Muse

So a ghost walks into the bar, and the ghost is like, and the bartender is like, oh god, oh sorry, you're a ghost. With the sheet, I thought, and the ghost is like, that I'm a racist. And the bartender's like, yeah, you should probably do like a printed, Stephanie? And the ghost is like, Tom? Bartender's like, I haven't seen you since we went on that date all those years ago what happened and the ghost is like I died and the bartender's like well I guess that explains why I never heard back from you and the ghost is like oh um I I actually uh I actually died like like like like a week ago the bartender's like it's it's fine you water under the bridge and the ghost is like that's actually what killed me the bartender's like really and the ghost is like no it's just a dumb joke uh it's a car accident and the bartender's like well regardless it's really nice to see you again the ghost is like it's nice to see you too what do you say i buy us a first round and we catch up like old times and the bartender says well i'd love to but you don't serve spirits

TBTL

we're not it's just that kind of tune all right hello good morning and welcome everyone to a friday edition of tbtl the show that just might be too spooky to live you are boring me to death and i am already dead you're boring me back to death my name is luke burbank i am your host coming to you from the madrona hill studio perched high above the mighty columbia here on Halloween 2025 as we've made it folks to episode 4588 in a collector's series let the fun begin lots to talk about today on the program including uh well another day another AI topic I guess or maybe a voice clone topic is a more accurate way to put it uh story in the New York times today about podcasts that are not secretly, but very publicly. Basically using voice clone technology to recreate their own shows and put

them out. Then I slid into my computer chair and with a few clicks of my mouse, I became a mom on the net.

Speaking of podcasts, there's a new old podcast out. There's the latest version of an old podcast and it's really good. Everyone's got a podcast. I'd tell you about that and what is going on in the world of podcasting and also what's going on in this guy's world he is the longest running cobro of the show maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships of course it's halloween people are going to be dressing up there's going to be all kinds of merriment he will be the guy at the party who is not dressed up i'm starting to feel

like a corn dog and a hot dog party and it ain't flattering i'll tell you that but he's okay with

that he's andrew walsh and he's joining me right now good morning my friend good morning luke i'm

going to be at a in a party of one and it's going to be me in the basement in fact i have a bit of a Halloween conundrum that I'd like to tell you about here at the top of the show, and this is it. Is it a scary conundrum? Is it a haunted conundrum? It's a scarenundrum. It's a scarenundrum. Okay, sure, I'll go with that. I really wanted to do better there. I really wanted to do better. I am not a huge Halloween person, as you know. I'm not a Halloween person really at all, and that's fine. We all have our own things. Genevieve is a huge Halloween person, and she is going to her, like, I think 17th Halloween event

tonight? Is she doing yet another costume? We have Daria,

we have Helly R. Is there a third? I think it's Helly R. I think we're rolling with Helly R. And she's going to this Halloween party event drag show thing that I think is put on by the Seattle ballet, I want to say. Okay, sounds fun. Yes. Do you want some more appropriate

music? Confused. for talking about your halloween plans okay that sounds good it's not a scary story but

well it is now this will make it scary it is now and anyway so i you know that that's great by me i'm going to be home uh you know throwing darts doing whatever uh it's just another friday night for me and uh but the thing is we got a note from our neighbors like not next door but some for

Folks in our neighborhood who have tots, young kids, and they like to go. They like to organize a pretty just a few days in advance. They send out an email saying, hey, we're going to put together a little Halloween neighborhood crawl. You know, if you have the kiddos that want to go trick or treating, come meet at our house, have some apple cider with us, and then we'll all go around the neighborhood trick or treating. It all sounds very sweet and something that I am not going to participate in. But they put something at the end of the email that said, if you are, you know, somebody who lives here and you're handing out Halloween candy or whatever, please put your porch lights on. And if you're not handing out candy, please turn your porch lights off. And that makes sense. You don't want to, like, waste everybody's time by knocking on a door that seems inviting and then nobody answers the door. Well, I don't plan on spending any time answering the door. I can't hear the door in the basement. I just keep the door locked. But all the time we have lights on in our yard that kind of gives our yard a little bit of life. You know, we have these two strings of, like, garden lights that you can probably picture the sort of, you know, the light bulbs that are the size of one of those small mandarin oranges. Is mandarin the right word? You know what I'm talking about? They're not Edison bulbs because those are shaped differently. But, you know, the nice little outdoor garden lights that a lot of people have. We have two strings of those along our walkway, which kind of really brightens up the place. We leave them on 24-7 and just a regular porch light. And it's always on, and it seems like I have absolutely no compunctions. Can that be plural, compunction? Sure. Can you have more than one compunction? I believe so. This story is getting scary. Does Andrew know words? He doesn't. Let's make it a little, let's make it fun. Here we go. Let's make it lunch. Yeah, you know what, thank you. The pace was really, the pace was flagging. I hear it, I hear it. So anyway, do you understand what I'm getting to here is...

Yeah, it's going to look like you've turned on your heart light, but in fact you have a heart of stone and you don't want to give cute kids candy, so you're going to have a problem.

Yeah, because I don't... So I realize what the polite thing to do is to turn, to unplug these lights and turn the lights off, which is going to make our house, which is all, you know, we have a corner house. It's always well lit in the yard. Hopefully it kind of generally looks inviting like a little secret garden if you can see through the hedges or whatever. and now we're going to just go dark and it seems so rude like I don't want to be rude I just don't feel like spending my night waiting to see if somebody knocks on the door and like sitting in a room I don't usually sit in waiting for the knocks to end or whatever so like I have no problem with people trick or treating I just don't want any part of it but by turning by going dark as if there's like a as if it's like well I was going to say something dark about World War 2 and not wanting the bombers to see us but like just going dark just seems

so antisocial and rude well listen i don't know how we have this conversation without me sounding a little finger waggy i don't feel like this is going to end well but like i'm just surprised that you're not more intrigued by the idea of giving candy to adorable children because that is one when i now i live in an area where like nobody trick-or-treats out here there's not enough houses but like there were so many halloweens where i was sitting there with a giant bowl of candy waiting for any kid and their parents to come by for candy and and in fact there was you know nobody came by there's not that much trick-or-treating i would because you do like kids and and and you are a fun guy you are a sweet guy to kids and animals alike i guess i would have expected that you might have been more into the idea of handing out candy no i mean it's

just not practical like maybe if the door was near the area where i would hang out for fun maybe i would but i don't like first of all like like i say it's my friday night i'm gonna be down here listening to records probably maybe having my headphones on throwing darts in the basement like i can't hear the front door from where i am which is a real invite for people to um come into my dark yard tonight and break in but well like for me to participate it means i've got to like not do anything that I want to do and go upstairs until they said until eight o'clock and like just sit around upstairs waiting for the occasional knock that'll probably come like well oh and also if they're all going together like I just wait around for one knock to come and then and then I'm done for the night then I unplug the lights like I don't know like just yeah and what am I gonna do upstairs I guess if I were cooking or something that'd be one thing but i just don't i don't feel like changing my plan so that i can hand out candy to strangers i get no joy out of that i'm not i i'm not that's what i'm surprised

by i'm surprised that that um the the giving of candy to like some cute little kid doesn't doesn't create joy for you because i would expect it would actually based on knowing no it doesn't i don't

and again You don't want to. You want to be full candy bar guy? I mean, you want to talk about having a friggin' stellar rep in the neighborhood? And that whole pies.

Real-sized candy bar guy? What about full blueberry pies that are straight out of the oven? I'm just in my kitchen making blueberry pies and just handing them out.

The parents would probably appreciate that. The kid's less so. But, like, if you really want to flex. I'm like Dennis the Menace's mom. Yes. If you want to really be, like, the hero of the neighborhood, become the guy who is known to give out full-ass candy bars on Halloween. You will be a legend amongst the children in the neighborhood.

What makes you think I want to be the hero of the neighborhood? Because it's fun. What about me has ever said, I want everybody to know me in the neighborhood?

Oh, I think you want them to think of you fondly. Well, how about this? This is a solution.

I want people to not think of me, but if they think of me, not have bad thoughts, basically.

Not fondly, not think of you.

