June 28, 2024 • 36 mins
At a time when only 38% of Americans are extremely proud of being American, Mike Rowe tells us about the patriotic tour de force that is his new film "Something To Stand For", which is in theaters everywhere. Coach Bill also surprises Mike with the impact that he's had on one of our Army members.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
All right, Well, I am timestamping this. This is gonna
go out Friday. So when I say it's so cool
the movie release yesterday, just roll with me on it.
I don't normally timestamp, but because we're going Friday and
you release Thursday, I will say that, and then let's
have a half hour fun.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
We want to you fully embrace the podcast nomenclature. Now
you're a season pro. You're just time stamping things and
looking forward like a producer. I freaking love it.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Oh it's disgusting everybody. It's Bill Courtney. We got Shop
Talk number sixteen, Come in your Way, and it is
going to be a fun one because we're going to
talk about going to the movies with Mike Rowe, and
really the crux of it's gonna be patriotism with Micro,
(01:01):
something that I think is obviously topical with July fourth
coming up, but also topical with all of the social
and cultural things that seem to be picking at us
these days. So Shop Talk number fifteen with Micro, come
in your Way patriotism. Right after these brief messages from
(01:24):
Hours and our sponsors, how'd that sound like?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I mean, I modesty aside, I couldn't have done it better.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I can't tell you. Scott. Okay, ready, three two one,
Mike Row, what's up, buddy.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I am sitting here watching the wheels go round and
round at the time of my life.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
That's awesome. I still have not been in the Bay
areas we last spoke, but I absolutely plan on reaching
out to you when I do, because I expect some
singing whiskey.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
It would be a crime against God and man for
you and I not to reconnoiter somewhere in this place
Sodom or Gomorrah or whatever you want to call it
and just have a civilized snort of something with my
grandfather's name on it. So you let me know when
you're close, and I'll rose to rest.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Toast your grandfather under your grandfather's name until we can
no longer see straight. Sounds great to me.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It's important to have goals, Coach.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
It's important to have goals, Mike. Yesterday, released at a
theater near you, is a project, and thank you for
sending me the early screener. I watched it, and first
of all, I'm a massive old school Paul Harvey the
rest of the story guy, and so getting your approach
(03:00):
and just watching the first which no spoilers in here,
but just watching the first of the many vignettes that
make up this movie, I was guessing I was intrigued,
and then on the reveal I was. I just chuckled
to myself and I said, Wow, that's really awesome. So
we'll get to that, but I want to read something
(03:22):
you wrote. There are forces at play, powerful forces that
believe the only way to effectively promote the release of
a new movie in twenty twenty four is to go
on every podcast, every radio program, and every TV show
in America and talk about the film until you're are
a hollowed out shell, which is pretty much what I've
(03:44):
done for the last week. I can't help but wonder, though,
if a super simple video shot in my hotel room
and shared on this page might accomplish the goal in
a more Oh boy, EFFI facious fashionacious efficacious fashion. In
other words, please save me from another week of traditional
(04:07):
press by helping me get America to visit something to
stand for dot movie, where they can watch the trailer
and reserve a ticket for what my mother is calling
the feel good hit of the summer. Sincerely, Mike, Mike, Yeah,
what are you doing with me right now? Are you
(04:28):
willfully hollowing out your soul?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
No? No, the soul has long since departed. There's nothing
left but an empty husk, you know. I mean. My
mom said something to me once a few years ago,
when she became a best selling author for the first
time at eighty years of age. She said, Michael, isn't
it ironic that when you finally get a chance to
(04:53):
get your book published, and you finally get a chance
to go out and tell the world about it, you're
so sick of lif living with the thing that you
can barely confront the image of your own face or
the sight of your own name without throwing up a
little in your mouth. And I said, yeah, Mom, welcome
to show biz.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, welcome to my life ever since dirty jobs or
really doing the news in the Bay Area. So yeah,
I know.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I go back, Mike, tell us about something to stand for? Well,
my mom wasn't wrong. It is the feel good hit
of the summer. If you're looking for something to feel
good about, And I think, to your earlier point, that's
what's going on in our country. We're not sure what
to feel good about, We're not sure what to celebrate.
(05:41):
We're not sure what to feel guilty for, we're not
sure what to apologize for, we don't know what to
stand for or kneel for. So we're confused about our
past because we're uncertain about our future, and we're a
little disappointed with our present. And so the result of
(06:02):
all that, in my view, is just a conflation of
sorts between patriotism and politics. And what that's done is
pull us in separate directions. And look, there are plenty
of good reasons to disagree on any number of issues
with all sorts of good people. But it makes no
(06:26):
sense for us to look at our country and acknowledge
that it was founded by imperfect people, and acknowledge that
we're still very much a work in progress, but not
take the time to be proud of the progress we've
made and be grateful for the sacrifices so many people
(06:48):
have made and celebrate there's still a lot to celebrate.
So the movie is an attempt to do that with
nine short mysteries history lessons of a sort where you
can learn something you didn't know about somebody you do.
And that was the Paul Harvey magic. That was the
(07:11):
thing we hoped to capture both in my podcast and
in the movie, and that's why I made it.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
In nineteen ninety eight, Gallup did a patriotism pole and
I think seventy one seventy percent of Americans described themselves
as extremely patriotic. Last year they did the same poe
and was down to thirty eight percent. Mike, Yeah, how's
that strike you? Well, first of all, that's all Americans.
(07:41):
If you ask the same question of Americans under thirty,
you'll get a percentage closer to eighteen percent. That's that's
whe's out of me. That's scary out of them.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It worries me. But again, I'm not one hundred percent
sure people quite understand the nuance of that question. I
think a lot of people right now are so frustrated
with our elected officials. We're so frustrated with policies that
seem to apply to one group but not another. We
(08:14):
see the hypocrisy in Congress, we see just the profligate
kind of spending, and we're so disenchanted with the current
state of things that we don't feel good about our country.
