Lewis Black's Rantcast

The Rubber Chicken may be off for Presidents Day, but Lewis is back in his personal cable access studio for this week’s Rantcast! Our host is covering a few of the bigger news stories from the last week and even has a few recommendations. Check out Cunk on Earth on Netflix, Jann on Roku and the documentary Listen to Her Heart: The Life and Music of Laurie Beechman. Thank you all for your continued support. As always, please take care of each other, it’s the most important thing we can do for one another. This week’s live rants come from the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, Florida Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our host is back in his cable access studio for this week’s Rantcast! Happy Valentine’s Day! Lewis is happy to be back recording podcasts and again and he gives us his thoughts on some of the big news stories from the last few days. Thank you all for the continued support. As always, please remember to take care of each other. It’s the most important thing we can do. This week’s live rants come from the Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York. PLEASE SUPPORT THIS SHOW' SPONSORS GhostBed: https://www.ghostbed.com/pages/lewis SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week’s episode of the Rantcast is a best of from our host’s cable access studio! As you know, when Lewis isn’t on the road, he rants from his personal cable access studio. Check out a few of his best moments from these episodes. Thank you all for your continued support. As always, please take care of each other. It’s the most important thing we can do for one another. This week’s live rants come from the Ovens Auditorium in Charlotte, North Carolina. For advertising opportunities email: [email protected] Honey: https://www.joinhoney.com/ Chime: https://www.chime.com/ SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/pages/live Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://thelaughbutton.com/podcasts/lewis-blacks-rantcast FOLLOW LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thelewisblack/ https://mobile.twitter.com/thelewisblack https://www.facebook.com/thelewisblack/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3FbbI6zNALJhHAhwOJhEyg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week’s Rantcast is the best of the bus! Check out Lewis’s best moments on the bus while he’s out on tour. Thank you all for rants and continued support. As always, please remember to take care of each other. It’s the most important thing we can do. This week’s live rants come from the Empire Theater in San Antonio, Texas. PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW'S SPONSORS GhostBed: https://www.ghostbed.com/pages/lewis SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week’s Rantcast is the best of the Rubber Chicken! Check out Lewis and the Rubber Chicken’s best moments from this past year. Thank you all for rants and continued support. As always, please remember to take care of each other. It’s the most important thing we can do. Make sure to check out Stark Raving Black premiering at 3 PM ET on Lewis Black's YouTube channel! This week’s live rants come from the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, California. PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW'S SPONSORS Honey: https://www.joinhoney.com SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey ranters! This week, let's take a look back at some of Lewis’s best moments from The Rantcast! Thank you all for your continued support. As always, please remember to take care of each other, it’s the most important thing we can do. This week’s live rants come from the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, California. SUPPORT THIS SHOW'S SPONSORS Chime: https://www.chime.com/ Honey: https://www.joinhoney.com/explore SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy new year! This week, Lewis lets the ranters tell us what’s on their mind. Enjoy! This week’s live rants come from the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona. SUPPORT THE SHOW'S SPONSORS Chime: https://www.chime.com/ Honey: https://www.joinhoney.com/explore SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our host checks in this week from his personal cable access studio. This year has been so horrific, Lewis wouldn’t ecven change out of his sweatpants this week! He’s also been feeling a little under the weather, so he didn’t get to spend Christmas with his friends the way he normally would. Sean Hannity admitted that he never believed in thie big lie…really? How can anyone take him, or anyone else on Fox News, seriously? A bomb cyclone just recently hit most of the country. Towards the end of the episode, our host takes a look at the news of the day. As always, please remember to take care of each other. It’s the most important thing we can do for one another. This week’s live rants come from the Embassy Theater in Fort Wayne, Indiana. SUPPORT HIS SHOW'S SPONSORS GhostBed: https://www.ghostbed.com/pages/lewis SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis checks in this week from his personal public access studio. There’s no rubber chicken this week, he doesn’t want to talk to everyone after what happened last week. Elon Musk put up a Twitter poll asking people if he should be the CEO of Twitter, Trump has to be punished for what he is doing. Carlos Correa signed with the Mets for $315 million. While Lewis was trying to record this week’s episode, the boiler in the upstairs part of his house started to leak and actually leaked through the ceiling. This is the second time this has happened to our host. As always, please remember to take care of each other, it’s the most important thing we can do, especially during this time of year. Thank you all for listening and the support this year. Merry Christmas! This week’s live rants come from the Palladium Theater in Carmel, Indiana. 00:00 - Start 02:20 - Intro Rant 24:13 - Microdose and GhostBed 29:17 - Carmel Live Rant 44:18 - Additional Rants 48:14 - Outro SUPPORT THE SHOW's SPONSORS Microdose Gummies: https://www.microdose.com/ GhostBed: https://www.ghostbed.com/pages/lewis SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis checks in this week from Florida. The sunshine state! He had his last few shows of the tour (so far!) this past weekend. Lewis is taking a nice, long break before he hits the road again in January. Recharge and reset! Our host reads a fiery rant from “Arthur Ritis” to start things off this week. Listeners and ranters, do you want the rubber chicken to continue to make an appearance on the podcast? Let our host know! This week, Lewis was joined by a new friend. A Funko Pop of Anger, the character Lewis voiced in the movie, Inside Out. As always, please remember to take care of each other, it’s the most important thing we can do for one another. This week’s live rants come from the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts Center in West Palm Beach, Florida and the Hard Rock Live in Orlando, Florida SUPPORT THE SHOW'S SPONSORS Microdose Gummies: https://www.microdose.com/ Honey: https://www.joinhoney.com/explore Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our host this week checks in from his public access studio. It’s crazy that another election is already around the corner. We got some great news…the price of gas is coming down! However, great news never lasts long. Inflation continues to rise. The World Cup is here. The US team has been eliminated, as if they ever had a chance of actually winning. Lewis wraps up his tour in Florida this weekend. After that, our host has a nice break from the road. Even though Lewis is off the road, he doesn’t want you to stop sending in your rants! Please keep them coming. As always, please remember to take care of each other. It’s the most important thing we can do for one another. This week’s live rants come from the Warner Theater in Torrington, Connecticut and the