Fingering the Democracy

Hosts Beck and Dash chat through tech frustrations and changing internet/IT, early home computing memories (AOL dial-up costs, Commodore 64, Carmen Sandiego, Number Munch, Oregon Trail, typing skills), and odd public moments (a classmate farting in a lab, an ROTC student’s loud burp, quirky neighbor small talk, a neighbor’s unsolicited diet comment). They share affirming messages from former students, including one crediting a queer professor for helping him come out and a trans student entering a funded PhD program. The conversation turns to political conspiracy chatter and media/ideology theory, then to housing costs and mobility barriers, job applications, and fatigue. They note Cincinnati creating Ohio’s first LGBTQ+ commission and mention an Appalachian-origin anti-discrimination code. A comedic “Stone Soup” sponsor bit leads into cooking memories, and the episode’s “noun of Appalachian interest” spotlights West Virginia dancer Jesco White (“The Dancing Outlaw”) and reflections on hillbilly media, names, and family history.

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00:00 Podcast Welcome

00:17 Tech Degree Throwback

01:15 Computer Lab Fart Story

02:10 OCD Public Bathroom Fear

03:20 Dial Up Rural Internet

06:24 Early PCs And Games

08:34 Typing Skills And Neuropathy

11:11 Campus Burp And Student Email

13:46 Weird Neighbor Small Talk

16:32 Neighbor Diet Comment

17:43 Trump Shooting Conspiracies

21:39 Jordan Klepper And Ideology

25:54 War On Christmas Bits

28:22 Year Round Holiday Lights

30:46 Housing Costs And Moving Trap

32:26 Taxes And Boots Theory

33:27 Leaving Home After Loss

34:30 Cincinnati LGBTQ Commission Tease

35:03 Cincinnati LGBTQ Commission

35:31 Urban Appalachian Discrimination

37:30 Queer Appalachian Migration

39:28 Burnout and Job Market

41:44 Stone Soup Sponsor Bit

44:56 Ramen Abomination Cooking

50:53 Jesco White Spotlight

55:21 Family Names and Politics

01:02:24 Homecoming and Finals

01:04:28 Internet Privacy and Ads

01:07:38 Wrap Up and Tech Issues

Episode Transcript

Beck (00:05):
Welcome to Queernecks, the podcast that puts the Yee Hall in Y'all means all.
I'm your host, Beck,

Dash (00:11):
and I'm your host.
Dash.
Welcome to today's episode.
It's the true test.
I actually don't know.
I don't understand like internetbandwidth stuff very well.

Beck (00:24):
One of my degrees is in it, and I used to be able to explain some things
like that, but literally I graduatedwith that degree in 2009, I think.
And I couldn't, like the technologyhas changed so much that I
couldn't tell you anything.

Dash (00:39):
I mean, it's faster all the time too.
Used to, it's like you do, this probablyapplies to more things than computers
and IT and stuff like that, but youknow, used to, you do it like a yearly.
Thing to bring you up to speed.
And now it's like if you take a vacation,you come back and shit's different.

Beck (00:56):
I enjoyed my classes.
I was usually one of the only two orthree girls in the entire program.
Like there was a girl named Courtney.
Mm-hmm.
And she was a bitch.
I hated her.

Dash (01:09):
I bet she's CEO of something now,

Beck (01:11):
and probably, I don't know, she had no ambition whatsoever.
And then there was this girl namedRebecca, and I think she was,
and I'm not saying anything abouthomeschooling at all, but I think she
was absolutely homeschooled becauseshe had no social manners whatsoever.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and I don't think she wasautistic, so I don't think that was it.
I mean, she could havebeen without me knowing.
But anyway, one, one time Iwas sitting behind her in the

(01:32):
computer lab and she just.
Lifted up her leg and farted real loud andsat right back down, like just lifted her
leg and farted right in front of me and.
Just went like, ha, we all had ourheadphones on, and she just kept
going on like, it was nothing.
My God.
I was like, oh my God.

Dash (01:56):
That's like a, I don't know, like, I'm trying to imagine like what
would lead to something like that.
This is like a, a, a phobia of mine, oflike, and it, it doesn't make any sense.
And I discovered that it's not that.
Rare.
A lot of people have this phobia, butit's too embarrassing to talk about
because I learned about it in mygroupie sock school that I was going to.

(02:16):
There was quite a few people withOCD that have this fear of you're
not actually where you think you are.
So like if I sit down on the toiletand I'm like getting ready to poop
or something, I'm, I'll go, waita minute, what if I'm like sitting
on a public bus or something?
What if I just think I'msitting all the time?

Beck (02:35):
I always double check to make sure I'm not asleep.

Dash (02:37):
Yeah.

Beck (02:38):
Like, am I dreaming this right now?

Dash (02:42):
If I'm getting ready to get in the shower?
And I'm like, what if I'm just, what ifthis is a fountain and I'm in public?
What is that?
Like, that don't even make no sense.
The, the things that wouldhave to happen in succession.
For that to be the scenario I'm in,instead of the one that makes the most
sense, which is that I'm in the bathroom.

(03:03):
So yeah.
Now that's something that I'mgonna worry about next time I fart.
What if I'm in a computer lab?
Maybe she just assumed everybody hadtheir noise canceling earphones on.

Beck (03:16):
I guess I don't even know if that was a thing back in like 2008, 2009.

Dash (03:20):
I remember in the nineties when the home PC started to
become a thing they, they wanted.
Well, it was, it was that plusalso internet access, right?
They were really pushing this stuffout to be in the home and a market.
They had a lot of trouble crackingwas poor people in rural areas.
There was a lot of stuff keepingus from buying a PC and getting

(03:45):
internet and like it was.
It was the accessibility, but therewas also this like educational divide.
The people who were most likelyto buy that stuff were people who
already had exposure to it, alreadysaw it as integral to their life.
We didn't have any reason to,well, like why would I spend
a PC cost $2,000 back then?

Beck (04:07):
Right.

Dash (04:08):
I don't know anything about what internet costs

Beck (04:10):
It used to be dial up.
So you would like,

Dash (04:13):
by the minute

Beck (04:15):
where I lived, when the internet first came around with a OL it was long
distance, so you had to pay mm-hmm.
Long distance rates.
So it was like 10 cents aminute to use the internet.
That's how old we are.

Dash (04:25):
So in an effort to, I guess, make us begin to think of these things as parts
of our lives, they had these outreachand education initiatives to, to teach
the hijacks about internet and stuff.
And local libraries wasone place they did it.
And my mom, where she workedpart-time at the Jericho Library,

(04:47):
she went to some school put on by.
Uh, the Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation, and this was a lot of, um,
rural educators or librarians, peoplewho were plugged in, who, who would've
been kind of a linchpin in that system.
They educated them and so mom actuallyknew how to use a computer for the

(05:07):
longest time, but they never actuallygot a computer at the library.
So like they forgot to, like, put inthat, to, to plug in that little piece.
But it was pretty helpful at homebecause dad wanted a computer.
He, he loves technology and stuff.
He was always lookingfor an excuse to get one.
So when we finally were ableto, she was able to show us

(05:29):
how to use it, and it stayed.
I mean, computers weren'tadvancing super fast back then.
Like early nineties,

Beck (05:36):
my parents were still using a OL when they died in 2022 and 23, so that's
how technologically advanced they were.
If it wasn't on Facebook or eBay or Amazonor a OL mail, my mom didn't mess with it.
So.

Dash (05:52):
I had no idea.
It was still a thing.

Beck (05:54):
Yeah.
It's free now.
And my dad, he was always lookingat cars, buying and selling cars
on like eBay and car parts.com
mm-hmm.
And, and stuff like that.
He, I would need something for my car andhe'd be like, just go on car parts.com
and look up blah, blah,blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And you're like, slow down andrepeat that in English, you know.
We are not sponsored by car parts.com.

(06:16):
I should, I should throw that out there.

Dash (06:18):
I've never heard of it.
Anytime I need something, I go to RockAuto, but I'm sure it's a similar thing.
Well, um, I mean, my dad, hegot a, he had a Commodore 64.
I'm pretty sure.
But we weren't allowed to play with it,and it was literally just for a while
there, he had a side gig that didn'tactually make any money, but he did.
He did have to process paymentsand keep books and stuff for it.

(06:41):
It was just a hobby ofthe recording studio.
So he would.
Bands would come in and pay him to usethe space and he would produce it for 'em
and he would place the order for the CDs.
And he only did it for a fewpeople, but he did have to have
some, some software to do that.
But he mostly just wantedto have it to play with.
Same with the studio actually.
Like this was, he wasn'tgoing into business.

(07:02):
He was just, he likeddoing that kind of thing.
And then.
He got a A 2 86, which was,this was back in the day.
These were their processors.
So this was before Pentium,which was actually just 5 86.
And he got, uh, where in theworld is Carmen San Diego for it.

Beck (07:19):
Oh, that's cool.

Dash (07:20):
There was a couple of other games that weren't as good, but that one, man,
I, I would play that one all the time.
I fucking loved it.
Did you ever watch that playthe game or watch the show?

Beck (07:29):
Yeah.
Yeah, we played it at school.
There was a game we played on computer'cause we had the old, a apple with the
green text on the, on the black screen.
The

Dash (07:37):
Macintosh?

Beck (07:37):
Yeah.

Dash (07:38):
Mm-hmm.

Beck (07:38):
Um, there was a game called Number Munch.
And it was so fun.
It was like a square and you had,we like eat all the multiples of two
and so you'd have to like avoid thethree and the seven and whatever.
Um, there'd be little monstersthat would come at you.
It was a lot of fun.
And then Oregon Trail, of course.

Dash (07:55):
Yeah.
Oregon Trail was the big onein, that was fifth grade.
We had, there was a computer atAngelico when I was in the fifth grade.
Actually there were two, there was onethat was a PC and there was one that
was a Macintosh and it was the onlything I remember playing on it was.
Oregon Trail, and when I sayplay, I was never allowed to,
it was never somehow my turn.
I was mostly watching the other kids play.

(08:17):
If you're willing to throwhands, you could be the one
that got to be on the computer.

Beck (08:22):
They had, they had plenty of kids.
They had like a little, like a, aroom full of them lining the walls.

Dash (08:27):
They had that at Williamsburg, but not Angelico.

Beck (08:34):
I was in the talented and gifted program.
And I remember in the third orfourth grade, learning to type using
like a Mavis Beacon type program.
Um, ILI started learningto type as early as that.
Are you a good typist now?

Dash (08:49):
Uh, I am.
I was, you know, now of course I'vegot neuropathy in my hands, but I used
to average 85 to 95 words a minute.

Beck (09:00):
Yeah.

Dash (09:00):
I didn't learn the correct way.
I just memorized the keyboard.
Ah.

Beck (09:04):
I learned the right way.
I took two years of typing in high school.

Dash (09:07):
I tried, I really did.
You know, with, they put the little,like, uh, the orange thing over
the keyboard, so you can't look atthe, the keys and the home keys.
I try, I, I do put my handsthere sometimes, but no, mostly
I'm just like really fast.
I've memorized the keyboard.
I.
Reaching for things and it is not thecorrect way to do it, but it's also
not quite hunt and peck because Yeah.

(09:28):
I just created my own way of doingit, which is how I learned to read.
So yeah.
It's not surprising.

Beck (09:33):
Hey, if it works, it works.

Dash (09:35):
Mm-hmm.
Um, I've been trying to, 'cause I'vebeen applying to a bunch of jobs, so
I've been like editing, you know howthat, what that turnaround is like.
Yeah.
Where you have to edit a fucking coverletter for everything you turn in.
Yeah.
And it's been, I, I've been using likeactually my hands instead of the voice to
text because formatting for voice to text.
There may be a shortcut for it,like other disabled folks out there.

(09:56):
If you've had to learn how touse these assistive technologies
late in life or whatever, letme know if there's a shortcut.
But I keep having to go back andforth between like using the touch
pad to format to go like down forline breaks or something like that,
because I haven't memorized all thevoice commands for various things,
and so I'm just like, fuck it.
It's I, I'll just like force myselfto type, but I make so many mistakes.

(10:19):
It's so slow and it wears my hand out.
And I still, I'm just gonna do thatinstead of learning the correct way
to use the assistive technology.

Beck (10:27):
So your middle name is stubborn then, is what you're, what you're

Dash (10:29):
saying?
Mm-hmm.
In a way though, I mean, maybeit's like, uh, good for my hand.
Maybe it's like physical therapy.
Maybe it'll get stronger.

Beck (10:36):
Maybe I have what's called trigger finger.
Like my fingers willjust like do this work.
It'll just, or.
Like these fingers will get stuckand won't like straighten out.
It's, it's really weird.
My fingers like, go frozen for a second.
Not cold, just immobile.

Dash (10:54):
Weird.

Beck (10:54):
Yeah.

Dash (10:55):
I have never heard of that.
That would be upsetting.

Beck (10:58):
Yeah.
My best friend worked for aorthopedic surgeon for a long
time, like 20 years, a long time,and she said that was very common.
She said a lot of people have it.
I've also got a cyst right in themiddle of my hand because of it.

Dash (11:11):
Have you seen anything weird lately?

Beck (11:14):
Define weird,

Dash (11:15):
like just people doing interesting, funny things.

Beck (11:19):
Did I tell you about the, the girls that I walked past on campus that
were in their army scrubs, like theirROTC, um, there were three of 'em.
It was dark.
It was when it was, it's been maybesix weeks ago when it happened.
Um, and it was like seven o'clock.
So it was totally dark oncampus and it was still cold.
And I'm bundled up, you know, withmy backpack and I'm walking in
my car minding my business, andthese three girls are just chatting

(11:40):
and one of them burps so loud.
That it, like my hair flewback a little and I went nice,
and they were so embarrassed.
She was like, oh my God, I'm so sorry.
I think I was just invisible to'em in that moment, but I was just
like, nice and just kept on going.

(12:01):
It was one of the funniest thingsthat's happened in a while.

Dash (12:04):
Excellent.

Beck (12:06):
I got an email this week from a student saying that he was, um, he
re from when I worked at, uh, Shawneedown in Portsmouth, he said that I
was his first queer professor andthe first person outside of his age
range, that he is known that was gay,and that it was great to see somebody
that was queer and successful doingsomething with their life and that it
made him realize that he was also queer.

(12:26):
And so thank you for that.
I was like, Aw, yeah.

Dash (12:30):
That's amazing.

Beck (12:31):
You tracked me down.

Dash (12:32):
I love when they do that.
Kids, uh, if you ever are like, Iwish I could tell them this, but
there's no way they remember me,or there's no way they would care.
We care

Beck (12:43):
a lot.

Dash (12:44):
Oh God, this week or this coming week is lavender celebration and I'm not
gonna be able to be there for, I probablycould crash it, but it would just make it
all weird and it would make it about me.
Right.
And so I'm not gonna do that.
But one of the.
One, one of the trans studentsthat I was, you know, close with
texted me maybe yesterday thatthey, she got into a PhD program.

(13:05):
It's fully funded.
I think she said she's going tothe University of Buffalo and.
I was like, that's awesome.
You know, I'm super proud of you.
I was worried about her.
I worried about all of thembecause they just, they become
so inert and I totally feel that.
I feel, uh, very similarly,it's been hard to be inspired
or excited or become motivated.

(13:27):
By anything, like I have a significantproblem to solve and I'm still just
looking around like maybe this is just it.
Maybe it's okay that this isthe end of everything for me,
and that's not really like me.
I generally like problem solving.

Beck (13:41):
Right.
You're allowed to get tired though.

Dash (13:43):
Yeah, I think that's what it is.
I'm just like another one.
But like, I was out for one of my logs.
I have this, you know, neighbor here.
He's a weird dude.
He's a little kooky, which I respect.
Um, and he's also very sweet.
But I don't really see him that often.
Like he's always out doing things.
He's, uh, lives right behind mehere and he is got a big shed.
He's always working in, but I wentout for my walk and you know, like you

(14:05):
can feel that like the car coming upon you and I could feel that one was
there and that it was slowing downand the driver was looking at me.
I could just feel it.
And so I looked over and I didn'trecognize him at first 'cause it
was a person dressed up to do golf.
And so he starts, he startedkind of joking with me.
He was like, Hey.
You live around here.

(14:25):
And I just went like,yeah, of course I'm sick.
And I was not feeling well and Iwas already cutting my walks short
'cause I didn't feel like it.
And because I, I didn'trealize it was him.
But anyway, so when I did, Iwent over and I was like, oh hey.
And I'm trying to make small talkand I sound so clearly, so Ill.
They just like to talkhere, which is fine.
And he was like, yeah,I thought that was you.

(14:46):
I recognized your walk.
And I was like, that'sa weird thing to say.
Thanks.
This conversation justkept getting weirder.
The longer it went, we wereboth just not on our A game.
And it got, I think we startedto like actually do it on purpose
and be competitively weird.
I said, all right.
And he goes, well, you know,everybody's got their own walk.
And then we were both quiet andhe goes, and it's hereditary.

