Muse

Okay, everyone got a celebrity name in? Alright, team one, you're up.

Okay, he was in Ocean's Eleven.

Matt Tiemann.

No, um, he has a tequila, silver fox.

Ah, that's George Clooney.

Yes, okay, um, she was a pretty woman.

Julie Roberts.

Yes, okay, um, alright, I guess this is a musician.

John Mayer.

No, older. Time. God damn, it's jazz legend Marcus the Worm Hicks.

Okay, who put that in?

That one might be one of mine.

Okay, team two, we're up. Howie, you go first.

All right, this guy ran with Thaddeus Finks. He was one of the eight balls in Mookie Kramer and the Eight Balls. I don't know, this doesn't sound like anything. He played the alto sax with the kink in it. I don't know.

Not sure.

Really? Okay, pass. Okay, this one's easy. He's got the freak lips. He can hit the high C all night long. He was king of the tuk-tuk sound.

Is this another jazz guy? Time. Come on, guys!

We didn't get one.

That's because they're supposed to be celebrities everyone knows.

Oh, you mean like household names like Roy Donk or Jack Marshall who wrote the Munsters theme song? Roy Donk?

Oh, I think this one's Howie's. Yep, I don't know what to do.

Just, what was it?

Tiny Boop Squig Shorterly.

What, I mean, come on, is that even a celebrity? Yeah, he's no Roy Donk, but he was a regular guest on the Colgate Hour. TBTL!

It's the first line of the film, man. It's got to be on the money here.

Hey, P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P

Alright, hello, good morning, and welcome everyone to a Monday edition of TBTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host, coming to you on this Monday morning from TBTL Studios East, in the heart of Brooklyn. The podcasting offices of one Christopher Hayes, that is television's Chris Hayes, friend of the show, and today temporary landlord, who is letting us squat here and record the program. Normally, I introduce Andrew first, but because you're here and because we're at your place, Chris, welcome to the show.

Welcome to Brooklyn. It's great to have you here. This is very fun. We managed to get this all set up technically.

Listen, I want to give credit where credit is due. We had hit a certain kind of a snag in the process of us being able to hear certain bits of audio and Andrew. And you very, I think, very wisely said, well, what if we get two AirPods that belong to the same AirPod family, but then I have one in my left ear and you have one in your right ear, and might that work? And, in fact, it absolutely works. So we've got the system here. Jalapeno. And we can't play drops, but Chris knows most of them, thankfully.

Yeah, I'm just on the drop machine today.

That's right. And then right over there is, of course, the longest-running Cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He's Andrew Walsh, and he is joining us right now. Good morning, my friend.

Good morning, guys. Chris, can you give me a please clap? Give me a please clap. Please clap. Oh, perfect.

With an awkwardly long pause in front of it, too. I always debate when I'm playing that drop, because I have this little system where I'm able to, like, kind of on the fly, edit them down. And the whole funny thing about Jeb.

Is how long?

Exclamation point. Was that he, there's this long, very sad waiting for the clapping. But I always wonder if that plays on the imaginary radio or not. So depending on my mood, sometimes I play the pause, sometimes I don't.

Am I right that there's also a—he takes a deep, deep breath, right? I was going to try to play it here, but that would kill our music, I suppose. But I believe there's a big, deep breath that really says it all.

He takes a deep breath that I think is something we would all understand more fundamentally in the years to come. Oh, yeah. You know, which was like, I cannot believe—

That's exactly right.

I can't believe that I'm actually going to lose this to this guy.

Yeah, that was exactly, you know, I won't be out there trash talking. I won't be blowhard. I won't be out there blowhard.

How much of it do we blame on the exclamation point as it just from a branding standpoint, Jeb exclamation point? Was that I wonder if that was also an issue.

That did go that did go awry.

I don't think he definitely had more of the tone of a question mark. That's for sure. Yeah, that's right.

Now, we are here in the studios of the Why Is This Happening pod. And then also, of course, strict scrutiny. This is a two-podcast household, Andrew, and when I asked Chris if we might be able to come over and do TBTL from here today, of course, he had to also check in with...

kate shaw one of the hosts of strict scrutiny coming soon by the way to san francisco and los angeles check your calendars and get out to see them um but chris i hope i'm not over sharing about the details of your of your lovely home here in brooklyn but i remember when we were talking this summer you said that this is basically the most 2025 thing the podcast studio

and what it replaces or what it replaced we when we moved into this house there was this in this space there was basically like a little kind of like hot tub but it felt more like a schvitz from like the 70s it was like this tiled room steam room and kind of a roman bath yeah exactly like a little roman bath and we're like you know that's what a weird thing to have like why would you have that in your basement so then we replace it with a podcast studio and i always joke that like when we're selling this house in 25 years nothing will be more like peak 2025 and like i think they called it a podcast studio they had apparently back then every home had one

let me ask you this what did you end up doing with your purgatorium is that what it is a purgatorium is that where people used to go to vomit in the roman days the vomitorium

that's honestly any room in the house if you've had enough to drink any zoo is a petting zoo if you're brave enough any room can be well that was the thing about coming over here this morning as we were wending our way through brooklyn boy there is just nothing there's nothing worse than being in a neighborhood that i used to live in with me as i'm reminiscing about my times there everyone that i've dated or been married to has at some point been taken on the tour de terrible of seattle me going like that's a tree that i planted and cried at this is where my dad's sign shop was but me becca and i were coming in into brooklyn this morning and i was just like pointing out like oh that's where i you know oh by the way you know i lived on the street i i had i had like a temporary like a like a least furnished apartment down at the end of this street that's i totally forgotten about but yeah like i have a lot of great memories about this this part of brooklyn and again i really appreciate you letting us come over and do the show thank you for being on the show it's always a big thrill it's a delight it's uh i

don't have a show i don't have a television show on monday so uh so this is but you did have when

we walked into your kitchen your laptop was open i hope this is okay i did a little snooping checked some bank records and other things yeah it's weird we have the same fingerprint yeah my fingerprint works on your macbook too which is kind of a lucky lie to us about that and snowflakes actually you know what has anyone tested that has anyone tried to fingerprint somebody

else's thing? Yes, because I have tried kids' devices in the past for exactly that reason, and it does seem to... Okay, so that is real.

As I'm rolling my fingerprint, if you don't have a Mac... Andrew, does your computer have one of these functions where it's fingerprint technology, but then when they're kind of intaking your fingerprint, it's talking you through it

and showing you what's happening? Oh! No, I have one that uses a fingerprint, but it doesn't tell me what to do. I just touch it gently, and it awakens. What I noticed

on your computer that was visible to everyone and there was no reasonable expectation of privacy was that you seemed to just be writing some important document i don't know what it was about i really didn't snoop but i was like is this just your life like you don't have your tv show today uh but you just are you just always in and also i'm gonna i'm gonna be honest there were some books out that were complicated and there was printouts of research materials well just is this just your life are you just constantly ingesting complicated things and then sort of digesting it And then what's the output version of that word?

That's how I sort of keep the voices at bay. It's like, that's my, I need to do something to keep the voices at bay. No, I mean, I'm, the document is, I'm working on a book proposal for an ex-book. So I'm working on that. The research documents you saw were actually, it's so crazy. Those are from the first book I wrote 13 years ago.

