#4598 Pennies Into Plowshares

Summary

TBTL Episode #4598: Pennies Into Plowshares – Summary

Podcast: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
Hosts: Luke Burbank, Andrew Walsh
Date: November 14, 2025
Episode: #4598 – "Pennies Into Plowshares"

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Episode Overview

This Friday installment of TBTL—hosted by Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh—finds the duo in rare form, weaving through a patchwork of nostalgic pop culture references, gleefully obscure comedy bits, reflective moments, and local news curiosities. The show’s central themes include the retirement of the U.S. penny, a foray into oddball casting and real-life affectations discovered through a TV show deep-dive, and the injustice of Yankees favoritism in MLB MVP voting. Throughout, the pair share the joys of media minutiae and listener-supported podcasting, all with their signature blend of inside jokes, wandering tangents, and genuine friendship.

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Key Discussion Points & Notable Segments

1. Opening Banter: Friday Vibes, Show Commitment, and Good-Natured Ribbing

• The episode opens with a tongue-in-cheek exchange riffing on "mean AF" as "mean as Frankenstein" and a series of Frankenstein-themed acronyms, setting an irreverent tone (00:15)
• The hosts joke about job-hunting (“Why don’t I strap on my job helmet and squeeze down into a job cannon…”) and poke fun at their own commitment to show structure and segment promises (01:03, 03:09)
  • Quote (Andrew): "Let's make a commitment to getting to the top stories today. How do you feel about that?" (03:09)
  • Luke: "Well, I feel good about committing to it. I can't tell you if it's going to happen." (03:18)

2. The End of the Penny – Cultural Nostalgia and Poetic Obituaries

• Luke shares that the last penny was minted on Wednesday in Philadelphia, reflecting on the odd sense of nostalgia for something mostly viewed as a nuisance in adult life (01:41, 02:31)
  • Luke: "...I honestly do everything in my power to avoid having pennies come into my life. And yet I'm somehow sad that they're going away. Life's complicated that way, isn't it?" (02:32)
• They discuss an obituary-style article from the NYT, reading excerpts of its humorous eulogy for the penny (44:12)
  • Luke (quoting): "The cause was irrelevance and expensiveness. The Treasury Department said nothing could be bought anymore with a penny, not even penny candy. Moreover, the cost to mint the penny had risen to more than 3 cents, a financial absurdity that doomed the coin..." (44:12)
• Andrew reveals his irrational sadness about the penny’s demise, connecting it to feelings of permanence and the loss of shared cultural touchstones (49:19)
  • Andrew: “I just have emotions about this that are not rational at all. But it’s bumming me out.” (49:19)

3. Obscure Pop Culture & The Accidental Genius of Real-World Casting

• The duo revisits a scene from the TV show "The Chair Company," fixating on a store clerk’s oddball delivery and how the actor was actually a real-life suit store owner cast serendipitously onsite (06:21–14:53)
  • Luke (on the clerk character, played by Jared Lindner): "This guy's a comedic genius...his only credit is The Chair Company. They were at the store, like, location scouting and they just started talking to this guy and they thought, he is a character. We should make him the clerk for the store." (10:45)
  • The pair break down the scene’s dialogue, delighting in the phrase “he’s at his limit” (08:05, 08:33)
  • Andrew: "That's it for me, by the way. That's what I can't stop saying is I know somebody who's at his limit. I can't get it out of my head." (08:33)
• They play a clip of Lindner in real life, noting the charm of his unselfconscious affect—“pretty easygoing and a somewhat young guy”—and riff on his fashion choices, especially his mid-market MLB hats (15:59)
  • Luke: “Could anything from this low key guy surprise us at this point?” (16:08)

4. Reflections on Acting, Quirk, and Tim Robinson/Tim & Eric Influence

• The conversation expands into the difference between quirky real people and those who can genuinely carry a scene. Andrew expresses admiration for Lindner's surprisingly strong acting, comparing the approach to Tim & Eric’s use of 'oddballs' (18:19)
  • Andrew: “It lives in my head...I just want to give a little credit to that.” (20:18)
  • Luke: “I think you could play like a quirky guy co-hosting a podcast.” (18:47)

5. Technological Non-Sequiturs: File Transfers & Couples’ 11:11 Ritual

• Andrew wonders whether a TV character’s ‘tapping a file from phone to computer’ is a real Apple feature; in real time, Luke tries (and fails) to replicate the move (22:34–22:59)
• Luke reveals an 11:11 photo-sharing habit with Becca, a ritual that delights Andrew (23:39)

6. Baseball Grievances: Cal Raleigh’s MVP Loss to Aaron Judge

• Luke vents about the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh being overlooked for MVP in favor of Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, musing on the ambiguous criteria for "most valuable" (26:32–36:55)
  • Luke: “…I fundamentally don’t think I understand what most valuable means because I really can’t see a player who was more most valuable to their team than Cal Raleigh…” (26:32)
  • Andrew: “The metric is: Are you a Yankee? First of all, there’s no doubt in my mind that if Cal Raleigh had the same exact season as a Yankee…of course he would have won MVP.” (27:53)
• They reflect on the persistent bias toward major market players, connect it to sports talk radio stereotypes, and try (with limited success) to remain magnanimous about Aaron Judge (30:42, 33:20)

7. Donor Shoutouts: MVPs of TBTL

• The hosts thank TBTL’s listener donors, using the “he’s at his limit” refrain to comic effect, and riff on their various streaming subscriptions and wish lists (37:57–43:07)

8. RIP Penny: Rationalizing the End, Processing Change

• A return to the penny topic: They discuss its logistical obsolescence, reminisce about buying penny candy, and compare it to other now-vanished regional tokens (toll tokens in New Hampshire) (49:57–53:13)
  • Andrew: “I was in New Hampshire when …they stopped using those tokens. And those tokens were just like…everywhere…then at some point, they were completely irrelevant…” (51:17)
  • Luke: “I was always too nervous to not come to a complete stop to toss them in… I always thought, it’s going to bounce out, and then they’re going to put out a warrant for my arrest.” (53:13)

9. Bizarre Crime: Amusement Park Burglary & Stuffed Animal Economics

• They recount a story of three young men breaking into Rye Playland (NY), doing extensive vandalism and stealing 200 plush animal prizes valued, surprisingly, at only $280 total (54:35–58:59)
  • Luke: "It’s basically a dollar per toy." (58:59)
  • Andrew: “They're really cheap, man. Those types of stuffed…” (58:30)
  • The hosts invent personalities for the suspects based on security camera images, then lament that the story isn’t the cute stuffed animal heist they’d hoped for (56:25, 56:53)
  • Luke laughs about outgrowing his childhood obsession with winning “cheap, huge” stuffed animals at fairs (60:16–62:08)

10. Listener Feedback: Low-Power FM Guidelines & TBTL’s Rule-Breaking Joy

• Listener Evan writes about starting at a low-power FM station with an on-air conduct manual that, ironically, forbids almost everything TBTL relishes: self-referential banter, technical asides, and “inside baseball” talk (63:27–66:06)
  • Luke: "Everything that we love and enjoy in broadcasting is what the people at this Low power FM station are being told to avoid at all costs." (63:48)
  • Andrew: "Literally. They say, don't say five people are listening. And since the very beginning of TBTL, you've called them the tens of listeners." (72:06)
• The hosts lovingly roast these anti-TBTL rules (“never say ‘carts,’ your listeners might think you’re talking about a tray on wheels”), reminisce about old radio tech, and playfully check in on the KDRT stream (70:07)

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with timestamps)

• Luke (on the penny): “I honestly do everything in my power to avoid having pennies come into my life. And yet I’m somehow sad that they’re going away.” (02:32)
• Andrew (on the 'limit' line): “That’s it for me, by the way. That’s what I can’t stop saying is I know somebody who’s at his limit.” (08:33)
• Luke (on casting the suit store clerk): “This guy’s a comedic genius…he had no acting background…They were at the store, like, location scouting and they just started talking to this guy and they thought, he is a character. We should make him the clerk for the store.” (10:45)
• Luke (on file transfers): “I literally…have me banging my phone…” (22:53)
• Andrew (on losing the penny): “I just have emotions about this that are not rational at all. But it’s bumming me out.” (49:19)
• Luke (on the Yankees MVP bias): “…The metric is: Are you a Yankee?...It’s very hard for me to imagine a universe in which [Cal Raleigh] doesn’t get the MVP as a Yankee because of just the sort of osmosis of it all…” (36:55)
• Andrew (on the FM manual): “Literally. They say, don’t say five people are listening. And since the very beginning of TBTL, you’ve called them the tens of listeners.” (72:06)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00–03:35] Opening banter; Frankenstein and job jokes
• [01:41–04:01] Penny nostalgia introduced
• [06:21–14:53] “Chair Company” scene breakdown and casting story
• [22:34–23:40] iPhone tap-to-transfer experiment; 11:11 couple’s ritual
• [26:32–36:55] Mariners’ Cal Raleigh MVP snub and Yankees bias discussion
• [44:12–49:53] New York Times penny obituary; end-of-penny feelings
• [54:35–60:16] Rye Playland break-in: the value of stolen stuffed animals
• [63:27–66:52] Listener Evan’s FM station manual: anti-TBTL broadcasting rules
• [70:07–75:46] Real-time KDRT listening and dissecting the radio "rules"

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Tone & Style

The episode is a quintessential slice of TBTL: breezy, self-effacing, affectionate toward the trivial, and joyfully at odds with "proper radio." The hosts’ genuine rapport and willingness to dwell on odd details or meander through memory make the mundane (“at his limit!”) strangely consequential—and hilarious.

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For New Listeners

This episode is a textbook example of TBTL’s charm: two friends chasing rabbit holes of pop culture, football, and personal quirks, never quite adhering to a plan—and making a case, ironically, for why podcasting’s looseness is its true strength.

Transcript

[Andrew Walsh]

We have to get our story out.

