159 – Oops…All Last Calls

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1:06co-workers, family or imaginary friends. Now enjoy the show. Happy hour. More like amateur hour. Welcome to uniterydrink. Hello everyone and welcome back to another new episode of the uniterydrink podcast right here on uniterydrink.com as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever, Fine Podcasts are found. My name is Mikey Revich. I'm joined as always by Tim Johnson and Kevin Abbott. How are you guys doing tonight? Hey, hey. Just beachy. I'm excited today because I think with maybe some exceptions, we're not going to talk

2:10much about beer today. We do that a lot. I'm not saying that someone's not going to have, I guess I should probably wait until you talk about what we're actually doing. But I just think it's interesting. This is an interesting social experiment that we're doing because people are either going to love this episode or it's going to be their absolute least favorite one we've ever done. Hey, I would agree. And I always like those episodes because it really just is fun to me. There was one that we did years ago, like over five years ago because it was my bachelor party episode that we did at your house, Kevin, before you were officially even a host. And I felt like we just got drunk at your kitchen table and just said stuff. Like, I don't even want to go back and listen to that.

3:10I'm just going to assume that that is what happened. And I enjoyed the hell out of it. I know that the listener probably hated it. But before we get into what is going to happen on this episode, well, first the commercial break. And that commercial break is what are you drinking, Tim? I am drinking green belt premium. I decided to just go classic Minnesota here. Let's go with, if you've seen any images of our town, you've probably seen the green belt neon sign over the Hennepin Avenue bridge and if not shame on you. But I'm just going classic green belt premium and nice extra corny logger, a little bit of acid aldehyde on the finish, but I just, it's the friendly beer.

4:10And that's what I'm going with. You know, I have never been able to say that proper pronunciation of what I call aceta aldehyde. Like every time I hear it said differently from me, I'm like, oh, yeah, you're saying it the correct way. I know that I'm wrong, but I can't pronounce the correct way ever. I was still alive. I've heard you say it, Mike, at least 10 to 15 times that I don't think I've ever heard you say it the same way twice. Well, that is my, my biggest flaw. I'm glad that you brought that up, Kevin, we're going to cut to each other's core tonight and Kevin's starting off it early. That's what we're doing. We're doing a roast. So I am drinking something that's absolutely delicious that I had never had up until like a week ago, which is the half acre pony pilsner. And I haven't had very many half acre beers.

5:12I've had a, you know, a handful of them over the years, but I'd never had this before. It was recommended to me and it's lovely. Love this beer, but more importantly than that, I have a, I have a neighbor named Martin Zujek and he is from Slovakia and he's always telling me that the beer he grew up with, he cannot get here in the States. And the Czech Lager, the Bohemian Lager, he's like, none of them are right. One, he doesn't know if it's because of the travel or what have it, the pilsner or cow, he's like, no, that's not what if that's not the beer, right? And every now and then he'll try something. He was at like a bar in New Orleans or a brewery that made nothing but loggers and he said they made a very close one. And when I gave him a can of this to try, he said, that's what it's supposed to taste like. Now I believe this is supposed to be more of a German pilsner, but he said that this is what he, what he, when he says thinks pilsner, this is what he thinks of.

6:13And that's, he knows his beer really, really well. He's from, you know, Eastern Europe and he said this is the bee's knees. So it's not just me saying it. I haven't had pony since I lived in Philly because half-acre stuff was very easy to come across there. And I remember liking it a lot. I think I just looked up, it is German pilsner is what they haven't listed on a new rate beer or beer advocate or whichever one of those. I just love half-acre. I've never had a bad beer from them. Daisy Cutter is one of my favorite pale nails of all time. And I'm a little biased on that too because going back my Philly time, my favorite bar in the world, used to have Daisy Cutter on draft for $4.75 a pint and I would get that very often. It's now up to $5.50, how dare they increase the price in the, in the bad times, but now

7:18it's, it's a fantastic beer, fantastic brewery. I love half-acre a lot. I am having, I decided to have a big beer and a big bottle, the shoots vintage ale, their bourbon barrel age imperial stout, that you could get at Costco, it's a Kirkland brand. I think it was $7 a bomber there. So this is my second one that we've had and I was just at Costco last week and they still had a lot of this lying around. So I might keep on buying a bottle each time I go. I still haven't had it. I was just remarking that we have to make a Costco run for many things including dog food. So I think next time I go, I'm going to pick that up because I love the shoots and you obviously enjoy the beer. So I do have to try it out. You had the Kirkland logger on not too long ago Tim, right?

8:19Yeah, I had some KSs, yeah, I think there's a, I'm supposed to, I'm old, a beer in a bet with someone at work and I think they're going to bring me some KS loggers. Yeah, because that's a, that's a beer that, if I'm not mistaken, is something that they make normally that is rebranded for Costco because they have the GABF metal on it for like what the base beer was that they won the metal for. It could be, I don't remember what that meant, but I think you're right. Yeah, some good, some good beverages being drank tonight. So let's, let's get into talking about what this episode is about. If you listen to the last episode, we said it at the end of that episode, but if you don't

9:20remember or you're just tuning in for the first time, I'm sorry for that, you should probably stop and go listen to other previous shows. We're doing an all last calls episode. This calls is what we do at the end of every episode where we give each other an unspecific amount of time to talk about whatever it is that we want beverage related or not. And typically the rules are that it is uninterrupted, unopposed and unobjected. No one can chime in, no one can retort or respond afterwards. We just leave it be, but we are going to do all last calls and we're going to allow responses to it. It's not interrupt, okay, because we'll keep that around. So no interrupting anyone's last calls, but we will get to respond. I don't know how many of these, we have like a list to ourselves on what we want to talk about.

10:20I don't know how many will actually get to because I have a feeling just the response to some of these will take us a long time to get through before we can get to the next one. By guarantee, everyone will at least get one last call into this. So Mike, I've got an idea. You want to know how we decide who goes first. So I pulled up a Google random number generator and I'm going to say, Mike, we're going to go in the order that we logged in tonight. So your number one, I'm number two, Tim's number three. So I'm going to randomly generate who's going first. And that is Tim. Now let me, Mike and me, okay, all right. So Tim, oops, what's your last call? I do like like the the oops, because of the whole oops, all berries, oops, chocolate donuts,

11:25which I still don't agree with how they got to oops, chocolate, they don't call that anymore. They still make the cat the crown of chocolate donuts that I'm called that anymore. I think they realized what dumb that was. So my last call is that the overly confident beer people on the internet have not changed. They've just evolved a couple of things that have come up recently. One, and Mike, I think you saw this where someone complained on, on, untapped about a beer, a session IPA being nothing wrong with it except for the ABV and giving it a low score. To which I responded, boy, the real problem with this vegan lasagna is that it doesn't have any meat. Why would I order myself a vegan lasagna if I really wanted meat?

12:29Like the beer nerds are still just doing the exact same thing. It's just a different group of nerds. It's a new generation. They're not even the beer nerds. I also delve on to threads because I'm an idiot and decided to try threads for a bit and I've already since deleted it because it's dumb. It's as bad as X. But someone had said something about dark beers and how everyone knew what that meant. And I said, what are you talking about? There's plenty of breweries that take a light beer and use something like cinema to make it darker and color dark. I said, color not a flavor. And they're like, I would love for you to provide any source that anybody is doing that. And I was like, well, my source is that I'm a professional brewer. I've done it at multiple breweries. Here's a link to brewing supply companies that are selling this product called cinema. And this is what it's used for.

13:29It kind of reminded me of, there's a reddit thread of like Confident Cracked or like missing the expert of those types. There's reddit threads kind of dedicated to some of these people getting, you know, being called out on their expertise and prove it. And it's like literally you, yes, you're talking to someone who knows what they're talking about. And so yeah, I felt like for a while there, one of the things I was liking about where we were, we were at in craft beer is that we had sort of gotten over the homebrew know-it-alls. And I realized that we haven't, we haven't, they've just sort of evolved. And part of that is also just because I kind of maybe got away from it intentionally. But if craft beer is going through a dramatic revolution right now, I would love to see us get rid of that bullshit.

14:32I love that in the course of that. I thought of two different spots from the Zac Alphanakis live at the purple onion set that were spot on there at the forgetful vegan, the good pepperoni piece of fuck. And the pretentious illiterate? And the pretentious illiterate, yes. Because that was, I told you, I don't know how to read, actually, like was spot on to what you're talking about with some of the beer nerds from past end present, just it's, you know, different people sort of just dressed up a little differently and saying very similar things. You know, one of the things you said to him is that you said something about thinking we had gotten past it, but maybe you just maybe weren't exposed to it as much.

15:34Maybe that's what it is, or at least that's what I took from what you said, if it wasn't that directly. I went to the best of the Belgian beer fest, which is a fest that we, it's not our beer fest, it's just a fest that we support and sponsor that isn't in Delray Beach very close to us at the brewery. And we were involved in that intimately early on, but it's something that we're, we're involved with on the outside kind of. And I never go to beer fest. I don't want to go to beer fest. I avoid them like the plague, but my good friend Tom Barris, friend of the show Tom Barris was in town. And I was like, okay, I got to go here, just hang out with him for an hour and I, this is a guy I love who's in town and I never get to see him and he's going to be here. So I forced myself to go and I stood behind because he's works for an importer like anyone who's heard his appearance in the show. And he was, you know, several of his brands were being poured, but one of the one, the one he was pouring was all the Scheme beers. And by the way, there are some people who came up to me and mentioned United We Drink specifically.

16:37There's people that I know from just from the industry that, so you're, as I say, so your dad was at this fest, so he flew down for it. But no, there's a couple people who did a couple, but I should say there's many people in that room that I know and who've talked about with me about, you know, me drink many times, but there are people I did not know that mentioned it. So I do want to stress that like most of the people were just lovely. They were thoughtful. They said nice things. They were asking questions. They were enjoying everything. They were lovely. But then there was like two or three people who came up saying things like, was this new? I've had everything Scheme has ever made. What is this new? And I was just kind of helping out. And I said, well, this is the double. This is the premiere. This is the Scheme red. In many ways, you can put it. He's like, that must be new. I'd never had it. I said, I think I'm correct in this. This was the first commercial beer they ever produced.

17:38Fairly certain in that in that. And then I had talked about it and I was right. And this guy was just dead set. He had never heard of this beer before. And he'd had everything. He had like, he was really like Belgian beer, like paraphernalia. This dude was, he was right. And there was nothing I was going to say. Nothing Tom was going to say that was going to convince him anywhere anywhere. Any, anything other than that. And that when you were saying that, Tim, just that was the first hit I came to my mind. It was like, okay. Yes, this is brand new, sir. It did 1946 was when it was produced first commercially. But brand new was for you. I said, was it the can version? Sorry, I was taking a drink there. It was, no, no it was about. No. No. I was just wondering if like, because it was in a can, he was very confused by it. A triple, he had triple cans, but everything else was bottled. And there was also some really, some really nice stuff.

