Thanksgiving, etc and Performance Review

KC "critic," Michael Dempsey joins us in studio to review the Good, the Bad and the occasional drift into politics on the 2024 Kindness Chronicles.

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So more to the performance review. Yes. Performance review. Um, uh, one, there was one or two episodes, um, this year where you guys did a cold open and I loved the cold open. I hit. Uh, play, I'm ready to listen, and it was ten seconds of an interview, and I thought, and then it, and then it went to the riff, and I do, keep, do that. Okay, that's good, that's good feedback. It kind of helps you change up the dynamic a little bit. The cold open's awesome.​Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where once again, we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. We are in the, basement studio, is that what we're calling this? Yeah. The, uh, the man cave. Call it what you want. We got a fire blazing. The Kindness Corner, we'll call it. We're in the Kindness Corner, and we have, uh, our favorite guest. Uh, he's a four timer. He's four timers club. He actually wore a sweatshirt that had a four written on it. I don't, I don't know why. I don't know why you're asking that. I mean, you act like it's just, you sent this to me. It, why are you acting like it's a surprise to feel bad that, uh, four time is that's a pretty cool, I know that's a big, we got Michael Dempsey. Yeah. Michael Dempsey, Michael Dempsey, the, uh, yes. And we've invited Michael to come in. He's going to do a performance appraisal for the year 2024. This is also our Thanksgiving episode. Yeah. Uh, happy Thanksgiving to all of our listeners. Uh, Michael, you know, just to have at it, what do you, what do you got for us? Listen, I, I thought maybe it opened with, um, you know, it's getting cold. It's not quite cold enough yet, but, um, I represent outstate Minnesota. I know you guys don't know where that's at. Yeah, you know, state Minnesota. Yeah. Outside the, outside the, the Metro in cities outside the Metro. I mean, most of your guests aren't from outstate. I'm from outstate, but you know, growing up, um, when it got cold like this, it's that's when we started flooding the outdoor rinks and, uh, hockey season was right. And I was, I was so excited about hockey. You guys excited about hockey. Excuse me. What? Um, what? This isn't the Wooden Sticks podcast. I hate to disappoint you. Kevin Gorg is not here. Kevin Gorg is not here. Save it. Save it for Wooden Sticks. Save it for Wooden Sticks. Por favor. Dang it. This is the Kindness Chronicles. That's not why you're here, Mike. God, I know you. Okay, I thought this was a crossover episode. No, this isn't. No, we don't do that with Wooden Sticks. No, we don't do that. It would be fun if we did because then we'd have the likes of Mike Medano and all kinds of fancy people. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. He saves all the guests for his guests. One of the things that I'd like to talk about during our performance appraisal is, the securing of guests for the show, because I can tell you that there's one member of the team who has not really done much of a job as far as getting people on as guests, but promises made promises made. Yeah. So, okay. So let me back up. Michael, you are here. You are, you are a common guest over here. Fourth time, second time in studio guests. That's right. This is the second time. That's right. Um, and you are the one person that I know that, um, I asked you to come on here because you in the past have, uh, given, uh, some feedback on, on how we, how we've been doing, right? So you've done maybe a couple of times now. So this is our kind of biannual, or I'm not sure, maybe a biannual check it in with Dempsey official. Uh, uh, But just to be clear, offering feedback isn't an automatic. You're going to get on the show with us. I mean, we don't want to all of a sudden, but, but this guy listens close and he's got, he does, he has you know, I have a background in giving opinions. Very good. I mean, the improv is what I meant to say. You have a background in improv and you. You have, you know, this is a, this is a form of improv. It's a, we're trying to do something good for kindness, but we are listening to John, the pseudo comedian, absolutely no preparation for this show. It is an improv session, just about every time that we're exactly that we do this. But anyway, I'm just setting it up as to why Michael is here. And it's not just his opinion, but it's also Thanksgiving. It is. And we love to talk about food, especially when KG is here. But Thanksgiving is a, uh, a consumption holiday. Well, I, I, if I might, right, thanks for the introduction, and I love being back. Um, I'm gonna be serious for a second, and I'm just gonna say, um, I couldn't be happier to be here because it is Thanksgiving. And this, and this show is about giving back. It's about Thanksgiving. It is indeed. It's so It's so incredible to have a show about, uh, Thanksgiving and about giving back. It's quite amazing. Probably, I would say probably this is the most important show of the year. Wow. Thanksgiving. Well, because it's about giving back. It's about giving thanks. Yeah. And that's what your show is all about. It almost feels like you're fishing for a thanks. No, no, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not fishing for a thanks. No, I'm not. But, it also brings me to my jumping off point about an assessment. And, um, I was thinking about this, uh, as I was driving over, um, I don't know if your listeners actually recognize this. You guys are doing this because it's important to you. You're not brand building. You're not like, not cash and check. You're certainly not monetized, right? You're not monetized. You guys aren't a movie star. stars or personalities, right, that are trying to cash in on some fame that you thought you might have had. I, I mean, we joke about it, but in reality you're not, you're just doing, I mean, this year you