iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Monte was incredibly gracious with me as I dabbled in NASCAR reporting. He had some incredible stories and killer songs. He was kind enough to share the stage with me for a few shows and even let me crash at his place. Good guy.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

On the pod this week: - I find a 36-year-old Heinz Ketchup commercial - Johnathan hatches a plan to get us to the next Texas State game - Football stuff, probably Give us a listen, shall you? jmcginty2878.podbean.com/e/off-the-tr...

jmcginty2878.podbean.com

Off The Trestle -- 10.8.26 | Trestle Collective Productions

Listener, we'll be honest, this is probably our worst episode yet. That alone should be enough for you to say "well, why the heck not" when it comes to checking it out. Joe talks about condiments, Jma...

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"Do you think cats will be able to talk to us in our lifetime?" -- @smitn.bsky.social She is the love of my life.

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Hector Diaz @iamhectordiaz.com · 24/09/2026

a friend’s dad was taken by ICE and they’re looking to raise money for legal representation. share and donate if you’re able to www.gofundme.com/f/our-dad-wa...

gofundme.com

Donate to Our Dad was taken by ICE, organized by Victoria Rudenko

Our dad has called the United States home since 1996. He came here 30 years ago and has s… Victoria Rudenko needs your support for Our Dad was taken by ICE

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Print The Legend Podcast @printthelegnd.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Pete McCole (circled) grabs audio while Michael Waltrip is interviewed on TV after the opening lap crash in the 2001 running of The Winston at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Hear more on this week's podcast, available on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Amazon/Audible, Player FM, Boomplay, and Podbean.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I am ready to make bad choices. Who wants to sell me 2 tickets to Florida-Auburn this weekend?

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

In this episode: - Golf Challenges - LSU wilding - Would-You-Rather Mall Predators - We are Western Michigan Truthers - Reviewing "The Golden Arm" (thanks, @rodger.bsky.social)

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Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · 06/09/2026

the clock is expired and nobody has touched the ball. this is ridiculous!

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The Best Album of 2001 @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Then, for SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA, it's @janos.bsky.social. Take it away, János!

Unstoppable force meets immovable object. They form a band.
You never have to ask where Patterson Hood stands on an issue. He will tell you. You will know how he
feels about Neil Young. About college football and politics. About growing up in the South and about leaving
the South. About people who are more complicated than their public image. And yes, he'll tell you about
Lynyrd Skynyrd. He will tell you this in many words, taking up roughly 70 of SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA's 90
minute runtime. He'll take a five minute spoken word song to lay out exactly where he stands. And if that isn't
enough, he annotates every song of the album on the Drive-By Truckers website. Patterson Hood is an open
book. There are rarely hidden meanings to be found in a Hood song. What you see is what you get.

He's also a force of nature. Watch any of their performances or just listen to the damn album. The energy is
irresistible. When I listen to SRO, it's this infectious energy that carries me through its movie-length runtime,
from the opening one-two punch of DAYS OF GRADUATION and RONNIE AND NEIL through THE
SOUTHERN THING, the disc two opener LET THERE BE ROCK until the bitter end, the plane crash that
took Ronnie Van Zant, Cassie and Steve Gaines' lives. Even the story behind SRO feels like Hood made it
happen through sheer force of will. See, the album is based on an idea for a screenplay he had about a
fictional band named Betamax Guillotine even before DBT were founded. The band then wrote songs for
their "rock opera" for four years, until after two albums and a live album they had enough material to record
it, as Hood tells the story, "in Birmingham, upstairs in a uniform shop during an early September heat wave,
with no air-conditioning". Then they had to raise money from fans to be able to self-release the album.
Somehow, it worked: thanks to word of mouth and rave reviews, it sold out and the next year they signed
with a label to re-release the album in a wider printing.

And then there's Cooley. Mike Cooley is, well, he's simply the coolest. Just look at him. His lanky stature, his
calm stage presence, that deep singing voice, everything about him radiates coolness. It helps that he writes
the best songs too. Hood and Cooley are opposites in temperament and songwriting style (though they
stand on the same side politically). But it is this tension that makes DBT so special. Where Hood typically
floods an album with his high output (he has a lot to say ok?), Cooley contributes like three to five songs but
they're ALWAYS classics. A Cooley song feels like opening a Christmas present. Immaculately crafted,
highly literary and timeless. Of course, he refuses to ever explain any of his songs. Let them speak for
themselves. In the case of SRO, the clear highlight is ZIP CITY, a song that feels like it's been around since
the invention of the electric guitar.
The Truckers' third guitarist at the time, Rob Malone, contributes two songs too and th they're not my
favorites. But I'll give Malone kudos for creating DBT's powerful three-guitar sound that places them firmly in
Skynyrd's musical tradition. When Malone leaves the band following SRO's release, the Truckers shop
around for a replacement guitarist and come across some 22-year-old kid named Jason Isbell. But that's a
story for another bracket.

Don't get it twisted: SRO isn't a concept album about Lynyrd Skynyrd, though the spirit of Skynyrd haunts
every song. I'm not even sure it's a proper "rock opera" with a cohesive plot (does any "rock opera" have a
cohesive plot?), but it is an album that flows remarkably well. It is, however, a grandiose statement about
making art in the American South as a leftist, and about being unashamed of where you come from without
brushing aside the darkest parts of its history. It's an album about setting the record straight. It's about the
Duality of the Southern Thing. And yes, it also rocks. It rocks so hard.
The Truckers will go on to make several more classic albums. You can argue the followup DECORATION
DAY or their next sprawling concept album THE DIRTY SOUTH or the post-Isbell BRIGHTER THAN
CREATION'S DARK are every bit SRO's equal. But SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA will always be my favorite.
Because it is a scrappy band from Alabama using every dollar they saved up to create one magnum opus.
They had no certain future. This is a band that's hungry, a band that has everything to prove, and they will
_prove it in the grandest way possible. And goddamnit, they did it. They fucking pulled it off.

