That Was Us - Kevin Quits His Movie | "There" (507)

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

On today’s episode of That Was Us, we’re diving into Season 5, Episode 7: "There." The Pearsons confront the pressures passed down through generations as we revisit Jack’s childhood with his father, watch Kevin grapple with what it means to be a “good” dad in the middle of a crisis, and see Madison face the terrifying possibility of bringing the twins into the world alone. Plus, Mandy, Chris, and Sterling chat about their own memorable birth stories, Chris shares one of the most painful things he's ever done, and so much more! That Was Us is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith. ------------------------- Support Our Sponsors: - David Protein. Don’t just take my word for it – go grab one for yourself. Head to Walmart today to try a bar or stock up on 4 cartons of your favorite flavors, like Blueberry Pie and Salted Peanut Butter, sold exclusively at Walmart. Check out https://Walmart.com to find a store near you! - With Shipt, it’s never just a delivery order – it’s shopped same day – in the same way you would. Use code "podcast" to get a year of Shipt for only $49 – HALF OFF the regular $99 price – at https://Shipt.com/offer. Terms apply - You can also find Unreal products anywhere cravings hit, including at Whole Foods, Target, Costco, and other grocery stores Visit https://Unrealsnacks.com/TWU to get $2 off a bag of Unreal. Terms and conditions apply. ------------------------- Executive Producers: Natalie Holysz and Rob Holysz Creative Producer: Sam Skelton Production Coordinator: Andrew Rowley Video Editor: Todd Hughlett Mix & Master: Jason Richards This is a ⁠⁠⁠Headgum⁠⁠⁠ podcast. Follow Headgum on ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Tiktok⁠⁠⁠. Advertise on That Was Us via ⁠⁠⁠Gumball.fm⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a headgum podcast. On today's episode of That Was Us, we're diving into season five, episode seven, there. The Pearson's confront the pressures passed down through generations as we revisit Jack's childhood with his father, watch Kevin grapple with what it means to be a good dad in the middle of a crisis, and see Madison face the terrifying possibility of bringing the twins into the world alone. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today,

and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan, live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. Mandy Moore, Christopher Sullivan. How the hell are you? Sterling Kelby Brown.

We are lovely. It's so good to see you guys. Great to see you too. I like you guys had a gray memo. We did. We got the gray memo and you too. You did too. Yeah.

Is this great? It's like green gray sort of thing going on. Panser green. Tons are blue. You see green? You see green? Aqua. I see blue.

Blue green. Yeah. That's aqua. Right? Blue green? Yeah. Something like that. What's with your orange shirt?

That's not orange shirt. I'm like, okay, now we have an issue. I guess if you want to know what we're talking about, you're there. Check out on Spotify. Check out the video. There you go. First of all, it's good to see you guys. You too.

It's been a minute since we've recorded. And then, so I'm going to let the cat out of the bag. I don't know if we're going to say anything about it now. But this is the first time we've recorded since we actually recorded the live show. We did a live show. Yes, we did. And so we haven't been able to talk about it. How come they even talked about the live show?

I can hear our audience saying that. It's because actually we just got finished doing it. Yeah. What a joy, you got. That was so joyful. It was frigging outstanding to be up on stage with you guys, to hear dolls just jam, like to groove, man, to see you do your thing, Mandy Moore, Chris Sullivan.

I think a lot of people didn't know. I think they didn't know. I mean, when you came out and it was all the clips going around on socials. We got clips. Brown's good for a clip, but for a performance. That's not true. You're good for the whole. The whole night, the whole night from beginning to end, could not have gone smooth.

It was wonderful. And can I say like an extra special, gigantic thank you to everybody who traveled? So we did like a meet and greet with about 100 people afterwards. So many people were like, this is my date night with my husband from Chicago, from Toronto. Florida, East Coast. Yeah. They flew in. We were so floored by that.

It's interesting because, you know, it takes a certain amount of time to be able to give people their time. But what I found was like they had so much to pour into us more than us doing, you know what I'm saying? Like it was such a reciprocal thing. It was easy to pour it back out. Yeah. This is great. We got a whole box full of gifts. We got somebody brought us a J Candelaria.

Baseball card. The baseball card. Hold that one up. I mean, I feel like that should go in. a prop situation. We got a stormtrooper. We got, oh, and somebody made us the missing piece of the puzzle. Jack's eye. Are you serious? Yeah. And then we got a whole box full of letters. Do you want to read one? Do you save it for another? Let's see. Let's see. Here's one that's addressed to That Was Us Team. Okay.

Why don't you? Sure. We'll crack that. We saved. I'm so happy. And then I'll give you guys all of your individual letters. Okay. I mean, some of the things that people said that. I remember the sweet. Yeah. So thoughtful. Thank you. That was us. team. I think this means you team. The whole team. Thank you so, so much for your hard work and the thoughtfulness you put into this podcast. During hard times, it's nice to have an hour of joy that I look forward to every week. You all are doing a great job. Keep up the great work. I hope you all pull up to Austin for South by Southwest or ATX TV Fest. Much love Amaya. I remember Amaya. She gave us all these

card. Oh my goodness. This one is too long to read, but maybe what we'll do is we can save these for some fan segments and we can read some of them on the fan segments. We got individual notes. We've got somebody made this little box, this little book box. Oh, wow. Of course, Jack's on it with the dog. Yeah, Jack is on it. So it was

a wonderful night. It was a great. Merriment, Marathon music. Yeah, man. Hopefully, if it does well, when you guys watch it and everything, we'll have feedback by then, and maybe we'll decide to do it again. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think we should do one in Pittsburgh, right?

We should go to Nashville. We'll take it on the road. We'll go to Chrissy. We'll see Chrissy in Nashville. Cool. We'll just take it to everybody. Okay. We're on 507.

You guys want to have any just like overarching thoughts before we get into the nitty-gritty about how this episode hit you. Did you remember it? Was it foggy? No. Did not remember it? Did you?

Didn't remember tall? Nope. I mean, I remembered some of it, but here's what I remember on a personal note is I was very close to giving birth. I was like, like this, 508 and 509 was my last episode that I filmed before I gave birth to Gus. So I still wasn't apparent yet. So I just was watching and I actually had to text Kate Fogelman because I was so moved by her performance. I thought she was exceptional. Her and Justin together are so quiet and effortless.

And the fear of giving birth and potentially doing it by yourself and not having someone there, not having any sort of touchstones. You know, we'll talk about it more. In this episode, obviously Justin is away when she goes into labor and he's trying to get back to her. But it just really brought me back to that time, very much personally speaking of on the press, of this gigantic life change and all that, just that wave of emotions that's hitting you of like the loss of identity and how scary it is and just everything kind of culminating at once. And I just was so moved by her performance in particular. It was so.

Agreed. Shout out to Kate. And I don't know where things were medically when you were about to give birth. But like I'm, I was like three weeks out of not being allowed into. of the hospital. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So at this time, because the pandemic was still going on, I was a brand new dad when these episodes were out. But when Rachel gave birth, there was a distinct possibility that she was also going to be doing it alone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for a different reason. Yeah, yeah. All of that. I mean, I just like, I don't know if watching this season in particular and the masks and the storyline involving the pandemic sort of like all of it just like really brings you

back. Yeah. I forgot how much mask there was. Sure. Yeah. Many much masks. Many much masks were marauding. But that was our life. That was what we lived with day in and day out, no matter where you went.

It just, yeah, it is a strange time capsule to be like, wow. It feels so long ago. So long ago. And yet also like this forgotten time as well, like you just sort of, it's like I remember 2019 and like 2023. You know, like, there's like a couple years in there where you're just like, what happened? Like, oh. And then two years of cooking dinner.

It's, listen, I think it's such a, like, the idea that we almost, I don't think we were ever not going to address the pandemic, but if we hadn't, it would have been a lost opportunity because now going back and watching it, it is a reminder of like, that's what life was like for folks, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so let's dig into it. So this episode starts out with, we see the opening sort of segment. This was the coldest opening that I've, and the shortest opening before the title credits. Correct, which is just like a car on fire, and we see Kevin Pearson's ID, his wallet on the ground.

And we're like, what is going on? Don't you be doing that to these people. Yeah, I was like, he's. We left the last episode with him being like, I can make it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

And so now we're seeing what happened after that. What a head fake. Do you want to just go through Kevin's? timeline there. Sure. Because what winds up having is we go back in time from that car crash, what have you. So now we know, okay, Kevin was in an accident. Yeah, where is he?

What's, yeah, yeah, yeah. What's going on? Kev's on set. He's talking to his sister and she's about to go down to San Diego because that's where they're giving birth to her. What's your birth mother's name? Ellie. Ellie's giving birth to their baby.

Right. So she's got a head. down and Kev sent her a gift was all very cutesy, talks to Madison who wound up having to go in this conversation, she's like, I got to go to the hospital. I think I'm having contractions. And she said, I had Braxton Hicks before. This is not that. This feels different. And he's like, yo, what's going on? Like, this isn't supposed to be happening for another couple of weeks. He's about to go film a scene with Robert De Niro. With De Niro. You know what I'm saying? And this one, we're going to have to take a break,

because this is, this is one of those things. where you suspend disbelief. You got a hot take. Sterling's got a hot. I think we all probably have the same hot take. If you bear with me here. But so she says she's got to go to the hospital, right? He's concerned that she's alone.

You can see he's sort of guilt-written and not, just not happy. Like he wants to be with his fiancee who's about to give birth to his children. So De Niro's taking time. Every once in a while we have actors who take a little bit longer to come out than others. You want to name names?

Evidently, Robert De Niro from our show is one of those people. For anyone listening, yeah, apparently he's a big slope-up. Apparently, apparently. He takes a lot of time in hair makeup. And so we're like, my pulse is sort of quickening. It's like, the sooner we get out of here, the sooner he can make it back. You know what I'm saying? Turns out De Niro didn't take too long, right?

Takes a couple minutes. He's headed in. But by that time, Kev has already gotten the information from Madison that she's there And he's talking to the director. He's like, hey, man, my wife has just gone into, my fiance, it's gone in the labor. He's like, oh, that's great, man. Like, you know, congratulations.

Congratulations. We'll try to get you out of here as soon as possible. What? No, I mean, I was just like, hearing that, I'm like, that is not the right response. I mean, I know you're the director and this is your movie, but like, I don't know. He's in, and like, I think they're in two different pages

because I think for the director, the movie is his baby. Yes. Right. Understandably, yes. And also for men. Like, I didn't quite understand until I was part of a labor. I feel you.

But I was like, what this means? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The process that is now under way. Yeah. More that was us after these words from our sponsors. At the end of the day, when you want a little sweet treat, you want a little sweet treat for your kiddos. But you don't want to be giving them a bunch of ingredients.

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Fistfuls? Yeah, I bring it to say. Yeah. I love that. Brown likes that dark chocolate. What's that jiggle? Oh, you like the dark chocolate? What's that rattling?

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And in theory, I'm like, oh, no, they're far enough away. And they do sneak up on you. For me, it's a lot of back and forth. Like when we're working out of town, sometimes I will book my own stays. And I'm like, oh, right, I have to be in a foreign city in two days. Yeah. I better get on Airbnb. I better get on it. And every time you take one of those trips, your home is just sitting there empty while you're gone.

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hosting it on Airbnb is a practical way to make use of your space and can earn you a little extra for wherever you're headed next. If you've considered hosting but need a little help, find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. This episode is brought to you by FedEx.

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delivery networks. Level up your business with FedEx. The new power move. And so you can see there in two different places. No, I'm trying to tell you that, like, my wife is about to give, and I think I need to get out of here. And he's like, okay. We'll get you out of here in like six hours.

We'll get you out as soon as you can. You finish. You go out tomorrow. Da-da-da-da. And he's like, I don't know if that's going to work. And he's like, what do you mean? And he says, like, dude, I'm sorry. I got to go.

Yeah. Now, this is the part. We know how much money these things cost. Yes. Right. And you also know, like, in real life, I think there's contingency. But what has happened here is Kev's out of town. We have grandma and grandpa stuck in sequestering in the cabin.

We have my best friend, sister, going down to San Diego to pick up her own baby. Like, I don't have close connections. Randall and Beth are driving back from New Orleans. Like there's nobody there, right? And I think dramatically speaking, like in terms of storytelling, I love what he does. I love that he, but I don't know if I have the guts and or in real life, could you do that? Yes, you would. Walk out on De Niro?

On production, knowing the level of like money that goes into like planning these things out and what have you, like, do you think that is a move that you could make in good conscience and think that everybody should just sort of like get on board with? Mandy's like, no, you go. Yeah. I don't think you expect people to get on board with it. Right. You know you're fucked. And you're leaving the movie and you're in breach or whatever it is, but it's just sort of like you have no choice?

You have no choice. You see it the same way? I think so. You think so. I mean, how else do you navigate it? I don't know. It's a rock and a hard place, for sure, right? But like, you've given a commitment.

handled it a little differently and been like, can we work together to figure something out? Yeah. Like I need to. And also I was like, why is Miguel not getting on the horn with like net sweet X or jet sweet or whatever the private plane situation? Were you guys to get back to the spot? I was like, come on man. Right. We don't need to, we don't need to be looking on Delta.

