Andrew Walsh (2:37)

This is so confusing, Ron.

Luke Burbank (2:39)

And play you some of that tape coming up. And we're going to say hi to this guy. Longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ship. Hey there, Fireball. He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

Andrew Walsh (2:52)

Good morning, Luke. You mentioned how nice the weather is outside, and that reminds me of something I do want to tell. Tell you very, very briefly at the beginning of the show why I am so, so mad at myself. I told you before the show I had nothing to say at the beginning of the show. But then all I need to do is sit with my thoughts and your words for about 10 seconds and then I'll be blabbing away.

Luke Burbank (3:14)

Shake something loose and shake something loose.

Andrew Walsh (3:16)

But no, I do think that you'll appreciate this. And it's an update on something we've talked about on the show. I am so furious at myself. Starts off like a nice story yesterday, got done with work and sort of like, had a hole in my day and was kind of like, well, maybe not even a hole in my day. Just sort. It's around, I don't know, 6:00. I can't remember how the timing of this all worked. I'm like, you know what? Like, I should just go for a walk. Like, just go for a nice long walk, Grab the camera, walk on the inner urban trail, which is kind of a trail that runs sort of. You probably know it, parallel to Aurora, but it's, you know, kind of off the main track there. I'd heard of it before as it goes way, way north up, up to Shoreline, I think. And you kind of go cut through this giant cemetery to get there. And it was such a beautiful day.

Luke Burbank (4:02)

Oh, Evergreen Wasseli.

Andrew Walsh (4:03)

Exactly. Which is near my house. So I did this big loop, walked the trail, then looped back through the cemetery, took a bunch of photos. Just like, really was enjoying the weather and thinking, you know, it's nice to. It's just nice to be able to do this. I get home, I'm taking a shower, and I get out of the shower and I see on my phone I had a reminder that I was supposed to be at the movies yesterday. And it was already like a half hour into the movie dig before I realized I totally blew my date with Genevieve. She didn't remember either. I'm like, veev, we're supposed to be at the movies, like right now. We were supposed to be there a half hour ago. I bought the tickets in advance. I mean, they were not. They were very, very affordable tickets. And I'm happy to support Sif, but I'm just so mad at myself. I had that on my calendar. I was so looking forward to it, but there was just something about waking up. I don't. You know, I didn't usually have anything on my calendar there, so I didn't think about it. But there's just an irony in that. I was just sort of like, literally dinking around, sort of thinking, like, I should be doing something. I'll go for a walk. Yeah, the west coast. Wait, what am I doing?

Luke Burbank (5:09)

Have some fun.

Andrew Walsh (5:10)

I don't know what I just do there. But anyway. Yeah, so anyway, didn't see dig still at maybe another two decades from now. I'll watch it the next time for its 40th anniversary revival.

Luke Burbank (5:22)

I want to say, like, I hope this doesn't sound like I'm trying to be insulting or something, but it's like. And I'm the same way, by the way. It's not like you tend to have a ton of midweek or even early week plans. Like, what are the chances that the, like, one Monday where you're planning on going to a film, this happens to be the same Monday that you decide to take an unprompted walk on the interurban trail? I mean, that is really. That's. That's crazy.

Andrew Walsh (5:48)

I know. And, well, the funny thing is, is I think also I had a couple surprisingly busy weeks. Like, I don't know, maybe not last week. Last week was kind of normal. But the week before that, I think I went to, like, a. I had, like, something almost every day of the week. I had a cracking game. I went to. We had dinner with friends. I was like, you know, so it's not totally uncommon for me to do stuff midweek, but for some reason, this just wasn't on my calendar. And also, maybe I just said midweek, but maybe the fact that it's a Monday off, you know, that's the thing. It's like every other Monday I'm doing a podcast if I haven't recorded it over the weekend with Hannah. So that's sort of like a standard thing. It's like, is this the spotless Monday or not? Like, I just have certain markers in my life, and for some reason, I just felt like. I felt marked. Like I had a sensation of something is missing yesterday. And I just. I can't explain. It is a. It was a rare feeling, and I was like, well, watches. Go out and take some photos and enjoy the fact that, like, it's sunny and it's a nice evening in the middle of the winter, and So I did that. And again, you know, like, I'm glad I took a walk. I'm happy I wasn't just, like, you know, throwing darts or whatever. I think I would have been really mad.

Luke Burbank (6:52)

That's what I was gonna say. And I don't wanna sound like I'm moralizing, but going for a walk is a great, healthy activity. You could have forgotten this because for some reason, you decided to belly up to a bar somewhere, which, you know, again, no judgment on that, but, like, a walk is a very good thing to be doing.

Andrew Walsh (7:07)

Yeah. If I had been doing something more like dirtbaggy, I said, never mind. I was gonna go dark there. I don't need to go dark there anyway. That's why I' at myself on this Tuesday morning. Why are you mad at yourself?

Luke Burbank (7:21)

Well, because I think I'm gonna end up paying, I don't know, $34 to keep this All Trails membership because I just used it to watch the interurban trail to preview the entire interurban trail. There's this. Wait, you just.

Andrew Walsh (7:34)

While we were talking, you just spent 30 bucks to take a virtual tour of the trail?

Luke Burbank (7:38)

No, I spent it when I was in Hawaii because Becca and I were trying to find some running trails. Oh, there is this. There's this app. I'll give them a free plug. It's called All Trails. I've used it for a long time. If I'm in a new city and I'm trying to find maybe a place to run or whatever. And they now have this feature where it previews the route. So we were trying to do this little. Figure out this little run kind of along the beach when we were in Hawaii. And what I realized is that if I signed up for. I'm on my trial membership started last week. And it comes up on, like, this Friday or something. And if I don't. If I don't tell it to stop, it's going to charge me 30 bucks or whatever for the year. What's that?

Andrew Walsh (8:19)

Year? Oh, yeah, you got to do that.

Luke Burbank (8:21)

Full access to this thing. But I'm obsessed with this preview function. So I just did it on the interurban trail where you put it in, and then it shows you. It gives you directions. It tells you everything about this trail. And then it says preview trail. And you hit a play. You hit play. And it does, like, a combination of, like, street view. It starts overhead on, like, satellite, and then it goes into street view. And it just kind of traces the entire route of this thing. So I'm like, It's like I'm walking along with you, Andrew.

Andrew Walsh (8:49)

You know, does it get any. This is. This is rude. I'm glad that we have a trail like that so you can get off of Aurora, which is like really, really busy and really sketchy in places. Having said that, it's not my favorite kind of walk. Like I've always said this to Genevieve. It sort of reminded me we'd go on long walks around New Hampshire. And as beautiful as New Hampshire is in our little neighborhoods, like just walking through residential areas, aside from like maybe seeing some, you know, pretty beautiful houses that are pretty old in that, in that part of the country, like, it just gets really boring for me. Like I'd always rather see, even if it's urban decay, I'd rather, especially if I have my camera, like I'd rather be taking photos of something urban. Like this path, which, you know, I know Genevieve will take sometimes. Basically. I walked up to Lowe's, I think, so I know that Genevieve, if she has to go to Lowe's or something, sometimes she'll take the path there if she wants to go the slow way. And so that's up by the sprouts, that not quite up to the sprouts. I think that's 125. The Lowe's is.

Luke Burbank (9:51)

Yeah, okay, got you. Lowe's is across street by the Krispy Kreme.

