The Bechdel Cast - Punch Drunk Love with Grace Freud

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

On this episode, Jamie, Caitlin, and special guest Grace Freud chat about Punch Drunk Love (2002). And bye bye! Follow Grace on Instagram at @gracefreudbusiness and on Substack at gracegfreud.substack.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. This is Matt Rogers. And Bowen-Yang. And you're never going to guess who's our guest on Las Culturistas. It is Elle Woods, Tracy Flick, herself. Reese Witherspoon. It must go in a girl's trip.

I have to have a tequila. We must. Oh. Whoever said orange is the new pink. We seriously disturbs. Listen to Los Angeles. culturalistas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jorge Ramos.

And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time, as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians, artists, and activists to bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. The Moment is a space for the conversations we've been having us, father and daughter, for years. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club?

Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack, available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name. Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life. On the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Bechdelcast, the questions asked, if movies have women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands, or do they have individualism? The patriarchy's effing vast, start changing it with the Bechdel cast. Hey, Jamie, it's Caitlin.

Hey, Caitlin. What's your credit card information and your social security number? Yeah, I'll give that to you. Okay, thanks. I'll give that to you. Yeah, write it down. Write it down over the phone. Is there a while that's still? I'm ready.

I still do that sometimes. Give out. That should be left in the past. Like, make a purchase over the phone. Every once in a while, you have to give someone your credit card number over the phone. Whoa. I haven't done that in like, I don't know, probably 10 years. I feel like it's mostly been on behalf of my mom or something where she's still,

like makes purchases and the like it's so interesting how boomers are always think they're like credit card numbers are being stolen but they're the one saying them out loud on the phone like yeah i don't think they're really taking care i would give you my credit card number thanks well welcome to the becktoll guests feel free to send us your credit card number you can definitely trust us trust us my name is jamie loftus my name is kately d'ronta This is our show where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens using the Bechtel test as a jumping off point. Jamie, what's that? Well, there's so many versions of this test.

It is a media matcher created by a dear friend of the show, maybe even our best friend. We spent two minutes with her in person. She's our dearest friend, and we love her. Our friend, Allison Bechle. Two whole minutes. Yes, wait, you didn't know. in Sacramento a couple weeks ago I know you guys hung out

but like she's your best friend now yeah did you guys talk about any Santa Claus movies or anything like I mean you don't you don't understand you don't understand I'm kind of like the robin or in a more gender permitting says bat girl of the Bechtel

and now all of a sudden I find out that Al's in Bechtel can just La Chita talked to you for 20 minutes And not even seem interested I saw the picture Okay, look Wow

And all of a sudden She's your best friend She's our best friend Okay But Grace In our defense We've been begging her to be our friend For nine years

Grace if it makes you feel any better You're our bestest friend I mean I guess I guess I would like to say That makes them feel better But I think the truth is I'm going to go to become a bane-like character for the podcast. Come back with the mask.

And the definition and the Bamban definition. Let me see. I know. G. L.A. G. Yeah,ly. Okay, that's too much.

I thought it would look for like a bane mask or something. Sorry. Just like the paper towels in my mouth. The bane. voice is like right up there in the pantheon of like voices that haunt me from high school.

Yeah. Of just people. Social studies class is full of teenagers doing the Bain Voice. Okay, I'm sorry to disagree with you, Jamie. But the Dark Nighterprises came out two years after you graduated

high school. Okay. Maybe it like whatever. College room. You're right. I'm just telling you. Because I took my entire family to see the Dark Night Rises as like a nice thing. I don't know why I thought if I was like, I'm going to do this nice thing. And I hated it. It's not a very good movie.

I didn't see it in theaters because I was sick of the voice, which is why I didn't see so many movies when they. So Bain's in the third one, not the second one. Bain is in the third one. And I'll tell you this, Tom Hardy rocks it. but the problem with that movie is they they don't let him just be the villain you know like there's got to be this tall y'all ghoul character that pops up oh that's right also it was like so they like make batman lose all of his money and like how they do that is bain just like takes over the stock market and presses a button basically Bain takes his credit card information. He takes his credit card information and his social security number. And he bleeds him dry.

He does what Georgia did to Barry. Wow. It all comes around. We're talking about Punch Drunk Love today, not Dark Night Rises. My favorite movie. My favorite movie of all time is Punch Drunk Love. Well, listen, listeners, you can Google what the Bactyl Test is because we didn't get that far. We just passed it until we started talking about Bain.

Until we started talking about it. The Bechle test posits that if two women are in a movie and they talk about something I find personally interesting, then it's good. Yes, yes. Wait, so Punch Runk Love is your favorite movie. Tell us about your history with this movie. Yeah, I've seen Punch Runk Love probably more than I've seen any other movie except for maybe Muppet Christmas Carol. Or the Rankin' Bass, like specials, if you want to call them, movies. Or maybe Elf.

Okay, outside of the Christmas category. Instead of any Christmas movies. Well, what about the Santa Claus? That's true also, actually. Because we didn't properly introduce you. Oh, yes. Okay, I'll let you introduce me now. Oh, yes.

Okay. Our guest is a writer, a comedian. She's in the upcoming movie We Are Pat, and you remember her from our episodes on The Santa Claus. franchise it's grace Freud hi everybody we're really kind of like branching out this time I didn't even really realize that this is our first non-santa Claus related endeavor it is our first non-santa Claus related endeavor check in how is everybody feeling about this it's strange I do think I am shocked I still haven't seen the second season of the Santa Claus

that is shocking i know and i do i haven't seen it either i feel like were we to watch it we would still be like in the first hundred people that have seen it yes they didn't advertise it at all so certainly in the first hundred people that have had a conversation about it yes it's really the slop i mean this is getting me down i think but there's so much slop this movie series that I think even the third one was so fun, you know, it was weird, but it was so fun. Aesthetically, nothing, I think what kills me about the show the Santa Claus is it's just not shot like a movie. It's just shot like Slop, you know? It's, it does, yeah, it looks very AI.

I don't know. Although, much like the Santa Claus, Punch Trump Love stars a popular 90s comedian taking a turn and trying something. new out like being in a prestige rom-com or being santa claus two paths two roads divergent a wood that is so true it's um the parallels are striking speaking of two roads i remember a time the time that my mom brought me to see little foggers in or it was maybe meet the fuckers it was meet the bockers not little bockers and punch drink glove was out at the same time and I really wanted to go see Punch Drunk Love because I loved Adam Sandler

and my mom would not let me go see it she said it looked too adult and then she brings me to Meet the Fockers which is just all penis jokes the whole I was just say I was like I don't know Meet the Fockers is the alternative she wasn't wrong but I do wonder

what my life would be like I think about this somewhat often if she had let me see punch drunk love with her because I think I would have even been taken with it at that age. I think I was like eight or nine. I think I would have been really taken with it, you know? Because it's, I don't know, it's the most special film in the world to me.

It just, it's a movie that, you know, I think that I can't, I can't, like, this is going to sound like something that I would say is a, joke but it's 100% sincere barry egan adam sandler's character in punch drunk love is the character i most relate to i think it may be all of fiction and it's because you know when i first saw this movie i was 18 and i had to watch it for a film class and i had to do a shot breakdown of the whole movie. So I had to watch it again and again and again and again. And then I had to write my final project about the diagetic versus non-diagetic sound in the film. And I think it really taught me about stories and like the different like components of a, I mean like it made me appreciate it.

After that I did that, it was hard to really hate a movie ever, you know, like, well, you get such an appreciation for the mix of it all, you know, and I mean, I think that I wouldn't love Megalopoulos if I didn't see Punch Drunk Love 100 times first. Okay, at the 11-minute mark, Megalopolis was mentioned. I was, okay, that I was really curious, because when you were originally going to come on late last year, it was going to be Megaloplas, and then when we finally scheduled, It was punch drunk love. And I was like, do I bring up Megalopoulos?

And then I was like, no, Grace Will on her own. And there it is. There's no way that Megalopolis will not come up. Megalophilus is a guy is, we'll get more to Megalopolis. But a movie I genuinely love also. This is ultimately about Megalopolis. This is all everything. Well, the thing is everything is kind of about Megalopolis.

