The Speech Guys

The gang's all here. Get cozy. Warm that affectionate heart of yours and learn how to be a Sticker... or Boomer... or a Sticker-Boomer... and look on at Port William with us.The speech was presented April 23rd, 2012 for the Jefferson Lecture as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities.https://events.tvworldwide.com/Events/NEH-2012-Jefferson-Lecture/VideoId/-1/UseHtml5/TrueLandon's blog post describing his meeting with Mr. Berry:https://ambrook.com/offrange/perspective/wendell-berry-kentucky-clearing-brush

I-L-L... I-N-I! The Speech Guys explore the University of Illinois origin story in the words of one of its founders, Jonathon Baldwin Turner. JBT envisioned a class of farmer shaped by experience and informed by agricultural science. Dave Biver, U of I graduate, Freeburg area native, and farmer ("The Straw Boss"!) fits the bill. He introduces the episode.

The Speech Guys find a reason to hang with Ronnie Reagan again--and it's a good reason as they're embarking on the first speech series of the 7th season. Speeches By Small Towners. Reagan gave this speech in Dixon, Illinois on February 6th, 1984.

The whole podcastin' gang is here to close out season six. The task at hand? Weave together Christmas (excuse me, Advent!) and the Straussian Moment (do we even know what that is yet after four episodes?). Ross lines it up with a speech by Pope Benedict from 2010 and Mike, Landon, and Matt take their turns at the tee.Read the speech here: https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/urbi/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20101225_urbi.htmlEpisode thumbnail comes from https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2023-01/benedict-xvi-s-last-words-lord-i-love-you.html.

75% of the Speech Guys report for podcasting duty. Ross is out hunting. Matt, Landon, and Mike go hunting for great ideas about President Obama's 2010 Father's Day speech. Come on and climb inside and see if they found any. As usual, the Speech Guys are best served with a cold drink.Episode thumbnail comes from Time.com.The full transcript of President Obama's Father's Day speech can be found here:https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-a-fathers-day-eventThe study concerning parents' values toward their children:https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/01/24/parenting-in-america-today/

Landon, Ross, Mike, and Matt wander through the cultural wake that is Bane's speech outside the Gotham City Stock Exchange in the 2012 Dark Knight Rises. 1993. Institutions. Scapegoats. Predictive programming. How evil manifests. Really... 1993!Plus... Is Bane's speech more likely to come from President Trump's mouth or Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? The Speech Guys tabulate a score and it's closer than you might think!Thumbnail is used from The Guardian.Bane's speech audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzK97Aaj_U8Vice's speech audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E-v5yDBR64

The Straussian what? Huh? Put on your listening ears and thinking cap as the Speech Guys go way back and all over... the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, 9/11, and everything that came after. Imagine this episode as like a field of wildflowers... sure, there's some weeds and stuff that just don't matter, but it makes those few thoughts that bloom here just a bit more worth the hang. Landon is the trail guide and Mike, Ross, and Matt ride along.Read "The Straussian Moment" in its entirety: https://gwern.net/doc/politics/2007-thiel.pdfThumbnail comes from https://reason.com/2020/08/02/wait-wasnt-peter-thiel-a-libertarian/.

The Speech Guys go back to the beginning with words by the first westerners--in this case, Black Hawk, after the Sauk and Meskawi lost possession of land in northern Illinois and Wisconsin in 1832.Fact check: Mike comments on the distinction between the Sioux and Lakota. The "Sioux" refers to a larger aggregation of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota.Fact check: The anti-sematic social media posts of the Palestinian graduate student is discussed here in the Wall Street Journal.Thumbnail image is a depiction of Black Hawk by George Catlin in 1832 and used from Wikipedia.

It's the whole Speech Guys gang on call to discuss "Fill Your Hands, You Son of a B****" (Rooster Cogburn, True Grit), "I'm Your Huckleberry" (Doc Holliday, Tombstone), and a couple more questionable applications of the cowboy ethos as John Wayne portrayed in The Cowboys ("Old School Speech Therapy") and Hondo ("You Can't What?").Biking for Babies Finish Celebration, Saturday, July 19th (Saint Louis):https://www.bikingforbabies.com/col-mo/Biking for Babies Finish Celebration, Saturday, July 19th (Philadelphia):https://www.bikingforbabies.com/col-pa/

Biking for Babies Executive Director, Nikki Biese, joins Kevin, Mike, and Jimmy to discuss John Paul the Great's 1993 World Youth Day address in Denver.Thumbnail comes from https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/contributors/john-paul-ii-knowing-suffering-from-inside/.

Mid life comes a little later now since Meriwether Lewis' day. The whole Speech Guys crew chat about Lewis' August 18th, 1805 journal entry from the Corps of Discovery expedition when he turned 31. Securing horses from the Shoshones and getting a few dozen guys across two-thirds of the country couldn't shake his gloomy thoughts.Fact check: Mike incorrectly states that the cost of the expedition was $2,500. This was the amount President Jefferson requested to Congress. An 1806 War Department report states the cost as closer to $38,722.25. (https://lewis-clark.org/the-trail/eastern-beginnings/estimate-of-expenses/#:~:text=Actual%20Costs,pay%20for%20personnel%20($11%2C000).)Episode thumbnail comes from https://montanakids.com/history_and_prehistory/lewis_and_clark/lewis.htm.Post credits audio comes from Ken Burns' Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery documentary.

Kevin sits in for Sarah Wiese to get prepped for his MC role at the 2025 finishing event at Saint Joseph's parish in Manchester, Missouri on Saturday, July 19th. Jimmy and Mike sit alongside as they revisit a few old memory gems from Kev's first ride in 2011 and discuss John Paul the Great's 1987 speech that bid farewell to his American spiritual family.Biking for Babies Alumni, register here for BARRR! https://www.bikingforbabies.com/2025-alumni-offerings/Here's John Paul's text from that speech: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1987/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19870919_congedo-stati-uniti.html.Thumbnail image comes from https://catholicinsight.com/2019/10/22/pope-saint-john-paul-the-great/.Audio clip from Biking for Babies 2011 comes from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X20usGav_58."America, Defend Life" song-voiceover is from the 2012 Biking for Babies ride:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV8Vsrt2sAk

(Most of) the Speech Guys take a break this episode. They lend their platform to Biking for Babies--a mission-oriented bicycled ride that Mike Schaefer and Jimmy Becker started with John Paul Deddens as students at the University of Illinois in 2009.Sarah Wiese, Biking for Babies' Director of Operations & Marketing, and support crew extraordinaire and Alabama-native interviews them on their memories of the early years, what inspired them to take on the project, and what's affected them along the way.Learn more at https://www.bikingforbabies.com/.Sign up for the Alumni Retreat & Reunion-Ride here: https://bikingforbabies-forms.formstack.com/forms/2025_alumni_ride

Sister Blandina Segale (1850 - 1941) was a missionary Sister of Charity who built the first school district in Colorado, served such legends of the West as Billy the Kid (really!), Native Americans, and the Hispanic population of the Southwest.The Speech Guys read and discuss one of many letters she wrote to her sister, Sister Justina (yep... a real life sister Sister act!), describing the adventures her vocation took her own. This and others are available in the book, "At the End of the Santa Fe Trail".Thumbnail source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254030/wild-west-nun-sister-blandina-is-focus-of-planned-tv-series-trinidad

It's Landon and Mike discussing Jesus' entry onto the Christianity scene when he reads the prophet Isaiah, as described in Luke 4, and portrayed by Jonathon Roumie in season 3, episode 3 of The Chosen.Audio from this clip comes from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyHp0TovnUQ&t=560sThumbnail comes from here: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/the-chosen-angel-studios-ruling-dallas-jenkins-neal-harmon-1236020555/

The Speech Guys went camping one week earlier. I guess that's why Mike is a little tired.Thumbnail image comes from https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-1.htm.

In the 1970s, Steve Prefontaine lit a fire under the bellies of runners that has never gone out through his American distance track records--largely formed by the coaching and spiritual ethos of University of Oregon cross country and track coach and Nike co-founder, Bill Bowerman. The Speech Guys consider Bill's insights through two speeches, as portrayed in the 1998 film, "Without Limits".A link explaining Alberto Salazar's ban from coaching: www.espn.com/olympics/trackandf…-arbitration-sport.

John Zegar introduces the podcast episode. Matt, Mike, Landon, and Ross discuss the 2014 speech from the University of Texas-Austin commencement ceremony presented by Admiral McRaven. Thumbnail image comes from laviolettefoundation.org/news/2022/11…ovember-30th.