Circling Back - Male Friendship with Ross Bolen | Circling Back 2-25-26

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Our old friend Ross Bolen (Oysters, Clams & Cockles) joins Dave and Randy while Dillon is out sick. We talked a lot of TV including Industry, Knights, and The Wire, Adam Sandler films, our appetizer draft, and a Sonic drive-thru story from Ross. Make sure you follow him on IG and Twitter: - https://x.com/WRBolen - https://www.instagram.com/wrbolen/ Support us on Patreon and receive weekly episodes for as low $5 per month: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/circlingbackpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch all of our full episodes on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.youtube.com/washedmedia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Shop Washed Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.washedmedia.shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (14:35) WR Bolen (23:40) Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (36:20) Being Too Online (41:40) TV (55:30) Heat and Sandler Movies (1:10:00) Ross’s App Draft and Sonic Story Support This Episode’s Sponsors: - Rhoback: Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rhoback.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and use code LUTES20 for 20% off your first order - Aura Frames: Exclusive $35-off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/CIRCLING. Promo Code CIRCLING - Shopify: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/circling - Fair Harbor Clothing: Head to https://www.fairharborclothing.com/ and use code CIRCLING20 for 20% OFF your full price order now through 2/28 - BetterHelp: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at https://betterhelp.com/circling Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, we're back. Circling Back podcast. Wednesday morning. My name is Dave. Welcome to the show. To all the new fans, the new backers. I say welcome. I just assume there's just new ones every day.

Just finding the show. And I'm like, wow, look at this guy. This guy rocks. You know who else? Rocks? Producer Randy. I rock you too rock thanks Dave hi Dave that's about it you've got you've got cool uh West 6 bar uh service industry look today you do just means I didn't shower this morning

no you've got the cool hat if I'm wearing a hat cool tea there's probably 80% chance that I did not shower this morning you didn't have to tell everybody that well you know not people know they go they look say Randy's wearing a hat but he didn't shower this morning I wear a hat almost every day on this show. So you never shower based on that. Can I hop in here? Yeah, go ahead. Because I have a go ahead, Dave.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's noted New York Times bestselling author, W.R. Bowling. Thank you. Thank you. What's your shower schedule, Dave? Because mine has changed in the past five years. Mine's changed in the past two weeks. Okay, it's true story

I'm glad you brought this up By the way, Dylan's not here He woke up sick True story He was supposed to be on the show Before we had Ross last night Like yeah I'll do the show Then Dylan this morning was like

I don't know if he was afraid of getting frame-mogged I think that was That was his number one Yeah, Dill is sick So send him your thoughts and prayers But So I

Almost always shower in the morning Always But I hate to be this guy but I'm also showering at night because my allergies have been so bad that I've read that a good nighttime warm shower will really, it's good for you to wash any pollen residual off and also just kind of clear you out, the steamy shower. So I've been doing that. So I shower at home at night and then I typically go to the gym before I come here and I shower at the gym and then come straight here. So I was a twice a day guy, the bulk majority of my life.

Okay. Morning and night. And then at some point, I can't remember who, but somebody told me that's bad for your skin. Yeah, and I was also washing my hair with shampoo and conditioning it every single time I showered, which is also not good for your hair. Full head of hair on Ross. And so I've changed a lot of my shower routine over the last five years. And now sometimes I'll go like two days without. That's great.

If I haven't worked out and I haven't like, I don't sweat a lot. I'm not a real sweaty guy. I know that you're not a sweaty guy. I've done hot yoga with you and you weirdly just didn't sweat. Yeah, it's kind of a problem because you're supposed to sweat. It cools your body down. But yeah, so I'm kind of a mess with my shower routine now. No, that's great.

I wish I was that guy. I will occasionally do it and like I always feel I feel like I you can what what's so funny someone in the chat said damn he really should have finished those antibiotics yeah you know didn't finish his antibiotics Dylan had a tag recently that people were not happy about it doesn't matter if you don't finish your antibiotics oh my god so one of my kids was sick like a month and a half two months ago and we got we had to get antibiotics and after a couple of days my wife was like

nah he's good and I was like that's not how it works you have to finish them and she was like nah no you don't and I was like okay let's not make this a fight

yeah I mean I'm I'm oversimplifying his take or maybe I'm not but it was just kind of like it came up and he was just like what a big what a big you know

who cares and then like we heard from a lot of backers they're like Dylan that's the worst take you've ever had yeah they make a huge point of that like you have to finish the whole cycle

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, anyway. That's a, hey, that's my commenter of the moment. Yes, shout out to Scott. Oh, shout out to Scott. Scott. I love Scott and chat. What up?

Hey, Scott. Yeah, that's chat. I'm jealous, dude, you're on your Euro shit. Yeah, a little bit. I've also noticed that these dudes, like, I'll use Barrett as an example because he's, he has like the best hair of anyone I know. Good hair. That part of that is that they're, these hair guys, they're utilizing.

the natural oils. Natural oils. And I've always kind of had like, I don't know, mediocre hair is what I would call it. But it's there. It's there, but I've never known how to shape it or get it cut. And I'm slowly figuring that out as I near 40. See, that was a thing with me, like, or I was like, I don't need to be washed my hair every day. But here's the thing.

No matter what, even if I shower right before bed, I wake up, my hair is so hilariously awful looking like if i were to get up and have to go uh go somewhere and i couldn't look in the mirror i people would think i had escaped it looks so bad it's so it's greasy it's not even oily i'm in the same i'm in the same boat it's really bad i don't really know what i'm doing it's pathetic looking honestly yeah i'll take a picture one day and and send it privately but um please do yeah no you're what you're doing right now is is correct i completely understand that what i'm doing is bad for my essential oils and my my skin. It's just how I got to live at the moment.

So hopefully I can get on that grind. I'm just trying to get like you, playboy. The allergy battle is never ending in this city. If you're if you're, Chad, if you're thinking about moving to Austin, you should really consider the seasonal allergies. It's a beating because they're not seasonal. Nah. I mean, they're seasonal, but they're most of the seasons of which we only really have two.

Yeah. summer's better but it's also very hot so it's like i could finally go outside and it's like and ross doesn't sweat yeah but i still i the heat definitely grinds me down in the summer too yesterday anyway yesterday we recorded co-worker week uh which was a real treat a lot of fun check it out on patreon it's where uh people just send in like co-worker stories anonymously some not anonymously and funny stories about co-workers Some ridiculous ones, too. Let's just, not to spoil anything, but a lot of stuff happens on work trips.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. A lot of people talking about their work wife and their work husband or a lot of those. Not as much as that. We didn't get any of that, but we did hear from like some people who, one, I'll tease, one guy on a work trip is hanging out. They're coming back from a bar, like four guys, like stopping a gas station to get some Zen or whatever. And this one guy, the guy who they sent in to get the Zen. They actually went into a head shop.

He came out with a giant canister of Whippets. And they're like, I don't know if we're going to do that on the work trip. Different. Yeah. The degenerate reveal. I've never been around that. It's never been my scene. No, I started watching industry.

I'll talk to you about that. I just finished season one. First of all, it's fantastic. I'm glad I finally got on board. Something about when it first started was too close to Successions ending, and I was like, I'm all businessed out. I don't need another. Even if it's Brits, I don't need another.

I finally felt like it was the right moment. And what's the guy's name, Robert, who's like just an absolute addict in the first season? Robert. At one point, he's got just a giant can of nitrous, like a thing of nitrous that he's just sucking. He does a lot, season one. He's got a busy season one.

Man, that dude's getting after it. That dude. the ladies love him you know he's he's a great character i think great show loving it is season one end with them uh getting their offers or not yeah so you got to see the uh the interviews yeah go in front that's one of the best episodes of the of the whole show do and our what's our main girl's name harp harp harpsichord has herself a little little panic attack and bails on the interview spoiler alert um dude rot when rob goes up there and like they're basically just like, okay, this guy,

because, you know, the, the ladies who are trying to change the culture. Yeah. Like the good old boys club, they're like, well, fuck this guy. He's not, his nose starts bleeding. He gets a nose bleed. But like the big dog, the big dog's in there. He likes it. I like him. Clients are going to need a guy like that.

We need a guy like this. Got to be able to send him out to party with the sicko clients. Yeah. So you kind of like, oh, dude, Rob's like, entitled, you know, white boy. But also, like, you'll, you'll find out, like, Rob is like, A good dude. He's like a great character.

I like him. I like him. I also want to say, because I brought up work wife and work husband. There's like a line in industry about that. They have a joke about that at some point. I can't remember the context. But that shtick has always really bothered me. Like if someone were to say, like if your wife was like, oh, my wife had a work cubby, be like, nah, you got to want, you got me and that's it. You don't call them that. Yeah. And. That whole concept is just is a little weird. Straight up cuck status, yo.

