The Auron MacIntyre Show - Top 5 Whiskeys of 2025 and Christmas AMA

00:00:00.340 Hey everybody, how's it going? Thanks for joining me this afternoon. I am Oren McIntyre.

00:00:06.000 Yes, Amerifest is going on. Yes, every conservative personality is slamming each other. They're

00:00:11.000 all yelling at each other. They're all calling each other evil and they're all agents of

00:00:15.680 foreign governments and everybody's got their theory about how the other one's destroying

00:00:20.120 the party and I probably could have got a lot more clicks talking about all that drama

00:00:24.020 but you know what? I'm tired, man. I'm tired. I have a country that is in dire straits.

00:00:33.040 I am looking at a situation where if the Democrats win again, they are going to lock every Trump

00:00:41.420 official in jail. They're going to send the FBI after all of the conservatives. It's going to be

00:00:47.320 a disaster. They're going to open the borders. They're going to destroy everything and the most

00:00:52.600 important thing we can do is battle each other. We just had a we just had a compact article come

00:00:58.420 out, you know, kind of waking up all these centrist liberals to the anti-white discrimination that's

00:01:04.800 going on in the United States, a sweeping program that has utterly destroyed generations of young

00:01:10.940 white men in the United States. And instead of talking about that, making it like the only thing

00:01:15.480 that we talk about because it's like actually one of the most important things that affects the entire

00:01:20.040 country, but specifically the voting base of the Republican Party, we're arguing over, you know,

00:01:24.820 Middle Eastern countries and all of these things. And look, of course, I've been in spats with other

00:01:30.540 commentators at this point, but I'm just done. I'm done with that today. I would like to just enjoy

00:01:38.320 ourselves. So one of the things I've done at the end of the year, most years, my last show is something

00:01:45.080 fun and Christmas themed. We've done like kind of Christmas spectaculars with different previous

00:01:51.960 guests. We've had just hangouts and chats and ask me anything. But it's usually a fun, casual way to

00:01:57.900 just kind of get together and celebrate as we go into the holidays. And I figure rather than go over

00:02:03.020 all the drama, let's hold on to our actual traditions on the show and just enjoy, hang out and talk to each

00:02:08.920 other today. So I do want to do something a little different for my fun show this year. I have been

00:02:15.820 writing about bourbon a little bit here and there. If you've been picking up Frontier Magazine by the

00:02:22.020 Blaze, you'll have read a few of my whiskey reviews at this point. It's something that I enjoy. It's

00:02:28.020 collecting bourbons and, you know, talking about bourbons with friends, you know, when they come over is a

00:02:33.780 good pastime of mine. So I thought I'd share a little bit of that with you today, especially as

00:02:38.840 you're heading to the holidays. Maybe you need to grab that last minute Christmas gift or you want

00:02:42.720 to find a special bottle to share with the relatives when they're over. So I figured we could go into

00:02:48.600 this. Now, I have broken this into two categories. The first is what we call kind of the normal stock

00:02:57.600 shelf bourbon. These are five bourbons that you can find on the shelf at your average store for the

00:03:04.740 most part, as long as you have a decent selection and distribution in your state. They're not going

00:03:08.880 to break the bank. They might be a little more elevated. It's not the Jim Beam white label or the

00:03:13.500 Jack Daniels old number seven. These are just going to be a little more expensive, a little better,

00:03:17.620 but they're not going to blow up your wallet. You're not going to have to hunt for them online or

00:03:21.880 anything. They should be things you can reasonably walk in and show up. And, you know, when you have

00:03:27.120 something like that over on the holidays, people, you can kind of show them a nicer bourbon. You're

00:03:32.740 not just pouring like the standard maker's mark or something for them, but you're also not throwing

00:03:37.200 your wallet out the window. Then I also have my top five whiskeys of the year. And those are

00:03:45.460 genuinely what we call allocated. For those who don't know, you have your standard bottles. And then

00:03:51.400 depending on like how much people sell at any given store, there's like these harder to find

00:03:56.700 limited edition bottles that start showing up. And those are often some of the best things that

00:04:02.360 different distilleries put out every year, but they're also some of the hardest to find.

00:04:06.780 Oftentimes they can be expensive. So I didn't just want to put all of those on here. It's like,

00:04:11.500 well, here are the five best whiskeys you could try this year. And you're never going to be able to

00:04:15.360 find them. And it'll be really hard, you know, to get ahold of them like that wouldn't be very fun.

00:04:19.660 So I wanted to do kind of the affordable and easier to find section. And then I also wanted

00:04:24.860 to do kind of the actual true best of the year. Now I want to be clear on my criteria. These are

00:04:32.260 all going to be American whiskeys. Not that there aren't other good whiskeys. In fact, part of this

00:04:36.800 was inspired by my friend Morgoth, who did a review of Irish and Scotch whiskeys that he enjoyed

00:04:42.000 this year. So there are others, but we are Americans here. So we're going to talk about American

00:04:47.600 whiskey. It is also my preference. Bourbon is my favorite of the whiskey varieties,

00:04:51.860 though I do enjoy a Scotch or an Irish whiskey from time to time. I'm not a big fan of Japanese

00:04:57.640 whiskey. I know some people really love Japanese whiskey, but that's not my favorite. Now this means

00:05:03.420 that we're going to be looking at bourbons, ryes, and possibly American single malts, though I do not

00:05:08.040 have any of the third category in this one. For my top bourbons of the year, it needed to be a bottle

00:05:14.520 that I could get a hold of. So there have been other bottles that won't appear on this list that

00:05:18.700 I've tried that I thought were very good that might have even been in the top five of the year. But if

00:05:23.620 I didn't get a hold of one, then I'm not putting it up there. Because one of the things is that your

00:05:27.920 palate changes. You have different days, different bourbons hit you differently. So what could be

00:05:33.000 amazing one day could not be as amazing the next day and vice versa. If you don't have something that

00:05:38.080 you can try multiple times over a certain period, then you're not going to get a real impression about how

00:05:43.060 you feel about it. So for instance, I had a William Leroux Weller this year, a friend had. It also had

00:05:48.940 a Jack Daniels 14, both very difficult bottles to get a hold of. I did not have either of them.

00:05:54.240 They were both excellent whiskeys, but they won't qualify for this. Same with the Wild Tricky

00:05:59.380 Beacon that came out this year. Another great tasting one, but just not exactly something I can put up

00:06:07.560 there. Because again, I can't look at that over and over. So let's start with the most basic stuff.

00:06:14.780 All right. This is the stuff that's going to be on the shelf on a regular basis. Now the first one,

00:06:20.380 and if you've ever been into bourbon at all, you're probably familiar with this, but I wanted to include

00:06:24.460 it just for the people out there who are putting their toe in there. This is the Wild Turkey Rare

00:06:30.000 Breed. Now, if you've had a bourbon at all, you've probably run into Wild Turkey 101 at some point,

00:06:35.520 always popular at parties, that kind of thing, something that gets mixed in. But Wild Turkey

00:06:40.200 has a lot of elevated options, and one of them is the Rare Breed. Rare Breed is a very nice bottle

00:06:46.640 because it's got a blend of six, eight, and 12-year whiskeys in it, I believe. They're all

00:06:52.580 different ages of bourbons. And the nice thing about that is you can get some of the older

00:06:57.620 quality notes that you get out of that higher-aged whiskey, but you don't have to pay as much.

00:07:04.900 This bottle is often, I can even get this, I think, at the Walmart around here, around

00:07:08.660 $40-something. That's usually $50 probably in other markets, but very affordable for the age

00:07:15.480 that it is and the quality. It's at, I think, about, what is this, 116.8 proof. So it does have

00:07:24.380 a decent proof to it. If you are somebody who is sensitive to that, then you can put it on a block

00:07:29.840 of ice. In fact, if you're an ice block guy, I think this is one of the better whiskeys. It

00:07:34.060 develops nicely over a block of ice, but it has enough proof to stand up to the water in

00:07:39.140 it. So if you end up enjoying your whiskey over a block of ice, I think this is an excellent

00:07:45.400 candidate. And it's really just a quintessential bourbon. It's got a lot of notes that are very

00:07:52.900 much wild turkey. It's got kind of that very nice barrel char that often comes in with wild

00:07:59.420 turkey. It's got the baking spices. It's got some of the cinnamon. It's got some of the

00:08:03.860 vanilla, brown sugar. The mash bill is 75% corn, 13% wheat, and 12% malted barley. For those

00:08:11.880 who don't know, the mash bill is the basic recipe that makes up the whiskey. It's the different

00:08:19.240 ingredients, the grains. And depending on what you have mixed in, you're going to get a different

00:08:25.520 dynamic. So that rye spice is usually going to give you kind of, again, that spicy finish,

00:08:31.860 that heat. The corn is going to give you the sweetness. That barley is often giving you kind

00:08:36.100 of like a chocolatey or coffee tone. And so these things in different mixtures are going to impact the

00:08:42.100 way that you can drink this one. But like I said, this is just a good entry-level bottle for people

00:08:46.940 unfamiliar with a higher quality bourbon. It's bold. It's got a lot of flavor. It's not overly

00:08:53.460 complex, but it's something that, again, on a nice block of ice, something I think most people will

00:08:58.260 be able to enjoy. The next one I have here is the Four Roses Single Barrel. Now, the Four Roses

00:09:04.140 Single Barrels are new out this year. Four Roses has had a lot of different releases over the years.

00:09:09.960 One of the problems is that while Four Roses has this really unique system of doing different mash

00:09:15.320 bills mixed with different yeast, okay? If you aren't familiar, again, the mash bills are the

00:09:20.980 different grains that go into the whiskey. And then the yeast is obviously how you do the

00:09:25.880 fermentation process. And depending on the mixture of mash bills and yeast, you can get a very wide

00:09:30.420 different types of flavors. So I think they have like maybe 16 different recipes with Four Roses,

00:09:39.380 but you rarely got to experience them all because most of what Four Roses does is blend those recipes

00:09:45.040 together. And you can only get them in expensive and high-proof and hard-to-find single barrels.

00:09:50.540 That's the only time you can get kind of the specific recipes and specific expressions.

00:09:56.220 Now they started doing these more affordable and easy-to-find on-the-shelf single barrels.

00:10:01.200 This one is the O-E-S-O, which is my favorite of the four single barrels they put out this year.

00:10:08.320 They're going to be doing four every year. So we're actually going to eventually get every recipe that

00:10:12.140 Four Roses puts out. You know, if you have a specific one that you're looking for, then you can hunt

00:10:17.820 them down. They're nice because, again, this one is a hundred-proof. So it's enough proof to have a nice

00:10:23.480 flavor, to have a nice finish. It's not too thin. It's going to be nice on the palate.

00:10:27.860 But it's, you know, a hundred-proof is not overpowering. It's not going to blow

00:10:32.540 new people away. It's not, you know, you're not going to have to use ice. You can drink it neat if

00:10:37.300 you want to. You don't have to cool it off with a block of ice. So it's very versatile. It's got a

00:10:43.020 lot of flavor. One of the nice things about Four Roses is the noses are particularly good. Four Roses

00:10:50.800 always produces a very nice nose when you're smelling the bourbon. Oftentimes, if you want to smell the

00:10:56.120 best parts of the bourbon, you have to kind of like put it in the glass, you know, like the fancy

00:10:59.680 Glen Karen glass and, you know, whirl it around and try to catch the different notes. The Four Roses

00:11:05.700 are just always very fragrant. They're very powerful. And so it's just, that's a nice quality

00:11:11.700 that it retains even in this cheaper form. Now, this one is the recipe that has more of like the

00:11:18.060 red fruits and the vanilla. It's very brown sugar. It's got a nice oak component to it. A little bit of

00:11:25.260 clove in the back then, but not too much. It's not very high rye. But like I said, there's four

00:11:29.160 different recipes. So you can kind of mix and match, figure out which one you prefer the most.

00:11:33.320 That's just the one I like out of those the most. So the next one I want to talk about is from a

00:11:39.920 distillery called Cedar Ridge. Now you might think bourbon. Bourbon is from Kentucky. And of course,

00:11:45.380 it's true that Kentucky and Tennessee contain the majority of the most famous whiskey distilleries in

00:11:52.000 the United States when it comes to bourbon. But bourbon is not just stuck in Kentucky or in like

00:11:58.100 the bourbon area, the bourbon belt in Tennessee. Some people want to get specific. Tennessee whiskey

00:12:02.840 technically goes through a charcoal filtering process. So some people will say it's not bourbon,

00:12:08.180 but it is bourbon. All Tennessee whiskey is bourbon, but not all bourbon is Tennessee whiskey.

00:12:13.960 However, now there are far more states that are involved in making bourbon because it is just

00:12:19.160 something that has to be made in the United States, has to meet some other requirements,

00:12:22.760 has to be in a new charred oak barrel, has to be a majority of corn in the bash bill.

00:12:27.500 But you can make bourbon in any state. And this one is coming out of Ohio.

00:12:31.600 So this is Cedar Ridge. They're probably going to be the hardest of the easy to find bottles just

00:12:38.060 because they don't have a large distribution yet. You can still get them in, I think, most states at

00:12:44.540 this point. But you might not just walk in and find their entire line on your shelf the way that

00:12:49.240 you would with a Jack Daniels or a Wild Turkey. This is the first craft distillery that I'm talking

00:12:54.920 about today. The Four Roses and the Wild Turkey. These are major distilleries with a lot of clout and

00:13:00.580 lots of distribution. Their stuff is everywhere. You've probably seen at least their lower shelf

00:13:04.080 products at bars and at parties and these kind of things. However, Cedar Ridge is doing it all on the

00:13:09.560 road. And this is interesting because they have a grained glass method, meaning that either they own

00:13:14.240 the farm where the grains are grown or they are working with local farmers to determine the grains

00:13:19.640 that are grown. And oftentimes this means that we're getting different types of corn, different

00:13:23.460 types of wheat, specific varieties, heritage grains, heirloom grains. So you can get very different

00:13:30.900 flavors out of the craft stuff. Now, this is their rye, double barrel rye. So there's a couple things

00:13:36.960 going on here. First, it is a rye, not a bourbon, which means instead of the corn being the dominant

00:13:43.140 note, the dominant grain, a rye grain is the dominant grain. Rye used to be more popular in

00:13:49.700 the North. That's where most of the whiskey started, but then bourbon exploded in the South

00:13:54.220 due to corn. And because that's the sweeter and more approachable of these two spirits, that's the

00:14:01.020 one that tends to have grabbed people's attention. However, this is a pretty high rye one. I believe

00:14:05.400 this one, what's the mash bill here on my notes? 85% rye, 12% corn, and only 3% barley. So this is

00:14:12.740 high rye. I have seen as high as 95.5 ryes. This one is 85. So it's not as rye driven as some

00:14:20.400 Northern ryes, but it is still pretty heavily on the rye. There are more what we call a Kentucky rye

00:14:26.480 or a Tennessee rye, a Southern rye, and that one tends to be more corn. It's just barely legally rye.

00:14:31.860 Usually it's like 55% rye and the rest is corn. So it tends to have a sweeter and more agreeable

00:14:39.280 palate to bourbon drinkers. This one would be the other direction. However,

00:14:42.740 this one went through an interesting process. This is the double barreling process. So what they do is

00:14:47.380 they put it in the first new charred oak barrel. It ages there. And then when it's done, they move

00:14:52.960 it into a second new charred oak barrel. Now, sometimes this finishing process is done with

00:14:58.380 different barrels. It's done with wine barrels. So it imparts those different notes or a tequila

00:15:03.040 or a rum barrel. So it kind of adds some of those flavors. Sometimes they will put it in a second

00:15:08.980 toasted barrel that is not, it's still new, but it doesn't have any char in it. And that tends to

00:15:14.660 produce more of like a syrupy pancake type marshmallow flavor. This one is interesting because

00:15:21.700 it's two new charred oak barrels in a row and it's on a rye. And that's good because oftentimes

00:15:27.720 the double barreling will become over sweet. It's ironic because of course you get the darker oaks,

00:15:34.640 you're getting double the oak in there, but you're also getting a really, really syrupy sweetness.

00:15:39.680 And it kind of balances out the bitterness of the oak. In this instance, instead, what's happening

00:15:45.800 is that the herbalness that often comes with the rye and the heavy rye spice is a little subdued by

00:15:51.900 the double barreling, which produces an interesting flavor because it's not as chocolatey and syrupy and

00:15:57.960 coffee-like and marshmallow-like as you'd get from a bourbon that's double barreled,

00:16:01.380 but it's not as bright and floral and herby as you get in a standard rye. It produces a really

00:16:07.740 nice balance, I think. I'm somebody who does enjoy a more powerful rye. However, this strikes a nice

00:16:13.500 balance between the two. It's at, I think, 107 proof, 105 proof. So nice proof, again, elevated enough

00:16:20.640 to get you flavor and finish, but not so much that you'd have to drink this on a block of ice or,

00:16:26.220 you know, put a lot of hair on your chest in order to give it a shot. Let's see here.

00:16:34.640 Our next one is still Austin. So in our theme of craft and not made in standard bourbon states,

00:16:40.820 this is a Texas bourbon out of, you guessed it, Austin, Texas. And they are very interesting. So

00:16:47.520 the way that Texas whiskey works, again, if you're not familiar with how whiskey gets aged,

00:16:53.820 it's the expansion in and out of the barrel staves that actually gives whiskey its flavor.

00:16:59.060 When you put the white dog, when you put the stuff just off the still in, it has some sweetness,

00:17:03.500 it has some flavor, but most of what you're looking for is the aging and maturity that comes

00:17:07.500 out of moving in and out of the barrels. And one of the reasons that places like Kentucky and

00:17:12.020 Tennessee were so well liked for this is because they really sat at a nexus where things get hot in

00:17:18.500 the summer, but cold in the winter, which means the barrel, the whiskey expands into the barrel staves

00:17:23.240 when it's hot and that it contracts out of the barrel stays when it gets cold. And this in and

00:17:27.920 out produces a flavor. Now in Texas, obviously it's extremely hot. So the funny thing about this is

00:17:34.640 normally a bourbon is going to be aged at least four years and that's still kind of young, hopefully

00:17:39.680 like six, seven years. This is only two years old out of still Austin, but because the Texas is so

00:17:46.900 hot, it swells deeply into the barrel and produces a lot of deep, rich notes in there ages very quickly.

00:17:55.440 It gets a lot of Oak. It gets a lot of sugar. It builds quite quickly in that process. Uh, so I'm a

00:18:01.160 fan of the stuff they do. My, my, my, I've got one friend, every time he comes over here, he immediately

00:18:05.520 wants to grab, uh, something from still Austin because he's a huge fan of what they put out. And this

00:18:10.900 one is 70% corn, 25% rye and 5% barley. So this is a higher rye than, uh, than some of the other

00:18:19.240 bourbons we've talked about so far. It's a, so it's got a good spice to it. It's got that deep

00:18:23.580 brown sugar and Oak, even though it's only been around for two years in that Oak, it's still got

00:18:28.620 it. It's got this kind of sticky molasses quality to it. And then a nice vanilla as well.

00:18:33.620 All right. And then my last one of the affordable category is this old fits number seven. Now this

00:18:45.320 has technically been a little hard to find recently, uh, but it's now finally getting

00:18:49.940 into wider distribution. It was always meant to be an on the shelf staple, uh, from heaven

00:18:54.600 hill, uh, in their distillery. Uh, however, uh, it was so popular that it was hard to find

00:19:00.240 for a little bit. So this is their seven year bottled and bond. And, uh, this is what we call

00:19:06.500 a weeded whiskey. So what they do is instead of having the rye as the flavoring grain, they

00:19:13.180 replace it with wheat. Now remember rye is what gives you the spice. It's what gives you

00:19:17.760 the kick in a bourbon. Well, the wheat is going to soften that. It's going to give a different

00:19:22.880 dynamic. It's got what some people would call the, the wheat funk to it. Uh, it tends to be

00:19:27.660 smoother. Uh, it often produces like a cherry note though, not in this one. Uh, this one

00:19:32.720 is more like a golden honey, uh, caramel, butterscotch. It's a very easy sipper. It's not

00:19:38.680 super complex, but it's a really nice bourbon to start people out with. It's a bottle and

00:19:42.300 bond. So it's got a, uh, a hundred proof. Uh, it's seven years old. So it's got a nice

00:19:46.740 age to it. As you can see, the decanter bottle is quite nice. So it's a good gift or something

00:19:50.640 to just kind of have up on the shelf. It looks nice. It's aesthetically pleasing along with

00:19:54.520 being delicious. And again, just a very easy sipper, something that you can pass over to

00:19:59.260 somebody who's just starting in bourbon. The proof isn't going to blow them away. The

00:20:02.840 wheat is going to soften the finish. So they're not going to have that big burn afterwards.

00:20:07.640 Something that, uh, even a novice could drink neat if they wanted to. And certainly with a

00:20:12.840 piece of ice is going to be very easy and approachable.

00:20:16.760 All right. So those are all our easier to find whiskeys. Let's take a look at, uh, the top five

00:20:28.020 whiskeys of the year. Now those weren't in any order. This is, so this is my number five for the

00:20:33.460 year. And this is the Maker's Mark, uh, seller aged. So Maker's Mark, uh, is a wheat itself, a weeded

00:20:40.680 whiskey, uh, and they are a grain to glass. They work with, uh, their old, uh, with their own farm

00:20:47.460 and their own grains. Uh, they use a soft red winter wheat for this one. And, uh, this is a

00:20:54.600 whiskey that is got this age here on the side here. It's, uh, a 14, 13 and 11 year old blend.

00:21:02.080 So they're blending those three different ages of whiskey together. And the key from, uh, Maker's Mark

00:21:08.560 is they don't like to have a lot of oak on kind of their base product. They'll, they'll add oak

00:21:13.660 staves and these kinds of things. Uh, but they tend to not have a ton of oak on the base product.

00:21:19.340 Uh, so one of the things they did, because as you age whiskey, it gets oakier. It takes on some of

00:21:24.560 those bitter tannins that come from the oak barrel. Some people like that. Some people are very put off

00:21:29.800 with that. We'll talk about that more in a second. So to avoid that, uh, Maker's Mark ages this older

00:21:35.940 product and a cellar. So it's down in kind of like a cool cellar cave that they have rather than

00:21:41.300 up in the Rick house where things get hot and we get a lot of expansion. That means that even though

00:21:45.760 the whiskey has been aging, it has not been pulling as many of those like bitter oak elements

00:21:50.800 in there. Uh, so it's a very nice pour. I tend to like a Maker's Mark when they do, uh, the normal

00:21:56.940 Maker's Mark is fine. Uh, but it's not like my go-to in any way, in any way, shape or form. But when they

00:22:02.440 do these special releases, they, they put a little more care into their stuff. It usually turns out

00:22:06.980 rather well. And I'm a fan of this one. It's got a nice cinnamon notes. Uh, it's definitely got a

00:22:12.680 good amount of, uh, baking spice and caramel, uh, brown sugar. Uh, again, many, many of those classic

00:22:20.040 notes, uh, but it is weeded. So I think the proof is like one 12, so decent proof, but nothing

00:22:25.720 overpowering and something that again, because it's weeded is not going to just go crazy on your palate.

00:22:30.940 If you're someone who is sensitive, that kind of thing. All right. So this next one is, uh, the

00:22:37.740 Knob Creek 21 year. You can see it comes in a fancy box. Uh, now this is a bourbon that's old enough to

00:22:42.760 drink itself. Uh, so to say that this thing is, uh, oaky would be an understatement. It's very large.

00:22:49.140 I'm going to push off the side here. Uh, to say, yeah. So to say this is, uh, oaky would be quite the

00:22:55.040 understatement. Uh, this is, uh, very old and, uh, yeah, it's interesting because my friend had the

00:23:01.240 Knob Creek 18 year old and I tried that one and it was too oaky. Like it was overwhelmingly oaky.

00:23:08.840 And, uh, it, it, it was almost like drinking a lumber yard at home Depot. It was just unpleasant.

00:23:14.840 Now I like a lot of Oak on, on my bourbon. I like the ultra aged notes. Uh, but that one was just too

00:23:19.800 much. Surprisingly, you would think three more years in an Oak barrel, it would get Oak here.

00:23:23.620 But actually what happened is that it mellowed out and became more pleasant. It's still very

00:23:28.240 oaky. Don't get me wrong. This is, this is a climb. This is not for new bourbon drinkers. It's

00:23:33.100 not for someone who's casually walking in. If you do not like ultra Oak bourbon, this is not for you.

00:23:38.480 However, um, now that Oak is more mature and subdued and you start to get a vanilla, you start to get

00:23:45.240 leather and tobacco, which are some of my favorite, like ultra aged, uh, bourbon notes. The only you

00:23:51.060 really only get them once you start to get up there in age and Oak, uh, it's got a nice cherry

00:23:56.580 note that sits on top of it. It's, uh, it's not overwhelming. It's not bright. It's more of like a,

00:24:01.380 uh, pushing through, uh, you know, it kind of sits at the back, but it is very nice. So overall,

00:24:07.700 very much a nice bottle though. Again, don't just run out and grab that one. If you are not a fan of

00:24:13.040 Oak, because you will find yourself very angry at it. All right. So the next one is from Buffalo

00:24:19.780 trace. So if you are familiar with bourbon, you'll probably know that Buffalo trace is one of the

00:24:24.860 most popular, if not the most popular distillery in the United States. The only problem is that so

00:24:29.580 much of their stuff is incredibly hard to find. Uh, even when it's not allocated, uh, it's, it's very,

00:24:35.280 very much, uh, uh, uh, very much popular across the country. People love things like Blanton's and

00:24:41.680 the basic EH Taylor and Eagle rare. Uh, these are always bottles that people are looking for often

00:24:46.840 are treated allocated when they're, when they're not, they're just so in demand, uh, that people

00:24:51.000 will chase them. This one is the EH Taylor barrel proof. So every year they come out with a batch of

00:24:56.700 barrel proof version. I like the standard EH Taylor. That's my favorite Buffalo trace product.

00:25:01.460 Uh, but this one is the, is the higher proof version. This one is a, a, a bit of a monster. It's 127.4

00:25:07.740 proof. So it's definitely something you're going to want a little bit of ice

00:25:10.420 with, uh, especially if you're not, uh, uh, used to drinking, uh, the higher proofs. Uh,

00:25:16.840 now the proof creates a lot of flavor, a lot of flavor concentration, but it can be over

00:25:21.720 proof and too hot. The nice thing with this one is it drinks a little under its proof.

00:25:25.280 And then of course you can also add ice to, to calm it down. You don't have to, uh, just

00:25:29.980 have, uh, that proof at that, uh, straight high level. However, uh, interesting thing this

00:25:35.080 year, uh, Buffalo trace actually released two batches or, you know, which with two distinct

00:25:40.140 flavor profiles inside the EH Taylor. So this is the one that's slightly higher.

00:25:43.960 This is the 0.4 instead of the 0.2. Uh, but I really like this one because it actually has,

00:25:49.360 uh, one of the most interesting and, uh, bright cherry notes I've ever had in a bourbon. It's

00:25:55.080 very distinct. Uh, it's hard to explain other than, uh, it's like you, it's like you took a

00:26:00.980 Luxardo cherry and turned it up to 11. It's also got a very nice Oak to it, a nice vanilla,

00:26:06.360 a nice, uh, caramely butterscotch. Uh, many of the notes you would, uh, associate with the

00:26:12.040 H Taylor, but again, just with that ramped up, uh, Oak and a cherry note on top of it. So

00:26:17.880 very pleasant. Enjoy it quite a bit. Cherry is one of my favorite notes in bourbon. So

00:26:22.480 when I find one that is that dynamic and that good, I certainly enjoy it. Uh, all right.

00:26:27.660 So the second best bourbon I had this year was the Jack Daniels 12. Uh, for those who don't

00:26:33.700 know, Jack Daniels does a lot more than just it's normal, uh, old number seven anymore. Uh,

00:26:39.300 many of the new releases from Jack Daniels are quite good. They're barrel proofs. Jack Daniels

00:26:43.560 makes a fantastic, phenomenal rye now actually funny enough. Like they make one of the best

00:26:48.000 rise in the game. Uh, and you can get them for like 60 bucks. It's really, really good value.

00:26:52.640 Uh, they've been putting out, uh, their, their new toasted product is really good. Just Jack has been

00:26:57.280 killing it. Not only because they put out a wide variety of very good products recently that have

00:27:01.940 really elevated what they used to do. Uh, but they also have kept their prices very affordable.

00:27:06.580 A lot of their stuff is very easy and in reach if you can find it. Uh, so this is their age stated

00:27:11.920 line. They have a 10, a 12 and a 14 year. Now I wasn't able to find a 14 year this year. I did get

00:27:17.360 to taste it about it. Mine had it. It was really good. I would say, however, I did enjoy this 12 more

00:27:23.100 this year. Now that's not always the case. There's the first year they had the 14 and the previous 12s

00:27:27.600 have been good, but this one is particularly good. This is the third batch of the 12 year they've

00:27:31.840 put out. And I think this one really stands out heads and shoulders above, uh, the rest. Uh,

00:27:37.020 this Buffalo trace really has a very interesting, or sorry, uh, this Jack Daniels has a very interesting,

00:27:42.560 uh, off profile, uh, taste to it. Uh, along with all of the classic Jack notes, you'd expect that a,

00:27:49.360 uh, decent proof, I think of like 107. Uh, it also has like a raisin and red wine, uh, note that's

00:27:55.780 very dominant or red fruit as well. So there's just like this mixture of fruit in here. You've got

00:28:00.760 like the red fruit, uh, like a wine finish, uh, uh, kind of a separate grapey or raisin finish.

00:28:06.520 Like it's all included in, uh, this 12 year. It's just a very, very interesting and complex,

00:28:12.340 uh, whiskey, uh, that I was very surprised. I've always liked, uh, the elevated Jack Daniels

00:28:17.240 stuff, but I have to say they really outdid themselves this year with the Jack 12 year.

00:28:22.460 And then finally, uh, this was my favorite whiskey of the year. This is the four roses limited edition

00:28:28.160 blend. Uh, I believe they blended a 19 year old version of their high rye recipe, uh, with a 13

00:28:35.840 year old version of their high rye recipe. And then, uh, another 13 year old recipe to come out

00:28:42.260 with this one. And, uh, I really just enjoy this one a lot again, you know, not big into, uh, four

00:28:47.960 roses, more basic offerings though. Glad the single barrels came out this year, but their limited

00:28:52.740 editions are just top notch every year. They really crank out some of the best, uh, limited

00:28:58.180 edition whiskey. If you can get your hands on it, it's, it's a lot of red fruit. It's a lot of

00:29:02.760 vanilla, brown sugar. And because of that high rye content, you also get the rice spice and the mint

00:29:08.440 and the clove that's often prison, uh, present in a rye, but you don't, but none of it's overwhelming.

00:29:13.900 It's all a very gentle part of this. And of course, on top of that being a, you know, having 19 year old

00:29:18.900 whiskey on it, you're also getting the Oak, but the fact that it's mixed in with that 13, 14 year

00:29:22.820 old means that you get the Oak it's there, but it's not like the knob Creek 21, where it's just

00:29:27.240 overpowering. It's just hitting you in the face, uh, with the, uh, with the, uh, Oak at the end of

00:29:35.560 the day. Yep. We got there. Uh, so the, uh, yeah, so this is my favorite of the year. Uh, but let me know

00:29:40.520 what you guys think. If you're, if you're bourbon fans or rye fans, tell me, uh, what you enjoy. Uh,

00:29:46.280 we've got some time left here and that's really just what I want to do is turn this into, uh, one

00:29:52.020 of the, you know, kind of the end of year ask me anything. Uh, I'll start with, uh, super chats

00:29:58.960 first, but I'll also take other questions. Just make sure to at me in the, um, in the comments

00:30:06.780 there. If you're a, somebody who has a question, just go ahead and give me, uh, an ad so I can

00:30:11.720 find your question for the chat, but we'll get started over here with our super chat.

00:30:23.400 Joe McDermott says, Merry Christmas friends. God bless, uh, us all in the battle of 2026

00:30:30.260 with a generous donation. Well, thank you very much, man. I appreciate that quite a bit. Uh,

00:30:34.000 always great talking to you guys. Uh, you know, we're the show just continues to grow. It always

00:30:39.020 feels strange because it's just amazing that I get to do this. Um, you know, just a dream come

00:30:44.680 true that, uh, you know, is able to get into this position and do this for a living. And so I'm

00:30:49.840 always incredibly grateful. I know so many of you have been around since the earliest days of the

00:30:53.840 channel. Uh, many of you have supported me in different ways and I just really appreciate,

00:30:58.400 uh, that you guys have been so encouraging and along for the ride. So it really is fantastic

00:31:05.200 to see. It looks like we're building up some other questions here. Uh, Mr. Bio fan says,

00:31:11.140 Hey, Orn, what's the best board game and what's the best board game you played this year? Ooh,

00:31:16.020 good questions. Good questions. I haven't played a ton of new board games this year. I just have so

00:31:20.780 many board games at this point, uh, that I've been avoiding playing a bunch of new ones. Um, my friend

00:31:27.920 just got, uh, what, what board game did he get? He got a, he got a card game Riftbound. That one's

00:31:36.020 not a, a board game, but he brought that over with sample decks. And that was an interesting

00:31:40.040 custom mobile card game. I had not played that one yet. My, one of my favorite board games of all

00:31:44.560 time is Battlestar Galacta, the board game. I I'm sorry, you can't pick it up anymore. It's been out

00:31:48.860 of print for a long time and very expensive to find on the secondary market at this point with board

00:31:53.380 games. Uh, but it's kind of the world's best, uh, version of werewolf or mafia. If you've ever

00:31:58.800 played those, it's a very cool game. You've got a, you know, if you're familiar with Battlestar

00:32:02.580 Galactic, you have to hunt down who's the robots, who are the Cylons, that kind of thing. Uh, so

00:32:07.420 really always enjoyed those games, uh, quite a bit because you're not just playing the board. You're

00:32:11.560 also playing the players. So that's the most interesting part. What, what can you read on

00:32:15.540 people's faces? You know, that kind of thing. My friend also says, Hey, Orn, what's the best

00:32:19.700 board? Oh, it's the same one there. Okay. Just asked it twice.

00:32:23.380 Uh, FBI informant says angels envy is my favorite distillery, but it's a little pricey,

00:32:28.380 you know? So the different difficulty with angels envy is they finish everything, right? Like they,

00:32:33.160 they have, I think one or two of just like their straight bourbons, but almost all of it is finished

00:32:37.820 in rum casks and wine casks and, uh, tequila casks and all these things. And it tends to be a little

00:32:43.640 hit and miss. So some of them will be really good. Uh, my friend bought a tequila cask this year that we

00:32:48.720 tried, uh, that was very tasty, but it was way overpriced. And then I've had the rum

00:32:53.360 cask one and that one's good. And that one's more efficiently priced. So it really is. You're,

00:32:56.900 you're right that they can have some good ones. Uh, but you know, I've been impressed with their

00:33:00.900 stuff, but I've never been impressed with it in its price ratio, which is a little tough. Cause

00:33:04.660 there's just so many other people doing good finishes these days. You know, I I'd rather

00:33:08.720 have a Cedar Ridge finish, honestly, than I would angels envy most of the time, even though angels

00:33:12.920 envy can put out some good stuff for sure. Uh, Gable Fisk says, uh, have you ever tried

00:33:19.700 all corn bourbon? I got one in Kentucky and it was amazing. So yeah, the other name for

00:33:24.300 this is called light whiskey. Uh, it's, it's, it's a single grain whiskey, right? And, uh,

00:33:29.820 the trick with, uh, with light whiskey is it usually needs to be aged a long time because

00:33:36.460 it doesn't have any of the flavoring grains. So, uh, you have to impart the flavor entirely

00:33:41.020 through the barrel. The mash bill is just going to be sweet corn and knowing me wrong, that has

00:33:45.420 its own allure, but it's, it's not, you know, it's, it's kind of just straight corn syrup

00:33:50.120 at some point if it's not given other dynamic qualities. So if you've ever had some of the,

00:33:54.840 uh, you know, light whiskeys that have been aged for 14 years, yeah, they, they are really

00:34:00.140 interesting. Uh, you know, like young straight corn whiskey. No, not, not for me. Cause that's

00:34:06.740 just going to be too sweet. It's not going to have any dynamics to it. It's not going to

00:34:10.280 have any depth to it. It's just going to be the sweetness. So, uh, it's one of those

00:34:13.980 scenarios where it's something you can have and can be very good, but it just has to be

00:34:18.160 done in a very particular way for me. Uh, let's see here. Kamkata says, uh, thoughts on

00:34:27.740 M E mummery, me mummery. Sorry. I just, I don't know what that is. You're going to have to give

00:34:33.140 me some more details on that. Joe McDermott says, uh, do you have a new year's resolution? Uh,

00:34:40.860 I tend to not be someone who like makes explicit new year's resolutions, but of course I have

00:34:46.020 goals. Uh, you know, and I, and I think there's a natural tendency to see the renewal of the year

00:34:51.280 as a time to move into something different or start over or begin big projects. It's a,

00:34:57.100 it's a monumental reminder that, you know, life is short and we only have so much time to do the

00:35:02.660 things that we want to do. I have an incredible blessing in that I have now achieved a lot of the

00:35:08.020 things that I ever thought I was going to do, but of course there's always more, you can always be

00:35:11.220 better. You can always be more effective. Uh, you can always improve at what you're doing.

00:35:15.240 And so I'm trying to do all that. I also have a couple different, uh, book ideas half written at

00:35:20.740 this point. So, uh, if I was going to have one year's resolution, it's probably to make enough time

00:35:26.460 to write my next book. Uh, you know, it's just hard to do that when you're grinding, you know,

00:35:31.200 the shows and the appearances and you're traveling and everything else and family and whatnot.

00:35:35.720 And it's hard to, to sit down, you know, when I wrote my first book, I basically wrote it over

00:35:40.340 several years of the YouTube channel, accumulating these different essays that I was doing for the

00:35:45.140 channel and writing elsewhere. I was kind of all, they were different in tone. They had different

00:35:50.760 subjects, but they were all kind of centering around this idea of the managerial state and a scale

00:35:56.800 and the problems that were presented by elite theory. And so when I kind of sewed those things back

00:36:02.460 together for a book, it was relatively easy. I just took what I'd already written and more or

00:36:06.700 less turned it into a book. Yeah. I had to do a lot of providing connective tissue and making the

00:36:12.660 essays make sense together. I had to rewrite large chunks of it, but the research was done, you know,

00:36:17.440 the citations were done, uh, you know, the, the, the ideas had been formed. And so I was really more

00:36:22.600 revising than writing this time. I've got to write it from the ground up. So it's a little more of a,

00:36:27.460 excuse me, involved process. Let's see. Uh, the tasteful chicken says, are you doing going to do

00:36:36.280 some more commentary round tables with the blaze next year? It's a great question. Of course,

00:36:40.940 last year we had the election. So I was on, uh, you know, the, the election desks and we were doing

00:36:46.660 round tables there. We haven't always done a personality round table. It tends to be who's

00:36:52.220 where, you know, the blaze is based in Texas, but not all the hosts live there, including me. And so

00:36:57.360 we're not always there at the same time. Uh, so, you know, I'm on the shows of guys like Steve Dace

00:37:02.400 and, uh, Jason Whitlock on a, you know, fairly regular basis. I've been on, you know, Sarah

00:37:07.220 Gonzalez and Ali Beth Stuckey and Stu and all of these guys. So, you know, we know each other and

00:37:12.180 we, we've talked to each other and, uh, but, but we really get everyone together to kind of do

00:37:17.320 one. That might be something in the future. I'm sure it's something that people would want to see,

00:37:21.020 but, uh, I can't tell you right away that we have one of those on the schedule.

00:37:24.320 Uh, Bobby says, uh, what is your favorite Christmas movie and which Christmas movies

00:37:30.960 do you hate? Uh, well, you know, you could always do the like cheesy, you know, die hard. It's a

00:37:36.700 Christmas movie thing. And I love die hard. It is one of my all time favorite movies, but I'm not

00:37:40.680 going to cop out by, by going with that as my Christmas movie. Um, you know, I always have the

00:37:46.220 Charlie Brown Christmas special was just the core Christmas thing. We watched in my house. That was,

00:37:53.000 uh, critical. It wasn't really Christmas until Linus had explained to you what Christmas was all

00:37:57.240 about. Uh, but I've always also loved a white Christmas as one of my favorites. Uh, I've always

00:38:02.520 enjoyed it. It's a wonderful life. Uh, though I tend to watch that one every other year, kind of rotate

00:38:07.280 that one in, uh, you know, those, those are some of my top ones. Uh, you know, uh, the Chris,

00:38:12.820 a Christmas story. I know that one gets hate is like a boomer, uh, you know, nostalgia or whatever,

00:38:19.400 but I love that movie. I don't care what you say. That movie is hilarious and, uh, closely

00:38:23.160 associated with Christmas for me. So I enjoy that quite a bit. Uh, let's see what Christmas

00:38:29.340 movies do I hate? Uh, I don't know. There's plenty of them. All, all of the new, completely

00:38:34.620 secular trash. I mean, don't get me wrong. Something like white Christmas isn't exactly

00:38:38.720 Jesus centric, but at least, you know, it seemed to embrace the spirit of the season in a more

00:38:44.880 wholesome sense. Now you've got like the rock riding around with, I don't know, CGI, uh, reindeer

00:38:51.680 firing off missiles. You know, I don't know. It just seems kind of dumb.

00:39:01.880 Uh, pilots G two one six says, uh, I know you're a sabotage guy. Do you have a favorite Christmas

00:39:08.880 song other than their offshoot, uh, trans-Siberian Orgastra? Yeah. I mean, of course I'm a huge,

00:39:14.300 uh, sabotage fan. And, uh, you know, the funniest thing is that whenever someone doesn't know who

00:39:19.780 sabotage is, I'm like, yes, you do. Uh, you've listened to them every Christmas. It's called

00:39:23.580 the trans-Siberian Orgastra. Uh, but if we're excluding them, I love, we just want to stay in

00:39:27.980 the metal realm of Christmas albums. Uh, I think that, uh, you know, uh, uh, Rob from, uh, Judas Priest,

00:39:36.280 Rob Halford has a couple of, uh, very fun Christmas albums. Uh, I was just posting the August

00:39:41.840 Burns Red, uh, metal Christmas album. I know that Skillet was very controversial this year

00:39:46.980 for putting out Okuma, Okuma, Emmanuel with a metal breakdown, uh, near the end. Uh, so that was,

00:39:52.780 that was pretty funny. Uh, but, uh, yeah, enjoy all of those. Right wing, uh, referee says, uh,

00:40:00.800 you say you're from Florida. Are you FSU or UF man? Uh, I am, uh, I went to USF. I went to,

00:40:06.960 uh, uh, school in Tampa. Uh, so, uh, I am a USF man, though. I must say I do not watch a lot of

00:40:13.260 college football. Uh, I do mostly watch, uh, uh, just the Buccaneers. Uh, not, not because,

00:40:19.640 uh, I don't enjoy college football, but honestly, I usually just watch one team and it's hard to catch

00:40:24.600 all the USF games. They just aren't on, uh, all the time. Uh, sometimes they've been good. Sometimes

00:40:29.560 they'll make the top 20. Sometimes, uh, they won't, but, uh, yeah, if I'm picking a Florida team,

00:40:33.840 that's mine. Let's see here. And Aram says, uh, Merry Christmas or any distillery you can

00:40:42.040 recommend visiting as a tourist. Well, thank you. Merry Christmas to you. Uh, so I haven't been to

00:40:46.580 that many distilleries. Uh, I've been to the, uh, Jack Daniels one, which I could definitely

00:40:52.520 recommend. That was a great, uh, that's a huge campus, a very interesting distiller tour.

00:40:57.020 I went on the uncle nearest tour just cause it's next to that one, but that one's all super social

00:41:01.820 justice-y cause a black woman founded it. They're actually going into bankruptcy. I think it's

00:41:07.180 their question of whether that brand will even continue because they apparently leveraged all

00:41:10.740 of their debt against, uh, uh, whiskey barrels in Tennessee. There's a law where you can actually

00:41:15.820 take out loans against the future profits of your whiskey barrels. And they did that and it did not

00:41:21.260 work out for them. So I don't even know if they're going to still be there. That's really all the

00:41:24.840 distilleries I've been to. Uh, you know, I might end up going to more. I'm probably sure I will.

00:41:29.880 Uh, but, uh, so far that's all we got, you know, we don't really have a lot of distilleries in

00:41:33.540 Florida. So if I want to go to one, you kind of have to travel to Tennessee or Kentucky or places

00:41:38.160 like that. Uh, KO seven, seven, seven, two says, thanks for all the streams with the great guests

00:41:46.840 that we really enjoy. Uh, is, uh, is all the chaos post Charlie assassination, people striving for power

00:41:52.620 position, or is it something else? You know, I just did a thread on this. And of course, like I said,

00:41:58.160 I really want to avoid all the influencer drama, but that was kind of the point of the thread was,

00:42:02.440 you know, why are we in this scenario? And when I think about it, I mean, kind of one of the things

00:42:07.300 I said in the thread was ultimately one of the reasons we're in the scenario is the new right

00:42:12.000 had to go in this guerrilla warfare mode, right? So one of the things that, uh, institutions do

00:42:18.580 is they make you slow and they make you unresponsive. So the right didn't have any institutions

00:42:25.940 really. And the left had lots of them. And so our tactic was basically to subvert the need for

00:42:32.660 robust institutions by basically going to this guerrilla warfare that new media allowed.

00:42:38.280 And that was really good because it created the advantage that, you know, the rebels always have

00:42:42.260 against the empire. You can do the guerrilla tactics. You can do the strikes. You're, you're,

00:42:47.340 you know, you're, you're not centralized. It's easy for you to move and hit and adapt.

00:42:52.080 And I think when we look at the media environment, it's very clear that the right,

00:42:55.620 especially through the podcast sphere has dominated that recently in a way that we probably

00:43:00.520 haven't seen since talk radio was insurgent. And this one is even more, uh, decentralized and even

00:43:05.680 more able to seal power away from legacy media. The downside with that is of course the T.E.

00:43:10.960 Lawrence problem. What happens when T.E. Lawrence is no longer there or is no longer able to bind

00:43:16.380 the Arab coalition together against the Ottomans? You know, they fall apart. They can't get the job

00:43:20.860 done. This is the classic problem with kind of having this tribal structure. It's great in the

00:43:25.900 sense that you can, you know, strike from anywhere and be nimble and agile, but you don't really have

00:43:31.660 much holding you together. And it turns out that actually Charlie Kirk might've been our T.E.

00:43:35.040 Lawrence. He might've been the guy who was really, you know, binding these different tribes together.

00:43:39.620 And so afterwards, what does that look like? Well, it's all the people who hated each other,

00:43:44.700 had been, you know, competing with jobs with each other, competing for audience with each other,

00:43:48.880 had been disagreeing on issues, disagreeing on motives, slapping each other. Suddenly all that

00:43:54.960 stuff comes to the forefront. There's no one to cool things down. There's no Charlie to make the

00:43:58.240 phone call and be like, don't say that. Delete that tweet. We'll work it out. I'm going to put

00:44:02.520 you guys together on the phone. We're going to have a zoom meeting. You're like, there's just no

00:44:05.960 longer that guy anymore. Hey, I'm going to invite both of you to turning point and we're going to hash

00:44:09.400 this out. I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm sure turning point is going to continue to do that,

00:44:12.600 but you know, Charlie was a Rolodex, right? And a, and a diplomat. He wasn't,

00:44:16.900 it wasn't just the institution. So you can try to use the institution, but we really don't have

00:44:21.020 a lot of them to discipline the message. And so that means I think that people are scrambling

00:44:25.560 for all kinds of things. I think some of it is power. I think some of it is position. I think

00:44:29.860 some of it is just petty hatred and, you know, we got to get rid of that, but I'm not sure how to solve

00:44:34.620 this problem because there are real pernicious threats on the right. You know, there, there is

00:44:39.340 the attempt to return us back to con ink, Mitt Romney, John McCain, neocon politics. Like you

00:44:46.700 can see it everywhere. It's being pushed by major media outlets. It's being pushed by, uh, you know,

00:44:52.280 think tanks. It's being pushed by individual actors in, uh, in different offices and media.

00:44:58.920 And so, uh, that, that full frontal attack is happening. And so I'm not sure what to do because

00:45:03.900 it's some, in some sense, we have to stop those bad actors from trying to kind of be resurgent

00:45:10.160 and return the Republican party to a pre Trump state. Simultaneously, uh, we can't spend all

00:45:16.620 of our time sniping at each other. Like every episode can't be like, what did Tucker say about

00:45:20.820 Candace? What did Candace say about Charlie? What did, yeah, like you can't, you can't do this

00:45:25.120 forever. Oh, Megan Kelly sent out a tweet. Oh, I can't believe that, uh, you know, Josh Hammer

00:45:29.660 said that like, we, we can't do this forever. So there has to be some kind of resolution,

00:45:33.980 but without a binding figure like Charlie and the fact that the Trump administration has

00:45:38.340 kind of got stuck in the mud, you know, we used to basically be a coalition built on winning

00:45:42.040 for once. Like Trump held the coalition and dictated the terms because he won. And then

00:45:49.060 Charlie was the kind of guy that went through and smooth things over as a diplomat. Well, Trump's

00:45:53.480 not winning and Charlie's not here to be the diplomat. And so we're, we're up a creek a little

00:45:57.480 bit on this one and I don't have a great answer. I don't, I don't want to sit around being bitter

00:46:02.500 and ugly to other commentators all day. Like, I'm just, I'm, I'm sick of it, man. I'm sick

00:46:06.920 of it. Like to the extent I've been involved in it, I don't want to be involved in it anymore,

00:46:10.940 but I also don't know how to keep quiet when like, they're obviously these malicious actors

00:46:15.480 who are trying to get people fired or ruin their lives or get the bounce to the coalition

00:46:19.400 because they don't, they're not, you know, the most excited person sending $5 billion

00:46:23.620 over to someone's favorite country. Like I don't, and I don't know how to fix this.

00:46:27.760 I genuinely don't. We have to be able to have these disagreements. We have to be able to fix

00:46:31.520 these problems. We have to be able to push out bad actors, but we also can't spend every day

00:46:36.120 talking about, you know, all the different drama going on. Like we just had in the last few days,

00:46:42.900 one of the biggest stories that broke through and it didn't just break through conservative

00:46:47.220 media broke through into liberal media. Even the centrist liberals were talking about the terrible

00:46:52.100 things that had been done to white men. That should have been like all of the conference,

00:46:56.660 like all of TPSA should just been people saying, we have to stop this. We have to end this attack on,

00:47:01.720 you know, our core voters, our core demographic that support the Republican party. We need to fight

00:47:06.960 back against these injustices. We need to file lawsuits. We need to see firings. We need to see

00:47:11.100 public shamings. There needs to be a, well, public reckoning, I believe is the term the left use

00:47:17.520 on these issues. Right. And we're just not seeing any of that. Everyone is obsessed with saying,

00:47:22.000 but have you decried, you know, whichever podcast host I hate the most? Are you currently attacking

00:47:27.880 the foreign influence that I hate and supporting the foreign influence I love? And to be clear,

00:47:33.380 increasingly, it's obvious that there is foreign influence on both sides of this whole thing.

00:47:37.760 And so I don't, I just don't know. I don't have a great, sorry. I spent a lot of time on that

00:47:41.840 question, but it is something I've been thinking about. I don't want to turn the stream into it, but

00:47:45.200 that is something that I've definitely think about. Joe Williams says, what books should I read before

00:47:51.440 I start my political podcast next year? Excellent question. Excellent question. It depends on what

00:47:56.920 you've read so far. However, I'll just go with some of the basics. Of course, you should be reading

00:48:01.980 the laws, the Republic, and the different dialogues from Plato. You should be reading rhetoric,

00:48:09.960 politics, and ethics from Aristotle. You should be reading Machiavelli, the prince, and you should

00:48:19.480 read discourses on Livy if you're familiar enough with Roman history to get something out of it.

00:48:25.700 There is a lot of references in that book, so if you're not familiar, that can be difficult.

00:48:29.960 You should read the Machiavellians by James Burnham. You should read, you should read

00:48:36.260 the Total State. I hear that one's decent. You should read On Power from Bertrand de Juvenal.

00:48:44.860 You should read The Generative Nature of Political Constitutions and Sovereignty. Both of those are

00:48:50.920 essays from Joseph de Maestra. I would say that that's, oh, and I would definitely say Patrick

00:49:01.960 Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed. That's just a smattering. I didn't, you know, I would probably

00:49:07.440 have a more careful and thoughtful layout for like an actual program or something, but those are just

00:49:14.480 the first ones that pop into my head that I think you really need to get a good mix of classical political

00:49:19.600 grounding while then also, obviously, there are many, many authors in between that you need to read as

00:49:26.060 well, but, you know, that gives you a mix of kind of ancient kind of enlightenment and new all

00:49:32.980 simultaneously, so. Bobby says, I've noticed movies started to suck since 2010, and then the article

00:49:42.500 came out about not hiring white men in the media starting in 2011, and I got my answer. Yeah, I mean,

00:49:47.940 and I, and, you know, all, you know, we talked about this, Jeremy and Carl and I did when he was on a few

00:49:53.440 days ago to discuss this, but credit to Matt Walsh also for just coming out and saying very directly,

00:49:58.720 like, obviously the thing we're not supposed to say, but the conclusion that's impossible to avoid

00:50:02.740 from this story coming out is not only were white people systematically removed from all of these

00:50:08.780 prestigious positions, not only were specifically white men barred from access, but all of these

00:50:14.300 institutions got worse, and that's because by and large, white men have been responsible for more of the

00:50:21.820 dynamic, creative output, scientific output, and pretty much every other cultural achievement

00:50:28.120 in the United States. Now, of course, many other people of other backgrounds, races, ethnicities

00:50:32.780 have contributed, but that core has been critical to the success of the United States, and when you

00:50:37.780 remove it, you can't be shocked when you're also removing a good amount of your most talented people.

00:50:43.380 Joe says, is Christmas in Florida fake because of the weather? No snow. I mean, I've had most of my

00:50:51.960 Christmases in Florida, so for me, Christmas is a time in which the temperature gets down to 50 degrees.

00:50:57.480 I was in Washington, D.C. last week, and it was 20 degrees outside, and I almost died, so I am not built

00:51:06.340 for the cold. I am not built for snow. You know, it's pretty and everything, but it's cold, it's wet,

00:51:12.080 and I just don't ever want to ever want to do it. Let's see here. Looking for some more. Make sure

00:51:17.660 you include my at if you're talking to me, guys, because there's just so much chat. It's hard to pick

00:51:21.680 out questions that don't have the at in there. Joe Williams says, can we request quests for the

00:51:34.040 New Year? Things to achieve. Okay, sure. We'll go with some of the easy things first. Obviously,

00:51:41.880 if you are not in a church and in a relationship with God, you need to fix that. It's okay if you

00:51:48.860 have difficulty with faith, if it's something you have to work towards, but you're going to work on

00:51:52.740 it this year. It's okay if you walk in and you're not immediately a believer. It's okay if you don't

00:51:56.760 immediately even buy everything, but you're going to go to church, and you're going to talk to people,

00:52:00.680 and you're going to pray even if you don't mean it, even if you're just trying to figure it out.

00:52:04.900 You're going to read the Bible. You're going to talk to God. You're going to build relationships

00:52:08.740 in your community, and worst case scenario, you're going to meet a lot of really good people.

00:52:13.500 You're going to get some wise teaching that will help you even if you're not Christian.

00:52:16.800 You will probably build a support group of people who will help you in difficult times,

00:52:20.440 and God willing, you're going to come to Christ. Also, if you are not putting in time at the gym,

00:52:28.840 that's something you need to be doing. If you're not putting in time training in some kind of

00:52:33.900 combative, whether it's a martial art or gun training, these are things that you should be

00:52:38.080 doing in the new year. It's things you should have been doing anyway, but it's a good thing to start.

00:52:42.480 And I'll put one that maybe is a little less obvious, but one you should absolutely doing.

00:52:47.640 You need to be organizing. It's time not just to go to church, but it's time to join your local

00:52:52.660 Old Glory Club chapter or another fraternal organization that's aligned. I know there's a few of

00:52:58.060 them that have popped up that aren't exactly the OGC, but are a similar mindset. Or you need to be

00:53:03.200 joining local groups. You need to be participating in community. You need to be building a Rolodex of

00:53:09.220 like-minded people that you can rely on. If something went sideways, if there was a problem,

00:53:13.560 if there was something you need to get fixed, if your community needs something, you need to be

00:53:17.140 able to call these people and make it happen. I'm down here and there are a lot of hurricanes and

00:53:21.560 my church is the one that the community calls when the hurricane comes. We're the ones that make sure

00:53:27.180 that people have food and water. We're the ones out there with chainsaws. We're the ones out there

00:53:31.700 doing demo and clearing out sites and repainting things and all that after the storm.

00:53:39.940 And not only is that a positive impact on the community, but it also means you have a lot of

00:53:43.920 power just to be practical. You shouldn't just do it for the power, but the practical result is

00:53:48.700 if you're a citizen that your community can rely on, then you're going to wield more power in that

00:53:54.300 area. You're going to wield more influence. You're going to be someone that people want to go to

00:53:57.920 when things get rough. And that's something you should be making yourself into. So, you know,

00:54:02.580 through the spiritual, through the physical, and through your contributions to the community.

00:54:09.000 Let's see here. Through. Got a few more. Thank you, Orens, which I appreciate. Thank you very much,

00:54:16.500 guys. Great talking to you. Oh, and let me know if you guys enjoyed the whiskey content and all.

00:54:21.460 Like I said, just something I've been doing on the side as a hobby. You know, I've considered

00:54:24.920 making like a separate channel or something like that. I've been writing the reviews for the Blaze

00:54:28.860 magazine. But if that's, if that's something you'd like to see me do in more detail, you know,

00:54:33.260 do wider set of reviews or that kind of thing. Let me know if that's content that you're interested

00:54:38.560 in. I can look more into that. Joe McDermott says, any tips on giving friends, on giving friends

00:54:45.720 who are satisfied with 2024 a sense of urgency? Yes. That's a great question. There are especially

00:54:52.000 a lot, a lot, a lot of people who are like, well, Trump won some victories. We're in power. I don't

00:54:58.180 need to think about this anymore. They're not paying attention to what's going on around them.

00:55:01.720 And I would say it's really important to impose onto people the understanding that these institutions

00:55:07.380 will come back. You know, save the Democrat quotes where they say, we're going to arrest all

00:55:12.460 these people. We're going to arrest Tom Homan and we're going to arrest Marco Rubio. And we're

00:55:17.460 going to put all these people in jail for war crimes. Pete Hegseth, you know, let them know

00:55:21.320 they're coming for you too. You know, when, when these people are back in power, when they control

00:55:25.660 the FBI again, which has not been dismantled and is totally still full of liberals, when they come

00:55:30.040 back, they're going to go after you again. And like, you need to, you need to make clear to them

00:55:34.480 that the problem is existential and continuing. It's not minor and it's not over. It's not

00:55:41.400 because you won an election. That's not how it works. Uh, Mr. Bob fan says, what should

00:55:47.620 I buy on steam sale? Good question. You know, I really haven't played a ton of new video games

00:55:54.760 this year. Uh, I really liked the first Hades, but the second one is just awful and filled

00:56:01.660 with woke trash. So I certainly cannot rep and recommend that at all. Uh, man, I don't have

00:56:08.820 a lot of great immediate recommendations for new video games to me, to be honest. I tend to go back

00:56:14.280 and play. Like if I play video games at this point, I'm going back to replay like old Castlevanias

00:56:20.000 or, you know, that kind of thing. I really don't spend a lot of time cause I'm an old man.

00:56:24.980 You know, it's just how it is. Like I've gotten to the point where I'm more interested in retro

00:56:29.340 games than I am new games. Uh, I just don't want to chase the hardware. I don't want to, I don't

00:56:34.240 usually have 80 hours of my time. Every, every video game now wants to be 80 hours long,

00:56:38.760 which was cool when I was 12 and didn't have much to do with my life. But today I just

00:56:43.440 cannot invest that kind of time anymore. So it tends to be smaller bursts of gaming that I do now.

00:56:50.080 Um, says, uh, Gobblefist says, have you watched Freeran yet? Nope. I don't even know how to pronounce

00:56:57.160 it. So obviously not very good with that. Uh, Dalton says, uh, have you ever had High West

00:57:05.420 Double Rye? Yes. So, uh, High West is interesting. Uh, they, they've fallen off a little bit. They

00:57:10.780 used to have some really good stuff. Uh, they're, they're prisoners share and they're, they're, uh,

00:57:16.120 uh, what's it called? Winter's Night Dram or something like that. Uh, those were all good. Uh,

00:57:22.740 they always had the Camp Fire and the, the other rye, their higher end rye. It's like Resolution

00:57:28.500 or something rye. Uh, that was good. The Double Rye is more of a mixing rye. It's more of a, so

00:57:33.540 that's one that I use if I'm making like a old fashioned, you know, that, that's a, it's more

00:57:38.760 of a, it's good, but I wouldn't drink it neat too often. There are other ryes that I would prefer

00:57:43.180 neat. Uh, however, it's a great cocktail one. It's got, uh, it's got the blend of the two different

00:57:48.920 mash bills to the high rye and then the normal rye, uh, which makes it a much more even ride

00:57:54.020 than you'd get in some of those other ones stands up well to other ingredients and cocktails. So

00:57:57.800 I'm a fan, uh, but it wouldn't be something that I would put on, uh, you know, like just a block of

00:58:03.380 ice on a regular basis. Let's see here or thank yous. Appreciate it guys. Uh, Aramaic Discourse

00:58:13.560 says, how would you grade the American rights performance over the last year overall? Uh, well,

00:58:18.360 if we were talking about the first three months, I'd say like a minus, if we're talking about the

00:58:23.220 last three months, I'd say D minus. Uh, so started out really strong, looked great, but this is the

00:58:31.120 problem with executive orders. There's only so much you can do. And eventually, you know,

00:58:35.600 George judges start hitting you and Congress needs to actually pass legislation. And as you can tell

00:58:41.360 from the fact that Trump is still desperately even trying to just get like basic nominees through his

00:58:45.000 own Senate, uh, the Republican party still hates Trump. Like they're still anti-Trump. The

00:58:49.960 Republican party is still anti-Trump and that's what you got to understand. Uh, so I think that

00:58:55.200 in many ways, the administration is doing their best, but at some point they're going to have to

00:58:58.460 either decide like we're breaking the glass and just doing stuff or, you know, they're going to

00:59:03.560 continue to run into these problems. Cause I just don't think they're going to be able to get

00:59:06.160 congressional Republicans in line. Uh, let's see.

00:59:15.000 Um, Chud Pilled a term, uh, says, uh, can we make Chud Pilled a term? Uh, I don't know. I don't

00:59:29.440 know. Uh, I mean, it's a, it is a term it exists, but it's not my favorite. Uh, I, I mean, I will,

00:59:35.780 I will sometimes invoke Chud, uh, to kind of give a sense that the liberals hate you. Uh, but I don't

00:59:42.180 know if I would, I don't know if I'm fully willing to embrace that. Like the, the, the full

00:59:46.860 on Chud nationalism. I'm not sure if I'm ready to embrace that as the overall term for what we're

00:59:51.400 doing. Jacob says, have you ever tried the bird dog whiskeys? I like strawberry, but it's probably

00:59:57.880 too sweet for a lot of people. Don't care for the blackberry. Yeah. I was going to say, isn't

01:00:00.440 that one of those like artificially flavored? Like they've got a thousand. It's like the old

01:00:04.220 smoky. They got a thousand artificially flavored. I'm not big on that. I I'm, I'm more of a,

01:00:09.560 a mainstream bourbon guy. I like bourbons that are finished in other flavors, but those tend

01:00:15.980 to be, uh, more delicately blended in because the finish is coming from a natural barreling

01:00:20.920 process as opposed to just like dumping artificial flavor in there that I can usually taste right

01:00:25.900 away. And I tend not to be a big fan. Oh, let's see.

01:00:30.140 Uh, we've got, uh, K Pacer Lastowski says, uh, are you pro or against believing in Santa Claus

01:00:44.580 with one's kids? Big argument in the family right now. Yeah. I, you know, I am sympathetic

01:00:50.160 to the existence of Santa Claus, uh, because of course he does exist. Um, but, uh, I understand

01:00:56.840 that some people are worried that that kind of disenchantment early on, if a child, you

01:01:01.560 know, falls under the understanding that there isn't a, uh, a Santa Claus, that poor child,

01:01:06.180 uh, can lose faith in other miraculous contents or is worried that their parents are lying to

01:01:11.660 them on some level. I get that. And that is a real concern. I don't, I don't, uh, hold

01:01:16.760 it against anyone who doesn't, uh, encourage, uh, their child to, uh, write to Santa Claus and

01:01:22.360 that kind of thing. But, uh, ultimately I think it's, it's okay to have, uh, you know, those

01:01:27.840 mystified moments. Um, but, um, the way you transition your child to understanding Santa Claus

01:01:34.420 probably matters. That's probably something I can think on deeper, but like I said, like just kind

01:01:39.320 of generally I'm sentimentally attached to that notion and understanding, but I do get the, I do

01:01:45.560 get the points people make about it being a problem. Uh, let's see here. I think I've got one

01:01:51.520 more super chat again, or is that the same one? Oh, I think it's yes. Joe says a Merry Christmas

01:01:58.380 friends. God bless us all in the battles of 2026 with a big donation. You may have already put that

01:02:05.200 one out there. I don't know. I may just reread it again, but thank you either way. I appreciate it.

01:02:08.160 You got, you got a double super chat if that's the case. All right, guys. Well, I think I'm going

01:02:12.520 to wrap it up. Looks like we've gotten through a good amount of questions and we're coming up in an

01:02:16.200 hour. Again, if you like this type of content, let me know. This is just something fun I was going to do

01:02:20.540 for Christmas, but if it's popular, if people enjoy it, then maybe I can start working in,

01:02:25.040 uh, any of these, um, you know, some of these reviews or different things, or I can start a

01:02:30.400 separate channel, separate podcast, that kind of thing. See how that works if people enjoy that.

01:02:34.860 But of course the main content here will remain what it's been. This is mainly just a fun trial run

01:02:40.400 during the Christmas season to see how people enjoyed it. Uh, thank you everybody once again for

01:02:45.040 joining me. It's been fantastic to speak with all of you again. I really appreciate your support.

01:02:49.500 It's been another amazing year of growth and interesting things for the channel. I've just

01:02:53.980 been able to do all kinds of amazing stuff. I mean, it's, it's been a wild year of, of things

01:02:59.880 again. I just never thought that I would get to do so. And it's all thanks to you guys. So I'm just

01:03:04.880 incredibly blessed. I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a very happy new year.

01:03:09.740 And as always, I will talk to you next time.

The Auron MacIntyre Show - December 19, 2025

Top 5 Whiskeys of 2025 and Christmas AMA ｜ 12⧸19⧸25

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