Beer and Conversation with Pigweed and Crowhill

The boys drink and review a "lazy beer," then discuss food fads. Is it better to "eat local"? Are farmed fish less healthy than wild caught? Are "free range" chickens happier and healthier than others? Unfortunately, many of these things are so imprecisely defined that they're meaningless. Pigweed and Crowhill both agree with many of the goals of the people who promote some of these food fads, but...

P&C drink and review a homebrewed red ale, then discuss families. Men are not as manly as they used to be. Testosterone has been dropping at 1% per year for decades. Men are withering away. At the same time, they have easy access to porn, and masculinity is regularly dissed. The result is that men are less interested in women and families. Families model future relationships, they provide a se...

P&C drink and review Pigweed's Texas Brown Ale, then discuss the history and modern application of chivalry. The word comes from "horsemanship," and originally applied to knights. Society needs hard men who are willing to fight, but they also need these men to be decent and courteous off the battlefield. Medieval Europeans developed expectations for knightly conduct, and this turned into a cod...

P&C drink and review one of Crowhill's recent homebrews, then discuss multiple personality syndrome, or, the way it's known these days, dissociative identity disorder (DID). The boys review some popular treatments of the subject, including The Three Faces of Eve, Sybil, the Billy Milligan story, and Split. Is DID real, or are people being coached (even hypnotized or drugged) into a diagnosis b...

The boys sip and review 1623 Brewing's Lil Sips Scottish Imperial Stout, then wonder why our society has lost the idea that people should grow up. Educated grown-ups are claiming that words are violence. That's the way a child views the world. Our culture has become so infantilized that we think we should "listen to the children." The popularity of superhero movies are an example of this attempt t...

P&C drink and review a single-hop IPA, then discuss therapy culture. Are we addicted to therapy? Have we redefined ourselves around our emotions? Are we all vulnerable, broken, "at risk," scarred for life? There's been an erosion of the boundary between the private and the public. Now we have TV shows where people disclose their personal issues. There's nothing more virtuous today than seeking...

The boys drink and review a sake, then discuss the James Webb Space Telescope. This magnificent feat of engineering launched on Christmas Day, 2021, and recently deployed flawlessly at Lagrange Point 2. From there it will scan the heavens on the infrared part of the spectrum and send back astonishing pictures. P&C review the history of the development of this marvel, discuss all the things tha...

Pigweed and Crowhill review how and why they started the podcast, and the innovations and interesting things they've brought to "Beer and Conversation" over the years, including ... * Skits * Five for Five * Shortcut to the classics * Nooze and Booze * Predictions * Pretend events * Reviews of books that don't exist They've also covered quite a range of topics: * Economics * Science * Religion * C...

Along with special guest Longinus, P&C review a winter warmer from Flying Dog, then discuss Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. This is a depressing story of a man who is stuck. He's stuck with a wife he doesn't love. Stuck in a city he doesn't particularly like. Stuck in a profession he didn't choose. When a spark comes into his life in the person of his wife's cousin, Maddie, he starts to dream of...

After reviewing Southern Tier's Irish Cream Stout, P&C discuss their experiences at Mount Calvary church in Baltimore. With special guest Longinus, the boys review the history of the church, its Anglo-Catholic background, and its recent decision to come into communion with Rome. They discuss their observations about the building itself, the music, the liturgy, the homily and the participants....

P&C drink and review Victory's Storm King, then Pigweed quizzes Crowhill on military statistics. Who spends the most? Who has the biggest military? Who has the most global firepower? After reviewing some stats, the boys discuss the politics of it all. Why is the U.S. military all over the world, protecting everyone else? Does NATO pay its fair share? Should we be protecting other countries, or sho...

P&C drink and review Smoke and Dagger black lager from Jack's Abby, then discuss expressive individualism.  On the one hand, individual expression and liberty are part of what we celebrate in America. We want people to be free of unnecessary constraints.  But even good things can be taken too far, and insisting that everyone should be able to express their psychological core -- however they define...

P&C drink and review Harpoon's Winter Warmer, then open the mailbag. Uncle Billy doesn't believe Joe Biden will run for president, and that Harris is a disaster for the Democratic Party. The boys discuss. Red Pill Rick wonders why spokesmodels and actresses are getting chunkier. Pigweed and Crowhill reflect on some possible examples and possible explanations. And probably get in trouble in the pro...