Because famously, people do have affairs with their coworkers. I've heard it a lot. Yeah, I've seen some emails. It's a thing. So I don't know why we've turned it into a bit nationwide with people joking about their work wives and work husbands. Anyway, I'm also just, you know, a very paranoid person, so I don't like that kind of talk. Yeah.

It rubs me the wrong way, Dave. You're just kind of like, all right, how am I supposed to, like, you go to your, your Siguds event and you're meeting everybody and they're like, oh, yeah, this is. And like, they're talking about it. I'm like, all right. Yeah. This is the guy that you're joking about being married to at work. Yeah. Very cool.

Get it? Because it's like you have two separate lives, like severance, you know? When you go there, that's your, that's a separate deal. No, fuck that. I don't have a work husband here. I don't like it. Oh, what? You're not my work husband, dude.

Wow. He's not. Wow. This is the most mustached company. It's over. I'm done a mom. Mastachio company in the world. Have you ever done yours?

I've done the thing where when you're shaving, you leave the stash and you shave down the rest and see what it looks like. It looks. It's got something there, dude. I don't know, man. And then you shave this mustache a little bit smaller just to see what that looks like. And then a little bit smaller. Yeah. And then.

And you go, whoa. Oh, of course, the Michael Jordan. Yes, the Charlie Chaplin, if you well. And you're just like, oh, what am I doing? Yeah, yeah, mine's not full enough, man. And it's just the way it is. I don't know. I don't know.

I feel like it is, dude. I don't know, man. I don't think I can do it yet. Maybe when I hit 40 and I'm a real boy. You're not 40 yet. I'm 38, dude. Fuck. But I feel 40.

Buddy, come on, man. Is it going to get that much worse? No, I mean, it's... I mean, yeah, look at them. Yeah, I mean, seriously. You look great. I'm exhausted all the time. It's been, you know...

Ups and downs, you know? There's some, there's some aches and pains. I've got that. You just kind of power. I mean, literally it's the... If it ain't one thing, it's another. Yeah. Where, like, you finally...

I finally got my shoulders right to where I'm like, I can lift heavier weight. I'm not lifting super heavy, but I can like try to lift heavier weights. And then now I've got these forearm thing. and I'm like, why? I got tennis elbow. Yeah, I think I have golf elbow. Where's your pain? Show me.

Just in the general elbow area. Yeah, dude, I get right here, and it's from doing pull-ups, I think, and it hurts, and I don't... It sucks. I don't know what to do. Aging sucks, man. It does suck. You know what?

Doesn't suck? Oroframes. You got one right here. Check it out. Look at the memories. They're beautiful, Dave. You'll probably pop up in one of these photos. We love aura frames.

It's like the ultimate gift. I've given them more. multiple years to different family members. They're phenomenal. We've got one. We like it so much. We have one just like sitting right here just showing old ones. Look, there's me and there's old Jack Hammer.

The famous Jack Hammer football photo. Can't come soon enough. You get free unlimited storage at as many photos and videos as you want. You can preload photos before it ships. So if you're going to send it to pops or moms or mom and pops, you can have that thing loaded up when they get it and personalize your gift. You can add a message for it arrives, and it comes in a gift box.

Every frame comes packaged in a premium gift box with no price tag, and you can share photos and videos effortlessly. Download the free Aura app or text photos straight to your frame. I did it this morning. Had a cute one of my son eating spaghetti, or is he called it Spaghetti. Spaghetti. And I said, put it over there in my parents' orrame. Name number one by wirecutter.

You can save on the perfect gift by visitingoraFrams.com for a limited time. listeners can get $35 up there best-selling Carver Matt Frame with code circling. Ross has got his open right there. I've got my ARA app open. I could put photos of myself on my wife's frame right now. His wife. That's A-U-R-A-Frams.com promo code circling. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout by us.

I mean circling back. Terms and conditions apply. Check it out. Or frames. They really are great, just for the record. Yeah. It's great. My mother-in-law, my mom, my dad.

is producer mike there he is uh that boy what do you got going on i just you're busy just trying to survive every day dude a lot of tv a lot of sports yeah a lot of tv i mean you know how it is with the small kids it's basically you go to work then the kids get out of school and then you're occupied by them until they're asleep and then you've got enough energy for one tv show and then it's over you yeah i mean so my oldest he's five he's five he's He goes to bed at best case scenario, 8 p.m. He's asleep. Mom does most of the bedtime.

He kind of has cut me out of that process, which is sad, but also frees me up a little bit. And then I figure I got 90 minutes. And it's like, what am I going to do? Like on these nights, so right now, my shows, Thursday night traders. I've heard a lot about it. Sunday night, industry, and nights. Yeah. Those are my three right now.

And in between, I'm not really watching any Mavs, even though I've got league pass because Cooper flags hurt, not playing. Plus, they're in tank mode. And it's just like, you're not going to catch me. I'm not going to tune in with no flag. What did flag hurt? Foot. I think they're just kind of keeping them out to tank.

It's a soft thing. Yeah, have to. And so, I mean, I've been on, like, I've randomly jumped back into Sopranos. I'm like on season three. It's like my fourth or fifth. fifth rewatch and I'm like just doing it. And it feels like I'm wasting time and like, so I'll watch one and I'm like, well, that was my night. Everything starts over again tomorrow. It's like I, I wasn't going to tell me, but I'm trying to relearn a language. Oh, yeah. Espagnol? No, I took

Italian college and was never fluent, but I was able to have conversations. Right. And I've kind of just I caught myself really going through looking at cartel vids on Twitter the other day. And I was like, man, this is what I do with my free time. My brain's going to be mush. Like my job is already to be online and go make, like, fart jokes to Dylan. Yeah. So like, I got to do something to, like, maintain like my intellectual prowess. Right, right, right, right.

To pretend that I have. So I'm like, I'm going to do something pot. Like, you know what I mean? I'm trying to just do different things. I hear you. So that's a journey I've been on privately. Yeah, I've spent a lot of time in therapy. talking to my therapist about what to do about this exact same problem because I'm like,

I can't, just doing the same thing every day. Yeah. And is, is not good. So what are you doing? Because I know you work out, but I think you work out during the day. So I've added a couple of options. One is that I'll do these adult Lego sets because believe it or not, it's essentially like doing a massive puzzle. Yeah. So it's doing, it's working some part of my brain that I never access, like the mechanical part or whatever. And so I haven't done that in a couple of months. This is bleak, Randy. What we're talking about over here. Oh, my God. Randy, you think your weekends are bleak? I don't think my weekends are bleak. Yeah, you got no idea what's coming, dude. I've got some books that I intend on reading. I do, I do some reading. I haven't done it

in a couple months, but I'm good for a few books a year, which is pathetic, but I do. And then I've got, I like gaming, right? I've got a couple of games. that I've bought that I've barely touched, Battlefield 6, and Randy, what's the one where you scavenge? Arc Raiders. I bought that one. What's your platform? PC.

I'm a PC gamer. Did you build yours? No, I bought a pre-built one. Yeah. But anyway, I have these options for things I could do differently to break up the week to make some nights different. Yeah. I just never do them ever.

And I mean literally, it's like, what are we, two and a half months into the year? Yeah. I've just been a disaster. 2026 has started truly horribly. And I'm not one of these people that's like, New Year, I'm going to change. Yeah. You know, new me, I don't do that. I'm not an idiot.

But this year and New Year's, for some reason, I was like, okay, I'm going to turn over a new leaf. I'm going to start doing some things differently so that I don't just like become this beaten down middle-aged man. And I've failed miserably so far. So we'll see what happens long term. You're busy because you're following the rockets. Rockets are contenders, I think. Yeah, but it's the same thing every game, literally every game.

They crush for the first three quarters, and then they get the shit kicked out of them in the fourth quarter, and they, you know, they lose a lot of games they shouldn't have. So that's not helping me feel fulfilled. You had, you had Texans until last month. Uh-huh. And that ended the way it always does. That ended worse than it. I mean, that was like, that was a weird one. Was not a fun watch. No, and, and, you know, it's fun to watch as like, you know, somebody who's, I'm obviously not rooting for the Texans, but watching a defense that's that good is like really fun. Yeah, just that environment with the weather in New England was, that was just.

And they're not good. No. They're not good. No. That was tough. Yeah. And I've got Patriots. fans for neighbors.

No, why? What? They're from Boston, man. Just, you know how Austin is now. Any of them you want to, like, call out? Transplant City. You said why, like, he had the choice. I chose it.

Why? Why are you letting these guys live? You didn't just go about the neighborhood before? He's got, like, I'm talking like, this dude, literally, if I walk out my front door and look at the house across the street for me, it's a, it's a Patriots fan. He's got a big Patriots flag waving. If he, when he opens his garage, I can see he's got, like,

Boston Bruins, Pat's, Red Sox, pennets and flags all over the garage and shit. He still hasn't taken down his Pat's flag. They're mad about Breggman.

Those socks fans. Yeah. Yeah, they're not happy about that. But at the time, Breggman, that time that dude just randomly tweeted something like, ah,

we should trade Breggman right now. This is in like 2016. This is like early, this is like when the Astros Rebuild was like coming to fruition. It was like, no, was on a run. And somebody, this guy, he was a T-Stator, actually was like, we should trade Bregman.

And Bregman, like, DM'd him. Like, we searched his name. Oh, yeah, I remember this. Nobody remembers it. I'm glad to you do it, because it was just really funny. Because it was just the ultimate, like, what are you doing, dude? Searched his own name on Twitter. It was very KD. Got deeply upset with the take he found and DM'd the guy. Yeah, it was very KD. And then deleted his Twitter account. Sick move. KD. We didn't even, yeah, yeah. I was talking to Barrett about that Katie Burner stuff. And I assumed it was fake. And then now he kind of gave a non-answer. And I would like to get your take. What's the deal there? So for those who are out of the loop, Kevin Durant famously many years ago got caught having a

burner account that he used to discuss the NBA anonymously, essentially. I can't remember the context of how it all came out, but I'm pretty confident it was like confirmed that he had a burner. So then during the All-Star break, all these messages start leaking from this group chat on Twitter, like a group DM, I guess, that allegedly Kevin Durand is in with one of these burners, I think his handle is like, get off my Dickerson, which is very funny. And he's just bashing like Alper and Shingoon for not being able to like, you know, play any defense. And he called Jabari Smith Jr. the R word. And, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the, the one that relates to a like cognitive ability.

Randy. Yeah. And so, so there's no way to know that any of this actually had anything to do with Katie, but these guys are claiming like this is Kevin Durant and this is this group chat we have. And long story short, I don't think it's him. I don't think it's real.

But if it is, which is very possible still, because he gave basically a non-answer. He said, I don't talk about Twitter nonsense, you know the guys in the locker room know what it is we've been locked in all season generic answer but if you're a 37 year old man using burners to go into a group DM with random stands these are just random fans that he's in this group with it's fucking and you're using it as an outlet to

like shit on your teammates that is a level of immaturity that is not does not behoove a future Hall of Fame or two-time finals MVP I mean like greatest shooter talk you know, one of the greatest shooters. Just one of the greatest scores, no doubt. Definitely scores. Probably the greatest mid-range shooter ever. And, yeah, so things were already going kind of badly for the rockets, and then that all came out, and I was like, oh, good, good, great, wonderful.

So, yeah, sports aren't really doing it for me right now either. A 90 of the Seven Kingdoms was awesome. That was sick to have that to look forward to for six weeks. But it's over now. Did you, what were your going into that? Did you have high hopes? I had no idea what to expect. You were famously a book reader, so you were at least aware of Sir Duncan the Tall.

There will be spoilers. Yeah, but I didn't read the novellas that this show is based on. So those were available to purchase? I didn't know that. Yeah, I think they've been out since the 90s. Are there other ones, too? If I'm not mistaken, it's three stories. The first one is called The Hedge Knight.

The second one has a different title. The third one has a different title. And they're quote-unquote novellas. They're like 100 pages each. and you can buy them as one book now that's like the adventures of Dunkin Egg or whatever but I don't know any of it the lore I've stayed completely away from it

I don't want to know what's happening I just want to watch the show and enjoy it so I went in with basically no expectations like I didn't know shit about it other than that it's supposed to be very different from your traditional Game of Thrones focused on the royals right Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon

and it's all about the people in power where this is obviously quite different. That was all I knew. So I was a little worried because House of the Drag, like our podcast, Oysters, clams and Cockles, does very, very well when one of these Game of Thrones shows is on. Yeah.

And House of the Dragon, people were kind of soured on because it's very self-serious, it's very dramatic. There's not a lot of humor, if any. And it has the similar vibes to like seasons, six, seven, and eight of Game of Thrones,

like the later seasons that are considered to be less fun. And a lot of people were still turned off by the way Game of Thrones ended so they didn't really come back for House of the Dragon. So I didn't know what to expect with this and they hit a home run.

It's like revitalized the freaking IP, which is great. Yeah, it's, I knew they were doing it and then I was like, the week of, they were like, I read about it or I saw that, oh, it's actually about like a guy, from Flea Bottom or whatever.

And I was like, man, I don't want to watch like a bunch of stuff about Flea Bottom. Flea Bottom's so dirty. Yeah, I thought it was going to be based in Flea Bottom. I did too. And I was like, I mean, I'll give it a chance, but like, I don't know. And it wouldn't. Not a fan of the peasants. Well, it's just gross.

Not a man of the people did. Just gross. Not those plebeians. Yeah, that's just poo. The flashback was like, too much. Yeah. It lets you know what you needed to know about Flea Bottom. It's like people dying everywhere.

Yeah, it's just, it's, it's, it's bleak. Yeah, that's poopoo and peepee. It looked like a medieval town that's been hit by the plague. Yeah. You know? Yeah, and just everyone's just kind of miserable and just play by their own roles. Well, turns out we spend almost no time in one. No, it's great.

Dennis, I found a good bit of slop over here. A lot of slop. It was compared to the Knights' Tale a lot. You remember that movie? Oh, yeah. Great movie, underrated movie. Rest in peace to Heath Ledger. Rest in peace.

Yeah, moment of silence. That movie was awesome. Love jousting. Thought there was going to be more of it in a Night of the Seven Kingdoms, honestly. I was so stoked for this tourney. Me too. To see Dunk participate in it. And then that's kind of just the backdrop.

Yeah. It's not the focus at all. And I famously was just unaware of the turn of the big reveal. Oh yeah. So I knew that going in. Okay. I was like, I knew something was up, but I just for whatever reason didn't put it together that he might be.

Egg. Yeah, that's the only reason I knew because like oysters, clams and cockles, you guys made such a big thing about him yelling out, that like, I was like, oh, this is probably, there's no other egg in the whole series. Yeah, that's clearly that guy. There's a scene in Game of Thrones where Mastor Amon... Oh, I know.

Yeah, when he's dying or whatever. So I remember that very clear. Can I address AI slop? Yes, please. First of all, AI is changing everything. That's true. Dave says it quite often. Get on board or get left behind.

So those first couple weeks after the reveal, so there were... I kept getting served like, AI created fake Game of Thrones scenes. I got this too. And it would be like Sam Tully or something like... Tarley. Sam Tarley.

Like talking about doing something that referenced, it's like, oh, dude, he alluded to this. Or he referenced this thing that happens. And I'm like, well, I don't remember that at all. And then I'm like, I look at the comments, this is fake. Yep. I saw one that was Tywin Lanister. Me too. That one I got as well.

And I'm like, who's doing this and why? Took me five seconds to be like, this is not a scene from Game of Thrones. Some asshole spent, God knows how many gallons of water making this slop. There's a data center being built next to my home because of that one particular real. I didn't get any of those, but I got a lot of hype videos and like edit, hero edits of like Sir Duncan and stuff like, you know, set to like cool music. So those are I'm cool with. I like those edits. The hero edits are great.

I like cool music as well, dude. I'm cool. But the AI shit. I don't know if you've seen. Surely you've seen this video. So it's like it's the one with the Anakin Skywalker. Yeah. Talking to Padma.

Padmay. Yeah. And she's like, we're going to cure cancer, right? And it zooms out. And the AI has made her jugs huge. Yeah.

Like really huge. Yeah, Randy sent me. That is the epitome of where we are at right now, where everyone's like, this is going to, and all these tech lords want us to believe, this is going to change the world, it's going to change everything.

But in reality, it's like, this is going to change porn. So that's what it's changed so far. Certainly it's changed the way we look at goth women. So much slop, dude. Dave loves sending goth girl memes to me in reals. And we started sending him to Dylan. He just doesn't get like why we were sending him.

He just kind of gets mad. Like we want to send him to make him feel uncomfortable all that. But he just, he was more confused than anything. It's like, no. I got served one of most grotesque ones ever the other day. I think I sent it to you. Is it the one with extra cream? No, that one was grotesque as well.

It was the one with the chicken strips. Okay. Oh, the chicken strips one, yeah. Davis sent me some very... I'm going to start sending me Ross. The first time I've ever been sent to anything that I went, okay. And I usually never liked that. Okay, I have to see that one.

Send that one to me after the show. Oh, it's bad. I respect to David. Dillie, your boy is... He loves it. He loves the AI slot. Oh. And you too, Randy.

You like the, y'all laugh about the pleasant mart thing. I enjoy it a little bit. It is kind of funny. Every now and then there will be something funny, but the bulk majority of it is just like, God damn it. This is a step I'm going to look at after my kid goes to bed, and then I'm going to just go to bed like, well, a life well lived. That's exactly.

Yeah. Come on. Like, we certainly, we could do better. We need to bring male friendship back, and we need to bring stimulating your mind. between the hours of like eight and ten back. I would help a lot. That's the two things.