Borgata’s Music Box Theater in Atlantic City, New Jersey. For advertising opportunities email: [email protected] SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/pages/live Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://thelaughbutton.com/podcasts/lewis-blacks-rantcast FOLLOW LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thelewisblack/ https://mobile.twitter.com/thelewisblack https://www.facebook.com/thelewisblack/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3FbbI6zNALJhHAhwOJhEyg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our host checks in with us from home again this week as he returned from his vacation in Vermont. While in Vermont, Lewis ate at an absolutely terrific restaurant called the Reluctant Panther. All compliments go to the chef, Sigal Rockland. It was a spectacular Thanksgiving meal. It really feels like Christmas up there. Which can be a bit much at times. When are we going to realize that our current gun laws don’t work? It’s astounding how after the recent slate of mass shootings nothing will still get done. It’s all just senseless, senseless violence. The topic of gun laws is just a never ending argument that just goes in circles. It’s never going to change. 63% of the American people live paycheck to paycheck. How is that possible? This is the richest country on Earth and over half the country is struggling to get by. And yeah, yeah, we know about inflation. Here’s an idea, and this one helps with lightening the cost of living in this country. Free healthcare. Canada, and a lot of countries in Europe, already provide the citizens free healthcare. We should be able to do it too. Adding on to this week’s bad news, 2,700 people were from a furniture factory in Mississippi. 2,700 people. Every single one of those workers are going to have a really difficult time recovering from that. And that’s just not right. As we are about 25 days out from Christmas, our host reminds you to take care of another. It’s the most important thing we can do for each other. Especially during the Holiday season. This week’s live rants come from the Waterville Opera House in Waterville, Maine and the Paramount Theater - Rutland, Vermont SUPPORT THE SHOW'S SPONSORS Chime: www.chime.com/lewis Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our host checks in with us home from his humble abode as Elon Musk nearly destroys Twitter, winter comes to New York in full force and Buffalo gets an unbelievable amount of snow. Oh my! This year, fall didn’t happen. It went from summer right into winter. There wasn’t even a chance to feel a slight chill in the air. You probably didn’t even have a chance to grab your fall jacket. No. It went right into freezing cold weather. How about that crazy amount of snow Buffalo got? Unreal. There’s some people in this country who have psychotic amounts of money and just love to play around with it. Elon Musk is one of them. How are you going to take over a company and not know what to do with it? Firing the staff, bringing them back and throwing them in the deep end? Having a vote to decide if the former leader should be allowed on the platform or not? Speaking of the former leader, he decided to announce he’s going to be running again. Politicians are already asking people to donate to their campaign again. Really? Give people a break. We just got done with that. Atleast give us until after Thanksgiving. Lewis takes some much needed time off this week and is going on vacation. He’s heading up to Vermont this week (instead of traveling internationally) with his friend, Neil. Vermont really is beautiful this time of year. Also, Lewis recently went to a benefit in Bethesda, Maryland for a cystic fibrosis run by his friend Rich. Rich has even started a new organization called the “Luvu Project.” The “Luvu Project” does extraordinary work when it comes to mental health in the workplace. The link is below to check out the project. Also, if you’re interested, a link is below to the kickstarter for the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. This kickstarter helps fun programs at the library such as their youth writing program, Sophie’s Banned Book Club, Social Justice Writing Workshop Series, as well as increasing access to its education programs to learners from all over the world. Lewis wishes you all a lovely Thanksgiving. And as always, take care of each other. It’s the most important thing we can do for one another. The Luvu Project: https://theluvuproject.org/ The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sh5/core-of-the-american-experience-kurt-vonnegut-and-education The live rants this week come from the State Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey and the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey. 00:00 - Start 1:32 - Intro 1:39 - Intro Rant 24:43 - Ad Read 2 26:34 - New Brunswick, NJLive Rant 40:13 - Englewood, NJ Live Rant 52:59 - Outro SUPPORT THE SHOW'S SPONSORS MICRODOSE GUMMIES - visit www.microdose.com and use code LEWIS to get free shipping and 30% off your first order. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our host checks in with us this week from home and he’s pissed off because so much money was wasted on this year’s elections. It’s ludicrous how nothing gets done and nothing new gets said every election cycle. Here’s an idea…if you have a political ad on TV, and you don’t bring up one new point or say something of note, that’s it you’re out. You’re done. Ten billion dollars spent..on nothing! The Washington Commanders are currently being sold for around five billion. This year’s election cycle makes that seem like a bargain. Also, climate change is in full swing. Lewis went to bed Saturday night and it was 70 degrees. He woke up Sunday morning and it was 40 degrees outside. We’re going to hell in a hand basket and nothing is going to change. How come no one wants to work a public service job anymore? When our host was a kid, there were so many people who wanted a public service job. Lewis just got home from shows in Ohio and North Carolina. Marietta, Ohio is a really nice small town. Durham, North Carolina has really changed a lot (for the better) since our host used to spend time there in his younger days. Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill are really great food towns. All the shows from this past weekend were truly amazing. Our host thanks you for all the support over the years as the world becomes more psychotic and we all continue to struggle with it. As always, the most important thing we can do for one another is to take care of each other. The live rants this week come from the Peoples Bank Theater in Marietta, Ohio and the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, North Carolina. SUPPORT THE SHOW'S SPONSORS Microdose Gummies - visit www.microdose.com and use code LEWIS to get free shipping and 30% off your first order. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our host Lewis checks in this week from the Home of the Blues, Memphis, Tennessee! We’re recording this week’s episode in the parking lot of Sun Studios. Sun Studios has produced some legendary, great music. Countless hits. Midterm elections were this week and all the news coverage of it has been people standing in line. Even though people are standing in line to vote, our host reminds you that you need to give people a reason to vote! One political party comes up with solutions they can’t explain. The other political party wants to keep their good ideas a secret. It’s important to vote. It matters. Lewis is sick of people saying that George Carlin didn’t vote. How do you know that to be true? He could just be saying that because he’s George and he is a comedian! But then again, voting probably did genuinely bother him a lot. Lewis had an extra day to spend some time in Memphis. If he’s being honest, he ordered enough BBQ to feed a family of six. Also, if you’re ever in Memphis, you need to visit the civil rights museum. It will be one of the most extraordinary experiences you can ever have. It’s crazy that they don’t want to teach about civil rights history in school. Kids need to learn about this. Our host's next stops in his tour are in Ohio and South Carolina. As always, our host reminds us that we take care of each other. It’s the most important thing we can do for one another. This week’s live rants were filmed at Austin City Limits at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas and the Majestic Theater in Dallas, Texas. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis checks in this week from the pacific northwest as he had shows in Oregon and Washington. Our host wants to thank all of you for the outpouring of love and support after the passing of his mother, Jeannette. As Lewis heads into the final leg of this year’s tour, he looks forward to some time off he has coming up. During his time off from the road, our host plans to do some fixer upper work around the house. Maybe he can even get his toilet working again! Lewis wants the rants from Eugene, Oregon to be used in this week’s episode, but his crackerjack technical staff says otherwise. Also, our host leaves us this week with a very important reminder (the same way he ends every live show)...take care of each other. It’s the most important thing we can do for one another. The live rants come from shows at The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon and McCaw Hall in Seattle, Washington. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeannette Black. September 8, 1918 - October 10, 2022. The live rants come from this past weekend’s shows in McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, CA and the Balboa Theatre in San Diego, CA. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis checks in this week from sunny California! As Lewis heads up to San Francisco for a show, he has one question for Georgia Senate Republican candidate Hershel Walker…really? Herschel, REALLY? It’s come out in the news recently that the former pro football player has paid for an abortion for a woman he was having a relationship with. Even though he’s representing a party that is anti-abortion, does this recent revelation make him pro-abortion? Oh, and by the way, don’t elect someone who can’t contribute anything. That’s no way to run a Senate. Anyway…moving on from that…if you’re ever in the area, be sure to stop by Albertson’s in Paso Robles, California. They have absolutely terrific wine at great prices. Unfortunately, our host didn’t get to make a stop there this trip, but he highly recommends it if you’re ever in the area and looking for phenomenal wine. Also on this trip, Lewis got to stay at one of his favorite places in the country, the Mission Inn in Riverside, California. At the Mission Inn, there are two beautiful parrots, a red feathered female Macaw and a striking blue feather male Macaw. After his shows in California this weekend, Lewis has a little time off and is heading back to the Palm Desert (where he was at the start of the week) to meet up with some friends and maybe even play some golf again. Last time Lewis played golf out there, it was so hot and just felt like the sun was right above your head. Hopefully for the next round of golf it won’t be so hot and our host can focus on his game. The live rants come from this past weekend’s shows at the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside, CA and the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, CA. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis checks in this week from the west coast for the 101st episode of The Rantcast. Our host discusses Hurricane Ian that ravaged through Florida last week. As Lewis watches the news, he realizes that the only thing to distract us from the usual news stories that are covered constantly in the news (court cases, politics, etc.) is some kind of major catastrophe and/or natural disaster. One story Lewis watched on the news was about how homes in Florida are going to be rebuilt after the latest hurricane. Well maybe, at this point in time, it might be best for everyone in Florida to live underground covered by concrete. 7 feet of concrete, at least. How come everyone is wearing plaid on TV? Our host was never a fan of plaid. He tries to dress up, which is why he deserves to be on a top 10 “hey, he tried” list for best dressed. Our host also explains just how much you can learn from fantasy football. For example, the hatred you can have for an individual you don’t even know! Apologies to the fans in Tucson, Arizona for the iPad not having enough juice to read all the rants that you submitted live and in person. Don’t worry! Our host read the rest of them here, on the Rantcast. The live rants come from this past weekend’s shows at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM and the Fox Theater in Tucson, AZ. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis checks in this week from the Midwest as The Rantcast reaches its 100th episode! Triple digits! A huge THANK YOU to all the fans and ranters for all the support, and of course the rants, as we hit our centennial episode. One of Lewis’s stops in the Midwest this week was in Indianapolis, Indiana. While in Indianapolis, Lewis stops by one of his favorite places, the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. While this may be the 100th episode, Lewis will be celebrating Kurt Vonnegut’s 100th birthday on November 11th! One thing our host wants to showcase is the free expression graffiti wall, located just outside the museum and library. Lewis is sure that’s something the famed writer would have loved to see. “And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles. So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.” -Kurt Vonnegut The live rants come from this past weekend’s shows at the Packard Music Hall in Warren, OH and the Victoria Theatre in Dayton, OH. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis reports this week from New England on his day off as he’s back on the road for shows in Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont. Our host has had hit with politicians asking for donations. The constant barrage of spam emails for a wide variety of candidates is too much. How much money could these politicians even need? What did these candidates do before email? However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The good news this week is that there’s no news! Inflation continues to do what it always does…inflates. Our host had a great week this week and it felt good for him to be back on stage working out his act. A huge thank you to all the New England crowds this weekend who came out to support. It’s banned books week as multiple libraries are sending out the “banned books” to places where those books are banned. You can’t ban books. How people grow is by reading something that challenges their thinking. Maybe next week our host won’t be so irritated as he heads to the Midwest, with stops in Ohio and Indiana. Lewis hates, but he loves you! The live rants come from this past weekend’s shows at the Academy of Music in Northampton, MA and the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, MA. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeannette Black turned 104 this past week, a staggering age to have reached. How did she manage this achievement? There is no reasonable explanation, though avoiding sweets may be one of her secrets to longevity. On being presented with a Carvel ice cream birthday cake, she proclaimed it to be, “too sweet”. Or it may be her lifelong embrace of sarcasm and negativity, a sensible outlook given that she has lived through two once-in-a-century pandemics. On the other side of the Atlantic, Queen Elizabeth II died after a reign of over 70 years. Whatever she embodied socially and politically, she did provide a consistent unifying presence for the UK, and was the only monarch most living humans have known. Unless you turned 104 this week, in which case you have lived during the reigns of five sovereigns: George V, Edward VIII, George VI, QEII, and now King Charles III. To put that in mathematical and historical perspective, if you take Jeannette’s birth year, 1918 and subtract her 104 years, you land on 1814, when George III was the monarch. Yes, the same George III who was king during the American revolution. In other news this week, it was the 21st anniversary of the September 11th attacks, which provides a moment to remember those lost on that day, and also to stare in disbelief at how those intervening years have turned Mayor Rudy Giuliani from a mostly respected political leader into a crazed nihilistic side show. And Lewis’s “Off the Rails” tour returns this week, with a jam-packed circumnavigation of the New England states, and then it’s on to Ohio and Indiana next week. Lewis is looking forward to being back on stage and is hoping he will remember his act, as he has left preparations for the shows to the last minute. “The Rant Is Due” is also back, so send in your rants and remember to tune into the live streams this weekend and throughout the upcoming tour. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The dark prince of distraction and chaos had a day in court this week, and for once one of the crony judges the former leader appointed did his bidding. In a ruling that has been nearly universally derided by legal experts across the political spectrum, the panoply of classified and not classified documents the former president stole from the people's house will be examined by a special master to determine their importance. All of this is of course an unnecessary delaying tactic designed to prevent the American people from getting a full understanding of what was taken and what has disappeared. What was in those empty folders? Inquiring minds and Federal prosecutors would like to know. The news media has become engulfed in this story and is reporting it with the same horserace analysis that they will proffer to the upcoming election season. It's all a giant sporting event to them, unconcerned as they are that the consequence of the next election might make it the last election of any consequence. The real story is that the weather has yet again taken on biblical proportions with rains, flooding, fire, and heat straight out of the Book of Genesis. The new New Testament will have to add "zombie ice". Meanwhile the water in Jackson MS is undrinkable, mostly due to a history of underfunding the city's potable water infrastructure. The GOP Senate campaigns have managed to blow through nearly $200 million in donations this cycle, yet somehow there's no money to get drinkable water in the state capital of Mississippi, a state controlled by Republicans. There was some good news this week as your host had a lovely birthday, celebrated with friends and some Rantcast recording. It's nice to feel the love, but each birthday is also a reminder of all the parts that need replacing. And as the seasons turn, it's time for Lewis to focus on some of the things most important to him: the new set for his upcoming tour and his fantasy football team. Not necessarily in that order. And a happy Labor Day for all of you who are on the worker side of the late capitalist dystopia we are inhabiting. Now get back to work. The rants this week cover a range of subjects from the personal to the household to the international. Plus some advice about how to deal with the in-laws. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis takes time on his birthday to celebrate with some of the people he loves the most, you the audience. As school has started for many American children, it’s dictionary time at the Rantcast. The word of the week is redacted, which means “edited especially in order to obscure or remove sensitive information”. The FBI has been busy literally redacting the former leader’s ill-kept horde of classified documents. But if we take a more figurative meaning of the word, many things in society have been redacted in the past couple of years: memory, the connecting ties between us all, Constitutional rights, civility, and the occasional podcast recording. While many Americans have many complaints about many parts of the federal government, there is at least one agency that is trying to provide some edifying news. NASA is back in the business of returning humans to the moon, starting with the launch of the Artemis I rocket. One possible consequence of the lunar return mission is that it would provide a uniting force for science and our place in the cosmos in what’s left of our common culture. Returning to the moon would give people, especially young people, a grander vision of the universe. And it would create the impetus to try to make the world we currently inhabit into a better place. So, this week there's good news, bad news, and a reverse birthday gift from Lewis, a wish for hope and peace and love for everyone in the Rantcast audience. Conversely, the rants this week offer a litany of almost all the biblically-proportioned ills currently befalling our world. Plus, a diatribe about dental floss and the indiscriminate flossers who leave their flossing detritus for all to see. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The people have spoken, and the rubber chicken has been given a reprieve from being retired back to the annals of comedy history. He lives! She lives!! They live!!! (We will reserve questions about the gender of the rubber chicken for another time.) Much like our rubberized feathered-friend, another public figure with links to the Jazz Age is going back to the people to get their vote. In this case it is sitting Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who, if re-elected would be 96 years old at the end of his next term. While that would make Sen. Grassley decidedly on the old side of elderly, it would still put him several years shy of Lewis’s mom Jeannette, who will turn 104 in a couple of weeks. Lewis paid a visit to his mom this past week, and though her stories of teaching immigrants may have been a conflation of past events, or possibly fiction, they are still more coherent than Sen. Grassley’s incomprehensible interpretation of the $80 billion going to the IRS. It’s OK to make things up if you are 104 and have no responsibilities. Not so much if you are one of the longest-serving politicians in Washington. On the conundrum front, Democrats have somehow become the defenders of the FBI (historically one of the most conservative parts of the executive branch), the former leader has seemingly found a way to defy all laws of physics and jurisprudence (he may be a hologram), and on a much more somber note, a judge in Florida determined that a pregnant sixteen-year-old is mature enough to be a parent, but not mature enough to decide whether to proceed with the pregnancy or have an abortion. And after years of being underpaid and underappreciated, the teachers of America have had enough. It was bad enough for them when all they had to deal with was bratty kids and over-involved parents. Now it’s all book banning, not teaching history, and dealing with school boards comprised of fellow citizens determined to impose their warped reality on the general public. The rants this week include submissions about abortions, gun violence, and the descent of the United States into lawless chaos. Also addressed are serious topics like customer service phone options and Dodge Ram pickup trucks. Plus, an FBI-related top ten list. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It has come to your host’s attention that some in the audience are upset with and/or annoyed by the rubber chicken. Maybe they don’t understand the importance of the rubber chicken in the history of American comedy, especially on the Vaudeville circuit. Many of those old Vaudeville theatres still exist, and Lewis will be performing at several of them in the coming months including the Paramount Theatre in Rutland VT, the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne, IN, and the Fox Theatre in Tucson, AZ. From coast to coast the spirit of Vaudeville lives on in these venues, where the appearance of a rubber chicken would not elicit a hint of controversy or surprise. But without the proper historical context, appearances by the rubber chicken in more modern forms of media have unleashed an unprecedented level of criticism. So, we want to hear from you the audience; should the rubber chicken stay or go? Let us know in the comments. As for the events of the week, the word unprecedented applies to many of them. Unprecedented implies an event that has never happened before, or could not have been expected to happen given the circumstances. It is something new, novel, surprising, or original. If the event could have been foreseen, it should not be described as unprecedented. So, let’s all back away from the feigned surprise at the Pete Davidson/Kim Kardashian breakup. What was unprecedented this week was the FBI serving a former president with a search warrant and searching his property for classified documents. Also unprecedented is a former president keeping top secret documents in his home. (To be clear, the latter is the cause of the former.) In other unprecedented news from the crime blotter, a man was arrested for using a finger-gun to rob paper napkins from a Waffle House. The only unsurprising thing about both of these alleged crimes is that they happened in Florida. The rants cover a range of topical topics including abortion, trans rights, the separation of church and state, home buying, and working at the VA. And to add to the unprecedented events of the week, we have a rant in support of winter. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a week in the wild which included attending a raucous wedding in California, Lewis is back at home, in his personal public access station. The week was low-lighted by the hellscape of the CPAC convention, which featured a speech by Hungarian prime minister/autocrat Viktor Orbán. He said out loud exactly what most in the audience already believe, but may be a bit shy about saying publicly. Like a Greek tragedy where the arrival of the foreigner reveals the secrets of the society, Orbán’s speech consisted of every hatred known to live in the heart of the white patriarchy. Meanwhile the Senate actually got some stuff done, including steps in the right direction on climate change, taxation, and prescription drugs, but the process to get to the final vote was so arduous and convoluted that leads one to wonder how any of us as individuals can affect any change in our communities or even keep connected to reality. One way your host attempts to connect with the laws of cause and effect is through the game of golf, which he has been able to play with some frequency this summer. The game may not be good for the ego, but it’s great at giving you the teeniest sense that you can affect something in the world. Lastly, the Orioles, despite some recent attempts at mediocrity, which would be an improvement, traded away the heart of the team at the deadline. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's always good to travel internationally, as it gives the traveler the opportunity to tune out the troubles at home and embrace the local culture. And this week your host was fortunate enough to visit our neighbors to the north and perform at the Falls View Casino in Niagara Falls, Ontario. With a view of the eponymous falls, the hotel and casino complex lets the American traveler escape from the relentless cascade of news of our impending doom, while being washed over by the aural and visual majesty of one of the natural wonders of the world. So if you have the opportunity this summer, get out into nature and try to find the joy that being in the wild provides. If your journey leads you out of the USA, all the better. And don't worry, the chaos and craziness of our great experiment in democracy will be there when you return. The live rants come from the show on July 22, 2022, and feature a variety of Canadian perspectives on their neighbors to the south, parking, toddlers at baseball games, and the "freedom convoy". Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Summertime and the living isn't so easy. So it's time to reclaim the joy of the season and have fun, fun, fun until our collective T-Bird gets taken away, or yet more of our Constitutional freedoms are negated by radical, extremist justices who wouldn't recognize fun if you spotted them the F and the U. The warm glow of summer also gets diminished by the constant reminder that every new high temperature, wild fire, and melting tarmac portends the increasingly imminent melt down of the planet. But let's get out there and have some fun while we can still tolerate being more that 4 feet from an air conditioner. Lewis offers some recommendations for summer fun, including seeing relatives, taking in a theatrical production, visiting a museum, and partaking in some fine dining and beverages. If you're anywhere near the Upstate New York area, you can check out the National Comedy Center, comedycenter.org, the Chautauqua Institution, chq.org, or your host on 7/22 at the Falls View Casino in Niagara Falls (the Canadian side): https://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/10005C70D4EF4D55. And for those of you in the DC-Metro area, there's a production of Lewis''s play "One Slight Hitch" at the Bowie Community Theater through the end of July: https://www.bctheatre.com. The rants this week take on a slight international flavor with submissions from New Zealand and Canada, and also include ones about the many inconveniences and struggles of modern life. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis is met with another week of ridiculous news in what seems like a society that's continually going in the wrong direction. But hey! There's maybe some good news... for the people of England. Well, at least we'll get to see a possible court case when they question a fetus on the stand, huh? This week Lewis reads rants submitted from his fans and they have some really important things to get off their chests. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com https://thelaughbutton.podlink.to/Rantcast. FOLLOW LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com https://www.instagram.com/thelewisblack https://twitter.com/thelewisblack https://www.facebook.com/thelewisblack https://www.youtube.com/OfficialLewisBlack New episodes arrive every Wednesday via The Laugh Button Podcasts. For advertising opportunities email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy 4th of July! Don't we all feel super patriotic right now? Another day in America brings us another mass shooting at a parade in Chicago while we get the second opportunity to witness folks in the city of where our Declaration of Independence was signed run in fear from more gunfire as the Rocket's Red Glare fills the night sky. As if that wasn't bad enough, airlines are kicking us in the nuts as the biggest nuts in country right now, SCROTUS is taking its conservatism all the way back to the 1930s. Wooohooo, Let's celebrate! Where's the BBQ? This week Lewis reads rants submitted from his fans, some the night he recorded his most-recent comedy special and others from fans that just had to get some things off their chests. Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it does. We're completely dumbfounded by the lack of leadership going on in the political spectrum right now. From new Supreme Court rulings that are about as politically motivated as can be, to an ineffective government that appears completely broken. Lewis attempts to make sense of it all. The live rants this week come from the Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem PA (Mar 7, 2020). Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, "Thanks For Risking Your Life" is available now! https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are now entering the summer of our discontent and Lewis is aware of it, from the latest revelations from the conservative questioned during the ongoing January 6th Committee hearings. But there's no shortage of things to rant about from rapid inflation that continues to ask the working man to make the most sacrifices while your host doesn't have the highest of hopes for the results of the impending gun control laws. So enjoy this week's Rantcast from the mind of Lewis and the minds of the people of Philadelphia. The live rants this week come from the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia, PA on March 2020. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From gun control to climate change to preserving democracy, the litany of issues not being fully addressed keeps getting longer. And at a time when we desperately need to get on with ensuring a safe and sane future, the larger cultural and political forces in the country continue to stand in the way. Across the political spectrum leadership has taken a holiday, forced by a compromised electoral system to be more responsive to donors than to the citizens they represent. So enjoy this week's Rantcast as your host tries to find a sliver of hope in a country determined to immolate itself both figuratively and literally. The live rants come from the Virginia Theater in Champaign IL on May 1, 2022. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 84th edition of the Rantcast is about guns and gun control and the scourge of gun violence in America and the inability of the large majority of the country to summon the political will to keep our schools, churches, supermarkets, streets, and other public gathering places from continuing to be the sites of mass death. It asks when will enough be enough. It asks how many more children have to die before we take action. One impediment to action is semantics. In the recent national discourse about this subject the definition of evil has come into question. On this matter, evil is seeing what is in front of you and knowing what needs to be done, and feigning blindness. Evil is creating a system that protects guns and gun users and gun manufacturers wholly while leaving the people those guns are supposed to protect completely exposed to random and not-so-random acts of gun violence. It is an insidious evil destined to turn every day into a Memorial Day. Lewis’ Rantcast intro may inspire many different reactions, but laughter probably won’t be one of them. If you want to skip to the funny parts, the live rants start at 32:11. And while Lewis’ current thoughts on the guns might not be that amusing, he was able to find the humor in this subject in the past. In his 2016 special "Black to the Future", he gave his prophetic view on the matter, with a bonus insight into his retirement plans: https://youtu.be/QCEMxpjzDHM Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week's episode, Lewis remembers his friend Bruce MacVittie, an accomplished stage and screen actor who passed away earlier this month. Lewis met Bruce through their work with 52nd Street Project, a community-based arts organization that brings NYC tweens and teens together with professional artists to create a variety of works of art. Aside from working with the kids, there was also some time for the adults to share a glass of wine or two. During these tastings Lewis came to appreciate wine and learned from Bruce to ask a critical question: do you like the taste for the price? Bruce will be deeply missed, so raise a glass for this consummate artist, and check out an exemplary example of his work, the episode of “Homicide: Life on the Street” from season 6 called “The Subway”: https://youtu.be/qhplAN8ie2w The news this week somehow reached new tiers of horrible, with events happening too fast to contemplate. There are massive problems in the country, from multiple plagues to active shooters to food shortages to sinister challenges to personal autonomy, so that nowhere feels safe and circumstances feel beyond anyone’s control. One way to regain some sense of security is to actively address the sources of these issues by learning and teaching the history they stem from. To ignore the mistakes of the past not only allows them to repeat, it allows the associated trauma of those mistakes to pass on to future generations. In happier news, Lewis filmed his latest special on May 15th on Long Island and is grateful to everyone who came out to see it and for the level of energy and excitement they brought to the taping. It was inspiring. And Lewis got to see his mom again this week, a good reminder to reach out to those you love because on personal, community, and national levels, it’s time to take care of each other. The live rants come from one of Lewis’ favorite venues, the Warner Theater in Washington DC on May 6, 2020. Reminder: we now have a prize for the best rant submission of the week: a subscription for cheeses from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont (https://www.youtube.com/JasperHillFarm). Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In an America where almost anything jurisprudence-related – no matter how unreasonable it seems in the current context – can be justified if you can find a quote from an old, dead Englishman, it's a good time to reflect on the Bard's sentiments regarding the legal profession. Among Shakespeare's most famous locutions, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" (Henry VI, Part 2) can be interpreted in several ways but in the current moment let’s posit that it’s criticism of lawyers for siding with the wealthy and privileged to protect their power and money from the peasants. A majority of the justices on the Supreme Court have aligned themselves with this feudal sentiment, and as they (and many members of Congress) are lawyers, it speaks poorly of what is being taught in law schools. And regarding the SCOTUS Leak, the less said about the better, though the one thing it clarified is that the news media is a feeding frenzy of speculation determined to instill fear of the future as a means to keep us watching CPAP, boner pill, and insurance commercials. The fifth estate would serve us better if they stuck with “what is” as opposed to “what if”. Of course, dealing in actuality takes hard work and a dedication to approaching topics with as much objectivity and truthfulness as possible, while “what if” merely requires opening one’s mouth and bloviating. In other news of the week, a Tennessee lawmaker cited Hitler’s experience as a means to show that being homeless can be a building block to a better life. As always, if you are citing something Hitler said as a means to win an argument, you have already lost the argument. And the rash of attacks on performing comedians continued with the attempted on-stage assault of Dave Chappelle. Like the Chris Rock Slap, there was an absence of a rapid response from those entrusted with the safety of the artist. It’s unfortunate that there is an increasing need for more police-like security at live shows, but that’s where we are given the sensibilities in the country and the lack of easy access to mental health care. Finally, it was Mother’s Day this past Sunday, a holiday that Lewis’ mother Jeannette refuses to acknowledge, having forcefully argued for a long time that that every day is Mother’s Day if you’re a mother or have a mother. Whether you agree with Mrs. Black or not, it’s certain that even at 103 years old, her arguments are more cogent and intellectually and historically sound than Justice Alito’s. The live rants come from the shows in Richmond VA and Greensburg PA and feature discourses on personal liberty, motherhood, monuments, and personal hygiene. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week's episode, Lewis delves into the history of May Day and why in the US we moved the celebration of labor to the end of the summer. Honoring the working class at the same time as the rest of the world was too communal an experience for our nation of rugged individualists, and it was stained by links with socialists and anarchists and by fears of association with the 1886 Haymarket Riots. President Grover Cleveland thus proposed having the celebration for those who labor in September and it became a federal holiday in 1894. Now, more than a century later, we join together the first Monday each September to pay lip-service to the hard-working laborers who keep our economy and society functioning, while also somehow highlighting the importance of management and owners. Lewis also offers a modest proposal for relocating refugees and migrants, explores the vague return to normalcy that was the 2022 NFL draft, and offers this athletics-related opinion: Wizards is the worst name in sports. Also, if there’s a manliness crisis in America, Madison Cawthorne is clearly not the person to offer solutions. The live rants come from Chicago and Detroit, two towns where the citizens don't agree on much, especially regarding Lions, Tigers, Bears, or Cubs (or Pistons, Bulls, White Sox, Blackhawks, or Red Wings), but definitely agree that the potholes need to be fixed!\ The big news on the rant front is that we now have a prize for the best rant submission of the week: a subscription for cheeses from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week's episode, Lewis pays tribute to his friend and fellow comedian Gilbert Gottfried, a foul-mouthed angel who made a career out of finding the line of taste and then crossing right over it. He revived the Aristocrats joke as a way to recover from a post-9/11 moment of comedic transgression, and could make almost anything funny, including waiter’s trays. He will be terribly missed and if anything has happened “too soon”, it is Gilbert passing. In other news of the week, a federal judge ruled that the CDC’s mask mandate on public transportation was enacted without a proper mandate, just in time for new variants to put the lives of the immunocompromised (and the unvaccinated) at further risk. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' turn toward autocracy continued with his attacks on the House of Mouse, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's turn away from having any recollection about anything at all also continued, as she took the stand to recall her part in the January 6th Insurrection and her mind, like her policies, was a vast emptiness of ahistorical reactionary presentism. It would be an admirable trait in its Zen-like focus only on the now, if it weren’t accompanied by a tendentious desire to use that disregard of history as a way to continue the repression of historically marginalized communities. The live rants come from the shows in Cincinnati and Akron OH, where we learn that the denizens of the Buckeye state are not too enamored of their state government. But they do like to put chili on top of noodles. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The rubber chicken is on leave after pumping out an extraordinary quantity of eggs for Easter. And like his coworker, Lewis is also on vacation, enjoying some rounds of golf and some time away from America's work-in-progress infrastructure. The live rants come from the show in Huntington NY on April 3, 2020. The show went so well that Lewis will be back at The Paramount on May 15th to film his next special. Tickets are available here: https://paramountny.com/shows/lewis-black-special-live-taping/ Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE New episodes arrive every Wednesday. SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week's episode comes from somewhere on I-20 near the Georgia/South Carolina border, possibly the bumpiest stretch of road for a locale that doesn't see much wintry weather. The bumps in the road (sorry) is a theme that carried forward from the previous night in Atlanta, where one of the patrons had had a little too much to drink and not enough talk about the current president. The gentleman in question, disinhibited by the night's imbibing, could not keep that sentiment to himself, and felt that it was his Constitutional right to be heard. Misinterpreting the meaning of the First Amendment, he would not be silenced, and while being removed from the premises declared, "This is America!" Throughout most of America, the audience will be self-policing, using their combined feedback to control the wayward members of the crowd. Unfortunately, this was not the case in Atlanta. Other than this interruption to Saturday evening's proceedings the week was mostly good for your host, highlighted by visiting his mom and then receiving a high honor from his alma mater, having the body of his written work and primary sources archived by the UNC library. The live rants come from the shows in Atlanta, GA and Charleston, SC, where the theater-goers come in a possibly more gentile variety than their Peach State brethren. For more information about Lewis' archive at UNC click here: https://library.unc.edu/2022/04/lewis-black-collection/ Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From a time when the Kansas Jayhawks don't exist, this week's Rantcast celebrates the brave, valorous young men of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team who defeated the despised Blue Devils and sent Coach K on his merry way. In another televised display of possibly manufactured animosity, there was the slap heard round the world at the Oscars ceremony, with slapper Will Smith valiantly protecting his family from a not-great joke made by slapee Chris Rock. This was followed by one of the most bizarre speeches ever made at an awards ceremony, which begs the question of why he was allowed to stay at all. If only we could all be the vessel of love and see beyond our personal, collegiate, and political divides. Which bring us to this bit of advice for rant submissions: it is not enough to say that you like or dislike this leader or the former leader. We need specifics. What policies do you like or not? What actions do you think need to be taken? And as with rant submissions generally, you cannot get too specific. Also, Lewis has a great wine recommendation. The live rants come from the shows in Red Bank, NJ and Syracuse, NY, where the vagaries of our changing climate are in full effect. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lewis is ready for spring temperatures, but the climate will not comply. While he's waiting for the vernal season to kick into high gear, and recovering from the Pat's vs. Geno's cheesesteak challenge, the main distraction from the madness of March is March Madness and the joy/trepidation of his UNC team facing the despised Duke Blue Devils. Go Heels! With the turn of the seasons, it is also a time to contemplate the larger questions of life and the world. A prime example at the moment is: how is hatred learned? In the cases of Pat’s and Geno’s or UNC and Duke, similarity and proximity may play a factor. Whether cheese comes in the form of a slice of American or as “whiz” may not seem that consequential, but for some people it’s a difference to base an identity on. (As an aside, there are many Philadelphians who argue that both Pat’s and Geno’s suck and that there are many better cheesesteak options easily procured in the greater Delaware Valley area.) Likewise, the student bodies of UNC and Duke are not all that different, so differentiating identity must be found in the natures of the schools (public vs. private) and their choices of shades of blue. Within reason, sporting arenas are the appropriate place to yell like an idiot and have unreasonable distaste for your fellow humans. One place some level of civility should be maintained is the Senate Judiciary Committee. The less said about the antics of certain elected officials, the better, but can we at least agree that the time and place for a discussion of the merits of the meritocratic system and its relation to rising inequality and the role elite institutions like Harvard play in perpetuating a process whereby it is increasingly difficult for Americans to escape the vicissitudes of class-based late-stage capitalism is the Education Committee? The live rants come from the shows in Hershey, PA, Philadelphia, and Port Chester, NY, where we learn that Lewis has an unexpected amatory effect on some audience members. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This special Rantcast episode comes from the National Comedy Center in Jamestown NY. The Comedy Center is the only American cultural institution solely dedicated to comedy. Located in Lucille Ball’s hometown of Jamestown, New York, the museum documents the history of comedy through exhibitions about comedians, cartoonists, writers, and other artists whose work exemplifies the full range of comedic styles. In 2019, Congress designated it as the official American institution dedicated to comedy. If you are in the area, or planning you summer vacation, it is an excellent place to learn about comedy and have a bundle of laughs along the way. To visit the Comedy Center (or make a donation), please visit comedycenter.org. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE New episodes arrive every Wednesday. SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's on old adage about New England that if you don't like the weather, just wait. And just like the wearying vicissitudes of the northeastern climate, the wider human experience provides an endless variety of new ways to redefine insanity. From war to pestilence to trading for Carson Wentz as your solution at QB, no amount of reason can sway certain members of the species from terrible decision-making. The news media may be the only people happy with the situation as it gives them license to fall into their natural tendency of being an endless funnel of the awful. Their operational focus being offering limitless speculation on how we are going to die today. The big news – non-Apocalyptic category – comes from the world of sports where the teams that Lewis roots for are doing their best to have their worst seasons; a real feat considering he roots for the Orioles. And the Wizards. And the Commanders. His only hope for distraction comes from March Madness, though the broadcasts are sure to be marred by incessant interstitial music and the overly hair-gelled announcers who think the sound of their voice is more important than the games on the court. Also, Olympic frozen penis. The live rants come from the shows in Concord, NH, Boston, MA, and Providence, RI, three municipalities battling for bitterness supremacy. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE New episodes arrive every Wednesday. SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming to you from somewhere along the treacherous, no guardrail road from Loleta to Redding, this week's episode answers the timely question of what kinds of infrastructure in Humboldt County need to be fixed. The answer: all of it. From the bumpy roads to the lack of phone and internet service, the pot basket of America is in sore need of better streets and the ability to connect to the outside world. If it were possible to pave the roads with marijuana, Humboldt would have the best thoroughfares in America. And in this secluded region of the endless expanse of the Golden State, weed is the one thing that unites the left and the right; that and a fervent distrust of authority. But even in that area of agreement, the sides cannot find common ground on which authority they do not like. Some distrust the federal government, some distrust the state government, some distrust the local government, and some distrust religious authority. All of them want the freedom that living in a rural, semi-isolated region seemingly conveys. Perhaps it is the bad roads and poor communications services that gives the locals the Freedom they may not realize they already have. The live rants come from the shows at the Bear River Casino in Loleta and the Redding Civic Auditorium in Redding, where there is much discussion of the price of weed, what weed is called, and how everyone loves weed. Also Cali-bama! Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE New episodes arrive every Wednesday. SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lewis escapes to the real magic kingdoms in California, Napa Valley and Humboldt County. They are lands of free-flowing wine and wondrous strains of weed, and great places to be while the world reaches a new level of self-immolation. From the horrific images on television to the absurd support for the Russian leader from members of the right wing, the cups are not deep enough to truly obliterate the acute sense that things have gone completely off the rails. This foreboding feeling is not helped by your host’s lack of skill at tasting wine. It’s either drink or not, there is no taste. And while the acute crisis in Ukraine will hopefully end soon, the ongoing climate crisis advances unabated. The view out the windows of the tour bus may be beautiful, but the lack of snow and rain, and the remains of last summer’s forest fires are a constant reminder of the larger tragedy taking place. The live rants come from the Uptown Theatre in Napa on Feb. 25th and feature submissions about Vladimir Putin and the Republicans who love him, math teachers, and a deeply analytical disquisition into the mystery of how Lewis’ tour has been routed through the worst places in the Golden State. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE New episodes arrive every Wednesday. SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While stuck in traffic somewhere on I-80 west of the Donner Pass, Lewis recounts his travels in the Golden State and while highlighting one of the best rants from the weekend, gives his review of the George Romero film "Monkey Shines". The live rants come from the shows in Reno, NV, Monterey, CA, and Turlock, CA. Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE New episodes arrive every Wednesday. SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Lewis traverses the frigid upper Midwest, the news from unseasonably warm Washington is as surreal as the weird Mid-Atlantic weather. First, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is spying on members of Congress with a reconnaissance force called the “Gazpacho Police”. Gazpacho of course being the Gestapo of soups (h/t to whomever first uttered this idiom.) Then the RNC said that what happened on January 6th is “legitimate political discourse”. Even Orwell would have rejected that description as too unhinged to be credible. What must be seen to be believed, however, is that the state capitols of America are booming. From Des Moines to Madison to somewhere near Minneapolis that it’s almost St. Paul, buildings are being built and roads are being paved. And judging from recent accommodations, the hospitality industry in the capitols is also on the rise. Don’t let anyone say that there aren’t great hotels and restaurants outside the big coastal cities. There are fantastic meals and places to stay all across America. Back in Washington, the new name for Lewis’ favorite football team was revealed, and no one other than Dan Snyder seems to like it. The old name represented a subjugated people, while the new one stands for the subjugators. Perhaps “Commodores” would be a better name, especially if Lionel Ritchie plays QB. Lastly, a couple of notes on rant submissions: 1, don’t bury the lede or relay the beginnings of an outrageous story only to say that it’s for another time. 2, Lewis loves how the rants have evolved to become so erudite and well-articulated. Now it’s time to focus on concision. As Archie Bell & The Drells said, let's “tighten up” those rants. The rants come from the live shows in Des Moines IA, Madison WI, and the Mystic Lake Casino near Minneapolis MN. Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices