Speaker 1: This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Chris Harrison and Lauren Zema coming to you from the
Speaker 1: home office in Austin, Texas. I hope everybody had an
Speaker 1: amazing Thanksgiving week last week as we I guess officially
Speaker 1: kick off the holiday season and.
Speaker 2: If you dare to find me, look to the western sky.
Speaker 1: We also thank you LZ kicked off movie season.
Speaker 3: Have you guys seen Wicked?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, okay, we did. Here's the thing, Thanksgiving
Speaker 2: winding down. Hoping everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving with your
Speaker 2: loved ones. Hope that no one turned away their loved
Speaker 2: ones for whoever they voted for.
Speaker 1: By the way, I am interested to hear if anybody
Speaker 1: had any great like political moments.
Speaker 2: But yeah, great in a funny way, not in a
Speaker 2: horrible I hope you. For the record, I'll say, everybody
Speaker 2: on MSNBC or whatever it is saying that you should
Speaker 2: turn away family members from holidays because of who they
Speaker 2: voted for.
Speaker 4: No, that's not what America is about.
Speaker 2: To me. America, the America that I hope and dream
Speaker 2: and idolize, is one where we can all feel differently
Speaker 2: and still come together and love each other and.
Speaker 1: Yeah there was once a dream called Rome.
Speaker 3: Oh we also saw Gladiator.
Speaker 1: Okay, just seemed like the time to slide that in.
Speaker 1: There seemed very both both actually both movies seem very apropos.
Speaker 1: But the cool thing about the holidays. Elsie and I
Speaker 1: are big, obviously journalism fans, but we also love the movies,
Speaker 1: and we love to dissect these movies and we went
Speaker 1: deep with the family when they were in town.
Speaker 4: So I grew up in a movie loving family.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if this was a tradition for you,
Speaker 2: but no, it was not movies at all period done
Speaker 2: not really.
Speaker 1: My brother and I we would go see movies, the
Speaker 1: kids would. My family. We weren't big.
Speaker 2: Movie we were we I mean, I think that's part
Speaker 2: of why I got into entertainment journalism. My dad loved movies,
Speaker 2: my grandmother did. We went to see a movie like
Speaker 2: almost every weekend as a family, or if not, we
Speaker 2: were at Blockbuster. And you know that was those those
Speaker 2: great times where it was the family activity to go
Speaker 2: and everybody could pick out one movie and you better
Speaker 2: not get those late fees. But the movies really feel
Speaker 2: like a holiday thing to me as well, because for
Speaker 2: sure on Thanksgiving and or Christmas, there was always a Okay,
Speaker 2: what movie are we going to see as a family?
Speaker 2: And I do really love that this year Wicked and
Speaker 2: Gladiator are kind of bringing people back out for that.
Speaker 2: I bought our Wicked tickets a month ago, back at
Speaker 2: the end of October, and it was almost the showing
Speaker 2: was almost sold out at that point. I couldn't even
Speaker 2: get all six seats together in October. So I was happy, like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I love when we as a country can have a
Speaker 2: kind of communal experience too, Like Barbie felt that way,
Speaker 2: and movies used to always feel that way, and I
Speaker 2: think Wicked is feeling that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely. You know, they tried to link it
Speaker 1: to Barbenheimer. I think because Licked. Oh, I think we're
Speaker 1: we're now so uncreative that we just have to go
Speaker 1: back to something that we knew.
Speaker 2: That does every movie have a sequel, But every like
Speaker 2: phenomenon has to have a sequel, Every cultural moment has
Speaker 2: to somebody.
Speaker 1: Has to be something. It's like, Okay, what is Taylor Swift?
Speaker 1: Now she's the new beat. It's like she's just Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1: But they they so they tried to link it and
Speaker 1: it was very This was this experience I felt was
Speaker 1: very unlike Barbenheimer Wicked. I had this weird ebb and
Speaker 1: flow excitement about Wicked. I went from unbelievably excited to
Speaker 1: very trepidacious to very plea, why are you because of
Speaker 1: the press?