That needs to be our goal. As a society. Yeah. I mean, that's why I like just going on walks and listening to fantasy music. It's like, it gets me off my phone. He hunts gnomes.

How long are these walks you go on? My producer, Cade is going on a lot of walks too. Long walks. How's Kate doing? I haven't seen Cade in a while. He's going on a lot of long walks. Like, but he's like good walks. Like getting some sun.

Yeah. They're positive walks. Hell yeah. If I bike ride or walk, like I got at least go at least an hour, maybe more like two. Yeah, he's doing, I'm an hour and a half walks. And I'm like, oh, I'm doing like 20 minutes. All right, man. I'm not doing shit.

My walks have changed because Rody, my five-year-old, he can ride a bike now without training wheels. So now he wants to ride the bike on the walk. And I'm cool with it, but I'm also like, it's a little stressful because he's still a five-year-old on a bike. Yeah. And I'm like, stop, stop, stop. you can't all the way relax no there are some parents that do yeah i don't know how though like there's kids there's kids like his age that just like ride their bikes around on like no supervision i'm like man am i like over are am i like i don't think i am i don't think you are i think shit has changed since we

were kids we've have the uh have the dirt bikes invaded your neighborhood yet the kids on motor motorcycles no but i did bikes i should say i did go to summer moon on Sunday. Oh, dude. And there was like six of those parked out front of it. So that summer moon, the south one, yeah. Is there's that bike shop right there and there's big bike clubs that meet there and they go on big bike rides, which is fine, great. There's also what you just said, there's also 10 year olds on e-bikes.

Yeah. And they just wear motocross helmets and they will just go down slaughter like doing wheelies. And I'm just like, what are you doing? I looked at my rear view the other day and there's a fucking E bite a 10 year old on an E bite doing a wheelie. I'm like, that's not okay, dude.

That's not okay. That's not street safe or legal. No. No. Yeah, we'll see if the kids are all right. I was, like, you know how they do the freshman ciphers for the new rappers? Yeah.

Like XXL or whatever does like the cipher, like 2026 freshman cipher. Yeah. I saw a clip from the most. recent one that was, I don't know, I look like a white dude to me, but I can't be sure. Doing the worst mumble rap freestyle I've ever heard in my life, which is really, really saying something. And I was like, fuck, I think I'm the age where I'm just going to hate everything new.

I am. That comes out. And like, God knows what my kids are going to be listening to when they develop their own taste. It's like a different, like, they keep, people just keep recreating it. It's like, I took out my, I emptied more 401. to buy my son's studio time so he could pursue his rap career and it just shows like this dad like listening

and it's like this shit it's like guy like yodel rapping and it's really bad but it's really funny because like the dad's face just kind of like realizing what he's done no I'm at that age too I'm at that age too it's yeah I worry

it's funny that we're at that age and like looking at younger stuff but in our career like talking to other people that aren't very online we're more locked into like, you know, clavicular and all this stupid stuff that it's even worse for other people. Like, we find this stuff funny.

Yeah. Where other people are like, I have no idea what the fuck these kids are talking about. Hold that thought. Let me talk to you because this is something you might want to talk to your therapist about. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. The new year doesn't require a new you, Ross. We were just talking about that. That's huge.

Maybe just a less burden to you. Therapy can help more easily identify what weighs you down, hold you back by office. offering an unbiased perspective to better understand your therapy, your relationships, motivations, and emotions. I mean, talk about it. Like, it's got a lot going on. It's tough, male friendship and just having less time to yourself. World's on fire. World's on fire. It's good to have someone to talk to, and that's why we like better help. Quality therapists, better help therapists work according to a strict code of conduct

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That's better-h-elp.com slash circling. You know You talk to somebody, you know Yeah, do it Do it mix it up New Year I go every week man I go to therapy weekly

Good It's one of the few things Keeping me sane It's very productive So Randy talk about us like being You know Because in our line on work Being plugged in

We're locked in We're online people right Yeah Unfortunately sometimes Most of the time So neighborhood dads Friends of the kids at school you know, their parents and stuff.

Normal people. Normal people. I don't want to call them Normies because that feels like a pejorative, right? It feels like I'm insulted. And like Normies in a good way. Like people. Offline people. Yeah.

We used to be there. And Normies just feels weird to say. It just feels. Insult. It feels cringy to say, though, too, to use as a real term. I'm going to talk to my therapist about Randy calling me cringe. No, but like it's almost hard having normal conversations. that aren't like

because all I want to do is talk about getting face-mogged or hey do you see this fucking guy he's like smashing a hammer into his jaw line to like chisel his bones so he can look smacks but realistically the conversation's like did you see where that four star out of Prosper went so it's all college football

like first of all that's the baseline you got to have college football at least a minimum amount of college football ball knowledge and then you got Pro-Shit, pro-works too. I rely on pro-shit because I don't know dick about college football. I've been, you know, doing this gig has gotten me way more into college football. And I'm still, like, not a... You've always been more of a, like...

Like, you know, like, high school ball and Duncanville still and shit. I love that, and I love... I do love college football, but, like, one thing I found, like, getting into, like... I've never gotten more blowback on a show than, like, insult, like, saying something. that a college football fan base found to be like somewhat not even insulting but just they like something they didn't feel to be accurate like um actually oh yeah actually we run the ball quite well like you know what i mean just something little and it's like well they don't know ball clearly because they weren't aware that like our uh our our third wide receiver uh transferred

in from lSU and uh he's the guy who you know it's just like little things i'm like damn you can't win it's tough yeah but uh it is funny like just going out of the neighborhood and just arms crossed being like just being like a normal guy and then like going inside looking at your phone and being like oh yeah this this tweet i had about uh dylan uh story mogging me or whatever is doing numbers and i'm like it's it's i had a neighbor recently he told me he's like dude i we never talked about like the show or anything ever but what i don't know what he does for living anything he's like and he was like oh yeah i saw your uh I got served your reel of your podcast.

It was y'all talking about dive bars in Austin. We used to go to GNS Lounge, my wife and I, like, all the time. I was like, oh, that's awesome, man. And I was like, fuck, did you keep listening? Did you subscribe? Can I bring up equivocular? Yeah, I'm like, I don't know. It was, it was just a very, very interesting dynamic where I was like, because I clearly, like, didn't continue like, man, you should check us out.

You should check out the show. I didn't sell them on the show. I was like, I'm not doing that at all. And like, I wonder if he found that weird that. I didn't talk about it outside of that. I always wonder that too. I was telling you all off-mic that I had a neighbor bring up one of my shows and that I talked about hockey.

The context isn't all that important. But in those moments, I have the same problem because there's such a stigma around what we do, dude, like, oh, you have a podcast. You know what I mean? You having to explain it. When I was on like at first dates and stuff, I would always like have, like, so you do for work, you know, video production, that I asked me more about it. I'd have to finally just get a lot.

I work podcasting, like, I do podcasting, but it's not like, I actually can have like, but it's a real, it's a real business. It's enough to make money off of it. I can actually, it's like a real job. They've been doing the show for like a decade. It's a real, it's not like, in somebody's basement. We have an office. I'm just not some insufferable guy that moved to Austin and started a podcast.

You know what I mean? It's just, yeah. You don't want to have to, like, defend your job. So I just leave it alone. I'm like, yeah. We were at our accountant, the accounting firm we use, they do, like, once a year they run out Matt's, Maddo Ranchos. Mattel Ranchos, Mattel Ranchos, Mattel Ranchos, on Tuesday. You know, they're famously closed on Tuesday.

They are, yeah. They rent it out, and they have a client appreciation. So we go, and it's name tags and what your company is, right? It's one of those. And it's great. And just, like, immediately we're there, and, like, we're getting a conversation with the guys He's like, yeah, I work for so-and-so bank. I came down here and opened the bank up.

Yeah, so I've been in banking for like 15 years, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, so what's washed media? And I was like, I think I tried to say, well, it's like a digital media company. You know, we, and then somebody was like, it's podcast. We have podcasts. He's like, oh, sick. And like, you know, that's the conversation jump off. But it was a, that's a conversation.

have quite frequent. It's just stupid because, like, I don't feel like people who worked in radio got ripped back in the day, you know? I think it's because if you worked in radio, that was like a coveted job and it was hard to get to

where it's like anyone can't pick up a microphone these days, though. But it's like the equivalent, like, you talk to somebody that says they work in radio, you don't assume it's some jackass who started his own radio show

that has seven listeners and he's like in his mom's basement. When you tell people you have a podcast, that's what they picture. They're like, Oh, this is fucking pathetic. Hey, are y'all talking about industry? Are y'all both doing a show watch?

