
Luke is confused over the decision by the now-famous “Crying Mariners Fan” to wear a Savannah Bananas hat at an M’s playoff game. He and Andrew also discuss an A.I.-generated song that has both of them feeling uneasy and a Seattle Times Rant...
Loading summary
Luke Burbank
Here he comes.
Andrew Walsh
Here comes John Wayne. I'm not gonna cry about my pa. I'm gonna build an airport, put my name on it. Why, Michael? So you can fly away from your feelings? You can keep them bottled up, but they will come out, Michael. Sometimes in the most unexpected. Hey, where the. My hard Boiled day. Tbtl. I know I come on strong, all right?
Luke Burbank
I radiate power. I can't help that.
Andrew Walsh
The employees at Trader Joe's, Heaven sent. They are saints. They were made in a lab. The manners. And when they say, how are you?
Luke Burbank
I act.
Andrew Walsh
I'm like, I'm not well. And they're like, we've biscottis trees.
Luke Burbank
They're all around us. But who gives a 56 pounds of beef that corresponds to, I don't know.
Andrew Walsh
What five or six year old kid?
Luke Burbank
What podcast are you talking about? The tbl.
Andrew Walsh
Tbtl.
Luke Burbank
All right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Tuesday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.
Andrew Walsh
A good podcast helps you connect the dots.
Luke Burbank
My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host.
Andrew Walsh
Lol. Laugh out loud.
Luke Burbank
Omg. Oh, my God.
Andrew Walsh
Wtf?
Luke Burbank
Why the face? Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where. Oh, my pa. It's just beautiful. Absolutely is. A spectacular October 7th. Blue skies, the cows are in the river. And we are ready, friends, for episode 4570 in a collector series.
Andrew Walsh
Let the fun begin.
Luke Burbank
I got fooled, my friends. I got bamboozled by AI Music the other day.
Andrew Walsh
Does this sound like a musical robot?
Luke Burbank
I'm gonna tell you about it coming up. It happened at Dozer Day. I was driving heavy equipment. Also, you know the Seattle Times, right? You've heard of it? It's a newspaper in Seattle. And they got their rants and they got their raves and some real doozies. On Monday, we might run through those as well. And also, of course, we're gonna say hello to this guy. Longest running cobra of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. People may not know this. His salary here at TBT was $1 a year because he doesn't need the money. He actually is independently wealthy from something that happened to him. A couple of years ago.
Andrew Walsh
I sued the city because I was accidentally sewed into the pants of the.
Luke Burbank
Big Charlie Browns at the Thanksgiving Day parade. He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.
Andrew Walsh
Now, I'm not allowed to talk about that lawsuit, you understand you're sort of Starting off putting me on the wrong foot here, because if I say anything, I could get in some pretty hot legal issue. Might have to give all that money back, in fact. But it's good to be here.
Luke Burbank
That was. The terms of the settlement were that you not disclose it on this podcast.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, exactly. I need that money for my wine, Luke. You know, I need that money for my wine. How are you? How are you feeling? I'll tell you, I just got done listening to about, I think, 90 minutes of Seattle Sports radio pre game broadcast. Some folks coming, some folks out there in Detroit broadcasting here locally, and I feel like I'm. I think I'm ready for this afternoon's game. It looks like it's gonna start on time, but I'm getting a little bit anxious about it. The last I heard is. The last I heard from the folks on the radio, probably about 15, 20 minutes ago, is that it looks like the weather system that could potentially delay or postpone or even cancel the game is maybe blowing in a direction that is favorable to start the game. It might be delayed by a little bit, they said. But they said they'd be very reticent to. Here's where I feel like. And I'm sorry, I feel like I couldn't tell if I was being, like, kind of trolled or. I wasn't in on the joke today because on the local sports radio show, Brock and Salk, they were talking about how it would be very unlikely that they would start this game with the possibility of then having to pause it with a delay in the middle. And that's what really scares me because that's been killer for the Mariners this season.
Luke Burbank
I don't want any chaos because I feel like the Mariners are a superior team in terms of lineup, and I just want to play the game. I don't want any funny business.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, like the funny business that happened last time Logan started and there was a rain delay. I believe you were at that game there in the Bronx. It was just a kind of a nightmare scenario. So anyway. But the thing. The reason I feel like I'm being trolled is I was listening to Brock and Salk and obviously. Well, I'll say that Salk obviously knows baseball way more than me and the history of baseball way more than me. And he said, I just can't imagine a world where the MLB would let a postseason game begin and then pause it. And he's like, I don't think that's ever happened before in the postseason. And I'm like, are you. Are you not considering the World Series, the post season? Do you consider the World Series the postseason? Like, isn't that the famous thing that happened in the, in the Cubs win over Cleveland and the. Whatever it was, Game five or game seven maybe, of the World Series? I thought that was like a famous, famous example of them pausing a game mid game and then having a pretty big impact on the momentum of the game.
Luke Burbank
Maybe they learned their lesson.
Andrew Walsh
Maybe. But I guess the thing that I just heard Salk say, I can't think of a time they've ever done that in the postseason. And I'm like, I think people have shirts celebrating that moment. It seemed like a pretty. It seemed like either I'm not, I'm so not confident in my baseball knowledge that I always assume I'm missing something that I believe.
Luke Burbank
Yesterday you clarified that you were hoping that you were accidentally plagiarizing someone because if what you were having was an original thought, you didn't trust it.
Andrew Walsh
I didn't want to stand behind it. Is that who you want for your radio partner, by the way? Somebody who doles out those kinds of hot takes?
Luke Burbank
I, you know what? I think it's been working for 4569 episodes. Why wouldn't it work today? I'm just trying to find out what the history of rain outs in the post season might be like.
Andrew Walsh
I was literally questioning, is the World Series not considered part of the world of the post season? Like, I was like, is there some sort of a, is there some sort of a, like, you know, just a vocabulary thing that I'm missing here?
Luke Burbank
Yeah. I don't know if I remember that particular game or that being legendary. All I can think of when I think of legendary postseason games is, of course, Steve Bartman. That's all I can think.
Andrew Walsh
And then peace and love to our.
Luke Burbank
Cubs fans, including our friend, television's Chris Hayes. I don't mean to bring up a painful topic, but that's. To me, that might be the most epic moment in postseason baseball history ever.
Andrew Walsh
I'm looking this up here, but it did go to the seventh and of course, Chicago did one in win in 2016. And I'm quite sure.
Luke Burbank
Oh, that was in 2016. Okay.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Because that, that was when the Cubs won and then Trump won because Chris Hayes made that deal with the devil. If you'll.
Luke Burbank
I did see something on TikTok. Listen, let's not please go too ham on our friend who's probably licking his wounds after last night's baseball baseball man's game. But I did see a TikTok that said nothing in this country has gone well since the Cubs won the World Series, which is not fair to our Chicago friends. But it's, it's. I mean, that's one of those things where it's proximity and not causality. But you could say, I mean, you could say that very little has gone right since that event.
Andrew Walsh
Let's see here in terms of this country, the 2016 World Series, it was also the first game seven to have a rain delay which occurred as the 10th inning was about to start because it became the sixth. I mean, I'm pretty sure I can't remember. And if I was going to raise this specter, I should have looked more closely at the box score, which I'm trying to get to now. But I feel like that rain delay. Yeah, after the rain delay, it looks like maybe Chicago came in and scored two runs and Cleveland only one. But either way, like, I know that people in Cleveland or I believe that people in Cleveland feel very much like that rain delay delay really hurt the momentum of the game and change the outcome.
Luke Burbank
I don't like any, you know, force majeure. I don't like anything. It's like I don't like NFL games, important NFL games, when it snows and there's like three feet of snow on the field and it just changes the entire. Or like it's crazy windy and rainy. Like, I like to see these professional athletes who are incredible operating at their highest sort of capacity, not just like dealing with some crazy. I don't know. And I guess in the case of the rain delay in baseball, they're not going to have them out there presumably in torrential rain. But you're right, it's just a, it's a momentum thing. I don't like shaking up the snow globe on the game by adding in a two hour break in the middle of it.
Andrew Walsh
Are you. But just to bring it back to this, and I'm sorry that we right away got into the history of baseball and I understand that a lot of people come to TBTL not for our. But for my particular take on.
Luke Burbank
You're kind of the Bill James of baseball.