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Jen Taub @jentaub.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

“A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.” ysph.yale.edu/news-article...

ysph.yale.edu

Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projects

A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Bowl on a little table by the door.

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Print The Legend Podcast @printthelegnd.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

On this week's Print The Legend, we take a side trip down a road to a dimension of sight, sound, and speed, as we bring you the @MonsteramaCon panel on "High Speed Horror Movies." Buckle up on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Amazon/Audible, Player FM, Boomplay, and Podbean.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Wait this is a NC thing, too? The Food Lion in Jacksonville (FL) had the best Chinese takeout spot next door. RIP to Food Lion in Florida, but Wok 'n Roll lives on.

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Natalie Weiner @natalieweiner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Here are a series of essays I wrote about Dolly tied to albums at the beginning, middle and end of her vast, prolific career, if you're looking for a little themed reading. www.dontrocktheinbox.com/on-dolly-par...

dontrocktheinbox.com

On Dolly Parton, Brilliant In Every Era

Today marks an unfathomable loss: Dolly Parton has died. Brilliant artist, devoted philanthropist, remarkable human; to list her achievements here feels redundant, as the cult of Dolly has long since ...

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Joel @itsjoels.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

This is the letter kids got at the end of Dolly’s Imagination Library. I defy you to read this and not cry.

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Chris Towers Missed The Playoffs @cptowers.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

i know it's like the one fact that everyone knows about her, but still: Dolly Parton sat down and wrote "I Will Always Love You" and "Jolene" in the same evening. That's a bigger contribution to american culture in a single sitting than almost anyone in their entire lives.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Related, I learned a lot about makeup.

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Print The Legend Podcast @printthelegnd.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Coming Wednesday to a podcatcher near you!!!

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Jarvis Jones > Florida in 2012. Still mad about it.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Crazy that his son, Billy De Vore, almost died by drowning in a crash at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta in the 40s. Neat podcast about that race and crash, which also killed the defending Indy 500 winner: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

podcasts.apple.com

Print The Legend Ep. 2 - Revisiting A Tragedy: Lakewood Speedway 1946 Pt 1

Podcast Episode · Print The Legend · July 15 · 55m

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Print The Legend Podcast @printthelegnd.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Coming Wednesday morning to a podcatcher near you!!!

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Come for the Bill Elliott story, stay for my LeeRoy Yarbrough impression. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

podcasts.apple.com

Print The Legend Ep. 4 - Tales From Talladega

Podcast Episode · Print The Legend · July 29 · 53m

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Print The Legend Podcast @printthelegnd.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Hall of Fame racer Fonty Flock had a dream to build a superspeedway in Alabama. But he made the mistake of telling Bill France, Sr. Learn more on this week's Print The Legend Podcast, available on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Amazon/Audible, Player FM, Boomplay, and Podbean.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I lived in Jacksonville for 8 years. I was ready for this role. Give it a listen, shall you? open.spotify.com/episode/7s6z...

open.spotify.com

Print The Legend Ep. 4 - Tales From Talladega

Print The Legend · Episode

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Rumors are circulating that I may have a small role in this ep.

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Print The Legend Podcast @printthelegnd.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

George Robson's destroyed race car is turned upright after the tragic crash in the Labor Day, 1946 AAA race at Atlanta's Lakewood Speedway. Hear about it on last week's podcast, available on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Amazon/Audible, Player FM, Boomplay, and Podbean.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

It killed me linking Josh Berry and Derrike Cope -- although DC still owns the best single lap I've ever seen at Darlington. This was all built around my realization that Chastain might be Kyle Petty.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I worked way too hard on this for @philenespanol.bsky.social not to see it.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Sat down and matched almost every driver from the 1996 and 2026 NASCAR rosters. Found out that time is a flat circle, except we just don't make Rick Masts, Dave Marcis or Dick Trickles anymore.

NASCAR Drivers in 1996 matched with NASCAR drivers today.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Just spent the last hour playing Match Game with the 1996 and 2026 NASCAR rosters. Who's ready for some content?

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Still thinking about my friend arguing yesterday that the NASCAR Hall of Fame should consider… Rob Moroso

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Print The Legend Podcast @printthelegnd.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Adam Petty would have been 46 years old on July 10. On this week's Print The Legend, Brandon Reed tells the story of he & his grandfather witnessing Adam's first professional race in 1998. Listen now via Apple, iHeart, Spotify, Amazon/Audible, Player FM, Boomplay, and Podbean.

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Joe VanHoose @joevanhoose.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I've gotten to listen to the first few episodes of PTL. @brandonreed32.bsky.social is absolutely cooking and if you dig racing history you should start following this pod ASAP!

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The Athletic @theathletic.com · 09/07/2026

Atlanta has embraced Angel Reese as both an All-Star and a cultural figure. For the Dream, one trade became an inflection point for a franchise, a community and the future of women's basketball in the city: nyti.ms/3TpjQZO

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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Working up my scouting report for every male lead in a Hallmark movie.

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