#4638 Bake Harder!

Summary

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TBTL #4638 "Bake Harder!"

Date: January 9, 2026
Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh

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Episode Overview

In this Friday edition of "Too Beautiful To Live," Luke and Andrew dive into a characteristically winding, comedic, and nostalgia-laced conversation. From reliving childhood baseball triumphs and community center memories to reactions to viral tennis mishaps and the allure of tactile tech at CES, the hosts riff through personal stories, listener input, and reflections on memory and technology. As always, the interplay of their friendship and good-humored tangents keeps the conversation unpredictable and charming.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Geese, Weather, and Finding Small Joys

[02:00–03:35]

• Luke describes the local weather and his delight in the sight and sound of hundreds of geese flying over his home:

  “Honestly, it's the main thing keeping me going during these turbulent times.” (03:20, Luke)

• Sets the tone for the episode—searching for simple, grounding pleasures amid stressful news cycles.

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2. The Nairobi Tennis Viral Story

[04:35–07:06]

• Andrew recounts the story of Hajar Abdelkader, an Egyptian player who went viral after a lopsided loss at a Nairobi tournament, raising questions about wildcard entries:

  “Apparently she's so bad that she didn't know how to hold her racket at times...” (05:37, Andrew)

• Luke reads facts from the internet, marveling at the sheer oddity of the match, and both hosts riff about their own athletic “what ifs.”

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3. Imagining Athletic Glory—or Not

[07:06–15:52]

• Luke and Andrew humorously discuss whether they could achieve even the smallest success in professional sports, e.g., landing a strike in MLB, or hitting a three-pointer in the NBA.
• Luke recounts Little League and teen baseball memories, emphasizing the euphoria of hitting a home run:

  “It's better than all the sex you've had in your life combined, plus a couple of big sneezes and a stretch...and then triple it.” (14:45, Luke, on perfectly hitting a baseball)

• Nostalgia for youthful, uncomplicated triumphs is a running undercurrent.

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4. Green Lake Community Center Renovation and Core Memories

[15:52–27:32]

• Both hosts discuss plans for revamping Seattle’s Green Lake Community Center and the emotions tied up in places tied to their youth.
• Luke tells deeply personal stories about his formative experiences there: swimming, breakdancing, ping-pong with the “old Asian dudes,” and even learning loss (getting his $1 stolen):

  “It was the locus of my life as a kid…” (18:00, Luke)

• They reflect on nostalgia versus the need for community progress; Luke surprisingly endorses the changes:

  "...this is going to be the rare instance where I am willing to allow something...to be different, because I do think more people would actually get more enjoyment out of it if it gets fixed up." (26:20, Luke)

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5. Marty Supreme, Ted Williams, & Radio Connections

[20:49–23:24]

• The hosts realize that Ted Williams—the “guy with the great radio voice” who went viral and once experienced homelessness—was cameoing in the film “Marty Supreme.”
• Discuss how nontraditional casting (especially by the Safdie brothers) and viral stories can lead to second chances for people in tough spots.

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6. Memory's Tenuous Reliability: The Ralph Nader Anecdote

[27:59–36:08]

• Luke revisits his own reporting from 2004 and realizes he’s long misremembered an event involving Ralph Nader. Instead of being out of touch, Nader got four standing ovations.

  “It's a weird experience to have a core memory… and then hear your own self absolutely exploding that memory that you think you have.” (30:05, Luke)

• Andrew notes that making a radio story or news report usually “bakes the memory in harder” (32:00, Andrew), but still, revision and conflation happen.
• Luke self-deprecates about his and others’ propensity to “reverse engineer” stories to strengthen a present narrative.

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7. Advances in Car Tech: Cameras, Mirrors & More

[36:14–44:50]

• After marveling at camera and display innovations in modern cars, both hosts share stories of struggling (or not) with parallel parking and enjoying (or mistrusting) backup cameras and digital displays.
• Andrew describes the challenge of feeling “tiny” while taking a small car to the dump, with Luke joking about the social “coding” of backing into parking spots.

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8. Medication Packaging, Recycling, and Styrofoam Dumps

[45:14–49:02]

• Andrew explains the elaborate packaging and surplus of Styrofoam coolers and ice packs that arrive monthly with his medication.
• The hosts bemoan waste, fantasize about garage freezers, and offer to send surplus ice packs to each other.

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9. Listener Donor Thanks & Diversions

[49:20–56:54]

• Luke and Andrew perform their tradition of thanking donors, complete with offhand jokes about fake/burner cities, personal histories, and local Seattle memories.
• Memorable goof:

  “The Julie diaspora has brought Julie Higgins to Portland, Oregon.” (56:15, Luke)

• Segment highlights their community’s reach and their gratitude for listener support.

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10. Top Story: The Clicks Communicator & Phone Nostalgia (CES 2026)

[56:57–76:47]

• The hosts discuss the “Clicks Communicator,” a nostalgic smartphone with a hard (tactile) keyboard previewed at CES—drawing comparisons to beloved old BlackBerrys.
• Andrew realizes he can approximate its minimal interface by downloading the Niagara Launcher (an Android app).
• They debate whether such tech would really break habits or simply “put your booze on a slightly higher shelf” (73:13, Andrew).

  “This is the first I remember hearing about it, this clicks communicator thing. But it's very intriguing… I do not think that the non tactile keyboard...has ever rivaled a good old fashioned...BlackBerry.” (60:09, Luke)

• Luke admits his attempts to fix phone addiction with gadgets are usually short-lived.

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11. Garbage Rebellion: Recycling Drama on the Block

[77:02–79:44]

• Andrew describes a “biblical” outbreak of recycling-collection failures in his neighborhood—except his bin was taken as scheduled, making him feel singled out for favor.
• Luke jokes about the Passover and misremembers “lintel” vs. “mantle” above a doorway, leading to a tangent on lentils and Bible stories.

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12. OLD Beautiful Bastard: Listener Ben's Production

[82:17–87:03]

• The hosts play a remix from listener Ben, who set audio of Andrew dissing bananas to an ODB track:

  “I don't like bananas…but look at this thing…God, I like them raw. They're weird, man.” (85:18, Andrew remixed)

• Both are delighted with the production and encourage more listener-generated audio.

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13. Voicemails & Show Wrap-Up

[87:03–89:00]

• Andrew promises more listener voicemails and stories for next week.
• The show wraps with the classic TBTL sign-off:

  “No mountain too tall—And good luck to all.”

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Notable Quotes

• “It's better than all the sex you've had in your life combined, plus a couple of big sneezes and a stretch...and then triple it.”
  —Luke, on the euphoric feeling of hitting a perfect baseball, 14:45

• “It's a weird experience to have a core memory… and then hear your own self absolutely exploding that memory that you think you have.”
  —Luke, on misremembering the Ralph Nader anecdote, 30:05

• “This is going to be the rare instance where I am willing to allow something that is important to my memory...to be different, because I do think more people would actually get more enjoyment out of it if it gets fixed up.”
  —Luke, 26:20 (on the Green Lake Community Center project)

• “It's just a little bit. It's like putting your booze up on a slightly higher shelf.”
  —Andrew, regarding whether the Clicks Communicator and minimalist phones would really reduce tech addiction, 73:13

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Timestamps for Significant Segments

• [02:00] Luke’s geese/joy intro
• [05:37] Viral Kenyan tennis player debate
• [14:45] Luke on home run euphoria quote
• [18:00–26:20] Green Lake Community Center stories, nostalgia vs change
• [30:05] Luke’s “core memory” self-correction (Ralph Nader)
• [60:09–72:33] Clicks Communicator & phone nostalgia
• [73:13] Andrew's "booze on a shelf" analogy
• [85:18] Listener Ben’s ODB remix debut
• [88:55] Closing sign-off

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Summary

This episode blends TBTL’s signature blend of sincere nostalgia, self-deprecation, and playful cultural analysis, moving effortlessly from personal stories to the tech world's latest antics—all shaded with their quirky, confessional banter. Between digressions on memory and technology, the hosts never lose sight of what makes TBTL “a community center”—their loyal listenership, their enduring friendship, and their readiness to find laughter in everyday life.

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Transcript

[A]

Hi. I don't recall ever seeing you in here.

[B]

Well, maybe it's because it's my first time in here. That's right. My mom used to do all my laundry, but I do now. I'm what you call sans parents. Oh, I can go to a movie on a school night like that.

[A]

Well, welcome to the neighborhood.

[B]

What's your name? Garth.

[A]

Garth Elgar.

[B]

What's yours? I'm Honey hornay. Oh, okay. Ms. Hornay, would you like to have dinner some night? Well, I like to have dinner every night.

[A]

TBTM Guess what day it is. Guess what day it is. It's Friday. Friday.

[B]

Gonna get down on Friday.

[A]

Everybody's looking forward to the weekend. I am not gonna talk about myself. I'm gonna talk about you. And if I talk about you, I think I'm gonna talk about me.

[B]

Beware of things that cost $1.99. Those are the membership dues for this club that I joined, the Columbia House Music Club.

[A]

Turns out that wasn't really even a club.

[B]

It was just a business for making money. Although it is how I found my favorite band, Various artists of the 80s. Oh, I see. Dirty Monkey not okay, but dirty mon. I could really use a win here.

[A]

All right.

[B]

Hello, good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Friday edition of tbtl. The show just might be too beautiful to live. A good podcast helps you connect the dots. My name's Luke Burbank. I am your host.

[A]

I'm here.

[B]

I'm available for y'. All. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill Studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where, my goodness. I don't. I don't even recognize this weather pattern anymore. It's. It's beautiful, my friends. Oh, Ma. Pa. It's just beautiful. Sun is shining. The mighty Columbia river is just smooth as glass. You can see some geese and other waterfowl that are just kind of like, chilling down here in a little, I guess, estuary, I guess. I'm not sure exactly what makes something an estuary versus just being kind of a small, little protected area off the river. Anyway, that's where the geese and ducks are. This flock of geese has decided that their favorite place to hang out, other than the mighty Columbia river, other than this estuary, is one of my neighbors up the hill. They have a huge, like. I don't know, they're on, like, a couple of acres. So they have this massive, huge, long piece of property. It's, you know, grass. And the geese love to hang out on that hill when they're not in the water. And what that means is that about once or twice a day they fly over my house and I hear them before I see them because they are honking. That's not a rumor. They do like to honk when they're flying, or they're just very, very horny geese. And so I'll be in my house and I'll just hear this honking, and I will know what it means, and I will run outside and I will stand on my deck as like 2 to 300 geese just like fly 20ft over my house to go land on my neighbor's yard. And honestly, it's. It's the main thing keeping me going during these turbulent times. If I'm being frank, I'm also being very honest when I tell you we are at episode 4638 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. The news is. Is bad, my friends. The news is tough. And a lot of it comes to me via my phone. And I'm always looking for some way to change my relationship with my phone. And instead of just working on myself, what I like to do is find new technological solutions. And I saw one today in the New York Times. They were reporting back on the most interesting items that were rolled out at the recent Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. And they've got a phone that doesn't do normal phone stuff. So you know what that means I'm.

