#4646 Zen Koanheads

Summary

TBTL Episode #4646 — "Zen Koanheads"

Date: January 21, 2026

Overview

In this lively Wednesday episode of TBTL, hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh dig into the world of internet discourse, comedic originality, French politicians in aviators, and their ongoing love for old-school radio and modern podcasts. The main threads focus on whether Saturday Night Live recycled a sketch, the cultural nuances of sunglasses at world forums, and the subtle agony of public self-consciousness. Intertwined are some signature TBTL banter, digital culture observations, and plans for the upcoming Seahawks playoff game.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Art of Handling Babies and Podcast Intros

• Opening Banter (00:00–03:00): Luke and Andrew reminisce about having zero experience with babies and riff about their own upbringing, segueing into goofball podcast energy.
• Intro Tape Meta-Conversation (03:40–09:00): The hosts nerd out about the timing and crafting of TBTL intro packages, referring to inside jokes like "silly goose" TikTok and childhood fears of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

"I just had to like... that Silly Goose tape has like a very long pause in it... I was like, Ricky Tikki Tavi, I was like, hold fast." — Luke, [06:00]

Internet Fights & Sketch Comedy Originality

The SNL Food Sketch vs. Grapes Sketch Debate (10:15–30:00)

• Luke’s TikTok “Fight"/Disagreement:
  Luke tells a story about commenting on a TikTok where someone accused SNL of recycling a premise (the recent space-food-feeding sketch with Finn Wolfhard vs. an old Roman Emperor grapes sketch with Will Forte).
• Detailed Sketch Comparisons:
  • Old Sketch: Emperor loves the grapes (“cannot get enough”).
  • New Sketch: Emperor does NOT want the food (“Please stop!”).
  • Luke argues the comedic premise is the opposite, not recycled; internet disagrees.
• Comments Section Breakdown:
  • Listeners and TikTokers debate, with some agreeing with Luke, others with the premise-cop.
  • Notable zinger: “Are you familiar with the phrase distinction without a difference?”
• Andrew’s Thoughts:
  Questions the value of such online nitpicking, and suggests SNL’s huge catalogue makes some premise overlap inevitable.
• Meta-Reflection:
  Both hosts reflect on the nature of internet arguments and engagement ("touch some grass" enters the chat).

"I was too hung up...on the idea that in one case the person being force fed did not want to be force fed anymore and in the other case, the person very much wanted to be fed more. I saw that as the joke." — Luke, [23:20]

Luke Learns to Check His TikTok Comments (25:00–31:00)

• Practical Tech Comedy:
  Andrew tries (and mostly fails) to guide Luke through finding TikTok notifications. They compare burner accounts and internet snark.

"It's a burner account. It's so that I can be snarkier on the Internet than I think is good for America." — Luke, [24:52]

Tangents: Zen Koans and the Nature of Comedy (32:00)

• Quick riff about “Toonces the Driving Cat”—what’s the opposite premise, anyway? (“Zen koanheads!”).

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Supporting the Show — Dazzling Donors Segment (33:29–46:54)

• Luke and Andrew shout out TBTL supporters from all over the world (including Sweden, Austria, and Texas), riff about ice hotels and Rick Steves, and bond with international listeners.
• Notable Quotes:

"I'm kind of the Rick Steves of podcasting." — Luke, [44:24]

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Macron’s Sunglasses at Davos: Style or Medical Need? (46:57–56:57)

Macron Rocks Aviators at the World Economic Forum

• Why Was the President of France Wearing Aviators Indoors?
  • Reports say “eye condition,” but Luke suspects a strong element of “style choice” and deep personal relatability.
  • Macron made no mention of the glasses during his speech, which the hosts note is a power move.
  • Turns out it was a subconjunctivial hemorrhage (a red eye), not light sensitivity—Luke connects deeply since he often obsesses over minor, visible flaws when on camera.

"The style choice was, I don't want people to see my red ass eye. And so I'm styling it by covering them with very tinted blue aviators. To me, that's the ultimate style choice." — Luke, [55:23]

Self-Consciousness and Overthinking Vanity (57:33–60:51)

• Luke admits to spiraling over shaving injuries and how facial hair could ease appearance anxiety.
• Andrew jokes about what goes on unseen under his beard.

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Sunglasses, Identity, and Political Memes (61:06–66:56)

• What style sunglasses would the hosts (and Macron) really choose?
• Aviators: “so Biden-coded” — a discussion about memeification and the symbolism of aviators, referencing both President Biden and Top Gun.
• The importance of “committing” to a look (Ray-Bans for Luke).

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Bidets in Gracie Mansion and Being in the Bathroom Minority (66:59–69:44)

• NYC’s new mayor wants bidets in city property. Luke notes America’s unique resistance to this “European” norm and gently teases Andrew for his skepticism (while realizing he’s in the minority).
• “A bidet toilet is just a regular... escalator that stopped moving. It’s just stairs now.”

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The Seahawks, Miami Plans, and Sports Bar Strategies (70:17–92:51)

• Luke details plans for watching the Seahawks playoff game in Miami (with Becca), balancing sports obsessiveness with vacation vibes.
• Andrew and Luke brainstorm about ideal beach bars and sports experiences, referencing past vacations and the healing power of sun after a loss.
• Andrew tries to help Luke find a Miami Seahawks bar, to little avail.
• They recount the agony/ecstasy of being a sports nut in an unfamiliar city and reflect on the meaning of fandom and letting go.

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Listener Feedback: The Zorba Pastor Cinematic Universe (93:41–99:34)

• A listener flags that Dr. Zorba Pastor (a classic public radio doc) now podcasts, and he’s into “old timey radio drama Johnny Dollar.”
• Andrew proposes a cross-podcast event.
• Luke riffs about their own medical experiences and public radio nostalgia.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Podcasting Rhythm and Trust

• "That takes, you know, 4,000 times doing this show together... for it to be intuitive, for it to just make sonic sense." — Luke, [09:06]

Internet Argument Victories

• "Are you familiar with the phrase distinction without a difference?" — TikTok user to Luke, [29:04]

• "No, the joke in the Finn one is that the food is disruptive to the negotiation. And in the Forte skit, the food is desired over the negotiation." — 'Tiktoker' in the TikTok comment debate, [29:51]

Self-Deprecation About Vanity

• "Those are probably kind of related, the way that I tend to get myself out of that... No one is thinking about you as much as you think they are thinking about you." — Luke on facial self-consciousness, [60:51]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [00:00–03:00]: Baby-handling and podcast banter
• [03:40–09:00]: Meta discussion of intro drops and timing
• [10:15–30:00]: SNL sketch discourse, TikTok fight, premise analysis
• [33:29–46:54]: Dazzling donors and international thank-yous
• [46:57–56:57]: Macron’s sunglasses at Davos (main story)
• [57:33–60:51]: Vanity and shaving mishaps
• [61:06–66:56]: Sunglasses symbolism, memeification, Biden/Top Gun mode
• [66:59–69:44]: Bidet discussion & culture
• [70:17–92:51]: Seahawks playoff plans, Miami sports bars, sports fandom
• [93:41–99:34]: Listener feedback, Dr. Zorba Pastor, public radio nostalgia

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Tone & Style

• Light, sardonic, self-aware, and affectionate — typical TBTL blend of earnest overthinking with good-natured social snark.
• Frequent use of gentle self-mockery and glancing references to real-world news, social trends, and inside show jokes.

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For Anyone Who Missed It…

• This episode is a rich example of TBTL’s appeal—taking internet culture and pop trivia seriously (but not too seriously), making personal vulnerability entertaining, and wrapping it all in the cozy format of two friends’ ongoing conversation.
• The debates about recycled comedy, the awkward politics of appearance, and finding home-team camaraderie in strange places all capture the unique, hyper-relatable TBTL spirit.

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Closing Note:
As always, TBTL closes with gratitude to its supporters and a nod to the show's enduring, oddball community:

"Please remember, no mountain too tall." — Luke
"And good luck to all." — Andrew

Transcript

[Luke Burbank]

You're a single guy, aren't you? Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Okay, what I'm getting at is I would assume that you don't have a lot of experience or didn't have a lot of experience handling babies.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I had no experience handling babies. So what was that like for you.

[Andrew Walsh]

When you had to start picking up the babies and all that?

[Luke Burbank]

It was bizarre. It was. It was because there were eight babies and there were eight stage mothers to go with them, and the babies were crying and the stage mothers were giving me militant glares and telling me what to do and can you hold a baby? And then there were all these different angles going on. And babies to me are very strange because they don't appear human to me. They're sort of. They've got their own way of thinking, you know, they're sort of alien, and I respect them for it, but I know that someday they'll grow up and be humans.

[Andrew Walsh]

Tbtl. We are super fun here, and I promise I won't stop until this little guy's leaping and laughing like the other kids. I don't know what exactly the attachment is. I think they're cute, but kind of funny looking. I saw a woman psychiatrist and she.

[Luke Burbank]

Said I was OCD one cool dude. And she understands the way I think right now.

[Andrew Walsh]

And everything's cool, everything's copacetic.

[Luke Burbank]

Everybody's happy.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I'm happy, too. Okay. Are you a connoisseur of art? I had a painted turtle when I was a kid.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, I'll tell them. That was the silly goose police. You need to turn yourself in. Please. Clap. All right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone, to a Wednesday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.

[Andrew Walsh]

What is this? Only my favorite podcast of all time.

[Luke Burbank]

My name's Luke Burbank. I'm your host.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hi, everybody.

[Luke Burbank]

Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia. Bring it back home, baby. Bring it back home where it is an absolutely beautiful January day, except. Oh, Ma pa. It's just beautiful. It is real cold. And I just got back here moments ago, drove straight here from the airport to present this show to you all. And it is, it is. It's pretty cold here in the Matrona Hill studio. I've got a. Like a space heater directly pointed at my tootsies and my feet. So hopefully that'll keep me going here through episode 4646 in a collector series, Let the fun begin. Speaking of being extremely cool, guess where you just Got into cool guy zone. I saw that Emmanuel Macron, the leader of France was at Davos and that he was giving a speech and he had on aviators. And I was like, why is this guy being so cool right now? And then I read the actual story and really humanized me, him to me and it really made me feel connected to him. So we'll get into that. Also, speaking of politicians, Zoran Mamdani has. Is pushing for something related to he and his wife moving into Gracie Mansion in New York. When was the last time you. Your pants. Been a while. And it's. Well, it's. For me I would consider it to be hope and change. So we'll get into that too. And we will talk to this guy, the longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's got wrists like he just does.

[Luke Burbank]

He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend. And I can say that today.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right, it is still morning. That's right. Good morning. Good afternoon.

[Luke Burbank]

Good morning.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you remember the Silly goose phase of TikTok? That little tape we played in the intro? I just, I grabbed that and I'm looking here, I grabbed that in February of 2023. Sometimes that shocks me. I don't know if this is relatable to the audience. Hey, audience, when you're grabbing your audio drops, do you sometimes look at the date you grabbed it and think, wow, I can't believe that was two years ago. I only said that. That shocked me as a new drop. That was two years ago. And that was part of a wave of silly. Go Goose japery. Right on TikTok. Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

That was a kind of a thing which I still find to be charming. Yeah. I'm not going to like probably fall on the floor laughing, but I don't find it. It's not like some of the other things that have become. Became so central to Internet life that then kind of like wore a little thin for me. Now here's where. Here's where I was and I'm pretty proud of myself, Andrew. And this maybe just speaks to how sort of aligned you and I are now in terms of our imaginary radio making. Now this morning, when I was flying home from California, I was looking up things on the computer and I happened upon that Nicholas Cage tape that we started with.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And that's him doing an interview about the Moving Race, the movie Raising Arizona, where hi is. I also had this thought, man, I wonder how those. Because those Were. I think that. Were those babies really, like, all from the same family in the movie, they have like eight babies, octuplets or whatever that would be. I wonder, I wonder what. What's gone on for all those raising Arizona babies? What? They've grown up.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ooh, Mel magazine, where you were around still, you could do that article.

[Luke Burbank]

But anyway, I sent you that tape and then this morning, because you again had some extra time waiting for me as I was getting back home, you put a brand new intro package together that was, by the way, top, top notch, top shelf.

[Andrew Walsh]

Great. Thanks.

