#4349 That’s Jared!

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL Episode #4349 - "That’s Jared!"

Podcast Information:

• Title: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
• Host/Author: TBTL (Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh)
• Description: TBTL is a daily show hosted by two longtime friends goofing their way through the world the best they can. They cover a range of topics from film reviews to quirky neighborhood anecdotes.
• Episode: #4349 That’s Jared!
• Release Date: December 2, 2024

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Introduction and Opening Remarks

The episode kicks off with Luke Burbank humorously reflecting on the concept of self-grace. He jokes about hoarding grace, leading into a playful banter with Andrew Walsh.

• Luke Burbank [00:00]:

  "I might be causing accidentally, of course, a worldwide grace shortage, a grace deficit, if you will... If anyone needs any, I will be selling it, of course, for a little bit of a profit."

Andrew interjects with witty remarks that set the comedic tone for the episode.

• Andrew Walsh [01:03]:

  "Tbtl, they are sending shockwaves over the airwaves. They are rude and abusive, but want."

This light-hearted exchange establishes the camaraderie and humor that listeners can expect throughout the show.

Highlighting Jared McCain and Challenging Masculinity in Sports

The primary focus of this episode centers around Jared McCain, a rookie for the Philadelphia 76ers, and his role in challenging traditional masculinity norms within professional sports.

• Luke Burbank [03:07]:

  "I've got a new favorite professional athlete. He's a rookie for the Philadelphia 76ers... he's starting an entire movement... pro athletes not being so hung up on, you know, traditional masculinity."

Andrew complements Luke by drawing parallels with Russell Wilson's "Mr. Unlimited" persona, indicating a trend among athletes embracing more authentic and less stereotypical behaviors.

• Andrew Walsh [07:43]:

  "I think it's the kind of literalism that only Christian rock could truly appreciate... Why is it all about one thing?"

Deep Dive into TV Show Comparisons: "Penguin" vs. "The Sopranos"

A significant portion of the conversation revolves around the TV show "Penguin," drawing comparisons to the legendary series "The Sopranos." The hosts discuss the branding, soundtrack, and narrative complexity of "Penguin," evaluating its homage to "The Sopranos."

• Andrew Walsh [05:15]:

  "It's hard not to make those comparisons, obviously... the font and logo are big red letters on black, just like the Sopranos."

Luke shares his mixed feelings about the show's music and title screen, appreciating the homage despite not personally liking the elements.

• Luke Burbank [06:10]:

  "In my opinion, it's not a good song and it's not a good logo. It's terrible, but it's perfect because it matches the taste of the tasteless people in the show."

Their analysis delves into character development and narrative depth, acknowledging the challenges "Penguin" faces in living up to "The Sopranos."

• Luke Burbank [15:01]:

  "The Sopranos is a level of creativity and creation that I think is... it's going to be really hard to live up to that."

Listener Engagement and Social Media Interactions

The hosts discuss their experiences interacting with listeners, both in person and through social media channels. They recount moments from Seattle, including running a half marathon and attending local events, highlighting the strong community support for the podcast.

• Luke Burbank [35:00]:

  "We got done with the half marathon and a guy was like, you know, hey, you're Luke Burbank. And, you know, love the show or whatever."

Andrew adds humorous anecdotes about meeting listeners and managing podcast-related interactions.

• Andrew Walsh [37:13]:

  "That's a hot zip for me."

Sports Talk: Seahawks Game and FuboTV Experience

A substantial segment is dedicated to discussing the Seattle Seahawks' performance, particularly a disastrous game that led to humorous and frustrating moments shared by the hosts. They delve into their experiences using FuboTV to stream the game, contrasting it with traditional cable services.

• Luke Burbank [21:33]:

  "Fubo, I could not have done that if I had my stupid Xfinity still."

Andrew humorously criticizes Russell Wilson's performance and persona, referencing his "Mr. Unlimited" alter ego and its impact on his image.

• Andrew Walsh [63:11]:

  "I feel like it's been rehabilitated for me. Like, I don't think the concept of Mr. Unlimited worked, but I think Russell Wilson's redemption arc and now, like, Mr. Unlimited being, being transubstantiated into something funny for me."

Personal Stories and Reflections

The hosts share personal stories, including their brief encounters with smoking during their youth. This segment adds depth to their on-air personas, allowing listeners to connect with them on a more personal level.

• Andrew Walsh [41:27]:

  "I remember picking them up, and I don't know what I expected... It should have burned a hole in your hand."

Luke contrasts his own experience with smoking, detailing his brief foray into cigarettes and his aversion to purchasing or carrying packs.

• Luke Burbank [43:08]:

  "I don't think I've ever possessed a pack of cigarettes... I don't think I've ever been like, like I wouldn't even know what to say if I walked into the gas station to buy cigarettes."

Fantasy Football and Sports Predictions

Engaging in their usual sports banter, the hosts discuss their fantasy football teams, highlighting standout players like Najee Harris and Jared McCain. They blend humor with sports analysis, making predictions and sharing their excitement over game outcomes.

• Andrew Walsh [69:36]:

  "I can't forget how cringey he was and that he did make some pretty hugely egotistical moves at a time when he shouldn't have been making it."

Luke recounts a particularly exciting game where he scored high points for his fantasy team, celebrating the unpredictability of sports.

• Luke Burbank [71:04]:

  "Bed Bath and Bijan won... it was a... I don't know, it's a."

Closing Remarks and Donor Acknowledgments

In the final segment, the hosts express gratitude towards their donors, thanking listeners from various locations who support the podcast. They share light-hearted remarks about their interactions and the community they've built around TBTL.

• Andrew Walsh [35:00]:

  "We took a picture in front of it to prove we'd gone over there."

Luke shares memories of interacting with listeners and the positive impact of their support.

• Luke Burbank [37:16]:

  "It's fine. Leah Farzin's in on it, even though she's in Juneau, Alaska, where neither of us are very big right now."

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Luke Burbank [00:00]:

  "I might be causing accidentally, of course, a worldwide grace shortage, a grace deficit, if you will."

• Andrew Walsh [05:15]:

  "It's hard not to make those comparisons, obviously... the font and logo are big red letters on black, just like the Sopranos."

• Luke Burbank [07:43]:

  "I think it's the kind of literalism that only Christian rock could truly appreciate... Why is it all about one thing?"

• Andrew Walsh [21:33]:

  "Fubo, I could not have done that if I had my stupid Xfinity still."

• Andrew Walsh [63:11]:

  "I feel like it's been rehabilitated for me. Like, I don't think the concept of Mr. Unlimited worked, but I think Russell Wilson's redemption arc and now, like, Mr. Unlimited being, being transubstantiated into something funny for me."

• Luke Burbank [71:04]:

  "Bed Bath and Bijan won... it was a... I don't know, it's a."

Conclusion

Episode #4349 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live encapsulates the essence of the show — a blend of humor, insightful discussions, personal anecdotes, and community engagement. Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh navigate through diverse topics ranging from sports and TV show analysis to personal reflections, all while maintaining their signature playful rapport. Notable discussions about Jared McCain and the "Penguin" TV show provide depth, while segments on sports experiences and personal stories offer relatability. The episode concludes with heartfelt acknowledgments of their listeners and supporters, reinforcing the strong community behind TBTL.

Listeners who haven't tuned in will find this episode both entertaining and engaging, capturing the multifaceted conversations that make TBTL a beloved daily show.

Transcript

[Luke Burbank]

I love when people are like, you just need to give yourself some grace. Out of all the problems that I've had in my life, never once has not given myself enough grace, charted. Like it's never made the list even a little bit, even at all. If anything, the polar antonym might be true. If anything, I might be hoarding grace in bulk. If anything, I might be causing accidentally, of course, a worldwide grace shortage, a grace deficit, if you will. Again, completely unintentionally. It's just kind of what happens. And I choose to view this as a good thing because if I view it from any other sort of, you know, realistic viewpoint, it could be kind of construed as a negative. And that's not something I have to give myself grace in that sense as well and say no. It's kind of like meta when you think about the giving myself grace of it all. I have maxed out my grace card. If anyone needs any, I will be selling it, of course, for a little bit of a profit. Because I'm nothing if not a businesswoman. So what am I saying?

[Andrew Walsh]

Tbtl, they are sending shockwaves over the airwaves. They are rude and abusive, but want.

[Unknown]

You to listen to them. I'm sorry, who are you? I was asking myself that same question.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I did not like the answer.

[Unknown]

He's just a silly little guy. He's like your next door neighbor who like has an above ground pool and drinks cheap beer and like tells fart jokes and he like drives around in a used car and like goes to the rodeo.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is ludicrous.

[Unknown]

I hate not you. I hate not your show. And I gotta make a note to myself to not try and do my ab workout while y'all are doing your show. Cause I laugh too hard and I can't do my abs. I feel, I feel, I feel, I feel happy of myself. Well, all right. Hello, good morning and welcome everyone to a Monday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is political correctness run amok.

[Unknown]

My name is Luke Burbank.

[Andrew Walsh]

I am your host indeed, Queen.

