- The Peel
- Posts
- Time to Peel this Grapefruit...Network.
Time to Peel this Grapefruit...Network.
April Edition
Alex Christian & Cody Murphy
April 06, 2024
Welcome to The Grapefruit Network
April 2024
Hey, this is newsletter number one! We’re glad to have you and we’re looking forward to filling your earholes AND your eyeballs now!
Jump around to the stuff you want
The Juicy Story Behind TGN
I’m sure lots of y’all have heard about us - or maybe someone signed you up for our newsletter without warning you.
(If someone did, that’s super uncool. Buuuuuuut now that you’re here….)
So let’s take it from the top, shall we?
Imagine this: a worldwide pandemic hits, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in a century. There’s no going out to see friends. No movies in theaters. No bar trivia nights.
Nada.
So two goobers decide, “Hey, why don’t we start weekly Zoom calls?” As an actual Doctor and a Lawyer, the Murphy Brothers sound like the start of a joke, "...a Doctor And A Lawyer Walk Into a Bar..." - thus, D&L was born.
Slowly two goobers became four, and then, the little red recording button came on.
And after four years of four besties bouncing ideas back and forth, one show couldn’t contain all the ideas we had tucked away in the crevasses of our very odd minds.
So here’s the line-up for The Grapefruit Network:
D&L (the OG show) is friends gathering around the virtual table, talking about their various hobbies, what they watched on TV, and their lives. Bar talk and games full of laughter and fun.
Big Red Button is spun off from our “Choose Your Own Adventure” audio drama/roleplaying game series. Join The Stragglers as they embark on a Fallout-themed audio drama roleplaying game!
And last but not least, Potter+ is the Harry Potter passion project that is the overflow of D&L’s annual “Magic Month” series. Join William as he talks about the upcoming HBO “Harry Potter” reboot!
About Those Four Goobers…
First up, you’ve got William Murphy.
William is the doctor in question, of “A Doctor and a yada yada yada”. Harry Potter w(h)iz-kid, Two-Time Undefeated Cancer Champ, child prodigy brother, husband, father, creator. You won't be able to stump him in Potter Lore, but you might be able to trick him in Beer or Band Name.
Next, you’ve got Cody Murphy.
Cody is the lawyer in “yada yada and A Lawyer yada yada yada.” Star Wars aficionado, history and local government lover, Voted "Most Likely To Be Eaten First In a Zombie Apocalypse", friend to many, husband. Directionally challenged with driving up mountains at night, but always has a staple-gun when needed!
They each only have one friend. Those are the two greatest humans on earth, and the Murphys know no one else.*
*Editor’s Note, this is factually inaccurate, but as neither of the Murphys have commented officially, the above line remains in this newsletter. Proceed.
Greatest Human on Earth #1 is Dallas McKinney.
Studly, gorgeous, personally accounts for 92.4% of all rizz in Eastern Kentucky. A drone instructor, comic-book and Star Wars aficionado, college Professor of Criminal Justice, real life Rescue Ranger, father, husband, and the fourth main (and unanimously-voted coolest) host of The Grapefruit Network.
That leaves us with Greatest Human on Earth #2, Alex Christian.
A shutter bug, videographer, and primary editor and sound designer for TGN. When he’s not moonlighting in the corporate software world, he’s chasing his creative passions. Husband, coffee snob, and dog dad, his life is never boring - for better or worse.
**Editor’s Note #2 - the self-appointed titles of “Greatest Humans on Earth #1 & #2” cannot be confirmed, but can be denied. Carry on.
So come pull up a stool at the bar, have your wands at the ready, and get your geiger counters equipped. There’s room for everyone in The Grapefruit Network.
Calm Down Cody
“Calm Down Cody” is Cody’s monthly Blog (which you can find on our website as well!) Please enjoy our Inaugural Entry!
Hello everyone, and welcome to the inaugural post of "Calm Down Cody," a blog that will exist right alongside all the shows of the Grapefruit Network where you can directly hear from yours truly. So, this blog came to be because I have garnered a reputation for being very excitable and ready to talk about anything. However, the guys and I have very different tastes. So, reaching a consensus about what we want to discuss can often be challenging. This blog will be my purview, and I can speak to you directly about what I am excited about. You can expect philosophical rants like the one you are about to read or me freaking out about how Bad Batch is the best Star Wars since Luke in a hallway. It may be random, but let it never be said that it is not truly me.
So, let's begin, shall we...
