The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Ben Apologist

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

It’s another week of Jenn Tran’s season of The Bachelorette, and we’re getting into some awkward dates as she continues her search for love! Rachel Recchia is back with Ben to break down every detail, no matter how uncomfortable some of them might be! Ben shares his reaction to the date with Sam M., and reveals why this episode is key to understanding who Sam really is.  Rachel reveals why she was afraid for Jenn to be alone in a room with Sam N.  And, we find out why Ben is UPSET at the news about Victoria Fuller’s new boyfriend! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone.

Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh, my God, perfect.

And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Why are TSA rules so confusing? You got a hood of you. I'm take it all.

I'm Manny. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And we're best friends and journalists with a new podcast called No Such Thing, where we get to the bottom of questions like that. Why are you screaming? I can't expect what to do. Now, if the rule was the same, go off on me.

I deserve it. You know, lock him up. Listen to No Such Thing on the. iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. No such thing. I'm Dr. Joy Hardin-Bradford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious. In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett and I discuss flight anxiety.

What is not normal is to allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do. the things that she were meant to do. Listen to therapy for black girls on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast with IHartRadio. This is the Almost Famous Podcast, and we are back. We are back with our wonderful guest co-host, Rachel. Hello, welcome. Hello, Ben.

Hi, everyone. Ashley will be back next week. she is telling us so if all goes well which we hope it does she'll be back with us but we have an incredible filling guest with us today and we're going to start out rachel with talking about two big things in bachelor nation before we get into the breakdown of this episode we are going to do both today because there isn't a lot happening in bachelor nation but there's two pretty big stories that we thought we had to talk about the first one is this jed wyatt got married uh he got married this last weekend the quote

is this the best day of our lives and the beginning of this new chapter together. All right, Rachel, I don't even know if you watched that season of The Bachelor, did you? I did. It's been a while, though. All I know is I had a lot of similarities to her ending, but very happy for Jed. Of course, I've never met him. Do you know him? I have met Jed. He's been at a few of our events. It is really good. and great that he found love. His wife's name is Ellen Decker. It's obvious that Jed has moved far beyond his time on the show.

Ellen is a fitness coach. And the couple married in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Among their guests were Bachelor franchise alums, Hannah Godwin and Dylan Barber, along with NFL vet Bryce Treggs. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding. We're very excited for them. And obviously, if you go back to his season, which was Hannah Brown's season,

Hannah's engaged as well. So you know what? They're both finding love. It all works out. It does. Very happy for Jeff. Congratulations. That's very sweet.

All right. The next headline is one that I don't want to talk about. One that I'm pretty upset about. Victoria Fuller has a new boyfriend. And that's not the reason I'm upset. obviously we were wondering it was just recently that we found out that great grippo and victoria fuller were no longer together they were pretty public with their relationship obviously kind of announcing it on a live show so bachelor nation was very very much involved in their story

with the matching tattoo yeah that's going to be weird now the chow tattoo that's gonna that's a that's one that you have to explain yourself i really like victoria victoria fuller is somebody i enjoy being around she is a lot of fun. She has always been a lot of fun. So I say all of this, making sure everybody knows, I like Victoria. I do not like her boyfriend. Why? Because I'm a Colts fan. Oh my God. Isn't he like new to the team? It doesn't matter. He is the quarterback for the Tennessee Titans, which are division rivals of the Indianapolis Colts. It also happens to be the Titans are my in-laws, my brother-in-law, my wife. I think I

convinced to go to the other direction. It's their favorite team. Will Levis is Victoria Fuller's new announced boyfriend. They've been together now for a few weeks at least because speculation had already started to happen. I just didn't want to believe it because I like Victoria. And honestly, her husband, he's a joke. Like the- How dare she? How dare she? Really? She cannot go to a rival team of mine. She could have dated anybody else. else in the NFL other than the starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans. I think she did it on purpose. I do too.

