We Don’t Know K‑Pop, But We Know Prime Rib

Feeling tugged to pick a side—left or right, secular or religious, old school or ultra-online? We start the year by stress-testing a simple idea: friendship can thrive across deep differences. On one mic, a progressive Christian. On the other, a conservative atheist. What keeps us laughing, learning, and listening when the world rewards outrage?

We warm up with Rose Bowl nostalgia, family fandoms, and New Year travel plans, then get practical about resolutions that stick. One of us lays out a straightforward system—write “I will” goals, set dates, build a strategy, revisit often. The other leans on Stoicism’s clean rule: discipline today is love for your future self. That shift turns willpower into care and makes everyday choices—like what you reach for in the kitchen—feel purposeful, not punitive.

From there, we swing through a stack of book recommendations that jump from Vonnegut to Postman, from Orwell to Bart Ehrman and Robert Wright, plus a detour into Cormac McCarthy. Reading logs help us gift by taste, not trend, and we share a favorite memory of trading Clueless for Bollywood during a quiet college break. Then we face the present: 2025’s creators, K‑pop universes, Roblox worlds, and the “reads Reddit stories” genre. We’re honest about what we don’t get and curious about why it works.

Finally, we rewind to 1995—Windows 95, Seinfeld and Friends, Braveheart, Seven, the OJ verdict, Oklahoma City, Jerry Garcia’s passing, and even Mississippi’s late ratification of the 13th Amendment. The comparison sparks a bigger question: which AI-era startups are today’s eBay, hiding in plain sight? Along the way, a playful riff on bizarre laws reminds us how systems and habits calcify—and why pruning matters.

If you like thoughtful conversation with warmth, candor, and a little chaos, you’re in the right place. Follow Living on Common Ground, share it with a friend, and leave a review telling us one resolution your future self will thank you for.

©NoahHeldmanMusic

https://livingoncommonground.buzzsprout.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Does it feel like every part of your life is divided? Every scenario, every environment, your church, your school, your work, your friends, left, right, conservative, liberal, religious, secular. It seems you always have to take a side. This is a conversation between a progressive Christian and a conservative atheist who happen to be great friends. Welcome to Living on Common Ground. Do you think if we met today, we would still be friends? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

But we're friends now.

SPEAKER_06 0:38

A mom is not as a mom because they are living in a dog. Man, so well, we want a few games. And y'all fools think that's something? Man, that ain't nothing, y'all. And you know what else? We ain't nothing either. Yeah, we came together in camp. Cool. But then we're right back here, and the world tells us that they don't want us to be together. We fall apart like we ain't a damn bit of nothing, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Hey, this is Jeff. This is Loki. Get it? No, I don't either. No. Loki. Uh no, uh, it's it's Happy New Year. Today is New Year's Day, and um hopefully you are got plans to watch uh a parade if you haven't already watched it.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

Okay, sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

And um the Rose Bowl parade, because that's the only one that matters.

SPEAKER_04 1:43

Is that a good one?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Come on. I know it's Southern California. Who pays attention? But Pasadena, the Rose Bowl parade. That used to be the only bowl that mattered was the Rose Bowl.

SPEAKER_04 1:56

I know this is your this is your bugaboo, huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Back when it was Pac 10 and and Big Ten, and it was actually 10 and 10.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Right?

SPEAKER_04 2:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

And and then if you won the Big Ten and you won the Pac 10, uh-huh. You met in the Rose Bowl. Oh. Yep. Every year. Oh, that's cool. So it was like a Super Bowl. Yeah. Okay. And it was, um, and that was back when America was great.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

It's uh this is this is uh the only issue that Jeff has been non-stop petitioning Trump on. Restore the v the sanctity of the Rose Bowl.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

I think so. I think that you need to make Oregon and USC and all of those characters.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

US one of them is some one is UCLA.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

They all need to go back into the Pac-10.

SPEAKER_04 2:44

Some one of them's in the SEC now, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Something like that? Well, those have those guys have joined the Big Ten. That's ridiculous. The Big Ten is a mid used to be a Midwest conference. Yeah. And then you'd and you so you'd have the big beefy Midwesterners go and beat up the Southern Californians. Yeah. I wouldn't go up against an Iowa boy. Right? I mean, and I'm, you know, it's tongue in cheek, but a lot of times I can remember it was corn fed boys.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

You gotta be careful about those things.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

It always seemed like it was a home game for USC.

SPEAKER_04 3:14

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Because they always they seem to always be winning the Pac-10. But it was like Arizona, Arizona State, like all of them.

