Beer and Conversation Podcast

P&C drink and review a “special lager,” then discuss the domestication of plants and animals, and how that differs from genetically modified food.

Dogs were domesticated about 18,000 years ago. Plants were domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Goats, sheep, and chickens might have been domesticated about 8,000 years ago. The farm animals we have today are very different from the original stock they were taken from.

Domestication raises some interesting questions, like what characteristics make an animal domesticatable? E.g., why do we have domestic horses but not domestic zebras?

It’s not just animals. Most of the food we eat has been modified from its wild origin. The apples, carrots, corn and such that we eat are very different from the wild plants they came from. The same applies on the animal side to sheep, cows, pigs, goats, and such.

If these plants and animals were modified from their “natural” state, why is this different from genetically modified organisms?

The boys discuss domestication and how it has affected human history.

The boys drink and review a light dopplebock from Schlaffly then discuss the cultural relevance of cousin marriage.

The England parliament has recently started debating whether to prohibit cousin marriage, which P&C thought was already against the law. Apparently not — not in England, and not in all the states.

The increase in Muslims in England has made this a big issue. In Pakistan, up to 60 percent of marriages are to first cousins.

In England, while British Pakistanis accounted for 3.4 percent of all births, they had 30 percent of all children with recessive disorders. It’s become a public health issue, but it’s also a “sensitive issue.”

The larger issue with cousin marriages is the difference between clan-based societies — where affiliations are based on family relations — and western societies — where affiliations are based on other factors.

Banning cousin marriages in the west created high-trust societies that were not based on family relationships. By contrast, many dysfunctional countries are dysfunctional precisely because they only trust people in their families.

Having said all that, there’s been a lot of cousin (and even sibling) marriage among the political elite. What’s up with that?

The boys discuss the implications of these connections and how they affect societal customs.

P&C drink and review a piney IPA, then discuss strange juxtapositions in history.

Did you know …

• George Washington didn’t know about dinosaurs.
• Sharks are older than trees.
• The 10th president of the U.S. has a grandson who is alive today.
• Woolly mammoths were still alive while the Egyptians were building the pyramids.
• The Oregon Trail was first used the same year the fax machine was invented.
• The University of Oxford is older than the Aztec Empire.
• The guillotine was still France’s official method of execution when Star Wars debuted.
• The Roman Empire fell only 40 years before Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas.
• The Great Pyramid was older to the Romans than the Romans are to us.

And more …

Join us for this fun review of strange coincidences and connections in history.

The boys drink and review an English Mild from Schaffly, then discuss different approaches to population.

Pigweed starts the show with the startling facts about population and how rapidly we got from 1 billion to 8 billion so quickly — with no apparent signs of stopping.

Malthus raised the concern that population can increase geometrically, but food production increases arithmetically, and predicted widespread starvation.

In fact, food production skyrocketed, so the problem has been averted for now.

Paul Erlich has been riding a similar issue for decades even though all his predictions turned out false as well. We didn’t poison everything, the air is cleaner, and there has not been widespread disease and famine.

The reality is more complicated. Population growth is not only slowing, but in many areas it’s negative. The most recent trends indicate that population will level off in about 2050.

Even if population only levels off, that still creates problems. The ratio between young and old would change dramatically, and the geniuses who invented our social support systems assumed an ever-growing population, where young people outnumbered old people.

However, population might not only level off, but may decline. Rapidly.

We have no economic or social models for that.

Who welcomes this decline and who is worried about it? What are their motives?

[Note: the content moderation bastards at YouTube deleted this video from their platform, so I’ve posted it on Rumble.]

With special guest Longinus, the boys drink and review Naked Elf by Troegs (a version of their seasonal Mad Elf), then discuss the history of all the funny traditions that make up our modern Christmas.

Was Jesus really born in a manger on the 25th of December? And speaking of dates, why do the Orthodox celebrate Christmas on a different day?

What did Saturnalia, the winter solstice, and Yule contribute to our Christmas traditions?

How did St. Nicholas get associated with Christmas?

Where did we get tree decorating, mistletoe, Yule logs, gift-giving men in fur cloaks, strange animals pulling sleighs, and the general festivity of the season?

Why are “scary ghost stories” associated with Christmas? And how did Thor’s goat get thrown into the mix?

Why did Oliver Cromwell and the early Americans have such a problem with Christmas?

Is Santa Claus really St. Nick, or is he the pagan Father Frost, or maybe Odin?

The boys discuss these and other fun stories about the origin of our modern Christmas celebration.

To help you get in the holiday spirit, here’s the latest edition of P&C’s “shortcut to the classics.” The expanded crew drinks and reviews Sam Adams’ Old Fezziwig ale and discusses the Charles Dickens classic.

Special guest Longinus starts the show with a brief bio of Dickens and provides some historical context to the story.

The boys discuss how the book differs from the various movie versions (not much), and provide background on some of the more striking and interesting details.

There are also 19th century concepts and terms we’re not used to today, like the treadmill for the poor, negus and smoking bishop (which were types of punch), and forfeits, a party game.

There are other little things that might have hidden meaning, like Scrooge’s first name. Why “Ebenezer”?

Other questions come up.

* Why can’t the ghost of Christmas future speak?
* Why did Scrooge (and no one else) get this special chance at redemption?

If you’ve seen one of the movies, you know the basic story, but the book is delightful and well worth reading.

The boys drink and review an English IPA from Guilford Brewing, then discuss the internet, and why we allow children on the thing.

People 50 years from now are going to condemn us for the way we’ve destroyed children’s innocence by giving them access to this putrid environment.

Australia recently passed a bill to restrict social media to 16 and above. That might be a good start

We have to show an ID to buy beer or cigarettes, why do we allow children on the porn-infested internet.

Why not a kid-friendly, open internet, and another internet where you have to sign on and demonstrate you’re an adult?

There are legit privacy questions, of course. Will the government — or Apple — have a record of what everyone does online?

Those are excuses. There are solutions to this problem, we’re just not trying hard enough to create them.

The boys drink a sidecar cocktail, then discuss Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter.

Despite repeatedly promising not to do it, Biden did what everyone knew he was going to do.

At this point, everyone is now on record as not trusting the justice system.

The timing of the pardon is interesting. Did he want to get it through before Kamala 25-amendmented him? Or, rather, did he want to do it before Hunter was actually sentenced?

Did Biden lie about his promise not to pardon Hunter, or did he mean it and change his mind?

Was the pardon self-defense? After all, Hunter could spill the beans on the Biden crime family, which could lead to lots of trouble for Joe.

The pardon isn’t small potatoes either. It’s a blanket pardon for anything he did or could have done over an 11-year period.

The pardon could backfire on Joe, since Hunter can no longer plead the 5th.

The boys enjoy their cocktail and discuss all the implications.

The boys drink Right Proper Pale Ale and discuss book bans.

Anne Arundel County in Maryland has become “a book sanctuary.” They want “all voices, all stories, and all perspectives to be protected.”

Crowhill calls it out as a flat lie and virtue signalling. These same people (or their intellectual fellow travelers) have been in favor of censorship on social media. Why is the library any different?

Should we make a distinction between what children can access and what adults can access?

A big part of the problem is the misuse of the word “banned.” You’re not banning a book if you choose not to stock it at the local library. You’re not banning a book if you believe children’s story hour shouldn’t include child pornography.

At the local library there are tables full of “banned books.” They’re so banned that they have a prominent place at the front of the library.

Are these “sanctuary libraries” going to include Mein Kampt, books on how to make your own suicide vests, “My Favorite Lynchings”?

The rhetoric is that “all views” are accepted. That’s a transparent lie.

While drinking a local stout, the boys ask whether abortion is really healthcare and then discuss that and related issues.

Healthcare is generally understood as the maintenance or improvement of health through prevention, diagnosis, treatment, or management of illness, injury, and other physical or mental impairments.

How does abortion fit in with that?

Pigweed and Crowhill evaluate the reality against the propaganda and the pro-choice slogans.

Is it really “my body, my choice”?

Do people really want to affirm Roe v. Wade?

Is it actually a “conversation with my doctor”?

“Keep your laws off my body!” Is that a legit legal standard?

So where should we draw the line? When does a fetus become a human with protected rights?

The boys drink and review a festive, Christmas beer, then discuss Trump’s selections for his cabinet and what we might expect from them. Nazi Germany, of course. And fascism. And the end of democracy. But beyond that ….

As of the time of the podcast, Trump has chosen …

Marco Rubio for Secretary of State
Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense
Matt Gaetz for Attorney General (although he withdrew)
Doug Burgum for Secretary of the Interior
Howard Lutnick for Commerce
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS
Sean Duffy for Transportation
Chris Wright for Energy
Linda McMahon for Education
Doug Collins for Veterans Affairs
Kristi Noem for Homeland Security

Other key positions include …

Lee Zeldin for EPA
Elisa Stefanik for the UN
Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel
Tilsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence
John Ratcliffe for CIA
Tom Homan as “Border Czar”
… and a few others.

He’s also asked Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head a new “Department of Government Efficiency.”

The boys drink and review Sierra Nevada’s Cold IPA, then discuss Scientology.

If you had your choice, would you rather your child be woke or a scientologist? It’s a hard choice.

Pigweed starts the discussion with a bio of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder / creator of both Dianetics and its later manifestation, Scientology. He was one of the most prolific authors in history, with as many as 1,000 titles.

The distinguishing factors of Scientology include …

• The reactive vs. the analytical mind. The reactive mind stores painful traumatic memories called “engrams.” You find these through “auditing.” Once you get rid of the reactive mind you’re “clear.”
• Auditing is done with the E-meter, which is essentially a galvanometer.
• Opposition to Psychiatry and Psychology are flawed because they focus on symptoms rather than addressing the underlying problem of engrams.
• Focus on self-empowerment and personal responsibility
• Bridge to total freedom
• Thetans and spiritual identity.
• Survival as a core drive

But there’s another side — the mythology, including the goofy story about Xenu throwing people into volcanoes 75 million years ago.

The boys drink and review “Raised by Wolves” from Right Proper brewing, then wonder if they’re suckers for paying their income taxes when other people seem to get away with not filing!

They start by steelmanning the arguments against the income tax, which include …

• The “sovereign citizen” idea
• Questions about the ratification of the 16th Amendment
• That it’s a violation of the constitution’s original intent
• The “voluntary compliance” language
• That the income tax was not intended to apply to everyone

Pigweed and Crowhill examine these arguments and give their analysis.

Broadcasting from the Royal Oak pub, the boys drink and review Crowhill’s homebrewed porter then discuss the failure of our government-run schools and the American education system.

Over the last 40 years we’ve had an increased role in education by both governments and unions, we’ve spent more and more on education, but results are worse and worse. Why?

Private schools that spend far less per student get better educational outcomes, and homeschoolers — who spend very little — frequently outperform private schools.

At the same time, we keep hearing that teachers aren’t being payed enough.

Okay, so where is all this money going? It’s going to administrators.

The boys review some statistics and discuss possible remedies.

Pigweed and Crowhill enjoy a celebratory bottle of champaign as they review the 2024 election.

Which is the more important victory: that Donald Trump won, or that Harris lost?

The first time around, Trump didn’t have a “Trump Team.” He had to cobble together an administration through recommendations from people who didn’t agree with his policies and approach. That will be entirely different this time.

Once again, the pollsters have egg on their faces. Trump overperformed by a wide margin.

Why did this go wrong for the Democrats?

• Kamala was a horrible candidate who ran a horrible campaign
• She was never selected by any democratic vote
• She has been completely incompetent as vice president
• Her policies, such as they were, were completely out of touch with the country
• She did nothing but call names and alienate people
• Walz was super weird

With hope, we can look forward to these things from DJT:

• The end of trans madness
• Get rid of the men in dresses in the military
• Stand up to China
• A better team with good ideas
• The end of DEI, “equity” and racial grievance
• Close the borders, amnesty over
• End of entitlement benefits for illegals
• Money for foreign wars we don’t care about
• Clean up the deep state: DOJ, HHS, DOE, DOT, etc.
• No pride flags on any buildings or embassies
• JD Vance tearing up the idiots in the media