D]

We played a clip, remember, just recently, and you had, like, completely shaved head and you had a completely shaved beard, and I basically didn't recognize you for. I was like, whoa, I forgot Blake.

[A]

He looked like. He looked like A newborn baby? Yeah, like one. Like a baby that had been left the hospital.

[B]

I am thankful on purpose. I am thankful for my bald head because it's preserves me from vanity.

[E]

It's also a little chilly.

[D]

That sounds like that, too.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, it kind of is.

[A]

There's a great.

[B]

Speaking of Hillsdale, there's. This is a true, true Hillsdale Collegian article from about a decade ago. It's about guys who are going bald while they're still in undergrad. And the line at the end of the article, 100% not making this up. You can look it up. This guy says, if you have a full head of hair, that's a blessing from God. But if you're going bald, that's a blessing from God too. It's God telling you that you're getting uglier and you're going to die soon.

[A]

Well, I thought we were going because people have said that we mentioned going down to Tijuana and we met that Mexican cop who said that if we go down that he's got. He's got a hookup down there. Hair replacement surgery. Oh, yeah, Blake, it's the best.

[B]

Really into that Tijuana hair replacement.

[A]

No, because he pulled his. No, because he pulled his hat off and he had like a perfect, you know, hairline. And he was like, I used to.

[E]

Look like you too, boy.

[A]

But then I went to tj.

[D]

Imagine, Blake's like, he comes to me. I can't do the show on Thursday and Friday. I'll be back by two weeks from now.

[E]

I think that would be. That would be a great documentary.

[A]

Blake do a whole documentary of it. Yes.

[E]

Blake goes to Tijuana. Yes. Hair transplants.

[A]

Tijuana hair transplant.

[E]

You don't understand how many men are interested in the hair transplant.

[D]

That is true. It is like one of those weird under the under the radar male Internet.

[A]

Elon. Elon did it famously. Oh, yeah, yeah.

[E]

Oh, yeah. He was really balding.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you go pull up Elon's pictures from the 90s, I mean, you can see it. There's like a picture. There's like that one picture of him and Peter Thiel from the James. And you could just see. I mean, it looks like, you know, he looks like, you know, he looks like a Chia Pet that nobody was really paying attention to for a couple months. And. And now.

[D]

Could it just be like hair pills? No, no, because back too much.

[A]

No, no. Because he's got so the old way they used to do it there.

[B]

Was.

[A]

There would you. Would have, like, this very, very unique, like, m. Scar on the back of your head. And people have gone through his hair, and. And they can pinpoint a little bit. Like, if you're. You wouldn't see it if it's just. You're, like, in. You know, in person walking by. But if you're actually looking for it, you can kind of see the line in the back of his head. And they say that's the old way that they used to do hair transplants. You would actually pull, like, a strip off of the back of the head and then pull the. The roots from there. But, Blake, don't worry, because that's not how they do it now. Not in TJ down there. What they do is they actually go.

[D]

They go get a gofundme.

[A]

They go, like, route by route now. So there's no scar.

[D]

This could be a gofundme thing.

[E]

You should do it.

[B]

But you should send in your.

[A]

Send in your rumble rants. We should. Blake, go use rumble rants to fund Blake going down to TJ.

[D]

If we get over, I would say $300. A thousand. Okay. Thousand dollars in rumble.

[A]

You were going to sell them out for 300 bucks.

[D]

If we get over $1,000 in Rumble Rant.

[A]

You see who the actual Mexican is.

[D]

By the way, Then we will take this to a step two, which is undetermined.

[E]

Yeah, it's a consultation.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

We'll go down into Tijuana.

[E]

Consultation.

[A]

Guys, I've said Tijuana like, a hundred times.

[B]

I'll go.

[E]

We have people to go with you. You don't have to do this alone.

[B]

I'll do. I'll do it.

[D]

Where is the studio?

[A]

Yeah, I know we've got.

[B]

I'm.

[A]

I'm good. But would you say you're gonna do it?

[E]

I would love more hair.

[A]

You would do it?

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

I would love to have this guy. No, you weren't there that night. This guy. I'm not balding. Like, not balding, but, like, you could touch it up.

[E]

I could. I need it.

[A]

You could touch it up for sure.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

This guy, I'm telling you, like, his hairline. And you could. I mean, Steve Carell did this during.

[E]

The office that you could do this.

[A]

His hairline was like, it. Like your. Your hat like that straight across line. That's what his hairline was. And it was crazy. He's like, I used to look like you, and he didn't. He show us his license? He had, like, a. Yeah, he did. I think he did, and he showed us that. And you could see that he was just bald. He was, like, regular bald. And then he pulled his hat. It was very dramatic, right? He just pulled his hat off, and it was like, oh, my gosh.

[B]

Like, his locks just like.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And he said he got that in. No, I mean, you know, your mileage vary. But he said he did that in, like, less than a year. It was, like, a couple of months since he had it done and, you know, enough time that he hadn't.

[D]

You just can't miss that much. Showtime.

[A]

He hadn't read on his.

[B]

I just feel there's probably not a lot of.

[A]

Put him on the show.

[B]

There's not a lot of upside. I feel like there's not a lot of upside to a person who publicly is bald becoming abruptly not bald. I feel it's great. It just. Just seems like that would. People would make fun of that.

[D]

No, people make fun of it also.

[B]

I don't really care about being bald.

[C]

All right.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

You can always look.

[E]

It's not. It's not about caring. No. We.

[B]

We.

[D]

It's about content.

[E]

It's about content.

[D]

Content is king.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

We, We.

[D]

Blake. All right.

[A]

Hey, you can always find mint in teal. There's the song.

[D]

Finally here. Okay, so we are here because we want to do this. It's going to be a shortened episode because, you know, it's a short week.

[A]

Well, it'll be a full episode, but short in a sense.

[D]

Okay. Shorter than Blake's hair.

[A]

No, nothing shorter than that.

[B]

That's pretty. That's pretty.

[A]

Nothing.

[D]

Tried to work that in, so. But we're here to be thankful. As Blake said, this has been a tough year.

[C]

We.

[D]

We've got. We've got to practice gratitude. This was one of Charlie's favorite holidays, and he. I remember just the. It was like a string of gratitude and Thanksgiving tweets last year after we won the election. And, you know, here we are a year later without Charlie, and obviously, he was stolen from us. And I think it's tempting not to be grateful this year, but we have to practice it as a. As a discipline, because there are many things to be grateful for. I'm thankful for this team. I'm thankful. You know, Jack, you've been in studio and in town so much. I've been grateful for that. You've. You've been a mensch and just making sure that everybody's doing well and making sure you keep touching base. It's pretty great. I'm appreciative of that. I'm grateful for that no homo. And I'm grateful that you have to say no homo.

[A]

You have to say that I'm.

[B]

I.

[D]

Well, no homo. Okay, there you go.

[B]

But when you say it that way, it's like you're not thinking it.

[A]

Did you really mean it?

[D]

Did you really mean it?

[A]

Did you really mean it?

[D]

This is the great feminization. Helen Andrews, please check. That episode out was so good.

[B]

Oh, hold on, hold on. We got one. We have five. Towards the hair fund. God only gives hair to people with lumpy heads. The perfect heads he makes bald to show them.

[A]

This is from Zuzu's battle.

[D]

I can attest I have a very lumpy head. If I went bald, I'd be way uglier. Totally. Okay. So the other thing I'm grateful for, actually, is that I got to spend eight years working with Charlie. Pretty wild, actually, to think about what Charlie is going to mean in the whole scheme of history and just the passage of time and as we write history books, as documentaries come out, which they will, as movies come out. And the thought that I got to work with Charlie so closely and got to know him as personally as I did, it's a real blessing because he was a great guy. The best.

[B]

Mr. Cannabis 69. Quite the name says. I am thankful that Charlie Kirk helped me have faith again. That is very nice.

[D]

Yeah, it's beautiful, though.

[B]

You should also honor Charlie by not being Mr. Cannabis anymore. That's what Charlie would say.

[D]

Well, that's true.

[E]

Yeah. I agree with you, Andrew. It's been, as a point of reflection, obviously this year, as we start to close out this year, it's going to be really weird to be. They always say that the holidays are always harder after you lose people because you think about those people a lot more. And obviously we're praying for Erica and the family and all the. All those that were close family members of Charlie's because this is going to be a really tough year for him. But, yeah, I mean, you can't help but like our entire turning point family, the show, family, everybody. It just is a different. It's a different holiday season this year where I think we get to take the. The time away. Like I was telling the team today, we had a little Thanksgiving lunch before going off into break. And, you know, there was a. There's a lot of similarity with, you know, the. The type of sadness that can come from. From just tragedy and coming out of that and figuring out kind of what will be birthed and like America, when it was born, had just a lot of trial, a lot of struggle and a lot of people who kind of wanted to give up on it. But out of that came a lot of good. And we had a lot of people, you know, sacrifice themselves across history to give their lives to great something that's really special. And so it's really about what you do with it now at this point is, you know, as we reflect on kind of the sadness, the loneliness, some of that that comes from not having Charlie here with us is figuring out and really reflecting on, you know, where do we go from here and what do we do with it.

[B]

So we're six minutes to our heart out, and then we're going to be showing a flashback bit where we have when Charlie was still with us and we talked a lot about Thanksgiving. But before we go to that, how about we read some of Charlie's tweets? Because I don't think we did. I don't think we did that in the actual show.

[D]

I was going to do it if you didn't.

[B]

So we have. First of all, we're going to flash all the way back, I think, because we were discussing what types of food he appreciates. I think.

[D]

Do we have that image?

[B]

Do we have that? Yeah. So first up, put up 218, Charlie's preferred Thanksgiving recipe with the Norman Rockwell painting in the background. Turkey gravy. I remember this. Cranberries. And you have to literally have the cylindrical can of the cranberry gelatin.

[D]

And you just put it right in the pie.

[B]

You just put it straight down.

[C]

We're gonna no Alfred clip after this.

[B]

No additions. You'll see that in a bit. Stuffing has to be cornbread, celery, carrot, sausage, green beans. Not casserole.

[C]

Wrong.

[B]

This totally wrong, you know, and there's no pie mentioned, so we had to go dig back. We found a tweet put up by, I believe, 220. Is it all the way back from 2012, that is.

[D]

We, Charlie, crazy teenage Charlie got one retweet and zero likes.

[E]

Now you go back here. I'm looking at his 2012, 2013, you know, 2014 tweets about Thanksgiving that Charlie put out. I mean, zero, like zero retweets.

[B]

Yeah. Older time. He says, pumpkin pie.

[A]

Doing it for love.

[C]

Doing it for the love of the game.

[E]

This was the first Thanksgiving, you know, era that I known Charlie was 2015. He had, you know, got like five, 10 likes.

[A]

Why didn't you retweet him, Tyler?

[E]

I'm going to. I'm going to all things.

[A]

Why didn't you Retweet him back then.

[B]

Didn't even care.

[A]

Wow, some friend you are.

[E]

Yeah, that was back in the era where I rejected having Twitter. Charlie was the one that made me get on Twitter. I didn't. I wouldn't be on Twitter if it doesn't even.

[D]

How do you even find out who retweeted it? It got two bookmarks. Is that just.

[B]

You can see who retweeted. But. But we have better. We have better, more recent Charlie tweets as well. Let's just run through some of them. We got 2. 17. This was last year. Psalm 100, verse 4. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name in 2020.

[A]

Which.

[B]

That was another tough year. That was Covid year. That was the election went very bad year. That was George Floyd year. And he tweeted, jesus Christ is the king of the world. He died for you this Thanksgiving. Give your life to Christ. It's the same thing he'd say if he was here right now. He's saying it right now. In another place. We believe. And we also have this one. This is the one we showed earlier today. 208 also from last year. Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. We are thankful for the gift of salvation for our amazing children and God's mercy on our great country this year. Take a moment today to be grateful that we did it. By God's grace alone, we took our country back. And that. That's one of the best things with Charlie in everything he did is he was always very eager to turn it into praise towards God. He was not one to collect praise on himself. He was not one to tout his own doings. As he always said, it's all on God. All on God. And another one. 2024. I am overwhelmed with gratitude this Thanksgiving. What a time to be alive.

[E]

This is my personal favorite. 1121 12. I am getting increasingly upset that the left is trying to paint Thanksgiving as a day of Native American persecution. Banger.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

No one liked or tweeted.

[B]

0 likes 0 retweets.

[E]

0 banger cares.

[B]

Given that was.

[A]

That was in the past.

[E]

Yeah, I just. I just quote tweeted it just then.

[D]

Donnie.

[B]

Donnie Duple says Christians are heirs with Christ. And notice he spelled it heirs correctly. It's not hairs with Christ. It's heirs, not hairs.

[A]

I feel like I remember Charlie saying last year and we're going to play this again. I feel like I remember him. It may have been. May have been off air. He said to me he's like, I eat one piece of pie every year. And he like.

[D]

And he had ice cream. With ice cream. And on, I want to say, New Year's.

[B]

Fourth of July.

[D]

Was it Fourth of July?

[B]

Fourth of July.

[A]

It was Fourth of July. You're right.

[D]

Yeah. So he had ice cream, and it was one scoop. Just twice a year.

[B]

Would Charlie have gotten. Would Charlie have gone bald if he had stuck around?

[D]

No, but Eric and then. I don't think he would have.

[B]

Would he. Would he have gotten Eric?

[E]

Erica.

[D]

Aggressive hairline, though.

[E]

Erica would have taken it out of Tijuana.

[B]

She would have gone for the Tijuana.

[D]

Erica said she found one gray hair on his head.

[B]

One gray hair.

[D]

Just before he died, she saw one gray hair on his head, which is man. He earned every ounce of that.

[E]

So essentially, the day he started aging was when he was taken off this earth.

[D]

Yeah. Reminds me of that eulogy that you helped write.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

From the poem.

[D]

He'll be forever.

[B]

He shall not grow old. Age shall not weary him, nor the years decay degrade. Something like that.

[E]

Yep.

[D]

And.

[B]

But we who remain. I'll. I'll read it again. We can. We can close before we go to that.

[A]

See, I want to throw out. I. I was asked, by the way, Tyler, your.

[C]

Your.

[A]

Your staff was very adamant that I have to say this. So the new hats and shirts, if anyone's interested, we got the black ones now. Black freedom hats, black freedom shirts. Turningpoint.com as well as Tyler's hat. There one nation under God. No Turning point dot com.

[E]

This is turningpoint dot com. So an action store is separate from the tpsa.

[A]

So did you not have Turning Point point dot com before?

[E]

No, we did.

[A]

So you did, but you never used it.

[E]

No, we've used it, by the way, for the store.

[D]

If you want the OG if you want the OG the white shirt. That's it. Charlie Kirk.

[E]

Yeah, I should say the charliekirk.com is the freedom.

[A]

I think you and I have something else to show, right?

[D]

Little.

[A]

Little sneak preview that we got.

