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Speaker 1: Our brains are not working today. Yes, some of you

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Speaker 1: may have seen on our story the other day that

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Speaker 1: Eli got COVID and I didn't, and he was very upset.

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Speaker 1: So I went ahead and got COVID to make him

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Speaker 1: feel better. Like a good partner. A good partner decided,

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Speaker 1: you know what, we're in this together. So we both

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Speaker 1: have COVID right now, right now, currently today. It's actually

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Speaker 1: my first COVID experience. Gratulations. Yeah, three years. It was

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Speaker 1: number two for me, um because I did. I went

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Speaker 1: ahead for round one and signed up in April. That

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Speaker 1: was fun. Yeah, I was like me first everybody and

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Speaker 1: that was mild but long six months and now it's

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Speaker 1: smiled and hopefully short. That's my hope. I don't like it,

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Speaker 1: I'll say that, but I don't like any sickness, so

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Speaker 1: it would be aver a baby about it. No matter what,

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Speaker 1: you almost never gets sick. I was so certain she

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Speaker 1: wasn't going to get it, even though I definitely had it.

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Speaker 1: And we were living in this small house together and

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Speaker 1: it's pretty impossible for us to avoid each other. We

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Speaker 1: work from home, and we don't have a second bedroom.

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Speaker 1: You know, we're just here. There's not that many doors

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Speaker 1: in this house either. So it's like and the circulation

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Speaker 1: is absolutely terrible. But but we're here, here, we are,

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Speaker 1: We're doing it. We're here. We said, you know what,

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Speaker 1: let's take our minds off of everything else and tell

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Speaker 1: a ridiculous romance today. We need it. Yeah, Now, this

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Speaker 1: one's late because yesterday I simply could not get it together.

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Speaker 1: Simply could not. I simply could not period yesterday. Uh

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Speaker 1: you know, because you don't know what yesterday is when

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Speaker 1: you're listening to this. Yesterday was Friday, June, and if

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Speaker 1: you look at the news on Friday, you know that

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Speaker 1: it was. It was a challenging day, right that put

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Speaker 1: us in a mood, very frustrating day, upsetting in so

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Speaker 1: many ways, um, maddening. We will get too into that,

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Speaker 1: even though surely you know how we feel around here,

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Speaker 1: ye about this won't be able to stop and then

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Speaker 1: we'll be in a bad mood and we won't have

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Speaker 1: a great episode and we won't have a great episode.

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Speaker 1: Have a great episode about something completely different. Yes, and

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Speaker 1: this is a great episode. This is a wild story

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Speaker 1: for sure. I'm very excited about this one today. It's

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Speaker 1: the story from Japan. It's a recent story Uh, contemporary

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Speaker 1: ridiculous romance love those and uh, and it just keeps

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Speaker 1: getting more ridiculous because this story is all over the place.

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Speaker 1: We started out finding this BBC article by Sarah McDermott

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Speaker 1: and it came out in November, and I'm reading this

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Speaker 1: article and I'm like, yes, absolutely, we're doing this story.

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Speaker 1: Then I found a much more detailed article in The

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Speaker 1: New Yorker from earlier in that same year, like April.

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Speaker 1: These two stories are ostensibly identical. They use different names,

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Speaker 1: they have a few different quotes, but it's telling the

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Speaker 1: same exact story, which is a single mother in Japan

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Speaker 1: felt really terrible for her daughter who was miserable and

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Speaker 1: being bullied at school because she didn't have a father.

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Speaker 1: After this mother felt like she'd tried everything, she finally

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Speaker 1: found the girl's father and it completely turned this girl's

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Speaker 1: life around. But the truth of what was going on

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Speaker 1: here is wild and shocking and truly, I mean, there's

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Speaker 1: just no other word for it. It's ridiculous. And then

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Speaker 1: beyond that truth is a twist that is going to

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Speaker 1: just totally blow your mind. So we've got to get

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Speaker 1: into this story because as I'm researching and I'm just

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Speaker 1: like what wait? What what? So that's legit? That's exactly

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Speaker 1: what sounded like. Yeah, so let's get right into it.

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Speaker 1: Can't wait? Hey the French come listen. Well, Elia and

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Speaker 1: Diana got some stories to tell. There's no match making,

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Speaker 1: no romantic tips. It's just about ridiculous relationships a love.

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Speaker 1: It might be any type of person at all. And

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Speaker 1: that's tract concept, concrete wall. But if there's a story,

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Speaker 1: were the second glance ridiculous roles a production? If I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio? Okay? So, around twenty one year old Japanese

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Speaker 1: woman who uses the name Raiko in the New Yorker article,

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Speaker 1: married a man called Inaba after she learned that they

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Speaker 1: had gotten pregnant together. But shortly after she gave birth

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Speaker 1: to her daughter, Mana, they separated and Inaba left them

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Speaker 1: for good. As she grew up, Mana would start to

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Speaker 1: ask about her father, like where where is he? Is

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Speaker 1: he ever coming back? Who is he? Natural question, right, obviously,

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Speaker 1: and Raiko didn't want to tell her, like the full

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Speaker 1: story of what happened to him, So she said that

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Speaker 1: the only thing she ever really told Mana is that

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Speaker 1: your father left shortly after you were born. She was

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Speaker 1: trying to protect her from some truths. But what this

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Speaker 1: ultimately did is it made poor Mona feel like she

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Speaker 1: was the reason that he left, Like she was born dad,

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Speaker 1: he was like right, and that that's obviously that the

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Speaker 1: children of single parents, as I understand it, that can be,

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Speaker 1: you know, a psychologically difficult thing for them to grow

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Speaker 1: up with, where they feel a lot of self blame.

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Speaker 1: Right or divorced, you feel like, oh, it's my fault

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Speaker 1: right now. As Manta grew older, this family separation stuff

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Speaker 1: didn't seem to be like a real problem. Is just

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Speaker 1: like an occasionally disappointing sort of sad conversation they have.

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Speaker 1: But then when Manna was about ten years old, her

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Speaker 1: mother saw her behavior change. Um. She started becoming really

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Speaker 1: quiet and reserved. She was anxious and upset all the time.

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Speaker 1: She kind of withdrew from her mother's affection. She seemed

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Speaker 1: very depressed, even angry, And at first Raco didn't know

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Speaker 1: what was going on with her, because you know, normally

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Speaker 1: young girls don't act like this until they're teenagers, when

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Speaker 1: it's very obvious. Um. But she did get to the

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Speaker 1: bottom of it, Raco said, quote. It took a long

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Speaker 1: while to find out about the bullying. So being a

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Speaker 1: single parent in Japan is tough business for everybody involved.

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Speaker 1: And I figured we would take ourselves a quick fling

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Speaker 1: with mystery. I don't want to go to school. So

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Speaker 1: in two thousand thirteen, the Japanese government rolled out some

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Speaker 1: policies to try and get their economy moving again, and

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Speaker 1: one of these was called women Omics, which I feel like,

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Speaker 1: as soon as I heard, I'd be like, just this

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Speaker 1: portmanteau is making me think this is a bad idea.

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Speaker 1: Not a book by Suze Orman oh Man Cheryl Sandberg's

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Speaker 1: memoir Women on Um. I cannot tell you the success

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Speaker 1: rate of women Omics as a whole, because again I

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Speaker 1: just very briefly dug into this one particular issue. But

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said women were Japan's quote hidden

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Speaker 1: asset um or, according to an article in The Diplomat

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Speaker 1: by Fissanka Sierra paula quote an underutilized resource that could

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Speaker 1: alleviate pressure to look for foreign migrants to solve the

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Speaker 1: labor crunch. They're like, they were like, you should get

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Speaker 1: to work, ladies. Well, they're like, we've got a labor shortage,

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Speaker 1: and women in Japan traditionally aren't working that much, So

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Speaker 1: why don't we bring them into the workforce, you know,

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Speaker 1: and see what that does for everybody. And between two

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Speaker 1: thousand fifteen and two thousand nineteen, women's employment rose fifty percent,

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Speaker 1: adding three point three million women to the workforce. Previously,

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Speaker 1: it was traditional for women to stop working after they

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Speaker 1: got married, but now women would usually work until they

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Speaker 1: gave birth for the first time, and then after a

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Speaker 1: few years of raising children, they would return to the workforce.

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Speaker 1: But of course, the problem here is that if you've

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Speaker 1: heard this before, yep, after women were away from these

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Speaker 1: jobs raising children for a few years, they came back

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Speaker 1: and they were offered low wage positions, irregular jobs, unstable jobs.

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Speaker 1: Um so it was just kind of hard for them

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Speaker 1: to like, you know, jump right back into the salary

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Speaker 1: positions they were already working towards or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: A common story worldwide, it seems. And of course, then

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Speaker 1: the pandemic hit and that made things even worse single mothers. Again,

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Speaker 1: stop us if you've heard this again, if you've heard

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Speaker 1: this before, but single mothers, whether divorced, unmarried, or widowed

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Speaker 1: or hit the hardest, especially when schools closed. And even

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Speaker 1: though two of single mothers are employed. In Japan, their

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Speaker 1: average income is around two point four three million yen,

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Speaker 1: which sounds like a big number, but let's maybe pull

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Speaker 1: out that currency calculator that we got, it is actually

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Speaker 1: only dollars. According to the o e c D or

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Speaker 1: the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Japan ranks number

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Speaker 1: four of member nations for the worst gender pay gap

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Speaker 1: at over two Pretty bad. US is doing great, guy,

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Speaker 1: We're all the way down the list at number six,

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Speaker 1: pretty cool, Land of the Free. And the best actually

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Speaker 1: gender pay gap is Romania with point eight percent. So Romania,

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Speaker 1: if you're looking for work, I guess, well, if you

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Speaker 1: want to get paid a clost as possible to men.

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Speaker 1: But a lot of this can be traced back to

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Speaker 1: rigid cultural gender roles, where men are very reluctant to

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Speaker 1: take paid paternity leave and the burden of raising children

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Speaker 1: and caring for the home disproportionately falls on women. This

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Speaker 1: is just all sounded like deja vu all over this story.

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Speaker 1: The diplomat says, quote, women spend on average three hours

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Speaker 1: and forty four minutes each day on unpaid labor, compared

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Speaker 1: to forty one minutes for men in the US. The

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Speaker 1: New York Times reported in that it's four hours for

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Speaker 1: women compared to two and a half for men. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so we've got a closer, closer ratio, but in the US,

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Speaker 1: but we work more, that second shift is still a

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Speaker 1: real thing. Yep. The point being it's very tough for

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Speaker 1: a single working mother in Japan, but it's also tough

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Speaker 1: to be the child of a single parent. Bloomberg reported

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Speaker 1: in that while Japan's overall population had been declining, the

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Speaker 1: number of single mother households in Japan rose. That was

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Speaker 1: by about fifty percent between and the child poverty rate

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Speaker 1: for these households was it fifty which is the highest

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Speaker 1: among O e c D nations. So you've got this

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Speaker 1: major economic disparity for kids of single parents. And I

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Speaker 1: think even here we can really relate to how that

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Speaker 1: can impact what school is like for one of these kids, right,

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Speaker 1: because if you can't keep up, if you don't have

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Speaker 1: like fresh new clothes or the newest technology or toys

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Speaker 1: or even like books and things like that, like kids

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Speaker 1: see that. Oh yeah, I even I remember a getting

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Speaker 1: really like like ripped apart in fifth grade because I

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Speaker 1: wore like a pair of shoes that my grandmother had

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Speaker 1: given me and they were like georgash like blue. Actually,

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Speaker 1: when I when I recall the shoes, they're pretty cool actually,

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Speaker 1: so I think they were just jealous. But they made

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Speaker 1: me feel insane for wearing them, and I got rid

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Speaker 1: of them immediately. I was just like, I can never

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Speaker 1: leave the house apparently with these shoes. So it's like

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Speaker 1: the smallest ship. I don't care about anyone's opinion about

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Speaker 1: my shoes now, but at the time it felt really big.

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Speaker 1: It felt really shitty. I got teased for bringing a

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Speaker 1: packed lunch instead of buying my lunch at school, and

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Speaker 1: I'm like, but my lunch is way better than yours. Like,

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Speaker 1: the school lunches that you paid for are not good.

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Speaker 1: They are not good. What are you talking about? Except

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Speaker 1: for those square pizzas, which were not good, but they

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Speaker 1: were still like, oh pizza. You know what it was though?

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Speaker 1: If I brought like a like a big K soda

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Speaker 1: instead of a name brand soda, oh, man, that was

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Speaker 1: like so embarrassing. Well, Mana had things a little tougher

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Speaker 1: than I did, because you know, kids just suck in general,

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Speaker 1: your kids, right, But finding out that Mana was, you know,

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Speaker 1: a child of single mother. They would just use that

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Speaker 1: as a reason to get nasty and make her feel

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Speaker 1: different and bully her. So that's what was happening with her,

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Speaker 1: and it was really changing her whole personality. And eventually

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Speaker 1: Raco realized the reasons her daughter's attitude and behavior changed

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Speaker 1: so much. It wasn't just because she was blaming herself

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Speaker 1: for her father leaving. It was because these classmates were

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Speaker 1: also blaming Mana for her father leaving. They would tease

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Speaker 1: her every day relentlessly for not having a dad, to

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Speaker 1: the point where eventually Mana started to refuse to go

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Speaker 1: to school. Um Raco tried everything for her daughter. She said, quote,

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Speaker 1: she's my only child, and it was breaking my heart

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Speaker 1: to see her so sad, And she went down to

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Speaker 1: the school. She spoke to teachers, administrators and try and

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Speaker 1: get them to intervene in the bullying. But that didn't work,

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Speaker 1: of course, and she was at a total loss for

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Speaker 1: how to help her daughter. You know, she's like, seems

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Speaker 1: like she's going to be in her bedroom until she

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Speaker 1: goes to college. He won't be able to go to

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Speaker 1: college because she didn't finish middle school. Then one day,

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Speaker 1: seemingly out of nowhere, Raco knocked on Mana's bedroom door,

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Speaker 1: and the girl didn't respond as usual, so her mother

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Speaker 1: just cracked the door open. This ten year old girl

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Speaker 1: looks up and she sees her mother standing there with

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Speaker 1: a strange man in the doorway. Her mother whispered into

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Speaker 1: the room, Mana, this is a Naba, your father and

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Speaker 1: he would like to meet you. And the kid was

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Speaker 1: totally silent. She doesn't know what to say to this.

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Speaker 1: She just rolled back over in her bed, pulled a

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Speaker 1: blanket up over her head. So I'll talk to me.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to hear it. So in Naba this

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Speaker 1: man spoke to her softly from the doorway, and she

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Speaker 1: still is not responding. Eventually, he slowly entered the room

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Speaker 1: and he sat down at her bedside and he gently

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Speaker 1: stroked her arm and he said to Mana quote, I'm

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Speaker 1: sorry I didn't come and meet you. At this point,

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Speaker 1: Mana kind of split out from under the covers. You know,

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Speaker 1: she's like opening up a little bit, but she's still

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Speaker 1: avoided eye contact. So Inaba looks around the room. He's like,

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Speaker 1: something I can relate to, I can talk to her about,

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Speaker 1: and he sees a poster for a boy band called Arashi.

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Speaker 1: He smiled and told Mana, you know, I was an

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Speaker 1: extra in an Arashi music video, and this totally clicked.

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Speaker 1: Mana smiled. She couldn't help but be amused by that,

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Speaker 1: and she finally looked up and made eye contact with

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Speaker 1: a Naba, and eventually the two of them come downstairs

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Speaker 1: and had quote an incredibly awkward lunch together which Naba

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Speaker 1: showed Mana the Arashi video that he was in just

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Speaker 1: for a brief second, right like, that's me that blurt

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Speaker 1: right there? Pose pose it. After four hours, Inaba had

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Speaker 1: to leave, but they would see each other about twice

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Speaker 1: a month on a regular basis after that, and this

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Speaker 1: totally her in Mana's life around together, Inaba, Raiko and

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Speaker 1: Mana would go out for the day, they'd see a movie,

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Speaker 1: they'd walk through park, and it's amazing. She's getting that

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Speaker 1: family time that she ever had before and feeling like

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Speaker 1: this father cares about her and wants to know who

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Speaker 1: she is and stuff like that. So it was really

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Speaker 1: good for that's amazing for your confidence. And it wasn't

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Speaker 1: long before Raco saw a big change in her daughter's mood.

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Speaker 1: She's happier, more talkative, energetic, soon. She even asked to

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Speaker 1: go back to school again. When you asked him to

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Speaker 1: go to school, you know you're feeling good. She had

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Speaker 1: a new confidence. She didn't feel so different anymore. And

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Speaker 1: the BBC article says Nada even came out with Raiko

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Speaker 1: to a parents day at Mana's school, where Raco says, quote,

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Speaker 1: she saw us together and kept turning around to look

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Speaker 1: at us. She had the biggest smile on her face,

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Speaker 1: and that made me really happy. The bullying decreased and

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Speaker 1: Mana was a new girl. He was so proud to

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Speaker 1: have her dad back. Except in Naba wasn't Mana's dad.

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Speaker 1: His real name was Yuichi Ishi. He was an actor

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Speaker 1: that Raiko had hired to play a Naba for her daughter. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's wild, uh, And we're going to talk about how

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Speaker 1: this all worked, at why this all happened, and where

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Speaker 1: she found this guy right after this break, welcome back

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Speaker 1: to this crazy story. Um okay, so this is bonkers.

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Speaker 1: This guy is an actor, And I do want to

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Speaker 1: start out by saying like, it's it's so interesting to

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Speaker 1: read this story and kind of here this sort of

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Speaker 1: mentality that this girl felt like like she needed to

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Speaker 1: have a father to feel normal or to feel happy,

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Speaker 1: and of course, like there are many children of single

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Speaker 1: mothers and single fathers, single parents out there in general

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Speaker 1: who lead wonderful lives and are very happy. And you know,

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Speaker 1: there's and there's different ways that they cope with that

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Speaker 1: I think too. Obviously, the teasing and the bullying that

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Speaker 1: kids do, it's probably really what set it off. I

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Speaker 1: know that Raiko worked a lot the dental hygienist um,

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Speaker 1: doing what she could, but she felt like this was

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Speaker 1: the solution for for for mona. That is so weird.

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Speaker 1: It is very strange, and we'll get into why if,

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Speaker 1: but first I want to talk about where this guy

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Speaker 1: came from. There are multiple agencies in Japan apparently that

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Speaker 1: rent out actors to fill like a personal role in

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Speaker 1: your life. Reuters has an article in two thousand nine

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Speaker 1: that I found by Yoko Kubota that talks about the

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Speaker 1: big actor rental industry around weddings in Japan. Hiroshi Mizutani

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Speaker 1: is a man who runs the company office agents in Tokyo,

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Speaker 1: and he says, quote, will attend the wedding as your

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Speaker 1: friend instead of your friend, because who wants their friends

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Speaker 1: at their wedding? Maybe I have some real ship friends,

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Speaker 1: and you're like, they will disturb my wedding. You know what,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't have switched out a single friend at our wedding. Wait,

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Speaker 1: did they listen to all our friends listening to this show?

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Speaker 1: Definitely not? Okay, well, then I would have switched out

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Speaker 1: all the ones to listen to ridiculous romance. Bring me

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Speaker 1: the guest list now. But the rest of you were

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Speaker 1: totally cool. Now, we had a great wedding with amazing

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Speaker 1: people UM still talked about to this day. But it

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Speaker 1: was you. You all are the ones who made it

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Speaker 1: so good. We just we just brought you together. You

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Speaker 1: made it great, all right. Okay, So this guy opens

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Speaker 1: office agents and the applications of this are endless. Like

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Speaker 1: sometimes you would get just a seat filler, right, Oh

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Speaker 1: my god, a friend couldn't make it. This table's off balance. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: hire an actor, come hang out at my wedding, get

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Speaker 1: a free dinner, fifty bucks. You know now, my I

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Speaker 1: don't have this weird empty seat. I guess some people. Hey,

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Speaker 1: I have heard some people really freak out about an

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Speaker 1: empty seat. That's true. I mean, speaking of our wedding,

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Speaker 1: we were very casual about that. Sort of thing which

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Speaker 1: I had no seating arrangements or anything, But I know

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Speaker 1: some people are very careful, and for good reason, because

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Speaker 1: sometimes you just there's people who cannot sit together without

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Speaker 1: that's too um. Or they might hire these actors to

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Speaker 1: like balance out a big guest list, right, somebody, So

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Speaker 1: maybe the bride has seventy people she wants to invite

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Speaker 1: in the groom's like I only know seven people, and

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00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:35,760
Speaker 1: I feel weird about that hire some more. His side

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Speaker 1: of the room is so empty, right, sad? Yeah. In fact,

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Speaker 1: they talk about one guy who all thirty of his guests,

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Speaker 1: friends and family were all actors because it was his

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Speaker 1: second wedding and he didn't want to invite all the

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Speaker 1: same people that came to his first wedding. You already

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00:19:53,320 --> 00:20:01,160
Speaker 1: got to party fun. Was he like city get married again.

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Speaker 1: I think that might have been it. He was like,

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Speaker 1: your friends already know that, though maybe not. Maybe maybe

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Speaker 1: he married a doppelganger twin or something. God he married

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Speaker 1: her twins speculation station he married her twin sister. He

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00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:18,440
Speaker 1: didn't want anyone to know. He simply replaced her with

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Speaker 1: a clone right to all his friends, and she changed

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Speaker 1: her name. Yeah, and Also she likes to be called

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00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:29,639
Speaker 1: something else now. Yeah, but it's the same girl. This

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00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:34,520
Speaker 1: guy is weird. Also, she has a twin sister who

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Speaker 1: won't talk to me. She's mad for some reason. Yeah,

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00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:41,920
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. Sometimes these weddings, even the person's

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Speaker 1: partner doesn't know that their guests are actors. Weird. That's

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Speaker 1: even weirder. Do you feel like you get mad later

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Speaker 1: if you're like, well, what the fund did I pay?

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Speaker 1: All this food for the strangers? I definitely read about that,

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00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:57,600
Speaker 1: but apparently, and then the quotes from these articles that

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Speaker 1: exist about these agencies, they have a lot of people saying,

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Speaker 1: you know, I would never do that because it's deception.

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00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:06,680
Speaker 1: But then they have also quotes from people who said, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I found out later that my husband had hired actors.

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Speaker 1: But I totally understood that what he was feeling and

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Speaker 1: why he felt like he needed to do that. I

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Speaker 1: didn't feel deceived, you know, it was just something that

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00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:18,520
Speaker 1: was important to him. So who am I to be angry?

