#4412 Disky Business

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live – Episode #4412 “Disky Business”

Release Date: February 27, 2025
Hosts: Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh
Duration: Approximately 76 minutes

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1. Introduction and New Copier Excitement (00:00 – 02:00)

The episode kicks off with Andrew and Luke expressing excitement over their new copier installation. Andrew remarks, “This is gonna make our lives so much easier” (00:23), highlighting the improved functionality compared to their old machine. The hosts humorously liken the new printer’s efficiency to an early Christmas gift, setting a lighthearted tone for the show.

2. Transition to Podcast Content (02:00 – 04:00)

Luke welcomes listeners to the episode, describing the beautiful weather in the Pacific Northwest and setting the scene at the Madrona Hill studio. He introduces the episode as part of their extensive series, emphasizing their ongoing camaraderie and the show's consistent format. Andrew briefly mentions technical issues with current radio shows, hinting at their commitment to producing engaging content despite obstacles.

3. Mini Disc Nostalgia and Goodwill Auctions (04:00 – 15:16)

A significant portion of the episode delves into the hosts’ nostalgia for mini disc technology. Andrew shares his recent acquisition of a broken GI Joe figure through eBay, leading to a discussion about Goodwill auctions. Luke reminisces about using Sony mini disc recorders, stating, “It was not easy” (10:46), and they both lament the decline of this once-popular format.

Andrew explains his use of mini discs as a recording tool rather than for music playback, questioning the relevance and practicality of mini discs in today’s digital age. The conversation shifts to the technical challenges of transferring music onto mini discs, with Luke recalling the cumbersome process involving real-time recording and dubbing.

4. Personal Anecdotes and Membership Issues (15:16 – 19:18)

The hosts share personal stories about managing memberships and finances. Luke discusses issues with his membership at the Seattle Eagles, revealing his lack of understanding about recurring dues. Andrew empathizes, sharing his own fears about financial instability and contemplating selling unopened mini discs as a backup plan. This segment underscores their broader themes of friendship and mutual support amidst personal challenges.

5. Thanking Donors and Promoting Community (19:18 – 34:16)

Luke and Andrew take time to acknowledge and thank their donors, highlighting the importance of community support for the show. They mention Lorraine Hirokawa from Puyallup, Washington, appreciating her contributions and the personal connections they've built with listeners. Additionally, they promote a listener’s podcast, “Managing Humans,” encouraging other leaders and managers to engage and share their experiences.

6. Discussion on the Mariners and Sports Commentary (34:16 – 35:46)

The conversation shifts to sports, specifically the Seattle Mariners’ pitching lineup. Andrew brings up the topic of the Mariners’ first-day starters, discussing past decisions and expressing skepticism about current choices. Notably, Andrew shares frustrations about management decisions, saying, “Marco Gonzalez got the start and apparently cried when he was… told” (34:27), reflecting their candid and humorous take on sports management.

7. Canceling Washington Post Subscription and Media Critique (35:46 – 52:53)

A pivotal segment revolves around Andrew’s decision to cancel his Washington Post subscription in response to Jeff Bezos’s recent announcement altering the paper’s editorial policy towards a pro-business stance. Andrew explains, “Genevieve said, let's cancel our post subscription” (45:04), expressing concern over the erosion of journalistic integrity and the impact of corporate influence on media. Luke and Andrew debate the implications, with Luke pondering Bezos’s intentions and Andrew lamenting the loss of trusted news sources.

Andrew further discusses the challenges of moving away from Amazon, detailing his dependence on its services for convenience while recognizing the need to reduce consumerist habits. He shares his strategy of switching to alternative news sources like The Guardian, saying, “I downloaded the Guardian app and I got to say, I woke up this morning… filling that gap” (47:05).

8. Embracing Minimalism and Reducing Online Commerce (52:53 – 65:02)

The hosts delve into personal consumer habits, debating the merits of reducing dependence on online retailers like Amazon. Luke reflects on his own challenges in curbing online purchases, suggesting that limiting impulsive buys could lead to financial savings and a more intentional lifestyle. Andrew echoes this sentiment, discussing his efforts to break habits and the psychological impact of consumerism, stating, “I can go back to doing old man things like shopping at Target” (56:09).

9. Birthday Messages and Listener Engagement (65:02 – 73:53)

In a lively and interactive segment, Luke and Andrew share birthday messages (referred to as “blurs day”) from listeners. They read heartfelt and humorous wishes, reinforcing the community spirit of the show. Notable mentions include Emma from Sydney, Australia, and Tim from Cartersville, Georgia. This segment showcases the hosts’ playful rapport and their appreciation for listener contributions.

10. Upcoming Projects and Closing Remarks (73:53 – End)

Towards the end, Luke promotes Geraldine Deruder’s blog and Andrew discusses his upcoming appearance on KUOW, expressing excitement and anticipation. They joke about the extensive preparation required for such appearances and reaffirm their commitment to delivering engaging content. The episode concludes with final birthday messages and a humorous exchange about managing their respective schedules, encapsulating the show’s blend of serious discussions and lighthearted banter.

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Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Walsh: “This is gonna make our lives so much easier” (00:23)
• Luke Burbank: “I did cancel my Washington Post subscription this morning, which hurts because I don't have any problem with the fine journalists there” (02:47)
• Andrew Walsh: “I feel like I have become more and more dependent on that website to deliver things to me” (45:08)
• Luke Burbank: “No mountain too tall” (76:39)

Key Themes and Insights:

• Nostalgia and Technological Change: The hosts’ discussion of mini discs serves as a reflection on how technology evolves and how past innovations shape personal memories.

• Media Integrity and Corporate Influence: The critical examination of Jeff Bezos’s influence on the Washington Post raises important questions about the intersection of business and journalism.

• Consumerism vs. Minimalism: Andrew and Luke explore the tension between convenience provided by online retailers like Amazon and the desire to adopt more intentional, minimalist lifestyles.

• Community and Support: Throughout the episode, the importance of community support, whether through donations or listener engagement, is emphasized as a cornerstone of the show's success.

• Humor and Camaraderie: The playful interactions and humorous anecdotes between Luke and Andrew underscore the enduring friendship that drives the show’s engaging dynamic.

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Conclusion:

Episode #4412 of Too Beautiful To Live offers a rich tapestry of conversations ranging from nostalgic reflections on outdated technology to critical discussions about media integrity and personal consumer habits. Luke and Andrew balance serious insights with humor and personal anecdotes, creating an engaging and relatable listening experience. The episode underscores the significance of community support and the challenges of navigating a rapidly changing world, all while maintaining the hosts' signature camaraderie and lightheartedness.

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For more updates and episodes, tune in daily to TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live.

Transcript

[Andrew Walsh]

Whoa. Is this the new copier?

[Luke Burbank]

It sure is, Dennis. They installed it this morning. Can't believe corporate actually listened to our request.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yep.

[Luke Burbank]

I guess Christmas came early this year. This thing rules. It collates, staples, pages. No more stapling by hand. Yeah, Santa should have wrapped it.

[Andrew Walsh]

What?

[Luke Burbank]

The printer. Santa should have wrapped it when he gave it early.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, this is gonna make our lives so much easier. I know. This is so much nicer than the old copier.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I know.

[Andrew Walsh]

And Senna and all his elves must have worked so hard on it. And then they gave it to us early.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a very nice printer, Tracy. Just make sure no one copies their rear end, eh?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that naughty old elf must be one mean bastard to give us this so early. What?

[Luke Burbank]

Did I stutter? Megan? Santa Claus. Okay, it looks like the printer has gotten everyone a little too excited.

[Andrew Walsh]

Of course it did.

[Luke Burbank]

Everyone just go back to work.

[Andrew Walsh]

Tbtl. That's it.

[Luke Burbank]

The radio. I'll go on the most popular program of the day.

[Andrew Walsh]

I assume that's still Don McNeil and his breakfast Club. Can I just say, I feel like I'm on MTV right now. They had been posting their stuff out on the Internet, and apparently they'd been met with virtually nothing but ridicule. This is about respect. This is about personal, personal space. This is about the violation. Got it? Here's the long and short of it. Someone has been touching my karaoke machine.

[Luke Burbank]

I stand corrected.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is compelling radio.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, all right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Thursday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.

[Andrew Walsh]

A beautifully wrapped, glossy, sweet smelling show.

[Luke Burbank]

My name is Luke Burbank. I AM your host, Mr. Unlimited, coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where it's just an absolutely gorgeous blue sky day.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's like I'm walking on sunshine.

[Luke Burbank]

This is, I think, that little blip of time that happens in the Pacific Northwest where it feels like spring has sprung and we get a couple of days of nice weather. It dries out. Everything is green. It's just. And you think, we made it, folks. We did it. Oh, Ma Pa. It's just beautiful. And then the podcaster sees his shadow, and we go back to four weeks of rain and gloom. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this and hope that you enjoy this episode of TBTL, which is episode 4412 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. Not enjoying Jeff Bezos's recent announcement about his editorial policy for the Washington Post.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'D like to point out to anybody.

[Luke Burbank]

Watching this is really bunk journalism. I did cancel my Washington Post subscription this morning, which hurts because I don't have any problem with the fine journalists there. In fact, I really like their work. I don't know what to do exactly. Maybe Andrew will have the answers. From bad editorial decisions to great ones. One of my favorite podcasts, Heavyweight, is coming back for another season. We are living in the midst of a podcast boom, but it also seems to indicate something about the podcast business or maybe the the section of the podcast industry where we live. Anyway, it's a Thursday, AKA blursday. So do those birthday messages. And of course we'll talk to this guy. Longest running cobra of the show. Although that's not his only notable note. He may be best known for his depictions of the tall ships, capturing their grace and power. He is Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. How much would you be willing to pay for an un unopened eight pack of Sony brand mini discs?

[Luke Burbank]

More than the average person. Just off of nostalgia, our friend and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Dear listener, David Zakaris, of course.

[Luke Burbank]

And of designing our logo, I believe.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

Featured on the. On the ascendant social media platform Blue sky, where we now have an account.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. Oh, that's right. Good announcement, Luke. Great announcement.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello everyone. Madams. But he heard me talking about my ebay adventures. Oh, by the way, great news. I woke up this morning to a email from ebay that said you have been outbid on your broken GI Joe figure that I no longer wanted.

[Luke Burbank]

Were you able to sort of stop the urge to go ahead and try to outbid that other person?

[Andrew Walsh]

I've come completely 180 on that. Or is it 360? No, that wanted again, I went 180. And then I stayed there because yesterday after the show I was like, what am I doing? I wanted to cancel the order. But anyway, I'm very excited to say I am not proud owner of a broken GI Joe toy from 1982. And apparently this has led to me learning through David about something called Goodwill auctions. If you just go on to the Goodwill website and go shopping, it's essentially.

[Luke Burbank]

That's the movie where Matt Damon is a genius janitor, I believe.

[Andrew Walsh]

Goodwill auctions, I believe. So there's a. You know, I do get that movie. Do you know I've never seen Good Will Hunting. I've never seen that movie. I don't know. Desire to see it.

[Luke Burbank]

Despite it winning An Oscar and having a moment. And, you know, I was very there for that moment because I. I really liked Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's existence in those days. They had a great kind of scrappy story, which was a couple of childhood friends who had dreams of making it, and. And essentially wrote this movie so they could be in a movie. And then it had all this success. And that was back when I was still living in some delululand where I was like, well, maybe I'll. I'll. I'll write a movie like that and be in it or something. And so I was very pro. Those two guys. I remain very, very pro. I'd say both of them. I love Matt Damon. Matt Damon is a. He's an ally. He's a Stan. By that I mean he Stans public radio. He's a good dude. I think Ben Affleck is a more complicated, but I still think essentially decent human being.

[Andrew Walsh]

I like Ben Affleck. Yeah. I like Matt Damon on 30 Rock. Remember, he had a rock. He's like, yes. He slips into something they can fly.

[Luke Burbank]

Through the air like the owls of Legend of Gahool.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, I like that. He does not take himself too seriously. You know, like, he plays roles that basically make fun of him.

[Luke Burbank]

And didn't he have a whole thing where he was, like, living in. In Ireland because he was shooting a film there? And he became a really big story on the local morning radio show. And he was like, calling 300 in a photo ID gives him the right.

[Andrew Walsh]

To fly through the air like one.

[Luke Burbank]

Of the guardian owls of legend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Man, I'm so glad you have that tape. I forgot about that. How charming. Yeah, he was there shooting a film or something, and then he started calling into the morning show.

[Luke Burbank]

There kept being these, like, Matt Damon sightings. And then he just started, I believe he was calling in. He would seem very game. All that is to say, Andrew, I don't think 2025 is the year for you to check in with the movie Good Will Hunting.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I don't.

[Luke Burbank]

For all of those caveats and for how pro those guys I still am, I don't think that movie is going to be for you. It was summarized once as being. Imagine if you wrote the movie and you were describing it to someone and they were like, okay, well, what are you? It's like, well, I'm a janitor, okay? But I also can solve math problems no one can solve, which is a thing. Let's say custodian. Let's use the proper nomenclature. And then it's like, oh, wow, so you're a custodian. You're real salt of the earth. But you're also smarter than all of the Harvard students. Yes, but what about fighting? Yes. I also kick asses in bars.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's like, oh, I forgot about that.

[Luke Burbank]

If you were writing this and you were just describing it to someone, they'd be like, you know, pump the brakes a little bit on the Legend of Gaol here.

[Andrew Walsh]

I heard one of this stupidest comments. That's not. That's not fair. That's not true. And that's not fair. I'm being. I'm being arch. I take it back. But I did yell at the top of my lungs in my car yesterday while listening to a podcast. In reaction to the podcast I was listening to, I screamed Green Book. Because somebody said, I think it was Dan Levitard was kind of like, well, there's never been, like, a bad movie nominated for best picture, Right. There's ever been a bad movie nominated for the Academy Awards. I'm like, are you kidding me? Some of like, they often pick the movies I would want to watch the least. Now I know that maybe I'm out of step with maybe mainstream America, but.

[Luke Burbank]

To see can't all be Whit Stillman these days, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

How many. How many Oscars does Whit Stillman have?

[Luke Burbank]

Too few.

[Andrew Walsh]

Too few, certainly. But anyway, just the idea that, like the. That like the. The Academy has never made a bad decision. It's just like the most.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, that is so Levitard, and that's the part of his particular worldview that I'd say that's one neighborhood over from. Comedy is about free speech.

[Andrew Walsh]

And if you try to police speech.

[Luke Burbank]

And comedy, you're gonna kill the soul of comedy. That's the other favorite take from him. Yeah. But I will say the thing about Green Book, which I did not see, is what a. You did see it because what a. It features two actors that I absolutely adore. Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen. I love both of these actors. And it was, of course, a very well received movie at the time before everyone kind of said, well, wait, just hold on a second. Right. Was that the kind of journey with Green Book?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I hated it. Out of. Right out. Right out the gate. It just always. It just seems like that just absolutely.

[Luke Burbank]

Real White Savior shit.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, White Savior. But then also just like the. Just the generic, like, dramatic arc of these types of movies that are always Oscar bait. I watched it for a podcast that I should shout Out. And I'm so sorry, I can't remember the name of the podcast, but they had us on. It's a podcast where usually you talk about movies that like, spark joy, but I think they wanted to have me and Genevieve on to talk about, like they want to do an Oscar special. And so, like, I think we were assigned green book or something like that. And. Or we just said, hey, listen, we'll do whatever movie wins this year. Which was probably a bad idea because then we just went on the. On a podcast to talk for an hour or whatever and just shit on a movie. Which, like, that's not fun. That's. You know what I mean? Even. Even though I guess I'm starting the show very negative today. Like, generally speaking, I don't want to go on a. On a show talk for an hour about something I don't like. I'd rather talk about something I like.

[Luke Burbank]

Like mini discs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like mini discs. $77 current bid for eight of these things. Luke. That is. That's a little rich for my blood.

[Luke Burbank]

Now, I did have a. I wonder if the listeners know what a mini disc is. I feel like that was kind of slightly because of our radio, you know, times like there was a period of time where we were record recording on MiniDisc when we'd go out in the field. And for those who don't know, it's like, it's kind of what it sounds like. Imagine a very small compact disc, but it's kind of in a plastic cartridge. You can't open it. You can't get to this little mini disc.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's a really cool looking technology of all of the sort of portable media technologies. The actual MiniDisc is so cool. It's like the perfect combination of a cassette and a cd.

[Luke Burbank]

But I don't think it was ever widely embraced. You didn't see people on the bus listening to their music on minidisc, which I'm guessing was originally the thought, I guess it was that it was more stable than a compact disc player. As boy, a lot of CD talk this week. Yeah, well, young, but I. And getting younger. I of course had some kind of a mini disc player. I probably boosted it from the radio station and. Or maybe I splashed out for it. But I remember there was a period of time where I had decided my new personality is guy who listens to his personal music on MiniDisc. Did you ever go through that phase?

[Andrew Walsh]

No. I mean, I have. I still have a mini disc player and recorder. I think I have my first one, which Was like a. They were nice because they were compact, but this was a pretty solid, chunky boy that I had. That I think even maybe had like an external speaker on it maybe. And I loved that thing. And then when my friend who was also a journalist was moving away to Australia, she gave me a bunch of like brand. Maybe I should sell them on Google or what is it called? Goodwill auctions?

[Luke Burbank]

Goodwill hunting.

[Andrew Walsh]

I have a bunch of unopened mini discs, I think. But I'm interested in your journey because as much as I love that technology, I used it more like a Dictaphone. Like, you know how I take my little tape recorder out and like record me and my friends being idiots and bars or whatever. I treated it like that. I never treated it like a Discman.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I must have bought this because there's no way the radio station would have let me walk out with one of these. I had a Sony MD mini disc recorder Walkman. And I swear, Andrew, if you Google this and you look at this little device, you will, it will time travel you right back.

[Andrew Walsh]

It had Walkman in the title. Did I have that Mini disc Walkman?

[Luke Burbank]

Sony MD Walkman. The MZ R55 is the, is the model that I had. And the problem was getting the music from all my CDs and whatever onto the mini discs. This involved, you know, dubbing. And I think you could, you could bookmark things or some way that you could sort of make little chapters. You could kind of, you could make this into a, you know, a way to listen to your music. But it was not easy. And it was. I remember it being a very time consuming process. And I remember it not ever really taking in my life. Like I think, I think it was better in theory than it was in practice. But I do remember going out into the world probably. I'm on the UW campus, I'm probably a college student still. And I've got my mini disc player with a bunch of like the Sundays on it or Lush or something. And I'm walking around and I'm listening to my. I'm skipping along between the songs in my mini disc player and loving life.

[Andrew Walsh]

I kicked a boy till he cried Luke. Oh, that album is so good. I, I don't remember trying to transfer music onto these things. I'm going to ask you a question that you might not have the answer for, but when you were loading tracks onto this thing, was it a late enough technology that you could actually drag and drop MP3 files? It was all. It all had to be real time Right. You had to record like you recorded onto a cassette, I believe.

