#4789 Big Getz

Summary

TBTL #4789: “Big Getz”

Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh
Date: August 10, 2026

Episode Overview

This Monday edition of TBTL is a classic, meandering delight featuring Luke and Andrew riffing on everything from obscure email technologies to the history of their careers, deep dives into NPR lore, and the small joys of listener mail. The main theme is a blend of nostalgia and inside baseball: revisiting the podcast's roots, exploring old radio days, and—at the heart—a special “What’s in the Box?” segment featuring gifts from longtime listener and contributor, Summer Ash. Along the way, there are running gags about podcast video production and a persistent sense of playful friendship.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Kicking Off (00:51–03:43)

• Luke and Andrew launch into their familiar banter, introducing the show and setting the tone for another video-recorded episode (“TBTL TV”).
• Andrew teases an upcoming listener mail segment—“What’s in the Box?”—pointing out the novelty of being able to show it to viewers this time.

2. TBTL TV vs. TBTL TVTL (03:43–04:36)

• Discussion about what to call their video episodes: “TBTL TVTL”, as suggested by a listener, vs. “TBTL TV”. Andrew, who “handles the books,” is sticking with the original name for continuity.
  • Notable Quote:
    “With all due respect to you and even more due respect to listener Ian… it will still be officially called TBTL TV in the books because I handle the books.” – Andrew [03:43]

3. The Saga of ‘Big String’—Early Email Tech Nostalgia (04:36–10:54)

• Luke recalls “Big String”, an email service from the 2000s that theoretically let you recall sent emails, pondering the practical impossibilities and hilarious hype.
• Andrew looks up a Seattle Times article penned by AP sportswriter “Howie Rumberg,” which quickly devolves into a lighthearted roast and speculation about the character's habits.
  • Notable Quote:
    "Howie Rumberg sounds like a guy who's both covering the Kentucky Derby for the Associated Press, but also betting on it. And when his horse doesn't come, punches through the hat." – Luke [06:17]

4. Bryant Park Project (BPP) Nostalgia and Blog Archaeology (10:54–18:43)

• Andrew and Luke go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole researching Luke’s former NPR show, “The Bryant Park Project.”
• Surprises surface: BPP's blog had a recurring segment titled “Too Beautiful to Live” (the origin of TBTL’s name?), used just after Luke’s departure, likely as an inside joke or homage.
  • Notable Quote:
    "Apparently this name, this concept, this brand of Too Beautiful to Live was already knocking around your head and lived on at BPP after you were gone... Are you seeing what I'm seeing here? And how can we explain this? This is blowing my mind, to be honest with you." – Andrew [15:34]

5. Public Radio Money, Philanthropy, and the Fate of NPR (18:43–23:44)

• Discussion of recent enormous donations to NPR, including $100M+ donations, layoffs, and the frustrating reality that such gifts just “plug holes” rather than allowing for growth.
  • Notable Quote:
    "We just got $100 million. Why are we laying everyone off? And it was kind of like, well, because it still sucks." – Luke [21:57]

6. Old-School Radio and Clothes Talk (23:44–30:47)

• The fellas riff on the superior post-divorce philanthropy of ex-wives of billionaires, their own wardrobes (button-down shirts, tank tops, recurring video-call fashion dilemmas), and the mechanics of looking good for TBTL TV.
  • Andrew promises a tank top for the next episode, and the pair good-naturedly bicker over who “owns” the right to the button-down shirt look.

7. Bizarre TV Shot Setups & Errol Morris Documentaries (27:00–34:39)

• Luke explains the technical challenge of maintaining eye contact on video podcasts—a struggle for “directness” best solved by Errol Morris's “Interrotron.”
  • This evolves into fond recollections of Morris’s films, Terrence Malick movies, and the confusion between “The Thin Blue Line” and “The Thin Red Line.”

8. Deep Dive: The BPP Blog & Canceled Bands (36:20–42:42)

• Luke scrolls BPP blog posts, marveling at its fun, experimental tone post-departure.

• They reminisce about failed “big gets” for BPP—particularly a story of missing the Arcade Fire due to tour fatigue and the vagaries of music business “yeses.”

  • Notable Quote:
    "I was used to it being like, the answer is no. And then they're like, okay, we're gonna do it. What I didn't know about the music business, those long hairs, those rock and rollers, is they say yes to everything and absolutely do not mean it." – Luke [39:14]

9. What’s in the Box? Listener Summer Ash’s Care Package (42:42–54:04)

• The segment highlight: a generous and personalized trove from listener Summer Ash—books, notes, and actual “stardust” (i.e., books of astronomical and personal interest).
• Andrew opens his package live, finding:
  • Old Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (“This is my kind of thing, those old pulpy mysteries.” – Andrew [48:19])
  • NASA sticker
  • NASA Book: “Exploring Space with a Camera” (“Such a good coffee table book.” – Luke [50:39])
  • Sounds of Jupiter flexidisc record (“A Jovian symphony of violent shrieks, tinkling choruses and eerie hisses is performed in an outer space that is far from silent.” – Andrew [52:21])
• Plans to mail Luke his as Andrew resists the temptation to peek.

10. Closing Banter—Blog Lore, NBA Jersey Trivia, and Listener Participation (54:04–62:00)

• Still browsing the BPP blog, Luke relates old posts and inside jokes.
• The pair slide into talk about LeBron James joining the 76ers and stories of NBA jersey numbers—plus a shoutout to John Sklaroff and his sports trivia rainman act.
• Further thanks to Summer and anticipation about opening the rest of her gifts in future episodes.

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Most Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On archival blog discoveries:

  • “You're blowing my mind. You're the one who brought us here.” – Andrew [19:12]

• On early mornings at NPR:

  • “That really was, you know, there were a variety of reasons why I didn’t feel like that was a great fit for me, that place. But the getting up, man... getting up at 3:45am, that really was inhuman to me.” – Luke [54:04]

• When opening Summer Ash’s package:

  • “Cannot stress again how beautiful this handwriting is. I get very nervous reading these on the show, and usually I skip it, except when your handwriting is like Summer’s, it’s great.” – Andrew [45:40]

• On podcast wardrobe turf wars:

  • “What, you got dibs—have you ever seen squatters rights? Have you ever seen, you’re the only one who gets to wear a collared shirt?” – Luke [28:55]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:51: Start of episode proper and show introduction.
• 03:43: Discussion on naming the video podcast (TBTL TV vs. TVTL).
• 04:36: ‘Big String’ email technology nostalgia and research rabbit hole.
• 10:54: Start of Bryant Park Project Blog nostalgia and discovery their “Too Beautiful to Live” segment.
• 15:34: The realization BPP blog used “Too Beautiful to Live” as a segment.
• 18:43: NPR donations, layoffs, and listener media critique.
• 27:00: Eye contact on video: Errol Morris’ Interrotron and video podcasting challenges.
• 36:20: Old BPP blog fun, producer shoutouts, and aborted Arcade Fire “big get.”
• 42:42: “What’s in the Box?” segment with Summer Ash’s gifts.
• 54:04: Reflection on old 3:45am radio mornings.
• 57:23: NBA jersey numbers and sports trivia banter.
• 62:42: Show closing, next steps for “What’s in the Box?”

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Flow & Tone

The episode has a nostalgic, offbeat, and warmly self-deprecating tone: rich with inside jokes, obscure media references, and endearing diversions. Luke and Andrew’s chemistry is front-and-center, inviting longtime and new listeners alike to become “part of the gang.” The balance of self-referential media nerding, listener gratitude, and meta conversation about podcasting and public radio is classic TBTL.

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For Listeners Who Missed It

If you want a masterclass in podcast banter, creative riffing, and the joy of community, this episode delivers. Whether you’re a radio/media nerd, a diehard TBTL listener, or just enjoy hearing two friends lovingly roast each other's histories and quirks (with a side of listener generosity), this episode is a delightful listen. You’ll also learn why mystery magazines, NASA sticker swag, and a flexidisc of Jupiter’s eerie music make for compelling Monday content.

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“No mountain too tall… and good luck to all.”

Transcript

[News Anchor]

Breaking news tonight. Finger in a burger. Somebody found a finger in a burger. Could your burger be next or worse, your finger? That's ahead at 11. They're calling it the Hokey Pokey. It's a dangerous viral trend where teenagers attempt to turn themselves around. And what are they turning around for? It's Fentanyl. We know cops are good, but are they also really great? Yes. More on this at 11. They're called Labubus. Little keychain toys that kids can collect and trade. But what may be hidden inside them. I'll let our Fentanyl correspondent take it from here. Do police officers deserve double birthdays? Proponents of a new city council measure say yes, while opponents say yes. But they can't all be on the same day. Tragic story unfolding tonight. A dog shot a cat with a gun. Mike.

[Andrew Walsh]

Tbtl.

[Luke Burbank]

Everybody calls it garbage. Most people call it a problem. We call it our challenge. Rated by Independent Research, the most popular west coast program in the history of radio. I think people should listen to TBTL because it will make them funnier, even if it's in their own head.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm not just about knock, knock jokes.

[News Anchor]

I know a lot of animal riddles.

[Andrew Walsh]

There comes a time in every young man's life when I'm not really sure. I'm not really sure what young men are doing nowadays. Let me know. I saw a woman psychiatrist and she said I was ocd.

[Luke Burbank]

One cool dude.

[Andrew Walsh]

And she understands the way I think right now. And everything's cool, everything's copacetic. Everybody's happy. And I'm happy, too.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, take it around.

[Andrew Walsh]

See you on the flippy flops.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, all right. Hello, good morning. Welcome, everyone, to a Monday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. Shame on everybody involved. My name's Luke Burbank. I'm your host. It's just two men celebrating each other's strength. Coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia, where we're looking at a beautiful.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, ma pa.

[Luke Burbank]

It's just beautiful a day here. We have officially started to reach the part of the weather season here in August where the. The lawn has completely stopped growing. We're just mowing the dandelions around here. But it's still. It gets me out of the house. It gives me something to do when I'm not bringing you episode 4789 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. You know, we have a P.O. box here on TBTL and folks send us stuff to that P.O. box.

[Andrew Walsh]

The new phone box here, the new phone box here.

[Luke Burbank]

And sometimes we like to have a little segment called what's in the Box? Which we'll do today, which will be especially interesting, we think, because it's another episode of what we're calling TV tl. That is to say, one of these episodes where we're also releasing this as a video product. So you, if you're watching this, you'll be able to see what's in the box for what? I feel cute today.

[Andrew Walsh]

Look at my outfit.

[Luke Burbank]

That's a whole new thing. People have never been really able to see what's in the box and now we finally can, due to the magic of technology and the magic of this guy who set the whole thing up. Longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. I feel like his enthusiasm has waned at times, so I make him stand in the mirror and repeat this 10 times each morning before the show. First things first, I love my job. He is Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good morning, Luke. Listen, with all due respect to you and even more due respect to listener Ian, who redubbed this project tvtl, I just need to let you know that it will still be officially called TBTL TV in the books because I handle the books and the first book already went out and so we already sort of have a nice rhythm of TBTL TV. It was episode one of TBTL TV.

[Luke Burbank]

Is that the title you gave it on YouTube or something?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's what I labeled it on YouTube. And the email that went out and everything. And so for just to keep things straight, that's what we're calling it, at least in written CBTL TV is a better name.

[Luke Burbank]

Or is that you don't want to go back and have to change it in all the places?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I mean, in a certain way

[Luke Burbank]

I can't go back about the differences.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, both. First of all, I can't go back and change an email that went out a couple of weeks ago and last week's.

[Luke Burbank]

But you're not using Big String. Do you remember that?

[Andrew Walsh]

No. Is that a way of pulling back an email?

[Luke Burbank]

When I worked at KVI Talk Radio 570, this technology came along and it was literally called Big String. I think we might have like done reads for it or something. But the idea was somehow it allegedly would allow you to pull back emails that you had sent to people, which I don't even really understand how that would have worked because it would seem like once the email has arrived in someone else's inbox, the, you know, the. The ones and zeros now kind of belong to their system. Like, it seems like it would be a kind of a security breach.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it does.

[Luke Burbank]

For your email to be able to pull back. I think it was some. I. I think it was like a lot of things we advertised on kvi, questionable as to the efficacy.

[Andrew Walsh]

So here I just typed in big string email, and the first thing that popped up, interestingly enough, I think, is a Seattle Times article about this. So did you just say this. Was it probably a Seattle company or. Can I just.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think I knew that, but, I mean, I guess it would check out with the fact that a lot of those Seattle radio stations.

[Andrew Walsh]

You were at a Seattle radio station. And there's, you know, this is 2007 according to this. So there's a lot of, you know, like, kind of.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that happened well after I was at kbi.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, okay. I don't. Well, here, here, let me just read to you what. What came up here. And I. Maybe this is something different, but the headline from the technology section of the Seattle Times is, email service keeps your finger off the panic button. Now, I think this is an interest. First of all, it's written by an AP sports writer, so I'm not sure why this is in the sports jurisdiction. Howie Rumberg, AP sportswriter, says, here's a

[Luke Burbank]

scenario that really sounds like an AP sportswriter.

[Andrew Walsh]

Howie Rumberg.

[Luke Burbank]

Howie Rungberg sounds like a guy who's both covering the Kentucky Derby for the Associated Press, but also betting on it. And when his horse doesn't come and punches through the hat, he's.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. I have Howie as being sort of short and sort of like built like a fire plug.

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. You know, he's on his tenth cigarette and sixth black coffee today. Ideally, it's just black coffee, and he hasn't Irished it up.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

But depending on how the races go, he might need to.

[Andrew Walsh]

He's a fan of tall boys. I know that. Okay, so here's a scenario according to Howie Rumberg. And I gotta say in me just trying to preview this a tiny bit while I'm talking to you, I don't know if I like starting with this scenario. I don't know how relatable this is, but let's. Let's get into it. Here's a scenario that way too many people are familiar with. Colon. It's the colon, the punctuation. He didn't write the word colon. You just went on a fantastic date and decide to send a friend a blow by blow email. Instead, you type the fresh in your memory newly acquired address of the potential steady and hit the send button as you realize you are sending it to the last person in the world who should see it. So in other words, you're sending an email to your friend you think detailing the date you just went on. But what you're doing instead is sending it directly to the date to the person you were going on a date with. I don't know. Do people get home from a date and like fire off an email to their friend? I don't really know. But to whom it may concern, Big String Corp. Has come up with a free email service, www.bigstring.com that gives the author ultimate control over his outbox. That's right, the outbox. When you click on bigstream.com, it looks like you can well infect your computer, which is probably something I'm doing right now and maybe buy this space because bigstream.com does not exist anymore.

[Luke Burbank]

What I remember about it and what based on, I'm also doing a little light Googling. You know what, I don't care what they say, I'm still calling it Googling. I'm doing some searching on this myself. And you're right, definitely. I mean I had the name of the company and what it's supposed to be able to do and that company started in 2007. I was like about to come back and do TBTL at that point. So I must have think Brian Carr covered this maybe, or I just, you know, my brain is Swiss cheese. I think. I, I, you know, this is something I've, I don't know how many times I've referenced it on the show, but I've, it's a, it's a little sort of data point. It's a thing that I've walked around in within. I've had it in my brain for many, many years, which was there was some kind of an email service where you could pull it back. And I thought that we maybe were getting to use it for free or that we were. I felt like it was like I can picture myself looking at the email I feel and when I picture myself doing that, I feel like I'm in the bullpen at KVI. But that doesn't really make sense because it's 2007. So it just must have been the case that I read about it in 2007 and then my very defective brain decided to then place it back in 1999, early 2000 for me, as far as when I thought that I read about this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I wasn't sure too, if you thought maybe it was one of those things that you had dialed up as a talk topic on one of the shows you worked on. I'm not seeing any.

[Luke Burbank]

Also very possible. But by 2007, I'm on Bryant park project duty.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And somehow it led me to just Google Bryant park project. I just want to see what they're saying about that online these days. The Wikipedia page for this. You ever do this? You ever go check out the Wikipedia page for the Bryant park project, your old show?

[Luke Burbank]

I don't think I've ever been to the page. I've been to the. Up until a little while ago, I think the blog was still there.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wow.

[Luke Burbank]

So, you know, Bryant park had its own blog and that was actually at the time kind of a big deal, you know, that the whole idea was we're going to be, you know, something that is a radio show, but also a big web presence. Which was not the wrong way to think about it. Just the execution was maybe not what it could have been. But I used to sometimes go back and look at the old blog posts because I was heavily blogging in the day. That was one of my responsibilities as one of the hosts. And then I remember like the, you know, I left the show and then they did the show for a few more months and there was a big send off, I think was. I think it might have been like Pesca and Alison Stewart. I forget who the last. I know Allison was there. I forget who the last two people standing were. But all that is to say I haven't been to the Wikipedia page. What does it say?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, one thing that is standing out on the Wikipedia page and I'm pre regret asking this because I feel like I should know this pregret I'm predicting this. I skipped right down to the radio stations that carried Bryant park. And by the way, it's fewer than I thought.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I think it was like one.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, you were on. You were on in Missouri, Salt Lake City. And then this is my. You're on about. It looks like, I don't know, somewhere maybe north of 10. But in Seattle, Tacoma, you are on KX O T. What is KXOT?

[Luke Burbank]

I think it's probably a slightly longer than normal car antenna that a guy has attached to a small cinder block building in his backyard.

[Andrew Walsh]

By the way, apparently now it's when you click on the link for KXOT it takes you to kyfq, which I just know. The thing is, I just have a real instinct for where to take a conversation into, like an interesting place that translates both to video and podcasting. And that's just one of my skills. And so when you click on kxot, it takes you to kyfq, which is now apparently owned by Bible Broadcasting Network. I think this is some sort of where I've also worked station. Did you work at the Bible Broadcasting Network?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm sure at some point. I've had a long and varied career.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, Chuck Swindell is on there. That's one of your old boys, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, Chuck Swindell, of course. Sure, we had old Chuck Swindell. We had. Of course, Dr. Dobson. We had. Who are some of the other pastors that had shows. I'm noticing something which is that the Bryant Park Project blog is still Love that kind of active.

[Andrew Walsh]

Active or just not.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, varied.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, click on it.

[Luke Burbank]

The posts are still there. And like, I kind of like how they were handling. This was a smart idea for people that don't know that was this kind of NPR morning news show that was supposed to be kind of, I don't know, a little more cool and informal and kind of capture a maybe a different group of listeners, which wasn't the worst idea, but they still ultimately wanted it to run like every other npr. I want to apologize. I had a lot of cottage cheese this morning, Andrew.

[Andrew Walsh]

I didn't mind the clearing your throat telling me that what I heard was cottage cheese was the problem there.

[Luke Burbank]

I know I've been on a. I'm a cottage cheese girly now. Becca got me onto it. It's so high protein. It's relatively locale, and it is delicious. But it is the last thing. Me with proven glottal issues is the last thing I should be eating before I hustle in here to do the show with you. But yeah, that was the. And I was hired. I was one of the two hosts hired. It was me and a woman named Alison Stewart. And the problem, my experience was they wanted it to be edgy and cool and different than the other NPR shows, except they also wanted it to run exactly like all the other NPR shows they were not as ready for. And really, this thing that you're hearing, or maybe watching TBTL is kind of, in a way, it's sort of an outgrowth of the Bryant Park Project because all the kind of weirdo stuff that I thought I was authorized to do there, which I was not authorized to do then I just came out to Seattle and me and my friend Jen did that all at Cairo Radio for much less money. And here we are all these years later. But yeah, I'm looking at the way that they kind of like the stuff they blogged about. And also when it was announced, I think that the show was going to end and they said, let's see. And this is there. I think let's. Who's doing the blog? The Rundown Forever, which is the second to last blog post for the Bryant park project, Won Wynn Rosenfeld.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, because it looks like these were divided and there's something very curious here that maybe you're about to tap up against is each blog entry has a sub category, and so one of them is Tomorrow's bpp. And that's clearly where you would post the upcoming rundown for the next day's show. And that must have been a regular occurrence on this blog. And it was always titled Tomorrow's bpp. And the one you're looking at is the Rundown Forever, meaning that there's not going to be a show, I guess. But the thing that I'm very confused about here is one of the subheadings for many of these posts after you've left the show is Too Beautiful to Live. Were they using the name of your new show in Seattle as one of the segments on their blog? Are you seeing what I'm seeing here? And how can we explain this? This is blowing my mind, to be honest with you.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, I don't know if I'm not looking at those same posts, but that is pretty crazy. I wonder if that was something that I was starting to say. I mean, I know that. Here's what I can tell you. I do not think I got it. I got that name or that idea from somebody at the bpp. Unless, like maybe Win and I had started saying that back and forth.

[Andrew Walsh]

And I was not there for that, by the way. I was not there for any of this. So I'm not arguing. I couldn't possibly. But my understanding of the lore was that this was almost a gen thing or a un gen thing. But apparently this name, this concept, this brand of too beautiful to live was already knocking around your head and lived on at BPP after you were gone. Because so many of these blog posts that you did not write, somebody named Laura Silver wrote a bunch of them are credited as Too Beautiful to Live. Dan Tashman wrote one.

[Luke Burbank]

And that's when this is really odd. That's when, like when the show, it's been announced that the show is going to be canceled. So where it starts, and maybe this is what you're kind of talking about, it goes tomorrow's bpp, which is going to be the rundown, you know, what we're going to talk about on the show tomorrow. And then it shifts on July 22 to too beautiful to live. NPR CEO has something to say. Dennis Carciger explains the death of the bpp.

[Andrew Walsh]

And that's the first blog post that is underneath this subheading of Too Beautiful to Live.

[Luke Burbank]

Right? I mean, is it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nope, that's not true. There's an earlier one. Pesca makes the BPP of Valentine Too Beautiful to Live. That was on July 18, 2008.

[Luke Burbank]

But we weren't. But that's all. But let me. No, I'm trying to. That is all. The Too Beautiful to Live. This show, also known as tvtl, also known as TBTL tv.

[Andrew Walsh]

Damn it, Ian.

[Luke Burbank]

And in and in France, le TBTL

[Andrew Walsh]

tv,

[Luke Burbank]

when they started using Too Beautiful to Live as a little kind of, I don't know, label or framing technique or whatever you might call it, are too beautiful to live already existed. Right.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's what I'm trying to figure out

[Luke Burbank]

because I'm 2008 start. We started in January of 2008.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, then, yes, indeed. Then they're using your language because I'm finding a post from July 16, 2008, under the sub headline Too Beautiful to Live. The ramble the second hour. Matt Martinez explains the near future. So I do think that they start using this when the conversation starts coming up that you guys might be on a short or they you're no longer here that they are on a short leash or starting to wrap things up.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Yeah. Help us go out in style. July 14, too beautiful to Live. So yeah, there we go. Too Beautiful to live. July 13th and New York Times, NPR is canceling the bright project.

[Andrew Walsh]

Interesting. And so they started. But I'm just so surprised that they're calling it Too Beautiful to Live on your old show when you've gone across the country to start your own show

[Luke Burbank]

called Too Beautiful, which is called Too Beautiful to Live, which they I'm assuming you know me, I never assume anyone knows about this, but I'm assuming that there was some aware if there was a group of people who would be mildly aware of it, it would be the people I used to just work for and my friends who all worked there. So I wonder if that was just a subtle kind of, you know, kind of a subtle joke, a subtle kind of Wink and a nod or. Yeah, yeah, that's. That's really. That's. You're blowing my mind.

[Andrew Walsh]

You're blowing my mind. You're the one who brought us here.

[Luke Burbank]

Mostly I'm just trying to. I'm just trying to scroll all the way back to when I was blogging to see if my blogs were good. So what you were saying was when you went to the Wikipedia page and. No, we're not off this topic yet.

[Andrew Walsh]

No. Are we going back to the difference between KXOT and K Y fq?

[Luke Burbank]

No, that's been. That's been well covered. Check this out though. July 7, 2008. I guess I'm already gone at that point. Guess what? They've got a story about lawn chair Larry.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I thought you were going to say the big string dot com.

[Luke Burbank]

That would be amazing. I will say that this website is a little kludgy. NPR. You guys just got, I think like $200 million right? From who gave them.

[Andrew Walsh]

Was it like the Croc Foundation? Are you talking about back in the day?

[Luke Burbank]

No, they just got another 100 million from. It was. I want to say it might have been MacKenzie Bezos.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, yeah, that rings a bell.

[Luke Burbank]

And then they had this is. Look, I don't want to just because they stole our cool name of Too beautiful to Live and tried to use it on their blog. On their failing, failing blog. I'm not going to be mean to npr, but I am going to say this to me, so typifies the current world of npr, which was like, I happened to be driving somewhere, listening on the day that this huge gift was gifted to npr, I believe it was the single largest amount ever given by a living person. So I remember when we got that sweet, sweet McDonald's money. That was when. And we still hear about it all the time. The estate of Joan Kroc. When Joan Kroc, whose late husband Ray Kroc was one of the McDonald's founders, passed away in San Diego, it turned out that she had been a big fan of the San Diego public radio station KPBS and NPR at large. And so we got $200 million. That was really great. Flash forward to I don't know, a few months ago, this hundred million dollars comes in and they have. I think it's like the CEO of No, you know, I think it might have been Folken Flick folkenflick interviews the CEO. Like, this is amazing. We just got $100 million. This, you know, because. And like, obviously public radio has been really, really struggling with the elimination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and stuff like that. And basically what the takeaway was was, yeah, we're just using this $100 million to plug up some holes. We're not adding any programming. We're still doing layoffs. Oh, that's what it was. The hundred million dollars news came at the same time that the round of layoffs news came. And I think the big question was, we just got $100 million. Why are we laying everyone off? And it was kind of like, well, because it still sucks.

[Andrew Walsh]

By the way, it wasn't Mackenzie Scott. I'm in the article now. Is Connie Ballmer. We're confused.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, my Seattle adjacent philanthropist.

[Andrew Walsh]

I guess she and the foundation contributed 80 million of that. And then an anonymous donor contributed enough to get it up to a total of 113 million in two donations. And so that's where the money was coming from.

[Luke Burbank]

Is Connie Ballmer still married to Steve Ballmer, I wonder? Because I have a theory that what happens is.

[Andrew Walsh]

I guess so it says Connie Ballmer Wright and her husband Steve Ballmer, who owns the Clippers. Oh, by the way, whatever happened with all that, that whole Clippers thing?

[Luke Burbank]

The NBA is opening investigation.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, yeah, you ain't heard the last of that. My theory is that oftentimes women who are married to these very rich dudes, they, when they, if they go through a divorce, it becomes very clear how much better the women were than the dude, you know, Mackenzie Bezos as an example.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, she's just where their priorities are. And.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, and like, and, and like Melinda Gates. Not that I, you know, look, I'm not trying to. I still think that Bill, Bill Gates's charitable work, I think is, is, is stands. You know, it stands on its own. Whatever else he's had going on in his private life and his regrettable association with Jeff Epstein, the financier, was bad. But like, I just feel like it's mostly Melinda French Gates and Mackenzie Bezos. Although I guess you see Mackenzie Scott, and I think Mackenzie Scott probably not. And I wonder, is Melinda French? Is she Melinda French again?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I didn't mean to dead name them, but yeah, it's just like it was very clear to me, it seems like who the brains of the operation was in a certain way and also who the like, good person was.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm just, I'm. I'm sorry. I'm still blown away by this. This we got. I feel like we kind of not to continue to steal from the past here. But speaking of early tbtl, I feel like we have a little bit of a TBTL mystery solvers on our hands. I do. We reach out to. No, it's not. Is it worth reaching out to somebody that you Pashmin or Win or somebody.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I could bring them. I could move them together. I could do a group text with Pashman Pesca and win and see if.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wow.

[Luke Burbank]

Alanis Morissette played the bpp.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you were there or you don't remember?

[Luke Burbank]

No. That's a big get.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, you guys had big gets.

[Luke Burbank]

No, we didn't. That was part of the problem. We were trying to get big gets and we weren't. We weren't getting enough big gets.

[Andrew Walsh]

You were getting was when.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Oh, I would have killed. We. Our biggest get was when I was on Cash Cab and then we lost the tapes. That was going to be our breakthrough moment.

[Andrew Walsh]

You'd only told me about that once and it wasn't all that long ago. You were on Cash Cab.

[Luke Burbank]

It wasn't like the real. It wasn't going to be on television. It was a sort of a setup. I think it was, you know, for the Cash Cab to get more promotion and it was for us to have kind of a fun video bit. So me and Win go down and the Cash Cab guy in the real Cash Cab, real host pulls up, we jump in the. We jump in the Cash Cab, we go around, we answer questions. The ceiling goes off. The whole thing. That ceiling couldn't hold us.

[Andrew Walsh]

That sounds amazing. That's sort of.

[Luke Burbank]

It was so fun. And then trying to think if I'd

[Andrew Walsh]

want to be in there. Did the, did the. Did the van. I don't know. It's. Listen, I've been in a lot of cabs in my life. I've been in a lot of cars in my life. I don't think of them as being stinky places necessarily, but there's something about that show with like, it's so claustrophobic in there with that camera and the kind of fisheye lens and everybody. I feel like there's going to be like a lot of like tension, sweat in the air that's going to cling to the upholstery. Like, was it. Was it a stink?

[Luke Burbank]

Like smelling the clicker from Jeopardy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, all of the cortisol.

[Andrew Walsh]

Somebody's kink, you know that they call them clickers.

[Luke Burbank]

That could be our million dollar idea.

[Andrew Walsh]

Get our hands on those clickers.

[Luke Burbank]

No, as far as I remember, didn't have any kind of. It didn't smell Worse than any other New York City taxicab, I'll tell you that. But, yeah, we filmed it, and it was, like, so fun. And then somebody, like, stole. Now, this was, you know, we were a scrappy operation, I think wins, sort of his archive library, if you want to call it his. His whatever you want to call it, tape library, was, I believe, in a box on his desk. And somebody nicked the tapes of our Cash Cab episode. It will never.

[Andrew Walsh]

You think they'll never see the light day?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, or, you know, or borrowed or maybe accidentally thrown out by someone.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. Yeah, because I. Why would somebody, like, steal it? To what end? To what end?

[Luke Burbank]

Why would Xi Jinping want to rust my Cash Cab tapes? Andrew, something very dangerous is happening here, my friend, which is that I am forgetting for long stretches that this is TBTL tv.

[Andrew Walsh]

Me, too. I keep on just staring at my. Keep on just staring at my.

[Luke Burbank]

I have an eyeline. An eyeline problem, which is I need the camera to be a little bit above my eyeline so that I look slightly more slim. But that means that if I'm actually looking at my computer, I'm not making direct eye contact. We bring this up all the time. We need that. What's it called? The Interrobox.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, sure, yeah. The documentarian uses.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. Why can't we ever remember that guy's name?

[Andrew Walsh]

I can always.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, he made. Cheap, fast, and out of control. Errol Morris.

[Andrew Walsh]

Morris. Nice.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, we need. He built this device where he could be interviewing someone, but they would be looking at what was like a picture of his face, but it was a mirror reflection of his face, I believe. But the camera was behind it, sort of like a teleprompter, but for a face. So that the sight line of the person being interviewed would be in the correct place, but it wouldn't feel like they were just talking to this empty box. And what I have to choose from during these TBTL TV episodes is either staring into the eye of Sauron, which is to say this Sony video digital camera that I'm using, or doing what I normally do, which is looking down at my computer and, you know, suffering from lack of direct eye contact with the tens of viewers who are maybe

[Andrew Walsh]

watching at least, is generally in the same spot, though. My computer that I'm talking to you on is over here. And then I have to turn my head, like, 90 degrees to look at the computer that I Google things on and that I play audio off of, which is even a more unflattering and more just sort of distracting look. But I'm not going to get in my head about it too much. And if things get bad, I have my fidget spinner here to kind of just keep me from touching my face too much during the show.

[Luke Burbank]

I also think that we need to coordinate on outfits for these TV TL episodes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, I'm wearing a button down shirt.

[Luke Burbank]

And what am I wearing for the first time in years on the program?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, you know what I wear every day of my life as a button.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, what you got dibs.

[Andrew Walsh]

Have I.

[Luke Burbank]

Have you ever seen Squatters Rights?

[Andrew Walsh]

Have you ever seen you're the only

[Luke Burbank]

one who gets to wear a collared shirt?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, you're right. I'm wearing a tank top tomorrow. You know what?