[Unknown]

Coming to you from foggy but still beautiful West Seattle, the corner of 36th and Raymond, where we've been air B and being it up as we've been spending an absolutely lovely weekend in Seattle. I may have had the perfect Sunday yesterday. I can't think of a Sunday that I've enjoyed more in a long, long time. From my point of view, it's a beautiful story. I love, love your story. We did the Seattle half marathon in the morning. And then the weather was great. And then we visited various Christmassy locales and the Seahawks won, and it was just absolutely spectacular. Speaking of spectacular things, we've got a spectacular episode of TBTL coming your way right now. It's episode 4349 in a collector series.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let the fun begin.

[Unknown]

I've got a new favorite professional athlete. He's a rookie for the Philadelphia 76ers. You're, like, the coolest person I've ever met. His name is Jared McCain, and I think he's starting an entire movement, which it looks like maybe there's two people involved in. So it's a nascent movement. You start an entire movement of pro athletes not being so hung up on, you know, traditional masculinity. And I'm loving it. Also, speaking of pro athletes, remember when our guy, Russell Wilson, tried to roll out this alter ego named Mr. Unlimited? Unlimited? He may be getting the last laugh on all of us. And I have been laughing the whole time. We have a couple of stories on this Monday that are not about sports. They are about people who do sports, but who are also doing things that are funny or interesting. Okay? So you're gonna need to allow it. Dear, dear listener, who I love so much. Speaking of people who I love so much, we got this guy helping out. He's the longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships and also just how sort of very demure he is. He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. I. I'm sure you're curious whether or not I finally finished watching the TV show. I'm sorry, the HBO program. I almost called it tv. So embarrassing. Oh, my.

[Unknown]

We'll cut it out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God.

[Unknown]

Two, one. That's my impression of the HBO sound.

[Andrew Walsh]

I did finish watching Penguin last night. The Penguin. I think I told you that I dipped my toes into those freaking. Well, have you seen it?

[Unknown]

No. What I've seen is a certain amount of discourse online that says it's the Sopranos, except starring the Penguin.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

What do you think of that? What do you think of that analysis?

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, it's hard not to make those comparisons, obviously. And I don't think that. I don't think that's lost on the creators. I was even thinking, this may be a bridge too far in that comparison. But as even like last night, as we binged maybe the last episodes, I was even thinking, like, boy, even the title screen or the Font and logo.

[Unknown]

Big.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, like the Sopranos, the Penguin. One word, big red letters on black. Right. I think I have the Sopranos. Right. There's no gun. There's no letter in the shape of a gun, thank goodness, in the Penguin pump.

[Unknown]

I mean, not to sidetrack the penguin conversation, but obviously we love the Sopranos. You're talking about. You were kind of rewatching that as well, but you're right. Not subtle. Not subtle with the branding.

[Andrew Walsh]

No. Well, here's the. Actually, you know what intro song.

[Unknown]

Got Myself a gun, title card, gun in the word Sopranos.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, here's the thing. Let's talk. Let's. Actually, this is a more interesting conversation, the Sopranos, because it's important to have this conversation now in 2024, because if we don't, who will? You know, the intro package of the Sopranos has got to be one of the most iconic in, I'm going to say television here, although duly noted. It's not television, it's HBO. Also, even that joke heralds from the late 90s. I don't think they've been using that phrase in a long, long time. But the thing is, in, like, you know, the imagery along with that song that is now, again, iconic with that.

[Unknown]

Logo, they called, like, a three or something, the folks that do that song.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, is that. I'm not sure, but I don't know if we've talked about this before, like, but people will say, oh, my God, I love that song. Or I love that intro. And it's like, I love that intro because it matches the characters, but I don't like that song and I don't like that title screen. I actually do like, of course, the montage. I think that's pretty good. But the brilliance of it is not that it's a good song. This is, in my opinion, by the way, just to be very clear, I'm not speaking objectively here. In my opinion, it's not a good song and it's not a good logo. It's terrible, but it's perfect because it matches the taste of the tasteless people in the show. Right. Like, Tony love that. Christopher would love that. Nobody has a lisp. I don't know. I was trying to do the accent and my natural lisp came out on Christopher. But Christophe would love that song. But it's not a song that I like. In fact, I dislike it.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I think it's interesting because you attribute it to. You say it's within the sensibilities of the kind of day class A characters on the show, but I would say it was chosen by the day class A creators of the show. It's David Chase's idea of a badass tune. By the way, they're called Alabama 3 and they are a British band and it came off of their 1997 album Exile in Cold Harbor Lane. And I'm. I'm totally with you. Like, I love that song in the context of the Sopranos opening credits because it tells my brain I'm about to watch the Sopranos and I love that experience. But if you just played me that song. And again, I'm doing the lyrics kind of from memory here, but it's like, woke up this morning, got myself a gun or something. It's just like.

[Andrew Walsh]

There's something about gabagool, I believe as well.

[Unknown]

Hey, where is that, by the way? I've been looking for that. Like, I'm sorry, did anybody write a song like Woke up this morning was in the mafia and then I went and ate some lunch, also in the mafia. It's just like, it's so on the nose that I agree with you. It's sort of terrible.

[Andrew Walsh]

But it's the kind of literalism that only Christian rock could truly appreciate. Like, I remember being pretty young and like, not even disliking the idea of Christian music. And I don't mean like worship music, I mean like Christian rock or Christian rap, but being like, yeah, but like, not every song that is outside of the tent of quote unquote, Christian music is about one thing. And that I remember being young and being like, yeah, but why is it all about one thing? Can't you just be Christian and also sing about, I don't know, a nice dinner that you had? Although I don't recommend that. That sounds like a terrible song. But yeah, I remember just thinking, like, why is it all so literal?

[Unknown]

You know, Andrew, I grew up listening to Christian, like popular Christian music, contemporary Christian music, we called it. And I don't know if I've ever actually taken a moment to consider that question, which is a really good one. Like, also, you could just be singing about a thing in your life and you happen to be named Michael W. Smith, where you happen to be in the band Petra, like, right? Or you happen to be DC Talk, decent Christian talk. I think they moved between rap and then eventually kind of like indie sounding music. They were really riding the currents of popular music.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like they started out as blazing a path, my friend. I mean, depending on. I'm gonna go.

[Unknown]

My guess is kind of in the downstream as the sewage leaked out of the barge that was chugging along in the river, they were kind of back there like a porpoise, swimming in it and absorbing it. But maybe not. Maybe they were. They were. Maybe they were doing it before the Beastie Boys. But, like, they started out. My memory is. DC Talk originally was like, one of the two things. Either they started out being, like, Christian rappers, and then they got real into kind of, like, indie style, but, like, kind of, again, not dissimilar from how Beastie Boys were like, you know, you gotta fight for your right to party. And then eventually they're doing Sabotage and stuff, which is a little bit of a different vibe. Although I guess you could say they're kind of rapping and Sabotage, too. It's just maybe over what a slightly different backing track kind of sound like. Was there a point where the Beastie Boys and I. Listen, I probably already alienated enough listeners a few weeks ago when I kind of went hard on the Beastie Boys. Just saying that it wasn't really for me. They did. At some point. Did they ever really leave, like, rap music, or were they just rapping with more melodic stuff happening?

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you know the weirdest thing about that question is, and I'm pretty sure I have my timeline right on this, I'm pretty sure that before they broke big with License to Ill, which is that old school. I know that you're not a huge fan, but that real old school, kind of more, you know, 1980s era rap. I'm pretty sure that before they broke big with that, they were a punk band. Because I would totally believe that later on, like, those early tapes were released. I could be wrong. Maybe somebody had told me that those were. But I'm pretty sure that later on, once they were big, they're like, oh, now listen to our early punk stuff that was rereleased. And then, you know, I don't know. Would you. Later Cataly. You would still call, like, Ill Communication like a hip hop. You would file that under hip hop.

[Unknown]

If you had a record. Yeah. Even if, like, you know, the. You know, their. You know, their record that I was really big on because Addie loved it was the one where they're, like, the one where they're all in the. No, the one where they're in the Sardine can. Intergalactic.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm sorry, that's. That came out in 1996. That's new beastie Boys to me.

[Unknown]

Well, exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, I got the first four records.

[Unknown]

I got in kind of late on it, but, like, Addie loved that record because of. And I've talked about this on the show before, and people who have, like, young kids will relate to this. Any album that just randomly had what sounded like a kid on it. Because I wasn't like a very. What's the word? Good father who would like, tolerate Rafi or whatever the. Whatever the Yo Gabba gabba of its time was. I was like, no, no, no. We're just listening to whatever Daddy wants to listen to. And you're gonna have to find maybe one second where it sound. Something that's actually aimed at children is occurring. And on intergalactic. At the end of one song, I think it might have been a kid. Maybe one of the kids of one of the Beastie Boys says, like, I don't like your attitude, boy. And like, that became Addie's favorite record because there was one second that actually appealed to her. The other one was Rosie Thomas, the indie singer. Rosie Thomas, who has an incredibly beautiful singing voice, but her speaking voice is very childlike. And sometimes in. On this one particular record of hers that we had interstitially, like, as she was coming out of a song, going into song, she'd be speaking in her speaking voice, and it sounded like there was a kid on the records that was Addie's other favorite. I'm only now realizing what a. What a real desert of music it was for this kid. Just waiting for something that sounded like anything age appropriate for her.

