Totally Classic: Recent Episodes
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Two friends. Engaging in classical conversations about the things the current narrative says separate us. The current narrative is incorrect.
This week, Andy & Brendan use Christopher Nolan's recent adaption (the space that launched a thousand thinkpieces) of Homer's The Odyssey to examine whether the archetypal hero Odysseus is, indeed a hero or, as some of those thousand think pieces have posited, not a hero at all, perhaps a villain?
What makes a hero? What unmakes a hero? Does storytelling require contextual interpretation, in the cultural/moral setting it was composed in? Do mores shift definitions of foundational concepts? How do different cultures classify HERO? Is Odysseus a cultural hero type or a universal hero type? And has Nolan provided the keys to his own undoing, in the striking translation liberties he took?
Joining the thousands of years tradition of analyzing Homer's work... is two best friends doing a podcast.
What do you think about this question? And, most relevantly, what can you prove or disprove about either answer?
In the inevitable companion piece to "Should We Smash the Patriarchy?" Andy & Brendan look at how one would coherently define modern society (with especial focus on the U.S., where they live) and what does that mean, in terms of net harm or net benefit?
Are we living in a Matriarchy?
If so, for how long? 1970s? 1990s?
And is this novel or a reverse of the speculative global queering of the Agricultural age?
Having achieved Gender Parity across positive and negative outcomes (pay gap, education gap, domestic violence) 30 or so years ago, we certainly have to ASK this question as often if not MORE often as the previous inquiry...
But WHAT ARE the answers? What do you THINK? recorded on 7/14/26
How far will one go to WIN if the body keeps the score?
Andy & Brendan, this week, try to avoid winning whilst still chasing TOGETHER the rabbit of truth around the track:)
A recent article by four authors (one of whom is amongst the premier neurologists in the world, Karl Fristen) laid out the mechanisms by which the popular "the body keeps the score" premise is untenable as anything more than metaphor. "The body does not keep the score: trauma, predictive coding, and the restoration of metastability" (April 2026) had Totally Classic asking the question being debated in the culture and digging below the surface to IF Fristen & his co-authors are correct, what FOUNDATIONS does this destabilize, across culture (turns out, DOZENS!).
Had you heard of or held this theory to be true? What does knowing it is unstable if not entirely false, objectively, change in your understanding of the human social family?
Recorded 6/17/26
This week, inspired by our "Is Gender a Social Construct?" episode (both progressive bias Andy & independent bias Brendan voted yes by the end of the dialogue), we turn to Pride-month-centric examination of the potential social construct "LGBTQ!"
Gender was NOT, but IS this acronym?
Andy & Brendan explore the mixed set acronym and attempt to ascertain which aspects are rooted in objective fact and which in subjective interpretation and which (Q!) are so fully vague they MAY include every human on the planet (except GARY - you know who you are, NORMAL GARY from Albuquerque, NM*!!).
Normal Man? Normal Mean? Median?
This week, Andy & Brendan discuss the electoral process, ground-level, in the democratic republic of the United States. VOTING!
Is voting rigged?
If so, in what manner of "rigged?"
They explore re-districting & gerrymandering, voter suppression & disenfranchisement, packing & cracking, conspiracy theories & conspiracy truths (confessed) and more!
Do you vote? Why? Do you believe that voting is rigged? For good or evil? Let us know!
This week, Andy & Brendan examine a popular claim - is it aphorism or shibboleth? "gender is a social construct."
Um... but IS THAT TRUE?
From ancestral wisdom to modern medicine, from German to Sanskrit, from tautologies to taxonomies, it's all here in this week's Totally Classic!
originally recorded by 5/5/26
This week, Andy & Brendan try to unravel a lifetime of historical evidence and place it in context of the radically divergent narratives around the target of U.S. military action in the present.
From two divergent pre-perspectives (prespectives?:) they seek to find common great (love Iranis!) and try to test the usual ontological methods to see if ENEMY is a relevant category... and if it applies?
What do YOU think?
This week, Andy & Brendan chart the history of minstrelsy - from Al Jolson & Bert Williams TO RuPaul & Pabllo Vittar!
Why is Drag given a pass for doing all the same TYPE Of things that blackface does? OR why is blackface not given a pass for doing all the same TYPE OF things that drag does?
Is this just full-on hypocrisy ("it's not bad cause I LIKE IT") OR is there something fundamentally different here?
What do YOU think?
originally recorded on 3/31/26
PART TWO OF TWO - Andy & Brendan continue to explore whether ICE are BAD GUYS or FLAWED GOOD GUYS?
In a world where "F@%# ICE" and "ABOLISH ICE" are de rigueur, DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE? What makes an entire organization prosecuting over 400 laws A BLACK HAT?
Are Neighborhood Watches AGAINST Law Enforcement just... the suburban version of "TRAPHOUSE LOOK-OUTS?" OR a modern militia fighting Gov't Illegality?
