Heavyweight - Heavyweight Check In: What’s to Come

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

What we’ve been up to, and what’s in store through the coming weeks.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, hello. Hi, hold on. I'm not so bad yet. Hello. Can you hear me? Hello. Yes, Kalila. Hi.

Hello, Jonathan. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi, hold on, I'm not set up yet. Ba ba ba ba, da da da da, okay. Hello, can you hear me? Hello, yes, Kalila, hi. Hello, Jonathan. Hello.

Stevie, hello. Hi. Wow, that's some real like citizen cane lighting in that studio. Yeah. Very expressionistic shadows. I'm not big on overhead lights. So how are we?

It's been a while. It's been a year. It's been over a lights. So how are we? It's been a while. It's been a year. It's been over a year. So what's new? What's happening? Well, we were all laid off. Yep. Yes.

Your point being? You said what I was just answering about what we've been up to. I guess I get a little defensive about it. No, we had like kind of a crazy year of trying to find a new home for the show. Yeah, a lot of meetings. Some good meetings, some bad meetings. I could not believe how long it took, I will say.

I know. And everyone told me, I was talking to other people, you know, who have taken their shows to new places or had their shows canceled, and everyone told me, like, it's gonna take longer than you think. And I was like, but I already think kind of a long time, so I may be getting ahead of this. And still, it took a long time. Yeah, so what'd everyone get up to

with all your unstructured time? long time. Yeah, so what did everyone get up to with all your unstructured time? Well, for me, I realized that I had been kind of on the carousel of deadlines and production for almost 20 years. So you know, stopping affected me in a way that I didn't anticipate, but I did kind of go through a period of feeling very Etsy and took me a while to get used to like not doing anything in a way, like except for, you know, taking my son to school, picking him up and going on runs and trying to teach myself,

not very successfully, how to play the piano. Can you play any basic songs? Not even. I mean, it's very jazzy. It's very avant-garde, the way that I play the piano, I would say. Like you're just playing random notes. Kind of.

So yeah, so those are the major things. What have you guys been up to? Stevie? I know that you've probably been up to all kinds of, you're a very productive person. What about me? What kind of person am I? This isn't about you. Fine, I'll hold my question.

Matthew 10 I don't know. I could see, you didn't, I don't know, maybe you joined a cult or something. I'm not sure. Hailey Dixon I would be easily sucked into a cult. Matthew 10 You think so? Hailey Dixon Yeah. It's a fear of mine. Matthew 10 What would be the thing that would, that would suck you in? Hailey Dixon I think that they just caught me on a bad day where I was feeling really isolated and they were like, come on. And I didn't want to disappoint them.

I'd be like, okay. And I'd be like, these people are so nice. And you'd be like, I always have plans now. My calendar is so full with events. Yeah, because, you know, cults are really using Google Calendar. Every day is just blocked off within it just says cult stuff. But to answer your question, Jonathan, I also did a whole bunch of nothing this year. Really?

Yeah, I... You're not just saying that to make me feel better? No, no, no. I keep calling it my year off and everyone's like off of work and I'm like off of everything. Yeah, pure. Yeah, exactly. Let's see, I traveled a lot. I visited friends. I read like multiple books, like multiple books.

Like three books maybe. Yeah. And as you guys know, I do a lot of jewelry making and blacksmithing. Like you make horseshoes? So that's not nothing. a lot of jewelry making and blacksmithing. Like you make horseshoes? So that's not nothing. So you were working and you were making jewelry and things. Yeah, yeah, I was being creative, I guess, but very unstructured. Yeah.

What about you, Kaylee? What did you do? I also traveled some. The other thing I did, which was very fun. I'm a big fan of the Brooklyn Public Library, and they did something this last year called Browse the Branches, where you got a little booklet, like a little passport, and you tried to go to every Brooklyn Public Library branch, and they would give you a little sticker at each one. And if you got all the stickers, you got a tote bag, which I did. How many branches are there?

62. Okay. It was a little embarrassing always to walk up to them and be like, hey, can I have the sticker? But I did it. So that was probably my biggest accomplishment of the year. Well should we talk about what we've got coming up? So that was probably my biggest accomplishment of the year. ALIANA So, we're gonna revisit some favorite episodes and have some little updates at the end of what's happened since.

But before that... Yeah, so one thing that we did this year was that we would occasionally check in and we would let each other know what we were up to in the form of audio stories. Yeah, we weren't making heavyweight. We're trying to entertain each other and keep those gears from rusting. Is that how machinery works? Yeah.

I think gears can get rusty if they're not oiled with the juices of creativity. Yeah, didn't want that. But then what happened was, you know, we kind of made them just as like a silly thing. And then we played them for each other and we were like, oh, these are kind of great. And we thought that they could be fun in this time while we're making the new season

to share with our audience. For fun. Yeah. So should we say what our stories are about? I made a story about something I found myself doing a lot of in this time off, which was solving long-standing customer service issues. That's one of your passions.

I would also call it a passion. Thank you, Kaylee. I spent some time trying to do things that freaked me out, but that I felt that I needed to try at some point in my life. So I wrote a little essay about one of the things that I tried. Jonathan, what's yours? Yeah, so I made a story about one of the things that I did during our year off was I stopped drinking, which is something that I had been doing on a daily basis for at least the past couple of decades.

I mean, to be clear, I should say it wasn't like I hit rock bottom or anything. I didn't bottom out. But- But you stopped bottom or anything. I didn't bottom out, but, uh, But you stopped bottom zing up. I bottomed, I bottomed up. Is that an expression? Bottoming up. As in like tilting the bottom of the,

Yes. Right. Cause that is true. I did. Yes. I also feel like I did this, um, you know, when it was announced that the show was coming back, I did this interview with the New York Times and, you know, they asked me what I've been up to in the past year and I was like, well, you know, I quit drinking. So I feel like if I start drinking again, it'll be like I've lied to the New York Times. They're going to have to do a correction. And the italic print at the bottom that's like, Mr. Goldstein.

Has since started drinking again. Yeah, I don't need that. Okay, so we're going to release these three little stories and then we'll have these old favorites with updates for you over the summer. We're going to take a little break and we'll be back with a new season. Jonathan, do you want to play us out? You know, conveniently I've been sitting behind the piano this whole time. I'm sorry. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.