Cort returns with a review of Dove Ellis's Blizzard, a debut album that came out of nowhere. Dove gained notoriety opening for Geese, and Blizzard may have (briefly) consumed Brian's world. The consensus favorite song is “love is,” which sparks the important question: great song… or perfect song?

From there, we do a quick and dirty psychological profile of Dove through his rise to fame, a lecture from Cort on the value of introverts, and authenticity and the “is this a gimmick?” debate. Without much warning there's a hard pivot into Brian’s New Year trip to Spain, complete with a tale of the Catalan log that allegedly poops presents, Caga Tió. Did Caga Tió inspire an American Christmas legend?

We also hit the Counting Crows documentary, the Golden Globes (including the rage-baiting podcasts award category), a little Traitors/Amazing Race reality-TV tangent, and a brief Stranger Things Season 5 postmortem.

Everything old is new again when Cort assigns Brian something a little more musical to listen to for next Ep. What could it be?

And finally, the random podcast generator tries to ruin everyone’s day.

🎶 Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus — The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

💿 Dove Ellis — Blizzard https://open.spotify.com/album/3Brw2Xdmo6VRPWwOBNye0i?si=etQ5NE9nSbmHwOzhgoJuMA

Brian reports back on his latest assignment from Cort: chapters 6–16 of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. Somewhere along the way, Brian may have warmed up to the previously disparaged Owen Teale. The conversation expands to Jones’s broader body of work and why empathy, once activated, can be deeply inconvenient.

From there, things go where they always do. Clare Danes gets a brief nod. The guys half-commit to an end-of-year wrap-up, tie off a few loose threads, and wander through college football, fluoridated water, and the strange realization that talking trash about other podcasters might actually work.

Eddie Murphy enters the chat. Politics follow, because it’s the end of the year and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Brian delivers his latest movie-listening report (The Strangers: Part 2 and Wake Up Dead Man), and the episode closes with a fresh assignment for Cort because the cycle must continue.

Brian’s Assignment from Cort: 📖 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Narrated by Shane Ghostkeeper, Marin Ireland, and Owen Teale https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Buffalo-Hunter-Hunter-Audiobook/B0DD52VDNL

📖 Explore Stephen Graham Jones’ work: https://www.demontheory.net

🎶 Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus — The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

Brian assigned Cort some holiday spirit with Holiday Rules, a Christmas compilation by various artists, and some nostalgia with The Grand Archives by Grand Archives. Feelings were had. Some stronger than others. No one is claiming a seasonal awakening, but we listened and we showed up.

From there, the conversation predictably veers off course into night swimming, because apparently that was inevitable.

Brian runs through recent movie watching, including The Black Phone 2 (written by Stephen King’s son) and Jay Kelly, and then he brings up another little nugget, Ella McKay starring Emma Mackey alongside Jamie Lee Curtis. This leads us to Brian’s theory about why movies like Ella McKay don’t get made often enough, but there is some cruel irony related to his theory and his feelings about Jay Kelly.

Cort reiterates his puzzlement about Pluribus detractors (boo, hiss), and Brian attempts to help Cort understand what exactly the “Durian Gap” is. We wrap things up with a report from a Nate Bargatze concert. Was Nate funny? Was the show good? What ultimate podcast sin could Nate possibly have committed that would get Brian and Cort riled up?

The episode is Christmas-adjacent and mildly festive.

Albums discussed:

• The Grand Archives — Grand Archives https://open.spotify.com/album/3Ya4unJBIYZFYs42Ebyf4t?si=9G3W3kJRS42Xewb_w4SXVQ

• Holidays Rule — Various Artists https://open.spotify.com/album/6WYKqCoezPOWXD9UxbXyGZ?si=RS_SZCc2SOiUDgKJirLZeA

Theme song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus — The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492