Totally Classic LIVES in the place of - TALK TO PEOPLE YOU DON'T AGREE WITH ON WHAT YOU DON'T AGREE WITH! Asking questions and coming to fresh conclusions is HUMANING 101, and NO ONE HAS THE POWER TO CANCEL DIPLOMACY (and if they TRY, is their goal... WAR?)
WHAT do YOU think? AND WHY?
originally recorded on 3/17/26
Cops & Robbers. Cowboys & Indians. Chutes &... ladders? Binary good guy/bad guy is fundamental to the stories humans have shared since time immemorial and key to understanding our modes of reckoning, today.
Is ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) the Gestapo of our American Era? Or are they law enforcement officers just doing their job? Is the Anti-ICE sentiment justified or attention & tribal bias? Or a little of both?
This week, Andy & Brendan, as always, start from divergent perspectives but mutual affection and strong curiosity about this - why do you think what we do? What is it we exactly think? And IS ANY OF IT TRUE?
Originally Recorded on 3/3/26
This week, Andy & Brendan continue (& conclude) their conversation of Religion, Spirituality and the synonymity and potential difference between the two.
Can dictionary synonymity prove logical contradiction of the SBNR claim? Can they devise a taxonomy that doesn't have to alter definitions at all? Can one be religious but not spiritual? Is anyone spiritual? How do we determine the difference between morals and feelings?
All that and more existential tango on this week's episode of Totally Classic!
originally recorded on 2/10/2026
On this episode of Totally Classic, Andy & Brendan explore the question around the zeitgeist adage of our generation - "I'm spiritual, not religious."
Is this a coherent claim? Is it a Buddhist Koan or a logical impossibility?
They're synonymous terms in Merriam Webster, Thesaurus.com & Roget's alike:)
Is this a falsehood that is simply a popularly accepted one? And, perhaps most fascinatingly, where does this very idea ORIGINATE from?
Theosophy & entities & Christianity, oh my!
originally recorded on 1/27/26
This week, Andy & Brendan examine the recent accusations against job board/social networking site LinkedIn, to get curious about whether the platform is biased against women.
Is there evidence besides assertion? What would a non-misogynist algorithm look like? Is bias UNAVOIDABLE?
All this and more on this weeks' Totally Classic.
TOTALLY CLASSIC is a podcast where two friends with divergent perspectives talk about all the things people scream at each other about:)
originally recorded on 1/13/26
In the third and final volley, Andy & Brendan integrate AI analysis to ascertain where they may be suffering from logical or ethical mismatch and if ANY ethical system supports affirmation of subjective self-claim.
From freedoms gained to empathy employed to the conclusions empathetic understanding would support, it's all here on both sides of the table... on this week's Totally Classic!
originally recorded on 12/23/25
Andy & Brendan dance back into the fray to examine by what means can anyone said to be (or not to be - that is the question!:) "transgender."
Is it equivocation or a paradigm shift? Is it semantic colonialism or indigenous linguistic revival? Is it a delusion or is all of society deluded and this is clarity?
All this & more on this week's episode of Totally Classic!
originally recorded on 12/2/25
This week, Andy & Brendan ask a question of the modern semantic chaos moment where a sentence like "My gender is not my gender, because gender isn't gender, it's gender." exists and CAN have some cogent meaning!
Does the claim make a coherent case?
Can the modern novel proposal of gender exist and mean the same as transgender and not be self-defeating?
Does subcohort "social reality" count as reality? This is a wild yes and no but yes but no but maybe but also... kind of a question!
What do you think?
Originally recorded on 11/18/25
This week, Chicago-area-met friends Andy & Brendan interrogate the popular regional claim that the city with big shoulders is under being invaded (by ICE).
They explore how many actual options there are (and different layers of evidence and proof to assess said options) for who exactly is assaulting the second city.
Does novelty, federal intent or citizen action lead the way? What do YOU think?
originally recorded on 11/4/25
This week, Andy & Brendan bring the plane in for a landing on this epic, three-part discussion of what may well bring about the downfall of humanity!
It's the end of the world as we know it... and we feel... fine?
ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude & CoPilot all have distinct and pronounced and self-confessed Progressive bias (meaning the most extreme cohort in the bipartisan array) which is, if unregulated (and even worse, if unrecognized), could very well be the greatest and most extreme propaganda machine ever wielded against a citizenry in world history!
Semantic colonialism, silent but violent farts and how the machines won't have to kill us all if they get us to kill each other!
All this and more on this week's Totally Classic!
originally recorded on 10/21/2025
This week, Andy & Brendan, continue the conversation on whether AI Bias could end us, as we know "us," or end us, entirely?
Does the Progressive bias (which exists within ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude & CoPilot), specifically, threaten all in any unique fashion?