(15:07):
And I was like.
What?
And he said, how youwalk, it's hereditary.
And so I said, okay, well I'll makesure to let my parents know you'd
be able to pick 'em out of a lineup.
And he like.
He started laughing and then he, hewas like, I've just been golfing.
And I was like, oh, that's cool.
He goes, do you golf?

(15:28):
And I said, Nope.
Never have.
They just, they don't reallydo that where I'm from.
And he goes, oh, do you fish?
And I said, Nope.

Beck (15:37):
This flannels just for show.
Yeah.

Dash (15:41):
And he, he goes, well that's enough.
Trying to get to know each other for now.
I'll see you later.
I was like, wow, congratulations.
Like, you won you out weirded me.
But it's like, what

Beck (16:01):
do you even say back to that?
Like, I

Dash (16:02):
dunno.

Beck (16:04):
Yep.
I guess so.

Dash (16:05):
He was, uh, I was standing in the middle of the road and he was.
Stopped.
And so after he said that, he justdrove off and I was like, bye.
And I've been like, since then I'vebeen saying, well, that's enough.
Trying to get to knoweach other to myself.
What an icon.

Beck (16:27):
That's awesome.

Dash (16:28):
It's fair, you know, I was not doing a great job.

Beck (16:32):
I once had a neighbor where I lived in bg.
Um, she lived a couple of housesdown and the day we were moving in
like this, we still had DirecTV.
It was before it wasall, you know, online.
Um, and I had called before wemoved up here to get it set up.
That way we would have TVas soon as we moved in.
And she comes over and she was like, youshould sign up for DirecTV using my thing.

(16:52):
And I was like, I'm sorry,we already got it fixed up.
And she was like, okay, we're gonnaneed to get you on a diet girl.
And like.
Was the first thing the womansaid to me after I told her that I
didn't wanna use her DirecTV login.
And it was like, okay.
Turns out she was an uh, she got amaster's degree in exercise science
and was a retired gym teacher.
I did end up taking a water joggingclass from her, which was fun.

Dash (17:16):
What's water jogging?

Beck (17:17):
Exactly what it sounds like you do The movements of running and water.

Dash (17:22):
Oh.
Oh.
Like an aquatics.
Okay.

Beck (17:25):
It's a lot easier on your body.

Dash (17:26):
Yeah,

Beck (17:27):
but it's still a workout 'cause you do it in the deep end of the pool.

Dash (17:29):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I've done a couple of aquatics classes,

Beck (17:32):
but she was like 75 and still like out in the yard in her bikini.

Dash (17:37):
What a thing to say
. But anyway, there's some likeserious conspiracy theories going on,

Beck (17:47):
well, I
got shot in.
His ear is perfect.
Like so They fake the first one.
What says they're not gonnafake the second one, you know?
No, I don't believe it.
I think he

Dash (17:58):
Or

Beck (17:59):
because after it happened they were all like, this is
why you need the ballroom.
Fuck you and

Dash (18:04):
That's exactly right.
Like they were people.
The ar the, I guess picture that's beingput together is one that this has happened
so many times and nobody can hit shit.
And because it, this wasn't even,somebody had, uh, counted up that this
is actually the fourth time becauseit, there were times before when he
was campaigning or somebody somethingthat somebody, I rem I can remember

(18:27):
One is he was get doing one of hisrallies and somebody rushed the stage.
'Cause I remember there was a gif ofhim, like he didn't know what to do
and he was like just freaking out.
So that one I think was, was real.
And I, I'm not saying that this wasn't.
You know, I, I don't fucking know.
And I think it's more fun to like,just talk about what, what other

(18:51):
people are, are saying about like,how they're making this conspiracy.
But the argument is pretty good,you know, and this, this really does
show that, like, you can make anargument for just about anything if
you're really dedicated and if youreally put the information together.
But yeah, a bunch of bots, some,there's a screenshot of, of a bunch
of MAGA bots on Twitter going like,this is why we need the ballroom.

(19:13):
And it, for me, I was even like,what does that have to do with this?
It, it, it was a serious leap of logic.
But they're saying itwas a con, a security,

Beck (19:22):
yeah, that they could have better security and,
and that kind of thing there.

Dash (19:26):
And they pointed out that this is the first correspondence dinner.
He's, he's attended.

Beck (19:31):
Yeah.
Because it was the first one thatdidn't have a comedian headlining it.

Dash (19:35):
Yeah.

Beck (19:35):
so thin skinned, he can't take a roasted.

Dash (19:38):
Oh, that's true.
And people, somebody, uh, was puttingall of the, like, pictures of them
as it was going on, and some of themwere like laughing and they were
laughing afterwards and smiling.
There's one, there's a reallyincredible picture of Steven Miller
using his pregnant wife as a shield.

Beck (19:57):
that.
I did see that.

Dash (19:59):
Trump is in the background, just standing there watching.
And I was like, you know, eventhis, yeah, it's, it's stupid.
It's suspicious, but it's also like,yeah, both of these people would do that.

Beck (20:12):
Yeah.

Dash (20:13):
Like Trump doesn't know where he is.

Beck (20:15):
granted, they're the worst government people that
have ever been in my opinion.
But why did we have so many people inthe government in one place, like the,
the entire line of secession was in thatone bomb would've left us with I when the
I read said that 93-year-old ChuckGrassley would've been the president.
Should a bomb have gone off andkilled everyone in that room?

Dash (20:37):
aren't there laws against that,

Beck (20:39):
I think there

Dash (20:40):
like, that matters

Beck (20:41):
yeah.
That's crazy to me.

Dash (20:44):
because they're not allowed to fly together
and also, aren't theybuilding the ballroom?
Like has there been some sort of,

Beck (20:51):
I think there's an injunction against it right now.

Dash (20:53):
so they've demolished part of the White House, but they
don't have permission to build.

Beck (20:57):
They never had permission to build, they just

Dash (21:00):
Oh my God.
Incredible.

Beck (21:03):
Like they would've had

Dash (21:03):
These people,

Beck (21:05):
a historic trust and like the National Historical Preservation
Board or whatever it's called.
And like there's, there's lawsand things about what you can do.
You know, just because youlive in the White House doesn't
mean you own the White House.
The White

Dash (21:19):
you can't just renovate.

Beck (21:21):
Yeah.
And they're all like, well,Obama put up a basketball court.
He put up not a court, he put up a rim.
You know what I mean?
Like, and, and.
It is not the same thing even a little bit

Dash (21:32):
if, if a homeowner's association would allow it.
It doesn't compare todemolishing the east Wing.

Beck (21:38):
Yeah.
Do you ever watch Jordan klepperhis, his, his segments fingering
the people and all of that?
Fingering the demo, maybesomething like that.
Fingering the democracy,or, know what it's

Dash (21:50):
Let me see.

Beck (21:52):
That's a clip for you?
Uh,

Dash (21:54):
Fingering democracy,

Beck (21:55):
yeah.
The, the dissonance that peoplehave, you know what I mean?
They really believe that, you know,what he's doing is okay because Obama
put up a basketball hoop and it's like.
The leap of logic that you haveto take to get to someplace where
you think those two things areequivalent is just astounding to me.
And it should be studied like seriously.

, Dash (22:17):
If nothing else, we are gaining tons of data about how
this works, you know, becauseit is just, it's a cult.
It's called Jordan KClipper Fingers, the pulse

Beck (22:29):
there you go.

Dash (22:30):
into the Mago verse.

Beck (22:32):
They're hilarious and sad at the same that time.

Dash (22:36):
yeah, he does great work.
And, and because SAD is right,because there's, there is such a
an order of magnitude of tragedyto what has happened to people.

Beck (22:47):
Yeah.

Dash (22:48):
It sort of, I, I've been, I keep thinking back to that study about the
amygdala and people who, it was a, it,they studied Fox News viewers, but Fox
News is just one part of this machine.
What we're looking at here is a phenomenonof an ideology, which is intentionally

(23:10):
being bent to warping people's, uh,minds, their perception of the world, and.
The people who are susceptible to that.
So it's, it just happens tobe this particular ideology.
I remember something from, uh,Radhika's class, the media,
media methodologies class

Beck (23:31):
you.
You asked me if I was in that class.
I don't think I was.

Dash (23:34):
well, and I took several with her because my coursework, like
my specialization was in media andcommunications and film and stuff.
So one of those classes shetalked about how ideology.
When you say ideology, it is, itis not the thing that is motivated.
It just simply exists.

(23:54):
So whatever an ideology is, itdoesn't have its own, agenda.
and that can be hard for us to, toremember to keep separate because
especially if it's an ideology that wedon't agree with, and it's like, no,
that thing's just existing over there.
That ideology, it's sort oflike an element in nature.

