Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path.

And you're listening to live for the Pathway coming from the Pathway Studios here in Johnston proper. California love. No. That

that shouldn't be happening that far. We're gonna get copyrighted for that? No. We already get flagged for the use of the song that I used to. We do get flagged every time. Hey. Alright. You're listening live from the path. Okay. I I I here's what I'm telling you. I I scanned the news this week. And, boy, I mean, I feel like we've tread most of these roads before. So, like, persecution in somewhere and, somebody's upset. Somebody says, is the tithe real? Somebody says, here's how you should read the scriptures. Oh, no. Hold on, man. Is this is it possible

that there's nothing rattling the cages of the people of Jesus this week? I mean, I don't know that the Jesus people are worried about the balloon. Right? I mean, that's just a balloon. Okay. We are gonna talk about that balloon. Now listen. What balloon? The the Chinese spy balloon. I heard nothing entire that. Country. There's nothing about this that makes any sense at all. No. Zero. Sorry. Bring it in. I'm gonna lay out the facts. Right? I'm

interested. Realize I have no context in what you're saying. So you you're gonna be the one who educates me. What's that movie? Big hero six. Right? That big old gargantuan blow up dummy that The the marshmallow robot. Yeah. The but yeah. Baymax?

Baymax. So this Baymax balloon come flying over The United States. Yeah. Everybody's freaking out. Spy balloon. Because Montana sees it first, and Montana's like, that's different. That's different than me. Made it past Montana, not shot down. So Montana lets it go. Blah blah blah. The government's dragging their feet, and they were like, it's a Chinese spy balloon. I'm like, okay. So far Huge. Huge Baymax balloon. So eventually,

to get it down with all its that's technological spy equipment in a non propelled taken by the wind balloon, which is a weird way to invest, say, your spy network in. Yep. The United States decides to shoot it down with a Sidewinder missile instead of, say,

putting a hook on it and towing it to the ground. Yeah. They have ways to use helicopters in the pool as puppies in. Got to be kidding There's, like, dramatic footage of this missile shooting down a balloon, and now they got divers

trying to find the parts in the water. Yeah. Let's wait till it gets to the saltwater. I mean, seriously, some it don't add up. None of it adds up. Here's the thing. The Chinese have satellites that can identify a pimple on my right butt cheek from space. It would be ridiculous to send out this easily seen low flying Baymax nonpropelled balloon. And if you think that, like, pictures from a balloon is what the Chinese government is excited about when it comes closer. The I mean, they got some pretty they've hung up by our military bases. Yeah. Okay. Non, like, propelled

The Internet is where you get data. Like, that's where you get stuff where you can cripple a government. It's not from a balloon. This is No. No. No. No. Okay. No. No. Like, it's surveillance footage. You could Yeah. It doesn't mean it's on pictures and satellite. Could get surveillance footage from satellites all day long. They can get it from your phones. Okay. Now you're you're not taking pictures of government installations with your phone. Completely in with amount of people that do that, insane. The people that have cell phones on military bases, people that have CCTV that's everywhere, we we want people not to look into. CCTV TikTok. On sensitive military installations.

But the balloon's not in there. No. No. No. It's above it. No. No. But, but here's the point is you, because I thought about that same thing. I thought like China seems like they could get this anywhere. Right? They have much more sophisticated means internet included to otherwise harvest data. But I'm a tell you this. Didn't we talk about not like three or four months ago that like the flat out audacity of some of these people. Yeah. Right? Like you go to Russia and you go and you say, Hey, did you invade Ukraine? No, no way. We did totally didn't do it. Dude, your soldiers were in here. No. I didn't do it. You tell me that's not the same attitude that goes, yeah, whatever. Fly the balloon. Send the weather satellite. Okay. Because because We're gonna put this in two categories. Okay. Okay. First is the Chinese

decision to fly the balloon. Yes. First of all, this makes very little sense to me. Yeah. If they are doing this at a sheer brazenness just to be brazen because the once again, on the boob end of things, this data is obtainable through satellite imagery way easier and way more. I don't know about you. I I I'm out on that. Yeah. You're right. You don't know. Yeah. You don't know. I certainly know. No. You don't. I know almost everything you just know about satellite imagery. Yeah. So does booba. That's what I'm saying. Me and Buba are in the know. We're experts. So let's put that on one side. Okay. Yeah. The American reaction to this balloon baffles me to no end. Yeah.

Like to actually watch them get a legit plane out, the Sidewinder missile, this thing, and then go, hey, man, all the pieces are in the water. Now we're gonna have to, like, dig it out of there. All the data's probably ruined now. If you'd just towed it down and looked at it, everything would have been fine. So they said when it was when they first spotted over Montana, I remember someone going, Hey, like the Biden administration says, Hey, I don't want to in Canada. And they said, Hey, oh yeah. They say, they say, Hey, I don't want to shoot it down because we're worried it's going to land on somebody. Now I want you to think about that. The precision of which you can route a phone call to me anywhere in The United States through a satellite. And you're telling me that we can't find some 200 square mile area in Montana of all places or say North Dakota

or parts of Nebraska to shoot. I mean, to just get a shotgun and have a guy sit out of a helicopter would've done it for free. All you would've said, hey. Hey, boys. We need that balloon down. And it would've been boy howdy. They would've been out there. I mean, I think it had been down in five minutes. Why they spotted it. There's there's like a gang of people in Montana constantly just looking at the sky, looking for stuff like this. Yeah. Exactly. And so, like, what there's there this is just way too, like, spy movie ridiculous.

Right? There's a bunch of facts out there, and you're like, okay. Why didn't you let Montana shoot it down over land? Why did you not just go tow it back to the ground? Like, it's not even propelled by, like, hydrogen. Like, I could see them being like, hey. What if there's a biological agent in it? Or what if it blah blah blah? Well, okay. Like, X-ray it from a helicopter, do some thermal imaging, then tow the thing to a safe electro to safe military base if we want to and quarantine it. But, like, blowing it up seemed like a complete overreaction.

