Speaker 1: We're taking you inside the mind of a man. This
Speaker 1: is How Men Thick and I heard radio podcast. Hey
Speaker 1: what's up everybody. I'm Jonathan Bennett, and you may know
Speaker 1: me as Aaron Samuels from the movie Mean Girls, and yes,
Speaker 1: my hair does look sexy pushed back In case you're wondering,
Speaker 1: I'm also an actor, a TV host, and I am
Speaker 1: so happy to be guest hosting How Men Think. Now
Speaker 1: I'm going to answer all of your questions and solve
Speaker 1: the fascinating question of how men think. I think? But first,
Speaker 1: this is eleven questions with Jonathan Bennett. Now I have
Speaker 1: not looked at these until right now, so this will
Speaker 1: all be on the fly. Wish me look, here we go.
Speaker 1: Eleven questions with Jonathan. Number one, what are you known for?
Speaker 1: Tell us about yourself? Okay, well, I guess most people
Speaker 1: know me as Aaron Samuel's from Mean Girls, and I
Speaker 1: think what happened as I just I kissed a redheaded,
Speaker 1: freckle faced girl named Lindsay Lohan in a movie three
Speaker 1: thousand years ago. And now I can't go to a
Speaker 1: Starbucks without the barista writing, your hair look sexy pushed
Speaker 1: back on my cup or like I'll go and say hey,
Speaker 1: They'll they'll ask me for the name and say what's
Speaker 1: your name please, and I'll say Jonathan and then they'll
Speaker 1: just go ahead and write Aaron Samuel's on the cup,
Speaker 1: which is an amazing thing but also crazy. So it's
Speaker 1: a very weird life to be Jonathan Bennett. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie. October three is a very weird day for me.
Speaker 1: So if you ever having an awkward day in your life,
Speaker 1: just think what does Jonathan Bennett feel like on on
Speaker 1: October three? I bet you it's not as weird as
Speaker 1: his day number two. Who are you in your personal life? Well,
Speaker 1: contrary to popular belief, I know you might think that
Speaker 1: I was in love with Lindsay Lohan, but I I
Speaker 1: actually I am in love with James Vaughan, my fiance.
Speaker 1: Uh plot twist, Aaron Samuel's gay Huh wow? Um so
Speaker 1: that was a big plot twist for pop culture. Um,
Speaker 1: but actually was it wasn't? Really? Um. So I'm engaged
Speaker 1: to my fiance James Vaughan. We've been engaged for just
Speaker 1: over a year now, and we have our wedding coming
Speaker 1: up this spring, which we're really excited about. We're getting
Speaker 1: married to Mexico at Unicode Resort, which is this amazing
Speaker 1: resort in Mexico that's very inclusive for the l g
Speaker 1: B t Q plus community there. It's just got such
Speaker 1: a great diverse group of people working there and you know,
Speaker 1: people coming there. It's just a fantastic place. So we're
Speaker 1: very excited about that. And yeah, my fiance and I
Speaker 1: are totally in love and having such a blast being
Speaker 1: fiance's and just going on this whole wedding journey, trying
Speaker 1: to figure out who's coming, what's happening at the wedding,
Speaker 1: all the things that happen when you're planning a wedding.
Speaker 1: It's super fun, but also it's a little bit stressful.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie um, but at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, is long as we're standing there saying our vows,
Speaker 1: I don't care if it you know, if everything falls
Speaker 1: over and it starts raining, it's still gonna be fine
Speaker 1: because we're gonna be there with all of our friends
Speaker 1: and family and having a blast. So that's what's important.
Speaker 1: Which is also crazy because our families have never met,
Speaker 1: so this is the first time our families are coming together.
Speaker 1: Is at our wedding, so this should be interesting. Three
Speaker 1: shows that you are binge watching right now? Okay, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie like I want to have an
Speaker 1: answer that's more diverse than this, but I can't. The
Speaker 1: three shows that I'm watching right now are RuPaul's Drag
Speaker 1: Race UK, RuPaul's Drag Race American, and RuPaul's Drag Race.
Speaker 1: Queen of the Universe. Well, it's not really Rupaol's Drag Race,
Speaker 1: but it's Queen of the Universe, which is the drag
Speaker 1: queen singing competition show. I am the biggest RuPaul's fan.
Speaker 1: It's all I watched because here's the thing. The day
Speaker 1: that someone makes better television than a group of drag
Speaker 1: queens try trying to out drag queen each other, I'll
Speaker 1: watch it until then. There's nothing that beats RuPaul's Drag Race.
Speaker 1: Queen of the Universe is the New Wild Presents show.
Speaker 1: That's pretty close. It's basically RuPaul's Drag Race meets American Idol,
Speaker 1: so you have drag queens singing trying to be the
Speaker 1: best singer. So both are fantastic shows. But I always
Speaker 1: think about the pitch that happened for RuPaul's Drag Race.
Speaker 1: Like picture RuPaul walking into logo to pitch the idea
Speaker 1: for the show and she just walks in or sorry,
Speaker 1: he just walks in and says, Okay, it's America's next
Speaker 1: Top Model but drag queens, and then the person of
Speaker 1: the network just writes the check. Yep, genius. It's just
Speaker 1: so much fun. It's such a fun show to watch.
Speaker 1: It's so exciting. There's so much color and creativity, and
Speaker 1: every time I wants to show it just inspires me
Speaker 1: to go out and create something crazy and unique and different,
Speaker 1: and also to celebrate my uniqueness. Remember there's only one
Speaker 1: new number four. What is your favorite food? Okay, I
Speaker 1: eat like a toddler. So my favorite foods are white rice,
Speaker 1: just plain old white rice. I love waffles and apples.
Speaker 1: Those are my three favorite foods. Literally what you feed
Speaker 1: either your dog when it has a stomach virus or
Speaker 1: your toddler. But hey, what, I have a simple palette.
Speaker 1: I also really like the Chinese chicken salad from Applebee's,
Speaker 1: which is a fantastic restaurant. I am why they created Applebee's.
Speaker 1: I'm from Ohio. That's just what we eat. Tell us
Speaker 1: about your career number five. Um, okay, So my career
Speaker 1: is very strange. The first movie I ever did was
Speaker 1: Mean Girls. So then what do you do after you
Speaker 1: do Mean Girls. It's a very bizarre life. It's a
Speaker 1: weird thing to be part of the biggest, arguably one
Speaker 1: of the biggest movies in pop culture history. To have
Speaker 1: that as your first movie. It really I call it
Speaker 1: the Zach Morris syndrome. You become Zack Morris. Right, you're
Speaker 1: Aaron Samuels. You're not Johnathan men At the actor, You're
Speaker 1: just Aaron Samuels. So it's a really fun interesting thing
Speaker 1: to try to then figure out what your career looks
Speaker 1: like after that movie. So I got to do a
Speaker 1: lot of really fun movies. I did Van Wilder Freshman Year,
Speaker 1: I basically when I did Uh, Cheaper by the Dozen
Speaker 1: two with Steve Martin. I did Dukes of Hazard the Beginning,
Speaker 1: and so those were the movies I did immediately after
Speaker 1: Me and Girls. And it was funny because I always
Speaker 1: joke whenever they couldn't afford like Ashton Kutcher, Ryan Reynolds
Speaker 1: or Sean William Scott, They're like, get Bennett in here,
Speaker 1: He'll do it. And he's a little bit cheaper, still
Speaker 1: handsome and kind of funny. So that's I'm like the
Speaker 1: bargain bin version of them, for the for the for
Speaker 1: the sequels, for those movies. That's what I always joke about.
Speaker 1: But after at I've done a ton of stuff. I
Speaker 1: released Ah, I released a unauthorized, unofficial parody cookbook for
Speaker 1: Mean Girls fans called the Burn Cookbook. Because I started
Speaker 1: hosting cake wars on Food Network. I hosted Cake Wars,
Speaker 1: Cupcake Wars, Christmas Wars, Chris Holiday Wars, Halloween Wars, Cupcake Boards,
Speaker 1: Kids Celebrity Cupcake Wars. If there was a wars on
Speaker 1: the Food Network, I would host the crap out of it.
Speaker 1: And doing all that, I met all these amazing chefs
Speaker 1: and started really working in the food space. So on
Speaker 1: top of acting and shooting all the shows I was shooting,
Speaker 1: I would actually go and work on a book at nighttime,
Speaker 1: which was The Burn Cookbook. It's basically cookbook for Mean
Speaker 1: Girls fans. If you have a taste for recipes like
Speaker 1: it's not regular guawk, it's cool glack or fetch a
Speaker 1: Chenie Alfredo. We even have Gretchen's wieners in the book.
Speaker 1: So we have all these amazing recipes for you to
Speaker 1: make that are super simple, and then there's all these
Speaker 1: amazing behind the scenes facts and stories of filming the movie.
Speaker 1: It's just the perfect book for you and your girlfriends
Speaker 1: to get together. Get the book off Amazon, make some
Speaker 1: of the recipes. They're super simple and really delicious, and
Speaker 1: watch the movie and just have like a really fun
Speaker 1: girl's night in. There's the perfect gift for the holidays.
Speaker 1: It's the perfect bachelor party, get bachelorette party, get anything
Speaker 1: like that. It's just a really fun book to bring
Speaker 1: people together because the whole movie is about not sitting
Speaker 1: with each other. You can't sit with us, and this
Speaker 1: book is about bringing people together. You can sit with us,
Speaker 1: so you can sit around, have some fun and relive
Speaker 1: some of your favorite parts of the movie. It's it's
Speaker 1: a blast um. And then after that, I started doing
Speaker 1: a lot of movies with Hallmark Channel, and I'm so
Speaker 1: proud because last year we launched the first l G
Speaker 1: B t Q plus Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. It was
Speaker 1: the first time there was a gay kiss in Hallmark movie.
Speaker 1: And I got the honor of doing that and representing
Speaker 1: and it was such a beautiful thing because so many
Speaker 1: people that year felt more seen, and I feel like
Speaker 1: the younger Jonathan's, the younger versions of me around the world,
Speaker 1: felt a little less scared that Christmas. And this Christmas,
Speaker 1: December eighteenth, we have the sequel to The Christmas House.
Speaker 1: It's The Christmas House to coming out this December eighteenth
Speaker 1: on Homework Channel, where we actually take that storyline a
Speaker 1: little bit deeper and expand the character I play, Brandon.
Speaker 1: Him and his husband Jake. Their family has expanded and
Speaker 1: has gotten bigger, and so we catch up with them,
Speaker 1: and it's the movie has twice the heart and twice
Speaker 1: the humor as the first one. And I'm really proud
Speaker 1: to really, you know, do something that made a difference.
Speaker 1: And the coolest part of all this, get this, wait,
Speaker 1: get this ready, The Smithsonian has my jacket from the
Speaker 1: movie in it now. Because the Smithsonian saw the movie,
Speaker 1: thought it was such a groundbreaking thing to have the
Speaker 1: first ever gay storyline and gay kiss on a on
Speaker 1: a Christmas movie, and the fact that it was at
Speaker 1: Hallmark Channel, which is, you know, the benchmark for holiday movies,
Speaker 1: they thought it was worthy to be in the Smithsonian.
Speaker 1: So my script and my jacket and and Brad's jacket
Speaker 1: that plays my husband are all now locked away in
Speaker 1: the Smithsonian Archives as part of pop culture history. How
Speaker 1: cool is that? Really cool to make make those amazing
Speaker 1: movements for the l g B t Q plus community.
Speaker 1: What is number six? What is your biggest fear in life?
Speaker 1: What's my biggest fear? Uh? I think my biggest fear
Speaker 1: is failure. Isn't that what everyone's afraid of? Or is
Speaker 1: it just because I'm an only child and an actor.
Speaker 1: I think my biggest fear is failure because I set
Speaker 1: my goals so high and I dreamed so big that, um,
Speaker 1: the thing I fear fear most is is failing. But
Speaker 1: what I'm learning to do is accept the fact that
Speaker 1: failure is just part of life, Like you're gonna fail,
Speaker 1: and the fact that you fail means you're trying. And
Speaker 1: that's what's important, because the other alternative to not failing
Speaker 1: is to do nothing, which is worse than failing. What's
Speaker 1: your biggest pet? Peeve? Chewing cereal. You're not allowed to
Speaker 1: eat cereal around me ever, because I will take the bowl,
Speaker 1: I will pick it up, and I will throw it
Speaker 1: through the window. I have misophonia, which is a condition
Speaker 1: where the sound of certain things drive me absolutely crazy,
Speaker 1: and the sound of someone chewing cereal in a quiet
Speaker 1: room will make my blood boil. Number eight what makes
Speaker 1: you most happy? Waking up with my fiance and my
Speaker 1: golden doodle and having like an hour to just lay
Speaker 1: in the bed and cuddle and give the dog kisses
Speaker 1: and give my fiance kisses. I mean, my fiance has
Speaker 1: gold hair, curly hair, and blue eyes. My dog has gold,
Speaker 1: curly hair and blue eyes. I basically just kiss both
Speaker 1: of the curly headed, blonde things in my life in
Speaker 1: the morning. That but that's what makes me most happy.
Speaker 1: What's your ideal Saturday morning? Again? Waking up with my
Speaker 1: fiance and my dog and just sitting outside in palm
Speaker 1: springs at our house and just relaxing. We have the
Speaker 1: best pool in the best yard, and just being home
Speaker 1: and being able to be together is just the best
Speaker 1: Saturday morning to me. And a lot of coffee because
Speaker 1: they drink a lot of coffee. I drink a lot
Speaker 1: of ice coffe. Fam Gay where we have to. It's
Speaker 1: part of the part of the deal. Number ten. Are
Speaker 1: you more of an athlete or an armchair quarterback. I
Speaker 1: don't even know what that means. Number eleven. What keeps
Speaker 1: you motivated? Um? I think the things that keep me
Speaker 1: motivated are the are the messages that I get from
Speaker 1: from fans and from people on my Instagram that message
Speaker 1: me saying, Hey, you know, I was afraid to come out,
Speaker 1: or I was afraid to be who I was, or
Speaker 1: I'm struggling with this. But the fact that you and
Speaker 1: James lived your life so boldly and loudly and openly
Speaker 1: and show us what love looks like on Instagram and
Speaker 1: on your social media's were able to like kind of
Speaker 1: peer into your life. That makes that motivates us and
Speaker 1: helps give us strength to be who we are. So
Speaker 1: I think the fact that we live our lives so
Speaker 1: loudly and probably really helps motivate me to keep going
Speaker 1: because of the response we get when we do it.