guys celebrated your hundredth episode. Yes. We're at 125, 126 right now. It is. Okay. Well, you don't have to brag. All right. I said it was, I said you celebrate your hundredth. I mean, that's enough. That is. It is. You don't have to go to the hundred and twenty six. Well, I'm just saying we're still counting. Well, you should, but it's a testament to this idea of serving in a much bigger way because there is not anything out there It's not like you're trying to get a return. You're not trying to monetize this. And that is to be commended. In this season of Thanks and Thanksgiving. But that's probably the first thing I would say in my performance review is the authenticity around you providing a forum For people to really talk about what's important to them and giving back and being philanthropic and serving something greater. That's huge. We good for you guys. So that's in the good column. Very good. That's a merit, not a dumb error. That's right. That's right. And that's very nice of you. And it really is, We enjoy getting together when KG's around, it's fun to have him, Steve and I have reconnected and it's been a lot of fun. And it's nice to bring some attention to some of these organizations and. Some of the people that are making a meaningful difference in the community. And I don't even know that we're, we're making a difference except we're just, we're putting a spotlight on things. We're just trying to Well, at the very least, we're learning about it. Yeah, instead of complaining, we're at least trying to highlight some stuff and we're having a fun time. We're still complaining. Well, yeah, yeah, you do, you guys get an A plus in that as well. Yeah, John. I mean, I have issues. It's a sarcasm. And I like it because I live in that reality. I reality as well. Tomorrow is my favorite holiday. Yeah, I think we've, we've agreed. We talked about that. I love it. I love it. The setup of the holiday season. I'm not a Christmas gets to be too much for me. It's just, it's a lot to think about and all that. I love just, I love the gathering. I love the food. I love, uh, I love it too. Yeah, me too. I, it's, um, hands down my favorite as well. And my second favorite. Is the day after it's like this bonus day, but can I just speak real quick to the day after Thanksgiving? Yeah, let me tell you what I do I run up a credit card like nobody's business Middle of December it's like did we really spend that much money on more stuff that our people don't need? Yeah, that's really So, hopefully they're thankful for the abundance that comes with this holiday season. Man, you really were feeling thankful if on Friday you run that credit card up. Oh, that's too bad. Anyways, back to food, sorry. Um, given, you know, we both agree that it's our favorite holiday, you as well, but you, you do a lot of the work. You manage a whole kitchen, you do, you do the turkeys, you do smoking food and you do all this stuff. Yeah. How does that, I know you probably enjoy it, but it gets to be a lot, right? Well, it does. It does get to be a lot of it, but I'm, I always want to sort of pull this back to the sort of kindness chronicles and, and I'm going to do it in this way. People want to feel like. They're contributing. Most people do, right? They want to feel like they're adding value to something and that's why you volunteer in schools. That's why, you know, you help, you know, your neighbors next door. But people want to feel like I'm, I'm in on this. I don't want to sit and watch somebody do something. And it's in that spirit that when I host Thanksgiving, my nieces and nephews and my, my daughters, um, They all want to contribute, and so I make assignments. So, although I host, I host Thanksgiving every year, a week out, uh, they are waiting for their assignment. It's gonna be different every year, and then you get your assignment, and then it's, you get to do with it what you want, right? So if you have mashed potatoes, you, you do it any way you want. Um, my only request is you don't half ass it. You can get as great as it, if you want, you know, you can do whatever you want, but I don't want you, I don't want you half assing it. Well, let me tell you what Thanksgiving morning looks like here. Mrs. Schweitz will pull out a pad of post it notes. And along the side of the refrigerator, she will have post it notes and she will have the names of all of the participants in the preparation of the food. Yeah. I mean, this has become like, it's like a machine. And she usually has by far the most post it notes, but I will tell you that she makes post it notes for things that are very weak. Right. To be honest with you. She's trying to get it all out. But it's all about, once it's completed, you pull the post it note, and you're trying to get through all those post it notes. And it's really this, this great family teamwork thing. Yeah. And I think more fun than the consumption, Yes. Is the preparation. Yes. And you got the pride in it, you know, you got the parade going, you've got the football game going, and I'm on the couch cheering them on, and it's just fantastic. I love the post it note thing that, that reminds me when I dole out the assignments, talking about the coming together, right, and building this thing up. The journey is just as great as the destination is, right? Absolutely. Right. My kids, they chide each other with their nieces, with their cousins about who got the weakest. There's like a hierarchy to what he assigns. We're going to be introducing that. Yeah, right. So, so, so the example would be on your, uh, on your post it notes, uh, maybe your son got carrot sticks, right? Like carrot sticks. And, um, everyone would be like, really? carrot sticks. That's all you can handle. Like, you know, I got gravy. That's no, that's a, that's a major part, but you got carrots. That's grandma Connie makes the grave. Yeah. See, there you go. There's a trick to that. There is a trick to it. And it, you know, it's, it's really fun. I don't know if anybody cares to listen to this, but damn, it's fun talking about it. Everyone has their own version. I'm sure that you're thinking about your version of it, but let me tell you about grandma Connie. She's going to be 88 pounds. Uh, today, today being Wednesday Is she a, is she a fake Irishwoman? like your grandma? Wow, good memory. We gotta get back to that later, but yeah, we're not going to talk about Grandma Ellen, this is Grandma Connie, she's turning 88 today. She has a very particular way about the way things are done. She makes this scalloped corn that is without question my favorite. It's like dessert corn. Wow, wow, go on. The mashed potatoes, if you don't get the right type of potatoes, you're in big trouble. And what I will tell you is, she's a farmer, or has been a farmer. Where? Southern Minnesota. Okay, keep going. And, We have had Thanksgivings where literally every single food item we knew exactly the farm that it came from. I love it. No way. Sincerely, a farm to table experience. Wow. Including when my brother in law worked for, uh, Jenny O. Yeah. He picked out the turkeys that we would consume. Yeah. We would have turkeys that were never frozen. Yeah. They were walking around the day before, and as sick as that sounds. Hey John, we don't have to get that far. We get it. I mean, we get it. We get it. They walked right in. The turkeys walked right in. They were on a leash. And then we're eating them, and it's crazy. And surprise, this isn't a great day for you. But anyway, yeah, the whole process is very cool. Now, Steve, does your mom, the Italian, is the Italian food, does she go with a traditional Thanksgiving meal? Yes, so Christmas is all Italian food, and Thanksgiving is traditional. Turkey and potatoes, the whole thing. Yeah. But she makes an amazing dressing that no one else in our family can make. It's a dressing. It's a stuffing. Tell us about the stuffing. It, it, it has, it goes slow. It has, you know, bread and spices and all that, but there are raisins, cooked raisins. Oh, okay. All right. It's incredible. It's got sweet, juicy. Okay. I can't explain it. We also put raisins in our lasagna, in our ravioli. It's a sweet, sweet Italian sweet. It's a thing that our family loves. Yeah. Yeah, my dad, I think, you know, we've talked about this on this program once. My dad makes a stuffing that has like sausage in it. Yes. And I love that. I love that. My favorite stuffing, I don't know if you've ever had it. And I'm certain we've talked about this is welcome to stuffing talk the White Castle stuffing. Have you heard about that one? I have heard about it. Yeah. Yeah, people will take like 50 White Castle hamburgers No pickles because you can't have pickles in your stuff, right? Yeah, and they will literally take those White Castle hamburgers mash them up and stuff them in the bird Yes, and that is your stuffing someone just told me and it's a basic delicious. It sounds pretty rich. It's got the yeah You Yeah, that doesn't sound like, uh, All right. Hey, listen back to, uh, the year in review, right? The performance, the performance review. I have to also go back to earlier, you were talking about KG and. Um, not delivering guests. Um, it's worth just reflecting on this time of thanks to the season of thanks. You've had some amazing guests. Yeah, I mean, you had P. A. on. Yep. Yes. Right? We didn't have to do much talking in that one. No, you did not. He did, he did a lot of talking. You had Jiggly Boy on. Yep. Yes! You remember Sweeney, right? John Sweeney. Sweeney was on. You got his book right there. I mean, Sweeney came on and told some amazing stories. Right. Um, about, you know, some of the folks that he knew. Chris Farley. Chris Farley, right? Yeah, that was a fun reveal. And, and, and so, but what a great, um, What a great guest, right? you guys had a Charlie Walters. Now, what a gem was that? That was a good one. Charlie Walters. Um, what I loved about Charlie Walters was, when did he pitch for the twins? Like in 1968 for like, for like seven games. Yeah. Right. But he had a million stories based on those seven games. Yeah. I mean, what a great guest. And then the last one was LaPanta that I had on here. And I just think, what do you mean you don't have good guests? Like, those are four amazing guests. All of our guests are great guests. Let's set that record straight. I'm talking about the ones that KG has brought into the mix. Oh. He, you know what, let me, Yogi Bear's daughter's gonna come through telling you promise. My, I mean, she's gonna come through, right? That's like, the Halloween peanuts cartoon when they sit in the garden waiting for great pumpkin? The great pumpkin. The great pumpkin. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Never comes right? Uhhuh. But lion is, he sure is gonna come anyway. Yeah, you guys, I mean, amazing guests this year, just so you know. So we could say that, that KG, when he delivers, he delivers big. Like, he only hangs around with that sort of C level sort of people. Yeah. That's kind of his group, yeah. Yeah. Can I just speak to something, uh, that, uh, that I'm very grateful for, thankful for? Um, we had talked about, Giving people feedback, like writing a review of the service that that you've had, right? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, last thursday We did one of our civility programs at the masonic heritage center and um The response that we got was just awesome and you guys are getting good at it I suppose we I mean we're starting to get the shtick down, but what was really fun was the feedback that we got from some of the moms. We do this thing on manners and etiquette and the importance of, doing these things that differentiate yourself from your peers. And I said, how many of you have got, siblings, brothers or sisters, and a number of people that raised their hand and talked about it. the first thing I said is, how many of you people have made, did, did you make your bed this morning and only one of the boys raised their hand? Only one boy of the over hundred people that were at this thing raised their hand. I have heard from moms that have reached out to me saying, My son has made his bed every morning since that, that thing. And we talk about, making your bed is not a big deal, but I explained to them how much your parents appreciate that when you take the time. And I asked the kid that made the bed, how long does it take you to make your bed? And why does he do it? Less than a minute. What's his motivation? Well, I mean, I think his motivation is he's just a guy that, you know, you've, you've heard the book first, make your bed. It was written by some army general and he felt a sense of accomplishment by getting up and making his bed. And, you know, he might be one of those guys that's, super organized. I had a roommate in college, his name was Brian Martin, and he went to a military school. And this guy made his bed with precision every single morning. Wow. And that's just kind of the guy that he was. So maybe that's what this kid is all about, but the number of parents that have given us the feedback that, not only are they making their bed, they're not using their finger to shovel food onto their fork anymore. we talk about some of those manners sort of things, but yeah, it's very, so, okay. My question is it's meaningful to get the feedback, right? Okay. So you get to be, you get the feedback. you're seeing that you have an effect on these kids, but what is it doing for them? I feel like it's doing something, but I want to kind of understand what you think it's doing for them. By, by getting, you know, it's, is it making them more aware of themselves? What this program is about is helping you build your personal brand and The idea behind building your personal brand is, the people that have a premium brand, people that are recognized by, by their peers, by their teachers for being A, B, and C. Are more likely to get better scholarships are more likely to get into better schools are more likely to attract the people that they want to attract for quote, unquote, dating. So it's getting them in that headspace of being aware of how they are and the things that they do. But it's great. I just wanted to kind of break that down, like understand how it's actually making that step and what that step is. So it's, it's building a brand and creating awareness. And it's really all about,, making other people feel like they matter. being respectful, by doing the things that, that are unusual in this day and age when, those type of niceties have become a thing of the past and not that, we want everybody to go back to the past, so to speak, but those niceties just don't happen as often as you would like. And when they do happen, They tend to get your attention. Why do you think this has an impact? What I would suggest to you is for many of these kids, they've never been presented with this. It's the first time that they're presented with the, with this, with this level of specificity. And the gift to them is, there's an alternative way to think about this. There's an alternative way to at least entertain how you be in a social setting, right? And just exposing them to that sort of, and the positive return on that, just exposing them to that. That's it. It's amazing. we describe civility as consistently consistently. Noticing the needs of others without having to be noticed yourself. But by doing that, people are naturally going to notice you. Correct. And I'm going to tie this back to two episodes. Oh, um, read you guys had read. Let me, let me tell you something right now. Slam dunk. He's a pro slam dunk. I mean, the things that he. about. I've been on for three years and the big theme there was connectedness. Yep. The, the human need to connect and how we are trying so hard to intervene with technology and you can't, we're human beings and we need to connect. And this idea of civility is just opening the door for us to be, Connected. That, that's the other thing that it does. it creates a scenario where, I'm open to connecting because I'm respecting you. Right? And you're respecting me. And it, that all ties back and Reciprocation, yeah. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. By, by the way, that was, uh, A top 10 sort of guess a top 10 topic. Did you watch the movie? Join or die. I haven't gotten to the movie yet. Super good. It's, I'm going to, I'm going to check it out, but the idea that is, you know, human beings is, is this idea of being, you have to be with others. You have, you have to. And all of the data, it was, it was a really good episode and just knocked it out of the park. I just, so, you know, I appreciate that Michael. And one of the things that's been a byproduct of the last week or so. one of my boys was at that civility program, and my other son and some of his buddies came to the one before. On Saturday, we, had a big, recognition at the University of Minnesota. the Masons, donated 35 million to the University of Minnesota. That's not a small sum. Wow. That's a big chunk. It was a big check. But the appreciation that they showed to us was really incredible. And I purposely invited a bunch of people that, were in my, circle, mostly family members, cause I wanted them to come and see this thing. And one of the things that I mentioned was. The stuff that Reed was talking about and how important this joining something that is making a meaningful impact. And, uh, four of the guys that were there, my two sons, a nephew, my uncle, and then a cousin all have petitioned my lodge to become a member of the Masonic fraternity. And I'm going to invite anybody that's listening. And I mean this sincerely, including you two guys. Right. We have something coming up on January 18th and it's called One Day to Masonry. It's sort of a crash course on Is it speed masonry? It's kind of speed masonry actually. Typically there's a long process. You go through these, what we call degrees, the three degrees. Instead of participating in the degrees, you're actually just witnessing a candidate go through the degrees the whole point of Freemasonry is to help people find or become the best version of themselves. But more importantly, it's that connection. Yeah. And it's The many generational connections, like you'll go to a lodge and there'll be a guy that's 95 years old and the guy that's 22 and they're having dinner together before the lodge meeting and just those connections that they make with people. So if anybody that's listening is interested in January 18, it's a Saturday. It's a great event. So Reed was great about connectedness. You're talking about civility school and you know, number one is civility school was, um, you know, being respectful, you know, being service to somebody. I just want to reference another episode from this year that I thought was incredible. Minnow tank. Oh, it was amazing. Okay. But there's one. A young girl that jumped out at me at Minnow Tank. So, you guys did these interviews, and it was around Halloween, and Yeah, it was crazy. It was really funny because John was asking all the questions I would ask. And he was making all the bad dad jokes that I would make about Minnow Tank. Everything I would say, you were saying like, Are you sure you're not going to college next year? I mean, everybody, right? It was good. It was good. I may have overused that one. You did, but that's okay. I mean, I would have too. It was, it was amazing. But towards the end, this fourth grade girl who had lots of energy. Yeah. You know, it was a lot of fun. If you remember, she said something like, well, how are you guys? Oh. How are you guys? This, right? So you're asking all of these questions. Oh, yes. And she says to you, well, what about you? What's your favorite candy bar? That's right. She asks you. Yeah. What? And I thought it just stood out to me because what fourth grader? Has the intuition to ask about somebody else and picture this you have to picture the scene They're sitting there with headphones on and microphones. It's it's like a pretty exciting thing right for me, right? I would have died for it. I thought there would be the greatest thing in the world to sit and do this, right? So yeah, so To actually be have their her attention enough to ask us something like that. Yeah, you're right It was it was incredible because every everybody else was just just answering your question and gorgeous You know you you would ask all the questions. What are you gonna do? You know, and I don't know. Okay, by the way, I remember that. When you were in fourth grade, if somebody were to put a microphone in front of your face, you would have broken into Elvis Presley. That's right. That's right. That's a great callback. That's a great callback. I would have Uh, in Arizona, somewhere on the way to Arizona to visit my grandparents. They lived in Arizona in the summer or in the winter time. We had a camper, we were driving through, we had a truck stop and there was a local dopey radio station that was interviewing people there. They interviewed our family and then said it was going to be on, they're going to record it and put it out later. And we actually heard it. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world to hear us talking. I was probably fourth grade, like talking about, you know, You know what we're eating or why we're at the truck stop whatever. I'm like, this is the greatest thing. I finally made it I'm on the radio. Yeah Big fun. Big fun. Yes. That's where it all started. It did. Yeah. you got to be on the radio. Yeah. That's amazing. That's amazing. Anyway, I thought that was great. Just as a, as a callback. So more to the performance review. Yes. Performance review. There was one or two episodes, um, this year where you guys did a cold open and I loved the cold open. Dr. Shanti. Yes. It, it, it might've been Dr. Shanti where I hit. Uh, play, I'm ready to listen, and it was ten seconds of an interview, and I thought, and then it, and then it went to the riff, and I do, keep, do that. Okay, that's good, that's good feedback. It kind of helps you change up the dynamic a little bit. The cold open's awesome. Because he had a good quote, I think, why you did that. the very first episode that we did, the very first, this was pre, this was uh, Mm hmm. Uh, B. S. before Steve. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah. And it was B. S. That sounds right. We had Carly Zucker on. Yeah. And she had one quote that just absolutely Yeah, you did it with her. And I did it with her. And you did it with me, too. And I did it with you. episode, yeah. Yep, because you were talking about, you know, we're, hey, we're this nice band from Minnesota. Yeah. And you know what, Michael, I'm going to start doing that. Yeah, it's great. And it doesn't have to be germane to the topic. It could be just like, what the heck are they talking about? Like, you know, it could be about stuffing a bird with raisins, right? We're not going to do that. Yeah, no, I'm just saying like, but I love that. Ronnie loves open is I think. I think the, I think the cold open is, is amazing. Note made, John note made. Yes. Yeah. Get creative. Yeah. I'm gonna put that down as one of my critical achievements for next year. Let's, yeah. Let's talk about maybe what we didn't do is good in your opinion, or, or maybe not to be negative, but like, what do you wanna hear more of? Receive feedback is a gift, so I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you two things, right? The first thing I'm gonna say is, Hey, whether you like it or not, based on the season. That we just went through things would drift into sort of the political realm, whether you wanted it to or not. It was clear that you were drifting in that direction. Yeah, this, you know, I mean, I know. All right, well, I mean, so it was over there. So I'm just saying, I'm just saying Fox News. No, you did that. You never did. You never mentioned it. You didn't. You didn't. You never mentioned it. Fox News. But I would say when, when in the middle of the episode, you said, we don't like to get political. However, it was usually an indication that you're moving in that direction. You know what? Yeah. Yeah. Feedback accepted. Yeah. By the way, can we hustle up Jesse waters prime? I hear you, Michael. So, Hey, that was it. That, that was, that was one thing. That was one thing, right? I, that where I'm like, you can't, I don't think during this season you could have gotten away Uh, from it anyway, it's everywhere. Everyone is got an opinion. Everyone's it's just, we're up to our ears. Hey, just a second. Hey, Steve, I'm providing the feedback. I don't, you don't take us a little leeway because it was, I'm not giving you any leeway. I'm giving you feedback. I take it. Take what you're given anyway. What are you going to say? I was just going to say that there were, Moments of kindness during the political season. No doubt. You can love him or hate him, the Tim Walls, love him or hate him, J. D. Vance, there was some moments of civility in there. In their debate, which I happened to watch on Fox News, um, that was, that was refreshing, you know, uh, and we did call though. Yeah, we did. You, you guys did. Uh, that, that, so that was just an observation, there were times where as objective as you want it to be, On kindness and being focused on kindness. We drifted. You drifted. Yeah. Right. We often drift into food or something like that. And you know what? We're not gonna drift until probably the midterms in 2026 So we'll be okay. We got a few years. Um, on the, on the flip side, the selflessness that you all display by giving a platform to. Some amazing charities out there. Some amazing people that are doing amazing work. Canvas health, uh, civility school. You talked about that Michael's light. Tommy McBriar. Yeah, the Dog Rescue, right? Um, Be Extraordinary BU. I mean, Eagle's Nest. There's stuff for people to get involved with, yeah. Dino, my, I mean, these are all, non profits that are doing amazing work that nobody knows about. And you are giving them a forum expecting nothing in return, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And you do it every single week. Yeah, and before they came on our show, nobody knew about it. And now after the show, there's like at least 12 or 13 people that know about it. At least, at least maybe 10. I mean, you don't need to exaggerate it. But I, but I do think, uh, uh, in all seriousness, you know, people get a kick out of it and they share it with all of their friends. I mean, the Dino mite or, you know, any of the guests that you have. It's Dino. Mites. Is it Dino or Dino? It's Dino. Yeah. Dino Mites. You know, you know who Dino Mite is? I just want to. He plays for the North Stars in the 70s. No, no, no, that's Dino Cicerelli, but that's right. That's for KG. 80s. That's, that's for KG, but I got to just say this. I'm going to go back to Dino Mite. There was an episode a few months ago. You guys razzed Steve about not knowing sports. No, he doesn't. Yeah, right. And you mentioned sports and he goes, uh, how many points for a touchdown? Right. It's kind of funny. Come on now. Um, no, I'm serious. They razz you. Yeah. There was an episode. Somehow. We started drifting into Dancing with the Stars, and you knew all of the, all of, oh my god. You're like, oh yeah, they're on Dancing with the Stars. And I thought to myself, are you serious right now? Are you serious? That's what you knew? You knew who was on Dancing with the Stars? Well, I'll tell you what I do know. I do know that Dave Grohl played in a band before Foo Fighters, and Mr. Gorg didn't know them. That's a classic. We all have blind spots dancing with the stars. Um, I must have known somebody on it, it was star search. And you knew the dancers. Yeah. Okay. But it was, you know, for Lydian for Letty, my cousins, Ricky and, and, uh, um, Jason were on star search. So, and Danny that my, my cousins, yeah, I know star search. I know it was, it was, it was just, it struck me as funny. Because, you might not know, you know, ten You didn't perk up a little bit. Yeah, from showbiz. You know, I know showbiz. Oh, the showbiz. Yeah. Star Search. Yeah. Yeah, that's showbiz. I want to talk about favorite episodes now. So I gave you guys some feedback, cold open, right? Drifting great platform for amazing having my dad on, that was great. That was great. That was. Yes. That was great. I had a out of body experience though because I think it was that weekend or the weekend before was the U. S. Open and you and KG were talking about it, how amazing the U. S. Open was. And I happened to be at the U. S. Open. Oh my God. When you guys. I nursed. Yeah, I was at Piner's too. Good for you. I was there, uh, uh, on business, right? Don't think I just went down there, but On business. Sounds like you had a good business. Well, it was not too bad that, that weekend. Although it was really hot. It was very hot at Piner's too. Yeah. But, um, so that, I thought that was fun. Cause then I listened to your podcast. I'm like, I was just there. Yeah, I was just at Pioneer's too. So, um, that was a good episode and it seems like so long ago but remember John's car got stolen. Uh huh. That one got a lot of downloads. That was last winter though, right? That was, it was last January. They stole my car. Yeah. Yeah, it was uh, the end of, toward the end of January. I was on my way to a retirement party. Yeah, and uh, that's right. Yeah, that one, I think that one will probably, for the year, will have the most downloads. That one or Minnow Tank? Yeah, Minnow, Minnow, Minnow Tank was good, which, um, leads me to, my last suggestion. Here we go. I thought Minnow Tank was, was great. Here's my last suggestion. And, um, we, you think you get creative with this. Um, amazing work. Showcasing amazing charities and nonprofits that are doing amazing work. Um, I, I think, um, if we could provide some vehicle or some form for people to reach out if they're interested in getting involved. If somebody says, I want, I think it was Michael's light, it was the candles. Yes. Right, if somebody says, oh my gosh, I want to carry those in my store, because that's such a great mission and a great message, how do I do that? How do we become, um, More. Bridget better. More glue. Do something. Well, we actually now have a, uh Apparently a full time, uh, social media expert. Oh, yes, we do. In fact, she's top of the game, too. Lucinda Consulting, I think is the name of the company. Oh, wow. She's the only one that has figured out how to monetize this, uh, this program. For her benefit, by the way. Yeah, exactly. Nobody here is paid but her, right? It's worked out really well for Lucinda Brown, though we haven't cut a check yet, but she keeps sending the bills, so we're going to get that taken care of. But to your point, I do think, it's funny, I've had a number of people reach out to me. We had the young man on that did the apparel. Yeah, the 14 year old that wore the fancy stuff. And I had, uh, uh, Vicky grass, Vicky Johnson grass reached out and said that she was buying some of those sweatshirts. And I've had people that have reached out at hi Vicky. If you're listening, um, people that have called and asked, you know, about the candles and. You know, Brenda Boehm, who happens to know the young man that passed away. So, so the thing is, you're, you're saying, I agree with this, I'm always trying to find out. I can put it in the show notes. Yeah, yeah. Oh, good. Yeah, good. I'm trying to get, um. What are you laughing about? There are show, I, we could put show notes in. Great. I know how to do it. Yeah. Oh, geez. All right. Yeah. It's easy. Relax. I'm trying. I'm agreeing with you, Michael. I, I want it to build to something and I want to, I want to, if we can bridge this, if we can at least do that better, that's what we've got to work on. That's, it's, it takes a little bit. Yeah. That's one. And now one a is this, can you imagine going to an assisted living home every day, right? The man lives there. All right. All right. Wouldn't that be great to, to, to spend some time with those folks that John could talk to? Uh, Yeah. Uh, rock. No, he does. As long as it has money, he's fine with it. Well you know, my office is in a nursing home. Oh I didn't know that. Yeah. I didn't know that. I don't know that about you, John. But yeah, I mean, we have a, I could get you all the old people you could ever want. I mean, I don't want to gorge, right? No, no, no. I mean, but, but wouldn't that be Kids and old people, the interesting Oh, yeah. Yeah. To get other people to sort of hear their voices on a topic, I think would be interesting. And coincidentally, uh, we have a podcast equipment right there and I have it on a table that rolls. Oh my goodness. So I could roll that just about anywhere or, you know, the people that are at the nursing home, most of them are people that roll too, if you Oh, I do. I know what you mean. We could roll, we have it set up right in my office there. I, I think that would be so great. All right. Yeah. Does that conclude the assessment portion of the show? I was hoping we'd wrap up. We're creeping up on an hour. Right. Are you serious? Right. Oh my God. That was my last note, which is keep this to 30 minutes. That was my last note. Like you should really tighten it up. Before you go, Michael, leave us a comment. Leave us with a story. You have a story about monomia. We're always given a joke about monomia. We mentioned it nudging you all the time through the air to tell you about monomia. But yeah, I mean, you're in monomia. You have a story. That's right. Um, It's not a Hill Murray story, it's not a St. Thomas story, and it's not a Seinfeld reference. It is not. It's a Mata Midi story. It's a Mata Midi story, um, it was a couple of weeks ago, uh, as everybody knows, cause Steve won't shut up about it, he plays in a band called Johnny Clueless, have you heard about it? That's right, he does, uh, big time. Right? Good old Johnny Clueless. He's calling it the Red Pants Review. Didn't you know that? I didn't wear red pants either by the way. No, you didn't, you didn't. Anyway, uh, my wife and I and two of her friends were from out of town, you know, for the weekend. We decided to drive on over from, uh, where we live. It's quite a distance. And we were about two miles from, uh, It was each played the dugout. Yeah, we played the dugout, uh, sort of coming over from White Bear over to the dugout and I got pulled over by the police by the police. Yeah, they pulled me by the, you know, the, uh, the Washington County Sheriff. I don't know who it was, but they pulled me over. It's just a two lane highway. I pulled over, uh, pulls behind me. The ladies in the back are like, Oh, geez. You know, my wife's like, were you speeding? And I'm like, Yeah, of course I was speeding. Yeah, yes, I was speeding. Yeah, I was speeding. The officer comes up, doesn't come to the driver's side, because it's dangerous, right? Goes to the passenger's side, my wife rolls the window down, and he, and he said, you know why I pulled you over? And I, and I was going fast. Yeah, you were going fast. Um, can I see your ID? And I give him my ID, and he's like, well, what are you guys up to? And I said, well, we're, you know, some friends, he plays in a band, yeah, we're going to the Red Pants Review, you guys hear about it? And he's like, oh, looks like, uh, you're from Blaine, that's a, that's a long ways away. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, it is a long ways away, but it's a good friend of mine. He's like, oh, that's great. And then, and then he said, uh, do you have insurance? Sure. Yeah. And he looks at the insurance. He goes, Oh, well, um, do you know where to park when you go up there? That was like the end. That was, it was like he would, all of a sudden he was, uh, working for the chamber of commerce and he was so nice. And he's like, No ticket. Do you know where to park? I mean, you know, you don't want to park there, but you want to park there. You're, and when you go up, you want to veer to the right, you know, and he's concerned with public safety. I mean, the ladies in the back were like, are you kidding me? Like he didn't even, he didn't even mention a ticket. Wow. He didn't even, he goes, let me take your license. I got to make sure there's no warrants out. So he went. Were there warrants out? No, let me tell you something. He got cuffed. I was nervous. Never convicted. My, uh, my kids, uh, will drive cars and get parking tickets and then I get something in the mail, as you know. Oh yeah. And I'm thinking to myself, what if my kid, but no, he came back as, uh, he was joking, no warrants. And he goes, Hey, have a great night. And I, and it was amazing. What a nice guy. You know, amazing guy. Didn't even say, I'm going to let you over the one. He didn't even have to say that. He was just like, Oh yeah, you're going a little fast. And then he was kicking it around with us. Anyway, hats off to. The modem eat I police officer. He was probably the Washington County Sheriff's Department. Okay, I I don't yeah but what amazingly nice guy and I will agree with that the I Myself have been pulled over a number of times. It's usually for distracted driving. Yeah, and you know I look at my phone from time to time. Oh, John. Fox News updates. Fox News, that's, you know, you just never know. Fox News headlines. We gotta get going. Alright. One piece, one last piece of business. Oh, you've got another, uh. We've had a challenge going for everyone to donate blood. Yeah, I hope and everyone had a chance to do that John you get a chance to do that during this I had blood drawn Okay, that's not quite the same. It's not I would encourage people to do that because it really does help especially During the yep tricky seasons. I want to create a new challenge I want to put a new challenge out there between now and the holiday see end of the holiday season Yeah, this is maybe not what you think I'd want to say But what would want to challenge people to do but I say let's let's do it Call someone you haven't spoken to in a while. Mm hmm. So whether it's a family member yeah, a friend you haven't seen in a while if you think of them or Really find yourself thinking of a person call them checking with them because in this current day and age with you know Texting I'll actually call somebody a phone Talk to them give them that your thoughts give them that you're thinking of them and it will change That person's day and probably yours as well. You get a little oxytocin given. Yeah, you give it out you get it back You This is the time to do it. Can I add a caveat to that? Make sure it's not like an old boyfriend or girlfriend. Yeah, we're not doing that. That could lead to a really Disappointing Christmas, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, I do. That's a good challenge. That's a good point. So I Along those lines. Yeah, I Happen to be interviewed during the halftime of the gopher football game on the gopher broadcast And as I'm walking back from the the interview thing to the as I was at a suite. Oh Anyway shocker I get Uh, uh, a message on messenger from Rick Granger, Dr. Richard Granger, who lives out in Seattle, happened to be listening to the gopher football game. Wow. So all of a sudden John Schweitz is on there. I thought that was pretty cool. That is cool. Yeah. That is a little regret. And how about this? Rick Granger. So Rick Granger. So he, he texted me. I was working out and I'm like, who's not surprised. You know, do you remember Rick? He was always just. Sure. He still is. Yeah. We're friends on Facebook and he always wears shirts without sleeves and it's like, come on, poor guy. He's got a sleeve issue. Oh, geez. But I just thought, you know, that was very nice. And that's cool. Yeah, I, I think that's, that's a really, that's a great challenge. I've talked to an old friend, an old cousin, an aunt. Do you have anybody that comes to mind? Um, I do this, I do this a lot. I love calling people. I've, I called Michael years ago. Like, hey, well, you know, I just like to check in with people. And now he's a co host. And now look at him. I said, who dis? Yeah. No, I didn't. I didn't. Steve Brown. That sounds familiar. Um, yeah, I don't know. I can't think of it right now. Yeah, I forgot some names that bubble right up to the top. You know who I'd like to get back on is Lino Rulli. Oh yeah. I'd like to catch up and see what Lino's up to. Lino. He's a busy man. He's got a little baby girl now. He's very happy. Where is he? He's got a baby girl. He's like a 50 year old man. I know, listen, I know we're up on time. I got Lino. It's Lino, right? So, Lino did this, um, Like, he'd hang around with these priests. He would do this Catholic show. Yeah, the Catholic guy. Yeah, yeah, the Catholic guy. And I, I tuned into it. I, Just, I didn't know you knew him, right? I This was like 2001. 2002. Yeah. And it was like community television or something. Yeah. And I tuned into it and I was like, church. Yeah. I don't know who it was. I was like, this guy, this guy, I love this guy. It's funny, right? I super funny, loved his shtick. I'm like, so then I would tune in, like I would go to it and people are like, you're weird. I'm like, no, I'm not. This guy's amazing. So. Steve's doing a show in St. Anthony, like in 2003. Oh, yeah. An outdoor show. Yeah, an outdoor show. And I don't remember this, yes, and uh, I, I go to the show, Michelle and I go to the show and I see this lean, I see this guy watch on TV all the time and Steve goes, Oh, that's a friend of mine. And like introduce me. I was just so stoked. Starstruck. I was like, Oh my God, you're the, you're the Catholic guy. This is amazing. I got Steve Brown and Lino Rulo. Yeah, right. You know, seriously, it's like Dave Grohl and, and, uh, Father Guido Sarducci. Yes, yes, yes. That's exactly right. That's an old reference. This is going to be a long one. Yeah. Sorry. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Happy Thanksgiving. And off we go.