Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Transition with Holmes & Vitali

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

He looked motivated today. Unbelievable. Thanks to T.J. Edwards for being in on the bit. Thanks to the Bears for being in on the bit. Thanks also to our fabulous guests. Chris Emma, Mike Florio, Vinnie Duber, all doing work for us today. Thanks to Ray Diaz, Tyler Buterbaugh, Tyler Farangold for helping us out. Thanks to Carmen Vitale for bringing amazing cookies for best work yet.

Before we talk to her, let's thank some other people. Cody Westerlund, Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Studt, and Max Curtis. Hi Lawrence Holmes. Hi, Carmen Vitale. I'm sorry to put you guys on the spot. What's happening? The real problem is the real MVP, CV over here, brought perhaps her best cookies she's ever made. And I didn't think the one she had made the last time could be top. So Mars Hall said to me, he's like, did you get a cookie? Because, you know, I brought Carmen upstairs. So I knew that she brought the two plates of cookies. There were two plates? There's only one now. One plate now. One plate now. Oh, he was like, they're still warm. And I was like, wait. What? Yeah, they're not just warm, but yeah, I bake them right before I came.

They taste like many pre-pre-like, before ingredients went to hell, Otis Spunkmeyer cooking. I warned you, Boutherbaugh. I warned you. Listen, I've already had to. Someone's got to stop me right there. And then all the bosses kept coming into the control room and I'm like, what's happening here? I was like, oh, Carmen brought the cookie.

Yeah, I did. No, I made the dough last night and then I chilled it overnight. And then I just baked them off right before I came. And that is the secret to getting the show. shape of the cookie she got. Carmen, to be fair, you warned me. Warned is not the right word. You're the reason I brought them in because you made me promise to bring them in next time.

I was nice. You promised. I was like, yo, give me cookies. And she was like, oh, I'll make more cookies. And then you came, you were just here. You weren't on, but you were here. Yeah, I was here. Oh, when I come back next time when I'm on the air and I forgot that that was this week.

And here we are. Next two days. It's a happy Thursday. Never forget. You gave me cookie, got you cookie. Got you cookie. Got you cookie. Cooking couch. Cook.

I'm going to get that on a shirt. I know. I want that on a shirt too. That'd be great. As a woman broadcaster in a male dominated field. Yeah. The way to a man's heart is always still through his stomach. It's why I started making cookies.

It's very simple. It's not with money. It's literally why I'm like I'm not a baker. I'm a I cook. Yes, you are. No, I cook. I don't like baking because it's so precise. But when I was working for the Buccaneers and trying to get in with the coaching staff

and like get on their good stuff. that's when I decided I was going to start making cookies. And what do you buy the guy who has everything? Cookies? Yeah. I had, by the end of like my tenure there, I had coaches just like commissioning cookies.

They were like, can you just make me a batch that I can take home. I'll pay you for it. It's a beautiful sign of love. And I am a fan of it. Like, people don't understand that. Now I actually have a kitchen aid.

I never had a kitchenane mixer until we got married. We got one for the wedding. So now it's like the easiest thing ever. Yeah. Made with love and butter love. You can only have it when you're married apparently. Literally like it's made with love and an evergreen kitchen aid mixer with an Acacia wood bowl.

What color is it? It's the evergreen. It's the evergreen series with the Acacia bowl. It's gorgeous. It's so expensive. It's stupid. But we got it on a registry and people chipped in and they got it for it. I said, save me one cookie.

All right. At least one. Carmen, I'm going to forgive you for lying to my face just. I'm not a baker. I can't process that sentence after I just ate two of your cookies and I'm going back for a third. Not if I tackle you first. With that being said, we need to put this out there. I don't know if this will do anything.

But we're verbalizing this on the air. We're saving one cookie for Lawrence and one cookie for studs. We need to save two cookies. Well, since you kids already ate the whole other place. You guys are in charge of the cookies right now. Like we we're we're there's there's glass between where we are and where the cookies are. So like you guys aren't charged. It was a bad idea to put me in charge.