[D]

December 9, 2025. It's Charlie's last book.

[C]

There it is.

[D]

Stop. In the name of God, stop by. Honoring the Sabbath will transform your life. Charlie loves taking a Sabbath. So the backstory here is Charlie had to learn how to. How to manage everything that was on his plate, and he had incredible discipline on Friday night. So he used the Jewish Shabbat as kind of his model, but he obviously was not Jewish, but it gave him, like, the framework to do it. So Friday, when the sun would set, he'd turn his phone off, and he would literally just spend time with his family until the sun went up or went down again on Friday or Saturday night. And he would just spend time with Erica and the kids. That was it.

[A]

The end. And that's so. That's so.

[D]

And it transformed his life.

[A]

And it's so perfect because the forward, which was added after the fact, obviously is written by Erica Kirk.

[D]

Y. It's been amazing.

[A]

So this.

[D]

Pick up your copy, Kirk.

[C]

All right.

[B]

We have a hard out. We have a hard out. He has.

[A]

You got to hear my Charlie theory, though. No, I'm going to say my Charlie theory.

[C]

You got to let.

[B]

You got to let Tyler run.

[E]

I. I got. I got to jump on the phone is a big thing.

[A]

You can. You can have Thanksgiving, but you got to hear my Charlie. The theory. All right, so. So we know that Charlie. Two things that Charlie absolutely love. Three things, right?

[D]

His.

[A]

One of his favorite movies was the Big Lebowski. He said this to me so many times. He loved this movie. I'm saying it, Andrew. I'm saying it. And what does one of the characters do in the Big Levowski. John Goodman's character, he practices Shabbat. He calls it show Mer Shabbat. So he practices. So I can't go bowling on Saturday. It's Shabbat.

[D]

Show me Shabbat.

[A]

Show me Shabbat. I can't do it. And then, Blake, do you know where they go to eat in? I've never seen the Big Lebowski. They go to eat at in and out.

[D]

Yeah. So his. Your theory.

[A]

Think about this. I'm telling you, there's something about this. The Big Lebowski, Charlie. It's got Shabbat and in and out. In it. The very earliest seeds may have been sown by Charlie's love of the Coen brothers and the Big Lebowski.

[D]

It's possible.

[E]

It's possible.

[A]

It's my theory.

[D]

Unlikely, but possible.

[A]

It's incredibly likely. What are you talking about?

[B]

So we will continue. We're going to be playing a flashback to last year's. Either last year or two years ago, when we had all the discussion on what to eat for Thanksgiving, what the tradition should be. But it's with Charlie, we wanted everyone to revisit that and enjoy it again. And, you know, how about we just. We'll just close with.

[A]

Well, I didn't say I was thankful for.

[B]

What are you thankful for?

[A]

Thankful for you guys.

[B]

Oh, well, thank you.

[D]

That's pretty good. It's a Good ending.

[B]

And we're all thankful. And of course, we're thankful for all of the audience, you guys who tuned in. We hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving. And I think let's close for the toss with the adjusted version of that poem we were talking about. As we remember. Charlie, what's the name of the poem? For the Fallen is the original name of the poem. It's just one stanza within a larger one. It was written, of course, about the people who died in World War I. He shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember.

[D]

Him and be thankful.

[C]

Okay, everybody.

[A]

Hello.

[C]

It is Thought crime week. It is Thanksgiving week, and we are here. By the way, the official uniform of Thought crime this week is the Thanksgiving uniform.

[A]

I decided to go as Charlie Kirk for this Thanksgiving. I didn't. I didn't fully shave. I might later. And then. And then, like your hair thing where you do like the down up.

[C]

It's the natural color.

[A]

It's like a nice. It's like a Nike swoosh.

[C]

It is. It's. I have it. Have it trademarked.

[A]

Is that why you only wear Nikes?

[C]

I actually don't only wear Nikes, but I should. So we also have Blake and Tyler as well. What are they wearing? Let's see. Blake is probably wearing a T shirt.

[E]

I'm wearing my turkey hat.

[B]

I. I believe this is a Kirkland shirt. I don't actually have a Costco membership, but I'll be honest, my mother buys a lot of shirts for me.

[E]

I'm wearing my turkey hat, my native American shawl.

[B]

I hear all you guys in there.

[E]

And then my Arizona State T shirt. Because we're going to the big tall championship. Unless things go awry on Saturday.

[C]

Well, maybe. Hold on, Tyler. You know the story of Arizona football. Whatever is predictable. No, Tyler knows this. They will curse. Whatever inevitable path they have, they mess it up. It is an inevitability of Arizona State football.

[E]

I've got a front row seat. Charlie, on Saturday with my two brothers right behind Kenny Dillingham. So, Tucson.

[B]

This is a very dumb question.

[C]

You're going. But going down to Tucson.

[E]

I'm going down to Tucson and front row seat.

[A]

I like Tucson.

[E]

So it's going to be a miserable.

[B]

This is a dumb question. Having never gone to an ASU football game. Did they just, like, suffer in complete agony for their first, like, three home games of the season? Because, you know.

[C]

Oh, no. They do evenings. Evenings.

[E]

They do them in the evenings.

[B]

It's actually really still 95 degrees in Arizona.

[E]

It's a nice brisk 98. But here's the factoid for everybody that's listening. Arizona has the longest rivalry game in the country. The Territorial cup between Arizona State and Arizona. People don't believe it. Look it up.

[C]

No way. Oregon. Oregon State has to be older. I'm.

[E]

No, look it up. Territorial cup is the longest recognized NCAA football rivalry.

[A]

Now he's here come all the caveats.

[C]

Goes back to 1873.

[E]

It's the oldest.

[B]

Is it like the oldest that has.

[C]

How is it older than 1873?

[A]

Yale Princeton is pretty.

[C]

I mean, Yale Princeton was 1873.

[E]

No, but the rivalry game.

[A]

I'm surprised.

[C]

Yale Princeton is a rivalry game. They hate each other.

[E]

You have to look up the territory.

[C]

Montana. Montana State, 1897.

[A]

That's pretty old.

[C]

Illinois State, Eastern Illinois, 19.

[A]

Arizona wasn't even a state back then. No one couldn't be an Arizona State because there wasn't a state.

[B]

I'm looking. I'm looking online, and it says the duel in the desert is just 1899. And there's many rivalries that are older than 18. 1899. Michigan, Notre Dame, 1887. Duke, North Carolina, 1888.

[A]

The oldest one that Tyler knows about.

[E]

No, no, actually, look.

[B]

Google Territorial Cup, Army Navy Game, 1890. I. I feel like the Army Navy game is pretty old. Like they're. And they're still going.

[E]

Territorial cup, the nation's oldest rivalry trophy.

[B]

Oh, oldest trophy. That's. So they. The trophy.

[E]

You can't really have a cup without a trophy.

[B]

You could just spiritually have one.

[E]

That's it. So. And that's. And that was territorial. That's what's called a territorial cup.

[B]

Sounds like your territorial.

[E]

Arizona State was the normal school, and.

[A]

That was it big time.

[B]

Okay. All right.

[E]

I'm not saying it's good football. I'm just saying it's.

[A]

It's.

[B]

I have, by the way, since it is a Thanksgiving Day episode, I wanted to flag that we have all something very important to be grateful for. Remember, Real Raw News, Charlie, you remember Real Raw News, America's only trustworthy news source. They have a breaking report today, just before Thanksgiving. Special forces have arrested Kamala Harris. She has come back. Final vacation in Hawaii. But they. They nabbed her. According to the story, there were moles inside of her Secret service detail, and they couldn't get her in Hawaii. I guess Hawaii is like the deep state safe zone where they control things. But they got her back to DC which is also a deep state safe zone, but not as safe. And so they managed to take her into custody. She and Doug Emhoff will be sent to Gitmo to stand trial for treason. I'm glad real raw news is able to get. Happy Thanksgiving.