Andrew Walsh
Exactly. Thank you. But generally, I meant that really to be a conversation starter about how you're feeling because I will say I got up kind of early today. I took a long walk. I like, I'm really in the nice. I've been like, I saw Coyote. I don't know if that's a good sign or a bad sign, but I'm Just sort of, like, I just been, like, really preparing for this Genevieve and I prerecorded our podcast last night so that when I'm done with today. Yeah, like, I've cleared the. I've cleared the deck. I was just kind of like, okay, I just want to be prepared because. And I hate to say this, and I'm not. I'm not being pessimistic here. I really don't know what to think about this Game three, but I think I sort of mentioned this to you on the show yesterday as it was dawning on me, and then this or maybe later on in the day. Yesterday, I felt more strongly about the fact that, like, if the Mariners game. If the Mariners lose, and if it's an especially painful loss, and there are some losses that are more painful than others, I just was like, I don't want to have to open up a microphone and do a podcast. You know what I mean about commercials. I could do a podcast maybe about the game, but, like, I don't want to. Just grief. Are there any podcasts about grief? I wonder if someone should really start one of those. Maybe even the combination of, like, where comedy and grief kind of intersect. Anyway, just an idea, but. So I was just kind of like, I just wanted to. So then once I kind of had the idea of recording yesterday was Jenna with Genevieve. I then just sort of started building my day towards, okay, supposedly at 1 o' clock or 1 o' clock ish, depending on the weather, hopefully this game will start. And afterwards, even if I have work to do, it's not work that I have to, like, talk into a microphone about. You know what I mean? I don't want to come back to a workday where I have to, like, kind of just, hey, I hope you guys like this commercial. I'm dying on the inside.
Luke Burbank
Dang it. I wish I wouldn't have laughed over that, because that would be. That would be a nice little thing to ISO. Yeah. So this is my biggest question. Am I going to watch the game? I actually cleared out my schedule. You mentioned before the show to me off air. Oh, isn't this the day that you've got a hard out? And I was like, did have a hard out. Canceled. The hard out thing.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, Because.
Luke Burbank
Because of this. Because I want to be able to watch the game. But this is the big question. Will I watch it here in the Madrona Hill studio or will I watch it in the house? And the thing about watching it in the house is Walt is here and he's working and he'll be going in and out a lot and he'll probably be asking me for updates. And I said this yesterday on the show. I mean, I love my dad so much, it's difficult for me to put it into words. But he doesn't live and die by this stuff the way I do. And I fear that he will accidentally not if things are going badly for us, he won't be willing to change into the sackcloth and ashes that I've set aside for him.
Andrew Walsh
He won't believe.
Luke Burbank
Exactly. And so I am concerned about watching the game and living, having this experience with also being in the home environment with someone who is not really particularly invested in it. So maybe I just turn the Madrona Hills. That means I would be watching it on my laptop, but I don't have a television out here. So that's a whole other question. Although these modern day laptops are practically the size of a tv. Like, how big do I need the Mariners to be when I'm watching them? So that's the big question for me is do I watch it in the house or do I watch it out here? But I will be watching it. I am exceedingly nervous. Yesterday you raised, I think the very fair question, is this fun? Is this enjoyable? And as of right now, I, I can't give you a yes on that, Andrew. It very much depends on how it goes. If, if the Mariners get out of the gate fast and if the Mariners are leading 7 nothing in this game, it will be fun. I will then be. I'll actually turn the computer back on. We'll get on Riverside and I'll give you an answer and the answer will be yes, it's fun.
Andrew Walsh
I need a verbal yes.
Luke Burbank
But if it's nail biting or if they're losing, it's not fun. And I'm not going to get back on the computer because like you, I don't want to have to talk about it.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, right. Exactly. If there's no show tomorrow, everybody, you don't have to check the box score. You just know there's no show tomorrow.
Luke Burbank
Yeah. You'll understand what happens.
Andrew Walsh
No, we'll be fine by tomorrow. You know, right now to answer that question, like, not to get overly earnest about such a silly thing, but I am. It's hard for me to think about this moment without imagining myself looking back on this moment, if that makes sense. And while we discussed yesterday that feeling of like, especially because both of the games have been very close games, hanging on every single pitch and knowing that every pitch, every swing of the bat could be a literal game changer. Is in a certain way, it's a tough mental space to be in. But also when you talk, when you look back at this, you're gonna, yes, have flash memories of pacing next to your tv, of looking at your beautiful niece, photo of her taped to your television or above your television. I'm gonna have memories of being just angrily ironing the pants I'm wearing right now on Saturday. I'm also gonna have memories of being at the Eagles for a win, but I'm also gonna have memories of the week leading up to this. I'm going to have memories of these conversations. Like, it's not just the moments that you're watching the game. And I think that unless something really feels like a screw, you know, like. And I don't even, like, if it really feels, like, unfair to me in some way, which is not a high bar to cross when I'm feeling bummed about my team. But if I, you know, if I feel like there was mistakes made by the officiating crew or if the weather. Like, again, I think he's a prisoner.
Luke Burbank
Of his own grievances.
Andrew Walsh
There's our boy. I feel bad for dunking on him earlier, but you know what I mean, Like, I don't want my memory to be. Everything was so great until that windstorm came in and then disrupted all the momentum. And then we are never. We are not gonna make it to the postseason again for another 21 years or whatever. Like, that would be. That would tarnish weeks ago.
Luke Burbank
I already declared them the dominant force in the AL west for the.
Andrew Walsh
That is true. You know what? I'm sorry that I had forgotten that fact.
Luke Burbank
Thank you. So let it be written. So let it be done.
Andrew Walsh
So let it be done. You know, but that's it. It's like, really. It's like, in a certain way, you do. I think I used this term incorrectly yesterday, but you sort of do play the outcome a little bit. Like, I think the memories will be somewhat affected by the full outcome of this. But I like to think that even if the Mariners do lose this series, at least we didn't get swept. And it's not.
Luke Burbank
We made it to the second round.
Andrew Walsh
We. What's that? We did.
Luke Burbank
We made it to the second round of the playoffs. It's pretty impressive. That's a joke because we didn't play in the first round.
Andrew Walsh
Right? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, we didn't play in the wild card. Luke. The reason I paused there is because I keep on doing doubting Myself, I was listening to a national baseball podcast with real baseball knowers yesterday, and they kept saying that the Mariners had not won a playoff game since 2001.
Luke Burbank
And I @ home, well, at home.
Andrew Walsh
I know they haven't won a game at home, but these guys kept saying they haven't won a playoff game. I'm like, well, we beat the Blue Jays in 2022. Then I started asking myself, wait, are the Wild Cards not considered playoff games? That's how insecure I am. And that's why I was insecure listening to Salk today talk about no game in the postse would be paused for rain in memory. I'm just like, am I not understanding the terminology here or are people just making mistakes?
Luke Burbank
I think, well, I think that maybe the confusion is that the Mariners have not won a home. They had not won a home playoff baseball game in 24 years. And that's because of the weirdness of how the playoffs work. And that was the clarification. And then probably some other people just misheard that, misunderstood that and took that to be the Mariners haven't won any playoff game in 24 years. Which is of course untrue because we did beat the Toronto Blue Jays, but that was all in Toronto.
Andrew Walsh
I was honestly, last, last night when I was listening to that podcast, I was thinking that I was like, I was so insecure. I was like, they keep. And I know the stat that they haven't won at home because they lost in that 18 inning game, you know, in 2022 here at home. But I was like, maybe these guys, maybe they don't consider the wild card to be officially the playoffs. Maybe I'm still getting my baseball terminology wrong, but maybe those guys just don't know as much about the Seattle Mariners as I do. Luke. Maybe I just need some.
Luke Burbank
That's, you know, that's possible. Give yourself some credit. You wouldn't wear a Savannah Bananas hat to a Mariners game. Like this dude that was crying on TV who has become very famous. I saw them cut to him when, when Julio Rodriguez hit that double that brought Cal Raleigh home. They cut to a. A guy at the game who was getting emotional and his, his partner, which was taking his glasses off and he was wiping tears away. Turns out the guy is the heir to the Dick's drive in throne and a conservative commentator over on one of those radio stations that. The station that used to be called like seven the truth or something.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, but 770, they stopped calling it the truth because I think that they've stopped Even trying to pretend they tell the truth now it's called Seattle Red. Sometimes they.