[Andrew Walsh]

I love the idea of you being like, listen, I'm a bad dad. I'm not going to change my musical taste for my kid. The kid will like what I like. And you're just like, that's just the way it is. I love you in many, many ways, and I'm here for you, but this is the way it is. And then you slide a CD into your dashboard and the Wiggle starts playing and Daddy likes the Wiggles.

[Unknown]

What a great.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's actually.

[Unknown]

That's like almost. I think you should leave sketch. It needs to get more unhinged from.

[Andrew Walsh]

There slipping you Beastie Boy CDs. You're like, Daddy likes the Wiggles, Right? Which is maybe. Maybe a show title. I did want to come back to Sopranos for a second. So this comparison between the Penguin and the Sopranos, I think it would be. I think it's pretty clear that in a certain way, they are paying a bit of an homage to the Sopranos, I think are certainly inspired by. I think you'd be a fool to not make that comparison. But I Guess what I would say is, if you're going. The reason I somewhat shy away from that comparison is because you can't say, boy, if you. If you liked the Sopranos, you're going to love the Penguin. Like the Sopranos, even in its broadest. And I would say, like, there were some seasons and some episodes that I thought were kind of clunky. I think they're, you know, Johnny, even.

[Unknown]

If it comes to mind.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, gosh, yeah. Right, of course. Yeah. And a lot of the kids stuff about Meadow going to college and us, you know, like the generational tension there.

[Unknown]

Like something with A.J.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And some of that is. Some of that is kids acting. Some of it is just storyline. Some of it is probably accurate. Like, sometimes kids aren't not that likable when they're in at that age, you know, and they're. And they're very spoiled kids. So sometimes when you don't like those scenes or those kids in those scenes, there's, again, a reason for it, because you're not supposed to like them. I think, having said that, the Sopranos is a level of creativity and creation that I think is. I mean, if you compare anything to it, it's going to be really hard to live up to that. As far as complex narrative and, you know, and more like, character development, I think that's the most important to me. And like, the Penguin is a comic book. You know, it's based on a comic book, and you never. By the way, spoiler alert. Like, the Batman never is never even referenced. That was one thing that Veeves and I thought were. Was a little bit interesting, that, like, while you're looking at this very seedy, literal underground crime world, I understand they didn't want it to be corny or by maybe invoking the caped crusader. But, like, nobody ever even says, like, yeah, but should we watch out for, you know, who. You know, like, you know, who is never even really mentioned. So I. I don't know. Maybe. Yeah, so. And I believe he exists because this is, like, part of the world that was created with the last Batman movie, which I never saw. I watched, like, the first half of it. All of that is to say, I do think it's worth watching if you like this kind of stuff. It's very, very dark. It's very, very grim at times. It's not, you know, the stuff that holds you up is, like, the set pieces. Like, it's tropey. There are definitely tropes in there, and tropes can really make me cringe. If they're not done well. And there are definitely, like, some speeches or some soliloquies that maybe like, would a kid that age be that self possessed? But it's kind of like, yeah, but that is. I can't explain it. I think it's well done because they've created a universe in which you go along with that. It's a comic book. And the most important thing is it Kristin Milioti. I just want to get that in there. Steals the show. Like, without her. I don't make a past episode two with her. I would follow that show anywhere. She is so good in it. She plays a character that I didn't know from the comic books, A very, very tertiary character from the comic books who only showed up in a couple of storylines. But she just. Her character named Sophia is just amazing. She just steals the show every time without chewing scenery. That's what I wanted to say.

[Unknown]

I have actually been really intrigued by this because. Is it Colin Farrell, right. Is plays the penguin, and I love him. I really, really love that dude, like, for a million reasons. But him in all those prosthetics is kind of intriguing to me. I think he's a really good actor. Also, by the way, Kristen Milioti, I don't know if you remember, but she first rocketed to fame in my heart when she was on 30 Rock, and she played this uber ditz who Lemon is constantly trying to tell her, you don't have to use your sexuality in your baby voice.

[Andrew Walsh]

And you remember the twist on that. Spoiler alert. Wasn't undercover.

[Unknown]

She wasn't super smart.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, she was super, super smart. She was doing that to protect herself. I think. Like, it was dark. Like, I think a past abuse or something. Yeah. From the Penguin. Yeah. No, I think she was doing it because she was in an abusive relationship or something. It got kind of, like, very dark. But she turned out to be incredibly smart. But you're right. That was her who was like, do you guys think that I can reach that on the top shelf?

[Unknown]

But no. I also do like those worlds that get created for a show where. And my guess is that the set design and just like, the feel of the show is probably very, very comprehensive, if that makes sense. Like, and I love that kind of stuff. So I've definitely been thinking about watching it, and I just might. Maybe when I get a little. A little downtime around the holidays, I'll celebrate the virgin birth by watching Colin Farrell in 80 pounds of prosthetics.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, then I'm glad that is Why? I got a little bit specific about the Sopranos comparison because I would worry that you would hear that you'd be like, this is going to be as the Sopranos. It's not as good as the Sopranos, and it's also just different in, in some ways. But you will also see a lot of comparisons. But yeah, and also her, like, Miladi is just so freaking amazing. I seriously, I'm just like, I just want to see her in everything now.

[Unknown]

Also, I'm still paying for HBO or Max or whatever the hell we. Oh, that's actually, that's a better, newer one. Good. I, I, you know, so I feel like I need to watch, I need to watch a certain amount of whatever the heck's on Max, whether I like it or not, because I'm paying. It's like, it's like I'm in a CSA of content and they just keep dropping off a crate of persimmons.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

I'm like, all right, what goes with persimmons? What's paying for this?

[Andrew Walsh]

What's the HBO equivalent of eggplant? Or what? What do people not want in their farmer's box? Eggplant. I don't like eggplant very much.

[Unknown]

Oh, I think I would feel like this is hard to separate out my specific taste. I would be great with eggplant. I feel like the joke is always sort of like turnips or something that, like really, like kind of propagates really quickly but is a little underwhelming to work with, you know, like, that's what seems to fill up the CSA boxes. Or back in the day when a lot of people were doing that, that kind of stuff. I, I have to say, Andrew, once again, FuboTV. Oh, yeah, just coming through in the clutch. Much like Leonard Big Cat Williams yesterday, you probably didn't watch the game. Or actually maybe you did because it was earlier than your pop up. Right.

[Andrew Walsh]

What was.

[Unknown]

Did you experience the NFL football yesterday?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, yeah. Well, that's where, that's where my lifestyle and my volunteering and my football. I was going to say love, although that's too strong of a word these days. Like maybe clash, because. Yes. I was like, oh, good, the game's on before pop up. So I can watch the whole thing while I'm making, like, you know, I make coffee and hot chocolate in the morning, kind of putter around. I make it for pop up and I can watch the whole game, but then I end up sleeping until like 10:45 or 11. I miss the entire first half of.

[Unknown]

The game, which was actually not much of a game for the Seahawks. It was. It was disastrous. But I have to say it fit into. I mentioned at the top of the show what for me was, I think maybe the most ideal Sunday that can exist, which was, you know, Becca and I are here in the greater Seattle area. We were doing the. The Seattle Half Marath marathon yesterday. So got up kind of like crazy early to do that. Went down to the Seattle center, and the weather was so spectacular. Like, I was borderline emotional. Kind of maybe three, four miles into the run, because you're just running along i5. Like, you run through the express lanes, which are all closed down, and then you end up underneath the Ship Canal Bridge. So you know the part of i5 where you're going, you know that part, what is known as the Ship Canal Bridge? Well, you're underneath that. You're in the. What are the express lanes. But just the sun was rising and it was like dappling off of like, you know, Queen Anne and like the. And Lake Union. And it was just like it could not. The weather could not have been more spectacular. So that was a really great start to the day. And then we finish up and then grab our stuff and get a bunch of free, like, you know, energy drink shit and whatever, cup of Noodles and all the things that like, you pay like a. I don't know how much. It is some crazy amount of money. $150 to go run in this race. And then you try to recoup it by just getting free samples at the Expo afterwards. So we get all that stuff and then we jump in the lift and we come back here to the Airbnb and guess what's starting? The Seattle Seahawks game. And in the Airbnb, they don't have like a regular TV that's like connected to anything. But guess what? I do. I get the Fubo on my phone, I cast it right on up to that tv. I'm watching the Seahawks, Andrew. I could not have done that if I had my stupid Xfinity still.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, Fubo. And you know, when we were talking about kind of cord cutting or whatever, I. I just shied away from Fubo because it seemed like I had everything I needed except for Mariners games. Like, you know, free and legal and clear Mariners games.

