Going for Zero

We were going to discuss movie songs but talked about podcasts, COVID, what this will change, TV and movies, and how all of the home broadcasts could be so much better with just a little bit of work. Send us comments on Twitter @rhettweller and @rexbasior Donate to the United Way COVID relief.

This episode is pure nostalgia. Jon and Rhett recount how they met and their college shenanigans. Lot's of good memories in this one.  Note: unless you knew them in college, this will probably bore you :)

Michael is a good friend from business school days and he recently published the book "Money Master: How to Stop Worrying and Finally Succeed with Money". We talk about his book and the emotional side of personal finance. It's more than just math! You can also check out his website www.changebrothers.com for more tips on how to deal with the emotional side of money matters. Donation link for this episode is Endhomelessness.org 

Scott had a big birthday this year so we watched some of his films at a local movie theater. I took the opportunity to record some friends talking about their favorite movies to watch during the holidays. Includes lots of movie trailers. Donate to The Road Home

The lost episode recorded while the podcast was on hiatus. Topics include:  HQ Trivia Subscription models and unit economics The downfall of Moviepass Why we still can't get all the movies we want jon's jokes jon on Mutual aka Mormon Tinder (this part is long and ends at the 1hr 28 min mark) Twitter highlights and do you have your soundcloud ready? A socialist? Quitters Donate to Toys for Tots

The annual Super Bowl prop game is now a podcast. Joe and I go through the fun game for all ages you can play at your Super Bowl party. Categories include: Coin toss - who wins and is it head or tails The color of Pink's hair Will there be a safety Will Justin Timberlake cover a Prince song (and what color will his shoes be) Will the Pats convert a 4th down Will Nick Foles throw an interception Will a FG hit the uprights or crossbar And yes who will win the game We also covered Joe's greatest Halloween costume ever (and it's surprising effectiveness). You can download the prop game here and print it off for your party. Have fun!

Jon is back for to discuss his annual airing of grievances. The blog post can be found here. In the first 10 minutes, we rank coins. Then we air the grievances. Sample of items grieved: Bathroom etiquette Keyboard layout Earphones Twitter Breakfast potatoes Shipping Ignorance Socks Merry Christmas Coupons. Non-profit of the week: The Salvation Army  

Phil "the imperial" Walker and jon "Oreg Ano" join the podcast for  late night discussion about bitcoin, Christmas Vacation (film), comedy, and The Last Jedi. 0-23 min: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency, some Twitter talk 23 min to 1hr 37min: Phil hates th movie Christmas Vacation *gasp*! A really interesting discussion about what makes something funny. Discussion includes: Phil has never seen Fletch Jon has never seen Good Morning Vietnam Is humor cyclical or linear? Comedy might be how it's experienced with friends Christmas Vacation vs A Christmas Story - who is winning? Friends - is the show overrated? Do millenials know what a "re-run" is? Ideas for Netflix - a choose your own adventure tv show 1hr 37 min: The Last Jedi. Where does it rank in the Star Wars movie? Checkhov X-wing This movie will get better over time Out with the old, in with the new Boba and Ackbar are the same Did Chewbacca eat the Porg? (Or how many did he eat?) Link of the week: Donate blood to the Red Cross  

Jon is back to discuss advertising, net neutrality, WWII, competition, and TV shows (Is Stranger Things overrated? A bit, but that's ok.) Note: A sizable portion of this episode was cut due to tone deafness. Links: A Night at the Garden - 20,000 Nazi's gathered at the Garden in NYC in 1939. It's an incredible video. Ben Thompson on Net Neutrality - Never believe what you read on the Twitter. Also his follow up piece replying to feedback from his first article. Non-profit of the week: charitywater.org

Have you ever wanted to fly into the danger zone? Buzz the tower? Going mach 2 with your hair on fire? Jon "Bud", Scott "Swits", and Joe "Beaver" join the podcast to review the Oscar Award winning film Top Gun. Includes a scene by scene breakdown and tidbits such as: Best song Best line Best character Best call sign A shout out to Penny Benjamin And a new game called "deleted scenes" Enjoy!

Joe and Rhett talk catch up on BYU football, NBA vs NFL, and some politics. Feel free to skip anything :) 0-14 min: Joe's genius talent show gimmick 14-36 min: BYU football. Worst. Season. Ever. 36-1hr 7 min: NBA vs the NFL. 1:07: Politics (the great overshadower)  

Lewis Gunter finally joined an episode to give his opinions on: 6 min: Rhett's Twitter battle with University of Utah football fans. He is now a hashtag 25 min: Vidangel and the future of TV. Hallmark Christmas movies are awesome. Bundling economics. 1 hour: Crypto currencies - is this a bubble like 1999 or 2006? (probably a bubble, but not like '99 or '06) 1 hour 15 min: Esports - is it a overhyped? Also, Rhett was once a professional gamer. Links of the week: Redcross Hurricane Harvey & Hurricane Irma

Nathan was kind enough to come back on the podcast to discuss his latest article, sports, HR, and the Bay Area. 5:30 Why watch baseball? Is it a game or a sport? (editor: a game) 11:00 NBA and Utah Jazz talk 18:00 NFL and Steve Young's biography (Nathan recommends) 20:00 The Lakers, Lonzo, and Lavar Ball 35:00 Article: 3 better things to do instead of obsessing over finding your passion 50:00 Human Resources - the bar is super low 63:00 Defend that Tweet 71:00 The Bay Area - why stay here if you don't own a home Link of the week: Doctor's without Borders

Jon and Rhett review 2 songs. This takes an hour and a half.  The idea was to pick 1 song each and do a deep dive on that song. The first 15 minutes is just small talk. At the 17 minute mark, Jon introduces Rhett's song of choice (hint: it came out in 1997). At the 51 minute mark, Rhett introduces Jon's song of choice (hint: it came out in 1990, but is definitely and 80's song). Link of the week is the Make A Wish Foundation  

Brandon Rodriguez and Dan Gould join the pod to talk about the NBA season. It's all basketball talk (except for the story about Mario Lemieux).  Topics: 0:05:30 Season in review. Warriors KD's team now? 0:12:00 The KD haters are wrong 0:21:00 Lebron or KD? 0:23:00 MJ or Lebron? 0:32:00 Will Lebron retire as the GOAT? 0:39:00 Kyrie.. simmer down 0:43:00 Warriors team best of all time? (MJ's '96 bulls beg to differ) 0:55:00 Rhett called it! (kind of) 1:00:00 Who is the great Mormon basketball hope? 1:06:00 Big3 3-on-3 basketball league Link of the week: the MS Society

Zo and Jon are back for what is probably the longest and most boring episode you will ever hear. Seriously, feel free to skip this one. Zo was mad about the 80s movie episode and wanted a rebuttal opportunity. He says things like "I'm partial to..." and "it's a derivative work" (ok that may have been me).  If you really went to know what we talked about, here is a rough run down: 0-5 min Jon complains about the TV display screen 5-10 min Zo says the Beatles suck and are worse than U2 (although it's close) 10-15 min Cars 2 is the worst Pixar movie 15-20 min Netflix rating system 23 min Introductions! Finally.  30 min Annie Hall. They made me talk about Annie Hall. From here on it's mostly a review of the same 80s movies as the other episode. Rhett claims the NeverEnding Story is the worst and gets rebuked. At the 2 hour mark, Jon does tell the story of how he pranked Rhett at his wedding.

Jared Williams is a senior at Cal Poly and all round good guy. He joins the podcast to give his thoughts as a "fringe millennial" on a variety of topics. 0-10 min Introductions, serving a LDS mission in South America, Chilean soccer stories 10 min Video conferencing gaffes 15 min LDS or LSD?, idea for a segment called "explain an 80s movie plot to a millennial", playing basketball on Adobe's rooftop court 26 min Jordan vs Lebron. Does Lebron have a chance to be the GOAT? 35 min NBA Playoffs, Westbrook, Utah Jazz, coaches 44 min Soccer, Champions league, Euro leagues, Pulisic: is he already the greatest US soccer player in history? US soccer kits are the worst 1hr 2min Stratechery.com the best tech writing out there, pay for things of value 1 hr 30 min Do millennials realize that the economy has set backs? Link of the week is www.stratechery.com  

Jon is back (from the future?) to pick favorite movies from every year between 1977 and 1989. A small sample of movies to chose from: The Empire Strikes Back vs Flash Gordon Ghostbusters vs 16 Candles vs Footloose Fletch vs Goonies vs The Breakfast Club Top Gun vs Three Amigos! vs Ferris Bueller's Day Off Princess Bride vs Lost Boys vs Dirty Dancing Die Hard vs Rain Man Batman vs Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade vs Roadhouse Also, does Back to the Future fulfill scripture prophecy? (no) Oh and 1984 was an INCREDIBLE year for movies.  Link of the week: The American Cancer Society

Paul and Brandon return with first time guest Alexis to hand out GFZ Iconic Awards for fast food. Categories include awards for the most iconic: Burger Fries Taco Pizza Chinese Chicken sandwich Sauce Mall food Bacon I'd rather starve than _____ Which restaurant would you choose if you had to eat there every day for the rest of your life? Mostly we tease each other for having terrible taste in fast food. (Not fast food itself, just choosing the wrong establishment.) Fun episode with lots of friendly arguing! Link of the week is Doctors without Borders.

Every year, Jon hosts the best Oscar party with an accompanying game. Listen to his picks for each category (of course he picks a Star Trek movie to win one) and his tentative foods for each best picture nominee. There is also some rapid fire TV talk. 0 min - Jon's comic book 7 min - Star Trek talk (because of course) 16 min - The Oscar Game! 25 min - Jon's picks 54 min - In memorium: who will be last? 1:09 min - TV rapid fire: Black Mirror, Riverdale, GoT, Veep, and Jon gives up TV for lent 1:16 min - Trump and Russia (because overshadower) Donation of the week is the Red Cross. The flooding in the Bay Area is trivial compared to other parts of the world.

This was a tough one, but had to be done. The great "overshadower" is discussed at length. Many thanks to Maria for being such an awesome guest. She'll be back on to talk about a more fun topic at some point. 7 min: Why NYC is meh. 12 min: The great "overshadower" Donald J Trump. 20 min: Degree of outrage scale. 32 min: Just listen to what Trump says directly. (And is it "butt naked" or "buck naked"?) 42 min: Glenn Beck is sorry. Trump would not be allowed to speak at BYU.  52 min: It's a Muslim ban no matter the spin. He even said it. 1 hr 5 min: Empathy.  1 hr 10 min: Insults and snide remarks make it worse (although 2 tiny hands is still funny). 1 hr 22 min: Cautious optimism and what can be done. Links: Glenn Beck at Upfront Summit The Antidote to Trump is Reason, Not Rage Bill Gates' The Most Beautiful Chart in the World Instead of a charity this week, I highly recommend reading this talk by a general authority of the LDS church called Refuge from the Storm.     

Joe is a huge NFL fan so this episode recaps the Superbowl 51. There are also some fun stories from when he worked for the Baltimore Ravens for a year. 0:01 Joe goes to Sundance and asks Brittany Snow a question. 0:10 Superbowl 51 - The greatest comeback ever! The Edelman catch. 0:20 Not a choke job by Atlanta! The win probability expectancy proves it. 0:35 Do the stars and scrubs on the team know each other? Stories from Joe's time at the Ravens. 0:40 Joe blows his chance of working for the NFL network from day 1. Michael Irvin is awesome. 0:46 Tom Brady is the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time), a hard worker, and a good guy, so why do people hate him? 0:50 Patriots haterade and why spy/deflategate were about politics and hidden agendas rather than rules violations. 1:15 A few minutes about Trump (the "overshadower" of 2017). Everyone has to comment on him it seems. Donation link of the week is the ACLU. If people want to talk about him, then we should also actually do something about it.

Zo (he only has one name like Madonna or Cher) joins the podcast to discuss Fast and the Furious, Xander Cage, 80s action stars, old movies and why they are good (Editors note: they suck), and the top action movies of the 80s. At the 1:10 mark, the discussion changes to "top albums of your teen years". Zo confesses about his cougar chasing days. At the 1:35 mark, there is some discussion about Trump (the overshadower of all things in 2017). The donation of the week is the ACLU (I never thought I'd say that, but "the overshadower").

Jon is back to air out his end of year grievances. Grievances include (but not limited to): parking garages, The Bachelor (aka the modern day gladiators), Shish kabobs, Christmas movies, the Russian complaint department, tribalism, people complaining about comic book movies, and work. This was a fun one, even in Rhett's weakened condition (head colds suck). Good cause for this episode: The Family Giving Tree. I've seen the work they have done first hand and it's amazing.

