Totally Classic

This week Andy & Brendan - two patriarchs - try to examine if one of the credos of their age is a worthwhile one - The Patriarchy: Smash or Pass?  Is Patriarchy inevitable - evolutionarily, biologically, under religious dictum or secular examination? Is Patriarchy based in oppression or responsibility? Can Patriarchy BE egalitarian?  From craftivism to Max Headroom, from wage gaps to age gaps, from the dawn of everything to t...

In keeping with the plethora of retrospective coverage of the 5 year anniversary of Lockdowns in March of 2020, Andy & Brendan return to, in many ways, ground zero for the podcast where divergent viewpoints are explored on every topic people claim cannot be discoursed with rancor. What, if anything, did we all learn the past 5 years?   From somatic sensations to celebratory cessations, from masked kids to life on the skids, fr...

This week, Andy & Brendan launch into the trifecta session of trying to ascertain not merely the answer to the question, but even agreeing on what the question is asking! Meaning this week they can actually start referencing evidence and parsing out whether it's ever ethical... by its own standards as well as classical medical and social ethics.  From they/them to we/us, from anorexia nervosa to gender dysphoria, from executi...

This week, Andy & Brendan return to interrogate the question of gender-affirming care, and their conversation reveals that the societal discord over the practice is rooted far deeper than mere political squabbles... into the depth of how semantics are proven or disproven, into what truth itself is. Needless to say, they have, in part two (of three? of four? of 44?) come to either agreement or resignation of difference on what t...

This week, Andy & Brendan - as humans, parents and citizens of the nation whose highest court in the land just heard arguments on "gender-affirming care" bans (U.S. v. Skrmetti) - explore with great curiosity whether such care is A) accurately termed and B) ethically applied? 

In this part one (of two) on this question, much time is spent on defining terms - for how can one agree on whether affirming something is ethical if you...

This week, Andy & Brendan evaluate the nature & impact of the richest man in the world, from their very different vantage points.  Can they ask about the villainy of everyone's favorite autistic centibillionaire without descending in gross ad hominem?  Can they bounce from spaceX rockets red glare to starling satellites twinkling in air, giving proof through the night that a Tesla was still there on our block?  Without d...

Yesterday was the final day of voting in the 2024 election.  Today, two friends whose candidates (they didn't vote the same and still love each other! Gasp!) lost early this morning get together to ask the question "Are We Doomed?" and do their best to muster up some evidence we AREN'T... and some that we are.  From a surrender in Gaza to apologies for lockdowns, from 9 year old political pundits to 80 year old presidents, from p...

This week, Andy & Brendan meet back up after a month to explore the literature, the arguments strong & shoddy and the strange manipulations around climate change!  From unmodelable clouds to model google usage, from adhd Brittanica forays to conspiratorial arrays, from the ground to the atmosphere and back again... all on this weeks' Totally Classic! Every episode of Totally Classic is a conversation between friends about...

This week, Andy & Brendan tackle a subject they are both admitted novices in: Climate Change.  They do their best to parse out not only their apprehension of the landscape of theory but seek to posit a means of validating or invalidating those apprehensions, from the place of admitted ignorance.  What arguments are convincing, what arguments are weak, who is and isn't trustworthy as a source... and how do we proceed from here...

This week, Andy & Brendan interrogate a popular supposition about the United States' purported two-party system.  Does any party "deserve" you vote? Is voting for a third party candidate "stealing" from some other candidate with a larger bankroll? What arguments are tenable that a third party candidate is a "spoiler campaign" for a more likely victor? Is Voting like sports betting or is it an ethical obligation wherein one sel...