[Unknown]

And I was like, I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

If I want to add $88 to my. To my monthly bills just for the Mariners, but honestly, like, for as much as you use TV and you want. You want all the modern conveniences of streaming with all of the kind of older traditions of television. Like, honestly, I feel like I'm writing a Fubo commercial right now. Why have they not hired me? Why am I not in the. In the writing room for their next ad campaign?

[Unknown]

I mean, I feel like we are doing an unpaid ad here. But, like, for instance, so Friday night, the Huskies. Well, maybe it was Saturday. I think it's Saturday. The Huskies are playing Oregon. I know that they're going to get absolutely smoked, which they did. But my level of interest is like, I kind of want to see a little bit of it. And so Becca and I are getting ready to go out and get some dinner. I've kind of. And it's just like it's on my phone, and I'm watching it, and then they start getting trounced, and I just turn it off, and we go to the restaurant and have dinner. Like, I. This idea that I can watch any. Pretty much any game that I'm interested in on my phone if I want to. It just gives me the right amount of giving a shit about it. Now, yesterday during the CS game, I think I moved over into giving too much of a shit about it because it was such a weird, crazy game where they just played so badly, but then they sort of had a chance. And then the jets just kept playing somehow worse at the end, I took up residence outside of the Airbnb to watch critical plays because that had brought us luck at some point. And I just want to say, I feel like I am now the only person on our text chain, maybe other than Ders, again, because I can't see what Ders is saying. I feel like I'm the only person on our text chain anymore talking and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, no, no, no, no, no. Ders was talking and chirping the entire time. Like, my phone was just like. And it's all just.

[Unknown]

This is so funny because it's, like.

[Andrew Walsh]

Negative, like, oh, here we go. Here. No, no. You know what? Can we do a dramatic reenacting right now? You're going to enjoy this. This is what you missed. Okay? And here's the deal. I have been a defender of Ders negativity on the text chain going back years now. I honestly believe for a while that a little bit of negativity brings some good luck. I believe that, you know, you have. Sometimes you have to put yourself out there as the most negative person so that you can reverse banks and the like. I'm a big believer in all of that. Here's the deal. I don't Think Ders will hear this, But I would say this to his face if he did. Is. But also, like, when you're just constantly negative when something good happens. How about. Well, that was nice. Or just how about a, like, how about any commentary about anything good happening, but it's only terrible. Okay, so here we go. Sunday, 10:35am by the way, Swears coming up.

[Unknown]

Okay. Earmuffs.

[Andrew Walsh]

What a fucking nightmare. I don't know how much time passes. 10 minutes. Wow. What a performance. Jesus Christ. Holy shit. A complete implosion. And then another person jumped in. Fucking losers. That was.

[Unknown]

That's the first thing I saw. Yeah, the first thing I saw on the chain was just. And by the way, in my mind, Khmer Kev gets to deploy that because he, you know, A, he doesn't comment that much, and B, his comments are varied. So that's my feeling is if, like, if sometimes you're really frustrated. I don't personally have a problem with airing those grievances. Yeah, it's. It's, it's. If it's. If it's a sort of a one note kind of deal.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And Kevin later said, I wonder if it's Rogers his birthday tomorrow. Which was a joke that I got. Not even listening to the first half, I knew that the. That was a joke about probably the commentators talking way too much about it.

[Unknown]

Roger literally never shutting up about it.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I'm sure because that's always, you know, whenever he's on the field, it always takes all the other air out of the room. Luckily these days it's because he's kind of pathetic out there. But anyway. And then you. I'm not going to go over the recap of the whole game, but I do want to. So you jumped in about like, well, sometimes these things turn around. And they did turn around. And you're like, I didn't.

[Unknown]

I want to be, but I want to. Can I just. If I can take a moment, please, to center myself in this conversation. The reason also, by the way, this weird world is now evolved on this text chain, which is like two deaf men yelling into the void, missing each other with their comments. I guess actually that doesn't. That analogy doesn't work because Ders is seeing my comments, but I'm like, sometimes he and I are the only people commenting, and I have no idea he's even on there or if he's saying anything. And I'm just like throwing my stuff out there. But this was wild yesterday. Like, I said this to Becca after the Seahawks committed like Their second kickoff return fumble and had allowed a kick return touchdown for the other team. Like, all of these just, like, wildly improbable things were happening. And I turned to Becca and I said, this really sucks, but usually this stuff evens out. Like, weird, crazy plays like this. You. It tends to kind of even out. And we've now used up all of our bad luck on these plays. I know that's not science, but that's just how I feel having watched a lot of football. I typed that into the text chain, and as I'm hitting send, Leonard Williams, a guy who weighs roughly 700 pounds and not an ounce of fat on him, does the most improbable thing, which is like, as a defensive lineman, he tips a ball up into the air to himself and then runs it 92 yards. Like a crazy play that, like, you would never see coming. I could not believe. And I think the other thing I was about to send was I could see Rogers throwing a pick six I. And again, this is just coincidence and luck, but it was. I was flipping out here, and I was like, telling Becca, like, look at this. I texted this before he did that. Like, I really needed someone to honor the fact that I so weirdly predicted that. Of course, I always predict that. So it's going to be true sometimes. I mean, that's really. I'm just. I'm just playing the long game. But, like, I was so. I could not believe that right after I said that, a thing that was fluky and benefited us happened.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was a very fluky game, too. It seemed like. Even from just like what I. What I heard about that. That first. That first half. But I want to go back to this for a second. And again, I know I'm being very. I'm really, you know, I'm not even being sort of gentle or kind about this. But again, this is the text chain that you miss. I just think it's informative for you to know what you miss. All of those texts I just read in a row. I wasn't cherry picking. I wasn't omitting the texts in between. It is mostly just a conversation with Ders. Here's again, no. No interactions from other people in between these. Just. You're just making coffee in your kitchen, stirring up some hot chocolate. Everything smells really good. Why is it so hard for the Seahawks franchise to execute a screen pass? Pete couldn't make it happen either. By the way, quick insert from Andrew here. Agreed. It is very strange. I've never, I think once in all of my Years of watching Seahawks, they have done a successful screen pass, and they tried a lot. Or at least it seems like they used to, anyway.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Flags to wipe out a huge play. Yes, of course. Truly humiliating. Five chances, and that's what he draws up. Grub, gotta go.

[Unknown]

These, by the way, are all different ways that my lovemaking has been described.

[Andrew Walsh]

Grub, gotta go.

[Unknown]

Grub, gotta go.

[Andrew Walsh]

Seahawks going backwards in the red zone. You don't say. Lol. Charbonnet. They did it again. I don't even know what that one was. That wasn't a good thing, though. That sounds like it could have been, because didn't Charbonnet get it? Didn't he rush in?

[Unknown]

He did. He finally broke through.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think that was. I don't. Unless I'm in. Unless I'm slandering here. I don't think that was a good. I think that was. That was a sarcastic Lowell Charbonnet, but never, like, hey, we pulled it off. You know what I mean? I mean, I guess later he did say speaking because the Vikings beat the Cardinals, which was important, so he did say, great results today. Thank you for being in the cards. But, like, anyway, I don't. I totally do not mind people airing out their grievances or frustration as you're kind of watching a game and sort of dying inside and feeling a lot of frustration and also just thinking, you know, and this isn't really fair to the sports, but also, we just have a lot going on in the world, and I think that folks like us who see the world the way we see it also feel a little bit bad for watching this sport where TJ Watt gets a commercial where. No, no, I'm sorry, who's the retired Watt? He's like, you know, J.J. watt is, like, you know, selling trucks and talking about how he used to knock people down, but now he realizes it's better to build people up. And I'm like, you don't believe that, you MAGA son of a gun. Like, is he.

[Unknown]

Do we know that he's.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no.

[Unknown]

I'd be shocked if he wasn't.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know that at all. This is. I. This is completely just an assumption on my part that, you know, I'd love it if somebody said, oh, look, no, he's. He's. He's a. He's a great guy. Actually. He was out there knocking on doors for Kamala Harris. Like, okay, let me know. But I doubt it. But anyway, like, I think that we're also coming into this, like, feeling Like, a little bit like, ugh. Like, just like with our own. And then tying it to sports and feeling like we're always losing. And I think that's just like a mentality that is probably not the most healthy. But I understand it is my point. But I just think if you're going to throw that stuff out there every now and then, just be like, well, guess I got some egg on my face. Or just something funny, just something that isn't just like, I hate everything. It's just like. It's like Grumpy Smurf.

[Unknown]

Well, what's. Because what I feel like has happened now is I've. I've gone from being kind of absent from this text chain because I've been. You know, it's the kind of thing where when I'm, like, doing Livewire because it's a Thursday night game or something is going on in my life, I'm like, I have no time for this. But then, like a day like yesterday, and this has now been three Sundays in a row where I have been overly active in the space because I'm just watching the game and I'm just, like, processing my feelings the way I do. But it seems like the only other person who cares to process their feelings there is muted for me. So it just ends up me, just me just texting into the void and then just seeing something funny from the stubborn, like, the Vikings stole that game so, so bad that it should be behind glass at CVS or whatever he wrote. By the way, I believe that, that. That Skeet is getting a lot of attention for. For our friend, the stuff.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, did he know? Is he. Is he sort of sketching things out in the text chain? And then I think, I mean, he.

