Beer and Conversation with Pigweed and Crowhill

Pigweed and Crowhill

You like beer, and you like conversation, right? Of course you do. Pigweed and Crowhill review a beer (sometimes their own homebrews) and discuss issues of the day. They try to break down serious issues into bite-sized chunks, and add some humor when possible. But it's all in good fun. Just two pals chatting over a beer.

  1. 2d ago

    621: The insanity defense: Does being crazy make you not guilty?

    Is the insanity defense a get-out-of-jail-free card — or does "not knowing right from wrong" actually make you more dangerous? Pigweed and Crowhill dig into one of law's most misunderstood doctrines: what the insanity defense actually requires, why it succeeds in only about 25% of the cases where it's even attempted, and why the guys think the standard argument runs backwards. From the Son of Sam's killer dog (mostly a myth) to the McNaughton Rule, the Garfield assassination, James Holmes, and a Florida State student who believed he was half dog — the case studies are wild, but the underlying question is serious: when someone genuinely can't distinguish right from wrong, is that a reason for leniency, or a reason they should never be released? Also: a blood orange blonde ale from Molly's down in Prince Frederick. It actually tastes like orange. High praise. #InsanityDefense #TrueCrime #LegalHistory #Podcast #CriminalJustice 📬 Send us your thoughts: pigweedshow@gmail.com 🌐 More episodes: pigweedandcrowhill.com 👍 Like, subscribe, and tell a friend

    35 min

  2. 6d ago

    Conspiracy Corner 01: Bird Watching Goes Both Ways

    For the inaugural episode of Conspiracy Corner, Pigweed and Crowhill investigate the claim that birds are actually government surveillance drones. The theory is completely fake—and that's the point. Created as a parody of conspiracy culture, Birds Aren't Real became a social experiment that exposed how easily movements can gain momentum and how quickly people can mistake satire for sincerity. Along the way, the hosts discuss fake whistleblowers, media reactions, group identity, persecution narratives, and the enduring appeal of hidden truths. Plus, they settle an important question: Have you ever seen a baby pigeon?

    14 min

  3. 6d ago

    620: Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: Smart Politics or Permanent Agitation?

    The boys drink and review Sierra Nevada's Torpedo Extra IPA, then move on to political strategy and methods. Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals remains one of the most influential—and controversial—books on political organizing ever written. In this episode, Pigweed and Crowhill dive into the life and ideas of the Chicago community organizer whose methods have shaped activist movements for generations. From "pick the target" and "keep the pressure on" to the strategic use of ridicule, disruption, and media attention, they unpack Alinsky's famous tactics and examine why they continue to be effective decades after they were first developed. But the conversation goes beyond a simple review of organizing techniques. Are these tactics merely practical tools that can be used by anyone seeking political change, or do they encourage a permanent culture of conflict? Why do modern movements always seem to be searching for the next crisis, the next injustice, or the next cause? Pigweed and Crowhill explore whether activism has become less about solving problems and more about sustaining a mindset of perpetual agitation. Along the way, they discuss Barack Obama's background as a community organizer, Hillary Clinton's connection to Alinsky, Ben Shapiro's surprising praise for some of Alinsky's methods, and the broader question of how political narratives are created, amplified, and maintained. Whether you see Alinsky as a champion of the powerless, a master strategist, or something more troubling, his influence on modern politics is impossible to ignore. 📬 Send us your thoughts: pigweedshow@gmail.com 🌐 More episodes: pigweedandcrowhill.com 👍 Like, subscribe, and tell a friend

    29 min

  4. Jun 6

    Conspiracy Corner 03: Chemtrails, Cloud Seeding & Government Secrets

    Is the government secretly poisoning us through airplane exhaust? Pigweed and Crowhill drink a couple of stouts and dig into the chemtrails conspiracy — one of the most persistent theories in the skies today. They break down the real historical cases that give the theory its legs: Operation Sea Spray, Operation Large Area Coverage, MKUltra, and other documented government experiments conducted without public consent. Then they weigh the actual claims — population control, weather modification, compliance drugs, corporate cover-ups — against the far simpler scientific explanation for contrails. Along the way, the conversation drifts into cloud seeding (which is real and uncontroversial), the ethics of weather manipulation, trolley-problem-style moral dilemmas, and whether a slow chemical buildup could gradually make us all more compliant voters. Their verdict? Totally false. But the kind of totally false that makes you understand exactly why people believe it. Conspiracy Corner examines the plausible, the ridiculous, and the occasionally true — one theory at a time. #chemtrails, #conspiracytheories, #cloudseeding, #MKUltra, #OperationSeaSpray

