Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard - Armchair Anonymous: Wild Card VIII
Episode Date: June 27, 2025Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us a crazy story.Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on You...Tube 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)
Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early
and ad free right now.
Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple podcasts.
Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Anonymous.
I'm Dak Shepard and I'm with Monica Padman.
Hi.
And Sharon Beasley.
Hello.
Today is wild card.
It's gonna get wild.
Let's see, yep, they all delivered again.
Wow.
Yeah, do we need a trigger, pun intended warning?
Well, it is a trigger, right?
Because actually there might've been some abuse.
Oh, yeah, we're not sure. Potentially,
we talk about, we're not sure.
So, but anyway, you gotta listen.
I'll just say, don't eat when you're listening to this one too.
Cause the last story is fucking nuts.
Don't masturbate while you're listening to this one
because it might make you go crazy.
Well, okay, okay.
All right.
Please enjoy Wild Card.
We are supported by Squarespace.
Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform
designed to help you stand out and succeed
online.
Whether you're just starting out or scaling your business, Squarespace gives you everything
you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings with a professional website, grow
your brand, and get paid, all in one place.
Squarespace has been along for the ride with us, as we've first just had a website, then
started selling merch, and it's grown with us and has helped us scale. If you're a fellow creator,
Squarespace makes it easy to monetize your content. Easily sell access to
online courses, blogs, videos, and memberships. Start with a fully
customizable website and earn recurring revenue by gating your content behind a
paywall. Simply set the price and choose whether to charge a one-time fee or a
subscription for access. This is why we love Squarespace.
Setting up that kind of tech sounds hard, but they take all the guesswork out of it.
You can get your site up and running quicker than you would have thought possible.
Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, use offer
code DAX to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
That's Squarespace.com and promo code Dax to get started today.
Kingston Buskers Rendezvous is back.
Starting July 10th, come to downtown Kingston
for this crowd-wowing festival.
And enjoy four days of jugglers, musicians, acrobats,
comedians, and more.
Talented performers from all over the world
can't wait to entertain you all weekend long.
It all starts on Thursday, July 10th,
with performances right in the heart of downtown Kingston.
And don't miss Buskers After Dark, the Friday Night Fire Show.
For more information, go to downtownkingston.ca. Good times, take them slow My life, I had them both
Remember one thing, you gotta know I'ma keep on shining
Hello?
How are you guys?
Good, is this Jordan?
Jordan is my husband, I'm using his account.
My name is Gabby.
Oh, wonderful. I have a niece account. My name is Gabby. Oh, wonderful.
I have a niece named Gabby and I love her.
She's a real spitfire.
Is it short for Gabrielle?
Gabrielle with an A at the end.
And where are you?
Indianapolis, Indiana.
You just had the Indy 500?
We did.
And what happens in town when that show arrives?
Can you feel it everywhere or only around the track?
Only around the track?
Only around the track, maybe downtown, but out in the suburbs, you're
not really feeling too much.
Cause this is an enormous group of people, right?
I want to say like 500,000 people spectate that.
Oh yeah.
They were sold out this year.
How many people can that house?
Rob will look it up.
300,000?
Is that way too much?
No, the Coca-Cola 400.
Well, it's not even called that anymore, but in North Carolina, that race I went to, they had 250,000. Is that way too much? No, the Coca-Cola 400. Well, it's not even called that anymore, but in North Carolina,
that race I went to, they had 250,000 people.
350,000 attendees.
350. Wow.
Yeah.
Okay. But do you go? You don't go.
My parents go, they have the grandfathered tickets, but it's just not my thing. I think
it's really cool that they go super fast left.
So you're wild card. So anything could be on the table.
My story takes place when I was about 14 years old.
I was a freshman in high school
and I was taking a jewelry class.
On this particular day, we had a substitute teacher
and I remember that she wasn't really like an art sub.
So she came in, took attendance
and basically left us to our own devices.
I had a necklace project to do within that week
and I was almost finished.
All I needed was some light buffing.
So I head over to the Dremel tool station
for a quick polish and I realized
that I had forgotten the hair tie.
And I have very long hair at the time,
like almost touching my butt.
The class had one major rule.
If you had long hair, you had to tie your hair back
because we're using power tools,
we're using fire, you know, safety first.
There's certain tools.
Like if you're using a belt sander and your hair gets like, not only is it going to get
your hair in there, it's going to pull your face directly into the thing that's dangerous.
Yes, definitely not that big.
It was small and normal tool, but I start buffing away trying to be quick and careful.
And someone in the class calls my name and I whip my head around.
And the next thing I know, I can feel the Dremel grip some of my hair and yank.
So I instantly jerk the tool away from my head and the Dremel takes a clump of my hair
with it.
I'm sitting there stunned and one of my classmates gasps and the entire classroom looks at me
and the sub who is probably in for way more than she bargained for, takes
me straight to the nurse's office.
Now at this point, I haven't seen the damage.
I haven't touched it.
I'm still filled with adrenaline, so I'm not feeling any pain.
Did you even look at the Dremel to see how big of a chunk of hair
was around the Dremel?
Honestly, I was just so like, is this even happening that I don't really
remember the nurse taking me to the office?
I don't remember it actually happening.
It was just such a blur until they gave me two Advils and an ice pack.
So the nurses called my sister to the office because she was a junior at the time and my
mom who worked just down the road.
My sister shows up first, totally confused because she has no idea why she was even called.