[A]

Trying to use that phone.

[B]

That means I'm very excited about it. So we'll get into that another gadgetry and we'll get into this guy's life. He's the longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. One other thing about him, he was.

[A]

King of the tuk tuk sound.

[B]

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

[A]

Good morning, Luke. I'm sorry, if you hear a little bit of sound of outdoor tennis being played behind me, the music is probably covering most of it up.

[B]

Yeah, I'm not hearing anything.

[A]

But did you hear about this story? I'm trying to watch the video now. This is from Nairobi, Kenya, where they were having some sort of a international tournament. You know, I think I thought someone.

[B]

Was playing tennis like in your neighbor's yard when. Sorry, you're gonna hear outdoor tennis.

[A]

No, no, this is outdoor tennis from.

[B]

From Nairobi.

[A]

Yeah. The Global South. The. So the deal is Global South. I don't know, man. I'm just trying to watch Africa anymore. I'm just trying to watch the damn game. Just go on with the Show? No. I wanted to know if you had heard tell of this at all. I had just caught wind of this this morning. Apparently there was somebody who is a professional. It's a low level but it is a professional match. Right. And it's an international event. But somebody got in, somebody from Egypt ended up getting in to play from. I believe she's Egyptian, but she came in through some sort of wild card situation where you can apply to play as a wild card and then somebody dropped out and you know, I don't know how else.

[B]

Another ray gun situation. Yes.

[A]

Apparently she's so bad that she didn't know how to hold her racket at times and that like, I guess whatever the gun governing body is for the, for this particular tennis match or tournament or whatever are they're trying to like kind of figure out how this happened. And I don't think it was like a prank. Like I don't think this is, you know, one of the Manning brothers dressing up to pretend to be a player.

[B]

Chad Al Powers?

[A]

No, I don't think so. So I was just. There's no, like, I think you might have to know tennis a little bit better to see exactly, you know, to what people are seeing on the courts. I'm not getting good shots of it.

[B]

The Internet says the Egyptian tennis player in Nairobi is Hajar Abdelkader, a 21 year old woman who recently went viral after a shocking 6060 loss at a ITF tournament where she won only three points. Well, yeah, they served 20 double faults in her professional debut, leading to questions about how she received the wild card entry, which tournament organizers admitted was an error.

[A]

I mean if I just want to say those three points were errors by.

[B]

Her opponent, like they were double faults by her opponent.

[A]

Yeah. They were not earned by her, I believe.

[B]

Yeah. But still, maybe she was intimidating. See, if you put me in Wimbledon, you put me in any professional tennis tournament and I at least caused the other person to, you know, double fault three times. I feel like I've actually exceeded my expectations for myself.

[A]

Yeah. And you get in their head. Right. I got a friend who plays baseball and he says that sometimes like when you're in one of those situations where a position player is pitching, he's like harder than you think is a batter. You just kind of don't know what's going to come and you're just like, you're just so unused to like a. What do they call those? Super, super slow pitch. You're just not ready for it.

[B]

Yeah, I've always wondered If I could throw one strike in the major leagues, you know, when you're trying to fall asleep, you're trying to think of movies that, you know, start with different letters of the Alphabet, et cetera. I'm thinking about beating up my political rivals in very public situations. Using karate.

[A]

Right. Often.

[B]

Or not so much karate, but more just like sometimes there's like some kind of cool guy move and it really depends on the situation. I could give you some different examples off air, but. And then I also think about, like I imagine myself in triumphant sports moments and then I also just imagine myself in more practical sports moments. Like, could I hit. If you let me play an entire NBA game, could I hit one three pointer, you know, or if you put me in a major league baseball game, could I throw one strike that was not hit out of the park? And I do think what I would have going for me is that my best pitch would be roughly 40 miles an hour slower than they're used to seeing. Yeah, it would be the ultimate offspeed pitch.

[A]

That could be what you call your pitch. It's called the ultimate offspeed pitch. So I have a few follow up questions here. First of all, it sounds like you imagine yourself in a lot of different kind of sports situations, but in the baseball situation, do you find yourself playing around with the idea of being on the mound more than at the plate.

[B]

Or do you do both equally for some reason? Yes, I think the mound seems more doable to me than like, I just know. First of all, I think I would be literally afraid of the ball, which is weird because I played baseball for my whole life growing up. Like, so it's. I wasn't particularly. Well, that's not true. My first year of, of fast pitch baseball, I was not afraid of the ball, but I was afraid to swing. I literally didn't swing the entire season when I played for the Greenwood Boys and Girls Club. Everyone's heard that story. But then after that I got over it and I was sort of a semi okay baseball player. I'm not, quote unquote afraid of the ball, but I think in a major league situation I would be terrified of that, of how fast the pitch is coming. Oh, I'm so.

[A]

I'm scared of the ball when I'm listening on the radio.

[B]

You ever hear, just like you hear the ball hit the mitt and you think it was the ball hitting the bat?

[A]

Yeah. Oh, yes.

[B]

Because somebody so shot loud.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I'm always trying to read between the lines of the announcers, particularly if it's Rico Riz. And like, so I hear like a crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, and I'm like, oh, shit, they hit it. And then it's like, outside pitch. And I was like, oh, that was. The ball was thrown so fast that when it went into the piece of leather that Cal Raleigh is wearing on his hand, it sounded like a nuclear event.

[A]

Well, let's. Okay, so you sort of fantasize about, you know, throwing a pitch because you feel like that is as outside of reality as it is. It's closer than actually hitting a major league pitch. Yeah, you said that.

[B]

But if you were in a game, I could throw a pitch. I couldn't hit a pitch.

[A]

But if you were just totally fanciful, you know what I mean? Like, if you could just like, snap and make something happen. Let's say snap your fingers and make a scenario happen where you get to have one successful. Let's. Let's not even say pitch, but one successful outing. Like one successful half inning on the mound or one successful at bat. Like, what's more exciting? Easy at that. At bat. Yeah.

[B]

Where I advance the runner from first to second, where I'm able to. I'm able to like, really go with the pitch and keep my hands in and. And hit a weak grounder to. To the right side of the infield, therefore getting. Moving the runner along in a key situation.

[A]

I love this. And it's the glory play. Yeah. And it's still. It's still your imagination. Like literally any impossible you like. In my imagination, Yes. I hit the ball and then it hits the lights, and then the lights keep on exploding for the next 15 minutes.

[B]

Nature Boy Wonder Boy or Nature Boy, Wonder Boy. I think the Nature boy was Ric Flair.

[A]

I think so. Is that what his name is? In the Natural. Wonder Boy.

[B]

Wonder Boy. In the natural. Or the bat says Wonder Boy or.

[A]

It's funny, I saw that once when I was a child and I believe we were on vacation. I have this vague memory of that, and all I remember is, boy, those lights just keep on blowing up. Like, that was my takeaway from the movie. Was like, they just keep exploding from. Yeah, you were, like, hitting them.

[B]

Yeah, that seems like. That seems like an extreme reaction by this light panel or whatever I did hit when I was in Little League. I hit a couple of home runs. And I gotta tell you, very satisfying even at the Little League level. We played at this place called ross field on 3rd Avenue there. And it had the way that the field was, because a lot of the fields there's no defined home run area. You know what I mean? It's just. There's the. It's just a big. You know, it's a baseball diamond, but there's not a fence or a hill or a. Something that denotes you hit it into where. Now it's a home run. But Ross Field had that. There was a kind of a hill surrounding the outfield. So there was a defined thing where you could. If you hit it out there, it was a home run. And I did that a couple of times. This is a. By the way, a little kid field doesn't even have a pitcher's mound. This has like a. You know, the. The pitcher was closer to the batter than it would be in the major leagues. But a couple of times I got ahold of one and to watch the ball go to a place where the outfielder. Let's be honest, it wasn't like these outfielders were about to go out there and Ken Griffey Jr. It anyway, like, they probably just stood where they were making some kind of necklace out of daisies and watch the ball just go wherever it was going. But in my mind, like, having the ball go to a place where it was deemed to be a home run was pretty fun. And then the furthest ball that I ever hit was actually at Green Lake. It was against. I think it was against our buddy Joe Gurlitz's team Rug. And it was the farthest ball that I ever hit in my life. And it was also. It was a home run, but it was unsatisfying because that place didn't have walls. So you know how when you're walking around Green Lake and you get over to where the swimming pool kind of area is? Evans Pool, it's got those basketball courts.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, if you were to look over to the. If you were. Like, if the basketball courts were to your left and you looked to your right, tucked over there is a baseball field, and it was one of those baseball fields. So, I mean, I just. This is what they had, a really fast pitcher, and this was with like, a pitcher's mound. This was like real baseball dimensions.

[A]

Yeah. Because you're. You were describing Little League before, but if you're playing with Joe here, you're a young adult or an old adult.

[B]

I'm. I'm probably like, 13, 14, but.

[A]

Oh, you. You and Joe go back that far? I didn't realize that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

Yeah. So, like, yeah, we played Little League against each other. I played for North Central, and he played for something called Rug, which was Roosevelt University, Green Lake. I always thought Rug was the coolest name for a league.

[A]

No joke. When I thought you were talking about an adult Joe who works in the advertising industry, I thought that would be like, the name of some sort of, like, super edgy, like, advertising and creative firm in downtown Seattle.

[B]

Yeah, it was. It was kuow against Wexley School for Girls, Rug. Actual name, by the way, for a ad agency in Seattle. But anyway, yeah, it's somebody. They had a guy pitching, and he was pitching really fast, and I was kind of nervous, and somehow his very fast pitch, I probably just closed my eyes and swung the bat. But somehow it was just one of those direct contact deals where there's no vibration in the bat, which is.

[A]

Well, that's what I wanted to ask about how it feels, because I don't. I don't think I've ever had the experience of solidly hitting a baseball, even if it wasn't a home run, just a solid hit.

[B]

Well, the reason that I can remember this so specifically is because this was also a very rare event for me. But, like, it's. I would say it's better than all the sex you've had in your life combined.

[A]

Plus a couple of big sneezes and a stretch.

[B]

Throw it all in there and then triple it. And that's how good it feels to, like, connect with a baseball in such a way that there is absolutely no vibration in the bat because it is the exact right part of the bat is at the exact right part of the ball. And it's just like, from a physics standpoint, it's an absolute marvel. It's like all of this force being sort of multiplied in this way. And so it was great. I mean, again, it was like a home run. I was pretty psyched about it, but it was kind of unsatisfying because it just kind of, like, flew over the guy's head. Then it kind of, like, bounced to the basketball court, and then, like, one of the basketball guys, like, picked it up and, like, tossed it back to the kid. And then I was, like, rounding third. It had none of the theatrics of, like, you know, a real home run where the guy gets to the wall and then looks up and sees that it's going out or whatever. It was just kind of like, yeah, okay, good job. And now, you know, who's up next?