I know. I didn't realize. I might. There might be a few left. Tyler is honest. You know, he's a loyal guy and he's honest. You were warm, you to ball. You're on the list.

Yo, Layla, you know about my problems with portion control. This is not a secret. Portion control. Like you remember when you, what was it? The rice Kris Krispreeze were back there. And I was eating like two every break. The funniest was how definitive you were in. And then you were the most dad mode I'd ever seen you.

You were like, and that's why blah, blah, blah. And then he picked up a cookie and then walked away. And then he was quiet because he was just sitting there enjoying the cooking. And every time he'd like say something definitive with like definitive body language and stand up. And then point made, grab a cookie. Grab a cookie. And every time I was laughing. Your reward for like making a point.

It was the most like my dad. I think you've ever been. It's a hard road to come back from not being able to discern what is it. an acceptable amount of food to eat and what is an acceptable amount of food to eat. And that has been a long, hard journey. And it's the reason why I don't keep sweets in the house. And it's

Well, all right, so Marshall, let's talk about it. Let's really, let's get into it. Unpack it. What's the thing that if it's in the house, it won't be in the house? Well, cookies. I think

I told you the Oreo double stuff story during the pandemic. Yes. But I want to know about like right now, like specifically what would trigger this for you? Anything that's not good for me, basically, look, what's in my house right now? Like right now, I'm pretty thin because I was just out of town and I haven't been grocery shopping for real. And right now it's just different kinds of nuts, like cashews, peanuts, almonds. Cachshus are addictive. There's still a little bit of fruit love because I made a quick fruit run to the Julesco.

So, but that's pretty much. With blueberries. Stay away from blueberries, right? Wait, why are we staying away from? Their recall is it like the FDA's highest. Yeah, it's gotten to the strongest level recall. They will kill you. Yeah, I retweeted it.

It's the highest level recall where they're, like the FDA is warning that it can make you imminently like sick or die. You look like a blueberry. Stand by. I have reposted this and we'll read you the terminology. All right. So while we're waiting on that. Reasonable probability of death.

Yes, from blueberries. Like reason, not a chance of death, but a reasonable probability. And then people are like, well, how reasonable is it? Do you want to risk it? Just stay away. Just stay away. That feels like you should just throw all your blueberries away. It's almost like we need regulatory oversight to make sure the food is sick.

It's like nobody read up since Sinclair's the jungle. History is good for you. The FDA is the ones who issued the warning, right? Yeah. Okay. So there's a little bit of oversight. Yeah, because. lawsuits matter. Like you can you can play on the front end and be like, oh, regulations

bad. But what you forget about is the lawsuits still matter. Let's go back to Marshall's cabinet and what's not in it. So what's specifically not in the cabinet right now? Because if it were, then it would no longer be in the cabinet. Okay. So that'd be any type of cookie. Any type of cookie. Any type of sweet reason, like chocolate, chocolate, anything. What about like skittles and like like sugar candy. Those would have a better chance of making it because I don't really eat the hard candy anymore.

Like Starburst, Skittles. What about sour strips? Never was really a sour patch guy or anything. Wait, how is he was going to pull it out of the bed? What else is in there? What else is in there? What is a Mary Poppins bag, friends? Why is Carmen a magician?

Mary Poppins. Is this your card? I have pretzels and I have caramel. Holy crap. So, like, yeah, none of that stuff is going to be. I like snacking. Okay, cool. Snack at your place in your bag.

Don't bring that to my bar bag. It's in my bag. I know. I know. I do Pilates so I can snack. So the problem is if I have quick access to it where it's not, like Layla's kind of describe the problem. If I'm not thinking about it and it's within walking distance or arms length, yeah,

that'd be the bad one. I eat a whole rice crispy batch. So I was explaining, like I like to make rice crispy treats, haven't done in years. but when I make them, you know, there's a process of putting them in the pan after they've, you know, the marshmallow and the rice crispies. I would eat as I put it in the pan. So like there's only like a half, maybe a third of a pan. There's one square that you actually made.

Right, right, because I'm eating it as I go. Yeah. It's a tax to yourself. You're supposed to do that. Are you? Yeah. I mean, the best thing about baking or making cookies is that I get to lick the little spoon after or the paddle in the mixer.

