May 26, 2025 • 19 mins
Today, Greg and Jim take time to honor those who gave their lives for our great country. They also give you a look behind the scenes of the Three Martini Lunch podcast.
First, they pay tribute to the heroic men and women who paid the ultimate price to defend our liberty throughout our history.
Next, they pull back the curtain to show you how they plan each episode of the Three Martini lunch and select their stories.
Finally, they discuss how each episode organically unfolds.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Fatty15 is on a mission to help you live healthier, longer. Get an additional 15% off their 90-day
subscription Starter Kit by going to https://Fatty15.com/3ML and use code 3ML at checkout.
Cut through political bias with Ground News’s Vantage Plan—visit
https://GroundNews.com/MARTINI to get 40% off for a limited time!
It’s free, online, and easy to start—no strings attached. Enroll in Understanding Capitalism with
Hillsdale College. Visit https://hillsdale.edu/Martini
First, they pay tribute to the heroic men and women who paid the ultimate price to defend our liberty throughout our history.
Next, they pull back the curtain to show you how they plan each episode of the Three Martini lunch and select their stories.
Finally, they discuss how each episode organically unfolds.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Fatty15 is on a mission to help you live healthier, longer. Get an additional 15% off their 90-day
subscription Starter Kit by going to https://Fatty15.com/3ML and use code 3ML at checkout.
Cut through political bias with Ground News’s Vantage Plan—visit
https://GroundNews.com/MARTINI to get 40% off for a limited time!
It’s free, online, and easy to start—no strings attached. Enroll in Understanding Capitalism with
Hillsdale College. Visit https://hillsdale.edu/Martini
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garrity of National Review.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Very glad you're with us for the Monday, the Memorial
Day edition of the Three Tiny Lunch. Today, we're going
to be taking a break from our usual format of good, bad,
and crazy martinis as we see them, or some combination
thereof Today's obviously Memorial Day, and this is a day
we all need to pause, we all need to reflect,
and we all need to appreciate those who have given
(00:36):
their lives for our country. And for part of our
podcast today, that's exactly what Jim Garty and I are
going to be talking about. This is mostly an encore
presentation from last year, and in addition to sharing our
thoughts and impressions of Memorial Day, we're also going to
be giving you kind of a peek behind the curtain
here at the Three Martini Lunch, which we think is
a whole lot of fun. A couple of years back,
(00:58):
we did it a little differently, told you how Jim
and I came about our political beliefs, became conservatives, and
how the podcast itself got started. Today we're going to
be taking a closer look and giving you some insight
on how the podcast gets put together on a daily basis,
from choosing topics to how the recording unfolds. There's probably
(01:21):
more improvisation than you might imagine in the podcast, and
a whole lot more so we hope you enjoy that.
But of course, in just a moment, we'll be starting
with our thoughts on the significance and importance of Memorial Day.
But first let's talk about aging. Have you started noticing
signs like poor sleep, low energy, stiff joints, maybe even
more serious health concerns. Well, there's reasons for that, and
(01:45):
thankfully you now have something to fight back with. It's
called C fifteen from fatty fifteen, the first essential fatty
acid to be discovered in more than ninety years. It's
an incredible scientific breakthrough to support our long term health
and wellness, and you guessed it, aging and longevity. So
without enough C fifteen, cells become fragile and age faster,
(02:06):
accelerating overall aging. This new C fifteen, backed by more
than one hundred studies, is showing remarkable results. Seventy two
percent of users report improvements in sleep, mood, energy, joint comfort, heart, liver,
metabolic health within just sixteen weeks. Fatty fifteen is on
a mission to optimize your C fifteen levels to help
(02:26):
you live healthier and longer. You can get an additional
fifteen percent off their ninety day subscription starter kit by
going to Fatty fifteen dot com slash threeml and then
use the code three mL at checkout. That's Fatty fifteen
Fatty one to five dot com slash three mL code
three mL. Of course, we'd be remiss without beginning on
(02:51):
the reason for this holiday. Begun as Decoration Day in
the wake of the Civil War in eighteen sixty eight,
and now for well over one hundred and fifty years,
the day that we owe America's war dead. Veterans Day
is for those who have served Armed Forces Day or
for those who are serving, and Memorial Day is for
those who have given their lives in service to this country.
(03:12):
And so, Jim, I know from previous conversations that I
believe you did have one relative who passed away in
World War Two. But as we think about this day,
one day seems the bare minimum we can do to
honor those who have worn the uniform and then given
their lives in sacrifice for the freedoms that we enjoy
every day and probably take for granted way too often.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, it was my great uncle died at Iwo Jima.