Speaker 2: Oh, there's see, they didn't really worry me. I mean,
Speaker 2: if everybody's seen it, They've been doing a lot of
Speaker 2: press for Wicked. I'm quoting Puck the Hollywood News outlet here.
Speaker 2: Apparently three hundred and fifty million dollars spent on the
Speaker 2: marketing for the movie itself only cost one hundred and
Speaker 2: forty three million, So it needs to make a lot
Speaker 2: of money to make that back. I think it will.
Speaker 2: But they have been doing so many interviews, and you
Speaker 2: all have probably seen the Ariana Grande Cynthia Rivo interviews.
Speaker 2: They've gotten very emotional. They've cried in multiple interviews. They've
Speaker 2: been holding hands, and it's definitely been poked for that.
Speaker 1: They've lost themselves, they've lost.
Speaker 3: It in these roles.
Speaker 1: And so anyway, I was so excited because it is
Speaker 1: one of, if not my favorite musical. It has a
Speaker 1: very emotional tie. It's one of the first big musicals
Speaker 1: I took my daughter Taylor to when we did a
Speaker 1: big Broadway trip when she was younger. So I love
Speaker 1: this musical and I was so excited for it. Then
Speaker 1: I saw the press and I'm like, just please stop talking.
Speaker 1: Everybody stopped. I just I just want to enjoy this.
Speaker 3: I would like they were.
Speaker 2: They were doing so many trailers and commercials too. I
Speaker 2: would look away. I was I'm like, I don't want
Speaker 2: to know any more about this movie. I just want
Speaker 2: to go to see it.
Speaker 1: They almost over exposed it.
Speaker 3: It was fifty million dollars.
Speaker 1: They lit up the Arc de Triomph for crying out
Speaker 1: loud in Paris in pink and green. I am pleased
Speaker 1: to report it was fantastic, incredible Arianna and Cynthia fantastic.
Speaker 1: The movie was spectacular. I'm going to say this right now.
Speaker 1: I'm dropping the mic, dropping the tea. This will win
Speaker 1: Best Picture this year at the Oscars, period dot full stop.
Speaker 1: You heard it here first. Wow, Wicked will win Best Picture.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm absolutely with you that it should win. I
Speaker 2: don't know that it will only because the Oscars always
Speaker 2: vote for well, at least in recent years, vote for
Speaker 2: something for the most part, that's like an art house
Speaker 2: film versus an actual blockbuster movie. The last time a
Speaker 2: music I think the only time a musical has won
Speaker 2: Best Picture was Chicago, and it won's if I believe
Speaker 2: six Academy Awards. Other Academy Award nominated musicals, Mulan Rouge
Speaker 2: was nominated for eight. I don't know if it won any,
Speaker 2: and le Miss I think nominated for eight as well,
Speaker 2: and it won a couple of them, but Chicago definitely
Speaker 2: the most winningest. I would absolutely love to see Wicked
Speaker 2: win Best Picture. I at the end of the movie,
Speaker 2: Taylor and I were sitting next to each other. We
Speaker 2: turned to each other, both crying in a good way.
Speaker 2: I laughed, I cried. I walked out, saying that is
Speaker 2: the best movie I've seen. And I don't remember how long.
Speaker 1: It reminded me. I'm gonna I'm going to date myself here.
Speaker 1: The last time I felt an energy like that, And
Speaker 1: it's a very different crowd, very different, different demographic, but
Speaker 1: the same energy in Rocky one and two, when when
Speaker 1: people stood up and cheered, and I vaguely remember that
Speaker 1: people were going people applauded.
Speaker 4: At the end of Wicked.
Speaker 1: They appl at the end of Wicked. It felt weird
Speaker 1: that they weren't applauding at the end of every si.
