Muse

All right, let's get to work, actors. I got three words for you. Glengarry. Glen. Ross. Coffees for closers only. You call yourself a salesman? You son of a . Hi, I'm from downtown. I'm from Mitch and Murray. So you've got, all of you got, just one week to regain your jobs, starting with tonight. OK, we're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see what second prize is? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired, but I've worked out a little- Okay, okay, no, no, no, no, stop. I'm not kidding. You're making me nauseous. TBTL.

You know, I think about this, and what about this internet thing? Do you know anything about that? Sure. What the hell is that exactly?

Don't you kind of feel like a sellout?

Can you really call it a sellout when they give you a free Tesla for doing the show?

I think I'm looking forward to cracking up. I hope I can, like, you know, totally crack up. So, I haven't, like, totally cracked up in a long time.

Are you saying boo or boorns?

well all right hello good morning and welcome everyone to a tuesday edition of tbtl the show that just might be too beautiful to live how about a fresco my name is luke burbank i am your host you paint your bald spot one bald spot coming to you once again from midtown manhattan you really are the most devious bastard in new york city boy they say wait five minutes and the weather will change on the monday recording it was rainy and cold and now today it's absolutely beautiful out sunshine and warm and tomorrow wednesday possibility of snow life comes at you fast tbtl comes at you slow though as we arrive at episode 4430 in a collector series let the fun begin i'm very excited about a new york city radio development i heard about that thing on the am radio that involves me sort of uh and uh my excitement around listening to local public radio here in new york as i've been working and visiting out here also uh andrew received a mysterious and surprising call after the show on friday which we want to get to the bottom of if we can so we'll do that today as well speaking of calls we've got some voicemails from last week that we've still got to clear out speaking of my good friend andrew walsh you know he is the longest running cobro of the show which means we are we're totally aligned on things now We are so in sync. We're finishing each other's. Derek! He's also known for his depictions of the tall ships, and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

Good morning, Luke. There are two different shows, I believe they're both TV shows, where they set up that same Derek joke, only it's we finish each other's, and then somebody says sandwiches. And I'm pretty sure that same exact joke happens on two different TV shows. One might be 30 Rock.

Well, the thing is, when I grab these audio drops, the way that they are displayed on my system, I only see the first, if it has a long title, I only see the first few words. And so I saw this said, we are so in sync, we finish each, and I thought it was going to be sandwiches. And then I dragged it into my other little program, and I played, and I realized, oh, that's from The Good Place, probably, right?

Is that Manzoukas? Yeah, because it's got Manzoukas in that, yeah, and I think that that is.

Kind of like whacked out character that's, isn't he like somehow associated with Darcy Carden? Isn't he like Darcy Carden's character?

I think that is Darcy who's the other voice in that clip. I love Darcy Carden. No, you didn't see the show. She's like, he's a man. I did see the show. Okay, well, he's a manifestation from like the netherworld from which she, that she can kind of disappear into.

You don't think netherworld manifestation should get married, huh?

I'm just saying when I was growing up, manifestations were manifestations and netherworlds were netherworlds. So anyway, yeah, I think he was something that she created to be her lover. But then things went sideways because it was just kind of like he was not. He didn't work right. His brain didn't work right. He would have problems, right? We finish each other sandwiches definitely happened in Arrested Development. So that's probably why you and I would know that. But I swear there was another show that came after Arrested Development where they used

that same dang joke of finishing each other's sandwiches, but I can't find it right now.

Do we feel like that sort of takes away some of the fun and some of the joy of the Good Place version of it, if that joke's... Because, you know, obviously that show was staffed with some top comedy writers, and probably they would know most of the jokes that had been out there in the culture, in the zeitgeist, and they still went with it, Maybe they thought adding Derek was enough of a difference that it could overcome the fact that it was the third time of making that joke.

I believe, I do think that that is an homage. I think that that joke and that structure of that joke, I mean, I don't know why I believe that. Maybe because I trust Mike Schur and he's like not, he's like the opposite of a hack.

You mean Ken Tremendous?

I do mean Ken Tremendous. That man is a beautiful angel. You interviewed him, didn't you, for his book? He sure is.

Yes, I did. It was on Zoom because it was pandemic times. But, yeah, that was an honor.

Wonderful man. Follow him on Blue Sky and also, you know, watch his TV shows. He's made a lot of them. But anyway, yeah, I believe that he, not that he wrote every joke or necessarily approved every joke, but I do think that he's a pretty exacting guy. Sure. And I would guess that that has now become an homage. Like that. Do you remember that? No. I don't think I should bring this up. Why not? Because I don't remember the details well enough and it's going to send us down a rabbit. I never let that stop me. Okay, there's a – from way back in the 1940s or 50s, there is, like, this inside joke. It was in one movie where a woman – I think the scene kind of begins – there's a certain term for a scene beginning, like, mid-conversation. Do you know that term? Like, if a show opens and it's at a dinner party and you're just, like, thrown right into the dinner party and then somebody says, and then she stepped on the ball. And I'm pretty sure that's the line. and then everybody laughs and literally she stepped on the ball i think is something that ended up showing up in pop culture over and over and over again as a sort of homage to like when you're when you're right the starting something mid-conversation and also maybe this idea of like

a punchline to a joke that we don't know what the joke is because we're only hearing the like we're here you know we're hearing the end of it and everyone's laughing like it's uproarious but Like, what was the what was the story wherein she stepped on the ball was such a great payoff?

Here's what I just found a blog post from 2016. What do Kimmy Schmidt trading places and anti-mame have in common? This is from the real memorable blog, by the way, why we love movie. I'm sorry, remembering why we love movies and television. I'm going to begin reading this. I can't attribute it to anybody but the but the name of the blog here. It says, what do Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Trading Places and Auntie Mame from 1958 have in common? Each has a character saying, and she stepped on the ball. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal. It's pretty unmemorable. But this line is an homage and now it's become a running joke. And so, yeah, I believe it started in this movie. And now other, you know, other filmmakers and TV makers love to put it in there. So there you go.

I feel and I don't know if you've seen the original. Certainly I haven't. But like, is it, is it, does everybody kind of crack up? Yeah, it's like really cracking up when they hear she stepped on the ball. Because I feel like, I think this is trading places.

This is terrible sound quality. Oh, this is terrible sound. That was really great. That's good. and she stepped on the ball that is uh that is from trading places uh i don't that is less that is more awkward and less smooth than i remembered it being and also let's hear it for the mids you know did you hear the mids in there those mids were so beautiful those flew all the

way through the air here to new york city and i wanted to be it made me it put me in the mind of watching a New Year's Eve performance of Guy Lombardo and his Flying Canadians at the top of Rockefeller Center. Was that the finest recording from 1942 that they could find?

And that's from the Trading Places in 1985. That's the newer one, relatively so. I think it's just a bad copy that's embedded into this blog. But anyway, yeah, so that's the deal. I wish I could think of a term, but go ahead. You're in the big city.

So there's an actual term for it, too.

Well, not for the step on the ball, But there's a term for when a scene begins mid kind of conversation and it's driving me bananas. I might text Genevieve while you tell me what's going on in the city that never apples.

Well, and this this is the the hotel room that never allows housekeeping in is what I think we're going to have to.

be for this week. And don't worry, there's no crime has been committed. I mean, maybe a small property crime, but nothing, you know, nothing too serious. But basically, you know, when I get into a hotel room and I'm going to be doing this show with you, particularly if it's for multiple days, I do everything in my power to get a good stare going. Like I like to be looking out a window if there is one. And as it happens, they put me in this hotel room that actually has a very interesting kind of cool view of of um like hell's kitchen and the hudson river a little bit if i were to wedge myself into the corner of the room i could stare out the window and see the hudson river but it's it's visually very entertaining and uh you know brings me great joy the problem is the way that the like kind of you know there's all typically like a desk some kind of you know office furniture set up in most hotel rooms so you can work that desk thing when i got in the room was up against a wall next to the tv so i would have just been staring literally at a wall while talking to you for many days this week and so the thing was the desk was very heavy and pretty it wasn't bolted down thankfully but it was like it's a pretty substantial thing to move and then the other problem is so i moved it i moved it over to being right under the window it's actually so great right now it's a perfect setup i've got this nice long table it's at a good height that is often an issue when i'm kind of futzing with the furniture in a hotel room is like there's one little table but it's like really low and then i have to kind of like sort of bend over to do the whole show talking into the microphone and it's uncomfortable or whatever so this is all working out pretty well except for the fact that then i realized i was too far away from any of the electrical outlets to power my computer i mean the if i would have left the desk where it's supposed to be it has lots of access to power but over here it doesn't and so i was like what am i going to do about it and then i realized oh one of the bedside lamps also has power yeah at the base of it you've notice that there's a thing at hotel rooms now so i'm like well i can use this effectively as

an extension cord but then i like pull the lamp halfway across the room well i have to first of

all andrew unplug the lamp which is no mean feat because while the lamp itself was on the we'll call it the passenger side of the bed you know like just the side of the bed i'm not sleeping on there are no passengers here for the record everybody calm down but like the other side of the bed uh and so both both of both of the nightstands have uh lamps on them but the plug-in is dead center behind this very intense like headboard yes situation this is you know i'm not

wigged out by hotel rooms i know you you're and i'm sure this is a very nice place you're staying but i know that you have a pretty you have a a pretty um easily triggered gag reflex when you're thinking about hotel rooms and anything and i don't have that except for these moments that you're about to describe which is when you're moving furniture out to like and you're reaching back behind something to unplug it and you just think about you know this is a place that is not cleaned very often because it's inaccessible and you're reaching behind where all these other

people have done all kinds of things and i'll tell you exactly what i did i i first of all i i looked at you know the the plug-in the cord going back behind the bed and then i looked under the bed which was scary enough and by the way shout out to the um intercontinental time square it's where i'm staying not that dirty down there great way better shape than i would have expected like you said considering it's inaccessible and who the heck looks down there i was expecting a whole situation and it really wasn't so shout out to whoever's been um taking care of this place But I looked at how far under the bed and behind the bed and the headboard the plug-ins were for both sides. And then the next thing I did is I went on Amazon.com to see how quickly I could get an extension cord delivered. Turns out, not super turnaround. That's the interesting thing about, like, really packed urban areas like Manhattan. I have a theory that you're actually worse off in terms of quick turnaround delivery time in Manhattan than you would be in, like, where I live, where the madrona hill studio is because when you're out in the middle of nowhere there's lots of room for lots of fulfillment centers and when you're in a place like manhattan there probably isn't that much room and it's a nightmare for the amazon drivers to be navigating so yeah i'm

actually parking those trucks right right in new york city as opposed to you know even here in seattle just pulling up on a curb it's a huge difference yeah so i was like could i could i

have an extension cord delivered and that was like first of all that just seemed kind of wasteful and second of all it wasn't going to be until like you know wednesday or something so i was like so i finally just bit the bullet and i got leaned way under the bed and kind of like sort of uh steeled myself and then like reached and managed to unplug one of the lamps i didn't even know which one it was because they were plugged in next to each other and so now i've got this whole setup so here's the here's the look in the room andrew if you were somebody and i want to be very clear i'm putting everything back where it belongs before i leave i am not i would never leave this room in this state for a housekeeping person or somebody with you know facilities have to come in and deal with but i'm not leaving until actually saturday morning um when i'm flying to wisconsin so if you were to walk in right now as part of housekeeping you would see like a huge section of what where the desk is supposed to be is just totally in a different part of the room looking out the window you would see one of the lamps it's supposed to be next to the bed instead on a small end table serving as an extension cord you'd be like how's that getting plugged back in behind the crazy headboard on the bed and who's moving this extremely heavy wood long desk thing like if i walked into this as a as housekeeping i'm calling the police i'm calling the at least i'm calling the front desk and going what's this guy's deal

i am looking up and google maps has become so helpful that it's not helpful anymore like if you look up a hotel on google maps it doesn't show you easily how to like get directions there it just shows you how you can you know reserve a room or whatever it's like i know how to reserve and it's not even mapping app to do this and it's like taking away the ability to actually like navigate it's like i don't need my mapping app to book a room i can book a room anyway

go ahead throw one last annoyance on there it's not even the real hotel it's some my in my experience it'll throw in some you know some sponsored link that's allegedly telling me about availability at the hotel which by the way he didn't ask for and it's not even this hotel it's like cool hotels.biz or something it's just like it's so annoying so what were you trying to find

out i just wanted to see if there's like a cvs near you or something i just sort of feel like couldn't you within a couple block radius just go grab an extension cord yes but that is andrew

um not how i roll because now i have a whole first of all i can probably see three cvs's from this room i'm looking down at the street i'm looking at i think it's uh 44th i don't see one but i promise you if i walked five blocks in any direction i would hit a cvs but here's the thing I'm getting really into braided extension cords.

Oh, you wanted to buy a nice one that you could take home and then...

I wanted to buy a nice one that I could just bring with me as part of my quote-unquote road kit. Because this happens a lot. Sometimes I'm moving stuff around just because it's actually... Well, that's not true. I'm moving it purely for my own enjoyment of looking out a window. But there's a lot of times when a version of this happens where I end up in a part of the hotel room that doesn't have easy power. And my whole journey with this extension cord was, well if i get like a six foot kind of nice braided one just one that's you know got a little a little you know a little bit of looks going for it a little bit of design going for it and then i bring that along with me then i'll never have to do this lamp situation again so i don't want to just go buy one at cvs well first of all i've now solved the problem it's interesting to me and this

you know we're different people in a lot of ways like i i wouldn't say that i don't appreciate the look of a braided you and I were talking about this a long time ago I remember you were even saying yeah you had your eyes on a really fancy one like a long time ago and you were like it was like 60 bucks and you told me later you're like I was so just tempted to buy it for you because they they were advertising them on Instagram a long time ago would be like you know that nice braided look but then they might even have like four heavy duty inputs or something and you can sort of have it to me it's like something that goes well into like a nice like kind of loft style apartment or something like that kind of like I don't know both practical but nice like anyway point is yeah I understand why you'd be interested in something like that but it's funny that it wasn't even like oh because this is going to be out on display in my home this literally just your it's just your road kit the only person who would see it would be you and the cleaning staff when you pull it out of your road kit and plug in a mix pre into it like that that that's going pretty far for a designer plug that isn't even really going to see you know it's not like your house guests are going to see it

this is the reason though andrew that i currently have i think it's four maybe i'll do this for the hey dummies this week people are asking me questions about my uh bags that i bring around and packing and things i'm currently working with i think three to four of these little leather satchels Thank you. that are I bought them from a like a leather place in Portland online but they I think that they're kind of like imperfections or they're you know what I mean they're like they're sort of I forget the name for them but I think what they are is like a kind of slightly messed up but in a way that they still function for what they're supposed to do but for some reason they're very very affordably priced I want to say they're like 15 or 20 dollars for one of them and the whole idea and i've actually been enjoying this is like one of them i have one that's kind of like a brownish leather and that one i put my any kind of iphone charging and apple watch charging in and then my my little portable i have these anchor chargers that are like a little black rectangle that you can put on the back of your phone and then i put my i have two sets of headphones so in case one of them dies on the flight i can put in the fresh ones those all go in this brown leather satchel and then i have a black leather i don't know if i'm using the word satchel right that's like a little a little bag a little a little what would you call that because the satchel indicate that

you sling it over a shoulder i do sort of think you sling it over your shoulder although i think i'm following what you're saying it's like not a satchel bag yeah yeah that you yeah like a

rectangular little bag that you could put anything you want in like i'm picturing a cheaper version

of it but maybe along the right size and maybe the right style is like when you of course this is probably not relatable but when you and i buy these like sony studio headphones that like radio stations have been using the same exact ones for as long as i've been in radio when you buy them they're like a hundred bucks a pop and they come in like a little black faux faux faux leather bag um is it about that size no oh big that that that sort of cinches at the that like has like a draw

string at the top if i remember right oh i see this flaps this is this has a no the top of it it just unzips so it's like imagine like here's okay here's a perfect this will this will help you and the listeners imagine a really really large sweet potato okay now i'm scared i might

have pictured it too large it looks angry okay i'm getting scared here i don't think i can do

the show okay the second largest sweet potato that you can imagine okay okay okay it's the shape of a sweet potato more or less except it's more shaped but it sits it's it's a long it's a rectangle and it in the the base of it is wider than the top of it and it sits on the on the desktop on the on the on the desk and then the top the whole top unzips so it's a rectangle that comes together at the top that unzips anyway this is this is five minutes of everyone's life we'll never get back here's my point on all this i've got one also now that's black that i put my like makeup in because yes i do carry here's what i have in it i have my little concealer pen that i need for my various imperfections i have a powder that i put on when i'm doing a tv thing i have a little mirror because i kept showing up at these uh you know to film something and like i would just have all this loose stuff in my pocket that was related to trying to look five percent less horrific on television and i just thought oh this could all just be in a little small containment device and then i know where it is this is my point in all this part of my part of my like way of making myself feel more organized and also more okay about the amount of time that i spend not at my house is by hyper curating the experience for myself so in other words i now have my little zippable leather bag that i keep all of my electronic kind of what do you call those um peripherals oh boy are they doing this again i meant to tell you they've been We're testing the fire alarm in here.

Oh, that's perfect for us. This is your fire and life safety director.

Oh, boy.

We are currently conducting a fire drill for employees.

Oh, good.

Employees only. This sounds like RoboCop.

This is the second one of the day, by the way. Before we dialed up, they were doing this. Okay.

Wow, that really sounds like RoboCop or some sort of dystopian announcement from a 1980s or 90s movie.

You know what's weird? This is a different fire and life safety director than who did the first one. I don't know if he messed up. I just think... Okay, well, I like the first one only read this message once. I don't like that this guy reads it twice. Also, get ready for about four sharp beeps. okay okay here we go let's play along if you're hearing this you do not need to report to your fire station this is just for the employees of the intercontinental hey you know what if this

had happened right at the beginning of the show if there it is here it is this town needs an enema and this is three

I kind of love a slide whistle. That's four. All right. I was going to say, if this had happened right at the beginning of the show and we had just launched right into this, it would have been in media res, Luke. In media res is the term I was looking for. That's the term. You got there. And you know that term, right? I think I've heard you say it before. Nope, I've never heard that term. Yeah, it means like in the middle of the action, when something starts in the middle of the action.

i feel like this is what you've come to teach all of us but me specifically is things like this because the other one that i can't ever remember is when somebody in a movie is listening to the radio but it's really the radio or something what's that diegetic so like if you're listening

if you're watching a tv show often the music is just for you the viewer right it's just like dubbed over top but if you're sitting there if somebody's sitting at the edge of their bed and they're like listening to a Rush song and like the, you know, everybody in the show can hear it. It's diegetic.

See, I love that. Also, you should write a book called Diegetics.

That would be a hit. Show title? An audio book.

But that one and then the, what's the other one? In Res? In Media Res.

In the middle of the action. In Media Res.

Okay, well, anyway, I'll wrap this up now other than to say the reason that I didn't or just by saying, that's what I mean to say. The reason that I would care about the, I guess we'll just go with this word that I use so often, the sort of aesthetic or the look of the extension cord that I'm going to start bringing with me is because somehow it being just a jank extension cord from CVS that no one will see, which is, by the way, a true thing. no one would ever see it except me it would cause me to feel impermanent in some way and kind of haphazard in a way that feels like my trips will be impermanent and haphazard i will always be a little bit off my game if i have a little zip up bag where i'm putting everything if i have a nice six foot and i decided six foot was the exact length a nice six foot braided extension cord that now lives in my bag so that when i get to the hotel i take it out and it looks nice There's something in my mind that tells me if everything is just so, then everything else in my life of travel will flow better from that. I don't think this is a real thing, but it's how my brain works.

Sure. I think you've explained that well enough, and I do understand what you're saying. But I mean, the pleasure of objects is a real thing. We have so much to talk about today. I just didn't want you to think I was blowing you off when I said that's a real – I do understand what you're talking about. No, I don't think so. I wouldn't probably put as much energy into it personally because I'm a lazy man, but I do.

And I put too much energy into it, admittedly.

And I'm certainly somebody who does appreciate objects, though. You know what I mean? Even if I don't go out and buy them, I definitely appreciate the just like whatever, whether it's something nostalgic for me, like an old like I have one of those. It's not really from the era, but it's a remade version of one of those like 1970s football video games. That's I'm just looking around my studio and like that's the first thing my eyes landed on. And you know what I'm talking about, where it's a little tiny little beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, like an early handheld football video game. It's kind of like, I just like that as an object or whatever. So, you know, I kind of appreciate your appreciation of stuff like that. From a practical level, though, and this is a very unfun thing to ask, those braided cords are actually, unless you probably, are you looking at thinner ones? Because I think of them as like less travel friendly. They seem non-compact, or maybe they make smaller ones than the ones I'm picturing.

they definitely the ones that you're thinking of and the ones we were talking about were very

like instant i mean this is the junkier the ones i was thinking of yeah yeah they have that kind

of like they basically have like an electrical box at the end yeah i knew you weren't getting the box that that would be ridiculous but i think before i think what's the the life cycle of something is somebody has an idea for a designy and this is what i'm a sucker for is like a quote unquote designy solution to something that may not even be a problem for me so it's like hey here's a here's a cookie sheet but guess what we're making it in this cool color and it has some kind of a vent you know it's it's and then somehow it's it's got something going for it that a regular cookie sheet doesn't and again it always comes down to the color for me or the look of it and then the like way it's presented on instagram this happened to me like this morning i saw some cookie sheet on that i was like what have i been doing with regular cookie sheets like some kind of damn fool i stopped myself but usually what happens is something somebody realized oh we could design something we can make something look cooler and then sell it to people that already have that thing and i feel like those braided the thing you and i have talked about that was a breakthrough when i saw that on instagram i was like that is a really nice look for this thing that otherwise could be kind of a little little cruddy looking and then what happens is somebody probably in china sees that and says let's make a way cheapo version of that and we'll sell it on amazon so that it it's it's got the braiding feature which to me is really what separates it but it's just like a six-foot extension cord with just a pretty normal end of an extension.

cord that's just maybe for one three-prong plug-in yeah but it's braided and it comes in four

potential colors and what colors are you looking at i'm looking at these online now i think i was

looking at something that was kind of black and white or something i actually haven't ordered it yet but this because i am trying to like i'm trying to really control my impulses a little bit more around acquiring things even something that's i think it's was like 1799 or something the one i was looking at like because uh you know i want to i want to decide if this is really a good use of 1799 and if i and certainly we've talked a lot about amazon i really really want to cut down on my amazon consumption so but anyway all that is to say the one that i was looking at seems sufficiently portable or travelable because it was a little different than the one you and i had been

talking about some months yeah yeah i knew that i knew you weren't going for the really chunky one but yeah they do make these nice and tight now you know i'm going to replace everyone in my studio So now I can't even look at my studio, thanks to you.

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.

We've got to thank some dazzling donors. These generous folks are donating a dazzling amount of dough each month. I really mean that. And it's keeping us in extension cord money, at least for now. And we couldn't be more grateful to folks like Kelly Hedgecock, who's in Kernersville, North Carolina. Kernersville, North Carolina. I don't know if I've been through Kernersville, North Carolina.

Big popcorn town. That's what I was thinking.

You're thinking of Kernersville.

I am. Yeah, common mistake. It's across the river, I think.

But wisely, Kernersville has jumped on that. So if you go to Kernersville looking for Kernersville, they'll still sell you popcorn.

Oh, definitely.

yeah at an upcharge you know uh kelly says hi friendos i want to thank the business boys for another great year of tbtl it's a joy to be a part of this community thank you to all the fellow tbtl card senders i i think it's around this time of year that i become especially grateful for the card operation andrew because i know it means a lot to folks and our friend melly i believe runs that um and it's like one of the things that people often cite about what they love about the tbtl community so thank you to everybody who's participating in that and uh and melly and the other folks for for helping coordinate it that's that's a big part of people's attachment to our show is sending letters to people in different parts of the country yeah absolutely i know that

a lot of folks have actually chipped in on that too um so yeah thanks to everybody to to continue

that tradition uh kelly says on a serious note i want to encourage the tens to support non-profit organizations in your community that work with those experiencing food and housing insecurity. There's some incredible work being done out there. Now, for fun, okay, so that's that part of the statement. Kelly couldn't agree more. This is always a good time to remind folks to really try to support people who are at most risk with what's going on politically in our country. um now uh let's see uh for the fun i would like to request any drop of raymond holt oh from brooklyn 99 i was not prepared okay okay can i suggest one she said kelly says dealer's choice okay i mean if you've got a favorite you know tenacious ray is a is an all-timer um although that's i mean not really a drop i guess that's like a full that's a good that's an intro to the

show right i just need to figure out what i would have saved that one on because was it do you think

it would be tenacious maybe i mean if i'm remembering the context okay good good all right kelly this is for you this is a little bit of uh raymond holt r.i.p by the way okay the computer is

tabulating oh you got category i9c3g6 i9c3g6 is that as good as it sounds you have a robust a sense of self and are well-suited to leadership positions, characteristics, strength, determination, tenacity.

Yes, I suppose that's accurate. They do call me Tenacious Ray down at the country club because for the past 10 years, I've been suing them for discrimination.

He is such a treasure. I've been watching that show more recently. It's like one of those where I just sort of like dip in and out and I've been watching that show. It's such, such a treasure. That show has a lot of standout performances that also bring you joy, specifically joy, not just happiness, but he especially just tops the list. It makes me so sad to think that he's gone, but boy, did he leave a legacy, though, and a lot of intro tape.

Thank you, Tenacious Ray, for all of your contributions to the team.

TBTL world. And thank you, Kelly, for supporting the program. Maestro?

On your mark. On your mark. Get set. Get set. Now ready. Ready. Go. Everybody rattle, dattle.

Everybody rattle. It's Gretchen Hayslip in Seattle, Washington. Hello, Gretchen.

What up, Gretchen? Thank you.

Gretchen says, since TBTL is my go-to source for distraction from the pathetic state of U.S. politics, here are my suggestions for 2025. I see. So these are if i'm understanding this right and this is as the listeners as the listeners will be unsurprised to hear this is my first time getting eyes on gretchen's dazzling donor message but my sense of it is gretchen is suggesting some topics for 2025 these are these are things paul paul these are topics these are the top 10 topics i've got so much you know it's because i'm like i'm in manhattan i'm not far from where the letterman show uh used to tape i also on the flight out here i was looking at tiktok and it was some clips of they did an entire letterman episode that was a salute to velcro and it famously has i don't know if you've seen that clip of letterman in a full velcro suit and he bounces off a trampoline up against a velcro wall yeah yeah i remember that from back in the day i don't know if i even experienced it in the day i think i kind of i sort of was aware of it because it was so legendary yeah that's what i watched it i think

i i've watched it before but obviously it was i i watched it after it was already kind of old like that i'm gonna put that at like 1983 ish probably but i do remember that being iconic for a long

time such great television like what it just what a silly silly thing that is so perfectly executed by david letterman with his timing and the way he's checking in with the guy from i don't know if the guy's a physicist or from the velcro institute or whatever but so uh paul top 10 topics that uh that gretchen would like us to to uh i guess interrogate and investigate in 2025 bingos bubbles benny talk all pet talk is good talk okay so pet talk okay another topic that gretchen will accept and again gretchen's paying for this so we have to take this seriously diy home renovation garbage anxiety and also yes weird neighbors this is one i think i can still deliver on for another i can definitely deliver on this for another good six to eight months because i think that's how much more time walt and i still have on on trying to kind of button

things up there at the madrona hill studio i i see this and i am listen gretchen paid to play here i am not trying i don't want to degradate this uh i don't want to um degrade degrade that's not even the right word either though i'm now really in my head but um i feel like these are three different bullet points is my point oh i diy home renovation yeah garbage anxiety and like neighbor interactions those seem like three very different things i see the but listen the i think

that the organizing principle here is home related yeah that's true stuff that happens so these are all home related things um and so you've got to andrew you've got to get back into your garbage anxiety and also get some weirdsies going with the neighbors then the problem is i love my neighbor

and we only have one set of neighbors and they're great folks and so yeah I mean I guess I gotta ruin that relationship for the show you gotta sacrifice for the show man alright I'll tune in tomorrow I'm gonna do something awful to their house

alright Gretchen would also accept conversations around sport while not being a big sport fan I do like strange or bad athlete behavior same for celebrities Gretchen would you accept questionable hairdo decisions like we talked about on yesterday's show from the Liberty coach i think we're there i like hearing this from gretchen that gretchen is not a big sports fan but is okay with listening to strange or bad athlete behavior because well maybe that's not our main topic i i do you know you can tell in my voice when we talk about sports and you can tell in how i present it that i'm always worried that we go way too into sports town for people that don't care about sports and we're always trying to frame it as it's not about sports it's about can we watch sports or it's about why the guy who does sports do that to his hair so i feel like gretchen putting this on the list means we're not completely alienating her when we talk about sport as long as it's about the human condition that's exactly right sky jinx good afternoon this is

your captain speaking i didn't know this is the log version like 209 or clear for a vector of three two four we have clear experience roger roger what's our vector victor oh it's a big A pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the window, and wheels, and it looks like a big Tylenol. Sky Jinks.

Oh, man. I forgot that this originally had that whole intro on it.

And had Dave singing Sky Jinks.

Do you remember what happened? I made that just with the montage for Ross and Burbank. And then Dave was like, I can sweeten that for you. And he took it home to his studio and multi-tracked himself singing the Sky Jinks jingle.

And it's one of the greatest things I've ever heard in my life.

So great, yes.

That man driving, that man walking up innumerable steps under I-5, getting in his early model Prius, driving home, saying hello to the family, and going into his studio and recording multi-layers of Sky Jinks is just one of the greatest things ever. Sky Jinks, yes, please. I like Luke's stories about interesting or rude people he meets on his travels. Well, thankfully, Gretchen, that's a sort of naturally renewing resource. I'm almost always going somewhere, and I'm almost always having feelings about it, so we will continue on with that. Stories from listeners about things from their childhood that they never told anyone. Ooh, I love that. Not actual trauma, but like finding Popeye erotica in Grandpa's closet.

That was a good voicemail, yes.

I forgot about that day on the show. I feel like we found a lot, because I think I realized that I may have seen some Popeye erotic in my day as well. Yeah, I think so too, yeah. That was like a real kind of repressed memory for me.

Yeah, and why so many sexual fantasies around Popeye? Well, I guess he was in good shape.

I think it was, yeah, it must have been that he was, you know, in good shape. He was also, you know, associated with a certain vigor, like, you know, you eat the spinach and it's just like your body changes in a lot of ways.

Yeah, remember when him and Olive Oil were in those tubs out in the woods on the bluff overlooking the river?

Gretchen would also accept quizzes, especially ones from old magazines, extra points for Reader's Digest, anything to distract me. In the words of A.I. Paul Giamatti, I could really use a win here.

I feel ya, but that's a good idea. You know I love me some quizzes, you know I love me some Reader's Digest.

Okay, it's over now is the good news, Andrew. It's done.

safety director. This concludes the fire drill.

All right, we did it.

What if... Now, he's going to say it again, though. I think that's his move. Let's just see.

Did he say, I say it again?

Yes, he literally said, I say it again. It's like, bro, you don't. I know you don't, because the other guy didn't.

I like the sound of this, though. You may see or hear

as if it was an actual emergency.

I know what it reminds me of. You know what this reminds me of? And it sticks in my brain specifically because I made, as one of my projects for a radio production class, I had to make a commercial. And I decided to make a promo for the movie The Hudsucker Proxy. It was the longest radio commercial for a movie ever made. and i used a bunch of this is like again you'll you'll you'll understand why this kind of played to my strengths or how this is who i would become but like i was like i have to make a commercial for something okay how about i take something where i can use a whole bunch of audio drops like because i don't think i called them drops at the time but basically i just took a whole bunch of clips from the hud sucker proxy and then i made like a radio trailer for it basically with my voice but i would love that it began with the um audio announcement or the intercom announcement or whatever you would call that from the hud sucker proxy do you remember that it was like it would blast through the factory like attention hud sucker employees attention hud sucker employees do you have any idea what i'm talking about i totally do i couldn't have told you the

specifics of it but i remember that i have like a sense memory of that from that movie because i loved that movie so much yeah well i'm glad that worked out you know the funny part is i recorded like the first time it happened before we were rolling i recorded like a little bit of the alarm sound on the voice memo of my phone i thought well maybe this would be useful but all it was just like some beeps or whatever some siren whatever's those are and so it's actually kind of funny that it happened again during the recording like that was actually a much more

interesting expression of that whole thing it really kind of yeah it gave me some feels i uh

i love the sound of that honestly well you're welcome gretchen that was just for you and our other dazzling donor today thank you so much to both of you it's uh who was our other dazzling

donor it was kelly hedgehog it was our friend kelly in kernersville don't call it right

hello and welcome to top story i can knock out my little contribution to the top stories in under one minute, Andrew, and it is, I'm very excited that this Saturday, uh, the old Livewire radio program is, will be, uh, will be part of the Saturday lineup, the Saturday night lineup, but okay, still of WNYC radio right here in New York city. And I, we found out like a week ago or something that this was happening. And it's like a big deal for our show because WNYC is the biggest public radio station in America, like the most listeners. And also it's just kind of legendary and i i you know i kind of worked there when i was younger and and uh have always you know it's loomed very large in my mind and and to to get to have a show that's that's on like we couldn't even get the bryant park project on wnyc

really i think that they were oh because they they had their own they were starting a new show that was supposed to be the same basic mission at the same time right um with celeste headley and uh yes blanking right yeah yeah the takeaway the takeaway the reason they wouldn't carry is because

they were doing their own version of that show right so we were on in new york city we were this big you know big npr production with a lot of money behind it and we're like not on in new york city yeah interesting um you know it was kind of it was kind of crazy so the it's it's you know for me it's very gratifying um just to kind of think about for my job life but also this is the weird way that i've been geeking out i know i'm going over my minute here but i'll make it short when i get to uh just about any city and i'm you know kind of getting ready in the morning doing my thing i always listen to the local public radio station just like on my phone it makes me feel connected i don't know why i love hearing the traffic reports of the city i'm in oftentimes i don't even understand any of the references but i just like just like the patter and i've been listening to wnyc while i've been here and it's like i just hear these promos for random shows on the station and i just think oh that's gonna be me like hey it's luke burbank this week on live wire like i don't know why it is the promos on wnyc are making me excited that that that uh i'll get to you know be a voice of of a promo of something i promise you more people will hear the promo than we'll hear the actual show at 10 o'clock on a saturday night but uh it has

always the truth but that's not nothing though honestly i was gonna say that like there that's why promos are kind of important because more people will hear the promos than the actual show

like that's just the reality of radio yeah so it's you know you're talking about uh having a you know the feels or getting a feel i'm kind of getting a feel here in new york it's also interesting that we just found out it might have literally been last week and then i just so happened to have a week-long trip to new york that was coincidentally scheduled like i'll almost i could almost tune in for the first episode here i will be in wisconsin technically but anyway i'm feeling good about that so if you're in new york uh please uh call the wnyc and tell them you've never heard anything as good as that live wire show that you heard at 10 p.m. on saturday and tell them they need to move it to 10 a.m. on saturday as soon as possible so we'll get some listeners and that the promos are pretty boss yeah exactly tell them the promos uh are some of the most incredible promos you've heard as well now let's talk about something that actually i believe you messaged me on friday about something that happened to you speaking of local public radio You were leaving KUOW, and you got a call or something. What happened with this?

Yeah, so this really kind of freaked me out. It really freaked me out. I don't know why I did that voice. I was looking at my phone while I was talking. So on Friday, actually on TBTL, we even sort of set this up. We talked about the fact that after TBTL on Friday, I headed over to KUOW to be on the live show that airs at noon. And it's like, you know, our friend Bill Radke hosts it and they get like three guests. And it's kind of a roundtable to talk about what happened in the news that week. Usually it's pretty local. Usually it's Seattle based. This one, I was telling you, I was pretty nervous because it kind of got into more like kind of like a conversation about where the country is at right now, where the Democratic Party on a national level is right now. And then some state stuff. I found a little bit in over my head going in to be on this radio show on Friday. And I would say, you know, the results were mixed. Certainly, we can maybe talk. We could break down my performance on that show more another time. I will say I either need to stop doing that show or I need to just accept the fact that when it's done, it's done. Because the Friday nights, what happens is I do that show. I'm really nervous going in. I do the show during it. I'm like, oh, this could be going worse. Then afterwards, I'm kind of elated. i'm like oh god i got through it and i'm on this like adrenaline buzz for like yeah a good few hours and i'm joking like at least two hours i'm like pretty buzzed and then you get the friday forget the friday free grits yes and then usually it happens around the evening time i'm like oh man i got through that and then i come home i started working on some project on my computer and then i start what i call chris farleying out like hardcore like hardcore like like oh you idiot oh god why'd you say that and it's not even and the sad thing is it's not even it's not even um restricted to what i've said on the radio but like i'll start going through all my interactions of everybody i saw at the station that day and i'm like why did i say that to arvid or whatever i'm like dude you can't live your life like this like you have to give yourself a little bit of grace not like i literally like at some point late at night i started thinking that everybody in the world just

thinks I'm a buffoon but anyway so going back to the moments immediately after I got off the air so I'm pretty like kind of adrenalized right now we had done the show it went okay kind of the person I was on was much more like I don't know if she would be technically MAGA but she was like a Republican Republican who was there I told you going in I was not going in to win or to debate And this was the first like sort of like conservative guest I was in on who clearly wanted to win in debate. I kept things like very jovial. Like I'm not in the business of that. I don't want to set myself up for failure by like trying to engage in a debatey way. But she said some pretty bonkers stuff about like she's referring to Elon Musk as a Democrat. Like I was like, well, like I'm not even getting into this. So there were several things that were thrown out there. I'm just like, I don't maybe I should have curly. a little bit yeah just throw this stuff out there and am i am i supposed to like fact check this stuff because i'm not in a place to do that but i also recognize that most of the listeners i think kind of identified the thing she was saying is the thing she was saying all of that is to say i get off the air and i'm not quite to the point where i'm breaking down yet i'm just kind of like still buzzing or whatever and often me and our friend durs will go get lunch or something afterwards but they had a fundraiser going on and at the radio station and he was kind of he was really busy doing other things he's like also there's a huge spread of food like in this in this area with a bunch of windows that they call or at least used to call the crystal palace sort of a kind of a green room kind of area you know it is the one that overlooks the ave right it's got those windows that come out at angles anyway it's a beautiful view of the of the city down below just just two floors down but anyway um all i was gonna say was uh we're standing around And Andy's eating. I'm still way too Andy is ders. I don't know if I just doxed him, but now everybody knows. I'm you know, he's like snacking and I'm meeting other people who are kind of coming through fun drive mode. They're they're eating the free food and everybody's chatting. I'm way still too adrenalized to really eat anything. But, you know, still like just kind of kind of very much in my head and very much feeling like I say, like sort of a little bit high, I think, on adrenaline. And then I'm like, oh, I haven't checked my phone in a couple of hours. I've been on the radio, and I've been chatting with people. And I look at my phone, and I see I have a missed voicemail. And I hit play, and this is what I hear. Let's see if this is...

Hello, this is Sergeant Cedric Smith with the Kings County Sheriff's Office. And I was calling to reach Mr. Andrew Walsh. Mr. Walsh, give me a call back at your earliest convenience, my call back number being 206-280.

Ma, ma, ma, ma, I'll not put that... Okay, so, and then I think he repeats that he's from...

sheriff's office was your first thought that i had done something that's interesting no it was not like we need you to come get luke burbank please no weirdly that wasn't that well it's king county

so here's the deal so i'm already in sort of an altered state and that's why i kept on like saying that like my head is i'm my head is kind of swimming as it often is in the first few minutes after doing the live show plus i'm seeing a bunch of old colleagues i'm meeting uh people i've never met before kow i'm sort of like sort of like not really thinking super straight i'm making small talk with andy about the new um about the new mariners app or whatever and then i then i hear this somebody calling from the sheriff's department and my first thought honestly is well i guess my very very first thought is like what kind of trouble could i could i have even gotten into but that was a very fleeting thought because then my next thought is oh shit genevieve drove to work today Genevieve never drives to work Genevieve gets on the train and the bus and all that but it was a day where we had to get our car in to have it serviced some sort of like recall situation had been on the calendar for a long time and it was a rare Friday where Genevieve had to go to the office so we had been talking for like a week or so about the fact that like Friday was the day Genevieve was going to take the car in the morning she never does that drive into work and then drive out to Ballard and I'm just kind of like I immediately am like the sheriff's department is calling me and i know genevieve is on the streets like it was such a weird i know that she's not just in her office right now and i flip out i i say to andy i'm like andy this is the sheriff's department i don't know what's going on i need a place i need to make a phone call i need to find a quiet place and he's like oh yeah of course of course and you know he's he knows what is on this voicemail so he gets me into a little studio that nobody is using and i'm like i can't have somebody come in on me he's like don't worry about it here i'll just sign you out in the studio the studio is yours for a half hour it's a little like you don't want it to be like the time i walked

in on marcy sulman expressing breast milk right exactly circa 1997 which which was which was

terrifying so i um so i'm like oh my god so i go in this little booth and i take out my cell phone and i call the number back and it rings

Thank you.

like i don't know four or five times which i thought was surprising and then it goes to voicemail and it's like another it's not this person it's another person but again with um i don't know if that accent we just heard i don't i don't think that was a southern accent but the outgoing voicemail had a it was somebody saying you've reached the king county sheriff's department but it was somebody with a pretty thick southern accent a fella and as i'm hearing this outgoing voicemail i'm like this doesn't seem right this does not feel like i'm calling the sheriff's department right now why would it ring that was it a 206 number it was that's the thing it was a 206 number and the outgoing message did say king county sheriff's department but it didn't say like you've reached the desk of sergeant so-and-so and other unless i was calling a desk directly why wouldn't there be a switchboard like what and but i'm still like kind of freaked out and i'm still thinking about Genevieve and I'm and so I leave a voicemail but as I'm leaving the voicemail I think I'm realizing what's going on here is this a scam and so I say hey this is Andrew Walsh I'm returning your phone call you already have my number you can give me a call back and maybe I maybe I left the number again my number again but as I'm leaving the number I think I start I'll bet you if you were to hear that voicemail you would start to hear the skepticism in like a 10 or 15 second voicemail you would hear my skepticism kick in and then the energy as i leave my number dip i'm like who am i leaving this message for and why would they not pick up and then what i do immediately after that is i call genevieve which is what i probably should have done first she picks up on like the first or second ring i'm like are you okay and she's like yeah and she's i'm like okay i'm like i got a call from the supposedly the sheriff's department it's freaked me out for the past like three minutes but i'm now realizing this might have been a scam and i kind of told her what happened and then as i'm telling her what happened i do get a call back from them and it's now it just sounds so sketchy i can hear a whole bunch of people talking in the background all men

so you actually yeah so you actually clicked over to the call i said veves hold on a second hold on

i'll bet you this is them and at this point i think we're like oh yeah these are scammers and i'm like let me just check and so somebody calls me back and i'm like hello and he's like hi i'm returning your phone call and i'm like yeah i was returning your phone call can i have your first and last name please and i also hear a bunch of men like at phone banks behind him talking and i'm like you called me you should have my first and last name and there's like a really long pause and it's so loud i can't even tell if this guy says something to me or if some some if one of his colleagues says something like that his fellow sheriff yeah and then i just literally say i'm like is this a scam are you scamming me and then it's just like a long silence with a lot of background noise and then i just hung up and i went back to veves i'm like yeah like i am a little embarrassed that i even called this number back but it's a perfect example of how they want you to panic i was already in a head swimming mode because of just getting off the radio that's a coincidence but when you say i'm calling from the sheriff's department and you immediately think of your loved ones like they've already got you and then i'm calling back a scammer with a 206 number you know like they did it right they had an outgoing message saying that they were the sheriff's department they had a 206 number and they scared the shit out of me because i immediately could pictured our car with genevieve behind the wheel wrapped around a telephone pole or something but they never called back again and i guess it's over but just be careful did you block the number No, I didn't. But, I mean, you know, if they call me back.

Because, like, I feel like, yeah, my worry there, and I can totally see how that happens. This is why just the sheer numbers game that they play, they're basically spamming however many thousands of people with that on the hopes that one of them is walking out of a stressful situation and it was the day that their partner drove the car. You know what I mean? Because there's any other day of the week, let's say, Genevieve is just sitting, you know, over at her work area in your guys' basement. and you get that call and it's just like you just got done doing tbtl so you're not maybe kind of in that same emotional place then you probably you probably maybe quick more quickly read it for what it is but they they just hit so many people up that somebody is going to be having a bad day or a stressful day or is some you know what i mean eventually they'll get to somebody who it triggers into calling them back and and then they're off to the races and what's interesting to me i wish we we had more time to talk about this maybe we can pick this up tomorrow because i think it's really interesting that they've now brought this scam home i'm going to assume these folks were in the u.s because one of the big things about these kinds of scams is that historically i think they've mostly originated from overseas and so you have a pretty like distinct accent situation you just have a lot of kind of like things i do believe also you do yeah you have things that kind of you might hear and go what are the chances that this organization is calling me but the person Thank you.

who is calling me from the organization, sounds a lot like they might be in a faraway place. I believe also he says Kings County, which I don't want to give these guys notes, but really they should work on calling it King County.

Oh, is that true? I feel like that's, I don't know, let's hear. Keep in mind, like you kind of knew what was coming. I'll tell the audience.

No, no, no, none of this is saying that you got duped. I'm just saying.

But I told you, I texted you and said, I almost fell for a scam. So during this story right now, you knew that this was a scam when you heard this voicemail. and i was just like you know in a crowded room but i 100 understand why yeah you're right kings

county i listen dude i if i would have gotten that message you know about you know cowlitz county where i live or something i would have been really shook because again not to get so hung up on this accent thing but like the fact that it's somebody who sounds very much like they're in the united states that seems like a new frontier yeah for this kind of thing the same

Same thing to Genevieve. Yeah, I think that that was some another thing that made it sound authentic to me.

And my guess is that I don't know how involved this was, but my guess is that this was one of those you hear about this so much now where it used to just be like we're going to they're going to try to maybe steal your personal information or get you to send some kind of money. now there's this whole scam where they call allegedly from law enforcement and they'll say or they'll say they're calling from governmental agency and that your identity has been stolen and the only way for you to um not have your bank accounts emptied is to take all of your money out and put it into like gold or some crypto oftentimes they'll send a physical vehicle to come pick remember we're talking about that financial writer yes that's what genevieve said

you know don't how much money did she have she took out all her savings whatever it was fifty I think it was 50 K. Yeah. Well, that, that leads me. That's what, because the one part of the story that I, that I haven't told you yet is having to go to Andy's desk and be like, it was a scam because he's the one person who saw me freak out. He's like, no, that's totally understandable. But then he's like, yeah, my grandfather got one of those calls about, I think it was his grandfather got one of those calls about like, Hey, um, your, your grandson, not him, but some cousin of his or something. yeah has been arrested or something like that and i guess the grandfather before even engaging called his son and said hey is my grandson in your house he's like yeah he's downstairs playing video games and and i was like yeah your grandfather realized he was being scammed before i did that's not making me feel any better about well but yeah i don't i don't think this is a

story of you being gullible i think this is a story of these things getting unfortunately better and a particular moment in time where you're kind of like your your head is really in a different place but like that's honestly that that's really kind of frightening to think about because you know whether it's whether it's one of us or whether it's a loved one or maybe even an older parent or somebody who might be particularly susceptible it's like it's it's getting they're getting better and better at it like if that guy if that guy would have called me and said king county instead of kings county i would have called him back like i would have i would have totally believed that this was because he doesn't sound unlike somebody that could work for the sheriff's department, you know, like that could have, that could have really like, and I mean, I told you that I was on the phone, you know, this was a, I don't know, eight months ago. I was on the phone with scammers in like some other faraway place because I got that email that said, we're renewing your, I forget what the account was. It was just like some BS account that I might've had at some point, you know, we're renewing your, your like a turbo tax account or something for $300. But if you don't want to renew it call this number and i was like 300 and of course i had just woken up and looked at my phone it was like the first thing i saw my brain wasn't totally turned on yet and i was like on the phone with the guy for at least 45 seconds before i realized same thing by the way the call center that's i mean if these guys ever figure out to not all be in the same room we're sunk yeah right yeah that's the thing like the simple thing of them not realizing how audible it is that there's other people there that might be the only thing standing between all of us and

getting totally scammed at this point and i'll be honest with you it's not uh unlikely that a busy sheriff's department wouldn't be loud with a bunch of people talking on the phone like i've not i mean i've seen brooklyn 99 speaking of mike sure exactly i know that things get loud

please connect me with tenacious ray that's right i've received a call anyway well dude that sucks man that's also just like a stressful emotional journey for you to go on of having a moment of being that worried about, you know, Genevieve, like, um, that sucks, man. I mean, I guess it's a good lesson to all of us to really, really, really, uh, you know, sort of double check everything and, and, and, and understand that the way that they're trying to get us is to put us into the emotional state that you got into the panic mode. Yes. And I do wonder, like,

I'm sort of curious, like, where would that have gone? How would it have, how would it have eventually turned into separating me from my money? What would the story have been? And I'll be honest with you, I still have

have the number obviously and my phone we could call them tomorrow i mean i don't think it's a good idea i don't want you to be any more on their radar yeah but like part of me is like where where would this go i mean they they're clearly not that savvy because when i call in they're like you give me your name and number again uh or give me your first and last name again it's kind of like okay you don't even know who i am like we could call them and just like from our voicemail line our tbtl voicemail line and just like pretend like we had just received a phone call from them i don't think that they would know and i'm sort of curious as you know i am i do have a fascination with these scammers me and our friend katie will often like try to string them along as much as possible when they text us and like we'll develop like oh that's so funny because they'll send photos and then like i've gotten no time for it now but i've gotten some of the most encouraging uplifting compliments from scammers who are like because i always try to make it sound like i'm a little bit older and a little and a lot richer and so like the last time this happened i was telling this whole story they'll eventually be like oh what um what industry are you in i'm like well i made a lot of money in tech and now i'm getting ready to retire or whatever i'll say that and they're like oh well what was your business like and i'll tell them be like wow it really sounds like you're really making something uh of yourself that's that's really cool i'm just like thank you and then by the end i'm kind of like well i'm glad that scammer said nice things about me but i feel confident enough and obviously knowing from text number one that it's a scammer so i don't feel like they're i'm going to like somehow become an idiot at some point and give them my right but sure but we should probably be careful because as i continue to age i'm probably not getting more savvy with the ways of the technological world well i'm just worried

about and we really do got to wrap this up but i i'm just worried about the voice cloning stuff yeah AI stuff yeah the the time at with the time when you could get a call and it could sound convincingly like a loved one in your life and there they need your help and like that's that's when I think it's going to be really really really hard to figure out what's going on um but uh you know uh and also it's funny because like my approach is so different than yours in that the second that i realize it's a scam or that i'm getting a scam text i block the number and i want to just like throw my phone into the river because i don't want to be on anyone's radar as like oh that's a live human who picks up the phone ever i feel like that only might come in to come to haunt me later or something i don't know but man it's it's a crazy world out there i meanwhile i'm

dealing with three card monty on every corner here details i'll be right here the whole time just listening such a good story sorry to uh i was trying to wedge that in this is a really good story luke tell me more and don't leave out any details i'll be right here the whole time just

listening such a good story i thought i thought you were creating an ai version of yourself in danger that the scammers were going to use on me and this is where you were going to find out that

i will do nothing at all even if i think it's your real voice just talk over top of it you could you

You could call me and they could call me with like a really convincing version of being like, Luke, I'm in jail. Look, Luke, they have me. You have to please do have to come get me or at least give them the money to release me. And I'd be like, you'll figure it out.

Welcome to a Thursday edition of TBTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. I don't remember which listener made those AI versions of our voices, but that was already years ago and they're way better. They could do it even better now. I know, right?

All right.

Well, anyway, I'm glad you I'm glad you didn't get even more scam than that. Don't feel bad, Andrew. Don't don't be mean to yourself about that. I would have again, I would have been really shook by that as well. So, yeah. All right. I'm going to shake up the audience tomorrow with my full report on Pez candy and what the hell happened in the 80s. 1983, 1985 and 1988. I'm going to get to get on top of that case and report back tomorrow. Even if even if I have to bring the King County Sheriff in on it, we're going to get to the bottom. the king's county sheriff all right well thank you so much everybody for listening we will be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you in the meantime have a great tuesday and please remember no mountain too tall and good luck to all

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