[A]

I was worried that she might be out there.

[C]

So Tyler's half right. It's the oldest trophy. It's the oldest trophy. Okay, that is. That is legit. So it is the oldest trophy. The Territory Cup.

[E]

It's pretty impressive.

[B]

It doesn't sound like it's a trophy. It sounds like it's a cup.

[E]

Nothing.

[A]

Yeah, no, he's right. The Territorial cup was created 125 years ago. Championship.

[C]

It's the oldest rivalry trophy in college football.

[D]

But what.

[A]

What was the school even called before?

[C]

I. I don't know. They're not.

[E]

ASU was called the Normal School. It's called the Normal.

[C]

It was called Tempe. It was literally called Tempe Normal.

[A]

Tempe Normal.

[C]

And Arizona.

[E]

Huh?

[A]

It was.

[C]

And then it was called Arizona State Teachers.

[B]

It's. The Territorial cup is so old that it literally is like a cup. It looks like a. It looks like a vase.

[C]

I'm actually impressed.

[B]

Flowers in.

[C]

I didn't. I thought no one lived in Arizona to, like 1930.

[E]

No, my ancestors were there.

[A]

And it was literally just two football teams. Prior to 1912. It was just two football teams.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I. I just remember and to go that you had to replace someone on the team.

[B]

Arizona's population in 1890 was 88, 000 people moved here.

[E]

We chased twice as many more.

[A]

65 of them were related to our. To Tyler.

[E]

I'm a seventh generation Arizona.

[B]

When did. When did the old technically show up here?

[E]

It wasn't boy. It was lambs and. And those people. But there was this 1860s.

[B]

186. In 1860, the population of Arizona. 6482 people.

[A]

Better not.

[B]

That is.

[E]

That is OG second cousins with Sheriff Lamp.

[D]

Yep.

[B]

Man, now there's 6000. There's, like, probably more than that within, like, a couple blocks of here.

[E]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[C]

All right. Speaking of getting out into the wild, they say evolution has gone soft and that men have traded their strength for comfort. But if you're not about to let your instincts go dull, fuel up with something raw and real. You hear that? It's in the script, Blake. Raw and real.

[D]

Right there.

[A]

Right there.

[C]

It's in the script. Right, Jack? Am I making it up?

[A]

Something raw, real, and primal.

[C]

By the way, we should Do a spin off called Primal News. By the way, Blake could be a millionaire running Primal News as a spinoff of Real raw news because he understands that language so well, we should just call it Is there a Primal News? I don't even want to see what.

[A]

I don't think there is. No. There's no problem News.

[C]

I'm sure that would be great.

[B]

I'm gonna.

[C]

Primal News. Okay.

[E]

This is gonna end wrong. Not good.

[C]

Naked Organs is the name. It's called Naked Organs. We're talking pure bison liver, kidney, heart, and testicles, some of which are very nutrient dense on the planet Nutri dense foods on the planet. Bison liver alone packs up more than three times more vitamin A than muscle meat, along with high levels of vitamin B12, iron, and folate, all essential for energy, immune health, and keeping you sharp. And the best part, you get all these powerhouse nutrients in a form that's easy to take, no raw organs required. Head to benaked.com, use promo code CHARLIE and get 15% off. Time to silence the noise, reclaim your power, and get back to being unstoppable. Okay, guys, we have to talk about Thanksgiving. Is it okay to eat steak on Thanksgiving?

[A]

I really worry it's the only thing you eat on Thanksgiving.

[B]

No, no, that's incorrect. Incorrect. Not allowed. No, no, you can have. Tyler and I were discussing this.

[A]

Not at all. Not at all.

[C]

Not at all.

[B]

You can have. You must have turkey. It is required to have turkey. You may have ham if it is supplementary to the turkey, but, like, it should be. Any meat you have should be from like a. A central meat dispensing entity. You cannot have individualized servings of meat. That is. That is my position.

[A]

From a central meat dispensary.

[B]

No, like, you don't. You don't make a giant. You don't make like a £50 steak and then take like a piece of it and like, pass the giant super steak around like that. That's what you do with ham or turkey. Like, you make the whole turkey or you make the whole ham. You can, like, cut a little bit of it, but you don't do that with steak.

[A]

No, but that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. You can have a separate serving of a plate of steak for people similar to the ham.

[B]

No, it's just wrong. Like.

[E]

No, because ham is. Ham is like supplement to the turkey taste. You have to have turkey and ham on your plate.

[B]

You don't need ham, though. You don't want.

[E]

No, you don't need him?

[C]

No, no. I'm a turkey purist, but some people think that they can start to get really. Now, Christmas is a completely different ball game. There are no rules with Christmas. Ham is usually center, but steak is acceptable. Yeah, but. No, but still, Christmas is a whole Thanksgiving. It is un American not to have either turkey. Some sort of dressing, cranberries. But here's the thing about the cranberry thing. If you want to be an ultra traditionalist.

[A]

Right.

[C]

It must be straight out of the can.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Taken vertically with no adjustments. And now if you want to have this.

[B]

Thing. Now, hold on.

[C]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And if you want to have cranberry, with adjustments, that could be supplementary, but however, it must be out of the can, and you just take it vertically and it just jiggles.

[A]

Walk me through your stuffing.

[C]

The stuffing is very interesting. Okay, now here's the big question.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Does the stuffing go in the turkey or is it prepared outside of the turkey?

[E]

Is that stuffing versus dressing?

[A]

Put it in. Cook it with the turkey, or some people will prepare it and then just put it in for, like, the final.

[C]

See, final leg. You got to go the full lanta. So it. I. Dressing has to be, obviously, cornbread.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Some sort of celeries and carrots.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

Sausage.

[A]

Need your crunch.

[C]

Little crunch. Mix that all together. But you know what makes the stuffing really kicker? The gravy.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And so you need the gravy. You have the stuffing, you have the jiggling cranberry, you got the turkey, and that's all that's accepted. And then also maybe green beans. And then sweet potatoes.

[A]

Creamy casserole.

[C]

How do you see potatoes?

[A]

What's the issue with green bean casserole?

[C]

I. I just. I just. It's not. It's not allowed.

[A]

What do you mean it's not.

[C]

You're getting too cute.

[A]

Green bean casserole.

[E]

Green bean casserole. With.

[A]

It's a total staple.

[B]

With the.

[C]

No, no, with those little crunchy things.

[A]

They're fried onions.

[C]

No, no, I like what. I like the long, uninterrupted, unblemished green beans.

[A]

With butter.

[C]

With butter.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

That's good, though.

[A]

Those are good.

[C]

No, no. Casserole.

[A]

Casserole.

[C]

I never said casserole. The casserole is a.

[A]

No, we are saying casserole is a staple. It's an absolute Thanksgiving.

[C]

I don't think It's a staple.

[B]

100.

[C]

And then let me think what else? Okay, yes. Then the sweet potatoes.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

But none of this marshmallow stuff. You see, this is New age. And it's a mistake. We're all of a sudden full tradition. No, no, it's a mixture of. It's like 1950s Thanksgiving, right? It's like. That's why it's like the gel. You know, it's.

[E]

No, no.

[A]

I'm saying no marshmallows.

[C]

No, no, no marshmallows. The marshmallow thing is. Is a disgrace with.

[A]

Well, Charlie, hold on a second, though, because there is one thing. Wait, wait, wait, wait. There is one thing. One dish that we know for a fact was served at the original Thanksgiving. Charlie, you know where I'm going with this.

[C]

Smallpox.

[A]

No, no, no, Charlie. Not what. Not what we served. What was served to us. Got it. Corn.

[C]

Oh, see, no, no corn was served at the original. The only corn that is acceptable is cornbread. I will say you have to bend the knee to the corn God. And cornbread has to be either the dressing, the stuff.

[B]

Stuff.

[C]

Do you agree, Tyler?

[A]

Long time, thought time. Remember that, Charlie is.

[C]

Is like, Blake radicalized me.

[A]

Anti cornite.

[C]

I. I think. I think corn has no redemptive value unless it is for Thanksgiving, because then it is a sacrament to Squanto.

[E]

No, no. Corn is good in the summertime.

[C]

We.

[B]

We eat corn on Thanksgiving to show our thanks that the angry corn God has not destroyed us.

[E]

No court corn.

[C]

Exactly. This is exactly.

[A]

I forgot his name. I forgot the corn God's name.

[C]

No, no. We're not talking about corn on the cob. We're talking about corn elements. Corn bread, for example.

[B]

Corn.

[A]

Even.

[B]

Even.

[A]

Wait, wait, wait.

[C]

Even.

[A]

Charlie.

[B]

Kirk.

[A]

Anti corn.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

This is huge.

[C]

No, this is what?

[D]

Thanks.

[A]

This is big. This is.

[C]

Let's be very clear. Thanksgiving is not about what you want to do. It is what your ancestors did.

[A]

Okay?

[C]

It doesn't matter if you don't want to do. No, that's what I'm saying. It's not about. I don't care about. If you don't like cranberries, you don't like turkey. Suck it up. It's Thanksgiving. There is no this. We. This modernity. Like, I'm gonna put, like, Tanya doesn't.

[A]

Tanya will not eat turkey.

[C]

It doesn't matter.

[A]

She'll make it. She won't figure it out. She won't eat it.

[D]

So.

[E]

So here in Arizona.

[C]

I don't know what to tell you.

[E]

I. I completely agree with Charlie. I think the canned cranberry is a must on the table, however, you have to have. You have to have a second. In Arizona, we have jalapeno cranberries. Incredible. If you haven't had it.

[C]

I know you're regionalizing this too much.

[A]

No, it's good.

[B]

Yeah, it adds a little spice.

[A]

It's just a little bit.

[B]

It's like when I went to the Grand Canyon last summer and I discovered that I guess they just sell, like, prickly pear everything at every Arizona tourism thing.

[A]

That's, that's anywhere.

[E]

Prickly pear, chickens. So I, I have a question for everybody, though. And this is getting deep into the weeds. So we talked about stuffing or dressing. Moist stuffing or dry stuffing.

[C]

It's got to be dry, but the gravy makes it moist. If you make it too moist your ve always make it more moist before the gravy. You can't.

[A]

You.

[C]

It has to be on the spectrum of tilt. Moist, but not too much, because if it's too dry, then it's just, it's too brittle and brittle. There's nothing worse than brittle dressing.

[E]

So, so you call it dressing.

[C]

It's.

[A]

I'm noticing that you call it dressing.

[C]

It should be stuffing. However, I've been corrected many times. I've always called it stuffing, even though it's not technically stuffing unless it's within the turkey.

[B]

Yes.

[E]

Dressings outside the turkey.

[C]

No, it's not. No, I, I, I, I grew up calling it stuffing, even though we never put it in the turkey.

[A]

No, but it's the. Get that. But the, the type of food would be called still stuffing. Dressing is, like, for salads.

[C]

No, no, no, no, no.

[E]

Dressing is outside. That is.

[A]

I reject that completely.

[C]

Totally.

[B]

Stuffing is like a type of food, and it, like, it should be used to stuff in it, but it is still stuffing, even if it's not doing this.

[E]

There's lots of things where we don't.

[A]

Use the name properly, but we, but we still call it that.

[C]

I'm excited for Thanksgiving at this point. This is great. So we're.

[A]

People know we're pre taping this.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Ahead. We are. We are. Today we are on.

[B]

We are able to do things. We blew off Thanksgiving.

[E]

We're supposed to be eating right now.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So now let's, let's now go to the more fundamental question.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Dessert. Okay. Because that really is what?

[A]

Well, for me, I mean, if I have, I have. All right, go ahead.

[C]

No, no, you go. You. No, this is.

[A]

I have. I have at times, and my mom knows this. I have left the house, gone to the store and purchased the ingredients for pumpkin pie and brought it home and made it myself because there was no pumpkin pie available. It is required.

[C]

Oh, I completely agree. It is like 100. The first commandment of. Oh, yeah, Thanksgiving.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

Thou shall have pumpkin pie. With whipped cream.

[A]

With whipped cream.

[C]

Yes. It is a non negotiable right.

[A]

If it's not there. Like, I, I, I got up, I got in my car. I was like, I'm just gonna go. I'm not.

[C]

Now Ryan asks a really good question. Is Thanksgiving meal a lunch or a dinner? The answer is around 3:30 to 4:00pm yeah. That is the sweet spot. Right as the sun is going down in Chicago.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

Boom. You sit down, right?

[B]

Thanksgiving, that is way too late.

[A]

It is itself its own meal.

[C]

No, no, that is.

[B]

That is. That's way too late. You do it. I would say Neff family tradition is maybe 1 to 1:30pm so early. Super early.

[C]

What are you doing?

[B]

Half time.

[C]

The second football game.

[A]

When are you going to sleep?

[B]

Halftime of the second football game.

[C]

The first football game is the Lions. The Cowboys are always second. We have a tradition in our house. Halftime at Cowboys. We get seated because we're cheering that the Cowboys will lose.

[B]

Yes. Well, that's good. But no, it's way too late.

[A]

We share this tradition as well.

[C]

Like, oh, a TV's off during the meal. No.

[B]

Yeah. Like, no, I, I greatly dislike the, like, TV sanctification of Thanksgiving. Like, I don't know. I would watch. I would consider it, like, if the packers are on, I would watch the packers, but I do not consider it essential to watch now. There's three games on Thanksgiving.

[A]

We usually have, like.

[C]

No, this is true. There has been a desecration. It used to be only two games, and it was on Fox. It would be the Lions, who used to be bad and now they're good. And actually, who do they play this week? Let me see. I bet it's actually pretty good lineup. And then it was the Cowboys, but now NBC got greedy because it was. Fox had their game, CBS had their game, and then NBC got greedy and they snuck in their own. So is that this week? No. Okay, let me see here. What do we got? We got a new week of football. Okay. There's three games. Oh, Blake, you're in luck.

[B]

Yeah, I know, I know. I'll see it.

[C]

It's the evening Lambeau. Okay, I'm gonna be watching that. Oh, and Chicago plays on Thanksgiving. Oh, wow.

[E]

They're gonna get.

[B]

They're gonna get annihilated. They're gonna die at Detroit.

[C]

It's gonna be Detroit.

[B]

That's.

[A]

Yeah, that's not gonna be.

[C]

By the way, you can tell who's having a better season? Tickets start at ford Field for $181. Tickets start at Jerry Stan. 28 bucks.

[A]

Yeah, my. My son asked me the other day because he saw when we went to the. The Eagles game, and he was, like, all jealous that we went, and so he was like, oh, daddy, give me some Eagles tickets. We'll go. And so we looked up the ones for Thanksgiving weekend, and I was like, I gotta sell a lot more pillows.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, Eagles tickets right now are. It was $500. Was like, the highest nosebleed.