[Luke Burbank]

Wait, no. Tomorrow's not going to be another TBTL TV episode.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, well, I need to. I need practice, buddy.

[Luke Burbank]

You want to talk about clicker kink? I'm going to wear Andrew in a tank top, baby. You know what? It absolutely bothers me in the words of her medwards, I never get tired of making that joke. It absolutely bothers me to admit when you're right. But you are right that what you are wearing is sometimes you'll wear like a long sleeve button up shirt. But you're almost always in a button

[Andrew Walsh]

up shirt, button down or snap. I mean I don't know if you count those the same but you know, I have some of my shirts or snaps but.

[Luke Burbank]

But something I have similar to.

[Andrew Walsh]

I haven't worn anything different than that since I was probably a child because I started wearing this probably comes from when I started going to Catholic school and had to wear a button down shirt and a tie every day.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't usually wear a shirt like this. I'm usually in a black T shirt. I think that's kind of my thing in the wintertime. I'm in a black sweater.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you know what I noticed? Do you remember? Do you remember Luke? The very first episode of TBTL tv? Can you think back that far?

[Luke Burbank]

Who can forget?

[Andrew Walsh]

It was magic and we were talking about John.

[Luke Burbank]

People call it the face touching incident.

[Andrew Walsh]

People are still calling it.

[Luke Burbank]

That's how it's referred to in various

[Andrew Walsh]

second reference in Wikipedia. But I did notice. So you played that clip of John Oliver playing your clip from CBS Sunday morning of you inside that car wash at Buc EE's saying hey, I've never seen that before or whatever you said. But the thing that I was thinking about later as I was editing the video was that you're wearing a T shirt. There too. Is it usual for you to go onto a CBS shoot wearing a T shirt? And were you doing that at the frog jump, too? Were you wearing a T shirt at the frog jump?

[Luke Burbank]

No, I was wearing a J. Crew button up collared shirt. That's very breathable and is, as I was mentioning when we were broadcasting from Valley City. I have a bunch of green ones and a bunch of navy blue ones. And when it's warm out, I wear the navy blue one because you can't tell if I'm sweating.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I can't remember if I said this on the air or off the air or even told you about this, but I got a DM on Instagram from somebody who said, I've noticed that on CBS Sunday Morning, you only wear two kinds of shirts. One is green and one is blue. Where are they from really?

[Andrew Walsh]

So they like the look. They want to.

[News Anchor]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

And I was like, that is really observant. And I gave this person the link from J.

[Andrew Walsh]

Crew.

[Luke Burbank]

But as far as T shirts on that show, when I started out, I was always wearing a collared shirt because I was afraid of getting hollered at. And I didn't know what the sort of response to my tattoos would be. And I had actually fewer tattoos at the time. Well, I didn't have this big old John Prine on my arm. And then one time I think I rolled up my sleeves and so you could see some of my tattoos. And nobody said anything. And then I just kind of figured, who cares? Like, if they get mad at me? Well, if they don't like it, they'll tell me. And so it depends. Like, for instance, I have a story that's gonna air at some point this summer about true crime. I was kind of updating my trip to CrimeCon, and when I went to the Lizzie Borden estate out in Massachusetts and I interviewed the parents of one of the Idaho. One of the victims of the Idaho murders, that very awful case in Idaho where those college students were murdered. And when I talked to those parents, I was wearing a collared shirt and a blazer. Cause I just felt like I owe this conversation.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, you don't want to show up in a T shirt for that.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't want them to think that I'm taking this conversation in any way lightly or unseriously. But if I'm going through the world's largest, longest car wash, and it's also, it's Texas, it's probably a trillion degrees, I'm like, I'm wearing a T shirt. And so Far, nobody's really the number one. The two things you can't wear are actually. It's funny you mention it, this shirt that I'm wearing right now for TBTL tv, this would never fly on cbs. I would get hollered at by the camera person so fast because those little

[Andrew Walsh]

lines, those stripes would kind of freak out.

[Luke Burbank]

They do something called moire. So you can't wear something that has little stripes on it that are close together. That's a big no. No. And then something that I learned, too, is you just don't. You also don't want to wear. You don't want to wear a white T shirt. It really kind of enlarges you. When I was.

[Andrew Walsh]

By the way, you know what's on your shirt? I just got to bring this together because it's such a coincidence. Thin blue lines. It all comes back to Errol Morris. Sorry, go ahead.

[Luke Burbank]

This shirt is cheap, fast, and out of control.

[Andrew Walsh]

I had to interrupt you for that grand insight.

[Luke Burbank]

I always mixed you that. It's so funny because when he. When Errol Morris comes up, I always say cheap, fast, and out of control. You always say the Thin Blue Line. And I always get confused because what's the Terrence Malik film?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, the Thin Red Line. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Thin Red Line is a different colored line because the thin.

[Andrew Walsh]

The Thin Blue Line is actually a documentary about police. Right. I don't.

[Luke Burbank]

I've never seen it.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think it might. Probably. The reason I go there is it was probably my first Errol Morris documentary that I saw, but I don't remember much about it. I don't know why the Thin Red Line is called the Thin Red Line.

[Luke Burbank]

What I know about that movie is I watched it, which is. Wait, hold on. Am I confusing Tree of Life and the Thin Red Line? Because they're both Terrence Malick.

[Andrew Walsh]

They're both Terrence Malick for sure.

[Luke Burbank]

And they both. I believe a classic Terrence Malick shot is like a child's hand going through tall grass in a kind of almost dreamscape.

[Andrew Walsh]

That sounds like Tree of Life, but I could be wrong. But Thin Red Line is the war movie.

[Luke Burbank]

It's the war movie. So Maybe it's a GI's hand going through the.

[Andrew Walsh]

It could be. I mean. I mean, I started rewatching the Thin Red Line recently. Like, I didn't make it all the way through, but I don't know why. But I was shocked at the casting because I think. I mean, listen, Terence Malik did Badlands, of course, which had Martin Sheen and Cissy Spacek. It's not like those are no name actors, but there was something about watching the Thin Red Line. I didn't realize it was going to be like so many famous people are in that movie, including, like, it almost feels like it's a bunch of cameos that sort of took me out of the movie a little bit because maybe the first time I saw it, I didn't recognize the people as much. Yes, Luke, There was a time when I recognized actors even less than I do now, if you can believe it. But it almost took me out of the movie because I think of Terrence Malick movies as something that like, just. They just bring you into his world. They're so kind of. They can be sort of ethereal and, you know, and I don't know if that is the same thing as dreamlike, but dreamlike or whatever. Whereas when I saw John Travolta in like an army man suit, I'm like, what am I watching here? It took me out of it.

[Luke Burbank]

I just want someday to have the kind of career where I know Terrence Malick and I call him Terry Malick because I see people that have acted, you know, actors that have worked with him, they're like, oh, one of the

[Andrew Walsh]

things about working with Terry, really, I didn't know that. Oh, like coming to Neil.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, exactly. From our side of the, you know, of the movie screen, he's Terrence Malick. He makes very important films. If I could ever just be like Terry Malik. By the way, I'm still scrolling back in the Bright Park Project blog. I haven't gotten back to anything that I've written. I'm still in April of 2008.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, yeah, so. And you left at the end of 2007.

[Luke Burbank]

I left, yeah. I probably left in like November or December of 2007 with no prospects in Seattle at the time. I don't know what I was thinking. Also in looking at these blog posts, this is a pretty fun show. My narrative is. And again, I'm looking at things I had nothing to do with, but it's just, it's pretty clever what they're doing. Like, they're just. They've done the kind of. The sort of. The thing that I always thought was cool, which is all the producers are kind of characters on the show. Like, it's like there we had a great editor, Trish McKinney, who I think you already mentioned wrote one of those posts. It's like, tomorrow on the show, Trish McKinney smells a segment. And I'm sure that was Just something where, like, she's maybe coming on to make an argument for why something should be. Why should we put it in the show? Like, it's a kind of a deconstructed public radio show, as opposed to only presenting everything when it's fully formed and having two voices and everyone else is really in the background. Like, I'm scrolling through all of these, you know, these. These posts that were indicating the things they were talking about. And like, it looks like it was actually pretty good once I left. I think it got pretty good.