Andrew Walsh (9:53)

Exactly. I love, by the way, I know we joke about it, but my new favorite thing is actually getting really specific with the streets around Seattle. I think for some people it just doesn't mean anything to them, so that's fine. But to the people who like don't live here anymore, I think they love hearing about the specificities.

Luke Burbank (10:11)

There's somebody in Japan right now who's just like, I know where that Krispy Kreme is.

Andrew Walsh (10:14)

Right. Exactly. In the same way, when I'm listening to the Lebatard show, I like listening to them talk about various grocery stores they go to. And like there's certain, like pre made food at certain grocery stores that will never touch my life in any way. But like, you know, them just casually talking about it. So anyway, point is, it's a kind of a. It's kind of boring. Like that's the thing, especially this time of year. Like I ended up cutting back around and walked all the way back through the cemetery because I didn't realize Washelli is that big. But at least the cemetery has like some structures, some fountains, some things to look at, whereas I don't know what your Pathfinder is telling you there on your app. But like, I don't know if it gets any more interesting once you get past 125th. But you know, it's. If you're looking for a safe place to jog around here or walk your dog, like. Absolutely. I could see it being like pretty helpful, but it didn't, it didn't spur a lot of creativity in me.

Luke Burbank (11:08)

Right. Because it's just kind of. There's a trail down in Portland that Becca and I will sometimes jog called the Spring Water, which is a lot like this. And sometimes she'll tell me like, let's do something else. Because it's monotonous. After a while it's safe, which is great. I mean it's safe in terms of being safe from cars and things, but.

Andrew Walsh (11:27)

After a while it's kind of cardiac events.

Luke Burbank (11:30)

Yeah, no, those are always a danger. But yeah, it is nice to me. The ideal walk for me is. Well, it's one of two things. One is just in, in, in like the extreme of beautiful nature. Like to be like when I used to, when I was living in Bellingham, I had found. I found these old logging roads and Rudy and I would go on these walks in the woods, but where it's just very beautiful and very kind of rugged. But you had this gravel path that was, you know, well defined. I either like that or I like walking around in a neighborhood where Everybody. At about 5:00 at night, people are starting to make dinner. You get some good free smells. You get to kind of like in a non gross way, in a non weird way, you get to see people kind of living their lives. I like a neighborhood walk where when the houses are fairly well maintained and stuff. I love that or I love just being out in the middle of nature. Being one click off of Aurora is not to me the ideal either.

Andrew Walsh (12:25)

Yeah, no, it's. It's not. My ideal is probably a little bit more like I want more. Little bit more activity than just residential. Like I guess like Capitol Hill. Seattle would be my perfect. You know what I mean? I like people watching. I like. The thing is, here's the thing about me. I might not.

Luke Burbank (12:44)

One thing about Andrew is I like.

Andrew Walsh (12:48)

To watch other people having a good time. And this is something I realized when I first moved to Seattle way back when I was looking back a young 30 year old or whatever I was. I know, but I remember just like.

Luke Burbank (12:59)

I'm not ready for you to have been in Seattle this long.

Andrew Walsh (13:02)

I loved like, you know, sitting at my desk up in my. In my attic office, looking out that window, watching people do things or.

Luke Burbank (13:09)

Or going.

Andrew Walsh (13:10)

Actually going for a short walk and, like, seeing everybody, like, going to shows and, you know, cramming themselves into clubs or whatever. Like, I don't want to be crammed into that club, but, my God, I would die for your right to do it. Like, I just. I love. I love watching it.

Luke Burbank (13:23)

You're a combination of Voltaire and John Lennon. You will. You do not. You do not want to be the one riding the wheels going round and round, but you will fight to the death to defend your right to watch them.

Andrew Walsh (13:36)

I thought you were going for a life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.

Luke Burbank (13:42)

I was going with. You're just sitting there watching the wheels go round and round. But then I had a hard time conforming it into the famous Voltaire quote, so we ran into some trouble there. Hey, Andrew, I got a decent update here on the whole cell phone situation. Now, yesterday I talked on the show about how my phone's been giving me problems for, like, months now where it doesn't really take a charge properly when I'm trying to, you know, use it in my car for, like, you know, directions and things. It'll come disconnected very easily. And I was really frustrated with that. And I was kind of. Even though the phone itself, the functionality of the phone is fine for me. It's a cell phone. It works. That's all I really need. But what I realized is that if I got a new Apple iPhone, it was going to come with a USB C port, which I want to say would actually get me out of a couple of jams. Because right now I have. I have. Andrew, you and I both, there's nothing we like less than loose cables. Too much loose cables, you know, can really drive a person crazy.

Andrew Walsh (14:43)

When you say loose cables, you mean just having, like, extras in a drawer somewhere and just.

Luke Burbank (14:48)

This is what I mean.

Andrew Walsh (14:48)

Yeah.

Luke Burbank (14:49)

The combinatorics of my. Of my life of cables is too much. And by that I mean I have some cables that are USB C. That goes to an iPhone. Lightning input. Okay. I have some cables that are USB to a lightning cable. Yeah, I have some cables that are USBC to USB C. And then I have some chargers that are usb. The opening on the charger, the thing you plug into the wall. That one, it needs a usb. And then I have some. That. When you plug it into the wall, the little cube. Yeah, it needs a USB C. Yeah.

Andrew Walsh (15:32)

Do you have any micro USBs? Because I'm still, I still have some things that are being micro usb. That's before USB C which is like the. It's about the size of a micro of a USB C but it's like just different enough. Yeah, this came first before the USB C and I have, at least I'm looking around, I have a speaker that needs one of those, a camera that still needs one of those. Like I'm stuck in that clothes from.

Luke Burbank (15:55)

My life because of the. Because of how maddening it is when you think you have a USB C but it's a micro or vice versa. You're like ah, like I. The point is I'm constantly grabbing the wrong cable for the job at the time. I have like this little, I have this little kind of you know, zip up pouch that I try to keep all of this stuff in but it's like I'll be looking to charge my phone but I grab the thing that's USB C to a lightning phone thing and then. But the charger I have needs a usb.

Andrew Walsh (16:27)

You know what I mean?

Luke Burbank (16:29)

I need this to all be brought under the unified field theory of USB C. Every input and output just needs to be USB C on everything. Then it'll just simplify my life. So that's the appeal of switching phones. Except for again I will lose TikTok which might not be such a bad thing. You had proposed interesting idea yesterday of me hanging onto this phone. I think I could get a couple of hundred bucks for this phone or more maybe by trading it in at the Apple store or like I don't know, I don't really want to get into trying to sell it on Facebook marketplace but the phone is not.

Andrew Walsh (17:00)

What do they do with the trade ins? I always see these, I don't know.

Luke Burbank (17:04)

If you go to the Apple website there's a whole thing for trading in your phone and they'll tell you right there like you say if it's in good condition or not, which my phone, other than not charging, which I wasn't going to really tell them about it's like, you know, visibly it's in good condition and they're like we can give you $200 for this phone or whatever the number was. And I thought and then, and then what, what are you doing with it?

Andrew Walsh (17:26)

It's not like an old car where it's like well I can, you know, I can use this engine in the. You know what I mean? I know that it's probably, I'm guessing and hoping it's better for the environment if you're giving your phone back. They're doing something with it.