I'd like to tell you it was this great dramatic
story of charging a Japanese position or something. As I
remember the as I hear the family stories, I believe
it was he was driving a jeep and a hit
a land mine or something like that. Or maybe it
was Sheldon something where he was driving and died in
a vehicular accident that I believe was connected to enemy action.
(03:55):
And I wouldn't describe myself as a diehard history buck,
but every now and then I'll pick up some thing. Lately,
I've been reading Ministry of a Gentlemanly Warfare about British
special Forces during World War Two, and you just think about,
we've lived through nine to eleven, the War on Terror.
We've lived through a whole bunch of challenging times for America.
Haven't served. We've always had a volunteer draft, We've always
(04:16):
had those who are willing to answer the call. And
just the idea of like you're in this young stage
of life and your country suddenly says we need you.
We're under attack. If you do not take up arms,
if you do not put up the uniform, this country
may not exist. We might lose the war, we might
lose our freedoms. And generation after generation we've had Americans
(04:38):
who have done so. It's generally been men on the
front lines, but there are women who have gone into
medical positions and come under fire and they've all done
their like they've done their part because they felt like
they did not that they needed to do this, that
there was no Nobody wants to get shot at, Nobody
wants to get you know, risk their lives. I've had
no military experience. Probably the closest thing I could ever
(04:58):
say was that, you know, night and keep when they
shot rocket set at the city. But it's not fun.
It's not great to be in a situation where somebody
is trying to kill you. And we have had been
blessed with those who every generation step forward and say yes,
I will take that risk, and some pay the ultimate price.
And so you know, look, we have a lot of
fun on this podcast. We want to bring some laughter
(05:21):
and some joy and some good news into our into
the ears of our audience. But there's also kind of this.
A lot of times we talk about stuff that seems stupid,
Oh my god, can you believe with this that in
the view or and it just puts everything in perspective,
like you know that life and destiny that's what matters.
That is what we probably should recognize us probably spend
a little more time talking about, if not on this podcast,
then you know, in lives we should be spend more
(05:43):
time thinking about those who are the best among us
than those who are if not the worst among us,
then perhaps the most annoying, but the best, the most
talented in attracting our attention. So Memorial Day and Memorial
Day weekend is a good time to do that and
just kind of recognize God. You know, we say God
bless America. We have been blessed, even when it seems
like everything's going wrong. We are so blessed to have
(06:04):
these people, and we are so blessed to have had
these people who've been willing to make that ultimate sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Undoubtedly. I remember my dad telling me that when he
was a kid during World War Two, the families with
the blue stars in the windows and sadly some with
the gold stars in the windows, meaning they had lost
someone in service to this country. And I think younger generation,
certainly those who grew up post Vietnam, didn't really understand
that well until after nine to eleven. And while the
amount of military personnel needed was a fraction of what
(06:32):
was called up after Pearl Harbor and so forth, seeing
the impact on families just the being separated for long
deployments much less than the ones who who had to
go meet a casket at Dover or somewhere else when
they're loved one did not come home alive. It's a
sacrifice we need to honor every single day. I've mentioned
a few times on the podcast that I interviewed veterans
(06:53):
on a frequent basis. This weekend, I'll be interviewing thirteen
of them, including eleven from the World War Two era,
and so tremendous honor and to hear their stories is
utterly fantastic. And the thing you hear most of all
is what the other guy did. The other guy who
is the hero certainly the ones who didn't come home,
But it's very rare that they're going to path themselves
(07:14):
on the back from whatever era you're interviewing the veteran
from and then more lately, with these World War II
vets getting a lot older, it's I'm the last one
from my platoon, from my squad, from my unit of
whatever size, and so hearing that history has been a
real privilege. Okay, in just a moment, we're going to
give you that peek behind the curtain and explain how
the three Martini Lunch podcast is put together on a
(07:34):
daily basis and how it turns out to what you hear,
hopefully on a daily basis. But we're also sponsored today
by ground News, and as you look at the news,
regardless of what the issue is, sometimes it's hard to
just figure out what the actual story is before you
can truly make up your mind about something. And ground
News is a platform that makes it easy to compare
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the Groundnews Vantage Plan for a limited time only. All right, Jim,
let's talk about things on the lighter side here and
give folks a little bit more of an insight into
(09:04):
what happens on the show. And so people wonder, you know,
where do you get your stories from and how do
you prepare? And for the most part, it pretty much
starts the minute the previous day's show is over. Sometimes
there are stories that we considered but didn't actually use,
and so we're like, oh, that that could probably last
and it won't be dated the next day if we
really want to do that one. But I'll tell you
(09:25):
where I find most of my stuff. It's just subscribing
to the right news sources and rational people who will
also post things that are stories that would fit in
really well with what you and I like to talk
about and what we think is really important for people.
