Speaker 1: Last June, Heavyweight performed a sold out show in the
Speaker 1: Borough of Churches, Brooklyn, New York. The show was part
Speaker 1: of Gimletfest, a two day podcasting festival that rivaled Woodstock
Speaker 1: ninety four in terms of historic and cultural significance. If
Speaker 1: you came to that show, good for you, And if not, well,
Speaker 1: you'll have to live with that fact for the rest
Speaker 1: of your life. So please sit back, wallow in that
Speaker 1: regret and try to enjoy this slightly edited version of
Speaker 1: Heavyweight Live.
Speaker 2: I know, Jackie, did you hear me out fam in
Speaker 2: the car? Yeah, it sounds like you're on a speakerphone.
Speaker 2: Oh that's really good. So you know I have a podcast.
Speaker 2: Do you remember the name of it?
Speaker 3: John, Yes, if it's going to be okay.
Speaker 2: What is the name of the show?
Speaker 3: You know what? Next question?
Speaker 2: Okay, you know that the name of the show is Heavyweight, right?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 2: Does that ring a bell?
Speaker 3: It rings an annoying bell?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 2: What does an annoying bell sound like?
Speaker 3: You just rang it?
Speaker 2: Okay? So I am doing a live show.
Speaker 3: I don't think the visual dimension as much. They can
Speaker 3: just look at a photograph of you and it's probably
Speaker 3: do the same thing. Yeah, you know I certainly hope
Speaker 3: you have a little bit of something to drink before.
Speaker 3: You tend to do much better in your live performances
Speaker 3: if you've had a little, a little something. We all
Speaker 3: know that about you.
Speaker 2: A little hoot yeah, yeah, I suppose take the edge off. Yeah,
Speaker 2: little hooch is a part of the show business tradition,
Speaker 2: back to the days of being crosbys. Yes, of course
Speaker 2: they do. Why is that so funny? I am in
Speaker 2: show business. I mean it's a statement of fact. I
Speaker 2: I host a podcast.
Speaker 3: I just want to know. Is that considered show businesses?
Speaker 3: And if so?
Speaker 5: Why?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 3: Yea, I guess it's a show.
Speaker 2: It's a show and people are entertained by it. So
Speaker 2: I'm in show business. Nothing.
Speaker 3: I guess you are in show business. It's cute, but
Speaker 3: it's very cute, all.
Speaker 2: Right, John Okay, youtobe, bye bye.
Speaker 6: Plays and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: Got the CEO and Gimblet Media founder Alex Bloomberg is
Speaker 2: trotting in place beside my workstation. How do you like apples?
Speaker 2: He asks? I don't care for apples, I say, when bruised,
Speaker 2: they remind me of my mortality. When served cold, they
Speaker 2: tend to hurt my teeth. So no, Alex, I do
Speaker 2: not like apples, though I do like apple sauce. Well,
Speaker 2: how do you like these apples? He asks, without looking
Speaker 2: away from my computer screen. I ask if these apples
Speaker 2: are sauced apples. Mister Bloomberg thrusts a letter pressed handbill
Speaker 2: in front of my face. It smells like the clone
Speaker 2: department of a European duty free. The handbill reads gimlet
Speaker 2: fest Fest, it seems is short for festival. Are we
Speaker 2: disarming a bomb? While falling from a rooftop? Alex, is
Speaker 2: your time so precious that you can't afford two lousy
Speaker 2: extra syllables? Of course? I say none of this out loud.
Speaker 2: The last thing I need is to be fired from
Speaker 2: podcasting and forced to recite my monologues into a CBE
Speaker 2: radio while seated on the lap of some trucker named
Speaker 2: Jean Francois. Mister Bloomberg checks his fitbit, pumps his fist thrice,
Speaker 2: and stops running. Though his brow is virtually sweatless, he
Speaker 2: wipes it with a silken kerchief and crumples the handbill
Speaker 2: into my chest. Then he asks his real question, what
Speaker 2: are you going to do for gimlet Fest? I don't
Speaker 2: like public speaking. I say, the very thought of a
Speaker 2: live event was enough to make the borsht i'd eaten
Speaker 2: for lunch perform a slow, spiteful kazatskay in my kishka's.
Speaker 2: Mister Bloomberg laughs, You're hilarious, he says, slapping my back
Speaker 2: hard enough to make my fillings rattle, and the days
Speaker 2: Borshed enter its final curtain call. For the next several months,
Speaker 2: I do nothing but worry. By day, I hide out
Speaker 2: shivering in mister Bloomberg's executive bathroom. By night, I sit
Speaker 2: at the kitchen table in darkness, eating unsalted peanuts and
Speaker 2: drinking bourbon. And so the days run away like wild
Speaker 2: horses at a farm wedding and upstate. I make a
Speaker 2: mental note to tweet that, and all the while I
Speaker 2: can do nothing else but think of gimlet Fest. What
Speaker 2: will I wear to? What number will I set my
Speaker 2: beer trimmer?
Speaker 7: To bed?
Speaker 2: The wife cries, it's four.
Speaker 4: In the morning.
Speaker 2: When sleep does come, it brings ominous dreams. In one,
Speaker 2: I hop out of a papier mache cake onto a cool,
Speaker 2: dark stage. I am holding a ukulele. Hello, I say,
Speaker 2: into the blackness, I'm certain there is an audience out
Speaker 2: there somewhere judging me. In the silence, I hear a cough,
Speaker 2: then a Werther's Original slowly being unwrapped. A face emerges
Speaker 2: from the darkness. It is ABC television personality Zach Brath.
Speaker 2: He informs me. I've been canceled. I awaken a cold sweat,
Speaker 2: surrounded by Werther's original wrappers, and for your consideration, DVD
Speaker 2: is of alex Ink. A week before showtime, I feel
Speaker 2: my bowels quake. Had my nightly prayer for diverticulitis been answered,
Speaker 2: Dear God, I in tone, please give me diverticulitis so
Speaker 2: I don't have to do gimlet Fest. But no such luck.
Speaker 2: It is only a visit from my old friend gas.
Speaker 4: Mere.
Speaker 2: Days before the event, mister Bloomberg corners me in the
Speaker 2: Gimlet Cat Cafe, the one on the second floor. How's
Speaker 2: that live show coming, he demands, superby croak stoically, my
Speaker 2: voice cracking in three different places. Good good, he says,
Speaker 2: taking a long drag of avocado flavored vape. What's the
Speaker 2: run of the show, he asks, I don't know, I say,
Speaker 2: ending the charade, I have nothing planned. Mister Bloomberg twitches
Speaker 2: violently causing the two task monkeys, carrying his e hook
Speaker 2: at a lurch from side to side. What have you
Speaker 2: been doing with your time? He asks? The former Planet
Speaker 2: Money spokesmodel was still capable of a hard hitting question.
Speaker 2: What had I been doing with my time? Tweeting? I
Speaker 2: say about the festival. Let's take this to the kitchen,
Speaker 2: hammocks mister Bloomberg commands dutifully. I trail behind him, trying
Speaker 2: not to spill his chocolate mint julip while swinging on
Speaker 2: his stomach. Mister Bloomberg explains how Gimletfest is about influencing.
Speaker 2: It's about inspiring positive change, he says, while sipping from
Speaker 2: a very long straw. Oh, indubitably, I squeal, let's force
Speaker 2: feed positivity down the throats of non Matte believers everywhere.
Speaker 2: Of course, I only squeal this to myself. The last
Speaker 2: thing I need is to be sent back to Canada
Speaker 2: to do the overnight weather report from Moose Factory, Ontario.
Speaker 2: I've been thinking a lot about engaging our brand loyalists,
Speaker 2: Alex continues, but I'm barely listening. The gentle rocking of
Speaker 2: the hammock has sent me into a reverie. When I awake.
Speaker 2: I'm alone. The office is dark but for the muted
Speaker 2: headlamps of the task monkeys polishing mister Bloomberg's vate pen
Speaker 2: collection and preparation for the day ahead. Come to bed.
Speaker 2: The wife texts, it's four a m. Of course, I
Speaker 2: want to help mister Bloomberg. I've been listening to him
Speaker 2: radio DJ on This American Life since I was but
Speaker 2: a mopheaded child strapped into the back seat of Mammon's
Speaker 2: minivan on the way to curling practice. Leaving the office,
Speaker 2: I pass by his treadmill desk. He is still here,
Speaker 2: slowly trotting along, working hard. I ask, but there is
Speaker 2: no answer. After several minutes, I realize that he has
Speaker 2: fallen into a deep sleep. Only the support of his
Speaker 2: loyal task monkeys is keeping him upright. Good night, Podcast, Prince,
Speaker 2: I whisper, before wandering out into the night. The night
Speaker 2: before Gimbletfest is one of the worst of my life.