[A]

I think we need to get you in on something. By the way, speaking of Green Lake, have you heard that there's going to be a big, I think, like, kind of renovation and Maybe even reimagining of that area of Green Lake. I think gonna try to preserve that old school building, but maybe move things around a little bit. The Green Lake Community center and pool rebuild. I'm just looking at this now. I'm trying to kind of get eyes on this because I'd only. I'm the opposite of you. I'm really bad at sort of like imagining spaces. I'm not joking like that.

[B]

Oh, I don't think I'm particularly great at that.

[A]

Well, I mean, you've been working for the past four years on imagining your own home space and thinking about what you want and what you need for the future and creating. I'm like, I'm just particularly bad at that. And so when I read these newspaper articles that talk about like, kind of plans for a building somewhere or a rental job somewhere, it's really difficult for me to sort of get my head around it. But I was sort of scanning a Seattle Times article about it the other day, and now I'm on the community set of projects.

[B]

It's a $59 million project.

[A]

Andrew, are we funding any of that as hosts of tbtl? Are we donating?

[B]

No. In fact, we're funding the protest because I don't want my childhood changed at all.

[A]

You'd come down on that? It did. I mean, in the brief thing that I scanned in the newspaper, it sort of seemed though, like they are. It sound like there might have been plans a while ago that like, talked more about just like kind of demoing it and starting over. I could be wrong about it, but it sort of sounds like the new plan, and maybe that's the reason it's expensive, is because they're not just going to raise it, but instead sort of preserve, but expand.

[B]

Well, Andrew, you should visit the engagement hub. Oh, I will participate in the project.

[A]

Well, you should, because you're the one.

[B]

I'm on it right now, buddy. And I'm already leaving some fiery comments. No, look, without going too far down the nostalgia water slide for people that don't know the place we're talking about, it's called the Greenlake Community center, or we called it Evans Pool for short, because that was the name of the swimming pool that was there. And it was really, I mean, more than almost anything else I can think of. It was the locus of my life as a kid because it was about a, you know, I don't know, 15 minute bike ride from my house. It had a swimming pool. It is where I learned how to break dance when I Was like in the early 80s because I used to have the bite of Seattle at that part of Green Lake. It had has a basketball gym where I used to go play pickup basketball every single day. It's where I was interviewed the day that it was declared or announced that Magic Johnson was HIV positive, where I said, he deserves it if he's having unprotected sex. Which King 5 decided to cut out because they were shadow banning me even at a young age. Like, my mom used to run the babysitting center in this community center where one of the babies she babysat was Linda Cohn, the ESPN announcer's baby. Like, it's just. That's where when I was a kid I would go every Saturday. It was $1 to swim in the pool. And it was where I once went. I had $2 to my name, $1 to swim, and $1 I was saving for afterwards to go and get a treat. I was all excited, but I didn't lock the locker because I didn't have enough money for the locker fee or the, you know, getting a combination lock.

[A]

A quarter in the.

[B]

In the thing, something like that. But I only had one extra dollar and I was saving that for my treat after swimming. And of course I come back and these two kids, these two, you know, tough kids have clearly stolen my dollar out of my wallet. But I couldn't do anything to prove it. Like, all that is to say I.

[A]

Didn'T know about that story.

[B]

I mean, you want to talk Marty Supreme. That's where I learned how to play ping pong because they had a ping pong table and, and I think a pool table. And I used to sit and there would be these old like, like Asian American dudes. Asian dudes. I don't know what their particular, you know, status, immigration status was that would hang out in there and play ping pong and they would show me how to play ping pong and stuff. It's like, I really cannot overstate the number of life events for me that occurred in this. Again, very old and not particularly well maintained building. And that's actually where I'm going with this. I'm sure Becca and I were walking Green Lake, I don't know, maybe six months ago, and we parked over there and I think we went in to use the bathroom or something. And when I tell you, Andrew, when I stepped into that place, it had not changed one scintilla from when I used to go in there 40 years ago. Like, the smell of chlorine was the same. The front desk area is exactly the same. The little. There was like two front desks. There's like a front desk for the kind of community center aspect where someone would sit. And then there was this other one that was weirdly enclosed for some reason. And that's where you would pay to go in the swimming pool. So it was a kind of a glass and almost like a bank teller booth. I don't know if they thought people were going to rob the person who had to collect the swimming pool money, but they were in a more secure window that was next to the.

[A]

That's what I was referring to in Marty supreme when I mentioned the guy with the teeth. Don't you remember the guy who kind of. I guess he doesn't run it, but he kind of runs the door of the ping pong parlor with the cage.

[B]

You know who that guy is?

[A]

Well, he looked familiar, but I couldn't place him.

[B]

I'm sorry that I got so distracted with George the Iceman Girvan the other day. You know, that guy is. Huh. That guy is the dude who was on the side of the road, I guess we'll say panhandling, who had been a radio guy. Do you remember the whole story?

[A]

I played him every single night on my radio show. He's the guy with the drop. Say something with that great radio voice.

[B]

That is the guy with the teeth in Marty Supreme.

[A]

Actually, I guess what I. The drop I play is the reporter saying to him, now say something in that great radio voice. And I would use that as a drop to introduce me every single night on the old radio show.

[B]

So that guy, the guy who. I forget his name now, but the guy who had. Who had been a radio guy and then had fallen on hard times and then was kind of quote unquote, discovered. That dude is the dude in Marty supreme who's running the. Or who's taken the money in the ping pong thing.

[A]

Wow. You know, he did look familiar. But that story, I mean, that was a viral video that went around. Well, it was before I had a radio show in Seattle, so. And I think maybe I did that on the air from 2013-14. So that was like a viral video that went around in 2012. And yeah, he was a guy who had a. Had a radio career, found himself, you know, living on the streets. And then like, there was a kind of a news story about how this guy is living on the streets, basically. And so it's good to know that this many years later, he's now in movies. That's awesome.

[B]

Yes. And Just, you know, it would appear doing well. Like, I don't know if he's, quote, unquote, in movies. I think one of the things that the Safdie brothers really love to do is, I don't want to say stunt casting, but, like, they really like to bring in kind of unlikely folks and non actors, and they really go for that. So I don't know how much other stuff this guy is. His name is Ted Williams, by the way. Ted Williams is the. And I'm trying to see right now if he's been in some other. He's an actor known for Marty Supreme. The Game done changed in 2017 and my crazy ex in 2014. But at the very least, he's, you know, I don't want to. How do I say this in a way that doesn't sound disrespectful? Like, a lot of times you hear these stories about somebody who is, you know, plucked out of relative obscurity. Something's, you know, they've fallen on hard times and then there's a gofundme for them or something happens and it's a real life change for them. But then you catch back up in five or 10 years, and unfortunately, things have kind of maybe gone back towards where they were originally. And it's really awesome to see that. That does not appear to be what's going on with Ted F. Williams.

[A]

Yeah, it's a better way of putting it, what I just said.

[B]

Make you work for your dollar.

[A]

Say something with that great radio voice, and then that's where he would usually start talking. But I don't have.

[B]

Also, no offense, but make you work for your dollar. Absolutely. Fuck right off.

[A]

Yeah, right. No shit. Right.

[B]

Like, I think it's funny if we' to you before you start talking on the Andrew Walsh show, but some guy who's on the side of the road and he's got a sign. It's like, I hope that the end of the story of the guy who asked that question is bleak Bleed.

[A]

The guy who asked that question got smashed under a tub, I believe a bathtub. Okay, good.

[B]

Yeah, well, that's a whole other thing. The guy that. Well, I could.

[A]

Yeah, we got.

[B]

I could go on and on about the. The casting of Marty supreme, but the guy who has the dog, he's a. His name is Abel Farah, and he's sort of like a outsider film director from the US but now he works mostly in Italy and stuff, and he's got a whole crazy backstory back. If we can quickly to the Green Lake Community Center, Aquatic center and play area, Engagement hub. This is a weird one for me, Andrew, because again, I generally like everything to be the way that it's always been, particularly something like this. That's so core memory to me. But the place is honestly kind of a shithole for. For the probably the amount of use that it gets for the folks that work there and for also the potential for it. Yeah, Like, I. My guess would be that if they can. I don't know where they're gonna get this 59 million from, but, like, if they. They have 3 million of it so far, so, you know, they're part of the way. They're like. It's. I might. My guess would be that if you come back in 10 years and this place has like. First of all, the bathrooms are absolutely horrendous at this place. Like, have you ever had to use the bathrooms at this joint?

[A]

No.

[B]

I mean, I'm talking number one, number two, any number you need, they've got you horrified. Like, it is just like the. It's those kinds of urinals that are, like, kind of overly rectangular. They're like steel. Do you know the kind I'm talking about? It's like a welded steel, not a triangle, but not like, it's not porcelain. And it's not in the kind of what we think of as the regular urinal shape. It's something that's more, let's just say, carceral. It's like. Feels like a urinal that would be in prison for some reason or a.

[A]

Or a campground maybe. For some reason.

[B]

Campground. Maybe somewhere where you're just really worried people are going to try to just absolutely break the urinal off of the wall. No doors on the stalls, because I think they've dealt with some issues there. So, like, you know, if you have to go number two, it's a. Anyway, I can imagine coming back to this place, maybe with my grandchildren, Andrew, in 10 years, and being like, wow, this is nice. Wow, this is way better. So this is going to be the rare instance where I am willing to allow something that is important to my memory and my conception of my young self to be different, because I do think more people would actually get more enjoyment out of it if it gets fixed up.

[A]

Well, that's great news. That was the last real big stumbling block was getting your approval on this thing.

[B]

So I'm gonna let Katie Wilson.

[A]

I'm gonna let them know that you're signing off on this. And now they just need $53 million and we're good.

[B]

I mean, honestly, like, if they're. If they're in the. In the 1980s, if there was a mayor of. If there it was, it was probably me and this developmentally disabled guy named Larry who used to kind of hang around there. One of Larry's moves was because he used to walk down my street, too, on his way to the community center. Sometimes he would just drag an entire, like, Rubbermaid garbage can with his stuff in it. He wasn't homeless, by the way, but he just would. He just would drag that around just as a conveyance or something. But. But he was a super sweet guy. He would always introduce himself. He said, hi, my name is Larry, and I've met him in my life maybe a thousand times. Every time he'd walk down our street, we'd be playing in our front yard. Hi, my name is Larry. We'd introduce ourselves. We'd see him at the community center. Hi, my name's Larry. So it was between me and Larry for being the mayor of the greenlake community center. So if they get me and Larry to sign off on this, I do think that they will be able to find a path forward.

[A]

Please don't tell anybody that I took my wheelbarrow outside.

[B]

God, what a great scene in the.