[Andrew Walsh]

What was. Who was the band that you famously interviewed who mumbled Cigaros? Cigaros just mumbled their way.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, that was. I mean, that was one of the things like you were talking. I was impressed that they got Alanis Morissette on, because in the early days of the show, we really couldn't. People were. There were no sort of huge names like Alanis Morissette that were interested in coming on the show. And the whole story of that Sigurosa interview that I've told a billion times is they have the same management company, Nasty Little man, as the Arcade Fire. And so the quid pro quo was. And this was a big lesson for me because I had always worked, like when I worked at Day To Day and I was booking, you know, politicians and things and newsmakers. My experience with trying to book politicians was their handlers, their people always said no right up until they could say yes. I remember trying to book Gray Davis when he was the governor of California as the recall was happening, as Schwarzenegger and a whole other cast of kooks were jumping in. And I remember it was a two week process of me just calling the PR person every day for two weeks. This was the debut episode of. Of Day to Day. We wanted to have the current governor of California who was being recalled on. And the Sunday, like the Saturday before our first day, the guy calls me like on my NPR cell phone and says, okay, we got him. If you can send your people over here in like the next three hours.

[Andrew Walsh]

Geez.

[Luke Burbank]

So. So that was. I was used to it being like, the answer is no. And then they're like, okay, we're gonna do it. What I didn't know about the music business, those long hairs, those rock and rollers, is they say yes to everything and absolutely do not mean it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, that's worse.

[Luke Burbank]

It's so much worse. So what happened was Nasty Little Man Records said, hey, do you want to have cigaros on? And I was a big fan of them. They're, of course, the Band from Iceland and they saying sometimes in a made up language. And I loved the band. I was like, absolutely. But, but, but also the quid pro quo was. And we're gonna. If you will have Siguros on who's not well known, we will then provide you with the Arcade Fire, who's very well known. And we had an entire thing set up of we were gonna have the Arcade Fire busking in Bryant Park. It was a big project of me and Wynn Rosenfeld. So on the Monday morning. So they were playing Madison Square Garden. Arcade Fire was playing Madison Square Garden on the Sunday night. And Monday morning we're going to have them busking in Bryant park and see how long it takes people to start figuring out its Arcade Fire and we're going to film it. This is a whole thing that we've set up. So we have Siguros on absolute disaster, although we post the video and people do think it's pretty funny. And then finally it's Monday morning, it's time for Arcade Fire Fest. It's time for our big band interview that's going to finally rocket the Bryant park project up to over 12 stations. And I get in really early to my desk and we already got in early. We already got in like five in the morning or something. I think I came in at like 4 and I just see an email from one of the people at the label going, oh, they actually decided to go home last night. It was the last night of their tour. They actually decided to take the early flight.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think I knew this story, Luke. And also I didn't realize it was the day after their event. That is, it was.

[Luke Burbank]

So they were playing New York City on a Sunday and it was. I didn't realize this. It was the last show of their tour. Which kind of makes sense. You might wrap it up in New York City.

[Andrew Walsh]

Who agreed to this in the first place? Like, you know what I mean? Like they knew.

[Luke Burbank]

Who told us. Who are the ad wizards? The funny part is I now have worked fairly extensively with the guy who sent me that email because he is currently Metallica's manager and he manages another musical. Oh, Depeche Mode.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, really? Were you?

[Luke Burbank]

I've done profiles of Depeche Mode and Metallica with the help and coordination of the very person who said, oh yeah, they decided to go home last night. Like it was just this minor thing. I was like, that was our entire show.

[Andrew Walsh]

But he signed off his email by saying, see you on the black carpet with a winking emoji Right.

[Luke Burbank]

And I had no idea what he was talking about.

[Andrew Walsh]

No idea what he was talking about. Years. It would be decades later, by the way. This is awesome. So when you told me that you were still going through the blog, I decided, okay, I'll keep going backwards, too. Boy, they have so many blog posts that it takes forever to get to. Just keep scrolling back and back and back and back and load more stories back, back, back. But in doing this, I'm not really looking at the headlines. I'm just kind of scrolling as fast as I can until we get to your era. But guess what I just saw go by very quickly. A headline that says, and by the way, under the sub headline, the Dagobah System, which must have been how you guys categorized your space stuff. It says, good night, moon, Summer Ash explains the eclipse. Well, Andrew, Walt, still with us.

[Luke Burbank]

If only we had some sort of, I don't know, audio package to get us into our next segment. That might even be Summer Ash related.

[Andrew Walsh]

Are we ready to do this now?

[Luke Burbank]

I was born ready.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, right now. I mean, like. Like, right. Oh, like now. This is my box. This is my box. I never travel without my box.

[Luke Burbank]

What's in the box?

[Andrew Walsh]

In the first draw, I keep my magic stone.

[Luke Burbank]

What's in the box?

[Andrew Walsh]

Licorice. Licorice. Black, sweet licorice. Black, sweet licorice. Have some. That's right. It's time for what's in the Box? And this one is brought to us by our friend Summer Ash, whom you got to know from working. I guess you didn't work together at the Bryant Park Project, but she was a regular listener and caller inner and became like a contributor for you guys, right?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, I believe. And that might have been towards the end of my time. I mean, I was there so briefly of the time. It was actually being put out onto all 10 stations and the Internet. But I definitely know Summer from the

[Andrew Walsh]

BPP days and she stuck around and stuck around with you through tbtl and still is a listener and an active listener and somebody who writes for the

[Luke Burbank]

friend of the program.

[Andrew Walsh]

And also something I just learned has amazing writing because we got a box in the mail with three individual packages inside the box. And each package, Luke, has one of our names on it. I'm gonna show you this one here. Can you see that freaking piss that says Andrew, did you say you're freaking pissed?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm sorry. I'm just realizing that Alison Stewart got to go to Sundance. There's a bunch of blog posts about going to Sundance.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you want us to Send you to Sundance? When is Sundance?

[Luke Burbank]

If I'd known that they were going to Sundance, I might not have quit. So wait, can you show me that again? Because I think it might have been upside down, too.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't think it's upside down, but it is backwards in the frame, I think.

[Luke Burbank]

No, it flips it for me.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Oh, it is. Flip it. Okay. So you can see it in. In silver. Beautiful pen. Yeah. Well, look at this penmanship. Look at the note she sent. Can you see? Wow.

[Luke Burbank]

And you have good penmanship, Andrew. So it takes one to know one.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is really nice handwriting. I don't think it showed up on. On screen too well, but I'll read this to you. So, again, three of these packages. One with my name, one with your name, and one with John's name on it. And this came in in late June. It says, hi, biz boys. I've been working with a local astro science education nonprofit to rehome their incredible library before they sell their building and move to a smaller space. I couldn't let the opportunity to share the universe with y' all go by. So here are some envelopes of stardust for you. Curated might be a strong word, but I tried to find what each of you might like. So I think envelopes of stardust is a poetic way of saying. I think it's figuratively saying that these are gonna be book. Because they're rehoming books in their library. And so it looks like Summer picked out books that might fit our unique personalities between the three of us. Anywho, thanks for being in my orbit for the past two decades.

[Luke Burbank]

Two decades.

[Andrew Walsh]

At this point, TBTL is my longest relationship by a long shot. Power out, Summer.

[Luke Burbank]

You and me both, honey.

[Andrew Walsh]

Cannot stress again how beautiful this handwriting is. I get very nervous reading these on the show, and usually I skip it, except. Except when your handwriting is like summers, it's great. So here's what I'm going to do, Luke. I'm going to open up my package and tell you about the books inside here. I have not opened yet, you can see, but then you can tell me whether or not you want me just to. It'd probably be easiest for me just to put a shipping envelope right on yours or a shipping label right on your envelope and send it to you. But if you're curious as to what's in your envelope, I could open it here for you before I send it your way.

[Luke Burbank]

No, what I would like is I'm very curious about what yours is, and then I would like if you don't mind, you send me the one that's addressed to me and then I'll open it on maybe a future TBTL TV episode.

[Andrew Walsh]

That would be great.

[Luke Burbank]

See, I could be opening mine here and then you could be surprised by it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. Okay, so let's stick with this plan, but I'll share with you what's in mine now.

[Luke Burbank]

Another envelope.

