The Speech Guys

The gang's all here. Get cozy. Warm that affectionate heart of yours and learn how to be a Sticker... or Boomer... or a Sticker-Boomer... and look on at Port William with us.

The speech was presented April 23rd, 2012 for the Jefferson Lecture as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

https://events.tvworldwide.com/Events/NEH-2012-Jefferson-Lecture/VideoId/-1/UseHtml5/True

Landon's blog post describing his meeting with Mr. Berry:

https://ambrook.com/offrange/perspective/wendell-berry-kentucky-clearing-brush

I-L-L... I-N-I! The Speech Guys explore the University of Illinois origin story in the words of one of its founders, Jonathon Baldwin Turner. JBT envisioned a class of farmer shaped by experience and informed by agricultural science. Dave Biver, U of I graduate, Freeburg area native, and farmer ("The Straw Boss"!) fits the bill. He introduces the episode.

The Speech Guys find a reason to hang with Ronnie Reagan again--and it's a good reason as they're embarking on the first speech series of the 7th season. Speeches By Small Towners. Reagan gave this speech in Dixon, Illinois on February 6th, 1984.

The whole podcastin' gang is here to close out season six. The task at hand? Weave together Christmas (excuse me, Advent!) and the Straussian Moment (do we even know what that is yet after four episodes?). Ross lines it up with a speech by Pope Benedict from 2010 and Mike, Landon, and Matt take their turns at the tee.

Read the speech here: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/urbi/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20101225_urbi.html

Episode thumbnail comes from https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2023-01/benedict-xvi-s-last-words-lord-i-love-you.html.

75% of the Speech Guys report for podcasting duty. Ross is out hunting. Matt, Landon, and Mike go hunting for great ideas about President Obama's 2010 Father's Day speech. Come on and climb inside and see if they found any. As usual, the Speech Guys are best served with a cold drink.

Episode thumbnail comes from Time.com.

The full transcript of President Obama's Father's Day speech can be found here:

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-a-fathers-day-event

The study concerning parents' values toward their children:

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/01/24/parenting-in-america-today/

Landon, Ross, Mike, and Matt wander through the cultural wake that is Bane's speech outside the Gotham City Stock Exchange in the 2012 Dark Knight Rises. 1993. Institutions. Scapegoats. Predictive programming. How evil manifests. Really... 1993!

Plus... Is Bane's speech more likely to come from President Trump's mouth or Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? The Speech Guys tabulate a score and it's closer than you might think!

Thumbnail is used from The Guardian.

Bane's speech audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzK97Aaj_U8

Vice's speech audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E-v5yDBR64<...

The Straussian what? Huh? Put on your listening ears and thinking cap as the Speech Guys go way back and all over... the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, 9/11, and everything that came after. Imagine this episode as like a field of wildflowers... sure, there's some weeds and stuff that just don't matter, but it makes those few thoughts that bloom here just a bit more worth the hang. Landon is the trail guide and Mike, Ross, and Matt ride along.

Read "The Straussian Moment" in its entirety: https://gwern.net/doc/politics/2007-thiel.pdf

The Speech Guys go back to the beginning with words by the first westerners--in this case, Black Hawk, after the Sauk and Meskawi lost possession of land in northern Illinois and Wisconsin in 1832.

Fact check: Mike comments on the distinction between the Sioux and Lakota. The "Sioux" refers to a larger aggregation of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota.

Fact check: The anti-sematic social media posts of the Palestinian graduate student is discussed here in the Wall Street Journal.

Thumbnail image is a depiction of Black Hawk by George Catlin in 1832 and used from...

It's the whole Speech Guys gang on call to discuss "Fill Your Hands, You Son of a B****" (Rooster Cogburn, True Grit), "I'm Your Huckleberry" (Doc Holliday, Tombstone), and a couple more questionable applications of the cowboy ethos as John Wayne portrayed in The Cowboys ("Old School Speech Therapy") and Hondo ("You Can't What?").

Biking for Babies Finish Celebration, Saturday, July 19th (Saint Louis):

https://www.bikingforbabies.com/col-mo/

Biking for Babies Finish Celebration, Saturday, July 19th (Philadelphia):

https://www.bikingforbabies.com/col-pa/

Biking for Babies Executive Director, Nikki Biese, joins Kevin, Mike, and Jimmy to discuss John Paul the Great's 1993 World Youth Day address in Denver.

Thumbnail comes from https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/contributors/john-paul-ii-knowing-suffering-from-inside/.

Mid life comes a little later now since Meriwether Lewis' day. The whole Speech Guys crew chat about Lewis' August 18th, 1805 journal entry from the Corps of Discovery expedition when he turned 31. Securing horses from the Shoshones and getting a few dozen guys across two-thirds of the country couldn't shake his gloomy thoughts.

Fact check: Mike incorrectly states that the cost of the expedition was $2,500. This was the amount President Jefferson requested to Congress. An 1806 War Department report states the cost as closer to $38,722.25. (https://lewis-clark.org/the-trail/eastern-beginnings/estimate-of-expenses/#:~:text=Actual%20Costs,pay%20for%20personnel%20($11%2C000).)<...

Kevin sits in for Sarah Wiese to get prepped for his MC role at the 2025 finishing event at Saint Joseph's parish in Manchester, Missouri on Saturday, July 19th. Jimmy and Mike sit alongside as they revisit a few old memory gems from Kev's first ride in 2011 and discuss John Paul the Great's 1987 speech that bid farewell to his American spiritual family.

Biking for Babies Alumni, register here for BARRR! https://www.bikingforbabies.com/2025-alumni-offerings/

Here's John Paul's text from that speech: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1987/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19870919_congedo-stati-uniti...

(Most of) the Speech Guys take a break this episode. They lend their platform to Biking for Babies--a mission-oriented bicycled ride that Mike Schaefer and Jimmy Becker started with John Paul Deddens as students at the University of Illinois in 2009.

Sarah Wiese, Biking for Babies' Director of Operations & Marketing, and support crew extraordinaire and Alabama-native interviews them on their memories of the early years, what inspired them to take on the project, and what's affected them along the way.

Learn more at https://www.bikingforbabies.com/.

Sign up for the Alumni Retreat & Reunion-Ride here: https://bikingforbabies-forms.formstack.com/forms/2025_alumni_ride

Sister Blandina Segale (1850 - 1941) was a missionary Sister of Charity who built the first school district in Colorado, served such legends of the West as Billy the Kid (really!), Native Americans, and the Hispanic population of the Southwest.

The Speech Guys read and discuss one of many letters she wrote to her sister, Sister Justina (yep... a real life sister Sister act!), describing the adventures her vocation took her own. This and others are available in the book, "At the End of the Santa Fe Trail".

Thumbnail source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254030/wild-west-nun-sister-blandina-is-focus-of-planned-tv-series-trinidad

It's Landon and Mike discussing Jesus' entry onto the Christianity scene when he reads the prophet Isaiah, as described in Luke 4, and portrayed by Jonathon Roumie in season 3, episode 3 of The Chosen.

Audio from this clip comes from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyHp0TovnUQ&t=560s

Thumbnail comes from here: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/the-chosen-angel-studios-ruling-dallas-jenkins-neal-harmon-1236020555/

The Speech Guys went camping one week earlier. I guess that's why Mike is a little tired.

Thumbnail image comes from https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-1.htm.

In the 1970s, Steve Prefontaine lit a fire under the bellies of runners that has never gone out through his American distance track records--largely formed by the coaching and spiritual ethos of University of Oregon cross country and track coach and Nike co-founder, Bill Bowerman. The Speech Guys consider Bill's insights through two speeches, as portrayed in the 1998 film, "Without Limits".

A link explaining Alberto Salazar's ban from coaching: www.espn.com/olympics/trackandf…-arbitration-sport.

John Zegar introduces the podcast episode. Matt, Mike, Landon, and Ross discuss the 2014 speech from the University of Texas-Austin commencement ceremony presented by Admiral McRaven. Thumbnail image comes from laviolettefoundation.org/news/2022/11…ovember-30th.

It's the final episode of the fourth season of the SGs and they discuss the dialogues performed by John Steinbeck's characters from the 1952 novel, "East of Eden", along with the Genesis story of Cain and Abel that informs them.

Primary content comes from chapters 22 and 24 of the book.

This episode is rated PG-13 for a "graphic" clip from the film Calvary (2014) which contains one bleeped out instance of f**k, gun violence, and reference to clerical sexual abuse. The clip is approximately four minutes and begins at approximately the 50 minute mark.

Landon, Ross, Matt, and Mike discuss Father Mike's 2019 SEEK Conference talk entitled "Share" and how his recognition of his own indifference challenges us to rise above our own.

The thumbnail comes from bulldogcatholic.org/about-contact-u…r-mike-schmitz/.

The speech audio comes from youtu.be/9CF7GpW8rNQ?si=u6czK3DWt0J3Wy...

Doug Johnson introduces the cast and recalls, with Ross, the (micro)speech he gave to his son before his first football game in the twilight of the 20th century in Springfield, Illinois. Ross and Doug might not remember if he scored, but they remember the speech. And now, you will too.

Thumbnail image comes from www.pinterest.com/pin/father-son-p…604192944860833/.

Landon, Mike, Ross, and Matt close out the "Speeches That Got Someone Killed" quad. Some political candidates might be a threat to America's democracy, but this episode isn't--unless you think a Speech Guys oligarchy could make American great again.

Full text of speeches discussed can be accessed here:

alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution…ary-terror-1794/

AND here:

alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution…tue-terror-1794/

Our country's national debt was discussed. Review current value here: fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-fina…ational-debt/

The episode thumbnail comes from here: www.historyskills.com/classroom/year…ution-reading/

Mike, Landon, Ross, and Matt consider how John Lennon's interview in March 1966 with London's Evening Standard influenced Mark David Chapman and the legacy of Christianity, the Beatles, and musical counterculture that persists today.

The speech can be read here:

www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/1966/03/…sus-now/

A blog by Mr. Robert Rosen was discussed and can be accessed here concerning the significance of "Chapter 27" in The Catcher in the Rye:

robertrosen.blogspot.com/2006/01/root…chapter.html

Thumbnail comes from here:

www.businessinsider.com/john-lennon-f…-he-was-24-10

Lennon's song, "God" c...

Fact Check:

Landon references a comment made by Former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, that "eight trillion dollars was lost track of", and speculates that the attack on the Pentagon was to obviate the federal government of responsibility toward that amount. See this addressed here: www.reuters.com/fact-check/rumsfe…e-911-2023-09-14/

Mike referenced a podcast hosted by Catholic apologist, Jimmy Akin, that comments on popular 9/11 conspiracies. Listen to that podcast here:

sqpn.com/2021/09/the-9-11-att…eptember-11-attacks/

Thumbnail image used from www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/arti…nse-to-9...

How does the Sermon on the Mount help the Speech Guys pursue a worthy spiritual frontier? Listen in as Ross, Matt, and Mike cheer for the arrival of Faye Frye and consider what might set Jesus of Nazareth a story worth believing in.

Listener discretion: "a**" is used several times throughout the episode

Is paying for runs really what America's baseball heart beats for? The Speech Guys and special guest, Theus Brown (BAJ and BROWN Podcast), discuss the contemporary consequences of the "moneyball" model via the dramatized speech by Boston Red Sox owner, John Henry, in the 2011 Oscar-nominated film, Moneyball.

Does art inspire life or life inspire art? Landon, Ross, Matt, and Mike team up for Orson Welles' 1941 campaign "to rid the politics of this State of the evil domination of Boss Jim Gettys".

The thumbnail image comes from theasc.com/articles/realism-for-citizen-kane.

"You think I know the first thing about being an orphan because I read Oliver Twist?"... Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) begins to tear down the intellectual and academic walls that Sean (Matt Damon) built up around himself in this famous speech from the 1997 Oscar-nominated film, "Good Will Hunting". Ross, Landon, and Mike contemplate their own walls they've had to and need to break down to have real knowledge from life experiences.

This episode is rated PG-13 for language and discussion of sexuality.

Anne Marie rejoins as guest host to discuss the good, true, and maybe not so universally accurate observations of women and men in Gloria's speech to lift Barbie out of the existential doldrums.

