#4781 Bronze Age? More Like LeBron's Age!

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL #4781 "Bronze Age? More Like LeBron's Age!"

Date: July 29, 2026
Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh

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Overview

In this lively and meandering episode, Luke and Andrew cover a medley of personal stories, podcast inside jokes, pop culture, and a thorough breakdown of baseball despair and hope. The show moves from nostalgia for classic audio drops and inside TBTL lore, to a detailed and emotional analysis of a Seattle Mariners baseball win, and finally a playful discussion about generational language shifts and listener feedback. The episode perfectly encapsulates TBTL's charm: a blend of affectionate ribbing, deep dives into personal quirks, and wistful observations about how the world (and the internet) keeps moving forward.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Podcast Lore and Drop Nostalgia

[00:43–13:40]

• Fred Schneider/B52s & Listener Drops: Andrew and Luke riff on the quirky purchase of Fred Schneider’s solo album and reminisce about classic TBTL audio drops.
• Searching for Listener Fran’s Voicemail: The hosts go on a meta-journey, searching through their archive (Marsupial Gurgle/Hey Gurgle) for the iconic “It does not bother me. In fact, I kind of like it.” voicemail from Listener Fran.
  • [11:26] Fran's original message:

    “It does not bother me. In fact, I kind of like it.”
    — Listener Fran

2. Video Podcasting, TVTL & On-camera Habits

[03:45–07:05]

• On-Camera Fidgeting: Andrew confesses to always touching his face on camera and discusses how the pressure of being recorded on video (TVTL) is affecting his self-awareness.

• Listener Naming Suggestions: The merits and confusions of calling the video segments “TVTL” are humorously unpacked.

  "It also kind of doesn’t make sense, which is in keeping with our overall brand."
  — Luke Burbank [05:34]

3. Arcade Games, Mushrooms, and Football Hijinks

[18:55–29:47]

• Arcade Ball Nostalgia: The hosts fondly recall stealing mini footballs from Vegas arcades and running impromptu pass routes on casino floors while high on mushrooms.
• Pop It for Gold Extreme: Andrew excitedly discovers you can buy replacement parts for arcade games and balloons for "Pop It for Gold Extreme".
• Slot Machines & Casino Evolution: The decline of physical slot features—like pull arms and coin buckets—in favor of digital tickets is lamented.

4. Mariners Euphoria and Baseball Despair

[30:53–46:52]

• Luke’s Mariners Rollercoaster: Coming off a previous episode’s negativity, Luke celebrates the Mariners’ stunning win against the Dodgers, humorously over-investing in their single victory.
  • [32:05]

    “It’s like a video game. If you just, like, had a cheat code and you’re just like, oh yeah, I’m just gonna take all the best players and just put them all.”
    — Andrew

• Andrew’s Emotional Guardrails: Andrew discusses how he was prepared to tune out the rest of the series, feeling defeated by the Mariners’ season to date.
• Text Chain Anxiety: The hosts analyze a friend’s compulsion to declare defeat on the group text thread, unpacking sports-fan fatalism and coping.
  • [43:14]

    “It’s a hyper-vigilance... he’s trying to look to the horizon, identify the danger, name it and claim it so that it’s somehow less harmful to him.”
    — Luke

5. Language, Generations & "Search it Up"

[47:02–61:10]

• Gen Z/Alpha Lexicon: Discussion of a New York Times article about young generations replacing “Google it” with “search it up.”
  • [58:18] Away With Words

    “Hi, you have a way with words.”
    — Away With Words intro (Luke cringes at the phrase)

• Genericization of Brands: The hosts debate whether generics like “tissue” are replacing “Kleenex” and resist the article’s assertion that this is a universal linguistic trend.
• Listener Sophia’s Call In: On Away With Words, a Gen Alpha listener discusses her family’s debate over “search it up” vs. “look it up.”
  • [59:54]

    “Whenever we’re going to Google something, we always say, let’s search it up.”
    — Listener Sophia

6. Listener Feedback & The Odyssey Discourse

[61:50–73:16]

• Reclining Movie Seats: Andrew is shocked by how many listeners agree with his distaste for modern reclining theater seating ([62:41]).
• Listener Eric’s Odyssey Review: Eric critiques Nolan’s (fictional) "The Odyssey" as being too condensed and prefers an epic mini-series; he's distracted by repeated references to “sea people” and “Bronze Age collapse.”
  • [65:47]
    Notable review insight:

    "You know, it’s really long and I feel like Christopher Nolan should start getting into doing like premiere HBO miniseries... instead of trying to squeeze something so long and epic into a three hour movie."
    — Listener Eric

• Heidi the Latin Correspondent: Offers a nuanced critique of representation in the new Odyssey adaptation, noting that content often decried as “too woke” is actually omitted, and the text’s “bonkers” nature is lost.
• Odyssey Discourse Confusion: Andrew laments that all he encounters are meta comments about “the discourse,” not the discourse itself.

7. Union Gospel Mission & Church Kids Musicals Closeout

[73:44–80:36]

• Advertising Analysis & Nonprofits: Andrew, with his marketing expertise, praises the compelling nature of Union Gospel Mission's radio ads while noting the organization’s controversies.
• God Uses Kids: The episode closes with the duo recalling—and then playing—a music segment from Luke’s church kid pageant days, riffing on church performances and choreography.

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Memorable Quotes

• On the ever-morphing TBTL video brand:

  "It also kind of doesn’t make sense, which is in keeping with our overall brand."
  — Luke [05:34]

• On Mariners’ fans sudden optimism:

  "My whole life is now reoriented around tonight’s game."
  — Luke [45:51]

• On generational language shifts:

  "Search it up, man. We gotta start trying to say that because we’re always trying to bring in those younger listeners."
  — Luke [61:05]

• Listener Fran’s famous drop:

  “It does not bother me. In fact, I kind of like it.”
  — Fran [11:30]

• On the loss of tactile gambling:

  "The fun part is getting a bunch of grimy ass quarters and dealing with that."
  — Luke [28:20]

• On fidgeting and self-presentation:

  "I need to use these non-televised TVTLs as practice to get the ticks out—to stop touching my face all the time and... just pretend that I’m presentable for once in my goddamn life."
  — Andrew [06:16]

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Engaging Moments & Humor

• Drop Wars: Luke and Andrew reminisce about pre-show “drop wars” and the soothing normalcy of random audio clips ([09:10]), delighting in TBTL’s long heritage of soundboard shenanigans.
• Papa Shot Ball Heist: Luke recalls nearly absconding with a bar’s mini basketball, foiled by a kid named Carter ([18:55–19:58]).
• Arcade Replacement Ball Frenzy: The two are tempted to buy wholesale arcade balls for future TBTL live events, joking about the absurdity of having “one for every listener” ([25:25]).
• God Uses Kids: The show ends with a nostalgic (and hilarious) listen to a cringey 1980s-era children’s church musical ([78:00]), prompting musings on choreography, God’s possible sweatshop, and minion language covers.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Classic Listener Drop Search: 10:10–13:40
• Mariners Rebirth & Game Breakdown: 30:53–46:52
• “Search it up” & Language Trends: 47:02–61:10
• Listener Odyssey Review: 63:56–66:14
• Union Gospel Mission Ads/Church Kids Music: 73:44–80:36

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Tone & Style

Listeners can expect friendly banter, tangents that loop back to the show’s traditions, good-natured self-mockery, and a warmth toward even the most trivial or silly of topics. Luke’s excitable optimism pairs with Andrew’s dry wit and mild self-deprecation, making every story feel like a hangout with old friends—punctuated by a love for audio drops and bizarre inside jokes.

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TL;DR:
This episode is a perfect example of why TBTL is "too beautiful to live"—at once nostalgic, nerdy, and nimble, moving easily from Mariners pain to the nuances of “search it up,” all while rummaging through decades-old voicemails and church musical medleys. If you love podcasts that celebrate friendship and obsessions both major and minor, this is a can’t-miss.

Transcript

[Caller or Guest]

I've got this song that I holler to, and it is entitled Somebody Loves Me. And it goes like this.

[Luke Burbank]

Don't take this the wrong way, but you've just been kind of hanging around a lot lately, which isn't a bad thing, but it's also not a good thing. God, you get a lot of B52s.

[Caller or Guest]

Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

I have no idea why I have

[Luke Burbank]

Fred Schneider's solo album.

[Andrew Walsh]

Why did I buy this funky little purchase? Is that your Fred Schneider?

[Additional Guest or Caller]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Why did I buy this funky little purchase? We have our own friends. And what we did see is we took them turds and we crammed them in between the number there. So that's one Turdy, two Turdi, three Turdy.

[Luke Burbank]

A year ago, this is exactly what Greg Kinnear was doing, but now he has an Oscar for sliding doors.

[Caller or Guest]

3.

[Luke Burbank]

Jingle all the time. Anybody know what this is?

[Caller or Guest]

Huh?

[Luke Burbank]

All of this is the digestive system. And now we're gonna have a couple

[Caller or Guest]

of guys who's gonna give us a

[Luke Burbank]

presentation about what happens when the digestive system isn't working properly. Well, 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]

It's your lucky day. You just found a USB flash drive in the parking lot.

[Luke Burbank]

My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host. Yeah, everyone's got a podcast coming to you from the Madrona Hill Studio perched high above the mighty Columbia. Another absolutely spectacular day shaping up here. Oh, my pa. It's just beautiful. We're in the sweet spot here, folks. We're in the pocket of summer in the Northwest, where things are still green, but the temperatures are warm, but not too warm. It's just a nice time to be here and a great time to bring you all. Episode 4781 in a collector Series.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let the fun begin.

[Luke Burbank]

Things got a little negative on the podcast yesterday, mostly by me talking about the frustrations of being a Seattle Mariners fan and how we things never go our way and how the season is lost. But I have some great news. Everything has changed. In fact, baseball's back, my friends. By that I mean baseball's back. The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right, baseball's back.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, the Mariners won a game yesterday, and now I feel like. And it's not just me, by the way. Everybody on the Internet in the places that I look seem to all say that the Mariners had their win of the season last night. And as a starry Eyed dreamer. I'm willing to say this punch is their ticket to the World Series, so we'll probably talk about that. Also, if you want to sound cool when you're talking about the Internet or how you look for things on the Internet, lol.

[Andrew Walsh]

Laugh out loud.