Luke Burbank (17:39)

There's a. They're not giving you $200 for nothing. So there must be some future life for this thing. But anyway, so yesterday afternoon, we're done with the show. You're blithely wandering around missing your movie date, and I'm here at home and I'm just. Had it with this phone. I told you that on Sunday night, it died sitting on my nightstand because it wasn't taking the charge. And I am like, I'm in that moment where in my brain, I have a little bit of, a little window of time in the afternoon and I just decide, okay, I'm driving down to the, the, like, whatever they call it, the Comcast store, the Xfinity store, and I'm just going to get a new iPhone. That's it. And I'm going to have them build it into my payments. It's going to add 40 bucks a month to my thing, which is going to suck. But whatever, I'm doing it. And I think I might have had a moment where I needed to, like, use the restroom or something. But anyway, I pick up my phone, as is my want, and I look at Blue sky and Andrew. If I don't have a message on the ascendant social media platform, platform Blue sky, from listener Andrew, saying something to the effect of, you don't. Let me see if I can actually find the exact Blue sky post from Andrew. It said it was short and sweet. It said, you don't need a new phone. You just need to scrub out your lightning port. I wish I could say that was the first time somebody had told me.

Andrew Walsh (19:03)

That there are some parlors around here that'll do that for you. Yeah, yeah. Just east of the interurban trail.

Luke Burbank (19:12)

Yeah, I bet, I bet you that's, that's, that's why somebody missed their movie. I. So I thought, okay, I mean, what's the, what's the harm? What do I have to lose? I'm about to. So I go on like Reddit and I find some, you know, examples of people kind of cleaning out the lightning ports on their phone. And I realized that it can be done without any special equipment. I just got a toothpick out of my little toothpick holder. And then the people were saying on Reddit, like, if you carry your phone around in your pants, there's a really good chance that basically lint has gotten up in there. And now I was looking for. My dream was that it would be an incredibly gratifying and satisfying experience where I would just be like. Like, there'd be, like, a. A kitchen sink would fall out.

Andrew Walsh (20:00)

I've had that. You didn't get that? Not a kitchen sink, but I've had. Very sad. I do this. I almost do it too much now. Like, I try not to do it so often because it's so satisfying. I keep pins around and looking for my phone cleaning pin. I should have mentioned that to you. I'm not an. I'm not an iPhone person, so I didn't know that it even occurred to me. But I'm always cleaning out my USB C port, and sometimes you just. You keep going. You're like, oh, there's nothing in here. But then you scrape it off the bottom, and then a big. A big chunk comes out that you get some twee, and you pull the rest of it. It's so satisfying.

Luke Burbank (20:30)

I didn't get. I was really hoping that there would be tweezing involved. I was hoping that it would be, like. It would. It would be this massive amount of material that would be extremely satisfying to remove. That was not totally the experience, I will tell you. A lot of blue kind of material. Blue lint came out. That is the color of the blue jeans that I tend to wear. And. And I also noticed that I was trying to be careful to not, like, break the toothpick off inside this thing. I was trying to be kind of gentle. It still is, you know, a piece of electronics, but I realized if I really got in there and it seemed like I'd gotten everything out, and then there would still be more stuff in there. And so I ended up with a kind of a smallish pile of blue again, I think, just like my, you know, residue of my. Of my jeans. And I was like, I don't know if this is really enough to make a profound difference. Like, we'll see. But I plugged that bad boy in. Andrew and.

Andrew Walsh (21:24)

Jalapeno. Jalapeno. Jalapeno.

Luke Burbank (21:29)

Totally fixed my phone. The phone is back, baby. It is, like, 100% functional. I could. Right here on camera in front of you and the American people. I can plug it in to the charger that I have, and it's charging away. No muss, no fuss.

Andrew Walsh (21:48)

And does it feel different putting. Does it feel different when you put the charger in there?

Luke Burbank (21:53)

Yes. It wasn't seating in there properly. And I thought instead of the most obvious answer, which is, yeah, there's gunk in there, I kept thinking, maybe this is like the reverse Occam's razor that is my brain. I was like, well, somehow the port, the lightning port has been dented. Like it's been crushed in some way that it's no longer the proper shape, which would be such a less likely outcome than just like, bro, you got denim junk in there. And so I want to say thank you to listener Andrew. That was a game changer. I now have a working cell phone again, which still includes TikTok Andrew. So everybody wins, mostly the Chinese government.

Andrew Walsh (22:33)

This is interesting and you alluded to this yesterday when we're talking about it, that you're, you know, your instinct on a lot of things is like, well, I'll just buy the newest, best version of this thing anyway. Is it. How much is the TikTok aspect of all of this influencing your decision to keep this thing like limping along and maybe limping along and is now unfair to the phone because you're happy with it again. But like if the TikTok aspect of this were not. Were non existent, would you have just bought a new phone by now? You would have bought a new phone yesterday without even probably trying that. Right.

Luke Burbank (23:07)

Believe it or not, I actually saw the loss of TikTok as a positive. You know me and you know how I love to take, as the drop says, take on things we know we can't do and do them like there's nothing I love more than a grand gesture about how different of a person I'm about to become and the sort of the act of trading my phone in knowing full well that my new phone or even just getting a new phone knowing full well that it wasn't going to have tick tock on it. I was actually looking forward to that as a strong statement about my person.

Andrew Walsh (23:39)

Sure. Yeah. And thinking about what you're going to do with all your extra time now that you're not.

Luke Burbank (23:43)

Well, mostly how I'm going to talk about it to people in the way that paints me the most heroically.

Andrew Walsh (23:47)

Right. Exactly.

Luke Burbank (23:48)

How are the ways that I'm going to bring it up on stage when we're doing Livewire, by the way, this Thursday at the Reaser. Ricky Lindholm will be there. Ira Madison iii, please come see us. Still tickets available. The Reese are in Beaverton. I if I would have trade. I'm put it this way, if I would have traded my phone in, it would have been the first 15 minutes of Livewire on Thursday. Like, you know what I mean? I do these things. Yeah. Or just like I don't. Yeah, whatever. My like this is what happens is I do something and then I. I talk about it across various media projects till the poor people like our friend Lynn Pham and other power users of the Luke Burbank experience have heard the same story. I'm on this Portland City cast today. There's this kind of. It's an interesting media project where I don't know exactly who's in charge of it, but various cities have these kind of hyper localized podcasts now and it's called CityCast. It's a. It's one company that kind of runs all these. I think they've got one in Austin. They certainly got one in Portland and a few other places.

Andrew Walsh (24:45)

Yeah, I'm blanking on his name right now, but one of the hosts of Political Gabfest, this is. This was his big project.

Luke Burbank (24:53)

Oh, really?

Andrew Walsh (24:54)

Yes, he used to promote it all the time. And I don't think that. Do they have one for Seattle yet? Because I remember you tweeting at him one time like, let's get on the Seattle train. I'd like to.

Luke Burbank (25:01)

I wonder if.

Andrew Walsh (25:02)

Straight up my alley.

Luke Burbank (25:03)

Yeah, I mean, and I hear there were fans. So Becca sent me. I didn't realize this thing was going live today, but Becca sent me a link. She was like, oh, my friend who loves the Portland City cast saw that you're on this week.

Andrew Walsh (25:14)

David Plots, by the way, is the name.

Luke Burbank (25:16)

Oh, David Plot.

Andrew Walsh (25:17)

I believe he was one of the. I believe he was one of the founders of this. I don't know if he's still with it anymore. So anyway, so you're on the city cast.

Luke Burbank (25:24)

I'm on the city cast.

