Uncle TED Talks

Uncle TED Talks

By allenmarcus.comComedySociety & Culture
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Uncle TED Talks episodes

  • cow dog nov 11
    Ben Balderson ran out of blood four times. He's still here. His assessment: "Dying's weird." 
    Meanwhile, in the opening minutes, a marmot has taken control of Donald Trump's thoughts. The marmot loves mayonnaise. Nobody is sure why. Nobody asks. Egg on the marmot's face. 
    Welcome back Sean S.B. Alger, joining from an industrial knife factory in Idaho, where he now has something almost as unfamiliar as a second chance at life: health insurance. 
    Andre the Giant cracks the paint on a wrestler's mask with one outstretched fist. Macho Man Randy Savage takes a size-thirteen boot to the face and rings the bell to buy himself time. Somebody calls wrestling "the greatest homoerotic American soap opera of all time," and nobody argues. Then come Led Zeppelin's role in inventing butt rock, Keith Richards weighing out his daily heroin like baby formula, Quaaludes making a comeback, AI newsrooms, and, because it's November 10, the singing Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which nobody can quite complete. 
    There's still the Great Lakes, California, conspiracy theories, religious spectacle, Minnesota candy stores selling candied liquors, and the secret third pronunciation of aluminum. 
    The conversation doesn't follow a straight line. That's the point. 
    Stay for the aspirin warning. Stay for the Lake Erie bridge panic. Trust us on the detours. You don't have to cross every bridge.

    Watch live on Tuesday Nights
    • Subscribe on YouTube:
       https://www.youtube.com/@weavingspiderswebs2642/streams
      https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminBalderson/streams
    • Subscribe on Rumble:
       https://rumble.com/c/AMWakeup/livestreams
    • Confidential feedback: [email protected]




    (00:00:04) Opening banter and technical check-in

    (00:02:02) Friday the 13th, marmots, and Trump jokes

    (00:04:31) Internet providers, Starlink, and phone privacy

    (00:09:41) Cow dog thumbnail and Starbucks blind box talk

    (00:13:18) John Daly chaos and golf outlaw stories

    (00:15:43) Sean Elder joins and talks life in Idaho

    (00:23:35) Debate shows, AI intros, and wrestling nostalgia

    (00:38:25) Edmund Fitzgerald theories and odd instruments

    (00:44:24) Crystals, moldavite, and barter economics

    (00:49:28) Software bloat, music tangents, and drug stories

    (01:31:34) Electric vehicles, bad drivers, and local politics

    (01:43:39) Balderson's medical scare and surviving blood loss

    (02:17:48) After Sean leaves, media, books, and odd news

    (02:35:30) Occult talk, jury duty, and late-night sign-off





    https://serve.podhome.fm/uncle-ted-talks



    https://serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/uncle-ted-talks/43







    43?


    Wrestling, Weird Tech, and Surviving the Dumbest Timeline
    From the Edmund Fitzgerald to Dogface Debates
    Late-Night Philosophy, Pro Wrestling, and Near-Death Stories
    AI Newsrooms, Glitter Rock, and the Great Lakes Abyss
    Uncle TED Talks: Chaos, Culture, and Coming Back Alive



    In this episode, we let the conversation roam exactly where it wanted to go. We opened with pure nonsense and live-stream banter, then drifted into tech paranoia, internet platforms, weird updates, and the strange ways online culture keeps mutating. From Apple settings and Starlink to Discord bloat and AI production tools, we bounced between comedy, skepticism, and the kind of side trails that somehow end up saying something real about the moment we’re living through.

    From there, we got into a long, hilarious stretch on pro wrestling, music, movies, books, and old-school pop culture before turning toward darker and more personal territory. We talked about the Edmund Fitzgerald, folklore around the Great Lakes, alchemy, communitarianism, California decline, and the absurdity of modern politics. We also got a sobering firsthand account of a near-death medical emergency, which brought everything back to gratitude, friendship, and the strange fact that sometimes surviving gives you a sharper sense of what matters. Equal parts ridiculous hangout, cultural autopsy, and late-night philosophy session, this one covered a lot of ground.

    • Rx Only PICTURESHOW!: https://rxonlypictureshow.com/
    • Weaving Spiders Webs: https://www.youtube.com/@weavingspiderswebs2642
    • Deliberating Dogface Dudes: https://www.youtube.com/@DeliberatingDogfaceDudes
    • Allen Marcus: https://linktr.ee/allenmarcus
    • Benjamin Balderson / Odin's Alchemy: https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminBalderson
    • The Union of the Unwanted: https://linktr.ee/TheUnionOfTheUnwanted

    • Oceanliner Designs: https://www.oceanlinerdesigns.com/
    • SS Edmund Fitzgerald / Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum: https://shipwreckmuseum.com/edmund-fitzgerald/
    • Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0K6ojmGZA
    • Todd Snider: https://toddsnider.net/
    • Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-25th-anniversary-edition-by-douglas-adams/
    • Keith Richards - Life: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/keith-richards/life/9780316128568/
    • William S. Burroughs: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/3852/william-s-burroughs/
    • The Princess Bride: https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-101b3fed-3125-4009-91e8-40ca97f1229c
    • Chappell Roan: https://www.iamchappellroan.com/
    • The Chosen: https://www.thechosen.tv/en-us
    • The Passion of the Christ: https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/the-passion-of-the-christ

    • Niki Raapana - Living Outside The Dialectic: https://nikiraapana.blogspot.com/

    I tried to verify a few additional references but left them out because I could not confidently confirm a canonical working URL for the intended entity. These included Derp with Carp (I found discussion pages and secondary mentions, but no clearly official home page), The Arena as described in the transcript (search results returned multiple unrelated podcasts/shows and I could not confidently match the exact project being discussed), the bassist-exposé references around Danny Sapko / the 'Mitti Vanilli' joke (plenty of commentary, but not a clear primary official source worth listing), and the exact current band name for Freddie Badger's newer group ('Gum boots / gum shoes / gumstump' was too ambiguous to verify accurately).
    3 hr 12 min
  • 42 Vote Harder, Charlie Brown (Shit Sandwich Politics)
    Vote Harder, Charlie Brown

    Erection Night Spectesticles: Urgency, Agency, and the Illusion of Hard Choices

    Voting is like Chicago pizza: you do it early and often, and it’s not really pizza. The Uncles spend election night arguing it doesn’t matter whether the shit sandwich comes on three-month-old Wonder Bread or artisanal sourdough.

    The “most important election of our lifetime” gets two buzzwords, urgency and agency, and a debate over whether they play in Minnesota. They follow the returns and the betting odds to see which flavor they’re getting fed for the next few years. The machine analogy gets a full airing: if you met a machine designed to squeeze the time, energy, and health out of you, you’d build a different one, not bolt on shiny new parts every two years. A Charlie Brown and Lucy football meme turns into “vote harder,” with Lucy selling Viagra on election day, and Trump gets the kayfabe treatment.