Because everything is about the future. All roads lead back. Yes, all roads lead to, but like, in a way, all roads do lead to Macalopoulos, you know? So, at Punch Run Club, I'm seeing in this point of my life when my brain is falling apart. I'm having these huge manic spikes. I'm losing a lot of friends. My bipolar disorder started to really set in when I was, like 16, 17, and it reached a real fever pitch by my first year of college. I'm having these

experiences where I'm like not remembering things I've said and like I have these moments of such intense emotion that are coupled with long stretches of, um, I'm just kind of in my room and I'm being chill and I and I'm kind of feeling like well why why can't people see me as this person who wants to be nice and I can't stop drinking is a big part of it and using as a big part of it and it's just out of control um and so I'm spending these long stretches just in my dorm room too because I feel like I'm scared of interacting with people and scared of I just don't know what my emotions are going to be and how they're going to shoot and I've had that kind of since I was a kid but it got to this really bad place and I'm like seeing my therapist a few times a week

I'm all trying different medications and some of these medications have really harsh side effects, you know, like I try abilify once and I'm like literally drooling all the time. I'm having these intense panic attacks. And also I'm kind of being a dick because I'm like dealing with all of this and I just don't. I, you know, this was me at a big bottom, like a big bottom. And I look back, you know, I'm someone in recovery. I look back at different bottoms I've had and I definitely the drinking and using was part of it but I think the big thing was

I'm being hit with bipolar one this huge huge mental health disorder that I think people are very glib about often you know or people call themselves bipolar we all know this people do that online it's often a punch line yeah

but bipolar one is I think it's very hard to understand what mania is like medical mania if you haven't been in it you know and then you snap out of it you're like why did i act like that and there's not like the reason is you were manic you know um but that's hard to get across to other people that are also 18 and figuring stuff out you know um i was i was sick i was not not on lithium yet

which ended up being the thing that really helped and if anybody is listening to this and it's afraid of trying lithium like i was because you've heard him million bad stories about it well you know so that's a thing that if you do have bipolar one if you are keep having manic episodes give it a shot you know because it's this thing that like if you if you do have the deficit in your head when you start taking it it's night and day you know after a few weeks and you get through through through that but also since i was a kid i had i had problems with emotional spikes to some degrees and I always had this feeling of like just being so put upon and so it was hard for me to take responsibility for the consequences of those spikes or tantrums

or whatever you want to call them because my life felt so hard that I'm like don't you see how shitty everything is like just ignore that you know kind of or let that be and um punch from glove is this film that has this character barry egan in it that is just so sweet and so has closed himself off to the world mostly in my interpretation from his acknowledgement that he has this anger and this mania in him you know and i you know i didn't even know the term neurodivergent at the time and i don't know if i even love that term but as someone who really struggles with understanding certain emotional things sometimes or like i've really had to work on a lot of those different things and i'm so i can be very obsessive about certain things and not let them go i just saw someone who was so you know not kind of loud and gregarious like i can be but in barry's quiet moments looked so much like my quiet moments and his outbursts looked so much like my outbursts

and his desire for everyone to just see him as this person who isn't just those outbursts because most of the time he is just fine was so palpable. I think what Adam Sandler does on this role is just beautiful. I think it's his best role by far. Like, I think what he does in Uncut Gems is slick and funny and impressive and emotional. But what he does in Punch Drunk Love is he really makes all the wants and desires and loves and resentments of this very quiet character so apparent moment to moment to moment to moment.

and he's also very funny while he does it you know this is a funny film yeah whenever somebody says well paul thomas sanderson calls it his romantic comedy but it's not really funny i'm like hey um what like what do you do you dislike with somebody of shit on the floor like i feel like it's like they're what they're trying to say is like it's not funny in the way that an adam sandler comedy is quote unquote supposed to be funny but like you can't watch the scene where he's ranting about pudding for 30 seconds and be like

I'm that's I feel nothing like it's great it has one of I think the funniest lines in all it's cinema which is after Barry smashes the deck window it cuts to the closet that he's in calming down and his

sister's husband his brother-in-law comes in and And Ferry's like, you're a doctor, he goes, you're a doctor, right? And he's like, yeah. And he's like, could you maybe, you know, do you have like someone, like you help people with problems, like emotional problems? And the brother-in-law goes, Barry, I'm a dentist. Yeah. It's like, it's perfect.

And this is all in the, this film does something that I think McLaugholis also does. very well, which is it's all one opera. You know? The whole thing start to finish is such one big story, musical story quote, you know? But I see in Barry

so much of myself and I think the story is so beautiful because he finds someone who understands him and views him like really views his humanity and you see that holy you see that like in its entirety because when lina is left at the hospital when he like ditches her and you get you understand why he's doing it but she meets him with like this hurt me it's not like she just sees him and is like okay so you can do whatever because you got a weird brain you know right she like

she really treats him as a person that she both has expectations of and love for and understand me they all come together you know and i have found in my life being the person that i am it's very hard to find someone that does all of that you know and isn't like a switch you know i feel like as a mentally ill person i've been in relationships where either they are totally supportive to a point that's maybe not like healthy, you know, or they're done with it, you know? And it's like a switch that can go on and off and on and off, you know. And I think it's really beautiful that she's able to like, she just, she knows herself so well in what she wants and she's able to not change that based on Barry. He just happens to be someone she does love

and want. I think this is the greatest love story of all time. And it's a, it's very tame. It takes place in apartments. Yeah. And in the San Fernando Valley, you know? Over the course of like four days, maybe. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty tight.

Yeah. It's more than four days because we don't quite know how long they're in Hawaii. Oh, right. I forgot. Okay. So, yeah. Maybe as much as two weeks, but it's still pretty quick. And this goes to my next contention, which is, I'm going to ask a question.

that I don't know why but you two never seem to get along to asking on this podcast which is does this film pass the Bechtel test and my answer is yes it does and the reason

you're acting like we were like we started the show by saying it doesn't okay well first things first this is my reasoning Adam Sandler's character Barry Egan is a woman okay expand on that expand on that oh god i should have thought more about this

i'm like hold on hold on i i don't think that there was in any intention on on on paul or or adam's parts to suggest that vary is trans nor do i think you know i i'm i'm of the mindset generally speaking that someone is trans, if they say they're trans, if not, like the Kirk Cobain stuff, everyone says Kirk Cobain is a trans woman. I think it's beautiful to, like, see that Kurt Cobain had an understanding of his gender that seemed expansive in some way. But I'm not going to take away his right to have said who he was or not while he was living. You know, I, but Barry to me is someone who, is so

he's he has seven evil sisters and which feels so like fairy tale coated somehow yes yes one million percent it is a fairy tale

and he he's constantly mocked by them for being gay and not a man you know he has this like man costume you know in the suit the blue suit that he wears in every scene of the movie I think

this beautiful blue suit that's supposed to look cheap but I think it looks beautiful. I think it looks great and I love how subtly it's put in that like it's weird to people that he's wearing it because this is the only thing we know he's wearing but every like more than one of his sisters

are like what the fuck are you wearing and it's like he's trying something out his colleague comments on it too Louis Guzman who is great in it too Luis Guzman is so funny as tier character actor He is the only character in the whole thing who's, he's in a fairy tale.

You know, everyone else is kind of going about their lives. Luis Guzman is like, how many grocery stories are we going to go to? He's great. He's my dad's favorite actor. Oh, my God. He's a big Luis Guzman head, I think mostly because of Boogie Nights, but also Luis Guzman's in like hundreds of movies. And, yeah, he's so great.

And, you know, I think that he's so, the skin that he's in, the life that he has, he seems to be looking for beauty and intimacy that is outside of what is expected for him, which I think is put on display most clearly in that initial phone call with the phone sex hotline woman. And it's not the first movie, obviously, where someone's just wanted to talk. but there's not any faint like in Annie Hall or whatever it's like here's this creepy guy you know Barry never comes off as some creepy guy at least to me you know um he doesn't have an ulterior motive I'm not saying it would have been bad if he wanted to just jack off maybe he does jack off there's nothing bad with that but he like he craves this intimacy

and he craves the I think this movie would be interesting in conversation with friendship because i just saw friendship and both movies are about like male loneliness and i kept kind of being reminded of a tim robinson character when i was watching adam sandler in this movie yeah i see it i can see that i mean they're definitely tonally different and and one is way more absurdist than the other but yeah i see it that i think that that makes sense and there's like there is this, I like Barry, I mean, whatever, we don't need to pit them against each other, but I like, I think Barry's character has a lot more depth,

but like, yeah, I do, I do kind of like how he's, even at his most vulnerable, unstable moment, whatever it is, you're totally right, guys, like, he's, he's very lovable. And it feels like with, with making, like having that moment of intimacy and just wanting to talk, it feels like he's trying to have, in a way that is like very human, have a little bit of control over a moment of intimacy that feels so, like, elusive in every other area of his life. And it's not for lack of effort on his part. It's like these family dynamics are a fucking nightmare. Like, you know, we can talk about that in a bit too.

Yes, friendship and strong love have many characters that are lonely men but friendship seems to posit that male loneliness has a unique aspect to it or like to focus on those unique aspects

I'm not saying that there aren't some unique things you know like their big tagline was like men shouldn't have friends and there's you know like yada yada yada and I'm like great movie funny movie unstrunk love is anything is about the universality of loneliness you know and i'm not just talking about barry and lena i'm talking about mary lynn rashka playing the the main sister that you see

was lena's friend yeah her loneliness her desire to have something to do in her life which happens to be harassing her brother you know the loneliness of of uh philip seymour hoff character. Dean what's his name? I kind of kind of like of Dean Furniture. Dean Mattress. Dean Trumbull. Dean Trumbull, Trumbull, mattress and furniture. Yeah.

