Latest / The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois / The Pitt Is Delicious w/ Chappell

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The Pitt Is Delicious w/ Chappell · The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois

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  Delishies, grab a plate and feast on the delicious
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  culture. I am your host, Jon Francois. Oh, what
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  an amazing guest we have for you this week. I
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  am feasting on food, pop culture, and lifestyle
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  with the host of the recap kickback podcast,
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  Chapelle. Nice to have you on the show. Man,
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  nice to be here. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling
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  delicious. This is great. This is a good time.
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  I'm so excited that I got this invitation. Yeah,
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  I would be disappointed if you didn't feel delicious,
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  because literally these three questions I'm about
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  to ask you, they just have delicious r - and
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  all over it. Let's start with the delicious meal
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  that you had lately. I'm a barbecue guy. I love
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  it. I'm from Texas. It's in me. And I love a
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  good brisket. And recently, I had a really good
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  brisket. The other day, I took my uncle out for
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  his birthday. And I said, oh, let's go to this
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  barbecue spot. Because I'm very particular. Because
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  again, it's a serious matter. You can't just
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  get anybody's brisket. There are other barbecues
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  that you can get. But sometimes you're just in
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  the mood for that one good one. Not the five
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  star restaurant, nothing like that. But just
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  like the place that you know that the other people
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  don't know about that you've kind of been I had
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  their brisket recently, but I kind of cheated,
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  and I got a slice of turkey on top of it. Yeah,
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  being a fat ass, I know, but it was for me and
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  my uncle. It was his birthday. Now, my birthday
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  is coming up, and I'm trying to convince my family
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  to go back and get some more of this brisket
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  for my birthday, because I have not stopped thinking
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  about it for the last, what? About a week or
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  so since my life since my uncle's birthday and
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  this brisket has been calling my name And when
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  I tell you the brisket is just moist like water
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  like it is so good When anybody comes into my
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  town, I always tell them like hey listen people
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  are gonna send you to this spot over here, but
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  I got the spot for the brisket. And I always,
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  I'm never disappointed. Those people know me.
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  They know my name when I walk in the door. I'm
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  the only black person that go there, so they
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  definitely know me. And I'm sending the black
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  folks there, because I'm like, the white folks
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  are hiding the good brisket. And I'm telling
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  y 'all where it's at. And so, yeah, so good.
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  And I really, I recommend it to literally anybody
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  who comes this way. Wow. So, so many questions.
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  First of all, when I hear brisket, I... In my
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  head, I confuse it with ribs. Like give me like
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  the visual aesthetic of a brisket. Does it kind
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  of look like a set of ribs where you can just
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  like kind of like smoothly get it off the bone?
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  Like what's the difference between a brisket
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  and a rib is what I'm asking you. Yeah. Rib is
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  mostly like, it's like 50 % bone, 50 % meat,
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  right? So it's like every piece of rib has meat
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  on it, whereas the brisket is like this cut of
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  meat where it's just the lower chest of the cow.
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  Now, I know there's probably some vegetarians
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  or vegans listening to this thinking like, oh,
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  this monster, but literally, it's the lower chest
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  of the cow, and it's just this primal cut where
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  it's like this lean fat on top of it. It's overlapping
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  the muscles, right? And so you have this process
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  of slow cooking it and really just like really
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  get it in there and making sure it's tender.
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  When done properly, a brisket is everything I
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  need in life. But it's really hard to do a brisket
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  correctly, because if you rush it or if you do
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  it too long, it can get really dry or it'll never
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  quite come together. Ribs are also good. I won't
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  ever discourage ribs, especially at that same
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  restaurant I'm talking about. I did not come
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  here to be a pa - I hate advertising for them,
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  but some, they ribs just fall off the bone, okay?
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  And so, barbecue is one of my comfort foods.
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  So whenever I'm going through a little bit, I
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  always try to go get some barbecue to cheer me
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  up. And so that's kind of why I'm in a brisket
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  mode right now. So maybe you know this, the difference
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  between... Barbecue as in like, Oh, like Texas
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  barbecue versus what we know as like barbecue
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  sauce. Like that's something that I've always
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  thought about because you tell me barbecue sauce
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  and I know what you're talking about. Get it
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  from the bottle. You can put it on chicken, whatever.
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  But like, you know, when someone says like, Oh,
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  a Texas barbecue, like where, where does that
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  come from? What do we mean when we just say barbecue
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  versus. barbecue sauce. Yeah, the idea of the
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  barbecue. And this is me speaking out of turn
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  because although I am a Texan who barbecues,
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  I probably have not done the labor of really
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  learning the science of it. But a barbecue is
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  any time you're cooking the meat slowly over
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  like an open fire or a flame, right? So whether
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  it be the ribs or the brisket or whatever, you
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  put it on a grill, you let it, you put it the,
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  you know, you close the lid, you let the smoke
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  get in there. You might marinate it. You might
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  even glaze it with barbecue sauce just for flavor.
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  It's like a steak sauce. You know, steak sauce
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  is for the steak, but you also have the process
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  of making this barbecue, and you can use it as
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  a condiment. And so the barbecue sauce is just
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  to enhance the flavor. But if this is real good
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  barbecue, just like a steak, you don't really
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  need a sauce. I've seen chefs talk about how
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  their steak is so good. If they saw you put steak
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  sauce on it, it would be offensive, right? Because
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  they've already given you all the flavors you
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  need. I like a barbecue that... If they've done
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  it correctly, I'm not looking for any barbecue
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  sauce. I don't need any extra flavor. The flavor
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  is in the love and the care they took into this
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  side of beef or pork or whatever animal, the
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  lifeless animal we are now devouring. So that's
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  the distinct difference for me. OK. Because when
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  I first heard the concept of a southern barbecue,
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  like in my mind, I'm not even thinking so much
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  of like how the meat is cooked. I'm thinking
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  of like the entire place. So I'm thinking, all
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  right, you're going to give me a big thing of
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  ribs or a big brisket and you're going to have
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  mashed potatoes and corn and chitlins or whatever.
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  I'm thinking of like the whole meal as the definition
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  of barbecue, but you're saying that it's the,
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  that is how you cook specifically the meat. Okay.
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  I could just go outside and barbecue some meat
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  right now, right? But if I wanted to have a barbecue,
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  then I might have some of those sides, you know,
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  invite people over maybe for, you know, some
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  people eat potato salad. It's not really my thing,
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  but they'll do like a potato salad or, you know,
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  some green beans, some whatever vegetables you
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  got. You gotta have, the plate needs to be colorful,
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  you know, so you're gonna have your potato salad,
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  you got the green beans, got a piece of bread,
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  maybe some pickles or something like that on
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  the plate. But I just, I'm showing up. For the
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  meat. As ridiculous as that sounds. I stand on
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  it. I'm looking for the barbecue all the time.
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  I will go to a restaurant and literally be like,
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  nah, this ain't it. As a Texan, I know that our
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  barbecue and then like there's different people's
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  barbecue. I think Tennessee has like a highly
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  regarded barbecue. There are a few places, but
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  I put in Texas. When done correctly, I put in
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  Texas next to like the best of the best. And
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  then I just scoff at everybody else who does
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  doesn't quite hit the mark. The California barbecue,
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  they should just hang it up. They should call
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  it something else. It just doesn't hit the same.
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  I didn't even know that California was known
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  for a barbecue. It's not. They're not known for
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  that. They're known for messing it up. And I'm
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  sorry to say this. I don't know, man. Like again,
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  and this might be just the Texan part of me,
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  right? Because in Texas, we are trained at a
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  very young age to believe that Texas is... equal
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  or greater than the United States in all aspects.
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  I don't know, for the people who are foreign
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  to the Texas, the Texas way, we were taught the
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  Texas Pledge, we were taught Texas independence.
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  I think you gotta take it twice, the Texas history.
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  We learn these things. You say the Texas Pledge,
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  when you say the Pledge of Allegiance to the
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  United States, our flag flies next to the United
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  States flag, not below it. You know, so those
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  are things that we learn. And so we think highly
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  of ourselves as a state. And barbecue is one
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  of those things that we're always gonna put on
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  past... Pedal store tacos as well, you know,
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  like next to Mexico I'll give California that
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  their tacos are good, but I'm not going anywhere
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  else Texas California Mexico. That's it. Nobody
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  else can sell me a taco. Wait I thought Texas
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  was closer to Mexico than California It's not
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  okay. They both have their sides, right? So Texas
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  Texas has like the This side, the southern, well
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  I guess it would be southern Texas, but the south
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  of Texas touches Mexico, but the west of California
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  touches Mexico too, like the Baja area or whatever.
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  So there are different parts, but they get, I
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  will give them that. Their tacos be good too.
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  Texas tacos are also good. Mexico tacos are the
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  best. And then everywhere else, I need to be
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  there to judge it. I'm not saying it's not good,
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  but if I haven't had it yet, I can't make a decision.
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  What about... a California barbecue, do they
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  fuck up? It's the portions. It's everything.
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  It's very, like, you can see it. You can eyeball
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  that it's very California. In Texas, we do everything
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  bigger. So your plate is, you don't get a rib.
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  You get... a slab of ribs, you know? Think, you
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  know, in the Flintstones where they have the
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  big slab of ribs they put on the side of the
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  car and the car flips over. Like, Texas is cartoony
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  like that with the size of the food that we're
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  getting you. California, everything is, like,
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  gently placed and gingerly all over the plate
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  where you have space on your plate between your
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  items they can't touch. Texas, you just pile
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  all that stuff on the plate, throw some onions
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  and some pickles and all kinds of stuff on top
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  of it. You should be like, oh, here's your plate
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  of meat. You know, that's a Texas barbecue. barbecue
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  too cute you know it looks uh it's it's a little
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  like uh i don't know it's a little dainty you
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  kind of have to like if you feel like you can
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  eat it with a knife and a fork where's the Texas
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  barbecue It's so we're optional, you know, yeah,
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  you know You're kind of reminding me in general
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  of like, you know, if I see a cooking show I
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  mean take any Gordon Ramsay show or any other
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  cooking show that like loves to fancy it up and
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  give you like the portrait of These kind of I
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  don't know French cuisine style meals. And yeah,
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  it's always like portions that are the size of
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  your finger the plate is so clean and and All
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  I can think of when I look at that is I'm gonna
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  need two more meals after I down one plate of
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  those fancy things, because it just doesn't look
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  filling. It doesn't look that appealing. Yeah,
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  I mean, I'm looking for delicious and something
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  to fill my belly for like four or five hours.
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  And anything fancy looking, anything clean looking,
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  anything small portion looking, it just doesn't
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  do it for me. Yeah, you got to get down and dirty
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  sometimes when it comes to barbecue. And especially,
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  again, this is me speaking as a Texan. There
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  are other people whose barbecues are good as
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  well. But the California barbecue is just like
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  what you said. It looks like they're trying too
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  hard for it to be presentable. And if it's a
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  real barbecue, the barbecue is going to speak
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  for itself. We don't need presentation. We don't
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  need the fancy plates. And we don't need you
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  drinking out of little mason jars to give you
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  the idea that, oh, this is very rustic. Texas
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  is just rustic. It's just how you do it. And
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  so it's... There's a science to it. Like I said,
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  smarter people than me have probably looked at
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  this, but I know when I want to feel better about
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  myself, I go get some barbecue, because it just
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  makes me happy. So... The meat sweats, the food
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  coma, basically like... It's all part of it,
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  yeah. A few bites in, I feel like I want to pass
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  out. I've had two types of barbecue. I remember
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  having a barbecue when I used to live in Iowa
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  that gave me that feeling. And then I remember
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  having a barbecue at this restaurant in Albany,
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  New York, where I was... I can tell you right
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  now. I was just fine. It almost looked like they
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  already had the food already prepared in like
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  a... in a container somewhere and then they just
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  put it on it and it was fine. I felt okay. So
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  my question to you is, is it an authentic barbecue
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  when you are sweating and you need to go to sleep?
