The Reckon Yard Podcast

Mercy is a word we think we understand until life puts us in a room where we have to actually practice it. JW explores what Jesus, the Stoics, Dostoevsky, Schopenhauer, and Twain had to say about mercy, then tells the story of a hospital room, a dying woman, and what happens when mercy gets corrupted into self-protection and called something else. The second labor of growth starts here.In Duwali Bottoms, a bloody nosed Tony Haines finds his way back to his papaw and an old man who knows that sometimes the most merciful thing you can do is let the big ones go.

I was handed a broken blueprint for love early on. Spent a lot of years building damaged things with it. This episode is about the people and moments that handed me a better plan and why love isn’t a feeling you fall into, it’s a labor you pick up. Season Four starts here. We return to Duwali Bottoms just in time for season two, Hurricane Ike is still just a disturbance in the Atlantic, but the storm is already building closer to home.

There’s a woman from Laird Hill you haven’t met yet. Her husband spends his evenings covered in grease keeping their Cavalier running. She’s quiet. A preacher’s wife. The kind of person you pass in a hardware store and don’t think twice about.She knows exactly where she’s going this morning.Danny Ware has been carrying something since Korea that most men never have to carry. He’s made his peace with most of it. An old soldier knows what he knows.Tom Levins is running out of road.And somewhere in Duwali Bottoms a lawyer named Dave Tilton has a briefcase full of things that are going to change everything for everyone still standing.Episode 13. An Old Soldier Knows.The season finale of Duwali Bottoms Texas. Thirteen episodes. One complete story.Some debts get paid in ways nobody sees coming.

With the Reckon Yard Podcast on hiatus for a couple of weeks, Duwali Bottoms must go on,1977. A stolen Pontiac. A state trooper on Sexton Road. A jail cell in Rusk County where two former best friends finally tell each other the truth. 1987. A phone call Tiffany wasn’t supposed to hear. A confession Danny was never supposed to get.

JW closes out the season with stories about every time technology made his skills obsolete,the print shop, NDT, foundation repair, what he did about it. Plus a trip to Fredericksburg, the S10 Lot Legends video, a 4L60E update, a new episode of Duwali Bottoms Texas.

Why JW makes fun of brands, the truth behind Dawn soap and the Exxon Valdez, and why you don’t need the right boots to be worthy. Plus a road trip, the Austin show, Avalanche updates, and a new Duwali Bottoms. All are welcome in the house of internal combustion.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

JW talks friendships and the complexity of favors, the fear that pervades us all regardless of station or occupation.This week in Duwali Bottoms, healing does not always mean mending.As Carl Jr recovers and the Haines family tries to steady themselves after tragedy, old friendships strain under the weight of silence and distance. Around town, life carries on in the summer heat but something restless is beginning to move beneath the surface.

JW revisits a brief fling with a ’92 Toyota pickup and the chaos that surrounded it in the early 2000’s. Late nights and a hard look in the mirror at a version of himself he didn’t much like.This week in Duwali Bottoms, TX:After two boys end up dead and a case gets filed away, Red can’t shake the feeling something doesn’t add up. Danny refuses to sit still, Tom learns the noise is spreading, and the line between justice and vengeance starts to blur. In Duwali Bottoms, nobody waits forever.

This week on The Reckon Yard, JW remembers his first Valentine’s Day with Rachael, then reflects on his paternal grandfather’s life and the weight of expectations and how a man learns to carry them.Then we return to Duwali Bottoms, Texas. In the long heat of an East Texas summer, a single afternoon drifts along slow and easy… right up until it doesn’t, and the roads and pastures fill with the restless energy of youth, old grudges, and choices made a little too fast for good sense to keep up.

There’s a beauty in knowing we’re all mostly trying to get home.Blaze Foley helped me stumble across a truth so deep it could only have been hiding in plain sight the whole time.Episode Six of Duwali Bottoms, Texas finds Carl Jr. trying to outrun a summer that’s already slipping away. Sometimes the people you thought you understood best are the ones you don’t recognize anymore.

The Mazda has left the building while JW falls into a rabbit hole of Americana through the grace and talent of Hoyt Axton. In Duwali Bottoms episode five leans into atmosphere and character, living in the long pauses between decisions and the weight carried by men shaped by place, memory, and unfinished business. The story narrows, the silence grows louder, and Duwali Bottoms keeps moving forward.

What do Epictetus and Helge Meyer have in common? Who knows, but let's try to make the connection anyway. Also episode four of Duwali Bottoms Texas is a humdinger.

This week is about the things we hold onto long after they stop serving us. From a stalled truck restoration to fallen empires and failed institutions, this episode asks when consistency turns into stubbornness. If you’ve ever stayed put just to avoid admitting the season ended, this one’s for you.

How much advice do you give on subjects you’re not knowledgeable about?I try like hell to avoid it.Trouble is, the waters are full of ignorant sharks.We return to Duwali Bottoms to learn a little more about the land, and what it asks of the people standing on it.

This week on TRYP, JW talks about the revenge mindset, and how living on borrowed anger can drain you dry. Plus, the debut episode of a new fictional series “Duwali Bottoms, Texas.”

JW recounts a quiet Christmas at home and getting the opportunity to spend some time in the service of others.