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- [00:00]
Andrew Walsh
Mark auditioned for improv classes and was.
- [00:03]
Luke Burbank
Turned away from the theater for life.
- [00:04]
Andrew Walsh
Just to take a class.
- [00:06]
Luke Burbank
Yeah.
- [00:06]
Andrew Walsh
They said, no, I'll never forget that. Yeah, we don't want your money. I initiated a scene they said was too violent Mark for me. I just need to know how you can go into an improv class just to apply for an improv class and get denied. What happened? Brought my nunchucks. Leave those at home. I didn't know you weren't allowed to have props or weapons. The whole idea of improv is you're making it up with nothing. I have a mug. Watch. She's incredible at prop work. All right. Okay, now show me you're flying an airplane. Help. Okay, now you're driving a car. Okay, same kind of thing. A bus. Oh, I can't do that. A bus. I can't do that.
- [00:41]
Tbtm.
- [00:47]
Luke Burbank
It is simply two guys who just wanted to dig a cave. And what was the purpose? Yeah, what did they want to do with that?
- [00:55]
Andrew Walsh
They just wanted to dig a cave to hang out.
- [00:57]
Luke Burbank
Love it or hate it, it appears to be another irreversible step along mankind's journey toward God only knows what.
- [01:04]
Listener Luke
I dove deep into your podcast because that's what you do when you're hungover.
- [01:11]
Andrew Walsh
You're here to make friends. Making Friends is the name of this show.
- [01:14]
Luke Burbank
You are a really good actor.
- [01:16]
Andrew Walsh
Thank you. Thank you. Well, you know, it's just living truthfully in imaginary circumstances and whatever. Enough about me.
- [01:23]
Luke Burbank
What's on your schedule?
- [01:26]
Well, all right. Hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone to a day edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. Ready to laugh and drop till your socks come off. My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host.
- [01:38]
Andrew Walsh
You paint your bald spot? What bald spot?
- [01:40]
Luke Burbank
Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia. Bring it back home, baby. Bring it back home. First time in a long time getting to be here at the home studio. And it feels great, despite the fact that we are just kidding. Absolutely pummeled by the wind and the rain. Didn't know you liked to get wet. Though the wind did help me solve a mystery that had gone on while I was away from home that I thought. I thought somebody might be messing with me. I thought something might be up here at the Madrona Hill studio involving a pizza oven that was moved. Anyway, maybe we'll get into it here on episode 4614 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. The Golden Globe nominated podcast list is out it's six podcasts. Yeah, everyone's got a podcast. TBTL is noticeably absent from the list, but there are some other podcasts that are also noticeably absent, which I guess I'm kind of stoked about. Kind of glad that they did what they did with this list. Also, we may be inching ever closer to the and movies being theatrically released. Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this. That's if Netflix has its way in acquiring Warner Brothers. So we will delve into that, I'm sure, as well. And we're gonna say hello to this guy. Longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He is coming off a wild weekend of holiday partying. Did you get drunk and urinate on people?
- [03:18]
Andrew Walsh
I can't comment on that.
- [03:20]
Luke Burbank
He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.
- [03:22]
Andrew Walsh
Good morning, Luke. I'm going to do something really cruel to you because I know you're. You have a bit of a time crunch today. We can't go for two and a half hours. However, I'm going to ask you one question that is going to lead us on a two and a half hour journey. I heard that Howard Stern drop at the. In the beginning of the show there, and it made me realize I've had a question I need to ask you or Phyllis.
- [03:44]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, everyone's got a podcast.
- [03:46]
Andrew Walsh
Who is. Is it Mehmet or Mehmet? Mehmet.
- [03:50]
Luke Burbank
Oh, Mehmet, sure.
- [03:50]
Andrew Walsh
Mehmet. One of the producers. I turned on the radio the other day and the Howard Stern show was on and they were piling on this poor son of a gun. So.
- [04:00]
Luke Burbank
Oh, probably about his dancing.
- [04:02]
Andrew Walsh
Nope, just about his writing. I'd never heard professional people talk about, like, it was basically two producers yelling at each other, each accusing the other one of not being funny and like, and trying to, like, turn to Howard Stern as if he were there. Parent saying, like, well, you don't run those clips, do you? Those aren't good clips. If they were good, Howard would run them, wouldn't you, Howard? It was, it was a. It was a strange vibe. And I got the impression that nobody likes this Mehmet guy.
- [04:27]
Luke Burbank
Should we consider bringing some of that dynamism to TBTL so that just the.
- [04:32]
Andrew Walsh
Combustion becomes an explosion, Some of that.
- [04:35]
Luke Burbank
Mixing it up stuff. Mehmed is a polarizing. He's a polarizing figure on the show. He's kind of a heel on purpose. I think he, he realizes that, like, for instance, they have a holiday party Every year. And his big thing is he thinks he's a really good dancer, so he likes to get out there and dance. And he thinks that everybody else who doesn't dance is being, you know, stiff and shy and unfun, and he just. He likes to kind of lock onto something and then basically get into on air disagreements with the other producers, and that's how he sort of gets airtime. Something that I think I learned from our friend P. Fletcher about the Howard Stern show is that I find Howard Stern himself to be a.
- [05:18]
I wouldn't say deeply uninteresting person, but not like his takes on music and, and. And life and psychiatry and, I don't know, family relations. It's pretty unsophisticated, really.
- [05:33]
Andrew Walsh
You must not have heard the conversation I heard where he weighed in on AI and art and music. Oh, it was. I mean, the. It was the insights that he had. You know, if I could sum it up, it would be. Yeah, he doesn't. He doesn't think it's very good.
- [05:46]
Luke Burbank
Well, now, be careful, because that's also our take.
- [05:49]
Andrew Walsh
But there is something so deeply uninteresting about him going on and somehow working into. Working into the conversation how he was playing guitar for his colleagues or I guess his employees before he sort of.
- [06:00]
Luke Burbank
Pulls a Conan o'. Brien. Now, do you know, famously that Conan used to. For the rehearsal of his TV shows. So, you know, the read through the kind of before the show happens, he would famously always be out there with a guitar. He always had a guitar around his neck, and he'd just be kind of noodling on it.
- [06:14]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I didn't know that. No.
- [06:16]
Luke Burbank
And that's now Stern's move, I think, in the, like, pre show meetings and stuff, he's always got this guitar with him. But this is the thing. What he is a master of is stirring the pot amongst his employees. And who knew, I mean, who knew that that could power one of the more successful media careers of. Of the modern age. But really his savant ability is just to, like, figure out the pain point between Mehmet and, you know, Gary Delabio or something. He can just get the staff or he can. Ronnie the limo driver moved to Las Vegas five years ago. And. And Howard Stern has never forgiven him, and he knows how to really wind Ronnie up on this matter.
- [06:57]
Andrew Walsh
Wait, is that. Is that true? Because again, I've been just listening to bits and pieces, like, literally, like five for the listeners.
- [07:02]
Luke Burbank
We're 15 minutes into the two and a half hours that I'm gonna Do on various Howard Stern show staffers.
- [07:07]
Andrew Walsh
Because there is a whole conversation I just heard recently.
- [07:09]
Luke Burbank
Welcome to Monday.
- [07:10]
Andrew Walsh
About whether or not Howard Stern really is, like, holding a grudge against Ronnie for moving to Vegas. And Howard Stern. Oh, really?
- [07:18]
Luke Burbank
That came up?
- [07:19]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Seriously, does it come up all the time? Because Howard just kept saying, I'm not mad at you. I'm happy that you left and had a good life. I don't know why you think that I care about this.
- [07:27]
Luke Burbank
Well, that's interesting. That's a. Now, that's a sort of a plot twist for Howard, because for the first time, four years or five years of Ronnie being out there, he would constantly tell him that it's too hot in Las Vegas. Then they would just play. Anytime there was, like, a news report about record heats in Vegas, they would play it. And the whole premise was, Ronnie the limo driver has made a terrible mistake moving to Las Vegas.
- [07:50]
And that was the narrative. And now maybe he's changing it to there was a whole other thing. It's so. The show is so Machiavellian. You'd think I wouldn't like it because I don't generally like backstabbery. Like, I'm not into those reality shows where, you know, I'm more into the one that we play the drop from. You're here to make friends. Making friends is the entire point of the show. I like that. But for some reason, I let it go. With the Stern show. One of the things they do is they have producers that are assigned to other to specific people on the show to just interview them on a semi regular basis, to just get material to then make that person miserable with. So there's a guy named Chris Wilding, and he's one, like, on his sort of deliverables, is interviewing Ronnie the limo driver occasionally just to kind of see how he's doing, but also to get material on him.
- [08:40]
Andrew Walsh
That must have been the tape I heard that they used to set up this conversation.
- [08:43]
Luke Burbank
Probably was. By the way, I'm like, a month behind on that show. So. But like. So at one point, it was like, Ronnie the limo driver. It was very important to him in this one conversation to clarify that he doesn't work. He has never worked for Howard Stern. He's never been an employee of Howard Stern or of the Howard Stern. He's been a contractor. He had a business. Because he literally started off as a guy who was hired to drive Howard Stern to work every day in a limousine. And over the course of many years, they kind of became friends. And Howard again. This is something Howard has a pretty good sense for, is, like, characters. So then he became, quote, unquote, head of security for the show, which could just mean he'd sort of stand in the hall and make sure, like, as you know, nothing funny, no funny business occurred. And then they started bringing him on the air, and he's a character on the show. But so somehow it was. And I could understand this, by the way. This is me listening to this while I'm moving piles of rocks around my yard and litigating along with, like, I'm trying to quantum leap into Ronnie the limo driver to help him find the words to explain to Howard Stern why it is important to him that he has autonomy as a person in the world and why he is proud of the fact that he had a business. And the business contracted first with Howard, then with the Howard Stern show, like, then with Sirius satellite Radio. But it was seen in the context of the show as disrespectful to Howard Stern, because it was to say, I don't work for Howard Stern is to not properly bend the knee. And so then everyone's going after Ronnie the limo driver on this particular point.
- [10:18]
Andrew Walsh
So this goes pre Vegas.
- [10:20]
Luke Burbank
No, no, no. This is. This was, like, four months ago. Six months.
- [10:23]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, okay.
- [10:24]
Luke Burbank
So it's just any all. But my point in all of this, with all of this incredibly esoteric stuff that, like, literally three listeners, including Phyllis and maybe you to a degree, and a couple of other people who emailed me about this, like, no one cares about any of this.
- [10:39]
Andrew Walsh
But.