[Unknown]

May be workshopping some stuff. I don't know. Or maybe. I don't know if he skied it first or if he posted it first and then. And then post it in our chain. I don't. Listen. I have absolutely no judgment for that. Back when I was a much more active Twitter user, I absolutely would tweet something and then try to make it into my monologue for Livewire and then try to make it into a bluff the listener. Like, I use every part of the tweet, so there's no shame in that. But all I'm saying is we need to. Maybe we could circle a date on the calendar when it works for everyone's schedule for us to all be active in the text chain at the same time. Because right now it feels sort of like a. It Feels like a. I don't know, like a. Like a condo that only a few of us, only one of us is ever staying in at the same time. We're never all there at the same point.

[Andrew Walsh]

And it's got that weird empty corner, sort of like somebody put an easy chair there, but nobody's going to sit in that chair. That's so. And also, that fake plant isn't fooling anybody.

[Unknown]

Exactly. Now, listen, after we thank some donors. Andrew, you're totally right that as a sports fan. Well, I guess as a sports fan of the teams I'm a fan of, like the Washington Huskies and others, it's felt somehow like the politics have been bad and the sports have been bad. Like, you know, the Huskies getting completely dominated and the, like, you know, just. I don't know, it's. I'm with you. That it feels like. There's been a lot of. A lot of sports news that I have sort of turned into some kind of version of political news. But I've got some. I've got a couple of people that we can really focus on and Stan, going forward, who I think are bucking the trend. So let's do that in a minute.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you for being a tam.

[Unknown]

Let's thank some of the donors who are making TBTL possible today. You know, Andrew, yesterday was a real. It was a. It was. There was a lot of interaction with the. With the tens and other people who have experienced the Luke Burbank Radio experience. Ran into a listener, Amy, at the Pike Place Market. And then we went over to Beck. And I went over to Magpie Mouse Studio to try to find listener Sarah, who has. Is running such an empire now.

[Andrew Walsh]

You couldn't find. I've gone to the Magpie before, too, and I couldn't find Sarah.

[Unknown]

She was not there. But the place was packed, nice. People were. People were raving about the earrings. We took a picture in front of it to prove we'd gone over there.

[Andrew Walsh]

I did the exact same thing. I'm like, Sarah, I wasn't able to get in.

[Unknown]

I tried.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is us. This is your door.

[Unknown]

But no, it's really. It was a really fun day of like. And it is. I will say this, maybe it was just the last couple of days, but being in Seattle, I. It's odd. There's. There seems to be more of an awareness of me as a, I guess, radio person here than other places because we got done with the half marathon and a guy was like, you know, hey, you're Luke Burbank. And, you know, Love the show or whatever. I was like, oh, thanks. I also was very embarrassed because I didn't even have time to specify. I didn't even try. I just said thank you. Kept it moving. But then also, I ran into, actually a friend of mine for years, Peter, when Becca and I were walking Green Lake and he was in that thing called the Mount St. Helens Vietnam Band that we used to feature on the show. And I didn't recognize him because his hair is longer and he had a hat on. And he's like, hey, what's up? And I was like, do. I think I might have literally said, do I know you? Which sounds very accusatory. And he's like, yeah, Peter. I was like, oh, yeah, right. But, yeah, I was running into a lot of people that I either knew from the past or that were maybe TBTL listeners. So it's been. What it's done is it's really caused my girlfriend to understand that I am somebody and I do matter. And I run a successful podcast that's supported by folks like Jennifer Strom of St. Charles, Illinois.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a hot zip for me.

[Unknown]

St. Charles, Illinois.

[Andrew Walsh]

I can't walk down the street in St. Charles without people mobbing me.

[Unknown]

It's not like when I'm in New Madrid, that's the part of Illinois where I really chart after I said after I roasted that town for mispronouncing the name Madrid.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, did you. Did you get a bunch of emails about that? It's on a fault line or something. So it's a thing. It's not. It's like it wasn't people correcting you. I think it was just. Or maybe it was. I contextualize it. I don't really remember what you said about mad. It was part of a song or it doesn't matter. But point is, like, it doesn't matter to me is what I meant to say there. Sorry if that was rude. I meant it couldn't mean. Absolutely couldn't mean less to me. But I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings.

[Unknown]

What I'm trying to say is I couldn't possibly in any universe give less of a shit about what you said.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I guess it sort of says what I think about when I hear about the term New Madrid. Little Rock would be the catastrophic area. So anyway, I think it's on a big fault line or something.

[Unknown]

I think it's in Illinois, but I think it might have been listener Danny or somebody was. Had sent like a map of the area. I think. Anyway, you're big in St. Charles, Illinois. I'm big in Seattle, Washington. It's fine. Leah Farzin's in on it, even though she's in Juneau, Alaska, where neither of us are very big right now. But we're building a community there, starting with Leah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wait a second. This says it's in Missouri. Why did somebody. You said it was in Minnesota, and then the person here said it was in Little Rock. I see.

[Unknown]

I said it was in Illinois.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I see. Little Rock would be in the catastrophic area. I see. Okay, never mind. You know what? I'm going back to not caring. Let's thank the donors. Sorry.

[Unknown]

That's what you get for caring.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is. This happens to me.

[Unknown]

That's what happens when you try. Yes. Thanks. Megan Rodriguez of Austin, Texas.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice.

[Unknown]

Beautiful. Austin, Texas. Thanks. James Hayes of South Orange, New Jersey.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you. And I think we get emails from. I think he goes by Jim. I think I'm going out on a limb there. Of course, James is the official name here, but thank you, Jim. I hope I got that.

[Unknown]

Appreciate you. Thanks. Mackenzie Sargent of Seattle, Washington. Have I mentioned that's a hot zip for me, Andrew?

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice. And also thanks, Mackenzie. I will always thank Mackenzie for hooking Mackenzie and her family for hooking me up with lodging for the Thing festival in Port Townsend all those years. Remember, like, we were doing literally a show at the Thing festival, and it was like.

[Unknown]

And then going to Minnesota, like, the.

[Andrew Walsh]

Next minute, and then going on, I think, our tour or something. There's a bunch of stuff packed up. But the funny thing was, like, our listeners had lodging, and I was like, oh, yeah, Should I find a place to stay when I'm out there supposedly doing. Yeah. And I would have been really up a creek without Mackenzie's help. So thank you.

[Unknown]

Thanks, Mackenzie. Thanks also to Caitlin Neely, who's in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

[Andrew Walsh]

God, it makes you want to smoke, doesn't it?

[Unknown]

It makes me want to time travel back to when I was a kid going to North Carolina to visit my granddad, Farnham. And I remember driving by all these tobacco shacks that were falling down. Like, I think they were drying sheds. I don't know if maybe the end, maybe this was like the. The canary in the coal mine, the leading indicator that smoking was gonna really get reduced in America. All these drying sheds were just, like, going back to, you know, nature was batting last on them because maybe they weren't actively drying the tobacco in there anymore. But I remember just being totally stunned by the scenery of North Carolina as a kid sitting in the back of some rental car as we headed down to New Bern.

[Andrew Walsh]

Tell you, this is a very specific memory of mine, and I don't know what it says, but I remember the first time I picked up a pack of cigarettes. Growing up in the 80s, people smoked around us. I knew smoking was bad. It was something that I was supposed to never, ever do. Unfortunately, I did do it for a couple of decades. But I remember being in Sandusky, Ohio. I believe I was either on my Uncle Steve's boat or maybe in, like, in the trailer he stayed at when he was, you know, like, kind of visiting his boat. I think that's what you do. You visit your boat on weekends?

[Unknown]

Yeah, I have weekends and summer visitation with my boat.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. No, that makes sense.

[Unknown]

Flag Day and every other Christmas, Flag.

[Andrew Walsh]

Day, Arbor Day, and the other major holidays, I get the boat. Anyway, I remember. I think I was somewhere and there was another kid nearby, and, like, somebody's cigarettes, one of the adult cigarettes. And my family did not smoke. I was never around them in my house, and there was a pack of cigarettes there. And to me, they were the most. For, you know, one of the most forbidden things. And I remember just picking them up, and I was shocked at how light the box was, and I thought it was empty. And I opened it up and there were a bunch of cigarettes in there. And I don't know what I expected. I almost. I almost think of it as, like, when you. When you're a kid and you see. When you meet somebody or you see somebody that you've heard on the radio your whole life, and you're like, oh, my God, that's what you look like. And it's like, well, what did you expect this person to look like? You're like, I don't know. But not that. Not that. So anyway, I don't know what I expected with a pack of cigarettes, but there is. So. I feel like looking back, there was so much kind of import put on cigarettes, or not import, but caution and everything. It seemed like I should have. It should have been so heavy to pick this up and for them to be so light, like, almost light, as if it was empty or light like air.

[Unknown]

It should have burned a hole in your hand.

[Andrew Walsh]

It should have burned a hole in my soul.

[Unknown]

Coined that. Dude picks up in, like, Indiana Jones or whichever one where it gets. You know what I mean? That coin, like, burns his hand. That should have been what?