That's a lonely man, you know? Obviously, he's just barking orders. He has no peers because he's put himself on the top of this trash heap, you know? The ladies behind these, like everyone in this movie is so lonely. And it's that's this, it's this. Another similarity.

to Megalopolis in that like it's this big thematic orchestral piece but the thing about like everybody in Punch Strong Club is lonely everybody in Megalopolis is upset about Megalopolis that's their loneliness

but it's a universal but the universality of the feeling no yeah I do think that this is like a big story about just capital L loneliness that anyone can sort of tap into really quick Caitlin what's your history with this movie i had seen this movie once before i remember thinking how different it was from every other adam sandler led

movie i had seen up until that point i think that was the headline at the time too right yeah and i was i think like many people who saw this movie including adam sandler himself i was shocked that he had any capacity for versatility, but I was like, wow, he actually like does a good job and he plays a character that I don't hate. And to be fair, you know, when I was young, I was watching Billy Madison and living, laughing, loving it. But by the time this movie came out, I was like pretty sick of his little antics. But then I was like, wow, he's good. And that's pretty pretty much it. Paul Thomas Anderson is, he can be hit or miss for me. I like movies of his like Magnolia and Boogie Nights. Phantom Thread I didn't really like the first time I watched it.

I think I might need to go back and rewatch it. I also didn't. I hate Lickish Pizza and I have to say that out loud. I didn't like Phantom Thread. I didn't, I didn't connect with Phantom Thread the first time I saw it. And then the second through 3,000 times I saw it. I was like, wait a second. But I have that experience a lot with his movie specifically where it doesn't always connect with me on the first watch but I also I haven't gone back to licorice pizza I wasn't a big fan of it I will always hate that movie

no matter what I'm pretty sure Phantom Fred is another film that I really connected with the protagonist and because I think that Reynolds Woodcock and Barry Egan are two sides of the same coin in some ways

but Barry is dealing with his loneliness and fear by acting as if he has no control and no agency in his life and Reynolds Woodcock is acting as if he has total control and complete agency in his life, you know? They're both obsessive too, but about, one is about trying to like... Trying to accumulate airline miles.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's like, before he has a reason to use the airline miles, He is accumulating them simply because it seems like a smart thing for him to do that might make people respect him or like be a good resource. And the reveal that he has never in fact been on a plane before is like so,

I just thought like the pacing of like how stuff is revealed in this movie is so good because you just do assume that someone accumulating airline miles has been on a plane. I love it. Yeah, no, but I totally see that. connection of yeah they're both obsessed with control but one is obsessed with the lack of it he has and the other is trying to maintain the control he imposes and he's creating this like fake identity yeah like he doesn't care about his warehouse or like you know like he's he's a man with no passion until he finds it and reynolds is a person that has all the passion in the

world and no capacity to take a moment of like cede any of that passion yeah for the reality of a relationship the reality of a family a yada yada yada yada all thomas anderson i love you all me baby i need to rewatch fan of thread again jamie what is your history with punch drunk love I really like this movie. I saw it for the first time in college, and I've revisited it from time to time. It's not my favorite Paul Thomas Anderson. I'm, I think I'm ultimately a There Will Be Blood Girlie. My brother and I used to do a really powerful double feature of There Will Be Blood and Doubt.

And that was our late 2000s double feature that we really wanted to think some big thoughts. so I am ultimately a there will be blood girl but I also love that this movie is sandwiched between magnolia and there will be blood there's just the guys got range um Iyo had a funny letterbox review of this movie where it was like something akin to like oh yeah like Paul Thomas Anderson made Magnolia and then was like oh wait I should make a movie that's short and that is how we came to get punch drunk love. Yeah, I really like this movie. I've never really watched it with a critical lens at all. I just, this is very much a movie I've just let wash over me in the many times

I've seen it. So I'm excited to talk about it. Let's take a quick break and then we'll come back for the recap. Hey everybody, this is Matt Rogers and Bowen-Yang. And you're never going to guess who's our guest on Lost Cultureistas. It is Bradley Jackson, L. Woods, Tracy Flick, herself. Reese Witherspoon. Grace must go in a girls' trip.

I have to have a tequila. We must. Oh! The Q rating. They run diagnostic. We can run it on you guys. I'd be scared. I'll run the Q rating.

No, on the Q rating on us. My resiliency score is down to adequate because we were on a red eye. My resiliency score. My grit. I got to get my grit score up. Now, don't think that you're going to come on Los Cultureistas, the podcast,

and we're not going to at least bring up Big Little Lai Season 3. Whoever said orange is the new pink. We seriously disturbs. Listen to Las Culturistas on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos.

Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians. I would be the first immigrant mayor in generations, but 40% of New Yorkers were born outside of this country. Artists and activists, I mean, do you ever feel demoralized? I might personally lose hope. This individual might lose the faith. But there's an institution that doesn't lose faith. And that's what I believe in. to bring you depth and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. There's not a single day that Paola and I don't call or text each other,

sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country. This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a tape recorder statement. The person being interviewed is Krista Gail Pike, which is in regards to the death of Colleen Slimmer.

She started going off on me, and I hit her. I just hit her and hit her and hit her and hit her. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slimmer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. The state has asked for an execution date for Krista. We let people languish in prison for decades, raising questions about who we consider fundamentally unrestorable.

How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name. Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. My name is Ed. Everyone say hello Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself.

My dad is a farmer and my mom is a cousin. So like it's not like... What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to do. hear.

Well, 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio Act. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back.

Here's the recap of Punch Drunk Love. We meet Barry Egan, played by Adam Sandler, in his office, which we will eventually learn is inside a warehouse slash business that wholesale sells toilet plungers. awesome not just toilet plungers novelty toilet plungers yeah that seem to have water in the handle question mark plungers flungers i don't know what that is

they're fun they're fun he says keep him at eye level so that the kids can see him yes yes yes yes so he's on the phone asking about some like airline miles promotion that's going to come back of course then he steps outside and sees a bizarre sequence of events first a horrific car crash that never comes back in any way or i don't i'm like is this a metaphor i don't understand what this was um and then another vehicle pulls up right in front of him drops off a little

miniature piano and speeds off a harmonium shortly after that a woman played by emily watson pulls up she's there to leave her car at the auto mechanic next door but they're not open yet so she leaves her car keys with Barry to pass them on to the mechanic and he's like okay because he says no at first he says he's reluctant because the thing with him as we've alluded to is that he has a significant amount of social anxiety he is awkward in social situations he's quite jumpy has like a nervous energy in general then Barry brings what's it called a harmonium a harmonium yes which is like a piano accordion but like an accordion like has the piano but it's like it's like upright and it's broken oh and that's why he puts the tape on it he has to fix it yeah much like

barry himself and he just puts it on top of his desk it covers like his whole desk yeah for the rest of the movie it's just on his desk yeah i do love that yeah and it's just like a yet another thing that anyone he encounters is like, what is that? What the fuck is that? And he's like, oh, it's just this thing. Yeah. Okay, so then he starts a busy day of work where he and his colleague Lance, played by Luis Guzman, are selling the fungers. But Barry keeps getting interrupted when his many sisters call him asking if he's going to a party tonight. One of his sisters even shows up. This is Elizabeth, played by Marilyn Rashkub, who says that she wants to bring a friend of hers to the party who she wants Barry to meet. But he is not into this

idea, though he does seem to be thinking about the woman who dropped off her car. And guess what, bitches? Well, wait, we don't know that yet, yeah. We don't know yet, but it is the same woman. Anyway, we cut to Barry showing up at the party. It's his seven sisters and their husbands and they're all very antagonistic toward him they're reminiscing about how they bullied him how when they were kids he threw a hammer through a glass door and they importantly asked how do you get the hammer and nobody has an answer i like this i mean we can talk about because the the sisters feel very fairy tale coated to me um you know they are outside of elizabeth very indistinguishable from one another.

They're all sort of this like, you know, and they're, you know, we could talk about how the antagonists in this story are generally women at some point. But I did, like, I thought the casting on the sisters was so good. Like, that sequence, it just,

this is a movie where, this isn't even true of all Paul Thomas Anderson movies, where everyone looks basically normal. Like, everyone looks like you could meet them. and I just like it's you know it's a very white movie like I'm not you know but this is like Adam sailor and Emily Watson look like people you could meet in the world as a couple and and as someone who saw materialist last night I value that I value people that look like they exist in the world I mean and his whole family too Emily Watson is a very beautiful woman their but is never

presented by the film is like hoochie mama what what's going on, you know? Which a lot of even, like, fancy-dancy romantic comedies that are not, like, horny, like, in an Adam Zanieler rom-com, like, classical way, are like, oh, look at this woman you want to fuck so bad, you know? Right. Like, it's like... That is kind of how she's presented in some way, you know?

But that's not, in this movie, she's just a lady. Yeah. A beautiful lady, but a lady. Exactly. Yeah, like, the way she's framed and the way that she, I don't know, Like you could tell they're interested in each other. You can tell they're falling in love, but it's not like super didactic in the way it's shown.

I just, I love when people are in movies and they have regular teeth. Yes. Okay, so they're talking about this thing. They do say where he got the hammer. He was building a dog house. His one sister comes out from the bathroom. And she's like, he was building a dog house. But anyway, this, you know, triggers some bad emotions in him.

And he kind of snaps and he kicks. a bunch of windows or sliding glass doors and they shatter and everyone's like what the fuck man and then he confides in his brother-in-law in a scene that we briefly mentioned but he says he doesn't like himself he might want psychiatric help sometimes he cries for no reason and then he bursts into tears we cut to berry at the grocery store shopping for healthy choice products that have this promotion where you get a bunch of frequent flyer miles if you buy, you know, 10 frozen meals or 10 puddings, and you'll get even more miles if you have this certain coupon. And we see him clipping this coupon.

And as he's doing that, he notices an ad for a phone sex hotline. So he calls the number. He gives his credit card information, his address, his social security number. And he starts talking to a woman named Joaquin. Georgia, who is trying to do her job. She's trying to do phone sex. And it's clear that, again, he just wanted someone to talk to, so he's not really doing phone sex back. He eventually goes to bed. Side note, he has one of those clap-on, clap-off lights. Such a good detail. Oh, I love it. All my nipples are going to the clap-off light. I will say that the thing that I found myself connecting with Barry, the hardest, on was like that sequence that happens right before where he's asking his brother-in-law, like, can you get me help?

And his brother-in-law, I think like many of the men specifically in this movie, does want to help him, but doesn't really know how and sort of just doesn't really do anything. And then Barry like channels his energy instead into this like hyper-specific task. So he's like, okay, I tried to get help. I wasn't able to get help. we're going back to the pudding thing and I have experienced that spiral a number of times over the years

of like well I did my best and now back to my hyper-specific task did you name a few I can't think of any that I've seen you do oh I mean it's like oh yeah you have a book oh I was like wait really no I wasn't questioning you yeah

but it's like I don't know it's fun to see stuff like that too because it's also like he's doing the the kind of things that I also do but that like you don't tell people you're doing the pudding thing right like it's I love that he's doing the pudding thing and he's thinking about it and like well I don't want to spend two dollars in the terriaki I can I can like there's a whole like matrix of information I was like he also makes sure the pudding thing is ethical for the record he's off the phone with with the healthy choice people on the spaghetti and he's asking them Are you aware that this could, you know, result? Yeah, the monetary value of the prize is way more. And they're just like, I don't know. Right. And he's like, okay. And that's how we're introduced to him.

Yeah. This is like him being bad kind of too. Like, this is like in his mind, I think he feels like he's getting one over on someone. Yeah. I like how, yeah. And everyone who talks to them, they're like, yeah, you could buy $3,000 worth of pudding. We can't stop you. This is also based on a true story, a guy named David Phillips.

He successfully accumulated over a million frequent flyer miles after buying $3,000 worth of Healthy Choice pudding. And Paul Thomas Anderson went to David Phillips. He went to Healthy Choice. He's like, can I use your story slash your product in my movie? they're like sure I love that I do appreciate because like most people wouldn't go to the guy who bought $3,000 worth of putting to be like just checking in like imagine if law and order did that which they never do like I appreciate that thoroughness from from Paul Thomas Anderson yeah anyway so he's had this phone conversation with Georgia it ends off screen and then the next morning

Georgia calls him again asking if Barry can help out with rent she needs $750 and he says no I'm sorry I can't afford that and then she kind of starts threatening him explicitly starts threatening him yeah yeah yeah he goes in it pretty quick for especially for Barry that's true yeah for Barry Barry hangs up he goes to work reveal that he has bought hundreds of puddings he He's now kind of panicking after this phone call, and so he cancels his credit card. Then his sister, Elizabeth, shows up again with the woman who had dropped off her car yesterday because she's the woman who Elizabeth wanted to introduce to Barry, and her name is Lena. And then as this scene goes on, things get more and more chaotic, but basically they invite Barry to get breakfast with them.

They're interrupted when Georgia keeps calling and continues to be very aggressive and threatening. He keeps hanging up on her. Then Elizabeth is interrogating him. Then Lena starts chatting with him and trying to like flirt. A forklift crashes. Everyone's like, what's this pudding? What's this piano? Why are you wearing this blue suit again?

And then eventually Lena and Elizabeth go to leave. But Lena comes back and asks Barry. on a date the following night and he agrees we cut to Provo Utah we meet Georgia or the person who's like pretending to be this Georgia person my head canon for Georgia is that she's a like Mormon dropout who's who's trying to get by yeah she is collaborating with a guy named Dean that's Philip Seymour Hoffman to go after Barry I mean she's she's working with for him. Yeah.

I think explicitly she's working for him. Yeah. Yeah. Because Dean owns a mattress store. Which is a front for his gang, basically, his criminal activities. He's got his, you know, he's got his hands in a lot of businesses. He's got a lot of things going on out of this. Yeah, but yeah, she definitely works for him and seems a little scared of him because

later on when, when Barry demands to speak to the manager of the phone. sex hotline. She does refer to Phil Seymour Hoffman. Right. But for now, they're sending a bunch of minions to Barry's house in L.A. to intimidate him. So back in L.A., Barry and Lina go out to dinner. She reveals that she saw a picture of him with his sisters and she wanted to meet him and she dropped her car off at that mechanic to try to meet him. I think it's sweet. Maybe a little stalker vibes, but it's sweet. It's a little stalkery, but it's not the most type of stalking. I don't think it's stockery.

I think everybody gets one play. You know, like to meet someone they want to meet or like a romance someone, you get one play and if it doesn't work, you pack up your bag and you go home. I think that's fair. But everybody gets one play. Obviously, the play isn't showing up at someone's house that you don't know. but like if you right context is very important yeah you see like hey that cute person you know them and then like you're like hey i got your number or like that's one thing you get one shot

and if the shot's done that's it but you'll get one shot and she took her shot because it's like i've done stuff like that i mean i've gone to comedy shows of comedians i've had crushes on hoping to like talk to them and also i think the critical thing here because i've seen this criticizes stocky behavior but like it is like it passes grace freud's one shot rule and and it's like it's not what she does is not like leering or menacing or creepy at all she just wants to meet him and like i don't know their conversation's very brief yeah she doesn't like linger and be weird and and importantly she isn't like hey i saw him in a picture i just had to meet you i'm like so into you

right she once she senses that there is some sort of mutual attraction just like by the way i just want you to know i orchestrated this cool thing and she says it so she says it i think the perfect time to say it yeah not when it feels like pressure almost to then follow through with the date and not like a month in or whatever you know which she also addresses during that first date she's like i want to like get this off my chest because I don't want to have any weird like me withholding information from you for too long

here it is I like her so much and he is fine with it he doesn't give a single shit he's like he's actually flattered it seems and then he opens up and tells her about something that he seems to be humiliated by but this whole pudding thing

but then Lena brings up the hammer story from his childhood which prompts him to go into the bathroom and completely trash it. And he's kicked out of the restaurant, but he and Lina leave together and they drive around. They end up at her place. But then when he leaves, he's very awkward and there's not a real kiss or anything like that. And he says, and bye-bye.

Oh, my God, that's so bad. And bye-bye. And bye-bye. And bye-bye. You fucking idiot. But then he goes back. And this is one of the most beautiful scenes on film. he leaves the building

and as he's leaving the front desk is like are you buried and this is like it's kind of scary right because it's like he's afraid someone's hunting him yeah yes and he's like yeah and grabs this and she's like I wish that you kissed me

you'll say and then he like starts like running back to her apartment it seems like he gets lost he doesn't remember how to get there yes he gets lost he was going down this all the way and down that all the way

and bam and bam and bam and bam and the score is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and then he finally finds her and bam they kiss it's so beautiful and then they agree to see each other when she gets back from a trip to hawaii that she had mentioned and he said oh maybe i'm going to hawaii too which is a lie but that's also what i really appreciated about their date in a way that like clearly sets up this is what bearer needs to like overcome to be able to have a relationship with her is right I think it's right before Lena is like okay I have to come clean like I had a crush on you and I that's why I brought my car off blah blah blah because she's very honest and I think grace like you were saying earlier like she knows herself and what precedes that is very like telling this series of white lies so that Lena doesn't quote unquote think he's weird where you know and and and then she's very honest and then and then he's able to like slowly start to open up but i also could sort of connect to like he tells weird lies sometimes nervously which is especially when i was

like younger and super super insecure i would do that all the time just to feel like you could engage with other people to just seem like you get it or whatever um as a defense mechanism and i don't know there's there's some berry in all of us and i love that like when he It's just like because he doesn't really feel safe to fully be himself with anybody. And also it's like, especially for someone who doesn't feel safe being themselves with a lot of people, what happens with Georgia is his worst nightmare where it's like he's not even fully telling her the truth, but he's trying to have an authentic conversation and then it feels like he's punished for it, which. Yeah.

For sure. I mean, he does lie to her. He does. Yeah. About having a girlfriend. Yeah. which is I don't think wrong necessarily you know there's like a mutual agreement of fantasy

it's a fantasy it's a mutual fantasy yeah yeah yeah but she tries to use it against it's like I'm gonna call your girlfriend you know yada yada jokes on you she'll pick up jokes and he's like I haven't had a girlfriend in years a wife and she's like I don't have a yeah I know I have no love in my this is getting forward a little bit but later when he's on the pay phone and he's like wait, do you have a boyfriend? Have you been married? She's like, no, it was the last time you had a girlfriend?

