Tom Rhodes Smart Camp

Not being dead is the number one reason to remain cheerful.   My girlfriend and I fled Portland last month because of the fires and unbreathable air. For the past month we have been in Los Angeles finding the simple things in life like miniature golf, the zoo and the beach to combat the fear, confusion and uncertainty that dominates life at this moment. There are still many reasons to be cheerful...

Let me tell you all about Oregon & why you should be listening to Bootsy Collins & Curtis Mayfield right now. Praise be to the plum wine man! I was playing the Rick James song 'Busting Out' when I crossed the border from California into Oregon. My girlfriend lives in Portland and for the past month we have been going on driving adventures all over Oregon. I had planned on exploring France this yea...

Grab some fruit and let me take you to Peru.   Have you eaten a peach lately?  Try eating slices of one while alternating bites with slices of mango. If you can do it while sitting in your underwear in the sun like I did then you are a true champion of summer in my book. In this episode I talk about Willie Nelson's new record 'First Rose Of Spring', George Carlin, The Wrong Missy, Eurovison Song C...

The best thing you can do with bad memories is to pave over them with good ones.   This was my mom's last week in California so after four months of not leaving my neighborhood I rented a car and we blazed up the highway to Sequoia national park. During a life threatening virus outbreak it is good to look at 3,000 year old Sequoia trees and be reminded that the earth survives and life goes on.  We...

In this bleak and anxious world there is still so much joy and beauty to discover.   My mom and I have successfully completed watching every art and educational program that I have and here and now we will delight you with all of the knowledge that we have just learned. In this episode we talk about Matisse, Picasso, Eugene Delacriox, Toulouse Lautrec, Antonio Guadi, Mother hummingbirds, Birds of...

With helicopters circling overhead, I wish you a happy end of slavery day! My mom is a true champion and the current reigning champion of our Scrabble competition. Mother and child is one of the eternal themes of art and that is the theme of my podcast right now as my mother and I search the history of world art to bring you the happiest and most interesting stories we could find for you this week...

During the rut the males exhibit tough guy behavior in order to attract a mate, me myself I always preferred dancing.   In these frightening uncertain times it is always good to be reminded of the good that humans have done while working together. That is why my mom and I have been watching the PBS docu series 'Great Museums of America'. In this episode we talk about and celebrate the best stories...

In times of tragedy is when human beings show their best sides and their most compassionate sides. Now is the time to speak out and demand that everyone shows a better side of themselves.

When was the last time you let out a good yodel? You can yodel as my mom and I take you on an audio tour of the best museums in America... while wearing face masks of course.   Join me now for a few happy yodels and a celebration of knowledge as my mother and I take you on a tour of the best museums in America according to PBS. First you will learn how yodeling became a part of country music and h...

"There is nobody I'd rather have with me in a beer hall brawl than my mother standing beside me with a broken beer bottle in her hand."   On our daily walks around my neighborhood my mother and I have been amazed by the exotic plant life and my mom wondered how it was possible that desert plants can survive and thrive next to plants that are predominantly in the North East of the United States. We...

If my mom ran Hollywood every movie would end with the family all going to church more often.   The great virus lockdown film festival continues! In this batch of films that my mother and I have watched we discovered that we both love any movie with Jeff Bridges or Clint Eastwood in it. We also discover that my mom won't stomach certain things and is not afraid to ask me to stop a film if she real...

The thing I love most about England is that they still put ugly people on television.   It has been a great week to learn some shit and my mother and I stuffed our heads with beautiful art knowledge and thanks to the BBC, we took a quest around the world for humankind's greatest achievements. First we talk about this past week in captivity as I undertook the task of sorting out and categorizing my...

When I was a kid my mom would ask "Are you ready for the best feeling in the world?" Right before dumping a warm basket of clothes over my head fresh out of the dryer.   "No one volunteers to fight in a war who is happy at home."   It is from my mom that I get my love of books and since she arrived here on March 9th she has crushed five books here at the Rhodes library:   Joan of Arc by Mark Twain...

Hooray for moms! What good is money if you can't spend it on your mom? On April 15, 2020 my mother turned 81 years old and we recorded this conversation together under virus quarantine lockdown. My mother and I have had a beautiful relationship through the years and she has shared all of my triumphs and sorrows as I have shared hers. I love taking trips with her and we have been fortunate to exper...

Is the threat of our possible human extinction bringing you down? This is a big shot of love and sunshine from the Rhodes library. When this stink ball of shit virus shut down the world my dearly loved 80 year old mother was visiting me and I got lucky to be riding out this storm with her. Had she not been visiting me at this moment we both would have been alone for this and probably each of us wo...

"You can be whoever you want to be in America, in your gated community, away from all those dirty poor people who might cast judgement on you."   My own personal golden girl, Lynn Ruth Miller stops by the Rhodes library to share the best lessons she has learned in life and to tell me about her new life living in London and performing all over the world. After getting fucked by #wellsfargo bank on...

  "If you tried to govern people by the rules of the bible it would be a bloody mess and women would be treated like property."   TRR # 320 Under the circus tent of knowledge with Dan Cummins!   Listen here > https://bit.ly/37hmW4C     Dan Cummins is a comedian that I love, respect and admire. He is the rare human that I can blaze any trail with mentality on any topic and we both dazzle each other...

Rejoice in the glory that is the words and thoughts of Henry Miller! One of the greatest American writers all time. Your zest for life begins here! Eddie Pepitone and I celebrate the author Henry Miller, one of the best human examples to follow the path of the artist and smile in the face of struggle. "The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy is basically about being crucified on the cross of love". Learn how...

"How you are on the golf course is how you are in real life, if you cheat on the golf course you will cheat in real life."   Alex Thomas and I met when we toured Israel together. I brought my mother on that tour and Alex brought his family because we both wanted to share the experience with the people we loved most. This conversation was recorded last week before the tragic death of Kobe Bryant. I...

"If we are to survive as a human race we have to hide our hatreds, we have to find things we have in common if we want to progress and move forward."   I first met Shazia Mirza in 2002 when I had my late night talk show in Amsterdam when we did shows around The Netherlands together. I was riding high with the dream TV job and Shazia was a cultural juggernaut at the time because she was playing a p...

Shantaram with Jake Johannsen "I would never commit a felony, I am strictly a misdemeanor guy." Jake Johannsen comes to the Rhodes library to talk about his favorite book 'Shantaram' by Gregory David Roberts. In this conversation we talk about people losing the sparkle in their eyes in Hollywood, how Kurt Vonnegut will improve your life and how Kurt Vonnegut is to Jake what James Brown is to me. I...

Everyday my prayer is the same... God please make me less of an asshole. That is also my New Year's resolution, to try to be less of an asshole. The epidemic of modern assholishness is something I am not immune to and I was an unrelenting asshole recently when I appeared on the Tom & Dan podcast when I was back in Orlando during the holidays. The tidal wave of internet hate that followed let me kn...

"Modern country music is like heavy metal was in the 80s, it's all about partying, girls and having fun." - Josh Wolf We start this episode with the remedy of a Charles Bukowski poem that is the shield against some of the monkey mouth chump shit of the world. How is it possible that some hayseed rednecks drink pickle juice and are the morality tales of the Andy Griffith show more important than th...

"It's not what is under the Christmas tree that is important but the people who are sitting around it."   Rinsing out the raisin hole with Jimmy Shubert! Listen here > https://bit.ly/346mWDu   Jimmy Shubert is a man dedicated to bringing joy to the human race. Fresh back from a trip to India, Jimmy tells me about the unique way people in India clean their raisin holes. How has his life changed sin...

I love Tamer Kattan because not only is he funny, with deep profound thoughts packed into his comedy, but also because he helped me convert my marijuana farm into a hummingbird garden. In this conversation we talk about his time working in advertising, going to university in Sweden and living in Venice Beach where the homeless people charge you to hear the punchlines to their jokes. Of great impor...