Beer and Conversation with Pigweed and Crowhill

The boys drink and review Baltimore Breakfast from Oliver Brewing, then discuss a few issues from the mail bag, including two-tier policing, the soft bigotry of low expectations, and education. MarxH8tr asked about the Notting Hill event in England and why the police didn't treat bad behavior at that event the way they would at a football game. Are we supposed to hold people to different stand...

The boys drink and review a red ale from Evo, then ask why so many of the rich and powerful seem to be engaged in some form of perversion. Are perverts attracted to positions of power, or does power and privilege create conditions that lead people into perversion? What happens when there are no consequences to your actions? What happens to your moral compass when you can cut in line, be rude, skip...

The boys drink and review Lucky 7 Porter from Evo, then discuss the purpose and role of universities. Why do we have so many majors in university? Why not have a basic education, then specialize at the masters and doctorate level? Early on, universities were "finishing schools for nobility." They taught how to think critically, how to communicate, how to be a cultured person, and how to fit in wit...

P&C drink a well-aged bourbon barrel stout from Goose Island to celebrate the general effect Trump is already having on the culture. In recent news, Mark Zuckerberg announced a big change in the way Meta will monitor and censor content. It's a huge step in the right direction. The Trump effect goes further. Before even taking office, Trump is pushing things in the right direction, including .....

P&C drink and review a "special lager," then discuss the domestication of plants and animals, and how that differs from genetically modified food. Dogs were domesticated about 18,000 years ago. Plants were domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Goats, sheep, and chickens might have been domesticated about 8,000 years ago. The farm animals we have today are very different from the original stock...

The boys drink and review a light dopplebock from Schlaffly then discuss the cultural relevance of cousin marriage. The England parliament has recently started debating whether to prohibit cousin marriage, which P&C thought was already against the law. Apparently not -- not in England, and not in all the states. The increase in Muslims in England has made this a big issue. In Pakistan, up to 6...

P&C drink and review a piney IPA, then discuss strange juxtapositions in history. Did you know ... * George Washington didn't know about dinosaurs. * Sharks are older than trees. * The 10th president of the U.S. has a grandson who is alive today. * Woolly mammoths were still alive while the Egyptians were building the pyramids. * The Oregon Trail was first used the same year the fax machine wa...

The boys drink and review an English Mild from Schaffly, then discuss different approaches to population. Pigweed starts the show with the startling facts about population and how rapidly we got from 1 billion to 8 billion so quickly -- with no apparent signs of stopping. Malthus raised the concern that population can increase geometrically, but food production increases arithmetically, and predic...

With special guest Longinus, the boys drink and review Naked Elf by Troegs (a version of their seasonal Mad Elf), then discuss the history of all the funny traditions that make up our modern Christmas. Was Jesus really born in a manger on the 25th of December? And speaking of dates, why do the Orthodox celebrate Christmas on a different day? What did Saturnalia, the winter solstice, and Yule contr...

To help you get in the holiday spirit, here's the latest edition of P&C's "shortcut to the classics." The expanded crew drinks and reviews Sam Adams' Old Fezziwig ale and discusses the Charles Dickens classic. Special guest Longinus starts the show with a brief bio of Dickens and provides some historical context to the story. The boys discuss how the book differs from the various movie version...

The boys drink and review an English IPA from Guilford Brewing, then discuss the internet, and why we allow children on the thing. People 50 years from now are going to condemn us for the way we've destroyed children's innocence by giving them access to this putrid environment. Australia recently passed a bill to restrict social media to 16 and above. That might be a good start We have to show an...

The boys drink a sidecar cocktail, then discuss Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter. Despite repeatedly promising not to do it, Biden did what everyone knew he was going to do. At this point, everyone is now on record as not trusting the justice system. The timing of the pardon is interesting. Did he want to get it through before Kamala 25-amendmented him? Or, rather, did he want to do it before...

The boys drink Right Proper Pale Ale and discuss book bans. Anne Arundel County in Maryland has become "a book sanctuary." They want "all voices, all stories, and all perspectives to be protected." Crowhill calls it out as a flat lie and virtue signalling. These same people (or their intellectual fellow travelers) have been in favor of censorship on social media. Why is the library any different?...

While drinking a local stout, the boys ask whether abortion is really healthcare and then discuss that and related issues. Healthcare is generally understood as the maintenance or improvement of health through prevention, diagnosis, treatment, or management of illness, injury, and other physical or mental impairments. How does abortion fit in with that? Pigweed and Crowhill evaluate the reality ag...

The boys drink and review a festive, Christmas beer, then discuss Trump's selections for his cabinet and what we might expect from them. Nazi Germany, of course. And fascism. And the end of democracy. But beyond that .... As of the time of the podcast, Trump has chosen ... Marco Rubio for Secretary of State Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense Matt Gaetz for Attorney General (although he withdrew...

The boys drink and review Sierra Nevada's Cold IPA, then discuss Scientology. If you had your choice, would you rather your child be woke or a scientologist? It's a hard choice. Pigweed starts the discussion with a bio of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder / creator of both Dianetics and its later manifestation, Scientology. He was one of the most prolific authors in history, with as many as 1,000 titles...

The boys drink and review "Raised by Wolves" from Right Proper brewing, then wonder if they're suckers for paying their income taxes when other people seem to get away with not filing! They start by steelmanning the arguments against the income tax, which include ... * The "sovereign citizen" idea * Questions about the ratification of the 16th Amendment * That it's a violation of the constitution'...

Broadcasting from the Royal Oak pub, the boys drink and review Crowhill's homebrewed porter then discuss the failure of our government-run schools and the American education system. Over the last 40 years we've had an increased role in education by both governments and unions, we've spent more and more on education, but results are worse and worse. Why? Private schools that spend far less per stud...

Pigweed and Crowhill enjoy a celebratory bottle of champaign as they review the 2024 election. Which is the more important victory: that Donald Trump won, or that Harris lost? The first time around, Trump didn't have a "Trump Team." He had to cobble together an administration through recommendations from people who didn't agree with his policies and approach. That will be entirely different this t...

The boys drink and review Fireside Chat winter ale by 21st Amendment Brewery, then discuss The Northman, paganism, and Rod Dreher's take on how paganism presents an enchanted view of life. "The Northman" is basically the story of Hamlet set among the Vikings. Amleth witnesses his uncle murdering his father and carrying off his mother. He vows to avenge his father and rescue his mother. Years later...

The boys drink and review "Beast of Both Worlds," a "Bi-Coastal IPA" from Lagunitas. George Soros has become a whipping boy for the right. The man was born a Hungarian Jew and lived through both Naziism and communism, but made his respectable pile of money in the United States. P&C start off with a brief biography, but move on to speak about his underlying philosophy and the causes he promotes...

You've seen the sign. Science is real Black Lives matter Love is love No human is illegal Climate change is real Women's rights are human rights Kindness is everything What does that sign really mean? P&C break it down, line by line. But there are other versions, like this, from a public school (if you can believe it). The American dream is a scan Policing originates from runaway slave patrols...

With special guest Longinus, the boys drink and review Slightly Mighty IPA by Dogfish Head brewing, then discuss their recent jaunt down to Washington, D.C., to review the architecture on some key buildings. Their trip took them to the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, St. Matthews cathedral, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Capitol. Longinus was able to give Pigweed and Crowhill some in...

With special guest Longinus, the boys drink and review Southern Tier's Pumking Imperial Pumpkin Ale, then discuss five stories by the master of horror. After a brief bio on King, they review ... The Jaunt -- King presents a futuristic story where teleportation, or "jaunting," allows instant travel but comes with a terrifying caveat: while the physical body arrives safely, the mind remains consciou...

The boys drink and review a pumpkin beer from Sam Adams, then discuss the origins of Halloween and paganism in general. Halloween came from something called Samhain, which was a pagan feast for the end of the year. In the years before capitalism and industrial food production, this was a time of year where you desperately hope and your family won't starve over the winter. At Samhain, ghosts and sp...