[A]

World of friend of. I almost said friendship of the chair.

[B]

Of the chair company.

[A]

Yeah, I watched. I think I watched each episode twice, but now I haven't watched it in a couple of months. Maybe it's time to re juice on that show.

[B]

I took a bath yesterday, which was odd, but I was. For a variety of reasons. I have a very specific schedule around my. Like, when I shower, when I exercise. And you're like, sometimes a double shower guy. But I'm. For some reason, I really hate taking two showers in the same day. So it's always got to be after my workout. But I didn't work out in the morning yesterday, so I like, I ended up working out in the afternoon. And then my. Then it was kind of cold, and I thought, well, I'll take a bath. But I was like, but then it's going to be boring sitting in the bathtub. So I was like, well, I'll bring my laptop in and I'll watch something. And then I was like, maybe I'll just start watching the chair company again. Ultimately, I didn't. Ultimately, I propped my phone up in the windowsill, took a bath, and continued to scroll TikTok. But just saying, I'm open to the idea. Oh, can I clarify one other thing from Yesterday's show very, very quickly, before we get into big weekend plans. I cannot believe how loud wrong I was about. Talk about core memories, about a story relevant to my own life that I was telling you yesterday about Ralph Nader in Harlem and Hillary Clinton. I went back and listened to the actual story that I did about that and what I had. I have been for years telling this story about how Ralph Nader was out of touch with the crowd in Harlem. And I listened to my story, and what I say in my story is that he got four standing ovations.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[B]

So I don't know where it got into my. I mean, I will say, having spent considerable time with him, I do think he's a kind of. Let's just say I would be unsurprised to hear that he's sort of neurodivergent in certain ways. But what I. What my report from the ground was on that day was not what I have been thinking in my mind and telling people, which was that he misread the room. Yeah, I think the room liked him. So I want to officially retract that because that was a. That was a misstatement by me. And, like, I was horrified listening to. I was like, well, let me hear what actually happened there. And I listened to it, and as I heard my own self say he received four standing ovations, I was like, what the frick?

[A]

Did you hear any audio? Were you able to record his actual speech so you could get a better understanding in 2026?

[B]

And I think. And I think, you know, I'm not saying that I would ever put my thumb on the scale, but I think what I was ultimately trying to point out in the piece is that there's a disconnect between the Ralph Nader true believers and in that case, the Ralph Nader skeptics about him throwing another election in favor of the Republicans, because this was 2004. And so in 2000, of course, he was blamed by a lot of people for throwing Florida over to George W. Bush. And I think what I was trying to say is, like, in the room in Harlem with the people that had come there to, like, listen to Ralph Nader that were Ralph Nader heads, he was very popular. And then he goes downstairs to the press conference afterwards, and he's immediately bombarded with questions of, aren't you going to end up just delivering this election to George W. Bush like you did the last one? So I. I mean, was there four standing ovations? Was there three? Was I trying to make a point about his popularity with his fan base versus his. I don't know. I hope I wasn't misstating it, but definitely, if it was crickets up there, I don't think I would have said he got four standing ovations. So, yeah, nobody except me cares about that. But I. I was. Again, I was. It's a weird experience to have a core memory. I keep using that term today for some reason. And then hear your own self absolutely exploding that memory that you think you have.

[A]

I feel like if everything I did was recorded, which more and more of it is, I would find a million examples of that in my lifetime as I try to. Like, I'm now at an age when I tell a story from high school or something, on air or off, where I acknowledge that I'm probably conflating some things here. There's just like.

[B]

It's like a land acknowledgement, except about the land that is my memory. We stand right now on Stolen Brain. Certainly old Luke has stolen the brain of young Luke, and he doesn't know what the hell is going on.

[A]

The one thing, though, and maybe this is because you, even before we met, with your experience at NPR at all, I do feel like there's something about going through the process of actually creating a story. In your case, like a news story or a news feature about something that does, it seems like, bakes the memory in a little bit harder. I don't know if you can bake harder. You see what happened there? I ran out of adjectives. It bakes it in even more deliciously. Anyway, you know what I mean? Like, I do feel like in my experiences, it's that the things that I go back to, if it was a project I worked on that was some sort of an involved audio project or maybe even a video or something, it's kind of like, well, I'm going to remember the details of that better because it went through an editing process. I wrote around it. I chose the tape. And all of that sort of calcifies the memory a little bit better. But you did. So I'm not trying to throw you under the bus. You did so many stories and so much more of that stuff than I did.

[B]

Well, I think, generally speaking, I do. I absolutely agree with you. And I think. I think the stories, putting the Ralph Nader anecdote aside, I think that the stories that I can most reliably repeat with some accuracy are things that. Where I did a TV story or I did a radio story about it. Because you're right, it's A very methodical process. It's not like normal life where you're just kind of like hanging out. It's like you're taking notes and there's somebody fact checking and there's a producer. And there's just a lot that goes into it that should cause it to bake harder in the mind. And that's why this was so like unsettling for me. And I think, I think. I think I can kind of trace what the series of events was, which is basically like. And also I've heard other. I've heard other stories about Ralph Nader. In fact, my brother in law, my brother in law's brother, so my sister Liz's husband's brother is the head of the consumer organization that Ralph Nader used to run and worked for Ralph Nader for like the last 20 years. So I've been kind of like also back channeling a lot of Ralph Nader content and my. And I don't know why it's so important for me to always emphasize this, but it's like Ralph Nader is a. He's not atypical person in a lot of ways. And he's as I said yesterday, very singularly focused and very like not. Not the most warm person I've ever dealt with. Not bad. But he just wasn't like, he just is not a guy who is super, in my experience, super concerned with how he's coming off in a conversation. And you were telling that story about our friend Rachel Bell and how like he refused to engage with the topic of Last Meals because he's against the death penalty, which is a super hyper literal reading of a situation. So for some reason it's somehow important for me to make that point with everyone when the topic of Ralph Nader comes up, which again, why, I don't know. But I then at some point overlaid that into the experience of being in that church in Harlem with him and then wrote my own version of events to support this. This thing that I'm trying to say to people. So it was like I went back and changed the reality of what was going on in that room in order to make a stronger case for what I'm trying to tell people today.

[A]

Not in the story, of course.

[B]

Today, yes, I hope, I hope not in the story. Yeah, I think it's more like today, like what I'm trying to say is, yeah, Ralph Nader's pretty spectrumy. And then my evidence for that was, yeah, he's in this room in Harlem and he's definitely not Reading the room. And by the way, there may have also been some of those moments where, like, he's saying something, and I'm even in that night in Harlem. And I'm thinking, like, I don't think anyone in here cares about that. But it clearly wasn't as much of a flop as I've been telling people, because in the very story I'm referring to, I'm making the point that he was a hit. So I think I have to be really careful about, like, well, I just have to start doing the disclaimer that you're starting to do. And also just remember that sometimes I go back in and reverse engineer something to confirm something that I'm trying to establish in the present. And I got to be really careful about that.

[A]

The facts that you hear in the story may be nearer than they appear. Maybe.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Maybe clearer than they appear.

[B]

Yes. Yeah. Have they fixed that, by the way? Are we still getting that on side mirrors?

[A]

That's a good question.

[B]

I don't think mine. I don't think mine. We. Of all the technology that we've really improved on, I think mirror technology must have improved because I'm not seeing that on mirrors anymore.

[A]

Yeah, that's a really good point. Also, can we just take a moment and give it up to cameras and cars? Like, all I have in the back of my car is just like one little camera. And it is a hidden camera, by the way. People can never find it.

[B]

Oh, I know, dude.

[A]

It's behind the VW symbol that flips up like the Batmobile.

[B]

I love that. That's some. That's some real spy hunter.

[A]

Right? And, like, you know, I never had a lot of problem backing in and out of things. I've always been a pretty good parallel parker. Not to brag, but it's just not been a big hang up for me in my life. Having said that, I was just backing up the other day and, you know, so I'm parked nose in and there's cars on either side of me. And so I'm carefully backing out and I'm looking anyway using just my eyes. But just by the very nature of having a camera in the back of the car, it's like having a set of eyes in the back of the car where I can see if there's a pedestrian with a dog, you know, like, coming in a way that I just would not be able to see otherwise. And I'm just thinking about my car here, which is like the lowest of the low as far as technology is concerned. I'm in my dad's car. He's got some sort of like. And by the way, I don't know what his car is, so don't even ask. I'm so car blind.

[B]

The only thing that rivals your face blindness is your car blindness. Yeah.

[A]

Honestly, it makes me seem like I can actually recognize faces so much better. Like, it's just like I look. What kind of car was it? I'm like grayish. And like, by the way, all cars are grayish.

[B]

So nobody commit a crime in a vehicle near Andrew, who's going to be zero help to law enforcement. Like, literally, it was a brownish area with points exactly like. I don't.

[A]

Kind of one of those silverish Y ones. It looks like, you know, like all cars that are all rental cars look alike to me. But whatever my dad drives, which is like some sort of a, you know, I guess. I guess an suv, I guess. I mean, it's. I see people park their SUVs in parking spots that are clearly marked compact. So I don't know, because I drive such a tiny little car, I think everything is an suv. But let's just call my dad's car some sort of a version of a hybrid SUV or something like that. And he's got this technology where if he turns on his camera, it looks like you're looking at the car from above. Do you have this? It seems like something you.

[B]

I've had a rental car with this and it is mind bending, mind blowing.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Is there a drone? Does this thing launch a drone when we back up?

[A]

It is amazing. It really is amazing. And I was in a. I believe I was in a lift or something the other day. Where the person had a rear view mirror in a normal place, you know, just hanging on your windshield there, but the mirror itself. Wait, was I with you? Was this you? Were you my Lyft driver? I'm actually confused if this is something you and I talked about. Again, facts in this story are further from the truth than they appear. It was you.

[B]

Me, Ralph Nader. He was not reading the room. Hey, wait, who the driver gave him four standing ovation.

[A]

And who was the poet that you were driving around with in upstate New.

[B]

York on your way to Cooper memory that that was coming back from? Oh, my goodness.

[A]

You were driving around New England with him before your trip was coming back from Chautauqua. Oh, oh, okay.

[B]

I was at Chautauqua in New York and they were taking us both to the airport together. And I can't remember who that was, but he was Lovely. He was a big baseball fan.

[A]

Yeah, right. Because I remember. And maybe that's what even I think.

[B]

He had been the poet laureate. Right?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Nationally, it's not. He's like. In my mind, he's like David Mamet adjacent, but he's not David Mamet. But like, but like, for some reason, when I'm. I'm trying to reimagine him. Not Billy Collins either.

[A]

I know it's not Billy Collins because.

[B]

That'S your favorite, but it's like David something, right? And we, we took. We.

[A]

We were.

[B]

We caught a ride together to the airport in Buffalo, I think from leaving the Chautauqua community there in upstate New York.

