Shows / The Speech Guys
The Speech Guys
We're your newest old friends. Grab a seat around our fire and pour your favorite whiskey (if you're 21!). Let's catch up over life's nagging questions that have never gone away. Speeches or speech topics you want us to cover in an episode or series? Send your requests to Mike at thespeechguyspodcast@gmail.com!
Episodes
- The Speech Guys
Michael Jordan's 1993 Retirement Announcement, Michael Jordan | Speeches By Illinoisans
Mike, Landon, Ross, and Matt team up on Jordan. Even four guys can't stop the memories from scoring though. Audio used in this episode…
- The Speech Guys
"Stop Wasting Your Life" Blessed Fulton Sheen | Speeches By Illinoisans
Ross kicks off a new speech series that has only one rule--don't talk about Fight Club. Just kidding. Here's the one rule--your speech has to be by an…
- The Speech Guys
"Rebellion", Ivan Karamazov | Speeches By Brothers
The Speech Guys revisit Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1880 novel, The Brothers Karamazov, for the final installment of the Speeches By Brothers speech series.
- The Speech Guys
"Easy Company War Recollections", E Company, 506th Infantry Regiment Veterans | Speeches By Brothers
Matt hosts and Mike joins. Easy Company veterans were highly-trained paratroopers who served in some of the most dangerous circumstances of World War II…
- The Speech Guys
Liam McDonald | Biking for Babies
In June, Liam McDonald bicycled 3,400 miles from California to Delaware as part of an expanded vision for Biking for Babies Summer Rides. Here, Recruiting and…
- The Speech Guys
"Haunted By Waters" Norman Maclean | Speeches By Brothers
Mike's brother, Dan, introduces. Ross and Matt chime in on Mr. Maclean's speech, dramatized in the 1992 film, A River Runs Through It, as well as the 1976…
- The Speech Guys
"Our Last Name" Father Rob Johnson | Speeches By Brothers
Another speech straight from the Johnson Family tree posts up in the Speech Guys' studio. Ross's older brother, Father Rob (Three Dogs North Podcast), gave…
- The Speech Guys
"Concerning Hobbits" Bilbo Baggins | Speeches By Small Towners
It's the last Speech(es) By Small Towners--best enjoyed with a Bud Lite, Miller Lite, or Coors Lite at your local American Legion or Knights of Columbus Hall.
- The Speech Guys
"It All Turns on Affection" Wendell Berry | Speeches By Small Towners
The gang's all here. Get cozy. Warm that affectionate heart of yours and learn how to be a Sticker... or Boomer... or a Sticker-Boomer... and look on at Port…
The Speech Guys"Labor's Millennium" Jonathon Baldwin Turner | Speeches By Small Towners
I-L-L... I-N-I! The Speech Guys explore the University of Illinois origin story in the words of one of its founders, Jonathon Baldwin Turner. JBT envisioned a…
- The Speech Guys
"Dixon, Place on the Rock River" President Ronald Reagan | Speeches By Small Towners
The Speech Guys find a reason to hang with Ronnie Reagan again--and it's a good reason as they're embarking on the first speech series of the 7th season…
The Speech Guys"The Word Became Flesh" Pope Benedict XVI | Speeches After the Straussian Moment
The whole podcastin' gang is here to close out season six. The task at hand? Weave together Christmas (excuse me, Advent!) and the Straussian Moment (do we…
The Speech Guys"They Need Us To Be Present" President Barack Obama | Speeches After the Straussian Moment
75% of the Speech Guys report for podcasting duty. Ross is out hunting. Matt, Landon, and Mike go hunting for great ideas about President Obama's 2010 Father's…
The Speech Guys"Blood Will Be Shed" Bane Dorrance | Speeches After the Straussian Moment
Landon, Ross, Mike, and Matt wander through the cultural wake that is Bane's speech outside the Gotham City Stock Exchange in the 2012 Dark Knight Rises. 1993…
The Speech Guys"The Straussian Moment" Peter Thiel | Speeches After the Straussian Moment
The Straussian what? Huh? Put on your listening ears and thinking cap as the Speech Guys go way back and all over... the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, the…
The Speech GuysLast Words of the First Nations, Black Hawk | Speeches from the Old West
The Speech Guys go back to the beginning with words by the first westerners--in this case, Black Hawk, after the Sauk and Meskawi lost possession of land in…
The Speech Guys"Fill Your Hands, You Son of a..." & Other Western Quips, Rooster Cogburn | Speeches from the Old West
It's the whole Speech Guys gang on call to discuss "Fill Your Hands, You Son of a B****" (Rooster Cogburn, True Grit), "I'm Your Huckleberry" (Doc Holliday…
The Speech Guys"If You Do Not Succeed..." John Paul the Great | Biking for Babies
Biking for Babies Executive Director, Nikki Biese, joins Kevin, Mike, and Jimmy to discuss John Paul the Great's 1993 World Youth Day address in Denver…
The Speech Guys"My Thirty-First Year..." Captain Meriwether Lewis | Speeches from the Old West
Mid life comes a little later now since Meriwether Lewis' day. The whole Speech Guys crew chat about Lewis' August 18th, 1805 journal entry from the Corps of…