[Luke Burbank]

But I didn't know I was also, I didn't have eyes on you. Not that this would have helped me, but I was. I was listening to that with fresh ears. So think about this. I don't know when the intro package ends, when the little pieces of tape stop talking and it's time for me to start talking and I just had to like. And that Silly Goose tape has like a very long pause in it. And so it was like. I was like, there's got to be. There's probably one more thing. It's probably one more thing. And then after the Silly Goose thing ended, I was like, not yet. Not. I was like, Ricky Tikki Tave. I was like, hold fast. In a very scary voice, which, as I've talked about on the show, terrified me as a kid. The Ricky Tikki Tave Rudyard Kipling like, cartoon adaptation of that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I only know it is a Donovan song and I'm not joking.

[Luke Burbank]

It's way too scary for kids. Like, I mean, I'm sure that the Rudyard Kipling book, I think. Is he the one that wrote that? Maybe not. Anyway, the. The book Rikki Tikki Tave about this mongoose. It's got to fight cobras in India. I think somewhere in the subcontinent, they made it into a cartoon, like a kind of a cartoon movie. And it was. The stakes were way too high for kids to be watching because it's not like, you know, I don't know, it's. A cobra is a very terrifying enemy, even as a kid, you know that. But anyways, I was like, Ricky Tikitava. I was holding fast because I thought, maybe there's one more thing. And there was. There was a Jed, please clap. And then when I heard that, I was like, this is what Andrew has put at the end. This is the end.

[Andrew Walsh]

But also I knew it. But also because it's funny. As I was putting that together, I sort of had these thoughts too. Now, this was by some count the count in my catalog here, that was intro number 1002, 23. Now, obviously, we've done way more shows than that, but they don't all have intros. We reuse some of these intros, but at some point I started making them, I think before I was even officially on the show. And I just started with intro number one. So that was intro number 10, 23. But they all the music will always swell.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, at the. What.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was also thinking, too, like, it's not going to just trinkle on. You're going to. And I was actually thinking, no joke in the back of my head. We did not have this conversation off air. But as I was making this by myself before you dialed up, I was thinking, well, he knows, because those long pauses. Because both you have the long pauses in the silly goose thing. But then also, the Jed tape is interesting because it begins with a long pause. For me, the funniest part of the Jed tape is the sigh.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, please clap. Totally.

[Andrew Walsh]

The big intake of breath. And so I thought it was a little bit weird, but I knew that you would know because you don't talk until it swells.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

The woman's psychiatrist. Also, we both had. What's that wrestler's name?

[Luke Burbank]

Randy Macho Man Savage.

[Andrew Walsh]

But you were gonna play some Macho Man. I was like, you can't. I already have that in my intro. It's the year of our Lord 2026, and the hosts are arguing about who gets to play the Macho man tape. But then you listen here, you wait for the swell, then you start.

[Luke Burbank]

You need to turn yourself in. Police clap.

[Andrew Walsh]

There it is.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. And that's what I was waiting for. Listen, I was. And I did, and it worked. But I'm just saying that takes, you know, I don't know, 4,000 times doing this show together.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. You know, just sort of know the.

[Luke Burbank]

For it to be intuitive, for it to be. For it to just make sonic sense. I just think you throw someone else in this chair, even your frigging beloved Genevieve, who everyone thinks should be the new co bro of the show. I don't think that. That she instinctively would know to wait for the swell.

[Andrew Walsh]

Would she instinctively know that I'm going to be pulling up Cindanavan singing Ricky Tikka Tavi. Ricky Tikka T. It's not bad, right?

[Luke Burbank]

It is Rudyard Kipling, by the way. I'm just happy that I pulled that one out of my back of my brain. I have a question for you, Andrew Andrey.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. No. Have you considered, Andrew, I Have and I will.

[Luke Burbank]

I got two stories for you that have occurred since we last spoke, which was probably 17 hours ago. One involves like, I wouldn't even call it a TikTok fight, but a disagreement, like a thing that I posted on. Not. Not a thing I posted on TikTok, but a comment I left on someone's TikTok page that I feel like there was some pushback on or a conversation that revealed more about the life of my Uber driver than I was expecting this morning at about 5:30am in Burbank, California.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, not that they're not both intriguing in their own way, but I'm especially drawn towards Internet altercations and awkwardness.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, in this case, then I'm going to have to. This is going to be hard because it's going to involve me trying to find some audio.

[Andrew Walsh]

You did give me a choice. You gave me a choice and now it sounds like I chose.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't. No, no. I didn't give you all of the context. Okay. You didn't make the wrong choice. But it does mean I'm going to have to try to snl like food skit. Okay, so there was a. Let's see, like maybe what we call it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I can fill here and give you an update on an argument that Genevieve and I just reopened yester regarding my Internet behavior. Maybe that time. Okay, I'll just.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you remember on this show be. I think it was maybe before the holidays. I. Yeah, it was around the holiday season though. I had told you how some guy posted a joke on his Blue sky account that was the exact same.

[Luke Burbank]

So I got this friend said that's. That's how you bring a little Billy Bob into it. Boring. We'll get into that. I'm looking forward. I. For. I forgot to separate facts from fertilizer this morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Don't make me open a can of whoop up.

[Luke Burbank]

I apologize to you and everyone else.

[Andrew Walsh]

But it sounds like you're about ready to go. But you remember that. That guy who basically just took a joke that went viral, like kind of a holiday themed, somewhat horny joke that when you're not horn just I guess, somewhat. I guess somewhat blue joke or something that went viral a year earlier and just rewrote the thing on his own Blue sky account and came across it and I was like, oh. And I wrote underneath. Are you the same person who posted this on X last year? Genevieve just will not accept that I wrote that in good faith. It came up either. I can't remember if we were recording it. She's like, you did not write that. Expecting him to do anything but block you or that you only wrote it to aggravate sort of. I'm like, no, I truly, truly thought because you and I had just gone through something similar with joke accidental stealing. I was just like, no, I truly did not write that. Just to, like. I wasn't just being passive aggressive. I truly was thinking you might be the same person on a different platform or maybe you didn't realize that you were kind of. That a really funny joke from a year ago got stuck in your brain and you were reissuing it under. You know, and so I was shocked when this guy just blocked me. I don't even care about the blocking or whatever. That's not the argument I'm looking to reopen up. A Genevieve just does not think that I did that in good faith. And I just keep telling her, no. I truly, truly wrote that question as a question.

[Luke Burbank]

It sounded to me when you were describing it, when we talked about it, I believed that it was a good faith because of the whole setup that you gave me. So, you know, I don't want to anyway. I don't want to. I don't want to undermine your home life. But, okay, I'm.

[Andrew Walsh]

The time you did.

[Luke Burbank]

You found me enough time for the beginning of this. Okay, so there was a sketch on Saturday Night Live. I don't. Maybe in the most recent show or a very recent show. And it is one of. It's like one of the main guys from Stranger Things, the aforementioned Finn Wolfhard. And it's a pretty funny premise. And it's basically like. Imagine sort of like a Dune or Star wars type of situation where you've got. And then the guy from Stranger Things who's in his early 20s, is this kind of like, coddled, sort of almost like a Prince Joffrey type. And, you know, the people, the various other life forms from the galaxy that he is like, that are under his boot are coming to supplicate to him and to try to, you know, plead their case in the sort of royal galactic court. But Mikey Day, okay, who we remember from. What the f. Oh, and also, he was one of the. He was one of the skeletons that danced with David S. Pumpkins.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

He plays like, kind of like the weird side guy who's supposed to feed. Who's constantly feeding the sort of spoiled space prince. You know how there's like. There's somebody over on the side who's like, try. This is the most elegant such and such from across the galaxy, Right? So I'm gonna play you this. Hopefully this won't take too long. But that's the scene. People are. You know, again, people are saying to the Finn Wolfheart, the prince, we need help with things. And he's. Mikey Day is feeding him these exotic things from around the galaxy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Chancellor Snooks from Cram Nine requests an audience with his gr. Ah, Chancellor, have you come to grovel at your emperor's feet? Ha. You are no Emperor, Zebe. Yet here I sit atop a throne surrounded by servants, a lithe woman to kneel at my side. I am blessed to be your floor girl, my lord. A muscled fool to fan my brow. I would fan you even in death, Emperor. And a snack band shegan whose only job is to feed me delicious delights. Yes. An endless array of galactic goodies to swell your belly. Indulge sire in these jellied moon balls from Foob.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. Feeding him. Feeding him like a marshmallow ball thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Delicious indeed. So now.

[Luke Burbank]

Now they're gonna go back to, like, space business.

[Andrew Walsh]

Does it pain you? Does it pain you to be another one?

[Luke Burbank]

So, like, right as he's trying to get back to the thing, he's giving him another one.

[Andrew Walsh]

Watch you chew. I think I'm good on those. Are you sure? S. Yes, I think I now get. I need to get back to business. Yes. State your business.

[Luke Burbank]

Chats.

[Andrew Walsh]

I have come to persuade you to lift your blockade on my planet's trade routes.

[Luke Burbank]

Without solar seeds, our soil starves.

[Andrew Walsh]

And soon, so will my people. Ironic, isn't it? Your people waste away while my gullet is stuffed with Shein's delights.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Indulge my liege on this split jelly sphere from Donk. Big bite, my liege.

[Luke Burbank]

He's feeding him this next thing, and now Finn Wolfhard is, like, kind of can't swallow it. He's pushing him away. It's like he looks like he's going to throw up, maybe. And then basically, the way that the rest of the sketch unfolds is kind of how you would imagine, which is like, every time. Every time this guy is trying to get back to the space business, the guy is putting more weird foods in his mouth, and he's kind of like, look, I don't want any more of that. That's actually gross. Please stop. I feel sick.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's very live. I feel like the humor is based on the fact that it's kind of live, too, Right?

[Luke Burbank]

Like, yes, it's totally. I mean, first of all, everyone, this kid Finn Wolfhard. I call him a kid. He's in his early 20s. I. The. I don't think there was one sketch that I happened to see him in which you know how the Internet works. Now, I've seen half of the sketches from this episode. I don't think there's one that he didn't break up in. Like, it must be really hard to be 23 years old and, like, in this. On this set with these people that are pretty funny kind of doing all this stuff. So part of it, you're right, he's cracking up. Mikey Day is crack. Everyone's laughing because this is, like, preposterous what's happening. But the premise. I want to be clear about this. The premise of the sketch is spoiled space emperor brat who's getting fed all of this crazy food. But then as the thing goes on, he does not want the food. He keeps saying to Mikey Day, like, stop with the food. No more of the food. He is anti the food. I don't want any more delights. Leave me alone. That's the premise of the sketch. So then I was, like, scrolling around on TikTok, probably last night, probably at my hotel, and this is what I can't locate. At the very moment I see a guy on TikTok, and he says, basically, like, he goes, does anyone else realize that that sketch where the, like, the space food sketch, or whatever you call it from this week is totally. They're recycling a sketch from 15 years ago. He goes, I don't even, like, I don't even dislike the sketch, but I just feel like somebody should be calling this out. Is anybody else noticing this? And then he includes a clip of what he considers to be the sketch that they're recycling. And for that one, I'm going to have to just, I guess, describe it for you, because although I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

The cone heads, the coneheads do what do they. They consume mass quantities, as my dad do.

[Luke Burbank]

Actually, you know what?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, that's a grape. I was trying to think of the opposite type of sketch, but, well, overeating.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, so. So here's. Okay, so let me see. I. I don't know why. Okay, I don't know why this is so difficult to locate, but there is a sketch. It's. It's very funny. And what it is, is it is, like, set in more like the days of Caligula. Okay, so you have Will Forte is like a spoiled Caligulan, and you have Ashton Kutcher is the person who's supposed to feed him Grapes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay?