He's like, so have you been married? Like, he just... Yes, no question. And then she's like, we should meet up and talk about this. And he's like, so where are you from? Still on the phone. He's just excited. That's how I feel about stuff to you when like, when I get open with someone or I feel

like it's very, I'm not into it or I'm so into it. And I want to know that it'll be forever. which is not alibi but is a thing that I relate to in this movie anyway so they have this nice date and they finally kiss and they part ways and as he's returning home he is abducted by the guys who Georgia and Dean sent and they make him take $500 out of an ATM one guy punches him he starts saying ow, ow, before he's even punched. Oh, I love, I said,

great detail. That happened to my brother once. And then he like sprints away and he's like running around the neighborhood. And perhaps to flee, he decides to go to Hawaii. But he needs more frequent flyer miles first. So he and Lance go to the grocery store and buy a bunch more pudding. I would like to say one thing really quickly, which is in that like,

a series of shots of him running around the San Fernando Valley after the abduction. Yeah. People ask me why I love Los Angeles. And I say because Los Angeles is unique in any other big city I've lived in, which is that it has a real sense of mystery. I don't feel like New York has that. I don't feel like Chicago has it. Los Angeles really feels like it's constantly changing.

And there's always places that I've not uncovered. And that aura of mystery, I think, is so on display on film in this movie, both in the scene when the harmonium is dropped off and making those warehouse district look beautiful. And then when Barry's just driving around and running around, it just is like any, it's so, I don't know. I think, I think this, this movie really shows why I love L.A., you know, because it captures that vibe. And I mean, like, yeah, he's uniquely good at the, he's King of the Valley himself. I really liked how I think we talked about it early in the episode but like how carefully the like dreamlike quality of this movie because basically everything that were shown does happen

but there are several points in the movie where you're like that can't have happened but it always oh it's like I mean we'll get there in a second but the moment with the like the guy in the back of the car and all and you're like that can't be true and then we cut to the hospital and you're like oh no that was true but and then something we haven't hit on which is present throughout this film are the animated interstitials that I think were actually done at um cal arts and these animated interstitials that are you know some could call them simplistic it's like colors and lines and stuff that doesn't happen but it does in the same way it's like here's something i'm seen on film what does that mean is happening it is the same like it is like the but da da So it's like, I think those interstitials help the dream, like, quality of all of it. Sure.

Because it's like, how can a color happen? Is a color I'm just seen on screen real? Is this an event? It's being presented to me in the same way as all of this other stuff, you know? Like, it's a part of the same thread. So, yeah. The phantom thread. The phantom thread.

Wow. Again, the truck that just like tumbles down the street toward the beginning of the movie and I'm like, that's going to pay off in some way or we're going to learn something about it. But it's such a good tone setter though, just like things are just going to happen. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Okay. So he and Lance have gone to the grocery store to buy more pudding. But Barry learns that the miles he's accumulated can't be redeemed for six to eight weeks. So he freaks out a little. little bit. He fully freaks out. This is this is his fucking all his last moment to put it in fucking dumbass fuck bullshit screenwriting nothing matters terms. And again it's a great like uh fuck you to how those moments usually happen where it's like I feel like it often is something really small that feels gigantic and then he remembers he could just buy a ticket. He can just go. Oh my god. I love him. Yeah, so he decides to go.

A note I made, I was like, he doesn't know which island Lena is on, but he seems to pick the right island because they meet up pretty easily. But anyway. Is that, did you think about that? I did think about that. Oh, go. Yeah. Maybe that's just the Bechtelcast lens or something.

But anyway, so he arrives in Hawaii and he gets the name of Lena's hotel from his sister, Elizabeth, in a phone call where he's having another outburst. But he meets up with Lena. They have a romantic night together, and it seems like they really, really like each other. Then Barry calls the phone sex hotline and leaves a message telling them that he expects them to return his money.

Yes, the confidence given by new love and fucking has... Yeah. New love and fucking, baby. His costume to possibly self-sabotage yet again but now he's advocating for himself yes he is he is in a way that he couldn't before but it's hard not to be scared for him in that moment you're like true and it when they're fucking when they're in the hotel he has this like quote that I want to say perfectly because I'm not the kind of person that can remember this whole thing all at once but it's like uh like they've just fucked and

stuff and he's like it's I want I can't say it is it when she says like I want to chew on your cheek I want to eat him up and then he's like I want to punch you on a ball your fucking eyes out I don't want to eat you fucking up I want to like it's just like fucking and they're like escalating it yeah escalating and it's yeah and I actually have an exclusive for the vector cast oh which is that my friend Alex Bloom is doing this thing called hotlines where she writes quotes from movies on hot dogs and she asked me for my favorite book from a movie and I gave her this long one because I thought it would be funny and and so she posted I take a screenshot of it I posted on my story I take her I was demonetized from Instagram for two weeks because they said that that quote on a hot dog and mustard was inciting violence oh my god and I know no one like reported it it was not some like idiot trying to troll me because it was weeks later like they're like like net or whatever just like picked it up wow yeah that could have really hurt someone it really could have hurt someone god well thank you for the hot dog exclusive

hot dog exclusive check out Alex Bloom on Instagram for series hotlines that's awesome yeah I mean it is it's very like cutesy pillow talk but it's also extremely violent they're intense they're matching each other's free It's them recognizing this thing in each other, this anger that maybe she's able to love because she has it too, and that there's being so tender to each other when they could rip each other apart. I guess I just, like, I don't feel like I know enough about her to be sure of certain reactions on lean this part. I tend to agree with that, yeah. That's kind of one of my big criticisms of the movie. There is something, though, that she says that I can't remember verbatim.

But it's something like, I swear she says something like, I saw you and I knew, like, I knew I had to see you because, and later she's like, I just could tell that we had, there's some sort of, like, I see a similarity because of how she talks about that. She recognizes something in him. I think that, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, yeah. And also, it's like, so, I feel like so much of Lena, you know, not to, like, discredit Paul Thomas Sanders, but so much of what I feel like we know about her is. in Emily Watson's performance versus, like, what's really on the page. I totally agree. Because she does, like, the way that she reacts to Barry, I feel like tells us more about her than she says or we're told. Right.

Yeah. In any case, they've had a sexy, nice time together. And then Barry and Lena head back to L.A. together. And when they're pulling into his place, a truck slams into his car. it's the minions who are after Barry but he beats them and smashes the truck up a little bit and then he takes Lena to a hospital

to have her minor head injury treated it's a cool fight scene too I was like pretty impressed with Adam Sandler's choreography there he grabs this tire iron out of their truck and just fawkins like wails on him yeah like he doesn't kill anyone no no notably no and it's like i i i'm curious what you both think about this i thought that that was like really when he does finally get to wail on a fucking

evil guy or whatever like i i found it really really satisfying because it's the first time that we're able to see him direct this anchor at a worthy target and not just like a wall or or you know like it and he doesn't need to hide it i know that it's not the like it doesn't you know it's not the end game of anything but it was just nice to see barry get to just like tire ironed someone in the face who deserved it i was like you know he's earned that he's earned that he keeps a lot in he has our barry but he's not secretly a serial killer or something no because he could have killed them all and he doesn't yeah does not kill them all of course no have you guys read the like, there's like a punch trunk Superman theory that Barry Egan is Superman. I'm like,

I'm not kidding. Like, I disagree with it. And I think it's, I honestly, I honestly think that this theory is evidence of a deep rot and even people I love. But it's out there. I'm like, of course. I feel like there was like a very specific moment in like the mid-20s where just theories like, this ran rampant and to what end let Barry be a normal guy that's the that's the beauty of him yes um okay so while she's in the hospital barry calls the phone sex hotline again and he's irate he's screaming at Georgia then he gets connected to Dean and he's screaming at him and they're threatening each other and then Barry figures out where Dean and Georgia are so he like drops everything and just goes straight to Utah to confront them. Barry and Dean get in each other's

faces. And Barry says, I have love in my life now. And it makes me stronger than you can imagine. So put an end to this now or I'll beat the hell out of you. And Dean is like, all right, it's over. So Barry goes back to L.A. He grabs his little piano. He takes it to Lena's apartment. not sure why but he apologizes to her for leaving her at the hospital and he tells the whole story of how he called a phone sex line and those people started harassing him but he's taken care of it and if she gives him six to eight weeks to prove that he's an okay guy then he can redeem the airline miles from the pudding and go with her wherever she needs to go and she does say like you love me at the hospital and that wasn't cool and he's like i know i won't do it again and then they kiss

and make up the end so let's take another quick break and we'll come back to further discuss hey everybody this is matt rogers and bowen yang and you're never going to guess who's our guest on lost culturestice it is bradley jackson l woods tracy flick herself Switherspoon. It must go in a girl's trip. I have to have a tequila. We must. Oh!

The Q rating. When they run diagnostic on you guys. I'd be scared. I don't run the Q rating. No, on the Q rating as I get it. My resiliency score is down to adequate because we were on a red eye. My resiliency score. My grit.

I got to get my grit score up. Now, don't think that you're going to come out Los Culturistas to the podcast, and we're not going to at least bring up Big Little Lie Season 3. Whoever said orange is the new pink. We seriously disturbs. Listen to Las Culturistas on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos.

Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time, as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians. I would be the first immigrant mayor in generations, but 40% of New Yorkers were born outside of this country. Artists and activists, I mean, do you ever feel demoralized? I might personally lose hope. This individual might lose the faith,

but there's an institution that doesn't lose faith. And that's what I believe in. To bring you depth and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. There's not a single day that Paola and I don't call or text each other. sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country. This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a tape recorder statement. The person being interviewed is Krista Gail Pike. This is in regards to the death of a Colleen. Slammer. She started going off on me, and I hit her. I just hit her and hit her and hit her and hit her. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemer

in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. The state has asked for an execution date for Krista. We let people languish in prison for decades, raising questions about who we consider fundamentally unrestorable. How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name.

Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Ed. Everyone say hello, Ed. From a very rural background myself My dad is a farmer And my mom is a cousin

So like it's not What do you get when a true crime producer Walks into a comedy club I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke But that really was my reality nine years ago I just normally do straight stand-up But this is a bit different On stage stood a comedian

With a story that no one expected to hear Well 22nd of July 2015 A 23 year old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack,

where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. and we're back where do we want to start i don't i mean we've we've covered a lot we've already talked about a lot we've covered quite a lot but yeah i guess um one thing let's talk about uh lina a little bit more because we've talked a lot about barry there's still more to be sad about barry but sure yeah i really like her i think that i i wish that we do a little bit more about her but it's tricky

because this story is so firmly centered on Barry versus the couple. Like, I don't know. It's a story where Barry falls in love, but I don't think it's necessarily like a story about that. Because all of that sort of happens. That's not the inside half. Yeah. It's about him doing the work, mamas.

Yeah, yeah, like getting to a place where he can be. I really, like, my, like, dorky headcanon for the end of this movie is now that he, is like comfortable enough and can truly be himself with someone unlike his like doofist brother-in-law Lena's the kind of person who could help him find a therapist who could help him do all of these things

and who he would be comfortable enough to like actually ask for that with and it just seems like one of those rare relationships that puts you on a path towards like closer to who you want to be and I love that for them but I guess what I what is a little more elusive to me as I with Lena we learn a bunch of stuff about her close to the end of

the movie is that she's been divorced before she's had you know a number of relationships which I think you can feel in her character based on like she's pretty like she's she's adorable on the dates and she um but you can tell like she knows what she's doing she has more experience yeah and like she knows what she's looking for and she's pretty frank about that and I and I think Barry kind it needs that i don't know i just i feel like we learn a few facts about her but i don't know i because we never like have moments with just her it's always her in the context of her being with barry and i know that's how like that's a lot of stories work as far as like whose perspective is this story told from but it kind of happens at the expense of we don't get to know her nearly as well

so i don't give a shit And that's why you're here today. It's a movie. He's just fucking like what. I think it's a good movie. I mean, I'm not saying it's not. We're not saying it's a bad movie. We're just saying we don't know very much about her.

We're just doing our podcast, Grace. Yeah, that's true. That's true. See, I'd like to say, I don't have a message for other upcoming guests of the Vectal cast. Which is, I just want to remind you guys that you don't have to let the synopsis get out quick. you have to, like, wait to say if it passes the Bechel test or anything, you know, you are playing a game. Well, okay, jigsaw vibes. Let's play a game. Every episode of the Bechtel cast is a game that can be won.

And it's you versus Jamie and Caitlin. Or if you're smart, you'll silo one of them off. And attack the other week. I see. But I just, if any possible upcoming Vectal cast members are returning guests or whatever,

you can win. You just have to put in the work. That's true. Okay. Yeah. And it took years for you to get to this place where you can really demolish us in this way. It took four Santa Claus episodes.

I mean, I, I just, I know all the. moves and I'm ready I'm ready for all I'm going to beat us at our own game it's true it's true well

this is the final episode of the Bechtelcast everybody um huge announcement grace was the final boss the whole time and I won so it's game over oh my gosh well let me let's talk about

things that we did like then shall we I mean, I think this movie does a really good job of showing a character with certainly anxiety, possibly, also depression. Nothing's ever explicitly stated, but we can glean from his behavior and what he says about how he feels, his loneliness. And I think that's presented with an authenticity that we don't often see in regards to the portrayal of mental illness and anxiety and things in. Cinema, so I liked how that was handled. I was ready to come down harder on Barry pre-grace your history with the movie because I was going to say something like, I think it's like I appreciate the portrayal of mental illness in his character, but he also has a really difficult time regulating his emotions and that often manifests in these violent outbursts where he's trashing a room or breaking glass or punching a wall or whatever or screaming. at his sister and threatening to kill her, for example.

And his mental illness doesn't, obviously doesn't excuse those things. Yeah. And I was going to be like, okay, well, this guy needs to learn to regulate his emotions a little bit better, the way that many men and people of all genders could stand to learn to regulate their emotions. But, you know, and I don't, I still feel that about his character. But then you also have to consider that he was like, pretty relentlessly bullied by his sisters, his entire childhood, we can presume.

Right. That's the only, like, the only thing we really see, even with like the one sister we do get to know, who I think is fascinating in her own right, although we don't know much about her. It's mostly in the performance. But that like, even when she's trying to do something quote unquote nice for him by introducing him to. Yeah, setting him up with someone. But even in those interactions, she can't help but bully. him like where I think it was like when she's introducing him to Lena again and she's like so are you coming with us or not are you coming with us or not what the fuck is that why are you wearing what's the pudding what's the piano right like where she's still like it just seems like it's so baked into

their family dynamic to pile on Barry and under any in all circumstances and it doesn't right it doesn't excuse his behavior but it's like I do feel like at very least we are given the context for like this isn't just like an SNL Adam Sandler character of like this is what he does he's the angry guy like we're given context for that anger right but yeah but but I but I see what you're saying to well I think it's interesting you both use the term excuse like does it excuse his mental illness excuse his behavior and the older I get and the more I deal with my own mental mental health, the mental, serious mental illness of family members, seeing the mental health issues

of, like, unhoused people, I know, and in recovering and stuff. I wonder if this film could be a moment of, like, learning that, like, it might not be useful to ask, like, is this behavior, is there an excuse for this behavior? Or, like, looking at something through the realm of excuse or not excuse it's like what does attaching a moral worth to an action and then weighing it against someone's privilege and versus their mental health issues and stuff like that what does that do as much as um is that like necessarily a productive way to look at mental illness and i would suggest that that maybe it's not you know what we can look at when we see barry we can see that he is a person that has the capacity

to deal with these emotions in different ways you know but how he has dealt with them in certain moments is by acting out these tantrums as destruction and so what can people who care about him do like i'm talking about him like he's a person but i guess like just mental health in general like i think the choices when dealing in life with someone who has a serious mental health problem are trying to engage with them to get better or letting go of that as something you haven't want to have anything to do with their control over you know um and i think that like i think the fact i guess like what i'm saying is the fact that we can understand this poor behavior through the lens of his mental illness maybe shows that there's folly in questioning whether or not

there is an excuse like saying if it is morally good or bad like just the fact that you can look at through that lens you know i agree i mean i i i guess to clarify i mean i i mean, at least when I say like what excuses the behavior, I'm trying to see it from the perspective of who it's happening to, not who's perpetrating it. And so with Barry, I mean, part of what I like about this movie is that you see someone who is struggling with mental health, right, in an in-between point. We don't, you know, he doesn't arrive, quote, unquote, at mental health at the end of the movie because that's not a thing that happens. We see a, like, phase of this I guess like yeah I'm thinking more of like if you're in the shoes of Elizabeth

and this is your your brother lashing out at you and you have done something there has been sustained like she's treated him like shit for a long time but how do you as like two people reach a place of peace in that way and and I I don't know I mean and this is again it's like one movie can't do all of this. I guess what I just, I wish that I well I don't even know. This isn't even a criticism of the movie. I guess I

just, we see a lot of cause and effect in the way that he is the recipient of all of this emotional abuse from his family. They are unable to, you know, if we're showing them grace, they are

completely unable to help him. Even when he's asking. Well, they do not treat him like he's mentally ill. Right. Or have any recognition. Like, that's an important distinction. They just say, that's Barry, which is a very family thing.

Yeah. And if he did not deal with this mental illness and they were calling him gay and a homo and stuff, he might just have laughed. Right. You know, maybe he might not have. But like, the way that they're saying it, if the soundtrack was at that moment going, do, you might not. key into it as this like stressful evil thing because they're like I mean it's not cool to like call your brother a homo as a derogatory thing but I could certainly see a family especially in the

early 2000s being like you fucking homo and everyone you know well it's like even just like with I don't know like I saw my family recently and they they've like said the same thing about me that is hurtful for my whole life but it is just an element of the family And the same goes for other family members in other directions where it's like that's like the part of the fucked up part of being with a family where it's just you can normalize it in a family dynamic that feels so impossible to replicate in other places where it's just they're not even thinking about like it's like they've been doing this for so long they're not even thinking about why their brother acts the way he does. Like, which, yeah. Well, I think the scene where Barry pulls aside his brother-in-law and has that conversation is really interesting because it shows that Barry knows something is amiss with his mental health. He doesn't really quite have the words for it. And he also just doesn't like how he feels.

He doesn't like how he feels. And he is actively seeking help in a way that he clearly feels, comfortable doing but he realizes like things have maybe hit critical mass he just smashed a bunch of windows and then was berated for it so he's just like something needs to change I clearly need help I was amused by the line where the brother-in-law says like what's what's the matter what's wrong and Barry says I don't know if anything is wrong because I don't know how other people are Yes, I love that line. That's such a perfect life.

And it kind of breaks your heart because he clearly has so hard of a time connecting with other people and really getting to know who other people are and how they are. But anyway, he's trying to seek help and he knows the type of help he needs. And his brother-in-law is not dismissing him, but he also betrays Barry's trust. Because Barry says, like, don't tell my sisters, I don't want them to. to know. I'm embarrassed about this. Like, I feel like I don't have anyone I can talk to about this. And then a few scenes later, Elizabeth, who I guess is this brother-in-law is like, they're partnered. And she's like, what was this that you were telling Walter or whatever to get you a shrink? And

what's this crying problem that you have? And she's sneering and like being very judgey about it. And so he's trying to seek help. And it's like a just the stigma of mental health, especially at this time, 2002 when this movie comes out like he he's willing to seek help yeah and the society around him is not being receptive to it so i think it's interesting too that like he never goes to his sisters because he knows it's a worthless thing to do like you know he says he's going and i think there is some truth that he says he's going to his brother-in-law so we can get that great dentist joke and i celebrate that but it's also like so telling that he has seven siblings and he is comfortable going to zero of them and in fact is constantly asking that people don't tell

them what he's doing because he's clearly like lives in this state of anxiety that he's going to be mocked for whatever because that's what their dynamic is we don't really know why that is but like we don't really have to either it is what it is I do think I mean it's it would be impossible to get to know all these all seven of these sisters I don't know again it's not a criticism. It's more I think that Mary Lynn Reiskeb's character, like her, Elizabeth comes across so much in her reactions versus what she actually says and does. Because I feel like she's played as someone who is also lonely herself because, you know, if you were doing great, you wouldn't be bullying your brother while introducing him to someone. And there's that great

moment towards the end. I mean, it's great for all three of them where after, you know, Barry's in Hawaii and Lena's the first person to ever actually respect his request to not tell his sisters, which is another, like she sees him, she gets him. And she kind of pokes fun at Barry as a joke between the two of them. And then Elizabeth is like, well, you can't say my brother's weird. I can say that. which is the most sibling thing you could possibly say and again it just like gives us a little bit of insight into what this family is like um yeah but outside of that i mean we we mostly know uh you know because this story is the story of this chunk of time in barry's life we really only know who his sisters are in relation to to him and i think that's just because of how the story is

written. Right. But I do still wish that I do think that there was like a little more room to know a little more about Lena in the scope of this story. But yeah. Yeah. But Paul Thomas Anderson didn't want this movie to be longer than 90 minutes. Right. And I celebrate that, you know. Yeah. And that's beautiful. I is this, this has to be his shortest movie, right? I think so. How long was Magnolia? I do think it's funny that three hours and eight minutes. Yeah. So he was, It's like, okay, okay, I get it. I need to calm down. Let's do a little one.

Yeah, it happens kind of at the expense of us not knowing more about Lena. But I don't hate their relationship the way I usually hate relationships, like hetero-romantic relationships in movies, where, Grace, to your point of like, she took her shot, it worked out. I also like that you see a woman asking a man for a first date because Elizabeth brought her to his, like, plunger wear her. house to be like come to breakfast with us and that doesn't pan out and so she's like you know what I'm just going to ask like I already know him a little bit now we're acquainted let me you know shoot

this shot and she's like I'm going to go out for some food tomorrow do you want to come I mean she she kind of nudges this relationship forward in a way that again like it seems like Barry kind of needs right with where he's at but it's never aggressive and also the fact that like yeah there is a phrase she drops the hint repeatedly like even though it's based off of like a random berry white lie of like oh i'm going to hawaii for plunger work you're like sure which i think she kind of is like oh well but i i like that again like the invitation to hawaii is explicit she's like well if you're there and you want to hang out i would love to see you and she says that more than once and like yeah i don't know even though it's like awkward and they're both very work to progress. They're adults about it. And she says very importantly, after they fucking shit,

they're on the bed. In that order. She's like, you got me out of my room. You came and you got me out of my room. Which is like, to me, like also kind of a sign

that they're of the same feather, you know? They're introverted, yeah. Yeah, they're birds of a feather, you know? Like, it's beautiful. It is. It is nice. And again, and we already touched on this too, but after he literally abandons her at the hospital after this car accident. Which isn't great. But also, I feel like because we're

so in his head at that point, it honestly didn't even register with me at first. I was like, yeah, he's got, he's got an unfinished business. He's got to finish this. It did register with me where I was like, wait, did he just leave her there? And then she asks, she's like, where's that, where's the guy I came with? And the nurse is like, hmm, I don't know. IDK and she establishes a boundary and she says you can't do things like that if we're going to be together or see each other and he seems to recognize that and he seems determined not only to redeem the airline miles from the pudding but to redeem himself and it just feels very clear that he will because I mean it's also like there's of all of the different complicated aspects of Barry's character. I feel like he's he's also just like looking to be respected by someone where he's like so many people in his life. I mean, he sort of has a friend in Lance, but that is a very like, I mean, Luis Guzman's amazing. And Luis Guzbozboan is

very concerned about him. He's like, please go on a vacation, which I thought was very funny. But that like, yeah, this is like a relationship where he could feel respected too, where it's like it's just clear that he doesn't have that in other areas of his life. Does anyone, I don't really have anything to say about Dean Trumbull. He shows up late in the movie. He's there and you're like, and that was Dean Trumbull. Just that Philip Seymour Hoffman can be in a movie for five minutes or less and still just fucking crush it. He is, okay, the most, so like the thing about Dean Trumbull, the mattress man, first of all, very,

important to know they made like sketches for this movie too with phillipsy more often that you can find online really that's so fun that makes sense yeah there's like two three of them okay and they're like little like ads and one of them he falls like 50 feet onto a mattress if i remember correct and i do think like he is kind of similar he's like similar and opposite to Barry. You know, this is super manny. He is kind of like Barry's Lex Luther and that he's like

Barry has this like fated love and romance in his life. And that is like almost supernaturally fairy tale like and Dean Trumbull is the opposite. Like he he's paid women to

be around him. You know? And he's paying men to like do stuff for him. that a friend might do i mean not that a friend would go beats it well but you know he seems very lonely he has his own warehouse they both have a warehouse that they both have these businesses but they're like it's like a very different way that barry could have popped up turned down it's a different way to yeah it's like it's a it's a more assertive person's version of uh keeping control in in like this state of loneliness that he's in i didn't know about the sketches it's so

funny well it took me forever to realize that barry is the owner of this plunger business that he's not an employee that this is his business yeah he owns it it's his business and he's proud of it because he doesn't operate it in such a way where he's the boss man and in fact the when the forklift is crashing and like all the products are spilling and breaking stuff like that he's just like hi you guys okay anyway back to the woman i have a crush on right Which is what most bosses do. Even good bosses I've had just are like, hey, you good in here?

I gotta go, bye. Like, cool, just make sure the check's clear and leave me alone. That's the ideal boss, right? One of the things I found fascinating about Dean and his minions is that they keep shaming Barry for quote unquote being a pervert and acting like he,

deserves to be blackmailed and threatened and beaten up because he had the audacity to call a phone sex hotline. Yeah. And it's like, you're the one running the phone sex hotline. So why are you shaming your own clientele for engaging with sex workers, which feels bizarre now, but it was 2002. So I also, I also wrote down, because I had the same thought, I wrote out, is this a Utah thing?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I think it was simply a way for them. to get money out of him Right, to just shame him more And also the perversion Is that he's ashamed of wanting to fuck a lady almost

Like these are guys that seemingly fuck Like And openly are misogynistic and stuff And I think what they If there's any real anger there It's that they think he thinks he's better than them Right Or something you know

Yeah It's like they're like we're all getting gash why are you trying to act like you don't want cash that's what i would assume was a line that was cut out of the script that is that money on it paul i'm betty dollars that that was in the script and um please uh he's a patreon member so he'll he'll hear and this isn't even a patreon episode i i almost got to meet paul thomas anderson recently kind of oh wow because a friend of mine was briefly dating a friend of his, but then she stopped dating him.

Oh, wow. So what I say, I almost got to do that. I mean, if my head, it was going to happen for a second. Well, just to take a little sidebar, he, again, he was like, wow, Magnolia was so long. Maybe I shouldn't do that again for my next movie. So he was determined to make it around 90 minutes,

not to really exceed that. He also specifically wrote the Barry character, with Adam Sandler in mind because Paul Thomas Anderson loved Adam Sandler and his movies, particularly Big Daddy. And then he had seen different performances of his in various sketch shows. And he's like, he has to be in punch drunk love. Producer Joanne Seller was quote unquote befuddled that Paul Thomas Anderson wanted to cast Adam Sandler. And he had to convince her that Sandler was the right person. for the job. And then while PTA was filming Magnolia, he calls Adam Sandler and he's like,

I'm writing this movie for you. And Adam Sandler was like, that's nice. I don't really know who you are, but go ahead. And then Adam Sandler watched Magnolia after it came out. And then he felt, quote unquote, fucking terrified and was very intimidated by PTA's like directorial prowess. And Adam Sandler was like, I don't know if I can do this. He's like, you can do it, King. And he can. I do kind of like, because I wasn't an Adam Sandler kid growing up. I was kept from Adam Sandler, outside of Big Daddy for some reason.

I had a similar introduction to Adam Sandler. Big Daddy was the first one I was able to watch. But I got to watch Adam Sandler still kind of young, but it felt like it had been a million. years. Yeah. Like I got to watch my first Adam Sandler movie besides part of Big Daddy on Comedy Central was Billy Madison. And I got to watch that when I was like 10 or 11. But it felt like all my friends had gotten to see all of them. So even though I guess I was still young, at the time I was like, Jesus, finally, it spent a million years. And for more on Adam Sandler as a comedic persona versus this particular movie

you can go to we recently covered eight crazy nights where we sort of talk about his career or more is it well that's just not true well that's just not true let's be serious

that's patently false the other thing about eight crazy nights and I think this is very important the little man gets frozen in a big block of pool yes and we do talk about that

we do talk about that in depth. Do we also talk about, I think worth mentioning Adam Sandler's Zionism? And we go into depth on the eight crazy nights episode. So if you want to hear more, refer back to that episode. Yeah, that's what I was

getting at is we have a fuller discussion. In any case, any other thoughts on punch drunk love? I have, there's one thing that we didn't touch on, which is the moment of confrontation when

he rips the phone headset off and he's got the phone the telephone like handset or whatever with him when he gets to Utah and he's like I've got a love in my life and that makes me strong and say that's that you know and I think that um that is really living up the desire that a part of your life can be over that I think is such a desire of someone dealing with mental illness that the period of my life in which I am bipolar can be done you know so I think it's interesting the wish fulfillment there I think is

something that it also really got me you know because when we're talking about like like well if their lives were to continue on after this film yes I do think that Lena could help him get into therapy actually yada yada yada but for the purpose of this film in that moment he defeats it and that's

you know that's all we see you know and i think that's that offers like something like beautiful that i haven't really seen in other movies too like just being done with it hell yeah and i mean i was expecting more of a violent confrontation in that scene between barry and the phillipsymoor Hoffman character but you can sense that Dean probably couldn't hold his own in a fight and that's why he sends his minions and he doesn't actually want to fight him and engage in violence and then he's just like okay that's that and then as Barry's walking away he's like yeah you better go you fucking pervert and then Barry turns back around he's like I fucking warned you and then And then Dean goes, that's that, that's that.

And then he runs away. So it's just like, this guy, he's a coward. I don't know what my point is exactly. So it does pass the Bechtold test. So, well, I think that there is, like, genuinely, this is so Barry's story that, like, spiritually, I don't think it does. But I do think it might, there might have been, like, a technical thing where there's a few times where, like, Elizabeth and Lena talk about their jobs. Or, yeah, going to the restaurant for breakfast. That's true.

And Barry Egan is a woman. And people are saying that he's, he's both Superman and a woman. Well, Superman is a woman. Well, so many breaking, so many breaking stories. Well, as far as our nipple scale goes, where we rate the movie based on a scale of zero to five nipples, examining it through an intersectional feminist lens. I don't know even a little bit I feel like it's really like doesn't

I don't yeah I don't really know Doesn't apply yeah We had another movie recently I'm gonna give it five nipples Okay I'm gonna give it I'll give it five toilet plungers On the plunger scale

Yeah I'll give it five novelty toilet plunders Yeah I'm foregoing the nipple scale for this one Because it is so unique in so many ways It's a story that transcends gender. Let's go with that. And that's why I'm giving it five plungers. I think that's why I'm giving it five nipples because I do think that this movie, I do think it's in conversation with what it means to be a man.

And it presents something radically different and beautiful than what Barry himself believes he has to be. and what his sisters and this are forcing on him and he breaks from that yeah this is true and then he becomes gay and has a wife and he's a woman they do something more than

Newhall they like FedEx Air Cargo themselves around the world they go to Hawaii their second date is their second date is in Hawaii there I do I think you're right like where the sisters are mocking him because he's not meeting their threshold for what

masculinity looks like and how he finds happiness is by just being who he is and just the way that society slash patriarchy does not permit men to express or feel or engage with their emotions and especially if those emotions are things like sadness and loneliness and insecurity and that's very clearly what Barry is dealing with and he's trying to address his issues with with mental health and no one is willing to help him really, or at least not the people in his family. And it also feels like a good time capsule too because it's like not only does no one help him, it seems like no one knows how, which does feel very true of the early 2000s where there were conversations around mental health, but like. But going to a quote unquote shrink.

And I think it was considered like emasculating too. Yeah. For for for a man to want like a therapist definitely um grace thank you for joining us for this come back for megalopalus oh i will come back for megalopolis please don't make me i was like kately doesn't want to do it megalopolis new year is special actually grace this might be how you like jettison me off of the podcast because i refuse to do a megalopolis episode have you seen it yes in theaters yeah the whole experience like with the with the with the usher going up to the screen? No, but...

Well, then it doesn't really count. Sure. So, yeah, you didn't really see it. What do you dislike about megalopolis? We don't have time, but what we do have time for, tell us about where people can follow you on social media, plug what you want to plug. Tell us about it's Pat.

Tell us everything. Well, the movie's called We Are Pat. Mm-hmm. and it is a it's a lot of things um but it's at its core it's about how i'm a very scared person um but it is it but it's so we are pat is a documentary that just premiered i tried back out that that i'm in and i wrote sketches for that is like looking back at the character pat from s and l and the widely derided film it's pat and pat is this androgynous character that no one can tell if pat is a man or a woman notably pat is not non-binary pat knows what sex pat is and believes pat is interpreted as such you know does not really

recognize that people don't know so it's looking back at that finding a lot of humor in it trying to like certain people hate on Pat a lot, you know? I'm not one of those people. I love Pat. It's a really good movie, and it's sweet, and I think it does something that I haven't really seen another documentary do, which is have a comedian contend with the consequences of their comedy, and Julia does it in a way that's, I wouldn't say, apologetic, but

empathetic and understanding, and it has become a good friend of mine. throughout this like shooting process Julius Sweeney rocks and I think it is such a good I think you should watch it once it gets sold it's going to be a frame line this like queer festival

and I think it's going to be at some other places too but hopefully it gets sold also I've launched a substack it's Grace G. Freud no Grace G as said Grace G as it's Grace G as in GoFroid. substack.com and it's called wrong galaxy and I'm posting an original

fiction on there in addition to that I have a reading series called wrong galaxy at stories every month and then also I'm at Grace G. Freud on X and you can find me on Instagram and and those are all my things to plug. Thank you again for being here. I'll reconsider Megalopoulos. Let me think about it for a while. It's, look, we're going to wait till Christmas time. There's time to be. Yes.

You should also watch the Megalopolis Christmas special. No. I would highly recommend it. Grace made it. Oh, you, oh, I thought it was like, I was there. I thought it was like the Megalopolis characters doing, I thought it was like a Star Wars Christmas special kind of thing. It is like that.

Yeah. Okay, but if you did it, I'll watch it. Me and Alec Robbins and Mike Gin put it on. and we made sketches for it and did a whole lot. I have a dear love for that film. So I'm going to give Punch Drunk Love 5 nipples, Megalopoulos, 4 nipples, and 8 Crazy Nights, 3 nipples. Wow.

Okay. Brave. You can follow us on Instagram at Bechelcast. You can also subscribe to our Patreon, aka Matrion. It's the best way to support the show. show it's $5 a month and you get two bonus episodes every month about an amazingly brilliantly genius theme as well as access to the entire back catalog of many many bonus episodes so check that out at patreon.com slash bectalcast and with that let's learn how to play exactly three notes on

the harmonium and all fall in love and bye bye bye bye and bye bye bye bye and bye bye bye and bye bye and bye Bye. Bye. Bye. The Bechtelcast is a production of IHeart Media, hosted by Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus, produced by Sophie Lichten, edited by Mo LaBorde. Our theme song was composed by Mike Kaplan, with vocals by Catherine Voskrosensky. Our logo and merch is designed by Jamie Loftus, and a special thanks to Aristotle Acevedo. For more information about the podcast, please visit Linktree slash Bechtelcast. This is Matt Rogers. And Bowen-Yang.

And you're never going to guess who's our guest on Las Culturistas. It is Elle Woods, Tracy Flick, herself. Reese Witherspoon. Nice. It must go in a girl's trip. I have to have a tequila. We must. Oh.

Whoever said orange is the new pink. We seriously disturbs. Listen to Las Culturistas on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians, artists and activists to bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. The Moment is a space for the conversations we've been having us, father and daughter, for years.

Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life.

This is Wisecrack, available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name. Krista Pike.

Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.