Season 3 - Episode 5 - James Park

Send us Fan MailIn S3E5 Mike welcomes his musical good buddy James Park onto the podcast where they discuss their mutual love of college hoops, music, the performance art form that is pub trivia and then take a deep (dish) dive on one of their favorite forms of sustenance: pizza.Follow the podcast on Twitter: @friendsofmikedEmail the podcast at [email protected] moments from the pod: 0:30: Mike welcomes listeners to S3E5 featuring Mike’s good buddy James Park.1:30: Mike corrects a major pronunciation error he personally made in Episode 4.5 of Season 3.3:00: Mike talks about what’s going on with him, which essentially doubles as a quick recap of Season 3 so far, including a reference to a recent walkabout he took in his neighborhood, and a hearty thank you to the listener community.6:15: Mike then identifies a classic (literally) song that features an instrument James  knows really, really well in the violin as a tribute to James.10:30: Mike welcomes James Park into the virtual podcast studio.11:35: James gives his life story,  Mike brings up a touchy subject about how the NCAA left his hometown.  James then talks about his passion for music and the violin and why Ann Arbor is a great town for music.17:20: James talks about his oldest and dearest friend (the infamous Rob/Robert) and the guys prove a math equation on friendship.22:45: The guys talk about the last time they saw each other (spoiler alert: it was watching America’s national pastime).26:00: The guys trace the origin of their friendship back to a single event, a very orderly but also fun work party in 2016 and what Mike was wearing to that party (a tuxedo tracksuit).29:30: Mike and James talk a bit about their shared passion for the sport of college hoops, with James’ loyalties lying with a bird and Mike’s with a mammal.  They also get into a piece of memorabilia in Mike’s basement pub that requires a trigger warning for James before he sees it. 35:10: The guys then break down one of their all time favorite activities known as Pub Trivia/Pub Quiz and how their team Prune Tracy (EAT YOUR PRUNES!!) became legends in the late 2010’s around the Eastern Michigan trivia scene.40:40: James throws down the infamous “7 Day Trivia Challenge” to Mike and he…..accepts!44:00: The guys discuss one of their favorite shared foods (a little known delicacy known as pizza), how they fell in love with it, then break down their favorite pizza places they’ve ever been to.  The discussion covers a ton of ground on “pie”, including discussing why New Haven, CT is known as a pizza hotbed, where Mike would get pizza before school dances, where James would get pizza with friends while playing music and why they both love Chicago pizza.48:00: Pizzeria Uno, Overland Park, Kansas49:50: Bricks Pizza, Chicago, IL52:15: Frist Campus Center on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, NJ54:20: Little Caesars, Allen Park, MI (includes a non-sequitur from James on an amazing Japanese TV show called “Old Enough”)59:00: Koronet Pizza, New York, NY1:02:30: Buddy’s Pizza, Dearborn, MI1:05:20: Modern Apizza, New Haven, CT1:11:20: Frank Pepe’s, New Haven, CT1:13:30: Pequod’s, Chicago, IL1:17:00: James then drops some knowledge as to how to keep a friendship going.1:19:00: James updates the listeners on what he’s excited about coming up in his life.1:21:00: Mike takes James through the (not so) Rapid Fire segment, including talking about when James' favorite music venues, his top feature of living in Ann Arbor, MI (spoiler alert: it’s not the roads), the trivia topic he feels most comfortable answering (including how he used to con his mom to get Little Debbie snacks in order to learn about US Presidents), and where he’d love to travel to soon that he’s never been to.