Louis Theroux Podcast Review

This is my 56th podcast. I am slow on writing about this after I listened and this podcast is currently out of Spotify's top 100. I listened to an episode titled, "Yorgos Lanthimos discusses working with Emma Sone, suffering for his art, and directing a Bourne movie." The episode was released on April 20. Reading the comments on this podcast a lot of his listeners complained about Theroux interrupting the guest too much. Theroux responded in the comments and said he tries to keep the energy high, unpredictable, and give context to listeners who don't know the guest. He said the podcast would come back in a few months. So I guess he is taking a break, which is maybe why the podcast fell out of the top 100. It was possibly annoying to the guest, but I didn't have a problem with the interruptions because I think it worked with his style of trying to get quick answers and keeping it lively. Yorgos talked about a movie he directed called Dogtooth. I thought it sounded like an interesting story and it was cool hearing how they were able to make it with a low budget. I thought maybe I would watch it but I looked into it a bit and read that there is some pornography in it so I got to skip it. Yorgos talked about how when he directs he does not like to tell the actors what to do too much. He likes them to have their lines and the story but not tell them exactly how to say the lines and not to explain to the actors the motivations of the characters. He says he does this so the actors are free to come up with interpretations of their characters, he believes it can benefit the films by allowing the actors to use their own creativity. He will step in and say for them to do it differently if he thinks it is not good for the film. I thought that was an interesting approach. With Emma Stone he directed a movie titled, "Bugonia." Perhaps I would watch it some day. Theroux asked Yorgos if he liked to watch Marvel movies. I thought this was a funny question to ask a movie snob. Yorgos said if something caught his interest, but then he couldn't think of any Marvel movies he saw. Theroux broadened the topic and asked if he liked any super hero movies. Yorgos said to name some but he hadn't seen any that were named. I was surprised that when they were talking about Marvel movies that neither of them mentioned Emma Stone playing Peter Parker's love interest Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider Man and The Amazing Spider Man 2 considering that they were talking about Emma Stone just before this. Overall, I thought this podcast was an interesting listen. I got to dock it a point for the unnecessary profanity and give it a 4/5.

Modern Wisdom Review

This is my 55th podcast. It is currently ranked number 40. The episode I listened to is titled, "The Rise of History's Greatest Emperor: An Untold Story." Chris Williamson hosts the show, his guest was Alex Petkas. Petkas has a podcast titled, "Cost of Glory." In this episode Williamson interviewed Petkas about the life of Julius Caesar. Williamson asked a few questions, but Petkas was speaking most of the time without questions telling about the life of Caesar. I don't know much about Caesar's life so I thought it was interesting to learn about. Some interesting tidbits of Caesar's life include how when he was captured by pirates and convinced the pirates to raise his ransom. Petkas said he wanted his ransom raised to make his worth in the eyes of the Romans to be higher. He promised the pirates he would execute them and he did. Petkas went through Caesar's life all the way until his assassination. Petkas seemed like he really liked Caesar. It seems he thinks he is a model of leadership. I thought Petkas seemed too positive toward Caesar but with my limited knowledge on the subject it was difficult to say too much. Petkas says one of Caesar's mistakes was being too kind to his enemies and pardoning them because they were the ones who would assassinate him later. Personally, I think his mistake would be declaring himself dictator for life and trying to get absolute power. I think Petkas treats Caesar's ambition as a recipe for greatness. I don't really like when people treat war like people and people who seek power as great. I just don't like the terminology because even if it is not intended that way, it makes it seem like a positive thing to accumulate power at all costs. Just a quick side note, I did think it was kind of weird when Petkas was rating Cleopatra saying she probably wasn't a 10 but maybe an 8. Just weird when people rate women like that. Williamson did not talk much so a lot of the rating of the podcast necessarily has to go on the guest. Even though Williamson did not talk much, he did find some time to insert some profanity into the podcast. I am giving this podcast a 3/5. Minus one for profanity. I will minus one more point because I don't like the way he was making it seem like I should admire Caesar. It gets three points for being interesting and educational value.

Today, Explained Review

This is my 54th podcast. It is currently ranked number 42. The episode I listened to was titled, "The Secret Soundtrack to your Life." The episode aired April 17. This episode was about a type of music called Sync Music. It started with the famous music that is shown with Curb Your Enthusiasm. This music is famous enough that I know it is from Curb Your Enthusiasm even though I haven't seen a single episode. It is played to make a video funny when someone is doing something awkward. The origin of this music is an Italian film called La Bellissima Estate or The Beautiful Summer. It is called Frolic. Later it was on some commercials, Larry David heard it in a commercial and made it the theme song for Curb Your Enthusiasm. So Sync Music is music that is in the background of video. It is made for video. It often spreads around and is used many times. The host interviewed a maker of sync music. He asked him if he was worried about AI taking his job as it got better at making music. The guy said he wasn't worried. He thought AI would just make people need to do their jobs better. He said AI can only take what has already been created but it cannot make anything new like an artist can. He said he isn't a defender of AI but he isn't scared of it. I like his attitude regarding AI. Instead of being scared of it and crying about it like so many do, he accepts the reality of the situation and understand how he can contribute in a way a machine can't to help keep himself in his business. I thought this was an interesting listen. I give it a 5/5.

Breaking News from Pod Saves America Review

This is my 53rd podcast. It is currently ranked number 37. The episode I listened to is titled, "Trump Claims Strait Open in MAJOR Update on War with Iran." This episode was released April 17. I thought they made some good points about how Trump causes problems and then gets credit from many for solving the problems that he caused. Everything is worse in Iran than before. A younger radical leader took over for the older radical leader, no progress made on stopping Iran's nuclear program, many people died, and U.S. is in a weaker position than before. It's definitely true that the United State's ability to deter Iran is weaker than before as all we did was demonstrate to Iran that they do have the ability to shut down much of the world's oil supply and there isn't much we can do about it. Iran knows we are less likely to respond militarily than before once this is over. The hosts of this podcast were acting like the war in Iran was over with this deal but the next day after this podcast was released Iran had already closed the Strait of Hormuz again. The hosts also addressed how Trump has been manipulating the stock market over and over again with his statements to help himself, his family, and friends make billions of dollars with some insider trading. I give this podcast 4/5. Minus one point for some cursing.

Therapuss with Jake Shane Review

This is my 52nd podcast. It is currently ranked 35. The episode I listened to was titled, "Session 116: Adela." The episode was released April 16. The name of Jake Shane's podcast comes from Thera- because he gives advice to his guests and puss- because apparently he gained his fame by going viral for reviewing octupuses. This podcast started slow and boring. They talked about going to Coachella, which seems like the worst. They talked about the power going out and them not being able to charge their phones with the tone of people who were facing a zombie appocalypse or a nuclear holocaust. I thought it was annoying what a big deal they made of it though to be fair this could have been some self-deprecating humor but I just didn't see any clear jokes in there so it was just annoying to me. I did think the conversation with the singer Adela was interesting. This is one thing I like about how I am doing podcasts right now. I am going through listening to the most recent episode of the highest rated podcast without considering whether I would be interested in the podcast. I want to learn what other people are listening to and also to learn about things I would not normally learn about and expand beyond my interests. Before this podcast experiment I would have never listened to this guy Jake Shane interview a singer Adela because I would not have been interested in the host or the singer but in listening I found it an intersting conversation even though I still would have no interest in listening to the podcast host or listening to Adela's music in the future. Adela was born in Slovokia. She said she grew up watching Hannah Montana and was a fan of that character and thought that Miley Cyrus was Slovokian because the show was dubbed into her language. When she found out Miley Cyrus was an American who spoke English she decided that she needed to learn how to speak English. She taught herself English first by watching Hannah Montana in English with subtitles. Then she said one day she understood it and realized she didn't need subtitles anymore. She says Duolingo is fake news and the real way to learn languages is to immerse yourself. She says it is better to watch TV in the language than to use these language learning programs. She might know something about this because I think she sounds like an American. But she also had moved to London and has spent some time in English speaking countries to help her improve her English. I think she is probably too harsh on Duolingo though she is right that immersion is the better method but Duolingo I think could be good for people who can't commit the time to that. Listening to her I was disappointed to hear that she sexualizes her songs but this makes since if she is a fan of Miley Cyrus. It's a shame that singers feel they have to do this and they can't just stand on their talent because she is obviously smart and talented. It's too bad these singers who are inspired by terrible examples become terrible examples to their young fans. There is no sense of responsibility to be a good influence. I am giving this podcast 2/5. Minus one point for profanity, minus a point for the annoying moments, and minus a point for the terrible example. Two points for the background on Adela's story. You got to respect the determination and ambition to achieve her goals even though I am disappointed in society in general for creating perverse incentives for female artists to sexualize their songs.

Spotify for Creators Review

This is my 51st podcast. It is currently ranked number 20. The episode I listened to is titled, "Creator Convo with Artist Friendly." This aired on April 7. This was only seven minutes long. The entire podcast seemed like it was an ad for another podcast called Artist Friendly. It seemed directed specifically towards artists and creators. I am going to put this right in the middle and give it a 3/5. It may not be fair for me to rank it because I am not the target audience and there may be some who find it useful. But for me I didn't find it interesting.

Creepcast Review

This is my 50th podcast. It is currently ranked 39. The title of the episode is "Whitefall." It was released April 5. The hosts names are Hunter Hancock and Isaiah Priestly. They read and comment on horror stories. In this episode they read a book titled Whitefall, written by CK Walker. This episode is like listening to an audiobook with some pauses that add commentary. I thought the book was interesting. It did have some flaws in it thatIf you ever plan on reading Whitefall I recommend you read that first before reading this post. After that spoiler alert I will continue. Whitefall is about this guy riding on a bus. Many colorful characters are introduced. The story is told first person by the protaganist. He is obsessing over his girlfriend on the bus drive because he just found out she is pregnant. He was going to leave her for another city but after this news he is going to pay for her to come after her. The bus stops in a place called Whitefall. He is stranded there with other passangers at a big bus station due to a hurricane. They are there for weeks. They don't know where the workers are. Different buses break into tribes and there starts to be murders and cannibalism. They are there for weeks. The storytellers of this book kept interrupting to comment about how they broke into tribes too quickly to be realistic. Also, they interrupted to laugh about how one of the narrators was doing one of the characters voices to sound like Kermit the Frog. Many jokes were told. The bus came right after the protagonist finally succumbed to canniblism. Unlike the villains of the story, the protagonist didn't murder his food but ate a person who died naturally. After the trip, he found out he hadn't been gone weeks but it was only a day and that there was no place called Whitefall. But the guy who he was travelling with on the bus was really dead. The book doesn't explain what exactly happened. A funny scene was when one of the villains of the story who had been murdering and eating people had saved two uneaten candy bars that he started eating on the bus ride out. The hosts had some theories of different metaphors the book was telling. I liked the book overall and liked the hosts of the podcast and thought they had some funny commentary. I think I would rate the book a little lower than the podcast itself. Probably a 3/5 but still an enjoyable read. The book at some profanity and the hosts added their own so it gets the minus point for profanity. I give this podcast 4/5.

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg Review

This is the 49th podcast. It is ranked number 39. The title of the episode is, "Anthropic's Generational Run, OpenAI Panics, AI Moats, Meta Loses Lawsuits." It was released March 27. This podcast they talked about a bunch of AI stuff and how they thought AI would shape the future. One of the hosts, David Sacks works for the Trump administration. Of course, Sacks will tow the company line as required by anyone in the Trump administration. He talked about the conflict between Trump and Anthropic and said criticizing Antrhopic, "if you as a company don't want your products to be used in war, don't sell to the Department of War. It's in the name. But if you do, if you do decide to sell to the Department of War, you should expect it to be used for all lawful uses." So many dumb things about this. First of all, it's not in the name because the Department of War doesn't exist, it's the Department of Defense by statute and the name can only be changed by statute. Secondly, Antrhopic didn't want their product to be used in domestic surveillance, which has nothing to do with war. The other dumb thing is the one sided criticism of Anthropic while having no criticism of Trump. It is the Trump administration that is illegally retaliating against a private company because the company opposed using its product for domestic surveillance. A normal reaction for the government if they didn't like the constraints a company put on their product would be to not do business with that company. But instead Team Trump attempts to put Anthropic out of business by blacklisting them and labeling them a "supply chain risk." Here they tell every business that does business with the Department of Defense that they can't do business with Anthropic. Then Sacks goes on and does a classic MAGA move of accusing others of doing what they themselves are doing. He says Anthropic is cynically being anti-Trump because they are trying to recruit a bunch of PhDs who are left leaning. Meanwhile, Sacks is making a bucketload of money being pro-Trump. If you listen to Sacks, you wouldn't even understand the unlawful retaliation against Anthropic and you would have it dead wrong what Antrhopic was refusing for their product to do. Sacks cannot comprehend that in the world there are people who do things because they believe them. He cannot comprehend people not cynically lying about their positions for profit because that is who he is. I have started using Claude more due to Anthropic standing up to Trump while OpenAI submits their will to Trump. I was pretty much just using ChatGPT and Google for AI, but now I have added Claude to the mix. I haven't abandoned the others. I have found Claude useful in helping me troubleshoot an issue we are having with our water at our house. But when I was planning some baseball practices, I put a little competition between AIs and used Claude, ChatGPT, Google, and Grok. I explained what I was looking for and asked it to come up with a baseball practice. I didn't go with everything on any of them but I did use mostly ChatGPT and have used it more for practices later. The reason I used ChatGPT more for practices was that it explained things more simply and it was easier to implement. Anywho, point being, I still use ChatGPT but I have opened the door to Claude on some things due to their stand. I had never used them before. If AI ever goes evil and tries to destroy humanity like in the Dune universe, I suspect it would be from OpenAI and Elon Musk's Grok. I think Anthropic is much more responsible. That was kind of a sidetrack on the review but that's what I do. I give this podcast 0/5 for classic MAGA intellectual dishonesty. I think someone who relies on this podcast for reliable information would be better off not trying to listen to news related content and just focus their time on entertainment.

Crime, Conspiracy, Cults, and Murder Review

This is my 48th podcast. It is currently ranked number 43. The episode I listened to is titled, "The Plot Twist Murders That Shocked The Country. Banfield Ryan Murders." It was released April 1. The podcast is hosted by Kris Collins. This episode was about a guy named Brendon Banfield who murdered his wife and another man in Herndon, Virginia on February 24, 2023. She went over the crime scene, plotting the crime, and the investigation. Brendon had an affair with an au pair who was living with them from Brazil. He plotted with her to kill his wife. He decided to stage a home invasion. He impersonated his wife online and got a guy to come to their house. He made the guy think his wife had some weird sexual fantasy about being attacked in her sleep. He told him to bring a knife and zip ties. When the guy came over his au pair shot the guy and then Brendon stabbed his wife multiple times. He tried to stage the crime scene to make it look like the guy killed his wife and that he killed the guy. He transfered his wives blood from his wife to the guy's hands. Investigators could tell it was staged based on how the blood was on the guy's hands. They could tell it was put there by fingers. Another thing that gave Brendon away was how he was using his wife's computer to contact the guy. He made sure he used his wife's computer so the investigation would show it coming from her device. But they found the account posing as his wife was active when he was home and not used at all when he went out of town. Which is the opposite of what you'd expect if it were her. The au pair was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Brendon gets sentenced next month. I liked the host of this podcast. She was a good storyteller, she was appropriately angry at Brendon and his au pair during the story. I liked that she cared. I do need to take one point off for profanity as per the rules and I give this podcast 4/5.

Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain Review

This is the 47th podcast. It is currently ranked number 46. The episode is titled, "friendship breakups and boundaries, advice session." It was released on March 26. This episode Emma Chamberlain talks about friendships breaking up. I really got the sense that she didn't know what she was talking about. I am definitely not the target audience for this. I think it is directed to single women in their 20s. As she was talking I just thought the women thinking about friendship this way are being way too dramatic. Friendship shouldn't be so serious and you don't need to have a big talk to stop being friends. People can just stop doing things with each other. Happens all the time. She responded to questions. One of the people asked her about what she should do with a friend who has sensitive information about her that she wants to stop being friends with. She went on and on on this. I don't want to get too much into this. It wasn't my cup of tea. It's possible some people might have found some advice she gave useful. I give this podcast 2/5. I would give it a 3 due to me thinking it wasn't useful advice but maybe some people would think it was useful and then minus one point for profanity.

Mr. Ballen Podcast Review

This is my 46th podcast. It is currently ranked number 40. The episode title is, "As Seen on TV." It was released on March 30. This was an interesting telling of a crime told in story mode. A guy named Patrick Isoird in France was lured to a cave by a woman who was acting romantically interested in him but was really just wanting to get him murdered by this other guy. The murder was a revenge murder becaus Patrick got involved with another guys wife and when he found out she killed herself. The case remained unsolved though both of the murderers were suspects, but they were not suspected of acting together. The case was finally solved when the woman who lured him into the cave watched Patrick's brother plead for help on TV and she felt bad. This had good storytelling of this crime and I rate this podcast 5/5.

House Guest Review

This is my 45th podcast. This podcast is currently ranked 74. The episode was titled, "Kyla Pratt Shows Why She's Everyone's Favorite Cousin." The episode aired March 21. I didn't know who Kyla Pratt was before listening to this. She used to be a child actress. She was in Doctor Doolittle with Eddie Murphy. I never watched Doctor Doolittle movies. The one Eddie Murphy movie I really liked back in the day was Bowfinger. Highly recommend to watch Bowfinger. This is the most memorable scene for me in that movie:

She talked about how she learned how to act on set with him. She said he would be fun but when it was time to be serious, he would be serious. She says she tries to be the same way to have fun but be serious at the right times. They talked some about a show she is in now called, "Animal Control." I wondered if I should check this show out as it has Joel McHale in it who I found funny back in the day. Kyla mentioned a Gwenyth Paltrow quote where she said, "I wish you well" after winning a lawsuit against her in a Park City skiing accident. I remember following this story because it was in Park City. I liked how Paltrow didn't just pay off the guy so she didn't have to deal with it but stood up for herself. Overall, I thought this podcast had some interesting moments and some moments not as interesting. I give it 3/5. One point off for profanity and one point off for the not interesting moments.

Kill Tony Review

This is my 44th podcast. It is currently ranked number 36. This was the most horrendous podcast. This podcast was an alleged comedy show in front of an audience. It was crude and not funny at all. "Comedians" would have sixty seconds to tell their unfunny jokes and then it would be followed by an unfunny interview with the unfunny hosts. The audience would have to be drunk to find this entertaining. It reminded me of the Army experiencing how unfunny drunk people are as they tell each other their unfunny jokes. 0/5.

Rotten Mango Review

This is my 43rd podcast. It is currently ranked number 34. The title of this episode was, "Everything Bill & Hillary Said in 8 Hour Long Epstein Deposition Tape." This episode was recorded March 22. This podcast had so much stuff. I was very interested the entire time and thought the host Stephanie Soo was very good at telling a massive amount of information in an engaging way. Mark Middleton, who worked for Bill Clinton allegedly killed himself in 2022 by shooting himself in the chest and hanging himself. The shotgun was found about 30 feet away from him. Pretty suspicious. Middleton dealt with Clinton's donors including Epstein. Epstein's prison guard Googled his name shortly before his death and she had some deposits to her bank account flagged for being suspicious. Soo mentions that Hillary keeps telling them to ask Bill with the questions about Epstein. Bill Clinton was asked if he had ever lied under oath during a deposition and he said no even though it is well documented that he lied under oath about Monica Lewinsky. Bill said he met Epstein through Larry Summers who told him Epstein gave Harvard $10 million toward brain research and Clinton was trying to raise money for the Clinton Foundation. Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick publicly stated that he had cut of Epstein in 2015 for being creepy but then the Epstein files show them meeting together after that. Soo criticizes Clinton for saying that he thought the young girls on Epstein's plane were flight attendants. Soo did not find that believable. Virginia Dufres, an Epstein victim who has since committed suicide wrote in her diary Bill Clinton was on the island two times with two girls. Bill Clinton denied this and asked if she said that in her book. The questioner didn't know about the book. Clinton said I think she ultimately reached a different conclusion although I had no contact with her. Soo thought this was suspicious and I agree. Saying he had no contact with her out of nowhere makes it sound like he really did and got her to change what she said in her diary to what she said in her book. She could easily have been threatened with lawsuits about her book. Virginia Dufres also said Bill Clinton told Vanity Fair not to write articles about his good friend Jeffrey Epstein. Soo then talks about Trump in the Epstein files. A 13 year old accused Donald Trump of rape. She goes over some other rape allegations against Trump. The FBI illegally withheld FBI interviews with a Trump accuser. I listened to this podcast a week ago while driving a car so my summary is rough. But I do know I really liked this podcast because it was very informative, entertaining, and this is an important issue. Soo did an excellent job. In all the podcasts I have listened to this year I don't think I have heard someone give so much information in an understandable way. She does use some profanity, so unfortunately per my rules I do have to minus one point for that. I give this podcast 4/5 though if there were a time I regret making me minus points for profanity it would be this one as this podcast was really good.

The Toast Review

This is my 42nd podcast. It is currently ranked number 27. The episode I listened to was titled, "Dishin' With Lish with Ben Soffer." It was recorded March 23. One of the hosts here was the husband of the regular host because she was out sick. They talked about Justin Timberlake's video of him getting a DWI. I am not a fan of hearing about all the bad stuff celebrities do. If someone is running for office or is in office, I think it is important, but for a celebrity, it's none of my business. That being said, these guys were way too soft on Justin Timberlake and made it sound like a DWI is not a big deal. The guy said something about how Justin Timberlake had no excuse because he has the money to get a driver, but a regular person may be stranded and need to drive to get home. Horrible thing to say on a podcast. First of all drinking is dumb, but if you do drink, you should have a plan to get home. You don't just get magically stranded. I get that Justin Timberlake has more of a means to easily get a driver, but it is dangerous to tell a large number of listeners that it's not that big of a deal if you drive drunk if you need to get home. Other thing that was annoying was just talking about the "Mormon Wives" show as that show bothers me even though I have never seen it. I am going to give this podcast 1/5. Low score for talking too much boring celebrity gossip and the bad takes on DWIs.

IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson Review

This is my 41st podcast. It is currently ranked number 31. The episode I listened to was titled, "There's a Right Way to Move Through Old Beefs with Monica." This episode was released March 18. I did not know until after I Googled Craig Robinson, but apparently he is Michelle Obama's older brother. I didn't know who the person they interviewed was but it says she was a part of the "legendary R&B duo Monica and Brandy. I was very vocally opposed to President Obama back when he was president. He made me angry often. Michelle Obama would bother me as well for being in the wrong side of the political world. But with our current president, you can see by comparison a baseline decency. I just mean that she has the decency of a normal person and the humanity of a normal person. That is something you don't get with anyone in Trump World. Not saying she doesn't support bad things ever, but when she speaks, she does not speak in a hateful way. Monica talked a lot about a musical career and some drama with those she worked with. She talked about having kids. She seemed to be religious and said in answer to someone wanting to have kids to journal and pray about it. I thought that was good advice. I did agree with her that people who don't want kids shouldn't have them. But, in my humble opinion, as someone who has kids, I think everyone should have kids if they can and they will make every person happier. It is all part of God's plan. I give this podcast 4/5. Minus one point for the times I thought it wasn't too interesting and for saying not everyone should have kids. Now I am all caught up. I wanted to catch up tonight as we are going to Bryce Canyon National Park for Spring Break so I expect plenty of podcast time in our travels. I've got my headphones for the drive.

The Last Podcast on the Left Review

This is my 40th podcast. It is currently ranked number 30. The episode title was, "Episode 656: The Dnepropetrovsk Maniaks Part I -Serial Spree." This podcast was released March 13. This was about two Ukrainian serial killers in 2007 who beat people savagely with hammers. Their killings appeared to be opportunistic. They attacked their victims when they were alone and by surprise. They videoed the killings and one of the killings videoes used in the trial was leaked to the internet. I think it is interesting to listen to serial killer stories but I really don't like how the story was told by these guys in such a light hearted way and full of jokes. This podcast is the kind of podcast a serial killer would want to listen to to learn about serial killers. I think it is wrong to treat this subject this way when it is a real story with real victims. If you want to be light hearted talk about something else. I was surprised that this podcast didn't have very much political content given the title. I give this podcast 1/5. 1 point because I thought it was interesting hearing the story about the killers but all the other points are gone because of the tone.

Baby, this is Keke Palmer Review

This is my 39th podcast. It is currently ranked number 40. The podcast episode I listened to was titled, "Durand Bernarr's Slow Burn to a Grammy Win." It aired on March 10. Keke Palmer is the main character in the new series The Burbs. Apparently, one thing these podcasts are trying to get me to do is watch the new The Burbs show since I loved the 1989 movie with Tom Hanks. The new show is on my shows to watch spreadsheet. I used to have the DVD of the original before someone stole my car back in 2012, then abandoned my car, but kept my awesome DVD collection. Random scene from the movie posted here. This is the first scene I thought of:

This guest Durand Bernarr talked about his musical career. He liked to talk about his gay identity but he won't say he is gay but says he is not straight because saying he is gay "exclusifies" him. Then he says straightness is gay because you are trying to impress other men. Kind of crazy to think that way. He seemed obsessed with identity, talking about gayness and criticizing straightness. This guy was annoying me. At the end of the podcast there was a part that made me laugh when Keke and Durand were taking turns singing various children's songs different styles of music. I thought it was funny because they did a good job with the improv and were so dramatic in their singing. I give this podcast 3/5. Minus some points for being annoying, but not too many because of the funny ending.

Pod Saves America Review

This is my 38th podcast. It is currently ranked number 29. The podcast I listened to was titled, "Trump Says War is Over, Vows to Keep Fighting." This episode was released on March 10. This was hosted by Jon Favreau, Jon LOvett, and Tommy Vietor. They talked a lot about how there was no strategic thinking for Trump's war with Iran. I agreed with many of their comments and think it is crazy that America just started a war with Iran with no discussion. I remember there was debate about the war against Iraq but I would not be surprised at all if many people in America would not even know there is a war in Iran. They talked about Trump's son's being involved with a drone company. It's definitely not good that a president who is corrupt enough to make over a billion dollars this year in his public crypto bribe business to have a son who can make money off of wars that Trump can unilaterally declare since apparently we don't have a Congress in charge of that anymore. I do have some criticisms of this podcast. First, one of them called the Department of Defense the Department of War. It is bad enough to hear those in the cult calling it the Department of War, it is even more annoying to hear critics of Trump acting as if Trump can change the name of the Department of Defense when this name is the name according to the law. It is just another example of lawlessness but I believe it is harmful that so many, supporters and critics alike, act as if there is no such thing as truth or objective reality. The legal reality is that it is called the Department of Defense. The second thing is they interviewed Congressman Ryan and praised him for not just making process arguments against the war but arguing against the war on the merits. They treated the fact that this war is unconstitutional as less important than it just being a dumb and immoral war to do. I strongly disagree with this. The Constitution is the most important thing here. The Constitution has safeguards and ignoring it because you think the merits are more important than process is some short term thinking as the process will apply to future wars as well. If we had a Congress that actually kept their oath to defend the Constitution, there would be no chance this war would have happened. I rate this podcast 3/5. I minus a point for profanity and minus another point for the criticisms I mentioned above.

The Ben Shapiro Show Review

This is my 37th podcast. This is currently ranked number 29. The episode I listened to was "Episode 2381-BOOTS on the GROUND in Iran." This episode was released March 5. Ben Shapiro started the show by calling Chuck Schumer a pathological liar which is an insane thing for a Trump supporter to say. He criticized Europeans saying "Leave it to the Europeans to whine" because they oppose the war in Iran. Labeling all opposition as "whining" is actually not an argument. He mentioned Spain criticizing the war and refusing to support it by mentioning Spain's GDP being low. As if that is an argument. It reminds me of Pam Bondi saying why would we care about the Epstein files when the DOW is over 50,000. Side note: Since she said that the DOW is now below 50,000 so I suppose we can care about the Epstein files. Similarly, if Spain can just get their GDP up, their argument against supporting war in Iran will have more merit according to Trumpian logic. Shapiro mentioned many possible outcomes to the Iran war and said the worst outcome would be a strengthened ayotollah regime and this is also the most unlikely. He did not elaborate on how it is the most unlikely outcome when Trump says this is going to be a short war and 86 year old Khamenei has been replaced by 56 year old Khamenei. Shapiro talked about arming the Kurds in Iran. He had a guest from the American Friends of Kurdistan. Shapiro did mention how the Kurds are pro-American but have been betrayed by the U.S. many times in the past including the 1st Gulf War and in Syria. Of course, when he mentioned how the Kurds were betrayed during the Gulf War he dared to mention that he was betrayed by George Bush. But when he mentioned Syria it was He Who Must Not Be Named who betrayed him. Shapiro is classic MAGA commentator who dares to criticize some thing Trump does but won't use his name so his audience won't know that it was Trump who did it. It seems even more relevant that Trump already betrayed the Kurds than the fact George Bush Sr. did when Trump is our current president. The Kurdish guest says the Kurds want to help the U.S. but they are trying to get some long term commitments first because they don't want to be betrayed. The Kurds got to do what they got to do but I hope they understand they will be betrayed, especially with this president. Any decision they make about the accept U.S. weapons or actions they take should be made in the context of understanding that any long term agreement they make with Trump will surely be violated. In 2019, the Kurds were doing the hard word of fighting ISIS on behalf of the U.S. and Trump made an agreement with Turkey to remove U.S. forces so Turkey could attack the Kurds. None of Shapiro's pro-Iran war commentary mentions how this is an illegal war that has not been declared by Congress. Shapiro treats Trump as a rational actor with strategic goals when there has never been any evidence of this. I give this podcast 0/5 for intellectual dishonesty.

PBD Podcast Review

This is my 36th podcast. The PBD Podcast is currently ranked number 30. This podcast is titled "'China's Cognitive Warfare'- Palantir Co-Founder On Iran Threats, AI PSYOPs & CIA Funding." It was released on March 2nd. This podcast was hosted by Patrick Bet-David and he interviewed Joe Lonsdale, one of the founders of Palantir. Joe had some lofty rhetoric about why he founded Palantir. He said it was founded to help save the west, to fight Islamist terrorism, and protect civil liberties. The name Palantir comes from the Lord of the Rings and they had a motto of "Save the Shire" meaning to save innocents. He said the government wasn't doing technology right so he wanted to start a company to achieve these goals. He also responded to criticisms of Palantir's involvement with ICE by saying Palantir isn't responsible for policy. That in a republic there is a mechanism for change and the government should be directing policy, not Silicon Valley. I thought this was contradictory with his stated mission. He said Palantir was set up to protect civil liberties but in reality he has no problem with Palantir assisting the government in violating civil liberties. He puts all of the responsibility on the government and none on Palintir. He said that what he really fears is if the republic elects a very bad person who uses technology and power in ways they shouldn't. That's what is scary to him and why we all have to be a part of the political process. To me, this is an insane hypothetical in that he is speaking the current reality as what he most fears but he is pretending it is not happening. He talked about bot farms trying to push the extremists. All his focus is on the extremist left. He completely ignores the reality that there are a massive amount of pro-Trump bots poisoning social media. Joe says his economic thinking comes from Milton Friedman. Milton Friedman's arguments for free markets I have found very persuasive and he has heavily influenced my economic thinking. So you would think that I could be united with Joe. But of course, Joe is just being hypocritical again. When asked about tariffs he could not condemn them. He danced around the issue like a politician. Here is what Milton Friedman thought about tariffs:

This used to be mainstream Republican thinking. But Republicans have done a complete 180 on many of their core beliefs without even acknowledging it. Joe seems to be of this camp of Republicans who might still believe this possibly but refuses to say it out loud. Joe also referenced the Department of Defense incorrectly many times according to the Trump cult given nickname of "Department of War." He says in Iran he would go Roman in Iran. Kill the leaders and see how the ones are that replace them and keep killing them until you get the ones you want. Of course the person who would be deciding who we want is the utterly amoral Donald Trump. Joe voiced support for "taking" Greenland because if you are not growing you are getting weaker. As if the United States has been getting weaker in the post World War II world where expanionism by military force has been against international law. I was bothered throughout this podcast by the hypocrisy of Joe. His rhetoric is inconsistent. The host of the podcast left all these inconsistencies unchallenged. I give this podcast 0/5 for the unchallenged intellectual dishonesty and the promotion of immoral ideas.

Giggly Squad Review

This is my 35th podcast. Giggly Squad is currently ranked number 25. The episode I listened to was titled, "Giggling about testosterone, mullets, and spray tans." The episode was released February 27th. This is a podcast for women so I am obviously not the target audience. I did not like this podcast at all. Not because it was directed toward women but because of how anti-man it was. They had some legit complaints I thought such as women's hockey team being pointlessly disrespected and one said men and women are different but they should be treated equally as far as respect. Then one said, "The men see us as second class citizens. They don't see us as equal. None of them." I know this is false as I don't feel that way and I think this kind of talk is harmful and spreads hatred to men. They felt the need to put the sexes against each other throughout the show. Not a fan. I give this podcast 0/5.

Smartless Review

This is my 34th podcast. It is currently ranked number 24. The episode I listened to is from "Staying Alive: Will Arnett, Part 1!" This is from February 26th podcast. This was kind of strange because "Staying Alive" is apparently a different podcast but it was posted under Smartless because it is a SmartLess show. The podcast's description says it is hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. I thought that would be cool since two out of three were on Arrested Development. But the episode I listened to didn't have Jason Batement. It did have Will Arnett as a guest and not a host. It was hosted by Jon Gabrus and Adam Pally who host Staying Alive. In reviewing this I am going to treat Will Arnett as more than a guest because he is listed as a host for this podcast. Will Arnett started the podcast talking about a controversy where he said on a different podcast in Britain that people with tattoos were boring. He said it was a big controversy and a lot of people got mad. He said he didn't mean it and he thought it was weird that all these people cared about what he said on this when he didn't even care what he said about it. The Staying Alive podcast has some health focus so they were asking him about health. He said he used to eat whatever he wanted and exercise and wouldn't gain weight but now that he is in his fifties, he still gains weight even if he exercises if he eats whatever he wants.He said every day for him was like a kid's birthday party because he loves eating ice cream. He hired some nutritionist that gave him a plan on what to eat. His diet seemed pretty high maintenance but I think it was easy for him being a wealthy guy with a nutritionist. I find myself in a similar situation where I used to eat what I want and exercise. I do eat the ice cream frequently as Arnett did before the nutritionist stopped it. I am trying to work on portion control. Not a big fancy plan but just eating smaller portions of all my meals and getting a smaller portion of ice cream for my nightly ice cream treat. We'll see if that works or if I will have to cut down on the ice cream more. I hope not. Will Arnett talked about preparing for a movie where he played a stand up comedian. He had never done stand up comedy before so to prepare, he did actual stand up comedy at real locations but under his character's name and using his character's material. He said it was a serious movie about comedy. And that it was tricky to be serious in interviews talking about a serious movie about comedy because he always wants to do jokes. The movie he was in is called, "Is This Thing On?" I did like this interview, and I do like Will but have no plans on watching this. I thought this podcast was interesting. I give it a 4/5, minus one point for profanity. Below is perhaps my favorite GOB moment from Arrested Development:

The Rewatchables Review

This is my 33rd podcast. It is now ranked number 28. I also listened to this one on the drive down to Utah. The title of the podcast is "'Crazy, Stupid, Love' With Bill Simmons, Van Lathan, and Mina Kimes." It was released February 24. This podcast was interesting because it was sports reporters talking about movies. This was the second podcast I have listened to where Bill Simmons is the host. They talked about this movie "Crazy, Stupid, Love" that I have not seen. They talked about this movie and the actors in it and other movies they were in. It was kind of funny how they would compare different actors to different NFL players since they are all sports people. Steve Carell is in this movie so I am sure it has some funny moments but I have no plans on watching it. They did have conversations about different movies, the most interesting thing to me during the podcast is when they talked about the new "The 'Burbs" TV show because they mentioned it was based on "The 'Burbs" movie with Tom Hanks. I have seen this several times and really liked that movie so I will put this on my list and check it out. I will give this podcast 3/5.

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.