Speaker 2: I kept wanting to because you do feel they did
Speaker 2: an excellent job of creating the movie in a way
Speaker 2: where you feel like you are watching a musical in
Speaker 2: a theater, meaning on stage, but not but it isn't
Speaker 2: so primitive as a stage like they made it a movie,
Speaker 2: but it had the feeling of a stage musical. And
Speaker 2: I mean that most complimentary way. A couple times I
Speaker 2: wanted to applaud at the ends of songs.
Speaker 1: I just there was an energy walking in young and old,
Speaker 1: which I love. A bunch of young people coming to
Speaker 1: see this movie, a bunch of old people who just
Speaker 1: love the musical.
Speaker 4: I've seeing a movie in a credit and so there.
Speaker 1: Was this energy. Everybody was talking and so excited for
Speaker 1: this and when it launched, everybody just was spellbound. And
Speaker 1: when it was over, applause rang out in the theater
Speaker 1: and the buzz as everybody was walking out, there were
Speaker 1: girls singing at the top of their lungs. You went
Speaker 1: into the bathroom, and the girls I went.
Speaker 2: Now, I went in the bathroom in these sweet girls,
Speaker 2: probably like ten or eleven. They actually had not gone
Speaker 2: to see it yet, but they heard me talking about
Speaker 2: it and they said, did you just come out of Wicked?
Speaker 2: I said, yes, it's so good. Are you guys going
Speaker 2: to see it?
Speaker 4: And the girl was.
Speaker 2: Like, it's my birthday today and I'm so excited, and
Speaker 2: I said, oh, it's my birthday tomorrow, and it just
Speaker 2: was a It really was a nice moment of like, oh,
Speaker 2: this thing, as you're saying, this movie is crossing generations.
Speaker 3: I think Barbie did that.
Speaker 2: I think Wicked's a better movie. I think you know,
Speaker 2: I remember I would put Wicked up there. You're saying, Rocky,
Speaker 2: I would put it up there for how I felt
Speaker 2: in the theater after like the Lord of the Rings
Speaker 2: movies in the early two thousands, where I just thought, no, notes,
Speaker 2: what a movie. And before I went in, I was wondering,
Speaker 2: what is this run time? I think it's two hours
Speaker 2: and forty minutes and it's only part one. There's still
Speaker 2: a part two coming. I only saw the musical once
Speaker 2: on stage years ago, and obviously it's not like a
Speaker 2: six hour musical, so I guess they must have had
Speaker 2: a dialogue to make part one in.
Speaker 1: Part two, Yeah, lots of and there was a lot
Speaker 1: There was an I won't give any spoilers away, but
Speaker 1: there was a whole section in there that wasn't really apart.
Speaker 1: Really they lifted it out. Yes, I'll just say about
Speaker 1: the animals.
Speaker 4: I thought that was in the musical.
Speaker 1: Not really. They didn't very vaguely in the musical.
Speaker 4: It was definite more scenes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that was ply a much deeper meteor part
Speaker 1: of the movie.
Speaker 2: But I was worried about the runtime. I did not
Speaker 2: feel the run time.
Speaker 1: I passed the squorm test, and they definitely passed the
Speaker 1: squirm test. I wasn't ready for it to be over,
Speaker 1: and then I realized this is probably where they're going
Speaker 1: to cut. Yeah, they did.
Speaker 2: I thought it was expertly cast. Jonathan Bailey, Cynthia Arrivo,
Speaker 2: Ariana Grande all amazing.
Speaker 1: Ariana Grande probably going to win Best Actress.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think they should all be nominated.
Speaker 1: Cynthia Rivo, she was fine, She was good, She was
Speaker 1: very good. There was nothing wrong with her. Ariana Grande
Speaker 1: was just she does such comedic chops. So I think
Speaker 1: we saw that when she was on Esen l Well.
Speaker 2: I think what you're alluding to is that they are
Speaker 2: going to potentially be competing against each other, and that's
Speaker 2: the problem.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm both best afters.
Speaker 1: I will say, even with Kristin Chenowith and Dina Menzel
Speaker 1: back in the day, the part of Golinda just it
Speaker 1: lends itself so you can do more with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have better comedy chops. She has better lines. You know,
Speaker 1: the the the bad Witch, the Wicked Witch definitely lends
Speaker 1: itself to just emoting emotions and stuff.
Speaker 3: Right, Glinda has the range.
Speaker 2: She's funny, she plays airheady, she has like poignant moments.
Speaker 1: It's like legally blonde. You know, you get to like.
Speaker 2: Totally and I think that you know, we've seen Ariana's
Speaker 2: comic timing on SNL, but I had not seen the
Speaker 2: full range of her acting skills and they are all
Speaker 2: at play here. And you know, she's talked for years
Speaker 2: about loving this musical and obviously she took training for
Speaker 2: it so seriously, and she was incredible. I definitely thought
Speaker 2: hers was was the standout performance.
Speaker 1: Okay, you said no notes, I'm going to give you two.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: Jeff Goldbloom and trying to sing well.
Speaker 4: It wasn't great.
Speaker 1: I love Jeff Goldbloom.
Speaker 3: He was funny.
Speaker 2: I saw in an interview that he hired a vocal coach.
Speaker 2: I don't know where that money went.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: Maybe more than three hundred and fifty million should have gone.
Speaker 1: So that was he plays. Obviously the wizard that was.
Speaker 4: His singing was snuck. Okay.
Speaker 1: People gave Richard gear a hard time for singing in Chicago.
Speaker 2: I thought the memory it was very infamous that he
Speaker 2: wasn't He was the only one not nominated because they
Speaker 2: said his singing was bad. Please, yeah, Richard, you're fine.
Speaker 1: I also think one of the brilliant parts of this
Speaker 1: movie was they went further than the musical with just
Speaker 1: a little notes of kind of just homages to the
Speaker 1: Wizard of Oz, homages to.
Speaker 4: Remember the music.
Speaker 1: I feel like the beginning, the way they started the
Speaker 1: whole thing was a little bit different than obviously the
Speaker 1: musical because they have, you know, the cgi of the way.
Speaker 1: They kind of included a nod to the Wizard of
Speaker 1: Oz in the beginning. That was really cool. They just
Speaker 1: did a good job. I thought with like throughout the movie.
Speaker 2: I can't speak to because I don't remember them. Details
Speaker 2: of the musical well enough to know how much it
Speaker 2: was different. I did love the costumes, the set pieces.
Speaker 2: I mean you really, That to me was the big
Speaker 2: difference of why it was worth making this a movie
Speaker 2: beyond it being an on stage musical, because even Chicago,
Speaker 2: like Chicago, isn't all these set pieces and that kind
Speaker 2: of thing.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: This movie has magic, has you know, animal characters and
Speaker 2: sorcery and color and the Emerald City and forests and
Speaker 2: their schools. So it had all this opportunity where you
Speaker 2: can do a lot more with a movie than you
Speaker 2: can with.
Speaker 3: A stage play.
Speaker 2: And the costumes and set pieces and the use of
Speaker 2: CGI were all great.
Speaker 1: You might be more wise about this than I am
Speaker 1: in the movie industry. But what I liked about it,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how to describe this, Maybe you
Speaker 1: can articulate it better. The CGI didn't bug because it
Speaker 1: seemed like they used a lot of real sets.
Speaker 2: I would love to know what they used or not,
Speaker 2: because yes, sometimes you know, you watch a movie and
Speaker 2: you're like, will they spend a lot of money on
Speaker 2: the CGI?
Speaker 4: And it just looks like CGI? So this feels stupid.
Speaker 1: Just didn't too much green screen this didn't feel like.
Speaker 2: That well in Lord of the Rings, Like I think
Speaker 2: you can tell the movies that hold up because they
Speaker 2: used miniatures and animatronics and CGI Like in Lord of
Speaker 2: the Rings. Those movies are, you know, more than twenty
Speaker 2: years old, and I think they hold up because they
Speaker 2: use a lot of miniatures.
Speaker 4: Draassic Park holds up because they us a lot of animatronics.
Speaker 2: I think the New Jurassic Park, you just feel like, well,
Speaker 2: I'm looking at a CGI dinosaur.
Speaker 4: This didn't feel that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so ten out of ten, ten.
Speaker 4: Out of ten, Now let's swing the other way, okay.
Speaker 1: And by the way, just box office wise, Week one
Speaker 1: of Wicked, what one hundred and fifteen million, and I
Speaker 1: think is what I think, that's what you said. They
Speaker 1: they're I would think they're about six to seven hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty million into this thing. So it has to
Speaker 1: do about a billion dollars for them to really feel
Speaker 1: good and pull this thing off. And so they're in
Speaker 1: week two. It did really well in opening weekend, and
Speaker 1: I think the number was in that range. Right.
Speaker 4: It looks like the latest numbers are that.
Speaker 3: Wicked.
Speaker 2: I believe it was the highest grossing opening weekend for
Speaker 2: a musical of all time. It's over two hundred million
Speaker 2: in the middle of its second weekend. I think so
Speaker 2: by Sunday, Wicked expected to reach just under two hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty three million domestically worldwide three hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: eight million.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know with some of these movies
Speaker 1: that where they're shooting to putting them in the can
Speaker 1: that have been failures lately, like you look at Mission
Speaker 1: Impossible that really worried the box office and worried the
Speaker 1: studios because the first one did not do great, to
Speaker 1: the point of having to change the name of the
Speaker 1: second one and move the date. And so I think
Speaker 1: there was probably some lessons learned, and that's probably why
Speaker 1: they put three hundred and fifty million dollars into promoting this,
Speaker 1: because they realize if they don't launch Wicked one, Wicked
Speaker 1: two is dead in the water. So it's it's going
Speaker 1: to be a massive success worldwide, and it's going to
Speaker 1: be a huge it and I think it will be
Speaker 1: the darling of the Oscars this year. I think it's
Speaker 1: going to crush I hope, well all of a word season,
Speaker 1: when you know, get to the Golden Globes and all that.
Speaker 4: I can't even really think of other movies that have
Speaker 4: come out this year.
Speaker 1: So and then we also went and saw Gladiator. Gladiator too,
Speaker 1: which everybody have been talking about, obviously, the Russell Crowe,
Speaker 1: huge epic hit that was a massive success back in
Speaker 1: the day. And now we have Pedro Pascal, we have
Speaker 1: Denzel Washington, Paul mes Cow Ams Cow.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't great.
Speaker 1: It was a mess. It was a bit of a mess.
Speaker 4: I was very disappointed.
Speaker 2: I it felt like not a sequel but a remake
Speaker 2: but worse. And I wanted it to be great. I
Speaker 2: love the original Gladiator. This didn't even I couldn't even
Speaker 2: say this was as good as so you know, maybe
Speaker 2: if it was just as good as remake.
Speaker 4: Okay, I get to watch Gladiator again. It doesn't need
Speaker 4: a remake.
Speaker 2: But it was bad the bad CGI first of all,
Speaker 2: but much more importantly bad script.
Speaker 3: Some not all not great acting plot line that like didn't.
Speaker 1: A lot of holes, a lot of holes in the script.
Speaker 2: I think Paul mescal is a really good actor, but
Speaker 2: his character is basically, you know now Russell Crowe's character
Speaker 2: and in the original Gladiator. I think my biggest issue
Speaker 2: is in the original Gladiator. Russell Crowe's character was this
Speaker 2: man everybody rallied around, and that's how he was able
Speaker 2: to change everything in this movie. Paul Mescal's character had
Speaker 2: like no reason for everybody to rally around him. I
Speaker 2: don't know, he wasn't very likable.
Speaker 1: We just had to I felt like they rushed in,
Speaker 1: was like, okay, we got to just hit these plot
Speaker 1: points real quick, and let's get back into the coliseum
Speaker 1: and let's get going. And there was such great character
Speaker 1: building with Russell Crowe that made us love him, understand
Speaker 1: why he was loved, and we went on this journey
Speaker 1: with him, and they just did not do that in
Speaker 1: this movie at all. And you're right, I was trying
Speaker 1: to think of, you know, was it the fate of
Speaker 1: trying to follow up such an epic film, But you
Speaker 1: know what, Top Gun did that the last time, and
Speaker 1: they did a fine job. And there have been others
Speaker 1: that have gone on to do great sequels. This was
Speaker 1: a really rough sequel. And I get that sophomore album
Speaker 1: is a tough one to make, but this one.
Speaker 2: Really, I mean, look, we waited twenty years. It should
Speaker 2: have been good, you know, Like, honestly.
Speaker 1: We've waited twenty five.
Speaker 4: I mean with.
Speaker 2: Wicked, we waited twenty years for the movie and it
Speaker 2: didn't disappoint.
Speaker 3: Like they have that in common.
Speaker 2: And I think it's going to do well in these
Speaker 2: first couple of weekends because people loved Gladiator and they
Speaker 2: want to go see it. It's not the worst movie
Speaker 2: ever I've ever seen, but it wasn't good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you want to turn off your brain and
Speaker 1: you're like, it is, I couldn't even.
Speaker 2: Turn off my brain. It didn't, as you say, passed
Speaker 2: the squirm test. Another's a long run time.
Speaker 1: I was going to say the same thing. I was
Speaker 1: really ready for it to be over. I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I kind of started getting tired nodding off, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's this is rough.
Speaker 2: I had a bit of a headache towards the end.
Speaker 2: To be honest, I can't say the same good things.
Speaker 2: Would not recommend maybe catch it on a plane. That's
Speaker 2: really how I felt.
Speaker 3: Wow, I'm bummed. I love the first movie.
Speaker 4: I wanted it to be good.
Speaker 3: I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 2: I think that like I think that today, like some
Speaker 2: people say, movies aren't as good as they used to
Speaker 2: be because all we make is sequels. I think it's
Speaker 2: more than that. I think that tech people are running
Speaker 2: movie studios instead of creative people. I think that there's
Speaker 2: so many there's like way too much analysis of data
Speaker 2: instead of just feeling what a good story is and
Speaker 2: like making art. And I think that there's way too
Speaker 2: many boxes trying to be checked, like well, we need
Speaker 2: an action scene every five seconds, and we need, you know,
Speaker 2: to fill all the you know, reach all these different
Speaker 2: audiences through these paths. And it's like, if you followed
Speaker 2: that path, Godfather never would have been made, Citizen Kane
Speaker 2: never would have been made, the whole industry wouldn't exist.
Speaker 2: And I don't think people are just making good movies anymore.
Speaker 1: I think you just hit the nail on the head
Speaker 1: with We we Get Aside.
Speaker 4: I'm just going to.
Speaker 1: Say with Wicked, so brilliantly put together and done and
Speaker 1: edited in the script, and and they they took the
Speaker 1: musical and I think they went even a little deeper,
Speaker 1: and I think brilliantly done. What I felt like I
Speaker 1: was watching with Gladiator, I almost felt like I was
Speaker 1: like flipping through reels on Instagram, Yes, on Instagram, where
Speaker 1: I'm like, uh.
Speaker 4: There's the little yet that made no sense together.
Speaker 1: Like you said really quick of like, okay, guys, every
Speaker 1: five minutes, we need a little dialogue. Okay, we're at
Speaker 1: five and a half minutes. We got to get back
Speaker 1: to a fight scene. Okay, now for minutes it seemed
Speaker 1: very It was like I you said into Ai, make
Speaker 1: me Gladiator too, and that's what AI kind of spit out.