Is the programming of relativistic or utilitarian ethics inevitable, in the modern context? Are all ethics relativistic? AND HOW do we ascertain the rate and manner of receipt of biased transmission, already? Or when would critical mass exist strongly enough to identify more than mere signal?
And does Andy, a Progressive, see less of a problem with this bias than Brendan, a Christian & Independent?
Let us know what YOU think!
originally recorded on 10/8/25
Andy & Brendan are joined by their first guest, Jacob Ward*!
This week, they discuss the existential dangers of AI bias - on cognitive processing, on outsourcing of evaluation, on fight or flight And shaping the very grounds of understanding and meaning the human family has relied on since time immemorial!
Will it the be the end of us all? The liberation of us all? The subjugation of us all? Or something else altogether?
WHAT DO YOU think?
*Jake Ward is the author of the book The Loop: How AI is Creating a World Without Choices
host of the PBS series Hacking Your Mind
And a technology correspondent for NBC News & Al Jazeera America,
as well as the former Editor in Chief of Popular Science magazine
He publishes regularly on his Substack, The Rip Current. https://theripcurrent.substack.com
originally recorded on 9/23/2025
Andy, a Progressive & Brendan, an Independent, both agree that the Indigenous people of North America were abused, lied to, killed and conquered in many ways unconscionable.
We don't agree on whether verbal land acknowledgments are in any way net benefit to anyone, including said Indigenous persons of North America.
But we will talk about, will reason and feel our way through it together, and see how we come out the other side of our experiment in dialogue, curiosity and love!
What do YOU think?
This week, Andy - a progressive - & Brendan - an independent - conclude their discourse on the modern Progressive movement!
Is it the worst? Is semantic gerrymandering more destabilizing than misinformation? Is moral relativism immoral? Can the subjective be the primary basis for cohesive society? AND WHO WOULD BE WORST, present day OR all time?
All this and more on this week's TOTALLY CLASSIC!
Andy & Brendan start the new season off with a bang, pow, whammo!
Are Progressives the worst? The worst political subcohort in the US? The worst political movement in the world? All-time, world history?
Andy, a progressive & Brendan, an independent, are besties and love talking about the sort of thing that supposedly gets you fired and spat on. IT DOESN'T NEED TO!
On Totally Classic, we talk about all the things people say not to talk about!
Are Progressives the worst? The best? What do YOU think?
This week, Andy & Brendan & Charlie (& Charlie?) all survey the season 2 behind us - the intentions met, the debates unsettled and the conclusions shared.
Charlie, by the by, is an AI (Google's NotebookLM) who not only summarizes and highlights our season but also enters into conversation with the hosts of Totally Classic.
Will AI have as many biases and blind spots as your average human? Will Brendan flirt with or argue with Charlie? Will AI be a better host than any of us!?
Find out... on this week's Totally Classic!
This week, Andy & Brendan dig into their patrilineal inheritance, the loving sacrifice necessary for a healthy patriarchal paradigm & whether smashing ANYTHING is the answer.
From bumper stickers to dinnertime shushing, the beginnings of gender and the. endings of fun, from fathering for freedom to fathering for fetters, it’s all here on this weeks’ Totally Classic!
This week Andy & Brendan - two patriarchs - try to examine if one of the credos of their age is a worthwhile one - The Patriarchy: Smash or Pass?
Is Patriarchy inevitable - evolutionarily, biologically, under religious dictum or secular examination? Is Patriarchy based in oppression or responsibility? Can Patriarchy BE egalitarian?
From craftivism to Max Headroom, from wage gaps to age gaps, from the dawn of everything to the beginning of it all... it's all here in this weeks' Totally Classic!
This week, Andy & Brendan explore the regions nether and higher and interrogate the question about whether sex is sacred, profane, or something else entirely?
From sex positive Christianity to sex negative Buddhism, from new age to new lovers, polyamory, polygamy and polyglot versions of "the talk"... it's all here in this episode of Totally Classic - "Is Sex Sacred?"
In keeping with the plethora of retrospective coverage of the 5 year anniversary of Lockdowns in March of 2020, Andy & Brendan return to, in many ways, ground zero for the podcast where divergent viewpoints are explored on every topic people claim cannot be discoursed with rancor. What, if anything, did we all learn the past 5 years?
From somatic sensations to celebratory cessations, from masked kids to life on the skids, from zoom everything to doom everywhere, it's all in this week's episode of Totally Classic!
This week, in an experiment in brevity (30 minute episode this week, let us know what you think!), Andy & Brendan try to parse through a grand & oft-repeated assumption for almost a decade "Donald Trump is a racist."
But... IS he? Neither of Totally Classic hosts are fans of his, but they are fans of truth. What is the evidence at hand to prove or disprove this catchphrase of the Anti-MAGA movement?