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  I mean, that's definitely a requirement, right?
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  Like you need to feel like... OK, I might need
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  to take a lap before I go and sit down somewhere.
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  You know, you need to let your food digest. You
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  need to walk around. Someone offers you dessert
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  and you're like, no, no, I literally cannot.
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  You still take it because you're polite. It's
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  Texas, right? But you might not eat it until
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  later on. Or you might try to stuff yourself,
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  but you're going to regret it later on. I think
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  you need to have that moment, right? It's a whole
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  experience. It's not just about, oh, this piece
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  of meat was cooked very well. It's how do I feel
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  afterwards? And if I don't feel fat full, a little
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  greasy, and a little shameful, then to me it's
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  not the right kind of barbecue. OK, all right,
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  good to know, good to know. What part of Texas
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  are you at where you were the only person who's
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  not white going into this restaurant that you
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  like so much? I'm right in the middle of Texas.
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  I'm in central Texas right now. So I was raised
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  in Houston. But when I graduated from college,
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  my entire family, I was born in central Texas.
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  So my entire family is from that area. So I had
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  the choice, like, stay in Houston after college
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  or move back home and be around my people. And
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  I was like, OK, yeah, I'll go be around my people.
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  I grew up in Houston. I haven't really got to
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  spend that much time with them. I'll make Central
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  Texas my home. Well, got there, and it's a little
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  conservative. I'll say that. There are definitely...
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  progressive pockets in Texas, for sure. Houston
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  being one of the bigger cities. Most big cities
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  are typically lean toward like, oh yeah, we're
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  a little bit more inclusive when it comes to
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  race and gender and all those things. And the
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  part I moved into was kind of like, it wants
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  you to believe that that's what's going on, but
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  when you really dig down and deep into it, there's
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  a lot of just underlying tones of racism. Nothing
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  overt, right? They're not doing the overt stuff
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  anymore. because it's too obvious and then you
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  can get in trouble. But it's just, like, even
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  the idea that I could go to a restaurant in this
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  town and know I'm going to be the only black
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  person there, it's like, well, why is that? Is
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  it because it's far away from black people? Yes,
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  actually it is. But why is it over there? Because
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  that's by design. They want to put it where people
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  can get to it, but not where everybody can get
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  to it, right? Maybe they put it over there because
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  that level, that area is more affluent. Maybe
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  they put it over there because that was an easier
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  level area for them to get to. But the side of
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  town that I'm on, we, like, they neglect us over
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  here with... So my duty is to drive over to someone
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  else's neighborhood and make them feel uncomfortable
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  by coming to eat their delicious food and then
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  telling my friends to come as well. And like,
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  so I'm just like, you know, go eat the food,
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  come back, tell everybody, and then drag all
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  my country cousins out there and then we take
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  over the spot. That's kind of my goal with every
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  dining situation that I'm in, in my town at least.
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  Right. I feel like... Cause the stereotype goes
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  that white people don't season their food. They
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  just don't know what they're doing. Um, and that
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  can certainly apply like me living here in Vermont,
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  where it's a lot of white people. And I'm one
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  of the few, I'm one of the few people of color
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  here. Um, it certainly can apply to the Midwest
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  where I used to live. Also majority white Texas.
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  That's definitely, I feel like that's an exception.
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  When you tell me that you're the only black person
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  going to a restaurant in Texas and, you know,
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  for the barbecue and it's like maybe the best
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  barbecue you've tasted. I mean, yeah, like, am
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  I wrong on that? Like, that, like, Texas race
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  doesn't matter. Like, if you're in Texas, born
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  and bred, you know how to cook, you're gonna
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  make a barbecue no matter what your race is.
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  Yeah, you gotta learn how to barbecue in Texas.
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  You have to, right? But everybody's level of
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  skill is gonna be different. So I'm not saying
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  I go to every white establishment looking for
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  barbecue. I go to a very specific, one -time
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  white, you know, that white establishment specifically,
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  because those people can cook a barbecue at...
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  At that place, they know how to cook a cow, all
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  right? They know how to cook a pig. They know
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  how to cook a turkey. I know it. I trust them.
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  I've seen it. But I was attending their restaurant
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  when they were a food truck. So I saw them when
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  they were up. It was like, oh, we're just trying
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  to get our business off the ground. So I was
• 15:30
  one of the early adopters. Like, hey, what's
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  this place? I'm always going to try the place
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  that's off the beaten paths. I don't care who
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  own it. If I look like it's going to be good,
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  I'll try it. If it's not good, I'll never talk
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  about it. I'll never go there. And you can't
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  make me. But if it's good, I'll keep coming back.
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  So I came back for years and years and years.
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  So I really cultivated a relationship with these
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  people to where, like I said, they know me. Like,
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  it's hard to miss me, obviously. But at the same
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  time, I've come for so many years where it makes
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  sense for me to support them. But yeah, everybody
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  can barbecue here for the most part, right? I
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  could see it. But... Everybody's barbecue's now
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  on the same level. You know, just because you
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  know how to throw meat on the grill doesn't mean
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  that you have the technique, the steady hands.
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  Hell, even the technology, I mean, it's a grill,
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  right? But you think it'd be pretty simple. But
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  if you have a grill that's not heating equally,
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  if you're not tending to the fire to make sure
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  that the food is heated equally, then it's gonna
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  cook. uneven, right? And that's not good. Nobody
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  likes that kind of stuff. You want your food
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  to be cooked the same all the way through, and
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  you want to give it time on the fire. These people,
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  these white folks, have figured that out, okay?
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  And when I say they figured it out, I speak highly
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  of them, because there are plenty of black barbecue
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  spots that I will go to. But when I want to feel
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  good about myself, I go out there to them white
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  folks' barbecue and eat their barbecue, and then
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  I come back and tell my friends to come eat their
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  barbecue, because again, their barbecue tastes
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  better. Now, I could go and support my people,
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  and I do. But sometimes, I... because it's better
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  than all these people over here, yeah. Oh my
• 16:57
  God, that's so great. And can you cook a good
• 17:00
  barbecue yourself or you just leave that to the
• 17:02
  professionals? No, no, no. So that's the thing.
• 17:04
  I can barbecue to live, right? I can eat to survive.
• 17:07
  I can eat to feed my friends and my family. But
• 17:10
  when I want good barbecue, I go to them. You
• 17:13
  know, it's like, hey, I've already identified.
• 17:15
  And that's the thing. I don't discriminate. I've
• 17:16
  identified. If your food is good, I'm going to
• 17:18
  eat there. Now, if you start doing some weird
• 17:20
  stuff, you know, if it gets racist or problematic
• 17:23
  or something like that, then I'm going to have
• 17:24
  to opt out. I do not have an issue opting out.
• 17:26
  or something that tastes good or that I enjoy
• 17:28
  because it got problematic or toxic or whatever.
• 17:30
  Hey, it was good for while it was, but it's over
• 17:33
  now, right? But as long as they on the up and
• 17:35
  up, they not tripping, then I'm gonna keep going
• 17:38
  there and eating, they barbecue it. Then I don't
• 17:39
  have to cook. I don't have to barbecue it. I'd
• 17:41
  rather not be outside. If I can avoid being outside
• 17:44
  on the grill, allergies are bad. I just don't,
• 17:46
  I let other people do it. Do barbecues have a
• 17:49
  reputation of being expensive, very affordable?
• 17:52
  Like what's, what is it like on the price scale?
• 17:55
  So that's the thing. They're like the restaurants
• 17:58
  that will come in and the big chain restaurants
• 18:00
  that will come in and charge you an arm and a
• 18:02
  leg for some barbecue. And you think, well, obviously
• 18:03
  you get what you pay for, right? And to an extent
• 18:06
  you probably do. They probably have a better
• 18:07
  cut of meat, you know, better quality product,
• 18:10
  better even equipment, right? But... I found
• 18:13
  that you don't need all of that to have a good
• 18:15
  barbecue. It takes a little love and some care,
• 18:18
  some skill, obviously. And if you know what you're
• 18:22
  doing, it's going to shine through. So while
• 18:23
  there is barbecue that someone can charge you
• 18:25
  an arm and a leg for, and it might taste good,
• 18:28
  I guarantee you can get that same barbecue at
• 18:30
  a better price point. You don't have to go to
• 18:32
  a five -star restaurant to have that experience.
• 18:36
  There are plenty of people who can cook a piece
• 18:39
  of meat. You just got to go find them. Well,
• 18:41
  give me a specific price. Like, if I'm paying,
• 18:43
  like, $20 for a barbecue, is that okay? I need
• 18:46
  to... Well, it depends on what you're getting,
• 18:48
  right? So, like, $20 for some ribs might... Like,
• 18:50
  if you were getting, like, a rack of ribs, you
• 18:53
  know, a whole rack of ribs in Texas, as far as,
• 18:57
  like, the price point goes, you could be paying
• 18:59
  a lot of money, right? Because that's a lot of
• 19:01
  meat, obviously. And so, like, if somebody told
• 19:04
  you $20, I'm like, nah. A big, full rack of ribs
• 19:07
  off a grill. If you want me to believe your rack
• 19:10
  of rib tastes... I'm looking at $40 for the whole
• 19:13
  rack, right? Now, who needs a whole rack of ribs?
• 19:15
  My fat ass, probably. But not everybody needs
• 19:18
  a whole rack of ribs, right? So maybe you get
• 19:20
  a half rack for $20 -something. A few ribs, you
• 19:24
  can get them. You know, people pay by the pound
• 19:25
  or whatever. $45 is a little steep, just a little
• 19:29
  bit, but just steep enough for you to know that
• 19:31
  you're getting something good, right? It's not
• 19:33
  like, oh, I'll never eat here again steep. But
• 19:35
  at least I know, okay, I'm paying for the quality
• 19:38
  that's going into this. Because if someone just...
• 19:40
  Yeah, you can get a rack of ribs for $20. It's
• 19:42
  probably, it's probably edible. It's probably
• 19:44
  good, decent, but it ain't, it ain't nothing
• 19:47
  you want to tell other people about. Unless,
• 19:49
  I don't know if there's like a specific matrix
• 19:51
  or like algorithm that you could get like how
• 19:54
  expensive versus how not expensive based on where
• 19:56
  you are, but I do pay attention to that kind
• 19:59
  of thing. Cause you don't want just to go eat
• 20:02
  anything. You gotta have standards about yourself.
• 20:04
  Yeah. Um, I can only do a half rack of ribs.
• 20:07
  Um, I can, I can, I push, I challenge you to
• 20:11
  do more. No, I just know that meat can fill me
• 20:16
  up pretty quickly. No, I, I fittingly enough,
• 20:19
  and you could judge me all you want. My wife
• 20:21
  and I, we went to Texas road house not too long
• 20:24
  ago. That's a sham. That's a, that's a place.
• 20:28
  That's not, that don't count. Okay. Okay. Well,
• 20:31
  uh, so, so a half rack of ribbon fries. I think
• 20:34
  it was like home fries or steak fries, steak
• 20:36
  fries. So that's, that's all I could take. I
• 20:39
  had like some applesauce with it. It was fine.
• 20:41
  So Texas Roadhouse is not, is it not actually
• 20:45
  a Texas based chain restaurant? Was it not from
• 20:47
  Texas originally? Dear God, I hope it's from
• 20:50
  Texas. I've never been to the original, but I
• 20:54
  hope, you know, no one's not walking around here
• 20:56
  with stolen valor about their Texas foods. To
• 20:59
  me, it's not a barbecue restaurant. It's more
• 21:00
  like a steakhouse that serves ribs, you know?
• 21:05
  But even amongst steakhouses, it's affordable.
• 21:09
  But I don't think anybody would ever say that
• 21:11
  Texas Roadhouse is like fine dining or even the
• 21:14
  best ribs that they've ever had. It's just some
• 21:17
  good ribs. And you're probably paying what? $20
• 21:18
  for... Yeah, something like that. Yeah, exactly.
• 21:21
  So that's kind of what I'm talking about, right?
• 21:23
  You could go to Roadhouse and get a $20 rib and
• 21:24
  it's fine. You're good. You're filled. You're
• 21:27
  happy. You've moved on with your life. But you're
• 21:29
  not telling nobody about the Roadhouse ribs that
• 21:31
  you got. You got to go to one of these other
• 21:33
  places where you can see the grill. When you
• 21:36
  walk outside and you see the smoke and you can
• 21:38
  see... And they might even let you walk up to
• 21:39
  it and inspect their whole little situation.
• 21:42
  Those are the places where they're making the
• 21:43
  ribs and the brisket that you really need to
• 21:45
  focus on. And they might charge you a little
• 21:46
  bit more. This is a stupid question. So someone
• 21:49
  comes up to you and says, all right, I love me
• 21:52
  some Taco Bell and Chipotle. And I want to know
• 21:55
  what's the difference between that and an authentic
• 21:57
  homemade Texas taco. What do you tell them? Ooh.
• 22:00
  Oh my God, this is a loaded question, right?
• 22:04
  Because Tex -Mex does have its detractors, right?
• 22:07
  I won't lie and be like, oh yeah, Tex -Mex is
• 22:09
  the best. To me, I like Texas tacos, right? But
• 22:12
  also, I'm going to Mexicans to get the taco.
• 22:15
  I'm not letting white folks make my tacos normally.
• 22:18
  If I do go eat a white folks taco, torches or,
• 22:21
  like you said, Chipotle... Freebirds, there's
• 22:25
  other white folks. Well, white folks made a lot
• 22:27
  of, they got really into the taco game for a
• 22:29
  little bit. And that's fine, right? Sure, fried
• 22:31
  chicken on a taco, fine. You're just wrapping
• 22:34
  something in a tortilla and calling it a taco.
• 22:37
  If that's what y 'all go for, go for it. Not
• 22:39
  for me. It's not what I'm looking for, honestly.
• 22:42
  Uh, yeah, I'm looking for baseline ingredients
• 22:45
  and like really basic tacos. Talking about carnitas
• 22:48
  and like again, not Chipotle carnitas, but like
• 22:51
  Mexican slow cooked pork, you know? Uh, I'm looking
• 22:55
  for, uh, barbacoa, lengua. So basically tongue.
• 22:59
  I look, uh, tripa, some tripe. Like there, there
• 23:01
  are things that you can get that are like, oh
• 23:02
  no, this is Mexican. Uh, as, as I say in my Texas
• 23:05
  accent. Um, but the Chipotle stuff is, it's cool
• 23:08
  or whatever. It's just not the same. All right,
• 23:11
  so tripe carnitas and Tongue are Not terms. I'm
• 23:16
  familiar with in the Tex -Mex world Can you can
• 23:19
  you can you familiarize me more with those with
• 23:21
  those foods? Yeah, are you familiar with Birria?
• 23:24
  No, not that either. Oh my god. Okay, we got
• 23:27
  a lot to work to do. Okay, so You have barbacoa,
• 23:31
  which is basically like either go or lamb, normally.
• 23:36
  There was a moment where quesadilla tacos kind
• 23:38
  of took off, and it's just like these tacos that
• 23:42
  they take them, they fry them basically with
• 23:47
  cheese inside of the tortilla or whatever, and
• 23:52
  they use the cheese to kind of galvanize the
• 23:54
  rest of the taco, and they stuff it with lamb
• 23:56
  or goat, sometimes beef, if you're being lazy,
• 24:00
  it's beef, but lamb or goat or something like
• 24:02
  that. and it's really good and you end up dipping
• 24:05
  it in this consomme. I really feel like I should
• 24:07
  be sending you pictures at this point, because
• 24:08
  it's so good. Just send me a whole slideshow.
• 24:11
  When I tell you, it's so good. But yeah, so you're
• 24:14
  looking for that a lot of times. Yeah, now everybody
• 24:17
  can do quesaparilla, but you got to look for
• 24:19
  the quality of it, obviously. Maybe like a chuck
• 24:22
  roast or something like that, or beef cheeks
• 24:25
  or something for your barbacoa. It's the it's
• 24:29
  the cut of the meat, but then also how you serve
• 24:30
  it, right? You want some lime you want some garlic
• 24:33
  some chilies Maybe like some cilantro obviously
• 24:37
  feeling fancy some diced onions. Maybe so I don't
• 24:41
  know I just feel like it's very basic, right?
• 24:43
  You don't have to go crazy with the toppings
• 24:45
  whereas like I think the The white folks tacos,
• 24:48
  they just like to put a bunch of stuff on it,
• 24:50
  right? And so as opposed to letting the meat
• 24:52
  and the green, the cilantro and the onions just
• 24:57
  kind of work, they, oh, we put this on top of
• 25:00
  it and this on top of it and this on top of it.
• 25:02
  This is what I was like, okay, fine. That's basically
• 25:04
  a salad in a taco, like in a tortilla, but that's
• 25:07
  not a taco. So like I said, I can do this all
• 25:10
  day, but there are still smarter people than
• 25:12
  me. All I know is when I see it, I'm going to
• 25:14
  eat it. All right. Question number two, what's
• 25:18
  a delicious piece of pop culture you've been
• 25:20
  consuming? This could be a TV show, movie, music,
• 25:24
  book, play, podcast, whatever. What are you loving?
• 25:27
  I pursue a lot. I mean, I consume a lot of pop
• 25:30
  culture just in general. Your podcast is all
• 25:33
  over it, yeah. Yeah, I try to watch a little
• 25:37
  bit of everything when it comes to TV. You know,
• 25:40
  who's not watching The Pit right now? If you're
• 25:42
  not, come on, what are you doing? Best show on
• 25:44
  television? Yeah, it's the best show on TV. I
• 25:47
  watch TV for work, obviously for the podcast,
• 25:49
  right? But then there's like The Pit I watch
• 25:52
  for me, you know? It's one of those shows where
• 25:54
  after I'm done watching the other stuff that
• 25:56
  I gotta watch, then I decompress by watching
• 25:59
  a gritty medical drama where people's lives are
• 26:01
  in danger. And I was like, yes, this is perfect.
• 26:03
  I just need to chill, drink a beer, and watch
• 26:06
  the pit, and then everything is OK. So that's
• 26:08
  probably my show of choice right now, music -wise.
• 26:11
  I listen to everything, and I mean that as a
• 26:14
  sport. I know some people say I listen to everything,
• 26:16
  because they don't really have a preference of
• 26:17
  genre, or they like a little bit of everything,
• 26:19
  or they just like pop, so it covers a lot of
• 26:21
  genres. But I actively try to listen to as much
• 26:24
  music as possible. It's just something that I've
• 26:25
  always enjoyed. So if someone tells me they like
• 26:27
  an album, or they've been listening to something
• 26:30
  recently, I'm the type of person who will steal
• 26:32
  your favorite song. You're like, oh, I really
• 26:34
  love this artist. I'm like, oh, OK, cool. And
• 26:36
  then the next time you see me, I'm like, yeah,
• 26:37
  I just went to that concert. It was crazy. I'm
• 26:39
  that guy. I know that. about me. So recently
• 26:42
  I started listening to the new Bruno Mars album
• 26:44
  because I had questions. following his career
• 26:49
  since the very beginning. And I've seen the evolution
• 26:51
  of Bruno Mars recently. And so I was really wondering
• 26:53
  where he was gonna go with this new album. It's
• 26:55
  more of the same, of the more recent kind of
• 26:57
  soulful Bruno Mars, kind of back to the timeless
• 27:03
  classic kind of feel that he has, almost like
• 27:06
  the Motown kind of sound that he does. And I
• 27:08
  really enjoy it. I really enjoy Bruno Mars' album.
• 27:11
  The man is singing just out of this world right
• 27:14
  now. It's a beautiful album. Like I said, it's
• 27:17
  more of the... typical Bruno that we've been
• 27:19
  getting. But you can tell his music has matured
• 27:21
  a lot more. You know, he's not singing about
• 27:24
  the same old things he used to back when he was
• 27:26
  in his pop bag. So I'm really enjoying that.
• 27:28
  So those two are probably my most delicious piece
• 27:31
  of pop culture for me right now. So, The Pit,
• 27:34
  let's break that down first. What are you thinking
• 27:36
  about season two compared to season one? Are
• 27:40
  you caught up with all the episodes? Unless there's
• 27:43
  an episode that aired today or yesterday. No,
• 27:44
  it airs tomorrow. So, Bet. Tomorrow's Thursday.
• 27:47
  Yeah, so I'm caught up. Uh, and yeah, I'm enjoying
• 27:50
  season two. I did see that some people were saying,
• 27:53
  oh, it's not the same in season one, but... I
• 27:56
  feel like that's with every show. You always
• 27:58
  have the detractors from season one to two. You
• 28:01
  know, I won't call them contrarians, but, you
• 28:03
  know, people like to have a spicy opinion sometimes.
• 28:05
  And so I don't really let that sway me, but I'm
• 28:08
  enjoying it. I think that they have the cast
• 28:10
  doing, like, doing what we want from them the
• 28:13
  most, right? Dr. Robbie is still being Superman
• 28:15
  out there, but he's also kind of a jerk. And
• 28:18
  we kind of like him, but at the same time, we
• 28:19
  can be annoyed at him. I think all the characters
• 28:21
  are very fun and fleshed out, but, you know,
• 28:23
  they have their things about them that I don't...
• 28:25
  love all the time. Dr. Santos, me and her, we
• 28:29
  just sometimes, I just, me and her just don't
• 28:30
  see eye to eye. You know, I'm watching it. Santos,
• 28:33
  man, you tripping, man. I look, leave Langdon
• 28:35
  Malone. He's sorry. OK, dang. Sometimes you just
• 28:37
  be addicted to drugs and that's OK. You know,
• 28:39
  so you get really, you get really involved with
• 28:42
  these shows. But I'm enjoying it. I am. I have
• 28:46
  strong feelings about basically everybody on
• 28:48
  the cast. And that's how I know I'm really enjoying
• 28:50
  the show. Yeah. That on Dr. Santos, like I remember
• 28:55
  me and my wife were watching the recent episode
• 28:57
  and this was when Santos and Langdon finally
• 29:01
  kind of confront each other about Langdon's drug
• 29:05
  use and Santos, of course, has been giving him
• 29:07
  all the passive aggressive asides. And, uh, you
• 29:11
  know, she just unloads like saying, eh, you should
• 29:13
  have been fired. You should have lost your medical
• 29:15
  license, yada, yada, yada. So F this, I won't
• 29:18
  be satisfied until like you lose everything.
• 29:21
  My wife was just looking at the TV like, I mean...