18:38There was a, it was Chamei 175. I think it was like an anniversary or some kind of celebration beer for them. It's a blonde. It was beautiful. It was so good. And that was relatively new. And something I think they're going to do as a year round staple at some point. So he would have been right if he had just like pointed slightly to his left when he first picked his beer. But I think that was a roundabout way to say, I think the more you engage with the community, the more you get these ass and eye and ignorant statements. I will mention again, the gentleman at the Renaissance Fair that drank my waypoint IPA and told me that the hops that I used were old. Yeah, I know my, my favorite was literally like while we're hanging up our GABF gold for American belted style for our white IPA, literally hanging it on the wall. We're also brewing it and a guy sitting in the tap room and I come in from, from the

19:39brewery because it's just on the other side of the glass wall and he's telling me what we're doing wrong with that beer. And I just was like that metal being hung up there right now was by people that are smart of the new. So thank you. Appreciate the feedback. Did you say that? Did you say that? I did. Yeah, you're smart. I did. I did. This needs to be said, people need to hear this even though they're never going to, they're never going to change in a nice way. You didn't call my asshole. You just said these are smarter than you and we're going to listen to them. Yeah. Well, because I remember one of our owners at the time like his friends were like, they had a beer club and they were telling him like the types of beers we really should make. And he's like, you have to understand we're really what makes these breweries go and and Brock just laughed, it's just because no, you're not like he's a get over yourselves. The general public is what makes or breaks my brewery not you four beer nerds.

20:45You don't make or break us like you're not the influencers that you think you are. No influences are the influences they think they are. It's like, but certainly it's like the people who have never seen your blog or follow your Instagram, the people who aren't even on Instagram, those are the people who make my brewery. So just, just thank you, but dial it back just a thousand percent. I don't know what it's like currently with, with home brewers out there, but I mean, I remember in the earlier days that at the previous brewery, like hiring for someone to work in the seller and had home brewers come in and interview for it and they would say, yeah, I've never worked in a brewery, but you know, I'm home brewing and I really think that I could help out with recipe development and work on your recipes. It was like, that's not what you've been asked to do. Like, we're fine with doing that here.

21:50You can maybe get a few eggs. Yeah, you will. Maybe. Yeah. If you do really well sweeping the floors and picking up around, we might trust you to run the keg washer. Yeah. Can you imagine going up to a chef at a restaurant? Exactly. Yeah. Doing that exact same thing, like just the sheer audacity, like that's, you know, that's why everyone that, you know, we used to always make fun of them is because they get everyone thinks that's what it is, right? It's also like why everybody in their sister opened up a brewery is because they go, I must be really good at making beer and my recipe is really good. Like, well, first of all, you were just using a northern brewer kit, so settle down. Or you found a clone recipe on Beersmith. That's just, let's dial back that you understand all of the effects, like, money based off of the number of breweries in this town that have not understood water chemistry. It tells me they don't know shit about recipe development, but, but yeah, it's like just,

22:54I think, and that's where maybe I thought we had moved past it is because I felt like all those home breweries either finally got shut down or opened up their own brewery. Maybe because of the home brewing hobby as a just in general is dying, but it was kind of fun, funny to me to see, you know, back to my complaints about untapped from six years ago or are just as relevant or almost more relevant again. So, so I'll say one more thing about this and then we can, if that's Mike has anything else we can move on, but I think it's actually worse than you think Tim, because at least the people that were home brewing had some knowledge enough to be dangerous, don't get me wrong. But I think what happened is it used to be you got really into beer and then you started like making it and learning a few things and then you said stupid things to burrs and

23:56you shouldn't have, but at least you learned something. Now it's, I'm an expert because I know what all the rare beers are. I have no concept of how to brew a beer, how anything works and I'm just going to tell you what to do. And I think that's it's literally moving on from like the hands on people are evaporating for the people who I have no fucking clue. Yeah, I, I will add real quick. I do know of some places before that have hired quote unquote like beer geeks to curate their beer lists for them at their, their establishments and it's like what like, yeah, I bought, I bought this $500 slam of this beer from the, the small distributor because you know, they, they've said that this is really high-end stuff and like, okay.

25:00And, and you're charging $10 for a 10 ounce pour of it. Okay. Well, that person told you this is super rare and great. It's, it's, it's the same people that complain. I saw someone complaining about how, why does no one mix hours anymore? They were really popular and breweries got away from it and I was, and I just kind of broke down the math of the number of pint or like you don't sell it in pints and even if you did, here's the number of 12 ounce pours you would have to sell to be able to get it back. If you're, if your average small brewing system is five barrel, here's how many ounces that is, here's how many pours a day, you'd have to sell just to be able to move through that in six months and I think those guys that want to curate a list don't have any clue on, you know, bar operations. All right, I'll, I'll hop in here with my first one and that is, and I feel like this

26:03was something definitely that Kevin was going to say anyway, so he can feel free to add his stuff in here at the end. Baseball's back. Everybody, ladies and gentlemen, one of my favorite times of the year, spring training is going on. Baseball is back and I had the, the great privilege of taking my kids to their first game just a few days ago to Philly's Nationals game for spring training. We made signs of saying our first Philly's game and none of the stars were there. Like, we had our rookie who is, we want him to win the center field job. We had our platoon left fielder backup catcher and our utility man were there. So that was about it. My dad was along with us.

27:03We had a good time. It was a little colder than, than seasonably normal around this time. Like by the time game time started, we were like in the low fifties, so it was a little cold for, for baseball and the kids enjoyed eating food and running around on the grassy area. It didn't pay much attention to the game and then we had to wait 40 minutes for a hot dog. That was a lovely experience. But yeah, baseball is back. The Philly's, I keep on, I love reading stuff about the Philly's, but you know, the prevailing thought is that we're running it back and no one's happy that there's been no big ads this off season. We resign Kyle Schorber. We resign JT Real Mudo. We lost out on Boba Shett. So not a whole lot has changed and people are mad. They're mad that a 95 win team is coming back to play again this year.

28:05Another team that has won the division two years in a row, 90 win teams. We've been to the playoffs four years in a row. I get it, man. I would have loved to see another big, big name added into the lineup, especially a right-handed power hitter, but those are the cards that we have been dealt thus far. We're hoping that Adalis Garcia can turn it around and maybe be better than Castiano Swaz. We'll see. Who knows? He turned into a bag of peanuts. Maybe Adalis Garcia is a bag of crackerjack. I don't know if that's better or worse, but I'm still stoked. Philly's baseball is like for real right around the corner, so I am very happy that we're playing ball again. Well, Mike, I told you this, but hold on a second.

29:07Sorry to clear my throat. I'm still dealing with just so much congestion. My son, his season's team is the Philly's and they're using the 1983 powder blue uniforms. I'm thrilled. I ordered a jersey because those are just the coolest uniforms in the world. So I will be a Philly's fan in some way, shape, or form this year. Just like I'm a Philly's fan whenever they're not playing the Tigers because I want your team to win. But Chad and I are going to our first game, not this weekend. Well, actually, when you're listening to this weekend, we're going to see them play the pirates in Lakeland. And yeah, I'm thrilled. I mean, happy to have Justin Verlander back, even if he... I have a feeling he's going to get injured in the third game and not pitch it all the rest of the season. But it's cool enough to see a bunch of Justin Verlander jerseys get sold. And yeah, I love baseball. I'm really excited for Chad's season coming up. He's got a com murderers row on this. It's insane. There's a kid on his team. Chad is tall for his age.

30:08This kid looks like Chad's son, right? Like he's half a Chad side. And he hits the ball with the loudest ping I've ever heard from a little bigger. And he drives the ball into the outfield every time. And he's hilarious. And I'm mean to watch. And there's like six kids on his team that can like hit the ball well. And you're usually looking to have three. So I'm excited to see Chad. I'm excited to see Chad, my son, excited, having a great time. Winds and losses don't matter, but it is exciting to see them win. We definitely have to come to one of the games so I can look like I'm truly cheering on your your son's team this year. Like because I'll wear my my maroon Phillies hat. Yes, the Phillies do still wear the powder blues as their Thursday home game uniforms. And yes, they're one of my favorites ever.

31:09Are you at least a little bit pissed off that they fought scoobles so hard in arbitration only to pay Valdez more per year for than scoobles? No, because it's just this is just what you do. They offered him more in arbitration than any player had ever any pitcher had ever gotten period. And they probably knew they were going to lose it. And scoobles doesn't seem to be upset about it. I'm upset they haven't resigned him. The arbitration thing is in Detroit sports media. And I just follow a few podcasts here or there. It's a nothing story. It's really not that big of a deal. No, really, okay. Yeah, scoobles committed to the team. He was thrilled. To thrilled they signed Valdez, I wasn't involved, yeah. Framber Valdez. Thank you very much. He was thrilled they signed Verlander and Framber Valdez. He's thrilled to add more talent into the team. The dudes are competitor. I don't think they're going to resign him at all.

32:10I think he's going to be a Dodger Yankee next year. But yeah, it's fine. Tim, you got anything to say about baseball this year? I mean, things I really didn't start off great for for my twins. So not, not necessarily, Lopez out with Tommy John surgery, season in injury for the season began. Good news on Joe Ryan as MRI, only showed inflammation. So he is expected to at least start the season, but not a great way to start. You know, excited that maybe Buckston can put together another mostly injury free season. Luke Keishel is going to be good at second base. The poll ads have really been desperate because season ticket sales are way down because

33:15everyone hates them. That they're literally doing like selection nights. It's like for an hour before the game beers are like two bucks. It's like something stupid like that. Like I'm not even kidding. Like dramatically drastically reduced prices on beer before the game starts for your ice cream for kids. And it's like I'm like past promotions like that have shown to be a fantastic idea for crowds. Yeah. Yeah. I came with dollar beers where they like set the field on fire or whatever it was. I think it was a white sauce. I wanted to see what this beer deal was. I'm going to look this up right now because it was something really dumb. While you look that up, I just I want to. I think I texted you guys about this. I listened to a show called The Pazcast with Michael Sher the writer for many, many great television series, Joe Posnatsky, who is a baseball writer.

34:19And they they referred to the twins as having bucks in palsy disease with because every talented person there always just has injury issues like have some of the best talent ever. And they just can't stay healthy when they're on the twins. And then if they go somewhere else, they're fine. Oh, yeah, for sure. A thousand percent. Yeah. Yeah. So before first pitch of every Friday and Saturday home game in 2026, fans will be able to purchase a beer for just two bucks and twins announced on Thursday. Two double free game beers will be available for season thinking holders before every single home game Monday through through Sunday. And Friday night specifically twins are often a pregame happy hour deal with $2 beer hot dogs, snacks, free ice cream for kids 12 and under on Sundays. They are really, really, really desperate. So it's specific to a season ticket holders. No, season ticket holders is Monday through through Sunday, but Friday, Saturday is open

35:22anyone. Oh, that's open to everyone. Wow. So the weekend, get a start year, fucking weekend off right on a Friday night, like go by the cheapest standing room only, and that's what I do anyway, yeah, yeah, ticket. And then just get blitzed at a standing room bar before the game even starts. I mean, I don't know if you guys saw what what attendance was like at the end of last season, but like literally you if you watched on TV, which was the only way anyone watched the twins game because no one was at the stadium. Like it looked like it was, I've seen better attendance at little league games. Like it was that bad. Like an early days, Marlins game, yeah, basically, you mean current Marlins games. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. I want to try to get a little, I actually don't know how well they're doing attendance-wise anymore. Well, I think I've gone to a game every year, you know, for the last several years and

36:25no, it's always really sparsely populated. No, I like the idea of get really, really drunk and then voice your angry opinions about how much you hate the ownership. I think that's exactly what you want to give a bunch of very polite Midwesterners, give them a license to hate you more. Yeah, well, so, so. And then all it takes is one person to go, hey, you should go run on the field, you know, and like, oh, don't you know, I will. Mike and his accents every time that Banger last year attendance was so low, it was, it was low since the pre-target field era when you had to go inside the big inflatable dome of the Notre Dame to watch baseball, which was one of the most depressing things. I was really hoping that when Tim said that, that he was going to pause after like the attendance has been so low and one of us could have jumped in and said, how was it?

37:31Yeah, I don't know if you don't give enough time for your, for your joke to breathe there, Tim. Well, when you have no punchline, that's what you do is you just walk right through. Um, but yeah, it is, it is really sad. The only thing I miss about the dome though is I miss a good dome dog, just the cheap hot dog. I'm telling you, there's something different about the dome dog that, that the dogs they have at the target field are great. Uh, there's just something about the cheap dome dog that, that, that I do miss. Here's what a dome dog is to me. It's a 22 ounce beer that you drop your hot dog in and then a shot over top of that and you chug the whole thing down, then eat the hot, the soggy beer hot dog afterward. That's a dome dog. If it works for your chestnut.

38:32All right. Have we, have we exhausted baseball for the time being? Sure. Okay. Until until you're next last call. So I did not have anything based where I related for my last call. So that's cool. I have like seven of them. So I'm just picking out the ones that, that are not coinciding with yours. Um, trying to get a good spread here. So this is something I've actually wanted to do a last call on for a long time. And just first and foremost, usually by last call, I'm pretty drunk and not nearly as coherent. So I feel like it's more middle of the show and I'm just somewhat coherent. Um, so this is something I'm wanting to encourage people to do in general. And I, I feel like this is kind of a fundamental problem with, I want to say humanity. And that is every single person feels like they are the protagonist of the world. Like everyone's Luke Skywalker, everyone's Neo in the matrix. Everyone's whatever protagonist you love in a, in a, in a movie, right?

39:35Everything's supposed to be for you, right? When you are late for work, everyone needs to get out of your way. Cause don't they all know you're late for work, right? You're not being an asshole, you're just late. So everyone needs to move out of the way when you're in line at the grocery store and the line. And there's like seven people in line. And then another register opens up the people from the back of the line, scamper like rats, even though these other people have been sitting there standing in line for a long time. When I'm there and I'm not, yes, I'm, this maybe this is a humble brag or whatever. If I'm number six, I asked anyone in front of me, do you want to go first? You've been standing here. So you should go to the line next. It's not all or nothing. It's not all out because I'm the most important person in the world. And I think that is that's a quintessential thing of the politics in the United States. It's in the social policy. It is everyone is out for themselves.

40:37Everyone get their own. So what I'm trying to encourage people and listen, I'm guilty of this too. I am a self, I'm an inherently selfish human being. I have no other option but to be. I fail on this all the time. But if you and I and everybody can spend a little less time as the protagonist, just be the protagonist a little less often. Imagine you're not Luke Skywalker. You're just another person at the bar, right? When he walks in, is that Dagobah? No, Dagobahs were, where they find you, that's on Tatooine. Sorry, you're just one of the characters and the menagerie of people in Tatooine. You're not Luke Skywalker, you're not Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're not the most important person in the world. All the other people are the protagonist in their story too. If we can just do that, not all the time, because you do have to kind of look out for yourself every now and then.

41:40You do have to advocate for yourself. You have to advocate for your position and the things that you care about. But it should not come in place of getting over on other people to go back to baseball. Baseball trades are not I win, you lose. There's supposed to be I win, you win. That's what a dealing is supposed to be. Don't tell the president that, but that's what deals are. Fundamentally, is that we're doing this because it's mutually advantageous. I'm not trying to win it. So I, I know you guys both fairly well. And I know the, the, the empathy and the sympathy you have for others, you know, radiates out to others. And I know our listeners, you wouldn't still be listening to you. I know we drink if you didn't feel similarly, but just kind of pull yourself back every now and then and say, if I wasn't the protagonist in this movie, what I still think that this should go my way, or what I realized, oh, shit, I'm just one of eight billion.

42:46Kevin shot first to go to a Star Wars tattooing reference. You know, I, during the Christmas break, I think it was two days before Christmas. I went to a grocery store, had to buy some stuff for Christmas day. And I didn't get a amount of stuff. So I'm going to a regular line. I'm not going through the express lanes. I'm loading the stuff onto the, onto the belt. And someone comes up behind me and takes one of the dividers and puts it down immediately behind where the last item that I put on was with still a shopping cart full of stuff myself. And they start putting their things on. And I was like, hey, like, I'm not done. And they just don't look at me.

43:48So they put on evasive flowers. And I think you can probably see where this is going to go and some items. So I slowly try to push the stuff back to add more of my things on to the belt. And as they don't do anything, I just decide, push it all back and phase of flowers goes down all over the belt. And I don't give a fuck at this point. And I'm like, whoa, I'm like, I wasn't even done loading my cart and you put this stuff down. You could have said something I did and you looked away from me. I apologize to the cashier. I'm like, I'm sorry that I got water all over the belt. They had to go get a new power display thing. Find out they didn't have any more of that one. So I felt a little bit better. I inadvertently walked out with their pack of cold cut turkey.

44:54I don't know how that got into my bag because I definitely didn't get it. But it was, it was one of those things. It was just like these people there, they think they're in a hurry. They're the only one who they think is in a hurry. I'm like, it's the holidays. Everyone thinks they're in a hurry. I've never been that mad at a grocery store line before. I've been agitated before. Obviously people who come through the express lane with way more than 10 items. And here I am with one thing and I'm just trying to go home. It sucks, but I've never yelled at anyone before. And it was the first time that I ever like blew up on someone just being like, you know, main character syndrome in a grocery store. And yeah, I'm so guilty of it too. Kevin, like you said, like we all do it, but like way more often than not.

45:54I just find like, all right, I'm just along on the ride in this person's life. They don't give a fuck about me. Like I'm not asking you to necessarily give a fuck about me, but at least, you know, acknowledge that we're all in this together and just zipper move through life happily. I mean, I literally put on my phone every day at two o'clock, as a reminder, Tim, shut up, dial it back. You're not better than anyone else. Like this is a reminder that goes off of my phone every single day. It's amazing. Keep me in check. It's always work. But, but well, I mean, I've done it because I've been a dick and I'm trying to not be. I have had main character syndrome and I get that. And I still like I even catch myself when I'm driving and, you know, like reminding myself that sometimes people just accidentally accidentally get someone off or sometimes you just get so easy to do it in your car when you have like, whatever, yeah, tons of metal separating you

46:59from another human being, like we tend to get more aggressive when there is that separation. You don't have that, you don't see that person as another person. You see it as a hunk of metal, but that's why people are always like, oh, say it to my face. Like do something because people are less inclined to do that because they're just afraid of confrontation or even in this day, afraid of retribution for for saying something. Like I could have probably been punched by that person for what I did, like in response to their dick hadishness because they're a person who is like that who thinks that I am truly in the right and I've now been wronged by this person who thought that I have not more important than them. It's just, yeah, I mean, that's why I just don't want to go out and public. I certainly don't like to go in stores. I did lose Michael once, Christmas shopping where I went up and think someone for letting me shop in their store and they give me a puzzled

48:01look and said, this isn't my store and I said, didn't quit acting like it. There are people here get out of the way. I didn't go overwhelmed. Not my finest moment, but I hate that the holiday stressed me out and the way that person was literally like cart perpendicular in the aisle completely oblivious to the fact that anyone around them was also trying to browse the exact same section they were. But you know, I should have been to keep my cool. But the other thing that I was thinking about when you said is kind of the ramifications Kevin about like our current political climate, right? Actual legitimate like representatives in our Congress are accusing people like myself and my in my fellow Minnesotans of being paid because they don't understand what it means to have community. They don't understand what it means to have friends. They don't understand what it

49:04means to be empathetic of other people around them. Empathy is weakness. Yeah, yeah, to engage in anything where you might acknowledge that you're not the only most important thing ever, right? And so well, they must be doing it because they're getting paid. Yeah, we've infiltrated their signal chats and they're at the high level comms. I'm like, yeah, like anyone who's ever fucking gone to a youth sport like a fifth grade girls basketball tournament on a Saturday understands the amount of coordination required. PTA moms must be secret CIA operatives if that's really what's going on. But again, it is that kind of that when when you do have that main character syndrome, you do start to lose sense of community and sense of others. And it does permeate over into places where it matters even more than on the road or in the grocery store or

50:08wherever. I think what you just said there, Tim is really profound in phrasing. I know you're taking that from a real world situation, but there's a big difference. And you know, obviously I I feel like my political positions and my moral positions are justified, right? And every other person does too. But when I'm explaining my my position here, and I'm thinking about others who do not share my moral position on something, it's really easy to go from how is it possible that you have such a little empathy for others that you believe X Y or Z to no one actually believes X Y or Z. It's not possible because I my position is so right. And it's really easy to and I think

51:09one of the things that is kind of humbling when you when you look at others and their situations, we would talk before we got on the podcast, I watch a lot of court. And it's just something I enjoy. I really like the legal system. Like I'm not sure if that's the right word. I'm interested in the legal system. And when you are on the outside looking in, it's really easy to say, oh, this person's a drug addict, they're a bad person. And then you hear about the what built a person to be a drug addict, what built a person to be a negligent parent. And it's really, really easy for me in certain situations, not always to go there, but for the for the grace of God, go, like I was on a razor thin edge where I could have just been that person. But some good things happen to me in my life to bring me to this point. It is really easy to see myself in a different with a different mindset and a different state of life. And as well as my best moments, in my

52:14worst moments, I think everyone's a moron. And I hate them. And I really do. I'm really furiously angry at other people for not agreeing with me or for doing things that I think are selfish. But then I realize, oh, they just got there through their own means. When it tips over into that, you can exist, right? You don't really support immigration reform and empathy towards others. You just hate our side. You're just anti-American. Now, I just have a very different position from you for this. And I came to it through very reasonable means. And I think if you thought about it a little bit more, you might be persuaded. But that's not a sexy, seductive position. It's much easier to go, Tim Johnson, you are a paid actor. You just are. You can't, you have to be because you don't agree with me because it's not possible that anyone doesn't agree with me. And that is bordering on mental illness and sickness.