In another life, I would have worked in a traditional radio station. I had a phase (we won't go into it) that I was obsessed with Talk Radio, and I would love nothing more than to refashion our Entertainment options to be more akin to the "Golden Age of Radio," where we all gathered around the radio to listen to the latest dramas and FDRs Fireside Chats. (No joke, if you are of the political variety who follows the State of the Union or Presidential Debates, try radio. Politics is far more palatable when you do not have to look at them.)
That is a very different track than many kids growing up in the internet age. Most kids want to be YouTubers these days. My parents were Luddites in many ways; they had no steady internet connection until... 2017. (I will spare you some of the travails I went through to get online.) So, very little "streaming video" was available to me for a long time. I did have iTunes, which I used to manage the iPod Video I got for Christmas in 2006.
Well, I ran into a problem. iTunes content notoriously costs money, and I was a teenager who did not have any money. Until I discovered this little-known format: Podcasts. I have been obsessed with Podcasts ever since. So when most of my compatriots zigged into YouTube, I zagged into Podcasts way before Podcasts were cool. I speak highly on D&L of Steve Glosson of "Geek Out Loud" and Riley Blanton of "The Star Wars Report" (now of "Geeky Stoics") because they are the inspiration for doing this show. If you compare them to the shows you get from NPR or iHeartRadio, they are not huge names that dominate today's charts. But they have garnered a respectable following and are venerated in the amateur podcast circles.
As the streaming/social media age began to lock into place, podcasts became a haven of the internet, increasingly dominated by massive platforms and the algorithms they used to control us. I do not think people appreciate what the phrase "find us wherever you get your podcasts" really means. YouTube videos are locked into YouTube. Should Congress ban TikTok, a lot of influencers will lose their livelihood. Instagram has become a Walled Garden of QVC for Millennial/Gen Z influencers. If any of these platforms decide to deprioritize their niche or areas of influence, they are up a creek.
Podcasts, by contrast, are still relatively open formats. RSS feeds distribute it. We have to host our website, and while companies help with the hosting costs and distribution, there is no single dominant player like YouTube in user-generated video space, Meta and TikTok in Social Media, or Spotify and Apple Music in Music. The two most dominant apps for Podcasts are Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but if you want to switch to another podcatcher, you can do so with relative ease since they both draw from the same source of RSS feeds. (I use OverCast because of the simplicity of UI and the lack of Social features and algorithms). Despite the millions, if not billions, being thrown into the industry by big corporate players, Podcasts remain mostly the purview of the open web.
That is something that I have increasingly come to value as algorithms drive us off a civilizational cliff.
As the social web is in flux about what it wants to be, we here at The Grapefruit Network have discussed the importance of building our little space in this corner of the internet. We want to continue to do this show for a long time, and the best way to make this show sustainable in an over-saturated market is to continue to do our own thing on the open web and to use the social platforms as tools - not the primary ends unto themselves. (I have a whole post that I am contemplating about how social platforms are destroying the internet and our minds, but I will spare that thought for another day.)
In an age of AI-generated text, I want it to be a little slice of humanity away from the shenanigans of big tech, and most importantly, this post will belong to myself and the other members of The Grapefruit Network. I will share the links on social platforms, but nothing will make me happier than finding out that you have bookmarked our site and will go to us directly or link us into your RSS Feed of choice. The web will improve if enough people say no more to trillion-dollar companies who control your online reality. I want to be a part of the solution to reclaim the web and, frankly, how we perceive reality from the likes of Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and TikTok.
Care to join me?
- Cody, calmer.
What’s new at TGN?
D&L
With March officially over, so too ends “The Madness” as we just finished out “March Movie Madness” bracket for the year!
This year we chose to do “Christmas Movies” as our genre of choice; we’re already underway choosing our genre for next year, but in the meantime, see how your picks did! May they survive the ever-lurking Rotten Tomato…
So you like choosing your own adventure, do ya? You like the roll of the dice deciding your fate? You really like the video game franchise, Fallout? And you like audio dramas? Well boy howdy is this the show for you!
We’re five episodes in by the end of this first week of April, and it is HEAT-ING UP. Raiders, romance, reallygrosscannibals (I was going for the alliteration, I don’t think that worked…)
Potter Plus
Our newest member of TGN released this week: POTTER PLUS!! Frankly, spinning off into three shows instead of just the one was an inevitability, just for P+ alone (“P+ is what the cool kids call “Potter Plus” - now you’re in the cool kid club.)
Years of Wizarding World fandom pent up escaped through the cracks at every turn of D&L. Harry Potter references turned into Potter Episodes, and Potter Episodes turned into “Magic Month.” Now, it has fully evolved into this beautiful new show.
Reply