Twilight of the Elites? Twilight of the Elites. Boy, did you nail that one, by the way.

That one, yeah.

I mean, serious victory lap for you. I mean, it sucks. Sort of sadly. Yeah, I know. Wow. Why'd you do that?

And we are going through, we're moving, our offices are moving because, you know, the company is getting spun off. And I've been in that office in Rockefeller Center for like 15 years now, 14 years. So I had to, this weekend I went in with my daughter and we like, I packed up some stuff, which by the way is very intense. You know, like you, whatever you're, there's something emotional always when you're packing something up. Yeah. And just to think of the fact, like, I came here before I even had kids and I'm here for 14 years, the longest job I've ever had in my life. But randomly, there was just a bin of stuff of my research materials from that book that I don't know how it got there or why it was there. I think my fact checker must have dropped it off or something. Anyway, so. So that was that's sitting strewn around. But yeah, I'm working on something else now. And that's how I keep. Yeah, that's how it was impressive. It was impressive. What I did this morning was what I call Luke's New York City Marathon, which is where I go.

the day after the marathon and I run around Central Park and then I get to run through the finish line like I did the marathon except I actually didn't.

Was yesterday actually the New York marathon? I totally missed that. It was. I totally missed that.

In fact...

That's why Becca and I were out here. And in your experience, Chris, has it become like more of a thing in the last 10 years than it used to be? Because when I lived out here in Brooklyn, it comes right down the street from here on Fourth Avenue. And I feel like we used to roll out of bed, walk down to Fourth Avenue. People would have set up like stereo speakers in their windows and just be playing like, you know, music and stuff. And you'd cheer them on. And now it's like we were so we were here to watch Becca's brother and his wife both ran the New York Marathon. And it was like five people deep for the entire twenty six point two miles. Like as far as people on the sidelines of the thing, you couldn't get up to the like gate, you know, to the fence area. It just feels like it's it's a huge thing. Has it always been that crazy?

It's a great question. I think it really depends on the spots you're in. Definitely in Manhattan, I think it's thicker. And I think 4th Avenue tends to, because those are wide sidewalks, it tends to be pretty chill. But it's a, yeah, it is a huge thing. I think it's my favorite day in New York City. I mean, it is an immaculate, usually it's like a perfect time of year weather-wise. Yes. We got perfect weather yesterday. Everyone's on, it's sort of someone I saw, someone I know who's from New Orleans and lives in Brooklyn now said it's like the closest thing New York has to Mardi Gras.

Yeah.

I think it's true. Like there is just that like day party vibe.

We went by this restaurant, we were over right by the bridge, like where it comes into Manhattan. That was like a big turnaround spot. And there was a restaurant like a diner called the Ritz. And they just said closing after the marathon and moving. But they were like, we're staying open. Like we're not we're not leaving, you know, until we've done one more of these marathons. Because, of course, just like tons of people. And it was packed. It's a very emotional thing, too. something happened so we we were we were over there trying to stand by and be ready for her brother scott who was it was scott and tiffany and scott was on this certain pace and he had had a hamstring injury so it was kind of it was touch and go if he was going to be able to actually like even do it and stuff and um first of all there are too many white guys with mustaches in this race we should not there should be a limit we have exceeded it because you're standing there and you're waiting for this person to come and you really want to cheer but you really want them to know that you're there cheering because like otherwise why did you even go there and they and it's like there's literally thousands of people that look so similar they're all like crazy fit mustached people and i'm like scanning like we're looking and you've got us there's an app that's supposed to be tracking them but it's a little laggy so you can't quite trust it and if they

So you can track your people? Yes. Really? Yes. You can track anyone in the race for precisely this purpose. Wow. But it's not 100%, which is also stressful. Is it in the number? Do they have the tracker in the number that they assign you? Yeah, exactly. Oh, wow. Yep.

Yeah, so when it's working, it's pretty slick. It's also why I like to, after the marathon, play a most dangerous game, where I continue hunting the various people that I've been following online. There is something that's a little, like you can put anyone's name in. Like Ben Gibbard from Death Cab ran it. And I was like, someone is just getting to know where Ben Gibbard of Death Cab ran it at every second. It's totally public. He's been in that Starbucks bathroom for quite some time. Wow. You know what else it does? By the way, you know what else it does that's pretty crazy? This is a real thing. Because if you sign up, like, I want to follow so-and-so and then these alerts. At some point it just says, so-and-so has left the park. Yeah. It's like, so-and-so is now going, is not going to be tracked. They're now going to be their Audi or whatever. so so we're standing there and we're like excited for scott to come by but we're also we're like we we are trying to see him and we're hoping i'm watching this little thing of him and it's like if we miss him it's going to be a real bummer or whatever and then we just see him at the last second and we're screaming for him and we're taking pictures and it was the weirdest thing because we're not even running the race but i look over and he's he's running and he almost doesn't hear us and then as he's kind of far past it like the last screaming of scott gets through to him in this wrong around yeah and he kind of gives us a wave like and i realized becca and i are both crying like not not intensely but tearing up a little bit over yelling someone's name at a marathon i understand if you're finishing the marathon like being emotional i why was i emotional yelling someone's name at a at a marathon there's something there is a kind of distinctly

raw vulnerable celebratory thing about the whole energy of it you know yeah people like you know how hard it is you know how hard people work for it everyone's being so supportive in such a sweet way yeah like when i kate ran the philly marathon last year and i took the two youngest kids david and anya we went and we did that thing where like you're tracking her it's also super stressful if you miss it you're screwed right and we were driving around philly and trying to like part and then everyone's on the sort of same yes hopping around the shadow marathon i'm calling

it where all the people who are not running the marathon are running around with giant signs they've made, freaking out that they're not going to get to the spot at the same time as the person

is running. And then fighting for parking, then finally just like parking in front of a driveway or a hydrant and running out of the car.

A hospital for disabled nuns. Exactly. Anya had this sign that that she and her and her babysitter had made that was like a star and it was like touch here to power up. Oh, nice. And she was just like holding it. And it was just like the purest, sweetest sort of emotional thing that people were coming by. And this was like a mile like 16 or 17. We found like three different spots and people were they were in. There's some name for that. They call it like the not the shallows or the something. there's like a part of the marathon okay there's like a name for that's like you know yeah the valley of bad feelings yes yes and and they were in that and they were just like brightening up and it was just the what i found it really emotional even before kate got there we ended up

at the 24th mile so in the park a little bit and that and then somehow we managed through some maneuvering to actually be right on the on the fence so like you could lean out and high five the runners and again the 24th mile of this is also just like you've got people that are just you know barely even able to walk they're obviously in a lot of pain maybe they've gotten an injury some people are like totally great and fine but also this is the thing now that they do in marathons a lot of people will wear a jersey or a bib that has their name on it like kind of in large letters so you know the names of like a lot of these people who you have never met and we'll never meet and just like yelling like good job ray ray you're so close you're so close right

now like that sounds sarcastic though you gotta be careful if you're yelling at somebody you don't

know great job great job great job ray no we did really get waved off becca and i got like we got a from like a guy who was he was struggling and and we were trying to be positive and said like you're so close you're doing great you're looking strong and he just looks at us he just does the most dismissive like uh out of here with that and i was like i actually get that i actually totally get that i i'm trying to be helpful it's probably not helping you've run marathons i've run a marathon right and um the funny thing about that is uh i ended up walking i and feel like i i just hit the wall i ended up walking in the maybe 25th mile for like maybe two city blocks right and during that time this was in the very early days of tbtl there we we had somehow even fewer listeners then than we do now and in that one to two blocks that i was walking somebody came up to me oh are you luke from tbtl and i was like you gotta that is a nightmare that is the worst case scenario for me in this is like being caught in my moment what city was it it was it was down south of seattle it was called the green river marathon known for the killer by the way they call it the green river marathon interesting branding they do um because the green river is a real place and the reason that i picked it was because i went on the internet and i said what is the flattest marathon i can do in the state of washington and you couldn't get into the river marathon you couldn't get into the

dom or dash the gacy 5k the beat is completely the bt 5k yeah right yeah um but so i have done

i have done a total of one marathon and i think that was probably enough for me but yeah i mean it was a really you're right it was it's a beautiful day and it's just so fun to see everybody out and i also just feel like not to make everything political but in this day and age where big cities are so maligned and are always being described as these like non-functional hell holes uh it's just so fun to be in a city like new york when it's having its best day yeah and

it's also like we had halloween in the neighborhood just you know on friday night and that's another by the way nice costume incredible oh thank you yeah i was pretty proud of that one um I got, like, a few acknowledgments. I was Bob Ferguson, Leo DiCaprio from One Battle After Another. I had the, like, sort of housecoat robe. I had the big, like, wraparound shades that he grabs in the store and the hat, and I got a goatee. Nice. I had a few people, like, a few people came up to me and were like, what time is it? Which I thought was pretty good. That's great.

That's really clever.

But we had Halloween here, and I just had the same feeling. And I think, Andrew, you're you're a big you know, you're a big partisan of like urban life, city streets, like the E-line, the E-line, yeah, culturally E-line and culturally E-line. And it's just there's just nothing like it, like everyone out sort of together, meeting their neighbors, talking to each other, talking to strangers, talking to friends.

Really, really special. I kind of wish we had one of those like a month, you know, you said something on with pod recently when you were talking to the war on cars, folks, Chris, that I thought was it blew my mind. But like you were saying, the difference between a block party and a not block party is just that they don't let the cars go on the street. Like if you and this this area of Brooklyn is so great for that, you know, summertime when it'll happen. You just like no cars on the street for the next few hours. And it's just like life blooms.

You know, they did it. They did it for Halloween, too, on a bunch of streets. There's I don't know if you guys have seen this chart. There's this chart that goes around every year and it's. children, pedestrian, car injuries days of the year, okay? And every day is the same except one day, which is Halloween, which is like 6X the next closest day, right? Because there's all these kids out there walking around, and so there are car accidents. So they close a bunch of streets here now where they just put like New York City, you know, police horses basically, those like wooden things. And again, totally transformative. Like just everyone. And that's another thing about, But that's another thing that makes the marathon magical is that huge swaths of city streets are closed. Oh, yeah. And that feels like completely transformed.

We also got very nearly trapped in the marathon.

Oh, yeah. That's scary.

Which it was scary because we were going to see Death Becomes Her. We had these very expensive tickets to go see this show. And we were trying to go to the finish line, which we kind of got to the finish line. But then we realized, oh, the show's starting, you know, in like 45 minutes and we need to get out of here. and all of a sudden we're like you cannot get out of central park because it's surrounded by unless you go all the way up into the 80s which was very far from where we were and we couldn't call a car because nobody could get there yeah and we were like i was like there's one possible chance because we're in central park south and i was like if we can go to where that end train is and then get out on the the plaza yeah and i was like okay we're rolling the dice because if we go all the way down there because we were at columbus circle right sorry this is getting so new yorky but we were at columbus circle and it was like we're this is all we have we're betting on trying to go all the way down um that's fifth right maybe yeah uh or central park south or whatever it's called and we're gonna if maybe they haven't closed this subway right you can go underneath the road but if we go down there and it's blocked off that's it game over like we've committed to this thing and it was like the most stress i felt in years the subway is like an e-line but they put it

underground why is it underground can it go wherever it wants can it take turns or like can it take a right wherever it wants to what's the deal i gotta go i i still have never been on the

e-line or or any seattle you haven't been on the e-line but you know what chris you haven't ridden

the e-line but you have culturally experienced it by doing karaoke at the mandarin gate it's true Imagine you put the mandarin gate inside of an aluminum tube with wheels and ran it around the city. That's what the E-line is.

Pyramids of Giza, Taj Mahal, E-line. Yes, absolutely.

Okay, Chris, again, I don't want to make you do sort of your day job here. And also, we're not a show that really delves too much into politics. But I did want to ask you, this is a serious thing, a little bit about Zoran Mamdani because it's a huge story. I'm kind of weirdly psyched that I'm going to be in. I mean, I can't vote here. I have no connection to it. I'm also weirdly psyched I'm going to be here tomorrow on the day. It's a huge story. And it kind of came up on the show last week a little bit. And what I realized in trying to talk about with Andrew is I just don't know enough about the story other than like I've seen him on your show. I, you know, I've read the normal amount of what people read in The New York Times. But I guess the question is, is like for people that are just not in the greater New York area but keep seeing this name coming up in the news and stuff, like how should people think about this? What is, like, really the story here? Is there any evidence that, like, he can really do the stuff in New York City that he is proposing that he wants to do?

Some of it, yeah. I mean, I listened to your guys' Bill de Blasio conversation yesterday. It was pretty great. And I actually, I started out, Andrew persuaded me. I started out being like, I don't, you know, I think he's technically being honest, Bill de Blasio of Long Island. Oh, right. I was wondering what I could do. Oh, yeah, yeah. I came around on your position. But no. Yeah. I mean, look, I think he's profoundly talented, like politically talented. I have found him very. What's the right word? I think sort of open minded and curious and pragmatic in a way that I think is going to be necessary to govern the city. OK. You know, he's young and has never really run anything before. And it's arguably the hardest job in the country other than president. I mean, it's just it's a brutally difficult job. So, you know, but also he has run an incredibly deft race. I think he's done a really good job of reaching out to all kinds of different constituencies. The energy around him is really palpable. I haven't seen people this excited about a candidate for a while. It reminds me a little bit of it. The only thing it really reminds me of is when we lived in Chicago, and I'm not saying they're comparable political figures, but when we lived in Chicago in 2003 and 2004, when there was a state senator running for a senator named Barack Obama, who there was a similar kind of like everyone we knew was just all in and they were signing up for volunteer canvassing shifts and we had a birthday party at my house that was like a kegger where we like charge people ten dollars and contribute to the campaign like that kind of thing doesn't happen that often around candidates yeah and it is definitely happening around him

a real like a very cool and inspiring way i guess my question is does this mean anything to the rest of the country in terms of the politics of the rest of the country it's the mayor of new york does this just indicate where new york might be at or does this is this some sort of please tell me that this is a bellwether and it's really good news for people that live

in southern washington i mean i do think there are yes yes i think asking for a friend calama Kalama. Kalama County. What are the impacts on Kalama County? Do you have any research on that?

What's the impact on the commandments in Kalama?

I mean, I keep saying to people, like, you're not going to run Zora Mamdani for the Senate seat in Iowa. Right. And I think everyone understands that.

Right.

I think there are extractable lessons. I mean, I think the, you know, the focus on affordability that he did from the beginning, which I think is very, like, obviously the number one issue in polls. And he's also been obsessively focused on, I think, his use of social media. I think his, like, charisma. There's a bunch of things that I think are transferable. Yeah, ultimately, the politics in New York are weird and really distinct. And I'm not sure how transferable it is. You know, there's these two other races where there's like two gubernatorial candidates, Mikey Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, who are running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, respectively. And they are like classic normie Democrats, you know, like national security resumes, elected office. They've run races that, you know, we'll see what their outcomes are. But I do think there is this thing that happens, which is there are three races every year of the year after the big presidential New Jersey, Virginia and New York mayor. And because of that, they get like a huge amount of attention. Everyone's like trying to read the tea leaves from them.

I was saying to not to get this is a boring political niche and also poorly researched by me. So kind of the sweet spot for my discourse. But I was saying to Becca, I was like, well, you know, it'll be interesting if Mom Donnie is elected. Then it's I mean, obviously, if someone stubs their toe in New York, it will then be Mom Donnie's lawless. New York is, you know, falling apart, et cetera. And then she goes, well, do you think they would do that with Cuomo? And I was like, I give they'd give him two months probably. Right.

Yeah. I mean, the New York media is pretty relentless anyway. but like the New York Post, the Murdoch properties. I mean, one of the details of that Bill de Blasio story that to me was so interesting was that story was done by the Times of London. Yeah, right. Because the entire Murdoch empire is like waging war against Mondati. And the reason, someone pointed this out, the New York Post reporter would have de Blasio's actual information and would never make that mistake. It's because they're like flooding the zone from across the sea. The Adelaide Times.

That is a really, really good point. We didn't even mention that in all of our conversation about that story. It was like, oh, yeah, the Times of London was covering the story.

The Times of London has a big scoop where they get the ex-mayor to, like, you know, talk trash about the guy who's endorsed.

And it's like, oh, right, it's because. Just emptying out the clip. Emptying out the clip. Everything. Everything we got, let's throw it out.

And they're going to have, you know, they're going to continue to do that if he wins, for sure. Well, right. It'll be like a real, there'll be a lot of sort of, you know, they even got a story today where they like, how many, you know, there's going to be a mass exodus. And they did a poll. This is my favorite use of polling is like asking someone a hypothetical question and then reporting the polling results like a real, like half a million New Yorkers say they'll leave if he wins.

It's like, well, people say a lot of things. Right, right. What was that? Yeah. That was 9% or something today. So I have a really immature question about this, if you don't mind. Yeah. this is such a dumb question in 2025 but it is the thing that sort of dogs me when i when i think about this from afar it's like why is cuomo why does cuomo not carry around more baggage from having to to resign in a scandal and like it's like mom donnie oh he might not be able to achieve everything he says he's going to achieve like that seems to be the ding on him and another guy like sexually harassed a dozen women and we're like i don't know like it's a really tough choice

Yeah, I mean, I do think he does carry around that baggage. I mean, the reason that he got his butt kicked in the primary is because of that. He should, you know, if he hadn't resigned in disgrace as the ex-governor in this very known quantity, he should be in a much better position than he is politically. The reason he's losing to a 32-year-old state assemblyman who very few New Yorkers had heard of before this campaign. I mean, truly, truly. I had a vague knowledge as someone who is a New Yorker.

Well, as a rap fan.

yeah exactly you're familiar with his hip-hop career right i just saw a video he did where someone was like asked him like is there something on the internet of you you'd like to take off he's like well i'm in a music video topless in a halal carton and apron i'd like that to come down good answer pretty good he's a very charming guy so yeah i think like he definitely has it's not he has he has and is paying the penalty for sure you know i think absent all that he'd be in such a different position. And also, that's the other thing about Mamdani's success, which you can't, it's inextricably linked to just the total bankruptcy of the Adams-Cuomo pairing. Like, if, you know, and I've said this to people that have, you know, different politics than Mamdani and, you know, New Yorkers from the finance world who are, you know, whose politics on a bunch of stuff are very different. It's like, you guys should have gotten your act together to find someone to run with your politics in your lane that weren't these guys like because you you have some really really really flawed flawed candidates that you're trying to you know trying to win this with and we haven't even started

to discuss curtis sliwa by the way you know who was the you know who produced the curtis sliwa show many many years ago jen flash andrews that's perfect that is perfect jen fly i think a uh like a like a recent Fordham grad she was and she and she was a she was a conservative talk radio producer in New York for a period of time and produced Curtis Lee

was a radio show someone day someone he appeared this is again this is pretty niche and it's a visual joke which is best for this medium but he was they had the the debate with the three candidates like a few weeks ago and sleep what didn't have the beret oh man and it was so unnerving someone said It's like seeing a snail without a shell. And I, the debate was on right, right up against our show, like overlapping. And I got into the green room and I got in the makeup room to do hair and makeup. And I looked up and it was on. I was like, wait, wait, I know that guy. Who is that? I know him.

I was like, oh my God, that's Sliwa without the beret. Wow. Yeah, that's a, that's definitely, he's, he's really effectively branded himself. The red, red satin and the beret. You know that Sliwa is here.

Do you, Andrew, do you feel like, obviously it's not like local media, like do you feel like you're getting in Seattle a lot of Zoran stuff? Yeah. Or is it just like, well, you fall on Blue Sky?

Well, that's the thing. I'm on Blue Sky, which means I'm getting all of this from a very Blue Sky-y perspective. That's Zoran Central, yeah. Yeah, it's very, and also like, and not just damning the conservative media, but the media in general. Like, I was going to ask you that too. Do you think they're because, again, I'm getting all of this from a very biased perspective, which is like very far left progressives on Blue Sky complaining about literally everything. They're my people. But same and same. There's a lot of criticism of The New York Times as well. We don't have to like dig it all up. But, you know, there's like a couple of really big examples of them, like maybe running stories that they wouldn't have, you know, relying on anonymous sources that break all their anonymous sources rules to sort of write this piece that like dams him in some very small way. Or and I don't know if it was the Times doing this, but like the he referred to his what mom's cousin as his uncle or something. And like people are jumping on these things that seem like so critical in such unimportant ways to me.

yeah there's been a few I think there's some fairness to that critique and some is a little overstated I think that you know there he referred to he gave a speech about Islamophobia where he talked about an auntie who didn't want to wear her job and then it turned out like it wasn't technically an aunt it was a cousin of his father but like yeah my uncle actually who also didn't wear a

hijab yeah for totally different reasons well you know what guys I had a cab

driver in Ireland he said he said to me yeah it's like talking about the immigrants like there's a lot of them they're Muslim he's like I don't believe in that I really think five pillars guy but yeah well I was gonna say this has

been thank you Chris for indulging me this has actually been fun and enlightening but we should after we thank these donors we should get back to what tbtl does best oh yeah me telling a story of pulling the most dumbass move on saturday night that involved me traveling to linden new jersey travel related it had me it is travel right to

linden you got i wish i could have got the bulkhead which is the first class of coach

yeah it's the first class of coach direct flight to linden new jersey from midtown manhattan they just added it and um yeah i want to tell you guys what i did this weekend uh that was it's just a true low point after we thank these donors.

Thank you, baby.

All right. Let's thank some donors who are making TBTL possible. Some donors also let us do the show from their home studio, which is really the highest order of TBTL support.

That's right.

But we also appreciate folks like Matt Wilson in Richmond, Virginia. By the way, this is 100% listener-supported podcasting. We do this five days a week only because we are doing it as our job. And it's thanks to folks like Matt Wilson, also folks like Matt.

Matt White in Tacoma, Washington. We've got, if we had one more Matt, we would have a what?

A parliament of Matt's? A parliament of Matt's? A parliament of Matt's, yeah.

Yeah, that's something, I'm trying to think of what, anything I can come up with is going to potentially be hurtful to Matt's. So I should probably, I don't want to generalize around people named Matt. I just want to thank them when they're donating to the show. Thank you, Matt and Matt. Also thanks to Leo Schultz, who's in Madison, Wisconsin. Nice.

Now, if you're ever in Madison, Wisconsin, you're going to be using Leo Studios, is that correct? Is that the agreement?

Yep. People have not looked at the very fine print of their donations to TBTL. At the way bottom, it says, if we're near where you live and you have a podcasting studio, we are allowed to. We're actually allowed you to. I agree. I agree. I agree. Terms of terms, I agree. Exactly. Okay, fine. Whatever. And we're allowed to bump you from your own recording. That's the part that the lawyers were questioning when we put it in there, but Leo signed it. That's the deal. Also, something that was signed by Kristen Arntzen, who's in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Our pal, Kristen.

Yeah, we saw Kristen after the Philly party. Thank you, Kristen. Thanks also to Heather Lynch, who's in. Now, I get this one mixed up. This is the Pennsylvania version. Is it Newtown, Pennsylvania? Because I feel like there's the Newton, Massachusetts, right? Yeah, Newton, Mass, but I think it's Newtown, Pennsylvania. Newtown, Pennsylvania is where Heather is. Thank you, Heather. DeKalb. That's right. Oh, God, boy, that was 45 minutes. I loved it. I mean, I have to say, that was a bad program, but it kind of works for you as a guy who grew up in New York, probably listened to some soul coughing and lives in Brooklyn. It's very micro-targeted. I don't know how Debbie James Burgum felt about it out there in McWanago, Wisconsin. That's a tough one. That's a name I haven't heard in a long time, slash ever.

Yeah, there's a new town that tripped us up somehow. You nailed this one.

Yes, Mukwanago just trips right off the tongue. I wonder how close, when we were in Friendship, Wisconsin, I wonder how close we were to Mukwanago, Wisconsin, where Debbie is. Debbie, thank you, and thank you to all of our donors. We really could not do this thing and wouldn't. Let me be honest with you. We wouldn't do this thing without you. So thanks for making this happen all these years later. Hello and welcome to top story I'm having a kind of a weird sensation of doing the show Chris with you and with Andrew But with you somebody who also listens to the show and I see your head kind of bop along to these These like sonic kind of little guideposts in the show and I think about how incredibly Not thought through they were at the time of their first implementation in my brain like that top story thing was literally because i thought well we should have something that says we're going to try to talk about the news or whatever and i went on the internet to try to find has anyone said the words top story and it was and by the way i think we know someone who knows that guy somebody has somebody was a co-worker of that person it's a channel four it's the b i think it's something with the bbc but um it's funny because it's like i remember where i was when i just grabbed that that little piece of audio it was like at my my house in seattle that had like burbank studios debajo yeah i was debajoing long before oh we're debajo right yeah we are debajo and debasing the the program do you like uh do you have a name yet for for the room do we call this like um you know hayes shaw studios or

i like tv tale studios east steam room steam room and east the steam room the steam room sounds kind

of sounds kind of good things getting does it it's getting hot i think it sounds the opposite yes okay so saturday night uh becca and i flew uh we flew from portland to newark new jersey because it happens to be where alaska airlines agreed to take us sometimes they agree to take us to jfk sometimes they uh take us to newark and so that's where we were never laguardia though i don't really think they fly into laguardia but um i by the way laguardia is nice now it's that whole new world that fountain that like sonic fountain pretty pretty exciting but um it's it was kind of a long flight and then we got in at about like seven and and uh and then got our stuff got our bags got in the car and you know it's a saturday night you're trying to go from new jersey into manhattan so it's just like just like the lincoln tunnel and everything is just like a mess just traffic and it's an you know i probably should i should just figure out had to take public transit I should take the e-line honestly it's a lot fat it would probably be a lot faster but you know I had Becca and the whole thing so it's like we'll take a car we I start we're pulling we're finally in midtown and we're finally worked our way up to where our hotel is in midtown we're like a block from the hotel I start getting these calls on my phone that are like a 206 call and I'm like oh this has got to be spam because you know one of

things that they figured out is how to like spoof now my is 206 seattle 206 is seattle now here's

the thing anytime i see an i have a chicago phone number so anytime i see a 773 i also automatically

assume it's spam because it's but now here's the funny part my phone is from la my phone is not a seattle number so that's why my theory should have been out the window immediately i just thought i don't know i never no one ever calls me unidentified number from the 206 but they just keep calling and i'm just like nexting it and they keep calling and i'm actually you know what

This is already making me so anxious Yeah

I have, let's see if this works I didn't even think to do this, but let's see I actually have, finally it starts leaving me a voicemail The person

Hi, Luke, this is Faye from Alaska Airlines I'm calling because we have your bag here at the airport There is another guest who has a bag similar to yours that is also missing So we do think that there may have been a swap between you guys Please give us a call back at this number Thank you.

Oh! I took another dude's suitcase.

Is this the, I'm going to dox your suitcase here. Now this, you're not still using the Away bags that you and I both got that look, because I'm still using one of those, and everybody for a while had that same exact bag.

Well, I think it's a Chateau Saint-Michel bag. It is. It is.

It's the perfect turkey wine. Chateau Saint-Michel. Uh, I, this is what happens. No, it's not an away bag, but this is what happens when you go to the like New York times wire cutter for everything. You're right. Like, Hey, what's the best, you know, in this price range, rolling suitcase for whatever. And then you go out and buy it. And then there's like a bunch of, as we used to say, PLUs, people like us who read the same article and have, so the, the, the kind of luggage that I have has a specific, it has this little thing on the wheels. It's got this little yellow kind of stamp and that's I realized that's what my brain now looks for

Oh, but that's part of that the actual luggage. Yes, it's part of the luggage

There's a little thing on the wheel of this particular kind of luggage because my luggage is it's black It's pretty typical looking except the wheel is different and all I do is look for all I do is look at the wheel now and This came off and it was someone else's luggage same manufacturer though and like this is what was truly crazy about it. I I found myself really mad at this guy whose luggage I had stolen. Like, I understood intellectually that I had done this, but I couldn't not be mad at him.

That is so funny. Because this has happened to me once on his side. I got to LAX once, and someone took my bag, and I was so mad at that person.

And as well, you should have been. Come on. As well, this fellow, I'll just name him Josh. That is his name, but I won't give his last name. The person at Alaska Airlines goes, well, I have him here. Do you want to talk to him? And I said, no, because I don't know. I needed to compose myself or something. It was weird. Why did you make me take your bag? Totally. I was really like, some part of me thought somehow this was still someone else's fault. And so she was like, well, do you want me just to hand the phone to him? And I said, no, my phone is dying, which was not actually a lie. And I was like, we're at the hotel. i need to just like drop my stuff off and maybe drop off my girlfriend and then figure this out but she didn't really want to be the mediator anymore again also fair to her what we have has your bag he has my bag or there what they what they figured out was someone took his bag i have the same bag and mine is there right this must be they just you know they just they just kind of made that logical leap and they were totally right but i was like i need to i don't know it was like i didn't want to talk to her anymore i didn't want to talk to him for some reason again i did this but then she was like okay well can i give him this number i was like yeah please just have him call me in a little bit like i don't know i'm gonna i need to figure this out so we get to the hotel we kind of drop our stuff i look i check the bag yes this is this guy's bag and then the phone rings and it's a you know portland number and i answer and he's like hey it's josh oh i'm so sorry but i think you have my bag he was so unbelievably nice he's

apologizing to you he was so i hate to interrupt you stole my bag yes it was so he was like he was

like oh man i'm so sorry i i go dude i did this to us i am so sorry i go well where are you coming into um you know what part of the city and he goes oh no no i'm staying in new jersey and we're going to philly i'm going to philadelphia now this is where i became mad at alaska airlines because they just announced four new routes from portland starting in a month and one of them is a direct from portland to philadelphia and if alaska airlines would have had that route active i could not have stolen josh's bag because he would not have had to fly to newark that's what i was thinking

a lot of this is on alaska airlines yeah that was your first thought i'm explaining to you how insane my mind was to blame other than josh

No one comes to mind. Alaska Airlines, for sure, is up there. There's a long list of people who are not me who did this. Yes, 100%. So then I'm like, I mean, I just understand that I have to bite the bullet. And I also feel bad because this guy's night is now being also ruined. I'm an hour from-

You're hoping on the other end of that call, he's going to be like, oh, I'm staying at this hotel four blocks from you.

In Midtown. Let's go meet in Midtown. No, he's on his way to Philadelphia. He's like, I was going to get ramen with some friends. And I was like, and he goes, but I'll just stay here at the airport. And I was like, he goes, I think it's kind of the other direction. I go, dude, don't, like, ruin your night. I'll just get back in the Uber, and I'll just send me the address, and I'll come to you. And he goes, oh, okay, cool, man, thanks. So he sends me the address, and I, like, look at it, and I punch it into Uber, and it's a $400 Uber ride. Oh, my God. That sounds about right. Because it's almost in Philadelphia. That sounds about right. It's like, and then I'm like, I'm, like, calling him. I'm like, Josh, Josh, Josh, abort, abort. back to plan a and i hear he's in a car already and he's with here's the thing he is so nice but i can tell him south his friend who's operated the vehicle less charmed yeah by the whole situation understandably so so it's kind of good cop bad cop josh is just like i was like josh uh it's gonna and this is how i this wasn't a lie because it was true i didn't lead with it's a 400 uber ride i said i'm looking at it and i realize it's going to take a lot longer to get the luggage to you because it's like you're going to be an hour past you know like i'm going to be chasing you if you wait there i can get you your luggage sooner and so and i could hear his friend who was like already excited to go to this ramen place in wherever the hell new jersey kind of goes um yeah i don't know we'll pull over uh we'll pull over we're just going to pull i don't know

i don't know click and i'm like i've been that guy god i've been that guy and so i then get i

I get a finally I get a message from Josh that they have gone to a a different like a dumpling place in Linden, New Jersey, which is closer to Newark. So they're, you know, again, thoughtful. They've changed their dinner plans. And so, yeah, we and also this is where I am like this is where I'm not a good life partner with someone because we're at the hotel. And I said to Becca, I was like, just hang out here. I'll go deal with this. I did this. And she's like, no, I'll come with you. I was like, greater love, greater love hath no girlfriend than to get back in the cab going to New Jersey with me. And she did say something remarkable last night. We were telling the story to some folks at dinner and she goes, what if I would have been the one that grabbed the wrong luggage? She goes, what would your reaction have been? I would have been, I said, not great. I was the only person that could have done this in this dynamic because I'm so, I'm so, I was so mad. And the only thing that in any way tamped down my madness was I was the only person who I could be mad at.

Is this a Saturday evening?

Saturday night.

Oh, God. The traffic. Oh, dude. Brutal.

Absolutely brutal.

That's real nightmare fuel because there are these distances. I mean, every city has distances like this, but there are distances in the New York metro area. Often I encounter them on the way to or back from a sporting events where, like, you know, when you punch in an address and it's like seven miles an hour. in 10 minutes that's that like and that is one of those south jersey yes by newark is one of those

where you're like it's it's not that far no as the crow flies that's why i wish they had a direct flight to linden so long to the ugly dumpling house did you go to the dumpling house we went to not the ramen place right they were really on one with about having asian food apparently they switched from the wrong place to this dump by the way this dumpling place looked awesome i Also, by the way, I'm so hungry at this point. You should have eaten his dumpling. I was going to say, just walk over, pick it off his plate. You've already established the dynamic.

He'd apologize.

He'd be like, oh, I'm sorry, I don't have more dumplings for you. That would have been classic Josh, because I get there. Josh comes out. Josh is the most Portland person I've ever met. I'm standing in the lobby of the dumpling place in Linden, New Jersey, with Josh's luggage. And I'm like, I call him. I'm like, hey, man, I'm here. He's like, oh, cool, great. And he comes out. We hug. Love that. Josh is wearing, this sounds like I'm making this up. Josh is wearing, you know, one of those, remember those hoodies? I'm sure you had one, Chris, I did, that you could customize. They were really popular. They were like, were they called Brooklyn hoodies? I don't know. Like you could put whatever neighborhood you wanted, you know, on the thing. This is not a joke. His, he was wearing one of those hoodies, and it said on the hoodie, compassion. That is a real thing that he was wearing. This is the best case scenario for you. i stole the right guy's luggage as we're walking out to the car to swap he's like ah i keep thinking i gotta put something on this luggage so that it's because it's so it just looks like every other thing and i'm like dude you did not do anything wrong here this was 100 me and i am so so sorry that i messed

up your night but i will say this this is a this is a life hack that i learned from my mother-in-law mary shaw the great mary shaw she is insistent and obsessive about either a ribbon or a gold star or like a piece of painter's tape or like something yes and always has been that way and it genuinely particularly if you have like a black yes it really does help it does really does put the

punisher logo on mine yes remains of a flag except it's very tattered but also very black now for some reason you know I have MAGA Sasquatch on mine there you go I um that was a great power out but I'm going to step all over it and say that um yeah I uh I will never make this mistake again personally but you're right I should put something on my luggage so that somebody else doesn't accidentally do this although karmically I'm definitely very much in deserving that to happen at some point but um it was also just crazy because you know i travel all the time i never do this they're always playing those stupid announcements a lot of bags look similar please i'm always just like miss me with all of this boilerplate that i do not need particularly it's funny because in the i've said this before but in like the sea tech airport they decided because it's like you know there's a big music scene in seattle and they you know they're always trying to find ways to make this boring stuff more interesting so they like in the sea tech airport they said well what if we had seattle rock musicians record the voiceover stuff of like where you're going and it's like yeah but guess what you you run through like you run through eddie vetter pretty quickly and you get down to like hey it's kale from pinback what hey hey deep cut hey it's devin it's devin from lifter it's just like some it's like the it's it's like you know not the lead singer of a of a band that had was on sub pop 12 years ago and it's just like i like i i that's my nightmare because it's like anytime that i am being presented as someone that people would have an awareness of first of all they are never aware right but

you don't want to be in a situation where it's presented and it just doesn't i had the word i

was not to you know listen obviously we all know that i'm one of our nation's great philanthropists and volunteers and so um this isn't going to be news to people but i was doing a little helping out at a kind of a like a a shelter in the town that is near my town um you know helping them out with some stuff and somehow the guy who runs this this whole operation it's like a kind of transitional housing for folks it's for teens that are experiencing homelessness it's a really really great organization actually but the guy who runs it was really psyched that i have i'm on cbs sunday morning and he took me around to the and this is a big operation like multiple buildings and different kind of levels of care for folks and stuff and everywhere he went he introduced me to the most confused teens experiencing homelessness like you could not find a group of people who is less aware of the luke burbank and i was just oh my god it was just brutal but he was saying like hey by the way this this is luke burbank this is like as if it's as if he was bringing in bad bunny or something like i don't know who's got the most who's got the highest q rating right now in the world it was just it was absolutely brutal there's like 17 introductions of rooms full of people who could not have possibly cared less about it yikes yeah 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 um we're getting short on time here and uh and we need to get to some emails or females although i have to say uh we had a like a momentary break there and i noticed uh chris on your phone because i also like to peep what you're looking at on your phone it's not just the laptop um i've also been going through your handwritten diaries yeah and um there's some stuff in there that i wouldn't let out if i were you no i saw like a clip of baseball happening on your phone and i realized this is totally not what we need to be doing right now but i do feel like i want to kind of just like download about the world series with you all because that was i went into this whole thing being like my my position was like i don't give a crap about mlb baseball that doesn't involve my team and i have never been more hanging with every pitch of a world series than i got into the last like two three games of this thing yeah i was even at i was at a dinner

party at a friend's house on the night of game seven and it was like a very not sports crowd but then as the time went on like all of us were like figuring out like how do we cast right like to the and then like everyone was watching and it was and this is not like at all a sports crowd i am curious how you guys feel because i've been thinking about this like the cubs went to game five with brewers and they they lost and it was a Thank you. but it was a good season. We won one series and we took the Brewers to game five. The Brewers proceeded to get swept by the Dodgers and it was a buzzsaw and you guys were talking about if the Mariners, if the Blue Jays had been swept, it would be a little like, well, I'm glad that wasn't the end of our season.

Yeah.

But then at the same time, it also felt to me like, wow, the Blue Jays are really good and literally came within a few inches. I don't know. Have you guys gotten into the Isaiah Kiner-Falefa?

The wedged ball? No.

No, the lead off third. Have you guys seen this? I didn't actually watch the World Series. I was only a scoreboard watching. Can we do this? Can we do five minutes on this, please? But only with the Doogie music. Yeah, with the Doogie stuff. So in the bottom of the 10th, I think, right, they load the bases with one out, the Blue Jays. Yeah. And there's a ground ball to the second baseman, Rojas.

Who had just hit the craziest home run to tie it in the ninth. The guy who has, like, absolutely no power. He's the number nine hitter in the lineup, and he just somehow yokes one into left field.

So Rojas on this play slips a little, but he recovers and he throws to home. Alejandra Kirk, the catcher, no, it's Will Smith, the catcher, extends his foot back. It comes off for a second, then comes back in, and he's out at home. Now, if you look at the play, he's out at home by maybe five inches.

If that.

If that.

Now. And if he, just for people that aren't totally up to speed on this, if he's safe, the World Series is over. The Blue Jays win the World Series. That's it.

Like, those inches are the difference between walk-off, right? Yes. Okay, so then yesterday, everyone was looking at the runner who had come in a pinch run, Isaiah Kandifaleva, who had been on the Pirates earlier, came over the Blue Jays. His lead off third, he is taking zero lead off third.

Oh, gee.

He has no lead off third. If he had done a lead at a normal second, there was even people, because everything could be quantified now, they were like this was the out of 354 leads off third this was the 351st like shallowest and he then said the coaches had coached him to hug the bag because it was one out and they did not want a line drive yes double play which but literally if he had taken one foot more one foot it's it the blue jays win the world series that's the whole thing this one little base running decision and one of the things that was so amazing about this world series was yes there are homers and there were great pitching you know performances there were so many plays that were like these fielding plays and base running plays that things hinged on that were so just incredible high level baseball happening guys getting thrown out at third on a bloop single to the short right field

you hear that quique hernandez when he to get from game six to game seven there was this insane double play that ended game six yep and quique hernandez says he didn't ever see the ball until a second before it was in the lights yeah he just started running in the direction that he thought the ball was yeah and this wasn't the collision or the near collision in the outfield right that was no that was also crazy no and that's also not the part where the ball got wedged right under the padding which is like one in a trillion for that to have i mean so okay this actually is this is kind of what i was really curious about talking about i guess with with both of you just as fans of sports and whatever andrew are you today like here's what i'm trying to say if i were a toronto blue jays fan i would be and we have lots of blue jays fans are listeners i'm peace and love i wonder is this worse than not going to the world series to go to the world series and to lose on because the whole thing you were saying andrew was you didn't want the Mariners to lose in a weird fluky we're going to talk about it forever way we will never stop talking about the time a ball got wedged under the pad and it was like it was like it was the most cursed play that could ever happen for the Toronto Blue Jays in that in that circumstance and I almost feel and again I'm not trying to rub it in or make our Blue Jays listeners feel in any way worse but I almost feel like I'm glad that that cup was passed from us I don't think I could handle that we lost to the Blue Jays I couldn't handle the losing the World Series with the ball being two outs away and you give up a home run to Rojas and the ball wedging under the padding.

I did not feel that I couldn't deal with it until I spent a day on the runner from third discourse because I was just like, oh, my God, this would really haunt me. Now, the thing I will say, though, and this relates to Mariners, too, and, Andrew, I'm curious how you feel, that the Blue Jays are an exceptionally good baseball team and the Mariners basically battled them essentially to even, more or less. And this was basically a coin flip. I mean, truly, like, it was essentially an even series. Like, it was a 50-50 series. There was a game that went 18 innings. Like, it was so close. It does make me think, like, the Mariners are really good. Like, it's not a feeling of, like, that was all. Yeah. But then the question of, like, the closer it is, the more tantalizing, you know, the possibility. What are you thinking? So the question here is, is it.

more difficult, would it have been more difficult had the Mariners made the World Series? Is that what you're asking, Chris?

Yeah, would you, in terms of ranking things, like the Mariners making the World Series and losing like this, the Mariners losing to a Blue Jays team that got swept by the Dodgers or like, you know, got their butts kicked. The Mariners, or what happened? The Mariners losing to a Blue Jays team that barely, barely, barely lost.

I guess generally speaking, and this is me repeating myself, so hopefully it gets near what you're asking, but generally speaking I still kind of feel like a bad fan because I'm not burning with anger about not making it to the World Series like I listen to some people and by the way like there's this one radio host here who I'm actually not a very big fan of generally speaking except I really appreciate his passion as a Mariners fan and like he really holds the team accountable he complains about them even though there's a you know a financial agreement between his company and the team he's covering you know like i really appreciate and i've been listening to him a little bit here and there and he's just still burning so hot over being eight outs away from making the world series and how he can just not root for the blue jays at all and that idea of not being able to even look at the team that just beat you like i feel like i know that feeling i know from being a browns fan and maybe looking at the ravens or the steelers or or what have you i felt that about the brewers for sure sure yeah and otherwise what a lovable team right and city and and mark you know like and but you're just like i can't i can't watch springer hit a dinger or whatever like that and so that's why did you guys notice it rhymes um and so i did not want to watch the world series because even though i truly was rooting for the blue jays to win i really did not i didn't have any ambiguity about it or any um you know kind of uh what's the word i'm looking for i don't

don't think ambiguity is the right word there but cross pressure yeah i was just like no i want the

blue jays to win but i don't want to see it i don't you know i don't want to watch anybody celebrating and i will say though the one the one factor here that we need to consider is the mariners have never made it to a world series so of course having them make it and then even lose in a very painful way would have still been a huge thing just to see them in a world series

Yeah, but I feel like for me, other than the Mariners winning the World Series, this was actually the best outcome for me, which was we played Toronto really well. We didn't have to then watch Toronto go and win, which would have hurt me. We also didn't watch the Dodgers shred them. You're right, there's a sort of transference of like, we played the Dodgers, we played the Blue Jays well, they played the Dodgers well, therefore we are a good team. But also, I don't have to be involved, other than just as a spectator, in the Kiner-Falefa lead-off discourse. Like, imagine if I was in the Eugenio Suarez lead-off discourse right now. Oh, my God. I would be, I mean, they'd find me at the bottom of the East River.

You'd be in the Badlands. I would be absolutely.

Speaking of. By the way, Andy, did you see that?

I just got to get this clear. Ambivalence is the word I was looking for, not ambiguity. I just want everybody to know the word that I was actually looking for there. It's driving me nuts. All right. So do you guys want to do a really quick email here? Speaking of the Badlands, we got this note from our pal Max, who says, I've been inspired by your on the fly Badlands slash El Ropo imaging idea. And so I threw this together for you. I want to mention that I have not heard this. Now, Badlands, Luke, is it a new segment? It's a new vibe on the show? How would you explain the Badlands? It's a new excuse.

It's a new way. I mean, we were just in it, essentially. It's a new way for me to create even more niche programming with you in spite of the desires of the listeners by saying, well, we've gone more than an hour. So now we're in the Badlands. It's purely so that I am even less constrained by by the minimum requirements of doing this job in a good way.

So Max made a little audio imaging for it. I'll read you what he says about it after we hear it. And again, I think I mentioned this. I have not heard this yet. So a lot of pressure here.

This is Max who also does illustrations for us. Exactly. This is Max who's an actor who played Richard Dreyfuss in The Shark is Broken. Exactly. I mean, this guy is a get him an EGOT. This guy is a quadruple threat.

Five tool player. Absolutely. Slow down, guys. We haven't heard it yet. What's his leadoff like? All right. Take it away, Max. This is only a few seconds long. Let's take a listen.

The Badlands. Oh. The Badlands. Wow. Donkey, get over here. Wow, summoning the donkey.

That's very good. I don't want to know what he did to that donkey to make that sound. There's a reason the donkey doesn't want to go over there.

He says, that's a Sam Elliott slag.

yosemite sam impression it sounds like so there you go well thank you max we'll put that in the

sometimes you eat the donkey sometimes the donkey eats you thanks max yeah we'll we'll fold that in um that was we i loved getting that feedback from you chris that you just like sent us a message

like oh my god the el ropo song oh i got it yeah i just the thing that i loved about it like i like the way that i love the soul coughing was it just it brought me back to a small window of time it was probably a total of 18 months where like autoplay midi on on websites was like a real thing yes and yeah there was a period it was a real narrow period of time it's very generationally specific if you're like yes a few years older or a few years younger you missed this 100% I was like oh my god remember yes loading a website and and being greeted with yes kind of

body or a myspace page yeah that was the big that was the biggest that was the biggest that is where it really blew it was the epitome of our generation because we're you know we were probably maybe kind of at the we're old now speaking for like under the social media but that was our generation sort of bringing social media to the forefront i guess is what i'm trying to say and our generation is also very big on like music that defines us i don't know if that's i don't know if that's generational or not but i will just say it is true of our generation right It's like when you were in school, you decided who you were kind of based on your music or maybe vice versa, flip it on his head. But it was a way of identifying yourself. And so to have this social media thing where it's kind of like, welcome to my page. This is the song that represents me, you know, and it's been a gong by T-Rex for some reason.

I knew I knew that my first marriage was over when my first ex-wife. This is a real story. changed her myspace auto load song to some song by spoon and it was it was i didn't even know she listened to spoon oh yeah so we had been like i had been living kind of going back and forth between new york and la and the relationship was you know there was a lot of distance and kind of falling apart but it was something about actually she lived with me in that apartment down at the end of the street for a while um but it was something about being like she's putting a song from a band that I didn't even know she listened to. This is who she is now. And it was this weird indicator. It's a real wake-up call. It was a total wake-up call. It would have been for some people. For me, I was just like, well, we'll call this one the starter marriage. But it was strange at how much her switching her MySpace autoload song to Spoon was a leading indicator. Or again, she might have said a lagging indicator. But it was an indicator.

Leading for you, lagging for her.

Exactly, as we would all come to learn. All right, well, listen, that's probably where we should wrap things up. Chris, thanks for doing this. I know your time is very valuable, as is studio time here in the steam room.

Yeah, how much do we owe you for studio time? What was it about? I will send that. John will get in touch.

That Venmo request. And we're adding gas on top. Makes sense. Per Walt. Makes sense.

The lighting in here is great. I've got to talk to whoever your lighting person is. It's really nice. Anyway, all right. Well, listen, thanks, everyone, for spending this time with us. We will be back here tomorrow with more Imaginary Radio for all of you. So please, if you can, join us for that. In the meantime, have a great Monday. Take care of yourselves. And please remember, do you want to say, Chris?

No mountain too tall. And good luck to all. Please clap.

Power out.