• 29:26
  No, nothing's going to change. Like Langdon got
• 29:31
  his job back and he's there to stay and he's
• 29:35
  apologized. He's in rehab. Like you're just having,
• 29:39
  you're literally the only person in the hospital
• 29:41
  who knows about Langdon's stuff, who's having
• 29:45
  this grudge over it. I think even Dr. Robbie
• 29:48
  is forgiving Langdon. Slowly but surely. Can
• 29:53
  you hear me okay? We're starting to loosen up
• 29:56
  a little bit, Dr. Robbie. Yeah. Slowly but surely
• 29:58
  slowly but surely But dr. Santos energy. I don't
• 30:03
  know man. And I think my wife can agree just
• 30:05
  from the get -go. She just has this very Like
• 30:09
  smart ass attitude about her like, you know calling
• 30:12
  that poor girl who has the the mommy as the doctor
• 30:15
  crash Even when she was doesn't want to be called
• 30:17
  crash You know, just just she just has smart
• 30:22
  ass remarks to always complaining about like
• 30:25
  not being able to finish her chart when, like,
• 30:28
  look, you have people losing legs, losing eyes.
• 30:31
  Like, you gotta be in the moment. You gotta take,
• 30:33
  like, forget the charts for now. Everybody else
• 30:35
  is taking care of the moment. Be in the moment,
• 30:37
  Dr. Santos. I don't know. She just, just this
• 30:41
  very entitled attitude, energy from her. She's
• 30:47
  definitely not my favorite character. The crazy
• 30:49
  thing is I'm a bit of a Santos apologist, but
• 30:52
  I still... But I too, I can see why people are
• 30:56
  annoyed. Because for me, the reason why I have
• 30:58
  to be an apologist here is from her point of
• 31:00
  view. This lady was starting her, what was it?
• 31:03
  She's at work, Langdon is the golden boy, and
• 31:07
  he's basically, they're butting heads that entire
• 31:09
  day, right? The first season, right? They're
• 31:11
  butting heads the whole day, and she's like,
• 31:13
  this dude is a jerk, he sucks. She finds out
• 31:15
  that he's out here doing drugs and stuff like
• 31:17
  that. gets in trouble, but he gets kind of like
• 31:20
  a, almost like a slap on the wrist. Like, you
• 31:22
  know, he gets in trouble, but not really, right?
• 31:24
  She's not wrong. He should have lost his license.
• 31:27
  Like he should not be back in that facility.
• 31:30
  They need him, obviously. And he's a good doctor,
• 31:34
  but everybody is not above the rules. And so
• 31:36
  I could definitely, I can definitely understand
• 31:38
  how that might feel to be working underneath
• 31:40
  somebody where you're like, I knew you wasn't
• 31:42
  shit. And then you out here stealing drugs and
• 31:44
  you're doing exactly what I thought you was doing.
• 31:46
  And now you get to come back and be my boss again.
• 31:49
  And I feel like I need a real apology. Like,
• 31:51
  I feel like people... To me, I feel like Dr.
• 31:54
  Santos is looking around, and she's one of those
• 31:56
  people who's like, she hates somebody, and she
• 31:58
  doesn't feel vindicated because nobody else hates
• 32:00
  them. So it's like when she finds out that they
• 32:02
  did something shitty, she's like, see? That's
• 32:04
  what I've been trying to tell y 'all. Everybody's
• 32:05
  like, just chill, let it go. Oh my god, he was
• 32:07
  just stealing drugs from patients. That's not
• 32:10
  a crime, is it? She's like, yes, yes it is. Why
• 32:12
  aren't y 'all doing anything? So I get her, but
• 32:14
  I'm also sick of it. Like, the eye rolling, the
• 32:18
  talking under your breath while the patients
• 32:20
  are in the room, it's not professional at all.
• 32:22
  I can hold these two things at one time, right?
• 32:24
  Like, I see why she is annoyed, but I need her
• 32:27
  to get it together. And then on the same time,
• 32:29
  I like Langdon more than her. So I need her to
• 32:31
  get it together because I'm tired of her picking
• 32:33
  on him. He's sorry. Let it go. Get over it, Santos.
• 32:37
  I'm sick of it. I believe, I believe Langdon
• 32:39
  is sorry. I believe he's improving. He's making
• 32:42
  progress. That's great. I definitely agree that
• 32:45
  there's straight white male privilege to the
• 32:47
  umpteenth with Langdon. Um, yes, he definitely
• 32:51
  deserved to lose everything. Like, you know,
• 32:54
  taking drugs on the down low at work. Like that's
• 32:56
  totally not okay. And, um, yeah, I don't know.
• 33:00
  I mean, I think it's sort of reflective of what
• 33:05
  we as people of color have to go through when
• 33:07
  we see white privilege at work. It's like, all
• 33:09
  right, you could be frustrated. You could call
• 33:11
  it out for what it is, but if that's going to
• 33:14
  be the result, then you could either hold a grudge
• 33:17
  about it, let it affect you each and every day,
• 33:18
  each and every hour, or you can just accept that,
• 33:21
  all right, this is the outcome. I will have to
• 33:23
  live with it and let me keep moving. Cause that's
• 33:25
  just the fucked up way the world works. Yeah.
• 33:28
  It's pretty messed up if you really think about
• 33:30
  it. Because he's like, yeah, he gets away with
• 33:32
  stealing drugs, and y 'all have the nerve to
• 33:34
  reprimand me to talk about what I'm doing? Because
• 33:37
  I got bad bedside matter. This man is a drug
• 33:39
  addict. Are you crazy? And he was stealing. So
• 33:42
  being a drug addict is one thing, right? Once
• 33:44
  you're an addict, I firmly believe that is a
• 33:47
  disease. You have to get treatment for that.
• 33:49
  It's a hard thing to kick, and I don't wish that
• 33:52
  on anybody. But you chose to steal. You chose
• 33:54
  to steal. And you chose to steal on the job,
• 33:57
  you know? Like, so those two things, I'm like,
• 33:59
  all right, cool. That's great. I'm happy for
• 34:01
  you. But now you're my boss and you're trying
• 34:03
  to tell me to get it together. It's wild that
• 34:05
  you could get away with that white man and now
• 34:06
  you get to come back like nothing is wrong. And
• 34:08
  the only two people who seem remotely annoyed
• 34:10
  at Langdon are Santos and Dr. Robbie. And Dr.
• 34:14
  Robbie probably just feels annoyed at him because
• 34:16
  that was his golden boy. You know, that was his
• 34:18
  next step. But Santos is like, nah, I would be...
• 34:22
  In her mind, I'm being picked on by him that
• 34:24
  entire first season, only to find out that he's
• 34:27
  still in drugs and y 'all all take his side,
• 34:29
  basically. That's how she's reading it. I don't
• 34:31
  know if that's necessarily accurate, but I couldn't
• 34:33
  even imagine how it feels to be in that situation
• 34:35
  where you're like... Here he go, coming back
• 34:37
  in everybody's good graces. And now I gotta be
• 34:39
  quiet and hide the fact that I hate this guy
• 34:42
  because everybody's so sympathetic to him, like
• 34:44
  he wasn't stealing drugs. Yeah, right. How did
• 34:47
  you feel about... Because I think the recent
• 34:50
  episode was the ICE episode. This was where ICE
• 34:54
  agents came in with a woman who, you know, got
• 34:58
  injured, like her shoulder, everything. And I
• 35:00
  believe it's strongly implied that the ICE agents
• 35:02
  did that to her. She's a woman... of color, I
• 35:06
  believe she's Hispanic, maybe the English is
• 35:08
  a little murky. And the ICE agents are scaring
• 35:14
  away patients in the hospital who may be illegal,
• 35:18
  undocumented, whatever you want to call it. How
• 35:21
  did you feel they handled that episode? Do you
• 35:23
  think it was, I mean, it's obviously a very timely
• 35:25
  episode given what's happening in the real world.
• 35:29
  But do you think it was handled well? Do you
• 35:31
  think they shouldn't have not touched it at all
• 35:33
  because it just - hits a little too close to
• 35:36
  home? What are your thoughts? I think the pit
• 35:39
  has a point of view. And it has never not, right?
• 35:42
  It's always been a show that is going to kind
• 35:45
  of look at you through the camera lens and try
• 35:47
  to teach you something. In season one, we saw
• 35:49
  some of that in different moments where, like,
• 35:52
  when they were bringing in the social work and
• 35:54
  then all of a sudden, they're just kind of doing,
• 35:55
  like, almost like a PSA in the middle of the
• 35:56
  episode about these different services that they
• 35:58
  have. You're like, oh, okay, like, I'm learning,
• 36:00
  I'm learning so much. Even when they talk about
• 36:03
  the alcoholism and things in this season, it's
• 36:06
  handled in a way where it's like, you can scoff
• 36:08
  at it from one... One person can scoff at it,
• 36:10
  but everybody else is going to tell you why it's
• 36:12
  wrong. So the pit is always a little preachy.
• 36:15
  If I had one criticism of it, it is a little
• 36:17
  preachy. But I like that it is, because some
• 36:21
  of these conversations need to be had. And I
• 36:22
  think that the conversation about ICE is so important.
• 36:25
  I think a lot of people diminish what that conversation
• 36:28
  is because either they don't know anybody affected
• 36:31
  or they're not able to see the humanity in people
• 36:33
  or see the ripple effect of how this happens
• 36:35
  to one person, but then it like changes the trajectory
• 36:38
  of everybody else's lives. So they're coming
• 36:40
  in this hospital because... They have this woman,
• 36:44
  like you said, they may or may not have caused
• 36:47
  her energy, I mean, her injury. They're not handling
• 36:49
  it as if she is injured either, right? They're
• 36:52
  treating her like she is a criminal, which maybe
• 36:54
  she is. Maybe she did something, who knows? But
• 36:56
  from the moment they walk in there, it changes
• 36:58
  the entire environment of the hospital, which
• 37:01
  is already stressful, already very fast -paced,
• 37:03
  tensions are high, and you have people who are
• 37:07
  now... avoiding care because they don't want
• 37:10
  to be, they don't want to get in trouble. They
• 37:12
  don't want to be, you know, maybe taken by eyes.
• 37:15
  They don't want to be questioned by eyes. They
• 37:17
  might not even be undocumented or illegal. They
• 37:20
  might know somebody who is. They might be related
• 37:23
  to somebody who is. As a Texan, I know, I've
• 37:26
  seen it. I've seen it where you see somebody
• 37:29
  every day and then one day they tell you your
• 37:31
  business is gone. Their business is gone. You
• 37:33
  say, why? Oh, they got deported. You're like,
• 37:34
  what? And then your first thought is in, oh my
• 37:37
  God. Now, what am I going to do about this missing
• 37:39
  business that used to be here that I enjoyed?
• 37:41
  Your first thought is, oh, my God, they deported
• 37:43
  him, but who's going to take care of the family?
• 37:46
  So we have nurses leaving because of the ICE
• 37:49
  people being there, because they don't want to
• 37:51
  be questioned, or maybe they have, or maybe they're
• 37:54
  just afraid of the things that they've heard
• 37:56
  ICE has been doing to people. And so the pit
• 37:59
  takes a moment and really stops down on how disruptive...
• 38:03
  people in that uniform with that level of power
• 38:06
  and intimidation can be just from walking in.
• 38:09
  We saw the same thing, honestly, with the cops,
• 38:11
  too, in the pit this season, right? I think it
• 38:13
  was earlier where the young guy, he got in trouble
• 38:17
  at school or something like that, and the cop
• 38:18
  was like, all right, I'll just wait for y 'all
• 38:20
  to work on him so I can take him to jail. And
• 38:23
  they were very annoyed that their level of authority
• 38:25
  was trying to supersede the care of the people
• 38:28
  inside of this emergency room. And it's annoying.
• 38:32
  That's really what's going on, right? Imagine
• 38:34
  how teachers feel, right, when ISIS now, oh,
• 38:37
  we're gonna knock on the door of the school.
• 38:39
  Well, now you got kids who are afraid, you got
• 38:42
  teachers who are afraid, you got staff that's
• 38:43
  afraid, and they can't even just do their job
• 38:46
  on a baseline level because people who may or
• 38:48
  may not be a harm to people are now being hunted,
• 38:51
  essentially. So, yeah, I like that the pit stopped
• 38:54
  down on it because that's what the pit does.
• 38:56
  It would be unlike the pit to ignore something
• 38:58
  like that. Right. So... I don't know. Maybe Dr.
• 39:01
  Robbie will leave for his, like he really wants
• 39:05
  to leave for his sabbatical, but like the friends
• 39:09
  that he's supposed to go with, he wants to check
• 39:11
  him up and it looks like the friend has some
• 39:13
  kind of, it could be something cancerous. It
• 39:15
  could be something serious. And it looks like
• 39:18
  it's going to be a couple hours or so to take
• 39:21
  a look at it. You could tell Dr. Robbie is like,
• 39:24
  okay, I might have to stay longer and we may
• 39:26
  have to delay the sabbatical a little bit. Let's
• 39:28
  just say Dr. Robbie does go on as sabbatical.
• 39:32
  Can you imagine a few episodes with Dr. Al Hashimi
• 39:36
  taking the place of Dr. Robbie in terms of like
• 39:40
  carrying the show? I like her. I think she's
• 39:43
  great. I mean, she's definitely played, she's
• 39:46
  played a great valuable number two in attending
• 39:49
  junior or whatever you want to call it. Would
• 39:53
  you like to see Dr. Al Hashimi up front and center?
• 39:55
  Say if they don't have Dr. Robbie for a few episodes?
• 39:59
  I think as a doctor, she's probably like great.
• 40:01
  But I don't think as a character, she can carry
• 40:03
  the show the same way Dr. Robbie can. I think
• 40:05
  that we've just grown accustomed to the way he
• 40:07
  works a room. Dr. Ahashimi, she has a different
• 40:10
  tactic. She has a different style. Obviously,
• 40:12
  she's leaning into more of the technology, some
• 40:14
  of the AI stuff that she's talking about. To
• 40:17
  me, the show is kind of waffling on where they're
• 40:20
  going to land on this technology, because they
• 40:23
  make a conscious effort of taking technology
• 40:25
  out of it. You know, they have this cyber attack.
• 40:27
  So now we're doing everything by hand. We're
• 40:29
  showing the old... way to do things. Everybody's
• 40:32
  writing on clipboards and things of that nature.
• 40:33
  It's like, oh my god, the Dark Ages. And that's
• 40:36
  the value that people like Dr. Robbie have, is
• 40:38
  that they were in the trenches with that stuff.
• 40:40
  Whereas Dr. Al -Hashimi, she feels like, she's
• 40:42
  almost like, oh no, we can move away from that
• 40:44
  stuff. So it does feel like the pit is leaning
• 40:46
  a little more on the strengths that Dr. Robbie
• 40:50
  has as a doctor and as somebody who has used
• 40:52
  those kind of... a more outdated means of care.
• 40:58
  She's knowledgeable about it as well, but it
• 41:00
  seems like her lane was like, okay, if all things
• 41:03
  are working as they should, she would rather
• 41:06
  use some of the technology. So I don't know if
• 41:07
  she can, I don't know if she can carry the last
• 41:11
  couple hours of the shift. The pit being one
• 41:14
  of those shows that you're watching in every
• 41:16
  hour is a different episode. It is very frustrating
• 41:19
  because you can't imagine what happens when someone
• 41:22
  says, okay, I'm leaving. Because you don't know
• 41:24
  when the next time you're going to see them.
• 41:25
  We saw that with... the Black Doctor from season
• 41:28
  one. I can't think of her name right now with
• 41:29
  the short hair. She left. She's like, oh, I need
• 41:33
  to go home. Cool. And she missed the last three
• 41:36
  episodes of the season, and then she doesn't
• 41:38
  come back for season two. She essentially got
• 41:39
  killed off the show mid -season, and we didn't
• 41:41
  even know it, because she just was going home
• 41:43
  for her shift, right? So Dr. Robbie leaves now.
• 41:46
  When is the next time we're going to see Dr.
• 41:47
  Robbie? I'm sure the pit is coming back for season
• 41:49
  three, but when is that going to be? And so I
• 41:51
  don't know if they can do that. Noah Wiley is
• 41:53
  just really, he's really great in that role.
• 41:55
  I think he's... really wearing it in a way that
• 41:57
  people are latching on to. I just know he's going
• 42:01
  to get a stack of rewards or something like that
• 42:04
  once the awards season comes around. So, no,
• 42:06
  I don't think they're going to leave it in the
• 42:08
  hands of Al Hashimi just for the reason that
• 42:10
  Dr. Robbie just has so much star power. Yeah,
• 42:12
  yeah, yeah. And The Pit won plenty of awards
• 42:15
  for season one, so I wouldn't be surprised if
• 42:17
  season two is the same thing. Yeah, that doctor
• 42:20
  that you speak of that left after season one,
• 42:22
  I know in real life, I mean... Way before season
• 42:26
  two even came out, there was a story that came
• 42:28
  out that the actress would be leaving the show.
• 42:31
  And there was some rumor that she was involved
• 42:33
  in some kind of religious cult thing. Yeah, Dr.
• 42:37
  Collins, that's who it was. Right, Dr. Collins,
• 42:40
  yeah. Some religious cult thing that maybe conflicts
• 42:43
  with the work that she was doing in the pit.
• 42:45
  Something of that nature. And I think she disputed
• 42:48
  it, but... You know, I think in the season one
• 42:52
  finale, it was, well, not implied, but I think
• 42:54
  it was kind of implied throughout the season
• 42:55
  that her and Dr. Robbie, they had a romantic
• 42:58
  thing. And I think, didn't she have his baby?
• 43:00
  Like, wasn't she pregnant with his baby? Or had
• 43:02
  an abortion? She was pregnant with a baby. But
• 43:03
  yeah, but she lost her baby throughout the season.
• 43:06
  Now, it wasn't his, from what we can tell. She
• 43:08
  said it wasn't his, but at the same time, like,
• 43:11
  that's the tension that I thought we were getting
• 43:12
  in season one too, right? It was like, Dr. Robbie
• 43:14
  is looking at her almost like, that could be
• 43:16
  my baby, even though she's saying it's not. He's
• 43:18
  kind of still feels some type of connection to
• 43:19
  her. There was obviously something romantic there,
• 43:21
  but this lady is... She's like, had a miscarriage
• 43:24
  at work, uh, and then tried to continue working.
• 43:27
  Lady, go home. Right? Like, you need to go home
• 43:29
  and take care of yourself. Doctors, they say
• 43:31
  that doctors are the worst patients, but when
• 43:32
  I saw this woman have a miscarriage at work and
• 43:34
  then try to continue working, I was thinking,
• 43:36
  yeah, these people, doctors are nuts. Go home.
• 43:38
  The problem with going home on the pit, though,
• 43:40
  is that that ends your life on the show. Unless
• 43:42
  you plan on coming back three episodes later,
• 43:44
  which is really three hours later... and probably
• 43:47
  unrealistic for this show, then that's the last
• 43:49
  time we're gonna see you. Once the night shift
• 43:51
  comes in, there's gonna be people we don't see
• 43:52
  anymore, you know, depending on who stays for
• 43:55
  that shift or who goes. So, yeah, I definitely
• 43:58
  felt like that tension was there, but with her
• 44:01
  leaving the show, they weren't able to ride on
• 44:03
  it. And now, I don't know, there's a lot of the
• 44:05
  romantic tensions throughout that hospital right
• 44:08
  now. None really for Dr. Robin. There was another...
• 44:13
  Brown skin woman that dr. Robbie apparently has
• 44:16
  a little something with in this season. Yeah.
• 44:18
  Yeah. Yeah Yeah, she was like a wasn't she like
• 44:23
  a social worker sort of figure in the hospital
• 44:25
  and She she hasn't appeared lately, but I remember
• 44:28
  what you're talking about And I know one of the
• 44:33
  other doctors and I think she's the single mom
• 44:36
  like she is a recovering substance abuse addict
• 44:40
  And she had a moment where two patients at the
• 44:43
  same time were romantically interested in her.
• 44:46
  So that was nice. I forget what the doctor's
• 44:49
  name was. Dr. McKay. And yeah, it was Dr. McKay.
• 44:52
  And I love Dr. McKay. But yeah, there's a few.
• 44:54
  I think that random moment, Dr. Abbott is in
• 44:58
  there and he's taking off his shirt. He just
• 45:00
  got shot. Dr. Abbott got shot. It came to work.
• 45:03
  He's taking off his shirt. And Dr. Mohan's like,
• 45:04
  what's happening? That scene is so funny, because
• 45:11
  you see Dr. Robbie in the background kind of
• 45:13
  walk by and double back and look. Yep, yep, yep,
• 45:16
  yep. So yeah, they're setting the tone for these
• 45:19
  office romances. But unlike Grey's Anatomy, we're
• 45:22
  never following these people home. We get the
• 45:24
  shift and then that's it. So I don't know if
• 45:27
  between this season and next season, we see a
• 45:29
  fallout from some of those office romances. We
• 45:31
  saw that with Santos, the doctor that she has
• 45:35
  had a relationship with apparently who's next.
• 45:38
  Or the surgeon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's escaping
• 45:41
  me right now to come to me. But yeah, that doctor,
• 45:44
  they clearly have some tension from when they
• 45:47
  did whatever they were doing, you know? And so
• 45:49
  we come back and we kind of, oh, Dr. Garcia,
• 45:52
  we come back and we kind of address what it was,
• 45:55
  but we don't see the romance in real time because
• 45:57
  they're at work. Unlike Grey's Anatomy where
• 45:59
  we would see it. in the on -call room. Right,
• 46:01
  right, right. Yeah, and my wife, she's, I think,
• 46:03
  still caught up on Grey's Anatomy, and she...
• 46:05
  You gotta stay up on it, man. You can't get too
• 46:08
  far behind. Oh, God. I stopped watching Grey's
• 46:11
  Anatomy, like, years ago. I think after season
• 46:14
  four or five. Ooh. You've missed so much. Oh,
• 46:17
  my God. I have. What? No, I just... And I'm not
• 46:20
  the only one. I mean, the show's been on so goddamn
• 46:22
  long. It's been, like, on for 20 -plus seasons.
• 46:25
  It's fair. Fair. It is not even always good,
• 46:28
  but you gotta keep an eye on it. You can't let
• 46:29
  it get too far away from you. All right. God,
• 46:32
  I think the last time I watched maybe it was
• 46:33
  like the early 2010s. And I think even then I
• 46:37
  was still kind of behind. I think the last thing
• 46:40
  I remember, and I own one of the DVD sets. My
• 46:42
  mom should still have it back at home in Connecticut
• 46:45
  where I'm originally from. I think Lexi, Meredith's
• 46:49
  sister, Lexi died. Why you have to say it like
• 46:54
  that? Yeah, it happened. It happened. So, you
• 46:57
  know, Eric Dane passed recently. And when that
• 46:59
  happened, it almost motivated me to start grazing
• 47:03
  out of me from the beginning. I almost was like,
• 47:05
  I just need that old feeling. I just need that
• 47:06
  old feeling back. I need that fix. But I was
• 47:09
  able to fight the urge. But I thought about it.
