#4786 Schrodinger That Cat!

Summary

TBTL Episode #4786: Schrodinger That Cat! (August 5, 2026)

Episode Overview

In this Wednesday episode of TBTL, hosts Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh banter their way through a classic assortment of TBTL topics: from awkward community fundraiser snacks and local politics to detailed analysis of the debut of "Hard Knocks: Seahawks Edition" on HBO. Along the way, listeners are treated to musings on the evolution of public radio hosting styles, the psychology of reality TV, and the emotional rollercoaster of being a Seattle Mariners fan. The episode is steeped in the duo’s signature blend of offbeat humor, cultural commentary, and deeply personal asides.

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Main Themes & Discussion Points

1. The Grassroots Political Fundraiser Experience

[02:24–10:18]

• Luke attends a grassroots fundraiser for Sam Forstag (Montana Congressional candidate). He describes the “DIY vibe” due to a last-minute burst pipe, meager crudités, and basement ambiance—which actually boosts his optimism about community politics.
• Political optimism: Luke finds hope in hearing local politicians speak authentically about climate change, affordable living, and democratic values—even if he can't quite remember their names.
  • "There was just something about these people when they were there, I was like, yeah, this is a person that I would like to have representing me in Congress." – Luke [10:09]
• Neighborhood theater surprise: The fundraiser is held beneath a community center putting on "Hands on a Hard Body," a play the hosts had discussed just the day before, leading to musings about fate and synchronicity.

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2. Local Politics and the Online Persona

[14:16–16:28]

• Andrew discusses his vote for a local candidate and reflects on the difference between public persona and personal identity, especially in the age of social media.
  • “There are people in my life who I love and I am so shocked when I see them online because their personality online is not in step with who I think about them as person.” – Andrew [14:19]
• Split in the progressive vote: The dynamic of endorsements, candidate “likeability,” and retail politics gets a TBTL-tinged breakdown.

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3. Evolving Public Radio/Podcast Voice

[18:01–26:45]

• Influence of big names: Andrew muses on how hosts like Michael Barbaro (The Daily) and Ira Glass (This American Life) have spawned a generation of imitator hosting styles, and tells a story about being "fooled" by a fill-in host on the radio.
  • “I guess the Barbaro, because he has a distinct of sort of talking and interacting as well, I could see that rubbing off on people.” – Andrew [19:19]
• Luke reminisces about old NPR days and discusses the subconscious “glassification” of younger hosts—how producers shape not just the content but the cadence and timbre of storytelling.
  • “There’s a sound that they like and that they go for.” – Luke [22:09]
• Andrew’s hosting philosophy: He shares how, when Luke is away and co-host Phyllis Fletcher fills in, he gives himself permission to break the TBTL format, embracing the “radio playhouse” spirit to keep things fresh.
  • “If I try to do that, then I'm necessarily going to end up trying...to do you, which is not...good.” – Andrew [33:08]

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4. Mariners & Seahawks: Hope and (Mostly) Despair

[28:08–32:32]

• The hosts vent their frustration and heartbreak toward the new-look Mariners' failures—lamenting the focus on nostalgia (“50 years of...bullshit”) instead of results.
  • “It's just—it's all about this...like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and bringing the band out for another number.” – Luke [31:05]
• Preview excitement and initial reactions to the debut of Hard Knocks: Seahawks Edition, with Luke eager to deep-dive into personalities behind the facemasks.

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5. Dogs, Noise Phobias, and Modelo Time

[39:03–47:01]

• Lucy the dog and her irrational fear of motorcycles (as opposed to fireworks or Blue Angels) gets compared to Luke’s own distaste for the roar of street bikes.
  • “Same girl, same. I'm with her. I stand with Lucy on this.” – Luke [43:57]
• The duo digresses into the “It’s Modelo Time” meme, the art of beer packaging, and a mini-debate over whether Modelo is better from a can or bottle.
  • “I like Modelo, it's the rare beer that I like more out of the can than the bottle... I don’t like the gold foil.” – Andrew [46:21]

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6. Fear and Loathing: Book-to-Film Magic

[47:14–52:03]

• A rabbit hole on Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph Steadman’s art, and Terry Gilliam’s successful transfer of the book’s manic spirit to the "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" movie.
  • “How do you realize that on the screen? And Terry Gilliam kind of did it.” – Luke [48:23]
• Luke explains how he discovered the book through friends' quoting the movie—a roundabout but rewarding path to Thompson’s world.

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Featured Segment: Hard Knocks (Seahawks Edition) Deep Dive

[52:08–96:50]

Key Points:

• Luke's favorite segment: Hard Knocks’ insight into the personalities of players, especially lesser-known ones like Devin Witherspoon.
  • “You legitimately get to find out about these players in ways that you just wouldn’t otherwise...it’s kind of illuminating in a way.” – Luke [54:04]
• Andrew’s skepticism: He’s resistant to reality TV tropes, comparing the show’s format to “Love is Blind” or “The Kardashians,” but appreciates the character access if not always the production style.
• Discussion on what makes Hard Knocks effective as documentary vs. “reality” TV—whether fly-on-the-wall authenticity is possible under the ever-present gaze of the camera.
  • “Having a microphone on and being filmed is always going to Schrodinger that cat.” – Luke [67:30]
• Production talk: Long-running puns and overwrought narration (by Liev Schreiber) are lampooned by both hosts. Luke plays extended clips lampooning the “bird/crow/monster” wordplay.

  • Notable Sample:

    “There’s nothing like the view from the top. The Seahawks are the reigning super bowl champs. They have every reason to crow.” – Narrator/Liev Schreiber [72:14]
    “But this summer in Seattle, there are monster expectations because of the truck.” – Narrator/Liev Schreiber [74:03]

  • Andrew’s reaction: “What are you doing with the crow there?” [72:38] and “That one. Really?” [76:42]

• Favorite awkward moment: New head coach Mike McDonald’s “beta” style when mediating a practice fight—remarkably laid-back and collaborative compared to alpha-male sports cliches.
  • “It seems like a pretty passive way of talking and correcting behavior, don’t you think?” – Andrew [86:20]
• Meta-notes: By the end, both agree that HBO’s documentary immediacy—the way the show mirrors current events for locals—adds a unique thrill.
  • “There is something very exciting about that, that you get a little gleam off when you’re local like that.” – Brady/Katie via text [93:41]
• Riffing on cliches: The hosts revel in picking apart formulaic closing sports lines and suggest future weekly segments on Hard Knocks “worst writing.”
  • “Try to knock us off our perch. I dare you, other podcasts. We don’t care if we ruffle feathers.” – Luke [96:44]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On political engagement:
  • "I found the whole thing actually quite invigorating, and I'm really glad that I went." – Luke [02:44]
• On sports and nostalgia:
  • “It’s all about culture. And they were able to immediately, like, fit right into existing Mariner.” – Luke [29:01]
• On public radio host mimicry:
  • “It’s weird to have somebody’s voice so prominent that when you fill in for them, you end up sounding like them.” – Andrew [25:02]
• On authenticity of documentaries:
  • “Having a microphone on and being filmed is always going to Schrodinger that cat.” – Luke [67:30]
• On cliché sports writing:
  • “It feels like what a large language model would do.” – Luke (discussing Hard Knocks narration) [75:39]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:24–10:18] — Grassroots Fundraiser & Political Hope
• [14:16–16:28] — Local Election Reactions & Persona/Online Dissonance
• [18:01–26:45] — Radio “Voicing” Trends & Format Philosophies
• [28:08–32:32] — Mariners Despair & Seahawks Anticipation
• [39:03–47:01] — Dog Phobias & Modelo Discourse
• [47:14–52:03] — Hunter S. Thompson/Steadman Movie Adaptation
• [52:08–96:50] — Hard Knocks Deep Dive: Production, Pun Critiques, and Coach McDonald’s Style

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Tone & Style

The episode is witty, conversational, irreverent, and meandering—with a characteristic TBTL mix of self-deprecation and insightful, nuanced takes on sports, culture, and daily absurdities.

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Conclusion

This episode encapsulates peak TBTL: a loose, friendly ride through everyday topics elevated by earnest curiosity, vivid local color, and a joyful willingness to analyze the mundane—from political hope in a flooded basement to the magic (and mediocrity) of sports TV narration. It’s an ep for fans who love sports, media minutiae, and hearing two friends riff until the wheels fall off.

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"Try to knock us off our perch. I dare you, other podcasts. We don’t care if we ruffle feathers. There are monster expectations around tomorrow’s TBTL." – Luke [96:44]

Transcript

[Andrew]

For a number of years now, work has been proceeding in order to bring perfection to the crudely conceived idea of a transmission that would not only supply inverse reactive current for use in unilateral phase detractors, but would also be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters. Such an instrument is the turboencabulator. Now, basically, the only new principle involved is that instead of power being generated by the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it is produced by the modial interaction of magnetoreluctance and capacitive directance. The original machine had a base plate of pre famulated amulite surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two spurving bearings were in a direct line with a panametric fam. The latter consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzalvanes. So fitted to the ambifacian lunar wane shaft, that side fumbling was effectively prevented. The turboencabulator has now reached a high level of development and it's being successfully used in the operation of Nova trunnions. Moreover, whenever a fluorescent score motion is required, it may also be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocation dingle arm to reduce sinusoidal replenish. It's not cheap, but I'm sure the government will buy it.

[Brady]

Tbtl.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, personally, I do not believe in God because I do not know what that word means. I do know that it spells cat backwards, though.

[Brady]

Well, thank God we built you.

[Luke Burbank]

What a blessing for the community.

[Brady]

Burbank's not so bad.

[Luke Burbank]

No, Burbank's the best.

[Andrew]

Congratulations, son. I'm about to make you famous.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, all right. Hello, good. Good morning, and welcome, everyone, to a Wednesday edition of tbtl. This right here, this is the show that just might be too beautiful to live.

[Brady]

They're busted, Corny. And they wouldn't dream of taking their shirt off in front of a woman.

[Luke Burbank]

My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host.

[Brady]

In short, things are going extremely well.

[Luke Burbank]

Fran, coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where it's going to get to 90 degrees today.

[Brady]

I feel warm and I'm levitating, but

[Luke Burbank]

also impenetrable haze of smoke. So we've got that going for us, which is nice. Here we are, folks, at episode 4786 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. Last night was the debut of HBO's Hard Knocks Seahawks edition.

[Brady]

You gotta be a real football nerd

[Luke Burbank]

to Sit through the whole thing. I rushed home with great excitement from the event that I had been attending to watch this episode. And it did not disappoint on a number of fronts, including just spectacularly bad writing by the writers of hbo Hard Knocks. We've got some examples. The thing I was rushing home from was a political fundraiser for a guy in. In Montana, Montana's first district, who's running for Congress there. His name's Sam Forstag. It is our turn. The. He's the nephew. I finally figured out he's the nephew of Coach Ben. Coach Ben of TBTL Jr. Sluggers fame. And I found the whole thing quite inspiring, honestly. It was in a community center basement that had apparently had a burst pipe and had flooded mere hours before we all got there. There was the kind of very, very. How do I say, very basic crudite put out that says, we are not trying to waste any of the money that we are raising at this event on crudite. And yet I found the whole thing actually quite invigorating, and I'm really glad that I went and. Yeah. So anyway, we'll talk about that coming up. And we're gonna talk to this guy. You know what he is? He's the longest running cobro of the show.

[Brady]

Houston, we have a boner.

[Luke Burbank]

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

[Brady]

Hey, good morning, Luke. I was ruminating, okay?

[Luke Burbank]

You got a lot going on over there, and I threw you for a loop with a lousy drop at the end.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

No.

[Luke Burbank]

Did I see you try to adjust for my low volume?

[Brady]

No, no, no, no, no. I mean, anything that says boner when you're introducing me is honestly just. It can't be loud enough. We have a boner. Can't be loud enough.

[Luke Burbank]

I called an audible at the last second, and what I thought I saw happening was I switched to a different audio drop than the one that we'd previewed because, ironically, the one that I had previewed was also too quiet. It was. He's hilarious, dog.

[Brady]

Okay, that's a little quiet. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

When I got to that drop, I was like, oh, crap, that one's too quiet. So then I. I quickly. I said, kill, kill, kill. Omaha, Omaha. Can you tell I'm in a football state of mind? And then I went to Houston, we have a boner. But that was also quiet. And then I saw you right when the drop was playing. I saw you cat, like, move over, and I thought, you were trying to turn up the fader on what I was sending you. So I apologize if I created a moment of panic there.