[Luke Burbank]

And it's similar in that people are coming in, you know, same thing with business, to sort of entreat the, you know, the spoiled emperor again. But the difference in this sketch is that Will Forte is obsessed with eating the grapes and loves the grapes and wants more of the grapes and is telling the grape feeder, give me more grapes. He keeps stopping to have more grapes because he cannot get enough grapes. And in fact, he literally says, I just can't have enough of these grapes. He also mentions on the size of Ashton Kutcher's character's phallus at one point. It's clear there's some kind of sexual dynamic to the relationship. But basically, to me, the joke of that sketch is, Will Forte, the emperor, cannot get enough of these grapes, is demanding more grapes. And the premise of the sketch that I just played you is Finn Wolfhard's character does not want any more delights. It's too many delights. The guy feeding the delights is overly zealous. If anything, the guy feeding Will Forte, Ashton Kutcher is under zealous because Ashton Kutcher's or, sorry, Will Forte's character keeps going, give me more grapes. Like, he keeps calling on him to give him more grapes. So I wrote a comment. So we're. Now we're Back to the TikTok post, which is like, I can't believe that they recycled this sketch and no one's noticing it. And I said they have, and I'm paraphrasing here, but I said something to the effect of they have totally. The premise is I said they have totally different premises. They're literally making the opposite joke. And nobody seems to agree with me on that because I don't even. I don't even know how to go back and check comments. What I know is if I go on TikTok and someone has responded to my comment, it just shows up at the top of my little TikTok page, and I just see it for a minute, and then it disappears. I don't even know how to get back to where it is. But what I've noticed is that there's been three comments that have popped up, and they've all disagreed with me. So I guess I'm in the wrong here. I mean, again, you didn't get the full experience, but does that sound like they're recycling a sketch to you, having just heard my description of it, which, granted, is my. My perspective, but I have given you an accurate description of what's happening in these sketches.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I guess my Problem with this whole thing is. And I'm actually going to see if I can help you. My problem with this whole thing is I haven't been paying attention.

[Luke Burbank]

Is this something people care about?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I don't know what the joke. I mean, I guess I'm a little bit stuck on, like, what is the joke of either one. It's like both of them are funny premises, I guess. You know, like, I was even gonna ask you, I didn't want to belabor it, but like. And maybe it's just unimportant, but like, how do they get out of the new sketch? Like, it just seemed.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I don't think I made it to the end.

[Andrew Walsh]

Long.

[Luke Burbank]

Takes a drag off of his cigarette. Yeah, I don't think I've made it to the end of an SNL sketch in a long time, sir. Right.

[Andrew Walsh]

So, no, I mean, I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

What you're saying, though what you're saying actually ultimately supports the people who are nagging me, which is it's not so much that there's a specific joke here, but that there's a kind of a set of circumstances. And like, you're absolutely right when you said that this joke.

[Andrew Walsh]

Don't worry about it. I'm opening up. Tick tock. I want to see if I can help you get to these comments.

[Luke Burbank]

I think that, like, it. I think it comes down to the fact that, like, these were both, like, I wish I could play the Will Forte one because really what sells the Will Forte one is he is just being a grade A weirdo as the emperor. Every time he eats a grape, he goes and he varies the amount of woo woo he does based on how much he's enjoying the grapes. But that's just like. Is that a joke or is that just Will Forte being a very funny person in the world?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And like, by the way, this Finn Wolfhardt kid, he's not up, quite up to the Will Forte tasking of it. He's. He's just sitting there getting food crammed into his face. And it's funny because the food's making a mess. So in. I guess I am. I was too hung up potentially on the. The idea that in one case the person being force fed did not want to be force fed anymore. And in the other case, the person very much wanted to be fed more. I saw that as the joke.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

That's why I was like, one joke is, you give me less food. The joke is that Mikey Day is overzealous in how he feeds his emperor and then the other one, the joke was this emperor can't get enough grapes. And to me, the difference in that approach from the two characters made it a different sketch. To me. It did not feel recycled. But the fact that that didn't come through makes me think I'm probably wrong on this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I just, I. I'm confused why the person would take the time to even create a tick Tock. Well, I mean, why would anybody take the time to do anything? I mean the stuff I put. You know, I was talking on the show earlier this week, like I'm obsessed with my little VHS tapes and I've started like uploading some weird finds from my VHS tapes to tick tock.

[Luke Burbank]

I've really been Tony Danza and Christopher Lloyd.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Looking like absolute smoke shows on a golf cart. Weird content. Then. Okay, sign me up.

[Andrew Walsh]

Two zaddies, one cart. Absolutely.

[Luke Burbank]

But think that we're talking about ourselves.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I'm not against it. Yeah. Cart in this case being podcart. But I'm interested in what the. So first of all I do want to see if I can help you get to find these comments. Just go to your TikTok, open up your TikTok and near the bottom you'll see four buttons. One that says home, one that says friends, one that has a plus button if you wanted to upload your own. Oh, by the way and I'm going to dox you here. If anybody's looking to follow Luke on TikTok, I believe his. His username is 1x2z9. Oh, you sent me something the other.

[Luke Burbank]

Day and it's from the same. It's a burner account.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's a burner.

[Luke Burbank]

It's so that I can be snarkier on the Internet than I think is good for America. I mean that's honestly what it is. It's like. So I can do the kind of your. Your correction that I don't really stand by but that I sometimes am in the mood for.

[Andrew Walsh]

There, there, there, there you're your. So I think along the bottom you should have five options home friends plus button means adding new content and then inbox and if you hit you seeing activity or anything.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I have a new follower.

[Andrew Walsh]

Somebody new followed. Somebody followed your burner account. It wasn't me. Although I should follow you see if I can get into these comments.

[Luke Burbank]

It looks like a bot. Probably based on profile picture.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

So I don't see. There's nothing here that like. Oh no, no messages. Message requests have three new messages.

[Andrew Walsh]

Whoa.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I Just have three. These are all. These are all like, bots.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think I've ever commented on a TikTok before. I don't know for sure where to find this, but I thought it would be under your inbox.

[Luke Burbank]

But I would have assumed too, I would think it'd be a message. That's probably something how I have it set up. And honestly, it's probably fine because, like, again, what I was able to. What I was able to. And, you know, here's what I will say about the discourse. It wasn't like it was fairly civil. So, like I said, I didn't go, like, what an idiot. I just said, I go, these premises are totally different. They're literally making the opposite joke. That's what I said. So I'm disagreeing, but I'm not, like, hopefully I'm not making it personal. And then I think maybe the guy whose post it was said something like, oh, shoot, now this is why I wish I could see it. Because he was like, something like. Are you familiar with the term different?

[Andrew Walsh]

See this so bad. And you can't search. Like, you can't find original videos on TikTok. Like, I can't just type in, like, SNL comparison sketch. Great.

[Luke Burbank]

You might be able to.

[Andrew Walsh]

You think so?

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, I don't know what the. But like, he said something like, it wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't mean. It was more like I was like, okay, this guy's actually pretty smart. I don't necessarily agree with him. But something like the detail that doesn't define the difference. I don't know, it was some kind of a thing that it was. Again, it wasn't mean, though. It was just kind of like, this is what I think it is. And then somebody else was kind of like, I forget what they said. But none of it. Again, for the nanosecond that I caught these. These responses to my comment pop up. Nobody seemed like they were, like, really going over the line or losing their mind. We just, you know, reasonable people can disagree without being unreasonable.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, and I guess, like, I guess I don't agree or disagree with anybody. I would just weigh in to say that it's not like there is a joke. It's more like there's a funny premise for both of these. And the funny premise does sound similar, but it's just people being weird and showcasing it. And in a show, like if we were talking about the State, which I think only made like, this is a sketch show from MTV, from the 90s that ended up, like, kind of giving. A lot of the people in the state are comedic. I don't know, household names, alt comedy household names, at least for me and you. But they only made like, I don't know, 16 episodes or something over the course of two or three seasons. You know, like, they. If they were repeating a premise, then I would understand being like, what do you. What are you doing here? Thomas Lennon, I think he was in the state. Right. But it's SNL they've been cranking this stuff out for. And you're going back and saying, oh, they're doing. Not you one is going back and making a TikTok, saying, man, they're making the same joke they made 15 years ago in a show that has to crank out a live episode once a week for half a year, however long their seasons are. It's just sort of like, what a weird takedown for a show that's been around for 50 years. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, okay, I got back to it, Andrew. I found it. So I said the premise could not be more different. Literally making the opposite joke. And then the guy who posted the thing said, are you familiar with the phrase distinction without a difference? That was his response to me, which is fair. Okay, by the way, 16 hearts for my comment.

[Andrew Walsh]

So 16 hearts for your comment. How many hearts are his response?

[Luke Burbank]

Zero. And then somebody named Branding said, yeah, and it seems like you don't know what it is. Your type of reasoning would be like saying that every premise that contains a cat is actually the same premise, and then calling it a distinction without a difference when people. When people point out that the actual plot and jokes are completely different. So it would seem that someone's coming to my defense. Then someone called Carpet Blanket says, it's the exact same premise, but the weird character is the eater, not the feeder. It's extremely similar. So that guy's in the category of the guy who posted it. Now, someone called Tiktoker, which seems like a very general name to have on.

[Andrew Walsh]

Seems like a very important person. Is this the original Tiktoker?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Is this the Jack Dorsey of TikTok?

[Andrew Walsh]

Holy cow.

[Luke Burbank]

He responds to the person who said, it's the exact same premise. So this person says, no, the joke in the Finn one is that the food is disruptive to the negotiation. And in the Forte skit, the food is desired over the negotiation. It's also different source material. Dune versus some historical ancient Roman movie that was out at the time.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, so that's interesting, too. Almost a Mad magazine approach to What SNL is doing. Like we're responding to what's in pop culture right now. And they were two different premises.

[Luke Burbank]

And then I don't know what this one means because again, I'm. This is the first that I've ever delved in the comments of a. Other than posting the occasional hit and run. Yeah, I don't really know how these goes. But then what's weird is so the person, possibly the person in charge of TikTok, Tiktoker, who just basically made my argument, then responds again. I wonder if I can't see this. He's responding. So he writes that whole thing that I just read to you about Dune versus historical ancient Roman movie. And then there's. He's responding to the guy again. But I can't see what the guy wrote. No, all I can see is him. The next thing I see is Tiktoker saying to the guy who posted the whole thing, are you familiar with grass?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my gosh.

[Luke Burbank]

And I don't know what that's a ref. I don't get what that's a reference.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is that like, touch the grass? Is this like somebody making fun of.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm just asking. Is this like, you know, go touch grass? Like. Like when people want to end an argument but both of them seem guilty. Everybody is guilty in this conversation of not touching grass in this particular moment. So that's sort of weird.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe me at the highest level of non grass touching.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let me ask you this. Oh, sorry, go ahead.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm just saying it's me. It's me like holed up in a hotel room looking at TikTok sending a. I don't know if it's snarky or not, but like a non positive response. And then. Then coming here and talking about it on my podcast, I feel like I haven't touched grass in a minute.

[Andrew Walsh]

What would be. This is. This is the stupidest question I've ever asked you. And I don't think it gets us any closer to the truth. But now that I have it formed in my head, I want to ask it. What would be the opposite of toonces, the driving cat. So let's just say that this conversation started with that premise. Like, would it be a dog driving a car? Toonce is the driving dog. No, I don't think so. It would be a cat preventing people from driving.

[Luke Burbank]

It would be. No, it would be a cat. Well, in my mind, it would be maybe a dog that is an excellent driver.

[Andrew Walsh]

A dog that's an Excellent driver is terrible.

[Luke Burbank]

Every toonces the driving cat episodes with the car going over it ends with a car going over a cliff or whatever. Like that's the joke being boy, this cat would be bad at driving. And so to me, the joke is toonces the cat is horrible at driving. So if we had toonce's the dog who was a F1, he's racing against Brad Pitt in F1 race and he's doing well. That to me, just because you had an animal in a car that was going fast would not be recycling toonces. It would be a new, I guess, premise or maybe it would be a new joke anyway that the. The dog's a really good driver.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's like a zen cone thing. You know, it's like how many serious can you fit in a tire? What's opposite of two?

[Luke Burbank]

It's like a zen cone head. Mass quantities. Mass quantities of boring content being by yours truly because of my lack of grass touching. All right, good.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you, baby.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, let's thank some donors. These wonderful, generous people are making TBTL possible with their donations. Just a reminder, if you are somebody who's donating at a dazzling level, those emails are going out. And if you are so inclined that you wanted to send us a message that we can read as a thank you for your dazzling donation, please again, check your inbox for that. Maybe check your spam folder. I know we've been having. We've been having some issues around here with our connectivity, so particularly if you have gmail, make sure that you're looking for that. In the meantime, we got to thank Melody Pfeiffer of Spokane, Washington.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you, Melody.

