Life Will Be the Death of Me with Chelsea Handler - Proper Trash with Antoni Porowski

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski is here to chat about making Awkwafina cry on his new show No Taste Like Home, the truth about heartbreak, and where Poutine REALLY comes from.  Then: A husband&...rsquo;s lack of sex drive has a wife at her wits’ end.  A skier is stuck doing the flowers for an ex-bestie’s wedding. And a new girlfriend struggles with the fact that her boyfriend has a roommate… that he’s previously slept with.   * Pre-order a signed copy of Chelsea’s new book HERE! * Need some advice from Chelsea? Email us at DearChelseaPodcast@gmail.com * Executive Producer Catherine Law Edited & Engineered by Brad Dickert * * * The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the Podcast author, or individuals participating in the Podcast, and do not represent the opinions of iHeartMedia or its employees.  This Podcast should not be used as medical advice, mental health advice, mental health counseling or therapy, or as imparting any health care recommendations at all.  Individuals are advised to seek independent medical, counseling advice and/or therapy from a competent health care professional with respect to any medical condition, mental health issues, health inquiry or matter, including matters discussed on this Podcast. Guests and listeners should not rely on matters discussed in the Podcast and shall not act or shall refrain from acting based on information contained in the Podcast without first seeking independent medical advice.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at BelAirDirect.com. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.
Starting point is 00:00:41 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the Internet and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators and plenty of overthought opinions. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy.
Starting point is 00:01:29 Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, Katherine. Hi, Chelsea.
Starting point is 00:01:52 Happy birthday. It's my birthday today. Even though this is airing on Thursday, we're recording it on my 50th birthday, everybody. I am 50 years old. Five-oh, baby. You know what? It's a significant birthday, and hopefully this year will be just as significant. It's going to be significant in more ways than one.
Starting point is 00:02:13 Hopefully more good ways than bad ways. Good. I mean, your book is out. You're going on tour in Europe. You have all these things going on. You're still doing your book tour. My book is available, everybody. It is finally on the shelves. So if you are listening to this podcast and you're an avid listener, not only do I want you to go and purchase my book,
Starting point is 00:02:33 I want you to leave a review on Amazon or barnesandnoble.com. Support the book if you like it. If you love it, tag me and tell me which part you love the most. I'll re-tag you and re-post you. But I want lots of interaction. So please, all my podcast listeners, this is our moment. This is it. This is it. So where's your birthday party in New York? Can you talk about where, when, all the exciting things? It's just, we threw it together. It's tonight at Mulberry or the Mulberry. I don't know, some little kind of bar restaurant situation. And I'm going to the 92nd street wide to have a conversation with Tinks about my book. I've done 57 talk shows in 24 hours and 50,000 podcasts. And definitely people know I have a book out. There is no way around it.
Starting point is 00:03:25 Good, good. I'm so glad. And people may notice that you sound a little bit different right now. And that's because you are literally in the glam chair getting ready to go do both of those things. Also, I want to remind people that my Owl's Brew is on the shelves. Chelsea Handler's Vodka Lemonade is available now in stores. So if you have a book club and you guys want to drink while you're reading, which is definitely what you should be doing. And not even if you're reading the book, just if you want some nice, smooth vodka lemonade mixes. We have classic, we have pink, and we have mint. And I'm so excited about this collab with Owl's Brew. So please show your support when you can. If you like beverages that are mixed, smooth, and non-carbonated,
Starting point is 00:04:04 we made them especially for, well, for me and for you. And Chelsea, we know you have good taste. So we're so excited for our guest today too it's Anthony Parofsky oh my god wonderful let's get the fucking party started and Anthony Parofsky's new show No Taste Like Home is on Disney Plus and Nat Geo okay am I unmuted you are muted now Chelsea I'm I'm muted oh okay now I'm unmuted Hi, Anthony. Hi. I don't know. Guys, I'm sorry. I really don't even know how the fuck to use a computer. I mean, it really does not matter how many times a week I do this. I really still can't understand what's going on and nor do I have any interest in finding out. Case in point. So this is your first ever podcast episode, right? And I'm honored to be your first. I mean, you would
Starting point is 00:04:58 you would think so. Yeah, it's probably like I can barely send a fucking email. So but you're younger you're a different generation I'm 40 I'm no spring chicken that makes you what a millennial 40 is that right congratulations on your new show by the way that it's so sweet you know I love that shit I love when you can go travel and have a really beautiful situation and then also talk to people there about the culture and like make that actually palatable for people who don't give of shit about other people's culture it's a way for them to no pun intended swallow it no totally well I think it takes my therapist always says she can attribute 99.9% of the world's problems to a lack of embracing of diversity and we're afraid of what we don't understand and that's
Starting point is 00:05:44 how we end up we I'm saying collective we but them that's how like you end up judging people and stereotypes and all that kind of stuff and when you get to know an individual and you get to know even just like the history of addition like what influenced it and all that kind of stuff it just makes it less scary. And sorry for the comparison, but like more palatable, you know? Well, it's also like I was reading something or listening to something, who knows what I was doing. And they were talking about the idea that the color of your skin or the way that you look makes you different. Like that whole, someone had to build that notion because it's so fucking stupid. It's like imagining opening up a box of crayons and having one color.
Starting point is 00:06:23 I just want to ask, it's the ADD kicking in. I see beautiful, like snow covered trees. Where are you? I'm in Whistler, Canada. Fuck yeah. I love it so much. I lived there for four months. You did? Why? Well, in Vancouver, my sister was running a bunch of stores called Aritzia.
Starting point is 00:06:37 Oh my God. Yeah. They give me stuff all the time. Last year, I came in and they were like, we want to give you free jackets. I was like, that's amazing. Go ahead. They have a line called TNA that my sister called tits and ass. Where's your accent from?