Speaker 1: All Right, And that was eleven questions with Jonathan Bennett. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna take a quick break and then we're
Speaker 1: gonna come back with some of the color questions. Don't
Speaker 1: go away. So we have Jessica on the like jess
Speaker 1: Jessica Volkenburg Dankenburg. Man, Oh wow, that sounds like a
Speaker 1: character of like the bad Guy that's like trying to
Speaker 1: take over the company, and like a Hallmark movie, it
Speaker 1: does have a little evil ring to it. But I promised,
Speaker 1: I'm very nice. I can tell your face is adorable.
Speaker 1: Thank you. What's going on? Talk to me? Not a
Speaker 1: lot is going on. I'm so excited to be here
Speaker 1: with you guys. And UM, I have a few questions
Speaker 1: that I'm hoping that you can answer for me. Okay,
Speaker 1: We're gonna try. I mean, okay, take my advice lightly,
Speaker 1: but we'll try. Let's go. Okay, So I recently got
Speaker 1: out of a four year relationship, um, and I'm starting
Speaker 1: to like dip my toe back into the dating pool
Speaker 1: and I'm trying out some dating asks. But some of
Speaker 1: the guys that are meeting are different online than they
Speaker 1: are in person. So what is your best advice for
Speaker 1: online dating? And why do you think that some men
Speaker 1: do this? Okay, such a great question, Jessica. First of all,
Speaker 1: I'm happy that you're back into the dating pool again
Speaker 1: and you're starting to dip your toe in. That's great.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry your four year relationship didn't work out, but
Speaker 1: as my dad would say, he always give me the
Speaker 1: best advice, he would say, John, sometimes relationships just don't work,
Speaker 1: and that's okay. And so we're very excited that you're
Speaker 1: getting back into the dating pool. Now. As far as
Speaker 1: men being different online than in person, such a true thing, right,
Speaker 1: because we're online, we have the power of protection. You know,
Speaker 1: we're we're not actually making a connection, we're just typing
Speaker 1: in our phone. And this is me being I'm fourty
Speaker 1: years old and I'm very old, not very old, but
Speaker 1: I'm much older than you, Jessica. So let me tell
Speaker 1: you the difference is having that like protection of being
Speaker 1: behind a screen is such a good and bad thing, right,
Speaker 1: because they don't have to actually connect with the human
Speaker 1: when they're talking to them. So what you're seeing is
Speaker 1: you're seeing a space that you're talking in, a space
Speaker 1: that's safe when you're talking online on the dating app,
Speaker 1: and then when you're talking in person, you're talking in
Speaker 1: a space that's vulnerable. And so one is safe, one
Speaker 1: is vulnerable. And so the reason you're seeing a difference
Speaker 1: is that vulnerability is showing when they're in person. And
Speaker 1: when we're vulnerable, we become different people and we we
Speaker 1: tend to do things that that we normally wouldn't do
Speaker 1: or or we don't have the strength to say the
Speaker 1: things that we can behind a screen. So totally understandable
Speaker 1: and such an important thing to point out. The advice
Speaker 1: I have for that is, if you're into someone and
Speaker 1: you're starting to have a good rapport, get to the
Speaker 1: in person meeting quicker, right because so many times we
Speaker 1: have these weeks and months people go like, you know,
Speaker 1: I've been talking to this guy for four weeks on
Speaker 1: on one of the apps, and we're going to find
Speaker 1: the meet in person. Well, you've created a fake relationship
Speaker 1: that doesn't exist because you created a relationship that has
Speaker 1: no vulnerability to it. Dating is hard, Dating is vulnerable.
Speaker 1: Dating is scary. There's a lot you know, you're opening
Speaker 1: up yourself as this person gonna like me, So it's
Speaker 1: a very vulnerable state to be in. And I think
Speaker 1: it's actually better to get into that vulnerable state quicker,
Speaker 1: so that way you can see if there's a real connection.
Speaker 1: Because the online dating, when you're talking just behind screens
Speaker 1: and like using your phone, that's not a real connection.
Speaker 1: That's a false identity and a false Uh. We're creating
Speaker 1: what we wanted to be versus what it is, so
Speaker 1: get into the meat of it quicker. Does that make sense? Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1: I think it's easy to try and hide behind the
Speaker 1: screens sometimes, but by getting in person, I can definitely
Speaker 1: see that being helpful. And hopefully with your advice, I'll
Speaker 1: be able to find my own Aaron Samuels one day.
