The Complete Guide to Everything

If you had chickenpox as a kid, you might think you’re done with it. BUT, the virus hangs around in your nerves for decades and come back as shingles. Halloween month continues as we discuss this deeply unfair arrangement, with Tom providing firsthand experience and Tim wishing he knew less about it.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's Halloween Month™ and this week we're going big and covering one of the main Halloween things: candy. And although we usually spend a fair amount of time talking about candy in most episodes, no matter what the topic, this time the conversation is quite a bit spookier. For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s Halloween month, and we’re discussing decorations that require a truck, a storage unit, and year-round technical support. We investigate the appeal of Home Depot’s 12-foot skeleton and the people who get up before dawn to buy one. We also consider Spirit Halloween’s extensive fog juice selection and whether fixing broken monsters is actually a fun job. Plus, Tom returns from Spain with COVID, while Tim prepares to assert his dominance over his family with his Halloween costume.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us...

It's mayhem at TCGTE headquarters this week, with scheduling snafus and illness causing all kinds of chaos. We'll be back next week with a new episode, but for now, please enjoy this unlocked Patreon episode from last spring -- "Rank Cranks: Candy."Two of the world's foremost connoisseurs of the sweet stuff put their candy-coated brains together to come up with the definitive list of the Best American Candy in a surprisingly non-contentious episode of Rank Cranks. For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us...

You may think of waiting rooms as just the boring places you sit in while biding your time before heading into the place you really came for, but we're here to tell you you're wrong. Dead wrong.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It used to be only cheap phones could be easily folded in half, but now if you want a phone you can fold it’s gonna cost ya two grand. This week we’re talking about folding phones and wondering if they’re only for dorks, or are they technology that dweebs could be interested in too? We also talk about some other recent dumb tech and an evening of teenage eavesdropping at the Jersey Shore.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Ho...

Dolly Parton wrote thousands of songs, gave away millions of books and somehow managed to get everybody to like her. This week Christine joins us to remember her favorite person and discuss Dolly’s music, generosity and ability to play “Yakety Sax” backwards. Also, we have a bad experience with Domino’s, consider the practical limitations of being a ghost and get distracted by someone in the building across from Tim’s apartment.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See...

Get ready to "hang ten" and do various other surfing things, because this week's episode is about riding the waves on those big ol' boards (surfboards). We discuss surfing’s ancient Hawaiian roots, the invention of the surfboard leash, Duke Kahanamoku and all of the Beach Boys’ cool surfing songs.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They’re older than trees, older than the rings of Saturn, and covered in thousands of tiny teeth instead of normal scales. That’s right, this week we’re diving deep into the ocean's apex predators: sharks. Are they terrifying man-eaters, or are crocodiles and hippos doing all the actual dirty work? Also, Tim recounts a harrowing tale of bartender gastrointestinal distress, and we question why anyone would ever want to live on the moon.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted...

Since we didn't really talk about summer jobs last week, we're spending this episode militantly on-topic. We discuss the weird psychology of group job interviews, the most common summer jobs for teens today and whether the boomers are right that nobody wants to work anymore. Plus, Tim talks about nearly escaping his butcher shop job for the glamorous world of Old Navy and Tom recounts his prowess working the register at the Apple Store.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted...

This week on TCGTE Presents: HOT SUMMER, we’re diving into the classic teen rite of passage: summer jobs. Tim details his storied career slinging meat at a butcher shop, ignoring civic emergency phone calls while listening to Cher's Believe album on loop, and attending a Gallagher show with his ex-girlfriend's family. Plus, we get the facts about the Dave Matthews Band Chicago river boat disaster, the child labor laws around water slides, and famous celebrity summer jobs.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Po...

It’s summer and we’re hot, so this week we’re talking about air conditioners: how they work, whether they’re actually bad for the environment, and why portable ones with one hose stink. We also invent a better kind of pants pocket for carrying wet spaghetti, celebrate clip-on sunglasses, and explain how a lake can be a battery.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Things are getting intense during TCGTE's Hot Summer series, as we're tackling Thunderstorms this week. These storms are dangerous and destructive, but luckily we're two of the bravest men around, unafraid to look into the eye of the storm and get to the bottom of what makes them tick.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’re discussing the only glasses that are cool: sunglasses. Plus, Tom recounts his heroic (and highly litigious) days as a teenage lifeguard, we try to decipher the local deli's hot dog cart rental policy, and we explore the bizarre history of sunglasses: from 12th-century Chinese judges hiding their poker faces to the STD symptoms that made dark lenses popular in the 1920s.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summer is heating up on TCGTE presents HOT SUMMER, and this week two men who are very plugged into the pop music scene are evaluating the candidates for the 2026 Song of The Summer. Some of the songs are scary, some are boring and lame, but one thing is for sure -- we understand the appeal of all of them and are well equipped to judge which one is the best.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast...

This week, we brave the sweltering NYC summer to tackle summer’s recession-proof treat: Ice cream. We delve into the logistics of the US’s floating WWII ice cream barge, explain why George Washington spent a small fortune on ice cream in 1790, and discuss how bomber pilots turned engine vibrations into dessert. This makes it sound like all we talk about is WWII, but we discuss the present day as well.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acas...

We're back with even more movie mayhem as we bring you through Tinseltown's July offerings. We cover cool superhero origin stories like Young Washington, plucky upstarts like Moana and the big Chrissy Nolan epic Odyssey. Mostly though, we're just excited about the fact that Austin Powers is back -- in Verizon commercial form.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following backlash on Reddit for our lack of preparation last week, we have instituted a professional course correction for Part 2 of our Summer 2026 Movie Preview: we watched the trailers this time, and we've mapped them into a highly scientific rating system ranging from "Must See" to "Go to Hell."This week, we dive into the upcoming cinematic landscape to debate whether Hugh Jackman is being grizzled-hero typecasted in The Death of Robin Hood, why Nate Bargatzi’s new family comedy The Breadwinner is an antiquated disaster, why Pixar never seems to whiff when it comes to Toy St...

Join two of the world's most respected film critics as we walk through all the thrills and chills to be had at your local movie theater this summer! This week we're talking about the May releases (apparently the boneheads out in Tinseltown don't know that May isn't part of summer). We cover Animal Farm, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Hokum, RZA's One Spoon of Chocolate, Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), Mortal Kombat II, The Sheep Detectives, In The Grey, Obsession, The Wizard of the Kremlin, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan...

This week, we explore the high-anxiety, chocolate-loving world of Cathy, the comic strip that spent 34 years capturing the crushing weight of modern womanhood.Before we analyze the intersection of boomer humor and second-wave feminism, we address the target demographics of the new He-Man movie, the tragic decline of checkout-counter tabloids, and an internet pitch to fuse the three dad hosts of Full House into a singular, mega-father via Steve Urkel’s transformation ray.For full-length weekly bonus episodes check out the TCGTE Patreon!Like the show? Rate Us on Apple Podcasts<p...