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00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:23,040
Speaker 1: I guess that. You know, that's people have different opinions

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Speaker 1: about what is a deception and a betray Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: I think that, like for I think I think we

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Speaker 1: are very forgiving about those things where I'm like, I'm

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Speaker 1: trying to think of an example, but you here's a

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Speaker 1: couple sometimes that are like, anything you don't tell me

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Speaker 1: is a lie, and that betrays my trust. And while

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00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,040
Speaker 1: there are certainly many of those things out there that

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00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:47,399
Speaker 1: are true, you know, like I didn't tell you that

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Speaker 1: I stopped and got an ice cream on the way

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Speaker 1: home the day because I wanted somebody and you didn't

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Speaker 1: bring me one. That's an example of one that I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't do in our relationship. Now. Actually, Eli one time

378
00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:00,320
Speaker 1: brought me a milkshake just because he was or buy

379
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Speaker 1: a shake shack, and he just knows that like milkshakes,

380
00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:08,440
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're you're gonna stick with one time on that. Okay, fine,

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00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:13,119
Speaker 1: I was just thinking about a recent But yes, he

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00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:17,880
Speaker 1: will often bring me a treat yea. Um. But for example,

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Speaker 1: I might not tell you, what's something I wouldn't tell you? Um?

384
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Speaker 1: Uh would I tell you? I wouldn't be like, um, God, damn,

385
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:30,000
Speaker 1: I can't I think of one. I know, I really

386
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:33,680
Speaker 1: can't think of anything particular. Alert I guess it hasn't

387
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:35,399
Speaker 1: come up. There's not nothing has come up that I

388
00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:38,080
Speaker 1: needed to keep a secret from you. I'm digging for

389
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,840
Speaker 1: like what I'm currently lying to you about that I

390
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:42,840
Speaker 1: can bring up on air, and I can't. I don't

391
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:46,359
Speaker 1: think any of them work, any of them, none of

392
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Speaker 1: the twelve twelve. I gotta start getting some secrets. I

393
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:55,560
Speaker 1: guess that's thirteen because I lied, it's not twelve, it's fifteen.

394
00:22:56,560 --> 00:23:02,159
Speaker 1: So sixteen. Oh, the number keeps going. I don't care

395
00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:07,320
Speaker 1: for this arithmetic. No, the only thing I lied to

396
00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:09,480
Speaker 1: you about is that I have anything to lie to

397
00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:12,800
Speaker 1: you about exact Wait did I say that a right?

398
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:15,480
Speaker 1: Does that track? The only thing. The only thing I

399
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 1: lied is that I am lying is that I'm lying.

400
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:22,960
Speaker 1: I think, therefore I am. I think I'm lying. Therefore

401
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:27,040
Speaker 1: I am. I lie, Therefore I am. Where were we

402
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,879
Speaker 1: a story about wedding wedding actors? Yes? Okay, So you

403
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:34,880
Speaker 1: can hire people to come to your wedding for you, Yes,

404
00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:38,400
Speaker 1: all right. You can also hire fake lovers to introduce

405
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:40,320
Speaker 1: to your friends or family. So if you have that

406
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:44,719
Speaker 1: fake girlfriend in Niagara Falls and you finally want around,

407
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,560
Speaker 1: you can do that. Or you can get like a

408
00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 1: fake secretary to make you look important. That's pretty fun.

409
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:53,800
Speaker 1: Just follow me around with the clipboards. I know, all right,

410
00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:57,119
Speaker 1: and just like hold on my calls. Your phone is

411
00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:01,359
Speaker 1: not ringing, but like hold them. I wonder if you

412
00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,000
Speaker 1: could hire someone else to be calling your phone constantly.

413
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:05,879
Speaker 1: Of course you can. Yeah, I'm going to hire a

414
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:08,600
Speaker 1: whole team of actors to be like my corporate team.

415
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 1: There you go, there you go, and they're like putting

416
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:12,680
Speaker 1: papers in front of you for your signature, but they're

417
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:15,720
Speaker 1: totally blank. Yes, like we need to for this decision.

418
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,320
Speaker 1: Unseen japan dot Com has an article from this year

419
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:23,000
Speaker 1: saying that rental families are becoming more popular too. A

420
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,480
Speaker 1: lot of clients are single people, no close friends or family,

421
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,440
Speaker 1: but they say it's not exclusively a service for just

422
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:34,600
Speaker 1: like lonely people. Sometimes you hire an escort as your

423
00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:36,560
Speaker 1: date to an important event. You know, you don't want

424
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:38,679
Speaker 1: to show up at your ex's wedding all by yourself.

425
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:41,840
Speaker 1: Some people just like to pack out their family parties

426
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:44,800
Speaker 1: and feeling more energized and full. You know, have like

427
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:46,639
Speaker 1: six best friends, but you're like, I want to have

428
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,240
Speaker 1: a rager. Yeah, Like maybe you have a small family,

429
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:50,879
Speaker 1: but you're like, what would it feel like to have

430
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:53,360
Speaker 1: like a family reunion of like thirty people over here

431
00:24:54,119 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 1: playing cards against Humanity, Sure pen the Tail of Lucky.

432
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:02,680
Speaker 1: You know, the hoop and the stick I'm thinking of

433
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 1: really current games. Our parties are really fun. You should

434
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: come over sometimes play hoop stick. We do the we

435
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 1: Diana sits on a little bench. We throw apples trying

436
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,639
Speaker 1: to knock her into the water. The stick is a

437
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 1: working model of Laoi's penis. You have to put it

438
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:20,879
Speaker 1: in as in a wheel. Now we're talking ridiculous romance

439
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:23,640
Speaker 1: themed party. I mean, actually that would be really fun.

440
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:25,920
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we'll put out, we'll put down if

441
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,920
Speaker 1: you have any ideas for a ridiculous romance themed party. Yeah, games,

442
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:35,439
Speaker 1: decor activities. Feel free to send him in because we're

443
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:37,760
Speaker 1: gonna have a live show one day. And why shouldn't

444
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 1: we fill the lobby with a bunch of bullshit and

445
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:44,119
Speaker 1: add added to your letter writing campaign as you harass

446
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio to give us a live party, right,

447
00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:48,840
Speaker 1: and lots in a big budget, all of these games

448
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:51,080
Speaker 1: and activity. Maybe we should talk to Ben and knowl

449
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 1: a ridiculous history about getting ridiculou con going. And it's

450
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:58,920
Speaker 1: just one convention dedicated to ridiculous history ridiculous romance, ridiculous news,

451
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:02,880
Speaker 1: and ridiculous crime. I love that the ridiculous deserves its

452
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:06,400
Speaker 1: own convention. Quite frankly, that's right, san Diego. Here we come,

453
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:10,600
Speaker 1: San Diego. We're in here. So yeah, all right, So

454
00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:12,879
Speaker 1: you can hire all these people to come to your

455
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 1: ridicuo con in case you don't feel like you have

456
00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:18,119
Speaker 1: enough fans. Um, we would never need to. We wouldn't

457
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 1: need that anyway. As we said, you know, all the

458
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:23,760
Speaker 1: lying involved with hiring these fake people, it does raise

459
00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 1: some ethical questions. Um. One company called Family Romance says

460
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 1: on their website that even so quote, we receive about

461
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 1: two requests per month, and our customer satisfaction rate is

462
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,359
Speaker 1: so if people are having issues with this lie, they're

463
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,560
Speaker 1: not sharing it with Family Romance, right. I Mean, you

464
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:47,440
Speaker 1: know what I love the most about this all the

465
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 1: jobs for actors. Oh my god, there's so many performance

466
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 1: opportunities here. Could be a working actor for real. It's like,

467
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:59,280
Speaker 1: um boy, it's like the extreme version of doing like

468
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: Princess part Sure, I was going to say celebrity. I

469
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:05,920
Speaker 1: like like little parties. You get paid to come in

470
00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:08,800
Speaker 1: a Sylvester stallonever, but you don't have to be Sylvester

471
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:10,560
Speaker 1: Stallone and you don't have to look like Elsa. You

472
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: just have to show up and be like my cousin.

473
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 1: That is nice. It does open it up a bit

474
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:20,280
Speaker 1: for you. That's pretty good to play different characters. Okay,

475
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:23,359
Speaker 1: So this company family romance is the one that Raiko

476
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:25,880
Speaker 1: called when she decided she needed to do something about

477
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:29,600
Speaker 1: her daughter's depression. It turns out that Mana's real father

478
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 1: in Naba had actually been abusive to Reco and shortly

479
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,120
Speaker 1: after Mana was born, Raiko divorced his ass and kicked

480
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,280
Speaker 1: him out. Right, girl, But that's the truth she wanted,

481
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:42,440
Speaker 1: that's the truth. But she yeah, that she didn't want

482
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 1: to tell Mana. She didn't want to tell her. You know,

483
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:47,159
Speaker 1: your biological father is a piece of ship. Yeah, nobody

484
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 1: likes to hear that half piece of ship. Yeah. She's

485
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 1: just like, oh, you know, you know what, he just

486
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 1: had to go. Obviously that wasn't the best thing for

487
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 1: Manna to hear, because she always just heard he left

488
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 1: after you were born, right. Um. But after all her

489
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:04,960
Speaker 1: attempts to curb with this bullying, to try and do

490
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:09,200
Speaker 1: something to bring Mona's confidence back, Raco found the website

491
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 1: for family romance, and she thought, maybe this is it,

492
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: Maybe I just get her a dad. So she built

493
00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:18,159
Speaker 1: out an application where she listed exactly the kind of

494
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,480
Speaker 1: father she wanted for her daughter. She said, quote, my

495
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:24,879
Speaker 1: requests were simple. I wanted him to say how sorry

496
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:27,359
Speaker 1: he was that he couldn't be in her life. And

497
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:30,119
Speaker 1: then I wanted him to listen to whatever she wanted

498
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 1: to tell him. And Raco said that no matter what,

499
00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:36,359
Speaker 1: she wanted this guy to just react with kindness. To

500
00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 1: MANA a pretty great thing to ask for your kid,

501
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:41,280
Speaker 1: Like I just want a dad who's just going to

502
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 1: be the best dad, Like I'm paying you to literally

503
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 1: be the best dad you can imagine. Anyway, this fake

504
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 1: Inaba's services were not exactly cheap, by the way. At

505
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,719
Speaker 1: twice a month for either four or eight hour shifts,

506
00:28:55,880 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 1: these visits each cost about end, which is calcultely transferred

507
00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:07,480
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars per visit.

508
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,920
Speaker 1: That's not white for sure. It's a good rate for

509
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:14,960
Speaker 1: an actor. Oh my god, very good Raiko, who earned

510
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 1: eight decent but not lavish salary against she's a dental

511
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,560
Speaker 1: highgenas so pretty good. But nothing like to write home

512
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 1: about I guess she had to budget more tightly. She

513
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 1: was cutting back on food. She was buying their clothes

514
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:30,040
Speaker 1: at flea markets. And they told Mana that Inaba had

515
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:32,960
Speaker 1: been working as an actor, which was true, and that's

516
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 1: how he had the old music video footage to show

517
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 1: it's all come together. And Inaba, or rather is She

518
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 1: as his real name is, had been working for years

519
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:45,920
Speaker 1: as a hired family member. As a kid, he used

520
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 1: to make prank phone calls and his friends would gather

521
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: around to watch. His flawless performance. Was like a He's

522
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 1: like a Bart Simpson of his time, he said. He

523
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:57,480
Speaker 1: He said he was always able to do it because

524
00:29:57,520 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 1: he could say whatever he wanted and not laugh and

525
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,320
Speaker 1: sound totally serious. And as a kid he was able

526
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:06,880
Speaker 1: to impersonate an adult's voice. So he was really good

527
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:10,200
Speaker 1: at this. Now not laughing is hard. That's really absolutely

528
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 1: pretty impressive. In his twenties, he worked as a model

529
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:17,160
Speaker 1: and an extra in movies, and he also worked as

530
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: a caregiver for the elderly, which the New Yorker article

531
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 1: points out is almost like working as a rental grandson,

532
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 1: like paying someone to care about you in your old age. Yeah,

533
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 1: I mean, he would go in and just spend time

534
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 1: with them, you know, just hang out, talk about books

535
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,800
Speaker 1: or watch TV or whatever. It's like having your grandkid

536
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 1: come over. That's nice. When she was young, he had

537
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 1: a friend who was a single mother who was having

538
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 1: trouble getting her daughter into this competitive kindergarten because the

539
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 1: school's favored children with married parents. Right, just anything to

540
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 1: make the list shorter and just toss people out. So

541
00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:59,240
Speaker 1: he offered, He's like, yo, you know what, Well, why

542
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:02,080
Speaker 1: don't I just tend to be the kid's dad go

543
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 1: in for a school interview with you and we'll get

544
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:07,640
Speaker 1: you in. How does that sound? So he did this

545
00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:11,959
Speaker 1: for his friend and it went very poorly. It did

546
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 1: not work. He and the daughter didn't know each other

547
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 1: at all, so it was like a super awkward conversation.

548
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 1: I'm I mean, I'm guessing they got a lot wrong

549
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 1: about each other. Like they go and they sit down

550
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:28,960
Speaker 1: the school admissions officers there, he's like, and what makes

551
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:33,000
Speaker 1: you think that your daughter is right for this school? Well?

552
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 1: She loves um. That's one to three. Oh um, I

553
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 1: mean she loves she loves um three. Uh, she loves

554
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:55,160
Speaker 1: swinging on the boat, don't we all the singles cruises.

555
00:31:55,320 --> 00:32:02,040
Speaker 1: She loves singles cruises. You're a terrible father, sir, so

556
00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 1: ambissions guys like okay, okay, little girl, what do you

557
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 1: like so much about your father? She's like, oh, he's

558
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 1: just so awesome at oh, I guess you are really

559
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 1: his daughter? Is that what we think dads are for? Wow?

560
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:31,960
Speaker 1: We both went immediately to that that's not supposed to happen.

561
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:37,200
Speaker 1: I think I think my stuff was doing improv game

562
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 1: where you are trying to do for a little out

563
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:46,040
Speaker 1: of practice. It's the COVID. It's the COVID. Well he

564
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:51,320
Speaker 1: ruined that then, uh no, so yeah, so anyway, it

565
00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 1: didn't work. It didn't work, but the experience taught is

566
00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:57,880
Speaker 1: she eat what not to do, and he got kind

567
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,320
Speaker 1: of obsessed with getting better at it. He's like, I'm

568
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: going to go out there and I'm going to help

569
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:05,560
Speaker 1: single moms get their kids into kindergartens. That is my

570
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:07,800
Speaker 1: mission in life. But he really felt like, you know,

571
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 1: he could help other people in similar situations. Then he

572
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:15,320
Speaker 1: was inspired by a rental relative agency called huge Mushy Tie,

573
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 1: which means I want to cheer you up, And eventually

574
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:21,800
Speaker 1: he decided to get into the business himself. He's like,

575
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 1: I want to cheer people up too. I mean, that

576
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 1: is a noble, noble mission in life in my opinion. Now,

577
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 1: he worked tons of jobs. Sometimes he was a wedding

578
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:35,240
Speaker 1: guest or a fake boyfriend, but some of these jobs

579
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 1: were straight crazy. For example, when a person at their

580
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:44,880
Speaker 1: job has an angry client or customer, sometimes she would

581
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 1: get hired to come in and play their supervisor to

582
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:53,560
Speaker 1: apologize to the irate clients. And sometimes that person would

583
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:55,680
Speaker 1: demand to speak to someone higher up on the chain

584
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 1: and carrying it up and like send amer manager, and

585
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 1: the agency would send in another actor to be the

586
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 1: department head or the vice president or like a CEO

587
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:08,719
Speaker 1: or whatever. Do you think they had like a van outside,

588
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:11,439
Speaker 1: they're like quick, she said that she wants to speak

589
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:15,719
Speaker 1: to someone higher up in here has CEO experience. You

590
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:20,120
Speaker 1: you you go in what That's amazing, though, I would

591
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:23,719
Speaker 1: I would love to have not to be either one

592
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 1: of those people, but to be like the the in between,

593
00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:28,400
Speaker 1: the guy who's like, oh, you want to yell at

594
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:30,560
Speaker 1: my manager, let me bring him in and just bring

595
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:33,800
Speaker 1: in an actor. That's brilliant. Perfect. Every company should have

596
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:36,440
Speaker 1: a fake CEO that you can yell at because you

597
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:38,640
Speaker 1: feel real good as a customer, like I told that

598
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:43,000
Speaker 1: CEO what what was what for? Um? So yeah, they

599
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 1: would have these fake supervisors and stuff. But even more

600
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:51,280
Speaker 1: stressful were the situations involving affairs, because sometimes a husband

601
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:54,160
Speaker 1: would find out his wife was cheating on him, and

602
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 1: he would demand a personal apology from her lover, and obviously,

603
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:01,800
Speaker 1: of cour the lovers like the funk, I'm gonna go

604
00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:04,200
Speaker 1: talk to your husband, but the last person I want

605
00:35:04,239 --> 00:35:07,000
Speaker 1: to talk to you so is she would go in

606
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 1: and act the parts and like apologize to this guy,

607
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:13,719
Speaker 1: and so sorry for sleeping with your wife. I just

608
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:15,719
Speaker 1: my eyes should have had more respect for you and

609
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 1: your property. I guess. Sometimes the husband knows that the

610
00:35:20,719 --> 00:35:24,799
Speaker 1: lover is also married, so he would demand that both

611
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:27,800
Speaker 1: of them come in and speak to him, like the husband,

612
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:32,560
Speaker 1: the lover and his wife, like, you've been cheating on

613
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,279
Speaker 1: me with this guy who's also married, So I want

614
00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:37,360
Speaker 1: to talk to that guy and his wife. That's right,

615
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:39,279
Speaker 1: bring him in here. I want to lay it all

616
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:43,879
Speaker 1: on the table. Some Jerry Springer action. So in that case,

617
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:47,360
Speaker 1: the agency sends two actors to play the couple and

618
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: the actress is playing the fake lovers. Wives say these

619
00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:53,919
Speaker 1: are the worst assignments, which makes a love of sense

620
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,399
Speaker 1: to me as quote. In addition to making her feel

621
00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:00,680
Speaker 1: guilty and terrible, they tend to run over time, and

622
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:05,080
Speaker 1: the husband's usually shouted and behaved aggressively. So you cheat

623
00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:09,080
Speaker 1: on me and your your lover comes over with his wife,

624
00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 1: and I'm like you, listen here, lady, you should have

625
00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:15,640
Speaker 1: you should have known what your husband was doing. He

626
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:19,040
Speaker 1: was sleeping with my wife, and how dare you? I'm

627
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:21,680
Speaker 1: so mad at you. Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there. Um,

628
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:24,200
Speaker 1: we've reached the end of our time, so you can

629
00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,000
Speaker 1: continue to shout, but it will cost you another three

630
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:35,759
Speaker 1: excuse me if you say one more word. Amazing. But

631
00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:40,400
Speaker 1: eventually she ended up with this job being Mona's fake father,

632
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 1: and they started to do everything together. Raco would book

633
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,239
Speaker 1: him for months out in advance. He would go to

634
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,719
Speaker 1: their birthday parties, He showed up for school events. They

635
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:55,200
Speaker 1: even all went to Disneyland together. Wo Mana often wondered

636
00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:58,239
Speaker 1: why a naba could only stay for four or eight

637
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 1: hours at a time. It's very specific schedule. You've got

638
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,880
Speaker 1: her dad, But they told her, oh well, you know,

639
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 1: I'm remarried and he has a new family, so this

640
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:08,839
Speaker 1: is just the time that he can come spend with us.

641
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 1: But Motto was happy enough. Her whole attitude had changed

642
00:37:13,120 --> 00:37:15,680
Speaker 1: and she was more outgoing, she was more talkative, she

643
00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:19,120
Speaker 1: started to do well in school again, and this continued

644
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:25,600
Speaker 1: on for nine years. Even though it's all for higher

645
00:37:26,600 --> 00:37:29,520
Speaker 1: She says that as part of the job, keeping his

646
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:34,320
Speaker 1: personalities distinct and separate is really important. But he says, quote,

647
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:36,800
Speaker 1: I'm human, and so of course it would be a

648
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:39,880
Speaker 1: lie if I said I don't feel any emotional conflict

649
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 1: saying I love you to this child. But this is

650
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:45,840
Speaker 1: a business. I have to do it, and I have

651
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:50,040
Speaker 1: to keep reminding myself of that. He's like, it's the job. Yeah,

652
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:51,440
Speaker 1: I have to tell this kid that I love her,

653
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:53,959
Speaker 1: that I'm her dad and I love her, and I'm lying.

654
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:55,480
Speaker 1: I know that I'm lying, and I do that I

655
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 1: don't love her. She's not my kid. But this is

656
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,239
Speaker 1: what I'm getting paid for. I feel like it's important work.

657
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:06,799
Speaker 1: But Raiko does not regret a moment of this nine years.

658
00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 1: She said that when Mona started talking again and wanted

659
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 1: to go back to school, quote, that's what I thought.

660
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:15,800
Speaker 1: This has all been worth it, no matter how drastic

661
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:18,759
Speaker 1: her decision. She says she knows that it saved her daughter.

662
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:22,800
Speaker 1: But Raiko put herself in an odd position too, because

663
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,800
Speaker 1: now she's starting to get very attached to the character

664
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:30,919
Speaker 1: of Inaba, played again by Is she E. She said

665
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:33,920
Speaker 1: in a New Yorker quote, sometimes I wish Inaba son

666
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:36,640
Speaker 1: would marry me. I don't know if I should say this,

667
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:39,000
Speaker 1: but I'm also happy when he comes to see us.

668
00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:41,719
Speaker 1: It's only a limited time, but I can be very

669
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:45,680
Speaker 1: very happy. Honestly, he's a very nice man. I mean,

670
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 1: this makes so much sense to me. You've got this

671
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:50,880
Speaker 1: guy coming over pretending to be your part of your family,

672
00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 1: and you do that four or eight hours a day, twice,

673
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:59,120
Speaker 1: two to four times a month for nine years. Oh

674
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,359
Speaker 1: my god, he's back, he's here, he's gonna and if

675
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,000
Speaker 1: he's good at his job, clearly, right, of course they

676
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:07,120
Speaker 1: feel very loved and cared for. There is a relationship there, right,

677
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:09,720
Speaker 1: That's what, Yeah, it's like. Is it at some point

678
00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 1: does the relationship not become real? You know, you have

679
00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:15,840
Speaker 1: a fake name. Is there not real emotion there for

680
00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:19,399
Speaker 1: this this family that you spend so long with time

681
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:22,239
Speaker 1: with do you not actually get a connection, a real

682
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:25,919
Speaker 1: emotional connection. We will talk to about that for sure,

683
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:28,279
Speaker 1: because that question is is one of the big ones.

684
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:31,839
Speaker 1: The thing is, Okay, throughout all of this, Raco never

685
00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:35,560
Speaker 1: knew who Inaba really was, Like she doesn't know his

686
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:39,840
Speaker 1: real name or the fact that he actually owned the

687
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:45,360
Speaker 1: company Family Romance. Oh, this guy's started Family Romance and

688
00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:48,080
Speaker 1: he's the boss. She got the head guy to come,

689
00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:53,400
Speaker 1: a real CEO. Yeah. So, but that's not actually the

690
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:55,640
Speaker 1: biggest twist of this story. When we come back, we're

691
00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:58,880
Speaker 1: going to hear an insane twist that will blow your

692
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:02,759
Speaker 1: cherry blossoms. Hang on site and we will be right back.

693
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the twist. So she and Rayco went

694
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 1: in for this interview with The New Yorker with this

695
00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:21,440
Speaker 1: journalist named ELLEF. Bottoman, and Elf is totally bewildered by

696
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:24,239
Speaker 1: this story, obviously, because this is a bewildering story. I mean,

697
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,759
Speaker 1: a man gets hired as an actor to come and

698
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 1: pretend to be this woman's ex husband and the father

699
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:33,160
Speaker 1: of her daughter, and like lived with this family for

700
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:36,319
Speaker 1: a decade, you know, on and off, just stopped by

701
00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:39,640
Speaker 1: as part of their family. Yeah, it's wild. So she

702
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: meets with Raiko. They sit down together for lunch and

703
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 1: Raco says that Inaba will be coming to join them.

704
00:40:45,719 --> 00:40:49,000
Speaker 1: Elf told her, oh, I thought she was coming, and

705
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:51,799
Speaker 1: Rico said, I don't know who that is. Who are

706
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 1: you talking about? Is she? Who's this guy? And she's like,

707
00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:58,320
Speaker 1: he's the president of the company he owns Family Romance

708
00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:02,000
Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure he's the same guy as an

709
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:05,000
Speaker 1: Alba and Raco kind of rushed that off. She's like

710
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:08,960
Speaker 1: a Naba president of Family Romance. I don't think so, Na.

711
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:14,640
Speaker 1: But when is she finally showed up, he was totally

712
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 1: clear about his identity. He comes in like dressed real nice. Uh,

713
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:20,560
Speaker 1: he had just come from a TV interview. He's in

714
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:24,400
Speaker 1: a slick, fancy blazer over a black turtleneck, very different

715
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:27,920
Speaker 1: to how he presents as a Naba when he's there. Um,

716
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:31,439
Speaker 1: and it was just like a totally different guy than

717
00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:34,759
Speaker 1: Rako is used to meeting. But when asked about it,

718
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:39,320
Speaker 1: Raco said, quote, I think he doesn't change. He's very natural.

719
00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:41,960
Speaker 1: Now I see him like this and it's all the same.

720
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:45,520
Speaker 1: M hmm. Well, even though he's like so clear about

721
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:49,200
Speaker 1: them having two distinct personalities. She feels like I think

722
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:51,560
Speaker 1: she just feels like I know him so well that

723
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:54,200
Speaker 1: I know him it doesn't matter. And there's a difference

724
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:57,560
Speaker 1: in their attitudes here. I think that as you're reading

725
00:41:57,600 --> 00:42:01,000
Speaker 1: their conversations, you feel like Raco is like, oh, I

726
00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:05,920
Speaker 1: know him so well, and is She's almost like she doesn't.

727
00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:09,560
Speaker 1: She knows Innaba really well the character that I play,

728
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:13,759
Speaker 1: but they sort of behave like a married couple at

729
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:18,239
Speaker 1: times while Bottoman is hanging out with them, Like at

730
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:21,279
Speaker 1: one point, Raiko told is She that he had something

731
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:22,919
Speaker 1: on the side of his mouth, like you've got something

732
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:25,840
Speaker 1: right here, and he like just immediately turned and wiped

733
00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:27,279
Speaker 1: the corner of his mouth off and he looked in

734
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:30,279
Speaker 1: a mirror. And Bottoman wrote that quote. It was the

735
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:33,280
Speaker 1: first of several moments where he seemed to visibly toggle

736
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:37,800
Speaker 1: between is she E and an Naba. So the Oscar

737
00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:41,480
Speaker 1: Isaac and Moonnight kind of I think they're just rubbing

738
00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:45,480
Speaker 1: off on each other, and they've spent so much quality

739
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:49,839
Speaker 1: time together being this couple who's not married but has

740
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:51,919
Speaker 1: a history and all this stuff and are very friendly

741
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,520
Speaker 1: with each other that you know, it does sort of

742
00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:57,360
Speaker 1: leave an imprint on you sure and well, and you

743
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:01,360
Speaker 1: get more comfortable around each other in ways that you

744
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:03,759
Speaker 1: just don't get when you're not in a long term relationship,

745
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:07,360
Speaker 1: like like, technically this is a long term relationship. Now,

746
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:09,800
Speaker 1: Rico had already made clear that she felt like this

747
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:13,200
Speaker 1: was the best decision for her daughter, and when asked

748
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:15,680
Speaker 1: about the difference between a real family and a rental

749
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,719
Speaker 1: one is she said that a rental family could in

750
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 1: some ways be quote more than a family, and Raco clarified, saying, quote,

751
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:26,920
Speaker 1: if I hadn't gotten a divorce and was still married,

752
00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 1: I don't think I would be laughing like this or

753
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:32,360
Speaker 1: that I would be feeling this happy. It's not necessarily

754
00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 1: the case that the real family is the best thing

755
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:37,160
Speaker 1: that happens. Very true, especially if she's married to like

756
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 1: an abusive guy. I mean, you know, to see what

757
00:43:40,320 --> 00:43:43,759
Speaker 1: people say, I'd rather have actors around me than this, right,

758
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:47,439
Speaker 1: It's true. I mean, so many people have like ship

759
00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:50,279
Speaker 1: parents to you that you're just like, you know, there's

760
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:53,279
Speaker 1: so many especially I don't know about especially, but um

761
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:55,600
Speaker 1: people would be like cut off your abusive parents, and

762
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:57,719
Speaker 1: people don't do that. Try to talk to him, and

763
00:43:57,800 --> 00:43:59,800
Speaker 1: it's like at some point, it's just not healthy. So

764
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:02,520
Speaker 1: I'd rather hire an actor to walk me down the

765
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:05,440
Speaker 1: aisle than this actual dude who I hate. But you

766
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:08,800
Speaker 1: can talk about how like it reminds me of sex workers,

767
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:11,840
Speaker 1: for example, who like their job is to make you

768
00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:14,800
Speaker 1: feel like you are sort of in love together, that

769
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,239
Speaker 1: you are important to each other, not always but a

770
00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:20,440
Speaker 1: lot of the times, or like dancers. Uh, you know

771
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:23,359
Speaker 1: that where I'm supposed to make you feel like all

772
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:25,160
Speaker 1: my attention is on you, You're the only person who

773
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:27,239
Speaker 1: matters to me, And in that moment maybe it is.

774
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:31,439
Speaker 1: But when they walk away, what you feel is, Wow,

775
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:34,399
Speaker 1: that person cares so much about me and to them

776
00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:37,919
Speaker 1: it's on to the next person, and my job is done,

777
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:41,200
Speaker 1: you know. And it's that a how difficult if a

778
00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:45,800
Speaker 1: job is that. The compartmentalization is incredible. I was just

779
00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:49,439
Speaker 1: gonna say, going to get disappear into this person, Yeah, yeah,

780
00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:52,600
Speaker 1: you can go too deep or something, yeah, which is possible,

781
00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:54,719
Speaker 1: And I'll say that. I mean, you know, it's well,

782
00:44:54,800 --> 00:44:56,759
Speaker 1: you see all the time with people falling in love

783
00:44:56,880 --> 00:44:59,359
Speaker 1: with like someone they play opposite and like it doesn't

784
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:02,600
Speaker 1: last usually because it's not real, Like it's just we

785
00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:05,520
Speaker 1: had to act this so hard it felt real, but

786
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:10,000
Speaker 1: it's not happens all the time. Butteman says she could

787
00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:13,680
Speaker 1: tell how much Raco loved is she or at least

788
00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:18,239
Speaker 1: his character Inaba, And when she left, the journalist asked

789
00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:21,279
Speaker 1: if she if he had talked to Raco about ever

790
00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 1: like ending this charade and telling Mana the truth, because

791
00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:28,359
Speaker 1: at some point she's going to be grown woman. Right now,

792
00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:32,640
Speaker 1: she's like twenty years old, and so he said he had.

793
00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:36,120
Speaker 1: He pointed out, quote, if Mana got married and had kids,

794
00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 1: I would have grandchildren. He'd have to lie to her husband,

795
00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:44,400
Speaker 1: the husband's family, any children they had. I mean, the

796
00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:46,759
Speaker 1: more people who know him as a Naba, the more

797
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:50,800
Speaker 1: difficult it would be to keep the lie going. And

798
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:53,960
Speaker 1: also the more people who would be affected once the

799
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:56,719
Speaker 1: truth comes out. Just like any trope where you fake

800
00:45:56,760 --> 00:46:00,439
Speaker 1: a relationship, it becomes very complicated very quick. If I'm

801
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:04,560
Speaker 1: if I'm uh Mana's father in law and I meet

802
00:46:05,719 --> 00:46:08,919
Speaker 1: my daughter in law's father and like, you know, form

803
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:11,239
Speaker 1: any kind of even a mild relationship with him, and

804
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:13,560
Speaker 1: then find out one day, oh, that was an actor

805
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:17,440
Speaker 1: for hire, not for my benefit, for that girl's benefit.

806
00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:19,560
Speaker 1: Now this guy turned out to be totally fit. That's

807
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:23,040
Speaker 1: mind blowing. That'd be so difficult to deal with. Well,

808
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:25,400
Speaker 1: and when you question like what's real? You know, I

809
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:28,080
Speaker 1: mean like Ana probably would if she ever found out

810
00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:30,279
Speaker 1: about this, to be like, is anything you ever said

811
00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:32,000
Speaker 1: to me real? Do you have any feeling for me

812
00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:34,879
Speaker 1: at all that's real? Or is this all a fake thing?

813
00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:36,960
Speaker 1: Is that not worse than not having a dad at all?

814
00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:40,000
Speaker 1: You know? I wanted to bring up this article because

815
00:46:40,040 --> 00:46:42,600
Speaker 1: all the names are changed to protect, you know, anyone

816
00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:45,960
Speaker 1: from knowing the truth here. I was wondering while I'm

817
00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:50,440
Speaker 1: reading it, like, well, how many people out there, how

818
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:53,600
Speaker 1: many like girls might read this article who just met

819
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:56,799
Speaker 1: their father for the first time and think, oh, ship

820
00:46:57,000 --> 00:46:59,440
Speaker 1: is this me? And then like have to second. I

821
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:01,719
Speaker 1: always think that when articles come out where they've changed

822
00:47:01,719 --> 00:47:03,759
Speaker 1: the names are I'm like, how many people out there

823
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:06,279
Speaker 1: think this might be about them and they don't know it?

