
Andrew pitches Luke on an idea for a special episode of TBTL that he really wants to produce. They figure out if they can make it work. They also discuss the story of a jerk who went to Australia and snatched a baby wombat away from its mother. And we...
Loading summary
Andrew Walsh
I, Chris Locke, do solemnly swear to have and behold, to take and forever, Forever and ever. Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, through sickness unto and health, to have and to hold. The sun is forever blasting. People are strange when you're a stranger. Forever and ever. Thine is the kingdom forever. O heavenly, lasting love. The water is running forever and ever. Do I solemnly take you? Yes, I do.
Luke Burbank
TBTM.
Andrew Walsh
Guess what day it is. Guess what day it is. It's Friday. Friday. Gotta get down on Friday. Everybody's looking forward to the weekend. Are you taking my duplication investigation seriously or are you disrespecting my duplication investigation?
Luke Burbank
Jumpman. Jumpman. Them boys up to something? I think I need some Robitussin. We've got a basket full of bread, water. And now all we need is some great conversation. All right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Friday edition of TBT All. The show that just might be too beautiful to live may seem highfalutin, but.
Andrew Walsh
Trust me, you're gonna like art.
Luke Burbank
My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Hello, everyone. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia, where it's a pretty nice day. It's not actively raining, the river is flat as a some kind of a large tanker of some kind transport vessel silently steams up the river. Oh, ma Pa. It's just beautiful. It is a beautiful Friday. As we arrive at episode 4423 in a collector series, Let the fun begin. I've been real hyped about the White Lotus. I've been having my questions about severance. And now it's a new TV show that is taking up a lot of my attention. And it's Everybody's Live with John Mulaney.
Andrew Walsh
I'll write it and we'll do it live.
Luke Burbank
It's live show on Netflix. It's they're gonna do. I think they're doing. It's either eight or 12 of them. They're gonna be live every Wednesday night. And I think they're absolutely spectacular. I think they. Whether or not they know it, they are channeling the true spirit of this show. Too beautiful to live. And. And I think we should get some credit, honestly. I want to talk about that. Also, we got another situation with a dingus American doing something in Australia.
Andrew Walsh
Australia is a wonderful island.
Luke Burbank
Doing something in Australia with animals.
Andrew Walsh
Australians are just as unique, both warm.
Luke Burbank
And direct and drawing the attention of the actual prime minister of Australia. People calling to have this person ejected from the country for something that they did. We'll get into that as well. And we're going to talk to this guy. Okay? Yes. You know that he's the longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. Sure. You also probably know that he is a Cuyahoga clam. Do you know, though, the origin of his vast wealth? I sued the city because I was.
Andrew Walsh
Accidentally sewed into the pants of the.
Luke Burbank
Big Charlie Brown at the Thanksgiving Day parade. True story. He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.
Andrew Walsh
I'm scared how much I love wine. Yeah, I don't know if I got it. I don't know if I got that.
Luke Burbank
Oh, I believe you did, sir. I believe you did.
Andrew Walsh
It's true. I was sewed into the pants of a giant boy in the St. Patrick's Day parade. I'm sorry, no, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Yeah, I guess it is. I. I can never keep my March dates right. I asked you because you asked me.
Luke Burbank
Today if today's St. Patrick's Day.
Andrew Walsh
Every. Here's the thing about March. Every date in March sounds like it's something. Yes, and I think it's.
Luke Burbank
Why is that?
Andrew Walsh
Well, I had two birthdays in March. One for Genevieve and then one for another Genevieve, who I called Grandma Simcik, who's no longer with us but would be celebrating her birthday, I believe.
Luke Burbank
I didn't know that your Grandma Simpc's first name was the same as your beloved partner of many years.
Andrew Walsh
Yes, that's how I went to. I went.
Luke Burbank
I know. Weird.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. I went to.
Luke Burbank
Honestly, you didn't hear that name and immediately picture your grandmother and then just swerve.
Andrew Walsh
Well, I was on find avivs.net I.
Luke Burbank
Mean, plenty of beeves. Now, if you were to put that in the show title, it could be misread as some other sort of reference I love. I would go, well, that's not true. I. I'm very happily in a relationship. But I do think the idea of a website where this match you up with people, that's some potential.
Andrew Walsh
How did you do it? So there were those two significant dates and then I guess St. Patrick's Day is always on the side. 17th. Is this right?
Luke Burbank
Yes.
Andrew Walsh
Okay. I don't really observe it. Last time I tried to observe it is when I. You caught me almost punching out an Uber driver.
Luke Burbank
First Avenue, by the way.
Andrew Walsh
Not drunk.
Luke Burbank
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Andrew Walsh
Not drunk. Still. Well, well away from being drunk.
Luke Burbank
And then think about this. I. This must have come up the kind of bookend of this experience. You started that night almost fighting someone. And I ended it. Almost.
Andrew Walsh
Yes. And you were drunk by that point, though.
Luke Burbank
Deeply. Yes, deeply and profoundly.
Andrew Walsh
I don't know what to wor.
Luke Burbank
I don't think I figured. I mean, we've talked the story of. Of you getting into with Uber driver. We've talked many times of the story of me getting mad at somebody who I thought was disrespecting you by eating fries off of your plate. But I. I forgot the fact that the night started with you almost start starting a fight and ended with me almost starting a fight.
Andrew Walsh
Well, it's also confusing because we ended the night at an iconic Polish bar and it was St. Patrick's Day, which is also just another wrinkle in that whole thing, so.
Luke Burbank
Which I believe was nice. Polonaise.
Andrew Walsh
Right? That's right.
Luke Burbank
Which is the weirdest name for a. Well, maybe not, I guess. Polonaise. Is that. Is that Polish for something?
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I think we looked it up at the time. I think we've. I think we've gone over. All right, enough.
Luke Burbank
Enough is enough.
Andrew Walsh
But. Yeah, so you have. So that's always on the 17th, the 14th. Just sounds like something to me. Doesn't March 14th sound like we should be celebrating something? Maybe it should be TBT all day.
Luke Burbank
Yes. You know, I know the guy, or at least I met the guy who decides on those silly days. Yeah, I might. I. Maybe I could reach out. Maybe I could back channel him and see if we can get a TBTL day official hug your TBTL host today. Wait, that's. That might get weird too. Yeah, but just, you know, like, yeah, official tbt. Like, believe me, there's a. There are. There are sillier ones on that little list that that guy maintains.
Andrew Walsh
The problem is when you extend out TBTL to the full name of the show Too Beautiful to Live, and then you hear it out of context. Like when we were thinking about putting Too Beautiful to Live on the back of Junior Sluggers jerseys and we realized a bunch of little kids wearing shirts that say too beautiful to live is not actually the vibe. No, you gotta remember.
Luke Burbank
Oh, shoot.
Andrew Walsh
You gotta explain.
Luke Burbank
You've got to game it out. You've got to think about all the different places it might show up or people it might be associated with. And is. Are those weirds? Are those words in that order going to be weird?
Andrew Walsh
Is it too late to change the name of the show?
Luke Burbank
I figure we give it. Let's, let's, let's. At the 20 year mark. Let's really consider it.
Andrew Walsh
Let's reassess.
Luke Burbank
Let's reassess.
Andrew Walsh
Let's look at our download numbers and reassess on the 20th anniversary.
Luke Burbank
At the 20th anniversary, let's consider changing the name to Giggle Squad. Hopefully we'll be back in the official Don Fingers Felder podcast.
Andrew Walsh
Both of those. Rock and roll to the Eagles. Can I have a somewhat serious conversation with you about TBTL programming?
Luke Burbank
Yes. This isn't something you'd like to do off air.
Andrew Walsh
It was something I want to do off air, but I. Who has the time?
Luke Burbank
Yeah, yeah, right.
Andrew Walsh
I mean, it's all good. The only reason it might be you might be detecting something in my voice is the hesitancy is here. If you really don't want to do this, I guess I'm putting you on the record as not wanting to do this, but, Luke, I really want to do an episode of TBTL as a tradio episode. I want live callers. I want people saying, I got a snowblower I want to get rid of.
Luke Burbank
I'm totally down to do this. Listen. And actually, you know what? This gets me into the thing I wanted to talk about, about this Mulaney show.
Andrew Walsh
That's one of the things that you mentioned, and I sort of started thinking about that.
Luke Burbank
I would love to do this again. The only practical concern I have is that we are not located in a specific small town in the south on a radio station, which would then by definition mean the person with the snowblower, the person selling the snowblower. Although the south, that's probably not snowblower country. The person selling the riding lawnmower is presumably geographically near the person who wants to buy the riding lawnmower. So that's just the only problem we have to solve is if we. We're taking calls, we'll likely be getting calls from different parts of the country. How would people be getting this stuff to the other person?
Andrew Walsh
Well, that's their problem. Okay. My concerns are global. Yes, I studied under Gandhi.
Luke Burbank
I've heard.
Andrew Walsh
No, I just think we make a really fun radio show or podcast and people can figure out how to get something. I mean, we do have, like, hotspots where we have a lot of listeners. There might be somebody in the Midwest looking to a couple of people in the Twin Cities. Somebody's getting rid of something and they say, email me here at my hotmail address if anybody's interested in buying this dress. But the only thing is, doesn't have to be that big. We always use the Examples of a snowblower. Because, like, I used to listen to tradio radio in New Hampshire. And so you hear a lot of snow blowers. But for folks who don't know what we're talking about, here would be the format, Luke. And I say, hey, listen, you got something you're trying to get rid of? You got something you're looking for? Yeah, call us at the TBTL hotline right now.
Luke Burbank
Okay. I love this. Sorry. I'm sorry I'm so obsessed with the, like, getting of the thing to the other person. But here's part of it. If this could even be, in some cases, you're looking to give it away. Now, let's say I'm looking to give away something and it's, you know, it's, it's dollar value. Could be 100 bucks if I went and tried to sell it, but I'm going to give it away. Yeah, it's a TBTL thing. Now if someone is going to pay 20 to ship it to them, they're still, it's still a decent deal. So I think what I'm, I think I'm hung up on this idea of like, you know, who's going to ship a large item across the country. But it's like, also, people just want to kind of give away stuff like, I've got something, I've got something to say. I've got something you might need, and now somebody else might need it, and then they can work out how to get it from point A to point B. I hear what you're saying.
Andrew Walsh
Okay, so let's role play this out a little bit. So we open the show. This is our special. We have to promote it in advance. My big question is, do we stream it live so that people have to.
Luke Burbank
Do it on a Saturday morning just.
Andrew Walsh
Because of the tradio tradition? And that makes it an extra. Maybe that makes it an extra episode in the, in the feed that week as opposed to maybe just a regular episode of tbtl. Yeah, or we take a day off.
Luke Burbank
Saturday morning, you've got your Stanley Thermos of coffee. People are tuning like a spring. A Saturday morning in the spring feels like when people are radio.
Andrew Walsh
People are getting rid of stuff in the spring, people are doing some spring cleaning. And so, yeah, so we, we open up the phone lines. We, you know, we tell people what day and time it's going to be. We stream it on YouTube like we would during a TV telethon or something. We, we figure that out. That's on me. I'll figure it out. People stream things all the time, Luke. Don't worry about it. I'll figure it out. And then. Sorry. Now I'm trying to figure out how we do stream. Okay, but anyway, so we open up the phone lines and then. And then we say, okay. And the questions are, what. What are you looking. What are you looking to get rid of? Or what are you looking to get? And they say, hey, my name is. I'll just use myself. Hey. Hey, Andrew here. Where are you calling from, Andrew? I'm in the Seattle area. What are you. What are you looking for? Well, I was cleaning out my attic, Luke, and I came across the set of time machine choose your own adventure books.
Luke Burbank
Nice. So that's not what you're looking for. That's what you're looking to get rid of.
Andrew Walsh
So I'm willing to give that to any 10 who's interested in my time machine. Choose your own adventure books. And then you ask me, hey, okay, Andrew in Seattle, are you willing to ship this or does it have to be local? Go ahead, ask me that.
Luke Burbank
There you go. Hey, Andrew. Okay, great. These time machine books, big, big part of childhood, are you. Could. Could somebody have those shipped to them or do they need to come pick them up from you?
Andrew Walsh
How dare you ask me that question? I was a good Saturday morning before you.
Luke Burbank
Now, here's the real question, though, when I'm asking them. I love how, like, I love how locked up I am over this question of the shipping. Really? If I ask them, if I ask you, are you willing to ship, or do they have to be local and come get it from you? Is that means. Are you saying there are people that wouldn't put it in the mail even if the other person were paying for it?
Andrew Walsh
I could see somebody. Somebody saying, hey, listen, I'm in the Seattle area. I know there's a lot of times in the Seattle area. Yeah, I can't get involved with shipping. We. We also don't have to get too much in the details. The most important thing for the listeners now I'm talking to you listeners.
Luke Burbank
Yeah.
Andrew Walsh
And I'm not role playing anymore. This is me, the real Andrew Walsh, not the fake Andrew Walsh who has those books.
Luke Burbank
Guys got those books that he's given.
Andrew Walsh
I wish I still had those books, actually, if anybody's got some time machine. But.
Luke Burbank
So, okay, so Andrew's in the market for those books, if you have them, and he is willing to come to your house, literally wherever you live.
Andrew Walsh
I might be there right Even now.
Luke Burbank
No podcast is coming from inside the.
Andrew Walsh
House, the big thing for the listeners. I don't think you and I really have to get too much. I think. I think. Yeah, you're right.
Luke Burbank
You're right.
Andrew Walsh
Asking that question, are you willing to ship is a good one. It gives us something to talk about. And it's also just a way to check with the listeners for a sec. I think we want to keep it moving, though. I think we want to like, kind of take a call, stick to business, move on. I like the idea of having a purpose for these calls. But then the thing that the listeners need to think about is what contact information are you willing to give out publicly on the airwaves? So back in New Hampshire, people just give out their phone number or email address. Like, you can reach me. I'm at home most of the days after supper, you know, like, whatever that. What a. What a cruel impression that was of a New Hampshire. Right. And they give out their phone number lots of times. People in this day and age probably don't want to give that out, but you might want to give out like the email address that you use for spam or when you're signing up for Instagram ads or whatever. Just know what, you know, what contact information you're willing to put out there on a public podcast.
Luke Burbank
I love it. I think it sounds really fun. I think we should do it this. We should do it this spring and.
Andrew Walsh
It'S put something on the calendar.
Luke Burbank
You're catching me at a good moment to agree to do extra work, Andrew, because I do love the idea of chopping it up with the listeners on the phones, which is a huge part of what I am loving about this live John Mulaney show that they're doing on Netflix. You have not actually gotten eyes on this yet?
Andrew Walsh
No, I don't think I've heard of it.
Luke Burbank
Well, they did one. So when there was the Netflix. Netflix had this comedy festival in LA a while ago where they literally had. I don't know if you've probably haven't seen the photos from that either, but, like, because Netflix is such a player now in the comedy space, you know, with all the Netflix specials and the shows they make and I think you should leave. And they just really stuff. Yeah, they're just like. They kind of seem to be the main conduit through which a ton of comedy is now passing. And so because of that, they've got all these relationships and they did this. They did a basically like an insane, I think, multi week comedy festival in LA called. I think it was called Netflix as A joke. And the. Somebody hatched this idea. Oh. Because all these comedians and all these people are going to be in LA at the same time. Why don't we do a live show at 7pm West Coast? At exactly 7pm West coast on Wednesdays. And it was called Everybody's in LA with John Mulaney.
Andrew Walsh
Yes, you told me about this.
Luke Burbank
Yes, I think they did. I don't know how many episodes of that. I think they did six of those. And I loved those a lot. They. I assumed they would not bring them back because they were. They were very weird and very kind of loose. And all the things that I like about television and radio, that is, most of it has gone away now, you know, like. And so I was very, very pleased to hear that they actually re upped it for again. I think it might be 12. It's either eight or 12 episodes. They're going to be doing it every Wednesday night. I would at 7:00, West Coast. First of all, the intro package is incredible. It's set to the Wang Chung song To Live and Die in la. And it's like, Andrew, I swear to God, if you were to watch. Let me see. Can you do me a fave? I don't know if. If you were to. If you were to go online and just see if you can find a Viet on the Internet. If you could see if. If the Everybody's Live with John Mulaney credits or intro, just see if that. If that's a thing that somebody has popped up on the Internet somewhere. Because the. I overuse this word and I also still don't really fully understand how to use it. But the aesthetic of the intro is so spectacular.
Andrew Walsh
I have something here that claims to be the opening credits. Does it begin with a slow motion zoom in or push in on a car radio?
Luke Burbank
Yep, exactly.
Andrew Walsh
All right, let's take a listen to this, will you please? We're seeing kind of a voyeuristic shot that just turned 7pm and this credit.
Luke Burbank
When it's playing, John Mulaney is standing off stage waiting to be cued to go on stage. Because this is broadcasting live to the world.
Andrew Walsh
Reminds me sort of almost a 90s. Not in the film stock, but it's like showing a bunch of shots of people doing things around la.
Luke Burbank
Yes.
Andrew Walsh
Doing magic skate. Well, no skateboarding yet, I assume. Yeah, this feels very classic. Jerry Seinfeld's on this one. We see people doing martial arts in studios, people riding their motorcycles down Sunset.
Luke Burbank
Chris.
Andrew Walsh
Tom. How do you say that?
Luke Burbank
I don't Kratom. Just. I can't. I can't say it, and I don't do it. Andrew. Yeah, just like. And then clocks turning to the number seven. Like, 7:00pm anyway. Oh, well, this. I think that's an old episode. I think that might have been from when they were doing the Netflix comedy special, but it's the same. It's. It's. You're getting. You're getting the idea, you're getting the energy. Like, I. I'm clearly having a hard time describing it, but there's just something about it that. That reminds me. Oh, by the way, Richard Kind is the announcer.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, nice. Oh, that is great. Yeah.
Luke Burbank
I'll just give you a little from the. From this Wednesday show again. So. So one of the things that Mulaney said when he came out, which I bet is kind of true, is he was like, this used to be called everyone's in L. A with John Mulaney. They tested it. People in the rest of America hate the word Los Angeles. He goes, and then we had the fires, and I thought maybe people would change their body. Goes, are they tested again? No, People don't like the word Los Angeles. So now it's Everybody's Live with John Mulaney. It was called everyone's in LA with John.
Andrew Walsh
Right now it's Everyone's Live with John Mulaney.
Luke Burbank
Richard Kind on the. On the Wednesday night, he's just the classic announcer who is kind of slightly confused about what's going on because he sticks around.
Andrew Walsh
He doesn't just do the script.
Luke Burbank
No, he sticks around. He's over at a little, you know, podium or lectern or whatever. And it's that perfect dynamic of, like, you know, John Mulaney is cool, calm, collected. He's got this great sense of humor. It's very honed. And then Richard Kind is just. Kind is. You know, it's just this kind of affable nutcase.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Just a little chaos.
Luke Burbank
Just a little chaos. Because you don't. You understand that, like, Richard Kind's humor is not exactly John Mulaney's humor. It's not the humor of even the demo who's watching this. But that kind of gives it this frisson that's just, like, perfect.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. The other.
Luke Burbank
I keep saying last night, but it was. Technically, it aired on Wednesday, but the Wednesday episode, after, they get. They need to do something. They need a little piece of production to get Mulaney from where he's standing to do his monologue over to where his chair is. They don't have a house band. You know, that might be where the house band plays a number. In this case, it was Richard Kind doing birthdays, but at least three of them were people who've passed away. He's just. It was like there and then. It didn't really resolve as a bit. It was so great. It was like he was like wishing happy birthday to Al Jarou. Learning the Al Jarose I was.
Andrew Walsh
This notion hits me from time to time, and I think I. I think I did this back in 2015 when I was, like, free of my day job and just doing TBT on a daily basis. And remember I came in pretty hot with like, well, let's do this every day. I'm pretty sure I could be wrong about this. I know we tried to do a dream segment where listeners called it with their dreams. I'm pretty sure I tried to do celebrity birthdays for a while just because it's like I was listening to a lot of Kevin and it's just like good, classic local radio, like celebrity birthdays. And I was just thinking about that again the other day. Again, you and I are both attracted to this idea of. Of, I think, live radio.
Luke Burbank
Yes.
Andrew Walsh
And. And just like, it doesn't even matter if the conceit is a little bit cheesy, like celebrity birthdays or something I love about. It's so comforting tuning into the Kevin and Bean show back when it was on K Rock, and just hearing them hearing Ralph Garmin go through the celebrity birthdays, and then like, maybe you spend 15 to 30 seconds on each one and just move on.
Luke Burbank
And by the way, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that one of the producers or writers of this show grew up listening to Kevin and Bean.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, and that.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I'm sure it lived in their head somewhere. And that's what's so great about this.
Andrew Walsh
It's like.
Luke Burbank
It's like a pastiche of all of this stuff that I. That I really like how unhinged like Letterman used to be. Like early Letterman, you know, and then the theme. Okay, so they pick a theme. I'm a sucker for that, too. The theme of the Wednesday show was loaning people money. So the first two guests are a financial advice columnist from the San Francisco Chronicle and Beetlejuice. What's his name?
Andrew Walsh
Michael Keaton.
Luke Burbank
Michael Keaton. Those are the first two guests. It's Michael Keaton and a financial advice columnist who most people would be unfamiliar with. Those are the first two guests. And then they just start taking calls from people. Obviously the calls are Very curated. They found people who are good at talking, who have stories. I mean, they're not. This is not. This ain't Art Bell sitting in a trailer in Pahrump going east of the Rockies line. Like, you know, they. They're making sure that these people have. Have interesting stories. But even so, Mulaney is working this phone. He's got, like, a, you know, a regular landline phone that's got buttons on it at his. At his chair where he's sitting, and he's taking calls from people. And it's pretty clear that, again, I'm sure that he's been prepped on the broad strokes of what the call wants to talk about. But there certainly are points where, you know, Michael Keaton and the financial advice person and Mulaney are all kind of, like. Are all just. They're just winging it. They're just, like, taking a call like you would on a radio show in the olden days, and then just responding to what the person says, and it's so delightful.
Andrew Walsh
So do you want to know one of the biggest disappointments of my life as a podcast listener?
Luke Burbank
That your co host couldn't remember the name Michael Keaton 45 seconds ago.
Andrew Walsh
Dude, you want to. You ever want to make me look good by remembering a celebrity's name? Because, I mean, obviously, I love Batman. I love Michael Keaton, but when somebody asks me a question like that, I lock up. Lock the F of me. And I didn't lock up. I was.
Luke Burbank
Thank you. Okay.
Andrew Walsh
You know, I was a Mullenny.
Luke Burbank
I was happy early St. Patrick's Day. That's my gift to you.
Andrew Walsh
I was a John Mulaney to your richer kind.
Luke Burbank
Thank you. Happy birthday, Al Jarrel.
Andrew Walsh
So smooth.
Luke Burbank
Thank you for that.
Andrew Walsh
So the. The Andy Richters of the world, right? Andy Richter. There's only one, and his name is Andy Richter. And I'm pretty sure nobody really likes him, so I can say whatever I want. Right. He's not, like, beloved or anything. Right.
Luke Burbank
So certainly by the kind of people that like our show.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. So if I were just to, like, be kind of savage and take him down a notch or two also, I.
Luke Burbank
Mean, there's a decent chance he'd clap back at you online because as we established during the.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, he's.
Luke Burbank
He's a catty little from New Jersey who lives for the drama.
Andrew Walsh
You were doing something with him, weren't you? Because we came. We pretty seriously, for us, considered maybe seeing if we could get him on the show to talk about, like, sidekicking or Whatever. And then I sort of thought, like, the premise might be a little insulting.
Luke Burbank
We had him on Livewire a long time ago, and it was a. It was a funny thing because, you know, I'm obviously like a Conan. The, you know, Conan's original show on NBC, the late night one with Andy Richter was like my comedy, you know, Madrasa. Like, I just like, was obsessed. I watch that show every single night of my life and it really shaped how I think about what is funny. Um, and so I was very excited that we were gonna have Andy Richter on. And I think our other guest was Ken Jennings, who at the time was not the host of Jeopardy. He was just a guy who had done really well on Jeopardy. And we had a con, not a contest. We did some kind of an activated bit on stage where we had this very fancy food thing in Portland to make these little dishes for them and they were eating them for some reason. And I remember the. The owner of the thing was in the audience and Andy Richter was looking at this real high end Portland food and he said, this looks like two farts on a plate.
Andrew Walsh
That's right. God bless.
Luke Burbank
And. And then from that, from that, Andy Richter and Ken Jennings became, I think, deep abiding friends. From there on out, I would see them at like Mariner Games together online.
Andrew Walsh
Where's my invite?
Luke Burbank
Exactly. I was very happy that they were able to make a connection, but I was sad that I was not. This was not a throuple. This was. This was just Andy Richter and Ken Jennings being. Being real buds after that. So all that is to say, that's my one time of meeting him that I remember.
Andrew Walsh
Okay, obviously Andy Richter is a wonderful person. I do remember a while back, like, kind of maybe in the. Maybe the height of the podcast kind of bubble, when everything was. Everybody had a podcast. I do remember him saying this. I mean, I understand how people can love podcasts. I just have never. They've never fit into my. Into my day. I just have never gotten into the habit. And that's not him joking around. It was just some interview about how he's not into podcasts. And then of course, what happens is.
Luke Burbank
He has a podcast.
Andrew Walsh
He has a couple of podcasts, right? Because everybody's like, oh, well, we are.
Luke Burbank
Living in the midst of a podcast boom.
Andrew Walsh
We have to have podcasts to live these days. So Andy Richter has three questions with Andy Richter.
Luke Burbank
These farts on a plate aren't going to pay for themselves.
Andrew Walsh
That was the name of his third podcast. His second podcast, though, was called the Andy Richter call in show. And he went on another podcast. I'm assuming it was Comedy Bang Bang, I don't know. But I'm listening to Andy Richter and he's saying, yeah, so I have a new podcast out and it's called. It's a call in show. And I'm just like, yes, like, let's get messy. Let's do live call does. Right. But only in podcast form. Unless I don't know if Guther does that in podcast form.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, he has a podcast where people just call him.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, right, right, right. I was also thinking of his cable stuff. But anyway, the point with the Richter thing is I was like, oh, that sounds amazing. But then immediately I was deflated because he mentions like, in another sentence or two that, like, no, no, these aren't like actual live calls. These are people who call in, leave a voicemail, then we'll call them back, which I know there's a proud tradition of that. That's how Car Talk did it. That's how, like, a lot of, like, call it shows do it.
Luke Burbank
NPR shows are. Honestly, Andrew, They're. They're afraid. They can't handle the smoke.
Andrew Walsh
There's a live chaos. Yeah. And I was just like, no, Andy, just like, like, just do it live or don't even, Even if you don't want to release it live, even if you don't want to stream it, like.
Luke Burbank
You can grow a pair.
Andrew Walsh
You can just tell people, call between these hours. We'll be recording, we'll be taking them live. And if anything goes really off the rails, you can cut it out. If we do tradio, like, we'll be streaming that life. So we. But I mean, be open to a little bit of chaos. I mean, it's a God, especially considering cast. It's.
Luke Burbank
And you're Andy Richter.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, you, you, you.
Luke Burbank
You had. The second time I've referenced this in, like three weeks. But, like, you had a recurring character, like masturbating bear that used to just come out and do stuff on the Conan show. You should be comfortable with the unknown.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And I don't think that was probably him, I'm sure, because he's somebody who isn't. Who doesn't come up through radio the way we do. And I'm sure I don't even know if it was his idea. I'm sure somebody said, hey, you should have another. You should have another podcast. You know, like, who knows who's advising people these days? And somebody probably said, yeah, we'll produce it. Don't worry. You'll have 18 producers and we'll have a voicemail.
Luke Burbank
Well, of course, yeah, he probably. I only learned about this show 45 seconds ago, but I've got theories.
Andrew Walsh
Burn it to the ground.
Luke Burbank
Which is no, which is, I'm sure. Like, I bet you Andy Richter himself, because he is, he's an avuncular, affable fellow. And I bet you he's very comfortable. More comfortable than I am with moments being a little awkward. I bet you he or somebody close to him thought, oh, you'd be great at like just taking phone calls. You can kind of roll, you can hang. And then somebody with, with a big radio brain got in there and said, yes, but let's make sure, like some producer got signed on, somebody who had recently departed KCRW got, you know, signed on to produce the show, to produce the podcast. And they were like, okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna have them call in and leave their message. Then we've a producer call them back and pre screen them. And then we're gonna kind of work out what the, what the shape of their call is, and then we're gonna have them call you. That way we're just gonna get the premium shit. And it's like, that's what public radio does to everything. And in a lot of cases makes it worse, in my opinion. Or at least less, less, less dynamic.
Andrew Walsh
Let me clean up my setup of his show for a second here because he does have one podcast. And that's the three questions. This one I forgot. It's not actually a podcast, which I don't know if that changes. It doesn't change my opinion on things, although it may change some of the, the reality of these things. That's right. It's a Sirius XM show. That's why I thought it was actually going to be live. Because one thing I've been impressed with XM is it, weirdly, Sirius XM almost brings more of the sort of things I liked about local radio to the forefront. Like, it's. I really thought when we kind of did a trial membership and decided to extend it, like it was going to be, I don't know, are these just like extended playlists? Like, is Sirius xm? Is the majority of that basically just like me choosing an algorithm on Spotify and keeping me entertained, getting the lead out? Right.
Luke Burbank
And then epic Led Zeppelin playlist with like, occasionally a canned guy coming and going. That was houses of the holies.
Andrew Walsh
That's right, exactly. But no, like, what the thing that is the most valuable about satellite radio is on the various shows I listen to. You know, even music programming. It's like people like really? And I, I don't know if this is the case for the new.
Luke Burbank
You mean Busted Open with Dave legreca?
Andrew Walsh
I don't mean that the num, the.
Luke Burbank
Number one wrestling podcast or the number one wrestling show on Sirius Satellite.
Andrew Walsh
But I'm impressed the way that like the Raid, the audio. I'm sorry the music shows are really curated and they'll find somebody with a personality whether or not I like their. Kind of beside the point. But they'll talk about the music and why they. You know what I mean, why they chose. I love that. So I hear that Andy Richter is doing a call in show on a radio platform. I'm like, oh, this is great. And again, this still sounds good. I'm not, I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but when you listen to it, it's just a little bit more like kind of curated and clean than I was hoping. It says each week on the Andy Richter call in show, Andy invites callers to weigh in on questions such as, have you ever seen a ghost? What's the worst job you've ever had? And who is your first crush? So they. And then, you know, then he's always got a comedian guest like Andy Daly or Nicole Byer, you know, and I'm just reading off the kind of PR thing here, but like, you know, you.
Luke Burbank
Say 2024 puts Andy Richter squarely back in the driver's seat.
Andrew Walsh
The man who brought the rock and roll Edge to the Conan O'Brien Show. Andy Ripton roll Edge to the Eagles. So this boat mostly sounds like, oh, this is a comedian podcast with one little element that's different, which is we have some pre screened callers, you know, and it just, I want things to be a little bit more wild like you were talking about with Mulaney and. And our new Tradio empire.
Luke Burbank
The other guests, if I can. And our new are. I mean this would get us away from the. The idea of which would be to talk to the tens. That's actually the fun part of this. I wonder if we could get somebody at Sirius to let us jump on and just do a Tradio episode on Sirius. We got a lot of time to.
Andrew Walsh
Fill over there, you know, every time. And you know, I know that Bean, our friend Bean of cup of tea in a chat fame has been tuning into the show from time to time. So I don't know if he'll Hear this or not. But one thing that I always notice is if I'm texting with him and we're like talking about one thing. And then I asked him if he wants to be on the show, like, that part of the text is just not addressed. And I'm starting to, like, realize maybe I need to stop asking. But he sent me a clip of some no money, no honey, some tradio that he loved the other day he sent me on his show. And then I don't know if you're on the same text chain. And I said, yes, I really am serious about putting one of these together for tbt. Let me know if you'd like to collaborate. And I don't know if you have the cricket its sound effect there, but I took it to me. That would be difficult with him maybe overseas. And it would really add to your anxiety about people getting things where they need to be, considering he's in England. But I did wonder if there's somebody we want to partner with with our tradio radio or if that brings too much, too many voices to the mix.
Luke Burbank
I'm just upset that I have apparently misplaced my cricket sound effect.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, no. How are we going to do the show?
Luke Burbank
How are you going to fill the many. Kind of awkward.
Andrew Walsh
All right, there we go. Things are back to normal. Anyway, I didn't mean to throw bean under.
Luke Burbank
Andrew, can I. Can I ask you about one of our signature Friday benchmarks?
Andrew Walsh
Does it involve Andy Richter talking about podcasts, or would it be more about the weekend?
Luke Burbank
Oh, about the weekend plans that May. Hey, you got big weekend plans?
Andrew Walsh
Big weekend.
Luke Burbank
The biggest one I've ever had. Big weekend.
Andrew Walsh
I don't like podcasts. I know a lot of people like them. That was my Andy Richter over top of the. Not your worst, not my best, no Big weekend plan, which is your favorite kind, right? Yeah, I am kind of looking forward to that. Although I do have a project I guess I'm recording with Hannah Spotless Pod coming out on Monday. But when I'm done with that on Saturday, Veeves and I have the first little kind of like collaborative house project that we've had to do in a while, which is it's a half measure and I always feel weird about half measures. But I think it's going to be a good temporary improvement to our living space, which is this. We have some pretty old, like, not pretty ugly vinyl flooring in our kitchen. You know, it was like white country, ish, whatever. Like kind of that soft linoleum and it's you know, just. It's definitely seen better days. Anyway, wasn't installed the best, as we noticed when we pulled out the oven and stove and had that replaced. So when we did have our oven replaced, the people who were installing it rolled out our refrigerator, which is on those tiny little wheels. And then that ruined the floor even more. So we're, like, looking down, like, the linoleum kind of tore up in this one place. So Vivs and I picked some relatively inexpensive, although fresh Fritz.
Luke Burbank
Your fridge.
Andrew Walsh
Not the cheapest of the cheap. Kind of. That stick on tile squares. And the look of it should be way better. I'm really curious to see how sturdy they are, how well they stay down. So we're going to temporarily put this stick. These tile stickies down. It's gonna have a very different look, and then hopefully, you know, someday replace the actual floor and get some real flooring in there. What is your experience with these things? Like, six months down the road? Am I gonna be. Is it gonna be, like, peeling wallpaper?
Luke Burbank
No, I think that they actually make them pretty. Pretty decent these days. Carrie and I put some of those down. There were. We had. There were two bathrooms in the basement of the Burbank Springs Broadcast center, and they both had, like, really kind of a crummy vinyl floor floor when we bought the place. But we also were, like, completely out of money from fixing the upstairs up, so it was like, what can we do? And we put those down. Now, if I remember right, the basement flooded maybe two more times. So I think they got. They also got a little. As long as your kitchen isn't flooding on the reg, I think that they should be just fine. And again, I think that they make them pretty durable now. Now are you getting some kind of a. An interesting pattern?
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I'm excited about that. I picked a.
Luke Burbank
Well, I argyle, like the socks.
Andrew Walsh
We both. It's argyle. Exactly right. It's how we're going to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Erin Gobra, because that's a classic.
Luke Burbank
What's the pattern?
Andrew Walsh
I don't know how to describe it, but it's going to be white and black, kind of classic. Like, kind of, you know, probably 1950s. I don't think it's checkerboard. And honestly, I picked them out, or we picked them out. Genevieve was like, how do you always pick out the most expensive things? So I remember, like, really liking it and being like, well, that's the one. That's clearly the one.
Luke Burbank
Did you buy them online or did you go to a floor and Decor type situation.
Andrew Walsh
Genevieve went to Floor and Decor, and they had no idea what she was talking about. And we were like, it's in your name.
Luke Burbank
Are you. I live at the Floor and Decor in Portland. That's, like, my love. My. That's my happy place.
Andrew Walsh
Really. Hey, Genevieve, if you can hear me, can you come in here for a second? Luke's asking questions I can't answer. I can't remember exactly what the pattern is, but I do remember being very excited about it in the moment.
Luke Burbank
Oh, I'm excited. I think this is going to be a really, really high reward for a low kind of impact project in terms of, like, you can knock this out in an afternoon, and it's going to make your whole kitchen experience feel really different.
Andrew Walsh
Can I say something else? That is a. It's a. It's a. It's a good observation. I feel like, on my part, although it does bring up my health conditions again. But I got to say, one thing that makes me feel really good about this is I thought when we were ordering this tile several months ago, or whatever you want to call. Call it. We calling it tile. We're calling it tile flooring. When we were ordering it.
Luke Burbank
Decoring.
Andrew Walsh
Decoring. We were.
Luke Burbank
Show some decoring, sir. I'm a good sir.
Andrew Walsh
I'm a declorable basket of decorable. But I remember when we were picking. I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's exciting. But, like, I thought that I was as good as I was going to feel at that point with my rheumatoid arthritis, because I'd already been on the medicine for a while, but still having this voice in the back of my head like, oh, when project day comes along, how am I even going to get into that stooping position? Right? I was like, well, but that's okay. I'll get through it. I'm aging, and this is something I'm dealing with. I didn't realize how much better I was going to be feeling just a mere few months later. So now I was looking down at the floor this morning as I accidentally spilled coffee on it, and I was like, oh.
Luke Burbank
And you were like, I'm not even going to clean that up. Was it in the kitchen and I.
Andrew Walsh
Took a big dump on it? Yes.
Luke Burbank
Why not get your money's worth?
Andrew Walsh
Exactly. Then Genevieve slipped. Oh, God.
Luke Burbank
Why?
Andrew Walsh
No. But I was looking down at the kitchen floor. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm totally ready to do this tomorrow. Like, I'm still an old man. I'm not, like, in super, super stretchy shape or anything like that, but get myself a kneeling pillow, get myself some of those box cutters I assume will cut through this stuff. Okay, line it up. Right. I guess we got to do under the refrigerator first, right? You start under the stove, under the refrigerator, then push them back.
Luke Burbank
I mean I'm by no means an expert on this, but I have, I've watched skilled tradespeople who I've been paying do it. And the big thing with any, even this, this. The good news with this is because it's stick on, you're never going to be that, that like screwed. Like when you're like putting tile, tile down and you're doing like you know, grout, mortar and everything. The whole thing is you have to really, really start off correctly because it sort of radiates out a small error. This is where your like real kind of like what's the, what's the. I don't want to over describe it but like you're kind of, you have attention to detail around this kind of stuff and as does Genevieve. That's where this will really come in handy because you just like if you get the, if you get the initial course of the tiles in properly and squared and everything. Which might be a little tricky because you guys have an older house. So it's probably like a lot of stuff is probably not technically square. Like if you did, if you hired someone to come over and actually lay tile, tile, they'd probably do what my guy did, which was he just kept walking around like showing me things with a level that I didn't even understand what it meant. He's like, you gotta, you gotta see this. And then he'd like, he'd, he'd go out and he'd smoke a cigarette that he'd come back in that he would get his level, then he'd put it down, he'd go, I mean I don't know, I don't know. And then I would go, well is it, can you put tile there and you go up, then you go out and smoke another cigarette, then you'd come back in. It looks great by the way. I, I don't understand what was going on. But point is your guys house is an older house so probably a little bit of the same stuff applies. But all that is to say anybody who knows this stuff will tell you just make sure that you start out properly and There's a million YouTube videos about this that you can watch. So I'm, I'm really excited for you with this because again that's Such like, it's like painting your kitchen cabinets or something. It's a thing that is not really like heavy duty infrastructure of the house, but it really will change your experience.
Andrew Walsh
So this is a quick tangent. You were talking about your, your downstairs in your old house in Bellingham. And do you. Are you familiar with the New Yorker cartoonist? I want to say yeah, here it is. Ellis Rosen. Are you familiar with Ellis Rosen? I think you'd be familiar with their style. And there is a cartoon that Ellis Rosen made a while back that sometimes pops up on social media. And I think of you and that exact basement you were just describing a lot because it's a cartoon that says your friend's shower. I would love to use this as a show pick, but obviously that would be a violation of their art. But it says your friend's shower. And then it just has the most absurd looking set of controls.
Luke Burbank
Cold, warm.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, you're there. Okay, good. Warm, Cold war. And then question mark in between them. Blazing fire button that says do not push some sort of weird three handled things for some reason says attempts left. And like I remember your shower down. Yeah. There was your shower in that bathroom downstairs. I slept in that bedroom one time. Was the most confusing. I still think I would still be down there probably trying to figure it out if Genevieve hadn't pulled me away.
Luke Burbank
First of all, this is for sale at the Conde Nast store. And this would be a funny thing to frame and put in your bathroom.
Andrew Walsh
Yes, it would. Yeah.
Luke Burbank
Really nice little piece of bathroom marked. I, I can't remember who it was who said this, but there was a comedian years ago who said that they approach every shower in a hotel room like a wild stallion they're trying to break.
Andrew Walsh
Right.
Luke Burbank
You know? Yeah. Might have been Alice Wetterland, but I always thought that was a pretty funny line. And the reason, dude, I think I lived at that house for two years before I figured out how to use that shower. I think I lived downstairs as the marriage was crumbling and didn't know how to operate the shower. You had to, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the faucet, the part that fill. Let's say you're going to take a bath, right?
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
And, and you turn the hot water on and it's coming out of the faucet into the bathtub.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
The way you activated the shower was there was a tiny invisible ring at the mouth of the faucet.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, you had to push it.
Luke Burbank
You pull it down.
Andrew Walsh
Pull it down. Oh, sure, of course.
Luke Burbank
Obviously, dude, your friend Shower. It's right there in the name.
Andrew Walsh
When you're standing there in a vulnerable position. I don't know, like, what I was dressed in, but there's a good chance that you haven't thought it out. Like, oh, of course. Need a belt and a hard hat before I start.
Luke Burbank
It's the least intuitive thing I've ever. Like. I've never seen an. I've literally never experienced another shower in the world, and I've traveled far and wide. That operates along this principle that you have to pull down again, it's not even marked. It's just like. Imagine just grabbing the mouth of the. Of the faucet where the water is streaming out and then just pulling down on something that's indistinct from everything else. And then in the act of doing that, it somehow then sends the water back up to the shower.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
You know, shower nozzle. Totally and completely counterintuitive. I will say that the. The. The good. The good news is that that basement does not flood anymore because long after I was gone, Carrie went through with a project, an expensive project of re. Cement. Put it having new concrete poured around certain parts of the house.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, wow.
Luke Burbank
A move that I. I would have definitely said it was a terrible idea. It would have been like, this has nothing to do with the water that's getting in to the house through the basement, into the basement. And it totally fixed the problem.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, really? So. But yeah, when you mess with foundation stuff, though, that gets.
Luke Burbank
That's the foundation. It's the things around. Like, there were basically a lot of planters and. And cracks in the concrete, things that were areas where water could get in. What was throwing me off was. Was. Why is this where I'm going with this? It's just another story about.
Andrew Walsh
How about the marriage crumbling?
Luke Burbank
My instincts are wrong. Well, it was a long. It was a long year down in that basement, Andrew, what with not knowing how the shower worked.
Andrew Walsh
A long, stinky year.
Luke Burbank
That's right. But, like, the. The water seemed like it was coming in from one part. One corner of the basement when it would flood, when there would be a lot of rain and stuff. And these things that eventually got fixed were totally on the other side of the house. But apparently something where water was running up against the side of the house and going in somewhere, and now it's shunted away. And so everything is going just fine there. And the moral of the story is I should never, ever trust my instincts on what the issue is around water intrusion, et cetera. Because I was loud Wrong on that.
Andrew Walsh
So I am texting Genevieve right now, who either can't hear me or is ignoring my pleas to join the show a la Bean Baxter. So I have texted him.
Luke Burbank
I have a theory. I have a theory that there's not enough. And this I would actually love. If Genevieve's the one that's both floored and decord. I would love to talk to her about this because I spend so much time there. Less now because this bathroom is done. But there was a period of time where I was. Because all of the new floor for the main, you know, living room area of the house, the tile for the bathroom, the subway tile for the bathroom, all of this involved multiple trips to floor and to decor. And my theory is they don't sell the stick down tiles because if people knew that this was an option, they would go, oh, I'm just going to do that.
Andrew Walsh
Right.
Luke Burbank
Well, also, there's not enough profit margin for them.
Andrew Walsh
Genevieve also said that there was just a lot of confusion, though. She said, like, nobody knew what I was even talking about. That's weird, because different. That's. Yeah. I mean, come on. And so you should know about flooring even if you don't carry it, you know, by the way, I do think I remember what it looked. Can I just say this while I'm thinking of it, please? I think it's like a white tile, okay. With, like, small black accents. But I think that the black accents are little, like quarter moons in the corner of each one, so that when you lay it down, it might make a small little circle. But I know that it's not too loud. I didn't want a pattern that was going to be, like, too busy, you know what I mean? So I think it's going to be like a nice. I think the little four corners come together to create a little circle that will sort of accent the white flooring. That's my memory of it.
Luke Burbank
That's really cool. And that's, you know, that will also guide you, right? Because you'll have to put like, you know, you'll have to. Yeah, like, you'll, You'll. You have to make sure that obviously the little moons are all lining up to do the thing that they're supposed to do. But I think that's going to look really cool. I do think that probably Florin decor is like, they don't make very much money on those things versus, like, the regular. Although, to be honest with you, a lot of the regular tile is not, not, like, prohibitively expensive. The expense is putting it in the actual tile itself is, you know, it is what it is. But. Yeah, that's really odd. Also, I wonder if. I wonder if these are franchised. The one that's near me, the people really know their stuff. Actually, it's kind of a cool place because what I've noticed is. And this is just not the typical, you know, it's Portland, but it's the edge of Portland where the one that I go to is. In other words, it's almost Vancouver, Washington. Washington. And one of the things I like about it is the folks that work there really know their stuff. They're also. They appear to be from a really wide background in terms of age, in terms of like, gender identity. Like, it's. It's clearly a place where somebody in management was really welcoming to folks that might be non binary or whatever. You know, I mean, just like it feels like a cool place that's full of a bunch of different folks that work there that are friendly and have.
Andrew Walsh
Interest in the topic.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, they know. Well, you know, is it their, like life's, you know, passion? I don't know. But they're very helpful and they definitely know a lot more about it than I do. And I like that about the place. I wonder if it's really like location by location, you know, like if depending on who owns the particular one that you're going to. I don't know if it's. I do know that, you know, Becca, in her capacity with her job was at the grand opening of that floor and decor.
Andrew Walsh
How recent was that? Because the one up here is very new.
Luke Burbank
The one up here is like 2 years old or something.
Andrew Walsh
Okay. Pretty new.
Luke Burbank
And she had to bring the big scissors. Oh, and she said that this is. What you don't realize about the big scissors is they don't really cut anything.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, that's right. Because she's. She works for like the. The business Unity. Yes. Oh, so she was responsible. She has access to the big scissors.
Luke Burbank
Oh, she is the keeper of the big scissors.
Andrew Walsh
She's Louise. I'm learning this now.
Luke Burbank
With great. With great scissors comes great responsibility.
Andrew Walsh
Luke. We need to get our hands on those scissors, my dude.
Luke Burbank
Oh, I believe we can. I believe you were very close to those scissors and didn't even know it. When we were having. Having a top secret TBTL strategy session before we had left apm, I sensed something.
Andrew Walsh
Can you. We would still be with APM because the whole weekend would have been just me chasing you and John around with giant scissors.
Luke Burbank
Here's the thing with the big scissors, they don't actually cut anything. So you have to pre cut the ribbon and then lightly tape it together in the back. And then two people have to know, pull the ribbon when the person is big, scissoring it, because otherwise it won't actually.
Andrew Walsh
That is the lamest thing I've ever heard in my life. This is. This and Andy Richter not taking live calls, the two biggest disappointments of my life right now.
Luke Burbank
This is. Andrew, today is the day you become a man.
Andrew Walsh
If I were to tell you I want to name the show today Floor and Decor in the Machine, would you get it?
Luke Burbank
Oh, I would love it.
Andrew Walsh
Okay, good.
Luke Burbank
But it has to be Floor plus Decor plus the Machine.
Andrew Walsh
Well, I thought that, too. I was looking it up, but it is not.
Luke Burbank
Is it Florence plus the Machine?
Andrew Walsh
That's what I. Are we Berenstein bearing. Bearing this? Because. Okay, some early stuff is Florence plus the Machine.
Luke Burbank
Like Florence machine said, the dog days.
Andrew Walsh
Are over, but everywhere else I see it, it is either. Oh, okay, now here it is. A stylized plush says, the dog days are up. Okay, good. Thank you for that because I thought that. So floor plus decor plus the Machine is.
Luke Burbank
I love it. That's really good. We was hoping for some razzle dazzle. Razzle dazzle. That's right, man. Razzle dazzle. On your mark. On your mark. Get set, get set now. Ready? Ready, go. Everybody. Razzle dazzle. All right, Andrew, could I actually activate my own theme song for today? Real quick, if you wouldn't mind.
Andrew Walsh
And it's.
Luke Burbank
I'm sorry. So sorry. Let me take you back to an earlier, simpler time Andrew called Wednesday.
Andrew Walsh
Wednesday. I remember it like it was two days ago.
Luke Burbank
Yep. And, well, we were reading a dazzling donor message, and we were talking about a podcast about the Olympics called Keep the Flame Alive. And that podcast, of course, was brought to us by our friend and is brought to us by our friend Jill. Andrew, I always tell you this. Jill in Lakewood, Ohio.
Andrew Walsh
How about Jill Jarris living in Lakewood, where I used to live?
Luke Burbank
That's exactly the Jill that I'm talking about. It's an Olympics and Paralympics podcast, and you can find it@flame11livepod.com now, do you remember after the show on Wednesday when we realized that I had read the wrong web URL for the podcast?
Andrew Walsh
Yes. As we were reading it off of the page, we realized that the link did not work, and it was because a critical letter was left out of it. I'm not going to reiterate what the bad version was. What the wrong One was. But a letter was missing. And so we corrected the next day and reiterated. The name of the show is Keep the Flame Alive. And you can find it at flame alive pod1word.com.
Luke Burbank
Do you remember Thursday, Andrew? Do you remember the day that comes after Wednesday?
Andrew Walsh
I do. Weirdly, it's more fuzzy than Wednesday, but I do remember.
Luke Burbank
So we endeavored. I endeavored to correct the record on Thursday because I had read the wrong website. And then on Thursday, I had the website correct, but I had the name of the person who co hosts or hosts the podcast incorrect. I'm sorry. I think I was crediting someone named.
Andrew Walsh
Lisa, because now here's what I'm confused about, though. And I shouldn't. I shouldn't bring this up because it might confuse things even more. The reason we were also talking about Jill yesterday wasn't just to make that correction, but it was because Jill had sent in one of the top stories that we were talking about. Right. Or was it Lisa, who.
Luke Burbank
I think it was maybe a Lee. I think a Lisa sent in the top story. And I transposed these names. I combined these names. I made a grievous error, and so I was. I think that the. The story about the bad baseball caps.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I'm gonna look this up about the tatas. Yes.
Luke Burbank
I think that that might have been sent to us by a Lisa.
Andrew Walsh
No, it was not. It was sent to us by Jill. It's the same person.
Luke Burbank
So I was.
Andrew Walsh
You saw I just I as a second letter, and you went from there, and you're like, J's are close to L's in the Alphabet.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, thank you. You know how my brain works. Anyway, Jill, thank you for your donation. And also, everyone go check out Jill's. I mean, this has honestly been a boon for Jill.
Andrew Walsh
Yes.
Luke Burbank
And to a lesser degree, for Lisa out there, whoever that is. But. But yeah, no, Jill. Jill's podcast has now been mentioned way more than it would have been otherwise if I would have just handled all this like a professional from the first moment. So, anyway, that's officially, I believe. Was it tbtl Numero tbt employee numero uno John Skloroff yesterday said, Are you trolling me?
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Right.
Luke Burbank
Because on Wednesday, you had asked him, hey, can you look into this? And then we had figured it out. And then by Thursday, I was butchering it in a new and novel way. And I didn't even realize it at the time until John listened to the show. He was like, are you. Are you, like, just trying to make my job harder Here.
Andrew Walsh
So all of this is to say as we close the book on that particular dazzling donor message from two days ago. Thank you, Linda.
Luke Burbank
And also, maestro, on your mark, on your mark. Get set, get set now. Ready, ready, Go. Everybody rattle. Settle. Also, we want to thank today's dazzling donors. This is how they works. We have a lot of folks, thankfully, amazingly, who are donating a dazzling amount of dough. And those donations added up are something that makes it possible for this to be our job. Like three people, you, me and John. This is our actual full time job doing this amazingly. And it's thanks to folks like Jim Oakbina.
Andrew Walsh
Akbina.
Luke Burbank
Akbina Ock.
Andrew Walsh
Like octopus. Jim says yes. Yes.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I should pre read. Read these. Jim Akbina, who's in New York, New York.
Andrew Walsh
Whoa, hold on there.
Luke Burbank
Hold on there. New York City. Jim says hello, imaginary friendos. This year, as always, I want to dedicate my dazzling donor message to Smiley, my French bulldog, who is celebrating his 11th trip around the sun this March, I think tomorrow.
Andrew Walsh
By the way, we were asked to read this as close to the 15th as possible. So I'm guessing that tomorrow was Smiley's birthday. What a great name for a bulldog too.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, absolutely. Like tbtl. He brings joy. And my partner Chris and I are grateful that he's in our lives. I also want to shout out to the Road Dogs Rescue, an organization that rehabilitates and rescues bulldogs and other lovable lemons of the dog world.
Andrew Walsh
That's what they say on their website. We rescue the lemons. So great.
Luke Burbank
I love it. Oh my God, that's so cute. Check them out at Flame Alive Pod. No, check them out at any time. I can get a genuine laugh out of Andrew W at road. Wait now, hold on now, Andrew. I'm, I'm. I'm very. I have to admit, I'm very. I'm traumatized. I'm slimy, I'm grimy. I need a shower. Because here's the thing. Thing. Check them out at is. I mean, road dogs on Instagram.
Andrew Walsh
At Road dogs on Instagram.
Luke Burbank
But is there just one D in that?
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I see what you're saying.
Luke Burbank
R O A D O G S. Are they being clever with that?
Andrew Walsh
That must have been how they got it. Yeah, it is. R O A D O G S. Look at you. I would not have noticed that, Luke.
Luke Burbank
Well, because I'm. Again, I've been chastised by. By John Skloff over this whole thing. I'm really.
Andrew Walsh
Same with the website. You're right. So the website is the same Construction.
Luke Burbank
So it's road dogs, but only with one D. So ro dogs. So yeah, at road dogs and then also roaddogs.org r o a d o g s.org for more on this organization. You know, I am going to be. In a few weeks, I'm going to be in Manhattan. Andrew. I wonder if I will see.
Andrew Walsh
Is that near New York?
Luke Burbank
It's a suburb of. I wonder if I'll see Jim and Smiley tootling around the greater Manhattan area. I would love to see that.
Andrew Walsh
I was on road dogs.org yesterday looking at these because I had mentioned a bulldog that I had seen on a ferry in Croatia that was kind of having trouble breathing. And I'm like, I don't know the story behind them. I know that people are concerned about especially English bulldogs from time to time. And I was like, so what is the deal? They're calling them the lemon of the dog world. What does this all mean? And it says, although they are cute and expensive, this is awesome. Of their website. Why bulldogs, by the way, underneath a really adorable story about a woman who was just fostering a. An English bulldog and then failed at fostering because she adopted it, which I assume I was. Love it very. And then she started this organization. It says although they are cute and quote unquote cute and expensive, many of these dogs wind up in shelters or unwanted because people don't realize how expensive they can be to maintain. Eye issues, skin issues, joint issues, you name it, Bulldogs get it. The lovable lemons of the canine world. So I see. So a lot of these dogs need rescuing because maybe they were abandoned by their first family, but it's a really good cause and I spent way too much time on this dangerous amount of time on this website.
Luke Burbank
Dude, your dog illogical clock.
Andrew Walsh
Come on.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, that's a, that's a such an interesting way to. And like pretty funny way to describe these dogs, but I can totally see that because they are like, like they are manifestly adorable. Whether we're talking about bulldogs or pugs or any of these kinds of dogs that tend to have a bit of a smashed face. But then, you know, also as you were reading from the website, I'm sure that it can be kind of expensive to take care of them and there are some, you know, some kind of like fundamental breathing issues and things. So it's the kind of thing that somebody might. A dog that somebody might get because they're really cute, but then not really think through what's my kind of day to day responsibility with this animal yeah. So good for those folks over at Road Dogs. And, Jim, thank you very much for the support.
Andrew Walsh
Thank you, Jim. Big weekend. Oh, wait, no. Get set now.
Luke Burbank
Ready? Ready, go. Everybody rattle D. It looks like it's Jillian Lamont out there in Sammamish, Washington. Out on the Plateau.
Andrew Walsh
Not Lecian. Right? It's Jillian. Actually, that's not true. It's Gillion with a hard G. Gillian. I miss. I messed it up. I'm sorry.
Luke Burbank
Gillian. A Jillian Rather with a hard G, as in Gilligan, minus the second G. Yeah.
Andrew Walsh
So you. You were saying Jillian again there, but it's Gillian. Oh, Gillian with a hard G. Gillian.
Luke Burbank
Okay. Okay. I. First of all, I need to pre read these pronunciations. Second of all, some of these pronunciations, I think, are making it harder on me.
Andrew Walsh
I think the hard G told me everything I needed to know.
Luke Burbank
Gillian Lamont, would you like to start reading these? Because I would happily pass this cup.
Andrew Walsh
I feel like that is an insecure reaction you're having, but I am happy to read these if you'd like.
Luke Burbank
I'm sorry. I'm having a hard week with. With just remembering various things around the dazzling donors. I'm in a very fragile place right now. Okay. Jillian Lamont.
Andrew Walsh
No, in Gillian Lamont, it's a hard G, like Gillian.
Luke Burbank
Gillian. Gillian. Like Gilly. Like the character on Saturday Night Live. That's how you needed to describe it. Gillian.
Andrew Walsh
I don't even know.
Luke Burbank
Like the Kristen Wiig character Gilly, who's kind of a play on Little Lulu.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, is that the one who Genevieve dressed up as? The. The sisters. No, no, no, no.
Luke Burbank
That's a different one. The Gilly is kind of like a. Like, got. Has a little bow in her hair, and she has kind of like a black, kind of wide hairdo that's like, very reminiscent of the cartoon character Little Lulu.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, okay. I don't think I.
Luke Burbank
But she's called Gilly, but she's always just being kind of like a little stinker.
Andrew Walsh
Okay. That's not our Gillion, though.
Luke Burbank
That's not our Gillion. Our Gillion smells great. That's right there in Samamish. Hey, fellas. Longtime listener, first time dazzler here. Gillian, I promise that by the fourth or fifth time that we do this, I will get your name right. Thank you both for what you do for all of us. 10. I have listened since around 2009, when I was just a wee Western Washington University graduate. I've continued listening, though, through the many stages of life, and you were both very dear to me. 2009, that's pretty early in the game.
Andrew Walsh
That's very early in the game up there in 2008.
Luke Burbank
So I'm guessing we were still barely. We were hanging on as a radio show, however, barely. And then that's probably how we made our. I don't know. Can you. Could you get Cairo in Bellingham, I wonder.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I think so. And then. I think so. Although you would know better than me because you live there. But it's funny because Gillian was listening in Bellingham before you even knew that someday you would be setting up a home there that leaks.
Luke Burbank
I was watching. I'm going to LA this weekend to do. I'm doing a little TV story about the Duplass brothers. And I was watching a new project that Mark Duplass created called Penelope. It's on Netflix. I'm really liking it, but it's clearly. They shot a bunch of it in Bellingham. They don't say it's Bellingham, but it's like all these places I used to go to, including the Han in my neighborhood.
Andrew Walsh
I like that store.
Luke Burbank
And like, I'm just like. I was. It was a rush of nostalgia last.
Andrew Walsh
Night to see, like, just local connections to there.
Luke Burbank
They've done a lot of stuff in the Northwest. They were really good friends with Lynn Shelton, the director from Seattle, who passed away quite sadly. And. And so just. I think that. I think they've. They've just shot. They're from New Orleans, actually, the brothers are. But they. They've done a lot of stuff in the Northwest. All of which is to say, getting back to Gillian and Gillian's message, I have continued listening through the many stages of my life, and you're both very dear to me in a totally not weird way. So thank you for being there for me and all of us tens for so long. I consider TBTL to be a thing I know to be good. Truly. I have a list in my notes app on my phone called Things I Know to Be Good. Good that includes TBTL right near the top. It's essentially a list of big and small things that are unequivocally good.
Andrew Walsh
Things that I know to be. Jude, I think is actually. Sorry, I really.
Luke Burbank
That would be a good show title.
Andrew Walsh
Poking a bear with a short stick there. But I had to. I had to say it.
Luke Burbank
It's essentially a list of big and small things that are unequivocally good, like family confetti, clean sheets, the Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, et cetera. Etc. I take a Peek at it to lift my spirits when times are hard. And I encourage all tens to start one for themselves. Cheers to you 3. What you do is so important. Aw, Gillian, thank you so much. That's a really good idea. Of things I know to be good. Just running list. I mean, it feels. I know we say versions of this a lot, but it feels right now more than ever that like anything that we can sort of look to and get a warm feeling from. We need those things. We need to cling to those things right now.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And honestly, like, what great company I was. I'm going to try not to do it now, but I got legitimately choked up reading this yesterday. It meant a lot to me. Thank you for saying that. To be. To be thought of in that way.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's really an honor to be on that list. Gillian, thank you very much.
Andrew Walsh
We appreciate you.
Luke Burbank
Couldn't do this without you. Hello.
Andrew Walsh
Hello and welcome to Top Story.
Luke Burbank
I hesitate to introduce this Top Story this late in the game because it's got me real. Actually has me feeling very quite frustrated. But this person, this woman named Sam Jones, who is a self described outdoor enthusiast and has a pretty large social media following, apparently was driving around in Australia somewhere, somewhere and. And jumped out of the car to go grab. And this is all on video. Go grab a baby wombat and pick it up and run back towards the car where some male companion of hers is filming this from his phone as the mom wombat is chasing her and the baby. And put this video up. I actually have the audio. It's. I, you know, I don't know if this would be triggering for people. People. It's, you know, it's not. The baby wombat is not physically harmed in any of this. But just take a listen to this. Okay.
Andrew Walsh
Just caught a baby wombat.
Luke Burbank
Look at the mother.
Andrew Walsh
It's like, oh, it's chasing after.
Luke Burbank
So obviously this is the guy narrating from the car.
Andrew Walsh
Why is that funny? I don't know.
Luke Burbank
It's so messed up.
Andrew Walsh
Mom in distress. I saw this headline. Yes. I didn't even read the details. Details. That just pisses me off.
Luke Burbank
It's so infuriating.
Andrew Walsh
I caught a baby.
Luke Burbank
That is the baby wombat.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, squ.
Luke Burbank
Squealing like, put me down, dude. Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Walsh
Okay. Mama's right there and she is pissed.
Luke Burbank
Let's let him go.
Andrew Walsh
Nice.
Luke Burbank
All right. Let him go. Come here, mama.
Andrew Walsh
They let it go. I didn't know that.
Luke Burbank
She lets it go. She reunites it with the mother. It's a fairly brief encounter. By the way. This, this woman, Sam Jones is a Montana based self described outdoor enthusiast and Hunter with over 91,000 Instagram followers. As you might imagine, this did not go over well in Australia. They're just coming down from Johnny Depp and Amber Heard being there with their.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
Of all places with their poodles or what that. Their poodles, whatever those dogs were. That, that they didn't quarantine or something thing. The Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese or Albanese has actually weighed in on this. This. I mean first of all, it's like just Americans, can we please stop going to Australia and just showing our entire ass, please, as it relates to animals. I do think it's funny that the Prime Minister of the country weighed in on it though. Like, it's just. I'm not saying Australia isn't. I mean Australia is a fine country full of fine people. People. But. And also, you know what? We, we elected a. We elected a manifestly a brain injured person to run our country. So I guess we can't talk shit. But it, it feels slightly provincial that the Prime Minister is weighing in on an American picking up a wombat.
Andrew Walsh
This is their deal though, because you remember, and I think he ended up being a character whom we would not probably side with on most things. But it was the Agriculture Commissioner last.
Luke Burbank
Week, Barney Fife or something. No, not Barney.
Andrew Walsh
It wasn't Barney Fife, although that would be amazing.
Luke Burbank
Mayberry, usa Barry Fife.
Andrew Walsh
I know he had the shakiest gun in the west of Australia trick to it.
Luke Burbank
And that's my Don Knotts impression. It's really in the sniffing I remember.
Andrew Walsh
By the way, I do do a Don Knotts impression. I'm going to do this for you. But it's not really a Don Knotts impression. It is a comedian in the 90s whose name I no longer recall doing an impression of Don Knotts as a creeper who is spying on people. And I just remember like this always was stuck in my head somebody doing Don Knotts saying I've been looking at you through the bathroom window and I don't think I'm doing the imitation right. But that in that exact voice and tone goes through my head from time to time and has for 30 years.
Luke Burbank
That's funny because I thought for a minute you might be con. Confusing or conflating two different impressions from that era, which you weren't. But there was one, one where I think it's Jim Carrey was doing an impression of Jimmy Stewart watching a nuclear bomb Go off.
Andrew Walsh
No, I'm not familiar.
Luke Burbank
The funniest, weirdest thing because it's just all of that kind of like aw shucks ism of Jimmy Stewart but over like a massive nuclear event. He's just, he's just looking out a window and he's just Jimmy Stewarting hard on the bomb. Are you looking around?
Andrew Walsh
I was also trying to find the Barney Fife thing, but that's a very.
Luke Burbank
I'll find that maybe later. I don't know. It's also kind of a dark. It's a. It's a dark.
Andrew Walsh
I was going to say it gives me a. It gives me. Not even just the description gives me a feeling.
Luke Burbank
This is what the Prime Minister of Australia said. To take a baby wombat from its mother and clearly causing distress from the mother is an outrage. I suggest that this so called influencer maybe she might try some other Australian anti animals. Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there. Take another animal that can actually fight back. See how you go there. How you going? Remember our days in Australia?
Andrew Walsh
Oh yeah, I know, yeah.
Luke Burbank
I liked, I like that quote from the Prime Minister though. It's like, yeah, try it, try it with a, you know, an animal that might take your arm with it or something.
Andrew Walsh
Barnaby Joyce, by the way. I had to.
Luke Burbank
Barnaby Joyce.
Andrew Walsh
Barnaby Joyce. What a lyrical name.
Luke Burbank
Golly.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
And he was definitely doing everything he could to make political hay.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
Over these, you know, these problematic Americans. So the. There was a huge call, as you might imagine, to have Sam Jones kicked out of the country.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
And I guess she left before they could kick her out, like, but they.
Andrew Walsh
Could ban her from coming back in.
Luke Burbank
And I hope they do.
Andrew Walsh
I do check out her.
Luke Burbank
Her first of all, having watched the video her. She put. Apparently she's posted two things on Instagram by way of an apology. And the first one, it just does not pass the sniff test at all. She says she basically her story is now that she and whoever was in the car making the video they came upon like a mom wallaby and its baby and that they were. They were worried that they were on the road, like literally the roadway and they wanted to make sure they were out of traffic. But then she got concerned when the Joey wouldn't move. Move. And then she made a snap judgment to pick it up to see if it was hurt. Then she said she only ran away from the mother because she was afraid the mother would attack her. And so that was why this whole thing unfolded it. That is the biggest load of horse pucky I've ever seen or ever read. Because if you watch the video, clearly they were driving. They saw this mom wombat and her joey. She jumped out and picked up the little wombat and ran away from the mom who's chasing her like it's the middle of the night too. These things, things are fine. They're going to scuttle off the road. Like the idea that this was. And then she's running from the mom because she also, she says, I want to make it absolutely clear this was never about social media or getting likes. She wrote, this was not staged, nor was it done for entertainment. In my excitement and concern, I acted too quickly. Then I failed to provide necessary context to viewers online. Out of here with that. First of all, why was. You're dumb. I'm gonna lie your face. And also, I'm just gonna make an assumption here. Your dumb, gross Australian boyfriend, why was he filming this and laughing his ass off if it wasn' the likes.
Andrew Walsh
And it's just. What a blatant lie. It just irritates me even more. I did think, I thought that they actually separated them for a period of time. I didn't know that they released it. I'm glad to know that the mom and baby wombat are together, but still, why the lie is now actually my least favorite part of this.
Luke Burbank
Get ready, Andrew. To be even more annoyed, she then posts a second Instagram post that's more defensive. Defensive, where she accuses the Australian government of permitting the slaughter of thousands of wombats and other animals each year for the sake of landowners, quote, to feed you. Wait, so she's saying people are eating wombats? This was her. Her second post. Now she's defensive because the prime minister said, try it with a baby crocodile, While the Prime minister wishes harm on me for picking up a wombat. I implore you to take a good, hard look at what is currently being done in Australia surrounding the real issues it faces. Faces. Then decide for yourself if I, a person who certainly makes mistakes, am really your villain. She wrote, you are. You are. You're the villain in this story. And this is where I, I was trying to. I was trying to, like, hype myself up before the show to not go here. And I'm going to totally go here. Like, I personally am not somebody who wants to be out there hunting animals. I know we probably have a few listeners, probably not a ton, but a few listeners who are hungry hunters. And the argument from hunter and she wasn't hunting this wombat, but I find it Unsurprising that she's also a hunting influencer. Like, because I understand the argument from hunters, which is that, you know, we are the greatest stewards of the land because we want the land to thrive so that there can be more animals for us to kill on the land and that, you know, I will say this. I do have respect for somebody. If they eat meat and then they eat meat that they went out and actually tracked down and killed and dealt with, that's a closer connection to meat than I've had in my life when I've been a meat eater, which, you know, is a little bit detached. And that's part of why I was able to eat a lot of meat for a long time and not have any feelings around it, because I wasn't the person out there. If we had to catch or if we had to basically process the meat we were eating, I think we'd all eat a little bit less meat. So I do think that that's a reasonable argument from hunters. But I also just. There was something about her cavalier thing around this animal. Like, I'm just 100% sure that she. I've not been to this person's Instagram page. I'm sure there's a million pictures of her in camo bow hunting somewhere. Being like, I'm an outdoors enthusiast and it's like, really? Do you care this much about the animals if you're picking them up and taking them away from their moms? Like, come on.
Andrew Walsh
No. I have a feeling most hunters would absolutely have a problem. I think.
Luke Burbank
I agree.
Andrew Walsh
Giving a good. And again, I'm not a hunter either. And I, I couldn't do that. Gatherer I am. Well, it's sometimes in Minecraft. Yes. I was breeding turtles. I'm, I'm back. And did I tell you that I, I am actually almost actively using Minecraft? Like, I actively thinking about it as a severance type of thing for my mind now it takes me so out of reality that, like, I just, like. And I, I, I, I hadn't played in literally, like a year. And then I started a new world, and there was so much new. It was so different. They've added all these different animals, including turtles. I don't know how long turtles have been around, but it takes a long time in Minecraft to breed turtles. You got to breed them, then they lay eggs somewhere, and they'll only lay eggs exactly where they were born. And then you got to wait until nighttime, and it takes like seven or eight nights for the eggs to hatch. You Got to watch over them and protect them. And I was just like, I was. I was just strip mining. I was fracking for diamond and the duality of man right there in my. I was fracking for diamonds and breeding and creating a turtle sanctuary in Minecraft last night and it was like three hours that I wasn't thinking about anything else.
Luke Burbank
Well, that seems like a good. That seems like a good outlet for you. A good kind of like, I think, I think that would. I would file that under self care, you know, of just like, you know, taking a break. A well deserved break from the constant onslaught of the trauma that is this world. Right. Right now. I think if. If that's involving a turtle sanctuary that exists purely in the, you know, theoretical. I still think that's a pretty good thing.
Andrew Walsh
They're really cute when they hatch. They're really.
Luke Burbank
And are they. This is a dumb question, but are they. They're pixelated, right? Yeah, everything in Minecraft is pixelated.
Andrew Walsh
Very blocky. Very blocky looking.
Luke Burbank
Show pick maybe.
Andrew Walsh
I was just wondering about that. Now here's where it's going to get sticky is if when Genevieve asks for help laying down the flooring tomorrow and I'm like, well, I'm actually laying down some flooring in my Minecraft house where things could maybe go off the rails.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, absolutely.
Andrew Walsh
By the way, we are a pro marsupial podcast, which is another reason why we take that story very seriously.
Luke Burbank
Exactly.
Andrew Walsh
Here I go once again with the email. Every week I hope that it's from a female.
Luke Burbank
Oh, man, it's not from a female. All right, my friend, before we slide down that dinosaur on this Friday, we got any emails or V mails?
Andrew Walsh
We do. Do you remember somewhat on a lark, I wondered aloud the other day on this show whether or not a radio burns up more battery power if you play it at a louder volume. So I don't know why I was thinking about this. Well, I do. It's a great question. I'll tell you exactly why I went to turn off my old. I have a radio that is from the 1960s. I listened to my sports radio on it every single day. Our friend and listener Karen gave it to me as a G. It's a nice radio. And the other day I went to turn it off. And so you do that by turning the volume knob all the way down and then it clicks off. And I almost didn't click it. I almost just turned the volume down all the way and I just had this thought of like, would turning down the volume on this and leaving it there all day still burn battery power as opposed to actually clicking it off because there's no lights on it. It's an old radio, right? There's nothing powering like a little clock or anything. So I thought, you know, if I blast a radio at full volum for an hour, does that burn more battery than listening to it at a reasonable level or even having it on, but all the way turned down? Well, we got a note from listener Anya, who says, I am your physics professor listener. I can't resist responding to your physics question. So here we go. I am going to read this in its entirety, Luke, and there will be a quiz afterwards. I'm not telling you exactly when. Sometime next week I will quiz you all on this. Anya says yes, a radio with the volume turned up higher will require more power. That is the rate that energy is being transferred from the speaker to the surrounding air and therefore will drain the battery faster. We're just getting started. The louder the volume is set, the greater the deflection or amplitude the speaker diaphragm is oscillating through at whatever frequencies making up the tone of the song or the speaker's voice. That greater deflection results in a larger amount of energy being transferred to the air molecules, which then also vibrate with larger amplitude then that vibrates to the listener's eardrum with a larger amplitude. Each of these are energy transfers from the speaker to the air to the eardrum. The energy of a sound wave is proportional to the square of the amplitude. I think Anya's just throwing that in there because it sounds cool. The energy output of a speaker is distributed throughout 3D space by increasing the amplitude that a speaker's diaphragm is oscillating with through the 3D space, aka the volume in which the sound is detectable by the human ear is increased. In fact, you should consider the volume control to be the direct control of the energy output of the speaker. Much like how a dimmer switch for a dimmable light bulb directly controls the power output or brightness of the light bulb. The frequency of the sound also affects the rate of energy transfer to the speaker, to the surrounding air of the speaker. I should say to the surrounding air. But as the receiver end of a radio signal typically are not controlling that aspect. Many fun physics aspects involved in radio technology. Can't wait to get physics questions about AM versus fm. Oh, amplitude modulation versus frequency. Get at me, Anya.
Luke Burbank
Seriously.
Andrew Walsh
Wow.
Luke Burbank
That was a very, very useful explanation. I also. That was a much more technical way of explaining What I think we were sensing intuitively, which was louder equal, more power use.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, that was the original email. I added some of the science, but yeah. Anyway, I found that fascinating. Thank you.
Luke Burbank
That was really interesting. Now somebody tell me. Well, I guess I know the answer to this because of CAFE standards in cars. But like when I was growing up, when I was growing up, there was always a debate about. Because I was always driving around with like no gas in my car and there was a question as to if, if it made sense to turn your car off more just to save gas. Let's just say like you were going to talk to your friend in a parking lot, turn the car off and save gas. Save gas. But then the restarting of the car, did it use more gas to restart than to just like what was the more fuel efficient thing? Let's say over a 10 minute period. Was it to turn your car off and then turn your car back on 10 minutes later or was it to let it run, let it idle for those 10 minutes? It was always, and this was a very sort of existential question because I was always driving around well below E. Uh huh. Now the reason I said you're also.
Andrew Walsh
Stopping to talk to your friends in.
Luke Burbank
Parking lots a lot constantly. But, but the reason I say the question I guess has been answered is because most new cars now have that auto shut off that like you, you basically like. Its natural thing will be to turn off when it's idling at a stoplight and then start itself back up.
Andrew Walsh
Only if it's a hybrid or electric though. Or only if it's a hybrid though. Right. A regular car will do that.
Luke Burbank
Yeah. The Tiguan that I used to have had that.
Andrew Walsh
Really. And that was not that had no plug in. I had. This is news to me. I didn't know that.
Luke Burbank
Oh yeah. And my, I think maybe even my second space car had it. I've had it in a couple of cars that were not hybrid and, and I've also seen it in a lot of rental cars and it, it, it annoys me greatly. Although I guess it's, you know, it's probably allegedly a better fuel standard or something. But so I guess that means if they put that in cars, I guess that means that they think that turning the car off and turning it on is the more fuel efficiency efficient thing, I guess.
Andrew Walsh
Although I would say probably when you were having this question 30 years ago, I don't know if it was the 90s or early 2000s, like so much of car technology was different. Right. Like I had cars where you had to, like, kind of feather the gas, or I was farm equipment or cars. But I remember, like, you know, you'd have some piece of machinery where you're kind of like, okay, I got to pump the gas a few times, and I got to keep it halfway down that feather. Careful, careful. And. And so, like, there was definitely, like, at one point, we were like, inject. Literally injecting gas right into the. Into the engine. I don't know anything about cars.
Luke Burbank
I want to say, Andrew, maybe is it possible that that Tiguan I had was a. What's called a micro hybrid? In other words, there was, like the. There was just the. Just a lanyap of hybrid. I'm reading a vehicle start stop system, or start stop system known as sns. Micro hybrid or micro hybrid. Electric vehicle automatically shuts down and restarts the internal combustion engine to reduce the amount of time the engine spends idling, thereby reducing fuel consumption and emissions. I'm just wondering if, like. Because I know for a fact this was in the Tiguan that we had, which I. When we bought it, I don't remember it being, you know, described as a hybrid of any kind, unless I missed that part. Or maybe it was something very, you know, something very slight within the. The mechanics of the engine.
Andrew Walsh
Well, here's what an idiot I am, because now with so many electric cars out there, and I Now I get them kind of confused with how hybrids. You had to plug in hybrids, right? Like, before we had fully electric cars. Did you plug in hybrids? No.
Luke Burbank
You don't.
Andrew Walsh
You didn't you.
Luke Burbank
No, hybrids. The hybrid is just switching between gas and electric. When it's got enough charge, it's charging. But then, in fact, a lot of people are saying that hybrids are kind of still the way to go, because the infrastructure of pure EVs, there's still not enough infrastructure in some cases. Whereas a hybrid, it's kind of a little bit of the best of both worlds. You have, you know, you have gas if you need it, but then you're getting a lot more like. I think my parents just bought a.
Andrew Walsh
Prius that's a hybrid because it charges by driving. So basically, it charges the batteries when you're using the gas, and then so you don't have to plug it in. Okay.
Luke Burbank
My Tiguan was doing that because it had that. That on off thing. And like I said, every time I'd start the car, I would drive somewhere, and the first stop light I would stop at, it would turn off, and then I'D be like there was a button.
Andrew Walsh
You had to.
Luke Burbank
You had to opt in on every drive. You had to press this button that was like a little a. With a circle around it. And when you press that button and it lit up, it was. It told it to stop doing that.
Andrew Walsh
Because you didn't like the feeling gave you a bad feeling when it would show.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, it was. It was a little bit like. It was a little bit like, not unsettling, but just. I always felt like it wasn't going to start back up when I needed it to, you know? Have you ever driven a car with this in it? Have you ever experienced this?
Andrew Walsh
I don't think so. I mean, I've experienced it definitely as a passenger in like, like a. A Lyft or. Or maybe a rental car. I don't think I've driven a car that has it, but I definitely know the feeling. Like, it's sometimes even just crossing the street, though, you'll hear the car shut off or like when once you're crossed, you can hear the car, like, kind of kick back on when somebody presses the gas pedal.
Luke Burbank
Yeah. It feels to me, obviously I'm not a mechanic and I don't know anything about this stuff, but it feels like it's more wear and tear on the car to constantly be turning on and turning off and constantly like. And the first time that I encountered this. This is so funny. I remember I was renting a car at lax and it was like, actually like they had upgraded me to some fancy car. I want to say it was like a BMW or Mercedes or something. And I remember driving it and I didn't even know this was a technology. Right. So I get to the first stoplight and it just turns off. And I'm like, what?
Andrew Walsh
What?
Luke Burbank
Hell. And then I start it up again, and then I keep driving. And then I took the car back, Andrew.
Andrew Walsh
Because when, like, you're starting it up, it probably doesn't have a key that you turn, but you're hitting like a start button or something.
Luke Burbank
Start button. And I'm like, something's broken on this car. I bring it back. Back. Now, what I wish would have liked would be for the person at the Whatever Avis to say, oh, no, this is. That's what it does. They just said, okay. Like, they just took it back. Like, I guess this car's broken. And I didn't figure out until like a while later, no, that car was just doing what a lot of modern cars do.
Andrew Walsh
So the car they replaced it with was not another one that shut down. I thought you were going to get another one. You're like, how am I getting all the bump?
Luke Burbank
They gave me a car that actually had a crank on the front. Then it would backfire a couple of times.
Andrew Walsh
They gave be one of those things that sits on the railroad tracks. You gotta pump it up and down.
Luke Burbank
God, I'd like to see one of those someday we grew up.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, this is a. Like, I don't even know if younger people would even know that reference because, like, that's a holdover from things you would see in, like, really early black and white movies or something. Right. And I really do not. And I'm sorry, we really should go. I'm sorry to extend the show, but I really don't love people my age, like, kind of thinking, like. Like, it's saying to younger people, like, you don't know this cultural reference. You don't know this band. And even if you're not like, saying it to demean the younger people, but kind of like, oh, man, I'm so old, or whatever. Like, I don't know. I just think that those conversations get a little bit embarrassing or cringy, especially in front of people who are younger than you. Every now and then, you and I might have a flight of fancy on the show and be like, hey, can you believe it's been this many years? Or what have you? It's part of the aging process. But anyway, I had a moment.
Luke Burbank
Dying process.
Andrew Walsh
Exactly.
Luke Burbank
And it's, you know, the body begins to shut down on new things.
Andrew Walsh
But I had a moment where I was talking to a couple of people who to about my age. And then this is, you know, the volunteer gig on Sundays. And then a couple of people who I'm going to put in there, maybe one of them was in their 20s, but I think maybe another one, maybe early 30s. I'm not sure. And one of the older people made a reference to Mr. X. And we were talking and I could sort of tell that the. The younger people had literally no idea what we were talking about. And I turned to them and I was like, are you guys familiar with Mr. Ed? And they're just like, no. We just shook their head. I'm like, oh, it was a TV show.
Luke Burbank
Did you sing A Horse is a Horse? Of course. Of course. Did that jog their memories?
Andrew Walsh
And I was very glad that I wasn't like, you guys don't know Mr. Ed. Like, I'm so old. Like, I really did not do any of that.
Luke Burbank
Yeah.
Andrew Walsh
But I did clock it because I Think that that was a kind of a rare moment where it's like. Mr. I mean it totally makes sense. I don't think it's like bizarre that the young gener know Mr. Ed. But it's like just, it was just Mr. Ed was not our generation, but it still loomed so large for our generation as well as the talking horse. Like it's just like a, it's a cultural reference that is a stand in for things. You can just say Mr. Ed, he was Mr. Edding Ed or whatever. And I don't know, it was pretty, it was kind of not shocking but interesting to be like, oh yeah, no, like that is no longer going to be just like a go to like the idea of Mr. Ed like a.
Luke Burbank
Talking horse thing or the they used to put peanut butter.
Andrew Walsh
Butter.
Luke Burbank
Like wasn't the story that they would put peanut butter on his gum so that he would, the horse would move its mouth around in the way that then they could overdub. Did you ever hear that story?
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I heard that story and then but there was an also a body or version that Genevieve that I remember growing up, people were saying a crueler version to get the horse to talk. But I believe that that was a rumor. In fact, Visa. And I was telling her the story the other night and she's like, well, you know how he got him to talk, right? And I was like, I think that's an urban legend. Let's just say it involved the other end.
Luke Burbank
Bamboo Harvester. That's the name of the horse who played Mr. Ed.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, is that true? But, but anyway, I'm pretty genuine. Like no, I believe she believed the urban legend of how they got Mr. Ed to talk. But she looked it up. I kind of forgot about our conversation. Then five minutes later she's like, well, I guess they didn't do that to the horse. And I was very glad to hear that. It probably was more of a peanut butter in the mouth situation.
Luke Burbank
Well, here's the thing about, I mean and we're in agreement on this, but like the first episode of Mr. Ed was 1960. It was 1961 to 66. So let's go from, from 66 until 2000 is going to be. What is that? 34 years. And now throw another 24 on that 58 years or round up to 60 years.
Andrew Walsh
60 years.
Luke Burbank
It's been basically 60 years since Mr. Ed ended. Now imagine in, in, in 1985, somebody was like, well, haven't you seen, seen Bobby Skadoo? Bobby28 Skadoo. And you're like, no, I haven't. Like it's from 1925. You haven't seen it.
Andrew Walsh
Well, these people were in their 20s, so it would be more, it would be a little bit different than that. It would be more like, you know, like what was 60. What's 60 years ago to a. To a 25 year old as opposed to 40 years ago.
Luke Burbank
So I guess maybe it would have been, you know, it just still, I mean, I always say a version of this, but, like, there's just so much stuff that doesn't seem that long ago to me that if you do the math, it's like it would have been preposterous for me to know about it when I was 25.
Andrew Walsh
Exactly.
Luke Burbank
But it feels so kind of, so kind of recent to me also. Let's see, people. When you click on Bamboo Harvester, who was the Saddlebred Sl part Arabian horse who is known for playing Mr. Ed, people ask, what happened to Bamboo Harvester? And then why was Mr. Ed canceled? And I assume it's because he said something about trans bathrooms. There are only two kinds of horses. Mr. Ed with bad takes. I don't even know what stall to go into anymore.
Andrew Walsh
Classic Mr. Ed. Y.
Luke Burbank
All right, well, now we know how radios work. And I think that's a big takeaway from today.
Andrew Walsh
Thank you, Anya.
Luke Burbank
Thanks everyone for listening. This brings us to the end of our broadcast week. I've got an ebike to put together. Now.
Andrew Walsh
It was delivered during the show. We didn't mention that, but it was delivered during the show. I'm very excited for you, Luke. You're going to have that's your big weekend. You're going to be tooling around town weekend.
Luke Burbank
Give it a shot.
Andrew Walsh
Do you have a basket on the front of that thing yet?
Luke Burbank
Not yet, but I will tell you this because somehow Instagram knows that I bought this E bike. My feed is just all accessories. Yeah, to E Bike. It's not even E bikes. It's like, how about this? How about this overpriced light? How about this fancy helmet? I did buy a kind of a high tech helmet because I figured I should try to keep what. What brains I have left in my head. But it's really funny to see the way that the word has gotten out online that I've recently become the owner of an E bike and now everybody wants to sell me every ancillary product.
Andrew Walsh
Would you. You do anything frivolous? I'm being serious here. Although I think I know the answer. Like if somebody gave you. If some co host of yours gave you those like classic little ribbons that come out the side of the handle grips. Would you Absolutely put them on? That'd be so fun.
Luke Burbank
100%. Put me in a Fourth of July parade. Yes.
Andrew Walsh
Nobody does that anymore.
Luke Burbank
All right, we will be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio for you. In the meantime, have a great weekend. Take care yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall.
Andrew Walsh
And good luck to all. Power out.
Podcast Summary: TBTL Episode #4423 - "Floor & Decor + The Machine"
Release Date: March 14, 2025
Hosts: Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh
Title: Floor & Decor + The Machine
The episode opens with the hosts engaging in their signature playful banter, setting a lighthearted tone for the discussion ahead. Andrew Walsh humorously recites a quirky vow, establishing the relaxed and comedic atmosphere that "Too Beautiful To Live" (TBTL) is known for.
Notable Quote:
Andrew Walsh [00:01]: "The sun is forever blasting. People are strange when you're a stranger. Forever and ever."
Luke introduces a new segment discussing the upcoming Netflix show, "Everybody's Live with John Mulaney." He expresses enthusiasm about the live format and draws parallels between this show and TBTL, suggesting that both channels the same spirited energy.
Notable Quotes:
Luke Burbank [02:24]: "They are channeling the true spirit of this show. Too beautiful to live."
Andrew Walsh [05:32]: "I think we should do an episode of TBTL as a tradio episode. I want live callers."
A significant portion of the episode revolves around the possibility of rebranding TBTL after its 20th anniversary. The hosts humorously consider changing the show's name to "Giggle Squad" or exploring other creative alternatives, reflecting on the longevity and evolution of their podcast.
Notable Quote:
Luke Burbank [07:23]: "At the 20th anniversary, let's reassess... Maybe change the name to Giggle Squad."
Andrew passionately proposes introducing a tradio-style episode where listeners can call in to buy, sell, or trade items. He outlines the logistics and potential challenges, such as geographic limitations and the coordination required for item exchanges. Luke remains supportive, emphasizing the fun and community-building aspects of such an episode.
Notable Quotes:
Andrew Walsh [07:39]: "I really want to do an episode of TBTL as a tradio episode. I want live callers."
Luke Burbank [09:58]: "This sounds really fun. We should do it this spring and put something on the calendar."
The hosts delve into a listener's question about whether increasing the volume on a radio consumes more battery power. Andrew shares his curiosity sparked by his experience with an old radio, leading to an insightful explanation from listener Anya, a physics professor. Anya details how louder volumes result in greater energy transfer, thus draining the battery faster.
Notable Quotes:
Listener Anya [80:02]: "The louder the volume is set, the greater the deflection or amplitude the speaker diaphragm is oscillating through... The energy of a sound wave is proportional to the square of the amplitude."
Andrew Walsh [82:12]: "Let me clean up my setup of his show for a second here because he does have one podcast."
A highlight of the episode is the discussion of a controversial incident involving Sam Jones, an American outdoor enthusiast with a significant social media following. While in Australia, Sam was filmed picking up a baby wombat, causing distress to the mother wombat and sparking outrage both locally and internationally. The Australian Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, publicly criticized the act, advocating for more respectful interactions with wildlife.
Notable Quotes:
Luke Burbank [64:29]: "The Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has actually weighed in on this."
Andrew Walsh [66:04]: "Sharks are terrifyingly beautiful creatures."
Luke Burbank [70:01]: "I implore you to take a good, hard look at what is currently being done in Australia surrounding the real issues it faces."
The hosts share personal stories about their respective home improvement projects. Andrew discusses his experience with installing temporary stick-on tile flooring in his kitchen to address wear and tear, while Luke reminisces about his basement flooding issues and the subsequent repairs. These anecdotes provide a relatable and humanizing aspect to the episode.
Notable Quotes:
Andrew Walsh [35:06]: "We have some pretty old, like, not pretty ugly vinyl flooring in our kitchen."
Luke Burbank [40:25]: "Anyone who knows this stuff will tell you just make sure that you start out properly."
The conversation shifts to the topic of aging and the disconnect between generations regarding cultural references. The hosts reflect humorously on their experiences with outdated pop culture elements, such as "Mr. Ed," highlighting the challenges of bridging generational gaps.
Notable Quotes:
Andrew Walsh [87:20]: "People in this day and age probably don't want to give that out, but you might want to give out like the email address that you use for spam."
Luke Burbank [91:18]: "I think that's gonna look really cool."
As the episode winds down, the hosts discuss their weekend plans. Luke mentions receiving an e-bike and his excitement about outfitting it with accessories, while Andrew shares his own projects, including a collaborative house renovation. They encourage listeners to engage with their projects and maintain a positive outlook.
Notable Quotes:
Andrew Walsh [91:45]: "Do you have a basket on the front of that thing yet?"
Luke Burbank [92:35]: "We have to pre-cut the ribbon and then lightly tape it together in the back."
Live Call Shows: Inspired by "Everybody's Live with John Mulaney," the hosts are considering implementing live caller interactions in future TBTL episodes.
Rebranding Considerations: After 20 years, TBTL may undergo a name change to better reflect its evolving identity.
Energy Consumption in Radios: Louder volumes on radios consume more battery power due to increased energy transfer.
Wildlife Interaction Controversy: The incident involving Sam Jones and the baby wombat in Australia underscores the importance of respectful wildlife interactions and has garnered international attention.
Home Improvement Experiences: Personal anecdotes about flooring and home repairs offer relatable content and insights into the challenges of maintaining an older home.
Generational Gaps in Pop Culture: The hosts humorously navigate conversations about outdated cultural references, highlighting the evolving nature of entertainment and societal norms.
Final Thoughts:
Episode #4423 of TBTL, "Floor & Decor + The Machine," masterfully blends humor, personal stories, and topical discussions. Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh maintain their camaraderie and comedic timing while delving into diverse subjects, offering listeners both entertainment and insightful conversations. The episode not only entertains but also encourages community engagement and thoughtful reflection on contemporary issues.