Thumbnail image comes from people.com/read-the-powerful-b…to-50-times-7565806

Merry Christmas from the Speech Guys! Talk, think, and laugh about your favorite holiday fare... fruitcakes, George and Mary Bailey, and the real life Hallmark tradition that took place each season at Johnson's Market.

Read the November 2019 article on Ross's family grocery business from the New York Times here:

www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/us/rur…-farm-market.html

Episode note: the nature of Santa Claus' existence is discussed.

In 1986, author and Holocaust-survivor, Elie Wiesel, was awarded for his humanitarian work on behalf of the Jewish community and other historically-oppressed groups. The Speech Guys discuss the legacy of those words, particularly in light of heightened tensions between Israel, Hamas, and Palestinians.

Special thanks to a listener who pointed out that the principal reason for Mr. Wiesel's receiving the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize was on account of his work in liberating Jews in the Soviet. You can learn about one Soviet Jew's experience here:

lithub.com/on-the-liberation-s…-soviet-refuseniks/

The thumbnail image of Mr. Wiesel is...

Apollo Creed helped Balboa get his body ready for the Heavyweight title against Clubber Lang. But his wife and partner, Adrian (Talia Shire), had to retrain his heart. "I'm afraid alright! For the first time in my life, I'm afraid."

Bonus content: Matt's Brooklyn-styled Rocky impression

Who said AI was a new conversation we should be having? Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) were paving the way for the rest of us all of the way back in 1982.

Mike's the speech-picker. Matt and Landon tag along for a trip to the future in... 2019. Or would that be the past?

Thumbnail image comes from www.exrey.tv/blade-runner-1982/.

The Speech Guys try to imagine a world just before the dawn of their births as they step back into the 1980s with President Reagan's speech following the space shuttle Challenger explosion on January 28th, 1986 over Cape Canaveral.

Mike, Landon, Matt, and Ross finish out the Speeches By Prisoners series with Socrates' speech before his Athenian jury considering whether or not he ought to be executed for crimes of "corrupting the youth" and not properly worshiping the traditional gods of Athens.

The Speech Guys share a common collegiate origin along Illinois' Interstate 74. Here, Landon and Mike recall their coming together merely months before Mike's University of Illinois graduation in spring 2015. The moral of this episode? You never know what treasures are in store until your car is packed and ready to pull away from one of life's stages. So be a good friend all of the way through and don't exit through the garage.

In 1978, Russian exile, Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave the commencement address to Harvard graduates. Unlike most commencement speeches, it painted Western culture in macabre, depressing descriptions of its decline in courage, legalism, direction of freedom and the press, socialism, loss of will, thinking with only respect to what's 'fashionable', short-sightedness, pervasive secular humanism, and its doomed similarities to the communist government under which he'd been exiled.

So, don your cap and gown and let's listen and think about what he had to say to those Harvard graduates four decades ago.

The speech rendition can be accessed here:<...

It's the second episode of the Speeches By Prisoners series and the Speech Guys contemplate the stoicism and devotion to ordinary life Mandela seemed to demonstrate as a South African political prisoner from 1964 to 1990.

Listen to the full speech Mandela gave before his 1964 trial here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQvlxnWELHM

The SG spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting Mandela's decisions to Blessed Franz Jaagerstatter (1907 - 1943). His life was recently depicted in Terrence Malick's film, A Hidden Life. Watch that trailer here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJXmdY4lVR0<...

Mike and Chris keep sippin' their whiskies after the other Speech Guys leave for an extended chat of related topics from the "Becoming Jesus" episode of the Speeches By Prisoners speech series.

The interview referenced in the episode of Denzel Washington can be accessed with the URL below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHvtjJY6IsQ

"Imagine if America came in a box. You take it off the shelf and you read the back. I want what's in it to match what's on the back."

--Chris

"You don't want that...

The Speech Guys lace up their high tops and unpack the first aid kit to talk about wounds... father wounds, that is. Jake Shuttlesworth's speech to his son, Jesus Shuttlesworth, played by Ray Allen in the 1998 Spike Lee film, "He Got Game", serves as their conversational muse.

Chris guest hosts.