[A]

It's not Donald Hall. That's the only other one on this list that I would know, like you said. And this would. I know that we were doing the show. I used to have his business card.

[B]

I was very proud of that. I had it pinned up.

[A]

Oh, Pinsky, wasn't it? Pinsky?

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pinsky.

[A]

Was it Robert Pinsky?

[B]

And he was David Robert Pinsky. Nobody calls him David except me.

[A]

I mean, I didn't plop it out in the air.

[B]

It was totally Robert Pinsky.

[A]

Yeah, that's who it was. So anyway, yeah, so my dad's. Oh, my dad's got a cool car. And then somebody who I was in a car with had a rear view mirror that could either act as a mirror or a little video camera instead. So in other words, you could turn your mirror into a video camera. And I was like, well, what's the point of that? And they're like, the camera is in a better place on the.

[B]

Oh. So the mirror itself, because I've seen this mirror now, that is a video monitor. In other words, when you're looking in the rear view mirror, what you're seeing is the feed from the video camera.

[A]

Exactly. And I think. Right.

[B]

So it's not itself the camera, it's monitoring what, the camera?

[A]

Yes. I'm sorry, There's a camera in the back of the car. And you can either use your mirror in regular mirror mode or you can turn it into a digital mirror almost where the camera.

[B]

Yeah. Showing you what the camera. Yeah. That's mind blowing, all of that stuff.

[A]

It's just fascinating. And we wouldn't have it if it weren't for Ralph Nader.

[B]

I just finally, I would say in the last year, fully become confident in the camera that's in the back of my car. In other words, for the first couple of years, that I was driving my car, I would go into reverse to pull into a parking spot. It was, would want to show me on my screen, the backup cam. And I'd be like, yeah, right, nice try. And I'd look over my shoulder and I would like manually park because I could not trust it. It just, it was, I, for whatever reason, I just, you know, it was old fashioned and I would always kind of crane my neck around and just do the typical thing. And now I've just fully and completely trusted. I've like lost the ability to now, you know, parallel park in a car that doesn't have a camera. You know, the place that I, I feel like I really have to trust that camera is when I'm at the dump. Because backing up. Because the way that the dump around here works is it's like one of those conveyor belt things. I think I've told you about this. And so you pull in and I'm not one of those backup parkers. I know that we've been around this whole flagpole together and listeners don't like it when I say this, but I still think that there's something very Republican coded about backing into a parking spot. And I don't care what you say. I don't, don't. I don't care that it's, it's safer. Because then when you're pulling out, you're pulling out forward. It's like, yeah, but you're backing in at some point.

[A]

But I just want to remind the audience that we don't speak as a unit on everything. So when you're sending your emails, you can send them directly to Luke, Listen.

[B]

I was the person who killed that first flag. That Sasquatch is conservative coded now. And there's, there's been nothing that has changed my mind on that one either. I live in red America. I am a bellwether. Andrew. I see these things before.

[A]

I just want to say, I don't want to argue it with you. I have no interest in the topic. But I also just want to say that that is not a shared opinion. That is not something that I am code. Co signing, not cosigned. No.

[B]

Okay, but. All right, so. But here's the thing. I, because I don't back into parking spots very frequently, I also have a small car, so it's not necessary for me. The only time that I really do that is when I'm at the dump. And so you pull, you're kind of pulling into this big covered area and there's all these big, you Know, trucks and landscaping trucks and they're all, all backed up. And in this case it makes perfect sense because we're all going to open our rear hatches or drop our lift gate and throw the stuff onto this conveyor belt. But I'm like backing up between two just big ass lifted trucks. And I like, first of all, I can't see because there's probably a bunch of stuff in the back of my car. So my view is literally obscured. And I'm just like, camera, don't fail me now because I'm like threading the needle, backing up in between. I don't want to hit one of these, one of these don't tread on me trucks or whatever, but so far it's been working out.

[A]

Yeah, when you're driving a little car, or even maybe a normal sized car, but in my case, and it sounds like your case, maybe a little sized car around big equipment, especially in, or even just big trucks, especially in a situation like that, like the dump, you just feel so tiny. You feel like sometimes it can feel almost sci fi, like you're a tiny little ship trying to navigate like in some sort of sci fi movie with all these like big hulking spaceships around you. I don't know why my brain goes there, but I think that. And the only thing that can add to that is something that I'm going to be doing next week, which is going to the dump in my tiny little Volkswagen Golf, driving around these trucks that could eat my Volkswagen Golf and then burp with satisfaction.

[B]

And then burp out a bird scooter.

[A]

Exactly. But what will I be going to the dump to do? My car will be filled with nothing but Styrofoam. Literally the lightest little thing. Because you can recycle Styrofoam at the dump, you can't do it at curbside or anything. And every two weeks, I think I've told you this before, I find myself in kind of a weird situation.

[B]

Does your car float to the dump?

[A]

Exactly, I have to.

[B]

Is it like having helium in the back?

[A]

I have to hold. I walk below it and I hold.

[B]

You have all these sandbags that you have to release strategically over various parts of Aurora to control your flight.

[A]

Because every two weeks I get special medication through the mail for my arthritis. And it comes in, it has to remain refrigerated. Right. So it comes in a box about the size of like, kind of like your standard medium sized box if you like go to. Or maybe small medium sized box if you're going to Go to U Haul or something like that. And then inside there is a cooler, like a straight up cooler that has like really thick walls. And then you kind of unbox that, and then inside the cooler is several of these ice packs or whatever. Because, I mean, this medication, if anything goes bad with it, it's like each shot is just ridiculously expensive. Insurance covers most of it, but they treat this stuff like gold, right? Or maybe more expensive than gold. And so you open it up and it's kind of like it's Indiana Jonesy as you kind of open up the chest and then that's in there. But then you dump all this stuff out, and I'm left with all.

[B]

They prescribed you Marcellus Wallace's soul. Yeah, Right.

[A]

And I would. Coolers are awesome. And I wish I could send them back for reuse because the problem with them is the walls are so thick. Like, the box comes as a normal sized box. But by the time you've unpacked everything, the inside, the actual inside dimensions of the cooler, you could maybe hold three cans of Fresca. Maybe three, you know, and there's no handles before. There's nothing you can really do with these things. And I get one a month, I guess.

[B]

It's so tempting. This is almost a cool. Like, this is almost something I could take camping.

[A]

Yes. Well, actually, I'm sor. Sorry. I get one of these coolers with two doses. So I get one of these a month. So I'm getting 12 of these damn things a year. And so I stack them up in my garage. But since I can't find a good. I would love to find a reuse for them. In fact, if a listener is kind of like, hey, that's something I could use on my boat or in a project or something, let me know. I will say, though, the inside dimensions are pretty small, but the best I can do is take them to the dump and properly recycle them in the proper. You know, there's a very special, very special section for that at the dump. And so anyway, just driving my tiny little car and they. You drive up on this ramp where they weigh your car, and then on the way out, they weigh you again. So, you know, like kind of if you hit the limit of weight, and mine is kind of like, how is the car heavier after you've done digesting.

[B]

In your stomach has now made the vehicle heavier on the way out. Out that it was going in. Now here's my question to you, because I. I struggle with this. If I get anything delivered that has been refrigerated. Whether it's like prepped meals or other things. You're saving all of those ice packs, right?

[A]

There's too many. There's like two in each. They, they're pretty.

[B]

I can't part with those ice packs. I got them in the fridge in here in the studio. I got them in the fridge in my, in my house. For some reason. It's like free ice pack. Even though it's. That's the lowest level of ice pack. It's probably like the cheapest. It probably holds the, the frees, the least, etc. I'm like, you just gave me a free and free ice pack. I'm not part. This thing's gold. In the words of Rod Blagojevich, maybe.

[A]

That'S what I'll do. I'll start shipping them to you. I'll use the coolers.

[B]

Dude, do you have a garage fridge yet or a garage freezer yet?

[A]

No, we have a. We haven't, but we have a refrigerator freezer upstairs in our regular kitchen. Then we have a smaller refrigerator freezer, but you know, like full standing.

[B]

You need to get a garage freezer exclusively for these. For these things. And then also so you can go hang out there and sit in a folding chair and listen to the Mariner game and pull stakes out of there or something. I don't even have a garage. I'm in what used to be the garage at this house. But I would kill for a garage freezer for some reason.

[A]

Yeah, I think that we have some practical issues with that plan. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon, but I'm happy to send them your way.

[B]

Thank you, baby. All right, let's thank some of our donors. What you are listening to Right now is 100 listener supported podcasting. We do this five days a week, 52 weeks a year. And you know, this is not on the scale of a 59 million dollar remodel of the Green Lake Community center, but it is a full time job.

[A]

For three people and it is a bit of a community center.

[B]

It is a. You know what, that's a really great point, Andrew. It is. And, and we're so honored to get to do this for our jobs. Me and Andrew and John just had a meeting this week, a TBTB meeting, and we're starting to put some plans together for, for fun future events and engagements and things. And anyway, we're talking about things.

[A]

By the way, I think the listeners will be happy to hear this. And also just Shout out to our co business boy, John. I'm not giving away too much here, but we actually had a meeting in which we were talking about plans for TBTL events that stretch further than a year out because we are, as listeners have pointed out, we have some pretty big things on the calendar. A 5000th episode is less than 500.

[B]

Practicing saying that now.

[A]

Yes, exactly. I don't, I think 3,000th was, must have been the worst.

[B]

But you know, 33,000th is gonna be.

[A]

For a lot of reasons. You know, we're, we're reaching our, we're not too far away from our 20th anniversary and anyway, like you and I would have been like one month out from these, from these, these dates and then just being like, well what are we going to do? And trying to pull it off at the last minute. John's got us looking ahead and honestly I've spent the past couple of days pretty excited about some of the stuff we've been talking about.

[B]

Absolutely. Yeah. No, the state of our union is strong and it is because of folks like Ally Palmer in Salt Lake City, Utah. Of the Utah Palmers?

[A]

Heck yeah. Oh. Though I didn't see that coming. What is. Now I'm going to quiz you like you quiz me me. Where are they from in Utah? Because we can.

[B]

Isn't it like too well?

[A]

Yes, it's very close to that.

[B]

No, no, no, it's, it's. I'm doing that strictly from memory, but.

[A]

It'S very close to your. To Willie.

[B]

Oh, to Willie.

[A]

No, I messed it up. I'm sorry. Palmers on this.

[B]

The day of my daughter's message. Yes. Thank you, Ali. Appreciate you. Thanks also to Julie Lambert of Julian, California. I don't know if I've heard of Julian, California.

[A]

I'm not sure either.

[B]

I thought I knew about every California place.

[A]

It's where all Julies come from. Yep.

[B]

That is, it's the. Let's see here. Julian, California. California.

[A]

I knew it. If you didn't, I was going to.

[B]

It's a census designated place. We get that a lot. When there's a place I haven't heard of, it's usually a census designated place in San Diego County. It was a gold rush boom town in the 1870s after gold was discovered by Fred Coleman. Not the nighttime sports host Freddie Coleman, but probably a different Fred Coleman.

[A]

If Freddie.

[B]

You missed those days. Freddie Coleman at night.

[A]

Is he not on at night anymore?

[B]

He probably is. I just mean the days when you were listening to it.

[A]

I was about to say, like if there's ever a time when I happen to turn on the AM sports radio station at around 1:37am and Freddie Coleman's voice doesn't greet me. It's gonna be a very, very sad day.

[B]

Wow. Okay. Oh, well, come on. I've been out near Julian before. I was doing a TV story down there once. I remember Becca and I went hiking and went up to Potato Chip Rock. I think we were staying in Ramona, which is not super far. Julian and Ramona sound like they should be together, don't you think?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Like, you know. But anyway, thank you very much.

[A]

Minds you can. First of all, I didn't realize something when you said you've never heard of Julie in California and that this is like a designate or whatever they call.

[B]

It, census designated place.

[A]

Do you think there's a chance that our listeners are sending us burner cities now? Because you've gotten a little bit weird in some of these thank you messages. Like, oh, I'll be in your city. Oh, I'll be in your city. Oh, come. You know, I'm going to go follow. Followed Julian around or Julie around, come through.

[B]

Or you up. And now some of the things I've said during these messages.

[A]

So now people are just kind of like, you know what? I'm. I don't. I'll just give a city nearby or within, like within my state or something.

[B]

Or maybe a totally different city. Like something that's not even, you know, maybe. Maybe. I mean, who knows? It's possible that Julie is in, like, Delaware.

[A]

Yeah, maybe she. Maybe she went to Julian to donate and then, you know, rushed back.

[B]

Throw us off the scent.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

I can tell you that looking at the photos of Julian, California and their little downtown area. This is about as adorable as it gets.

[A]

I was looking at the cider shop.

[B]

I mean, just saying maybe. TBT. Elephant. What are we on? 1718. Julian, California.

[A]

Are you looking at these mines that it looks like you can tour, like, underground?

[B]

I'm looking at the whole thing and it just. Again, it just looks it. Charming as all hell. So anyway, well, thank you, Julie. We appreciate that. Sarah Cantler is from Sarahville, New York. See what I did there?

[A]

I see. I was wondering what you were. I was wondering. I got confused.

[B]

You know, it's a good joke when it involves a lot of experience.

[A]

I was also doing some. Sorry, I was also like kind of marking.

[B]

You're stuck in the cider house rules there in Julian, California.

[A]

No, I was back to the spreadsheet. But you got to keep in mind, I'M maintaining a spreadsheet while we do these as well. I mark the right names, we're thanking them on this date. Some people say you didn't.

[B]

You're checking things off. You're making. Keeping us on task and on time and under budget. Thank you. Sarah Candler in Brooklyn.

[A]

Good.

[B]

Brooklyn, New York.

[A]

Yes, Brooklyn, New York. And now that is also a census designated.

[B]

It is, it is. The census has really designated it.

[A]

Designated the hell out of it.

[B]

Designated it hard. There are stats like, I want to say Brooklyn would be the, like I'm just, I'm shooting from the hip here, but I, I feel like Brooklyn would be something like the, I don't know, 17th largest city in America by itself or something. I mean it's a, it's a robust place. Thanks also to Ryan Johnson, who's in Arlington, Washington.

[A]

Thank you, Ryan.

[B]

Up there in the Skagit Valley, the beautiful Skagit Valley. We're, I keep talking about pitchers and catchers in baseball, but we're only a couple of months out from the tulips coming into bloom there in the Skagit Valley, a lovely time of year. Thanks also to our friend Julie Higgins, who's in Portland, Oregon. Now, I don't know if Julie Higgins has been to Julie in California, where Julie Lambert is from or allegedly is from.

[A]

Well, my theory is all Julie's come from Julian and then they spread out across the land.

[B]

Uh huh. That's right. The Julie diaspora has brought Julie Higgins to Portland, Oregon. And we appreciate it. Thanks, Julie. And then we've got Chantal liked from Mill Creek, Washington. That also lovely Mill Creek. Yes. That's where we used to have. Well, I don't know if it was technically Mill Creek, it might have been Bothell, but when we used to do all those events out there at old Chateau St. Michel wasn't too far from where.

[A]

Okay. All right. I didn't know that. For real.

[B]

Yeah. Thank you, Chantal. Thank you also to all of our donors for making TBTL possible. We would not be here doing this without you.

[A]

Hello and welcome to Top Story.

[B]

I was reading in the old New York Times this morning and I saw that they had kind of a rundown of the kind of the things from ces, the Consumer Electronics show, which just wrapped up in Las Vegas that they were the most interested in. I have to say, by the way, just generally speaking, the New York Times when it comes to the wire cutter column and like they've got an absolute stranglehold on me in that every time I'm going to buy something I check with Wirecutter. They put out a Christmas, like a gift guide this year that, like, was just. It was catnip for Luke's, like, every single thing. It was really smart too, because it wasn't a particular price point or a particular kind of. Of item. They just went through all the wire cutter staff and they just said, like, find something interesting that's under, you know, 50 bucks that, that you're intrigued by. And it was, I thought, the best gift guide that I saw all year. It just had every single thing on there. Seemed really appealing for one reason or another. So this is what they published this morning. The best of CES 2026, the products we want to get our hands on the most. And pretty much I want to get my hands on all of these products, Andrew. But the first one that they showed really, really got me. They call it the 2026 Air to the BlackBerry. It's called the Clicks Communicator, and it comes out in late 2026. It's going to be $500. But it looks almost exactly, Andrew, like one of those blackberries that. Did you ever have a BlackBerry, a tactile BlackBerry?

[A]

I did. And, you know, know, I was thinking about this this morning because I don't know, I don't want to interrupt your story right now with this, but I loved my BlackBerry and I think that's how I ended up getting into being an Android person, wasn't because I made some sort of decision back. Like, I feel like if you're, if you're getting your first smartphone today in 2026, there's a very clear choice of like, oh, I'm going to go iPhone direction or like the Android. But mine was very. Everybody had blackberries when I had my, you know, blackberries were it. Especially like I was in New Hampshire during primary season.

[B]

You said people like, of course, it's.

[A]

Just like very BlackBerry. And I had like a blood red BlackBerry sort of or ox blood color or whatever you call it, maroon or whatever. I love that thing. And I loved the hard keyboard on it. And then when things were moving away from blackberries and the hard keyboards, I didn't want to totally say goodbye to it, even though things were moving towards touch screen. So that's when I got the G2. It was like an Android phone that we've talked about this before. It looked like kind of a thick, just smartphone with just the screen, but then it would like sort of like a robot sort of slide and underneath it was hiding a hard keyboard. And I loved that. Phone so much so anyway. And then once I bought that then I was already sort of in the Google ecosystem or whatever, so this has me nostalgic for that. I'm also very interested in this device. I had heard about it in passing before you put it on the show sheet, but I didn't realize that the simplification was part of it. I just heard people all a gaga about the hard keyboard because I'm a little bit agaga about that too.

[B]

This is the first at least that I remember. We've established already that my memory is absolute junk sleep anymore, but this is the first I remember hearing about it, this clicks communicator thing. But it's very intriguing because I will say the number one thing that I don't like about in fact, I sent you and John a message this morning that was probably like, like just one giant run on sentence full of error errors and things. And it's because I was trying to respond to an email, but I was kind of running around my house and so I did voice to text. I have never on my iPhone successfully typed up a text message or email that has not ended up having like a bunch of weird errors in it that I try to go back and fix. And I got to do that thing where you're moving the cursor with your finger into the interior of like a paragraph to try to take a letter out and all this stuff. Like for all the advances of these phones that we have, I do not think that the non tactile keyboard, the like touchscreen keyboard has ever rivaled a good old fashioned. Like I had a BlackBerry. I remember at npr first they got me. I had like a. I want to say it might have even been. Well first it was. I had a very un. Kind of unsexy like I forget who made the phone, but it was just, it did have a tactile keyboard but it was like a very basic cell phone even for the time. Time. And then I remember eventually getting like, as I moved up like when I was a booker on Day to Day I had, I got a cell phone that was like NPR was paying the bill on, which I was pretty psyched about. But it was like again kind of clunky. It wasn't a cool cell phone. I might have, I might have gotten a razor for like a brief amount of time. I might have gotten upgraded to a razor. And then eventually I did when I was in D.C. and I was closer to the source of, of the cool equipment and, and I was more maybe vital to the overall on air product. I was covering Congress. I finally got me a full on BlackBerry. Like, not one that. It was just the kind that had the tactile keyboard and then the screen on it. And I just remember walking around DC, typing on my BlackBerry, feeling like this is all happening for me. Like I'm in dc, I'm covering Congress, I have a BlackBerry and I'm Axel Rodding it. Exactly. Welcome to the Axe Files. I believe that is the name of his podcast.

[A]

Yeah. Is he still doing that? I forgot about the Axe Files.

[B]

I think so. Although. Was that a POD Save product? If it was, I don't think he's doing it there anymore. But he definitely was. Yeah, the Axe Files was. I think that was pretty popular there for a while. But all that is to say, I look at this.

[A]

Are you sure it wasn't called how you live in D. Axlerod. I'm sorry to interrupt. I just thought that was too funny to me.

[B]

I'm just axing. You're the one I'm just axing questions with David Axelrod.

[A]

I do wonder about how you live in jpiven every now and then. All right, go ahead.

[B]

I checked on it. It is currently dormant.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But anyway, all that is to say, I looked at this thing and I was very intrigued by the tactile keyboard because I do think that that is just still the way to go. And the. I mean, I don't. It's not as intentionally functionless as my light phone, which, by the way, I broke out the other day. I didn't turn it on, but I was showing it to. To Alexander, Becca's nephew, because he was over here visiting and he was looking at my kind of the bookshelf behind me here on the screen. And there was the light phone, if you remember, came in a book, like a fake book. And you open it and then in the middle, there's this cutout and you pull out the light phone and the book. It's very smart. Actually. The whole book is just photographs of nature.

[A]

Oh, it's an actual book that you can flip through. It's not just a fake book. Okay. Yeah.

[B]

Let's see here. Actually, see, I might be able to. I might be able to show you a little bit of it. This is the book it comes in. And the book, when you look at it, is just like nature photography.

[A]

And the light phone in particular was very, very based on super basic.

[B]

Here it is. I still have it. I was kind of wondering if this thing would even turn on anymore. But like. So this is the Light phone.

[A]

It is, it's not much bigger than a credit card.

[B]

No, I mean it's very, very, very sort of understated, if you will. And the whole idea of the light phone was honestly, I think one of the big problems for me is well, a, I was, I'm addicted to my phone and B, I actually think it was a little harder to set up than I thought. But the idea of the light phone was that it would purely be something you could call people on so that if you were out in the world and you didn't want to have your smartphone with you, you people could still get a hold of you. You were not completely out of touch, but you did not have the ability to scroll the Internet at all.

[A]

What about texting?

[B]

I think you could probably text too. I could never get, I honestly could never quite get it to work with my, with my system. So that was again, that was sort of part of the problem. Again. The underlying issue is that I have no self discipline around my phone. But this clicks communicator thing, this is what this is. Ivy Liscom, a senior updates writer at the Wirecutter, writing about this thing. If you, like me, long for a smartphone that isn't just a black slab. If you want a home screen that isn't actively trying to waste your time, or if you really miss a physical keyboard, the clicks communicator might be for you. The communicator will run Android 16 with the Niagara launcher, which is a distraction busting interface that shows all of your apps in a clean scrolling list. Let's see. And here's the thing, Andrew, I think that you and I both would really appreciate. It features a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack.

[A]

I saw that. Yes. I mean classic. It's embracing the physicality that I miss about this technology.

[B]

Remember how I was talking to you about how I was so excited that I have gotten my whole cable management life down to just USB C? I had forgotten one critical thing. Headphone dongle. Oh yeah, my headphone dongle game. I've got to buy new headphone dongles because I have, you know like corded AirPods that I could use in a pinch if my, my wireless ones die. But I couldn't even plug those into my new phone because there's no headphone out.

[A]

And so you've had headphone dongles before, but they weren't USB C. They were whatever. Yeah, they're like you're not firewire, but whatever.

[B]

I actually have one right here. They go to my old school iPhone. So it's like there's always one more freaking thing that's not compatible with whatever the new system is, you know? And like, I love the idea that this has just like a mini headphone out like we were like God intended. And the fact that it's got the tactile keyboard and it's not. It's not the light phone. It's not your totally and completely, like, cut off from your apps you can use. I saw one photo of it that's like, you know, you can use all of your normal apps that you would like. You know, it's showing telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, Gmail. I wonder if what it doesn't do is. Well, I mean, Slack is a social media. I wonder if you can get like, TikTok on there.

[A]

I'm. Well, that's what I.

[B]

That's why maybe that's the. That would be a huge upside for me not having TikTok on it.

[A]

That's where it sounds like. So it doesn't sound like it limits you. Like, the whole point of the light phone was like, literally you can't do a lot with it, I think. And I'm just sort of catching up on this now. Say I heard about this. I mean, I had just heard about this yesterday or the day before. I just saw people tweeting about like, ooh, a hard keyboard. That would be cool. I like this idea of the physicality of the BlackBerry. I didn't know about this, the kind of distraction, free pitch. But I'm as. I'm sorry. I read what you sent me this morning and I'm looking at it now. It seems like it's like an OS that you can sort of choose that it just sort of streamlines things. It doesn't seem like it would block you from loading any app that you would want. I think. Tell me if I'm wrong, but just that the way it's laid out is a little bit more minimal and you don't have to like, kind of. You're not going to scroll through a whole bunch of distracting apps to get to the one you need.

[B]

Yeah, I'm trying to do this thing where I'm like. I'm trying to also watch their clicks, you know, like demo video for it, which they all look like. It look like right out of tech bro. Hell. The people behind this.

[A]

Oh, are they on stage, you mean?

[B]

No, I'm on there. Their. Their website and I'm trying to. With the sound muted and as they force me to watch, by the way, an ad for HelloFresh auto loads before you can watch their video, which just feels like the most 2026 thing of all time. It's like basically like one, you know, sort of scaled lifestyle disruptor hellofresh leading into another, like, behavioral disruptor of this phone. I don't know, it just all feels very Silicon Valley to me. But, like, yeah, I'm trying to, like, look at their little video and see kind of what it allows and doesn't allow for, I think. I guess you're right. I mean, it's.

[A]

It looks like it's just this sort of. It's almost like software, I think. And unfortunately, I think they're getting a lot of. I think they're getting a lot of attention right now because of ces and it looks like maybe their website is down, but it's very specifically this thing just called the Niagara launcher. And I'm on theirs right now and I think I could put that on my phone right now if I wanted to. It's just.

[B]

Well, that was the thing. If I got this, you and I, my buddy would be Android Bros. Yeah. In a way, I feel like it.

[A]

Would be really hard for you. No, no, no, I'm fine with that. I just. I feel like it would be really hard for you just to get out of the environment of all the Apple and I stuff.

[B]

I agree. Except for this is the thing that they're saying in the New York Times article is that the use case for this is not necessarily to replace your primary phone, it's in addition to your primary phone. Although they're saying you could conceivably use it as your primary phone. But, like, again, I've already got one lining up. There's a graveyard of dead soldier attempts at me modifying my behavior with hardware purchases. But, like, yeah, the idea is you buy this thing, you. You have your regular phone, but you carry this thing around instead of your regular phone a lot of the time because it is better, you know, for certain things. And also maybe helps break the addiction a little bit, which to me also, again, I mean, I should have researched a little bit more this. I guess really the question is, what does this Niagara thing allow you to do and not do? Like, it's definitely streamlined. It's definitely supposed to just. There's something that on this, on this Clicks communicator phone, there's also like a light on the side that turns red when you're getting messages that you've deemed to be from important people versus non important. They're trying really hard to, like, like, figure out ways to, like, only give you the information that you need that's relevant to you or important to you, minus all the other noise. So that you could be less on your phone, I guess. But again, I don't know if I can, like, if I could. If you can swipe up on this phone, like, I don't know if maybe part of the tactile keyboard is this doesn't let you swipe.

[A]

Yeah, that would be a big.

[B]

That would be a big change for that would. That would impact the kind of, you know, social media you could go on. Right?

[A]

Yeah. And the screen itself is just sort of less conducive to that because it's more of a square screen. Right. It's not as long. By the way, I did. I just downloaded this app to my phone. Oh, nice. I'm going to agree. A clean home screen to let. A clean home screen to let you focus on what matters. So I have like a, you know, like a Samsung S25 or whatever they're up to now. So I just have a regular Samsung phone. But yeah, basically. I don't know if you can see this, Luke, and it doesn't help for the listeners, but like, right now it's like, hey, let's get started here. Here. What are the apps that you want on your home screen?

[B]

Am I seeing TikTok as one of the top ones?

[A]

Let's see here. I don't know. It might be based on. Yeah, it says suggestions based on the apps I have. It's interesting. It starts with WhatsApp, which is one of my least used apps, except for this morning when we got a note from across the pond from Bean Instagram, which I don't use really hardly at all anymore, unless I need to check on a TBTL thing. YouTube, TikTok, Blue Sky, Chrome, Reddit, Spotify, Gmail. So it's only suggesting things that are on my phone and it's just saying, hey, what are the. We recommend you choose eight apps, and then those will be the eight that you see when you start your phone. So I'm not gonna actually run this on my phone. I don't think I really need it or want it right now. But it's interesting. So the distraction thing is a little bit separate from the keyboard thing. It sounds like they're not even the same companies. It's just that they're kind of recommending using these two things together. It's a little bit strange that they're kind of, well, to use the word.

[B]

Conflating again, how about this, Andrew, I'll read you what the AI overview of the Niagara operating system is. In essence, Niagara Launcher doesn't run different types of apps. It changes how you access your existing apps, promoting a less distracting, more efficient experience for your everyday tools like messaging, social media and productivity apps. So there you go. Basically, here's what I could see myself doing if I bought this clicks communicator phone. Just having a more cumbersome experience in Niagara. Trying to scroll TikTok.

[A]

Yeah, you just a little bit.

[B]

You know what I mean?

[A]

It's just a little bit. It's like putting your booze up on a slightly higher shelf.

[B]

That's a perfect analogy. That's exactly what'll happen to me. I'll just be like walking around with this other phone just mindlessly scrolling while I'm waiting to get my hair cut.

[A]

And I feel like yeah, not to belabor this but so this Niagara thing is not available for the iOS right now. It is an Android only thing. But I feel like again I feel like we're sort of talking about different things here. If you really want to try to play around with different like sort of systems like this that might change or as they say streamline or simplify your iPhone experience, there must be things in the app store that do this on an iPhone as well. Maybe not exactly or not the one that's being written up right now but I bet you there's a million like different kinds of like little launcher apps that'll change the way you interact with your apps if you wanted to.

[B]

Right? I mean it would almost be worth. I mean I just got this new iPhone and I'm in a non contract contract with them for a long time. Andrew.

[A]

But oh, you want the family everything.

[B]

Plan it is, it's a one time fee that you pay once a year. But like I could see just purely for the texting factor, I could almost see this clicks communicator just being my phone. Like just being the phone that I carry around because I, because again primarily what I do on my phone, other than mindlessly staring at TikTok and Instagram and things like that is texting people. And I find the text, to this day I find the texting on my iPhone to be endlessly frustrating. Frustrating and like, so this would potentially solve for like what I would list as my main issue with my iPhone, which is I hate the touchscreen text function. So it would almost be worth considering this just being my phone maybe, I don't know but it's tempting. As far as it having governors on it. What's that?

[A]

It's a beautiful little piece of technology. The physical technology is just so appealing.

[B]

But I'm also wondering, can you place phone calls with it?

[A]

Oh, I assumed you could, but I.

[B]

Mean you can text with it. So I'm guessing it talks to your existing plan and your cell carrier. Your cell carrier. Like I'm, you know what I mean? Like it's, it's, it's, it's going to be. I'm guessing that there's a. Basically if you have. Because they're. The way they're promoting it is as like an addition to your regular cell phone. So presumably your regular cell phone you could just. You'd use the stuff that's going on in your regular cell phone in this thing. Whether it's your phone number, your. But like what you don't see anyone doing is holding this thing up to their ear and talking into it, which is also a function that I do kind of need on my phone.

[A]

A very quick Google makes it seem like yes, you can make phone calls on this thing. If I'm reading the Internet correctly, which.

[B]

I don't want to be. I don't want to be. I'm not going to be the earliest of adopters of this. Like they're going put a $200 deposit down now and in late 2026 you can be one of the first ones to get this. I'm not going that hard on it, but I'm going to keep my eye on it because I don't know if I see people using these and if it seems like it's actually kind of. I don't know. Again, purely for the ability to text you and John and feel that, feel that satisfying click of the keyboard under my thumbs as I'm. As I'm sending y' all messages like that could be. That could actually improve my cell phone user experience enough that it might be.

[A]

Worth it and seeing like the keys that you use the most because they're.

[B]

Like get worn down a little bit.

[A]

Why is the X X X always wants.

[B]

Remember the BlackBerry pearl that had the like track ball?

[A]

Oh, mine had the track ball in the middle.

[B]

I guess I did too on mine probably.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

I had the double wide. Was yours like, was yours a pearl shaped like it was a kind of more vertical than sort of horizontal? Because I had the one that had the full keyboard and kind of more rectangular screen. It was kind of a squat. Looked like a shield or something.