    As results come in, they call it a blue wave and predict two years of impeachment theater, with Hegseth first up. Diesel is $8.85 in Garberville, CA, and Bitcoin sits around $76,000.  A whispering female voice summons Chris Minor. TED Chriszinksi calls in from traffic and gets heckled for it.

    Karaoke: Indian Outlaw in a Rapid City bar, a Lakota sweat lodge name, and yelling “practice at home” at open mic night
    Buddy the alpaca trying to climb into a Jehovah’s Witnesses’ minivan
    Target’s accidental double paycheck, an ATM glitch, and a recycling machine that kept paying out
    McDonald’s fries that never spoil, and the play place ball pit with prizes at the bottom
    A proposed buddy-cop movie starring ICE agents, Kevin Hart, and Nicolas Cage
    Cats named Turkey and Titan, plus a kitten count
    Duodenum jokes, cell salts, and Jesus Juice energy drinks
    Quinoa, superfoods, and Uncle Roger on MSG

    Follow Weaving Spiders JEM on YouTube, the replacement channel after the original got nuked:
    https://www.youtube.com/@WeavingSpidersJEM

    Tell us in the comments (or email [email protected]) which bread you’re getting.


    Shit Sandwich Politics, Independent Media, and the Long Night Ahead

    https://serve.podhome.fm/uncle-ted-talks



    We also took some wild detours through pro wrestling, karaoke, old bar stories, physical media, tea, health scares, food, platform drama, and the strange overlap between internet culture and modern politics. Along the way, we checked in with guests, McDonald’s and Whole Foods, and landed on a bigger theme: whether we’re talking elections, media, tech, or culture, most people are just trying to hold onto a little freedom, a little sanity, and maybe enough energy to laugh through the absurdity.

    • Jim Cornette Podcasts: https://www.jimcornette.com/podcasts.html

    • Tiesta Tea – Maui Mango: https://tiestatea.com/products/maui-mango
    • Who Gives A Crap: https://us.whogivesacrap.org/



    Watch live on Tuesday Nights
    • Subscribe on YouTube:
       https://www.youtube.com/@weavingspiderswebs2642/streams
      https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminBalderson/streams
    • Subscribe on Rumble:
       https://rumble.com/c/AMWakeup/livestreams
    • Confidential feedback: [email protected]




    (00:00:04) Election Day opens with deep cynicism

    (00:04:22) Debt, oil prices, and the machine of politics

    (00:06:23) Charlie Brown, voting harder, and false choice

    (00:09:33) Wrestling, kayfabe, and political theater

    (00:12:53) Karaoke stories, bar nights, and favorite songs

    (00:22:07) Native humor, sweat lodge stories, and job site tales

    (00:26:29) Election predictions, investigations, and media platforms

    (00:35:14) Crypto charts, Bitcoin bets, and party machines

    (00:41:20) Ukraine torture camp talk and dark satire

    (00:54:57) Movies, true crime, and presidential absurdity

    (01:07:03) Gas prices, biodiesel, and stockpiling worries

    (01:14:48) Chris Miner joins from the road

    (01:18:25) Blue wave reactions and early race calls

    (01:24:18) Health recovery, iron, and cast iron cooking

    (01:33:01) MSG, tea, diet talk, and superfoods

    (01:49:45) Cats, Amish fines, and old tech nostalgia

    (02:03:56) Food rules, psychology goals, and opiate recovery

    (02:09:22) Texas flips, libertarians fade, and election fallout

    (02:23:21) Vegas tiger lore and entertainment detours

    (02:37:18) Electric cars, future transit, and war predictions

    (02:54:13) What the blue wave means next





    https://serve.podhome.fm/uncle-ted-talks




    https://serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/uncle-ted-talks/42





    3 hr 3 min
  • He Came Back Craving French Fries

    Ben almost did this Halloween episode as a ghost. One aspirin for a flu and ear infection tore open his duodenum, triggered a massive internal bleed, and—by his count—killed him four times. He lives 2½ hours from the nearest hospital, waited an hour for the region’s only ambulance, and arrived with under five units of blood. Surgery and transfusions got him out at 8.75 units (the insurance minimum). An adult man is supposed to carry 14–17. “I had enough blood in me to run basic life support.” Nearly all of it is other people’s.

    Recovery will take 6–12 weeks on a no-reds diet. As a vegetarian, he’s planning broccoli and sweet potatoes while the crew pushes roast beef and Bryan Johnson youthfulness ideas. Hospital food went from chicken broth and Jell-O to a tofu-on-white-rice plate so bad he sent Christy downstairs for French fries. She warned him she’d be furious if they killed him. Cancer Jesus, Umpire Jesus, and Touchdown Jesus all make appearances. The RuPaul fall was a real drag. It has Steve’s friend showing up after an 18-foot fall with a stack of Hustlers and two pints of Jack Daniel’s. Ben’s anesthesiologist was “an ugly version of Liv Tyler.” Dusty Rhodes cutting promos on the produce section.

    Septum piercings and a proposed fish-bone xylophone, muskie and northern-pike tales, Allen Marcus’s Christian softball career, Halloween birthday math, Tom Waits as the ultimate Captain Beefheart, KPIG radio, Beastie Boys trivia, a mountaintop guru who rains fish with dynamite, lutefisk, AI politics, reverse-engineered old games, Mario Kart trash talk, WrestleMania III vs. Flair–Sting, and a spy-inspired Lotus Esprit that doubles as a submarine.

    Chris Minor joins as Steve explains why he refused a fentanyl epidural, Chris talks about morphine after a fractured hip, and Ben thanks everyone who contributed to the fundraiser that covered the trips between the farm and the hospital.

    Underneath the gallows humor, this one is about gratitude. Ben made it home. Friends and listeners showed up when it mattered.

    Chapters 

    (00:00:07) Spooky week opens with Ben back from the brink

    (00:03:46) Ben explains the aspirin bleed and dying four times

    (00:08:44) Election jokes and the liberal blood transfusion bit

    (00:10:31) Piercings, wishbones, and fish tales from the north

    (00:16:00) Halloween memories, birthdays, and channel updates

    (00:18:48) Recovery, blood building, and bad hospital food

    (00:30:43) Hospital stories, near death moments, and dark humor

    (00:44:12) Radio memories, trains, and comedy tangents

    (01:23:49) Israel election talk, AI politics, and game ownership

    (01:33:38) Mario Kart, wrestling, and classic pop culture riffs

    (02:25:04) Chris Miner joins and the talk turns more serious

    (02:50:10) Wrapping up, gratitude, and plugs for upcoming shows



    Jim’s new channel is Weaving Spiders Jem, so go subscribe. 

    https://www.youtube.com/@WeavingSpidersJEM

    AM Wake Up runs on Rumble in the mornings.

    https://rumble.com/v7hhok8-utt-spooktacular-edition.html

    https://rumble.com/c/AMWakeup

    http://allenmarcus.com

    https://youtube.com/@chrisminorofficial










    2 hr 57 min
  • Wiggarthian Gospel Hour UTT 40
    Uncle Ted Talks Episode 40: The Wiggarthian Gospel Hour 
    Recorded Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Runtime: about 3 hours 11 minutes. 
    Uncle Ted Talks is a Tuesday night show where a room full of uncles talks about whatever comes up. This episode starts with talking fire hydrants and sports team moves, then covers Las Vegas flooding, true crime, war-zone streamers, and a lot more. 
    Hosts and guests:
     Uncle Ted Allen Marcus (AllenMarcus.com)
     Uncle Ted Bennington, also known as Benjamin Balderson (Heathen Wizards)
     Uncle Ted Gemsworthy, also known as "Uncle Dead" and Jim
     Uncle Ted Steeves, also known as Steve
     Uncle Ted Vincent, guest (Caledonian Elixir) 
    Topics include:
     Metallica's Sphere residency and the Las Vegas flooding
     The Idaho Four case, with Benjamin Balderson and Chris Minor's coverage
     Dylan Burns, CIA suspicions, and media in Ukraine
     Kid Rock, Eminem, and Christian rock memories
     Yellowstone tourists and bison
     Highland cows, Robert the Bruce, and deer season
     The Overtoun Bridge dog mystery in Dumbarton, Scotland
     Burial mounds and European history
     A swearing map of the United States
     Shane Gillis, SNL, Caitlin Clark, and the WNBA
     Age gaps, incels, and dating
     Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, Type O Negative, Dead Can Dance, and goth music
     Streaming workload, orbiter culture, and independent media 
    Chapters:
     00:00:04 Opening and introductions
     00:01:18 Fire hydrant jokes and sports city banter
     00:04:09 Vegas flooding and Metallica at the Sphere
     00:08:07 True crime and the Idaho Four case
     00:17:17 Dinner talk, pocket salmon, and carp stories
     00:21:46 CIA asset suspicions and Ukraine media
     00:35:02 Kid Rock, Eminem, and Christian rock
     00:47:53 Roads, wildlife, zoos, and reckless tourists
     00:54:31 Highland cows, deer season, and hunting
     01:00:03 The Overtoun Bridge dog mystery and hauntings
     01:17:36 Burial mounds, European history, and swearing
     01:31:35 Sports nostalgia, SNL, and WNBA
     01:53:45 Age gaps, legacy, and relationships
     02:20:20 Dylan Burns, streaming, and orbiter culture
     03:10:38 Late night wrap-up and tomorrow's plans 
    Watch the video version: https://rumble.com/v7gtr0y-utt40-the-wiggarthian-gospel-hour.html
    Episode page: https://serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/uncle-ted-talks/40
    Podcast feed: https://serve.podhome.fm/uncle-ted-talks
    Live streams: https://www.youtube.com/@weavingspiderswebs2642/streams
    Benjamin Balderson streams: https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminBalderson/streams
    Heathen Wizards: https://www.heathenwizards.com/
    Allen Marcus: https://allenmarcus.com/ 
    Confidential feedback: [email protected]
    3 hr 14 min
  • Pressure to Podcast

    Pressure to Podcast: Who Actually Owns Your Feed? ️
    What does it take to claim a podcast? We skip the polished success stories. We ignore the guru step-by-step guides. We dive straight into the messy, behind-the-scenes reality. Two guys figure it out through lived experience, production disasters, technical headaches, and relentless conversation.


    Chris Minor and Allen Marcus talk shop. They build a show while still defining what the show actually is. Descript crashes. StreamYard swoops in to rescue the broadcast. Marathon livestreams blow past everyone's bedtime. A hard-earned realization hits the room. Not every conversation needs to run four hours. Rule one: keep it under two. We learn on the fly.
    The conversation dives down a massive rabbit hole. Who actually owns the published audio? Allen audits 400 podcast feeds. He finds only 31 that host their own audio. This discovery ignites a fierce discussion. We tackle free hosting, dead feeds, RSS, and OPML backups. We face the real risk of trusting a platform to preserve our work forever. A service changes the rules or vanishes entirely. Your archive must not go down with it.

    Podcast Index Apps: https://podcastindex.org/apps
    Get AntennaPod: https://antennapod.org/
    All Chris links: https://linktr.ee/chrisminor
    and http://allenmarcus.com

    We refuse to stay locked on the tech. We take a sharp detour through Midwest nostalgia. We shop local. Target counts in Minnesota as the mom-and-pop shops vanish. We hit Toys “R” Us. We build Snap-Together model cars. We weigh Pinewood Derby cars and mourn the tragic legacy of the Microsoft Zune. The dialogue shifts to Blade Runner, physical media, internet memes, intellectual property, and the eye-watering cost of trademarking a name.


    Speaking of names, we hunt for the right title. Domain searches fly. Legal-fee anxiety spikes. Branding headaches mount. We face the modern creative dilemma. We want to make something spontaneous and worthwhile without building a media empire first. We draw on our failures and our wins. “Ice Ice Podcast Podcast” lands on the table. We make no promises about its shelf life.
    The real pressure of podcasting sneaks up on you. The grind of naming, packaging, promoting, and monetizing swallows the actual work of making the show. This episode targets the process itself. We reveal what we tried, what broke, what worked, and how we carve a path toward a podcast that genuinely feels like our own.


    You do not need the whole operation figured out before you create. Find a workflow you can live with. Keep your original files. Learn from the disasters. Make something worth sharing.
    Own your feed. Keep your files. Make the thing. Do it again. ✨

    THE TIMELINE

    (00:00:00) Mic checks and setting boundaries for long streams

    (00:04:14) Sirens outside and shopping local at Target

    (00:06:13) Toy stores, model cars, and scout memories

    (00:13:03) Learning podcasting tools one step at a time

    (00:17:12) Last week's recording workflow and fast publishing

    (00:21:04) Preproduction, intros, and the garnish of a show

    (00:23:24) RSS feeds, podcast apps, and listener habits

    (00:30:29) Free hosting, dead feeds, and owning your audio

    (00:47:23) Taxonomy of podcasts and dreams of physical media

    (00:53:01) Wild West media, holidays, and finding a genre

    (01:00:12) Blade Runner, fake and gay, and Internet culture

    (01:15:15) Naming the show, branding, and pressure to podcast

    (01:37:18) Building a media project and where to publish it



    - Chris Minor

    - Allen Marcus






    1 hr 44 min
  • Uncles Censored & Seasoned Oct 6
    SiriusXM
    Hot Peppers, Fake Guinness, Death of Raw Dog Comedy
    From Frozen Pizza to Platform Censorship
    Comedy, Conspiracies, and a Box in the Ceiling
    Ghost Peppers, SiriusXM, and High Strangeness
    Why Independent Voices Keep Getting Hit

