Beer and Conversation Podcast

The boys drink and review Old Fezziwig Ale from Sam Adams, then ask why English isn’t the official language of the United States.

Most countries have an official language. About 20 percent don’t. What’s the reason for the difference?

Generally speaking, a country needs a common culture, and a common culture usually requires a common language.

Language is the deepest carrier of culture — via idioms, jokes, and so on. The common language frames the way people interpret reality.

Do we want to have a common culture in our country or not?

What happens when you don’t have a common language? It obviously works sometimes. Switzerland seems to do fine with multiple languages. But in other cases, the lack of a common language can breed suspicion and distrust.

What is the barrier to declaring English the official language?

The boys drink and review a Mexican lager, then discuss the developing story about the U.S. conflict with Venezuela.

Was the U.S. justified in sinking Venezuelan drug boats?

What about seizing oil tankers?

And then sending in a team to capture the Venezuelan president?

Did we go too far, or is this a legit response to a threat in our hemisphere?

And why is the U.S. so worried about Venezuela all of a sudden?

The boys review recent events and comment on the policy, legality, and political implications of our recent actions.

Join us for a deep dive into this fascinating topic.

The boys drink and review Mad Elf, a strong holiday ale, then discuss the idea that college kids are getting dumber. Is that true?

We’ve gone from a time when high schools taught Greek and Latin to a time when colleges teach remedial math.

Comedians love to poke fun at the stupidity of our college students with “man on the street” interviews, where college kids can’t identify the country to the north.

What’s happened? For one thing, reading has decline precipitously. For another, many colleges have abandoned entrance requirements.

But there’s a lot more.

* Is it a good thing, as a matter of policy, to have a more educated population?
* Is college the right place for everybody?
* What’s the federal role?

There’s no question there are uneducated, unprepared, stupid kids in college. But does that mean they’re all dumber?

The boys drink and review Awkward Silence, a black lager from Flying Dog, then discuss a conversation between Milo Yiannopoulos and Tucker Carlson about homosexuality, gay rights, and related issues.

A 2012 clip from Ugandan TV went viral after the host asked his guest, “Why are you gay?” To American audiences the question itself was hilarious.

But why is it hilarious? Tucker explores that with Milo.

Milo Yiannopoulos was, for years, the darling of the political right — despite being a flambouyant homosexual. He also claimed to be a devout Catholic. The intellectual tension eventually got the better of him and now he claims to be an ex gay.

Is that a thing? Are people allowed to quit being homosexual? Is it even possible? Milo says yes.

He also has a lot more to say about gay culture, the gay lifestyle, and related issues. He’s still a provocateur, and he still makes exaggerated claims, but it’s an interesting conversation.

(We apologize for the humming in the background for a few minutes. We couldn’t filter it out completely. Be patient. It goes away.)

With special guest Longinus, the boys drink and review a Christmas ale from Great Lakes Brewing, then discuss stoicism.

It’s not what you think. It doesn’t mean that you go through life with no emotions.

There are two classic sources for Stoicism: Greek and Roman. But the Greek version only comes second hand. We don’t have any of the original sources.

We do have primary sources for the Roman version of stoicism, most notably from Marcus Aurelius and Seneca.

Stoics believe in a “providential structure of the world” and try to live their lives accepting the ordered, rational structure of nature. They try to accept things as they are and order their lives according to four basic virtues:

Justice
Courage
Wisdom, and
Temperance

A stoic wants to align his own life to the logos.

Stoicism seems to be experiencing a bit of a revival of interest. Why?

Join us for a deep dive into this fascinating topic.

With special guest Longinus, the boys drink and review a raspberry cookie stout from Great Lakes Brewing, then discuss a famous American novel.

It’s not quite a Christmas book, but Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of his prep school just before Christmas, so it’s close enough.

Longinus starts off with some biographical info on Salinger, then the boys dive into the novel.

The book is written as if it’s by Holden, a young man of about 16. The novel is all about tone — about the attitude and perspective of Holden — his angst and his worries.

The whole idea of adolescence was new when The Catcher in the Rye came out, and Salinger tried to capture it in this novel.

From Holden’s point of view, everything is either depressing, phony, corny, or boring.

It’s often called a coming of age novel.

If you’re curious about this classic, give a listen and let us know what you think.

The boys drink and review Jubelale from Deschutes brewery then discuss Candace Owens.

Candace is a very intelligent, very articulate woman. She’s the type who has done her homework and has her facts ready. She used to be with Prager U, Turning Point USA, and Daily Wire. She’s testified before Congress.

After the October 7 attacks on Israel the cracks started to show. She left the Daily Wire and started out on her own. Now she’s relentlessly anti-Jew, anti-Israel. She seems to have gone conspiracy theory crazy.

Some of them are disturbing, but one of them is just funny. Candace has taken up the story that Brigitte Macron is a man, which has caused international problems.

If that was the extent of her conspiracy theorizing it would just be amusing. But now she seems to say that the Jews control everything, the moon landing was faked, and Turning Point USA was complicit in the death of Charlie Kirk.

It’s hard to parse it all out, but P&C give it a go.

Join us for a deep dive into this fascinating topic.

The boys drink and review Brother Joseph’s Belgian-style Double Ale from Straight To Ale then discuss the war on beauty.

Pigweed wonders why everything is so ugly.

Older buildings — even sewage plants — were beautiful. They were built to lift the human spirit.

Modern buildings are built to be hideous. Why?

It’s so cheap to make things beautiful these days. Why don’t we? It’s almost as if we’re choosing ugliness.

Even churches are ugly.

What about a banana taped to the wall as “art”? That’s not an aesthetic statement, it’s a statement about standards and meaning. That is, that there is no meaning.

The boys discuss the present reality of omnipresent ugliness and review its possible historical origins.

Join us for a deep dive into this fascinating topic.

The boys drink and review Sam Adams winter white ale, then smoke their pipes and discuss the origin and history of smoking.

When you sit around the fire, you don’t want the smoke coming your way. It’s annoying. So who came up with the idea of intentionally breathing smoke into your lungs?

People in Africa, the near east, and in China did smoke some cannibis-like weeds, but smoking really took off when Columbus brought tobacco from the new world.

The whole world loved the stuff and tobacco became a key crop in the Americas.

The boys discuss the interesting history of smoking.

Join us for a deep dive into this fascinating topic.

The boys drink and review a Kolsch from Sky Blue Brewing, then discuss the influence of an old sociology paper by Cloward and Piven.

These 60s-era “intellectuals” lamented that not enough eligible people had signed up for welfare benefits. They proposed overwhelming the welfare system by deploying an army of activists and troublemakers to (1) get more people to sign up for benefits, and (2) riot, demonstrate, protest, and generally cause trouble.

The goal was not to get more wealth to the poor, but to cause the welfare system to fail, create a crisis, and force the federal government to institute a new system.

Their proposed “solution” was called “guaranteed minimum income,” which is an idea so stupid you have to be an intellectual to believe in it.

Their overall proposal seems to define the basic playbook of the left, which is to cause disorder and crisis, destroy the current system, and replace it with socialism.

Cloward and Piven believed the only way for poor people to get their way is to riot, set fires, and cause trouble. Incremental change is not enough. There has to be a revolution.

Join us for a deep dive into this fascinating topic.

P&C drink and review a Heinken Zero, then discuss some holiday themes.

Contrary to popular opinion, Columbus didn’t show that the world was round. Every educated person knew the world was a globe. Columbus mistakenly believed the world was smaller than it is, and that it would be an easy trip from Europe to Asia.

His mistake led to the discovery of the Americas, but it took a long time before Europeans decided to colonize the new land.

The Pilgrims were late to the game. There were already Spanish and French settlements in the Americas. But the Pilgrims were among the earliest English settlements, and were very influential in the development of the United States.

The boys discuss, and wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.

The boys drink and review two imperial stouts, then discuss the possible relationship between Tylenol and autism.

RFK Jr. has announced a relationship between pregnant women taking Tylenol and autism in their children.

There is some evidence for that claim, but there are a lot of confounding issues as well.

Is autism really on the rise? It seems so, but some people say it’s just that we’re detecting it better these days — although that doesn’t seem to account for the severe cases, which are also supposed to be on the rise.

If it is on the rise, why? Is it something we’re eating, something we’re injecting into our bodies, or maybe the way we’re cooking?

What do we do with all the anecdotal evidence from parents that their child’s autism came on suddenly?

It seems as if the health establishment is not taking this as seriously as they ought to be.

The boys drink and review Lost Rhino’s Marzen, then discuss conversion therapy.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on a ban on “conversion therapy,” which is alleged to cure people of unwanted sexual attractions.

Is this a ban on free speech? Is SCOTUS going to tell therapists what they can and can’t say to their clients?

Some people don’t believe that their homosexual attractions align with their Christian faith, and they’d like to lessen or eliminate those attractions.

Nobody goes to therapy to be affirmed. The whole therapy industry exists because people have thoughts or feelings they want to change. Why should we exempt this particular kind of change?

The boys tear apart the silly arguments of the left. Tune in, and let us know what you think.

P&C review La Chouffe, a strong Belgian Blonde ale, then discuss changing ideas about the self — what it is, and how we think about it.

In the ancient world, your “self” was more tied to your community and group.

Augustine updated the sense of self as a reflective, moral agent. You don’t just think, you think about what you’re thinking.

In the Protestant Reformation, the self took center stage. It was all about your own spiritual experience.

Decartes takes a huge step with the mind-body split. There’s a “you” that’s separate from the body. Our soul is a ghost in the machine of the body.

John Locke introduced the concept of the blank slate. You (or society) can affect who you become. That idea has lost a lot of its lustre as we’ve realized how much of our self is genetic.

Is the self continuous over time? Is it an internal story: “I’m this kind of person”? Do some people have a stronger sense or perception of self than others do? Or is the self an illusion? Some contemplatives say they can transcend the self.

The modern sense of self puts a huge burden on the individual. Everyone has to define what’s good and decide for themselves what gives their life meaning and purpose. Is part of the reason we have so much depression and suicide?

The boys drink and review Forgotten Lore American lager from Nepenthe, then discuss food stamps.

A lot of people were concerned that the recent government shutdown was interfering with the funding for food stamps (SNAP), but it brought up another issue. People started to wonder how we got to the point that one in eight Americans are getting food stamps.

Food stamps started out as a relatively modest program to distribute surplus food to people who could use it. The original program ended during World War II, but it was resurrected for the “war on poverty” under Lyndon Johnson. As with most government programs, it’s grown ever since.

In the early days of the program you had to purchase the stamps. In 1977 they abandoned the purchase requirement, and now it’s just a giveaway.

And boy are we ever giving it away.

P&C discuss.