Totally Classic

This week, Andy & Brendan are joined by Brandon Peele - author and facilitator of purpose-centered leadership and communities - to press further into whether The Matriarchy is underserved in the bumper sticker and T-shirt "Smash ______" category:)They dig into the differences between belonging & conformity, between feminine and masculine energies, and between the arguable strawman of Patriarchy & steelman of Matriarchy. We didn't smash the Patriarchy... BUT will the Matriarchy survive? What do YOU think?

This week, Andy & Brendan use Christopher Nolan's recent adaption (the space that launched a thousand thinkpieces) of Homer's The Odyssey to examine whether the archetypal hero Odysseus is, indeed a hero or, as some of those thousand think pieces have posited, not a hero at all, perhaps a villain? What makes a hero? What unmakes a hero? Does storytelling require contextual interpretation, in the cultural/moral setting it was composed in? Do mores shift definitions of foundational concepts? How do different cultures classify HERO? Is Odysseus a cultural hero type or a universal hero type? And has Nolan provided the keys to his own undoing, in the striking translation liberties he took? Joining the thousands of years tradition of analyzing Homer's work... is two best friends doing a podcast. What do you think about this question? And, most relevantly, what can you prove or disprove about either answer? 

In the inevitable companion piece to "Should We Smash the Patriarchy?" Andy & Brendan look at how one would coherently define modern society (with especial focus on the U.S., where they live) and what does that mean, in terms of net harm or net benefit? Are we living in a Matriarchy? If so, for how long? 1970s? 1990s? And is this novel or a reverse of the speculative global queering of the Agricultural age?Having achieved Gender Parity across positive and negative outcomes (pay gap, education gap, domestic violence) 30 or so years ago, we certainly have to ASK this question as often if not MORE often as the previous inquiry... But WHAT ARE the answers? What do you THINK? recorded on 7/14/26

How far will one go to WIN if the body keeps the score? Andy & Brendan, this week, try to avoid winning whilst still chasing TOGETHER the rabbit of truth around the track:) A recent article by four authors (one of whom is amongst the premier neurologists in the world, Karl Fristen) laid out the mechanisms by which the popular "the body keeps the score" premise is untenable as anything more than metaphor. "The body does not keep the score: trauma, predictive coding, and the restoration of metastability" (April 2026) had Totally Classic asking the question being debated in the culture and digging below the surface to IF Fristen & his co-authors are correct, what FOUNDATIONS does this destabilize, across culture (turns out, DOZENS!). Had you heard of or held this theory to be true? What does knowing it is unstable if not entirely false, objectively, change in your understanding of the human social family?Recorded 6/17/26

This week, inspired by our "Is Gender a Social Construct?" episode (both progressive bias Andy & independent bias Brendan voted yes by the end of the dialogue), we turn to Pride-month-centric examination of the potential social construct "LGBTQ!" Gender was NOT, but IS this acronym? Andy & Brendan explore the mixed set acronym and attempt to ascertain which aspects are rooted in objective fact and which in subjective interpretation and which (Q!) are so fully vague they MAY include every human on the planet (except GARY - you know who you are, NORMAL GARY from Albuquerque, NM*!!).Normal Man? Normal Mean? Median?

This week, Andy & Brendan discuss the electoral process, ground-level, in the democratic republic of the United States. VOTING! Is voting rigged?If so, in what manner of "rigged?" They explore re-districting & gerrymandering, voter suppression & disenfranchisement, packing & cracking, conspiracy theories & conspiracy truths (confessed) and more! Do you vote? Why? Do you believe that voting is rigged? For good or evil? Let us know!

This week, Andy & Brendan examine a popular claim - is it aphorism or shibboleth? "gender is a social construct." Um... but IS THAT TRUE? From ancestral wisdom to modern medicine, from German to Sanskrit, from tautologies to taxonomies, it's all here in this week's Totally Classic!originally recorded by 5/5/26

This week, Andy & Brendan try to unravel a lifetime of historical evidence and place it in context of the radically divergent narratives around the target of U.S. military action in the present. From two divergent pre-perspectives (prespectives?:) they seek to find common great (love Iranis!) and try to test the usual ontological methods to see if ENEMY is a relevant category... and if it applies?What do YOU think?

This week, Andy & Brendan chart the history of minstrelsy - from Al Jolson & Bert Williams TO RuPaul & Pabllo Vittar! Why is Drag given a pass for doing all the same TYPE Of things that blackface does? OR why is blackface not given a pass for doing all the same TYPE OF things that drag does? Is this just full-on hypocrisy ("it's not bad cause I LIKE IT") OR is there something fundamentally different here? What do YOU think? originally recorded on 3/31/26

PART TWO OF TWO - Andy & Brendan continue to explore whether ICE are BAD GUYS or FLAWED GOOD GUYS? In a world where "F@%# ICE" and "ABOLISH ICE" are de rigueur, DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE? What makes an entire organization prosecuting over 400 laws A BLACK HAT? Are Neighborhood Watches AGAINST Law Enforcement just... the suburban version of "TRAPHOUSE LOOK-OUTS?" OR a modern militia fighting Gov't Illegality? Totally Classic LIVES in the place of - TALK TO PEOPLE YOU DON'T AGREE WITH ON WHAT YOU DON'T AGREE WITH! Asking questions and coming to fresh conclusions is HUMANING 101, and NO ONE HAS THE POWER TO CANCEL DIPLOMACY (and if they TRY, is their goal... WAR?) WHAT do YOU think? AND WHY? originally recorded on 3/17/26