53:19Oh, absolutely. And I wish I were a paid actor. George Soros owes me a fuck ton of money for all the processing that I've done. And I've got bills to pay. So so pay up here, whoever is behind whether it's Soros or whoever else I'm told from the infiltrated signal chats. I mean, the coordinator never went. When are you guys changing the name of the state to Minnesota Soros? Well, there's a there's a there's a city here that that just voted on a resolution to go back to the flag that we changed two years ago. Because they decided that the new flag is too woke two years later, they decided the flag is too woke. And so they've made a motion to go back to the old flag that basically represented us trampling on the rights of indigenous people. So, you know, super healthy. Well, I just use my trusty random number generator

54:26because I think we should change up the order every time. I think on this round, it's now Mike Tim me. I'm still third. That's fine. But Mike here first. Okay. All right. So a couple of weeks ago, a band that I have loved for many years put out a new album. The band is called Converge. They are a hardcore metal, whatever you want to call them band that has been around for since the late 90s. Many, many years and they have put out a ton of albums, a ton of EPs. They are they're one of the most influential hardcore bands of all time. And I was listening to their new album called Love is Not Enough. The, the, the self title that titled track opens up the album and is just

55:33everything that that band has always been. And I think every time Converge puts out a new album, I am like, how the hell has this band reinvented themselves in certain ways? Like they have progressed. They have, they be a very spastic, fast band. They still put out tons of those songs, but they have little slow songs and ballads in almost every album that they put out that sounds like a progression that you would expect from them from album to album while still remaining so goddamn quintessentially Converge. This band is just mind boggling to me. How they have been able to crack the code I feel like for what a lot of this type of music falls victim to and

56:35not by any fault necessarily of the bands, but progression is usually a mark of death as you have changed. You've sold out. And bands who want to try to do something a little different for an album, if it doesn't sound like the last album or the last couple albums that were what really brought you fans, you get called a poser, you get called a sell out, you get called so many different names. I don't know what it is about Converge that has been able to avoid that. That every album definitely sounds better than the last one. They have differences, they have changes, but holy shit, it still somehow feels very Converge and it sounds like early Converge at that. I mean, they've had the same lineup, it's not the original lineup, but this is the same lineup they've had since the early 2000s. They're having fun, they're doing stuff that they love.

57:36And I mean, if you're into Pong Cardcore, Metal, go check out Converge's new album, Love is Not Enough, it's on all of those streaming platforms and shit like that. And check out everything else they've ever done if you dig that because you will love them. They are one of the best hardcore bands of all time. And I hope that they just keep on doing it because they fucking are great at it. My main thing about this is just that maybe give people a chance with trying new things and music and everything in life. But more so, I hate that way people look at bands as like if an album is different than the last one, it sucks. You can enjoy new and good and just think that man, everyone progresses. So, you know, the example that I always come up with for this,

58:38and part of this is just because they were so prolific at putting out album after album after album. But the Beatles from Love Me Do released in 1963 is their first single to their final album of let it be in 1970, seven years span. You think about, they're bands to me that if you told me a album came out in 2019, I would have just thought, oh, that's their last album. I would have thought it would have been that big of a deal. But the progression from Love Me Do through you know, Abbey Road in Sergeant Pepper and the white album and all of the things that they did, you go from 30, 40 years span. You would think it was the 40 years span between Love Me Do to Helter Skelter to, you know, like all of that was so much. But at the same time, it sounds like

59:40you were like, yeah, that's the Beatles. And I know it feels kind of like cliche to go back on them, but it's so important to me because I feel like sometimes people want to write them off because they were kind of the first band to really do that whole massive transformation, 17 times over and still has success over and over and over again. But yeah, you are allowed to evolve and change your style. Now sometimes, you know, the one that I always laugh at was sugar ray. Without the makeup. No, no. So, so sugar ray was actually like a hardcore, like a punk or kind of like a skate or a punk band. Yeah. Yeah. And then you're in Mrs. Doubtfire as like a punk band. Yeah. And then immediately they're doing every morning, there's a halo, like like the progression they made or like

1:00:45or like, you know, Kid Rock, his first album, like Grit Sandwiches for Breakfast was this Detroit style rock. And now suddenly he's a country artist. Like, it was the rock in the trap. No, it was, it was a trap. I mean, that's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a metal like hard fast. Yeah. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no. Grit Sandwiches for Records was a 100% straight-up hip-hop. Oh, okay. I didn't know that that was it. I thought you were referring to like a line that he said. No, no, no. I was just thinking of devil without a cause. Yeah. Second album, Grit Sandwiches for Breakfast was straight-up hip-hop. And I'd said that I know that about him at all. Um, garbage person. Uh, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage music. But it's like, so that already, so he's still a garbage person. Yeah. Yeah. No, there's, there's still like shitty music transformation. So not every music transformation is good. We'll be honest there. But, you know, there, there were, there was, you know, I'm trying to think of like filter was a band

1:01:51in the 90s that went through kind of Hey, man, nice shot and, uh, uh, picture or whatever that one was called, like, those are right to very, very different things. There was that one band with the hell what they called finger 11 that had like, like, one thing and paralyzer, which are two completely different genres. Like, like, we allowed that at one point for bands to go to, to explore. We allowed the red hot chili peppers go from freaky style to progressively worse to whatever the fuck they are today. Um, freaky style to mother's milk to, to blood sugar six magic to one hot minute and then the cliff that fell off at California occasion. And the terrible path they've been on ever since. Like, we've allowed to be about California. Uh, yeah. And yeah, and also suck. Um, no distortion ever allowed again. If it weren't for, if it weren't for Chad Smith, I think I

1:02:52would have, uh, but yes, but like, you have allowed, you know, and we allowed, should I remember when Eddie Vetter didn't want to release better man because he was worried it was too poppy. Um, uh, to be one of their biggest hits, right? Um, it is nice when, when people can't explore, explore, I think, I think the challenge is where is the authenticity in the exploration, right? I think that is what, I think that's why I make fun of Kid Rock, because I feel like, like his exploration genre shifting is not authentic. It's, it's done, you know, maybe I'm cynical about him. But I think for him, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's a right, same with, with sugar ray, right? Like, where's the punk band guy that's going to be hosting extra or entertainment tonight or whatever the fuck he was hosting there for a while, right? Like, but then again, like, you look

1:03:56at Snoop Dogg at the Olympics and I was like 1996 Snoop Dogg with a hate 2026 Snoop Dogg. So, you know, NWA, uh, ice cube, who messed it out and got a triple double would not love all of his, are we there yet? Shitty movies he made. Like, like, like some people's arcs, yeah, some people's arcs are selling out. So I do get that. In fairness today was a good day. It was off of the predator and was not an NWA, but it's so though ice cube album. I know. Yes, you're not trying. No, I know. I know. He gets to respond now. Yeah. No, no, it's, I knew it the second came out of there. I just met more of that same era. No, I know you're completely right. And listen, I thought when Mike started this one, I was like, oh, Mike, you had the totally, like, comment proof, uh, like a typical, uh, last call in the

1:04:59fact that like, I don't know who this band is. And I have no idea what you're talking about. And then Tim took it where exactly it's supposed to go, which is like talking about different, like, transformations. I was being cynical. I was like, I got none the say to this. And Tim had wonderful things to say. A lot of things I agree with. And I would be remiss if I did not talk about Bruce Springsteen. Because Springsteen went from, you know, the cynical version of Springsteen is like, first he wanted to be Bob Dylan, then he wanted to be Van Morrison. And then he, you know, did, you know, born in the USA, uh, and anthem song. And then no one knows what he did after that. Because that was when he kind of fell out of the spotlight in a lot of ways, even though he did streets of Philadelphia and did some other really wonderful songs in the 90s. I'm a huge Springsteen fan. My dad's a Springsteen fan. Uh, some of the best nights of my life is spent in Springsteen concerts. But in reality, this is the person who did Nebraska as a follow up album to born in the USA.

1:06:01A wholly acoustic album, in my opinion, some of his best work is the man who did Ghost of Tom Joe. Maybe my favorite Springsteen album, which is a folksy album based on the greats of wrath, a novel, which is just brilliantly written and beautiful in every way, shape and form. Someone who did an album called tunnel, tunnel love, which is was hopping in its own way, but deeply depressing and sad. And all these albums coming off the back of his biggest commercial success. And that's a person who has evolved on his own terms. It never seems like he was chasing a trend so much as just being who he was. And listen, his last several albums, I haven't listened to him. I mean, I think the last Springsteen album, I really listened to, I think it was called magic, which was a very good album, very good album. I haven't really listened to a lot of his stuff since then, which is probably now 20 years ago. But someone who stayed the course, did his own thing,

1:07:06and continuously made incredible music for 30, 40 years, whatever it is now, it's great. You know, I'm not even a listener of this music, but I would think like a modern day version, kind of, of this is Taylor Swift. Everyone who I know who listens to Taylor Swift talks about the metamorphosis of her sound throughout the years, like every album is a good bit different from the last one. And I guess I did see people talking about like, oh, maybe this last album is not exactly like my favorite of hers, but it's still a good album. But like everyone's always talking about how she has reinvented herself from each album to each album. And while everything like at any time I hear a song, I'm like, oh, yeah, that's definitely a Taylor Swift song. Like, not even even ones that sound more country or more pop or more dance or more rock. Like, I'm like, yeah, okay, fits her definitely. Yeah, they're different, but yeah, that's a Taylor Swift

1:08:09song for sure. Like, I can see her doing that. Yeah, it's, it's, I think what Tim, where Tim was going, it's a tough thing to tell sometimes because there's so many people that the sincerity in it, like people who are changing for truly like a marketing standpoint to try to make more money or people who are actually looking to be experimental and try something different. Like, they're people who are bad at judging that shit always. And there's always going to people who call you a fucking sellout. But like the authenticity in how you do it usually shines through for the best artists, like the people who are really good at what they're at being musicians. Like way better than anything I would ever be able to do. Like, wouldn't you see that difference? And you can tell like, all right, yeah, you, you're, you're trying something new here. You're doing a fantastic job of it. And you're not doing it for the likes. You're not doing it for,

1:09:13for the streams. Like it, you can tell. And, and like, I'm glad that you said that to him. So I could just be because last night I rewatched for the umpteenth million time pop star, never stop, never stopping, uh, which if you have not watched that, you should, um, uh, it's I have never seen it. Okay. So it's a lonely island thing. And the whole premise is, is that the like the those three guys are in a Beastie boys. Ask group called the style boys. And then Indie Sandberg's character, uh, uh, he comes kind of the standout. It's almost like the Justin Timberlake, he becomes a standout, which is funny. It's Justin Timberlake is in the movie too. Um, uh, but the, and then, you know, just gets to a full of himself and goes and chase his trends and numbers and all that stuff. And then, you know, at the end, there's a bit like, you should watch it. It's a lot of great cliches, a lot of really funny lines. Tim Meadows,

1:10:17underappreciated, Senator and live alum, uh, has some great lines. Chris Redd is, is brilliant in it. But it does kind of follow the whole like, you know, trying to figure out when someone sold out. So it's, it's actually a probably fairly poignant for being a ridiculous lonely island movie. I have as in the movie either, but I always just thought it was a typical crappy comedy from that era and didn't have any kind of thought put to it. I think you both should watch it. I think you both would appreciate it. So on that note, I'm going to be the police here. I think it's time to move on to Tim's second last call. Okay. Um, my second last call. Um, so trying not to spend every, one of my last calls talking about the events of the last two months in Minneapolis.

1:11:20One thing that I do want to say is someone who is a former, uh, a former evangelical, someone who's not a believer, uh, now, um, but still, still understands, uh, the things that were so attractive to me about the church before. Uh, I don't recognize it right now. And I think all I really want to do is just make a plea uh, to the evangelicals that I know no better. Right. So my sister's church where her pastor is throwing a hissy fit about a church being protested here in Minnesota but has said absolute dick about what is happening to the immigrants in this community. That will quote the words of Paul and the words of whoever will not quote the words, uh, of Jesus and Matthew

1:12:25where he says to love the immigrants, uh, that these churches that spend all this time on, here's our statement of belief and their statement of belief will say so it might say something about like the age of the earth. It might say something about, uh, marriage being between one man and one woman, they might even get into, you know, transgender issues on their, their, their, their websites. They have all of these things, right? Whether it's in their statement of belief or what they're, what their resources that are focused on their website. I don't see those websites having statements of how to treat the unhoused, how to treat the sick, how to treat the hungry. And I don't see them doing that. Now are church, are there churches out there that are doing that that are trying to address that? Certainly. Whether clergy that were sitting and got arrested the airport here in, in the Twin Cities for praying as a former protest for the, the way immigrant communities are being treated. Absolutely. Um, but I know there's people with good hearts that are

1:13:32going to churches who believe that they have to because of tradition. If, if you believe that the words of Jesus in, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the words of Jesus, why are you spending so much time with the words of Paul? Why are you spending so much time worried about abortion and gay marriage and transgender rights and immigrant, all these things that Jesus didn't talk about in those books. Why are you spending any time worried about that? Because you've gotten caught up in a culture war and I know that morally you believe something is better. So what I'm doing right now is making a plea to those people that you know better. Be better. Whether or not the non-believers that I know listen to the words of, of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John of the words of Jesus in, in, in the apostles. Um, uh, they're the epistles. I, I think we can all

1:14:39still agree that the idea of loving your neighbor and caring for the sick, caring for the hungry. Those are values. When we always, we hear about these people say, oh, well, we're a founder of the Christian nation. And so we have to follow the 10 commands. First of all, the 10 commandments are in the Old Testament. They're on New Testament. Second of all, literally zero of them are part of our laws. But third, the most part of the most Christ part of that Christian part is loving their neighbor. Where were, where were you when, when I was hungry and you did not feed me? Where were you were at where I, I was cold and you did not close me or like literally, literally, the, the gospels are completely littered with Jesus talking about treating the lesser people. Then he says it's, it's harder for a, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle

1:15:42than a rich man to get into heaven. And all we have is a bunch of wealth, worshiping, immigrant hating, people more concerned about abortion as a key issue, even though if you go back 70 years, the same, the same churches that were, that are our, our anti-choice now, we're actually pro-choice back then. But let's ignore history for a second. But you're worried about the wrong things. I really wish that my believing friends could just care about other people. It makes me sad to know the number of Christians I know that are supporting ice in these times that are supporting pulling back on snap benefits. And today we learn that we're losing Medicare benefits in Minnesota because we have a tiny, a president with a tiny ego who feels certain by

1:16:47by Elhan Omar. And it's really mad that us, Minnesotans stood up to him and we're going to lose those Medicare benefits and those Medicare benefits aren't going to go. The immigrants at the again, the ones that we heard by real, like, needing people are going to be hurt by this. You're hurting your own people by this stuff. Just fucking live up to the things you say you're going to. That's my rant. I am really tempted to let that be a traditional last call because I don't know what else I could add to it. I want to talk about what you were talking about forever because I think about it every day. Every day of my life, I think about what you're talking about, loving that neighbor, being an atheist myself, being a person who comes from a place of belief, grew up in belief,

1:17:48went to catechism, did the communion and all that kind of stuff, found more truth in non-belief, but wants someone anyone to stand up to the principles they say they believe in. And actually, have a moral compass that is closer to the best of what the New Testament talks about. I guess I'm talking over what you said. I really want to add something and I don't think I can. I think you did a really good job with that too. Thank you. To people who are new here, you have three atheists in this show. I think Phil would probably be the closest thing to a Christian who has ever been on this show. And I don't really even know where Phil stands anymore. And Phil, I'm not trying to call you out, but you are a very good progressive person.

1:18:51I just got to text Phil, he says, fuck you, stop talking about me with my real name. I feel like just take beer out of the equation. Probably some of the first things that Kevin and I bonded over talking was atheism. And talking about Hitchens, talking about Dawkins, talking about Dennett, talking about Stephen Frye, and there's so much of that new atheism movement from the early 2000s, and just the moral stance of being moral without having religion involved in your lives, because there's always a verse that you can throw back at them. Like you said, Tim, like I was just even thinking of like turning the other cheek. Okay, you don't like what the gay and transgender communities or whatever are doing to you,

1:19:53turning the other cheek, be the better man. Like, there's always something that you can throw back at them from those books. And it's just, like I don't try to turn anyone to my side of thinking, I would love it if people would just go back to the community-based aspect of religion, and just like being able to get together with your local community, the people who you all believe in these things within celebrate it once a week, twice a week, how are a week that you want to do this? And if you want to leave your lives, lead your lives like that, by all means do so, as long as it's not hurting other people. And we did that fine for seemingly a bit as a majority. I know there's always stuff going on. I'm not trying to say that everything's been peaceful. Religions never been persecuting people.

1:20:53No, like we know that that happens. But like, man, I wish it was just more of a community-focused thing of faith. Like, just trust your faith. Don't make other people have to reaffirm your faith to you by being like, you got to do what I do because I do it. Like, you need to do it. Follow your faith. Have faith. And be fucking honest. There's no way that Donald Trump is in any way anointed by God to do God damn bold, fuck of anything. That is the thing that drives me up the wall. It is how much the religious writers embrace Donald Trump. Yeah. They've been waiting for like that candidate for however many decades. Like, who we need that candidate who's going to finally get through to us. And they're like, it comes enough. And then he did the most damage. And they're like, yeah, I guess we could just gotta embrace it. He's not good at this, but like, he's not really us. But he did the things we wanted right.

1:21:54So, yeah. Donald Trump pissed off the Pope. I mean, I mean, I don't know. I know there's a lot of people. You can be a Christian without being a Catholic, obviously. But the Pope is supposed to... I mean, this is nonsense, by the way. Tim, I'm sorry. I'm just not always on the Pope's side. One of my favorite songs of all time is Fuck the Mother Fucking Pope by Tim mentioned. I'm not saying the Pope actually is speaking for God. But with the religious doctrine, what he says is God's word. And he has come out against Donald Trump. And Catholics are like, yeah, we'll take Trump. JD Vance is a Catholic and things that the Pope is too woke. Then why do you call yourself a Catholic? That doesn't even make sense to me. Maybe they should protest that form of Christianity

1:22:54and form a different sect of Christianity and protest to it. Maybe they should call it an anti-Christian or something like that. That drives me up the wall is whenever I hear these guys say, no, you can't protest that. I'm like, you are a protestant. You are a protestant. You are a protestant. You not get that. You are a protestant. You are, yes, protesting. Oh, the church is no place to protest. Really tell that to Martin Fucking Luther, right? Tell that to Jesus who overturned the tables of the money changes in the church saying that his father's house was not a place for this. Like the idea that these protesters in Minnesota are just some terrible because they, by the way, they were, they were Christians that were protesting.

1:23:56They were atheist protesting at a Christian church. They were Christians protesting at a Christian church saying, you being the leader of ICE and sitting here on Sunday, preaching the word of God, that when Jesus literally said to love the immigrant and you're doing the opposite, we disagree with that from a theological standpoint. And so we are protesting as protest, protestants in this church and people are throwing a fit about it. Like, come on. I think you said it all. I mean, Tim, like I said, I think your words are spot on. I think that the sentiment is shared by all three of us here. I am going to jump in and I'm going to do my next last call. But before I do that, I am drinking, you guys know by this time that I am a lazy dog beer club member. I am drinking a beer by a brewery called Belching Beaver. And no one can see this except you guys.

1:24:57I hate this name. I really hate this name. I don't like the logo. This is a chocolate coffee vanilla lavender golden stout. Everything about this beer is what I would hate. And I like this beer. And I like this beer. I everything about me is telling me not to like this and I'm enjoying it. And sometimes you can be presently surprised in the world. That's not my last call, but I want to make sure to point that out. Do you know where Belching Beaver is based? No. California, right? Yeah, I say, where would you guess with the name like Belching Beaver? I have no idea. The Pacific Northwest. I would think something like I would see I would think Pacific Northwest or like or like the Midwest, right? Sounds like a like a like a Wisconsin or a Michigan type of thing. San Diego. San Diego. Well, yeah, I am the Belching Wales vagina.

1:25:59Be be willing to be proven wrong. Be willing to change your opinion and actually be honest with yourself. I thought I would hate you. Be willing to be. Be willing to be. Change the name of your brewery, guys. Okay, so my I'm trying to I actually had something that would go so perfectly with Tim's last last call. But I know also I'm not sure how many of these are going to get to. I'm going to kind of bring it a little bit more into the pop culture, you know, fun side of this. I have been watching kids in the hall and just on peacock. I love kids in the hall. I grew up on kids in the hall and I haven't watched the actual show in years. I owned all the DVDs. They're all lost to time now. But I've watched the show since the first run of the show, since like reruns on Comedy Central and things of that nature. But I love the kids in the hall. And I just it's I need a show to watch at the end of the night to wind down after my run

1:27:01and stuff like that. And I find myself loving every aspect of the show, just as much as the first time I I watched it. And just finding it to be brilliant. The five guys in the kids in the hall were absolutely brilliant. They were children when they were making this show. And the cultural touchstones and the jokes and the sharpness of everything is amazing. Now, I have not let Chad watch kids in the hall. There is some stuff that can be appropriate. There's some stuff that's really not appropriate for my eight-year-old son. But I have showed him videos of the head crusher. I'm crashing your head. I've shown him the eradicate horror, right? The squash player. A few little clips here or there. And every now and then, the he plays a pickleball with his mom. And he'll go, the eradicate horror, and he'll hit the ball. And I love that. My son's eight. And I got the thinking. One of the best sketch, one of the original great sketch comedies

1:28:01shows that the kids in the hall built off of was Monipython. I was exposed to Monipython around the time I was eight. Now, I really didn't start watching it until I was a little bit older, probably in sixth-seventh grade. But I knew of Holy Grail and some of the other Python stuff early on. Even if I never really watched the show. And I was thinking, man, me showing Chad a few kids in the hall clips. What's the cultural timeline when I was eight of how long ago that media was? So I did a little research. Monipython's flying circus first season was in 1969. Well, I was eight years old and 1989. I don't know if you guys are great at math. That's 20 years. 20 years between when that was first run and when I first saw it. When I first saw it, it looked like an old TV show. I loved it, but it looked like an old show.

1:29:03It looked like an old piece of media. The kids in the halls first season was in 1988. Showing Chad that now in 2026 makes it 38 years old. Nearly twice the age of when I would have been first exposed or around then, first exposed to Monipython. That is mind-boggling to me. Showing Chad a piece of me that's 40 years old and saying, this is something I would really enjoyed and whatnot. Now, I'm not saying this to make you guys feel old or any of us to feel old. I'm doing this kind of a proof of point. I'm going to give you one more example. My dad, when he was growing up, or at least a show that he loved when he was a kid, was a show called Gigantor. It was about a space age robot. Gigantor. Gigantor. Sorry about that. But that's all I remember about this show.

1:30:04But I remember my dad showing me a few of these. I think he had it on a video when I was growing up. And this was like a show that I watched when I was a kid. He showed me that show in and around about 1989. That show was made in 1963 or 26 years old. That would be the equivalent of me showing Chad Dora the Explorer. My cultural touchstone, one of my favorite cartoons of all time, was Count Ducula. I loved Count Ducula. My dad loved Count Ducula. It was just brilliant. I want to show Chad Count Ducula right now. 38 years old. 38. That show that my dad showed me that was black and white and just seems so outdated was only 26 years old. The show I want to show Chad is 38 years old. Now, these are all these kind of like, oh my god,

1:31:06can you imagine these time comparisons? That's not what I'm getting at. We are convinced that the nostalgic things that we loved are everything. They're perfect. And the new things are not as good. Nothing is as good. The music's not as good. The TV's not as good. The cartoons are not as good. We want to expose our kids to amazing things. I've just showed you that out of the two things that I just mentioned, I love Monty Python to this day, faulty towers. I love stuff that I was exposed to when I was young. I still think it's brilliant. But some of it didn't set the time. Didn't really kind of peak my interest. I didn't follow up on it. Stuff I'll show Chad. Some of it he'll love. Like, I'm crashing your head. He'll love that. But he might not love other things that I expose him to. He might not like Count Ducula or Danger Mouse or Transformers, right? Does that mean he has no taste? No. Time marches on. Our need for nostalgia, our love of nostalgia, is pinned in the idea that things were better back in the day.

1:32:09It's tied to the ideas of being young. It's tied to the idea, the rose tinted glasses that we have towards that time. The challenge for all of us should be to have our kids exposed to older, incredible media. But to expose ourselves to modern media. To give them the concession that the thing that they're going to watch is amazing. If my dad had said, well, it's kids in the hall, it's modern, it's crap. Then I would have missed out on something amazing. We have to progress and understand that brilliant things are still being created. We can definitely look back and go, oh my god, I'm so fucking old. And this feels so weird to see that these time periods have lapsed. But overall, I don't have to love every YouTube video that Chad watches. I don't have to understand it. But I should be trying to, in some level,

1:33:11get it or see what he enjoys about it. Because there is intrinsic value. And there's brilliant things being made right now. And just closing yourself off and saying that everything was better in the past, ties into exactly what Tim was talking about. Ties into exactly to this idea that, and what I talked about earlier about being the protagonist and everything that I love is the best. It is statistically not. It just isn't. Time marches on. We all get older. I want to show my son Count Dracula. And if he doesn't like it, I'm not going to say you're an idiot with no taste. I'm going to say, yeah, I just showed you an old cartoon that looks really weird to you. And we're going to move on and talk about something else. Here here, I've tried to watch old episodes of Thunder Cats and realize that that cartoon was actually dog shit. Isn't much of that bad. Something like it. Yeah, I was bad. Yeah, oh, yeah, absolutely.

1:34:12Totally unrelated. But the other thing is I went down a rabbit hole today. Jacob Dylan from the Wallflowers, Bob Dylan's son, right? One had light. Down the horse came out in 1996. 1996, Bob Dylan was born in 1941. So Bob Dylan was 55 when Jacob Dylan's band's debut album bringing down the horse came out and 96, 97. So he was 55, 56 years old when one had light. Became a hit. Jacob Dylan right now is 56 years old. So he is right now as old as Bob Dylan was. And for me, someone had grown up with the high school and college in the 90s. So I was high school college when one had light came out.

1:35:14Like, to me, I loved Bob Dylan. But it felt like it was from a previous era, a whole different era. But I certainly don't treat one the Wallflowers or one had light like that. And so it's very funny to me to just see kind of that same congruence of Jacob Dylan is now just slightly older than his dad was when one had light came out. Some of that I think is there is a time compression that has happened in the internet era where things that were hit songs 20 years ago are more relevant today than than like a song from 1969 and 1989 just because of A, there was just so much rapid change that was going on. Like I said, the Beatles went through an entire evolution in less than a decade.

1:36:17But be like the use in media and commercials and all of that was completely different. Whereas to now, the old songs you used in TikTok videos and they have a different shelf life and it's a very different kind of life cycle of songs in media. So that one is funny. But yeah, no, the idea that we need to expose ourselves your words not mine. I just realized when I said that out loud that sounds terrible, I shouldn't be exposing myself to anything or anyone. But I do genuinely appreciate that because like I love that I like to me, I don't even share like Mike and I talked about it. Like I was really excited when Lily could pick out a G-pop. But like Lily and I also do, we did this thing the other day at dinner. We were out grabbing pizza and we, she's like, hey, how about this?

1:37:18You just have to say Beatles lyrics and then the other one has to guess the name of the song. Right? And like she's not doing love me do or come together. Like she's doing like a day in the life, nowhere man, for no one are her favorite Beatles songs. Like she's got fucking taste. I love it. That's cool. But then also her favorite band is 21 Pilots. And so I've learned to kind of learn more about 21 pilots and embrace that and get that because I don't want to be. I, one thing I've always been afraid of, like, no offense to my parents but watching them say, oh, well, that's not for us. We don't do that is like watching kind of society pass them by. And I really, and I've had this conversation with them very recently, is how much when you let society pass you by because you didn't engage in social media or you didn't engage in this or you didn't engage in that.

1:38:21Or is that you missed the arc that brought us to where we are at today. In, in our country, right? And so when, when my mom gets really mad about Trump and what's going on or when she, my mom literally just like a month ago learned what Citizens United was. Like, it's like, this was, this is the price that you have to pay for not being engaged. Right. And so to me, not only is there a, uh, don't hold on to nostalgia, but I think there's also another aspect there, which is, uh, if you, like, you don't have to be holding to the zeitgeist, but if you ignore it, you, but ignore it at your own peril. You know, I, I truly believe that right now we are in the best time ever

1:39:26for entertainment in our, in, ever. Like, we have some of the best athletes in the history of forever, some of the best musicians in the history of forever, some of the best movies and television show actors, writers, producers, everyone in the history of forever is all happening right now. Like, I'm not saying that everything is, but some of the best stuff is always coming out. I'm going to say, did you see this year's NBA dumb competition? Because that is not the best thing I've ever seen ever. That was terrible. That what I'm, what I'm talking about is that, like, all of these athletes that we have in all these sports now are so much better than the athletes of 20, 30 years ago. It just, like, even the ones who aren't drugged up are so much more phenomenally better. But we proud.

1:40:28No, Tony alone are, are two generational talents that are, that are better than anyone I remember growing up. And, and trout is despite that is still looked at as they big what if, like what if he didn't get hurt so much. But, oh, Tony is the best fucking baseball player in the history of the game and of sentence. Like, I, there's so much television and movies and stuff from my childhood that I love and I adore. But I look at stuff that has come out in the last five to 10 years that trounces that. And, you know, like, the kids shows that some, my kids watch are absolute garbage. Bluey is one of the best children's television shows that I have ever seen. It kicks the living hell out of any television show that I saw from my childhood.

1:41:30And we have really watched, like, old Sesame Street episodes on HBO. And, and then I'm like, okay, some of this is aged well, some of this hasn't. I'm like, holy fuck, Bluey means more to me nail than Sesame Street ever did. And I'm going to jump. I'm going to jump in here right now. I'm just sorry. First and foremost, more modern Sesame Street is better than the Sesame Street that I grew up on. And if I absolutely when I was a kid, I would be a better person. More modern Sesame Street is with the exception of Elmo, the proliferation of Elmo was the biggest problem with Sesame Street. But, they pulled back and they heavily pushed. Yeah, they pulled back. I'm not in recent, the years that I was watching with Chad, yes, he was still heavily featured, but he wasn't the main focus. But I'm sorry, Mike, I know you're on a role, but I just had to say that because I want it to be a better person. And watching clearly would have made me a better person. Just Kanye is Taylor Swift to say that the

1:42:30ANSI had the better album. Is it better music video? Is that what he just did? I'm going to let you finish. He's the drummer from Rage getting on top of the, the structure and just sitting up there while I accept my award. I can, I honestly believe like some of my favorite TV shows of all time, like at this point, are things that I have probably seen in the last 10 years. Like the return of Twin Peaks is one of the best things I've ever seen in my life. And like people like to call it like in 18-hour movie because that's kind of what it was. FX has put out like consistently some of the best television shows I've ever seen in my life with like Atlanta topping that list. Reservation Dogs is incredible. It's always sunny, continues to somehow defy sitcom odds and put out amazing stuff

1:43:38every year. Like shits Creek. Like I'm way from FX, but shits Creek. An amazing show. The good place, amazing show. Like there's just so much amazing stuff being done by talented artists of all different types nowadays. Some of the best photography is being done now today. Some of the best painting is being done now today. It's like we don't have to say that the stuff from our past didn't exist and didn't influence us and isn't considered like the best of its time and place and we can cherish that forever. But I mean I like to think I am a pretty forward thinking person with entertainment and art and I'm always looking at evolving and not trying to think too much in the past. The style just fine. The style is just fun, but the style just shouldn't influence the direction of true artistic vision and like I mean this I'm getting flashbacks to

1:44:46Kevin and I's wrestling podcasts because we always talked about how nostalgia is the fucking evil of that art form and that entertainment and just trying to bring back old racist fucks all the time to pop a fucking rating. Like it's not the way to do things. Like trust in art, trust in artists and we will get fun, amazing, fantastic stuff. Look at what Jordan Peel has done to the horror industry and it has spawned amazing new horror people who have always been there but he's given them the access of being different and unique and not just rewriting the same fucking three slasher flex over and over and over again. Like we are truly always in the best time for art and entertainment. So one thing sorry total total tangent but I was just reminded of

1:45:49one of my favorite tweets of all time we were talking about baseball was the was this one uh by Matt Tomic and this is from in 2021 though but it's every time I see an angel's highlight it's like Mike Trout hit three home runs and raises average to 528. Well I'll show Hey Otani did something that hasn't been done since tungsten normal oil of the 1921 Akron groomsman as the Tigers defeated the angels eight to three. That's good um if you guys will allow me if you guys will allow me I'll wrap this part of the conversation up and I'll propose this to before I do that we're getting a little bit long here we could all do one more because I know I at least had one more locks and load I know Mike did it we can make it kind of quick or we could just wrap it up it's up to you Mike you're you're the man here but just throwing that out there but um I do want to say the last word on this is that there was a soprano's episode where Tony soprano was talking

1:46:53and Paulie down in Florida and Paulie's talking about all the old times and and Tony says I think something to the effect of like remember when is the lowest form of human conversation and first and foremost I will tell you this I will talk with the two gentlemen here about things that I remember from 20 years ago like the Simpsons like Mitch headberg jokes like all the things that we share culturally that's not the lowest form of human conversation that's something that connects us these are these are webs that connect us and the things that we love but it's important to have that quote in your mind because it won't connect you with everyone and there's and if you get too bogged down in that you miss so much of what's going on around you so it is absolutely fine to enjoy nostalgia and share with the people who share it with you but if you use that to represent everything about yourself if you find yourself going it was better back in the 50s in

1:47:58the US and you ignore all the fucking systemic racism and all the misogyny and all that kind of stuff just because you like the idea of leave it to beaver you're the problem so don't get so bogged on nostalgia that it warps your sense of reality let it be the spice of life that we get to use to connect to ourselves to people who enjoy the kids in the hall and the Simpsons in Mitch headberg I just heard Bruce Prinkstein's glory days being played the entire time you were saying that not not my favorite Frankstein song but I love me some glory anything off one of the US family to enjoy but but again that's also the idea of people thinking that the glory days are the good thing when they're not so yeah was that the end of the rotation there yeah I think yeah I think I think we're through okay so I mean I think I think that we can get through one more each so Kevin you

1:48:59want to run that I mean I feel like you should go first because you haven't but oh look it's me I'm first and then Mike and then Tim okay the thing that I want to talk about that Tim kind of like I said that tied into Tim's thing is James Telleriko we talked about him briefly I think on the last episode this hasn't everything we talked about this in this episode of you know we drink I'm an atheist who loves this man he is a profoundly religious person that I think if I was having a theological debate with him I would disagree with everything he says but agree with the moral reasing around everything that he says no matter what happens I believe that the democratic primary for them is going to happen before this episode comes out but I don't care what happens there

1:50:02if there's one person that I want to vote for to have a significant impact on this government it's James Telleriko not because I agree with every policy that he's talked about but because I agree with his compassion his thoughtfulness and the way he relates to others he's a person who cares deeply about other people who's willing to defend his beliefs willing to call people out but not willing to call them names I'm reminded when I hear James Telleriko speak I'm reminded of John McCain at the debate with Obama where a woman stood up and said he's a Muslim and he's going to do this and blah blah blah and even though he could have used that McCain could have used that to tear Obama down and get votes he said no man he's a good man he's a very good man we just happen to disagree on things that's who James Telleriko reminds me of and I so encourage you

1:51:09to support this person whether you live in Texas or not I so encourage you to follow him because whether or not you might I cannot imagine that you're a makeup person and listen to the podcast I can't imagine it but if there's anyone who's going to bridge that gap if anyone who's going to speak to the faithful but not push their faith down your throats he stood up against the time of commandments being posted in Texas schools because he said what about the Muslim student what about the Sikh student what about the Atheist student this is a righteous compassionate decent man who wants to bring everyone to the table and man do I want that person to eventually he's still very young eventually run for president you know when you you guys I don't remember who actually

1:52:10mentioned his name on the podcast before I was like I was making a okay I had never heard that name for my life I tried to Google and I misspelled the name and I eventually found like that like the next day reading it reading a little bit about I'm like I'm like okay cool and then like who's this Jimmy Tarachi they're talking about I'm I'm bad at trying to figure out how a person's name is spelled just off of a an alcohol induced podcast but I like read a bit a little bit about I'm like okay this guy could be good for Texas politics and and then of course the whole thing with Colbert in him and the network went on and like I just feel like his stock is risen so so high in that that amount of time like I know some people who were not super huge on Beto

1:53:15in in Texas but that guy might have been like a bit of a martyr for a movement going on in Texas like he lost a few elections but he really started getting to the people in Texas and open those people's eyes especially like the Hispanic population of like hey you're not you're not an ignored group of people here like you have a voice and I think that uh Telleriko is is a great continuation of that in that state because like people people have been saying like if Texas ever goes blue like that's all that's all that it needs and like that those people might be there but they're just afraid to to have their voices heard and day by day it seems to be changing and I'm grateful that there are people with good voices who are in that state reaching those

1:54:21people and that it's continuing on. So James Telleriko so again as an ex-van jellicle as someone who has read the Bible multiple times and I don't mean read the by portions of the Bible multiple times like literally sat down and I used to do as a yearly exercise read it cover to cover or read it through a chronological order or read it through other pathways. James Telleriko is the one politician in my entire lifetime that I know has actually read the Bible because he's the only one who is actually speaking with the actual words of Christ and he is the one that I know uh espouses the morals he's the most Christ like and I'm not trying to say he's a savior and I'm not trying to say that but but if Christians are supposed to live admiring and mirroring the life of Christ of Christians are supposed to

1:55:26to follow the example of Christ he is the most Christian most Christ like in that example of any politician I've ever seen in my entire life and to me it's not about rallying the the democrats to me it's not about changing the mind of the republicans but what it is is I know that there are a good percentage of independent voters who have known and I think I think particularly there have been a lot of Christian independent voters that have known that this has been wrong but again culturally they don't want to go against what their church is what their friend what their friend group is what their town is what their whatever is and I think James Telleriko doesn't just give them permission to vote against Trump I think he gives them

1:56:29conviction if vote against Trump he gives them hope like they actually realize holy shit I am doing the right thing like what I've known in my heart of hearts is actually honest and here's someone a a a pastor a bible believing politician someone who has shepherded a flock someone who has studied the words of Christ and and if he's saying these things like like one of the biggest challenges that has happened what happened was when Billy Graham and the religious right got into bed with the republicans and they completely hijacked the republican party you had a great party switch but you also had people confusing political affiliations with religious affiliations and he's giving people some people a permission to stand up that have maybe felt maybe almost

1:57:33ashamed to be progressive and I think that's one of the most amazing things that he's doing and yeah obviously the Colbert thing Colbert once again doing the Colbert bump that he's been doing last 20 years uh but you know he went on Joe Rogan's podcast like two years ago right like like he he's also done the the stuff that Pete Buttigieg has done but he's done it in in I love Pete Buttigieg I love that he goes on to Fox News fearlessly I love the way that he does that with facts and honesty and directness and patience uh I don't want to be president but James Hillary goes someone I think I'll get back uh for president and and I think I think uh I think he has so much of a unifying presence uh that I'm very excited like like Kevin said

1:58:35he speaks to people and he speaks with a he has almost a a Mr. Rogers countenance to him uh it engenders trust it engenders goodwill uh and I think it's enough that it gets people to actually slow down and listen right I loved what you said about the James the the the John McCain uh thing right uh where he's like nope and I you know when that was again he did all that while having Sarah Palin standing right beside him so um not everything's you know some signs yeah some China roses there yeah yeah yeah but but but it still spoke to a time of civility right and as much as I love to see a fiery Ilhan Omar right a fire like fiery AOC right like I love you

1:59:36know we need people to be agitators uh in times like this right like I don't want to discount the role of agitators nope uh but but it's someone who can be a united more than anything is what I get excited about with James Celareko and and I don't like I'm not putting on my eggs one basket with him but I've been excited about about him for a couple of years now so yeah I can be the agitator thing is I is a great callback to Kevin's thing about like not everyone needs to be a protagonist like there are there are supporting characters there's bit characters there are there are roles and people who understand where their roles are like and I know kind of saying that sounds like I'm saying like stay in your lane uh but like but there are people who know what they're what they're good at and and people who understand that at a at an early stage are fantastic

2:00:37because they they're never compromised they they don't like okay this is what I'm good at I I'm like I'm just gonna stay here because I can fucking wreck at this and yeah that's not everyone needs to be like have their high ambitions of being president and like I'm not trying to knock any of the people whose names that you you said in there because there are some in there who I would actually love to see running for president but like people who are good at this rep job of being like like Pete who Tim said before a mayor Pete like I think that he's great as just being up abundant right now and going on these so-called enemy networks and being able to lay out facts and be undeterred like the dude has probably the best patience of anyone I've ever seen in this world and that he can just keep on doing that is is fantastic and uh yeah I I

2:01:43think that more people do need to understand the roles that they have kind of made for themselves and just you know live it and do it I think I've obviously made my point here and we've talked about being an atheist and things that nature but I just want to reiterate iterate these very simple points I'm an atheist I'm a registered independent and this person speaks to me even though they're a religious person and then you know to use the devout democrat if I was 25 instead of 45 I would move to Texas and work on his campaign that's how much I believe in this person I don't know there might be skeletons in the closet I have no idea but if you want to talk about someone who speaks from the heart and treats other people with dignity and doesn't seem on the surface

2:02:45to do it other for any of the reason other than practical civility and decency that's who that person represents to me so who's you didn't say who's after you I think it was Michael I'm first yeah oh okay I'm sorry let me right so I'm gonna listen to Kevin it's fine oh fuck I just oh my god I just hit my funny bone on the back of my chair that hurt is this your last call last call is this conceptual yeah are you looking for a deal so I am I am doing an art piece this this is my oh Alice's restaurant um but no it's I saved this one for last because this is my one that's actually kind of be related so this this year like coming up pretty soon may is my 14th year

2:03:56of working in this industry like basically a decade and a half and I've a port at like besides actually working in this industry I've poured a lot of time into this industry because of the podcast and the first iteration of the podcast and my blog before I was even gainfully in quotes employed in this industry like it feels like all that I know at this point in time it's not and my wife makes it a point to tell me that very often that my job should not define who I am and that's a thing that I feel like I am continually working on in my life is that my job is not who I am but like as much as I do work on that like my my handles are still my

2:05:01love spear my website is still my love spear despite that I what I might not post on that like it is part of who I am and I do still love beer I am trying to find a healthier relationship with beer in the last couple years sometimes feeling like I'm on the right path and sometimes feeling like I'm not but there is a lot of people there is there are a lot of people doing fantastic things in this beer industry that I love and I respect and I I love you for it I love you for loving the craft of beer I love you for thinking of this as yes as a business because you got to think of a business as a business because that's if you don't you close but I like I love the the people who have been able to find a way to stay open while also expressing an art form in the beverage

2:06:10that you make in the art that you make on whether it be labels or merchandise or just the way that you express yourselves as a collective I said on one of these episodes before about the Minnesota brewing scene and and how much their voices over the last couple months have been inspiring to me and I love seeing small businesses speaking and saying things that people feel because you know if we're going to be told that businesses are people then they should have opinions and I love when a business gets to have an opinion and speak for their their employees for their people for their communities and I it's a thing that continually draws me to this industry while at the same time this industry feels like it is killing me and I'm not even speaking from the alcohol perspective

2:07:15it's just whether it be pay whether it be safety whether it be so many things that we have gone on about on this this podcast before as specialized episodes are just speaking out of hand like I love this industry so much I love beer so much I love the artists the creators the people who are involved in making amazing things but it just sucks sometimes to think that this industry doesn't love you back and like I really didn't know where I was ultimately heading with this but this is just something that I have struggled with for years I would say and I've probably said this on this show but man to all of you people out there making a living or even those of you who are

2:08:16struggling to make a living by making fantastic beer making fantastic art making fantastic spots for your communities to come into and be who they are I love you and I will try to support you to the best that I can I I only have so much money obviously I work in beer um so like send get with me like I want to I want to see what you're doing I like I need a little pick me up in this industry and I want to see people who are doing cool interesting things like I I know stuff is going on out there and I love it um when I do I I had a great boost in and what I do recently when we had like a beer poking event at our brewery and in fucking South Florida and

2:09:17had just great weather to be able to do something like that and people showed up and we're like what you're going to put a hot thing into my beer I'm for it uh like it was it was awesome so like if you're doing cool community oriented stuff uh where you're at shoot me shoot me a DM at my gloves beer on Instagram or info at a unitedwe drink.com and let me know because I want to follow you uh like if if if my following my likes uh it can help you that's that's the best I can do sometimes if I'm in your area I will come and give you money whenever I can um but I love this industry I want to see this industry survive like I I don't want to see us all be like fucking millionaires and whatnot like people got to understand like there's just not going to be that and people who can understand that and be regional or be local and make money and keep their doors open

2:10:22awesome like that's that's what I want I like I want there to be neighborhood brew pubs and neighborhood breweries and places of art and and just good times in your neighborhood so yeah it's just all about like this industry I I love you you hate me sometimes but you also love me it's just expressing how I'm always back and forth with you but yeah send me your love in this industry and show me what cool stuff you're doing so I want to I want to call out a couple things one you said your website is Mike loves beer but I also want to point out micereverge.com is also is also your website uh uh but the thing that both Mike loves beer and micereverge.com are missing is that neither of them have up to date on the amount of wildlife photography that Mike is doing and very secretly he has become a very good wildlife photographer

2:11:27and is hunt to get the right bird pictures he's just become generally uh a really good again for a guy who who didn't come up like I always have an academic bias for like anything right like expertise comes through schooling type of thing that's not how Mike has developed his skill set over the years he's done it a lot through more experience and individualized learning of those types of things but what Mike is doing from a tireless standpoint again I need to get him up here so we can get a real bold eagle picture and I don't have to see 17 more owl pictures today but what he has become is actually just a fucking kick ass wildlife photographer he's not calling himself that uh I'm calling I'm calling himself that though so if you go to Michael's beer on Instagram please that's where the most up to date uh uh work of his is so please check out michael's beer on instagram go to micereverge.com if he can't figure out how to spell

2:12:30I'll tell Arrico, good luck, Spillin, Mike Yarevich. Um, um, um, um, uh, but, yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, you know, there's a former, uh, New York Yankees pitcher with the same name as me, uh, Mike Yarevich was a pitcher for the Yankees and I think like the 70s or something like that. That's funny. But thank you, Tim. I absolutely do not consider myself a wildlife photographer, despite I love birds so, so, so much. And that is probably more than half of my, my, my photos. Go get your own Instagram page right now. I want you to go to your own Instagram account and look through what else I love birds. I absolutely do. And like it's, I don't consider myself it because like I know I don't have, I don't have the chops that a lot of them do and I don't have the patience that a lot of them do.

2:13:35Um, but I like, I, I have an art form that I look to try to make and birds are very heavily involved in that. So like they're, they're a good subject for me. Like I just, they can get across my dark art very easily. So like, so your real bird photographers fucking hate me. Like they think that I'm way too highly edited and whatnot. And that's fine. Like I, I'm not, I'm not everyone's fucking wildlife photographer. I'm not. I hate him because of this one cool trick. It's not even a cool, it's just what I'm, it's what I want. Like, I was going to, I was going to, I was going to support my bird photographers since 2024. That I should, I should make it that would be a cool bumper sticker, um, put it on my car. Uh, there's the, the Audubon society, the big bird, uh, uh, uh, proponents, like they

2:14:43have the photography, uh, thing every year. And I was like, okay, this year I'm going to submit some photos. And then when I was actually reading the rules, I'm like, I'd be disqualified like because they, they want stuff that's not edited. And I'm like, okay, I can admit that like sometimes, like, sometimes I take good photos straight out of the camera, but that's not what I'm trying to do. I want to make something look different and I want to make something look even someone to say a natural because it's just more intriguing to me, like, I'm, I'm not saying that those birds shots that people take that are a national geographic or anything are bad. They're not, they're fantastic. But, uh, I just want to make something different and that's why I love breweries who makes fucking stuff that's different is because I am. Side note, when I was a kid, I really confused the auto-bond society with the auto-bond in

2:15:44Germany. I remember, I remember being like eight years old and hearing both, like I'd never seen auto-bond written out, but I remember like getting a national geographic and in the library at my grade school and it's an auto-bond society. And I totally thought I was going to be about German cars. There's also a suburban Philadelphia town named auto-bond and there is also a town in New Jersey named auto-bond. So it's just like, there's all, like, why is that term so popular with everything, with birds, roads and towns? Bird, roads and towns, that's a great name for myself. That's my new album. Let's say it is my fifth favorite Spring Seen album. I'll say one thing before we go on to Tim's final last call, which is going to close us out, is that even through this episode where I have kind of preached the idea of being

2:16:53less cynical, I think I've made like two or three statements that are extremely cynical because it's so easy to do. And I love that what you were just talking about, Mike, is to kind of take some of the cynicism out of it and just show an appreciation for something that you love, photography and the brewing industry and just kind of express a love and a joy for it. I don't think we do that enough in general. I think we forget that every day. You mentioned how long you've been in this industry. I just did some math. I've been in the industry now for 18 years, professionally. And I am cynical most of the time. And when you talk about it and also just randomly throughout my day, I feel good about it myself. But it's easy to go down that path. It's easy to go down the path of being the protagonist in the entire world story. It's harder to take a step back and appreciate things. So thank you for doing that. Well, that actually segues really nice into what was going to be my last pivoted on my

2:18:00list to what was going to be my last last call anyway. So I was happy to end with this. The last this call. The last this call is Kevin. You'd mentioned earlier going to a beer fest and people actually bring up your night drink to you that you didn't expect. And I think my my last last call here. We joke a lot about having like six listeners and I joke all the time about, you know, it being Eric Hild and Kevin's dad and maybe Phil every third episode and Maddie smooth when he's not when he doesn't have anything better to listen to. The reality is is I know there are a lot more listeners out there. And my last call is thank you. My favorite thing about this is is every other week I get to hop on a call and hang out

2:19:04with two friends. And it's fun because it's like the adult version of a play date to me in that we literally I just know right single guy share a custody from my daughter with her mom. But that also means that, you know, there are several times where, you know, I've gotten very accustomed to whatever my own life looks like. But it also means that they're I know that I have this this time where I get to spend time just hanging out talking with my friends. But the fact that you all listeners are actually a part of that with us makes that even more meaningful to me that it's not just, you know, one of those co-fed era Zoom calls that it's literally we're doing this with thought with purpose and I know maybe it doesn't always sound like that or we seem like that.

2:20:06But we do care about this and we do invest time. And I can invest a lot of time editing all these things as well. So I am personally grateful to you guys and I know that I speak for Mike and Kevin when I say that I'm personally grateful to you guys are listeners for being a part of every other Thursday when these episodes drop and knowing that that people are listening and then being oh, I'm still always pleasantly surprised when I find out other people are actually listening to it or make a comment or are engaged in some way, shape or form. But man, it's been a weird year and beer and it's been weird and not like it's not been a topic-rich environment for the last year, also to say the least. So I just want to say thank you, that's kind of my big last call.

2:21:12If there's a sentiment, I could echo more, it would be that, I mean that's fantastic to him. Thank you for doing that for all three of us. That's wonderful. It might sound like somewhat selfish, but something of I that I kind of got out of what Tim was saying that I will project as myself and assume that he means the same thing and he can tell me to fuck off afterwards if that's not is when people say I wouldn't do this without you listeners, I would still do this without you listeners. As I enjoy having a time every other week that I get to talk with Kevin and Tim loosely about the beverage industry, but also about our lives.

2:22:12It's awesome that there are people who listen to this and think that that is entertaining. I listened to so many podcasts that have great stories about things and I get to learn stuff, but when I see that there are podcasts of people just talking about their lives, there's accounts on Instagram, TikTok, wherever, that are just vlogs, video blogs about people's lives, that people listen to and care about, and the fact that like I kind of think like, oh, sometimes I feel like our podcast is like that. Yeah, we talk about beers sometimes or most of the time even, but there's a lot of times where we're talking about our kids and adulting and parenting and just trying to get through this weird fucking world that we live in and that even a double digit amount, triple digit

2:23:16amount of people like come and listen to that is insane and I'm grateful for it. But man, I just love being able to get together with you guys and talk, like if it was single digit amount of people listening to it, as long as it wasn't a financial burden to anyone on the show, I'd be like, let's just do this for a fucking effort. Yeah, man, and also I don't know if our listeners that are abroad are just VPNs, I'm going to pretend like they're not VPNs, so the people who are accidentally listening to us in a completely different language and a completely different continent, thank you as well. Yeah, I'm going to assume VPN, but like, hey, if you listen to us from a country where we are not your primary language, let me know. I would fucking love to hear from you. It's just because I see the stats and I know that there's international listeners.

2:24:21So it's someone who just tried to search your evidence and Spotify and came across this. Like, I'm looking at just the stats from like, you know, I'm looking at just the stats from like our last episode. And like, at the time that we're recording this, it's still like only a week old, but we have, we have people from Spain, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany listening to us where English is not their primary language. Maybe like, they do speak it, but like, hey, like, is this your second language and you listen to us? Well, I want to hear from you. Like, let me hear your story. Maybe this is an episode is to like hear from people who are into beer and English isn't your first language. I would, I want to like, try to understand this a bit more because that's mind boggling to me that

2:25:24anyone would want to listen to these fucking three dickheads say anything. So we drink studies abroad. Yeah. You know, we drink asked the quote, the most pertinent question of all, why the hell do you listen to us? Individuals on the show and they go, well, because you guys are great. And we're like, oh, that's like, that's salvagrandizing and feels very uncomfortable, but please say more because I like listening to three monkeys shatter. So we were not going to have last calls to our last calls, obviously, for this particular episode. I mean, I don't have one planned. What was it about to do? We have run long as is. Does anyone want to plug anything before we shove off here? Uh, again, Mike Lowes beer on Instagram. Go check out his work. I think it's great stuff.

2:26:27Kevin, you guys have an anniversary coming up, right? Oh, I think he just unplugged his microphone and or headphones. Uh, so Kevin, are you back? No, he's, oh, he'll be back right now. So anyway, I said it. I wrecked him. Damn, you're killed him. I have no idea. We just happened over the last few seconds, but my computer just threatened to shut down because I had no power to it. So I was scrambling to make sure that I could be here for the last seconds of the show. I'm good. Uh, do you want to plug your anniversary party at your brewery? No, what the fuck's going to go to that? That's just ridiculous. 11 years, no one cares. 11 years of barely long. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, no underbellgem apparently. If you, if you're coming in from Finland or Belgium, please come to the barrel amongst anniversary party, which I don't even know when the date is.

2:27:27I think it's like in two weeks. It's what is it? It's not important. Guys, come on. Who cares about all this cares about the 14th, 14th of March. The hides of March. I believe they say this, this episode will be out before then. So yeah, go there. That one goes to 11. It goes to 11 and we'll have beer and good times. Thank you, everyone. Who continues to come back to the show? Hopefully this was entertaining to you. I had a fuck load of fun. I don't know if fuck load is the right, right, like metric unit. You guys more than a period. It's more of an imperial unit, but I did, I did have a fuck ton of fun as well. You know, the, yeah, the imperial

2:28:34pint of, of fucked on and fuck load. No, this is good. This is something I've been asking for for a while. And this is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It happened. I know. 2026 will be the year that we make things happen. And let's, let's get a thumbs up, thumbs down from the audience. Was this Tim Johnson's best idea of all time or not? I'm voting for best idea. I enjoyed this incredibly. And I think many people will. But you know, let's hear. I feel like I just turned into a make a wish kid with this. I mean, let's, let's be honest. I mean, how many ideas has he thrown out? So like, this will be his best for sure. To be fair. Yeah. Yeah. When you have one of one, I think that's both best and worse. So a thousand. This is just, we have a batting champion right here on the show. Everything goes back to baseball here. By the way, it happens

2:29:36is tungsten thermo oil. Did it? I'm just giving you guys a preview. Next, next week is oops. Oh, what are we drinking? It's the one you've all been asking for. Here we go. I'm on all of the socials by things at our website. Just so you know, I'm drinking a lost coast IPA right now. Oh, it's been, it's been a while. Cheers, everyone. Cheers. Cheers.