Luke Burbank
I find that really funny. I find that really funny that that was. They decided that that was a better branding for them. I mean, I mean that quite seriously. Like, it's weird to me. But anyway, putting that aside, all I could think about with this guy because I didn't know any of his backstory in the moment was, what are you doing wearing a Savannah Bananas hat to the Mariner game? Now, the reason this is weird is because I also am not the kind of person who would probably wear a Mariner's hat to a Mariners game, but I would definitely not wear a different baseball team's hat, and I definitely wouldn't wear a pretend baseball team where they do backflips in between pitches. That to me. And listen, I know people love the bananas, and I don't want to yuck any yums. I just. They're the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball, and people love it, and I think that's really awesome. There's something unserious to me about wearing a Savannah Bananas hat.
Andrew Walsh
Here's my guess on this is. First of all, I just want to get it out there. Yeah. This guy's a. I was so bummed to see that this was Saul Spady. That guy's a total pos. I turned on the radio one time and I didn't know it was him talking. I was like, what is this hate I am hearing on the radio? And then later on, I found out it was this guy. So when I saw him on tv, I didn't know that he was Saul Spady. I found out later and was pretty bummed by that story storyline. But here's my guess on that. Luke is. I think the Savannah Bananas were just in town. They were. Yeah. So my guess is he probably went to that and just had some pretty fresh merch, Right?
Luke Burbank
Yeah. But regardless, it's an unserious thing to bring to a Major league playoff baseball game, in my opinion. I. I wouldn't wear a Harlem Globetrotters jersey to a Sonics playoff game. Like, I feel like it is a deeply unserious move.
Andrew Walsh
Funny.
Luke Burbank
Well, maybe you can wear that to a Sonic's game.
Andrew Walsh
For you, Andrew. I just get them back first. We have to. We have to go it.
Luke Burbank
Step one, get the team back. I'm kind of worried about that. Not that. Sorry that everything's descending into a sports talk, but the Portland Trailblazers have a very interesting rookie named Yang Hansen that is like, a really interesting player. Really tall guy, but he's got great handles, as they say. And, like, I'm kind of intrigued by him, and I'm kind of intrigued by this Trailblazers team, but it's like I can't get. And that's, you know, the closest pro basketball team to me. I can't give them my heart because my heart is still being saved for the potential that Seattle will ever get another basketball team back. But I just. I thought it was. It was a. You know, again, I'm not. I don't want to criticize anybody who likes a Savannah Bananas, because again, that's a fun thing and everybody should like what they like. I. I couldn't quite square the idea that this person who was so moved by this baseball team that they were crying over this. Go ahead, run. Was also a person who was wearing a Savannah Bananas hat. I just couldn't square those two things. I could see a person wearing a Savannah Bananas. I could see a person crying about the Mariners. I didn't see the same person doing both of those things at the time.
Andrew Walsh
I had the same thought. I was like, that's kind of. That's strange. You'd think that somebody who's that emotional over a Mariners game would be, like, more decked out in straight up Mariners gear. But then you learn that the same guy who refers to people who tried to help homeless people as the homeless industrial complex, and you're like, oh, okay, this guy's an idiot.
Luke Burbank
How does it feel to be part of that, Andrew?
Andrew Walsh
Be part of the. I'm part of the homeless industrial complex. And how does it feel to be.
Luke Burbank
Part of the homeless industrial complex?
Andrew Walsh
It's paying dividends, Luke. It's paying dividends.
Luke Burbank
You're laughing all the way to the bank.
Andrew Walsh
That's right.
Luke Burbank
The blood bank where you're picking up food. Yeah, the blood bank where you're selling your plasma to buy shit at the restaurant supply store and find out from your neighbor that you're also watching a puppy. It's all. Everything is working out really well.
Andrew Walsh
Yours was better. I wish I had said food bank. I'm just glad neither one of us said sperm bank.
Luke Burbank
But mine actually. Mine was actually a little bit misleading because I would imagine. I don't know this for a fact, but I'm guessing. Do you get your supplies that you then distribute on Sundays from a food bank or are they bought by you and your volunteers?
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, mostly volunteers make food and then sometimes we buy sandwiches.
Luke Burbank
I guess the joke could be that you are going to the food bank because you are donating your own money to this, which kind of works, but it also kind of sort of. I don't like ever making the food bank or people who go to the food bank. The. The punchline of the joke. So I'm. I'm coming back around to the point. The blood bank is funnier.
Andrew Walsh
Blood bank is always a great punchline. There's always money 101.
Luke Burbank
What? Yeah, exactly. It's the comedy. What? The comedy speaks for itself.
Andrew Walsh
The comedy factor speaks for itself.
Luke Burbank
I had a weird experience at Dozer Day recently. Andrew not driving the equipment, which was so much fun. Oh, my gosh, it was so great. But it was. I kept hearing they had a DJ there. So this was a thing that I went to this weekend. We were filming it for tv. And it's a chance for, like, you bring your kids out or adults, anybody who wants to. You can get in these, like, big, heavy machinery things, like an excavator or a. What I've always called a bulldozer in my life, but I think it's technically called a skid steer. And, like, you can drive them around and operate them, and it's actually very, very fun. But they also had a DJ and kind of this little grass infield area where kids were dancing around and having fun and the DJs playing music. Everything was great. But I kept hearing this music that I was like, is this a song about Dozer Day? And I was talking to the woman who came up with this whole thing, like, 20 years ago. This was her idea. Her husband. She and her husband own this big heavy equipment company that does a lot of road work in the area. And she thought kids would like to go on some of these. So why don't we park some of them in a quarry and we'll invite kids out. And 5,000 people showed up. They had like two. They had like two excavators. They were like, we should probably enlarge this. But anyway, I was talking to her about the music. I was like, do you have Dozer Day songs? She goes, yeah. She'd go, my son did that. And I was like, oh, wow, is he a musician? She goes, no. He got him on the computer. And I was like, what? And it was like this guy, this young person, probably in their 20s, had just basically used the program, Andrew, that we used to have to write those weird songs about. Like our show in Philadelphia at the Friends Center.
Andrew Walsh
That's right, yeah.
Luke Burbank
When I tell you, this sounded exactly like the current state of country music, except it was about Heavy equipment. It was remarkable. These. Because my thought was, oh, these are songs about bulldozers. And they keep saying dozer day. I'm like, but these are good songs. Like, these sound professionally produced. Oh, your son did them. He must be a professional musician. He must be an aspiring musician. And he put his. His heart and soul into this. It's like, no, he's just a guy who knows where the website is that you just tell it. Write me. Write me. Like an upbeat kind of modern country number about skid steers. And. But make sure you work in the term dozer day. And if you would have told me that, like, you got a songwriting team from Nashville to write these songs, I've been like, they did a pretty good job.
Andrew Walsh
How does that make you feel?
Luke Burbank
Sad.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
Because it's. It completely. Basically, it passed my personal Turing test. That's what I mean. Like, I didn't hear it and go, well, this was made in two seconds by a. By a large language model. I heard it, and I thought a human being got in and look was pretty good at production and basically made this whole song, this. This very passable song about bulldozers. And it was like, no. Someone just hit go on a program, and it wrote this in two seconds. And now I'm listening to it, and if nobody told me that it was from an AI program, I would have thought it was from humans. And I found that to be quite unsettling.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And the reason I'm just, like, kind of laying back on this is it's really hard for me to articulate my feelings about it. This story, as you tell it, like, actually is sort of a notch in whatever direction I'm moving in this, because I'll tell you what. I think that, with all due respect, I think that some of the worst case scenario stories I was hearing or some of the outrage around AI and art at the beginning of this, let's say, kind of, like, phenomenon as it began a couple of years ago, when it suddenly. I know that I Has been around for a long time for all the nerds out there. Like, I understand that. But, like, this has become a phenomenon in the past couple of. Where it's being directly advertised to us as a tool. I've never seen anything like this before where it's so clear that it's, like, a solution to a problem we don't have. Like, I was here for the beginning of the Internet, and that's. We even played dorky commercials from the early 90s. But it still makes sense. Like, it is Easier to do your taxes on this machine. And you can also play video games. Like, it just like it didn't seem. The computers and the Internet did not seem wedged into our culture the way AI is. Like, you don't. Matthew McConaughey is sitting in a hospital in a commercial saying, like, saying, they're putting me up in stirrups now because they didn't use AI and they think I'm pregnant or whatever he's implying in that commercial. It's like, that's not happening at hospitals and it's only going to start happening in hospitals if they start relying on AI More like, honestly, like, it's. It seems so back ass words. But then in the cultural side of things, I heard people kind of. I don't know, I want to be gentle here. But sometimes either misrepresenting the way I was being used because I was kind of like, well, you're. You're kind of blaming the tool when really you just have some unscrupulous people using the tool in a wrong way, sort of. And that was sort of. I sort of felt like some headlines and some general conversational takeaways weren't actually capturing what was happening with AI but your story right now, it's just like straight up, we're at some sort of happy festival. There's a DJ playing music, People are enjoying it, and no human made that music. Why is that a problem? For me it is. Yeah. And I can. There are things I can say like, obviously that you are taking money out of the hands of performers who would have been maybe making that music anyway. But then you get into, well, how much if he's playing it off of Spotify, or if this DJ is playing it off of Spotify, how much would the real performer be making off of that anyway? Probably not that much. You know what I mean? I could twist myself in circles. I think there's something more fundamental about your story or more emotional and instinctive that I can't put into words. Why it seems pernicious.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I can't either. By the way, our sound guy on the shoot, who does a lot of other stuff aside from CBS stuff, was explaining that, I guess the current rule is if you want to, like, if you make one of these songs that you use, like, basically a, you know, AI program to write one of these songs, you have to then go in and demonstrate that you have modified it at least 20, 20% of the song in order for you to be able to release the song as a, I guess, copywritten piece of art on, like.
Andrew Walsh
The platforms or something.
Luke Burbank
Yeah. So if I. If I had AI write me one of these songs and I wanted to, like, put it out on Spotify and somehow get paid like Taylor Swift would for her music, I somehow have to demonstrate that, like, there has to be at least 20% of it can't be AI or 20 of it has to be. I don't know how they landed on that amount, but that's apparently part of this whole thing too, is like. Because I was like, man, that's like, I'm. I mean, we've actually heard about this. There's been entire books written about this of, like, all of the AI stuff that's on Spotify now that's, like, taking up huge, huge swaths of it. Of certain, particularly certain kinds of genres of music. A lot of kind of like, electro stuff and kind of sort of atmospheric stuff and things that are, you know, don't necessarily have a lot of vocals in them. Just like there are thousands and thousands and thousands of songs that are just being created by bots or, you know, by bot factories, and they're getting a lot of play. But, yeah, the. I don't know why that. I think it was because again, I have. Up until this point, I feel like I've been pretty aware of when I'm getting an AI situation and when I'm not one, because, you know, it says when I'm searching for stuff on the Internet, it's. It tells me this is the AI overview. I know that means that's what I thinks. Or when I'm talking to a bot, like a chat bot at the airline, you know, I know that that's a chat bot because again, they sort of have to tell me. This was my first experience with interacting with something and having absolutely no idea. And I wouldn't have had an idea that it was, in fact created. And there's. I don't know why this matters, but there's something about the fact that you could just in one second do this. Like you hit a button. And I don't know why it matters that the. That. That the AI program does it so quickly. It's sort of like the thing about a bitcoin that somehow seemed. I mean, I don't. I don't really A, understand crypto or B, have any of it, or C, I don't know, have a particularly strong opinion on it. But one thing I guess I kind of liked about bitcoins was you had to mine them. There was something about the computer having to work it Felt like the input somehow was. Was commensurate to the. To the output, the thing you got out of it later. There's something about this, like, wild asymmetry between the input and the result for this that just feels scary to me, I guess. You know what? It really is. It feels scary to me because I feel like it'll be our jobs next. It'll be this podcast. It'll be everything and anything that I've ever been professionally doing in my life that's sort of quasi creative, you know, hosting of things. Like, it just seems like it with, you know, sort of following Moore's Law, the way that these things improve kind of exponentially. I guess it makes me feel sad because it feels like in my lifetime, I just don't know if. If this kind of thing that I'm doing right now with you will be a job that certainly I can have as a human because there's going to be so much competition. And honestly, how much better is this stuff going to be? Is AI going to be in five years? In 10 years?
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And you don't. Do you mean it specifically as a threat to your income or just generally speaking? Because I don't feel it as a threat to my income or my future.
Luke Burbank
Maybe you're making $1 a year. We've already. Charlie Brown.
Andrew Walsh
That's one. And don't forget all the money I make as part of the.
Luke Burbank
Oh, yeah, from the homeless industrial complex. One hundo a day, five hundo a week.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, that's rich. That's rich. I just don't.
Luke Burbank
You're not worried about it as a financial thing for you. You're just worried about it as like a. What kind of just like the soul of this nation, as it were.
Andrew Walsh
I mean, sort of. And that's why I'm sort of saying, like, I don't know how to articulate what I'm saying. First of all, I don't think AI AI challenge AI Slop to compete with the original brand slop that I've been putting out there for 4,000 episodes. But I love it. I mean, imagine your move.
Luke Burbank
AI Slop.
Andrew Walsh
Imagine the insane programmer who had tried to replicate this. What is wrong with you, Sicko?
Luke Burbank
I do think that this is. This is such a dark analogy. But, like, you know, there's something like, apparently if someone would be. Is firing a gun at you, or if you're in danger, you're supposed to run in a zigzag pattern. Have you ever heard this?
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, Yeah. I always. I remember being a kid and imagining that, sure, Columbo did that.
Luke Burbank
It's like the. It's like this whole podcast is a zigzag pattern. You couldn't. We are, I guess, a little AI proof, because it's just so. It's such a zigzag pattern of absolute inanity that, like, I just. Yeah, I don't think. I don't think you could make it with AI. So we're like. Whereas you could probably make some of the other shows that are a little bit more well thought out and predictable and tend to follow patterns better. Like those shows might be a little more vulnerable. But anyway, I'm sorry I interrupted you.
Andrew Walsh
No, that's okay. You reminded me of something else. I don't really know where I was going with. We can get off of this, somebody. No, I just. I'm not trying to avoid it. I thought you might enjoy this because this is. This is AI encroaching directly into the product that we are creating, but in a way that doesn't bother me. I got a text message from the listener. I don't think I have their. Oh, yeah, no, this is great. This is Missy in Boston. Missy in Boston is the person who sent us a text message, I'm going to say, at the beginning of summer, alerting us to the fact that Spotify, when you listen to podcasts, specifically TBTL and Spotify, it's breaking our show up into automatic chapters and giving them titles. And Missy sent in yesterday's show, just said, sorry if I'm spamming you with this AI stuff, but it's just so funny to see your show given these automatic chapters. Here's what we talked about yesterday. This is just like. I think there's a lot more. We went on for two hours and almost 20 minutes yesterday. I think this.
Luke Burbank
Well, we were making a down payment on today because today's show is going to be 40 minutes.
Andrew Walsh
Okay, good.
Luke Burbank
I've got to go and start doing some various strange rituals so as to ensure a Mariner's victory.
Andrew Walsh
What did you ever do with that? That cursed baseball? That. That.
Luke Burbank
Thank you for asking, Andrew. Yeah, it's upstairs in one of the guest rooms of the house. And it's sitting on a kind of like a. How do you describe it? Kind of like a clothes. There's a clothes hook, mirror type of thing that I have installed in the wall so you can hang a coat on it. It's got kind of a pegboard. It's sitting on top of that because I didn't know what to do with It. I didn't actually bury it. And by the way, the Mariners turned it around after I moved it upstairs. So I've just kind of left it up there. Cause they did really poorly when I had it downstairs, when I had it near the television.
Andrew Walsh
Terrible run.
Luke Burbank
Brutal. Brutal road trip or brutal something trip or home stand. I don't know what.
Andrew Walsh
It was bad.
Luke Burbank
Whatever it was, it was bad. So I took it. But I couldn't quite bring myself to bury it or throw it in the river. It was a nice gift. Oh, by the way, it is signed by Rango.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. It's a plonked ball.
Luke Burbank
That's right.
Andrew Walsh
Because it's funny.
Luke Burbank
And by our friend the Stubbot.
Andrew Walsh
Right? That's right. Because from when he was a twin. So, anyway, so I took it upstairs.
Luke Burbank
And I put it there. And now I don't know what to do with it. I'm just going to leave it.
Andrew Walsh
Touch it, like. Right.
Luke Burbank
I'm not touching it. And I've got this picture of Gemma now taped up above my television, which, I mean, it really helped the other day. So we're gonna keep that rolling and.
Andrew Walsh
It'S gonna keep you in perspective. I took a. Yeah. The other day before, I guess, game one or whatever, I was taking a walk. And like you mentioned, I live near this pretty big cemetery. Is it disrespectful to call a cemetery a graveyard? Because I almost called it a graveyard, but I feel like graveyard implies Halloween.
Luke Burbank
We don't call it a suicide anymore.
Andrew Walsh
No, we don't. That's when you combine all the different. So together.
Luke Burbank
I think you can call it a graveyard. You can whistle past it. Is that graveyard no longer the preferred.
Andrew Walsh
No, I don't know. I was just going to call it a graveyard. And I just sort of feel like you would never. Like. It's not Washelli graveyard.
Luke Burbank
No. Nobody calls it a graveyard.
Andrew Walsh
Except for Halloween stuff. Right.
Luke Burbank
And episodes of Scooby Doo.
Andrew Walsh
Scooby Doo, right. I was.
Luke Burbank
Nobody's calling. You're right about that. No one's calling it a graveyard anymore.
Andrew Walsh
I was walking through there Saturday afternoon or whatever again, listening to baseball stuff and getting a million texts from people around the country. How you feel? How are we doing about this? And my buddy Paulie was texting me, or we were going back and forth about something. I was like, I'm just taking a walk. And I sent him a photo of just, you know, tons of graves. As I just happened to be in the graveyard. And I just said, you know, Just trying to keep things in perspective. And then light. And then I put in all caps. None of these people have ever seen a Mariners World Series. That's how we're keeping things in perspective. Let's go. Yes. None of these people. So anyway, I guess one thing today is I actually looked. So this shirt I'm wearing right now.
Luke Burbank
Oh, yeah, by the way, I lose sight of the AI summary of our show.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. But this shirt I wore. This is the shirt I wore on Sunday to the Eagles. I'm pretty sure when we won.
Luke Burbank
I love that shirt. You wore that shirt in Friendship, Wisconsin, for our barbecue, and I thought it looked very nice. That's the same shirt, right?
Andrew Walsh
Slightly different. When I have a couple that look alike. This style shirt, it's a blue shirt with a kind of micro pattern on it. This is very popular, I think this. This season, or it was this summer. But I wore the same shirt. I tried. Luke. This is a true story. I tried to find the same boxer shorts that I was wearing on Sunday night for the win, and I'm pretty sure I'm wearing them. They happen to be Mariners colors, although they're not Mariners. They're actually Savannah Banana boxers. Actually got it from Saul Spady. Right, Exactly. So I'm just trying to. I'm trying to dial in all of the.
Luke Burbank
I love it.
Andrew Walsh
Okay, so here were some of the chapters of yesterday's show. This starts from the beginning, and I think this just like the first seven or something. Luke's October intro and Mariners playoff anxiety. Andrew's unexpected dog sitting and puppy chaos. Genevieve's cat toilet training and Andrew's grumpiness. Whoa. Luke's past cat toilet training and dignity debate. That's my favorite one.
Luke Burbank
Dignity debate.
Andrew Walsh
The dignity debate. Andrew.
Luke Burbank
Deuces with dignity debate. That's been roiling. It's been roiling.
Andrew Walsh
Our society now is Deuces with Dignity. Technically a nonprofit. I believe it is. Right. Like, because they always ask for donations. They're a 501C3. Andrew's puppy apprehension and Luke's poop advice, celebrating donors and TBTL's daily podcast schedule. I think you were just sort of like, you know, sort of like, reflecting on how long we've been doing this.
Luke Burbank
Oh, sure. That was when we were talking about the donors. And I was. Yeah, I was saying how. Just for some reason, yesterday morning, as I was saying a Monday edition of the show, I was also just kind of thinking, holy smokes, we really do this five days a week. I don't know why that would be mind Blowing to me.
Andrew Walsh
And right now, considering everything, Spotify might now make that a chapter of this show again, because you said it again. And then the last one is just Luke's blood pressure in anxiety management. But I guess I brought this up. So this is something that AI is doing. I don't mind this. This is sort of funny. Like, it doesn't. This doesn't feel icky to me necessarily, generally speaking. I guess I'm also just getting frustrated that AI is making songs about bulldozers or whatever, but it's just not doing. This sounds like I'm doing a bit, and I'm not trying to do a bit. This is a real thought that I have a lot. AI is not doing small things in my life that it should be doing. I think about this all the time. I use this little app to keep my grocery lists on, and I. When you insert something like peas or celery, it knows it'll. It'll put it in the right category. Like, this is going to be in the produce aisle. And it knows if something is going to be like, in the soda aisle. If I put coke or root beer, it'll say beverage aisle, you know, and it'll sort of auto place it there. But the other day I typed in frozen something. I think it's like frozen chicken wings or maybe it's even a frozen vegetable. I literally put the word frozen in it, and it confused the robot and it put it in baking. Because whenever it doesn't know, whenever it doesn't recognize the item I'm adding, it puts it under the baking category. And I'm like, how is it that we have to use your latest example? We have a full song that sounds exactly like modern cold country or hot country or whatever it is now. We can do that, but we can't figure out that when I. It put frozen peas on the grocery list, you should put that in the frozen food section. Not baking needs. They're just like. And that's such a weird niche example that I don't even love that my brain went there right away. But I feel like there's a million things, small little tasks in my life that I do every single damn day that AI could help with. But nobody's focusing on that because they're trying to make me think that if I go into the hospital with a headache, they're going to put me up in stirrups and try to deliver my baby, which is just not reality.
Luke Burbank
There's also, I think, still a lot of times when I do feel like we Misdescribe something as AI Because I don't like. For instance, there are the new Apple AirPod Pro. Like, you know, AirPods are supposedly. They can now translate language kind of almost in real time. So if I'm wearing them and you were speaking to me in another language, which, by the way, very cool.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
And like, that's something that. Absolutely. But they're like, it uses AI to do it. It's like, well, how is it using AI to do that? I don't know. Isn't it? Why would that be an AI thing?
Andrew Walsh
It just seems like to me, I think is it has to like, sort of. I don't know. I'm not the right person to say. I think whatever I say is going to be cringy. But I do think that, like, having to like, it's probably. It is probably learning from more and more use. You know, like, I think I could see like our maps being a certain kind of AI because it's recognizing traffic patterns and then it's rerouting me based on information. It's getting in real time about a back over here. That seems very like a type of intelligence to me. It's not just like, it's not just for your life. Intelligence for your life or intelligence for your health, if you're a Connie Celica head. So anyway, I can sort of see that, like, this is a Probably a device and I don't know, I'm talking out of my butt here. And which is gross. Who did that was. Who was it who talked out of his butt? And it was like, so funny in the 90s.
Luke Burbank
Was Jim Carrey.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
So I thought it was Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura.
Andrew Walsh
Right. Not my type of movie.
Luke Burbank
What a time to be alive. I thought that movie was. I thought that movie. I mean, the thing that's so interesting to me about Jim Carrey is he appears to actually be a pretty deeply thoughtful person in real life and is like, very much not about, at least as he describes it, like, materialism. And he's extremely sort of, you know, again, a thoughtful person who thinks a lot about, like, how kind of corrosive fame is and, and. And possessions and things and whatever, like. And yet he also, like, made, you know, made Ace Ventura one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen in my life, which, of course, I loved when it came out. I thought that movie was very funny. Did you think that movie was good when it came out?
Andrew Walsh
I don't think I've ever seen it. That was.
Luke Burbank
He's a pet Detective.
Andrew Walsh
He. So what? He's a pet who's a detective?
Luke Burbank
No, he, he. He finds like lost, stolen pets. He's a detective who works on pet related cases.
Andrew Walsh
I see.
Luke Burbank
And also talks out of his butt.
Andrew Walsh
He's a human detective who works.
Luke Burbank
He's a human detective.
Andrew Walsh
So I, I already solved issues. Pet related cases. No, I'm obviously. I know.
Luke Burbank
I wouldn't start now with that movie. You didn't watch it when you were 16. I'd say that ship has sailed.
Andrew Walsh
I don't think I've seen that. I don't think I've seen the Mask. I wasn't into that kind of stuff. I remember it being a big phenomenon and of course it was like such a part of the culture. I was obviously playing dumb there, but it was such a huge part of the culture. But no, that's not a mov. I, I watched. I just was.
Luke Burbank
I think I let it. Let's see, when did that come out? 1994. So like I was a senior in high school and I was still the Jim Carrey. Still had the mad TV glow about him for me because I thought he was amazing on mad TV playing Fire Marshal Bill and, you know, a variety of other characters. And so, yeah, that was why I was into that movie. You were not into mad TV either? As a.
Andrew Walsh
No, that was more of. I think I was kind of sheltered, I think, a little bit. I don't think my family was sort of into that vibe. I'm trying to think what was his. Am I only thinking of the Truman Show? He was in some other Truman show.
Luke Burbank
Was really good, I thought. And also Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Andrew Walsh
Eternal Sunshine. Yeah. I mean, that is. I mean, really good in that. I can't watch that movie because I just end up just a puddle of blubber in tears. But that is a wonderful movie and he does a really nice job in that. So, you know, I'm not here just trying to disparage his whole career. But yeah, those types of things that, like those comedies that put them on the map. Like, I'm just. I just did not like that kind of humor.
Luke Burbank
I think now I don't think of it as being particularly funny like Ace Ventura, but I think at the time I liked it. And also I. But then I had aged out of the Jim Carrey experience by the time Dumb and Dumber came along, which I know a lot of people love. Like a lot of people, like, that's a sort of like a canon canonical kind of movie for them. And I don't know. That one actually is probably funnier than Ace Ventura. Anyway. Anyway, let's do this, Andrew. Before the AI comes for all of our jobs, let's thank some donors who are paying for this whole thing. And then I want to lay a couple rants and raves on you. And then, and then I want to get out of here because I have to go do various rituals to try to spur a Mariner's victory on. Okay.
Andrew Walsh
Thank you, baby.
Luke Burbank
All right, Ali. Today we are thanking the following fine folks who are supporting TBTL financially. This is a hundred percent listener supported. And we're talking about Michael Miller, who's in Willowbrook, Illinois. I bet you Willowbrook, Illinois is absolutely lovely this time of year. I bet you there's a ton of deciduous trees that are changing color maple.
Andrew Walsh
Leaves on the ground, leaving the little shadow of a maple leaf shape on the sidewalk after it blows away.
Luke Burbank
Oh, that sounds extremely bucolic and brucalic.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, Bruchaolic. That's a new microbac with your bros. Yeah, that's definitely.
Luke Burbank
That's a. That's one of those new breweries in Georgetown, Right?
Andrew Walsh
Sure.
Luke Burbank
All the beer is brewed by a guy wearing a leather apron.
Andrew Walsh
It's actually when I don't, when I don't have enough beer, I get Bru colicky. You do.
Luke Burbank
Then I have to bounce you on my knee until you.
Andrew Walsh
That's right.
Luke Burbank
Thanks, Michael Miller. Thanks also to Rachel Johnson, who's in Auburn, Washington.
Andrew Walsh
Thank you, Rachel.
Luke Burbank
Appreciate you. Appreciate an vu in Portland, Oregon. Love it. Appreciate you. Thanks to Amy Ruble in Tacoma, Washington.
Andrew Walsh
Nice. Thank you, Amy.
Luke Burbank
And then, of course, you just knew today, Andrew, when I said we're going to thank some donors, you were like, probably we're going to be thanking Dusty Snyder in Campbellsville, Kentucky.
Andrew Walsh
And I didn't even look at it. You called it. I didn't even look ahead.
Luke Burbank
It kills me to admit you were right. You know, there's nothing that I like less than you being right, but you're absolutely right.
Andrew Walsh
But there's nothing you like more than people like Dusty donating to tbtl.
Luke Burbank
That is one of my very favorite things. And then I was right because I said, okay, I'll see your Dusty Snyder and I'll raise you a Christopher Hamlin of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Andrew Walsh
Now, you did say.
Luke Burbank
And I was right about that.
Andrew Walsh
You said, you said Hamelin before the show. I have to call you out about that. And I said, well, maybe I'm guessing it's going to be a Hamlin.
Luke Burbank
That's not How I remember the conversation going. In fact, you know, very different memory.
Andrew Walsh
Of this, now that I think about it. I don't remember these conversations at all.
Luke Burbank
At all. Right.
Andrew Walsh
I think. What do you call it? What do you call it?
Luke Burbank
No, I'm realizing, you know what, Andrew? This was. This was me doing my scenarios.
Andrew Walsh
Oh, okay.
Luke Burbank
There's this. There's this young woman on TikTok who I keep seeing it. I love her TikToks so much. She basically, she calls them her scenarios. And what they are is just like her in her house having pretend arguments with people or like, kind of like, I don't even think the people that she's having the pretend arguments are real people, like, elsewhere in the world. It's just her scenarios of her being either kind of like outraged or like, well, let me tell you something. Or. And you get the sense that it's all this way of being. That she's actually not comfortable being with people in real life. You know, like, she might never kind of like, say this to someone in real life, but she likes to practice her scenarios.
Andrew Walsh
Is this. I don't know, in a comedic way? Comedic and purposefully comedic. Not somebody actually working things out. Okay.
Luke Burbank
Yeah. No, I mean, it's. Well, I think she does truth there.
Andrew Walsh
But she knows she's.
Luke Burbank
I think there's some truth there. Like, she basically says, like, I can't. Like, the thing that'll be written on the screen will be like, I'm sorry, I'm busy tonight. I'm doing my scenarios.
Andrew Walsh
Okay. Right.
Luke Burbank
She's just like. She's like sitting on her bed, and then she's just. She'll just be sitting on her bed. She'll go like. Like, well, something that you probably haven't thought about. And then she'll be like, oh, oh, yeah, yeah. No, no, it's. It's right over there, like. And she's just bouncing through these different, like, her side of these different conversations that she could potentially have.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
And the sense that I get is like, of course, because there's no one really there, she can be fully liberated in these conversations, in these scenarios and maybe be a little bit more exaggerated or, you know, have more of something going on than she might feel comfortable in the real world, but she just likes to sit around and do her scenarios. And I don't know why I. That so relatable.
Andrew Walsh
It's so relatable. It's literally what I was about to say. I think we all. We all do a version of that. I think some of us do it more than others. I think that you and I are prone to do that. Like you've told me on the show before about the things that like you've had. I feel like when you had a longer commute, maybe you were telling me stories about like you would out loud practice certain, like potentially awkward, more like maybe, maybe contentious situations. Right. Does this ring a bell? This is your story. I'm not trying to. To ruin it or misrepresent you.
Luke Burbank
I would also practice talk radio topics.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, you told me that.
Luke Burbank
Because I would want to try to have it so that if it came up in the moment, particularly if it was something where there was kind of a disagreement or a debate, I wanted to try to have my argument like pretty planned out and pretty thought out. I was. So I would kind of. I would just be talking out loud as I was driving around like working things out so that then. And basically when it came up, it wasn't the first time I was trying to say it.
Andrew Walsh
Uh huh. That's. That's.
Luke Burbank
I don't know if that was effective or not, but I. But doing those kinds of. Now I'm trying to find this. I can't find this scenarios person. But anyway, I was doing my scenarios earlier. That's when I was talking about the donors, Andrew. And that's why there's this confusion. You weren't actually there for that. That was some of my scenarios.
Andrew Walsh
Gotcha. Gotcha.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, that explains. So thank you to our donors. Thanks for making TBTL possible. We could not do this without you.
Andrew Walsh
Hello and welcome to Top Story.
Luke Burbank
I don't know if you checked this week's rants and raves, Andrew, but they. It was a pretty voluminous addition yesterday. They. They came in. They came in hot with somebody. Well, it was a rave to our Mariners, of course, which we love. Rave to our Marine. It's been a long wait for this moment and you're giving Seattle fans everywhere now they're missing a what I do wish that the Seattle Times would have inserted that. That. And you are giving Seattle fans everything. Oh no. Everything we've been waiting 24 years for. Sorry, my bad. You know what? I apologize, Seattle Times and Raver that I doubted you. And a big rave also to the Root Sports crew when I can't be at the park. I love your coverage. God, I've got bad news for this raver, Andrew.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, right.
Luke Burbank
We've got some real bad news for them when I can't be at the park. I love your coverage. Especially Brad Adams. Sassy. Now I don't think those words have ever been in that order in a sentence. And I love. I like Brad Adams.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, he doesn't seem as well. Actually, they do when he gets up in the booth sometimes, because usually he's not up in the booth. Right. He's like, kind of like talking down.
Luke Burbank
On the sideline, doing sidelines.
Andrew Walsh
But I actually did. They brought him up in the booth a couple of times and they actually. He actually was sassing it up with the crew a bit.
Luke Burbank
Oh, okay.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, they had a bit of a. Yeah, kind of. A very. Kind of. I guess jocular would be how I describe them. Kind of like little bug Boston shops and stuff.
Luke Burbank
Now somebody else ranted to themself, which I don't know if I've seen that.
Andrew Walsh
This is so crazy. I had to check my email to make sure I didn't write it. This sounds like one of those convoluted rants.
Luke Burbank
I still don't. Let me read this and you help me understand what is going on in this rant.
Andrew Walsh
I hate the fact that this is my expertise, but somebody so unhinged to write this might be my wheelhouse.
Luke Burbank
Rant to myself who cannot adjust to no sidewalk etiquette causing me anger. Walking on a sidewalk is like driving a car. Oh, I see. So no sidewalk etiquette is a person who is on the sidewalk but doesn't have etiquette. So this person is ranting to themselves that they're upset, that they feel upset about people who have poor sidewalk etiquette.
Andrew Walsh
This is so passive aggressive. This is so angry and so passive aggressive that again, I'm just shocked that I didn't do this myself. This is a person. The real rant is that people don't have situational awareness on sidewalks. One of my biggest rants is that people don't have situational awareness on sidewalks. But this writer is trying to twist things to say I'm ranting at myself for getting so angry at other people who don't know how to use the sidewalk. But then he goes on, or this person goes on. I have no idea who it is. Goes on to then complain more about people on the sidewalk. I don't know. I don't know.
Luke Burbank
Might be Saul Spady.
Andrew Walsh
You don't know. This might be Mary. Be our listener. Mary. Like, honestly.
Luke Burbank
Oh, right, yeah. Rant to myself who cannot adjust to no sidewalk etiquette causing me anger. Walking on a sidewalk is like driving a car. Keep to the right. Don't walk for abreast taking. For some reason, when that person says, I imagine the cast of Dead Poets Society walking abreast down the sidewalk. When's the last time anyone was walking abreast? Four abreast, taking the whole sidewalk. Please, people, keep to the right and don't hog the sidewalk. So I'm not angry.
Andrew Walsh
Yes. So put. This is. You know, I said, this could be Mary. Mary again. Mary we talk about on the show a lot. Longtime listener in the show often will write rants and raves, but mostly rants, as her daughter pointed out. Hey, let's throw in a rave every now and then. Mary is hilarious. And this seems like. I mean, I did say that this came from a disjointed mind. So I don't mean this as an insult, but it does sort of seem like the type of humor that Mary might go in for. So it might be her, but I love playing that game. I've identified her rants before without knowing that she had actually written them. But honestly, this whole thing of just, like, people walking for abreast and a sidewalk, like, what are you doing? Do you not realize that there are other people behind you who need to use a sidewalk? And they'll just slowly meander. Slowly meander. And you're just like. You're taking up the whole damn sidewalk. Come on. You got to think about Abbey Road. Be like that single file.
Luke Burbank
Oh, I never even thought about that.
Andrew Walsh
Not Deadpool.
Luke Burbank
That was very polite. Yeah, that was polite of the Beatles. Nobody talks about that. That they're crossing Abbey Road in single, thereby leaving more room for other people in the crosswalk.
Andrew Walsh
I'd also say, Paul, put some shoes on. Come on, you hippie.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, it's a little much. It's a little much. Rave. Speaking of hippies, Andrew, rave to whoever left a free ticket to the Hot Tuna show at the Neptune at the box office.
Andrew Walsh
I didn't get. Where is this? I didn't get to this one.
Luke Burbank
It's. It's a couple down. It's after the E. Scooter one.
Andrew Walsh
There it is. All right, go ahead. I'm. I'm brave.
Luke Burbank
To whoever left a free ticket. I had to look up Hot Tuna.
Andrew Walsh
I heard that name before, apparently.
Luke Burbank
Spin off from Jefferson Airplane. Yes, One of the Jefferson Airplane people.
Andrew Walsh
Yep. Yep.
Luke Burbank
Rave to whoever left a free ticket to the Hot Tuna show at the Neptune at the box office. I was the recipient of your miracle. It was a great seat at a great show, and I will be certain to pass on that good karma whenever I have a chance to do the same.
Andrew Walsh
That's pretty Cool.
Luke Burbank
I love this for everybody involved. I love this for the. The person who left the ticket behind. I love this for the recipient. I love this for Hot Tuna that they put on a show that this person really enjoyed. I love it for our friends at the Neptune. We love the Neptune Theater.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, absolutely.
Luke Burbank
Okay, we'll jump down to the final rat and rave. Because it's a real. It's kind of a roller coaster of emotion. It's got. It's got everything. Rant and rave. By the way, as I read these, particularly this last one, every time I read a rant or a rave, I'm more angry that they didn't publish your self. Rant. Rave.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I could resubmit.
Luke Burbank
You should resubmit because many of these are violating whatever rule you thought you violated and they're in the paper. Rant and rave. Rant to me for believing people who are scammed are naive. I believed this until it happened to me. Huge rant to these scammers for taking money from unsuspecting people. Another rant to me. But, but, but by the way, back to me. Another rant to me for believing the scammer was protecting me. Be aware that there is no federal bank with a federal wallet to keep my money safe. Did people think there was a federal bank with a federal wallet or is that what the scammers maybe told this person?
Andrew Walsh
Be aware that there's no federal bank with a federal wallet to keep my money safe. I don't know what that sentence means.
Luke Burbank
Okay, look, slash, listen for the red flags that I was feeling in my gut, Rave to my guardian angels at Banner bank for telling me this was a scam. When I arrived to transfer money to a non person in Alabama, it took both of them to convince me this was a scam. How did they know? The scammer was listening on my cell phone in my purse.
Andrew Walsh
So this person left. You always hear about this. They say, leave your phone open. We need to hear everything. Wow.
Luke Burbank
So this person who is writing this rant slash rave. Slash rant slash rave. Slash rant slash rave. Yes, they. Yeah, they walked into the bank apparently with their cell phone on, you know, maybe speakerphone mode or something with the scammer on the line. And the bank people were like, this is a scam. First of all, the first bank person was like, this is a scam. And the person said, no, it's not. And then they went and got back up. And then the second person said, it's a scam. And the person said, I don't think it's a scam. And they said, well, are they on the phone in your purse? And this appears to be what finally broke through to this person, that they were, in fact, being scammed. What a wild scene.
Andrew Walsh
And it's also. This starts off, and this is becoming sort of a pattern, and we're not done yet, but it begins with saying, ran to me for believing people who are scammed are naive. So this is somebody who has navigated their life thinking like, God, I hear about these scams, and I can't understand how somebody would be that naive. And then they end up being the person who's like, literally on the phone, on speakerphone in their purse, like this is. And we keep hearing this over and over.
Luke Burbank
How did they know the scammer was listening on my cell phone in my purse? Immediately they had me turn my phone off and closed down all of my accounts. I could have lost almost 50 years of savings, all of my retirement accounts. Lucky for me, not losing any money, period. That's an odd sentence.
Andrew Walsh
Lucky me for me. Lucky me.
Luke Burbank
Lucky me. Lucky Luke for not read good. All I lost was the time to get everything straightened out. That this one. I mean, I'm kind of joking because it's written in a way that's kind of funny to me. But I'm also, like. It makes me very anxious to think of how close this person got to. I mean, can you imagine losing 50 years of savings? I worry about this with my parents quite seriously, my parents. I'm fortunate that my parents are both of sound mind. My dad is possibly of more sound body than I am, although he is taken to a morning cigar, which I don't love. Feeling like a night cigar was enough. I don't know why we're doing a before 5pm cigar. But anyway, putting that aside, my parents are both, you know, doing very well and. And, you know, I think are at this moment pretty aware of, like, you know, what is and is not a scam. But I get very. Speaking of AI, I mean, honestly, I get very concerned about five years from now, 10 years from now. And just as the scams get better and as they're able to, you know, just become more sophisticated and call people and, you know, kind of clone the voices of their grandchildren. By the way, Addie sent out a truly just a shot across the bow on the Hawk Squad yesterday because I was putting. David was putting up pictures of Gemma. And Addie pointed out that there are now more grandkids than there are children of my parents and that the Grandkids can band together to take over the family. It's just a sheer numbers game.
Andrew Walsh
I can't believe that.
Luke Burbank
Because you have such a big.
Andrew Walsh
You have such a big family.
Luke Burbank
Well, let's see. We'll do. We can do the count right now. So there's. There's. There's Maddie, there's Mary, there's Addie, there's Jack and Abe, There's Gemma, There's a little Luke, and there's Ian.
Andrew Walsh
Okay. And.
Luke Burbank
Am I forgetting anyone?
Andrew Walsh
Oh, this really put you on the spot. But that's eight.
Luke Burbank
That's eight. So that right there is one more. That's one more. That's how that works. I don't like that. That's right where her mind went.
Andrew Walsh
Wow.
Luke Burbank
This is some sort of a. Like some sort of a war of attrition. And they've now gotten the upper hand because there's eight of them and only seven of us.
Andrew Walsh
And she. I almost forgot. This is embarrassing, but for a second, I almost forgot that, of course, she belongs to that group, too, and she would be the leader. Really? Like, if you're basing it on age and experience, right? So she's sort of like. Regulators, mount up.
Luke Burbank
A Sammy would be the wait. Sammy is the wait. No, wait.
Andrew Walsh
Sami's your brother.
Luke Burbank
Sam is a. Sam's my brother. This is what happens when you have a kid. I feel a little bit.
Andrew Walsh
I feel a little bit bad putting you on the spot here because. Well, I'm the one that brought it up.
Luke Burbank
I'm gonna tell you exactly what. I'm gonna tell you exactly what. What Addie said. She said. Let me scroll back, because again, we. Thousands of messages shoot through this thing every single day. This is what she said. Okay, so at this point, the Burbank grandkids officially outnumber the Burbank siblings. To my fellow grandchildren in the chat, never forget the power you were holding in your hands. Wow. My niece Maddie goes. Together, we could become unstoppable. This is truly terrifying to us. The children of my parents. In the chat.
Andrew Walsh
Is Maddie in Europe, in Ireland?
Luke Burbank
That's Mary. Mary is in Scotland.
Andrew Walsh
In Edinburgh, Scotland. Boy, I really messed all that up. But, yeah, so, yeah, this also. What if they all have their own text chain? Luke, you don't even know.
Luke Burbank
Oh, they do. Oh, see, that's why this was a particularly. That's why I found this to be especially threatening. They have their own text chain that they talk on because they never. They rarely. Addie does a little bit, but mostly, most of the grandkids they stay large, they lurk, they're lurking on Hawk squad. They're not posting, but then they have side chats where I think they make fun of us older people. But now this is like Eddie's coming right into the Hawk squad and essentially declaring war.
Andrew Walsh
It's definitely a declaration. It absolutely is.
Luke Burbank
So, yeah, so I just want people to know what I'm, I'm dealing with a lot today. That's my, that's my rant. Rant to my daughter who's openly declared war on my generation of the Burbank family.
Andrew Walsh
Send it in. I want to see if it gets published. Here I go once again with the email every week. I hope that it's from a female. Oh man, it's not from a female.
Luke Burbank
All right, Any emails or V mails, my friend?
Andrew Walsh
Well, we could do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way to say, you know, I noticed you, I kind of, when I got this email yesterday, I considered whether or not we want to read it on the show. It's a correction email and it is a correction of something that you said. I think if I understand our conversation yesterday correctly, which I might not, but I'm also not trying to just like turn this into a people sharp shoot Luke segment. But did you see listener, I saw you were responding to a bunch of emails today. Did you see Bill's email about Joey Cora's role in that game 5 of the 1995 ALDS? I thought he lays this out very clearly. So this might. I think this, I think this contradicts what you were saying yesterday. But I. But you might have also been describing a different scenario. But let's see. Bill says Joey Cora leaned out. Oh, the subject line is this is what happened in Game 5 against the Yankees in 1995. Joey Cora leaned out of the first base path to avoid a tag during Game 5 of the ALDS between the Mariners and the Yankees. This moment occurred in the bottom of the 11th inning, one of the most iconic sequences in Mariners history. With the Mariners trailing 5 4, Cora led off with a bunt single down the first baseline as Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly fielded the ball, hit a tag. Cora leaned his upper body away from the tag while staying in bounds, narrowly avoiding being called out. Out. He rate. He reached first safely setting the stage for Ken Griffey Jr. Single and Edgar Martinez's walk off double, which scored Cora and Griffey to win the game 6:5.
Luke Burbank
There you go. So it was not Vince Coleman.
Andrew Walsh
So I thought that that was yeah, it was Joey, Corey, and I had a Vega. But the thing is, I really hesitate to weigh in on those things. I've seen the clips and everything, but obviously I wasn't watching baseball and I certainly watch wasn't watching Mariners baseball in 1995. So anyway, I appreciate, appreciate the clarification on that. And also, Luke, if you don't mind, I'll just wrap up this segment by saying, and I wanted to say this earlier in the show. I love that you brought rants and raves back. I just feel like we could just do this podcast, could just be a Seattle Times rants and Raves podcast. But as you know, we have our own little version of this in the TBTL newsletter called yeas and nays. And sometimes I like to get the listeners to write in with yeas and nays. I have one nay that I have been sitting on here for months and months, but I haven't had any more to add to the newsletter. So it's just been sitting here gathering dust since June 15th. I'm going to go into this now and read it, but then encourage others to email me andrewbtl.net with your yeas and nays and maybe we can put together another column for the newsletter this week. I am reading this for the first time in months. I don't know where this is going to go and I hope, hope that the language is appropriate. This is from listener Darren in South Carolina, says nay to the FedEx employee who told me I couldn't ship back my return shoes in the box that they were shipped in to me. What? Because it was a, quote, shoebox. It was a corrugated box just as sturdy as the $12 box they made me buy. There's a yay here, though, Luke. Yay to the Subaru dealership check in guy who took my coupon for an oil change that was four days expired. See, I like that. A little bit of sugar. Yes. A little bit of yays to help the nays go down.
Luke Burbank
That's right. Excellent. Okay, well, that's. I'm gonna. Let's ride that positivity right into a Mariner win today, okay, Andrew?
Andrew Walsh
Absolutely. Yep.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I'm gonna be in close contact with you throughout the rest of the day. I just found out, by the way, that my CBS shoot, which I said was 5050 for tomorrow, is on. By the way, despite what our our colleague John Sklaroff, everybody's coming for me today. My daughter's threatening me in the text chain. John says I'm lying about where I have to be tomorrow. But, no, that is going to be happening tomorrow now. So I. I have two things that I'm extremely invested in today. One is the Mariners winning, and then two is the Blue Jays winning so that the Mariner game will be on at a time that I can watch it tomorrow.
Andrew Walsh
Right? Right. Right. Yes. Well, go, G. I just have a.
Luke Burbank
Ton on the line this afternoon, so.
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
Luke Burbank
Go, Blue Jays. Go, Mariners. Thank you, everyone, for listening. We will be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio, so please do come hang out with us for that. In the meantime, have a great Tuesday. Take care of yourselves, folks. And please remember, no mountain too tall.
Andrew Walsh
And good luck to all. Power out.
In this lively Tuesday edition of TBTL, hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh revel in their signature blend of sports anxiety, gentle self-mockery, and stream-of-consciousness banter. With high stakes for the Seattle Mariners in the postseason, the episode dives deep into baseball superstitions, the emotional rollercoaster of fandom, and the intrusion of AI into music. There’s also time for podcast AI quirks, neighborhood rants, and a loving roast of local personalities. As always, the hosts wander through personal routines, cultural tangents, and listener interactions, providing comfort, humor, and sometimes a little existential dread.
Notable Quote:
Luke: “This whole podcast is a zigzag pattern. You couldn’t...We are, I guess, a little AI-proof because it’s just so…it’s such a zigzag pattern of absolute inanity...” (33:41)
Memorable Exchange:
Andrew: “This is so angry and so passive aggressive that, again, I’m just shocked that I didn’t do this myself.” (54:32)
Even for those who haven’t listened, episode #4570 encapsulates the TBTL ethos: neighborhood-level whimsy, sports-tinged agony, irrepressible goofiness, and an undercurrent of skeptical reflection about the future (especially tech’s role in everyday life and culture). The conversation leaps from emotional to absurd, from local to existential, driven by the friendship and neurotic humor of its hosts. Whether you want catharsis for sports anxiety, laughter at local media foibles, or a relatable shudder at unstoppable AI, this episode delivers.
Power out.