[Luke Burbank]

Before Graham runs her version.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now, I know it's a lot to ask. If we take down the woman who runs the network, we could potentially lose our jobs.

[Luke Burbank]

But why did we become journalists if not to uncover the truth and use it to change the world?

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm in. You know what I'm in, too. Graham is mean af.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's a Twitter term, which I can only assume stands for mean as Frankenstein. There is another term, dtf, don't touch Frankenstein, to which I usually just reply, wtf? Won't touch Frankenstein. Right? So we're all in. T, T, B, T L guess what day it is. Guess what day it is. It's Friday. Friday. Gonna get down on Friday. Everybody's looking forward to the weekend. What are you guys doing? Is this a hose job where you're hosing me down? Dude, you hose.

[Luke Burbank]

You hose yourself up and down. Shows yourself.

[Andrew Walsh]

What do you want me to do?

[Luke Burbank]

I don't care.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, get a job. Oh, get a job. Yeah, just get a job. Why don't I strap on my job helmet and squeeze down into a job cannon and fire off at the job land where jobs grow on jobbies. That was really, really, really terrible. But everyone does that kind of stuff sometimes. It happens like, once or twice or three times in every life. Or twice. I mean, one all once.

[Jared Lindner]

Let's get to the jokes.

[Luke Burbank]

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

[Andrew Walsh]

Give me that.

[Luke Burbank]

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. I'm joking. I'm joking. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where we are looking at a wet and. And windy day. Didn't know you like to get wet, though. All of the leaves are blowing off of the trees here at the property, and I am debating dealing with them or just letting them turn into nature's fertilizer. My guess is it'll be door number two. We are at door number 4598 in a collector series on this Friday. Let the fun begin. On Wednesday, the last ever penny in the United States was minted in Philadelphia. They are not making pennies anymore. So you got.

[Andrew Walsh]

You got my money?

[Luke Burbank]

I feel oddly nostalgic about it, even though I honestly do everything in my power to avoid having pennies come into my life. And yet I'm somehow sad that they're going away. Life's complicated that way, isn't it? Some kids in New Jersey broke into an amusement park and stole, like, all of the stuffed animals that you could win.

[Andrew Walsh]

That would explain why we have so.

[Luke Burbank]

Many drunk kids here. There was one dazzling detail from the story that I thought was kind of interesting. We'll share with you just as soon as we've said hello to this guy. He's the longest running cobra of the show.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, buddy.

[Luke Burbank]

Possibly best known for his love of the tall ships, he's Andrew Walsh and he is joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. I'm having trouble not just jumping straight ahead to the top stories. Let's make a commitment to getting to the top stories today. How do you feel about that? At least the pen?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I feel good about committing to it. I can't tell you if it's going to happen.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, what. What do you know about commitment?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, what's your. I think my track record speaks for itself. I'm not leaving.

[Andrew Walsh]

He went there. Oh, he went there. I was trying to be careful on your behalf.

[Luke Burbank]

What's the guy say about the shirt? What's the guy say about the shirt?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, he's at his limit. I know somebody who's at the limit.

[Luke Burbank]

I think I'm at the limit of how many more divorces I'm allowed to get.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, listen, maybe I can just clear the path for something here because I literally. So we talked a lot about the TV show the Chair Company yesterday. I don't mean to reopen that.

[Luke Burbank]

Apologies to anyone who hasn't seen the show or doesn't care about the show because it really is sort of taking over TBTL this week.

[Andrew Walsh]

And there is a scene that, you know, has been living very much in my head because I think every day since I've been back from my trip from Cleveland, we. We have talked about it before the show in some way or another. Either me talking in a bad imitation of the voice of the guy who works at the shirt store in the Chair Company. And twice now, both the first time I watched that episode and then a couple of days ago when I got a wild hair again. I actually rolled a piece of tape from that show into my system and started editing it, thinking, this has got to. There's gotta be some intro tape in here somewhere. Can I just make it work? And twice I tried and twice I failed because I keep thinking it's just too weird for people who don't know what it is. It's not full of jokes. It's just weird. And then it ends on kind of a funny joke at the very end. And I keep thinking, there's no way our listeners will put up with this. They won't know what it is. It's just too obscure and also kind of haunting sounding, having said all that.

[Luke Burbank]

But if you introduce it here, it becomes canon and then can play it. You've sort of laundered it in a way, so.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I mean, do you mean play it here or just. I was just setting it up here. I could go. I could log in my HBO go. I could.

[Luke Burbank]

I thought you pulled the audio.

[Andrew Walsh]

I did. And then I keep deleting it because I keep thinking it's not going to work. I keep thinking, that's so funny that you delete it. I'm inside.

[Luke Burbank]

It's not going to work. You and the file management.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm insane. Well, it's like, what am I going to do with this?

[Luke Burbank]

If you saw my desktop on my laptop here, it would. You would break out. You would immediately contract shingles.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

It would make you so anxious. So there is something to your system. Can I. While you're. While you're trying to locate the audio and by the way, if you don't have it and it's a hassle.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I'm actually, I just opened up. I opened up that episode and it's right at the end of the scene.

[Luke Burbank]

There'S actually a groove that is worn in the Internet.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

HBO.com he's getting the rubber ball out. So basically, Tim Robinson's character is trying to solve this mystery of what's going on with this chair company. And he's had a run in with someone and in the run in, he has grabbed the guy by the shirt and the guy has ran. Run away and the shirt ripped off of him. So he sees the tag where the shirt is from, and he's now at the place that sells at the clothing store. Because he's trying to figure out sort of who this guy is and what's going on. And that's when he encounters the guy, the clerk at the shirt store, who has a very unusual way of talking.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. And I want to point out, I don't think that the chair company is trying too hard to sort of echo jokes from Tim Robinson's other project. I think you should leave. Having said that, I think it's notable that the shirt has a complicated pattern on it. Right. Like Dan flashes. It's not a. It's not all. So he runs into this. He runs into the shirt store and. And it's trying to figure out is there any way the person who sold him this shirt can get him closer to the person who abducted him. Or not abducted him, assaulted him in a parking lot.

[Jared Lindner]

How are you? Good.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, I found this shirt and I'm trying to find the guy who lost it.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you think he might have bought.

[Andrew Walsh]

It here or you would have a record of that?

[Jared Lindner]

Let me take a look. Sure, let me take a look.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now he's a tall white man with a totally shaved head. And he's looking a little bit like a little incredulous.

[Jared Lindner]

Oh, he definitely got this here. And it's definitely well loved. You could see on the back there's dirt, some kind of white dust. Oh, yeah, he got great use out of this shirt. Look at these buttons. The buttons are pulling.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Jared Lindner]

Oh yeah, they're starting to strain. Look at this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, now he reaches.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, this is the piece de resistance, in my opinion, which whoever wrote this into the. Wrote this into the scene is a friggin genius.

[Andrew Walsh]

So he's pointing out that the buttons had been kind of stretched, probably from a belly that was pushing out the shirt. So he reaches underneath his counter and comes up with a classic red dodgeball looking rubber ball.

[Luke Burbank]

We would play kickball with that when I was in grade school.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. And so he says, yes, look at.

[Jared Lindner]

This, look at these buttons. The buttons are pulling, they're starting to strain. Look at this. You see, it's like a big belly and someone's belly is pushing up into the buttons. He's about at his limit. I happen to know a guy who's at his limit. He's one of our members.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's it for me, by the way. That's what I can't stop saying is I know somebody who's at his limit. I can't get it out of my head.

[Luke Burbank]

That's the perfect. Kind of like Tim Robinson, Zach Canaan kind of world of dialogue.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

It's just such a strange thing to have him say that he knows somebody who's. I mean, I guess it's a bridge into. We don't have to play the whole thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

But he.

[Luke Burbank]

He's trying to get this guy to sign up for some sort of weird show.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think we have to play the whole thing.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, all right.

[Jared Lindner]

I happen to know a guy who's at his limit. He's one of our members.

[Luke Burbank]

You have members?

[Jared Lindner]

It's our membership program we got going here. Members night is coming up. I'm sure you'll see a mayor. All the members come.

[Luke Burbank]

Great.

[Andrew Walsh]

When is that?

[Jared Lindner]

You have to be a member Sign up, become a member and you'll get notified about when the night is.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're positive you know it?

[Jared Lindner]

I'm positive he's at his limit.

[Luke Burbank]

Awesome. Thank you. $65.

[Jared Lindner]

That's cheap. Sign up for the membership. You'll get the texts and the emails regarding members night. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

You definitely know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Mm. Have the shirt back. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You don't know him, do you? Yeah. Now here's where I think the story gets even more interesting. Because after that scene, I was like, this guy's a comedic genius. And yet I'd never seen him anything before. I was like, it's odd to me that he's just been lurking somewhere, you know, off of my radar. How did this funny guy escape my radar? So I Google. Well, first of all, I go to that episode and I get the name of this guy who plays the store clerk. And I look him up and his only credit is the Chair company, which is totally weird. And so then I'm Googling around on this guy's name and I find an article I want to say in like Vanity Fair or something, or maybe Variety or something.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

There's an article where someone does an interview with this guy because he is not an actor. He runs the clothing store in real life that they filmed as the clothing store where Tim Robinson's character brings the T shirt. And they were at the store, like, location scouting and they just started talking to this guy and they thought, he is a character. We should make him the clerk for the store.

[Andrew Walsh]

And.

[Luke Burbank]

And then somewhere in, I think in that article or somewhere else, there's a link to this guy being interviewed in real life by like a local TV outlet. Not about the I think you should leave or the Chair company, but just about, like his clothing store.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I think it was actually from this. I think it was a government YouTube page from the small town that he lives in. I think they just highlight a store. And so it's this five minute video. I didn't know about this until you sent me. It is a Variety article that you sent me. And yeah, it was recorded a long time ago. And he's just like in the store.

