Talking Shit Today

What you'll hear:

• Tasting the Old Dominic 2026 8 Year Reserve: dark mahogany color, cream soda and icing on the nose, caramel and tobacco on the palate, and a long oak finish.
• The Old Dominic story, from Domenico Canale landing in Memphis in 1866 to the brand's revival in 2017.
• Who Forward Slash is, and why non distiller producers (NDPs) are making noise right now.
• What a first therapy session sounds like, what confidentiality covers, and why your therapist keeps asking the same safety question.
• Why losing structure and purpose hits veterans and first responders so hard after they get out.

Timestamps:
00:00 Cold open
04:38 Change of plans and the bonus episode tease
11:22 What's in our glass: Old Dominic 8 Year Reserve
19:17 The Old Dominic story
21:13 Forward Slash and the Florida launch party
36:00 Men's mental health: what getting help actually looks like
42:20 Role play: a first therapy session
50:19 Role play: a veteran counselor session
56:17 AITA: mom on the first date
1:11:08 Big Mike's Bourbon Rollin Reserve, October 17
1:12:04 Toast to the fragile ones

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org, 24 hours a day. Veterans can press 1. The world is better with you in it.

Follow @talkingshittoday on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, or email [email protected]. Like, follow, and share.

This episode includes discussion of suicide.

What you'll take away:

• Whiskey Warriors uses barrel picks to fund families in need, and the club now has a chaplain for members who want someone to talk to.

• Distribution markups explain much of the price of a bottle, and a competitive model can bring it down.

• The We Are the Fragile story from Freddie Johnson: crack the special bottle with the people who matter.

• You can be angry at what someone did and still love them.

Timestamps:

8:28 What's in the Glass

21:38 Bigg Mike joins the show

24:24 The three tier system and fair pricing

31:53 Whiskey Warriors and this year's sponsor child

33:49 Why Mike calls his whiskey room a library

41:20 Rolling Reserve Bourbon Fest, October 17

1:05:27 We Are the Fragile and opening the bottle

1:23:53 Men's mental health

1:25:16 Mike's story

1:33:03 The numbers

1:39:36 A chaplain for the club

1:42:28 Am I the Asshole

1:59:35 Closing toast

Find Mike:

Bigg Mike's Bourbon on Instagram and TikTok

Rolling Reserve Bourbon Fest on Facebook

Lost in the Rick House podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and YouTube

Whiskey Warriors Barrel Club on Facebook

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. Help is there 24 hours a day. We need you here. You're not allowed to quit.

Follow Talking Shit Today wherever you find your podcasts, email [email protected], or visit talkingshittoday.com.

We officially kick off year two of Talking Shit Today, and we're switching things up. No bourbon on the table this week. Instead, X, Lumpy, and Red welcome Josh Marcott of Grove and Grain Distillery out of Brooksville, FL, a gin and rum maker with a mission to put Florida spirits on the map.

The fellas push back on the "no bourbon" premise right out of the gate (what are we doing here, exactly), but Josh makes the case for why gin and rum deserve a seat at the table too. Expect the usual chaos: a cleaning-product mix-up, some good-natured ribbing about the show's evolution, and a real conversation about what it takes to build a spirits brand in a state most people don't associate with distilling.

New guest, new categories, same shit-talking energy. Welcome back, fellas.

One Year of Talking Shit 🥃 (feat. Whiskey Odin & Whiskey Witch)

We’re celebrating our one-year anniversary by bringing back our very first-ever guests, Whiskey Odin and Whiskey Witch from Valkyrie Mountain Farms. Full circle energy as we crack open the Russell’s Reserve 13 Year (45th Anniversary Edition), run it through our rating scale, and catch up on everything Odin’s got cooking: a new NDP, upcoming collab bottles, and his Valkyrie Mountain community. We also dig into an Am I the Asshole submission about splitting the family lunch bill, and we take our recurring men’s mental health segment seriously with a hard conversation about value, purpose, and why asking for help isn’t weakness.

In this episode:

• 🥃 Tasting the Russell’s Reserve 13 Year 45th Anniversary

• 📖 One-year anniversary trivia and stories from episode one

• ⚖️ Am I the Asshole: the family lunch bill split

• ❤️ Men’s mental health: why “I refuse to die” isn’t the same as living

• 🎉 Whiskey Odin’s new brand, NDP, and upcoming bottle collabs

If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by call, text, or chat.

Follow us everywhere @TalkingShitToday, or email us at [email protected].

Episode 25 — one shy of the one-year mark — and X and Lumpy bring back Corey Allender (Cracked Skull Podcast) alongside first-timer Seth, aka OhioBourbonBro, for a barrel pick they're genuinely proud of: the Cracked Skull Rye, a 10-year MGP barrel proof stunner they picked together. The guys break down the pick, the friendship behind it, and why TikTok is great for connection but garbage for marketing.

Then it's Am I the Asshole: a dad asks his 19-year-old, self-described "child-free" daughter to help babysit her newly-orphaned 4-year-old cousin — or start paying rent. The room does not hold back.

Mental health check this week: "divorce core," the internet's new dad aesthetic, and what it actually means to normalize starting over.

In this episode:

• What's in the Glass: Cracked Skull Rye (10yr MGP, barrel proof, unfiltered) — unanimous Banger
• The story behind the pick and the friendship with Hanger 1 Distillery
• Corey & Seth on building community over competition in the bourbon space
• AITA: "Babysit or Pay Rent" — a genuinely split verdict
• Men's Mental Health: unpacking "divorce core" and normalizing the next chapter
• A giveaway tease and a toast to close it out

Connect with Cracked Skull Podcast and OhioBourbonBro on all socials.

If you or someone you know is struggling, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available by call, text, or chat at 988. You are needed here.

🥃 Follow Talking Shit Today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube
📱 Instagram, TikTok, Facebook: @talkingshittoday
✉️ [email protected]

• What’s in the Glass: Rare Character Brook Hill 8-Year Kentucky Straight Rye — unanimous Banger

• AITA with a twist: a dad’s rules, a boyfriend’s apology text, and a comment section that mostly behaved

• Men’s Mental Health: “When the Comeback Falls Apart” — career pivots, weight loss setbacks, and redefining failure vs. not-yet-success

If you or someone you know is struggling, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 — call or text 988.

🥃 Follow, like, and share wherever you listen — Spotify, Apple, Amazon, YouTube

📱 Find us on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

📧 [email protected]

For the first time ever, the shit show has a guest IN the studio. Mike Ciacciarelli of Castle & Key — the unicorn listener the boys found at Whiskey Riot — rolls in with six bottles and the full story of the distillery Colonel E.H. Taylor built in the 1880s, left to ruin, and one entrepreneur bought off a Google search for under a million bucks. The birthplace of bourbon tourism, rebuilt from rubble.

X, Big Red, and Lumpy taste through the whole lineup: the 6-Year Small Batch Bourbon (101 proof, 73% heirloom white corn), the Small Batch Wheated that finally converted Lumpy, the Restoration Rye, the Cask Strength Wheated, and two Experimental Series cask-strength rye finishes — Vino de Naranja and 15-year Haitian rum barrels (yes, there’s banana, and no, it’s not on the nose).

Then the guys get into why you don’t have to be right to be happy — layoffs, dance dad reflections, ego vs. peace at home — before an AITA that split the table: is Gary’s “secret family recipe” cocktail just a Manhattan, and who’s the asshole for saying it out loud at Thanksgiving? Leave a comment with your verdict — we’re reading them next episode.

In this episode:

​ (00:44) Meet Mike: Jersey Shore hospitality, $40 Pappy pours, and the road to Castle & Key

​ (05:40) What actually makes an American single malt

​ (09:24) The Castle & Key story: Col. E.H. Taylor and the birthplace of bourbon tourism

​ (20:15) What’s in the Glass: all six pours, white corn magic, and confectioner’s-sugar finishes

​ (48:28) Experimental Series: VDN and Haitian rum-finished ryes at cask strength

​ (1:21:52) You don’t have to be right to be happy

​ (1:35:49) AITA: The Founder’s Pour is just a Manhattan

​ (1:43:34) A toast to things rebuilt from ruin

If you or someone you love is struggling, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 — available 24/7. We need you here. The world is better with you in it.

Like, follow, comment, and share. Find us everywhere @talkingshittoday on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, or email [email protected]. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors — everybody needs to talk shit today.

It’s a red, white, and blue celebration on Talking Shit Today. General X, Lumpy, and Big Red sit down with Gary Hinegardner, founder of Wood Hat Spirits, and Irene Tan of Whiskey Mentors (aka the “Single Barrel Queen”) to crack open their collaborative 250th Anniversary blend, a five-corn bourbon built from Gary’s proprietary corn genetics and Irene’s blending palate. Gary talks corn breeding and sustainable distilling, Irene shares her path from software engineer to single-barrel legend, and the crew breaks down the tasting note by note. Then in Mental Health, the guys discuss PTSD beyond combat trauma, including Red’s own experience after a car accident, and why men often avoid asking for help. They close with Am I the Asshole, on a listener whose brother wanted to open their late father’s unopened bottle collection, including a Blanton’s he was saving for “the right occasion,” at his memorial.

Episode 21 calls for a celebration and we're doing it right. Three bottles, all carrying a 21-year age statement, go head-to-head on the Talking Shit Today rating scale. X cracks open his raffle-won Knob Creek 21 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Big Red brings the Redbreast 21 Year Irish Whiskey, and the night gets derailed in the best possible way by a 140-proof Rare Character Limited Release Light Whiskey Batch #5 that broke Lumpy's brain in real time.

Then we flip the script on Kyle for once, he might not be the asshole. We dig into milestones, crossroads, and the choices that made us who we are. Plus: what does turning 21 actually look like when you look back on it? Spoiler, it's more Red Lobster than you'd expect.

As always, if you're struggling, you don't have to go it alone. Text or call 988, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. We need you here.

Here's to the people who show up, crack the bottle with you when the moment's right, and don't put it on a shelf. Pour something good.

📲 @talkingshittoday everywhere | [email protected]

X and Lumpy go head-to-head in a blind tasting showdown between two wheated bourbon legends — Weller Antique 107 and Old Fitzgerald 7 Year — while reflecting on a wild night at the Orlando Whiskey Riot (including a lost phone, a surprise fan encounter, and bottles they definitely didn’t leave with). The guys then take the mental health conversation a floor deeper, unpacking stoicism, emotional bank accounts, the difference between reacting and responding, and why your happiness matters more than being right. Plus: Am I the Asshole returns with a bourbon abandonment dilemma, and a teaser for episode 21’s very special age-statement bottle.

🥃 Topics: Blind wheated bourbon tasting | Whiskey Riot Orlando recap | Stoicism & anger | Men’s mental health | AITA: the allocated bottle

📞 If you’re struggling: 988 — call, text, or chat. You’re not allowed to quit.