[A]

No, I think I just had a classic looking BlackBerry. I'M looking up which one it is, but I know if it would mean much to you, but I don't think it was double wide. I'm not sure, but it was like, kind of. It was definitely near the end of BlackBerry's run. Right. Like, I remember, like, it was an exciting BlackBerry. But it also, you know, when I went to get my next phone, BlackBerries were already kind of out of fashion. So I don't know which exact model I had. Can I just tell you one thing and I promise you this is not going to derail us. Totally. I just want to just say one, one quick thing. You know that. Well, you talked about your garbage bin pickup this week and how you had a scare that you didn't take them out to the curb, but then you remembered, oh, my new system is I leave them at the curb, which is good. We all can associate with garbage anxiety. Something is happening. It has been happening the past couple of days that I didn't mention to you, which is my neighborhood is going absolutely batshit because apparently the recycling truck this week was like big garbage day, as I call it, which means it was recycling as well as the other weekly things. Recycling is only once every two weeks. Anyway, everybody on this text or email chain, I should say, is just going crazy because nobody's recycling was picked up. And people are angry and people are saying, you know, I called mine in and they came to pick it up, but they skipped my neighbor still. And they're like, what do we all have to call? And like, for some reason, I don't know why, but this sounds almost biblical. My recycling was picked up this week. I mean, these are people who are all around me. Based on my understanding, it feels like did maybe, maybe putting the blood of the lamb on.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I don't know what it was, but I'm just like, watching everybody, like, around me. It's like everybody around me is being eaten by sharks and I'm just floating in the middle, just like playing cards with the sharks. I don't really know if that stands up. But anyway, it's just very nice not to be part of this drama, huh?

[B]

And you obviously did your thing the way you always do, and presumably your neighbors did their thing the way they always do. What was there a rapture? Was the recycling truck the, you know, taken up? Yeah, because that person driving it was so holy that. That they are, you know, and are we about to enter the tribulation? But yeah, that's very strange. Why you got a different outcome than everybody else.

[A]

I'm Guessing I don't really know the roots. And. And I have a neighbor who listens to the show and we were trading notes and we have different garbage collectors. We know that. And it kind of depends on what side of the street you're on. I don't think the same truck is going to do both sides of the same street. They probably have routes where it's kind of mapped out more intricately. So somehow I must have just been on some route that they passed us, took our bin, emptied it. But everybody around me is in some sort of purgatory.

[B]

I just need to figure out. Out why I thought lentil, because I know lentil is a bean and I know mantle. We've talked about mantle recently. Like to take up the mantle, but also like, the mantle is the thing over a fireplace. But I swear to God, I have this. Why I would believe my memory at all, considering the Ralph Nader situation, is like, I feel like I'd heard this word because what you were referring to is like when the Israelites put blood over their doorway way during the Passover in Egypt and everything comes back to Egypt and things of the. What do you call it, the Southern hemisphere, the global South.

[A]

I was trying to talk and watch.

[B]

Everything comes back to the global south today. But, like, you know, in the Bible, the Israelites, they put blood over their doorway. And so the angel of death passes over and doesn't kill their firstborn, but instead kills the firstborn of the Egyptians. And it's part of why Pharaoh is like, all right, get out. Out of here. Get out of here. But, like, is there something called a lentil?

[A]

No, I had no idea what you're talking about.

[B]

I know the lentils.

[A]

I'm googling.

[B]

I'm getting nothing on this. But, like, I swear to God, I've heard. I've heard lentil. Maybe the. Maybe. It's very possible that someone when I was a kid just didn't know the difference between mantle and lentil and was saying lentil. But I swear to God there's some kind of lental. Every search that I do gets me right back to the bean. A lentil bean.

[A]

Yeah. Well, I gotta say, when you.

[B]

Lentils last night. So good.

[A]

Lentil soup is fantastic.

[B]

The best. I hated it growing up and now I freaking love it.

[A]

Such an interesting texture, too, right? Like, if I were to describe it, it wouldn't sound good. Like, the lentil in a lentil soup is almost a dry texture, even though it's in soup. I'm still trying to figure out which BlackBerry I have, but I need to close that tab as well. But not for the record, I had.

[B]

No Google BlackBerry Pearl. You don't get. That's. You're not seeing.

[A]

Let me look it up. BlackBerry Pearl, because. Feel like I would have. Oh, no, no. That. That's more like the shape of a regular phone. Huh.

[B]

Okay, so you have the double wide, like I did. I.

[A]

Okay, yeah, just like a. Yeah, like.

[B]

A. I don't know what that one was called.

[A]

No, and with a little trackball. Like, I'm seeing it there. I'm seeing. I mean, literally, this is one that I saved. It is in my box of antiquated technology in the closet. It's just a closet that's really, really d. Difficult to get into. So I can't leave the show to go pull it out right now. But maybe when I'm. Maybe when I'm back, here I go once again with the email. Every week, I hope that it's from a female.

[B]

Oh, man.

[A]

It's not from a female.

[B]

All right, Andrew, because I can now once again log into my TBTL email that is lukebtl.net I actually, I've got a message that I saw. I guess this was sent to both of us a little while ago, but. But I. You and I listened to. It was sent by listener Ben, and you and I both listened to. I want to say the first five seconds of this.

[A]

Not even. I don't even think. I think you played, like, the first two seconds, and then we're like, oh.

[B]

Let'S save it for the show, and let me see if I can find. I want to get the exact message. It's from listener Ben, who said, am I proud of. Well, first of all, the subject line is Old Beautiful Bastard. Santa must be one old beautiful bastard to have sent this email. Ben says, am I proud of myself for making this. Definitely not. But was it the right thing to spend 54 minutes doing? Absolutely. The fruit of my labor is attached.

[A]

That's all we know.

[B]

And when we climb clicked play on this, we heard, you know, about two seconds of what sounded like ODB, as in Old Dirty Bastard, as in Dirt McGirt, as in Osiris, as in Big Baby Jesus. By the way, sorry if I sound distracted. It appears that they are towing a military submarine down the river in front of me, which is crazy. Like, you don't see that every day.

[A]

No, you don't.

[B]

Yeah, it's got a conning tower and everything.

[A]

Wow. They're towing a submarine.

[B]

Yeah, it's. But it's like a regular. It's not a. It's not big. It's not like a, you know, nuclear sub or a trident. It looks like a. Like a kind of a mini. And it's being towed by like what looks like a non military towboat.

[A]

That's fun. Is it James Cameron?

[B]

You know what? It's James. It's Jimmy Cameron. I should have Avatar 7. The smell of Water.

[A]

I named the shit.

[B]

So we listened to two seconds of this and it sounded like maybe a remix of. Of the ODB song Baby I Like it Raw. Maybe, Andrew, with you talking about things now, you, based on two seconds of listening, have a bit of a theory on this. What is that?

[A]

Well, no, all I know is it looks like in the show sheet that you think this is gonna be a tribute to me. Cause it sounded like we heard a drop of my voice maybe at the beginning. But I was just saying I'm not convinced that this is just me on here. It could be both of us. That was all I wanted to say about it. We have no idea what this is.

[B]

I think it's you saying things you don't like. Okay, that's my theory, based on two seconds of listening. But I could be Andrew. It's been a tough day for me. On being real Wrong.

[A]

Well, this can. This isn't a test of your memory. This is just a prediction.

[B]

But I'm just saying generally there's. You know, this is. It's just such a. Hosting these shows. It's such a. What's the word I'm looking for? It's so fluky and it's so momentum based. And I feel like my momentum is really off today, so. All right, here we go. This is from listener Ben. This is old Beautiful Bastard.

[A]

Bananas. But look at this thing. I don't like bananas. But look at this thing. Hold on a second. Little bite of it. Is there meaning in this? It tasted like. God, I like them raw. I like them raw. So sensitive. I like them raw. They're weird, man. Hey, that's pretty good, right? That was. I'm sorry, I was talking over it. I thought that we had a bad connection. But that was the. That was the actual sound of the audio when it was kind of buzzy at the beginning. So I was sort of ruining that. I wonder if we should play it again in the clear.

[B]

All right.

[A]

I don't think you could tell that I was talking over top of it.

[B]

I couldn't hear you. But let's just. Because Ben did put. What did he say? Over 48 minutes into this, which is longer than we've put into any pre production in months. So here we go.

[A]

I don't like bananas, but look at this thing. I took the tiniest little bite of it. Is there meaning in this? It tasted like. God, I like them raw. Okay, so I like them raw. So satisfying. I. I like them raw. They're we weird, man.

[B]

Okay, that's legit. Really good. Ben, he put some reverb on you. Did you hear that?

[A]

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of production in there.

[B]

There's a ton of like. I mean, that's impressive. That's gonna be my new ringtone on my BlackBerry Pearl that I'm buying when.

[A]

I call you, it'll play that only way.

[B]

Do you call me? No. Nice job, Ben. Thank you for sending that in. Feel it was 54 minutes, by the way. Feel free to throw any 54 minutes that you want at any other audio production projects because that was very good. Dude, that was. That was legit. Really, really good.

[A]

Maybe make some intros for the show. Get me out of a few jams. I wanted to mention we won't play them today, but I do have a few voicemails that were sent in via email and I always. Or like voice memos that we can share. I haven't even previewed them yet, but it looked like they were kind. Some of them have been in my inbox for a while. And I encourage people to send us voice memos. If that's easier than calling the voicemail line, you can email them to me andrewbtl.net, but I don't want to encourage people to do that. And then you think that it's just. Just like going into a void. So my apologies. I got a couple here that seem to be. Have some promising topics. Like it looks like another person had maybe a scary moment. We got a. We got a voicemail from somebody who had to call in after I had a scary moment with Bingo putting his tail in a candle. So I'm wondering what story that's going to prompt from a listener. So we'll try to get to some of those next week.

[B]

Right. But also, yeah, back to what you were saying. Saying if you have a thought, if you see something, say something and then send that something to us. Like just rip off a voice memo. That's kind of fun. Audio texture for the show. Maybe it lowers the feeling of pressure of trying to compose the perfect, you know, email or whatever. So yeah, just send it along. We love to get those things. LukeBtl.net, andrewBtl.net and we'll get those into the show. Well, my friend, and we've done it. We've finished up an entire week of tbtl. And it was a fun one. It's nice to be back.

[A]

It is nice to be back. I was thinking about that yesterday. It's been a fun one.

[B]

Yeah. These shows have really flown by. If I can always, if we can go two, if I can go with the Howard Stern schedule, one week on, two weeks off. I'm always going to be coming in with vim and vigor. All right. Thank you for listening, everybody. We'll be back here on Monday with more imagination visionary radio for all of you. In the meantime, everyone, have a great weekend. Stay safe wherever you might be. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[A]

And good luck to all.

[B]

Power out.