[Luke Burbank]

Talking about, can you play a little bit of him in the store in his real life when he's not acting?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I'm scrolling to open it now. I think it's interesting that. Well, let me just say one thing before I play this video. I am trying to get through an ad here. But also there's a sentence in this sort of profile of this guy. That I'm trying to interpret.

[Luke Burbank]

What's his name again?

[Andrew Walsh]

His name is. I don't know his name. Craig Waterman. Nope. That's the name of the character that Tim Robinson plays in Friendship. I'm looking. So the name of the store is Tamblaze, which is again somehow perfect. The actor is Jared Lindner. Lindner. Jared Lindner. And he's the real life co proprietor of Suitman, a small business that his father started and they still run it together in Mount Vernon, New York. Now, as you mentioned, I'm going to read this here, Tim Robinson and his crew. An aside that you mentioned to me off air, and I don't think you just said it again, is that it's interesting that Tim Robinson is actually part of the scouting crew for these things. It's very, very hands on.

[Luke Burbank]

He'd be out looking at the clothing store location. He'd leave that to his location people.

[Andrew Walsh]

But apparently they didn't have somebody for the role yet. They were just scouting locations. And then they go in to scout this location. But then it says Lindner did not recognize the Saturday Night Live alumni, but struck up a rapport with the crew. Quote, they started to chuckle because I'm pretty easygoing and a somewhat young guy and I'm just sort of like.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, that's one way to put it exactly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like that's kind of one of those things where it's like, I don't like to think that I'm laughing at him while I'm watching this clip, while I'm watching the show. But I gotta say, they probably weren't laughing because you're easygoing and young. It's because of your affectation, which I adore. Yeah. Your quirkiness.

[Luke Burbank]

But I love that that's how he reads it. I love that he. If he self reports as a pretty low key guy who's, you know, sort of like, like I like that he. That he feels like this is a normal, if not a little bit low key way to be in the world. Whereas it's like, no, dude, your affectation is so odd. We're putting you in pictures because it's completely unusual.

[Andrew Walsh]

So this is from CMVNY TV, which is the city of Mount Vernon, New York TV on YouTube.

[Luke Burbank]

And I almost got that job hosting that channel.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's going to be. Well, hang on to it. You don't know what the future holds for any of us in this game. So there's going to be a little introd here by the person who hosts these videos.

[Luke Burbank]

How you doing Guys, my name is Ja.

[Andrew Walsh]

We're back with another episode of Envy Gems. And this week we're at 17 grammar and visiting the Superman store.

[Luke Burbank]

Now, can you pause it real quick? Andrew, when I jumped on the line with you today, you were already here.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And I just heard this jazz music playing.

[Andrew Walsh]

You didn't know what I was listening.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't know what you were doing. But I was like, I like that. That's how this guy, and by this guy, I mean you, Andrew. I like. This is how this guy gets in the zone.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, before I get here, he's just like jazzing out, getting mentally ready for an episode of tbtl.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was getting mentally ready for this.

[Jared Lindner]

My name is Jared. I'm here at Suitman, 17 Grammerton Avenue, Mount Vernon. We're here going on 17 years on the corner of Grammerton Avenue. In pross, we offer things you can't get at other spots. So we just appreciate the community's support and doing our thing.

[Luke Burbank]

So I want to point out anybody who's at his limit, we have shirts for you. I know somebody who's at his limit.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's a very svelte guy. He's wearing what looks like maybe an untuck it style shirt or something. It's kind of a, it's a sharp little shirt where you can kind of see the pattern on the inside when he folds up his sleeves. But what I find curious is that he's wearing a Colorado Rockies ball cap, which first of all, I just didn't have him as a ball cap kind of guy. But certainly Mount Vernon, New York. I didn't expect it to be the Colorado Rockies, but I'm guessing he likes the colors.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that's an interesting. If he's, he could be one of those people who's just completely decoupled from his fandom, from his hat wearing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, so like, because it would be weird if he was a rock, it would be surprising if he was a Rockies fan. But again, could anything from this low key guy surprise us at this point?

[Andrew Walsh]

Andrew, Wait. I was going to say, I think it would be funny if every, it looks like they're going to cut to the host every now and then to ask a question. And I thought it was going to be funny if every time they cut back to our guy Lindner, if he was wearing a different hat of a mid market baseball team, but actually it does. I'm scrubbing through here and it says Tampa Bay Rays. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Who's on this list? The Rockies.

[Andrew Walsh]

I Would put the Diamondbacks on there.

[Luke Burbank]

Diamondbacks definitely on there.

[Andrew Walsh]

But it does look about halfway through. We do get a costume change from our hero here.

[Luke Burbank]

So, Bruce, I hear that you're the mastermind behind the plan.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know that. Oh, this is going to be his Dad, I think 17 years before being here. But his dad also wears a baseball.

[Luke Burbank]

I want to hear how the dad talks. What made you come and settle in Mount Vernon to start your business? Being in the industry for a long.

[Andrew Walsh]

Time, I was mid market baseball team. Guess was it the dad is wearing a baseball hat?

[Luke Burbank]

No.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, it's not any of them that we met. Kansas City Royals, I think. Mid market. Yeah, mid market. It is the. It looks like a Cincinnati Reds hat.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, that's perfect. On the wholesale end for a bit.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's perfect.

[Jared Lindner]

And always solicited.

[Andrew Walsh]

Dad also wearing an untucked shirt, but not as sharp like. It doesn't look like it's a shirt made by the. By the brand. Untuck it. And the dad looks like the shirt. He's a little bit more dressed like me. The shirt is about a size or two, maybe too big. So it's hanging off him. It's wrinkled. But also just like his son. Sleeves rolled up to like mid forearm and baseball cap. So they sort of maybe have sort of a uniform. Sorry though, I cut this off. We wanted to hear his voice somewhere.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I probably got enough Fourth Avenue. And every time I came to visit the customer, it took me an hour to park.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. So one other thing I want to mention though. So we're talking about this guy's affectation, the son, the guy who's in the TV show. But the thing I was talking about this with Genevieve last night. Cause I told her you sent me that article about him just like running the store and he's not an actual actor. Given that there's real acting involved here that I would not be able to do. You've heard me try to portray a goldfish in a radio play.

[Luke Burbank]

First of all, that's not fair because they were asking you to play. Were you also a goldfish?

[Andrew Walsh]

No. I guess I was a different kind of fish that was made.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, no. But no, that's not the nature of my question. That was. You were in. Listen, you didn't have a chance at that. You were asking you some slightly over the top character. I assume there was no one actually. Like they're sort of directing you or coaching you. So you're just like floating in space. And I think you could play like a Quirky guy co hosting a podcast.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe. But I do think I just. I want to give credit to the fact that, like, you can. Because this gets into a little bit of what we talked about yesterday, about whether or not this show, the Chair company, is sort of doing this Tim and Eric thing where you're collecting a whole gang menagerie of oddballs. Of oddballs. Exactly what I was going.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, and why didn't Hillary use that terminology? I think could have won in 2016, but it's not as catchy. You don't. You don't identify as a oddball.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, too. No, nobody says I'm an oddball anyway. But, you know, people who are. Maybe the Tim and Eric thing, they were grabbing people from, like, local community, like cable broadcasts and people who sometimes.

[Luke Burbank]

Seem like they may or may not have total, like, full, you know, mental health.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

It gets a little questionable.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And although I've heard, you know, people have asked this question for a long time, that shows pretty old now, and it sounds like. Actually it sounds like everybody was treated really well and that people weren't like the butts of jokes necessarily. But if you're starting to see these types of folks in the Chair company, I gotta say, the acting is still there, though. Like this guy to just have no acting background that we know of. And I didn't read the whole interview. Maybe. Maybe he acted.

[Luke Burbank]

No, he had no acting background. Like, he says that in the interview.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, he never played Santa in the fifth grade play or whatever like I did. But I was one of the Santas, by the way. They broke the role up into three parts, Luke, so that not one person can get all the acclaim. But they told me I was the best Santa. That's a true story.

[Luke Burbank]

I believe that you already had the beard.

[Andrew Walsh]

I already had the beard and the attitude. Honestly, I was so mad. I pulled up, there was nowhere to park. I left the pink note on some kid's car. Anyway, I just think that him doing, like, oh, he's at his limit. And then at the end when he has to shut it down and kind of be like, I'm not interested in you anymore. Like, there's some real acting involved here. It's not just him being his quirky self, I think. And I just want to give a little credit to that. I love that scene. It lives in my head.

[Luke Burbank]

And credit, I think, to Tim Robinson and the other people with the show, because one of the things he says in the article is that they were so incredibly easy to work with. And they just made him feel really comfortable. And he. It was also funny because at the time of the interview, he hadn't seen the episode. I think because he doesn't have HBO Max. Like. Like, I'm. I'm like, who is this guy? He's amazing. I'm Googling him. He's being interviewed by Variety magazine. He's never seen the scene in question.

[Andrew Walsh]

He didn't, like, sign up for a free trial to see himself on hbo. I want to.

[Luke Burbank]

He'd already done a free trial a month ago, and he was at his limit.

[Andrew Walsh]

He was literally at his limit. I know somebody who's at his limit. I have another question for you because I'm worried that this conversation is going to slip away.

[Luke Burbank]

And I bring up Cal Rawly.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is. This is something that I've been wanting to ask you for weeks now, since the, I believe, first or second episode of this show dropped the chair company. This isn't about the show at all. So if we're losing listeners, I promise you this is a question about technology, because the show is weird. It has all kinds of weird stuff in it that isn't fully explained or whatever. But also it is just about a guy who has access to all of the technology that we have in 2025. He's googling things constantly. And it's actually Google. It's not one of those fake Googles. And he's using his cell phone and blah, blah, blah. Just all this stuff that we're familiar with. But then there one time where he has, I believe, a photo on his phone. I think it's a photo. And he takes his phone. This is Tim Robinson's character, Ron. He's sitting at his desk at work, and he takes the phone and he just taps it on top of his keyboard or on top of his laptop screen to transfer the file. Do you remember this move?

