#4476 What About Bobble?

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL Episode #4476 "What About Bobble?" Release Date: May 28, 2025

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Introduction In episode #4476 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live, hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh dive into a myriad of engaging topics ranging from the latest in sports and music to deep discussions on male friendships and societal trends. This episode seamlessly blends humor with heartfelt conversations, making it a quintessential TBTL experience for both regular listeners and newcomers alike.

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1. Upcoming Events: Baltimore Orioles and Metallica Concerts [02:32 - 05:00]

The episode kicks off with Luke and Andrew discussing their respective plans for the day. Luke shares his excitement about attending a Metallica concert in Landover, Maryland, where he'll be headlining alongside other notable bands like Pantera and possibly Suicidal Tendencies. He humorously contrasts his preference for attending a Baltimore Orioles baseball game over a heavy metal show but acknowledges the professional obligations that bring him to the concert.

Notable Quote:

Luke Burbank [03:00]: "I would be very happy to be at the Baltimore Orioles game. That's a little more my speed than a Pantera show, but this is what we do for our jobs, Andrew."

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2. Metallica’s Charitable Initiatives and Community College Programs [03:30 - 06:00]

Andrew elaborates on Metallica's charitable efforts, particularly their support for technical programs at community colleges. These initiatives help students enroll in specialized courses, such as dental hygienistry, by providing expensive equipment that would otherwise be a financial burden. This partnership not only empowers students but also ensures they are job-ready upon graduation.

Notable Quote:

Luke Burbank [04:30]: "Metallica has this big charitable organization... they fund a lot of technical programs at community colleges."

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3. The Bobblehead Craze: Collecting and Community Connections [23:20 - 34:17]

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to the duo's fascination with bobbleheads, particularly focusing on the Julio Rodriguez Bat Flip Bobblehead. Luke shares a story about how his friend Neil surprises Genevieve with an extra bobblehead during a bingo night, highlighting Genevieve's unexpected passion for these collectibles. This segues into a broader discussion on the role of bobbleheads as conversation pieces and their place in modern fandom.

Notable Quote:

Andrew Walsh [33:48]: "This is Genevieve related because she is the bigger bobblehead fan in the family."

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4. Gambling Trends Among Millennials and Gen Z [16:46 - 22:44]

Andrew introduces a New York Times article discussing how younger generations are less interested in traditional gambling activities like those found in Las Vegas. Instead, they prefer experiences such as day clubs and live entertainment. Brenda adds her theories, connecting this trend to the rise of in-app purchases in video games, which she argues are a modern form of gambling that has been normalized for younger audiences.

Notable Quote:

Brenda Rose [21:10]: "Gambling just looks a little bit different. And in some ways, some of these games have almost been grooming this generation for that kind of gambling."

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5. Male Friendships and Emotional Connectivity [58:19 - 67:58]

A heartfelt segment explores the evolving nature of male friendships. Inspired by a TikTok trend where men call each other to say goodnight, Luke and Brenda discuss the importance of male emotional connectivity and the societal shifts that have impacted these relationships. They reflect on their own friendship, acknowledging that their daily conversations serve as a lifeline, albeit in a more formalized podcast setting.

Notable Quote:

Brenda Rose [62:59]: "It's an olive branch. So I like to do that. I would think that the birthday thing makes it more difficult because on somebody's special day, they're receiving so many text messages and so many emails from people."

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6. Listener Messages and Community Shoutouts [45:31 - 54:21]

The hosts extend gratitude to their listeners with heartfelt messages. Ivan from Amsterdam shares a touching note about finding warmth and connection in the community, while Cheryl Churchic from Corvallis emphasizes the importance of love and kindness in society. These messages underscore the podcast's role in fostering a supportive and engaged listener base.

Notable Quote:

Cheryl Churchic [50:10]: "There are too many others to name you all. Being a part of an online community in 2025 is usually stressful, but tens are a special group who support one another through ups and downs in ways that I've never seen duplicated in all my time on the Internet."

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7. Personal Anecdotes and Reflections [56:46 - 73:20]

Brenda opens up about her personal journey, discussing her "chain-link addiction" humorously and reflecting on old projects that now feel cringeworthy. The conversation delves into how past endeavors, such as a VHS movie from her youth, symbolize growth and change. This introspective segment adds depth to the episode, showcasing the hosts' willingness to share vulnerable moments.

Notable Quote:

Brenda Rose [71:04]: "It's driving around in the rain. It's standing in front of a TV watching psychedelic images for a long time. It's like it all mixed to Miranda Sex Garden and My Bloody Valentine."

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8. Concluding Thoughts and Final Shoutouts [73:42 - 76:45]

As the episode wraps up, Luke and Andrew reflect on the journey they've taken throughout the episode, blending humor with sincerity. They tease future content, including reports from Luke's Metallica concert, and reiterate their appreciation for their listeners' support. The closing moments emphasize the podcast's commitment to community and the enduring friendship between the hosts.

Notable Quote:

Andrew Walsh [76:06]: "We're good on that front, I would say. Also, having said that, this whole thing feels a little Performative to me... Any good reminder to stay in touch with folks and try to be there for folks, you know?"

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Conclusion Episode #4476 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live masterfully navigates a spectrum of topics, from lighthearted banter about bobbleheads to profound discussions on community and personal growth. Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh's chemistry shines throughout, offering listeners a blend of humor, insight, and genuine connection. Whether you're tuning in for the first time or a long-time follower, this episode encapsulates the essence of TBTL—two friends navigating the world with wit and heart.

Transcript

[Brenda Rose]

You're watching Channel 36's Power News Live at 5. We've got the most high school sports.

[Slade Austin]

The most lottery numbers, and the most weather in the dry swamp area.

[Brenda Rose]

It's news time.

[Slade Austin]

Good evening.

[Brenda Rose]

I'm Brenda Rose.

[Slade Austin]

And I'm Slade Austin. Two prisoners have escaped from the Coral Palm Sheriff's Station in a daring daylight jailbreak. The sheriff's office is coordinating their search.

[Brenda Rose]

With local and state police. If you're watching, Greg and Larry, and I know you are, my men and I will not rest until we find you.

[Slade Austin]

Strong words.

[Brenda Rose]

And moving on. What if you were going through a drive through and a puppy dog took your order? TBTL.

[Slade Austin]

Did you enjoy my broadcast? What makes you think I listened to it, Doctor? If I hated a program as much as you hate mine, I'd probably listen out of sheer malicious spite. Are you on the computer?

[Brenda Rose]

Yes, I am, but I'm having trouble with my computer.

[Slade Austin]

I had a computer for 10 years and enjoyed it, but it died. Yeah. I just want to say it was a beautiful service, but you and I both know you wouldn't have gotten those laughs if you weren't a pastor. I'm sorry. Oh, it's no big deal. I don't care. I'm just saying you're not actually funny, so don't feel proud about today. People grieve in their own wasteland. No, no, I just want to say a beautiful service. Thank you. I hope you don't think you deserve any of those laughs. No, I just told him.

[Brenda Rose]

I just told him that's the worst.

[Slade Austin]

Kind of hack there is. Beautiful service, though. Beautiful. What do you say we go out and get some Carvel?

[Brenda Rose]

I got the time if you got the diaper.

[Slade Austin]

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

[Brenda Rose]

It's your lucky day.

[Slade Austin]

You just found a USB flash drive in the parking lot. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. You're still doing a podcard. Coming to you once again from the nation's capital. W A S H I N G T O N Baby DC that's right. Still out here shooting some television projects. Actually going down to Baltimore today, which will be exciting. Love the city of Baltimore. Probably have a full report on tomorrow's program about how everything went. In the meantime. Today's program is at episode 4476 in a collector series, Let the fun begin. And there is a new Internet trend where bros, where guys who are friends connect in a certain way. And it's just two men celebrating each other's strength. I'm wondering if Andrew and I should start looking into this as male friends who have spent many, many hours, thousands of hours in fact, sharing our hopes and dreams and feelings with each other, mostly here on this show. Wondering if we should explore this. We'll talk about that. Speaking of the longest running cobra of the program, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships, I asked him if I could just get a little more hat wobble today.

[Brenda Rose]

Now tane I can get into, he's.

[Slade Austin]

Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning my friend.

[Brenda Rose]

Good morning. You know the Baltimore Orioles are playing the Cardinals I think at home in a few hours. Looks like 6:35.

[Slade Austin]

The problem is, problem is I'm gonna be banging my head loud enough to raise the dead at the Metallica show in Landover, Maryland.

[Brenda Rose]

Your gig is an evening gig. It's not get done and go to the ballpark.

[Slade Austin]

It's a midday gig. It's an afternoon gig and it's an evening gig. Andrew, this is, you know, this is the tough life of a television correspondent. So we're gonna be filming at a community college location where this organization, well, so Metallica has this big charitable organization and then one of the things they do, which is a very smart idea actually, is they fund a lot of like technical programs at community colleges. So if you're going to do like you want to do dental hygienistry, you have to buy really expensive equipment to just enroll in the class. It's like thousands of dollars. Metallica will buy that equipment for the people taking the classes so that they can do the class and then they can get a job when they get out. And so we're going to a, I think a commercial driving program that Metallica is paying for in Maryland. And then we're going to interview some of the students, some of the so called Metallica scholars. But then we're going to go to whatever they call the place where the Washington commanders, when they had a different name, used to play FedEx Field. It was called for a while. I don't what they call it, but whatever that stadium is in Landover, Maryland, we're going to go there and I'm going to watch them and, and Pantera and I think Suicidal Tendencies, although I might have been wrong about that. I said that on the show the other day. I know they've, the three of them have been playing together. I'm not sure if all three are playing tonight. But, yeah, that's where I'll be. I'll be honest with you. I would be very happy to be at the Baltimore Orioles game. That's a little more my speed than a Pantera show, but this is what we do for our jobs, Andrew.