[Luke Burbank]

So there might have. Yeah, I think there was probably some kind of like, you know, line in. So you could do some kind of AUX situation. You could play out from one thing and then into the mini disc player directly. But, yeah, you couldn't. There was no dragging the MP3 file over that. I remember that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I remember either because, you know, the technology was sort of there because this was the era of readable, writable CDs. Do you remember the era? And I don't know if you were nerdy enough to get into this, but I assume you were. But like in the era that we were making CDs for ourselves, like even compilations of music or whatever, you had to decide whether or not it was an audio CD or a data cd. Like you could load hundreds of songs onto a data cd but you could only play it on your computer. Because it was basically like a little, you know, just a little hard drive, essentially. Or you could say, no, I want to format this to be like a CD that I can play in my CD player. But if that was the case, then, like, once you sealed that baby up, it was sealed up. You couldn't like rewrite on it.

[Luke Burbank]

And I don't think I ever fully grasped the difference between. Was like, one was called, like, CDR and one was called something else, cdwr. And I was constantly, like, going to the spindle of CDs and grabbing the wrong kind.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, those spindles. Do you remember the feeling? I don't know why we're doing this. We should move on. Do you remember the feeling?

[Luke Burbank]

Because democracy is dying in darkness, Andrew. And we're focusing on minidisc technology from the 1990s.

[Andrew Walsh]

You and I are just like, can we just talk about anything but the world? Anything but the world. But do you remember the sort of feeling of a brand new spindle of CDs is almost squeaky. It almost kind of had a bad. Give you a. Because you're somebody that one does a feel of.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't like that with it. I don't. And just the saying of the cotton ball thing, literally, no, that's okay, it's life.

[Andrew Walsh]

But.

[Luke Burbank]

And there are worse phobias. But again, I'm not trying to be dramatic. That for me to even utter the words a bag of cotton balls or consider it, I. All the hairs on my body stand up. That did not happen for whatever reason with that spindle of CDs that would of course also have that plastic housing on it. When you'd first break it out of that and then at some point that housing would go missing and you just have, you know, not mine, but stack not yours.

[Andrew Walsh]

Of course, only people who watch Goodwill hunting would lose their spin out there.

[Luke Burbank]

Winning bar fights and being frigging awesome. Like I was right. Anyway, okay, so you have recently come into possession of a bunch of mini discs. No. You sent you some. Well pointed it out.

[Andrew Walsh]

David Zakaris was just like, hey, if you're on this ebay thing and it's not working for you, try Goodwill auctions. It's going to be a little less precious. It's going to be less of a collectors mindset. So you're going to find better stuff there. And then he's like, for example, are you interested in this eight pack of mini discs unopened? I am not interested. I did think $77 was a bit high for that. And it does make me wonder in my big heavy box in the closet of Jurassic technology, Jurassic technology, I got a bunch of stuff. I wonder how much I could. You know, I'm always, I do have a little bit of a mentality. I think I'm starting to shed it now as I've successfully made it to age 48 without being a complete derelict. But I think my entire life I was always ready for the bottom to fall out. Now that I'm saying this, the bottom's gonna fall out tomorrow, I'm sure. But like I just always thought like, well, eventually I'm going to be living above a bar in some sort of like just Bukowski esque nightmare.

[Luke Burbank]

I was just thinking that the other day. Andrew, we're aligning on this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. You were thinking about how you used to also be like, oh, I was just to finish my thought. I guess part of me is kind of like, well, if things really go bad, I guess I can sell those unopened mini discs. Sure.

[Luke Burbank]

Right. Like I've told this story a million times, but I, I have this piggy bank that's, it's very, it's hyper realistic. I think it was based on what would had actually been some sort of, you know, science class fetal pig. And I remember with the coins, it's, it's, you know, it's, it is like a traditional piggy bank. There's a little slot in the back of or on the top of it and you kind of drop. But I remember for a while, you know, in this turbulent media landscape thinking, well, I've got that. I've been putting money in that piggy bank for a Long time. I mean, literally, this was my thought, if things go sideways, that's got to get me through a couple of weeks. And then one night I got drunk and counted out. I think it was $60 or something. It's not.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, but you have a system.

[Luke Burbank]

It was not a good double that very badly. No. I was in. There's this little town across the river from me, Rainier, Oregon. And I was over there at the True Value getting something. And there is this bar that's there called the Old Pastime. And it's the kind of place that I used to spend a considerable amount of time in my life. And I was just. It's across the parking lot from the Eagles in Rainier, Oregon, which is also like the cool. I mean, peace and love area number one till I die. Although I don't pay dues there. That was another conversation I had with Genevieve when we hung out a few weeks ago. I said, yeah, there's something weird going on with my membership at the Eagles in Seattle because the folks in Rainier couldn't find it. And she goes, well, are you paying your dues? And I said, I thought that was a one time thing. She goes, no. Are you familiar with how dues work?

[Andrew Walsh]

They're due. Yeah. When did you join? That was more than.

[Luke Burbank]

I was living in Portland, and I remember it was. I think we were like out of the pandemic. But still there were some. I was allowed to be a part of this virtually just because you didn't show up.

[Andrew Walsh]

That wasn't because of the pandemic. You just didn't everybody else just say.

[Luke Burbank]

It was a complicated time.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was not a confidence, only complicated because you made Genevieve walk around the area with a laptop with your face on it like Arrested Development.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, fine. That is what happened. And then I. I paid the dues. I didn't realize it was a recurring thing. And so anyway, all that is to say, when I was trying to sign up at the Oregon one, and I was like, yeah, I'm from area number one. I was, you know, I'm very proud of the fact that the Seattle Eagles is the first one and that I have been associated with it in one way or another, as has TBTL over the years. And the people that were very nice. I keep getting calls from some guy going, hi, this is Tom over at the Eagles. We can't seem to locate your membership or whatever. All that is to say, I was looking at. There is a. There's like a little apartment. I don't. Maybe a series of Little apartments above this bar in Rainier, Oregon called the Old Pastime. And I just had this weird thought the other day. I was like, you know, because a lot about my life has really changed so that the trajectory of it is less taking me towards living in that apartment, you know, But I just saw it up there and I thought, I wonder who lives up there. And also I wonder how much that place costs. And also, is that the third act of my life? Is the third act of my life, like a little efficiency apartment with like a bare light bulb hanging down and easy walking distance to some local watering holes. And just like. And again, I don't want that to be my life. I've made some very intentional changes, so that does not become my life. But there's still 5% of me kind of thinks that could still be my life.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I mean, this is really dire. And so I don't think this really even fits in this conversation. But I'll finish my thought. But like, there's the part of my brain that's always kind of like, well, when worse comes to worse, it's always sort of there a little bit. And I don't know why. I'm not somebody who has had a lot of bad luck in life. When I was a kid, I said that all the time. I remember being like a wry little kid saying things like, why I don't, I don't want to bet, because I don't need more bad luck or whatever. I always felt things never broke my way because as a little kid I was bullied. Never felt like, you know, like kind of comfortable in my own skin for the first part of my life or whatever. But like, obviously now at age 48, can look back and just look at like how unbelievably lucky I have been and how everything has broken my way. But when I open a can of cat food, sometimes I think, like, if I had to eat this one, would I be able to eat this one? And that's more of just from like growing up with just like this idea of a, you know, post apocalyptic movies. How many, like the last of us type of shows have we watched where somebody is rummaging around in some basement and say, oh, thank God we found some cat food.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I wonder if that's generational also. Again, so many things about the wider world sort of, let's just put it this way, I'm on a well here, you know what I mean? Like, and I, I'm like your water that you.

[Andrew Walsh]

That comes into your house, the water.

[Luke Burbank]

That I drink through the well. Yeah, there's a well. I have no idea how it works. There's. I know there's like a pump in the basement of my house. There's a big blue. It's actually a very beautiful object. You would like it. It's this giant. It's. It's. It's an oval. It's almost like a. Like a pill, you know, you would take.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Like a gigantic tank. Big blue tank.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is there a seam in the middle that is bolted together like a submarine?

[Luke Burbank]

Probably. I haven't looked closely, but I was just like googling the other day. Like, what do you. What happens to your well when the. When the power goes out? Because, you know, there's a pump that's bringing the water and I just start going down this. This path of like. Well, I gotta make sure that I have some sort of backup power because if the power goes out, I need. Still need water here. And then I start thinking, you know, if I could rig this place up with Sol and I'm on a hill that gets, like, a lot of sun, I could plant, you know, crops. I could plant some veggies. I was like, if I'm getting the water from the ground and I've got solar power and I can grow stuff, I'm basically off the grid here. Like, these are the thoughts I'm starting to have, you know, which I don't want to alarm people, but I mean, the. The state of affairs in the world also, by the way, I live in a neighborhood. It's not like I'm not out in the country, per se. I'm like in a sub kind of a subdivision. So I don't even know what my plan is. Like, I'm going to be living here, totally disconnected from the grid. Like it's the last of us, but also just in a neighborhood.

[Andrew Walsh]

The neighbors are clawing at your. At the wall you built.

[Luke Burbank]

Brian has his shit more together than I do.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, the guy with the guns, that's.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, well, no, that's the other guy. That's the other guy. He's also probably got his shit more together than I do as well. But, like, yeah, if anything, I'm going to those guys and asking if I can please borrow some cornmeal or whatever.