Andrew Walsh (25:25)

Interviewed you.

Luke Burbank (25:27)

One of the hosts there, Claudia, and her last name's escaping me at the top of my head. But she and I were talking about music they had me on. They were smart enough to not have me on to talk like Portland politics because that's something I don't have a very deep knowledge of. But it was basically like, what are some songs that kind of connect to various parts of your Portland experience? And so I picked some songs, but I, and I, I had a great chat with them. It was a. It was a nice afternoon, but I remember in the moment thinking, I really hope Port no TBTL listeners listen to this because what they're gonna realize is I'm just trotting out all the old.

Andrew Walsh (26:04)

Hits, but the subject line is from MF Doom to John Prine, the four songs that define. And now I can't see the rest of the headline, like, you got to.

Luke Burbank (26:14)

Pay extra for the rest of the headline. But the, you know, it's like, of course the listeners of this show know that I love John Prine, and they, they know that I love that one song that has that one lyric, you know, and it's like, I just, as I was having this conversation with the city cast folks, I was like, I was like, oh God, look, you gotta get some new material and, or life experience because you just are. Have the same four stories. And so if you would like to hear the same four stories told ever so slightly differently and with more John Prine playing, you can go check out the Portland city cast.

Andrew Walsh (26:46)

Oh, they're actually playing. They played the music.

Luke Burbank (26:49)

Yeah. And I was a little before we started rolling, I said something like, I said, yeah, we used to do a music for your weekend on my show tbtl. But then we, we started running into some rights issues and it, it struck me that that might have been the first they'd considered this.

Andrew Walsh (27:03)

I. Considering you just going back, like I sort of going rogue. I don't know, man. It's an internal struggle. I used to love that segment music for your weekend. And we don't do it anymore. And I just wonder if I was stout too early on that I was just getting all these warnings. I'm like, well, clearly we're moving in a certain direction where they're going to start. And I just didn't. My, my always my concern has been it's fine now, but at some point they're going to clamp down and then they're going to clamp down on the archives and then we're going to have years and years of tape of, you know, like podcasts that people can't access because, you know, one of these tech companies has made a decision.

Luke Burbank (27:40)

And I think that. I don't think that's you wussing out, Andrew. I think that's trying to future proof this show. Like, because you're right, the worst outcome would be because I'm, you know, I like, I like playing music on the show, you know, and we used to do it a lot to just kind of punctuate things or to make a point or because just because we had remembered a Donovan song. And by we, I mean you like. I mean just think about all of the content we got from Barabba Jaggle alone. Yes, but like, but like, it would really suck if. And I fully believe this will be the case if. Yeah, in some, in. In some future world they can clamp down on all of this in such a way that all of a sudden Many, many shows from the TBT archives are no longer available for public consumption. And that would really suck, I don't think the. Because there are people who, when they get into this show, they want to go back and listen from day one. And, you know, the fact that we've done. I'm proud of the fact that we've done 4,390 of these, you know, so, like, I don't think you're being a wuss with that. I think it's actually probably the wise decision.

Andrew Walsh (28:41)

I'm proud of, like, 4,299 of them.

Luke Burbank (28:49)

Thank you for being a 10. All right, let's thank some of our donors today. Again, a heads up that our dazzling donor emails are going out or have gone out. So if you are somebody who is donating at a dazzling donor level and you wanted to share a message with us or any other sort of thing, look for that email from TBTL and our dear friend coworker John Sklaroff in an inbox. Coming to an inbox near you. And again, as a person who doesn't like to do anything extra, I can't stress this enough. You also don't have to, but you absolutely deserve. You have the right to, but you are not obligated.

Andrew Walsh (29:28)

You literally have the right to remain silent is what we're saying here.

Luke Burbank (29:32)

That's exactly what we're saying. We're Mirandizing the dazzling donors and we're thanking today's donors, including Andy Jaske of Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Andrew Walsh (29:41)

Is Andy the person who helped you with your phone?

Luke Burbank (29:45)

Oh, I mean, it was an Andrew.

Andrew Walsh (29:47)

It was an Andrew. It always is.

Luke Burbank (29:50)

Yeah. Except for the fact that you didn't suggest it to me, despite the fact that you are now it sounds like cleaning out your phone maybe once a day.

Andrew Walsh (29:59)

And I'm bummed it didn't occur to me. Yeah, I guess I was just like.

Luke Burbank (30:03)

Listener Andrew, the W. You know, That's a good point.

Andrew Walsh (30:05)

It was an Andrew W. It just wasn't this.

Luke Burbank (30:06)

And somebody got a W. Exactly. Thanks, Andy. Appreciate you. Thanks also to Abel, England in Aberdeen, Washington.

Andrew Walsh (30:14)

Nice. Thank you very much, Abel.

Luke Burbank (30:16)

Thanks to Julie Taznatti in Salem, Oregon. I know Salem, Oregon. I go there a lot now. Becca's from.

Andrew Walsh (30:25)

It's where all the witches are.

Luke Burbank (30:27)

Never thought I would spend. I think you're thinking of Gloucester. Thanks, Julie. Thanks also to Lisa Brines, who's In Renton, Washington. Renton 0 witches in Renton, Washington.

Andrew Walsh (30:40)

Interurban trail does not reach down. Doesn't go all the way to Renton does not. Does not, unfortunately.

Luke Burbank (30:47)

We'll get on that, Lisa. See what you can do. Thanks to Heidi Fieldler of Boxborough, Massachusetts. Gloucester, Mass. Boxborough, Mass.

Andrew Walsh (30:56)

Thank you, Heidi.

Luke Burbank (30:58)

Did you ever get out to Boxborough, Mass?

Andrew Walsh (31:00)

No, I don't.

Luke Burbank (31:01)

Veeves were tooling around Boston.

Andrew Walsh (31:03)

No. I don't want to insult Heidi, but I. I don't think I've ever been or heard of Boxborough.

Luke Burbank (31:09)

It sounds lovely. Sounds like a place that's not a type of Taylor.

Andrew Walsh (31:12)

Right?

Luke Burbank (31:13)

It's not Taylor would. Oh, it's a Foxborough.

Andrew Walsh (31:16)

It. Well, Foxborough isn't spelled that way, though. Right. How is Foxborough spells?

Luke Burbank (31:20)

It doesn't look like anything to me because whenever I see Foxborough, it's associated with the Patriots and I just warg out.

Andrew Walsh (31:25)

No, Foxborough is spelled the same way. But is Boxborough. I mean, just double checking here.

Luke Burbank (31:29)

No, Boxborough is a place.

Andrew Walsh (31:31)

Oh, yeah, definitely. In fact, I'm probably insulting them further by even confusing.

Luke Burbank (31:34)

It's in Middlesex county.

Andrew Walsh (31:36)

Okay.

Luke Burbank (31:37)

Population 5506. And it's chiefly known as the home of Heidi Fiedler.

Andrew Walsh (31:44)

That's right. And its chief export is chrome.

Luke Burbank (31:46)

Yep. Yep. And then Natalie Sinkler is checking in from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Andrew Walsh (31:52)

Now, there I've been.

Luke Burbank (31:54)

There you have. And there you may again at some point. We've got plans. We're gonna try to get through the Twin Cities sooner rather than later. So if you're there, keep watch. This space. Anyway, thank you so much to our donors today. Thanks for making this something that can be our job here. I was thinking the other day, Andrew, that I feel sort of bad for the postal worker who's like, this is her route, my house, and the studio her route. She's just the best. I love her so much. I actually don't know her first name, but we chat sometimes when she's dropping off the mail. I printed out a sign that I put on the glass door of the Madrona Hill studio that says, please leave all deliveries at the front door of the house alcove to protect from rain. Thank you. Because people get confused.

Andrew Walsh (32:46)

The.

Luke Burbank (32:47)

A lot of delivery people get confused when they pull up. They're like, is the studio the address or is the house the address? And the problem is, if I'm gone and the stuff gets placed in front of the Madrona Hill studio, it's just exposed to the elements. So if I was gone on a work trip or something, it could just get, like, rained on and destroyed. So I wanted to make sure people were taking stuff down to the house where there's a little entryway where it's a little more protected. But the problem is now that means that like yesterday was. I was. Was gifted with some broadcast coffee from our friends over at Broadcast Coffee, including CEO and chief bottle washer Barry. They. They sent us some coffee bean counter. My dad used to say bottle washer.

Andrew Walsh (33:31)

No, no, I know bottle washer is the right use there, but I was just sort of trying to make it coffee related beans.

Luke Burbank (33:36)

Oh, yeah, right, good. That's a good point.

Andrew Walsh (33:37)

Just a little punch up there for you.

Luke Burbank (33:39)

But so the, The. The. Thank you. You tagged it for me. I'm like Nikki Glazer over here.

Andrew Walsh (33:44)

I.

Luke Burbank (33:45)

We try. We run these jokes thousands of times and then we try different tags and then we finally settle on the winners. But, like, basically it would have been totally fine for this. For my. The. The male. The post. Post person. Male worker. We don't say mail. Well, it's not a man. But also it's like, what do we. What's the more inclusive way to say mailman?

Andrew Walsh (34:05)

Okay.

Luke Burbank (34:06)

The mail carrier pulls up and it would be very easy for her to just walk this box that has broadcast coffee in it and just leave it at the door. And it would be fine because I'm in here doing the show. But she gets. And she gets out of her mail truck and then she looks at that sign and then she has to walk down a steep flight of stairs to my house to place it in the alcove because of what I'm directing her to do from the sign and then walk back up and then look in the window. She can see into this place and wave very nicely as she comes back up the stairs. As I'm in here talking into this microphone.

Andrew Walsh (34:39)

Yeah.

Luke Burbank (34:40)

And I feel bad because I, like, I want her to know the sign doesn't apply to her. And it doesn't if I'm here inside. You don't have to take stuff all the way down like it's an unknown.

Andrew Walsh (34:48)

Don't update the sign, though. This is getting too complicated. If you're getting tempted to be like, please put the deliveries under the alcove away from the elements. Unless you're the mail carrier that. My usual mail carrier whose name I don't know. But I see you every day and sometimes we have friendly chats and also.

Luke Burbank (35:04)

What do we call? What's the more inclusive term for mail carrier?

Andrew Walsh (35:08)

Parenthetically. But if you see me podcasting in my studio, you alone can leave the packages at the door. It's probably from my Friend Barry, period.

Luke Burbank (35:19)

You think that's too complicated for a science?

Andrew Walsh (35:21)

Yeah, that's perfect, actually.

Luke Burbank (35:22)

So all that is to say, I am appreciative of our donors who make it possible that this is our job, Andrew, that I'm in here talking on this microphone to you for a living and our friend John Sklaroff is there in the Twin Cities managing the business boys side of things and sending out emails to dazzling donors to get their messages like that. And you're building the show and editing the show and putting it all up and encoding it and making the website work so well, like this is all happening because of the donors. And I just have these moments of real gratitude over it.

Andrew Walsh (35:54)

Oh, you know what, can I say something here while you are mentioning that? I got a note from a listener and friend of the show last night that I am not. I'm not going to name the person directly, but I got to say I just scanned it really briefly because it came in late. It might have been one of those emails where the sender sort of regretted it, but. So I don't want to call them out, but actually it calls out. The original email called out something that I did yesterday on the show that was a joke that is sort of outside my usual vibe. And I remember making it and having a slight cringe when I said it. And it hit this listener's ears in a way that I kind of don't blame them for taking some offense at it. I made a joke during the dazzling donors yesterday. We were just talking about love language or something and we were talking about donors and I said, giving me money is my love language.

Luke Burbank (36:45)

Just trying to get me out of a weird. I was talking about a listener in our love language.

Andrew Walsh (36:50)

I mean, I was just transitioning, but I remember thinking like, we don't. We don't talk about our donors as giving me money. There was something coarse about it. Like it's not that big of a deal, but there was something coarse about it. In the moment that I said that, I was like, ew, that doesn't sound like. That doesn't sound appreciative. You know what I mean? And this listener, I think. And again, I sort of scan this in preview mode. I'll go back and read my emails more carefully later. Was a little bit taken aback by that because they hadn't donated for a long time and just started donating and sort of felt like they're not maybe giving as much as they want to or whatever. And I was like, ah, damn it, man. I don't want to ruin anybody. Somebody who is actively involuntarily giving us money to something that we're giving away for free, but somebody who cares about it enough to keep it going to donate, which is what we're doing here, deserves a little bit better than me just saying give me money, which is. That was.

Luke Burbank (37:38)

But that's not on you.

Andrew Walsh (37:40)

But I understand you were trying to.

Luke Burbank (37:41)

Get the nose up on a weird. A weird place I went, involving me and a listener having a love language. You were just trying to. That was. I mean, honestly, it was like I was drowning in a river and you just jumped in to try to save me and then pulled you down. Never do that. But anyway, that's not your fault.

Andrew Walsh (37:58)

It was just sort of funny that, like, I did have a quick moment of cringe, then obviously completely forgot about. About it because the conversation keeps moving. But then somebody who actually does, you know, hand over their hard earned dollars was like, yeah, that didn't feel great. And so I respect that. Thanks for letting me know and apologies.

Luke Burbank (38:13)

Yeah, yeah, thank you. To everyone who is donating or has donated or is considering donating at whatever amount works for you. I will occasionally when I'm, I don't know, it's like I'm driving and zoning out. I'll just have this like, weird, like, kind of fear will course through me of like, what if everybody just stopped? Like, because on an individual level, any one person could say, well, if I stop donating, it doesn't end the operation. And that is true. But of course, if everyone had that thought at the same time or if, you know, we went through some, like some sort of a financial crisis which doesn't seem unpossible considering the, you know, like, roll the. Basically the bridge is out ahead and we're barreling along towards it as a nation on about every possible level. Right. Like, I was just thinking, what if everyone stops donating? I don't think that's going to happen. But. But I just want to say I appreciate all of the fine folks who have kept TBTL going for all these years, and we hope to be here for many years in the future. Hello and welcome to Top Story. I don't really know what all. What all I'm adding to the discourse here, but I noticed a clip of tape online yesterday posted by the Las Vegas Raiders team welcoming their new head coach, Pete Carroll, who, I gotta say, Andrew, for 73 years old, this guy is in top shape. Like, I mean, you look at the dude and you just can't believe that he's 73. I mean, he is. He is fit as a fiddle.

Andrew Walsh (39:57)

I mean, him just running up and down the sidelines in excitement is more exercise than I get in a year.