Brandon joins Rhett to talk sports. Mostly college football as Brandon is a ute fan. Topics include: the rivalry game, BYU quarterbacks, punters (lots of love), the Rams, the NBA, the Jazz, and Michael Jordan. At the very end, there is talk about possibly the greatest movie trailer of all time: The F8 of the Furious. Good cause for this episode: The Salvation Army

Stephanie Stephan joins Rhett to talk about TV, politics, her podcast, book recommendations, and how Facebook can be used for a purpose.  TV shows: 5 min mark Her podcast Stockholm Syndrome: 30 min mark Book recommendations: 40 min mark Facebook - junk food or good purpose: 53 min mark Good cause: MS Society

Jon and Rhett talk about the 2016 US Presidential election and try to make sense of what just happened and what can be learned from it. That's pretty much the entire episode (although they talk about robots at the end and why Rhett should watch Black Mirror).

Paul and Brandon join Rhett to handout 38 different awards related to sports movies. Basically we made up the categories and selected our winners. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will wildly disagree with some of our selections. (And yes, Point Break is a spiritual sports movie.) Unofficial sponsor: Doctors without Borders

What do MLMs, sports, and The Count of Monte Cristo have in common? Find out by listening to this lively episode with Dave and Rhett. 7 min: Blue collar worker in Silicon Valley 13 min: Dave's career path (and a Simpson's call back) 19 min: Take down of Multi-level Marketing schemes! Must listen. 46 min: Dave is into sports. Welcome! 1 hour: The Edmond Dantes Syndrome 1:10: Management tactics (mission statements work!) 1:15: Halloween prep - The Call of Cthulhu   Unofficial sponsor of the week: Khan Academy

Esteemed author Nathan Tanner joins Rhett to talk about his book Not Your Parents Workplace and a lively career discussion ensues. Here is a rough list of topics covered: 0-6 min: Dr. Dre - Apple employee 7 min: Nathan's book, advice for students, investment banking, the financial crisis 35 min: What to do when laid off 43 min: Going back to get an MBA, i-banking to HR switch. Reid's book 52 min: Advice on whether or not to get an MBA 1hr6: Kobe Bryant (I can't believe Kobe made an appearance on my pod), and some Jimmer hope 1hr15: Books - Shoe Dog, Jordan Rules, How to Measure Your Life 1hr20: Work/life balance 1hr25: Why podcasting Unofficial sponsor this week: National Breast Cancer Fund

Jon is back to discuss the 25th anniversary of Nirvana's iconic album Nevermind. But before they get there, they talk about Star Wars, Ready Player One, TJ Miller hosting the Crunchies, and the Rosewood hotel. At the 18 min mark, they talk Nirvana, Depeche Mode, Pearl Jam, and rank the songs on the Nevermind album. At the 1 hour mark, Rhett let's Jon finish his recap of the 2016 movies that could potentially have a historic significance to future historians. Around an hour 9 minutes, they theorize about the idea of nostalgia and finite history using Stranger Things as the archetype for "new" old TV shows, movies, and songs. Unofficial non-sponsor this week is the Red Cross.

Brandon Rodriguez and Paul Bryan join Rhett in a lively discussion about: Music - is Rhett just old? Apple - new iPhone and the Apple Watch (yes you should now buy one) Living in the Bay Area - cost of housing, food, & Korean Chipotle Self-driving cars Rhett's not-so-bold predictions about the future (sorry Instacart) Quarter life crisis Texas - is everything bigger and better? Well they do have Torchy's Tacos NFL vs College football Fantasy football App ideas - just do it! The Silicon Valley lottery ticket Rhett's best idea app idea he has yet to build Time/Money spectrum Socks (yes we really did talk about socks) Their best "worst" jobs Links: Quarter life crisis Brandon's Spotify playlist (trying to educate Rhett)   Unofficial sponsor: St Jude's cancer research  

Rhett calls Scott to talk about the BYU/Utah football rivalry. The first part of the episode is about fandom, why they are BYU football fans, and the cultural impact of having a common interest. In the second part, they pick out their least and most favorite BYU/Utah rivalry games (spoiler: someone is still open).  Finally, Rhett confesses to 3 pranks he has pulled on Utah fans over the years and realizes that maybe, just maybe, he is part of the problem (but trying to be better).   Not a sponsor, but check out charitywater.org. A great cause and founding story.

Rhett calls Jon to talk about the new podcast and explains where he got the name. Many tangents follow. Hilarity ensues. Sponsored by squaresp... just kidding.