SPEAKER_04 3:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

They were the Pac-10.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

And then so you had the West Coast playing the Midwest. Uh-huh. We didn't care about the rest of the country.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Growing up, SEC, I was like, I don't even know what that is. Yeah. Anyway. All those weirdos down in Alabama. I um it is college football day. It is New Year's Day. Happy New Year. Is there uh is there college football on New Year's? Oh please. You know, uh just getting into it. Stanford. That hey, that's closer to you. I'm not I'm not California anymore.

SPEAKER_04 3:50

Yeah, Stanford, I know. Stanford Stanford was uh yeah, that's true. That it was close to me.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

You can take true, you can take the boy out of California, but you can't take California out of the woods.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

That is true. That is true. Yeah. Um we are we are a UT family now because my oldest wants to go to UT, so we have a flag and everything.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Did you see the eye roll? Could you hear the eye roll? Okay. I know.

SPEAKER_04 4:09

Uh we're fairweather, man. We are the epitome of latecomer fairweather fans, man.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

So if I have to pick an SEC team, first of all, I think I'd rather get punched in the face than have to actually pick an SEC team. But if I had to, uh it's van and actually I take that back. I don't want to get punched in the face. It's Vandy. I've got I've got multiple Vanderbilt hoodies. I got a Vanderbilt hat. I got Yeah, absolutely.

unknown 4:35

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

Unacceptable. No, it's great. I don't care. Yeah. Anchor down. Hey, um uh since it is New Year's, I hope that people are making resolutions. I am a big, big fan of doing resolutions on New Year's.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Okay, that's not our topic for today, but let's hear resolutions. What's gonna be yours?

SPEAKER_04 4:56

Well, I'm I'm a big fan of goal setting no matter what. Like anytime, anywhere, sit down, write some goals, you know, two or three goals, um, make them, you know, do it correctly, create the strategy, create the action plan. Um, I uh early in the school year, I took both of my boys for uh an overnight goal setting retreat. And um it was great. We went and worked out and then we drove to Bowling Green and we had dinner and we had our goal setting meeting.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Really?

SPEAKER_04 5:29

Uh-huh. And we we wrote out um, all three of us, we wrote out what went well last school year, what did we learn? Okay, what could we improve on? Of course, I I thought of last year instead of last school year. And uh and then had them write out, I think it was like three goals for the next school year.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:50

And do it correctly, right? There's a there's a way, I think, to do it. You create a time frame and you write it out like this.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

You say So is there the is there the right way, the wrong way, and Lucas's way?

SPEAKER_04 6:00

I think there is a I yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Or is it just the wrong way and Lucas's way? That's more likely. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:07

But you write out you write out I will X, you know, do X, B X, whatever, buy, and then you put a date on it. You gotta have a date. And uh, you know, then the strategy and everything. So I'm I'm a big fan of that. Um I think that even when you inevitably don't hit the goals exactly as you wrote them out, they push you down a road, and then you then you see where you're gonna go, you know, and then you continue to revisit them. I'm a big fan of affirmations, I'm a big fan of all this. So I know that like it is it's um it's fun to poo-poo on New Year's resolutions. Um, but I think if it gets people to think about making a change in their life, I think that's great anytime. So whatever you gotta do, you know. Do you do you have you thought of one? I have my regular goals anyway. Um I don't know that I have particular resolutions. My resolution, my um my goals uh would be, you know, I have them separated out into um like health goals. So I have a weight goal, I have lifting goals, um, eating goals, things like that, water uh intake, stuff like that. Uh I have business goals, so I have like particular parameters or metrics that I want to hit uh for business. Um I have relationship goals with Krista and with my kids um and and with friends as well. And then I have like um like kind of personal reading goals, which I never hit, but I'm I can tell you.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

That's awesome. Because I started counting audiobooks. You should, I guess. I don't know. You you're the one that convinced me that that was Yeah, I think you should. Yeah, I'm good with it.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Your yours was what? Uh a book a week? Yeah. Is that what it was? Yeah. So what do you do uh did you keep count after you count a journal?

SPEAKER_01 7:59

I have a journal of all the books I've read.

SPEAKER_04 8:02

Really? Mm-hmm. Do you have like a little note about them?