    20 min

  5. Jun 6

    619: The Myth of Moral Artificial Intelligence

    Human moral judgment emerges from emotion, empathy, lived experience, social development, and our embodied understanding of the world. AI has none of those things. So, can artificial intelligence be taught right from wrong? If we're going to rely on AI (the way the tech bros want us to), we're going to need to trust it, which means we're going to need to believe it has a trustworthy moral sense. Is that reasonable? Or even possible? Pigweed and Crowhill recall Google's Gemini image-generation fiasco (where "give me an image of a pope" created anything but an image of a pope), which resulted from a ham-handed attempted to paste moral rules on top of AI. It was comically stupid, but entirely predictable. Many people assume morality is simply a matter of following a set of rules, but no set of rules can create a proper moral sense. The boys discuss hallucinated legal citations, content moderation, reinforcement learning, the limits of rule-based ethics, Isaac Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics, and Pope Leo's recent call for AI guardrails. The conversation also explores autonomous weapons, the global AI arms race, and the uncomfortable reality that even the engineers building these systems do not always understand how they arrive at their conclusions. Their conclusion is both simple and unsettling: AI may become useful, powerful, and even trustworthy in certain contexts, but that is not the same thing as being moral. Machines may imitate moral reasoning, yet human beings must remain skeptical, vigilant, and ultimately responsible for the decisions AI helps make. Can a machine have a conscience? Or are we fooling ourselves when we talk about "moral AI" at all? 📬 Send us your thoughts: pigweedshow@gmail.com 🌐 More episodes: pigweedandcrowhill.com 👍 Like, subscribe, and tell a friend

    36 min

  6. Jun 5

    618: SPLC -- When Fighting Hate Becomes a Business Model

    The Southern Poverty Law Center began as a respected civil rights organization that targeted the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups. Decades later, however, critics argue that the SPLC has drifted far from its original mission, expanding its definition of "hate" to include mainstream religious, political, and advocacy organizations that simply disagree with progressive orthodoxy. In this episode, Pigweed and Crowhill examine the controversy surrounding the SPLC, recent allegations that have damaged its reputation, and the growing number of corporations and institutions that are distancing themselves from the organization's judgments. They also explore a larger question that extends well beyond the SPLC: what happens when an organization is funded by the existence of the very problem it claims to solve? From racism and hate groups to environmental activism and public-interest nonprofits, organizations often face a difficult incentive structure. If they succeed, they become less necessary. If they fail, they can continue raising money, attracting attention, and expanding their influence. Is mission creep inevitable? Does every cause eventually become a business model? And when does a watchdog become an advocate for its own survival? Along the way, Pigweed and Crowhill review a Manor Hill brown ale and discuss the complicated relationship between good intentions, institutional incentives, and the temptation to keep a crisis alive long after its original purpose has been served. 📬 Send us your thoughts: pigweedshow@gmail.com 🌐 More episodes: pigweedandcrowhill.com 👍 Like, subscribe, and tell a friend

    24 min

  7. Jun 2

    Conspiracy Corner -- Bioengineered Ticks: The Conspiracy Theory That's Almost Too Perfect

    Welcome back to Conspiracy Corner, where Pigweed and Crowhill examine theories that range from ridiculous to surprisingly plausible. This episode tackles one of the internet's newest suspicions: genetically engineered ticks.Lyme disease is rising. Alpha-gal syndrome is spreading. Tick populations seem to be exploding. The government studies ticks. Universities study ticks. Billionaires fund research on insects. And somewhere in the background, people are talking about reducing meat consumption.Is somebody deliberately releasing bioengineered ticks? Or is this just a perfect storm of coincidence, fear, and institutional distrust?Pigweed and Crowhill sort through the facts, the rumors, the helicopter stories, the mysterious boxes, and the reasons this conspiracy theory has gained traction—even if the evidence doesn't quite get it across the finish line.

    20 min

  8. May 31

    617: The Invention of Teenagers: A Life Stage That Didn't Exist?

    Were there always teenagers, or did modern society invent them? Pigweed and Crowhill explore the surprising history of adolescence and the emergence of the modern teenager. For most of human history, young people moved directly from childhood into adult responsibilities. They worked on farms, served on ships, fought in wars, and contributed to family life from an early age. So what changed? The conversation traces the rise of the teenager as a distinct social category in the 20th century, examining the effects of compulsory education, child labor laws, postwar prosperity, automobiles, rock and roll, advertising, and mass marketing. Along the way, they discuss powder monkeys in the age of sail, Shakespeare's view of life's stages, James Dean, Elvis Presley, the generation gap, and the creation of a youth culture unlike anything that had existed before. Pigweed and Crowhill also consider the unintended consequences of teen culture: peer groups replacing families as primary influences, prolonged adolescence, changing expectations about responsibility, and the modern tendency to celebrate youth rather than maturity. Was the rise of the teenager an inevitable result of prosperity and social change, or did we accidentally create a cultural phenomenon that now shapes society far more than we realize? As always, the discussion begins with a beer review—this time featuring an Imperial Pilsner from Heavy Seas—and ends with a few reasons for cautious optimism about the next generation. Topics discussed: * The history of adolescence * Child labor and compulsory education * Teen culture in the 1950s * Rock and roll and youth identity * Marketing to teenagers * Responsibility and maturity * Generational change * Modern youth culture * Family vs. peer influence * The future of young adulthood #BeerAndConversation #PigweedAndCrowhill #Teenagers #History #Culture #Parenting #Education #RockAndRoll #GenerationalChange #Society

    36 min
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4.7
out of 5
22 Ratings

About

You like beer, and you like conversation, right? Of course you do. Pigweed and Crowhill review a beer (sometimes their own homebrews) and discuss issues of the day. They try to break down serious issues into bite-sized chunks, and add some humor when possible. But it's all in good fun. Just two pals chatting over a beer.

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