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Snow piles up, the studio sits quiet, and we refuse to miss a week. We hit record across a phone line and dive straight into the heart of winter life: a weekend of football that swung from gripping to grueling, a city wrapped in powder, and the odd rituals that take over every grocery aisle and gas station queue. It’s unpolished, real, and full of the kind of moments that make you nod, laugh, and occasionally yell at your speaker.

We start with the slate everyone watched and the matchup no one enjoyed. Denver vs New England gets a frank autopsy—sacks everywhere, a rookie who kept his head, and a backward pass that never should’ve left a hand. From there, we look at genuine season turnarounds and what a playoff run feels like when last year was all losses. Hopes tilt toward California, where the Super Bowl’s neutral ground is anything but neutral when corporate seats swallow fan noise. We weigh matchups, talk nerves, and admit that progress still matters even if the bracket doesn’t break your way.

Then the snowstorm seeps into everything. We lampoon the milk–bread–eggs stampede, the 2 a.m. generator “test,” the candle drawer with zero lighters, and the neighbor who predicts 6.17 inches with total confidence and a 0 percent hit rate. The South gets innovative: leaf blowers moonlight as snowblowers, and powder moves with a push. Between punchlines, we trade real tips that save your back and your budget when winter tries to run the table.

The tone turns serious as we wrestle with protest safety and policing under stress. We unpack training, the adrenaline myth of “shoot the leg,” and the risks crowds take when chaos ignites. It’s an honest, imperfect conversation about responsibility, restraint, and why binaries rarely help people get home safe. No grandstanding, just straight talk that respects the stakes and invites listeners to consider the hard parts most shows avoid.

By the end, the thread holding it all together is simple: show up for your people. Remote recording isn’t pretty, but connection beats silence. We promise better audio next time, more of the music talk you love, and plenty of room for your stories. Tap follow, share with a friend who panic-buys eggs, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Got a snow hack or a playoff take? Drop a voicemail at mtaltpod.com—we’ll feature our favorites in the next show.

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You know that moment when a new sound hits and your brain says, “Wait, why hasn’t this existed forever?” That was us discovering country metal. We stumbled into Cody Parks and The Dirty South and found a blend that keeps country’s storytelling soul while borrowing the horsepower of 80s and 90s metal. Think big hooks, bigger riffs, and lyrics that still smell like dirt roads and late nights.

We walk through how this band built a lane—starting with sharp, respectful covers and mashups before landing fully original tracks that feel road-ready. Thunder Cash turns Folsom Prison into a roaring hybrid without losing its backbone, while songs like Seven Old Wind, The Other Side, and Water in the Well show range, dynamics, and real songwriting chops. Along the way, we get into production choices, live show energy, and why genre-bending works when it honors the core of both worlds. If you love Def Leppard sheen and Cash grit, this setlist will live on your dashboard.

Between riffs, we keep one eye on the playoffs—home field hype, defense debates, and the eternal question: can a bruised QB bounce back by Sunday? We also open the voicemail bag for chaotic feedback, a “mostly legal” ad read that probably violates something, and a programming tease about a side show we may or may not be ready for. It’s a loud, loose ride with enough track recommendations to send you down a rabbit hole.

Hit play to hear why country metal might be your next obsession. If you discover a favorite track, tell us which one and why. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who needs new music, and drop a quick review—your notes steer what we dig up next.

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The rain is steady, the porch is alive, and season three kicks off with our favorite kind of chaos: honest laughs, sharp pivots, and a plan to make this the most personal run yet. We start with football—bye weeks, “easy” schedules, and the odd hangover of overseas games—then acknowledge the truth every fan knows: you still have to win the ones in front of you. From wildcard predictions to those late-night Sunday kickoffs that ruin Monday mornings, the NFL talk sets a fast, familiar cadence.

