Speaker 1: Hello, what are your top three interests?
Speaker 2: Did you say, what are my top three interests?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Is a job interview?
Speaker 1: No, I was just what's so funny?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 1: I just want to get to know you.
Speaker 4: Better after forty years?
Speaker 1: You want to give me your What's your top interest?
Speaker 5: Probably my kids?
Speaker 2: Children in general?
Speaker 1: Children? Would you say, would you say couscous? I would
Speaker 1: not say you really like cuscus? No, I wouldn't, But
Speaker 1: I mean, so your children number one? Number two A
Speaker 1: close second is couscous? And what's three?
Speaker 4: What do you tell me?
Speaker 6: What? What do you just tell me?
Speaker 7: Where number three is?
Speaker 6: Go ahead?
Speaker 2: What is my number?
Speaker 6: Three?
Speaker 8: Mmmmm?
Speaker 1: Hanging up on me? Boom boom. Start the show from
Speaker 1: Gimblet Media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight Today's episode.
Speaker 1: Rob my friend, Rob Cordrey is a famous actor and
Speaker 1: the fact you think I'm resentful is ridiculous. No, I'm
Speaker 1: afraid that says more about you than it does about me.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say Robert and I have both
Speaker 1: done pretty well. He works with famous movie stars like
Speaker 1: Dwayne the Rock Johnson, and I work with famous podcast
Speaker 1: editors like Jorge the Rock Collection Just and Boyd does
Speaker 1: he have a lot of amethyst. Rob was a correspondent
Speaker 1: on the Daily Show and stars in film franchises like
Speaker 1: Hot Tubs, Time Machine one and two. An I star
Speaker 1: in Heavyweight, the podcast you're listening to right now. So
Speaker 1: good for Rob and good for me. I don't even
Speaker 1: know why we're still talking about this, because, after all,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Dwyane Johnson who Rob recently approached with a
Speaker 1: unique problem.
Speaker 3: It was me.
Speaker 1: Aside from a pocket full of nogi's and karate chops,
Speaker 1: I guess there wasn't a thing the Great the Rock
Speaker 1: could do for Robert. Rob is more your showbiz name, right,
Speaker 1: but it's also my name.
Speaker 9: It is, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Because of showbiz opportunities, Rob can't leave Hollywood. So he
Speaker 1: phones me from a studio in la Hey.
Speaker 2: Come and start whenever you want, and we'll just keep rolling.
Speaker 1: Once his studio operator Laura gets us rolling, Rob tells
Speaker 1: me his tale of woe. It all began with his daughter, Sloan.
Speaker 10: My daughter is eleven and she tripped over a log
Speaker 10: and broke her arm.
Speaker 1: Sloan was at school and she tripped over a log
Speaker 1: and fell, which was exactly how I broke my arm
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. When Rob was around his
Speaker 1: daughter's age, he was out in the woods with his
Speaker 1: boy scout Troop, and he also tripped over a log
Speaker 1: and broke his arm exactly like Sloane. Did you tell
Speaker 1: her this story about how when you were a kid,
Speaker 1: the same thing had happened to you.
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 10: Every connection I make with her I kind of cherish,
Speaker 10: and I thought there was just a funny one that
Speaker 10: we broke our arms in the same exact way. So
Speaker 10: she went and got a cast, and I forwarded the picture.
Speaker 10: It was this adorable picture of my daughter and her
Speaker 10: purple cast, and I sent the picture to my family.
Speaker 1: Rob texted the folk to his brother, his sister, his mother,
Speaker 1: and his father, and so a text thread began. Do
Speaker 1: you have the texts on you?
Speaker 2: I do?
Speaker 9: I think I do. Yeah, it might take me a
Speaker 9: second to find sure.
Speaker 10: Yeah, okay, is this it's I'm just trying to find
Speaker 10: the beginning.
Speaker 9: It's so long.
Speaker 10: There's a lot about my daughter here, a lot of
Speaker 10: ah man, that poor little girl, and so forth.
Speaker 1: When the family asked how Sloan had broken her arm,
Speaker 1: Rob excitedly told them about the weird coincidence, and that's
Speaker 1: when Rob's troubles began.
Speaker 10: My mother immediately shot back, you never broke your arm.
Speaker 10: My mother said, I do not remember that at all. Laura,
Speaker 10: do you remember that? Because my sister is the keeper
Speaker 10: of memories.
Speaker 1: In a family, each member has their role the thing
Speaker 1: that the finds them. Laura's role is keeper of memories.
Speaker 1: And immediately she texted.
Speaker 9: Back, don't recall any of this.
Speaker 1: A second later, Rob's father weighed in with ridicule.
Speaker 10: Was that the camping trip where you broke your arm
Speaker 10: and it healed over night? Rob shot back, I had
Speaker 10: a cast four weeks exclamation point.
Speaker 1: Next, Rob's younger brother, Nate, chimed in.
Speaker 10: Oh boy, here we go another I broke my arm.
Speaker 10: I broke my arm story. Look, I'm the broken arm guy.
Speaker 10: That's my role in a family. Those agreed upon rolls
Speaker 10: are reinforced through agreed upon stories. Rob says, the Corderies
Speaker 10: have about a half a dozen chestnuts that get told
Speaker 10: over and over. One of the biggies is about young
Speaker 10: Nate and how he broke his arm twice. Rob's mom
Speaker 10: is quick to confirm that's true, you are the broken arm.
Speaker 10: But I'm just reading this for baby him. She my
Speaker 10: mother can't type worth a crap, and then she wrote
Speaker 10: right after that broken arm, guy, I don't have my
Speaker 10: glasses on. I was texting with them for about an
Speaker 10: hour afterwards. And everyone in my family swears that I
Speaker 10: never broke my arm.
Speaker 1: This in spite of Rob's absolute certainty that he did
Speaker 1: break his arm.
Speaker 9: It really it made me angry. It's very invalidating.
Speaker 10: I felt like, you know, my mother didn't remember this experience,
Speaker 10: this this that her son was in pain and had
Speaker 10: to be taken to the hospital and was and was
Speaker 10: in a cast and for a long time, you know,
Speaker 10: And I think I felt, I don't know, for gotten.
Speaker 1: Rob has crystal clear memories of the day it happened.
Speaker 10: I was on a camp out my troop. My boy
Speaker 10: Scout troop would go on a camping trip one weekend
Speaker 10: out of every month.
Speaker 9: It was the fall, so.
Speaker 10: I assumed we were in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was dark,
Speaker 10: and I was standing on a log, sort of a
Speaker 10: log that you would sit on in front of a campfire,
Speaker 10: and it was rolling. I was rolling it, and I
Speaker 10: think maybe I was just trying to make people laugh.
Speaker 10: And I fell and knew immediately that I had broken
Speaker 10: my arm. I've never felt that kind of pain.
Speaker 1: One of the adults on the trip, an old friend
Speaker 1: of the family named Don Smith, took Rob to the
Speaker 1: hospital where he was fitted with a cast. Afterwards, mister
Speaker 1: Smith brought Rob back to the campground, and that night
Speaker 1: Rob slept in the back of a pickup while mister
Speaker 1: Smith's left up front behind the wheel of the truck.
Speaker 10: And I remember waking up and being in such pain,
Speaker 10: and I think I waited there for it felt like
Speaker 10: the longest time that I was just laboring over waking
Speaker 10: him up.
Speaker 9: I felt so bad waking him up.
Speaker 1: Eventually, the pain became so severe that Rob had no
Speaker 1: choice but to rouse mister Smith for a painkiller. I
Speaker 1: asked him what else He remembers the way it smelled
Speaker 1: the cast.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, you know, your your arms covered up
Speaker 10: in plaster for five to seven weeks, and so you know,
Speaker 10: it smells like a gym locker that hasn't been cleaned
Speaker 10: in five to seven weeks. And I remember liking the smell,
Speaker 10: that's the weird part. And getting it off. I remember
Speaker 10: getting it off. I remember getting the cast off, and
Speaker 10: it smelled terrible, of course, but good to me. I
Speaker 10: just pretended that it smelled awful while I was drinking it,
Speaker 10: and my arm had just withered to nothing. It looked
Speaker 10: like a different person's arm. I can't be making that
Speaker 10: up right.
Speaker 1: Rob fired off a series of texts to his family,
Speaker 1: recounting those memories in exhaustive detail, the camp out, mister Smith,
Speaker 1: the cast. When he finished, his mom was the first
Speaker 1: to text back.
Speaker 10: I'm afraid you were hallucinating, sweetie.
Speaker 1: Rob tried to laugh it off, but he couldn't stop
Speaker 1: thinking about it. That evening, Rob shared his frustration with
Speaker 1: his wife.
Speaker 10: And she patiently listened to the texts, and afterwards she
Speaker 10: smiled and she said, I'm on your family's side.
Speaker 1: Gently, his wife reminded him that he's kind of absent minded.
Speaker 1: He doesn't always have the memory. Also, in their sixteen
Speaker 1: years of marriage, Rob had never once mentioned a broken arm.
Speaker 1: Maybe Rob's mom was right, Maybe he was hallucinating.
Speaker 10: Either I'm telling the truth, Jonathan, or I'm completely insane.
Speaker 10: And it could be that I'm insane.
Speaker 1: Is Rob insane? Or had he really broken his arm?
Speaker 1: I was going to find out, but before setting forth
Speaker 1: on something like this, I need a call to arms,
Speaker 1: something to stir my inards.
Speaker 6: Good.
Speaker 1: So we're going to do this. I'm going to do it.
Speaker 9: Yeah good.
Speaker 1: My innerds remain unstirred, so I'm going to get right
Speaker 1: on this.
Speaker 11: All right.
Speaker 9: Great.
Speaker 1: But just when I think that Rob will never give
Speaker 1: my inards the stirring they need.
Speaker 9: Hey, Jonathan, Yes, go get him, you son of a bitch.
Speaker 1: That's what I was good for. Yeah, that was good.
Speaker 9: That's good.
Speaker 10: I was going to say to that or get those bastards,
Speaker 10: but I'd have felt weird call my family bastards.
Speaker 1: After the break, questioning some dirty, rotten bastards.
Speaker 9: All right, great, all right, I love you very much.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you, thank you? Right back at you there.
Speaker 9: I want you to say it.
Speaker 11: I love you.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 12: So what.
Speaker 1: I just you know, hello, ullo.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm still here.
Speaker 1: So Laura is there as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you dropped out a little bit there, Jonathan.
Speaker 12: Oh you should repeat what you said.
Speaker 8: That'd be great.
Speaker 6: Rob.
Speaker 1: Is Rob still there here?
Speaker 9: I'm still here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're both here.
Speaker 1: I think there's one little section.
Speaker 12: Where you dropped out of it.
Speaker 9: I think you know what section that was, Jonathan.
Speaker 1: I was just I was just asking if you were
Speaker 1: if you were still can you hear me?
Speaker 6: Laura Hello, Hi.
Speaker 1: Is this Robin?
Speaker 7: It is Hello?
Speaker 6: Hey?
Speaker 1: Is this Laura? It is Nate? Yes, mister Cordy, Yes,
Speaker 1: is this an okay time to talk? My search for
Speaker 1: the truth begins with the Quardrees. Rob's brother Nate. I'm
Speaker 1: comfortably sitting in a chair, his sister Laura right now.
Speaker 7: We're in Disney World, his mother Robin, I'm.
Speaker 5: In my car in front of a post.
Speaker 1: Office, and his father, Steve, I'm in Florida. What makes
Speaker 1: them all so certain that Rob never broke his arm?
Speaker 2: No one in the family can remember it.
Speaker 7: His own mother, no broken arms for Rob, his own father.
Speaker 3: I certainly don't remember coming back in the cab.
Speaker 2: If there's anyone's memory in the family that I would trust,
Speaker 2: it would be Lauren.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I don't think it happened. I typically remember everything from
Speaker 7: every situation in the family, so.