- [10:39]
Luke Burbank
But it's interesting that that's the savant. That's the superpower of Howard Stern. And being entertaining, it's not being fart man.
- [10:48]
It's not throwing.
- [10:51]
Lunch meat at the butts of strippers. It's none of that. It's that he just understands how to get the producers mad at each other and then let them go. And that is what I find very, very entertaining about the program, because I did. And we might need to do more of that here because, God, we need something.
- [11:07]
Andrew Walsh
Well, it's interesting because. Oh, my gosh, this reminds me of something else. I want to talk. I heard.
- [11:13]
What I was about to say was I heard Howard Stern talking to Sarah Jessica Parker on the show the other day. It was the same exact day that we were talking about her because she. We played from square pegs. Listener. I want to say Sonia, but that's wrong.
- [11:29]
Luke Burbank
We had it. We had the name of the show. That was honestly surprising that we could pull square Pegs when we needed it. And then we decided to try to.
- [11:38]
Andrew Walsh
Do a. I have the postcard around here somewhere. I know it's not Sonya anyway, but somebody had written in about square pegs. I didn't know about it. It was early TV show project, as most people know, I guess, of Sarah Jessica Parker. Anyway, thought it was a great coincidence that I got in the car and he was talking to her. Howard Stern was interviewing her. Now, I know that you've often. And, you know, I'm somebody who for the past several decades, will spend five minutes a year listening to Howard Stern or something, but I'm deeply curious about it. I really am. But you've always said that the interviews are not why you're there. The interviews. And I found this one really difficult. These two personalities.
- [12:15]
Luke Burbank
Interesting.
- [12:16]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And, you know, I don't want to. People love Sarah Jessica Parker, so I don't want to take.
- [12:20]
Luke Burbank
I'm on that list.
- [12:21]
Andrew Walsh
Personal shots. But there is just something so phony baloney to me about both sides of this conversation. And I'm just, you know, I don't. She's probably not a phony person. There's just something about the way they were talking in this way. Like they were saying. She just says things like, they're super deep, and they're not super deep. And so I. But I felt like I got more of Howard Stern's real personality out of that interview, and I didn't care for it as much, as opposed to, like, what you're saying, which is kind of like, hey, I'm gonna make. Make these two chess pieces fight on my chessboard.
- [12:54]
Luke Burbank
I mean, what I really. Well, the thing about the interviews. And again, I've said this many times, so I'll try to keep this brief, but he does tend to get. There are interesting things that are revealed in these interviews, but I would say it is in spite of Howard Stern, not because of him. Because the reason it happens is because everyone who goes on that show is they understand the assignment. No one's going to agree to be on that show unless they are ready to really, really drop their guard and really, really drop their sort of cultivated, you know, image in the press. Like, so everyone shows up really ready to talk. It's a little like what happens on Fresh Air as well. And I'd say that with absolute peace and love to the fine folks at Fresh Air. But so with Stern, it's like, the thing that bugs me about the interviews is that. And maybe I do this. I probably do do this when I'm doing interviews for Livewire or even Sunday Morning, I guess. But like, Howard Stern is really, has a really difficult time stepping out of his own experience of how he experiences the world. And so all of his questions come from this point of like, aren't you really jealous of everyone else who has success? Aren't. Don't, don't you really resent your parents that they didn't do more to help promote your success or encourage you? And because that's his experience and oftentimes the people are going, well, that isn't really how it felt to me. Yeah, that isn't. That is, it's like if you count the number of times somebody in the interview says, oh, well, not so much that, but this, it's like, these are not going well. And like he's released an entire book of his interviews that are like, you know, it's like supposed to be this masterclass in interviewing. And I honestly think it's not great. It's not. It's really. I think there are much better interviewers out there that we should be, that we should be learning from. But yeah, here I am still paying for my Sirius satellite and meaning to get back up on that show. It's funny because we have of course, many tens of listeners who fall behind on this program and they declare bankruptcy and the like. And I'm far behind on my Howard Stern listening. Luckily, they take like a three month break at the. Well, they like a two month break at the wintertime, it seems, and a three month break in the summer. So I'll get back in the swing of it and I'll get all caught up on what's going on with Mehmet and the crew soon enough.
- [15:07]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I do enjoy the holiday party talk. It seems like over the years again, on the times that I happen to dip in, I have before heard the sort of they do a good lead up to their holiday party, they get all these narratives going, right. And then like see how they will play out. And they're already like, well, so and so, drink too much or remember, it might have even been my mat. It was somebody who I guess always harasses Ronnie the limo driver at parties and gets his goat and then he gets him all spun.
- [15:33]
Luke Burbank
Oh, that's Mike Pearlman.
- [15:34]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, okay. Somebody else. So I actually, I enjoy that stuff. I want to switch gears here though, while we're talking about satellite radio promos. I don't have you heard. I mean, I've been Googling around here looking to see if I can find the exact Version I heard on the radio yesterday and I can't find it. So I'm just praying that you have heard this. Maybe in listening to NFL baseball, the.
- [15:55]
Luke Burbank
Doggies got you covered.
- [15:57]
Andrew Walsh
I have been listening to Mad Dog Sports, by the way. Not always him hosting, but I've been listening to the Mad Dog Sports Channel sometimes when I'm just, like, scratching around, as a friend of ours once said. Like scratching around in an ashtray looking for butts to smoke on satellite radio. Up on that. But have you heard the promo for Rob Lowe's show called Literally?
- [16:20]
Luke Burbank
I have.
- [16:21]
Andrew Walsh
You've heard the promo.
- [16:22]
Luke Burbank
It is such.
- [16:22]
Andrew Walsh
It's a 30 second promo where he describes every celebrity's podcast from the past 10 years where he says absolutely nothing. All he says is, I'm famous. I'm going to have famous people on here. But he's trying to. Whoever wrote it.
- [16:35]
Luke Burbank
Andrew, what's that? Are you telling me the man who famously wore a hat to a football game that just said NFL on it?
- [16:41]
Andrew Walsh
It is truly about.
- [16:42]
Luke Burbank
Might have a fairly bland podcast?
- [16:44]
Andrew Walsh
I immediately thought of that. I mean, talk about branding now, like, when I think of Rob Lowe, I think of him wearing that hat and also how it symbolizes him and he just comes out. And I think I found a second ago. Yeah, like, this is some of the copy. I can't find the actual, like, 30 second promos. Like, this is literally a podcast. And of course, literally was sort of his catchphrase, but specifically from a sitcom he didn't even write. Literally. It's not like he was famous for going around saying literally. Mike Scher wrote that for a character that he played.
- [17:13]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, that was a Parks and Rec pit.
- [17:14]
Andrew Walsh
Yes, exactly. But now he's associated with so what is Rob Lowe? And I'm sure this is how it works. Like, serious comes up to some celebrity and says, we would like you to do this. We have a bunch of money. And the celebs, like, I don't really have a lot to offer in that space. I got other things going on. They're like, no, no, but here. And then they slide a piece of paper across the virtual table, and it's got a number on it. It's like, okay, Dazzler two. I guess I. I guess I could get. I get it. I know your stories.
- [17:42]
Luke Burbank
It's the only reference more obscure than me talking about Mike Pearlman on the Stern show.
- [17:46]
Andrew Walsh
But it is just like, okay, yeah, I guess I'll get my friends on and we'll just talk.
- [17:50]
Luke Burbank
Can I give you evidence of that?
- [17:51]
Andrew Walsh
You can't write a promo for that. And the promo was literally, it's me, and we talk to my friends, you know, and my famous friends, and we get serious and completely random, and I'm just like, oh, no. Yeah, literally. So we go from serious, literally, to the completely random. I'm just like. But you never. There's no clips in it. There's nothing compelling other than, well, Rob Lowe's a guy I don't have a bad feeling about, and he does have famous friends.
- [18:17]
Luke Burbank
Literally, a major disaster.
- [18:18]
Andrew Walsh
He has famous friends, I guess. But, like, how many? Just, like, it's.
- [18:22]
Luke Burbank
Know how you live in J. Piven.
- [18:23]
Andrew Walsh
That popped into my head this weekend, too. I don't know why somebody said live. And I was like, wonder how J. Piven's living. But anyway, it's just like. So it is exactly like that. Just like the podcast that is. I'm famous, I have famous friends, and that's it. That's the end of the pitch.
- [18:38]
Luke Burbank
I was reminded, I guess, of the reach of the Sirius satellite podcast world and the fact that it appears to still be a real going concern. Which, by the way, this actually, you know what? This makes the Howard Stern sort of reference actually kind of relevant to the show and to, I guess, the Golden Globes podcasting category, et cetera. So, Andrew, you actually did not sidetrack at the beginning of the show. You offered us a really interesting way into this conversation, so I thank you for that.
- [19:06]
Andrew Walsh
I actually was really interested in that, though, because I've been catching bits and pieces of that show, and I actually think oftentimes I'd rather you explain it to me than actual content.
- [19:15]
Luke Burbank
Well, okay, so couple things. I think that Serious might be the largest podcast company in America now, right? Because they have bought up all of these, you know, call her Daddy. And these, you know, all of these really kind of expensive Conan. All Conan stuff is on there, too. I don't know if they have exclusive rights to all of this, but they have really, really put a ton of money into podcasting, into buying up all of the big podcasts. And I guess they're sort of competing with Spotify for that, maybe, or something, but I don't know if that actually moves their financial needle. I tend to think that it's maybe the sports and then Howard Stern, you know, I'm just here talking about. I don't think he's particularly interesting, and I don't like his interviews, and yet the portions aren't big enough. It's like, I don't know what's going to happen to that network when he retires? Yeah, like, I don't know where the. I mean, it's the reason that I subscribe to that channel. I don't listen to. I don't fish around for any other cigarette butts on that network except for sports content, you know, because they have the play by play of the Mariner, all the football games and baseball games and things that you want to hear, they've got them on there. And that is valuable to me, I guess. But I wonder when Howard Stern leaves if that's going to take a lot of subscribers with it. And I wonder if it's sort of like the tide is going to go out financially and we're going to see the barnacles on the, on the pilings of the pier, such as paying hundreds of millions of dollars to the Call Her Daddy team. I mean, that show is pretty popular all on its own, but I wonder if Sirius satellites. Piece of that pie. And of. I think they've pro. Do they have smart lists, you know, the.
- [20:53]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I don't know. I didn't even know that Call Her Daddy was integrated into that as much either. I thought. I believe it is.
