Lewis Black's Rantcast

Happy 4th of July! Don't we all feel super patriotic right now? Another day in America brings us another mass shooting at a parade in Chicago while we get the second opportunity to witness folks in the city of where our Declaration of Independence was signed run in fear from more gunfire as the Rocket's Red Glare fills the night sky. As if that wasn't bad enough, airlines are kicking us in the nuts as the biggest nuts in country right now, SCROTUS is taking its conservatism all the way back to the 1930s. Wooohooo, Let's celebrate! Where's the BBQ?

This week Lewis reads rants submitted from his fans, some the night he recorded his most-recent comedy special and others from fans that just had to get some things 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

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]

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Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it does. We're completely dumbfounded by the lack of leadership going on in the political spectrum right now. From new Supreme Court rulings that are about as politically motivated as can be, to an ineffective government that appears completely broken. Lewis attempts to make sense of it all.

The live rants this week come from the Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem PA (Mar 7, 2020).

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

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

We are now entering the summer of our discontent and Lewis is aware of it, from the latest revelations from the conservative questioned during the ongoing January 6th Committee hearings. But there's no shortage of things to rant about from rapid inflation that continues to ask the working man to make the most sacrifices while your host doesn't have the highest of hopes for the results of the impending gun control laws. So enjoy this week's Rantcast from the mind of Lewis and the minds of the people of Philadelphia.

The live rants this week come from the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia, PA on March 2020.

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

From gun control to climate change to preserving democracy, the litany of issues not being fully addressed keeps getting longer. And at a time when we desperately need to get on with ensuring a safe and sane future, the larger cultural and political forces in the country continue to stand in the way. Across the political spectrum leadership has taken a holiday, forced by a compromised electoral system to be more responsive to donors than to the citizens they represent. So enjoy this week's Rantcast as your host tries to find a sliver of hope in a country determined to immolate itself both figuratively and literally.

The live rants come from the Virginia Theater in Champaign IL on May 1, 2022.

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 84th edition of the Rantcast is about guns and gun control and the scourge of gun violence in America and the inability of the large majority of the country to summon the political will to keep our schools, churches, supermarkets, streets, and other public gathering places from continuing to be the sites of mass death. It asks when will enough be enough. It asks how many more children have to die before we take action.

One impediment to action is semantics. In the recent national discourse about this subject the definition of evil has come into question. On this matter, evil is seeing what is in front of you and knowing what needs to be done, and feigning blindness. Evil is creating a system that protects guns and gun users and gun manufacturers wholly while leaving the people those guns are supposed to protect completely exposed to random and not-so-random acts of gun violence. It is an insidious evil destined to turn every day into a Memorial Day.

Lewis’ Rantcast intro may inspire many different reactions, but laughter probably won’t be one of them. If you want to skip to the funny parts, the live rants start at 32:11.

And while Lewis’ current thoughts on the guns might not be that amusing, he was able to find the humor in this subject in the past. In his 2016 special "Black to the Future", he gave his prophetic view on the matter, with a bonus insight into his retirement plans: https://youtu.be/QCEMxpjzDHM

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

In this week's episode, Lewis remembers his friend Bruce MacVittie, an accomplished stage and screen actor who passed away earlier this month. Lewis met Bruce through their work with 52nd Street Project, a community-based arts organization that brings NYC tweens and teens together with professional artists to create a variety of works of art. Aside from working with the kids, there was also some time for the adults to share a glass of wine or two. During these tastings Lewis came to appreciate wine and learned from Bruce to ask a critical question: do you like the taste for the price? Bruce will be deeply missed, so raise a glass for this consummate artist, and check out an exemplary example of his work, the episode of “Homicide: Life on the Street” from season 6 called “The Subway”: https://youtu.be/qhplAN8ie2w

The news this week somehow reached new tiers of horrible, with events happening too fast to contemplate. There are massive problems in the country, from multiple plagues to active shooters to food shortages to sinister challenges to personal autonomy, so that nowhere feels safe and circumstances feel beyond anyone’s control. One way to regain some sense of security is to actively address the sources of these issues by learning and teaching the history they stem from. To ignore the mistakes of the past not only allows them to repeat, it allows the associated trauma of those mistakes to pass on to future generations.

In happier news, Lewis filmed his latest special on May 15th on Long Island and is grateful to everyone who came out to see it and for the level of energy and excitement they brought to the taping. It was inspiring. And Lewis got to see his mom again this week, a good reminder to reach out to those you love because on personal, community, and national levels, it’s time to take care of each other.

The live rants come from one of Lewis’ favorite venues, the Warner Theater in Washington DC on May 6, 2020.

Reminder: we now have a prize for the best rant submission of the week: a subscription for cheeses from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont (https://www.youtube.com/JasperHillFarm).