Starting point is 00:06:49 My accent? I'm Canadian originally. I'm from Montreal. Oh, okay. My family's Polish. You have Polish ancestry. Do I? Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:06:57 Apparently. How do you know that? When we were casting the really big web of, like, dream people. I'm just going to, like, throw it out there. Me and my sister, like, 40% of our identity is you. Like, we fucking love you, and you're just so fucking funny. She's losing her shit. This is the coolest thing I've ever done in her eyes,
Starting point is 00:07:14 more than, like, all fucking seasons of Queer Eye. So she was just really excited about this. Oh, that's really cute. I love it. We did initial research, and just by Googling, we found out that you supposedly have some Polish heritage. Well, I definitely have some Eastern European in there. So I'm sure that at one point everything was Poland, wasn't it? So I'm sure it was Poland. But I love that I'm 40% of your personality. That really makes me prideful. I love that kind of stuff. So when you were doing these, like whenever I have to travel for work, I always find it,
Starting point is 00:07:47 it's such a great idea. And then you do it and you're working instead of actually traveling. And I would always be like, I have to come back to this place when I'm not working. Like we went to St. Peter's or no, we went to Moscow. And that's one place I actually don't have to go back to. But when we were there, I was like, it would be such a different experience if we weren't filming. I mean, the point of going is to film, but then you want like an extra two days to vacation? I mean, what I do is typically I try to get somewhere at least a few days earlier. First of all, jet lag because it just wipes me off my ass and I have to like. What do you take for jet lag? Do you take NuVigil? NuVigil is a good pill for jet lag if you can get a prescription
Starting point is 00:08:25 for it. Oh, my dad's a physician and so is my stepmom. So I'll get it. I love the pharmaceuticals. Oh, yeah. It's like Adderall, but smooth. Like it doesn't make you jumpy and it makes you like if you have jet lag and you have to go somewhere, you know, that feeling is like almost it feels insurmountable. Oh, I go cross-eyed. And then I try to stay a few days afterwards. Just take it into like, because it's like, when the hell am I going to end up in Borneo again? You know what I mean? Right. Probably next season. But I hear what you're saying. So what's your situation? Are you gay, straight, fluid, all of the above? So I mean, my past few relationships have been with guys. I still consider myself attracted to
Starting point is 00:09:07 women. I've had a lot of relationships with women. And I don't know, it's like if you had to put me in a box, I think it would be fluid, I guess. Fluid. I mean, who isn't really fluid when you really think about it? I think everybody's a little bit something, you know, it's a spectrum, just like everything else. I mean, like, how could you say no to Zoe Kravitz, you know? Right. Of course. Of course. Obviously, there are exceptions to every rule, even if there are no rules. What's your family situation? Do you have a brother? No, so I wish. Actually, in elementary school, I used to lie that my mom was pregnant and I was going to have a brother, and they would come back from parent-teacher conference and be like, you need to stop fucking telling everyone that I'm pregnant because it's super awkward. Like, I'm having, I'm a three-minute mazel. Yeah, I used to lie all the time at school.
Starting point is 00:09:52 I have two older sisters, raised in a very matriarchal household. Parents are Polish. Everyone was born in Poland or my father in Brussels because his family fled there after the war. I was the first one born in Canada. Oh, okay. Yeah. I lied to my teachers all the time too, by the way. Whatever, anytime there was an opportunity for a lie, I would lie to them just because I thought they were kind of insulting to my intelligence, you know?
Starting point is 00:10:14 I'm like, they were going to tell me what to do? Like, I just couldn't, I couldn't square it. Like, you get to know the real me. Yeah, but also you get caught for it and then it's super embarrassing because they're like, you're not going to be in the Private Benjamin movie. You're not Goldie Hawn's daughter.
Starting point is 00:10:28 You're actually a psychopath. and you're like, oh, maybe I am a little bit of a psychopath. I started watching the Awkwafina episode and it seemed like she was going to start crying and I was like, oh, I would love to see her that vulnerable. Yes. I feel like she mostly cries in the episode. There's like more tears than not tears.
Starting point is 00:10:46 Wow. Yes, yes. Wow. Well, we haven't seen that side of Awkwafina. That's pretty cool. That was by far the most emotional episode. I mean, I like Snot cried. It was embarrassing, but there were a few scenes
Starting point is 00:10:58 where like she had to actually take care of me so with Nora she hadn't been back to South Korea since her mother passed away when she was four years old the mother had this this really rare illness that she developed as a result of her pregnancy and they basically she had a few months left to live and she decided fuck western medicine I'm gonna lean into eastern practices and she lived until Nora was four and the dish that kind of like brought it all together we were sitting with this woman who had a PhD in fermentation who like supposedly according to herself cured herself of breast cancer using Eastern practices was making the soup with this broth and this rehydrated kelp and these pieces of beef. And Nora smelled it as we were doing it. And she
Starting point is 00:11:38 like got really emotional and started getting shaky. And she was like, wait, I remember this scent from when I was four years old. And then we learned that this is something in mythology, the Koreans used to look at whales giving birth and they were depleted of iron and they would eat kelp to make themselves feel better because food truly is medicine in their culture. Like fermentation is UNESCO protected. And so this one, like for Nora to have that realization that her mom not only made this for herself, but fed it to her daughter as a way of trying to heal herself was just one of the most wild, wild. Wow. That's really deep. Yeah. Yeah. Watching someone like take a bite of something, she takes one bite and like bursts into tears and is just
Starting point is 00:12:16 transported. That's the power of scent. That's the power of food. And I think it's surprising because the show is not people would expect like oh Anthony's gonna go do a cooking show it's and it's not strictly a cooking show it's a little bit who do you think you are a little bit Anthony Bourdain like very beautifully produced like really rich storytelling gorgeous vistas I went on who do you think you are did you ever do that Anthony no I did it my director and I did not get along either he was really annoying it's just like you're sitting there at a table and that is a comp that we use when we were developing the show and it's like fine it's it's interesting to learn about your family history and all these people that you don't know about but to actually have
Starting point is 00:12:55 it be experiential and go in and try the things within their environment and understand what was going on we meet the historians and genealogists who are like way fucking smarter than i am who are able to provide context into like what was going on culturally and politically at the time and it's like the most basic things like we were in senegal and we try this thing called dambé which is like a baguette with a bean stew in it and you learn that the importance of it is because you know, French occupation for hundreds of years. They left. The Senegalese were like, we're going to take the baguette. We're going to fucking make it better, softer, sweeter. We're going to put in our own stew. And now it's basically become, it's kind of like when you're in LA and you see like
Starting point is 00:13:32 burrito stands on every corner. It's like everyone enjoys it. And this is something that is loaded with history and has all of these clues as to like what was going on at the time. It's just fascinating. That is fascinating. It's so cool. Yeah. It's so cool to be passionate about it. It is very Anthony Bourdain. We need that. Are you hoping to fill his shoes? I mean, obviously, you don't want to fill his shoes, but you do want to fill his shoes. I mean, look, I read his books.
Starting point is 00:13:57 I was obsessed with him growing up. I certainly don't want to be derivative. It is something that comes to mind. I think where he really excelled was using food as that vehicle to tell those personal stories for people to understand what was going on in the Middle East and all these other places in the world where it was like it's about the food, but it's not really about the food. It's everything that's kind of tied around it. And I think what we learned from him is that he just went personal and he got to know, like, he got to tell these, like, human stories, you know? What is your least favorite food that you've experienced so far? You have to be honest.
Starting point is 00:14:28 Yeah, in Borneo, it didn't make it to the final cut, but I tried durian. Are you familiar? No. Stinky fruit, right? Smells like a rotting chicken carcass, like old fruit situation. But one of our camera ops described it as an overly ripe camembert with really sharp garlic. It's intense and funky. I'll put almost anything in my mouth.
Starting point is 00:14:51 It's one of those things that, like, I tried it. I don't need to go back there again. It was a lot of funk. What is going on in Borneo exactly? So that was the Henry Golding episode. And his mother is—his father's British, ex-military. his mother is Iban traditional like an indigenous tribe in in Sarawak and they lived in these long houses where like 40 to 60 families have their own living quarters and then the other half of
Starting point is 00:15:19 the long house it's literally a long house in the middle of the jungle and it's these communal spaces where they like teach each other to like cut bamboo and put the rice in and put it on the fire so that it becomes really not like nice and sticky and it's just with Henry it was tricky because he knew so much about his family history but we actually uncovered that he had literal headhunters in his family line and he had multiples of them and he had like a witch and just kind of like learning about the spiritual practice and like the spiritual significance of headhunting when they would literally bring back these heads to their tribe he remembered when he was a kid he was long time i was like i was like what kind of headhunter are
Starting point is 00:15:55 we talking about not the one i'm thinking not the one i'm thinking correct not our agents but he remembers being a kid and he was like i actually remember seeing like human skulls on like shelves so to kind of like learn the context of the whole thing is just I mean it's a whole other world I tried things like torch ginger I tried ate wild ferns which were freaking delicious and wild eggplant and it's like everything that they have there it was like such a balance of I've never felt like I was more out in the wild like in the literal middle of nowhere in nature and just away from civilization but at the same time this very human thing of the sense of community, I've never experienced it more strongly than I did being with those
Starting point is 00:16:37 people for a week. Wow. That's so cool. I felt like Indiana Jones. All right. Let's not get carried away. Did you bring a lover with you or were you on your own with your crew? Did you bring a plus one? I was on my own with the crew. Yeah. It's nice to do that on your own, especially with a crew because it's like camp. It's a small crew like Queer Eye. We're a shit ton of people and we're in the U.S. where you have trailers and everything there. You don't have any of that when you're in Northern Italy with Justin Theroux or in Borneo. It's like you're waiting like you're waiting in a car. So you don't have a significant other in your dating life right now or you just kind of dating? Single. Single and mingling. I'm at a point where I feel like whenever I have
Starting point is 00:17:17 something big or that I'm really excited about professionally, the way that it works out, I always happen to be single. I'm so with you on that. So with you. I get to focus because I fucking love relationships i love the melding and getting to know each other's families and like and then breaking up yeah in that order like it's okay to break up if that's not a bad thing that means it's time to move on to something else like we need to start celebrating divorces and breakups who cares it's great it's a new beginning you learn the lessons you know what to take on to the next one you have hopefully you learn the lesson some people are really really remedial and you need to learn the lesson multiple times but some people really learn lessons and then
Starting point is 00:17:56 that's really nice and then you have a celebration like every relationship is a celebration you got to know yourself a little bit better and it's a cycle too like I'm closer with my friends when I'm not in a relationship I get to spend more time with my family it's you know have you had your heart broken yes what was that like it was devastating it was really hard it was I don't know sorry I didn't expect that but it was um it kind of having your heart broken or having my heart broken just put into play and had me question sort of like do I need to change as a person in some ways and then in other ways it was like oh no like I really fucking did my best wasn't perfect made some mistakes but like I really fucking showed up I put in the work I gave it
Starting point is 00:18:38 all I could I don't have any regrets and then sometimes I question myself and I'm like is there anything that I need to change am I to this or to that and but I'm like obsessed with therapy I've going on and off since I was 17 and for me it's like I love self-improvement and then it just kind of brings up that whole notion of do I want to change and do I want to evolve but I'm also 40 and I'm kind of like I'm half-baked at this point I'm like parts of me are the way that they are and I should just accept myself for who I am as opposed to striving to change all the time so I'm in constant I'm always in conflict with myself over like change grow evolve adapt be better listen to fucking Mel Robbins and then the other side of like no like just be happy with who I am and
Starting point is 00:19:20 content and like they should fucking figure it out you know yeah and evolve doesn't mean change like you don't have to change you just get better at being who you are so whatever qualities you have good or bad should always stay you should just be able to know when to control them and then they become even more enhanced the more evolved you become everything just gets better so there's yeah you should have no apologies about your personality that just keeps improving and improving as long as you're willing to take a look at yourself and admit when you're wrong which is so hard for so many people to do like people don't and they don't know how to change it's like change is so fucking easy I haven't had a drink for fucking four weeks because of this
Starting point is 00:20:00 shoulder situation I'm in and like finally I'm understanding the benefits of not drinking like I went to two things without drinking and I had a great time and I'm like oh I see the other side. This is like God's way of getting me to just be sober. I'm like, no matter what though, I will never give up on alcohol. Like you will not ever get me to quit drinking. So I might become like less of a drinker, but I will not ever give up on alcohol. We've had a good thing going for many, many years, 40 years. Anyway, I digress as I always do. We're in the same boat. We're vibing, right? So it's okay. But anyway, we're going to get to the show now. You know what goes on here, right? Like we're, we're going to give advice to people and they're going to call
Starting point is 00:20:43 in and they're going to want to, they are going to want your full attention. So you better get ready for it. Catherine, tell us what's happening. Oh, we have some great questions for you, Anthony, but we'll take a quick break and we'll come right back. There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at belairdirect.com. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files.
Starting point is 00:21:27 I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, Shut up. Don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive.
Starting point is 00:22:02 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table.
Starting point is 00:22:47 It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages.
Starting point is 00:23:11 On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first.
Starting point is 00:23:32 I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits,
Starting point is 00:23:54 change your mind or wake up to a new version of yourself so whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip i hope you listen to solita on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and we're back with anthony parovsky yes i have a husband who is a lover of queer eye and i was like watching some of the episodes of your new show on my computer, just like in the same room as him. And he goes, is that Antony? So he recognized your voice. I was like, it is actually. Did you ask him whose favorite member of the Fab Five is? Of course. And he said, Antony.
Starting point is 00:24:37 Good. Would have been awesome. You're my favorite so far, but I don't know. And I don't know if I know every single one of them. Well, we had Bobby Burke on the show. We had Bobby Burke and Karamo. Haven't had JVN. and then there's the um salt and pepper we haven't had tan there's tan yeah right tan yeah and and our new friend and there maya yeah okay perfect i'm going to take a break then i'll be right back ah she's in whistler i'm so jealous yeah so what were you doing living in whistler well not with i was in vancouver but we would go on weekends with my sister are you a ski bum i am i am skiing since i was like four years old oh my gosh well canadian that makes sense i guess
Starting point is 00:25:16 Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of mandatory. I am not a ski bum, but I'm a ski lodge bum. Like I like to be in the lodge with a cup of cocoa and a book under a cozy blanket. Like that's what I want. Yes. And maybe a poutine. I know that's really Canadian of me to say, but like, come on. Well, see, I grew up in Chicago and had a lot of Michigander friends and they claim that poutine is from Michigan, which we all know that that is a reach, but they do love their poutine. let us let us have Canada like Trump's trying to fucking make it part of the U.S. like just let us have our own thing you know leave us alone poutine is Canadian yeah I'm with you on that okay don't make it a thing it's literally our entire national identity it's fucking fries and gravy and cheese curds yes cheese curds are pretty disgusting when they're melty
Starting point is 00:26:04 they're pretty good they're so of course they're good but they're disgusting good that that's disgusting like i'd rather eat like yeah it's like good it's like proper trash yes yeah but i'd rather there's other proper trash i prefer over that like what i'm trying to think but like it's got to be trash you love a mcdonald's what's like your fuck it thing like a pig in a blanket i fucking love that polo bar pigs and blankets perfect ratio of crust and the the the crust Like that leaf, what is it called? That phyllo dough. Oh, you like the phyllo.
Starting point is 00:26:38 Yeah, phyllo dough. Yeah, I love it when it's just fucking thin and flaky and it's a burnt, it kind of crispy. With grainy honey mustard just to dip into it with that sharpness. Yeah, I like yellow mustard. I like yellow juju mustard. Excellent. Well, we'll get to colors now, so. Let's do it.
Starting point is 00:26:58 I can't wait. I can't wait to see Anthony giving advice. Oh, God. Literally my least favorite thing to do. I hate unsolicited advice, but this is solicited, so it's fine. Yeah, totally. Well, our first question comes from Priscilla. Dear Chelsea, I am in a pickle-less pickle.
Starting point is 00:27:17 I've been with my husband for almost 10 years now. He's six years older than me. I'm 33 and he's 39, and we grew up together. I've had a crush on him since I was a kid and still do. He's my best friend, and I'm certain he feels the same way. One problem is that I've learned over the years we're not sexually compatible. At the beginning, it was fireworks, incredible, but then quickly fizzled out due to quote-unquote stress. I'm always the one initiating, telling him what to do, not do, and if I'm honest,
Starting point is 00:27:45 the sex lasts less than five minutes and I'm rarely satisfied. It's a miracle we got pregnant twice, both times on the very first try. He's the sole provider for the family and has a very stressful job. He's a general contractor and is always extremely busy with work. He gets calls about flooding basements, money issues, angry trades, etc. at all hours of the day. This plus some financial issues all weigh heavily on his shoulders. I have a part-time job, but it hardly covers groceries, and soon I'll be busy with a new baby. I feel like I can't help carry the burden. He can't turn off his brain from all the stress and get in the mood unless he's drunk, which is a major turnoff and again leaves me unsatisfied. Over the years, it's become,
Starting point is 00:28:24 as soon as I get this job done, I'll be less stressed. As soon as, as soon as. I've come to realize he's maybe just not as sexually charged as I am. For a while, I thought it was me. Am I not sexy enough? But we've talked about it and it's not that. I can say for certain he's not gay. I've seen his internet search history. I can say for certain he's not getting it elsewhere. He's too busy. I feel cheated. I've been told my whole life that all men want or think about is sex. I don't know any female that has been in this position before. We've been to a sex therapist and had to stop due to lack of money and time. He was open to it, but good therapy is expensive. Divorce does not feel like an option, and I don't feel like an open marriage is either
Starting point is 00:29:04 because of our small community. I have no answers, my friends have no answers, and he has no answers, which leaves me in a pickle-less pickle. Help, Priscilla. Antony, what are you thinking? Okay, off the top of my head, near the beginning, I felt like she was making a lot of excuses for him, which kind of like bothered me a little bit. I also felt there's something about it that just kind of make made me sad like she just feel like i feel like she's like in a really helpless she's just like out of options and the options that i was trying to think of of like talk to a sex therapist talk to a therapist in general check in with like do you guys have
Starting point is 00:29:38 different libidos are you not compatible on that front to like even opening up the marriage in some way all of that was kind of kiboshed in the explanation so i think it's like like dude you need to like go revisit some of that stuff because i really don't know you want to be with the person but it's like I don't know because I'm torn because it's like at the same time like I feel like I have a pretty high libido and physical and sexual intimacy are incredibly important to me but I also know people out there who've had really long relationships where there is a disconnect and they love each other unconditionally they respect each other they're each other's like biggest fucking cheerleaders but they don't necessarily have that so it's like again it goes back to what
Starting point is 00:30:17 I was saying earlier about like accepting things the way they are and then being like no I need change. I'm a little torn, Chelsea. I mean, I feel the same way. It's kind of hard to say because it obviously matters to her because she's talking about open marriage and whatever. If sex is that important to you, which to most of us it is, I'm one of those people that I want sex. I'm not just like looking for somebody to hang out with. If I had to choose hanging out or sex, I would choose sex. So I think that it depends how important it is to you. If it is a deal breaker, I mean if he can't perform sexually like if whatever his issues are it usually has nothing to do with a woman so I'm glad that you already figured that out it's not because you're not sexy
Starting point is 00:30:58 enough yeah well she already expressed that in the letter said that she knows it's not her fault it's something to do with him and that's his issue like are you willing to put up with that because you love him like I would say life's too short like you you could put up with it for a while I mean it's great that he was open to go into a sex therapist but to what avail like so you're not fixing the problem and it seems like a pretty important problem to be fixing so i just think that like you know you've got to either go the extra distance and really exhaust all possibilities of finding out what the possible solutions are and finding one that works for you and if you don't then what's your game plan like are you going to hang out with him and and be okay
Starting point is 00:31:40 with that in some sort of like sexless relationship for the rest of your life see i feel like there is room for a third option here because a third person, there's definitely room for a third person to come in and fuck the shit out of her. There definitely is. But when we think about sex, as far as like this couple goes, we're thinking usually about like, she's thinking about penetrative sex. It lasts five minutes. She's not satisfied. And part of sex is like having that intimacy, having that closeness with someone. So maybe you can talk to him about like, hey, I really want to like improve our intimacy, improve our closeness. And like, let's take some time to not even think about like the penetrative part of sex because if he's not up
Starting point is 00:32:19 for it he's not up for it but like can he spend some time pleasuring you can you guys play with some toys like so weird it's so weird oh by the way i oh i wanted to say one more thing too sorry i know i'm being so interrupt you today but i'm just in that kind of mood the other thing is a lot of women you said none of your friends experience this i do know many women who have experienced their partners not being up for the amount of sex that they are yes so i just wanted throw that out there before i agree that's like a really that's a really common thing that's also a gay thing too isn't it like a lot of gay guys not a lot i actually only know one gay guy who won't who doesn't penetrate like he doesn't penetrate he doesn't want to be penetrated he
Starting point is 00:32:57 only gives i learned there's a name for that what yeah what it's called it's called siding siding yeah yeah they like give each other like blow jobs but they don't there's no like penetrative sex. When my friend told me about this, I thought that's he feels such shame for the act of penetration. He feels shame at doing that. That's why he can't. I mean, that's the whole thing. Yeah. I recently stumbled across a follow from we had this caller Marco like a long time ago who was in the same situation. He's like, I'm gay, but like, I do not I'm not interested in anal. And he followed up actually recently and said that he well, no, he's still not into anal. But he's like, I've discovered that I love having my ass eaten out
Starting point is 00:33:37 and eating out everybody else's asses. So I'm like, this is a win. Good for him. That's a huge discovery. What if he had gone through, how much more life could he have gone through without figuring that out? Thank goodness for this show.
Starting point is 00:33:50 Just saving lives. Oh, yeah. Saving lives. That's something people always go, what's the best piece of advice you've ever given? To start eating more ass. That's my advice. I'm going to write that down.
Starting point is 00:33:59 That's the tattoo. Yeah, for sure. Eat my ass is my tattoo. too. And then I'm going to put it on a different part of my body so people are doubly confused. Yeah. So to wrap up for Priscilla, I think there's some intentionality that you guys can, like, take some time. If
Starting point is 00:34:13 he's not into, like, performing, quote unquote, because he's too stressed, try some other stuff and, like, hint, hint, he might get in the mood. But, like, it's really also, like, about you and your pleasure. It doesn't necessarily have to, like, have anything to do with him getting off. Right. Try harder to make the situation
Starting point is 00:34:29 try to find a solution. And if you can't find the solution, then you know that you've done everything you can to try to figure out the problem and then move on look I know I'm like a mega optimist but like clearly she fucking loves this guy the fact that she reached out to you they've been together for 10 years they're kids they're like so many added layers there I'm a fighter in relationships I would go back the stuff that you revisited that you heard that you think you're not that much of a fighter you're single that's not nice Chelsea No, it's not. That's not. I'm saying you're not that much of a fighter. Come on. If you were willing to fight for anything, I'm not being mean. I'm just being truthful.
Starting point is 00:35:06 I'm partially messing with you. One thing about me, I fucking fight for relationships as much as I can till the very end, whether it's therapy, whatever it is. I'm just saying sometimes things happen that are just like outside of your control and you just have to like deal with it and pick yourself up. I was thinking of fighting, like, I'll do anything to do what it takes to, like, be in the relationship. I was interpreting it differently. I am that person. I'm a fucking romantic through and through, hard on my sleeve. I'm like, I'm such a lover. Falling in love is like, what is it? But, yeah, but falling in love, that's the best part.
Starting point is 00:35:42 That's the best part. No one will dispute that. Everyone knows that's the best phase of life. Being in this phase that this caller's in is not the good phase. for it and you go back and stuff that she may have addressed earlier conversations that they had you know what maybe they need to be revisited maybe you need to get Esther Perel has that card game where you ask each other intimate questions is it like wearing like some crazy fucking outfit or like the crab walking naked towards him when he enters the room and going
Starting point is 00:36:09 full sexual or building the intimacy with like some kind of romance and getting to know each other intimately like maybe they should use the intimacy coordinator from it ends with us What about that woman? That ended super well. Maybe they should use her. Yeah, that worked out great. Or like, I don't know, go to a rave together or something. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:36:29 They definitely have to change up the dynamic. Something has to shift. If you want people to change, you have to change, period. But like, so get the ball rolling in some direction and be tireless about it. Like, exhaust all the possibilities, period. I agree. And if all else fails, just get like a really good vibrator and like leave him out of it. End of list.
Starting point is 00:36:50 Yeah, that's quick. That's quick. Yeah. So our next email comes from Laura. She is calling in. So we'll be chatting with her. Laura says, Dear Chelsea, I have a sticky situation with my newish boyfriend and I'm hoping to get your perspective on it.
Starting point is 00:37:05 My boyfriend lives with a girl who he has been friends with for a few years and they've slept together twice in the past. They're in the same friend group, and he claims it happened when they were both drunk and lonely. To be fair, we were friends at the time. We met at work and were friends first before dating, and he told me what was going on, and I was dating other people at the time. He told me he's been into me since we first met and patiently waited for me to break up with my then-boyfriend. It really hurts me and makes me sad picturing her with him, even though it was before I was in the picture, and he's been upfront about the information. I hate how much this weighs on me, and I always feel sad knowing he's at home with her when we're
Starting point is 00:37:41 not spending the night together. I hate that I'm jealous and losing my zen when I'm ordinarily a confident person. I'm mad at him for inflicting this situation on our relationship. Yesterday, he had the audacity to ask me if I wanted to go out dancing this weekend with her and some of her friends. I said, absolutely not. Why would I want to go out dancing and drinking with some girl you fucked before? I flipped it back on him. Would you want to go dancing with me and some guy I used to fuck? He didn't have a good answer to that. For context, I'm 27 and he's 32. He should know better at his grown age of 32. I feel like he downplayed their friendship to try and appease me. This makes me question if I can trust him. Any advice you have on boundaries and how to get
Starting point is 00:38:18 my peace back are greatly appreciated, Laura. Hi, Laura. Hello. Hi, thanks for calling in. This is our special guest, Antony Borowski. Yes, I'm starstruck. I love Queer Eye. That's awesome. Nice to meet you. Wait, how long have you been together? So we've been dating since November last year. So what is that? It's like four months. Four months.
Starting point is 00:38:41 Yeah. This is new. It is. Yeah. Well, that's easy. That makes things a little bit easier. You know, I don't think anyone should be judged on having an ex like a past or anything. But you're in a perfect spot, I think, to kind of like conduct yourself in a really cool way.
Starting point is 00:38:58 you can go to him be really honest about your feelings it doesn't have to be an argument or disputatious in any way and be like hey you know you told me about this you know your roommate he lives with her right yeah you told me about your roommate you told me you had sex with her a couple times it's kind of bothering me I mean I don't want to be crazy and tell you like to move out or anything but then you asked me to go dancing with her that kind of gave me the ick you're kind of giving me signals that there might be something more here and that I don't know if we continue to date am I going to have to deal with this woman in the background like I think this is a perfect opportunity to have really one of those honest upfront conversations before your head over heels
Starting point is 00:39:40 marrying this guy or deeply madly in love four months is still new enough to get over quickly and I think he'll show his true colors like you don't want to go dancing with some roommate that he's fucked that he's still living with that's not an ideal situation for someone so if someone if he really cares about you have you guys exchanged i love yous yet yeah we're we're pretty in love and chelsea we kind of have had that conversation already and oh sorry i'm just fucking railing off yeah no i anthony why don't you tell me to shut the fuck up i'm not telling you to shut up sorry sorry sorry laura go on yeah so after this little like disagreement we had that conversation i was like this is really hard for me like i don't like who it's making me like i
Starting point is 00:40:26 really want to be chilled like i have a past year i respect that i do but this is so hard to deal with so i was like we need to set some boundaries or something so i feel better and like what we came up with is he can't hang out with her one-on-one which he lives with her so like he's hanging out with her when they're at home like i don't expect him to just start being rude to her and well I mean I actually would like that but I'm not gonna ask that yeah it starts coming home and he's a total fucking asshole that's yeah and he's allowed to hang out with her in groups but like I want to know about it and that's kind of where we're at but I'm still just like struggling with it at night when we're not together and I know like I'm losing my chill and I hated it
Starting point is 00:41:06 I hear you I hear you was he sympathetic to the idea of you being upset yes yes and he's like looking to buy so that's why he likes living with her because it's a month-to-month lease so we can move out really easily when he does find the place he wants to buy and he's like actively working on it for sure okay so that's nice okay that's good okay these are all good things i as okay this is going to be my advice i think this is perfect time for you to put your foot down and go you know what i've been thinking about this a lot lately and i don't think i'm going to be comfortable until you've moved out of that apartment. Now that I have serious feelings about you, I don't want to cut you off. I want us to continue talking, but I really need to know
Starting point is 00:41:48 that you're going to move out and not just giving me lip service because it's starting to fuck with me a little bit. And I'm looking at our relationship as a possible fun future. We're going to be together for some time and I don't want to have this be part of it. I like that there's kind of like a compliment sandwich going on here where it's sort of like hey i fucking love you i think that there's potential here that said like there's a massive roadblock i'm really struggling and i need your help for everything that i'm kind of gathering from you and what katherine kind of mentioned about like the backstory of it all is that you've been very communicative of it and one thing that i've learned in relationships and through therapy is that
Starting point is 00:42:28 sometimes i think that they're like i get obsessed with the idea of resolution that there has to be like this tangible thing that kind of happens and i know that it's not perfect and i recognize that it's like painful and you're like in a lot of like ajita yiddish term that my therapist carol taught me i love it the fact that you're you're you're able to have like that that those open lines of communication even just addressing it without giving an ultimatum or backing him into a corner or whatever it is makes it a safe space for him to be able to have a conversation to take in what your feelings and like the stuff that you're dealing with and vice versa. But I feel like, yeah, presenting it as sort of starting with like the good and then going to like,
Starting point is 00:43:06 I'm really struggling with this and like I could use your help. Not telling him specifically like get your ass out of the house or kick her out or imposing like some kind of like severe like restrictions or like or hard rules that are just going to be hard to abide by. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. I have been very focused on like trying to resolve this. And yeah, there's no resolution until he moves out. So it's hard. We added a little context when you and I chatted earlier. Tell us the timeline. So this was like a while ago that they slept together, right? So when we had our fight, he was like getting confused about the dates. I can be pretty intense. And I think he got a little like flustered. Like I was questioning him a little
Starting point is 00:43:42 too hard. So here's the real timeline. We started dating last November. He moved in with her last August and they slept together last September. So I'm like, that's fresh. Okay. So like two months before you guys got together. How did he, how did he reveal this to you? So I was friends with him because we're coworkers before. And he told me about it just kind of casually because we were becoming good friends. He was like, yeah, I slept with my roommate. What do you think about that? And I was like, that's a bit messy, but okay. So I always knew that when I started developing feelings for him. Chelsea, I'm actually kind of surprised about your advice here. I don't know. I thought that your advice would be more along the lines of like, that's okay, he's moving out,
Starting point is 00:44:26 putting Laura at ease. And I'm Yeah, I just think that's very interesting. Oh, I love surprising. I love when you make joys in life, and joys in life. But like, yeah, yeah, I yeah, I don't know. I think there's something like it's just an interesting start to a relationship. So you'd want to pay attention to it. And you're correct. It is messy. Yeah. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be messy or you could be clean about it. You know what I mean? That's what I'm saying. Like you say this and you kind of you're not breaking up with him. You're just kind of saying like, I'm not cool. These are my standards. They have to be met. So if you really care, go fucking meet them. Yeah. Would you like participate in like a cooling off period while he's looking for a house? What do you mean by cooling off? He's not going to want that. Yeah. Like if he's looking for a house actively, he's going to want to be like, OK, you know, come with me. Look at the house.
Starting point is 00:45:15 And then then I would be like, OK, you know, it's clearly happening. But not until like he's actually taking active steps that you've seen some of the houses and he's doing anything he can to make sure that you feel safe. And Laura, I feel like you'll know if he's doing those like he's gonna be he's gonna want to tell you like oh yeah like i had an appointment at a place and like this place is interesting and i didn't like it because it didn't have x y and z but you know what i mean like i feel like he's gonna include you in the narrative because it seems like you guys communicate pretty well yeah and i like last weekend we looked at a house together like we communicate great like i love everything about him except for this for those nights that you are
Starting point is 00:45:49 apart and like he is with you know quote unquote with her at their apartment i'd say like remember that he's into you harness your inner zen and like remember that like you're the person that he cares about he stopped sleeping with her before you guys started hooking up or getting together before you guys got together and like you're the one he's into and like rest easy in that i think but also play the role that you just said you have played in your life which is you're not like that like so remind yourself of the queen that you are in the moments that you don't feel like it remember yeah i am i am that way this is a circumstantial this is making me feel this way these are not logical thoughts period yep and like there will be a new season very soon when
Starting point is 00:46:33 he's got his own place right yeah yeah totally yeah won't matter then yeah all right laura best of luck and keep us posted okay okay thank you everyone it was so nice to meet you thank you nice to meet you okay awesome bye that was my favorite kind of call yeah ever I know I love that kind of personal into like interpersonal relationships boundaries I'm down with all of it there's so much to unpack with it though I feel like I'm gonna be thinking about it hours from now being like oh shit I should have said that you know what I mean I also think age in my opinion has something to do with it because she's like 27 I feel like when you're 27 like your person's exes feel so huge
Starting point is 00:47:15 and they loom so large. And to have them in the second bedroom is like terrifying. But if she was 10 years older, I'd be like, okay, this isn't great, but like, you know, we're moving forward. A 27-year-old seems so much more evolved than they did when I was 27. Or maybe I'm just internalizing because I was a mess.
Starting point is 00:47:32 Should we take a quick break and then come back for our last caller? Yeah, let's take a break and we'll come back and do our last caller. Okay, so we're going to take a break with Anthony Borowski and then we're coming back. There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at BelAirDirect.com.
Starting point is 00:47:56 When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.
Starting point is 00:48:40 but these aren't stories about what's taken from them. They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.
Starting point is 00:49:02 This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.
Starting point is 00:49:25 From best-selling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman.
Starting point is 00:50:02 I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself.
Starting point is 00:50:43 So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, and we're back with Anthony Borowski. It's a P. It's a P. Right? Borowski. Am I saying Borowski?
Starting point is 00:51:06 Close. What did I say? It's one letter. Oh, Parofsky. Sorry, I've been saying B. You're good. It's a P. Well, Hannah says, Dear Chelsea, I need advice from someone wiser than me.
Starting point is 00:51:18 The past year and a half has been filled with change and heartbreak, leaving me feeling lonely and lost. Growing up, I never had close friends. I floated from group to group but never felt truly like I belonged. As a shy, introverted person, this wasn't surprising. After college, I moved to Utah to be a ski bum, and for the first time, I found like-minded people. I belonged. I came out of my shell, built a social life, and formed friendships where I felt supported. I had community. Over time, we all grew up to some degree. I became a lawyer, bought a house here, and found ways to keep skiing integral to my life.
Starting point is 00:51:51 My friends evolved, too, and through the changes, I believed we'd remain close forever. But life had other plans. Friends got married, moved away, had children, or found new priorities. The tight-knit group I cherished slowly dissolved, and I find myself floating again. The most recent gut punch came from a friend I've always considered family. She's planning a small bachelorette party for her close friends, and I'm not invited. She said we're at different life stages. She and her fiancé spend time with other couples while I'm single.
Starting point is 00:52:20 That stung deeply. Early this year, another friend ended our relationship with a hurtful tirade. She said she didn't see a place for me in her life because I don't want kids. It's not that I haven't made new friends. I have. I've connected with an amazing group of women who share my love for skiing and ice climbing, yet I still grieve the friendships I thought would last a lifetime, the ones that felt like family.
Starting point is 00:52:41 I feel like I've been in a painful, unrelenting cycle of relationship loss since my ex and I broke up in the spring of 2023. So how do you mourn the pain of losing friendships? And how do you build meaningful friendships as an adult, especially in the second half of your 30s? Hannah. hi hi hi this is antony parovsky with a p hi nice to meet you nice to meet you wait can i ask how long were you and your ex together when you broke up in 2023 three years three years okay my therapist
Starting point is 00:53:12 says it can take like half the amount of time of the relationship to to get to a place where you kind of like feel like you're a normal ish human being again so i don't know if like you're dealing with that or if that's something that's helpful but like be gentle with yourself with like healing because it's not linear it's super freaking messy and you can be feeling amazing one day and then kind of go down the next but um kelsey thoughts well i was gonna say i write about this in my new book i'll have what she's having which just came out i write about this very thing about losing friendships that we've had for a really long time and the understanding that comes from a lot of inner work and a lot of therapy that not everybody is your friend forever. And some people are
Starting point is 00:53:54 supporting characters in your story. And sometimes we're a supporting character in another story. The endings of friendships, while painful and hurtful, are not meant for your grief. They're meant to understand that that door has closed. And now there's an opening for a deeper, more profound friendship than the ones you had before. My circle of close friends now that I'm about to be, well, I'm 50 when this comes out. I'll have turned 50. My circle of friends and the support group I have now is more loyal, loving, supportive than anything. It makes me understand that I'm a good person. The people I have around me now makes me believe I deserved this and I earned this. Whereas when I was younger in my forties or in my thirties, I had a lot of people around me who did
Starting point is 00:54:40 not have my best interests, who did not have my support. While I treasured our friendships with these people, they were not good for me. And they outlasted their expiration date the same way many relationships can. So our job isn't to mourn the loss of friendships. It's to understand that that part of our life is gone and to welcome the new and there will be new friendships. And you know now how meaningful friendships can be. So you're going to be already operating in a different way within a new friendship. Do you feel like the friendships that you've made like that are in your close circle of friends now are they people you've met in the last like 10 years or are there any people who yeah tons tons of them I've just met in the last 10 years I have maybe three four
Starting point is 00:55:26 well probably more people that have been in my life for 10 plus years that are not family you know people that I've known I mean it's longer than that the older I get the longer that list is but you know plenty of them are new people like I'm always making new friends I'm always meeting new people and I'm always learning things and understanding like, oh, friendships can be even richer than I had thought when I was younger. I 100% agree with that. I think sort of like leaning into the permanence of things, whether it's like a relationship or friendships, it doesn't make sense at the time. But I feel like when I look back at really close friends that I've lost that I thought were going to be in my life forever, I'm sort of like,
Starting point is 00:56:12 whether there was resentment or i did the cutoff or they did or we just organically kind of like grew apart a lot of them also i can definitely relate to like the having kids part it all kind of like makes sense when you look back which is kind of like the weird thing and the annoying thing about life is that like once enough time has passed and you've been able to like process the feelings and deal with all of the the different stages of grief the denial anger bereavement depression acceptance like all of that messy stuff you look back and you're sort of like oh like that kind of made sense and I will point to I had this argument with a friend about she was saying how like oh it's so much harder to make friends when you're like in your 30s and
Starting point is 00:56:49 your 40s than when you're younger it's not that it's harder I think that it can become more challenging if you're working on yourself because your antennas are up for what you're going to tolerate and what you're not going to tolerate but some of my most close I refer to it as my board of directors it's like the people that I go to when I really need advice where I need to be like right size who i like really trust they're gonna tell me the truth i wouldn't be scared of like not meeting those people at where you're at in life right now because like my one of my closest friends leah we were like casual acquaintances and in the past year and a half we have become inseparable part of it was trauma bonding but like we've gotten really close so i think just
Starting point is 00:57:27 like be open to the possibility of like that it's never it's just dynamic and there's impermanence and things end and it's like there there's it's it's that whole like that dumb line about what's not that dumb because i think it makes sense it's like people are in your life for like a reason a season or a lifetime or whatever it is i do really believe that does any of this help you yeah no this is helpful hearing it back is helpful yeah don't spend time thinking about the past and relationships that are not no longer there there's no there's it's just kind of a wasted regret and it's an old habit just focus on the now and the possibilities of the future and being grateful for everyone in your life that you do like
Starting point is 00:58:07 and all the new people just show a lot of gratitude and it'll keep showing up for you. The newer friends I've made are great and it's been really fun to have them. So I felt a little awkward being like upset about this, but it's like a big change for me to go through, so. But I think that's a bit, you seem like a vulnerable, sensitive human being,
Starting point is 00:58:26 which are really beautiful things. And maybe the way you're feeling that way is because you care, because you give a shit about them. And like, yeah, it sucks when people leave our lives. And it's like they were there for a really important chapter and we learned so much of them. But I think knowing the difference between what I can change in my life, and I'm not good at this so I have to remind myself all the time, the things that I can't control versus the things that I can, I constantly have to be checking myself and being like, why am I focusing all my energy on this thing that I have no control over that's in the past? as opposed to like i can focus to chelsea's point about gratitude or or like spend time on the wonderful people who are in your life you know what i mean like i've had that situation with
Starting point is 00:59:06 family cutoffs where people completely cut each other off we've been each other for our entire lives because we just don't know how to talk to each other and at one point it's sort of like you're not going to give me the fucking time of day i'm going to sorry i'm going to focus on someone who is i can put my all my attention and my love towards them because you clearly have so much to give sorry i know that sounded really queer i but i mean that i don't know you just seem like a really sweet girl so the friend who didn't invite me to the bachelorette party she texted me last week and asked if i would still do the flowers for her wedding so do i do it oh the part again friend who told me i'm not a close friend and not invited to her bachelorette
Starting point is 00:59:48 texted me to ask if i would still do the flowers for her wedding and they're like a beautiful Venus flytrap. Like, is she going to hire you to do her flowers? Because that's a very expensive proposition. No, it was something I had offered to do way back. Just say when I got disinvited from, you know, whatever
Starting point is 01:00:07 the Bachelorette weekend, I just assumed that you didn't want me to make the flowers, so I haven't planned on doing that. Right? Why would you do that for her? Are you going to the wedding as well? I'm invited. Yeah. Do you want to go? I feel like
Starting point is 01:00:22 It might be more awkward if I don't. I don't know. Trust your gut, though. Sit at it for a moment. Like, wait until the RSVP is due and, like, think about it. Because it's like, you've got to take care of yourself, too. And if, like, if she made you feel that way, I don't like that. No, that's nasty.
Starting point is 01:00:40 It sounds like the friendship is on her terms. I don't want you in this, but, like, I want you to do that. Like, I don't like that. I don't like to exist in a space like that. Yeah, and I don't like that you being taken advantage of in that way. Like, say you were to show up with those flowers. What does that say about you? That you don't have any dignity?
Starting point is 01:00:57 Yeah, someone who's close enough to do flowers for your wedding at no cost is someone who should be invited to the close friend's quote-unquote bachelorette party. Yeah. Yeah, maybe write that and just say, so I'm assuming you don't expect that. Since I'm not invited to the thing, I'm assuming you don't want me to. Right. Right, or what you said before about, like, so I wasn't planning on. I love that language. I think that's great language.
Starting point is 01:01:18 Also playing the tape forward, I can't imagine you would enjoy the process with all of the weight around this of planting flowers for her. That feels like a personal, intimate thing. It's almost like you have no backbone if you do that. And it's not about ego. It's just about like, you're treating me like shit
Starting point is 01:01:31 and I'm taking it like in the mouth. No, thank you. And also that's like, please have some sort of positive affirmation that you do in the morning, like reminding yourself that you're a powerful woman and you have the ability to not allow people to push you around and that you're valuable and your friendship is valuable keep saying that to yourself thank you i appreciate it thanks hannah thank you yeah okay and start believing it too
Starting point is 01:02:00 please thank you yeah class is dismissed um thank you guys um first of all anthony what a fun fun you're my favorite queer eye so far out of the two which part no i'm kidding definitely better yeah you're definitely you're my favorite over bobby burke and i'll tell him to his face when i see him. Are you in New York or LA? New York is home, but I'm currently in LA this week. Oh, okay. And Antony, where can people find No Taste
Starting point is 01:02:26 Like Home? So glad you asked. It's going to be on Linear on Nat Geo on February 23rd and then Disney Plus and Hulu on the 24th. Ooh, Disney Plus and Hulu. Daddy Disney. Daddy Disney owns everything now. Daddy is Disney. Alright.
Starting point is 01:02:42 Thank you so much, Antony. Chelsea, enjoy all the skiing. and fucking hot cocoa and the powder i was just in aspen for gay ski week which is so unlike me but i'm like trying to make more gay friends yeah since i was four years old oh fun i'm sick for it i it's there's nothing there's nothing more freeing than skiing oh yeah i love skiing yeah it's amazing thank you appreciate that do do do do do do drum roll katherine please Chelsea Handler Abroad Abroad is my European tour which I just announced tickets go on sale tomorrow or today or there's a pre-sale code Chelsea so I'm coming to obviously find a husband
Starting point is 01:03:27 abroad I need to get the hell out of this fucking country and it's not as easy as you think so I'm coming to Reykjavik I'm coming to Dublin I'm coming to the UK I'm coming to Brussels Paris belfast in may and june i'm coming to oslo stockholm to copenhagen manchester london glasgow new zurich vienna i've never ever been to vienna berlin barcelona and lisbon i'm coming abroad is abroad that sounds like fun i'm gonna go see you abroad i i know i want to go see me abroad and there there i'll be there i'll be excellent okay all upcoming vegas dates march March 21st, April 18th, July 5th, August 30th, November 1st, and 29th at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. My book tour, I'll have what she's having, means I am doing book events. February
Starting point is 01:04:23 26th, Brookline Booksmith. February 27th, Cincinnati, Ohio. February 28th, the H Foundation in Chicago. And Barnes & Noble at the Grove in Los Angeles on March 1st. And then Seattle, Washington on March 3rd, Elliott Bay. And I'll see you guys all there. If you'd like advice from Chelsea, shoot us an email at DearChelseaPodcast at gmail.com. And be sure to include your phone number. Dear Chelsea is edited and engineered by Brad Dickert, executive producer, Catherine Law. And be sure to check out our merch at ChelseaHandler.com. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survived what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart and these are the Survivor Files. Every week
Starting point is 01:05:13 I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home pro society is a weekly podcast that's part book club part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse each week we're connecting the dots between books the internet and pop culture with your favorite writers book talk creators and plenty of overthought opinions yeah i'm obsessed i'm
Starting point is 01:05:55 obsessed listen to pro society on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts our hometown is not a test tube 90 miles northeast of nashville a battle for the future of america plays out in one small town developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land we need cities on a
Starting point is 01:06:46 shining hill this is our town a podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now did you? Listen to Our Town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.

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