(24:15):
We all have access to it.
I choose to disagree with it.
but somebody who, who decides to useit to try to influence another person.
They are mediating that ideology and.
This is what Marshall McCluhanhad meant by, uh, the media.
The medium is the message.
He recanted on that a littlebit because he was like, y'all

(24:35):
misunderstood what I meant.
What he meant was, it's not the ideologythat has the agenda, it's the medium.
The, the person that istransmitting that ideology is
imbuing their own agenda onto it.
Be because look at the way Christianityis utilized against people.
The people who are using thatfor evil don't believe it.

(24:57):
You don't have to agree with anideology in order to use that
ideology to weaponize that ideology

Beck (25:03):
Right,

Dash (25:05):
Exactly.
Yeah.
Um, and we, we all, we arelike, oh God, hypocrisy.
And it's like you're missing the point.
Of course they're a hypocrite,but that's not what's.
Important here.
You're not gonna win the argument bypointing out, but you're a hypocrite.
When has that ever saved anybody?
Like you tell the bad guy, you're the badguy, and they go, you're right, my bad.

Beck (25:27):
Oops,

Dash (25:27):
I'll stop.
I, and this all goes back toAlthusser and him talking about like
the ideological state apparatus.
And you have to choose whetheryou believe in ideology or not,
or whether you are subject to it.
So these people arejust activated by fear.
That's basically what that means.
If you can make, and we've known thisfor a long time, but we're getting all
this like really public informationand people like Jordan Klepper,

(25:49):
they're just do doing the Lord's work.

Beck (25:51):
Yeah, I agree with that for sure.

Dash (25:54):
There was one, um, clip I saw.
It was Christmas and Trump wasstill campaigning at the time.
And so he was, he, I don't know theguy's name that he's usually with.
He's a shorter, uh, much more deadpan guy.

Beck (26:08):
Michael Costas.

Dash (26:10):
I'll, I'll may, well, I, I wouldn't, I don't, I've never known, so
I wouldn't know if you were right or not.
But they were at a, some sort of thingin, at Christmas time and talking to, I'm
sure it was a rally and someone was sayinglike, oh, we're allowed to say Christmas.
Now he's gonna make it so thatwe're allowed to say Christmas.
Which that's always one of the.

(26:31):
You know, you convince somebodythat they're under attack.
she was like, yeah, we're notallowed to celebrate Christmas.
We're allowed to, we will beallowed to celebrate Christmas.
And he just kind of looks at thecamera and then looks around him
because the whole place they'restanding is like Santa Vomited.
It's just tensile andlights and Christmas trees.
And there's a fucking like Christmassong playing in the background.

(26:53):
It's like, is this younot celebrating Christmas?
What happens when youturn loose on Christmas?
Kind of wanna see that.

Beck (27:02):
that would be the, the interior of the Briar patch in Lucasville, Ohio.
I, I heard they recently sold it,so there's a new owner, I guess.
But I, I worked there for two owners agoand when the people that I knew that owned
it, Kay and, oh my God, I can't believe,I can't remember his name, Frank, maybe.

(27:25):
Kay and Frank they sold it to anotherlady and she came in and decorated
for Christmas and never took it down.
And she put up, like they hadthese drop ceilings with like.
I don't know, 10 feet between where theceiling was and the actual ceiling of
the place, and you could see up in there.
So she lined the ceiling with Mrs.
Claws, mannequins, like life size, Mrs.

(27:49):
Claus's, and they're all overthe place inside the Briar
patch and it's the most bizarre.
So yeah, it's a place that youjust have to experience once.
fried chicken leg or fried froglegs and crockpot and some dog
food, then that's the place for you.
I.

Dash (28:07):
and if, if you, if you think that there's a war on Christmas, ask yourself.
Uh, like how many people, houses,whatever businesses you see
that literally just leave theirChristmas decorations up year round.
And how we all are just like, okay.

Beck (28:23):
Have you seen the new trend?
I live in a brand new development.
Like I'm the first personto live in my apartment.
The buildings are brand new and there'shouses constantly being built in
the new sub subdivisions on my road.
And all kinds of, during the summerand stuff, there's a holiday lights
put up by the lawn care people.
They'll put 'em up and now they, they putlike the, the LED color changing ones.

(28:46):
So in August you can have a blueand purple house if you want.
And in, in spring you can have apink and green one if you want.
You can change the lightsto the season if you want.
And it's just a, a year round thingnow, and it's, it's like, like
$300 per square foot or something.
It's like ridiculous.

Dash (29:03):
That is a lot of work to just never have to take the lights down or it's a
lot of money to never have to take the to.

Beck (29:09):
Well, I mean, they, they're fancy houses.
They're, they're like.
They're super, they, well, they looksuper new, but they, they put a house up
in like two weeks, a couple of weeks ago,

Dash (29:18):
Yeah.

Beck (29:19):
it, so I, I don't know.
This apartment is shit quality.
It's brand new, but it has likethat landlord special paint that
where you touch it and you leavefingerprints on the walls and like
I, I leaned a, a, a box against itand it left a mark against the wall.
So.

Dash (29:36):
Those, I think that's called modular it comes like mostly already
fabricated or, or prefab or something.
And they just like assemble it on siteafter they build the foundation and stuff.
And they are, they are the market now.
Like you, if you want to build a house.
It's, there are some places like where,uh, Vanessa moved in the northern

(30:00):
Kentucky, like Cincinnati suburb area.
That's literally all you can do.
The only thing you can do is payout the nose for a piece of shit.
Big box store uncustomizable, likeall the, the designs are pre-made.
I don't know.
It's hard to think how someone,unless they were forced
to, would agree to do that.
Forced is a strong word, but like,

(30:21):
they've got kids, right?
They have to live somewherethat there's a school district

Beck (30:24):
Well that's, I mean, that's how they got me.
'cause they allowed dogs here.
And when I moved here I had threedogs, including baby, who was an
over a hundred pound rottweiler.
And to have that many dogs of that size,

Dash (30:37):
that.

Beck (30:37):
just some, we just couldn't get anywhere.
And plus we were apartment shoppingfrom 250 miles away, you know,
so we kind of got living here.

Dash (30:47):
Housing in America is fucking stupid.

Beck (30:49):
Yes.
It really, I pay waytoo much for rent here.
Like it's a whole assmortgage, you know, mortgage

Dash (30:55):
Yeah.
Uh, yeah.
Your, your whole like situationis double my mortgage.

Beck (31:01):
Yeah.

Dash (31:01):
I mean, granted, I intentionally bought a piece of shit so that my
mortgage would be low, but that'sbecause I don't have a lot of money.

Beck (31:09):
Yeah.
Well, neither do I.
Yeah, but I mean, it was, it was kiI mean, we had nowhere else to live.
It was kind of a, you know, and thento move, we didn't know if I was
gonna have my job for another year.
So to move the cost of moving what itwould've cost us to have a new first
month rent and a down payment and topay the movers and to pay all that was
just, it was worth it to stay here tofind out, you know, whether, but we're

(31:31):
putting so many miles on the car andwe're just using so much gas and we're
both working in BG right now, so itjust makes more sense to be down there.
So we're gonna try to, this summer,we're gonna try to find, but it's
finding housing down there isso difficult if you don't wanna

Dash (31:46):
It wouldn't bother.
I mean, getting, getting closeris absolutely a good idea.
But like in the cityit's, or the town itself,

Beck (31:54):
I mean, yeah, I could be out on like the sugar Ridge or, you know,

Dash (31:58):
it's that racket.

Beck (31:59):
yeah, I'm not trying to live in the college area.
Part of hell no.

Dash (32:03):
Yeah.

Beck (32:04):
when I lived in Hamilton, Ohio, I lived near college students and I
would, if, if given the, the legalright, I would just hose them down
when they came near my, my yard.
I wasn't allowed to do that.
But I thought about it many atimes and I do not wanna live
near drunken students that I love.
I love my students, but I get themost sober, so I, I, I prefer that.

Dash (32:26):
And that's that, um, that boots theory of social, whatever unfairness,
Terry Pratchett's theory is it, itcosts, like you just said, that's
probably $5,000 you need to move to anew apartment, and you're not gonna have
that because you're barely affording therent to stay in the apartment you have.

(32:48):
And so like, having enough financialroom to improve your financial
situation, it's, it's designedto keep us where we get stuck.

Beck (32:59):
Yeah, I worked, I worked two jobs this year, right?
I worked for the online university and Iworked for the Real Life University, and
somewhere along the lines, I didn't takeout enough taxes, and so working this
job caused me, now I owe $2,000 in taxes.
Like, what is the point of trying so hard?
How am I paying moretaxes than the president?

Dash (33:20):
what I had to do to find it was somewhere that is nearly intolerable.

Beck (33:25):
Yeah.
Well, that's how it
You know, I could have gotten a reallycheap apartment down there, but,

Dash (33:30):
Right.

Beck (33:30):
the rent was free while I was there.
I mean, I would've had to payproperty taxes if I had stayed there.
And that's as much as a rent payment,you know, 'cause it was like $4,000
every six months or something.
'Cause there was, you know, 17 acres.
if I had stayed there, 'cause wethought about it, you know, what
kind of life could we build there?
We're being given all this landand this house and all that.
Why not at least think about it?

(33:51):
But there were no jobs.
I could be working as an adjunctat Shawnee right now, and I just
couldn't afford to live like that.
And I'm, the mental stress of living in mymom's house after she passed was too much.

Dash (34:04):
I was gonna say, I don't, I don't know about that for you

Beck (34:08):
it was

Dash (34:08):
or for anyone you know.

Beck (34:10):
my therapist was very glad when we moved back up here and it
took every ounce of everything.
I had every dollar, I had every last spareenergy sale, I had every, everything to
get back up here and, and out of there.
But we did it.
did it by God, didn't we?
Rue,

Dash (34:30):
speaking of Ohio, Cincinnati has the first, I think it's Ohio's first, LGBTQIA
a two s plus commission, city commission.
Let me look this up.
I'm trying to do this from memoryand I could just Google it.

Beck (34:45):
the two s stand for?

Dash (34:47):
Two-Spirit
Cincinnati, LGBT.
There it is.
Yeah.
First members to historic L-G-B-T-Q.
Oh, oh, it's just cookies.
Okay.
Um, stop asking me if I wanna subscribe.
I'm already subscribed.
By the way, this is the Buckeye Flame.
Of course, I'm subscribed.

(35:07):
Yeah.
Uh, CI Cincinnati Historiclgbtq plus commission.
The 12 appointees come froma variety of backgrounds.
Cincinnati is the first Ohio Cityto create an lgbtq plus commission.
will report twice a month to thecity's Healthy Neighbors Healthy
Neighborhoods Committee and advisethe council on how legislation
might impact the queer community.

(35:29):
Wow.
There'll be tracking data.
Cool.

Beck (35:31):
They also have um, an anti-discrimination bill that includes
non-discrimination against people froman Appalachian origin in Cincinnati.

Dash (35:41):
Interesting.

Beck (35:42):
Yeah,

Dash (35:43):
What, uh, what does that discrimination look like?
Is it

Beck (35:47):
I think it's the people that like from, from southern Kentucky and, and
all that, that moved north to the, tothe, to the Cincinnati what's it called?
Nor not Norfolk.
That's Virginia.
What's it called Acrossthe ver, what is it?
Covington, Newport.
Thank you.
I could not get that word outta my brainor from my brain out into the language.

(36:09):
I think it was because people movingfrom that part of Kentucky, like the, the
JD Vance's of the world, his mammaw or

Dash (36:15):
mm-hmm.

Beck (36:16):
from Appalachia to Middletown, which is pretty much Cincinnati.

Dash (36:19):
Oh my God.

Beck (36:20):
stemmed from.

Dash (36:21):
That is so interesting.
All right.
Cincinnati's municipal code 9 1 4prohibits discrimination based on
Appalachian region origin, in additionto race, gender, and sexual orientation.
The context is that migrants fromKentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West
Virginia, and southern Ohio movedto Cincinnati for industrial jobs

(36:44):
primarily between the forties andsixties, and often faced discrimination
leading to their categorization as aninvisible minority or second minority.
The Urban Appalachian Community Coalitionworks to promote cultural pride.
Wow.
Oh boy.
I bet this has been weaponizedfor some shit though.

Beck (37:05):
Yeah, you think so?

Dash (37:06):
I mean, you know how fucking white people are.

Beck (37:10):
Yeah.
I, when I was at Miami my last semester,I ran out of financial aid because
there's, you only get so much eligibilityand I was literally to my last semester
and they gave me a scholarship basedon my Appalachian birth I thought
was really cool as a minoritized

Dash (37:25):
Yeah.

Beck (37:26):
Yeah,

Dash (37:27):
They're called Urban Appalachians.

Beck (37:29):
Echoes of the

Dash (37:30):
This, well, I was just about to say like, this is, it, it sort
of this, this is a kind of diaspora
and, and I'm alsohesitant to use that word.
I, I use it.
Sometimes kind of what's, what'sthe word, jokingly, right?
To talk about Appalachian diaspora
specifically, uh, when I talk about likequeer and trans Appalachian diaspora

(37:53):
for like people who left home to findacceptance because it's part of a larger
conversation of the gay migration.
Have you heard about this?

Beck (38:00):
Mm-hmm.
No.

Dash (38:01):
It's, it kind of describes this real and imagined cultural phenomenon
of queer, rural people leaving their,you know, small towns or isolated
towns for one of the gay meccas likeSan Francisco, Los Angeles, New York,
Chicago, what, whatever's closest,

(38:21):
but

Beck (38:21):
I think that's about community building more than anything.
Like in my small town, there were likefive queer people that were out, you know,
that's the reason I moved to Huntington.
I, the, the book, uh, Ruby Fruit Jungle,I don't know if you've ever read it.
It's one of my favorites.
But she, she gets kicked out by her momand she can't go to college anymore, so
she decides to move to New York becausethere's so many queers in New York.

(38:43):
One more won't rock the boat.
And that was my exact thinkingof moving to Huntington.
There were three queer bars inHuntington alone when I moved there.
So there was at least a community there.
And I know lots of other people fromPikeville and areas like that, that moved
up there too, for the same exact reason.
It was a place for community.

Dash (39:01):
Yeah, and the, I think part part of it was like there was only
so many places people knew of forsure that there were queer people
and San Francisco was one of them.
And it is just simply unlikely thatthere's gonna be a vibrant queer community
in a place with a small population.
And that's just, that's the minorityexperience or the minoritized

(39:22):
experience is having to do somelegwork to find people like you.
You know, 15 years ago when I wasfirst on the job market, it was
just like, L-G-B-T-Q Center isfar and wide hiring all the time.
And it right now it isvery few and far between.
Like, I've been monitoring thejob boards for weeks now, and I've

(39:46):
seen maybe a handful of five, youknow, job postings, but they're
in such weird, surprising places.
Uh, I saw two in Texas and I'veseen, I, I can remember one, but
probably more in, in Tennessee.
What the fuck those are?
Well, maybe the peoplewho had those jobs left.

(40:07):
'cause the, the states are soawful, but like Minnesota, my
university is getting rid of thatjob because it's too hot politically.
But Texas and Tennesseeare out here posting.

Beck (40:19):
help wanted.

Dash (40:19):
Yeah.
Okay.
I, I don't wanna live in Tennessee.
I absolutely cannot live inTennessee or Texas As a trans person.
Wouldn't it be crazy if one of ourlisteners was on the Cincinnati
LGBTQIAA Plus Commission?
That would be fucking incredible.

Beck (40:40):
that really would be, if you are, we wanna interview you.

Dash (40:43):
we could probably, like, I don't want, I I was gonna, it was gonna sound
creepy what I was about to say, but like,find out who they are and where they work.

Beck (40:52):
Yeah.
That's not creepy at all, dude.

Dash (40:54):
No, it's probably their worst nightmare too,
as someone who's been in that position.
Public service.
Oh my God.
It's not for me.
I don't even know if university levelfacing public service is for me anymore.
Like, I looked at those jobsand I was like, I, I don't know.
I don't know if I'm, I don't knowif I have that in me anymore.
That is young person's work.

Beck (41:13):
What?
Like coordinating and all

Dash (41:16):
activity a degree, but also like advocacy on that, that
level with the amount of like redtape and constraints that come
from doing it in higher education.
I think naivete is a strong asset forsomething like that because you've
gotta be willing to grind and, andkeep churning and burning without

(41:36):
really being able to see a result.
And You get tired of that?

Beck (41:42):
Yeah, I bet.

Dash (41:44):
Oh, well, let's hear from this week's sponsor,
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Beck (43:34):
I've never heard of stone soup before.

Dash (43:36):
Really?
that sounded really shady.
I'm sorry.
Listeners, I hope you don't feel judgedif you also hadn't, but it's, it's just,
uh, it's an, uh, European folk talefrom the 1500, so the 16th century.

Beck (43:49):
their 15th century German folklore?

Dash (43:52):
That's so fair.

Beck (43:54):
me.