Luke Burbank (40:04)

Yeah. I mean, he's. I. You know, and again, I. I always have liked Pete Carroll, like, as a person. I think. I think he's a force for good. He did, of course, famously think that he. He indicated that he might think 911 was an inside job, and he brought.

Andrew Walsh (40:21)

Jordan Peterson in to talk to the team. He did, yes.

Luke Burbank (40:24)

I feel like my thing with Pete Carroll is. I think he suffers from a lack of critical thinking. Like, to him, every. We probably said this when the Jordan Peterson thing came up or when the. You know, what was it? Fire can't melt that steel or whatever. I feel like the problem with Pete Carroll is he's somebody who thinks every single possible idea and theory is of equal merit. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think.

Andrew Walsh (40:49)

Which is kind of. That's kind of Rogany, though, right? Kind of, like.

Luke Burbank (40:53)

So you mean we're just asking questions?

Andrew Walsh (40:54)

We're just asking questions. Yeah.

Luke Burbank (40:56)

And it's. I don't think. I don't get the sense from Pete Carroll that it comes from a sinister place where he's like, I'm trying to red pill, you know, the culture at large or something. Whereas, like, a Gruden. Like a Jon Gruden, I think, is. This is probably kind of a pretty bad person, says pretty bad things when. When he thinks no one's listening. I think Pete Carroll's just kind of a moron, but who is, like, good at motivating dudes.

Andrew Walsh (41:20)

Kind of like a. Kind of a marmadukey character, sort of.

Luke Burbank (41:23)

He's got. And it's giving.

Andrew Walsh (41:25)

It's giving.

Luke Burbank (41:26)

Marmaduke.

Andrew Walsh (41:27)

Exactly.

Luke Burbank (41:27)

So this is Pete Carroll at the press conference. And I just. When this. When. When he. When. When he was talking about, you know, coming on and coaching this team, he just. It just reminded me of so much of my life as a Seahawk fan when Pete Carroll was our head coach, where he just. There's something about his style of speaking where he never. He somehow never manages to choose the right word for the thing he's trying to say. And I understand that.

Andrew Walsh (41:52)

It's just.

Luke Burbank (41:53)

I just. No, but that's not even the. You might forget a word, but you can also identify when you're not using the right word to express yourself. And I don't think that's something that Pete Carroll really has. I mean, first off, I will Say that the question from the person, this is a press conference. I don't want to listen. I can hear in the voice of the guy asking the question that he's probably a little nervous. He's like a younger guy. He's got an iPhone on a tripod in front of him, which he could be writing the most successful Raiders blog anyway. He probably has a million more readers than we do listeners. I'm not trying to. That. I'm not trying to denigrate the guy's work, but he seemed almost like maybe a younger guy who I could hear. He was a little nervous to ask this question of Pete Carroll, which is. I think he's asking, like, why are you doing this at 73 or something. But his question's a little all over the place. And then Pete Carroll's answers, a lot all over the place.

Andrew Walsh (42:42)

I. Pete, you know you're set to make history as the oldest tenured coach in NFL history. I know you mentioned you don't really do this for accomplishments, but you have accomplished everything. So what makes you still want to coach at this age and also believe.

Luke Burbank (42:56)

That you can still do it at.

Andrew Walsh (42:58)

A high level at an age no one's been able to do it in the NFL before?

Luke Burbank (43:02)

Well, first of all, I don't think the term tenured coach really applies here. He's on the tenure track. But the basic question is a tough.

Andrew Walsh (43:10)

Question to ask, I will say, because it's a very personal thing asking somebody about their age anyway, it's relevant it should be asked. I mean, it's relevant, I think, but it's also. I mean, we have laws about not asking people's age, hiring practices, but it is a story. So I think it's a tough question. I think that could have been handled worse. I think way worse.

Luke Burbank (43:29)

And again, yeah, Pete Carroll is probably sick of talking about the fact that he's going to be, like, the oldest coach in NFL history, at least to come onto a team or whatever in the NFL before.

D (43:40)

Yeah, well, first off, I'm not real proud of wearing this number 73 on my back, you know, but that's not what fires me up. But.

Luke Burbank (43:51)

So wearing the number 73 on your back is not what fires you up. Okay, so we've got. We've got that out of the way.

D (43:56)

But it isn't about accomplishing things to say you were worthy. You know, it's what you got to do next accounts, you know, what's the next thing up? And so we're. I laid low in. During this football season And I'm teaching a class at usc. That's been a thrill.

Andrew Walsh (44:13)

Well, you laid low. Sorry, can I interrupt for a second? You laid low, but you were also on the payroll of the Seahawks. I believe he was. Remember, they gave him some. Some position.

Luke Burbank (44:20)

Yeah. Some sort of special assistant, special whatever kind of a thing. Yeah.

D (44:25)

I've not been one step away from what we're doing at any time. And what.

Luke Burbank (44:29)

You laid low, but you've not been one step away from what we're doing at any time.

Andrew Walsh (44:34)

He was always underneath. That's why he's laying low. He was.

Luke Burbank (44:37)

Okay, wait a sec.

Andrew Walsh (44:38)

But not one step away.

Luke Burbank (44:39)

You've been laying low and teaching a class at usc, but you've not been one step away from what we're doing here. Okay, okay. All right. I'm following, I'm tracking.

D (44:49)

I've not been one step away from what we're doing at any time and what we're up against here. I'm just so grateful that I've had. Have been given.

Luke Burbank (44:58)

I guess. The Raiders organization has not been one. He has not been more than one.

Andrew Walsh (45:02)

Step away from the Raiders organization.

Luke Burbank (45:04)

Wasn't laying low. He's been laying low this season, but when he wasn't laying low, he's been not one step away from the Raiders.

Andrew Walsh (45:11)

From the Raiders. And he's been working this whole time for the Raiders because this is news to the people who were.

Luke Burbank (45:17)

And also could be. There are some rules around what you can do for which team at certain times.

D (45:24)

I've not been one step away from what we're doing at any time and what we're up against here. I'm just so grateful that I've had. Have been given the opportunity to do this again and define it, because to me, it's the very next step that we get to take that fires me up. It's the very next challenge. It's coming back or it's overcoming or it's. It's celebrating the success that you just had in making yourself come back.

Luke Burbank (45:50)

Wait, I thought it wasn't about the thing you just did.

Andrew Walsh (45:54)

It's about the next thing.

Luke Burbank (45:55)

At the very beginning, it started by saying it's not about the last thing you did. That was the main point that I think you wanted to make, is it's not what you've done. It's sort of what challenges lay ahead. But now we get sort of a reverse here. We get a. And maybe this is a trick play. Maybe this is an rpo and he's just decided at the last second to hold onto the ball. Because now he is saying that it is about what you've accomplished.

D (46:19)

It's coming back or it's overcoming or it's celebrating the success that you just had in making yourself come back to basics and continue to be uncommonly consistent. That drives me.

Luke Burbank (46:32)

Okay, so hold on. It's back to basics.

Andrew Walsh (46:34)

We're interested in basics.

Luke Burbank (46:35)

It's about celebrating the accomplishment you had bringing yourself back to basics, which fires me up. To continue to be uncommonly consistent, I believe, is what we just. Is what we just experienced as a culture.

Andrew Walsh (46:50)

I gotta say, this ChatGPT thing is getting better and better.

Luke Burbank (46:54)

Is this the new one from China that's tanking? Nvidia.

D (46:58)

It's coming back or it's. It's overcoming or it's.

Andrew Walsh (47:01)

It's.