Speaker 2: How's everybody doing tonight? I practice over and over into
Speaker 2: my wife's hair brush while staring into the bathroom mirror.
Speaker 2: How is everybody doing tonight? How's everybody doing tonight?
Speaker 4: Go to bed?
Speaker 2: The wife cries, it's four in the morning, but I can't.
Speaker 2: I know that if I can just nail my opening line,
Speaker 2: everything else will fall into place. The audience will applaud,
Speaker 2: mister Bloomberg, will sign my paycheck, and my infant son
Speaker 2: will start calling me dada instead of haha. And so
Speaker 2: I practice, how's everybody doing tonight? How is everybody doing tonight?
Speaker 2: And then it comes to me, how's everybody doing this evening?
Speaker 2: So how's everybody doing this evening?
Speaker 6: Hello? Jonathan Goldstein?
Speaker 2: Uh, that's that's my human beat boxer, Devin, And this
Speaker 2: is my co host and producer, Khalila Holt.
Speaker 8: Hello.
Speaker 6: Do you want to tell these people what we're gonna do?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Uh, so tonight the theme of this evening is
Speaker 2: Killed Killed Stories, and so we were gonna play for
Speaker 2: you some of the stories or clips of the stories
Speaker 2: that didn't make it onto the air. And also we're
Speaker 2: gonna have some guests, some special guests, and uh, they're
Speaker 2: going to be human beatboxed onto the stage.
Speaker 6: Are you suggesting that I should be human being?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Would you like to be human beatboxed onto the stage?
Speaker 6: Not particularly, but I will.
Speaker 2: I think you're gonna like it more than you anticipate
Speaker 2: it's you're gonna find it very enlivening. I did.
Speaker 6: Do we call it human beat boxing or do we
Speaker 6: just call it beatboxing?
Speaker 2: He's human and he's beatboxing. So mm hmmm, i'd you
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 6: It's okay.
Speaker 2: Makes me so happy, Devin, come out here. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: I want to tell you. I want to thank you again.
Speaker 2: I want to tell you a story about how my
Speaker 2: interest in human beatboxing came about. Are you familiar with
Speaker 2: the Fat Boys? I am, Yeah, so I really like
Speaker 2: the Fat Boys as a child, and I would try
Speaker 2: to human beat box myself and I wasn't good at it,
Speaker 2: and I started to feel chest pains and my parents
Speaker 2: had to take me to the Jewish general er in Montreal,
Speaker 2: and the doctor in the er told me that I
Speaker 2: had given myself these chest pains from the beatboxing that
Speaker 2: I was giving. Is that is that a peril of it?
Speaker 9: It can happen, Yeah, definitely seems to have happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I had to stop doing it. Yeah.
Speaker 9: Well, I think, uh, I think anybody can can beat box.
Speaker 9: So I think if you push through the pain, uh one, yeah,
Speaker 9: one day you could get there.
Speaker 6: Can we hear? Just like a little something?
Speaker 9: Yeah, can we hear just a tiny little here, I'll
Speaker 9: set you up.
Speaker 2: Sure, Sure, I know you're patronizing me, but I still
Speaker 2: like it.
Speaker 7: Ok, thank you.
Speaker 6: Again, leaving the stage.
Speaker 10: Now, I think it's time to introduce our first special guests.
Speaker 10: You may Introd know her from the Social Security number
Speaker 10: eight two three six three eight two nine seven, or
Speaker 10: from her work on Planet Money and This American Life,
Speaker 10: Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 6: Zoe Chase.
Speaker 2: Devin brings Zoe to the stage. Zoe, how was that?
Speaker 2: Why have you ever been human being boxed onto a stage?
Speaker 2: It's pretty nice. You get used to it. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: you can't live without it, event Hi Hi, So okay,
Speaker 2: so we're going to talk about killed stories, and at
Speaker 2: your prompting, we're going to talk about a killed story
Speaker 2: of mine. And I know that it made an impact
Speaker 2: on a young Zoe Chase. And this is a story
Speaker 2: that almost almost got killed when I was working as
Speaker 2: a producer at This American Life many many years ago.