824
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:10,799
Speaker 1: It's so weird to me, right. But when it came

825
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:14,320
Speaker 1: to telling Mona the truth is, she thought that she

826
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:17,480
Speaker 1: would understand when, if, if, and when they finally do

827
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:19,200
Speaker 1: he He thought that she would see it as a

828
00:47:19,239 --> 00:47:21,920
Speaker 1: story of a mother who loved her daughter and a

829
00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:25,200
Speaker 1: guy who quote, in his own limited way, had shown

830
00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:29,520
Speaker 1: her kindness and stability. He said, you know, sure it's

831
00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:32,399
Speaker 1: fifty bucks an hour, but you pay people for things

832
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:34,800
Speaker 1: all the time, and there's still jerks to you. So

833
00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:39,680
Speaker 1: he said, quote was kindness invalidated just because money had

834
00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:43,239
Speaker 1: changed hands. That's fair. It's I mean, you know, it's

835
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:46,520
Speaker 1: kind of a sweet sentiment. She's seen people in all

836
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:49,000
Speaker 1: kinds of situations, right, I mean, he's shared lives with

837
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:52,920
Speaker 1: dozens of families. He's been through school interviews, he's been

838
00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:56,480
Speaker 1: to business conferences, he's gone to Disneyland with kids for

839
00:47:56,560 --> 00:48:00,239
Speaker 1: the first time. He's like congratulated newly weds does some

840
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:02,680
Speaker 1: dozens of times as if he was family with them.

841
00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:06,719
Speaker 1: He even attended a childbirth once, which they don't give

842
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 1: the details off. But I'm like he was he in

843
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:16,680
Speaker 1: this situation. I know, the father, the doctor. Doctor. I

844
00:48:16,719 --> 00:48:18,759
Speaker 1: couldn't afford a doctor, so I hired an actor to

845
00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:20,640
Speaker 1: play one. To deliver this baby. You have to do

846
00:48:20,719 --> 00:48:23,399
Speaker 1: is sit between your legs and catch whatever comes out. Yeah. Yeah,

847
00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:26,239
Speaker 1: I think there's something about boiling water and towels. Sure,

848
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:29,480
Speaker 1: it takes a lot of fluid the boiling waters for it.

849
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:31,399
Speaker 1: Do you. You don't put the baby in the boiling water,

850
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:34,880
Speaker 1: the baby out with the bathway the baby and then

851
00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:36,880
Speaker 1: you throw on both out. Okay, I'm pretty sure that

852
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:39,080
Speaker 1: I think it's just to clean you up because you

853
00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:42,440
Speaker 1: have a lot of fluids and blood things come out

854
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:43,879
Speaker 1: of it. Does have to do you need to bring

855
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:46,000
Speaker 1: like a burner out? Does it have to still be boiling?

856
00:48:46,600 --> 00:48:49,200
Speaker 1: I don't know. They have a hot plate and every

857
00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:52,479
Speaker 1: and every child birthing sweet, it's like in a tea kettle,

858
00:48:52,880 --> 00:49:01,360
Speaker 1: whist it's time for the baby baz oh no. And

859
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:03,040
Speaker 1: then it kind of comes back to a question we

860
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:06,000
Speaker 1: brought up earlier when Bottom And asked him if he

861
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:11,040
Speaker 1: considered that in a way, is he Mona's father? I mean, again,

862
00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:14,839
Speaker 1: he's there for all these significant moments. He's giving her confidence,

863
00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:17,680
Speaker 1: he's teaching her things. Surely, because when a kid spends

864
00:49:17,680 --> 00:49:19,920
Speaker 1: time with an adult, you learn right. And he's in

865
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:22,000
Speaker 1: her life for ten years a few times a month,

866
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:27,359
Speaker 1: he said, quote, it proves a possibility that even if

867
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:29,920
Speaker 1: we're not a real family, even if it's a rental family,

868
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:33,200
Speaker 1: the way we interact with each other makes this a

869
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:38,000
Speaker 1: form of family. Which, yeah, I mean, there's something there that,

870
00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:40,600
Speaker 1: like you said, you you spend that time, you make

871
00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:45,279
Speaker 1: those bonds, and then what's different that's true? Now from

872
00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:49,120
Speaker 1: this article, the story blew up all right, It's spurred

873
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:53,560
Speaker 1: a massive interest in Japan's rent a family industry, and

874
00:49:53,719 --> 00:49:56,920
Speaker 1: shortly after this article in h K, which is Japan's

875
00:49:57,280 --> 00:50:01,320
Speaker 1: public broadcasting network, produced a docu memory about Ishi and

876
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:04,879
Speaker 1: the family romance company. Conan O'Brien did a bit where

877
00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:07,239
Speaker 1: he showed up at a she's office and asked for

878
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:11,440
Speaker 1: a fake family UM. In twenty nineteen, director Werner Herzog

879
00:50:11,600 --> 00:50:15,400
Speaker 1: made a movie called Family Romance LLC, which actually stars

880
00:50:15,640 --> 00:50:18,879
Speaker 1: Yuichi is She as himself, so he's probably like cool,

881
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:21,200
Speaker 1: I get to be in a movie. That's so I

882
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:25,360
Speaker 1: was became an actor in the first The interest just

883
00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:29,200
Speaker 1: blew up at this. I mean, it gets fascinating when

884
00:50:29,239 --> 00:50:33,120
Speaker 1: you get dig into it for um. The Verner Herzog's

885
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:37,440
Speaker 1: film premiered at can in twenty nineteen, and on Rotten Tomatoes,

886
00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:42,120
Speaker 1: the critics consensus is quote a fascinating exploration of human connection,

887
00:50:43,239 --> 00:50:45,640
Speaker 1: and in twenty nineteen, The New Yorker was given the

888
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:50,319
Speaker 1: National Magazine Award in the Featured Writing category for Bottoman's work,

889
00:50:50,680 --> 00:50:56,680
Speaker 1: which honors original style ish storytelling. So yeah, this is

890
00:50:56,760 --> 00:51:00,400
Speaker 1: just really fascinating story about a very different kind of

891
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:05,120
Speaker 1: experience with family and like what what really makes a bond?

892
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:07,160
Speaker 1: I guess and I don't know. So I hope you

893
00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:09,400
Speaker 1: all enjoyed it, So please write in and tell us

894
00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:17,920
Speaker 1: everything you think about this story. Ain't over what No

895
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:23,279
Speaker 1: scratch that scratch all of it, because it turns out

896
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:27,239
Speaker 1: this whole story we've done, Ben tellent On this show

897
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 1: is a more ridiculous romance than we ever thought it was. Okay, Okay,

898
00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:38,080
Speaker 1: Now we all thought that this story was about a

899
00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:42,280
Speaker 1: woman who hired an actor to play her ex husband

900
00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:47,160
Speaker 1: for her daughter. I thought that. You thought that. Werner

901
00:51:47,239 --> 00:51:51,799
Speaker 1: Herzog thought that, and if Bottom and thought that. We'll

902
00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:54,320
Speaker 1: hold on to your bento box because this story is

903
00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:56,200
Speaker 1: about to get twistier than a bowl of noodles, and

904
00:51:56,200 --> 00:52:00,200
Speaker 1: you're gonna ship talk you all over yourself. Because out

905
00:52:00,200 --> 00:52:04,520
Speaker 1: a year after the NHK ran this thirty minute documentary

906
00:52:04,560 --> 00:52:09,759
Speaker 1: about family romance, they issued a retraction and an apology.

907
00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:13,120
Speaker 1: They had featured a separate story about a man who

908
00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:16,080
Speaker 1: had lost his wife and hired a wife and daughter

909
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:19,480
Speaker 1: actor to come hang out with him, and then they

910
00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:23,680
Speaker 1: went on to talk about Raco and Mana. Well, the

911
00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:27,719
Speaker 1: man from that first segment came forward and said that

912
00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:32,640
Speaker 1: he himself was actually an employee of Family Romance. He

913
00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:36,360
Speaker 1: was an actor. And after that, the New Yorker is

914
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:38,120
Speaker 1: like freaking out and they're like, wait a minute, that

915
00:52:38,239 --> 00:52:41,200
Speaker 1: this featured guy in this documentary turned out to be

916
00:52:41,239 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 1: an actor, and we ran a story on. They also

917
00:52:43,640 --> 00:52:45,719
Speaker 1: talked about this guy in their article and then went

918
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:47,719
Speaker 1: on to talk about Raco and Mana. So they're like,

919
00:52:48,080 --> 00:52:50,040
Speaker 1: we better go back and double check everything here and

920
00:52:50,440 --> 00:52:53,320
Speaker 1: run a couple more fact checks. They found out that

921
00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:58,360
Speaker 1: not only had Rayco Mana's mother made repeated false claims

922
00:52:58,480 --> 00:53:01,800
Speaker 1: to both bottom On and The New Yorker's fact checkers,

923
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:05,400
Speaker 1: but that she was in fact not a divorced woman

924
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:12,800
Speaker 1: but quite married. And to whom was she married? That

925
00:53:13,160 --> 00:53:18,600
Speaker 1: was going to be my next question. You the guy

926
00:53:18,760 --> 00:53:22,320
Speaker 1: she hired to play another was actually her husband. This

927
00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:26,319
Speaker 1: actually may have been a married couple conning the New

928
00:53:26,400 --> 00:53:30,839
Speaker 1: Yorker for the publicity and this wild story. Look, look

929
00:53:30,920 --> 00:53:32,919
Speaker 1: what you can do with Family Romance. You could hire

930
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:36,560
Speaker 1: a man to play your daughter's father, like this whole

931
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:41,960
Speaker 1: thing might be total bullshit. So he owns the company

932
00:53:42,040 --> 00:53:46,400
Speaker 1: for sure, Yes, And he's definitely married to Rakos, So

933
00:53:46,520 --> 00:53:48,920
Speaker 1: they might have made up this whole story to get

934
00:53:49,200 --> 00:53:52,480
Speaker 1: clients for their business. He definitely owns the company, and

935
00:53:52,960 --> 00:53:58,080
Speaker 1: she is definitely married. They are pretty sure that they

936
00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:01,440
Speaker 1: are married to each other, but she wouldn't confirm it apparently,

937
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:06,319
Speaker 1: or and he didn't make it very clear, okay, which

938
00:54:06,400 --> 00:54:08,800
Speaker 1: makes it seem like he's not wanting to give the

939
00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:13,560
Speaker 1: real answer because it sounds bad. What the fuck now?

940
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:16,960
Speaker 1: The New Yorker left the article up, saying that LF

941
00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:20,000
Speaker 1: and the fact checkers all acted in good faith and

942
00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:22,560
Speaker 1: there's still a lot of value about you know, the

943
00:54:22,640 --> 00:54:26,440
Speaker 1: story about rental relative agencies in the article quote, but

944
00:54:26,760 --> 00:54:30,440
Speaker 1: our findings about is she Eat and Raiko contradict fundamental

945
00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:34,640
Speaker 1: aspects of these individuals stories and broadly undermine the credibility

946
00:54:34,719 --> 00:54:38,759
Speaker 1: of what they told us. She denied any deception. He

947
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:41,920
Speaker 1: says everyone that they spoke to were real clients of

948
00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:45,440
Speaker 1: family romance, and he admitted that he had been supporting

949
00:54:45,600 --> 00:54:49,120
Speaker 1: Raiko and her family, I guess financially. But he quote

950
00:54:49,239 --> 00:54:51,319
Speaker 1: did not give a clear answer as to whether they

951
00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:58,280
Speaker 1: are married, so speculation station. Okay, maybe the story is true,

952
00:54:58,680 --> 00:55:01,680
Speaker 1: like she did hire him and they actually ended up

953
00:55:01,760 --> 00:55:03,839
Speaker 1: having real feelings for each other and then they got

954
00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:07,160
Speaker 1: married got married maybe afterwards, Yeah yeah, but then why

955
00:55:07,239 --> 00:55:10,360
Speaker 1: not just say that? Why did I tell the journalists, Oh,

956
00:55:10,360 --> 00:55:11,920
Speaker 1: I wish you would marry me and stuff like why not?

957
00:55:12,239 --> 00:55:15,040
Speaker 1: What a cute story that would be? I know how

958
00:55:15,160 --> 00:55:18,520
Speaker 1: weird is And if they got married after the interview,

959
00:55:19,360 --> 00:55:21,080
Speaker 1: then why would they be a dodgy about it? Why

960
00:55:21,120 --> 00:55:22,759
Speaker 1: wouldn't they just say, oh, and then you know what,

961
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:25,080
Speaker 1: we did get married. It was super fun. You know,

962
00:55:25,719 --> 00:55:29,080
Speaker 1: it's so strange unless he's also married to someone else.

963
00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:32,520
Speaker 1: Oh no, as a nava he married someone, and as

964
00:55:32,560 --> 00:55:35,640
Speaker 1: a she he married something. Maybe he has like he's

965
00:55:35,719 --> 00:55:38,600
Speaker 1: like doing an inception thing and he has double married

966
00:55:38,719 --> 00:55:41,399
Speaker 1: many of his clients ship they all think that he's

967
00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 1: really marrying them, but it's just part of the gig.

968
00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:45,480
Speaker 1: Part of the gig was like the movie of the

969
00:55:45,560 --> 00:55:53,560
Speaker 1: game where you never know Michael Douglas, Hello, that is

970
00:55:53,640 --> 00:55:57,520
Speaker 1: so fucking weird. And also this guy that said he

971
00:55:57,640 --> 00:56:00,680
Speaker 1: was an actor who hired a wife and daughter, right, Like,

972
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:03,880
Speaker 1: was he an actor with the company and also a

973
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:06,680
Speaker 1: client or did he completely lie about hiring the wife

974
00:56:06,719 --> 00:56:09,480
Speaker 1: and daughter? That's what is unclear to me. And and

975
00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:12,560
Speaker 1: she says, no, everybody you talked to is a client

976
00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:15,799
Speaker 1: of mine, because I mean, you can't hire even if

977
00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:18,520
Speaker 1: your work for the company, right, imagine right, that's still

978
00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:22,200
Speaker 1: so fucking it's so strange. And I'm sitting here and

979
00:56:22,239 --> 00:56:25,680
Speaker 1: I'm I'm literally in real time researching this story and going, oh,

980
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:27,799
Speaker 1: this is so interesting. You know, she she hired this guy.

981
00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:31,200
Speaker 1: Players wait what it's all fake? And I'm like, do

982
00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:34,200
Speaker 1: I have to scrap everything? Was this story fake? You know?

983
00:56:34,320 --> 00:56:35,440
Speaker 1: And we are we just going to tell a big

984
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:37,600
Speaker 1: lung story and say never mind, it was all a lie.

985
00:56:38,239 --> 00:56:41,840
Speaker 1: But it turns out if they were really married and

986
00:56:42,000 --> 00:56:46,040
Speaker 1: running this kind of con together, then the story is

987
00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:50,280
Speaker 1: the story that they told absolutely, because you can't enjoy

988
00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:53,200
Speaker 1: the twist without going along the I guess yeah, it's

989
00:56:53,200 --> 00:56:56,320
Speaker 1: just like, well, this is the ridiculous romance because this

990
00:56:56,560 --> 00:57:00,319
Speaker 1: couple is running this for some reason. Big story. I mean,

991
00:57:00,360 --> 00:57:02,759
Speaker 1: I think the reason is again just like marketing for

992
00:57:02,840 --> 00:57:06,279
Speaker 1: them to say, look what you can do like hire

993
00:57:06,360 --> 00:57:08,920
Speaker 1: us if you need something like this. But it totally

994
00:57:09,200 --> 00:57:12,640
Speaker 1: really damaged their reputation. Of course they didn't know once

995
00:57:12,719 --> 00:57:14,839
Speaker 1: this came out, and and the reputation of the whole

996
00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:19,680
Speaker 1: rental agency industry, which other journalists have come forward and said,

997
00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:21,760
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that it exists as much as you

998
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:24,960
Speaker 1: say it does. Yeah, I mean I found articles from

999
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:28,760
Speaker 1: two thousand nine and onward talking about several different companies.

1000
00:57:29,320 --> 00:57:31,600
Speaker 1: But I've had there's a couple articles about the New

1001
00:57:31,680 --> 00:57:35,800
Speaker 1: Yorker article, And sometimes those journalists say, look, you know

1002
00:57:35,920 --> 00:57:38,320
Speaker 1: you left your article up saying that it's valuable information

1003
00:57:38,320 --> 00:57:41,760
Speaker 1: about the rental industry, but you don't even talk or

1004
00:57:41,880 --> 00:57:45,920
Speaker 1: cite much about them except for the Family Romance company.

1005
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:49,040
Speaker 1: So how do we know that's even real? I think

1006
00:57:49,120 --> 00:57:54,680
Speaker 1: it is station if she did get into deep and

1007
00:57:54,760 --> 00:57:58,440
Speaker 1: now he can't tell who he's really married to and

1008
00:57:58,520 --> 00:58:01,000
Speaker 1: who isn't so when they are you married to Raiko,

1009
00:58:01,040 --> 00:58:03,800
Speaker 1: he's like, um, maybe, oh my god. So he is

1010
00:58:03,880 --> 00:58:10,480
Speaker 1: like Oscar Isaac and Moonnight playing the game in inception? Yes,

1011
00:58:10,760 --> 00:58:16,040
Speaker 1: whoa Moonnight playing inception? That's what's happening to issue. I'm

1012
00:58:16,120 --> 00:58:21,000
Speaker 1: taking no notes. I'm ready for this movie now. Ultimately,

1013
00:58:21,240 --> 00:58:25,200
Speaker 1: the NHK issued a big, huge apology for their documentary

1014
00:58:25,320 --> 00:58:28,720
Speaker 1: piece for Deceiving their viewers, and the American Society of

1015
00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:32,960
Speaker 1: Magazine Editors discussed rescinding the National Magazine Award that they

1016
00:58:33,000 --> 00:58:35,520
Speaker 1: had given to The New Yorker, But just days before

1017
00:58:35,560 --> 00:58:38,800
Speaker 1: that decision was announced, the New Yorker decided that they

1018
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:40,640
Speaker 1: were just going to return that award. They were like,

1019
00:58:40,680 --> 00:58:42,840
Speaker 1: don't you worry about it, don't rip it out of

1020
00:58:42,880 --> 00:58:44,520
Speaker 1: our hands. We're just going to give it back. I

1021
00:58:44,560 --> 00:58:47,560
Speaker 1: guess that's better than having it a big headline about

1022
00:58:47,600 --> 00:58:50,000
Speaker 1: how you had to give it back and more like, oh, no,

1023
00:58:50,160 --> 00:58:53,440
Speaker 1: we knew that it was wrong. Absolutely, It's like turning

1024
00:58:53,480 --> 00:58:56,720
Speaker 1: yourself in now. One of these articles I was talking

1025
00:58:56,720 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 1: about before is in The New Republic and it's by

1026
00:58:59,640 --> 00:59:03,240
Speaker 1: a guy named Ryu Spaith, and he wrote, in an

1027
00:59:03,360 --> 00:59:06,120
Speaker 1: article titled How the New Yorker Fell into the Weird

1028
00:59:06,240 --> 00:59:09,840
Speaker 1: Japan Trap, that it can get easy to get sucked

1029
00:59:09,880 --> 00:59:15,040
Speaker 1: into the mentality of like, look, how weird Japanese culture is. Right,

1030
00:59:15,240 --> 00:59:18,240
Speaker 1: he says, even the Japanese themselves sometimes get obsessed with

1031
00:59:18,320 --> 00:59:21,440
Speaker 1: this notion. We we've done the holograms and stuff on

1032
00:59:21,520 --> 00:59:24,000
Speaker 1: this show. I think the few times we've looked at

1033
00:59:24,040 --> 00:59:28,440
Speaker 1: contemporary Japan, it's been Oh it's so weird. But you know,

1034
00:59:28,600 --> 00:59:31,880
Speaker 1: obviously for the vast majority of Japanese people, it's not

1035
00:59:32,000 --> 00:59:37,280
Speaker 1: necessarily like this. Um. But he does point out how

1036
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:40,200
Speaker 1: strange it must have been for Elf bottom in the journalist,

1037
00:59:40,720 --> 00:59:43,240
Speaker 1: since like, this whole thing is so topsy turvy, right,

1038
00:59:43,280 --> 00:59:45,640
Speaker 1: so I feel sorry for they got out reward. What

1039
00:59:45,720 --> 00:59:49,200
Speaker 1: are you doing as far as they knew a good job? Um.

1040
00:59:49,360 --> 00:59:51,960
Speaker 1: He says that like when you read the article of

1041
00:59:52,080 --> 00:59:56,560
Speaker 1: her account of meeting Raiko Nishi together quote with the

1042
00:59:56,680 --> 01:00:00,360
Speaker 1: new knowledge that they're performing high wire subterfuge, it's so

1043
01:00:00,560 --> 01:00:04,320
Speaker 1: disorienting that it almost makes one queasy because it is

1044
01:00:04,400 --> 01:00:07,240
Speaker 1: you go read this article and if you know that

1045
01:00:07,400 --> 01:00:12,720
Speaker 1: they're lying to her, you're like this pork journalist. You know,

1046
01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:16,960
Speaker 1: they're like really she is like trying to piece it altogether.

1047
01:00:17,040 --> 01:00:19,440
Speaker 1: She's like this is so strange, and this whole thing

1048
01:00:19,520 --> 01:00:23,400
Speaker 1: about how oh you know, I really love him. Actually

1049
01:00:23,480 --> 01:00:26,040
Speaker 1: I wish he would marry me. But they're actually married.

1050
01:00:26,160 --> 01:00:29,080
Speaker 1: Common That is the almost the strangest thing about it

1051
01:00:29,320 --> 01:00:32,360
Speaker 1: is that they chose to tell this weird story instead

1052
01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:34,600
Speaker 1: of what could have been an equally inspiring and more

1053
01:00:34,720 --> 01:00:37,280
Speaker 1: real story more true story. I don't know, maybe just

1054
01:00:37,760 --> 01:00:40,960
Speaker 1: unless they aren't married to each other. Yeah, and you

1055
01:00:41,040 --> 01:00:43,560
Speaker 1: know he's married, but to someone else. I don't know.

1056
01:00:44,440 --> 01:00:47,160
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just those adding those elements of truth that

1057
01:00:47,320 --> 01:00:54,080
Speaker 1: make the lie believable. That's so fucking weird. Ray You

1058
01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:57,040
Speaker 1: also points out that Japanese journalists fell for this story too,

1059
01:00:57,360 --> 01:01:00,000
Speaker 1: you know, the whole NHK did a whole thing about

1060
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:03,440
Speaker 1: on it. So it's not misunderstanding, you know, from being

1061
01:01:03,480 --> 01:01:07,280
Speaker 1: a cultural outsider he's pointing out. But he makes the

1062
01:01:07,400 --> 01:01:10,920
Speaker 1: point that quote bad Man's story is not that the

1063
01:01:11,000 --> 01:01:14,400
Speaker 1: Japanese are weird, but that we are all weird, that

1064
01:01:14,520 --> 01:01:18,560
Speaker 1: we have strange, complicated notions of family and we deal

1065
01:01:18,640 --> 01:01:22,960
Speaker 1: with them in convoluted and sometimes absurd ways. And I

1066
01:01:23,080 --> 01:01:26,680
Speaker 1: just gotta say amen to that, Ryo, because it's kind

1067
01:01:26,680 --> 01:01:29,480
Speaker 1: of what this show is all about, isn't it. Yeah. Absolutely,

1068
01:01:29,520 --> 01:01:31,240
Speaker 1: And we talked about this all the time, just the

1069
01:01:31,400 --> 01:01:35,280
Speaker 1: weird things people do to feel love, to express themselves,

1070
01:01:35,320 --> 01:01:37,360
Speaker 1: to feel like they have a family, to feel like

1071
01:01:37,400 --> 01:01:40,040
Speaker 1: they're close to someone. Well, and it's just so interesting

1072
01:01:40,160 --> 01:01:43,080
Speaker 1: on like a scientific level of like the human nature

1073
01:01:43,160 --> 01:01:46,480
Speaker 1: of bonding is so fascinating. Because like I mean, like

1074
01:01:46,640 --> 01:01:49,480
Speaker 1: just take the lie completely out of the story. And

1075
01:01:49,840 --> 01:01:51,760
Speaker 1: you know, we learned in the pandemic that there's all

1076
01:01:51,840 --> 01:01:56,680
Speaker 1: these like very very slight casual interactions with like your

1077
01:01:56,760 --> 01:01:59,680
Speaker 1: favorite barista or the server at the restaurant that we

1078
01:02:00,040 --> 01:02:02,920
Speaker 1: stout on that and actually we're very important for our

1079
01:02:02,960 --> 01:02:05,240
Speaker 1: mental health that you would think it doesn't matter. You

1080
01:02:05,360 --> 01:02:07,840
Speaker 1: just need your your main you know, your bottom bitches

1081
01:02:07,920 --> 01:02:09,960
Speaker 1: near you and you don't have to go out and

1082
01:02:10,240 --> 01:02:12,800
Speaker 1: like have a casual interaction with someone, But actually they're

1083
01:02:12,920 --> 01:02:14,880
Speaker 1: very important for us. So it's like all these different

1084
01:02:14,920 --> 01:02:17,640
Speaker 1: types of bonds that you can make and how long

1085
01:02:17,720 --> 01:02:20,320
Speaker 1: they last and how strong they are and how important

1086
01:02:20,360 --> 01:02:25,080
Speaker 1: they are are just so varied and which one's and

1087
01:02:25,280 --> 01:02:29,400
Speaker 1: what what is I guess I should say? And does

1088
01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:34,280
Speaker 1: it matter if those are manufactured? You know, like how

1089
01:02:35,520 --> 01:02:38,880
Speaker 1: what does genuine even mean? You know, like if it's

1090
01:02:38,920 --> 01:02:42,760
Speaker 1: not organic, if you sort of like curate your relationship

1091
01:02:42,800 --> 01:02:45,080
Speaker 1: with someone else, How different is it to go higher

1092
01:02:45,120 --> 01:02:47,680
Speaker 1: an agency to do that than it is to like

1093
01:02:48,160 --> 01:02:50,520
Speaker 1: go through a dating website and try and pick out

1094
01:02:50,600 --> 01:02:53,480
Speaker 1: the right partner for yourself. Right, who is definitely putting

1095
01:02:53,480 --> 01:02:56,080
Speaker 1: on a show because they want you to see. And

1096
01:02:56,360 --> 01:03:00,400
Speaker 1: it's like she said, just because money exchange, does that

1097
01:03:00,520 --> 01:03:03,400
Speaker 1: take away from the kindness that we're sharing together, from

1098
01:03:03,440 --> 01:03:06,200
Speaker 1: the relationship that we built, you know. I mean I

1099
01:03:07,040 --> 01:03:08,960
Speaker 1: wonder half the time if he's not like, you know,

1100
01:03:09,320 --> 01:03:11,120
Speaker 1: I spent so much time with this family and I

1101
01:03:11,160 --> 01:03:14,200
Speaker 1: really care about them. I almost wish I could just

1102
01:03:14,320 --> 01:03:16,680
Speaker 1: do this for free for them because I care about them.

1103
01:03:16,720 --> 01:03:19,440
Speaker 1: But I can't do that. It's my job. I was

1104
01:03:19,480 --> 01:03:21,760
Speaker 1: thinking about that. We were watching Miss Marvel the other night.

1105
01:03:21,920 --> 01:03:23,840
Speaker 1: This is a weird way to throw us back. And

1106
01:03:23,960 --> 01:03:27,760
Speaker 1: the kid who works at the shop, uh Bruno, right,

1107
01:03:27,800 --> 01:03:29,640
Speaker 1: you watched at a corner store that they all shop at,

1108
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:32,320
Speaker 1: and I was like, if you work somewhere that's so

1109
01:03:32,760 --> 01:03:36,600
Speaker 1: community based and you know everyone so well, I wouldn't

1110
01:03:36,680 --> 01:03:38,600
Speaker 1: want to give them all free stuff, wouldn't you want

1111
01:03:38,600 --> 01:03:40,440
Speaker 1: to always just be like, don't worry about it today,

1112
01:03:40,600 --> 01:03:43,440
Speaker 1: Mr Joe, take your coffee. But you can't do that.

1113
01:03:43,840 --> 01:03:46,000
Speaker 1: And Mr Joe also knows that you can't do that.

1114
01:03:46,160 --> 01:03:47,720
Speaker 1: And it's not like, well, you're my friend, why are

1115
01:03:47,760 --> 01:03:51,240
Speaker 1: you charging me? You're everybody's friend. Your job is to

1116
01:03:51,320 --> 01:03:54,760
Speaker 1: be my friend, So it's okay. Here, I was thinking

1117
01:03:54,760 --> 01:03:57,400
Speaker 1: about that with work, Like, first of all, your work

1118
01:03:57,520 --> 01:03:59,520
Speaker 1: friends that you may like. I don't know if that

1119
01:03:59,600 --> 01:04:02,200
Speaker 1: happens much in office is but I know in restaurants

1120
01:04:02,280 --> 01:04:05,840
Speaker 1: you have like you're in the trenches, like like we'll

1121
01:04:05,920 --> 01:04:08,320
Speaker 1: be friends for life, and then when you leave the

1122
01:04:08,440 --> 01:04:11,920
Speaker 1: job often you don't necessarily hang out with those people anymore.

1123
01:04:12,320 --> 01:04:14,240
Speaker 1: It doesn't make the bond that you had while you

1124
01:04:14,320 --> 01:04:18,560
Speaker 1: work together any less. It's just it's this particular place

1125
01:04:18,680 --> 01:04:21,160
Speaker 1: that you had that bond and a very particular time

1126
01:04:21,280 --> 01:04:24,560
Speaker 1: and situations and stuff. I don't know. I mean, does

1127
01:04:24,640 --> 01:04:28,720
Speaker 1: that make it less of a friend. I don't know.

1128
01:04:28,880 --> 01:04:32,760
Speaker 1: It's just such a weird the human heart, you know. Well,

1129
01:04:32,840 --> 01:04:35,840
Speaker 1: And I think, just to get back to these three,

1130
01:04:36,040 --> 01:04:39,240
Speaker 1: I think the most bizarre part of the story to

1131
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:45,080
Speaker 1: me is that we don't know if Mana even exists.

1132
01:04:45,880 --> 01:04:48,440
Speaker 1: What they didn't meet the daughter that journalists never met,

1133
01:04:48,480 --> 01:04:52,080
Speaker 1: the daughter. This was a story that was told, So

1134
01:04:52,640 --> 01:04:54,960
Speaker 1: Mana might not be Mona might not exist at all.

1135
01:04:55,520 --> 01:04:57,640
Speaker 1: Oh my god. We don't know if they have a

1136
01:04:57,680 --> 01:05:00,080
Speaker 1: daughter together, if Raco had a daughter to begin with,

1137
01:05:00,280 --> 01:05:02,360
Speaker 1: if that's how she meant, and she again, maybe she

1138
01:05:02,440 --> 01:05:04,560
Speaker 1: did hire this guy for this exact problem, and they

1139
01:05:04,640 --> 01:05:07,320
Speaker 1: fell in love and got married. We don't know, but

1140
01:05:08,000 --> 01:05:11,800
Speaker 1: I kind of speculation. STATION feel like the whole daughter's

1141
01:05:11,840 --> 01:05:14,840
Speaker 1: story might be made up. If they never produced her,

1142
01:05:14,960 --> 01:05:17,800
Speaker 1: then I'd think that too. Yeah, I would think that too.

1143
01:05:18,160 --> 01:05:20,680
Speaker 1: Now I need to know for sure, but I guess

1144
01:05:20,680 --> 01:05:22,160
Speaker 1: if they're like, I don't want to bring her because

1145
01:05:22,160 --> 01:05:26,400
Speaker 1: then she'll know it's a lie exactly exactly and instead,

1146
01:05:26,600 --> 01:05:30,040
Speaker 1: how do you know? Right? And if she is real,

1147
01:05:31,840 --> 01:05:34,920
Speaker 1: she's what she's she'd be like twenty two now and

1148
01:05:35,080 --> 01:05:38,680
Speaker 1: still think that this guy is her dad unless she

1149
01:05:38,720 --> 01:05:41,400
Speaker 1: read this article almost like wait a second, I was

1150
01:05:41,520 --> 01:05:46,160
Speaker 1: being bullied around. My dad said he was in a

1151
01:05:46,280 --> 01:05:49,520
Speaker 1: Rashley music video. Maybe they changed the band name or

1152
01:05:49,600 --> 01:05:55,040
Speaker 1: something too. Well. I hope you enjoyed going on this

1153
01:05:55,200 --> 01:05:57,520
Speaker 1: ride with us. Twist and turns one. I think we

1154
01:05:57,560 --> 01:06:01,680
Speaker 1: can do a real ending now. Yeah, that's the last twist, right.

1155
01:06:02,360 --> 01:06:04,440
Speaker 1: Please let us know what your thoughts. We'd love to

1156
01:06:04,520 --> 01:06:06,840
Speaker 1: hear reactions to this one. Yeah, of course. We love

1157
01:06:06,880 --> 01:06:09,240
Speaker 1: getting your suggestions for other stories or just say hey,

1158
01:06:09,360 --> 01:06:11,640
Speaker 1: say whatever you want. We love getting emails. We're stuck

1159
01:06:11,640 --> 01:06:16,040
Speaker 1: in the house with COVID talk to us, so shoot

1160
01:06:16,120 --> 01:06:18,760
Speaker 1: us an email ridic Romance at gmail dot com right

1161
01:06:18,920 --> 01:06:21,400
Speaker 1: or we're on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Diana Mathen

1162
01:06:21,520 --> 01:06:23,560
Speaker 1: and I'm at Oh Great, It's Eli and the show

1163
01:06:23,720 --> 01:06:26,800
Speaker 1: is at riddick Romance. Thanks for tuning in again, Thanks

1164
01:06:26,840 --> 01:06:28,800
Speaker 1: for spending your time with us, and we will catch

1165
01:06:28,880 --> 01:06:30,440
Speaker 1: you all the next episode of which is going to

1166
01:06:30,520 --> 01:06:34,480
Speaker 1: be Part three of Collette. Exciting waits to see you

1167
01:06:34,560 --> 01:06:39,520
Speaker 1: Then song Friends, It's time to Ago. Thanks so listening

1168
01:06:39,640 --> 01:06:43,560
Speaker 1: to our show. Tell your friends names Uncle Sande to

1169
01:06:43,680 --> 01:06:45,600
Speaker 1: listen to our show. Ridiculous. Roll this