Beer and Conversation with Pigweed and Crowhill

P&C drink and review a homebrewed stout, and along with special guest John Wayne Jew discuss how diversity, equity, and inclusion don't mean what you think they mean, or what they should mean.  They start with an effort to find the good things in DEI. But they don't get very far.  DEI is a social and moral catastrophe. It hides behind words that sound virtuous and pleasant, but it tw...

P&C drink and review Cream Team, a cookies and cream milk stout, then discuss "advances" in reproductive technology.  Ectolife is working on creating an artificial womb, where babies can be grown in a production facility. There's been some success with mice, and they want to extend the tech to humans.  The goal is to alleviate some of the pain and risk inherent in childbirth, and to...

The boys drink and review Crowhill's Henry IV homebrew, then discuss possible causes of the recent uptick in gender confusion.  Just recently -- all of a sudden -- we're getting an epidemic of people with gender dysphoria. Why? What's causing this?  We're told that the only possible explanation is that this has always been true -- that sex is not binary -- but that truth has been suppres...

The boys drink and review a chai latte stout from Schlafly, then discuss out of dates ads.  You've probably seen the headlines. The basic concept is "ads that are not acceptable today." But why are they unacceptable?  In some cases, the old ad is playful, and we're too uptight to go along with the joke.  In other cases, there were cultural assumptions in the past, or a different und...

The boys drink and review Stone's Delicious Double IPA, then discuss rights.  What is a right? We hear it all the time, but when do we stop to think about it, what does it really mean?  Do rights depend on someone granting us a right, or do we have rights by nature?  The idea of natural law goes back to the Greeks, and has a long history in the west. But what is it based on?  I...

The boys drink and review Delicious IPA from Stone, then discuss skills they wish they had learned.  Everybody has to make choices about how they spend their time, and some skills require a lot of work to acquire. Pigweed and Crowhill talk about things they wish they could do, but have never applied themselves to.  Things like ...  Being handy, or a gearhead,  Whistling well,&n...

The boys drink and review Kostritzer Schwarzbier, then discuss homelessness.  When we talk about "the homeless," we have to make some distinctions. Some people with no home have a job, a car, and are making do ... they just don't have a place to live. They live in their car and shower at the gym.  Others are drug addicts or have mental illnesses. It's a mistake to lump them all into the...

The boys drink and review Erdinger's Weissbier Dunkel, then discuss developments in artificial intelligence.  Our first experiences with artificial intelligence were things like "playing the computer" on the Atari, or spellchecker. Checking grammar involved an extra layer of computation that had to take context into account.  Another level of computer-assisted information is what you see...

The boys drink and review Pigweed's latest robust porter, then welcome John Wayne Jew to the show to help review "this month in woke."  We're seeing university struggle sessions where if any of the students disagree with a teacher's liberal agenda, the student has to issue a written apology and submit himself to lectures from the teacher and other students.  Teachers can be jailed for fa...

With special guest Longinus (a vegetarian), the boys drink and review a small beer, following a recipe from George Washington, then discuss vegetarianism.  Sometimes vegetarianism is inspired by religious beliefs, and sometimes by secular ethics and questions of health. There are also issues about environmental issues and sustainability.  There are different types or levels of vegetarian...

Along with special guest Longinus, the boys drink and review Beam Me up, Stouty (a coconut stout) from Saugatuck Brewing, then discuss "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."  The story is not about an escape, or an unusual day, or how something dramatic happened on this day. It's just a typical day in a Soviet labor camp.  Solzhenitsyn's account of this one day so captured the experie...

The boys drink and review Chimay Grand Reserve, then discuss the big stories of 2022.  Top stories included:  * Republicans take the House  * Musk buys Twitter * The World Cup  * Pro-democracy protests in Iran  * Hurricanes Sophia and Ian  * Queen Elizabeth passes  * Boris Johnson resigns  * Liz Trust's short term  * Mar-a-lago  * Jan. 6 hearings&n...