• 47:12
  Not gonna lie to you. I thought about it. Yeah,
• 47:13
  McSteamy, RIP McSteamy. But shockingly, as intelligent
• 47:18
  as my wife is, when I asked her like, oh, what
• 47:21
  do you like? Do you like the vibe of the Grey's
• 47:23
  Anatomy or the pit? She actually likes the vibe
• 47:25
  of a Grey's Anatomy a lot more. And I think that
• 47:28
  maybe because, I mean, she's in the medical field,
• 47:30
  sort of. She's a veterinary technician. So she
• 47:33
  does like the pit. Like she's still into all
• 47:35
  the doctory, medical term, whatever stuff. I
• 47:38
  mean, she's used to that from Grey's Anatomy.
• 47:40
  But, you know, the so -called romance, filth,
• 47:45
  soap opera stuff. That is more her speed rather
• 47:49
  than like, you know, we're just going to get
• 47:52
  technical and scientific. Yeah, again, not to
• 47:55
  say that she doesn't like the pit. It's just
• 47:56
  that, you know, if she had to choose between
• 47:58
  Grey's Anatomy and the pit, she would choose
• 47:59
  Grey's Anatomy. And I get that. I get that. I
• 48:01
  mean, you like to see the humanity in people
• 48:03
  and what they're up to outside of their workplace.
• 48:06
  So, yeah, I get that. I get that. Nothing wrong
• 48:08
  with having a little taste of mess just to keep
• 48:11
  your day going. That's why I said I wanted to
• 48:12
  start at the, I wasn't like, oh, I want to watch
• 48:14
  Grey's Anatomy currently. I wanted to go back
• 48:17
  and experience those highs and lows of just the
• 48:20
  emotional connection that you have with these
• 48:21
  people as they do ridiculous things that should
• 48:24
  be illegal or impossible in a hospital. Uh, and
• 48:27
  so yeah, I totally get it. I definitely have
• 48:29
  a, like a slew of shows I watch just for the
• 48:32
  drama of it. It doesn't have to make sense. It
• 48:34
  doesn't have to be a good show necessarily. It
• 48:36
  just has to be a show that I enjoy going on that
• 48:38
  roller coaster ride for and Grey's Anatomy is
• 48:40
  probably at the top of that list. Right, right.
• 48:44
  Um, let's go to the last question. What is the
• 48:46
  delicious thing that's happened in your life
• 48:48
  lately? Mm, delicious is a strong word for what
• 48:51
  I'm about to talk about. I just got a job. Hey,
• 48:53
  however you define it, any positive thing that
• 48:56
  happened in your life lately. I just got a job.
• 49:00
  And... Right. Right, right, right. Like, right,
• 49:02
  right, right. I got a job, right? That's a good
• 49:05
  thing. You sound mixed about that. What's the
• 49:07
  job? I mean, is working not the most ghetto thing
• 49:10
  in the world, right? You know, I am thankful
• 49:15
  for the opportunity to have gainful employment.
• 49:19
  But I also can acknowledge that I was not placed
• 49:22
  here on this earth to work. There is no, to me,
• 49:25
  there is no such thing as a dream job. I don't
• 49:26
  dream of labor. I need to eat. And so I have
• 49:30
  to work so that I can eat. then I can go do things.
• 49:32
  Work is a necessary evil for the rest of those
• 49:34
  things. Um, so I am blessed and happy that I
• 49:37
  do have employment now, but I spent two years
• 49:40
  almost as like a full -time content creator.
• 49:42
  I was just kinda like, like almost like a freelance
• 49:44
  journalist, uh, basically just talking about
• 49:46
  TV and all this other stuff. For two years, I
• 49:48
  was on contract. The contract ended and I was
• 49:51
  like, oh, well now what do I do? I have to find
• 49:53
  another contract, another company to work for,
• 49:55
  another, you know, place to work for. Or I need
• 49:57
  to go back to my natural habitat, which is the
• 50:00
  most ghetto industry there is, education. And
• 50:03
  so I was like, oh, I don't want to do that. Two
• 50:05
  years away from the schools, away from the politics
• 50:08
  of the schools, away from the parents, away from
• 50:10
  the kids, all that kind of stuff, it felt so
• 50:12
  good. And I just could not bring myself to go
• 50:14
  back. And so I ended up getting a job working
• 50:18
  remotely for a company that does education. And
• 50:22
  it's a whole thing. And I am happy that I'm getting
• 50:25
  a paycheck. soon, but am I happy to be working?
• 50:30
  I have to work to get the paycheck. You know
• 50:31
  what I'm saying? So, it is delicious in that
• 50:34
  I am being fed. Like, I can go afford my ribs
• 50:37
  and my brisket now because of this, but if I
• 50:40
  could just live off of selling coconuts on the
• 50:42
  beach and live it, like, I am talking about television,
• 50:45
  I would do that in a heartbeat. I don't think,
• 50:48
  like, the blue collar lifestyle is for me. I
• 50:51
  don't think the white collar lifestyle is for
• 50:53
  me. I just, I don't need a collar. Who needs
• 50:54
  collars? Collars are overrated. I can't remember
• 50:58
  the last time I wore a collar actually. It's
• 50:59
  not fun. It's too formal. Especially living here
• 51:04
  in Vermont for as long as I have. Between Vermont
• 51:07
  and my time in Iowa, ever since I got into the
• 51:10
  rural lifestyle, it's so few and far between
• 51:14
  me actually dressing up in a collar and a suit.
• 51:18
  Because when I used to be in Connecticut and
• 51:21
  maybe in some sense, upstate New York and Philly,
• 51:25
  those places, yeah, you could probably see me
• 51:27
  in a suit once or twice a year. year at like
• 51:30
  a wedding, but like even weddings here in Vermont,
• 51:32
  people are still showing up in shirts and jeans
• 51:35
  and whatever. So it's, it's super casual. And
• 51:38
  the great thing about creating content is we
• 51:40
  could be super casual like this. I'm wearing
• 51:42
  a hoodie. You're wearing a shirt. We're in front
• 51:44
  of our microphones in our offices. Like it's
• 51:47
  just, uh, there, there's not that much need to
• 51:51
  dress up in collars these days. And that, and
• 51:53
  that feels beautiful. It felt great while I had
• 51:55
  it. Right. And now, so now I'm kind of like,
• 51:57
  if it's a remote, do I Do I have to wear a collar?
• 51:59
  You know, so I'm trying to find a space where
• 52:02
  it feels okay to go back to doing that thing,
• 52:05
  because I think for a while I thought I got out,
• 52:06
  right? Like, it's like, you found a thing that
• 52:08
  you can do that's not that. And it's like, oh,
• 52:11
  content creation, talking about TV and music.
• 52:15
  As you can see, I could just do this all day.
• 52:16
  It's kind of my thing. But... It felt like, OK,
• 52:19
  this might be my forever job, right? Like, this
• 52:22
  might be the career. But then I started thinking
• 52:24
  about what that looks like and what kind of moves.
• 52:26
  And like I said, I'm in the middle of Texas.
• 52:27
  So it's not like I'm in some booming industry
• 52:29
  for television, radio and movies. I'm just kind
• 52:33
  of like you, kind of like in a rural area. And
• 52:35
  so I'm like, all right, well, how do I turn this
• 52:37
  into something? Well, I ran out of time to figure
• 52:39
  that out. And so I had to go back and get a job
• 52:41
  until I can get back to the drawing board. And
• 52:44
  so I've now been working at my current job for
• 52:47
  about... month and I've been like I said patiently
• 52:50
  waiting not so patiently waiting for that paycheck
• 52:52
  I don't know where I'm gonna blow it all that
• 52:54
  but I'm definitely gonna go get some ribs but
• 52:57
  I just I need to yeah I needed to get a job and
• 53:01
  really explore in those, in that time where I
• 53:03
  didn't have a job, like, if this job was gonna
• 53:05
  be my identity. I think as an educator, you kind
• 53:07
  of feel like I am a teacher, right? Like, it
• 53:09
  is my duty to teach the kids and to mold the
• 53:13
  minds of the future and to take the brunt of
• 53:16
  all of the beat downs that teachers take and
• 53:18
  the lower salary and all that kind of stuff because
• 53:21
  you're doing noble work, right? Because in the
• 53:23
  end, God's gonna bless you, right? These kids
• 53:26
  are gonna thank you. They're gonna look back
• 53:28
  and they're gonna know that it was their third
• 53:30
  grade. that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
• 53:32
  is all BS. That stuff feel good short term, but
• 53:35
  what really gonna happen is these kids gonna
• 53:37
  get famous and they gonna get on the red carpet
• 53:38
  and tell everybody how they teachers didn't believe
• 53:39
  in them because they wasn't coming to class and
• 53:41
  they were skipping, they weren't doing their
• 53:42
  homework and all that kind of stuff. You're like,
• 53:44
  I did believe in you. They're gonna go make a
• 53:46
  bunch of money and then they're gonna buy cars
• 53:48
  and houses and they're gonna add you on Facebook
• 53:49
  and they're gonna say, hey. Hey, Mr. Chappelle,
• 53:52
  look at what I'm doing. What are you doing?"
• 53:53
  And you're like, still teaching third grade,
• 53:55
  you know? So, all that to say, yeah, it is delicious
• 53:59
  that I have found something that does not require
• 54:01
  me to feel that way. But I don't know, like I
• 54:05
  said, it's almost like a bittersweet. Like, it's
• 54:07
  delicious, but there's a little bit of an aftertaste
• 54:09
  that says, are you really back in the hood? You
• 54:10
  really back doing the ghetto? You back? Okay,
• 54:13
  I guess. That's what you want. Yeah. Can you
• 54:16
  tell me more about, like... What you did in your
• 54:19
  two year contract full -time content creator
• 54:22
  era like exactly. What did you do? How did you
• 54:25
  get the contract in the first place? Tell me
• 54:26
  tell me the genesis of all that Um, so I currently
• 54:30
  still work for that company. That's just not
• 54:32
  a full time contract. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah.
• 54:35
  So I will be promoting them so that people can
• 54:37
  come over here and listen to it. And they honestly
• 54:39
  probably have never heard me talk about that
• 54:41
  job like this because that is that job, right?
• 54:43
  Um, but I went to work for a podcast network
• 54:46
  called, uh, it's now rebranded as we know reality
• 54:50
  TV .com, but, uh, it was originally Rob has a
• 54:53
  podcast .com and that website, uh, slash podcast
• 54:57
  company. They really specialize in talking about
• 55:00
  reality TV. And I can talk about reality TV with
• 55:04
  the best of them. Like, me and you talking about
• 55:05
  the pit, that's one of my, like, levels of, like,
• 55:08
  I know the pit. But reality TV trash, like trash
• 55:12
  reality TV, it gets my blood flowing, okay? I'm
• 55:15
  talking about the olden days where the things
• 55:17
  that scrub from the internet, that reality TV,
• 55:20
  that's what raised me. Because my mom would just
• 55:22
  be like, hey, go watch TV. I'm like, haha, I
• 55:24
  know what I'm gonna do. And so I grew up watching
• 55:27
  a lot of reality TV, a lot of just TV that doesn't,
• 55:30
  like, it's not gonna further your ambitions or
• 55:33
  goals or anything in life. It's just fun. It's
• 55:35
  fun television, it's drama, it's, um... It's
• 55:39
  competition, but I like that kind of stuff and
• 55:41
  so I listened I would found a podcast network
• 55:43
  that talked about it and I went in I would listen
• 55:45
  to that podcast network almost like religiously
• 55:47
  like I'm talking about I watch an episode of
• 55:49
  a show they talk about the show I listen to them
• 55:51
  talk about it and it was like my routine for
• 55:52
  years and years and years and then They were
• 55:55
  they started to look for they started to look
• 55:57
  to diversify their Their their staff, right?
