Jane Marie

Well, it's like making a dollar at any cost. For nothing. For nothing. I know. I interviewed, I remember in 2008, I did this piece with Adam Davidson for This American Life. Yeah. Right after the crash in 2008, we went down to Wall Street.

And to this bar, Pound and Pence, I think was the name. Anyway, like a douche. It's one of those bars where I walk in and I cannot tell the difference between any of the men there.

Yeah, I was living in New York at the time. And I got into a screaming match with these guys who were bankers who had just gotten bailed out and were like, you're stupid if this whole thing ruined your life in any way. Like, I figured out.

Yeah, like, you're dumb.

If you're not trying to be a billionaire, you must be an idiot. And the reason I still have a job, even though really the truth was they got bailed out, but they said to me, the reason I still have a job is because I'm smarter than you. Like I learned the system. I learned how to game the system.

Ja, ja. Und Ira Glass, mein alter Boss, hat mir gesagt, es gab eine Geschichte über unsere Show in den New York Times letztes Jahr. Und er war so, ich vergesse nicht genau, aber es war so etwas wie, Jane hat diese echte Axte, oder so etwas. Sie fühlt sich, als wäre das Leben sehr unfair, und dass dieses Land sehr, wie Dinge sind unfair.

Aber sie ist lustig darüber. Ja.

She feels like the world's unjust. And I was like, well, no shit. Am I being manic right now? I feel like I'm all over the place. Because I haven't seen you in so long. We're like being those old friends.

Maybe I should write a book about how to make a perfect child. Because my child is perfect.

No.

He left. I never want to shit talk my daughter's father because... And I learned this when I was becoming a foster mom. I have an adult foster daughter.

Yeah. And it's not my job to step in the middle of that, especially with someone who is her other closest relative. Like this is half of her, is this person. And I want her to love him and know him. And I want him to love her because that's very important for her health.

Because you're not stupid. Yeah, kind of. Seriously, I don't recommend it.

And also don't protect them from the harsh parts. Like self-confidence is built by like overcoming shittiness, you know.

But you can stand up to it enough to have a home.

But I'm saying, you have a shelter, you have a job. Yes, yes, yes.

Whoa. Okay, how did I grow up?

Yeah.

So... My folks met when they were... My mom was in 8th grade and my dad was in 9th grade. And she got elected to student council. And moving into high school, she had to go over there and take a class from the student council in 9th grade. And my mom was like a boobless dork. Like really short hair, buck teeth, flat chested nerd. And this is where? Michigan? Yeah, in the middle of nowhere.

Like outside of Flint, Michigan in a rural area. Small, small town. And my dad was also on student council. Also ein Dork, aber auch der superlative König im Seniorjahr. Smartest, hottest, greatest athlete, all of this stuff. My mom blossomed also later, but she wrote in her diary in 8th grade, I'm gonna marry Jeff. And they got married when she was 17.

And moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where my dad played football for Bo Schembechler. And then I was born a couple years later. And he was like, this is the lore. Who knows if our parents were ever telling us, you know what I mean?

Seriously. It's coming soon. Well, no, it's not actually, because they're like, not that old, but...

Ja, die Dinge gehen seitdem mit meinen beiden Eltern in Ordnung. Sie haben alles neu geschrieben.

Was ist die Geschichte? And she was working at a pizza place and my dad was playing football and just like going to school. And then he decided that if he was going to have a kid, he didn't want to go into the NFL and like have his knees broken and not be able to take care of me. So then he went to his counselor and took a test. And it said, bleep, bleep, blorp, you should be a dentist.

And then he became a dentist.

But we lived in like subsidized housing and stuff that whole time.

So, he was, I want to say like, I mean, they were children, but we lived in Ann Arbor until I was like seven or something. And then we moved back to the country.

And he has a practice there now. And he... Ja, das ist schön. Sie sind noch zusammen? Oh, nein. Nein, nein, das ist eine andere Sache. Nein, nein. Wir lebten dort, bis ich 14 Jahre alt war. Und dann, als ich 10 Jahre alt war, hat mein Vater eine Emotionsaffäre mit meiner Tochter. Mit deiner Tochter?

Und dann, als er meine Mutter erzählte, war meine Mutter so, oh, oh, das erinnert mich an mich. Ich war nicht eine Virgin, als wir verheiratet wurden.

Okay.

Yeah, and then both of them were like, do we both have bipolar disorder? Like, what's going on now? Because we're like 30 years old and like everything's going awry. And so eventually my mom left and we moved back to Ann Arbor and she went to school there. And then she started dating like this guy from a punk band that was like close to my age. And then...

My mom then had an affair with the court-appointed psychologist from my parents' divorce.

Then they got married.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I was, it was, it went on for five years with like his wife's barging into my mom's house and stuff.

Like grabbing her husband.

Yeah.

A lot of stuff. But, you know, I mean.

I do. I'm the oldest.

Obviously. Of five now. So there was me and my brother two years younger.

From my mom and dad.

And then my sister eight years younger than me from my mom and dad.

They were. Yeah. And then once the divorce happened, I have a couple steps from my mom's second marriage, who I love very much. And then my dad, okay, so my dad is young. And we had that kind of like father-daughter thing where we would go out and people would think we were on a date.

He would be 66 or 67.

Er wohnte in Michigan, ein paar Stunden weg von Chicago. Er kam immer wieder auf Iras Frau. Er rief mich immer wieder an und ich musste ihm sagen, er soll ein Leben haben. Als ich an dieser Geschichte gearbeitet habe, waren wir an einer Geschichte am Show über russische Brüder. Wir checkten Fakten über die legit russischen Brüder-Websites.

Ich sende das mal an und dachte mir, ich muss hier aufhören. Wow. Wow.

Ich weiß. Das ist alles.

Ich versuche es für ein Buch oder so zu retten. Ich weiß nicht. Ich komme manchmal in diese Vibe mit meiner Familiengeschichte, weil es wirklich merkwürdig ist. Und ich erzähle dir nur 10 Prozent.

It's only recently that any one of them have ever started like looking at Fox News or something like we don't. That's not the world.

Which made me the parentified child.

My mom borrowed my clothes for dates, you know.

Yeah, like that kind of level. And again, my dad, like, we hung out. We went to raves in Detroit together.

It is crazy.

Well, until I got caught with cocaine and then he was like, maybe the rave thing isn't the best.

I actually moved out when I was 16 in Ann Arbor.

I lived with my mom at the time and it was... I really felt like... I did have this thing as a girl and like... How do I say this? I was definitely sexualized by... Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. So yeah, I moved out at 16. But then I got into drugs, which was a blast. Yeah. But only for like a year. Yeah. And I had to get rescued.

By my dad.

Mostly cocaine.

Running around. Getting like staph infections is basically what was happening.

Not a great party. Letting older men like bick my head. It was raving in Detroit in the early 90s.

Dentist came to the rescue, took me home, said I have three rules. No boys overnight, call me every three days. And I forget what the third one was. Oh, no drugs in the house.

Ja. Ja. Ja. Wow, volles Leben. Ja. Ich war in einem Bar und habe mich irgendwie in den Honors College eingelassen. Das ist sehr seltsam. Ich habe dort gearbeitet und dann habe ich angefangen, an meinem College-Radio-Station zu arbeiten. Und das war genau, als Pro Tools... Okay, Leute, hört auf, Publikum. Das ist, wo wir wirklich ins Baseball kommen werden. Die Pro Tools-Tage. Wow.

Ja, Pro Tools ist passiert. Und ich bin zu einer Konvention gegangen und habe mit den Leuten von Pro Tools getroffen. Und es war so, können wir ein System für unsere Schule haben? Und sie sagten, ja. Also habe ich Pro Tools gelernt. And then one day I was driving home from Chicago to Michigan and I heard this radio story about a guy who was... A tequila man, did you ever?

Yeah, he was like friends from college with this guy that became a tequila mascot.

And like traveled around letting people like take shots off of his body and stuff and he was like hired by resorts to be like the tequila man.

Aber ich habe dieses Show noch nie gehört.

Gut für alle, die um ihn herum waren.

Ja, genau. Aber ich hörte diese Geschichte und dachte mir, ich muss das anschauen. Und dann habe ich es durch die Kredite gelesen und es sagte, es ist das amerikanische Leben. Also am nächsten Tag ging ich zur Schule und kam auf das frühere Internet und schaute die Show auf. Und sie hatten ein Internat. Okay. Und ich habe eingeladen. Und dann hörte ich nichts. Überall. Was gut ist.

Weil, was erwartete ich? Ja, klar. Then it turned out the hiring manager was late hiring a new intern. And I lived right down the street. I wasn't someone from an Ivy League school that had to move or anything. Plus I was older because I went to school late. I was, I think, 24 or something. It was starly kind. She called me. We stayed on the phone for an hour.

And then I was like, okay, so did you want me to come in for an interview? And she was like, that was your interview. And I was like, no, no, no. And then she called me an hour later, her and Jonathan Goldstein, and they said, do you want to come be our intern? And I said, yes. And then I just hit it off with everybody. Since then, Ira has said very complimentary things about my skills.

But I didn't go in there knowing anything about that world, really. Especially culturally, the world. I don't... Ja, genau. It was a bit of a culture shock for me to have, or like a learning curve basically, to know what people were talking about when they were talking about graduate school or like going to journalism, like studying.

I just went in there with technical skills, like I can cut tape really fast, like really fucking fast. The tops of the shows, like the beginning of the shows, I used to cut those five minutes before air.

Like I would record and I would mix it with the music, like... Ja, live radio is thrilling. It was so much fun. Aber ja, er sagt, er hat mich für meinen Geschmack bezahlt und dass ich ein sehr natürlicher Editor war. Was ich als eine Verletzung war, als er es mir zuerst gesagt hat. Du bist nicht trainiert.

Oh mein Gott, ich wünschte, ich wäre da gewesen. Ja, er ist ein Howard Stern-Freak. Ist das nicht interessant?

Nun, ich war Unternehmerin, und dann war ich wieder Unternehmerin, weil es wieder passiert ist. Also habe ich zwei Termine als Unternehmerin gemacht. Und dann am Ende meines Unternehmens... And I was, like, producing things, but mostly learning. Yeah.

And following everyone around and working, like, 70, 80 hours a week and just staying until 11 o'clock at night and hope, keeping my fingers crossed, that, like, Ira would order dinner, you know? Yeah. Because it was just, like, a poor... They did... I will say, they had a paid internship. They still do.

That's the only reason I ever applied. Because I didn't have the money.

Or to have an internship.

What do you want to do? And I was like, I want to work here. And he was like, I'm not hiring. And I was like, you will be eventually. And he was like, maybe not. Why don't you want to go to all things? I could put a word in for you at all these places. And I was like, no, I'm fine. I'll just hang out here. So I kept bartending. I kept...

volunteering at the studio, like at WBZ, at the radio station, and doing some really sketchy, actually, stringer work. A stringer is like someone that goes out with a tape recorder to record someone on the other end of a phone interview. I did some stuff with recently released death row inmates and things in my car. But eventually someone got pregnant and needed to go on maternity leave. Yes.

And I got stuck right in there.

Yeah. Yes, exactly. And I love that type of journalism. And I mean, I learned directly from the best person at it.

As far as like audio journalism goes. Like I got very lucky that I sat right next to that person for 10 years.

You know. And he even told me when I was an intern, like at the very beginning, he said like, if you want to learn how to do this stuff, you got to find the things that you like, like the people that you like who are doing this and just copy them until you figure out what your thing is. I listen to my old pieces. Oh my God, I sound like... So bad. So inept. My scripts are horrible.

I sound like I'm trying to be on This American Life.

But I'm already working there.

Yeah, it's very flat.

Yes. Yeah. I can teach it to you if you want to get a script up.

Well, you're doing 25% less mark right now. Yeah. Let's lock it down a little bit flatter.

I don't think you're thinking about what you're saying, so can we start that one again? Sure. I want you to think about the words. Okay, okay.

So where do you go from there? You're almost there. But we know you're a funny person, so we have to inject a little bit of that, but keep it flat.

Boom! You're hired. Where's the check? No, I spent 10 years doing that with people.

No, that type of journalism is awesome. And that's what I want to do. I want to just be myself without inserting myself in every single part of the story. I also don't want to be navel-gazy all the time. I want to be able to tell personal parts of the story without... And engage people. Yeah, and engage people as a normal person. That's another thing that happens in the audio documentary world.

People come in to tell stories and you're just like, I cannot relate to this person at all. Like they...

It's not really an NPR approach.

Das ist die erste Saison, die wir gemacht haben.

Ja.

Nein, nein, nein, nein, nein. Also, ich habe einen Anruf von Stitcher bekommen, von Laura Mayer, die sagt, wir wollen ein Show über MLMs machen. Und dann habe ich sie auf dem Telefon für immer gedreht. Und ich war so, blablabla, jeder, den ich kenne.

Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ich habe noch einen Freund, der auf dem Show war, der Taschen verkauft. Ja. Obwohl die Firma gerade zerstört ist. Und jetzt verkauft sie, ich glaube, sie verkauft Diät-Shakes. Auf jeden Fall. Ich bin zu ein paar ihrer Partys für das Berichten gegangen. Es war so lustig.

Und wenn ich noch in Owasso oder Corona oder in irgendeiner dieser Teilen von Michigan wäre, ich weiß nicht, dass ich nicht etwas wie Make-up zu meinen Freunden verkaufen würde.

It's this faux meritocracy that I have a big problem with, which is being sold to people by the people stealing the money from people who think this is a meritocracy. You know, it's not. It's like Donald Trump is definitely not the top 1% smartest or most capable person.

Because it sounds great.

No, I mean, I do too. I didn't vote for Trump, but we all want to win. Right. And if the story is, which is the story of America, that like those who try hardest, you know, keep your nose to the grindstone. It's also so like the bootstrap thinking thing. I spent a lot of time thinking about this, which I think is just one of the most racist things. Ideas out there.

It came about after the Civil War, where it was just like a way for white people to tell black people that it's on them now.

Yeah, now it's on everybody. But it was this idea of like, we let you go free, now it's all on you. There's no social safety nets and we're not going to help you do anything. You've got to just pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Even though we didn't let you have any.

And now it's literally everybody. But there's been studies done, we talked about this on the show, about personality types when it comes to this sort of thing. There are personalities who look at the potential of making money. Ja. Ja. Ja.

Wellness and supplements and all of that, yeah.

Yeah. We just did an episode about RFK Jr. and his thoughts about vaccines and all that stuff.

Yeah. In the wellness season 2 we did an episode about this. I can say, just coming from poor people, I mean, healthcare is expensive.

And vitamins are also expensive, but not... Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. And we have let people down in the healthcare world a lot in this country in particular. And I totally get the impulse to want to find some alternative to waiting in line at Cedars for some asshole to come in and tell you there's nothing that can be done.

Ja.

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Who was? Yeah. Yeah. company doing like door-to-door sales and then decided that they were going to start their own company like that, but they didn't have a product. So they built the whole framework for what Amway was going to look like in terms of hiring and recruiting and all of those things. You can be a distributor. And then they went and acquired a bar soap company.

I think it was called Frisk or something like that. So it's all hype. It's all hype. And they made a fortune. Oh my god.

Yeah, well, that's the other thing. There's no rules. You don't have to be an adult or have a degree or anything.

That's what's so great about this opportunity, Mark.

Yeah, did you do Cutco after that?

I talk about this in the book. I fell for one once. It's not an MLM exactly, but it was an infomercial scam where they sold tapes or CDs and books about how to put Chinese-manufactured tchotchkes in the back of magazines. Huh. And I was like, that sounds like so much fun.

Also, if you're a business person, just make your own business.

Yeah, like I am ambitious, I am empowered.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Virtuous, quote unquote, personality trait. What was the third season about? Life coaching.

Oh mein Gott. Ja, es war über Lebenscoaching.

Ich habe einen Mann verheiratet. Ich weiß. Ich habe auch zwei verheiratet. Like, I had all the hope in the world about this thing that was clearly, if I read even one piece of paper about this.

Zu einem supposedly männlichen Cishet. Was war das? Ich habe es zweimal gemacht. Ich habe es zweimal gemacht. Das ist, wie hoffnungsvoll ich war, eine bestimmte Version des amerikanischen Traums zu erreichen. Ja, sicher. Upsie-Daisy, aber das ist unsere Folklore.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel like there's cracks forming most recently. I mean, I've been complaining about the one presenters for years now, but I do feel like we're kind of seeing finally out loud. Right. Right. Like, or I could be a loser.

Who doesn't care about that sort of thing. And again, when I've spoken to very wealthy people, they don't understand why I don't want to be a billionaire.

Like, there's no... They can't comprehend why I wouldn't want to hoard all of my neighbor's wealth.

Too lazy for that, first of all.

I just want to be fine. And I want to be nice. And I want to help people. And I want to raise a normal person.

That's what that was all about. I do listen to almost exclusively rap music, so I'm not that woke.

Ja, ja.

Yeah.

What are you, an idiot? And also... Das Ideal von einem Billion Dollar zu wollen, ist das, worauf das ganze Land gebaut wurde. Und es durch Nepotismus zu bekommen.

Das war etwas, was ich früh in dieser Saison erwähnt habe. Wenn ich einen Lebenscoach habe, der kein zertifizierter Therapeut oder Doktor ist, möchte ich, dass ihr Leben perfekt ist. Aber perfekt für dich. Für mich, ja. Aber das existiert nicht. Diese Saison war wirklich interessant.

We did a whole episode about how many unemployed life coaches there are. Life coaches that have been recently fired from their jobs and they're like, you know what I'm going to do? Teach other people how to get jobs. Right.

For them.

Ja. Ja. Ja. I'm being part of my community and I'm helping women feel good about themselves. I think that's just as important as what the sucker is getting out of it.

Anything I want. Because I bought the show away from the giant corporations that were run by people who've never done anything in journalism or podcasting. And so it's a weekly now. It's not seasonal. I'm doing interviews and reporting on whatever I feel like.

Well, today's episode was about a case where a woman was, a young woman was put on a suicide hold, arrested and taken to a hospital for considering having an abortion. That's happening. Like thinking about having an abortion.

Her former friends that she had been a pro-life activist with when she was 15 years old.

Okay. Ja. Ja. Ja. Well, I mean, that's what they, you know what I mean? That's what they believe, though, is that they, you know, why wouldn't they have the very best doctors? They need to keep their kind alive.

That's how I closed the episode. I was just like, when you let your politics completely impact and erase your morals, what are you even doing? Why do you have an idea about who should be president if at the end of the day you don't care if... Right. Yeah.

Well, you're commodifying yourself.

But there's also a content creator or whatever.

I go on TikTok and sell one of those slicer things, the cheese grinder.

Same. And I want to have a, I mean, and I don't mind having a job. Like, I don't mind working.

Well, that's why I like bartending. I loved bartending. I was really good at it.

Yeah, I'm talking to people.

And then I get to show off how I can do one thing with my foot and one thing with my... Performative.

So this season we also did some follow-ups about the former people that were on about MLMs, folks who had been scammed. I'm talking to this woman, Dory, tomorrow, who, she's like the best kind of maniac. She believes that she's solved what Stonehenge was for.

And the Voynich Manuskript.

She's really smart, though. I think she has a great idea. How I would sum up the research she's done, and she's a lay person. She's not a historian or anything. Or an archaeologist. But I think she gives credit to how smart people have been since people have been people. Instead of being like, oh, it must have been hocus pocus and weird stuff.

She was like, no, I think it was a meat processing plant.

Ja, und sie hat Drehungen und alles. Das ist, wie es funktioniert.

Ja, es ist wirklich gut. Also, was auch immer ich interessiert bin.

Ja, seltsam. Es ist seltsam, dass sie es überhaupt sind.

Ich liebe es, wenn man sagt, dass wir in einer Fantasie leben. Ja. Und ich spreche nicht von online oder so. Aber wir leben in dieser Pretend-Welt, in der wir alle geboren wurden. Ich wurde geboren, um zu glauben, dass wenn ich hart gearbeitet habe und Effort verbracht habe, dass mein Leben in Ordnung wäre. Ich könnte vielleicht ein Haus haben, das ich besitze.

Oder ein Kind, das nicht verdammt ist. Oder, weißt du, und alles, was es wirklich brauchte, war mein Mindset. Like me putting my mind towards something. And the stories that I'm really drawn to are where that shows not to be true at all. Like that the powers that be have a lot more influence on what happens to each and every one of us.

And I know the Stonehenge thing seems like an outlier, but I do think it's important to recognize like people have always been smart.

Exactly. And so that interests me. I do like, you know, I'm not, the thing that I, I always have had an easier time saying what I'm not into. And that's also an Ira thing. He's like, if you can't figure out what you really want to do, you can totally, totally figure out what you don't want to do.

And I know that I don't want to do true crime. I don't want to talk exclusively about cults, although I have a few times. And this season we did get into one of these AA cults.

It's called Midtown. It's kind of your typical sex cult.

Yeah, by a bunch of normal people sitting in a room and being like, that's weird.

Well, male trolls ruin the internet. Yeah. Ja, aber wir, you know, just engaging and being like, ugh, this is not, we don't want here.

Sometimes, yeah.

But, no, but the cult thing, there are so many. Ja, klar. Mostly because of my vagina and my boobs. Like we can't sell ads on a podcast hosted by a woman. Oh really? Not a good podcast.

Ja, genau. Und ich mache das jedes Mal. Und deshalb muss ich aus diesem Habit raus. Aber dieses neue Format für den Show ist wirklich ein Experiment. Kann ich nur mich selbst sein und meine Fähigkeiten verwenden und gut vermischen und editieren und mit Leuten sprechen?

No, it's the first season.

This is kind of like a character study of the people that start and promote MLM. So it's a lot about like what kind of a person wants to start MLM.

Well, I'm glad you brought it to me. Yeah, you're going to like it, I think.

And then there's a lot of weird stuff about my life and childhood and everything.

Ja, es ist ein bisschen furchtbar manchmal. Es ist furchtbar. Look, I'm lonely.

They do.

They know the parts I told them.

And they were fine with that, so I'll. Sure. But I also get like so much hate and stuff, which is just funny. The hate that chicks get on.

Her voice is so annoying.

I can't stand her laugh.

Why does she think she's so smart? Yeah.

They think that that's how it works.

Ich meine, was ist das? Ich denke, es ist meistens Männer. Ich habe eine Tochter und sie war klein. Und das kam eigentlich aus den Mäusen ein paar Leute, die du kennst. Ja. Wenn mein Kind in den Kopf geklopft wird von einem riesigen John Deere-Toy von einem kleinen Jungen. Ja. Und die Väter würden sagen, Jungs werden Jungs sein. Das kinderliche Ding. Viele Jungs werden Jungs sein. Ja.

And she's not like wearing a dress or anything. She's good at soccer. But parents are still doing that to these little ones. I mean, they're like eight years old and they're being taught by their moms and dads that like, well, what are we going to do? And they put their hands up like, they're just probably going to rape somebody.

And that was really the intention.

But you're saying the word problems as if everyone agrees on what those problems are.

I get that.

Some people think that. Yeah. I had my girlfriend in high school, like my literal girlfriend in high school. Her father wrote a book when we were in high school called The Natural History of Rape.

Yeah, and like to confront that at 16 years old, that like this is what this person is actually really interested in, is like, how does it just keep happening?

You know, and like, what can we do about it? Nothing. It's just nature.

And any initiatives like DEI to change any of this stuff.

Civilization. Right, but civilization was also built on that sort of thing.

I don't go on shows very much.

Don't you feel good?

I feel like I had fun.

Ich habe es hier in Glendale. Ich habe es hier in Glendale. Ich habe ein paar Werte für das gewonnen. Ich habe mit den Royals gearbeitet. Wir können dazu sprechen. Du hast es gemacht? Ich bin die einzige Person, es gab einen letzten Artikel über sie, und ich war die einzige Person, die sagte, sie sind in Ordnung. Ja. Was auch immer. Richtig. Und es ging auf die Daily Mail. Ja.

Ich dachte, was ist mit dieser Frau? Richtig. Warum sieht sie nicht alle Probleme? Und ich dachte, sie sind reiche Leute, die in Montecito leben. Ja. Was erwartest du von ihnen?

Sie waren perfekt schön. Sie ist sehr schmerzhaft. Sie ist so wunderschön. Und du hast ihr Show produziert?

I was working there before they were figuring out what to do before they left Netflix. He had so many good ideas.

At their house in Montecito.

They had another team and then that team couldn't get anything done and then they were like, we need to bring in the big guns.

I was the big gun.

It was so sweet. They're so hot for each other, it's crazy. Like, they're like, you know when you see a couple next to each other and they're trying to be composed because there's a stranger in the room or whatever? Yeah. Oh, wirklich? Ja. Ja.

What did you do? They all had dead moms. Yeah. And I said, well, maybe it's because they all have dead moms. And then I was like... Oops. Oh, no, I forgot. You're also... Someone with a dead mom. He was totally gracious about it. Yeah, he's very charming. He's a complete weirdo who is, you know, who is a prince and also who, you know, the monarchy believes that they were like anointed by God.

So to grow up as a little cute little boy with a dead mom.

And then be the most famous person or one of the three most famous people.

Ich erinnere mich an das Gebäude in einem Mall in Tokio. Live auf ein paar... Warum warst du da?

Sieben.

Mein Vaters bester Freund lebte dort. In Tokio? Und wir gingen dort besuchen.

Ich war da ein paar Mal, aber das war mein erstes Mal.

We went on a book tour and we recorded an episode in every city and put that out.

Wonderful, like great numbers and we won a bunch of awards and stuff. Oh, oh, but my most, okay, so I'm back doing The Dream again, which is like a whole story. That's my show. But most recently before The Dream relaunched, we paired up with Bradley Cooper's production company, Leah Pictures, and we had signed on to produce Someone else's show and then they dropped out at the last minute.

But I was like, we already signed the contract and I need money. So how am I going to save this? And I pulled this idea out of my ass and they went for it. He was like, yeah, that sounds great. It is a non-narrated, fully documentary-style show where we feature one woman kind of audio diary style each episode.

That's it, yeah. And it's like all kinds of weird ladies that I love. And it's called Finally, a show about women that isn't just a thinly veiled aspirational nightmare.

I'm not worried about that. I was just happy that they let us get away with it.

I don't know how to do anything else, Mark. That's not true. I know how to do a lot of stuff. But this is what I feel. Are you feeling... Wenn es um Podcasting geht, fühle ich mich wie ein Harpsichord-Player, während die Pianos rausgingen.

I get that. I've spent 25 years honing this skill. Broadcast. Documentary audio projects. And now everyone has these pianos. And I'm so grateful anytime someone lets me still make my weird harpsichord music.

And everyone can have one.

Why did I learn the harpsichord?

We are certainly OGs, yes.