The boys drink and review Glacial Drift, a spiced winter ale from Heavy Seas, then discuss housing, and why the prices are so high.  What factors have caused home prices to go so high? And how do regular families afford these McMansions? It seems the ratio of income to house prices has changed radically since the 1970s.  Part of it is the assumption of two incomes in each family.  A...

The boys drink and review a holiday ale from New Belgium, then discuss the erosion of public standards of conduct.  Is society allowed to expect basic standards of behavior?  What about business dress codes? Can McDonald's insist on a uniform, even though people could flip burgers in sweats and a t-shirt?  Was it right for Zelenski to speak to the Congress of the United States in a...

In this end-of-the-year show, the boys review their home-brewed Christmas ales, then discuss New Year's resolutions.  Lots of people use the new year as an opportunity to re-evaluate their lives and their goals and make adjustments. But some people think it's a waste of time because nobody ever keeps them.  The boys discuss popular topics for resolutions and ways science has shown that c...

The boys drink and review Honey Kolsch by Rogue Brewing, then talk about how the media treats mass shootings. As with so many issues in the news today, you have to peel back the agenda from the news coverage. Often the media can't even wait for the facts to come out before they start with their interpretations and explanations.  You can almost feel the hunger by the news organizations for a s...

The boys drink and review a peppermint Imperial stout, then discuss Christmas music.  What do scary ghost stories have to do with Christmas? It might be more complicated than you think!  Pigweed and Crowhill discuss their favorite songs, the duds, themes in Christmas music, and why the Christmas season is so special.  This is a light-hearted episode, sure to put you in the holiday s...

The boys drink and review Unicorn Farts by DuClaw, then discuss what they love and what they hate in commercials.  We've become accustomed to the idea that we pay for free television by suffering through the commercials. Consumers want humor in commercials. Like in the Super Bowl. But what we get is posturing and lecturing by the woke.  There are several trends and themes in commercials...

The boys drink and review a homemade batch of Krupnikas, a Christmas cordial, then discuss how states often sponsor morally questionable behaviors, like gambling and drug use.  Maryland voters recently approved a referendum legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. Is this a good idea?  Some people try to put a positive spin on this by taxing the drugs and using the revenue for some...

Along with special guest Longinus, the boys drink and review Space Dust IPA by Elysium brewing, then discuss a few short stories from The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury.  The premise of the collection is that you can see the stories in the collection played out by looking at the tattoos of a carny.  This podcast includes reviews of the following stories.  The Veldt - problems arise...

With special guest Longinus, the boys drink and review a smoked maple porter from Flying Dog Brewery, then discuss Daoism and the Tao Te Ching.  Longinus starts with a general introduction to Daoism, looking at it from three perspectives: as a philosophy, as a New Age, self-help system, and as a religion.  Daoism competed with Confucianism in China and was often repressed by the Chinese...

In the November 2022 edition of "five for five", the boys drink and review a bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout from Guinness, then discuss five topics in five minutes each.  1. Gabby Giffords and the courage to fight gun violence. What is the "courage" here? Who is going around threatening people who oppose gun violence? None of the things her group are advocating for require any courage at...

The boys drink and review Glacial Drift, a spiced winter ale, then discuss the controversies surrounding Hunter Biden.  Hunter isn't really the issue. The question is whether the president of the United States has been compromised by foreign powers. It certainly looks that way. It seems that Joe is under the thumb of China and others.  What about the laptop? In hindsight, the old "this i...

The boys drink and review a 2-year-old bottle of Raison D'Extra, then discuss proposals to redraw state boundaries.  They start off with a review of federalism, and the idea that the country is a collection of states, not simply a mass of people, which is why tiny Rhode Island and sparsely populated Montana get as many senators as California.  What happens when residents of a state feel...

In this quick episode, the boys share their favorite Thanksgiving foods and thoughts about this quintessentially American holiday, and reflect on why it's important to be thankful and grateful.  Happy Thanksgiving!