Just to spite you. No, I do. I think she thought in her mind, she's like, you know, let's be really funny, is if I found this six foot five, 240 pound ripped starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans somehow attractive, and I started dating him knowing it would hurt Ben so much. I kind of love this for her. And I heard he's like 25. she's in her like cougar era i love it we've always referenced victoria fuller here to have that

on this podcast is like this like like sexy energy like actually has a name for it i forget what exactly is but like she just kind of like exudes this kind of like not cougar yet because it's hard to be a cougar when you're like 29 30 years old just just joking but yeah but i think you're right i think now she is she's like you know what i still got it and good for her her and she was like i saw her tick talk and she was talking about like moving on and i was surprised too i don't know if you saw that she was talking about picking out brains with gregg oh my yeah she was like going from that like and then talking about moving on and how it gets better and how she's met someone that's like a stand-up guy i was like good for you she's been through it

i'm happy for her yeah it's i can't even say i'm happy for her I like her, but I'm not, I can't say I'm happy for her. I hope, I hope the two of them get married and somehow he decides to retire from football way too early. And the two of them, you know, skip off into the sunset. And then I'd be like, hey, this is a great couple. Maybe she'll distract him this season. That's right. Maybe that's why she's doing it.

We have a big show to talk about. Obviously, the most recent episode of The Bachelor has now aired. It is episode four of season 21 of The Bachelorette. They're moving on from Australia and they're now going to New Zealand. I've never been to New Zealand. Have you? I have not. Bucketless now.

It's always fun to watch a place I've never been to on the show because it makes you go, hey, I either want to go here or I don't. But the men are now in New Zealand along with Jen. This episode was really wasn't full of. of twists and turns, I think, but it was full of some big moments that we've kind of been waiting for. Obviously, Jesse and Jen have a conversation at the beginning of the episode. I want to hear from you. Jesse was not the host of the show when I was on the show. How is Jesse in these moments? How like, I think one thing that made Chris really special

was in those moments, he made it seem, and I think because of who he is, it felt very genuine. It felt like I was talking to a buddy. It felt like he actually cared. It felt like he wasn't just doing it because they called him up and took him off the golf course to come and talk to me. It actually felt like he had actually wanted to be in that moment. How was Jesse? I was actually Jesse's first season of The Bachelor and Bachelorette. So we kind of learned this together. So I feel like I have a really special relationship with Jesse. So many moments like he had with Jen where I was just crying. You're in like such a crazy environment.

And to have someone who has done it before, I think that's the thing that Jesse is really helpful with where he's kind of been through what you're going through. I love him. I loved the lore of Jesse that they were playing about why we couldn't eat on the dates. I thought that was funny. Remind me of that.

He is the reason why as leads. and when you're on those one-on-ones that you can't eat because they were showing the replay of him, like, eating on his date, it's like mouthful. And it just looked so horrific. And I didn't know that's why we couldn't do that. Interesting. I didn't know that either. I've always, I always knew we can. It's one of the most common questions you get is why don't they eat on the dates.

And I always use the excuse, well, the food's been out for two hours. Like, I don't want to eat lobster. Yeah. It just looks bad on camera. And now we know, because they showed clips of Jesse doing it on his date. So thank you, Jesse. Now we know. Well, their conversation is just kind of a catch-up like we see on most seasons.

The host is talking to the lead. Then Jen meets up with the guys in Auckland. And she asked Sam M, that's Sam M, as in Mary, to go on a one-on-one date. This is a one-on-one date. I think every fan has been. anxious to see. The headlines this week were full of kind of Sam M and his family coming out and commenting on how he feels like and they feel like the show is portraying him in a bad light. That's not who he is, they're saying. And so one of the ways that I think the fans are waiting to

see, well, let's actually see, you know, how this goes is through a one-on-one. What are we going to get out of Sam M on this one-on-one? Rachel, I'll let you as a lead take us through this date, sharing your opinions on how you feel like Sam M. did? So I think that week four in general is just a week where you're starting to get really tired as the lead. And I feel like in each season you watch that week and you can kind of tell they're exhausted. And going into the state, I could just tell that Jen was just kind of a little bit like overwhelmed, a little tired. I think he was really excited they're going on to this date they're going into this like tower i forget what

it's called like one of the tallest towers in oakland and you know they're jumping off it because they're already alluding to like that's what you do and they're sitting down right they're having this conversation and i don't know the whole thing felt a little awkward to me how did you feel yeah i mean i think and i want to hear why i mean it definitely was awkward i think i think most people will watch that and say it just felt um it felt like there was a gap kind of in how they were communicating to each other i want to hear your ideas for why that was happening because it wasn't like either of them were necessarily messing up i did i will share this i did feel like jinn at some point was kind of like hey sam talk to me like a human don't use the lines

don't say the right thing stop just saying this stuff like talk to me like a human being and like that's this moment I did feel like that was one of the reasons but what other reasons did you feel like made for kind of the awkwardness in their you know sit down talk