Speaker 2: I truly had a headache after which, as if I
Speaker 2: had had too much screen time.
Speaker 1: Not going to do well. Probably, I think week two
Speaker 1: three in the box office will start to fall off.
Speaker 1: Denzel did his job, Denzel.
Speaker 4: He's just having fun.
Speaker 1: Denzel was Denzel, and he's he seemed very theatrical. He's like,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna have a good time with this. Out
Speaker 1: of ten, where are you four? Yeah, I might give
Speaker 1: it a four point five, but it struggled.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Let
Speaker 2: us know what movie you saw in What was not
Speaker 2: the glicked phenomenon, but it was a wicked weekend. We
Speaker 2: really enjoyed it and hope that you had a good time.
Speaker 1: We have to wish you a happy birthday.
Speaker 4: Thanks It doesn't feel it really doesn't feel like my
Speaker 4: birthday this year.
Speaker 2: I don't want it. It's too close to Thanksgiving this year.
Speaker 2: Usually I get like a week and even then it
Speaker 2: feels a little close to Thanksgiving. This week, Thanksgiving is
Speaker 2: very late, and so a day between my birthday and
Speaker 2: Thanksgiving it feels a little weird. It's wonky's it is
Speaker 2: Thanksgiving us Thursday, we had Friday, and now my birthdays
Speaker 2: and Saturday, it feels wung oh.
Speaker 1: Without giving away your age where it's not a big one,
Speaker 1: do you feel like when they're not big ones, you're
Speaker 1: kind of like, what is this one? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? When it's not like that kind of a
Speaker 1: five or a zero in it.
Speaker 2: Or I don't know, and I don't care about giving
Speaker 2: away my age. I'm turning thirty seven. I mean sometimes
Speaker 2: I still feel the weird funkiness of like the way
Speaker 2: the past couple of years, like the pandemic and on,
Speaker 2: have affected all of our sense of time. You know,
Speaker 2: it's weird. I think, like, I don't know if everyone
Speaker 2: feels this way, but my early thirties were all in
Speaker 2: the pandemic and that didn't like feel normal, and you know,
Speaker 2: I think that like we have had a few things
Speaker 2: in the works that have taken a lot longer over
Speaker 2: the past year then we wanted them to, so that
Speaker 2: I think I don't totally know how I will mark
Speaker 2: this past year in like, you know, usually I can
Speaker 2: look back and say like, oh, that was the year
Speaker 2: I started at ET, or that was the year we
Speaker 2: moved to Austin, And I don't totally feel how to
Speaker 2: mark this year right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah I get that. Yeah, yeah, but a great but
Speaker 1: oddly a great one.
Speaker 4: As well, though, no, there was a well yeah of course, yeah.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I know I understand what you're saying though,
Speaker 1: because usually yeah, you think back of like oh that
Speaker 1: was when I was thirty two, I did this or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I get that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's been really a really good year.
Speaker 2: I think I feel a little a little rudderless right now.
Speaker 2: So I'm I mean, I don't mean to sound ungrateful.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't call this like one of my best years,
Speaker 2: but I think it was a good year. Last year
Speaker 2: felt like, oh we got married. This year, you know,
Speaker 2: this year, I don't know what the the thing was
Speaker 2: and that makes me feel a little rudderless, And so
Speaker 2: I don't know how to mark the year yet and
Speaker 2: then at the same time, I'm reminding myself, like, you know,
Speaker 2: life is good and everyone's healthy and happy and be grateful.
Speaker 4: I mean, maybe this will be the year that my
Speaker 4: nephew was born.
Speaker 2: But that feels like a thing that's not mine, so
Speaker 2: it feels weird too.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and we did finally go on our honeymoon,
Speaker 1: which was nice.
Speaker 2: Yes that's true. Well not okay, so now we're wrapping
Speaker 2: that up. Well, yes, everybody, we just went on our honeymoon.
Speaker 2: We didn't go on a honeymoon when we got married
Speaker 2: because we had our two weddings and there were so
Speaker 2: much celebrating. So we decided we'll go on our honeymoon
Speaker 2: for our one year anniversary. And so we are also
Speaker 2: just coming back. No joke landed, and then our family
Speaker 2: came in for Thanksgiving. We are just coming back from
Speaker 2: Portugal and Spain, which were incredible. We did Porto, the
Speaker 2: city of Porto and the Doro Valley, the wine region
Speaker 2: of Portugal, which you'd always wanted to do, and Bilbao, Spain,
Speaker 2: which had been on our list.
Speaker 1: We se yeah, spectacular cities. The people were wonderful, it
Speaker 1: was great. It was very interesting to be over in
Speaker 1: Europe too. A few people kind of leaned in softly
Speaker 1: to our politics, which was really interesting. Oh you know,
Speaker 1: like a couple of people would be.
Speaker 2: Like so well, like people wanted to ask us. A
Speaker 2: couple of people were like, so who did you vote for?
Speaker 2: And so what's the vibe over there? And it really
Speaker 2: is interesting to see or to and I don't mean
Speaker 2: people like American people, I mean Portuguese people and Spanish people.
Speaker 2: It's interesting to be abroad so close right after the
Speaker 2: election and see how much news of our election had
Speaker 2: reached other countries.
Speaker 1: For sure, I happened to be filming. I forget where
Speaker 1: we were in the world the first time Trump was elected,
Speaker 1: and I remember remember being at the airport and people
Speaker 1: coming up and just they would know where Americans and
Speaker 1: same thing. You realize how heavy of an influence our
Speaker 1: culture and our politics and our news has around the world.
Speaker 1: Even in small towns. People kind of just want to
Speaker 1: know what's going on and like, what's the vibe over there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is why you know, We've talked about the
Speaker 2: media specifically related to the election on several podcasts, and
Speaker 2: it's why I feel so adamant about the need for
Speaker 2: the media to become better and get back to really
Speaker 2: being a vehicle of discovering the actual truth and seeking
Speaker 2: actual truth because you kind of realize that, like our
Speaker 2: news stories become the sources for news broadcasts in other countries,
Speaker 2: like about American news and the way that that message dissipates.
Speaker 4: So there's so much power in that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: We were kind of talking to like to one gentleman,
Speaker 2: and it's interesting he was talking about Portugal, sounding like,
Speaker 2: you know, just from him, Portugal having a lot of
Speaker 2: the same concerns a lot of Americans have about immigration
Speaker 2: issues and economic issues and and cultural issues and uh.
Speaker 2: And he was just like explaining to us the way
Speaker 2: that he sees he saw Trump and he saw Harris
Speaker 2: and everything, and so that was interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a good and a beautiful trip. Yes,
Speaker 1: even though year later it was wonderful to celebrate and
Speaker 1: we're gonna wrap this up because we need to go
Speaker 1: celebrate you right now.
Speaker 4: Wow, I really sounded depressing talking about my birthday.
Speaker 2: I think it's I think I would feel better if
Speaker 2: it wasn't supposed to Thanksgiving. I don't think I've had
Speaker 2: time to process what it is from they you know
Speaker 2: it's maybe it's because we just saw Gladiator. If we
Speaker 2: if we'd recorded this after I saw Wicked, I might
Speaker 2: have feel better about my own.
Speaker 1: Birth halfway through there, which I'd just cut my head off.
Speaker 4: And that's a dad joke for your holiday.
Speaker 1: Gladiator, Dad, Joe.
Speaker 4: We love you and we're thankful for you.
Speaker 1: Yes, happy birthday, babe. I love you very much.
Speaker 4: I love you too. I can't wait to see what
Speaker 4: you caught me.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know we need to go up in our
Speaker 1: presents right now. We will do this again next time
Speaker 1: because we have a lot more to talk about. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most dramatic
Speaker 1: pod ever, and make sure to write us a review
Speaker 1: and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.