[C]

311 is where they start at.

[A]

Insane.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

This week you're seeing what, 3:11. And that's in Baltimore. But Baltimore. So close. You're basically. You're basically in the silly light, right? Yeah, you're pretty much in. It's like 90 minutes. You know, the way I drive, it's 90 minutes.

[C]

Okay, so now. Now that we have developed.

[A]

By the way. By the way, I don't want to throw my mom under the bus, because every single year. And I know she's going to watch this every single year, post that. There's, like, a selection of pumpkin pies.

[C]

That is always available the way it must be. By the way, do you think that pecan pie can also make an appearance?

[E]

Of course. Yeah.

[C]

Okay, good.

[B]

Be there.

[A]

But pumpkin is the only canned pie.

[C]

I actually prefer more than pumpkin pie.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

However, I must have a slice of pumpkin pie.

[A]

Wait, were you always like that, though, when you were little?

[C]

My mom makes a killer pecan pie.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Like, destroys the world.

[B]

Okay, what about.

[A]

So when I was younger, I was always pumpkin, but then, well, pecan pie now.

[C]

Now we're getting into chocolate pecan pie. And that's where you just surrender.

[A]

You're just done at that point.

[C]

It's just.

[A]

So you throw. You throw. Because guys, you know, folks who don't know. Charlie, you're usually pretty strict with your diet.

[C]

You're usually strict. It's like. I mean, you're usually like, no, no. But Thanksgiving's different. Thanksgiving, you go all in. And it is. It is a holy day. By the way, I think Thanksgiving is one of America's greatest traditions.

[E]

It is.

[C]

Because it's a day just to give thanks. I think it's uniquely awesome.

[A]

Talk about that for a little bit, because there's, you know, a lot of people say, well, it's, you know, it's just about the. You know, it's the Indians, it's the Pilgrims.

[C]

Well, everything is what you make of it.

[A]

Who cares?

[B]

Who cares?

[A]

There's no God involved. Why, why do you.

[C]

Well, no, first of all, the pilgrims were definitely giving thanks to God.

[B]

They were.

[C]

They were not giving, you know, thanks to Brahman, but they were giving thanks to the almighty God. And. But yeah, secondly, I just think it's amazing, especially during the season where we have such abundance and we won the election, that there's a day where you just stop and you say thank you, which then of course acknowledges you're saying thank you to a higher power. And I. I don't know of another nation or another country that has a day of gratitude. I think I actually said this once and I guess there was like some random African country that has it, and that's fine. I got like in trouble for saying this last year.

[A]

Yeah, okay.

[C]

So fine. I. I guess Senegal has. Has a day like that. I'll look it up.

[A]

However, great job, Senegal or whatever, but.

[C]

But what?

[A]

But following in some good footsteps.

[C]

But a day of gratitude. I. I subscribe to the Prager. Hopefully he's doing better. He's. He's fighting like crazy right now. Belief. He's really struggling that happiness is impossible if you are not grateful. And I believe that. I do not think you can have joy. I do not think you can have. Be content if you are not grateful. And I think it's a beautiful thing as a nation. We have a day to say thank.

[A]

You on the Nation always. Who gave us the story of Thanksgiving? Real quick notice. Real quick. You know, shout out to the OG who always told us the true story of Thanksgiving. Rush Limbaugh.

[C]

Oh, man, he was an OG on that.

[A]

He just did it every year. I still got. I've got a recording of it somewhere.

[C]

We used to play it and I gotta relist. Try to.

[A]

So good.

[C]

Send that me. Send it to me tonight. I gotta retry to recreate it.

[A]

I. I did something on the show last year where I sort of like, I. I didn't try to do it like Rush did it, but I told the story. And people just have to keep telling that story over and over. They tried socialism, it failed. Then they tried giving people ownership of their various plots of land. And then they had an overabundance of their harvest. And so they gave thanks to God.

[C]

What a concept.

[A]

What an incredible concept. But instead, now it's all like, oh, the pilgrims were dying and the Indians had to come and they saved the pilgrims because they were stupid. Europeans didn't know anything. Even though Squanto had actually lived in Europe, even he had been in London more recently than The Pilgrims had. That's how he spoke English so well. But course, you know, facts are.

[C]

Blake, you were saying something.

[B]

Well, so first of all, I was saying we should make fun of Canada for having their knockoff Thanksgiving that is just one month before ours. I think we should always seize every opportunity to bully Canada because it's fun and. But also, even, like, the full story of Thanksgiving, because evil liberals always want to dunk on it like, it's even more beautiful than just the Pilgrims doing it when they settled here. Like, the very first, like, annual Thanksgiving national holiday, Fourth Thursday in November, like clockwork. That was started by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, middle of the Civil War. The peak of the Civil War. I think that's probably the bloodiest year of the Civil War. And he says, yes, like, in the middle of this, we're going to have a celebration of national Thanksgiving. And, like, that was what set it as a national holiday. George Washington declared a day of Thanksgiving. It's truly, you know, it's a great thing because it is possibly the one great national tradition that was created in America that we have had for the entire history of America that is just totally our own thing. And then us being America, we have exported it to the rest of the world in various ways. Someone was very shocked to learn I was talking to a foreigner who was like, wasn't Black Friday this week? No, no, Black Friday is this week. And, well, it's kind of terrible.

[A]

Yeah. I used to be a Black Friday person, but now it's. I'm done.

[E]

It's.

[A]

It's awful. It's just so awful. And it's not even Black Friday anymore, because Black Friday, there's like. Well, Charlie, given everything that you just said about the importance of Thanksgiving, what do you think about the people who leave Thanksgiving dinner early to go and start shopping?

[C]

First of all. First of all, I totally. When I grew up, it was actually Black Friday.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Now it's like Black Thursday evening.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And it's not like you start lining up, like, the sales actually begin.

[C]

It's actually interesting for younger listeners that don't know, after so many people got trampled in the Walmart raids, because people would line up, they keep the stores open. Right. They don't close them and reopen them.

[A]

Because it used to be the Walmart would close and then.

[C]

And then all the. All the deals and the sales would be set, and then people would get trampled so much. I think someone almost died. And they got hospitalized. Hospitalized. And there were tons of people did die. This is the plot.

[A]

This is the plot of people die.

[C]

Is that right? I didn't know that.

[A]

Yeah, people died.

[C]

That's terrible that I didn't know they died though.

[A]

There's that. Thanks. Thanksgiving horror movie. This is actually the plot where people get killed and then like someone's getting revenge on the people who started the, the stampede.

[C]

So, so I, I had no problem with like you have a really, really good Thanksgiving and then you want to get good deals on stuff. And I think that was fine. It was like a good kickoff to the Christmas season. But. And it used to be when I grew up there was a grittiness to Black Friday. There was like a took, it took real spirit. So you have to understand like I grew up in Chicago. It would always be like sub 20 degrees. And if you wanted to get a Black Friday deal, you had to earn it. So you had to like leave with your family at like 10pm after all that turkey's full. And you like stood in line at Target from the. Open their doors at 12:01.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[C]

And you would like shop all night and you would like get 711 coffee and get home by like 5am and you felt like I earned this deal. And it was like, it was like a sense of accomplishment and you know what I mean?

[A]

You had to have. There was like a limit to what you could get.

[C]

Of course. No. And it was very narrow. And one specific, we would go through catalogs and go through what was on sale. This was all before Internet. I want to throw to Blake in a second. But there was.