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

In an America where almost anything jurisprudence-related – no matter how unreasonable it seems in the current context – can be justified if you can find a quote from an old, dead Englishman, it's a good time to reflect on the Bard's sentiments regarding the legal profession. Among Shakespeare's most famous locutions, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" (Henry VI, Part 2) can be interpreted in several ways but in the current moment let’s posit that it’s criticism of lawyers for siding with the wealthy and privileged to protect their power and money from the peasants. A majority of the justices on the Supreme Court have aligned themselves with this feudal sentiment, and as they (and many members of Congress) are lawyers, it speaks poorly of what is being taught in law schools. And regarding the SCOTUS Leak, the less said about the better, though the one thing it clarified is that the news media is a feeding frenzy of speculation determined to instill fear of the future as a means to keep us watching CPAP, boner pill, and insurance commercials. The fifth estate would serve us better if they stuck with “what is” as opposed to “what if”. Of course, dealing in actuality takes hard work and a dedication to approaching topics with as much objectivity and truthfulness as possible, while “what if” merely requires opening one’s mouth and bloviating. 

In other news of the week, a Tennessee lawmaker cited Hitler’s experience as a means to show that being homeless can be a building block to a better life. As always, if you are citing something Hitler said as a means to win an argument, you have already lost the argument. And the rash of attacks on performing comedians continued with the attempted on-stage assault of Dave Chappelle. Like the Chris Rock Slap, there was an absence of a rapid response from those entrusted with the safety of the artist. It’s unfortunate that there is an increasing need for more police-like security at live shows, but that’s where we are given the sensibilities in the country and the lack of easy access to mental health care.

Finally, it was Mother’s Day this past Sunday, a holiday that Lewis’ mother Jeannette refuses to acknowledge, having forcefully argued for a long time that that every day is Mother’s Day if you’re a mother or have a mother. Whether you agree with Mrs. Black or not, it’s certain that even at 103 years old, her arguments are more cogent and intellectually and historically sound than Justice Alito’s.

The live rants come from the shows in Richmond VA and Greensburg PA and feature discourses on personal liberty, motherhood, monuments, and personal hygiene.

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

In this week's episode, Lewis delves into the history of May Day and why in the US we moved the celebration of labor to the end of the summer. Honoring the working class at the same time as the rest of the world was too communal an experience for our nation of rugged individualists, and it was stained by links with socialists and anarchists and by fears of association with the 1886 Haymarket Riots. President Grover Cleveland thus proposed having the celebration for those who labor in September and it became a federal holiday in 1894. Now, more than a century later, we join together the first Monday each September to pay lip-service to the hard-working laborers who keep our economy and society functioning, while also somehow highlighting the importance of management and owners.

Lewis also offers a modest proposal for relocating refugees and migrants, explores the vague return to normalcy that was the 2022 NFL draft, and offers this athletics-related opinion: Wizards is the worst name in sports. Also, if there’s a manliness crisis in America, Madison Cawthorne is clearly not the person to offer solutions.

The live rants come from Chicago and Detroit, two towns where the citizens don't agree on much, especially regarding Lions, Tigers, Bears, or Cubs (or Pistons, Bulls, White Sox, Blackhawks, or Red Wings), but definitely agree that the potholes need to be fixed!\

The big news on the rant front is that we now have a prize for the best rant submission of the week: a subscription for cheeses from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont.

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

In this week's episode, Lewis pays tribute to his friend and fellow comedian Gilbert Gottfried, a foul-mouthed angel who made a career out of finding the line of taste and then crossing right over it. He revived the Aristocrats joke as a way to recover from a post-9/11 moment of comedic transgression, and could make almost anything funny, including waiter’s trays. He will be terribly missed and if anything has happened “too soon”, it is Gilbert passing.

In other news of the week, a federal judge ruled that the CDC’s mask mandate on public transportation was enacted without a proper mandate, just in time for new variants to put the lives of the immunocompromised (and the unvaccinated) at further risk. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' turn toward autocracy continued with his attacks on the House of Mouse, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's turn away from having any recollection about anything at all also continued, as she took the stand to recall her part in the January 6th Insurrection and her mind, like her policies, was a vast emptiness of ahistorical reactionary presentism. It would be an admirable trait in its Zen-like focus only on the now, if it weren’t accompanied by a tendentious desire to use that disregard of history as a way to continue the repression of historically marginalized communities.

The live rants come from the shows in Cincinnati and Akron OH, where we learn that the denizens of the Buckeye state are not too enamored of their state government. But they do like to put chili on top of noodles.

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

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

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

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

The rubber chicken is on leave after pumping out an extraordinary quantity of eggs for Easter. And like his coworker, Lewis is also on vacation, enjoying some rounds of golf and some time away from America's work-in-progress infrastructure.

The live rants come from the show in Huntington NY on April 3, 2020. The show went so well that Lewis will be back at The Paramount on May 15th to film his next special. Tickets are available here: https://paramountny.com/shows/lewis-black-special-live-taping/

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

New episodes arrive every Wednesday.

SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS

www.lewisblack.com/live

SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST

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

For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected]

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