Then we widen the lens. Between jokes about AI-fueled prank videos and comment-section rabbit holes, we detour into a tough moment from Minnesota and talk bluntly about protests, policing, and risk. It’s messy, human, and real—an attempt to put empathy next to responsibility without pretending the answers are simple. That honesty clears the way for a surprisingly tight deep dive: why Greenland isn’t just a headline, it’s a strategy. We break down Arctic shipping lanes, Thule Air Base, rare earth minerals, and the global chess match with Russia and China. The idea had teeth; the delivery needed finesse. Consider this your primer on how geopolitics meets geography—and why the map is changing.

All of it builds toward our big shift this season: moving to a music-first format that follows the songs that changed our lives. Not just decades or genres, but the tracks that hit hard—the ones that gave us courage, rewired a day, or marked a memory. Expect stories behind the artists, connections across eras, and the moments when a chorus becomes a compass. We’ve rolled out a new logo, merch is coming, and you can find us on Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Deezer, and more. Want a say in where we go next? Head to mt altpod.com and drop us a voice message with the artist or song you want us to unpack.

If this mix of porch honesty, football heat, geopolitical curiosity, and music storytelling hits your lane, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review. Your notes shape the season—and your song picks might just lead our next deep dive.

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Three years. Zero restraint. We dive headfirst into 1987, 1988, and 1989—the final rumble of the Eighties—where U2, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Guns N’ Roses, Madonna, and N.W.A battled for airtime while movies like Die Hard, Batman, and When Harry Met Sally reset what a blockbuster could be. It’s a season finale recorded on a strangely warm Christmas Eve porch in North Carolina, complete with the usual laughter, side quests, and uncomfortable truths about who really bought those neon cheese balls.

We sort through the top albums and singles that dominated radio and memory, then challenge the idea of “one‑hit wonders” by calling out the bands that never fit the label. Expect detours into snack history—Crystal Pepsi, Planters’ glowing cheese balls, ecto‑cooler—and the infamous fads that filled every mall: acid‑wash denim, shoulder pads, stirrup pants, and bucket hats. We also revisit the headlines that stuck: the Max Headroom signal hijack, the Exxon Valdez spill, and the ’89 Bay Area earthquake that stopped the World Series mid‑breath. On TV, The Simpsons went from sketch to institution as Seinfeld launched quietly and Baywatch sprinted down the beach, setting up a new era of pop culture touchstones.

Sports fans get quick hits from Giants‑Broncos to 49ers‑Bengals, Lakers dominance, and Gretzky’s seismic move to LA. Through it all, we’re honest about what we loved, what we skipped, and why these years still punch above their weight. To cap it off, we tease season three: a looser, artist‑driven format with sharper takes, deeper dives, and the same refusal to stay neatly on topic.

If you enjoy smart nostalgia with some porch‑level candor, tap follow, share the show with a friend, and leave a quick review. Which late‑Eighties year wins your vote—1987, 1988, or 1989? Tell us and join the conversation.

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Holiday cheer meets porch-chaos honesty as we light up the season with sunshine, BBQ talk, and the kind of tangents only two old friends can justify. We kick off with Rupert’s wry preamble, then slide straight into football plans, the fallout from a “takeover” that left our studio sticky and suspicious, and the comfort of being off work even when you know the restart will hurt. Warm weather doesn’t kill the spirit; it just changes the soundtrack.

Music and movies become our map. We swap favorites from The Little Drummer Boy to Nat King Cole, then reach for the memory-soaked heart of Merle Haggard’s If We Make It Through December. The list debates get loud and fun: Brenda Lee vs. Mariah Carey, Wham vs. Bing, and whether Die Hard deserves its place under the tree. We make the case for Elf, salute A Christmas Story, and admit that Miracle on 34th Street still hits when the room goes quiet. These aren’t rankings so much as rituals—ways to remember who we were and who we still want to be.

We also unwrap the weird old customs: Victorian trees with stuffed birds, Yule logs with superstitions, Santa as public disciplinarian, and towns that aired your year’s sins on a holiday stage. It’s absurd, a little dark, and deeply human. Between the laughs we pause for what matters: checking on neighbors, acknowledging loss, and choosing kindness when December feels heavier than it looks. We point you to our platforms and the site where you can drop us an anonymous message, then tease our season 2 finale where we tackle 1987–1989 with confidence and questionable accuracy.

Pull up a chair and add your voice. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves list wars, and leave a quick review so others can find us. What’s your must-play song, your forever movie, your family’s odd tradition? Tell us—we’re listening.

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What happens when two holiday agents of chaos barricade a studio and decide to host their own “festive special”? We crank the mics, ditch the plan, and turn December into a glittering avalanche of bits, banter, and questionable wisdom. It’s a rogue broadcast where the only rules are “don’t press the big red button” and “we already pressed it.”

We charge through the season’s soft spots with reckless cheer: fruitcake as a friendship test, tinsel as household glitter you never escape, and eggnog as both beverage and moral gamble. The invite drama gets real—open bars, forgotten emails, and the phantom Christmas bonus—before a parody of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” veers spectacularly off the nice list. Between laughs, we drop strangely useful advice: keep outlets under control, deep-fry turkeys outside, and don’t trust any drink that tastes like nutmeg and secrets.

The mailbag is a show of its own: an HOA citation for a 20-foot inflatable, a yodeler trapped with a sock-drawer chipmunk, Tom begging us to stop mailing “emotional support elk,” and a smart eight-year-old suggesting we come with warning labels. We also tour global traditions—Japan’s KFC Christmas, the Icelandic Yule Cat, Krampus Night, and Spain’s candy-pooping log—and argue about what traditions are really for: comfort, chaos, or coping with winter. Somewhere in the madness, a sincere note peeks through: joy isn’t the perfect tree or the perfect plan; it’s that one bright moment you actually feel.

If you crave polished holiday content, Mike and Tom will be back to restore order. If you’re here for unfiltered cheer, flawed logic, and a surprising amount of heart, this takeover is your seasonal chaos capsule. Hit play, share a laugh, and tell us your weirdest holiday tradition—we’ll read the best ones on air. Subscribe, rate, and leave a review to keep this circus lit through the long winter nights.

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Step into 1986, where the radio blasted arena anthems, the movies minted icons, and neon felt like a state of mind. We rewind the year with a blend of laughs and real talk: the rock that ruled car stereos, the pop and R&B that defined slow dances, and the synth‑pop curios that vanished as quickly as they arrived. From Bon Jovi singalongs to Whitney’s first ascents, we map the soundtrack that made malls, gymnasiums, and Friday nights feel electric.

The screen was just as loud. Top Gun turned flight suits into fashion and gave Berlin a timeless ballad, Ferris Bueller made cutting class feel like a social philosophy, Aliens redefined sequel ambition, and Crocodile Dundee exported easy charm worldwide. We connect the scenes to the songs and the way soundtracks welded cinema to radio, proving that 1986 didn’t just entertain—it coordinated an entire mood.

History pressed in too. The Challenger disaster and Chernobyl changed how we watched live events and thought about risk. TV stitched comfort and cool with The Cosby Show, Miami Vice, MacGyver, and ALF, while MTV still shaped pop culture with wall‑to‑wall videos. At home, the Nintendo Entertainment System remapped our thumbs, the first PC virus whispered about a digital future, and Cabbage Patch Kids kept the toy aisles chaotic. We even confess which trends we’d exile forever—looking at you, Rubik’s Cube—before closing on sports drama: the Mets’ heartbreak classic, the Celtics’ dominance, and an NFL season that reminded fans why “made it to the big game” is a badge, even in defeat.

Stick around for the chaos cameo from Pip and Squeak, and a preview of what’s next as we gear up for 1987 and a holiday special. If you love 80s music history, movie nostalgia, retro tech, and sports lore, you’ll feel right at home here. Enjoyed the ride? Follow, share with a friend who still knows every word to Living on a Prayer, and leave a quick review to help more 80s diehards find us.

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