[Luke Burbank]

Omg. Oh my God.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wtf.

[Luke Burbank]

Why the fake? We'll tell you how to do that by way of the New York Times. If anybody knows about how to be cool and why the face on the Internet, it's the New York Times tell you what they're talking about. Hey, speaking of the Internet, let's say hello to this guy. Longest running cobra of the show.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's got like every meme ever produced on the Internet. He can knock us out with his

[Luke Burbank]

memes and his drawings of the tall ships. He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. I just realized I was touching my face while you were talking. When we recorded our show for video earlier this week and then we put it up online for donors, I realized I had to do some weird editing at the beginning of the show because during the whole time you're talking, if the camera switched to me, I was always touching my face, which is a real problem for me. I don't know if you know this when I was playing freshman football or when I say playing freshman football when I was on the freshman football team. Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

Showing their how it's done.

[Andrew Walsh]

I never had my own jersey number because I didn't rise to that level. I believe I was the only person on the team who did not have my own jersey. They just threw a dirty jersey on me before every game. And one time I asked my mom, well, how. She said, oh, I always know which one is you on the sidelines there. I'm like, how do you know I have a different number every time? And she said, because you're the one who's always playing with your face mask and that's me. I still do that.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't notice when, by the way, somebody I should find who said this. Somebody said that what we need to call the episodes of the show that we're releasing as a video content as well. We need to call it tbtv.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, instead of TBTL tv. I like tv. Although adding more and more letters is kind of funny. Like when we went from using a technology called ISDN and then we switched from that to ibdtl and it just sort of felt like we're just adding more and more letters to the technology that we use.

[Luke Burbank]

Also, I had it slightly wrong. It was from listener Ian.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hi, Ian who?

[Luke Burbank]

Ian said the donor only televised segments should be called tvtl. Oh, T. Tvtl. That's pretty good television.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, tvtl. That word.

[Luke Burbank]

It sounds like tbtl, but it's tvtl. It also kind of doesn't make sense, which is in keeping with our overall brand.

[Andrew Walsh]

And it muddies the waters even more.

[Luke Burbank]

It confuses the issue. It would involve a lot of explaining. I don't say that as a criticism, Ian. I mean, you get the show, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. So all of that is to say, sorry, my brain is in a million different places.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't think you were touching your face.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think I was trying to. So what I need to do is. What I'm trying to do is today is a show where we're probably not going to be posting this as a full video podcast, right?

[Luke Burbank]

No, I've already.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, for we both real. We both did our duty there, but

[Luke Burbank]

I need to use some gave all. Gave some.

[Andrew Walsh]

I need to use these non televised TV tls as practice to get the ticks out to stop touching my face all the time and like, just like pretend that I'm presentable for once in my goddamn life, is what I'm saying. I see.

[Luke Burbank]

So your approach is be disciplined. It's to like hone in your discipline.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Not to let all hone correctly there. It's not to get it all out where you just touch your face like a thousand times today when we don't get to see it and then when the next TV TL show you have no touches left.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, it's not that.

[Luke Burbank]

It's practicing, you know, practicing the control, the physical and mental control to not touch your face.

[Andrew Walsh]

So that's why I'm going to try to keep. Oh, you know what? Well, I have this pen in my hand so I won't touch my microphone a million times or my face. I have a pen. I have a fidget spinner. This actually.

[Luke Burbank]

Should we just.

[Andrew Walsh]

Was it.

[Luke Burbank]

I noticed you were fidget spinning away on yesterday's show.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is it distracting to you when I do that?

[Luke Burbank]

No, not at all. I kind of like the noise. I want to look like me that someone's there.

[Andrew Walsh]

I do. That was the woman whose neighbors played drums or something. Right. I would never know her name. That was before my time. Wasn't that when you're on the radio?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, but like, do we have that? I mean, I'm sure it's probably at Marsupial Gurgle, but I think we had a Listener who they had put up like a heavy bag for one of their kids.

[Andrew Walsh]

It wasn't drums. I always make that.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it was. I, you know, I don't. I refuse to stand by anything that I think I remember at this advanced age, but I refuse to stand by anything that I claim to remember. But my memory of it is that it was some kind of exercise equipment. And the people who were tens were worried about their neighbor being disrupted and annoyed by the noise. And then she. So they maybe called her or left her a note and then she called and left the sweetest message.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Saying, I don't, I don't. I don't mind it at all when you bang on that thing. In fact, I kind of like it. Tells me someone's there.

[Andrew Walsh]

In fact, I kind of like it. I'm trying to think of what the search term would be on Marsupial. I know.

[Luke Burbank]

And the problem is that's from my era, so we don't have a chance.

[Andrew Walsh]

I know I don't have it. And then I'm going to Marsupial. Gurgle. That's where I'm here. I'm on the hey Gurgle website. I forgot that Lynn named it hey Gurgle. That's so good.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's see.

[Caller or Guest]

But.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, so yeah, let's see. Hey Gurgle. So we should be able to search this. Theoretically, yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

But like, that's the. That's why I was saying that I don't know the. The term to use when I type in. I like it. I get 387 results, which I'm happy to go through all.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a lot of voicemails from that lady. Was she all right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. Let's see if I put quotes around it, I'm down to. Oh, that was 387 pages of results, by the way. Now I'm down to 19 pages of results. So I don't know the best way to go. To go around finding this right now.

[Luke Burbank]

Was it like Glenda Gladys, would you

[Andrew Walsh]

be open to just doing some of

[Luke Burbank]

the best feedback, whatever it is? Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Knows stuff with me.

[Luke Burbank]

Ah, I thought you'd never ask.

[Andrew Walsh]

We gotta. We always get great feedback when you and I accidentally stumble on just playing a bunch of drops in a row. I swear it's what brings people. Oh. In fact, you and I were having a lot of. We never acknowledged it, sort of. We never mentioned it by name. But while we were waiting for our live feed to begin from Valley City, we would kind of start the cameras. We'd Start the stream. But we would maybe have five or 10 minutes before the show actually began. And so we would just play rights free music to keep the people in the chat happy or let them know that we're sending audio down the line. And then you and I just started having a little drop wars over top of the music. I don't know if they were drop wars. They were drop peacetime actions. And it was so did you see my post the other day? I said maybe we wouldn't have so many problems if we raised our kids to play tug of peace. Of tug of war. Did not get the engagement. I was hoping.

[Luke Burbank]

Honestly, that's a pretty solid spoof.

[Andrew Walsh]

But anyway, people love just random drops. I'm just saying that we should do. It's an easy lift and people love it.

[Luke Burbank]

There was another thing that we meant to do when we were in Ohio and I forgot. And I would have done it right now, except it's on my rode computer, which is I just have. Speaking of our friends at Marsupial Gurgle, I just have like an Andrew Walsh section of drops.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, shoot.

[Luke Burbank]

And they're all titled very well because our friend Lynn, I believe, is the one who pulled them and organized them and has a good system for this somehow. And Lin used to send me stuff to play for you to intro you. And so through the various migrations of audio on my different computers, the computer I was using in Valley City had just this big chunk of Andrew Drops and we were just playing them for fun. And I was like, oh, the listeners would freaking love this. Unfortunately, I don't have it on this computer, but I will next time I'm on the road. Maybe. Now listen, do you know what the lady says?

[Andrew Walsh]

I just remembered in my head. She says, it does not bother me. Right? That's what she says. And now I'm looking to see if I can find that under that search term.

[Luke Burbank]

And I'm wondering.

[Andrew Walsh]

Fran.

[Luke Burbank]

I was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Fran, we did it. We did it. Joe, we did it. How about this? Let me see here.

[Caller or Guest]

It does not bother me here.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then the next one is.

[Caller or Guest]

It does not bother me. It. In fact, I kind of like it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Fran, we did it. Thank you. That's all.

[Luke Burbank]

I. Oh, that's all.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's on Mercy. Yeah, that's. But still though, that's closer than we got. And now you know the name is Fran. Maybe you can look through your own

[Luke Burbank]

archives because guess who Gladys is.

[Andrew Walsh]

Andrew, the character. I love Jesus, but I drink a little. That's Gladys Helen show, right? Or Ellen. Ellen Ellen. That's from Ellen DeGeneres, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I think you're thinking of Helen DeGeneres.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm thinking of Helen DeGeneres, who was at January 5th.

[Luke Burbank]

Where was she on January 5th? No, it was her and one of the other Bob's Burgers.

[Andrew Walsh]

Isn't that where that tape originally came from? That phone tape isn't tbtl, Right? It's somebody calling into the Ellen show.

[Luke Burbank]

I think that's a really good memory, actually. I would not have been able to pull that. But. But yeah, I think Jen became quite, quite enamored with that. You know, with that. I think a regular, semi regular caller on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, because you can get like, I. There's a lot of merch around that. And when I see it, I think of tbtl. But then I remember, oh, that belonged to the world, not just tbtl, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I love Jesus and I drink a little. Do we have merch for that?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no, the world has merch for it. That's what I'm saying. Like you. Sometimes you'll just see in an Etsy shop or something, a mug or like, it was a big deal in the Ellen verse, but because I don't watch Ellen, I just think of it as a big deal in the TBT Ella verse.

[Luke Burbank]

You didn't watch Ellen because you thought she was too nice behind the scenes?

[Andrew Walsh]

I did. I had heard.

[Luke Burbank]

Now that that info has been updated,

[Andrew Walsh]

have you considered I'm going back in? Yes, I am. I'm watching the. I'm watching the backlogs. I, I have just such a weird take on that. The Ellen thing and even the Steve Harvey thing. I don't know if I just am like in the pocket of Ellen and Harvey or whatever, but like, I don't know, it just sounded like they weren't super nice. Maybe I just didn't dig into it enough. But like, I, I failed to be offended by anything I heard about their behavior. But maybe I just didn't hear enough gross details of it. But I was kinda like, I don't know, some people just aren't that nice, I guess. Like, is that. Is that that big of a deal?

[Luke Burbank]

I think with Ellen it was the. It was the fact that her public Persona, she was so identified with just being a ray of sunshine and kind of, aw, shucks, Bonhommie, that. My guess was that for the people that worked for her who felt diminished by her or just felt that she was really not a very nice person, it was important to them that the world actually Know this information instead of buying into this lie in their opinion that she is a nice person.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I guess that makes a lot of. That makes a lot of sense. And again, I didn't hear the horror. If there are horror stories I didn't hear.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that's the thing, though.

