Patio Pondering: Tweet With Your Feet!
This morning my head is buzzing after a weekend of work, football, and too much scrolling. But one thought keeps circling back.
I had a conversation with a fellow Swine Nutritionist last Friday afternoon, and one of his comments is still bouncing around in my head: “Keep going with your writing and podcasting.” That “keep going” hit me because it lined up with where I want to take this — not just cranking out words or podcasts, but carving out a space that feels different. I’ve said more than once that I want to be the Theo Von of Ag Podcasting. There’s something about his interviews that sticks with me — whether he’s talking with Lainey Wilson, President Trump, Katt Williams, or one of those “He got them on his podcast?” surprise guests. It’s not polished or scripted; it’s raw, unpredictable, and real.
That hit me again on Saturday. I was switching implements on our skid loader when my feed pulled up a seventeen-minute solo from Theo. I shut the machine down and just sat there listening. He spent the time reflecting on last week’s events and the impact of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. One part of his opening stuck with me all weekend:
“I, you know, I I I wasn't in his world a lot. Um, but I admired that he was brave. He went out and uh had conversations in, you know, he kind of like like he tweeted with his feet, you know, he went in instead of just yelling from, you know, from a desk or something or, you know, like most podcasters were sitting in a room saying stuff and and then putting it out. He went out into the world. Uh, and I really admired that.”
Charlie Kirk tweeted with his feet. He didn’t sit behind a desk telling the world what it should think — he showed up. He debated. He walked into the fire instead of shouting from the sidelines. Even after he was unplugged at one of my alma maters, he still went out to listen, debate, and share. And it makes me wonder: how many of us are guilty of doing the opposite, hiding behind screens and microphones instead of stepping out into the world?
Earlier that day I listened to the NPR Politics Podcast. One commentator lamented what they called the “whitewashing” of Charlie Kirk’s life by right-wing media, then turned around and did the same thing in reverse — cherry-picking inflammatory lines to impugn his actions. The hypocrisy was hard to miss. After hearing Theo, that NPR segment felt hollow. Tone-deaf. Patronizing to the very people it claimed to analyze. The contrast couldn’t have been clearer: agenda-driven reporting versus raw, unscripted words from someone simply speaking what he felt.
Toward the end of his podcast Theo said, “So, uh, yeah, I'm okay. I want to say that and I hope you are, too. And yeah, I don't even know why I wanted to come say something.” That’s what struck me most. He showed up because he wanted to share, to be raw, because he knew he wasn’t the only one feeling it.
Maybe that’s the real challenge for the rest of us. Stop waiting until we have the perfect words. Stop hiding behind desks, microphones, and screens. Step out. Show up. Tweet with your feet.