[Andrew Walsh]

Ring a bell? I can't. Yeah, that rings a bell. But anyway. Yeah, I just remember picking, and I don't know, you know, I don't want to be so poetic as to say, and that's, and that's when I knew someday I'd be a smoker. I don't, I don't think I can draw a line there, but I just remember being just absolutely fascinated at the lightness of a pack of cigarettes. Something that seemed like it should have been so heavy.

[Unknown]

I don't think I have ever in my life possessed a pack of cigarettes because my very, very brief foray into smoking cigarettes was just someone had a cigarette and I bummed it from them. Like, I don't think I've ever purchased a pack of cigarettes. I don't think I've ever, I ever carried a packet. I don't think I ever thought I'm going to need to have two cigarettes this day, so therefore I better stock up. And I don't say any of that as like a therefore I am good. I have almost every bad habit known to man that is just the one that didn't click with me. But like I don't, it's like I don't think, I don't think I've ever been like. Like I wouldn't even know what to say if I walked into the like gas station to buy cigarettes. Like Camels unfiltered or something.

[Andrew Walsh]

Probably start with unfiltered Marlboro Red. I'm kind of surprised that you've never rolled one up in your T shirt sleeve before.

[Unknown]

I know it seems like an affect that I would 100%.

[Andrew Walsh]

I feel like you would have gone through a phase like maybe when you were like making your movie or something like that. You were going to be the guy with the cigarettes rolled up and you're.

[Unknown]

I love nothing more than a good unearned affect, you know, that I immediately drop like right after I lose interest. Like that's very much my move. But for some reason that never. We were watching, Addie and I were watching the, the Macy's Day Parade on Thanksgiving as we are want to do. And it's just, it is so wild to me the things that become Broadway musicals. And the main way that I find out about Broadway musicals is when they're presented in like quick little, you know, one minute chunks at the corner of like 34th and whatever it is in front of the Macy's building in New York as part of that parade.

[Andrew Walsh]

To you, you're saying that's the sort of perfect amount in context or it's.

[Unknown]

Too much of it. I don't want any of it.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's too much. Oh, okay.

[Unknown]

It's. It's the only way. It's like me watching football and finding out whatever drek Fox and CBS are putting on in primetime. The only way I find out about is watching football. The only way I find out on.

[Andrew Walsh]

An all new father's home. Daddy, I thought you were staying out all night. They. I think that those promos take potentially good shows and make them even worse. There's some show out now. I know I interrupted you, I'm sorry, but what is the show? It's like hospital dentists. Or is it Nurse Dennis?

[Unknown]

Oh, St. Denis Hospital.

[Andrew Walsh]

I knew it wasn't Hospital Dennis, but whatever. I have aphasia. Live with it. I'm offering myself grace. Like the woman at the top of the show today.

[Unknown]

Yeah, you should.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. But anyway, like, I found out that a comedian that I like on Instagram, Emma Pope is her name, by the way. We played her tape at the beginning of the show as well.

[Unknown]

She's trying to name NPR Post memory.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, her and her friend just sort of riffing. And she does really, really funny stuff on Instagram. And then I saw, because I follow her on Instagram, like, you know, she. She was tagged in something or whatever, and I realized, oh, she's on that show, St. Dennis Hospital. And like, I don't know how much she's on it, but I'm like, oh, my God, she's really funny. That show, from what I've been exposed to it in the form of 15 second promos on whatever station I'm watching, football looks like the worst show in the world. At one point. You don't even see the setup for it. An older doctor is saying to a younger man, you're the Diana Ross of this place. You're not even the Bob Ross of this place. A joke that I have been tossing around in my head for weeks now, trying to figure out why that's an insult. Like, Bob Ross is still top of his game for what he did it.

[Unknown]

You know, the funny thing about you bringing up this show is I saw a headline the other day somewhere that was like, St. Dennis Hospital ratings hit for, like, I don't know if it's Peacock or NBC, but in these fractured media times, there's so much stuff that just kind of like comes and goes and fails. It's funny that that show was literally like, singled out by somebody, you know, who writes about tv, presumably to say, hey, this is working. This is what America wants. It's also starring Wendy McClendy, Wendy McLendon Covey, who was on Reno 911. And actually I love her Livewire.

[Andrew Walsh]

How did I not even realize that she's one of the. Well, I have faced.

[Unknown]

I think she's like the star of it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe.

[Unknown]

Supposedly she's. I couldn't. Yeah, I haven't watched it. It looks to me from the briefest of promos like it's another one of those kind of like single camera, kind of like faux documentary type of the Office, Parks and Rec, whatever it is, you know, like, I think that's the Abbott Elementary. Now, I think that might be the style of the show that they're making, but it's just funny that, like, I was like, well, I guess that's working for them. And you were like, that looks like. That looks like torture to me. That is the equivalent, equivalent of like blasting Metallica to get Manuel Noriega to come out of his stronghold.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, right.

[Unknown]

For you.

[Andrew Walsh]

But it really does make me. I think a lot of the shows we see promoted really are just absolute garbage. Whether it's a. Whether it's a terrible comedy like this or. Did I say Daddy's Home before? That actually is a movie. Huh? Didn't I? Yeah. I thought I was Father's Home. I thought I was making something up, but clearly I was actually just parroting somebody else's reference to a real movie. But all of that is to say there's a chance that St. Denis Medical might be funny. And the cut that I just saw is so bad, I'm even thinking about that particular Ross joke that I just told you. Like there might be a funnier setup for that. But like they made like a two minute trailer for the show, but that had to be cut down for a minute and then it had to be cut down eventually to 15 seconds. And I've been in positions where you have to keep cutting and cutting and cutting. It's like, well, you just can't make this work. It's like trying to make a 15 second promo for TBTL. It's nearly impossible. So anyway, maybe that show is great, but my God, that promo is awful.

[Unknown]

Well, it seems like really the only content that Americans want to watch on network television now always involves police, fire or rescue of some kind. I feel like almost all of the Fox programming now is either like a Hawaii 5.0reboot or Peter, what's his name from six feet under driving a fire truck up to like the San Andreas fault.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Because he's like, I want to say Krauser.

[Unknown]

I want to say Crouch Cream from Peter Krause. I think Krause. I think Krause.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Unknown]

I don't know. You got closer than I did. I do love how close that is to Crouch Cream, though.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I've always heard. I think Genevieve. I could be wrong. I think it's Krause because that's how Genevieve says it, and she's smarter than me. But I could be wrong.

[Unknown]

I feel like it's always that guy and Angela Bassett, like, he drives a fire truck up to, like, there's, like, the big one hits LA this week on LA Fire Police. And there's, like, an earthquake, and he's, like, driving his fire truck up to the huge fault. And then Angela Bassett is rappelling from a helicopter down to it, and then they're yelling something. And then it's just back to Cletus the Football Robot doing some weird. As we're rejoining the game, like. And the same thing over on old cb. I think it's CBS that does the. Like, Chicago. Yeah, Chicago Fire Med. Yeah, Chicago Fire Med. Phrenology. Next week on Chicago, Kidney Dialysis. Like, we're just plumbing. Plumbing every aspect of the medical system and putting Oliver Platt in it. And. And although, by the way, I love him. Did I tell you the funny thing he said to me once about that show? He showed up to a. Wait, wait, don't tell me. Taping, by the way. A show I used to be on when it was good. Now it's bad, and I don't like it anymore. And that's why it's okay to make fun of it. I feel. I feel terrible. I've had more than one person reach out to me and say, I'm really sorry I shared that Chris Fleming tape with you. And I was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. That wasn't. I wasn't. That was not the response I was trying to get from you. But anyway, he. Because it's literally, I think that show, my film in Chicago, he just shows up randomly at a. Wait, wait, don't tell me. Not as a guest. Just, like, in the audience comes up afterwards where I'm like, dude, you Platt. He goes, oh, yeah, I love this show. I was like, oh, that's so cool. I go, what are you doing here? He goes, I'm on, like, Chicago, whatever.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, you have mentioned that.

[Unknown]

I was like, dude, I love you so much.

[Andrew Walsh]

But also, by the way, before we did, we should just make one point and then move on. Kathy Bates is Matlock. I just feel like at some point I would watch tbtl. But I mean, you know, that was a thing, right? I mean, you can watch. Do. Watch. Watch it on Fubo. Like, they just. All of a sudden I just started seeing promos. Like, was it last football season or was it during the baseball season? It's like, no, it was early this football season. Remember, I saw it on a. On a pirated stream while we were watching the Seahawks home opener in Croatia. It was like, kathy Bates is Matlock. And you're like, what, did she go into one of those blue tents like that when they put an injured football player in there and they clone them. But something went wrong. They put Matlock in there and it came out as Kathy Bates. I'm still confused.

[Unknown]

I would honestly, like, I do think that would be pretty good. Like, I'll watch anything. Kathy Bates is in.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, no, I'm sure it's fine. I mean, I do love Kathy Bates, but you know what I'm talking about, right? Like, this is a real thing. Thing I do know.

[Unknown]

No, no, I'm being serious. I'm. I'm highly. I think it might be on. Is it on cbs? It might be on my parents, probably.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I mean, it seems very cbs. It's kind of.

[Unknown]

She's a fellow Sky Dance employee, as am I. I think maybe that's who owns it now. I think it's Larry Ellison's kids company. All of it Paramount or something. I don't even know. As long as the checks clear. Hello and welcome.

[Andrew Walsh]

Welcome to Top Story.

[Unknown]

All right, I mentioned this last week on the show, this guy that I am absolutely loving named Jared McCain, who is. He's a rookie, I believe, for the Philadelphia 76ers. I want to be careful because I know next to nothing about the NBA these days. So I'm sure I'll get a lot of the details wrong. But the first that I heard of this guy was actually people being mad about this guy because he's a really good basketball player. Like, I think there's some conversation about him maybe being rookie of the year. I don't know if that's hyperbole or not, but what's kind of great about him is that ever since he did one year at Duke and then was, you know, draft, I think, in the first round. But he's not a particularly tall guy for his position. I think he might be like a forward or something, but is. He loves doing like, tick tocks and stuff that are really kind of challenging. The idea of being a quote unquote, tough guy. Like, I. There's no chance that you have been subjected to this meme, Andrew. In fact, I don't even know why I've been subjected to it. But there was this whole thing that went around a couple years ago where basically people would do these dances and little things too. And I don't even. I should have done my research this morning and figured out who does the original song. But there is some kind of song that's like, I'm two days into college and I'm three classes behind and it's basically like some British singer kind of going into like, I'm in college but I feel overwhelmed is basically the takeaway. And what this, this Jared McCain started out doing when he was at Duke was singing the song himself and then cutting to his clips, his highlight clips at Duke. So let me just play you a little bit of this kid, Jared McCain. It starts out with him. So the first thing you hear is him literally singing and then it shifts into the recorded version of the song just for context.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm two days into college and I am three lectures behind.

[Unknown]

By the way, I love him committing to the British accent. He is not, I will stress from England. He just is that into this song.

[Andrew Walsh]

I am two days into college and I am three lectures behind.

[Unknown]

There's this guy, let's name him Colin.

[Jared McCain]

He said he wants to be mine.

[Unknown]

But it doesn't really sit with me quite right because he doesn't really like the things I like. And I keep accidentally knocking myself out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Of my dorm in the middle of the night.

[Unknown]

So then the song starts playing and it's just him just absolutely hooping, just shattering dudes lives with his crossover dribble at his dunking and everything. He also is a fan of painting his nails. He is just super happy to jump on any kind of a TikTok dance trend. And here's the thing I was, I was realizing this morning as I was trying to compose my thoughts about this Jared McCain guy. It's not just that he is someone who is a professional athlete, a male professional athlete who is happy to just kind of be himself and to just be like, you know, do the things he's interested in online. It's also that he's so good at basketball. Like, it's one thing if you're the last person on the bench and you're like your whole thing is being quirky, but this, I don't know if I've ever seen a player who is as like into the stuff that he's into and also just absolutely destroying people on the court, and it's making people really mad. This was him doing an interview, talking about all of the people who love to go hard against him online because he likes to do TikToks that are seen as, you know, quote unquote feminine or something like that.

[Jared McCain]

I mean, at first it was tough because I was like, I'm just spreading. I'm trying to spread positivity. And then people are hating saying. I mean, saying everything to me at games. It was crazy. But at a certain point, I'm just like. It's just. They're either insecure about themselves or just projecting something that, you know, maybe they're hiding whatever to themselves, and they're just trying to throw an opinion out just to get a reaction out of you. That's all they want is a reaction. I got to tell my parents, like, they want to respond more than I do, and I got to tell them, like, no, like, just chill. Yeah, just chill. It's all right. So I just. It's. You get used to it at a certain point. I definitely.

[Unknown]

It.

[Jared McCain]

I didn't really like how just people talk about the nails, the TikToks, more than basketball. I'm like, you know, I've done basketball since I was three years old. Like, I do this stuff on the side, but obviously it's got me where I'm at today. But when they try and overshadow, like, my hard work in basketball just by saying the TikTok stuff, that's. That's when I hate it. But it's something I got to live with anyway.

[Unknown]

It just seems like the sweetest dude. And again, him prospering on the basketball court, but also just, like, being his authentic self off of the basketball court. It's giving me hope in these turbulent times where I feel like the Nick Boses of the world are. I mean, thankfully, he's currently injured, but, like, just like you even said it casually and probably slanderously about J.J. watt. Like, it just seems like the bad guys are always getting W's, and I like it when the good guys are. And I think it might actually be spreading because I saw this, and I know this hurts me. Andrew, to celebrate a Los Angeles Ram. But there is a dude named Kobe Turner who plays for the Rams. And this is actually not particularly interesting audio because really what it is, is it's him in his team hotel room the night before they're about to play the New Orleans Saints. But what he is extremely hyped about is that that the people behind the film version of the musical Wicked have released a tutorial on how to do the dance to a song from Wicked. This is a big individual, Andrew. This is a big man setting up his phone in his hotel room to dance to. This is the music. He is spinning around. He is clutching a book, which I think might be the book Wicked. And he is in his absolute glory. The night before, he's about to go out and smack. He's about to go participate in a series of sanctioned automobile accidents involving human beings. And he's in his room, took a dance to Wicked. There is. I have never seen a person looking less cool doing anything than him doing this dance. And I am so here for it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I haven't seen all of this, so I don't have a lot to add.

[Unknown]

I know it's not your. It's not your corner of TikTok.

[Andrew Walsh]

I had a. I had a. What do they call it? Like a unearthed memory. That's not the word.

[Unknown]

There's more, I think, usually repressed memory. And it's usually. It's usually in some darker context, an.

[Andrew Walsh]

Uncovered memory or something this weekend where. Because I. You know, again, just having football on sort of in the background, especially Sunday Night Football when I came home, just like, just inundated with ads for Wicked, commercials for Wicked. It's not my scene, but obviously people enjoy it. It brings no harm to the world. I don't have anything negative to say, but definitely not my scene. But then as I was. I remembered. This is a weird thing, but I remembered that it started as a book. And I was like, oh, yeah, it was a book. So I think of it as like the theater production or, you know, the stage production turned into the movie.

[Unknown]

You think of it as the Wickedly talent, the Dina Menzel.

[Andrew Walsh]

But then I was like, wait a second, I read that book. And I was like, no, I didn't read that book. I read like the second or third book in the Wicked series. That's which I'm looking up.

[Unknown]

Nothing I expected you to do.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I know. And I'm was. It wasn't. I'm looking at. I'm looking this up now. I don't think it was Son of a Witch. I'm looking. You had Wicked and then you had Son of a Witch. Anyway, and then I was like, why did I read that book? And I think I was working with a host on a public radio show way back. I think this was in New Hampshire, when I was living in New Hampshire, working for New Hampshire Public Radio. But it wasn't that. We were interviewing whoever Wrote those books. I can't even remember their name anymore. But I think that Gregory Maguire, I think it was.

[Unknown]

Oh, good memory.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I just looked it up quickly. But the host of that show was interviewing him on stage for something that wasn't like quite related, you know, it was like an in conversation or whatever. And I think she just asked for some help. She's like, I don't really know anything about Wicked. Like it was just weird because she was a radio host, she reads books and then interviews people about them all the time. But for some reason, maybe she was overwhelmed. She's like, will you help me come up with questions? I was like, yeah, I guess. So I read. I just think, I don't know. I just think it's interesting that I don't know anything about Wicked. It's not for me. I won't see the movie. But I did read the second or third book in the Wicked trilogy at some point or whatever it is. The Wicked series at some point.

[Unknown]

You know, you sound like is me with random books that I've read because they're Livewire guests. Maybe not a particular. Like I've now read I Was a Teenage Slasher, which was actually a very entertaining book about like. But it's basically from the horror genre because we were having the author, Stephen Graham Jones on the show. So now if that ever were to come up, I'd be like, oh yeah, Stephen Graham Jones. I've read I Was a Teenage Slasher. He's written like 35 books. That's the one that I could tell you about. We could talk, we could talk about that book. But just because of a professional obligation more so than I went and picked it off the bookshelf somewhere. I think I went.

[Andrew Walsh]

A Lion Among Men, by the way, which is the third in the series. A Lion Among Men, yes.

[Unknown]

That's what. Oh, because of the like, you know, the, the character.

[Andrew Walsh]

The Cowardly Lion, I guess. Yeah. The thing is like I remember nothing about this.

[Unknown]

Nothing. I didn't even know there were multiple books. I thought there was just the book that was Wicked, which kind of was from the point of view of like the so called Wicked Witch was. Elphaba was kind of misunderstood.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Like a new conceptualization which. Yeah.

[Unknown]

Which is I think kind of a clever idea. We're not done with the Wicked discourse yet, Andrew, because it'll come back in a quick second here. Remember when we had so much fun making fun of Russell Wilson trying to do this Mr. Unlimited thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Unlimited, yeah, I heard your promo for this. I Don't know where this is going, but I think it's a tough sell on me. Like, however I feel about Russell Wilson, which is generally good these days, I don't. You really think you have something that can make me uncringe that tape?