Speaker 1: And I hope his hair looks sexy pushed back, I
Speaker 1: hope it looks fantastic. Thank you so much, too, By
Speaker 1: And now we have Tara on the line. Hi, Tara, Hi,
Speaker 1: how are you? I'm wonderful. What's going on? Not much,
Speaker 1: just another day getting through the day, is honey. It's one.
Speaker 1: We're just trying to get through the days. So what's
Speaker 1: going on? Do you have any questions? What can I
Speaker 1: help you with? Um? I mean I I have been
Speaker 1: single for I actually never been in a serious relationship,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I'm just being way too picky.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if it's like me being picky
Speaker 1: or am I just waiting for the right one? Mm hmm, Okay,
Speaker 1: such an interesting and complex question. UM, I'd say, yes
Speaker 1: you're being picky, and yes you're waiting for the right one,
Speaker 1: and yes you're being too picky all at the same time.
Speaker 1: I know that sounds confusing, but let me walk you
Speaker 1: through it. So for the relationship that I'm in with
Speaker 1: my fiance it took me going through a lot, meeting
Speaker 1: a lot of different people and thinking I maybe had
Speaker 1: found Mr. Wright but actually realized I hadn't, and it
Speaker 1: had me falsely um accepting and wanting these relationships that
Speaker 1: I'm really grateful for because I learned so much about
Speaker 1: myself and about what I wanted a relationship and about
Speaker 1: who I was, and that helped me. When I ended
Speaker 1: up meeting my fiancee and it all just clicked. I
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, this is what this is the one.
Speaker 1: But I wouldn't have anything to compare that too if
Speaker 1: I hadn't been in any other relationship. And all my
Speaker 1: other relationships were so beneficial and I care about them
Speaker 1: so much and I have nothing but respect and love
Speaker 1: for them because of what I was able to learn
Speaker 1: about myself and about life from them. There's always like
Speaker 1: no relationship. I may don't want to say no relationship,
Speaker 1: but more nine times out of ten, most relationships that
Speaker 1: end aren't completely awful unless they're obviously an abusive relationship
Speaker 1: where something that's actually really traumatic. You end up you're
Speaker 1: gonna walk away, you're gonna dust yourself off, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna learn something from it. And So the thing that
Speaker 1: I'm worried about with you, with being so picky, is
Speaker 1: you definitely I'm not saying go and date a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of people, but you definitely want to have something
Speaker 1: to compare your benchmark of the guy of your dreams too.
Speaker 1: So if you are too picky, maybe when you meet
Speaker 1: a guy that you don't that you might think is
Speaker 1: the guy of your dreams, he might not be because
Speaker 1: you just are going for this one because this is
Speaker 1: who this is who you think. But then once you
Speaker 1: get in the relationship, you have nothing to compare it to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: does that Does that make sense? Like we want to
Speaker 1: be careful and I'm not saying I'm not saying go
Speaker 1: out and like get into serious relationships with people, but
Speaker 1: it's okay to go on a couple of dates with
Speaker 1: people here and there and like find what works for you.
Speaker 1: It's you know, the rules are different, Like this isn't
Speaker 1: this isn't white picket fences anymore. Right, this isn't this
Speaker 1: is It's a very complex world. To navigate, and there's
Speaker 1: so many things to navigate out there that I think, bye,
Speaker 1: by going on dates with people and actually getting to
Speaker 1: know people and kind of seeing how you feel being
Speaker 1: vulnerable around people will help you learn about yourself. So
Speaker 1: that way, when Mr Wright does come, you'll say, oh,
Speaker 1: here he is. This is absolutely the one. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: I actually, because of COVID, I think it's been so
Speaker 1: weird and I haven't really tried to meet anyone, but
Speaker 1: I just recently got back on like Bumble and Hinge,
Speaker 1: and I'm like trying to put myself out there, but
Speaker 1: it's still really weird in COVID. It's like a weird time.
Speaker 1: I'm more I'm someone who likes to meet people in person.
Speaker 1: That's like where I shine the most. Yeah, and I'm
Speaker 1: also the person who likes to pick up the phone
Speaker 1: and call someone, so one text is also always so
Speaker 1: weird for me. But I'm trying, yeah, look, and it's
Speaker 1: okay that it's weird, Like it's okay two that these
Speaker 1: weird things are happening with COVID. I mean, it's not
Speaker 1: okay that COVID is happening, but it's okay that you
Speaker 1: feel awkward trying to date during this weird time because
Speaker 1: it's not a normal time. So uh, ex you know,
Speaker 1: except you know, I was on a show called Celebrity
Speaker 1: Big Brother, and they always would say expect the unexpected.