[Andrew Walsh]

They weren't.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think anyone alleged any. Certainly there was nothing, you know, physical or, you know, inappropriate in a sexual nature or anything or verbally. I don't think even anyone said verbally. Abuser. I think it was just the basic story was just like everybody was really stressed out on the show and everybody kind of like dreaded Ellen being mad at them. You know, that was just kind of like basically what was going on behind the scenes were no resemblance to what was going on in front of the scenes. And they just kind of wanted people to know that.

[Andrew Walsh]

That bother me. I did not mean to play that, but it also made me chuckle. Sorry about that. No, you're right.

[Luke Burbank]

See, the drop war is heating up again.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's a drop.

[Luke Burbank]

We had a military action.

[Andrew Walsh]

It would be like when my mom. I remember being a little kid and like, my mom would be yelling at us, right? Maybe we had done something wrong, maybe we hadn't, but we're being yelled at by our mom. And then the phone would ring and she'd be like, hello, like the most, like. And you're just like, oh, come on, you can't put on that face for the world when you're treating us like this backstage. And that's what I said to Ellen.

[Luke Burbank]

And I think that that was one of those things too, that I felt like it was. It sort of resolved itself in, I think, a fair manner, which was she wasn't, quote unquote, canceled. Like, nobody was saying she's not allowed to host a talk show. They were just saying, hey, you might want to have this information. And then, you know, she remains fabulously wealthy. She actually released a stand up special that I think.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, really?

[Luke Burbank]

And I watched just out of curiosity,

[Andrew Walsh]

was it ain't good.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm. I remember thinking it was fine. It was like I actually really thought. In her early standup days before she had the sitcom Ellen, I remember thinking Ellen DeGeneres was a very funny stand up comic. I was like a fan of her work in whatever that would have been. That like, you know, late 80s or something where, like you and I talk about those various, you know, what was comic blend or what was the.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, there was two drink minimum hosted by Mark Maron, I believe. Who would Go on to be a podcaster and then quit podcasts. I don't know if you know about this fella. There was. Yeah, there was. Rosie O' Donnell hosted one on VH1. Like, I just watched premium bl. Oh, premium blend. Was that a stand up show?

[Luke Burbank]

It was another stand up show. You know, they found a brick wall somewhere.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sure.

[Luke Burbank]

And a microphone in a jazzy intro, I'm sure. But anyway, you know, when I would see her on stuff, or maybe I'm even really just thinking of her being on, you know, Leno or Carson or something. But anyway, I thought she was very funny. So I think my curiosity around her stand up special was this was well after, like her sort of, you know, her being, you know, kind of brought low by these. All these allegations and whatever. And she seemed to be, you know, she. She talked about it in her stand up special. I thought she actually, I thought she acquitted herself fairly well. I mean, I would give it a. It's like I wasn't cracking up and I'd really been looking forward to cracking

[Andrew Walsh]

for the cracking up, but.

[Luke Burbank]

But I thought it was sort of fine. The only comedian. There's like, there's only. There's like the three standup comedians that I even watch anymore. It's Carmen Christopher, Mary Beth Barone and Stavros Halkness.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

Those are my people.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then who's the fella? I don't know why I would do this, but I had nothing else to say, so I got to drag you through it. What about Ian Carmel? I got there, I saw. Remember we were on. We were at that bar after the, the Cleveland game, after the Guardians game. And we saw Ian Carmel. Then the, the British Late show host guy. Who.

[Luke Burbank]

James Corden.

[Andrew Walsh]

James Corden.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah, they were calling. They were doing soccer stuff.

[Andrew Walsh]

They were doing some sort of soccer awards show, some sort of special programming that aired during the World cup or something like that.

[Additional Guest or Caller]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Because Whoever was the U.S. broadcast home, I guess. Would that be Fox?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know who they. Because James Corden is British, I guess they decided to have him as their kind of like, you know, their evening anchor, like when everything was done. And now we're going to just kind of chop it up. This is the lighter side of FIFA and so. And Ian used to be the head writer for James's show. So that would make sense why they were.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, if I knew that I had forgotten that. I feel like that's the type of thing you have told me before, that

[Luke Burbank]

there was a. I think I Mentioned it to you while I was absolutely draining Papa Shot shots.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's right, yes. Was that where we saw it?

[Luke Burbank]

That place we walked to?

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you remember what you tried to do? You tried to. You didn't try to take the basketball, but you, like. You saved one basketball from the Papa Shot so you could just sort of, like, play with it in the bar. But then some kid came up and took the ball from you for a moment. You said, don't get me in trouble, and then he immediately got you in trouble.

[Luke Burbank]

His name was Carter.

[Andrew Walsh]

Did you get his name?

[Luke Burbank]

I did, yeah. They were these little, you know, papa Shop basketballs. But they were very much like. Actually, I've got.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is.

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe we will have to put this on tv. TL this is a very nice Wilson leather indoor basketball. Like, I would never play outside with this one because it would get ruined. And these Papashot balls at the bar in Cleveland were. They weren't obviously like, this nice because people would steal them, but they were, like, nicer than you would expect. They had a nice little hand feel. You could dribble them. They had enough air in them.

[Andrew Walsh]

And they're saying their regulation size.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, they're much.

[Andrew Walsh]

They're smaller. I thought they were, but they're made

[Luke Burbank]

by this company that really has the market cornered on Papa Shot games. And also the football equivalent, where you throw little mini footballs through things.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

The company is called Ice.

[Andrew Walsh]

Uh oh.

[Luke Burbank]

And it just says it on the balls. And the reason I noted that was because, well, the basketball I was holding that Carter asked if he could borrow. And I said, yeah, just don't screw this up for me. He dribbles it one time, and the bartender comes out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And goes, put that back. I was planning on maybe taking that basketball on a little adventure around Cleveland with me.

[Andrew Walsh]

But anyway, how are you going to get out of the bar, Pretend you're pregnant, probably.

[Luke Burbank]

And that was my. That was the first thing that came to mind. But the reason that I know that this ice company also makes the little footballs was because many years ago when we were in Las Vegas, and I'm gonna say this was me and Tune and the mummy, it might have been. What was her bachelorette party. So that would have been me and Toon and the mummy, the three of

[Caller or Guest]

us,

[Luke Burbank]

we were in the. It was like some kind of a fun arcade at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino. And somehow we ended up down there. And this was a trip where I think we had decided that our thing was not even really about alcohol. It was about eating mushrooms.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And which actually kind of, I have to be honest with you, I probably came back feeling better than I would have, you know, downing many, many alcoholic drinks during that weekend. But it led to some shenanigans, like playing that football game and then stealing the football because it was also a pretty good mini football.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm looking at these now ice games, 8.5 inch leather football used on the two minute drill. Is this probably the one?

[Luke Burbank]

That's got to be the exact one. And we took to running patterns in every casino that we went into. I'm talking on the gaming floor. This is how, you know, we were slightly out of our gourds. I also was absolutely peaking during the Thunder From down under, which was a terrible, terrible place to be having the mushrooms get on top of me.

[Andrew Walsh]

But also, I thought you were also peeking at. I mean, sure, it sounds like there are a lot of peaks, a lot of valleys, but also, didn't you have an experience up in the helicopter when you were going over the dam?

[Luke Burbank]

That was beautiful.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that was perfection.

[Luke Burbank]

That was like we did this helicopter ride over the strip and it was like the thing only lasts like 40 seconds. It goes really fast. And that was the 40 seconds that I was really entering another state of consciousness. It was less great at the Thunder From down under, which is a, you know, a kind of the Australia all male review. And, you know, I've told this story many times on the show, but there was like a dj, there was kind of like a guy to get the crowd hyped, who was also pretty buff. But he didn't really take his clothes off. He was just kind of like the hype guy for the other dudes. And he looked remarkably like Danny Bonaduce. He had the same red hair, he was about the same height. We wondered at times, was it Danny Bonaduce? It wasn't. But he kept his big thing that he kept yelling to get the crowd of primarily women, you know, bachelorette parties. And the, like, excited was. And I actually think I can say this on a family podcast, he would just say it's package grabbing time.

[Andrew Walsh]

And this is so that people didn't forget their bags or their purses or what have you.

[Luke Burbank]

It was just a reminder when you leave, grab your packages, make sure you don't leave any parcels here. I think what it was was that they brought some bachelorette up on stage, right? And then all the guys or the Thunder from Down under are dancing around and I think he's yelling, it's Package grabbing time. But then that just seems so touching.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is there touching? I thought, there's no touching.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, if. If Teemu Bonaduce was to be believed, it was package grabbing time. But then my memory is. He just kind of kept saying it throughout the show. And then I'm just like. I'm looking around, and the mummy and I are. I think, other than the men on stage, the only men in the room, which, under normal circumstances wouldn't bother me at all. But the mushrooms were really working on my brain about, like, you know, kind of like, are we. Are we out of place here, or

[Andrew Walsh]

would they call you out potentially, you know? Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Are they gonna, like. Are they gonna ask me to. Come on. Are they gonna ask me to join?

[Andrew Walsh]

Are they gonna. Are they gonna recruit me right here? Is my life about to change?

[Luke Burbank]

How passable is my Australian accent? Good day, mate.

[Andrew Walsh]

Can I hide these muscles so that they don't realize how attractive I am?

[Additional Guest or Caller]

But we also.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that trip, we ran around literally, like, the casinos, just running patterns and throwing that football to each other. And it was one of the most fun things that's ever happened to me in the city of Las Vegas.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I mean, it makes sense, too, because I understand that the floor of a casino is one of the least regulated places. They had no way of putting eyes on you. How in the world did you get away with this?

[Luke Burbank]

You know, it was a crime of opportunity. I just think it was like, you know, I would tell. Like, I would tell Jessica. I'd be like, okay, run down to that kitty glitter machine and then go behind it, and I'm gonna hit you over in this next lane. And then she would. And I would just throw it to her, and she would catch it, and then we'd go somewhere else in the casino. I don't know. I think it was. It just. We weren't ever at the place where he had done the pattern by the time maybe security came over and asked us to stop doing it. But it was. To this day, I think maybe one of the most fun things that I've ever done in Las Vegas was being high on mushrooms, throwing that ice football around.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, my friend, we're about to have the most fun you've ever had in your life, because I am on the Ice Games website. It's actually. Let's see here. It's betsonparts.com ice games or something. I can't.