No, no, we've never covered it because Barrett and I had both failed to dive in. And so I think he's like three episodes into season two. I'm one episode into season two. We're going to get caught up so that we can cover season five. That'll be the final season. They're in season four right now. But no, we've never covered it on oysters, clams, and cockles. Do you find yourself, like, kind of like looking at your phone to, like,

like search like because there is a lot of uh speaking of banking there's a lot of like finance terms and stuff that they're doing that oh yeah what the fuck no i don't give a shit what's going on i do not look any of it up i don't care okay it just i will never use that terminology it will never be relevant to me in any way shape or form i know nothing about investing with the markets which which goes back to like not using those terms that are like that but like being able to use you know jester maxing and mocking right right yeah you tell me what's more important No, so I was, I did a lost watch. I had never finished watch.

I never watched Lost. I started it like. Oh, you had to go back. So I watched all of Lost. And the day I stopped, I finished Lost, I started industry. And who do I see? It's Eric. Eric Tao.

Yep. Who is in the latter seasons of Lost. Yeah. And it blew my, it blew my fucking mind. You want me to blow your mind harder? Blow it harder. Yeah, blow it. Have you seen the film starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker called Rush Hour?

Yeah, I am. You remember Rush Hour? Yeah, huge movie. I'm trying to get a fourth one made. Yeah, massive trilogy. Well, he is the, the Eric from industry is the guy they think is Juntau. You know, Juntau ends up being the white guy, the white older businessman. But initially, they think Juntau is this little Asian dude who's like,

like kick-ass, like martial arts guy. That's Eric from industry. He's had a hell of a career. Low-key. Oh, that's crazy. He's been career maxing. It's true. Dude, I love Eric.

He's just a beautiful psycho. Fucking lunatic. Why does he talk to his wife that way? I don't know. That's not cool. Calls her the C-word. Yeah, it's not a good. I think he's a weird guy.

I take back to love Eric. Yeah, yes, that's C-word. Oh. It's not bad. Y'all are doing the wire rewatch still. Yeah, we're starting season three next week. I'm stoked. How did Barrett, like, the docks?

I think he liked it fine. I don't think he got as bogged down by it as a lot of people do where they're just like, what is this? Let's get back to the streets. The people who had that take back in the day that didn't age well, because people now, like, full scope. I love that season, man. I do, too. Although, it was a little weird that the guy who plays Ziggy died in the middle of us covering season two.

I was like, oh. Yeah, that was tough. Okay. Did you ever watch Generation Kill? Yep. So he's a great character in Generation Kill. Yeah. I forget his name.

James. I forget his name too. He's really good. He's really good. That guy too. Him and Heath Ledger. Indeed. Anybody else?

There's a lot of wire guys that passed. James Vanderbeek. James Vanderbeek. He was not in the wire. Not in the wire, though. That would be sick if he was. Yeah. I'm just saying.

What would he have been in the wire? I don't know. Maybe a politician? Yeah, definitely a politician. great show though the wire James Ransone James Ransone there you go yeah yeah um no I

I saw that and I was like man I could totally do another a wire rewatch that's another one I just go back in and pop in and if I got nothing going on Friday night which is most of the time I'll just go throw on soprano that's how I got my rewatch going or just like an old breaking bad or a wire which feels pathetic I'm like

why why don't I start a new show there's other shows out there that are good. Dylan watched this movie called Fall. Do you hear about this? I'm familiar with the movie. You know how he, you know, Dylan's like deathly afraid of heights? Yeah. He took an edible, small probably, but he took one and he put on heights or put on fall. What a horrible idea. Yeah, he's like, I don't know why I did that. I'm like, I don't need to. He just felt like stress maxing. Sounds terrible. Like give yourself anxiety on like a drug that, you know, can take you that way if you're not careful. Especially a person that self-proclaimed like one,

one of the biggest fears of heights too. Like, he really struggles with it. Dude, anytime Dylan and Edibles come up, I always remember that his take on weed has always been that it makes him feel like he's gonna piss himself. Yeah, he's gotten over that, but that is a problem he used to have. He always feels like he has to pee when he's high.

That's a bad feeling. As someone who often has to pee, it's not fun. No. Dave, I need to get you on some new shows. There's a lot of good shit out there, but I look at these shows like, it's comfort viewing, man. Because you know what's going to happen.

There's no anxiety. Yeah. So when you're a super stressed out person or you're a, you know, dad with young kids, it's nice to be able to go throw on a show that you've seen that you know is of the highest quality. Great storytelling, great acting, great characters. And you don't have to fucking stress because you know what's going to happen. Yeah. That's the way I look at it.

We should be reading instead. We should be. But, you know, this is my equivalent. I'm audio book maxing lately, so. I frown upon that. How in are you on the... That doesn't count, Randy. It's not reading.

Are you into the Chadverse at all? The Chadverse? Yeah, the clavicular's, the androgenic. I mean, I've obviously seen, like, my... I don't know why Twitter is forcing this on me as much as it is, because I've never clicked on one of these or, like, looked into it because it just immediately flagged as, like, okay, this is way below my pay grade. But I'm familiar enough.

I know that one dude had fake hair, that somebody snatched his hat off his head. Yeah, they said he was fraud maxing. Which... That's tough. Real tough look for him. And I saw the clavicular getting frame-mogged by the ASU frat leader who ended up not being a frat leader.

Ferris. He was a jeed. Also fraud-maxing. Yeah. But... Still a maugger, though. But it's deeply upsetting. Did you check out the, do you see the Iowa frat video? That was incredible.

Yeah, I've retweeted y'all's clip, I think. I may have shared it on both platforms. That was like one of the funniest things I've seen y'all put out. Thank you. That was a viral sensation. It was very good. Good clip, Randy. Yeah, that was something that we didn't even pick up on in the moment that, like, looking

at the comments of that, like, somebody brought up the fact that one of the, one of the two active that's talking to the police had kind of a raspy voice. Like he sounded like he was like getting over like an illness. And they're like, no, he probably had just been yelling at those pledges all night. And he lost his voice. Yeah, I also saw the take that one of the reasons they behave like the best pledge class ever. None of them breaks rank. None of them rats or says anything is because they think they're being pranked by the actors. Yeah, yeah. We mentioned that. I did not even consider that as a possibility. But they thought they were being like testing. Yeah. To see. if they would break.

That's absolutely going to happen to subsequent pledge classes. Oh, no doubt. Like, that's going to be a thing. You got to give a lot of credit to, one of the reasons that video is so funny is because of the police, the things they're saying,

that the cops are saying, where they're just like, I can't get any of them to respond to me. It's so good. Like, those cops really weren't dicks. They were just kind of... They were just confused. They were like,

they really, they weren't aggressive. It was almost like, honestly, if that's my police department and I would, you know, expecting like law enforcement to go in there and really like break this stuff up, I'm kind of like, what are you doing? Y'all kind of went in there and got like Alfoot. What happened? San Marcos PD would have been tasing and bear macing all of those kids.

Yeah. And arresting everyone. Yeah. Where was that video, by the way? Iowa. Iowa. Okay. Yeah.

Those were super chill cops. Respect. Yeah. And like, I don't really know the nation. of what was going on there. People say, well, hazing's hazing. Well, like, they weren't making them, like,

chug, eat a bunch of shit that could kill them or drink alcohol until they could die. Just from what they'll look at it. It just looked like they were covered in ketchup and mustard. They were probably just in a dark room blindfolded being, you know,

food thrown on them. They're probably getting yelled at. They're probably having to do, like, a bunch of wall sits and, like, push-ups and all that. Like, nothing too crazy. Recite. Recite fraternity lore.

Give the alphabet, the creed and all that. Yeah. Yeah. No, and look, the typical stuff, you know. Yeah, I saw a lot of the discourse around that. There are definitely levels to hazing. People don't like that, acknowledging that, but there are levels to it.

There is what I would call healthy hazing, and then there's the very toxic version of it that's problematic and illegal. There's the alcoholic kid who had a bad day and it was going to take it out on a pledge. Yeah, that's not good. That's not good at all. He's going to make a pledge, go get him. I don't know, maybe like $42 worth of Taco Cabana at 3 a.m. on like a Wednesday night and just not pay the pledge for it. Yeah, like that's not cool.

Like that might happen to somebody. Yeah. But those dudes did seem like they were having an okay time, you know? I mean, they were having a well enough time where they weren't like, get us out of here. Save us. These guys are real psychos. One of them just kicked me in the dick.

This guy, man, these guys got real problems at home. We had to get one of my pledge brothers got kicked in the dick during one of our lineups. And the lineup got shut down immediately. Yeah. And I remember feeling really conflicted because I was so happy that the lineup was over, but also my boy just got kicked right in his junk. There was always the thought of that. If anyone accidentally got injured, of course, it would be shut down immediately.

There was always the joke or, well, like, you were on the wall. It was like, do I just take a dive and like hit my head really quickly for the plush class to end of the night? Hurt myself to me to stop? Dude, how funny is it that there's a stoppage? due to a low blow. Yeah. And your lineup. They're like, all right, give them five minutes to gather himself.