[Brady]

The only thing Cat like I've ever done in my life is try to bury my own poop, Luke. And everybody knows that. So that's.

[Luke Burbank]

I often when we're in quiet moments of reflection, see you licking yourself from.

[Brady]

So, no, you didn't leave me flustered. I was listening to what you were saying. And so I was in this moment of ruminating on something that I want to run by you here at the beginning of the show inspired by a drop you played. But also what you said about the fundraiser was interesting because we were talking on the show yesterday about how you were kind of like going to this fundraiser. Right. That was an on air conversation we were having. It was. And that you were kind of like, ah, community center A.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, yeah, the messaging is strong.

[Brady]

The messaging is strong there, though, that they don't want to waste.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, the way that it came around was, you know, Becca said, hey, you know, Sam is having an event in Portland because, you know, his got a lot. There's a lot of Force Stag family that live here in the area. And I think they saw it as an opportunity to come over here and see some old friends and also raise a bit of money for the campaign. He has, I'm guessing, being far outspent by the competition because the Republicans really, really want to cement their guy, a right wing talk radio host, in the position. Anyway, I, so I heard from Becca there's gonna be this thing and I, you know, I know how fundraisers work. And I said, oh, okay, well, we'll go to that. I don't know how much we're in a position to donate, but we'll go to support them and shake some hands and maybe kick them a little bit of money. And then later I realized, no, no, it's a hundred dollars a ticket. That's the cheapest ticket you could buy. And that just gave you the address so that you didn't have people just roaming the streets of Lake Oswego, Oregon trying to crash the Sam Forstag fundraiser. So. Okay, fine, you know what? That's. It's worth. It's worth supporting the cause. But then I found out that it wasn't going to be in some like, house porn, Lake Oswego mansion, where I could like, you know, go through their medicine cabinet and see if they had any Zannies.

[Brady]

Sure. It was just, it was take the knobs off their stove. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Stealing Expensive looking pepper grinders. See if they have a Peugeot. I've always found that to be hilarious that the same company that makes vehicles also makes kind of the best pepper grinders.

[Brady]

Oh, I didn't know that's what you meant by Peugeot. I thought you were just wildly swinging between a pepper grinder in a fancy car.

[Luke Burbank]

Peugeot, I think, unless there's two companies named Peugeot. I think Peugeot also makes the really nice high end, those big, the big pepper grinder that, that you might see. Anyway, so it turns out it's in the community center. And then, and then when we get there, the guy kind of introducing everything said, you'll notice there's a lot of industrial fans going because we had a pipe burst about an hour before this and, and we, you know, we almost couldn't have it in here, but we got it straightened out. And so it, yeah, it had a very kind of DIY vibe to it, which ultimately I have to say added to my feeling of like positivity about the whole thing and my just my sense of feeling ever so lightly engaged with the political process. It made me feel really good. I think this guy, I don't know how many listeners we have in the Montana's 1st congressional district, but you know, this guy, Sam Forstag's getting up there. What he has been doing for the last, you know, I don't know. He's young too. Everybody's young, Andrew. It's like he's probably, I don't know, maybe 33 or something.

[Brady]

Like, if I recall, quite a snack. Maybe that's why they didn't provide as many snacks a whole meal.

[Luke Burbank]

That's why they were like, we don't need to overspend on the crudite.

[Brady]

Remember I googled him the first time you mentioned him on the show.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh yeah. I mean, listen, he is bringing all the smoke as a smoke jumper. And he, he, he sort of, he went between. He was also a union leader with his, you know, with the firefighters, the wildland firefighters that he worked with in Montana. When Doge came in and tried to fire like 300 of them for no reason, they actually successfully fought back and got those jobs replaced or reinstated. But he's just like a guy up there who's extremely likable and relatable, who just says, look, in America we have enough money that it should be the case that somebody who is willing to go and work hard should be able to expect a roof over their head and food for their family and medical care. Like, this is not a wild fantasy this is the bare minimum that we should be able to expect in this country. And it's like, that's just such an obvious message. But it's like, how could you vote against the guy? You know, his opponent is like a right wing radio host who they plugged in in the last second because it was. The seat was held by this guy named Ryan Zinke. If that name rings a bell, it's because he was, I believe, the Secretary of the Interior Trump appointed. And you know, Andrew, who I would probably try to put in as Secretary of the Interior, a guy who had been a lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry.

[Brady]

Yes, I do remember this.

[Luke Burbank]

We want to find a guy who's made all of his money from trying to exploit our public lands. That's the dude that we really want running the Interior.

[Brady]

Like, it's cartoon evil. It's just not. Even if you were to write this for a Pixar, you would just be like, come on, can you come up with something more creative?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, so I, you know, sitting there in that basement listening to him talk. And also there was the sort of Oregon congressional delegation was of Democrats, which was a number of other people that are currently in Congress. And they all got up and just gave like very quick. You know, again, I was mercifully short. I loved that too. We got there at 6:30 and it was like 6:30 to, I don't know, 9:30 was listed. And I was like. And then when we all started sitting, sitting down at about 6:45, I was like, oh God, this is three hours of speechifying. And I literally said to Becca, we're moving to a table in the back of the room so that if we need to ghost, we can. And that's exactly what we did. We moved to a table in the back room. There was this older couple sitting there and they go, are you trying to sit here in case you need to leave? We said, yes indeedy, but no, actually. And this is the thing too, you know, politicians can be so disappointing in their effectiveness or in what they prioritize. I mean that politicians on both sides. And I often wonder like, who is the kind of person that would even want to do this sort of job? It seems like it's thankless and yet these other people in Congress who are currently representing Oregon, when they got up and they talked, I was like, I like what these people are saying. And it didn't feel like bullshit. I'm sorry, I don't remember the names of these other congresswomen, but one of them got up and she said, you know, I just got back from. I was down in the Willamette Valley and I was talking to growers. That would mean, you know, basically people that are growing probably primarily like wine grapes and things, but also other kind of agriculture down there. Said the smoke is just ridiculous. She said, my eyes were just like burning by the time we were done. But it really just points out why we need some. We need people in Congress who understand that climate change is real. And if anybody knows that, it's this guy who's been fighting forest fires, you know, for the last 20 years or whatever it is. And like, you know, they just like when there was something about these people when they were there, I was like, yeah, this is a person that I would like to have representing me in Congress. They're not. They're not just. They're not blow hardened. They're not Jeb, exclamation point, you know, Although at this point I'd probably take Jeb for that matter. So all that is to say sitting in that basement or. Guess what, guess what the play that they were putting on upstairs was, Andrew. It's like the little. It's the community center in Lake Oswego, Oregon. So the upstairs, I think, has a little small community theater in it. Guess what the production is. There's no way you would guess.

[Brady]

It's adults. It's not a children's production, it's an adult.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm guessing it's grown ups in Is

[Brady]

the best little whorehouse in Texas.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, that would be actually better than what it really was. It's Hands on a Hard Body. Which we were just talking about yesterday.

[Brady]

Literally we were talking about that yesterday on the show.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't know there was.

[Brady]

Did he manifest that?

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't know there was a dramatic

[Brady]

production, nor did I.

[Luke Burbank]

Hands on a Hard Body. But if you want to get out to the. I think it's called the Lake View. The Lakeview Community center in Lake Oswego, Oregon. That's where they are currently staging a production of Hands on a Hard Body.

[Brady]

I won't stop touching this for I love you.

[Luke Burbank]

Dr. Prius.

[Brady]

Dr. Prius. Doctor Prius.

[Luke Burbank]

I actually would see that. That has. That has powerful. Well, can I just. Was there other things you want?

[Brady]

There was something at the top of the show that I wanted to mention. Well, only because I was. I was thinking about, by the way, while you were talking about politics, I just checked in on. I did end up voting for Will Drayhar, by the way.

[Luke Burbank]

Dr. Drehar.

[Brady]

Dr. Dreher, I think I'm mispronouncing that name. My apologies.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

Dreher.

[Brady]

Dreher, probably. But Dreher, I see that that polit I believe is the. Is the incumbent and I thought the incumbent, I thought was not favored, but I was very wrong. So the incumbent and Dreher are moving on it looks like, but the incumbent is actually leading quite a bit. And then Ron Davis is the third

[Luke Burbank]

progressive that Katie Wilson endorsed, right?

[Brady]

Yes, yes, and Dreher's really progressive as well, but yeah. So anyway, I was kind of surprised to see that. I thought that the two, for some reason, I guess they split the more progressive side of things. But I did end up voting for Dreher and maybe part of it might have been my experience replacing his sign every time I did retail politics. Maybe. I mean, I don't know. It's also. Again, I have. I totally agree with Ron Davis's policy suggestions and everything as well but I following him online, he was just like very online before he was even a candidate. And like for some reason I was like, I don't know, he's just a little annoying, I hate to say, like maybe I'll meet him someday and I hope he never hears that. But like there's just something about his. There are people in my life who I love and I am so shocked when I see them online because their personality online is not in step with who I think about them as person. I don't know if you have anybody in your life like that and I think, wow, there's a whole bunch of people who only know this person as their online personality and that's interesting to me.

[Luke Burbank]

But Dr. Davis, Dr. Davis, is there anybody in this campaign, this particular seat that we couldn't fit into?

[Andrew]

The.

[Luke Burbank]

Dr. Zayas?

[Brady]

Dr. Pollitt, is it Pollitt? Who are you looking it up?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, that one. I don't know, I'm only on Ron. Listen, here's what I like about. I mean, Ron Davis sounds like we'll not be moving on, but he said my mom and dad were teenagers when they found out they were pregnant with me they were scared but they had something too many families are missing now a real shot. I like that origin story. As a, as a teen parent myself, I'm pro. I don't know, I'm not necessarily pro people having babies before they're ready, but I'm pro the products of those moments going on to live rich, full lives down here in Southern Washington. Not to get into politics, but old MGP is looking, looking that would be Marie Gluzenkamp Perez. Although at times she's dropped the Gluzenkamp. I don't really know. I don't know what the strategy is there. Sometimes, like, like in her TV ad, she calls herself Marie Perez. I don't know if she just thought, like, I would see some of her ads when I'd be watching, like, Chris's show or I don't think the Mariner games, but, you know, some. I noticed sometimes she was going with Marie Perez, sometimes clues in Camp Perez.

[Brady]

But yeah, she's gonna. She's gonna walk away with it, right? As far as it looks like, because

[Luke Burbank]

there was another Democrat that took 15% of the vote. So it's her against this Republican, and she actually is leading the Republican in the overall vote. And that's with giving away 15%. Not giving away, but, you know, splitting 15% of that vote with. Which is kind of remarkable if you think about it. Again, I, you know, she's a complicated one, and she's very much taken some votes and, and some positions that I totally, wildly disagree with. But it's again, not to get into political talk here too much, but it's considering that when. So she. And this is in this congressional district I'm in, she ran against a guy named Joe Kent, who we know. Isn't it a weird world where it's like, these people, they manifestly suck. And then maybe they do, like one thing where you're like, well, that was principled, like, for this Joe Kent guy who was like maga. He was ultra maga. I was like, we simply must have somebody beat him. And somehow this candidate, Marie Glues and Camp Perez, as a Democrat, managed to beat him by a very, very small amount. And now this time around, she's just dominant. Like, she seems like she's gonna win in a runaway. It's like, wow, what changed? But also, Joe Kent is the guy who had some sort of intelligence job with the white, you know, with the administration, and he walked away because of the Iran war. He said, look, I can't support this. It's like a real Jeanine Pirro move with the, with the reflecting pool. It's like, please, everyone, just keep doing the thing that makes me dislike you so I don't have to ever give you any credit on something.

