Dysfunctional Dialogue

Mayhem and madness were the theme as I took a wild ride with my college buddies and re-surfaced some classic tales. With nickel drafts starting at 8am on St. Patrick’s day, what could go wrong? Well, quite a bit actually. From T-Boning a cop car (without a car) to award winning hurling to gleefully singing while a friend threatens to end our lives… it's both wonderful and terribly foolish adventures of our College Daze.

Laughing again with the ol’ neighborhood crew as we revisit the highly questionable influence the older guys had on the younger, the mischievous sleepover nights where very little sleeping happened and the inherent dangers of being young and bold while working “security”.

Which would you give up? Your sense of sight or sound, if given that hard choice? Well, we had a revelation and your opinion may change after sitting in with my son, John, and I. Come join us as we ride a conversational roller coaster between fun “would you rather” questions and full-blown, light-hearted, philosophical discussions.

Back with three friends from my college days, and the stories did not disappoint. We revisit a prank that escalated beyond our control, a canoe incident driven by “efficiency,” and a drinking game that had unfortunate consequences. Plus, a couple stories in the legend of one bigger-than-life friend that made us both terribly uncomfortable and wonderfully delighted.

What if the chance of unimaginable wealth came with the risk of a terrible life-altering cost? Would you take that chance? My son and I try to make sense of it all and discover that sometimes the most ridiculous questions reveal the greatest truths and strangest oddities. In this Black Mirror-type scenario, somewhere between philosophy and absurdity, we discover that a “win-win” might not be as simple as it sounds.

This week’s episode was a bit of an editing adventure with four guests joining me—but it was worth every second. My brother and a few of our childhood friends stopped by to relive the stories from our pre-teen and teenage years. We laughed our way through the memories of the riotous transition from innocent kids to slightly more raucous and reckless versions of ourselves.

Joined by my son, John, we begin with a discussion about preserving life’s memories and quickly find ourselves in a series of Twilight Zone-style questions about privacy, memory, and the cost of having your entire life documented. A great discussion which ranged from reflective to surreal to thought-provoking and downright hilarious.

This week, my longtime neighborhood crew returns as we laugh our way through the lessons learned of What Not To Do when corrupting each other growing up. Organized sports, school mornings, family dinners and concerts were all placed in jeopardy by poor decisions and terribly hysterical timing. The picture of how it all helped mold us becomes more clear, however blurry it may have been along the way.

This week, my daughter joins me as we wander straight into the wonderfully ridiculous side of hypothetical thinking. Together, we weigh the social cost of viral embarrassment, the awkward physics of public composure, and the deeply unsettling idea of existing on paper while being suddenly unknown to everyone including our loved ones. Naturally, we laugh far more than we solve anything. Logic was invited, but rarely showed up.

Three childhood neighborhood friends join me this week as we dust off old memories and immediately realize that it’s a miracle we all made it to adulthood. Same block, same chaos, only this time the scrapes were inside our heads as we jolted each other with funny memories that we can all relate to.