Coming Down

It's been a while, so let's check in. We missed all of you a ton. Everything is still weird but we're ok. How are you? 

Nathan and Matthew explain just what the hell they've been up to for the better part of the last fiscal year (spoiler: it involves dessert). And announce a more realistic production schedule for the podcast moving forward.

Stories include tales of horror in movie theaters and a brief dissertation on the evolution of cartoons

Most of us who have enjoyed cannabis know someone who has at some point in their life had a bad time with edibles. Turns out making candy out of a drug that makes you feel hungry has some downsides. Who knew? In this guest episode our friend Isaiah tells us the story of his unfortunate first time with edibles.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is a great night to throw a rave. A lot of people are in town visiting family for the holiday and might be looking for something to do. In November of 1999, Matthew's friends in Bend made it happen.

The cliche that high school will be the "best years of your life" is a cruel farce that has been debunked left and right, yet it still persists. Those years are unquestionably important and formative, but ask anyone (especially teenagers) about their high school experience and most will tell you that shit is pretty rough. Nathan's run through the gantlet certainly fits that description.

According to population data from 2016, the ratio of people to horses in the United States at that time was 46:1. If we limit the scope to just Wyoming, however, there were five people for every horse. That's a hell of a lot of horses. Our guest Jeremy tells the story of how his hometown got its fake name.

Enjoy another round of hypothetical questions!

Several years and hundreds of beers later, we've actually hit Episode 100! And though we had grand plans to celebrate our centennial, current events dictate a more limited scope. So we are saving the live show with pyrotechnics and lasers for a later date and trying something a little different from our usual fare. Tonight we're going to get a little bit steamy with a look into the sexual awakening of your hosts.

As we discussed in Episode 88, most kids have a shoplifting phase at some point when they're growing up. Some get stung right away and give up, others run with it until they fly too close to the sun. Our friend Dan and his schoolmates in Evanston found the third path.

The human mind is truly a wonder to behold. Capable of incredible feats of logic and creativity, as well as ludicrous flights of fancy. But it's also terribly fragile, and it's a tragic cliche that sometimes those who burn the brightest also crash the hardest. Matthew tells the story of one of his friends who might have flown too close to the sun.

At first glance, playing a show on a commercial chicken farm doesn't sound like an ideal choice of venue. But when you're first starting out, any place with a stage and a PA system is a step above playing shows in backyards and basements. Sometimes you just gotta go where the people are, even if it's Tom Brown's Poultry Farm.

In the summer between sophomore and junior year in high school, Matthew is invited to join a Catholic service mission to Tijuana. Sensing an opportunity for unsupervised shenanigans in a foreign country, he does all the fundraising and gets on the bus. Taco stands, beaches, other kids there with no parents - what could go wrong?

In a turn of events that is becoming more and more commonplace these days, Nathan and Rikki got the ‘rona, despite constant vigilance and full vaccination. In this special episode, Nathan gives us the scoop on how things went for them over the two weeks they were dealing with the virus. Afterward, Matthew tells the tale of his bout with scarlet fever back in the day.

Hating winter weather as a grown-up is understandable, especially in the northern latitudes. With ice storms, atmospheric rivers, polar vortexes and other awesome sounding meteorological jargon, living in the winter presents some grim challenges. But all that doom and gloom aside, there are moments in the winter that have their own unique magic, and today we'd like to celebrate those times.

It's not every day one finds a team of coworkers that they get along with outside of work, let alone people one considers family. Once in a great while, that perfect storm comes along and it's amazing while it lasts. It really only takes one person to fuck it up though.

The average person's knowledge of gambling strategy can be boiled down to the iconic chorus of noted sage and rotisserie king Kenny Rogers' timeless epic:

You've got to know when to hold 'em

Know when to fold 'em

Know when to walk away

And know when to run

But today's guest is not your average person. Our friend Jesse knows a thing or two about card games and strategy, and he decided to put his knowledge to the test with his crack team of fellow nerds on the blackjack table in Vegas.

Cutting someone out of your life is never easy. Oftentimes it's difficult to even admit that you have a toxic relationship, let alone do anything about it. It becomes exponentially harder when you share an emotional bond with that person. Especially when it's one of your parents. Strap in for a long one, folks. This one's about Nathan's dad.

In 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that by 2001, technology would have advanced enough to reduce the work week to 15 hours in developed nations. There's every reason to believe he was right, but it didn't happen. Rather than freeing the populace from work, the free market has instead created pointless jobs that diminish our labor, damage our self esteem and keep people locked in poverty.

Work is bullshit. The notion that everyone needs to be employed in order to justify their reason to exist is categorically false, a lie perpetuated by capitalist dogma. The truth is, our employers need our labor far more than we need them. Right now there's a lot of people who are taking their power back from shitty jobs, and we salute this movement.

Most kids at some time or another choose to test the boundaries of our theft laws. Some get caught right away and learn their lesson early, while others may have allegedly gone on a minor crime spree. Either way, once you get clipped for using your five-finger discount, the good times always come crashing to a halt. The consequences, however, can vary wildly.

In the juvenile justice system of 1990s Bend Oregon, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: The police, who ostensibly investigate crime, and peer jurors, a panel of shitty kids who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.

By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes. -Vi

Satanism, witchcraft, occult. These mysterious, often misunderstood terms inspire powerful feelings in humans. Most of us are taught from a young age to fear and mistrust these concepts and anyone promoting them. When we encounter locations in the wild connected to these practices, one never knows what one will find. Or who...

Welcome to our second Halloween spook-tacular!