[Andrew Walsh]

There's another envelope, which I like. Oh, my gosh. So this very cute card that says, you're the coolest. Which, I mean, who could argue with that? And it's a photo of a dog in front of a fan. And now I have not pre read this one, so I don't know if I'm supposed to read it on the Internet.

[Luke Burbank]

I believe they sell those at Trader Joe's. I have purchased.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, really? Really. And it says, thanks from your biggest fan. Get it. And by the way, I wish I can't move this camera the way I would like, but I've got. It's my dream scenario. The other day, I told you that Lucy was kind of across the room. Now she's right here, Luke, right next to me, sleeping while I'm doing the show. And it's bringing me joy.

[Luke Burbank]

Without visual evidence, I'm. I guess I'm gonna have to trust you on this.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't. I can't remove.

[Luke Burbank]

You know that I've never even been in a room with Lucy, so I

[Andrew Walsh]

know this could be. Well, genetically has her rules.

[Luke Burbank]

This could be a hallucination on your

[Andrew Walsh]

part, this whole thing, so. Andrew, I know it's not. I know it's not something. But I figured you've become someone who gets dog cards now. Ha, ha. I thought you would dig the book on photography in space since I know you've been bit by the corners bug like me. Okay, I'm gonna stop reading that because I'm not good at reading things. Cold on the Air and I was having a little. Even though the handwriting is beautiful, it's a little bit hard for me to read on the fly. But I'm gonna go through this, so. Whoa, whoa. I am into this. This is an old science fiction mystery like Pulp magazine, You know, Ellery Queen magazine. I'd have never heard of this. This is my kind of thing, though. These old pulpy. This is the kind of stuff like a. I feel like characters in a Vonnegut book would read something like this. I feel like.

[Luke Burbank]

Look at Joyce Carroll Oates.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, that's what I'm saying too. Yep. Richard dueling Gigi Pandion.

[Luke Burbank]

That's really cool.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is. Oh, this. And it's summer. This is perfect for the summertime, Luke. This is from July, August 2021. So it's not even really that vintage. It's sort of a vintagey, you know, publication.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm curious what summer is going to associate with me. And we should also have John open his. Maybe if there was three of them.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I can see the next time

[Luke Burbank]

we have John on the show.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Because you know that she really, really nailed. It's another Ellery Queen magazine for you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yep. Holding that one.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, that looks honestly tea and

[Andrew Walsh]

treachery from May, June 2020.

[Luke Burbank]

That's the perfect gift for somebody who likes Johnny Dollar, the man with the endless. What is it endless?

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, the action packed expense account. No, you mean what you're describing is cool people, Luke. Yeah, it's the perfect gift for cool people.

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. No, it's very. It's very up your alley. I'm excited about that. For you.

[Andrew Walsh]

I got a NASA sticker, which is awesome. Oh, have you ever seen the NASA T shirts where it has this logo and then it says, I need my space? No, but I've seen those T shirts aren't. Isn't that great?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm not a whimsical T shirt guy,

[Andrew Walsh]

but actually that one's really good.

[Luke Burbank]

You know, the one that I'm gonna buy for Becca is. It's gonna be kind of hard to describe, but it's. You know the Richard Scarry. You know Richard Scarry, the kind of child author and you know those like little characters.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, very.

[Luke Burbank]

That he would draw. You remember the apple car?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah, of course. With the worm driving it. Yeah.

[News Anchor]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

A worm driving an apple car. And on the T shirt it just says, you drive a fast car. I got a plan to get us out of here.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's pretty good. That's very good.

[Luke Burbank]

Pretty cute. By the way, if we have officially. We officially reached. Oh, there's still. I'm sorry, you're still. You're still going through the.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. This is the book about. Wait, there's more. It says exploring space with a camera. And this is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration book. This is an official book from NASA. And let me see here. It's got any kind of dating on it. What were you gonna say while I look for a date here?

[Luke Burbank]

That's such a good coffee table book.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's very cool. This is from. It looks like 1968.

[Luke Burbank]

I just was. I was watching an interview with some sort of an astronomer. A Person who knows space like our friend Summer does. And they were saying that all of those incredible pictures of, like, different galaxies that have these, like, ridiculous colors in them and stuff that's actually like, all kind of faked. Like, it's all added after the fact.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like the moon landing.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, kind of like the moon landing, except these are a little more real than the moon landing because they're based on, by the way, Andrew, I guess if you're watching this on tv, chill tv, you're seeing all this. But Andrew's flipping through this book and just showing all these really freaking cool photographs. What I was gonna say is your book is at least it's reliable because these new pictures of these galaxies have been zhuzhed. What they've done is they've said we know a lot about the light spectrum and about all these different kind of, like, complicated factors. So we have an idea of what we think the color of those frequencies are. So they're kind of going back in and colorizing the photos. Uh oh. Andrew looks like a very excited boy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you know what else is in here? And this almost went unmentioned because it was slipped in the book.

[Luke Burbank]

This is a gift certificate to Tubs.

[Andrew Walsh]

A gift certificate to Tubs. It's a record called the Sounds of Jupiter.

[News Anchor]

What?

[Luke Burbank]

That's one of my favorite songs by Train.

[Andrew Walsh]

Look.

[Luke Burbank]

That's incredible.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is incredible. This is from, I'm guessing, the 60s or 70s.

[Luke Burbank]

And it's one of those square vinyl records.

[Andrew Walsh]

It says if the needle skips, put a quarter on each corner of the record and wait. The needle. Wait. The needle was a great Pearl Jam song, too. It's the Sounds of Jupiter. A Jovian. I don't know if I'm saying that right. A Jovian symphony of violent shrieks, tinkling choruses and eerie hisses is performed in an outer space that is far from silent.

[News Anchor]

Wow.

[Luke Burbank]

So this is just like. Not just, but this is audio from Jupiter that they have captured in some way.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think that. I mean, that's my understanding of it.

[Luke Burbank]

And we know you're a man with a record player.

[Andrew Walsh]

I am. What does Jovian mean? They keep using the word Jovian. J, O, V, I, N. And it's capitalized as if it's like, you know, it's named after a person.

[Luke Burbank]

Jovian means relating to the planet or the Roman God of Jupiter.

[Andrew Walsh]

Jovian. I feel it like a fool not to. Really cool, though. Wow. Summer ash. What a world.

[Luke Burbank]

Living is easy.

[Andrew Walsh]

What a world. And what a coincidence that you happened to come up Right before we opened this. And that was not.

[Luke Burbank]

I know. That was like. I mean, that was like a perfect transition. That really worked out.

[Andrew Walsh]

I wasn't even thinking that when you made the connection, you're like, oh, yeah, of course we're doing a summer ash box opening. And I didn't even kind of put that together in the moment. Boy, this is really cool. Now I'm super excited. I'm just going to open up yours. I'm going to do it later tonight. I'm going to.

[Luke Burbank]

As long as you seal it and then act surprised.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. And I'm going to seal it up with candle wax so you'll never know.

[Luke Burbank]

I found the final post that I put up at the BPP. December 14, 2007. Okay, Luke Burbank counts the hours. The trainers are over. This is written by someone else. Okay, Laura Conaway. The trainers are over by the bench. Now working on Luke Burbank getting the Bryant park project host ready for his last two hours on the show. Mr. Burbank sends the above photo essay of one image and the following caption. This is a look on my face at 3:45am this morning, realizing it's my last day of getting up at 3:45am that really was, you know, there were a variety of reasons why I didn't really feel like that was a great fit for me, that place. But the getting up, man, I am just. I don't now I could do that. The funny thing is, as my T has lowered, so is my tolerance for getting up really early. I don't mind it anymore, but, man, in my 20s it was and I wasn't. I mean, you've sort of been on the record as saying you really, you like to sleep in. Sleep in if you can. Even in my 20s, that wasn't so much my move. But like 3:45 in the morning, I just. That was inhuman to me. I don't know how. I don't know how people do that, how my brother David does it for the news over there on Cairo.

[Andrew Walsh]

By the way, I'm finding as I'm looking for something that's actually been penned by you. I haven't found it yet, but I do see that Summer ash wrote on December 24, 2007. That would be Christmas Eve. It says Rudolph and the Red planets. Special to the BPP by Summer Ash.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, a Jovian Christmas.

[Andrew Walsh]

A. It's a Jovian Christmas. Jo, buy some coffee.

[Luke Burbank]

Not to be confused with Jovi, which was the name of my cousin Kellyanne's collie. Her dog in Philadelphia because she was so obsessed with Bon Jovi that she named the dog Jovi. But because of the brutal Delco accent.

[Andrew Walsh]

Jovi, Jovi, Jovi.

[Luke Burbank]

They always had. God bless him. That was. She's so excited about LeBron James. I get this text from my cousin Kel out of the blue, and it's just a cake that I think she made for her kids that's like, we got LeBron because he's going to the Sixers.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I have the heart to tell her that. He's 42.

[Andrew Walsh]

I. It'll probably be. Is it understood it's going to be his last season? Probably. I love the. I love this for the people of Philadelphia. I don't know anything about basketball, but I never thought that Philly would have been on the list. I don't know why I didn't think anyone. Miami, Cleveland or something. But again, I don't follow these things. I still don't really know the reasoning because I never really followed up with it. But I loved seeing. And this goes back a couple of weeks, but when the news was newer, some famous pretzel shop in Philadelphia, maybe. You know what it is, because I feel like it's like an icon or something made like a big LeBron face out of pretzel. And it is the most horrific looking thing you've ever seen. And everybody, like, everybody who's like on board with both pretzels And Philadelphia and LeBron, we're just like, why are you doing this to us? Like, like, like being embarrassed by a family member. Sort of like, just make it the number 20. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

I think he's 23. Generally kind of a nod to Michael Jordan.

[Andrew Walsh]

He is 23, right?

[Luke Burbank]

I believe so. You know, John Sklaroff would know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, John, remember.

[Luke Burbank]

Remember during the thon, where were. We were.

[Andrew Walsh]

He was at the. We were at that bar, the. The Irish Bar or whatever it was before the game. Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

That was the primary place where this was.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah. You guys were. This keynote. And every number.

[Luke Burbank]

On the subject of numbers, he.

[Andrew Walsh]

Every time a keynote number would show up, he would associate it with some, you know, ball player of any sport of any era.

[Luke Burbank]

He really went. Excellent driver. He went full Rain man on it. Just started. Every number he saw, he would just name to me what seemed like an obscure player of some sport who had that number.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then. Do you remember what you guys got a little bickery about? Sort of. I mean, and I think you gotta be more specific in a jovial way. Wait, what do we Call juvenile.

[Luke Burbank]

In a Jovian way.

[Andrew Walsh]

In a Jovian way. He said that Michael Jordan has three numbers. The number 23, obviously that is associated with another one that he maybe used in college. I don't know what the other one is.

[Luke Burbank]

I think what happened was when he came, oh, well, he was number 45, I think, in baseball.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, baseball. Okay, the baseball number. But then there was. But then he kept claiming that he was also number 12. And it's because there was one day like the equipment person forgot to bring the proper jerseys and so he had to wear on the road number 12. And he was claiming that that is the third number that Michael Jordan wore.

[Luke Burbank]

And he was not wrong. And at the time I thought that was bs. But now, in the light of day and sobriety, I actually think that is a funny footnote.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I think he did actually wear

[Luke Burbank]

that for one game.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Are you looking it up as we talk here?

[Luke Burbank]

No, I'm looking at blog posts that I wrote, like. April 9, 2007. My dad's in there by Luke Burbank. What if your 70 year old retiree of a dad called you one day and said, I'm going to jail right near where you live. Can I get a ride? That's just what happened to LA radio producer Jim Gates recently. His dad Philip was protesting something, blah, blah, blah.

[Andrew Walsh]

So I guess, yeah, that's Jim Gates, who we would both work with. Or maybe you never worked at kuow. Yeah, kow. Yeah, exactly.

[Luke Burbank]

From la.

[Andrew Walsh]

And he wrote a spec script. Or. No, he actually wrote, I believe he wrote an episode that got made of the Golden Girls because he would write for TV shows when he was young.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I remember that too. April 6th of 2007. Better than Russell Simmons. Worse than Star Jones by Luke Burbank. I was sitting in the R bar yesterday, Louisiana's newest, finest and only pirate bar. Oh, you've been to there, haven't you?

[Andrew Walsh]

No. You know what, for a second, I think I was thinking of an R bar from Cleveland or something.

[Luke Burbank]

Andrew, listen to this.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, you being sarcastic? Because I would never.

[Luke Burbank]

No, no, no, no, I'm laughing. I'm reading this blog post, like the second blog post I ever wrote for the bpp. I don't even think there's like a radio show yet. I think we're just kind of blogging here. I was sitting in the R bar yesterday, Louisiana's newest, finest and only pirate bar. A bar that requires you to use a secret password to get in. Awesome. When my buddy Nihar came in wildly waving a copy of the Onion. Dude. He exclaimed. They're totally making fun of your new show. Needless to say, I was thrilled. It seems we made their Tolerability Index a guide to what we're barely putting up with this week.

[Andrew Walsh]

I forgot about that.

[Luke Burbank]

Apparently, the idea of NPR doing a show aimed at younger people, which by NPR standards means people under. And then I think I wrote 4065 and then crossed out the 40, seems late to them. Not to mention seems lame to them. Not to mention that they, like many other people, have somehow gotten the notion that the new show is going to be named Zach, which I swear on the grave of Ira Glass, it will not be. Here's how that rumor got started. A long time ago, some NPR types were joking about names for the new show, and someone, possibly after a three martini lunch, jokingly threw out the name Zach, but with an H. Well, as my mom always said, Luke jokes can really hurt people. Never were words more true, because from that little joke, people just started referring to the show as Zach. Usually the conversation would go something like this other person. Hey, Luke, how's it going with the Zack Show? Also, why are you calling it the Zach Show? That's a terrible name, Luke. I agree, it's a terrible name. And additionally, that's not really the name other person because. Yeah, I can't believe you're calling that. Calling it that Luke. Sigh. Anyway, so there you go.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you remember that? Do you remember the Zach?

[Luke Burbank]

No, I can.

[Andrew Walsh]

You don't.

[Luke Burbank]

That. It jogged my memory. I mean, like, that was really happening. I didn't. Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I didn't lie in blog form, but. But, but no, I'd completely forgotten about that. Anyway. Well, what a way to kick the week.

[Andrew Walsh]

So are you going to. Are you going to text the old gang? Are you going to loop in Nihar? Maybe you could loop in me too. I mean, just bring.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, Nihar was in la.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, right. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

You know what I mean, that was so. But I would.

[Andrew Walsh]

I could. I just want. I just want friends. I could get the peas in the desperation. Do you not hear the thirst in my voice? I don't care what the. What the excuse is. Just make me part of the old gang.

[Luke Burbank]

As long as you do not have to hang up or hang out with the old gang socially, anywhere.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, of course not.

[Luke Burbank]

Virtually, though. You're. You're. You're good for a virtual hang.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean. Am I?

[Luke Burbank]

I think so. I like your contributions on the criminal.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, is that a virtual hang? I thought you meant, like, get together for a zoom meetup or something.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm like, please tell me that died. With Tony Fauci's reputation,

[Andrew Walsh]

this is a pretty solid joke. I don't know.

[Luke Burbank]

There was nothing. And that joke makes perfect Sense here on August 10th.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, let's get out of here.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's get moving.

[Andrew Walsh]

Summer, thank you for giving us. Not too much.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, Summer, thank you.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm actually, that prompted pure delight and legitimate delight in me, but also something that made this worth videotaping today.

[Luke Burbank]

And Andrew, I don't mean to like, make more work for you or turn you into a BDSM fan more than you already are, but if you wouldn't mind mailing me that package from Summer, then again, I can open it here and then we can. We can see what's in the box yet again.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, the really cool thing is the way Summer sent those is it makes it very easy for me to just to reship them to you guys. I don't have to box them up or anything. So before we go, could you just give me your address?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, it's 514 Bryant Parkway.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, good. I got it. Sounds good. I'll let the user. I work there.

[Luke Burbank]

And I just gave you the most made up sounding address of all time.

[News Anchor]

Time.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, thanks for listening, everybody. We are going to be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for all of you. So please join us for that. In the meantime, have a great Monday. Take care of yourselves and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all. Power out.