[Andrew Walsh]

And they're going to look at you and they're just going to see like a big turkey leg, like, cartoon.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, the one I'm going to be staying with. The other guy who's got the Harris Waltz sign still up. We have both. I mean, that's good, though. He's like a. He's like a former airline pilot. He's like a real, you know, kind of. I don't think he's ex military, but he might as well be. That's kind of the energy of the whole thing. Like that's. And. And a Harris Waltz guy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

So that's where I'm. That's where me and mine are going. We're going to Brian's house if this whole thing implodes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let me ask you one last question about. Regarding our trip down memory lane here. You talk about you using well water in your home, but you don't actually see your physical well anymore. Right. Did you grow up?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, there's. I see. I can see there is a. A large kind of metal square that's the lid to the well that's in my. Where my car is parked.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. So it's kind of. There is pieces, like a cement area, then a. Then a metal grate or a metal.

[Luke Burbank]

More or less.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Something like that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. Yes. That's because growing up, like I grew up in the country, like Wells were a thing. And remember there were some major national stories when kids would fall down Wells.

[Luke Burbank]

I think Little Jessica, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. And I believe the Simpsons did a whole episode about that. That's where I get most of my news.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you remember that episode? What do you remember about that?

[Luke Burbank]

I believe Bart was faking it. Right.

[Andrew Walsh]

He was faking it at first, but then he was kind of hoisted by his own petard. Because when he did fall down the well, nobody believed him. They thought he was still just pranking the town. But I believe Sting believed him. I think Sting went down there to resc.

[Luke Burbank]

That seems like something Sting would do.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. So this seems like something cartoon Sting would do. But I just remember, like, we had. I don't know if we had an actual well on our property, but it was not uncommon to be at somebody's house and they would have like, you know, like kind of a classic looking well. Like a stone well with a little, like, cover. Oh, wow. And we had.

[Luke Burbank]

With a bucket that you like lower down.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Most of them, I think most of them were left over, though. Like, I remember, and I'm really blanking on who this was, which is a disappointment because if I could name the person, it would really make you connect with the story a lot better. But I feel like there was somebody that. Somebody whose house I would go to, they had that, but there was no longer any moisture or Water in there at all. It was just like. It was kind of dried up. But we definitely had somewhere in our property one of those clanky metal things with the big handle that was like a spout. And you'd go to work the handle a few times, you'd be like, this thing is broken. It doesn't work at all. But then you do it, like, 25 times. All of a sudden, water starts popping out of it.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. Yeah. I probably need to find out if I can get one of those two as a backup. Like, in other words, if. If all else failed, could I go out and just hand pump the well also? And we have listeners that know so much more about this than I do. It's just. I just. I bought this house, and they said. And there. There is, like, part of the process of buying a house is they do come out and do some sort of a. You know, I was going to call it a wellness check. Somebody who knows about it comes out and basically checks out the well and makes sure it's all operational and everything. But, like, that's as far as I've gotten with this topic. Like, somebody told me it works. I don't know how much water is down there. I don't know if I'm running out. I don't know if you know what I mean. I know nothing about this process other than when I turn on the faucets in my house on the shower, water comes out, and there's a blue thing in the basement that I think is associated with the well. I know almost nothing about this process, which is vital to my ability to live here.

[Andrew Walsh]

And there's a troll down there, I assume.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, Gary.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I was gonna ask you the name.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. That's more specific and therefore more entertaining when I give you. We was hoping for some razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle. That's right, man. Razzle dazzle. On your mark. On your mark.

[Andrew Walsh]

Get set, get set now. Ready? Ready.

[Luke Burbank]

Go, everybody.

[Andrew Walsh]

Razzle dazzle.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, let's thank some dazzling donors. These wonderful, generous folks are donating a dazzling amount of dough to the program. It's the only way that this whole thing can work. And they've also said that I can come live with them if my well goes out here at the Madrona Hill studio.

[Andrew Walsh]

You can bring Gary the troll.

[Luke Burbank]

Gary does not travel well. Does not. He's. Yeah. I mean, that's a people troll. Trying to get him to go anywhere is like, forget about it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I feel you, Gary.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, what else is going on at My house. That's mildly upsetting. I think I mentioned this last year about this time. It must be seasonal. But those bugs that I think we have decided maybe are called stink bugs in the south. Just, they're like. They're not a potato bug because they have flight. But what they like to do this time of year is hang out on the outside of my house. Not on the inside, thankfully, but on the outside. So they're not really doing anything. But there's like thousands of them. I'm just. I'm looking at my house, at this window that's kind of near one of the bathrooms, and there must be 10,000, not 10,000. There must be like 2,000 of these little bugs. They're just sitting there. I think they're warming in the sun. They're not really hurting anybody, but it's mildly unsettling. It's like I feel like they're plotting.

[Andrew Walsh]

If you wake up any day soon and there are also frogs all over the place or toads, will you let me know? I need to keep an eye on these things. I'm developing a theory about where this is going.

[Luke Burbank]

How are your boils? Those boils?

[Andrew Walsh]

Not great, Luke, to be honest with you.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, thank God we've got Lorraine Hirokawa in our corner in Puyallup, Washington. That's right. Lorraine is our first dazzling donor and says, I just want to say thanks. I've taken Luke and Andrew with me on a lot of journeys the past few years. They were visitors during COVID Remember Covid, Andrew? When I had to join the Eagles remotely.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. Because nobody could be there in person except for everybody but you. It was such a weird pandemic that was a crazy.

[Luke Burbank]

We forget how crazy it was until we think about moments like that that we were all participating in in the same manner. They were visitors during COVID friends, when I lived alone in a foreign country, and empathetic listeners throughout this last election. Thanks for my slab jacking bracelet. Oh, nice. I'm so glad, Lorraine, that that's one of the ones that you got. I think I made those, right? Was that me? I mean.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, be honest.

[Luke Burbank]

The listeners.

[Andrew Walsh]

Listeners made most of them, the vast majority, slapjacking. Were you a slapjacker? I thought, well, you would know better than me.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that's between me and my God, Andrew. But no, I feel like I was for a while, maybe at that table or something. No, you know what? It was here at the Madrona Hill studio when we started. I think I was. I think I might have been doing making the slab Jacking bracelets. But then of course, we realized pretty early on that this was going to. It was going to take a village of TBTL listeners to create the thank you gifts that the TBTL village was receiving for their donations.

[Andrew Walsh]

I have a question for you, and I sincerely apologize to Lorraine for asking this question during her dazzling donor message. But the little pause we took there to appreciate the almost double entendre of Slab jacking made me remember a question I've been meaning to ask you, which is, how are we going to handle having somebody named Master Boney on the Mariners? Because, like, I feel like. I feel like I'm not mature enough to hear the name Master Boney a lot without sending text messages to the chain that are like, you're going to go blind in all caps or something along the lines of that.

[Luke Burbank]

Who's Master Boney?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know if I'm saying it. Is it Master Boney? When they say it on the radio, it sounds like Master Boney. Is this spelt? We have a boner. Miles Mastro Boni, I believe. Is he an infielder?

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

So that I think just brought in. Yeah, we just brought him in from maybe Chicago, I think.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. Well, I, I thought that this was maybe a JJ. Buna reference, aka the Bone, but no, we've got a Master Bony.

[Andrew Walsh]

Master Bony. Yes. Master. Master Bony. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's going to be tough.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's going to.

[Luke Burbank]

And it also may end up being one of the few bright spots depending on how the season goes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, you know, exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

Cut to August and it's like kind of the main thing we're now looking forward to.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly. I guess he's a utility player, so. Yeah. So I don't know what he's going to bring to the team other than distracting me from the game with his name.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, did you, Andrew, like I did spend this morning perusing all of the Mariners first day starters since the beginning of the team? Because that's how I spent my morning.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, just starters or starting pitchers or.

[Luke Burbank]

Just the first starting pitcher for the, for the first game of the season. I think it was Ryan Divish had a whole piece about who is going to be the day one starter for the Mariners because we have, we have the luxury, you could say, of having a couple of people that would be legit. Day one starters on other teams.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

And so then they included a little, a little link to the list of all of the Mariners first day starting pitchers, including Diego Segui, who started the first game ever that the Mariners played and then it was such a journey down memory lane. I was like, oh, Mark Langston, hell yeah. Oh, Jamie Moyer started up. He was 53 when he started his first first game of the season for the Mariners.

[Andrew Walsh]

It wasn't there famously one year where they didn't let. Let Felix have the start.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, it was for Eric Bedard.

[Andrew Walsh]

Eric Bedard who went on to be a manager. Right. Don't I know that name as a manager.

[Luke Burbank]

And maybe probably I think he was maybe we. Eric Bedard was one of many, many, many at the time. High profile Mariner acquisitions that absolutely disappointed. I think he had been a big. He had been a really well regarded starter maybe with the Orioles or somebody else. We went and got him. We made him our day one starter and then he just, he pulled a Mariner which is to say had his worst season statistically ever and then probably went off somewhere else and did fine.

[Andrew Walsh]

Never a manager so far as I can see here. I don't know why I thought he was a man.

[Luke Burbank]

Apparently that really hurt Felix feelings because he had been the day one starter and then Eric Bedard comes in who did not really have the love of the game that Felix did or the love of the Mariners. And then Felix goes on to start 10 first days after that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's that. I understand why his feelings would be hurt. I have. Anyway, you know what, I'm not going to continue my thought there because we are in the middle of thanking our dad.

[Luke Burbank]

We're thanking Lorraine and Lorraine said thanks for my slapjacking bracelet. The laughs, the tears and the community and the Marco Gonzalez talk.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, thank you for bringing because Marco.

[Luke Burbank]

Gonzalez eventually replaced Felix as the opening day starter and this.

[Andrew Walsh]

He got the start.

[Luke Burbank]

He got the start and Felix was. Was had hurt feelings and it never. His relationship with Scott Service never recovered.

[Andrew Walsh]

Marco Gonzalez got the start over Felix.

[Luke Burbank]

Felix. It had a very turbulent season leading up to it. Marco Gonzalez got the start and apparently cried when he was. When he was told he was going to be the day one starter cry.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you know I have a.

[Luke Burbank]

That is true.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you know I have a clip folder. Literally, I'm not even. This isn't like. This isn't like just an expression. I mean I have a folder on my computer right now with a whole bunch of screen caps of every news story I can find where Mariners crying in the.

[Luke Burbank]

There's another one, Andrew, and it's DJ Khaled voice. Another one.

[Andrew Walsh]

Another one.

[Luke Burbank]

This is Marco Gonzalez getting emotional when he was informed that he was going to be the first day starter for the Mariners. So put that on the list.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I thought it was Felix who was crying because he wasn't getting the ball.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, it was Marco then. The, the point of that is that it's, you know, it's an emotional thing for a pitcher because it's, it's saying something about how the team values you, etc.

[Andrew Walsh]

He was, he was a really good guy. I. He was not my favorite pitcher. It was. That's a very strange. That's a very strange, weird era. Yeah, that's not a. He did not throw fastballs. Right. Like. Anyway, let's. Let's move on.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I think that the feeling. Right. I think here's what nobody wants to say. It should be Logan Gilbert.

[Andrew Walsh]

Statistically, it should be Logan Gilbert. Yeah, I like that.

[Luke Burbank]

But Luis Castillo is kind of the old, you know, sort of. He's the old battle horse of the, of the staff. He did have a decent season last year. It was kind of a letdown for him. But there's kind of a respect factor. It's like the theory is Logan Gilbert has 10 more opening days in him and Luis Castillo has one.

[Andrew Walsh]

So give it to Castillo is.

[Luke Burbank]

But if that would be more the kind of like emotional choice versus it should be Logan.

[Andrew Walsh]

And Logan is a Mariner through and through. You know what I mean? Castillo made his name elsewhere. We brought him over from Cincinnati. Am I right about that? I think mid season, two seasons ago, I think it was that he pitched for the Reds and he was already like an All Star, you know what I mean? And so we embraced him and he embraced us. And I'm not saying that there's some sort of a, you know, any kind of bad fit or something like that, but Logan Gilbert is a Mariner's Mariner. You know, that's why just emotionally, I think that that is who you give the ball to.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, we will find out. It'll be a big decision for Dan Wilson. I keep forgetting he's our manager. Dan the Man Wilson.

[Andrew Walsh]

They've updated his commercials on the radio. I heard, because he always does these as it's Franciscan Health commercial, staying in shape or something like that. And I heard one the other day. I'm like, wait a second. Oh, that's interesting. He can still do these as the manager. Not no longer just like a. An announcer for the team or a broadcaster for the team. And then I listened a little bit more closely and he does say. He used to just say now because he says, you know, I threw so many pitches to second base, you know, throughout, throughout my career. And now, like, I don't know, he's making a comparison about his creaky joints now to then or whatever and taking care of himself and staying in shape. But he used to just say now when I spend time with my family and they augmented it, say now when I spend time with my family and coach the Mariners.

[Luke Burbank]

And the Mariners had, it's not, I'm.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sure they recut the whole thing, but it does seem like it's kind of jammed in there.

[Luke Burbank]

Remember the time when I had created an entire made up life for Dan Wilson that involved him leaving his gated east side community to travel to points west and, and, and eat good food with the hoi polloi of Capitol Hill in Montlake. And then someone said, you know, he just lives like a block from Cafe Lago.

[Andrew Walsh]

He just lives in Montlake. Yeah, he just goes.

[Luke Burbank]

And then they just go up to Capitol Hill sometimes because it's like three minutes away. That's just kind of like I, I don't know why I had constructed this entire universe around Dan, around Dan Wilson and his wife and their eating out habits. But, but anyway, go Mariners. That's what Lorraine Hirokawa always says. Go Mariners. Maestro, on your mark, on your mark. Get set, get set now. Ready, ready, go. Everybody RATTLES Daddle. Look who it is. It's our friend Chad Bates, who's in Bothell, Washington.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hi Chad. Thank you, Chad.

[Luke Burbank]

Chad says this year I finally have something to promote. I started a podcast earlier this year called Managing Humans. It's my attempt to help new managers and people who want to get better at helping their teams grow and love their job. If the tens are interested in listening, they can find all the [e-mail] they will hear the TBTL inspiration from right away. I'm still working on getting more drops into the show, but I am still learning all the tricks of Riverside. Way to go, Chad.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice.

[Luke Burbank]

I am also looking for tens who are leaders and managers who would be willing to be interviewed about their experiences. They can email me@mining humanspodmail.com that's managing humanspodmail.com I'm also available for consulting on process change, building a customer service or technical support team, and helping new managers get up to speed. Thanks for the inspiration and the continued hashtag content. That's actually a very good idea for a podcast, Andrew, because what you will know if you are a person who has ever been managed, which is most of us, is that it is its own whole skill set. Like. And if you've had a good manager, you know what that feels like. And if you've had a bad manager, you know what that feels like. It is not something that I have ever been asked to do, Andrew, for obvious reasons. It's not something that I have any kind of natural talent for. It's funny. I seek to be managed, not to be a manager, but for other people for whom that is interesting. It is a whole thing to learn about and how to handle people and how to get the most out of folks and make them feel valued, et cetera. So it's a good idea.

[Andrew Walsh]

The thing I didn't love was because.

[Luke Burbank]

You were a manager, people don't know this about you. Maybe you were a big time. You were running a big time public radio show in Los Angeles, California, and you were the executive producer, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

I was, yeah. And I was executive producer of a show in New Hampshire as well. Now, the thing that is somewhat troubling to me is that I. I don't know if caught is the right word, but let's just say caught. Our colleague John Sklaroff listening to this podcast, and then he kind of kind of like moseyed on over to my cubicle and he was like something about TPS reports and telling me that I was gonna have to work on the weekends or something along those lines. I just sort of feel like I don't who's managing who in our little business boys situation, is what I want to know.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that's the thing. Skaroff needs to listen to Chad Bates his podcast, because I'm sure that one of the first things that he specifies is just go easy on the TPS report.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what I mean? That's something that people famously bristle against. And John, just saying, take a note. Okay. And thank you, Chad, for supporting people.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, thank you, Chad.

[Luke Burbank]

Everybody, go check out the Managing Humans podcast that our friend Chad is hosting. Hello and welcome to Top Story. Well, it happened, Andrew. I had to go on and cancel my Washington Post subscription today, which. Which feels real bad. Like, the kind of. I would say the two papers of record for me would be the New York Times and the Washington Post as far as, like, the national newspapers that I consume every single day. And now I had been for a while thinking about switching away from the Post to the Oregonian, since I read the Oregonian every day and I keep hitting my limit.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And that's like, I live, you know, close to Portland, Oregon. It's essentially my hometown newspaper. I should probably try to support local journalism in that way. So I've been kind of thinking about it for a while, but this announcement from Bezos yesterday, or whenever it was, exactly, kind of helped seal the deal, I guess. Although it's weird for me because I'm friends with folks at the Post and I love the work they do, and I feel terrible, you know, taking away funding of, you know, of their work, but I don't exactly know what to do. Now, you were telling me that you and Veeves are also going to try to embark on a. By the way, the announcement that Bezos essentially made was this is now a pro business editorial page. I think it's like, what was he calling it?

[Andrew Walsh]

Personal freedom and economic freedom. He's like, basically, yeah, no, I believe I started our business boys meeting yesterday by telling you that Veeves and I were discontinuing our subscription to the Post, which really, really hurt because, like, you know, as we discussed, you know, a couple of months ago, when Bezos sort of stuck his nose into the editorial page department and said, like, he. The paper is not going to endorse a candidate this year, it was already like, ooh, that's really bad. That's the first time since Bezos took over the paper that we're seeing his influence on anything editorial. But I think conventional wisdom was like, hey, if you want to get back at Bezos, or like, kind of vote with your dollars or whatever the expression would be. But isn't voting with your dollars something as well, though? Like, withholding your money and like, quitting your Amazon prime or not shopping on Amazon is going to be a much better move because also, you're not hurting the good journalists that have been at the Post.

[Luke Burbank]

You're hurting for a long Amazon drivers.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right, exactly. But, you know, like, the Washington Post is good journalism, and it was good journalism before he took it over. And I certainly don't want to see that newspaper tank. And so, you know, there was some conversation with people quitting their subscriptions, and I wasn't quite on board with it yet. And then there was the story about the editorial cartoonist who quit her job because she had written a cartoon that was poking fun at Bezos and him sort of bending the knee to Trump, I think quite literally in her cartoon. And suddenly that got spiked. She claims her. Oh, really?

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think I knew about that.

[Andrew Walsh]

That was maybe a couple months ago. And she claims that that was way outside of the norm. Some people on staff said, well, I don't know, sometimes we Spike things. Somebody said it was because we had run one too similar recently, but it sort of. It stank. And then this news, it was just sort of like, damn, we really. He's doing it. He's using this newspaper as an extension of his ideology as the world's richest man who believes in free market and personal freedom, which is. And, and he basically like, the Post has always had like op EDS and editorials that would like, kind of look at different sides of different issues and stuff. He's like, no, like straightforward. We're not doing that anymore. I mean, if you can give any credit here, it's that he's not pussy footing around. He's like, our editorial page is now it has a. And it's on economic and personal freedom. And that's gross. And so we're like, well, I guess we're going to stop subscribing to the Post. But I will say one thing that feels really good. As bad as that decision felt for me. And I got to give Genevieve credit here. She's the. I read the article yesterday. I felt sick to my stomach, but I didn't really act on it. She texted me and says, I think it's time, like, let's get off of the Post. I was like, yeah, I guess it's time to. And also we are freeze up. We are canceling our prime subscription too.

[Luke Burbank]

And well, how are you going to get Reacher?

[Andrew Walsh]

Is that on prime, presumably? I. Yeah, well, I mean, I will miss Thursday Night Football, I suppose. But like, aside from that, and also like, there are just small things because Amazon has taken over so much. There are small things. Like, I needed a replacement. I broke my, my Stanley Thermos that I've been using for 25 years the other day. Fell out of my bag and, and.

[Luke Burbank]

The lid inside it.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, it was a very weird thing. It happened at Pop up the I had a bag full of my coffee. Suppl was in it and it, it was full of coffee and it fell right on the lid, like right on the screw on cap and somehow jammed it on there and it just. Oh, weird. Not get it off like all of the. All the King's Men. So anyway, I had to buy a new one and so I was like, well, I just bought it on Amazon a couple of days ago for $25. It was cheap and it was here the next day. Like, I'm going to miss that because I'm like, I don't know where I would drive or walk in my neighborhood to go get a Stanley Thermos but there must be places. I don't know. Ace is the place. I don't know. I have no idea.

[Luke Burbank]

Helpful hardware folks.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. So anyway, point is, the Post felt really bad. The prime thing feels good, but is going to be a difficult sort of conundrum in my life because I have become more and more dependent on that website to deliver things to me. But here's what feels really good. Genevieve said, let's cancel our post subscription and start subscribing to the Guardian. So I now have the I deleted the Post app from my phone. I don't even want their updates anymore. And then I downloaded the Guardian app and I got to say, I woke up this morning. I mean, obviously the Guardian has great. I mean, it's an international perspective on some things, but they have a great, you know, U.S. coverage. Like, I don't feel like I'm missing it really has done a good job in the 14 hours since we did this of sort of filling that gap. And I don't even have such a bad feeling opening it. So that's another. That's an alternative if you're interested in looking for another, like sort of more of a national or international news source.

[Luke Burbank]

It's interesting because I don't know what's been going on with Bezos, if he was always kind of a heel, but he just was keeping it under wraps or if this is what happens, if this is what mega wealth does to a person, sort of corrodes their soul and warps them, I don't really know. But my feeling was when he bought the Washington Post, it was an altruistic move. I don't think he bought the Washington Post with the intention of it becoming a mouthpiece for a Donald Trump like figure or explicitly pro business platform. Like, of course, I don't know him, but I don't get the sense that that's who he was when he bought it, what, 10 years ago maybe. How long has he owned it?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a good question. I don't know. Off the top of my head, it feels like less, but time is moving faster.

[Luke Burbank]

My sense of it was that was the time when the media landscape was shifting really rapidly and you had these things like the New York Times and the Washington Post that were kind of in financial, in a certain amount of financial trouble. The Times did this incredible thing where they got ahead of a bunch of this stuff between their subscription stuff, between digital, between expanding their audio offerings. And I mean, you know, the sense is that the New York Times has actually made it through just fine. But the. The basic deal is, as I understand it, is there gets to be, like, two or three national newspapers that can be profitable. That's it. You don't get like, it used to be. There was 20 or something. That's just not the case anymore. So the New York Times has dibs on one of those spots. And then my sense was the Washington Post actually was sort of doing okay in the. Financially in the. In the time after Bezos bought it. But my sense when he bought it was, oh, good, somebody who's got plenty of money is buying this. He's not buying it to make money on this paper. Like, he's buying it because he has the money and he wants to preserve this important, you know, voice. I mean, as their little thing says, democracy dies in darkness. Like, I thought it was a good thing that Bezos bought it, but obviously now he has decided that this is just going to be his personal microphone to push the ideas that he wants to push. And it's a real bummer because even though it is something he owns, so on some level, it's like, yeah, well, he owns the paper. He gets to say what he wants. We own tbtl. I guess we get to say what we want. But there is something about a newspaper like the Washington Post where it is. It's not just a business. It's something bigger than that. It has to do with the discourse and how people think about this country we live in. And therefore, I think that you have to hold yourself to a higher standard than, like, you just bought a business and now you can do whatever you want with it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, he bought it in 2013, by the way. I just looked it up. So just over 10 years, like you had said. Yeah, it bums me out because these are the institutions that we need. Like, it's the erosion that me unsubscribing from the Washington Post really hurts. Like, I don't want to be. I don't want to be rejecting solid news sources. You know, like, it's really, really important maybe now more than ever to have papers like the Times and the Post out there reporting. And I read some quotes from some people who work on the news side of the Post, and they said, we have not felt any encroachment here as far as our reporting is concerned. And that's good, but it just starts to feel like an erosion. And so, like I said, we wanted to sor of make our statement and make our voice heard by withholding our money towards that paper now, but it certainly doesn't feel good because I know people who are on the political right who don't trust their papers anymore because they think the newspapers are all a bunch of liberals. And when I hear that, I'm like, come on, man, that's the newspaper. Those are journalists who are at least trying for objectivity while you're getting all your news from fox, which is very much spin, you know, and lies.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

So anyway, so I don't like being the person who says, I'm not going to read the mainstream national newspaper anymore. It really has been. It's not. It's really. This is not a good feeling at all. I mean, obviously nobody's saying that it is, but this is a. This is a real tough one.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Because again, as you just said, and I was reading this morning, some, Some different articles about it, as of right now, no one is saying that Jeff Bezos is calling up reporters and telling them what to cover and what not to cover. And my guess is it would be a long time before that would even happen unless they were working on a piece that somehow painted him in a bad light or some crony of his. Yeah, but like, as of right now, the people, the journalists of the Washington Post are still doing their jobs and are still creating good journalism. So this has to do with the. I guess it's the. Well, I'm a little confused. Is it because the op Ed. The idea of the op Ed in the olden days was you would have the editorial board of the newspaper that would have sort of put out its. Its, you know, its proclamations on things. And then the op Ed would be basically the opposite of the editorial page. And that was supposed to be kind of a. Just another voice, another perspective counter to what the editorial page of the paper was doing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Usually an outside voice. Right. Like either somebody of somebody of prominence or could even be. Right. It could be like a president could submit an op Ed. Right. Or your, Your, Your state senator or whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

And is he just saying, we're getting rid of the op Ed page now because the Internet is the op Ed page.

[Andrew Walsh]

My concern is what, for my. Not. I think I accidentally said op Ed when I meant editorial. I don't know what's going on with OP eds, but I do know that I, you know, on staff, the Post just had editorial writers who approached things from different political standpoints. You know, so forgetting. Even I said OP Ed before, which I think maybe obscured what I was trying to say, because I don't really know exactly the details of that, but I do Know that he said that the editorial page is no longer going to have diverse opinions. It is going to have basically a thesis. And that thesis is, we are for free markets and individual freedom.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, the giving up Amazon thing is really tough for me out here. I haven't quite decided on that because, you know, where I live, there's a lot of stuff that is like, you know, actually they just don't even sell it out here. Like, where would I get it from? On the other hand, it could be very liberating in the way that when TikTok went away for seven hours, it was like a spell was broken for me. Like, I do think that I have the tendency to buy things so that I will feel some kind of way, like the excitement about anticipating something coming to the house and. Or seeing something and going, you know, what would be ideal for this? Like, looking around my house and going, I need a such and such for that corner of the house. Or I'm doing some kind of cleaning task and I'm like, oh, what if I had a kind of a. What do you call it? Like, a thing that went on the inside of this, Something I just recently bought? What if I had like a rack that went on the inside of this closet where I could hang up my broom and my Swiffer and stuff? You know, and like, I start thinking about that because right now, or when I had this thought, the broom and the Swiffer are just kind of leaning against the corner of the closet, I'm like, but what if this was a little more organized? So then, of course, I go on, I find something, I buy it, it gets delivered, I put it in, and I hang up that stuff. And it's very satisfying, right, to see that. Like that whole process of identifying something that I want to purchase, researching it, purchasing it, anticipating it, getting it, installing it, and then admiring it. That's a big part of my life out here, sadly. And while it would really, it would be more of a hassle if I have to drive down to Portland or to town or something, make a trip out of this to get that little thing. On the other hand, maybe that would be good for me to interrupt my consumerist tendencies. Like, if I only brought things into the house that I had to drive 20 to 30 minutes and then walk around a store and then, like, look at the things on the shelf, that might actually really change how I'm consuming. And that might not be a bad thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to embrace it. The bummer for me is That I was so late to the online retail game. Like, I held off. And I don't even. I think held off is the wrong word or phrase because that makes it sound like. Like I was a wanted. Yeah. Like, I wanted to engage more with online commerce, but I held myself back. That's not the case. I'm just, like, slow to change. And in my life, I would. I was nervous about buying things online because I was like, well, if it doesn't fit or whatever, like, what is returning these items going to be like, well, Amazon totally solved that. By making returns.

[Luke Burbank]

By just throwing it all into the earth.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right. By making returns. So simple and easy. And. And so anyway, like, I just. I didn't integrate this into my life, but now I think I am a bigger Amazon purchaser than Genevieve is, who was like, you know, earlier to it. And it just sort of bums me out. If I had just stayed old and stodgier for just a few more years, I wouldn't have a new habit to break. But I've broken harder habits before. That's what I keep telling myself. Like, I stopped smoking. I can do this. Like, I know that's a crazy thing to say, and I'm not trying to sound like a hero, but, like, I'm kind of. I'm a little anxious. I'm a little anxious about this. But I keep thinking, you know what? You can do this. You do every. You still have a mini disc player and you stop smoking.

[Luke Burbank]

That's your fallback plan.

[Andrew Walsh]

You have some willpower and you're an incredibly old man. You can go back to doing old man things like shopping at Target.