All right, night's over. So, all right, you know, accidental eye poke. They panicked, man. They got everybody out of there, like, immediately. I guess I should say you panicked. Y'all panicked. I don't say y'all out of there. You were in there somewhere.

I don't know. You weren't part of, like, the disturbing hazing team, though. You and I were the type of people who made jokes. They're a funny guy. Look at us now. I'd go to line up drunk and whisper in a pledge's ear. that would make him crack. Like, that's good hazing.

That's good. That's what I talk about. I'll talk offline about that, though, what you mentioned in a, because I don't remember that. You don't remember the kick in the dick? No. Oh, it was. The shit I would hear about like old, old, old school ones, like, you know, back when it was

like. When they physically abused each other in the 80s. I was like, I don't know if I would have done. The elephant walk? I probably would have quit. I was so scared we were going to have to do the elephant walk. I thought that was real. Randy, do you know what the elephant walk is?

I know the elephant walk. The problem is. to do it. The Elephant Walk was so ridiculous and like it was like lore and such a joke that there were absolutely, there was like a psycho that was like, hey, dude, it would be hilarious if we made him do it. And I guarantee that some, some fraternity out there in the last 10 years has done it has made their pledges to do it. And there's also like not, that's not good behavior. That's the unhealthy hazing. There's always lore of hazing too about what guys had to do before you that I still to this day don't know what is true and what's not. like I heard that people before me had gotten like waterboarded.

I've heard that people like like someone took a buzz saw to everyone's shoes and like told them to curl their toes or like people would drop billy your balls next to people's heads while they're doing pushups. None that shit ever happened. I don't know if any of that shit is real. They used to jump off the, they used to jump off the roof onto the flagpole. Yeah, they used to hang people out.

They used to do bows and toes on broken glass and bottle caps. They used to hang you off the roof and like hold your arms. make sure that you trust the brothers like who knows if any of that shit actually happened i came to you a lot of it did in the 80s oh yeah who knows what's true and what's not all i know is that i'll be rocking fair harbor clothing when it's all said and done i flippin love fair harbor i love the spring collection uh we're fans of the jeans we know about the the crew necks and whatnot wearing those all the time dylan was wearing his yesterday but we love fair harbor we love the world's most comfortable swimwear. You know about that. But like the spring line,

Randy, we got the Terry Cloth polos that we're both a fan of. We got the short sleeve button downs that we both got. Springs right around the corner. If your closet's feeling a little tired, Fair Harbor's got you covered. They make insanely comfortable everyday pieces you actually want to wear, again, like the swimwear, the best selling swim trunks to their unbelievably soft hoodies. You can't really go wrong. I've got this powder blue hoodie that I've been waiting to break out because it's powder blue. I want it to be a little bit more like springy. I could probably break it out now.

It's great. I was talking about my ocean front shirt that was in color shell that you guys said looked really good. And I was telling breath the other day. I think Fair Harbor might be like my favorite pair of jeans. They're fantastic. And if you want to check them out, go to fair harborclothing.com. Use code circling 20 for 20% off your full price order now through. Ooh.

End of the week. February 28th. Once again, that's Fair Harbor, H-B-O-R-B-R-Clothing.com for 20%. off. Make sure you use our code circling 20 so they know we sent you. You got a few days left, so do that. Oh, are we actually, so I don't know, I could talk to you about heat because unlike the guy who normally sits there, I feel like you respect heat. Yeah, I'm real confused about what's going on, though, because I thought the whole idea with heat too was that it was going to be a flashback to like their early days. Yeah. But, but, but,

They've cast Leo and Christian Bale, correct? Allegedly. Christian Bail, unless I'm getting fake news, Christian Bail let it leak that he's doing it with Leo. Right. That's what I saw as well. And I also have not checked to confirm that that's actually legit. We know everything online is fake these days.

But both of them, Leo and Bale, are older than the original actors were in the first heat. So I think maybe we've just been bamboozled by people telling us this is going to be like the prequel. I don't know. I don't know. Do you, would it offend you if I read the AI overview? No. AI's changed everything. How much water is this going to take?

I'll be brief. He too. Oh, okay. It's based on a novel, a Michael Mann novel and Meg Gardner, Gardner, that functions is both a prequel and a sequel. It does, but get you a novel that can do both. Both. It follows Chris escaping LA after the heist while exploring the earlier lives of Neo and Vince, diving deeper into their origins, high-stakes robberies, and their personal lives. This crew is good.

She's got a great ass. All-time great scene. That guy was on cocaine. Well, you know, that's, okay, I'm glad you brought, I bring this up, like, once a year. This is a trope, a Dave trope. So, so Pacino said in, like, later interviews that his character, his quote, not mine, was supposed to be like having a little bit of a Coke problem. He was chipping cocaine.

Right. And so the reason he does that is because he was supposed to be kind of coked out in that scene. So if you're watching, when you're watching the heat and you see that and you're like, Jesus, what? And you're kind of like, all right, that's Pacino. He's a little over the top. But like, no one does that. No one talks like that. And then you're like, oh, yeah, a Cokehead would probably come in there and do that.

And you've got your head all the way up in it. All the way up in. Yeah, a little bit of overacting, but I love that. Something happened to Pacino post like Godfather 2 in Scarface where he just was like, you know what, I'm going to make this scene about me. Dude, one of the things that happened to him is that he got, his accountant robbed him of millions of dollars. Is that right? Yeah, that's why he ended up in that Adam Sandler movie, Jack and Jill, doing a Dunkin' Donuts musical.

I don't, I never saw Jack and Jill, but I've seen the scene where Pacino shows up and he, and he, He does like a Dunkin' Donuts musical. That's not in my top five Sandler movies. I'd like to get yours. Top five Sandler movies? We talked about this yesterday. Yeah, I'm going to put you on the spot, and I'll give you a sec to think.

We said top three, I think. Well, for me, it's Billy Madison, Gilmore, and controversial wedding singer. That's not controversial to me at all. It's a great movie. A lot of people, I think it's... I think it's just forgotten about. Yeah.

It does not get talked about enough. Little Nicky's in there in the top five for me as well, and then maybe Big Daddy. I would say like, Billy Madison is also my number one. Happy Gilmore is also my number two. Same. Big Daddy's definitely in the top five. Wedding singer's definitely in the top five.

Wedding singer needs to be discussed more. Steve Buscemi's character in that is fucking hilarious. It's a great movie. Like, it is just a good movie. The bad guy jock boyfriend slash fiance is incredible. Glenn Gullia? Glenn Gullia. He's such a scumbag.

Julia Gulia. He's just an 80s. 80s, Wall Street, piece of shit. I was saying Waterboy. And I enjoy the Longest Yard. I enjoy the longest yard. Okay. Longest Yard's fine.

It's a remake, though. Uncle Jems. Don't forget Uncle Jems. Uncle Jems might be in there for you. Yeah, but I don't know if that counts as an Adam Sandler movie. You know, he's the star of the movie. Okay. But that's not like an Adam Sandler comedy.

51st dates was the first time I saw Sean Aston outside of Lord of the Rings. So that was quite the... That was jarring, wasn't it? He's in so much shit, by the way. He's in fucking Stranger Things. He was Rudy, right? Yeah. I forgot all about that his role in Stranger Things.

Alyssa had to remind me. Yeah, he died. He was like a big deal. It was a big character. And I was like, oh, yeah, I completely... It's because Stranger Things had been on for so long. And, like, I felt like something like... This season before the last one kind of dragged on a little bit.

It was long. And I just had... forgot about like what went on the first couple years. Sandler has made some absolutely ridiculous movies. I love it. Don't mess with the Zohan. Never saw it. My friends love that one. Never saw that one. I watched Chuck and Larry and it was fine. He's been trying to get me to watch grownups too. No, no, that's

that's uh, Dylan that wants you to watch. I want you to watch Shrek. I've never seen Shrek. You've, you've never seen the movie Shrek. Michael Myers has a big green What is he an ogre? An ogre? He's an older. Dude, Shrek is actually like a really, really good movie.

Should I watch it with my son? Yeah, like 100%. You probably love it. It's awesome. Shrek 2 is even better. The stories around Shrek, we don't have to get sidetracked on this, but I'll just say, if you look up the story of like the making of Shrek, it is fascinating. It's like this guy got fired from Disney, started DreamWorks, wanted to do like the anti-Disney

animated movie. Like, obviously Shrek has all these. fairy tales yeah yeah and uh and initially chris farley was going to play shrek they had done like some of the voice recording acting crap chris farley dies they have to reboot the whole fucking thing they record all of it with michael meyers then they decide this works better if he does a scottish accent they did not have the scottish accent initially for shrek they re-record the whole fucking thing it costs like two million dollars Anyway, a lot of Shrek lore out there that I've...

