Hi, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. I just found out I'm supposed to be someplace else right now.

So my sincere apologies, but I simply won't be able to introduce today's host, Mr. Eric Mataxis.

Hey, folks, welcome back to the Eric Mataxis show. This is what we call Hour 2. We will continue our

conversation with Michael Lind from Hour 1. But before that, look who popped in to the virtual

studio. His name is John Zmirich. John, welcome.

Hey, Eric, good to be. We just have a few minutes with you before we go back to my conversation with Michael Lynn,

but I thought, let me see if I can get you to talk about your new article at the stream.org.

It's kind of a fun article because you have an opportunity to bounce around to all kinds of different things.

I guess you write so many articles a week that this was all your rejects or something like that.

Yeah, all the stuff that couldn't quite make a thousand word piece,

but was too good to waste on Twitter.

So I thought, let me make a little mosaic out of it.

It's at stream.org, and the title is short takes for deranged times.

And I was-

I was saying I really kind of burned out by this crisis and the insanity.

And I can't do what I would normally do for a peaceful vacation, which has come to New York

City and run around the East Village,

eating Ukrainian food, and hang out with you and go to a story out and watching practical

jokers with my best friend since age seven and talk about all the crazy, dangerous stunts

we pulled and on run-ins with the police and threats of death and dismemberment.

We couldn't do any of that.

I can't.

...