[Luke Burbank]

No.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is that something you can do with Macintosh computers?

[Luke Burbank]

Not that I know of.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just tap your phone on the top of your screen to transfer a file down. I think it's just a photo. I'm pretty sure he's transferring a file into his computer just by tapping his phone.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm trying it right now.

[Andrew Walsh]

This would be a great prank.

[Luke Burbank]

Not working. I literally. You have me banging my phone.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Photo up.

[Andrew Walsh]

You have a photo up? Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

And I'm. I'm bang. And it's as an Apple iPhone and I'm banging it into an Apple MacBook Pro and nothing is happening.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you not have any photos that aren't filthy. I caught a glimpse of that. That is. That is.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what this is? This is very cute, actually. Each day, if I remember. So Becca and I have a little thing. If. If we're looking at our phone at 11:11, we take a little screen grab and send it to each other. Like, it's just like a little weird. It's. It's no, you know, post it note on the coffee, but it's.

[Andrew Walsh]

Did you freak out on Tuesday?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, I did. I said, Happy 11. This is as 1111 as it gets. Unless it was 2011.

[Andrew Walsh]

I missed it.

[Luke Burbank]

I sent her a picture at 1111 on 1111.

[Andrew Walsh]

That is so great.

[Luke Burbank]

Thinking of you.

[Andrew Walsh]

I missed it by one minute. I was on Blue sky or somebody and somebody had posted it a minute earlier. 11:11. On 11:11, I shook Genevieve, but it was already 11:12 at that moment. So, anyway, I'm happy to be.

[Luke Burbank]

I have an alarm set for 11:11, but I have it on silent because obviously I don't want to interrupt the show. We're typically doing the show. So then I never noticed that it's going off. But it's our little game that we play just to kind of let each other know that we're thinking of each other. But that is the photo. That's the photo. That just is the most recent photo here. This is Thursday, November 13th.

[Andrew Walsh]

I see. So you take a screen.

[Luke Burbank]

I take a screen cap of my phone saying 1111. And then this picture is my wallpaper.

[Andrew Walsh]

On the phone, which is a photo of you and Becca posing. It looks like somewhere, maybe at an event or something like that in Italy, I believe. Oh, nice. Yes. You look nice. I see. So I was wondering why that 1111 was behind you. Like, I thought you guys were at some sort of a. You know how they sort of have those fun, quote, unquote, fun step and repeats at parties and stuff. And I thought that that was. You were at some sort of 11 party.

[Luke Burbank]

That sounds like it's going to descend into swinging very fast for some reason. I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

In 1111. Well, it is a. Is Veterans Day always on the 11th or is it always Tuesday? I think it's.

[Luke Burbank]

That was the weirdest. What was that about? I mean, I guess it's always the case. That was the weirdest Tuesday of all time. Like to have a holiday on a Tuesday.

[Andrew Walsh]

Genevieve. I was traveling, so to me, everything felt messed up. But Genevieve, who had a regular work week, was saying similar things on Tuesday. She's like, it feels like a Sunday. But I just had my Sunday.

[Luke Burbank]

It's like, just make it the. Whatever it is. The second Monday in November is Veterans Day. And I feel that the veterans will feel honored by that not having it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just be a floater that. It could be a floater that can.

[Luke Burbank]

Be randomly a Tuesday.

[Andrew Walsh]

So it's like, yeah, you go to.

[Luke Burbank]

Work on Monday and then all of a sudden it's like, Tuesday's all like. Becca had Tuesday off. It was just a strange. It was a kind of a strange day holiday to have kind of plopped down. It sort of at the beginning of the week, but not the very beginning of the week, but also not the end of the week. It was. It was odd.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I could definitely. Again, my whole week was sort of all messed up because of that and somewhat random. And you were able to. Because you did your tbtl, you did your TBTL chores over the weekend. Right. So you were able to take Tuesday off or at least off from tbtl.

[Luke Burbank]

It was mostly pre produced. I think I recorded my. My, you know, the wraparound, as it were, maybe on Tuesday morning or so. I was still doing a little bit of work, but mostly John Sklaroff was posting the show. And so I did have sort of a lighter day than normal, but I've also got some TV stuff going on in the background that's always kind of. Kind of my constant companion.

[Andrew Walsh]

That reminds me, you got to be a little bit careful asking John to do extra work like that because he is at his limit.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, he's at his limit of having Aaron Judge win the mvp. Now listen, this is a little bit of a baseball talk, but I do think we have enough people that got swept up in Mariners fever that we could talk a little bit about Cal Raleigh not getting the most Valuable player award that went to Aaron Judge of the Yankees. Now, now, I know that it sounds like it's impossible for me to be sort of neutral about this, but I fundamentally don't think I understand what most valuable means because I really can't see a player who was more most valuable to their team than Cal Raleigh in that he was the catcher, which is a really hard job. Every time there was a good pitching performance that he was the catcher, he was part of that. That. Which is not how it was for Aaron Judge. And then he hit a million home runs and he. And you know, and also helped the Mariners in the. I know probably the postseason doesn't technically count, but he literally helped the Mariners get past the Detroit Tigers with a timely home run hitting to tie one of the games. So I know again, of course I'm. I'm wanting it to be Cal Raleigh because I'm a fan of his. But I also just don't understand how the argument could be that Aaron Judge was more valuable. Is it more valuable to the Yankees than Cal Raleigh was more valuable to the Mariners? What is the exact metric for this?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know the exact metric. The metric is. Are you a Yankee? First of all, there's no doubt in my mind that if Cal Rawling, the Yankee, had the same exact season, the same exact season, and he was doing all of that for the Yankees and.

[Luke Burbank]

The Yankees still beat Mamdani, they would have elected him mayor of New York on the spot.

[Andrew Walsh]

If they had ended their season exactly where they did, you know, pretty early in the postseason or whatever, Cal Raleigh would have been a national story. He already was a bit of a national story. He would have been a huge national story and of course he would have won mvp. It would have been all. I was flipping through the radio yesterday and I found myself on a sports station that I don't usually listen to because they usually carry more national sports. As I KJR in the afternoons and I just heard the two most like, like Yankees fan sounding guys in the world. This is before the like maybe an hour or two before the announcement of who won. And they're just like talking about how it's got to be judged. Like it's got what? Cal Raleigh, you're not going to remember him. Three times in a row is going to make history. You're going to. It's like all of their arguments for it was like what is the best headline for Rob Manfred? And like three, literally there was saying Rob knows how to work headlines. Like three times in a row is more important than. It's like, wait, you're waiting this. You're saying that he deserves it so that they can say this Yankee got it three years in a row. I want to be careful about one thing though, because this conversation did begin with me mentioning John Skaroff and you used that to sort of pivot into this. I will say there was a period of time yesterday from hearing these two jack holes on the radio and then an hour or two later hearing that Kyle Raleigh did indeed lose to Aaron Judge, where I was really spinning out of control with my hatred of the Yankees and generally speaking, that kind of Yankees fan. But I want to say I did remember and because I mean, I honestly think to myself sometimes and this is going to be really, really rude to both John and a bunch of our listening audience, I think to myself, how could you root for that? Like, what is the fun of that? Just like always getting, always getting this. You know what I mean? It just seems so unfun and uninteresting. But the thing is, John is not like those Yankees fans who are kind of sweetheart. He said, like, I don't know if you remember this in a text chain, like months ago he said, like, you know, I'm a Yankees fan. But no, this is Cal Raleigh's to lose. Like, it's, I mean, he straight up was saying like, Cal Raleigh should win this based on this. So like, I don't want John to feel like I'm sweeping him up in this sort of stereotype that I have. But there is a stereotype of the Yankees fan base that is just so annoying and so just. It seems bereft of, of anything interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

We have to take you to a Yankee game, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that you. That's what.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a spirit of justice. It really helped me for some reason and I was sitting with those Yankee bros and I ended up liking them and they were just, you know, 20 something guys who grew up in the greater New York City area. And it's like, well, of course you're a Yankee fan. You know, you grew up. They're the team, they're iconic. They, you know, they've had very memorable players and like, it makes takes. There was something about being at that game with those guys. It really humanized them for me. I mean that seriously, it's, it's, it's helped me not have as much weird, impotent rage as I have typically carried around at that fan base. But yeah, I just, again, I, I really. And I, I think I can say this. If Cal Raleigh played on a different team and put up the same numbers this season, I feel like I would say, well, that guy's obviously the most valuable player. Like, like I said, said probably for an 80 to 90% of the season, every single pitch that was thrown passes through Cal Raleigh. I'm talking not just the starters, the middle relief. The Munoz pitches. Like, it's, it's like he could almost, in my mind, you could almost win it. Well, first of all, it should probably be a catcher every single year if you think about it. Because like, think about the pressure on a catcher and just like think about the little things like Cal Raleigh blocking a Munoz pitch in the dirt, which doesn't allow a runner to advance, and then, then that runner ends up stranded at third base on you know, there's a two out fly ball that's caught and that runner doesn't score. Whereas he could have gotten to third base. If that ball gets piked by Cal Raleigh. And we don't even talk about that. That's just like one micro moment of the game where he was incredibly valuable to the game.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm gonna be like the pedantic here, but are you talking about something in the postseason? Because supposedly the postseason does not get.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm not even talking about a specific. Oh, you're just, I'm just saying kind of like a, just like a hypothetical. I'm just saying there's these little, there's. The thing of being the catcher is just like so incredibly hard. Just like the guy would get like, it was almost comical at points in the season where he'd get like hit in the throat with the ball and then he'd come up and hit a home run.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

Like he would have something happen to him that would literally kill me if it ever happened one time. And my thought would be like, ah, he's, he's fine, he'll be fine. Like he almost became non human to me at some point because he's so tough.

[Andrew Walsh]

Remember, I think it was last season or maybe two. I think it was two seasons ago. He, he played all season with like a broken thumb, like that position, remember? I don't know if it was broken, but like a really jacked up thumb that they didn't really tell us the, they didn't really reveal the details of until after the season was over. It was one of them that we did not go to the postseason. I think.