- [20:58]
Luke Burbank
But again, I'm not sure. And I hear promos for Conan. It's funny.
- [21:01]
Andrew Walsh
Conan, yeah, I hear heavily they play.
- [21:03]
Luke Burbank
Those during the baseball games. And what they've clearly done is they've.
- [21:08]
This is a promo that's going to play during baseball. And so. And Conan is slightly trying to baseball it up.
- [21:14]
Andrew Walsh
It's pretty rough. It's a bunch of puns. Yeah, yeah.
- [21:16]
Luke Burbank
He doesn't really. He doesn't really care. Someone told him that this needs to be sort of relevant to baseball fans.
- [21:21]
Andrew Walsh
It's funny. I heard that promo yesterday, too, and I had the same exact thought. I was like, oh, somebody handed him a piece of copy and he's like, I'll do my best with this. Like, I had this whole scenario. I didn't even realize this. But that exact promo you're talking about. I had a flash of an understanding of what was going on in the studio and I have no basis for this at all. And I didn't even really.
- [21:40]
Luke Burbank
I love that our minds went to the exact same.
- [21:42]
Andrew Walsh
But I was like, oh, you know what? There's no way Conan wrote this. It's pretty clunky copy. It's just like, it's that lazy form of humor that I employ a lot. Actually, I don't employ this kind of humor where it's just like a bunch of baseball Terms worked into a promo for a comedy show in a way that was kind of supposed to be clunky, and that's where the humor is. But I was just like, this isn't Conan. Like, I immediately pictured somebody handing this to Conan, and Conan saying, I'm not going to make a big deal of this. I'll just read it the best I can and get through this. That's what that promo sounds like to me.
- [22:11]
Luke Burbank
Well, speaking of Conan, this is where I saw that how seriously Serious Satellite is literally taking their podcasting. On Thursday night when I was in Phoenix and we were doing. Wait, wait, don't tell me. The special guest was Andy Richter, who, by the way, just lovely. Absolutely sweetheart of a person.
- [22:30]
Andrew Walsh
Second time you've been on with him. Right. Because years ago you were going to try to, like, make a play at getting him on TBTL and we could have, like, co host talk. Do you remember that?
- [22:39]
Luke Burbank
Yes, but I believe that was when he was on Livewire.
- [22:42]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, he was on Livewire. Okay. I didn't realize. I gotcha.
- [22:44]
Luke Burbank
In Portland, which he did remember me. Which.
- [22:47]
Andrew Walsh
Nice.
- [22:47]
Luke Burbank
You know, warmed my heart. I would have been. I was a little shocked. I mean, I was fully ready to reintroduce myself because, like, guy does a lot of stuff. I would not have been offended if he didn't remember one time when he went to Portland to be on my radio show.
- [23:00]
Andrew Walsh
So you met him in person for some reason, I pictured him on the phone. Okay. He was there.
- [23:04]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I met him in person in Portland and. And we had Ken Jennings on that episode as well. And they became really good friends and started going to Mariner Games together.
- [23:12]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, sorry. And I meant to say you. Did you meet him when he was in the not my job guy this weekend?
- [23:18]
Luke Burbank
I did. Yes, he was.
- [23:19]
Andrew Walsh
Okay. Yes. Because I pictured that being on the phone, and I was like, well, that would have been weird because you only get to see talk to the phone guest when you're on stage. Would have been amazing if.
- [23:27]
Luke Burbank
Peter.
- [23:27]
Andrew Walsh
Hey, I know.
- [23:28]
Luke Burbank
Hold on. I need to.
- [23:29]
Andrew Walsh
I know him.
- [23:30]
Luke Burbank
I need to go down. Elf Voice Richter. I know him.
- [23:35]
Andrew Walsh
I know him. Hi. Do you remember me? Okay. I was like, I know you didn't do that on stage, so he must have been in person. That's great.
- [23:41]
Luke Burbank
He flew to Phoenix for this, which again, this is. This is all kind of getting to, like, how. How. I guess. Serious. I keep saying that, but I mean, how Sirius is putting money and effort behind their podcast because there was. So we were all meeting in the hotel lobby we were chatting. He was lovely. We walked over to the, to the venue together. And there was a young. Ish. I mean, everyone seems young to me now, but there was a woman in maybe her mid-20s who was there meeting Andy Richter, but she wasn't from our show. And I was a little confused and I introduced myself and she was from Sirius Satellite Radio, because Andy Richter has a serious satellite radio show called Three Questions with Andy Richter, which I actually think is part of Team Coco, but because it's been acquired by Sirius.
- [24:25]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [24:25]
Luke Burbank
And, and I said to this person, oh, are you based here in Phoenix? And she said, no, I'm based in New York. And what Sirius did was fly this person from New York City to Phoenix, put that person up to just be there with Andy Richter, because he's an asset. He's, he's, he's, he's, you know, he's part of the Sirius satellite universe. And heaven forbid. And I'm sounding negative, I don't mean to be, but it's just like, this is the world of entertainment that I always find so kind of like.
- [24:55]
Curious isn't the right word. But it's just like there are still. Whatever you've heard about the decline of the media, there are still a lot of decisions that are made where someone is dispatched somewhere for no discernible reason.
- [25:07]
Andrew Walsh
Other than like, oh, this is somebody in our network and we need to, anytime we have a chance to like, press flesh, as we used to say before the pandemic, like, just like represent and make sure that we're like kind of keeping eyes on everybody and that we have human connections somewhere.
- [25:21]
Luke Burbank
I guess so. And it's like, and I say this again with all due respect to Andy Richter, like, and I love, I really do like Andy. And we had a lovely time talking and he was great on, on the show. But like, I didn't realize that Andy Three Questions with Andy Richter is a big enough priority to fly someone from New York to just be in the, in the theater while he's doing his thing out there, which this person would have absolutely zero impact on.
- [25:46]
Andrew Walsh
Andy Rick, he has two shows, right. Because I didn't know he was still doing Three questions. One that they seem to be pushing a lot now is that call in show that he does, which I was really bummed to hear that it's not a live call in show. It's like a, it's car talk style. You call, you leave a message. I'm looking to see. To make sure they're not the same thing. Yeah, The Andy Richter call in show is another serious thing as well. And it looks like three weirdly. For whatever it's worth, and I'm not even. I'm not debating you on this, but it does say, like the Three Questions.
- [26:13]
Luke Burbank
Podcast, the one that we promoted on.
- [26:15]
Andrew Walsh
Wait, Wait, okay, that comes under T for some reason. That's labeled as a Team Coco thing. And then the Andy Richter call in show is labeled as a SiriusXM thing, which is really.
- [26:24]
Luke Burbank
Okay. So the plot thickens because what they had Peter say was Andy Richter is the host of Three Questions with Andy Richter. So I don't know how that decision was made. As opposed to. You'd think when they're. If Sirius flew a serious person out there, you'd think they'd want to like promote the serious show, you know, get the promotion on. Wait, wait. But anyway, all that is to say we're living in a fractured media landscape, Andrew, and we gotta start cozying up to serious pretty soon. Well, you want small talk? The burbie's got you covered.
- [26:53]
Andrew Walsh
Well, I do want to say you're the promo. I want to go back to the broader conversation about serious and like, you know, the amount of money, you know, that that flows in and out of an organization like that. Just to underscore what you were just saying about like, oh, yeah, we fly one person out so they can watch him on a different, different networks podcast, you know, whatever. But yeah, that's not even a. It's not even, it's not even a rounding error. It's just like, yeah, of course we'll fly this person out. But the thing about the serious thing and that's linked to Howard Ster, like, what do the finances look like in a post Stern world? That's literally a conversation I remember having or at least listening to maybe as a national conversation way back when I was in New Hampshire. For some reason, I just kind of remember this moment of like, I don't remember the details, but I think Howard has often when his contract is about to re up or expire or something, there's always a little bit of saber rattling that seems to have been going on for a long, long time. When I was in New Hampshire, we're talking about the years between like 2000, 2009. So somewhere in there. So my point of all of if we do see, because eventually Howard Stern is going to have to stop doing the Howard Stern show, right? My guess is they'll try to keep those channels going with a lot of archive stuff. I was listening to a Tom Petty show again on satellite radio on the Tom Petty Channel. That was recorded in 2015 because I looked it up later, it's 2014 or something. So clearly Sirius will kind of, hello, CD listeners will keep that content going and try to monetize it as much as possible. But my broader point is if they do, if Howard, when Howard retires, if Sirius basically has to roll up the carpets or implodes in some sort of way, it's amazing that they have seen this coming for decades now. Like, for decades, this company has had something circled. It's like, we know we're getting to this date. We have to figure out our financial future. Post Stern.
- [28:44]
Luke Burbank
Well, I think that's what they're trying to do with all of the podcast acquisition. I think that they are trying to spread and maybe it's working. I mean, I don't understand anything about the numbers. Maybe all of these shows that they're getting are. People are tuning into Sirius now to get those programs. But. So, yeah, I definitely think they're trying to get in front of it. But I just wonder. I mean, this is like the Howard Stern show has obsessive listeners like myself and like P. Fletch in the way. In a much, much smaller way, the way TBTL does. And that's very hard to replicate, I think. Like, and it's one of these weird. Again, it sounds like I'm trying to compare what we do to what they do or something. And. But, but you and I have been in a lot of meetings at mostly one company where we used to work, but other places where people are trying to figure out how do we get people to care about what we're making as much as the TBTL listeners care about tbtl. And, you know, we have a kind of a little sort of stock list of things that we try to do, but it is in a certain way just a little bit of dumb luck and, you know, kind of a bit of randomness. Kind of like what I like to listen. I tune in for the randomness on the Rob Lowe show, but it's really random. It's really hard to. I always try to do something with why so Serious for a show title, but literally random is pretty good too.
- [30:00]
Andrew Walsh
I didn't follow that before. Can I just. This, I think, goes along with what you're saying, but this is where I get confused about things. You mentioned that Call Her Daddy is something that has been integrated into the. Into the serious verse as well. But I, while you were just talking, I'm like, yeah, but can I. If I want to listen to Call Her Daddy, do I have to go through Sirius and. No, I just called it up on Spotify right here. I can listen to Wednesday's show. She went 57 minutes. Ooh, the time. The time before that, she went an hour and a half. All right, Alex, let's. By the way, I want to our move you.
