Marcus King

The episode opens with thanks for a guitar given as a gift. The recipient says they can't play and would like to learn, but is wary of giving their brain "another thing to do" because they tend to get obsessed with things. The other participant says the same is true of them. The conversation then contrasts two attitudes: one person dislikes doing things they are not good at, and the other loves doing things they are bad at in order to get good at them.

Golf is the example of an obsession that takes up a whole schedule. One speaker describes it as eight hours a day, three or four days a week on the road. Another recalls that while living in Boston, they noticed comedians who got deeply into golf saw their careers stall, because they spent the day golfing and drinking and then went to the club at night without writing new jokes. One participant adds that they liked golf while still drinking and lost interest after quitting.

The two speakers describe very different relationships with alcohol. One links their drinking to repressed emotions that surface "when your brain is in the off switch," and says the aim for a while was simply not to feel anything. That speaker recalls opening for the Avett Brothers in Raleigh, North Carolina, about six months into sobriety. They thought they could handle a drink, started with a jumbo White Claw, and ended up blacked out. They woke on the floor of a friend's house, and their wife had left on the tour bus with their wallet and identification, although the bus later turned around to pick them up. They say that one night showed them they couldn't handle it, and that they need to sort themselves out before considering drinking again.

The other participant describes drinking that was social and tied to being at the club every night: shots for the sake of community, two or three drinks, waking up feeling bad, working out, and repeating it. They took roughly eight months off, while saying they are not exactly sure how long, and since then have had only a drink or two at a time without getting drunk. They state that they were not an alcoholic, only that the fun was spoiling the rest of their time. They pass on an expression for it:

you're taking a loan out on the good times that you could have had for some good times that you can have right now.

The two accounts of the cost differ. One stresses the physical side: workouts spent "pushing through" the previous night's drinking, plus tiredness and slower thinking. The other describes anxiety and what they call dopamine depletion. They say they drank in the first place because of anxiety and depression, and that the next day those problems hit them "tenfold."

The conversation notes the oddity of someone with anxiety choosing live performance, the activity most likely to cause it. A comedian, Dan Soder, is quoted second-hand on performers who seek the approval of thousands of people a night because things did not go well when they were growing up.

One participant argues that the need can be redirected. They say nobody gets "totally together," but that once a person gets together "somewhat," they can perform for love of the art and for the audience's enjoyment rather than for approval:

I think you can shift your focus from I just want these people's love to I want to give them love.

The same idea is tied to a recent run of shows in Texas. The goal of those shows is described as getting people into sweaty rooms with sticky floors to enjoy music again.

This topic came up because the guest had reached out after an earlier podcast discussion about rock and roll being dead. One speaker recalls a friend, Ben Jernigan, urging them to text Joe and tell him that rock and roll isn't dead. The counterpoint is that it isn't dead but it is different. Much of the rock doing well now is described as Southern-inspired, bluesy, almost country rock, with the Red Clay Strays given as an example. In contrast, one speaker remembers high school being dominated by big rock bands such as Van Halen, AC/DC and the Stones, and finds it strange that few bands of that size exist today.

The evidence offered that the appetite is still there is anecdotal. When "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd plays in the green room, everyone still goes nuts. One participant suggests the music industry is cyclical and compares it to cowboy hats. For about ten years they were mocked for wearing one in Los Angeles, and now cowboy hats are fashionable there. They think rock may be having a similar resurgence, and the other speaker answers that they hope so.

One speaker questions the way genres have split into subcategories. While watching Led Zeppelin at the Royal Albert Hall, they thought it was a jam band, and they put the Allman Brothers Band in the same category. They describe their own shows as built the same way, with songs that lead into improvised sections shaped by "the chemistry of the crowd and each other on stage." They object that today a band only counts as a jam band if it is something like Widespread Panic, Phish or the Dead. Greta Van Fleet comes up as a band that sounds very much like Zeppelin but is good enough to get "a pass." One participant calls the members friends from Nashville.

Greta Van Fleet's guitarist, Jake, is said to be into pirate history and once gave one of the speakers an antique musket pistol as a housewarming gift. Assuming it must be valuable, the hosts look up prices. Modern reproductions are listed at $195, and a 17th-century antique pirate-era flintlock is reported to have sold for $416. Other listings mentioned are $155 and about $200. The speakers are surprised that objects from the 1600s cost so little. They consider possible explanations, such as reproductions being common or the specific pieces being in poor condition, without settling the question.

Along the way, one speaker passes on a claim found through Perplexity: that the conquistadors who took over Mexico had only 12 such guns, and that at least a hundred Indigenous languages were lost. These are presented as the results of the speaker's own searching, and no other evidence is given in the conversation.

An Austin store, Collectors Crossroads, is mentioned as selling armor, guns, swords and crossbows. That leads to a reflection on holding a piece of history: 400 years ago, a pistol like this was the most advanced way to kill someone. One participant also says there is "something weird" about people who want to recreate wars and asks what happened to them. The other recalls a childhood acquaintance who was obsessed with the Army and Navy but was apparently never accepted into the military, possibly because he couldn't pass the physical.

A sponsor segment for AG1 follows. It makes the company's own marketing claims: over 75 vitamins, minerals and whole-food-sourced ingredients, four clinical trials, NSF Certified for Sport, and a free welcome-kit offer.

Back in the conversation, one speaker cites a figure that "they say" 77% of American kids can't pass the military physical. Another recalls the Presidential Fitness Test as a bad memory of hanging from a pull-up bar in front of classmates without managing a single pull-up. The test is described as having just been revived at a White House event with golfers and kids. The standards read aloud for a 10-year-old are 22 push-ups, 45 curl-ups, six pull-ups and an eight-minute mile. At first the speakers find 45 curl-ups absurd, until the listing turns out to describe a sit-up-style abdominal measure. Even then, they think many kids would not meet that bar.

The fitness talk leads into conscription. Citing Tim Dillon's show, one speaker raises the claim that Palantir supports bringing back military service. The text they look up states that Palantir has publicly called for the U.S. to move away from an all-volunteer military toward "some form of universal national service," which many observers interpret as a draft. The speaker says they have not yet looked into the manifesto themselves.

The response is strongly hostile. The speaker objects that tech executives would not serve themselves and would be throwing other people's children into unnecessary wars. They suggest the technology should be used to end wars instead, and they make a sweeping judgment about U.S. wars since 1945:

I don't think there's one war that we've been in since World War II that makes any fucking sense at all.

The other participant asks what a draft would look like in today's culture of inclusion. The reply is that drafting women for combat would be "insane," and that a universal requirement would probably make most people reject the idea outright. Both speakers say that people who are not elected officials, including podcasters and tech figures, should experience combat before advocating national service. They add that a USO tour would not count, because there you only meet people who are glad to see you. Palantir's surveillance software is also raised as a concern about how much power the company has.

A Tim Dillon segment about giving Ozempic to babies leads into GLP-1 drugs. The accounts offered are personal anecdotes. One speaker's father, who took Ozempic, said it curbs appetite but that you can still eat through it. Tim Dillon reportedly said it stopped his desire not just for food but for everything. One participant mentions hearing that some people see potential for GLP-1s in treating addictions such as alcohol and gambling. Another says they tried the drug for a while during an attempt to quit drinking: it curbed their desire for a drink but gave them really bad stomach cramps.

The speakers voice doubts about "easy fix" treatments and mention side effects people have reported, including stomach paralysis. They say a friend, Brian Simpson, got pancreatitis and was sick in bed for about two weeks. One participant stresses that the drugs are new and adds:

the long-term effects, like you just have no idea, because it's new

Dosage is offered as one explanation. One speaker says they have heard that standard prescribed doses are too high, that some people feel a much smaller dose is enough to curb appetite, and that ramping up to a high dose quickly "could probably be harmful." This is presented as something the speaker has heard, not as established guidance. The repeated alternative offered is "have some fucking discipline" and eating less.

When one speaker claims people have gone blind, they immediately hedge: "I think I might have made that up. Check that." The search result read aloud describes lawsuits alleging permanent blindness in one eye from "eye stroke," named as non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. The same result lists acute pancreatitis, gallbladder problems, gastroparesis, bowel obstructions and potential thyroid tumors. It also says mild GI issues are common, that severe complications require immediate medical attention, and that they often occur more frequently at higher doses. The speakers say this is apparently the argument made for compounding pharmacies.