[Luke Burbank]

By the way, I also want to say I actually like Aaron Judge. Every interview I've heard with him. He seems like a really sweet dude. Like I'm, I'm really not anti Aaron Judge per se. I just, I just think it, and I guess it's the, it's probably the baseball writers, right? Is that who decides on this?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I think so. I don't think Genevieve looks at Aaron Judge. I'll be honest with you.

[Luke Burbank]

I, I, I'm, you know, and I, I don't think that the baseball writers are, you know, in collusion with Rob Manfred. I mean, I think there's some, what there is, is some statistical element to this that I don't really follow. But they should need to change the name of it then or something because I just think most valuable player sounds to me a whole lot like what Cal Raleigh did last year.

[Andrew Walsh]

Year I unfollowed Somebody who wasn't even. They weren't even like, it's not, It's. I have followed this guy. I don't remember his name. I already. I've already forgotten him. His name is Aaron something. And I don't know how he got swept up into my algorithm, but he's a guy who's a huge athletics fan. And so you want to talk about, you know, just like the most trampled upon fan base. I will forever feel empty.

[Luke Burbank]

Uncle of that, of that suit. Guy was wearing an A's hat.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right? Yes, he was.

[Luke Burbank]

He walks through the video at the end wearing an ace.

[Andrew Walsh]

There's just. There's a long line of family members walking by with different hats. But anyway, like, you know, and so that's why. So I started following this guy. He has such a good. He was just, generally speaking, like a. Just kind of a good poster is one of those, like, real parasocial relationships. This guy has no idea who I am. I don't know who he is. We didn't interact at all. But I ended up kind of like following the beats of his life a little bit. But mostly he just got swept up into my algorithm because he's a baseball guy, right? And an interesting guy. And I've always liked his posts and his love, his undying love of baseball and the athletics, despite, you know, what the team has done to him. But then yesterday he just, you know, like, I'm furious at this news. I am furious at this MVP news. My timeline is going crazy. It's mostly Mariners fans freaking their shit. And then I just see he posted, like, with those asterisks, whispers quietly. They made the right choice. And I was like, that was. He didn't even have to say what he was talking about. I was just like, this guy. I'm not following this guy right now. He has plenty of followers. He doesn't need me. And that's. That's where I was emotionally, overall.

[Luke Burbank]

This is the thing. I, believe it or not, I try. I'm saying there is some part of this that I don't understand. There's some explanation, a statistical thing having to do with. With something about what Aaron Judge did that caused these baseball writers to say he was the most valuable player. Like, I don't think that Buster Only is out to get me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Or, you know, the only under your bed right now.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, yeah, Mommy, can I sleep with the light on? Buster Only is under my bed.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, I don't have the stats, but Aaron Judge had a hell of a season I mean, he had an incredible season and he was injured for like, you know, it was comical.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, his batting average and his power numbers were just totally like absolutely ridiculous in this way. That was like a statistical. It was anomalous, you know. But so weirdly enough, I'm not even saying they're wrong. I'm saying they're not. The story is not being explained to me properly of what the, what the metric is for most valuable player.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I think the metric really does have to do with the popularity of America's team or whatever. You know, like, again, like, is there any doubt in your. I was not being sarcastic or even, even exaggerating when I said there's literally no doubt in my mind that if Cal Raleigh was wearing a Yankees uniform this year, he would have won.

[Luke Burbank]

It's very hard for me to imagine a universe in which he doesn't get the MVP as a Yankee because of just the sort of osmosis of it all, the the sort of ubiquity of it all. Because we would, like you said, we would have never, ever, ever stopped hearing about it in the baseball media and to some degree even the national media media. It would just be. And it would have this effect over time, this drumbeat of kind of almost making it, you know, sort of manifesting.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly. Well put.

[Luke Burbank]

Making it a fate accompli. But, but, you know, I. What pitchers and catchers, what are like probably 50 days or something. We're probably pretty soon will be a month out from pitchers.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know it will be. It is. I know the winter I know can sometimes feel long, but then sometimes you do the math. You're like, man, we're going to be potentially painting a wall, doing some, you know, some spring renovations or cleaning, listening to spring training.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you, baby. I've got some MVPs for you, Andrew. Some most valuable peoples. These are the donors who are supporting TBTL voluntarily. We read a lot of names throughout the year and sometimes it can sort of fly by. And then sometimes it just hits me like, wow, these are all people in various parts of the country and even the world who are sending money in every month to this show so that this can be a thing. This is 100% listener supported and I just really, really appreciate it. We've been on this livewire fundraising kick and so it's kind of had me thinking about funding models for these kinds of things and like, just how remarkable this whole TBTL thing is. And it's thanks to folks like Keith Brewster, who's in Chardon, Ohio, Is that on geography? That's in geography.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is, Yeah. I think that's pretty far. That's pretty far east. I think by. Because I was a westsider. You know what I like about Keith, by the way? As far as his donations are concerned, he's not at his limit. He's still doing it monthly.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. He has not hit his limit of tolerating TBTL and deciding to donate.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

I went to a surprise wedding in Chardon, Ohio. That's why I know it's in Geauga county.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's the story. I knew you did a story on the east side of Cleveland a few years back.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Thank you, Keith. Thanks also to Rob Peacock, who's in Portland, Oregon.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, thanks, Rob. That reminds me, we might be getting Peacock the streaming service. Peacock in this family.

[Luke Burbank]

Really? What's the show?

[Andrew Walsh]

There isn't one. I. I am still on a free trial of Apple. That's why I've been able to watch. What is it? Is it Pluribus?

[Luke Burbank]

That's on Apple?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And I think I just had to.

[Luke Burbank]

Re Sign up for it to get Pluribus.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And so my free trial is about to end. I think I got like a full six months or something through my T mobile account or whatever. But now it's time to pay the piper. Luke and Genevieve and I are looking and she said, you know, you pay, it's like three extra bucks a month, and you get Apple and Peacock. I'm like, well, that would be fun. Get Peacock. I don't know what's on there, but I like the color dollars.

[Luke Burbank]

I think Peacock is a big money loser, but it's losing less money every year. I was reading some article about it, like, they only lost $400 million last year or whatever.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now, Peacock is obviously associated with NBC. NBC? But there's no chance I get the cable NBC. Well, now Ms. Now won't even be part of NBC. I was wondering, is there any chance I get Chris's show on Peacock? But probably not, huh?

[Luke Burbank]

You got to use that FUBO login. Either keep using J Dogs or you can borrow mine.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I think J Dogs is about to sunset, so maybe I'll be sniffing.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, you can absolutely use mine. Or maybe you can use Laura Steiger's account. Laura is in Bellingham, Washington. You know what, Laura? You're doing enough for me. You don't have to share your fubo account with you.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's what I was about to say.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you, Laura.

[Andrew Walsh]

What if everybody who we thank here either donates to the show directly or shares their passwords with us for various streaming services. Or both or both. Both.

[Luke Burbank]

Thanks also to Michelle and Larry Little in Port Angeles, Washington.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice. You think that they have a login to the Criterion Channel? That would be a good one. Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I like to. Sometimes I'll see on my social media feed, you know, they've got the Criterion Collection and they will bring in, you know, actors and people to like, kind of go through the library and pick out free movies. Yeah, I would love to do that, but I would feel a lot of pressure to pick cool movies.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, yes.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, like, it's.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's like, what does it say about you what you picked?

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. Bill Hader went through there and. And it's like he's a super duper cinephile. I didn't realize that has a whole. Like, it really, really knows a lot about movies. I'm not sure what Matt McGillen in Oak Park, Illinois's relationship is with the Criterion Collection or being cinephile, but I know that he's a TBT lifier.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Because here he is donating to the show. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate you out there in Oak Park. And then Chris Anderson is checking in from Everett, Washington.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now, this was sweet. Chris offered me his to be login. Now, I already have a to be login, but it was still. It was like the. You know what I mean? It was just a kind gesture, which I appreciate.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it was sweet. How about his movie login? I'm surprised. Mubi is like a big hit.

[Andrew Walsh]

What's going on with movie? I don't think I know about movie.

[Luke Burbank]

Movie is this. Let me see here. You know. You know why this is a streaming service?

[Andrew Walsh]

One? Yes, it's.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a. Let's see. It's a British streaming platform. It produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers. I was reading an article about it a while ago. It was founded by this Turkish guy who I think was just a big movie fan. And I don't know, it just seems like there's so many streaming services and there's so much noise out there that it's always interesting when one kind of sort of seems to be succeeding. Kind of figured it out. The other thing was my friend Rico Galliano, once of the Dinner Party download podcast. He hosts like a Mubi podcast show.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, really?

[Luke Burbank]

So that was the first I started seeing Mubi out there, but then I was reading articles about it, and it seems like they've actually kind of. They've sort of figured. I think it. I think it's also kind of aimed towards cinephiles. It's sort of streaming, but like with really good content.