And then we compile a list that we chew over
on email real quickly and then organize into good, bad,
and crazy. So that's kind of my approach, but I
(09:46):
know you kind of have your own approach as you
prepare the Jolt and then think about Martiniz.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, I mean like I would if anyone asked, I
would say, Greg, you're the one who really picks the topics,
but I'm really more of the I have a presidential veto,
but you are the legislation branch. You're the one that
sends the topics, and if it doesn't get past you,
it doesn't get into the mix. It will not surprise
many regular listeners that a lot of times what we
talk about is what I've written about in the Morning
(10:10):
Jolt that morning or a day earlier. Or something like that.
It's generally because it means I feel like I know
something about it. You know, you're write fifteen hundred words
about something, you generally feel like you have some background
to have to say something significant. If you've ever heard
me on a radio program or something like that. When
you feel like I'm tap dancing and I'm talking around
the topic and I'm not giving you many specifics, You're like, wow,
(10:32):
does generally nobody's talking about Here's a little secret I
don't CNN when I back was used to do regular
appearances Rick Sanchez, Boy, there's a guy who fell into
a black hole. That anchor. Every once in a while
he would just bring up a topic that had not
been in the show prep. And I don't want to
say this is like, generally, if you're going to be
a talking head on television, you like to know what
(10:52):
you're going to talk about. You like to know what
you should be doing some background research on. And the
one time I got to watch a live taping up
the five. This was years ago, but uh uh are
our good friend Data Perino and Greg Gottfeld they did
accept like during the commercial breaks they were constantly checking
to make sure they weren't missing some you know, late
(11:12):
breaking detail about the topic they were talking about. They
were on top of it. Some folks on that panel
were not. And I'll let you just guess who they were,
or let you go back to it to think, like,
you know, you try to know about it. And so
the question is, all right, so what is Greg?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
You know?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
What? What? What on Greg's list? Do I feel like
I've known something about? And then once a while that
is like, you know, something you feel really strongly about,
and we really want to, you know, need to be
in there. We try to do a mix. We're always
going to look for something fun, you know, you know
our regular three topics what's good for conservatives and let's
face it, listeners, you probably know this is the toughest category.
Been a couple of rebuilding years for the good cause
(11:48):
of conservatism here and there. We have no problem finding
the bad ones. This is all, you know. You're always like, well,
I have six or seven bad ideas I have, you know,
and then the crazy. The line between bad and crazy
is very fine and all. And then sometimes we'll have
something like we did last week with the fact that
Congression Republican controlled committees in the house, had I found
out new information about Hunter Biden and all this new
(12:09):
stuff about Fauci and his age trying to avoid Fouyer requests, Well,
is that good news because we're learning about it? Is
it bad news because they were doing such bad things?
Or is it crazy that this is, you know, the
state of the world we're in. So like, if you
ever felt like it's kind of arbitrary how Jim and
Greg classify all the topics, yes, yes it is.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Well it also depends which category we need to fill too,
because some days you've got, oh, here's five or six
options for the bad Martini and four for crazy. Can
we can we twist one of the one?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Can we quit and spin is being good news?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yes, and sometimes we can't. So we have all bad
or all crazy and that sort of thing. So if
you ever wondered how it got started each day or
even the day before, that's a good example more insights
into how the three Martini lunch happens every day in
just a moment. But you know I mentioned early in
the podcast, and we've we've done a show on this
before about how our beliefs came to be what they
(13:02):
are in terms of our politics, and there's a lot
of different factors, of course that play into that. Your family,
your personal experience, and some of it's where you go
to college. You got a lot of folks who'd spend
a lot of money for their kids to go to
college to only turn out to be super lefties. Well
that didn't happen in my family because I'm a graduate
of Hillsdale College and proudly so. And if you don't
have the opportunity to attend Hillsdale or send your kids
(13:25):
to Hillsdale, I've got good news for you. You can
still take Hillsdale College classes, and this time they're free online.
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(13:45):
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(14:09):
slash Martini to enroll for free and then jim real
quick as a second part of this conversation is how
the conversation unfolds. I don't know how much prep people
think that we do. We've obviously read the stories and
so forth, so we're very well versed on it. But
(14:32):
my intros are not scripted unless I'm reading directly from
the story, or we play the clip very little, as
I'm sure most people understand from listening regularly is scripted,
and so I generally try to stick to a fairly
consistent newsman role in the setup tossed to you, and
then it's kind of a free for all and hopefully
there's an opportunity for comedy. Kind of towards the end
(14:52):
of each Martini.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
I would point out, back in the days of Abbot,
Costello and the other comedy teams, the harder guy to
find was the good straight man. So I want to
thank you, Greg, and I want to listeners should give
you credit for being not just a straight man, but
the straight man, and to be the one to set
up like you it's volleyball. You're setting me up. But
I'm doing the spike and I've got the one liners.
(15:13):
I try not to mention my one liners to Greg
before we start taping, so that the laughs you hear
from him are genuine. I don't think your laughs are
ever forced, and if they are, Greg, you fool me
very well. So thank you very much for doing that.
And yeah, like people will also notice, we will begin
with the news topic and then you know, we will
discuss something and oh, does the story involve the FBI. Okay,
(15:36):
let's see if we can work in a reference to
Agent Johnson. Does the story involve air travel? Okay, we're
going to talk about you know, I was trying to
get through Dulles in general Esperance's flight Scott. We will
work in a reference to Diehard or any other late
eighties to nineties movie and it'll go from there. And
one of our recurring gags is to treat action movies
from the eighties and nineties as if they actually happened.
(15:56):
We did that with our President's Day Special a few
years which, by the way, is still really funny. And
the way you could, like Greg is a great laugh
for at you know laughs at my jokes, which I appreciate.
I had no warning you were going to do the
Peter King Ira joke when discussing Patriot games, and for
what for some reason, it was just the the tomahawk
missile aimed directly at my funny bone and one of
(16:17):
the few times I think I've ever laughed too hard
that we had to stay. I don't know if we
stopped taping. We just came close to just stopping taping.
So in case you're wondering, like ninety some percent of
the time, the laughs are genuine and we don't do
a lot like and a lot of people will tell me,
you know, Jim, I really like this this podcast because
it's short. If you don't like what you're getting, at
least the portions are small. This is the time, This
(16:38):
is what we have time to do on our day.
I love the editors, which goes an hour or so.
I love Jonah's. There's a lot of good podcasts out
there that are an hour and more, and if you
have the time for it, great. I've just shared the
sheer number of people who have said to us, you know,
it's a perfect for my commute, it's perfect for my walk.
It's perfect for that that twenty to thirty minute window
that we do. That's that's what people have time to do.
(16:59):
And so people want to ask Johnny Cash, you know,
how did you get that sound? And it's like, well,
we play faster if we could. You know, how do
you guys act so much into a small amount of time. Well,
we're busy, we got lives, we got work. This is
the only other thing we do for our employers. So
this is this is what we do. And I'm just
very glad that people listen and like, like, this is
very close to if somebody ever said, like, do you
(17:21):
ever want to have the Jim Garrity Show or something?
What you and I do five days a week is
very close to what I would want to do. I'd
want to inform people, I'd want to chew over what
was happening, hopefully bring some sort of insight or analysis.
And I want to make people laugh because a lot
of days the news is bad. A lot of days
the news is grim, and if we don't laugh, we
will cry. So I want to give somebody, you know,
something to make you a little uplifting and feel like
(17:42):
everything's going to be okay. As you go off and
do go aheat the rest of your day.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, very well said, and thank you for your kind words.
Let me just say that most of the setup is,
first of all, fairly succinct, at least if I'm doing
my job. Well, some of it's actually just directly read
or there's a clip played. Jim's the one who actually
has to put together, you know, a couple of minutes
of coherent connecting thoughts to to really analyze it.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
A lot of days, some days you can where is
Jim going with this? Jim doesn't know.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And then by the time we get to the end
of the martini, if there's any shred of humor, we'll
jump on it, whether it's Diehard related, New York Jets related,
you know, pop culture is certainly a favorite of ours.
And you know, and the order that we have them good,
bad and crazy. The good we're kind of you know, well,
that's great. Bad we're not happy with, and crazy it's
almost like the progression of actually drinking three martinis. So
(18:37):
by the time we're done with the crazy, it's kind
of like you've actually done it, but you just won't
have a rough morning the next day.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
So happy drunks, angry drunks, and just playing drunk.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Drunks metaphorically metaphorically. Jim Garretty, National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus
of Radio America. Thanks so much for being with us today.
Please subscribe to the podcast if you don't already, tell
your friends about us as well. Thank you for your
five star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
Get us on your home devices. All you have to
say is play a three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us
both on X He's at Jim Garritty, I'm at Dateline
(19:10):
Underscore DC. Join us again on Tuesday for the next
three Martini Lunch
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garrity of National Review.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Very glad you're with us for the Monday, the Memorial
Day edition of the Three Tiny Lunch. Today, we're going
to be taking a break from our usual format of good, bad,
and crazy martinis as we see them, or some combination
thereof Today's obviously Memorial Day, and this is a day
we all need to pause, we all need to reflect,
and we all need to appreciate those who have given
(00:36):
their lives for our country. And for part of our
podcast today, that's exactly what Jim Garty and I are
going to be talking about. This is mostly an encore
presentation from last year, and in addition to sharing our
thoughts and impressions of Memorial Day, we're also going to
be giving you kind of a peek behind the curtain
here at the Three Martini Lunch, which we think is
a whole lot of fun. A couple of years back,
(00:58):
we did it a little differently, told you how Jim
and I came about our political beliefs, became conservatives, and
how the podcast itself got started. Today we're going to
be taking a closer look and giving you some insight
on how the podcast gets put together on a daily basis,
from choosing topics to how the recording unfolds. There's probably
(01:21):
more improvisation than you might imagine in the podcast, and
a whole lot more so we hope you enjoy that.
But of course, in just a moment, we'll be starting
with our thoughts on the significance and importance of Memorial Day.
But first let's talk about aging. Have you started noticing
signs like poor sleep, low energy, stiff joints, maybe even
more serious health concerns. Well, there's reasons for that, and
(01:45):
thankfully you now have something to fight back with. It's
called C fifteen from fatty fifteen, the first essential fatty
acid to be discovered in more than ninety years. It's
an incredible scientific breakthrough to support our long term health
and wellness, and you guessed it, aging and longevity. So
without enough C fifteen, cells become fragile and age faster,
(02:06):
accelerating overall aging. This new C fifteen, backed by more
than one hundred studies, is showing remarkable results. Seventy two
percent of users report improvements in sleep, mood, energy, joint comfort, heart, liver,
metabolic health within just sixteen weeks. Fatty fifteen is on
a mission to optimize your C fifteen levels to help
(02:26):
you live healthier and longer. You can get an additional
fifteen percent off their ninety day subscription starter kit by
going to Fatty fifteen dot com slash threeml and then
use the code three mL at checkout. That's Fatty fifteen
Fatty one to five dot com slash three mL code
three mL. Of course, we'd be remiss without beginning on
(02:51):
the reason for this holiday. Begun as Decoration Day in
the wake of the Civil War in eighteen sixty eight,
and now for well over one hundred and fifty years,
the day that we owe America's war dead. Veterans Day
is for those who have served Armed Forces Day or
for those who are serving, and Memorial Day is for
those who have given their lives in service to this country.
(03:12):
And so, Jim, I know from previous conversations that I
believe you did have one relative who passed away in
World War Two. But as we think about this day,
one day seems the bare minimum we can do to
honor those who have worn the uniform and then given
their lives in sacrifice for the freedoms that we enjoy
every day and probably take for granted way too often.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, it was my great uncle died at Iwo Jima.
I'd like to tell you it was this great dramatic
story of charging a Japanese position or something. As I
remember the as I hear the family stories, I believe
it was he was driving a jeep and a hit
a land mine or something like that. Or maybe it
was Sheldon something where he was driving and died in
a vehicular accident that I believe was connected to enemy action.
(03:55):
And I wouldn't describe myself as a diehard history buck,
but every now and then I'll pick up some thing. Lately,
I've been reading Ministry of a Gentlemanly Warfare about British
special Forces during World War Two, and you just think about,
we've lived through nine to eleven, the War on Terror.
We've lived through a whole bunch of challenging times for America.
Haven't served. We've always had a volunteer draft, We've always
(04:16):
had those who are willing to answer the call. And
just the idea of like you're in this young stage
of life and your country suddenly says we need you.
