This week on Flightless Bird, David looks at Dr James Dobson and Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs based fundamentalist Christian group formed in the 70s. Using his status as a child psychologist, Dobson wrote over 30 parenting books, creating a media empire that changed how many parents raised their kids. With a very strong focus on discipline and breaking the will of the child, Dobson’s ideas travelled far and wide, ending up in places like New Zealand. With hundreds of millions of dollars in donations, Dobson turned his focus to lobbying, extremely angry that females and gay people were getting a voice in society. David talks to people raised by adherents of Focus on the Family, before talking to DL Mayfield of the “Strongwilled” podcast about Dobson’s problematic roots and ideas. He then tracks the influence of Focus on the Family in New Zealand, talking to Michael Frost and Shane Meyer-Holt of the “In The Shift” podcast.

Email us: [email protected]

“In The Shift” Podcast: https://intheshift.com/

“Strongwilled” newsletter and podcast: https://strongwilled.substack.com/

4/13 Tickets for Portland: https://bit.ly/lostkiwiPDX

4/18 Tickets for San Francisco: https://bit.ly/lostkiwiSF

David and Rob take Flightless Bird to Seattle, doing a live episode to a sold out crowd at the Neptune Theatre. They interview a former homicide detective who penned a book on Seattle’s forgotten serial killer Gary Gene Grant, before turning their attention to the Rain City Jacks - a “jackoff club” preparing to celebrate its 20th year. What makes a group of over a 100 men come together to masturbate, and why? Rob and David also share what they love about the city, before David goes back into old interviews and finds one with grunge legend Chris Cornell.

Links:

- David’s full 30 minutes with Chris Cornell: https://www.webworm.co/p/chriscornell

- Chris Cornell tribute by Frank Guan: https://www.vulture.com/2017/05/chris-cornell-lyrics.html

A giant thanks to:

- Real Don Music for performing an amazing opening set, and live theme song (https://linktr.ee/realdonmusic)

- Paul Rosenberg of the Rain City Jacks (NSFW: https://www.raincityjacks.org/)

- Cloyd Steiger, author of “Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer: Gary Gene Grant” (https://www.amazon.com/Seattles-Forgotten-Serial-Killer-Grant/dp/1467143626)

- Sydney Paulsen for her amazing photography

- Betty Putnam for her taxidermy to dress our set (https://www.eputnamstudio.com)

- Matt & Kate for stage managing

- The staff at the Neptune!

- All those in the audience who came to our first live show - stay tuned for me.

Email us: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob are joined by Gareth Reynold’s from “The Dollop” and “We’re Here To Help” podcasts. Gareth tells them about the story of Gallagher, an American comedian who pioneered the "Sledge-O-Matic" - and got into a bitter feud with his younger brother Ron. Along the way they talk infomercials, Carrot Top, and the dangers of impersonating someone else.

LINKS:

Mental Floss story: https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/gallagher-vs-gallagher-ii | Pop culture hyperfixations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCbYP2mzFhQ

The Dollop podcast: https://www.dolloppodcast.com/podcast

We’re Here To Help podcast: https://www.heretohelppod.com/

This week, David meets the man who squatted in Kanye West’s Simi Valley house, sleeping in Kanye’s bed, eating Kanye’s pasta, and shitting in Kanye’s backyard. While there, John wrote a book called “Squat” which is, in this podcast’s opinion, fantastic. David then has an update about Melbourne’s Fake Seizure Guy, and reads listeners emails about other local legends around America, Canada, and the world. NOTE: While this episode about Kanye may seem incredibly timely, we actually recorded the studio part of this episode a day before Kanye’s latest X/Twitter tirade, which saw him saying a bunch of mindnumbily dumb, stupid, and offensive stuff. He was racist, extremely anti-semitic, and sent out porn. In a way it doesn't really change anything because we already knew all this about Kanye West - he’s done all this before - but in the chaos of keeping up with everything that’s going on in the world right now, some of that felt a million years ago. I guess I could sum up my feelings by what I texted Rob just now - “I wish we’d gone a little harder here”.

Links:

- John Safran’s book, Squat: https://www.amazon.com/Squat-John-Safran/dp/1760890170

- Beware the Serial Squatter of Malibu’s Point Dume: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/serial-squatter-malibu-point-dume

- Update on Fake Seizure Guy’s Arrest: https://www.webworm.co/p/fakeseizureguy2

"In this week’s Flightless Bird, David continues his series in Australia. This week, he arrives in Melbourne to try and solve the mystery of “Fake Seizure Guy”, a local man who appears to fake having a seizure so locals can sit on him. Why does he want people to sit on him, and how long has this been going on?

Do you have more information? Email us: [email protected]

Links:

- Webworm article on Fake Seizure Guy: https://www.webworm.co/p/fakeseizureguy

- Flightless Bird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast

- Carrot Man: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/12/melbourne-fitzroy-carrot-man & https://www.instagram.com/whereiscarrotman/ "

In this week’s episode, David and Rob take a pause on regular programming to try and make sense of what’s happened since the inauguration of Donald Trump. From social media chaos, Elon Musk’s “hand gesture” and mass deportations, to the new D.O.G.E logo and presidential pardons - we are all just trying to make sense of this together.

Email us: [email protected]

Find us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast

Show Links:

- David Farrier’s Webworm piece on inauguration: https://www.webworm.co/p/welcome-to-american-hell

- The Present Age with Parker Molloy: https://www.readtpa.com/p/news-organizations-are-tiptoeing

- Ezra Klein: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-trump-inauguration.html

- Presidential Pardons: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-proud-boys-tarrio-rhodes-release-pardon-b2683691.html

- Officer beaten by mob works 14 hour day at Trump’s inauguration. Comes home to pardons: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/officer-jan-6-trump-protection.html

- “Trump pardons Silk Road dark web market creator Ross Ulbricht”: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o

- “Trump pardons two police officers convicted in murder of Black man in Washington”: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-pardons-two-police-officers-convicted-murder-black-man-washington-2025-01-23/

-The Bishop who angered Trump: https://time.com/7209222/bishop-mariann-budde-trump/

- How We Learn To Be Brave book: https://www.amazon.com/How-We-Learn-Be-Brave/dp/0593539214/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=

- “Only two genders”: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/23/trump-executive-order-fetal-personhood

- Royalty Family YouTube video on LA fires: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7K1FKOV9ns

- The Shit You Should Care About newsletter: https://shityoushouldcareabout.substack.com/

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob reflect on the California wildfires, talking to a variety of people affected both directly and indirectly. We hear from one of the team from Watch Duty (the app downloaded by over 2 million people in the last week) about how it works and how it’s saved lives, before talking to one of the people organising at Mutual Aid LA. We then hear from Flightless Bird listeners about various aspects of American wildfires - and what makes this wildfire different.

HOW TO HELP:

-Lydia & Ryan's GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/fa89b9fc

-Mike Rothschild’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MikeRothschild

-GoFundMe main list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/10gvOxituYvxxknoY9IQa-YEqfK8WvCjcLBcg4hsmME4/htmlview?ref=theconsciouscitizens.org

-Where to volunteer: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eaSXTYlLY_spJ-_w43ac55qu6X4YtgApgRGfads3cM4/htmlview

-Mutual Aid LA - what is needed and how you can help: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KMk34XY5dsvVJjAoD2mQUVHYU_Ib6COz6jcGH5uJWDY/htmlview?gid=439359427#gid=439359427

ARTICLE MENTIONED IN EPISODE

-What Happens When a Plastic City Burns

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2025/01/los-angeles-fire-smoke-plastic-toxic/681318/

-David Chamberlin - Creed-tastic cover of our theme song: www.RecordLA.com

-Lingering Effects of the wildfire: https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/01/indirect-death-toll-from-the-l-a-fires-may-end-up-in-the-thousands/

-Gunman at the LADWP building: https://www.foxla.com/news/ladwp-headquarter-center-heavy-police-presence

-Incarcerated firefighters: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/wildfire-camp-incarcerated-teens

-Thread from former inmate who fought fires: https://www.threads.net/@5456236980/post/DEkYYlPv4H1

CONTACT US:

-Email Flightless Bird: [email protected]

-Watch Flightless Bird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast

In this week’s Flightless Bird David is on the ground in Australia, looking at topics that are distinctly… Australian. Australia has, relatively speaking, a lot of shark attacks. So many there’s a whole Wikipedia page called “Shark attacks in Australia”. Of the 69 “unprovoked shark bites” around the world in 2023, 22% of them happened in Australia. David meets with two men who survived shark attacks - who share their motivational stories of recovery, and talk about an elite members club called “The Bite Club”. Rob and David also discuss the LA fires.

Links:

-Flightless Bird is looking for first hand stories from Californians affected by the fires. First responders, or those who’ve had their lives changed by these fires. Please send your voice memos to: [email protected]

-MALAN Fire & Wind Storm Resources: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KMk34XY5dsvVJjAoD2mQUVHYU_Ib6COz6jcGH5uJWDY/htmlview?gid=439359427#gid=439359427 / Displaced Black Families GoFund Me Directory: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pK5omSsD4KGhjEHCVgcVw-rd4FZP9haoijEx1mSAm5c/htmlview

-Brett Connellan - shark attack survivor and motivational speaker : https://www.saxton.com.au/speakers/brett-connellan

-Reach the Bite Club’s Dave Pearson (shark attack victims only!): [email protected]

-Flightless Bird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast

In this week’s episode, David talks with author Jason Pargin (John Dies At The End & I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom) about what TikTok and the modern internet is doing to our brains. David and Rob also discuss their New Years’ (David saw Creed in Las Vegas, Rob ate a yummy meal and went to sleep), the Cyber Truck explosion outside Trump’s hotel, and how much a blimp costs.

Links:

-Email Flightless Bird: [email protected]

-YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast

-Jason Pargin on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jasonkpargin?lang=en

-Jason's Novel, ""I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom: A Novel"": https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Worry-About-This-Black/dp/B0CT43CN6B

-Tropicana hotel destroyed: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/10/09/tropicana-hotel-casino-implosion-las-vegas/75347373007/

-Cyber Truck blown up: https://apnews.com/article/trump-hotel-explosion-tesla-cybertruck-5c5a8fd13a50e2bcde46370ae926d427

This week on Flightless Bird, David calls his friend Leon Wadham who plays "Kemen" in Amazon's Rings of Power series. Rob and David then look back at one of their favourite Flightless Bird episodes, when David visited Hobbiton. Calvin then reviews the first two Lord of the Rings films, and Rob gifts David a birthday present!

Links:

-Dave Kloc: https://www.instagram.com/davekloc/

-Flightless Bird Shirts: www.webworm.store

-Email us: [email protected]