And the nurses tell her that there was a small accident and that I lost a chunk
of hair about the size of a half dollar and then sends her in not being adequately
prepared for what she was about to witness.
I lift the ice pack from my head and there's a bald spot about the size of my palm.
No way.
The size of your palm.
Yeah.
Right in the front.
Oh my gosh.
Right where you wouldn't want it.
So I wanna say that I was holding it together
pretty good up until that point,
but when she started freaking out,
I mean, I lost it and I just started bawling.
Yeah, was there not a ton of blood?
There was not.
So it was only kind of like prickly with blood
from the individual hair plugs,
but it wasn't filled with blood or anything.
What's lucky is that you could imagine
that you would tear off all the skin that was attached
because there's so much hair.
I will get to that.
Oh, okay.
Okay, okay, great.
So my mom arrives, she takes one look at me
and has a very similar reaction, you know,
like great poker faces in this family.
Eventually the assistant principal comes in
and they tell me that I need to go home
and that I need to stay home for a couple of days.
If the spot turns purple or starts swelling, that means I have to go to the hospital immediately.
It means that my scalp has disconnected from my skull and the empty space has started to
fill up with blood and I would need immediate surgery.
Oh, wow.
Did they look that up on the computer?
Maybe they knew this about these tools and the hair.
I imagine they had this prepared because if they're telling us to bring hair ties,
they understand the possibilities of what could be happening.
I'm surprised they don't make you do a hair net.
Maybe now, this was almost 15 years-ish ago,
but thankfully none of that ever happened.
I stayed home for two days and I went back to school
and everything was fine.
Ish.
Yes.
My consolation prize was a handwritten laminated note
that said I could wear a hat for the rest of the school year, which was very special.
Because hats were against my high school stress code.
Yeah, yeah.
We had a protest at my school over hats.
Really?
It was ridiculous.
Like, welcome to the white suburbs.
But yeah, there was a walkout that was scheduled
and it was about hats.
Wow.
And we were all outside and I joined
just because no one else was in school.
I was kind of opposed to it.
Oh, you were?
Yeah, it just seemed like a ridiculous thing to protest.
But it's also autonomy, which you like.
I would have loved to have worn a hat.
It just felt like this is what we're protesting over.
Oh, wow, okay.
So when I was out there in the big gaggle of people
is just after the 90210 episode had aired
where they kicked out Tori Spelling
from having drank at prom.
They weren't gonna let her graduate.
Donna Martin graduates.
So I started chanting, Donna Martin graduates.
And I will say almost everyone joined in
and that made the whole thing worthwhile.
The best part of the whole thing was the original teacher
came back, she put my clump of hair
in a Ziploc bag and thumb tacked it to the cork board in her classroom.
Kind of like a weird, slightly horrifying cautionary tale for anybody with long hair.
That was the right move.
This is what no hair tie equals.
This is a classic final destination plot line.
You know, final destination.
I don't.
Oh my God. I'm totally out at sea right now.
What does that mean?
It's a movie series where basically all these
people die in crazy ways.
Like the tanning bed closes on them and then
they fries them.
The lumber truck where all the wood falls off on
the highway.
See, yes.
Every time I'm behind anything where a truck has
stuff hanging out, I move lanes.
Immediately move.
Your hair thing could have easily been a whole final destination.
Sucked her whole head off.
Yeah.
I feel like if I didn't pull it away, which essentially was pulling all of my hair out,
it could have been way worse, like if the Dremel came towards my face.
Well, it would have.
It would have wound its way up to your skull and then that thing would have been spinning against your skull and ripping all the hair out.
Yeah, it'd been like a chainsaw.
Perfect for a 14-year-old to experience, absolutely.
Oh, Lord.
I'm glad you got to wear hats.
How long did it take for that to grow back?
I had some stunted hair growth for a couple of years.
It would grow maybe an inch or two,
and then it would just stop.
Oh.
Were you panicked at for life?
Yes, but I also have a lot of hair,
so I just parted my hair on the other side,
and it was pretty much fine.
What a good attitude.
Great attitude.
Yeah, admirable attitude.
You rarely hear nice to, but that's a nice to.
Yeah, it is.
Lesson learned, always put your hair back
if you're using absolutely anything.
Anyone in the audience that's about to use a Dremel,
or any power tool.
Also, being a substitute teacher has got to be
one of the worst things ever,
because everyone's so disrespectful.
That's a good prompt.
Oh, substitute teacher, write it down, Wob.
Yeah, because that could either be there was one
or you are one.
We had teachers written down,
but I'll add substitute.
Substitute is so specific,
because you don't know what you're doing.
I hate to say this to offend them,
but you're a babysitter for the day, because you don't know what you're doing. I hate to say this to offend them, but you're a babysitter for the day
because you don't know what the fuck they're-
You can't teach.
Nope.
Yeah.
I'm sure she thought she was just gonna come,
maybe put on her headphones, get a little bit of work done
and now she's taking this poor girl
with a ball to put nurses on it.
And she's probably like, fuck it,
I bet the normal teacher would have-
Not allowed her-
She probably took on that responsibility.
If you had final destination,
she would have been feeling a lot of guilt.
Yes, yes.
Well, Gabby, it's delightful to meet you.
Thank you so much.
My husband is actually the one who introduced me
to your show.
Is it okay if I go grab him real quick?
Of course, give him one of your ear pods
so he can hear us.
I will, absolutely.
Why can't I remember earbud?
Because you wanna say earbuds.
And that's what it is.
It's an air pod.
Air pod.
Air pod or earbud.
Yeah.
And I'm mixing them.
Or a headphone.
I'm smashing, conflating, no not conflating.
You're doing a portmanteau.
It's a mashup, mashup.
Portmanteau.
Portmanteau?
That's when two words come together I think.
Oh wow.
I love when you speak French.
There's a baby.
There's a little baby in the mix.
Oh my goodness, that's a cute one.
A lot of hair, no wonder.
This is in keeping.
This is my husband Jordan and my daughter Amelia.
Hi Jordan, great to meet you.
And you Amelia, is she about 10 months old?
She's four.
Four months?
Four months old.
Oh, fuck dude.
I thought you were saying four years old
and I was about to have a real panic.
No.
She is four months.
She looks like when I started with Delta,
she's that size.
Big cheeks.
Jordan, what brought you to the podcast?
It's not normal that the husband introduces the wife.
I'm from Gary, Indiana originally,
and I have about a two and a half hour drive
and my mother was going through cancer treatments
and I stumbled across you guys
and been listening ever since.
Oh, that's so nice.
I've been to Gary many, many times.
You must know Sturgis, Michigan.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Every time you guys bring up Michigan,
I'm like, yeah, the proper place up north.
I'm technically from Indiana,
but I like to try to pretend I'm from Michigan.
Oh, good.
We'd love to have you, Jordan.
Thank you.
Well, it's so nice meeting you and your family.
Thanks so much.
Yeah, this is great.
All right, tell Gabby we said thank you.
Bye. Bye.
I can't with Amelia.
She was so cute.
She was, and she's just hanging out.
When you're four months old, you just hang out.
Wherever they lift you up and carry you,
that's where you're at.
And you're just squish.
Yeah.
Gosh.
You're pudding.
Hi, is this Kristen?
Yes.
You're in a little person's room.
I have two little people, one's five and one's three.
They're both girls.
And does five year old sleep on the upper bunk there?
No, actually she's kind of afraid of the top bunk.
So her sister sleeps on the top
and then the five year old sleeps on the bottom
and she has a slide.
I was just gonna ask, does she depart every morning
from bed by going down the slide?
Yes, or she jumps over, you see this chair right here?
Of course, yeah.
So jump from there onto the chair.
She's my kind of gal.
I'd love to start my day by sliding down a slide.
Yeah, that's so fun.
I should figure that out.
Add a little playfulness to the start of the day.
Just a little shot of adrenaline to wake you up.
In what state are you in or country?
Would you like to guess?
I feel like you're Midwest.
I feel like you're Southern.
No.
I'll give you a hint.
I've met you before at Sprouts.
In Texas or in Tennessee?
In Texas.
Oh, okay, you're in Texas.
So, Monty, you were right.
Southern, a little rightish.
Yeah, about 30 minutes outside of Dallas
in a town called LaVon.
Okay, wonderful.
And that whole area has really exploded, right?
The whole Metropolitan Dales area?
Yes.
My husband works at Rockwall and it's crazy. Do you hate it or love it?
I'm sure it's brought in new restaurants and stuff.
I love it because he's a barber
and he owns his own business.
So lots of hair that needs to be cut.
Well, tell him from barber to barber, I say hi.
Yes.
Yes.
Okay, so you have a wild card story, which is our favorite.
My dad is definitely the star of the story.
I love dads. Yes, he is amazing. His birthday is actually tomorrow. My dad is definitely the star of the story. I love dads.
Yes, he is amazing.
His birthday is actually tomorrow.
Oh, wonderful.
The story takes place in Rowlett, Texas.
It's about two towns over from me now.
The year is 2006.
I am 16 years old and our normal morning routine
would be that my dad would wake up at six o'clock.
His alarm clock would go off and it's so insanely loud.
And it was always on 92.5, the classic rock station.
Oh, good for him.
I like him.
So I would hear his alarm clock going off, but I would just stay asleep.
And he would come in and wake me up at about six 30.
I'd get ready.
We'd be off to bed or off to school.
That's what Monica does wake up and then off to bed.
Yeah.
You love to paint a lazy picture.
I know, I just made that joke when we were looking
at your house two seconds ago.
I'm doing what I can with what I got.
So, on this one particular day, my dad woke up
and he just had this weird feeling
and he felt like he needed to go look out the front door.
So it's 6.15 in the morning. And he goes and looks out the front door. So it's 6 15 in the morning and he
goes and looks out the top of the door. We had like one of those little half
windows and he sees a man walking up our driveway in the dark. It's completely
pitch black.
We are supported by Airbnb.
Oh, I love Airbnb. We love Airbnb.
We use it nonstop.
We've traveled. Most memorable.
Exactly, we've traveled the whole country and the world.
Yes, we've been on tours in state exclusively at them.
It's so fun, so much cozier.
Yeah, you really feel like you're kind of a resident
of wherever you're visiting.
Because some trips are better in an Airbnb.
Collection calls, CRA debt, don't know who to turn to?
Let the Debt Fixers at Maria Ricard and Associates
help you become debt-free.
Call 416-534-2777 today to book your appointment.
Maria Ricard and Associates has been helping people
for over 20 years.
Let the caring professionals at Maria Ricard & Associates
give you a new lease on life.