[Unknown]

I don't know. I'll try it, people. Well, here's the thing. It did not go unnoted by the rest of the world, apparently. Like, I thought it was just us being obsessed with like the, like a deep cut from Russell Wilson's social media. But you know, he had a great game for the Pittsburgh Steelers last night. I think he threw for 400 yards.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God, he is.

[Unknown]

He's got his groove back. And also I have to footnote that I did predict this, but also I predict a lot of things that don't happen. This is one of the things that seems to be happening, which is Russell Wilson's doing really well with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I am, I'm now fully pro. Russell Wilson, I feel like he definitely, whatever ego death I needed him to suffer, like, he got to suffer it in Denver. Like, it's enough already. But Najee Harris, right, is a Pittsburgh Steeler. And after Russell Wilson threw for all those yards yesterday, Najee Harris is just in the locker room with his phone up filming Russell Wilson, who, by the way, is dressed head to toe in black. I believe. I believe Najee Harris says he's out here looking like Bruce Wayne or something. I think he's out here looking like the Batman. But listen to what Najee Harris is just saying into his phone as he's recording an unsuspecting Russell Wilson after the game. Check him out too.

[Andrew Walsh]

He look good.

[Unknown]

We're all black looking like Bruce Wayne.

[Andrew Walsh]

Unlimited, everybody.

[Unknown]

Somebody has now made a song that's blowing up the Internet. Because Andrew, in the movie Wicked, the play Wicked, there's a song called Unlimited, and someone is now mixing Wicked and Russell Wilson being unlimited.

[Andrew Walsh]

Unlimited.

[Unknown]

You gotta be unlimited. You gotta have a thought process of being unlimited. Unlimited diarrhea. I forgot until that clip that along with the Mr. Unlimited, there was a time when one of his dogs had diarrhea and he was calling it Unlimited.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. That came later. Yeah, that's right. So he was already, I mean, sort of, sort of to his credit, he was already sort of like acknowledging like he was already sort of in a, in a follow up social media post way back in the day, acknowledging how cringey the original one was. Right? Was it knowing? You can never tell how knowing he is with Anything.

[Unknown]

Exactly. He's.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's. He's.

[Unknown]

It's like the riddle of the Sphinx. You can't know if Russell Wilson's in on the joke or not. But. But you gotta be unlimited. So I'm Unlimited. Nobody hit all of us. No wizard that there is or was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is ever gonna bring.

[Unknown]

I guess it really gets into the song at the end. I thought there was one more clip of him talking about diarrhea. Here's my. Here's. Here's why I. I'm saying Russell Wilson may be getting the last laugh because stuff like this that I feel like it's so cringe and corny, like the first time through, once it sort of gets passed through the. What was the. What was that thing that you were supposed to be able to put, like, bad alcohol in, like a kangaroo something, and it would kind of make it a little better. Do you ever hear about this thing?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I have no idea what you're talking.

[Unknown]

There was some kind of. Let me just use, like the. Let me. Let me go with the human body once this stuff is metabolized and then it passes through, like, the liver and it gets kind of filtered out and then it's, you know, whatever. Like, I feel like now this makes me laugh. Like, if Russell Wilson, like, throws for 400 and says, hey, guys, Mr. Unlimited's back, I'm laughing at him saying that. Whereas when he said it as a Seahawk, I'm dying of embarrassment for him. And I just love that, like, low key. The guys on the Pittsburgh Steelers, like Najee Harris, were all just like. They all saw that and thought it was so funny when he. Or so cringe when he did it. But now I feel like it's been. It's been rehabilitated for me. Like, I don't think the concept of Mr. Unlimited worked, but I think Russell Wilson's redemption arc and now, like, Mr. Unlimited being. Being transubstantiated into something funny for me. I can just feel it happening, you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Know, I. I'm happy for him too, and I generally root for him. And I swung back and forth wildly. I wanted him on his face in Denver, which he did. And, like, the thing about the Unlimited thing for me, and I wasn't familiar with this new tape, and again, I am generally happy for him right now. And it all kind of always depends on a million different contextual, like, sort of factors. But, like, this is, you know, less cringy because he's now cooking, as they say, which is nice for me, though, when somebody reminded me of like, you know, I heard a clip of unlimited or something the other day. Not. Not in this new context. It was a good reminder for me of why I disliked him. You know what? I don't even think it was the unlimited. I think it was, like, I heard the full extended cut of him trying to sell sandwiches for Subway. You play the clip.

[Unknown]

Careful, though, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

Spicy. And it's like the audio's blown out. But you hear that whole thing, and it's like, you remember. Oh, yeah, he would make a whole bunch of the unlimited thing. Kind of cream rose to the top. But there were a lot of videos of him and Sierra and him just being laying in bed and, like, sort of talking about whether or not he's gonna stay with the Seahawks. But, like, it's just like, he really is cringe. Like, he can be both.

[Unknown]

It's.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's both.

[Unknown]

Hey, thanks for the support.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, I just feel like it really.

[Unknown]

Comes back to a Miller, like, commercial.

[Andrew Walsh]

Mom. I just love that guy screaming in the background. It's one of my favorite commercial moments in years. I don't know why I find it so funny. But anyway, you know, it's just. It just kind of really depends on everything. Like, I can't forget how cringey he was and that he did make some, you know, pretty hugely egotistical moves at a time when he shouldn't have been making it. Sometimes an egotistical move really pays off. You know what I mean? And he. He made the wrong move at the wrong time and fell in his fast. And maybe he's humbled a little bit. Again, I'm not. I'm not here rubbing it in his face. But also, the north remembers, you know, like, there's a reason it was cringy. And so I. I don't know, it's a good reminder of, like, kind of why. Oh, and by the way, this is not hugely important, but just a quick correction before you. You referred to Najee Harris as, I think, a running back for the Steelers. But don't forget, I just. He also plays for the fantasy team Bad. Bad Bath and Bijan. And he.

[Unknown]

I knew that was the name of your team.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I just wanted to slip that in there because I love the name of my team. I got Bijan Robinson on my team, so I named Bed Bath and Bijan. And by the way, Harris got me 25 points to help me really seal the win this weekend. So thank you.

[Unknown]

Well, what. What? You gave me too much credit. You. If you go back to the tape, Andrew, I just said he plays for the Steelers. Because I couldn't remember if he was a running back or.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think he's a running back boy. I should.

[Unknown]

I know I should. I'm sure he is.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Listen, you would know, but I'm saying I generalized it because I was like, let's not. Let's not. Let's. Let's. Let's close the things that close. Let's. Let's not try to. To be overly whatever with our football knowledge. But I'm glad that. See everybody. Everybody had a good day on Sunday. You're the. Did the. Did Bed, Bath and Bijan win?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I'm. You know, it's. It was a. I know people love hearing about fantasy sports, so I'll really just try to take my time with this and luxuriate in the story.

[Unknown]

I have one minute before they kick me out of the Airbnb, by the way.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Oh, funny how that pops up.

[Unknown]

I would. I would luxuriate for 30 seconds with it.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I was just going to say that I. Honestly, I. After the draft, the system will give you a grade. And for the first time ever, the system gave me an A plus grade on my draft. I was like, oh, my God, this is amazing. And then I started the season by losing the first four games as absolute bottom of the league for reasons I still don't understand, but have crawled my way up to second place where I currently am as Bed, Bath and Bijan.

[Unknown]

This is what I always say, Andrew. The future is not written.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's not written.

[Unknown]

Fluky plays tend to even out. I apply that to life.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, you might say that the expectations of my team are, well, unlimited.

[Unknown]

Oh, they've moved. Limited to unlimited.

[Andrew Walsh]

They're now unlimited. Exactly.

[Unknown]

Excellent. Like Fantasy Unlimited. Like they put un and then the carrot, and now they're unlimited.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wait, what? Hold on. I lost you. I don't know. Is that worth explaining to me? The carrot.

[Unknown]

No, that's. There. There was. There was like a. There was like a porn store in, like, downtown Seattle that was called Fantasy Unlimited Did. But they had tacked on the un Kind of like, to. To emphasize that it no longer was limited.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I see. Oh, okay. No, I didn't know about that.

[Unknown]

Yeah, well, I think it's gone now. I think you. I think the window is closed on that. That type of media. Anyway. Physical. Anyway, hey, thanks for listening, everyone. We are going to be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you, so please do join us for that. In meantime, have a great Monday. Take care of yourselves, and please Remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all.

[Unknown]

Hey, you want to split this Subway sandwich? It is my signature sandwich. It's called the Danger Witch. And it's dangerously good. Be careful though.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's spicy.

[Unknown]

You ever done anything dangerous? Oh, geez, that is dangerous. I've done something like that too. I won't tell anybody. Listen, one time.

[Andrew Walsh]

Never mind.

[Unknown]

That's too dangerous anyways. My Danger Witch. It's only in the vault.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's our little secret Power out.