Dash (43:56):
It's, the story is like, there's a traveling stranger or maybe more
than one, I don't know, who come toa town and they're hungry, but they
don't have any food and they are like.
Okay, we're gonna make some stone soup.
I, I can make soup from just this stone.
And they have a pot and they put thestone in it and they're like, okay,

(44:18):
so just need a, a few ingredients.
And they, they go to each house,you know, and they're like, all I
need is a little bit of this, right?
A little celery.
Do you have a tarot root?
Do you have whatever, a chicken.
And like house by house.
They put together a pot of soupand then they invite all the
villagers to eat it with them.
So I, I guess it's a story aboutlike pulling community resources.

(44:40):
And the joke is like, I made all thisjust from this rock, but they actually
made it from connecting with peopleand we ma managed to feed a village.
I think it's similar to, there's somereligious myths that are similar, right?

Beck (44:54):
The LOA of and fishes.

Dash (44:56):
I call mine Ramen Abomination, but it's based on the Stone soup thing.
And we would do that, like when Iwas in college, we would be like,
all right, it's stone soup night.
and sometimes we would go to save a lotor Aldi together and shop and then come
back and make, you know, whatever in the,in the dorm kitchen or when, if somebody

(45:16):
had an apartment in their apartment.
And so we'd made stuff, it, itwas always big pots of shit.
'cause you have to be able tothrow in whatever you have.
so I would get, you can buy Top Ramenin bulk and so I would fix a big pot, a
huge, uh, stock pot, a bowl and water andthrow in like six packs of the noodles.
And I would, um, save.

(45:39):
' cause the, the pack, um, the flavorpacks on those is just bullion basically.
So I would save the flavorpacks for seasoning meat next
time I had meat to, to fix.
Like, it's a good, if you geta shitty cut of beef or pork or
something, you can put that on itand it tenderizes and flavors it.

(45:59):
Uh, and then we would make, peoplewould come over and like, if they had
carrots that were half rotted, youknow, like chop 'em up and throw 'em in
there and celery or potatoes, whatever,and it, it makes pretty good soup.
Uh, I, I would, uh, throwpeanut butter in there.
I made pad Thai type stuff before creamof mushroom soup or cream, like cream of
whatever soup stuff you'd use for baking.

(46:19):
Put it in there and itmakes kind of a soup base.
I made pasta that way.
I made some truly disgusting things,I made, I made some, the recipes
that I still make to this day,

Beck (46:31):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Shana does most of thecooking for a reason.
I'm not like, I can make youa good batch of spaghetti.
Like that's my specialty, right?
Like, that's everybody's first specialty.
I can make you a pot of chili as long asI have the prepackaged chili seasonings.
So basically you just brown some hamburgerand open some cans, and that's about it.
But Shanna does fried chicken.

(46:51):
Shanna does She does shepherd's pie.
She does, you know, a widevariety of, of things.
she can make biscuits and gravy.
I can't make biscuits to save my life.
They never turn out Right.

Dash (47:02):
there's a knack to it.

Beck (47:04):
Yeah.
I also have a black thumb.
of my talent is in my, is myforefinger for doing pictures.
Like, that's my hand, my hand talent.

Dash (47:12):
Like, there's a couple of like, uh, social media creators who are just like
southerners or, you know, people fromAppalachia who are showing people how to
make their granny's recipes of things.
And you know, my mom, she,we've talked about this before.
She, she had her recipes that sherotated and, and they were fine,
but she wasn't some like granny inthe kitchen all damn day, right?

(47:33):
She had jobs to do.
She had, like, there was, there was, hergeneration didn't get to, to just spend
their time refining their fucking craft.
She had the things hermom taught her to do.
She knew how to make biscuits and stufflike that because she, she was taught
that, but she didn't get to stay in thekitchen her, even if she had wanted to.

(47:54):
Right.
And if you wanna be a stay at home momand you wanna be somebody that only goes
in the kitchen and, and gets better atdoing that kinda stuff, we support you.
But even if she had wanted to, she.
That that wasn't in the cards for her.
So I see things all the timethat I'm like, I ain't never
seen nothing like that.
I saw somebody today making,oh shit, what did she call it?
Chocolate.
Cobbler.
Chocolate cobbler.

(48:15):
And, she was using like, your mom usedfor the her fudge, the coco powder mix
I saw her with several different powders.
And it made it just likecobbler, but it came out looking
like a ooey gooey, brownie.
I almost saved it.
Like, I was like, I'm gonnamake this or some shit.
maybe we should do that.

(48:35):
We should do an episode wherewe both try to make something.

Beck (48:39):
I used to be a pretty good baker when I was a kid.
I used to make like cinnamon rollsfrom scratch and things like that.
Baking, I can, because it's anexact recipe, you tell me exactly
what to do and I can do that.
But cooking is more of a soul sport.
You know, you add a little bitof this and a little bit of
that, and I just don't have that.

Dash (48:57):
Well you have to get your reps.

Beck (48:59):
Yeah,
but I grew up eating fast food.
You know, my mom, my mom cooked,but she also worked like your mom.
And so we got a lot of fooddelivery a lot of pizza

Dash (49:13):
Yeah.

Beck (49:14):
And there was a place called Jim Dandy that had a big
moment of Coke for 99 cents.
And we would order like 20 of 'em

Dash (49:20):
Yeah.

Beck (49:21):
and

Dash (49:22):
you know, they had three fucking corn fed growing kids.
We became impossible tofeed as we got older.
You know, like we, we, she tell, shetells us all the time, she was like, I
swear to God, all I did was feed y'all.
And she would, you know, if she gothome immediately, she'd be in there
fixing her big batch of hamburgersor, or, uh, spaghetti or whatever.

(49:45):
We would eat it up.
And then she said two hours later we'dbe in, in there with our, in the kitchen
with our head in the refrigeratorlooking for something to eat on.
And like,

Beck (49:53):
Oh yeah.

Dash (49:53):
I could see how that would wear you down.

Beck (49:55):
Yeah.

Dash (49:56):
And so, like, you know, later they would, they were more like trips up to
Kentucky to get a pizza or something.
It just that she had to goso far out of her way and we
never, who's nobody delivered.

Beck (50:08):
Giovanni's delivered to my house.
Giovanni's was a wonderful place.
I still troll their Facebook to thisday, and every time they're like, we
have a new location or a new special.
And I'm like, are you delivering Toledo?
Or come to Toledo?
Like, I troll them.

Dash (50:22):
Atem
one day.

Beck (50:24):
like, like bring me a pizza or something.
Just for a social media video.
That would be amazing.

Dash (50:29):
Hell listeners, let's make it happen.

Beck (50:32):
I, really am Giovanni's billboard.
Everybody I know knows Giovanni's.
'cause I talk about it so much.
I,

Dash (50:40):
Sponsor GIO Buns.

Beck (50:41):
for real.

Dash (50:43):
I'm gonna see if I can find that TikTok I saw of
that woman making that stuff.
And then we'll see.
Maybe this weekend we'll see if, if,uh, each of us can make it, I review it.
Do you want to tell us about anoun of Appalachian interest?

Beck (50:56):
All right.
Today's noun of Appalachian interest

Dash (50:59):
Of Appalachian interest is a man

Beck (51:00):
and an Elvis loving icon is Jesco White, also known as The Dancing Outlaw.
Now, if you've never heard ofJesco White, buckle up a little.
This man is from Boone County,West Virginia, and he did not
just grow up around dancing.
He was born into it.
His dad, d Ray White was afamous mountain dancer, and
Jesco grew up learning the trade.

(51:21):
And when I say dance, I

Dash (51:22):
when

Beck (51:23):
like a nice little recital situation.
Think tapping meets, clogging,and they had a wild ass baby.
I mean, stomping so hard that itfeels like the porch might give out.
I mean rhythm that sounds likeit's coming from deep in the hills.
It's very loud, it's

Dash (51:37):
very loud.

Beck (51:38):
and it's often a little chaotic.
It's very Appalachian in allthe best ways he's infamous in

Dash (51:43):
Appalachian,

Beck (51:45):
Jesco got to be well known outside the region through a 1991 PBS
documentary called The Dancing Outlaw.
And let me tell you, thetitle is not doing too much.
It fits.
This man dances likehe's in a showdown with

Dash (51:57):
like he did with gravity and

Beck (51:59):
looks like it could

Dash (52:00):
every move looked

Beck (52:00):
but

Dash (52:01):
like it could go from how it does

Beck (52:02):
he just keeps

Dash (52:03):
or it does.
He just,

Beck (52:04):
gained wider,

Dash (52:05):
he gave

Beck (52:05):
with the 2009 film, the Wild, wonderful Whites of West Virginia,
which if you haven't seen, alsoencompasses the pure insanity of a

Dash (52:14):
in,

Beck (52:14):
existence and you're totally missing out on the ride.
But here's the thing thatmakes Jesco really interesting.
His life story is not neat.
It's messy, messier than your usual mess.
There's his family, which

Dash (52:26):
there's his family, which is

Beck (52:27):
and there's lots of struggle.
There's loss and there's lots of ups anddowns, and right in the middle of all that

Dash (52:32):
right in the middle of the.