There may been, is there in like sort of like. A COVID situation? Yeah, maybe a COVID situation. I don't know. But I, that was where I was like, why is he exhausting every avenue? Like, yes, he could have handled it differently. but ultimately, if you got to go, you got to go. You got to go.

Like, there are emergencies that happen, right? If there's, like, a death in the family or something catastrophic happens, like, they would be understanding. And I feel like this sort of life event falls under the same umbrella. I will give you the closest tangent that I have to this, which is shooting the people versus OJ. Ryan was on her due day. I was shooting a scene from episode six where Marrower. Marsha Clark breaks down and her and like Darden have a little moment with each other. And so I had to shoot at the top of the day.

Have I told you guys this? No. I had to shoot at the end of the day. But it was one day past Ryan's due date. Oh, God. So I shoot this first scene. I said, all right, guys, listen, I'm going to go home. I'm going to hang out with my wife.

You know what I'm saying? I'll be back at the end of the night to shoot the last scene. They're like, cool. You know, hope everything goes well, et cetera. I was like, yeah, you know, she's a day late. Andrew was a week late. Yeah. Right?

So you're like, maybe he's going to hang out? Maybe you'll hang out for a little bit. I'll be back for later on the night. So I get home, I think I've told you part of this. And my wife is in a bikini. And she's like, I want to go to the beach for a photo shoot. And I was like, huh? Like just, I was like, just like this.

And she's like, yeah, I want to go to the beach to do this photo shoot. And I was like, all right, cool, cool. So as we're walking out the door, her in the kids, she looks gorgeous right away. Wait, you were the photographer. I was the photographer. I was a photographer. I was a photographer. As we're walking out the door, her mucus membrane starts to leak down the inside of her thigh.

I say, hey, bird, I see a little bit of the mucus membrane. And she goes, oh yeah, you're right. She goes, let's go to the beach. I say, hold on, hold on now. Time out. I said, can we at least go, like, talk to the midwife and just ask her what this means, etc? And she's like, yeah, let's do that. So the midwife's right around the corner.

And the midwife does a pH test of like the mucus. And she goes, within 24 hours. within 24 hours, you're going to have another job. And she's like, okay. And she's like, I'm ready to go to the beach now. Still, undeterred. I'm like, all right, no. Okay, let's do it.

So we go, we go to the beach. We go to Santa Monica Beach. We do this whole photo shoot and the sun is beautiful. It's like three in the afternoon, something like that. We did these pictures. She finishes with the picture, and she's like, thank you so much. It was really important to me to get this photo shoot in because I don't know if I'm going to have anything

where I looked this beautiful with the baby inside me. I was all good, girl. Come give me a hug. I got you. 3.36 p.m. Like a movie, a deluge, goes down her legs, both thighs, straight down. Like, out of a movie, like, water broke.

And active labor began, right? It's 3.36 p.m. I was like, let's get back to the car. So we get to the car. We're talking to our midwife. And every once in a while, now it's 336 going east on the tent. So for anybody who doesn't live in Los Angeles,

that means you're aft. I'm going the wrong way. You're aft in traffic. He is now in gridlock. So I have to get off the tin to try to get to Venice, to try to get to Washington, to try to get the Jefferson, just so I can make my ass home. Because in my head, I was like, I'm not in the car.

I ain't having the baby in the car. Yeah. I make it somewhere. Yeah. But I ain't doing this in the car. I didn't know one time already at home. I know how to do that. Not on level.

Not on level. Yeah. So talking to the midwife, right? And she's talking to him and trying to like keep her up. And every once in a while she just gets quiet. And Ryan just goes quiet. And I'm like, oh shit, it's about to go down. So I finally make it home.

The midwife had her nanny had a car accident. So when we get inside, we beat the midwife by about 20 minutes. So we're inside. doing active labor for 20 minutes by herself, rise crawling around, doing her thing, et cetera. Thankfully, the midwife gets there. And so I go to let her in. I look out in the driveway and there's a car with three kids,

her three kids sitting in the back seat with the windows down just doing homework. They're like, this ain't our first rodeo. Yeah, it may be for you. Yeah, yeah. I know what I'm supposed to do. Mama told me to do my homework. So go back inside, rise on all fours.

And you hear go, oh, right? And so I think like there's crowning that happens. And then midwife goes, you know what, sweetheart? I think your legs are a little close together. If you could open up just a little bit, Ryan open her legs and Amari shot out. Shut the front door. Shut out. And again, again, we're on all fours. So my man just right out the back, right? Yeah. Do you catch him? No, because the midwife is there. The midwife is there this thing and she was able to catch him. She was there for, more than. More, more than, dramatic the first time, but like, this was dramatic enough.

So again, I said, 3.36 p.m. This one seems more dramatic. It might be. 3.36 p.m. 5.40 p.m. I welcomed my second child into the world. Two hours and four minutes. Fertile Myrtle doesn't play games. No, she doesn't. She goes in light. Like, if we had a third child, I would walk around behind her.

Yes. And like, at week 37. Yeah, I'm ready. Whenever you're ready. Don't sneeze. So I said that. So then I call. the first AD.

I was like, guys, I got a baby. And they're like, what? You know what I'm saying? I was like, yeah, I got a second baby. And they're like, you don't have to come back in. I said, thank you. But I did shoot at 6 a.m. the next morning. No.

Yeah. 6 a.m. That will give you a 12 hour turnaround. And no paternity leave for your boy. But it was a glorious night to be at home. Sure. And I was there. So just given the name of the episode.

Yeah. There. Oh, that is such. good story. Which, you know, if you, if you, where did you shoot that? What lot? Fox. Okay. So you're not too, so it wasn't far because I lived at Pico and Fairfax. Oh, okay. I was right around. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, but see, I'm picturing your house now. So that drive home at that time from the beach was much longer. Much longer. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, I was just thinking, like, as he walked out,

Going back to the show, I was like, can he do this? And so to continue with his storyline, right, he's trying to get a ticket. Evidently, Miguel is the travel coordinator in this particular instance. And they're like, how come they couldn't afford an assistant? He says, it's an indie, et cetera. But I was like, this is, again, just finding a way to fold the family into the storyline. They could afford De Niro. They could afford an assistant.

Yeah. And it's not that small a movie, by the way. For sure. Yeah. So he's doing, and as he's doing this. We see he's multitasking, behind the wheel, on the phone, trying to see how far it takes to get to a certain air. And every once in a while, cars swerve in front. It's like, near collisions happen on a couple of different occasions.

You're like, oh, is this when it happened? Oh, snap. Yeah, yeah. Totally. So he makes it through that. We're able to get a ticket in Seattle, so we have to drive like two hours to get there for a two and a half hour flight, which means he'll be back in five and a half hours, feeling good about that. But then my man Kev, as he's gone, he sees this car off the side of the road.

And it's the car accident. It's the car accident. So we were thinking, okay, it's not Kev. Exactly. It's someone else. So Kev is like, man. News radio. I got to do this.

Listen, here's the thing, too. I've had sports night. Sports night. West Wing. West Wing. It's Josh Molina, everybody. It's a TV legend in a car accident. It's Josh Malina.

And it's one of those things where I was thinking I was like, Josh Malina was on a show. And then I was like, man, he must got something good, really coming up. And it was good. Don't hear me wrong. But it wasn't what I thought. Definitely could have seen a monologue from Josh Molina. It is what we have decided is a pandemic moment.

There you go. Where everybody was sitting at home. Yeah, waiting for work. And be like, hey, want to come have four lines on this is us? Not doing anything else. Trying to get that plan one insurance, baby. That's all it's about. And Kev winds up, just being like going into action.

And he's like, listen, somebody's in trouble. Even though he had something that he needed to be at, he stopped. And I'm curious, just, are you guys stoppers? Yeah. Yeah. In that situation, yes, you can't. You can't drive butt. Yeah.

The doubt and guilt of being like, and just motoring off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The car's on fire. Yeah. Yeah, he was by himself. He made, it was a, I was proud of him. I was proud of my brother in this moment. Pulling him out.

He winds up, getting him. him to the hospital. A hospital. Very nice hospital. But he's talking about, I think, well, where Josh Molina does play in scale, I want to give him his props. Kev is talking to him. He's trying to keep him up, right?

Because he can see he's kind of like passing out. He's kind of fading, yes. Tells him, like, my fiance is about to go on the labor, and I'm not going to be there. I'm going to miss the most important day of my life. And Molina's like, hey, man, I got three kids. They don't even remember this shit. Yeah, this is not the most important day of their life. This is far from being the most important thing.

in their life, like, you're gonna be all right. Yeah. Was there anything more like... No, no, it was great. He just sort of absolved him of that guilt of like, whether you make it or not, like, this is not, this is not the most important day of their life. They're not going to remember this. You're...

He talked about his pops. Well, he says, you're rich and famous. You're going to be their idol. Yeah. And that flips Kevin's perspective on his own dad. Yeah. Who wasn't rich or famous. But he was still my idol.

Yeah. So it's like he was just... just there. He was the most there. So then like the real it really clicks for him. I just need to be there. Totally. Like I know I know they're not going to remember it, but I need to be there. Yeah. Because my dad found a way to do it all. And I want to be like that. He was the most. What I say? He was the most there person ever. And it's, it's interesting too because you have a conversation with him after Miguel's able to get the ticket or whatnot. And you start going into this thing about, listen, I know you love your dad and know you haven't been on a pedestal.

And then it's sort of like cuts out. Like you never get a chance to finish hearing what Rebecca had to say to sort of like give a fuller color and picture of like he was a great man and was just a man too. And was just a man. You know what I'm saying? Like the rest of us. Just like everybody else. But he didn't get a chance to hear that part.

It's okay. Yeah. He drops off Josh Molina. I think Josh Malina's going to be okay. Yeah. We go to the four seasons of hospitals. There you go. It was nice.

He had a fountain. He just whistled and clicked and four people came running with wheelchair. chairs. You sir. Gosson. Yeah. And they whisk him off and Kevin's back in the car. You watch Sports Night? Get over here. Listen to me. I don't know what health care is like in Canada, but it looked pretty good. It looked pretty nice. So my man is hustling to the airport. Now, unbeknownst to him, but to our audience and us, this cat left his ID. Yeah. All I'm thinking about is like, oh, bro. Yeah. Is he going to get on his plane? And then this is the culturally specific part of me. He meets a black woman and as a white man telling his problems to his sister.

And it was such an interesting thing to me. He's like, listen, I must have like dropped my wallet somewhere. And she's like, all right. I'm sorry about that. She's like, it's not how it works, but if you go, you can get a temporary idea. It'll probably take about 24 hours. I ain't got 24 hours. She's like, look, you're not going to believe this. But I had to pull over and help this guy out of this burning car. And she's like, okay. And then she's like, and then she's like, and then, My wife, my fiancee is about to have our twins and she's there by herself. Yeah. And you got to find a way to get me on this plane.

Google me. And it was, no, he's like, listen, I'm a public figure. And listen, Brown has pulled this a couple of times where I forgot my ID. And I like go on like whatever. And I show a picture of me. I was like, this is me. This is me. It did work.

This is me with Oprah, Oprah Winfrey. No, you could be Oprah? That's me. That's Oprah? That's me. That would work. Maybe. Some cloud.

Maybe. What did it work for? It works a lot. But. The Oprah specific or just showing the picture? Okay. Got it, got it. That's silly adding that in.

It works like if I've never tried it on an official travel thing. Got it. You know what I'm saying? Like a plane or, you know, D&V type stuff. I love that because the TSA agent was like, that's not how this works. Yeah. But you know what is. And so I was left to wonder.

I was like, did this sister let him on the plane? Yeah. How does it? Because we don't know. She couldn't have done it by herself. There's three other people who want to see you right. Yeah, yeah. There must have been some supervisor called.

But that is the last part, right? Yeah. Of Kev's story. That's all you see. Yeah, that's all we see. Okay. Well, I mean, I guess the... No, go ahead.

Turn it. I was going to say the little tiny bit at the end that doesn't involve Kevin, I guess, is Randall and Beth and Madison calling them in the car. Oh, yeah. Or actually Randall calls Madison because Randall calls Kevin when he's driving and in the midst of this like existential crisis. There you go. Yes. It's a flag.

Yeah, we see the continuation of that. And so he, Kevin is basically like, I actually, I'm like going through something right now. I can't talk to you. I'm so sorry, Randall. And Randall takes it upon himself to call Madison because he knows that Kevin is trying to get to her. she's in labor. Sure. And Randall does the kind, brotherly, generous thing by calling Madison,

checking in on her, and then basically telling her, like, we're family. Yeah. Like, we can stay on the line if you want that. I know that, like, nobody else is able to be there for you right now. And it was... Kay was beautiful. It was beautiful. Yeah.