SPEAKER_01 8:05

No. I just have the name just the name? Name of the book and the author, uh-huh, and then each uh what number it is that year. And I've been doing this for three years. That's so cool. So like yeah, so like um Madison drew a friend's name for the they do a gift exchange. And he uh has very similar uh interests to me, she has told me. So she she texted me when she drew his name and she said, Hey, could you have any book recommendations? And I was like, Oh. So I went back and I just reviewed my three-year reading log and started texting her.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

Mm-hmm. It's like that meme where uh where the um the the boy asks the question of the dad of something like the World War II question, and the dad like it all gets really quiet, and the dad turns towards like, I've been waiting my whole life.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

I know that. Yeah, it um it it was I mean, eventually she just was like, shouldn't have asked. I'm pulling it up, right? So like um, so yeah, she texts me, hey dad, I got I I don't want to use his name because I don't know. Um I do think he does listen, and I know he's been reading some things and stuff. Um, but and I didn't ask him. So she got this a friend of hers for Secret Santa and talked about we have similar, and then she said, Um, you know, he loved Frankenstein, he's read the Odyssey, the Torah, existential theology, thinking books you love, stuff like that. And so I just read the Odyssey. Yeah, well done. And so I said, okay. And then my listen to this kind of response. What kind of book do you want to get him? A novel, fiction, nonfiction, dystopian, theology, philosophy? Like I just right, and she's like, She's like, oh no, I've made a mistake. I know, right? She's like, uh, so she just responds, any any that you think are good. Just anything. God, just give me a book. So then I was like, okay, here we go. So I just I just pulled out a few of my favorites. Right. Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman.

SPEAKER_04 10:06

Great, great book.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Right? Uh Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Animal Farm by George Orwell.

SPEAKER_04 10:15

I'm liking this recommendation list because they're all things that I've read.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah. Soul Boom by Rain Wilson. Uh-huh. Uh The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I know you're very excited about that one. It was so good. Um, and then I said there I've also read some pretty heady stuff as well as some stoic philosophy.

unknown 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Like recommend war and peace. I I intentionally did not, right? Um I have one recommendation.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

You must get this for him. War and peace.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

War and peace. Um, I almost did though, um, Crime and Punishment, because I think that's a really good one. Um, so then I wrote uh she said, I have amusing ourselves to death. I like that one. Yeah, good. And then I said 1984 by George Orwell. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

SPEAKER_04 11:04

That's a great actually, that's a really great book. Uh gift book. That's it, that would be my recommendation. The whole list, even though I love all of those, that would be my recommendation because it's gonna, it would turn him. If he hasn't read Vonnegut already, it would turn him on to Vonnegut. And once if you like, if you end up liking Vonnegut, it becomes like an obsession.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

I I really love it. Yes, John, John um got me that for Christmas last year. And I had it done like before Christmas.

SPEAKER_04 11:35

Yeah, it's very easy. He's a very easy read. It was great.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Um, and then she said, and I know he's read 1984 and Slaughterhouse Five, so she he's already read those. Um and then I said, How about Evolution of God by Robert Wright? And or How Jesus Became God by Bart Ehrman. Oh, look at that. That's a good one, right? I think you recommended that one to me.

SPEAKER_04 12:01

Um, you know it's a good recommendation is Blood Meridian. Blood Meridian by Cormc McCarthy.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:08

Corm McCarthy, who wrote um uh uh No Place for No Place for Old Men.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

The that they turn into a movie. Also wrote The Road, which they turn into a root movie, which has my absolute favorite line from any book is The Road, which is a phenomenal book, also, but it's just it's a hard one.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Who wrote it?

SPEAKER_04 12:29

Cormac Mc McCarthy. Blood Meridian's considered his his seminal work, but um The Road has the best line I've ever heard in my entire life.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

What nothing? I was gonna say something about those were good spelling. So I wasn't done. And then I ended with this one A Hunter Gatherer's Guide to the Twenty First Century. I like that entire uh list because I know a lot of them. Yeah, I um oh my god, look at this text. This is this is from uh one of the friends of the show. She's texting me. Right now? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so uh, real quick while I'm thinking about this, I'm gonna see if she'll come on for the episode after New Year, after this one. Good. Yeah. Because I I want to talk about something that you had said that really struck a chord with her.

SPEAKER_04 13:25

She needs to she needs to be on. I can't believe we haven't had her on yet. She constantly is talking about the show.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Yeah, and I think we need to have her on because she wants to talk about um not because she talks about the show.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

But she's got a lot of good stuff to say. Yeah. She has a lot of good insights. And um, but but what she what she's gonna want to talk about, or what I'm gonna want her to talk about specifically, is the idea that um let's see, I want to make sure that I get it right. It it is let's see, if it's at the labor of someone else, it's not a right.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

It's a fundamental libertarian principle.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

And so I wanna I want her to be able to talk about that rather than me tell us what she said about it. Okay. So that being said, me for New Year's.

SPEAKER_04 14:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

What I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

I'm sorry, I didn't ask you.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

What's your yeah, what's your I'm not gonna wait till you ask, I'm just gonna tell. Um I want to I want to fully embrace this um this concept that I came across reading Stoicism this year. That sh uh discipline today is loving your future self. Beautiful. I could not love that more.

SPEAKER_04 14:38

Isn't that great? It's wonderful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

So I really want to fully embrace that.

SPEAKER_04 14:42

It's not deprivation, it is a it is a yeah, it it's exactly what I just repeat. I would just repeat.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

I so that's great. My goal is to try to fully embrace that.

SPEAKER_04 14:53

Mm-hmm. Think about future Lucas and taking care. It it's um it's similar to one of uh Jordan Peterson's um 12 rules for life, which is treat yourself as if you are someone that you care about. I did that wrong. It's something like that. Yeah, treat yourself as if you are a person that you would care for.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

So that's that I have it. I actually I wrote it on my whiteboard in my kitchen. I love that. So that like when I go in there, because my big thing is like not eating well. All right. And um, and I'll do really, really well and then I'll and then I'll slip up for a whole weekend.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Right. And um, and so I have it on my whiteboard in my kitchen so that when I start to feel the urge to just sort of go through the snacky food in the pantry, I can remind myself of that.

SPEAKER_04 15:46

And um, you're not depriving yourself.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

You're I am not depriving for your future self. I am showing myself love. Yeah. Yep. So that's the thing. All right, so what we're what we're gonna talk about, and I think today, I think this can be a short episode because uh it's New Year's Day and and we want you to um drink a lot and no, you did that last night and watch college football. Yeah, you may be getting up late. Um it yeah, it reminds me of a time that we had uh we were doing prime rib on New Year's Day. Oh, that's a great idea. Yeah, except uh for the person in our house who drank too much and um that was that's their favorite meal, and they they came down to eat. They almost they the smell of the meat made them run back upstairs.

SPEAKER_04 16:34

So I've never cooked a prime. Do you do prime rib in the oven?

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:38

Is that what you do? You just like slow roast it for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

That sounds like a great idea. We're gonna be gone for years.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

You keep the rib, yeah. Right, and then you cut the rib off, and then you have the ribs to eat, and then you cut the steaks.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

And that's what they have at a like at a restaurant, they have they've cut the rib off after they've roasted it.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 16:59

I want to try that sometime. It's good. We're gonna be in universal.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

I tell you what, um, we usually, because uh prime rib goes on sale usually around this time of year. Uh uh Denise and I will have you guys over and I will make prime rib at the house. That sounds great. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 17:16

We are. I should I said we will be. We because it is New Year's Day today, we are in Universal. That's where we are.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Excellent.

SPEAKER_04 17:25

That'll be that's great for the first time. We are and we're loving it.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

We're on Long Island. Oh, wonderful. Yeah. That's good. So I've never been to Long Island. I I think today, if I'm not mistaken, we're gonna go see the Islanders play. Is that baseball? Come on, Lucas.

SPEAKER_04 17:41

That sounds like hockey. Yeah. Is that hockey? It is hockey. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Very good.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

I almost said hockey and then I said baseball because I thought it'd be funnier.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Yeah. Wrong. It is baseball season right now because they are in their winter meetings.

SPEAKER_04 17:55

Does that mean that it's always baseball season? Yeah, it's always baseball season.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Right? Okay, what's your list? We have we have an idea for today. Trending topics in the U.S. for 2025. Here we go, right? Yes. Uh, and so we're gonna do that. We're gonna look at top creators in the U.S., top songs. Okay. So I got a lot of tops. Completely pointless because I'm not gonna know any of them. Well, this and but then we're gonna go back and we'll look at the 1995 top trending topics. Yeah, the real ones. Okay. So uh this year, Squid Games. Okay. Um, I've heard of it.

SPEAKER_04 18:27

I know Squid Games. Yeah, I've Squid Game.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Yeah. Not a game. Squid game. It is. I had games.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

That's like it's like when you say the Walmart. Or like that said more about any of this.

SPEAKER_04 18:45

Or like like my my in-laws would always call Red Robin Red Robins. Let's go to Red Robins. My grandma used to say Chick-a-fil.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

That's perfect. I'm getting to the age. So obviously, that's not what I'm familiar with.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

You're dying. I don't mean that literally.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

I'm gonna cry.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Because it just points out how well I know this list. All right, I'm gonna do a better job of trying to read them. User-generated Roblox experiences. Grow a garden, Dandy's world forsaken. I've heard of Forsaken. I think it's the right one. And steal a brain rot. Yeah. I don't know those words. I I think I know Forsaken.

SPEAKER_04 19:39

You know Roblox.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

No. You don't know Roblox? No, what is it?