Beck (52:33):
Like dancing is the one thing that keeps showing up no
matter what else is going on.
And that's kind of what makeshim feel so Appalachian.
It's not polished.
It's definitely not trying to be perfect.
It's real.
Did I mention that?
It's loud.
It's fun to watch A little wild,and it carries history in it.
Even when it looks like absolutechaos is tap dancing by the crick.
Also, I say this with love.

(52:54):
If Jesco White walked into a sheetsat 2:00 AM nobody would question it.
He would just be part of the scene.
So yeah, Jesco White, the

Dash (53:01):
So, yeah,

Beck (53:02):
proof that sometimes culture looks like

Dash (53:04):
sometimes

Beck (53:04):
of a

Dash (53:05):
like a whirlwind of a man in tap shoes

Beck (53:07):
like he's trying to

Dash (53:08):
stomping, like he's trying to wake up.

Beck (53:10):
That's this week's noun of Appalachian interest.

Dash (53:12):
Actually didn't know that dancing was a, as much of a part of
that group of people as it as it is.

Beck (53:20):
Yeah, it's tap dancing.
It too, there's a couple of sceneswhere he has like, I don't know if
it's cardboard or plywood or what, buthe is literally dancing on the creek.

Dash (53:28):
Well, they make, well his was probably not this, but they
do make portable tap floors.

Beck (53:33):
Yeah, yeah.

Dash (53:34):
there's this dancer I followed on Instagram named Melinda
Sullivan, who would do that.
Like she, her dancing, she woulduse it as a, actually a percussion
instrument and she would, uh, performwith musicians and like they would be
playing, you know, the upright bass.
And it was kind of jazzthat she did a lot of.
But in her dancing was thepercussion of the song.

(53:54):
It was pretty cool.

Beck (53:55):
That is cool.
He does usually have a fiddle player ora banjo player or something with him.
But then there's the scene in theDancing Outlaw, uh, the part two.
'cause I, I went down a rabbithole the other day researching I
watched the Dancing Outlaw too.
Uh, Jesco goes to Hollywood andhe's dancing down the, the Walk of
Stars or whatever it's called, theHollywood Walk of Fame or whatever.

(54:18):
Where the stars are, Iforget what it's called.
My brain doesn't work this early in the

Dash (54:21):
I think it's walk of fame.

Beck (54:23):
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
That sounds right.
Anyway, so he's just tap dancing with aboombox on his shoulder and people look
at him like he's crazy 'cause he's likestraight out of the, the hills of West
Virginia right there in the middle ofHollywood and even making a commotion.
So it was, it's interestingto see the spectacle, I think.

Dash (54:41):
I think that it's, a kind of like shame, like internalized embarrassment
about being a hillbilly that makes menot wanna engage with media that is about
us, especially the documentary style.
I had a reaction to seeing promos forthe wild and wonderful whites, and

(55:02):
I have avoided, you know, engagingwith it or watching it or anything.
I don't think that's a good thing.
It's probably not healthy.

Beck (55:10):
Family connection.
Shanna's aunt by marriageis related to the whites.

Dash (55:14):
Cool.

Beck (55:15):
Her, her uncle, married someone related to the whites.
It is a small state.
There's gotta be some connection, right?

Dash (55:21):
Do you have any famous cousins or relatives?

Beck (55:23):
There's a guy named Chris Collingsworth, who is, he was
an NFL player and a commentatorfor and the NFL TV stuff.
He's a distant cousin.

Dash (55:33):
Really, everybody hates him.

Beck (55:35):
Yeah.
I didn't know

Dash (55:37):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I follow, I was raised on football, so
I knew him as a, a player.

Beck (55:42):
so I've told you many times about the, the family history that the
Magoffin County historical Society did.
We are both in that, so.

Dash (55:49):
That is cool.

Beck (55:51):
One of the, my favorite things about that book is the wide variety of names.
There was somebody namedAmerica, Texas in it.
so one time we went to a baseballgame where my nephew was playing.
It was still the pandemic, so we wereall outside and I brought the books with
me and we kind of looked through 'em.
And my adopted father's name was Mark,and we were talking about my niece having

(56:12):
a baby, and there's a name in the, in thebook, somebody named Their Child Skid.
And we were like, you should name itafter that, it should be Little Skid Mark,

Dash (56:21):
Skid.

Beck (56:21):
skid, SKID as a,

Dash (56:23):
Wow.
Okay.

Beck (56:25):
interesting names in there.
Like, I come, I like, my grandfatheris Conway Archibald, uh, like names
like that all the way through there.
So.

Dash (56:36):
my granny parrot was her, she was born on the 4th of July,
so her middle name was Columbia.
after Columbus, I guess, whichin their mind was somehow
related to the 4th of July.
Education wasn't a strong suit in Eagan.

Beck (56:53):
An interesting thing about family names.
My great-grandfather, everyoneknew him as Jefferson D.
And if asked if asked, he would've toldyou that his name was Jefferson Davis.
And then my last name.
Right.
After doing some research andfinding the family history and
all of that, his name was actuallyThomas Jefferson, my last name.

(57:14):
And if you think about the politicalimplications of changing your

Dash (57:17):
Yeah,

Beck (57:18):
Jefferson to Jefferson Davis and Jefferson was both my
father and brother's middle name.
that's wild to me that he, heflipped the politics there.
I, I think my great grandpapawould've been a Trumper pretty
much is what I'm saying.

Dash (57:31):
yeah, for sure.

Beck (57:32):
Yeah.

Dash (57:33):
It's like, um, Forrest Gump, who's named after Nathan Bedford Forests.
wouldn't admit that shit.

Beck (57:45):
do you know who you're named after?
I know your middle name isafter your brother, but do you
know who you're named after?

Dash (57:50):
Oh, that what I named

Beck (57:53):
Yeah.

Dash (57:54):
It's, it just means green
like nature.
I don't, I didn't knowthat until after the fact.
So it was a nickname, right?
Like my birth name.
Even my parents didn't callme that when I was a kid.
Like it has never fit.
And they were intending so they thoughtI was gonna be a cis boy and they

(58:14):
had planned to name me after my dad.
So when I was born, they named me the girlversion of his name and then just called
me his name and they still call me that.
They don't call me bythe name I gave myself.
'Cause I went, I got a differentnickname when I went to college
' cause everybody was like that.
That doesn't fit.
Like every, everywhere I went,people were like, that don't fit.

(58:35):
I'm calling you something else.
So I just kept that.
When I'm, because remember, like evenbefore I transitioned, when I moved up
there, I was already going by the name.
I'm going by now.
I never changed it 'cause I just that,

Beck (58:45):
yeah.
name I've ever known you by.

Dash (58:48):
right.
Yeah.
And again, I got that, I got that nicknamein college and I was like, fine, whatever.
Uh, 'cause I never beencalled by birth name.
Um, and so my family stillcalls me my dad's name.

Beck (59:00):
That's

Dash (59:01):
I kind of, I wish I had just changed my name to his legally.
At the time I, I know, I rememberthinking about it and I chose
not to do it because I was afraidthat he would be disgusted by me.
So I, I didn't know if hewas gonna sever ties with me.
I, and so I was like, if, if I namemyself after him and then he hates me,

(59:23):
then I'm not gonna like my name anymore.

Beck (59:26):
Yeah.

Dash (59:26):
So, and I wanted to, to have faith that he wouldn't be like that.
But this was during his, like hardcorehe wasn't yet fully out of his very
hardcore right wing also Baptist phase.
Like he, he was very strong in that stuff.
Like he told me that he think he thoughttattooing was the mark of the beast.

(59:48):
Shit like that.

Beck (59:49):
Oh wow.

Dash (59:50):
yeah, it's weird to think back of him being that much now.
He thinks Trump is the antichrist.
So I'm like, okay, that'sstill fucking crazy.
But at least we agree that like atleast your politics have come back
to a place where I'm less scared.

Beck (01:00:03):
if I had been born a boy, my mom was gonna name me Bradford Elliot.

Dash (01:00:08):
Oh, you dodged, you dodged a bullet there.

Beck (01:00:10):
for real.

Dash (01:00:11):
Bradford Elliot, what in the fuck?
What is, what does Bradford do?
Bradford is is the, awkward lead ina fanfic about Friday night lights
or varsity blues or some shit.

Beck (01:00:26):
Bradford I've ever known, uh, was the son of my English teacher in
high school, and he's queer, so that'sthe only Bradford I've ever known,

Dash (01:00:33):
The only Bradford I know is a tree.

Beck (01:00:35):
well, yeah, the pair.
and then my middle name.
So I was named after my, my dad had asister that died in a fire with her kids
well before I was born in the sixties.
And she had four kidsand one of them was named
And so I got the, my first name from that.
And then my middle name came from my aunt.
Mom let my, she, my mom wastired by the time I got around

(01:00:57):
and she just let my dad name me.
So they're both from his family.

Dash (01:01:01):
Yeah, I think that's what happened for Vanessa.
They chose just names so that shewould have the same initials as me.
That probably didn't feel good, youknow, like growing up, realizing like,
oh, you couldn't even, you were justso tired of coming up with new names
for kids that you just, whatever.

Beck (01:01:19):
My brother was a junior and my sister Marcy, there's no
Marcy's in my family, but hermiddle name was my grandmother's.
I don't know where Marcy came from.

Dash (01:01:27):
Yeah.
None of us got familynames that I know of.
David, like his middle name was Keith.
I don't know.
I've actually never met afucking Keith in real life.

Beck (01:01:37):
I've got a cousin named Johnny Keith.

Dash (01:01:39):
Keith, I mean, he is a good middle name.
I, I think it actually kind of works.

Beck (01:01:43):
there was a Keith that lived across the street from me growing up.

Dash (01:01:45):
Yeah, I, he's the only one I ever knew and he couldn't pronounce it.
Like, he had a, a prettypronounced speech impediment.
Uh, and so he, he pronounced it DevilTeeth, his name, but he couldn't say
David Keith, it came out Devil Teeth.
So that's still one of my, like,we, some people called him that,
like not, they didn't make funof him, like the kids at school.

(01:02:05):
They didn't seem to put it together.
I don't think kids, when you'reyoung enough to have those
kind of problems, I don't know.
You only really get pegged withit if it persists into like middle
school and you still have that,that kind of speech impediment.
But like we had a, a family friend andbabysitters that called him Devil Teeth.
I thought it was hysterical.
Well, you're given a final today.

Beck (01:02:26):
Yes, at three o'clock today for women's studies.
Uh, well, my, my online class, itopened at midnight and it's open
until midnight tomorrow night.
I give them 48 hours to take it,and then my women's studies final
is this afternoon, and then tomorrowI give two more and then I don't
have to leave my house until August.
So I am very stoked about that.

(01:02:46):
I've got plans to write and writeand write and write and write.
I am, we are going to West Virginia ina couple of weeks, so I will be going
to get some tutors and some giovannisand hugs from my mother-in-law and such.
So I am, I get to see my bestfriend again, so that's good.

Dash (01:03:03):
Come back with the Giovanni sauce.

Beck (01:03:05):
Yeah, we haven't been home in almost two years, so.

Dash (01:03:08):
Uh, me neither.
Yeah, I just.
It's been two and a half years.

Beck (01:03:12):
Shanna went home for, uh, Tracy's mom's funeral, but I had to teach.
So she's been home since I have.
But I haven't been home since October of24, so it's been a year and a half or so.
when we got mom moved,

Dash (01:03:23):
that was the last time I went home,

Beck (01:03:25):
yeah,

Dash (01:03:25):
or it was November.

Beck (01:03:27):
I can't believe it's been that long since I've had Giovanni's.

Dash (01:03:29):
You ought to shriveled up and died by now.

Beck (01:03:31):
A little bit.
A little bit.
Shit's good.

Dash (01:03:34):
Good luck to your students.

Beck (01:03:36):
Thank you.
I'll tell 'em to break

Dash (01:03:37):
I'm, uh, I'm gonna apply for some more jobs.

Beck (01:03:41):
Have fun with that.

Dash (01:03:42):
Yeah,

Beck (01:03:43):
If you
something, hook me up and I'll, I'll,I'll talk all kinds of good stuff for you.
I've got a friend who, I've been their

Dash (01:03:50):
I've done it

Beck (01:03:51):
there.
I'm like, who am I this

Dash (01:03:53):
like for, for something, for a job.
It has to be somebody thatactually have worked with.
But you know, there have been peoplethat like, have, I've, I've worked
with them in a way that I woundup mentoring them as much, if not
more than their actual supervisor.
And I outranked them.
And so I've, I've, and I've supervised'em on projects and stuff, so I'm

(01:04:16):
not like, totally making shit up.
'cause you can't, you can't for a jobrecommendation, they're gonna be specific.

Beck (01:04:22):
Yeah.

Dash (01:04:23):
And they're gonna look at your LinkedIn.
And so if you're not connectedwith that person, if it doesn't
line up, it, it don't work.

Beck (01:04:28):
I don't have a LinkedIn right now.
I totally deleted it.

Dash (01:04:31):
I mean.
It's, I, I actually wanted to showyou something I found a long time
ago because it's getting weird.
People are doing strangestuff, but I couldn't find it.
It's, it's a strange place, but youhave to have one if you're gonna be
on the job market, unfortunately.

Beck (01:04:45):
Well, I'll wait till I am to do that.
I just don't like my information beingso widely publicly available, I have a
So,
I'm, I'm invisible on the internetand I like to keep it that way.
I meet all kinds of people.
Like I went to a high schoolwith a person with your name.
Like I get that liketwice a year probably.

Dash (01:05:02):
There's an ad on like Pluto or something, some commercial for a service,
and it starts out and it, it catchesme so off guard every time because
it says Sabrina Gonzalez's, no idiot.
And I was like, who said she was?
What'd you say?

(01:05:24):
Yeah, I've seen it so many times.
I still don't know whatthey're trying to sell me.
'cause every, every time Ilike, I'm, I'm just activated.
I'm on level a hundred bythe first sentence like that.
I hadn't thought about that, but if youuse some, a real name and you say some
inflammatory shit, like your hook, is thatlike there's at least a handful of people
who know somebody with that name out thereand they don't hear the rest of that ad.

Beck (01:05:47):
My friend Brian sent me a picture.
He was driving on 64 in West Virginia,and somebody in a big red truck had
a big, had, I don't know how they hadit on there, but they had it printed
on the back of their window that ithad my name, and it said is a thief.
They had misspelled thief,but that's what it said.

Dash (01:06:02):
love to see that.

Beck (01:06:04):
so I, I, it was in my memories the other day.
I, I, I, I don't knowhow I would get to it.
If I find it again, I'll show it to you,

Dash (01:06:11):
I tagged you in something, but I think I don't, I'm not sure if you were
friends with the person who posted it.
he lives in Bowling Green down there.

Beck (01:06:18):
uh, I don't know that name.

Dash (01:06:20):
You would love him.
You guys, I've gotta introduce you.
he's just a really sweet guy.
He's the, the big gaybartender at City Tap there.
But he found something, I'll go backand get the picture and show it to you,
but it was a Mountain Dew, a SpecialMountain Dew can that said American Dew.
It had sar, it had the, the flag on it,you know, I don't know if it was the 4th

(01:06:42):
of July special or whatever, but he justposted it the other day and it was just
so like, what the, what does American Dew?
Mountain Dew was already aboutas American as you can get.
Not only that, but it was diet.
So I already don't know what AmericanDew is, but what is Diet American do?

(01:07:02):
I'll find it 'cause I taggedyou in it and then I was like,
maybe they don't know each other.
They absolutely should, but, so I'llfind it and should send it to you.

Beck (01:07:09):
only bar I've been to in BG is Grumpy Dave's for Trivia Night.
That's the only bar I've stepped foot in.
So

Dash (01:07:15):
Yeah,

Beck (01:07:16):
you call, unless you count Beckett's Burger Bar, and I don't
really count that for burgers.

Dash (01:07:21):
no City tap was the place that, uh, I would go for music.
And we, you know, I would, we wouldgo to there and drink sometimes 'cause
it was right next, it was down thestreet from the apartment I lived in.

Beck (01:07:31):
Yeah.

Dash (01:07:32):
And so that was kind of their thing.
Like it was predominantlya live music venue.
All right, well, webetter go get to our days.

Beck (01:07:41):
Yeah.
I gotta go get showeredand get outta here soon.

Dash (01:07:44):
All right.
Well, happy, uh, whateverday this comes out.
Listeners.
We had some technicaldifficulties this week,

Beck (01:07:52):
I like how you

Dash (01:07:53):
how you described it.

Beck (01:07:54):
line.

Dash (01:07:55):
Yeah.
I mean, you know, we've just, we'vehad some trials and tribulations
lately with the internet.
We're, we're gonna try our best to fix it.
We're only, Human, butyou know, have a good one.
Stay safe.
Hope it's sunny where you are,and say hi to your mom and them.

Beck (01:08:10):
Bye.