[Luke Burbank]

Smart.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Oh, I see. It's Betson Imperial. So it's Betson parts. But anyway, you can go on and buy all kinds of replacement balls and doohickeys for all these games that you see in bars and arcades because people

[Luke Burbank]

keep stealing them because they're high on mushrooms.

[Andrew Walsh]

And so you can buy 10 of. Because. So remember before when I was talking about this little football, it says you need six of them per game. I was like, what do you mean? Oh, because you are somebody who has one of these two minute drill football games in your establishment. Now you need to buy some replacement balls. They're telling you that you need six per game. The basketball, same deal. But you can buy 10 for $7.40 a piece. Luke, $7 or the basketball. The basketball is 740, the football is 850. I mean, we can afford this.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you think this is an official TBTL purchase? Like maybe we start bringing them to listener events? Because I'm looking at this football, man, and it is exactly the one. And you'll be unsurprised to know I brought it home, it lived, it's made. It made two to three moves with me of different homes. And there would be times people would be over again, maybe some adult beverages being consumed and I'd break out that ice official ball and we'd toss it around. It's also much smaller than a real football. Have you ever tried to throw an actual NFL size football? You're like, how in the world are they doing this? Like it's impossible for like a normal person. So this is perfect. It's small. You can throw a cool spiral with it. It's a very fun thing to have. I mean, I don't know If I need 10 of them, by the way, to get them for 725, we have to buy 50. Which even by my standards seems excessive. You know how I always like to

[Andrew Walsh]

have multiples of everything, one for every listener. Let me see here.

[Additional Guest or Caller]

Buy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, buy 10 for $8.25 a piece, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. I'm saying if we wanted to get the lowest price.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh sure, the seven.

[Luke Burbank]

We could get that down to 725 of them.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know about that. But. But you know what? I do know about that and I do know. I mean look at all of the things you can. There's a whole gaming section here. But you can buy new button for your. For your pinball machines and your. What am I thinking of? What's the old one? Armed bandit. Although there are no slot machines. There are no arms on slot machines anymore. It's hard to find a machine with an arm.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, they got rid of those, mostly, although they still exist. And sometimes if I'm playing those machines, a machine with an arm, I'll just pull it just to try to change

[Andrew Walsh]

up the mojo, which is as opposed to just hitting the button. Hitting the button, and then you're just like, I'll just pull the arm. I would.

[Luke Burbank]

It's funny how they. How they just turn the water up on the frog. That is me and other people who tend to like to gamble, which is. I was never a big slot machine guy anyway. I would play a lot of blackjack and stuff. But on occasion when I would play the slots, I loved. In the early days of me going to Vegas, I loved the experience of if you won. You know, you have that, like. You have like a little plastic bucket and it just dumps a bunch of quarters in there. And it's like kind of fun and tactile. And then I remember when they were like, we're not doing the coins anymore.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was like, this is B.S. yes.

[Luke Burbank]

This will never. Nobody's gonna play. The fun part is getting a bunch of grimy ass quarters and dealing with that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And they're like, no tokens even. They're like, now we're just going with the. We're just going with the paper ticket now. I was like, that's so unfun. And then it was like, we're getting rid of the arms. We're not gonna pull. Do the pull arm. And I was like, what?

[Caller or Guest]

That's.

[Luke Burbank]

I love doing that. That's one of my favorite parts of it. And now I forget that those were even features. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that'd be ridiculous. I wouldn't be carrying around a bucket of tokens or quarters anyway.

[Andrew Walsh]

It still sounds more fun to me. By the way, there's also a game called. And this is kind of an arcade game. It's like a structure that's kind of like one of those toy arm grabber games.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, it's.

[Andrew Walsh]

But instead it's called Pop it for Gold Extreme. And it's some sort of huge balloon that. I guess your thing is you buy a. You buy your. Your way into this game and then you push a button and I think it expands a little bit more. And then if you're the one who pops it and Luke, we can buy this game and we can buy replacement balloons for this game. I'm somehow more excited about the replacement balloons.

[Luke Burbank]

That's incredible.

[Andrew Walsh]

Are you watching the video that I'm watching right now?

[Luke Burbank]

No, I'm just looking at it on. On The Internet. But like, it's about to blow. That's. It's. You know what? That's sort of like the cousin of. Have you ever seen those? They're called, like Skill Dozer, where it's like piles of coins and things and then it's pushing ever closer but somehow not ever going over the edge. So precarious. This kind of. This kind of edging effect of these games where it's like, is it close enough? Are the quarters going to fall over the edge? Is the balloon going to pop?

[Andrew Walsh]

So I just have a shaky handheld video from somebody's phone. I think some sort of an arcade of somebody playing Poppet Extreme Ticket.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm watching this too.

[Andrew Walsh]

I love this sound. Is this the sound of the beach?

[Luke Burbank]

So there's a little kind of like arrow that is spinning around a wheel and where that lands, I'm guessing is going to indicate.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is that.

[Luke Burbank]

Am I reading that right?

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what that was at the beginning? Oh, it blew. Somebody just matter of factly said, that works good. Yeah, it works good. It's amazing. That was the best part of my week.

[Luke Burbank]

That's very satisfying. Although I think I'm watching a different Poppet Extreme. Oh, yeah, there it went.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. You at the end. Yeah, yeah. Now I'm seeing this dial in the front.

[Luke Burbank]

That's fun. That's really fun.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, sounds good. This is what we're doing.

[Luke Burbank]

We know what we're giving away for the next year's TBTL A thon one

[Andrew Walsh]

attempt at popping our balloon.

[Luke Burbank]

Dazzling donor level. Pop it Extreme. Hey, I mentioned this at the top of the show, Andrew, and we were all sort of texting about this a little bit last night, but I feel like with all my negativity about the Mariners yesterday, it's only right. And also gives us an excuse to talk about it. It's only right that I say, boy, was that a fun and satisfying game last night. And while I wasn't exactly right because I thought we were going to actually just come out and really like blow the doors off it. Like it might be one of those weird 102 games. That was not what it was. It's still. It is crazy to me. Okay, so we are. The Seattle Mariners baseball team has been playing very mediocre this season and it's been causing many of us fans great frustration. And they are. Were, as of yesterday, going into Los Angeles to play the Dodgers, who are, I don't know if they have the best record in baseball, but they're what, two time defending World Series champs Everybody on the team is phenomenal.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, there's no holes in the lineup. It's like. Did I say this on the show yesterday? It's like a video game. If you just, like, had a cheat code and you're just like, oh, yeah, I'm just gonna take all the best players and just put them all.

[Luke Burbank]

I know. And that's part of their frustration, I think. I think rightfully. And so we were like. We just had a really bad series in Texas against a team that's not nearly as good as the Dodgers. And now we're going over to Los Angeles, and now we're just gonna get sp banked, and the season will be officially lost. That still might happen. But, boy, hanging seven on the Dodgers and, like, getting out of there even after that ninth inning where it just looked for all the world like that thing. We were leading by two runs going into the bottom of the ninth. And then, of course, it's like, you know, Shohei Ohtani hits a triple. Now the guy scores. They're down by one run. He's on third base with no outs. And it's just like, Murderer's Row is coming up. It's like, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncie. It's like, you know, where's Justin Tucker? Somewhere down there. Mookie Betts, just. Anyway, we just. We kind of stepped up and we kind of like. And also, sorry not to get two X's and O's about it, but, like, which, you know, really, I really shouldn't use that if I'm talking about being overly detailed on baseball, because they don't use X's and O's on baseball.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's okay. Really, really quickly. Genevieve, during after these messages last night was remembering a 1-800-dui- away commercial. Do you hear those where you are? Do you know these commercials? It's like he's got a. He's a lawyer who's got a very Better Call Saul sort of presentation in these radio ads. And he likes to make his ads like, they stand out. They're kind of funny, but they're filled with puns, right?

[Additional Guest or Caller]

And it'll be.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I think it's a kind of a Seattle area guy. And he'll be like. And he has one that's all about baseball apparently, is like. Because remember, after the game, it might not just be the bases that are loaded. It might be you. And it's all this thing. It's like, you know, don't drink and drive. But if you get caught drinking and driving, me, Brad Johnson 1-800-dui away. I think it's Brad Johnson. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

1-877-Brad Johnson.

[Andrew Walsh]

And anyway, Genevieve, who's not, like, a huge baseball fan, said that, like, this commercial. She loved it. She heard it a lot. Except at the end, he makes one more punny analogy, and he says something about going into overtime, and she's like, baseball doesn't have overtime. What are you doing? Call it extra innings. Which I really respected her.

[Caller or Guest]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

He did exactly the thing that I always do, which is something's kind of working, and then I get overly ambitious with it, and then I say something that doesn't work is wrong. And then I'm, like, so mad at myself I didn't just leave it alone.

[Andrew Walsh]

So, anyway, X's and O's. I guess you're right. Not. They don't.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know why this is. Let me just see if this. This will be a. This is old one. Why in the world would somebody post move in 92. 5. 1-800-dui away. Right to remain silent commercial to YouTube, but also have the volume so low,

[Andrew Walsh]

so hard to find.

[Luke Burbank]

So I don't want to get too into the detail, into the X's and O's of the. Of the baseball game, but what I found also very gratifying about the game last night was the people on the Seattle Mariners who are supposed to be good at baseball were being good at baseball. I mean, along with Dom Canzone. But, like, you had a home run from Julio, you had a home run from Cal Raleigh. Like, you had a resurgent Rob Ref Schneider.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

Or didn't look like the same guy.

[Andrew Walsh]

I call him Pet Sematary Rob Ref Schneider. That's so crazy.

[Luke Burbank]

I was too afraid to come back. But I assume that. Assume that something that Eddie Furlong has dug up out of the ground.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's been gone for a long time. Old Ref Schneider. And then he came back, and suddenly he's a. He's playing different.

[Luke Burbank]

I better get that Ref Schneider jersey before there's a run on.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. No, I'm kidding.

[Luke Burbank]

But. But it was just. It's so funny how. How, you know, fickle I am as a. As a person and a sports fan and how just how emotional I am and how my emotions can change so quickly about something that is meaningless, which is, like, professional sports. But like, I really was last night, like, okay, well, we just, you know, we beat the Dodger. Nobody thought we could do that. If we get one more. If we can just, like, get two out of three against them, win One of the next two games. That's a huge moral victory. It's fixing our brain. Suddenly Cal Raleigh remembers. He is a good baseball man. Like, like I can fully spin myself up into thinking that this is a season defining win.