[Luke Burbank]

I bet you it's chilly. If it's chilly here on the west side, I bet you it is quite cold in Spokane, Washington, where Melody is. Hope you're staying warm, Mel.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you. Beautiful here. I even opened up my window a little bit. But then when I opened my window, whoa, it is cold outside. But it's just so nice when it's sunny like that. I just love getting a little bit of air. I'm starting to get that point of the winter where it's kind of like we need to open some windows. You know, just generally speaking, you just. No matter how cold it is, like you need air in the house.

[Luke Burbank]

Totally. That's very European of you too. Particularly very sort of like Scandinavian, Norwegian, Germanic. They love that move, which is the. Particularly at night, it's like you open the window, the bedroom is like negative 20 degrees, but you're under a big feather down comforter, which is honestly, even as I'm just saying that, pretty damn cozy.

[Andrew Walsh]

What was your reaction to. I'm going to talk about a scene in Pluribus. It's really not a spoiler. It honestly is not so. But warning. Anyway, I guess I'm going to describe a scene in Pluribus, but there's a scene where the main character and her partner. It's a flashback scene to normal times and they're visiting. What northern country would that have been?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm going to say Iceland, but maybe not.

[Andrew Walsh]

It might have been Sweden or even Greenland maybe.

[Luke Burbank]

How about that? In the before times when we could go to Greenland, I guess.

[Andrew Walsh]

Or, or why did I bring.

[Luke Burbank]

Or in the future when it's, you know, you don't even need a passport.

[Andrew Walsh]

Why did I bring up Greenland anyway? It's some very icy country.

[Luke Burbank]

Very, very icy place.

[Andrew Walsh]

And they're on some, you know, and, and they have money. She's a, she's a very famous popular novelist. And so they're on this very fancy vacation. But basically they are staying in a room that is completely made of ice. It's an ice tunnel and it's beautiful, but it's an, it's a bed made of ice. It's a bench made of ice. It's ice. And they just have to stay bundled up the whole time. And you could tell like it's the, in a certain way, it's the height of luxury and adventure. But it also was just kind of like, you can miss me with that looked absolutely terrible.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, and they look up and they see the northern lights through the skylight or whatever. And I thought there ain't enough, there ain't enough aurora borealis for me to sleep on a block of ice.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Like I felt like. And by the way, that was referenced as like a, a Rick Steves recommendation.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's right. They name drop Rick Steves a couple of times in that show.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. That was one of the times that he comes up that it was recommended by Rick Steve and I was like, okay, as a close personal friend, that was my Bill Maher. Okay, new rules. No, as a close personal friend who has recently stood up by Rick Steves after livewire, I can say that I don't think he would recommend that place necessarily because it would be way too expensive and bougie and like what Rick Steves would be saying is if you were going to go to whatever country that is that they're in, here are the, here are the ways that you can see the most of this country in your like 5 days of doing this. So it actually, to my mind doesn't seem like the place that he's not going. Like you've got to go glamping when you're in such and such place you gotta go to. If you go on safari, go to this place where like a bunch of locals, you know, build you this crazy tent and bring you all kinds of space food that they force feed you or whatever. Like, that's not his vibe. So I thought it was kind of funny that they threw that in. But to your question, absolutely not. Like, that looked so cold. Like I was like, there's not. I don't care that you're in a blanket. You're on a block of ice also. How. How hard is that ice?

[Andrew Walsh]

Right? Well, that I think is supposed to be Norway.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it's supposed to represent Norway.

[Andrew Walsh]

Norwegian Ice Hotel. So first of all, I think that's really interesting about the Rick Steves thing. As somebody who does not read travel writing, I had no idea that distinction that you just brought up is actually really interesting. I think.

[Luke Burbank]

I think that's his move, which, to be honest with you, I didn't even know till the most recent time I was interviewing him on Livewire. He was saying that because I've read his books before, but I wasn't. When I'm traveling and stuff. But I wasn't picking up on this ethos, which is. He said something most Americans get. I forget the numbers. Most Americans get 14 days off a year. And if they're going to spend 10 to 10 of those in some European country, I want them to get the absolute most return on that investment of their time versus, like go all the way out to the hinterlands and find this one monastery that has the most incredible art on the ceiling because that's going to kill two of your days. And which I kind of found that refreshing. Like that was to me a very, like, I don't know, is an unprecious approach to traveling. Just like, hey, it's a thing that people should do and let's try to get the most out of it that we can.

[Andrew Walsh]

Man. It's just reminding me that I still haven't finished that Bill Bryson book that I started reading about Australia before we left. Australia, the Big Burn or something Down Under. I just had to look it up here. I guess it's just called down under that I thought it had a different name as well.

[Luke Burbank]

So many people recommended that book and I never even cracked it. Down.

[Andrew Walsh]

I got it. I think maybe somebody sent it to me or I got it. Maybe I just started reading it digitally. I don't know. But, like, I'm such a slow reader. And also, I just don't read nonfiction that much. Like, I just think I really need a plot to get me to opposite. I know, I know. It really does seem like that's a real divide. I mean, obviously, big readers will read all kinds of stuff, but, man, I am drawn to, like, something that gets me to turn the page a little bit more usually than, you know, a collection of humorous, interesting essays by Bill Bryson. It's just like, I don't know. But, God, so many books that I have started and never finished.

[Luke Burbank]

Luckily, Eric Swalling of Sharp Knack, Stockholm, Sweden. Andrew, look at that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know, I saw.

[Luke Burbank]

That's not Norway, but it's.

[Andrew Walsh]

Come on.

[Luke Burbank]

Pretty close.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a lot closer than we are. And Eric was just hanging out. I was gonna say, thankfully, Eric does finish what he started because at some point he thought I should donate to tbtl, and then he did, and he followed through.

[Andrew Walsh]

Please don't say Finnish when you're talking about somebody in Sweden.

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely not. But, Eric, thank you. I mean, that was so apropos. And then this one is slightly less so, but still kind of amazing.

[Andrew Walsh]

Did you get that joke and not like it or did.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't get it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sorry. I was thinking let's.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think this Finland. I was thinking. I just wanted to be clear what I was going for. They're not arguing that it was funny, but as sort of like making it sound like you were calling Eric Finnish instead of Swedish.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, the. That. What you heard in my voice was me going, did I call him Finnish?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, no, you just said it was very possible. Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. No, but I was. I was like, oh, man, did I. Because, you know, I'm going to be honest with you, I do have a difficult time separating out some of these countries that are close to each other in, you know, I guess we would say sort of Scandinavia, broadly. I have been to Finland. I've been to Espoo, Finland, and it was really. I went to a Nokia, like the Nokia headquarters. Nokia phone headquarters for a Microsoft gig.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Right before.

[Andrew Walsh]

Never mind.

[Luke Burbank]

What's that?

[Andrew Walsh]

I just have feelings about that. They basically acquired this proud national, like, this company that was sort of a proud face of a country, and they just destroyed it in, what, two years? They just destroyed.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

And it was so.

[Luke Burbank]

It was a very weird, like, it was. It was a. You know.

[Andrew Walsh]

So what's going on?

[Luke Burbank]

You might want to hear that. This is the Nokia ringtone.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, back in the day, I saw you looking for something, and then I.

[Luke Burbank]

Really thought, he's trying to find a Nokia ringtone on YouTube.

[Andrew Walsh]

Off the rails there.

[Luke Burbank]

No, that was actually. Sadly, my friend, that was intentional.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's the joke.

[Luke Burbank]

No, you're absolutely right. I mean, that was such a strange play by Microsoft. I mean, I think the issue was they were losing to, like, the iPhone in the devices department. They didn't. They didn't. The phones. They were the physical phones. The hardware they were building wasn't catching on the Windows. And so the Windows phone wasn't doing it. And so they thought, well, what we'll just do is we'll just go ahead and buy up a company that is successfully making the hardware Nokia. And then I guess, I don't. I. I can't imagine that they paid all this money for Nokia with the plans of shutting it down. I think that they just. It was a bad idea. You know what I mean? So they. Effectively. What happened was they had. They bought this company, and then they. And then they just stopped doing it. And in fact, and I've told this story before, one of the weirdest things was, you know, we went to make these. These video pieces, and we went to Hungary as well. Went to a place called Comoron. Hungary, where I spent a day or two in this facility where they kind of. I think they fabricated and boxed up and sent out Nokia phones. I got to hang out with these really lovely people in Hungary. Wait, Hungary?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think Finland.

[Luke Burbank]

It wasn't Finland. I could. That those are far enough geographically that I think I know the difference. But anyway, and then we got home, and I think I. I even think maybe the whole thing had been edited. And that was when somebody sent an email that said, oh, no, no, no, We. We closed that down too.

[Andrew Walsh]

That.

[Luke Burbank]

That was close. And this was before, like, the broad shutting down of the Nokia thing. It was just like, oh, yeah, actually, that place with all those nice people that you spent a couple days at. That's. That doesn't even. Like. We're not even doing that anymore. That's. That's closed down. And that should have my first indication that this thing was going to go sideways. But I don't know how any of this relates to Austria, Andrew, other than the fact that Julia Iman is in. I'm gonna go with Vienne Austria. I'm gonna. I'm gonna swap the V for the W. Although we call Vienna Vienna, we don't call it Vienna.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah. Here, let's see if I can get.

[Luke Burbank]

But we would call, like a. We would call a. A German wine, a gewurch demeanor. But is that the V or the double.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you know what this is? I think this is the local spelling for Vienna. I could be wrong, but when you type, check out. Yes, it's spelled.

[Luke Burbank]

So when I said the end, I.

[Andrew Walsh]

Was kind of actually right.

[Luke Burbank]

Sort of on the right path. Not quite, but thank you for that. Julia's in Vienna. I think where they make the fingers.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think it's exactly. It's where I got mine.

[Luke Burbank]

God, this is such an international show. We are such men of the world. We're kind of the Rick Steves of podcasting.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'll see you at the Mensa meeting later.

[Luke Burbank]

Thank you, Julia. Thanks also to Soralia Pollock, who's in.

[Andrew Walsh]

Cedar Park, Texas, bringing it back home to the humans. That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

Bring it back home, baby. Back to a place that provides less confusion for me. Thank you, Soralia. Thanks also to James and Eric. I think it's James. Maybe James Bugle and Eric Hamilton.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Who are in Madison, Wisconsin.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

James and Eric, thank you very much.

[Andrew Walsh]

Very much.

[Luke Burbank]

Beautiful Madison also, I think, extremely cold right now.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my gosh. Can I look it up before we move on?

[Luke Burbank]

It's about to be. Oh, my God. There's about to be a cold wave that's going to sweep across the middle part of the. Of the United States. And I'm thinking about everybody who's out there, including Andrew. Including.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah, buddy. Our next donor, the one, the only, the Stubbot, our friend Steve Newman in St. Paul, Minnesota. I'm. I would be unsurprised if this misses Steve, because I feel like he's up to stuff. Like, a lot of our friends are in the Twin Cities trying to take care of their neighbors and. And. And stay out there and mutually aid each other and themselves. Stay safe. It is a lot going on for folks out there, and we are thinking of all of you, including one of my favorite people in the world, the one, the only, the Stubbot. Yeah. Oh, yeah, buddy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you.

[Luke Burbank]

I like him so much that I'm deciding to play the drop that also then goes into his next drop. That's why you keep hearing it, like, cut off at the end. I'm gonna play this in all of its glory, starting with. Yeah, oh, yeah, buddy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah, buddy. In Soviet Russia, coronavirus gets you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Why do you have those melded together.

[Luke Burbank]

Left eye. Cause I thought they're not. They just are in order.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I see.

