Episode-58; Changing of the Guard

Recorded: December 20, 2020

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About the podcast

This will be a bitter-sweet episode at The Outliers Inn.  It’s the episode where Antlerboy (aka Benjamin Taylor) announces his retirement from pouring drinks and serving slop as co-host at the Inn.  Between his part-time gig at the Inn and his other interests and pursuits (including running his companies, other podcasts that he produces, and writing a book), the time constraints have become more than obvious, and he regrettably has to step out from behind the bar.

It all started on November 3^rd, 2014. This was the day that Tom Magliozzi, co-host of “Car Talk”, was recalled to that great junk yard in the sky, to be joyfully reunited with all his previous vehicles. 

Car Talk was a radio show about cars, their owners, and maladies (of the cars, that is – mostly).  Guests would call-in and share various symptoms they were experiencing with their automobiles. The hosts would roast the caller, their automobiles, and their maladies in a respectful manner; perhaps sometimes less respectful of the vehicles themselves and their manufacturers. Every episode was a lot of fun listen to and certainly anyone who did would smile and laugh at least once.

When JP read of the passing of Tom, he posted the article on Facebook.  And Antlerboy was the first to comment on my post.  Even though Antlerboy is from the United Kingdom, he had just started to listen to the show and even shared his version of Tom’s obituary; “So, it happened again. You wasted a perfectly good life amusing yourself and other people and upholding the values of intelligence, science, eloquence, and rude good humour. And even though St. Peter himself will run screaming from the Pearly Gates when he hears YOU say it…. ‘That was Tom Magliozzi. And, don’t drive like your brother…’”

But then we got to thinking. There was a lot of absurdities that occur and opportunities to poke fun of the goings-on in our own profession; businesses and their operations. Heck, we were guilty of some of these goings-on ourselves. Why don’t we start our own show?  And (eventually) The Outliers Inn was born with our first episode produced in October of 2015 (almost a full year later).  You can read the mostly complete history of The Outliers Inn here.

Since then, we have produced 58 episodes over a five-year period; not a bad run rate.

So, we give a proper send-off to Antlerboy by taking a walk down memory lane with a few select guests. 

And it’s only appropriate that we start with Don Burshnick, our resident Biermeister Extraordinaire.  When he’s not brewing his beer, he is drinking it as a regular at the Inn and is even an occasional co-host when we find ourselves short-staffed.  Don shares with us his latest concoction; a “Gummy-Bear” IPA.  We are certain it would not pass the German Reinheitsgebot.

Other irregular regulars include;

• Stephane who joins us from the lockdown in France.  Although from Belgium, and quite proud of their beer, he is very interested in Don’s Gummy Bear IPA and would be keen on having a sample; which JP promises to bring back a sample bottle from Don for Stephane’s tasting.
• Aiden is our next guest who gets Antlerboy to share the story of how he decided to prefer to be called Benjamin rather than Ben; confessing the real reason for the change was he read that people with longer and more formal names are perceived as being more intelligent, so; “Benjamin P. Taylor” it is.
• Marina joins us from Los Angeles where she has founded a design innovation studio and shares her experiences in 2020 having to quickly make the transition to the new business paradigm.
• Hal joins us from Seattle.  He shares with us his enthusiasm for beer and appreciation for Don’s “Gummy Bear IPA”.  He also shares a bit of trivia that Washington State supplies the majority of the hops used to make beer around the world.  Switching to business, Hal shares his observation that those who have had the most success in navigating the challenges are those who have a culture of being nimble.
• Ed joins us from London and, listening to our discussion of travel policies and protocols and recalls a saying form times past; “There is no reason, it’s policy.”  That about sums-up the way of the world in 2020 and how governments are engaging the challenge.  He expresses concerns about the lock-ins (preferring to use this term over “lock-downs”) and wanting it to end sooner rather than later. 
• Oli has some technical issues but rejoins us from the North Carolina after having them sorted.  He is about to return to Germany and we are discussing travel protocols that are supposedly in place, but that the reality is different than what is being shared by the policy makers and policy enforcers.
• And Chas takes a peek from behind the curtain to offer his fair-thee-well.

And lastly, although the corpus delicti of Antlerboy as co-host is still warm, we are happy to introduce our last guest, David “Mule” Schneider as the new co-host at The Outliers Inn.  David shares a bit about himself, starting with the details of his being involved supporting STEM at the high school level by coaching and leading “robotics” as a high-school sport.  Mule’s expertise in logistics and warehousing has kept him incredibly busy over the COVID pandemic as the rush to ecommerce created a huge demand for his skills.

So, as the Great Bard, William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet; “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”  We all thank Antlerboy for his helping found and build the Outliers Inn and he has promised to grace the establishment from time to time.  And those who remain are all better off for having had the opportunity to hoist a drink together with him and share insights into life’s goings-on.