[Andrew Walsh]

Also speaking of those guys from the dinner party download, I looked at the. I didn't download. I signed up for the Paris Review podcast like years and years and years ago. And then it went. I think it went dormant for a long time. And maybe you told me this and I'd forgotten, but the other day I was just looking for something to put on and I'm like, is there any chance there's New Paris Review? And there is. They booted that baby back up. Maybe it's been up for a while. Are you a regular kind of switch?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm not super regular with it, but is Brendan hosting it?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think so. I did not. I think I got distracted. I'm not sure if I listened to the whole episode or not. I think I put it on for a second and then saw something shiny. But I want to get more into it. I remember very much liking it and I'm pretty sure that he is still hosting. I just can't tell you for sure right now.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, thank you very much to our donors for keeping TBTL in business. We couldn't do this without you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

RIP to the Penny Andrew headline in the New York Times. The penny dies at 232 years old. This is an incredible, I think, piece of writing by Victor Mather in the Times. The American penny died on Wednesday in Philadelphia. It was 232. The cause was irrelevance and expensiveness. The Treasury Department said nothing could be bought anymore with a penny, not even penny candy. Moreover, the cost to mint the penny had risen to more than 3 cents, a financial absurdity that doomed the coin in its heyday. The penny had immense cultural impact. It was the going rate for thoughts. It was a symbol of frugality saved and or earned. It could sometimes be pretty and other times arrive from heaven. Heaven. And how many ideas would never have come to light without a penny dropping? When picked up, it was said to bring good luck for a 24 hour period. An assertion commonly made, but one that was never proven by any scientific double blind studies. On the darker side, a penny could undoubtedly be bad, especially when turning up. It found its way into films and songs. A foray into footwear, specifically loafers, was a huge success for many decades. And the shoe remains readily available today. In comparison, about the best the nickel could do was to be wooden or buffalo.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is really good writing. I Was reading this earlier this morning before we started the show. And it is good writing. I like the way that it's written. Like an obituary. The loafer thing stuck out to me.

[Luke Burbank]

I bought some penny loafers recently, by the way, but I had pennies in them.

[Andrew Walsh]

I had penny loafers when it was part of my school uniform in eighth grade, I believe. I mean, I don't think they had to be penny loafers, but that's what everybody was basically wearing there. So no more pennies in the penny loafers, I guess.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I mean, until we run or. Well, when we run out of the existing supply of pennies, I guess. Right.

[Andrew Walsh]

I didn't actually get all the way to the end of the piece.

[Luke Burbank]

Did they talk about, like, what the. Like what the process is for? I mean, they're not making them anymore, but I guess they'll just stay around as long as they sort of naturally do.

[Andrew Walsh]

This piece was more poetic in its, like, sort of reflections on the penny and. But there are some links to, you know, the actual news story. And I did not realize this. I had assumed it was just one of those things that people say, but it didn't actually happen. But it goes back to February. Apparently Trump signed it. Because I was honestly, like, I'm reading this. I'm, like, so pissed off. And I'm like, it could have been a Biden thing, though. I don't even really know who did it. I don't know that it needs to necessarily be partisan, but the fact that it did come from Trump makes me even more angry about it.

[Luke Burbank]

He cast the deciding vote on the MLB mvp.

[Andrew Walsh]

He probably did tweet about it. I'm sorry. He probably did Truth Social about it. I don't know why this bums me out, man. I don't. You know, I still like paying for things with cash. I still carry a decent amount of cash with me. I just love saying that so that people know that they should. They should assault me if they see me. Just bonk me on my head and take my wallet, my George Costanza wallet.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe just do kind of a more of a like, theatrical pickpocketing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, that's a yoinking, if you will.

[Luke Burbank]

Kind of like when Bart and Homer each pickpocket each other.

[Andrew Walsh]

Or how about that thing that everybody did in the 80s on TV shows? I think I saw this a lot in 80s sitcoms, probably because they didn't. There's something scary about maybe showing something that looks like a real gun, but how many times did you see somebody in a 70s or 80s show, like mug somebody but they just have their finger in their pocket. Right. You never actually see the gun. That was a real thing, right? It was like, ah, there's always poking, like poking through their jacket or their hoodie or whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, absolutely. Anyway, by the way, just to quickly update that I'm seeing in the article, article this. Even after death, the penny will not vanish for a while longer. There are some 250 billion pennies in circulation. They will be out there gathering dust or maybe very, very rarely being used to pay for something. So there's not like a, a process of like, you know, trying to get the, like, you know, go turn in your pennies or something. I guess it's just. They'll just wait until, I guess they're destroyed and then I'm. I'm guessing that in the olden days, if you had a penny and, and you cared to, you could send it somewhere and get a replacement penny if yours was like destroyed and now probably there's just no more replacement. It'll just. I mean, that is a weird question though. It's like, will they just melt into the earth? Like what will really. What will physically happen to them?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, eventually. Will there. Will they start not recalling them, but just sort of collecting them and like keeping them out of circulation? If they pass through like various levels of government or something like that, you know, like, I don't know dmv. I don't know who, who's paying for anything in a government outpost with change. And that's what I was starting to say. Like, I do like cash. I don't necessarily like change.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't.

[Andrew Walsh]

What? I don't like change in any sense of the word, as you well know. But like, I don't, you know, I don't have some sort of fascination with pocket change or something like that. I think quarters would bum me out if they disappeared forever. Pennies less so. But I don't know, man, I'm. I don't know. I just have emotions about this that are not rational at all. But it's bumming me out.

[Luke Burbank]

Out because it just feels like something from your childhood, something from your whole life generally is going away permanently. Is that kind of where you think the feelings are coming from?

[Andrew Walsh]

I guess so, but well beyond my life, you know, as this piece points out. Like it's just. And it just seems so permanent, you know, like there's. And there's no going back. Nobody's going to decide later. Let's, let's hope that we don't get to a place in society where we need to downgrade to pennies again, you know, so, again, it's absurd how I'm feeling, but I'm not. Not. I'm not like, just saying this for something to say.

[Luke Burbank]

It's just you're actually feeling it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm feeling a little something about it, and I can't rationalize it.

[Luke Burbank]

See, I think my initial thought was the same, which was, oh, that's a bummer. That's just, you know, again, it feels like the sort of fabric of my entire life. A part of the fabric of my entire life. And all of the pop culture references and all of the see a penny, pick it up all the day, you'll have good luck. But then I thought about it a little more deeply and was. I was like, I do everything in my power to avoid getting pennies in my life. Like, the number one thing that a place can do if I'm paying with cash is ask me, do I want to round up for the children? 100%, yes. Like, that's the number one way to get me to donate pocket change to whatever the organization is. Do you want to round up? Do you want to not get this change back? You want to not get this, like, 18 cents back? And it's like, I absolutely don't want that in my life. So it's a little bit of a bummer. But on the other hand, it's not like I was enjoying a lifestyle where I was. Was carrying a lot of pennies around. And also, I mean, it is crazy to think that you. There is nothing for sale for one penny.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, there's not even penny candy, as they say in the article. Like when we were. I'm wondering, when I was a kid, could you buy something for a penny?

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe there was like, those little Chiclet. Little Chiclet gums out of a vending machine at the hardware store.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, right, right, right, right, right, right. Because no, you're absolutely right. There would be those vending machines or whatever you call them, and there would be the ones that took quarters, the ones that took nickels and dimes, and then there was the penny one. Yeah, you could get a gumball.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, One little gumball or little Chiclets there. Maybe a couple of Chiclets would come out. You know what really did get me. And I'm just thinking about this now, and it's not super relatable if you weren't in that part of the country, but I was in New Hampshire when they went there's. A lot of toll booths in New Hampshire. A lot of, like, just toll highways or whatever. And it's not for long stretches. It's just like you're kind of constantly. It seemed like maybe it was just because I was forth between New Hampshire and Massachusetts a lot. Whatever it was, they had these very classic toll booth set up where you would have your. They were special tokens that you would buy. So it was like a roll of quarters. And I don't remember where you'd buy them. I think you'd buy them. You could. When you're coming up to the toll booth area in your car, you could choose to actually interact with somebody like a toll booth operator, just like Adam Sandler style. And I think you could buy.

[Luke Burbank]

Toll booth Willie.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. I think you could buy rolls of. Of these tokens from them, but then also pay with cash if you didn't have any tokens. But then once you had these tokens in your car, there were the other booths you could roll through, and they had those big baskets. I'm sure that you had experienced this at some point in your life, Luke, There it was like you'd roll through, you'd roll down your window, you grab three of those specific tokens, and you would toss them into this basket as you drove by. And you should stop, but you could also do it at a very slow roll. Right. And at some point when I was in New Hampshire, they stopped using those tokens. And those tokens were just like. They were everywhere. They were just reaching the backseat of your car. Go in the crevices, you'll find them. Go in the backyard, turn over some earth, you'll find some of these tokens. And then at some point, they were completely irrelevant because it was way more convenient just to create the technology where you stick a sticker to your windshield and just drive through. And there's no arguing that it's better this way for traffic flow, for getting people, for not having. Having huge backups, all these things. But it really sucked, too. I missed those tokens.

[Luke Burbank]

I was always too nervous to not come to a complete stop to toss them in. Yeah, I always wanted to be that cool Northeasterner who's driving down the turnpike, and you just, like, fire the change out, you know, and it hits the thing. And I always thought, it's going to bounce out, and then they're going to take a picture of my license plate, and then they're going to put out a warrant for my arrest.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, you'll hear the. And then the lights start flashing. Behind you. Like, we've been waiting for somebody to screw this up.

[Luke Burbank]

Speaking of New Jersey, three ute have been arrested for breaking into the Playlands park, which is actually in Rye, New York. It, I guess is featured in the movie Big. The Tom Hanks movie. I think that's maybe where he does the like Zoltar machine or whatever. These kids, though, who were arrested, these three kids in their 20s who were arrested, arrested were all from New Jersey. They were arrested for stealing a boat drive. They stole a boat from a Connecticut boat club. Then they drove it to the amusement park. They parked it at the amusement park. They jumped the fence of the amusement park in the middle of the night and did $57,000 worth of damage of basically vandalism. I mean, this thing is. It's not a super cute story because the kids were just being kind of a holes and they like. Like, let's see, they tried to.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God, this one guy is jacked.

[Luke Burbank]

I know.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's not wearing a shirt. In one of.

[Luke Burbank]

There's a security photo of the three kids. Like, it looks like maybe they're on a. Like they're walking in something that's maybe a ride. Like, you know what it looks like? Like it's one of those floating rides, but it doesn't have any water in it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And they're running where the water would usually be there. There's some area where they're not supposed to be walking. Clearly one of them is barefoot and white wet and leaving like wet footprints on the ground. The other two have shoes on, but one of them is shirtless. And I would be too, if I. He is.