I don't care if people think of me like, oh, what a great guy. Just be like, yeah, he's okay. I don't want people to think like that guy's a jerk, but I don't care about winning the hearts and minds of the neighborhood.

Here's my solution. bowl of candy on the porch

yeah that is one thing that I was just thinking about that in the shower would that be practical I just leave all the lights on I get a little table I put a huge bowl of candy out there and yeah that's fine I can do that should it be black licorice oh god no now I'm trying to lean into good and plenty I don't want people to think ill of me I'm just going to put out a whole thing of good and plenties. How did that get off the ground? I actually like good and plenties.

I said this the other day about bananas. Like I said, I feel like we were using bananas in things back when we didn't have as good of stuff. Back when that was a treat. Like you'd get an orange for Christmas and it'd be like, amazing, we got an orange. Like I feel like good and plenties had to be from that era when it was like, this is just better than the alternative of eating dust. Yeah. Like it does not compete in the modern candy environment.

I do like black licorice and therefore I do like good and plenties, but the idea of them, but, but I understand, but I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying because absolutely it's the idea of giving a child black licorice as candy is kind of like saying, Oh, you want candy? It's like, it's like giving a kid a carton of cigarettes. And so they smoke them all and then they'll never want to smoke again. Oh, you want candy? Do you? Oh, I got something for you. How about some good and plenties? You want it? Hey kid, you wanted candy. By the way, I'm glad you brought up the cereal thing because I wanted to, I had this idea after the show or after the segment when we were talking about different fruits that we put into cereals. And I'm with you. Growing up, we put bananas in our cereal. I wouldn't do it anymore. But we were also talking about how on the covers of cereal boxes these days, and I don't know if it was true when we were growing up, but you never see bananas in cereal. You see strawberries in blueberries. and I think we saw one that put raspberries in their bowl of cereal on the front of the box I have a theory though Luke and I want you to go with me on this what if I look up the cereal box for like not granola what is the word I'm looking for like oatmeal don't you think that oatmeal might have a banana in it does that sound right to you

I could see that being yeah maybe I'm thinking a swirl of like a swirl of brown sugar yeah that's more likely maybe a pat of butter that's more likely quaker

oats has oh strawberries oh come on that's too edgy that's that's banana well it's not bananas no they're right it's a one raspberry and one strawberry and quaker oats i am surprised i thought quaker oats would drop some bananas in there but yeah maybe that's even grosser maybe they would just cook the banana more did you grow up eating any cream of wheat aka farina i don't know about farina but i definitely i loved cream of wheat i preferred it over oatmeal

me too i loved cream of wheat as a kid because we would put peanut butter in it and then uh it's either syrup or honey but we would always mix in a big thing of peanut butter so it'd kind of have a peanutty nutty flavor and then there'd be some sort of sweetener in there I was a big, I was into that as a kid. That would be like a fun morning if I came up into the kitchen on the way to school and I could smell that there was a cream of wheat being made.

We did not put peanut butter, and I never heard of that before. I'm trying to think.

Again, probably just a weird thing my family was doing.

I don't know. Maybe. But I definitely, and by the way, I just don't want to be on the record as saying you putting bananas in your cereal is a weird thing. I think it is. Oh, no, I think that was more common back in the day. But I think that if we put anything in our cream of wheat, it was a shake of cinnamon, I think. Just like, not cinnamon sugar, but just like cinnamon, you know, the spice. And do you remember, Luke, I feel like this was sort of an invention in the 90s. I feel like I remember when this was brought to market. But they started advertising oatmeal that came with a packet that you could put the swirl on, like some sort of fruit-flavored gel, like a blueberry packet. And they had these commercials where people were, like, putting swirls on top of their oatmeal.

Uh-huh.

You remember that? I do, vaguely. Yeah. Anyway.

I'm just right now, I'm locking in on what Farina was. I need to send you this picture Of this Farina This Farina product that was being sold Because I was trying to figure out What are they putting in Farina And I'm seeing on some of the boxes It's raspberries, it's blueberries, Andrew And then there's just this Truly demonic child Who's just eating it It looks totally plain

Is Farina a brand or just like a generic term Like oatmeal?

I think it's I think it's like oatmeal or porridge it's like another word for that or another term I don't think it's a I think that's the name of the kind of cereal it is not the brand like this is enriched Farina creamy hot wheat cereal made by it looks like Farina Mills like not General Mills but Farina Mills I'm sending this to you this kid is just raw dogging this Farina and it's really he's really hitler's wet dream he's just blue-eyed arian blonde kid eating unflavored farina just staring down the camera have you already sent it to me i haven't seen it yet i've emailed

it to you okay i'll keep an eye on my email i will say this this is a kind of a coincidence we literally just got like literally as we're speaking here got a text message in the text line from listener sarah it looks like here of magpie mouse studios saying you guys are i'm looking for it i just saw it a second ago i had to just turn off my kiln and have some cereal you two are putting your evil inside of me all of our cereal off my phone what's that i thought she was gonna

say i had to turn off my phone because i couldn't listen to this no no apparently people like

cereal talk i got another note from somebody who said when i saw that there was a bowl of grape nuts as the show pick i thought i wouldn't be able to listen to the show because i thought you guys were going to be degrading or speaking ill of Grape Nuts, but instead it ended up being a Grape Nuts love story so we're really keeping the P1s happy today, I think

Good, excellent. Hey, speaking of delicious foodstuffs, did you and Veeves end up going and sampling some of Barry's fine

pizzas last night? Oh yeah, we had dinner with Barry last night at his new well, new-ish pizza joint Sacro Bosco

there in uh that looks so delicious i saw a picture of it on i think i'm following them

on instagram or something oh it's so good yeah he's because we were making dinner plans as we as we like to do and it had been a while and then he said we'll come down come down here and try some of the pizzas we've been making and i want to say i'm sorry that i'm blanking on what neighborhood that would be it was sort of a twisty way to get there because um because that maybe it was like in a rush hour traffic and so i we kind of came into the neighborhood i want to say it's just south is it first hill maybe i don't know if you can look that up but it's uh it's temple pastries during the day and then sack oh it's on south jackson it's a 25th and

jackson 25th and jackson so i'd call that the central i'd call it central yeah yeah central

district of course of course boy i'm kind of embarrassed that i i used to be in the central district all the time when i lived on the hill but anyway uh yeah it was i mean i i'm honestly i've been thinking about this and i seriously don't want to be hyperbolic but like it's gotta be i mean certainly top three pizzas i've ever had and i honestly can't even think of the other two like literally i might have had the best pizza i've ever had last night to be honest with you it's so incredibly good and it's like called roman style pizza which i'd never heard of before but you've probably heard of it it's more of it's like kind of a rectangular pizza And since it's made by people with a background as pastry chefs, it's definitely the best pizza crust I've ever had in my life. And it's probably the best pizza I've ever had.

Sacro Bosco is not a pizza restaurant, thank God. It's not a pizza restaurant. Temple Pastry's sibling serves beauty and a feast. God, this looks incredible. Now, let me ask you a real question, Andrew, and I'm not trying to make it awkward. I'm not trying to make anyone have the worst day at their job, but I felt bad because you had reached out to me and said, hey, we're going to go and get pizza at Barry's, and if there's any chance that you're in town or nearby, you might want to come along. And I said, oh, I would love to do that, but I couldn't do Wednesday night because I was filming with this tofu thing, but I was like, maybe we could do Thursday. And then I think you guys shifted the night to Thursday on my account, and then I ultimately couldn't make the schedule work to come up to Seattle for this. And I felt really bad because you guys changed it to Thursday for me and then I didn't even come. And then I sent the three of you a text profusely apologizing and then I did not hear back from you or Genevieve, only Barry. Were you guys annoyed at me? Or was it just like you felt like you got the message that you needed, Barry responded, we're all good? You guys weren't annoyed at me for moving the night and then no-showing? No, no, no, not at all. Okay, good. I felt really bad about that.

Oh, really? No. I'm sorry. I could have let you off the hook. I didn't know that those were emotions. I'm a complicated guy, Andrew. But I'm being quite serious. No, no, not at all. Like you said, you couldn't make it because it was just, we were just, and first of all, the thing that bothered me was that you called my bluff. It was just one of those invites. I was like, there's no way. There's no way. No, no. It's just like we like to have dinner with Barry from time to time, and it had been a while, so we're making plans. He's like, well, come on down here.

You like to get free stuff from Barry? That doesn't happen enough in our life.

No, I mean, well, that's the truth is I just don't want Barry. I mean, Barry has been beyond generous to us in so many, so many ways. Us as a show, us as me and Genevieve as a family. And I'm just, I'm always embarrassed at his generosity, to be totally honest with you. And so we have a rule that Barry is never supposed to buy us food ever again. We will always, always pick up the check, except when you're eating at his restaurant. It got kind of awkward because I'm reaching for my wallet, but I'm like, i don't know what i'm reaching for but i don't want this to be theatrical literally turn off

the point of sale system with his mind you're in his layer of commerce and it was one of those

things it's like i'm not doing this for theatrics but also like i can't like but um it was uh no no but it was just dinner and then i when it became like oh let's try some of these pizzas i just thought hey maybe it just sounded like something you would be into so i would have been you were into it but you couldn't but no no there i don't think so like nobody i me i me i didn't change any plans i don't think genevieve did and thursday ended up being a good night for it so okay good

good i just felt bad because i hate that when somebody is sort of driving the curriculum and then actually it isn't going to show up at the thing that just that that felt a little rude on

my behalf on my you know honestly uh thinking about it now i think that was a better thursday 9th and a Wednesday night anyway for me, because now it was like a nice Thursday night, and as you like to say, Thursday is the what is it? The Friday of the middle week. The Friday of the middle week, so yeah, that's going to be on my gravestone. And by the way, I'm a little distracted here because the eyes of the Farina kid are burning through my soul. It's pretty crazy looking. My apologies if I seem distracted. Imagine walking into a grocery store in 1950s

America. The kid is just that's true Halloween horror.

His mouth is like stuck in a permanent like it's it's open, but it's open in a way you can see both his top teeth and his bottom teeth as he is apparently bringing a too big of a spoon to his mouth.

But he's just trapped in this forever state of what I can tell you about Farina creamy hot wheat cereal is that sawns of some fruit or some cinnamon or some honey or something. It's a real boring situation. Yeah. This is supposed to be basically a delivery, you know, a conduit, if you will, for delivering something tasty, butter or something sweet, but not the way this kid is eating it. Just straight up, just plain old farina. No, thank you.

This is weird. In other versions of their cereal box, they have a smaller photo of him inset, and they've cut out the spoon. In fact, the version you sent, I almost wonder if they added that spoon later because it doesn't quite match the scale. but i will say it's kind of weirder without the spoon because now his face is in that position but there he's not his mouth isn't open to accept any food i don't know what's going on

with this kid i worry i was trying to figure out who this kid is and i was like who is the farina boy and it turns out there was a character named farina in our gang the little rascals it was a young actor named alan hoskins who is not the person that i was trying to find no and

There's no connection there at all. But I'm still confused if Farina is a brand. I feel like Farina is not.

Or just a last name for the actor, Dennis.

I feel like Farina is a brand, not a generic type of thing. Like, cream of wheat is a brand, right? Oatmeal is a generic term. And I feel like Farina must be a brand. You might be right.

What happened to Farina cereal, AI Overview? The brand name Farina Mills was acquired by Malto Meal in 2009 and is now manufactured and marketed under the new ownership. However, the cereal itself, which is a type of hot cereal made from milled wheat, is still available from various brands such as Bob's Red Mill or the original Farina brand may be harder to find. So I think you're right. I think it was basically like a cream of wheat, but they called it Farina. That was the brand name.

name so listen i need to talk about something here that i've been thinking about for the past 24 to

48 hours now that i know that you're not mad at me i'm i'm i'm up for whatever i'm no and i can't

uh i i can't stress enough how much that is not a thing and so um i apologize for leaving you hanging sure no i wasn't feel that way no but i am actually quite if that has been in the back of your mind i can't tell you um i can't stress enough how much it has not been in the back of mind um but i do have something going on in the back of my mind that involves me and my relationship But the listeners, I don't want to be insulting towards anybody, but I am kind of surprised at something. And maybe I'm going to learn something after I air this out. So the whole reason you and I were talking about cereal either yesterday or the day before was because of my blueberry adventures. And I was telling you how maybe it's because it's the end of the season or other factors. But the past week or so, I have had trouble finding – well, it's the classic story. I've been having trouble finding good, affordable blueberries, right? Like, the cost of blueberries are through the roof. And then I went to Sprouts Farmer's Market, or whatever they call themselves, to buy some the other day. And they usually have the best produce. And they did have a decent price on it, but I was shocked at the fact that the blueberries were, like, they were sort of turning already. And I was really shocked by that. That is not typical of Sprouts. But it sort of seemed like it was part and parcel of my blueberry hunt recently. And I've been hearing from a lot of people who have been suggesting for my cereal blueberry intake, frozen blueberries. And a lot of people have said this. And I, with true peace and love, I am very shocked by this because, and maybe I've just tried the wrong frozen blueberries. But, like, the whole thing of what I'm looking for are fresh blueberries that, like, are, they're, like, plump and they pop. And for me, frozen blueberries are, like, basically what I was dealing with in my series. Like, when you defrost a blueberry, am I not doing this right? Like, you just let them out for a while, a lot of the freezer. But they're limp and they're good for baking and putting into, like, blueberries or blueberry pie or a shake or something. Things like that. Or a smoothie. But, like, for me, like, I've never had a defrosted blueberry that maintains its, you know, integrity. Am I doing it wrong?

Well, I wonder if the technology now has improved and if maybe that is actually a thing that they can do some kind of flash freezing. I can tell you that when I was at Costco with Becca some time ago, I went to grab, because this is when I was beginning my, like, I'm going to start eating more fruit kick. and there was this huge bag of Costco frozen fruits, you know, blueberries, raspberries, the like. And I said, would this be good? She goes, that would probably be good for smoothies. It's not going to be good for just like defrosting and popping those blueberries in your mouth. Yeah, that's been my experience. So that would support your theory. Although, again, our listeners are smart. Beautiful. They're smart, beautiful. They're all above average people. And so I'm guessing that they're not just eating soggy blueberries and settling for that in their life. So maybe there's some innovation that I'm not familiar with.

Can I say one other thing about our listeners? Please. Just sexy as hell. And I want to talk about the Farina kid again. Sexy as hell.

Absolutely. That's it. I mean, sex on a stick. Horny on main. Okay.

You know what? Show a little restraint.

I'm trying to find out more about the Farina kid, like the kid on the box of Farina. And I found basically Let's see, I gotta go to the next page I found Somebody who had Gone to a website called posting.cool Okay And I can't actually get To the post because I don't have a membership To posting.cool But the person Is apologizing For what they wrote about the Farina kid On posting.cool I can only read the preview And here's what it says. I'm starting to think my post about the terrifying kid on the box of Farina came across as a little mean-spirited. So I would like to offer my apologies, too. And then it stops. I can't see any further because I don't have a membership of Posting.cool. I'm not the first person to note that this kid is a bit unsaid. I mean, I basically said he was Hitler's wet dream.

You didn't basically say that. You did literally say that.

So if this person's apologizing for what came off as a little mean-spirited, I've got a lot of apologizing to do.

That's literally what I was going to say. It sounds like you're going to need to make an account for posting.cool and offer your own apology when the Farina heads get a hold of this podcast.

Okay, I'm going to set up, let's see, I forgot my password. I'm going to try to register here at posting.cool and see if by the end of the show, Andrew, I can get to the full post about the Farina kid that was mean-spirited and see if it was more mean-spirited than me calling him Hitler Youth. Also, speaking of logging into things and accounts, you know who will not leave me alone now?

now, Andrew? The flippin' Golden Globes.

Oh, because you created a login just to see what it would be like.

I created a login for the podcasting division or just, I guess, the whole thing. And now they are on my ass.

For what? Like, what? Just, like, giving you press releases? Or have you filled out the form yet?

I think I didn't finish signing up. I think what they really want me to do is pay $500 to submit something that they're never going to actually give a real consideration to. Of course, yeah. So that's, I think, that's the that's why they keep making contact with me because they um there's like the other one you haven't finished yet you haven't

finished yet to i'm kind of surprised that you do you not have any kind of a burner email that you use to like buy things or you know you're going to end up on a list something like that like i i do have an old yahoo one that i use for stuff like that you know i did and then i just got

lazy i basically my real email got compromised by you know signing up for too much crap the one that really gets me is Instagram because if you know in fact some of these things now it used to be that they were all saying hey do you want 10% off sign up for this you know basically agree to let us text you and I would usually go for it because it's you know 10% off or whatever and then I would you know maybe not even buy the thing but they sometimes will make you do it early there are ones now that literally won't let you look at the thing unless you register with them which I think is insane that's really what a bad idea like I've gotten to some screens where like I literally can't x out of it and just get to the product unless i agree to sign up and save 10 i'm like that's a terrible idea i will on principle not buy those things i was really

irritated by our local sports radio station which we used to call 710 espn but then they thought that was too confusing so now it's just called seattle sports today now or something along those lines and I listen to them usually on my regular radio my transistor radio in the kitchen and I if I'm listening to a ball game and I need to stream it on my phone I use the MLB app or point is I very rarely have to listen to this sports station directly via my phone but during one of the playoff games for reasons that don't really matter I needed just access and so the best way if you're on your phone walking somewhere as i was to listen to 710 espn on your phone is to download the 710 espn app which now it sounds like i'm doing an ad for them but i'm not because after you download the app in order to access the actual streaming service you have to give them your personal information you have to say you know not a lot but it's like first name last name birth date um gender identity no i'm just joking on that one but i i don't remember

By the way, posting.cool did ask me my pronouns.

Yeah, but that one almost always, though, then says prefer not to say, right? Or maybe not. Actually, I'm thinking about a survey I took for public transportation recently, and sometimes they say, you know, you can prefer not to say on some of those questions. But all of that is to say, I think that's kind of bullshit. like you shouldn't have to maybe they say hey listen we could charge for streaming of our content and we're not doing that we just want your personal info but i just don't know why bonneville which obviously already has my personal info because i worked inside those walls but i just like as just a person who lives in seattle and wants to listen to your streaming service first i have to give you my name and phone number and and create a login for this it just seemed a

little bullshit to me the other one you don't want to mess with i agree with you by the way that's annoying it's a it's not a paywall per se but it is a barrier to entry for me and sometimes i'll just not engage with stuff on principle because yeah kind of stuff the other one that you really don't want to get sideways with is vivid seats vivid seats yeah so we're going we're going to be in new york i'm going to new york on saturday uh with becca and i'm going to be out there next week uh we're cheering on her brother and his wife as they run the new york marathon and then I'm doing some CBS stuff and a few different things, but we were going to go see a Broadway show and I was trying to find tickets and I was trying to see if I could get maybe tickets a little cheaper or even just get tickets for certain shows. It's weird because there are all these stories out about how Broadway is just in an absolute free fall. Of the, I think it was like maybe 18 new Broadway productions that were launched in the last like season, all 18 are in the red. Like nothing is making money. I actually read this very sad story today in the Washington Post about the Kennedy Center. And basically, since Trump took it over, it is an absolute ghost town. Oh, yeah. Like, they're selling zero tickets. And the Washington Post did this huge investigation into basically, like, what's going on at the Kennedy Center in terms of ticket sales and attendance. They just took tons of pictures of it, like a smattering of people in the theater as a performance is going on. And I was like, this is my living night. That we would be there doing live wire and someone would document that we hadn't sold enough tickets like from an ego standpoint is it's exactly the most sort of crushing thing for me.

But anyway, can I can I ask you a question about that? I have not read that story and that sounds actually kind of fascinating. But yeah, it is well done. You say that that makes me sad, too. But it's also a double edged sword, right? If it were thriving under these changing in this administration, and they had some sort of like counter, you know, some sort of conservative programming or something like that. And it was like thriving. It was just like some sort of like, it was some sort of a jukebox musical with all of kid rock music or something like that.

Oh, basically that's what they've been doing, but with the Bee Gees, Andrew. Oh, seriously? Very seriously. Oh my God. Well, their worst performing thing is a Bee Gees related jukebox musical.

If you can't sell the Bee Gees, what can you sell? But anyway, in a certain way, the fact that people are just kind of like, okay, well, these assholes ruined this and we're not going anymore. I'm kind of glad that, you know, well, I guess the marketplace got to decide that and the marketplace says you guys are losers for taking this over and basically ruining it. But, of course, I say that and that can sound very, very callous because what they've done is they've destroyed something beautiful.

Exactly. Exactly. That's what really, really bums me out, is they've taken something that was a real national treasure, and they've just run it into the ground now, and like so many things in our society, the question is, can, you know, I don't even know if the Post is really posing this question, but my question is, can it bounce back eventually when we have sane people running the government? and you know so the knock on it was you'll be shocked to hear the knock on it from like the trump people was they were putting on too many woke performances and therefore ticket sales were down and um and so of course they've come in and they've done their own version of this and ticket sales are so much so much further down it's going so much worse than it was before they took it over in terms of yeah if they were going to you know supposedly just put out what people actually want to see uh it's not uh that's not working i'm trying to get to the list here of basically how things so hamilton pulled out by the way hamilton was going to be kind of a centerpiece of one of their seasons and they just basically said we don't want to and the hamilton people said look this isn't even about donald trump because i guess they did hamilton at the kennedy center during his first administration they said it's about what's going on at the kennedy center right now the politicization the politicization of it so uh the season opening gala concert that one had zero seats available that was sold out and that was uh someone named noseta and yuja wang then you had an evening with beethoven that did okay only 25 of the seats were available the stuttgart ballet did pretty well 28 of the seats available so in other words you're selling whatever the math is on that 72 of the seats sound of music not great 33 uh vacancy rate if you will the princess bride in concert 34% uh unsold seats stayin alive the bgs and beyond with rajaton 66% of the seats available so i mean i'm with you i guess it's like it is on some grim level it's it's i guess encouraging that this isn't working it's like it's not sold out because they're just putting up you know super kind of right down the middle very you might say audience friendly content yeah but i mean i don't know this is something that's very much in my brain space because of doing a show like livewire where we we sell tickets as part of our budget um but like you saw that story that the crocodile basically has had to like close two of its rooms that it had as part of that new facility because no one's coming out to things yeah um you know at least not things that are sort of up-and-coming bands you know madame lou's and the i think the hereafter were the two rooms

that they had good remembering yeah i could remember the names of the venues so the the crocodile was a very long running club in belltown in seattle but then uh right around the time of the pandemic or right before the pandemic they were losing their lease and so they had to you know they faced a pretty big decision and instead of closing their doors they actually kind of did the opposite they really expanded they took over a space kind of like about i think across the street in a block down or something if i have my geography show yeah seattle heads but it was also But kind of several of the buildings kind of all connected there. And so instead of downsizing in any way, they totally took over the space, refurbished it. They created a little bar upstairs. Took over the hotel. They took over the hotel. They created a little modern bar that you could sip a martini at while you waited for your show to begin. They had a comedy club down below. They kind of expanded into this little complex, which is so – I don't know if you've – did you do any shows there? Have you gone to any shows there?

We did a LiveWire pop-up just in the hotel area, so not in one of the dedicated rooms.

But it's so cool, and it was such a big... swing especially at that time they were like no we're gonna bet on the future and did you see that exact quote from the guy no it was that in maybe i'm saying that but i i only read like sort of the the first graph of that story yesterday and then scanned the rest it was pretty it was a pretty big bummer of a story but you know i i don't know if i'm accidentally quoting him or just

well no he said something let me see if i can uh if i can actually find the article again uh the guy basically said like we bet on the future and the future didn't arrive in 2025 oh you know what i

think maybe that is why those words were in my head because that does ring a bell i think i read that and uh it's just such a it's it's a real bummer again they're not closing down everything the crocodile itself is not going away but i just thought it was so admirable to like take a swing like that in this and in an incredibly uncertain environment with a global pandemic going on and everything and people are just still not kind of going out and i'm of course you know me i'm doing my part i'm i'm having you're not even going out of your basement i'm eating free pizza on a

thursday night um you know you refuse to go to the upper level of your home that's right so

i know that like you know that that uh i i'm not i guess doing my part in that either but it is it is a real bummer i was i was sort of thinking after the pandemic for the group so that it's 2025 now right so let's say that it was such a slow return to normal there was never a time that you could just sort of say the pandemic ended here right and i know there's a lot of people who still have a lot of concerns about masking and health and stuff like that so i i don't know exactly where we draw that line but let's just say it's been two and a half years would you say that's about right since like kind of the pandemic two and a half three years maybe requirements and things yeah in like kind of a return to what would seem like normalcy aside from some of the lingering effects and back to work stuff but all that is to say we noticed a huge hit on people interested in volunteering with my group like we used to like we used to before the pandemic there were times where there were more volunteers out there than people like kind of grabbing food because it was like this huge thing we'd set up all this hot food and it was like a neighborhood potluck and then the pandemic obviously everything kind of shut down that's obvious But then afterwards, people were just – and I was reading stories about this being a national trend and then us being the tiniest of tiny little groups that just serve food under a bridge. But like we just couldn't get a lot of the same commitment at all, which is honestly – shout out to our friend Anna who started volunteering several years ago and just been like a backbone of the operation because we were sort of like – we were just scrounging to get stuff done. And I've just noticed like in the last – and I have no idea if this is a trend or not, but it really has just been the last six months, I'm going to say, that more and more – I'm seeing more and more new faces there volunteering. And it's been great, honestly. It's just been fun to get to know more people, get to know more neighbors. And I am just wondering if – I'm hoping that this is maybe a little sample of hopefully what's going on in other communities as well. It's just maybe people finally starting to come out of their shells a little bit more because, you know, it's bad, especially for volunteer organizations.

Absolutely. And for nonprofits that are trying to sell tickets for their radio show tapings. Like, I don't understand. I mean, I feel like I can't attribute it all to people who are uncomfortable being in the public environment. I mean, I guess that's got to be.

Oh, you mean health-wise?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, I wouldn't attribute it to that either.

You know what I mean? But what you see over and over again, the stories are, you know, basically things have not bounced back since the pandemic in terms of attendance of live things. And I wonder, so if we don't think all of those people who are staying away, if we don't think all of them are doing it because of health concerns or concerns about being in crowds like that, then what is it? What has changed? Did people just realize because we got to stay home for a couple of years that it's actually more fun being at home are tickets too expensive i do think that there's an issue as well which is that as you sell fewer tickets you got to charge more for tickets to try to keep the bottom line so now all of a sudden it's like hundreds of dollars to go to something that maybe used to be 30 bucks or something it's kind of a vicious cycle like i just don't i don't have the answer i'm curious i wonder what i wonder what it is that has caused people to not return to these spaces that we used to go to in pretty regular numbers yeah and here in seattle and you

You know, I'm a proponent of these measures, but I do know that labor costs have gone up as like minimum wage requirements have kicked in and like removing exceptions for service staff or whatever, like the tip exception that we had here in the city. But it sounds like it's not a Seattle only thing, though, because this conversation started, I think, with you talking about Broadway, right? Oh, in fact, it started with you talking about vivid seats, by the way. I don't know if we ever got to the got to the end of that. But I but I was wondering, I'm like, well, you know, how how much of the of the new costs of doing business here in Seattle are then affecting ticket prices as well?

And I really don't know. And it does sound like it's all over, though. Yeah, that's what I say. Yeah, I see bands like when I'm looking at TikTok or Instagram. I've seen, you know, multiple bands say like, hey, we're, you know, we're going to actually skip this tour where I've seen a lot of people getting really a lot of performers getting really honest, like, which I, you know, I admire that because it's hard. It's very vulnerable to say like, hey, we wanted to do this tour, but we just weren't selling enough tickets to make it happen. And we kind of don't know why that is, you know, it's pretty humbling to have to do that. But there just seems like there's something going on where people are people are not coming out the way that they used to.

Can I throw one more speculative log on this fire, which is really mushy and probably unnecessary as you were wrapping up the segment. But like I do think I think it's more of a habitual thing than a health related thing as far as if you want to tie this to the pandemic at all. Because the story about the crock was that like coming out of the pandemic, we just haven't achieved these levels that we had prior kind of as as a society. but i and i do sort of think that like the the the generation that was young people who are like you know spent a lot of time at home the whole vibe for a long time after the pandemic has been like yeah like stay at home and wear your soft pants and like you know like that's just kind of the culture and i'll be honest with you i do wonder if just the the cultural malaise that overhangs everything or maybe it's even I don't know if culture is the right word there but like the political malaise like every like Vives and I were just talking like we I hope this isn't too private of a conversation but she and I were talking about having to make like a little bit of extra effort in our daily lives to and I'm not doing necessarily the best job of it of extending more grace than usual maybe or not maybe not extending more grace than usual but working harder to just casually offer people more grace in our daily lives because everything just feels so frayed at all times. And so when you combine the cost of everything, maybe habits changing, maybe the entire entertainment industry doing everything they can to keep us at home streaming things on these giant TVs, like all of this stuff. But then also just the kind of like we're fucking exhausted all the time and scared because everything that we believed true about the backbone of this country that we were taught to not just appreciate but celebrate and pray to in the classroom every morning as we put our hands over our heart is just falling apart or being exposed in front of us. to being so thinly protected. And it's just to carry this burden around constantly is, it kind of makes it hard to say, like, hey, you want to go out and watch a band?

And yet, I'm thinking about this because from where I'm sitting, Andrew, I'm staring out at the mighty Columbia and I'm actually staring at this little spit of land. And it's this island called Cottonwood Island. And it's a beach. And I was on that beach, I don't know, few months ago now when some of our friends towed their boat up to the area and put it in the columbia and i was saying on like the friday before this was going to happen that i didn't know if i wanted to do it because it was like i don't like getting sprayed in the face on the boat i don't like boats going too fast for my liking it was such an unbelievably great afternoon like the weather was great it was really fun to just get to talk to these people and like kind of sit on this beach and just have some snacks and it was just like it was a lovely afternoon and i was so glad that i did it i mean this i'm not again i'm not blowing anyone's mind with this but it's like i'm totally with you i think we i just don't think i don't think our current mental state for a lot of us lends itself to being like let's party down or let's go see that show or let's go you know it doesn't it when you're not feeling great about anything in life uh or about everything in life it it does not make you more likely to want to go out and and party down and yet every time that i actually do something you know we went to that orchestra performance at the portland symphony this the scary music thing and it was like i was so glad that we did that you know so i'm not telling anyone how to live their life i'm not even telling you andrew to leave your basement but i think for me i i think i need to remind myself that when i actually do engage with life and do stuff i personally feel a lot better for the experience but it's very easy to not want to do stuff i think and i think you're right i think that the general feeling of just everything is kind of bad and the worst people are

getting the most w's it it does not inspire one to want to go out into the world and and make

merriment it's just so much easier just to stay at home and just say i'm just gonna you know curl up and watch whatever the latest thing and then the door dash is yeah why are we right why are we

even where are any of us ever leaving our houses so anyway well um i don't know if we solved that but we talked about it oh vivid seats won't leave me alone because i almost bought some tickets to death becomes her oh musical yeah i ended up buying them just like from the theater or from the production but i made the mistake of getting of like vivid seats now has they they know where i live and they just are constantly badgering me hey you left something oh yeah hey you left

something in your car yeah i get that from ebay from time to time because i'll look up something on ebay just for the show you know like we're talking about something nostalgic or something And then it'll be like, hey, you didn't buy. Hey, you still interested in the child size California Raisins painter cap from 1987 that you were looking at? And I'm like, I'm probably not going to be buying a children's cap right now.

Perfectly preserved box of Farina. Right. we gotta thank some donors these are the generous folks who are supporting tbtl voluntarily with a donation of dough each month or maybe once a year or whenever the the mood strikes them and it is the only way this thing can exist as we're talking about arts organizations i don't know if we consider TBTL an arts organization or not, but as we talk about all the things that are, the headwinds that are blowing across a lot of creative endeavors and things like that, we are so grateful to get to do this, and we are so grateful to folks like Amy Bullock in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Thank you, Amy. The thing about TBTL is you don't have to leave your house to listen to it, but you can leave your house to listen to it.

That's what's so cool about this. You can bring it with you. We're offering you options, yes. Yes. We also want to thank Matthew Lee Ferris, who's in Henrico, Virginia. Oh, old Henrico. Yep. Good old Henrico, Virginia, a place I just learned exists.

I had a couple of teddy bears named Henry. I could have called them Henrico.

Uh-huh. Right. For some reason. So you played Monopoly? I would play Risk while watching Batman.

So, yeah, I understand the confusion there.

Did you do anything else? Did you guys go on any adventures?

No, they were at home. My teddy bears or my stuffed animals were at-home stuffed animals mostly. But, yeah, we would play Risk, and, you know, sometimes Big Henry would win. Sometimes Little Henry would win. I played straight down the line, Luke.

Love that. Alexandra St. Arnaud is in Almonte, Ontario. Mmm. I like everything about that. Alexander is very excited about the surging Toronto Blue Jays. Boy, I didn't think they were going to be able to shut down the bats of the Dodgers. Not to get baseball-y on it, although I do know that Mindy Lum in Minneapolis loves it when we get baseball on it. Thank you, Mindy. But I will say the way that this World Series now has unfolded has kind of made me feel better about the Mariners in a way I didn't expect. Tell me about this because I have had something I've been wanting to tell you.

No, no, I have something I want to tell you that is in relation to something you were explaining to me the other day that I did not understand in the moment, but I do understand now, and I wanted to clear the table on that. But what are you talking about?

I thought, well, I do sort of want the Blue Jays to win because I don't want there to be a visit to the White House. But then I saw a Blue Sky post from a Toronto fan that really has just been burning me up like a hot coal. it was countries with democracies have better baseball and i was just like come on dude we also hate this we also don't like this what's going on in our country don't rub it in and don't make that the baseball thing like i don't know that really rankled me for some reason it's like

i can say that you can't say that kind of thing i guess i just it felt like well first of all we

didn't vote for this regime but who's we though i mean we the people did you and you and i didn't

Possibly Veeves, although she won't tell me Officially who she voted for Isn't it weird how quiet she is

She gets really quiet She changes the subject I don't know, there was just something I guess I just feel like you're kicking me When I'm down already I'm down about, we just talked about it I'm down about the state of affairs in this country I'm down about the Mariners not making the Super Bowl The Mariners are You know what, the Mariners are actually On a very long list of baseball teams that have never made the Super Bowl.

It makes you feel better. about things so so what makes me feel better is that the mighty los angeles dodgers who spend you know more money than should be allowable and have this lineup top to bottom that's just phenomenal of hitters even they their bats have gone quiet and that was something that made me crazy about the mariners throughout the season was we would have these great games and score a bunch of runs and then we would just have these stretches of just total lack of productivity and it made me think there was something uniquely wrong or broken about us but what i'm being reminded of is you know good pitching usually beats good hitting and it's really really hard to hit consistently on the national stage like the world series and even the mighty dodgers have these spells for some reason that was kind of a balm for me about like times when i was mad

at the mariners in the season i read or at least scanned a sort of breakdown of the two games i want to say that were played since the 18 inning game uh maybe it was just a reaction maybe it was just a study of the first game that was played after the 18 inning game but basically looking at bat speed for the dodgers and how that 18 innings ended up benefiting the blue jays so much more because the dodgers with their very very mighty mighty lineup the bat speeds to catch up to the pitches were down significantly after like kind of that incredibly exhausting game. Like they're literally tired out. They're literally tired out. And because in the Blue Jays, you know, they don't have the same kind of hitting power. They have some powerhouses there, but it's like, they're a little, they're just built a little bit differently. And so it kind of was. Alejandro Kirk,

he just built different.

He is. He is. I don't even. Josh Naylor. I can't, I gotta say that's one of those names that I can't hear because I think about that. I think about that throw from – who's our Italian right fielder who does the – he had that terrible – Miles Mastroboni? No, no, no, no. The guy that – Oh, Dominic Canzone.

I think that we have two very Italian-sounding guys on our team.

But I say Italian in this case not just because of his name, but his whole branding is kind of that chef's kiss thing and everybody loves it. But that throw from Canzone from right field, that was so off to not throw out the slowest man in baseball. baseball will always win that game though oh did no did that was one that we won i thought we came back oh okay i think that's i have the wrong memory of that okay we won that game but that was i trust you more than me my brain i'm getting these series like really confused but here's where i've been thinking about you because thank you you set up a scenario for me i think maybe we're talking the the day after the mariners were eliminated uh maybe it was a couple of days after we're still processing our feelings and i've been saying that like i and this is true and i'm going to restate this that like i'm the type of person who's such an immature sports fan that i am not capable of rooting for the team that beat me that beat my team and then advanced right like I'm so petty about these things. But this time, my absolute strong distaste for the Dodgers overrides everything. And also, and I don't know if I said this to you. I said this to somebody else. I literally think this Mariners postseason has clicked something in my brain that has made me a slightly more mature baseball fan. I'm still not a mature baseball fan, but slightly more mature that I don't have that kind of burning petty hatred. When I see them do something, especially like Vladdy Jr., like I just – I'm not mad at him, and I am legit still rooting for them to beat the Dodgers, and it's not close. I don't have like a lot of – I'm not ambivalent about it. Like I'm rooting for them, and when I listen to – there's this one radio host that I hear all the time locally, and he's a huge baseball fan. Mike Rowe. He's Mike Rowe, exactly, and he's still so angry, and I appreciate this about him. He just keeps saying we were eight outs away. And there's still a lot of outs, but he was just saying we were eight outs away. And he's from this perspective of just like, I cannot root for the Blue Jays. He's like, I just can't. And I totally understand that. I feel like in a different season I'd feel the same way or if we hadn't made it so far. And I was just feeling pretty, I don't know, lucky that we did make it so far this time. And I'm hoping that we build on it. I've been optimistic in a way I'm usually not. And I'm rooting for the Blue Jays. But you had given me some scenario like I know you're rooting for the Blue Jays. but, and I'm rooting for the Blue Jays too, I think you said at the time, but there could be this emotional scenario that could make me feel bad, and I did not follow what you were saying at the time. I was like, I don't quite follow that. And then, that was before the World Series started, and I believe I was playing cards with Genevieve on the first night of the World Series, totally not paying attention to baseball at all, playing cards or something, and then at one point

We're done playing cards, and I flipped on the radio, and I happened to hear the Grand Slam. Was it a Grand Slam by Barger? Have you been following it at all? I did see that, yes.

Well, actually, I turned away because I was making stir-fry, but when I looked back, he was rounding the bases, and there was four runs coming. By the way, he's a Bellevue kid, I think.

Oh, I didn't know that. And so they got a Grand Slam. I don't know if they took the lead there or extended their lead there, but then in the same inning, I think, got two more runs. And it was weird. Like, I was not paying attention to the World Series at all. This is game one. I just flip on the radio just to hear the very first bit of the World Series that I hear is the Blue Jays just breaking the game wide open in their favor on game one. And I thought, oh, the Mariners had a chance. And I think that's what you I think that's what you were trying to explain to me. But what if the Blue Jays go in there and it's not just them running straight into a buzzsaw as we all assumed was going to happen? And then are you still going to feel good about you? He's still going to feel OK. And I was like, oh, this feeling that I have as I'm hearing the Blue Jays, who I'm rooting for, blow this game one open. And I'm like, oh, yeah. So that could have been Kale, Raleigh, you know, that then I was like, this is what Luke was talking about.

I was saying that I would feel better in a weird way if the Dodgers just swept him 4-0 because I'd be like, well, we didn't want that.

Fait accompli, yeah.

But now they're in the position to actually potentially win the World Series. And, yeah, it's sort of like, well, as we always say on this show, Andrew, hope is a very dangerous thing. It kind of retroactively gives you hope.

As you famously coined.

Yes, exactly. And as Laurel Robertson in Ferguson, North Carolina, famously likes hearing me say, Yes. Hope is a very dangerous thing. That's what Laurel always paraphrases. Is it Yanni or Laurel? I think it's Yanni. Never get over that joke. Thanks, Laurel. Appreciate you for all these years. And then it's Brooke Holst in Bremerton, Washington. There is this house, Andrew, in Bremerton, Washington that is for sale. It's in the Manette neighborhood, and it is such a cool craftsman house. And it's right there looking out on the harbor, and it keeps coming up on my Instagram feed. My Instagram feed now is just mostly, like, real estate, you know, basically real estate agents walking through houses. This is the big thing in real estate now. Our friend Sarah Nichols-Smith, who does real estate, knows all about this. But, like, most of my social media content now is people walking through houses that they're listing for sale. And there's no end to how fascinated I am with these videos. But this house keeps coming up in Manette, which is basically an area of Bremerton. And it's so cute and it is so reasonably priced compared to like other Portland or Seattle or, you know, stuff like that, that I'm like, could I? Maybe maybe we move this project's done. Maybe now we unload this crap shack and we move to Manette and we go live near where Brooke Holst is. That would be a little bit close to my parents. You want to you want to have a hop on. My mom would probably be walking into the studio every day to do the podcast, showing up at my house if I live that close to them.

Do you know that there's a Bremerton shuttle? I almost said sherry, which is a combination of shuttle and ferry. But no, it's not a ferry. It's a shuttle that goes directly from the airport to Bremerton.

No. Oh, okay. So it's like a bus or something?

I think I just looked it up. It's called the Bremerton Kitsap Airporter, the sound connection. I learned that because I was sitting next to a couple on an airplane recently from, I guess, maybe my travels back from Arizona or something. And they were going to Bremerton, and they were talking, and I started talking with them a little bit, and they were concerned about missing the shuttle. And I didn't know what they were talking about, and it turns out there's a shuttle that goes directly from the airport, if you can catch it on time, that takes you straight to Bremerton, which would be, I don't know, another point in your favor of your plan to move to Bremerton by a boat. Yeah. I'm just throwing the boat thing in there.

It's close to Seattle, but it's not so close that I wouldn't just be popping up at your house trick-or-treating without some notice. Lights are off. Some notice. Lights are off, bro. Lights are off. And nobody's home. nobody's home hey thank you so much to our donors thanks for making tb chill possible we really and

truly could not do this without you here i go once again with the email every week i hope that it's from a female no man it's not from a female all right we didn't have time to talk about ai and

podcasting but honestly i think we've said what we need to say about it i was just shocked to find out that there is a very popular podcast where the guy just reads like wikipedia but he's his his voice is so like laconic that it is it's literally designed to put people to sleep that's the idea of the podcast oh interesting yeah and so what he's done is he's basically used like what is it like 11 labs you know one of those programs i think that we've even used at times that can clone your voice and he He's cloning his voice and then just telling his voice, this cloned voice, to read these endless pages of Wikipedia, which is kind of an interesting – because he's not doing like what we're doing right now. He's doing something else where it actually – I don't know. People don't seem to mind, I guess. But, I mean, that's a racket. Clone your voice and then just tell it to read Wikipedia and then just watch the liquid IV dollars roll in. That's one of the sponsors.

IVs are always liquid. I just always have to say that. I just hate that name so much. But I'm tempted to say something here, although I wanted to test it before this came up, and I kind of forgot or I ran out of time or both. But yesterday, I was editing the show. If you'll recall, Luke, there was something we had to beep out of the show yesterday, some personal information from a voicemail. And I did beep it out. And I use a program that I've been using for decades and decades. It's the first digital, real digital audio editor I ever used was called Cool Edit, which eventually was bought by Adobe, and it's still like what I'm using. It's Adobe Audition now.

Dude, I have not thought of Cool Edit in a million years.

Yeah, that's what it was originally called, and then Adobe bought it, and I mean, that was forever ago when it was called that, but just to make my point, this is like literally the audio program that I've been using since I was, I guess, a teenager or maybe early 20s when i got into the industry and so they're always adding more stuff to it and even for something that i use so heavily i only use like the very very tip of the iceberg of its functionality one of the things i do use from time to time is the beep function where you select a bit of audio in your audio file which has already been recorded and then you go up to a menu and it drops down and you choose i think it's called generate and you can generate some silence and you can generate tones, and tones are what I use for the beeping sound, when you need to beep out your foul language, but then I accidentally clicked on one that I hadn't noticed before, which was generate speech, and I was in a real big hurry, so I did not actually play around with that, but I had no idea that this basic editor that I use has some sort of speech generation function and i was wondering if i use that in the middle of a 90 minute file of you and i talking if i just say generate speech will adobe audition re cool edit just generate our voices i had no idea that was something that could even happen with this particular program which you know doesn't have a lot of that ai stuff built into it but i can maybe try doing an experiment over the weekend and playing it for you, but I was pretty shocked to see that my...

Well, that's one of the things they said, by the way, it was a piece by Reggie Ugwu in the New York Times, and one of the things he mentions is that most of the programs that we're all using now to do this stuff already have this stuff built in, and they mention Riverside specifically. Oh, yeah, and that has tons of AI. That Riverside will, like, AI generate your voice, it'll voice clone you, and then they interviewed Glenn Washington, our Snap Judgment buddy.

Didn't you just bring him up recently on the show?

It came up on the show, but i couldn't remember what time stream we were in when we brought up glenn washington but um but he made an interesting point he said like well if you're not near a studio like if you're the host and there's something you need a pickup or you need a correction or something and you're at the airport and you're not anywhere where you can actually like re-record this one line it might be a useful feature to just fix that one line which i can as a host and as somebody who's often on the go i mean i'm always bringing my gear around but like i thought oh that actually is a defensible use of like voice closing voice cloning to me if you just needed to say it was 15 of this thing and not 12 of this thing or the name of the book you know i it was a plural but actually it's a singular i said it wrong or whatever that seems to me to be kind of okay but yeah the one that's interesting i took from was a lot of stuff is already built into these

systems yeah it's definitely built into i did a whole hey dummies about this a couple of years ago and people seem to be very interested in it like some of the built-in ai stuff around photography is interesting because like i don't want to use ai to create weird images to use the example again of like kid rock praying over donald trump or those weird ai creations but there is stuff like when you have to take a a rectangular photo and then make it square You can do it sometimes and create those big black sidebars or bars on the top and bottom, and that doesn't look so great. But if it's not that big of a space, you can now just sort of say, I want to expand this out a little bit. In AI, just try to guess what's missing, basically, and it will do it. And I use that sometimes for our show picks, and it's just a little bit around the edges. Like, oh, this sign says Ma's Chicken, right? And so, but it's cut off at the E, but if I expand it,

the ai knows enough to create an end there or something like that the other day i was using it though for that photo of genevieve in her costume and there was a bit of camaro kev in the corner and so i expanded it out and we never saw his face but his hair the ai was just like oh it looks like there's a white man here and just created a camaro kev out of nothing at all which is a great karaoke song and uh it was i didn't leave it because he also had like sort of an extra arm did you send him any of this no it was only in and i'd have to recreate it now i don't know if it would i don't think it'll ever recreate the same exact thing twice but anyway having a little bit of functionality like that to help you in your daily work is one thing but then to use it as a completely creative endeavor is something else entirely but um let's move on to a voicemail that i want to play for you i thought this was very sweet you were talking on monday's show about your uh halloween costume last weekend and how you had used one of those halloween you know, hairspray things that dyed the grayish part of your hair, like black, the way it looked when you were a younger man. And you were like kind of impressed with that. And you like looking younger. And you said, maybe I'll do this in the future, like actually dye my hair. And you're interested in exploring that maybe. And we got this very encouraging voicemail from listener

Gillian. Hey, guys, it's Gillian from Sammamish, Gillian with a hard G. I was just listening to luke talking about maybe potentially thinking about spraying his hair a color so i just want to say go for it i because i'm a person that absolutely loves getting a spray tan i'm sorry i just like to be tan and the way i get around or justify it to myself and everyone around me is just straight up telling people i have a spray tan and so it kind of just like takes away that i don't know shame less shame so i say go for the hair and just you know just be forthcoming with it just like hey yeah i sprayed my hair and i look good because that's how i do my spray tans i mean the hands sometimes look kind of messed up but anyways love you guys power out here's what i

like about that not not to try to summarize it but i will i guess out of instinct but this idea of when we do things to modify how we look like let's say you i let's say i was able to wear contact lenses and i decided to wear contact lenses because i didn't like the way i look in glasses i would have absolutely no shame telling people yeah i wear contact lenses it's something that i need to see and i look better this way but then there are the other things that we do potentially that we don't want to tell anybody that we do right right whether it's using a special weight loss drug or dyeing your hair or you honestly i mean we kind of joke around about it a little bit but you look at rick riz the baseball announcer for the seattle mariners and he's been wearing a wig for so long that it it doesn't like there's no way he thinks he's fooling anybody right it's just like wearing a hat made of hair at this point right like and i'm even saying that to be mean it's a good question and i'm it's just sort of like well some it's like it's only kind of cringy if you feel like you're trying to get away with something maybe but if you're just like yeah i dye my hair because i like the way i look with my dyed hair like there's there's something so like kind of freeing about that i think is maybe what gillian is saying i've

also already copped to the fact that i put like balding powder in my hair which is actually way more embarrassing than dyeing your hair i think yeah um we've just gotten to the point in our relationship five years in where i'm comfortable with becca observing me doing this in the bathroom oh interesting oh yeah you know it's just like this little tube and it's just got this little dusty powder in it that's roughly the color of my hair or at least the part of my hair that's not gray and you just kind of you like it's like you're putting pepper on on top of your head and it's always been this thing tell me when it's exactly and it's uh it's always been this thing where it's like it just feels a little bit silly But of course, Becca also, if we're going out somewhere, she's putting on makeup. Right, right, right. She might have false eyelashes on. She might, you know, her lipstick is an unnatural thing to do, to look a way that she wants to look. You're exactly right. It's weird, the things that we have shame around and the things that we don't. Now, here's something else in the hair story for me and the gray hair story is there is this clip. I was when we were doing this tofu well we went to this uh vegetarian restaurant in Portland called Astro which is by the way really cool very very cool place and uh tried some different tofu preparations and I was chatting with the chef it's really sweet guy named Aaron and he had his daughter Vivian there and it was so cute because he had her dressed in a chef's outfit like an exact but like for a child for like a three-year-old

so he's in his chef's outfit and then she's in like a matching tiny chef's outfit it was the cutest thing ever and so we were just kind of joking around and I was joke interviewing the kid and he put it on Instagram and uh the kid is just so stinking cute that I I reshared like I was in the story so I reshared it or whatever but part of it is probably the TV lights are kind of set up in a certain way but man my hair doesn't just look like a little gray it's like I got a full-on Steve Martin situation going down. Like, it is, again, I think it has a little bit to do with the specific, like, those big box lights they set up for a TV shoot. And I'm standing too close to one of them. This wasn't lit for me to interview the kid. We just were on the set, if that makes any sense. So I think it has to do a little bit with the specific light, but oh my gosh, I got a future, I got a preview of what I'll look like in about five years. It's fine, it's fine.

But also, yeah, Steve Martin is not, like, an ugly guy.

Like, Steve Martin looks great. We love Steve Martin. Would it be presumptuous if I got those same kind of cards that said,

I met Luke Burbank and he was lovely? Yes, it would. You already have your own cards. It's you with a broken nose.

Would it be bad if I made some new cards and I put them out next to the bowl of candy at your house tonight for trick-or-treaters?

Now I am kind of interested, and we'll get out of here now, but if I'm going with the bowl, I think that's what I'm going to do, bowl of candy on a little table at our front door. I'm not going to like, Genevieve would go around the house, grab all of my clothes, create some sort of a dummy, and put a scary mask on it or something. Oh, that would be fun. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of work. I'm just going to go buy some candy, but I've never been in charge of buying the candy before. Will I just end up getting one of those generic bags of the usual mix, or will I get something more creative?

I guess, because there's probably all kinds of kids. It's hard for me to separate just what my personal preference is for candy. I've always been more onto the chocolate side of things. Like I've always been more of a Kit Kat or Nestle Crunch or Snickers or Twix kind of kid than the Necco wafers or the even the like, you know, Warheads or, you know, I was always I go more towards the chocolatey candies than the kind of like sour candies or, you know, Skittles or things like that.

I mean, this is maybe a long shot. Pardon me. I'm getting kind of upset even thinking about it. But just a packet. I was going to say packets of farina, because I assume it comes in packets, but what if I pre-made it? That's a really good point.

Yeah, just a cauldron. A cauldron of farina.

And I put like a ladle in there, or some sort of a serving spoon, paper bowls.

Real Oliver Twist vibrations.

Yeah. Please, sir, could we have more? What did you put in yours? Peanut butter and honey? I can put out some peanut butter. Little peanut butter and honey? I can see it being a very clean, neat operation, you know? No sticky residue all over the place. No bowls.

Just ladle it right into the mouth

Yeah, right, exactly And then some hand sanitizer there

There's going to be a whole other Neighborhood email list started about you Oh yeah, I know The guy who put out the hot cereal Hot cereal guy We've got to talk about that guy in the corner Who put out the hot cereal

Oh man, I'm looking for my Farina photo That I was going to use for a show pic I lost it, I had the perfect photo

By the way, no update from posting.cool yet as to if they've approved my membership.

Oh, you probably, you didn't get an email that kind of confirmed your email address or anything like that? Not yet. It says that they're basically,

I have a feeling, based on the graphics of this thing, it's got real Space Jam. It's got real original Space Jam website energy to it. I don't know if anyone's minding the store.

We got to break into there.

I don't know if anybody at posting.cool, I don't know the last time somebody tried to register for posting.cool.

The weird thing is, I was just looking up a comedian yesterday because I was listening to her on the Scott Hasn't Seen podcast. She was reviewing the movie Practical Magic and, or like discussing it, you know, recapping it with the guys. And I had not heard her name before, but when I said her name to Genevieve, she said, well, that's the name of the woman, the character from Legally Blonde. It's Elle something. Elle Woods. Yeah, but this person isn't a character. She's a real person. And her name is Elle Woods as well. That's her real-life name, but it's spelled E-L-E. And I was looking her up to figure out, like, where the confusion was between me and Genevieve having this conversation, and I saw that her bio linked to her website, which was also a dot cool. I'd never heard of a dot cool before yesterday around 1030 at night, and now I've heard two dot cools since then.

You know what that is, my friend? That's pretty dot cool. It certainly is. Sure is. all right my friends that is going to do it for today's episode and in fact that will bring us to the end of our broadcast week thank you for spending all this time with us thanks for being so dot cool as to spend all this time with us hey um i'll be in new york city next week checking in

so i'm sure there'll be lots of adventures to report are we are we able to tease it all what might happen on monday or is that still in the works no it's uh it's it's all been agreed to the contracts have been signed i will be i'll be broadcasting on monday i believe from the chris hayes kate shaw studios there in brooklyn at uh our friend television chris

hayes's home studio operation and do you are you traveling with one of those really really big hooks in case you need to grab him and bring him in front of a microphone can we yes can we get Can we get an appearance, do you think? Can you be nice enough?

We'll find out on Monday. I floated it. I didn't get confirmation on the appearance. I said, of course, as always, you're invited. And then he said, oh, great. Well, how's Monday? We didn't agree on the exact terms of if he's going to be on the show or not.

Okay.

Well, we'll see. We'll see. Yes, we will find out together. So everybody tune in for that on Monday. It'll be fun. In the meantime, have a great weekend. Take care of yourselves, please. Go Seahawks Yeah, we're back in action Yeah, we are And please remember Nice, oh yeah And please remember No mountain too tall And good luck to all I like to be tan It just feels good Power out