P&C drink and review a Christmas Ale from Great Lakes Brewing, then discuss the metaverse. The boys define the metaverse, and then discuss its ups and downs. The metaverse offers very interesting options, like visiting new places, or reviewing a new house. The primary business application would be better meetings, eliminating the need for travel, and possibly using VR for advanced training. It mig...

P&C drink and review Dirty Bastard by Founders, then discuss drugs. As a species, we all like a little buzz. Drugs and inebriation have been with us for as long as we have records. Beer production is very ancient, and some of our earliest writings are beer recipes. But it's not just beer. Humans have been taking marijuana, peyote -- even licking frogs. Why do we do it? There are some obvious answe...

The boys drink and review Saranac's S'mores Porter, then put on their futuristic magic glasses and predict major events for 2022. Be sure to write these down and invest appropriately. P&C gaze into their crystal ball and review the future of culture, politics, technology, Covid, climate, the economy, foreign policy, Facebook's "Meta," sex, health, zombies, religion, Jordan Peterson, nature and spo...

The boys drink and review Black Ox Rye Porter, then discuss gerrymandering, especially in Maryland. The Maryland legislature recently proposed a scheme to redraw Congressional districts in the Old Line State. Redistricting makes sense and is necessary as populations move. But it's come to be a partisan exercise in maximizing the representation of the party in power in the state. Both parties have...

P&C review the latest DuClaw version of the "Pastryarchy," then discuss woke presuppositionalism. Crowhill explains what "presuppositionalism" means, and then the boys discuss the sorts of things that we all presuppose. Context. Goals. Value. Ethics. We can't even perceive the world without these things. So in some limited sense, the basic concept of "presuppositionalism" is true. How does this ap...

The boys review Crowhill's Dopplebock, then discuss the war on drugs. This so-called war on drugs has been going on for decades. What has it accomplished? Drug use is up. Deaths by overdose are increasing. If we're really fighting a war on drugs, how should that affect our border policy?  What is the role of Big Pharma and pain management? How did the lockdown affect drug use? What about legalizat...

P&C drink and review Pigweed's latest homebrew, then discuss the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. MBTI is an enormously popular and financially successful personality test that categorizes people along four axes: Extroversion vs. Introversion, Sensing vs. Intuition, Thinking vs. Feeling, and Judging vs. Perceiving. Businesses seem to love it, and some people even put their MBTI personality type in the...

P&C review "Naughty or Nice," an IPA from Devil's Backbone, then discuss the Renaissance festival. Pigweed and Crowhill have only been to the Maryland Renn Fest, which they hear is one of the better ones. The Renn Fest is the happiest place on earth. Everyone is there to have a good time. There are no bad attitudes. No arguments. No conflicts. It can get bawdy, and quite silly, and it's not always...

The boys drink and review a Christmas stout, then discuss CBD vs. THC. If you believe the internet, CBD seems like a cure-all. But if you go to the web sites that sell it, the claims get much more modest! Are there any decent studies to tell us what CBD can and can't do? There are some, and they're not that encouraging. While there are a few proven benefits of CBD, most of the claims are not suppo...

The boys review Pigweed's Pale Ale, then discuss a field trip to a local Evangelical church. Longinus came along as well. The building itself was very plain -- like an auditorium. No religious art. There was only one cross, which wasn't even in a central location. The music was upbeat, but a little weird. The service focused on the very long sermon, which was biblical, but a bit rambling. The boys...

P&C drink and review Old Rasputin, by North Coast Brewing Company, then review a short novel by Leo Tolstoy. Literary contributor Longinus joined in this podcast. Ivan Ilyich seems like a decent man. When he's tempted to think he's not living his life the way he should, he scoffs. He does what's expected of him, and observes all the proprieties! But when he suffers an injury that slowly and inexor...

P&C drink and review Crowhill's Kentucky Brown Ale, then discuss people who are drawn to drama -- in their own lives, or in the lives of their significant others. You may be addicted to drama if ... * Life is a roller coaster. * You storm in and out of relationships. And you sabotage them. * Drama is a bad addiction. You hate it and need it at the same time. * You're Loud. Childish. Agressive. The...