The Speech Guys

The Speech Guys find a reason to hang with Ronnie Reagan again--and it's a good reason as they're embarking on the first speech series of the 7th season. Speeches By Small Towners. Reagan gave this speech in Dixon, Illinois on February 6th, 1984.

The whole podcastin' gang is here to close out season six. The task at hand? Weave together Christmas (excuse me, Advent!) and the Straussian Moment (do we even know what that is yet after four episodes?). Ross lines it up with a speech by Pope Benedict from 2010 and Mike, Landon, and Matt take their turns at the tee.

Read the speech here: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/urbi/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20101225_urbi.html

Episode thumbnail comes from https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2023-01/benedict-xvi-s-last-words-lord-i-love-you.html.

75% of the Speech Guys report for podcasting duty. Ross is out hunting. Matt, Landon, and Mike go hunting for great ideas about President Obama's 2010 Father's Day speech. Come on and climb inside and see if they found any. As usual, the Speech Guys are best served with a cold drink.

Episode thumbnail comes from Time.com.

The full transcript of President Obama's Father's Day speech can be found here:

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-a-fathers-day-event

The study concerning parents' values toward their children:

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/01/24/parenting-in-america-today/

Landon, Ross, Mike, and Matt wander through the cultural wake that is Bane's speech outside the Gotham City Stock Exchange in the 2012 Dark Knight Rises. 1993. Institutions. Scapegoats. Predictive programming. How evil manifests. Really... 1993!

Plus... Is Bane's speech more likely to come from President Trump's mouth or Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? The Speech Guys tabulate a score and it's closer than you might think!

Thumbnail is used from The Guardian.

Bane's speech audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzK97Aaj_U8

Vice's speech audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E-v5yDBR64

The Straussian what? Huh? Put on your listening ears and thinking cap as the Speech Guys go way back and all over... the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, 9/11, and everything that came after. Imagine this episode as like a field of wildflowers... sure, there's some weeds and stuff that just don't matter, but it makes those few thoughts that bloom here just a bit more worth the hang. Landon is the trail guide and Mike, Ross, and Matt ride along.

Read "The Straussian Moment" in its entirety: https://gwern.net/doc/politics/2007-thiel.pdf

Thumbnail comes from https://reason.com/2020/08/02/wait-wasnt-peter-thiel-a-libertarian/.

The Speech Guys go back to the beginning with words by the first westerners--in this case, Black Hawk, after the Sauk and Meskawi lost possession of land in northern Illinois and Wisconsin in 1832.

Fact check: Mike comments on the distinction between the Sioux and Lakota. The "Sioux" refers to a larger aggregation of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota.

Fact check: The anti-sematic social media posts of the Palestinian graduate student is discussed here in the Wall Street Journal.

Thumbnail image is a depiction of Black Hawk by George Catlin in 1832 and used from Wikipedia.

It's the whole Speech Guys gang on call to discuss "Fill Your Hands, You Son of a B****" (Rooster Cogburn, True Grit), "I'm Your Huckleberry" (Doc Holliday, Tombstone), and a couple more questionable applications of the cowboy ethos as John Wayne portrayed in The Cowboys ("Old School Speech Therapy") and Hondo ("You Can't What?").

Biking for Babies Finish Celebration, Saturday, July 19th (Saint Louis):

https://www.bikingforbabies.com/col-mo/

Biking for Babies Finish Celebration, Saturday, July 19th (Philadelphia):

https://www.bikingforbabies.com/col-pa/

Biking for Babies Executive Director, Nikki Biese, joins Kevin, Mike, and Jimmy to discuss John Paul the Great's 1993 World Youth Day address in Denver.

Thumbnail comes from https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/contributors/john-paul-ii-knowing-suffering-from-inside/.

Mid life comes a little later now since Meriwether Lewis' day. The whole Speech Guys crew chat about Lewis' August 18th, 1805 journal entry from the Corps of Discovery expedition when he turned 31. Securing horses from the Shoshones and getting a few dozen guys across two-thirds of the country couldn't shake his gloomy thoughts.

Fact check: Mike incorrectly states that the cost of the expedition was $2,500. This was the amount President Jefferson requested to Congress. An 1806 War Department report states the cost as closer to $38,722.25. (https://lewis-clark.org/the-trail/eastern-beginnings/estimate-of-expenses/#:~:text=Actual%20Costs,pay%20for%20personnel%20($11%2C000).)

Episode thumbnail comes from https://montanakids.com/history_and_prehistory/lewis_and_clark/lewis.htm.

Post credits audio comes from Ken Burns' Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery documentary.

Kevin sits in for Sarah Wiese to get prepped for his MC role at the 2025 finishing event at Saint Joseph's parish in Manchester, Missouri on Saturday, July 19th. Jimmy and Mike sit alongside as they revisit a few old memory gems from Kev's first ride in 2011 and discuss John Paul the Great's 1987 speech that bid farewell to his American spiritual family.

Biking for Babies Alumni, register here for BARRR! https://www.bikingforbabies.com/2025-alumni-offerings/

Here's John Paul's text from that speech: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1987/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19870919_congedo-stati-uniti.html.

Thumbnail image comes from https://catholicinsight.com/2019/10/22/pope-saint-john-paul-the-great/.

Audio clip from Biking for Babies 2011 comes from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X20usGav_58.

"America, Defend Life" song-voiceover is from the 2012 Biking for Babies ride:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV8Vsrt2sAk