BIRD PROTOCOL

Episode 186: The 2025 Lazy Bird Report

Ayo! We’re back to FINALLY close out our year-in-review series after a brief battle with a stomach flu, some horrible weather, and food court Chinese food! This is the 2025 Lazy Bird Report! So kick back, crack a cold one, and join your favourite Bird Boys as we take a lazy look back on our personal experiences in 2025. From our wings (wins) to our cages (losses) to our eggs (hopes) for this coming year… we cover it all (and then some). If you couldn’t tell from our inconsistency with the pod, last year was a year of immense change in our lives. Thankfully, it was mostly for the better, but it didn’t come without some challenges and creative blocks. In this episode, we share our thoughts on a year that, in the grander sense, was horrible. Ironically, it was pretty dope for us individually and truly great for art/media. Funny how that works, huh? We share some of our highs and lows from 2025 while we take a look at the current nightmare of a world we’re living in, while musing on how we can still find some joy (joymaxxing lol) by disconnecting from the fake and linking up with the real. Sure, there were some heartbreaks (RIP to the boy Tucker), social media companies are trying to make us hate one another, and the world is filled with clowns that piss us off. Still, our personal wins include an upcoming marriage, going to (or continuing) therapy, getting a new job, finding joy in the simple things like reading or being creative, appreciating getting older, valuing friendship and love, moving into new apartments, and a lot more. We discuss how these changes may have stifled our creativity at the time and challenged us as creatives… but also how they might have set us up to have a killer year of creating in 2026. We also discuss the state of the world, social media, politics, and the slow descent into idiocracy and madness that we’re all up against. We suggest ways to improve media literacy, find your joy, disconnect from social media (or at least look at it with a critical eye), get out of the politics-as-wrestling mentality, recognize the death of nuance on the internet, and avoid the influence of the evil billionaires and the trauma addiction that lurks in every post and comment. Our growing distrust in social media and the way people use the internet is a dead horse that we are happy to beat again... because, man, a lot of our problems are currently coming from a bunch of weirdo tech bro billionaires, online trolling, and poisonous algorithms. Plus, Baby Keem dropped an album. Everything is gambling now. We live in a simulation, and the food court chicken is in control! Nonetheless, we hope that 2026 is another year of growth, joy, creativity, and love. And movies. And games. And music. Anyway, thanks for rocking with us. We appreciate ya. See you next week, homies. As always… INITIATE THE PROTOCOL! Follow us on Instagram! Instagram: @palmreadr @otismorrisdude

Episode 185: The 2025 Bird Report (Part Three)

What’s good, homies! It’s time for one last (official) look back on 2025 with the final instalment of the Bird Report! In this episode, we look back on some of the TV shows released in 2025 and share our favourites and honourable mentions. Much like with movies and music, it was a damn good year for television. Although we missed some shows due to living life and not having enough time, we have a decent list of stuff that we really dug. In this episode, you’ll hear our thoughts (both good and bad) on shows like “Pluribus”, “The Studio”, “Murderbot”, “The Vince Staples Show”, “Andor”, “The Chair Company”, “The Pitt”, “Task”, “The Righteous Gemstones”, “MobLand”, “The Bear”, “The White Lotus”, “Your Friends & Neighbors”, “The Last Of Us”, “Alien: Earth”, “The Rehearsal”, and more. What did you watch in 2025? Did we miss anything major? Let us know in a comment! We end the episode with a bit of reminiscing, but we’ll be back next episode with a deeper look back on 2025 from our own personal perspectives in our Lazy Bird Report. Plus, what we’ve been watching, playing, and listening to in 2026 - including our thoughts on the awesome and under-appreciated “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”. Tap in! As always… INITIATE THE PROTOCOL! Follow us on Instagram! Instagram: @palmreadr @otismorrisdude

Episode 184: The 2025 Bird Report (Part Two)

Ayo! We’re back and continuing our quest to discuss our favourite releases of 2025! This week, we’re talking film… and what a BANGER year it was for movies! Join Otis and PALMREADER as they share their ten favourite movies from the past year (plus a whole bunch of honourable mentions). In this episode, we discuss some really great movies from 2025 including “No Other Choice”, “One Battle After Another”, “If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You”, “Sentimental Value”, “The Perfect Neighbor”, “Train Dreams”, “28 Years Later”, “Sorry, Baby”, “Eddington”, “Thunderbolts”, “Marty Supreme”, “Sinners”, “Weapons”, “Begonia”, “A House Of Dynamite”, and more. Plus, a whole whack of honourable mentions and stuff we dug (but maybe wasn’t the best). We’ll be back next week with our TV picks, a look back on the year, and a close-out of the 2025 Bird Report. How was your year of watching movies? Let us know in a comment if we missed anything dope!  As always… INITIATE THE PROTOCOL! Follow us on Instagram! Instagram: @palmreadr @otismorrisdude

Episode 183: The 2025 Bird Report (Part One)

What's good, homies?! Another year has come and gone... and what a year it was for music, movies, video games, and TV! We're back with another year-end summary of all of our personal favourites from 2025. This week, we're covering music and video games (kind of)! So, kick back, relax, and enjoy the first installment of our yearly review. In this episode, we discuss some of our favourite albums of the past year, including releases from The Clipse, Turnstile, Chance The Rapper, Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo, Liquid Mike, JID, Militarie Gun, Aminé, Aitch, Mac Miller, Moving Mountains, The Starting Line, Geese, The Callous Daoboys, Lambrini Girls, Fred Again.., $uicideboy$, and more. Plus, honourable mentions like Bon Iver, Brevin Kim, Bouvé, Dijon, Know Good, Justin Bieber, Totorro, Conway The Machine, MIKE, The Acacia Strain, Angelmaker, Earl Sweatshirt, Ovrkast., Larry June, 2 Chainz, The Alchemist, and more. Then we talk a (very) little about what we've played this year. Surprise! It wasn't much. With that being said, there is a lot we still WANT to play, so we discuss what we're itching to try out, some older games we've been revisiting, and the very few new releases we got a chance to enjoy this year. We'll be back in a week or two to discuss the movies and TV we loved from 2025. Let us know if we missed anything that you loved from this past year in a comment below. As always… INITIATE THE PROTOCOL! Follow us on Instagram! Instagram: @palmreadr @otismorrisdude

Episode 182: Blink-182

What’s shakin’, homies?! It’s time for another episode of BIRD PROTOCOL. This week, we’re talking about the forefathers of modern pop-punk, Blink-182. You didn’t think we’d miss a chance at talking about one of the most seminal and important bands in our lives AND make a visual joke using the episode title, did you? Absolutely not. Are you crazy? Don’t you know us by now? Anyway, this episode is pretty much us gushing about the band (even though we aren’t so hot on a few of their releases) and serves as our chance to remind everyone how goddamn important, influential, and great the Blink boys were (and still are) at their peak. In this episode, we break down (most of) their career from the highest highs to the lowest lows, talk about our favourite albums and songs, and give them their flowers. This is not completely devoid of criticism, though, because what the hell was up with “Nine”? Yeesh. We briefly touch on their early days and then chronicle their meteoric rise with a three-peat of absolute slappers from the aughts (“Enema Of The State”, “Take Off Your Pants And Jacket’, and “Untitled”). From there, we discuss the rising tension in the band, their multiple hiatuses and line-up changes, and everything that led to a myriad of kinda-sorta-alright to downright boring releases. Then, we discuss the events leading to their reunion and excellent latest release, “One More Time…”. We also take some time to discuss why we personally love them and how Blink has played an irrefutable role in our youth and young manhood (and lives as musicians). This band is deeply important to both of us, as well as a huge number of people all around the world, so even as we tried to adhere to our new rules about length… it just wasn't happening. Blink’s impact is undeniable, their rise to the top is the stuff of legends, and they are just so much fun. We tried to pack as much as we could into the episode, but Otis, being a massive fan, said it best when he points out that we could have done a long-form series on every album, song, triumph, and failure of the band. It’s a genuinely crazy story filled with plane crashes, a cancer diagnosis, UFOs, alcoholism, naked dudes, secret bands, inter-member tension, and a whole lot more. So, tap in with us. It is a good one. We’ll be back in two weeks with our Christmas pick. In the meantime, wish PALMREADER luck at his new job! As always… INITIATE THE PROTOCOL! Follow us on Instagram! Instagram: @palmreadr @otismorrisdude