Lewis Black's Rantcast

Jeannette Black turned 104 this past week, a staggering age to have reached. How did she manage this achievement? There is no reasonable explanation, though avoiding sweets may be one of her secrets to longevity. On being presented with a Carvel ice cream birthday cake, she proclaimed it to be, “too sweet”. Or it may be her lifelong embrace of sarcasm and negativity, a sensible outlook given that she has lived through two once-in-a-century pandemics. On the other side of the Atlantic, Queen Elizabeth II died after a reign of over 70 years. Whatever she embodied socially and politically, she did provide a consistent unifying presence for the UK, and was the only monarch most living humans have known. Unless you turned 104 this week, in which case you have lived during the reigns of five sovereigns: George V, Edward VIII, George VI, QEII, and now King Charles III. To put that in mathematical and historical perspective, if you take Jeannette’s birth year, 1918 and subtract her 104 years, you land on 1814, when George III was the monarch. Yes, the same George III who was king during the American revolution.

In other news this week, it was the 21st anniversary of the September 11th attacks, which provides a moment to remember those lost on that day, and also to stare in disbelief at how those intervening years have turned Mayor Rudy Giuliani from a mostly respected political leader into a crazed nihilistic side show.

And Lewis’s “Off the Rails” tour returns this week, with a jam-packed circumnavigation of the New England states, and then it’s on to Ohio and Indiana next week. Lewis is looking forward to being back on stage and is hoping he will remember his act, as he has left preparations for the shows to the last minute. “The Rant Is Due” is also back, so send in your rants and remember to tune into the live streams this weekend and throughout the upcoming tour.

Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here:

https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets

Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life

https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com

FOLLOW LEWIS

www.lewisblack.com

www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack

www.instagram.com/thelewisblack

www.facebook.com/thelewisblack

www.twitter.com/thelewisblack

www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The dark prince of distraction and chaos had a day in court this week, and for once one of the crony judges the former leader appointed did his bidding. In a ruling that has been nearly universally derided by legal experts across the political spectrum, the panoply of classified and not classified documents the former president stole from the people's house will be examined by a special master to determine their importance. All of this is of course an unnecessary delaying tactic designed to prevent the American people from getting a full understanding of what was taken and what has disappeared. What was in those empty folders? Inquiring minds and Federal prosecutors would like to know. The news media has become engulfed in this story and is reporting it with the same horserace analysis that they will proffer to the upcoming election season. It's all a giant sporting event to them, unconcerned as they are that the consequence of the next election might make it the last election of any consequence.

The real story is that the weather has yet again taken on biblical proportions with rains, flooding, fire, and heat straight out of the Book of Genesis. The new New Testament will have to add "zombie ice". Meanwhile the water in Jackson MS is undrinkable, mostly due to a history of underfunding the city's potable water infrastructure. The GOP Senate campaigns have managed to blow through nearly $200 million in donations this cycle, yet somehow there's no money to get drinkable water in the state capital of Mississippi, a state controlled by Republicans.

There was some good news this week as your host had a lovely birthday, celebrated with friends and some Rantcast recording. It's nice to feel the love, but each birthday is also a reminder of all the parts that need replacing. And as the seasons turn, it's time for Lewis to focus on some of the things most important to him: the new set for his upcoming tour and his fantasy football team. Not necessarily in that order.

And a happy Labor Day for all of you who are on the worker side of the late capitalist dystopia we are inhabiting. Now get back to work.

The rants this week cover a range of subjects from the personal to the household to the international. Plus some advice about how to deal with the in-laws.

Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here:

https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets

Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life

https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com

FOLLOW LEWIS

www.lewisblack.com

www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack

www.instagram.com/thelewisblack

www.facebook.com/thelewisblack

www.twitter.com/thelewisblack

www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis takes time on his birthday to celebrate with some of the people he loves the most, you the audience. As school has started for many American children, it’s dictionary time at the Rantcast. The word of the week is redacted, which means “edited especially in order to obscure or remove sensitive information”. The FBI has been busy literally redacting the former leader’s ill-kept horde of classified documents. But if we take a more figurative meaning of the word, many things in society have been redacted in the past couple of years: memory, the connecting ties between us all, Constitutional rights, civility, and the occasional podcast recording. 

While many Americans have many complaints about many parts of the federal government, there is at least one agency that is trying to provide some edifying news. NASA is back in the business of returning humans to the moon, starting with the launch of the Artemis I rocket. One possible consequence of the lunar return mission is that it would provide a uniting force for science and our place in the cosmos in what’s left of our common culture. Returning to the moon would give people, especially young people, a grander vision of the universe. And it would create the impetus to try to make the world we currently inhabit into a better place. 

