Episode 122 · The GaS Digital / Ray Kump Era
Growing Up Gottschee with Dan St. Germain
with Dan St. Germain
Nov 16, 2018 · 1:11:51 · 21 segments, 144 moments indexed
- 1 min
Tim Dillon opens the show with co-hosts Ray Kump and Dan St. Germain, joking around before settling into the topic of the day.
1moment
- 0:27Tim introduces a special episode about Amazon moving into Long Island City
- 3 min
Amazon HQ2 Comes to Long Island City: The Basics
#Tim lays out the news that Amazon is splitting its second headquarters between Virginia and Long Island City, describing the neighborhood, the promised jobs and salaries, and the group starts debating the ethics of the tax credit bidding war between cities.
5moments
- 0:48Amazon is splitting HQ2 between Virginia and Long Island City, each getting 25,000 workers at an average salary of $150,000 a year.
- 1:34Long Island City is the westernmost part of Queens facing Manhattan, an industrial area recently developed with vacant space ready for Amazon.
- 2:35The opposition to Amazon's arrival confuses him because some of their points about cultural displacement in Queens are actually valid.
- 3:15Tim questions why the city is giving a two-billion-dollar tax credit to Amazon when there was a bidding war between 20 cities.
- 4:02The tax credit argument: the city wouldn't have lost revenue they already had, but Amazon wouldn't have come without the incentive.
AmazonLong Island CityCitigroupPepsi ColaWest VirginiaAstoriaManhattanQueens
- 5 min
Infrastructure Strain and Subway Costs
#The group debates whether the subway and other infrastructure can handle the influx of new workers, citing the $4 billion cost of new subway stations, MTA dysfunction, and comparisons to Google's presence in San Francisco.
8moments
- 4:31Every new subway station in New York costs about four billion dollars.
- 5:15Tim argues the real concern is infrastructure strain from influx—trains are already stretched during rush hour.
- 5:3625,000 to 30,000 jobs is relatively minor, but Amazon's arrival could be just the beginning of expansion.
- 6:10Tim thinks the city needs to fix existing subway infrastructure and add trains, not necessarily build new stations.
- 7:00Amazon picked Long Island City partly because it was friendly to gay people and could attract tech talent easily.
- 7:34Queens remains a holdout of mom-and-pop stores and small businesses, but gentrification will likely destroy that character.
- 8:07Dumping money into city coffers won't help much due to latent corruption and inefficiency.
- 8:26Tim explains that Amazon workers earning $100,000 to $200,000 will spend at upscale restaurants, not local corner stores where immigrant families make $60,000 a year.
AmazonLong Island CityQueensCornellNew York CityGoogleRoosevelt IslandUpper East Side+1 more
- 5 min
Gentrification, Immigrant Businesses, and the Death of Queens' Character
#Tim laments that Amazon's arrival will accelerate the loss of immigrant-owned mom-and-pop businesses in Queens, comparing it to what happened to Williamsburg and Manhattan, while discussing rising rents, foreign money laundering through real estate, and commercial rent control.
10moments
- 8:58Tech workers making $150k a year doing yoga in Williamsburg won't patronize local businesses, which is why Brooklyn has become an Apple store.
- 9:33Newark and Camden were considered as alternatives to Queens for Amazon headquarters, offering massive tax incentives.
- 9:52Long Island City added 16,000-17,000 luxury condo units in the past decade, with another 9,000-11,000 on the way.
- 10:10After Amazon's announcement, StreetEasy saw residential property searches jump over 400% as real estate agents rushed deals.
- 10:31Tim's San Francisco friend explains that Google employees live in shoeboxes and guest rooms for $6,000 a month.
- 11:02Queens landlords are already preparing to raise rents next year in anticipation of the Amazon effect.
- 11:41A capitalist system cannibializes immigrant businesses—the contradiction between capitalism and preserving immigrant communities is baffling.
- 12:25Foreign buyers with blood money launder it through New York real estate, making the market disconnected from who actually lives there.
- 13:21Queens' gentrification is depressing because the city has become a corporate environment for upwardly mobile professionals, destroying artists and immigrant culture.
- 13:35New York City has transformed from a cool, exciting place into a serene, suburban corporate wasteland.
gentrification and displacement in New York Cityreal estate speculationAstoriaManhattanWilliamsburgde BlasioBrooklynLong Island City+5 more
- 5 min
Global Capital, Nationalism, and the Death of Old New York
#The conversation widens into why global real estate speculation fuels nationalism and populism like Trump, then nostalgia for old, dangerous New York and how the city has become a 'global capital' rather than a city for New Yorkers.
11moments
- 14:01New York City's bankruptcy in the late 60s and early 70s created the economic despair that made the artistic scene of that era possible.
- 14:35The global rise of nationalism and figures like Donald Trump stems from people displaced by wealthy foreigners buying property through shell corporations and routing profits offshore.
- 15:21When governments hand trillions to companies like Amazon while infrastructure and healthcare remain broken, people reasonably ask what the actual benefit is.
- 15:50High-end real estate prices have been artificially inflated and are now softening, which is why the city wants Amazon's jobs and tax revenue.
- 16:20New York stopped being a city for New Yorkers after Giuliani took office and began Disneyfying Times Square.
- 16:38Giuliani was responsible for making the city safer by reducing street violence, which was a genuine improvement despite the loss of grit.
- 17:23That old New York identity has already been lost and squeezed out of the city.
- 17:42Conservative critique: tax dollars are being used to build yoga studios for cloud analysts and make neighborhoods palatable for tech workers.
- 18:06The underlying question is how crowded a city can actually get before infrastructure breaks down.
- 18:29Tim jokes about Chinese subway crowds and wanting someone to shove him in so he wouldn't feel guilty about crushing a small girl.
- 18:45Even in absurd moments of crowding, people rationalize their own complicity in the chaos.
AmazonDonald TrumpRudy GiulianiNew York CityTimes SquareDavid AngeloLou ReedAndrew Cuomo+1 more
- 3 min
Subway Shoving Jokes and Terrorism Threat Levels
#A riff about crowded trains leads to jokes about shoving people onto subway cars like Tokyo, then pivots into discussing US infrastructure versus countries that got to rebuild after wars, and the surprisingly low rate of subway terror attacks in NYC.
7moments
- 18:53Ray Kump getting shoved in a subway car prompts Amazon to pull out of New York.
- 19:33Countries like Japan and Europe have better infrastructure with bullet trains and fast trains.
- 19:46Tim argues that countries the U.S. bombs get to rebuild their infrastructure while America is stuck with legacy systems.
- 20:07How insane is it that there hasn't been a successful subway attack in New York since the thwarted 2009 plot.
- 20:33Tim appreciates that the FBI has not recruited informants who actually bomb something in the last ten years.
- 20:52The whole post-9/11 terrorism threat level was massively overblown and hyped.
- 21:13People working in Homeland Security have an institutional interest in finding threats, which skews threat assessments.
- 4 min
John Kiriakou, the CIA, and the Loose Origins of Al-Qaeda
#Tim discusses former CIA agent John Kiriakou getting hit by a scooter after criticizing Saudi Arabia, then explains how Al-Qaeda actually formed as a loose arms-dealing network around Bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed rather than a tight organization.
9moments
- 21:53Tim brings up the State Department being gutted over the past two years and asks if Kiriakou thinks it will have an effect.
- 22:30Tim mentions watching a five-hour Pearl Harbor documentary and reading about the Twin Towers, saying it ruined his perspective on what to believe.
- 23:24Kiriakou explains that any idiot could grab a gun and shoot through a crowd, and he was surprised Al-Qaeda didn't do that more often.
- 23:37A counterterrorism expert supposedly told Kiriakou that after 9-11, Al-Qaeda's financial backers wouldn't fund low-level attacks because they wanted to save money for big plots.
- 23:56Al-Qaeda before it was formalized was just a loose system of people and connections buying weapons from each other.
- 24:16KSM, the guy who was beaten up by interrogators, came to Bin Laden with his own plan to take down 25 planes, and Bin Laden had to scale it back.
- 24:40Al-Qaeda started as a loosely networked group of arms dealers and weapons traders, not primarily religious ideologues.
- 25:07Kiriakou describes how different jihadist groups started fighting amongst themselves when they realized their scripture didn't actually advocate for certain attacks or targets.
- 25:23Kiriakou questions whether a particular general in Iraq actually held as much power as claimed, suggesting the people underneath him might have mattered more.
Al-QaedaState DepartmentOsama bin LadenKhalid Sheikh MohammedAmazon
- 5 min
Platforming Nazis, Charlottesville, and the Vice Emmy
#Tim criticizes the Today Show for giving airtime to Identity Europa's Patrick Casey, then discusses Vice's Emmy-winning embedded Charlottesville piece with white nationalist Christopher Cantwell, and the surreal experience of watching that torch march.
9moments
- 25:48Bill Clinton's smartest move was restraint after Oklahoma City bombing—not raiding white militia compounds like Elohim City, which could have escalated given Ruby Ridge and Waco disasters.
- 26:10NBC put Identity Europa's Patrick Casey on the Today Show for five minutes to platform his movement—deliberately giving extremists airtime.
- 26:32Networks don't boost ratings with moderate guests; they need people on extreme ends of the spectrum, which drives the decision to platform Nazis.
- 27:14Internet-driven news coverage now leads traditional media as outlets chase clicks and traffic by platforming fringe figures.
- 27:40Vice won an Emmy for an embedded Charlottesville piece with Christopher Cantwell, providing insight into the movement but walking a dangerous slope.
- 28:27Charlottesville tiki torch march footage is terrifying—men in khakis and polos marching with torches chanting antisemitic slogans represents complete psychological breakdown.
- 29:19The Charlottesville rally seemed unusually well-organized compared to typical hate group gatherings before that event.
- 29:36Internet organizing—just a Reddit thread—is enough for hate groups to mobilize now, replacing need for traditional infrastructure.
- 29:47Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas mass shooter with the highest body count in recent years, had no clear political beliefs or extremist affiliation.
Identity EuropaTimothy McVeighBill ClintonPatrick CaseyStephen PaddockCharlottesvilleChristopher CantwellWaco+5 more
- 2 min
Stephen Paddock, Mass Shootings, and Cultural Contagion
#The group discusses Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock's lack of clear ideology, theorizes about mass shootings as a form of cultural contagion tied to depression, and debates gun control versus broader societal instability and media-driven perceived chaos.
5moments
- 30:11Tim argues that mass shootings became part of cultural vocabulary after Columbine, creating a template for certain mentally ill individuals.
- 30:45A specific subset of depressed people — with ambition to harm others rather than themselves — may not attempt mass violence without having seen it done before.
- 31:03Tim supports making guns more difficult to obtain but predicts widespread violence will persist due to broader societal dysfunction.
- 31:19Disaffection, instability, diet, drugs, and predominantly online living all contribute to the problem more than video games alone.
- 31:42News media creates perceived chaos that makes people feel everyone hates each other and there's no hope, which Tim identifies as the real driver.
gun violence in Americanews mediavideo gamesColumbine
- 6 min
Funeral Etiquette and the Conservative Aunt
#Tim tells a story about a friend's mother's funeral where a woman abruptly asked his politics right after a tearful eulogy, leading into a discussion of funerals, eulogies, and Ray's family's Gochae (ethnic German) heritage and picnics.
11moments
- 32:07Tim attends a funeral in Connecticut where his friend gives a eulogy for his mother.
- 32:19Tim claims he destroyed his own grandmother's eulogy, performing for 30 minutes as if it were stand-up.
- 32:38After the burial, the father reads a note he wrote to the mother, everyone is crying.
- 32:53Tim's friend tries to promote his Netflix to the deceased's aunt, who responds by asking Tim's political beliefs and refusing to talk to conservatives.
- 33:33Tim reflects on how quickly people jump to political division, even at a funeral before the body is in the ground.
- 33:54The funeral had buffalo wings, meatballs, quesadillas—Tim says he likes funerals and could get addicted to going to different ones.
- 34:29Uncle Junior from The Sopranos kept attending funerals while on house arrest, using them as an excuse to leave.
- 34:51Tim's grandparents' funeral was held at a Gochae hall, a community space for people from an ethnic region between Austria and Germany.
- 35:56The Gochae community held festivals with beer gardens and Miss Gochae pageants before the tradition died out.
- 36:54Tim's aunt by marriage explained that Gochae was an ethnic outpost during the Middle Ages, built like Israeli settlements in Yugoslav territory.
- 37:30At Gochae family gatherings, they would sing Happy Birthday in English first before singing it in their native language.
The SopranosGochaeYugoslaviaConnecticut
- 3 min
The Gochae Hall and Miss Gochae Pageant
#Ray describes growing up attending the Gochae Hall in Ridgewood, the Miss Gochae beauty pageant, the group's mockery of old photos, and stories from his grandparents' funerals including his brother's deadpan joke.
7moments
- 38:20Tim describes going to the Go-Che Hall in Ridgewood after his grandpa's funeral.
- 38:45He watches video of the Go-Che Hall's members and calls them a freak show.
- 39:10Tim's grandpa was forced into the German army, spent seven years in a gulag, then worked as a bread route and butcher warehouse worker.
- 39:31A short lady at the hall told him hipster kids visit on weekends for the steins and beer hall culture.
- 40:07He worries that once Bezos moves in, these people at the Go-Che Hall are going to be homeless.
- 40:22Tim and his brother are in the parking lot leaving when his brother says "good take" to something the short lady said.
- 40:34Tim admits the entire story went nowhere and he doesn't know where he was going with it.
Go-Che HallRidgewoodblack forest cake
- 4 min
Funeral Stories: The Mystery Guest and Cancer Warriors
#More funeral anecdotes including a random stranger hugging a widower at a wake, referencing Norm Macdonald's bit about wanting a sad funeral, and a story about a woman who fought pancreatic cancer for a decade before succumbing.
9moments
- 40:44Tim describes being assigned as a kid to be the funny one at funerals while people were upset.
- 40:54At his grandmother's funeral, he tried to entertain his sad cousin with jokes but she ended up crying.
- 41:37His father showed pictures of his dog to people at his grandmother's funeral instead of dealing with the emotion.
- 42:07A mysterious man in bike shorts and a hot pink tank top showed up to Tim's uncle's funeral, hugged people, and nobody knew who he was.
- 42:59Tim says he could see himself being that random guy who shows up to a funeral uninvited.
- 43:27Che describes a woman who fought pancreatic cancer for nine years with a community supporting her through the battle.
- 43:54Tim reflects on how fighting cancer gave this woman meaning and warrior status that most people never experience.
- 44:28Pancreatic cancer victims are usually dead in three months, but this woman lived for ten years after diagnosis.
- 44:44Tim jokes that tobacco companies deserve credit for providing people with meaning through debilitating disease.
RJ Reynoldspancreatic cancerNorm McDonaldNetflix
- 4 min
Cigarettes, Genetics, and Dying with Dignity
#A riff on RJ Reynolds providing meaning to smokers' lives, guessing how long everyone in the room will live, discussing genetics versus lifestyle in cancer, and the difficulty of end-of-life decisions and euthanasia.
8moments
- 44:58Tim dismisses Oprah's spiritual conversations as bullshit.
- 45:26Ray predicts he and Tim will live to 85, though some family members live longer for unclear genetic reasons.
- 45:45Cancer may be influenced more by genetics and local environmental clusters than smoking alone, despite what studies claim.
- 46:33Quality of life matters even if you live to 85—you don't want to feel like shit the whole time.
- 47:10Tim jokes about immediately wanting euthanasia upon diagnosis, even for minor ailments like a cold.
- 47:37The podcast began as mind-numbingly boring, with Tim reading statistics about Amazon and none of them taking any stance.
- 48:19Ray finally generates interest 45 minutes in by suggesting cigarettes are good for you, which is when the show actually gets going.
- 48:33Tim saw suicides in the morgue from people with terminal diagnoses who made their own choice to end it.
- 2 min
Morgue Stories and the Taken Bit
#Ray recounts working in a morgue seeing suicide victims, leading into a bit riffing on Taken's 'particular set of skills' speech applied to morgue work, and jokes about whether he ever had feelings looking at dead bodies.
7moments
- 49:14Tim riffs on asking a dead girl's father if he can posthumously marry her.
- 49:33Guest insists Tim never asked about fucking the bodies until he just did.
- 49:44Tim accidentally quotes the Taken monologue about having a wealth of knowledge.
- 49:55The guest was a morgue photographer who started performing autopsies without qualification.
- 50:07Tim argues that being around dead bodies means you might as well use bulk cutters to open the rib cage.
- 50:33Guest denies ever fucking a body or thinking about it, contradicting what he claimed Tim had on a YouTube clip.
- 50:51Guest explains how you wonder about your reaction to seeing a dead body until you see one and realize there's just an obvious lack of life.
Taken
- 3 min
New Orleans Jazz Funerals
#The group discusses New Orleans jazz funeral parades and bounce houses as a dark joke, debating whether the celebratory tradition holds up when the deceased died violently, and reminiscing about visiting New Orleans.
8moments
- 51:16People now want companies to help them get the best buyout for their rent control apartments.
- 51:42Tim claims everyone he knows makes $400,000 a month on Patreon; the show doesn't have one.
- 51:58He's starting a pro wrestling podcast that no one will listen to, with a guest who doesn't even watch wrestling.
- 52:23New Orleans jazz funerals celebrate people even if they were brutally murdered.
- 52:38Tim jokes that if a child is killed, they still have a fun parade with a bounce house by the casket.
- 52:54New Orleans is his favorite place, though he's never been there and it's very dark and poor.
- 53:20He doesn't drink beer, only vodka and gin martinis, and occasionally misses the martinis now.
- 53:39Tim argues that drinking in your current age isn't as fun as you remember it being.
New OrleansAnne RiceAmazon
- 4 min
Getting Older and Drinking Less
#Tim and Dan discuss how drinking and bar culture feel different with age, romanticizing old drug dealer stories, and a bit about a philosophical gas station attendant delivering wisdom to a stressed-out Christmas Eve driver.
- 1 min
- 6 min
Tim's Free Meal Grifting Tactics
#The group exposes Tim's habit of getting free meals by throwing down cash before the check comes so others feel guilted into covering it, dissecting his various grifter tactics including dropping hints about future favors and fake relatives in PR.
10moments
- 58:32Tim describes paying $100 to a comedian upfront, then the comedian puts the entire bill down before the check arrives.
- 59:10Tim texts the comedian afterward accusing him of running the grift again, receives confirmation it was intentional.
- 59:32The ideal grifter move when someone offers to pay: suggest paying just the tip instead, which sounds insulting.
- 1:00:22Tim explains a manipulation tactic—when the check comes, compliment something good happening in the other person's life, making them feel obligated to pay.
- 1:01:28Alternative grifting techniques include setting up guilt in advance or timing emotional appeals just as the check arrives.
- 1:02:18When you throw down more money than your share, people either accept it gratefully or match your offer out of pride or guilt.
- 1:03:01Drop hints throughout the meal that you'll do something for the person later—create the impression they're buying dinner to secure a future favor.
- 1:03:33Tim invented a fake aunt who works at a major PR firm in LA, and used that fabricated family connection to get a free dinner.
- 1:04:14Tim witnessed an actual street hustle at the Comedy Cellar: a Black man playing drunk, ranting about Trump to white people, and collecting money from guilt-ridden liberals.
- 1:04:46Guest plugs his website danceaintermain.net and album 'No Real Winners Here'.
- 2 min
Dan and Ray plug their websites, social media, and Dan's comedy album 'No Real Winners Here,' plus a bit about a mysterious painting contest and dinner plans.
6moments
- 1:04:56Dan St. Germain plugs his album No Real Winners Here and promotes his website for tour dates.
- 1:05:11Tim points out the painting contest winner hasn't been announced yet, causing people to think it's fake.
- 1:05:22Ray explains his paintings are a mix of technical skill and personal point of view, acknowledging he's not formally trained.
- 1:05:48Tim accuses Ray of lying about a story, forcing him to defend its truth.
- 1:06:13Tim offers to buy both guests dinner after the show.
- 1:06:27Ray mentions returning from Babylon and discusses a local diner nearby.
- 3 min
Witnessing an Overdose Near the Train Station
#Tim recounts seeing a woman overdosing near a train station curb with cops slow to respond, which leads into a discussion about the difference between snorting and injecting drugs and why the needle is often the line people won't cross.
7moments
- 1:07:03Tim witnesses a cop responding slowly to a woman overdosing face-down between a curb and car at the train station.
- 1:07:42The officer administers CPR and another cop arrives with what Tim believes is Narcan, though he's unsure of the drug's name.
- 1:08:08Tim reflects on never trying heroin and credits Nancy Reagan PSAs and movies for instilling fear of addiction.
- 1:08:37He speculates he might have tried heroin if cooler friends had offered it alongside social pressure like an attractive woman.
- 1:08:58Tim notes that snorting culture doesn't get discussed as much as injection culture in relation to heroin addiction.
- 1:09:14People often have reservations about moving from snorting to needles, which he sees as a sobering threshold moment.
- 1:09:28Transitioning to injecting heroin is when some people recognize the behavior has become genuinely strange and serious.
- 2 min
Tim runs through his upcoming tour dates in St. Louis, Austin, and New Jersey, mentions the Moontower festival trip and a gun range visit, teases the still-unresolved podcast painting contest, and signs off.
5moments
- 1:09:48Tim announces tour dates at Blue Room Comedy Club in St. Louis (November 16-18) and Cap City in Austin (December 5-8).
- 1:10:00Additional dates at Bananas in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey (December 12-14), with more bookings at timilla.com.
- 1:10:24Tim recalls going shooting at a gun range before visiting Moon Tower and discovering someone had died there.
- 1:10:48Planning to visit La Carreta, Texas, described as the birthplace of barbecue, about 40 minutes from Moon Tower.
- 1:11:01Tim asks listeners to check direct messages to see if they won something from a giveaway he ran out of time to complete.
Blue Room Comedy ClubMoon TowerCap CityBananas Comedy ClubAudibleAustinHasbrouck Heights, New JerseySt. Louis, Missouri+5 more