Make a free, no obligation appointment today
at Maria Ricard & Associates, 416-534-2777.
Today is the worst day of Abby's life.
The 17 year old cradles her newborn son in her arms.
They all saw much I loved him.
They didn't have to take him from me.
Between 1945 and the early 1970s, families ship their pregnant teenage daughters to maternity
homes and force them to secretly place their babies for adoption.
In hidden corners across America, it's still happening.
My parents had me locked up in the godparent home against my will.
They worked with them to manipulate me and to steal my son away from me.
The godparent home is the brainchild of controversial preacher Jerry Falwell, the father of the
modern evangelical right and the founder of Liberty University.
Where powerful men, emboldened by their faith, determine who gets to be a parent and who
must give their child away.
Follow Liberty Lost on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
So he's confused like, what is this guy doing? And then about halfway up the driveway, the
guy starts to turn and goes toward my bedroom window, which is in the front of the house.
So I had just moved bedrooms into my sister's bedroom
because my dad made these really cool shelves.
So he turns on the light and the guy runs away.
He then kind of tries to act like everything's normal
and he comes and he just wakes me up
and I get ready for school.
Can I pause you for one second?
I wanna have a little debate with Monica.
Okay, so I would definitely go outside
and see what's happening, yay or nay. You know I'm gonna say nay. one second. I wanna have a little debate with Monica. Okay, so I would definitely go outside and see what's happening, yay or nay.
You know I'm gonna say nay.
You're gonna say nay.
I understand why you should,
but for me, maybe you took care of it by just scaring him.
So to add more chaos, like why?
Okay, great.
My dad is normally like you, Dex.
There have been times where there was a guy
following my sister home, and my sister called him
and was like, what should I do?
And my dad said, you need to come home.
Normally people would tell you to like,
drive to a police station, but no.
So this guy's following my sister.
My dad is outside in his underwear with a shotgun.
Sure, sure, he built his own shelves, I get it.
For some reason, he felt like you, Monica. Then I just go to school and he didn't tell me anything. He didn't
say anything. He waited until I got home from school. Him and my mom sat me down and he's
like, I really didn't want you to be distracted at school. So I didn't tell you this morning.
Then he tells me what happened. And I am completely shocked. I am running through my head. Has he seen me like
dancing, getting ready for school? He's obviously some weirdo watching me get dressed. He's
probably seen a lot of tank top layering at that time.
So much tank top layering at that time.
He says, also, I've looked in the flower bed in front of our house and there's like a part where grass is not growing.
It's like a perfect size for two grown men's feet.
Oh God.
He has been watching me for a very long time.
This is very you, the show, the show.
Can I make a request?
From now on in the order, I want you to say,
this is very much like the show you.
I can't promise that.
Not you, then the show.
I can't promise it.
We were talking for quite a while before I realized,
oh, there's a beagle on the ground behind her.
Did you think it was a stuffed animal?
I thought it was immediately a beagle,
and I thought, oh, what a calm beagle.
Yeah, I've seen him.
And then you moved your head enough,
and I was like, oh, we got a second beagle on the bed back there.
Did you see that beagle?
Okay, so I'm now like kind of expecting
I'm gonna discover six or seven more beagles in this room.
Oh my God, it's like a magic eye.
They start popping out.
Yeah, where's Waldo?
That is Lady and that's Ninja.
There's only two of them.
Okay.
You can probably hear this one snoring.
I could hear that a little bit, yeah. Yeah, he snores really bad. lady and that's Ninja. There's only two of them. You can probably hear this one snoring.
I could hear that a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. He snores really bad. They know that I'm nervous.
So they wouldn't let me in here by myself. That's so sweet. So cute. So they sit me down.
They tell me this has been going on. It's kind of fuzzy a little bit from that point,
just because I was trying to absorb all of this information.
So my dad's like, we're gonna call the police
and we're gonna report this so the police come.
What I remember my dad asking the police officer is,
can I put a bear trap in my front yard?
Literally, before you said that sentence,
I was like, God, I wish it wasn't illegal
to bury a bear trap under some mulch.
Then you got them.
How does it work, a bear trap?
You step on the center and then these jaws snap shut
and they go into your leg and then that's on a chain.
So you can't go anywhere unless you wanna cut your leg off.
Oh my God, wow.
Yeah, that's crazy you just said that.
That's exactly what I was thinking about.
I kinda knew that you would be on the same page
because you're so very much like my dad.
The cop said, no, sorry, unfortunately, you can't do that
because then all of the animals and children
in the neighborhood are at risk.
There was another, I'm not gonna go down this rabbit hole,
but there was another time that he did booby trap
the backyard.
Okay, yeah.
The police officer said, no, sorry, you can't do that,
but can you give us a description?
So my dad is giving the description. And it's a very, very short
man, probably like five one. And he says, he has the same facial hair as our next door
neighbor. We need you to talk to him. So the police go and they talk to both of our neighbors
on both sides. They come back and they say, that guy's really weird.
He wouldn't look us in the eyes.
His wife answered all the questions.
Oh no.
And he was super shady,
but without knowing exactly who he is,
we can't just arrest him.
They're like, we'll patrol your neighborhood
every morning at this time.
So my dad then takes me to Walmart to get black curtains because we had realized that
there was an inch on the side of my blinds that you could see through.
He also nailed every window in our house shut, then put a fire bat next to each window just
in case the house caught on fire.
We can still get out.
Oh, smart.
Okay.
I love this. About a month goes by
and the police call and they say, we caught him. Oh, we need you to come to the police station.
My dad goes without me. I didn't want to go because I didn't want to see him. Spoiler alert,
it was the next door neighbor. He lived so close to us that we couldn't file a restraining order.
In the state of Texas, though, you can have an order that basically says,
if you come on my property, I can do whatever.
Stand your ground law kind of thing.
Yes.
How have they caught him?
Did they catch him at your house or someone else's?
So they tell my dad, he was doing the same thing to a girl down the street.
He's been watching her through her bathroom window,
and it's like one of those like frosted windows. So he thinks that she can't see him. And this girl who is in high school
pretends not to see him, kind of walks close to the window and with her bare fist, punches
through the window. What? And hits him in the face. He is bleeding. Good for her.
Her dad comes out and apprehends him.
They call the police, everything.
It's insane.
Is she a long haul truck driver now?
I don't know.
Diesel mechanic?
My mom asked me, she was like,
do you want to go meet her and like be friends with her
and talk to her?
Form a support group.
And I was like, I'm kind of scared of her. Right. What if I get on her bad side and she beats me up or something?
But that's how he got caught.
Wow.
How old was he?
He had to have been in his thirties.
Okay, so not that old.
It's hard for you to know when you're that age.
Yeah.
What happened to him?
I know that he's on a registry.
I think that he had to deal with some legal ramifications.
We didn't have to really deal with him for much longer
because the girl down the street, her family,
made it really hard for him to live there.
They put a sign in his yard.
Oh, boy.
It's a little vigilante justice happening.
Sure, sure.
Yeah, so he moved very quickly.
Oh, his wife.
She feels like she has to defend him kind of.
Oh, this is awful.
Oh.
Yeah, like what?
Your husband is leaving at thick the clock every morning
and then coming back.
And do you think she knows?
She was asleep.
She was a heavy sleeper.
He was sleeping now.
No, she knew, but she didn't wanna know.
I mean, I wonder even if he had like a schedule
with the girls in the neighborhood.
Like she wakes up at this time.
She wakes up, you know?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, boy.
Boy, boy. Oh. Oh, boy, I'm sorry that that happened in your neighborhood. I'm really sorry that that happened. It's like she wakes up at this time and she wakes up, you know? Oh, yeah. Boy, boy.
Oh.
Oh, boy, I'm sorry that that happened
in your neighborhood. I'm really sorry
that that happened. It's okay.
I wonder where he went and did he do it again
to a new neighborhood?
What I would be thinking if I were you
from the second year parents told you
that I would be so distracted with literally trying
to go through every single thing I've ever done
in my bedroom.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
That's all I could think of.
I think that that's for the long time why
everything was so fuzzy is because
that's all I could think of.
The innumerable weird things we do
in our bedroom by ourselves.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah.
That's kind of universal I think is that.
Weird in your bedroom.
Ew, God, oh.
Well thank you for telling us that story.
Of course, thank you for listening.
It was wonderful to meet you a second time
and now to chat for much longer
and tell the Beagles they did a really good job.
Definitely, it's so good to see you guys
and it's really, really great to meet you, Monica.
I love you so much.
Oh, thank you.
I might need to get a Beagle now.
You've really sold them.
They're really pretty great.
Lady can tell when you're nervous, sick or pregnant.
Oh.
She's predicted some pregnancies.
Yeah, Lola used to do that,
sit on Kristin's belly all the time.
Yeah, they have powers.
Oh, all right.
Well, thank you so much. Much love to you
and have a great summer.
Thank you.
Okay, take care. Bye.
Those dogs were so calm and nice.
Those are not like my dogs.
I know.
I've been looking at dogs on the street, seeing which ones I like, which ones I don't.
Okay.
There was one the other day I liked, really fluffy.
So you're looking for something maybe more fluffy.
Big, fluffy, but can be mean.
You need a doodle.
But can also be soft.
No, they're not mean enough.
Well, they bark like crazy.
I know Aaron's dogs, if you come to the door,
they go bananas, and that's really all you need, I think.
I guess that's true.
I'm looking for more of a wolf type.
Oh, husky.
Yeah, I like husky.
Did you see Maru put up a sign with no animals allowed in?
Oh, that's a big change.
They used to be an animal establishment.
There's probably a hundred fights.
I hated the dogs in the line, remember?
Yeah, I was eating that mustard seed yesterday at the end of my bike ride. And yeah, this dude comes and he's got a hundred fights. I hated the dogs in the line, remember? Yeah, I was eating at Mustard Seed yesterday
at the end of my bike ride.
And yeah, this dude comes and he's got a pit bull,
and then this chick comes with like a boxer pit bull.
And then they're fighting.
And they're like barking at each other.
And then the woman's dog literally pulls her into the street.
And I'm like, you can't have a dog that you can't control.
I know.
And I was just like, get them away from the door.
See, this is how I feel.
Hi.
Hi. Hi.
Hi.
Hi.
What name should we say for you?
I'm gonna go with Taylor.
Taylor, because of Taylor Swift?
You got it, Monica.
Yes.
I knew you would.
I love it.
Taylor, where are you in the country?
I'm also gonna keep that anonymous.
These are great starts, fake name and fake location
and a wild card.
Let us have it. I am have a way that you have great hair
Oh Monica, thank you. These are heatless overnight curls. I've been telling everyone about it
I've been hearing about this and this looks great. I'm gonna give it a whirl. I like my curls a little heat
You're like you to damage your hair a little bit
Okay, so I actually originally submitted my story
to the foreign body in a rectum category.
Oh, hell yes.
Beautiful.
I was employing some artistic.
License.
Licensing, that's what I was going for, yeah.
But Emma's like, you know what, let's just go ahead
and do it on the wild card.
Wonderful.
I am a nurse, I work in the emergency department.
Wait, have you watched The Pit?
Of course, Monica, yes.
Thank you, it's not actually of course.
Most. You'd be shocked
that a lot of people haven't watched it yet.
In the medical community.
I loved it, such a good show.
Very accurate on most accounts.
All right, so I work in the level two trauma center
in the emergency department.
We get all the good stuff.
So the traumas, strokes, stemies,
if it's big deal, it's coming to us.
Remind us of the levels.
Level one, two, three, I think there might be a four.
One is the highest.
You have to be like a teaching, hospital to be level one.
You have to have all the specialties like hand surgeons.
We don't have all that.
So we're only a level two.
Okay.
But we are the highest level in our city.
This was a few years ago.
It was a pretty chill morning, not a whole lot going on,
but we received a Pulsera, which is a secure app where the medics kind of let us know what's coming in.
And this was quite a surprise.
All of our jaws dropped when we saw what was coming in.
This is Nick.
And this is Jack.
We're best friends, ex-finance guys, and resident 90s experts.
And every week on our podcast, The Best Idea Yet, we're bringing you the untold stories
behind your favorite products.
For instance, can you guess which billion dollar fashion company went viral thanks to
a rhinestone covered tracksuit?
Or which cartoon turned four turtles into a global toy empire by accident?
It started as a joke.
Last one.
Which cold beverage was so hated by Starbucks they actually ended up acquiring it?
Spoiler!
The Frappuccino.
Howard Schultz apparently thought cold coffee was super lame, and then he bought it.
From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Juicy Couture to the Orange Mocha Frappuccino.
Join us every week to learn how your favorite things got made.
Follow the best idea yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
And you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus.
And if this podcast lasts longer than 45 minutes, call your doctor. The chief complaint for this patient was patient masturbating with a gun and shot herself
into vagina.
Holy fucking hell.
Holy hell.
I mean, I'm weirdly not shocked and I'm shocked.
In the other one, based on what we heard,
I was like, I'm surprised there's no gun ones.
Yeah, there's more than sexual components going on
in these situations, it seems.
But vagina.
Wow, okay.
I mean, with a loaded gun, that's kind of a lot.
A rifle or a handgun?
I was told it was a.38 revolver.
Oh, wow.
Also, a loaded gun, you're obviously gonna shoot it
when you're orgasming.
Orgasm, you mean to heighten it?
Like you're gonna.
Do you think it's gonna be an accident
or do you think it's gonna push it that much higher?
What do you mean?
Like you're about to orgasm and you're just like,
you're going and you're like,
I'm fucking fire this thing and really blast off.
It's an accident mixed with that.
Like, who cares?
So added on to the end of that, believe it or not,
they said a patient has a psych history.
Oh, shocking.
Okay.
But also her vital signs were normal.
You'd expect someone to be like tachycardic,
hypotensive, right?
High heart rate, low blood pressure.
It was totally normal.
So we're like, geez, is this for real?
Honestly, my first thought was this is a psych patient. She's on her period and she made it the story in her head. The cramping
is the pain and the bleeding. You know, I shot myself. Great. Yes. We're excited, right?
This comes in and we're all just like, this is what we do this for, right? To hear these
crazy things. Yes. On the medic side of things, the call was actually originally sent out
as patient kicked a gun, accidental discharge.
The dispatch is constantly sending them notes, right? Kind of updating them what the patient's
saying. Then the story totally changes and it goes to patient was on a trail and got shot.
So the medic's kind of like, okay. Another tidbit, apparently the SWAT team was deployed to this
house about a week prior. Another note that the medic's getting and she's just like, what is
going on? Then it comes out. patient was masturbating with a gun,
shot herself a vagina and then she's like,
what is going on here?
Right?
Also, what will be the next update?
You're seeing the pattern, the trajectory of this.
Escalating.
Yeah, you're like, what could be next?
I gotta give it up to our EMS, our medics,
they're amazing, I can't imagine what they do every day,
going out to people's houses.
They're a medical professional mixed with a police officer.
It's like they're entering houses and they don't know what's on the other side of the door.
Yeah, so they're telling the medic first she was bleeding.
Now the patient's saying she's not even bleeding.
Then feels like there's someone in the background kind of feeding her a story.
Then the patient's not talking at all.
Then there's like whispering in the back.
Who knows what you're heading into, right?
So she rolls up on scene.
Apparently there is a boyfriend.
He's hiding in the basement. Oh. Police you're heading into, right? So she rolls up on scene. Apparently there is a boyfriend, he's hiding in the basement.
Oh, police are on scene, thank God.
But when she goes to meet the patient,
the police are like, well, we don't really know
where the gun is yet.
It might be under the blanket with the patient.
Medics like, okay, rips off the blanket, no gun.
But also no bleeding.
Patient looks fine.
She's pink, warm and dry,
starts getting the vital signs.
They're all are normal.
She's like, do I believe the story or not?
She rolls the patient, there's nothing going on on her back.
She's just like, this is crazy.
The patient's not really acting like she's in a ton of pain.
So it's just kind of a big mystery.
There also happens to be some needles spread around.
By the way, I already know she's shooting meth, not heroin.
This sounds like a very meth-y, psychosexual, bizarre...
Wouldn't be surprised. The only thing is though is she was very chill, so a lot of times
people on meth are kind of jazzed up. Yeah. That's a good counter. So who knows? But she decides,
you know what, I need to run this as a code three trauma. I can't prove that this woman
didn't do what she said she did. So she loads up the patient, she's on her way,
constantly assessing the patient, looking for rigidity in the stomach, checking her vital signs, constantly rolling her over, checking her
back. Still normal vital signs. And she's practically sleeping the whole way. They roll
into the department. We're all just like salivating, waiting, like, what's going to roll in the
door here? Because we're excited to see too. We're not finding any wounds. We're hooking
her up to the monitor. We're taking her vitals. They're all normal. We're just kind of looking at each other like, oh, this whole thing was BS.
Is there a pelvic exam?
That's where we go to. So we check everything else. And then the doc's like, I got to do a
pelvic exam. If you're telling me you shot yourself in the vagina, we got to check out your vagina.
So he starts to do a pelvic exam. And he did see some blood. What caught his attention,
he saw what appeared to be some gunpowder.
Stop it. gunpowder. Stop it.
So we're like, okay, we got to get this lady to CAT scan. Sure as shit.
There is a bullet lodged in her pelvis.
It went into her ilium or ischium, her bone.
I don't think it went into her bone.
It was just kind of up in that pelvic region and definitely caused some damage
up in there.
I would expect if you fired a 38 inside of a vagina
that it would exit out the back or the front.
That's crazy.
Just got lodge in that squishy tissue.
I know, but she did it.
She unfortunately had to have a full hysterectomy.
She had to have a colectomy.
Oh.
She did some damage, but as far as I know, she's alive.
We had some major concerns for this patient
that this maybe wasn't consensual.
Oh my God.
Or I can even see it starting out as kinky sensual.
Sensual, consensual.
That's a new word.
Ha ha ha ha.
I mean, that too.
Sensual is within the word consensual.
I could see them, like some kinky thing,
and he's putting his gun in her,
and then he accidentally shot her.
And then he's like, you gotta act like you were masturbating with this.
This is horrible.
It's so sad. I want to not make light.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But still, this is a story.
We've seen a lot of things. One of my favorites was like a DIY cock ring gone wrong.
A lot of foreign bodies.
Tell me about the DIY cock ring. What was used?
That was like a 16 ounce plastic soda bottle.
Cut the top of the ring part off and multiple ones fit over the penis.
But then the end of the penis got very edematous and he couldn't get them off.
Sure.
It swelled.
Kind of like my finger with my ring.
Yes.
Oh my God.
So Sue really did it or it happened.
It happened.
Wow.
Wow, man.
You gotta wonder how many times that's happened.
No wonder she's on drugs.
Chicken or the egg though.
This is the situation.
If you're sober, you might not end up in this situation.
Yeah, well, I feel like it's mental health
mixed with the drugs never leads to great situations.
All this is bruh.
Oh, wow.
The idea of a gun going off in my body.
But now added to while you're orgasming.
I mean, that part seems interesting.
Yeah, I mean, if she got there, who knows?
Oh my God. Whoa, Taylor,
what a story. That's a story.
Is this a moment where I get to fangirl a little bit? Yes, yes, yes, yes.
I have been listening to you guys for a very long time.
I accidentally found you just on my phone's podcast.
I just needed something else besides music
to listen to with my kids.
Another armcherry put it as you were the soundtrack
to their life, and I love that.
That rang true.
Oh, that's really nice.
And I have to give a quick shout out to my children.
They've become quite some big armcherrys. My 10-year-old daughter, she's really nice. And I have to give a quick shout out to my children. They've become quite some big armchairs.
My 10 year old daughter,
she's obsessed with armchair anonymous specifically.
That's all she'll listen to in the car.
Is it appropriate for a 10 year old?
I don't know, but you know what?
We're learning a lot about life together.
That's right.
And it's a lot of fun.
Life is complicated.
They need to learn.
This is real life stuff, right?
She's either gonna learn it on the playground.
She's gonna learn it from you guys.
They're learning about the world they live in,
and I don't think that can be a bad thing.
This is essentially a playground as well.
You must understand from our point of view,
we hear that so often.
We don't ever hear that their kids wanna listen
to the other two shows that are educational and heartwarming.
And my own kids are not interested in Monday or Wednesday
at all, but they love-
I get it, it's more fun.
Wait till I tell them someone shot their vagina tonight
at dinner. Oh my God.
Yeah, just wait.
And my seven-year-old son, he enjoys it as well.
He actually has a suggestion for a prompt.
Oh!
He's obsessed with anything and everything military.
So I don't know if a military prompt
could be appropriate or not.
I think that'd be great.
And a quick shout out to my friend Val.
I turned her into an armcherry.
She's obsessed with anonymous.
She's almost through all of them.
And then she's going to start over on just armchair expert.
Wow.
And work her way through.
She's got her work cut out.
She's loving it.
Oh, wonderful.
Keep converting people for us.
Yep.
All the time.
You guys are lovingly referred to as my podcasts at home.
Like if I'm talking to family and friends, it's just, oh, on my podcast, this and that.