So, this week there's good news, bad news, and a reverse birthday gift from Lewis, a wish for hope and peace and love for everyone in the Rantcast audience.

Conversely, the rants this week offer a litany of almost all the biblically-proportioned ills currently befalling our world. Plus, a diatribe about dental floss and the indiscriminate flossers who leave their flossing detritus for all to see.

Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here:

https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets

Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life

https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com

FOLLOW LEWIS

www.lewisblack.com

www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack

www.instagram.com/thelewisblack

www.facebook.com/thelewisblack

www.twitter.com/thelewisblack

www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The people have spoken, and the rubber chicken has been given a reprieve from being retired back to the annals of comedy history. He lives! She lives!! They live!!! (We will reserve questions about the gender of the rubber chicken for another time.) Much like our rubberized feathered-friend, another public figure with links to the Jazz Age is going back to the people to get their vote. In this case it is sitting Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who, if re-elected would be 96 years old at the end of his next term. While that would make Sen. Grassley decidedly on the old side of elderly, it would still put him several years shy of Lewis’s mom Jeannette, who will turn 104 in a couple of weeks. Lewis paid a visit to his mom this past week, and though her stories of teaching immigrants may have been a conflation of past events, or possibly fiction, they are still more coherent than Sen. Grassley’s incomprehensible interpretation of the $80 billion going to the IRS. It’s OK to make things up if you are 104 and have no responsibilities. Not so much if you are one of the longest-serving politicians in Washington.

On the conundrum front, Democrats have somehow become the defenders of the FBI (historically one of the most conservative parts of the executive branch), the former leader has seemingly found a way to defy all laws of physics and jurisprudence (he may be a hologram), and on a much more somber note, a judge in Florida determined that a pregnant sixteen-year-old is mature enough to be a parent, but not mature enough to decide whether to proceed with the pregnancy or have an abortion. And after years of being underpaid and underappreciated, the teachers of America have had enough. It was bad enough for them when all they had to deal with was bratty kids and over-involved parents. Now it’s all book banning, not teaching history, and dealing with school boards comprised of fellow citizens determined to impose their warped reality on the general public.

The rants this week include submissions about abortions, gun violence, and the descent of the United States into lawless chaos. Also addressed are serious topics like customer service phone options and Dodge Ram pickup trucks. Plus, an FBI-related top ten list.

Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here:

https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets

Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life

https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com

FOLLOW LEWIS

www.lewisblack.com

www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack

www.instagram.com/thelewisblack

www.facebook.com/thelewisblack

www.twitter.com/thelewisblack

www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It has come to your host’s attention that some in the audience are upset with and/or annoyed by the rubber chicken. Maybe they don’t understand the importance of the rubber chicken in the history of American comedy, especially on the Vaudeville circuit. Many of those old Vaudeville theatres still exist, and Lewis will be performing at several of them in the coming months including the Paramount Theatre in Rutland VT, the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne, IN, and the Fox Theatre in Tucson, AZ. From coast to coast the spirit of Vaudeville lives on in these venues, where the appearance of a rubber chicken would not elicit a hint of controversy or surprise. But without the proper historical context, appearances by the rubber chicken in more modern forms of media have unleashed an unprecedented level of criticism. So, we want to hear from you the audience; should the rubber chicken stay or go? Let us know in the comments.

As for the events of the week, the word unprecedented applies to many of them. Unprecedented implies an event that has never happened before, or could not have been expected to happen given the circumstances. It is something new, novel, surprising, or original. If the event could have been foreseen, it should not be described as unprecedented. So, let’s all back away from the feigned surprise at the Pete Davidson/Kim Kardashian breakup. What was unprecedented this week was the FBI serving a former president with a search warrant and searching his property for classified documents. Also unprecedented is a former president keeping top secret documents in his home. (To be clear, the latter is the cause of the former.) In other unprecedented news from the crime blotter, a man was arrested for using a finger-gun to rob paper napkins from a Waffle House. The only unsurprising thing about both of these alleged crimes is that they happened in Florida.

The rants cover a range of topical topics including abortion, trans rights, the separation of church and state, home buying, and working at the VA. And to add to the unprecedented events of the week, we have a rant in support of winter.

Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here:

https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets

Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life

https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com

FOLLOW LEWIS

www.lewisblack.com

www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack

www.instagram.com/thelewisblack

www.facebook.com/thelewisblack

www.twitter.com/thelewisblack

www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a week in the wild which included attending a raucous wedding in California, Lewis is back at home, in his personal public access station. The week was low-lighted by the hellscape of the CPAC convention, which featured a speech by Hungarian prime minister/autocrat Viktor Orbán. He said out loud exactly what most in the audience already believe, but may be a bit shy about saying publicly. Like a Greek tragedy where the arrival of the foreigner reveals the secrets of the society, Orbán’s speech consisted of every hatred known to live in the heart of the white patriarchy. Meanwhile the Senate actually got some stuff done, including steps in the right direction on climate change, taxation, and prescription drugs, but the process to get to the final vote was so arduous and convoluted that leads one to wonder how any of us as individuals can affect any change in our communities or even keep connected to reality.

One way your host attempts to connect with the laws of cause and effect is through the game of golf, which he has been able to play with some frequency this summer. The game may not be good for the ego, but it’s great at giving you the teeniest sense that you can affect something in the world.

Lastly, the Orioles, despite some recent attempts at mediocrity, which would be an improvement, traded away the heart of the team at the deadline.

Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here:

https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets

Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life

https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com

FOLLOW LEWIS

www.lewisblack.com

www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack

www.instagram.com/thelewisblack

www.facebook.com/thelewisblack

www.twitter.com/thelewisblack

www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here:

https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets

Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life

https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com

FOLLOW LEWIS

www.lewisblack.com

www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack

www.instagram.com/thelewisblack

www.facebook.com/thelewisblack

www.twitter.com/thelewisblack

www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's always good to travel internationally, as it gives the traveler the opportunity to tune out the troubles at home and embrace the local culture. And this week your host was fortunate enough to visit our neighbors to the north and perform at the Falls View Casino in Niagara Falls, Ontario. With a view of the eponymous falls, the hotel and casino complex lets the American traveler escape from the relentless cascade of news of our impending doom, while being washed over by the aural and visual majesty of one of the natural wonders of the world. So if you have the opportunity this summer, get out into nature and try to find the joy that being in the wild provides. If your journey leads you out of the USA, all the better. And don't worry, the chaos and craziness of our great experiment in democracy will be there when you return.

The live rants come from the show on July 22, 2022, and feature a variety of Canadian perspectives on their neighbors to the south, parking, toddlers at baseball games, and the "freedom convoy".

Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here:

https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets

Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life

https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com

FOLLOW LEWIS

www.lewisblack.com

www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack

www.instagram.com/thelewisblack

www.facebook.com/thelewisblack

www.twitter.com/thelewisblack

www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Summertime and the living isn't so easy. So it's time to reclaim the joy of the season and have fun, fun, fun until our collective T-Bird gets taken away, or yet more of our Constitutional freedoms are negated by radical, extremist justices who wouldn't recognize fun if you spotted them the F and the U. The warm glow of summer also gets diminished by the constant reminder that every new high temperature, wild fire, and melting tarmac portends the increasingly imminent melt down of the planet. But let's get out there and have some fun while we can still tolerate being more that 4 feet from an air conditioner.

Lewis offers some recommendations for summer fun, including seeing relatives, taking in a theatrical production, visiting a museum, and partaking in some fine dining and beverages. If you're anywhere near the Upstate New York area, you can check out the National Comedy Center, comedycenter.org, the Chautauqua Institution, chq.org, or your host on 7/22 at the Falls View Casino in Niagara Falls (the Canadian side): https://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/10005C70D4EF4D55. And for those of you in the DC-Metro area, there's a production of Lewis''s play "One Slight Hitch" at the Bowie Community Theater through the end of July: https://www.bctheatre.com.

The rants this week take on a slight international flavor with submissions from New Zealand and Canada, and also include ones about the many inconveniences and struggles of modern life.

Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here:

https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets

Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life

https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com

FOLLOW LEWIS

www.lewisblack.com

www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack

www.instagram.com/thelewisblack

www.facebook.com/thelewisblack

www.twitter.com/thelewisblack

www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis is met with another week of ridiculous news in what seems like a society that's continually going in the wrong direction. But hey! There's maybe some good news... for the people of England. Well, at least we'll get to see a possible court case when they question a fetus on the stand, huh?

This week Lewis reads rants submitted from his fans and they have some really important things to get off their chests.

Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life is available now!

https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com

https://thelaughbutton.podlink.to/Rantcast.

FOLLOW LEWIS

https://www.lewisblack.com

https://www.instagram.com/thelewisblack

https://twitter.com/thelewisblack

https://www.facebook.com/thelewisblack

https://www.youtube.com/OfficialLewisBlack

New episodes arrive every Wednesday via The Laugh Button Podcasts.

For advertising opportunities email: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices