The Speech Guys

It's the final episode of the fourth season of the SGs and they discuss the dialogues performed by John Steinbeck's characters from the 1952 novel, "East of Eden", along with the Genesis story of Cain and Abel that informs them. Primary content comes from chapters 22 and 24 of the book.

This episode is rated PG-13 for a "graphic" clip from the film Calvary (2014) which contains one bleeped out instance of f**k, gun violence, and reference to clerical sexual abuse. The clip is approximately four minutes and begins at approximately the 50 minute mark. Landon, Ross, Matt, and Mike discuss Father Mike's 2019 SEEK Conference talk entitled "Share" and how his recognition of his own ind...

Doug Johnson introduces the cast and recalls, with Ross, the (micro)speech he gave to his son before his first football game in the twilight of the 20th century in Springfield, Illinois. Ross and Doug might not remember if he scored, but they remember the speech. And now, you will too. Thumbnail image comes from  www.pinterest.com/pin/father-son-p…604192944860833/ .

Landon, Mike, Ross, and Matt close out the "Speeches That Got Someone Killed" quad. Some political candidates might be a threat to America's democracy, but this episode isn't--unless you think a Speech Guys oligarchy could make American great again. Full text of speeches discussed can be accessed here: alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution…ary-terror-1794/ AND here: alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution…t...

Mike, Landon, Ross, and Matt consider how John Lennon's interview in March 1966 with London's Evening Standard influenced Mark David Chapman and the legacy of Christianity, the Beatles, and musical counterculture that persists today. The speech can be read here: www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/1966/03/…sus-now/ A blog by Mr. Robert Rosen was discussed and can be accessed here concerning the sign...

Fact Check: Landon references a comment made by Former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, that "eight trillion dollars was lost track of", and speculates that the attack on the Pentagon was to obviate the federal government of responsibility toward that amount. See this addressed here:  www.reuters.com/fact-check/rumsfe…e-911-2023-09-14/ Mike referenced a podcast hosted by Catholic apologist,...

How does the Sermon on the Mount help the Speech Guys pursue a worthy spiritual frontier? Listen in as Ross, Matt, and Mike cheer for the arrival of Faye Frye and consider what might set Jesus of Nazareth a story worth believing in.

Listener discretion: "a**" is used several times throughout the episode Is paying for runs really what America's baseball heart beats for? The Speech Guys and special guest, Theus Brown (BAJ and BROWN Podcast), discuss the contemporary consequences of the "moneyball" model via the dramatized speech by Boston Red Sox owner, John Henry, in the 2011 Oscar-nominated film, Moneyball.

Does art inspire life or life inspire art? Landon, Ross, Matt, and Mike team up for Orson Welles' 1941 campaign "to rid the politics of this State of the evil domination of Boss Jim Gettys". The thumbnail image comes from  theasc.com/articles/realism-for-citizen-kane .

"You think I know the first thing about being an orphan because I read Oliver Twist?"... Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) begins to tear down the intellectual and academic walls that Sean (Matt Damon) built up around himself in this famous speech from the 1997 Oscar-nominated film, "Good Will Hunting". Ross, Landon, and Mike contemplate their own walls they've had to and need to break down to hav...

This episode is rated PG-13 for language and discussion of sexuality. Anne Marie rejoins as guest host to discuss the good, true, and maybe not so universally accurate observations of women and men in Gloria's speech to lift Barbie out of the existential doldrums. Thumbnail image comes from  people.com/read-the-powerful-b…to-50-times-7565806

Merry Christmas from the Speech Guys! Talk, think, and laugh about your favorite holiday fare... fruitcakes, George and Mary Bailey, and the real life Hallmark tradition that took place each season at Johnson's Market. Read the November 2019 article on Ross's family grocery business from the New York Times here: www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/us/rur…-farm-market.html Episode note: the nature of Santa...

In 1986, author and Holocaust-survivor, Elie Wiesel, was awarded for his humanitarian work on behalf of the Jewish community and other historically-oppressed groups. The Speech Guys discuss the legacy of those words, particularly in light of heightened tensions between Israel, Hamas, and Palestinians. Special thanks to a listener who pointed out that the principal reason for Mr. Wiesel's receiving...

Apollo Creed helped Balboa get his body ready for the Heavyweight title against Clubber Lang. But his wife and partner, Adrian (Talia Shire), had to retrain his heart. "I'm afraid alright! For the first time in my life, I'm afraid." Bonus content: Matt's Brooklyn-styled Rocky impression

Who said AI was a new conversation we should be having? Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) were paving the way for the rest of us all of the way back in 1982. Mike's the speech-picker. Matt and Landon tag along for a trip to the future in... 2019. Or would that be the past? Thumbnail image comes from  www.exrey.tv/blade-runner-1982/ .

The Speech Guys try to imagine a world just before the dawn of their births as they step back into the 1980s with President Reagan's speech following the space shuttle Challenger explosion on January 28th, 1986 over Cape Canaveral.

Mike, Landon, Matt, and Ross finish out the Speeches By Prisoners series with Socrates' speech before his Athenian jury considering whether or not he ought to be executed for crimes of "corrupting the youth" and not properly worshiping the traditional gods of Athens.

The Speech Guys share a common collegiate origin along Illinois' Interstate 74. Here, Landon and Mike recall their coming together merely months before Mike's University of Illinois graduation in spring 2015. The moral of this episode? You never know what treasures are in store until your car is packed and ready to pull away from one of life's stages. So be a good friend all of the way through and...

In 1978, Russian exile, Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave the commencement address to Harvard graduates. Unlike most commencement speeches, it painted Western culture in macabre, depressing descriptions of its decline in courage, legalism, direction of freedom and the press, socialism, loss of will, thinking with only respect to what's 'fashionable', short-sightedness, pervasive secular humanism, and it...

It's the second episode of the Speeches By Prisoners series and the Speech Guys contemplate the stoicism and devotion to ordinary life Mandela seemed to demonstrate as a South African political prisoner from 1964 to 1990. Listen to the full speech Mandela gave before his 1964 trial here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQvlxnWELHM The SG spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting Mandela's decisions to...

Mike and Chris keep sippin' their whiskies after the other Speech Guys leave for an extended chat of related topics from the "Becoming Jesus" episode of the Speeches By Prisoners speech series. The interview referenced in the episode of Denzel Washington can be accessed with the URL below: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHvtjJY6IsQ "Imagine if America came in a box. You take it off the shelf and you read...

The Speech Guys lace up their high tops and unpack the first aid kit to talk about wounds... father wounds, that is. Jake Shuttlesworth's speech to his son, Jesus Shuttlesworth, played by Ray Allen in the 1998 Spike Lee film, "He Got Game", serves as their conversational muse. Chris guest hosts.

Episode Rating: 13+ for instances of language ("bulls***", "a**hole") at approximately 2 and 58 minutes, respectively Wipe that melancholy off your face and think wistful thoughts one last time as Mike, Landon, Matt, and Ross tread one more time through Speeches By Losers... this time, Frederick Nietzsche's "Madman Speech" from his 1880 publication, "The Gay Science" or often retranslated as "Joyf...

Episode Rating: 13+ for a few instances of mild language and a few brief references to sex within the context of marriage Welcome to episode  #37  of the Speech Guys! (Yes, we keep our episode number secret because... just because.) Matt's the speech picker and Dr. Lucy Kalinithi is the speech-giver in her June 2017 TED talk on navigating the experience of losing her husband, father to their child...

(This episode is rated 16+, best-suited for audiences 16 years and older, as it discusses sex in the context of an ending romantic relationship. This content begins around the 45 minute mark. The Speech Guys pondered General Lee's model for being a good loser in war. But what about being a loser in love? Chuck Noland is the speech-giver from the 2000 film, Castaway, directed by Robert Zemeckis. Mi...