Oh, we appreciate you.
Thank you, you too.
Take care.
Hello.
Mike, hello.
Your little screen that comes up first
had the most amount of letters I've ever seen
in someone's kind of description.
Yeah, that was unintentional.
Just stuck on there from past Zoom meetings.
Are you in the medical industry?
I am, yes.
Okay, because you have kind of a medical looking
name badge on.
I'm a doctor, but first I'll tell the story
and then we'll kind of go into a little bit about
what kind of doctor I am.
Man, what a day.
This is the sixth time I get to ask,
have you watched The Pit?
Oh, I love The Pit. Yes.
Okay, hit us with this story and then we'll learn what kind of doctor you are.
This story goes back to medical school in 2012.
First of all, I'm Colin from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Oh, Marquette.
Yep, but this story took place in Kirksville, Missouri,
which is a little town and that's where my medical school was.
One of the great joys of medical school is cadaver lab. At our school, we got to start with a full
human. Over the course of a year, we take that person from a fully formed person down to
bones. Nothing. Which is a really cool and really weird experience
simultaneously, but it's just a lot of fun.
They call it our first patient.
And so you learn a lot from your first patient,
but stuff does get a little wild in the cadaver lab.
It's just an interesting place.
Yeah, there's a corpse in front of you.
In our room, there were 28 corpses.
There's six medical students at each table.
And so what we would do is every day,
we had basically an objective.
We have to show X, Y or Z,
whether it's nerves or bones or muscles,
that type of thing.
So this day was probably about a month into medical school.
We were working on the arms
and our team was scraping the fat off of the arm.
We had an elderly gentleman
who had quite a bit of subcutaneous fat.
So it's like everything gets soaked
and it's kind of like an olive oil kind of feeling.
And then you've got all the formaldehyde.
And so we're in the process of doing this.
I'm scraping this fat off
and I'm talking with my teammates and a piece
of fat, probably about the size of a kidney bean flew off of the cadavers arm into my
open mouth.
No!
No!
No!
Oh my god, I gotta go, I gotta go.
I immediately froze and I just went, ah!
And I ripped off my gloves and literally everybody
in my medical school class just turned
and looked right at me.
The room got dead silent and I just yelled,
I've gotta go to the bathroom. Oh my God.
I rushed out of the anatomy lab room
and just stood over the toilet gagging for several minutes.
You know, washed my mouth out
with as much water as I could.
Not enough water in the whole world.
I'm telling you, nothing in this show
has gotten me close to vomiting thus far.
And we've heard some crazy stuff,
but I was a little bit like, oh my God.
I mean, that's a horrifying thought.
Bit of a corpse in your mouth.
Fat, not even.
Oh, I know, it's not even muscle.
It's not pleasant.
Oh.
I came back in the room and everybody's looking at me.
One of our professors was like,
did what we think just happened, just happen.
And I was like, yes, it did.
You know, the rest of the day, having that taste in my mouth was not pleasant.
Oh, fuck.
Are you a pathologist?
I'm actually an addiction medicine doctor.
Oh, really?
I love that.
It's so great that I got to talk to you because you guys played a big role in me
choosing to go for my addiction medicine board certification. It's so great that I got to talk to you because you guys played a big role in me choosing
to go for my addiction medicine board certification.
I was in the process of trying to chart my career at the beginning of the pandemic.
And one of the things that I point to that had a big impact on me was the seven days
episode.
I'm just so grateful to you guys for sharing that and your honesty.
And whenever I have residents or med students working with me,
I give them a list of media.
That episode is one of the things that I recommend to people.
Oh, thank you, brother.
That's so nice.
Thank you.
What do we think about GLP-1s?
Is that a conversation that's in the mix in your field right now?
Is there any curiosity or excitement around that?
I've heard a couple talks on it at the American Society of Addiction Medicine. in your field right now? Is there any curiosity or excitement around that?
I've heard a couple talks on it
at the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
There's a lot of promise,
simply because it's hard to get insurance to pay for it,
and there's been shortages,
and it would be off label.
I'm not using it yet,
but I do have some people who have diabetes
and alcohol use that I'm using it for.
It's definitely part of the conversation,
and I think it's gonna be a great tool
in our toolbox in the future.
It's kind of exciting.
I'm optimistic and fingers crossed
for people who are struggling and newly into it.
Just to be very clear, I have no fantasies
about going on a GLP-1
and trying to resume drinking responsibly,
just to put everyone's potential fear at ease,
but I am very excited for the people who are currently struggling.
Yeah, any tool that we have.
Because as we know, there's not a lot of great options for people.
Anything we can do to give people ammunition and finding sobriety is going to be awesome.
Yeah.
Well, listen, I'm so happy, Mike, that you've chosen this career.
I think we need bright people that are passionate about it.
And I'm really happy you found your way there.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, thanks.
Well, you guys have a wonderful day.
You too, brother.
Take care.
Thanks so much.
Those were great.
Yeah, boy.
Piece of dead person fat.
Piece of dead fat.
Ooh, let's eat lunch.
Ew!
Love you.
Do you wanna sing a tune or something?
We know the theme song for this new show
So here I go, go, go
We're gonna ask some random questions
And with the help of Armchairs
We'll get some suggestions
On the flyer, Rhyme Dish
On the flyer, Rhyme Dish Enjoy Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondry app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen to every episode of Armchair Expert early and ad free right now by joining
Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.