March Madness, Visual Acuity, Uncomfortable Conversations

In this episode, I share my trip to Lake Charles for March Madness. I met up with former guest, Michael D’Albor, at L’Auberge, which has a sportsbook & heated pools. Lake Charles is an ideal place to meet my Louisiana friends—I could see doing this for March Madness an annual thing.

Then I get into visual acuity and its importance, especially for baseball players. I talk about having uncomfortable but necessary conversations with my kid. For example, what to do if she were to get lost. I often see parenting as a balance of short-term discomfort for long-term benefit—especially as it pertains to kids’ safety.

I also touch on MLB call-ups, TSA agents, profiling at airports. I talk about the Bachelorette scandal, the impact the Iran situation on crude oil & markets, Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand, and much more.

Topics discussed:

• Jokes from social media
• Road trip conversation about sex
• Hank Williams Sunday Night Football intro
• Opening day of NCAA tournament viewership vs NBA ratings
• Trip to Lake Charles for March Madness
• Hotel comparison: L’Auberge vs Golden Nugget
• Limited upsets in NCAA tournament & transfer portal effect
• High Point upset over Wisconsin
• Tommy Tuberville’s proposal on college athlete transfer limits
• Transfer limitations
• Nebraska vs Vanderbilt
• St. John’s vs KU games
• Dylan Darling at St. John’s buzzer-beater
• My childhood obsession with basketball
• Becoming a fan of the Houston Rockets
• Learning how to kick people in the face
• My 8th-grade basketball tryout
• Why I gave up basketball in high school
• Seeing Chase on TV this week
• Creative announcements for MLB call-ups
• Trend of slow pitches in MLB
• Airport TSA failures & ineffectiveness
• Profiling & Israeli-style security
• American feminization
• The Bachelorette scandal
• US household net worth reaching $175 trillion
• Home value vs stock market returns over 10 years
• Visual acuity of baseball players
• Gender differences in motion tracking & color distinction
• S&P 500 market decline & historical context
• Impact of crude oil & Iran situation on markets
• Global inflation with Argentina & Turkey
• Energy stocks surge (XLE ETF)
• Costco’s Kirkland Signature $90B revenue
• Kirkland brand expansion to razors & energy drinks
• Parenting tip: what to do if lost
• Emotional impact of parenting
• Kids say the darndest things
• Personal health update (neck)
• Warren Buffett’s thought experiment

Books mentioned:

• The Sports Gene by David Epstein