It was really, really beautiful. Yeah. And it was, it's a moment of, like, you see these brothers who at the end, of season four go through this incredibly calamitous, you know, argument. And you're like, how did they sort of come back to this? And we've had little moments and glimmers of connection between the two of them, but the timing not being quite right, et cetera. And so it just feels like we're moving towards something.

There's a thawing that is transpiring. It has to take place in its own time, right? Should we do, like, young Jack? Sure, sure, because that's just like... I like Young Jack. It's good. There are times when I'm like, oh, wow, he really does look like Milo. He does.

Yeah. It looks a lot like him. I'm like, oh. And it is one of these moments, too. We have a couple of them of Stanley, but like we get a chance to see a different color with Stanley. Like, I think the first three seasons or so, Stanley's fairly one color. Yeah. And even in this episode, like it's tough.

I mean, always white. Always white. Very pale. Very pale. We see Young Jack. He is. In his Little League baseball uniform, he's sort of prepping himself. And, like, you can tell he's nervous and he sort of lays down on the bed and just starts praying.

Yeah. Right? Like, just trying to get it together. Stanley's like, all right, you ready for this one, man? Like, we're going to win the game, et cetera. I can't remember all the specifics. So I have to look at my notes because I'll let other people win. But I do want to say this part. I'm going to say this about me and having a kids that play sports.

because it'll overlap with Kev and Jack as well for these two things. And I love sports, and I enjoyed them. I played football and basketball, track, Ultimate Frisbee, et cetera. And my kids are athletes and they're good athletes, right? And there is this aspect that you get into a little bit and be like, maybe they can take it where dad never did. Right? And so I'm very thankful to a film that I did called Waves

for pointing out to me what I am capable of. and so and in fatherhood being like, now don't do that. And what I mean by that is like there are these moments you have of like, you want it so bad, but you can't want it more than they want it for themselves, right? And you want at each, I think of you, Sully, as you talk about your experience with tennis or whatnot, you want them to enjoy it the whole time they're doing it. Right. You know what I'm saying?

Which is not possible. To speak on it. It's just not a reality. And it's not possible for any... For anybody at any age in doing anything. Yeah. But the hard part with, you know, kids or young developing brains is, you know, as soon something gets hard, there can be a tendency to abandon it.

Or, you know, you give a six-year-old a bad batch of mac and cheese. Well, now I don't like mac and cheese. Ever, yeah. Ever again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, well, hold on a second. Today is a moment in time, you know. And so there's this balance, right, of what is supportive.

Yeah. And what is coercive. And the real kind of theme, for me, watching these two sets of dads, right, Jack and his dad and Jack and Kevin. Yep. Is kids, it seems to me, we've already can see it with Bear, you know, it's like really quickly learn how and where to get their love. Okay. You know what I mean?

I do. Great example. When Bear was at your house and he told you a joke. Yeah. And you laughed. Yeah. And so he told you the same joke again. Sure.

Yeah. And then he told it to you again. Totally. And they told it to you again. Yes, he did. And then Sterling turned to Bear. And this is the greatest, I still tell, I still use. He goes, Bear, my man, let me tell you about diminishing.

return. And Bear was genuinely interested. He was like, tell me. Tell me. And Sterling explained it to him. So each time, it's going to be less funny. And it actually made sense to Bear. Yeah.

But in the moment, he's just like, love. That was love. I got love. I got a laugh. I'm going to get it again. I'm going to get it again. And so with parents, and especially with fathers and sons, it seems, I mean, that would be my only experience as far as me and bear.

But again, with my mom and my dad, like, I can tell like where, oh, that made my mom happy. Yeah. Okay. That is not only where I get love, but then it can kind of become, that's the only way. Or the most, like, potent way. Yeah, the most, or the quickest way or the whatever way. And so now I'm focused on that thing instead of, I don't know, the authenticity of any of these moments.

You know what I mean? And you see this all playing out with these relationships. That's fascinating. fascinating. So to continue with Stanley and Jack, they go to the baseball game. And as they're going to the baseball game, we see a six-pack in the back of the car. And you're like, oh, yeah, that's right. Stanley, Stanley likes a drink. We go to the game, and Stanley has tied one on. And he's like, man, it's nothing like seeing a game end with a walk-off home run. Usually I don't like to see it with my son being the pitcher.

So, and then Jack says, I gave up one run, bro. It's not my fault that we didn't have any hitting. So they lost one zero on a walkoff home run. And Stanley's giving him crap or whatnot. And then he drops his keys because he's inebriated. And Jack says, hey, dad, maybe we wait a little bit to go home or whatnot. He's like, what are you trying to say? You know what I mean?

Bravado and all of it stuff. And then he winds up throwing him the keys. I ain't a hot shot. You drive. You drive. Got to learn some time. Now, we know Jack ain't 16. And we can also tell from this is like,

I never been behind the wheel of a car before. Yeah. And so my first time doing this is going to be driving home, like in traffic with my dad, inebriated. That's not like a recipe for success. I just let a 14-year-old drive for the first time. Harrowing.

Fucking harrowing. No, thank you. No, thank you. I did it in a neighborhood without through traffic, and he was freaked out. I was like, I was like, it's a bumper cars, big dog. I need you to stay in the middle of the room. Yeah, in the middle. Not even on the right side.

Just go down the middle. Just go straight down the middle, darling. Yeah. Oh, God. I don't even want to think about those days. You got away. I know. There'll be driverless cars by then.

That's right. Waymos. Waymos for everybody. Just waymose everywhere. That's big. That's what he has. He has a Waymo account. Yeah.

He enjoys it. He enjoys it very much. So we cut. He's trying to start the car. Car is not quite starting. Ultimately, he gets it started. They're driving down the road. And I think Stanley's talking about Jack and about how, like, I told your mom not to spoil you.

Like, don't let me misquote Stanley, but he's giving him the business. Yep. He's giving him grief. And in a moment of like, look, man, I'm driving for the first time. first time, I'm trying not to die. I have to concentrate on things that I've never had to concentrate on in my entire life. And he just says, shut up, shut up. And there's respect from his father. Like you see, you see Stanley be like, oh, he's got something in him. He's like, hey, okay. Didn't think he would. He wouldn't say a word for the rest of the time, right? Jack makes it home.

Yeah. And we get a moment because he's talking to Kev's, and we'll flash to that. And he's like, he wasn't all bad or whatnot. And we see Stanley say, you know what, man? I didn't think you had it in you. Regular ND 500, right? And there's a smile. And I was like, I'm, you're just glad that like this dude

was able to get something to hold on to. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Like, he doesn't have a lot of pause. And that's the moment for Jack, where he realizes, like, where his love comes from, right? Yeah.

And his love comes from. from taking control, being in control, overachieving, you know what I mean? And this like superhero. Yeah, being strong. Jack Pearson. Yeah, kind of gets flowing out of that. Totally, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right? Absolutely. More that was us after this short break. So it has become sort of customary for Brown to have two Davids in his car at all time. I'm pretty much the same. It's a non-negotiable because I don't want to hunger to sneak up on me.

and then just grab a piece of crap. Yeah. When you say David's, you're not talking about two little men in your car. You're talking about David's protein bars. Yeah. I got one in my bag right now. I got two in the car right now. The bronze joints are delectable.

Yeah, the classic joints. 28 grams of protein. Come on. 150 calories. Guess how much sugar? Zero. Zero. That's right.

Zero grams. None. Good guess. Oh, I know. Let's talk flavors. Yeah. Anything with chocolate. Anything with peanut butter.

Anything peanut butter. Anything peanut flavor. Oh, guys, I haven't tried the red velvet or the cake batter. And I got to tell you, that sounds delicious. I got to tell you in the bronze selection, that's Smowers Bar. Oh, I haven't tried that either. That's Samoers Bar? Get out of here.

Even like my youngest son now, like after basketball practice or something, he'll be like, Dad, can I have one of your Davids? And I'll be like, all right, cool. I want to be selfish with it, but I know it's delicious. Like when a little kid can eat something and it had zero sugar in it and be completely satisfied, they're doing something like. First protein bar I've ever had that doesn't make me feel like I'm eating a protein bar. Yes.

And don't just take our word for it. Go grab one for yourself. Head to Walmart today to try a bar or stock up on four cartons of your favorite flavors like blueberry pie and salted peanut butter sold exclusively at Walmart. Check out Walmart.com to find a store near you. All right, guys. So I was doing my usual weekend grocery hall on shipped. The family likes to get together.

have like a little steak dinner. My youngest son. Really? Oh, he's a chef. Like he goes through the whole season process. Amari's a chef? Amari's a chef and he loves a quality cut of meat. He's very particular. As I'm putting it on the cart and I'm talking to my shopper with shipped and they're asking questions saying like, you know, ribby's not here, etc. Can we go with the T-bone? Can we go with this? And so we have to narrow it down. I have to go back to Amari. Yeah.

Like, hey, Amari. Sure, sure. He's the chef. I know you want a ribai, but we don't have the ribyes that we necessarily want right now. And then he gets to correspond with the shopper and say, that piece of meat looks good. We get pictures in real time. And he gets to have some agency over what comes home into his cart. Yes, he's shoppers with shipped. They know that there is no ordinary order. There you go.

It's never just delivery. I want somebody who cares, right, who's going to be as particular as I am. I don't need super high marbling, but I don't want it to be dry either. Right. Right. So when I communicate that, when I communicate my son's needs. needs to the shopper, they come through in a shining way time and time again. With shipped, it's never just a delivery order. It's shopped same day in the same way you would.

Use code podcast to get a year of shipped for only $49, half off the regular $99 price at ship.com slash offer. That's shipt.com slash offer. Terms apply. You don't need AI agents, which may sound weird coming from service. Service Now, the leader in AI agents. The truth is, AI agents need you. Sure, they'll process, predict, even get work done autonomously. But they don't dream, read a room, rally a team, and they certainly don't have shower thoughts, pivotal hallway chats, or big ideas.

People do. And people, when given the best AI platform, they're freed up to do the fulfilling work they want to do. To see how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. One plus one equals more of the greatest stories. Hulu on Disney Plus. Stories about survivors. The most dangerous planet. Family.

Retribution. Murder. Prophecy. Beer and propane. Bolly Diller. Blake Panthe. The ultimate soldier. Chicago, all right. The best of the best stories now with even more from Hulu.

Amazing. Have it all with BU on Disney Plus. Young Cove is about to go. to a football camp. Yeah. Quarterback camp is very excited about. Jack's very excited about it. He knows that there's going to be Penn State quarterbacks there.

So it's an opportunity to get seen and possibly propel you into something even more, right? Especially paid for college. You know what I'm saying? Everybody loves that. Yeah. As a parent, all parents love paid for college. Kev's upstairs doing like going over his playbook, you know, and nervous, just not knowing if he's got it all together. They're on the car ride up there.

And Jack is just sort of talking about, you know, I used to play Little League when I was a kid, but, you know, like to see you playing quarterback and what you could become of you could be really, really special. And you can just see the nerves of Kev as he's keying his dad. Oh, yeah, the pressure that's being put on him. And Jack, not even aware that he's putting pressure in this particular situation. He grabs a brochure, what have you, and it sort of says how much the camp costs. And Kev, who doesn't have the same relationship to money as he has in present day, when he was, he's a little boy. He's like, yo, there's a lot. He's like, don't worry about it, man.

Like once we get that college scholarship, it'll pay for it. It's already worth it. And you're just like, oh, man. Like it's one of these really, like, interesting moments because I have to clock myself. I'm like, am I doing this to my kids and like not recognizing it? And sometimes, like, the difference, what did you say, Chris, there's coercive? say, Chris, there's coercion and something. Support or coercion.

You know what I mean? It's such a fine line sometimes because you don't want fear to be the ultimate dictator of what you choose and don't choose to do. You want to acknowledge fear, but you want to encourage them to still move forward as fear is present. You know what I'm saying? So it's not about like, not don't be afraid. No, I see that you're afraid, but you can still.

do something in the midst of that fear, right? They get, was it in the car? They get to the hotel when he talks about the stupid. Oh, it was the hotel, like, bar, right? Right? It was before the bar. Oh, sorry. It's before the steakhouse.

He says, yeah. You can tell that something's wrong with Kevin, and he's not feeling confident and comfortable and something's wrong, and he asks him, what's up. Yeah. Wait. So, wait, before that, I'm sorry. I just want to get the timeline right.

And if I miss this, I apologize. Well, yeah, camp is expensive. They run into the coach and some of those Penn State players in the lobby of the hotel. Yeah. Kevin gets sick. Yackety, yack. Up upstairs in the hotel room. And Kevin tells Jack he knows that he called him soft.

Yeah. Is this at this? Okay, yeah. And that he feels like football is maybe his only shot at being special. This is tying right into what Sally was talking about earlier. And then coach calls him, tells him that coach calls him stupid. But every day. Every day.

Like, this isn't just a once occurring situation. Yeah. Yeah. He says a couple other things. He goes, I know this is the only reason why you're here, right? And he's like, what are you talking about? He's like, because, you know, Randall's a nerd, you know, Kate has her thing. And the only reason why you're here is because, like, you think this is my one chance of being special. Otherwise, you wouldn't come because it's not that big of a deal.