[Andrew Walsh]

Here's how I look at it. So by the way, do you know that this is the first time the Mariners have won in Los Angeles since Barack Obama was.

[Luke Burbank]

Since Ken Griffey Jr. Was on the roster.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's right. The second time. But yes, it's true. Right. Because Griffey was on in 2009. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

But which Obama presidency was on but.

[Andrew Walsh]

Cuz that was when he came back, right. To close out his career here. But like it is crazy when you look at like who some of the Mariners were back in 2009, the last time we won in that stadium. So that's definitely interesting detail.

[Luke Burbank]

Ibanez coming in.

[Andrew Walsh]

So for me, now listen, I don't know, and I'm not trying to harsh any buzzes, I don't know that this, you know, foresees a grander future for the Mariners than I was expecting. But I will say this. If the Mariners had lost that game yesterday after. So for folks who were watching it, just to really, really sum it up, the Mariners offense has been moribund this season. Just like cannot scratch up any runs at all. Right? And they're peaking at basically two runs a game and just losing all of them. And then yesterday, playing one of the best teams in baseball with like you said, like this, this movie scale lineup, they're suddenly hitting bombs away, as our friend Kyle might say, Kyle Mooney might say, like. And so and they would lose the lead and then come back and tie it up or lose the lead and then come back and take the lead. And then they took the lead and then gave, you know, kind of lost some ground on the lead a little bit, but held steady like it was a game where they kept battling back, kept battling back against all odds. And so because of that dynamic, if the Mariners had lost and it would have been very easy for them to lose even with like just one out left. Like there was just like we had Ohtani sat at third base for the last three outs of the game, or at least two.

[Luke Burbank]

And I was livid about, we're talking about X's and O's. I was livid about the decision to pitch to Freddie Freeman. It was a bad matchup for us. Righty, lefty, he's a good hitter. Like, like, I'm like, put him on first, create a double play.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, what do you mean? Did you need a double play at that point, though? Maybe you. Maybe you. I saw your note about that, but I was kind of like, yeah, but who comes up after him? It was whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

It was Muncie, who they ended up walking.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, it's Free. Freeman. Muncie.

[Luke Burbank]

And then he struck someone out. Mookie Bets. Mun Munoz struck someone out. Bets grounded out to short to end the game.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, Exactly. That's why I always just sort of meant, like, if you walk Freeman.

[Luke Burbank]

When Freeman was up, there were no outs and first base was open and Ohtani was on third. And my question was, actually, that's not true. When Freeman came up, there was one out, and Ohtani was on third because Mooney had struck out the previous hitter, whoever that was. And what I was thinking was, you have one out. It's Freddie Freeman. It's a right. It's like a righty, lefty matchup. It's bad for us. He could easily yank one out to the short porch. In fact. In fact, he may have already. No, Muncie had hit a home run already that game. But I was like, put Freeman on first, and then you have at least a chance for a double play to end the game. Like, what are you doing? But it worked. Freeman rounded to Naylor, I think.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's. That's why I thought I. That's why I didn't totally. First of all, I think you were slightly behind because your text came in after it had already worked out, but I remember that. So I guess I wasn't thinking about the double play opportunity, but I remember thinking, but if you walk Freddie Freeman, who's up next? Next, Max Muncie, who already hit one home run this game, it didn't sort of seem like a real.

[Luke Burbank]

I was like, walk the bases loaded.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You create a force at home, which is something that I don't understand in these scenarios. Like, I know in that case you. It's like you don't want the guy. You don't want a guy on second and third, because that means the winning run is in scoring position. But once that happens, once a guy's on second, which, by the way, a guy, whoever it was, stole second, we ended up with. They end up with a guy on second and third, and the guy, they just let him steal second without even trying to hold him back, which is putting the winning run in scoring position, which was like, really stressing me out, too. But, yeah, there's a certain point where I'm like, you know what? Let's load the bases. Let's create force at every. At every base. Let's create a force at home. Why not? But all that is to say to your point, Andrew, and you're totally right, they just showed moxie and they have.

[Andrew Walsh]

And so to finish. I'm sorry, if you don't mind, though, to finish my point. If they had. So while I'm not saying that this game necessarily portends what's in the future for the Mariners, but had. I know they are. I know you are, and I don't want to take that away from you, but I'm not saying that. But I think that if they had lost this game in the ninth inning, after coming back so many times and having the offensive game of the year, I feel like that there would be no coming back from that. Like, and maybe that's just me as a fan, but I just feel like that would have been the biggest heartbreak. And then just to say we still haven't won here since 2009, we're not going to win the next two games. Just don't think the team would. I think it would have just broken them.

[Luke Burbank]

I'll tell you this. Kuow would be hiring a producer.

[Andrew Walsh]

Why?

[Luke Burbank]

Because I do not believe our friend Durs would be with us if after leading by two going into the bottom of the night, Charlie Brown was finally going to make contact with that football like it would have been. Yeah, that would have been the kind of loss that just. You know what?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, Duras was already.

[Luke Burbank]

Hold him up.

[Andrew Walsh]

He was already.

[Luke Burbank]

The season. Cancel the team, send everyone home.

[Andrew Walsh]

He was already, like, shaking the gasoline can all over himself. Do you remember he sent the text message that said, this is over. There's zero chance of us winning. And again, I think there was only one out in the night.

[Luke Burbank]

Now, that's football talk, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right. But I do think that it's funny when he sent that because I don't get as. And I know that your feelings on this have sort of evolved, and I don't think he triggers you as much as he used to with that kind of talk. But. But I will say that it doesn't really bother me as much, his kind of constant drumbeat of negativity. But there is a sort of. It's like a compulsion for him. I know he knows that doesn't help anything. It doesn't help to say to the 10 people on the text chain or whatever it is, there's no way we're winning this. It's over. My life is over. Just Lord if it be thy will, it doesn't do anybody any good. And he knows that. But I just don't think that he can regulate. It's his only release is to just sort of foresee the worst possible ending of this and then tell us all that. And then I know he was happy when they won, but like, there's just something that he can't stop himself. And because even I was kind of like, listen, I'll be honest with you now, Luke. I thought we were going to lose in the ninth. Like, I'm just like, I just. Mooney's going to come out here, it's going to be really, really sad and it's going to be a bad night. But I didn't feel the need to tell the chain that. You know what I mean? I was like, if we pull it out and we win, that'll be huge. And if we lose, I might tell you later, I kind of had a bad feeling about that. You know what I mean? But like, you don't need to say it in the moment. It doesn't make anybody enjoy the, the process more.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a hyper vigilance that is for him, you know? And by hyper vigilance, it's like he's trying to look to the horizon, identify the danger, which is that the Mariners are going to lose and name it and claim it so that it's somehow less harmful to him, is what I think.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're right.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a sort of. And listen, I've got a bunch of my own versions of that, so I'm not ragging on our friend. But yeah, it's like, it's funny because he knows what he's doing and he kind of can't stop himself. But hey, in this case, we did pull it out. I didn't think going into the bottom of the ninth up by two. I didn't realize at first that Ohtani was coming up. Here's one last thing that I'll say, and then we could maybe talk about something non baseball related. But like, I also kind of feel like we. Look, Ohtani went. What did he go? 3 for 4. He had a home run in a triple. And I think he was 2 for 3 when coming up in the 9th. So I think he went 3 for 4. He had a home run, he had a triple. I mean, we, we kind of took his best shot and we won. It is statistically unlikely, and I will probably rue saying this, but it's statistically unlikely. He's not going to do that every game of this series. And so, I mean, yes, he always could.

[Andrew Walsh]

There's any player who could or would, it would be him, obviously.

[Luke Burbank]

I was just. But I was saying, statistically, it's unlikely that he will have that kind of production each and every night. So it's like, it makes me feel actually also kind of good. Like, okay, we took like a. We took a roundhouse from, like, their best guy, and we actually managed to, you know, we managed to. To sort of somehow come out on top. So I am, of course, now. My whole life is now reoriented around tonight's game. That's the other thing. It's like, this affects my life so much because, like, if they would have lost last night, either getting blown out or losing in the bottom of the ninth, I would be like the Seattle Mariners. That doesn't sound like anything to me. I would have no thoughts about locking in on the game. Like, when I'm excited about the Mariners and it's the summertime and I'm home, it affects what I cook for dinner when I start my dinner prep. Because to me, like, the perfect. The perfect way to be doing it is like, I watch Chris's show and then I bop over to the Mariners as I'm, like, starting to chop the vegetables in my kitchen, watching it on or in. You know, it's all kind of one room in my house. But anyway, like, my whole. My whole day now is sort of reverse engineered around sitting there at 7, 10, West coast, watching this team again. All it took was one game for me to now be fully back, you know, obsessed.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm excited to hear that it's not a day game today. I just assumed that was going to be a West coast day game because Wednesdays often are. So I'm really glad to know that it's a seven o' clock game. I will try to check it out as well.

[Luke Burbank]

7, 10 even.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I'm going to. I'm going to protect my emotions. I was ready to, like, not even pay attention to this series. I just assumed we were going to get swept. So I feel a little bit like a bad fan. It's almost kind of like, well, we. We even won even just winning one. I have. I'm a little bit more, I don't know, apathetic about what happens in the next two games in the series. Like, that's how. That's how down I am. Just about, like, maybe the team. That's funny.

[Luke Burbank]

We have the opposite reaction.

[Andrew Walsh]

But no, I mean, hey, maybe you're right. Maybe the Mariners will never Lose another game this season or ever.

[Luke Burbank]

I. It's too early to know, but I'm leaning towards ever.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, if you look at recent results, I don't see any reason why they'd ever.

[Luke Burbank]

It's one of the things they always.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's more fun to win during the,

[Luke Burbank]

you know, ads for, like, investment and other financial programs. Past results are a guarantee, they say. The future results.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

Always say they have to.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's legal. Hello, and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

This is an article you actually sent me a little while ago, Andrew, from the New York Times, about the fact that younger people, younger generations are not saying Google that. They're saying. Search it up. This was a piece by Sophie Haney in the Times saying that, you know, it would basically Gen Z and Gen Alpha, which this is probably part of being. Whatever generation I am. I still am a little unclear. I know those are the real young people, but as Gen Z and Gen Alpha, is that like. Like teenagers?

