Episode 114: Before-Times Podcasting

Oh, well, so here's the sad, the sad straight with the auto show.

I had planned to leave my hotel in Tuscaloosa at 3.30 in the morning to get to New York by

9, so that I would be able to spend the entire day at the auto show.

They forgot to send a plane to Tuscaloosa, belted it, kind of overlooked it.

Yeah.

Did we forget Tuscaloosa again?

God damn it.

I'm like, I know there's something we were supposed to send to Tuscaloosa, oh, you know

what, it was an airplane.

But anyway, I ended up getting there at 3.30.

I texted the one guy I had to meet that the entire trip to New York was predicated on meeting

this one guy.

I texted him and he was like, I'll be here till 5 if you can make it.

I sprinted, not sprinted, but I went hustling my way over there, including getting incredibly

sweaty by the time I was there, which every time I end up at the New York auto show,

I'm sweaty.

I'm always the sweatiest guy there.

But I met with him for 30 minutes and then pretty much immediately had to leave and go

to another meeting across town and then go to a Cadillac thing at night.

So I think I was in the convention hall for 30 minutes.

I saw, or maybe 40 minutes, I saw, did new VW Atlas.

There were about 30 people there to receive it, a crowd of about 30.

Is that a weapon?

Is that some sort of new weapons system?

No, no, it's still a car there, they haven't switched that over yet.

This was just a car.

I guess you could use it as a weapon.

Maybe in such cases.

It's pretty big.

Yeah, maybe in such cases.

Yeah.

I had that, I feel like there was some other, oh the Hyundai had a Jeep slash Bronco competitor

there, the Boulder, which is like a real body on frame, a trucky little SUV thing.

It's kind of cool.

Is this a concept or is this an actual thing?

It's a concept, but they're going to build it.

If you remember the crater that I think I saw in LA, like weird little buggy concept thing,

that interior is mostly intact inside the Boulder, which is pretty cool.

That's going to be like that.

I'm looking at the alloy story, and yeah, it looks cool.

Yeah, it'll be like a little Wrangler, Land Rover Defender slash Bronco competitor.

Oh wow, the interior is really cool.

I was like, that was the first time, I think one of the other journalists I saw at the

airport was like, that's the first time I ever can remember being surprised at an auto

show since like 2015.

I was like, I think that's probably true.

We had not, there's no pre-warning of that product coming, which is kind of cool.

You know, I'd spent a week arranging little meet and greets for different PR and marketing

people at the auto show, and then I just did not get to do any of them, so very cool.

I did go to that Cadillac party that I mentioned, I ended up talking to a bunch of journalists

about alloy, and as I mentioned in the voice chat, got a very funny suggestion for

my next job that we probably shouldn't name the names of, but it's a CEO of a big media

company, and I was like, yeah, sure, let's do it, let's, so here's my phone number.

It would be so funny.

It would rip, it would be so good.

It would be so good when I got the job, and then it was fired one month later

because someone found the tired pod, and...

Listen, I put in so many redactions of that Patreon episode that we're not to say.

I mean, like, yep.

I was like diligent.

Did you guys know he was doing this podcast before you made the offer?

The $2 million a year offer to be the CEO?

It's a different guy.

It's a different Rory Carroll.

Actually, I got two people.

There's the Irish one.

Yeah, it's the Irish.

There's the...

The sports ball one.

Oh, is there a sports ball one?

Yeah.

I got two people this morning, lovely Irish people, tagging me on this really nice story

about this guy who is like an Irish nationalist and helped kick things off in 1916,

who was executed by the British and was publicly called a sexual deviant.

My kind of guy.

He was gay.

Yeah.

Let's go!

I know.

It was a great story, and a bunch of people were tagging me on Blue Sky this morning

saying how good of a job I did with it,

and I had to individually reply to all of them and be like,

that's actually a different guy.

That is the good one.

That is not me, unfortunately.

But yeah, it was a huge...

So after the Cadillac party, LA contributor Jamie Kipman was there,

and he's like, you got to see the car that I brought,

and I was like, okay, because he always has cool stuff.

He has a company.

I think we've mentioned him on the pod before,

but he is a band manager.

A bunch of bands like They Might Be Giants and The Meat Puppets.

Oh, yes!

A whole bunch of...

I mean, he's the guy who I've...

I mean, when Automobile Magazine started in 1986,

which was David E. Davis from Car and Driver,

the kind of famously pompous editor of Car and Driver,

kind of took a few of his core people and started this new magazine

called Automobile that was like, we're not going to test anything.

We're not going to...

There's no specifications, whatever.

It's all about vibes.

That was basically the automotive lifestyle magazine.

But he started like...

Jamie Kipman started writing for Automobile at the time,

and one of the first things that he wrote,

maybe it was the first, was that They Might Be Giants tour diary

where it was them in a Chrysler minivan.

And that was my introduction.

I mean, I knew They Might Be Giants,

but that was my introduction to him.

And so he's written about cars basically ever since

while he's had this kind of parallel career as a...

I guess his main career as just an attorney and music his guy.

Well, the other career that he has is he has a company called Octane Film Cars.

Right.

Which, yeah.

He's always had this pretty amazing collection of his own stuff.

And this is how he does it.

He provides movie production and TV productions with vintage cars,

like period correct cars.

So it's like you're doing a mob movie that's set in Manhattan

and he'll roll up with a semi full of like 70s Cadillacs.

But he brought a Renault Twingo to the show.

Yeah, a green, like that hunter green, dark hunter green color.

And was, yeah, I was like, God damn it, dude.

You've always got such wonderful, wonderful little cars.

That's so good.

But yeah, it was really cool.

It was cool to see one of those like in Manhattan too.

Yeah.

Correct.

But yeah.

Man, always great to be in New York.

Other good stuff to figure it out for alloy.

That was took some took some doing.

That was a very tricky, tricky situation that I somehow seem to have navigated.

So it's great.

And I, yeah, I have to say like I do.

Being able to get around on a fucking train is a magical experience.

It's so nice.

It's so so nice.

Every time I do it, I'm like, God damn it.

Like this makes so, so much sense.

And yeah, it's good.

Good to be in the big city for the country mouse fella like me.

Yeah.

And then I think, yeah, going to Long Beach for the Imsa race,

Imsa Indy car, the latter.

Yeah.

What else am I doing?

There's a couple other.

When is that in, when is that?

Two weeks?

Yeah.

It's like a week.

16th, yeah.

Okay.

And then I have some other, I think I'm on another car launch.

It's like I'm doing, I'm back to like the Rory Hell ride travel schedule,

which is good because I lost airline status.

Oh shit.

Mine's going to fall off pretty soon too.

Yeah.

It's, yeah, it's that they treat like dirt.

We don't have status.

Oh, I did have an interaction with an ice agent at the New York,

LaGuardia security.

Pleasure, I'm sure.

Yeah.

That's why they call them nice agents.

Nice agent.

He was trying to be friendly to me and I did not reply to him.

I just looked at him and I was like, don't, don't try to.

Yeah.

Don't try to fucking.

You know what this is.

Don't act like you're human.

Yeah.

Don't act like you're, you're my friend just because I am the most obviously American

citizen type looking guy on the planet.

That's true.

It's like, the picture on the box of American citizens is like my big fucking potato

guy.

But yeah.

Very good.

Yeah.

That's good.

So, okay.

Here's, here's what we had from the outer show.

We had the new Chrysler minivan, which is just a face left for the current minivan.

Oh man.

Dude, you had like new Chrysler.

I was like, because I somehow, I mean, I did, I did kind of glance at like

a few sites, just, but I didn't see, I haven't seen anything about, about New York.

So I don't know anything.

But the fact that there's any new Chrysler, like that, that feels like.

Well, it's the, it's the Pacific.

It's the same car they've been selling, but with just a different place.

Yeah.

For what?

Like 15 years now?

Yeah.

I think the only car they've had.

Yes.

It's their only, it's the only Chrysler.

Not great.

They had the Kia EV3, which looked great.

Little tiny EV crossover thing.

Oh, cool.

They had the Kia Seltos, which is the car that my sister drives.

Also looked good.

Subaru getaway, three-row electric SUV based on the Toyota Highlander platform.

Okay.

But yeah, this bolder thing seemed to be, I guess the forest for wilderness, you

know, hybrid.

Let's see what else.

The Ford Expedition was there.

But it looks like it's just like the 38th anniversary.

It's snooze.

Yeah.

But yeah, that was, that's pretty much it.

I think, yeah, it was pretty bad that those auto shows, I, if it wasn't for the Koreans,

they would not be able to do it at all.

That would be the assessment that I have of that.

Yeah.

They're the only ones really taking up space.

I mean, I think Subaru is there because Kia Hyundai and Genesis are there.

But not a great look.

I feel like that's going to be the case.

I feel like this period right now, years from now will be looked back upon as kind of like

the before times.

And one that's going to change is when the Chinese companies roll in and suddenly the

auto show is a thing again.

It's back, baby.

It's a big event.

When spending money and drinking champagne, you know, the funny thing about that is in

the history books and like 20 years from now, our kids will be like, yeah, it's, everything

went bad when the Straits of Hormuz got blockaded or whatever.

And we'll be like, no, no, no, it was getting bad for a long time before that.

It was a lot that led up to that.

But it's like that will just be like the incident where it happened.

It's like, and then everything was bad after that.

And it's like, no, no, no, no, it was, it was super shitty all the way.

Like it was like, it kept getting, this was kind of like the,

It was a long, long process.

Yeah, it was a decline.

This was, this was maybe the straw that broke the camel's back, I guess you could say,

but like it was, we're on the way to it prior to that.

But that'll be fun to explain.

But yeah, hopefully some seekers will be there next year and maybe keep this

and give me another reason to go to New York every year.

Yeah, I think, I mean, it's, it's, you know, it's going to happen at some point.

Yeah.

What are the news items that you had?

Well, I mean, they're just kind of like related things like,

related to just like what's, what's going on in the world.

See, I, I can't remember if, I know we talked about, about this,

but I can't remember if it ever actually made it into any of the podcasts or not.

But, but I, I was telling you guys about, about how,

like we're planning this, this, I started, I started planning this,

my family vacation, like for this summer, like to go to Europe,

because this is the thing that Natalia wants.

My daughter, my 14 year old daughter,

and we haven't done a family vacation in like six years,

like a proper actual, you know, we all fly somewhere kind of thing.

And this is the thing that she wants, like in lieu of, of,

of like a kinsen year, like she just, she wants to go to Europe,

all of her fucking friends go to Europe.

So she wants to go to Switzerland and it's like,

okay, Switzerland, sure.

Anyway, so I started, I started fucking booking this thing.

And, and of course, like now, you know,

and like literally I started booking this, like, like,

like the week before the shit fucking popped off.

And, and now it's just kind of like,

I don't know if this fucking thing is gonna, you know,

I'm still, I'm still making, I'm still at planning it

as if it's going to happen.

But anyway, but I saw this, this thing from politico.eu

and, and that was maybe pursuant to,

relevant to, to, to our family plans.

Top Brussels official urges Europeans to work from home

and drive less energy commissioner says the oil crisis

triggered by Iran war will bring lengthy upheaval

in a speech reminiscent of the COVID pandemic.

And the, the, the part that kind of jumped out at me from this,

he said, this is a EU energy chief, Dan Jorgensen said,

even if peace is here tomorrow, still we will not go back to normal

in the foreseeable future.

The more you can do to save oil, especially diesel,

especially jet fuel, the better off we are.

And then he urged member countries to follow the advice

of the international energy agency, which he said included,

quote, work from home where possible, reduce highway speed

limits by 10 kilometers an hour, encourage public transport,

alternate private car access, which I don't know if that means

like, alternate, like, like explore alternates, alternatives

to private car or, or if that just means like you can only

drive like on alternate days or something over the day.

Increase car sharing and adopt efficient driving practices.

Which like all of that stuff.

And, and I mean, I feel like I should know just kind of like

for posterity that the, at the time of recording this,

we are still here in the US anyway, we are still in this

kind of like, you know, this in between moment,

you know, kind of between the, the sewing and the reaping,

right, the actions and the consequences in terms of,

I mean, gas has got, you know, I paid like five bucks a gallon

to fill my car today, which is like basically up a dollar

from a month ago, but, but the real, the real effects

have not yet begun to be felt here.

Because largely because, because there are still boats full

of oil on the water, like from the Gulf.

They'll be arriving soon.

Like those will stop arriving pretty soon.

And when they do, that's kind of when, when things get real.

But, but what this, what this reminded me of was just

like, was, was like my child being a kid, like during

the fucking first oil crisis, you know, like, like, I mean,

I was three and four years old during the, the, the first

OPEC oil crisis in 1973, 1974, and then second one in,

in 79 would have been nine years old.

But I remember, I remember gas lines in California.

I remember in California, they did the thing where

you could only get gas on, like if, like whatever number

your license plate ended in, like if it was even or odd,

you could get gas on the even or odd days of the month.

So you couldn't go to the gas station every day.

You could only go on, on every, you know, the days

that matched your, your odd or even number.

So like that, that shit was real, you know, that stuff

happened.

But also, like it's kind of a distant memory now,

but the 55 mile per hour speed limit, I think,

I think people kind of, maybe that's been kind of retconned

into kind of Ralph Nader safety paranoia stuff.

But the actual reason for that, and that might have,

you know, served as a kind of additional rationale

for justification.

But, but the real reason was the fucking oil crisis.

And that was a measure designed, you know,

on a federal level to reduce energy consumption

because if you fucking drive slower, you're using less gas.

And, and that's basically like what this, you know,

so I mean, it's just, it's so just kind of startling

and funny to hear this EU energy commissioner in 2026,

like saying we should reduce the speed limits by 10 KPH.

Like it's the funniest thing about, not the funniest thing

about all this.

So one of the funniest things about this is that the gas

prices and it's like for all of the administration's efforts

to like de-wokify the car business and like reduce any support

for electric cars or like any of the like many like,

you know, like getting rid of the EPA regulations

on emissions, like all that stuff.

It's like, he's probably going to end up just being

like the EV president who like, who did more for the sale

of electric cars and for the electric car market than anyone

in history or like, it's like, you know, how do you get

European, Western Europeans in Americans to like reduce

their energy consumption?

It's like, not voluntarily, but like make it twice as expensive

and like all of a sudden, like people will stop using

their air conditioning.

They will stop.

It's like all these kind of like climate dreams

that which would have been like too unrealistic to ever ask

for in previous years in administrations are now like,

well, that's actually probably going to happen.

Like there's going to be less airline travel.

There's going to be less driving.

There's going to be less, you know what I mean?

It's like, they're calling them the greenest president

in history.

It is, it is ironic.

Yeah, it's kind of wild.

I mean, do you guys, was the 55 mile per hour speed limit

even still a thing for you guys growing up?

I don't think so.

I can't remember when they started phasing it out.

I mean, I think federally it got phased out

like in the mid late 80s.

I have car and drivers from the early 80s

that are talking about sending in those post cars

and tell them to take it away.

So I assume it was rolling on that.

Oh, it was still very much going on in the early 80s for sure.

But there's everything momentum for it to be like,

we got to pop that.

Yeah, I guess it was kind of like maybe like late Reagan era

when they started lifting some of it in some places.

The only thing that I really, that has stuck with me

is the Sammy Hagar song.

Yeah, I can't drive 55.

I've made a point of using it as a parallel

in my speed kills article about...

Yeah, that's right.

That's why I remember all that stuff.

I mean, the other part of that, I mean, the kind of,

because this was like, I mean, as I was getting into cars

and then beginning to drive, I mean, this was all,

I mean, this is something that all the fucking magazines

just bitched and moaned about and kind of, you know...

It was the impetus for the cannonball run.

Yeah, exactly, yeah.

And, you know, a car and driver would run articles

about how to speed and get away with it.

Basically, they would do radar detector shootouts

and all that kind of stuff.

It used to call them fuzzbusters back in those days.

Well, that was a brand.

Yeah, yeah.

But that was like the Kleenex version.

Right, yeah, yeah.

I do love all those ads for the radar detector stuff

and the other car and drivers.

Oh, totally.

I mean, that was fucking derogatory.

You had to fucking have it.

It's really neat.

But also, like all the cars that I grew up driving,

they all had 85 mile per hour speed limit, speedometers.

Speedometers could only go up to 85.

That was a federal thing.

And also, the number 55 on the speedometer

would be highlighted.

It would be bigger than all the other numbers.

It's like, hey, I'm here.

But I also, you know, and in my earliest years of touring,

I mean, when nothing painted blue,

when I started touring with nothing painted blue

and we toured the big suburban,

and this was past the point.

I mean, lots of places, you know, had, you know,

like, there were lots of places where you could go 65 now,

for example.

But they changed that in, I'm looking at the article now,

they changed it in the late 80s.

They upped it to 65 in certain places.

Okay.

So they lifted the federal thing.

Isn't that how they did it?

Or did they federally permit it?

It was 55 globally.

And then I think it says at 87,

they upped it to 65,

so some places then went up to 65,

and then in 95, they got rid of the thing overall.

Gotcha, okay.

But yeah, but one of the things was,

because we were on such a fucking shoestring,

we would just fucking drive 55, man,

like we would set the fucking cruise control

to double nickels on the dime

and just be fucking rolling down I-40 or I-80,

just like in the middle of fucking Wyoming,

or just straight line to the horizon

and just puttering along at fucking 55 miles an hour,

just because like,

and the thing is, like, we, you know,

like we had a large enough sample size,

we were driving enough that we, you know,

if we gave ourselves permission to go up to 60,

like do a tank at 60.

It's like costing you, yeah.

Yeah, that cost us money.

So it was just like, whatever, man,

set it at 55, we'll get there.

And that was just our MO.

And with the ScottQ2, I mean, I was very,

it's like, look guys, we're fucking eating peanut butter

and jelly sandwiches and sleeping on people's floors.

We cannot afford 56 miles per hour.

We're fucking heading back there, man.

I have some very distinct memories of driving cars

with 55 miles an hour speed limit,

or speedometers with 85 miles an hour speed limits.

Yeah.

And then watching the needle go past 85

and then go past the odometer.

Yes.

And then coming back toward the front,

like just going completely around the circle.

Some cars would, some manufacturers would do that.

Most of them, it would just peg at 85.

Yeah.

I feel like they were like the kind of,

maybe like the Mustang GTs,

like the, you know, the fast Mustangs,

they would, they would,

they actually would leave like a blank space

on the speedometer, like beyond 65,

so where you could like...

At your own.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't remember what car,

I mean, that would have been like our van.

It would have been like my Plymouth Horizon,

would have been our,

my buddy has had a Ford Escort with the V6,

which seemed very fast to me at the time.

I remembered like the night I got my license

and I bought my grandmother's

83,

84 Plymouth Horizon,

which was like a very nice car,

the doors were a little bit rusted out,

but I bought it for $200,

I think, or $400, something like that.

And drove it,

immediately filled it with all of my friends

and drove it out towards

Long Lake,

Maddie,

towards like the south part,

there's like a huge straight road out there

and it was like extremely icy,

like glare ice visibly,

and I was like, let's see how fast we can go.

And it was like,

we gotta top it out.

And it was like driving on this glare ice

where it was like, if I touch the brake

or try to steer,

at all, we're all dead.

And it was like playing,

I think,

I was like listening to like Led Zeppelin CD

over like the thing that you tune your

FM radio to a CD.

You know what I mean?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, like a little transmitter.

But yeah, it was like,

immediately risk life and limp.

Like, you know what I mean?

Like not a few hours pass.

Or it was like,

let's see how many people I can kill doing this.

Yeah, a little teenage brain.

That's amazing.

But yeah,

other related story

just kind of segueing off of what you were talking about,

about the green,

they're calling him the greenest president ever.

This is a story from

YaleClimateConnections.org,

Yale as in the university, I think.

Sure, yeah.

And this is a story called

What's Cheaper?

Fueling your car with gas or electricity.

And they have,

and I'm not going to,

I'm not even going to look at the formula

for how they've calculated this.

But basically, what they've done is

they've run the numbers

based on gas prices and energy prices

in all 50 states.

And using for,

as basis for comparison,

2025 Hyundai Kona's.

Gasoline powered versus the Hyundai Kona Electric.

And it's based on home charging.

And what they've calculated is basically like

the electronic equivalent to a gallon of gasoline.

What does it cost in all these different states?

And it ranges from,

I think the cheapest is North Dakota,

where a gallon of electric,

of electrons.

Yeah, electric gasoline.

What cost you 98 cents?

And I think the top one is maybe

Massachusetts?

What is that?

280.

Yeah, so,

yeah, New York,

255.

Michigan is as a buck 75.

Delaware,

Maddie is a buck 48.

So that's basically like what,

what you'd be saving

versus, you know,

fueling your,

your gasoline car.

Which I don't know that I have,

that's the first time I've seen anybody like attempt to,

to calculate it in,

it's expressed in e-gallons,

which is the cost of charging an EV by the,

by an amount equivalent to one gallon of gasoline.

They say I wrote about the math behind the e-gallon

and plotted a similar map of prices in early 2024.

There's a link to that if people want to

read about the math behind the e-gallon.

I will take them at their, at their word that it's...

Yeah, that's maybe the last thing that I want to read about

is the math behind the e-gallon.

Exactly.

I'm sure there's like a million questions that you can,

and you know, obviously there's going to be like

a million variables.

But I mean, but there's also a million variables

with fuel prices and,

and price of gasoline at,

you know, any given city

within a state anyway, you know, whatever.

But I feel like there's some broad

conclusions that can be, can be drawn from, from this.

And,

and

chief among them is that

it seems like

yeah, it's significantly less expensive to,

to power your EV.

At least if you're doing it at home.

Yeah.

Then it is to, to fuel your car

and it's only going to get.

I, I do have to say is like the Rivian thing

has been a mixed bag to say the least.

But it is so nice

to not have to think about what gas costs

and like,

and not that I do a ton of driving any.

Like it would be for me, it would be like

a yearly budget swing of like a couple hundred dollars

because it's like

my daily car use is like

two to five miles probably.

Yeah.

So yeah, so it's just like,

it doesn't make a difference.

Like I could be getting one mile per gallon

or I could be getting 100 miles per gallon.

Like it's the only going to be.

Yeah.

It doesn't make a difference.

But,

but it is nice.

And I will say too, it's like

the, the Trump thing that removes

the situation, the gas prices thing.

And like a,

for the first time ever, like a huge

glut of EVs coming off lease

for the first time,

is going to create some really good,

it's a really good time.

If you're EV curious to buy a cheap used EV,

which is, I don't know, maybe that's a topic

for a future show.

But I think like,

we should have Kevin Williams on to talk about it too

because he's done a lot of that.

But it's like, I don't know, if you're a listener

and you're interested in doing that,

there's going to be some pretty like

relatively affordable

EVs out there.

Yeah.

Right as gas hits $9 a gallon

and then you're going to have an appreciating asset

probably where it's like,

I think, I mean, I think like if gas goes

where it looks like it's going to go,

like you could conceivably buy a cheap EV,

drive it for a year and sell it for what you

paid for it.

Yeah.

That's actually, man, maybe you should.

It's funny, I've just been buying rice.

But.

Yeah, I've been buying bullets.

Maybe we should buy EVs.

Yeah, stock up on EVs.

I don't know how many EVs I can get

for my bullets.

Bargain system is back, baby.

I bet I could do that in Traverse City.

I think that I probably would have no problem

buying your car with bullets up here.

Buy.

Yeah.

I could acquire a car with bullets

in a number of different ways.

Money can be exchanged for good

in services or

on the other hand.

Or, yeah, the service of not

treating you.

The classic service.

One of the oldest services provided.

Yeah.

I also feel like

it's kind of

worth

saying because

we're going to be

well

this last week was

spring break here for us

Easter week and so

wife and child

were off of school

and work and

and all week

Patrice and I, my wife and I

had been talking about

we should go to a movie.

We should go see a movie together.

We should do something.

But we've just been running around

and we've just been too busy.

And then yesterday it was just like

should we just watch a movie?

Let's watch a movie.

And

so during

the afternoon we

we just watched a movie

together.

And we watched a movie that she had been wanting

to watch for a long time.

Which was?

The zone of interest.

Oh, no.

Nice.

Feel good

Flint for a time at home.

That's been on my list too.

And

the thing is like

she's so cool.

She has funny

taste of

I mean that's one that I have been

you know, obviously wanting

to watch.

But we just never got around to it.

I think we almost

went to see it in the theaters.

She was curious about it.

Maybe she had seen the preview for it

and

you know this is going to be like

insanely depressing, right?

Let's go see something else.

But no, now it's time.

So we watched it.

And

yeah, man.

The thing about it was

the thing that surprised me

about it, I didn't realize it was about

fucking Rudolph Hess.

Like

I thought it was just

a random

guy.

Just like random family living next door

to whatever concert.

But no, it's actually, I mean the family

is the fucking Hess family.

Yeah.

Which both kind of like

I mean

in a way it was kind of like, oh wow

that's fucking crazy.

But it also

like

felt like it maybe

let

the movie and maybe the audience

off the hook

compared to what I

what I was expecting.

You know

which was just like it's

any person, any family.

And

and

but yeah,

the thing that

like

and I had been thinking this before

even watching this movie

but watching the movie just kind of

brought it home

to me just the

we're all going to be bitching

about

about our circumstances

you know like the price of gas

and

and you know and we talk

a lot of shit about just how fucking

stupid and inept

the country

that we live in is

in a way that could be

you know that is definitely

bitching and complaining and whining about

and

increasingly I like I am now hearing

those complaints

like they sound to me

the same way that

the

the people in Israel like

you know

we have to go to the shelters

four times a day

you know and like

as like

yeah fucking tough shit you fucking

asshole

yeah

nobody's fucking crying for you

fuck you go die

and

and given

what we are actually

fucking doing in Iran

and

and the crimes

in Atras I mean as we're getting our fucking ass

is handed to us

which is

incredibly gratifying to watch

but

you know I mean this is just me

just kind of like

just saying this just to get it

off my chest

but also just like

feeling you know

just

inevitably complicit in it

and these crimes and it's like

I don't want for my whining to come off

as that it's like no

I'm if gas is fucking

$20 a gallon I'm fucking happy about it

even as it like

is reducing

my fucking standard of living

to you know to nothing

yeah

it is what we deserve

we've been consistent in that

if China takes over the U.S.

they can blow us up first

we're ideologically consistent as a podcast

it's fine

I am not immune to consequences

it is a

it is a real

and I think

I've said this to everybody

it's like it's gonna be really bad

and we're going to deserve it

it's like

it's going to be just

yeah

I mean unless you're fucking doing

Aaron Bushnell shit

or fucking Rachel Corey shit

you don't get to complain at all

or podcasting that's other

exactly

or automotive journalism

the other heroic things you can do

or making songs

yeah

and who knows maybe I will become

more heroic figure down the road

it's not impossible

yeah

who knows anything could happen

that's the whole point we don't know

it's not too late for you to be executed

by England

that's true

like that guy

like the other guy

they're gonna probably hit me first

but you know it's fine so we'll get in line

it would be weird

a very strange situation

finding myself and being executed by England

incidentally

I saw a clip of

the literary critic from

I forgot his name

he wrote about hating Harry Potter

like in 1990

you know what I'm talking about

hell yeah

but

it was just like

the point of the thing was like

can 35 million people who bought this

book be wrong and he was like yes absolutely

every single one of them

he was like

is it

dog shit

is it at least

not

you can't say it's not good

that the kids are reading and he's like this isn't reading

he's like this is not

it was like this is not

it was so brutal and it was such a good review

and I was like

that is

talk about kind of American third rails

but I really like

I've been watching the JK Rowling

discourse unfold

over the last few months

and thinking

how bad the books are

just they're not readable

they're really very bad books

anyway

the reason that just popped into my head

is because

when you said it's not impossible for you to get

executed in England

the first thing that popped into my head was

what would I have to do to get executed in England

start forming a list

and then I got to JK Rowling

and then

anyway so

I would love to be executed by anyone actually

but then I remembered that

funny review

it's not reading

it would be better for the kids to be on their phones

then

give them iPad

yeah exactly

worse just not even kids

all these people my age

but I grew up with them I love them

it's real indictment

like I said

you will be getting

you deserve it

gulag for the Harry Potter millennial

all of them

there was a really funny

off pod thing that I had to say

alright should we wrap up

I guess so yeah

do you have something else

no

just enjoying hanging out

yeah

I have a

I did I liked your

I liked your

your Hyundai

story Rory that is which one

the mansion driver car yes

that is so funny I like I've heard more

from people

like I

I published that and I felt bad about it I was like

I'll go back and flesh this out a little bit because

it's really like low effort

but I've heard from a bunch

of people that like this is really funny

and you're right

I think it's true I think it's like

it's absolutely true and it's

the thing that's fucking missing

it's the thing that's missing so

fucking profoundly from

the automotive landscapes like when I

think of like I mean we talked about this I think

when we we talked about

we did the two doors

episodes

a long time ago

now

but it's like I think of like

I think of my dad

as like

like when I was born

like 30 year old my dad

driving like

a 64

Pontiac Grand Prix

you know and just

like a car that was like

like

dignified

you know

just like

like not not posing

not bullshit

not fucking boy racer

just a fucking a handsome

dignified

normal car

and it's like

there isn't that anymore

but except for like rare cases

I mean even like my car is kind of boy racer

you know and like but like

yeah I mean that fucking that G80

I mean that's just like

it's a car for a man to drive

it really is

it's like I was like

I got in it the other day

and I was like fuck like this just

feels good it's like

like I feel like an adult

you know what I mean like

but I

it yeah I wrote that

throwaway you know it's like I wrote a

tweet or whatever about it on blue sky

and then I was like

couldn't stop thinking about it the whole time I was driving

and it's like if that car

was a manual like it would be

fine

not perfect it'd be fine it'd be like

but it's like I don't know

I just it it's like

I think it says

in my black sedan

who is competently going about his business

I'm normal and I have my shit together

and I care about cars exactly as much as I need to

which is like

it's just like what it feels like being in that car

it's just like

yeah this is

not anything I'm obsessed with I'm not wasting my

money on it this is like

and I'm not trying to be anybody

you know except for just like a guy

Toyota Corolla mindset

I think it's it's true

and it's people are seeing it more and more

but I think like

that that may be my new

cause

speaking of my bravery

but in like the car

world it's like we just you need to just have

a car and it's like

if you need a specialized vehicle to do another

thing that's an additional vehicle

but it was like I think we're talking on the pod about

trucks and they're like oh why don't they sell the

Hilux in America

and I was like because it's a work truck

it's like would you drive

a tractor to your office it's like no

of course not

but it's like only in America

would you think that a pickup truck is a good way

to get to your office or to take your family

around everywhere you know yeah it's

it's stupid like that's a dumb

answer to that question

and I think like

if I had the time

that would be a very fun

story to write

is that kind of like

how did driving a

truck around

become like normalized

because like even

back in farmer days

like the farmer would have

a car to drive to town

it wouldn't be you know what I mean like the truck

was a thing that you used to truck things

on the farm but it was not

you wouldn't drive to church in the truck

or you wouldn't like go to the grocery store

in the truck or whatever farmers did back in those days

I don't know but like there was a whole

like

you know there were products

that were specifically for farmers

to

to be their town car like to be there going to

town car

but somehow

we got confused

we started like

mixing up the

signs and the

signifieds and the

I think it is like it is too

ridiculous you know we've had

this like series of very nice

SUVs and crossovers

and stuff and it's like

the

stuff that I want to do in a

truck

like I would never do it in F-150

you know what I mean like the

remember last year

yeah like when I cut down all those trees

and I had

it's like you would never do that in a modern truck

like I would feel horrible it's like an $80,000 vehicle

on a lease that I'm going to be filling

with like 70 trees

right

yeah no it's like the one

kind of use case thing that I can

think of is like

why did my screen just get so weird

see that

yeah I see it you touch it

oh strange no

is there like a little bit of debris on your camera thingy

is it a fly remember when the fly came

on this

that one

yeah you're good

oh it's still there

there's kind of like a weird little

it's there

yeah there's just a little line

the blur is gone

oh I was just going to say like

like

yeah the $80,000 pickup

truck is like for towing your

fucking you know

$75,000

fifth wheel or whatever

you know like or your boat

or something

your other fucking

ridiculous luxury

I mean I hate to say this

because this sounds like too fancy to say

but it's like

shouldn't someone else be taking care of your boat

like shouldn't a guy from the boat

be taking care of your boat you know what I mean

like if you have a boat

why are you schlepping it around

I have some fucking guy do it

not to be

yeah and this is like

again

this is all new to me because I've been

I've been schlepping boats around

and doing

truck stuff

I did drive to a Mongo show

in the truck a couple years ago

I remember yeah

which is very expensive to do

speaking of gas prices

so yeah

the car but I just

that G80 like I said I just got on it

and I was like oh yeah this is

and it's also I think like an age thing

to where it's like

you know in my 30s

even it was like oh I'm going to drive

a lifted Lexus GX

with like a shovel tied to it it's like

probably shouldn't have been

doing that in my 30s but like

certainly in my 40s I can't be doing that

so it's like I need to

that's undignified as I said

in an article it is undignified

behavior to drive especially

like a crossover

that is not

for a man to do

that's not good

it's undignified

it's frivolous vehicle

yep

get a car

be an adult

four doors

yep

this is my new pitch

new marketing

crossovers are for

fucking children

that's a car for a woman to drive

afraid

you should be driving a man's car

get a car

that would be a very

very funny thing

to just kind of like

all the kind of like

you know

the new masculinity guys

the looks maxing guys

like to just pray

on their specific insecurities

and just

wait are you seriously

fucking driving

are you trying to sit up high

in the truck

are you a child

are you not tall enough you have to sit up high

in your booster seat

you guys remember

when the big joke used to be like

SUVs are for women

and they have lipstick holders

they have a little step and they're for women

and everyone was like no I need to be tall

and now like women are talking about getting truck

because they're like sitting up high

and I'm like women's business not my business

that's fine men get a car

that's I'm tall enough

I'm so tall

I don't even care

how low I sit because I don't care

I'm secure enough in my Masculinity at 5.2

I'll get in my Toyota Curl

no Maddie you're tall enough

in the same way that I'm tall enough

you're tall enough

yeah

man G80 something else

that was like I have another

call and then I'm going to have to tone down

quite a bit about

what is Genesis doing

with their cars

because it's like I've looked up the other day

and I was like

how long has Genesis been around two three years

and it's like 11 years they've been around

11 years in the United States

I don't know how to

explain people are like what kind of car

that's a cool car and I'm like that's a Genesis

they're like who makes it

and I'm like Genesis they're owned by Hyundai

and it's like

you can't be saying that stuff

at 11 years and you can't be like

you just say it's like the Lexus of Hyundai

even then that's

baffling to people

people don't know that there's Lexus in Toyota

they don't it's true

Lexus yeah the fancy

about Lexus

and I think the

just say it's like a Korean Lexus

that's a better

that would be a better way to say it

they should hire you right away

they should hire you Peter

because I

when you tell people this is a really nice car

and like even though Hyundai's are really nice

yeah

but it's like it's also

no one knows a thing about the car at all

no one knows what they stand for

the concrete idea of what these

you know what though

I mean the sedan

the one Genesis that I do see

pretty

frequently

are the

those kind of

mid-size kind of crossover

like but it's like a stylish

sporty crossover

you know what I'm talking about

yeah that's what it is

yeah

those I see a fair bit of

yeah seems like people people know

those I think that's that's probably what most

people associate the brand with

I would my my feelings

though with those cars

the big ones to the big

yeah yeah

no no no no that's not the

yeah yeah

like kind of that's the TV

yeah the

I think what's happening with those if I

had to guess is that people who are in

Hyundai and Kia are getting

moved up into the Genesis

but

as far as like you know it's like

BMW ultimate driving machine

Mercedes Benz the best or nothing

like go go up and down the

board of like Lexus is like

super overbuilt like super high quality

reliability like

last car you'll have to buy that kind of stuff and it's like

I should I should be able to

articulate what Genesis is about

after 11 years and I love the cars

I'm probably like the biggest Genesis

evangelist that I know

I like I recommend them to people all the

time but

I don't have a better way of explaining it than

saying it's a nice it's a really nice Hyundai

yeah just not good well I feel like

I feel like they've kind of

I mean whereas whereas Lexus

kind of came out of the gate

very ambitious

yeah

I feel like like

Genesis has been more of a soft launch

I mean like

in the sense that it really I mean

it was a model before it was a brand

yeah there was the aqueous

the Hyundai aqueous

very strange car

but

yeah I feel like I feel like it's

it's something that is

kind of I mean in

kind of the same way that just like

Hyundai's and Kia's have in the last

you know five years

especially

I feel like they've

they've gotten much more

kind of

focused as

as a brand

as brands and I

think that Genesis

is still kind of a work in progress and

and I think they're still kind of

finding their way towards the thing

but like I say I mean

did you guys see by the way that they

you know there's the

the Genesis

hypercar

which is going to

the race car

the race car that's going to

debut in

at Imola

in the world endurance championship in a

few weeks

they just revealed

the thing is

spectacular looking car and like in all

during testing and stuff like

that you know when they first revealed it

it was in like that really brilliant I mean

you saw it didn't you see it at the

New York last year

just like brilliant

magma orange color

I mean it looked fucking awesome

the

the race liveries

which have been revealed

like one of it like there's two cars

one of them is like

dark like super

dark silver the other one is black

it sucks

you guys and the rationale

is that like well McLaren is coming

next year and they kind of own

papaya like they you know it's like

that's their signature color so

they don't want to you know confuse

it's like dude you got your fucking car

there first yeah I can be orange

your signature color now right yeah

and then McLaren probably will not be

papaya either you know what I mean

like that I mean it doesn't matter it's like

dude you I mean it's just

it's a stupid rationale and it's like

come on you guys

car looks fucking awesome though

it does look good yeah

I mean yeah it's like I mean who know

you know reserving judgment until

they actually show up on the track

or whatever but it just

just kind of like disappointing

that like

I think that the this

column that I wrote is like

it was like it will help them

that they're going racing but I was like

they should be aware that like

10% of car companies

that have ever gone racing have had

any positive effect from it like on the

perception of their cars because like

it's so hard for marketing people to

figure out like what what the

connection is like why it's good to go racing

yeah

dude all all pain is

selling so many more

they're crushing fucking cars

is that

program

Pujo 2

for sure

it's going good

Cadillac too

Cadillac I'm sure I'm sure those Cadillac

I'm gonna help the GTPs

are selling

I'm helping them with that

they're selling lots of

plastics

we're gonna help with that we're gonna help with those things actually

I've got a plan for both of us

good

speaking of whack good good vibes

beaming good vibes out

into the universe for

our sweet

beloved beautiful man Ben Keating

who got hurt training

in the off season and will not be making it

to the next two races

get well soon I didn't see that

he hurt his elbow yeah he broke his fucking elbow

doing what

I probably lifting weights getting yoked

my niece just broke her elbow too

no kidding

he was probably roller skating that's what she was doing

let me imagine

I don't like roller skating man you go very fast

and when you stop you stop very hard

it's very awkward

I don't like it I'm not a fan

oh my god you guys

I feel like

like when we first started doing

this this podcast

I kind of alluded to a

a story that involved

I think we were talking about like

like stupidest things that we've ever

that we ever did like as kids

like how did we survive into adulthood

and one of mine involves

roller skating I don't know if this is

if this is the

the time

but maybe it is

we did just have the winter

Olympics right it's true

should we just close on this story

this is

one of my stories

of what a

complete fucking dipshit

was as a kid

alright

it's 1980

it is

the winter Olympics

this is when the winter Olympics

and summer Olympics were

still in sync

you know so every four years

you got both of them

big deal

winter Olympics in 1980

like one of the big highlights

everybody remembers the U.S. hockey team

of course

do you believe in miracles but fewer people

remember

U.S. speed skating

gold medalist

I think

Eric Hyden

I

I only remember this because

I just

for some reason this guy

captured my imagination

speed skating like when you see it

it's like

these guys like fucking going around

a skating rink

but just like hauling ass

swinging their arms up

and like

and then getting down

into this fucking crouch

like making themselves like a super aerodynamic

and like

and just like fucking just truckin

you know and then

getting back up and doing this fucking crazy

like

yeah just look

go on YouTube and I mean if you missed it during

the winter Olympics I don't think I saw any

any

speed skating stuff when I was at my

physical therapy

where they were playing the winter Olympics

the whole time

anyway

this shit

I just thought was like the coolest thing

ever and this guy I thought was

like the fucking coolest dude ever

at the time

I'm 10 years old

and

a big kind of recreational thing

for me and

my cohort at the time

was a roller skating

this is pre roller blades mind you

we go to

the skate factory

which was a roller skating rink

and you know you just fucking

skate you know and they

play music and you know what

that is

the thing is I mean I was into that

but I was also into

just fucking roller skating

around the fucking neighborhood

and I had my roller skates

which were like these like sneakers

you know with

you know fucking trucks on the bottom

and

and what I would do like now

now I'm all

fucking hyped on Eric Hyde

in speed skating

and my street

it was

a kind of a

very

gentle incline

so if you went up the street

go out my front door go up the street

like you know maybe

half a block

or a block

I mean this is all like suburban

there's no fucking actual blocks but you know

picture it like you know maybe like

a quarter mile whatever

to your right and then

and then I would just like

come screaming down the sidewalk

you know

just like doing my Eric Hyde thing

with like swinging my arms

like a fucking maniac and then I would like

get down into my crouch

my aerodynamic crouch

and

and just go like

just you know firing

you know down the you know hitting

terminal velocity

and this you know like screaming

down to the end of the street

where it would like curve around into

a cult you know going up into

towards a cul-de-sac

so anyway

one day I'm out

fucking after school

doing this

and

so

so picture

a fucking ten year old kid right

who's just like fucking

just hauling

ass down the sidewalk

and of course like each you know

I mean each house has a driveway

that goes out you know past the

sidewalk empties into the street

and between

my house and our next door neighbor

there was like

like a low fence

and then some hedges

and I can't remember this guy's name

he was just like a single guy at the time

and he had like a second gen

Camaro

like a late 70s one

um

and

uh

so here's me

hitting terminal

you know doing my Eric Haydn thing

fucking

going as fast as I possibly can

getting down

into my crouch

so I'm like

you know maybe like three feet

off of the ground

just like fucking

fucking like going so fucking

fast

down the sidewalk

and at that very moment

unbeknownst to me

because I couldn't see him because I wasn't even looking

ahead I was just fucking you know

I'm just like

um and

and of course he couldn't see me

because

there's this hedge and this fence

and because I'm a fucking idiot

and I'm like I'm not even like high enough

where you would be able to see me

um

my next door neighbor like

gets into his fucking Camaro and at the

exact second exact

moment that I'm like coming down

past my house

he starts backing out of his

driveway

and I just go

face first

into

the back fender of his fucking

Camaro

and my teeth

went up through my fucking

lip completely split

my lip

and like my nose and just like

I mean I'm just fucking

like just gushing

just blood

fucking everywhere

you know just fucking

like

and I was like

I fucking go running

into the house

and just like

the of my mom's just like

what what how what did you do

I was like

just like fucking

blood pouring into the fucking bathroom

sink

and I'm you know and she's like washing

but you know and she's like it's okay

it's okay you know like she you know

goes and gets ice in a pack and it's like

okay yeah you fucking cut your lip

and it's like yeah okay your teeth that you know

it's like you haven't knocked any teeth out it's like alright

um

meanwhile

this fucking poor dude

who's just like this fucking

I mean he was probably like

like late 20s

early 30s

no kid experience

go

not ready for this in any way

he's just like he thinks that he

fucking killed me man

and he's

he's just like

my mom like goes out

and he's just like

he's fucking white as a ghost

he's just like

utterly fucking mortified

um

and

and she's just like

it's okay it's not your fault

my son is a fucking

idiot

and

like

and it's like don't worry about it

just you know he'll be fine

like is your car okay

it's like did you fucking

did he put a dent in your fucking car

with his face

which I think I had

but I think he was able to like

push it out

um

but um but

I feel like I remember my mom

like telling me later it's like oh no

he was so like

upset that he didn't even

like go where he went

he just fucking where he was going

he went back into his house

and he poured himself a fucking

drink

and was just like

just

he ended up doing this

and

he was fucking handshaking

um but yeah

that was me and my

Eric Hyden

speed skating

um into the side of

of a car

of a moving vehicle

um

because I wasn't looking where I was going

and I was tucked so far

um

you know so so close to the

ground um that

um nobody in a car could possibly see me

historical I um

Colin Cook was the guy who had the

Pujo in high school um

we used to do that Peter

we used to do that we lived in this really steep hill

called

Wayne Hill um that is

let's see

273 meters

is the

so the average gradient is

6%

max grade is 13%

so we'd go to the top of the hill

and ride our bikes and we actually used to sit on

skateboards and like lay down on a skateboard and do it

oh yeah oh we did that too

yeah that was later

that came like a few years later

I think that was the end of my speed skating career

so then it moved to skateboards

better yeah the uh

we would ride down on my on bikes and remember my dad

got a bike that had like a digital speedometer on it

and it was like oh

you know like how fast you think we're going and it's like

I'm not I can't remember the exact speed

but I remember thinking like this is way faster than

I've gone in a car uh

it was like 60

something or 70 something miles an hour like

it's a really long hill

and it's like you think about that now

and it's like had someone pulled out of their

driveway yeah there'd be

nothing either of us could have done about it

at the time like

but just like how fucking vaporized

you would be hitting hitting

the side of a car on a bicycle

at 60 plus miles an hour

it would be just like

God there'd be nothing left to view

uh

but yeah very stupid

these kids are so stupid

there's also sled down it in the winter

we lay in a sled

and go down the middle of the road at night

um

in the sled and I was like oh

we'll take a flashlight

so that a car would be able to see us

and it's like no

absolutely not like in the snow

no like

very

very good

yeah

well here we are both alive

still alive

I'll say the other story

which involves a concussion

and me riding my bicycle

when I was a bit younger

for another episode

not a baby concussion

those pre helmets those days

no one would have you

caught dead wearing a fucking helmet

that's a

that might be an even stupider

story though

but um yeah

yeah you'd rather be dead

than have your friends see you wearing a helmet

on your bicycle

I mean they just didn't exist

to the extent that they did it was like

yeah you got a fucking motorcycle helmet

or a football helmet

you know

and even the football helmets

they were like the fucking

the early 70s

football helmets where it's like the padding

was just like

barely even padding

it was just like this fucking hard plastic thing

with a slightly softer

plastic on the inside

the concussion generator

totally

good times

alright should we

wrap it? yeah

wonderful

stay tired

stay tired everybody

bye

you

Episode 114: Before-Times Podcasting

Ford Bronco

Jeep Wrangler

Land Rover Defender

Renault Twingo

Chrysler New Chrysler

Kia EV3

Kia Seltos

Toyota Highlander

Ford Expedition

Hyundai Genesis

Hyundai Kona

Toyota Corolla

Toyota Hilux

Ford F150

Lexus Gx

Chevrolet Camaro

About this episode

Original notes