Two Hot Takes Review

This is my 32nd podcast. As of this writing, it is ranked number 11. I listened to "Episode 257: Odd Layers. Ft. The Basement Yard." This is hosted by Morgan Absher and she interviewed these two guys who apparently have a different podcast called The Basement Yard. The episode I listened to was released the same day I listened to it, that is yesterday. I listened as I drove to Utah in my van. This kind of reminded me of Smosh Reads Reddit Stories Podcast because they read a bunch of stories from Reddit and elsewhere and analyzed it and told jokes. I thought the funniest story was about this guy who always wore the same "Where's the Beef" shirt. He had an estimated 30 of them in his house (I suspect exaggeration). But he had one for every day. Morgan said it was a red shirt with yellow writing so I suspect it was this one:

I did enjoy listening to this podcast. I thought it was funny and agreed with most of their conclusions when analyzing the stories. Though I think sometimes they jumped to too big of conclusions when maybe not having enough information about something. I give this 4/5 for the entertainment and minus one for profanity.

Spotify Presents Review

This is my 31st podcast. It is ranked number 2. I am not sure how this is even considered a podcast, but I am getting my podcast from the top 100 podcasts list put up by Spotify so they get to determine definitions. The title is, "Spotify Presents: Robyn Live from Los Angeles." It was released today and in unprecedented blogging speed I am writing this post right after I listen to it. I am driving to Utah and will be listening to podcasts on the way so I wanted to write this up when it is fresh in my mind. This is how it should always be done if I always had the time to do it that way. This "podcast" was just a concert. The concert was performed by Robyn, apparently according to the description this was her long-awaited return, but I haven't heard of her. I was wondering what her full name was so I Googled it and apparently it is Robin Miriam Carlsson, she is a Swedish singer who changed the spelling of her first name because I think a y in the name is probably cooler. She didn't talk at all. This is the third Spotify music promotional podcast that didn't really seem like a podcast but the others were closer because they had talking in it. The other ones were the Billions Club and Directed By. The music was okay. Not really what I go for because I didn't understand the words most the time. I am not big into music but when I do listen to it I really like to be able to understand the words. I rate this podcast 3/5. It gets minus one point for not being a podcast, no fault of Robyn's and minus one point for me not understanding words, again no fault of Robyn's as clearly other people don't care about understanding the words.

The Comment Section with Drew Afualo Review

This is my 30th podcast. It is now ranked number 72. The episode I listened to was number 208 with Nat and Alex Wolff released February 11. These two are brothers, actors, and musicians. The host said Alex Wolff was in the scariest movie of all time called Hereditary. They had some funny comments during the podcast. I think my favorite part was when Nat told a story of Robert Deniro on set telling him to stick the gum under the table and then immediately telling the director. Kind of a funny joke, though I do find it ridiculous and annoying that gum chewing people think they can just put gum everywhere. They are nowhere near as annoying as the smokers who think they can throw cigarettes everywhere. Like the world is their trash can. I remember seeing cigarettes all over the beach in Monterey, California and it would enrage me more and more as I would see it. Anywho, back to the podcast. I will give it 3/5. I give it 3 because it had funny moments. Minus one point for profanity and minus one point because they (guests and host) definitely promote drug use making people think it is cool. Which I think is not cool and harmful.

The Adam Friedland Show Review

This is my 29th podcast. It is currently ranked number 32. I listened to an episode from February 11 titled, "MJ Lenderman Calls Out Cameron Winter." I was listening to this on a long drive and I am reviewing it about a week later. I can't remember a lot of the podcast. The main thing is that they were talking about a lot of nonsense. I wasn't finding it funny again. There was profanity as per usual and they were laughing a lot. I am sure this review is very helpful for my many readers. I am just going to give this 3/5.

Distractible Review

This is my 28th podcast. Distractible is currently ranked number 28. The episode I listened to was titled "Fortunately, Unfortunately." It was from February 16. They played a game on this where they tell a story. A prompt is given, then one person says fortunately something happened, the next person says unfortunately happened. There was a lot of laughter, so I am sure this was all supposed to be funny. I didn't find it funny, but obviously a lot of other people feel differently considering it is ranked number 28. I started thinking if my sense of humor is broken or something. Maybe I am too serious in my old age. I wondered if I would find this funny when I was younger. I don't know. Improv is challenging and they did tell some crazy stories. There was a point system where one of the guys would give points out throughout the episode and whoever won would host the next podcast and give out the points next time. I am taking one point off for profanity and one point off for me not laughing. I give this podcast a 3/5.

Horror Stories Review

My 27th podcast was Horror Stories. Horror Stories is currently ranked number 15. The title of the episode was "3 True Disturbing Home Alone Horror Stories." This episode was released February 16. Before listening I saw a comment someone posted in the Horror Stories comment section on Spotify saying how this podcast helped them go to sleep. I thought that this person was joking and that it would be crazy to listen to Horror Stories as you go to bed. But I started listening to this in the car and it did make me very sleepy. I thought this topic would be something to help me stay awake. But the music and the voice of these stories seem designed to put one to sleep. I am not really into horror stories, these were kind of strange. There was one about a demon haunting this kid until the kid gave the demon a pillow and then it left him alone afterward. I am giving this podcast 3/5.

The Tim Dillon Show Review

This is my 26th podcast. I listened to Episode 482 titled, "Epstein Files & A Head In the Fryer." This episode was released February 7. I started it a few days ago and finished it yesterday the February 16th in the car. The Tim Dillon Show is currently ranked number 19. Tim Dillon was the only one speaking in this episode. He played a clip of FBI Director Kash Patel saying there was no credible evidence that Epstein trafficked girls. Dillon correctly called Patel out for being a liar as some of the Epstein files have been released show that there is plenty of evidence of this. Also, it is clear that the U.S. government is protecting pedophiles as it blacks their names out in the Epstein files. Dillon used an analogy of an Olive Garden employee who killed himself by putting his head in the fryer as what he believes Hillary and Bill Clinton are going to do. He thinks Hillary and Bill Clinton are going to destroy their own reputations in order to destroy Trump. They will confess of their own crimes with Epstein in order to also expose Trump's crimes with Epstein. Dillon think the Clinton's have nothing to lose because they are not in power and they are toward the end of their lives. He thinks Trump is scared of the Clinton's because Trump knows the Clinton's can destroy him. I doubt they would do this if they could because I believe they would still care about their own reputations and legacy. Dillon talked for a good portion of the show about how the Clinton's will destroy Trump with some Epstein revelations at the hearing. The hearing is scheduled for February 27, 2026. Dillon did some rapid fire conspiracy theories in the show. He did not seem particularly interested in evidence. I am giving The Tim Dillon Show a 2/5. He gets two points for calling out Kash Patel and Donald Trump. He does not get more points because of his conspiracy theories that I believe don't have merit. Also, a big portion of the show was talking about a future event of Hillary and Bill Clinton destroying themselves and destroying Trump in the process. I did not agree with the chain of logic that came to this conclusion. If he is right, I will change his podcast score to 5/5 for getting an amazing prediction right. Stay tuned for Feburary 27.

Dateline NBC Review

This is my 25th podcast. It is currently ranked 24. The episode I listened to aired February 11th. This means I am finally catching up as this is the last podcast I have listened to. I want to write about these soon after I listen to them so I don't get a backlog. The title of the episode is, "Talking Dateline: The Thing About Helen & Olga." Lester Holt interviewed Keith Morrison and Susan Leibowitz who have been working on reporting about this Helen and Olga case. Dateline NBC had just released the day before six episodes about the crimes of Helen and Olga. This episode is an interview with the people who made these podcasts and who have spent a long time investigating these crimes. Helen and Olga are two old ladies who act as if they are volunteering to help homeless people but they are really just doing life insurance fraud and do years long plots to kill the homeless people and get on their life insurance. They do this multiple times. They also do some lawsuit fraud by faking incindents to sue companies. They are currently in prison. Morrison and Leibowitz were interviewed about their experiences making this. One part made me laugh. That was when Susan Leibowitz talked about going to the church to work on this case, this church is where Helen and Olga found homeless people for their plot. While there someone told her about the preschool there and said she put her kids there. Initially, she said no way she would put her kids in the preschool at the church where Helen and Olga were finding homeless people to kill but then it was just perfect so she did. Even though this podcast was really about the making of these other podcasts, I still got a good idea of the gist of what Helen and Olga were doing. I thought it was an interesting podcast and crime story. I give this a 5/5. I am officially all caught up. I will plan on writing about the podcasts in the future soon after I listen to them.

Unseen Review

This is my 24th podcast of the year. It is currently ranked number 25. The title of the episode I listened to was "Escape from the Schoolgirl Snatcher: How 2 Best Friends Survived the Unthinkable. the Case of Charlene & Lisa." This episode was released February 2nd. Charlene and Lisa were two best friends who lived in a seaside town in the UK. They were ten years old, it was January 19, 1999. They were abducted as they walked to school together. They were kidnapped by a man named Alan Hopkinson. He sexually abused them. He drove them to a seaside cliff and held Charlene off the edge. She thought she was going to die but he said he wanted her for one more day. Meanwhile, this was a big story in the press and there were a lot of people searching for these girls. The next day, a police officer came to Hopkinson's apartment. He was there to question him regarding reports that he was stalking children as they walked to school. The police officer was going to take him for questioning but before they took him he told the police officer that he had Charlene and Lisa in the apartment. They were reunited with their families. The episode first showed the search attempts for the girls and then went to the girls' point of view. Charlene was interviewed in the episode but Lisa was not. Charlene and Lisa have remained friends and have written a book together. The title of their book is, "Abducted: Taken Tortured Terrified." There is also a documentary about this from a TV series "Cutting Edge." The documentary was season 29 episode 6 of this series and is titled, "The Girls Who Were Found Alive." I thought this was a good podcast. It gave good background on the story and I think that it is good for stories like this to be told. It is very sad. This episode is a good way to hear the story in a more toned down version as I understand the book is graphic and would be difficult to read. Charlene and Lisa seemed to act bravely and were able to keep their heads clear in a tramautic situation. I give this podcast 5/5 for telling a story that should be told and giving a voice to these victims.

The Bill Simmons Podcast Review

The Bill Simmons Podcast is my 23rd podcast of the year. This podcast is currently ranked number 15. The title of the episode is "Seattle Spanks the Patriots, Drake Maye's Mystery Stinker, and Parent Corner With Cousin Sal." This episode was released on February 8, Super Bowl Sunday right after the Super Bowl. This podcast was released on Netflix. Bill Simmons is the host and Cousin Sal is the guy talking to him. The show began with Cousin Sal taunting Bill Simmons about the Patriots losing. Apparently, Bill Simmons is a big Patriots fan. They talked about Drake Maye's poor performance. They talked a lot about gambling. He gambles on everything including the length of the national anthem, the coin toss, and how often celebrities are shown on television. I am really against this culture of gambling on everything. I think it is bad and it is harmful to sports. Gambling has a corrupting influence on sports and as more and more people do it and it is more and more mainstream, the corrupting influence will just be larger. The sports leagues acceptance of gambling just invites scandal. They have had plenty of scandals so far in sports and I suspect the scandal is just beginning. The gambling on everything invites more scandal. If people are just gambling on wins and losses there would be less corruption. But as they gamble on everything, everything is suspect. Players will feel like they can do small things that don't harm their team to make some gambling money. This already has happened with baseball players who pitch certain pitches at the beginning of the count in coordination with gamblers. A lot of the podcast seemed liked it was more a podcast for gambling addicts than sports fans. One thing I did agree with was towards the end of the podcast they had parents corner. Here they talked about some experiences as parents. One of them mentioned sports pictures and how it is just a money grab. Which is a funny thing to complain about when you are gambling about how long the national anthem is before the Super Bowl. But I did agree. He said instead of going on a different day and driving way out of your way to get a team picture, they should just take a few minutes before a game and have people take pictures with the team with their phones. I say this same thing every time we have team pictures. It is hard to do when nobody else even thinks about it and just wants to pay money to a photographer. Phones are pretty high quality now and I think it is such a waste of money. I give this podcast 1/5. I give it low points mostly due to the gambling content that I think is very harmful not only to individuls lives, but to the integrity of sports. They also had some profanity that I am not a fan of. They get one point for the comment about team pictures.

The Mel Robbins Podcast Review

The Mel Robbins Podcast is my 22nd podcast listening to on the year. It is now ranked number 18. This episode was recorded on February 2 and I started listening to it on February 4. The title of the episode was, "How to Take Control of Your Time: 9 Poven Strategies That Work (Even When You Have No Time)." But when I checked back I noticed the episode title had changed to, "Stop Wasting Your Time: The Scientific Way to Stop Procrastination and Get Control of Your Day." This was an interview with Laura Vanderkam. She had studied time management and is sharing what she learned. She says that we should look at our life in 168 hour increments. 168 hours is one week and it is weeks that make up our lives. She says we should keep track of how we use our time so we can understand it. Understanding time usage helps us find pockets of time. She has nine rules to live by. Here are the rules: 1. Give yourself a bedtime. I think this is a good rule and my bedtime should be midnight. 2. Plan on Fridays. I think this is a good idea. I often plan on Sundays but it doesn't always work because I don't think I should be working on Sundays so it stops myself if it involves work. It is good to plan before the week starts. 3. Move by 3 pm. She says do some physical activity for at least ten minutes before 3 pm. I typically exercise in the morning. 4. Three times a week is a habit. She says make habits for things to happen at least three times a week. I am not sure this is necessarily important. It depends what it is. The important thing is to plan and stick to it. If something should happen twice or once a week then that is fine. 5. Create a backup slot. Schedule time in your week to do things that you planned to do at other times but it fell through. This could be good. I need to still get better at scheduling in the first place. 6. One big adventure, one little adventure. Each week do two things that will be memorable for you. This is something out of the routine. For me, I think this is often what we do with the Get Out Pass for Family Home Evening. I don't think I would have two things normally but one thing. 7. Take one night for you. Here she says you should have an activity that you do for yourself and that involves committing to other people. Committing to other people is so that you actually do it. She did say it should be something where you leave the house. But I think Dominion Night, where I play online Dominion with family members and friends works for me. 8. Batch the little things. She says make lists of small tasks and schedule a time to do all of them at once. This sounds good as well. 9. Effortful before effortless. When you have free time it is better to do active things than passive things. It is better to get out and do something than to scroll on your phone because that is easier. I really liked this podcast and thought it was useful. Robbins did a good job with the interview and getting the information out of Vanderkam. It was a good discussion that people could apply to their lives. I want to apply a lot of this and want to plan for next week this Friday to get the ball rolling. Laura Vanderkam wrote a book called "Tranquility by Tuesday: The 9 rules." I give this podcast 5/5 for being useful and interesting.

Smosh Reads Reddit Stories Review

This is my 21st podcast and was ranked 21 when I finished it. It is currently ranked number 19. The title of the episode was, "Reddit is the Best Medicine." The podcast was recorded on January 31st. They read stories from Reddit, discuss them, decide who they think is right in different situations, and tell jokes about them. They discussed six stories. Stories included some bathroom humor, embarrassing moments with the doctor, a woman wanting her medical bills paid for from a dog owner because she tripped over a dog, and a sister being mad at her sister for revusing to remove diabetes equipment from her arm for a wedding photo, and surgeons making fun of a patient who they think is unconscious. I am kind of disappointed in myself here because I know there were a few funny jokes but I can't remember them at the moment. The humor was based on the conversations reacting to the stories. It was more funny towards the beginning of the episode and less funny toward the end. I give this podcat 3 out of 5. It gets points because it was amusing and somewhat funny at times. Minus one point for some profanity and minus one point for being less funny toward the end.

Directed By Review

This is my 20th podcast listened to on the year. It was recorded on January 26 and I listened February 2nd. Like the Billions Club, this is a podcast that is produced by Spotify and got a temporary boost due to Spotify promotion. It was ranked number 7 when I listened to it. The title of the podcast was "Inside Maisie Peters 'Audrey Hepburn' & 'You, You, You' Videos." This was the first and so far only episode of this podcast. It is no longer in the top 100. They talked about the making of two music videos performed by Maise Peters. I had never heard of Maise Peters. I'll give this 4/5. Four points for obviously being talented. Minus one point for not exactly being my cup of tea. I watched the music videos after because after the making of podcast I wanted to see what was made. Here is the end result of her two videos:

Morbid Review

This is my 19th podcast. As of this writing it is ranked number 17. The title of the podcast is "Listener Tale 106: Comfy Queens." This episode was released January 29th. This podcast is about ghost stories and this episode was about listener submitted ghost stories. They read and commented on them. Ghost stories aren't my favorite topic. I think the most interesting one was about a kid who died when he was four years old. He was said to live and play in a house as a ghost after he died for years. He did this all the way until his Dad's funeral. Obviously, my summary doesn't capture the presentation of the story. I give this 3/5.

NPR News Now Review

This was my 18th podcast listening to this year. The episode name is "1-29-26 2 AM EST." NPR News Now is ranked 20th as of this writing. This is a podcast released every hour and has five minutes of news. They reported the officers who shot Alex Pretti were placed on administrative leave. I was not a fan that they reported this as a fact when I think you should report it as what the government sources are saying in the context of lying about so many things. The government lied about Alex Pretti being there to kill as many ICE officers as he could when video showed that he was gunned down as he was videoing with his cell phone and trying to help a woman who was being pushed to the ground by ICE. I'm not saying the reporting was wrong, just that I don't like how it was presented. It is always important to provide context in reporting. Several publications have reported they are on leave. I give them 3/5. Three points for telling me about the report of the officers being on leave and minus two points for uncritically reporting untrustworthy sources.

Call Her Daddy Podcast

This was my 17th podcast of the year. It is now ranked 24th. The title of the podcast was, "Anna Kendrick: Pitch Perfect, Twilight, and Relationships." I was kind of nervous going into this one because of the title. I thought it might be some weird sexual podcast, but they didn't even talk about sex except for during the commercials. I am sure this varies by episode. This episode is directed to women but I still found some of it interesting, particularly Kendrick's backstory. She talked about going to New York City when she was 12 years old with her brother who was 14 years old. Her parents let her go to audition but they didn't want to have to go themselves. She went on a bus with her brother. She ended up staying two nights. She booked a hotel, her parents called and gave the credit card to the hotel and she acted as if her parents would be there later. Then she talked about her dating life. She said she isn't dating anyone right now but if she were to date she would only date someone who would immediately agree to go to couple's therapy with her. Personally, I would hate that idea. They talked some about how much the Pitch Perfect cast likes each other. I have seen parts of this movie while donating plasma in Utah before we moved. The one movie that I really liked that she was in they didn't even talk about. That was Trolls. She plays Poppy in trolls. I give this podcast 3/5. It gets some points for interesting conversation. A minus point for profanity. Another minus point for the name of the podcast. Here is my favorite Trolls song. Anna Kendrick sings this:

Billions Club: The Series Review

My 16th podcast of the year was Billions Club: The Series. This episode was titled: "Billions Club Live with Ed Sheeran: A concert film." As of writing this, the podcast is now ranked 71st. Spotify gives its own series a boost by promoting it which can make some things move up for a short time. This podcast series is Spotify getting people who have songs with more than a billion downloands to do a concert where they can only perform songs with more than a billion downloads and they talk about it. I didn't know anything of Ed Sheeran before this. He performed: Shape of You, Thinking Out Loud, Galway Girl, Perfect, Azizam, and Parting Glass. I am definitely the last person a person who likes music would want to listen to about music. I don't go out of my way to listen to music, I have never been big into it. I do like music sometimes. But when I wanted to listen to something in the past I used to listen to talk radio of politics or sometimes sports. More recently, I have been listening to books for the last few years. This year I have been listening to podcasts. I did like the tune of his music and I liked how I could understand the words. I always like music better when I can understand the words. There was too much meeting in a bar that I could not relate to. I will give this a 4 out of 5. Anne had heard of Ed Sheeran and his song Perfect. I thought it was a pretty good song:

The Journal Review

The Journal was my 15th podcast of the year. The episode I listed to was released January 26th and titled, "Are We at a Turning Point in Minneapolis?" As of writing this post, The Journal is ranked 13th. Don't tell Rupert Murdoch but this was actually a good podcast. There were some interesting tiddits. They mentioned how there were 300 to 600 agents sent to Chicago which is a population of 2.5 million people compared to 3000 sent to Minneapolis which is a population of 450,000. They talked of the massive welfare fraud that had taken place in Minneapolis and how MAGA used the fact that some of the perpetrators were Somoli to demonize the entire population. They talked about how ICE quotas were made by working backward from a statement made by Trump that he would deport a million people in the first year. Because of this they have a quota to arrest 3000 people a day. They never have come close to achieving their goal. Their performance evaluations are based on how many arrests that are made. Even if a person is later let go, it counts as an arrest so they are incentivized to make arrests even wrongful ones. They don't even wait before smashing a window. They do profiling. In the past, ICE would have been looking at specific people to arrest, but now they are just on the streets looking for people to arrest without having an idea who. I give this podcast 5/5 for being informative and helping me to learn new information about how our corrupt government functions.

Pardon My Take Review

Pardon My Take was my 14th podcast listened to this year. The title of the episode was, "Indiana Wins the Natty, Adam Thielen on Retirement, Paddy Pimblet Ahead of UFC 324, Coaching Carousel + Listener Pardon Your Takes." The episode was recorded on January 21st.This is hosted by Barstool Sports. As of this writing, Pardon My Take is ranked 18. They talked about Indiana's odds of winning the college football championship at the start of the season was 150 to 1 which they said was the same as Utah State's odds to win March Madness. They said they would remember this 4th and 5 touchdown by Fernando Mendoza forever. It was pretty sweet:

They praised Indiana's coach Curt Signetti a lot. They said if you are watching a game and you think he made a wrong decision, then you are wrong. They mentioned that aliens might be announced to distract them more from the Epstein files. The podcast started getting less interesting as they started interviewing a UFC guy. I really don't like UFC. I think it is awful to just be rooting for people to get hurt. I don't like the violence of it. I give this podcast 3/5. It had some interesting football talk, though I give it minus one point for profanity and minus one point for being so excited about the UFC.

Bad Friends Review

This is my 13th podcast I listened to. As of this writing it is ranked number 15. This episode is titled, "Rudy Shoots Her Shot with Marcello Hernandez. Podcast was recorded January 19, 2026. The main hosts are Bobby Lee and Andrew Santino. Rudy Jules and a couple guys who I don't remember would comment occasionally. The guest was Marcello Hernandez from Saturday Night Live. These guys are just funny. Santiago referred to January 6th as Insurrection Day and said it was his favorite holiday. The title of the episode is because the hosts kept telling Hernandez how much Rudy liked him and were pressuring her to "shoot her shot with him." She responded by trying to make a connection with him saying they both come from cultures who eat dogs but Hernandez said he doesn't come from a culture that eats dogs. That was that. The part of the episode that made me laugh the most was when one of them was reading a headine that said, "Head transplant two years away, doctor says" and the other was saying that was good and then the guy said, "That was ten years ago." I give this podcast 4 out of 5. I think it was funny, the hosts were entertaining, the conversation was engaging. I took one point off for some profanity.

The Diary of a CEO with Steve Bartlett

The Diary of a CEO with Steve Bartlett was number 12 when I listened to it. It is ranked number 15 now. The title of the episode I listened to is, "The Diary of a CEO with Steve Bartlett: CIA Whistleblower: They Can See All of Your Messages! I Was Under Surveilance in Pakistan! Interview with John Kiriakou." In this episode the host Steve Bartlett interviewed former CIA agent John Kiriakou. I thought it was an interesting inverview with Kiriakou talking about a lot of things including his personal career, intelligence agencies more generally, and some current events. He had been convicted previously for revealing some classified information regarding the waterboarding program. Kiriakou says he would do it again because we should not be doing torture. He did not mention in this podcast how he also was convicted for revealing agents names. Kiriakou seems likeable but I do have some issues. Mainly, he says he would go to prison to expose torture again but I believe his attempt to get a pardon from Trump makes him not speak the truth now. He sounded exactly like Tucker Carlson concerning Venezuela. He says whether you think it should happen or not, it's happened and there is no reason to talk about it because it's already happened. Like Carlson, Kiriakou has all sorts of criticisms for things that have already happened, but when it involves Trump there is no point to talk about it. According to this Wikipedia article Kiriakou paid $50,000 to a former Trump campaign advisor for a pardon but it wasn't enough. Later, he was told by Rudy Giuliani that a pardon would be $2 million. He wants a pardon to get his $700,000 pension back so that level of money wasn't worth it to him. I give this podcast 4/5. Bartlett asked questions to get Kiriakou to talk but I am taking one off due to it being unchallenged. Interviewing people without challenging them can be damaging if the guest lies. I do think Kiriakou speaks truth sometimes but is also a shady character who is currently seeking to bribe the president for a pardon. When interviewing such a figure there is value in challenging them but I think Kiriakou could say anything.

February Cabin Trip

We typically go to the cabin four times a year. We have our Christmas trip, our February trip, our summer trip, and our fall trip. Our February trip takes place usually during parent teacher conference weekend because the kids get Friday off of school. This year parent teacher conference was earlier than normal so our February trip was moved to the last weekend of January and yet I still call it the February trip for the sake of consistency. The photographic and video evidence of the fun we had is on Instagram. I decided I shouldn't post pictures and videos here when other people's kids are in it, but with Instagram I can limit who sees it. Kids had a lot of fun sledding. The saddest part was when Kaylee crashed into the wire fence. She was attempting to go under it. Her face took a beating. But today, when I asked who had the most fun at the cabin all of the kids, including Kaylee's, hands shot up. Here is Kaylee's injury:

Candace Review

My eleventh podcast listening to is called Candace. Candace was ranked eleventh when I listened to it, it is sixteenth as I write this. The episode I listened to is titled, "A Legal TurningPoint. It is Episode 292. Candace Owens is the host and she had no guest this episode. She talked a lot about Charlie Kirk's murder and her conspiracy theories surrounding it. She has a lot of criticism toward Turning Point USA. She talked a lot about drones that took pictures of the crowd that day and some inconsistency in security statements about whether they were allowed to have drones or not. Owens criticized Charlie Kirk's widow Erika Kirk accusing her of lying about how long she lived in China. She says Kirk says she lived in China for two weeks and then showed a clip of Charlie Kirk in an argument saying that his wife lived in China for six months. Owens treated Charlie Kirk's statement as if it is evidence that Erika Kirk was lying but I was not convinced as either one of them could be lying. Charlie Kirk could have been lying because it would strengthen the point he was making in his argument. Owens treats catching people in lies whose business model includes lying as if it is part of a bigger plot and evidence of some sort of conspiracy. Owens talked a lot about a man named Dan Flood. She has a pattern in her conspiracy theories in that they aren't really theories. She has a lot of dots but doesn't really connect them. Probably wants the listeners to connect the dots according to their imaginations. She talked about the feds being a part of a conspiracy to kill Charlie Kirk along with the Israelis. She mentioned that the government declared Charlie Kirk Day which shows that the feds killed him because if the feds give you a day that means the deep state killed you. The alternate theory that Charlie Kirk Day was given to pander to Trump's base receives no mention. She said if people freak out about what she says and call her crazy that means it is a fact. This, of course, is not true. Sometimes what a person says is just crazy. If a person says crazy things, and then is called crazy, that is not evidence of truth. Candace Owens says the Israelis killed Charlie Kirk. She says Epstein is a spy for the Israelis. She criticized people for calling her antisemetic. I think many people can criticize the Israeli government legitimately and not being antisemetic but to make up conspiracies with no evidence makes me think someone is more likely to be motivated by antisemetism. There is no way to know for sure, but Owens is probably more motivated by profit than hatred. She has a huge audience. Her tone throughout the show would make some people think they are getting some sort of inside information that she found by digging where others are too scared to go. She puts many dots out there and some people don't need the dots to be connected to believe in the conspiracy. I give the Candace podcast 0/5 for critical thinking failure and logic failure. The complete disregard for whether something is true before saying it is dishonest.

Mini golf at Fat Cats in Rexburg

We did mini golf at Fat Cats in Rexburg with our GetOut Pass today. Fat Cats doesn't have the best mini golf course. I am definitely not a fan of the glow golf style. The cool thing about this place though is that it is never crowded. This helps us take our time. The kids practice by playing different holes while we are going. Usually they are doing the hole ahead of us once they go. Kaylee and Amy both think they can just keep hitting the ball while it is moving hockey style which makes it kind of hard to keep score but I do my best. Here is a video of Kaylee's approach:

I was victorious with a score of -5. Jeff was excited when I told him he won out of the kids with a score of 2.

1977 Incredible Hulk Season 1 Locations

In the 1977 Incredible Hulk, David Banner has been travelling all over trying to find a cure for himself. When he turns into the Hulk it attracts a journalist who is trying to find out about the Hulk so he moves to another place. Here is the intro:

I thought it would be fun to map out where the Hulk has travelled. I made a map of his locations below. You can click on the map to zoom in. He is mostly in California. This map is just what is shown in the episodes. It is clear from the show that he has travelled to other places not shown in the episodes. In episode 7 journalist Jack McGee mentions that he has tracked him to Chicago, St. Louis, and Cleveland though this is not shown in any episode and I did not put it on the map.

Here is a summary of the season and his travels. Each of the episodes the reason he leaves is because the journalist shows up:

Episode 1. The Incredible Hulk. This was basically a TV movie. It tells of his origin. He keeps having flashbacks of a car accident he got in with his wife. He flung out of the car, his wife was trapped inside. Her door was toward the ground while the car was on fire. He attempted to lift it but it was too heavy. His wife died in the fire. Afterward, he studied people who had extraordinary strength in times of crisis. He found that the people who were able to be very strong in times of crisis all had the same gene mutation and the event occurred at a time when there was higher than normal gamma radiation from the sun. The car accident with his wife took place when there was low gamma radiation which is why his gene mutation did not help him have extraordinary strength. Naturally, he went and strapped himself in and exposed himself to a ton of gamma radiation. The intro says his exposure to gamma radiation was accidental, that is because he meant to expose himself to a lower level than he did. He found that he would turn into the Hulk when angry. A journalist from a tabloid newspaper called the National Register named Jack McGee is trying to find out about the Hulk. He breaks into the lab and accidentally starts a fire when he is caught. Banner's lab partner is killed and it is believed that Banner is killed as well. The Hulk is wanted for murder. Banner pretends to be dead so people won't find out he is the Hulk. This first episode took place near Sacramento, California.

Episode 2. Death in the Family. Banner travels to the fictional town of Everett, California. I put the location where Piru, California is because that is where it was filmed. Here he stumbles on a plot where he stumbles on a plot to kill a woman for her inheretance. He hulks out and saves the day.

Episode 3. Final Round. This takes place in Wilminton, Delaware. Here he becomes friends with a boxer who gets him a job. The boxer has been delivering packages in exchange for free gym access. He finds out that it is drugs and is considering reporting to the police. The villains of the story plan to drug the boxer. Banner finds out and hulks out and saves the day. He can't just become the hulk at will but he becomes the hulk after being angered by the villains attacking him.

Episode 4. The Beast Within. This takes place at the San Diego Zoo. Banner got a job there because he was interested in one of the experiments a scientist was doing there that he thought might be applicable to curing himself. She was very interested in his research and kept showing it to him not knowing that he was Banner. Unbeknownst to her, there is a drug smuggling ring where people were smuggling drugs inside of animals and then they would kill the animals. Banner found out and the villains attempted to kill him and the scientist. He becomes hulk and saves the day. I strongly disagree with Banner's decision to leave the zoo here. It makes no sense. It was the perfect place for him to conduct his research and the other scientist wanted him to stay. He would have had access to the best lab possible to try to cure himself. But he flees because Jack McGee came around. He should have just left for about a month until McGee moved on and then returned. With the villains arrested, he would likely be able to research in peace without turning into the hulk. Then the rest of the hulk series would just be Banner never turning into the hulk and successfully finding a cure for himself. For the rest of the season after every episode I think how he should have stayed at the zoo.

Episode 5. Of Guilt, Murder, and Models. This episode didn't give an exact location so I had to do some guessing. One of the characters mentioned Portland being north. The Hollywood like atmosphere makes me think it is near Los Angeles. In this episode, he starts out as the Hulk. He can never remember what he does while he is the Hulk and it looks like he killed a woman. He gets a job as a valet to have access to the crime scene to investigate. He find out that the Hulk was framed for murder. He solves the case and the villains try to kill him in a car crusher machine at the dump. He hulks out and escapes.

Episode 6. Terror in Times Square. He gets a job in New York City at an arcade. The villain makes his boss pay protection money. When his boss shorts him, the villain tries to force Banner's boss to kill another guy to set an example. His boss plans to kill the villain but is not likely to succeed as the villain is an experienced mobster type. Banner finds all this out and hulks out and saves the day.

Episode 7. 747. This episode starts in San Francisco. Banner boards a plane to Chicago but it ends up going to Denver instead. Banner plans to go to Chicago to meet a doctor who he believes can help him with his research for a cure. One of the pilots and a flight attendant poison the other pilot and plan to parachute out with some valuable Egyptian artifacts that are secretly being transported on the plane. Banner finds out their plan, he hulks out and knocks the other pilot out. The pilot attempted to shoot the Hulk and shot the hydraulic line which causes problems later on. When Banner comes to, he is directed from the ground on how to land the plane. He is about to crash because the hydraulic line is damaged. He hulks out which gives him the strength to pull the steering wheel up and land the plane. I thought this was one of the funnier uses of turning into the hulk. This is the first episode where Jack McGee does not appear at the end.

Episode 8. The Hulk Breaks Las Vegas. This episode takes place in Las Vegas. Banner is working in a casino. He stumbles on to a plot to kill a reporter who has a story exposing some mob activity in Vegas. The reporter convinces Banner to deliver a package to Jack McGee. Banner does so in a way that McGee never sees him. When the hulk turns into the hulk they show his shirt ripping. I believe this is the episode where his shirt rips after it has already ripped. In this episode, hulk saves Jack McGee. McGee seemed afraid of him at first but then he started to attempt to interview him. Hulk was starting to calm down. It looked like he was going to transform back into Banner right in front of McGee but then a villain shoots Hulk, angering him. Hulk runs off into the desert.

Episode 9. Never Give a Trucker an Even Break. This episode takes place on the road somewhere between Las Vegas and Carson City, Nevada. Banner is hitchhiking which he often does to travel. He gets picked up by a woman who gets him involved in this plan of hers to get a semi truck back from a bunch of villains who stole it from her. There was a lot of car chasing on here. Hulk saves the woman.

Episode 10. Life and Death. This episode takes place in the fictional city of Marysville, Oregon. I am judging this to be in the location of the real city of Corvallis, Oregon. This city used to be called Marysville and has similar characteristics as Marysville in the show. Banner is going here to be a part of dangerous and experimental research that he believes might cure him. He finds out the doctor doing the research is also part of an illegal adoption scheme where they give women money in exchange for their babies. He does this to fund his research. He believes that Banner and another woman are undercover agents. The doctor attempts to kill Banner and the woman. Banner hulks out and saves the day.

Episode 11. Earthquakes Happen. This episode takes place in the fictional city of San Tomas, California. I put the mark on the map at Barstow, California. I did this because it needs to be near an earthquake faultline, in the desert, and footage of an earthquake in Los Angeles is used in this episode so Los Angeles is nearby. This is the first episode since episode 1 where Banner didn't stumble upon a crime. This time it is him who is committing the crime. This is also the rare episode where McGee shows up before he turns into the Hulk. Similar thing happened in episode 9 but usually he shows up because he is chasing the hulk. He impersonates a nuclear safety inspector to get access to the plant. He wants to expose himself to high levels of radiation, thinking this might cure him. Right as he is about to give himself the radiation, one of the scientists stops him and then there is an earthquake. A bunch of people get trapped. Hulk saves them and stops the nuclear meltdown and flees.

Episode 12. The Waterfront Story. This episode takes place at Galveston, Texas. Banner is working as a bartender. He discovers who murdered his boss's ex-husband. The villains attempt to kill the woman. He hulks out and saves her. She wants him to stay, but he flees due to his search for his cure and because McGee is there again.

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepherd Review

My tenth podcast is Armchair Expert with Dax Shepherd. It was tenth when I listened to it, it is the eleventh right now. The show was hosted by Dax Shepherd and Monica Padham. They interviewed country music singer Christ Stapleton. Dax and Monica said one of the goals they had with this podcast is that they don't want to be a part of the division. Chris Stapleton gave some background information on his life. He said he doesn't like deadlines and that there is no such thing as a country music emergency. They asked him what he listened to and he said he doesn't listen to anything because he likes the silence. Ideas for his music come during silence. I see the value in silence though I also see the benefit of what I do. Currently, I am learning through listening to different podcasts. I am trying to add some silent contemplation through my meditation goal. I have found it easier to meditate in the morning than at night my first night meditating. My meditation goal involves listening through prayer. I believe giving some time to silence will help me to hear what God wants to tell me. Dax told a story about people trying to provoke him in the streets. They were taking his picture and attempting to provoke him by yelling at him about if he was still trying to freeze his eleven year old daughter's eggs. He said this was completely made up and they were just trying to get a reaction out of him. He says he views this kind of harassment as a sign that he has been successful so he should not be angry with it. I give this podcast a 3/5. It got 3 points for being interesting some of the time. One point off for some cursing and one point off for times that I was not interested.

Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast Review

Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast is my ninth podcast. It is still ranked number nine on Spotify's podcast list. It is quite the switch to go from the Huberman Lab to this. The hosts are "comedians" Matt McCusker, Shane Gillis, Steve Gerben, and Billy. This podcast reminded me of This Past Weekend with Theo Von in that both podcasts were unfunny comedians trying to get laughs with shock value. I listened to a talk from Spencer W. Kimball today that reminded me of this podcast. In the October 1974 Friday morning session he said, "Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself forcibly." I would say the same goes for comedy and would alter the quote to say, "Profanity is the effort of an unfunny comedian to get a laugh." Jerry Seinfeld said "Most of the time, when you hear the dirty words sprinkled in, it’s someone who’s lost and scared and uses swearing to save their tail." I can't find the quote but I have a memory of Seinfeld saying that a comedian cursing is cheating, it is like a baseball player corking his bat. Aside from the bad comedy, another thing I thought was annoying in the podcast is when they got political and said that the tariffs must have worked because if they didn't people would be talking about it but it is never brought up. This comment is dumb because he assumes that because he hasn't heard something means nobody is talking about it. If he would go to google.com he would be able to get out of his bubble and see the negative effects of tariffs. I worry that ignorant listeners of this podcast who get limited news are influenced by small comments like this. I give this podcast 0/5 for unfunny comedy and uninformed political commentary.

Huberman Lab Review

My ninth podcast is Huberman Lab. It was number nine when I listened to it and it is now 18th as I write this post. Huberman Lab is hosted by Andrew Huberman who is a professor at Stanford University. He interviewed Wendy Suzuki who is a professor at New York University. The title of this episode is "Essentials: Tools to Boost Attention and Memory." She talked a lot about how exercise improves your brain. She says it helps you grow a fluffy hippocampus. The more you exercise, the more it will help your brain. Exercising throughout your life will help delay the affects of dementia as you get older. She did a study and found low fit individuals who exercised two to three times a week that this improved their brain. She was mostly focused on exercise throughout the episode but she mentioned three things that helped brain health: exercise, meditation, and sleep. I do exercise regularly, I feel pretty good about that. I think I get enough sleep because I have a sleep plan that even when I work in the night I make up my sleep during the day. She mentioned meditation as well. I think I can work on this. I am sure this is not what she means but for me how I want to improve meditation is to engage with God in prayer. I think currently my prayers are too one sided. I have been better at praying at different times of my life but now I have been doing the talking and not enough listening. Kind of crazy to tell God what I think but don't listen to what he says. My new goal is to pray morning and night and to take at least five minutes for each of these prayers to listen. What God says to me is more important than what I say to him. Not sure if Suzuki would agree but I think the inner reflection involved in listening to God is a form of meditation that would help my brain health. But more importantly, I believe listening to God will help my spiritual health. I thought this podcast was interesting. It is nice to hear a conversation between two educated and informed people to help to learn about a topic. I give it 5/5 for being educational and interesting.

Good Hang with Amy Poehler

My eighth podcast is Good Hang with Amy Poehler. It has moved to number two since I listened to it. She interviewed Ryan Coogler. They taled of his background and different things he has worked on, but what I found most interesting was when he talked of directing Black Panther and and Chadwick Boseman. I am a big Marvel fan and am trying to watch all Marvel movies and shows. I saw Black Panther before I really got into Marvel because I was watching mobies in IMDB's top 250 and I thought Black Panther was in there at the time, but I just checked and can find no evidence it was ever in there. Black Panther is 7.3 and the lowest in the 250 is 8.6. Coogler talked about how he felt like he had imposter syndrome and was worried he would get fired. Boseman told him to never say that, and that Boseman would never let them fire Coogler. Poehler asked Coogler if there was going to be another Black Panther movie and he said yes. She was asking him what musical instrument he thought of with three different movies he made. In the other movies it was a guitar, but in Black Panther it was a talking drum that was used for communication forever ago. They went and found drummers in Africa to perform. Pretty cool I say: Coogler also mentioned randomly that he likes the Jake from State Farm SNL skit. I looked it up and thought it was pretty funny: I thought Amy Poehler was a good interviewer. She put Coogler at ease and got him to feel comfortable and share freely. The podcast was interesting. 5/5.

Up First from NPR Review

My seventh podcast is Up First from NPR. It is currently in the eighth spot. The title of the episode I listened to was "FBI Search Journalist's Home, U.S. Greenland Talks, Mental Health Funding." They started off talking about the FBI searching a Washington Post journalist's home as part of a leak investigation. They talked about the threat this poses to journalism. The Trump administration says it is about investigating a leak but it in reality Team Trump care nothing about such things as Trump was busted hiding a bunch of classified documents in his bathroom when he was not president and was not authorized to have the documents. Next they talked about how the U.S. talks about Greenland haven't yielded any results. It's just embarrassing that we are in a place where the U.S. is making everyone waste their time talking about how the U.S. can't just steal Greenland. The they talked about some mental health funding that had been cut off had been restored after a news story about it. I liked this podcast, it was brief information about important stories. I hadn't heard the FBI searching the journalist's home when I listened to this so it was informative. The Greenland issue, I had obviously heard of but it was an important story to hear about and a story that just shows the immorality and danger of the Trump administration. The health funding just showed more chaotic government where nothing is thought through. I give this podcast 5/5 for being an informative listen. It's just insane that we have a president right now who is threatening to take over Greenland and it doesn't make people change their mind about supporting him. The problem with our country isn't that we have Donald Trump. Having plenty of villains of course will be happening with a country this size. The problem is the people who support Donald Trump, who don't care about how awful he is, and will never condemn him. Insane that him trying to steal Greenland doesn't cause any Republicans to think he is unfit for office.

Ice Skating in Idaho Falls

One cool thing that Santa gives us every year is the Getout Pass. The kids love it and so do we because we get to keep doing so many fun activities. Ours expires later this month and the new one will start up. The Getout Pass gives us admission to all sorts of different types of things. The Idaho Falls ice skating rink is on the Getout Pass for once a year. We went ice skating at the beginning of our first Getout Pass in January 2024. Last year, we attempted to go in January, but the day we wanted to go was the first day of our GetOut Pass and it was impossible to tell what time it started. That's when we learned that there is one day a year that we should not use this because nobody can know what time it starts at. So on Friday we used our ice skating GetOut Pass a week before it expired. Our kids all loved ice skating this time. Here are some pictures and videos:

This Past Weekend with Theo Von Review

My sixth podcast is This Past Weekend with Theo Von. In this podcast Theo Von interviewed Trevor Wallace. This was a very unfunny conversation between two alleged comedians. They attempt to use shock value and crudeness as a substitute for humor. They weren't political except for a couple jokes about Biden falling off his bike and referencing something weird going on with Somolis in Minnesota. It is pretty ridiculous to be joking about Biden being an old person and ignoring the clown in the White House. Of course the Somoli reference is recent obsession of MAGA as Trump is leading them so they all know the current group they are supposed to hate. This podcast was actually the most torturous to listen to so far. I give it 0/5 for crude, mindless, and unfunny conversation.

The Tucker Carlson Show Review

My fifth podcast is The Tucker Carlson Show. It was number five when I listened to it, it is currently at number four. The title of the podcast was "Megyn Kelly on Venezuela, Ben Shapiro's Treachery, and Mark Levin's Mental Illness." When Carlson started the podcast, I was surprised that it seemed like I was going to agree with him. He was going on talking about the U.S. becoming an empire, how we don't talk about democracy anymore, and instead we just say we are going to take the oil because we want it. I thought these were criticisms but Carlson says that this is refreshing. He says this is what we have done in the past so it is refreshing that we are admitting it. This is one consequence of people lying about past U.S. actions. When people say the U.S. would steal the oil in Iraq despite the fact that the people in Iraq kept the oil, it makes some people think stealing oil from Venezuela is just more of the same. It is immoral to go to war with a country and steal their resources. Tucker Carlson says that supporting democracy is emotional. To Carlson, having morality is not serious, it is a weakness, and it is just being silly and emotional. Carlson spoke without condemnation of Trump wanting to take Greenland. I thought it was interesting that he said it is a waste of time to say whether it is right or wrong because it is done and whether you say it is right or wrong will not change things. So many times he dodges and won't say his opinion on if something is right or wrong when it is some indefensible thing Trump is doing. But somehow he was able to call it murder when Ashley Babbit was shot on January 6. Here he expressed his opinion. He misleadingly states it is murder because Ashley Babbit is unarmed, ignoring the fact that she was breaking into the capitol with a huge mob of people. Carlson withholds judgment when Trump does something indefensible but has no problem providing judgment in the defense of MAGA. Carlson talked about the expansion of executive power without a single criticism of Trump. He talked of Trump doing these things with Venezuela without Congress. He spoke of Trump acting on Greenland without Congress. Carlson says without condemnation that the U.S. is becoming an empire and that taking Greenland would destroy NATO. He wants to abandon our traditional allies and ally ourselves with Russia. He says we have a lot in common with Russia. Megyn Kelly got on and they talked some about free speech. I agreed with some here about the importance of free speech, but Kelly of course is a hypocrite on the issue. She will defend threats to free speech for her team but cheers Trump kicking people out of the country for using speech disapproved by Trump. There was discussion about the MAGA vs MAGA civil war regarding Israel. Apparently, it is Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Jack Prosobiec, and Nick Fuentes who are critical of Israel. And it is Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, and Bari Weiss who defend Israel. Carlson clearly is immoral. He supports empire. He opposes the Constitution. He supports evil. He wants to go back in time where war to steal resources was common. He supports Russia and opposes democracy. I give Carlson's podcast a 0/5.

The Daily Review

My fourth podcast is The Daily. It was number four when I listened to it but it is number five now. The daily is a daily political podcast from the New York Times. Annie Karni and Shane Goldmacher discussed the 2026 Battle for Control of Congress. They seemed to think the most likely outcome of the 2026 election was for Democrats to gain the House and Republicans to keep the Senate. They said the best Democrats could do in the Senate is get 50/50 with J.D. Vance being the tiebreaker. It was nice to listen to a serious political podcast that was fact based and well-informed. I find the horserace politics interesting, though I think the media does too much of it over covering other things. But it is definitely acceptable for a daily podcast to address this especially when I look at the topics they cover on other days. Even though I disagree with Democrats, I am rooting for them this mid-term to bring some accountability to Trump who is acting with unrestrained power. Though as long as Republicans are complicit, his power won't be significantly restrained. I don't believe he will ever be held accountable for anything but others below him will. I'd like the Democrats to be doing investigations and exposing all illegal activity in the Trump administration. I give The Daily 5/5 for its informed analysis of the upcoming election.

The Shawn Ryan Show Review

The Shawn Ryan Show was my third podcast listening to but it has since passed Crime Junkie and moved to the number two spot. He interviewed Mike Waltz, current U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. They talked of a lot of Waltz and his military history. Of course, Waltz was praising Trump throughout the show. He liked to spend a lot of time blaming Biden and praise Trump. When he was giving his military background, he was talking about an interpreter he worked with in Afghanistan. He said the interpreter was left behind by the Biden administration but they are still working on it. I could find no information specifically about this interpreter. But blaming Biden for this while praising Trump about everything during the episode is laughable considering Trump's public opposition to helping Afghans who helped us in the war. Here is an example of Trump cancelling refugee flights from Afghanistan including of those who helped in the war. The below picture of an Afghan interpreter arrested by ICE in 2025 comes from this article. He spent years helping the U.S. for years fight the Taliban, but the American electorate unfortunately voted for bigotry so he's got to go. Absolute betrayal.

Waltz also referenced Biden's disasterous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Criticizing Biden on this is fair game but someone who criticizes Biden while praising Trump on Afghanistan is just a partisan. Under Trump, the agreement was made that released thousands of Taliban prisoners who predictably returned to their jihad. Releasing thousands of prisoners who it took years and many U.S. lives to capture obviously made Biden's withdrawal more difficult and dangerous. But the partisans just ignore this obvious fact. A lot of the Trump worship by Waltz was sickening. The episode was Shawn Ryan leaving Trump sycophancy to be unchallenged no matter how absurd the claim is. I don't know whether Ryan knew how ridiculous the claim about the interpreter was. Any listeners who get their information from this show will be misinformed. I give it 0/5.

My Scripture Reading Plan

My plan is to read all of the standard works in chronological order. The website I use as my reading guide is linked here. I use the King James Bible along with these two books:

I use The New Oxford Annotated Bible for its footnotes. I picked this book out because I wanted a scholarly Bible that gave some good historical background. The Complete Joseph Smith Translation of the Old Testament is cool because it contains all of the JST, much better than just using footnotes and the appendix. I have a New Testament one but I am not there yet. Currently, I am at 2 Chronicles 36, which takes place according to the website I use 621 BC and according to my more accurate Bible reference at 609 BC. Pretty soon, I will be at the Book of Mormon. I wish I chronicled the Bible dates mentioned in my Bible to make a more accurate timeline. I am thinking of doing that as we read through the Old Testament in Come Follow Me this year but not sure if I will do that.

Walking on Temple Walkway Ledge

My niece Cassidy got sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple today. As my kids and a cousin approached the temple they fulfilled a dream of mine which is to walk on the ledge. There are a lot of ledges to walk on around the temple and I always want to walk on them but I am unfortunately too mature. There is a much better ledge by the stairs inside the temple that looks quite enjoyable to walk on but as yet nobody dares to because it would never be an appropriate time to do that. Kids get to live their dreams while I have to suffer due to my maturity.

Crime Junkie Review

The number 2 podcast is Crime Junkie. The episode I listened to is titled Surviving: Ernest Pine. This podcast is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. They talked about an attempted murder and sexual assault committed by Ernest Pine against a woman whose name they withheld.

The crime took place in August 2008 and Pine just got out of prison last year. They went into the disturbing details of the case and told the story of how the woman survived by playing dead. Pine tried to shoot her but missed then his gun malfunctioned when he tried again. The malfunction was due to the wrong bullets being used. He then tried to kill her with a knife but she survived, this is when she played dead. They also speculated that Pine may have been the murderer of Elena Sanchez Hawkins who was murdered and had some similarities in the case. I wasn't really convinced on this point but it's possible. One thing I am convinced of and agree with is that Ernest Pine should still be in prison. It's outrageous how short prison sentences can be. One of the hosts said they thought it was dumb that attempted murder gets less of a sentence than murder. You shouldn't get less of a punishment just because you failed. I agree with this. Someone like Ernest Pine should never get out of prison. I thought this podcast told an important story well and showed respect for the victim's courage in surviving her attack. I give this podcast 5/5.

The Joe Rogan Experience review

The number one podcast in America is The Joe Rogan Experience. I started the new year listening to listening to Joe Rogan interview MMA fighter Gable Steveson. They talked about all the ways Gable is a tough dude and Joe Rogan demonstrated how cool of a guy he is to everyone by the appropriate "cool dude" mannerisms and words.After about two hours of discussing how tough and cool Gable, they start to talk about drug overdose deaths. Joe Rogan claimed that overdose deaths had skyrocketed in 2023 and 2024, but in 2025 the death rate did a big drop. He credited Trump for launching missiles at suspected drug boats in the ocean as reducing the overdose deaths. While he was talking, he put a graph on the screen to demonstrate his point. This is the graph:

I looked up the source of this graph. It comes from a peer reviewed article from the JAMA Network published by the American Medical Association. Link to the article here.The study plainly states it took place from January 2015 to October 2024. The explanation of the chart points out overdose deaths start to decline in 2023 and points out the decline gets steeper. It says, "This steeper decline continued through the most recent data point in October 2024." Joe Rogan's entire point that killing people in the ocean decreases overdose deaths is undermined by the fact that Joe Biden was president in 2024 and the U.S. government had not yet implemented a policy of murder on the high seas. My original thought was that Joe Rogan or his staff were maliciously lying because they got this chart from an academic journal, but my friend Elroy pointed out that this chart was probably being spread around without context before Joe Rogan spread it. Sure enough here is a sampling:

It turns out that when you bomb drug boats, American lives are saved.

God bless our military and go eff yourself media that defend the cartels. https://t.co/icdMbschQj

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) December 29, 2025

This post was on December 29, 2025 and Rogan's podcast was released on January 1, 2026. I suspect Rogan or someone on his staff got this chart with the misinterpretation from the right wing echo chamber. That is far more likely than one of them looking up an academic journal. Regardless of how they got it, it is clear that The Joe Rogan Experience is not a good place to get information. It's a bad podcast because it gets people who come to it to listen to an MMA fighter and then they get misinformation from someone they trust about a political issue, and most of them will never check the source. I give this podcast 0/5.

Back to Blogging

I'm back to blogging. I just needed to make sure my many readers were willing to check this blog after a few years of not posting to make sure I had the most loyal readers. Social media killed my blogging but now that I spend less time on social media, I want to get back to blogging. Blog posts may be seen less but I think they are better because you can have more depth and social media is toxic. I will be posting about whatever I want to here. It could be about what Marvel shows and movies I am watching as I have a goal to watch every live action English language Marvel show and movie. I usually will be watching one thing while I exercise and another at night with Sam. Sam isn't always paying attention because she is working so I have to rewind it to be sure she sees awesome parts like this: I am currently watching the 1979 Captain America 2: Death Too Soon. I got the DVD for Christmas! While I exercise, I am watching Ironheart. When I watch movies and shows, I just stop them in the middle of the show like a normal person and start it up again where I left off the next time. Once I am done exercising, the show stops, no matter where I am at. At night, a lot depends on when I need to get to bed. I will also write about Podcasts I am listening too.

I have a goal to listen to every podcast in Spotify's top 100 in 2026. The rule is that I will listen to them in ranking order and need to listen to the most recent one. I am on the third one right now. I will write what I think about each one, but I am behind right now because it took me some time to dust off the old blog.

I might write about Conference talks I am listening to. I have a goal to listen to every conference talk from a prophet of my lifetime. I am currently listening to Spencer W. Kimall. Listened to his October 1970 talk today.

I might write about politics or things I care about. I still care about what's happening in the country as much as ever. I will try my best to be less angry but I won't sacrifice truth.

I might write about my daily life or my family. Though I think I will do family pictures on Instagram. Until next time. First to comment will be acknowledged as the most loyal reader.