We're under attack. If you do not take up arms,
if you do not put up the uniform, this country
may not exist. We might lose the war, we might
lose our freedoms. And generation after generation we've had Americans
(04:38):
who have done so. It's generally been men on the
front lines, but there are women who have gone into
medical positions and come under fire and they've all done
their like they've done their part because they felt like
they did not that they needed to do this, that
there was no Nobody wants to get shot at, Nobody
wants to get you know, risk their lives. I've had
no military experience. Probably the closest thing I could ever
(04:58):
say was that, you know, night and keep when they
shot rocket set at the city. But it's not fun.
It's not great to be in a situation where somebody
is trying to kill you. And we have had been
blessed with those who every generation step forward and say yes,
I will take that risk, and some pay the ultimate price.
And so you know, look, we have a lot of
fun on this podcast. We want to bring some laughter
(05:21):
and some joy and some good news into our into
the ears of our audience. But there's also kind of this.
A lot of times we talk about stuff that seems stupid,
Oh my god, can you believe with this that in
the view or and it just puts everything in perspective,
like you know that life and destiny that's what matters.
That is what we probably should recognize us probably spend
a little more time talking about, if not on this podcast,
then you know, in lives we should be spend more
(05:43):
time thinking about those who are the best among us
than those who are if not the worst among us,
then perhaps the most annoying, but the best, the most
talented in attracting our attention. So Memorial Day and Memorial
Day weekend is a good time to do that and
just kind of recognize God. You know, we say God
bless America. We have been blessed, even when it seems
like everything's going wrong. We are so blessed to have
(06:04):
these people, and we are so blessed to have had
these people who've been willing to make that ultimate sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Undoubtedly. I remember my dad telling me that when he
was a kid during World War Two, the families with
the blue stars in the windows and sadly some with
the gold stars in the windows, meaning they had lost
someone in service to this country. And I think younger generation,
certainly those who grew up post Vietnam, didn't really understand
that well until after nine to eleven. And while the
amount of military personnel needed was a fraction of what
(06:32):
was called up after Pearl Harbor and so forth, seeing
the impact on families just the being separated for long
deployments much less than the ones who who had to
go meet a casket at Dover or somewhere else when
they're loved one did not come home alive. It's a
sacrifice we need to honor every single day. I've mentioned
a few times on the podcast that I interviewed veterans
(06:53):
on a frequent basis. This weekend, I'll be interviewing thirteen
of them, including eleven from the World War Two era,
and so tremendous honor and to hear their stories is
utterly fantastic. And the thing you hear most of all
is what the other guy did. The other guy who
is the hero certainly the ones who didn't come home,
But it's very rare that they're going to path themselves
(07:14):
on the back from whatever era you're interviewing the veteran
from and then more lately, with these World War II
vets getting a lot older, it's I'm the last one
from my platoon, from my squad, from my unit of
whatever size, and so hearing that history has been a
real privilege. Okay, in just a moment, we're going to
give you that peek behind the curtain and explain how
the three Martini Lunch podcast is put together on a
(07:34):
daily basis and how it turns out to what you hear,
hopefully on a daily basis. But we're also sponsored today
by ground News, and as you look at the news,
regardless of what the issue is, sometimes it's hard to
just figure out what the actual story is before you
can truly make up your mind about something. And ground
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(07:56):
news sources, read between the lines of media bias, and
break free from algorithms. Case in point, big story last
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but just look at the headlines in how some of
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the Groundnews Vantage Plan for a limited time only. All right, Jim,
let's talk about things on the lighter side here and
give folks a little bit more of an insight into
(09:04):
what happens on the show. And so people wonder, you know,
where do you get your stories from and how do
you prepare? And for the most part, it pretty much
starts the minute the previous day's show is over. Sometimes
there are stories that we considered but didn't actually use,
and so we're like, oh, that that could probably last
and it won't be dated the next day if we
really want to do that one. But I'll tell you
(09:25):
where I find most of my stuff. It's just subscribing
to the right news sources and rational people who will
also post things that are stories that would fit in
really well with what you and I like to talk
about and what we think is really important for people.
And then we compile a list that we chew over
on email real quickly and then organize into good, bad,
and crazy. So that's kind of my approach, but I
(09:46):
know you kind of have your own approach as you
prepare the Jolt and then think about Martiniz.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, I mean like I would if anyone asked, I
would say, Greg, you're the one who really picks the topics,
but I'm really more of the I have a presidential veto,
but you are the legislation branch. You're the one that
sends the topics, and if it doesn't get past you,
it doesn't get into the mix. It will not surprise
many regular listeners that a lot of times what we
talk about is what I've written about in the Morning
(10:10):
Jolt that morning or a day earlier. Or something like that.
It's generally because it means I feel like I know
something about it. You know, you're write fifteen hundred words
about something, you generally feel like you have some background
to have to say something significant. If you've ever heard
me on a radio program or something like that. When
you feel like I'm tap dancing and I'm talking around
the topic and I'm not giving you many specifics, You're like, wow,
(10:32):
does generally nobody's talking about Here's a little secret I
don't CNN when I back was used to do regular
appearances Rick Sanchez, Boy, there's a guy who fell into
a black hole. That anchor. Every once in a while
he would just bring up a topic that had not
been in the show prep. And I don't want to
say this is like, generally, if you're going to be
a talking head on television, you like to know what
(10:52):
you're going to talk about. You like to know what
you should be doing some background research on. And the
one time I got to watch a live taping up
the five. This was years ago, but uh uh are
our good friend Data Perino and Greg Gottfeld they did
accept like during the commercial breaks they were constantly checking
to make sure they weren't missing some you know, late
(11:12):
breaking detail about the topic they were talking about. They
were on top of it. Some folks on that panel
were not. And I'll let you just guess who they were,
or let you go back to it to think, like,
you know, you try to know about it. And so
the question is, all right, so what is Greg?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
You know?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
What? What? What on Greg's list? Do I feel like
I've known something about? And then once a while that
is like, you know, something you feel really strongly about,
and we really want to, you know, need to be
in there. We try to do a mix. We're always
going to look for something fun, you know, you know
our regular three topics what's good for conservatives and let's
face it, listeners, you probably know this is the toughest category.
Been a couple of rebuilding years for the good cause
(11:48):
of conservatism here and there. We have no problem finding
the bad ones. This is all, you know. You're always like, well,
I have six or seven bad ideas I have, you know,
and then the crazy. The line between bad and crazy
is very fine and all. And then sometimes we'll have
something like we did last week with the fact that
Congression Republican controlled committees in the house, had I found
out new information about Hunter Biden and all this new
(12:09):
stuff about Fauci and his age trying to avoid Fouyer requests, Well,
is that good news because we're learning about it? Is
it bad news because they were doing such bad things?
Or is it crazy that this is, you know, the
state of the world we're in. So like, if you
ever felt like it's kind of arbitrary how Jim and
Greg classify all the topics, yes, yes it is.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Well it also depends which category we need to fill too,
because some days you've got, oh, here's five or six
options for the bad Martini and four for crazy. Can
we can we twist one of the one?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Can we quit and spin is being good news?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yes, and sometimes we can't. So we have all bad
or all crazy and that sort of thing. So if
you ever wondered how it got started each day or
even the day before, that's a good example more insights
into how the three Martini lunch happens every day in
just a moment. But you know I mentioned early in
the podcast, and we've we've done a show on this
before about how our beliefs came to be what they
(13:02):
are in terms of our politics, and there's a lot
of different factors, of course that play into that. Your family,
your personal experience, and some of it's where you go
to college. You got a lot of folks who'd spend
a lot of money for their kids to go to
college to only turn out to be super lefties. Well
that didn't happen in my family because I'm a graduate
of Hillsdale College and proudly so. And if you don't
have the opportunity to attend Hillsdale or send your kids
(13:25):
to Hillsdale, I've got good news for you. You can
still take Hillsdale College classes, and this time they're free online.
The latest one is called Understanding Capitalism, but they've got
a lot of other courses too, including the United States Constitution,
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(13:45):
series seven lectures, watch them whenever you want. You learn
about the role of profit and loss, how human nature
plays a role in our economic system, and why capitalism
is ultimately a system that encourages morality rather than undermines it.
So go right now to Hillsdale dot EA slash Martini
to enroll in this course understanding capitalism. There's no cost
and it's easy to get started. That's Hillsdale dot edu
(14:09):
slash Martini to enroll for free and then jim real
quick as a second part of this conversation is how
the conversation unfolds. I don't know how much prep people
think that we do. We've obviously read the stories and
so forth, so we're very well versed on it. But
(14:32):
my intros are not scripted unless I'm reading directly from
the story, or we play the clip very little, as
I'm sure most people understand from listening regularly is scripted,
and so I generally try to stick to a fairly
consistent newsman role in the setup tossed to you, and
then it's kind of a free for all and hopefully
there's an opportunity for comedy. Kind of towards the end
(14:52):
of each Martini.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
I would point out, back in the days of Abbot,
Costello and the other comedy teams, the harder guy to
find was the good straight man. So I want to
thank you, Greg, and I want to listeners should give
you credit for being not just a straight man, but
the straight man, and to be the one to set
up like you it's volleyball. You're setting me up. But
I'm doing the spike and I've got the one liners.
(15:13):
I try not to mention my one liners to Greg
before we start taping, so that the laughs you hear
from him are genuine. I don't think your laughs are
ever forced, and if they are, Greg, you fool me
very well. So thank you very much for doing that.
And yeah, like people will also notice, we will begin
with the news topic and then you know, we will
discuss something and oh, does the story involve the FBI. Okay,
(15:36):
let's see if we can work in a reference to
Agent Johnson. Does the story involve air travel? Okay, we're
going to talk about you know, I was trying to
get through Dulles in general Esperance's flight Scott. We will
work in a reference to Diehard or any other late
eighties to nineties movie and it'll go from there. And
one of our recurring gags is to treat action movies
from the eighties and nineties as if they actually happened.
(15:56):
We did that with our President's Day Special a few
years which, by the way, is still really funny. And
the way you could, like Greg is a great laugh
for at you know laughs at my jokes, which I appreciate.
I had no warning you were going to do the
Peter King Ira joke when discussing Patriot games, and for
what for some reason, it was just the the tomahawk
missile aimed directly at my funny bone and one of
(16:17):
the few times I think I've ever laughed too hard
that we had to stay. I don't know if we
stopped taping. We just came close to just stopping taping.
So in case you're wondering, like ninety some percent of
the time, the laughs are genuine and we don't do
a lot like and a lot of people will tell me,
you know, Jim, I really like this this podcast because
it's short. If you don't like what you're getting, at
least the portions are small. This is the time, This
(16:38):
is what we have time to do on our day.
I love the editors, which goes an hour or so.
I love Jonah's. There's a lot of good podcasts out
there that are an hour and more, and if you
have the time for it, great. I've just shared the
sheer number of people who have said to us, you know,
it's a perfect for my commute, it's perfect for my walk.
It's perfect for that that twenty to thirty minute window
that we do. That's that's what people have time to do.
(16:59):
And so people want to ask Johnny Cash, you know,
how did you get that sound? And it's like, well,
we play faster if we could. You know, how do
you guys act so much into a small amount of time. Well,
we're busy, we got lives, we got work. This is
the only other thing we do for our employers. So
this is this is what we do. And I'm just
very glad that people listen and like, like, this is
very close to if somebody ever said, like, do you
(17:21):
ever want to have the Jim Garrity Show or something?
What you and I do five days a week is
very close to what I would want to do. I'd
want to inform people, I'd want to chew over what
was happening, hopefully bring some sort of insight or analysis.
And I want to make people laugh because a lot
of days the news is bad. A lot of days
the news is grim, and if we don't laugh, we
will cry. So I want to give somebody, you know,
something to make you a little uplifting and feel like
(17:42):
everything's going to be okay. As you go off and
do go aheat the rest of your day.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, very well said, and thank you for your kind words.
Let me just say that most of the setup is,
first of all, fairly succinct, at least if I'm doing
my job. Well, some of it's actually just directly read
or there's a clip played. Jim's the one who actually
has to put together, you know, a couple of minutes
of coherent connecting thoughts to to really analyze it.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
A lot of days, some days you can where is
Jim going with this? Jim doesn't know.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And then by the time we get to the end
of the martini, if there's any shred of humor, we'll
jump on it, whether it's Diehard related, New York Jets related,
you know, pop culture is certainly a favorite of ours.
And you know, and the order that we have them good,
bad and crazy. The good we're kind of you know, well,
that's great. Bad we're not happy with, and crazy it's
almost like the progression of actually drinking three martinis. So
(18:37):
by the time we're done with the crazy, it's kind
of like you've actually done it, but you just won't
have a rough morning the next day.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
So happy drunks, angry drunks, and just playing drunk.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Drunks metaphorically metaphorically. Jim Garretty, National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus
of Radio America. Thanks so much for being with us today.
Please subscribe to the podcast if you don't already, tell
your friends about us as well. Thank you for your
five star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
Get us on your home devices. All you have to
say is play a three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us
both on X He's at Jim Garritty, I'm at Dateline
(19:10):
Underscore DC. Join us again on Tuesday for the next
three Martini Lunch
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