[Luke Burbank]

And you love that stuff. Anyway, I think. Well, at least as it relates to the grocery store. Like, I think you enjoy the process of going to the store, selecting the items you need, bringing them home, cooking them, using them, whatever. The other thing is, you're saying online commerce kind of writ large. But I don't think you have to stop using any online commerce. No, it's just Amazon, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. In fact, I needed some pants, so I bought a couple of pairs of pants online the other day. And usually my move was, so I have one pair of jeans that I kind of like the way they fit. I got it through Stitch Fix a while back. And so Stitch Fix will take all kinds of different brands and send them to you. We used to do ads for them and I actually really liked that service, but it's not for me all the time. Sometimes Stitch Fix would send me something. I'm like, oh, this works for me, but now I just want to buy more of these. So I did that. I looked at this pair of jeans I had. I don't even want to say the name Jordache. No, I was going to try to not tell you. I was like, I'm going to get more of these jeans. What is the brand? And I look and it's called Flag and Anthem.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, no. Oh, for two, one, your long standing distaste for. For anything that's named two words. And then the fact that that's very, very flagged.

[Andrew Walsh]

Anthem.

[Luke Burbank]

It's very conservative coded.

[Andrew Walsh]

And by the way, they're also made in China.

[Luke Burbank]

So it's the Chinese Anthem and the Chinese flag.

[Andrew Walsh]

I just love the idea of like our company is called Flag and Anthem.

[Luke Burbank]

But anyways, there is there a more perfect distillation of the. Of the dystopia that is 2025.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, right.

[Luke Burbank]

Something made in China, something sold here under like a sort of Americana sounding thing and. But now probably having a tariff on it because of the crazy person who's somehow in charge of the country.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I gotta say for a moment I'm like, I don't want to buy something from Flag and Anthem. That's like, listen, you've gotten yourself to the point where you're about to buy pants. Like, don't stop it. Like I'm so bad at clothes shop and getting new clothes.

[Luke Burbank]

Don't talk yourself out of it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. You know the pants are going to fit nicely. Like just get them. So anyway, I did, I could. My instinct was to go to Amazon and see what they have as far as like pants under that brand. I was like, why would you do that? Just buy it from the company directly. And the reason my instinct is to go to Amazon is not just because of the quickness in which it's delivered, but also because we pay for prime. It's free shipping on almost everything. But then I always just assume that shipping is going to be very expensive. But I guess a lot of these direct resale places like, like Flag and Anthem, they're waving the delivery fee too. Or they're just, you know, working it into the price of the pants. So I was like, oh, you know, like there is, there is, there are other ways to do this.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you know who the Flag and Anthem crew is?

[Andrew Walsh]

Andrew, are you on the website? I have purposely avoided this. I can pitch.

[Luke Burbank]

It's not anybody who's overtly problematic.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is there a picture? Is it a. But is it like a bunch of like, just like, is it A bunch of, like, white bros. Like, I'm picturing.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know. Do you. Does the name Dirks Bentley sound like a white bro to you?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's actually more blue. Bloody well not the Dirks part, but that is.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, my God, he's a country singer. We've also got somebody named Keegan Bradley.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, these are brand ambassadors. These aren't the people running the company.

[Luke Burbank]

No, these are the models. These are the flag fluencers, the Flag and Anthem crew, which includes Christian McCaffrey, somebody called Keegan Bradley, somebody called Dirks Bentley, who I've heard of, someone called Ryan Blaney, and then a golfer named Tom Hoge.

[Andrew Walsh]

These are my people, man. I wonder if they ask me, maybe they'll ask Andrew Walsh to be a brand ambassador.

[Luke Burbank]

Nice. Give me some pics of you wearing those jeans.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, we'll do.

[Luke Burbank]

Anyway, I, you know, I have to. I need to give this some serious consideration because, I mean, the other thing is, I have spent the last two to three years working on this house with my dad and changing so much about it that it actually necessitated some purchases. You know, like, anytime you do some major overhaul of something, then you're like, well, we do kind of need something to address the change in the physical space here because now there's more room for whatever, et cetera. But I think I've kind of. It's pretty much set now. Like, I don't need to be buying three things per week for different parts of this little. This little house of mine. Like, I could. I could really use it as a way of just kind of trying to exert some self control. Like, I think if I couldn't just jump onto Amazon and buy almost anything under the sun in under 30 seconds, I might consume less stuff and save more money and just be less part. Not participate in this cycle that I. That I'm very much stuck and I don't feel particularly great about. So it might be kind of good for me.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I know that we're. I do this thing where you wrap it up perfectly and then I just add another thought on the end, but. And maybe this is the wrong thought to add because maybe this is a deeper conversation. But if I can be honest with you about something, when I jumped on that call with you and John yesterday and I said, oh, God, just so you guys know, we're canceling the post. Like, I had just gotten off the phone with Genevieve or we were texting about it, so it was top of mind for me. And you were like, oh, why what's the news? And I tried to summarize it, and I don't think I did a very good job of it. And as I was saying it, I was wondering. This is going to sound weird, but I almost wondered if you were sort of thinking, this guy. You did not say. You did not say this guy.

[Luke Burbank]

You or this guy Bezos.

[Andrew Walsh]

Me. And I didn't. And you didn't say anything to indicate that we had. That we were under a kind of a tight deadline for the meeting, so we just sort of moved on quickly. But it sort of lives in my head a little bit. Cause I was like, am I, like, just becoming, like, kind of a walking eye roll? Because, you know, like, I made a big deal or I don't know if I made a big deal of it. It felt like I was making a big deal about quitting Instagram maybe a month or two ago, after Zuckerberg, you know, said some really stupid things and brought Dana White on board as an advisor. You know what I mean? Just like these.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't even know that part.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah. It brought Dana White on board into said, like, we're not going to fact check anymore because fact checking is woke. I mean, and basically, like, said that right after the inaugural or after the.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I remember that. I didn't know Dana White was part of the same.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. Part of the same news.

[Luke Burbank]

The mark of excellence in any endeavors. Oh, yeah. Roided ass.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Those guys all eventually start looking like a thumb, whether it's Rogan or Dana, because they're on a bunch of tea. They've all shaved their heads, they're on a bunch of tea. They're wearing T shirts that are two sizes too small, and they begin to. To. They begin to resemble a ruddy thumb.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ruddy thumbs. I know. Yeah. So anyway, all that is to say, like, I sort of feel like, well, you quit Twitter first a long time ago, then eventually, famously, Twitter. Right, Exactly. I mean, the world will never be the same. And then. But I just sort of feel like recently I've been like, sort of like, well, I'm cutting that, and I'm cutting that. And like, for Instagram, I'm not giving them my money anyway. I'm just giving them my attention. And I don't think anybody's really.

[Luke Burbank]

If we learned anything.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think anybody. Has anybody. Has anybody anybody explored the idea of attention as a commodity?

[Luke Burbank]

Not that I'm familiar with. Hey, hey, I have an idea.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, but, you know, like, I'm like. So I Pulled back on Instagram. I just feel like I have been, like, dropping a lot of things lately.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I just wondered if it's. I'm just coming off as, like, sort of like just this. This really pathetic guy who's just sort of tilting at windmills a little bit. And so, I don't know. It sort of lived in my head when I told you we're dropping the post. I don't know why I felt the need to tell you that right away. And then also wondered if I'm just being a little bit tedious or something.

[Luke Burbank]

That was not my feeling in the moment. I think if you saw anything on my face, it was just me being like. Because I wasn't up on whatever Bezos had said.

[Andrew Walsh]

So it was.

[Luke Burbank]

I think what you might have been seeing on my face on the zoom call was me just being like, everything sucks. You know what I mean?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, kind of. More like a what did he do now? Kind of a thing. Not like a, what is Andrew getting upset about now? But more like you're like, well, we're dropping the post. And I'm just like. Probably where my mind went was like, did they just. You know, did they just install Donald Trump as executive editor or something? Just kind of. That's what you were saying.

[Andrew Walsh]

That was the Kennedy Center.

[Luke Burbank]

It wasn't related to me thinking that you're becoming just Mr. Hair on Fire. It's just because every. Every hour of every day brings a new revelation of something that seems like, how could it. How could it get worse?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And so. And I guess maybe it's living in my head because I sort of feel like it just feels so impotent in a certain way. Like, we're just. We. I just feel so powerless right now. I just feel so powerless as such. Terrible. Hugely terrible and hugely important things are happening around. And it's like, what can I do? And it's like, well, I'm going to quit Instagram. Like, I don't know. But it's like. But it's all I could can sort of cling to is like, at least. Least in my life, not participate. You know, like, at least pick up my. Pick up my food tray and move to a different table if I can.

[Luke Burbank]

And that's not nothing. You know, Hamilton Nolan had this piece that he wrote recently. I was actually trying to find it on the fly. That was basically. There was something that he. And the point of the piece was that Donald Trump and his ilk are the political minority. They really are.

[Andrew Walsh]

Are.

[Luke Burbank]

It's so easy to lose sight of that. And he writes this very long, very compelling essay about how kind of, you know, they're in the minority of even Republicans, if you think about hardcore maga, the kind of people with the hats on who go show up at, you know, rallies and stuff. And he said something in there where he said, it's. It's like two people with guns. We're talking about Trump and Musk. It's like. It's like two people with two guns trying to stick up a thousand people. It only works if we get scared and. And. And assume that they have this power. They actually can't stick up a thousand of us, you know, and so I just. Keeping that in the front of your mind, whatever that looks like in terms of the action side for you, whether that's dropping Instagram and Amazon or showing up at a not my president protest or. I don't know, actually, the economics of this don't buy anything tomorrow plan that I keep seeing popping up. I. I mean, probably couldn't hurt. I don't know. I don't actually understand what. I guess the lesson it teaches the people in business is if nobody buys anything, it's bad for business. I feel like they have a sense of that already. But anyway, I mean, I probably can't hurt. All that is to say, I keep going back to that idea of, like, two people, two robbers with two guns trying to stick up a thousand people. And why does that work? Well, because you don't want to be the person standing in front of the guy with the gun. Okay, so that's fair. But there are more of us than there are of them. And I think. I do think we will continue to connect with that idea that we are the majority, good, normal people who may not agree on everything, but who generally think we should treat people with respect and love and generally think we should take care of our most vulnerable and generally think we should try to be good to the world at large. I don't think that is the minority position in this country. So I don't know. That for some reason, really put some wind in my sails. And I keep thinking about that. So maybe that's something to think about. Today day.

[Andrew Walsh]

And just one more thing. There's a right way to rock, a.

[Luke Burbank]

Wrong way to roll.

[Andrew Walsh]

You can't just listen to your song. Just remember that life is number one. You can be having so much fun. Just remember the day. Life is no smile. You can be nothing but one. All right. Oh, you're holding your sound effects machine.

[Luke Burbank]

There I've got it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I wasn't looking at you. I looked over. It's a bright red box and you were holding it up to your face. You were holding it up almost to your nose. And I looked over and I thought you had put on a clown nose for this segment, which would be out of character for you. I feel like, what if I just looked over and you're just like, okay, I'm ready. Ready for the blurs a segment and you just put on your clown toes.

[Luke Burbank]

I had donned a rainbow wig. I'm holding a big sign that says John 3:16.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, let's do some blurses here. By the way, if you want to wish somebody or yourself a happy blurs, they just email me andrewbtl.net and put Blursday in the subject line. Emma in Sydney, Australia, did that. Emma says, I'd like to wish a very happy birthday, leap day birthday to Ann and Poulsbo and say thank you. Thank you so much for the lovely friendship and the excellent pictures.

[Luke Burbank]

Leap Day, William.

[Andrew Walsh]

Leap day William. Now, this year is not a leap year though, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Let's check.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think let's.

[Luke Burbank]

Nope, Nope, nope. It's 28 since.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, how do we have all these leap years? But anyway, happy leap day blurs day to Anne and Poulsbo from Emma in Australia. I don't know if this was for air or not, but Denny says, how appropriate that the social medias might feed my algorithm with this gem on the day of my 40th Blurs Day. And he included a. A photo of that. That bowler. Oh.

[Luke Burbank]

Who do you think you are?

[Andrew Walsh]

I am. Who do you think you are? I am. The best part of that story is when we later learned he was yelling that as a teenager. Do you remember that part? Remember that day? Who do you think you are? I am never.

[Luke Burbank]

Didn't Tim Robinson do some sort of a. I think they did. Like.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's not a documentary now.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a documentary now.

[Andrew Walsh]

There is a documentary now that is about, like, the intense bowling community that I think was somewhat inspired by this. Is that what you're thinking of?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. And is Tim Robinson in it?

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe. It's been a long time. Sounds right.

[Luke Burbank]

Is playing kind of a version of that guy. Is that Pete Webber? Was that Pete Webber?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't remember his name. I'm looking up documentary now. Bowling here. I don't know if we have time for this now. There's so much I haven't seen of documentary now.

[Luke Burbank]

It's called Webber.

[Andrew Walsh]

Any given Saturday afternoon is the name of that episode.

[Luke Burbank]

Great name.

[Andrew Walsh]

And yeah, it does look like Tim Robinson was in that one. Good memory. Oh man, gotta wait for that beat to drop. Happy blursing to Tim. My all time number 1:10. Now, unfortunately, I do not see a name attached to this one, but I will read it anyway and hopefully the details will make it clear who this came from. It says life can sometimes be. I really thought you had a dog. So when I do the podcast with Hannah, when I do the podcast with Hannah on the weekends, every now and then her dog Lola will bark. So for a second I was just like, oh, your dog barks.

[Luke Burbank]

I was like, wait a second, he.

[Andrew Walsh]

Doesn'T have a dog. I want to go back in my day.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, one day you are just going to see a dog walking in the background. You're going to be like, he did.

[Andrew Walsh]

It and he's going to have a clown nose on. He did.

[Luke Burbank]

Yep.

[Andrew Walsh]

Happy blurs day to Tim. My all time number one ten can. Life can sometimes be the best of times or the blurst of times, but you always manage to fill it with so much joy and many dazzling deets. So on your special day, I just want to say, Carol, hold my calls because top story, I will always love you tons.

[Luke Burbank]

Power out. Yeah, we've got sound effects for all of those things. We've got blurst of times.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But then we've also got blessed of times.

[Andrew Walsh]

What was that?

[Luke Burbank]

It's called slide whistle, I guess.

[Andrew Walsh]

Love me me a slide whistle. I used to have a pretty good slide whistle in here somewhere too. I'm. I'm trying to go back into my email to see if I can find who sent that one in. My apologies for not having the. The name attached to this one. Let's see, it's Tim. So Tim. We're gonna search for Tim.

[Luke Burbank]

What are the chances of it being Tim? Hi.

[Andrew Walsh]

Not time. That's wrong. How's the segment going, would you say?

[Luke Burbank]

I would say strong to very strong. Huh.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was. You know what? I'm glad I went back to do this because the person did sign their name. I just accidentally deleted it. That was from Alan. And that was for Tim, who's in Cartersville, Georgia.

[Luke Burbank]

Love it.

[Andrew Walsh]

So I'm sorry I left out those dazzling bees, but it was a very nice message.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it was. And you've corrected the record and exactly everything.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, finally here. Last one. Dan from Miami says my birthday is on the 28th.

[Luke Burbank]

Nice.

[Andrew Walsh]

Perhaps my lady friend sent in a blurs day message for me. But just in case she didn't, I'd like to happy blurs myself. How? How does one blurs themselves Happy blurs to me. Frankly, I am not looking forward to 45, but I think TBTL will make it better. I'm in good company with YouTube. Middle aged hot dudes. Hey, you are also hot Luke. Sometimes I forget that we are both hot. Also happy blurs day to my real life bro Lewis, whose birthday was the 26th. Lewis. And also happy blurs to Alfred Molina. Absolutely. There you go. Those were the blurs days. Were they perfect? No. Are they done? Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. There you go. On time and under budget. I know you've got places to be and pods to cast.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, we had this line on Livewire recently that our executive producer, Laura Haddon wrote, which I thought was so great. It was. We were. I forget who the guest was. It was someone who has a podcast and it was for me saying, you know, this such and such show is available. And, you know, I'm so tired of saying wherever you get your podcast, like, it's just been said so many times. And she said something like, I think she wrote like, you can get it wherever your pods are cast.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I like that.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a nice way to put that. I like that. That's my new thing. I'm gonna say wherever your pods are cast because you're about to go pot. You're about to go cast another pod.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I'm heading over to KOW to talk about things that I have no talking about. Actually. It's a pretty good topic list. Pretty good topic list today. So I'm looking forward to.

[Luke Burbank]

And is that coming out tomorrow?

[Andrew Walsh]

Then? That'll be the Friday.

[Luke Burbank]

Gotcha.

[Andrew Walsh]

The Friday. You know, it was so funny because we should get. I should get going here because I am a little bit on a deadline. But what they do, the producers will send out like a list of topics. You've done this plenty of times before. But then it's. It's really fleshed out with just like kind of like, these are our thoughts on the topic. These are some of the questions. This is where the conversation might go. And if you could email us back with your reactions to these stories. And some people don't. Some people will write one sentence or that's it. Usually I go a little bit over. You got to get that dog under control.

[Luke Burbank]

Calm down.

[Andrew Walsh]

But, you know, have you ever been on one of these shows with Geraldine Deruder? Do you know that writer? She's amazing.

[Luke Burbank]

Sure. Of course. The Everywhere is. I haven't been on Kyra or rather kuow with her, but I've had her on Live.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. Yeah, she was, I know Geraldine, she must have been amazing, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Great writer.

[Andrew Walsh]

She's so great. And she's. And so we ended up. She ended up writing her responses first, which were very long and catty and just like, you know, she writes like she talks. And then that gave me fuel to let my freak flag fly. So then I'm going back and forth and like taking a pretty like kind of, I don't know, kind of a jaundiced eye towards some things and being sarcastic. And then she writes back again and she's like, Andrew, we're going to be the biggest grumps tomorrow. We're like going back and forth about this. And so finally the email chain ends. Ended with me just telling kow we are coming in hot today. So I am. She is a really, really fun person and Jeannie's, I believe, hosting as well. And I love Genie, so yeah, it's going to be tons of fun. The only problem is we're probably going to record for about three and a half hours and they'll use 20 minutes of it.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm looking at Geraldine's blog, the Everywhere Ist and I love the subtitle. An award Winning cry for Help. She is like, that could describe a lot of what goes on. Except the award winning part. That could describe a lot of what goes on here on TV channel.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, we'll have fun doing that. And everyone else, enjoy the rest of your Thursday. We will be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio. Andrew will be rung out. He will have cast all of the pod in his system and we'll probably just sleep through most of tomorrow's episode. But I will be amped. I'll be bringing it.

[Andrew Walsh]

You might need to do the newsletter tomorrow because I haven't even started that yet. Usually I try to get that started on Wednesday.

[Luke Burbank]

Get Gerald Dean to write it. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, man.

[Luke Burbank]

That would be guest writer Geraldine Jal. Yes. Anyway, all right, thanks everybody. We'll see you tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great Thursday and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all. Power out.