He's like, is that what you think, man? and he talks about the, you know, soft part, et cetera. And then he goes into like, coach says that I'm stupid. And he's like, what are you talking about? He's like, he calls me stupid every day. And so then Jack says, you know what, man? Let's go grab a bite to eat. He's like, I don't really feel.

And he's like, no, we'll get something for your stomach so you don't feel so queasy, right? He's like, dad, he's like, grab your coat. Yeah, you can tell. You tell Jack's got a plan. Work. We're going. And so this scene, by the way, at the bar, it's a good scene.

Yeah. It's a father and son just sharing a moment, like the little boy getting a chance to be in a bar. Yeah. With his dad. They order steaks. I forgot about that. Onion rings and coax.

You used to not be allowed in that part of the restaurant without an adult. Without an adult. Remember? Yeah. Yeah. So he's looking around. He's like, this is pretty cool. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Also, maybe not the best meal posts being sick, but, you know, the mom and me saw that. And I was like, I have, we're some bread to soak up the, but in 1994 or whatever, what year would have been? Yeah. Yeah, like 90. So, 94. 94.

95. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what you'd put on that? I would have a little steak. I would have felt like an absolute stud. Absolutely.

Yeah. And he tells him, he's telling them about the little league and how he used to play with his dad and whatnot. And, man, I want to remember. Well, he admits that dad would always come to the games and he would make his life a living hell. And it was only like, like if they had a good game, it would be a good ride home. Yeah. When you get love. Exactly.

So it's like it kind of brings you back to the beginning of the episode where he's sitting there going like, please, please, please, please, please. He's sort of asking the universe like, please help us win because this is going to make my life a hell of a lot easier if it's a good game. Yeah. And, yeah, and basically Jack talks about how parents really loom large. Yes. They are a million things at once. Yeah. You are stuck with them even when they're long gone.

So, you know, because he talks about how his dad is still, he still thinks about his dad. He still thinks, you know, I'm sure as he's a dad and as he's parenting. Yeah. And he notices the pressure and how alike he and his dad maybe are and he, doesn't, he has obviously a real distaste for that. And Kevin kind of reassures him like, no, you're better than your dad. Yeah. And he tells him that you're going to be better than me.

Yeah. It's nice. Yeah. Knowing now that like Kevin is on his way to becoming a dad. Totally. Totally. And so then we clock, we see coach. Oh, shit.

Coach was at this restaurant too. Oh, yeah. It's like the hotel restaurant. I guess so. Yeah. Hotel bar. Yeah. Yeah.

So coach goes to the bathroom. He said, hey, man, I'll be right back. So he walks into the bathroom. This is, this shit is my favorite. Yeah, dude. Classic. Because, like, listen, guys, we hinder around with it. Like, this is very close to who Milo Ventimili is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't mess with him. He's that, he's that dude. Yeah. That if you mess with the people that he cares about, he'll let you know, no boy, no. No me ghost. He will corner you at a urinal. I don't know about that, but.

This, this certainly, I was like, oh, yep. He's in the bathroom. He's like, hey, man, he's like, I just want you know I'm going to be at every game this year. I'm going to be watching, right? He's like, hey, man, you got to see your boy play. He's like, I'm not just going to be watching my boy. Right, I'm going to be watching you. He's like, don't call my kid stupid, all right?

Ever. Ever. He's like, Jack, he's like, hey, just tell me that you understand. Specific wording. He's like, just tell me that you understand. Yeah. And he's like, all right. I understand.

My man. Comes out of the bathroom. You know what I'm saying? Like if you guys know Buffalo Bill, you know Silence on the Lambs? Yeah. My man tuck tail. Gosh. My man tuck tail.

Real quick. He's like, uh, hi, Kevin. Kevin's like, hey, coach. He's like, hi, Kevin. Like, could not have gotten out of their fastest. Jack comes back to the table. He's like, Kevin's like, dad, coach is here. He's like, oh, yeah.

Yeah. And he's like, did you see him? He's like, I saw it for a minute or so in the bathroom. He's like, did you say anything to him? I was like, no. And you know, Kevin is like, yeah. Yeah, I know what you did. Yeah.

And he's like, okay, yeah, cool. And you know, like, I think that's what it is. Like knowing that, like in that conversation and even in the interaction that he didn't fully communicate to his son, but his son understood is that like his son now knew, I don't have to be perfect in order for my dad. to have my back. Yeah. Do you know what I'm saying?

Yeah. And that's just like, that's kind of what I needed in that moment, right? And I have these moments all the time. Like I say, hey, man, I don't care if you win or you lose. Go out there, play your best. You know, have fun. And when you're done with the game, you know that you did your best? Yeah.

You're going to be fun. It's a really good reminder, too, that it goes back to what we were talking about before, about the unconditional love that we feel needs to be demonstrated. because it's not always obvious. And in a kid's brain, it can be confusing. Yeah. Like win, lose, you know, good, bad, A, D, whatever the grade, you know what I mean. And so being really proactive and really intentional, but active in the unconditional in the unconditional love is very important.

Agreed. Yeah, this is an interesting. episode, I feel like in the sort of macro picture of the show, it's like, this is one of those like connector episodes. It's like a little link between like a big story and another

big story. Like, these are kind of important little episodes where you're like, not a ton happens, but it's like, it's kind of essential on like the big picture. Yeah, totally. But yeah, I and I totally forgot

pretty much everything about it until I watched it. It's like, Was I there? It was a weird out-of-body experience. Kind of the same for this next episode, too. I was like, oh, okay. Well, this next one, but we'll talk about the next one and the next one. I liked it a lot.

Yeah, no, me too. So we're going to be back with our favorite segment of the show, the fan segment. I never got it in there organically, but we can show them the video if it's still pulled up. It doesn't really work in birth stories. Oh, what's going on? I'm missing stuff. Push plate. You're going to be fine.

You're going to be great. Just give me a nod. What is that? He got tased. That's a man being tased. Wait, you know tased? Why did you do that? Because we were learning how to use the taser.

And they, and I said, oh, look at that. And I said, I said, can I get tased? And they said, if you want to. And I said, that is the whitest thing I've. ever heard you say in my life. Are you fucking kidding me, bro? That's a life experience. Yes, it is.

Wait, tell what? So a taser has two barbs on it that stick either to your skin or to your clothes, connecting a circuit. You can take those barbs off, and they just stuck one in my pocket and one of my boot. It's the right leg, the one that's extremely stiff and straight.

And he just turned it on, And I thought, I thought, okay, first of all, you're not going to get an opportunity to get taste very often. Let's hope. Let's hope. Let's hope. And I was like, well, I'll do anything just about once. Intense excruciating pain. 50 times more powerful than I thought it was going to be.

He goes, I'll turn it on. If you want me to turn it off, just say stop. You couldn't even say stop. And I said, what if I forget to? to say stop and he goes, you'll be fine. I said, how about this? How about you just turn it on for two seconds and then we just make a deal that you turn it off?

And he was like, just say stop. That's me forgetting to say stop the minute it was on. The minute it was on, I forgot to say stop. And all I could get out was off, off, off. Hey, run this tape back. One more time. I want to see. Now that we know what we're watching.

This ridiculous Eagle Scout. You're going to be fine. That's Janet Montgomery, who also. got tased. Everybody got tased after this. Malik... Yeah. Yeah. I will say, I will say I was pleased

at the quality of my scream. It was from here. It didn't feel cut off? It felt... Accessible. It felt epic. It didn't go high-pitched, you know. This guy's face...

Both smiling right at the camera. Right at the camera. This fucker. Both of them. There's another. video as soon as it's done it's done no after effects okay no no pain really it was harrowing I've always been curious I'm like you wanted to know I had to know now you know now I know it is wild I was gonna try and figure out how to work that in but

geez that's a hard one yeah it's a hard stuff I was like what are you guys I thought it was gonna be like what are you guys been up to I want to check this out and now Birth Stories. This week's episode had us all on the edge as Kevin raced across the country trying to make it back to Madison in time for the twins' birth. So we asked you to share your own birth stories and you guys really came through. Yeah, we shared our. You show us ours. We showed you. Something like that. Something like that. We showed you. Let's dive into your incredible birth stories. And here's.

How love, panic, and determination, determination, determinedion, showed up in these unforgettable moments. So I'll read this first one. It's from Natalie H. Hi, my name is Natalie, and I reside in beautiful Wisconsin. I love your podcast and re-watching the show. We have a few tie-ins with the show, including adopting and IVF. Oh, wow.

Our IVF Miracle Baby was born early, and my husband almost missed it. So my husband was in Tahoe for work, which from Wisconsin takes about three flights to get home from. I went to my OB at 36 weeks for low fetal movement. Baby was okay, but I needed to stay overnight for monitoring. In the morning, my OB did another scan and decided something wasn't right and told me then. And there, I was going to have to be induced. Oh, boy.

Thank God my best friend was with me. I called my husband and said, you have until 6 p.m. to get back home. It was close. I think he made it just a few hours after I started the Potosan. for the induction. Now she's seven, and our other frozen embryo-turned-baby is five. My husband is also adopted from Korea. Thank you for the amazing podcast, sincerely, Natalie. Natalie? Oh, there they are. Natalie with the baby. And in case anyone has ever wondered what exactly goes into IVF,

if you are watching this episode, they have made a heart out of every, Needle and prescription bottle shot that someone would have to take on their IVF journey. Yeah. And it is a lot. It is a big, big heart around that one-z and that ultrasound. Congratulations. That's a picture is worth a thousand words, man. That's, I didn't even clock that until you.

I was watching looking at the family on the left-hand side of the frame and look over to, wow. That's amazing. Yeah. What a journey. Thank you for sharing your story, Natalie. Way to go, Natalie. Wait for making it back, husband. She does not look like she just gave birth.

I know. She's chilling. Wonderful. Wow. She's chilling. Who wants to read Emily G's email? Got Emily G. You got it? Go for it.

Dearest, this is slash, that was us team. That's us. I know this episode is about a parent trying to get to another parent, but I'd like to share the story of how the timing of my birth got me to my dad. My parents had my sister in 1919. And in 1990, in their early 40s, found out they were having me. Surprise. But while my mum, up, Emily's British.

Now what, she's, well, British Columbia. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. While me mum was pregnant, they found out my dad was sick, diagnosed with multiple myeloma. My dad checked into the cancer clinic on November 11th, remembrance day. As it became clear, my dad wouldn't survive. My mom and the nursing team who loved him fought the powers that be to keep his bed for him

while he went home for one last Christmas. He left on his feet, then returned in a wheelchair. In the new year, two weeks before my due date, my mom went into labor at midnight in the ambulance, with snowfall slowing the drive down and my mom's water breaking, speeding things up. Oh, Lord. The paramedic called a head.

head to the driver. Head for Grace, a closer hospital that happened to be only a few blocks from the cancer clinic. In an unfamiliar hospital with an unknown yet wonderful doctor, an absent birth coach, stuck in said snowstorm, no drugs and no forceps, my mom was told that I was in distress and on her next contraction pushed me into this world at 3.22 a.m. A few days later, healthy and free to go, we went to the cancer clinic where I met my dad for the first and only time. He was high on morphine for the pain, but he knew I was his and held me close for a photo.

He died suddenly that same day. I don't know if it was some cosmic force or my own stubborn will that allowed us to pass like ships in the night for my arrival and his departure. All I know is that time waits for no one. It is precious. It owes us nothing. And the most important moments of our life rarely go according to plan. So give your loved ones a hug because it's always time for that.

Your friend, Emily, in British Columbia. Look at this picture. daughter to Terry and Vicky. There's Terry and Vicky as a couple, young couple. There's Emily with her mom, Vicky, and then there's Terry and baby Emily right before he passed. Oh my gosh. What a photo.

What a photo is right. Wow. You guys. Life. Life is life. Oh. Yeah. But that she has that picture and that he had that moment.

Yeah, to meet her. Before the transition. I know. Yeah. Emily, that's a good one. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for sharing.

What was mom's name again? Vicki. Vicki and Terry, yeah. What a day for Vicky to experience both of those things in the same day. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, what a strong woman. Holding both of those things.

Okay. Hey. Oh, on that note. That's the end of that episode. Yeah. You know what? We weave these tales, right? And we think that like our tales are so sort of far-fetched or sometimes or not dramatic or specific.

But like that is life. Like because when you hear other people share like the specifics, it's like, oh, that could, no, it happened. Yeah, that could be an episode of our show. It's real. Like it's, yeah. That's beautiful. It's always a pleasure to hang out with you beautiful people and talk about this beautiful show. Likewise.

Likewise. I love you. Who wants to look into the camera and say it? That was us. That Was Us is filmed at Rabbit Grin Studios and produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith. Da da da da da-da-da-dum. That was us.

That was a hate gum podcast. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember 980. Canada's suicide crisis hubline. It's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime.

988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada.