TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live

Episode #4542 “Rates With Kate”
Date: August 28, 2025
Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh

Episode Overview

In this lively Thursday installment, Luke and Andrew lean into their signature blend of earnestness and goofballery, tackling health anxiety over blood pressure monitoring, the realities of aging (and trying to cheat at your own doctor checkups), and their mutual friendships with the famous-but-down-to-earth (Chris Hayes). They also spiral with delight through a nostalgic rabbit hole about the infamous “Clan of the Cave Bear”—its literary phenomenon, the movie adaptation, and what language Neanderthals may have actually used. Technical quirks about modern life (AI reading voices, file management, secure Android folders) and quirky listener messages round out the banter-driven episode.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Blood Pressure Monitors: Wrist vs. Arm Cuff Debate

• Listener “Rates with Kate” Email

  • Kate, a TBTL listener and registered nurse, weighs in after Andrew and Luke compare notes on home blood pressure monitors. She confirms:
    • Wrist-based monitors are not reliable—“Wrist cuffs are not real accurate and they trend low.” (06:01)
    • In clinical practice, a wrist cuff might be used first to calm “white coat syndrome” patients, but an arm cuff is needed for real accuracy.
    • Tips: Arm should be at heart level, resting on your lap; don’t talk during measurement.
    • Genetics can outweigh weight/exercise factors for blood pressure.
    • “These aren’t useless, but if you want accuracy, use an arm cuff.” (16:01)
  • Luke laments realizing he’s been trusting a “toy” wrist monitor. Andrew’s numbers coming down (“128 over 79! Look at this healthy boy. You can’t handle my health.” (11:09)) spark joyful rivalry.

• Luke’s Product Regret

  • He repeatedly tries his wrist monitor (“83 over 49… I’m legally dead!” (12:13)) before admitting: “So what it means is this was a waste of $20.”
  • Andrew: “Have you tried putting it around your neck? … for a little fun time.” (13:34)

• Doctors’ Appointments and “Cheating” Behavior

  • Both hosts admit to trying to “cram” for doctor visits by living healthy for a few days prior.
    • Luke: “Starting today… everything about my life changes… Eventually, it’s like, definitely the week leading up, and then I’m on the treadmill the morning of…” (18:03)

2. TBTL Celebrity Connections: Chris Hayes Makes Obama’s Reading List

• Chris Hayes’ latest book is named on Barack Obama’s summer reading list—news which causes (gentle) existential confusion for Luke about how his life overlaps with much-more-famous friends.
• Text exchange among the trio reveals Chris’s humility and priorities: After Luke and Andrew say congrats, Chris responds:
  • “It’s very cool. But much more pressingly, where is today’s TBTL?!” (20:09)
• Becca’s excited all-caps reaction (“OH, I KNOW.”) is cited as the most animated Luke’s seen her about any news:
  • “I think this might be the most excited she’s ever been in her life…” (23:05)
• Andrew, joking about lesser-known Obama picks: “I was surprised that Flowers in the Attic ended up on his list as well.” (25:10)

3. Digression Rabbit Hole: ‘Clan of the Cave Bear’ and Communicating like a Neanderthal

• Sparked by joking about “Obama’s book list,” the hosts recall the once-monolithic ‘Clan of the Cave Bear’ phenomenon.
• Movie adaptation starring Daryl Hannah is dissected:
  • Trailer is lampooned for saying nothing about the film’s story—just touting sales figures.
    • “For 52 weeks – an entire year…” (27:27)
• Andrew does a dramatic cold reading from an excerpt, set to the actual Alan Silvestri film soundtrack, followed by doubt:
  • “I can see why this was on the bestseller list for 52 weeks—also one year.” (39:02)
• Ongoing inside joke: Repeatedly playing the “scientific recreation” of what a Neanderthal voice would sound like—a TBTL classic (click “the sound scientists say Neanderthals made”). (58:56)
• Luke confesses, “That’s all I need to know about ‘Clan of the Cave Bear’ to know that I don’t think it’s good.” (39:57)
• “You don’t like fiction anyway, right? You don’t like…the highest of highly speculative fiction.” (40:17)

4. Media & Audio: AI vs. Human Voices

• Luke details adapting to AI-voiced reading of magazine articles, notably in the New Yorker app.
  • “I just kept cycling through… everyone was like ‘written by’ So-and-so, ‘read by AI’…” (51:20)
  • Andrew: “The AI voices can do a really damn good job.” (52:24)
• Both agree that improvements have made AI voice audio more unsettling—now that it’s “almost as good,” it’s weirder.
  • “Isn’t that kind of almost the definition of uncanny valley?” (55:16)
• Both have adapted out of necessity, with Luke admitting: “Today… it was basically fine. It was tolerable. And that’s how they get ya.” (53:57)

5. Listener Blursday (Birthday) Messages

• Multiple heartfelt and silly birthday shout-outs, such as:
  • “Patrick says…‘Darling, you are the gin in my tonic, the cream in my coffee, the light of my life…’” (57:29)
• In-jokes about butchering names (Tooele, Utah), and pronunciation gaffes (“diastole”, “systole”).
• Phyllis Fletcher gives her blood pressure calming tip: “When they put the cuff on, imagine falling asleep in a bed made out of pizza.” (Hosts: “That actually stresses me out…” (66:07))
• Shoutouts to “DBTL daddies,” polymer scientists, and grateful blurbs from listeners whose lives the show has touched.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Luke on Bad Blood Pressure Monitor Numbers:

  • “Okay, well, that doesn’t even make sense. This thing does not work, Andrew. It says I’m 83 over 49. I’m legally dead.” (12:13)

• Andrew on TBTL’s Hypothetical AI Endgame:

  • “All of that is to say… AI voices can do a really damn good job… It bums me out as somebody who’s clearly knocking on the door of a career in audiobook reading.” (52:24)

• Listener Nurse Kate’s Killer Line:

  • “Wrist cuffs are not real accurate and they trend low… If we have a patient that has white coat syndrome… we will take their first read with a wrist cuff and tell them how low the number is to calm them down, and then move on to the arm cuff to get more accurate numbers.” (06:02)

• On Chris Hayes’ Fame:

  • “To get on for Barack Obama to…have read your book…that’s the stuff authors dream about. That was just a Wednesday and our friend Chris Hayes woke up, presumably climbed onto his electric Vespa…” (21:57)

• Andrew, on Blood Pressure Ritual:

  • “I’m getting healthier the more I podcast.” (10:01)

• Luke, Joking About His Wrist Cuff:

  • “Guy gets under 130 and he thinks he’s Jack LaLanne…” (12:42)

• Luke, Burned by Partner’s True Excitement (for Chris Hayes):

  • “I think this might be the most excited [Becca’s] ever been in her life… I got to see what it’s like when she’s actually excited about something.” (23:08)

• Andrew’s Blood Pressure Data Management System:

  • “If I’m going to be checking my blood pressure every day, I’m going to create a folder on my phone where I take a photo. But it’s not an easy system…” (08:39)

• Classic TBTL inside jokes

  • “You can’t handle my health.” (11:09)
  • “The earth was not supposed to move.” (38:57)
  • “Was that a Stitch Fix shirt?” (47:13)
  • On AI voices: “It was almost more unsettling than when it was just very clearly a robot.” (55:16)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:14 – Luke’s intro musings, Big Dog t-shirts, summer weather
• 03:37 – Andrew takes his blood pressure on air
• 04:19 – Listener email from Kate, the registered nurse
• 06:01 – Kate’s key advice about wrist/arm blood pressure monitors
• 10:01 – Andrew’s pride in his blood pressure dropping
• 11:09–13:34 – Live blood pressure readings, comedic failures
• 18:01 – Confessing to “cramming” before doctor’s appointments
• 19:39 – Chris Hayes on Obama’s reading list
• 20:09 – Text thread with Chris Hayes; “Where’s TBTL?”
• 25:10–31:47 – Clan of the Cave Bear riff, reading from the book/mockery
• 38:57 – Dramatic reading from ‘Clan of the Cave Bear’
• 51:20 – Luke on AI voices in The New Yorker app
• 55:16 – Uncanny valley feelings about advanced AI reading
• 57:29–68:00 – Blursday messages, pizza bed visualization, “Tooele” pronunciation, campus memories
• 68:35 – Luke on his dad’s traveling backscratcher
• 69:03 – Outro, shoutout to his brother Samwise

Tone & Language

The episode blends friendly exasperation, self-deprecating humor, earnest health anxiety, affectionate ribbing, and pop culture nostalgia. Banter is quick, with in-jokes and callbacks for regular listeners, but also plenty of context for newcomers.

Summary

“Rates With Kate” highlights TBTL at its best: blending everyday worries about personal health and aging with literary detours, cultural touchstones, and deeply silly asides. The show celebrates community (both listeners and friends-who-happen-to-be-famous), navigates the encroachment of AI and modern tech in daily life, and reinforces the joys of being, as always, “too beautiful to live.”