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know. Yeah. Well, I guess the. The Z would. Because it. It wrapped back around. Right. That's why it went from Z to Alpha. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, okay. Oh, I didn't.

[Andrew Walsh]

See.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't realize that.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm thinking. I mean, I don't really know much about this generational labeling either, to be honest with you. And so I get. Because the. Are the millennials Gen Y? Is that interchangeable or was it millennials?

[Luke Burbank]

I hear Gen Y very much.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I feel like it. Maybe they. They might have been. Here's my thinking on this, and I'm totally possibly wrong, but I don't want to just keep Googling. I just said Googling. I don't want to spend the whole show searching it up. But I feel like they were calling what would become the millennial generation Gen Y for a while. Then the terminology just changed. I could be wrong about that. But then you had Gen Z after that, and then this Gen Alpha were the young kids who were doing all the, like, nibbity slang or whatever, which was. Was, you know, I just decided 6,

[Luke Burbank]

7, and Skibidi toy.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's Alpha. Right. Which means the babies who are being born now are gonna be the next generation.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, they are gonna be the next generation, but what are we gonna call them? Maybe the Pepsi generation.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe. I mean, I don't. I was gonna say Beta, but that seems like that's got some baggage.

[Luke Burbank]

A little. That's got some baggage. Yeah. Right Now. Now Gen X, the one. We're in Gen X, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

We're in Gen X. I'm a very, very young Gen X. Or was. Some people my age would maybe even consider, consider themselves very, very old millennials. I'm like kind of right on the cusp. But, but I mean, if you know anything about me, you know that it's Gen X's, you know, I mean, you're

[Luke Burbank]

part of the greatest generation. It's greatest is defined by playing darts.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right.

[Luke Burbank]

But so was X. Is that because of the number 10 and where we fell? Because it's like the, the generation before us wasn't called like, you know, what comes before X in the Alphabet? I can't do that without singing the whole song.

[Andrew Walsh]

Sing it. I would like to hear that.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, by the way that, you know that the Alphabet song is also Twinkle, twinkle little star.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now that you say that. I do.

[Luke Burbank]

Twinkle, twinkle little star. So why Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X? So there was no like W generation. Like why did they hang X on us?

[Andrew Walsh]

It sounds like it was from like the idea of like an unknown quantity, like from algebra or something. That's what I'm seeing online as I search.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, yeah. Oh gosh, I'm not even going to try to remember what the term for that is in a math equation. When it's like, you know, X stands in for something or whatever.

[Andrew Walsh]

But you're always solving for X. Right? Like you know, where all the numbers are, but then there's an X. But the X might not be on the usual side of the, you know, equal sign.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, in this piece, Sophie Haney is talking about talking to an 11 year old old. So if that gives you a sense, if gives anybody a sense of the age group. She says that she was Talking to this 11 year old about if they've ever said, used the term Google it and they said absolutely not because they haven't. These kids are, these young people are not only digital natives, but they're like, they've never even thought to Google something. They've searched it. Some of this in the article is described as kind of the, you know, just the decline of, of of Google as like the only way to get information. Also the way that search has changed because now of course it's like the AI stuff and everything. Like it's almost quaint for us to go onto like a search bar like Google and put in our question and then get a bunch of different results and then go through those different links to decide which one we're going to read and believe. It's like. And it's working on me too. Unfortunately. It's like the AI result now is just like, oh, we'll just tell you the answer to this. Like, we're not going to give you a bunch of links. One of the things. So of course they're saying search it up instead of Google it because they're not using Google. One of the things that was the most charming about this entire article to me, Andrew, was. Can you guess? Because you sent it to me.

[Andrew Walsh]

I read it when I sent it to you, but it was several days ago. There might have even been a weekend in between. So I'm not sure that I do remember what you're talking about.

[Luke Burbank]

The shift towards using this phrasal verb that would be search it up has been profound in the youngest generations. A few years ago, a podcast called Away with Words.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I don't know. I don't think I read that. I must not have read the whole thing. Oh my God, that's great.

[Luke Burbank]

My favorite podcast slash radio show that I heard about, I was in San Antonio with Becca. I was driving to a Starbucks, turned on the radio on a Saturday morning in the rental car and there was A Way with Words, which is maybe the most public radio sounding public radio show of all time. I was going to play you a little bit of this because they've actually got the clip pulled on the way where waywardradio.org, which is their website.

[Andrew Walsh]

That was a. That was a podcast. I used to. I used to listen to their podcast all the time. I love Away With.

[Luke Burbank]

They're on a lot of stations.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah. This is right up my alley. And I think.

[Luke Burbank]

Jealous.

[Andrew Walsh]

I feel like the hosts have changed because I feel like one of the. I feel like Bob Garfield or something used to be a host of A Way with Words. But I could be wrong about that.

[Luke Burbank]

In addition to. On the media.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know what? I might. Yeah, it would be in addition to.

[Luke Burbank]

But I think I might be thinking of Bob Heathcliff.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm thinking of Robert Heathcliff. You know what? I think that maybe Bob Garfield teamed up with somebody from Slate to start a different kind of word and grammar related podcast. Maybe that. But I do remember listening to Away with Words. I'm on their website now. I remember this logo well.

[Luke Burbank]

So when I heard it in San Antonio and I think I like literally like the next Monday told you about it because I was like, it's the most charming name. And I thought it was just this like folksy local show in maybe San Antonio or something. Because it really does seem like it should be Carrie Brownstein. And Fred Armisen, you know, playing like very kind of, you know, sort of sweet. But what's the word? A sincere public radio or something you're listening to Away with Words. Like, it almost seems like an SNL skit for a public radio show. But then I went and I just the other day when I saw this link, I went and I looked at their carriage. You know, the list of all the stations are on. They're on a lot of stations, too, so it's working.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's how I first heard about them. I don't remember your discovery of this. Cause I feel like I would have said, because I know that I was pretty locked into a way with words for a while. By the way, the Bob Garfield show that I was thinking of, which was sort of similar, was called Lexicon Valley. I don't know if you remember that.

[Luke Burbank]

What was that with that other guy who was on Fresh Air?

[Andrew Walsh]

Mike Vuolo, Bob Garfield, and John mcwhorter. And I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, John mcwhorter.

[Andrew Walsh]

That name doesn't as much ring.

[Luke Burbank]

I know John mcwhorter. I've interviewed him before. He's a linguist. He's at Stanford, I believe there's still.

[Andrew Walsh]

The last episode came out a day ago. So Lexicon Valley is still going strong, which is exciting for me as well. So. But anyway, I could bring both of these into my life again.

[Luke Burbank]

Who was the guy on Fresh air? Oh, Jeff Nunberg. Remember, he was their linguist. This is when I knew that public radio was not public radio was not like other radio that I was going to be listening to because I didn't grow up listening to it. And then when I got into it, it was things like Fresh Air that I really loved. And it was like, Jeff Nunberg is Fresh Air's linguist. And I thought you have a staff linguist. And he would do these great essays just about. I mean, this exact thing, the way they. That the use of words changes or phrases or things. He knows. And I always remembered he was at the Xerox center for Language at Palo Alto. Like, it was like a Stanford. Like Xerox had, like, paid the money to name the building where the linguists work at Stanford.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, right.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

So here. Oh, oh, you're going to play a little bit of it. Cool. Because there was one other part of this article that I just wanted to mention as well. Not to get away with the away with words thing, but don't get away with words. The thing that struck me about this is because I don't know if I totally buy into this premise, but the article says one of the reasons why the term googling it is just sort of dissipating isn't because I told Genevieve about this story. She's like, oh, is it because of a generational rejection of brand names or something? And it's not as explicit as that or intentional as that. Maybe I should say it's just more according to this article that, that we used to say Kleenex a lot interchangeably with tissue. Kleenex being the brand name or me growing up. I don't know if this is universal, but saying, hey, where's the Saran Wrap? As opposed to the cling wrap or whatever you would call it, right? And according to this article, or a linguist they talk to, it's just that once the brand name, the novelty wears off, the norm sort of reverts back to calling things by their generic names. And that more people are saying tissue now than Kleenex. And I was just wondering, is that true? I never said Kleenex growing up. We always said tissues, where's the tissue box? Or whatever. But do you think it's true that people these days are more likely to say tissue than kleenex than, say, 40 years ago?

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't buy that either, necessarily that just the novelty of calling it a Xerox machine. I guess I might call it a copy machine. But yeah, I don't know if I totally bought that either that we're. That that's why we would not be saying Google it as much because they go through a phase with one of these things with calling it Velcro. First of all, no one's calling it hook and loop technology. As much as we like to joke about that on the show. That is 100% not worked. We're all calling it Velcro. That's what it is. And I think if I remember right in this article, she also mentions that there was a point at which Google was kind of didn't want people using it as a verb for the same reason. For the same reason that the Velcro people put out the hook and loop technology music video. So like Google for a while was worried that if they called everything Googling, it would sort of water down, I guess, the Google brand or something.

[Andrew Walsh]

And you can't, I don't think you can protect the trademark anymore once it becomes too much in the vernacular in the population.

[Luke Burbank]

What about Gorgo?

[Andrew Walsh]

Gorgol I think is still. What about hey, Gorgle? What about Gurgle? Hey, Gurgle.

[Luke Burbank]

But you have to take out the U. So it's G, R, G, L, E,

[Andrew Walsh]

or put an umlaut over it. Either one.

[Luke Burbank]

So. So I just wanted to play you a little clip of Away with Words because this show is adorable and everybody should go download the podcast and listen to it on your local public radio station. But this is a caller, Sophia, who is describing. Search it up. And so this is like a little. This is a little, you know, first person reportage on the topic. Hi. You have a way with words. Oh, by the way, I meant to say, the only note I have for the show is I noticed this when I was in San Antonio. When they're taking calls, they don't say welcome to Away with Words or hi there, caller. Who's this? They say, hello, you have a way with words.

[Andrew Walsh]

You like it? You don't like it?

[Luke Burbank]

I hate it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Why? They're playing around with words.

[Luke Burbank]

They're being cutesy.

[Andrew Walsh]

They're being cute.