[Luke Burbank]

I was like, I'm flying around the keyboard here, and I was searching for Steve Newman, and so when I found, like, basically there's a couple of Steve Newman drops that are just. They. They come up under the search terms of that, but. Hey, Stubbot, thanks, man. We love you. Hope you and Mandy are staying safe out there and. And that. Yeah, you're doing okay. Thanks to all of our donors. Thanks for making TB Chill possible now more than ever. Really and truly, like, community really matters. So thanks for this. Community wouldn't exist without all of you, so thank you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello, and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, Ali, I kind of mentioned this a little bit already, but, you know, with all this stuff that's going on in Davos, which is, you know, a bunch of world leaders getting together and Trump is over there and stuff. I saw. I didn't hear what he said, but I saw, like, a video, I guess, or maybe just photographs of Macron, the leader of France, wearing aviator sunglasses. And. And then I saw a piece in the New York Times, explained, and I was like, is that a meme? Did somebody. Like, this is how confusing the Internet is now. Like, oh, was it just a normal picture of him? And then somebody superimposed aviators on to make him look more badass? Because he's inside. He's at the, like, the podium that all of the world leaders are taking their turns coming up and making their, you know, comments. And I thought, like, that can't be really how he looked in. Indoors. That has to be something that someone's just trying to be, like, he's a badass. He's giving Trump the business or something.

[Andrew Walsh]

But Sora, what is the. What is the AI Generative?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, Sora.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good memory, Sora.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I thought it was. Although, you know, they've now made it so that, like, you can get rid of that little watermark. And it's very small, too. It bounces around in the corner and kind of comes in and out. Like, they. That's a law that I would support, which is like, AI, show yourself.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, you can't make it so subtle, because that's the idea is, like, they're kind of being. Now we're talking about Sora.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's on me.

[Luke Burbank]

But you know what I mean? Sora. Sora, not Sora. I think Sora not Sora is also a good. Shut up. But, like, they totally. Like, they have this little watermark that is there to let you know that this is an AI generated video, but they also make it extremely subtle and very easy to miss. But anyway, this wasn't Sora. This was actually Macron wearing these sunglasses. The New York Times. Why was Macron wearing sunglasses at Davos? An eye condition, not a style choice, prompted President Emmanuel Macron of France to don aviators to address the World Economic Forum. This is Francesca Regalato writing in the New York Times. Now, I would say it is true what they've said in the sub headline, an eye condition not a style choice. But when I read that, my first thought was, oh, he has light sensitivity. Something is going on with his eyes and it's causing light sensitivity. And okay, that reminds me, I just made this reference a week or two ago, but I'm always reminded of the one time Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon, who was the OG badass back in the 80s. He was like always getting in trouble with the commissioner of football for writing stuff on his headbands and being a wild man. And he wore sunglasses all the time. And the reason the story was that he had injured his eye. Try to say this in a way that's not too sort of awful to consider, but when he was a kid, he was supposedly trying to get a knot undone on his shoes and he was trying to use a fork to do it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, God. Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

And that slip. And he injured himself. That's the story. Who knows? I bet you if we went back and it could be something else. But he allegedly had light sensitivity. And what that meant was he wore sunglasses all the time, including inside. And I'll be honest with you, it was frigging badass. So I thought, well, okay, maybe Macron's got light sensitivity. What? I was kind of surprised as I read further into the article. Well, first of all, when Macron goes up at this, the, the, the World Economic Forum stage at Davos or at the Davos stage, Mr. Macron did not acknowledge his unconventional choice of spectacles during his 18 minute speech, which is like, that's also kind of a flex. Like, can you imagine, like going up on that stage with fully tinted aviators and going like. Just not even saying, like, here's why I have these glasses on or whatever. Just doing your whole presentation like that takes a lot of confidence.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I haven't read this past the headline. And so while you were setting it up there, I was actually thinking that exact thing. I was thinking, well, if I were up there or if certain people were up there, you'd say, you know, Sorry for the informal sunglasses. I'm, you know, I'm dealing with, again, an eye condition. I feel like I would do that. But it's also like, I don't, I don't know if you know this. I've never been to the World Economic Forum before. I call it weaf, by the way. I'm trying to get that started. Meet me at the weaf. I've got T shirts made. I'm ready. I'm ready for next year, by the way.

[Luke Burbank]

Hey, what's the WEAF router in this place?

[Andrew Walsh]

The Weefy. Anyway. But I was just like, well, maybe it's just such a formal place that you're not going to start with a personal observation or like, you know what I mean?

[Luke Burbank]

Like maybe an explanation, anything about your appearance.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe that would be, maybe it's just such a. Yeah. Serious sort of thing. But I feel like other people. Yeah. I mean, Trump is speaking right now. Like, I'm sure he is saying things that are much worse than. Sorry for wearing informal eyewear.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. Well, this is again, and this might be another. This may be another sort of parsing or sort of a. Another example of where I am on the wrong side of this, you might say. Very mild disagreement with this reporter. But the reporter says a medical issue, however, not the dictates of fashion, prompted Mr. Macron to take the stage in Davos in a pair of blue tinted aviator style glasses. Didn't acknowledge them. The sunglasses made their first appearance last Thursday when he sported an inflamed right eye during a New Year's speech to France's armed forces. Please pardon. So this is now Macron is talking to the armed forces of France. Please pardon. The unsightly appearance of my eye, he told the troops after removing the glasses for the speech, adding that the condition was, quote, completely harmless. So what we're talking about is a guy who's got an embarrassing kind of red eye condition. It is harmless to him and harmless to other people. It's something medically that's described as subconjunctivial hemorrhage. So he's got some kind of reddening in his eye. The reason that this felt so relatable to me is because I am constantly, even yesterday when I was doing that TV shoot, dealing with something going on with my general head region that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Including your eye for a long time.

[Luke Burbank]

Including my eye for months and months.

[Andrew Walsh]

Huge arc on this show.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. And like, again, I completely related to the idea that he was like, one of my eyes is kind of red. And looks weird, or I don't want to say weird, but, like, I don't like. Here's what it really is. I can just imagine being Emmanuel Macron and being backstage, or maybe more likely being at the hotel and being like, of all the days for this eye to be doing this, I gotta go on stage at Davos. And what is the least bad version of this? Is it to go out there with just my eye? Is it to go out with one of those kind of pirate eye covers on that eye? Is it for me to just hold that eye closed? Is it for me to try to angle that eye away from everyone while still talking into the microphone? Is it for me to wear aviators and not comment on it? I have. Again, I've also not been to Davos, Andrew. And I've never been in anything as this public or as important, but, man, do I relate to trying to make the least bad thing happen out of no great options when it comes to having your face in front of a bunch of people.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I am confused about what your.

[Luke Burbank]

You.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you feel like the word condition is being misused here? What did the reporter do that you feel?

[Luke Burbank]

I feel like the setup to this makes it sound like when they're talking about a medical. Well, medical issue. Okay, I'll allow that. But it reads to me an eye condition, not a style choice, prompted. It was a style choice. The style choice was, I don't want people to see my red ass eye. And so I'm styling it by covering them with very tinted blue aviators. To me, that's the ultimate style choice. Like, if he had light sensitivity and his eyes could not handle the bright lights of the stage at Davos, that, to me, would be the medical condition dictating what he was doing. I think this was an aesthetic choice because, again, I can totally relate to being like, what is gonna play the least embarrassing to me in this situation? And I think this is, to me, a style choice. He wanted to. He wanted to feel less embarrassed, which I totally understand. And so he thought this was gonna be the thing that would feel the least embarrassing to him, which to me feels like a style choice, not a medical choice.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, so you have no issue with calling it a medical condition because it is a medical condition.

[Luke Burbank]

It is technically a medical condition. I don't have a problem with that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Medical and condition are fine. It's just the words, not a style choice. Because that's.

[Luke Burbank]

I guess that's what's hanging me up.

[Andrew Walsh]

You could say, well, I could just as you like to say, and I don't like to say I can just.

[Luke Burbank]

Raw dog where this is going.

[Andrew Walsh]

I could just raw dog this and just like wear any glasses at all.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Every now and then we get an email from somebody that's like, do you know the origin of that? Do you know what that means? Yes. Don't further traumatize yourself.

[Luke Burbank]

I got a 31 year old example.

[Andrew Walsh]

Of it in Los Angeles, California. All right, okay. Now I don't like that.

[Luke Burbank]

Soon to be 30 years old.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. So anyway, he could just go without the glasses. He could wear a patch. He could wear like a pirate looking patch. Or he could just wear the kind of. When I was two years pre. Two years old, I had to wear little patches over my eye. Cause I had a lazy eye and before I had glasses, I had to wear a patch over my eye. But I'm pretty sure it just looked like a big bandage or something like that, which probably was not very flattering. But whatever you're using to cover this up or not cover it up is some sort of a, I guess, sartorial choice, for lack of a better word. I don't know if sartorial makes sense when you're talking about eyewear, but.

[Luke Burbank]

I.

[Andrew Walsh]

Guess I can go along with you on that. It just doesn't bother me that much. I mean, the whole article.

[Luke Burbank]

It doesn't bother me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is still worthwhile to say, why was he wearing these glasses? But you're just saying it wasn't a style choice. It's like. Well, no, it was a style choice that was in reaction to something.

[Luke Burbank]

True. Yes, well put. And. And I don't like. I don't have a. I don't. Of course, I don't have any problem with what Macron did and I don't really have a huge problem with the article. I guess what I'm describing is my surprise based on the headline and everything else, when I got down to the point where I learned, oh, he's just embarrassed about his eye, you know, like, because that's a whole. That's a move that I really know. I know well. And I just. It's. It's. We don't usually. So I had this, like. I had sort of nicked myself shaving a couple of days ago right under my nose. There's actually a term for that. That little.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's so funny. I was watching Larry sand, like old episodes of the Larry Sanders show, and they had a whole conversation about what do you call this area right here? And somebody said the cleft. And he's like. No, that's the chin. I literally heard this conversation, like, two.

[Luke Burbank]

I always want to call it, like, the frenulum, but I think that's more down in the. Down in the basement. Yeah, I think that's down in the basement, maybe. But I cut myself shaving, and then it wouldn't. Well, it healed. It scabbed over. But then when I took a shower. So then I got up yesterday morning and the scab. The scab fell off, but it wasn't fully healed, if that makes any sense. And so if. Because if you have a little scab or something, you can. I have little makeup and stuff I can put over it. What you can't cover up is something that is. Is still injured.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Something that's open to the air.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. I don't want to be gross, but you, like, believe me, I've spent many hours in hotel bathrooms staring, going, like, how do I cover this? This kind of mildly open sore up? Because the top of it is. It's not healed yet. Let's just say it doesn't have a scab over it. So, yeah, the scab, like, washed off in the shower. But then what was under it was still needing to heal more. And so I spent all of yesterday on this shoot trying to, like, put a little bit of COVID up on it, but not so much cover up that it looked. I couldn't figure out what was the. Like, what's the. What's the more. What's the more noticeable thing here? Too much makeup caked under my nose or no makeup and just like a kind of an obvious injury. And then I just kept going around and around on it.

[Andrew Walsh]

You don't have a fake mustache that you keep in your, like. Like, kit.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, here's the thing. I really was thinking, God, I wish. I mean, I wouldn't have known to grow a mustache in time, but I was really jealous of everyone who had facial hair because I was like, I wouldn't even have to think about this if I had facial hair. It's not like a major thing. You would never even see it if I had a mustache. And I thought, man, there is so much stuff. If I could grow a beard like you, Andrew, there is so much stuff that's going on down here.

[Andrew Walsh]

No idea what's going on under this thing. Man, I'm scared. We're talking about couch cushions yesterday. Imagine what's happening. What's happening under this beard? I don't want to know.

[Luke Burbank]

Why is there a crayon and four goldfish crackers? Down here.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is this a broken Lego?

[Luke Burbank]

Last time you shaved, right? I was like, I mean, you know, we've got the whole song here. My beard is a face hider. I guess I hadn't really fully considered it until I was looking around yesterday and feeling. And the thing too is a. I'm a particularly vain and also insecure person. Those are probably kind of related, the way that I tend to get myself out of that. And what I was telling myself yesterday was because no one is looking at you as closely as you are thinking they are. Like, it's kind of a good. Actually, it's like a really good kind of way to think about, like ego, death. Like, no one is thinking about you as much as you think they are thinking about you. Whether it's your appearance, whether it's just there's. And that's. There's a relief in that, right? Like, I. I was literally having to tell myself that in my mind yesterday as I was walking around doing these interviews with all these, you know, producers and actors and people. And it's like, you know, it just Because I can get so in my head it's so. And it'd be the only thing I can think about. And then I'm trying to angle myself away from the camera, but the camera guy, Scott, is like, hey, Luke, can you scoot back over? Like, you're, like, it looks more weird than I'm trying to.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, you know, we need you on camera for this, right?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm like, do we? Do we? So anyway, all that is to say I. I somehow feel even more. And I already felt deeply connected to Macron, but now I feel even more connected to him. Him.