Speaker 2: And during that time, there were so many of my
Speaker 2: stories that were getting killed all the time. But this,
Speaker 2: this is one that somehow evaded death barely. And yeah,
Speaker 2: and you wanted to talk about it.
Speaker 11: Yeah, No, this story is the reason that I started
Speaker 11: working in radio.
Speaker 2: You're talking about the Little Mermaid story, right, who.
Speaker 11: You guys know that story?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So this is a story. I would call my
Speaker 2: friend Josh up on the phone just because they thought
Speaker 2: he was very funny, and I was always looking for
Speaker 2: a way to get him on this American life. And
Speaker 2: because this American life is all about storytelling. IRA would
Speaker 2: always say, you have to your friend Josh has to
Speaker 2: have a story. And he'd tell me stories and they
Speaker 2: would go nowhere, they'd be stupid, and then this was
Speaker 2: one of those stories that he told me. But it
Speaker 2: just happened actually turn into something, you know. I think
Speaker 2: we just happened to have a clip.
Speaker 5: There was this guy named Fred okay, and he got
Speaker 5: this message, well, his mother left him in a message
Speaker 5: on his answering machine okay, and he forwarded it to
Speaker 5: I don't know, maybe one or more of his friends,
Speaker 5: and they forwarded this message across campus to everyone. Okay.
Speaker 2: So you want to hear the message, m M all right.
Speaker 2: So he prefaced it by saying, you have it, you
Speaker 2: the message.
Speaker 5: I do not have the message. I have the message
Speaker 5: in my head. I'm telling you a story.
Speaker 2: So the message.
Speaker 5: He prefaced it by by some kind of sad little
Speaker 5: lead in in a little voice. He was like, I
Speaker 5: think you'd appreciate hearing this message from my mother. Okay,
Speaker 5: and then the message played. This was the entirety of
Speaker 5: the message. And I'm gonna do the voice for you
Speaker 5: as best I can.
Speaker 2: You ready, yeah?
Speaker 4: All right? Oh?
Speaker 5: Sorry, more background. He apparently he had had a heart.
Speaker 5: He was not a hit with the ladies. Fred, Okay,
Speaker 5: that's this is what I was let to understand. Okay,
Speaker 5: I'm not sure if this is true or not. Okay,
Speaker 5: but he had managed to score a date to go
Speaker 5: see The Little Mermaid of All movies.
Speaker 4: Okay, The Little Mermaid?
Speaker 5: Okay, Yeah, So this is the message his own mother, okay,
Speaker 5: his blood relation leaves for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I quote ahem, you and the Little Mermaid
Speaker 2: can go go yourselves. The books you wanted are not here.
Speaker 6: They must be in La Joya.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna wait up all night view.
Speaker 4: Goodbye. That's the entirety of it.
Speaker 6: All right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a message that his mother left them.
Speaker 4: That's correct.
Speaker 5: You catch that part. You and the Little Mermaid can
Speaker 5: both go yourselves. I love you, son, Okay, that's gold.
Speaker 2: So that yeah, that's how it starts.
Speaker 12: It's so the reason why was because I wasn't in
Speaker 12: radio and I was just living in Philadelphia and I
Speaker 12: was very lonely and I heard this story.
Speaker 11: Somebody said like listen to these.
Speaker 12: Things, these streaming m P three's whatever, and so I
Speaker 12: listened to this and I was like, that's it. Like
Speaker 12: you can just talk to your friends about being in
Speaker 12: college and it's so funny and it's like that's all
Speaker 12: and you're on the radio, like that's so, that's geezy,
Speaker 12: that's the best thing.
Speaker 2: I'm glad it didn't seem like hard no, because then
Speaker 2: you'd be like I can ever do this. I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna get into radio, and you wouldn't be here. So
Speaker 2: I'm glad.
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 12: Yeah, So so I just wanted to say that, like
Speaker 12: what I tried to do still tried to do in
Speaker 12: radio is like I have funny friends, and I'm like,
Speaker 12: you should be on the radio telling your story, and
Speaker 12: I'm gonna do it like Jonathan and Josh.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be a whole thing.
Speaker 12: It's just gonna be like a conversation that kind of
Speaker 12: unfolds naturally. It's funny and then it'll kind of morph
Speaker 12: into this American life story and that that's been my
Speaker 12: plan for a really long time. And now I work
Speaker 12: at this American life and I still can't get my
Speaker 12: friend Lenz on the radio.
