Speaker 1: Pushkin, Hey, everybody. So the season of Heavyweight isn't due
Speaker 1: to start until the fall, but we wanted to offer
Speaker 1: just a little check in. Production on the show has
Speaker 1: slowed to pretty much as standstill because of the coronavirus.
Speaker 1: I haven't been able to go out and talk to people.
Speaker 1: Everyone's keeping pretty much to themselves as they should be,
Speaker 1: and generally speaking, even on the phone, people just haven't
Speaker 1: been as interested in revisiting and talking about the past
Speaker 1: at the moment, and everybody's just more concerned about the
Speaker 1: present moment and the future. So my producers Khalila Holt
Speaker 1: and Stevie Lane are at home in Brooklyn, and I'm
Speaker 1: with my wife, Emily and our three year old Aggie
Speaker 1: in Minnesota. But every day Stevie and Khalila and I
Speaker 1: check in and we try to figure out what we
Speaker 1: should be doing at this moment, you know, in terms
Speaker 1: of work and also in terms of life. And a
Speaker 1: few days ago, even though we were apart, we decided
Speaker 1: to record the day that we were having and share
Speaker 1: that day with each other. I was going to get
Speaker 1: some groceries with Aggie, and Khalila was going to take
Speaker 1: a walk to get a prescription filled. Stevie was trying
Speaker 1: to figure out whether she'd keep a blind date that
Speaker 1: was weeks in the making. She'd never been on a
Speaker 1: blind date before. Khalilan and Stevie both checked in with
Speaker 1: their moms for little advice and mostly just for some comfort.
Speaker 1: Looking back on that day now, it already feels like
Speaker 1: an eternity ago, even though it wasn't long ago at all.
Speaker 1: Things are changing so quickly and every day feels like
Speaker 1: a new reality. So when we recorded this, bars and
Speaker 1: restaurants were still open and school was still in session.
Speaker 1: But anyway, this was that day only a few days ago.
Speaker 1: Feels like an eternety. We shared it with each other
Speaker 1: to feel less alone, and now we're sharing it with
Speaker 1: you guys, and we hope it makes you feel less
Speaker 1: alone too. Stevie, Hey, Khalila, Hello, So so how did
Speaker 1: it go you guys?
Speaker 2: Khalila, how was your day?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I had a pretty good day.
Speaker 2: Hello Hello, Hello, hello Hello. Okay, I'm putting on my
Speaker 2: ushes and then I'm gonna leave this house. First I
Speaker 2: called my mom.
Speaker 5: It's kind of like it has it all has this
Speaker 5: feeling of like a jack in the box, which I hate.
Speaker 5: I hate those things. Like, I feel like we're walking
Speaker 5: around and we're trying to work.
Speaker 6: Like do do do do do? Do?
Speaker 4: Do do do?
Speaker 2: Still went to the pharmacy. I waited in line to
Speaker 2: get my prescription, and the line was really long.
Speaker 4: So it took a while. I had to see big.
Speaker 2: I want to stop recording out of respect to other
Speaker 2: people laying in medical information. A couple people back from me,
Speaker 2: this woman started coughing, and everyone got really tense. And
Speaker 2: then I got up to the front. A woman who
Speaker 2: was helping me went over and put on gloves and
Speaker 2: she was like, I forgot to put on my gloves
Speaker 2: till just now. And then she got my prescription and
Speaker 2: then I started to pay for it and she was like, oops,
Speaker 2: I pressed the wrong button because of the gloves. And
Speaker 2: then she was like have a nice day, and I
Speaker 2: was like thanks you too, and she was like thanks,
Speaker 2: I'll need it, and her eyes got like really wide.
Speaker 2: So then I left the pharmacy. I saw a guy
Speaker 2: carrying two bottles of champagne down the street.
Speaker 4: I wonder what he has to celebrate?
Speaker 2: Nothing, probably, and I was like, I'm going to go
Speaker 2: to the ATM. And then on the eight way to
Speaker 2: the ATM, I passed the liquor store and I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to just go get a bunch of liquor. Okay,
Speaker 2: do you have bitter somewhere else?
Speaker 4: So I have.
Speaker 2: I think the thing that made it feel like, oh,
Speaker 2: it was like a good day to me, it was
Speaker 2: just that I wasn't just continuing to pretend that everything
Speaker 2: was normal when things weren't normal, you know, like to
Speaker 2: just acknowledge like, oh, it's like a weird time, and
Speaker 2: like things feel weird.
Speaker 1: So that was your day? What was the best piece
Speaker 1: of advice that your mom was able to give.
Speaker 6: I feel like I feel like times of stress, even
Speaker 6: though they bring out you know, their like it feels bad,
Speaker 6: I do feel also feel like it brings out the
Speaker 6: best in a majority of the people. Yeah, so I
Speaker 6: feel like people will pull together, like people will you
Speaker 6: know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Like will we will be okay?
Speaker 5: We will be okay. It may be rough for a
Speaker 5: little bit, there will be consequences, but again I do feel, ultimately,
Speaker 5: honestly like we will get through it.
Speaker 2: Like everyone's scared and it's legitimately scary, but also like
Speaker 2: you can only do the things that are in your control,
Speaker 2: and like people are going.
Speaker 4: To step up to help each other. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And in the meantime, it also feels like you can
Speaker 2: still find these like small moments of solace in the world.
Speaker 2: Like at one point, it was kind of windy, so
Speaker 2: my sound was all messed up, and so I turned
Speaker 2: this corner. Sorry, I shoul it worked so windy. Maybe
Speaker 2: I'll go down on more quiet street. Okay, can you
Speaker 2: hear the birds?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I was just about to ask you.
Speaker 7: Think it? Kids?
Speaker 4: And Jonathan, how is your day?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: My day was pretty mundane. Uh went with Aggie to
Speaker 1: get groceries, and he was really excited because I was
Speaker 1: presenting it as a mission. Are you ready for the mission?
Speaker 3: Ye?
Speaker 4: Okay, we got important work to do.
Speaker 1: I'll put you I'll wrap you in a blankey.
Speaker 3: We advised broccoly you like broccoli, Yeah I do, and
Speaker 3: klafalala and say I sink pasta. I did a little
Speaker 3: have pasta.
Speaker 2: And I think that's it.
Speaker 4: That's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And he fell asleep like five minutes into the mission.
Speaker 1: And I went to the grocery store. A lot of
Speaker 1: the rice was selling out. Oh, there wasn't a lot
Speaker 1: of toilet paper left. And there was a sign that
Speaker 1: said only one package per customer, and that kind of
Speaker 1: got me all randy for toilet paper. So I had
Speaker 1: to buy some toilet paper. And then I got to
Speaker 1: the cashier and she sort of toilet paper shamed me.
Speaker 4: Every customer has had a roll of toilet paper. I
Speaker 4: don't know if you actually mean it.
Speaker 1: In the grocery store, they were playing old songs, you know,
Speaker 1: like the Old East Station or classic rock. Right, they
Speaker 1: played this song that I hadn't heard in a long time.
Speaker 1: You guys know Tom Petty. Yeah, so he has a
Speaker 1: song that was kind of a hit in the super
Speaker 1: early eighties, like maybe nineteen eighty or something called The Waiting.
Speaker 1: Did you ever hear this song?
Speaker 4: Yeah? The waiting is the hardest part.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how do you know that song?
Speaker 4: Because it's Tom Betty Killeeli. I bet you do too.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna sing and this is never ever to be used.
Speaker 4: Be goes like the way is the hardest part, you.
Speaker 2: Know, entire rat It's times vaguely familiar, but.
Speaker 1: Every day you see one more card, you take it
Speaker 1: on faith, you take it to the heart. The waying is.
Speaker 4: The hardest part.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful.
Speaker 1: I don't think I ever really realized the lyric in
Speaker 1: the chorus was every day you see one more card.
Speaker 1: It's a nice lyric. But I remembered when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, I had this friend Michael, and when it
Speaker 1: was like professional days or days in the summer when
Speaker 1: there was no school and we were trying to entertain ourselves.
Speaker 1: We weren't like sporty kids, and so we would take
Speaker 1: on these weird projects together. And we decided to call
Speaker 1: random number and give them a choice of a song
Speaker 1: that they could.
Speaker 2: Listen to that fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we thought that we sounded like very
Speaker 1: official and like it was our business, but we must
Speaker 1: have sounded like cartoon mice because we were like years old,
Speaker 1: and we'd be like, today's choices are Blondie's Heart of Glass,
Speaker 1: ABBA's Dancing Queen or Tom Petty's The Waiting, and everyone
Speaker 1: would just hang up on us. And one time there
Speaker 1: was one guy who like listened to us through and
Speaker 1: chose the Waiting, and we played it like one of
Speaker 1: us held the phone and the other one, you know,
Speaker 1: put it on the turntable, and we were just so excited,
Speaker 1: like high fiving each other silently, and then when it
Speaker 1: was over, he like he was like just a curious adult,
Speaker 1: and he couldn't figure out what our business model was
Speaker 1: like how we were earning.
Speaker 4: Prothem and that man.
Speaker 1: That man turned out to be Daniel Eck, who decided
Speaker 1: that that model would be turned into Spotify. But anyway,
Speaker 1: so it was like I hadn't heard that song in
Speaker 1: a really long time. The connotations about waiting back then
Speaker 1: were just like, you know, being a kid and being impatient,
Speaker 1: and just in this context it had this new connotation
Speaker 1: of just like the waiting is the hardest part, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It's about like just anxiousness. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't know what's going to come next. It's just
Speaker 1: the waiting, you know what I mean. It's just the
Speaker 1: waiting right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's like the jack in the box.
Speaker 1: Stevie, How is your day?
Speaker 7: So?
Speaker 4: I called my mom? Sorry, I'm putting away some groceries
Speaker 4: while we talked. Is that okay?
Speaker 8: Okay?
Speaker 4: I don't know what I'm gonna do about my date?
Speaker 8: You're gonna go?
Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't know if I want to
Speaker 4: be out there and what if I do have an
Speaker 4: I give it to him. I don't know. It feels
Speaker 4: like not a promising way to start a relationship.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you don't even have to go into a bar. Yeah,
Speaker 8: want to walk outside, that's true, taking a walk that
Speaker 8: would be nice.
Speaker 4: I don't know whatever. And uh. I was telling her
Speaker 4: how I'm afraid to come home because I'm afraid of
Speaker 4: getting her sick, and she was like, Stevie, like.
Speaker 8: I'm not worried for myself at all. You know, I'm
Speaker 8: worried about my parents.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Have you talked to them?
Speaker 8: Yeah, and they seem to be very careful.
Speaker 3: We went to the gym. It was empty.
Speaker 8: How old are they again?
Speaker 4: They are ninety three years old. And I was like, Grandma,
Speaker 4: don't go to the fucking gym. Like did you wash
Speaker 4: your hands a lot and put purella on everything?
Speaker 3: Yes? We watched, We watched and be clean everything.
Speaker 2: That's insane.
Speaker 4: But you know, I think from her attitude, she was like,
Speaker 4: you know, we have to keep moving, like I have
Speaker 4: to keep your grandpa moving, Like we'll die of coronavirus
Speaker 4: or we'll die of you know, like yeah, we're old,
Speaker 4: Like we have to exercise. So yeah, and so like
Speaker 4: the whole call was just like that was the thing,
Speaker 4: Like she seemed so unconcerned for herself. But then she
Speaker 4: was like super worried about me, Like she kept telling
Speaker 4: me like not to go outside and to like wash
Speaker 4: my hands.
Speaker 3: But you're feeling okay, yeah, you know what what your temperature? Yeah,
Speaker 3: don't get sick. Oh no, don't get sick.
Speaker 4: To be hot. But then I told her about my
Speaker 4: blind day and she was like like her whole tone change.
Speaker 3: Oh oh oh a blind day. Huh that's interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 3: to miss a blind day, this could be the one.
Speaker 4: Oh stop listen at my age.
Speaker 3: I can't stop being a grandmother, can I. I'm waiting
Speaker 3: to be a great grandmother. The two of you can
Speaker 3: meet and talk six feet apart from each other. You know,
Speaker 3: if it works out, that's an interesting story to tell
Speaker 3: your grandchildren. I met your father and during that coronavirus outbreak.
Speaker 4: I think we're getting a little out of ourselves.
Speaker 3: And think of what a good story you can write
Speaker 3: for your for your right pad.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean of which. I just want to let
Speaker 4: you know I am recording this phone call.
Speaker 3: Oh, jod, I better not use any dirty words. I
Speaker 3: didn't know you'd do that. All right, you'll keep it
Speaker 3: for posterity, You'll remembered le twenty years from now, you
Speaker 3: could hear my voice. That would be nice. I don't think.
Speaker 3: I don't think you'll hear me from up in heaven,
Speaker 3: you know. Besides, I'm not sure that's where I'm going.
Speaker 4: So so, so wait, does this mean that you're going
Speaker 4: to go out on the day. I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I texted So. I texted him and he was like, honestly,
Speaker 4: I totally understand if you don't want to do it anymore,
Speaker 4: but I sort of feel like it might be nice
Speaker 4: before there's even more isolation, to like have less isolation
Speaker 4: and we'll just walk around and but yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: We're all trying to figure out what comes next, how
Speaker 1: we can continue to stay in touch, and how that
Speaker 1: can be a comfort to you and also to us.
Speaker 1: So if you'd like send us an email at Heavyweight
Speaker 1: at Gimbletmedia dot com. We're interested in hearing how you're doing,
Speaker 1: what this has been like for all of you, and
Speaker 1: what sorts of stuff you think you might want to
Speaker 1: hear in the future. Also, our friends at Science Versus
Speaker 1: are continuing to report out developing news about the virus.
Speaker 1: So if you're not already a listener, I encourage you
Speaker 1: to start now. Uh, they're working day and night and
Speaker 1: trying to keep on top of things so that you
Speaker 1: can stay on top of things too. It's really a
Speaker 1: hard time to keep the facts straight and they're doing
Speaker 1: their best to get to the truth of what's going on.
Speaker 1: So keep safe and keep in touch.
Speaker 4: I know, how are you