- [30:32]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, right. I want to be clear. I don't have any. When I say Call Her Daddy or I use it as kind of a reference point. I'm not anti that show or Alex Cooper. I'm not super familiar, but whatever I've seen of Alice Cooper seems like a pretty talented broadcaster, has a lot. A lot of fans. It's not. I don't think that these shows are, you know, or like smart lists is. I don't think that they're bs. But yeah, to your point, just like.
- [30:56]
Andrew Walsh
How are they monetizing that? You know, they enter an agreement, they pay her more money, but then it's kind of like, well, I don't need Sirius to get that, so why is. Is that a draw?
- [31:04]
Luke Burbank
Well, I think what I'm getting. I'm just speculating here. I think what their approach is or what they're trying to do is basically fill their channels, their. Their live channels with content that people want. They've got, like, Andy Cohen has a whole network, and he does a live morning show over on his thing. They're trying. And this is actually where we should be rooting for them, I think, Andrew, with our listening habits or what we like to listen to, they're trying to kind of make radio channels that people tune into through their Sirius satellite radio the way we used to just use our car radio for. You know what I mean? So when I say they're a podcaster, I think what I mean is because Tom Papa has a show he does with Fortune Femster. I think that's a morning show that's like. I think it's on five days a week. Like, they basically are trying to create or trying to kind of recreate that experience of like, you get up, you turn on your radio, you. You listen to the channel you like, and then you're done. You know, you're. You're done with Stern, and you switch over to Mad Dog Sports and get your fill of that, and you bop around the serious universe in a. In a radio listening kind of way, I think, versus strictly a podcasting kind.
- [32:06]
Andrew Walsh
Of way, which is. I mean, you know, I asked that question, but then I guess maybe I am sort of the person who does that, I. I'm still on satellites. They gave me a free trial and then I got, you know, like a deal. I think I paid like $6 a month. It's very, very affordable. And so I was like, okay, we'll keep it rolling for that amount. Remember, I actually had to get into like, kind of a bidding thing with a bot online. I was like, I'm not going to pay that. I'm not gonna pay that. And they're like, what about this? I'm like, all right, I'll take that literally with a bot on it. And so I do like it. And so I'm familiar with some of the, like, fortune. Feemster is all over the place. I think that she doesn't have her own channel, but, like, I'm pretty sure that she has several shows. Cause I hear her talking to her mom a lot, which is just like radio gold again.
- [32:46]
Luke Burbank
Isn't she on that handsome podcast with Tig?
- [32:48]
Andrew Walsh
With Tig and a third person actress.
- [32:51]
Luke Burbank
The person who. I don't. I never remember their name, but I guess they were just in a show that Becca was telling me they were really good in it. Yeah.
- [32:57]
Andrew Walsh
And I. And again, I don't. I haven't listened to that particular show. I do what you're talking about, sort of like. And that's why. Better bit. I do what you tell me. Call him Daddy.
- [33:10]
Yeah, rough stuff. We're not going to be using that as a show title. But anyway, so I kind of like that. And I love the idea of shows, like, even the music stuff I listen on to on there. I definitely prefer. Even if they'll play something that maybe is not totally in line with what I'm in the mood for, I would rather put on a music station on Sirius Radio that is along the lines of the mood I want to listen to than putting on an algorithm. I can't even. I can't remember the last time I've just put on like a Spotify algorithm. Like, just make me a radio station. Because that feels more and more soulless to me. And I do think that maybe me listening to a little bit more of KXP and satellite radio has been like, oh, yeah, I just like it when there's somebody behind the wheel.
- [33:51]
Luke Burbank
Yeah.
- [33:52]
Andrew Walsh
But I. And this is probably something specific to me. Like, very specific to me. And I think to you to a degree.
- [34:00]
Is I re. I cherish the idea of it truly being live. And that's the one thing that satellite radio kind of bums me out about, is it Sort of presented like it's live radio. But then you'll hear, oh, this was obviously prerecorded. Or even the fact that, like, I really, when I heard Andy Richter had a call in show, because I heard him promoting it years ago on another. On another podcast, I was like, oh, my God, live radio. And then he's like, no, it's not live. You know, we get calls and then we go into the studio and for some reason, like, the balloon deflates so much for me when I hear that. It's like, oh, you can just punch this in whenever. But if they're actually, like you said, waking up and doing a morning show that is referencing whatever. And again, not that it has to be a new show, but referencing whatever is on the mind of the Zeitgeist here on particularly Monday the 8th, like we are by talking about Howard Stern's.
- [34:48]
Luke Burbank
Holiday, whether it was a mistake for Ronnie the limo driver to move to Vegas five years later.
- [34:52]
Andrew Walsh
Right, exactly. And that's something that we own, that content that's. People are turning to us for our perspective into that world, clearly. But you know what I mean. But our listeners do know. And that is why when you and I do have to take a break or go on tape for a little bit. Listeners, I think some of the shows we do when we pre tape them are actually better in some ways. But I think with our listeners, sometimes a switch goes off. They're like, well, if this isn't about Andrew's coffee this morning, I'm not interested.
- [35:20]
Luke Burbank
Totally. That's. I mean, I think that's.
- [35:24]
One of the things about the show that people like is that is a running kind of just sort of update on our life and what happened over the weekend. And, you know, the fact that I'm staring out the window now because that vanity is finally being delivered today, the one that Diamond Dave's delivery service tried to bring out here. And then I had to work between 12 different entities and bills of lading to get it back out here. But now here it is. And if. Unless they make me sign some kind of a thing or run my credit card, I think I managed to get it sent back out here for free. Andrew. I don't think there was any extra cost, which is. I'm kind of excited about anyway. Stuff like that is for whatever reason, what the listeners are interested into. Interested in. And when we, yeah, when we step out of the time stream, the regular life time stream, I think that it is for some listeners, a little bit less compelling. And I get that because of what you're saying. Like, like, in fact, like I was, you know, not to. Not to air his dirty laundry, but when I was talking to Tom Papa at. Wait, wait, a while ago backstage about his show, he was like, yeah, we're able to pre tape a lot of them. And I was like, oh, okay. Well, so it is sort of a morning show, but kind of on tape. Morning show to your. So to your point. Yeah, it's not. There's something that I also find very. The Daily does a pretty good job of it for me. The from the New York Times. Even though I know they also record it often the day before or the night before, it's close enough for me that it feels. It has that feeling of immediacy that I'm kind of looking for in stuff, you know, but it's gotta be like last night is probably the latest or yesterday afternoon is the latest. You can be recording something and putting it down this morning for me and having it kind of feel, I guess, relevant in my mind.
- [37:06]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Which is why I still have that Lebitard shaped hole in my heart, you know, Like, I'm just not into that show anymore. And I was, I was listening to it long after I had interest in it, I think. And so sometimes I think about it, I'm kind of like, oh, I'm kind of glad I'm not. Like I wasn't. Hate listening. That's the wrong word. But I was listening and getting pretty annoyed by that show. And so I'm glad that I kind of broke my dependence on it. But I still have not found that kind of thing. Like, it's funny that I would say that kind of thing, which is a levitard show thing, but I don't have that sort of immediacy. Like, even if I'm listening to yesterday's show, I know that they were recording it hot off the news, you know, or if something does happen big in the sports world on Sunday, I know their Monday show will first of all purposely annoy the audience by not talking about the biggest story in sports until like the final hour or something like that. But it was just this immediacy and this ability to just like sort of, you know, like kind of feel like, oh yeah, this is happening now. And there is something about satellite radio where I just feel like it's just like a million. They're calling them radio shows, but a lot of them are just feel like a million podcasts from sometime in the past 20 years that you can catch here and there. But there's no, like, sort of, I don't know, urgency to it.
- [38:18]
Luke Burbank
I was laughing a little earlier in the conversation because I had this thought you were talking about Tom Petty and how they were playing some kind of, you know, when he had a channel there or something, probably. And I just had this moment of thinking, like, it's sort of. It would be funny if. If Sirius had a lot invested in us not knowing when people died because they want the channel to still feel relevant. Yeah, they're just like. They're doing some incredibly complicated, complex things to not us not let us know that, like, you know, Andy Cohen isn't with us anymore because they've got 10,000 hours of Andy Cohen content that they want to keep passing off. Because, I mean, somebody, you know. Yeah. Like, when you. When you say Tom Petty, I'm like, well, we immediately know that that is a taped interview. Like, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that that is not new content because the man is not on this planet anymore. And that's bad for Sirius Satellite, in my mind. Maybe some people like that. Maybe they think it's like, oh, a trip into the archives. For me, it's almost always less compelling when I. When something is, you know, from a long time ago. Like that.
- [39:18]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And his show's a music show. So, like, I never thought I would. Especially after he died. I remember, listen, I think I had a little sample of satellite radio, one of those free trials before he died. And I really liked that station because I would hear him, and again, I knew he wasn't live, but once he died, I really didn't want to hear his voice, not his songs, but I didn't want to hear him, you know, really sad doing a radio hosting thing. But again, I've just been in the car maybe more than usual lately, and I'm just flipping through, looking for something to keep my brain from spinning out of control, I guess. And so I land on.
- [39:57]
You know, Tom Petty playing some music or whatever, and I did, like, the beginning of the show, he, like, he announced he. The show began with him playing some song. It was like My Tallahassee Lassie was the name of the song by some other musician.
- [40:11]
Luke Burbank
You can take the boy out of Florida.
- [40:13]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, exactly. They was like My Tallahassee Lassie down in fla. And it's not his song. But anyway, that's how the music break began. Or that's how his show began. And then he comes in and he back announces it, but he gets the name of the musician right, but the song wrong. And Then he apologizes. Oh, sorry, it's a little bit dark in here. Oh, okay. They just turned on the lights and like, it gave me immediately. They didn't go back. They didn't re record it. It was like the very first thing he said after playing the opening track was he misannounced what it was. But then he explains it just because we're all just in here chilling in the dark. And it immediately gave me that sense of space and like, I knew that this was obviously from a long time ago, but I did love that vibe. It's just hard. I just wish that I was getting that vibe fresh, you know what I mean? That comes along with the baggage of knowing that he's been gone for a while.
- [41:01]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, yeah. Well, since we're talking about podcasts, we'll just run through this real quick. We had talked about the fact that the Golden Globes has added a podcasting category this year so you can win a Golden Globe for podcasting. And there were some. What we learned was like, anyone can apply for a Golden Globe for almost anything. So we could have, if we wanted to put in the time and money, we could have actually like applied for TBTL getting a Golden Globe. Of course we didn't. What I thought was interesting was they whittled it down to six podcasts. And.
- [41:33]
The podcasts that they, that they nominated were smart lists. The one with, you know, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes. Amy Poehler's podcast Good Hang was nominated. Call Her Daddy was also nominated. Armchair expert with Dax Shepard. The Mel Robbins podcast, which is kind of like a personal growth, growth podcast. And then up first from npr, that's the list of the six podcasts. What was notably not on there is the Joe Rogan show or like the Ben Shapiro show or Candace Owens or any of these sort of right wing podcasts that are inarguably very popular. Like, it's kind of a. It's kind of an fu. Now, if I remember right, the Golden Globes is the Hollywood Foreign Press association, right? That's ultimately who it is.
- [42:20]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, wait, no, not anymore. They sold it, right?
- [42:22]
Luke Burbank
Oh, oh, oh, they sold it to Penske.
- [42:24]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, they sold the Penske. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [42:26]
Luke Burbank
They sold it to the oil company.
- [42:27]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, yeah, right.
- [42:29]
Luke Burbank
The. The. But anyway, well, the guy who's.
- [42:32]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, yeah, right, yeah.
- [42:33]
Luke Burbank
Jay Penske, the son of the. The Penske dude. But anyway, it's interesting that. I mean, it's, It's a. I don't know how much he cares and certainly it doesn't really matter much in the scheme of things, but it's like, it's a pretty big middle finger to Joe Rogan, right? Like, they. I was reading this Variety article. Oh, by the way, at the end of the Variety article about the nominees for the Golden Globe in podcasting, it says, disclosure, the Golden Globe Awards, Dick Clark Productions and Luminate are owned by Penske Media Corp. Parent company of Variety. So we've vertically integrated everything in the world now, Andrew. And it's great. I'm reading about this in Variety, who's also owned by the people that own the Golden Globes. But it's a pretty big F you to Joe Rogan to not put him in, considering he has the number one podcast. Joe Rogan, who's the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, consistently ranks as the most popular podcast in the world, Was eligible for a Globes nomination, but missed the cut. It's been the number one podcast on Spotify for five straight years. It also topped Apple Podcasts and YouTube Podcasts for 2025. I mean, that is behemoth. I mean, that is. So to not put that guy on the list is a pretty conscious decision, wouldn't you say?
- [43:48]
Andrew Walsh
It is. I am wondering. I mean, this is. I think you're gonna laugh at me even raising this, but this is. As you were describing the Golden Globes, I was like, oh, yeah. This is like any public radio awards, you know, competition that you and I have been a part of or tangential to, which is like, yeah, I guess, like, anybody can submit a application and money and then to like, is there a chance that. That they didn't submit? Like, do we know for sure that the Joe Rogan voluntarily.
- [44:22]
I mean, I guess with the. I guess really the, the, the. The continued.
- [44:28]
Luke Burbank
The last ones, that's what hurt my feelings that are just. It's the snickering at the end.
- [44:33]
Andrew Walsh
Exactly. At first I was like, okay, yeah, okay, all right. And then that last person who couldn't.
- [44:37]
Luke Burbank
Send one person really has an.
- [44:38]
Andrew Walsh
I know. It's really stupid. An operation that big. Like, why wouldn't they have one person, like, write the check and send in the application to the Golden Globes? Just curious, like, do we know for sure that some of these podcasts also didn't want to be part of this Golden Globes thing?
- [44:51]
Luke Burbank
We can't rule that out. We can't rule that out, honestly. And I mean, it's one of those things where that podcast, again, like, you know, hate it or love it, it is so unbelievably successful financially and from a listener standpoint, by the way, I had a whole Joe Rogan conversation in my lift leaving Arizona at about. About five in the morning on Friday. And it was kind of.
- [45:14]
Andrew Walsh
It was in your life, I would say. I had heard a promise on the air that somebody was getting a ride from Nora McInerney.
- [45:21]
Luke Burbank
Promises made, promises not.
- [45:23]
Andrew Walsh
Yes.
- [45:24]
Luke Burbank
I actually, yeah, I intentionally did not give her any more information after we were off the show about. About my whereabouts in the morning because I did not want her to, because she had to sort of prove the point. Come get me. Yeah. But I get in the car, and it's a really nice guy who is grabbing my stuff and putting it in. He's wearing a Dallas Stars hockey jersey, which was interesting. I learned later it's because it's originally from Dallas, just a really friendly fella. And by the way, I get in the car, he's playing kjzz, the station, and we're talking a little bit. And he goes, wait, are you Luke Burbank? I go, yeah. And I was like, wow, that doesn't happen very often. So he was a big public radio listener, but he had worked. Worked in Hollywood as he'd worked in catering in Hollywood. And for many years, the show that he had catered on was Fear Factor with Joe Rogan. And it's pretty funny because, you know, I'm. I talked to Joe Rogan when I did the. Those interviews around Dana White, the UFC guy, I also ended up talking to Joe Rogan a bit. And I have to say, in the 20 minutes I was chatting with him, him, he was a nice guy. Like, you know what I mean? Like, he wasn't. He seemed present. He didn't seem. He didn't sound like that last person snickering at you, Andrew, in the laugh track. We just played, like, he. And anyway, I don't know what that means. I'm just throwing that out there. And when this guy says, yeah, I worked on Fear Factor, I'm starting to go into some kind of a, like, I guess you would say vaguely anti Joe Rogan stance, kind of like, because this guy listens to public radio, right. So I kind of think we're on the same team. And I'm about to say kind of like, yeah, can you believe that, you know, that Lunkhead is setting, you know, vaccine policy in this country by, you know, by sort of proxy? And I start to kind of. I'm about to kind of like, just do a sort of an anti Joe Rogan sort of comment. And he goes, that guy was the nicest dude I've ever worked with. He was like everybody loved him. He was like he knew everybody's name. He was super friendly. He was like he would just talk to people. He was never in a bad mood. They want. He had to do so much stuff on he was the host and there was just so many things that he had to do and it was all revolving around him and he was just never, he was just, he was just never rude to anyone.
- [47:33]
Andrew Walsh
It doesn't surprise me at all. I mean I think that's one of the reasons that he is. Yeah, I mean I guess there are, I'm trying to think are there personalities especially like kind of radio or TV personalities?
- [47:45]
Well see, I'm confused. Television and radio are so different.
- [47:48]
Luke Burbank
Are you thinking of the television show news radio? Because that adds another.
- [47:51]
Andrew Walsh
Right, right, exactly. Certainly does the crossover. My two loves television and radio I and Rogan and Phil Hartman. But I, I, I would hear when I was living in la I remember flipping through the channels. I loved flipping through the channels in la. You don't need satellite radio in la. Like the radio dial is just filled with stuff and it's not like it's not all pre programmed like you know, just like kind of music playlist. You can find interesting stuff.
- [48:19]
Luke Burbank
I loved that Heidi, Frosty and Frank.
- [48:22]
Andrew Walsh
And one time I list landed on Joe Rogan and he was hosting, I think he was fill in hosting somebo show just in la. It wasn't necessarily about sports, it wasn't about. It wasn't the Joe Rogan experience probably.
- [48:32]
Luke Burbank
On KFI or something.
- [48:33]
Andrew Walsh
And this would have been 10 years ago. I lived there in 2014 2015ish and so anyway and I was just like oh man, he's, he just is so he's got magnetism. Like obviously this is before everybody knew Joe Rogan and the Joe Rogan experiences. It's like oh yeah he and he was more associated with MMA at this point and that and it's like yeah, of course he's so successful. He's like a, he's a, he's somebody that you want to be around. Now you do hear about people like whether you want to choose Ellen or I don't want to just pick on Ellen but other people who run shows and you hear that, oh they're not super nice.
- [49:07]
Luke Burbank
Steve Harvey is.
- [49:08]
Andrew Walsh
Steve Harvey is the other one thinking about as well. And I actually kind of generally like both of those guys TV presence sort of. So I don't anyway and so I guess you do have the people who are difficult to work with, with and. But people still do love them. But there is something about the Joe Rogan. I am so unsurprised to hear that he is not like Stephen Merritt. Or is it Steven Merritt? Yeah, like, of. You know, like, of Magnetic Fields. I might be messing up his name or whatever. Just like people who in my life or my line of work would be like, okay, Steven Merritt's coming in. Like, everybody be prepared to be, like, generally insulted by withholding, you know, or whatever. You know, like these reputations that some of these artistes have when they come in and they just, like, grunt at you or whatever their reputation is. And by the way, the second time I met Steven, me, and he was such a sweetie pie too, by the way.
- [49:56]
Luke Burbank
Probably adjusted his Prozac, maybe.
- [49:58]
Andrew Walsh
And also he had had food poisoning the night before something. And he had come in and instead of making him more crabby, I think it humbled him. He was so sweet to us. But anyway, I'm kind of unsurprised to hear that people like Rogan, I mean, honestly. And not to make it totally political, but I remember being a booker, my very, very first job in public radio. Like, one of my favorite people to call were honestly, like, Heritage foundation and a lot of conservatives because they were so nice Institute person. Like, those folks were just like, oh, yeah, we would love to talk.
- [50:30]
Luke Burbank
Stephen Moore from the Club for Growth.
- [50:33]
Andrew Walsh
I never. I don't think I ever dealt with the Club for Growth, but Cato certainly inherited. It's kind of like, yeah, it's like, you're very good at being, like, likable and wanting me to work with you.
- [50:42]
Luke Burbank
Well, I think that's why the Rogan stuff is so complicated, because he does seem like he's a good hang and he doesn't. You know, I don't think that he. He realizes. I'm sure plenty of people have told him this, and I'm sure he's had to consider it at some point, but I don't think he realizes the real impact that he has because the show is so popular. And so I don't think he has any kind of malicious motives. I think he really does think, hey, I'm just having a casual conversation. I'm just asking questions. But I think because his platform is so huge when he has people on and he just kind of is awe shucksing, because that's really what his vibe is. It's like he brings people on, oftentimes they're experts or quasi experts in various fields, and then he just asks them any question that comes into his head and he's not fact checking behind them. He's just kind of like, wow, that's crazy. Whoa, I didn't know that. And that's not a bad way to be. But the problem is the show is so popular that it then informs the actual opinions of a lot of people and what people think is the reality of the world. And it's like if you're going to have some, you know, an anti vax person on or you're going to have Cash Patel on as I guess I found out the Cash Patel was on there because I was reading a New Yorker profile of Cash Patel and they were talking about his time on the Joe Rogan show. And it's like Joe Rogan was just.
- [51:59]
Andrew Walsh
Like, is it, is it just crazy.
- [52:01]
Luke Burbank
Being the head of the FBI? And Cash Patel was like, it's wild.
- [52:05]
This is the discourse that we're looking for. But it's like, you know, again, I, but that's why it's complicated because unlike somebody like Ben Shapiro or Tucker Carlson who is, they're getting up in the morning trying to push a specific agenda about the world. That's what they're trying to do on their podcast. And Candace Owens to what I think is a really, really kind of scary degree because her whole thing is the like anti Semitism that she's pushing. I mean anti Semitism is, let's just get into a light topic here on a Monday. Anti Semitism is the craziest, it's the craziest sort of thing in our world because it's both not happening as much, much on college campuses as the right would like to tell you. And it's also happening to a deep degree on like the Candace Owen show where she's saying that Charlie Kirk was killed by the Mossad because he was going to turn on Israel. And here's where it gets weird that's getting into left wing spaces because there's this sort of like, if you're somebody who thinks that what Israel is doing in Gaza is a war crime time, you will then soon the algorithm will start giving you Candace Owens because she thinks the Mossad killed Charlie Kirk. But her general framework is extremely paranoid right wing. So you have these people. There are people in my own life who I'm trying to deprogram around Candace Owens because they got to her by way of like they were looking at Chris Hayes videos on YouTube where he's saying what's happening in Gaza, Gaza is, is, is, is, is you Know, a crime and has to be stopped. And then the algorithm says, well, you know what you. What else you might like? Candace Owens. It's very, very messed up.
- [53:44]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Yeah. And that is scary. To go back a moment to what you were saying about before.
- [53:49]
Luke Burbank
I tried to solve the issues of Palestine.
- [53:54]
Really? Do you think you and the listeners would all like to go back in time on this one?
- [53:57]
Andrew Walsh
I want to talk about reproductive rights for a little bit here. No, I.
- [54:02]
Just going back to the Rogan approach and even like that Keshe Patel example you give, it's like.
- [54:11]
That if I talk about it not.
- [54:16]
In the context of having to accept the fact that Kash Patel is the head of the FBI. And just like all of the craziness that goes along with that and whatever role podcasting has to do with the fact that this administration is in power, I mean, that. Just trying to isolate that for a second. When you just talk about, hey, the head of the FBI went on a show and a guy who's a generally affable guy says, hey, isn't it crazy? And you have the head of the FBI saying, yeah, this pretty crazy job that I have here, you're kind of like, oh, yeah, this is like, that is. That was Stern's thing, right? Like, getting people. And you understand why that would be interesting, right? Like, so much more interesting then going a Fox News show or whatever to get the point across or preach to the choir or whatever it is, or to do a stiff interview.
- [55:01]
Luke Burbank
So he's smoking a cigar. Literally, in the New Yorker profile, it's like Patel is like taking fat rips off a cigar.
- [55:07]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, yeah. You mean with Rogan, right?
- [55:09]
Luke Burbank
With Ro.
- [55:10]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, it's just so and so, like, I can't explain how I both hate that, but also, like. Well, it's also like, it makes. It makes a certain amount of sense if you start, like, kind of isolating all the different awfulnesses, you know, but it does sort of make sense why people are drawn to that kind of programming.
- [55:28]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, it's. It's very. It's very casual, and there's not a lot of pretense around it. And again, it's. It's generally the kind of stuff that I like. It's just in this one particular case, it's. It is so. It is so powerful as a. As a sort of a messaging thing. And as far as, again.
- [55:47]
Helps a lot of people develop what their view of the world is or what their view of. Of the vaccine is or what their view of crypto is or what their view of a whole host of things are. And if you're able to actually impact the opinions of millions and millions of people, I guess it's my opinion that you have a certain amount of responsibility. Maybe that's not fair because we'll never. That's never something we're gonna have to worry about on TBTL like that, you know, like, we're never going to have such an impact on the culture that we have to really ask ourselves, is this, you know, is this responsible? Are we being responsible with what we're putting out in the world? I mean, I mean, it's. But I do kind of think that when you get to that level that Rogan's at, I wish that he, again, as I think probably a pretty good natured dude in the world. I do wish he understood that when he's just asking questions and platforming people, it really impacts the real world to a degree. And with that comes some responsibility.
- [56:40]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, it's like the guy at the job site or the guy at the end of the bar who is kind of interesting but has some kind of wacky theories, but is mostly interesting and mostly harmless. You can talk to that guy for a while and that's fine. But when that guy is one of the most powerful voices, literally, in the country, then you're like, okay, we got to treat this differently. We're not just having beers with this guy who's a little bit kooky and read some.
- [57:09]
I don't want to be elitist about it, but maybe didn't go to college, but just read certain books and therefore talks like an expert on certain things. And it's like, well, did you know? It's just like, well, that's fine. But when the smart, smartest guy on the job site is who's got some wacky theories is the person with the biggest megaphone or one of the biggest megaphones in the country. I'm. I'm with you on. Maybe we need to be a little bit careful with what we say in the microphones.
- [57:47]
Thank you, baby.
- [57:49]
Luke Burbank
All right. Right. Let's thank some of our donors. These wonderful, generous people are keeping us in business. We will never. We'll never reach the top of the Pops on the podcast charts and get that sweet, sweet. I don't even know who's even advertising on podcasts anymore.
- [58:08]
Andrew Walsh
Andrew, that's a good question, because simply safe.
- [58:11]
Luke Burbank
We'll never get that simply safe money, I guess.
- [58:13]
Andrew Walsh
I listened to Pablo. Pablo's feed has ads a lot of the podcasts I listen to, I'm in like a ad free tier or whatever. I say a lot of them. It's mostly like just comedy bang bang related stuff these days, so. But I guess I hear Pablo a lot of simply safe. Did you just say that? I just said that, yeah. There's a lot of security stuff and other things that you would say then I'd repeat. Sorry.
- [58:37]
Luke Burbank
So we don't have that. We have donations from our listeners. This is 100% listener supported podcasting and it's thanks to folks like Josh Tom, who's in Amherst, Massachusetts. Thank you, Josh. Thanks also to Alexander Strachan. Alex is in Seattle, Washington. Alex has been listening to this show and participating Andrew, in tbtle things for, I'm saying, 16, 17 years since the jump practically. So, Alex, I hope you're doing well out there and I really appreciate you. I'd love to see your name on this list. That's kind of amazing. Also love to see Sarah Beth Rebholz of Middleton, Wisconsin on the list. I feel so deeply connected to Wisconsin since our time in friendship.
- [59:24]
Andrew Walsh
Andrew, I know. I was thinking about that yesterday because there was. Well, why would I take it here? There was a. There was a big Green Bay vs. Chicago football game yesterday that I was texting friend television. Were you? I was. I. I almost jumped on our little text chain when I heard the end of that game. I was like, I just need. Everybody can just need some space right now after that ending of that game. And I was thinking about Wisconsin and how there's a disconnect between how much I love Wisconsin and how much I don't root for that particular football team. No offense.
- [60:00]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, that was a tough one. I was watching it, Andrew, in the Xfinity store where I was trapped for many hours yesterday. Maybe more on that coming up. Also thanks to Steve Corley who's over there in Bellevue, Washington.
- [60:15]
Andrew Walsh
Nice. Thank you. Oh, May. I'll see you in May. That's when they're saying, at the very latest, they're predicting that the. Or they're scheduling. They're saying that the light rail will connect the east and the west by May.
- [60:31]
Luke Burbank
East meet west and we'll build a golden bridge. It's a line from that Al Pacino delivers in Scent of a Woman. I believe he's talking about the two women he's in bed with.
- [60:41]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, geez.
- [60:47]
Luke Burbank
That movie. Boy, that movie was a real moment.
- [60:49]
Andrew Walsh
It was. I never saw it.
- [60:52]
Luke Burbank
I did. I saw it in a theater. Thanks also to Lisa Perry, who's in Oxford, Massachusetts. Look at this. We got Amherst. We got Oxford.
- [61:00]
Andrew Walsh
Wow. Yeah. A lot of Massachusetts.
- [61:02]
Luke Burbank
I mean, 2. 2 Massachusetts is a lot for us. And then one Port Orchard, Washington, which is where Stephen Gardner is, which is.
- [61:09]
Andrew Walsh
Like Massachusetts, only the M is upside down. Washington and Massachusetts, very, very similar.
- [61:14]
Luke Burbank
That's what they always say. Yeah, that's what they said on Ask Chiefs. Thank you, Steve. And thank you to all of our donors for making TBTL possible today. We really couldn't do this without you.
- [61:29]
Andrew Walsh
Hello and welcome to Top Story.
- [61:31]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I was running some errands in town yesterday, and I've been meaning to see about getting a new cell phone, but when I changed carriers, I changed over to Xfinity.
- [61:45]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, that's right.
- [61:46]
Luke Burbank
For my cell service, which is weird. Yeah. By the way, it's great. It's $40 a month for my cell phone.
- [61:53]
Andrew Walsh
Wow.
- [61:54]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. And it still was. When I went in. I was kind of shocked. So I get my Internet from them and I get my cell phone. They're set up, separate bills, but. And, you know, I've. Listen, Comcast, Xfinity is just one of the absolute worst companies in the world to deal with when there's a problem. But what I'll say about the cell phone deal is they got these Xfinity stores, and you just go in there, and then they're, like, really nice, and they really know their stuff. So it kind of. It blunts the issue of not being able to get a human being ever on the phone when you're having a problem. Problem. But when I signed up for this, like, I don't know, a year or so ago.
- [62:32]
I. I had just missed some promotion, and so there was no. I just thought. And I think I said this back at the time, I assumed that all of that. Like, right now, we're offering $400 off if you. Da, da, da, da. Was just kind of all. And. And like. But this. But it ends on Tuesday. Like, I just thought, yeah, this is always. They're always. What they're trying to do is get you into a contract, and so they're going to kind of give you the phone, so to speak, or they're going to give you a deal on the phone so that you're trapped with their service for a predictable amount of time. And there's no such thing as a time when they're not doing a deal. Well, I somehow found myself in a period of time where they weren't doing a deal, shockingly. And the woman I was talking to said, you know, just you got to just kind of check back in occasionally and see what's going on. And so yesterday was a Sunday afternoon. I was running some errands, and I was literally driving by the Xfinity store down in town, and I was like, you know, I. What?
- [63:25]
Andrew Walsh
What?
- [63:26]
Luke Burbank
I'm gonna go in there. And I did. And they were in fact, running a deal. What I wanted to do mostly, Andrew, was get on an iPhone that uses USB C. Because everything else in my life is now on USB C. There's only one thing, really, that's using a different plugin, and it's my silly cell phone. And if I could get that on board with the USB C, then I'm streamlined the process so that I never have to be fumbling for a specific cable. That's all I ever need for the rest of my life. Life or until they switch over to a new system. And so I went in and sure enough, they were running some kind of a promotion. Although I did. I didn't want to be like, the woman who helped me was super nice and really good at her job, even though she'd only worked there for a month and a half. I learned. But it's funny. They have definitely coached these people to never use the word contract. It's very clear that contract tests very poorly with groups. Nobody wants to hear about a contract. No one likes being under contract. So they are not putting you on a contract if you get this iPhone 16, which is what I have.
- [64:30]
Andrew Walsh
In fact, they say that it didn't even occur to me. But you saying that makes me realize how many times I've just heard a, you know, a cell service commercial in the background. They're like, no contracts, Never. Whatever they love.
- [64:41]
Luke Burbank
And she was like. She was like, so I'm getting this iPhone, which the retail price allegedly of this phone, I got a 16. It retails for $729. But I'm gonna get $400 off by signing up for the payment plan. So I gotta pay off the other $329 over the next 32 months. And I said, can I just pay it off now? And they said, nope, not if you want the deal. And I said, interesting. I go, is there interest on it?
- [65:10]
Andrew Walsh
I was gonna say, interesting, interesting.
- [65:13]
Luke Burbank
It was there interest. And she goes, no, nope. And by the way, I backed this up. I did this on my own calculator. There's no interest, Andrew.
- [65:19]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, okay. So my interesting joke didn't work.
- [65:22]
Luke Burbank
Well, no, but I was the same thing. I was like, I don't. Why I was like. I was like, why do they want me. Why do they want me to take 32 months to pay them their 329 other dollars? And then I realized, I said, well, what happens if I pay it off early? And she goes, well, then you don't get the $400 off. Then they come for you on the $400. And I realized, oh, okay, I got. Get it. It's a contract. Yeah, it's a contract. I have to. I have to use this service for 32 months while I'm paying off the phone or I owe them the $400 back. So in other words, I have to use their service for a determined amount of time or there's a financial penalty. What we have described here, my friend, is a contract that we're not calling a contract. Oh, no, no, no. You're just paying off the phone. Yeah, I mean, you're not under contract. You're paying off the phone.
- [66:09]
Andrew Walsh
We have to use that Portlandia sketch from a cell phone company tomorrow. Maybe.
- [66:13]
Luke Burbank
We literally. Kumail Nanjiani, literally, that.
- [66:16]
Andrew Walsh
I mean, it's just.
- [66:17]
Luke Burbank
And by the way, I wasn't even mad because I don't think it's a bad deal. And the. Again, the. The woman that I was working with was. Was really awesome. Again, she was fairly new. I didn't want to be one of those people that was trying to like, prove a point of like, you know, it is a contract. You're calling it something else. But I was just observing it. And again, she was good natured. About what happened, though, was. And why I was able to spend so much quality time in this Xfinity store was because in order to transfer my old phone to my new phone, I had to turn off some kind of a find my iPhone setting. And because I wasn't at my house, I couldn't turn it off without a one hour theft delay. So basically what the deal is is like if you're this. This is built into the iPhone so that if someone were. Someone were to like, steal my phone. I left my phone on the table at a restaurant, and then someone snatches it and they want to turn off the find my iPhone. They don't want me to be able to see where the iPhone is going. It won't let you do that. It's a waiting period of one hour on the iPhone.
- [67:20]
Andrew Walsh
They would also have to have your password to get into it, of course. But I guess if a family member or somebody stole your phone and then they know how to use it, they.
- [67:28]
Luke Burbank
Could go, yeah, or face. If they stole my face, which a lot of people.
- [67:31]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, is that how you. Is that how you. Is that how you log into your phone? You just look at it?
- [67:36]
Luke Burbank
Well, here's what I do. I look at it, and then sometimes if I'm wearing my glasses or I have a hat or maybe I'm just having a particularly bad day, it doesn't recognize my face. And then I got to go passcode on it.
- [67:46]
Andrew Walsh
But, yeah, I use a thumb. Usually it just reads my thumbprint.
- [67:50]
Luke Burbank
So I had to sit there, which, again, absolutely not this person's fault. But it's like I just had to sit there in the Xfinity store for an additional hour waiting for this thing to, like, let me in, because it would have taken me 45 minutes to drive home, undo it, and then drive back. She said if I would have been at my house, it would have been faster because I'm on my WI Fi, and it, like, recognizes it.
- [68:11]
Andrew Walsh
But you would think at the store, they could override that. I'm kind of surprised about that. Yeah. You know what?
- [68:16]
Luke Burbank
That's a really good point. They should have a master key for that. Yeah, but. But they didn't. So I got to spend a long time there watching the. I mean, thank God they had that game on.
- [68:26]
Andrew Walsh
How's the lighting?
- [68:28]
Luke Burbank
Oh, very soft mood lighting, Andrew. I mean, almost sensual.
- [68:33]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Where you just under it. Because I do think that they're trying to make some of those stores and those experiences a little bit better. I think the Apple store, of course, kind of led the charge on that. Although that is still a very brightly lit kind of environment. But, you know, you even have those. I mean, I don't even know if I want to open up this. This bag of worms. But you keep yours in a bag, huh?
- [68:55]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Yes.
- [68:56]
Andrew Walsh
I mean, cans. Who can afford a can?
- [68:58]
Luke Burbank
I mean, it is. But by the way, it raises the question, who was canning their worms?
- [69:02]
Andrew Walsh
Well, I think of. Maybe from. From fishing. Do you put your worms in a can when you're fishing?
- [69:06]
Luke Burbank
I always thought they. Yeah, I guess maybe if it's, like, live bait, they would Like a coffee can, maybe. I'm trying to think of a can of when I've seen a canned worm situation.
- [69:15]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, but, you know, like, even the.
- [69:20]
Not bank of America, I'm the one. Once Upon a Farm. What's the goddamn.
- [69:27]
Luke Burbank
Capital One?
- [69:28]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, and Capital One has a bunch of campaigns. You got. You got Once Upon a Farm. Yeah.
- [69:33]
Luke Burbank
You've got Tall Guy, and you got.
- [69:35]
Andrew Walsh
The Tall guy with the really thick Neck who. They're really trying to make a thing, right?
- [69:40]
Luke Burbank
Really? Yeah.
- [69:42]
Andrew Walsh
Is the other one.
- [69:43]
Luke Burbank
I randomly saw Capital One guy. This is kind of dark, but like, he was on Dateline NBC because he happened to randomly be friends with someone who was killed in a mysterious fashion. And it was very unsettling watching Keith Morrison or whoever it was. They're talking about this, you know, guy in San Diego who passes away or this person. And then they're just talking to some of this person's friends and loved ones. And one of them is the Capital One guy. Not mentioned. Has nothing to do with his gig. He's just there talking about his friend who was killed mysteriously. Weird, right?
- [70:14]
Andrew Walsh
The only reason I brought that up, by the way, was because a big part of the campaign now is like, oh, he's been sleeping at the Capitol one one, like lounges. And they were. They've been trying to make these Capital One lounges a thing since before the pandemic. I think I remember they're like, oh, it's a bank, but you can just come in and maybe they're called cafes. Get a cup of coffee or whatever. And they were. They were actually trying to stem the tide of almost like online banking going against the. Going against the stream and saying, instead, we're going to create these banks that are also cafes and people will want to come in here and spend time. And then while they're here, they'll get a low interest loan or whatever. I don't know exactly what the whole plan was. Then the pandemic hits, which just like, really would, you would think, shake this even further to its core. I think I'm right about this timeline. I could be wrong. But now they're back at it and like, really pushing it by having this whole campaign of the thick neck guy now sleep there, whatever his Name is. Capital1Capital1Guy. He like sleeps here now and like, whatever. There's even one word. Samuel L. Jackson is.
- [71:13]
Luke Burbank
Is his neck really that thick?
- [71:15]
Andrew Walsh
In the original commercials I used to see, that's how I know. When he was a new guy, he. He. I could only look at his big, veiny neck. Like, I couldn't see anything else.
- [71:24]
Luke Burbank
It was don't use the word big followed by veiny.
- [71:26]
Andrew Walsh
It is what it is.
- [71:27]
Luke Burbank
He was so never going to get that Golden Globe.
- [71:30]
Andrew Walsh
Well, you got to apply.
- [71:31]
Luke Burbank
But anyway, say that I'm seeing it.
- [71:33]
Andrew Walsh
But you'll never unsee it.
- [71:35]
Luke Burbank
I just see him as guy whose friend died mysteriously.
- [71:38]
Andrew Walsh
But I was hoping that. I was hoping that maybe while you Spent this time in this Xfinity store. Maybe they had gotten the memo of making these places less, like, just fluorescent and two plungers.
- [71:48]
Luke Burbank
It was pretty bright. But it wasn't. I mean, honestly, it wasn't. It was not the worst experience. I really liked the people that worked there. Again, they're good at their jobs. Like, it's a complicated ass thing. And what I really had, Andrew, was like, a front row seat into the lives of about 30 to 40 strangers as they came through. It's a weirdly personal thing. What's going on with your cell phone? First of all of all, a ton of people that go to the Xfinity store to pay their bill.
- [72:17]
Andrew Walsh
Oh.
- [72:18]
Luke Burbank
Which is. I think that gets into a certain kind of, like, you know, a kind of. What would you call it? Like.
- [72:26]
Where you are in your financial life, whether you have, you know, like, online banking, maybe whether you have access, you know, to online banking or it's a thing you use or, like, what your bank account kind of looks like, if you're coming in, writing a check, how much money you have in your account, how behind you are on your payments, things like that. Like, it's a. You know, that's. It was definitely. Not exclusively, but it definitely seemed to sort of tilt towards folks that were somewhat economically marginalized. One guy came in. It was like a. It was almost like, you know, children's shoes for sale. Never used. This guy comes in, just a guy maybe in his 20s, and he just goes, hey, I need my dad's. My dad's TV service is about to get turned off. I need to pay it. And I was just like, wow. His dad wasn't with him. Just comes in and he goes. Yeah, he goes. He goes, I think I have the address here. He just got out of rehab and was just like, man, I'm getting, like, a view. I'm like, what a good son. Like, on a Sunday. I'm only there because I'm trying to upgrade my personal life experience of my phone. Like, you'd never catch me in there trying to fix Walt's cable, you know? And this guy. And it's like. And then I'm thinking, how many other things has this guy done for his dad? And, like, he. By the way, he didn't. He wasn't. When he said that, it wasn't like he was pissed or like. Or embarrassed or he was trying to argue with them. Literally, was just like, his dad. There was an issue that was going on for his dad, and he was there to fix it, and he was and he, and he did. I was just like, man, what an act of love. And you know, then you had so many people wearing shirts indicating that they did not want the government to mess with them or. And like, I don't know, how do I talk about this in a way, I don't know. There's no way for me to talk about this without getting into a whole territory that, that I. That will make people wish I was still talking about Gaza. But it's like, I don't know, there's just a certain kind of dude who's wearing like one guy was literally wearing a sweatshirt that had a skeleton that said, if you want my gun, come take it from my cold dead hands. It was just a hoodie, just on the back of the hoodie. And like he just looked so kind of beaten up by life. And so like this other guy was just sitting there kind of staring into the middle distance and he had a black T shirt on. He was a guy probably in his 60s or 70s. Again, just kind of a sort of a very, I guess you could say, nondescript guy who, I don't know what was going on in his life, but he's just wearing like a black like 1776 T shirt. And it's just like, man, what is going on in your guys's lives? Like it based on. And not that, you know, not that economics are everything, but it doesn't look to me like maybe economically your life has gone particularly well for you. It doesn't look like socially you don't seem super well adjusted or you're not outgoing, you don't seem like you're like life does not appear to be clicking for you in a way that's notable. And yet you really keyed in on this like the government wants your guns or like this country was founded on whatever you think it was founded. Just like, do you think your life decisions have generally led you in the right direction, bro? Like, do you. Like, do you. Is it possible that maybe all the other things about your life that could be more ideal, this also represents a way in which your, your gut instinct has gone the wrong way.
- [75:48]
Andrew Walsh
Well, I'm sure they will rise up if we ever live in a world where the government is sending out masked thugs to assault people and drag them into vans without never a better time for that. Never a better. These people are going to be outraged if that kind of stuff happens, because that's what they've been war us about for all this time. Yeah.
- [76:05]
Luke Burbank
You mean unmarked vehicles and questionable federal agents who May or may not even actually be working for the organization. They say wearing masks, ripping Americans off the streets. You think that'd be the. Would that be a good time for the John Birch Society to do they thing?
- [76:20]
Andrew Walsh
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.
- [76:29]
Luke Burbank
All right, an email or V mail before we skedaddle?
- [76:33]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I need to go through the voicemail line. I realize I'm letting them kind of pile up the last week or two. So sorry if we haven't gotten to your voicemails yet, but I did get this one that I listened to off of my phone this morning. For some reason, Google Voice marked this as spam, and I am insulted on behalf of them. On behalf of our listener here, I'm marking this as not a spam voicemail. This is from a new listener, Luke.
- [76:59]
Listener Luke
Hey, guys, I'm a rookie. I just found you last year.
- [77:04]
Andrew Walsh
A rookie. Although Google Voice has it as Ricky. Is that why you were laughing? I was reading.
- [77:11]
Luke Burbank
I just like rookie as I like tbtl. Rookie as a terminology. It reminds me of radio rookies, which I don't know if they're doing that anymore, so I think we can maybe borrow that.
- [77:21]
Andrew Walsh
And yes, I do like rookie. In fact, that's gonna come up in this voicemail. The kind of the terminology of the tens and who's allowed to use it. So let's go back to the beginning here.
- [77:31]
Listener Luke
Hey, guys, I'm a rookie. I just found you last year.
- [77:36]
Anyway, I'm very upset with this syrup talk. I went for monster. Well, I live in Arizona now, but for months or by birth, and God damn, you guys don't like maple syrup.
- [77:51]
Andrew Walsh
I do. By the way. When I first heard this, I was like, what do you mean? We didn't say we don't like maple syrup. And then I was like, oh, wait, no, you did say you don't like maple syrup. You like the table syrup that you grew up with.
- [78:02]
Luke Burbank
Can I without. Without waylaying us, can I just explain waylay away?
- [78:07]
Andrew Walsh
I got nowhere to be.
- [78:07]
Luke Burbank
It's only because I mean this mostly to our radio rookie. By the way, I think radio rookies still exist, so I can't use that.
- [78:12]
Andrew Walsh
Is that the NPR one or the KoW one?
- [78:15]
Luke Burbank
That was the WNYC one.
- [78:16]
Andrew Walsh
WNYC one. Okay, gotcha.
- [78:18]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. But with all. Well.
- [78:22]
Yes, truthfully, I don't love the taste of maple syrup, but it's only because I was deprived of it because of its High value as a kid. So in other words, I didn't grow up with it because it was so beloved and so treasured that they didn't just let us kids have it. So in a way it's like, yeah, my lack of liking it is almost a compliment to the product because it was. And by the way, can I throw one other. Well, no, let's get back to that.
- [78:48]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, yeah.
- [78:48]
Luke Burbank
Then I'm tell you I got maple syrup news for you before this is over.
- [78:51]
Andrew Walsh
And I was going to say my thing on that was I didn't realize until you pointed it out that there's a difference between just like generic, like table syrup as we call it now, now meaning the last two weeks since I've learned the term, or table syrup or pancake syrup. I just always thought any syrup that isn't specifically a boysenberry or flavored. I thought it was all generally maple syrup, but you taught me that there is a difference there. So that's where I was on the whole thing.
- [79:16]
Listener Luke
Well, I live in Arizona now, but for months or by birth and God damn, you guys don't like maple syrup.
- [79:24]
Andrew Walsh
Go.
- [79:26]
Listener Luke
I know it's a little expensive, but it's so good. Anyway, that's it. Have a great day.
- [79:36]
I just found you guys.
- [79:38]
Andrew Walsh
It's.
- [79:39]
Listener Luke
I'm coming up on my one year anniversary anniversary. And I love you guys, but you've helped me through some hard times and I'm not going to use any of the terms everybody else says because.
- [79:54]
I don't think I'm allowed to yet. All right, love you. Have a great day.
- [80:00]
Andrew Walsh
Bye.
- [80:00]
Listener Luke
Bye.
- [80:01]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, so a few things here. First of all, a one year listener, that truly is a new listener in our terms. That is.
- [80:07]
Luke Burbank
That is.
- [80:08]
Andrew Walsh
That is, baby.
- [80:09]
Luke Burbank
We're kind of operating on the like the geologic scale here.
- [80:12]
Andrew Walsh
Yes, we really are.
- [80:13]
Luke Burbank
So radio anything in the last 10,000 years is relatively new.
- [80:17]
Andrew Walsh
I am charmed to death by this voicemail. Welcome to the fold. And I think this listener is allowed to use the terminology. It sounds like maybe they were trying not to use power out or any of those types of what you do is so important. Maybe. And it reminded me when I was brand new on tbtl. Do you recall this? I'm sure you do. Jen left and for the longest time when you brought me on, I did not want. We talked about on the show. I did not want to say and good luck to all at the end of the show. I did not feel right. I mean, it took a long time and I can't remember what eventually got me to start doing the sign off with you. But you just did it yourself. Because I was like, I don't. That's you and Jen. That's not me. I haven't earned it.
- [80:58]
Luke Burbank
I love that call so much. I love that person's accent. I love that they said God damn. Yeah, please call again. We don't know their name. Right. I don't think that person ever left their name. We're calling them Radio Rookie. But Radio Rookie, wherever you are, well, I guess we know Arizona by way of Vermont. Please call us again, even if it's to say God damn, I can't believe you don't like fill in the blank. That's a great call. I love that call. Now here's what I would say, though. Do you think Andrew, somebody who doesn't like maple syrup would have won a National Arts and Entertainment journalism award last night in the category of.
- [81:41]
Soft news feature music, culture, arts. Under five minutes, Luke Burbank, quote, a spirited take on maple syrup. Do you think a guy who doesn't like maple syrup would have won that award last night in New York City city at the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards? Because I did.
- [82:00]
Andrew Walsh
You did a piece on syrup and you won an award on that last night. But you were not in New York City last night.
- [82:06]
Luke Burbank
I wasn't. And I also didn't know that they had submitted one of my stories and I did not know that this was an award. I did not know the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards was happening. And we got an email this morning of the different other people who won. Mo Rocca won in the obituary category. He pretty much runs that category. He won, I might say.
- [82:29]
Andrew Walsh
He wrote the book on it.
- [82:30]
Luke Burbank
He sure did. He won for Gene Hackman Remembrance.
- [82:37]
Let's see. Also in the personality profile category, first place went to our friend Jane Pauley and my old pal Jay Curness of public radio fame. And Mike Levine and Rand Morrison for Connie Chunk Young.
- [82:52]
And then, oh, without a net, Philip Petit, Martha Teichner won in the personality profile category. And then, yeah, soft news feature, music, culture and arts in under five minutes, your man LB checking in with a spirited take on maple syrup.
- [83:08]
Andrew Walsh
And Joe Rogan nowhere on the list.
- [83:12]
Luke Burbank
Thank you.
- [83:12]
Andrew Walsh
Once again on the list.
- [83:14]
Luke Burbank
Once again, Joe Rogan snubbed by the broadcast establishment.
- [83:19]
Andrew Walsh
And he was in that category against you as well. Congratulations. You felled the giant.
- [83:24]
Luke Burbank
I finally. Nice guy, though, Andrew, I hear. Very nice guy. Good to everyone in the catering department.
- [83:29]
Andrew Walsh
That's what I hear at Fear Factor.
- [83:31]
Luke Burbank
They're rebooting that with Johnny Knoxville as the host, which I think is maybe the most perfect casting of all time.
- [83:37]
Andrew Walsh
I don't think I realized it went away. I just saw a promo with him because I'm pretty unfamiliar with both of those ones worlds. So I was like, oh, he hosts it now. I don't think I realized it was a comeback.
- [83:46]
Luke Burbank
I do think that Johnny Knoxville is like the perfect person to host that show considering it's like doing things that are scary and might hurt you. That's his whole deal. So. All right, that's going to do it for today's episode but we will be right back here with more imaginary radio for you tomorrow. So please join us for that. In the meantime, have a great Monday. Try to stay dry, which is hard, hard if you're here in the Northwest. And please remember, no mountain too tall.
- [84:11]
Andrew Walsh
And good luck to all. There it is.
- [84:19]
Power out.