    (00:00:01) Uncle Tuesday Begins With Spice and Rice Talk

    (00:03:48) Hot Pepper Horror Stories and Painful Lessons

    (00:14:38) Frozen Pizza, Wisconsin Cheese, and Beer Memories

    (00:22:41) Guinness, Fat Tire, and Drinking Culture Debates

    (00:32:13) Free Magazines, Old Media, and Comedy Albums

    (00:39:20) Which Comedians Still Hold Up Today

    (00:42:48) Jim Bakker, Televangelists, and MTV Oddities

    (00:49:25) Debates, Panel Drama, and Fallout Online

    (00:59:24) Rebranding the Tuesday Show After Platform Trouble

    (01:06:03) From The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to Film Talk

    (01:26:14) YouTube Censorship, Claims, and Vanishing Reach

    (01:38:22) Raw Dog Radio and the Business of Comedy

    (02:10:30) Cabin Life, Strange Skies, and Uncanny Encounters

    (03:05:38) Ghost Stories, Demon Boxes, and Closing Thoughts




    Riffs on spice tolerance, jalapeños as a supposed cancer killer, hot-pepper horror stories, frozen pizza, “Mexican cheese from Wisconsin,” and food decisions that probably require a waiver. They then wander into beer culture, Coors brewery tours, Fat Tire’s “flat tire” reputation, Canadian-brewed Guinness, a $5 million false-advertising lawsuit, and the strange arc that turned brands like Zima, Saint Pauli Girl, and Sam Adams Oktoberfest into cultural markers. They detour through print-era freebies like Maxim and GQ, BMG/Columbia House CD scams, comedy albums, and which comics still hold up—Whoopi Goldberg, Sam Kinison, Dice, Eddie Murphy’s Raw, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin—before landing on Jim Bakker, Tammy Faye, Jessica Hahn, the Troggs’ “Wild Thing” video, Jerry Falwell, and Jimmy Swaggart. 


    Uncles explain the “Uncle Tuesday Talks” rebrand (pivoting away from Uncle TED K Talks after movie review bombs), the Tedding knighting ceremony that allegedly classified Uncles as recruiting terroristic cult, and Jim losing his entire weavingspiders channel. They joke through The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Cannes, posthumously, continuum, German dialects, and lederhosen. Then they dig into YouTube censorship: claims on tiny clips, DJ sets from Adult Karate and Hor Berlin cut midstream, red flags on old Tuesday streams, private archives, Rumble and Rockfin as alternative safer homes, multistreaming penalties, YouTube Premium, view-count changes, and shadowbanning. They also break down SiriusXM’s Raw Dog Radio—$15 per bit, the jury process, Opie & Anthony’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral scandal, Howard Stern, Tom Green, Adam Curry, Joe Rogan—and Sebastian Maniscalco’s takeover that cut dozens of working comics. 

    A third thread ties the night together through high strangeness and occult oddities. Ben describes off-grid cabin life, black widows, no-signal panic, and power-off nights. Steve recalls chemtrails, a black helicopter, and a Cynthia McKinney interview that kept cutting out for 15 seconds whenever she neared inside information. They recount a dragonfly-shaped drone that flew toward a Lockheed Martin facility, plasma orbs, DMT on a redwood deck, Mount Shasta “disco balls,” and a friend who found a demon box in a Lake Geneva ceiling—complete with a Don Quixote brass plate, ashes, and the name Abigor/Eligos from the Lesser Key of Solomon. They identify Eligos as a duke of hell, war/strategy/hidden knowledge, possibly a pact or binding box; the friend now hears voices. They close with Halloween plans, pumpkin patches, Ideal Horizons, Ayahuasca, and occult masculine/feminine talk.
    3 hr 22 min
  • Netflix’s UNABOMBER Uncle Tuesday Analysis
    Netflix's UNABOMBER Gets the Uncle Tuesday Treatment
    I am the ghost of Theodore. I died in 2023.
    In 2026 Netflix made a movie about me.



    This week the uncles went live from the road to break down Netflix's UNABOMBER—and spent most of the episode on the good part: young Ted at Harvard, the creepy "debate club" that was definitely just MKULTRA with a forged permission slip, Russell Crowe as gravelly Professor Murray, and the timeless question of how institutions identify, isolate, and weaponize brilliant and beautiful young men.



    Then the conversation went full Uncle Tuesday: boot camp conditioning, propaganda, Dunning-Kruger, GDP as a meaningless number, the culture war, and why the 1957 material was riveting while the 1995 FBI manhunt was, in technical terms, hot garbage.


    Tangents include: Moby-Dick, Taxi Driver, Iron Maiden (the GOAT), Dropkick Murphys, American Gods, stupidity of Stew Peters, snake venom and/or LSD in the water supply, and whether the government creates monsters just so it can pass laws to govern them.



    ⏱️ CHAPTERS



    00:00:00 — Road show opening, introducing the uncles
    00:01:10 — Setting up the UNABOMBER discussion
    00:03:18 — Oscars, theaters, and a detour into military service
    00:09:57 — The uncles begin reviewing the film
    00:12:14 — Ben reacts to the MKUltra angle
    00:16:13 — Timeline structure, manhunt stakes, FBI framing
    00:23:51 — Harvard debate club and how Theodore is selected
    00:30:37 — Debate club becomes psychological conditioning
    00:42:46 — Government manipulation and Russell Crowe as Murray
    00:55:33 — Media reviews, MKUltra denial, Dunning-Kruger
    01:21:31 — Family conflict, dinner parties, and the 1995 plot
    01:43:44 — Industrial society, technology, and control
    01:55:46 — Media narratives, division, and the rabbit trap
    02:15:48 — Did they weaponize a brilliant but vulnerable young man?
    02:24:44 — CIA acceptance in pop culture



    UNCLE TUESDAY     is long-form conversation with no clean lane: movies, history, conspiracy, technology, propaganda, military life, and whatever happens when a bunch of uncles start pulling on the TEDs.







