Fast Food, the Holy Spirit, and Kidney Stones

Studio open and mic check

The hosts open the show with loose studio banter: clothes, an old navy shirt, a midlife-crisis joke, and paper swimming trunks that look like a quilt. One host says to another, 'I can't hear you, Ben' (seg-00025). The group riffs on laundry habits before landing the show's first topic.

KFC Double Down taste test

A host reviews KFC's Double Down sandwich (introduced on the previous week's show), having eaten the grilled-chicken version at midday: 'like holding a very warm, dead fish.' The crew jokes about KFC endorsing the show and debates breaded vs. grilled, after-effects, and the posted calories (460 for the grilled). Another host calls it 'Ben's sandwich' (seg-00043).

Fast-food restaurant of choice debate

• If you had to pick one fast-food restaurant right now, where would you go and what would you get?

A host asks Matt Cassidy by name (seg-00167) which fast-food restaurant he'd pick; with two kids he lands on McDonald's by necessity, but for himself it's a Wendy's burger, fries, and drink. The group needles Dan for his 'masculine stance' of volunteering to try the Double Down, and someone asks the chat to weigh in.

KFC meal stories and jokes gone wrong

The hosts trade stories: a woman returning a KFC meal because it didn't look like the picture, a host's teenage Burger King job at Merle Hay Mall ending in a bag-explosion prank gone wrong, a shoe-bomb joke gone wrong, a Meet the Parents callback, and a football player bringing a loaded revolver to school. They circle back to how the Double Down eater is feeling.

Food poisoning and gross-food stories

• Has anyone ever gotten really, really sick from eating something?

A host asks the crew whether anyone has ever gotten really sick from eating something (seg-00392). Stories follow: boiled hot dogs soaked in butter and rolled in sugar at age nine, never having had food poisoning, and a jalapeño tolerance debate. Zach is asked about botulism (seg-00440).

Food chat round: Oreo Fluff, Famous Dave's, calories, downtown Des Moines

The food talk continues with jalapeños, Mike's off-camera Hy-Vee Oreo Fluff food poisoning (seg-00495), a chat tip about Famous Dave's pig-on-pig burger, the Double Down's 460 calories and 1,430mg sodium, and a detour about how hard it is to buy a drink in downtown Des Moines. 'We have talked about food for 43 minutes' (seg-01299).

Bendo Land: the vending-machine paradise pitch

A host pitches 'Bendo Land' (seg-00603): buying the abandoned Sonic in Altoona next to Prairie Meadows Casino and turning it into a vending-machine paradise selling soda, liquor, and underwear for late-night emergencies. The crew works out a scenario (heavily drinking, soiling yourself, changing in the car) for when a man might desperately need machine-sold undies.

Aged fast-food vending and the food-cab delivery model

Building on Bendo Land, a host proposes a heated vending machine stocked hourly with fresh McDonald's burgers to skip the drive-thru. Then 'me and Mike very much explored that business model' (seg-00722): the food-cab idea needs a $5–$6 delivery fee plus 15–18% from the restaurant to pay drivers $10/hour. The crew debates whether delivered McDonald's is gross or convenience people will pay for.

Leftovers, fridges, and food paranoia

• What foods are actually worth saving as leftovers?
• Do wives get offended when you don't eat the leftovers?

The crew debates reheating fast food ('disgusting, gross, and immoral'), Jack's Pizza left on the stove, and what foods are worth saving (chili and soups win). They discuss wives who get offended at uneaten leftovers, the paranoia of eating at other people's houses (only cans and bottles, no milk, inspect the silverware), and plastic forks for guests.

Gas station food: QuikTrip vs Casey's vs Come-and-Go

The hosts rank gas-station fare: QuikTrip wins for the roller hot dogs (in clear containers since customers were double-dogging the foam ones), Casey's for pizza, and stations with 'go' in the name lose. Includes the accidental transition 'we'll hit on that in the newsroom a little later on' (seg-01086), Matt's wrapped-or-bottled rule, and the email-spam origin question.

Family dinners, steak sauce, and Stuckey's

• What is your favorite family sit-down dinner?

Asked for his favorite family sit-down dinner (seg-01138), a host picks spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread; others debate A1 sauce etiquette, a dad who got mad about ketchup on steak, and whether buffaloes are inherently spicy (bison is Greek for 'ox-like'). The food block closes with childhood Stuckey's peanut logs and 'bison boy' as a wife's nickname for Dan (seg-01289).

Communion juice, opera voice, and the break

The crew jokes that the show is 'primarily centered on Jesus and marshmallows' (seg-01303), complains the communion juice has tasted funny ('Get Welch's'), notes Dan's recurring opera voice, and asks Dan's wife to verify 'Bison Boy' via the chat. The host calls a five-minute break (seg-01359).

Church invitation and Pathway testimony

Back from the break bumper, the host invites listeners to Pathway Church in Johnston: 'if all you are is looking for a church... this may not be the place for you' — the pitch is for Jesus and relationship, not a comfortable seat. Matt Cassidy describes church shopping from Norwalk to Pleasant Hill to Pathway; another host describes a too-big church where 'it starts to feel like you're doing things just to do them.' Includes the 'hot dogs with sugar' cafe joke and the foot-massage-in-labor anecdote.

Forgotten God: our neglect of the Holy Spirit

A host reads an extended paragraph from 'Forgotten God' by Francis Chan (seg-01567): churches that 'do not depend on the Spirit,' faithfulness over numbers, and 'Only the Holy Spirit can do that.' He confesses a discomfort — faith that the Spirit could radically change his life ('he could ship me off to India without my wife and kids') — and preaches that 'life is a vapor' and all that matters is being ready to meet your maker, recalling Sean Engeldinger's sudden death.

Church culture: greeters, green stewardship, Jesus shirts

• What keeps people from going to church?

The hosts discuss contemporary vs. traditional church ('come out strong without being offensively strong'), reasons people skip church (past experiences, jerk evangelism), and Pathway's organic welcome vs. assigned greeters — until the chat reveals Double O Olsen is the head of the greeting ministry (seg-01920). Detours: cloth grocery bags and the green movement, Al Gore, the conversion van, a failed attempt to pick up a homeless man, and whether Jesus shirts are tacky.

Saved vs. Christ follower: assurance and the journey

The crew digs into salvation language: one host avoids 'saved' ('I thought you were saved, you thought you were done') in favor of 'Christ follower' because 'either you're following' — an action word — crediting Dan for the phrase (seg-02254). Another host reflects on seeking far longer than he thought and resenting the 'are you saved?' question. The bit ends with a secret vote on whether Matt gets to come back next Sunday, run by Double O Olsen.

Pop culture detour: Planet of the Apes and Charlton Heston

From the greeter 'uprising' the crew pivots to Charlton Heston movies: Planet of the Apes, the Ten Commandments ('it ruins me for him'), and Call of the Wild spotted on the over-the-air 'This' movie channel. A host can't place who Heston's stance reminds him of.

Pants's dramatized Bible on CD review

A host reviews the dramatized Bible on CD that Pants ordered and burned to discs for him: Satan tempting Jesus 'isn't very Satan-y,' Judas isn't weasel-y enough, and the teachers of the law overdo the trap. Detour into the piracy ethics of a second copy ('as long as you're not listening to it at the same time'), a sermon that made him quit pirated music, and how James Earl Jones's and Denzel Washington's voices distract him.

Cana sass, kidney stones, and 'women are much stronger than men'

• Is it okay to put a little sass on Jesus' line to his mother at Cana?

The hosts ask whether it's okay to put 'a little sass' on Jesus' Cana line to his mother — 'why you bother me with this woman? It is not my time' — noting 'the way Mike did it had some sass on it' (seg-02489); the vote is yes, since he was 30 and did it anyway. This spins into a debate that women are much stronger than men: pregnancy and natural/home water births vs. kidney stones, men on their deathbed with a cold, and arm-wrestling opt-outs.

Break music: 'Hop on the Bus'

During the break the show plays a song: 'So hop on the bus, God's on the move... he's done what he'll do, God's on the move.'

Newsroom: burrito bandit, flying brandy bottle, Danish brewery strike

• Has anyone had something so goofy happen they didn't know how to react?

Zach brings the promised convenience-store news: a Hastings, Michigan man who ate a burrito and Funyuns with no money and told the clerk to call police; a Des Moines Register story of a brandy bottle thrown at Ankeny clerk Sashil Kumar (seg-02846); and a Danish brewery strike over a lunch-only beer rule. The crew riffs on QuikTrip's no-chase shoplifting policy, then a host trades band anecdotes: a drunk woman who licked his cheek at Carl's Place and reappeared at Kinko's, a French horn solo at a blues show, a Hulk Hogan lookalike raising wolf pups, and a bar scheme to sell Levi's in China.

Sign-off

The host signs off at midnight: 'I'm Ben Foost. You are live from the past with Zach Haup, Matt Cassidy, Dan Hudson, and everybody on the chat.' The show plugs Sunday 10 a.m. at Pathway Church and closes with the repeated voiceover line 'Watch my anti-bomb.'