Speaker 1: And you've not been long before.
Speaker 8: No.
Speaker 1: My first thought is that maybe around the time Rob
Speaker 1: broke his arm, something traumatic happened in the Cordery's home life,
Speaker 1: something that might have overshadowed the accidents and thus erased
Speaker 1: it from the collective memory. The death of a grandparent perhaps,
Speaker 1: or a house fire.
Speaker 7: No, nothing, Well, we got cable one summer, so that
Speaker 7: kind of derailed the entire neighborhood.
Speaker 1: What about Rob's distinct memory of that first night in
Speaker 1: a cast? I asked them sleeping in the back of
Speaker 1: a pickup truck.
Speaker 13: Mister Smith never owned a pickup, and we knew the
Speaker 13: Smith's a long time.
Speaker 12: It lived across the street Funtains for a number of years,
Speaker 12: never had a pickup.
Speaker 1: Mister Smith has since died, so I can't turn to
Speaker 1: him for confirmation about the truck. But it isn't just
Speaker 1: the pickup that's suspended, it's the hospital too. Rob claims
Speaker 1: he got his cast at the Jordan Hospital. Rob's mom
Speaker 1: was a nurse with strong opinions, and she says the
Speaker 1: Jordan hospital was a quote snake pit. She'd be damned
Speaker 1: if she allowed any member of the quadry Klan to
Speaker 1: set foot in that hospital. Shaped Butcher's College, there were
Speaker 1: strict orders.
Speaker 3: If any of my kids get hurt, do not take
Speaker 3: them to that hospital.
Speaker 13: Go to the Jordan hospital.
Speaker 7: That would never happen. He said. He went to Jordan.
Speaker 1: Hospital in his make belief pickup, and most damning of all,
Speaker 1: I broke my arm twice.
Speaker 13: The only one that I remember having a cast on
Speaker 13: his arm.
Speaker 2: Was his younger brother, Maids, my younger brother.
Speaker 7: Nate broke his arm, broke.
Speaker 14: His arm twice.
Speaker 2: I had to be in traction with in traction for
Speaker 2: two weeks, two weeks, for fourteen days.
Speaker 1: So the quderies aren't just a bunch of broken arm deniers.
Speaker 1: They all remember when Nate's arm broke, and who broke it.
Speaker 2: That was running out of the family room onto the
Speaker 2: back patio, and it was it was concrete, and I
Speaker 2: ran and I tripped and I fell and I broke
Speaker 2: my arm. And for all of the for my entire
Speaker 2: adult life, I had thought that my shoelaces were untied.
Speaker 2: That is not the truth. Many years later, Rob said,
Speaker 2: you know, it wasn't your shoelace.
Speaker 12: I tripped you.
Speaker 2: He stepped on my shoelace. He was behind the door,
Speaker 2: and I was like, hold on, hold on, you tripped me.
Speaker 1: Rob didn't bring up any of this.
Speaker 2: Oh what a surprise.
Speaker 1: According to Nate, Rob's false memory stems from guilt. Laura agrees,
Speaker 1: saying that seeing Nate in traction was traumatic for Rob.
Speaker 7: So I don't know if he's feeling responsible. So now
Speaker 7: he's trying to make up for it by saying, well,
Speaker 7: I also broke my arm.
Speaker 1: But Rob's visceral memories, the smell of the cast, the
Speaker 1: sight of the withered arm. How could he have just
Speaker 1: invented such concrete details.
Speaker 7: He was with Nate when Nate has his.
Speaker 1: Cast removed, and he remembers the smell of Nate's cast.
Speaker 7: I remember the smell of Nate's cast. So he took
Speaker 7: it off. His arm was like yellow, and it looks
Speaker 7: like it was like molting. It was nasty and it
Speaker 7: smelled so bad.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: I asked Laura if she would describe the odor as
Speaker 1: reminiscent of, say, a Jim Locker, and Laura says, yes, exactly,
Speaker 1: a Jim Locker.
Speaker 2: I think he might have tried to steal my memory.
Speaker 1: Even if you're famous, you shouldn't go around stealing people's memories.
Speaker 12: Hello, Jonathan, Hi.
Speaker 1: How are you? After speaking with the Cordrees, I decide
Speaker 1: that I no longer believe Rob. It isn't like I
Speaker 1: think he's lying. It's more like I think he's insane.
Speaker 1: So I need to tread carefully. So I wanted I
Speaker 1: was calling me because I wanted to report back to
Speaker 1: you on some of my findings. I can't wait easy,
Speaker 1: does it Johnny boy? Okay, well, I don't know that
Speaker 1: it's looking great. So for one thing, I spoke to
Speaker 1: your dad. Yeah, and he said that Don Smith, the
Speaker 1: Scout leader, doesn't even own a pickup truck.
Speaker 12: Oh, he would never He would never have owned a
Speaker 12: pickup truck.
Speaker 1: No, he's not that kind of guy.
Speaker 12: I'm not sure if it was his.
Speaker 1: As Rob flounders for an excuse, I try my best
Speaker 1: to understand the logic of his deranged mind. Don Smith
Speaker 1: might have like found a pickup truck that wasn't his,
Speaker 1: that you guys slept in together.
Speaker 12: Yeah, yeh, I assume, like whoever had the most comfortable
Speaker 12: vehicle to sleep.
Speaker 1: But what about the snake ridden Jordan hospital?
Speaker 9: I ask?
Speaker 1: His mom swears that she'd written on his medical form
Speaker 1: that he was never to go there, but Rob brushes
Speaker 1: that off with another half baked excuse. It was so
Speaker 1: late at night. He says, she probably didn't think it
Speaker 1: was worth making the trip to take her wounded son elsewhere.
Speaker 12: You know, she's already in her robe. Her stories and
Speaker 12: drinking dia coke and smoking.
Speaker 1: Rob's explanations were becoming increasingly far fetched. But he was
Speaker 1: sticking to his story. I had no choice but to
Speaker 1: bring out the big guns. The other thing that you
Speaker 1: failed to mention to me. According to your family, you
Speaker 1: were responsible for Nate's broken arm. Oh no, Rob says,
Speaker 1: Nate's arm is something he still feels bad about, which
Speaker 1: is why he doesn't like bringing it up. So I
Speaker 1: turned to the one piece of evidence I know Rob
Speaker 1: can't deny. When Laura, keeper of Memories, told me about
Speaker 1: nate broken arm guy getting his cast removed, her description
Speaker 1: was suspiciously familiar. She mentioned Nate's withered arm and how
Speaker 1: it smelled like a gym locker, which is.
Speaker 12: Exactly my story. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, I mean there's being forgetful and then there's completely
Speaker 1: fabricating like reality. I mean that that's Yeah.
Speaker 12: It's made me, I don't know, it's made me.
Speaker 8: Kind of look back at my entire life and realize
Speaker 8: that I don't remember a lot, and it makes me
Speaker 8: very sad.
Speaker 1: It's finally beginning to sink in maybe Rob didn't break
Speaker 1: his arm. Before we get off the phone, Rob asks
Speaker 1: me if in spite of all this, I'll keep digging
Speaker 1: a little longer, and I promise him I will. I'll
Speaker 1: reach out to you when I have something new.
Speaker 12: Great and Jonathan, Yes, I love you very very much.
Speaker 1: I hear you, buddy, and you know what what, I'm
Speaker 1: in a crowded area.
Speaker 9: Hello.
Speaker 12: Yes, my name is David Orcott. You had called him
Speaker 12: up the message.
Speaker 1: After reaching out to several of Rob's childhood friends who
Speaker 1: remembered nothing about a broken arm, I eventually hear back
Speaker 1: from David Orcott. David and Rob were in the Boy
Speaker 1: Scouts together, and Rob recalls them taking a group of
Speaker 1: girl Scouts on a hike during the autumn of his
Speaker 1: broken arm. I filled David in on the alleged broken
Speaker 1: arm and all the holes in Rob's story. Every single
Speaker 1: person in his family said, what, you're crazy. You never
Speaker 1: broke your arm, and they were quite positive of this.
Speaker 1: But he is quite positive himself that he did break
Speaker 1: his arm and even has like, sorry.
Speaker 12: He did break his arm. I've got a picture of
Speaker 12: him with a broken arm. They need the picture.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is crazy. Do you still have this photograph? Oh?
Speaker 6: Yeah, wow.
Speaker 1: Well, you're the first person that I've spoken to who's
Speaker 1: confirmed this. This is kind of amazing.
Speaker 12: The only reason is I believe I have a scrap
Speaker 12: book that that picture's in there.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic.
Speaker 12: I could check that tonight and verify it if you want,
Speaker 12: and then if you need a scan copy or scan
Speaker 12: of it, we could do something along those lines. It
Speaker 12: won't be a problem.
Speaker 1: Maybe Rob wasn't as insane as you people thought. Sorry, folks,
Speaker 1: but according to the Gimlet Media Employee Handbook, when you've
Speaker 1: got this much dramatic tension in a story, you have
Speaker 1: to amp it up with a plethor of advertisements.
Speaker 9: So take a.
Speaker 1: Bathroom break and fix yourself a snack, not at the
Speaker 1: same time, of course, and I'll catch you on the
Speaker 1: b side as promised. A couple days later, I received
Speaker 1: the photo from David Orcott. Rob's on vacation in Hawaii,
Speaker 1: a paradise island populated by celebs like Tom Selleck and
Speaker 1: Don Ho. But I just can't wait to share the news. Plus,
Speaker 1: I've never talked to anyone in Hawaii before. Hawaii. Are
Speaker 1: you in Hawaii right now?
Speaker 12: I am. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Once Rob's done bragging, I tell him I have something
Speaker 1: to share. Okay, here we go. I'm texting it to
Speaker 1: you right now. It should be on its way.
Speaker 12: I just got a text from Jonathan Goldstein that image.
Speaker 15: Whoa.
Speaker 1: The photo looks like it was shot on a nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties in Stematic. In the foreground is a group of
Speaker 1: girl scouts sitting on a ledge and behind them there's.
Speaker 12: Me in the back row with a broken arm.
Speaker 1: The picture is pretty grainy, but you can see a
Speaker 1: rob like boy looking little for his age compared to
Speaker 1: his friend David, who stands beside him. Rob's arm is
Speaker 1: covered in something big and white. Is it just like
Speaker 1: he remembered it with it?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 12: Yes, with a huge, huge cast and look and not
Speaker 12: looking happy either.
Speaker 1: Armed with this? I mean, what can they possibly say?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 12: I almost feel bad for them.
Speaker 1: Evidence in hand. Rob organizes a conference call with the
Speaker 1: whole Cordery clan and to best enjoy the moment, he
Speaker 1: also writes a victory speech. I'm very proud of it.
Speaker 1: Do you need to practice it? Yes, let's hear it.
Speaker 12: I can't imagine what you're all feeling right now. How
Speaker 12: would I react if I had forgotten that my son
Speaker 12: or brother spent five to six lonely weeks of recovery
Speaker 12: shoved into a cast so bulky, so glaringly white. It
Speaker 12: would not.
Speaker 4: Surprise me if strangers who at the time had been
Speaker 4: cursed to catch a glimpse of me lugging that albatross
Speaker 4: around still jolt awake at night, screaming. Man, that kid
Speaker 4: sure did have a broken arm.
Speaker 12: I'll never forget. It was a big cast. Your son,
Speaker 12: your brother, will always be here to remind you that
Speaker 12: when I was a kid, I definitely definitely out a
Speaker 12: doubt broke my arm.
Speaker 1: That's beautiful, understated, but beautiful.
Speaker 16: All right.
Speaker 1: So you know what, why don't we call into this
Speaker 1: conference line just so we'll be on the line before
Speaker 1: they will, so we could greet them. Okay, just like
Speaker 1: in those movies, you know what I mean, We're like
Speaker 1: someone walks into the room and then the person with
Speaker 1: the evidence is sitting calmly, cross legging in an armchair. Hello, family,
Speaker 1: glad you can make it.
Speaker 12: Please make yourself comfortable.
Speaker 1: Okay. So I'll call in and you're gonna call in
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 11: Right, I'm going to call in, yeah, in one in
Speaker 11: one minute, okay, joining conference now?
Speaker 2: Hello, Hey Jonathan, you have Nate so far?
Speaker 1: Oh h oh, Hi Nate. I was I was hoping
Speaker 1: to get in here before everybody.
Speaker 5: Mama code is here.
Speaker 3: Hi, Hi, Hi, It's Lara.
Speaker 1: Oh hi, how are you, Laura. It's so nice that
Speaker 1: you're all here. I just got off the phone with
Speaker 1: your brother Rob.
Speaker 3: Your hell.
Speaker 12: Oh no, you beat us, We all beat you. Everybody's there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. We were one minute into Rob's victory conference call,
Speaker 1: and already his family was ruining his moment. I can
Speaker 1: tell Rob needs a minute to collect himself to get
Speaker 1: back into that Aloha state of mind. So, taking my
Speaker 1: cues from a Southern lawyer and a Hannah Barbara cartoon
Speaker 1: possibly portrayed by a large rooster wearing suspenders, I take
Speaker 1: the stage. The reason I've I've brought everyone here together
Speaker 1: is because I've uncovered a piece of evidence that I
Speaker 1: think might very well be definitive. In homage to the
Speaker 1: original text message thread that started this whole thing, I
Speaker 1: group text the photo of Rob to the whole family.
Speaker 9: Here we go.
Speaker 1: I'm about to hit send you all set mm hmm, Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go. I just sent it.
Speaker 6: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: There's a moment of silence as everyone studies the photo.
Speaker 1: I worry that maybe it isn't clear enough that the
Speaker 1: Corderies will contest it's even a picture of Rob, But then.
Speaker 3: Does look like Robert in a caf it does.
Speaker 1: With Rob's identity confirmed, I give it two shakes of
Speaker 1: a lamb's tail for the apologies to start rolling in,
Speaker 1: so Rob can put this whole business behind him and
Speaker 1: enjoy his two o'clock hula dancing class with a free
Speaker 1: and easy mind. But two shakes of a lamb's tail
Speaker 1: becomes three shakes and then four shakes. So do you
Speaker 1: all like believe now, like definitively, that Rob was right
Speaker 1: and you guys were wrong?
Speaker 3: I don't know how Dad and I and Laura and
Speaker 3: they could not remember this?
Speaker 1: Again, A hush falls over the conference call. How could
Speaker 1: they not remember?
Speaker 16: It?
Speaker 1: Just didn't make sense unless I think.
Speaker 13: That was the camp out that they were practicing first
Speaker 13: aid and they were using robins they getting big on
Speaker 13: how when they broke an arm.
Speaker 1: With that, the floodgates are open and everyone begins forwarding
Speaker 1: a theory.
Speaker 2: It does vaguely look like a pretend cast because of it,
Speaker 2: like an Adobe photoshow.
Speaker 13: Maybe you just wore that cast when you were away
Speaker 13: from a health Oh right, we thought it.
Speaker 1: From here, all of the Corderie small theories converge into
Speaker 1: one grand theory, which they trumpet in much the way
Speaker 1: villagers in a Broadway musical.
Speaker 7: Might it kind of looks like a sling phone, Not really.
Speaker 1: It does look like a sling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what you're saying, is a sling. So maybe sprained.
Speaker 1: It was some sprain or that's what it was. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I say if it was a sprain, then why wouldn't
Speaker 1: you just remember a sprain?
Speaker 3: A sprain is not that memorable, just doesn't just doesn't
Speaker 3: look right. The sprain in a sling that big.
Speaker 1: Right, So then it can't be a sprain. It has
Speaker 1: to be a broken arm now.
Speaker 3: But there would still be an enormous cast on a small, slight.
Speaker 1: Boy in the face of the evidence. I wonder if
Speaker 1: Rob's family is clinging to this whole sprain thing because
Speaker 1: they just feel bad for not remembering. Do you think
Speaker 1: it's a denial out of guilt, you, guys.
Speaker 3: I don't feel guilty.
Speaker 2: I will say that my memory is imperfect and it's
Speaker 2: altogether likely that you did break.
Speaker 1: Your arm, just just likely, not one hundred percent though
Speaker 1: I do have zero memory of it. But what about
Speaker 1: even seeing the photographic evidence.
Speaker 7: I I'm not one hundred percent convinced, because nobody remembers it.
Speaker 1: In this way, we go around and around. Since no
Speaker 1: one remembers it, then it didn't happen. And if it
Speaker 1: didn't happen, how could anyone remember it? And all the
Speaker 1: while Rob is silent. I imagine him on the other
Speaker 1: end of the line, seated alone at a luau table,
Speaker 1: sadly picking the weeds from his grass skirt and taking
Speaker 1: sad slow SIPs from one of those drinks that come
Speaker 1: in a flaming pineapple, the kind famous people are forever
Speaker 1: throwing at the paparazzi. Suddenly Rob lets his frustration be known.
Speaker 12: I cannot believe that you guys are working this hard
Speaker 12: to not believe that I broke my arm.
Speaker 1: I did not expect this.
Speaker 12: I did not expect this reaction.
Speaker 1: It seems it's going to take more than an old
Speaker 1: photograph to change the Quderi's cemented version of history, and
Speaker 1: it's going to take the Cordery's belief in Rob to
Speaker 1: make him feel sane again. So I asked the family
Speaker 1: what they'll need to accept that Rob broke his arm?
Speaker 13: Well, where's the medical records?
Speaker 3: Then I would believe it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, Yeah, of course, of course. And if
Speaker 1: we're able to present medical records attesting to the fact
Speaker 1: that Rob broke his arm. Would they then all apologize.
Speaker 2: To Rob if this is all true, if he deserves
Speaker 2: an apology, I would apologize.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I would definitely apologize.
Speaker 5: I would feel terrible.
Speaker 12: Absolutely, Yes, yes, I'll.
Speaker 13: Be the first to stand up.
Speaker 1: But do you think that's going to happen.
Speaker 12: No, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is the time to bring
Speaker 1: up the speech.
Speaker 12: But I mean, yeah, I wrote a speech. I wrote
Speaker 12: a victory speech.
Speaker 1: In spite of everything. I knew that Rob was proud
Speaker 1: of that speech, and since he'd already written it, I
Speaker 1: figured he might as well read it.
Speaker 15: So I cannot go Actually, oh, I'll start again. I
Speaker 15: can't imagine what you're all feeling right now.
Speaker 1: How would I react by and forgotten? The corderies want
Speaker 1: written proof? But do hospitals even keep records from so
Speaker 1: long ago, let alone a snake pit like the Jordan Hospital.
Speaker 1: Since Rob can't be expected to interrupt this Hawaiian holiday
Speaker 1: with the trivial business of procuring paperwork, I decide to
Speaker 1: handle it myself. And who better to help me handle
Speaker 1: it myself than someone else? And who better is someone
Speaker 1: else than an actual doctor, Jackie.
Speaker 6: I'm just walking home from work.
Speaker 4: I'm actually not far from your old apartment.
Speaker 1: Oh really, can you check if I have any mail
Speaker 1: for Let's get right to it. I explained to Jackie
Speaker 1: that a friend of mine, a famous friend who for
Speaker 1: his own privacy I'd rather not name, was in need
Speaker 1: of medical records. They were probably like easily over thirty
Speaker 1: years ago. Do you think they would still exist, Well, it.
Speaker 7: Depends, but they might either get rid of them or
Speaker 7: they might have gone into deep storage, but they may
Speaker 7: have a record as a doctor.
Speaker 1: Would you be able to get the records out of
Speaker 1: deep storage?
Speaker 7: Nobody can request them himself.
Speaker 2: He doesn't need me.
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, he's a very busy man. Did
Speaker 1: I mention that he is?
Speaker 2: I'm not busy?
Speaker 12: Right.
Speaker 1: This isn't going at all the way I'd hoped. Instead
Speaker 1: of offering help, Jackie is offering jealousy of Rob. I
Speaker 1: explained that she's being ridiculous, that she's also my friend,
Speaker 1: but that Rob just has VIP needs the needs of
Speaker 1: a very importure.
Speaker 3: Let me reiterate what I already said to you.
Speaker 1: Would I say, yeah, you said you too bad?
Speaker 7: You said your famous friend what can your famous friend
Speaker 7: do for himself?
Speaker 1: Hey, you said that he could phone up and he could.
Speaker 2: Find out he can get them himself, Yet you need
Speaker 2: his signature on a piece of paper.
Speaker 1: In the midst of tearing me a new bee hole,
Speaker 1: Jackie runs into a friend of hers named Jeremy. I'd
Speaker 1: never heard this tone in her voice before. Could it
Speaker 1: be that an unplanned social encounter with a friend was
Speaker 1: making Jackie happy?
Speaker 16: Don't tell you, Oh, it's.
Speaker 1: So good to say hi to Jeremy.
Speaker 8: Medical records.
Speaker 4: This is Karen.
Speaker 2: How can I help you?
Speaker 8: Hi?
Speaker 6: There?
Speaker 1: I have a question. When I explained to Karen when
Speaker 1: I'm after, I expect her to say something like medical
Speaker 1: records from the nineteen eighties. Dude, this is the Jordan Hospital.
Speaker 1: I'm performing open heart surgery with a spatula as we speak,
Speaker 1: and I'm the mother f and switchboard operator. But to
Speaker 1: my surprise, we do have records that go that far back.
Speaker 1: We have a copy service correspondence team and if they're
Speaker 1: able to find anything, lots of times they're on microfiche,
Speaker 1: then they can reach out. Okay, thank you so much, Okay,
Speaker 1: good luck, thank you, Okay, bye bye bye bye. I
Speaker 1: don't know my experience with the Jordan Hospital has been wonderful.
Speaker 1: For the next seven to ten business days. I wait,
Speaker 1: but something. You don't have to wait for his deals,
Speaker 1: because here they are deals, deals, deals. An envelope arrives
Speaker 1: to my office. What's that, asks Gimlet CEO and founder
Speaker 1: Alex Bloomberg. A letter, I say, A letter? He repeats,
Speaker 1: what are you five billion years old? I only use Snapchat,
Speaker 1: wheat Chat, Kick, slack, poke in vox. Well do you
Speaker 1: use email? I ask, because I've sent you a half
Speaker 1: a dozen of them about renewing my son's health insurance.
Speaker 1: He swallowed a penny over the weekend, and my words
Speaker 1: are interrupted by the sound of Alex's fitbit, which has
Speaker 1: begun emitting a terrifying series of beeps and whistles. Alex
Speaker 1: shushes me as he studies his wrist and then, leaping
Speaker 1: into the air, cries boo yah. He then walks away
Speaker 1: performing tai Chi poses, and I tear open the envelope.
Speaker 1: Inside is a single sheet of paper. At the top
Speaker 1: it reads the Jordan Hospital Emergency Department. But as for
Speaker 1: the rest of the sheep, I can't make out a word.
Speaker 1: It's filled from top to bottom with doctor jargon written
Speaker 1: in doctor hana, and so who better to translate than
Speaker 1: an actual doctor? Jackie, I got a second.
Speaker 5: Inside my turtle neck?
Speaker 4: Is that okay?
Speaker 1: You're wearing a turtleneck?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's nice about a turtle neck? Is that has
Speaker 5: no arms?
Speaker 1: So it's just a neck.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: Rather than risk another dust up by suggesting Jackie might
Speaker 1: not be wearing a turtleneck at all, but rather a
Speaker 1: neck brace, I instead text her the records so she
Speaker 1: can take a look.
Speaker 4: I can't.
Speaker 5: I can't do that while I'm driving.
Speaker 1: Can you pull over to the side of the road,
Speaker 1: to the shoulder of the road.
Speaker 7: Absolutely not.
Speaker 1: You cut out there for a second. Did you say yes?
Speaker 5: I said absolutely not.
Speaker 1: You cut out again?
Speaker 15: Did you are?
Speaker 1: You're pulling over?
Speaker 2: Stop telling me I cut out.
Speaker 7: I did not cut out, and I'm not pulling over.
Speaker 1: I think you cut out again, So you're pulling over? Okay.
Speaker 1: So did you look at what I sent you?
Speaker 12: No?
Speaker 2: I didn't look at what I'm I'm on the highway, John, John,
Speaker 2: I'm on the highway.
Speaker 1: Just dart your eyes between the windshield and the papers
Speaker 1: that I just sent you. No, Because Jackie's neck brace
Speaker 1: seems to be constricting the flow of kindness from her
Speaker 1: heart to her mouth. I decide to just read to
Speaker 1: her what little I can make out. It was an
Speaker 1: exam med Richard's forty ugh Like, where does it say
Speaker 1: if he just broke his arm? FX of right distroll
Speaker 1: rady radius FX.
Speaker 7: Means fracture of dystole radius.
Speaker 1: FX means fractured. Yeah, so he fractured his arm. Yep,
Speaker 1: so is that the same thing as breaking? Yes, so
Speaker 1: he broke his arm.
Speaker 2: He broke his arm?
Speaker 4: Looks like it.
Speaker 1: This confirms he broke his arm.
Speaker 4: Wonderful?
Speaker 2: Are we done?
Speaker 1: In high spirits? I get Rob, who's just returned from
Speaker 1: another vacation back on the phone. Welcome back from Fiji.
Speaker 12: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Everything must seem like sort of like in black and white.
Speaker 4: Now Fiji is not all.
Speaker 12: It sounds more exotic than it is.
Speaker 1: When Rob's done bragging, I tell him I have some
Speaker 1: news I wanted to share with you. The er report cool.
Speaker 12: I'm nervous. It's because because if it's because if I
Speaker 12: didn't break my arm, then I mean I got to
Speaker 12: shut everything down and live in therapy.
Speaker 1: You broke your arm? I did you did? Yeah?
Speaker 12: Of course I did I know.
Speaker 1: Joining conference. Now, an impromptu family conference call is arranged.
Speaker 1: Eight is traveling and unable to make it, but we
Speaker 1: get everyone else on the line. Any last minute predictions
Speaker 1: anybody wants to make. Don't think there's a record of it,
Speaker 1: anybody else.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking a screen.
Speaker 1: Well, according to the hospital report, Rob broke his arm.
Speaker 15: Wow, gourd, you're kidding.
Speaker 7: No, what did the hospital record say?
Speaker 1: I texted over and since Rob's mom is a nurse,
Speaker 1: she decodes the report for the rest of the family.
Speaker 5: Okay, complained of pain, swelling, risk, tripped over, log landing
Speaker 5: on wrist.
Speaker 1: It was just as Rob had said, right, risk.
Speaker 5: Distal forearm, the fracture distal radio. Wow, my full apologies, Robert.
Speaker 1: The medical report has done the job.
Speaker 13: I am sorry that I don't remember this incident at all.
Speaker 13: I mean, I remember a lot of other incidentss, but yeah,
Speaker 13: this one I don't remember it. But that doesn't mean
Speaker 13: that it didn't happen.
Speaker 5: You've got me in two years, and I believe you.
Speaker 12: Nothing to be in tears over.
Speaker 1: As his family begins to apologize, Rob begins to backpedal.
Speaker 12: I can't imagine making you apologize for this but like
Speaker 12: I could do that. No, this is I'm just it
Speaker 12: just makes me uncomfortable. I think it's kind of understandable
Speaker 12: that a group of four people would forget something like
Speaker 12: this because it was it was fairly trivial.
Speaker 5: No, I disagree. I this was not trivial. It wasn't
Speaker 5: a little thing. You broke your arm and I have
Speaker 5: absolutely no memory of it. That makes me crazy.
Speaker 13: That kind of makes me feel bad that as a parent,
Speaker 13: I don't remember it.
Speaker 1: With Rob's broken arm confirmed, his parents go from doubting
Speaker 1: their son to doubting themselves. What kind of parents were they?
Speaker 1: All the agreed upon rolls are called into question. How
Speaker 1: can Laura be the keeper of memories if she failed
Speaker 1: to keep this memory? And Nate, how can he be
Speaker 1: the broken arm guy if now there's some other broken
Speaker 1: arm guy. This is the moment when Rob should be
Speaker 1: delivering his victory speech. In its entirety, he should be
Speaker 1: saying I told you so in a sing songy voice
Speaker 1: that is sickening to everyone. He should be gloating. But
Speaker 1: there's something about his family's remorse that feels worse than
Speaker 1: their disbelief. So instead, Rob tries to diffuse the situation
Speaker 1: by joking around no, no, no, I don't listen.
Speaker 12: You weren't there for it. You probably had to write
Speaker 12: me a note to get out of zet, which was great.
Speaker 12: That's probably here at the extent that you're involved.
Speaker 1: To reassure them, Rob falls back on the old Qudrey
Speaker 1: family chestnuts.
Speaker 12: I can think back to seeing little Nate in traction
Speaker 12: in the hospital, and even today can probably cry over it.
Speaker 12: That's that's that's memorable.
Speaker 1: And just like that, things begin to snap back into
Speaker 1: place once again. Nate is the broken arm guy. And Laura, I.
Speaker 7: Mean, I'm surprised that I don't remember it because I
Speaker 7: remember stupid things like what color sneakers I had.
Speaker 13: And I remember one day we went for dinner or
Speaker 13: lunch at either Burger King of McDonald's, and Laura found
Speaker 13: ten dollars under the table.
Speaker 6: It was Brigham's.
Speaker 13: See I remember this, Yeah, I remember.
Speaker 6: Where we were sitting.
Speaker 1: And just like that, once again, Laura is the keeper
Speaker 1: of memories. After everyone gets off the phone, I stay
Speaker 1: on with Rob. The calls left him feeling kind of bad,
Speaker 1: especially for his mom. Before we'd all signed off, she
Speaker 1: apologized yet again, despite Rob's reassurance, she was still feeling
Speaker 1: guilty and unsettled by your lack of memory.
Speaker 6: Hi, this is Robin.
Speaker 3: I can't take your call.
Speaker 1: Right now, so Rob and I give her a call
Speaker 1: to check back in, but she isn't picking up.
Speaker 3: Thanks for calling.
Speaker 12: Hi, Mom, it's Robert William. My friend Jonathan's here. Hi,
Speaker 12: and I love you.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love you. Oh sorry, I.
Speaker 12: Was talking to my mother that time, Jonathan.
Speaker 1: Eventually, my friend Jackie did read Rob's medical report, and
Speaker 1: then she texted me. This is notable for two reasons.
Speaker 1: One Jackie never texts me, and two she began the
Speaker 1: text by saying, I read the report, and truthfully, the
Speaker 1: most interesting part was the remark that the patient was pleasant.
Speaker 12: Oh well, that's very nice.
Speaker 1: And she goes on to say in an er setting,
Speaker 1: no one would ever bother writing that.
Speaker 12: Oh man, I remember getting along with the doctor and
Speaker 12: him saying that.
Speaker 2: I was a champ.
Speaker 1: I just swallowed your pain.
Speaker 4: Always.
Speaker 12: I took great pride in being a champ.
Speaker 8: In the er.
Speaker 1: Rob was pleasant in the pickup truck. He didn't want
Speaker 1: to bother anyone for a painkiller. A couple weeks later,
Speaker 1: and he was leading girl scouts on a hike and
Speaker 1: ultimately maybe that's why no one remembers Rob breaking his arm,
Speaker 1: because whether it was a big deal or not, he
Speaker 1: acted like it wasn't. Rob liked being a champ, and
Speaker 1: he still likes being a champ, making people laugh, joking
Speaker 1: things off. So it was no surprise that when I
Speaker 1: asked the Quderies what Rob's role in the family was,
Speaker 1: they all said the same thing.
Speaker 7: He's the funny guy.
Speaker 2: He was funny, he was the funny one.
Speaker 3: He always started sayings at the dinner table.
Speaker 1: Rob isn't an insult comic. The joke's always on him,
Speaker 1: the jokes always to make everyone else feel better. You're pleasant,
Speaker 1: I'm good, I am. I hope you feel good about that.
Speaker 12: I do. I actually do. I ho hope that that's
Speaker 12: what people say about me.
Speaker 14: He is really funny and caring and sweet, and I
Speaker 14: love the soft side of him.
Speaker 1: This is Sloane Rob's little girl who broke her arm,
Speaker 1: whose picture in a big purple cast set this whole
Speaker 1: thing off in the first place.
Speaker 14: He doesn't really have a hard slot, and he's someone
Speaker 14: who you can always go to and he's not gonna
Speaker 14: yell at you or tell you like that you did
Speaker 14: something wrong.
Speaker 1: After Sloane broke her arm, Rob told her the story
Speaker 1: of how he had also broken his arm on a log,
Speaker 1: how he was rolling on top of it to make
Speaker 1: his friends laugh.
Speaker 14: Anyway, it was just comforting to know that, like, I
Speaker 14: wasn't the only one who tripped over a tree, because
Speaker 14: that's embarrassing.
Speaker 1: Rob told me that when no one in his family
Speaker 1: believed him, not his mother, father, sister, or brother, not
Speaker 1: even his wife, there was one person who did.
Speaker 14: Yeah, I did. I just felt like he was telling
Speaker 14: the truth. He was very frustrated that no one believed him,
Speaker 14: so I wanted to be nice to him too.
Speaker 1: In Rob's new family, everyone is still growing into their roles.
Speaker 1: So for now, Sloan is the bookworm, her little sister
Speaker 1: Marlowe is the rocker, always playing her electric guitar. And Rob,
Speaker 1: to them, isn't the funny one or even the famous one.
Speaker 1: He's the soft one, the sweet and caring one.
Speaker 12: Thank you, Jonathan, Thank you Rob, and hey John, Johnny. Yeah,
Speaker 12: I love you very much.
Speaker 1: I love you Rob.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 12: Okay, good bye, okay, bye bye.
Speaker 16: Now that the Fernitures return to its goodwill home, Now
Speaker 16: that the last month's rent is skiming with the damage
Speaker 16: the bottle. Take this moment to deserve, if we meant it,
Speaker 16: if we talk, we felt around from far too, from.
Speaker 1: Things that accidentally. Heavyweight is hosted and produced by me
Speaker 1: Jonathan Goldstein, along with Khalila Holt, Peter Bresnan, and Stevie Lane.
Speaker 1: The show is edited by Jorge Just, with additional editing
Speaker 1: by Alex Bloomberg. Special thanks to Emily Khn and Fia Bennen,
Speaker 1: Ba Parker, Matthew Nelson, Sandra Cordery, and Jackie Cohen. Thanks
Speaker 1: to to our friends at Maximum Fun, with whom we
Speaker 1: had the maximum amount of fun. Bobby Lord mixed the
Speaker 1: episode with music by Christine Fellows Blue Dot Sessions and
Speaker 1: with his very own music by he himself, Bobby Lord,
Speaker 1: don't laugh when I'm doing the credits. Additional music credits
Speaker 1: can be found on our website, gimblitmedia dot com slash Heavyweight.
Speaker 1: Our theme song is by the Weakerlands courtesy of Epitaph Records,
Speaker 1: and our ad music is by Hailey Shaw. Follow us
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Heavyweight or email us at Heavyweight at
Speaker 1: gimbltmedia dot com. We'll have a brand new episode next
Speaker 1: week