[Brenda Rose]

Someday I'll go to a Baltimore Orioles game, I guess.

[Slade Austin]

Do you have a hat I can borrow?

[Brenda Rose]

I do. I mean, it's going to smell a little bit like fish. Is that going to be okay? It's going to smell a little bit like fish in somebody else's unlocked dumpster. It is. Of course it is. Of course. The hat I wear when I'm trying to disguise myself and dispose of things here in the Seattle area, everybody has a Mariner's cap, but this guy, this perp, had a Baltimore Orioles cap. And then they're looking around for a bolt. They go door to door, and they're asking people if they know anything, like who. Who's in the pitching rotation for the Baltimore Orioles. And I will be legitimately so ignorant about that. They'll never accuse me of illegal dumping.

[Slade Austin]

Much like my mother putting one headphone in to sneak back into the Y. That is the weirdest criminal move that you could make. But I also, for some reason, understand it. Like, of course, this was the story from a couple weeks ago, where you had some. Some. Some seafood that you were throwing away, some uncooked. What was it, shrimp or something.

[Brenda Rose]

It was like, basically my. My food waste container I thought had been skipped that week, and I had some really nasty food waste in there, including some shrimp that was stinking up the yard and turning into a living cesspool.

[Slade Austin]

And so you thought you had to dispose of it, and you had a dumpster in mind, which was associated with a restaurant a few miles from your house, which they already probably throw a lot of that kind of stuff away. And you had noted that it was unlocked and you went up there. But in order, because you were a little bit worried about security cameras, as well you should, because everything is filmed these days, you decided to put on a Baltimore Orioles baseball cap, which was part of your plan to be anonymous, even though, of course, it's much more noteworthy than a Mariner's hat. Mariner's hat blends you into the crowd. But I think your logic, as you already said, was you don't identify as a Baltimore Orioles fan because you don't think you know very much about the team. So it means you have effectively a disguise on. You'd put on a fake mustache of sorts, related to sports Fandom. But the only way it would really help you would be if the police showed up at your house and they asked you a series of Orioles questions and you believably didn't know.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah, they have to hook me up to a lie detector so they know I'm not lying when I really don't know anything about that.

[Slade Austin]

They say, what was Cal Ripken's brother's name?

[Brenda Rose]

Right, right. They might even just say, who's calm?

[Slade Austin]

Billy Ribken. And they would say, what was famously written on the knob of Billy Ripken's bat that became one of the most iconic baseball cards.

[Brenda Rose]

I know that one. But he was.

[Slade Austin]

Now you're failing the test. Was he hauling you away?

[Brenda Rose]

Was it the F word? Was it the.

[Slade Austin]

It was the F word.

[Brenda Rose]

Four letter F word. I did not know that that was Cal Ripken's brother, though. That's news to me. I didn't know there.

[Slade Austin]

I believe that was Billy Ripkin. Did not even the.

[Brenda Rose]

Played for a different team or the same team.

[Slade Austin]

Same team at the time, I believe. Really?

[Brenda Rose]

Okay, I didn't know that.

[Slade Austin]

But see, that's what I'm saying. You. You answered that question slightly in the affirmative, that you knew that that existed.

[Brenda Rose]

With a believable, though.

[Slade Austin]

Keep the believable, dude.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah, no, that is. That's what I'm saying. Oh, yeah, I knew that, but I didn't know it had anything to do with the ball. I just remember. I just remember kids talking about this baseball card, but I wouldn't have known the last name, the first name, the team. And therefore they're like, oh, yeah, he's totally passing this. He's being earnest. He's being honest. I was also, I should mention, wearing a face covering because this was several years ago and people are still wearing face coverings quite a bit after the pandemic. But I also needed that face covering in earnest because the garbage stank so bad. I have an interesting update to that story, and this is why. This is why I always got to be a little bit careful with, like, kind of sometimes giving away our assassination coordinates. Because listeners love hunting things down, right? We've just like. And so they love, like kind of telling you, hey, I found out where you live. You know, I use Google Maps or whatever, and you're always like, great, that's fantastic for you. But somebody went out there and. And tracked down the actual dumpster I was talking about. Somehow it is on Google Maps that shock me because it's in this parking lot behind the place.

[Slade Austin]

But they found Google vehicle was driving down the road and got a snap a pic of the dumpster.

[Brenda Rose]

Let me see if I can find this. Because they didn't send it to me. They posted it on social media in like the Stens page on Slack and said, looks like they have a lock on it now. And they literally were able to enhance, enhance, enhance. Because I said the name of the restaurant and this again is going back a ways. And so I think that like the statute of limitations has hopefully run out on this. But somebody was so curious as to the actual dumpster, they found it on Google Maps and it looks like it now has a lock on it, leading to the question, am I responsible for that lock? Did they find a very small little bag of old shrimp in there and say, we gotta lock this down?

[Slade Austin]

I can't imagine a scenario in which you weren't responsible for that lock going on there. Right.

[Brenda Rose]

How dare you? Now this was years ago. I truly, like, aside from trying to make podcast magic, there's no way any. It's not. I'm talking about this is a full size dumpster and I'm talking about I had like a, you know, kitchen sized bag of garbage that was the size of the bag, but the garbage in it was probably maybe a quarter of that bag rolled up tightly.

[Slade Austin]

Like this was not possible that that shrimp smelled so bad that somebody from the restaurant when throwing away their stuff went, okay, this ends now.

[Brenda Rose]

I mean, it's a possibility. I would be pretty shocked. But I mean, I guess if that is my legacy, I guess, you know, be careful what you wish for. I've always said I want to leave a leg and I guess that's what my legacy is.

[Slade Austin]

They looked at the footage and they just said, freaking Orioles fans. So rude.

[Brenda Rose]

Orioles fans.

[Slade Austin]

So incredibly rude. Hey, speaking of, here it is.

[Brenda Rose]

By the way, it says the hidden door Dumpster. Hidden door is the name of the. The restaurant, which is how I assume this person was able to find it. I don't know this person's name. They. They post under a pseudonym. On the Slack page it says the hidden door dumpster. Google street view shows the dumpster with a lock on it as of August 2021. Was that before after the shrimp incident? Incident? That would have been before, I feel.

[Slade Austin]

Like, because I don't think you owned your house in 2021, did you? I'm flying this fast.

[Brenda Rose]

Well, let's see. It's 2025. No, we haven't been here for four years. I think we're going on four years. So this is Pre. They. They. Ah, this is my legacy. They knew I was a man in trouble. They unlocked it for me because this is what neighbors do for each other.

[Slade Austin]

Luke, is it possible that you were in such an agitated state because you have described the series of events?

[Brenda Rose]

I know where you're going, and I love it.

[Slade Austin]

You ripped the lock apart with your bare hands and have no memory of it because. Because you were in a fugue state.

[Brenda Rose]

Oh, no. You know, I'm seeing now a Google street view from 2024, and it is just a mangled remnant of a lock that seems a bit. And it. Like, there's some. There are some pictures that says, do not serve this man. And it shows a Somebody dropped, and.

[Slade Austin]

He'S wearing mixed nuts at the scene.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah. And it looks like it's a very buff guy in tiny little shorts. He's green, he's hulked out, but he's wearing a face mask and a Baltimore Ravens hat, and it says, do not serve this man. So I don't know. I guess the mystery just deepens.

[Slade Austin]

Speaking of bad behavior, I'm getting in some serious trouble with my mom, Susie B. About some behaviors of late. Remember yesterday on the show when I was trying to remember what the DVD was that she left in the DVD player at the World Mark? So I texted her, and she clarified. She said, it's where the crawdads sing. And then. Why? Question mark. And then I didn't respond because, like, we were doing the show. And also, honestly, I didn't want to. I didn't want to point her in the direction of listening. I love my mom so much, but I sometimes, you know, even if I mean stuff in love, I can understand this when she hears it. It maybe doesn't sound exactly to her the way I intend. It just easier for my life if my mom is a very occasional TBT listener. And. And so I didn't respond. And then some time goes by, and then my mom goes, are you using my mishaps again for conversation on tbtl?

[Brenda Rose]

Yes.

[Slade Austin]

And I said, I would never do that. Cry Laughy emoji. She said, sure, sure. Or on Instagram. And then mad face. And then I realized, oh, she also saw this Instagram. When we had Kamaro Kev over on the Monday show, I was showing him some photos of the questionable food products that my mom had brought to my house on that weekend. And I also had posted on Instagram. And it was just kind of a running thing of some of the odd stuff that my mom does. But then it ended with A very cute picture of my mom and dad sitting on the porch, which I, you know, I love that for them. Like those two are in a friggin love affair, which is extremely cute to see. Like, they are each other's best friends and they like call each other multiple times a day. And like they're. All they want to do is sit on the deck staring at the river, talking. Like, haven't you guys discussed everything you could in your life at this point? But no, they can say the same.

[Brenda Rose]

Thing to us, my dude.

[Slade Austin]

Yeah, they don't even. Oh, you mean you. I thought you meant you and Genevieve. No, you mean you. Very fair question. But I forgot that my mom is on Instagram now. She doesn't post anything, but she goes on there occasionally. And I said, so she said, sure, sure. Or on Instagram, mad face. And I was like, oh, she saw the post where I said that she had, you know, she brought this weird stuff to my house. And I said, well, did you see the end of that post? It's a cute photo of you and dad. And she goes, just the back of us, it was, oh, are they looking.