[Luke Burbank]

So I immediately noticed that photo. Like, this kid's in a lot of trouble. Like they've all been arrested now. But also I believe he has a huge number of admirers because he looks so jacked and effortlessly. So he's wearing sweats and sneakers and then no shirt. And then. Yeah, the guy in the middle, the guy that's walking in the kind of, you know, the area where the water would normally be for like a water run. He is wearing shorts, no shoes, no socks, no shirt, but then like a windbreaker.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, he looks a little. He's kind of got a little bit of lifeguard energy because is he wearing majorly?

[Luke Burbank]

Because he's got some lanyard around his neck too. Then the guy on the left is in a Virginia Tech hoodie pulled up with sunglasses. He's the only one who seems to realize maybe I should try to obscure myself a little bit. He's got. He's kind of got Unabomber vibes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. He's wearing sunglasses. He's got the hoodie pulled up, and I think a hat. Now it's interesting. Like, don't.

[Luke Burbank]

Insensible pants. He's the only one who's really dressed.

[Andrew Walsh]

For the job I want. Well, it's like they all had different roles, sort of. Maybe the one kid knew he had to get wet because there's a wet part of this. Now. I. I want to say it, really. I had not read this one in advance. I'm looking at it now, and it bums me out. I. I wish they had done all of this just like, in the effort of some sort of prank that was maybe like, you know, if they had just stolen all of the teddy bears.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. The way I set that up made it sound a little more cutesy than it was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Like, they show up to work one day and all the teddy bears are arranged around a fountain or something funny like that. You know what I mean? That would be funny. But the fact that they did tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage actually makes me feel bad about the story. Having said that, this photo of these three characters, doesn't it make you feel like you can sort of fill in their personalities within the friend group? Sort of like the middle guy, the guy who's barefoot and wet.

[Luke Burbank]

I think he's holding a flashlight, by the way.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's what that is. Yes, absolutely. He's like the funny one, right? He's like the wild. He's like the wild. No, he's in the middle. But you and I. So I don't know if we're just falling for that, but it's like, it was his idea. His other friend takes it really seriously. The one who's wearing the sunglasses and the hoodie.

[Luke Burbank]

That one. That guy is like, okay, we're here to. We're here to do some vandalism and then hopefully not get caught. So again, he's the one who's actually slightly incognito.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then the other guy is just like, go along, get along. Like, he's just handsome. He's allergic to shirts. He's allergic to shirts. And, like, whatever anybody says, he says, yeah, okay, that sounds good to me. Me.

[Luke Burbank]

It's also kind of crazy to think that, like, this was recent. In other words, it was fall in Rye, New York. What do these guys wear? Like, the ones that are underclothed? It's like, this is. I don't think they. If I've got The timing. Right. They didn't do this in, like, July. They did this, like, the other day, which is kind of crazy to me. Now, here is the part that jumped out at me, and I've done a terrible job of setting the story up because I believe I used the word the number 2000, which is totally wrong. They did not steal 2000 plush toys. They stole 200 plush animal toys, like the kind that you win from, you know, knocking over the milk jugs or whatever. And so the, you know, they're. They're charged with, like, doing, like I said, about $57,000 worth of damage. $38,000 of the damage was electrical. They basically, like, messed up this electrical room. The total value of the 200 stuffed animal toys was $280. Doesn't that seem low?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, they're really cheap, man. Those types of stuff. And I appreciate the fair grounds or the, you know, the. The.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, that's what. I think. This is a business problem for Playland because they're confirming. What any adult could tell you is that those things are stuffed with Chinese newspapers.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And are like. Like made out of whatever. The cheapest thing you could possibly. The fact that they stole over 200 of them and they were valued at $280. It's basically a dollar per toy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, exactly. Just over a dollar per toy. Also, this bums me out and says, okay, well, a couple of things. First of all, this part is interesting. This is the last graph of the story. After hopping the fence back onto the beach. This is after all of the vandalism, everything officials said the men set off again in the boat, returning it to the club they had taken it from. It was unclear what had become of the stolen toys. Now. Now, I guess we don't know the origins of that boat. Right. I've been assuming that they sort of stole this boat. And if so, it's interesting that they decided to return it to its proper slip. It sounds like. Unless somebody. It doesn't say it for sure. Right. I guess this boat.

[Luke Burbank]

Somebody's dad's boat.

[Andrew Walsh]

This could have been somebody's dad. Somebody's. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

They definitely. It has the vibe of being a. We don't want to get in trouble with somebody's dad.

[Andrew Walsh]

It says they took the vessel, which has been taken without its owner's permission from a Connecticut boat club. So that sounds to me like they're being careful there with their writing. Right. Not stolen. But somebody took it without permission, which would explain why they probably carefully returned it, because there's A connection to it. They don't seem to hold, like, property in super higher. Other people's property and Right. Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

They're just destroying stuff left and right at the. At the park. But this feels like they knew the person who owned that boat was known to them, and they knew they would be in trouble if they messed that boat up.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it might be jacked. Kids. Dad. Imagine what that guy looks like. You don't want to. Don't mess with his boat. They also. It says. It says they broke into an attraction called the Old mill and sprayed 40 stuffed animals with a fire extinguisher and then damaged three frog figures from an attraction called the Frog Room.

[Luke Burbank]

I know. I don't like that at all. That's just. That's just vandalism for vandalism's sake. It is really funny to me how much my life when I was a kid revolved around obsessively wanting to get. Get those stuffed animals. And now, as an adult, you could not pay me enough. Like, Becca and I went to the. The state fair, the Oregon State Fair this summer, and, like, I wanted to do one of those, like, you know, you can do this, like, basketball shot that's kind of like a free throw, but the rim is very, very small. Like, it's. It's. You can't tell from the ground, but, like, you have to shoot basically the most perfect arced shot that drops essentially straight down through the rim. It's shaped like an M. Yeah, precisely. So I wanted to. I actually. I did that game once and actually won it, I think, when I was with Carrie. And it was the coolest I've ever felt in my life. And I really wanted to impress Becca by doing the same game. But I thought if I win, I literally don't want one of the stuffed animals. I don't want to carry that around all day. I don't want to have it in my life. I don't. I want no part of that. But, man, when I was a kid, I was obsessed. I told you I had that Spuds Mechanic Mackenzie, like, a. Like a huge Spuds Mackenzie stuffed toy from a fair from, like, Wild Waves, which had a. Had a. Like, a little game midway thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

I got this. I just saw you get distracted for a second, and I looked at the clock. 11. 11. I know what you're doing. I see what you're doing.

[Luke Burbank]

I. I had this huge Spuds McKenzie dog that I had won at Wild Waves and was so proud of, and I had it in my room, and it was a prized possession, but yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Was that a basketball win as well?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, no, it was actually. It was kind of cheating in a way because what they had there was like you could win a game that was like easier to win and then you would get kind of like a smaller prize. But then if you had like two small prizes, you could trade them for like a medium sized prize. And then if you had like three mediums, you could trade. So basically I just throughout the day was playing all these games and I was just kind of trading up slowly but surely.

[Andrew Walsh]

But you were carrying them around. I'm surprised they would take back something that you've carried around the park for an hour or two.

[Luke Burbank]

It was the 80s. Yeah, it was wild waves in the 80s.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can I trade in two of these plushes for a carton of cigarettes?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm sure I could have. I'm sure that one of the, one of the carnies would have given it to me. One of the guys, you know, like at the game where you could win like a mirror that said Motley Crue.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly. I had a trans am mirror. No joke with. I can. I know we've talked about it a lot but like not only the painted on mirror that was a perfect square, but you can picture the cardboard frame around it. It was like the white FR with like the gold lines or whatever to keep it classy. 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, we got an email from listener Evan who is going to be volunteering at a local low power FM station in I believe it's California somewhere. And, and I'll just read you Evan's email. When DJing and hosting, my host when I was a producer. Let's see here, I'm trying to.

[Andrew Walsh]

I.

[Luke Burbank]

When djing slash hosting and my hosts when I was a producer have all done these things and it feels disappointing to be told that I shouldn't be engaging in these habits that I've always leaned on that you have taught me to respect and love as a 10. And what Evan is referring to is basically the manual for this low power FM station. If you're going to be one of their daughters, DJs what not to do on air, words to avoid when talking on the air. And it's funny because reading through this, it just sounds like exactly the roadmap for everything we do on tbtl. Andrew. Like everything that we love and enjoy in broadcasting is what the people at this Low power FM station are being told to avoid at all costs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, so this is, this is chapter 9.4, words to avoid when talking in the air.

[Luke Burbank]

Repetitive uses of the words before for that actually and etc. Everyone has his or her pesky pet words and phrases. They don't realize they're saying much. Record your show on tape or CDR and take a listen to discover your annoying repetitive pet phrases. It's the best way to begin the process of eliminating the habit of repeating those words. To be honest with you, I don't think that's the worst piece of advice I've ever heard.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh no, no. The, the most beautiful part of this. The most mystery. Yes, because if you said tape, I wouldn't have even thought about it. We use tape generically even when it means like we're actually recording it.

[Luke Burbank]

The voice wave.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, exactly. Whatever it is. But CDR puts this right specifically in time, doesn't it? That was a short period where people were using CDRs to air check themselves.

[Luke Burbank]

References to my show. As in we've got one hour left in my show. Followed 20 minutes later by we've got 40 minutes left for my show. This sounds very selfish and unprofessional. When you must be self referential, try to acknowledge the following host or program, programmer or other. I'll just say programmers.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you don't want to use the name of it?

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know. I don't know if I would have get them any shade. So for example, you'd say we got 40 minutes left in my show and after that you'll be hearing this week in Science.

[Andrew Walsh]

What happened that one?

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know. You know again, I could see that one both ways. I don't like it when a waiter says my soup tonight.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was going to ask about that.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, so I guess maybe I'll give this one. I'm going to give this one a 50.

[Andrew Walsh]

50.