This week, Andy & Brendan unpack their lived experience, their innate & modified perspectives and the literature on pornography.
What is pornography? Is it helpful? Is it harmful? Net harm? All harm? Is "ethical porn" a healthful way forward or detriment greenwashed?
Tackling topics to undermine stigma against cross-idealogical conversation, Totally Classic shows you CAN talk about everything.
This week, Andy & Brendan take divergent vantages on the immigration debate and try to find points of synergy, crossover and mutual understanding.
Are nations necessary? Are boundaries beneficial? Are immigrants integral to the intricacies of international ideals?
Or are we all just vagabonds absconding from our burglary of time & space?
All this and more on this weeks' Totally Classic!
This week, Andy & Brendan launch into the trifecta session of trying to ascertain not merely the answer to the question, but even agreeing on what the question is asking!
Meaning this week they can actually start referencing evidence and parsing out whether it's ever ethical... by its own standards as well as classical medical and social ethics.
From they/them to we/us, from anorexia nervosa to gender dysphoria, from executive orders to quotidian considerations... It's all here on this weeks' Totally Classic!
Have conversations and arguments! Avoid dismissals and strawmen! Excelsior!
This week, Andy & Brendan return to interrogate the question of gender-affirming care, and their conversation reveals that the societal discord over the practice is rooted far deeper than mere political squabbles... into the depth of how semantics are proven or disproven, into what truth itself is. Needless to say, they have, in part two (of three? of four? of 44?) come to either agreement or resignation of difference on what the question even MEANS.
From Swifties to Hoverboards, from classic to novel, from 1474 to 2025... it's all on this week's Totally Classic.
This week, Andy & Brendan - as humans, parents and citizens of the nation whose highest court in the land just heard arguments on "gender-affirming care" bans (U.S. v. Skrmetti) - explore with great curiosity whether such care is A) accurately termed and B) ethically applied?
In this part one (of two) on this question, much time is spent on defining terms - for how can one agree on whether affirming something is ethical if you cannot even agree on WHAT it is you're affirming?
From from liars to visionaries, from mustache envy to hating the pledge of allegiance, from they/thems to banana splits... it's all in this week's TOTALLY CLASSIC!
This week, Andy & Brendan ruminate on the seasons' eatings at one's soul - is Christmas cultural appropriation? Is it colonialist imposition? Capitalist frenzy? All or none of the above?
From Saint Nick's assault record to hating Satan Claus, from gifts around the tree to singing in harmony, from elf on a shelf to Muslims in Bethlehem... it's all in this week's TOTALLY CLASSIC!
This week, Andy & Brendan evaluate the nature & impact of the richest man in the world, from their very different vantage points.
Can they ask about the villainy of everyone's favorite autistic centibillionaire without descending in gross ad hominem?
Can they bounce from spaceX rockets red glare to starling satellites twinkling in air, giving proof through the night that a Tesla was still there on our block?
Without descending into rancorous escapism, seeking out a blue sky to hide from the x-cruciating atmosphere down here on earth?
YES THEY CAN!
Yesterday was the final day of voting in the 2024 election.
Today, two friends whose candidates (they didn't vote the same and still love each other! Gasp!) lost early this morning get together to ask the question "Are We Doomed?" and do their best to muster up some evidence we AREN'T... and some that we are.
From a surrender in Gaza to apologies for lockdowns, from 9 year old political pundits to 80 year old presidents, from progressive to Christian conservative and back again... it's all on this weeks' TOTALLY CLASSIC!
This week, Andy & Brendan discuss whether the modern news media landscape is a trustworthy map of reality or not.
From McDonald's fries to Washington Post's lies, from correcting your parents to deceiving yourself, from AI Trump to real life trust issues, it's all in this episode of Totally Classic!
This week, Andy & Brendan meet back up after a month to explore the literature, the arguments strong & shoddy and the strange manipulations around climate change!
From unmodelable clouds to model google usage, from adhd Brittanica forays to conspiratorial arrays, from the ground to the atmosphere and back again... all on this weeks' Totally Classic!
Every episode of Totally Classic is a conversation between friends about subjects that have, reportedly, ended friendships.
We aim to show how phenomenally unnecessary interpersonal hostility is to talking about even the thorniest of issues!
This week, Andy & Brendan tackle a subject they are both admitted novices in: Climate Change.
They do their best to parse out not only their apprehension of the landscape of theory but seek to posit a means of validating or invalidating those apprehensions, from the place of admitted ignorance.
What arguments are convincing, what arguments are weak, who is and isn't trustworthy as a source... and how do we proceed from here?
In one months' time, they'll reconvene and discuss their deeper assessment!
What do YOU think?
This week, Andy & Brendan interrogate a popular supposition about the United States' purported two-party system.
Does any party "deserve" you vote? Is voting for a third party candidate "stealing" from some other candidate with a larger bankroll? What arguments are tenable that a third party candidate is a "spoiler campaign" for a more likely victor? Is Voting like sports betting or is it an ethical obligation wherein one selects the
best candidate possible (regardless of "odds")?
What do YOU think?
This week, Andy & Brendan wrestle with a question about elections, in part spurred by the sudden new Democrat nominee for President.
Should a citizen vote for a candidate based on what identity categories that candidate falls under?
It is hypocrisy? Machiavellian? One last gasp of error to right the past? A chance to be part of representational history?
Or is it just positive-spin racism or sexism?
Let's talk about it!
This week, Andy & Brendan stroll down media memory mayhem lane, remembering and analyzing a trio of Media Hoaxes they've fallen for and why.
What fears did they prey upon? What biases did they tickle? What do they tell us about our media and ourselves?
What Media Hoaxes have YOU fallen for?
This week, the conversation goes a bit below the belt.
This episode is relatively uncut, but the two conversants are.
Puns misbegotten aside, this episode Andy & Brendan wrangle with the seeming lack of forethought put into removing foreskin.
Is this mild form of genital mutilation cultural appropriation, a patriarchal ritual meant to humble the future man or provoke him to violence or something else entirely?
In just 4 short years, it's become more of an assumption than even a belief that author JK Rowling, who altered the literary landscape for more than a decade in the 90s & 2000s, is "transphobic." But is this assumption accurate or inaccurate?
Andy & Brendan try to sleuth, feel and reason it out!
What do YOU think?
Andy has worked in the DEI space, both professionally & passionately.
Brendan is skeptical of DEI as a methodology of social justice.
But they can still talk to each other - even about this.
DEI might be the modern antidote to racism. DEI might the modern manifestation of racism.
Either way, DEI has had a climactic rise and a calamitous fall, in just a few years. Is it on deaths' door? Is it simply due for a tune up? What does the present look like and the future hold?
A much repeated perspective on the series of protests against the Gaza War is that they're anti-semitic. While antisemitism certainly is extant in the protests, does this make the movement entire essentially so?
Having heard the oft-repeated comparison of these Free Palestine rallies to Charlottesville (VA, 2020!), this week Andy & Brendan question whether this is a salient comparison, an offensive one, or something in between?
Is it intellectual lazy or dishonest to sum up an entire event according to the ideas or actions of the minority there? Or is it simply a consequence of evolution that we think this way? Is it bad faith to assume the worst of one protest movement but not another?
What do YOU think? How are they alike? Dissimilar?
The demise of the American Enterprise, the US Empire, has been ballyhooed since the very first ballys in stars & stripes were freshly hooed. The signs were there, are there... and thanks to non-stop, custom-made media content flushing out our ocular and aural units on a near continual basis, the signs have never been louder in our collective subjective reckoning. But is that sensible or just submission to the repetition of sensory overload?
Is the US Empire collapsing before our eyes or are our very eyes collapsing?
This week on Totally Classic, Andy & Brendan further explore the phenomenon of the revolutionary proposal of topsy-turvy semantics that undergirds many of the dominant cultural theorems of the left.
When did the inflection point happen - culturally? Individually? Is the proposal malevolent or beneficial? Why is no one talking about this ALL THE TIME?
This week on Totally Classic, Andy & Brendan wrangle with the novel semantic system progressives may have somewhat silently proposed. From topsy-turydom of classic semantics (first is typically primary) to embracing novel definitions of "racism" and "gender" and "person," much of the modern progressive philosophical set is based on these proposals.
Is new always better? Is ancient wisdom always the best? Is language always evolving or can it devolve?
Are these polar opposite approaches a key part of the communication difficulties between the left and right?
Andy & Brendan try to define terms, define how they define terms and define how they make their way through the modern miasma of "one tongue, two languages!"
This week, Andy & Brendan inquire as to the conclusions about Google's all time boondoggle of a launch of their AI platform, Gemini. Gemini was swiftly revealed to be racist, intensely politically biased and, perhaps strangest of all, heavily subjective in its output.
Many germane questions resound: does AI, like children, require someone to teach them to be racist? Is this a failure of technology or ideology? Is this the summit of DEI failures or the failure to properly understand DEI? Or is this all just a mirror back to humanity itself?
As always, one of the most important lessons here is that talking to people who you disagree with remains one of the most relevant tools at our - and AIs - cognitive disposal!
This week, Andy & Brendan play cultural critics (with a side of armchair psychoanalysts), attempting to ascertain whether the popular online diagnosis of TDS is a genuine phenomenon... and maybe a genuine mental illness, to boot?
We consider it highly likely you've encountered someone with TDS in your life. And maybe didn't even know it!
TDS was popularly coined as a term to describe folks who cannot seem to have a rational conversation about Donald Trump, who seem to find just about everything our former president does to be repugnant (even if its something someone they like also does). And while not being a fan of Trump or even in opposition to him much of theme has roots in reason, those with TDS go quite bit further.
Our question is... do they go so far they leave the reservation of reality itself?
This week, with the removal of Dr. Gay as President having finally transpired (after a month plus of extensive pressure), Andy & Brendan ask whether the theory offered by many that racism was vital in her loss of position.
Specifically, they skip through the presentation of such a thesis by DEI advocate & Northwestern University (where Andy & Brendan met) Professor Alvin B. Tillery to guide their examination of how to answer this weeks' question.
In recent weeks, both Colorado & Maine have struck likely Republican Nominee for President, Donald Trump, from their state ballots, on the basis of having been involved in "insurrection."
This centers on the activities of the afternoon of January 6 at the Capitol in D.C. in 2021.
Which Brendan would classify as a "nothingburger" & Andy is comfortable with "insurrection."
Today, they'll question the premise under the premise that is either Constitutional justice or stabbing democracy in the back!
Without rancor for one another, ya'll. It's, honestly... not hard.
Andy & Brendan explore what "restorative justice" is, how it's being implemented & how it may or may not have become a straw man for noted recent imbroglios in legal policy.
Does it center the perpetrator & abandon the victim OR does it aim to do what justice has always classically been intended to do?
Does it reward misbehavior or seek to understand & remedy misbehavior?
Is "Restorative Justice" anything truly innovative or a return to form?
Andy & Brendan interrogate that question!
What do you think?
We're back to wax philosophical & engage in dialogue on the subjects many will pretend are impossibly impassable.
This week, Andy bring his experience in the West Bank last year to bear on an interrogation of the Gaza War. He & Brendan ask whether the frequent chant of protestors is even a tenable goal.
Less than 2 hours on a conflict that goes back thousands of years... We hope, in some small way, it helps.
In an era where headlines call Latinos, Muslims, Asian-Americans agents of "white supremacy?" it is naturally incumbent upon us to ascertain A) whether such accusations are true, in specific and B) whether such accusations are true, in the broadest sense. That is, does White Supremacy exist? Is it real? Does it permeate every thread in the fabric of our culture? Or is it a boogieman based in a blend of fact & fiction?
This week, Andy & Brendan wrangle over traditional & novel semantic propositions of the phrase and do their best to parse out whether it exists, where it appears and where it is in obvious absentia. From White Supremacy to Black Supremacy to Burrito Supremes, it's all here on this weeks' episode - the season finale of season 1 of Totally Classic!
Have we reached the next "big switch" re: our two big, cola wars political parties in the United States?
The US is a culture built upon the framework of liberalism, generally, but has it reached such a point where our popular moniker for The Left/The Democratic Party is more akin to using "literally" as "figuratively?"
Would the term "liberal" now better describe The Right/The Republican Party? Is it possible the secular religious fundamentalism in one party has overtaken the traditional religious fundamentalism in the other?
This week, Andy & Brendan, both with associations with the Democrat party on their ledger, ask that question!
How would YOU answer that question and why?
A black and white thinker & a moral relativist walk into a Zoom &... talk about binaries.
As popular as the swap-out of "binary" for "spectrum" has become, does the binary still have a use in our culture? The question below that question is Andy & Brendan's question today - a version of "Do binaries exist?" Is binary thought or binary construct fundamental to the very fabric of things or only (IF that) our perception of the universe, as we can perceive it?
What do you think? Yes? No? (There we go, tempting you towards a binary response!:)
This week, Andy & Brendan question whether the populist response to incidents of gun violence are relevant or irrelevant... or somewhere in between!
When a mass shooting tragedy unfolds AGAIN, the political and personal response seems to have been funneled into a univariate focus of "Gun Control NOW!" Is this a reasonable or unreasonable response, FUNDAMENTALLY (being that it's next to impossible to prove or disprove whether any individual actor proclaiming this as relevant is running their OS: Reason function:)? What does logic tell us? Intuition? The evidence? What does the mosaic of our operable humanity succeed to inform us in? Where does it fail?
What are YOUR thoughts -"Are Gun Control Laws Relevant?"
In the top 5 list of mulivariates (that's perhaps an even better question - what are your top 5!?), where does "Gun Control" fall?
Listen & respond!! Excelsior!
Where do babies come from?
Okay... when a Helicopter Dad meets a Tiger Mom and they love each other very very much and when they kiss and their bodies figure out from pheromones and saliva that their offspring would be more resistant to disease...
Blah blah blah they have a baby!
A baby that's safer than they are. And we've been doing this for eons & getting even more serious about safety in the last few generations than ever before.
Are we... getting better at it? Or have we long since crossed a cultural rubicon into weakening our progeny by keeping them away not only from the diseases we bred them to fight but all manner of "Dangers" real & imagined?
This week, Andy & Brendan question whether the quest for safety is making, has made, will make us... more safe?
What do you think? Go find someone who disagrees with you and start talking! That's where we're gonna try to do! Press play!
This week, Brendan brings his question to bear with Andy, positing a theory that this Pandemic offers us a glimpse into the multiverse and tells us with stunning accuracy how we would have behaved in, say, Germany in the 1930s... or in Northern California in 1942... or Mississippi in 1955
OR... OR...
In what ways did we fail to live up to our own code of ethics these past three years and what ways did we succeed? And who would that have made us in the past? Did we just brush by the Other pleading for entry on our way to breakfast at the segregated diner? Did we loudly jeer anyone seeking to violate the impositions of the State against the freedom of select groups? Did we speak up, fight for those society turned on to indict, bully & eventually reject from public life, under threat of force?
Is this a fair thesis? What can we learn from this? How can we grow?
What did YOUR time travel look like?
Andy & Brendan continue their divigation flow through thoughts on technology (intimate & grand) concerns on AI and their own use of technology and how it enhances both the shadow and the light elements of their individual and collective selves. You are right now using some quite advanced technology to access this podcast. So... thank you?:)
As we stand on the precipice of an AI-integrated future, Andy & Brendan ruminate on what technology has meant and may yet mean for us as modern vessels of sentience, purpose and utility.
And it all starts with masterful modern miracle that is the #2 pencil.
It is hard to enjoy anything these days. It has become very haute to not simply appreciate art & entertainment but do seek to divine and judge the worldview the creator is setting forth.Have we all become Neo-fundamentalists, seeing "the work of the DEVIL!!" everywhere or have we begun to enact a pre-technocratic synchronicity with the virtual world and we are finally seeing the binary flow everywhere of The Matrix?Or do we just like a chance to trash something?
This week, Andy & Brendan question whether this phenomenon is helpful, if it strikes out as accurate or inaccurate, and how it applies to AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER...Is THAT movie racist?
Within the swirl of winter, within the season for giving, within the happy holiday vacation run... how much attention to we pay to actual rest?
Do we give ourselves... rest? And what is rest?
As a culture, what are we lacking? Are we OBSESSED with rest or with productivity? What are we, individually, lacking? OR should we be turning our focus away from lack altogether?
This week, Andy & Brendan, themselves lacking rest in the midst of holiday mayhem and illness, try to cogently examine what rest means to us and when it is vital and when it is sloth.
Can we find our way to an amnesty for the pandemic thus far? Does that question even make sense to you? Do you wonder what an amnesty is already being proposed for? Do you wonder if it's a legitimate claim? And can one have amnesty without first trial and conviction? What are the crimes we're talking about!?This week, Andy & Brendan ask and answer and re-question all that and more. You're welcome.
The Atlantic published a think piece that launched a thousand think pieces with the title "LET’S DECLARE A PANDEMIC AMNESTY."What does this statement mean? What would an amnesty require beforehand? What crimes would be forgiven? What criminals would be acquitted? Are we trying to skip accountability and jump straight to forgiveness without apology or are we trying to find a path of healing out of the thick of it all? Andy & Brendan try to navigate the question and find the questions behind the question that greet a statement as bold as this!
Do we have more to fear than fear itself?This week Andy & Brendan seek to navigate how to move away from fear and disgust towards empathy, how quickly one can become convinced to fear, whether or not your intuition has affirmed this response... and where fear becomes concrete reality.What do you think? IS fear dangerous?
This week and next, Andy & Brendan were wondering... Is Fear Dangerous? Is fear simply an essential emotion, a fundamental survival instinct? Or was Mr. New Deal spot on when he spoke "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?"
They question this question and try to find the line were fear goes from damage control to damage creation.
What do YOU think?
This week, Andy & Brendan further range into the quagmire of presupposition, science, ethics, semantics, kindness & niceness AND "WHY AREN'T WE ALL TALKING THIS THROUGH?" of whether pronouns (or gender itself, for that matter) are subjective/malleable. Have these noun simplifiers ceased to simplify? Have these ceased to correspond with material reality as we understand it? All this and more on this week's Totally Classic!
In light of the recent imprisonment of a teacher in Ireland over accusations of “misgendering” and recent Twitter addition of “misgendering” as HATE SPEECH, it appears a moral and legal battleground has been established and shots are being fired on a daily basis over not only speech, but a basis upon which truth is established. And it all circles the drain of pronouns.
Who knew a noun simplifier would be at the crux of a potential reinvention of human congress?
Today on Totally Classic, Andy & Brendan BEGIN to ask the question “Pronoun or anti?”
In this week's episode, Andy & Brendan use speech to talk about speech, words and pauses and verbal punctuation to talk about the same.
How free is speech? How important is free speech to our, or any, society? What are the limits on free speech? What SHOULD the limits be? What are the harms of speech? Of restricted speech? Where are we at right now with censored speech a daily occurrence and self-censored speech at an all-time generational high?
IS SPEECH FREE? And was it ever even meant to be?
A continuation of the previous conversation (see Episode 14) on this topic, this week Andy & Brendan look more closely at the Power & Privilege claims popularized by modern Intersectionality ideology & look back to the origins of the term from within the nest of Critical Race Theory & other Critical pedagogies.
And try to figure out if white people exist:)
"Intersectionality" was coined in 1989 in regards to discrimination lawsuits that could be regarded as overlapping in the Venn diagram of mere SEX and RACE discrimination.
Flash forward decades and now it's a comprehensive theory relating to myriad aspects of purported identity.
This week, Andy & Brendan try to examine whether this way of viewing discrimination allegations OR EVEN THE WHOLE WORLD is helpful or harmful? Or, as most things are, how it is BOTH!!
Spoiler Alert: This is the first episode where Andy & I actually have the same answer to the question, when all the conversation is through. Which is remarkable. Hence this remarking upon it. Now the remarks have been delivered and re-remarked, here's what we're trying to ascertain - is Woke a Religion? It obviously satisfies some of the metrics. But does it satisfy enough that it would be helpful to all to consider it as such? Come on along on the dialogic voyage!
A very special episode (yes, like an after-school special vibe) where Andy has Covid and so he & Brendan talk through questioning the reality of the situation, the reality of Covid itself and the reality of the Covid response. A true panoply of pandemic pontification!
Is Woke a Religion? Is it a Cult? Is it even a useful word anymore? If we could reasonably classify it as such, it COULD reduce the tension around the belief system spiraling out in eldritch tendrils into every aspect of society.
But IS it? How do we classify it thusly? How would we validate the claim yay or nay? What IS going on with the wildly divergent views of fundamental realities - par for the course for the human race and/or is this rise of a new theology?
That, and more... and less... and divagation & divination alike... is what Andy & Brendan question this week.
In this episode, Andy & Brendan continue their conversation looking as forthrightly as possible from two opposite angles at the same question. They do a duet of harm/benefit analyses, discuss ethical principles involved and attempt to properly ascertain the way to properly regard and dialogue about abortion. And try to find moments of levity in this question everyone is wrestling with in the midst of our candy-coated social cataclysm.
This week, Andy & Brendan begin a discussion on the ethics of abortion. In this first of two conversations (actually third of four, technically, but that's the long story told in LAST week's episode:) on the subject, here they attempt to accurately ascertain which popular arguments are tenable or untenable as central considerations. Hopefully it will be helpful to stop having the wrong arguments on the way to at least having the right ones!
In this weeks' episode, Andy & Brendan talk through a set of episodes they recorded - and then, in lieu of very similar feedback from a trio of friends - agreed to shelve.
They attempt to relay the process and ascertain whether they did the right thing or not and interrogate if talking to someone with whom you don't agree - and publicly sharing that conversation - is dangerous. And if so, to what or whom?
In this episode, Andy & Brendan zoom out to the macro and wrangle with how cancel culture does and does not foster a culture of collective responsibility OR a culture of weaponized mob zeal.
Is Cancel Culture Just Accountability... or something else entirely?
Is Cancel Culture JUST Accountability... or definably unjust?
What do you think? What do you feel?
This week, Andy & Brendan examine "Cancel Culture" and get extremely micro as to how anxiety and perceptions at harm on the individual level form the basis for what can become a mass movement. Is that beneficial or harmful? Well, it's at least understandable, yes?
Today, Andy & Brendan discuss the topic of masks - masks for aerosol respiratory virus, masks in a pandemic, masks as metaphor. They shift through harm/benefit analysis, personal experience and the ruptures that can arise from talking about putting or NOT putting fabric on your face.
This week, Andy & Brendan wrangle with the almost polar opposite points of view on what Anti-Racism is and find common ground in, as is so often on so many divisive issues, the mutual desire to make the world better.
It's of vital importance not to one and done a conversation on a thorny subject. So this week Andy & Brendan strive to more fully unpack the ethical impact of medical apartheid ... and find out when it comes to pancake houses, you can truly never go home again.
A triple-vaccinated human and a previously infected human talk about why only one of them could have gone out to eat in Chicago, NYC, New Orleans, Boston, etc...
They are not Others to one another, despite what the President of the United States or many headlines may have led you to believe:)
In this wide ranging discussion, they talk thrift store return policies, the American dream & who we trust.
What do YOU think?
An introductory conversation for a podcast about the ease of difficult conversations.
A getting to know us episode so you can become familiar with the pathfinders of this show.
A bit of history, a bit of curiosity, a dose of affection and statements of intention.
Hello. Let's begin.