Speaker 1: While with COVID and with dating in the way the
Speaker 1: world works now, I would say accept the unexpected, like
Speaker 1: except that all this is weird, and like just throw
Speaker 1: it out there in the conversation, like you can bring
Speaker 1: up you know, if if two people identify that something
Speaker 1: is weird, it's no longer weird. So like if you
Speaker 1: just call it out to the to the person, this
Speaker 1: is so freaking weird, and we're trying to put this
Speaker 1: do all this and dang, like I wish I wasn't
Speaker 1: texting you. I wish you could meet in person. How
Speaker 1: do we do that that COVID this is all weird
Speaker 1: to us. I hate it, Like bring that up when
Speaker 1: you're talking to someone, because then you both are Once
Speaker 1: you both identify it, it's no longer weird. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: never thought of it that way, but I'll definitely try that. Like,
Speaker 1: this sucks. What do we do instead of trying to
Speaker 1: be like, Hi, it's totally normal to not see each
Speaker 1: other and just be on zoom dates. A zoom dates
Speaker 1: a total normal thing. No, it's not. It's freaking dumb
Speaker 1: and awful and weird, and it completely takes all the
Speaker 1: dating and the connection and the real like energy and
Speaker 1: pheromones and all the things that happened on our date.
Speaker 1: It gets rid of all that. And it's like, also, honey,
Speaker 1: he can look real good on a zoom with the
Speaker 1: right lighting and the proper filters, so in person is
Speaker 1: always best true that ring lighting just really, honey, I
Speaker 1: mean you should see my room When I do zooms,
Speaker 1: I look like I'm sitting on the surface of the sun,
Speaker 1: like there's more light than anyone. So so I would
Speaker 1: I would say, just call it out that it's weird.
Speaker 1: Figure a way to meet up in person that's COVID
Speaker 1: safe for both of you, and figure a way to
Speaker 1: do that, because you're right, like, it's just it's just stupid,
Speaker 1: Like it's just it's all dumb and it's hard to
Speaker 1: date on. It's just done. Yeah, and hopefully. But it's
Speaker 1: so funny because this year my cousin brought her new
Speaker 1: boyfriend to Thanksgiving lunchy. Yeah, and now I'm the last
Speaker 1: cousin who's single, So I feel like the pressure is
Speaker 1: really on. Oh honey, well, first of all, we first
Speaker 1: of all, we don't know what's going on with your
Speaker 1: cousin and her man like this could just because they
Speaker 1: brought him to Thanksgiving doesn't mean it's the right one.
Speaker 1: So don't don't put the cart before the horse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: totally or or in this case, the turkey. So well, Tara,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I hope I helped. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Yeah you did. And have a good one you too,
Speaker 1: Thank you. Bye. Hello, Sydney. We have Sydney on the line.
Speaker 1: How are you. It's Jonathan. Hi, Jonathan. I'm good. How
Speaker 1: are you. I'm wonderful. What's going on? Girl? Not too much.
Speaker 1: I'm on my lunch break right now, but super happy
Speaker 1: to be here. You're on your lunch break. First of all,
Speaker 1: two questions, where do you work? And what are you eating? Um?
Speaker 1: I work at a it's like a healthcare education company,
Speaker 1: Amrican marketing. Okay, very fun. I'm in Boston and I'm
Speaker 1: eating I made this, um, like chicken tkaraoke meatballs with
Speaker 1: rice and zucchini. Okay. So we're on like the healthy
Speaker 1: train because we're doing like karaoke meatballs with rice and zucchini,
Speaker 1: so it's still kind of healthy but still good. I'm
Speaker 1: really into that. Can you send me the recipe that
Speaker 1: sounds delicious? Yes? Brock your body shout out, she stop,
Speaker 1: brock your body. Don't even get out of here, Come on,
Speaker 1: very good. What's going on? Are you in love? Are
Speaker 1: you not in love? What do you want me to
Speaker 1: talk about? I'm not in love. I'm dating for sure,
Speaker 1: I'm single. But I did have a question more of
Speaker 1: like a generic relationship question. UM. But basically I know
Speaker 1: that there's the old saying of like, oh, if he
Speaker 1: wanted to, you would um in the context of dating
Speaker 1: and relationships. But do you think that still holds true
Speaker 1: today or do you think it's better to be more
Speaker 1: upfront at this point and just say you're interested? Or
Speaker 1: does it depend? I feel like that could go a
Speaker 1: lot of ways. But when do you get your thoughts?
Speaker 1: It's like that book, he's just not into you, right,
Speaker 1: that's kind of like talking. I think it's the most
Speaker 1: absolutely that you hit it on the head. I I
Speaker 1: want to tell you my story, right, because when you
Speaker 1: know you know right, I'm gonna take my story of
Speaker 1: how how it happened with my fiance and I. I
Speaker 1: go to the Grove, which is a mall here, and
Speaker 1: he's about to interview me for a show. He hosts
Speaker 1: a show. I'm they're promoting my show. He's going to
Speaker 1: interview me for the show. We meet and instantly it
Speaker 1: just happens, like you literally, we touched each other because
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, let's let's take a picture for our friend,
Speaker 1: because we had the one gay friend that everyone that
Speaker 1: works in entertainment has in common, and that is Lance Bass.
Speaker 1: Obviously Land because he's our leader, he's our married and
Speaker 1: so we said, let's take a picture for Lance. And
Speaker 1: when we touched each other, you could feel the electricity
Speaker 1: just happened. And instantly, in that moment, I knew. I
Speaker 1: was like I need to go on a date with
Speaker 1: him tonight. I need to kiss him right now. And
Speaker 1: it just was like this is it. It was happening.
Speaker 1: So we ended up going, we did the interview, I left,
Speaker 1: and then I called him thirty My my publicist was like,
Speaker 1: don't call him for like three days. You came on
Speaker 1: really strong, and that's what a person that's never been
Speaker 1: in love says. And I'm like, oh, okay, So all
Speaker 1: your friends that are going don't do it, play hard
Speaker 1: taking no, no, Well, y'all are dumb because you clearly
Speaker 1: have never been in love. You can't you can't control
Speaker 1: it when it happens. So what happened was I got
Speaker 1: out of the car. I was like, of course, fam,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to call him for like three days.
Speaker 1: They're fine. And I literally dialed his number and I
Speaker 1: said to him, is it weird if I come back
Speaker 1: and kiss you right now? And he said no, And
Speaker 1: I go good, because I'm already on my way. I
Speaker 1: would already start driving. We kissed at them in the
Speaker 1: parking lot at the mall. I said, we just have
Speaker 1: to do this and see if it's real. We kissed,
Speaker 1: it was like, yep, that's it. We went to dinner
Speaker 1: that night and are engaged to be married in three months.
Speaker 1: So it when it happens, it happens, right. And that's
Speaker 1: what I can tell you. Like, if he's not calling
Speaker 1: you back and he's not like putting energy into it,
Speaker 1: he's just not into you, and that's okay. But like
Speaker 1: the excuses and the bullshit of like oh I'm busy,
Speaker 1: oh no, no, no, when it happens, and you get
Speaker 1: that butterfly feeling where you're like, I think this could
Speaker 1: be love. You can't not communicate with the person, you
Speaker 1: cannot reach out you, you, your whole life changes, and
Speaker 1: they become a priority. If you're not a priority, it's
Speaker 1: because they're not into you, right, that makes sense. Really,
Speaker 1: I love that story too. I feel like that definitely
Speaker 1: resonates a lot, So I really appreciate it. Yes, when
Speaker 1: it happens, it happens. Yeah, that's great. I'll keep that
Speaker 1: in mind going forward. Yeah. And if he's not calling,
Speaker 1: if he's not going back you're texting you, he's just
Speaker 1: not into and you're too good for him anyway. So yeah, awesome, Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Next up we have Meg. How's it going, Meg? Great?
Speaker 1: How are you? I'm wonderful what's going on? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm just plugging away here in the Northern Michigan tundra
Speaker 1: that we have with crazy blizzard outside, But northern Michigan
Speaker 1: that's very tropical there, Yeah, very tropical. You know. It's
Speaker 1: funny because we're surrounded by water, so generally in the
Speaker 1: summer it's very tropical. But in the winter. You just
Speaker 1: it's disgusting. It's disgusting. I'm from Toledo, Ohio, so I
Speaker 1: know the lake area effect. Oh, yes, you do effects
Speaker 1: now for sure. It's disgusting. And I just have to
Speaker 1: say I'm a huge fan. Um, I wore my special shirts. Okay,
Speaker 1: so Meg is wearing a Hugo Glen Coco shirt, which
Speaker 1: is very adorable, very on brand. However, I am glad
Speaker 1: because you didn't wear any pink today because on Wednesdays
Speaker 1: we wear pink. Not today Wednesday, but you did wear
Speaker 1: your white gold hoops and I appreciate that. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: always always. So yeah, let's what can I help you with? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm wondering, Um, I've been married for a little while,
Speaker 1: but this seems to kind of go with every aspect
Speaker 1: of the various people that I know. But why do um,
Speaker 1: why don't men think we're the ones that want to
Speaker 1: make the decisions like all the time. Well, because usually
Speaker 1: everything we're doing, we're doing wrong. Um, that's why That's
Speaker 1: why I men tend to think that, oh, you make
Speaker 1: the decision, because if I don't make the decision, if
Speaker 1: I make a decision, and you're gonna tell me that
Speaker 1: I've done it wrong anyway, and then we're gonna end
Speaker 1: up doing your plan. Is that true or not? Meg?