D (47:01)

It's celebrating the. The. The. The success that you just had in making yourself come back to basics and. And continue to be uncommonly consistent. That drives me, you know, so consistent.

Andrew Walsh (47:12)

I want his uncommonly consistent. There's a lot of. There's a lot of Russell Wilson in this team.

Luke Burbank (47:18)

Oh, my God, so much.

Andrew Walsh (47:19)

These two were just such a great team when they were getting along. They were so good together.

Luke Burbank (47:24)

I mean, that was such a wild time because we just had two absolute nincompoops who were kind of lovable in their own way and creating so much joy for me on a weekly basis. Like, there was nothing in the world I liked more than Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll. And there are not two people who I would absolutely trust less with anything of value in my real life outside of the football field. Like, there's nothing I would trust these two morons with.

Andrew Walsh (47:52)

Actually, wait, hold on. I am getting a vibe here, A picture of like a wacky movie where you're. Because I immediately thought, would you trust your kids with these guys? And like, what if the two of them, like, have to babysit for like, what, a week or something? Like maybe an Uncle Buck kind of situation, maybe where Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll have to live in your house and be.

Luke Burbank (48:15)

We have to leave town and the only people we can find. Pete Carroll insists on being uncommonly consistent.

Andrew Walsh (48:23)

We have triplets. We have three year old triplets that those two have to babysit.

Luke Burbank (48:28)

Oh, that's so great. I would watch the success that you.

D (48:30)

Just had in making yourself come back to basics and continue to be uncommonly consistent. That drives me. So the stuff that you guys have heard, you know, about Pete and you know, being having fun, like you mentioned about throwing the ball around, all that yeah, that's part of it. That's part of it. But it's. It's about the competing and proven that you. That you have value and you have worth and you can add to it. I don't care how old you are. And for anybody out there that's old and wants to know how you do it, you freaking battle every day and you compete and you find your way.

Luke Burbank (48:59)

To get better, look out Dan Campbell. There's a new kneecap fighter on the seed.

Andrew Walsh (49:03)

Yes.

Luke Burbank (49:03)

There's a new freaking battler on the seed, and it's Peter Carroll.

D (49:08)

You know how you do it? You freaking battle every day and you compete and you find your way to get better, and everybody needs to be coached up, and that's what's been happening for me, and I would like to extend that thought to anybody that wants to hear it, because we can get better and we can do more of things that are of value, and we can love our families more and our people around us. I mean, all of that stuff.

Andrew Walsh (49:26)

So we can love it.

D (49:27)

Obviously, I'm freaking jacked up, so that shouldn't surprise you.

Luke Burbank (49:32)

But I find it, like, so interesting that he has been as successful of a football coach over the years as he has. I mean, he must really understand some things about the, like, the X's and O's, like, or at least hire good coaches. Because as far as. As far as being able to describe a clear, like and consistent message, I don't think that's, you know, a strong suit of his. Like, he's. It's just such a jumble. It's such a word salad. It's just a vibe, right? It's like, here's what I know about Pete Carroll. He's really excited to be the Raiders new head coach. Like, that's what I can take away from that. And everything he's saying in that statement we just played is complete nonsense.

Andrew Walsh (50:13)

He might as well be barking. He might as well be barking. When your dog is barking and excited to see you, you know what that dog is saying? The noises just convey what he's trying to convey, and that's what's going on with Pete Carroll here. Family was thrown in there at the end because he realized he hadn't hit that word. Like, what.

Luke Burbank (50:30)

That's what gets him freaking jacked up.

D (50:32)

More things that are of value and we can love our families more and our people around us. I mean, all of that stuff. So obviously, I'm freaking jacked up, so that shouldn't surprise you. But.

Luke Burbank (50:43)

But, like, I Just wonder what it's like in team meetings or, like, in strategy sessions and stuff when he is, like, trying to communicate again. I think it's just a vibe. And I think. Think if you. What people have reported in playing for him is that the vibes are good. Like, Pete Carroll is going to be over on the sideline encouraging you. He's going to be clapping. He's going to be chewing that gum. He's going to be energizing you. And also, let's be honest, there's a good number of the players who. Who play for him that probably are also not, you know, like, exactly. Wordsmiths. And so maybe to them it's like, yeah, this all checks out. This is just a guy who's is just uncommonly consistent and stands for family and is jacked up.

Andrew Walsh (51:23)

There is a commercial that I haven't even seen. It's like a autoplay commercial or I should say an ad, really, that Genevieve sees consistently, I believe, when she's doing her French homework.

Luke Burbank (51:37)

Uncommonly consistently.

Andrew Walsh (51:39)

I do feel like that could potentially be a show title, although it's giving Marmaduke is up there as well.

Luke Burbank (51:45)

But anyway, uncommonly consistent.

Andrew Walsh (51:48)

It's become a conversation point in our house. Played it for me once. It's somebody. I believe I'm gonna mess this up. I don't know if she can hear me, but I believe it's somebody who is telling their story of overcoming maybe some of life's adversity or whatever in a good way. It's like, and I think going back to school, maybe being part of it. But the person says, and I believe I quote here, I don't want to just be a wordsmith. I want to be a Action Smith.

Luke Burbank (52:17)

Whoa.

Andrew Walsh (52:18)

And notice I didn't misspeak when I said Action Smith, by the way. That's one of the small things. First of all, even if you said an actionsmith, there's still a lot to dissect there.

Luke Burbank (52:30)

Yeah, yeah.

Andrew Walsh (52:30)

And complain about. But then Genevieve's like, but the point is, this person already is a wordsmith, but now they want to be a Action Smith. And that is not. You're belying your wordsmithiness, my friend.

Luke Burbank (52:45)

And they're saying. I'm guessing that they're saying this to the camera, like they're being being kind of interviewed. And this is the.

Andrew Walsh (52:50)

I feel. I feel like it's a voiceover thing, maybe while they're in a classroom or something.

Luke Burbank (52:56)

Well, that's. That's. That seems like a real problem, because if it's A voiceover. It's like one thing. If they said it in. They said it, you know, in context, and it was like, well, it's not perfect, but we love the message behind it. Well, and that's the version we got. If it's vo they. Somebody wrote that down.

Andrew Walsh (53:11)

No, no. Well, I think it's. It's. It's VO in the way that somebody was being interviewed. And it's very naturalistic. You know what I mean? So in other words, we don' See him talking to the camera. We hear his testimonial. It's more like a testimonial audio only while we're seeing a montage of him doing other things. I think I got. I've only seen, like, a snippet of the commercial, and Genevieve just played that line for me. We just talk about it all the time. It sort of feels like it fits in this. In this Pete Carroll conversation, though. I feel like he wants to be a Action Smith, too.

Luke Burbank (53:42)

And uncommonly consistent. Here I go once again with the email. Every week.

Andrew Walsh (53:49)

I hope that it's from a female.

Luke Burbank (53:51)

Oh, man. It's not from a female. All right. Emails and vmails.

Andrew Walsh (53:59)

All right, I have a voicemail here for you. And this is from our friend and listener Stephanie, who we met at the bead making party.

Luke Burbank (54:10)

And August's mom.

Andrew Walsh (54:13)

Exactly. And. Oh, that's right. It's August now, not Gus. Right. I think it's.

Luke Burbank (54:19)

I'm trying to remember. I mean, I know it's August, and I don't know if this is an August who's a Gus or not.