[A]

The Internet ruined it.

[C]

There was a. Also there was a divide and conquer strategy of what stores are we gonna hit? Are we gonna go to Best Buy? Are we gonna go to Home Depot? Because like, and you're shopping for other people. And there was like a real like conquest like chess game.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[C]

Where it's like, oh wow. Best buy opens at 11:30 and Walmart's @ midnight.

[A]

My, my strategy would always be like I would find the one store that was like within a 45 minute drive but in like a, like a non populated area.

[C]

It was so much.

[A]

People think about or like a staples because nobody thinks that staples would have stuff but they do have computers and different, you know, items. So like what are, what's the thing that people aren't going to think about? And that's where I'm gonna go.

[C]

And now you just wait for Cyber Monday and click a couple buttons and so all the adventure of it and you don't earn it anymore. It used to be you'd get home at 3:30 in the morning. You're like, I got a good deal on screen tv. It was, it was a teenage rite of passage in suburban Chicago. Blake, your thoughts?

[B]

Yeah, it was really. I, I can still think of like individual things I went out of my way to get on Black Friday. I think I still have a PlayStation 3 that I got in 2011. I think I can remember the exact deal. It was a PS Slim, $250. It came with Little Big Planet and like some crummy Ratchet and Clank game, who cares? But like, that was the best deal you could get for I think like two years after that point. But what ended up killing it was as you said, you know, you were, you'd go for the time it used to be, okay, it was on Black Friday, normal hours. Then they would open it at like 6am in the morning and people would show up before then. Someone got ahead and made it, oh, let's open exactly at midnight. And then what finally killed it? I think the rise of the Internet was a factor. But another thing that killed it was companies decided to get so green they just said, we're doing Black Friday on Thanksgiving. And they would just be open on Thanksgiving with those deals. And I think to America's credit, there was popular backlash to this where they're saying, wait, you're forcing employees to skip Thanksgiving to come in and work on Thanksgiving. Though I must hedge, I have to be personally grateful for the fact that some. That stores are open on Thanksgiving, some of them, because I visited a friend, this is about 10 years ago, I went down to a friend in Tennessee for Thanksgiving and I took a mega bus down. You know, poor, we have to travel by bus. And I took a mega bus down and I had a bag under it. And we, I had to get off in Chattanooga, which was the final destination was Atlanta. And they get out and they're like, okay, where's your bag? I'm like, oh, it's under the thing. And they open it and they, they feel around, they're like, yeah, we can't find it. We have a schedule to do. We have, we have to go. And they just drove away with my bag with all of my changes of clothes. And I arrived late Wednesday night. So I had to go to a Walmart, which thanks to American capitalism, was open on Thanksgiving. And I had to buy an entire set of clothes for the whole weekend.

[E]

So I had that perspective. I actually, one of my first jobs was in high school. I took the, the seasonal job at Target. And my first day, like, first real day was Thanksgiving or Black Friday. So I had to wake up after Thanksgiving when I was like a sophomore in high school at like literally 4:00am I to be at Target at 4:30, help stock everything. This was still the days that they still open the doors like Charlie was talking about before, they just like leave it open or open like super early. And there would be like, I get there at like 4 o' clock and there would be a line wrapped around the building of people waiting to get in. And we had to stock everything.

[B]

So here's a crazy story. So you guys, there's a myth that Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. And you know why that's a myth? Because the real truth is. The real truth is that Thanksgiving is the day before Black Friday. And that is because. Let me finish the story. This is because I am not making it up. The current date of Thanksgiving is because of like an evil plot by fdr. No, I'm not making this up. So Lincoln's proclamation of Thanksgiving is, Thanksgiving is on the last Thursday of the month. Yes, it is on the last Thursday.

[A]

Right.

[B]

It is not on the last Thursday. It is currently on the fourth Thursday of the month. That is what the federal law is. So there are sometimes five. So there are sometimes five Thursdays in November. And then it would be on the fourth. It used to be on the fifth. And then during the Great Depression, I believe in 1939, FDR got in his head, if there is a longer, like, if there's a longer time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there will be a longer Christmas shopping season. And so people will shop more and this will stimulate the economy. And so he intervened and he moved Thanksgiving to be a week earlier. And this became a partisan political issue. And so for a few years, Republican states said, we're not doing this and we're refusing to go along with it. So you had a Democrat Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday and you had a Republican Thanksgiving on the fifth one. And I think Texas, because they were a Democrat state, but had a lot of, like, conservative Democrats who didn't like fdr. They called the truce and they just had. They said they're both holidays and they had two Thanksgiving and then sadly Congress submitted and now it's just on the fourth Thursday and we, we lost that culture war battle.

[A]

What you were saying, though, what you're saying, though, there's a deeper and. And producer Faz talks about this all the time. His birthday was this week, by the way. Shout out. He calls it micro wins. Micro W's and how. So, Charlie, you'd appreciate this is that like in. In your teenage years and. And working retail, you know, used to be part of this too. But in your teenage years, there used to be a variety of things that you would do as a rite of passage that have all been pretty much completely destroyed because of new technology. One of those, of course, was waiting in line like this. Another one of those, you know, having those retail jobs again with no phone to like just, you know, constantly be there, getting you through it, monotony, going through it. One of the other ones we. I don't know how I got into this. The other day on Twitter was like, it's not even Thanksgiving related, but it was like when you used to have to call someone's house and if you wanted to. If you wanted to call a girl, you had to call her house and you had to get through mom or potentially dad. And so it's like the elimination of all those things in society has now created men or adults who don't actually go through any meaningful rite of passage.

[C]

No, I mean, I totally agree with that. I mean, some of these other rites of passage were like elementary things, such as be home before dark. Like, that was like a very simple thing. Right. Other rites of passage were that you need to memorize, like you say, the home phone numbers of at least five people. That.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Memorizing phone numbers.

[C]

Right. I don't think anybody does that anymore. Anymore. Like, anybody.

[A]

I know Tanya's. I know my parents.

[C]

I know all the phone numbers from what I grew up.

[A]

I know a bunch of. When I grew up. Yeah. Like, I know a bunch of my buddies, but like, my brother got a cell phone later. I don't know.

[C]

I also think it was really important that when I used to call somebody's house, I had to speak to an adult.

[A]

That's what I'm saying.

[C]

I think, I think that was.

[A]

That's what I'm saying.

[B]

Think about that.

[A]

Think about.

[C]

I think it's a very under appreciated. There was no texting. It didn't exist.

[D]

No.

[C]

When I was in sixth grade, AOL Instant messenger was just starting.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

And that was a thing. But it had to be on a, like, publicly available computer in my house. And it wasn't like you couldn't like bring it with you at all times. It was like there was like a very, you know, like, so it was.

[A]

This like, logging on and logging off was a thing.

[C]

Oh, it was totally a thing.

[A]

That's.

[C]

They had the away message, like.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And like you would come home to see if you got any messages. And I actually, again, I don't even know if that was a healthier version of this crap that we have right now.

[A]

Much healthier.

[C]

And so I loved AL Instant messenger, for the record. I thought it was really fun, and it was actually a really, really good service. It was really. I mean, I really liked it. And it was.

[B]

A lot of our social norms.

[E]

A lot of our social norms on texting came from AOL Instant Messenger.

[C]

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's right.

[A]

Does it. LOL comes from that?

[C]

Lol. Brb, lol, ttyl, lol.

[A]

Absolutely comes from AOL Instant Messenger.

[B]

AOL still exists, by the way. There are still millions of people getting.

[E]

They shut down Instant Messenger.