Speaker 1: How many times out of ten have has he made
Speaker 1: a decision and you have maybe altered that decision or
Speaker 1: plan into what it is that you really want honestly,
Speaker 1: that might happen here and there? How many times? How
Speaker 1: many times out of ten would you say five? Would
Speaker 1: you say five out of ten? You would? He would say,
Speaker 1: let's have do you want pizza or Chinese? And you're
Speaker 1: like Chinese. He's like or he's like pizza and you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but that Chinese was really good. He's like, okay, right,
Speaker 1: just the little things and what I what I what
Speaker 1: I notice has to happen is and even in my
Speaker 1: relationship with with my fiance, James will be sitting there
Speaker 1: and I have to be I have to make a
Speaker 1: conscious effort to ask him what he wants to do
Speaker 1: and then and then really listen to what he wants
Speaker 1: and doing it. I think it just comes down to listening.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a big thing that we forget
Speaker 1: in a relationship that we've been into. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: with my fiance for five years now, we're comfortable right
Speaker 1: like where it's it's super comfortable, and we forget to listen.
Speaker 1: And so I think what you might be experiencing is
Speaker 1: the forgetting in the comfortable comfortable comfort is that a word? Comfortable?
Speaker 1: That's not a real word. That can't be a real world.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows what we're saying, you're you're listening. Needs to
Speaker 1: improve in what he when you ask him what he wants,
Speaker 1: and really digest what he says, because what happens is,
Speaker 1: you know they always say don't kick. Well, not don't
Speaker 1: kick the cat doesn't work for this, um, but they
Speaker 1: cut that out. That doesn't work. Um. What happens is,
Speaker 1: you know, just like a child, like men are children.
Speaker 1: I am a child. I am a big kid. All
Speaker 1: men are kids. I'm sorry, you know we are. So
Speaker 1: if you tell a kid, hey, you're like, hey, which
Speaker 1: one do you want to play with? Then they tell
Speaker 1: you the toy and then the parent just says, no,
Speaker 1: you're gonna play with this one instead. Eventually the kid
Speaker 1: doesn't even know what it wants because he's like, the
Speaker 1: parents just gonna tell me what I want. So just
Speaker 1: make sure in decision making that you're listening to what
Speaker 1: he wants and honoring what he wants. Sometimes you don't
Speaker 1: have to do it all the time, but he might
Speaker 1: be he might be have gotten kicked too much into
Speaker 1: the direction that you want. That's fair, that's fair. I
Speaker 1: think that's yeah. I think I'm a meeting planner, planner
Speaker 1: by day, so I make decisions. So I don't want
Speaker 1: to tell I don't want to figure out some of
Speaker 1: those minute details of what side dish we're gonna have
Speaker 1: for dinner. I mean, that's a stupid example, but right, right,
Speaker 1: So you don't want to plan it. But then at
Speaker 1: the end of the day when he picks you, you
Speaker 1: don't want to meg, but you can't help yourself because
Speaker 1: that's your job. So you don't want to do it.
Speaker 1: You don't want to plan the side dish, but the
Speaker 1: small details. So when he picks a small detail, if
Speaker 1: it's not correct, you're gonna fix it anyway. And you're like,
Speaker 1: well no, because you're like he okay, babe, just whatever
Speaker 1: you want you picked in and he's like, okay, we're
Speaker 1: having mashed potatoes and green beads as a side, and
Speaker 1: you're like, right, but mays have a lot of carbs
Speaker 1: and the green beads out of style. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: use this and we're gonna do that. And he's like, okay,
Speaker 1: So when just be a yes end? Okay, So that
Speaker 1: for the next month, when when you tell him to
Speaker 1: make decisions, be a you know, the improv acting challenge
Speaker 1: of yes. And so if it is something you don't
Speaker 1: like or you're like, oh, he didn't pick the right thing,
Speaker 1: tell him yes and then add to it like, oh,
Speaker 1: I love that idea, and we'll do this too. Alright. Cool.
Speaker 1: So now he's getting what he wants and you're getting
Speaker 1: what you want. I'm writing that down. Yes, and uh,
Speaker 1: well you're a blast. Thank you so much, mag and
Speaker 1: good luck with the relationship and stay warm and noa
Speaker 1: Michigan and don't forget watch my Hallmark Channel original movie
Speaker 1: December eighteen, The Christmas House too. Oh I like that.
Speaker 1: I saw that actually, and I think you are very
Speaker 1: gruel and look really sexy with the hair, like you know,
Speaker 1: I know I have to do it every time. I've
Speaker 1: been waiting years to say that. You know what, Meg,
Speaker 1: you're up well, you know what, you're ugly? H how
Speaker 1: about that? No, I'm just kidding, No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. All right, talk to you soon,
Speaker 1: my love. All right bye, all right, everybody, Well that's
Speaker 1: our show. I'm Jonathan Bennett. Thank you so much for listening,
Speaker 1: and don't forget to watch my all new Hallmark Channel
Speaker 1: original movie The Christmas House to this December eighteen at
Speaker 1: eight o'clock on Hallmark Channel. Everyone out there, stay fetch,
Speaker 1: stay gruel, and most of all, push your hair back
Speaker 1: and look sexy today. Thanks for listening to How Men
Speaker 1: Think an I Heart Radio, London Audio Production