Tired: The Car Podcast For People Who Understand That Cars Are Bad

To hear the podcast: 

• To hear ALL of the episodes, subscribe for $5/month at patreon.com/tiredpod 
• To hear every other episode, you can use any of the following:
  • Spotify
  • Apple Podcasts
  • YouTube
  • SoundCloud
• Here is a Linktree aggregating these links in a second location

What is it about?

Peter's Instagram post: 

Alright, for anyone wondering about my next act, here’s phase one. Announcing TIRED: The Car Podcast for People Who Understand That Cars Are Bad.

This is something that’s been brewing in my head for a long time; for 5 whole years, as a matter of fact, which is how long ago the @autoweekusa podcast hosted by my friend @rory_carroll died off after that storied title got bought out. Rory’s one of my favorite people, and the thing I loved about that podcast, besides being entertaining and informative, was the way it did the thing that the medium is uniquely suited for: it just felt like a really great hang. I’ve missed it ever since, often indulged daydreams of somehow recreating it, and when I realized my @mountaingoatsmusic career was over and it was time to start thinking about something else, Rory was the first person I texted.

For the third leg of the stool we tapped our mutual pal Matthew Riley aka @tieadullknot, someone who needs no introduction in tMG hardcore circles as a front-row regular of many years. Matty and I have long bonded over our shared politics and related obsessions, but at some point over the last few years I somehow transmitted the car bug to him as well (sorry man). It’s precisely his perspective as a non-native car guy, though — “I’m transitioning into a car person,” as he puts it — that makes him ideally suited to serve as a bridge and hopefully broaden our appeal to other non-car people, in addition to the fellow sickos and degenerates that will naturally be drawn our way.

The topic, obviously, is cars, but in a “your problematic fave” kinda way. Our aim is to resolve the car dialectic, as enthusiasts who nevertheless recognize the multitude of ways that cars have made our world inarguably worse. Or something like that. We’ve got a handful of episodes up, mostly talking about Rory’s insane Lada race car build, and while we’re still getting up to speed, I think we’re off to a good start in recreating the informal A/W pod magic. You should be able to find us wherever you listen, and there’s a Patreon of course where you can sign up to get everything (link in bio).

As I said to Matty when I recruited him: This is gonna be fun. 

From the Patreon:  

Look, cars are terrible. On a macro scale, their impact has been catastrophic, directly killing millions of people, contributing to a climate emergency that will kill millions more, and irrevocably reshaping our physical landscape in ways that have only made us more alienated from and hostile towards one another. On an individual level, their effects are equally ruinous, luring us with their promise of freedom into 84-month notes on blinged-out depreciating assets (if you're like other people), or driveways and garages full of shitbox beaters and doomed projects (if you're like us). Terrible! And yet we love them. They fascinate us. It's enough to make a person…TIRED.

Peter Hughes, Rory Carroll, and Matthew Riley attempt to map out the contours of this paradox, with lots of detours along the way.

Rory's Jalopnik post:

Cars: Are they good, or bad? Well, I like my cars, I like your cars, I like race cars, and driving. But, as far as building a society around cars, well, that’s not so good.

That’s basically the premise of a new podcast being launched by Matty Riley, Peter Hughes of Mountain Goats fame, and me, one of the guys who works at the Jalopnik website, though this is not an official Jalopnik project. We’ll cover events and races, talk about our own projects, tell our best car stories and I’ll even tell a story about my friend who got a bug stuck in her ear. We’ll also host fabulous guests from car people, to musicians, to the real celebrities, more successful podcasters.

It’s something we’ve been talking about doing for a long time, and we’re really excited to finally have it up and running. We’ve got a small handful of episodes live and we’ll be producing two a week from here on out. It’s pretty unstructured, Peter says we’re going for a “good hang” vibe. The podcast is called Tired and it’s available here and wherever else fine podcasts are sold.

My take:  

We all need to be able to look at cars, look at their place in society, and demand an end to it. We have to pressure the people who can build what we know are good solutions: transit infrastructure, affordable urban housing in walkable cities, et cetera.  

But while we still live with cars, what do they... mean, exactly? How have they shaped society in the past? How do we experience them now (and what about that is exhausting?) and how do we talk about them? What is the car as a tool, as a technology for motorsports, as a design object, as a mechanical hobby? As a burden? How is the car just another piece of the massive forces in all of our lives, like financialization of industry, or tech companies turning the world into an open beta? Is there such a thing as "having a car" or do you just own a piece of a massive infrastructure project—whether that's gas stations, EV chargers, or the networks that communicate with "driver assistance" tools? 

Rory and Peter bring decades of automotive journalism, hands-on wrenching experience, relationships within car culture, knowledge of automotive history, and genuine enthusiasm that gives their critique of cars more heft. As Rory says: you need a certain level of intimacy to really hate something, and these guys know cars. My role as useful interlocutor (and pod producer) is to ask stupid questions that get smart answers, and occasionally pull out a book or article that prompts my co-hosts to extend a good thought even further. It's a real joy to work with people who know their stuff, so I'll try and pry as much of that out for our listeners as I can. Come and listen!  

Your hosts on social media:

• Rory's Twitter | Rory's Insta
• Peter's Tumblr | Peter's Insta
• Matty's Bluesky | Matty's Insta

A final note from Matty: every subscription means so much to us. The pod is a labor of love right now, but we're proud of the kinds of places we've been able to take it so far. Subscriptions will help with any equipment/hosting costs, and maybe someday allow your humble pod production assistant Matty to cut back on hours at his day job and do more for the podcast. At a certain scale it could even help Peter get more solo music out, and well... who knows what else Rory's K-swapped Soviet-era Lada might need before the next Empire Hill Climb. We can't thank our Patreon subscribers enough and hope more people will join in. 

Episode Index As Of 10/23/2024 (Patreon-Only episodes in Orange)

peter made the logo and matty cut the trailer. voices by peter, rory, and matty. additional backing music by peter hughes. claremont cometh is an entirely profit free enterprise and makes no money from the music clips, art, lyrics, or other IP of the wonderful independent artists showcased here and will never so much as ask for a donation. that is not true of tired: the car podcast for people who understand that cars are bad. tired will ask for your $5/month proudly because it gets you half the episodes and they're really good. i have never really expected to put my own name on this website for any reason but frankly i will do anything to promo the podcast so hello, claremont cometh is run by a guy who chose the most deliberately bland un-googleable name ever when he transitioned. hello.