[B]

Instant messenger has been dead. Not only is Instant Messenger.

[C]

Is that right?

[B]

Been dead.

[C]

AIM is done.

[A]

AIM is.

[B]

AIM is dead.

[E]

I, I and Charlie, it's even older than that because I. I was on Instab because Jack and I are a little bit older than you. I was on instead.

[C]

No, but I'm saying it was big. I just like to know it started to grow.

[B]

Tyler is way older than Charlie, so.

[E]

So Jack's older than me.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Tyler actually is the first.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. I loved Al Inst.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Here's another. Here's another rite of pet passage.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Playing a video game so much that it overheats. Yeah, no, that was. That's like, a real thing or playing a game.

[A]

Playing a game.

[C]

Oh, no, Jack knows what I'm talking about. Especially computer games, though. No, no, no, no. If you play for too long and your computer wasn't that sophisticated or good, your computer hard drive would, like.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Start to, like, overheat. Right. That's a real thing.

[A]

100%.

[C]

Or how about another one playing on either, like, Age of Empires or Sims or, like, whatever it was and, like, it malfunctioning before you save. Or you can, like, log your progress.

[A]

Right, Mom. Mom. Unplugging the Nintendo before. Well, when. When you were on, like, level eight of Mario and there was no way to save or no way at all.

[E]

Boys.

[B]

Mom. Telling you to pause the game when it's actually online and you're playing against other people.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

I had numerous times beating it. Defeating a level in Super Super Mario and then forgetting to save it. And you shut it off and you go back.

[B]

You're like, oh, that's so funny.

[C]

Things we worried about back then were just, like, so insignificant.

[A]

I miss. I'll say this. I don't know if any of you guys remember this one. I miss new music Tuesdays. Does anyone else remember new music too? So that was when.

[B]

Yeah, albums would release on Tuesdays, Right. I think games still released on Tuesdays a lot. They did, at least when I was a kid.

[A]

I think, God, there's something.

[B]

But maybe that might have varied now too.

[A]

A group of music and it was always Tuesdays that would come out. So you used to have like these mini Black Friday type things where you'd go on. I guess people still kind of do it for games where you would come out for, you know, new music or you know, a new album was dropping. So back when music actually was like good and you could. That being said, I did secrete again this week.

[C]

So I'm trying to think of other rights of passage. Oh yeah, knowing the dial up sound is definitely a rite of passage. Like not having super fast Internet all the time.

[A]

Definitely just having to sit. Remember waiting for websites to load.

[C]

Do you remember asking friends for rides? Oh wait, wait, Charlie.

[A]

What about asking directions and having to know directions?

[C]

I'm still really good at directions. Partially because you had to know where you were going. Like this was before GPS. How about this? How's it going printing out MapQuest directions?

[A]

Well, see I.

[C]

Was that not the best.

[A]

I used to be cheap. So I would just write it down.

[B]

Charlie, were you around? Charlie, were you?

[A]

I would, I would go to MapQuest and then I would write down the directions and then I just like bring my little note card with me.

[C]

What were you saying, Blake?

[B]

Charlie, you might be too young. I once had a journey where my parents made me actually narrate the. The turns to make on an actual physical map that we had purchased. Like with, you know, the highways of America.

[C]

Oh yeah. No, no, all the time. 100%.

[E]

I remember I was living in New Jersey for two years when I was in junior high and my mom printed them out on MapQuest and was going somewhere for my brother's football game and got so lost and turned around. She like pulled over in a gas station crying because she didn't know where to go or how to go anywhere. She was like completely lost. Like in any place. They had no idea.

[C]

It makes you think like actually sorry mom for sure. Is it a good thing or a bad thing we have the gps? I mean in some ways, like we're probably more efficient when.

[A]

When China comes after us, that's the first thing they're going for. Oh yeah, number one number.

[C]

It's.

[A]

It's that one. All of our online banking.

[B]

Yeah, it's used to be Yeah, I don't know if you still have to do this, but. But I know in London, in the uk, to become a cab driver, you used to have to. Maybe you still do, but you had to pass this test called the knowledge. And it was basically you had. You had to memorize the location of like 27,000 different things in London. People would like lose their minds attempting to pass this thing. And obviously it's still around. It's obviously just a gate to.

[E]

Yeah, it's more difficult to become a cab driver. They pass the bar.

[A]

I feel like Uber could use a little bit of that.

[C]

They've done brain scans of. Of cab drivers that have. That have mastered the knowledge and their hippoclamus, which is the actual part of memory, is bigger in their brain than the average person. And so in order for that to be true. In order. And this is actually.

[A]

So that's self selecting then.

[C]

No, no, no. In order for that to be true, the one of two things are true. Either that these are people with disproportionately big hippocampuses that are coming into the taxi business, or your brain can change, which is. It was the most profound.

[E]

Giant hippoclamuses.

[C]

No, but, but. Sorry. Hi, PA Campus. Thank you.

[B]

It's the thing that was indelible in. In blah. In Blasey Ford's brain. Remember? Indelible in the hippocampus.

[C]

However, it is what is available. It was the most profound development of neuroscience in the last 20 years. Discovery to show that your brain, raw material can change based on your environment and your circumstances.

[A]

Potentially.

[C]

There is no other explanation. There's no way that people that have disproportionately active parts of the hippocampus all just want to become taxi drivers.

[E]

Right.

[C]

It's just that this is not a thing.

[A]

Well, no, the. The idea would be then that those are the only ones who can pass the test.

[C]

No, again, it's just. It defies logic because it's. You're in the. You're in the sub 1 set of the standard deviation. Right. These people like just happen to all want to become cab drivers. No, no way. Meaning that your brain can actually become better at a certain task.

[A]

So it's applied. So it's like a muscle that.

[C]

Yeah. Actually, let me find the study. It's super interesting.

[A]

So the more you work.

[C]

It was in Sean Astor's book called the Happiness Advantage. Let me see here.

[A]

So the idea being then the more you, you know, the more you work it out the same way. Like when you Go to the gym and you're like, I'm gonna focus on whatever muscle right here.

[C]

A taxi driver's knowledge is often linked to an enlarged hippocampus. Blah, blah, blah, key points. And the study here shows about brain plasticities phenomenon demonstrates the brain's ability to adapt and change based on the experience where the hippocampus can grow in response to intensive spatial learning.

[E]

So.

[A]

So let's put this on the flip side then. The fact that we're all using GPS.

[C]

Now, it makes us dumber.

[A]

Is literally and physically, unless you do.

[C]

What I do, which is you try to re. You try to anticipate where the GPS taking you before, because the G GPS is like AI it could be an enhancement to you, or it could just make you totally check out.

[A]

Well, it's sometimes wrong.

[C]

Oh, the GPS is wrong all the time. All the time. All the time. When Mikey's driving, I'm like, why isn't it taking us this way, not that way? Yeah, that's a good sign. If you are fact checking your gps, you are getting.

[A]

Actually, I did this when we were driving around Pennsylvania with my brother during the election. And we were. We were driving from Penn State to Philadelphia. And at one point it wanted us to go on this road which would take us to Baltimore. And I was like, why are we driving to Baltimore? It's 83 South. We need 76 east because we need to go to Philadelphia because we're going to the Eagles game. And now it eventually, like, picked up, but I remember sitting there looking at it and it was just. It was just clearly wrong. It was clearly wrong.

[C]

I put it in the chat. Scientific American. Okay, I gotta dash. You guys keep talking. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. And you guys hold down the fort.

[A]

Happy Thanksgiving, Charlie.

[E]

Have a great Thanksgiving, Charlie.