Muse

Beer me!

What's that? Hand me that water. I always say beer me. Gets a laugh like a quarter of the time. Check out this sunshine, man. Global warming, right? Today was supposed to be really cold, I bet. What about music? Do you have any music? Uh, yeah. I should have said so.

Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul. I wanna get lost and you're rock and roll and drift away, hey. I'm thinking more like a CD or a CD.

Your call, dude. TBTL.

Let's have a breakfast.

maybe we'll go crazy and we'll get a whole spread muffins breakfast breads etc anytime you can do something that's fun you like to do and make money doing it hey it's a win-win-win and anytime you win-win-win you're win-win-win and you know if you're just winning or win-win and that's that's just winning or win winning but when you're win-win-win you're win-win-win and right on you

midnight cowboy that's not a thing all right hello good morning and welcome everyone to a wednesday edition of tbtl the show that just might be too beautiful to live gotta do it again right now coming to you from the madrona hill studio perched high above the mighty columbia my name's

luke burbank i am your host i gotta figure out how to make money on this thing it's simply too

And it's just an absolutely beautiful day. My goodness.

California got sunshine.

It's going to be actually maybe a little overly warm here, although nothing compared to what folks are dealing with in other parts of the country. Hope you're doing all right if you happen to be under that heat dome. Hope you're able to stay somewhere cool and are doing all right. We're doing great here. We're doing well. Excuse me. We're doing well here on this Wednesday episode of the show, mostly because I've now got the numbering back on track. I somehow, as I often do, got a little confused as to what show we were on and was giving the wrong number, but now I'm giving you the right number. It's episode 4,231 in a collector's series. Let the fun begin. What are the minimum requirements for being a guardian angel?

angel. A cat is an angel that poops in a box. I don't mean one of the

vigilantes in New York City led by Curtis Sliwa. I mean like a person, if you're doing something bad but then it does something good for someone are you still considered a guardian angel? We will ask that question today based on a recent story in the Seattle Times. Also I made an online joke that I thought was a pretty good spoof. That's a pretty good spoof. Thought I would tell my friend Andrew about it and then see his reaction. And as As we know with Andrew, he loves it when there is a certain proscribed, and now I know how to use that word, so look out. He loves it when there is a response that someone is expecting from him. That's one of the things that puts the least amount of pressure on him, so this should go well. Speaking of my good friend Andrew, longest-running co-bro of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ship, he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend. Good morning, Luke.

I was just blasting away some emails while you were doing your intro there. I pride myself on having a very tidy inbox, my inbox. Boy, are we different in that, my friend. As I mentioned, my inbox is my to-do list in a certain way. So, you know, during, I don't know, I was going to say good times, but maybe I shouldn't put a judgment on it. During times of less busyness, there might just be a few emails in there, and I feel like I'm really on top of things right now with the thon coming up, and I got some personal travels coming up, and I have various pet things I need to take. You said some personal tragedies. I got a personal, well, my personal travels may become personal tragedies.

Dark, disturbing secrets I'd rather keep under wraps.

I just have a million things in here right now that are all kind of marked as unread, and it's kind of given me a bad feeling, and I was trying to figure out, Well, which of these can I just blast away here? And one of them I'm just remembering. This is something that you and I talked about off air for a while there. But I need to remind myself when this is happening. But I'm about to become a professor. Do you remember that? That I'm going to be addressing our friend's university class? And is that happening before the THON? And do I need to go out and get one of those, what do you call that? Graduate hats?

No, you need to go get a tweed. some kind of tweed jacket with the...

Like elbow patches.

Yes, that is. A hundred percent. Oh, okay. It is next Thursday. So we are a week. Oh, shoot. So it is before the thon. Countdown to Professor Andrew times.

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

That's pretty good. It sounded better with the TBT. I almost lost the TBTL theme behind you. It was harmonizing with Ben Lee. But I actually kind of liked it better that way. Yeah. So I guess I'm supposed to go talk about storytelling, Luke. Do you think Steve, who invited me to talk to his class, ever listened to TVTL? Because I think that if he did, he would not have me on to talk about storytelling.

I think as much grief as you give yourself about hot dog stories and the like, I do think you're a good storyteller. And I think you have a lot to offer the University of Washington undergrad.

I forced you to say that by insulting myself. I forced you to compliment, which I guess is a good setup.

Which is a master storytelling technique.

Yes, exactly. And exactly what I'm not going to do when you tell me something funny that you posted online.

Do you know what, just quickly before we get to the comedy, do you know what the actual kind of structure of the afternoon or the morning or the whatever is going to be there? It's our friend Steve Scherr, by the way. Yeah. Radio pro in Seattle and friend of the show, TBTL guest at times and dear friend of mine personally. There's nothing I like more than whiling away an afternoon at the Wedgwood Broiler with my friend Steve Scher. But anyway, that he's teaching at the UW and you're going to go help out with this class. But is he going to interview you? Are you going to do you have to put a presentation together?

How is this going to work? I better not have to do that because I'm not planning on doing that. It was it was a interesting invitation. He sent me a text message asking if I'd come talk to his class about storytelling. And I said, I said, you know what, Steve, I have to clear my throat.

Yeah. And he's which is more beautiful. I didn't know my singing of the graduation song or my singing of the horns from Let Me Clear My Throat.

When I muted myself for a moment there to clear my throat and then you started making that sound, Luke, I did not know what it was. I thought you were playing a drop of me making a weird sound on the show at some point. Because I looked up at the screen and you weren't hardly moving your mouth at all. And I was like, what am I? Well, that's how you get that sound. What am I? so anyway he said hey will you come talk to my storytelling but we tried to do that at the

beginning of your session with the students trying to walk in because it turns out you don't have a

cough button there oh the clearing of my throat i thought you meant don't make the sound that you were making and i was going to disagree with that i think i would also say don't make the sound i

was ah that's why i am not invited to talk i think you should come to the class and maybe take some

notes because my plan is is to to learn how to make that noise that you're making let me clear my throat and then to make that noise myself and then dance to it as I enter the room and I'm picturing myself boogieing in backwards almost to that yeah what an entrance coming in backwards the door like that and then spinning around I don't know if I'm doing finger guns or not you got to be

careful like the time I was at a comedy night in South Tacoma at Copperfields at the Best Western and I was of a packed ballroom I was on a very short list of white people and decided to enter the stage doing the running man oh right to ingratiate myself with the crowd and insanely it worked andrew i don't think the running man part worked but the comedy set went over so much better than i expected the energy you came out with energy and that's good that's where you have that guy was a novelty act there that night you have the tape of that guy introducing you that you play sometimes right i do that's exactly mr mookie mr mookie introducing me at the uh mr mookie's comedy night down there uh that was uh yeah that was a that was a real adventure but i would i would say that's a that that can go either way so just be really careful with how you enter this classroom point being or to get back to my question i guess um so do you know anything about what you're well yeah other than just be there and be ready to talk about

storytelling well that's what i i mean i i'm gonna follow up with steve again but i he texted me he's like hey i'm reaching out to several people to talk at my storytelling class you know you're a podcaster you're perfect for this you know will you do this and i wrote back i'm not sure that i'm perfect for this i don't i don't consider myself a storyteller and that's not really what is i'm not let's just talk on the phone about this steve and make sure that i'm that this is a good fit i want to help you out but i also want to make sure that it's the right fit he said uh he ignored the invitation to talk on the phone about this he just wrote you are perfect for this what are you talking about here are some dates that are available and so that's about all i know right now i got the impression that steve did not want to take no for an answer because he has time to fill

and he needs me to fill some wow you both denigrated yourself and steve class my friend that's hard to do i'm taking i'm taking you down too just wait we're just getting started here so no i don't know but i mean i i think i made clear to him at one point and if not i need to make it very clear that i i i'm not gonna be able to prepare statements and i'm certainly not learning how to make there will be no prepared remarks and i'm not learning how to make a slideshow uh the fact that i call it a slideshow means i'm not ready to use um what is that god you know everybody makes decks i don't make that powerpoint i don't know how to do that stuff and we have too much stuff coming up in tbtl land to learn that so i believe steve at one point said something like it'll be a conversation between us i'm like okay i can handle that if steve and i

are going to be in conversation that's what we love to say now that's the classy classy way in

conversation with steve share inside the idiots studio with andrew walsh is here's what i would

like you to do honestly this would be a huge flex you come in stand in front of the class you go hello uh my name is andrew walsh that brings to an end my prepared statement i'll open the floor for questions you moonwalk right out of the room never to be seen again and you know what andrew every one of those students they'll have a story to tell the seattle times will dub me a guardian angel for all of them and they'll finally let you they'll finally start posting your rants and raves that would be if you wanted to get super serious about this i mean not super serious but super i don't know out if you wanted to get real dead poet society on this you do something ridiculous so that you've provoked them into having a story to tell their dorm mates when they go back and that's the lesson that's the you know what i mean yeah now i've got your attention now we have to win them back what is that from that that some drop that's yeah i play that that's

from mr show i believe they're like business consultants who come right now we have to win

you back like with you back if you just do something really ridiculous and then you pop out of you like you're gonna tell everybody about this aren't you well let's start let's start workshopping that story like you could get real you could get real uh unconventional or you could just uh just show up and then answer questions that steve asks you that's also i could but no

i like your idea number two i think with the stories that i need to like create in this classroom i need to somehow pit the classroom against each of like the people in the classroom against each other like a lord of the stanford prison experiment yes yes a combination of those exactly and then at the very end as at this point people are just probably kane hall prison experiment is actually Cain Hall where I'm going

I doubt it's in Cain because Cain is a huge

classroom I don't know he said the communications building but I don't know campus

I know it and I love it I visited it recently

really seems like you should be doing this but alright but yeah no I'm going to somehow turn the class against each other and then like near the end of the hour you know there's going to be like some people like literally fist fighting in the background there's going to be people like broken down in tears like everybody's going to be just destroyed emotionally in some way after i've somehow turned this classroom on its head and then at the end i'm just gonna say see now you have a story to tell and that's how you close it out andrew and then i walk out of

the room they were like it was actually pretty useful we think the guy had a stroke at the end of the event if you need a smoker of a joke that's journalism related Andrew and you need to whiz it at him feel free to borrow this from me this is something that I recently posted on the line I'm going to mute my mic so you can't hear my reaction I already know that you're just going to go huh okay that's like that's how you respond to these things but I am proud

wow that was can I hear your imitation of me again I've never heard that interesting I've heard your Clinton I didn't realize That's what I sound like.

That's right. Oh, okay. I don't even know who that was. That was not you, nor was it Mr. Clinton. I saw this somehow. Somehow this, like, on my phone, I get, it's pretty, it's interesting, actually, because Apple, I think, it thinks that I am of fairly low intelligence. They might not be wrong, but there's somehow a feature on my iPhone. I don't know if there's a version of this on your phone, Andrew, although I don't get the sense that you have a you have an is it a Google phone or a Samsung? I have a Samsung. I don't know if Samsung is trying to really be in the content business in the same way that Apple, I think, wants to be in the content business. But there's like some built in function on my phone because it's an iPhone where if I scroll kind of the wrong way, I end up in this Apple news feed. Right. But what they've done is taken all these articles that I can easily access through the. internet and they've put them behind a paywall which is kind of weird they're sort of pushing you towards it but then you're hitting a paywall yeah i can see the beginning of the story but then it's behind a paywall that i need to like it's like called like apple news spotlight or something and i think what they're trying to sell me is their curatorial skills great like like here's a uh thanks yeah what does he say i understand i understand apple spotlight i think they're trying to sell me that they're like if you subscribe to this you're gonna get the apple spotlight every day you're gonna get all this news that we've found for you that's gonna be interesting and i'm like yeah i already do that most days for myself so for instance like there's a people magazine article that i don't personally cruise people magazine a lot but i'll see it in this apple news spotlight but then i can't actually read it so if i do want to read it if it does pique my interest i then have to actually go to the real article which by the way is not behind a paywall so that's why i say they think i'm pretty dumb because it's like why am i paying you why would i go behind a paywall to get these articles that are not behind a paywall in their

original state and when everybody is curating everything i mean you go to i mean depending on what you want but like i told you i don't use the microsoft browser all that much on my computer but on the occasion that I need it for a specific task, I open it up and it's like opens up to the MSN website where there's a million clickbait you know what I mean, if I just want like a quick like, you know, bump of the current culture, like just a straight shot of it, just a key of it, I can just like open it up and like I could even like just see it, in other words like and then of course there's a million free you know, emails you can sign up for that'll like, you know, bring you articles that are more dialed into what you're looking for like we just aren't we aren't there are not a dearth of these things why would

we stop paying for that why would i pay for apple to algorithm my news you know when i've already got plenty of things algorithm i mean the algorithm is going to get you andrew yeah i love that song oh that's actually um so anyway i that's how i saw this headline from a people magazine article that i just i thought even in even in in this fractured media landscape andrew this is a remarkably remarkably bunk piece of journalism or at least an amazingly low bar for what we think of as a quote-unquote exclusive here's the headline from people magazine this is a full-on article too kevin costner says there was one non-negotiable flavor he wanted in his new green mountain coffee blend parenthetically exclusive the yellowstone actor spoke with people magazine about how he came up with his newest coffee blend with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. There's two reporters on this piece, Andrew. There's Antonia DiBianchi and Elizabeth Leonard. There was two people working on this exclusive. Kevin Costner says there was one non-negotiable flavor he wanted in his new Green Mountain Coffee Blend.

This is interesting. So it's actually an actual... At first, I thought he was going to have a collection of coffees and one of them was going to be a flavored coffee, like vanilla that he needed. But no, it's like notes. He needed notes.

It's a note, and it was a non-negotiable, non-negotiable flavor that he wanted in his new Green Mountain coffee blend, parenthetically, exclusive. Okay. And I reposted this, and I wrote, democracy dies in dark roast. Mmm.

That's the joke.

I think that's a pretty good joke.

It's a pretty, yeah, it's a pretty good joke. It's a decent joke. It's a pretty good joke. I mean, listen, I'm just being honest here, and we've already talked about, you know, me not being able to respond to things like if I'm scrolling through the Internet and I see that, I'm like, oh, that's a pretty good joke. But I mean, I've seen on the show sheet for about two hours now, two and a half hours. Like, there is a long ramp up to me hearing that joke. So my apologies.

You know, a lot of spoof colon. Luke thinks he made a decent joke online. I feel like that is expectation management. It's fine. No, certainly. That's what I wrote on the show sheet. Pretty good spoof, colon. Luke thinks he made a decent joke online.

I just mean that, like, in my defense for not giving you maybe more of a hearty chuckle, it's just been like, I've known for several hours now that we're building up to a joke that I'm going to react to. Yeah, no, but that's pretty good.

Now, here's the amazing thing, Andrew. I never actually went to the article to find out what the non-negotiable flavor was. That's what I want to know, yeah. Now I'm at, will you do me a favor, Andrew? Will you Google this same thing? Okay. I just Googled, like, Kevin Costner, Green Mountain, People Magazine, and will you please click on the article and scroll to the photo of Kevin Costner holding this coffee cup and tell me it does not look like something right out of the onion.

I'm looking at the thumbnail of it. That is so good. Him posing with the coffee cup, but he's holding the mug. It looks like something from the onion. He's holding the mug perfectly, uncomfortably, but he's holding it, like, sort of perfectly so that we can all see the green. show the logo of this company that is amazing oh you know what he's this is a promotion i usually am very careful about not using photos that we're not supposed to use you know what i mean like oh

they would love us to use this photo even if we're roasting it so to speak so to speak okay now that's

that's a joke my friend given that this is a promotional photo and not like a new york times photographer or somebody who took it i will um use this as a show pick if that's okay with you i think people need to see this but what what is the note what is the inquiring minds want to know

andrew let's do this though kevin costner was a coffee convert later in life he is serious about his daily cup of joe now i don't like that word now there we could just say daily cup of joe yeah i feel like now is really hanging off the end of that sentence and we're already running out of

words for coffee like the fact that we're already going to cup of joe this early on is how soon is java gonna rear its ugly head it's giving me a head it's giving me a headache already knowing

that java the yellowstone actor age 69 tells people exclusively about his newest coffee blend with green mountain coffee roasters mountainside mocha latte here's really what i here's the conversation i would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for and this seems like a good time by the way andrew for me to welcome a new tbtl listener ryan to the fold hey ryan we heard from your dad yeah that you have started listening much to the consternation of your mother um because now there are two of you and what i would say is based on what your family demographics are if you flip one of your siblings over to being a tbtl listener you will have a voting majority in the family the tbtl voting block will have a majority in the family and can basically run things so think about it think about it get you know get get one of the

other kids on board i mean that in the congressional whips i know you know i i've considered going

there but listen ryan comes from pretty smart if there's a right i don't know exactly how old ryan is if there's a kid of ryan's age who understands whipping in the congressional sense it's this ryan

exactly thank you for thank you for covering me there because i slipped that in there and then the show is just going to move on and people are going to be like why did andrew say that really

weird thing while talking to a child on a podcast um this honestly the the conversation i would love to have been a fly on the wall for would be the green mountain coffee roasters pr team reaching out to people magazine and dangling this exclusive um so hey here's what we've got we've got uh we've got an exclusive for you know kevin costner's been doing press all over talking about yellowstone and talking about his new movie he made and talking about his partnership with green mountain coffee but what he has yet to reveal was his one non-negotiable flavor and we are willing to give people the exclusive on that if you are willing to run a photo of him awkwardly holding a enamel coffee cup that has a green mountain coffee roast this can only be

better if he was holding two coffee cups donaghy style donaghy style exactly and i don't always drink oh go ahead i just like i love the so it's a mocha latte the one the one flavor that it was non-negotiable was chocolate is that what we're well we're gonna find andrew hey and sorry sorry spoiler alert okay we're getting there well we already know that it's mocha latte so i think

right but that might not be the we don't know yet he hasn't revealed the non-negoti i'm the storyteller here uh mountainside mocha latte i don't i don't always drink my coffee black i like chocolate in it so i wanted to just advance it to something i like because i really like having one in the morning he tells people of his new flavor which is his second with the brand Costner says he was quote never much of a coffee drinker until about 15 years ago I just started really making it a part of my morning he says and then it came about that this was an opportunity I said well I'd like to make my own kind of drink so that's how it came about that is not how it came about that is such a lie that is a company that that you don't think this organically Kevin costner at age 53 was just in his kitchen going i'd love to start drinking more coffee and then this just naturally occurred you don't think this is some sort of a branding deal between green

mountain coffee no it was definitely his idea he said you know what i'm going to start drinking coffee as an adult and then in order to make it a more seamless experience for me i'm gonna i need to create my own coffee lines who can who can help me make this uh half lifelong dream come true I'm going to reach out to those people at Green Mountain.

Launching June 17th, the Mountainside Mocha Latte contains dark chocolate notes that evoke the spirit of the American West. The K-Cups provide a cup teeming with flavor.

Hold on. Don't move too quickly here, Luke. Hold on. You know the classic scene of all the American West cowboys sitting around a fire drinking hot chocolate and drinking mocha lattes?

Hey, Lefty, what do you reckon you got in that cup? Well, Poncho, I got me a teeming cup of mountain mocha side latte. And then they go, and then it hits a spittoon. Exactly.

It sounds like a bullet. Wow.

The K-Cups provide a teeming, a cup teeming with flavor, which is all Costner needs in the morning. he only drinks one big tall cup of coffee per day he says mountainside mocha latte is sold exclusively on keurig.com for 11.50 for a 10 count don't call it the keurig of coffee andrew while he admits he wasn't too controlling over the name and marketing of the brews really i'm shocked uh you this wasn't this wasn't one of those things where kevin costner rolled up his sleeve and really got into the details. He was really hands-on throughout the process. We were going to call it Valley Mocha Latte. And he was like, no, I think there's something better. And they were like, what about Tall Hill Mocha Latte? He's like, almost there. And they were like, what about Mountain Mocha Latte? He's like, did it.

We did it. We're there. And he says, see, there's a lesson in that. You have to work a little bit harder and you achieve your goals. Exactly. Fail fast.

While he admits he wasn't too controlling over the name and marketing of the brew, he was particular about the taste. I said, I want some chocolate in this thing. I said, quote, I'm going to decide how much, he recalls.

That's the headline. It's chocolate, Luke. It was chocolate the whole time.

The call was coming from inside the chocolate.

I love the headline. Okay, so here's his quote. I'm going to highlight that on my screen. I'm going to go back up to the headline. The headline is longer than the payoff. The headline, to remind listeners, is Kevin Costner says there was one non-negotiable flavor he wanted in his new Green Mountain coffee blend exclusive. The actual payoff for that headline is, I want some chocolate in this thing.

And I'm going to decide how much, he recalls.

Only two reporters on this?

See, I knew you would think this was a funny joke.

Only two reporters on this? How did they capture the nuance?

Well, Andrew, as you'll find out, they had a Santa Barbara and a Colorado-based reporter. Oh, sure, okay. Because, to continue, the Green Mountain team came to me three to four different times in different places. That's the way I knew they were sincere. They came to Colorado two times. They came to Santa Barbara. They came out to St. George, and I was real serious that I had to like it, says Costner, referencing St. George, Utah, where he shoots the Horizon franchise. So they've been really good partners. While he's not, quote, addicted to the stuff, Costner says drinking coffee is his special morning, quote, habit. Not to be confused with a, quote, ritual. I don't even, I have no idea what's happening in this article right now, Andrew. Kevin Costner wanted to clarify that it is a habit but not a ritual.

I think that they're going to expand on that here in the next graph. Oh, okay. Oh, I see. Are you reading ahead now? I'm now reading ahead. Yes, I'm with you.

I don't have any ritual. In fact, I'm begging people for five more minutes. Leave me alone, he quips. I have no ritual. I wish I was more disciplined that way.

So this is what happened. The reporters, the quote unquote reporters on this are just like they're talking to him. They probably have very little time, right? They're trying to write this up. But they're going to try to work in as many promotions for his acting and directing gigs as possible. Because that's probably part of the arrangement with Green Mountain, who gave them the exclusive or whatever. But he's just not giving them much. So they're trying to kind of make some hay out of this. Somebody says to him, oh, so is like coffee part of your morning ritual? And then the one quote they can get from him is, I don't have any rituals. I'm begging people for five more minutes. Leave me alone.

Costner joked. I actually have some real questions as to if Antonia DiBianchi and Elizabeth Leonard actually spoke to Kevin Costner. That's a good point. It could very well have been the case that somebody from Green Mountain interviewed him and then provided a transcript of the interview to People Magazine so that they then had these exclusive quotes from Kevin Costner, but that the, because like, I mean, the way this is constructed, if this is not SpawnCon, as in sponsored content, I mean it doesn't appear to be in that it doesn't say, and I don't know if People Magazine is a paragon of journalistic transparency there are no Washington Post hiring people who from England who have very questionable journalistic backgrounds themselves to run the joint, but it doesn't say any

This is sponsored content So I guess we're going to believe That this is technically journalism But it also feels Like what this feels like is I've done through my CBS job Some interviews with I don't think anyone as famous as Kevin Costner But some relatively famous people And what's interesting is And it really varies depending on The person and also the project And also the PR handler But there is There's a dream scenario For the people doing PR for a brand like Green Mountain Coffee where the Journalists doing the interview literally Just reprint everything they would like you to say I always find it my job When doing this kind of stuff with CBS is to Reprint none of the stuff they're asking me to say Because if I do that then I'm doing the Commercial for them like I will use The premiere of the Thing that they're promoting as A reason that like we'd had Juliette Lewis On the show because she was promoting Yellow Jackets like season two But the whole interview isn't about Yellow Jackets And we never say, premiering at 9pm on Showtime or whatever You know what I mean? Like, I always see it as a game to include the least amount of promotion for the thing And the most amount of, like, finding out about the person if possible This is, if you are the PR person for Green Mountain This is an absolute dream Or if you're Kevin Costner's personal PR person Because all this is, is a bunch of mentions of his projects I mean, if I were to keep reading in the article It just is a it's a litany of the things he's working on and where you, the consumer, can find them. And it makes me wonder if they like if they, you know, actually just dictated this directly to People magazine.

Yes, I wonder that, too. But I actually like what you are saying about me. Somebody interviewed him. Right. It wasn't just like prepared quotes because these quotes are too weird to be prepared quotes. Right.

Right, no, somebody interviewed him.

Yeah, so I like the idea of it, though, maybe being somebody with the company. Now, I'm a little distracted here because I'm doing something that is going to blow your mind, but I can't tell you what it is.

Because you're posting a comment right now on people.com? Can you see that somebody— I see three dots that says someone is typing, and I know you're not Sleighthound, the other one comment on this article. Sleighthound says, chocolate, quote, evokes the feeling of the American West? Sure. I like the cut of Sleighthound's jib. But yes, Andrew, if you're wondering, I can see when you're posting a comment on people.com because it gave me the three little undulating dots of someone is typing.

I can't believe you actually saw that somebody is typing. I'd like you to refresh and look at the. I just in the last 30 seconds hurriedly. I don't think that's the right way to say that. Created a people.com login. I am now going to get so much spam in one of my email accounts because I wanted to sign up to be an actual contributor to people.com so I could leave this comment.

I have a feeling, by the way, Andrew, that it probably goes through some sort of vetting process.

Oh, you're not seeing it yet? See, I'm seeing it. No, no, I can't.

Can you see it?

I see it there.

Okay, all comments are subject to our community guidelines. Oh, no, you're right.

It says it's now flagged awaiting review. I just handed over my personal information.

You got flagged by PeopleMagazine.com's comment section. What kind of a sicko are you?

And the reason I did all of this was just to troll you. I wrote Democracy Dies in Dark Roast.

You posted Democracy Dies in Dark Roast? You thief.

I want this to be, and I have the username Andrew here, And people can upvote this. Listeners, please. I don't ask much of you other than eight hours of your week and all of your earnings to support TNTL.

Now, when this gets posted, when it actually makes it through the filter, I can't imagine they would pull that. It's not profane. It's just hilarious. I just need a lot of tens to go to people.com to this article and give it a big old thumbs up. Let's upvote it. Let's move it above slight hounds. That's when you know by the way that you've written a real Humdinger of an article. It's got one comment on people.com like just just the fact that I mean I'm sure that there are thousands if not tens of thousands of people who go to this website a day and Hundreds of thousands of people who are bonafide Kevin Costner fans The idea that this has received exactly one and now eventually exactly two comments is kind of remarkable to me like that just that tells you how absolutely soulless the article is yeah and i'm surprised that somebody

isn't calling somebody a nazi or something in the comments already i mean just like i miss the good

old days of people just of this just devolving very quickly into lock her up well maybe that's maybe that's because they are actually they carefully you know reviewing these as mine

is awaiting review right now i just wanted so badly you have the word die to hit refresh and And I think they. probably all go into a queue and then they're approved maybe but i'm just worried that dies might be flagged like any reference i'd still only one comment well i don't know if antonia de bianchi is the person handling this or if it's elizabeth leonard or kevin managing executive editor and west coast bureau chief for people uh i don't know a magazine that is not humankind uh yeah i don't know uh i don't know who it is who's stopping this from happening but i think that's a pretty good spoof andrew and i think we really got somewhere with this it started off as a reference to my funny internet joke.

Where did you post it on the internet, by the way? Was it Instagram? Instagram. I'm just curious because you're not on a lot of... Instagram. Yeah, you're not on Blue Sky like the cool kids.

Not yet. We was hoping for some razzle-dazzle. Razzle-dazzle. That's right, man. Razzle-dazzle. On your mark.

On your mark. Get set. Get set. Now ready. Ready. Go! Everybody razzle-dazzle.

God, if we could land that big Green Mountain Coffee endorsement deal, Andrew, we wouldn't. have to come hat in hand to the TV show listeners and ask them to support the show.

Yeah, if only somebody in our listening audience had some sort of a coffee concern. If only we could shout them out in some way on the show.

Barry, I've got one non-negotiable. I want it to have notes of peppered beef jerky. What would your one coffee non-negotiable be? It tastes like coffee? I want there to be notes of coffee in it.

Yeah, it's got to come from broadcast coffee roasters, for sure. Yes, it does. That's my one non-negotiable.

Official coffee brand of TBTL. Exactly. All right. We do rely on Dazzling donors, Andrew, and donors of all kinds, which is this presents a great opportunity for me to mention that TBTL-a-thon 15, thank you for being a 10, is coming up July 8th through 12th right here at the Madrona Hill Studio. It's going to be a very, very fun week. We are mobilizing forces You're coming down south John Sklaroff is heading west We're all converging here To raise money for TBTL Because we have yet to Figure out a different way to sponsor This whole thing It's thanks to folks like Holly Franz Holly's in Alexandria, Virginia And says it's Holly like Jolly But never Jolly Holly in a taunting Singing song way And Franz like Hans

now let me ask you this and there's no upside of me doing this this is all downside so probably do that write this down bring this up with steve's class but um do you have a memory you find yourself at a point where there's no upside go for it go dig deeper um why did i think that holly was in my old stomping grounds of lakewood ohio do you think that holly moved or i just have a bad memory we know i have a pretty bad memory so maybe that's what's going on good question that doesn't ring I'm not making any bells to you, huh?

Holly, why don't you clarify that in next year's Dazzling Donor message?

That's right. You must become a Dazzling Donor to clear that up.

Always be closing, my friend. Holly says, Dazzling with some unsolicited pearls of experience and advice, especially for those among us who are introverts and folks who worry about taking up space in this world. Advice, know your why and let that why guide you. If you are thrust into the medical world, as I bemoaned last year, sorry, You can't trust the system or practitioners to have your best interest in mind, not from malice, but because they assume their interests are your interests. They're not. Your why will help you make decisions, represent yourself, be a whole person versus a patient. That's an interesting way to talk about it, Andrew. I know you've been kind of dealing with some of that stuff.

I'm heading to the doctor this afternoon.

Right. And like, you know, this idea of a patient feels, I guess, a bit passive, right? Like, it's stuff that's happening to you as the patient, whereas if you're able to advocate for yourself and be proactive, and again, not giving anyone grief about however it is they're experiencing their medical life, it's a tough thing, but the idea of thinking yourself not just as somebody to whom this is happening, but maybe somebody who's able to advocate that might get you some better care. If you don't trust that you'll raise your voice, bring someone with you, especially if you're a single female even research indicates the system won't see you on your own if you're a caretaker for humans or animals knowing your why and theirs will help make decisions both easy like dog park or nap what about napping at the dog park does this have

to be an either or thing just don't nap on the ground at a dog park you might oh god no

uncomfortable and then not even on the grass because that grass is it's green for a reason my friends it's green for a reason and the toughies tough questions i guess like another round of chemo or is it time to say goodbye that is a very tough question finally hydrate and move as much as you can cheers that's from holly

What was the, we heard from a dazzling donor recently, Andrew, who mentioned something another dazzling donor had said, and how it had really spoken to them. And if my brain were better, I could remember either of those examples, specifically. But what I can tell you is, these messages, which are, of course, our way of thanking and elevating the voice of someone who's donating a significant amount of dough to the show. It sounds like they actually really do have a positive impact on the lives of the other tens. Like you know sometimes what we read here Like what Holly is saying it could really Be what somebody needs to hear today There could be somebody out there listening that's There could even be a co-host of the show A longest running cobra who's on their way to the doctor Who needs to ask what they're what is your why

You know what the interesting Thing here is it says if you don't trust that you'll Raise your own voice bring someone with you I um like I'm Going to see my just because everybody Loves bingo the cat um I'm Going to see my doctor day and this has been you know this is a follow-up appointment that's been on the books for a long time like i'm gonna have to sneak out of the house to go to this doctor's appointment because if i don't genevieve is going to come with me she wants so but she's like i can i come with you i want to bring her with you because i i can i can handle i can handle it because i'm going to the doctor's office and i can tell the doctor about what the experience has been with my hand since the last time i saw him and you know i think i can advocate for myself fine but like i think that genevieve in in my telling of the stories of my um medical kind of treatment and communication so far she's already kind of um got a bit of a chip on her shoulder about my doctor and i don't think that i want or need her in there today um sticking up for me but uh but it's a very it's a very um what is the word there's an adjective that i'm searching out well it is endearing it makes me feel very loved like honestly if i can be very very corny it's it's romantic in a way and um and I just really do appreciate it, but I got this.

All right. Go ahead and just wildly ignore listener Holly's advice. At your own peril, sir.

On this of all days, her dazzling donor day.

Well, thanks, Holly. We really appreciate you and hope that everything is going okay for you as you reference some sort of medical stuff from last year's dazzling donor message. And thanks for this good piece of advice, even if Andrew chooses to ignore it. Maestro? On your mark. On your mark. Get set, get set, now ready. Read ahead. Always read ahead. Well, and you don't believe in a God, Andrew. On this beautiful Wednesday, when we've spent so much time talking about coffee and coffee sponsorship, would you believe that our second dazzling donor is none other than our friend, Mr. Barry Fought, I would believe it. A.K.A. Broadcast Barry. I most certainly would.

So you knew this the whole day. No, no, no. I mean, I sent you these Dazzling Donors yesterday. No, no, this was not on my mind. I knew when we started this segment, you said what would be your demands for, you know, a coffee brew. And we invoked Barry. At that moment, I remember that Barry is one of our Dazzlers for today. I would be lying if I told you that was forefront of mind during our entire Green Mountain conversation.

You knew something I didn't know the whole time, which, Andrew, is masterful storytelling.

That's exactly right. You're withholding a key piece of information that you would reveal later. That's right. So rule number one, clear your throat. Rule number two, withhold from your audience as much as possible.

Sometimes till the very end, like an episode of Wallander. God, that show is so bad, and I love it so much.

Somebody was a little, somebody wanted to clarify. The reason they have English actors in, is that Sweden is where it takes place? Because it's based on a Swedish set of novels, I believe. Yes, it is. It says it right at the beginning.

But regardless, why is it that no one even has the tiniest hint of a Swedish accent? Nobody who is in the world of the show is ever speaking. By the way, Swedish people speak impeccable English. I learned this because I took Swedish in college and then realized there's no need to because everybody in Sweden speaks perfect English, better English than Americans speak.

So you're saying you could still because I think the listener who like texted me or something was kind of like, well, if you wanted verisimilitude, they would just be speaking in their native language. And if they're not, well, then they're speaking in English. Why would they be speaking in English with a Swedish accent? But you're saying, no, there is a possibility that because so many people there do speak English, they could be speaking English to each other. That would allow the audience in But at least nod towards the location By giving them a Swedish accent

There's something about the fact that there are people literally With Cockney accents in it that throws me That's the like You know that's like the bridge That's slightly too far for me Also I mean the show is just It's funny because it's just the latest in a long list Of these shows that are really poorly done But I just love watching them with my dad It's so much fun

This is the Kenneth Branagh show where he plays Wallander, this detective. But each episode is like an hour and a half movie, right? It always starts off with some very compelling, very grisly, gruesome crime. And then it's like the whole episode is trying to figure out who did it. And then at the like, so then there'll be like an hour and 10 minutes of just like trying to figure it out. And then the last 10 minutes is always just like Wallander shooting at a vehicle that's moving away from him. So far these are the things he's shot at I think we've watched five episodes of this He's shot at a van that's driving away from him He's shot at a car that was driving away from A truck that was driving away from him He's shot at a helicopter that was about to fly away from him Hot air balloons? What's that? Hot air balloons? Not yet but you know what I haven't watched the whole series So these are the two things that always happen in Wallander I tell my dad He wakes up somewhere and doesn't know how he fell asleep there I'm sure these are in the books. He probably has like narcolepsy in the books or he's, he's, he's always sort of like under rested. He's, he's like, he's, he's sort of this like real rumpled kind of guy who's, you know, got a real hard time expressing himself and is always like sleep deprived, but then falling asleep, like in a chair with his head hanging off at a weird angle and waking up or like fall asleep in like in a cell at the jail, like where he's been trying to crack the case or whatever. So Wallander falling asleep in a weird place And waking up and not knowing where he is And Wallander shooting at a vehicle That's going away from him I'm looking forward to him shooting at a Oh, he did, he shot at a boat He shot at a motorboat that was pulling away from him On an island once

So he shot at both land-based vehicles, water-based vehicles And air-based vehicles

Yeah, the helicopter was on the ground When he shot at it It was going to take off Really what he shot at was a person standing by the helicopter

Doesn't that seem un-Swedish to you?

Yes. It's the first one of these things where they've got a gun.

Yeah.

Because all the other ones, Baptiste didn't have a gun. I'm trying to remember the other ones that, Shetland, no guns in Shetland that I can remember. Maybe some of the like, maybe there are some police people that have guns. But guns are not a central part of most of these British shows. Except this one, it's huge because he's involved in an officer-involved shooting. and it throws him and it's like this whole thing where it's like is he going to be able to carry his sidearm or not without like you know having intrusive thoughts which is just a very american kind of style of this show um which we don't usually see with these but it's just like it's it's like it's they phone in the like the solving of the mystery is always just like so phoned in it's it's always like yeah it's pretty much the oh it was the really rich guy who travels to Africa a lot and has all of the coolers around his estate that are used for transporting human organs. It was that guy. And he would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for this pesky Wallander. It's like the whole show is just a setup of Wallander kind of just being like mopey. And then at the last minute, he realizes something is going on and then he has to race across town really fast to stop it. To shoot at it. He has to race across town to shoot at it.

Yeah. And then there's nothing like zero. They can stop a bad guy with a gun as a sleepy guy with a gun.

And then this is the part that I'm trying to explain to my dad. It's so funny because my dad, he experiences this stuff so differently than I do. He just is like, I don't know, there's a flicker on the screen and people are moving around for a couple hours. I'm sitting with my son. I'm eating Haagen-Dazs. That's enough for him.

Is he also playing on a second screen like me? No, no, no, he doesn't.

Because you said that some of the – He's barely playing on one screen. He gives himself a head massage and falls asleep within eight minutes of the beginning of the show.

Because I think there are certain shows that I've probably sat in front of for probably quite some time, but also wouldn't be able to answer some basic questions about because I'm mostly just playing like blackjack on my phone or on my iPad or something like that. But no, he's he's he's dialed into it until he nods off.

He's watching it, but he's also falling asleep a lot and is not real detail-oriented with these things. He's in the NBC of the 90s mantra. It's new to him. It's always new to him, even if he's watched it recently. And so what I'm trying to explain to him is I'm like, look, I enjoy this show, but I really wish that they would... It wouldn't be this thing where it's like suddenly Wallander's like, it was the postman, literally one of them was it was a postman, and then he has to race across town to like, stop the postman from killing his daughter or something and then it's literally like, all that happens is, the threat is eliminated the bad person is, they figure out who the bad person is, they race, he races across town by the way, never calls for backup for some reason, gets there neutralizes the thing by probably killing the person or by wounding them or by something happens and then it's just like boom the credits roll and there's no like processing like in one of the episodes his lovely daughter who's not in law enforcement is taken hostage which is a crazy traumatic thing to have happen and you know she obviously doesn't end up dying from this but like it's literally just like The bad guy dies and then it's just like Credits and I'm like we need Some time to process this We need some closure we need These episodes we need the Threat to be eliminated with eight Minutes left in the episode so there's Some time for everyone to work it out There's no working It out on the show there's just like It's just basically like A bunch of pussy footing around A bunch of Wallander not expressing himself A bunch of like people misunderstanding his motives because he can't verbalize and then a mad dash across town and then a killing of the bad guy and then the credits and and and yet here I am watching this every night with my dad because it's still kind of fun even though it's poorly made television especially for

such a long episode length I didn't realize that when you were talking about it the other day that's right we are the podcast that dedicates several episodes to I keep on saying Wallingford what is it it's wallander hurt wallander but i figured i figured this was like you know i don't know i don't know what i thought 45 minutes to an hour or something but like a 90 minute like you said it's like a mini movie for each episode that reminds me of like the days of of colombo or something right like you can and those things are really paced out we've joked around on the show before because i think somebody had posted on social media maybe it was you one of your famous social media like time can be measured in the amount of time it takes colombo to show up on screen because like sometimes columbia doesn't you're gonna repost that on people.com i will i'm looking for the relevant information right now um or the relevant article i should say but anyway yeah so i i just think that like a show like that if you're dedicating 90 minutes to it yeah you can have some closure man you don't have to like get out of there so quickly yeah and i don't that's

not something that i've ever probably said about a movie or television show it's not like my hobby It just happens to be the case that by the way, I'm just checking in on people.com you are yet much like your rants and raves It's unclear if the mainstream media if the MSM is going to signal amp your messaging here

Andrew this is yet to be posted on people.com is this literally what they mean when they talk about shadow shadow banned because Right like nobody's told me anything about being banned, but clearly none of my letters to the editor are going through. Have you been dead

the whole episode? Maybe.

I'm not sure. Maybe that's why Genevieve wants to go to the doctor with me.

Anyway, back to our friend Broadcast Barry who says, ah, geez, guys, I'm so sorry this is coming in so dang late. Apology not accepted, Barry. No. Apology not accepted. Sorry. You have not done enough for the program. I've tried to forgive you, but I can't bring myself to do it. I tend to overthink what to say when writing these, so I'll do myself and everyone involved a favor by keeping this simple. I've been amazed and warmed by all the dazzling messages that have been flowing, and it makes me so happy of myself and fortunate to be part of a wonderful and supportive community. When my accountant asked me, quote, why is this recurring charge to TBTB? I told her, it's for advertising. So if you'll allow me to make good on that, the dazzling message brought to you by P1 Hospitality Group. Hey, P1. P1. Oh, I got another ding out of that bell. P1, that's so great. Because, of course, Barry's broadcast coffee, it's all related to broadcasting and Arbitron and things like that. I know Barry's father was involved in traffic reporting. I think he owned a company that did traffic updates on the radio and stuff. So Barry's a longtime multi-generational broadcast aficionado. So P1 Hospitality is pretty great.

Which, not to take this spotlight away from Barry and P1 Hospitality. why would we during his message but um that means that i believe i think i'm right about this that means we have two close friends of the show and friends of the us um who have uh companies called p1 right because oh is fletch i believe her media company is p1 as well that's kind of cool each

other oh please don't sue each other god that would be just to this thing gets torn down from the inside, Andrew. I'm going to be heart sick about it.

No, no, no. They should team up, I think. Make it a super group.

This dazzling message brought to you by P1 Hospitality Group, managing some of the finest brands in the Pacific Northwest, like broadcast coffee roasters with locations in Seattle, Boise, and online, plus Black Moon Pastries and Pizza in Garden City, Idaho, which is culturally Boise. And Temple Pastries in Seattle Which is culturally Seattle I added that last part I mean, we talk about this a lot on the show Actually, but the The business acumen And the instincts that Barry has Other than backing TBTL Barry's instincts are pretty much flawless This is a guy who just gets it

That's why he's sticking with us He knows that eventually we're going to break big

Well, it's a, yeah Honestly, it's a shell company TBTV is a shell corporation We're moving a lot of money through this whole thing But definitely if you're in Garden City, Idaho, go check out Black Moon Pastries and Pizza, that's the pizza shop And they do pastries as well I'm right now, Andrew, in this What was a Tattletail The Tattletail Coffee mug, all of which has pretty much Washed off because Barry spared every Expense, sorry, because Roger spared every expense when he Got these Tattletail coffee mugs made, but I still use it because I still know that it was a tattletail coffee cup. This has got broadcast coffee. I'm hepped up on broadcast coffee and allergy medicine

right now. In my Stanley thermos right here. Broadcast coffee in here. I'm drinking it as we speak. So thank you

Barry for supporting TBTL. We really, and in so many ways, not just the financial but the advice you've given us. I mean Barry was one of the first people maybe the first person we met with when we decided we wanted to do this independent just to try to get a sense of what it looks like to run a business and And Barry has just been the absolute best. So thanks. We really do appreciate you. Hello and welcome to Top Story. Speaking of, I don't know if it's bunk journalism, but interesting journalism, Andrew. I saw this headline in the Seattle Times yesterday. A Seattle man was carjacked. The attack ended up saving his life. and uh by the way this is an article written by uh catalina gaitian or gaitan i read this when it

came out i think it's a very very bizarre story and a very fascinating it's fascinating um i don't recognize that byline i don't know if there's a special to the times maybe no i think that i think

they're new to the times and they were writing at the oregonian and somewhere else because i i I clicked on their byline, but I think it's an interesting article, but I do think that there's, it's, well, I'll just ask you, Tom Ogren, this is the, I'm reading directly from the article now, Tom Ogren was on his way to return two books to Seattle Public Library's Northgate branch when two guardian angels carjacked him, new paragraph, After Ogren chased the gray Hyundai Tucson that had rear-ended his silver Lexus SUV shortly before 11 a.m. on December 16th, two men in the Hyundai pulled him from his car and beat him. The men then stole Ogren's wallet, cell phone, and key fob, jumped into his Lexus, and sped off. According to Ogren and a Seattle Police Department report, the 79-year-old was left bloodied and bruised at the University of Washington Medical Center's emergency room. But the incident, Ogren says, saved his life. basically what happened was he when he went to the emergency room to be treated for this terrible injury of this carjacking they found out that he had some blockage in his heart that they were able to clear and that he was not very long for this world if it went untreated because he was probably going to have a pretty massive heart attack that would have been fatal so the story is had they not attacked him he would not have gone to the doctor and gotten his heart checked and he might not have lived very much longer now he um hopefully will live much longer do we consider these carjackers guardian angels though because they of course were not in on this as far as the kind of uh you know medical testing aspect of it they were just being bad people doing a carjacking and beating up an

old man yeah i mean the idea of a guardian angel isn't something that is concrete anyway right like so i mean i don't know i know that that is i don't want to sound like we don't understand what the writer is doing here like it's supposed to be surprising it's supposed to be kind of shocking provocative yeah exactly it's provocative it's supposed to be in and not not even necessarily in a cheap way it's trying to also represent what this man who you know it sounds like this was an this is the opposite of the kevin costner interview that sounds like it was a pretty

extensive interview that like although oddly tom ogren is standing holding a cup of coffee that

says virginia medical virginia mason medical interesting so um yeah i mean i don't know i thought it was a little bit i mean maybe i would have just if you're gonna go with the term guardian angel which again it has maybe put it in quotes maybe as quote put in quotes also because it has kind of like faith-based sort of uh inclining angels watching over me sort of like it's hard for me as somebody who doesn't believe in that to kind of wrap my head around that without that's without putting like some kind of a a caveat like or if you're going to use it like at some

I'm a...

Unknowing, unknowing, not unknowing, but like accidental guardian angels or something would somehow like ground this a little bit more for me. I know I'm just nibbling away at the edges here.

God gives his most important jobs to his most unwitting soldiers.

That is how I would have started this article. Moon walk out. Yeah, so no, it is an odd, yeah, it's not a choice. I know what they were going for, but it's missing something.

I do like it, though, in a way, because first of all, we're talking about it and it is provocative because I will say this, whether or not I totally stand by it as a journalistic decision or as a like you said, I mean, at the very least, maybe put it in quote to quote Guardian Angels. Yeah. Although I guess somebody would have had to call them Guardian Angels for it to be in quotes.

Which, yeah. And I don't know that he does. He it's been a couple of days. I don't think he uses those words. He uses those words. We don't see it. if we saw like later on as we kind of under as the story unfolds and we understand what has happened and why and then he is truly grateful like he does not mince words if i recall near the end of the article he is saying like i owe these two people who attacked me my life and that is something to think about like it's an it's definitely something interesting to think about and um you know even stuff that you talk about a lot on this show luke kind of like at your lowest moments or when it seems like everything is is going terribly those things maybe had to happen to get you get you onto the next vine or whatever you're swinging on right so well said storyteller but um anyway so anyway i just i i do think that it's true to what he's saying but yeah i think as the journalist writing this or the editors going through the process i do think a set of quotes around this would have gone a long way now here's the deal i don't know how much we need to go into this i'm not trying to extend the show you're on a bit of a time deadline here, but we must, you've got to explain to me what is so captivating about this photo and this next article. I'm taking control of the show here because I've been staring

at the photo. Let me clarify one thing because I can't accuse someone else of bunk journalism while also doing bunk journalism myself. It was AFib. It was not a blockage in his heart. It was a regular heartbeat that they discovered, which was going to be posing a danger to this guy, Tom Ogren. Now, do you want to get really in the weeds on something, Andrew? I saw this article in the new york times um the other day and the first thing that i saw like when i was on the times page of course i can't get to this because this computer i'm on doesn't realize that god demarcus re dies in dark roast andrew this thing does not realize that i already pay for the new york times it won't let me get into the article this is why we print things out because i can't see the thing i'm trying to talk to you about because i didn't print it and because I don't know if I can help here

I am on the article myself And so I will just tell you

I just need the name of the guy So when I went to the New York Times The main page of the New York Times the other day I saw a photograph of a guy Very striking guy, he's got silver hair He's a nice looking older man And his name is George Norcross And it said like New Jersey Democrat power player Charged with some crime And there's a picture of this George Norcross guy And he's like, again, he kind of strikes a fairly, he cuts a sort of a memorable line He looks a little bit like a James Brolin type or something Then I clicked on the articles, I was like, well, what'd this guy do? And what I thought was crazy, the picture from the press conference was I look at the press conference and you have whatever, I don't know if it's like an attorney general Or somebody from the state of New Jersey who's presenting the case Of all of the theft and malfeasance of this guy, George Norcross And then I was like, what the hell is going on with the guy in the front row who's sitting there with loafers and no socks on attentively, who looks like George Norcross? What's happening? And then as I read further into the article, I realized that, oh, he found out about this press conference that was like indicting him. And he just showed up without being invited and sat in the front row as they were reading all of his misdeeds. And I find that photo of him sitting in the front row looking very dapper, staring at the people who are like listing all of his crimes that they allege crimes. It's a wild photo to me.

It is. I was wondering if so. I don't know that this photo would have stood out to me if you hadn't flagged it in the show sheet. I think I saw this maybe in yesterday's plan as well. And so I open up the article and I'm expecting to see a pretty like badass photo of something or a very awkward photo of something or whatever. but at first i'm just like i don't know it just looks like you know your typical press conference there he is the the attorney general of the state standing behind the lectern and then yeah the people he's speaking to mostly press are pretty close to the lectern but kind of you know we're seeing a profile of both him and the people in in attendance um and then the caption does say that it's george e norcross the third who listened from the front row of the news conference so it says it right there in the caption and i'm just like is this one of those situations where where they've updated the article with a much more normal photo. I was expecting something to really blow me away. But then, you know, because you teased it in this way, I just spent the morning staring at this photo,

looking at everybody's body language. Does it turn into a waterfall? Is it two dolphins? It's like a magic eye photo.

You know those don't even work on me either. And there's somebody in the background who looks like they might be, like, with the prosecution or something, And they're sort of holding their open jacket with their two hands, almost kind of like, I was like, is that it? This person sort of looking tough in the background. And then I was like, oh, it must be the socks thing. Because that does seem weird that George Norcross III is in the front row looking very attentive. But why no socks with this full-on business suit, no socks into those loafers? You like that? He looks dapper. Really?

But then they mention in the article, later down in the article, they say he showed up with, like, they literally list, like, a suit, penny loafers, no socks. They mention no socks in the article, which I thought was kind of funny. I think this is one of those things that it's 100% how you arrive at the photo. So the way that I arrived at it was I, like, I see this guy, George Norcross, a different photo of him. And then I'm reading the article, and I'm like, God, that's so weird. There's a guy who looks so similar to him who's at the press conference. but that i've never heard of the person who's being accused just being at the press conference so then i was like that's so strange that both that there's two guys that look so much like this and one of them is being accused of the crime and one of them for some reason is like a reporter covering the story and then i read further down and it's like no he she found out about it and he showed up uninvited and sat in the front row and then they mentioned that he has no socks on and then i'm like yeah but i actually think that's kind of a good look but you've got to really stay on top of the shoe situation because those dogs will start barking. You don't want to be around when those come off. I think this is something where because of how I sort of because of how I pieced this together, it was of interest to me, but the way you got the information was not interesting because I'm already telling you there's something about this photo that's kind of striking and so it's only going to underwhelm you as opposed to kind of creep up on you the way it did for me.

It was kind of fun though. It felt like highlights as a kid you know I was looking for the differences where's Waldo I was like okay well no socks that's that could be something to talk about here so and I guess and I'm sort of reading this part of the article here now too about him showing up I mean I guess the thing is it's a bit of a power move for him huh he showed up with a bunch of lawyers and then immediately afterwards held an impromptu news conference calling the the prosecutors uh you know accusing them of carrying out a personal

vendetta it's an extremely intentional flex to sit in the front row and he knew he was on camera he looks completely unperturbed by it he's just kind of sitting there very prim very proper very kind of like like okay this is what you're saying i did it's all uh definitely an intentional kind of like you know managing of his image in the whole thing and whatever what all i could think of was they let him sit in the front row what was that moment like so first of all the u.s attorney's officer i should say that you know the ag of new jersey or you know whatever whatever the department is they're like getting ready for this presser none of them know the dude's going to show up right they're assume they're going to be talking about him in absentia because they're like i think he might even like live in florida or something at this point how much does it change their vibe when he's sitting there because it's one thing to go george norcross then strong-armed developers with this waterfront project etc it's another thing to do with him sitting right there like does that get in your head and also how what was it like when he said i'm gonna sit here and like i'm gonna sit in the front row did somebody say those are taken oh we already have like those

Like, like, was there, you know, just do that if you're there, can you legally do it?

Are the is the New Jersey AG, are they like, could somebody everyone sit in the front rows? Everyone from our agency sit in the don't have him in the front row. You had all summer to work on.

Just like if nothing, I was even like, even if you can't don't take his laptop not to sit there, but you could at least fill up. You could at least try to fill up the row with your own with your own plan.

Can we get some seat fillers, please, to just, like, get the first three rows handled? Can we not have him in the—and did he just walk in, and did he, like, put his briefcase down and then go get a cup of coffee, and then he was like, I saved this? How early did he have to get there to save this front row seat? It's a good seat. Or did he just walk in, and it was empty, and he planted himself, and then everyone else who's from—like, because basically everyone there, except for maybe the media, is in on this idea of accusing him of crimes. So did everyone else who came in for the event of the accusing him of crimes walk past him like oh god This is gonna be weird now, and then like they had to sit next to him like that's the part of the story

that also fascinates me the awkwardness of the seating arrangement yeah and like you said like

the the prosecutor and any or the attorney general and anybody else who's presenting at this at this press conference where they're laying out their case they they might not be flustered having him in the room if they had known in advance it just might change the way that you approach it differently if he's sitting in the room and so i could see that and in the front row he's three feet away from you it's so awkwardly close that's another thing i like about this photo is usually for a press conference photo you see the the podium straight on right or you might see the gaggle of press but like they purposely are capturing exactly what captured you know your imagination of this luke which is they're showing how awkward this is how close these seats are to the podium and how close and attentive he is in the proceedings i mean we'll see what happens not

a great time for new jersey democrats between bob menendez yeah and this whole situation it's weird because i've heard that new jersey is a famously really really upstanding by the book place maybe it's changing i don't know man yeah what can you do so all right uh i think that we should go ahead and wrap things up i see walt is circling like a like a vulture of podcasting he realizes that this thing is over and he's now here to pick the bones clean heads he did he end up getting

attacked by a bunch of wasps yesterday did you he didn't he fought them off dad did you survive

the wasp attack yesterday oh yeah okay nice hey dad you're wearing your special hat are you worried about getting it not today okay he's got the fixed stuff hat on but it's it's the project today is not endangering the long-term health of the hat nice it's not gonna get too sweaty no it's not gonna get too sweaty so or too much dust on it so anyway all right that's uh that's our program for the day but guess what we're gonna be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you so please do by that time hopefully we'll have an update on andrew's comment on people.com find out if he's if he's getting all kinds of love and appreciation for his hilarious democracy dies in dark gross joke so i gotta get more likes than you got on instagram that's all That will be a very, very low bar to clear. I think I got 10 likes or something. All right, we'll see you tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great Wednesday. Take care of yourselves, and please remember, no mountain too tall. And good luck to all. Did we offend you? Good. Now we have your attention, and we have to win you over. Power out.