I remember where I was when I found out Chris Farley died. You do? Oh, in fact. Oh, I don't remember. It was eighth grade student council ice skating trip. When we had just gotten back, the buses were unloading at my middle school for my junior high. And I don't know how the word got out because this is pre-cell phones. Cell phones changed everything.

So it's very much like AI. Yeah, and I was like, oh, I remember being just like, to an eighth grader. It was shocking. Yeah. I think, I mean, that's... He was in his prime. He was the funniest man alive. Yeah, Saigon Horde bit his nose off.

He was living a messy life. Oh, one that I watched a lot as a kid, and I'm not really sure why, was Deuce Bigelow male Gigolo. I watched that movie kind of a lot. And the premise alone is sort of an appropriate. for like a 10-year-old, you know? Yeah. That one's just, that's just a hilarious. Like, that's a funny movie, the fact that it was made and given who's in it.

I guess I was 12 when it came out. Rob Schneider is a prostitute. Rob Schneider, a stapler. A stapler. A carrot. Yeah, Sandler went on a historic run, cranked out like five all-time great classics, and then was like, okay, now I can do whatever I want. I'm just going to make the silliest shit in the world with my friends.

And it used to piss me off. Because I was such a big fan. And when his movies came out, I just felt no need to go. I was like, this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen as a trailer. And then eventually, the older I got, I was like, no, actually, I respect this, especially because he was still pulling in like $200 million Netflix deals. He put all his buddies in the movies. Yeah, every time.

Yeah, Little Nicky was the last one I saw in theaters. I can remember being in high school and being like, okay, I'll go see Little Nicky and being pleasantly surprised. It went over my head. I did not click with a little Nick. It was a little bit... The character, Nikki, was not his best character, but, like, the random...

The voice was insane. Yeah, the random... Yeah, Popeye's Chicken. Like, the random site, Kevin Neeland with a boob on his head. It was funny. I was like, I was Kevin Neelan. Click, random Adam Sandler movie

that I will never watch again. Wildly depressing. One of those ones that is, advertises one thing and that is just completely a different thing when you go actually watch the movie. I was like 20 when I watched it was like crying at the end. I think that might be the first movie I can really think about getting choked up watching. Really? Yeah. Absolutely heartbreaking shit. Out of nowhere. I've never, I don't even know the premise of Click. Click is that he has a remote that can control time and it can control the universe. You could fast forward your life.

It, yeah, it gets. Does he cut his life into pieces? Mistakes are made. Yeah. He has regrets. Don't we all? You know? But yeah, don't watch that one. It was like advertised as like a comedy because like the main scene is like him doing slow-mo of a girl with big boobs running. So it was like, oh, this is going to be a funny comedy.

That was the whole marketing campaign for that movie was him putting that woman with huge breasts running in slow motion. So every teenage boy was like, fuck yeah, I'll go watch this. And then you watch it. And it's like about how. you don't appreciate your life, it will pass you by, and you'll be alone and everything will suck. That's what the... And they knew. We can't market an Adam Sandler movie as something serious.

Yeah. So they had to go the comedy route, but like, it was not a fucking comedy, man. Like, we should, like, try to get Dylan to watch Click and be like, dude, you got to watch. It's hilarious. It's so funny. It's so good. It was hilarious. It was hilarious. It was that, it was the press thing.

And then him pausing a scene with his, like, uh, boss that was, like, annoying him. and he just like slaps the shit out of his boss because he like paused time. And then unpauses. And the guy's like, oh, my jaw hurts. And then he does it like again. Yeah. So it's like, oh, this is going to be a funny movie.

But no, no, no. I also saw Adam, I can't get away from Adam Sandler now. You saw his comedy tapes. Remember the tapes that he would put out the albums he would put out? Yeah, he grew up on those. Faddy McGee, you're the facts. I can't remember if I sent you this, but like last week I got a reel of a dad. It was like a, you know, I get all this.

parenting content on Instagram now. And it was a dad like the premise of the real, the sketch was him explaining to his kids how funny this was when he was a kid. And he's trying to explain the goat sketch. You fucking wheeze that thing. And just realizing that like none of this aged well, it's all ridiculous. I will say my dad and I both found humor. And I remember I have a vivid memory of, do you remember a piece of shit car?

the song? I used to listen to that. I did too. Like, like, I really liked the song. One time, one time I wouldn't get out of bed and my dad played piece of shit car really loud on the stereo. And I got it out of bed. We used to be able to bring in music to music class sometimes if like it was your turn.

I definitely remember one kid bringing in Lunch Ladyland for us to like listen to. Oh, that's a classic. Oh, that's a, that's a crier. But that's like an S&L. Yeah, that was an S&O. If you go back and watch Sandler, I don't know if it was when he was on SNL recently, or maybe he was in one of his shows. He does a Chris Farley tribute. Yeah, that was like one of his.

He mentioned Norm and it's a tear joker. He did multiple. He did one at the 50th anniversary of SNL. And then they also had like an anniversary thing for Farley's death at some point. I'll never, I'll never. When I hear sloppy Joe, I 100%. Well, at first I'll go to Billy Madison. I made him extra sloppy.

Yeah, I was going to say that's my first one. But I'll also just in my head here. sloppy joe slap joe it's so dumb yeah i don't think my kid will find uh oh i don't know what was it now the severe beating of a high school spanish teacher yeah i don't think my kid's gonna find that but it does thinking about it now it's like dude this had it had it had it's so fun to make this is like shit that like it's just the dumbest comedy ever it's the dumbest and it worked no fatty mckey don't take the stairs like so dumb i think he moved units like i think he's He toured, he toured on it.

He would do a what, he did like a what the hell happened to me tour. Like, if you tried to do that now, like, if you and me decided like, all right, let's make a fucking sketch comedy, audio only album where, like, I just, I feel like people would be like, what is wrong with these guys? I mean, we're not too far off doing podcasts, but I mean, I know what you mean, yeah. It's like sketches, but you can't see it. It's just the audio. I know, uh...

AIs changed everything. I know that like Dan Rob and Jake had tried doing stuff like that I listened to it and some of it was funny Yeah they did they do a lot of audio sketches They did some long form stuff Um

It go back some of that shit Tim Meadows is on It's so good It's so dumb though And now the severe beating of a high school janitor I feel like it would make me feel really weird If I went and listened to that now

Some of it didn't age Like some of it didn't age well. It's like, ooh, I don't know if I would have done that one. But when you're like a nine-year-old boy trying to figure out your sense of humor, that shit hit like crack. Yeah, we would. It was incredible. I mean, if you weren't out throwing the football and being like, oh, fucking regular stopback over there. If you weren't doing the goat voice.

Fucking. The way he said, like the characters he came up. Nobody does are talking about. Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, why don't you show Ross are. App draft. Did you see this?

Everybody's saying Dylan won the app draft. I don't know if I did see this. These aren't phone applications. These are appetizers. Oh. I also took a screenshot of where Dylan. People were really mad at me. Randy and they think my draft just sucked.

But they're mad of Randy. My draft sucked. Dylan was goaded. Randy, you went fried pickles in the first round. I love fried pickles. They're one of my favorite advertisers. I can eat a bunch of them. What the fuck is a cheddar biscuit, dude?

He meant the, I was outside of the original talk when they said that we couldn't pick specific things. They red lobster cheddar bay biscuits. Okay. And what are tater skins? Potato skin. French fries? No.

Like the thicker fucking wider sliced potatoes? Yeah, they like have cream, that have not cream cheese, have sour cream, cheddar, and then spinach artichoke dip. Jesus Christ. I love all those things. Wings count as an app? Oh, trust me. People were very mad that they don't think they'll first pick.

Everybody is, everybody loves wings. Everybody was shocked that wings went, weren't a first, like the first overall pick. And my whole take is like, I will never order wings as an appetizer. I love wings. I might like wings more than anything up on here. But to me, it's just not something I'll order as an app. And anyway, that is all the comment. So this is getting a lot of action on Instagram.

Y'all went in weird directions with. this hot pretzel hot pretzel I've never had that I'm not even never ordered that that sounds like a Midwest that sounds like

you get that at a ball game or a fucking movie or you only get that at like a Bavarian restaurant that has like you know Cocoes the hell's a deviled slonck

deviled eggs deviled egg why is calling that Dylan is hopelessly addicted to slonkers slonkers comes from a real was it raw meat experiment

there's a guy who would just eat raw eggs and you called them slonkers I love deviled eggs but I also don't know if I would consider that, like, a classic appetite. I feel like I've only had them at, like, cookouts as, like, a side dish that someone brings. Calamari is my number one.

I don't know why. I'm getting shit on by, like, three people that are really mad about Calamari. Why? I don't know. I'm like, Calamari's... Ignore them, Dave. They're wrong. Calamari's fantastic.

It varies, though. Some places have dog shit calamara. I only get it, like, if I'm at, like, a nice Italian John. And then it hits every time. at a nice Italian restaurant. Low lemon. You can't go wrong. Some people were dunking on

mozzarella sticks. I thought that was like number one. I thought Mott sticks were going to be really good. And, you know, at the end of the day, my draft is what it is. I thought the Mott sticks were good. Mozrella sticks remind me of Sonic. I've eaten a lot of Sonic mozzarella sticks.

You got time for a quick story? We got time. I'd like to, can I do a shout-up to our friends at Shopify? Do some business. And then I got a quick story about Motsa sticks. Because starting something new isn't just, hard, it's terrifying. So much work goes into this thing.

You're not entirely sure if it's going to work. It can be hard to make a leap of faith. Trust me, I know when we started this year company, we didn't know what we were doing. What if nobody listens? What if our audience hates us? What if they get mad about my mozzarella sticks? You never know. Now I know that I was right and believing in myself and launching this business.

Despite all the fears and hesitations, it also helps knowing that you have a partner like Shopify on your side. that's the e-commerce, excuse me, the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the United States from household names like washed media to brands just getting started. Wow. Wow. Get started with your own design studio with hundreds of ready to use templates. Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand style.

Get the word out like you have a marketing team behind you. You can easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers, or scrolling or strolling, Randy. Best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with world-class expertise and everything from managing inventory to international shipping to process, processing returns, and beyond. It's time to use those what-ifs.

Turn those one-ifs into new sales with Shopify today. Sign up with your $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash circling. That's Shopify.com slash. circling. Shopify.com slash circling. Circling. So when I was in high school, you know how when you turn 16, you like, do driver's ed? Oh, yeah. You know? So I never did that. I got the driver's ed in a box, the one they send to your house and you're supposed to do it with your parents and your parents

document and sign off on the hours you drive and you have to read literature about the rules and the safety regulations of the road, et cetera. So I also refused to do that. And my parents, I can't give you like a ton of context here, but my parents basically gave up and just said, fuck it. And gave me my mom's old car, became my car. It was a Ford expedition and 98 Ford Expedition. And they said, just go for it.

So I drove for six months without a license and without insurance. And in hindsight, my parents really dropped the ball there. that's just not good parenting. So for six months, I drove without a license. And the first night that I got my actual license, I was allowed to drive to and from school, and that was it. And then when I finally got my license, then I was allowed to drive like everybody else, you know?

And I'm still not clear on how I got it, because, again, I never took a test. But regardless, I got a driver's license. The first night, I had some of my boys meet up with me in the park around the corner from my neighborhood. We parked in the parking lot and we got drunk. Okay. Drinking beers.

Drinking and driving. Don't do it. It's illegal. It's also not safe. Not cool, Randy. It's a terrible, terrible idea. It shouldn't even be funny, but this story kind of is. And so I got good and drunk.

And I drove my 1998 Ford Expedition about a half mile to a Sonic. And I ordered food and they brought it out to me on roller skaterscape. or whatever, and then, uh, and then when I, when I went to leave, you know how Sonic is. You pull in diagonally. I know. And they've got the, uh, got a scratch in my throat. Get you some waterhaws. Is it going to pass, Dave? Go and get you a stamp house. So when I went to leave the Sonic, I did not take, I did not take into account the angle at which you pull into the spot. I know exactly what happened here. And my dumb ass didn't have a ton of driving experience. So I turned and I was, I had been, uh, I was inebriated. So I, I,

and I'm 16 years old, and I turned, and it's a giant fucking SUV. And I turned out in a way that the Sonic menu scraped down the full length of the car, and I was so panicked that I just jerked at the wheel, and I straight up ripped the Sonic menu out of the ground with my vehicle. And so it was just kind of like, you know, how it was basically like half falling over. And I panicked, and I peeled out, and I left. and I went home and I was I was freaking out I was like oh my god I'm going to be in so much trouble and I parked the car in front of my house and I got out and I looked at the damage that I had done and

it was this massive yellow streak and in a partial dent down the side of the car I was like fuck how do I keep anybody from finding this and I parked the car so that the streak was facing out away from it was basically so that my dad or mom couldn't walk out the front door and immediately see the damage. But what I hadn't considered was that they're still going to see it when they drive by the car. And I just, I remember my dad waking me up in bed being like, what the hell did you do?

And for weeks, this Sonic menu just sat there, fucking half ripped out of the ground before they fixed it. And they had to have been like, what the, like, oh my God. It was so stupid. And that was literally how I started my driving career. And they never, like, tied it to you? No, nobody ever showed up. Statute of limitations.

Yeah, I don't know what happened there, but for some reason, maybe they didn't have a camera on that area of the fucking parking lot or whatever. But anyway, that's my sonic memory. And it's just like a good reminder that when I was 16, I used to be a piece of shit, you know, but people can change. People can change. Ross changed. Damn.

Did you order? Do you remember the order? Like, what was your go-to? Dude, in all honesty, I was probably ordering like a large slushie to put more booze in. You got to go tots. You got to hit them with tots. They're so good. The matza sticks are great, though.

I used to, I eat a lot of footlong hot dogs. He did. I can confirm. Yeah, Dylan, too. Dylan turned into one, actually. Very phallic food, but I loved it. Just fucking, they'd give you that plastic fork to eat this rubber, rubber-ass hot dog that's just covered in chili and cheese. I didn't even use a fork.

I didn't even use my hands. You just took it down the gullet. I just went after that thing. Gullet, God. I actually deconstructed it. I would just eat the bun by itself and then the hot dog. You'd eat the chili and cheese with a spoon after at the very end. There's a sonic right down the street.

Dude. No shit. Maybe on my way out. I kind of brought food for lunch, but should I just go black sheep and get a hot dog? A good old hot dog? Yeah. I did get a chili cheese. You're talking about Black Sheep Lodge?

Yeah. The bar? Yep. They got good food, good wraps. They get really good tater tots. I think the second best, as far as I've seen. It's good bar food. Second best tater tots in Austin. Very greasy. It's all very greasy. Facts.

As bar food is meant to be. Funny enough, I think the best tater tots is Tommy Watt Wongy, who their mascot is, you know. Chris Farley. Chris Farley. And Black Sheep was also Chris Farley. So how about that? I don't like when people do this. So I'm assuming Tommy Want Winkie. is a real wing establishment.

Yeah. I don't like when people do this when they take a pre-existing brand or joke and they turn it into an eatery. Weirds me out a little bit. Like, is anybody from Tommy Boy getting a check cut for that?

Because, like, can you just take jokes from shit and make it into a fucking restaurant? The estate of Chris Farley would like a word. That's what I'm saying. Can I make a food truck that's all sloppy Joe's and that's called made them extra sloppy for you? Extra sloppy.

You send me a slack video. That's a good idea, actually. You sent me a video called something extra sloppy. Extra sloppy would be a good name for a sloppy Joe joint. Now you're changing my whole perspective on shit. Dude, let's do it, dude. It has to be good. It has to be good, I guess.

Sell your shit on Shopify, your sloppy joys. I think that hot pie kid from Game of Thrones started a bakery and named it like, I don't know. Game of Thrones spawned a lot of these fucking breweries and bakeries and shit with Game of Thrones names. It just kind of weirds me out. I don't know. I say this is a guy. Randy started drinking mead. Podcasts called the oysters, clams, and cockles.

So I don't think I can talk. But, uh, but yeah. You can find them on oysters. Did you say mead? Yeah, he drinks mead. Yeah, he drinks mead. That makes sense. You're a Renaissance Fair guy.

Oh, yeah. I'm trying to get Dave to go to the one. Dude, the Renaissance Fair rules. I want to go. I really do want to go. I'm not against it. It sounds like a lot of fun. You just, you've got to dress up, though.

You got to make a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not going to be the guy there. Oh, man, I'm wearing my shirt. I bet because of the Night of the Seven Kingdoms, a lot of these Renaissance fair folk will dress as squires. They're definitely going to see a bump. Yeah. I bet.

Less knights, more squires or more. What if I go is hedge knights? What if I shave my... Your whole shit? Yeah. Alopecia Dave. I don't know. I mean, do you? No, I'm not going to do that because it might not grow back.

Darn it. Oh, man. We're joking, but we're not. Ladies gentlemen, Ross Bolin. Love you guys. Anything you want a promo? OCC? Check out OECD, check out Oasters Clams and Cockles.

We're going to be doing the Wire season three next. We've got Euphoria coming up in April. We'll cover that. Euphoria season three, Sydney Sweeney's an only fans model. If that doesn't get you, I don't know what will. And then after that, we got House of the Dragon season three in June. We're going to be having a lot of fun if you're a Houston sports fans. Sometimes I do bang in the can.

But really what would make my day is if you just gave me a follow on Instagram and Twitter, Dave. W.R. Bowling. Thank you. Faulta, man. Thank you very much. Thanks for hopping on, Ross. Yeah, always always a pleasure. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye-bye. Bye.