[Brady]

Please be two dimensional. Okay, listen, let me. We get further and further away from the intro to the show, and I am losing confidence in what I'm about to say as a topic. But you played a drop of Michael Barbaro in the intro, right? And it made me, in short, things are going extremely well for him. And it made me think about an experience I had in the car just a couple of days ago listening to the radio. And by the way, I've gotten a little bit of. I've put my foot in it in criticizing public radio lately and hurt some feelings. I want to be as careful as possible here. Now I've hurt Ron Davis's feelings as well. But I do want to talk about something and how it potentially relates to TBTL in the coming weeks because I just was flipping through the radio and I landed on KOW in some midday slot. I have no idea what it was. And I heard somebody, I think, think they were doing an interview and they sounded a lot like Michael Barbaro. And I thought, oh, this is Michael Barbaro. And I'm like, that's not Michael Barbaro. I guess the kind of in the same way Ira Glass had an effect on a whole generation of radio producers, like in kind of. I don't think on purpose, but just sort of end up kind of talking in his rhythm. And there's just a whole bunch of people who sort of like kind of took that on, especially during a certain time. I guess the Barbaro, because he has a distinct of sort of talking and interacting as well, I could see that rubbing off on people who are listening to the radio a lot as well. So I'm listening. I'm like, oh, this guy isn't Barbaro, but he's Barbaro esque. And then I realize what I'm listening to because they go to a break is the Daily. This is somebody on the Daily staff, presumably. And sorry, I don't know who it is who is talking like Michael Barbaro, because he's filling in for Michael Barbaro. And I'm like, oh, this is like what I heard on this American Life, which I hadn't listened to in a really long time, but happened to catch it on the radio a few weeks ago when we were in Cleveland. And I was like, wow, Ira sounds different, but this is definitely Ira. And then at the end of the show, I realized it wasn't Ira's David Kestenbaum. And I'm like, wow, he's kind of doing. But he was definitely talking like Ira Glass hosting this American Life.

[Luke Burbank]

David and Ira are like almost, you know, like they're almost like a sound alike. Like they're so hard to tell the difference.

[Brady]

And do you think. I mean, I guess I'm Going with the assumption here that years and years ago Kestenbaum didn't sound as Ira Glassy. Maybe they both were born sounding exactly like that. I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

But it's actually, I knew David at npr. David once gave me the greatest compliment I've ever received in my life. And I think about it. Well, I think about it, it's less and less true, but I think about it to this day. So he was a science reporter at npr and I mean, just an unbelievably great reporter, in my opinion. Like, just so. I mean, he could have been like a Nobel Prize winning scientist on his own. I mean, he is a scientist by training, but he's also a phenomenal radio reporter. And we were pals and we would hang out and something. He was talking about his wife and meeting his wife and getting married to his wife or something. And like, I forget.

[Brady]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

And he's, you know, Dave, let's just say he's maybe a little, a little bit shorter than I am. He's a little bit. Maybe, you know, he and I are sort of slightly different looking guys in the world, which I had never really clocked. But he basically made some joke at some point about like marrying his wife and trying to essentially keep her from meeting a guy like me. Oh, and not. He didn't mean that in a. Like, what he meant it was, was that like he was holding me up as this sort of example of, I think, kind of like a. I don't know, I guess you would say taller, more conventionally appealing or what. He. I'm doing a very weird job of repeating a compliment from 20 years ago, but he was basically paying me this huge compliment of kind of like, oh, no, you're the, like, you're the, like, you're the version of this guy that if she met you, she might be into you. So I had to kind of keep her hidden away from you. That was the nature of the joke. And I was like, lol. And then I tucked it away in my heart. And I've thought about it at least once a week in the intervening 25 years. That being said, I don't remember him delivering that line in the, in the Sound of Ira Glass, probably.

[Brady]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

There's probably been a glassification, a re. Glassification of his vocal styling. And there's also, you know, this American Life is famous for, at least in the early days, really coaching people on how the stories were read. I remember this from. I've done two stories for them, one of which aired, one of which did not air. But in both cases, I remember the entire process of reading the script. There's at least one, if not two producers listening to you the entire time. So there's a sound that they like and that they go for. And it makes me think that they probably. Yeah, they probably push people maybe subconsciously in the direction of sounding more like the way people on the show already sound.

[Brady]

And that's how it was on this American Life. And then because they were at the forefront of podcasting, I feel like then you had a bunch of probably people who never even worked with this American Life producers before, kind of growing up, listening to that and aspiring to be that kind of host or that kind of interviewer. And so it just sort of kind of took off, but within the realm of the show itself. Here's what I was thinking. When I'm driving and I'm listening to this person who. I don't know who it actually was.

[Luke Burbank]

Ask a boring. But for me, somewhat important question was how recently was this?

[Brady]

Do you remember when? A couple of days ago. Like literally maybe two days ago.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. Because the thing that I'm running up against is Michael Barbaro has been hosting this week. Is it possible you heard Michael Barbaro doing a Michael Barbaro?

[Brady]

No, it definitely wasn't Barbaro. I don't know if it was somebody just doing a segment. I don't know what it was that I heard on the radio, but it was on the radio. I was parked, I was sitting at a red light outside the 711 on North Gateway crossing Meridian, heading west. Okay. So I'm kind of at. I'm near that Hotel Nexus or something that you sometimes stay at, right? Yeah. Did you not stay there ever?

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think I stayed there.

[Brady]

I thought you said it was an okay hotel.

[Luke Burbank]

No, that's the OK Hotel that was in Pioneer Square back in the day. No, what I would say is maybe see if there are other places on hotels.com before the Nexus.

[Brady]

Oh, for some reason I thought you would, because I always thought that was funny because I wouldn't. No offense to my neighborhood, but I wouldn't book a hotel in my neighborhood. And so I wouldn't book a hotel

[Luke Burbank]

in the neighborhood that would have me.

[Brady]

I wouldn't book a hotel at any neighborhood that would have me. And so when you. I thought you had specifically said a couple of times that the Nexus was okay. Is that not the site of the old Arby's or is that the. Across the Nexus?

[Luke Burbank]

No, that's kind of up the street and Kitty corner from that 7 11. That 711 still there?

[Brady]

The 711 is still there. Kitty corner from the 7 11.

[Luke Burbank]

There's, like, a residence Inn.

[Brady]

Oh, there's.

[Luke Burbank]

There's a. There's a Marriott property.

[Brady]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Kitty corner from the 7 11. And that is what used to be you. And I have that.

[Brady]

That's the old Arby's now. Have you stayed in that Marriott property?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, I have. And it's fine.

[Brady]

And that one is fine. Maybe that's actually fine in a pinch.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, that'll do. But that next.

[Brady]

No, in a pinch is a deli I went to in New Hampshire.

[Luke Burbank]

It's a great deli.

[Brady]

Or it really is. That was my favorite.

[Luke Burbank]

Really?

[Brady]

Yeah. In a pinch is. It's one of the foods that I miss the most. And it was just a sandwich, but it was just like this little deli. I'd get lunch there at least twice a week. And it was like, I would get turkey and cucumber and sprouts on this homemade bread they made on this, like, baguette, this French baguette. It was so good. The bread was so crusty and good. And they had honeycutt mustard. I think about that sandwich so often. I haven't had it since I worked at New Hampshire Public Radio decades ago now. But. Okay, so all of that is to say. And then maybe now I just feel like, whatever, let me just wrap this up. But I was just. I don't say that to criticize the people who are sort of working on these teams and then fall into the rhythm of talking like that person, because I think that it comes somewhat naturally, especially if you're somebody who's usually writing for the host and then you're in the host chair. Like, I know from writing for hosts as a producer that you. It's good to get into, like, when you're writing their scripts, think about how they talk, and you start to, like, kind of write in their voice and stuff. I think it's very natural. I don't mean this as an insult, but I also don't love it. Like, it's. There's some things that's kind of. I don't know, just, like, it would just. You know, it's just. It's weird to have somebody's voice so prominent that when you fill in for them, you end up sounding like them and unrelated to this. And I didn't think about this until the intro of the show today. I'd also been somewhat ruminating on the fact that in a Couple of weeks you're going to be out and I'm going to be hosting with Phyllis P. Fletch Fletcher, which I have not done in a long time and that's a couple of weeks or a few weeks from now. Ed, I always, you know, I like doing the show with you. It's definitely as you know, it's more work when one of us is out and you know, you have to do a little bit more prep and stuff like that.

[Luke Burbank]

I find it liberating. Yeah.

[Brady]

Well, honestly. But there is something about that and I thought, well, this is sort of fun though because it's like, well, I find it liberating in a more depressing way. But I do sort of think that, listen, people who are here for you and me and are just kind of hardcore on that, I'm probably not going to keep all the listeners we're going to have if it's you and me hosting on a normal day. Right. If it's an Aaron, if they're going to hear my voice first. There is a tune out factor that I'm not saying that out of pity or trying to get sympathy. It is true statistics. Well, there certainly used to be. I haven't looked back at shows that I've hosted in a while, but I do know that I used to. And yeah, I mean, there's a drop off and that's fine. I mean, it's not as bad as the drop off when I'm out. Yeah, no, that one is. I mean, no, but anyway. And so I think though my approach to hosting when you're gone has changed a lot and has been an actual

[Luke Burbank]

live look at the feed when Andrew's not on the show.

[Brady]

Exactly. It's weird that you got that cricket to co host with you.

[Luke Burbank]

That was a mistake.

[Brady]

Well, better than it was. Jiminy. I think Jimothy Cricket, we can't see

[Luke Burbank]

that there's another oddly shaped raccoon somewhere else named Tomothy now.

[Brady]

No. People are pointing out, by the way, I think today is finally Jimothy day at the ballpark. So we can, I mean, I'm just looking forward to.

[Luke Burbank]

Are they letting him pitch in? Middle relief.

[Brady]

Oh, my God, man. I'm just. When the game was out of control yesterday and Aaron Goldsmith, who I adore, was just going hard on the excitement for Jimothy Cards tomorrow and it's just like, dude. And I'm so depressed and they just keep talking about. I'm like, let's just get past this. As you said in a text message to me, this late stage Jimothy trend. And like, let's just. I just cannot wait for the Mariners to stop talking about Jimothy.

[Luke Burbank]

That was. Oh, my God.

[Brady]

You were listening to that, too, like, in the eighth inning.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, what I was listening to. And listen. We're on the weave right now, Andrew, but I haven't lost track of where we're at. We're coming back to what you're talking about, but the experience I had last night, I was on an emotional high from being at a grassroots political organizing moment. And then I was on a low of the Mariners. The new Mariners just playing as bad as they have maybe all season. I mean, arguably one of their worst games of the season with their new look team.

[Brady]

Well, you got to give them credit. The new guys really fit in.

[Andrew]

They did. They.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, it's all about culture.

[Brady]

Exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

And they were able to immediately. They were able to immediately, like. But seriously get, like, fit right into existing Mariner. I would kill for a Rob Ref Schneider right now. So I'm. And I'm so. I'm so bummed about, like, how bad we're playing and how much my. I mean, I knew it was a fantasy kind of, but this. This dream of, like, maybe. Maybe the season starts after the trade deadline. And then you're listening to the announcers, and I don't really blame them because, like, what are they supposed to do? But they're just, like, talking about the alumni home run contest on Friday.

[Brady]

Oh, yeah, they've been.

[Luke Burbank]

And the, like, 50th. Like the star. And like, they're all excited because the alumni home run contest will be broadcast on the regular channel as opposed to Apple tv. Because that. Who has the.

[Brady]

That's.

[Luke Burbank]

Who has the game Friday. And, like, which.

[Brady]

That's a big, special game. And they're not even. People who don't have Apple TV can't watch it.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. I mean, f. That.

[Brady]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But, like, I. I don't blame them. What are they supposed to do? But it's like, it's this, like, you know what I wanted to say Yesterday was like, 50 years of.

[Andrew]

What?

[Luke Burbank]

Bullshit.

[Brady]

Yeah. Yeah. That's what they're calling it.

[Luke Burbank]

Not 50 years of not. I appreciate the honesty. Right. I will give. I'm gonna give that at least. I'll give them that. Right.

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

Oh, wow.

[Luke Burbank]

Like. Like 50 years of what? 50 years of not going to ever even to the World Series. 50 years of long stretches of mediocrity or c. Mediocrity.

[Brady]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Long stretches.

[Brady]

Now you're in my head.

[Luke Burbank]

Long Stretches of not being very good and then, like. And it's like, I don't feel like celebrating that. I don't feel like I don't care. You know, I don't care about.

[Brady]

This is.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm. Now what I'm doing is I'm basically picking back. Speaking of failed experiments, I'm piggybacking off of something you've been saying about this team, which is like, it's just. It's. It's all about. It's. It's all about this. Kind of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and bringing the band out for another number.

[Brady]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And going like, oh, remember when. Remember when Ken Griffey Jr. Was here?

[Brady]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

What have you done for me lately?

[Brady]

It's just like, Dan Wilson got a managing job strictly based on nostalgia. He had zero experience. Like, literally never managed a major league game and had only managed. I believe. Okay. But three minor leagues.

[Luke Burbank]

That worked out with Trump. Yeah. I've never held elective office.

[Brady]

Yes. Make the Mariners great for once is for once

[Luke Burbank]

okay. Mom, foe. I'll get there. Go home and study those lyrics. It's just. And so you hear the announcers, like, just. Sorry. Just whistling past the graveyard that is this team to talk about, like, the excitement around, you know, the excitement around Saturday's game. And it's just like, there is no joy in Mudville. Mediocre Taylor for Taylor. What's his name? Who's the new guy?

[Brady]

Ward.

[Luke Burbank]

Taylor Ward has struck out. Yeah. Like, we just, like, I don't expect Taylor Ward to come in and hit a home run in his first ab. But it's just like. It's just. So anyway, I hear you on that, like, that frustration that you're describing.

[Brady]

And, you know. And our Sir Anthony Dominguez. What's his last name? I mean, he.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

How about.

[Brady]

No. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You're not sir yet. You sir. Sir. You have not. You're not even a knight. What are you. How do. I don't know exactly. I don't know the chain of command on those names, but he's busted down.

[Brady]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You just.

[Brady]

You just could not have had a worse, like, you know, debut on your new team. So anyway, a lot of frustration there. I'll go back to what I was talking about before, though. Looking forward to hosting with Phyllis Fletcher, but also. So I realized that when I'm going to host with her or on the occasions that I do do it and you're not around, I realized that a while ago. I abandoned the idea of trying to keep the same format of the show. Because I'm kind of like. And I think what happens is if I try to do the show and I keep the format of tbtl, which is I'm talking for a while and I'm playing drops at the same basic kind of rhythm that you are. It's not that I don't play drops in an intro. I do. But I realize you have a very specific, you know, kind of pattern of doing it that is sort of well worn. But if I try to do that, then I'm necessarily going to end up trying. I'm gonna end up sort of sounding like I'm trying to do you, which is not. And I know I've been trying to do you for a while, but like that's just like getting ever closer. That's just not good. Yeah, I just have to compliment you at my wedding.

[Luke Burbank]

But I just have to book smaller and smaller Airbnbs. So you, me and John are just all sharing a bed. What is a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style?

[Brady]

So anyway, but. So I was thinking about the. Not related to what I'd been thinking about. And who. Mike Barbaro. Mike Barbaro. I was also sort of on a different track thinking, oh yeah, when I do that, I wonder what we'll do. We're not going to do top stories because I don't really do top stories that well. You know what I mean? Maybe it'll be a quiz. Maybe I'll just talk about dreams the whole time. Like whatever it is.

[Luke Burbank]

I think having some better lately and I've been tempted.

[Brady]

Save it. Call in on Thursday the 20th or whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

What if we're showing the phones, all the voicemails are me telling you about my dreams.

[Brady]

Hey, I wonder if we could open the phones actually about that. If we give people enough of a heads up or something anyway. But the fun thing is it's kind of like. Well, when you're gone it is a little bit. Remember this American Life before it was called this American Life, it was called you'd Radio Playground or something along the

[Luke Burbank]

lines of that your. Wasn't it called the Wild Room?

[Brady]

I thought it was called your radio Playground, but I think that there was

[Luke Burbank]

a version of it in Chicago called the Wild Room. Okay, but I'd be talking about.

[Brady]

I don't know, I'm not getting anything for this American Life.

[Luke Burbank]

The Wild Room was an early Chicago based public radio program hosted by Ira Glass before he went on to create this show, this American Life.

[Brady]

I'm also getting originally launched under the Name youe Radio Playhouse. No, you're right. You Radio Playhouse.

[Luke Burbank]

You're absolutely right. Sorry, I didn't know that there was a youa Radio Playhouse phase of this American Life. But no, you're absolutely right.

[Brady]

I guess that was the original name of the show. I said Playground, but it's Playhouse. But it's still like that name, which. I never even listened to the show when it was called that. But knowing that it was called that has lived in my head as a kind of a public radio producer, I guess, or just a radio guy for a long time. The idea of Radio Playhouse was like, it's just. I don't know. What goes in here is fun stuff like whatever we want to do. It's just our Playhouse. And again, I'm not going to call out some names here, but you and I are friends with a longtime Seattle radio host who's retired now. And for as long as I knew him, when he was still on the radio, he was always very grumpy about the constraints that he had under management, but he was like a beloved host, and he had two hours of radio to play with every single day. But he was pretty morose a lot, and he really felt like he was stymied. And I was like, well, what are you trying to do that you, like, do something and then have him tell you not to do that anymore? And he just kind of would mostly just complain, but then stick to doing the same things over and over. And I was like, dude, you're retiring. Do whatever you want. And there's something so fun about the idea of just, like, do whatever you want. You can't do that on the daily. You know what I mean? They have a much more news, critical mission. So I'm not just saying that this should apply to everybody, but it's an attitude that I sort of have. Like, again, if I'm just sort of in control of things, like, okay, I don't have to do what Luke does at the beginning of the show. That's just like, we have an hour or an hour and a half or, I don't know, Phyllis, what do you want to go four hours just to do whatever the hell we want to do? You know? And I think that's going to be. That's going to be more winning. I'm not going to say. Maybe it's as it's going to be. You know, whenever you veer off of. You have a daily show and you veer away from what you do on the reg, there are going to be some people who maybe don't enjoy it as much, but it's definitely going to be better than trying to do something that doesn't come as naturally, you know?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. And this is a weird. This is a weird comparison to make, because I don't think I'm Howard Stern. And again, I'm on the record as saying I don't even think Howard Stern is the best part of the Howard Stern show. But if I was in a regular habit with that show, if they were doing five days a week and I was listening to it every day and he wasn't going to be in, I would totally listen to. Again, I'm not saying you're not the baba buoy of this show, but, like. Like, I would listen to the other people on the show.

[Brady]

Is that a bad thing? I mean, honestly.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, no, not in my opinion, but I just wanted to make sure you didn't.

[Brady]

Well, it sort of seems like this is a guy who's had a job for a long time. Time, right. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

No, I find Gary delibicio. I find. I find. I find all of the other people on the show that aren't Howard Stern way more interesting than Howard Stern. And I guess this is just to the question of, like, if people listen to the show when I'm not there, which is pretty. It's pretty rare that both of us aren't there. I mean, a handful of shows per year. I feel like I. If I were a. If I were a daily listener of tbtl, I would absolutely listen to a show that was you and Phyllis. And I do think the format break, it's kind of a nice thing because. Yeah, instead of just having it be kind of like the normal show, but with different voice, it's like a totally different thing, but with people that I'm interested in. That's the thing. I think the people that are listening to this show five days a week, it's because they want to know what's happening in my life. They want to know what's happening in your life. They want to hear about Lucy. They want to hear about, you know, whatever is going on, me being passive aggressive towards people on the airplane. And so I guess I'm just. I'm just putting myself in the position of the listeners and what I would want to hear. And I think what you're doing. I think what you're doing makes sense and is a good approach.

[Brady]

By the way, speaking of Lucy, who's in the studio with me chewing on a rawhide bone, exactly how I always imagined having a dog would Be. I wanted to tell you.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, initially you planned on your human child doing that, but then that wasn't in the cards.

[Brady]

They don't make baby bones anymore.

[Luke Burbank]

Since the recall, I was more invested

[Brady]

in the bone thing. And so I was like, well, I guess I'll get a dog to match it. But Lucy, I learned yesterday, has something in common with you. I don't know if you consider her. Do you consider yourself her uncle? I don't know. Yes, but it's not a good.

[Luke Burbank]

I consider myself unk. It's chop.

[Brady]

Yeah, no, it's not a good thing. But I learned yesterday on a little walk that she, by the way, she was very chill on the 4th of July when some folks started blowing off bombs right outside of our house. She got a little bit nervous about that, but for the most part was chill on the 4th of July. Genevieve said that she was down in South Seattle when the Blue Angels went overhead last weekend. And Lucy was totally fine with it. Didn't react. But then I'm taking her on a very quick walk to the a.m. p.m. You know, the. The Arco station at the corner there. And I was just going to get myself a six pack of Modelo, and I'm like, why don't you come with me, Lucy? And she was already a little bit wound up. She was playing in the yard. And I was like, I don't know if you're. You're a little wound up for a walk right now. I had a feeling she wasn't going to be exactly loose leashy, but whatever, it was fine. We went on this quick walk. It's like, what, four blocks maybe total. And. But then as we're, you know, we're heading towards Aurora, this very, very busy, kind of loud road that, you know, she's been on before. But then that gang of motorcyclists drove by. Do you know that we have this roving gang? I mean, not gang. I don't think they're, like, violent in any way. They're just like people who like motorcycles. But it'll be like, you can just be. I don't know if they're on any kind of a schedule or whatever, but you can just be on Aurora and then suddenly you'll just hear this roar coming. And it's not Harley Davidson's, it's more like, you know, like. Like crotch rockets. I don't know the proper word for

[Luke Burbank]

those, but they'll be like sklaroff. And I got caught up in that in Cleveland, Ohio city. We went over to get some we went over to get some artisanal ice cream.

[Brady]

Are those dirt bikes or are they.

[Luke Burbank]

It's not Harleys. It's not Wild Hogs. It's a lot of. It's a lot of, like. Yeah. You know, what we used to call crotch rockets.

[Brady]

Okay. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And, you know, it's a lot of dirt bike.

[Brady]

Because I feel like there's three different kinds. There's like, dirt bikes, which I hear Baltimore has that, like, there will be a bunch of people who get together on dirt bikes right around the city. Then these are the crotch rocket Y kinds. You know, again, I hate saying that. I don't like that phrase, but I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

There's something wrong with it, but I. Breaking it down. And it is a rocket, maybe that you sit on with your crotch, but it just doesn't. Anyone can have a crotch. Anyone can sit on a rocket.

[Brady]

What's. What's a better word for that kind of motorcycle anyway? This is that kind, right? And so there'll be, like, at least 20 of them, just. And of course, the whole point is make a lot of noise and. Yes, you wouldn't like that. And also, it was the first time I saw my sweet little girl absolutely terrified Luke. It was the first time I was taking her into this convenience store. Anyway, I had asked the guy months ago, like, oh, hey, if I ever come in here and I'm on a walk with my dog, can she come in? He's like, yeah, absolutely. So I'm like, oh, okay. That's in the back of my head. I'm like, I gotta take this quick walk. Gotta get daddy's medicine quick. Six pack of beer. I'll just take Lucy with me.

[Luke Burbank]

Modelo time.

[Brady]

The more that I can kind of. Few small beers. The more I can sort of just integrate her in little, you know, little tasks like that, the better, right? Why not take her with me? But then these motorcycles freaked her out. She comes skittering into the a.m. p.m. And, you know, it's got the same girl. Just like, she's skittering. And I've never seen her like this. She's trying to get out. And of course, I feel. I'm just like, you know, she's not making a scene, everybody. You know, the two people in there are very nice, and the guy behind the counter is very nice, and he knows me somewhat, or at least recognizes me. And so. And she's not causing any problems, but it's breaking my absolute heart as she's trying to get. Just pull me out of the store as Hard as possible. I'll tell you what, she knows her way home because I paid for my beer. And then I put in my backpack and left. And she dragged me home.

[Luke Burbank]

This is why you shouldn't have gotten rid of the rollerblades. I would have been going behind.

[Brady]

I would have been home in record time. I couldn't drive as fast because I was like, you know, I understood that she was freaked out, but I also, you know, I was walking quickly with her, but she was pulling at the leash. I mean, I'd never seen her like that. And not like, pulling at the leash because, like, you know, a cotton ball from. Or like, some. She likes to chase the little fuzzies that come down from trees. And sometimes I'm just like, dude, you're in a busy street. You gotta. You gotta, like, calm down here. It wasn't that. It was, I gotta get home as fast as possible. And she's just, like, racing home. And I just felt. I didn't. I thought it was the motorcycles. And then I came home and I told V. She's like, yeah, we had a motorcyc encounter and she was really freaked out for some reason. Fireworks, not such a big deal. Blue Angels. Not a deal at all. But these motorcycles freak her out. She's same girl, same.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm with her. I stand with Lucy on this.

[Brady]

Yeah. In fact, she left the room as I was telling that story. So that was.

[Luke Burbank]

Even talking about motorcycles probably freaks her out. Do you. When you're walking to the Arco or the ampm, whatever we decided it's called to get your Modelo. Do you sing this song? It's Modelo Time?

[Brady]

No. Is this Wesley Willis? No.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

What is this?

[Luke Burbank]

This is the official It's Modelo Time song.

[Brady]

Is this a tick tock?

[Luke Burbank]

I think actually I played the wrong version, but there's like. There was this meme going around for a while that was like, it's Modelo Time. And it's playing this song. This is clearly somebody else who's just rapping over the It's Modelo Time kind of, you know, generic little sort of, I don't know, synthesizer loop that was out there, but.

[Brady]

But that was like a TikTok thing. Like laptop clothes for the weekend sort of.

[Luke Burbank]

People would post kind of a thing. Yeah. Like, let's see if this will play it for you.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

It's Modello time.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, man.

[Brady]

Everybody, this.

[Luke Burbank]

I hate the Internet so much.

[Brady]

I can't find what you're looking for.

[Luke Burbank]

I can't find the thing I'm trying to Play. Because there's 8 million things called It's Modelo time and none of them are the right thing.

[Brady]

You want to know my hot take on Modelo? By the way, I. I like model.

[Luke Burbank]

I would love to know. I'm not a huge beer guy, but if you went to my refrigerator right now in the house, you would. Well, you would find some Modelos. You would also find some like Voodoo Ranger or some Freeman. I'll buy this kind of high end beer when my brother in law, Scott is coming over. Cause he's like a beer guy. And then they just sit there forever until he's over again. I just don't drink any of that stuff. But I will crack a Modelo occasionally. I like it. It's very light. It's, you know, it's not a big commitment.

[Brady]

My Internet is failing me right now. But there's another tie into yesterday's show. The Voodoo Ranger art. You know that weird art. It's like a skeleton wearing a helmet or something like that. That is the art. That is art by the artist who illustrated a lot of Hunter S. Thompson stuff like. That's the Fear of the.

[Luke Burbank]

That's Ralph Stedman.

[Brady]

Isn't that Ralph Stedman? Am I wrong about that? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Thank you for remembering his name. That's exactly what I was thinking of. But maybe it's not Ralph Steadman. Maybe it's.

[Luke Burbank]

It sure looks.

[Brady]

No, it looks like he didn't.

[Luke Burbank]

Only because I don't know if Ralph Steadman's alive anymore.

[Brady]

Yeah, I guess not. Oh, I always thought that was Ralph Stedman. Did Ralph Steadman do a beer? And I'm confusing that. Oh, my hot take, by the way, is I like Modelo, is the rare beer that I like more out of the can than the bottle. Because I kind. Even though it's a signature look. And they should never change it for me. Not for my little lips. But I don't like this. I don't like the gold foil. I don't like the gold foil around the top of the bottle.

[Luke Burbank]

Totally. And you can't get it off easily.

[Brady]

You cannot.

[Luke Burbank]

They haven't developed a good system. Hey, I want to apologize. Ralph Steadman is very much alive.

[Brady]

Oh. And he does Wild Flying dog beer.

[Luke Burbank]

He's 90 years old.

[Brady]

Whoa.

[Luke Burbank]

And he's. I'm looking at like. I'm looking at like Breaking Bad art that he's done. So he's like, there's a. I think. Anyway, it sure looks like Brian Cranston's character from Breaking B. So he's.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

He's.

[Luke Burbank]

He's alive and he's working and he's making things. So it would not be insane to think that he had done the Voodoo Ranger.

[Brady]

Yeah. But the thing is, now that I'm looking at the beer that he actually has done, which was a wild flying dog, and now that I'm looking at that and thinking back to that Voodoo Ranger. Yeah. His style is very different than that. I don't know why I thought that Voodoo.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know. Here's the other thing. Here's my hot take for the day. I don't even know if I really love Ralph Steadman's work, but I love, love Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas so much. Like, I love that book so much. And that the. The drawings, the Stedman art is so. Feels so kind of part of that book to me. And then I'll give Terry Gilliam huge credit. Like what they did in that movie, the movie version which we featured. And thank you for punching in the. Punching in the actual video for TBTL tv.

[Brady]

Oh, yeah, that worked out really well. It's synced up perfectly.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't. I. I don't know how Terry Gilliam did it, but I swear to God, he sort of created that Ralph Steadman feel in that film.

[Brady]

I know, and I don't understand how. I mean, I have said this.

[Luke Burbank]

His drawings are so kind of like, almost like they're not realistic. I mean, that's part of the point. They're sort of. They're a gross exaggeration of things. And how do you realize that on the screen? And Terry Gilliam kind of did it.

[Brady]

And also just the weird style of Hunter S. Thompson. So I'm not a huge Hunter S. Thompson head. For what it's worth, I think that might be the only book I'd read by him. But I had read that book at some point in college and probably not too long after, probably within a few years of reading it, that movie came out and I watched it. And that's what I just could never get over. Complimentary is how Gilliam was able to capture the essence of the book, which is such. I mean, to capture the essence of any book is hard, but to even describe the essence of what makes Fear and Loathing interesting and stand out is so hard to even describe, let alone to transfer to a different medium. It is. It's literally brilliant. Like, I haven't seen that movie in a long time except for, like, that Clip that you played yesterday. But like, it's just, it's. It's mind boggling how well he was able to do that.

[Luke Burbank]

And, you know, I'll cop to this, which is sort of embarrassing, I think. I saw the movie before I read the book, and when the movie came out, I was not interested in the movie. When it came out, I was not overly interested in it. But what happened was Kamaro, Kev and some of the people, Kamaru, Kev, and I think probably Newman, rest in peace. And some of the other folks that I was hanging out with would like, they would just quote Fear and Loathing stuff all the time to each other. And so from them quoting it to me, then seeing the movie to me, then reading the book, it was a very weird way to get to it. But. But it sort of the reading of the book gave me this newfound appreciation for the movie and what they pulled off. Because I wasn't going into the movie with the understanding of what the book's kind of vibe was.

[Brady]

This doesn't really matter. But out of curiosity, because I feel like you've read more Hunter S. Thompson than me, you've at least read the Fear and Loathing. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign trail, right? So did you watch the movie, then read the book, and then want to read more Hunter S. Thompson, or had you read the Campaign Trail?

[Luke Burbank]

No, I hadn't read any Hunter S. Thompson. I think if I remember right before I saw the movie, I don't think I even really loved the movie the first time because again, I didn't appreciate what they were tasked with. I thought the movie was like, fine. And then I went and I read the book and I was like, oh my God, that's where this is coming from. And wow, they did an amazing job of like encapsulating this strange stream of consciousness writing with the kind of visuals, mostly drug induced, that are being described, described, and like the like. So then I suddenly was like very into the movie, very into Hunter S. Thompson's writing. And then I. And then I think I was literally on the campaign trail when I read. Like, I was. So my job at the time, I believe was I was covering Congress for npr. But then also when they went on break, I would be sent out into the districts I'd be. Because there was Nothing happening in D.C. they would send me to the home district of somebody interesting who's like, in Congress or run. So I'm like flying to, you know, I'm flying out to Illinois to do a story about a suspicious road that Dennis Hastert had moved because of his property. Interesting to find out that that was not even by far and away the worst thing that Dennis Hastert was doing. He was the one time speaker of the House who then turned out to have been credibly accused and convicted, I believe, of sexual crimes against young people. People. But at the time the story was he had this property in Illinois somewhere that mysteriously a big highway project was moved very close to where this was, which greatly increased the value of this property that he had. I remember flying out through that story and reading Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail and just feeling I was a very much like I was a real, you know, I was a real journalistic muckraker of the order of Hunter S. Thompson, which I wasn't.

[Brady]

Yes, if I was, I would have

[Luke Burbank]

figured out that Denny Haster was diddling kids.

[Brady]

But you tough ether as the plane landed constantly.

[Luke Burbank]

There's, there's nothing more sad than a man in the throes of an ether binge. He'd see the bats soon enough. Whatever he says at that.

[Brady]

Hello and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

I talked about the emotional highs and lows for me yesterday. The highs of, of being at the Sam Forstag event. The lows of listening to the, the Mariners broadcasters trying to put lipstick on the turd that is this baseball team. But then a certain euphoria when I got home and I turned on my home box office and saw that the Seahawks. Oh, I got an update from listener Kate, our friend from Dates with Kate fame, who said, for what it's worth, actually you can watch hard knocks at

[Brady]

6pm Oh, I didn't know that. I was sorry you had mentioned.

[Luke Burbank]

Which kind of makes sense.

[Brady]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But I swear to God, I don't think I'm crazy. Initially, when I was Googling like when is Hard Knocks going to be available? What I was seeing was they kept saying 9pm Pacific and I was like, that's the strangest.

[Brady]

And HBO definitely used to do that. Like we'd have to wait on the west coast even though it had already aired on the east coast for things like Game of Thrones or what have.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what I think it was now that I'm, now that I'm reflecting and boy, aren't we starting at the most interesting part of this whole deal. I think what it is is it airs live probably at 6pm but if you want to watch it on demand, it doesn't get posted until 9, if that makes sense because I started at like 9:05 I got home, turned on HBO, and the first thing it said was, like, do you want to watch Hard Knocks? So I'm wondering if, like, if somebody like our friend Kate was watching it,

[Brady]

like, on hbo, not on Demand, but

[Luke Burbank]

just not on demand, but as part of the HBO broadcast. Feedback. And then for some reason, at 9pm is when the On Demand feature is.

[Brady]

I could sort of see that. I mean. I mean, none of it makes sense,

[Luke Burbank]

so none of it makes sense or matters, but there you go. So I. I start watching and you know, exciting times for me because I do like the show Hard Knocks. And I really. I know you said you watched some of it. What I think is actually kind of great about the show, if the team that you're watching is your own team, is you legitimately get to find out about these players in ways that you just wouldn't otherwise. Like, I mean, Devin Witherspoon is sort of a cipher to me. Like, I don't know anything about him other than he's very fast and he's a good cornerback. But now I've, like, seen him driving his car. I've seen him talking at length. Like, there's a lot of. I mean, there are certain Seahawks that I feel like we know a lot about. Leonard Williams comes to mind because he's a big online guy. He does a lot of, like, cooking tutorials, and I see him spearfishing. But, like, yeah, a guy like Devin Witherspoon, I don't know anything about him. And now after watching that episode, I know a lot more about him because they're following these players around, even off field, in ways that you just. You don't get to see on the local football broadcast. You don't get to hear on Cairo or whatever. Like, it's kind of illuminating in a way, and it's fun when the people who are being illuminated are people that you're already pretty interested in.

[Brady]

Yeah, that's why I want to watch. But like, I almost said that it's. I'm almost watching it, like, homework. And by the way, I'm not doing my homework. I only watch, like, the first 10 minutes or something. By the way, the show, doing it,

[Luke Burbank]

like how I used to do my

[Brady]

homework, and then I watched the rest of it on the bus as fast as possible.

[Luke Burbank]

As Columbo.

[Brady]

How long are the episodes, by the way? Are they full hours or an hour? They are full hours. Okay. Yeah. So I barely cracked this one. I do know. I watch about the first 10 minutes. And the thing for me is, like, I am. It's weird. It's like I'm literally interested in watching it for the exact reason that you just said, like, the team. For me, I feel more and more unmoored from the team and who the characters are and, you know, I mean, how. How well we knew the legion of boom players and what have you, and I just, like, don't have that connection. And so I'm looking forward to having that connection again. But I hate reality TV so bad, and I am just so. But I have. I have just bubbled myself away from any kind of programming that is not like, you know, actually scripted programming, because I just. There's something about it that I just don't like. And it was a little bit. I was like, oh, God. Like, I don't know. I hate the format. I hate the production so much.

[Luke Burbank]

Now I. I feel like, okay, I don't think you're wrong, but I guess I wouldn't think of this as reality television. I mean, I don't know what you would call it otherwise, but when I think of reality tv, I think of. Of, you know, love is Blind or like, the Kardashians, where there's, like. Where it's like. And I guess in. I guess the Kardashians is a fairly close analog to this. You're just filming people now with the Kardashians. Thing that always annoyed me was they would give them pretend things to do to create, like, a plot line. Like, they're gonna learn tennis. They're not gonna be good at it. I guess in this case, they don't have to give them a plot line because the plotline is the season, but I guess it is. Technically, I don't think of it as reality television, but as I describe it, I think. I guess it is. I don't know what else you would call it. It's not scripted.