[Luke Burbank]

I know. I believe it's. I'm sure it's working for most of their listeners. I'm just the one outlier who's like, away. Hi. You have a way with words. I know. Again, it just feels like Molly Shannon is saying it from under a knit sweater, which is not a knock of our Way with Words friends, because, again, the show is awesome. But here's Sophia.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hi.

[Luke Burbank]

You have a way with words.

[Caller or Guest]

Hi, this is Sophia. I'm calling from Naperville, illinois, and I'm 13.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, Sophia, welcome to the show.

[Luke Burbank]

What can we do for you?

[Caller or Guest]

Thank you. Well, I have a question about this term that my sister and I use. And actually, some of my friends, whenever we're going to Google something, we always say, let's search it up. Let's search.

[Luke Burbank]

Now, it's interesting that she said, whenever we're going to Google something.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

We say search it up.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's why. Yeah, I'm a little. I don't want to.

[Luke Burbank]

It's interesting.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's interesting. It makes. Because it sounds like she's dubious.

[Luke Burbank]

She's using Google.

[Andrew Walsh]

Doesn't this feel like we use Google? Yeah, it seems like she. Yeah, it seems like she. Her default is to say to Google, but she's trying to make a point here. Almost as if maybe her parents said, hey, I noticed some of your. I don't know, I always get. I always get too dubious of things. But it's.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you think parents that are trying.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know, like, I'm sure, I'm sure she loves the show. I'm sure she listens with her parents. But it feels to me that she very casually said, when I Google something, I don't call it Googling it. I'm like, maybe that's a word. There's something weird familiar with that. Yeah, exactly. Maybe.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, here.

[Caller or Guest]

A little astronomy Internet. And my mom, who is a speech pathologist, she is always correcting us, and she's saying, like, no, it's not search it up. It's look it up.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, that's interesting, too.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. This is different.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, I could get into that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Caller or Guest]

And so we were wondering, like, is it something that just. We say, is it wrong? And. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

How long do you think you've been saying search it up?

[Caller or Guest]

Honestly, since I can remember. It's what I've said.

[Additional Guest or Caller]

And your mom, her protest is it's not the way that she says it.

[Andrew Walsh]

So she feels like it's wrong.

[Caller or Guest]

Yeah. She says that it's look it up or just search it.

[Luke Burbank]

She's not wrong about that. How do you feel about search it up? I think search it up is kind of zazzy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Honestly, I think it's zazzy as well. I mean, that's one of those things where the mom is not wrong as far as the truth tradition of how we use language. But also, at one point, somebody just decided that look it up as a phrase. You know what I mean? Does that have more validity than search it up, or is it just that search it up is new and, like you say, I, like, feels. I don't know, feels activated or feels like an action to me.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, search it up, man. We got to start trying to say that because we're always trying to bring in those younger listeners.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's what will bring them in.

[Luke Burbank]

They're like, oh, they be gen alpha, gen beta, gen, deca.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe we can think of a different word that starts with B for that gen. Like Jen Bookworm. What about.

[Luke Burbank]

What about they don't know what books

[Andrew Walsh]

are badass kind of course.

[Luke Burbank]

What about Jen Badass girls rule. This is my fight song.

[Andrew Walsh]

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

[Luke Burbank]

All right. Do you have any emails or vmails? If not, I think I've got a couple, too.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. What do you. Why don't you start with one? Because I'm just opening up my email now, seeing if anything jumps out at me. Oh, I will say I am shocked at how many people are coming out of the woodwork. Sorry, I didn't know. I was in the woodwork to tell me that actually they agree with my take on theater seats. When I was talking about this on Monday, I said, hey, listen, we can all like different things. I'd not trying to convince anybody that I'm right about new modern theater seats that recline being something that I don't like. It's just something I don't like. And other people, when I've brought it up in the past, I've heard from so many people who are like, oh, I love the new movie theater experience, but because of the way I set it up on Monday, saying that I think I'm alone in this. I have heard from so many people who are like, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am with you. We do not need to be reclining that much in a movie theater.

[Luke Burbank]

Interesting. Maybe you'll start a movement.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it says this. Well, Mark wrote in to say it makes at least two of us. I don't know if we were raised by the same strict but loving parents, but I tend to agree with you on all matters of propriety. Oh, I love that. So anyway, sounds like Mark was also

[Luke Burbank]

raised in a no drive thru family.

[Andrew Walsh]

Possibly. Possibly. So anyway, shout out to everybody who's been kind of emailing and texting about that, could I.

[Luke Burbank]

This is a bit of a roll of the dice, but we've been talking about the Odyssey a lot as of late and did you see that? Listener Eric in Madison sent us a.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I have been meaning to listen to this.

[Luke Burbank]

An audio. It's his review of the Odyssey. All I know is that it's about a:48 and I could play it from here.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's all I can do. I've been meaning to listen to it, but let's.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, that'd be one way to do it. That would be the professional way, but also we could just run and gun.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, also, he sent that on July 24th. That was five days ago. I've been saying I've been meaning to review it. Clearly, I mean, I mean, in the words of one of your favorite traffic reporters, I'm clearly a choke point here, Luke, and so I hope you understand.

[Luke Burbank]

By the way, I was saying I could have previewed it. No, no, I know.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm just saying.

[Luke Burbank]

Not that you were in trouble for not previewing it.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, we should listen to it though. Give it a go. Eric, what you got for us?

[Luke Burbank]

Hello? You've a way with words.

[Additional Guest or Caller]

Hey, Luke and Andrea, this is Eric and Madison. I was just calling in to talk about the Odyssey. I saw it actually at opening day at like 10am at an AMC. And that was kind of cool because there was like a couple hundred people there. And so it really was a big event. I thought it was fine. I guess at the end of the day, my main issue is just that, you know, it's really long and I feel like Christopher Nolan should start getting into doing like premiere HBO miniseries. Like, I think it would be really cool if there had been like a five part Iliad and then a five part Odyssey instead of trying to squeeze something so long and epic into a three hour movie which is kind of too long to sit still. But the other thing, and this might be hard to explain, is if you've seen it, you'll know. Throughout the movie they keep talking about the civilization of Bronze collapsing because of the people from the sea. And I just think it's kind of funny how Nolan inverted these phrases that are kind of common when you search for, you know, the Bronze Age and the period of Homer, which of course is the Bronze Age collapse. And then this sort of little well known, but also kind of surface level discussion of the sea peoples, which are these not really well identified folks who might have been involved in the Bronze Age collapse by raiding the different cities along the Mediterranean. And as someone who has admittedly dived a little too deep into ancient history, YouTube and Wikipedia, the repeated phrases kept kind of distracting me. But you know, I thought it was worth the three hours. And I think it's kind of cool that it's a big cultural event that everybody can get behind. So that's it. My review of the Odyssey. Power out.

[Luke Burbank]

So I've not heard of the sea people.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I don't, I, and I, I don't know what Eric, I. I wasn't able to. Even though I've seen the movie, I wasn't able to actually follow Eric. Eric's point there regarding the, I guess the order of historical events or as they're told in these stories. I'm unfamiliar with that as well.

[Luke Burbank]

As far as I'm concerned, we're living in LeBron's age. Okay, that's what I'm talking about.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'll write it down.

[Luke Burbank]

Show title.

[Andrew Walsh]

Lucky we don't have anything to do.

[Luke Burbank]

Stop doing that. I can't tell what that look on your face was as a kid.

[Andrew Walsh]

But anyway, here's the deal about the first part of that though.

[Caller or Guest]

I

[Andrew Walsh]

can only speak for myself because I've said like. And again, I'm out of step with how Most people enjoy entertainment these days. I don't watch a lot of TV or streaming stuff at home. I don't have like, that's one of those things where I just don't have the kind of attention capacity to sit down and watch stuff like that. And because this was so epic in its sound design and its, you know, IMAX Enos that. But I wouldn't have watched it as if somebody told me, oh yeah, they're taking an ancient Greek story and turning it into a 10 part or a 5 part series. I would simply never have watched it. For me it's going out to the theater to see this stuff in an incredible sound system. And again that's where I'm behind because I don't watch a lot of TV or movies at home. I don't have some sort of great sound system, I don't have some great viewing experience, theater type of seating at home or so I don't know, I just, it would have been totally lost to me if this was just a series. So I'm personally glad it went by so quickly to me despite. I mean my bladder would tell a different story. I did have to go to the bathroom twice, but from a viewing perspective it never seemed to slog to me. Maybe I'm just getting used to these long ass movies.

[Luke Burbank]

The thing that I'm running into is it's so nice outside and I'm the kind of person who there's a lot of folks who like, oh, it's going to be 90 degrees. That's a perfect day to go to the movie theater. It's air conditioned and you have your popcorn. I, because of growing up in the Pacific Northwest and I think being Susie Burbank's son, it is so hard for me to go in. Weirdly, I spent many years in dive bars on perfectly sunny Fridays. So I don't know, I don't know how that squares with the movie theater experience. But it's like, I'm like for me there needs to be like a weird day of rain in the next two weeks. So that I'm like all because I would go see it at night, but honestly I get sleepy. I go to bed at like nine now. So like it's not even dark, it's barely dark at nine. So I'm trying to figure out the perfect time to see the movie. I may have to just like burn an otherwise beautiful afternoon and just go. There will be other nice sunny afternoons. Cause that's the thing right now that's standing in the way of me Seeing the movie.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, the irony of that for me personally was we had a great outdoor day because we knew we wanted to see this movie. I told you. We took Lucy to this. To the dog park with the water. And so we had a whole morning of her like, running around and meeting dogs. And then we did all that. Then we went and saw this movie while she slept it off at home. Then we came back and I went to the store and grilled. And so we still had a great, like, outdoor. And I think we started a fire that night. So we did a lot of stuff. We just took three hours to. To watch the movie. It is kind of interesting to walk out of the movie though, when you see it during the day like I did and be like, oh, wow, wow, it's still sunny out here. Like, this is. Life is going on outside these walls.

