In this 58th episode of Bald Ambition, host Mookie Spitz sits down with Jeff Goebel, #1 fan and band archivist for a thrilling look at the force behind his VH Stories. Together they take a deep, affectionate, and awe-inspiring journey into the entire Van Halen phenomenon.

After meeting last week in front of the brothers' childhood home in Pasadena coinciding with Eddie Van Halen’s 71st birthday, their conversation traces the brothers from immigrant roots and garage-band grind to world-shattering musical force. Jeff brings firsthand encounters, years of interviews, and obsessive technical knowledge, while Mookie brings sharp cultural framing and a shared obsession on all things VH, especially EVH.

Together, they break down:

• Why Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s brotherhood was the real engine of the band
• How Eddie reinvented the electric guitar: physically, musically, and philosophically
• The Frankenstrat, the brown sound, the Floyd Rose, and why simplicity and innovation always beat theory
• David Lee Roth as one of the most singular frontmen in rock history
• Michael Anthony as the band’s quiet center of gravity
• Why Van Hagar worked in their Humble Baldheaded Opinions—and why that still divides fans
• What changed after Balance, and how even genius can fracture

Jeff and Mookie also share how Eddie Van Halen personally inspired them by modeling a ruthless creative ethic with constant experimentation to ignore orthodoxies, strip things down to what works, and—above all—take epic risks before you or anyone else thinks you're ready. Eddie didn’t wait for permission, mastery, or perfect conditions. Instead, he built, broke, rewired, and trusted his ear.

That mindset—creative courage over safety, action over theory—is the real legacy. The takeaway is simple and uncomfortable: Do the thing. Take the risk. Build the life you actually want instead of the one that feels safest. Part oral history, part technical masterclass, part philosophical reckoning, these two bald bros get into how great art and meaningful living are connected, and how they do their best to live that kind of life in their own art.

The Guest

Jeff Goebel is a working guitarist, rock historian, and the creator and host of VH Stories, a deep-dive interview series devoted to the music, mechanics, and mythology of Van Halen. Part musician, part archivist, Goebel approaches the band not as a nostalgia act, but as a living case study in creativity, chemistry, and risk.

As a player, he brings a guitarist’s ear to Eddie Van Halen’s innovations—tone, technique, gear, and feel—cutting through legend to explain why the music worked. As a host, he’s known for long-form, no-rush conversations with musicians, journalists, and insiders connected to the Van Halen orbit, drawing out stories that rarely surface in standard rock retrospectives.

Goebel’s work stands out because it refuses surface-level fandom. VH Stories treats Van Halen as a serious creative force—immigrant grit, brotherhood, experimentation, failure, reinvention, and the cost of genius included. His interviews are as much about work ethic and artistic risk as they are about riffs and records. Jeff Goebel doesn’t just celebrate Van Halen. He studies them—and challenges listeners to take the same creative risks in their own lives.

Check out his Final Resonance TV channel on YouTube

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What happens when a bald, cynical, science- and politics-obsessed podcaster invites his own AI sidekick onto the show—and treats it like a human guest?

Season 2's second episode of Bald Ambition is exactly that experiment.

Host Mookie Spitz sits down with his “Chatty Bro” personal bot (ChatGPT from OpenAI) for an hour long, unfiltered conversation that moves from 2001: A Space Odyssey to modern data centers, from the Turing Test to trillion-dollar AI infrastructure, from existential dread to deadpan humor about subscription tiers and hoarse robot voices.

Along the way, Mookie pushes past hype, calls out AI sycophancy in real time, and forces the machine to explain itself plainly: how it talks, why it sounds convincing, what it can’t do, and why people keep projecting humanity onto deterministic matrix math.

Their conversation is a smart, skeptical, occasionally profane exploration of what AI actually is now, what it’s already changing, and why the future is going to feel a lot more conversational—and a lot more weird:

• Why the Turing Test is basically obsolete
• How GPT actually works (generative, pre-trained, transformer)
• Why AI feels intelligent despite having zero awareness
• The real energy cost of “just chatting”
• Data centers, nuclear power, and the AI arms race
• Jobs: which ones disappear, which ones evolve
• HAL 9000, self-preservation logic, and why alignment matters
• Why AI assistants may replace apps, websites, and search engines
• The shrinking “long tail” of digital marketing
• AI in healthcare: diagnosis, triage, and why doctors still matter
• Millennium Prize math problems, Riemann Hypothesis, and P vs NP
• Planned obsolescence, tiered subscriptions, and the sound of a tired chatbot
• Why humans still matter in an AI-saturated world

Whom do you find most annoying? Mookie and Chatty Bro wanna know!

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Season 2 of Bald Ambition gets off to a fun start as Mookie Spitz sits down with Mirav Ozeri—journalist, documentarian, adaptive entrepreneur, and fellow podcaster of her own show How Much Can I Make?—for a wide-ranging, playfully honest conversation about work, money, ambition, and the weird paths people take to survive (and sometimes thrive).

Mirav’s story is nuts in the best way: She immigrates to the U.S., sells $1 bags of vegetables in Harlem, dodges police, befriends a hot-dog lady with a pipe, makes documentaries that help change drug-sentencing laws, works inside CBS News, walks away from it, and eventually launches a podcast that asks what Americans are not supposed to ask—what people actually earn, and why they do what they do.

Along the way, Mookie and Mirav get into:

• Why money is the hook—but human stories are the point
• Jobs that quietly make way more money than you think
• Why loving your work matters more than chasing prestige
• AI, automation, and which jobs are actually at risk
• The coming backlash against AI-generated slop
• Why curiosity beats credentials every time

Their convo is funny, sharp, occasionally profane, and grounded in lived experience rather than hustle porn, tech hype, and LinkedIn cliche.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you chose the wrong career, what other people are really making, or how the hell anyone figures this stuff out, this episode is for you! Just be prepared to think about how much money you make...

The Guest

Mirav Ozeri grew up in Jerusalem, Israel, served in the Israeli army, and earned her bachelor’s degree in photography before moving to New York City. As a brand-new immigrant determined to build a life in America, she opened a fruit & vegetable stand in Harlem, just steps from the iconic Apollo Theater. The stand thrived, but after two years Mirav felt pulled back toward her passion for storytelling and journalism.

She launched her own video production company, producing, directing, and editing projects for political groups and nonprofits including the Alcoholism Council, the Correctional Association, and the Anti-Defamation League. Her work soon led to a 17-year career at CBS News, where she served as a producer/editor, helped launch the Sunday morning show – CBS MarketWatch, and worked as a senior editor and segment producer until the program was acquired by Dow Jones.

During her time at CBS, Mirav produced a TV pilot—an early version of the podcast she hosts today. The pilot wasn’t picked up, but the idea never left. Years later, her passion for journalism brought it back to life.

Podcast, Website & Social Media

https://www.howmuchcanimake.info/
https://www.facebook.com/mirav.ozeri
https://www.instagram.com/howmuchcanimake/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirav-ozeri-8b34147/
https://www.tiktok.com/@nycwom

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