[Andrew Walsh]

I have been wondering because aviator sunglasses are a very specific style.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sunglasses are a choice anyway. And I'm trying to think now I'm somebody who never wear sunglasses. A couple of times in my adult life I've tried getting prescription sunglasses, I think because maybe you and I were.

[Luke Burbank]

Doing some Ray Bans that were prescription.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, see, that's the way to go. Ray Ban would be the style frame to get. I did have some Ray Bans that. Are these Ray Bans? No, I had some Ray Ban branded. Oh, yeah. These that wearing now happen to be Ray Bans, but they're not that classic Ray Ban sunglasses are just like, whatever. Oh, is that the. Is that the style? The Wayfarer.

[Luke Burbank]

That's the name for that kind of real classic one.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just very iconic, obviously. But it's almost like sunglasses are such a statement that any sunglasses that you would choose to wear, especially in this particular situation, would be notable. But I do think there's some. I mean, aviators really say kind of, and maybe that's good. You go on and think, like, what is. I want to project an image of strength or whatever, so maybe it is the right choice. And of course, like, Biden would wear those things, but they really are such a specific. I don't. I cannot even imagine me wearing them. I mean, is there anything more funny? Well, sure, there's a lot of funny things in the world, but, like, imagine how ridiculous I would look with aviators on. I don't even know what kind of sunglasses.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think that's true, by the way, at all. I could see that on you. I mean, aviators, sure.

[Andrew Walsh]

Top Gun style.

[Luke Burbank]

That was one of the comparisons people were making to Macron, by the way.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

They were calling him Tom Cruise.

[Andrew Walsh]

He kept saying dangerous. No way. Iceman. Who said that?

[Luke Burbank]

Never mind. I think you could pull those off. Honestly, like, the thing. It's already sort of too late for me, although I really. Well, that's not true. I have pretty much committed, I would say for the last 15, 20 years, even though I was. What you hear me going around and around on is I pretty much have committed to the Ray Bans, the Wayfarers.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But I've had some moments. Remember when I was really into those persoles that. That Steve McQueen wore in Bullet, and then an ex of mine said that they look like Batman sunglasses.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think we were all together, remember the conversation, we're at a Mariners game.

[Luke Burbank]

Or the race to the horse track or something. But anyway.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I don't remember what they look like.

[Luke Burbank]

I've been trying to really stick with the Ray Ban Wayfarers throughout my adult life, because whether the Aviators, the Wayfarers, anything else, it feels like the key is you just gotta commit. And then it becomes like your thing becomes your look. The other thing that I could have seen Macron doing, I don't know if he needs to wear any kind of prescription glasses, but he could have worn glasses that were more like prescription glasses that just happened to be tinted, like, happen to be. I guess that would be.

[Andrew Walsh]

You don't want that. That is such that inside is a.

[Luke Burbank]

Worse look than the Aviator.

[Andrew Walsh]

That sort of in between. That they can sometimes get stuck on or whatever. Like a slight tint to glasses, I think is a really bad look.

[Luke Burbank]

Look.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think you either have to go full sunglasses or clear glasses. I think that I would gravitate towards you And I would not be able to hang out together because I think. I think I'd have to gravitate towards that Ray Ban.

[Luke Burbank]

Hey, we Ray Ban buddies.

[Andrew Walsh]

You say seafarer Wayfair is Wayfair.

[Luke Burbank]

What about. It's in like the Don Henley song, Boys of Summer. Wayfarers on, baby.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, really? He name drops them.

[Luke Burbank]

Really? I believe he does.

[Andrew Walsh]

What if he had come out. What. What if he had come out wearing like 20, 26 New Year's Eve glasses? How were they making. How are they making those this year, by the way?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm trying to think, like, what were the 2026s? What were the leftovers?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. What were the holes? Was it the.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I bet you that you looked.

[Andrew Walsh]

At 06, obviously the O and the 6. So they were just sort of off. Off centered. Maybe driving off your face like a train.

[Luke Burbank]

20, 27. He's just trying to get it started early. Trying to think of. Yeah. Some of the things he could have done that would have been more distracting. He's got the Elton John type glasses on or something like. Yeah, I mean, he did the thing. The thing about those. The aviators that he had on is that they're so Biden coded for me. And maybe it's because my brain wants to go back to the, like. What I can hold on to as the, like, one or two positive images of Joe Biden at this point.

[Andrew Walsh]

The moments before the fall, like, kind.

[Luke Burbank]

Of like the kind of moments of like when I was still not to get political, but when I was still like many people thinking like, you know, he's more on the ball or at least he's. There was something about him and the aviators again before. Before things really publicly fell apart for him where it was like. It was like kind of a fun, cool guy move. And it was kind of fun to feel like it's sort of trolling the right. A little bit, you know, of just like. Like, I liked that he liked aviators.

[Andrew Walsh]

And he wore those. I would say he wore those, though. I'm pretty sure his whole. At least public life. Right. So I think those were as much of a trolling thing. I think he wore those kind of pre trolling culture. I think that's just how he looks, you know.

[Luke Burbank]

No, you're right. But I don't think he was trolling them. But what. What. As again, in this weird kind of time from when the rumors started that he was not. Not fully, you know, doing particularly well or. I don't know. I don't even know how to describe what was real and not real at that time Because I also think he was still. I still think he was capable of being the president of the country. And I would take him in whatever state he's in right now. But that being said, there started to be this memeification of him in the sunglasses on the right.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I mean.

[Luke Burbank]

Sorry. On the, on the left as a kind of like Joe's got it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And like there'd be kind of like a funny thing where somebody would do something and then they kind of cut to like that image of Joe Biden. So I don't even mean he was doing it to troll. Yeah, but it was, was it, it was like the last time I felt like, oh yeah, maybe we got him. It was like many now, many, many years ago. But Joe Biden. Maybe that's why when I see someone in aviators and they're not Tom Cruise or they're not Goose or they're not. Is everybody in Top Gun wearing aviators? Probably because they're aviators. That's what they do.

[Andrew Walsh]

They AV8.

[Luke Burbank]

The last thing we'll, I'll throw in today in the show is that Zoran Mamdani has announced the new mayor of New York that his aspiration, as he put it, is to put bidets in Gracie Mansion, the home of the New York City mayor. And this article in the New York Times, by the way, is absolutely packed with data about what's going on with bidets. And it's surprising. America is a real outlier. America is very slow to adopt the practice. And I'm in, I guess I'm in a bidet bubble because I am very into it. And I think some of the people that I talk to, not you, Andrew, but others are also. But yeah, this New York Times article was talking about. I don't have it right in front of me now, but it was talking about like basically how a lot of other countries, it's obviously been a big thing in Europe for a lot of years and other places, but that America is really, really slow to adopt this and in fact may never fully come around to it because it is one of those things, if you don't grow up around it, it seems very weird to you. So I guess in a weird way, Andrew, I'm. I've thought of your pushback on it as being close minded and frankly upsetting. But you are, in the vast majority of people in this country, I am the weirdo and you are not the weirdo when it Comes to this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Genevieve installed one of those upstairs, but she's got a little bedroom, little bathroom that she mostly uses herself. So I don't even use that one. I don't even like to. Since it's been installed, I don't even use that anymore.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm just like, well, that's what's happened here at my house, unfortunately, when people visit is nobody wants to go in the bathrooms with the weird toilet.

[Andrew Walsh]

It just seems very private. Like I said, there's something about sharing that device that I know that and I know it's not rational. We share toilets, right? Like, I understand there's probably more contact there, but I'm just saying it just seems like even if I were to use one, it would be one. It would be like a red solo cup that I wrote my name on.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, here's what I would say also, if you're ever in a pinch, if there's something going on at the other bathrooms in your house or if you're here at my house, Andrew, you don't have to use the. Just because a toilet has a bidet, it does not mean you have to use the bidet. It is a totally normally functioning toilet that flushes like normal and doesn't have to do anything to your frenulum if you don't want it to. By. So just so you know, I would.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hold it that close to my face.

[Luke Burbank]

I mostly say. I mostly say this to my family members that might be overhearing this and who are now afraid to come to my house. But like, a bidet toilet is just a regular. It's like an escalator that stopped moving. It's just stairs now. It's still stairs. You could just go to the bathroom about it and then wipe your backside or pee into it standing up or whatever your plan was that you would do with a normal toilet. You could still do that. You never even have to see that little wand and everyone has to come out.

[Andrew Walsh]

I just remembered that I was gonna share with you a quick comment that I saw. We'll do that as an email segment in a. But while we're sort of here in A Little bit of the Badlands, actually, do you want. Do you have the Badlands?

[Luke Burbank]

A lot of Bit of the Badlands? I sure do. The badlands. The badlands.

[Andrew Walsh]

Before we get into any kind of feedback from the listeners, I wanted to ask you what your plans are for this Sunday's NFL football game, the matchup between the Rams of Los Angeles and the Seattle Seahawks, because, well, Andrew Walsh.

[Luke Burbank]

It'S It's like dating Squiggy from It is difficult. Difficult. I will be in Miami, Florida with Becca. We are going early Saturday morning. So Friday night doing livewire at the Reeser Theater in Beaverton. Everyone please come see us. Lots of seats still available. Guy Branham. Fun night first thing Saturday morning. Because tomorrow is actually Becca's birthday. So first thing Friday morning, or excuse me, Saturday morning, getting up, taking a very early flight from Portland to Miami and then hanging out there a little bit on Saturday by the time we get there, and then Sunday, and then that game is going to be Sunday at 6:30, Miami time. And so when I say it's difficult, I don't really mean that. I mean it is. It is complicated for me because first of all, Becca is obviously fine with me watching the game, but I don't have a cohort of people there and I am a little bit. Saturday night, when we watched at the Eagles, it was so great because the game was never in question. Like, it just. It removed all of the. All of the kind of weird, stressed energy around a game. In fact, very soon into the game, the main thing became what's Ders saying? Everyone looking on their phone to see if this had even caused even Ders to feel happy.

[Andrew Walsh]

That was right away because with the opening play, with the opening touchdown on the opening kickoff, everybody was like, is Ders complaining about this? I was joking. Yep. He says that we scored too early. End of an era.

[Luke Burbank]

But so Sunday night I'm gonna be either at like a sports bar in Miami with Bex or I will be like in our hotel room maybe. Whatever seems more fun to her. The thing is that I. The thing that I'm gonna have to be working on, this is the complicated part is like not becoming a monster.

[Andrew Walsh]

Human and not having it be the last thing you do for the evening, I suppose too. Or, or, or knowing that you can be in an okay mindset. Because I sort of think Saturday night you're taking this trip and you're going to be there early next week too, but you're doing some work from there. So you're really. And if this is a birthday trip specifically, there's probably some pressure, I would say probably some healthy pressure to optimize the weekend for birthday times.

[Luke Burbank]

And it's totally actually self generated. Truthfully. It's not even like Becca's not being a major bummer or being like, you better make this weekend fun. I just have this sense of like. Like I don't want it to be. I don't Want Sunday night. I don't want to be in a pissy mood because they lost or I don't want to be yelling things at the TV that I regret or being kind of like in the hotel room. It's actually an Airbnb, technically in the Airbnb, pacing around like a monster. Well, if I can, I feel comfortable quoting my brother in. In what was a private conversation, he said to our text chain this morning, I'm on the hunt for a good place to watch the game. My wife has told me I can't watch it at home because. Because I quote, stress her the fuck out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that was one of the reasons I was on my mind because I was like, well, you came up here last weekend for the game because of other reasons. But I was like, well, if your brothers might be joining us at the Eagles, could we have a repeat appearance? I would love that. That would be the biggest gathering in person of the fun loving criminals in a really long time. If we were able to like kind of get Camaro there and rode Camaro, you, me, we could even maybe get Ders. Although Ders, I don't think we'll watch any important games games at the Eagles because every time he goes to watch a game at the Eagles, it's a bad outcome. Which I felt that curse for a while too, but luckily that has turned around for me. But I don't know that we would be able to. I would actually, honestly, just because of the whole. I would actually say, ders, don't come to the Eagles because I would just worry about us actually affecting the outcome of the game as ridiculous.