[Luke Burbank]

But then now we get to point number three and this is where I can. I can no longer go along with what they're saying. Please, no references. I'm just going to say the name of the station. No references to kdrt, internal affairs, shop talk and radio jargon. Avoid explaining any condition that is not noticeable to the listener. Can you imagine, Andrew, if we followed that rule, the show would end tomorrow. Any condition is not noticeable to the listener. For example, your headphones are working only in one channel. The hallway floor is slippery and wet, et cetera. By the way, that is the content that I tune into radio shows. And podcasts for I want to hear that the hallway is slippery, and I want to hear that the headphone is one of the headphones is not working. One side of the headphones.

[Andrew Walsh]

I want to hear. I love turning on sports radio. And instead of hearing sports, hearing people arguing about who stole something out of the company refrigerator or who's been cooking food in the microwave or any of the inner office stuff, I will always lean in way more to that than whether this, you know, another, like another conversation about some minutia with the Seahawks.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, it's the thing about the Howard Stern show, which I'm still a regular listen listener to. But mostly what I have to do now is while I'm listening, I have to start a side texting channel with Phyllis where I complain about about it to her.

[Andrew Walsh]

I have not been in the habit of listening to that show, even though I've had satellite radio for a while. And just the last two days I was in the car. I've been trying to figure out if I want to talk to you about this or not. So yesterday, Howard talking about how AI isn't good to make music and art and how he's reading the biography of Kenny Chesney right now. He's both like, he's critiquing, taking what AI is doing to the arts, but also kind of talking about all the various biographies of musicians that he's read lately and sort of like reviewing them. And then also saying how he was playing guitar for some people this morning, and he really appreciated it when people said, hey, you're getting better at guitar. And I thought about how you would react to Howard Stern playing guitar in, like, the lobby of wherever. I don't know where he does his show. I guess he's just. I don't know where he was playing guitar for people, but I know he's on the Zoom. And then the other thing that I heard was, and I need to be very careful here. And I got to say, I listened closer to this he was doing. He was just going through emails, which I didn't realize they did on that show, but that's my kind of content, like we are doing right now. But he has somebody who is on the staff of his show or at least works on the show in some capacity, who is a woman and I don't know her name, and apparently probably.

[Luke Burbank]

Samantha, and is probably talking about a.

[Andrew Walsh]

Certain sexual practice, a certain sexual practice that a listener was not convinced that she actually participated in in, based on how she described the positioning of the bodies and she had to defend herself. Did you hear that conversation? No, I didn't. I mean, I've been hearing that that's.

[Luke Burbank]

Been a rolling conversation for the last week or so.

[Andrew Walsh]

I gotta say, I leaned in.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that's the thing that show, for me, it's like, you know, he'll have on these famous people, and they get all excited about it, and it's like, I do not care about Jennifer Lopez being on the Howard Stern show.

[Andrew Walsh]

I care about.

[Luke Burbank]

About if, like, you know, if Mike Pearlman did in fact mess with Ronnie the Limo Driver's bagel or not, which is literally something that has been discussed on the show for about 10 years. Ronnie the limo driver is convinced that about 10 years ago, a staffer named Mike Pearlman messed with his bagel when he was not in the room. And this has been an enduring mystery of the show. And I am not tired of hearing about it.

[Andrew Walsh]

It wasn't even like an ongoing space of bagel.

[Luke Burbank]

No. And Mike Pearlman says he did not.

[Andrew Walsh]

Mess with his bagel. I understand that.

[Luke Burbank]

I have been listening to this conversation for 10 years and I'm not bored. I love, you know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. I love it so much.

[Luke Burbank]

Which is like, what I'd like to say to the folks whoever wrote this manual for KDRT, your listeners. Oh, here's another thing. Please never call PSAs or recorded announcements carts. Your listeners might think you're talking about a tray on wheels.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's an old radio term for the literal. They look like eight track tape, sort of. There's cartridges that you would punch in to a machine and hit play. And it only had one message per cart. So you'd have like three carts lined up, and there might be a PSA on one, a commercial on another, and then an ID on another. And so we would always call them carts. But again, that puts this. What a funny thing to show to somebody. In 2025, nobody would call those carts anymore.

[Luke Burbank]

I also love calling them cars.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. It makes me want to.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. Did you ever. At this radio station, were you ever bulking cart.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, God. That was my. Literally my first job. My first radio job ever was going in the WKSU newsroom, going into Studio C. And I think a studio. No studio just. I didn't want to be caught in a lie there and plugging in the magnet that bulk erase carts and just taking a box of carts and then rubbing the cart on it. And then it would be erased. Just through the magnetism.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Because.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it was a magnetic tape that you would bulking it meant you were erasing it so that it could be used again. And this was because we didn't have all this fancy technology that we do now. So, like, the only way to just play something kind of like on demand and only that thing was to record it onto one of these carts. And then. So every radio station had like hundreds and hundreds of these things because all the commercials used to be on carts. Everything used to be on carts.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, you'd be like, luke Burbank has more. And then you'd toss to the tape and that would be you on a cart, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. And there was something, somehow it was designed so that it could. You could hit a button and it would go back to the beginning of the cart.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yep. It had tones. It had secondary and tertiary tones. I think that's where I learned the term tertiary. Luke. I like. What else is it? I had not read this before, but I like what comes up next in the same bullet point.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. Also, never crack jokes that no one's listening or maybe five people are listening. KDRT doesn't stand to benefit from a pathetic self image, even if it's just a joke. Well, sir, 17 years in, it's been working for us.

[Andrew Walsh]

Literally. They say, don't say five people are listening. And since the very beginning of tbtl.

[Luke Burbank]

You'Ve called them the tens of listeners. It is the foundational principle of this show. Show is talking about how nobody listens. And then lastly, do speak as an expert about the music you are playing, but do not talk to the listeners like they are stupid. Therefore, do not say of course at the wrong time. When you say of course, you might as well say, like, you should know. If only you were as cool as me. Can you imagine working for the person who wrote this? I'm guessing that the person wrote this manual is not even there anymore. Yeah, probably just a holdover, but. But like, let me just say I would have. I feel I would have clashed with the person. Not just because of the fact that most of the stuff on here is stuff that I think makes radio more interesting, but it's also just like the tone of the person writing this manual. My guess would be that it's. This is a personality type, and it's a personality type I would sort of do poorly with, I think.

[Andrew Walsh]

And also, especially that last bullet point. It feels personal. It feels like the person who's writing this is specifically thinking about a jazz host they had to work with that they did not enjoy working with.

[Luke Burbank]

Huh.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, I was about to say this was a. This was a person that would have probably told me that my desk needed to stay exactly the way it was, even though it meant I couldn't talk to Ross Reynolds.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I mean, this person didn't like the. The. A host who would like talk down to the audience and it's like, oh my God, Ray finally retired and God, I hated the way Ray would talk about Max Roach. I don't know, like there's just something. And so like this last bullet point feels very much like don't be like Rey.

[Luke Burbank]

Uhuh. Like it's a specific policy. It's the Ray.

[Andrew Walsh]

It feels like this person just did.

[Luke Burbank]

Would you say it's a shame about Ray?

[Andrew Walsh]

I would say it's a shame about Rey.

[Luke Burbank]

I saw a clip of the Lemonheads the other day and the clip was like, that was a Lemonheads record, wasn't it?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, shame about. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, it's a shame. Or wait, wait, wait. Yeah, I think so. I. I've never had it, but yeah. Lemon heads 92.

[Luke Burbank]

Yep. I remember I saw this clip and it was like something like rough. It was like a rough outing for the Lemonheads on tour or something. And it was like, I hope they get, you know, I hope they get this figured out or something. And it was them playing. And I couldn't figure out what was wrong with what they were playing. I mean, they didn't sound. It sounded a little disjointed and whatever, but it just seemed like the, like, you know, the Evan Dondo of the Lemonade Heads. It's kind of famously known, I think, for his like, sort of messiness and drug use and things like that. It just sounded like Evan Dondo playing a Lemonhead song to me. I couldn't figure out what they had done wrong in the performance that had this person highlighting the clip.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is this wrong? And it might be wrong. So I'm asking you before I do it, and we don't have to do it, but would it be invasive to Evan if we just. If I just potted up the KDRT KDRT stream that I have going right now just to hear what's going on over there.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's do it. Let's. Let's. Let's hear what they're up to.

[Andrew Walsh]

Classical.

[Luke Burbank]

Ooh, I need to listen to more classical music. It is so soothing for my savage soul. And when I, When I remember to do it, it immediately improves my day. And yet I don't generally remember to do it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Every now and then I'll land on a classical station in the car and I'll. And I'll put windows up, volume up. Certainly.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm trying to think how I can break all the rules here. I wish I knew more about classical music. So, one, I could talk down to you about this music that you're hearing right now and that we could wrap up my show after I tell you about something that happened to me on the way into the studio today.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I slipped in the hallway.

[Andrew Walsh]

By the way, I have a card of you slipping, I think.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, Evan, good luck on your shift. Send us a sample of what your show sounds like. And I would like you to work in as many cart references and also, also station politics as you can because, like, you hear us doing it over here, and it's working great.

[Andrew Walsh]

So.

[Luke Burbank]

All right. Hey, that's going to do it for today's episode of TBTL and for this broadcast week. Thank you so much, everyone, for spending the time with us. We are going to be back here on Monday with more imaginary radio. So please, if you can join us for that. In the meantime, have a great weekend, buddy. Stay safe. Take care of yourselves. Go Seahawks. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to our all. Morning. This is Kathleen Luns in Bloomington, Minnesota, home of the MSP airport. I was just driving to work and I had to call and tell you this with all the blueberry talk lately. My work is right by a pie factory. And so some days when the wind's just right and they're cooking the right.

[Luke Burbank]

Thing, it smells like blueberry pie.

[Andrew Walsh]

As you drive into work, like, outside, like, you walk out the door and you smell blueberry pie. It is confusing, but super lovely. And I just thought we boys would find that interesting. So power out. Power out.