The Speech Guys"If You Want Equal Justice..." John Paul the Great | Biking for Babies
Kevin sits in for Sarah Wiese to get prepped for his MC role at the 2025 finishing event at Saint Joseph's parish in Manchester, Missouri on Saturday, July…
The Speech Guys"And We're About To Do This" | Biking for Babies
(Most of) the Speech Guys take a break this episode. They lend their platform to Biking for Babies--a mission-oriented bicycled ride that Mike Schaefer and…
The Speech GuysPope Leo XIV(!) & "The Fastest Nun in the West" Sister Blandina Segale | Speeches from the Old West
Sister Blandina Segale (1850 - 1941) was a missionary Sister of Charity who built the first school district in Colorado, served such legends of the West as…
The Speech Guys"The Fulfillment of This Scripture Is Today" Jesus of Nazareth | Speeches at the Start of Something
It's Landon and Mike discussing Jesus' entry onto the Christianity scene when he reads the prophet Isaiah, as described in Luke 4, and portrayed by Jonathon…
The Speech Guys"Using Machinery under Capitalism" Karl Marx
The Speech Guys went camping one week earlier. I guess that's why Mike is a little tired. Thumbnail image comes from…
The Speech Guys"Running... An Absurd Pastime" Bill Bowerman | Speeches at the Start of Something
In the 1970s, Steve Prefontaine lit a fire under the bellies of runners that has never gone out through his American distance track records--largely formed by…
The Speech Guys"Make Your Bed" Admiral Wendel McRaven | Speeches at the Start of Something
John Zegar introduces the podcast episode. Matt, Mike, Landon, and Ross discuss the 2014 speech from the University of Texas-Austin commencement ceremony…
The Speech Guys"Timshel" Samuel Hamilton & Adam Trask | Speeches By Dads
It's the final episode of the fourth season of the SGs and they discuss the dialogues performed by John Steinbeck's characters from the 1952 novel, "East of…
The Speech Guys"Lucy" Father Mike Schmitz | Speeches By Dads
This episode is rated PG-13 for a "graphic" clip from the film Calvary (2014) which contains one bleeped out instance of f**k, gun violence, and reference to…
The Speech Guys"Act Like You've Been There Before" Doug Johnson | Speeches By Dads
Doug Johnson introduces the cast and recalls, with Ross, the (micro)speech he gave to his son before his first football game in the twilight of the 20th…
The Speech Guys"Terrifying Virtue" Maximillian Robespierre | Speeches That Got Someone Killed
Landon, Mike, Ross, and Matt close out the "Speeches That Got Someone Killed" quad. Some political candidates might be a threat to America's democracy, but…
The Speech Guys"We're More Popular Than Jesus Now" John Lennon | Speeches That Got Someone Killed
Mike, Landon, Ross, and Matt consider how John Lennon's interview in March 1966 with London's Evening Standard influenced Mark David Chapman and the legacy of…
The Speech Guys"Disbelief, Sadness, & Unyielding Anger" President George W. Bush | Speeches That Got Someone Killed
Fact Check: Landon references a comment made by Former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, that "eight trillion dollars was lost track of", and speculates…
The Speech Guys"Sermon on the Mount" Jesus of Nazareth | Speeches That Got Someone Killed
How does the Sermon on the Mount help the Speech Guys pursue a worthy spiritual frontier? Listen in as Ross, Matt, and Mike cheer for the arrival of Faye Frye…
The Speech Guys"For Forty-One Million, You Built a Playoff Team" John Henry | Speeches From Oscar-Nominated Films
Listener discretion: "a**" is used several times throughout the episode Is paying for runs really what America's baseball heart beats for? The Speech Guys and…
The Speech Guys"There Is Only One Man... Charles Kane." Citizen Kane | Speeches From Oscar-Nominated Films
Does art inspire life or life inspire art? Landon, Ross, Matt, and Mike team up for Orson Welles' 1941 campaign "to rid the politics of this State of the evil…
The Speech Guys"The Park Bench" Dr. Sean Maguire | Speeches From Oscar-Nominated Films
"You think I know the first thing about being an orphan because I read Oliver Twist?"... Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) begins to tear down the intellectual…
The Speech Guys"It Is... Impossible to be a Woman" Gloria Gomez | Speeches From Oscar-Nominated Films
This episode is rated PG-13 for language and discussion of sexuality. Anne Marie rejoins as guest host to discuss the good, true, and maybe not so universally…
The Speech Guys"He Died a Richer Man Than You'll Ever Be" George Bailey | A Speech Guys Christmas Special
Merry Christmas from the Speech Guys! Talk, think, and laugh about your favorite holiday fare... fruitcakes, George and Mary Bailey, and the real life Hallmark…
The Speech GuysNobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech 1986, Elie Wiesel | Speeches From the 1980s
In 1986, author and Holocaust-survivor, Elie Wiesel, was awarded for his humanitarian work on behalf of the Jewish community and other historically-oppressed…
The Speech Guys"I'm Afraid, Alright?!" Rocky & Adrian Balboa
Apollo Creed helped Balboa get his body ready for the Heavyweight title against Clubber Lang. But his wife and partner, Adrian (Talia Shire), had to retrain…
The Speech Guys"Like Tears in the Rain" Roy Batty | Speeches From the 1980s
Who said AI was a new conversation we should be having? Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) were paving the way for the rest of us all of…
The Speech Guys"The Challenger Disaster" President Ronald Reagan | Speeches From the 1980s
The Speech Guys try to imagine a world just before the dawn of their births as they step back into the 1980s with President Reagan's speech following the space…
The Speech Guys"The Apology of Socrates" Socrates (Plato) | Speeches By Prisoners
Mike, Landon, Matt, and Ross finish out the Speeches By Prisoners series with Socrates' speech before his Athenian jury considering whether or not he ought to…
The Speech Guys"Stillwater & Still Friends" | Mike & Landon's Friendship Origin Story
The Speech Guys share a common collegiate origin along Illinois' Interstate 74. Here, Landon and Mike recall their coming together merely months before Mike's…
The Speech Guys"A World Split Apart" Alexander Solzhenitsyn | Speeches By Prisoners
In 1978, Russian exile, Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave the commencement address to Harvard graduates. Unlike most commencement speeches, it painted Western…
The Speech Guys"I Am Prepared To Die" Nelson Mandela | Speeches By Prisoners
It's the second episode of the Speeches By Prisoners series and the Speech Guys contemplate the stoicism and devotion to ordinary life Mandela seemed to…
The Speech GuysA Companion Chat To "Becoming Jesus" | Mike & Chris
Mike and Chris keep sippin' their whiskies after the other Speech Guys leave for an extended chat of related topics from the "Becoming Jesus" episode of the…
The Speech Guys"Becoming Jesus" Jake Shuttlesworth | Speeches By Prisoners
The Speech Guys lace up their high tops and unpack the first aid kit to talk about wounds... father wounds, that is. Jake Shuttlesworth's speech to his son…
The Speech Guys"God is Dead" (The Parable of the Madman) Frederick Nietzsche | Speeches By Losers
Episode Rating: 13+ for instances of language ("bulls***", "a**hole") at approximately 2 and 58 minutes, respectively Wipe that melancholy off your face and…
The Speech Guys"When Breath Becomes Air" Dr. Lucy Kalinithi | Speeches About Loss
Episode Rating: 13+ for a few instances of mild language and a few brief references to sex within the context of marriage Welcome to episode #37 of the Speech…
The Speech Guys"Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise" Chuck Noland | Speeches By Losers
(This episode is rated 16+, best-suited for audiences 16 years and older, as it discusses sex in the context of an ending romantic relationship. This content…
The Speech Guys"Our Only Hope & Refuge" Confederate General-In-Chief Robert E. Lee | Speeches By Losers
Episode Rating: PG for discussion of slavery in the United States The Speech Guys learn how to hold their heads high by kicking off season 3 with the "Speeches…
The Speech Guys"Christ as the Final Scapegoat" Rene Girard | Speeches By Prophets
Join Landon, Matt, Mike, and Ross for the final episode of season 3 as they listen to and discuss excerpts from an interview with Rene Girard conducted by…
The Speech Guys"The Abolition of Man" Clive Staples Lewis | Speeches By Prophets
Matt puts the Speech Guys to work, tackling CS Lewis' arguably prophetic "Abolition of Man"--a collection of speeches presented at King's College in Newcastle…
The Speech Guys"The Moral Equivalent of War" President Jimmy Carter | Speeches By Prophets
A note on listener discretion... at approximately 36 minutes, Mike lets the expletive "sh*t" slip. America's longest-living POTUS takes the mound for the…
The Speech Guys"I Have a Dream" Dr. Martin Luther King | Speeches By Prophets
It's Martin Luther King Day early this year... or late. Regardless, Matt, Ross, and Mike step up to the plate and talk MLK's legacy, how the nature of race…
The Speech Guys"We Will Meet Again" Queen Elizabeth II | Speeches By Moms
The Speech Guys tip their hats (and masks) to the English Monarchy by drinking and thinking over Queen Elizabeth II's April 2020 speech, "We Will Meet Again"…
The Speech Guys"C'mon Ray" Deborah Barone | Speeches By Moms
Pull out your milk pens, TV Guide, and Windows XP update manual. The Speech Guys put their minds and hearts to the questions posed by the 1990s and early 2000s…
The Speech Guys"Natural Womanhood" Abby Johnson | Speeches By Moms
This episode is rated PG-13 as it discusses the topic of sex, abortion, and contraception. While the Speech Guys are fans of, well, speeches... they aren't…
The Speech Guys"Motherhood Is Supposed To Be Hard" Carrie Gress | Speeches By Moms
The Speech Guys do their best to stay out of the mansplaining zone for Episode #27 as they discuss a speech given by Dr. Carrie Gress at the Family Institute…