And then there has to be quality control the whole time. You need to make sure that things are tasting how they're supposed to taste. Especially in this humid climate where baking becomes extremely difficult. That's so true. As the oldest of three kids, don't try meringue right now. I just do the cooking. And have you ever used like a griddle to make pancakes and stuff? I have one on my store.

So I had the problem of I would cook for my little brother and little sister because that was the rule. If I had to prepare something for myself, I also had to make a enough for my little brother and sister. Sure. So it was like bacon, sausage, ham. I would make, like, grilled cheese. My grilled ham and cheese is just shab kiss. But the problem is, as long as that griddle is on, I can always add another couple of pieces

of bread with some cheese. Yes. One time, in one setting, this is where the problem kind of, I think, evolved, started, however you want to put it. At the age of 12, I was doing this. And I ate seven grilled cheese sandwiches. and the only reason they weren't seven grilled ham and cheese sandwiches is

we ran out of ham. You got that? Wow. Yeah. I feel like everybody has like my brother has a Taco Bell story. Like at some point you reach your peak Taco Bell intake. I forget what it was, how many tacos,

but we talked about it one time like at a dinner of ours. Do you remember when you could get the 10-pack, 59, 79, 99, 99? That value menu? I used to eat the 10-pack of tacos. Yeah. There was, I worked at the 1,000. when Dixie, that's a grocery store down south, and there was a taco bell and an Arby's in the

parking lot, and that was like your dinner choice if you were on like a long shift. Five for five. I would eat all five sandwiches from the Arby's five for five. I mean, having this conversation in the Midwest where I, you know, having lived other places in the country on the west coast and down south in Florida near Miami, all that Arizona, uh, you realize that the way that we eat here is very different than the way the rest of the We are routinely, I think, 10 to 15 pounds heavier than the rest of the country. And you know what?

We're happier for it. Are you saying this is a safe space for my eating problems? We need it for the winter. We need it for the winter. You know what? That's good. That's good. No, there's something to that though.

If nobody's seeing me, it's not their business what I look like. That's right. But you'll see me every day. And I'm in big sweatshirts and whatever. You don't know what's under there. Have you ever been down to Gail V's in the pedway? Come on now. I haven't.

What is this? I worked at Black 37. Guess what's at the... Yeah, it's right there. So there's this incredible sandwich shop called Gail V's. It's in the pedway. It's a crochet shop. No, it's not.

Layla, there's a whole city down there. I know that. I used to go to that Starbucks every now and then. You're going to need to tell one of our guests that's coming in studio about this? Oh, well, I can see... His bio says, tell me about your favorite sandwich. Oh, well, then great.

That's incredible. That's what Dave's bio says on Twitter. It's like... So, Dave, but he grew up in New Orleans, which is different from where... But it's spiritually, it's spiritually Midwest in a lot of ways. No, they'll feed you now. They'll feed you.

Like I was telling Dave that he needs to start his sandwich influencing thing. Lawrence, I try. You can, you can, you can put the full court press. I'm going to tell them again, but I've already told him once. Like, we need this. This is a thing. I know, Gail Viz is great. They have like 17 different sandwiches and they have a breakfast sandwich and the breakfast

sandwiches, the one that I get is really amazing because they're like, you know what? would you like to add jam to your sandwich or would you like to add fresh maple syrup? I'm sorry, what did you just say? Yes, I would like to add that. That would be amazing. Do you know about the Sebastian? Oh, yeah. The Sebastian only offered on Fridays.

Double buttercase, cheese, and fresh lobster. What? On a grilled cheese sandwich. Yeah. That's what they do. It's the thing. They also have to pull porker that I had. I lived here almost 11 years.

It's right there. Poled porker. Most of my life. Double Prairie Pure Buttercase or excuse me, buttercasse, cheese. Causee, I think. You're absolutely right. Broad shoulders barbecue sauce on our house made pulled pork from Jakes and an optional fresh market slough of carrots and apples.

