The Speech Guys
We're your newest old friends. Grab a seat around our fire and pour your favorite whiskey (if you're 21!). Let's catch up over life's nagging questions that have never gone away.
Speeches or speech topics you want us to cover in an episode or series? Send your requests to Mike at [email protected]!
- Update frequency
- every 24 days
- Average duration
- 83 minutes
- Episodes
- 71
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
"The Park Bench" Dr. Sean Maguire | Speeches From Oscar-Nominated Films
"You think I know the first thing about being an orphan because I read Oliver Twist?"... Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) begins to tear down the intellectual and academic walls that Sean (Matt Damo…
"It Is... Impossible to be a Woman" Gloria Gomez | Speeches From Oscar-Nominated Films
This episode is rated PG-13 for language and discussion of sexuality.
Anne Marie rejoins as guest host to discuss the good, true, and maybe not so universally accurate observations of women and men in…
"He Died a Richer Man Than You'll Ever Be" George Bailey | A Speech Guys Christmas Special
Merry Christmas from the Speech Guys! Talk, think, and laugh about your favorite holiday fare... fruitcakes, George and Mary Bailey, and the real life Hallmark tradition that took place each season a…
Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech 1986, Elie Wiesel | Speeches From the 1980s
In 1986, author and Holocaust-survivor, Elie Wiesel, was awarded for his humanitarian work on behalf of the Jewish community and other historically-oppressed groups. The Speech Guys discuss the legac…
"I'm Afraid, Alright?!" Rocky & Adrian Balboa
Apollo Creed helped Balboa get his body ready for the Heavyweight title against Clubber Lang. But his wife and partner, Adrian (Talia Shire), had to retrain his heart. "I'm afraid alright! For the fi…
"Like Tears in the Rain" Roy Batty | Speeches From the 1980s
Who said AI was a new conversation we should be having? Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) were paving the way for the rest of us all of the way back in 1982.
Mike's the speech-…
"The Challenger Disaster" President Ronald Reagan | Speeches From the 1980s
The Speech Guys try to imagine a world just before the dawn of their births as they step back into the 1980s with President Reagan's speech following the space shuttle Challenger explosion on January…
"The Apology of Socrates" Socrates (Plato) | Speeches By Prisoners
Mike, Landon, Matt, and Ross finish out the Speeches By Prisoners series with Socrates' speech before his Athenian jury considering whether or not he ought to be executed for crimes of "corrupting th…
"Stillwater & Still Friends" | Mike & Landon's Friendship Origin Story
The Speech Guys share a common collegiate origin along Illinois' Interstate 74. Here, Landon and Mike recall their coming together merely months before Mike's University of Illinois graduation in spr…
"A World Split Apart" Alexander Solzhenitsyn | Speeches By Prisoners
In 1978, Russian exile, Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave the commencement address to Harvard graduates. Unlike most commencement speeches, it painted Western culture in macabre, depressing descriptions of…
"I Am Prepared To Die" Nelson Mandela | Speeches By Prisoners
It's the second episode of the Speeches By Prisoners series and the Speech Guys contemplate the stoicism and devotion to ordinary life Mandela seemed to demonstrate as a South African political priso…
A Companion Chat To "Becoming Jesus" | Mike & Chris
Mike and Chris keep sippin' their whiskies after the other Speech Guys leave for an extended chat of related topics from the "Becoming Jesus" episode of the Speeches By Prisoners speech series.
The in…
"Becoming Jesus" Jake Shuttlesworth | Speeches By Prisoners
The Speech Guys lace up their high tops and unpack the first aid kit to talk about wounds... father wounds, that is. Jake Shuttlesworth's speech to his son, Jesus Shuttlesworth, played by Ray Allen i…
"God is Dead" (The Parable of the Madman) Frederick Nietzsche | Speeches By Losers
Episode Rating:
13+ for instances of language ("bulls***", "a**hole") at approximately 2 and 58 minutes, respectively
Wipe that melancholy off your face and think wistful thoughts one last time as Mike…
"When Breath Becomes Air" Dr. Lucy Kalinithi | Speeches About Loss
Episode Rating:
13+ for a few instances of mild language and a few brief references to sex within the context of marriage
Welcome to episode #37 of the Speech Guys! (Yes, we keep our episode number sec…
"Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise" Chuck Noland | Speeches By Losers
(This episode is rated 16+, best-suited for audiences 16 years and older, as it discusses sex in the context of an ending romantic relationship. This content begins around the 45 minute mark.
The Spee…
"Our Only Hope & Refuge" Confederate General-In-Chief Robert E. Lee | Speeches By Losers
Episode Rating: PG for discussion of slavery in the United States
The Speech Guys learn how to hold their heads high by kicking off season 3 with the "Speeches By Losers" series--headlined by Confeder…
"Christ as the Final Scapegoat" Rene Girard | Speeches By Prophets
Join Landon, Matt, Mike, and Ross for the final episode of season 3 as they listen to and discuss excerpts from an interview with Rene Girard conducted by Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institute in De…
"The Abolition of Man" Clive Staples Lewis | Speeches By Prophets
Matt puts the Speech Guys to work, tackling CS Lewis' arguably prophetic "Abolition of Man"--a collection of speeches presented at King's College in Newcastle, England in February 1943.
"Chicago... th…
"The Moral Equivalent of War" President Jimmy Carter | Speeches By Prophets
A note on listener discretion... at approximately 36 minutes, Mike lets the expletive "sh*t" slip.
America's longest-living POTUS takes the mound for the Speech Guys' second time at bat in the Speeche…