Grab a cold one and join hosts Will and Chet as they hop from topic to topic — from everyday curiosities and offbeat stories to bold opinions and good-natured debates. It’s a variety podcast where beer-fueled banter meets genuine conversation. Pour yourself a pint and enjoy the ride — because no thought is too hoppy to share.
What Happens in Chowchilla, Stays in Chowchilla | Hoppy Thoughts Podcast | Episode #50
In 1976, three men hijacked a school bus in Chowchilla, California and buried 26 children and their driver in a trailer at a rock quarry. After 16 hours underground, the kids dug themselves out. For Episode 50, on the 50th anniversary, we cover the ransom call that never connected, the rich kidnappers who planned it, decades of parole fights, the heir who ran a gold mine from prison, and how the survivors changed what doctors know about childhood trauma.
5 Oct 2026
Music, AI, and Dreams Come True ft. Chris Hall | Hoppy Thoughts Podcast | Episode #49
William's father-in-law, Chris Hall, joins the show to talk about coming up as a musician in the 80s and 90s. He covers landing gigs, getting paid, and building a music career before the internet changed everything. Plus casinos, music debates with William and Chet, and family stories that only come out on mic.
21 Sept 2026
The CIA and Its Great Ideas | Hoppy Thoughts Podcast | Episode #49
Chet gets 22 CIA gadgets and plots and has to call each one: real or fake. 14 are real. A cat wired with a microphone and an antenna running down its tail. A robotic dragonfly. A pistol that fired frozen shellfish toxin, held up on camera by Senator Frank Church in 1975. A wetsuit dusted with skin fungus meant as a gift for Fidel Castro. Pigeons flying camera missions over Washington. We start with the Church Committee, the Senate investigation that forced all of it into public record, then work through the real operations: the documented plots against Castro, the poison flown to the Congo for Patrice Lumumba, the suicide pin U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers carried, and Operation Midnight Climax, the CIA safehouse where agents dosed men with LSD and watched through a two-way mirror. Sourced from the Church Committee report, declassified memos, and CIA Museum records.
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