[Brady]

I know. I turned off, like, right on beat when they. They introduce one of the wives. I don't know who it is. And you know me, I just hate women. No, it's just like, there was something about the introduction of you here. I think it's. Is it Sam Darnold's wife who's introduced first? And, like, I think I was looking away from my phone for a second, but then it's like you can just hear the music change, and then. Then you hear a woman talking to her baby, saying, oh, that was Donald's wife. Oh, my.

[Luke Burbank]

Charming.

[Brady]

Well, again, I turn it off right about there. Anyway, it's the. Again, this is not about any of the people involved. It's not about babies. It's not about mothers. It's just like.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it's about all of them.

[Brady]

But I. It's about the format is something about, like, I hadn't watched Hard knocks in probably 10 years or more, but there were a couple of seasons that I watched from beginning to end and really enjoyed years and years and years ago. But there was just something about it being like, oh, my God, this is the exact same playbook. Like, there's nothing new here as far as production is concerned. I mean, it's just like. I don't know. Like, I have a. Well, I'll shut up. I'm not trying to ruin this for you or anybody else or trying to, like, get in anybody's head about it. It's just like, you try. Exactly.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

No.

[Brady]

And I just realized I'm shitting all over something that you had. You enjoyed. That's seriously not the reason for this. This is more about me. Like, I am out of line with culture. Like, there is something so. I don't know. Like, I just. It makes me cringe so much.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, this is. Let me. Let me stand up for that particular scene a little bit, or at least explain my view of it because. Because where I think this is different than reality tv, this is more documentary in my mind, because the producers of Hard Knocks are not feeding lines to anyone. They're not ask. They're not putting people in situations. The thing about reality television and why I don't watch reality TV is because it's all about putting people into situations where then you're getting an event happening. So if it's the Bachelor, it's like, we're gonna go on this date and, you know, the producers are getting them drunk and are saying, are taking them aside and going, well, why don't you ask them about this? There's all this, like, impact that the producers are having to create this thing. That. Part of my problem with the term reality television is most of it to me, is very unreal. It's not a fly on the wall. It's not. You set up a camera and you're observing things. What I would say in Hard Knocks defense. And I'm about to play you some truly bad writing from Hard Knocks. My defense of Hard Knocks as a show is they are being a fly on the wall. They are not telling. So, for instance, that scene that you're talking about, about. It's our head coach, Mike McDonald. He's out coaching the team. His wife, who is, I believe, also Pregnant. I loved that too. I don't think you got to this part, but there's. As they're welcoming everybody back, the whole. All the players and coaches, they're in the big kind of like, you know, auditorium. Mike McDonald is going through basically, who had babies in the off season. And the headline is offseason W's.

[Brady]

Oh, I didn't see the. I didn't see the headline.

[Luke Burbank]

People's babies. And I was like, oh, it's kind of sweet. I love that they're calling it an off season W for people. And then, like, he's like, hey, we're having another baby too.

[Brady]

And then nobody applaud, so he had to wait.

[Luke Burbank]

Nobody applauds.

[Brady]

Yeah. Can I just say, though, that I did think that, like, and maybe I'm wrong about this, but maybe that for me, it does seem more transparent than that because, like, the whole, like, hey, we're gonna have a goat. Literally a goat at the doorway of training camp on day one. So that we can get all of the. All of the players to react to having a goat there. And then one of them pees on the leg. Like, that feels so reality TV to me. Exactly what you saw.

[Luke Burbank]

But that's not hbo. That's Seahawks social media. Because what they're doing is. That's a very team social media thing.

[Brady]

Oh, have they been doing that for a while?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, my gosh. For seasons. Like, this is a whole side of TikTok that I see constantly, not just for the Seahawks, but for every team. There's always some young person, typically a young woman, who's wandering around the facility going like, name your top three Pokemon characters. Name your. Or they have a. They have a goat there. They have, like. It's this idea of trying to get these players to answer weird questions that are non sports related. And it's a whole. It's a whole. It's a. That's a Seahawks social media thing. That was an hbo.

[Brady]

Because it's all being asked a question, though, out of curiosity. So for a long time for. For years before this, the Seahawks had a. Had a. Had a goat, or this was. Tell me the goat.

[Luke Burbank]

The goat is just the thing that the Seahawks social media team decided to do this day to create their own content. If you went to Seahawks TikTok on whatever day that was, or the day after, you would have seen from a cell phone shot with like, I saw the woman.

[Brady]

Yeah. Holding it.

[Luke Burbank]

That's. So that's. That's not. And I could be wrong on this,

[Brady]

but no, no, that Makes total sense. I mean I was just. My follow up question was a true.

[Luke Burbank]

So they don't always have a goat. That was just probably something that they thought would be. But there is now and by, by for a long time, I mean like two, two or three seasons, there has been this trend in pro sports and it's, it's all of the sports now where it's like approaching the players and asking them to answer like a series of weird questions or having them look at photos of themselves as little kids or what you fill in the blank. And I think it's, it's, it's in the, that's. The social media feeds of the team see this as a way to humanize the players to get the them talking about something that's interesting to the wider public, not just, you know, football heads or whatever.

[Brady]

So that makes a lot of sense because I did see that as I was like, oh, probably HBO was like, hey, what if we had a goat there? Or somebody planted the idea. But you're right, what. That, that makes so much more sense. And because I saw the young woman who was running the. She's probably like 35. Everybody's a young woman now. Everybody's a young person now. But I saw the person who was like kind of holding the phone and introducing the goat to the players and stuff. And I sort of, I just assumed that that was like. Because I told you I have a cousin who is like, like on some reality TV show. And he's a glass maker, right? And he made some big.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think I remember this.

[Brady]

Yeah, it was from a. This story goes back forever. But they made him marry a goat. He married a goat. I'm sorry, I'm getting you far away from the thing. But like he made this. He's a glass artist, right? And so he makes. And so he'll get commissioned by. If they're building a new building in downtown Cleveland or something, he might get the thing to make some sort of huge glass sculpture for the lobby or something like that. And then he has small work as well. And he was featured on some reality TV shows, God knows what. But they basically paid him to pretend like he was breaking his glass guitar that he made or whatever it was. I don't know if that rings a bell for you. And it's kind of like. And he told me that he's like, yeah, they, they, you know, we knew that I was going to break that one and so I use it. And I was just like, God, it's just like. And So I just feel like I'm. Maybe I'm looking too much for that or. It all feels that way to me.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that's the. And to me, that's an important distinction is I don't think that the producers, the HBO producers are ever, like, telling someone to, like, drop a pass or to break their glass guitar. That does happen all the time in reality, quote, unquote, reality television. It's why I don't really watch any reality television. To me, again, this is just my personal opinion. I would file this more under documentary television. They're documenting what's going on. And you're right about this. The sort of arc of these episodes is. Is completely unchanged over the years. It's always you. You have these tent pole moments. They're always going to be the same thing. It's going to be the player. We haven't met them yet, but it's going to be the player who might, may or may not make the team that we're rooting for. It's what is the lives of the spouses. What is the. You know, there's all these things that are very predictable. Now to the Mike McDonald scene that you're talking about. It's like they're out on the field playing. And you cut to Mike McDonald's office, which is. Looks out on the field, and it's got his wife who's sitting in there with their little toddler son, and she's looking out the window and she's like, hey, do you want to see? Daddy's out on the field. Do you want to see? And the kid is totally uninterested because he's like one and a half. He's just kind of wandering around. And then she kind of gets him to go over to the glass and she's like, see, he's in the hat and he's in the shorts, and the kid's just kind of like, la de da, whatever. And to me, what I found interesting about the scene is it's like. It's like. It explains a bunch of stuff to me about Mike McDonald's domestic structure of his life. And it is that his wife goes to the field and hangs out and it's like. It's like his family is at the facility. The baby is not with a nanny and the wife is at Bellevue Square Mall, at least on this day. Or is. The wife is not at home with the kids. The wife is like hanging out at the office trying to get the baby to look through the window to see what the dad is Doing the baby's not really that into toddler's not that interested in. Later on, after the practice is over, she's down on the field talking to him about how the baby's day has been going. She goes like, yeah, nap time was a little funky. And she's downloading with him the way I feel like Genevieve would download with you about Lucy on a day of how it went. And so to me, even though that's

[Brady]

baby hit a motorcycle. Did not like it exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

Even though these are very tropey for Hard Knocks, I still find them to be illuminating. I like to see these people. I like to see what it's like when Mike McDonald and his wife talk to each other.

[Brady]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Like now they are wearing microphones. They know they're being.

[Brady]

Yeah. That's kind of the thing I can never get out of my head. And I'm not even saying you're wrong and I'm not arguing with you here. And I'm just saying, like, what my disease is, is my. And you're talking me more into it. And I actually really appreciate this because I do plan on finishing at least the first episode and I want to enjoy it more. And what I need to do is shut up the demons in my head that are saying things like, yeah, but.

[Luke Burbank]

But would you make enough Modelo for.

[Brady]

Well, happy to test that. Got a drawer full of shit. I mean, we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. But the demon in my head is kinda like, yeah, but would she be there if Hard Knocks wasn't there? And maybe the answer is yes. And maybe more than likely the answer is yes, but it's like, I can't shut up that voice. Like, is this what would be happening if the cameras weren't rolling? And I like to, you know, maybe you're right. Like, as we have seen other spouses depicted in other settings during this phase of. Of previous, you know, seasons or what have you. And again, like, having those conversations, it's like, well, I know that if I'm mic'd up, I'm gonna have a conversation that's going to be different than if it's just me and Genevieve. Like, if I'm mic'd up, I'm not saying about you, you know what I mean? But if it's just me and Genevieve cutting it up, like, I got pretty much non stop. But anyway. But maybe this conversation will honestly help me release some of that a little bit.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, I think you're not. Here's. You're not wrong about the fact that having a microphone on and being filmed is always going to Schrodinger that cat. You know, there's just no way around it. And so, yes, this is never going to be a pure experience of how these people would be if they're not being observed. But I would say, you know, acknowledging that I do think, by the way, I heard back from my sound guy on Hard Knocks about what Mike McDonald was like to work with and he said, let me see if I can scroll back to this or if this even came through to this particular one. To paraphrase. Oh, yeah, he said coach has been very hospitable so far. I haven't had a ton of interactions with him. But what I've gathered so far is he's a players coach and a family oriented guy. He's all about making everyone in the building a better version of themselves. And then he invited me to come to the vmac.

[Brady]

Oh, nice.

[Luke Burbank]

And hang out for a practice if I'm in town.

[Brady]

Oh, you should do that.

[Luke Burbank]

That I'm kind of tempted.

[Brady]

You should. You might end up on Hard Knocks for real. Like you could do that. But. Oh, can I just say one other thing? And this is again the complimentary column. I'm telling you that I'm watching this and like, I just kind of can't shut up like that. That little voice is kind of like, yeah, I don't know how real this is. I appreciate it. Even though I think one of the cringier parts of the show by nature is when the coach, any coach, in this case McDonald is talking to the team on day one kind of in front of that. In front of that projector like you're talking about.

[Luke Burbank]

He never said rock and roll, by the way. I didn't get to.

[Brady]

Oh, you didn'? Any of your Hershey Welches or any

[Luke Burbank]

of my sugar Free Welches.

[Brady]

But, you know, it's just awkward, generally speaking. And it would probably be awkward anyway if I were sitting in that room. I've been in work things where it is just awkward. Those things can be awkward. I liked that he acknowledged the hard knocks of it all. Now what he said was some sort of weird word salad that I didn't fully understand. And it was cool.

[Luke Burbank]

I want them to know who you are so you can know how to be whatever kind of thing.

[Brady]

But one of the very first things he says as they're all in the room and he's talking to the entire team on day one, he's says, now let's talk about this hard Knocks thing, you know, like, I see this as a gift from the football gods. And then however he addressed it. But that, to me, I appreciated because they're kind of like, yeah. The very fact that you're watching this on TV does sort of, as you say, Schrodinger that cat a little bit, you know, And I really appreciated that he addressed it and that they left it in.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Now to the parts that I both weirdly look forward to and that are so unbelievably cringe, which is the writing on Hard Knocks, what I've learned is, because I analyzed this episode, I think it's kind of like there's two sections where they really bring in Liev Shriver. It's the beginning and the end. He's actually not in a lot of the middle of it, I've noticed, at least of this episode. So I want to. I know you saw this, Andrew, but for people that didn't. I want to set this up. It starts with. This episode starts with kind of like a drone, a kind of, if you will, a bird's eye view flying over the V Men, the training facility for the Seahawks, which is on Lake Washington in Renton. And it's cutting between this drone's view of the field and the lake. And all of this with footage of a what appears to be an eagle. Seahawk is not even, I think, a real bird.

[Brady]

It's like an Osprey, right?

[Luke Burbank]

So they're showing a bald eagle flying around. I don't really care. I'm not gonna go all, you know, like, Audubon Society on it. But they're showing an eagle flying around with.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

Which is.

[Luke Burbank]

That's. That represents the Seahawks for us. And so this eagle is flying around, and we start to hear Lev Shriver talking about the Seahawks and kind of, you know, with a lot of sort of bird punnery. Now, I also need to mention this in case it gets to it more quickly than I remember. We go from this bird flying around to a. Like, what looks like a monster truck, which looks like one of these trucks that would be driving. Driving, you know, in the 80s in the Kingdome, like, Monster Jam style, like. But it's being driven by Derek hall, who is a linebacker for the Seahawks, who drives this ridiculously lifted monster truck

[Brady]

everywhere, apparently, and backs it in like a real MAGA head.

[Luke Burbank]

I was checking what the back. Almost everything was backed. And there was also a car that did not appear to have a disabled placard in it that was backed into a disabled parking spot. And I was not Having that at all. It's like, who did that?

[Brady]

And there were. There were grocery carts all over the parking lot that nobody turned to.

[Luke Burbank]

The stall turn cart narcs loose on them. So. So just. I'm just mentioning all this because this is what the. This is what the writing refers to. An eagle, a.k.a. seahawk, flying around and then also a big giant monster truck driving into the team facility.

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

There's nothing like the view from the top. The Seahawks are the reigning super bowl champs. They have every reason to crow.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, now we are talking about a different. The Seahawk may be mythical, but we're showing a bald eagle and we're saying that they have room to crow.

[Brady]

I knew you were gonna play that. I had my buzzer set up because I was like, what are you doing with the crow there?

[Luke Burbank]

What in the ornithology is going on here?

[Brady]

You know what? It just occurred to me too. Is. Is what they wanted. What they. It was a rainy day so they could say the sea. Can you imagine if the first day of camp happened to be a rainy day? And you talk about the Seahawks. Not only does it like the reign of Seattle kind of fit the narrative perfectly, but then the Seahawks raining. That it was raining. I can't believe they didn't make it rain.

[Luke Burbank]

If they could have had the eagle throwing a fish at Pike Place Market in the rain while Jimi Hendrix jammed

[Brady]

out in the background with Kurt Cobain.

[Luke Burbank]

With Kurt Cobain made like that. Yeah, exactly. They're like, God, why couldn't we have gotten a rainy day in. In July to shoot this? So yes, the Seahawks have a lot to crow about. Because we won the Super Bowl.

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

They have every reason to crow.

[Luke Burbank]

Now cut to the big gates of the VMAC parking lot open to reveal this monster truck driving in.

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

Perched atop the NFL.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah. Also perched atop the NFL. Perched. That's where I believe the eagle has now flown and landed on a branch somewhere.

[Brady]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

So now we are perched atop the NFL.

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

Perched atop the NFL. You'd think they'd be sitting pretty. But this summer in Seattle, there are monster expectations because of the truck.

[Luke Burbank]

Is a monster truck.

[Andrew]

Right?

[Luke Burbank]

Monster.

[Brady]

I didn't even get that until now. I was like, what is the monster? Pun is. Cuz it's a monster truck. I honestly, I'm only remembering now that I was kind of like. Wait, are you talking? Because I was like, that would be for. I honestly thought like, that'd be for the red socks. Like the green monster.

[Luke Burbank]

What is the monster promo for Monsters 5.

[Brady]

It's the monster Truck rock.

[Luke Burbank]

Now it's a monster. We're sitting pretty, and we have a lot to crow about. But there are monster expectations. Like, does anybody. This reminds me so much of my early days of doing CBS stories where, like, I feel like oftentimes when I was working with producers that wanted to try to, quote, unquote, improve the script. And I'm sure that the script I'd written needed a lot of improving. That's a real statement. But their improvement was always just to write in things like this. And. And I just. It's just so. I mean, again, I kind of love it for. For. For Hard Knocks because now it's part of the whole thing. But it's. It's the lowest form of. It's like, okay, that truck is called a monster truck sometimes. How do we. Okay, monster expectations. There you go. Like, it's. It's like. It feels like what a large language model would do. Right? It's the most uncreative style of writing where you're just going, what is the thing? What is the visual? And then what are the words? We associate that. That with. And how can we put those words into something else that's sort of related to this?

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

So.

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

But this summer in Seattle, there are monster expectations, especially after the way they trucked everyone in last year's postseason.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you still have that buzzer? Could you please break that buzzer out again? Here's my problem with that. The average person does not use trucked in that way.

[Brady]

No, it is a football term for.

[Luke Burbank]

It is a football term that has kind of risen in salience the last few seasons. Like, he really trucked that guy. My sense of what trucking a guy is, is usually you're the person with the ball. Someone's trying to tackle you, and you sort of like, Marshawn lynch them. You knock them over. That's what I usually see trucking someone associated with. I don't know if that's a hard and fast rule, but what it's. That is such a force that is so forced, given with how they trucked everyone. Like, that's not a way that you describe what a team has been doing in the season. It's just because the guy's driving a monster truck.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

Yeah.

[Brady]

Really?

[Luke Burbank]

That one. Really? And I just. I said this to you before the show, but, like, I really, really, really like Lev Shriver.

[Brady]

In fact, me too.

[Luke Burbank]

Last year, or maybe one of the previous seasons of this, probably the ladies. He, like, shows up at training camp, and it was this very meta moment, because it's like this omniscient voice of Hard Knocks is at the thing. And what I loved about it was he was very funny and self deprecating. He was. For all of this sort of pompousness of how these voiceovers go, that was not the energy that Liev Schreiber was bringing at the facility. He just seemed like he was kind of geeking out.

[Brady]

It'd be awesome if they had him narrate his own appearance and he could say something like, you can show up whenever you want, but you can never leave. Or like, that's the best I got.

[Luke Burbank]

NFL training camp.

[Brady]

Where's that buzzer?

[Luke Burbank]

Big time. When you're the narrator, Liev Shriver, you realize you're not that big after all.

[Brady]

I'm buzzing. Me too. How about. What if he shows up in a jeep and he says some people drive junks? Slunk Jeeps. Okay, let's get out of this. I can't riff on. I can't riff on Slunk Jeep.

[Luke Burbank]

I love but like the idea that he's L. Shiver Shriver, not Shrier. Right. Shriver.

[Brady]

Shriver. I think. Leah. Lev. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Lev Shri. Wait, no, the V is in the mediocre.

[Luke Burbank]

I think he's a scher.

[Brady]

Okay, that would make sense because the V, he only has one V. Yes. Lev Schreiber. Liev Schreiber.

[Luke Burbank]

You know the reason that I. His last name or is because his brother Pablo Schreiber, who had a moment, who was kind of emerging kind of a Michael Rappaport style actor dude, who I don't know what he's been up to lately, but I can for some reason remember Pablo Schreiber easier than I can remember Liev Schreiber. Because I constantly want to. I want to insert the V into

[Brady]

Liev's last name, but he's got to remember he just has one V and it's at the end of the.

[Luke Burbank]

That's right. And it stands for victory. So then we go through a long period of the show where we don't have have enough Liev vo for my liking. I would like it if that was going on for most of the show just to see what the extent of the writing of Hard Knocks, how far they will go with it. But then as we are wrapping the episode up, which again, you haven't seen this part, Andrew, also, I do, I really like again, I'm not trying to be. I'm not trying to be fully sort of like in the bag for Hard Knocks or whatever. And Saying it's like groundbreaking television. But what happens towards the end of the episode is there is a fight that breaks out on the field during practice, which happens a lot during training camp. You know, people are trying to make this. The roster. Emotions are hot. Everybody's just kind of. And they're playing against each other, which is not going to happen in the regular season.

[Brady]

The weather is hot, emotions are hotter.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, you're not that far off, actually, from what I'm about to play you. But, like, what happens is, is there is kind of a skirmish, a scrap that happens. And one of the people that's involved is Derek hall, the guy driving the monster truck. And one of the things that they mention about Derek hall is he signed a $42 million contract extension in the off season. He got paid. And what happens is there's this beef between Derek hall and. There's like just a bunch of guys pushing and shoving. And Derek hall kind of swoops in and grabs a guy and like headlocks him or something. Something and throws him over. And then we cut away from the skirmish, whatever. And then there's these. There's an assistant coach that's talking to Mike McDonald. We also have an assistant coach with a British accent, which is wild to me. The be like, it's real Ted Lasso energy. It's like, you, sir, are not supposed to be part of this world and you're here. And that's pretty cool for you. Like, I don't know how you got here, but you are here.

[Brady]

This is Seattle. We also have Australian baseball announcers. Like, it's just the way that the world.

[Luke Burbank]

They call this guy Hyphen for some reason. And so the British accented coach, position coach comes over to Mike McDonald and he says something I thought was really interesting. He goes, some of the shit talking in there I think was a bit inappropriate. One of the guys, I think this guy's a running back who I wasn't familiar with before, but he must just be one of the deep depth chart guys because he seems like he knows everybody. Doesn't look like he's trying to get a job, but he's not a guy that I'm particularly familiar with.

[Brady]

Kind of a senior presence or a veteran presence. He does it. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

For a guy who I've never heard of, if that makes sense.

[Brady]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Like a guy who is clearly like not new to the team because he's. Again, he's walking around pretty comfortable because what he says. The British accented coach says to Mike McDonald, I think what he said was kind of inappropriate. He said to Derek hall, the money has changed you. In the skirmish, he said, the money changed you.

[Brady]

And like, that's not inappropriate. That's just sort of deep.

[Luke Burbank]

It's deep, right? It's deep about what are the perceived rules of shit talking on the field. And he and Mike McDonald have a fairly long conversation about if it is okay to bring up during one of these beefs the money that someone's making and if it changed them.

[Brady]

I could see. I understand. This is really interesting. I can understand, actually. I guess when I watch it, I'll maybe have a better understanding of it. But, like. Because literally even you say something that seems personal. Like, you know, what would be the classic, like, say something about something. Somebody's mom or, you know, mother wears combat boots. Yes, exactly. In a certain way, that's less personal, right, because it's just like. It's just a generic dig. Or if you go after somebody's physicality in that particular situation or something that seems like in our, you know, in our daily life, if somebody goes after my physicality, that would be deeply inappropriate. But if you're just like hot tempers on the football field and you're talking shit like that, that is not. That doesn't have as much reality behind it as, hey, man, the money has changed you. And, like, the coaches are like, we don't want them to actually have real fights out there about real world issues, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Because one of the subtexts of this, you know, we think of, like, every NFL player as being fabulously wealthy beyond, you know, any kind of measure. But the true story is there are some people making ridiculous amounts of money, and then there are people making a lot of money, and then there are people making what seems. Seems like kind of a lot of money to you and me. But once you account for the taxes, the agent fees, the head trauma. What's that?

[Brady]

The head trauma. I'm serious.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, no, really, like, yeah, no, you're absolutely right. Like, once. Once you account for all of that stuff, it's like you're really, you know, you're getting down to a more normal person amount of income on a particular. At a particular moment or in a particular season. And so the idea. Idea that some of these guys, like, if it's, you know, if it's Derek hall, they kind of get. They kind of get their moment to get their, Their. Their money. They're $42 million or whatever. And. And then you're saying that changed you fundamentally as a person. There's this kind of like crabs in a bucket thing. There's like. It's, it's. I actually have now I think I've sort of needle dropped to this point of the show. Can I play this for you? I've got it on the computer here, so take a listen.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

Yeah, fights are okay, but like there's some dumb decisions in there that are disappointing.

[Luke Burbank]

So that's. That's the coach, Mike McDonald. And now I think this is when the assistant coach is going to come talk to him about the money. Comments?

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

I'm disappointed in D. Hall. Like, why would you come in and go behind the guys? I'm just telling you.

