Hey, everybody. Welcome to the McRaeck Podcast. I'm J.J.A. Sexton. I'm here with my friend, Nick Houseman, who enjoyed a birthday weekend. I'm not going to say that you're worse for where, but there were some travails.

Oh, my goodness gracious. Well, you know, it's always nice when you go back to like your alma mater, you want to see some good football, and that did not happen at all.

But I had a good time. It was really great to go back to the old haunts and see them and haven't changed much. But maybe even a little bit melancholy. Maybe we'll have to do it on a weekend or talk more about why it's melancholy. It's always melancholy. I mean, you know, who says you can't go back home?

Said the National Poet Laureate. It's always melancholy. I mean, you know, who says you can't go back home, said the national poet laureate, John Bon Jovi. That, that, okay. And, you know, the other thing I, I, that is sarcastic, by the way, for anybody sitting at home. But I don't, I don't want to tolerate too much slander for John Bon Jovi because that's fine. That's fine.

But, you know, my mom also went to Wisconsin

where I was and so that was also a part of it. So, yeah, well, we, we can cover all that in the weekender. Yeah, that's, and by the way, Madison, Wisconsin, shout out to anybody who's there, beautiful town, beautiful city.

Some might even say one of the best places to live.

I would argue one of the best places to live.

I would argue one of the best places to live.

All right, we have a whole absolute boatload of things to get into.

Some really monumental things are occurring. Before we do that, head over to patreon.com

slash my Craig podcast. Support the show.

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Nick, the big thing that we need to start with today is that the ceasefire between

Israel and Hamas has come into effect after two years and God knows how much human tragedy.

The 20 remaining living hostages were returned to Israel, and over 1,900 Palestinian hostages were returned to Gaza.

This is a big, giant deal after a lot of heartbreak and a lot of suffering.

There's a lot to get into, including what Trump has said, what the legacy of

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