Yeah. I but I think on that, that's on the same regard. Like, on both sides of that bucket of facts are ridiculous. Like, if if you were China and this was just a weather balloon, like, wouldn't you know when it left, say your country and made its its way all the way across the ocean. Right. And then when you call and be like, Hey, just heads up. Yeah. There's a gigantic spy looking type balloon heading your way. Right. We don't mean anything to avoid an international incident, dial the phone heck at as fast as it was going, you could have sent a postcard to somebody in Hawaii and gone heads up. It's it's we, we lost track of it. We think it's heading your way. Like there were totally ways to head this off that it's absolutely didn't do like it's a whole thing just seems like it's like something is not right. It is. I mean, it's all over the board. Ridiculous. All of it. Yeah. Hopefully we'll find out someday.

Yeah. As they send divers down, there's like a seven mile radius, what'd they say? And the, and the place that like crash landed is like, I don't know, 500 feet deep. Like, we're gonna have divers at this thing for months trying to scour parts. If you would've just shot it down over Montana Right. We could've known everything you wanna know right now. Yeah. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Yeah. Do it on the Canadian border. Be like, oh, sorry, man. Yeah. Our bad. Just me too. My bad, dog. Anyway, that's ridiculous. The whole thing is ridiculous. Apparently, it was 200 feet tall. Ain't that crazy? Oh, that's the Hindenburg. That's a giant balloon. What does that come out to be? The suspected Chinese spy balloon that The US shot down over the weekend was 200 feet tall, officials said Monday, or roughly four times the size of the Snoopy balloon at the Macy's Day Thanksgiving parade. That doesn't seem that all that impressive. And then then later on the article, it then compared it to the size of the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller. Well, yo. Isn't that So for some reason, the person who's writing this article is very interested in the holidays. Well, it's like a ten year landmark. It's not like

but, like, what's the average of of height per story in a building? It's it's 20 story. It's like a 20 story building. 10 feet per story. So it's a it's a 20 story building. That's crazy. And it was 12 miles up. Balloon. No. It isn't. Yeah. It is. So What's a regular what's a regular hot air balloon? So it said well, I I I don't have comparison of how big it was to a regular sized hot air balloon, I think it was relatively high up too. So, like Yeah. That also is why they're not just shooting down from the ground. I think it was an airplane pilot that first saw it. Yeah. It looks like pictures of It's a situate it was it was 60,000 feet off the ground.

Hot air balloon is between 1,003 feet. And this was 20,000. 20,000. Yeah. 20,000 feet? Yeah. No. Not 20,000 feet. Excuse me. 2,000. 2,000.

Looked up how far how high a hot air can blue balloon can go. Oh. Not the height of a hot air balloon. Oh, okay. It was 200 feet tall. I don't know why I just said 2,020. Okay. That's way different. 100 feet tall. That's way different. That's a that's a It was a 20 it's still a 20 story building. Okay. Yeah. But so a regular hot air balloon is about, seven stories tall. Yeah. So it's about So it's, about three times the size of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, it don't seem right. Yeah. So they they shot it down not over continental like soil because they were saying also that they didn't want it to cause, civilian casualties as it fell as it was a 200 foot tall store or 200 foot tall balloon. Just tow it. There there's only seven people in Montana that couldn't wanna say. They're towing it from 60,000

feet. Yeah. No problem. Yeah. We we have we have technology. I mean, I'm not saying we don't. Trust me. Know a lot about the Internet and Tom Cruise would get it. Tell Tom Cruise is up there. Tom Cruise would have taken his own personal f 22. He would have and pulled it. And he He would have jumped on it, held on to it too quickly. What that man is old for. He really would have. He's dumb. It's time for all this to end. You've done two top guns. It's time for top balloon. Go get that thing. Wiley Coyote has had that gun that shoots out a net for, like, sixty years. Yeah. You ought to have good aim by now. That's right. I mean, how why does he have it? Can we just poke a small hole in it and watch it slowly come down? 73. You know? Yeah. There's nothing about this makes any lick of sense. The whole thing is, like, fantastic. Yeah. Is there okay. I'm I'm getting so the conspiracy theory theory here. Is there a chance that this is just it's it's all to keep us focused on on other things?

K. There's two possibilities here. One, there's a way bigger story going on. Right. I mean, The United States floated this balloon up. Yeah. It's Jeff Bezos. Yeah. It's Bezos. Yeah. And then put the fool on everybody. Two, it's Putin. And he threw it up there and went, look at it. He sounds like something. Look at his doing. I'm gonna show you that Hunter's laptop was on that balloon. That's why it's in the water. Oh gosh. Okay. We had no idea. So wait, do you guys think that trader Joe's parking lots are made smaller than they need to be? So they seem more more busy? Dang. Probably. I was just there today, and I thought, why is this place so hopping busy at Monday night? And, also, they also are oddly they're like Jehovah's Witnesses.

They've got them all parked funny. Like, they're all at the diagonals. Have you also seen the different, like, product lines that you get that it's not just Trader Joe's? Like, depending on the product line and the and the ethnicity of the product line, you get a different Trader? Like, there's Trader Giotto's. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there's, like, trader Jose's. I did not know. Stuff like that. It's it's like from the ratatouille. Why don't they get in trouble for for stereotyping people? They did. They got burned on that a couple years ago on something. It's like a subtle racism to, like, trader Ming. Then the was it the trader Joe's and the Aldi is owned by, like, two brothers? Yeah. Like, separate brothers? Surprised me. Can you I mean, can you imagine the dad that produced two store magnates?

Right? Like, both your boys grew up to run, like, independent like, two different grocery stores? Yeah. What do you think the arguments are like at Christmas? Yeah. Like, it's like, hey, man. We have a fantastic prices, and we keep those prices down because, like, we run a we run a tight ship here at Aldi, and we make sure that we don't need too many people and, like, car corral that's, you know, pay a quarter, stuff like that. We really try and drive that. Trader Joe's like, yeah. But we got Trader Mings, man. Have you ever had our sweet, like, beignets? They're awesome. We've convinced everybody that we're the epitome of health. I Exactly. That same thing happened with gas stations. There was, Casey Johnson and Quick Trip Johnson had the same problem. Okay. Same problem. This is my Fifteen seconds into that, I was like, nope. This is my son. Slack

Quick Trip Johnson. I know I shouldn't have named the boys. Johnson? Their names were Casey and Quick Trip. I feel so good if I wanna say it. Hey. Do you know if they they have Casey's out as far as Dayton, Ohio now? Oh, yeah. Buying up they the Casey's keeps buying up, like, small groups of gas stations. They're they're low. They're in Oklahoma. Oh, yeah. They look like a truck stop in Oklahoma. Yeah. When I was driving in from Pennsylvania and I drove through Dayton and saw Casey's, I thought I was having a stroke.

Because I was like, I'm almost a 100% certain. That's like Iowa and then a little bit of, like, Western Illinois. Is that a normal symptom of a stroke is to feel like you've It is for me. I've had four strokes. All four of are them. Not where they belong? I I have I'm just tingling. I have a connection to Casey's breakfast pizza to the point that it is it's a medical thing where I if I have a stroke, I see a Casey's where there was not a Casey's before. So it's it's it's it's a lot like my expertise on satellite imaging. It's a weird thing to specialize in, like strokes Someone's gotta do it. And satellite imagery. I don't know. SS, whatever. Well, wasn't there a big hostile takeover takeover attempt on them a few years ago? Maybe there was part of their expansion is to be worth more. Like, somebody was trying to take over Casey's? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I would have boycotted that. I would have shown up at the front door for that meeting. 10 flies. It was like, is a quick trip, Johnson.

I'm here to buy this case. Brother, I'm taking it over. Okay. Mike, did you watch the Grammys? No. So how did you hear about this devil performance?

I saw I saw it in passing as an article. Okay. Didn't really at articles of people in devil Well, I was looking at regular news, and then all of a sudden they're like, there was some performance of some dude in a devil costume or whatever. I'm like, oh, what is this now? Like, it's just so ridiculous. Then I realized that, like, I don't know what year I stopped caring about the Grammys. Like, I ain't watched it. I mean, it probably Yeah. I had no idea it was on till people were talking I about don't know. Like, I just don't care about it anymore. And like, do you think that's because, like, the musical taste of what you grew up in is kinda your bands aren't represented anymore or, like, the show itself is just terrible? I don't think I've ever watched the Grammys in my life. So Oh, totally. I used to watch it religiously.

I'd I'd never watched the award shows of anything. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've Just never been we never watched Grammys in my house. We didn't watch the Oscars. Like, we didn't Emmys. I don't even know if there It's kinda Is there more than that? Wait. Is I wonder if the if the, like, the viewer ratings or whatever of those shows have just been steadily defined. Yeah. Like, and it does seem doesn't seem awkward that, that industry

holds an award show to celebrate themselves and then like less and less people are watching it. And yet the party continues to go on. We're still great. Yeah. It'd be like life from the path hosting a five episode. That would be pretty rough, man. We should It's super awkward. We're the best. We should do our own, like, award show called the podgeezer or something.

Did you say podgeezers? I said podgeez. Oh, okay. The podgeezers. That's Maybe you should beat one, though, if that's what you heard. I thought I heard podgeezer. That feels like a Statler and Waldorf hold host an award show for podcasts. Okay.

So here's the thing. It's like, I saw I I saw a little bit of reaction to this thing. And of course, people are, like, offended and up in arms that a dude put on a a devil costume and sang a sang a song called unholy. And, like, here's the thing. At the end the day, this is just regular old you know what I'm saying? Like, stupid rebellion. Not like anything I'm afraid of. I'm way more concerned with, like,

the way that we are are fooling and driving, the way that we talk about mental health, mostly across the board, the way that we talk about sexuality across the board, the way that we what we expect and don't expect out of our kids coming up, right, before I'm ever worried about, like, this overtly doofus in a in a a Satan costume

mimicked off the Renaissance depiction of Dante's inferno. You know what I'm saying? Like, this is just so not anything to get kerfuffled about. So is the reaction are people saying, like, this is, you know, sign of the time situation where, like, we've got the devil being represented in our mainstream media? Yeah. It's all I mean, it did couple with the fact that, like, a transgendered artist had won an award. And so, like, people were like they're like, well, look at all these things combining.

It's all It's obviously Satan. It's all falling apart. And, like, once again, like and and maybe that's just my opinion of the way that that, like, the deceiver works in this world, but, like, he's not the Chinese spy balloon operation. Right? He's for sure the satellite. Red. Right? Like, he just it just seems like he just he's a nudge and a push and a fool and a trick and a and a misdirect and a fog and, like, not, hey, man. Put on this super tight costume

and sing a song called not set apart. You know what saying? Like, it's just not it's Doing something not set apart. I'm like everybody else. Gosh. That's great. I it's I mean, I I granted, it's probably not funny, but, like, it's just not I don't know. People are getting really gassed. If you're surprised by this, you haven't been awake for the past twenty years. Not to not to make a joke on the whole woke thought process. I'm just saying, like, I think you've been sleeping for a bit because you haven't seen what's happening. Like, society hasn't really been killing it for a long time.

So, like A little while. If you're surprised by new things just just completely shattering your world. Exactly. It's ever since the back masking of the seventies that that is when things went backwards and and things are flipping upside down and saying I love Satan on the records. Right. Chicago, you play it backwards. It's devil speak. For, is literally Chicago backwards. Well,

I guess is that sign of the times then? Are we is is it all ending? Oh, yeah. What is this? So what where did this game go? Nonbiblical signs of the apocalypse. Nonbiblical signs of the apocalypse. Right. Is this balloon a sign? Is it ending? Is this a trumpet? This is dumb. This is the best of what humanity has to offer, this balloon right here. And then In all forms. Wearing the devil costume. Is it is it all is is is there a voice crying out? I mean Or we're seeing a beast with 10 horns and Here's the thing. Because you know the guns. He legit only wore that thing just prior hours. Just to get it. Yeah. And, like Or a a like, a set designer chose that Yeah. And went, oh, you have a song called unholy. You know it'd be cool. Yeah. This should be cool. It's Is if we did a a really dramatic Hollywood devil. Get people talking. Mean, you're in a top hat red and horns. It's not even thoughtful. Like, that's not original. Hey. What's unholy? A Satan. Okay. Actually, to be honest, if we're looking at the if we're looking at the definition of holy being set apart,

Satan is set apart, like, from almost any other being ever, not in, like, a holy way as which we'd actually think about God being holy. Right? But, like, honestly, he's in his own category. There's no one hanging out with him. Yeah. No. Someone went, okay. This is this is a marketing game, and that's all this is. Yeah. We need to make it so that they talk about this because if they talk about this, they talk about the song. If they're talking about the song, they talk about the artist. And the artist continues to get played and played and played, and they make more and more money. It had nothing to do with, oh, we're going against the god of the universe by making Sam Smith go out in the stage in a devil costume that's red. The the the one thing I would say is that it it and if you should you should know this already.

But, like, it's not like they thought of it that day. Right? Two hours before. 60 people that are part of the production plus another 50 who work at the network and who run the cameras and choreographed Pfizer who sponsored the performance. They knew some man

and some day was going to be dancing in the devil costumes. And they said, yeah, we're cool with this. And so like, if it just shows you like, what is not phasing people, the things that are on your, like, I, in fact, I saw a picture of it somewhere, I think this morning and I, and I looked at it and go, I don't want to know any more about that. Like, I just, why would I, why don't I look at it? Right. And I look at everything. And so like, it just, just recognize, like, it's, it's a revelation. It's a revealing of where we're at. It's not a driver where we're at. It's not the spearhead. It's not leading people. It is revealing

that this type of thing doesn't cause a phase among a couple 100 people that are involved in the production. Right. Yeah. And you should know that. Have existed for hundreds of years. This is not a new thing society is trying on. Yeah. Like, yeah. That's not my first thought when I I hadn't really looked at it myself other other than I saw a couple glimpses. And and I I just went back to the eighties. I thought that was, you know, the all the eighties rock bands that were like all, you know, Alice Cooper or whatever kiss, you know, and then all Satan's army, you know, and and it's like, you talk to them and they're like, yeah, I don't know. We're just singing songs and Dan, when Alice Cooper happened, where were you and what did you think? I stayed away from all of it. Okay. Just because I didn't know. I I thought either they're promoting it as satanics. I just didn't listen to their music, didn't do their stuff. I thought Better safe than sorry. I didn't know if they were satanists or not, but I thought I'm just not messing with it. Okay. That's interesting because I think Alice Cooper's a Jesus man. He is now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was his dad as a preacher. Uh-huh. And then he did the rock thing, and then somewhere in there, kinda came back. Insanely smart guy. Yeah. Yeah. And, like, he owns a restaurant in in New Mexico, I think, by the way. Yeah. With Randy Jackson?

Randy try Randy something who's Randy Travis? Randy Travis and Randy Jackson are very different. Agreed. I'm trying to remember who was the who was the pitcher If that was for and Randy Travis hanging out. Randy Johnson. Thank Sidewinder. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They own What an odd pairing as well? They own a hot they own a hot dog joint together in New Mexico. Wow. Okay. I'm ready. Does Randy Travis stop by from this thing? I hope so. Yeah. It's it hits your brain kinda weird when you find out that those two got involved and went, we should make a hot dog joint.

They win the podgeez reward. I'd listen to that. I'd listen to that show. If there is a nonbiblical Sony apocalypse, it might be this hot dog joint. Yeah. It is. Yeah. Only to have Randy Travis set one up across the street. Yeah. You know what I mean? It is kinda funny because like all that music I did not listen to. Yeah. Later on twenty years later, I would listen to some of those songs go. I mean, it's not like

bad. It's not good. I mean, I was more concerned with the morality they were pushing then,

you know, I don't see demons flying out of the, you know, whatever. Hell's bells. Speakers and From ACDC was not really trying to drive people to satanism. No. Nor was highway to hell. Yeah. It was just, hey. We should do drugs and drink a whole lot. Yeah. And then do a bunch of frivolous other things that come along with that. But that's no different than the dude that lives on your street. That's that's funny. That would be the best of ACDC if you lived on your street. The guy's like, exactly. Peruvian white. And then I'm rolling the sun.

Like Tipper Gore is out protesting your neighbor, Dave. We are so we are way more likely to, like, let go the nondisruptive sins as far as we call them. Then we are the, like, the overt,

I want I just want attention. Mhmm. Like, you know, way of doing it. And, like, seriously, if you're letting, if you're if if you put yourself in a suburban neighborhood and you got a guy that's beaten on his wife, a woman who's who numbs herself all day on wine, pays zero attention to her kids, and then the people down at the end of the block, like, they just can't be trusted to do anything. They just sit around dealing weed outside their back door. You will let all these things go and not get involved. But then as soon as some doofus in a Satan costume shows up on TV Oh, they're like, he's polluting our youth. They're like, come on. You're these rules are going down. I miss the days of Frank Sinatra. Oh, yeah. He was great too. Yeah. He he was killing it back then. I'm just saying. We're we're just focused on the wrong stuff. Mhmm. And, frankly, I mean, it's classic Dan Hudson. Right? Hurting people hurt people. Hurting people hurt people. So, like, that guy has just a a obviously, a want for people to know him, like him, to be known, you know, and, like, it's not happening. So we're gonna choose every outrageous stupid way of trying to get it done.

That's just sad really more than anything. Yep. Agreed. I I don't know. We usually don't hit the news of the day, but there it is for you. We're catching you up in case you're like boo boo, who doesn't follow the news

whatsoever. Actually, same thing happened to my wife, my kids and I were talking about it and my wife had also had no idea about this balloon. I thought, I mean, they kind of followed it on the news on the internet a little bit, kind of like Al Cowlings in the driving OJ around. Like, What if we had like a good a good news story like that, right? Where everyone's peeled to the TV going, what's happening now? When OJ was making a run for it,

that was that was riveting television. Yeah. I haven't know. There hasn't been a well, the the Johnny Depp trial. Yeah. That's true. That was a lot slow thirty seconds for Yeah. That's true. There was outlets in Twitter and then 48 websites that you can Google that didn't do any actual work into figuring out what they were writing. So is the was the bless you. Was

the submission to the complaint line correct? When we were talking about cell phone usage last week. Yeah. Like the complaint line submission was basically, listen, it's not just a phone. Right? Like it's how we take in all our media anymore. We get most of our information through podcasts. Right? So like, is is does that make the reliance on the phone less severe? Because honestly, a good deal of our life is actually done. Businesses done and our personal interactions are done on that phone. Yeah. So it's interesting. And this, this, this did come

from Joe on the, on the complaint line. I think he, I think he nailed a few things. We were talking about the phones and he said, I wonder if I'm missing out on a better way. Says he's got a pretty good good handle on his phone usage, but, really, we're in the podcast stage. I do listen to some talk radio while driving, but aside from that, all of my entertainment news or education comes from podcasts. I think podcasts have taken the place of TV, magazines, newspaper, and such for this generation. Not sure if there is legitimate value to it or if it really is just a distraction and more and more information to sort through, which won't really help me in the long run.

I do find the podcasts I listen to really do filter their way into how I see the world and into my conversations about whatever topics are on the table. And so, like, it is interesting to think of that. If it felt like it was extra on top of all kinds of things, then you could, you could dismiss it. But if it's legitimately replacing, this is how I get news. This is this is where I hear good conversation,

like people talking about interesting things of the day. You maybe you previously read an editorial in the newspaper. Now you listen to a guy talking on the podcast. It's not necessarily it's not a frivolous waste of time. It's funny too because, like, you'd see a guy reading the newspaper, and you wouldn't go, look at the guy wasting his time. The guy but if you saw your kid watching the same thing on the newscast, you'd be like, look at a kid stuck to the TV. Like like sometimes we worry about the way information is transmitted as if the the more cumbersome is to get the more valuable it is to have spent your time doing so. But

I think it does bring up a legitimate point is that like, let's say you ditched it and went to a flip phone. You also are cutting off the primary means of which you're receiving information. Don't run to, to, I mean, eighty five years ago, they ran an evening newspaper, right? The Des Moines register ran twice a day over time. I don't know if you guys, I went to go buy the, the Des Moines register for Thanksgiving. Cause I thought, man, I'm going to look through all the ads and stuff. I mean, it had been on Jenny Craig. There's like, it was, there was nothing to this thing. There was like eight total pages, three or four different ads in there. It was super skinny.

And so like, like it's dying. And so like you're, you're the other option to say, well, I don't want to use the phone. Like you're running out of the way in which the world communicates. And so I think, I think it brings a right richness to the conversation is that like, we may have to accept that this is the means of which a lot of information is transferred to which good information happens. Good. And like, could just say, no, I'm not going to take into any of it. But if you think of it as a replacement for some of those things,

I think it does inform that conversation perhaps a little bit differently, even if I I'm not sure it particularly changes the cautions. It doesn't change the recognition of, of, of how much, because like, good. And the question is, could you say the same thing in 1948 and go, Hey, listen, man, you touched that newspaper more than you touch your wife. Or do you read that? You talk to that. You listen to the newspaper more than you listen to. Like you couldn't, it's the same thing. Like when you have your thinking right balance. But I I think it is it's well put. I don't think so. Good thought.

I don't think I've ever held or read a newspaper in my life. No kidding. Yeah. No. I've also never sent a letter until I got married. Would you who'd you send a letter to? My wife.

Oh. Or not till I got married. Excuse me. A little bit before we got married because I sent a letter to her in Africa. I never sent mail before that day in my life or written a check. Interesting. Yeah.

Yeah. I really am a child of smartphones. Yeah. Yeah. And Yeah. And the Internet and stuff like that. I it's just I've never in any way, like, interacted with most analog things that exist. I had to I had to write a check today, and I was just like I would How do you think about it? How do you do this? Would I would probably have to, like, Google how to write a check. Yeah. And every time I like, I I've sent a couple letters in my life now. Every time I have, I've had to look it up. My wife is much better than I do. Thank the lord for for for sending her to me because, like, anytime we wanna send out Christmas cards and stuff, she has stamps. Like, she has our address and stuff, like, on a roll a roll of stickers and stuff. Like, she's she's prepared for this. I would have no clue how to do most of the stuff. I would have to really, like, figure it out.

Damn. I mean, I can cook. Alright. You're listening to life in the path. Mike, let's give out some advice. K. We got a couple. Okay. You ready? Dear, life from the path. My oldest sister visits me every week to play cards and chat. While I love her dearly and enjoy her visits, sometimes I do not appreciate one topic she brings up. We are on different ends of the political spectrum. Although I never initiate a conversation about the candidate she voted for in the last election, she never misses an opportunity to debase my choice for the same office. It's distressing, and I nearly cried the last time she made a derogatory

remark about him. When she doesn't bring up politics, we have a wonderful time. Why does she do this? Is she clueless about how much this bothers me? I am a quiet person who doesn't like confrontation or making others feel bad, So I generally just nod my head or listen without saying anything. I sometimes dread seeing her because I never know if she's going to bring up the politics. Do you have a polite, non confrontational way of making her stop? Non confrontational. Do you have a non confrontational way for me to confront somebody?

Hey. I really want something to stop something. I need to confront somebody. Need to tell them to stop, but I really need to not say stop. Yeah. Can you cease? I'm gonna put up a boundary but not really have any. Right. I mean, it doesn't it sound like she's not actually even said something? It sounds that way. Right. She's too afraid to yeah. I mean, the sister has to be a little bit obtuse I mean maybe not notice. Yeah. Some people suck to talk to. Yeah. That's Like, it sounds like she's great most of the time, and then sometimes she just brings up derogatory remarks to you

about the candidate. Like, is she saying like, is she is she, like, yelling at you for who you are, or is she, like, yelling about the candidate and that hurts you? Yeah. Because I certainly wouldn't cry about that. Those are two very separate things. Well, maybe she is saying you're in the same person. For blank or blank is an idiot. I mean, they might she might assume that you voted for the same person because the other person doesn't volunteer any information. That's true. She's probably thinking, yeah, you know that one person, they're terrible.

Yeah. And she's secretly crying inside. Yeah. I voted for that person. You voted for Jimmy. I voted for Trent. Yeah. I hate Trent. He's the Ralph Nader of the two thousands. Oh, vermin supreme. Hey. Is Ralph Nader still around, incidentally?

I've not seen him. If not, he's probably still running from the grave. Yeah. I he was part of a shooting down a Chinese balloon this past week. He flew the raptor. Yeah. So I I here's the thing. There's people don't know to avoid a awkward conversation unless you make it awkward first.

Right? True. That way, once it happens, they go, oh, you know what? That didn't go very well. Perhaps I won't mention this all the time. And here's the deal. You have power to make that super awkward. Oh, yeah. And it just it just is scrumptious. You can you can cut that with a knife and put it on toast. It's just it's good stuff. I got someone that kind opportunity to just be like, oh, actually They're my best friend. I mean yeah. There's there's someone that, like, I try to make things awkward just to, like, okay. Can we get move move this conversation on? Right. And some people can't read that room. You know, they just can't, they don't, they're like, they're stuck at you. You can't get that stuck in the mud real quick. Some fun with it. Get some payback. Be vindictive.

What'd you say there? Martha Trump, Trump, boom, boom, banana banana banana. Like just, you know, sounds like Trump. It sounds like you could just start with saying, Hey, you know,

I didn't vote for that guy and this conversation never go anywhere. And so I, I, you, I should have said something earlier because maybe you thought you had an ally here, but, like, we we part company on this political choice. I was almost brought to tears, though. Yeah. So yeah. So that's the other thing. Yeah. Is that like That's the flip. I mean, what do you What is the flip? Are you dating Joe Biden? Like, what do you care? I hope not. Like, fairly certain he's married. I'm fairly certain he doesn't even know. Think what you're right. Whether he's

so, like, you wanna say, like, hey. Hey. I hate I snips her here. It's like saying, I hate Donald Trump. You're like, okay. I mean, you can, if you want to. It was just such a weird, you know what fantastic. You've

developed an identity around this. You're lucky that balloon didn't have Trump's face on it. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're darn lucky because there's a 50 shot that he paid to have that thing go up and he would put his own face on there. It still may happen. I know China. I bet it floats one as part of his presidential candidate. There's an awesome meme going around with the Trump balloon floating around. I know know China. I know the balloons. I know the balloons. We just, we talked about about China all the time. You guys are making me cry. We're talking about something Gosh. I mean, yes. Okay. Of course, there's certain situations, but bring it up and go, hey. Here's the deal. I hate this conversation.

No longer are we putting this on the table. We just don't honest. Yeah. Just don't talk about it. Like, we can have 98% of our conversations. Yeah. This just sucks, and I hate it. And I wanna be your friend because I love you as my sister. Yeah. But, like, I just don't wanna have this conversation anymore. I mean, change change the subject. Right. Like, let's say it's about bacon. I hate she talks about bacon. You you still gotta have the same conversation. Signs still. About bacon. What's the deal with airline food? Like, whatever you need to do, just get it past it. Yeah. But talk about it. Don't be non confrontational. You need to be confrontational in this, but confrontational does not mean mean. Like, it doesn't need to be angry. It doesn't need to be you being a jerk now. It can just be, hey. Here's the deal. I hate these conversations. I love when you come over and hang out with me. I love to play cards with you, whatever that means. I'd love to take your money and Texas hold them. But, like, we don't have this conversation anymore, please. But then the flip side of that is I think you need to detach maybe a little bit from this conversation if the mention or a derogatory mention of a candidate that you voted for possibly brings you to tears.

That maybe there's a time to step back and go, okay. I'm allowing them to be a human. They need to allow me be me to be a human, and I kinda need just need to go, ugh, water off the back. Something to that. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I do. China. China.

Balloons. They make high quality balloons. I made balloons. I invented balloons. Very, very big balloon. Big The biggest balloon. Biggest balloon. Everybody loved it. Okay.

Secular says, the question was, do you have a polite non confrontational way of making her stop? Yes. I do. Quit nodding your head and establish some ground rules with your sister. That's confrontational. Tell her that you love her company, but that the pejorative political comments must stop. Also confrontational. Make clear that you want politics off the table when she visits because the subject is so upsetting. And if she cannot comply, you'll be seeing her less often, period. Wow. What are you, an officer of the law now talking about the pejorative situation and the compliance to it Yes. But being nonconfrontational?

Standing up for yourself is not being confrontational. It definitely is. You cannot change the definition of confrontational merely because you want it to be a more positive connotation. You are long overdue for this brief chat. If you cannot do this, then stop blaming her and be prepared for much more of the same. That's true. I mean, you could actually learn and grow together discussing politics if you could just do it in a mature way. Right. That guy's a goober. Yeah. I don't know if it's gotta be immediate hand thrown. You know what I'm saying? Like, I can't believe you brought this up, and I didn't tell you, but now I'm super mad about it. And I'm a see you less. Right. Like, okay. Hey. I love this political guy. Oh, interesting. How come?

Oh, I think I like what he's doing on taxes, or I hate this other guy. Oh, that's interesting. Where did you come to that opinion? Like, could just have a normal conversation about this kind of thing. I feel like people suck at defending opinions without feeling like they need to, like, get into fisticuffs. I think that's why it's so rough to have conversations about politics and religion within your family and within your friends groups and stuff like that. People feel like they're throwing fists or they don't know how to have conversations. But I gotta tell you, real world example of this, one of the funniest things that I've ever seen, My my dad,

Christ follower, loved Jesus. Good stuff. My uncle, not so much. Did not did not love Jesus, and neither did my nana for a long time, my my my dad's mom. And I remember one year at Christmas, they had kinda had to set ground rules. We no longer talk about religion. We no longer talk about politics just because that's just not the life that they wanted to live. They they would just always get heated and angry.

And so that Christmas after my dad and my my uncle set those ground rules together, my uncle Brad got my dad this nightlight of Jesus.

And it was like a white, like, no color nightlight of Jesus, and he goes, I know he's your light, and so I wanted to get this for you so you always have something to, like, fall asleep to Uh-huh. And so you can always fall asleep to your papa and stuff like that. I did. It was it was great. And we were like, my uncle Brad was just being a schmuck, being a little brother, and we were all expecting, like, legit fallout.

And my dad just goes, this is awesome. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited about this. And I you bet that that Jesus nightlight stayed in our hallway for the next, like, five years. Yeah. Like, we had that forever. We're like, dad, could we please put away the Jesus nightlight? He goes, no. It's the best gift I've ever gotten from my little brother. Are you kidding me? That's amazing. I made him put money to Jesus. Yes. We're we're keeping that forever. I am the way and the truth and the nightlife. K. We got time for one more? Yep. Let's do it. You're live from the path. I have been on phone calls recently with a married friend when the spouse will suddenly chime in without my knowing they were listening.

There are times when I want a conversation to be private with only one person. What's the polite way to make this happen in a world of speakerphones? Okay. This is like a personal pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people talk on the speakerphone. Although I tend to do it either well, especially at work. Yeah. But, like, you that's not private conversation time. Right? People aren't gonna reveal, like, gory truths to you on a work call most of the time. So it's usually pretty safe.

But, like, I don't know. Do you find people using the speakerphone a lot? When did it become a hassle to hold this thing up to your ear where you're like, man, I just can't be bothered. I'd say about the time that speakerphone was invented. I suppose. I tell you what, I I have gotten like, I've legitimately not called into a work phone call because I forgot my headphones, my Bluetooth headphones, and I didn't wanna hold the phone open to my ear. They're ridiculous. And I thought about it too. I thought, oh, gosh, exhausting. This I still didn't do it. I said, let's, I mean, I wait thirty minutes. I gotta hold this thing up to my face. I I'm out.

This is why we do short term missions. If you go to another country and you go, okay. I'm acting ridiculous. What's your heat source? Oh, we have wood. I think I can take that call. No. No. So I that that is I've noticed this, and make it broaden it out a little bit is people's use of a personal device

as if it is a PA. So whether you are on speaker phone or like, I don't know how many times I've been sitting in the airport over the last year or so. And like guys like watching YouTube videos at full volume, like he's sitting in his chair. Like, what? Put on some headphones, bro. Like, I didn't ask to listen to whatever this is going on. And there's like five or six people doing it. And so there, there is kind of a blatant

looking around and going, I'm going to do what I want. I don't have any care about anybody else. Same reason someone's on their phone and like checking out at the gas station. Like it's just, it just basically is a middle finger to everybody around you. Yeah. And that's rude. Yeah. Yeah. I went we I went to IHOP with a woman, and, like, there's a gal sitting take your woman for a date at the IHOP? Yeah. I was about to say, we went out for our anniversary. Yeah. And it's in classic, like, Us style, she got a phone call two minutes after we sat down with some crisis gal or whatever. And so, like, I'm sitting there eating by myself, really. It's how it always turns out. But, anyway, like Did you do hold on. Did you do this recently? Yeah. Aren't you on a food journey? It was before the food journey. Aren't you on a food journey? Yeah. Okay. Well, it looks interesting question. Keep going, man. It was before the food journey. Anyway, so the gal behind us, this is why I start I I didn't wanna listen to my wife's conversation because it was it seemed heavy. And so I listened to the conversation of the gal behind me who's on speaker phone where her daughter is at Walmart trying to buy Odo van for the animals who peed all over the house. And they're like talking about where you can find the auto ban, why it's better than other pet defecation

cleaning methods. And it's went off for fifteen minutes, full volume. And they're swearing back and forth with each other on the price of the auto ban. I'm like, you know, I realized we're not at the risk culture in here, but, like, the IHOP does have standards. All you gotta do is take that thing up. No waffle house. That's right. You need to move it, like, 12 inches up to the ear and whiz bang. Here's that button. I I have a weird like I I don't wanna call it respect,

but it kinda is for the people that just have just a chrome plated set of life that where they can have these kind of conversations

screaming at the top of their lungs on speakerphone and not give a care about anyone around living out loud. Like, in a For the living at the grocery store. There's a level where I'm just like, I don't know if I could ever muster the confidence in myself well enough to go, everyone in this Walmart right now That's true. Needs to hear. Or it is even in that. It's the fact that, like, I could give no I I could care less. I couldn't care less, excuse me, about anyone else in this giant Walmart supercenter that they're gonna hear about everything I have to say about whatever stupid crap I'm talking about right now. Yeah. And I don't care about the rest of the universe that they have to hear me talk about this. I just don't care. And I think to myself,

what what freedom exists in that that I do not currently take part in? That's good point. Hey, man. I'll give you a callback because I'm in a public place right now, and I don't wanna be on the phone. And I I'm I'm talking at a perfectly normal level, but, like, I'm gonna walk back. Whereas everyone else is like, do you know? And they're just, like, screaming. I'm like, I appreciate you so much. I love it. I feel like I

would start worrying about the audience around me where I would tell a joke, and it's not good enough that the person on the other end of the phone laughed. I would be looking at the aisles and go, hey, do you guys catch that? Oh, seven. Do you think that one was funny? Solid gold. How does Moses make his coffee? He brews it. How funny was that? Here's the thing. It's like, I I refuse

to take phone calls in front of other people even with it up to my ear. Right. I don't want them hearing what I'm saying. Yeah. Like, I just don't like having taking phone calls in front of people at all. So, like, people talking on the speakerphone out loud, like this drives me up the wall and I've been accused of doing this before where like my boss called me and he's like,

he was mad. And he's like, blankety, blank boost. Get me off the blank and speakerphone. I go, this is gonna be hard to take in, but you're not actually on speakerphone. Maybe my phone is old. I don't know what impression you It's just crappy technology. I promise you. I was like, what do you want though? You want, I mean, like, honestly, you're not on speakerphone. Oh, well, I need you to go here. It sounded like it was. Like I was like legit mad about it. So,

the question is, is like, let's say that you do hate it. Cause like, I mean, I don't know if I'd want every conversation I have with Buba to, like, have his wife sit next to him, listen to that thing. You know what I'm saying? Like, there's Buva level stuff I'm saying that I don't say in front of Buva's lady. And here's the deal. To go back to this question, just say that. Just be like, hey. Here's the deal. I know sometimes, you know, Sandra chimes in.

What I'm about to say is some rough stuff, and I'd really kinda only want it to be for you. And if they go, yeah. No problem. Cool. And then you still hear Sandra at the end of that, you no longer have those conversations with Dave. Yeah. But is it a is it a assumption that, like, if I call Dave that his wife's gonna be listening all the time, that's just the new normal? No. But it sounds like this is a problem that's happened multiple times. So I'm saying the realistic thing here is to go, hey. Sandra's always on the phone when I'm when I'm talking to you. I'm about to tell you some rough stuff. Can you not put Sandy on? I love Sandy. I love that you love her. I'm happy for your marriage. I was there when you got married. I remember the color, but I don't want her hearing this. You can have that conversation. It's perfect. Fine. But he's just gonna tell her later. Maybe that's Exactly. That's the truth. Yes. Exactly. The same guy that would allow his wife to listen to your speakerphone conversations tells her he's gonna tell his wife anyway. Right. Right? Yeah. Maybe Did you hear what happened to? Yeah. You should stop calling that guy. I mean, honestly, you should start every conversation with Dave. Like, I got some stuff, and it's about you. As for when he kicks his wife out, then you go, I was kidding. Dude, it's about me. Here's the thing. Is it is there a chance that it's the wife?

Like, it's the wife that, like, is barging into the conversations? Like, he's trying to have a personal conversation. She just goes, give me the phone now. And she puts it on speaker and sits there. I don't that'd be bold. Don't call him. I mean, have you ever been in a room where someone's having single guy. Like a rough conversation, and you're like, I don't want any part of this. Yeah. A I'm a lie. There's a social anxiety to conversations where I'm like, I don't even I I don't wanna be in the same ZIP code as this conversation right now. I'm moving. Yeah. This sounds real bad. I couldn't even begin to start giving advice. I hope my wife don't look at me and be like, what should I tell them? Right. Like, don't ask me. I don't I'm not here. Yeah. You're the you're not the problem in this kind of situation because you flip around to figure out what's going on with the Odo ban. Yeah. I I'm I'm actually the only part of that that I'm upset about is that you didn't give recommendations on a better product. There is not. Actually, Autoban's pretty top shelf. Well, then you should have given a recommendation and heard what they thought. Yeah. That stuff's alright. You know what I'm saying? You should've been like, excuse me. I I noticed the conversation you've been having about the dog dirt. Yeah. And I agree with you entirely. Autoban's the business. Autoban and Simple Green, like put those in a bottle, shake them up. I think that'll clean it. Use those to clean inflatables. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Simple green stuff. Okay. So overall, the question was what's the polite way to make this happen that she's only having private conversations. What's the polite way to make this happen in a world of speaker phones?

I mean, it's not a world of speaker phones. This is, it's not like everybody's doing it. This is a personal problem that you have with this particular couple, David saying, no, like inundated with it. But I think you're going to have to bring it up. I would say I would start with the casual with, like, if you felt like it was going to be sensitive, you could start with a shallow hint, like say, Hey man, sometimes, you know, I might say wild things. And so I like to know who I'm dealing with. So when I call you need to tell me, am I, am I talking to one party or two?

Then over time, like either they're going to get the hint and if they don't get the hint, then you then you move it up and say, Hey, sometimes I just want to talk to you. And, I need you to not, this is information for everybody. Dave, Sandy cannot be here for a conversation.

Like when I'm I'm driving on my truck and my phone rings, it answers through, you know, a vehicle. I always answer with, hey. You're on speakerphone. What's going on? Yeah. You know, just so they know. You just get that out of the, you know Right. Right off the bat. Suppose you have a lot of conversations, though, that people would absolutely not want to be on speakerphone. Yes. Yes. Like, Dan, the roughest stuff that's ever happened to me happened to me today. You're like, hey. By the way, you're on speakerphone. Yeah. My four year olds in the backseat. I'm gonna call next year. Dan, am I on speakerphone? Because I got one word, herpes. Who

else is in who's in the car? I was in the night hop recently, and people were talking about Otoban. Do you think Otoban and Simple Green will help with that? I don't know. Let me call my contact at the IHOP. Gross, man.

What a terrible commercial for Otoban. No. Actually Valtrex? Otoban. The herpes. You just spray yourself in the eye, so you have to look at Didn't fix that, but it made another problem. But I don't see nothing. Okay. Oh, that's disgusting, Mike. Thank you for that. The

way to handle it is to tell the married person you would like to know if someone's within earshot because you want your conversation to be private. And if it happens again, convey sensitive information to the, the person only face to face. Now I'm telling you it don't matter. That dude is telling his wife everything. Like, I don't care whether you tell him face to face or not. He's a he's a he's a gossip. There's I just, I would never let anybody listen to any of my conversations. No. Just bizarre. Although I, you, you should know that, like, there is some level of

like, you know, that, that married people are gonna share, right? They're gonna share information. I think, you know, who you can, you know, who will keep certain facts at bay or maybe not tell, like, every gritty, nasty detail. You know? But, like, would I say,

hey. You know, if I was on the phone with Ben for an hour and my wife liked, hey, what's up? I'm like, yeah, I look, I've been struggling. He's just he's just having a struggle today. And we're trying to fix it. He's blind first of all. He's got the the simple Odeband concoction in his eyes and his friend Herp

Uncle Herp is on the way. Sucked away. Can you whip up some apothecary's potion and situation here?

Does thieves help with this? He's come to visit. I mean, married couples are gonna share a little bit. If you're taking an hour away from a married man with kids, his wife should want to know why. Right? Yeah. Like, without telling entire details, you can say, look. We're on a road and it's not a great road. This is probably gonna happen again, but, you know, we're we're we're working through it. You know? So they're gonna share the fact. You're never gonna be able to, like, I can't believe you told my your wife that I was in the straights. Yeah. You don't call a married man and expect him not to at least share a little bit of the details with his wife. Find some single friends. That's right. Yeah. Talk to your gossip buddies at the at the workout facilities. That's it. So What did you just say? What? The workout facilities?

What was that? You were just killing it the last five minutes, man. We're gonna let it go. You've been listening to live in the past. Thanks for hanging out with us today. You shouldn't have been, but you did. Maybe we missed some good solid news of the day. And maybe there's some things where you saw out in the world, and you said, man, them fellas should have talked about that instead of whatever garbage he talked about today. Listen. We can't iron can't sharpen iron if you don't get up on the old blacksmith shop. So let us know. Life and Path complaint line, (515) 517-0085. That's (515) 517-0085. Call or text. We'd love to hear from you. We we'll see how it goes on. We may or may not be having shows in the next two weeks, but we sure will be checking that complaint line. Thanks, Joe, for hitting us up. In the meantime, be thankful, be faithful to the means. God will handle the ends. You've listening too live from the pack.