The Jocular Pugilists Podcast

Healthy eating shouldn’t mean filling your cart with foods you don’t enjoy and hoping willpower gets you through the week.

In this episode, the Jocular Pugilists explore how to shop for a way of eating that is both healthy and genuinely delicious. We compare fresh and frozen foods, affordable and premium proteins, conventional and organic produce, convenient ingredients, satisfying snacks, and the products that are—or aren’t—worth the extra money.

Along the way, we discuss food safety and processing standards, identify nutritious grocery-store bargains, and determine where spending a little more can make healthy meals easier and more enjoyable. We also build our ideal grocery carts and put popular foods through a rapid-fire round of Buy It, Leave It, or It Depends.

The goal isn’t to create the cheapest cart or the most restrictive diet. It’s to bring home flavorful, nourishing food you’ll actually look forward to eating.

Let us know what you think.

Email Phil or Tomas at: 

thejocularpugilists@gmail.com

And check out our website at: thejocularpugilists.com

Are we truly better together? Inspired by a celebration of his parents’ 65th wedding anniversary, Tomas and Phil explore why human beings form lasting partnerships—and what having somebody beside us can add to our lives.

They discuss companionship, pair bonding, intimacy, shared identity, and the difference between facing a problem alone and saying, “We’ll figure it out together.” They also examine research suggesting that strong social relationships may support better health and a longer life.

But is any relationship better than being single? The conversation also considers why the quality of a partnership matters—and whether an unhealthy relationship can be worse than being alone.

Let us know what you think.

Email Phil or Tomas at: 

thejocularpugilists@gmail.com

And check out our website at: thejocularpugilists.com

Going out to dinner used to be simple: sit down, order food, eat, pay, leave.

Apparently, we’ve made it much more complicated.

What happens when your friend shows up 25 minutes late? Do you wait to order—or are the appetizers already coming?

Should the person who ordered four martinis really expect everyone else to split the check evenly?

Can you send back a steak that’s overcooked? What about a dish you simply don’t like? How much are we tipping now? Is 20% still good, or has society quietly moved the goalposts while nobody was looking?

And perhaps the most important question of all:

Can everybody PLEASE put their phones away for one meal?

In this episode of The Jocular Pugilists, Phil and Tomas dive into the unwritten rules of restaurant etiquette—and discover that dining out may contain more social landmines than international diplomacy.

They debate the behaviors that make servers crazy, customers furious, friends uncomfortable and dinner tabs considerably more complicated than they need to be.

In this episode:

• The Great Check-Splitting Debate: Should everyone pay equally when one person ordered considerably more?
• The Late Friend Rule: How late is too late for a dinner reservation?
• Tipping in 2026: Is 20% still a good tip—or are expectations getting out of control?
• Sending Food Back: When you absolutely should—and when you probably shouldn't.
• Who’s Responsible When Dinner Goes Wrong: The server, the kitchen...or you?
• Phones at the Table: Harmless habit or the death of human conversation?
• Kids in Restaurants: What parents owe the other people trying to enjoy their dinner.
• The “When Harry Met Sally” Problem: How many substitutions are too many?
• Shared Appetizer Politics: Do you have to pay if you didn't eat any?
• Double-Dipping: Somehow we still need to discuss this.
• The Last Slice Rule: Can you just take it—or must you offer it around first?
• Ordering Right Before Closing: Technically legal. Morally questionable.
• Canceling Reservations at the Last Minute: Acceptable or unforgivable?
• Bringing Your Own Birthday Cake: Celebration...or restaurant faux pas?
• And the restaurant behavior that may tell you everything you need to know about a person: how they treat the staff.

Along the way, Tomas recounts an extraordinary example of hospitality at Gramercy Tavern, Phil draws on his years working in restaurants, and both men slowly confront an uncomfortable possibility:

They may be turning into the two old guys from The Muppet Show.

So grab a table, put your phone away, don't steal the restaurant's pen and for the love of God, don't eat all the cheese off the nachos.

Listen now to The Jocular Pugilists and decide for yourself:

Which restaurant rules are legitimate etiquette—and which ones are just two increasingly cranky men yelling at the dining room?

Let us know what you think.

Email Phil or Tomas at: 

thejocularpugilists@gmail.com

And check out our website at: thejocularpugilists.com

Groceries. Housing. Insurance. Taxes. It seems like everything costs more—and everyone has an explanation for why.

But what if we’re diagnosing the problem with the wrong data?

In this episode, we dig into some of the most popular claims about CEO pay, worker wages, productivity, corporate profits, and stock buybacks. We look at how perfectly real statistics can be cherry-picked or framed to tell a misleading story—and how a bad diagnosis can lead to even worse economic prescriptions.

The cost-of-living problem is real. The question is: Do we actually understand what’s causing it?

Let us know what you think.

Email Phil or Tomas at: 

thejocularpugilists@gmail.com

And check out our website at: thejocularpugilists.com

We love a good comeback story. Rocky gets knocked down? We’re cheering for him to get back up. But when someone hurts us? Suddenly, redemption gets a whole lot more complicated.

This week on The Jocular Pugilists, Phil and Tomas tackle the messy, uncomfortable question: Does everyone deserve a second chance?

From friendships and family to bosses, employees, celebrities—and even ourselves—the Pugilists debate where forgiveness ends and good judgment begins.

Along the way, they get into:

• Why forgiving someone doesn’t mean forgetting what happened
• The difference between a real apology and the infuriating “I’m sorry you feel that way”
• When a mistake deserves forgiveness—and when it starts revealing someone’s character
• Why changed behavior matters more than words
• Whether you can love someone and still decide they don’t belong in your inner circle
• Why disagreement doesn’t have to destroy a friendship
• The surprisingly difficult question of giving yourself another chance
• Whether we can—or should—separate the artist from the art
• Mel Gibson, Michael Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Johnny Depp, Eric Clapton and the complicated world of celebrity redemption

Because second chances probably shouldn’t be automatic.

Let us know what you think.

Email Phil or Tomas at: 

thejocularpugilists@gmail.com

And check out our website at: thejocularpugilists.com