Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update - Awkward Thursday: No Free Family Dinner

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

You're about to hear some drama between a brother and sister that's turning their Turkey Day into BERZERKY-DAY, and the only way we can help fix it, is with an Awkward Thursday Phone Call!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Thank you so much for being here. We got a brand new episode for you. And it is an awkward Thursday phone call. Yay! We brought it back for you guys. We got some holiday drama, definitely brewing. We're going to help this guy out in just a second. But first, we love featuring your comments.

Yes. And Peter Willshut. said, I just wanted to say I'm second date update addicted. I'd love to listen to these crazy stories. My neighbors started listening after I had y'all on speaker in my garden. Oh gosh. Never change love from Holland.

Hey. Oh, from Holland? Yeah. Why do I picture his garden just all tulips? It's just a feel. I love it. That's so rad. I love it. Hey, thanks for listening all over the world. It really truly makes our day. And enjoy this awkward Thursday. When your spouse

says they refuse to come with you to your family Thanksgiving for the first time in five years you know something is up. Yeah. Is that that was the first hint you had? It's a little subtle hint there. Or maybe upside down, you know, you're about to hear

some drama that's been going down between a brother and a sister that's turning their turkey day into berserky day. Are you trying to coin that term? It is. And the only possible way for them to fix it is by us doing a special awkward Thursday phone call.

We're all just going to skip over that berserky line. Okay. Brooke, you come up with the joke. I don't know. It's just something better than that. We'll do it coming up. The drama will be juicy, just like the Thanksgiving bird. Boo. It's going to be berserky. A berserky turkey coming up next.

It's awkward. It's Thursday. It's awkward. Thursday. Yeah, right. Oh, yes. Our listeners love it. That's right. Back by popular demand. And it's the awkward Thursday phone call. I love our high-end imaging that we have on this show, too. I don't sense any sarcasm there.

None, none at all. Since Thanksgiving always lands on Thursdays, this is perfect, because today's awkward call is about Turkey Day. Awesome. Strange, it's usually such a peaceful, non-confrontational holiday. Just food and football and constant hugs. I didn't have any drama coming. out of that day.

No, but apparently one of our listeners, Patrick, is dealing with some family drama, so he's requested our help. Patrick, how does it feel being the only family in America with an awkward Thanksgiving? I feel supposed to like a normal day ending in and why for me. Oh. So for you, it's hectic all the time. He's being sarcastic. We all have family drama, so we got your back.

Yeah. There's even some families that probably don't talk at all, and that's the drama. Yeah, yeah, exactly. dinner. Oh, well, I need your guys as help. Okay. All right. We got you. I can't promise anything, but we'll try.

So tell us about the situation that's going on with you and your Thanksgiving this year. All right. So my sister has been hosting Thanksgiving now for the past five or six years. And she's got a really nice house. She's an awesome cook, which honestly makes sense, right? Yeah. She's a successful one in the family. I hear what you're saying.

Yeah. She wants to brag to all the other family members. about how great she is. Guys, I think logistically, it normally is at a person, the bigger house. We actually have a guest room that's empty, even though everyone's here. Well, we'll just call her the golden goose.

Okay. That's cool, though. She apparently read some kind of news story in England about a woman who was hosting a family dinner and she was charging per person to attend. Oh, goodness. Oh, right. Oh, no.

I guess my sister said, well, I should do that for Thanksgiving. Oh, no. We have heard other people before say that they're charging their families on Thanksgiving because of the extra costs that they have to do hosting and all that stuff. So it's not totally unheard of. I mean, it's basically asking them to chip in. Right. Instead of bringing food.

So how did your sister lay this out? Well, she didn't tell me directly. She sent me and my wife, Evite, with an RSVP option, and there was a note that said our family of four would cost $100. Wow. Well, first of all, my wife thinks it's a joke. So she got on the phone with my sister, and she found out she was actually serious. And they got into it.

Oh, no. So now my wife's feelings are hurt, and she doesn't want to go. And she's already booked a plane ticket to go visit her family in another city. Oh, my gosh. How much money is her family charging for Thanksgiving? So wait, are you saying that you and your wife are right now splitting up for Thanksgiving? You would go with your family and she would go with hers? Yeah.

Oh, that is drama. A dream for you, right, Brooke? No, I actually like being with my mom's. I mean, I make fun of them a lot. No, I was talking about your family. Oh. The normal family. But where's your problem?