[Luke Burbank]

Whatever. I mean, honestly, everybody needs to do whatever we did last week and I'm already violating that rule. I'm getting because we're in the Badlands and because we haven't really debriefed on that game, the game against the Niners. It's very weird because leading up to the 49ers game, I was very stressed out about the fact that everybody was saying that the Seahawks were a major favorite. That was stressing me out. And now this week I'm stressed out because a lot of people think that the Rams are better than the Seahawks. In other words, there is no sort of particular kind of speculation that causes me to not feel super nervous about the game.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I kind of. We didn't even really talk too much or maybe at all about Saturday's game with our Seahawks. But honestly, coming out of the weekend and I need to be careful here because there's still probably some Pretty raw feelings in Chicago. Like, I almost like that Bears loss was more. Well, because of the style of the game and the way the game ended and everything going into overtime, as opposed to a game that literally had a touchdown on kickoff and then. And then the team never looked back. Like, that was a heartbreaker. And it was so. It was such a weird thing to root for because I was so, so heavily invested in the Bears winning, because I just wanted the Bears to win. I was just rooting for them as a likable team. But then also because I was like the Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood, just thinking like, yes, and the Bears our way. Like, I'd rather much rather. No offense, but like, Like, I wanted the Bears to win just because I wanted them to win. But also, I just think that the matchup between the Bears and the Seahawks was way more favorable to the Seahawks compared to. I'm not saying that it was an easy matchup, but compared to facing the Rams, this. But on the other hand, if you're just going to sort of judge this from, like, almost like, try to back away from the personal feelings we have rooting for our hometown team, it almost feels like this had to happen, right? A rubber match between the Rams and the Seahawks, the NFC west and meet up again. Like, it sort of feels like this was always meant to be, but, man, did I prefer to face the Bears.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. And I kept saying to people, I was, like, talking to folks because I was in Chicago last week doing, wait, wait, and I was talking to a lot of Bears fans and folks that are associated with, like, the show. And I kept saying, look. And I was saying this to our pal, television's Chris Hayes, too. It was like, if we could get to a Bears Seahawks NFC championship matchup and the Bears did beat us, I would be so bummed, but I would be so happy the Bears were moving on. It would be sort of a balm. And I wouldn't have taken as much pleasure in beating the Bears because I like that franchise and I like a lot of people up and be Bears fans. And it's just like, the stakes are just so incredibly high for this game because I don't like the Rams and I don't wish them well in particular. That's not true. I. I don't have. I'm. I'm. I'm. I don't feel as warmly towards them as I do the Bears and them beating us would just straight up suck. There would be no upside to it. The. The Bears getting to go to the Super Bowl. There would be some upside. A lot of people I really like would be super happy, and a city I really like would be super happy. I don't feel that way about us and the Rams, so that just means. But if we win, by the way, that the other side of that coin is. It's even more.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's even more delicious.

[Luke Burbank]

It's more delicious. But. But as far as the sort of. Sort of how I feel about the game itself, obviously losing Charbonnet is not a great development. Although, you know, Ken Walker III has been looking very, very, very good. And if he can continue to run that hard and they just have to lean on him more. And also this guy George Holani, which. I don't even know if he's activated, but we had this guy, George Holani, who was really good in the preseason. Like, he was an exciting player. Yeah, he's a running back, and he can do a lot on the field. Field. I think he's just been lower on the depth track. Well, and I think he was injured. But also, I think it just. I mean, that's why people kept saying, like, well, who. Who will the Seahawks use for their second running back? I'm like, I don't know. Whoever the third running back was, put him in there. Like, run Ken Walker the third, initially soften up the defense. And then, I mean, running back. There's a reason that I don't want to take anything away from Ken Walker the third, or Charbonnet. But, like, there's a reason why the position of running back in the NFL is underpaid and undervalued these days compared to how it used to be. And it's because if you have a good blocking scheme and a good passing game, which kind of opens it up for the running back, there are a lot of people that can run for a lot of yards in the NFL. It's kind of seen to a degree, unless you're Derek Henry or somebody truly special. Like, name five running backs in the league. It's hard to do because it's a workman like, position now. It's the person who gets the ball and runs really hard into the. Into where the small gap has been opened up by your blockers. And if they've done a good job, you get some yards, and if they haven't, you don't. But, like, it's not the way that it used to be in the. In the days that I was coming up where the running back, it was like the quarterback was maybe the most important. And then the running back Maybe the running back was more important than the quarterback for some reason the league has shifted. All that is to say, say I don't feel great about the Charbonnet thing, but I also don't feel like that's, that's not like us losing Darnold. And I just think our defense is phenomenal. And I think our defense is. I mean, we really shut Matt Stafford down the first game. We, we held him pretty well in check the second game. We did win the second game because of a total fluke. Speaking of Charbonnet, that weird two point conversion that got picked up, if we, if that doesn't happen, we don't tie the game. We don't win the game, like, but.

[Andrew Walsh]

Also, also wasn't that sort of a game, though. That really, really was on the back of those two running backs, though. Am I misremembering that wasn't our last matchup with. Didn't we like, run a lot? Didn't we take the ball out of Darnold's hands a lot with that game?

[Luke Burbank]

And I think we, I think we've been kind of doing that. I think we've been doing that actively for the last six games or something. I think that there was like a decision that was made probably when Darnold started getting more turnovers.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

With Clint Kubiak, that was like, look, our defense. And also, by the way, our defense is like improved every single week. It's just getting better and faster and scarier. And like, also there is this sort of saying, but I think it's probably kind of true, which is like, defense wins championships. Like, we have the best defense in the NFL. And that's, I guess I would just say, like, as nervous as I'm about the Rams, I'd still rather be the Seahawks at home with our defense than the Rams coming in to play us, you know, which doesn't mean I'm like feeling super confident, but I still would. I'd rather be us than them.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, let's go back to your personal life if we can, here for a second because that's where. That's where things are real good.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Real juicy. Did you. And it's okay if you don't want to say, but did you say what city you're going to? Miami. Okay, Miami. So have you thought about going to. You mentioned that you could stay at the Airbnb and watch it or maybe go to a sports bar. Have you done any looking into, like actual Seahawks bars so that if it is a loss, you're around A bunch of other people who are basically kind of in the same mood as you. I sort of feel like that's a place where you can sort of absorb your feelings a little bit and then move on with your evening.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm doing this had literally not occurred to me. I think, because, Andrew, Miami is geographically almost as far as you can go in the contiguous United States from the Seahawks, that it even occurred to me that there might actually be a Seahawks bar.

[Andrew Walsh]

Bar.

[Luke Burbank]

But I should look that up. I'm kind of doing a little.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think almost every. Because I think almost every city has them because, like, I, you know, found my Browns bar here in Seattle when I was in la, I found the Seahawks bars. I know that there's geographically.

[Luke Burbank]

Wow.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, sorry. Keep going.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, go ahead. What'd you find?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm seeing somebody called Queen Diva on Instagram, said there's not an official Seahawks bar in Miami, but we're making one tonight night. And that's from three days ago.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

That would have been. Okay, so let's see here. But it doesn't. I may have to dm. I have to slide into Queen Diva's DMS to go. Where did you make it the official Seahawks bar? Because it doesn't say. It just says. It's like a photograph of her and someone else and they're wearing Seahawks stuff. And it says, not an official Seahawks bar in Miami, but we're making one tonight. Go Hawks. Twelves for life, baby. But it doesn't say what the bar is.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is interesting. Yeah. Because I'm looking now, the Seahawks on their actual website, they have a link to all the official bar. All the official Seahawks bars. But they're all, like, kind of in Washington state. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

I was. I was already surfing that one and not seeing anything like. So I don't know. I mean, the other thing about, like, a team like Cleveland, they've been around so long and they got so many diehard fans over the years that I. I do. I would imagine there's a Cleveland bar in every major city in America. I. I believe it or not, could see a world in which there's not a Seahawks bar in Miami. And then also, again, it comes down to kind of, I don't know, the scene that Becca is going to have the most fun. And maybe that's. We go to a bar and watch it. Where, of course, what do you think the chances are there's going to be a bunch of Rams pose yours in a Miami bar versus a bunch of Seahawks fan? I feel like there's going to be a lot of Rams.

[Andrew Walsh]

You feel like he's going to be more Ram country. I did find a list from. But this, this isn't looking super promising. But this is the Seahawks subreddit. I can't tell what year this was posted. Oh, this is just their wiki. So that means they probably keep this somewhat up to date. And it's just a list of a whole bunch of different states and cities and where the Seahawks bars are and the one that is listed for Miami. And this is going to take more. Like I want to research this for you because I did this for myself and others is a bowling alley called Splitsville, but it looks like it's kind of more of a hipster, modern bowling alley.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, one of those Lucky Strikes.

[Andrew Walsh]

The imagery on its website is very like kind of leaning into the classic vibe of old school bowling. But to have this styled and design, you can tell that there's somebody who's embracing it from a more modern standpoint, sort of, you know. But it says not your typical bowling alley menu. They have pizza and burgers or whatever. And I'm looking to see under events. Are they.

[Luke Burbank]

They.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let's see here. They might not even be in Miami anymore. I think they need to update their thing. I'm only.

[Luke Burbank]

What I could do.

[Andrew Walsh]

We could go to Key West, Tampa. Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Go all the way down to Key west. And then if we lose, I could just get in the water and start swimming towards Cuba. It's only like 60 miles. They've got a sign.

[Andrew Walsh]

That would be interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, the funny part, Andrew, is I've watched a Seahawks game in Miami within the last like four and a half weeks. I watched it at the Cleveland, remember?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's right. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But it wasn't. That was a weird game. Well, first of all, they had like, there was like 10 games going because it wasn't the playoffs and I wasn't wearing any Seahawks gear. I was just at a table by myself eating fish tacos. Watching that on one of like 50 screens there didn't seem. There's mostly playing reggaeton music. It didn't feel. It didn't feel almost like they had the games on, but it almost wasn't like the emphasis of what was going on in the place. So, I mean, it's also the chance. I mean, our Airbnb is like an apartment. It has a balcony, it's got a kitchen and stuff. It's presumably got like a tv. Like it's. So that would also not be the craziest thing to Just like maybe get some food or make some football snacks and kind of watch it there again. What? I've just gotta, A, I've gotta check in with Becca about what sounds fun to her and B, I've gotta really, really keep my sort of keep my behavior in check so that I don't A, let the outcome, if it's not great, ruin my week and my weekend. And I also need to not just become energetically someone who's very kind of unfun to be around. Just even in the watching of the game. I can't just be screaming and yelling because I know what that's like. You pick up. I don't like it when the housekeeping person knocks too sharply on my door. You know, it doesn't take much. So that's, you know. And were we like, were we here, you know, in the Portland area? Probably it'd be a thing where I was just going to watch it here by myself or maybe I'd go to a sports bar in Portland. But it's like it's not. Watching the Seahawks is not a thing that Becca and I particularly feel the need to do together. But now here we are, we're going to be in the 305 together when the Seahawks are playing the most meaningful game of the last, what, 10 years for them. Something.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what? You know what? I have a whole new outlook on this. So we. I got too obsessed with the idea of finding, finding a Seattle Seahawks bar specifically. And I thought, well, that way, like if it's the worst case scenario, you don't have to. Ellie and Gonzalez your op.

[Luke Burbank]

Reverse Gonzalez myself, Gonzalez yourself. A classic reverse Elion. But shout out to the 20 people who get that reference.

[Andrew Walsh]

But I, but you know, it is a game. This isn't regular season. This is a game that will be the only football game on. This will be the only thing on any tv in any bar that has televisions, most likely. So what you're gonna do is. Now I'm actually getting jealous now I'm actually wondering if me and David should just go meet you in Miami. I don't think I've ever been to Miami before and I really do like Florida.

[Luke Burbank]

Easy six and a half hour flight.

[Andrew Walsh]

But just go to a beach bar. Go to a bar that is kind of half inside, half outside. If Becca's not super into the game, she can have a table, maybe even a chaise long or something. I don't know how to say that. Just say lounge, probably Shay's lounge. And just like, you know, some Frozen cocktails. You can kind of stay in the shit more shadowy area underneath the. The roof that. The thatched roof. And like you can be rooting on the team. This is what you want. Want.

[Luke Burbank]

This is what. Yeah, no, I think you're right. I think you're right. Now the only bummer is it's like that. The place that Clevelander that I went to and everything along that strip, which is like, like south beach, you know, right in the heart of. Of South Beach. The. The only. I love what you're saying here. The problem is it has real like college bar vibes. You know what I mean? It has real kind of like you can definitely order some kind of drink that they bring out in like a plastic cup that has some kind of light in it that's lighting up the cup while someone's blowing a whistle and giving. And like the waitress is wearing a very tight fitting outfit. Kind of a vibe like kind of sticky floors. Not like I, I wish there was something that was like a fun. And you know what? I just need to do my research. But I'm sure there's got to be a fun beach bar that's not that because that's what the Clevelander was. And I was like, no thanks. No, a more grown up fun beach bar. You're right though. Like I, I hear what you're saying, which is like, like it in a way, in a really healthy way, de emphasizes the Seahawks just enough. I can see the game, I can see what's going on, but I can be reminded that there is life after Seahawks and that we have the Atlantic Ocean right over there. And that might also not be the. The least. That might be a nice thing for Becca too, to have other kind of interesting things to go on. Maybe she takes a stroll up or down Collins or ocean or whichever one of the streets we end up on. But yeah, maybe just making it a beachfront experience where hopefully now you know, the last time. Oh my gosh, this takes me back. I watched the Seahawks lose to the Niners when we got stoned on the one yard line. I don't remember this game.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

And I was in Tulum, Mexico and I was watching it and there was the only people. And this was either a playoff game or it might have been the last game of the season that that stopped us from going to the playoffs. It was like this. At the end of this game, things were over for us, but we. We still had Russell, of course, I believe. I think. And the game ended on 4th and goal and us trying to go to the goal and the Niners stopping us on the one yard line. I think I want to say on a quarterback sneak or a pass across the middle. And I will tell you, I think it helped to be in Tulum, Mexico. I think it took the edge off. Like, I think it's like. Cause then I just was like, well, I guess I'll rent a motor scooter and go drive down to a cenote. Like, so maybe that's. Yeah, I've got actually some history of watching these games because of the time of year they happen. I've got some history of watching them in tropical places. And maybe that's the way to go.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe that's the reason I'm getting so excited for now, my trip time to Miami when I meet you down there. Because now it's a little bit different because Genevieve likes football more than Becca does. And so Genevieve will get into this.

[Luke Burbank]

For the record, Becca is not anti football.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no, not.

[Luke Burbank]

But Genevieve doesn't have a strong opinion.

[Andrew Walsh]

But Genevieve would get excited for it. You know what I mean? So I'm not trying to disrespect anybody but Genevieve. So I remember she and I were in Mexico for some. You know, it must have been some Sunday. And this is going back probably 10 years as well. And I don't remember the details of the game at all. What I remember is getting a bucket of beer. And like, there are so few occurrences in my life, even while on vacation, that getting a bucket of beer makes sense, especially if it's just the two of us. But there's something so nice. And I do believe this was like an outdoor bar, but that was totally, totally covered, you know, like again with some sort of a. How do you describe the grass?

[Luke Burbank]

A palapa.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is that a palapa or whatever. So you can totally see the TVs. Tons of TVs. But we're also like outside and you're parking yourself there for three hours. So would we like a bucket of mini Coronas or full size Coronas or whatever it was. Yes, please, por favor. I was trying to remember how to say it in Spanish. I nailed it.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm on the map here and I'm just looking at like where the Airbnb is and what's kind of what's walkable, what's going to be near us. And I'm. This is. Yeah, this is going to be a mission. I'm going to definitely. Because also, we're not. We're not staying exactly where. Well, we're not very far at all. In fact, we're very close walking distance to all that stuff I was near last time. But yeah, you know, Andrew, I think we've actually, we've done some important work here. Not so much for the listeners, but for me and for Becca, which is. That's the move. Probably more so than, like, because, I mean, there's already going to be enough me being in the Airbnb room talking into this microphone to you and to Livewire and stuff like that. Like, we've got to cut down on the time when that's happening. Just being outside in the world, enjoying the world is the world of Miami. Particularly. Sunday is also. Now, granted, the game doesn't start till 6:30, which actually, that's a. That's a lucky, lucky thing because, like, there's one really nice day on the calendar and it's Sunday. And if, like, somehow the game was at like 1pm on Sunday. Now, I guess we could do the beach bar idea, but you know what I mean? Like, if the one reliably beautiful afternoon was me, like, pacing back and forth indoors where I could see a tv, that would also really play poorly.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. It's an evening game on the East Coast.

[Luke Burbank]

It's an evening game out there in Miami. It's 6:30, so things will. The sun will have set. It'll be be. It'll be, you know, it'll be manageable, I guess.

[Andrew Walsh]

So that actually sounds really great. I'm excited for you. Find the right place. This could be magical.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, well, you'll get a full update on Monday.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice. It'll be like, I'll probably get photos of paradise.

[Luke Burbank]

I think you will. And depending on how the game goes, texts, either of the very angry or the very jubilant kind. Or maybe both within the same game. That seems like the move.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do me a favor. I know we're running along. Just hit that. I'm going to make this real fast.

[Luke Burbank]

I got the sound effect ready to go, bro. Hate it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, once again with the email. Every week, I hope that it's from a female. Oh, man. It's not from a female.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, we've got a message from a listener. This is just one kind or another.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's. It's more of a question than a comment. More of a comment than a question. No, I just saw something on the TBTL slack, which, by the way, if you ever. That that's kind of where a lot of social media conversations about and with TBTL happen these days. You can go to tbtl.net and look for the Slack link on our Contact Us page.

[Luke Burbank]

The Facebook page has been. It's been absolutely. It's gone deep. It's on deep cover.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it is. I literally can. You can't find.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think I know how to get on it. Like, sometimes when I'm doing that jogging thing for the thon, I have to try to refine. I have to ask permission again. I mean, I mean, peace and love. Whatever's going on over there, you know, hey, we don't run that thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

It must get dark.

[Luke Burbank]

It must get impossible to get to the Stens page anymore if you're not already on there, I guess. Who knows why or what. But like, yeah, so the Slack is a place where people are. Where people who aren't already on the Stens page can't interact. If you're wondering where the listeners be.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I saw a note here from listener Karen that I'm going to share with you in a moment. But it also brought something to my attention and I thought as a long time public radio nerd, this would hit you where it hurts as well. Did you know that Dr. Zorba Pastor's show was canceled on Wisconsin Public Radio about six months ago? And were you not a. Does Zorba Pastor not ring a bell to you?

[Luke Burbank]

No, I don't know the Dr. Zorba Pastor Lore.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know much about it either. I wasn't a regular listener to it, but I just think of it as one of those old school, you know, Midwest public radio shows that was produced out of Wisconsin. And then you would hear it, you know, you could hear it depending on which stations around the country happened to carry it, but it was distributed and you would hear it, I don't know, like on a Saturday at some weird time. And I can't remember what it was called right now. It was like something with Dr. Zorba Pastor or something.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it was called Zorba Pastor. On your health.

[Andrew Walsh]

On your health. Exactly. And speaking of faith.

[Luke Burbank]

Wow. What happened? What did the listeners say? That they.

[Andrew Walsh]

Anyway, budget stuff, I think so anyway. But their notes. So anyway, Dr. Zorba Pastor is not one to stay down and is now podcasting independently.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, stay well with Dr. Zorba Pastor.

[Andrew Walsh]

Stay well with Dr. Zorba pastor. So anyway, Karen says now this is how it comes back to us. On a recent episode of a different podcast, Dr. Zorba Pastor's new one for any Wisconsin Public Radio listeners, Zorba said that he likes to listen to an old timey radio show about an insurance adjuster.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, my God.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I knew it was gonna be Johnny Dollar before he even said it. We have kindred spirits in the good doc says Karen, get him on.

[Luke Burbank]

We can do it. We're always talking about cross promotion.

[Andrew Walsh]

That'd be fun. I'm not super familiar with the. With the Marvel Cinematic Zorba verse, but I would familiarize myself with it.

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. And Lord knows I don't go to the real doctor enough. I mean, by that, I mean my physician.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I just found out something that we have all kinds of, like, acupuncture and massage that I supposedly can get. The executive director of Livewire was like, hey, everyone, make sure you're availing yourselves of. Basically, our insurance is. It's such a big part of the budget of the show. They're like, if we're paying for this, everyone try to go to this. Okay?

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

And I was like, I should do that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I should do yourself a massage. There's one right around the corner from. There's actually a couple right in my neighborhood that you might want.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, sure. Yeah. Are those older? Those are in my plan.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

Healing hands. Take Kaiser.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm not sure he'd get you a foot massage, too, if you're critically.

[Luke Burbank]

Does Zorba Pastor give. Give massage? I mean, I don't know if that's. If. If that's part of his. His, His. His sort of education. I know that he and his wife have been involved in the Tibetan independence movement since the 1960s. That's all on the men. Zorba Pastor's got a robust Wikipedia page, too.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And I don't know Zorba Pastor's age. I truly don't. I don't even know what Zorba Pastor looks like. But if you were doing a radio.

[Luke Burbank]

Show like you would imagine Zorba Pastor would look.

[Andrew Walsh]

So my guess, I was sort of thinking, like, 35 years on the radio. I think that I saw that it was budget cuts. I don't think it was him walking away from his radio show. You could see yourself retiring. Right. But he is drawn to the microphone. I'm just sort of assuming that he's.

[Luke Burbank]

Retirement age, but maybe he has Andrew. Maybe the most intense Cisco Morris vibes you've ever. You have ever seen. He's got a. He's got a beautiful mustache.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, he does.

[Luke Burbank]

He's a kind of a. You know, he looks like he's. He's a relatively spry yet somewhat diminutive guy with a beautiful Stache and an obvious charisma. Like, he seems like the Cisco of medicine in the Midwest.

[Andrew Walsh]

Ooh la la. I love that the Cisco beautiful purple balls.

[Luke Burbank]

People call in about that sometimes to doctors or the pastor.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Does this look infected? He goes, oh, you've got beautiful purple balls.

[Andrew Walsh]

Which is one of the reasons. Reasons he was pulled from the air. If I understand it correctly, they just tried to save his dignity by calling a budget thing. No, I don't want. I kind of want. Don't want to joke about this too much because. But it looks like he wrote a very, very nice sort of farewell note to his listeners about six months ago that I'm.

[Luke Burbank]

My guess is that he's doing this and still doing it for the love of the game. The guy's been a physician for many years. I'm. I'm guessing that he, you know, at his age, could he. I think about 78. It looks like, like probably has. Has worked a hard. A long life of working diligently and probably financially is able to retire, but is. Has yet to at least from this stuff because he loves doing it, which is very, very different than me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, exactly. You just want your bag, as they say.

[Luke Burbank]

I. And I will never be able to retire. In the words of the Tiger king, I will never financially recover from this.

[Andrew Walsh]

So let's get out of here.

[Luke Burbank]

All right. Hey, thanks for listening, everybody. We are going to be right back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you, so please join us for that. I want to talk about aspirational clutter tomorrow. Right. Has this made it on to spotless yet?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, but interesting concept. I tried to read your. I tried to read the article that you sent me, but it's behind a paywall, so I. But I'm really interested in hearing about it and it may relate to something that is now sitting in the middle of our dining room table that I like and thought it was accidental decoration that I was ready to keep. But Genevieve thinks I'm out of my gourd.

[Luke Burbank]

Uh huh. I. When I thought of you, not because I think that you have a lot of aspirational stuff, but I know you talk about your attachment sometimes to things and knickknacks. So we'll talk aspirational clutter tomorrow and we'll do some blur Thursdays and whatever else comes into our little brains. So please do join us for that. In the meantime, everybody, have a great Wednesday. Stay safe, thinking of all of our friends in the great state of Minnesota. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, hey, guys, it's Joel in Chicago. Long time and first time any singer. And I was inspired listening to the last episode to do the I wake up in the morning and I roll out of bed? I consider shaving? But there's too much face on my head? Cause my beard is a face hider? My beard hides my face? My beard is a face hider? My beard hides my face? There you go. There's your death cab Beard face power out.