[Luke Burbank]

On the subject of the Odyssey, we also got an email from Heidi, who's our Latin correspondent. And I'm kind of paraphrasing here because the email is pretty detailed because Heidi knows a lot about the topic. But she says, hi, bizboys. This may not be interesting to anyone at this point, but I felt compelled to write since I feel like anything related to Greek or Roman mythology falls under my purview as Latin correspondent. I teach a lot of mythology in my classes as well, she says. I know the big controversy has been the wokeness of the casting choices, but the controversy in the world of classicists has been kind of the opposite. Scenes and characters that some would consider woke are totally left out or watered down. One example is in Homer's version, Calypso makes a whole speech about gender double standards for gods in relationships with mortals. When Hermes comes to tell her that she needs to let Odysseus go home after seven years, she complains. The gods take human women all the time, whenever they want. Yet when she wants Odysseus, it's not allowed. She sort of goes on to talk about a few other examples of. Well, she says that the Christopher Nolan version leaves out the sexual violence that the anti woke people would either pretend doesn't exist or try to normalize. So Heidi was saying that there's a whole other kind of the people that really study this stuff. Stuff they're almost like sad about a different thing, which is not that it's too woke, but that a lot of the stuff got left out that would have actually been considered, I guess, to be woke or something.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know why I appreciate this segment is because, and this is a true story, I keep seeing on social media, all kinds of references to the Odyssey discourse. It's gotten like, you know, it's like, it's slang now. Odyssey discourse, right? Everybody's like, oh, I'm so either sick of the Odyssey discourse or whatever, whatever. But all I'm seeing is reaction to the Odyssey discourse. I swear to God, yesterday, Luke, I literally googled Odyssey discourse. Show me the discourse. I don't know where to search it up. Where I searched it up. I was like. Because I did. I searched it in Blue Sky. Because I keep on seeing all these posts, these sarcastic posts about the Odyssey discourse or whatever. I'm like, all I'm seeing is you guys roll your eyes about the discourse. Where's the discourse? I want to know what the discourse is. I should read up on it. I mean, maybe I just need to. To turn more to, like, just more like standard publications and not just get everything through things that people post on Blue Sky. But, like, that's kind of my entry point to a lot of interesting stuff, is when somebody or an organization posts an interesting article. And. Sorry, I'm just now thinking about something I saw this morning that I don't want to bring up on the show, but something pretty shocking that I saw a headline for that I might not have if I wasn't on bluesky.

[Luke Burbank]

One last little thing from Heidi's email. She says, Nolan somehow turned all the selfish or bad decisions Odysseus made into things basically beyond his control. Women characters were missing or their roles diminished, including Athena. And then she goes on to say, this wasn't really Homer's Odyssey. She goes, I also would say that Homer didn't make this story or these characters up. This was that thing that I had kind of heard about but wasn't really clear on. Everything we hear is someone's version or retelling. So there's not really a wrong way to do it. It's one of my favorite stories of all time. And partly because of just the sheer bonkers nature of it all, Heidi, who signs it Ad Proximum con Wewium from back in the day. So thanks for the clarification, Heidi.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's good. That's another thing that reminded me so much of how this was like the Bible, before the Bible, sort of. It's kind of like, I don't know, just a bunch of stories that different people were telling. And then we kind of, like, put it all into one big story. Like, it's just, I don't know, the bi. The Bible just thinks it's so unique. You know what I mean?

[Additional Guest or Caller]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Well, I feel like I went a little hard on Christianity yesterday, that if I was Chris Pratt, I wouldn't be a Christian because I've been successful.

[Andrew Walsh]

I wasn't sure that. I wasn't sure. Proud of the Mark Wahlberg commercial that I picked. Either there are ones that are a little bit more cringy or. Or, you know, I didn't want to just play a guy saying a prayer and make fun of him. I wasn't trying to do that either. Although those commercials generally.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm telling you, you didn't even even, did you? I said, why? Are you Franklin Grahamming us?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Isn't that Franklin Graham? Wasn't he with the preacher's son, or am I?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, you got mad because there was this thing during the Mariners game one season where it'd be like, Franklin Graham here with a moment of prayer. Oh. And they wedge in that like, little kind of like forced moment of the Billy Graham Ministries, and that was his son, Franklin Graham, doing it. And that's why I was like, you're Franklin Gramming us.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

I just thought you were just exact thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

I thought you just meant generally speaking, like the Graham, you know, worship stuff. I forgot that they did that during

[Luke Burbank]

the radio and that it does.

[Andrew Walsh]

The radio. Right. Yeah. Wow. That was forever.

[Luke Burbank]

That was for the Union Gospel Mission. Right?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's different.

[Additional Guest or Caller]

Or those.

[Luke Burbank]

Totally different.

[Andrew Walsh]

Those are different. But you bring up a really good point. There's no Union Gospel Mission commercials this year. There were. They were just all over the airwaves the last several seasons. That's interesting. And listen, we don't have to get into it, but, you know, that's an organization that essentially serves the homeless population or parts of the homeless population here in Seattle, but they also come with many, many strings attached, which is why a lot of people consider it a problematic organization, myself included. Having said all of that, this is where, as somebody who really enjoys advertising and marketing, I tried to explain to people why their marketing strategy on radio is so brilliant. But just mentioning the name of the organization is so toxic to some people that they kind of don't want to hear it. But if you remove whatever your feelings are about the organization, the ad campaign that they ran the past several seasons on the radio were so good and so compelling. Would you agree with that?

[Luke Burbank]

It's hard to pull off because I told you I was helping out a few months ago with a couple of different organizations where they help people who are experiencing homelessness. And you always want to go in this Direction of, like, personal stories. Like, that's gonna really, like, that's gonna really, you know, sort of make the case for why these places are important. And it's actually harder to pull off than you think. And if I remember right, these were like testimonials, right. From people who'd had their life really turned around by the Union Gospel Mission. And they were very effective. They got a. They packed a lot in, but it didn't feel rushed.

[Andrew Walsh]

And they had. And they refreshed them a lot. They would have, like, one that would run, like one person's personal story edited down, very NPR kind of style, little testimonial in a 30 second ad. That ad would run maybe one or two weeks, and then they would have the next one ready to go. And, like, you would hear like, a lot of these testimonials kind of throughout the season. And like, yeah, again, just talking from a production standpoint, I was always really impressed by those, but they must have just not have decided to. That the. The cost involved was worth it, because I have not heard those.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I mean, that's. We used to. You know, there was a. Must have been. Maybe it was when I was in. I was going to say, I thought we served Thanksgiving dinner at the Union Gospel Mission. I think we served a different dinner down there once. And I also think when I was in God Uses Kids. Again, terrible name.

[Additional Guest or Caller]

Colby.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it was Colby 5. God uses kids.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God.

[Luke Burbank]

God grooms kids was taken. But anyway, I think we performed at a couple of. I think we performed at the Union Gospel Mission and then we performed at the Lighthouse Mission up in Bellingham anyway, which is neither here nor there, but just my experiences with those places. And, you know, yeah, they do good work. But also, the Union Gospel Mission does come with a very, very, very heavy dose of. Of religion that goes along with it, which I think has kind of. I think the jury's really out on the effectiveness of that. If the, if the treatment and the care is also locked into you believing that somebody died for your sins 7,000

[Andrew Walsh]

years ago and fiercely, fiercely anti LGBT. Like, they fired. They fired somebody who then sued them, saying, like, you can't fire me based on that. And then they also.

[Luke Burbank]

How about all hands on one?

[Andrew Walsh]

And they won in court. In court because of a religion. Yeah. So that. And also, like, in order to receive their help, you have to, like, go to services. Like, the strings are very.

[Luke Burbank]

You have to watch. Put on a play called God Uses Kids.

[Andrew Walsh]

God Uses Kids.

[Luke Burbank]

Honestly, I think God Uses Kids.

[Andrew Walsh]

There is A chance. We should watch that and just review that to just check out what's going on.

[Luke Burbank]

Get eyes on it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Let's just all get eyes on that. Do you have any idea. And I know we're trying to wrap it up here, but do you have any idea how long a teacher's impact lasts? Is it for a year?

[Luke Burbank]

I feel like it's longer than a year, but that's where things get.

[Andrew Walsh]

It wouldn't be a lifetime, would it?

[Luke Burbank]

That seems way too.

[Additional Guest or Caller]

That's too.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't know. I'm going to. I'm going to search it up.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Can you please. You know, you don't want to go out with. God uses kids.

[Caller or Guest]

Okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you have it at the ready?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I just might. I'm playing this off of YouTube. Sorry. They're making me watch a commercial first. The real question is, will we get pulled down in Romania Over.

[Andrew Walsh]

Will we be pulled down Production.

[Luke Burbank]

This is going to start with Colby singing. I believe that's on computer. If you see a special way to give the Lord's great love away. You don't have to wait till you're grown up.

[Andrew Walsh]

Cause God can use you now.

[Luke Burbank]

I forgot how much how. How slow jam they are. I want to get to the. Let's. You know.

[Andrew Walsh]

What's in the box?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, what's in the box? Oh, does it not. Is this thing. Can I skip? Okay, good. I want you. I want you to. They've got all these little. You know what the problem with this music is? They have to write in a billion little mini solos because there's like 50 church kids trying out big and like, they got to. They just. It's just a. It's just a pageant of different kids walking to the middle of the stage so they can sing their little, like. Like 20 seconds. And I remember because I had one of those 20 seconds, as did my sister Liz. My sister Liz was the shooby doo wop hallelujah girl. There was some like,'50s kind of song. Cuz praising the Lord makes working lots of fun, I believe.

[Andrew Walsh]

Could you guys do it all again in Minions talk? That's what I want to see.

[Luke Burbank]

I was wondering if. Is God paying taxes on these kids? God uses kids. Praising the Lord makes working lots of fun. This sounds. Are we running a sweatshop here?

[Andrew Walsh]

What's going on, God?

[Luke Burbank]

Anyway.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, here we go.

[Luke Burbank]

This is a pretty shocking moment for me, Andrew, because these kids in this video are doing the exact same choreography that we did, the Calvary Fellowship. So that clearly came with the music. I thought we were just, you know, being directed by a master choreographer there at the church, but this. These kids are doing the exact same box step that we were doing during God Uses.

[Andrew Walsh]

Are they doing the Ohio like Hang On Sloopy in the ball game?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, they are.

[Additional Guest or Caller]

Oh, my God.

[Luke Burbank]

This takes me back. All right, actually, let's. You know what? Let's go out with our actual ending music.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do this.

[Luke Burbank]

There you go. All right, that's gonna do it for today's episode. But guess what? We're gonna be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for all of you. So please, if you can, tune in for that. In the meantime, have a great Wednesday. It worked yesterday. So I'm gonna say, go, Mariners. And please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all. They say teachers don't impact for a

[Luke Burbank]

year, but for a lifetime, power out.