[Brenda Rose]

It's like over their shoulder. They're looking out at something. That sounds cute.

[Slade Austin]

Cute, yeah. Anyway, so I. I have to be. I have to be careful. I have to start wearing a Baltimore Orioles hat when I say things about my mom on the show or post things on Instagram about my mom, because they do. It does get on her radar at this point.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah, that always. That always worries me too. I don't want to go into detail, but I spent a big chunk of yesterday kind of hoping that somebody didn't hear something that I said on a podcast. Not that I. Not that I said anything nasty. And I realized that this person, it has a pretty good chance of hearing it. So, I mean, certainly I wasn't. I wasn't like. But I was just generally speaking, like, sometimes people don't like to hear. They don't like to hear them. So I remember, I think I. Did I feel this way or did somebody else feel this way and that? My early days on TBTL of just kind of being like, I think maybe Genevieve maybe had some early slightly weird feelings about being discussed so much on tbtl. She does not feel that way anymore. And obviously she's such a part of the community now. But I think back then we didn't have our own podcast together. She didn't feel like she necessarily had her own mic. And to turn on the show and hear discussion that is kind of about or certainly surrounding her life, too. And not having a way to kind of weigh in can be a kind of a disconcerting feeling.

[Slade Austin]

I think I can totally understand that. I mean, the other part of this, and we were just talking about this the other day, is there is a whole kind of. There's a group of folks in my life who are not regular listeners or people that I really know, but they will tune in on a Monday after we've been spending time together for the weekend or just anytime if an event has been going on or if, you know, a trip has been happening or anything. There are some people that are savvy enough to know that this is basically just kind of like a live blog of our life. And so there's a chance. And so then those people will pop in on those days. So if I am going to talk about those folks, I have to remember there's a decent chance they'll hear this now. They're not going to go three shows into the week. They're not Saints, they're not masochists. Saints and masochists. Sounds like a nightclub that would open in Vegas. I just read this New York Times article.

[Brenda Rose]

Band that you would hate or an album by a band that you would hate.

[Slade Austin]

They're opening for Pantera, opening for Metallica tonight. I just read this article in the New York. Actually, I don't think it was New York Times. Maybe they were reprinting it. It was like AP or something. But the thrust of it was millennials and Gen Z do not like gambling. They're not as interested in gambling as, I guess, you know, baby boomers are. And also, I guess, what are we? Gen X? I find it very heartening that I. We're only barely Gen X. I don't know why that matters to me. I mean, I'm, like, 49 years old. I'm not young. But I. I like. I like the fact that I. I could almost. If I was like, four years younger, I could almost be Gen Z. Oh.

[Brenda Rose]

No, not Gen Z. Gen. Millennial. Millennial.

[Slade Austin]

I think I could almost be a millennial, I think.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah. Because honestly, you and I. And I'm. I guess you only have, like, six months on me or something, but, like, even me, like, I'm technically on the cusp, which is something that I've never tried to bend towards the younger generation because I was always so proud to be part of Gen X. And now I'm. What's the word? Not proud to be Gen X. Based on what our generation hath wrought, this country, I Believe so. Yeah. It's kind of funny how now I'm kind of like. Well, technically, like, I'm kind of between Gen X and Millennials. Really. I mean, I. I like. You know, I really like. I like really skinny jeans and bands from Brooklyn.

[Slade Austin]

Yeah, you don't. You don't want to be. You're putting a. Whatever the equivalent of a Canadian flag on your backpack is. Generationally.

[Brenda Rose]

Right. Exactly. Yeah.

[Slade Austin]

But, yeah, this. The article was that apparently the young people, they don't gamble as much when they go to Las Vegas.

[Brenda Rose]

They.

[Slade Austin]

They like to go to the day clubs and the nightclubs and have experiences. They're a generation of people that want to experience things and not just dump their money into a slot machine. And that the night the. The casinos are now kind of pivoting for that, because this is, of course, the next generation of people that will be coming in there. And I just thought, like, believe you me, I don't feel bad for any of these casinos, but that has got to be bad news for them, because no matter how much you rip people off for bottle service at Declurb, you are not. I mean, there is no replacement for people mindlessly emotionally shoveling money into a machine that does not give them the money back most of the time. I mean, that's the perfect business model if you can convince people that that's fun. And it sounds like the younger generations are not convinced that that's fun.

[Brenda Rose]

All right, well, let me. I have not read this article. This is the first time hearing about it, so let me weigh in heavily with my theories on it, okay? Because gambling and this. I'm speaking as somebody who luckily does not find myself with any kind of unhealthy draw towards gambling like these. And I love to do some pull tabs. Has something to do with the. Anytime I hand over 20 bucks or 40 bucks for some pull tabs, I never expect to see that money again. So I don't go chasing, you know, like, I don't even have the. On the lowest level. I don't have that instinct. But it is. It is a known fact. It is known, as they say on snl, where they famously broke Luke, it is known that there is an addiction that people can have towards gambling. And so what it sounds like these businesses need to do is just repackage it in a. Like, repackage it by bringing people through the door, by providing more live entertainment. I don't know if you can get, like, the guy who brought the rock and roll edge to the Eagles or something along Those lines, that would be quite a get. Try to find. You try to find younger acts that will maybe bring people through the door. But then you just got to give them a little taste of the candy. And I would also say this, and I don't know if the article got into this because again, I told you I do not read and I do play video games. And I know that a huge part of this generation that is now becoming adults were playing the kind of video games that were free to play, but then they had these built in like kind of pay to play things that were kind of based on gambling. Because it's not like, hey, I'm playing, let's say I'm playing this race car game, right? I'm playing this race car game and it's free, but I can go into the game store and buy upgrades so that I can get flashy tires for.

[Slade Austin]

My car or whatever in app purchase.

[Brenda Rose]

Inapp purchases which are some. You can just say, hey, I want this thing and buy it. But that's not where the real money is. The real thing that they've been trying to kind of clamp down on more and more is you can buy a pack of cards, like virtual cards, and maybe your fancy wheels will be in there. And if they're not gambling, yeah, that's just gambling. And that's a huge. It's kind of a scourge in the gaming world. And a lot has been, you know, obviously smarter people, people than me have weighed in on this, but I sort of think like that is still this generation. I think gambling just looks a little bit different. And in some ways, some of these games have almost been grooming this generation for that kind of gambling.

[Slade Austin]

Huh. I didn't think about that. I don't think the article got into that. Also, I'm going to be honest with you, there is a point at which the article became so numbers heavy that I just sort of glazed over. It was like the average Vegas visitor spends $626 on gambling and $89 on entertainment. And then, and then was like comparing that to some other thing. And then I think I just, I just started looking at TikTok.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah, right. I started playing a video game with in app purchase.

[Slade Austin]

Yes, exactly. I started buying armaments in for my guild and this is where I'm. I'm so far over my skis I couldn't even give you a pretend scenario where I was doing an in game purchase. I figured people might get armor and then maybe there's a guild. But is that what game would that even be in?

[Brenda Rose]

Dude, I was giving that example. I gave the example of cars, and then I tapped out after tires. I love it.

[Slade Austin]

We each picked. We each picked different areas that we somehow know next to nothing about.

[Brenda Rose]

But, like, I should be able to name. What did I say? Tires or wheels. Whatever I said, I was like, you know, you could buy wheels or the other things on cars.

[Slade Austin]

Where you have actually probably been inside a video game that, you know, you could probably use as a direct example that you probably would know more about.

[Brenda Rose]

Could you? I've been inside of a car before, too. I mean, that's also the thing.

[Slade Austin]

There's that. That's true. That's one of your favorite ways to deliver garbage to dumpsters that you're not supposed to be taking it to.

[Brenda Rose]

Allegedly.

[Slade Austin]

Speaking of adventures, I. I understand that you and Veeves are going to the Mariners game tonight, and you had told me that there is some sort of a bobblehead on offer. Whose bobblehead is it?

[Brenda Rose]

Okay, so quick, clean up on that. Veeves and I are not going to the game. I'm going to the game with a friend tonight. Another friend, Genevieve is also a friend. I want to make that clear. But no, I'm going to the game tonight. But Genevieve does come into play here, I think, in a somewhat interesting or somewhat surprising way, if you know Genevieve at all. But yeah, so I'm going to the game tonight with a buddy, and it is a Randy Rosarena bobblehead night. Oh, now it's one of those three day giveaway things that they've been trying recently. I don't think they started them this year. You know, it used to be back in the day there'd be like one giveaway one night. Get your ass there.

[Slade Austin]

But now the Kingdome, like, I was like, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And I was like, we were there early so I could get my bat.

[Brenda Rose]

And then what I think they realized is, oh, well, if you spread this out across three games, you might be able to lift attendance, you know, across three games instead of one. And I think some people are sort of grousing about that, but I don't know exactly why other than it just sort of maybe is maybe just sort of seems desperate or another opportunity to make money. But you're just paying the regular price for a ticket, right? So it's not. Not that big of a deal. But so I'm trying to figure this out that we're playing the Nationals tonight, which is not.

[Slade Austin]

How are the number one dad Rock MLB team.

[Brenda Rose]

That's. That's the national is what I was probably.

[Slade Austin]

Oh, that's the National.

[Brenda Rose]

That's probably what I was trying to describe before and I was trying to think of a good millennial band batting third.

[Slade Austin]

Fake empire.

[Brenda Rose]

Do you think this is. I'm getting in my head about this now. I'm just trying to figure this out.

[Slade Austin]

I was kind of proud that I pulled a national song.

