Beer and Conversation Podcast

Why does the aftermath of every revolution look like a disaster — except ours?

Pigweed and Crowhill walk through the big ones.

* France’s Reign of Terror killed tens of thousands and left the country in chaos for a century.
* Haiti’s slave revolt produced 111 changes of head of state and has never stopped bleeding.
* Russia’s communist revolution promised a people’s paradise and delivered gulags and engineered famines.
* China’s Cultural Revolution had students beating their teachers to death and killed sparrows until the plague came.
* Cuba took one of the wealthiest islands in the Caribbean and turned it into a museum.

The common threads: destroy religion, abolish private property, eliminate the old institutions, and above all — try to create a new kind of man from scratch.

It never works. It always ends in mass death and tyranny.

What did America do differently?

The founders weren’t trying to remake human nature. They weren’t starting from year zero. They were British citizens who already had self-government, local institutions, and a functioning legal tradition — and they simply wanted the king to stop interfering with it. Conservative in the truest sense of the word.

Beer: Czech Style Pale Lager — Montgomery County, MD | 2025 Great American Beer Festival Gold

Benjamin Franklin was a printer, publisher, inventor, scientist, diplomat, entrepreneur, author, and Founding Father. He helped secure American independence, invented practical technologies still used today, built civic institutions, and retired wealthy at age 42.

He may well have been the most impressive American — maybe even the most impressive man — who ever lived.

In this installment of our America 250 series, Pigweed and Crowhill explore the remarkable life of the man some have called “the first American.”

Plus: a review of Monument City’s American Brown Ale.

Has Pride Month reached its peak?

Pigweed and Crowhill discuss the origins of Pride Month, the Stonewall riots, the changing meaning of the word “pride,” and why June feels different than it did just a few years ago. Along the way they explore corporate virtue signaling, rainbow branding, LGBTQ activism, transgender controversies, compelled speech in sports, and whether the movement has expanded so far that it is beginning to generate its own backlash.

The conversation also touches on biblical views of pride, the difference between accomplishment and identity, and why some activists, corporations, athletes, and even members of the LGBTQ community appear less enthusiastic than they once were.

Plus: a Southern Maryland IPA from Calvert Brewing Company.

Is the insanity defense a get-out-of-jail-free card — or does “not knowing right from wrong” actually make you more dangerous?

Pigweed and Crowhill dig into one of law’s most misunderstood doctrines: what the insanity defense actually requires, why it succeeds in only about 25% of the cases where it’s even attempted, and why the guys think the standard argument runs backwards. From the Son of Sam’s killer dog (mostly a myth) to the McNaughton Rule, the Garfield assassination, James Holmes, and a Florida State student who believed he was half dog — the case studies are wild, but the underlying question is serious: when someone genuinely can’t distinguish right from wrong, is that a reason for leniency, or a reason they should never be released?

Also: the boys review a blood orange blonde ale from Molly’s down in Prince Frederick. It actually tastes like orange. High praise.

The boys drink and review Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo Extra IPA, then move on to political strategy and methods.

Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals remains one of the most influential—and controversial—books on political organizing ever written. In this episode, Pigweed and Crowhill dive into the life and ideas of the Chicago community organizer whose methods have shaped activist movements for generations. From “pick the target” and “keep the pressure on” to the strategic use of ridicule, disruption, and media attention, they unpack Alinsky’s famous tactics and examine why they continue to be effective decades after they were first developed.

But the conversation goes beyond a simple review of organizing techniques. Are these tactics merely practical tools that can be used by anyone seeking political change, or do they encourage a permanent culture of conflict? Why do modern movements always seem to be searching for the next crisis, the next injustice, or the next cause? Pigweed and Crowhill explore whether activism has become less about solving problems and more about sustaining a mindset of perpetual agitation.

Along the way, they discuss Barack Obama’s background as a community organizer, Hillary Clinton’s connection to Alinsky, Ben Shapiro’s surprising praise for some of Alinsky’s methods, and the broader question of how political narratives are created, amplified, and maintained. Whether you see Alinsky as a champion of the powerless, a master strategist, or something more troubling, his influence on modern politics is impossible to ignore.

Is the government secretly poisoning us through airplane exhaust? Pigweed and Crowhill drink a couple of stouts and dig into the chemtrails conspiracy — one of the most persistent theories in the skies today.

They break down the real historical cases that give the theory its legs: Operation Sea Spray, Operation Large Area Coverage, MKUltra, and other documented government experiments conducted without public consent.

Then they weigh the actual claims — population control, weather modification, compliance drugs, corporate cover-ups — against the far simpler scientific explanation for contrails.

Along the way, the conversation drifts into cloud seeding (which is real and uncontroversial), the ethics of weather manipulation, trolley-problem-style moral dilemmas, and whether a slow chemical buildup could gradually make us all more compliant voters.

Their verdict? Totally false. But the kind of totally false that makes you understand exactly why people believe it.

Conspiracy Corner examines the plausible, the ridiculous, and the occasionally true — one theory at a time.

Welcome back to Conspiracy Corner, where Pigweed and Crowhill examine theories that range from ridiculous to surprisingly plausible. This episode tackles one of the internet’s newest suspicions: genetically engineered ticks.

Lyme disease is rising. Alpha-gal syndrome is spreading. Tick populations seem to be exploding. The government studies ticks. Universities study ticks. Billionaires fund research on insects. And somewhere in the background, people are talking about reducing meat consumption.

Is somebody deliberately releasing bioengineered ticks? Or is this just a perfect storm of coincidence, fear, and institutional distrust?

Pigweed and Crowhill sort through the facts, the rumors, the helicopter stories, the mysterious boxes, and the reasons this conspiracy theory has gained traction—even if the evidence doesn’t quite get it across the finish line.

Human moral judgment emerges from emotion, empathy, lived experience, social development, and our embodied understanding of the world. AI has none of those things. So, can artificial intelligence be taught right from wrong?

If we’re going to rely on AI (the way the tech bros want us to), we’re going to need to trust it, which means we’re going to need to believe it has a trustworthy moral sense. Is that reasonable? Or even possible?

Pigweed and Crowhill recall Google’s Gemini image-generation fiasco (where “give me an image of a pope” created anything but an image of a pope), which resulted from a ham-handed attempted to paste moral rules on top of AI. It was comically stupid, but entirely predictable.

Many people assume morality is simply a matter of following a set of rules, but no set of rules can create a proper moral sense.

The boys discuss hallucinated legal citations, content moderation, reinforcement learning, the limits of rule-based ethics, Isaac Asimov’s famous Three Laws of Robotics, and Pope Leo’s recent call for AI guardrails. The conversation also explores autonomous weapons, the global AI arms race, and the uncomfortable reality that even the engineers building these systems do not always understand how they arrive at their conclusions.

Their conclusion is both simple and unsettling: AI may become useful, powerful, and even trustworthy in certain contexts, but that is not the same thing as being moral. Machines may imitate moral reasoning, yet human beings must remain skeptical, vigilant, and ultimately responsible for the decisions AI helps make.

Can a machine have a conscience? Or are we fooling ourselves when we talk about “moral AI” at all?

The Southern Poverty Law Center began as a respected civil rights organization that targeted the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups. Decades later, however, critics argue that the SPLC has drifted far from its original mission, expanding its definition of “hate” to include mainstream religious, political, and advocacy organizations that simply disagree with progressive orthodoxy.

In this episode, Pigweed and Crowhill examine the controversy surrounding the SPLC, recent allegations that have damaged its reputation, and the growing number of corporations and institutions that are distancing themselves from the organization’s judgments. They also explore a larger question that extends well beyond the SPLC: what happens when an organization is funded by the existence of the very problem it claims to solve?

From racism and hate groups to environmental activism and public-interest nonprofits, organizations often face a difficult incentive structure. If they succeed, they become less necessary. If they fail, they can continue raising money, attracting attention, and expanding their influence. Is mission creep inevitable? Does every cause eventually become a business model? And when does a watchdog become an advocate for its own survival?

Along the way, Pigweed and Crowhill review a Manor Hill brown ale and discuss the complicated relationship between good intentions, institutional incentives, and the temptation to keep a crisis alive long after its original purpose has been served.

Were there always teenagers, or did modern society invent them?

Pigweed and Crowhill explore the surprising history of adolescence and the emergence of the modern teenager. For most of human history, young people moved directly from childhood into adult responsibilities. They worked on farms, served on ships, fought in wars, and contributed to family life from an early age. So what changed?

The conversation traces the rise of the teenager as a distinct social category in the 20th century, examining the effects of compulsory education, child labor laws, postwar prosperity, automobiles, rock and roll, advertising, and mass marketing. Along the way, they discuss powder monkeys in the age of sail, Shakespeare’s view of life’s stages, James Dean, Elvis Presley, the generation gap, and the creation of a youth culture unlike anything that had existed before.

Pigweed and Crowhill also consider the unintended consequences of teen culture: peer groups replacing families as primary influences, prolonged adolescence, changing expectations about responsibility, and the modern tendency to celebrate youth rather than maturity. Was the rise of the teenager an inevitable result of prosperity and social change, or did we accidentally create a cultural phenomenon that now shapes society far more than we realize?

As always, the discussion begins with a beer review—this time featuring an Imperial Pilsner from Heavy Seas—and ends with a few reasons for cautious optimism about the next generation.

Topics discussed:

* The history of adolescence
* Child labor and compulsory education
* Teen culture in the 1950s
* Rock and roll and youth identity
* Marketing to teenagers
* Responsibility and maturity
* Generational change
* Modern youth culture
* Family vs. peer influence
* The future of young adulthood

Crowhill and Pigweed drink and review a Sweet Baby Jesus chocolate peanut butter porter and discuss a question that’s challenged churches and society for centuries. Should religion and politics mix?

Using a collection of social issue position papers published by the United Methodist Church as a starting point, the conversation explores the history of Methodism, from John Wesley’s “heart strangely warmed” experience and the Holy Club at Oxford to the circuit riders who helped spread the movement across the American frontier. Along the way, they examine how Methodism became deeply associated with social reform, including efforts against slavery, drunkenness, and other social ills.

The discussion then turns to modern political issues, including immigration, worker justice, climate change, the death penalty, abortion, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Crowhill and Pigweed consider how churches apply biblical principles to contemporary policy debates, where the line between moral teaching and political advocacy should be drawn, and whether clergy are always equipped to speak authoritatively on complex public issues.

A recurring theme is the idea that movements formed in crisis often institutionalize a crisis mentality. If a religious movement was born by confronting genuine social problems, does it eventually develop a habit of searching for the next great cause? And does that tendency sometimes lead churches to exaggerate modern problems by comparing them to historic struggles such as slavery, Jim Crow, or the civil rights movement?

It’s a wide-ranging conversation about faith, public life, church authority, social reform, and the challenges of living out religious convictions in a deeply political age. Plus, as always, there’s a beer review to get things started.

Pigweed, Crowhill, and Longinus crack open a high-octane Voodoo Ranger “GeForce” IPA and head west into one of the greatest adventures in American history: the Lewis and Clark expedition. What begins as a discussion of America’s upcoming 250th anniversary quickly turns into a deep dive into the astonishing story of how a small band of explorers crossed an almost completely unknown continent armed with little more than maps, muskets, determination, and an absurd amount of practical skill.

The conversation covers the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson’s constitutional concerns about buying so much land, and the widespread belief that America had just purchased a giant worthless desert. The guys discuss Jefferson’s ambitious goals for the expedition — mapping rivers, collecting scientific samples, establishing diplomatic relations with Native tribes, searching for trade opportunities, and hopefully finding a navigable water route to the Pacific Ocean.

Along the way, they explore the personalities of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the remarkable role of Sacagawea and her infant son Jean-Baptiste, encounters with Native American tribes, brutal winters, grizzly bears, starvation in the Rockies, and the staggering amount of improvisation required just to survive. They also marvel at the sheer competence of frontier-era men who could build forts, construct canoes, map terrain, hunt, trap, waterproof boats with animal hides, and keep detailed scientific journals — all while trying not to die.

The episode also touches on the strange emotional aftermath of the expedition, especially the tragic decline of Meriwether Lewis after returning home from one of the greatest journeys in American history. The result is part history lesson, part meditation on exploration and resilience, and part appreciation for the rugged, multi-talented people who helped shape early America.

Also discussed: woolly mammoth rumors, whale blubber, drunken bargain malt liquor IPAs, and why showing up with a woman and a baby might be the greatest diplomatic strategy ever devised.

In this episode of Beer and Conversation, Crowhill, Pigweed, and Longinus crack open a West Coast pilsner and dive into the world of Louis L’Amour.

The boys review three L’Amour stories:

• Mistakes Can Kill You
• The Man from Battle Flat
• The Rider of the Ruby Hills

Along the way, they discuss frontier justice, cattle rustling, gunslingers, hidden competence, classic Western themes, and whether L’Amour deserves more literary respect than critics usually give him. They also explore the appeal of “formulaic” storytelling, memorable cowboy language, and how L’Amour’s deep historical research gave authenticity to his Westerns.

Topics include:

• Why Louis L’Amour became the defining Western writer of the 20th century
• The difference between “great literature” and great storytelling
• Western archetypes and the hero journey
• Real Old West terminology and ranch culture
• Why audiences often love familiar story structures

Plus: beer review, cowboy slang, and a surprising discussion about opium smuggling in a Western novella.

If you enjoy Western fiction, classic storytelling, or authors like Stephen King and Jack London, this one’s for you.

What if the modern world was shaped by people wanting better-tasting food?

In this episode of Beer and Conversation with Pigweed and Crowhill, we dive into the surprisingly wild history of the spice trade — from pepper worth its weight in silver to the Dutch East India Company, piracy, colonialism, the Columbian Exchange, and the discovery of chocolate, chili peppers, coffee, tea, and sugar.

Along the way, we explore:

• Why spices were once luxury items for kings
• How the search for cinnamon and pepper helped launch the Age of Exploration
• Why Columbus accidentally found the Americas
• How the Dutch created one of the world’s first mega-corporations
• The dark side of the spice trade: war, slavery, and empire
• Why your kitchen spice cabinet is a tiny museum of world history

Plus: Crowhill experiments with a homemade Manhattan variation called “The Dutch Indian.”

History, economics, food, exploration, trade, empire, and cocktails — all in one conversation.

In this episode of Beer & Conversation with Pigweed & Crowhill, the guys crack open a homebrewed IPA and dive into one of the most controversial ideas in modern culture: “suicidal empathy,” a term popularized by evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad.

The conversation explores:

• The difference between empathy and sympathy
• Why empathy evolved in human societies
• How compassion can become self-destructive
• The “weaponization of empathy” in politics and culture
• Immigration, tribal loyalty, and social cohesion
• The balance between compassion and judgment
• Whether modern Western culture has lost that balance

Along the way, Pigweed and Crowhill discuss evolutionary psychology, virtue signaling, theory of mind, and why even good virtues can become dangerous when pushed to extremes.

If you enjoy long-form conversations about culture, philosophy, politics, psychology, religion, and the strange state of the modern world, subscribe and join the discussion.