Speaker 6: Like I try.
Speaker 12: I like beg her so let me recorder, and I
Speaker 12: lie to her that I'm not going to use it,
Speaker 12: that that's not the plan. And now she's a very tense,
Speaker 12: serious immigration lawyer, so she has a lot of stories
Speaker 12: that are relevant to the current moment, stories that she
Speaker 12: thinks like aren't appropriate to tell on the radio because
Speaker 12: they're about her clients.
Speaker 11: But like, I don't see it that way.
Speaker 2: You know, we have a clip.
Speaker 6: I just so happened to have a clip, and I'm.
Speaker 5: Gonna record for me.
Speaker 6: No, but they I'll remember it better. Oh you can't.
Speaker 2: First of all, I can't even tell you about it
Speaker 2: because it's a client. So I'm I'll just give you
Speaker 2: no remember it better, ruh me.
Speaker 6: I see you like every day.
Speaker 11: That's like all the.
Speaker 2: Time, so that it's like every day you still that
Speaker 2: is still something that you want to do.
Speaker 12: Yeah, man, somehow the way that you interviewed your friends
Speaker 12: on this American life like decade and decades ago.
Speaker 11: You know, long long ago.
Speaker 2: It's a long time ago.
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's it's like the best radio ever.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's it's funny to me to hear you say that,
Speaker 2: because you do all of these like serious, important political
Speaker 2: stories for this American life, and I'm I feel like
Speaker 2: I'm just making like knock knock jokes on the radio.
Speaker 2: And and to me, the irony has always been that
Speaker 2: I'm not an easy laugh and that's been a problem
Speaker 2: for me in broadcasting, because laughing can say so much
Speaker 2: like when you're interviewing someone. A laugh can feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, like a warm arm around the shoulder and
Speaker 2: let the person know that you're enjoying them, and it
Speaker 2: gives them confidence. And I'm not much of a laugher
Speaker 2: and and I've suffered for that. But but having my
Speaker 2: close friends to do stories with people who legitimately make
Speaker 2: me laugh make me a better broadcaster than I naturally am.
Speaker 10: Should we introduce another person who makes you laugh?
Speaker 7: Yes?
Speaker 6: Please?
Speaker 2: So you're gonna stick around, right, you don't have to
Speaker 2: go any place.
Speaker 11: Yet, right, I have nothing going on.
Speaker 10: Okay, Previously the host of it was too long, and
Speaker 10: so I didn't read it. He now hosts the show
Speaker 10: reply All with Alex Goldman. He has a small dog
Speaker 10: which wants pete on Alex Bloomberg's desk. PJ Vote Everyone.
Speaker 8: PJA vote whoa p J Vote everybody, PJ vote.
Speaker 3: Whoa poo?
Speaker 8: Pool Bool, PJ vote.
Speaker 4: Pool Pool.
Speaker 2: You just received the human beatboxing of a lifetime. My
Speaker 2: friend had that feel.
Speaker 7: It felt like three different stress dreams that I had
Speaker 7: happening at the same time.
Speaker 2: Now, PJ. So when I was figuring out Heavyweight, I
Speaker 2: was talking to you a lot.
Speaker 7: You're sort of figuring out like what is the show?
Speaker 2: Yes, And at the time it was sort of about
Speaker 2: It had to do with this idea that, like every
Speaker 2: the irony of living in society was that everybody knows
Speaker 2: something about you that you just can't figure out about yourself. Right,
Speaker 2: Like the ultimate irony is how one cannot know oneself.
Speaker 2: Just as a knife cannot cut itself or a fire
Speaker 2: cannot burn itself, a human being cannot really know itself.
Speaker 6: I think a fire can burn itself.
Speaker 2: Anyway, I was getting I was getting poetical all right. Anyway,
Speaker 2: the idea was a little broader than Heavyweight. It was
Speaker 2: just sort of like I'm going to help people figure
Speaker 2: out things that they can't figure about themselves.
Speaker 7: You're calling it Jonathan Goldstein medicine woman.
Speaker 2: That was my wife's idea. That was Emily's idea, Jonathan
Speaker 2: gold Seen medicine woman. And so you came to me
Speaker 2: with a particular problem, which.
Speaker 7: Was I've been told or hinted at on more than
Speaker 7: one occasion that there was something about my face that
Speaker 7: was like inherently punishable, that you had a punishable face.
Speaker 7: I had a punishable face, right, And I'm sorry, I
Speaker 7: just like literally just feel a bunch of people looking
Speaker 7: at my face like sizing out. It does not feel good.
Speaker 2: Sorry, And and how was it that you described like
Speaker 2: what makes a punishable face?
Speaker 7: I think that people see like either a. I think
Speaker 7: there's like a you can have it. There's a couple
Speaker 7: of kinds. But one is like a kind of inherent
Speaker 7: smugness and one is a sort of pnus. And if
Speaker 7: you have both of them, I think it's like, yeah.
Speaker 2: I want so I wanted to make PJ. I wanted
Speaker 2: to eradicate that really I don't think it's true. But
Speaker 2: any of that, but anyway, uh, and and the way
Speaker 2: and I was re listening to the tape, and so
Speaker 2: much of it was making me wish that we had
Speaker 2: actually been able to do this story. You describe yourself
Speaker 2: as a kid wearing like bifocals or something in it,
Speaker 2: like a skin tight white turtleneck with Hawaiian punch stains
Speaker 2: all over it, and I was like heartbreaking. Anyway, So
Speaker 2: I set out and I talked to your friends, I
Speaker 2: talked to uh former employers, I talked I really covered
Speaker 2: a lot of bases. I don't know we ever talked
Speaker 2: about this.
Speaker 7: I'm not not in detail.
Speaker 2: Okay. So at one point, so desperate I was to
Speaker 2: find because I it wasn't The problem with the story
Speaker 2: was that in the end, people didn't really think you
Speaker 2: had a punchable face, and so I felt desperate. I
Speaker 2: felt like, well, I've got to find people that think
Speaker 2: he has a punishable face. And so I went to
Speaker 2: a place where I thought people would be most inclined
Speaker 2: to want to punch you in the face. So I
Speaker 2: went to a boxing gym, and I carried with me
Speaker 2: a framed photograph of you to really get them riled up,
Speaker 2: to kind of bait them. And so this is this
Speaker 2: is tape of me talking to some of the boxers
Speaker 2: as a boxer. Do you think that this guy has
Speaker 2: a punishable face?
Speaker 10: No?
Speaker 2: Does he seem like he has a punishable face?
Speaker 5: Nah?
Speaker 2: Do you think that he has a punishable face? Nope, no, no,
Speaker 2: I do not think he has a punchable face.
Speaker 9: Looks like a very talented, strong young man, a.
Speaker 4: Social, outgoing kind of person.
Speaker 9: I mean, it looks friendly, It looks smiling right now.
Speaker 9: Would you want to punch him?
Speaker 11: Why would you say he has a punishable face?
Speaker 2: I think sometimes like people have felt like because he
Speaker 2: seems so smiley.
Speaker 6: Uh, there's no reason to be punched in the face
Speaker 6: just for being happy.
Speaker 1: I was this guy.
Speaker 2: He's a friend of ours. His name is PJ.
Speaker 4: Well, no, PJ.
Speaker 2: I don't know why people have been telling you that
Speaker 2: maybe you have to work on your attitude. Guy, but
Speaker 2: you don't look punishable. Man, all right, PJ, wherever.
Speaker 6: You are pe.
Speaker 2: So that was it. You didn't have a punchable face.
Speaker 2: So they're applotting for you for not having a punishable face.
Speaker 7: I'm honestly surprised at how hard it is to get
Speaker 7: boxers to say that they want to punch somebody.
Speaker 2: I know we have a photograph of the photograph that
Speaker 2: I brought into the boxing gym. PJ, I'll ask you
Speaker 2: to describe it.
Speaker 7: I feel like this goes against everything that you've said.
Speaker 7: Just a ninny with a stupid, punishable face.
Speaker 2: No, no, that's not true.
Speaker 7: It's like it's like the smile is like I think
Speaker 7: I'm better than you, but also worse.
Speaker 2: But like but like you're you're standing on a yacht
Speaker 2: or something, you're standing on a building, a balcony, and you.
Speaker 11: You're wearing and you're lying yet more.
Speaker 2: If you're wearing a watch, Like, who do you think
Speaker 2: you are? Anyway? Not a punishable face, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4: Oh, PJ, you crack me up.
Speaker 1: AnyWho, We've got to take a short break and when
Speaker 1: we come back, you'll hear the shortest heavyweight story ever made.
Speaker 1: But first some important words from some very important sponsors.
Speaker 2: This next killed story.
Speaker 10: This was something that we really liked and it worked
Speaker 10: out really well, and it totally fit the form of
Speaker 10: the show.
Speaker 6: But it was just really short.
Speaker 2: It worked out too well. It all came together in
Speaker 2: like just a few minutes and.
Speaker 10: So but so we made it into an animated video
Speaker 10: for all of you here at the Heavyweight Live Show for.
Speaker 2: Your viewing enjoyment, and we will play it now. Chanelle
Speaker 2: comes from a family that has a hard time saying
Speaker 2: I love you. They hardly ever say it.
Speaker 4: Actually, not really at all.
Speaker 13: It's like a there's a death in the family, or
Speaker 13: I mean, yeah, mostly if there's a death in the family.
Speaker 2: You've preserved the power of the the words in a
Speaker 2: way I mean to me, it's just like I might
Speaker 2: as well just be saying, okay, will feedback later, I
Speaker 2: love you. There was a moment when Chanelle almost said it.
Speaker 2: She was going through a hard time and her mom
Speaker 2: had come to stay with her in Brooklyn. Chanel wanted
Speaker 2: to say I love you just as her mom was
Speaker 2: about to leave.
Speaker 13: I've been dropping her off at Penn Station. You know,
Speaker 13: we sat there until she had to go. And she
Speaker 13: starts walking away, and this is weird. I like started crying,
Speaker 13: like falling in the middle of Pin Station. You know,
Speaker 13: nobody cares because there's like a thousand people in Penn Station.
Speaker 13: I'm right near like the switchboard or it tells you
Speaker 13: the times, so people are just like staring at that.
Speaker 13: And she turns around and she gets this weird look
Speaker 13: on her face and she turns back around.
Speaker 11: She has to keep going, she's in line.
Speaker 13: And the whole time, I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 13: I wish I had like told her how much she
Speaker 13: means to me in that moment, and like how she
Speaker 13: came at the perfect time and did all these things
Speaker 13: for me, And I'm like, why can't I say I
Speaker 13: love you to her?
Speaker 10: So?
Speaker 2: When when was the last time that you told your
Speaker 2: mother that you loved her?
Speaker 4: I don't remember.
Speaker 2: That's a long time. And this is why I've invited
Speaker 2: Chanelle here today to help create a safe place for
Speaker 2: her heart to speak its truth and to not allow
Speaker 2: her or her heart to leave that safe place until
Speaker 2: it happens. Do you think there's a way to say
Speaker 2: it to where it was sort of like you were
Speaker 2: clearing away the space.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I think I would have to follow up with
Speaker 11: like a I really mean it.
Speaker 2: I love you, mom, and I really mean it.
Speaker 13: I'm not trying to joke with you, I think because
Speaker 13: I'm uncomfortable, I'm like it's going to show and then
Speaker 13: maybe not.
Speaker 2: Everything's supposed to be comfortable, that's.
Speaker 13: True, but I have to I have to like have
Speaker 13: a reason to call her right. I can't just be like, hey, mom,
Speaker 13: I love you, kay bye.
Speaker 2: You know there's this song that comes to mind, an
Speaker 2: obscure little ditty by a performer named Stevie Wonder. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you're familiar with him, you know, I don't. Yes,
Speaker 2: the song is I just called to say I love you.
Speaker 2: How does a song go I just call it to
Speaker 2: say I love you?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I meet him from the bottom of my heart. What
Speaker 2: about a sign off like okay, I love you? Yeah?
Speaker 2: You want to get the pronoun in there, you want
Speaker 2: to get the eye in there. You want me to
Speaker 2: say it for you? She'll I feel like, what, like
Speaker 2: it's a hostage situation. Who is that I'm gonna send
Speaker 2: Chanel's pinky toe to just to let you know that
Speaker 2: she's fine.
Speaker 4: She's fine. I mean she's not already afraid enough. But
Speaker 4: I live in a city alone.
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know. I wanted to say it and
Speaker 2: I'm saying it now.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 13: No, Yeah, she's at work, but she always calls me
Speaker 13: when I'm at work, so it's probably fine.
Speaker 2: Does she pick up and say She'll probably say I'm
Speaker 2: in richter and taft.
Speaker 4: Like what do you want? Missy. Okay, should I do it?
Speaker 4: Am I doing it?
Speaker 13: Now?
Speaker 4: Okay? Here we go, Okay, answer the phone.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, hi mom, what do you want?
Speaker 4: What's up? I?
Speaker 11: Okay?
Speaker 4: You remember that time when you came to visit me?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 13: Yeah, and then you were at the trains station and
Speaker 13: I started crying. Yeah, Well, in that moment, I really
Speaker 13: wanted to tell you how much you meant to me
Speaker 13: and that you helped a lot that week because I
Speaker 13: was like emotionally distraught and you cooked me all those
Speaker 13: meals and you were there and you watched Transparent season
Speaker 13: two with me and it was great, and I just
Speaker 13: wanted to tell you.
Speaker 4: That I love you a lot.
Speaker 1: Oh you de strode about.
Speaker 4: Doesn't matter what I was just strad about.
Speaker 2: Why are you?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter. What matters is I love you.
Speaker 10: I know that.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, wait a minute, what's something wrong?
Speaker 4: Now? Nothing's wrong?
Speaker 2: Are you sure? Yeah? Okay?
Speaker 4: That was really sweety you should now wow, wow, Mom,
Speaker 4: this is so sentimental.
Speaker 5: Well, don't be crying.
Speaker 3: Don't get me teary eyed until I work walking the
Speaker 3: hallways trying to get trying to get my steps on release.
Speaker 3: But you know me and my love you too, your
Speaker 3: mom love you too?
Speaker 11: Really, m okay, okay, all right, I'll talk to you
Speaker 11: all right, okay, bye bye.
Speaker 2: I I'd like to ask Chanel and her mom Marilyn,
Speaker 2: to stand up. I think you guys are supposed to
Speaker 2: be here. Yeah, all right, yeah, And with that, I
Speaker 2: think we draw our show to a close. On a
Speaker 2: positive note, I would like to introduce to the stage
Speaker 2: Matt Bowle, who's going to play us out, and Devin
Speaker 2: Gwynn is going to be accompanying him with some human
Speaker 2: beat boxing.
Speaker 4: Now that the fun it chose we turn into its good.
Speaker 14: Will dishes in last week's papers.
Speaker 4: Rumors and elections crosser and in the blackend I things
Speaker 4: me the printing song every Door puts.
Speaker 14: Now that the last month's man is scheming with the
Speaker 14: damage to POSSI take this moment to the side sign
Speaker 14: and into if We meant it, and we tried sign
Speaker 14: and into felt around for five two months that accident charge.
Speaker 2: Sign Into Heavyweight is hosted and produced by me Nathan
Speaker 2: Goldstein along with Stevie Lane, Peter Bresnan, and Khalila Holt,
Speaker 2: editing by Jorge just Special thanks to Zoe Chase and
Speaker 2: PJ Vote and Jackie Cohen. Animation by Arthur Jones with
Speaker 2: music by Christine Fellows and Blue Dot Sessions. Audio mixing
Speaker 2: by Emma Munger. Our theme song is by The Weaker
Speaker 2: Thans courtesy of Epitaph Records and was performed by Matthew
Speaker 2: Bole with beatboxing by Devin Gwynn. Thank you Live Studio
Speaker 2: audience for coming out tonight. Give yourselves a big Heavyweight
Speaker 2: round of applause. Good night.
Speaker 4: Thanks Jonathan, great show before we go.
Speaker 1: We also want to thank Julian Quiznski and Bay Area
Speaker 1: Sound for mixing this episode. Special things also to Joshua Carpati,
Speaker 1: Chris Neary, and Victoria Barner. If you want to hear
Speaker 1: the Little Mermaid story that Jonathan produced at This American Life,
Speaker 1: you can find it at This American Life dot org.
Speaker 1: And if you want to see the animated video that
Speaker 1: we made to accompany Chanel's story, you can find it
Speaker 1: on our YouTube channel, YouTube dot com slash Gimbletmedia. Again,
Speaker 1: that's YouTube dot com slash Gimbletmedia. We'll be back with
Speaker 1: a brand new episode of Heavyweight next week.