I've had that one as well. They have these unique. This is all just underneath us right now. Yeah. If you get on the pedway and take the pedway over by Block 37, which is a great way. during the winter if you want to go see a movie and you don't want to go outside. You just take the pedway on over there. It's right

there. There's a Starbucks right next to it. There's a couple different kiosk over there. Right past the blue line. Like where the blue line is. We go there all the time. There used to be a crispy cream down there. Yeah. The next, like the double set of doors leads you to Gail V's grilled cheese. That's another thing

I can't have in front of me. I will eat a hot dozen crispy cream donuts with no second. And they're farm to table. Like they're like legit. Does Chris, one question. Does Krispy cream still do? Because there was one down, I think, in Berwyn. Burwin.

They had, it was a Krispy Cream, but it was also like a Krispy Cream factory. So you could go early in the morning. We would go early in the morning and you could watch the donuts come off the conveyor belt. They do that at most Krispy Kreme. Do they? The hot sign is on. That means they're currently getting in. Well, you know, everything died after COVID.

So like, I don't, I didn't know if they still did that. That's fair. But I have very fond memories of there are so many. secrets to the city of Chicago. I still got to take Layla to the Batcave. Oh, I'm not even allowed to know about that really. Look, I found out that one of our friends has a pass to the Batcave. Oh, the Batcave is the, the, the, yeah, yeah, uh, I know, I know. I know about the Batcave. And see, I don't even know if I'm even supposed to know that he has that. I am so tempted to just do that, even if I don't have to go down South. Like, I want to just do that. Yeah, I'm going to leave that

to her because I think it's best that I don't know. No, I think that we, you got to come back here one night after the show is over, then we're going to go. It's always open when I get out of here. When I do a show with Lawrence, it's always open. It's great. I'm going to go ahead and eat in four minutes. Oh, yeah. You got to know it.

Like, that's some OG Chicago stuff right there. I kind of like some mystery every now and then. Like, I need some urban myths to be urban myths. With, like, social media being the way it is, everyone's like, oh, you know, come with me to this hidden gem and then it's not a hidden gem anymore and there's a line around the block. Come with me to this hidden gem called Whole Foods. Word of mouth suggestions.

Like, we just did. Like, I've not seen a TikTok about that. And I don't want to see a TikTok about that because guess what? The minute there's a TikTok about it, lines are out the door. It's really come with me to this place I'm getting paid to talk about. That's really what it is. There is some of that. And the concept of the speakeasy to me is like, this just seems like an uncomfortable bar.

Like, like, if it's, but if it's secret enough and they don't let everybody in, the speakeasy is cool. I will say that. I'm not into gatekeeping. To your point, most speak easies now are there's nothing easy. It's a little too easy. It's a little too easy. Everybody knows about it.

Everybody. I don't, yeah. I mean, you know me. I don't love gatekeeping. So I'm like, okay, if you've got the money for this drink and you follow the rules of the place, go to the place. Who cares? I love gatekeeping if there's a limited amount of seats.

Yes. I will need a seat. Like, I won't tell you what bar that we go to most often in our neighborhood because I don't want it to get on to every neighborhood. everybody's radar. That's true. Sorry, I'm a gatekeeper. I believe in supporting business. I think there. Well, they're busy. There's a towing of the line there. Yes. There's, they're busy still. The business, what you don't want to do is, to your point, Leila, go somewhere and then

they're not getting enough business to keep the place you love going. And then it goes away. Yeah. And it's like, why do anybody? I will often tell everybody about the place that I love to go because it's like just busy enough. But you're not going to use the bloatwechew. Like you're being, you're exercising authenticity there. And like, because you know what happened. live right down the street from a bar called Little Victories, which everybody is like, oh, my God, it's a great bar. It is a fantastic bar. It's the perfect bar. And they have this buttermilk chicken chicken chicken chicken chicken, super cup up where they have the best chicken Caesar wrap I've ever had in my entire life. It's on my list. But because everybody found out about this chicken

Caesar rap on TikTok, you can't get in there ever. We've been twice in the last six months, and it's right down, it's so close to our house. It's the perfect bar. The drinks are great. The staff is amazing. I love everything about the bar, but you can't get in in any sort of real time slot. So I had something like this happened to me recently, and it was a little embarrassing because this is my city, and this happened because of an outsider. Specifically your city. It's my city. And yet an outsider had to hit me to this. When Trista was here for WMBA, she's like, hey, I'm taking you to dinner this time. Because we did the Hyde Park thing, and we hung out, and it was great. And so we went to bar.