SPEAKER_04 19:43

Roblox is a um it's an online uh gaming community game thing. Okay. Um I'll be honest. This is gonna make me sound really old. Uh and like uh crossety. I don't think kids should be playing on it. Okay. Uh it is open world. And so it is like um it's like complete open sandbox, right? Which just means like it's it's a it's a game that anybody can come in and be a character anywhere. Okay. And so there's a lot of this is this is a real bummer. There's a lot of instances of um of uh older adults grooming kids on there. Yeah. So that's a it's a problem. Anyway, but as far as the actual games, what it does, the real thing that it that it does that um uh that it kind of developed into is it allows the players to create their own games with the tools that they provide and so some of these games like um grow a garden I know only I only know that one because um some of Ellis's friends play it and they're like really into it. It's like um remember Farmville? No. On Facebook when Facebook first came out anyway it's just it's just you just grow a garden that's all you do.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Okay. Anyway K pop demon hunters.

SPEAKER_04 21:02

Yeah I'm aware of this one.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

I've never seen any of it but it's a huge it was a huge deal like three months ago.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

What is K-pop?

SPEAKER_04 21:09

Is that those little K-pop is the name for um like a like uh band like band production like a band production studio kind of in Korea. It's Korean okay and K-pop is like um how best to describe it think how American Idol produced many stars and you could say like this is American Idol right uh the American Idol it's kind of analogous to that it's not exactly because they put together like bands of uh that are made up of kids like young adult kids sure and so they're part of k-pop okay so then that's how it started that's been a thing for a decade or more okay k-pop demon hunters is like it's like a show based on k-pop and then they're like they're also somehow like saving the world on this show.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

I don't know the kids are really interesting so far I'm not interested in any of this. Yeah uh it all sounds like number four brain rot.

SPEAKER_04 22:18

Yeah brain rot is well brain rot is like um it's like YouTube videos that are like they have no purpose at all and they're just dumb and then but then they catch on they go viral and so they're called brain rot. But I'm sure there's more to it than that. My kids could ex explain brain rot probably better.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Uh Charlie Kirk was a trending topic. Sure. And um unfortunately we all know about that not unfortunately because just because the whole situation because he's trending because he got assassinated. Yeah um Laboo I don't know from Lubu. I don't know this I know this one coming up Nintendo Switch 2 well done yeah yep cookie run kingdom that's like a some phone game I think I don't know did you notice how almost every one of them I asked I had a question mark at the end of it you only added the S to the first one though so well done I'm doing better. Yeah uh blue lock yeah I don't know I don't know what that is at all cat's eye spelled with a K. And it's all one word. Uh is this a person? I don't know I don't know what this is.

SPEAKER_04 23:23

All right so top creators in the US YouTube creators yeah I guess I don't know uh Mr Beast yeah Mr Beast I know Mr Beast everyone knows Mr Beast no callus blocks nope I show speed nope double date nope cattle cadle I don't know C A D E L and Mia nope Charlie Kirk okay um law by mic law by mic I do think I know that one yeah I think I'm pretty I he's I think if I'm thinking about the right guy that's an attorney and he's been really successful at getting um his videos his videos out interesting guy Corey X Kenshin nope Zach D films nope outdoor boys outdoor boys I know that one is cool actually you would love that one actually there have have you gotten into speaking of have you gotten into the um um the YouTube world of of hiking and outdoor like outdoor survival this is a rabbit hole I think you could live in for a long time because you love hiking so much and you love well and backpacking all that there's several um that I've seen and I'm not even really into it although I really like this this is it's interesting um it they're just it's you know guys women men and women um that will go out and um they'll just backpack and they'll survive and they'll show you how they they're doing it and they're whatever you know and um they're cooking out there they're hunting they're fishing they're building a fire they're yeah I'd rather be out there doing it than watch no I know but like they're showing you techniques they're whatever when I the last time when I was on the Appalachian Trail there was people that they had their selfie sticks and stuff and like they were they were creating video.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Yeah all right top songs here we go because I will know none um Bruno Mars Lady Gaga Die with a smile nope okay uh Rose I think and Bruno Mars APT nope so Bruno Mars got two of them on there well done okay the next three four three well four of the top ten are by this K-pop demon hunters okay Hunter X no uh Saja Saya Saja Boys Soda Pop I don't know what is happening I don't know Saja Boys Your Idol I go okay so the names of the songs Golden was the first uh how about this one Victor Valvadir and Junior Torres El Major de la Ranias de los Rañas I'm sorry no I don't know El Major de los Ranias okay uh hunter X so this is another K-pop demon hunters cast how it's done Alex Warren ordinary is that I probably would recognize if I heard it I don't I don't I wouldn't I'm gonna be honest with you now I know okay so I know I know Bruno I know of Bruno Mars and I know of the person that gets the last two but I couldn't I could not tell you if I was listening to them. Kendrick Lamar Okay yeah sure okay S Z A Luther You know this the song I know no I know Kendrick Lamar Oh that's the name of the song Kendrick and then the song is the S Z A Luther or with S A and the song is Luther and then the last one is Kendrick Lamar and the song is TB Off. Robbie's a big Kendrick Lamar fan yeah well he did um you know he did the uh halftime show uh at the beginning of the year last uh last Super Bowl I don't know this people are gonna be like what seriously guys what is the point of this you read a list and said I don't know anything about any of that okay now Jeff read it wrong I think that's what's the point that is the point all right all right let's go to top podcast I'm skipping the other list because there's no way I know it okay I mean top songs on shorts that's that's pretty specific yeah right but I know some of the people I know black eyed peas they're on the list black eyed peas is on a 2025 list rock that body because it was used as a song in a short oh yeah okay fine right and Billie Eilish Oceanize sure I know Billie Eilish actually I've downloaded uh one of her albums Judge Me Away all right she's a very pretty voice I like her I like her song um so top podcasts yeah this one's not a surprise Rogan yep the Joe Rogan experience how many years has he been the top has he been the top I don't know how many years some of his episodes are like really long yeah and that's hard for me I don't know how long he's been the top I would guess he's been the number one podcast for if I was gonna guess I would say five years.

SPEAKER_04 28:44

I'm nearly positive he got his Spotify deal in 2019 it might have been 2018 and he was number one and that's how he got it.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 28:53

Prior to that I had listened to him for like three or four years prior to that.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

And he was um random and then he um became you know big right before like run eighteen or nineteen something so um I know I know that I'm familiar with that one but I like my episode I like my um podcast to be an hour or less. Sure.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Right? Which is right sort of within our Yeah. Yeah because we're 45 minutes 45 minutes or so yeah. Sometimes we we go over if we have a guest. All right. Uh number two, kill Tony.

SPEAKER_04 29:22

Yeah that's comedy. Okay. It's a comedy one.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Number three, good mythical morning.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

Yeah oh that's a that's interesting. I used to walk my kids used to watch them as a YouTube channel and there are a couple of guys and um they're just kind of funny and they're they were geared toward kids. And that's why they would watch them. That's interesting that they're top podcasts. I didn't know they were doing that. Okay. Rotten Mango Rotten Mango I don't know from Rotten Mango. The Midas Touch podcast? I have listened to that maybe once business I think I think it's a business podcast.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

48 hours that's a top podcast number six.

SPEAKER_04 30:01

This makes me mad. You know why that's top podcast just because they came in with a bunch of production money. That's gotta be the reason.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:08

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

I didn't know they were still going so if anybody wants to help us get bigger uh provide us some production money. Nah I like being small you're welcome yeah the show the Denise would appreciate some production money because every time the credit card bill shows up she's like what's this I was like yeah all right uh Sean Ryan show oh yeah Sean Ryan's good yeah he's just an interview show yeah interesting Mosh Reads Reddit stories.

SPEAKER_04 30:38

I don't know this one. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

This past weekend with Theo Vaughn?

SPEAKER_04 30:43

So the Reads Reddit stories that is a genre okay so that's really interesting that that's a genre that a lot of YouTubers and podcasters have gotten into because I don't know how familiar you are with Reddit, but um it's a different so it's a different setup on social media. And so it lends itself more to uh longer responses. So it's like a it's like a topic and then there's lots of responses under there. And so a lot of times there will be like people just telling their stories on there. And um so there is a genre of YouTube videos of these guys that we recognize that my kids watch and then they'll they'll read these stories and then respond to them. So the response videos and then so it's so it's so meta because you're getting you're using content for your content that becomes more content because then people will respond to your responses, right? Anyway.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

It makes sense. Yeah so um I'm I'm familiar with the words of that Reddit stories. I've heard of at least I've heard of Reddit stories or Reddit read I've heard of Reddit yeah but um okay the the ninth one was this past weekend with Theo Vaughn. Yep that's uh comedy Theo Vaughn is a comedian okay and then the diary of a CEO Diary of number two is good.

SPEAKER_04 32:02

That's a I've I've listened to that a couple times it's a business podcast also.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

All right so now let's see how much more of these we know 1995. All right all right so at this point I had been married uh two years three well getting close to three years because I got married in ninety three and I am um let's see I am either in eighth grade or in ninth grade depending on what part of the year it is let's imagine it's this time of the year.

SPEAKER_04 32:42

All right oh this is when Krista and I are dating the first time really when we're kid like kids kids like I was 12, 13 years old.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Okay. Yeah. All right 1995 was dominated by major events like the Oklahoma City bombing I was just gonna say Oklahoma City bombing bombing yeah the Tokyo Subway Saren attacked I remember hearing about that but I didn't really know much about it. OJ Simpson verdict yeah man that was a good one here's a big one the release of Windows 95.

SPEAKER_04 33:11

I wasn't really familiar with that yeah when that happened yeah our uh Do you remember I mean like obviously you remember OJ. Oh I remember do you remember the Tokyo City sarin gas yeah I mean I remember hearing about it but I didn't like pay much attention to it.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Yeah because I would have been let's see in 95 I would have been so that's 30 years ago right? You've been 23, right? Twenty-four. Twenty four yeah yeah yeah um in 24 I was married we were just having a great time we were still young and we drank a lot of beer and ate a lot of wings and played darts a lot at a place called Dirty Mouse. Awesome. Yeah it was a great life um and uh it's interesting Windows 95 uh now we're we're getting rid of our finally getting rid of our church uh computer that runs our system for worship it has Windows 10 awesome yeah time to get rid of it all right um then also in pop culture um braveheart came out that was a big big movie that year i rewatched it this last week actually clueless one of my all-time favorite movies yeah when I was a freshman in in college I'll tell you a real quick story this is my favorite story about it.

SPEAKER_04 34:23

I've never seen clueless I've never seen clueless well I can understand you were 24 whatever um uh I was a freshman in college and um I lived right next door to um a guy who is an international student named Avik Batacharia um and he is he was great I I love Vik he was on the debate team with us um he got I believe a perfect score on his SAT wow um from India um and so I it was like it was spring break or it was fall break or one of those like kind of short breaks um and uh so he obviously wasn't going home and he wasn't going anywhere he was staying in the dorms I wasn't going home because I didn't have any money um and so uh so we were both in the dorm and um right next door to each other and uh most everyone had left so it's it's kind of a cool like four or five days because like it's all deserted but we're allowed to be there you know and just he and I and so we ended up hanging out like three days in a row just like hanging out in both of our rooms yeah and um uh we decided we were gonna show each other like movies or pop culture from our different like stuff that we that we liked. I showed him Clueless I introduced him to Clueless and he introduced me to Bollywood a Bollywood movie which I freaking loved. Yeah I never had seen an actual Bollywood movie before and I thought I mean the music is phenomenal. Yeah it's so good and um and I was blown away like the acting was good like the it was um because it wasn't a low rent movie I mean it's it was a it was a sure full-on produced movie and I thought that it was just I thought it was great. So that's how I spent that so that's my clueless story is that I introduced I introduced India to clueless through a Evic. Avic was great here's the one last thing one last thing real quick Avic was great. He would go on these um debate trips with us and uh he was he was one of the most egotistical people that I've ever met in my entire life but he could back it up because he's a literal genius right and obviously had a very thick Indian accent and he would do he caught this is his words he would do his southern Alabama accent we were in Indiana he would do a southern Alabama accent with his thick Indian accent and I'm not going to try to do it obviously but it was hilarious it was one of my favorite parts of our debate trades anyway.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

No that's good. All right yep um Seinfeld and Friends were the top television shows. Yeah and uh never watched awesome I watch I mean I've seen Seinfeld and I've seen Friends but I never really became never got into them no viral song that year Macarena's good um and then um let's see eBay and match.com they started they launched okay okay yep Michael Jordan tried a return to the NBA and um that was the year Jerry Garcia died that's sad.

SPEAKER_04 37:42

So that's so interesting that eBay launched because if I'm a freshman in high school I'm barely aware of the internet I mean barely it's like this weird random thing that only rich people had in my mind that's that's how it felt we didn't so the idea so eBay launched right with um with the internet then like right at the same time because I because by the time I I'm graduating from college that is the way that you buy things on the internet is through eBay. And um so it makes me wonder I've been thinking about this too what are the companies that are launching along with AI right now the AI revolution that are nothing right now and are complete pipe dreams right that in 10 years are going to be the Amazon and people are going to be like well obviously that's what you do. You have AI do blah blah blah and then it you know whatever I can't I can't I can't even imagine I'm not creative enough. I shouldn't say that I'm just not thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Oklahoma City bombing yeah um let's see what else is on here the Bosnia war ended oh I remember that one um let's see there was the great uh earthquake that hit Kobe Japan I don't remember that I didn't either um oh this is very interesting uh for our progressive friends Mississippi finally ratified the 13th amendment abolishing slavery in 1995 in 95 and also that was the year that the rock and roll hall of fame in Cleveland opened um let's see okay uh topped the charts music wise cool's gangsta's paradise okay babe okay now this is for my wife uh yeah that that song is very very important to us okay I don't want to know that's fine it's not dirty I kind of feel like maybe there's some story that I don't want to know about stories you don't want to know about you can keep that between yourselves yeah uh River Dance debuted sure all right and uh No Doubts album Tragic Kingdom great great band movies we already mentioned a couple of them Pocahontas this Right here was one of my favorites. Seven.

SPEAKER_04 40:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Right?

SPEAKER_04 40:05

I try to get the um there's uh wrapping paper you can buy uh um that's got Brad Pitt on there that says what's in the box.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Yeah, what's in the box?

SPEAKER_04 40:13

Yeah, yeah. Great movie.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

I've got the DVD. Um so uh Batman Forever also came out.

SPEAKER_04 40:21

Sure, sure. And then that was back still in the uh the goofy Batman days, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

Um and then another television show that was big was uh ER.

SPEAKER_04 40:31

Yeah, yeah, big deal.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

Wasn't a big television person, did like all these shows. Uh let's see, what else? Oh, I was the runner up for this, but Brad Pitt won Sexiest Man Alive. Uh-huh. And uh and those are the big things from '95. I mean, there's more, but you know, we've only got an hour show, less than an hour show. So Gangstus Paradise, man.

SPEAKER_04 40:56

All right. It's a very important song.

SPEAKER_01 40:57

All right. So I think that uh what we have proved is that I'm an old man and that um I know we both are. Yeah, but you at least knew some of the stuff on the 2025 list.

SPEAKER_04 41:08

Yeah, that's that's a just a function of we said this last week. That's that's just a function of where our kids are.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

Yeah. And uh and I had no, I mean, but like the 95 list, I knew just about all of it, except in l the things that I didn't know in there were the uh Asian, like what happened in another another part of the country. Yeah. But if it happened in our world, I was aware of it.

SPEAKER_04 41:32

It's really interesting that um Mississippi ratified the 13th amendment in 95. I imagine that's one of those things where like, you know, it got it got passed, it got ratified. It was the law of the land. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

I picture them still debating it at their state capitol.

SPEAKER_04 41:47

Yeah, I imagine it probably was not even talked about for 150 years.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

I'm joking. I have friends from Mississippi and I'm just I tease. But it does make it tease because I love you.

SPEAKER_04 41:56

But it makes me wonder what was going on in 94, 93, 92 that kind of made it come back up. Yeah, like why would they even care to do it in ninety-five? You know what I mean? Yeah. Hold on.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Hold on. Is that AJ? Is it I'm I'm wondering something. Is it Rodney King? Rodney King happens a couple years ago. When did when did Rodney Rodney King was in ninety-two? Yeah. So it could have been, it could have been that um kind of sparked it. Yeah. That would make sense.

SPEAKER_04 42:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Right. Um and I'm willing to bet, completely willing to bet, that what happened is all of because I mean, and that really did sort of put everything in the front again as far as race relations, probably more so uh than anything since the 60s. And my guess is that happened, and a lawmaker in Mississippi was like, Oh my gosh, do you guys realize we never actually ratified that?

SPEAKER_04 42:53

And and it's and made their name off of it. Yeah. Was like, this is an opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

But everybody was like, Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_04 43:00

Really?

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Yeah. I mean, it and that goes back to some of the laws that are on the books that people are like, What? Yeah, they just get forgotten, and so there's no reason to it's against the law to carry ice cream in your pocket. That's just in in what state that is. But do you know why? No, that's why. Because horse thieves would put ice cream or something like that, and and then the horse would follow them.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

To try to um like leave.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

And they would lure the horse away. That's funny. And then when they got fur farther enough away, they could then steal the horse. Yeah. But otherwise you'd be like, I don't know why the horse is following me.

SPEAKER_04 43:35

See, that's a that's a great example of um of legal overreach that happens because what you're trying you could just make you could just keep horse theft illegal. But then they go, Well, yeah, but we gotta get ahead of that.

SPEAKER_01 43:51

Yeah, I think it's Texas where it's illegal to have a donkey in a bathtub. That's great. Yeah. I think we should keep all of these. Keep all these laws. This is fun. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 44:03

Keep keep a little bit of whimsy.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

I think it'd be fun. And then it would be it'd be fun to be like, I am such a bad guy. You should see all the laws I break. I put a donkey in my tub. Yeah. All right. Uh, I don't think there's I think the common ground is that uh we know more about 1995 than we did 2025. Yeah, very clearly. All right. Happy New Year, everybody. Happy New Year.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Thank you for listening to Living on Common Ground. Please follow wherever you listen to your podcasts and share it with your friends. You can also find a link to our social in the description. The more people we have living on common ground, the better the world will be.