That's very different than not feeling good about the current
class of elected officials or not feeling good about the
(08:38):
current state of society vis a VI any one of
a dozen acronyms right now, maybe it's CRT or DEI
or ESG. You know, there's plenty to look at and go, God,
what the hell are we? What are we thinking? But
you can still take great comfort in going back to
(08:59):
the base and finding individuals, you know, people of well,
an army of normal people. They were always there, right
It just feels sometimes right now that that normalcy is
on the ropes in much the same way patriotism is
on the ropes, and much the same way gratitude is
(09:22):
on the ropes. I know, as a coach you've talked
about work ethic a lot, but you know, if you
look at it through the lens of what is a choice?
What choices can we make about the people we are?
We can't choose our hair color, well, you can alter it,
I suppose, but eye color, skin color, blood type, star sign.
(09:48):
There's a long list of stuff that we can't control.
But we can control when we get up and when
we go to bed, and how hard we work, and
how kind, how decent, how grateful all of those virtues. Curiosity,
how curious do you want to be about your past?
You know those things are on us, They've always been
(10:10):
on us. And the pushback today and the thing that
worries me, and I bet it worries you too, is
that the mere fact of bringing it up, the mere
fact of looking somebody in the face and saying, how
come you made the choices that you did? What will
come back with top spin is how dare you? How
(10:31):
dare you talk to me about my choices. I'm a
product of my circumstances, not my choices. And so all
of that, to me is in the current Bullard base
of conversation, and this movie touches on it.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
It does, and again, I just I'm not going to
give any of it away. I want every single person
in this country to work, if for any other reason,
an accurate history lesson on nine pieces of stuff we've
heard a little bit about but really don't know deeply
and quote the rest of the story. I mean, I
(11:14):
was glued to it. I really was. I'm a history
buff anyway, but I loved it, and your interaction throughout
it was phenomenal. Thanks for what one place, in particular,
when you knelt next to a certain gentlemen, I got
a lump in my throat I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Be you in that moment.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Just look that man in the eyes and say thank you.
So given that with a little bit of what I
can share without spoiling the thing, what does success look
like in this project to you three months from now,
four months from now? You know, I don't want to
(11:56):
use the word takeaway. I think that's overused. I just
want to know what Mike says, this project was a
success for me. What does that look like? Wow?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well, look, Bill, I think I asked you that question
once when you were on my podcast when you were
no copycat.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Nope, nope, nope, this is well.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I'm just saying, come up with your own stuff, Mike
we I mean, how does a good coach define a
successful season? Is it a season where they win? Is
it a season where they go undefeated? Or is it
a season where the team undergoes some kind of transformation
(12:38):
that makes all concerned that one exactly. So, the hell
of it is, as as somebody in my industry, I
get complete control over everything I do, right up until
the point where it hits the printed page or goes
up on the big screen or the little screen. Then
(13:01):
it's out of my hands. And so my honest answer
to your question is the first thing is I hope
people sit there and go on the trip with me.
I hope they hop in that old Bronco with me
and go to DC and see the things I see
as I see it as my shotgun, as my ride along,
because that is a part of entertaining and the first
(13:23):
duty of care anybody has with their name and the
title of a hit show or a movie or a
book or a sports franchise, right it's to engage. It's
to engage and in my case, to entertain. So that's
really what I hope for most. But three months down
the line, if people are still reflecting on some of
(13:43):
these stories and looking at the headlines and trying to
make some sense out of the present through the lens
of the past, then I would hope a mother or
a dad, or a son or a daughter could could
look to the rest of the family and say, this
is what Mike was talking about in that movie. It's
one of those moments where it's okay that we're not
a perfect country. It's okay that we all want to
(14:06):
work to make it better, but it's also okay that
we look back and celebrate people like Francis Scott Key
and Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson and some people maybe
you've never heard of before who it's easier, Bill, It's
easier to judge than it is to think. And that's
(14:27):
why I think at the moment we're so twisted up
in knots because we've all gone full hog into the
business of judging. We've all got our little individual gavels,
we've got our deeply held opinions, and now with our
smartphones and our Internet connections, we have access to an
unlimited number of websites populated by an unspeakable number of
(14:51):
self proclaimed experts standing by to tell us why we're right,
and everybody else managed to get their head up there,
we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
So much of that thought comes from oftentimes irrational and
many times in accurate, preconceived notion, which doesn't allow you
to quote think because you're already so shaded before you
have the opportunity to just listen and think. And I
(15:31):
take what you said as a really wise commentary on
where we are, because we've got to drop those preconceived
notions and listen and think and consider and drop our
ego at the door, and then if you back that
up with the history and the patriotism, and making that
distinction between what our fundamentals and our tenets are, as
(15:55):
you so beautifully lay out, versus the issues we have
culturally right now, there is a distinction in that, and
the issues we have right now should not have anything
to do with the pride.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
We have.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
In the republic we built.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
We've lost our nuance, We've lost our ability to hold
too seemingly contradict the contradicting thoughts in our head at
the same time. But we have to be able to
do that, you know, And we mustn't look back with
all of the certainty we have that comes with living
(16:33):
in twenty twenty four, with all of the enlightenment, with
all of the awakening, that we have to look back
two hundred and fifty years and judge those people by
today's standards. Well, what do we think is going to
happen two hundred and fifty years from now when our
great great grandkids are looking back at Bill Courtney and
Mike Row going, what the hell were they thinking? Those
(16:56):
those crazy meat eaters. They were eating meat eat right,
what were they doing?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
They were burning burning gasoline? And eating meat. What is
wrong with these people?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And so we're on a track right now where our
descendants are going to be armed with an even larger
gavel and they'll be passing judgments so hard they'll be
pulling down all the statues. They'll be unless we step
back for a minute and say, listen, this is a wheel.
History is a wheel, and we all it always feels
(17:33):
like it's so brand new. It always feels like here
we are the most evolved ever the height of the species.
And I'll tell you something, man, if you really look
back and start listening to or reading the texts of
people who who spoke to the public two hundred, two
(17:55):
hundred and fifty years ago and compare it with what
we're about to see on the debate stage. When you
look at what passes for public discourse today with the
rule of yesterday, When you look at the letters that
soldiers sent home in the Revolutionary War, in the Civil War,
(18:17):
just the beauty of the pros, just the use of
the language. You know, it was so wildly different than
too long, didn't read, hashtag, ampersand some alphabet, soup, acronym.
It's like, what are we doing? You know? So there's
(18:39):
there are a thousand things to learn and a thousand
ways to benefit. I mean, I'm all for looking forward,
but I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know
what AI is going to do, but I'm pretty sure
I don't want to spend my rest of my week
freaking out about it. I would rather look back. You know,
what can I learn from the rebellion? What can I
(19:02):
learn from the way technology impacted our forefathers? How did
they adjust? There's always a lesson in the past, and
there's always hope too.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So recently, on an Army in Normal Folks, I interviewed
Ronda Paulson about Isaiah one point seventeen houses that give
kids going into Foston care a home to stay in
while they wait for placement, you know, otherwise sleeping on
a DMV style government floor. And she talked about how
(19:38):
our state governor, Billy Tennessee state Governor, helped them to grow.
And then this other guy named Mike Rowe she dropped
in on me, and I want to play this short
clip of it for you and get your reaction, because
I think it's funny, I think it's impactful, and I
also think it speaks to what you're doing now, sure,
(20:02):
here's the.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Quil and then your buddy Mike Rowe shows up.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Of course, Mike.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
In our episode of Returning the Favor.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Guilt, Return the Favor is a Facebook show that Micro
did basically like our show, telling stories of amazing, normal
people doing incredible things, and he called it return in
the Favor. So he showed up. He showed up with
his cameras.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
With his cameras, we were told a small documentary company.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That is not nothing Micro.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
It was a fake website, fake names, fake emails.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
And they were fake lying. Do you yeah, I got
it because they want because Mike's show wanted to be
a Sprish Sea.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
So when we show up at the Isaiah House that morning,
I think a small documentary company is coming. Everybody in
the house knows who's actually coming, but me, I don't know.
And so this is the speech I gave to my people.
I was like, listen, y'all know, I don't do details.
Some small documentary company is coming.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Here's what you need to know. Number one, don't say
one negative word about the Department of Childer Services. And
number two, nobody take your shirt off because it ain't
that kind of video and.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
That was.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
That's all I do.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
It's funny, and then.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Micro walked in. So our episode aired on March Night,
twenty twenty. Well, this is crazy. I love sharing God
moments with you. So we were supposed to air March sixteenth.
We had a whole social media plan. Shots parties, watch
what we have this whole plan. Sarah, his producer, calls
me on Sunday the seventh and said, or Sunday the eighth,
(21:41):
and says, we're moving you to tomorrow night. Like, oh, okay, okay.
So I call our social media person. She's like, I'm
on it. So we watch it on March ninth. March thirteenth,
the world shuts down, so COVID two million people watched
it on March ninth. Do you know how many people
watched it March sixteenth, ten thousand. Wow, it was like
we just got picked up and dropped. On March ninth,
(22:06):
two people watch it. Our phone blew up like we
finally on day three got a map of the United
States and just started coloring in forty one states and
four countries have reached out wanting an Isaiah one seventeen house.
Thanks to your buddy, Mike, Jesus and Mike are the reason.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Billy, Mike and Billy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Trinity, the trinity of Bloody do goods, Billy Micro and Jesus.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yes, Jesus Yes.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
So we In twenty eighteen sum we had one employee,
me and one home. As of today, we have one
hundred and forty employees, over six thousand trained volunteers, fifty
four total locations in twelve states, twenty two open homes,
and we'll have thirty by the end of.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Mike, that's a pretty steep company there, with the Governor
of Tennessee and Jesus Christ himself.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
My friend, Yeah, that's a pretty tall cotton as my
grandfa she's.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
So thank you for playing that. I can't tell you
what it means to me. I remember that day.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I had given the last major public speech at a
major event on March ninth in Las Vegas before the
whole world came closing down on us, and I remember
watching that episode and hoping that everything Ronda just said happened. Mike,
(23:44):
It's like you said before, you know, I don't know
what I want people to take from the movie because
I have no control over it. I did it I
put it out there, and you hope for the best.
But look, you and I have been singing pretty loud
out of the same hymn book for a long time.
The most interesting people in the world are people you
haven't met, probably in towns you can't find on a map,
(24:06):
doing things in their zip code that matter. And if
you can take some sort of accelerant and put it
on that and make it bigger, then that's a that's
a great undertaking, that's a that's a well, it's a
purpose anyway, and that's my purpose. Rhonda, she actually walks
(24:28):
the real walk. She's in there every day, taking kid
literally plucking kids from some kind of vestibule between purgatory
and hell and pulling them into a better world. And
so our thought was, look, if I can, if I
(24:50):
can shine a light on that and tell her story,
and that's of course exactly what you're doing, then then
maybe normal folks can start to connect the dots. Zip
codes get a little better, states get a little better,
the country gets a little better, a little less divided,
and so forth. So yeah, thanks, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
When you listen to Ronda and all of these other people,
and you look at the body of work that is micro.
To me, Something to stand For is just an extension
of dirty jobs. It's just an extension of normal people
(25:42):
doing extraordinary things and trying to get everybody to remember
we have a fundamental and a basis in the United
States and our country of really good, common folks doing uncommon,
extraordinary things. And something to stand for I think is
(26:02):
a historical from the early days all the way through today.
Montage from a patriotic viewpoint of Ronda Poulson's that ended
up being names you do know, and it just seems
to be an extension of your brand. And dude, you know,
(26:23):
I don't know what's next, but my goodness, well next
is you make me blush. You got to stop this legacy, Mike.
I mean really honestly, and I'm not I'm not here
just to kiss your butt and all that. I mean,
you know, but what a legacy, Mike. I mean honestly,
I mean, I'm at the risk of condescension. I'm so
(26:44):
proud for you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
There's nothing to say to all that except thanks. It
means the world coming from a guy like you who
put his money where his mouth was, and what you did,
what you did in that documentary, and for your team
is very similar. Look cameras. Cameras are like guns. They're
just tools. They're dumb things. They don't know where you
(27:11):
point them, they don't know what your intent is. And
both are available to virtually everyone in the country. So
I had a pretty good run up until I was
forty two. I freelanced a lot in this industry. I
worked on some fun projects, met some great people. I
saw the world no complaints. But it wasn't until my
(27:33):
mom told me that my grandfather, who was ninety at
the time, wouldn't be around forever and suggested that I,
you know, do something on TV that looked like work
so he could see something he recognized before he died.
That he could go, yeah, that's my grandson. You know.
(27:56):
That's a hell of a thing to hear. And I
took it to heart. And so for me, you know,
Ronda's in my life because of that phone call. Dirty
Jobs went into production because of that call. Somebody's got
to do it, followed Suit, returning the favor, followed Suit,
the way I heard it, followed Suit and all of it.
(28:18):
To your point, I've been doing the same damn thing
for twenty five years. I just changed the title every
so often. But all I'm doing in this movie is
what I did in episode one of Dirty Jobs. I'm
tapping the country on the shoulder and saying, hey, not
for nothing, but what about him? What about her? Get
(28:38):
a load of that. Somewhere in Tennessee, a woman named
Ronda is on a mission and it's working. And if
you don't feel better about seeing that and meeting a
woman who stands for something tangible, something she can articulate
and point to with pride, you know you have to
(29:00):
be able to see that in order to find it
in yourself. And then you have to be willing to
look back and find it in our country. And if
you do that, you will take a moment on Independence
Day too to feel damn good about how far we've
come and what we can still.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Be something to stand for? Released yesterday, everybody. I also
love the fact that Mike believes movies were intended to
be seen in a movie theater with popcorn, and damn it,
that's where this movie is going to be seen, So
(29:41):
in the in the in the same vein of a
little bit of historical impact in your life, take the time,
get a bucket of popcorn and go enjoy what Mike
is prepared for all of us as a historical lesson,
but also maybe even more an important reminder of who
we are, where we came from, and why there's absolutely
(30:05):
every reason to have patriotism despite not because of who
we are, but despite our differences. And if we can
base all of ourselves on that, maybe we can start
having more civil, meaningful, non threatening conversations about the stuff
that matters, and instead of dividing us, maybe we can
(30:26):
celebrate some of that stuff. Something to stand for. Mike.
One last thought before we sign off. I can't help
the irony that the movie is about historical stuff and
our patriotism and as you said, tapping the public on
the shoulder and saying, hey, don't forget in the same
(30:52):
the name something to stand for when so many people
are taking a knee and metaphorically, I just love to
know if there was something there when you were thinking
about the title this movie.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Not metaphorically, it was literally. I wrote the final story
in the film the week after the Colin Kaepernick controversy
really grabbed hold, and I.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Wow, I did not know that. I was just I
was it was struck by that that irony.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
And wondered, well, I mean, look, sometimes life just puts
it right in front of you. I wasn't trying to
create something new.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I was.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I was trying to make sense. I wasn't trying to
make sense of Colin's decision. I understood where he was
coming from. I just I get completely, totally get it.
What I didn't get was the confusion and the like
the outrage that surrounded the conversation, and how the sides
(32:03):
were so quickly drawn up. And what I wanted to
do was grab a bullhorn and say, hey, hey, look,
before we talk about your rights, and before we talk
about how kneeling in front of that flag might make
people feel who had lost loved ones defending that flag,
who are right there with you, who want to root
(32:25):
for you, who are there to see you play, before
we get to any of that, can we just maybe
remind the country that the national anthem is an original
protest song. It is the protest song. It is us
giving the finger to Great Britain. And before that it
(32:46):
was a drinking song. It was a drinking song called.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Out of us. But look our flag still up there,
so gets our ass that's.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
What the that's it.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
It's a it.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
And that I mean if you think about the people
who were present in eighteen twelve at the bombardment of
Fort McHenry when that thing was written. If you think
about the fact that the man who wrote it did
so right where the Francis Scott Key Bridge is halfway
standing today, the rest of it's at the bottom of
(33:20):
the river. That's a metaphor, my friend. That's a metaphor
for a country that's always under construction, and that is
right now disconnected. When you think about the runaway slave
who died fighting the British, who, by the way, would
have given him his freedom, but he didn't want to.
He didn't want a king any more than he wanted
(33:41):
a master. When you think about that guy and the
teenagers who killed the general General Ross, who wound up
marinating in a bottle of rum, When you think about
all the insane things that had to happen as the
bombs were bursting in air right as Key looked at
those ramparts and wrote those words. If you had a
(34:03):
cursory understanding of what it was like to endure a
twenty four hour shelling, you wouldn't be on your knees,
you'd be on your feet, you'd be applauding, and you'd
be high fiving people on the other side of the
aisle because you'd be united in that common understanding. To
answer your earlier question, yeah, three months from now, I
(34:26):
hope people are talking about that.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
From Mike's mouth to your ears. That was a preface
of just a piece of what you will see when
you watch something to stand for. It will grip you,
it will make you think, and hopefully it will be
something that you're willing to talk around the water cooler
about to the person who maybe doesn't necessarily look like you,
(34:52):
vote like you, love like you, or worship like you.
Just like an army of normal folks. It's a it's
a proper foundation and a basis for us to jump
around the campfire together on Mike, thank you as always
for joining. I'm not kidding about the singing whiskey. And
(35:17):
when I get up that era, I'm going to find
you and we can we can solve the world's problems together.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
We'll throw a few back, we'll sing the national anthem
on the Golden Gate Bridge and just see what happens next.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I'll love it, I'll try to stay completely robed.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
And by the way, just so you know, I'm gonna
call Ronda this afternoon and inviter back on the podcast.
I had no idea the Isaiah House had blown up
to that degree that makes my day.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
It's unbelievable. And she counts being on your show and
the timing of it and what you did for her
as important as what the governor of the state of
Tennessee did to support her and the divine intervention in
her life through her faith as the three most important
things that's happened for Mike. So you had an impact, my.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Friend, as do you really appreciate it? Bill?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Everybody that's Shop Talk number fifteen, Mike Rowe with unbelievable
amounts of wisdom and me not beating the drum on
this thing. So Mike gets to make money on his movie.
But because I really want y'all to listen and watch,
it came out yesterday the movie Something to Stand For.
(36:33):
It's Micro at his best. Y'all rate us, review us,
hang out with us, listen to us Shop Talk number fifteen,
Micro and Patriotism. Thanks to our producer Iron Light Labs.
I'm Bill Courtney, we'll see you next week.
All right, Well, I am timestamping this. This is gonna
go out Friday. So when I say it's so cool
the movie release yesterday, just roll with me on it.
I don't normally timestamp, but because we're going Friday and
you release Thursday, I will say that, and then let's
have a half hour fun.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
We want to you fully embrace the podcast nomenclature. Now
you're a season pro. You're just time stamping things and
looking forward like a producer. I freaking love it.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Oh it's disgusting everybody. It's Bill Courtney. We got Shop
Talk number sixteen, Come in your Way, and it is
going to be a fun one because we're going to
talk about going to the movies with Mike Rowe, and
really the crux of it's gonna be patriotism with Micro,
(01:01):
something that I think is obviously topical with July fourth
coming up, but also topical with all of the social
and cultural things that seem to be picking at us
these days. So Shop Talk number fifteen with Micro, come
in your Way patriotism. Right after these brief messages from
(01:24):
Hours and our sponsors, how'd that sound like?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I mean, I modesty aside, I couldn't have done it better.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I can't tell you. Scott. Okay, ready, three two one,
Mike Row, what's up, buddy.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I am sitting here watching the wheels go round and
round at the time of my life.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
That's awesome. I still have not been in the Bay
areas we last spoke, but I absolutely plan on reaching
out to you when I do, because I expect some
singing whiskey.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
It would be a crime against God and man for
you and I not to reconnoiter somewhere in this place
Sodom or Gomorrah or whatever you want to call it
and just have a civilized snort of something with my
grandfather's name on it. So you let me know when
you're close, and I'll rose to rest.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Toast your grandfather under your grandfather's name until we can
no longer see straight. Sounds great to me.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It's important to have goals, Coach.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
It's important to have goals, Mike. Yesterday, released at a
theater near you, is a project, and thank you for
sending me the early screener. I watched it, and first
of all, I'm a massive old school Paul Harvey the
rest of the story guy, and so getting your approach
(03:00):
and just watching the first which no spoilers in here,
but just watching the first of the many vignettes that
make up this movie, I was guessing I was intrigued,
and then on the reveal I was. I just chuckled
to myself and I said, Wow, that's really awesome. So
we'll get to that, but I want to read something
(03:22):
you wrote. There are forces at play, powerful forces that
believe the only way to effectively promote the release of
a new movie in twenty twenty four is to go
on every podcast, every radio program, and every TV show
in America and talk about the film until you're are
a hollowed out shell, which is pretty much what I've
(03:44):
done for the last week. I can't help but wonder, though,
if a super simple video shot in my hotel room
and shared on this page might accomplish the goal in
a more Oh boy, EFFI facious fashionacious efficacious fashion. In
other words, please save me from another week of traditional
(04:07):
press by helping me get America to visit something to
stand for dot movie, where they can watch the trailer
and reserve a ticket for what my mother is calling
the feel good hit of the summer. Sincerely, Mike, Mike, Yeah,
what are you doing with me right now? Are you
(04:28):
willfully hollowing out your soul?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
No? No, the soul has long since departed. There's nothing
left but an empty husk, you know. I mean. My
mom said something to me once a few years ago,
when she became a best selling author for the first
time at eighty years of age. She said, Michael, isn't
it ironic that when you finally get a chance to
(04:53):
get your book published, and you finally get a chance
to go out and tell the world about it, you're
so sick of lif living with the thing that you
can barely confront the image of your own face or
the sight of your own name without throwing up a
little in your mouth. And I said, yeah, Mom, welcome
to show biz.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, welcome to my life ever since dirty jobs or
really doing the news in the Bay Area. So yeah,
I know.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I go back, Mike, tell us about something to stand for? Well,
my mom wasn't wrong. It is the feel good hit
of the summer. If you're looking for something to feel
good about, And I think, to your earlier point, that's
what's going on in our country. We're not sure what
to feel good about, We're not sure what to celebrate.
(05:41):
We're not sure what to feel guilty for, we're not
sure what to apologize for, we don't know what to
stand for or kneel for. So we're confused about our
past because we're uncertain about our future, and we're a
little disappointed with our present. And so the result of
(06:02):
all that, in my view, is just a conflation of
sorts between patriotism and politics. And what that's done is
pull us in separate directions. And look, there are plenty
of good reasons to disagree on any number of issues
with all sorts of good people. But it makes no
(06:26):
sense for us to look at our country and acknowledge
that it was founded by imperfect people, and acknowledge that
we're still very much a work in progress, but not
take the time to be proud of the progress we've
made and be grateful for the sacrifices so many people
(06:48):
have made and celebrate there's still a lot to celebrate.
So the movie is an attempt to do that with
nine short mysteries history lessons of a sort where you
can learn something you didn't know about somebody you do.
And that was the Paul Harvey magic. That was the
(07:11):
thing we hoped to capture both in my podcast and
in the movie, and that's why I made it.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
In nineteen ninety eight, Gallup did a patriotism pole and
I think seventy one seventy percent of Americans described themselves
as extremely patriotic. Last year they did the same poe
and was down to thirty eight percent. Mike, Yeah, how's
that strike you? Well, first of all, that's all Americans.
(07:41):
If you ask the same question of Americans under thirty,
you'll get a percentage closer to eighteen percent. That's that's
whe's out of me. That's scary out of them.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It worries me. But again, I'm not one hundred percent
sure people quite understand the nuance of that question. I
think a lot of people right now are so frustrated
with our elected officials. We're so frustrated with policies that
seem to apply to one group but not another. We
(08:14):
see the hypocrisy in Congress, we see just the profligate
kind of spending, and we're so disenchanted with the current
state of things that we don't feel good about our country.
That's very different than not feeling good about the current
class of elected officials or not feeling good about the
(08:38):
current state of society vis a VI any one of
a dozen acronyms right now, maybe it's CRT or DEI
or ESG. You know, there's plenty to look at and go, God,
what the hell are we? What are we thinking? But
you can still take great comfort in going back to
(08:59):
the base and finding individuals, you know, people of well,
an army of normal people. They were always there, right
It just feels sometimes right now that that normalcy is
on the ropes in much the same way patriotism is
on the ropes, and much the same way gratitude is
(09:22):
on the ropes. I know, as a coach you've talked
about work ethic a lot, but you know, if you
look at it through the lens of what is a choice?
What choices can we make about the people we are?
We can't choose our hair color, well, you can alter it,
I suppose, but eye color, skin color, blood type, star sign.
(09:48):
There's a long list of stuff that we can't control.
But we can control when we get up and when
we go to bed, and how hard we work, and
how kind, how decent, how grateful all of those virtues. Curiosity,
how curious do you want to be about your past?
You know those things are on us, They've always been
(10:10):
on us. And the pushback today and the thing that
worries me, and I bet it worries you too, is
that the mere fact of bringing it up, the mere
fact of looking somebody in the face and saying, how
come you made the choices that you did? What will
come back with top spin is how dare you? How
(10:31):
dare you talk to me about my choices. I'm a
product of my circumstances, not my choices. And so all
of that, to me is in the current Bullard base
of conversation, and this movie touches on it.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
It does, and again, I just I'm not going to
give any of it away. I want every single person
in this country to work, if for any other reason,
an accurate history lesson on nine pieces of stuff we've
heard a little bit about but really don't know deeply
and quote the rest of the story. I mean, I
(11:14):
was glued to it. I really was. I'm a history
buff anyway, but I loved it, and your interaction throughout
it was phenomenal. Thanks for what one place, in particular,
when you knelt next to a certain gentlemen, I got
a lump in my throat I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Be you in that moment.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Just look that man in the eyes and say thank you.
So given that with a little bit of what I
can share without spoiling the thing, what does success look
like in this project to you three months from now,
four months from now? You know, I don't want to
(11:56):
use the word takeaway. I think that's overused. I just
want to know what Mike says, this project was a
success for me. What does that look like? Wow?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well, look, Bill, I think I asked you that question
once when you were on my podcast when you were
no copycat.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Nope, nope, nope, this is well.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I'm just saying, come up with your own stuff, Mike
we I mean, how does a good coach define a
successful season? Is it a season where they win? Is
it a season where they go undefeated? Or is it
a season where the team undergoes some kind of transformation
(12:38):
that makes all concerned that one exactly. So, the hell
of it is, as as somebody in my industry, I
get complete control over everything I do, right up until
the point where it hits the printed page or goes
up on the big screen or the little screen. Then
(13:01):
it's out of my hands. And so my honest answer
to your question is the first thing is I hope
people sit there and go on the trip with me.
I hope they hop in that old Bronco with me
and go to DC and see the things I see
as I see it as my shotgun, as my ride along,
because that is a part of entertaining and the first
(13:23):
duty of care anybody has with their name and the
title of a hit show or a movie or a
book or a sports franchise, right it's to engage. It's
to engage and in my case, to entertain. So that's
really what I hope for most. But three months down
the line, if people are still reflecting on some of
(13:43):
these stories and looking at the headlines and trying to
make some sense out of the present through the lens
of the past, then I would hope a mother or
a dad, or a son or a daughter could could
look to the rest of the family and say, this
is what Mike was talking about in that movie. It's
one of those moments where it's okay that we're not
a perfect country. It's okay that we all want to
(14:06):
work to make it better, but it's also okay that
we look back and celebrate people like Francis Scott Key
and Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson and some people maybe
you've never heard of before who it's easier, Bill, It's
easier to judge than it is to think. And that's
(14:27):
why I think at the moment we're so twisted up
in knots because we've all gone full hog into the
business of judging. We've all got our little individual gavels,
we've got our deeply held opinions, and now with our
smartphones and our Internet connections, we have access to an
unlimited number of websites populated by an unspeakable number of
(14:51):
self proclaimed experts standing by to tell us why we're right,
and everybody else managed to get their head up there,
we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
So much of that thought comes from oftentimes irrational and
many times in accurate, preconceived notion, which doesn't allow you
to quote think because you're already so shaded before you
have the opportunity to just listen and think. And I
(15:31):
take what you said as a really wise commentary on
where we are, because we've got to drop those preconceived
notions and listen and think and consider and drop our
ego at the door, and then if you back that
up with the history and the patriotism, and making that
distinction between what our fundamentals and our tenets are, as
(15:55):
you so beautifully lay out, versus the issues we have
culturally right now, there is a distinction in that, and
the issues we have right now should not have anything
to do with the pride.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
We have.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
In the republic we built.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
We've lost our nuance, We've lost our ability to hold
too seemingly contradict the contradicting thoughts in our head at
the same time. But we have to be able to
do that, you know, And we mustn't look back with
all of the certainty we have that comes with living
(16:33):
in twenty twenty four, with all of the enlightenment, with
all of the awakening, that we have to look back
two hundred and fifty years and judge those people by
today's standards. Well, what do we think is going to
happen two hundred and fifty years from now when our
great great grandkids are looking back at Bill Courtney and
Mike Row going, what the hell were they thinking? Those
(16:56):
those crazy meat eaters. They were eating meat eat right,
what were they doing?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
They were burning burning gasoline? And eating meat. What is
wrong with these people?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And so we're on a track right now where our
descendants are going to be armed with an even larger
gavel and they'll be passing judgments so hard they'll be
pulling down all the statues. They'll be unless we step
back for a minute and say, listen, this is a wheel.
History is a wheel, and we all it always feels
(17:33):
like it's so brand new. It always feels like here
we are the most evolved ever the height of the species.
And I'll tell you something, man, if you really look
back and start listening to or reading the texts of
people who who spoke to the public two hundred, two
(17:55):
hundred and fifty years ago and compare it with what
we're about to see on the debate stage. When you
look at what passes for public discourse today with the
rule of yesterday, When you look at the letters that
soldiers sent home in the Revolutionary War, in the Civil War,
(18:17):
just the beauty of the pros, just the use of
the language. You know, it was so wildly different than
too long, didn't read, hashtag, ampersand some alphabet, soup, acronym.
It's like, what are we doing? You know? So there's
(18:39):
there are a thousand things to learn and a thousand
ways to benefit. I mean, I'm all for looking forward,
but I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know
what AI is going to do, but I'm pretty sure
I don't want to spend my rest of my week
freaking out about it. I would rather look back. You know,
what can I learn from the rebellion? What can I
(19:02):
learn from the way technology impacted our forefathers? How did
they adjust? There's always a lesson in the past, and
there's always hope too.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So recently, on an Army in Normal Folks, I interviewed
Ronda Paulson about Isaiah one point seventeen houses that give
kids going into Foston care a home to stay in
while they wait for placement, you know, otherwise sleeping on
a DMV style government floor. And she talked about how
(19:38):
our state governor, Billy Tennessee state Governor, helped them to grow.
And then this other guy named Mike Rowe she dropped
in on me, and I want to play this short
clip of it for you and get your reaction, because
I think it's funny, I think it's impactful, and I
also think it speaks to what you're doing now, sure,
(20:02):
here's the.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Quil and then your buddy Mike Rowe shows up.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Of course, Mike.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
In our episode of Returning the Favor.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Guilt, Return the Favor is a Facebook show that Micro
did basically like our show, telling stories of amazing, normal
people doing incredible things, and he called it return in
the Favor. So he showed up. He showed up with
his cameras.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
With his cameras, we were told a small documentary company.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That is not nothing Micro.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
It was a fake website, fake names, fake emails.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
And they were fake lying. Do you yeah, I got
it because they want because Mike's show wanted to be
a Sprish Sea.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
So when we show up at the Isaiah House that morning,
I think a small documentary company is coming. Everybody in
the house knows who's actually coming, but me, I don't know.
And so this is the speech I gave to my people.
I was like, listen, y'all know, I don't do details.
Some small documentary company is coming.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Here's what you need to know. Number one, don't say
one negative word about the Department of Childer Services. And
number two, nobody take your shirt off because it ain't
that kind of video and.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
That was.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
That's all I do.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
It's funny, and then.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
Micro walked in. So our episode aired on March Night,
twenty twenty. Well, this is crazy. I love sharing God
moments with you. So we were supposed to air March sixteenth.
We had a whole social media plan. Shots parties, watch
what we have this whole plan. Sarah, his producer, calls
me on Sunday the seventh and said, or Sunday the eighth,
(21:41):
and says, we're moving you to tomorrow night. Like, oh, okay, okay.
So I call our social media person. She's like, I'm
on it. So we watch it on March ninth. March thirteenth,
the world shuts down, so COVID two million people watched
it on March ninth. Do you know how many people
watched it March sixteenth, ten thousand. Wow, it was like
we just got picked up and dropped. On March ninth,
(22:06):
two people watch it. Our phone blew up like we
finally on day three got a map of the United
States and just started coloring in forty one states and
four countries have reached out wanting an Isaiah one seventeen house.
Thanks to your buddy, Mike, Jesus and Mike are the reason.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Billy, Mike and Billy. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Trinity, the trinity of Bloody do goods, Billy Micro and Jesus.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yes, Jesus Yes.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
So we In twenty eighteen sum we had one employee,
me and one home. As of today, we have one
hundred and forty employees, over six thousand trained volunteers, fifty
four total locations in twelve states, twenty two open homes,
and we'll have thirty by the end of.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Mike, that's a pretty steep company there, with the Governor
of Tennessee and Jesus Christ himself.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
My friend, Yeah, that's a pretty tall cotton as my
grandfa she's.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
So thank you for playing that. I can't tell you
what it means to me. I remember that day.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Well.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I had given the last major public speech at a
major event on March ninth in Las Vegas before the
whole world came closing down on us, and I remember
watching that episode and hoping that everything Ronda just said happened. Mike,
(23:44):
It's like you said before, you know, I don't know
what I want people to take from the movie because
I have no control over it. I did it I
put it out there, and you hope for the best.
But look, you and I have been singing pretty loud
out of the same hymn book for a long time.
The most interesting people in the world are people you
haven't met, probably in towns you can't find on a map,
(24:06):
doing things in their zip code that matter. And if
you can take some sort of accelerant and put it
on that and make it bigger, then that's a that's
a great undertaking, that's a that's a well, it's a
purpose anyway, and that's my purpose. Rhonda, she actually walks
(24:28):
the real walk. She's in there every day, taking kid
literally plucking kids from some kind of vestibule between purgatory
and hell and pulling them into a better world. And
so our thought was, look, if I can, if I
(24:50):
can shine a light on that and tell her story,
and that's of course exactly what you're doing, then then
maybe normal folks can start to connect the dots. Zip
codes get a little better, states get a little better,
the country gets a little better, a little less divided,
and so forth. So yeah, thanks, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
When you listen to Ronda and all of these other people,
and you look at the body of work that is micro.
To me, Something to stand For is just an extension
of dirty jobs. It's just an extension of normal people
(25:42):
doing extraordinary things and trying to get everybody to remember
we have a fundamental and a basis in the United
States and our country of really good, common folks doing uncommon,
extraordinary things. And something to stand for I think is
(26:02):
a historical from the early days all the way through today.
Montage from a patriotic viewpoint of Ronda Poulson's that ended
up being names you do know, and it just seems
to be an extension of your brand. And dude, you know,
(26:23):
I don't know what's next, but my goodness, well next
is you make me blush. You got to stop this legacy, Mike.
I mean really honestly, and I'm not I'm not here
just to kiss your butt and all that. I mean,
you know, but what a legacy, Mike. I mean honestly,
I mean, I'm at the risk of condescension. I'm so
(26:44):
proud for you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
There's nothing to say to all that except thanks. It
means the world coming from a guy like you who
put his money where his mouth was, and what you did,
what you did in that documentary, and for your team
is very similar. Look cameras. Cameras are like guns. They're
just tools. They're dumb things. They don't know where you
(27:11):
point them, they don't know what your intent is. And
both are available to virtually everyone in the country. So
I had a pretty good run up until I was
forty two. I freelanced a lot in this industry. I
worked on some fun projects, met some great people. I
saw the world no complaints. But it wasn't until my
(27:33):
mom told me that my grandfather, who was ninety at
the time, wouldn't be around forever and suggested that I,
you know, do something on TV that looked like work
so he could see something he recognized before he died.
That he could go, yeah, that's my grandson. You know.
(27:56):
That's a hell of a thing to hear. And I
took it to heart. And so for me, you know,
Ronda's in my life because of that phone call. Dirty
Jobs went into production because of that call. Somebody's got
to do it, followed Suit, returning the favor, followed Suit,
the way I heard it, followed Suit and all of it.
(28:18):
To your point, I've been doing the same damn thing
for twenty five years. I just changed the title every
so often. But all I'm doing in this movie is
what I did in episode one of Dirty Jobs. I'm
tapping the country on the shoulder and saying, hey, not
for nothing, but what about him? What about her? Get
(28:38):
a load of that. Somewhere in Tennessee, a woman named
Ronda is on a mission and it's working. And if
you don't feel better about seeing that and meeting a
woman who stands for something tangible, something she can articulate
and point to with pride, you know you have to
(29:00):
be able to see that in order to find it
in yourself. And then you have to be willing to
look back and find it in our country. And if
you do that, you will take a moment on Independence
Day too to feel damn good about how far we've
come and what we can still.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Be something to stand for? Released yesterday, everybody. I also
love the fact that Mike believes movies were intended to
be seen in a movie theater with popcorn, and damn it,
that's where this movie is going to be seen, So
(29:41):
in the in the in the same vein of a
little bit of historical impact in your life, take the time,
get a bucket of popcorn and go enjoy what Mike
is prepared for all of us as a historical lesson,
but also maybe even more an important reminder of who
we are, where we came from, and why there's absolutely
(30:05):
every reason to have patriotism despite not because of who
we are, but despite our differences. And if we can
base all of ourselves on that, maybe we can start
having more civil, meaningful, non threatening conversations about the stuff
that matters, and instead of dividing us, maybe we can
(30:26):
celebrate some of that stuff. Something to stand for. Mike.
One last thought before we sign off. I can't help
the irony that the movie is about historical stuff and
our patriotism and as you said, tapping the public on
the shoulder and saying, hey, don't forget in the same
(30:52):
the name something to stand for when so many people
are taking a knee and metaphorically, I just love to
know if there was something there when you were thinking
about the title this movie.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Not metaphorically, it was literally. I wrote the final story
in the film the week after the Colin Kaepernick controversy
really grabbed hold, and I.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Wow, I did not know that. I was just I
was it was struck by that that irony.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
And wondered, well, I mean, look, sometimes life just puts
it right in front of you. I wasn't trying to
create something new.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I was.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I was trying to make sense. I wasn't trying to
make sense of Colin's decision. I understood where he was
coming from. I just I get completely, totally get it.
What I didn't get was the confusion and the like
the outrage that surrounded the conversation, and how the sides
(32:03):
were so quickly drawn up. And what I wanted to
do was grab a bullhorn and say, hey, hey, look,
before we talk about your rights, and before we talk
about how kneeling in front of that flag might make
people feel who had lost loved ones defending that flag,
who are right there with you, who want to root
(32:25):
for you, who are there to see you play, before
we get to any of that, can we just maybe
remind the country that the national anthem is an original
protest song. It is the protest song. It is us
giving the finger to Great Britain. And before that it
(32:46):
was a drinking song. It was a drinking song called.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Out of us. But look our flag still up there,
so gets our ass that's.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
What the that's it.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
It's a it.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
And that I mean if you think about the people
who were present in eighteen twelve at the bombardment of
Fort McHenry when that thing was written. If you think
about the fact that the man who wrote it did
so right where the Francis Scott Key Bridge is halfway
standing today, the rest of it's at the bottom of
(33:20):
the river. That's a metaphor, my friend. That's a metaphor
for a country that's always under construction, and that is
right now disconnected. When you think about the runaway slave
who died fighting the British, who, by the way, would
have given him his freedom, but he didn't want to.
He didn't want a king any more than he wanted
(33:41):
a master. When you think about that guy and the
teenagers who killed the general General Ross, who wound up
marinating in a bottle of rum, When you think about
all the insane things that had to happen as the
bombs were bursting in air right as Key looked at
those ramparts and wrote those words. If you had a
(34:03):
cursory understanding of what it was like to endure a
twenty four hour shelling, you wouldn't be on your knees,
you'd be on your feet, you'd be applauding, and you'd
be high fiving people on the other side of the
aisle because you'd be united in that common understanding. To
answer your earlier question, yeah, three months from now, I
(34:26):
hope people are talking about that.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
From Mike's mouth to your ears. That was a preface
of just a piece of what you will see when
you watch something to stand for. It will grip you,
it will make you think, and hopefully it will be
something that you're willing to talk around the water cooler
about to the person who maybe doesn't necessarily look like you,
(34:52):
vote like you, love like you, or worship like you.
Just like an army of normal folks. It's a it's
a proper foundation and a basis for us to jump
around the campfire together on Mike, thank you as always
for joining. I'm not kidding about the singing whiskey. And
(35:17):
when I get up that era, I'm going to find
you and we can we can solve the world's problems together.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
We'll throw a few back, we'll sing the national anthem
on the Golden Gate Bridge and just see what happens next.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I'll love it, I'll try to stay completely robed.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
And by the way, just so you know, I'm gonna
call Ronda this afternoon and inviter back on the podcast.
I had no idea the Isaiah House had blown up
to that degree that makes my day.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
It's unbelievable. And she counts being on your show and
the timing of it and what you did for her
as important as what the governor of the state of
Tennessee did to support her and the divine intervention in
her life through her faith as the three most important
things that's happened for Mike. So you had an impact, my.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Friend, as do you really appreciate it? Bill?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Everybody that's Shop Talk number fifteen, Mike Rowe with unbelievable
amounts of wisdom and me not beating the drum on
this thing. So Mike gets to make money on his movie.
But because I really want y'all to listen and watch,
it came out yesterday the movie Something to Stand For.
(36:33):
It's Micro at his best. Y'all rate us, review us,
hang out with us, listen to us Shop Talk number fifteen,
Micro and Patriotism. Thanks to our producer Iron Light Labs.
I'm Bill Courtney, we'll see you next week.
Host
Bill Courtney
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