[Luke Burbank]

He's saying. I'm just. I'm disappointed in Derek hall for coming in and headlocking the guy. Why would you come in behind him and do that? And this is where the assistant coach is going to talk about the other

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

stuff Brady said to him, bro, like, what did he say? He said you changed because your money divor hasn't changed. And like that when you like get into talking. I'm good with that. But that's kind of those personal things, like they like, they're the things that chip away at. I didn't know he said that. When did he say that? He said it on the sideline. I was heard him. I just, I'm kind of trying to

[Brady]

just keep it calm.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

Yeah. Hey, Brady.

[Brady]

So now that's interesting.

[Luke Burbank]

That's Mike McDonald calls the guy over over who was saying the money changed you to tell him, like, probably don't do that. So this is.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

I'm good with us like trash talking, but like, I think you kind of crossed the line. Like, is there. I know emotions are high, but like it's kind of a. Kind of a chotch thing to tell people. Yes, sir.

[Brady]

You think you agree?

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

Yeah. Yeah. You know, as your teammate, like, should be happy for him now if he does a cheap shot shot, like, tell him he's out of line for a cheap shot. I guess that's kind of what I felt like I was doing because of his slam on cable. Dude, that's. I mean that's, that's fair. You know. I agree. All right. I got my emotions getting.

[Brady]

We're all learned.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

It's all good. That's all good. Give him a hug.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, like, that's a. That's a fascinating moment of television to me.

[Brady]

That's really interesting. Also the thing that fascinates me is, is that. And we talked about this a little bit yesterday. I said like, I'm interested in seeing how this makes me feel about Mike McDonald, because I always hear him on the radio kind of being. Talking like this. Like, he kind of doesn't want to talk to the media much. But I always assume, though, that he's like a real leader of men. Like, you get him alone in a room full of football players, and he's, you know, like, he doesn't really like talking to the media because he's more of a man's man, sort of or something like. That does not. That is such a. That is such a weird tone when he's, like, sort of not dressing this guy down but trying to correct his behavior. It just. It seems so. It seems like a pretty passive way of talking and correcting behavior, don't you think?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, I guess I could. I could put a different spin on it, which is to say that he is. He's leading these guys, but he's not doing it from the light. Like, drop and give me 20, I'm sure.

[Brady]

Yeah, yeah. No, it's kind of beta, right? It's a little bit. That's what I mean.

[Luke Burbank]

It's beta.

[Brady]

And I don't mean this as like

[Luke Burbank]

that was the best way to handle that.

[Brady]

I actually, I. I'm finding it really fascinating. And I. And again, I'm not saying that, like, oh, this guy should be more. But I just always kind of assume that. And then, like, he's kind of like. Well, I mean, would you kind of agree that, like, that's kind of a. Kind of a cheap shot? It's kind of like. And. But I mean, you know, I mean. And again, everything I say is with the recognition that this man is a good football coach. Was last year his second year?

[Luke Burbank]

I think so.

[Brady]

Yeah. So he led an unlikely team to the. To win the super bowl in his second year as coach. Like, whatever he's doing is working.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, totally. Yeah. No, I'm kind of. This is the other thing. You want to know how screwed up my brain is? They start the whole episode. You saw this. They start the episode with the Seahawks getting their NFL rings. Like, that's the beginning of the thing. And it's this insane ceremony where these boxes are being lowered down from the ceiling. Sam Darnold fumbles his ring immediately out of the box, which is kind of great.

[Brady]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Like. And like, here's what I liked about Mike McDonald. He was up there, you know, saying, like, good job, everybody, and he's holding a glass of whiskey.

[Brady]

I noticed that, too.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know why that makes me, like, him more, but it's like, oh, because he's being a human being. Because so, I mean, so many of these. I feel like so many of these coaches are so, like. I don't know. I'm not like trying to advocate for more alcoholism amongst NFL coaches, but, like, I don't know, I feel like it's. Everything about sports is so hyper specialized now that it's like, I could just see it being like. Mike McDonald does not ever have a drink of alcohol ever, because he needs to be. At any time. He needs to be able to like, immediately cut to game tape and like start watching game tape and diagnosing it or something.

[Brady]

Like, he's for people who don't know. He's not an Andy Reid type. You know what I mean? He's not trying. Ignore.

[Luke Burbank]

Not trying to get those nuggets.

[Brady]

He's not trying to get nuggets from.

[Luke Burbank]

I think at one point he was described and I think this was a real stat. Like, it's having the largest biceps of any coach.

[Brady]

Yeah, he's like a really. He's like one of those modern, really fit cut kind of guys who you would just think is constantly, constantly thinking about input and output of calories or something along those lines.

[Luke Burbank]

Super duper fit guy, you know, looks like he could, you know, still suit up and run around out there, you know, play some football and stuff, so. And then also, somehow I also read that to mean also boring. Like, you're the boring guy who just like, works out for hours every day when you're not just staring at, like, footage of the game and saying things that have no actual meaning. Like to know that he, like, does allow himself to have a little whiskey and that he is slightly beta when he's trying to give this guy a pep talk about not. Not crossing the line with Derek, who. These were all things that were making me kind of have a slightly more nuanced opinion of Mike McDonald by the end of this episode.

[Brady]

He's almost too awkward to have cliches too. I think he wants to be the type of guy who talks more in cliches, but he's actually not good at it.

[Luke Burbank]

He did this. This is very subtle, but he did this Again, you didn't get to this part of the episode, but towards the end it's another all team meeting, all staff meeting, and they're sort of celebrating that Jackson Smith and Jason Jigba got he was the offensive player of the year and that he had like a 99 rating on Madden, which I don't Know what that means, but I think that's hard to get. And they're showing it and they're celebrating Jackson. And as Mike's announcing this and he's looking at Jackson, they cut back to Mike McDonald and he's making the weirdest face I've ever seen. Like, he's kind of. It's almost. He looks like Mr. Burns. He's doing this weird thing with his teeth. And you can tell that it's completely involuntary.

[Brady]

Like, it.

[Luke Burbank]

It's like he's not doing it. He's not trying to make Jackson, Smith and Jigba laugh. He forgets that he's being filmed. It's like. It's like a rictus on his face. That is something that someone does when they forget that their face is on the front of their skull and people can see it.

[Brady]

Like when I go to post the show in the video format and I'm like, oh, God, I'm just touching my face the whole time. I just.

[Luke Burbank]

He's basically doing a version of that where he's just making this very odd face that I know he's not doing. Intentional. He's not doing it consciously. And like, again, that weird shit kind

[Brady]

of makes me make that a meme.

[Luke Burbank]

If we could look at the packaging. Yeah, you know what? I'll. I'll send you a screen cap after the show. I seriously will.

[Brady]

Does HBO let you screen cap? I don't think so. That's the problem.

[Luke Burbank]

Find out. Those bastards. They won't let me video capture. But I wonder if I can screen cap. I'll find out.

[Brady]

I've tried, but I've failed.

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

But we'll see.

[Luke Burbank]

But, but anyway, I. I don't know. I like now all that build up. Okay, so I was setting up that whole argument thing, that whole shit talk thing to play you the last of the puns or the last of the whatever. So if you're HBO and you're coming out of that, this is what you decide to put in is some bullshit about, like, quick to fight, but quick to make up. And then they cut to more eagle footage, more Eagle footage. That's what we're seeing as we.

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

Quick to fight, faster to forgive.

[Luke Burbank]

Is that true?

[Brady]

I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

Know this also is going to be how I. How I introduce you on the show going forward.

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

Quick to fight, faster to forgive.

[Luke Burbank]

Now we're seeing our eagle flying around

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

the 20, 26 Seahawks. Time will tell, of course.

[Luke Burbank]

Another profound statement.

[Brady]

Oh, sure, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely profound statement. One that I have unfortunately, I'm sure used to end more than one journalistic piece that didn't know how to get out of Only time will tell if we will stand the test of time. I believe Sammy Hagar once said, seahawks,

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

time will tell, of course, but after the first week of camp, there are hints, signs that they could take flight again.

[Luke Burbank]

Huh? Cuz it's the Eagle is taking flight, so we might take flight. But also they've got the talent and

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

will to ruffle a lot of feathers. Does the defending champs. It'll take an awful lot to knock them off their perch.

[Brady]

Perch again.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, and the other thing too that you're hearing is the Blue Angels cut from the we'll call him a Seahawk landing on a perch because that was a plot line in the episode. While they're out there practicing, the Blue Angels are strafing the field and everyone's looking up kind of like you and I would going like holy, that is really friggin cool. Those, those jet plan, you know.

[Brady]

On the wordle text thread, our friend Katie must have been watching Hard Knocks and sent a note that I thought was interesting and I had not turned it on at this point. But she said, like, it's just so interesting to watch this knowing it's all so recent. Because I know, I don't know if she was using the Blue Angels as the example, but it sort of feels like that's what she was getting at. Like I know that the Blue Angels were just here like that was last weekend, right? And now we're watching this on Tuesday night, you know, and it's like, oh, she's like the wildfire smoke is going to be a topic in the next episode that we watch and that's what we're living through right now, you know, and it's like that there is something very exciting about that that you get a little bit of extra kind of gleam off of when you're local like that.

[Luke Burbank]

Actually, my friend Steve, the sound guy who's working on it, was telling me about that. He said, look, the first episode of Hard Knocks, they've had some amount of time to show shoot like lead up stuff, so they shot the super bowl rings. He said, it's basically like you have as much lead time as you're ever gonna have on the show as the producers to kind of like, you know, try to film as much stuff that's, you know, you can. So that that episode, it's not done, but a lot of it is done. And then you plug in the stuff from the field of play. He goes, and then after that, it is just frantic.

[Brady]

Yeah, I believe it. It's exhausting me thinking about it.

[Luke Burbank]

Episode two is being shot and edited right now. You know, it's like. It's like you have no. There's nothing. You have nothing that you can pre produce on it. It's just what it is. And you're. There's four sound guys, there's like eight camera guys. They're just running pretty much around the clock, getting all the stuff, ingesting it, and someone's cutting it behind them as it's coming in, trying to figure out what the show is going to be. And there's something about that immediacy that is actually, actually quite, quite fun.

[Brady]

They should make a reality show or a documentary about that, about the making of Hard Knocks called Hard Cuts and

[Luke Burbank]

have Pablo Schreiber narrated.

[Brady]

Yeah. I also think the fact that they're showing an eagle to represent the Seahawks means that if they ever do the Eagles again, they should, I assume they have to show it Osprey or something. Yeah, something like that. So, I mean, there's literally another team that's called the Eagles and they're showing an eagle to represent the Seahawks. That's a little.

[Luke Burbank]

And again, I don't want to be. I don't want to be so pedantic about that stuff. I don't really care. But it's like they don't even. They don't even try. They don't even build in a line that says, like, while the Seahawk may be mythical.

[Brady]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

The eagle that flies above the. You know, like, like I could see a different producer being like, guys, we can't keep showing an eagle and call and, and effectively calling it a Seahawk,

[Brady]

especially when there's another team that is that animal. You know, I mean, just like they keep showing a panther during the Jaguars. Carolina panther during the Jaguars or Jaguars. I say that weird.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a hard word to say.

[Brady]

Yeah, exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. I was literally gonna say that. Like, you know, like, like, you know, I guess they're just, it's the, as I say a lot on the show, it's just the bigotry of soft expectations. They don't expect that we, the Hard knocks viewers, will be breaking it down this closely, but here we are.

[Brady]

Well, here we are. And I'll tell you what, like, I do think that I'm gonna watch it. I think I'll finish this episode, but if not, I also just sort of liked this. Like, if you just want to do this every week, one of the week. What did we say 6 or 7?

[Assistant Coach / Guest]

8.

[Brady]

Season or weeks or something?

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, I am. I am. Listen, I'm absolutely happy to. I actually was thinking that last night, I was like, maybe.

[Brady]

Really?

[Luke Burbank]

What the thing is, is on Mondays, I just play for you the best, worst writing on that particular week's episode, because that's fun, too. So.

[Brady]

All right. Should I hit this?

[Narrator / Liev Schreiber]

What do you think?

[Luke Burbank]

Should we wrap it on up here on this Wednesday? Yeah, that's gonna do it. For today's show, try to knock us off our perch. I dare you. Other podcasts, we don't care if we ruffle feathers. There are monster expectations around tomorrow's TBTL

[Brady]

that we bring you Trucked You.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brady]

Get trucked.

[Luke Burbank]

I see you riding around town with a girl I love, and I'm like, truck you. Okay, we'll be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio. In the meantime, have a great Wednesday. Take care of yourselves. Please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Brady]

And good luck to all. Power out.