Beer and Conversation with Pigweed and Crowhill

In this episode of Beer and Conversation with Pigweed and Crowhill, we crack open a Steady Eddie IPA and take on a big cultural question: why are people who hate Star Trek directing, producing, and writing the show?

From the optimism of Star Trek: The Original Series and the (somewhat) moral clarity of Star Trek: The Next Generation to the confusion of modern efforts like Star Trek: Discovery, something clearly changed.

We explore:

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The boys drink and review a homebrewed porter, then discuss birthright citizenship.

The question of birthright citizenship hinges on one phrase in the 14th Amendment, which reads "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." What does that mean?

The point of the amendment was to give citizenship to freed slaves, but it's been interpreted to mean that the child of an illegal immigrant, born in the U.S., is a citizen. Is t...

P&C drink a cream ale and reflect on the amazing life of Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris wasn’t just a movie star—he was the real deal. A multi-time martial arts champion with serious credentials, he built a reputation long before Hollywood ever noticed him.

And yet, Hollywood did notice. From a run of classic action films to the long-running hit Walker, Texas Ranger, Norris proved he could carry a screen just as well as he could win...

The boys drink and review Blackbeard's Breakfast, a robust porter, then discuss a new series about Merlin.

The Daily Wire has entered the fantasy arena with *The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin* — but to understand what they’re trying to do, you have to go back much further than Camelot.

In this episode we trace the evolution of the Arthurian legend from its earliest Welsh roots to modern reinterpretations. The story didn’t ...

The boys drink and review some homebrewed porter, then ask if Trump is resetting the entire global order.

Many people believe the international system built after 1991 has become unsustainable, unfair, and disconnected from American interests. Trump is trying to reset it from an America First perspective.

* The old world order depended on American sacrifice without reciprocity

* Trump replaced globalism with a more nationalist, powe...

Pigweed and Crowhill drink and review Lindemans Pecheresse, a Belgian Fruit Lambic, then discuss the show's uncanny ability to predict the future. In this episode we update past topics and predictions.

An earlier show discussed kill switches and cameras in cars. There have been some developments to that story.

On the show where we questioned whether psychiatry is science (mostly it isn't), the boys asked if it was time to b...

The boys drink and review Finest Kind IPA from Smuttynose, then talk about efforts to make Alberta an independent nation.

Pigweed's news feed has been full of talk about this burgeoning movement in Canada. Alberta is an energy rich province that sends a lot of money to Ottawa, but doesn't get much in return. Albertans hate being under the thumb of a government thousands of miles away with completely different values.

The st...

The boys drink and review a cream ale from Jailbreak Brewery, then discuss the dramatic decline in trust in our institutions. Trust in institutions used to be the default. Today, it’s the exception.From corruption and abuse of power to ideological capture and growing economic inequality, many people feel that the institutions that once anchored society — government, media, academia, and public health — have become distant, opaque, ...

The boys drink and review a peanut butter porter, then wonder about the nature of the mind and the self.

We like to imagine that our minds are simple and unified — that we think, decide, and evaluate the world rationally. But the more we learn about the mind, the stranger that assumption becomes.

Psychology talks about the conscious and unconscious mind. Behavioral economics divides thinking into fast and slow systems. Neuroscientis...

P&C drink and review Manor Hill Brewing's Dunkel, then wonder if the U.N. still matters.

The United Nations was founded after World War II with an ambitious mission: prevent global war, promote peace, and help nations cooperate on the world’s biggest problems.

But nearly eighty years later, a fair question arises: does it do anything useful?

The boys take a practical look at what the U.N. actually does today. It c...

The boys drink and review Dogfish Head's Sixty-One, which is an IPA brewed with Pinot Noir grapes, then discuss the idea that AI will make us all wealthy while Pigweed's cat prances around the studio.

Elon Musk recently said that AI + robotics will eliminate scarcity to the point that there's no real point in saving for retirement. We'll have "universal high income."

It's like the Star Trek vision of t...

P&C drink and review Pigweed's homebrewed porter then discuss squatter's rights. Can somebody just take over your house when you're on vacation?

There's a famous case in Maryland where some "activist" has moved in to a $2.3 million house that had been foreclosed on. Can she do that? Who's to stop her, and how?

"Adverse possession" is the technical word for squatter's rights. But it on...

The boys drink and review Crowhill's latest homebrew then discuss Iran.

Persia was one of the first great empires. At times it stretched from Libya in the west, into India and the stans in the east, and stretched into the Slavic countries in the north.

Some of the notable names are Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes. Isaiah mentioned Cyrus as God's chosen but took a jab at Zoroastrianism in the process.

Persian dominance came to an ...

The boys drink and review Old Brown Dog by Smuttynose, then wonder why Michelle Obama is such a sourpuss despite her incredible good fortune.

Despite being intelligent, wealthy, well-educated, and popular, she seems to be griping and complaining all the time.

After Barack was elected she said, "For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country." For the first time? Really?

Everything is so hard for Michelle. Sh...

The boys drink and review Ghost Stories, a smoked black lager from Burlington Beer Company, then discuss infrastructure.

After the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, President Biden promised it would be rebuilt “as soon as humanly possible” — and immediately assumed the federal government would foot the bill. But why is that assumption now automatic? And what does it tell us about the state of American infrastructure policy?

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The boys drink and review Sierra Nevada's Narwhal Imperial Stout, then discuss the obligation of the government to provide for the poor and how such efforts inevitably degrade into graft, corruption, and abuse -- like what we see in Minneapolis right now.

There have always been poor people, and there has always been an obligation to help the less fortunate. In the past, much of that work was done by churches.

The big transforma...

Pigweed and Crowhill drink and review a Copper Legend, an Oktoberfest from Jack's Abbey brewing.

The topic for today: Has the development of AI changed our perspective on whether or not we're living in a simulation?

Starting with Nick Bostrom's famous essay, the boys discuss the issues and why we might not be as "real" as we think we are. The development of AI has made Bostrom's essay even more significant...

With special guest Longinus, the boys drink and review an IPA from Cape May Brewing, then discuss the homogenization of culture, and how everything is starting to look the same.

It's to the point where you're in a town three states away but you see the same stores, the same products on the shelves. Where's the local stuff?

The boys discuss the history of this phenomenon, starting with the railroads and the Sears catalog...

With special guest Longinus, Pigweed and Crowhill review Nugget Nectar from Troegs and then turn to Death in Venice, a short but unsettling story about beauty, obsession, and moral collapse.

Longinus provides a brief biography of Thomas Mann, and then the boys walk through the story while unpacking its major themes.

This is a controversial book, and they don’t shy away from it's ugly side. Mann explores hidden desires and forbidden o...