Because I feel like you have a problem now with your wife and also with your sister. I went and I told my sister about the situation and tried to make her feel guilty. Oh, okay. Her response was good. We don't need her. And it still be $100. Oh, wow. Wait, shouldn't it only be $75 if you're bringing you in the two kids?

That's what I asked her. I told her, but it's only three of us now. It should be $25 a person. And my sister just says, no, it's $100 for family. Oh, she's charging per family, not per person. plate okay well even too the woman that she read about in england that was just for a dinner party you know it wasn't a family gathering where everyone's supposed to be together for a happy joyous thanksgiving so obviously my sister is a little she's a little eye control and now i need help

talking some sense into her and i i just could use some advice guys okay so you want to call your sister yes because my wife says she's already done with this situation and the whole Thanksgiving thing and I'm just wanted to kind of mend the fences here and just try to save Thanksgiving essentially. Can I ask what it would take for your wife to? That's what I was going to say. Cancel her flight and come to come back. Yeah. How much money do we have to pay your wife? Well, I'm curious, like, are we wanting your sister, are you asking her to apologize? Are you asking her to drop the fee? Like, what would it take to keep things peaceful? Basically, just, look at the situation and say this is a family gathering we need to be together as a family this isn't

a paid per plate kind of deal wait has anybody else in your family complained about it several people have talked about it yes have they already paid her uh yes some of them have actually paid for this oh wow oh what hey i told them don't do it because i have friends in radio who are the experts Oh, who are they? Yeah, have you called them yet? Oh, you've had the wrong number. Oh, you're talking about us? Oh, God.

Yeah. Yikes, Patrick. Okay. Hey, we can do this. We're going to save Thanksgiving. And there's nothing more that Alexis likes than asking people for money. Yeah, maybe just have the hundred bucks ready in case. Yeah, but we need to try to think of some advice to give to Patrick before he calls his sister and asks her to see reason before Thanksgiving here.

Yeah, drop the charges, sis. Yeah. Patrick, are you cool with cursing? Because that may affect Brooks' advice. If she has the ears, I got the tone. Oh. I've never heard that saying before. I'm surprised Brooks never heard that.

I'm not even sure what it means. I'm kind of into it, but we'll come back with your advice to let you make your awkward Thursday phone call. Thanksgiving edition coming up right after this. Get the dump button ready, Jeff. It's awkward. It's Thursday. It's awkward. Thursday.

Phone call. Nothing says Thanksgiving like charging your family money to be in your presence. That's right. Pay up, people. When you say it like that, it's not good. It's sweet. It's not totally unheard of because it is a pretty expensive meal. But our listener, Patrick, is in a unique situation where his sister is charging $100 per family.

Even though Patrick's wife has already backed out of the event in frustration, his sister's still hitting him with the full $100 fee for him and his two children to attend. And mind you how she sent the news. Bia an e-bite. It wasn't a conversation. It wasn't like a text thread even. I'm impressed by it too. No.

Don't get me wrong. I mean. The passive aggressive. Yes. But clearly it is disturbing the entire family vibe. So Patrick is desperate for some advice on how to get his sister to see reason. Maybe lower the fees. just do something to get this holiday back on track so it's more about giving again.

So, Brooke, what's your advice for Patrick? Well, I mean, honestly, Patrick, she's your sister. You need to explain to her this is dividing the family. Is that what she really wants? Make her see that. And listen, if that doesn't work, if she doesn't give in to reason, you just let her know that you may or may not be sharing a very embarrassing story from childhood at the Thanksgiving table. That's only if she doesn't listen to reason, okay?

That's a good brother threat. Or I'm going to beat you up like old times. Yeah, a little blackmail in a sibling relationship is healthy. It's healthy. Patrick, I'm not hearing from me. Are you down for a little family extortion to save Thanksgiving? Can you think of a good story? If it saves Thanksgiving, absolutely.

Okay. All right. Let's remember that one. And Jose, what's your advice? Well, you're not going to get very far in the discussion. If she's already, like, gotten into it with your wife, right? Yeah, I know. They had a combo.

I know. Which adds drama. So maybe just to keep the piece, you tell her, I'll slide you a hundred bucks, but just tell my wife it was free. I like that. Just say, hey, I took the fee off. I'll use that if it's a last resort. Okay. Okay.

What's your sister's name, Patrick? Oh, yeah. Angela. Hopefully we're going to melt Angela's cold, cold heart. She's cooking the whole dinner. She sounds like a very lovely person. She's definitely the oldest sibling. Yeah.

There's no question. It's a little hot in there, though, so maybe a little melting action could be in the store. Here we go. I'm just going to dial the number. Patrick, you got this, man. Hello? Hey, Angie, it's Patrick. Wait, sorry, do you change your number?

This was, like, some random. Yeah, I know. I kind of dropped the old phone in the toilet and I just had I just had to get a new phone so yeah no I thought it was one of those spam calls of getting so many

of those lately it's ridiculous well trying to extend your car's limited warranty yeah something like that yeah I've been getting those too you got to talk to you about something okay it's about this whole

Thanksgiving fee. Yeah, I think it's going to be one of the best Thanksgiving's we've had. Okay. How do you figure that? Like, you're charging your own family to spend time at your house.

Well, sure. I mean, with the stress of money and the grocery bills and the cleaning bills afterward, I mean, this year it looks like I'm actually going to have a bit of a surplus here. What? You're making money off of this?

I mean, at first, I thought, you know, I was just barely going to break even, but then it came to me. What did? Well, Buba and Papa. What are you talking about? Well, okay, they're old, you know, they're going to need priority parking, so the driveway is just going to be roped off just for them, so they can get in and out easily, and it's just going to be like $50 a pop.

What are you talking about? You're charging our grandparents for an important service. Oh, what? I think it's going to be one of our most successful Thanksgiving. And if you don't come, you're going to, you're going to miss out. I mean, the food's going to be next level. I mean, it's always like really good, but. Yeah, well, this year it's going to be even better.

I mean, I've had like three people, I think, pay for upgrades for the pies this year. What is that? What is that? No, okay. It was on the E-vite, if you would care to read it. You get a bigger slice with more with cream for $7. Whoa. What are you going to do next?

Pay to use a restaurant? Look, don't be ridiculous. I mean, I'm being practical. The whole reason that I'm doing this in the first place is to help pay for a new garage door, okay? Wait, what? A new garage door? Angie, listen to your stuff. I accidentally hit it last week when I was watching a TikTok while I was driving.

Oh, gosh. Wait, no way, this is why. She wrecked her on garage door? Who are all those people? Hey, you're my family. Yeah. I can't afford to be in this family. We're a family radio show, Angela.

We're a morning show called Brooke and Jeffrey. Patrick, what is this? you're on a radio show. I wanted to get the whole premise of why you think this is a good idea. Yeah. Okay. He needed a little help, obviously. Yeah.

So, and, Angela, this is called an awkward Thursday phone call. An extremely popular segment nationwide. You should listen. But basically, your brother is a little bit frustrated with how this whole Thanksgiving fee is going over. Okay. And he's not the only one. Like you're dividing the family. His wife is refusing to come.

You got in a fight with her. Other family members are upset. No one else has talked to me about this. It seems like it's just his wife. Oh. You don't think that your family's talking behind your back right now. Angie. Grandma and grandpa for sure.

I mean, charging the grandpa. There's definitely a thread that you're not on. Just because they're not saying something directly to you doesn't mean they're not a little bit uncomfortable with the same. situation unfolding? I think it's entrepreneurial. Okay. It's a little business savvy, but it's against your own family. It's just a little cold. Yeah. Nobody's here saying we're not

going to steal that idea for ourselves and do it at our own thanksgivings. We're not saying that, but we are saying that clearly your brother is struggling with the whole concept. And he's not very good at talking for himself. Clearly. I mean, Patrick, you should jump in and talk to your sister about this. This is between you and your family.

I'm just trying to figure out what in the hell is going on with this whole situation, Angie. You know, you don't need to rope anything off. You don't even need to charge. Listen, Patrick, if you don't want to come, don't come. Oh. That's not what Patrick's saying. Andy, you don't want your brother and his family to miss dinner, do you?

No, so he should pay the hundred and be there. Okay. Patrick, I mean, look, it sounds like not a lot is working here, so maybe it's a good time to go with Jose's advice. All right. Angie, I'll slip you the $100, $100. Just don't tell Amanda, okay? Oh, your wife.

I'll just tell her it's free. Mm-hmm. You know what? If you may get $150, you have a deal. Oh, $150? Oh, my gosh. There's no way. Is there a $50 lying surcharge?

Is that what you're doing? There is a $50 put me on the radio search off. Oh. Now, Angie, that's just exploitative. It was exploitative to put her on the radio, Patrick. It's big of you to admit that. Do we get any of the radio fee?

I don't think we do. No, but I think Angie's really in the boss in this situation. I think you should take the deal before it goes up to 200. And get your wife the pie upgrade. You got to add $7. I mean, come on.

Seth's a little thing. Being a good husband there. All right, all right. I'll pay the $150 and throw in the pie upgrade for my wife. Wow. Good doing business with you, brother. Oh, it's a happy Thanksgiving after all.

Dude, we failed him so hard. I have to pay more now. I regret calling in. Hey, we're the experts. Brooke and Jeffrey in the morning. What up, y'all? It's your boy, Kevin on stage. I want to tell you about my new podcast called Not My Best Month,

where I talk to artists, athletes, entertainers, creators, friends, people I admire who had massive success about their massive failures. What do they mess up on? what is their heartbreak? And what did they learn from it? I got judged horribly. The judges were like, you're trash. I don't know how you got on the show.

Boo, somebody had tomatoes. I'm kidding. But if they had tomatoes, they would have thrown the tomatoes. Let's be honest. We've all had those moments we'd rather forget. We bumped our head. We made a mistake. The deal fell through.

We're embarrassed. We failed. But this podcast is about that and how we made it through. So when they sat me down, they were kind of like, We got into the small talk, and they were just like, so what do you got? What? What ideas? And I was like, oh, no. What? Check out not my best moment with me, Kevin on stage, on the Iheart radio app, Apple podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast.

The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday. A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese? sandwich reveal about the economy. Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsize indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout? There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back. He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things,

whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So what did we learn from all that? Other than don't call us with your family problems because we'll probably make them worse. We learned that the older sister in that family has like, quite the business line. She's got her stuff together.

She's a boss. We definitely learn people who are greedy trying to profit off of family during the holidays. Those people seem to come out on top. Probably worth trying it. You know, I will say, though,

even if she profits a little, if she's hosted all of this and done all the food for the last five years, I mean, she's still kind of losing money. Oh, yeah, okay. That's why you always get a different family member to host.

Like, duh. You got to switch it up. Yeah. Something tells me the drama hasn't quite ended for Angela and her family. She's going to have a Venmo QR code up in the middle of the dinner table to upcharge gam gam for her second serving of green beans. Oh, yeah, pass the potatoes, scam the QR phone. Yep. Best of luck to Angela and Patrick and their entire family this Thanksgiving.

But if you ever need some help, in your personal life, you can always email the show. We can do an awkward Thursday phone call, awkward Tuesday, awkward Wednesday. I want Sunday. I want Sunday. Doors are open now. We'll do it for you. Just find us online at Brooke and Jeffrey. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood,

a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time? You get Desi Arnest. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life, how he redefined American television and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen.

Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valdera on the IHare Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline is. The most Texas story ever. Listen to Business History on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. On an all new episode of IHeartRadios Las Culturistas, Jennifer Lawrence is dishing. Jennifer Lawrence. Let's go! Let's go! From her hilariously awkward run-ins with A-Lister's. I don't know what I was expecting, but he was just like,

nice to meet you. To her unfiltered take on beauty treatments. I'm so upset I think the Botox before that. And a jaw-dropping reveal you won't see coming. I don't know if I can announce this, but I'm just kind of. Open your free IHeard radio app. Search Lust Cultureista and listen to the full podcast now. What up, y'all?

It's your boy, Kevin on stage. I want to tell you about my new podcast called Not My Best Moment, where I talk to artists, athletes, entertainers, creators, friends, people I admire who have had massive success about their massive failures. What did they mess up on? What is their heartbreak? And what did they learn from it? I got judged horribly.

The judges were like, you're trash. I don't know how you got. on the show. Check out not my best moment with me kept on stage on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm I Belongoria. And I'm Maitego Mejian, and this week on our podcast, Hungry for History, we talk oysters, plus the Mianbe chief stops by. If you're not an oyster lover, don't even talk to me. Ancient Athenians used to scratch names onto oyster shells to vote politicians into exile. So our word ostracize is related to the word oyster.

No way. Bring back the OsterCon. Listen to Hungry for History on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.