Andrew Walsh (54:24)

Yes. I might have referred to August as Gus at one point. Sorry about that, Stephanie. Anyway, Stephanie is time banditting, as you will hear, and is way back listening to you and Chris Hayes talk about Italy. And I believe your experience in Italy. And do you recall. I mean, I think Stephanie's sets this up. Okay. So we don't have to go into tons of detail, but do you recall having some sort of a conversation about whether or not you're being sort of duped when you're in a country like Italy and everybody else speaks the language and you don't. There was something going on maybe with a car rental or something that you were.

Luke Burbank (54:58)

Well, one of the things that came up a lot was that Americans, because Chris also had a terribly stressful experience with a larger car, a larger rental car in Italy.

Andrew Walsh (55:10)

Okay.

Luke Burbank (55:11)

And that's what I had had happen as well. And basically what we realized was it seems to be the case that they give out the big cars to Americans, because it's really. That's actually like a bad thing. You know, over here in the U.S. if you got the, like, SUV or the large sedan, that'd be kind of an upgrade over there. It's. It's bad because some of the roads are so narrow and the alleyways are so impossible to get through. That like, basically what we realized. And we had other listeners that called in on this. This. It's sort of like the jokes on us and they literally give Americans the worst cars.

Andrew Walsh (55:42)

Yeah, the worst cars in this situation because you're driving on these tiny, tiny cobblestone roads and getting stuck places. So anyway, Stephanie sent this in.

Stephanie (55:50)

This is so embarrassing. I. This. I've never been this far behind on TV show. Okay. I think I've been listening for about 10 years, and I've never gotten more than a week behind. But I'm listening to September 2024. You got a baby to take care of. And I'm listening to the episode where Chris Hayes is on with Luke and the two of them are talking about Italy and Italian customer service. And like, maybe they're trolling Americans.

Andrew Walsh (56:15)

Did you hear me EQ that on the fly there? Did you just hear how much better that sounds while I was eqing it on the fly? You did not notice that? Okay, then I.

Luke Burbank (56:22)

You want to start it over again in full fidelity?

Andrew Walsh (56:25)

Yeah. Let's hear. I pulled back the. The lows a bit. Heightened the mids a little bit here, and I think it might be a little, little bit. Let's take a listen.

Stephanie (56:33)

This is so embarrassing. I just. I've never been this far behind on TV channel. Okay. I think I've been listening for about 10 years, and I've never gotten more than a week behind. But I'm listening to September 2024, and I'm listening to the episode where Chris Hayes is on with Luke and the two of them are talking about Italy and Italian customer service. And like, maybe they're trolling Americans. And it just reminded me of this time. So I've been going to Italy. My mom is. My mom's sister, married Italian. So basically every summer from the ages of 7 to 18, I went to Italy. So I speak pretty good Italian. I used to. Not so much anymore now, but I haven't been going. But point is that I went to Italy with my now husband, then boyfriend, and we ordered, you know, a carafe of the house wine and it was 100% watered down. And then I started talking to the guy in Italian and the Second carafe was not watered down. So I definitely think that they probably are trolling Americans or like, you know, doing something because we're American. I mean, they were perfectly friendly. Even before, like, even when we got the water down wide, they were perfectly friendly, but they were definitely trying to pull one over on us, which, you know, kudos, I guess. Everyone's trying to pull one over on everyone else, right? So whatever. But when he came out with that second carafe that had, like, proper wine in it, it was just. It was very, very funny. Sorry about the gigantic car put on the pole, Guillermo.

Andrew Walsh (58:06)

Is everyone trying to pull one off on everybody else? Is that. Is that true?

Luke Burbank (58:12)

I feel like I would. Of all of the things. Of all the ways you could do me dirty. Give me a giant rental car and see, you know, dare me to drive it around the streets of Sorrento. That's fine. You out the. I don't know, slightly smaller pizza. Do not mess with my carafe of house wine, though. Do not bring out a watered down carafe of house wine.

Andrew Walsh (58:34)

Oh, there's something about. I heard this voicemail for the first time yesterday and then hearing it again today, and both times my takeaway is I just want to be at a table in Italy with carafes of. There's something specific about a carafe of wine for me at an Italian restaurant because I've never been to Italy proper, but there's something about a carafe and depending on the wine, it's. If it's a slightly. Slightly like kind of a lighter wine, if it's slightly chilled, because you don't usually chill red wine or especially like, kind of big red wines, but like a slightly chilled craft of house red at a nice Italian restaurant.

Luke Burbank (59:12)

Chianti.

Andrew Walsh (59:13)

Yes. So it's always.

Luke Burbank (59:15)

I mean, that's. And that was the thing that we noticed in Italy was like, we luckily weren't getting the watered down carafe, but, like, that you could get, you know, one of those. Just like there's millions of them, little kind of cafes that are along the street that, you know, got all the outdoor seating. Like, you could get, like, I don't know. Yeah. A carafe of the house wine. And Becca really knows from wine. She used to work for this really fancy winery called Domain Serene, and she knows like a ton about wine and was like. She was like, this is completely fine for being like, $5. Like, this is so much better than you would get in the U.S. you know, for the same price point. If you were at, you know, whatever a place where they were going to bring out a carafe of wine. It would not be as good as it was in Italy. So I'm very sorry for the listener that they tried to do her dirty. But also, I have fantasies I would never put in the work to actually make this happen. But one of my fantasies is speaking a language other than English and then being in an environment where people don't know that I speak that language. And then at some point, just revealing it like a superpower. I would love to be able to do that. I'm not going to put in the work to actually learn another language so this will never happen.

Andrew Walsh (60:27)

It's like the power of invisibility almost.

Luke Burbank (60:29)

Right?

Andrew Walsh (60:30)

Because you're invisible to the folks who think you don't understand what they're saying.

Luke Burbank (60:34)

Yes, exactly. And then you throw out. Then you throw out a sentence or something that clarifies you do know what they're talking about. And then there are Jacques.

Andrew Walsh (60:43)

Maybe it's French. And you can say Jacques.

Luke Burbank (60:45)

Or. I mean, try it in Italy, too. Just see. Maybe they speak French.

Andrew Walsh (60:49)

Right.

Luke Burbank (60:49)

A lot of people there speak a lot of different languages. But anyway. Well, all right, everyone, I think that's going to be the end of the line here for this Tuesday edition of the program.

Andrew Walsh (60:57)

Wine, pasta, nice veal.

Luke Burbank (61:02)

I said I'm not going to be judgy about if you miss your movie because you're at a bar. I am going to be judgy about if you. If you beeline it for an Italian restaurant right now and begin your veal and wine.

Andrew Walsh (61:13)

I thought you were going to get me a like veal. It didn't occur to me that I'm picking one of the most fraught.

Luke Burbank (61:18)

I don't feel great about the veal either.

Andrew Walsh (61:21)

Sorry. I think that's the last Italian meal I had.

Luke Burbank (61:24)

I'm going to put some foie gras on my veal and get a couple of gallons of house red.

Andrew Walsh (61:28)

All right, you stop listening. I. I'm just going to keep the show going with fantasies about my. About the meal I'm going to have later.

Luke Burbank (61:35)

All right, everybody, thanks for listening. We are going to be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you. In the meantime, have a. A great Tuesday. Take care of yourselves, and please remember, no mountain too tall.

Andrew Walsh (61:44)

Good luck to all.

Luke Burbank (61:52)

Power out.