    Watch live on Tuesday Nights
    • Subscribe on YouTube:
       https://www.youtube.com/@weavingspiderswebs2642/streams
      https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminBalderson/streams
    • Subscribe on Rumble:
       https://rumble.com/c/AMWakeup/livestreams
    • Confidential feedback: [email protected]




    (00:00:00) Road show opening and introducing the uncles

    (00:01:10) Setting up the new Unabomber movie discussion

    (00:03:18) Oscars theaters and a detour into military service

    (00:09:57) Uncles begin reviewing the film

    (00:12:14) Uncle Ben grades the movie and reacts to its MKUltra angle

    (00:16:13) Timeline structure manhunt stakes and the FBI framing

    (00:23:51) Harvard debate club and how Theodore is selected

    (00:30:37) Debate club becomes psychological conditioning

    (00:42:46) Government manipulation and Russell Crowe as Murray

    (00:55:33) Media reviews MKUltra denial and Dunning Kruger

    (01:21:31) Family conflict dinner party scenes and the 1995 plot

    (01:43:44) Industrial society technology and control

    (01:55:46) Media narratives division and the rabbit trap scene

    (02:15:48) Did they weaponize a brilliant but vulnerable young man

    (02:24:44) CIA acceptance in pop culture

    (02:34:41) Upcoming debates travel plans and loose closing banter





    https://serve.podhome.fm/uncle-ted-talks



    https://serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/uncle-ted-talks/netflixs-unabomber-uncle-tuesday-analysis





    UNABOMBER, MKULTRA, and the Making of a Monster
    Breaking Ted: Our Roadside Review of Netflix’s UNABOMBER
    Debate Club, Brainwashing, and the Unabomber Movie
    From Harvard to the Cabin: Talking Through UNABOMBER
    The Uncles vs. UNABOMBER: Movies, Mind Control, and Propaganda




    • UNABOMBER (Netflix): https://www.netflix.com/title/82010386
    • Duty to Disobey: https://dutytodisobeyfilm.com/
    • The Northman: https://www.focusfeatures.com/the-northman
    • Cocaine Bear: https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/cocaine-bear
    • Dropkick Murphys: https://dropkickmurphys.com/
    • “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya” by Dropkick Murphys: https://dropkickmurphys.com/2009/02/19/johnny-i-hardly-knew-ya-music-video/
    • Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2701
    • Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393355680
    • Manhunt: Unabomber: https://www.netflix.com/title/80176878
    • American Made (official trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEBIJRAkujM
    • Taxi Driver: https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/taxidriver
    • Back to the Future: https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/back-to-the-future
    • Joker (2019): https://www.dc.com/movies/joker-2019
    • American Gods by Neil Gaiman: https://neilgaiman.com/works/Books/American_Gods
    • Harvard University: https://www.harvard.edu/about/
    • Official ASVAB information: https://www.officialasvab.com/applicants/
    • Thematic Apperception Test (APA Dictionary): https://dictionary.apa.org/thematic-apperception-test
    • CIA FOIA Electronic Reading Room: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/
    • Crrow777 Radio: https://www.crrow777radio.com/
    • Sam Tripoli: https://samtripoli.com/
    • Dave Smith: https://www.davesmithon.com/

    (00:00:00) Road show opening and introducing the uncles

    (00:01:10) Setting up the new Unabomber movie discussion

    (00:03:18) Oscars theaters and a detour into military service

    (00:09:57) Uncles begin reviewing the film

    (00:12:14) Uncle Ben grades the movie and reacts to its MKUltra angle

    (00:16:13) Timeline structure manhunt stakes and the FBI framing

    (00:23:51) Harvard debate club and how Theodore is selected

    (00:30:37) Debate club becomes psychological conditioning

    (00:42:46) Government manipulation and Russell Crowe as Murray

    (00:55:33) Media reviews MKUltra denial and Dunning Kruger

    (01:21:31) Family conflict dinner party scenes and the 1995 plot

    (01:43:44) Industrial society technology and control

    (01:55:46) Media narratives division and the rabbit trap scene

    (02:15:48) Did they weaponize a brilliant but vulnerable young man

    (02:24:44) CIA acceptance in pop culture

    (02:34:41) Upcoming debates travel plans and loose closing banter





    3 hr 5 min
  • perseverance
    Braunschweiger, the mysterious Pump and Munch, and a septic-truck design featuring the immortal phrase "Turd Snacks."

    Another Ted Tuesday descends into the dumbest timeline yet: AI-generated memes, the collapse of irony, true crime, Russian mobsters, federal land, old-school TV, gas-station cuisine, and a surprisingly serious debate over the only correct Eagles song.
    The cabin fills up for another chaotic installment of Uncle Ted Talks, bouncing from the Minnesota State Fair and nostalgic TV rewatches to AI art, meme culture, political internet absurdity, Netflix's UNABOMBER, and the question of whether anyone is still capable of recognizing irony once the meme becomes the identity.
    The panel talks about the viral Chudley meme, AI-generated political content, the growing use of AI for design work, and concerns about what happens when people outsource creativity and critical thought to machines. Along the way, the conversation veers into true crime cases, media narratives, Russian gangster stories, Flock cameras, self-piloted air taxis, and the never-ending AI race.
    And because this is Ted Tuesday, there is plenty of completely unrelated nonsense: Atari and Nintendo nostalgia, The X-Files, True Detective, Zelda, gas-station hot dogs, Taco John's Potato Olés.


    The Chudley Problem
    The panel examines the viral AI-generated caricature, the reaction to it online, and what happens when political meme culture absorbs its own parody.
    AI Slop & Human Creativity
    ChatGPT, Grok, AI-generated artwork, cheap design work, and the argument over whether these tools expand creativity or encourage people to stop thinking creatively themselves.
    True Crime & Media Narratives
    A sprawling discussion of several high-profile criminal cases, disputed evidence, prosecution narratives, and the panel's skepticism toward the way sensational cases are presented by media and institutions.
    Mafia Princesses & Russian Gangsters
    Ted recounts a relationship involving a genuine Russian gangster family. Naturally, the story eventually involves demolished factory windows, stolen building materials, and the possibility of ending up in five different dumpsters.
    The Dumbest Timeline
    January 6, political memes, partisan internet culture, AI, surveillance cameras, and the increasingly strange relationship between online reality and real-world events.
    Nostalgia Corner
    Atari, Nintendo, The X-Files, True Detective, old television, and the era when having one or two good shows to watch each week was apparently enough.
    Food Fight
    QuikTrip vs. Casey's. Taco John's Potato Olés. German food. Gas-station roller dogs. Braunschweiger. And the discovery of a place called Pump and Munch.
    The Only Correct Eagles Song
    Steve settles the question once and for all: apparently the only acceptable answer is "Seven Bridges Road." Debate accordingly follows.



    Ted Tuesday: AI Slop, Meme Wars, and UNABOMBER
    From Chudley to the Cabin: A Ted Tuesday Spiral
    Meme Irony, Netflix’s UNABOMBER, and the BLM Land Question
    Ted Talks After Dark: AI Art, January 6, and Off-Grid Reality
    The Collapse of Irony: Memes, Media, and Land Control

    We kicked off another Ted Tuesday with a wide-ranging hangout that moved from Midwest fair season and old-school TV nostalgia into a longer conversation about online meme culture, AI-generated content, and the strange way irony collapses once people start identifying with their own caricatures. Along the way, we talked about panels and stream appearances, debated the appeal and danger of AI tools for art and media, revisited shows and movies like The X-Files, True Detective, American Horror Story, South Park, Zelda, and Tetris, and reacted to the newly discussed Netflix UNABOMBER project.

    Watch live on Tuesday Nights
    • Subscribe on YouTube:
       https://www.youtube.com/@weavingspiderswebs2642/streams
      https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminBalderson/streams
    • Subscribe on Rumble:
       https://rumble.com/c/AMWakeup/livestreams
    • Confidential feedback: [email protected]



    (00:00:03) Cold Open and Ted Tuesday Banter

    (00:03:37) Weekend Check-In and Back Pain Stories

    (00:04:40) Minnesota State Fair and Midwest Crowds

    (00:07:58) Streaming Panels and Manosphere Talk

    (00:12:30) MAGA Meme Chudley Takes Over X

    (00:15:24) Rewatching X-Files and Old TV Favorites

    (00:20:45) Breaking Down the Chudley Meme Backlash

    (00:30:17) Hunter Biden Meme Coin and Internet Grifts

    (00:31:38) Ted Krasinski Joins and Forced Meme Talk

    (00:48:02) AI Design, Sign Shop Work, and Turd Snacks

    (01:04:26) True Crime Cases and Media Narratives

    (01:25:02) Motivation Clips, Tires Talk, and Netflix

    (01:45:35) Travel Stories, Russian Mafia, and Road Talk

    (02:11:45) Food Tangents, BLM Land, and Cabin Sign-Off



    https://serve.podhome.fm/uncle-ted-talks


    https://serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/uncle-ted-talks/36





    In the back half, the conversation turned more serious as we got into media spectacle, January 6 as a documented event versus a lived one, and a surprisingly detailed breakdown of federal land, conservation, and Bureau of Land Management policy. As usual, the panel wandered, argued, laughed, and circled back, but the throughline was clear: technology, narrative control, and who gets to shape reality—whether that’s through AI slop, online politics, or control of the land itself.
    • Benjamin Balderson YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BenjaminBalderson
    • The Raging Tomato: https://www.theragingtomato.com/
    • AM WakeUp on Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/AMWakeup
    • Weaving Spiders Webs YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS2s2LXUHP8WhwQ7oGSj38A
    • Michael Sartain YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelSartain
    • WikiLeaks: https://www.wikileaks.org/
    • ChatGPT by OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/
    • Grok: https://x.ai/grok
    • Bureau of Land Management: https://www.blm.gov/
    • The X-Files on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/the-x-files-d6a7aec6-72d2-46bb-b337-2cb412df64c8
    • True Detective Press Page: https://www.hbomaxlapress.com/programming/series/204
    • American Horror Story: https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/american-horror-story
    • Tires on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81758875
    • The Legend of Zelda: https://zelda.nintendo.com/about/
    • Tetris: https://tetris.com/
    • UNABOMBER on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/82010386


    Chudley, AI Slop, Mafia Princesses, and the Dumbest Timeline
    Shaking off the Labor Day weekend hangover, the cabin fills up for another chaotic installment of Uncle Ted Talks, streaming live to Benjamin Balderson on YouTube and the usual Rumble suspects. This week, the panel navigates the absurdity of AI-generated political memes, septic tank wraps, Russian mobsters, and the endless debate over gas station cuisine.
    The Meme of the Moment: Chudley and the MAGAtard
    The panel digs into the viral "Chudley" meme—an AI-generated, live-action caricature of a red-capped, mobility-scooter-riding Trump supporter that the political right inexplicably adopted as its own mascot. As Steve puts it: "The political right saw Chudley and went, he is us. We embrace you... We are all overweight, extra chromosome, half tooth glucking retard. Please please please let this be our mascot."
    The conversation turns to the irony of the left trying to weaponize the meme and the right absorbing it, with Steve arguing that "the first casualty of the Marmot going into the Large Hadron Collider and hurdling us into this, the dumbest of all timelines, the first casualty was irony." The group notes that the "We Are Forbidden" X account pushing these memes is reportedly run by a guy named Mohammed El Saeed out of Dearborn, Michigan, while Alex Jones is already trying to sell Chudley t-shirts and Hunter Biden is launching a "Laptop Coin."
    AI Slop, Turd Snacks, and the Death of Human Creativity
    Spin, the self-described "token white belt," reveals he's been using ChatGPT to design a wrap for a client's septic pump truck—complete with a giant shit emoji and the slogan "Turd Snacks." He proudly reports the client "came to pick up the truck and he was laughing hysterically," while admitting the whole thing cost only "$300 to $400 to design the whole trailer."
    This prompts a heated debate about AI outsourcing human creativity. As Steve rails: "It works off of theft. And then beyond the theft, it's the outsourcing of human critical thought... And then people who aren't creative... go, I love it. Because what else are you gonna do? Be like, that's shit? You can't do anything like that." The AI absurdity peaks when the group tests Grok's art prompts, only for the AI to suggest a deeply unsettling, Lindsey Clancy-style murder mystery prompt involving a woman shattering glass shards from her mouth while making a sandwich.
    True Crime, Sus Prosecutions, and the Dumbest Timeline
    The conversation turns to the Lindsay Clancy case in Massachusetts (where a single holdout juror caused a hung jury), the Idaho Four, the Delphi murders, and the Tupac/Keefe D trial. The panel is uniformly skeptical of law enforcement and media narratives. As Chris puts it: "A lot of these cases are really sus... They're all relying on really sketchy cell phone evidence. A lot of it looks manipulated." Steve adds his own take on the justice system: "Lawyers are the scum of the glucking earth. And they will do whatever, whenever, however illegal in order to win their case."
    Amidst the true crime, Spin shares his own viral contribution—a Burger King fight video with "737,804 views"—which he filmed on his way to an Eagles concert. The cause of the melee? "She ordered a chicken sandwich, and the chicken sandwich did not have barbecue sauce on it."
    Mafia Princesses and Russian Gangsters
    In a wild tangent, Ted recounts dating a Russian woman whose grandfather was a real Russian gangster. In a display of ultimate mob dominance, her grandpa once tore the windows out of a rival mafia's factory just to install them in his new house. Ted realized he had to flee the relationship to avoid ending up "in five different dumpsters." Steve shares a similar story about a buddy who found out his girlfriend's family was the mob during a Colorado vacation, prompting him to flee and work Renaissance Festivals for a decade just to stay off the grid and avoid being on any payroll.
    Nostalgia Corner: Atari, Zelda, and TV That Didn't Suck
    The group reminisces about the Atari 2600, Nintendo, and the days when "that one or two shows that, like, one night a week TV came on was, like, all you could really handle." They discuss True Detective Season 1, rewatching The X-Files and realizing it was just "predictive programming's old yearbook," and the news that South Park is renaming itself South America. They also geek out over the RAF Red Arrows flying at the Oshkosh EAA airshow, and mock the new "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Crime" trailer where Link apparently travels through time to investigate Epstein Island.
    Air Taxis, Flock Cameras, and the AI Race
    The tech talk turns dystopian with news of self-piloted air taxis in Orlando costing $150 to $220 a pop, and Flock cameras everywhere ("Too many flock cameras in the neighborhood"). The endless AI race with China is questioned: "What does it mean to win the AI race?... So isn't all this AI stuff potentially, like, the end of humanity?... It very well might be. So why are we racing towards it? Because China might beat us to it." Meanwhile, RFK Jr. is caught on clip declaring war on "fat gay kids," and JD Vance is hinting at the end times.
    Food Fights and Regional Rivalries
    No episode would be complete without a food argument. The group debates QuikTrip vs. Casey's ("Casey's is better than QuikTrip"), Taco John's potato Oles ("the food of the gods"), and the proper way to eat a gas station roller hot dog ("You want that grease to coagulate a little bit on the outside in a nice even patina"). They also dive into German cuisine, praising Braunschweiger on white bread with Schaefer's beer, and Rhubarb Kugel. Spin reveals he's never heard of Casey's, prompting Ted to ask: "Where the gluck is a Casey's?" The answer: "In the South. It's up in the North Upper Midwest." Oh, and they also discover a gas station called the "Pump and Munch."
    The Wrap-Up: The Only Correct Eagles Song
    As the…
    4 hr 1 min
  • Welcome to the Equinox

