Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update - Textual Healing: A Different Type of Ghosting

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

In a new relationship there’s tons of little things that could give you the “ick.” We’re gonna help one of our listeners navigate AWAY from those icebergs with some Textual Healing!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2%. That's the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%. I break down the signs of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's TWO% on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever. you get your podcasts. When a group of women discover

they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that, trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe, on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodom. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Miles Turner. And I'm Brianna Stewart. And our podcast, Game Recognized Game, has never been done before. Two active players giving you a real look at our lives and what we actually think, on and off the court. Nothing's off limits. We talk tanking. I might get in trouble for this answer, but I think it's, like, definitely happening in the WBA. We talk about our mistakes, too.

They pulled me to their side and was like, hey, man, we got a call last night, man. You can't be rolling around the city like this tonight before games. Check out Game Recognized Game with Stoian Miles on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Readers, Katie's finalists, publicists. We have an incredible new episode this week for you guys. We have our girl Hillary Duff in here, and we can't wait for you to hear this episode. They put on Lizzie McGuire 2 a.m. Video on Demand this guy's. 2 a.m.

2 a.m. Whatever time it is. Lizzie McGuire. and I'm like, wild bat you were with. It was like a first, like, closet moment from me where I was like, I don't feel like she's hot, like the rest of that. No, no, no.

I was like, she's beautiful. I'm appreciating her in a different way than these boys are. I'm not like, but listen to Los Coltristas on the Iheart radio app, Apple podcast, or whatever you get your podcast. Hey, it's Brooke and Jeffrey in the morning on the second date podcast, and some would say that texting is more of a visual thing. Yeah, a thousand percent.

Except for we decided to do a whole segment about it anyway. It's called textual healing. It's where you're stuck in a text conversation. You're not sure what to say next. We come in and help you solve that issue. Yeah. Sometimes helping, sometimes making it worse. Yeah, and fun fact, editor Ashley said this is her favorite segment we do.

Oh, great. That's going to know. I mean, we had to do it since your generation, Alexis, refuses to make phone calls. Oh, yeah. It's more out of necessity. All right. Well, now you know what it is? Let's get it going.

In a new relationship, there's all sorts of little things that can give you the ick. So many, dude. Like if they part their hair the same way your dog does. What? Just right in half? Or if after every kiss, they giggle and in a baby voice say, Do it again, Mama. There is no coming back from those.

He just gave me the friend ick, Jeff. That's why one of our listeners needs our help today. Because she's been dating this great guy. And the one thing that might be giving him the ick is the awkward text exchanges that they've been having. Uh-oh. And like just this morning, she got a message. She has no idea how to respond to. So we're going to try and step in and help her out with a textual healing coming up.

Right after this one. No, stop. I don't like it. Textual healing. Textual. Needless to say, this morning show has many, many skills using our fingers. pencil tricks tummy tickles

me and Jose pinching our noses when we pass by Brooks lunch we are very very good with our fingers I didn't know you could smell cauliflower so much I'm sorry it's not pleasant especially when you put it in the microwave

maybe don't do that with spinach horrible but you know what maybe our best finger skill is texting and we like to help our listeners come up to our level with this segment called textual healing where we help somebody with their texting

conversation when they don't quite know what to say. And today's honored guest who needs some tender textual healing is Dory. So let's welcome Dory to the show. How you doing? Hi, everybody. Hey, Dory. Dory. You're hungry? You want some of my lunch? I'll give you some. Yeah, death by garlic. Say no. It sounds fabulous. She's lying. Yeah, she doesn't know. I like Dori. Dori, you reached out for us because you need help with some texting. Who are we going to be texting today?

Yes. You guys, I met this guy and we've been going out three or four weeks. It's not exclusive. We haven't had the exclusive talk, but in real life, I really, really like him. Oh, that's awesome. In virtual life, do you like him, too? Not so much. No, in texting life, it's a problem.

The thing is, when we're together, it's great. I have no issues. I really like him again. But when it comes to texting, we're off. Really? I know exactly what you mean. Maybe he's just not, I mean, I feel like there's a lot of people out there

that don't know how to keep a conversation going on text. Is that what it is? Is it feel like you text him and then things just stop? I'm just not sure what it is. It's really not vibing. It's like it's so different from how we are when we're together. Do you have an example of like how you're texting isn't meshing with each other? Yeah, actually I do.

So one time he texted me and he said, when you come over later, the neighbor's kids have challenged us to a water fight. Okay. Water, okay. That's cute. That is cute. Right. Right. That was a cute text.

And so I texted back. I said, oh, that sounds like fun. I'm in. Yeah. That's a good response. Squirt gun emoji. And then he texted, should I wait for you to boil the water? Oh.

Wait, he's going to pour boiling water on the neighbor children. He's being funny, right? I mean, I was confused. I was like, what? And then he was just like, oh, he was just joking. Yeah, yeah. But that's an example I'm trying to say of why it's off. In real life, I don't seem to have that confusion.

In real life, you get jokes on text. Got it. Well, you could see the water boiling in real life. That way, there's no question. This is a thing. You have bad text chemistry. Usually you talk about this a lot, though, Jose. Is that a bad thing, though?

Is that, like, bad for a relationship, you know? You want to be excited to text somebody. Like, are you worried about this? If you're doing, you're not going to text all day anyway. That's true. I am a little bit worried about it because it sets a dynamic off. Like, I don't know to go forward or what. Okay, so you feel like every time that you guys do a text conversation,

it's like subtracting from your relationship in real life. So where are you at right now in your convo with him via text? It's still confusing to me. Actually, today, he texted me something. That's why I'm calling you guys. I don't know how to respond. Okay. So I sent him a text.

Let me read it to you. Okay. I said, hey, that computer that you let me borrow, do you know how much RAM it has? Okay. It sounds like a bad pickup line. Did you let you borrow a computer? Yeah, well, he let me a computer. Okay.

It was a really serious question. I needed to know for downloading or whatever. Okay. And so I was serious about it. And he responded, you guys. He said, sorry, I don't know. It was a friend of mine's, and he's dead now. Oh.

Wow. Oh, my gosh. Oh, okay. I mean, he could have been joking again. It's a dark joke. How do you read that? Very dark. I don't know what to think.

I mean, I didn't respond or text back because I don't know whether to make a joke. If he was joking, you know, if it's really true, then I might say something that's insensitive to a dead man. His man needs to use emojis more. Yeah. That would help. So we're responding back to this text with you right now about his friend possibly dying. Yes.

Okay. Can you just write back? Are you serious? Question mark? That sounds kind of cold and heartless. I think that no matter what happens, especially early on in a relationship, you want to keep things as light and as playful as possible. He mentioned a dead friend, so.

But maybe, but he was joking about the water. balloons and boiling water on top of children. Clearly his sense of humor is a little bit different. So what if you write back and you say, uh-oh, is this computer cursed? Okay. No, no, no. If he's dark, you got to go darker. Be like, how did you kill him?

What? Ask him. How did you murder your friend? That cursed was dark enough. What if you said, how about we get out the Ouija board and ask him? See, that's funny? That's dark. Dory, what do you think?

You have lots of options to choose from there. None of them are being normal at this point, though. You have to get back with a dark something. Well, she didn't come to us for a normal response to be like, oh, sorry. You know, we need a fun, playful response. You want a seance to talk to the friend to figure out the ram. I mean, that's acknowledging what he said. It's joking back in a not mean way.

Yeah. What do you think, Dory? I do like where you're coming from. I feel like I could say something like, well, can we have a seance so we can find out? Okay. Sure. I like that. I think he's going to like it.

You could use that crystal ball emoji. Oh, yeah. Yes. It's like a fortion. Not a seance, but whatever. Whatever. Handles would be more in the fitting. I think the message will come through either way.

Why don't you type that out and send it to your new guy friend here? I'm going to do it right now, you guys. Okay. You have to do it right now. That's the point. Did we get his name? We didn't ask for his name. Okay.

We need it. Okay. Okay. He's busy writing right now. Yeah, I don't want to distract her and ruin the text. He was laughing while she's typing it. She thinks she's so funny. It is funny.

All right. I'm going to send it. All right, let's do it. And send. Okay. All right. There's no way he's like, actually, my friend does haunt me. How dare you, you know?

It could come back to money. I have one plan this Friday. So that works out perfectly. But this is fun enough. It's right in the middle of you guys. We've laid the groundwork for a nice, playful conversation for the rest of to the way. We're going to come back and see if he responds to that.

Or the other friend, ooh, from the gray. Before we let him go, what's his name? Who are we texting? Andre. Andre. We'll see if Andre responds and we continue textual healing

right after this. We're in the middle of textual healing with our listener Dory. And normally, we get a lot of relationship stuff on this segment about how to text your crush or the UPS guy, how to text Brooks' husband to get him out the house so Roy the traveling salesman can come over.

We got a lot of excuses for that one. But text with Roy is fine though. Yeah. Yeah. You got a lot of chemistry. I'm kidding, honey. If you're listening, there's no Roy. This is a little bit different though because Dory needs our help, texting the guy that

she's just started dating. All their in-person chemistry is off the charts. It's just when they're on the phone texting, it can get a little bit rocky and they can't tell when the other person is joking or not. Oh, my God. You know, I still don't fully know either. Yeah. why she emailed us today

because she was asking him over text about a computer that she borrowed and how much ram it has. He responded with, I don't know, that computer belonged to my dead friend. So that put us at an interesting fork in the road. Do we take that seriously or assume that

it was a joke? I mean, like Alexis said, this is why emojis were invented. He needs to be using them. You need to know the inflection of your voice, your emotions. He joked before with a previous text, so we went down that road again and wrote back, well, maybe we should do a seance to find out.