Bar-Vec. And I was like, you know, I love Barvec. Right. And I was like, I don't really do like fancy, you know, like I'm really just don't. I barely go outside. So I was like, I'm going outside. And we went outside. She's like, look, they have this incredible chicken. And I was like, wait, what's going on here? And then I was like, no, I'm just going to accept the fact that they have this incredible fried chicken. And sometimes when people tell you this stuff, you're like, sure they do. Is it really? Sure, they have great fried chicken. And they have the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life. What? I don't think I, okay.

All right. So Marshall. It's on my list now. I don't know. What? Did we not eat there? Because I've been multiple times. Maybe I just haven't eaten. So here's the thing. That has happened to me where my friends and I will go for a drink at a place, but we don't. Yeah. We don't end up. Or we just get little nibbles. It's like, yeah. So this is what it is. Like they bring it out. And so we all like ate from it. And it's nuggets. But here's the thing. And Marshall, you'll appreciate this. Not breast nuggets. Thigh nuggets. Thigh nuggets. With that good meat

That good tender You had me a thigh You had me a thigh I'm just sitting there going Oh my God Best chicken sandwich I'm Shout out to Tristan Criott's chicken sandwich

For real for real Yeah Best chicken sandwich Ever had the thigh And that was a case of not Gaykeeping She could have She's like I come here every time

Trista doesn't do that No she's the She's the absolute best But that that blew my mind And it's a hard place to get into And she knew the way I'm saying I'm not saying that like

Adoration is gay keeping. Like, I didn't think that that's what you were doing. I think there are times where people do that. And I just try to, like, I don't know. I, I'm, I consider myself of the people. Like, I'm not a billionaire. I hang out. I walk places. I take CTA. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't. We do too. We just, like, I want to have a place where I can go, no matter the time of day, no matter what day it is, and be reasonably confident that I can get a seat at the bar. Here's why I think that you shouldn't gate keep the back cave because of what you're just. supposed to know about this. But here's

why you should, because that was clearly set up for the powerful. And the fact that some of us, some of us actually know about it now, you are the powerful. Me? No. You just said it was your city. It is your city. You just said it.

That game was actually set up for you. Because you could have said our city. You said my city. Now, gatekeeping also, reverse gatekeeping also is a danger. I mean, comparison to Trista. Like, she's here in my city, I'm not hearing. I was the one insisting that it's actually his city. No, it's like Lawrence Holmes is on the side. I got to hear her up when I go to her city. Welcome to Chicago. Lawrence Holmes. I have a house. This is a house of Lowe. Lawrence. Lawrence. So to your point here,

Lawrence Lawrence. You feel like when you take away things they're supposed to be exclusive and make them less exclusive for the wealthy and the powerful that is us as the commoners revolting in our own special way. It's a small protest. Small rebellion. Like the In-and-out secret menu. Yes. I need everybody to know about that. Like, I'm not here to be like, oh, I don't live in California. I know about the in-and-out secret menu.

But sometimes it's just like, hey, where does that road go? Like, why is there a road there? Why is there a road there? That doesn't make any sense that there's a road there. And then you're like, and then there's a gate there, but the gate's up. No. So. Right.

And then there's another gate. There's another gate there that's very specific and in a very odd place. and you go, oh, that gate is there because that guy, okay, I got it now. And this is the fun old Chicago that is just, it's, it's fun to, see? It's fun to know, it's fun to talk about. But see, like, I also do the thing where it's like, oh, you're advertising this latte that you make that's so good. And yet I see you using store-bought cold foam that I can get from a bottle at the jewel. Then there's, you know, that kind of stuff.

Exactly. The jewels. And if it's the jewels brand, then it's the jewels is. You said run the jewels. Is that what you said? Run the jewels. That's the jewel. And I just went,

Oh, the jewels. The Jewel asked it was in Dallas for a second. Ever shown you that my Black Panther number one, run the jewels? Uh-uh. Cover? I'm going to bring that in for you.

Okay. I like the sound of that. I think you will dig that. Did you see lanterns, by the way? I did. We're all over the place. Look.

They are. And people are like, I thought this is a sports show. Don't cryotic. We're going to do the sports. Cross talk. Look, McKnight,

McKnight came over. Yeah, good old McDoint came over to talk White Soxed with us during Cubs and White Soxed me. He's like, hey, I'm going to need to talk to you about lanterns. So we're going to do that. And I'm like, great. So after the show was over, that's what we did.

We sat there and we talked about lanterns. Then we had a great conversation about brand new day because he hadn't seen it. And I said, listen, here's the thing about it that I really, really like. And then like, it's no spoiler. It's not galactic. The story isn't the world's going to end if Spider-Man does. doesn't do blank. It's your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man doing stuff in his neighborhood. And then we were like, what do you think about Doomsday? So we spent another 15 minutes just

talking about that stuff. It was one of the reasons I absolutely love Carmen Knight. Next time, just call me. Just call me. All you want to say, to get you in on that. I want to know all of everything. All I've seen of that is the clip that's circulating of the litmus test of if you're an alien or not is if you know what the school is in Harry Potter. but he's doing it in front of Rowena Ravenclaw. The woman that played Rowena Ravenclaw in the movies is the woman in the scene. Oh, is that who that is? Yes. I didn't even put those two and two together.

Well, the funny-cliff about asking if someone's an alien and then going, hey, so what's your feeling about Obama? And it being 2016 in the middle of Nebraska and the dude being like, oh, he's the president of the United States. Didn't bring up any of the context around it. It's the khaki suit. Yeah. A tan suit.

Pretty, pretty funny. We'll never survive. Here's what we've got going on on today's show. As people can tell, Karmie V is in the house today for Speeks. Speaks has got a couple of days off. I would say that's the cookies talking. That's not bad.

He's actually going to Cubs Mariners tonight. He's there? He had planned on going to Seattle and he didn't know, he didn't look at the calendar. And he's like, oh, the Cubs are there. So he bought tickets. So he'll be at Cubs Mariners tonight. He's got a few days off.

Carmi V is going to help me out the next couple of days. Big Aunt Heron is also going to help me out while Speegs is on holiday. Here's what we're doing. Chris Emma is going to join us. State House Emma is at Bears Bengals. So we are going to talk with him about what's going on at joint practice. A young man named Dave Hellman is going to be here in studio with us at 4 o'clock. Yeah, he's fine.

I hear he likes plaques. So we will talk to him about plaques and sandwiches. That will be a thing. Yes. Matt Snyder from CBSHQ is going to talk about PCA and Shohei Otani. We'll talk, you know, Cubs with him. We also want to just kind of catch up with Carmi V because that's why she's here. We love Carmi V.

We're going to talk about some stuff, some parallels that we've seen, including, is Craig talking about Cabrera the way that Ben's talking about Kyler? Because I think there's a parallel there. So we are going to explore that. But when we come back, we are going to talk. bears bangles and we're going to preview this practicing plus the game that

might have starters depending on how the two practices go. I'm going to ask Karmie V about the left tackle battle and kind of what she wants to see. The other thing is that Karmovie walked in today and she goes, guys, I did some stuff with Mina

so I over prepared. We're going to empty her notebook at 3 o'clock. Yeah. I have a minor panic attack anytime. I meana asked me to come on with her because she is just the most prepared person that you've ever met in your entire life. She's so smart. She's a good friend of mine. She's intimidating is all hell.

So I overprepared every time I go on her. Y'all empty the clip. I'm going to empty this plate if Lawrence doesn't get me to it. Can I be the clip? Yeah. Tanny is here and he did do the open, which you know is must listen radio. It's next. Me and you, Buehber ball.

Me and you. You can't catch me.