• 56:02
  This is around the 2020 right when everybody
• 56:05
  was diversifying because you know Black lives
• 56:07
  mattered back then, you know, they stayed I don't
• 56:09
  know how people feel right now about black lives,
• 56:11
  but back then For that time it felt like people
• 56:16
  were like no we need to we need to do better
• 56:18
  We need to make sure that we have representation
• 56:21
  for people of minorities and different sexualities
• 56:24
  and genders and all that good stuff and it felt
• 56:26
  like this is the time to do that and The company
• 56:28
  I ended up going to work for they basically were
• 56:30
  like we are trying to look for diverse voices
• 56:32
  to be on our podcast me a teacher at the time
• 56:35
  was like Okay, what's the worst that can happen?
• 56:37
  Like, if anything, I've been listening to this
• 56:39
  podcast for a long time. It'll give me a chance
• 56:41
  to talk to them. So, and that'll be cool. I can
• 56:43
  mark that off my bucket list. You know, it's
• 56:45
  almost like calling into your favorite radio
• 56:46
  station. I never wanted to do it, but I was like,
• 56:49
  oh, this will be fine. I can audition. What's
• 56:51
  the worst that can happen? Well, the best that
• 56:52
  can happen kind of happened. I ended up getting
• 56:54
  hired, and me amongst some other people as well.
• 56:57
  It wasn't just like I wasn't like tokenized,
• 56:59
  but we really did like get hired on to talk about
• 57:03
  shows in different ways, right? Because Black...
• 57:05
  and white people don't watch shows the same way.
• 57:07
  Same thing with Latino people. They don't watch
• 57:09
  shows the same way. They see different things.
• 57:11
  There's part of their cultures that they're able
• 57:13
  to identify that maybe we can't see, but it's
• 57:16
  painfully obvious to them. We also started talking
• 57:18
  about more diverse shows and there was like just
• 57:21
  an array of coverage for these things. And basically
• 57:24
  I did that while teaching for a couple years
• 57:27
  before I was already full -time contract for
• 57:29
  two years. And so the two -year contract has
• 57:32
  now... the time is run up on the two -year contract.
• 57:34
  In that time, I've started my own podcast, Recap
• 57:37
  Kickback, and so I was doing that while also
• 57:40
  working for that network. So currently, I teach
• 57:42
  and I do that podcasting part -time where we
• 57:45
  talk about reality TV. And then I also have my
• 57:48
  podcast where I talk about everything I want
• 57:49
  to talk about. Yeah, and you talk about, I mean,
• 57:52
  my god, I think we kind of teased it at the top
• 57:54
  of the... Episode here, but everything from like
• 57:58
  going back to you liking, you know reality shows
• 58:00
  from back in the day I saw that you've recapped
• 58:02
  like flavor Flav and I love New York and now
• 58:05
  if correct me if I'm wrong New York was a part
• 58:08
  of the flavor Flav universe, right? Yeah I've
• 58:12
  seen you recap Bel Air you recap the recent Oscars
• 58:17
  Um, and speaking as someone who like, I had like
• 58:21
  a two year era of this podcast called the delicious
• 58:23
  recap, where I and a former cohost, we recapped
• 58:27
  just the 90 sitcom family matters. Um, how. Do
• 58:33
  you do it like recapping like five, six, seven
• 58:37
  different shows all at the same time? I don't
• 58:39
  even know if I have the time. I don't, I have
• 58:42
  a hard time trying to find two or three shows
• 58:45
  that to have time to watch. So how do you, how
• 58:49
  do you balance all that? How do you not get overwhelmed
• 58:53
  and confused by once you're over the, like, how
• 58:55
  do you do that? I'm just a TV guy, I guess. This
• 59:00
  is kind of my thing. I guess I'm a bit of just
• 59:05
  like a jack of all trades when it comes to TV
• 59:07
  as well. Like I watch a little bit of everything.
• 59:10
  So when I started podcasting for that network,
• 59:12
  I was just brought in. I didn't have a specialty.
• 59:14
  It was just like, if we need a guy, he's the
• 59:16
  guy, right? And I can come in and I can be a
• 59:18
  clown and hopefully I can tell a story in a compelling
• 59:21
  way that keeps you listening, you know, if you
• 59:23
  made it this far into the podcast and maybe you
• 59:25
  still are a little bit entertained by me. But...
• 59:27
  that was kind of my thing. And so they would
• 59:29
  just kind of pass me around from thing to thing.
• 59:31
  And so it kind of, it made me be able to have
• 59:34
  the capacity to talk about multiple shows at
• 59:36
  once, right? Whereas like, oh, I might not have
• 59:38
  been watching it closely enough to talk about
• 59:39
  it, but now that I know I have to talk about
• 59:41
  it, I'm going to really dig in. And I just kind
• 59:44
  of cut my teeth since 2020 on like approaching
• 59:47
  shows like that. There are shows that I watch
• 59:48
  for fun and there are shows that I watch because
• 59:50
  I know I'm going to have to talk about them.
• 59:52
  Over there. with the reality TV stuff, it's easy
• 59:54
  to talk about it. To me, those shows are, they
• 59:58
  come second nature to me, like Survivor, Big
• 1:00:00
  Brother. Those shows are my bread and butter.
• 1:00:03
  I can do that. If someone called me today and
• 1:00:05
  said, we need to talk about Big Brother, I don't
• 1:00:06
  have to watch another episode. Like, I don't
• 1:00:08
  need to brush up on it. I don't have to recap
• 1:00:09
  anything in my head. Like, I could just, you
• 1:00:11
  say, Big Brother, let's talk. You say, Survivor,
• 1:00:13
  let's talk. So that's easy. Then I go to focus
• 1:00:16
  on things that are not so easy, right? The scripted
• 1:00:18
  stuff. Bel -Air was a fun journey. We covered
• 1:00:21
  every season of Bel -Air. I've interviewed the
• 1:00:24
  showrunners for Bel -Air. I interviewed the second
• 1:00:26
  set of showrunners for Bel -Air as well, because
• 1:00:27
  they changed showrunners, I think, twice over
• 1:00:29
  the time. So I did two of that. I've done, we've
• 1:00:33
  done House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones, a
• 1:00:35
  lot of scripted television as well. But I think
• 1:00:37
  just knowing that I do have my comfort shows
• 1:00:39
  of Survivor, Big Brother, the reality TV junk,
• 1:00:42
  like that kind of stuff is like almost a decomp
• 1:00:45
  - for when I have to talk about the more serious
• 1:00:46
  things. Yeah, um, and I know what you mean, because,
• 1:00:50
  like, I would imagine that, and I'm just kind
• 1:00:52
  of going off of, like, when, um... I and the
• 1:00:56
  former co -host, we recapped love is blind season
• 1:01:00
  nine, not too long ago. And it's so much more
• 1:01:05
  easy to recap reality, that reality show and
• 1:01:09
  its contestants, because it's like, Oh, like,
• 1:01:11
  what do you think about the relationship? What
• 1:01:14
  do you think about like these more simplistic
• 1:01:16
  highlighted moments? Like, Oh, this person has
• 1:01:19
  this characteristic that you may not like, and
• 1:01:21
  Oh, they're feeling tension in their relationship
• 1:01:23
  because of this. as with a scripted show like
• 1:01:26
  A Family Matters that we used to recap. Uh, I,
• 1:01:29
  I mean, it's a 22, these are 22 minute episodes,
• 1:01:33
  but I must've spent like three to five hours
• 1:01:35
  taking notes on each episode because you know,
• 1:01:38
  you're, you're, you're breaking down each moment,
• 1:01:41
  moment by moment in each scene. Like, oh, this
• 1:01:44
  person has this costume. This person made this
• 1:01:46
  character choice. This person had this funny
• 1:01:48
  line. Like it's so much more dissective and broken
• 1:01:51
  down recapping a scripted series versus a reality
• 1:01:54
  series. So I totally get what you mean. It's,
• 1:01:56
  uh, and. And you obviously can sustain it well.
• 1:02:01
  I couldn't, I don't think I had to stop the Family
• 1:02:04
  Matters recaps after two years. It just wasn't
• 1:02:06
  sustainable. So good for you, man. Well, you've
• 1:02:08
  been off so much. You've been off so much, though.
• 1:02:10
  Family Matters, 22 episode seasons are crazy,
• 1:02:12
  right? Like, that used to be the norm. But as
• 1:02:15
  much as I can sit here and talk about how much
• 1:02:17
  I love Grey's Anatomy, you could not pay me.
• 1:02:18
  Literally, you could not pay me to cover every
• 1:02:20
  season of Grey's Anatomy. It's 22 episodes a
• 1:02:22
  season for... Up to 20 years. Yeah, 20 years,
• 1:02:26
  right? A season or so, a year. So we're looking
• 1:02:29
  at hundreds of episodes. These are years of your
• 1:02:31
  life that you're dedicating now to talk about
• 1:02:33
  a 22 -minute show with Family Matters, you know
• 1:02:37
  what I'm saying? For us, I try to keep it to
• 1:02:39
  something. First of all, I don't like no long
• 1:02:40
  podcasts. As much as I love talking, I have so
• 1:02:43
  many to do that I'm like an hour, an hour and
• 1:02:45
  a half, you know, that's kind of the sweet spot
• 1:02:47
  for me. I've seen some creators, they're able
• 1:02:50
  to go on and talk about a show for 15 minutes.
• 1:02:51
  To me, I just can't, I can't seek my... my teeth
• 1:02:53
  into it for a 15 minute video. I'm working on
• 1:02:55
  it. I'm working on it. Because the views be there
• 1:02:56
  for other people, right? I need to figure out
• 1:02:58
  what they're doing because I need it. And that
• 1:02:59
  would save me a lot of time. But no, you find
• 1:03:02
  a co -host that is passionate about it. And then
• 1:03:04
  you make your expectations reasonable. You know,
• 1:03:06
  me asking somebody, like, right now we cover
• 1:03:08
  Abbott Elementary. I think that's the show that
• 1:03:09
  I talk about with the most episodes. But even
• 1:03:12
  then, we only do it every other week. We don't
• 1:03:14
  do it every week, right? We give ourselves a
• 1:03:16
  break from Abbott. So yeah, it's not the... with
• 1:03:19
  it coming out, it dropping basically every week.
• 1:03:21
  It is not the most current podcast we do, because
• 1:03:23
  it's always about a week behind. But at the same
• 1:03:25
  time, we're talking about it because it's a labor
• 1:03:26
  of love, right? I'm not making, I'm not getting
• 1:03:28
  rich off of talking about Abbott Elementary.
• 1:03:30
  So I need to make it where it's... where it's
• 1:03:33
  appealing to my co -hosts to stick around, because
• 1:03:36
  I definitely, I'm in it, right? Like, my face
• 1:03:39
  is on the product, and Recap Kickback has my
• 1:03:41
  face right on the logo, so I'm gonna be there.
• 1:03:44
  But I gotta make sure that my co -host is there
• 1:03:45
  too, because once we start something, I plan
• 1:03:47
  on seeing it through, and then I know the listeners,
• 1:03:50
  they support, right? They've been showing up,
• 1:03:52
  and so if they're showing up and they're in the
• 1:03:54
  comments, that means they wanna hear you talk
• 1:03:55
  about it. So for me, I always look at it like
• 1:03:57
  that. Like, I'm talking about the shows because
• 1:03:59
  I wanna talk about them, but there are people
• 1:04:00
  who wanna listen. And as long as they want to
• 1:04:03
  listen, I'm going to try to bring them something.
• 1:04:04
  And I try to bring a lot of variety. I don't
• 1:04:06
  want to put myself in any box. I really do focus
• 1:04:09
  on a lot of black television, like we were talking
• 1:04:10
  about with Bel Air or whatever. We talked about
• 1:04:13
  Insecure. We've done Snowfall. I've podcast a
• 1:04:15
  lot of black movies as well. But then I realized
• 1:04:19
  maybe you just want to hear my black point of
• 1:04:21
  view of some of these white shows. So that's
• 1:04:23
  why we get into House of the Dragon, Game of
• 1:04:26
  Thrones, things with maybe prominent black people
• 1:04:28
  in it, but not so necessarily like a black writer.
• 1:04:31
  or a black point of view, but I have a point
• 1:04:33
  of view, and it is black. And I'm gonna talk
• 1:04:35
  about how this show lands to me versus how, you
• 1:04:37
  know, we might hear it on a white podcast. So...
• 1:04:40
  All that to say, it really, I'm just mission
• 1:04:42
  -driven when it comes to my podcast. Like, I
• 1:04:44
  know what I want to talk about, and I know if
• 1:04:45
  I'm funny enough, right? Like, nobody wants to
• 1:04:48
  pat themselves on the shoulder and say, I'm really
• 1:04:49
  funny. But if I'm funny enough, people will stick
• 1:04:51
  around. And then if the commentary is thoughtful
• 1:04:54
  and engaging, then maybe you can get a little
• 1:04:58
  something out of it. But if you don't feel great
• 1:05:01
  about it, if you've lost a love for the show
• 1:05:03
  or the topic that you're talking about, then
• 1:05:04
  it's really hard to see it through. Right, right,
• 1:05:06
  right. Yeah. Bel Air, my wife was into that show.
• 1:05:12
  I have only seen the. Fresh Prince of Bel -Air,
• 1:05:17
  the more well -known predecessor. And I know
• 1:05:19
  my wife has seen the reruns growing up as well.
• 1:05:23
  Abbott Elementary, I tried watching the first
• 1:05:26
  episode. I couldn't get through it. It just wasn't
• 1:05:27
  for me. But I'm so glad, so happy for its success.
• 1:05:32
  Quinta Brunson just seems like a wonderful person.
• 1:05:34
  I've seen her in interviews. Tyler, I think,
• 1:05:36
  what's his name? Tyler James William? Yeah, that's
• 1:05:38
  him. Yeah, from Everybody Hates Chris. Yeah,
• 1:05:41
  I've watched him going back to those years. and
• 1:05:44
  it's nice to see him do that. Cheryl Lee Ralph,
• 1:05:46
  I mean, my God, what a legend. You know, Dreamgirls
• 1:05:49
  on Broadway, Mohisha, I remember watching her
• 1:05:51
  on Mohisha. Sister Act, I mean, so wonderful.
• 1:05:55
  And I got to see the Abbott Elementary set on
• 1:05:58
  the Warner Brothers studio tour. Yeah, when I
• 1:06:00
  was in Los Angeles, this must have been like
• 1:06:04
  fall of 2024 for a convention that didn't happen
• 1:06:08
  and I didn't know about that until I literally
• 1:06:10
  arrived and I traveled like 3 ,000 miles, but
• 1:06:13
  anyway. I've been elementary set. That was a
• 1:06:16
  good view. So, uh, yeah, no, you, you, you, uh,
• 1:06:19
  you, uh, recap some, some great content. I love
• 1:06:21
  what you're doing, man. It's a, it's a good time.
• 1:06:23
  It really is. And like I said, I have some good
• 1:06:25
  co -hosts, but I don't have the same co -hosts
• 1:06:27
  for everything, right? Cause everybody doesn't
• 1:06:29
  like the same things. I try to find what my,
• 1:06:31
  what the people are passionate about that I'm
• 1:06:32
  going to be talking about it with. Even if they're
• 1:06:34
  more passionate than I am, I think one of my
• 1:06:36
  gifts is that if you like it, I love it. So if
• 1:06:38
  like we can, if you want to talk about it, if
• 1:06:39
  I can tell it brings you joy, then yeah, I might
• 1:06:42
  not care about it, but. I care about talking
• 1:06:43
  to you about it. And so my co -host, she's really
• 1:06:46
  big on Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.
• 1:06:48
  She's read all of the George R. R. Martin books
• 1:06:51
  and things of that nature. And I'm just like,
• 1:06:54
  dragon show, cool. But if you want to get into,
• 1:06:56
  if you want to talk about it, we can talk about
• 1:06:57
  it. That's kind of how I approach it. And that
• 1:07:00
  kind of keeps it fun for me. So currently, me
• 1:07:03
  and my boss on the other network. the reality
• 1:07:05
  TV network. We're actually talking about Paradise
• 1:07:07
  on Hulu. The Sterling K... Sterling K... Williams...
• 1:07:11
  Sterling K. Brown. Yep. Sterling K. Brown. Dear
• 1:07:13
  God. Tyler James, Williams, Sterling K. Brown,
• 1:07:15
  Sterling Brown. All these three names. Yeah,
• 1:07:17
  these three names. Lisa Ann Walter. Like, if
• 1:07:19
  we're gonna keep doing it, we can keep doing
• 1:07:20
  it. But Sterling K. Brown. Sterling K. Brown.
• 1:07:23
  He's leading Paradise right now. And honestly,
• 1:07:25
  I enjoy Paradise season one a lot more than I
• 1:07:28
  enjoyed season two. I'm actually kind of indifferent
• 1:07:29
  to season two. But my boss, he's a big fan of
• 1:07:32
  Lost and... And, you know, he likes the, like,
• 1:07:35
  sci -fi kind of genre. And Paradise is leaning
• 1:07:38
  into that a little bit, right? I don't know if
• 1:07:40
  you've been watching Paradise. I have not. No,
• 1:07:42
  no. I've heard good things about it, though.
• 1:07:44
  It's a great show. But it's leaning into the
• 1:07:46
  sci -fi stuff. And I would not tell you I could
• 1:07:48
  care less about some damn time travel and spaceships.
• 1:07:50
  I just don't care. Like, the only sci -fi, and
• 1:07:52
  the only sci -fi thing I ever really watch is,
• 1:07:54
  like, Doctor Who. I had a good run with Doctor
• 1:07:56
  Who for a little bit. But so many doctors I couldn't
• 1:08:00
  keep up. But my boss, he really liked Lost and
• 1:08:03
  those shows. And so for him, the time travel
• 1:08:07
  and the question of like, ooh, what's going to
• 1:08:10
  happen? How did this get here? How did this happen?
• 1:08:11
  How did this happen? It's really energizing him
• 1:08:14
  to want to talk about it. Me? I'm indifferent,
• 1:08:16
  but because it makes him excited, I'm excited
• 1:08:18
  to show up and talk to him all the time. So that's
• 1:08:21
  kind of the approach I take. You find somebody
• 1:08:23
  that's passionate about the topic, and then I
• 1:08:25
  can go there with you. If I agree with the subject
• 1:08:28
  matter or whatever, then I can go there with
• 1:08:30
  you. But yeah, I think it's been a journey. It's
• 1:08:33
  really been a learning experience as well, learning
• 1:08:37
  about my work ethic. Because growing up, I think
• 1:08:40
  I had this misconception about myself that maybe
• 1:08:43
  I was lazy. It was just ADHD. But I just had
• 1:08:45
  this misconception that maybe I didn't like to
• 1:08:47
  do stuff, but I like to do stuff that I like
• 1:08:49
  to do. When I am happy and I'm enjoying myself,
• 1:08:53
  then, yeah, I can pull out a podcast, you know,
• 1:08:57
  five, six podcasts in a week if I want to, and
• 1:08:59
  I've done it. And this is a heavy podcast week,
• 1:09:01
  yeah, as well. So I'm feeling it right now. That's
• 1:09:04
  good. That's good. That's awesome, man. I'm so
• 1:09:06
  happy for you. Yeah, I definitely do have to
• 1:09:08
  check out Paradise. Sterling K. Brown, I love
• 1:09:10
  him from This Is Us and from the O .J. Simpson
• 1:09:13
  miniseries. So definitely have to put Paradise
• 1:09:15
  on my watch list and Doctor Who. There's been
• 1:09:20
  like 55 ,000 adaptations of it and I tried to
• 1:09:23
  watch like the very first adaptation of it. Couldn't
• 1:09:26
  get through that, but definitely have to get.
• 1:09:29
  It's not for everybody. It's very British. It's
• 1:09:32
  very British. It's a little ghetto. Chappelle,
• 1:09:38
  remind everybody how they can find you, your
• 1:09:41
  content, how they can keep in touch with you.
• 1:09:43
  Yes, please come, follow me. First off, thank
• 1:09:47
  you for having me. This has been a delicious
• 1:09:49
  conversation. I've very much enjoyed it. Been
• 1:09:51
  looking forward to this for about a month, so
• 1:09:53
  I'm happy that, you know, I think it went well.
• 1:09:55
  Me too. Um, yeah, if people want to support me
• 1:09:58
  and what I'm doing or see what I'm doing if you
• 1:10:01
  like reality tv Catch me over on we know reality
• 1:10:03
  tv .com or the rob has a podcast network. You
• 1:10:06
  can just type in rhap Um, and it'll pop up and
• 1:10:09
  you can hear me talking about survivor in the
• 1:10:11
  summertime You hear me talking about big brother.
• 1:10:12
  I think i'll be talking about million dollar
• 1:10:13
  secret on netflix in about a month Uh currently
• 1:10:17
  i'm talking about house of villains over there
• 1:10:18
  as well and extracted on fox Uh, we're creeping
• 1:10:21
  up on the finale of extracted So if you watch
• 1:10:23
  any of those shows or you like reality tv go
• 1:10:25
  over there is a ton of content But if you just
• 1:10:27
  want to come and support me, myself, that's recapkickback
• 1:10:30
  .com. Go directly to the website. It'll link
• 1:10:32
  you to where you can subscribe to the podcast
• 1:10:34
  recapkickback .com slash subscribe. Or you can
• 1:10:37
  go over to YouTube, youtube .com slash at recap
• 1:10:39
  kickback and see my beautiful face and my lovely
• 1:10:42
  co -host. And let me know if there's something
• 1:10:44
  that you do want to hear me talk about. If you
• 1:10:46
  disagree with something that I'm talking about
• 1:10:47
  or disagree with anything that I say, hop in
• 1:10:50
  the comments and let me know and I'll be happy
• 1:10:52
  to address it on air. I don't mind. I like a
• 1:10:54
  good conversation. But if you're rude, I will
• 1:10:57
  block you. So there you go. That's pretty much
• 1:10:59
  how you do it. I will always protect my peace.
• 1:11:01
  Yeah. That's all you could do. That is all you
• 1:11:03
  could do. And for those of you listening and
• 1:11:06
  watching, follow The Delicious Culture wherever
• 1:11:07
  you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, iHeart,
• 1:11:09
  SiriusXM, Amazon, wherever you get your podcasts,
• 1:11:12
  YouTube, that as well. Email if you have any
• 1:11:15
  feedback positive negative concerns questions
• 1:11:19
  comments But I'm sure it's gonna be nothing but
• 1:11:22
  positive stuff because this was an awesome episode
• 1:11:24
  the delicious culture at gmail .com That's the
• 1:11:26
  delicious culture at gmail .com and follow us
• 1:11:29
  on social media at the delicious culture Instagram
• 1:11:32
  YouTube tick -tock at the delicious culture All
• 1:11:36
  right, Chappelle. Thank you so much again for
• 1:11:38
  joining me and for all of you listening and watching
• 1:11:40
  let deliciousness ring