Trying to be playful. And I'm thinking like, after we did I'm worried. Like, did we really do that? That's a little bit, it is a little bit dangerous. We can apologize. We can come back on it. I love it. I am interested to see if Andre has replied to it. Dory,

have you gotten any word back? Yes. Okay. Oh, no. What did he say? Drama. Okay, he said, oh, snap, do you believe in that too? We should 100% emoji do a seance for our next date. Okay.

Oh, okay. He's not offended. He continues, if he responds, you're going to love him. He's a great guy. Oh. That makes him seem serious. Yeah, that's what I'm worried now. How do you read that, Dora?

Do you think he's joking back or is he being serious now? I think he believes in ghosts. I don't know. Okay. Where do you stand? on that belief. Are you down having a seance with your new boyfriend? We're kidding, Brooke. She's not going to have a real seance.

It does mean that it actually is the friend's laptop. And the friends did. See, I'm 100% on the joking side. But you say he's joking? People that joke around nonstop like me, never stop. That's why it says nonstop, Brooke. Like he just took it too far. Exactly. He's not going to stop.

Yeah, I don't know if he is. Because if he'd sent the text without mentioning the friend specifically, then I would think it's a joke. So where you at? But the fact that he's bringing up his friend might mean that that's serious. And that you're going to meet him? I think he thinks you're going to meet him.

Which would be cool. That's a step in a relationship. Meeting the close friends. Yeah. Is it a little bit too soon to be meeting the dead friends? Don't you have to give it a few months? I don't know if there's a rulebook for that one. Okay, okay, now meet my great grandma.

Let's find her. It's like you just meet all the relatives. You guys, I'm so worried now. I mean, what do I say? Okay, okay. Now we got to legitimately find out if this is a joke or not, right? Do we need to do that, Brooke? Well, what else do we do?

We just keep on the road and we don't know whether we should show up on Friday night for a seance. The trains in motion don't jump in front and try to stop it now. We could keep joking. Why don't you say this? Why don't you say this?

Truth is, it'd be my first seance. What should I bring to that type of date? What do I wear? Alexis doesn't like it. No, I do. Alexis is being polite. She always says yes and everything. I would also totally do a seance.

You shouldn't say that if you don't want to do it. But you need to know, like, do you bring a bottle of a bottle of? wine? Do you need to wear a black dress? Like, where are we at? Are you actually open to a seance here, Dory, for real? Not really. Okay. But maybe there's a way we can joke and back off of it. I really like you guys' response. It'll be my first seance. What did I bring? I like that. Well, now you do what I do. Okay. Then just send that. Let's just send it. Okay, you guys, I've texted it. Okay. And now we'll totally, I think, be able to tell from this text. Because if he's

says wear something nice and be respectful for the dead, then you'll know he's serious. If he's like, bring a bunny costume, then you know he's silly. Go to a pet cemetery and dig up a dead animal. We need the bones from it. See, that. You guys, you guys, he texted back.

What did he say? Here we go. Okay, that was really quick for a geez. He's really excited about this seance. He must be. He said, oh, are you serious? That could be a deal breaker for me. What?

Oh, doing it or not doing it? No, asking what to wear. No, admitting that it's her first time. Or me being into it as a deal breaker. I don't know why. Yeah, but it's... Being into it's bad. Oh.

Yeah. Just say, I was joking and just leave it at that. What did you say? And then he can decide what the joke was. Yeah, yeah. Can we joke back and say like, oh, thank God because I was worried I was going to fall in love with your dead friend? Oh. No.

Or you were worried that his friend was going to hit on you. I mean, you had been to hit on a... Because remember, like, our mission here is just to try and connect with Andre, this guy that she's texting. And it is off still. It is. It's trying to be playful. Well, we're talking too much about Andre's possibly dead friends. I like your joke.

I think your joke's funny. Okay. Like, I do. I liked your version of it, though, a little bit better than mine. Oh, okay. I was worried that he was going to be. going to hit on me anyway. Yeah. Ghosts have a thing for me, so I was worried he was

going to fall in love with me anyway. What you're showing by doing that is that you're like a light, playful person, you don't take things too seriously. You're just trying to like have a good time with him. You're rolling with the... Right. I'm not being judgmental or whatever. Yeah. Let's

just send that. Maybe you can put a laugh emoji on the end of that just to show that you're a ghost. The ghost, the ghost because it's a little silly, winky ghost. It's a joke. Yeah, the ghost emoji, because it's a smile. remind him he can use those too. Honestly. Good point, Alexis.

Help you. Lead by example. Okay. All right. So let's see. I'm getting it. Okay. Oh, thank God.

Do you always have this big of like a buildup every time you send a text to anybody? You have to like hype yourself up for it. With this man, I think. Maybe just with you have with Andre. No, it's just because, you know, it's so new and I really like him and I don't want to. Okay. So, all right. So, okay, I've written it.

I'm going to send it and send. There we go. Do you feel like you're texting with your mom right now, Jeffrey? All right. I mean, I just feel like we're not like crossing the line here. We're not being offensive. We're just being playful and jokey and fun. Yeah, we've stayed in the middle, which is good.

Dude, if he writes back and it's like, no, seance is on. This guy has so much work. He wrote back, guys. He wrote back. Oh, my gosh. He's really fast. What did he say? He says the laugh emoji.

Yes. He said, I was just messing with you. Oh. I don't have a dead friend. Oh, thank God. But we should text more. You're funny. Oh, no.

Oh, we did. Except her he just, he wants her to text more. Yeah, we get her on every day. Yeah, I don't know if we can be there for every single text conversation that you have. But you know what we'll do? We'll give you Brooks new Landlain. line. So you can call her at home. She's the only one in the entire

city who has one now. You know she's going to answer. Or the kids will answer. That whole family's funny. You feel like we've helped you out there, Dory? Can we leave you to it now? I think you guys did an amazing job. We cleared it up. I think going forward, our texts will

die better together now, I think. Yeah, you need to read every text from this man as a joke. Nothing he says on text is serious. Do those voice texts from now Yeah. Just so that you don't frustrate people with your slow texting. Yeah, pretty much. Okay. Anyway, that's textual healing. It's Brooke and Jeffrey in the morning.

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That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world.

I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health. health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O-Pershap. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Well, that was one where the texting chemistry was definitely off. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, is that a no-go for you in the start of a relationship? Like, if you guys don't have good text chemistry, will it work? I mean, if you can get on the same page, not a lot of times it starts that way. But, yeah, you can never find it. And I don't know if you can be with somebody.

In their case, I feel like the less texting, the better. Like, I would never say phone calls are better. ever, but maybe for them it's the one time. Or maybe they should just stop with words and only do emojis. Yes, again, there was lack of emojis, this whole thing. They need emojis. Emojis really say things, especially when people

aren't very sarcastic. Like, if you can't pick up sarcasm, emojis will help you train that person to understand that you were laughing. I'm a big exclamation point person. Whenever I text our producer Boyd, he'll always reply to me with a ton of exclamation points, like mocking me. And I'm like, okay, listen. That's really bad. We had a few comments, though.

Someone said, I like this guy. He just has dark humor. Yeah. So. And, you know, we're a fan of dark humor on the show. Yeah. And then someone else said, love this. I just want to hang out with Dory.

I love her personality. Good job, team. Finally. Oh. So, you know what? That was a little rude at the end. Wait, maybe we're reading it wrong, though. You know, it is a comment.

There might be miscommunication. Got it. I don't know how we reread that one, right? But we appreciate it. Yeah. I mean, we can't really argue it either. So, hey, if you ever have an issue, you know, we do have a submit page on our website, which is brook and jeffrey.com, where you can submit to be on second dates or we do prank phone calls on our main feed.

If you want that or textual healing or an offer Tuesday, we got you. Go to brook and jeffrey.com and don't forget to subscribe. Thank you. 2%. That's the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. Put yourself through some hardships

and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's TWO% on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist,

They take matters into their own hands. I vowed I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wood. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat.

Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you, you get your podcast. I'm Miles Turner. And I'm Brianna Stewart.

And our podcast, Game Recognized Game, has never been done before. Two active players giving you a real look at our lives and what we actually think, on and off the court. Nothing's off limits. We talk tanking. I might get in trouble for this answer, but I think it's, like, definitely happening in the WBA. We talk about our mistakes, too. They pulled me to the side and was like, hey, man, we got a call last night, man.

You can't be rolling around the city like this tonight before games. Check out Game Recognized game with Stoian Miles On the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast Readers, Katie's finalists We have an incredible new episode this week for you guys We have our girl Hillary Duff in here And we can't wait for you to hear this episode

They put on Lizzie McGuire 2am video on demand This guys 2 AM Lizzie McGuire And I'm like A Wild bat you were with It was like a first like closet moment For me where I was like I don't feel like she's hot

Like the rest of that No no no I was like she's beautiful but I'm appreciating her in a different way than these boys are I'm not like but listen to Los Coleristas on the Iheart radio app Apple podcast or whatever you get your podcast.