    Welcome to the Equinox: Thin Mint Whippets, $9 Diesel, and the Lutefisk Capital of America



    Grab your Thin Mints and crack open a whippet, because the Equinox is upon us and we are equinox maxxxing.



    If you missed this week's episode of Uncle Ted Talks, you missed a glucking masterpiece. The crew gathered in the cabin to celebrate the changing of the seasons, and naturally, the conversation spiraled from ancient pagan sun rituals into the dark, hilarious depths of meme coins, Midwest oddities, and Korean demon-summoning cookies.



    Watch on Rumble because YouTube removed this!
    https://rumble.com/v7fuwf8-37-equinox.html
    https://rumble.com/c/AMWakeup



    Whether you're here for the conspiracy theories, the pop-culture roasting, or just to hear us complain about the price of gas, this episode has something for everyone. Here is a taste of the madness you missed:



    Xenon Coins and Dark Matter Detectors



    We kicked things off by addressing Ted Allen's "subtle" announcement that he may launch a Xenon detection company. It may actually just be a Solana meme coin called Xenon Coin, and we're all praying it doesn't pull a Hunter Biden and rug in the first half hour. We also dove deep into the science of Xenon, dark matter detectors, and whether or not you can get high huffing Freon instead of dark matter. Hint: Freon gets you way higher.



    $9 Diesel and "Piss Water"



    The economy is glucking ridiculous, and we felt it. We're talking diesel hitting $9.99 a gallon in San Diego and the absolute scam that is DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid). We broke down why your modern diesel truck keeps breaking down and concluded that DEF is effectively just "piss water" with ionized granulated pee. Plus, a shoutout to South Dakota for being the last bastion of cheap gas and zero flock cameras.



    One Dabs, Unabombers, and Pink Oreos



    We roasted the upcoming Netflix Unabomber movie (and predicted they're going to make him gay but not black), shared a wild backstage story about Machine Gun Kelly taking exactly one dab and having to be hauled out to a limo, and uncovered the dark truth about BTS-branded Brown Sugar Pancake Oreos. Buy enough of them, arrange the QR codes just right, and you might just summon the original text of the Necronomicon. Your excrement will also turn pink. You've been warned.



    The Lutefisk Capital of the World



    We took a virtual trip to Madison, Minnesota, the undisputed lutefisk capital of the United States. We played a clip of a local legend, Jerry Osterus, who sat down and ate eleven glucking pounds of the gelatinous fish in one sitting. If you think that's crazy, wait until you hear about the fermented Greenland shark (Hakarl) that's buried underground for months until it's edible.



    Carpeted Grocery Stores and Robot Dogs



    We defended the absolute luxury of shopping in a carpeted grocery store ("You don't hear the clickety-clackety!"), analyzed the neighborhood barometer of Church's Chicken vs. Boston Market, and cheered on a real-life ram that absolutely destroyed a Boston Dynamics robot dog. Real dogs > fake robot dogs. Period.




    Watch live on Tuesday Nights

    • Subscribe on YouTube:
       https://www.youtube.com/@weavingspiderswebs2642/streams
      https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminBalderson/streams
    • Subscribe on Rumble:
       https://rumble.com/c/AMWakeup/livestreams
    • Confidential feedback: [email protected]




    (00:00:02) Cold Open and Uncle Ted Movie Setup

    (00:04:34) Smurfs, Zendaya, and Hollywood Roast

    (00:08:47) Casting the Unabomber and Method Acting

    (00:12:53) Audio Quality, YouTube Compression, and Music

    (00:16:45) Are Nuclear Weapons Real

    (00:20:32) Xenon, Low Background Steel, and Sci-Fi

    (00:28:49) Equinox Rituals, Whip-Its, and Dark Matter

    (00:35:53) Weather, Salmon Runs, and Road Trip Stories

    (00:41:00) Gas Prices, Diesel, and DEF Problems

    (00:46:23) Lawnmower Racing and the End of Privacy

    (00:52:23) Folding iPhones and the New Ted Movie

    (00:59:18) True Crime, Podcasts, and Online Debates

    (01:06:12) POD, 9 11 Memories, and Nu Metal Detours

    (01:13:47) Renaissance Festival Stories and Mardi Gras

    (01:21:27) Archaix, Online Personalities, and Allegations

    (01:26:49) Country Music, Covers, and Modern Pop

    (01:31:32) Tuna Bomber, Pocket Salmon, and Broadway Bits

    (01:38:50) Michael Jackson, K-Pop, and Beauty Standards

    (01:48:32) Oreos, Comedy Bits, and Grocery Store Talk

    (02:04:19) Horror Franchises, Fantasy Books, and D and D

    (02:15:11) Retro Games, Dogs, and Robot Anxiety

    (02:34:09) Target Controversy, Lutefisk, and Sign-Off



    https://serve.podhome.fm/uncle-ted-talks



    https://serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/uncle-ted-talks/37






    UNABOMBER, Xenon, and the End of Privacy
    From Ted Kaczynski to Lutefisk: Cabin Talk Gets Weird
    Project Hail Mary, Netflix Trailers, and Equinox Madness
    Gas Prices, Retro Games, and the Tuna Bomber
    Norm Macdonald, Nuclear Doubts, and Minnesota Nonsense



    Michael Jackson “They Don’t Care About Us” video/version referenced in the conversation as inspiration for K-Pop

    Ted Kaczynski and Netflix’s upcoming UNABOMBER to Project Hail Mary, Norm Macdonald, and whether modern Hollywood can still make anything weird without sanding all the edges off. Along the way we went deep on compressed audio, old physical media, low-background steel, xenon, nuclear paranoia, and the strange little internet rabbit holes that open up when one topic collides with another. It was one of those cabin conversations where a movie trailer, a half-remembered science fact, and a cultural tangent can all end up in the same fire.

    We also wandered into live-stream nostalgia, Equinox ritual absurdity, road-trip notes from Minnesota and South Dakota, gas-price sticker shock, renaissance-festival stories, podcast recommendations, retro gaming, lutefisk lore, and the general feeling that the internet era gave everyone a camera but somehow left us all wanting privacy instead. In other words: a very normal episode of Uncle Ted Talks.
    • UNABOMBER (Netflix): https://www.netflix.com/title/82010386
    • Project Hail Mary – official trailer (Amazon MGM Studios): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0XN3-n-2Lo
    • Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald (Netflix): https://www.netflix.com/title/81611105
    • Tim Butterly’s Show – Ep. 121 “WHY, GARY, WHY! w/ Jody Plauche” (Apple Podcasts): https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/ep-121-why-gary-why-w-jody-plauche/id1725297259?i=1000789688932
    • P.O.D. official website: https://payableondeath.com/
    • Satellite by P.O.D. (Apple Music): https://music.apple.com/us/album/satellite/300206574
    • P.O.D. Satellite Flannel (Dixxon): https://www.dixxon.com/products/pod-satellite-flannel
    • OREO x BTS Sandwich Cookies (SmartLabel): https://smartlabel.mondelez.info/044000086060-0001-en-US/index.html
    • United States Postal Service – Rural Carrier Associate careers: https://about.usps.com/careers/career-opportunities/top-jobs.htm
    • Dungeons & Dragons official site: https://www.dungeonsanddragons.com/
    • Pokémon Trading Card Game: https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/
    • Nintendo history (includes Nintendo 64 era): https://careers.nintendo.com/our-history/
    • Scarborough Renaissance Festival: https://www.srfestival.com/
    • Selena Fox / Circle Sanctuary: https://circlesanctuary.org/about-us/About-Selena-Fox
    • Big Stone Lake State Park (Minnesota DNR): https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/big_stone_lake
    • Lou T. Fisk – City of Madison, Minnesota: https://cityofmadisonmn.gov/about/lou-t-fisk/
    • Michael Jackson official site: https://www.michaeljackson.com/
    • Resident Evil Portal (Capcom): https://game.capcom.com/residentevil/en/lineup.html
    • Evil Dead (Sony Pictures): https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/evildead
    • Army of Darkness (Universal Pictures): https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/army-of-darkness

    2 hr 57 min
  • Uncle Ted’s Shed 20



    Digital Prison Grid, Data Thirst, and AI Delusions: A Tuesday in Uncle Ted’s Shed
    From Palantir to Peacocks: Fear, Control, and the Systems That Track Us
    Outlaw Country, Cashless Counters, and the Gummy Worm Gospel
    Water, Wires, and Watchlists: Life Inside the Technocratic Buildout
    Silver vs. Chocolate, Shrimp vs. Gummies: Incentives in a Tracked World



    In this Tuesday’s Uncle Ted Talks, we open with the Unabomber’s legacy and why a 1995 manifesto still haunts today’s debates on tech, surveillance, and control. From Hervoy Moric’s Geopolitics & Empire chat with Christian “Ice Age Farmer” Westbrook to Matthias Desmet’s psychology of totalitarianism, we explore claims that a global “digital prison grid” is already here—interoperable IDs, track‑and‑trace supply chains, and the culture shift that makes it all feel normal. We pivot into the Palantir moment—Alex Karp’s rhetoric, fear as a business model, and whether any of this can be “voted away”—then bring it down to earth with a Georgia data‑center water saga and the everyday nudges pushing cashless, trackable shopping. We also detour (on brand) through AI‑induced psychosis, chatbot mirroring, and the Gemini/Chrome era of hyper‑personalized persuasion; comedy riffs from Mark Normand and Tim Dillon; pop‑culture asides from Dogma to Repo Men; and a music lane spanning outlaw country to modern crossovers. We close with two field‑tested parables: sour gummy worms out‑fish live shrimp, and strangers still pick a Hershey bar over a 10‑oz silver bar—because incentives, optics, and appetite often beat fundamentals.

    • 'Industrial Society and Its Future' (Unabomber Manifesto): https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm
    • Hervoy Moric – Geopolitics & Empire (podcast): https://geopoliticsandempire.com
    • Christian “Ice Age Farmer” Westbrook (archive/site): https://www.iceagefarmer.com
    • Matthias Desmet – The Psychology of Totalitarianism (publisher page): https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/the-psychology-of-totalitarianism/
    • Palantir Technologies (company site): https://www.palantir.com
    • Alex Karp (Palantir CEO profile – company): https://www.palantir.com/leadership/alex-karp/
    • Whole Foods Market: https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com
    • Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/prime
    • QTS Data Centers (Quality Technology Services): https://www.qtsdatacenters.com
    • Georgia Power: https://www.georgiapower.com
    • Repo Men (2010 film) – IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1053424/
    • Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008 film) – IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963194/
    • World of Warcraft: https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com
    • Google Chrome: https://www.google.com/chrome/
    • Google Gemini: https://gemini.google.com
    • Replika AI companion app: https://replika.com
    • xAI – Grok: https://x.ai
    • World Vision – Child Sponsorship: https://www.worldvision.org/sponsor-a-child
    • Newsboys (band): https://newsboys.com
    • Skillet (band): https://www.skillet.com
    • Candace Owens (official): https://www.candaceowens.com
    • PragerU: https://www.prageru.com
    • Willie Nelson (official): https://willienelson.com
    • Waylon Jennings (official/estate): https://www.waylon.com
    • The Highwaymen (legendary country supergroup – Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Highwaymen_(country_supergroup)
    • Hank Williams III (official/estate info): https://hank3.com
    • David Allan Coe (artist page/estate): https://davidallancoe.com
    • Kinky Friedman (official): https://www.kinkyfriedman.com
    • Oliver Anthony Music (official): https://oliveranthonymusic.com
    • Jelly Roll (official): https://jellyroll615.com
    • Captain Planet Foundation: https://captainplanetfoundation.org
    • Cartoon Network: https://www.cartoonnetwork.com
    • Ted Turner (Turner Enterprises): https://www.tedturner.com
    • KPIG Radio (Freedom, CA): https://www.kpig.com
    • Trolli (Sour Brite Crawlers): https://www.trolli.com
    • The Hershey Company: https://www.hersheyland.com
    • Mark Dice (creator of the silver vs. chocolate video): https://www.markdice.com
    • Bubbies (pickles): https://www.bubbies.com
    • IBC Root Beer: https://www.ibcrootbeer.com

    3 hr

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