[Brenda Rose]

I would. Yeah, I have to take your word on that. Are the Nationals a team that you think you. Yeah, like maybe that's just a team that here in Seattle. You might need a little oomph to get more people to show up to that then. I mean, clearly the big ones like the Red Sox are in town or the Dodgers or something. I guess the National Series maybe isn't the draw.

[Slade Austin]

The Nationals is. I think it's. My guess would be that it's a little bit complicated because of a couple of reasons. One, Washington D.C. is such a. I speak as a person who is currently in Washington D.C. andrew. It's such a. It's a place that's full of so many people that came from somewhere else. I mean, there's obviously like a culture of people that grow up in D.C. but there's a lot of people that are transplants. And so you've got a lot. And you also the fact that they didn't have a baseball team here for kind of a long time. They had the Senators, and I think the Senators became the Montreal Expos. Is that right? And there was a long period of no baseball in D.C. so that kind of also, I think undercuts a certain generational fan base. Or it can. So yeah, I wouldn't imagine that. And again, the Nationals have plenty of very, very serious fans. Like they've won a World Series. I believe the Mariners haven't. But like I could see it not being like when the Blue Jays come to town or the Red Sox or the frickin Yankees, it looks like.

[Brenda Rose]

So you're definitely right that the Expos became the Nationals because I remember that happening.

[Slade Austin]

Expos became the national, so I wonder.

[Brenda Rose]

I think the Senators became the Twins according to a Google. I don't know if I'm right about that job, Stu. I'm just reading what is in front of me based on, you know, like the Internet trying to summarize for me, but hopefully we can count on that being right. But I do know for sure that the Expos did become the Nationals. And by the way, I have no beef with the Nationals at all. I. I kind of like that whole division. I have generally good feelings about all those teams. But I loved the Expos logo so much. It would be an interesting troll if I get myself an Expos hat for. Well, if I got an Expos hat and I wore this to the game in Seattle, people just assume I'm a longtime Nationals fan, probably. Right.

[Slade Austin]

Well, you would be doing a complicated thing, though, that we've been talking about offline a lot with our friend and colleague John Sklaroff, which is like, when the Oklahoma City Thunder are playing basketball and the announcers are talking about their accomplishments when they were the Seattle SuperSonics. Like, they haven't won an NBA championship since 19. Whatever it was, 80 or 79. I think that's really dirty. I don't think that you should. When you have a new name and you're in a new city, you should not get to claim the. The history of the team from somewhere else. And in a way, you're. By the way, I agree with you. I love the Expos logo. I used to wear an Expos hat, but that'd be interesting. That'd be kind of a flex to wear that to a Nationals game, because you're kind of. You know, it's like wearing a Sonics jersey to an Oklahoma City Thunder game. I guess.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah, I guess. So. Is it, like. Is it. Is it kind of. Yeah.

[Slade Austin]

What the north remembers.

[Brenda Rose]

Is it. The north remembers. Is it sort of like a. Is it an. Is it a kind of tipping of the hat, too, or is it a bit of a trolling? It really depends on what's going on.

[Slade Austin]

I think it's kind of like. I think it's keeping it legit. I think it's like, hey, know your history.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah.

[Slade Austin]

Also, it's a. It's a cool flex, because not too many people will ask you to start naming Montreal Expos. You know what I mean? Like, I know that's a fear for you when you wear a hat for a team. See previous Baltimore conversation. So, like, the thing is, all you have to remember is Vladimir Guerrero, and I'm talking Senior. That's all you got to remember.

[Brenda Rose]

Right, Right, right. Well, I mean, shout out to Andre Dawson and Gary Carter, and I'm just. I look this.

[Slade Austin]

Wait, Those guys were both Expo.

[Brenda Rose]

I totally trusting you.

[Slade Austin]

I think those guys are Cubs coded in my mind.

[Brenda Rose]

I mean, listen, this is just like, the top thing that the. No, you're right at me. But that probably might have just had moments with them. I don't know what I'm I want to make it very clear I wasn't trying to be smart there. I was totally just. I was going to try to make you laugh by listing names. I don't know.

[Slade Austin]

That was. That did make me laugh. If you would have really gotten me if you threw down a Tim Rains.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah. See, I wouldn't even known one from the other, to be honest with you.

[Slade Austin]

Tim Rains was a. He was a. I think a kind of a longtime Expo. I'm with you, though, that the Expo logo is.

[Brenda Rose]

Oh, sweet, Right.

[Slade Austin]

Very, very cool.

[Brenda Rose]

I actually would maybe get that hat. Yeah. So all of that is to say tonight is a Randy Arosa Raina bobblehead night at the ballpark here in Seattle. And so I'm going with a friend. And now I did make a point. This is our buddy Neil. You know, Neil and I made a point of seeing if Neil wanted to go to this game together, because Neil goes to a lot of games, especially before his calendar filled up with other life stuff early in the season. He just tries to see as many games as possible. So he was at the ballpark for almost every night for the first, like, month of Mariners home games. And he went, I believe, to all three nights that had this bobblehead giveaway of Julio Rodriguez. This might have been the first or second week of the season. And it was the Julio bat flip bobblehead. And it was like this bobblehead where the bat isn't even in Julio's little bobblehead hands. It's on this little. It's supposed to be kind of invisible, but it's on this little stand so you can spin the bat.

[Slade Austin]

I'm looking at it so it sort.

[Brenda Rose]

Of looks like you can. It's like he's flipping his bat away. And we were watching. I feel like this might have been the opening series or something, because I was watching this game with Genevieve, and she's not somebody who I've. Who I've ever known to give a big hoot about bobbleheads. And she's certainly somebody who lives her life with like, the kind of less yes stuff like that, the better little collectibles.

[Slade Austin]

And I think she's kind of like me. I am like her in that way.

[Brenda Rose]

Which is weird, though. But she also does have an. It's interesting. Whatever. I don't have to get into our relationship. She definitely has been collecting things secretly now because she knows, I think, that she has some tendencies to not know when to stop buying certain things. But she's kind of. I think she's trying to like, maybe she's been buying a lot of pottery and then flipping it. But I've been like going out into the garage, I'm like, oh, there's a new mirror in this garage. And it was like something that she's trying to like, fix up and resell or whatever. But she has been kind of a bit of a more of an acquisitional romper than usual. But. But when it comes to little tchotchkes like this, especially sports tchotchkes, you wouldn't think she'd be interested in that. But we're watching the game and Genevieve sees them showing off the Julio Rodriguez bat flip little bobblehead. And she falls in love with it. She's like, that is so cool. And then Luke, apparently you didn't see this, but. But during one of those games, they had like a life size version of the bobblehead. I guess a life size version of a bobblehead is just the size of a bobblehead, but they had like a human sized version recreation of the bobblehead where he's flipping the bat, where fans could go up and like spin the big bat and it would kind of flip on it. And then once she saw that, she was like, oh, my God, this thing is so cool. She's like, we got. I think she even said, we gotta go to the game this week. We gotta get one of those. And I was like, I can't. I don't know why, but I was like, I can't go to the game this week. And. But I knew that our buddy Neil had been going to all of these games and we had been texting a lot. He said, hey, I have an extra one of these Julio bobbleheads. Or he said, if I get one of these Julio bobbleheads, if I get two of them, I'll give you the extra one. And I said, listen, the truth of the matter is, believe it or not, I'm not huge into bobbleheads. I think they're super cute. I like getting them at the stadium because I like the feeling of getting something. But I don't want to become somebody with too much of that kind of bric a brac in my life. I could just sort of see it becoming.

[Slade Austin]

If you get out of control. Yeah.

[Brenda Rose]

And I already just have a lot of clutter. I feel like in the. On the bookshelves of my office in here, I'd rather kind of move the opposite direction. So I kind of. So I was like, that's really sweet of you. I don't really Want the bobblehead. But I said, and no pressure on this, but if you happen to get an extra one of these, you should give it to Genevieve instead. And I won't tell her that we have this conversation, but you'll surprise the hell out of her. And she's been sort of like really kind of salivating over these Julio Rodriguez bat flip bobbleheads. So plan goes accordingly. Neil gets an extra one of these things. He surprises Genevieve with it at a bingo night. Because we're young, bingo nights are a big part of our life. And she was so happy. She was so, so excited about that. And here's where I guess that's where I think the interesting thing is that Genevieve is more of a bobblehead person than I am a baseball bobblehead person than me. Because I have like, I'm getting. I'm going to this game with Neil to see if I can now get gen Genevieve a Randy a Rosa Reina bobblehead. I need to get there early, not for me, but so that Genevieve can have a friend to go with her. Julio bobblehead.

[Slade Austin]

This is not where I thought this story was going. So it is Genevieve related because she is the bigger bobblehead fan in the family. Now, would you have felt differently about Neil's offer if you knew that one of these Julio bat flip bobbleheads, someone is trying to sell it online for. For $48.

[Brenda Rose]

$48. That could get me like a. Get me out of a few jams.

[Slade Austin]

That's. You know what? That's. You could do four interest free Klarna payments for 1125.

[Brenda Rose]

How many food is that? Is that half a foot?

[Slade Austin]

At what point are we going to start seeing young children that are named Klarna?

[Brenda Rose]

I've never even heard of. Is that one of those.

[Slade Austin]

You've never heard of Klarna?

[Brenda Rose]

I don't do as much online shopping and I think when I get to that page, I just skip through it quickly because I'm never buying anything that needs down payments, if you know what I mean.

[Slade Austin]

Klarna in my mind is kind of. It's like a lot of the things that I sort of do, I guess, or you know, web social media that I look at, it's kind of youth coded. And by youth, I mean anyone under 40. Like a lot of the stuff that is sold on, on Instagram. I don't know if it has to do with the Shopify app or whatever. There's somehow there's just when there's something for sale again, very often through Instagram. That is kind of an impulse buy kind of a thing that you probably don't really need. But it's, it's, well, kind of framed, you know, for whatever it'll. They'll say, you know, basically, Klarna is just a credit card or just a payment thing, but it's like, you know, and a lot of clothes will be, you know, on Klarna. I think a lot of young people who are buying things and maybe if they don't have the money at the moment, they'll use Klarna for it. But it's just like one of these things that's just sort of sprung up in the last few years. It went from being something I had no idea about to something I see all the time. And I'm just waiting until we start seeing some babies named Klarna. It's kind of a cute name.

[Brenda Rose]

Here's my disappointment is I'm learning right now that I started watching baseball just in time to miss the Jose Vidro. Oh, yeah. Are you familiar with Jose Vidro?

[Slade Austin]

The name rings a bell. Was he a Mariner?

[Brenda Rose]

Apparently played almost his entire career with the Expos slash National, so actually made the thing, but then played the final season, 2007, 2008, with the Seattle Mariners, I believe. I started watching the Mariners, I think, the 2009 season, so there's a little buffer in there. But I just missed Jose Vedro.

[Slade Austin]

That sounds when you said a guy who played a long and successful career with insert two team names and then spent his last year effectively out to pasture with the Mariners. That sounds so true to me. That sounds exactly, exactly like the kind of player. I mean, the Mariners are. Absolutely. There's actually two kind of players that the Mariners really like to try to bring in, if they can. One is the Jose Vidros of the world, who are kind of no longer probably at their. At their peak powers. They like to bring that person in for their final season where father time really catches up with them. Then the other kind of player that we like to get is someone who has been very good, but then would like to have the worst season of their career and then go somewhere else and then become good again. That's the other thing that we specialize in. And then the occasion. And this is the outlier, the person who was good somewhere else, Mitch Garver, who comes to Seattle and plays historically bad, but who the Mariners continue to employ the following season. And that's the sweet spot. That's what you want. You want a guy who's suffered through a historically bad season. And then you want to say thank you. We'll take another. We'll order another round of that.

[Brenda Rose]

I just hope that Jim Riggleman gave Jose Vidro a nice, soft landing. I've never even heard of Jim Riggleman. My knowledge of Mariners managers only goes back to Don Wakamatsu, who apparently took the bat from Jim Riggleman. I don't remember even heard that name.

[Slade Austin]

I don't remember the Riggleman era either. And I bet you. What year was that?

[Brenda Rose]

Oh, you know what? Because he just did the last 90 games of the season after, apparently. John McLaren.

[Slade Austin]

John McLaren.

[Brenda Rose]

Okay.

[Slade Austin]

Getting fired. I do remember him. Okay, so like. So Riggleman was, like, finishing out the season also. What. What year are we talking about?

[Brenda Rose]

So this is. Well, it's. I mean, Luke, it's the end of the Jose Vidro era. It's okay.

[Slade Austin]

I'm looking at it, obviously.

[Brenda Rose]

So vidro was the two. I believe it was a 2007, 2008 season. That would be John.

[Slade Austin]

I'm in.

[Brenda Rose]

And then Jim Riggle.

[Slade Austin]

I'm in la. I'm watching the Dodgers. Andrew. Like a soulless that I have to say the Dodgers in those days a were not that good and just seemed less inevitable than they do now with all the. I mean, I don't think the Dodgers have probably ever been a team that was underspending, but there seemed to be. Well, first of all, this is what I told myself. And, you know, we'll. We'll make up all kinds of things to justify our bad decisions. But I thought you get an. You get a National League and an American League team. Like, I wasn't ever going to root for a different American League team, but I would root for another National League team. And what was a mile from my house, Dodger Stadium in the sunshine, Mid Century Stadium. And my friend had tickets, so I justified it. But in that era, I was probably minimally monitoring the Seattle Mariners and their ups and downs with Jim Riggleman.

[Brenda Rose]

Is it a coincidence that I happened to open up the. The Ascendant app Blueski and I. The first thing I see is Mina Kimes posting a new photo of her and her dog Lenny. And she's wearing a junior T shirt, a Mariners T shirt from like, like the mid-1990s here? It could this possibly be a coincidence? Are we all on the same Mariners wavelength right now?

[Slade Austin]

Is it one of those ones where it's like a cartoon of Griffey and he has, like, a very big head? It's almost like a caricature that they would draw down on the boardwalk.

[Brenda Rose]

No, I am looking. She's not. It looks like it's just his baseball card. I don't know if it's a rookie baseball. It doesn't look like he's young enough to be his rookie baseball card. It looks like. I don't see it fully clearly, but it looks like his baseball card reprinted on the front of a shirt, actually is a really cool shirt.

[Slade Austin]

Oh, yeah, I've got eyes on this. Yeah, it's. You're right, it's a photograph. There was this era of. I don't know if they expanded into football, but they definitely did it with basketball and baseball, where it was a kind of a cartoonish version of the player. And when I say cartoonish, I mean a caricature. It'd be as if you were like, Ken Griffey Jr. Was on a surfboard.

[Brenda Rose]

Sure. Yeah.

[Slade Austin]

Except instead of that, he was a.

[Brenda Rose]

Little surfboard while his head is really big.

[Slade Austin]

Yeah. But he's actually batting. But it's that same style of drawing. And I'm waiting for those shirts to come back. I thought those shirts were very, very cool when I was.

[Brenda Rose]

It does sound cool. And I'm kind of surprised they aren't hotter now. I mean, I guess we've kind of gone through the hardcore 90s kind of. What would you say? Re. The kind of the reintegration of 90s fads or whatever. That's not how you say that. But that's. I think.

[Slade Austin]

No, I know what you mean.

[Brenda Rose]

Technically those words are right. But. What a weird way to say it.

[Slade Austin]

Yeah. Like, we're. It's going to. It'll be another 20 years before the. The 90s nostalgia that we just experienced cycles back through.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah.

[Slade Austin]

Now we're moving into, like, early 2000s nostalgia or whatever would be.

[Brenda Rose]

But certain things have seemed to have, like, kind of taken a bit of permanence. Like, I'm still seeing more Doc Martens on the reg than I was in, like, yes. 2005. You know, like, there's still.

[Slade Austin]

That seems to have really stuck around. I figured that that was totally a. Again, a. You know, a trend that I was. That was. I feel like. I'm sure there were other examples that felt like one of those trends. The first time that I experienced a trend two times in my kind of conscious life. In other words, I remember being in high school and everybody was really into Doc Martens. I wasn't. I was not goth. I was never really into them then. And Then they came back around and, like, Addie was wearing them. And that was one of my first experiences of going, like, I remember when those were big the first time. But they've kind of stuck around.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah. And of course, that's what got me and my dad into chain link addiction, was him purchasing me my Doc Martens. My Oxblo to Doc Martens, which I.

[Slade Austin]

Yes.

[Brenda Rose]

Which I absolutely adored. And if it meant going into a bonded shop with old Bob Walsh, well, then so be it.

[Slade Austin]

But you're like, what, you're 28 years sober on your chain link addiction. Didn't you just get another. Another chip for that? Like, I know you've been in a lot.

[Brenda Rose]

It gets a little bit personal and. Sorry.

[Slade Austin]

I'm sorry.

[Brenda Rose]

At one point, I had to kind of start over. I had to kind of start coming over. You know, it's not something I talk about a lot on the show.

[Slade Austin]

That's fair. No, that's your journey.

[Brenda Rose]

But. Yeah, but it's. I would always, I guess, describe myself as somebody addicted to chain link. Yeah.

[Slade Austin]

In recovery from chain link addiction.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah.

[Slade Austin]

That's how I grateful chain link addict. 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.

[Brenda Rose]

Ready?

[Slade Austin]

Ready, go, everybody. Razzle dazzle. All right, let's thank these dazzling donors. These folks have been donating a dazzling amount of dough. It's the only way that this show can happen until Andrew starts a lucrative bobblehead reselling business where he's selling Jose Vidro bobbleheads.

[Brenda Rose]

Oh, now, see, that I would get into now. Now that I've got my own lore about it. Oh. One thing I should just say about those bobbleheads is one of the reasons Genevieve, I think, is into them is she does have an office at work. And so that's the perfect thing to take to your. At work. Office.

[Slade Austin]

Office.

[Brenda Rose]

It's a little conversation piece, but you don't have to clutter up, you know, the home with it if you're not, like a collector. And I'm not trying to make it sound like people who are into bottle heads. Bobbleheads are all, you know, have cluttered homes. It's just not something that we've decided to focus on.

[Slade Austin]

Well, also because there's so many of them now. I mean, every single. Probably every single TV show that you can think of or movie that's popular has been bobble head. Certainly every sport has. It's the kind of thing, if we have been even. Even podcasts can be bobbleheaded. In fact, people hearing this right now are looking at a bobblehead of you and I, Andrew, and going, watch your mouth. I don't know if Ivan Vukovic is doing that. He is our first dazzling donor today. And of course he's over there in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I remember when Ivan and Rachel moved over there.

[Brenda Rose]

Me too, way back when.

[Slade Austin]

And they're still there. And. And we love to hear from Ivan. Ivan says, here we go again. This is a challenging moment riddled with uncertainty and chaotic forces that feel so far beyond our control. I hope everyone out there is finding ways to take care of themselves and to do whatever they need to do to make even these grimmer times full of warmth and lasting positive memories. For me, this has often come in the form of connecting with others, sometimes in the most remote and unexpected of places. So this year I would like to dedicate my dazzling donor message to these small but mighty contingent of tens here in Amsterdam. I didn't realize that we had. Well, you know, I do. Now that I'm looking at some of these names, I do remember some of this. I've had the pleasure of crossing paths with you folks in some shape or form over the last few years. And there's something uniquely delightful about finding multiple TBT listeners in corners far from my beloved Pacific Northwest. Abby, Marshall, and Spencer, you've all helped make the world feel small in the best way possible. Luke, Andrew and John, thanks as always for making this possible. Gratefully, Ivan. Well, Ivan, thank you for making this possible with your support from all the way over there in, in Amsterdam. And I, I know what you mean. Like, it's sort of like, it'd be like finding a Seahawks bar in Dusseldorf. Like, you know, like fight. Like when you, when you find. When you're far, far away from, from what was your original home and you like this very niche thing and then you can get together with even three or four other people in your town who like that niche thing. That's got to be a good feeling.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah, absolutely. And I, I really do appreciate that. And also, you know, maybe you guys can, you know, spread the word a little bit. Like I'm reading this sci fi novel right now by Octavian, a butler called. It's called Clay's Ark. I believe it's like part three in a four part series that I'm kind of working my way through. And this is not where I should have taken it, but basically the plot is. And we're just start from the beginning here, somebody has. Somebody has brought a space disease down to Earth loot. And it's like these tiny microorganisms that once a human being gets infected, like, like patient Zero did out in outer space before he crash landed back into Earth and I believe the year 2021, oddly enough. So this is sort of the future and history at the same time. He is now riddled with this disease that is a bunch of living organisms, that it's. These organisms just force this human being to take actions that are kind of against his will, but he is compelled to do it in order to spread these organisms throughout mankind. And he and a few people who are also infected now to not let it spread to the rest of the world, because it spread so so quickly that eventually the entire world will just be taken over by human beings who are under control of these microorganisms. So they are just very carefully bringing a few people into the flock just to grow. To grow enough that they can survive, but hopefully not infect all of mankind. And all of that is to say, let's bring a little bit of that energy to the Netherlands. Let's just bring a little.

[Slade Austin]

Let's grow it a little bit. Not too in.

[Brenda Rose]

Not too much. Just Clay's Arc. Just do the Clay's Arc thing. Rachel is an author. She understands what I'm talking about.

[Slade Austin]

Yeah, exactly.

[Brenda Rose]

So let's just do that also that.

[Slade Austin]

You also told me that was the plot of the Count of Monte Cristo.

[Brenda Rose]

I believe they're very. There's a lot of. It's hard to tell if it's an homage, if Octavia or straight up theft stealing classically, but either way it's definitely a lot of overlap for sure.

[Slade Austin]

Well, Ivan, thank you so much. We really appreciate you. Hope you and the other tens out there are having a nice time in the Netherlands. Maestro, on your mark. On your mark. Get set, get set now. Ready, Ready, go. Well, if it isn't our dear friend Cheryl Churchic in Corvallis, AKA Cheryl in Corvallis.

[Brenda Rose]

Cheryl, I'll never. You said AKA Sherilyn Corvallis. I know I've told this on this story on the show before, but whenever I think of that now, you know, we know Cheryl as Cheryl and Corvallis. But for a brief period of time, I had an editor on the TBTL newsletter whose background was like being a real editor for like, shows like Marketplace or whatever. And so therefore Joanne would make edits in my newsletter that would make it like more accurate or more newsy or more Whatever.

[Slade Austin]

And kind of like normal, like sort of elements of. Not elements of style, but AP style kind of thing.

[Brenda Rose]

Exactly. I'll never forget the edit that came back. Like Cheryl in Corvallis became Cheryl in Corvallis, Oregon. And I was like, no, no, no, we're not accepting that edit. It is Cheryl and Corvallis. People know.

[Slade Austin]

Or like. Or like Cheryl and then last name in Corvallis. Because when I have multiple Cheryls in Corvallis, it's like, no, no, no, we've been there.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah, right.

[Slade Austin]

We got one Cheryl. We got one Corvallis. And it's Cheryl and Corvallis.

[Brenda Rose]

And then. And on future reference, it was just Cheryl. That's right.

[Slade Austin]

That's right.

[Brenda Rose]

It was Gerald Check.

[Slade Austin]

I should say it's just sign stealer alleged.

[Brenda Rose]

I was going to make a point of not doing that this year.

[Slade Austin]

Are we over that?

[Brenda Rose]

I'm not trying to make you feel bad for doing that, but I almost said, you know what, we have another listener who we're going to be thanking in some weeks. We used to make jokes about who he voted for. And I know that he's kind of like over that sarcastic joke. And I thought, you know what? I think Cheryl might be over. Probably accusations of sign stealing.

[Slade Austin]

All right, fine. Stricken from the record. Here's what Cheryl says this year. I'd like to thank the whole tens community, especially the folks on Slack. You know, that's a thing we were talking about the other day that, like, because obviously it's very complicated our interactions with Facebook and Instagram and particularly Facebook, because of all the bad things Facebook has done. And yet it's also a big place for the tens to hang out. And it's sort of like, what's the greater good here? Well, the greater good seems to be the tension, getting to relate to each other and hang out and spread friendship and joy, even if that has to happen in a cursed place like Facebook. But also, you mentioned the Slack is very active. And my sense is Slack comes with a little bit less baggage.

[Brenda Rose]

Yes, absolutely. I mean, I think that a lot of people who already know what it is, know it from, like, as a workplace communication tool. But we've really built. I mean, I believe we did this sort of kind of on a lark. I believe another listener set this up to see if people would check it out.

[Slade Austin]

I set it up.

[Brenda Rose]

That's right. I forgot. You set it up and then you forgot your password so you had to hand it off to somebody else. But no, it's really become. And I've Been hearing from more and more people coming over to Slack saying I can't be on Facebook anymore, but I'm glad to find my people over here. So it's an option. If anybody's Interested, go to tbtl.net and look on the contact page for a link.

[Slade Austin]

Cheryl says, I'm grateful for my dear friend Alyssa Adelson or Adelson, whose amazing artwork can be found at Alyssa Adelson. That's Alyssa is E L I S S A and then last name is A D E L S O N W A S H I N T O N baby D C alyssaaddlesondesign.com I've been trying to spell too many things on the show recently, so go check that out. Also, Cheryl is shouting out Sarah of Magpie Mouse Studios, which I told you. I went and tried to find Sarah once in Pike Place and Sarah was off doing some high level stuff but still had somebody at the studio entertaining the crowd. There was a large crowd of people. This person was I think maybe making some jewelry or earrings and people were enraptured. That's how big of an operation Sarah's running over there at Magpie Mouse now. Corinne gets a shout out for always checking in Ruby and Leanna for sharing their love of Broadway, my fellow admin Lynn and all the folks who share their pod pets on our Slack channel. There are too many others to name you all. Being a part of an online community in 2025 is usually stressful, but tens are a special group who support one another through ups and downs in ways that I've never seen duplicated in all my time on the Internet. You know, Cheryl, that's a really nice compliment. I don't mean to us, but I mean to the, to the tens of listeners and I guess in some reflective way back to us and the show that you're. I hadn't thought about that. But yeah, online communities can be very unruly. They can be tough to deal with sometimes or they can, you know, just be places that not everyone feels welcome. But you hear almost exclusively, almost exclusively good reports about the tens talking to each other.

[Brenda Rose]

That is very, very true. And, and Cheryl's a big part of that as well. I do know that on the occasion, on the very, very, the very, very rare occasion that sometimes maybe, somebody maybe may be tonally slightly off for what we're going for, I know that Cheryl will gently kind of steer everybody back to the place where we should be, tonally speaking.

[Slade Austin]

Cheryl says thank you all for being the awesome folks that you are. And to Luke and Andrew and John for being the core that keeps bringing us all together year after year, last but not least, tens in times that are fraught with anxiety and stress. Please take care of yourselves. You are not alone. Talk to someone if you need to. You matter and your mental health matters. So please don't give up. That is from our friend and one of today's dazzling donors, Cheryl in Corvallis. There's this sign that they put up. Cheryl Churchyk in Corvallis, Oregon. There's a sign that they put up somewhere near the freeway, somewhere off the freeway, kind of between Portland and where I live. And truthfully I think it's for probably like a religious organization. And so that part of it doesn't really, doesn't really check out with my kind of my personal worldview anymore. But it said it's basically a message of hope. And I think it's a sort of anti suicide message. It said tomorrow needs you. I thought, wow, that's really powerful like that. Actually, you know, I'm not going to call the phone number because it's like 1-800-God or something. But like the idea that tomorrow needs you. I was like, man, that really, that kind of like that, that made an impact.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah, like you saying that right now is making an impact. Honestly, that's really well said.

[Slade Austin]

Yeah. So there you go. We can find wisdom in all kinds of places. Even off of the, the side of Interstate 5, near a German shepherd training kennel and whatever else is going off, going on over there.

[Brenda Rose]

Well, Luke, you know where else we used. I mean I, I wasn't even gonna bring this up because. Because it's just weirdly bizarre. I almost brought this up on Monday and then I decided to pass on it. But you just saying we find wisdom in unusual places. I was at and I won't shut up about it. I was at Whirly Ball on Sunday, as you know.

[Slade Austin]

We get it.

[Brenda Rose]

You did. Well, I actually didn't. One time I was so proud, I actually blocked a shot and then everybody yelled at me because I was blocking my own team shot. Cause you switched it back and forth between yellow and red. And sometimes you're in the red car, sometimes you're in the yellow car. And I mean other people have made similar mistakes. I've seen, I saw in the same game somebody shoot for the wrong basket, but I actively stuck my stick up and I was so proud that I blocked a shot and I blocked my own teammate shot on the goal. It was really something. But I was Going to share with you some of these photos I took. I was waiting for, like, the guests of honor to get at the Whirly Ball place. Vees and I are just sort of milling about, and then on a piece of paper that is just printed like. Just like regular, you know, not even. Not even cardstock, but just regular paper. This quote was printed, cut out with, apparently, scissors and taped up to a window at Whirly Ball.

[Slade Austin]

Okay.

[Brenda Rose]

Love and kindness are the very basis of society. If we lose these feelings, society will face tremendous difficulties. The survival of humanity will be endangered. Wow.

[Slade Austin]

That's a very intense message for Whirly Ball.

[Brenda Rose]

And it really was, and it's very true. And I was like, this is really interesting. I'm like, what prompted this? What moment? Does it have something to do with where we are in this country culturally and politically? Does it. What prompted this? It's just a call for love and kindness being the basis of society and that we need to survive by, you know, being loving and kind. Now, I did go into the restroom later to wash my hands, because I wash my hands after every game of Whirly Ball. Like, I talk about bus hands sometimes when I ride the bus, as soon as I'm pretty grimy. Yeah. But then I saw there were two more things, two more quotes stuck up on the mirror. And their spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past. I almost sent that to you and said, this is bad news for the podcast. Spiritual growth involves giving up stories of your past.

[Slade Austin]

Well, thank God we have no interest in growing spiritually.

[Brenda Rose]

And another one said, and this was. This one is in first person, which really gives up the gambit here that clearly these are just quotes from somebody else that they printed up. And now here is my secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye. No credits on these quotes, but very clearly quotes that people hung up. But before I realized that this was sort of a theme throughout, I was really taken aback by this quote about love and kindness just apparently randomly taped up to a piece of glass at Whirly Ball.

[Slade Austin]

Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, that'd have to come down from the management, presumably, because if you're just taping stuff. No, what I mean is.

[Brenda Rose]

No, no, no. I'm sorry, Luke. I'm laughing at the next. The next photo on my phone was a piece of graffiti that I had forgotten I took while drunk the night before on Saturday night. It just says, there's some poo poo where my pee pee should be. And there's something about scrolling on my from that quote about love and kindness to this abhorrent quote from a dive bar bathroom.

[Slade Austin]

That's the beauty not only of the journey we just went on with you, but more generally with tbtl. Andrew it is the, we can go from the sublime to the subterranean really quickly on this program.

[Brenda Rose]

I'm so sorry. Hello and and welcome to Top Story.

[Slade Austin]

There's a trend that I've seen popping up on TikTok the last few days that's now it's, it's, it will soon be over, Andrew, because it's been written up in the New York Times, which usually means we're now in the gloaming, if you will. We're in the late stages of whatever the trend is, which means CBS Sunday.

[Brenda Rose]

Morning will do it in two years.

[Slade Austin]

And I'll probably be, and I'll probably be covering it.

[Brenda Rose]

I wasn't sure if I was allowed to make that joke.

[Slade Austin]

If you get a call from me, Andrew, saying good night to you, know that I'm filming it for CBS Sunday morning. So act cool. If you get a call from me in two years saying good night to you. This was Gina Ches writing in the New York Times about this, this trend that's gone on where you basically have guys, you know, guys in their like maybe 20s or 30s calling each other to say goodnight to each other kind of as a lark. You know, it's basically it started as a trend where oftentimes these guys like wife or girlfriend would kind of encourage them to do this just to see what would happen. So they put their friend on speakerphone and they give them a call. When DeAndre Scarborough, a 24 year old content creator and college research coordinator, decided to call several of his male friends and his brother to wish them each a good night, he knew that they'd be thrown for a loop. Lying in bed with his girlfriend around 11pm Mr. Scarborough made a call delivering the good night message to a friend who immediately responded with confusion and laughter, asking you good. In between giggles, another friend, equally confused, said, man, you're calling the wrong number. These are freak hours. Mr. Scarborough had seen the trend online. After some nudging by his girlfriend, decided to upload his own video. They go through basically a bunch of different guys who kind of start doing this, this as a bit again. And every single, every single guy they talked to was, I don't want to say pressured, but inspired to do this by their, by their girlfriend or wife or Whatever. But what's interesting to me about the article is that it ends up getting into like some of these guys start off doing it as a joke and then they actually have these kind of sweet emotional moments with their friends or not even emotional moments, but just like it goes from being a bit like, is my friend, friend basically going to think this is ridiculous, that I'm wishing him a good night to kind of being like, why is that off limits for guys to check in on each other that way, you know, occasionally. And then goes on in the article talk about some of these guys basically like started off as a joke and then it was a nice way to connect with one of their friends who then called them the next day to just like talk about some real life stuff or actually make a plan to hang out and like that you have. This is, I don't know if this is real or just one of these kind of social science stories that goes around, but there's been a lot of writing about male loneliness now and just the fact that guys, you know, our age and certainly younger like male friendships. I don't know if anybody has figured out why they think this is happening, but it just seems that we don't. Male friendships are different or maybe a little more non existent for a lot of people, a lot of men these days than they were, I was going to say in our father's generation. But my dad has zero male friends. So I don't know what the high point of male friend dumb was, what, whatever point we've gotten away from now. But I mean, maybe it's just my dad, I mean he, you know, from church, he knows guys. But like my dad doesn't go do things with his guy friends. You know, he's not one of those fishermen or something like that.

[Brenda Rose]

Well, I wonder if I know when you say that this is something that's been written about a lot in the past, you know, couple of years or something. I totally, you know, know that and acknowledge that, but I haven't gone deep on it. So I'm not sure if, if. Then you can tell me if you do have a better beat on this. If it's that there's actually a decline in these kinds of relationships or we're just sort of examining male relationships now in a way we didn't before as people are a little bit more open to being. And I'm going to say intimate here and obviously I don't mean in the physical way, but when you describe the story about saying goodnight to somebody, that's even More intimate to me than just calling somebody randomly and just saying, hey, how are you doing? Or, let's check in. I've done that before with friends. I'm like, hey, we need to check in. Let's, let's like, text and set up a time to talk. Let's do that. Or maybe meet in person. And sometimes I kind of specifically, with the idea of, like, what's going on? You know, we haven't checked in in a while. What's going on with you? That, that's sweet. That's an important thing. I do think there's something. And it makes sense that this started as a joke. Specifically calling anybody to say good night is an incredibly intimate thing. That's something that you usually do with somebody you're romantic with or that you are, you know, a family member of.

[Slade Austin]

Yeah. Now, my question, Andrew, is how would you feel if I started calling you and wishing you good night? Because I feel like that might really take this podcast to another level. We've clearly.

[Brenda Rose]

Oh, so we're taping it, or do.

[Slade Austin]

We just talk about it? Maybe we talk about it the next. Maybe we start off not taping it. Because I think short of that, there isn't very much time in the day we're not spending together right now, at least virtually with these conversations. Like, I also think it's funny because there are these conversations about male friendship and the decline, and then also like, yeah, this idea of these guys checking in on each other, and in a sort of roundabout way, that's, that's essentially what's happening with you and I five days a week now. We, you know, we have top stories that we often don't get to, but really what it is is just a conversation between two buddies about whatever is on their mind for an hour plus every day, which is, you know, I mean, I guess I, I, I understand that intellectually, but I forget that sometimes that basically we're just having a conversation between two friends five days a week. Professionally, yes.

[Brenda Rose]

And so I would say that if I'm going to develop a relationship with anybody, where I'm going to make a habit of calling somebody and saying goodnight, you are probably on the bottom of that list. And it's not because I don't care about you. It's just I don't care for you. No, it's because I, because of you and I are doing a lot of checking in, like, all.

[Slade Austin]

Yes, that's.

[Brenda Rose]

So we're good on that front, I would say. Also, having said that, this whole thing feels a little Performative to me. Like, any good reminder to stay in touch with folks and try to be there for folks, you know? And I think I'm relatively good at, like, dropping a random text message to a friend who I haven't talked to in a while because I think about people, you know. Like, I just. The other day, I just dropped a text to my friend Kristen because, you know, she lives in Ohio, and I haven't talked to her and, like, probably well over six months, if not close to a year. So I was just like, how we doing? What's going on? You know what I mean? Like, let me know if we should chat at some point. And I do try to do those types of things.

[Slade Austin]

That's really good. I'm terrible with that stuff. And I do have a fair number of people's birthdays in my calendar now, so that I can try to remember to reach out to at least on that. Which, of course, funnily enough, is your least favorite kind of communication, is getting a happy birthday message. Because now you have to generate a response. But I need to be better about that, about staying in touch with people. If only there was an AI program that would just reach out to everyone in my contacts on, like a kind of an occasional. Not, you know, it has to seem kind of haphazard, but just if it was like, hey, how's it going? Checking in on you? And then that. Then they'll respond, and then we can start, like, a chat going, you know, oh, my God. I want you to know that I said that I understood what I was doing. I want you to know I really. That was intentional.

[Brenda Rose]

And then if there was another bot. And then. And then if I had a program that could, like, kind of respond to their. Just to get deeper into the conversation, then I could kind of.

[Slade Austin]

I just don't want to have to have the first three conversations, Andrew. I want to get into the conversation when it's really good.

[Brenda Rose]

Let's talk about. Let's talk about the birthday thing for a second, though. Obviously, that's a really interesting point here that I want to examine. And I'm not trying to, like, not trying to win an argument here, but just think about something. I am a strong believer that just finding an excuse to check in with somebody is good. So, in other words, I have some friends, like my friend Kristen. I've known her since I was in high school. She taught me how to drive. I have no issue just saying, hey, been thinking about you. What's going on? I have some other friends who I care About a lot. But just. I've been thinking about. You might seem a little bit too. I'll use the word intimate again or just. I don't know. I can't explain it. So with friends like that, I do look for an excuse to text them. So in other words, it might be like, hey, I saw this thing about this band that we both love, and I'll send you a link to it. And, you know, sort of like, I'll find. And I. Without getting into detail, I know that there are some people in my life who have some troubled relationships with other people in their life. Nobody has a troubled relationship with me. I want to make that clear.

[Slade Austin]

Never.

[Brenda Rose]

Never. What could be troublesome? But I do know of some people who are in, let's say, troubled relationships with people, and the other person will reach out to them and just send them, I don't know, a meme or something that I was thinking about you. And that will be met with not just deaf ears, but almost like, how out of touch can you think? How out of touch could you be to think that I would be happy to receive this meme for you or this random thing? And I always think. I think this person is just trying. I think this person isn't gonna come in hot with a, hey, let's talk about that thing that happened six years ago and, like, put all of our cards on the table. I think when somebody randomly sends you something like, hey, here's a song that reminded me of you, or here's a photo of a humor in uniform joke that I read in Reader's Digest the other day, and you send it to them, it's like, you're just looking.

[Slade Austin]

It's an olive branch.

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah, an olive branch. So. So I like to do that. I would think that the birthday thing makes it more difficult because on somebody's special day, as we like to call it, they're receiving so many text messages and so many emails from people from all parts of their life that it's like, the least fertile time to start a good conversation.

[Slade Austin]

Or you could do. Andrew. What our friend Jessica does is when she randomly finds a picture of me, me from the olden days, she'll just take it and just send it to me with absolutely no comment, as she did this morning, which is a photo of me, shirtless, clearly inebriated, standing in front of a sign that's posted on a brick wall that says, dress code. Strictly enforced. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. And I cannot tell you where this brick wall was. Why I am shirtless. It's nighttime, obviously. What has gone on that this photo exists, that.

[Brenda Rose]

Do you think it could be Vegas? There's a. You would be able to tell from the lighting probably, if it's outside at all, that it's too sunny or something?

[Slade Austin]

It's. Well, it's. It's dark. Like, it's. It's nighttime. Oh, and it doesn't look like there's. It doesn't look like there's, like, the kind of twinkling lights of Vegas. It looks like. And also, I'm just wondering, did I get my shirt torn off in a fight? I've never had a period of my adult life where I was, like, really psyched about being shirtless around people, you know, who I don't know. Like, it's not my move, because I don't think it's my best look. So it's like, did somebody rip my shirt off as part of an altercation maybe?

[Brenda Rose]

Or could you have just done. You were drunk enough to be comfortable to make that joke, Just like you got rid of your shirt just to pose?

[Slade Austin]

That might have been. But. But I want to figure out is this. Is there a sign like that outside? Was there a sign like that outside the Mandarin Gate back in the day? Because it is. This brick wall looks like it could.

[Brenda Rose]

Maybe be that building I can picture.

[Slade Austin]

Is that building brick? You're still going?

[Brenda Rose]

Yeah, I think. I think so. Yeah, that would actually make sense.

[Slade Austin]

But anyway, that's all you have to do is just find a really embarrassing photo of someone you love, and then you just send that to them. And then. And then that'll get the conversation started. That'll keep you in touch.

[Brenda Rose]

Well, that. That gets us into something else that I don't even know if I want to talk about, but it was a coincidence, and this is truly a coincidence that this is now coming up. But I used my friend Kristen as an example of somebody that I randomly texted recently. And it was literally. I don't know, I think it was late last week. I was watching the Mariners game. Something reminded me of Kristen. Been thinking of her. Anyway, sent her a text. What's up? Been thinking about you. She said, you've been thinking about me because you've been feeling me thinking about you in the universe here, because I had a whole bunch of VHS tapes from my youth digitized recently, including the movie that we made in college, and you'll never lay eyes on this. Now, here's the tough thing about this, and I wouldn't want Kristen to hear.

[Slade Austin]

This I love you. Just turn into the Terminator. I just see you running in the direction of Ohio to destroy the tape.

[Brenda Rose]

To destroy the tape. Now it's.

[Slade Austin]

It's travel through time to destroy this tape.

[Brenda Rose]

It's not even embarrassing in that. Like, I'm not even in it. I'm not on it. I made the movie. It is embarrassing to me. And this is where it gets tough because I think Kristen to this day feels proud of it. And I love that for her. And I would never want to take that away. But we made it together. But like, she's the one who's in it. But it's like during this time when I'm just watching weird. I'm very influenced by weird music, weird movies, stuff like that. This movie is a full half hour long. I have not had the. I watched about half of the other night and then had to tap out. But it's just like this very mopey, psychedelic, but obviously made on a vc, you know, a camcorder, right? A VHS camcorder. I mixed in all this music and stuff in post. I had the ability to edit and mix. And so, you know, it's like taken very seriously. But it's just. You wouldn't even call it ponderous because there's nothing to ponder. It's driving around in the rain. It's standing in front of a TV watching psychedelic images for a long time. It's like it all mixed to Miranda Sex Garden and My Bloody Valentine and all these things that. And again, like, it's just like, it's such a thing of the moment. But like, for me it is like, it's a reminder of how kind of self serious I was about these things. And it's like, to me, it is so cringy. But Kristen and I would bring this up from time to time. I hadn't seen it since. Since when did we make it? 1999 or something like that? 1998. I hadn't seen it since we made it in 98. I don't know why I don't have a copy of it, but I don't. Maybe I just got embarrassed and threw it away. But like, when she told me, she's like, I've been thinking about YouTube because I digitized it. It's on YouTube now. Here's a link. And by the way, nobody can find it.

[Slade Austin]

It's.

[Brenda Rose]

Trust me, it's locked down, by the way. It's not. It's not findable.

[Slade Austin]

You destroyed YouTube. You took down one, literally one of the top four websites in the world. You destroyed it.

[Brenda Rose]

Google Vimeo. Vimeo no longer exists because I burnt it on Sunday. But no, it's like she sent it to me. I'm like, whoa. I'm going to have to really get into a mental place aka 17 miller lights in order to watch this thing.

[Slade Austin]

Because you are going to be a.

[Brenda Rose]

Problem in about six or seven hours. I'm about to be a problem. Miller Light. She's not coming back. I just. I don't know. So I did watch some of it and it just like there are scenes where we filmed it in my dad's metal shop and I had her put on a. Had her put on a welding helmet and she's like slowly like pounding steel or something. And there's this weird. This weird.

[Slade Austin]

I appreciate you being this specific. I appreciate the specificity because it's helping me picture it.

[Brenda Rose]

Even though I know we're driving around downtown Cleveland. There's this area, I believe it's a rainy night. I could be wrong. I remember setting up a tripod at night on railroad tracks near an area where like smokestacks were actually shooting fire out the top of. Well, this happens somewhere in Cleveland. So it was like this visual imagery that I can't full. And I got to say I was like tr. Was it today's dazzling knows yesterday's dazzling donor who said like try to give yourself a hug. Try to. I took that sort of also sort of try to give yourself a break. I'm trying so hard to give myself a break on this. Especially knowing that my co collaborator, my. The Joel to my Ethan Cohen is quite proud of this and like. And I don't want to take that away. And I would be mortified if she heard me giving my. My raw. Although I will be honest with her when we do chat that I just can't get out of the cringe of my own head over this kinds of stuff. I can't. I can't think of anything I've ever done in the past that doesn't bring me a great amount of Ajita. I suppose so I guess.

[Slade Austin]

Right. Well, that's the thing. And. And I'm sure this person knowing you for years and years will. I like. It would be like if you were just like. Like hating on an old episode of tbtl. I would not take that. Maybe I should, but I wouldn't take that really as a criticism of me. I would take that as you kind of feeling the way you sometimes do about your contribution to the show. Which of course I need to legally, I must say your contribution to the show is great. It's why people like the show, but you don't. You have a hard time connecting with that information. So I'm sure that she'll be able to understand that you're wanting to destroy the original tape and then anywhere that it's even been digitally reproduced. And then the building where the servers are, where it was digitally. None of that is a reflection on your friend. That's just because of how you tend to feel about. Well, let's be honest, your own self.

[Brenda Rose]

I do think it'd be hilarious if I went back and I listened to an old episode of tbtl. But I found it cringy because of your performance and not.

[Slade Austin]

Well, I mean, to be honest, that's definitely happened. Happened many, many, many, many times. But I. Maybe this is just a survival instinct for me. I choose to assume that when you are really down on some collaborative project we've done, it's because you hate yourself.

[Brenda Rose]

Yes, of course.

[Slade Austin]

Not me. Yeah. All right, well, that seems like a good place to wrap up today's episode of the program.

[Brenda Rose]

Just a little. Just a little light self loathing on a.

[Slade Austin]

Just a touch of self loathing on a Wednesday. But I'm sure we'll be feeling much better by tomorrow when I will still be here in D.C. and we will have one final episode from the east coast, so. And I'll be able to tell you how Metallica was. Yeah, you'll have a bobblehead. I'll have. I'll have listened to more Pantera than in my tire my entire life previous to it. That's going to be a lot. So I'll give you a full report tomorrow anyway, in the meantime, thank you for listening. We're going to be back here tomorrow. I've already said that part. So now here I can just say the ending of the show, which is, thanks for listening and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Brenda Rose]

And good luck to all. Good night, Luke. Power out.