Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard - Armchair Anonymous: Cooking Disaster II

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us about a cooking disaster.Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new con...tent on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Anonymous. I'm Dax Shepard, and I'm joined by Randall Padman. Hello. Today we have cooking disaster stories. What do we say, warning alert? Trigger a warning. Oh, trigger? If you hate burning.
Starting point is 00:00:16 This is not the episode for you. Don't listen to this one. No, skip it. Please enjoy cooking disasters. Take them slow. I had a more. You got to know, I'm going to keep on shining. Hello.
Starting point is 00:00:47 Hi. Where are you? I think you may know the town that I'm from, Brevard, North Carolina, west of Asheville. Oh. Oh, I bet I've ridden through there. The land of waterfalls. Wait, is that where looking glass falls is?
Starting point is 00:01:00 Yep, sure is. About 10 minutes from where I'm at right now. Oh, lovely. We were just there. Yeah, you've given some good shoutouts to the area. We appreciate it. Okay, so you have a cooking disaster. story. I do. Yeah. So this happened about three years ago in March. Our daughter at the time was
Starting point is 00:01:17 turning three. And my wife was about eight months pregnant. And she was going through a big pancake phase. And so we thought we're going to throw her a pancake brunch. Nice. We'll invite some family and friends over, which seemed like a great idea. It was a great idea. She likes straight flapjacks or she likes chocolate chip. What was her jam? The weird thing is she doesn't like syrup. Still, we can't get her to eat syrup, She loves a pancake, chocolate chips or fruit. Keep her off the syrup. If she don't want to, that's great. It's her one excuse to be able to eat a sweet.
Starting point is 00:01:48 And she's like, nope. Oh, yeah. Day of, everything is going to plan. Pretty much everything's done. The family arrives, surprisingly, going off without a hitch. And can I ask quickly, like a mechanical question? Have you put a big flat top grilling surface on something? What are we cooking on?
Starting point is 00:02:03 Yeah, we're cooking on a griddle primarily. And then we're in our kitchen. So we've got a stove. And so I decided I'm going to do. some bacon and I'll cook it in a sheet pan sort of in bulk, which I wouldn't normally do. Being from the South, we make breakfast all the time. I grew up in a family where biscuits and gravy every weekend. Oh, yeah. Wow. Jealous. No problem with cooking a great breakfast. But on this day, obviously, there's more people showing up, probably about 20 people or so, kids, family. And so I thought,
Starting point is 00:02:30 okay, I'm going to put this bacon in a sheet pan and cook it in bulk. And that'll be the quickest way to get the job done. How much bacon are we talking in pounds? Probably two pounds, three pounds, maybe, not a crazy amount, but enough to fill probably two sheet pans. We're almost to the point of everybody having their brunch, sheet and pancakes. The bacon is the last thing to kind of come out of the oven. And around that time, the family shows up, kids are playing. It's a little bit of a compact kitchen. So, you know, my mother and mother-in-law are in the kitchen. Of course, they're like, what can we do to help? Where does this go? Where does that go? And it just gets a little chaotic around family as it tends to do. So I go to reach for the bacon, open the oven. And I guess I'm just so
Starting point is 00:03:08 focused. I pull it out probably a little quicker than I should and just ever so slightly tilted it back towards me. Oh. Entire pan of bacon grease spills down my forearm. Oh. Fuck, I can feel that. Obviously, there's the initial shock reaction. Drop the pan immediately.
Starting point is 00:03:29 Oh. Kind of freak out a little bit. There actually wasn't a ton of pain, which is also maybe a little scarier than, you know, you don't really know what you've done in the moment. I rush to the sink, start to rinse my arm off. And this is where my wife swoops in to save the day. She's a nurse comes in handy on a lot of occasions. And so, yeah, she helps me get this thing washed off.
Starting point is 00:03:48 And I think at the moment, I'm trying to just keep as calm as possible. You know, there's kids around. I don't want to freak my daughter out. And it sort of becomes evident what I've done. Almost immediately, my arm starts to like blister and bubble up. By this time, my daughter finds out. And, of course, she, like, runs over. And, I mean, she's going to have to be in health care of like her.
Starting point is 00:04:07 mom because she's like immediately interested. Not scared at all, not concerned. Yeah. Just like wants to know what's going on. And she also shifts into take care of dad mode. Oh, so sweet. It is. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:20 If you had a boy here, he would have been like, where's my baseball back? He would have run his little trucks over your arm. Totally. I think Rob may have sent you a photo. Oh, he did. He did. Let's see. We always wait.
Starting point is 00:04:33 He said, turn. Yeah, he wants me to do a full like a fly. Oh. Oh, that's, oh my God. The first photo is where my arm sort of bubbled up immediately. We got it patched and taken care of essentially for the weekend until I could get to the doctor. Fortunately, the surgeon that works in our practice was there on that Monday or Tuesday and just had to scrape off the whole thing. Oh.
Starting point is 00:05:02 It wasn't incredibly painful until that moment. And that's sort of when it like really got real, you know. Can I ask why they have to scrape it off? That's a terrible question for me to answer. Maybe to just clean it and put an ointment on there or something. I think that's essentially yet. I'm really sad that the listener can't see it because what's so freaky about it and I've never seen a burn like this, the burn has the drip marks. It looks like liquid, the burn.
Starting point is 00:05:26 You see this money on the right? I do. Wow. It came up my wrist and wrapped around the wrist there around the thumb. Does you have a scar? Shockingly, it held up really well. I'll credit my wife for jumping into action quickly. We probably have more medical supplies around the house than the typical household, thankfully.
Starting point is 00:05:46 And she just got it patched up quick. And I was pretty religious about putting ointment on it for six weeks. Of course, my daughter wanted to help with that as well. So I've got a nice reminder every day to take care of your arm, daddy. Oh, my. That's rough. For the listener, if you saw this, you would know to never cook bacon ever again. Yeah, it was a little while before I decided to give that a go.
Starting point is 00:06:12 I still haven't cooked bacon in a sheet pan. I mean, how is one supposed to remove that sheet pan with all that hot grease underneath? Were you wearing oven mats? I had a towel in my hand, which is par for the course. I'm kind of act first, think second kind of guy, unfortunately. Oh, I'm so lazy. I've used like paper towel. I can get it out in time before that cooks through.
Starting point is 00:06:30 A dish towel is what the chef's do. they don't use oven mitts, but you have to really be a chef and you have to be confident, your skills. You do. I use oven mitts. You do. But you also like the decor of the oven mitts. Yeah, they're cute.
Starting point is 00:06:45 The thing I live in the most fear of in these burn situations is when you hear people where the skin just rolls off. Yeah. Yeah, I was a little nervous. That was what I was in for. Yeah. There's a few seconds that pass between when it happens and when you start to realize what you've actually done.
Starting point is 00:07:00 I mean, it was rough, but it thankfully was not. not that sort of situation. This is a PSA because I would definitely try that. Like if I didn't hear the end of the story, I'd be like, oh, that's a hack, cook the bacon in the oven. Exactly. No, yeah, don't do it. And you get it all done.
Starting point is 00:07:13 I was even thinking why you're telling us like, oh, I'd even had a grate. I would add a little grate between the cookie sheet and the bacon so that it wouldn't be sitting in the oil. I think I did have a grate on the pan, which I thought, that's a great idea. But obviously, the grease is still in the pan. Yeah. It sure is. Oh, boy, oh boy.
Starting point is 00:07:29 Slowly and carefully remove and make sure it's level. So how old's baby now? She's almost six and baby number two, almost three. Oh, sweet. Congratulations. Another girl? Two girls. We wouldn't have it any other way.
Starting point is 00:07:45 Now go get you a vasectomy because you don't want three. Yeah, already take you care of. Okay, good job. Just pour a little hot grease down there. That could also. Might do the trick as well. Let's do with prompt accidental vasectomy. Ooh.
Starting point is 00:08:00 Unauthorized voicectomies. Not contribute to that. Well, thanks for sharing. Yeah, Seth. It's lovely meeting you. This is great. Thank you guys so much. Would you mind if I let my wife come say?
Starting point is 00:08:14 We'd love to meet your wife. The nurse, we love nurses. We're going to ask her some medical questions. Hello. Hi. Oh, I'd be delighted if you were the nurse that walked in the room. Look how cheery she looks. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:26 I have a question. Do you think I could maybe get my ears reappears? even though it's gone rancid twice. It doesn't seem like a smart news. Oh, man. I would love to say yes as a girl. I'm like, heck yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:41 You know, I trust you. What's your name? My name is Casey. Casey, you know the old adage, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice. We're already at the shame on me part. The third would be like, shame, I'm a fucking dumb, dumb. No, that's like third would be shame on Casey. That's why I asked.
Starting point is 00:08:57 Well, I mean, Dax has already had to operate once. Once or twice. Have I done two? Well, finger, ear. Always jewelry related. Yeah. How long have you been nursing? It would be almost 13 years.
Starting point is 00:09:09 You're the guys are the best. Thanks. Well, I think one thing, Seth forgot to mention was whenever the grease thing happened, you know, he's being very stoic. He's fine. He's fine. He's fine. And I'll look over at him and he starts to turn that white, yellow color.
Starting point is 00:09:24 And I was like, no, you need to sit down. He's like, I'm fine. I was like, sit down and eat something. I probably handed him a pancake. that point. Smart. Good job. I don't need to deal with a head injury. I already have like 20 people at the house and here we are with this pretty severe burn and let's pass out on top of all of it. Yeah. What if you pass out onto the sheep pan? Oh my God,
Starting point is 00:09:45 face first. Oh my gosh. That was like a Mr. Bean movie or something. Oh, wow. Well, thank you guys. It's a lovely meeting you. Thanks. And I think we need to shout out Angie to Angie's Sets college friend who got us as arm cherries. Oh, shout out. Oh, you're wearing a beautiful piece of merch. He got me. That's for Christmas. I love it. Oh, good job, Seth. I went to get him a shirt and went on the website and that's actually where we saw the props. I was like, this is perfect. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Two birds. We're out of shirts, unfortunately, hit that point, but it's okay. I got one since all matters. We were sold out of shirts. Yeah, we sold out. Oh, my God. But we might re-up, so we'll keep you guys updated.
Starting point is 00:10:25 What do you mean? We might. We must. Okay. We're going to re-out. We're going to sidebar about this. All right. Lovely meeting you guys. Bye. Bye. Bye, guys. Do you think it's sad? Like, they hand over their headphones to their partner. And then they just have to sit and they, like, don't know what is being said. And it's like, I'm left out now. I do think that. I don't want to get in another round of technical difficulties. But I almost want to say, like, just pull your headphones out so that you guys can now just chat. And we can all be in this together.
Starting point is 00:10:54 Yeah, but we don't want to do it. that. We like when people are left out. Something to work through. It's too dangerous. Sarah, smile a while for me, Sarah. If you want to be free, all you got to do is say so. How annoyed are you or how much do you love Sarah's smile? Honestly, I've never heard that one before. A haul and oats? I think you have. Probably. It's probably just not a good rendition that Dax is doing. That is definitely the case. I didn't know what you were singing.
Starting point is 00:11:31 Sarah, smile. Smile. Won't you smile a while for me, Sarah? I think it's because there's so much other band stuff going on in that. Accompanion. I was in that movie in that song. Acapella's tough. Well, especially when you're not a good singer.
Starting point is 00:11:44 Sarah, where are you? I am in the McDonald's garbage can. I am in London, Ontario. Oh, my God. Yay! I literally was like, you're in a gar. garbage can right now at McDonald's, what is happening? It's really funny you to bring that up, Sarah, because I was just at my friend Kevin Ziegers
Starting point is 00:12:02 house yesterday. And he grew up about 10 minutes, I think, east of London. And his folks were in town for the holidays. And I got to tell him how I used to expel my rubbish over there. Wow. And he was saying that London is a wild place. When you're young and you go downtown, you can have a real raucous time. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:20 I went to university here and can confirm. Fun. So you have a cooking disaster? Yes. So this would have been in the summer of 2013. I was dating my now husband and boyfriend. And we were about three hours apart. He was close to London and I was living in Toronto.
Starting point is 00:12:38 So I was going to visit him for the weekend. He was living with his parents. His dad was going to do a dinner. All his siblings were going to be there. How long had you been dating? About eight months. So this is a high stakes meeting. This is the time for you to put your best foot forward.
Starting point is 00:12:51 100%. So the dad's making dinner. And I'm like, well, we should do dessert. And so my husband says, let's make lemon meringue pie. That's like a real specific suggestion, but sure. He just had a craving. No, it's actually his favorite dessert, given the choice that's what he picks, which seems insane to me, but to each their own. So we're newly enough into this relationship that I just go along with it.
Starting point is 00:13:16 Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's make lemon meringue pie. I hate lemon meringue pie, but let's do it. Early dating so misleading. I know. You know, you wake up like two years later and you're like, lemon meringue pie and you're like, fuck that.
Starting point is 00:13:28 Yeah, we're married now. How long do you carry it along? Yeah, that's insane. I'm not participating in that. So we go out, we get all the things to make this pie. I find my mother-in-law's pie plate, we're using the like refrigerated crust that you just roll out. We're preheating the oven in this like 100-year-old farmhouse that doesn't have central air conditioning. So we've got the oven going.
Starting point is 00:13:48 It's really hot in the kitchen. And I'm like, no problem. Let's turn on the ceiling fan. up to this point in my life, I've never operated a ceiling fan. So I reach up to pull the cord and the whole light fixture comes down. Oh, my God. Oh, Jesus. On your head?
Starting point is 00:14:02 That's so scary. It landed on the pie plate and just sort of like bounced off of it. How big is this ceiling fan? Just the light fixture in the center came down from the fan. Okay, not the fan blades. No. So just the light fixture part came down and hit the pie plate vicinity. Nothing broke.
Starting point is 00:14:20 We put the light fixture back up. carry on making the pie. And there's nothing else memorable that happened during that dinner until we served the pie. Uh-oh. I have a terrible. Me too. I have a bad idea. So I'm serving the pie.
Starting point is 00:14:49 This is it. This is the first time I've made anything for this family to consume. Quick question. How did it look visually? Did you guys feel like you nailed it? The pie looked great. Yeah, you're like, fuck yeah. Time to show off.
Starting point is 00:15:01 Yeah. I've made a lemon meringue pie when I really should have been making a chocolate chip. cookies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So serving the pie, one piece, two piece. I get to the third piece, and the pie does the thing where it flops over onto its side. And my mother and law says, it's really weird that it burnt like that. And I'm like, what? So I look at it and I'm like, oh, that is weird that it burnt because the bottom of the pie is speckled with burnt dots. And so I lift them the whole pie plate. And I look and I'm like, oh, the whole pie is speckled with these burnt dots. And then I look a little bit closer. And it's,
Starting point is 00:15:34 Dead bugs. No! No! Hold on. Hold on. That's better. I didn't know. You were ill prepared.
Starting point is 00:15:44 You were expecting glass, right? Yes. Me too. But this is so preferred, but not for you? No, I'd rather. You'd rather eat glass than cooked bugs? Dead bugs all in your... Protein.
Starting point is 00:15:56 No. Not sharp. No. This is a win. I think given the situation, that makes sense. So that thing had so many bugs in it probably. as my pictures do and it just came down and we didn't check. And it's so much that they could see them all scattered about.
Starting point is 00:16:13 And people had already eaten other three pieces? My youngest brother-in-law, as youngest brother-in-law's do, had inhaled his piece of pie. Yeah. But he still maintains to this day that it was a great pie. Yeah, sure. I can't imagine this would diminish the taste at all. I would never be able to live knowing I ate all those bugs. I'd be like serve it up.
Starting point is 00:16:35 They're cooked. Ew. Now, did you think when you saw and you were like, oh, my God, it's full of bugs that I should just pretend. Oh, I think I spattered some Crisco at the bottom. Oh, you're so nice and honest. You're such a good arm cherry. I think I would have panicked in the moment and been like, oh, no, you know what? The light fell.
Starting point is 00:16:56 I'm nervous there was glass. Let's not eat it. But I knew that there wasn't glass. Bugs were so far away in my mind. Yeah. The glasses are red herring. That's how it works. You're like so worried about an intestinal.
Starting point is 00:17:08 I would just be for some reason so much more embarrassed to serve a pie with bugs in it than a pie with glass in it. Really? Yeah. Even though one is potentially life-threatening. Yeah. Oh. I have to imagine there's someone like me at this party that's like, give me a piece. No.
Starting point is 00:17:24 I think they were just trying to follow my lead of like, oh my God, if we can't eat this pie, there's bugs in this pie. Forget it. Never mind. We should all go home. Bug pie. Oh, my God. It's so disgusting. My mother-in-law asked me, I made pumpkin cookies about a year ago, and she asked me for the recipe.
Starting point is 00:17:41 For the first time she'd ever asked me for the recipe I ever made for anything, and I was like, I've done it. It took me 12 years, but here we are. That's great. Did you add some bugs? I was going to say you should have put random insects, presumably mosquitoes and moths. Ew, mosquitoes. Don't listen, Monica, but the reason I knew it was bugs is because I saw a wing. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 00:18:03 I hate the story. It's so funny. I don't mind. I know. I hate bugs and maggots. This is kind of like maggots everywhere. But you got married and everything worked out. We have two kids.
Starting point is 00:18:20 No bugs are eaten in our household. Actually, that's not true. My oldest eats ants and there's nothing I can do about it. Oh, my God. Is that a thing? Again, we're omnivores. We're totally fine and equipped to eat ants. I don't want to eat them.
Starting point is 00:18:33 You ever watch it, Chimpy? seat the ants or termites out of the line with a stick. I attempt to stop her, but she's three years old, so I don't stand a chance. You should do real ants on a log. Do you guys do ants on a log up in Canada? The celery and the peanut butter and could be raisins, but in this case? Okay. Can I just do a quick shout out to my two coworkers?
Starting point is 00:18:52 So my coworker Caroline got me into armchair expert, and my coworker John has been along on the ride as we both discovered this podcast. Well, big thanks to her. She tripled our listenership in Ontario. Exactly. Good job. Oh, well, Sarah, so nice to meet you. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:19:08 So nice to meet you, too. And I promise, next time I drive through London, there will be no littering because I know better now. All right. Bye. Bye. I sure love meeting these arm juries. Here's Emma. I wish Allison Roman would have called in.
Starting point is 00:19:24 I wish our Emma was submitting. She never has cooking disasters. She cooks perfectly. Hi. Can you hear us? Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yeah, we got you.
Starting point is 00:19:37 Now, did you have fun communicating with Emma as Emma? Yes, I did, actually. Where are you? You seem like a city girl. Just right away, I'm going to say that. I'm in Honolulu, Hawaii. Oh, that's a city. How many people live in Honolulu?
Starting point is 00:19:50 I believe on Island, it's like a million people. And then in the whole state, it's like 1.3. Last I checked. Wow. Okay. Like 90% of the Hawaiians are living on. I know you guys have vacation here a couple of times. Love it. One of the best four seasons around. Yeah. It's so good. Have you been to that little restaurant with the Tiki torches that are burning? It's Italian. It's like outside. Yes, I have. I don't remember the name, but it's really good. And the four seasons on the Big Island and Kona is also really awesome. I keep hearing that maybe now that we're talking about it, they'll invite us. I think that might be the one that like charged me. I think you're talking about the Rosewood. Oh, you're right. You're absolutely right. You're right. Thank you for saving the four.
Starting point is 00:20:29 This March. You know how I feel. And are you from there or did you move there? Born and raised in Honolulu. Yes. I've lived other places. But my whole family's here. My husband's here. My husband's here. So it just makes sense to be here right now. Okay. Nice. Okay. So you have a cooking disaster story. So this story took place back in 2021 when my husband and I had just had our first baby girl. She was about six weeks old. Oh, teeny. She was one of those babies, though, that didn't like to sleep. So we were really sleep deprived. And my husband was drinking coffee like a madman. So the cooking disaster takes place in the kitchen.
Starting point is 00:21:08 I decided to make him coffee. And at the time, we were using a French press. Are you familiar with like how a French press would work? We are, but I think we should say for the listener, how it works. Okay. So a French press is like a glass beaker of sorts and it has a little handle. And you put ground coffee and you put boiling hot water into the French press. and then it has a cover that you put on top of that boiling water with like a plunger on top.
Starting point is 00:21:34 The beaker's probably about maybe eight inches and then the plunger goes up maybe another six to eight inches. And you leave it unplunged while the coffee steeps and you plunge it when you're ready to drink that coffee. Yeah, it's got a screen filter on the top. So as it goes down, it gets rid of all the grounds and leaves the yummy coffee. Exactly. So I poured from the kettle, the boiling hot water into the coffee. And then that copy made its way over to we had at the time in the house we were living in this little breakfast nook. And it was sitting on top of the table.
Starting point is 00:22:04 I'm scared. You're about to hear some questionable parenting decisions, but I just want to tell you we were so deprived. Of course. We've learned our lessons. So that's just a little disclaimer. You had been a parent for all of 42 days. Yeah. The baby was six weeks old.
Starting point is 00:22:20 Yeah. Why do they let people just be parents with no training? Pretty great. I don't know. It was too soon. us. My daughter used to sit on this little baby lounger. I won't say the brand, but it was like this little baby lounger pillow. And I went to go hand the baby on the baby lounger pillow, which you're not supposed to do. And then I handed her to my husband who was going to put her down next to him on this nice, thick breakfast nook bench that we had. As I was doing that, the bottom of the pillow, the top of the French press plunger. Oh, oh. You know, over a foot tall.
Starting point is 00:22:58 And the entire thing knocked over toward my husband, glass shattered with water, coffee grounds everywhere. Because my husband's like six feet tall, it landed right onto his thigh. Oh, five. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Wait, wait, I missed the third thing. Was it balls?
Starting point is 00:23:19 Balls. Yeah. Oh, great, great. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Listen, we have photos. And if we have a picture of your husband's burnt balls, I'm going to be. be thrilled. Okay, so I didn't know the legality of sending that. I did send a picture to Emma,
Starting point is 00:23:33 who I think forwarded to Rob. It's hiding his penis and balls, but you can see the entire thing. Can we look at? Before we look, so this big ruckus happens, what I'm immediately afraid of is like, we don't drop the baby because we've knocked something over. Okay, he didn't drop the baby, which I think is the only thing we didn't write in the story. Wow, he's a good dad. But the baby, unfortunately also got splashed with water. Okay. Oh, boiling water. And the baby is screaming louder than I've ever heard a baby scream in my life. My husband put her down. He ran to the shower. Luckily, he knew that you're not really supposed to put like ice water on a burn. You're supposed to put lukewarm water. So he went
Starting point is 00:24:14 into the shower, put the shower on lukewarm and he was just standing there. The baby is screaming and I'm obviously freaking out. Yeah. And there's broken glass everywhere. broken glass everywhere, as Monica would say, it was scatty wampus. You have catchphrases, Monica. No, no, you know what's so funny. I love that that's become mine because I got that from you. Yeah, and I got it from a gal at the groundlings. Because really the word is cattywampus.
Starting point is 00:24:37 Well, but Jack says scatty. Now I do and now it's mine. My life mission has been to replace catty wampus with scatty. It's working. It's slowly working. And you're not wearing shoes, right? It's in the morning. Not wearing shoes.
Starting point is 00:24:50 Luckily, I'm the only one who somehow came unscathed, but emotionally, Because this baby was so sad. But luckily, she was fine. Ultimately, her burns were super, super minor, and she was back in action one day. But my husband was not. So I went into the shower to take a look at him, and it was like his skin was gone. No. The top layers of the skin had just shriveled up and disappeared, and it was just red.
Starting point is 00:25:18 Ew. Burger. Beefy burger. Yeah. You can't. look at the picture whenever you want. Okay, let's do it. God, I'm bummed that there is one of the penis that I'm missing.
Starting point is 00:25:28 Ew. Holy fuck. Okay. I know I bring this up way too often, but that great documentary, hot coffee. Yeah. You think like, oh, why this woman sue over nothing? And this is what her thighs looked like. This is horrific.
Starting point is 00:25:43 Gang. It's his entire thigh. It's like kneed. Well, cock and balls. Oh my God. So his penis looked like that. Luckily, well, I don't know if it's luckily. The majority of the burn, the worst part of the burn was on his thigh.
Starting point is 00:25:56 But it was also the other areas, which I can imagine felt terrible. Oh, my God. It's also his whole thigh. It's not just like a small part. It's the whole thing. No, if I saw this without you telling me what had happened, my guess would be that you had made a bucket of hot coffee. You know, like a couple of gallons. And you literally just threw it on him.
Starting point is 00:26:19 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It didn't miss him at all. It was so bad. Okay, now this is inappropriate, but it's crossing my mind because it just happened to me. I had this catheter in, and I was like so nervous I would get an erection over the three days that I had the catheter. Like, I didn't know what was going to happen if that happened.
Starting point is 00:26:35 Was he so paranoid he would get an erection with all that burnt skin? I didn't ask that, but I think he was so traumatized. I don't think that happened. He wasn't horny. Well, not obviously that evening, but the next day. But if you're in so much pain. You'd hope. Maybe he blamed her.
Starting point is 00:26:51 And so. Oh, resentful. enough. He's mad at her long enough for it to heal. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So the story's not over. Well,
Starting point is 00:27:00 since the baby was still crying, I called my mother-in-law who lives really close. She zoomed over and she took him to the burn unit, the only burn unit on our island, which was smart of her to do. And he went into the emergency room. I very naively thought that he'd be back the same day. I thought that they would put some bass of tracing on it,
Starting point is 00:27:18 wrap it up in gauze, and that he would come home. But that quickly became clear. that that was not going to happen. They admitted him to the hospital for two reasons. He had second-degree burns, which are the most painful because, you know, in the case of third-degree burns, it actually burns the nerve cells and kills the nerve cells, and you don't feel it as much.
Starting point is 00:27:38 Second-degree burns is like the burn is so bad, but you can still feel it. They hooked him up to an IV drip of fentanyl and morphine. No boners now. I was like, this guy's not going to be trying to come home anytime soon. No, no, no. He's got a six-week-old baby and all he's like fucking take your time, y'all. Secondly, they were scared of infection because it was so large that if not cleaned properly every single day, that could be a really bad infection.
Starting point is 00:28:09 Go visit him at the hospital after one day, two days, three days. We've been together for like 15 years. There's no jealousy left in our relationship. But when you go and your six weeks postpart. your hormones are not balanced. He would be being sponge-bate by like two nurses who left at the desk graduated from nurses. So an erection is in danger.
Starting point is 00:28:33 You thought it was going to be an easy-p-easy. You're right. I didn't see one. It was like day five, day six, and he was finally healing enough where we thought that he could come home. But unfortunately, he got addicted to the fentanyl and morphine drip.
Starting point is 00:28:51 Stop. What? He needed to slowly wean him off in order for them to feel like he could come home and not have withdrawals. Holy shit. This is a disaster. It was such a disaster. They would wean him off slowly and he was having full withdrawal syndromes.
Starting point is 00:29:09 He was waking up in puddles of sweat. After about eight days, they finally discharged him. Oh. To come home. I got like a $10,000 hospital bill, and that would be last time we ever used to French press. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Peace out French press. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:29:30 Wow. This was a full-blown disaster. Wow, wow, wow, wow. You know what's great is I'm glad you told the end of the story because it's like, when you tell me he got hooked up to the fentanyl and morphine. I'm like, hmm, that sounds nice. I know everyone's like, yeah. But then I'm reminded like, oh, right, that detox. It ain't worth it.
Starting point is 00:29:43 He still had quite a bit of recovery even when he moved home or when he moved home. When he returned from vacation. Oh, my God. But he didn't have to have a skin graph or anything. That's a blessing. And honestly, it looks perfect now. He made a full recovery. That was five years ago now.
Starting point is 00:30:00 We're about to have our third baby. Oh, my gosh. You won't stop. That's great. After this, we'll stop. Okay, okay. It's time for him to return to that hospital and get a little snip, snip. Well, no, we're going to do a prompt about accidental vasectomies.
Starting point is 00:30:14 So, like, just see what happened. This could have been an accident. If it had gone up a little higher. Yeah, whatever they cut in my testicles, which is simple, they cut one thing. Yeah. And then you're good. Your Vastepern. No.
Starting point is 00:30:28 Oh. That's like your whole. Okay, whatever. Whatever. In theory, you could burn through that. Yeah, you could cauterize it. Is he a handsome man? He's so gorgeous.
Starting point is 00:30:37 Yes, he is. Yeah, I had a hunch. You guys are such a pretty couple. Yeah, you're a hot couple. Well, they're a hot couple. And a pretty couple. Yes, and a pretty couple. And a hot couple.
Starting point is 00:30:46 Yeah, yeah. Well, they're a hot coffee couple. Hot coffee. Well, this was fun. Thank you. For us and not him. Oh, well, of course. We survived and don't ever make the mistakes we made.
Starting point is 00:30:57 Cautionary tale. If only we could sue McDonald's. I know. Get a couple mill. Sure. That would help things out, especially that $10,000 bill. I'm still an advocate for the French press. I generally only get it when I'm at a hotel.
Starting point is 00:31:09 But if they offer it, I like it. Wait. When we were in India, remember you ordered a French press like eight times a because the coffee there's different types of coffee there I guess like you just wanted a French press so you would always call to the front and say can I get a French press literally every 14 minutes because I'm going to be honest the regular drip brew coffee was not choice I don't know what the methodology was different somehow it didn't taste the same for me and you know what else happened to defend myself the first hotel we were at had a French press I know and I was like oh this is probably
Starting point is 00:31:46 the Indian way. It makes sense. I think the French press is English. I don't know. You probably got stuck with that. It sounds French. Of course it's not English. It'd be called an English press. Exactly. Anywho. Oh, Brit Press. Boy, I really enjoyed talking to you. This was fun. Oh, this was so fun. Thank you so much for talking to me today. My due date is in a few days. So I'm glad I went to labor and then I couldn't tell you the story. Wait, is it inappropriate for me to ask you a stand up because you do not Look, pregnant. Do you have a big belly? Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:18 Let me see here. Okay, there it is. Well, wishing you a very easy labor. I just want to thank you for doing what you guys do. I think you're changing lives with your vulnerability and how much you share and how much you just keep it real. Thank you, Emma. Have a good rest of your day. All right.
Starting point is 00:32:37 Take care. Bye. Bye. You have my favorite shirt on. Really great. Stay Sean. Jen, where are you? I'm in the Bay Area.
Starting point is 00:33:02 I'm like 25 minutes outside of San Francisco. But I grew up in Burbank. Oh, down the street. How did you end up there? I moved up here for college and had every intention of going back to L.A. and then got a job and met my husband. And I was like, I guess I'm staying. So here we are 22 years later.
Starting point is 00:33:23 Did you go to Don Cucos? Girl, you know my day. Oh, I love Don Cucos. I want it right now. What's Don Cucos? Mexican restaurant in Burbank. Oh, in Burbank. So good.
Starting point is 00:33:33 I think there's like another location now, but they used to have this like really good bean dip. Monica, did you ever have it? No. I know exactly what you guys are talking about. It's right by Bob's. Yes, near Bob's. Yes. I don't think they have it anymore.
Starting point is 00:33:45 We were in L.A. last year and went there to get it because I like hyped it up to my kids. They didn't have it. Oh, no. Sad. What line of work are you in up there? Is it tech related? I am a dance teacher and a dancer. I run a program and have a small dance company.
Starting point is 00:33:59 Amazing. Okay. So you have a cooking disaster story. I have several, but this is the one I chose because it's the gnarliest and I had photos to back it up. So I am a little bit of a plus in the kitchen. Counterintuitive because you're a dancer, I would think great balance and agility. On stage, in the studio, no problem. In the real world and life, not so much.
Starting point is 00:34:21 Have you thought about hanging a dance bar in your kitchen that might round you? Well, during the pandemic, when I was teaching online, my countertop was my dance bar and the side of my couch. So we've made it all west of this year. So yeah, it happens May 5th, so Cinco de Mayo 2020. So it happened in this house downstairs. It was beginning of COVID, no masks, no vaccines. I think California the whole was maybe still on lockdown. Like nobody knew what the fuck is going on.
Starting point is 00:34:48 So I was like, let me be the cool mom, which I'm not, and have like a big Cinco de Mayo dinner. I was going to make toastadas and do all the things. Have fun. Don Cucco. I just should have been like, you know what? Forget it. We're ordering pizza.
Starting point is 00:35:01 But I'm in the kitchen. Everything's fine. My husband and I are in there, and I don't even know how it happened. I pick up a bowl that had corn in it to, like, move it to the other counter so I could do stuff. And in the blank of an eye, the bowl goes flying up in the air, comes down, smacks our counter, shatters. So there's glass everywhere, there's corn everywhere. Two seconds later, I look, and there's blood everywhere. But I'm not registering that it's my house.
Starting point is 00:35:31 I was. Yeah. I'm totally in shock. You're like, oh, this corn was full of blood. I look, and in my wrist is a fear arrowhead-shaped piece of the bowl kicking straight up. Oh, my God. A shard. I'm in shock.
Starting point is 00:35:45 My husband's like, oh, fuck. And I don't even think. I just yank it out. Oh. Not good. You're not supposed to do that, I don't think. You're not. It was already bleeding, and then it was, like, bleeding.
Starting point is 00:35:57 No. Would we use the verb spurting? Oh. Yeah. She's doing a. spurting move. It was like down the counter on my clothes. So I pull it out.
Starting point is 00:36:07 The pain starts to set in and my husband like grabs my arm, puts it under the faucet. And there's other like pieces of bowl in my wrist. So we're like rinsing it out. I'm screaming at this point. I think I said every expletive there is. My almost six year old comes in. He starts hysterically crying because I'm crying. So my 10 year old comes like everybody's crying and screaming.
Starting point is 00:36:31 yelling and the dog's trying to like eat fucking corn and a bowl. And glass. Glass. Yeah. He's rinsing out my wrist. Finally get it sort of cleared. And you guys, you could see my tendon. No.
Starting point is 00:36:43 Yeah. We have a picture of it. I can't wait to see her. I don't. I don't want to see it. I don't. So I don't have a picture of that one, but the pictures I did send in are still gross. So Monica, buckle up.
Starting point is 00:36:54 But I didn't think to take a picture then because I was just like, oh shit. So we see the tendon. And I'm like. This is fine. Everything's fine. We're going to be fine. So my husband's getting like every rag, banded. I'm bleeding through everything. And he's like, you need to go to the hospital. I was like, no, I'm fine. You know, it's COVID. You can't even just walk into the doctors or the urgent care. I don't want to bring my kids. I can't drive myself. And we went back and forth for like 20 minutes. I'm losing all this blood. We've gone through our whole emergency kit with like all the gauze, everything. And so he's like, no, you need to go. So I call my friend thinking she's going to be on my side and be like, girl, you're fine. Stay home. And I was like, here's what happened. She's like, you're an idiot. I'm coming to pick you up.
Starting point is 00:37:35 I'm like, okay. So she pulled up. Now, you guys, we had no mask, nothing. I hadn't seen her. We put on safety goggles from her woodshops. Painting her mask, bandanas. I think she has a gardening gloves on. And I had a Potheteria lunch lady plastic gloves on because it's all I could get over the bandages.
Starting point is 00:37:56 I had to call urgent care first and be like, can I come in? What's the protocol? So I come in, and I'm like, bleeding everywhere. And I'm like, here, let me take your temperature. Here, change her mask. Here, stand outside. I'm like, can I get some fucking stitches, please? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:09 Finally, I get in to see the doctor and it was still wrap, so she hadn't been it yet. But she asked me what happened. And she's like, oh, this is the fifth kitchen accident I've seen this week. Oh, COVID. People are cooking. So she comes over and takes it all off and it starts gushing bloods. Her face said everything. And she's like, okay, it's really deep.
Starting point is 00:38:28 I'm not sure I'm going to be able to close this. You might have to go to the hospital. And I was like, no, we got to figure this out. She goes, well, you were less than a quarter inch from nicking your artery. So she tried to stitch me up, but it was so deep that the stitches just wouldn't work. So she finally gets, I don't know, some like heavy duty stitches, gets him in, finally stitches it up. And she's like, okay, you have to keep your arm like this for basically the next three days.
Starting point is 00:38:54 So I have to sleep with my arm like this. I can't lift my kids. I can't do anything. It's just excruciating pain. I'm bleeding through bandages for days. Oh, wow. So she's like, come back in two weeks. It'll be fine.
Starting point is 00:39:07 Two weeks. I know. I know. Either you'll be alive or dead. Yeah. So I come back and I like knew something was up. It was hurting. Oh.
Starting point is 00:39:18 And she's like, okay, it's not closed. And it's maybe getting infected, but I can't take the stitches out. Cleans it up, wraps me back up. And then she's like, you need to go see an orthoped. wrist surgeon. I go to the orthopedist and he's like, we need to operate today. Oh my God. No. And so we go back and forth and I'm like, I'll call you tomorrow if I want to have surgery. I leave. I ultimately don't end up having surgery. I have friends who are a PT and an OT and the OT specializes in hands. So he was helping me rehab it. But I had to wait another couple weeks to come back to get the stitches out.
Starting point is 00:39:52 At this point, they've been in longer than they should have. I think they were in for five weeks total or something by going somehow. I didn't even know this was medically possible. My skin had grown over the stitches. Oh, sure. Yeah. And my skin turned to like cement. It was the weirdest,
Starting point is 00:40:12 grossest thing. There's a picture. So she's like, okay, I have to cut them out. We got to take them out. It was excruciating because the stitches at that point, they were like sticks. So they just kept snapping every time she was cutting them. It's not even fully closed, she's like, you can't keep these in.
Starting point is 00:40:29 She finally gets them all out. And she said, I don't think you're going to get 100% mobility and strength back. I was like, great. Okay. Fantastic. So go home. It's healing. I'm doing the rehab exercises.
Starting point is 00:40:45 And it took probably another three months for the pain to go away and be able to, like, close my hand. I've never gotten 100% strength or mobility back. Wow. No. The star, which is pretty small. You can't even, like, see it anymore, but the area around it is, like, numb and tingly at the same time. I screwed up all the nerves in there. It was really bad.
Starting point is 00:41:07 And that was my kitchen disaster. Oh, my God. Okay. So now we're going to look at the photos. Oh. Ew. Ew. Ew.
Starting point is 00:41:15 Yeah. Oh. Well, that one looks like a smiley face. But it's still really bad. Oh, yeah. Here's you guys in your ridiculous outfits. You definitely look like you're on your way to paint a house. The wrist for some reason really makes me feel.
Starting point is 00:41:28 I really like... Hebe jeeps? Hebees. It was very traumatic for my children. And I'm careful in the kitchen, but I've had like five other accidents since. I'm going to ask a crazy follow-up question. Were you on your period? When I did it?
Starting point is 00:41:44 Yeah. I don't know. Because my wife claims when she's on her period, she has something called energy hands. And it's things just fly up into the sky like you're describing. Like this bowl was in your hands and then just took flight. It's a possible. Do you do have any period clumsiness? I think I do have some PMS.
Starting point is 00:42:03 There's a franticness that kind of starts, like a manic energy. Yeah, you're a little just off kilter. I'd like to blame it on that and not my clumsiness. But maybe you just had oil on the corn, olive oil, and some of the olive oil got on the bowl. You know, my husband was in there, so I think I'm just going to blame it on him and do like this was your fault. Yeah, he knocked you over. You must have tripped you a little bit. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:24 It was crazy. Enjoy those photos. I was sorry that they're pretty gnarly. Since we started doing this, which I don't know how many years we've been doing, Armchair Anonymous, but we have seen some photos. We have quadrupled the amount of insane photos I had seen prior in the 45 years before. It's true. Yeah, I've listened to every episode.
Starting point is 00:42:43 I was re-traumatized by the rat in the water bottle thing last week. I was like, oh, my God, you guys. We were just talking about the rat. The rat got most people. It's gendered. It's really gendered. And my anecdotal feedback. like how gross doubt they get.
Starting point is 00:42:58 Yeah, like women are really fucking freaked. A, I do think women carry water bottles more than men. I think that's why. And then maybe women are afraid of mice more than men? I don't know. No, it's not about being afraid. It's about drinking a dead rat. No problem.
Starting point is 00:43:11 I remember how you were behaving during the episode. You were creeped. Rob, roll the tape. Roll the tape. I didn't even see photos and just the visual in my head was sad about. You've not had a stress-free sip of water since that episode. And I didn't even like water to begin with. Well, Jen, thank you for that tasty story.
Starting point is 00:43:31 Yeah, that was great. My pleasure. My husband and I have been listening forever to every show, every offshute, everything. And I just really appreciate the conversations and the honesty and the vulnerability around addiction. Next month, my husband will be 10 years sober. Yay. Congratulations to everyone. We've been together for almost 20 years now.
Starting point is 00:43:53 And the last 10 obviously have been a lot of work. and he's done a lot of work. But I just feel like him hearing some things from you, Dax, and things that you've shared. You guys have very similar journeys and experiences. And I've listened to Day 7 a handful of times. And having the perspective of Monica when you love an addict, it's really lonely and it's really scary.
Starting point is 00:44:18 And you want to protect the person so you don't really share a lot, or at least I didn't with a lot of people. And so having that episode in particular, and just for years you guys talking about it has been more impactful than you know on both me and my husband. And I think it's apropos that his 10 year anniversary is in a few weeks and I get to talk to you guys. Oh, that's so nice. Well, please tell him, congrats for me. That's so mega man.
Starting point is 00:44:42 Ten years is impossible. He's really mad that he can't be here. He is in San Diego for a work trip, but he told me to say hi. What's his name? His name is Justin. Oh, that's my favorite name. Have you ever heard me say that? Yes, I have.
Starting point is 00:44:54 My cousin, Justin, who lives in the East Bay, is. Well, who's the coolest dude I ever knew growing up? Maybe that's her husband. Oh, my God. Are you married to my cousin, Justin Llebo? You do not look like Leanne today. No, we're constantly annoying our kids. One of us will say, hey, y'all from like across the house.
Starting point is 00:45:09 Oh, that's so cute. My kids are going to lip out when they hear this because I didn't tell him I was doing this. What's their names? Let me shout them out. So my daughter is Stella and my son is Beckett. Beckett. Great names. Shout out.
Starting point is 00:45:24 Solid. Guys raised as much hell as you. you can. That's my advice. And they are. Don't worry. All right. Well, take care, Jen. Wonderful meeting you. Thank you. Good, too. Have a good day, you guys. Bye-bye. Do you recall my brother's story? It was very similar to this one.
Starting point is 00:45:40 We were out in the middle of fucking nowhere when my mom and dad were still married. So my brother couldn't have been more than eight because we left there when he was eight. All Coke and Pepsi was in these 16.9 ounce glass bottles and they came in an eight pack. And my mom was like unloading the car going back and forth from the driveway to the house. And unbeknownst to her, David had decided to help. And he had grabbed one of those eight packs of soda. And he dropped it on the floor. And when she came in the house, he was lying on his back. And she said the blood had spurted and hit the ceiling. My brother cut his artery as a little boy. Yeah. And we're in the middle of fucking nowhere. And she said the blood shot all the way up to
Starting point is 00:46:22 the ceiling. And so she or my dad turnic kid at it with a dish rag. And then my dad drove 6,000 miles an hour to get to the hospital. And obviously he's alive. But he's always had, even if next time you see him, he has a crazy gnarly scar right across his artery. It looks for sure. His whole life people have thought. As a wonder. Yeah. It's hard. It's a rough scar to have. It's a rough scar to have. It's really. Yeah. Ooh. Well, happy cooking. Everyone be careful out there. Be careful in kitchen. I've had a lot of knife injuries. Yes, you have. That are really, really, really, really, really bad. Very bad. And everyone needs to come over. All right. Love you. Do you want to sing a tune or something? We don't know a theme song. We don't have a thing song for this new show. So here I go, go, go.
Starting point is 00:47:19 We're going to ask some random questions and with the help of. Farm cherries will get some suggestions. On the flyer rhyme dish. On the flyer rhyme dish. Enjoy.

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