I think it was really obvious that Jen didn't want to jump and he was kind of making those decisions for her but I felt like when he was doing it it was more in like oh yeah like we're here we're on the Bachelorette let's jump let's have these memories together but she took it as oh he's not listening to me and instead of i guess having that open communication and being like listen i get that you're excited but

i really don't want to do this it felt like she was almost like wanting him to read her mind a little but we've all been there i've been there you know you want that person to read your energy and i just feel like he was not getting that up until like the very last moment when she cried And then he understood where she was coming from. I think you're spot on. If I'm honest with you, Rachel, I was watching Sam M in this moment. I was like, that would be me. What he was doing would be how I would treat that moment.

Because in my mind, it takes me a while to pick up on what's not being said. If you want to communicate with me and you want me to know how you feel, you have to pretty much yell it in my face. You have to tell me, or I'm not picking up on it. I also get very excited and overwhelmed about memorable moments, moments that I think will create a memory that will last us a long time. I also have always liked to see people out of their comfort zones because I have a hard time getting out of my own comfort zone. And so when I've mentally got myself to say, no, I'm going to do it. I'm going to push myself here. I want whoever's

with me to also get to that place. And it's caused me a lot of issues in friendships and relationships and relationships in my life because I sometimes have to like check myself and be like, whoa, yeah, you know what? I was being a little bit too much there. I do think Sam was too much. I don't think he was exactly what you call supportive in that moment. I just don't have a lot of criticism for him because I know that would be me also. Yeah, it was just an awkward situation because I also think about the men talking in the house and Marcus coming back from his day and being like, we were skydiving and we were this and then you're assuming like she loves this kind of stuff she you know wants to do this activity with me and then for her to just be like no no you're not

understanding me he's kind of like no let's do this like come on come next to me so I feel like I could see both sides because I've also been there as a lead and been so frustrated I could have been on any date and I would have been like just getting overwhelmed so maybe that's where she was coming from. I did, you know, think that they made up for it in the nighttime portion. Definitely. This felt like an argument my wife and I would have. Like this felt like a moment that would be two people that love each other very much, that are very committed to each other, that have a lot of fun together. And this feels like a moment that could create an argument for the two of us. It doesn't feel outrageous. It doesn't feel necessarily even unhealthy. It just feels

like my wife at some point would be like, Ben, you have to start listening to me. Like, look in my eyes. I don't want to do this. And I'd be like, oh, yeah, you're right. Okay, sorry, my bad. My take on it was, I do think they made up for it in the nighttime portion. I do think we also saw Sam M for the first time. I know every, you know, his family's very much in this camp of the editing has been a problem.

I've always said this about The Bachelor and Bachelorette. Yes, there is editing, always editing. But I have never been a part of a show. where the sentiment of the moment, like, isn't somewhat accurate. So he is saying the things that they're showing. He is upset with Devin. They are now showing that he's upset with Devin and also Sam In. Yes, he might have said other things in between, you know, his mean comments.

But what they're getting across to the audience is Sam M is not enjoying his experience with Devin and Sam in. However, I think in this nighttime portion, I was able. and I hope most fans were to put that away and say, okay, who is this guy? And I do think he was, he showed up well in this moment. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly and now I'm seriously suspicious. Well, wait a minute, Sam, maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon.

This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor, and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating.

He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The U.S. Open is here. And on my podcast, Good Game with Sarah Spain, I'm breaking down the players from rising stars to legends chasing history. The predictions will we see a first time winner and the pressure.

Billy Jean King says pressure is a privilege, you know. Plus, the stories and events off the court and, of course, the honey deuses, the signature cocktail of the U.S. Open. The U.S.S. Open has gotten to be a very fancy, wonderfully experiential sporting event. I mean, listen, the whole aim is to be accessible and inclusive for all tennis fans, whether you play tennis or not. Tennis is full of compelling stories of late. Have you heard about icon Venus Williams' recent wild card bids or the young Canadian, Victoria Mboko, making a name for herself? How about Naomi Osaka getting back to form? To hear this and more, listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain.

I heart women's sports production in partnership with deep blue sports and entertainment on the IHart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect.

And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Imagine that you're on an airplane and all of a sudden you hear this. Attention passengers. The pilot is having an emergency and we need someone, anyone to land this plane.

Think you could do it? It turns out that nearly 50% of men think that they could land. the plane with the help of air traffic control. And they're saying like, okay, pull this, until this, pull that, turn this. It's just, I can do my eyes close. I'm Manny. I'm Noah. This is Devin.

And on our new show, no such thing, we get to the bottom of questions like these. Join us as we talk to the leading expert on overconfidence. Those who lack expertise lack the expertise they need to recognize that they lack expertise. And then, as we try the whole thing out for real. Wait, what? Oh, that's the run right. I'm looking at this thing. Listen to no such thing on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I was shocked that he's been engaged. Yes, he just comes off to me, and I think to Jen as like a player. And to hear that he had almost the same exact story as Spencer, that he is so. serious and something kind of tragic happened to him in that relationship. I was very shocked. I felt like he was opening up. Jen was crying. I thought they had a really good moment.

Not saying I'm fully on board with Sam M by any means, but I thought this date went a lot better than I thought it was going to. I would not say I'm fully on board with Sam M. In fact, he still wouldn't make my top four. However, I do think this date propelled him into the idea in my head that he is going to be there a while. And he is a frontrunner in this experience, even though I'm not convinced yet. And the reason I'm not convinced yet is really because after their date, which he does receive a rose on, we see him back in the house while the group date is existing with everybody

but Devin and we'll get into the group date. But the conversation with Sam M. and Devin really stands out to me because it felt like Sam M fell right back into the Sam M that everybody's like, what is this guy doing? He's a frontrunner. He has no need to step in the murkiness of the drama. Yet he cannot help himself for some reason. Yeah, I feel like he is being the aggressor, or at least in the situation with Devin. He was the one coming at Devin and he's like, you're wasting your time thinking of me. And Devin's like, I don't think about you at all. Like, I don't want anything to do with you. He's almost making Devin look better.

Yeah. Like, after this episode, I'm a Devin apologist. I'm like, is it been like Sam this whole time? I don't know. Not a good look. It isn't a good look. And to Sam M's credit, yes, there are, that was a long conversation where a brief portion of it was shown. But Ashley and I have given up on the almost famous podcast, Rachel, just for your knowledge,

the idea that we can assume what was happening that was not shown. Because that's not why we exist here. We're here to break down what we watched on television. That's all the information we have at this point. And what we watched on television is I 100% agree with you. Sam M felt like the aggressor here. He felt like the one that continues to stir the pot to say things that would definitely upset me if I was Devin. It would make me stand up for myself or at least respond probably in not the nicest of ways. You know, he calls him a little B. He, you know, again, says,

I don't want you to talk to me. And Devin kind of goes, I wasn't going to talk to you anyways. Like, that's cool, man. Like, I'm fine, not talking to you. I don't want to talk to you. Stop talking to me. And so it was weird for me, Rachel,

because I was hoping after the date with Jen that Sam M would come back with little confidence, a little piece, and be like, you know what? I'm a frontrunner here. This other stuff. It's not below me, but it's not of my interest anymore. Yet, there he is. I love that they had them both get a one-of-one this week.

So we had all this time with them. I was like, this is the perfect opportunity for a two-on-one. I was fingers crossed, but nevertheless, I'm sure this is not the last we will see of Sam and Devin arguing. No, that was a beautiful producer piece to the puzzle. Well, they said, you know, it would be really fun this week. As soon as I saw them sitting there, I'm like, oh my God, it was great, beautifully done. So good.

But we do have the group date. Every other guy is on this group date. It is a rugby date. This is a really important sport to New Zealand. I was really excited they were going to play rugby. It's not the first time the show has played rugby as a date. But this was a really fun date because New Zealand. Zealand is known for its rugby team and these guys aren't great but they're taking it very

serious and you definitely have some athletes in the group. You don't have any of those you know kind of weanies that aren't going to step up and try to play rugby. So it's fun to watch and I'm sure it's fun for Jen to watch. Yeah and someone gave Sam N a little bit too much champagne. I don't know who was in charge of Sam N on this date. I was so uncomfortable the whole time. I mean, I was watching the rugby. It was great. But at the end of the day, this is like fun. And if someone was tackling me like that, I would be so mad. Like the way he was just picking her up, tackling guys, like I thought it was so unnecessary. I think Sam N is just learning a lot about himself right now.

It feels though that he's not. It feels like he's listening to maybe people being like, you got to try harder for her attention and just taking it way too far every single time. Well, I think he learned a lot once he got back in that limo or once he got in the limo at the end of this when it never worked out. I think he was at first feeling like he was crushing it. And the truth is he did not crush any moment on this date from start to finish.

Rachel, I'm upset, though. I think Sam Min could have been one of the most memorable characters we've ever seen on the show if he would have been here a little longer. We only got to see him really come out of his shell at the end of last episode when he admitted his love for her on a stage

in week three during a group date and we got to see him today on a rugby day and a night portion pretty much make every wrong move anybody can make when it comes to dating. I want to go over the nighttime portion because there was a moment. Well, okay, first of all, the walking in, the trophy, the jersey, walking ahead of everyone, I just knew these guys were going to freak out. She could never have one normal cocktail party.

Poor thing, Jen just wants to talk to these men. of course they're in another argument Thomas is involved again the one part that really stuck out to me was when he went to pull her for the second time and he is talking to the camera and he's like

what did he say he was like I'm going to kiss her I'm going to be intimate with her I he pulled her and my first thought was like someone needs to be in there with her I forgot I'm like she can't be alone with him like I was genuinely scared

I mean, I thought that moment was way too much. It was definitely his time to go after that comment. She handled herself so much better than I would have. I don't say me. I literally was like I would have just made out with him. Yeah, 100%. I made up with everyone. If they were like, can I kiss you?

I'm like, yep, easier than talking. Yeah, so much easier. Non-confrontational. Let's just do. And then I'll say goodbye to you at the Rose ceremony, but I'm not having this. She was brilliant in that moment. just the way she collected herself. She put her thoughts out there.

That's what makes a good lead is how they respond in the face of adversity or any type of conflict. And she responded so well. He had a really funny comment to her. I think he met that, I think he was prepping for this time with her. And what he came up with was he said,

today was the best group day of my life. And I found that comment outrageous. One, how many group dates have you actually ever been on? Two, why is that what stands out to you in this whole experience? That it was the best group date you've ever been on? It wasn't the best date with her? Is this the best time with her? Did you enjoy watching her?

No, you just had a really great group date because in his mind at this point, from the moment he walked in, he said it. He put on his denim jacket. He was feeling himself tonight. He felt himself and he thought he was a rock star. I don't know where he got that information from. I don't know what signs he was picking up on that made him feel this way. I don't know even who told him that he was crushing it.

But when he walked into that room, I think he and his mind thought Jen was going to just melt and be like, it's over. You're the guy. The problem is, Rachel, he's an attractive fella. Like, he's a good-looking guy. He could, if he was just normal for a few seconds here, if he didn't try to go back and kiss her,

I think he actually stays for the next week. Agreed. Agreed 100%. He gives me the energy of like, have you ever heard this saying of like that weird guy friend that's like, where's my hug at? Like, where's my hug? And she's like, she sighed hugs him. Like, it was so awkward to watch.

And like you said, he came in with this confidence. I think because he thought he won the group date. And so he's like, oh, I'm getting the rose. Like, no questions. He's getting hyped up. but then again there's thomas again why is thomas the leader of every like group like i what's even the word they're like mad at everyone this is a mean group of guys but thomas is always like leading the stampede yeah he well i think that's about the i think that's the only role he can

play right now he knows this place yeah he knows this is not the experience for him he knows he's not getting the into the final four he's like what i can what i can do now is make sure i'm heard as much as possible did you hear the part where he started saying sam m's lines he was like doing an interview and he's like we're just keeping the main thing the main thing like that's that's not even your own words what are you doing here like he is something else but she did have some great conversations i thought with who occasion with jonathan they were doing the lacrosse game Grant

you could tell with her body language the way she sits on the couch with Grant she's like super close to him I think we're going to see more of him hopefully coming up yeah oh yeah and then I just wrote down Austin calling Sam

emotionally unintelligent in front of everyone like why are they all doing this time and time again well I think what was happening I don't think these guys are handling this well. I will say that. I do think with the Sam in moment, they were all so frustrated and confused. And they were trying to convince Sam, hey man, like, check yourself a little bit. Take a step back. You're fine. We're not even that mad at you yet. But you're being weird, man.

Like you're being really weird. And we just want to let you know that this weirdness is making everything else here weird. Like you're just being very odd. And as he continued to, defend himself and not probably take the kind advice early. There's probably a better way to do it. Somebody could have done it one-on-one with him. But since he didn't take the advice early, I think everybody was getting frustrated like, dude, you're wild, man. Like, I'm mad at you. Like, I'm getting angry. Just listen to you, defend yourself. And thinking that you're crushing it because you're not. And it's very clear to everybody. So, Jen kind of finalizes the thought that he's not crushing it. She sends him home. Now, she did have some great conversations. I think

Marcus and the Jonathan's, the grants of the world, really stood out during this whole day. I think they are continuing to be kind of like foundational pieces to this to Jen's story. We're seeing them often. There's still some other guys we're not seeing as often. But they're all, those guys are really always popping up. And that's why I have high expectations. for kind of that group specifically. Some other guys, we don't really see at all on this day because Samin takes up a lot of it. He does end up going home early.

And then the next scene is kind of a... It's one I just don't like, Rachel. I don't like that the show allows an ex-boyfriend to come into this experience. Now, I know this is set up to be the he flew to New Zealand, land to meet up with Jim. I thought that was so unserious the way that they

had the whole, he flew here on his time and he he's on his way now. I'm like, be so for real. I mean, what are your thoughts on it? I think it was just so obvious what he's doing. Like he's doing this for attention and for like his five seconds.

Like, what are you doing here? It reminds me of when Nick Vile came to Caitlin's season that I was on about five weeks in. We were in New York City. And I do know that he was in New York City. And I do know that Caitlin and Nick had hung out previous to her becoming the Bachelorette. And then they hung out as she was kind of on the show. Like she found a way to kind of, Caitlin was really good at sneaking out. She was fantastic at finding her way out of her room. I don't know how she did it. I never left my room. I was so scared. She had some courage. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious.

Oh, wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy?

That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend. former professor, and they're the same age. It's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet.

So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The U.S. Open is here, and on my podcast, Good Game with Sarah Spain, I'm breaking down the players from rising stars

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on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Imagine that you're on an airplane and all of a sudden you hear this. Passengers, the pilot is having an emergency, and we need someone, anyone, to land this plane. Think you could do it? It turns out that nearly 50% of men think that they could land the plane with the help of air traffic control. And they're saying like, okay, pull this, until this. Do this.

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he comes in and you know she asks him to then be a part of the season which obviously he makes a long run on the season it made all of us feel like hey we're not enough like she's looking for something else here so that that is the concern for me as jinn starts to entertain the idea of bringing this guy onto her season is that it will make all the other guys probably question where exactly they're out in their relationship i think the show should never portray this as that he is showing up on his own dime because nobody knows where they're at in the world. Nobody knows where to meet Jesse at. He, the show had to have contacted him and helped set this up. There had to be a knowledge that they had dated fairly recently

to her becoming the Bachelorette. They had convinced this guy to fly all the way to New Zealand probably telling him that yeah, like there's not a lot of great guys here. I think you're the one. it would be great if you come. Now, I don't hate that she would even, I'm not going to get mad at Jen if she says, yeah, you know what, come on this experience and do it like everybody else. I do think that adds a weird dynamic within the guys.

I don't think this guy is going to like his experience on the show. I don't think the guys are going to like welcome him into their brotherhood, nor should be expect them to. But I won't blame her for saying, yeah, let's give it a shot. I just think it's weird because this isn't like someone that she was like, the one that got away.

It was a three-month situation ship three years ago that she still kind of keeps in contact with. He had how many years he watched her go on The Bachelor. That was his first shot to be like, hey, I love you. It's so inauthentic to me. Obviously, I don't know. Like you said, it's Jen's decision. But to me, it just seems like so sketchy.

Well, something weird happened in the midst of their conversation. He kind of tells Jen his true feelings for her. And she says, why wouldn't you have told me this three months ago or whatever the timeline was? And he goes, Jen, I did. And then she kind of just stops. Oh, I didn't catch that. She like doesn't have a great response for it. She just says, Matthew.

I thought she said, or he said, I tried to. Or did he say I did? Or I tried to. Whatever it was, if he tried to, if he did, he obviously was communicated. deeper feelings for Jen than what she's either remembering or wanting to remember. So I do have a feeling that this guy was interested before she left. I don't know if his ideal plan would be showing up on national television into a very hostile environment and trying to sweep her off her feet. I don't know if that was his plan. That's outrageously wild and not smart. He should

have never agreed to that. But I do wonder if it threw her off so much that he was there, that she was in a sense, and I get it, trying to protect herself to be like, Matthew, what are you doing? Like, you're making me look. Like, I had a boyfriend up until I came on the show. You're now telling me that you told me these things up until I came on the show. You need to stop this. If you care about me, look at my eyes. Watch yourself. Like, I'm not against bringing you on the show, but obviously our relationship didn't work out. I am not. not personally claiming that Jen had a boyfriend before the show. But I do think she was probably talking to a guy, which I've always said, it's fine.

Like, you know, they broke up. She wasn't interested in. She moved on. But I do think she for a second felt very much like, goodness gracious, Matthew, you are going to destroy me by doing this. And the situation, if you think about it, there's no way. I feel like it can be smooth, especially with someone who's outside of the franchise. Because this guy comes in.

All the guys are mad at Jen. so then she's mad at them for questioning her and this just cannot go well because then what happens if she picks him at the end everyone's like why do you even come on so there's no way that this can end well and I think Jen knows that

and she's trying to find the best scenario for this the best way to deal with it navigate it to yeah yeah the best way to navigate this there was I don't know if they ever did this to you Rachel but I walked in the Mexico City fashion show during my time as The Bachelor on a date. I was on a date. And

one of the models during the fashion show, they had convinced to come on my season. This was weeks in. Like, this was probably five weeks in. And the producers come up and they said, hey, would you want her on the show? And I was like, no, that sounds terrible. That sounds like an awful idea. Like, no matter if she is the perfect person for me, not worth it. Like, not doing that here. but they had this whole thing where they never got aired because she never ended up coming on where like she and they asked if she could start the experience in week five. And it wasn't that I, again, I'm not going to be upset with Jen as a lead to bring him on. It was more of, I don't know how I would communicate this to everybody else that's already here. Like I feel

like it would just be a massive shot to their confidence and their confidence is probably already waning. And I already felt like I already felt like I, I was holding on by a thread to keep their attention for another week. I did not ever feel like I was sitting in the driver's seat being like, yeah, they're going to stick around because obviously they want to date me. It's like, no, they're always looking for an excuse to leave. They just don't know when. Same, but then look at like points.

Yeah, yeah, good point. So the only reason I think this just could be a little different is that he is not a part of the franchise. I think people might welcome people a little bit more when they kind of know them. And it's this whole, like, oh, I didn't know she was going to be the bachelor. Anyways, we shall see. Me and Gabby never had that problem. We couldn't even get the guys on our own season to want to date us.

So, I mean, that would have probably been welcomed in my situation. Am I someone that wants to date us? Yeah, another friend. Yeah, please. You're going to accept my roses. Like, amazing. You're hired. Yeah, you're here.

All right, Rachel, break down really the final piece of this episode is the and Devin date, another date that fans were excited to see kind of play out for the first time. So going into this, you know, I was not a Devin fan. But there is something with Devin, watching his date with Jen. They got to have this spiritual experience with the Maori people. I know Jen was saying that she's Buddhist and it's important to learn about different cultures. and I think Devin embraced the date so well. He shared so much about himself.

I was like, wow, I was impressed. He has a lot of depth to him. But I think the main thing for me was watching Jen on this day. I felt like that's the most she's been herself this entire time. She felt very comfortable. Unlike maybe the Sam M date, it did feel like most of their conversation flowed from a very natural, and comfortable place.

I didn't know if that would actually happen with Devin. I've always kind of had this idea that Jen in the back of her head is like, this guy is going to be going home as soon as possible. But for right now, like he's making the effort, so I'm going to keep him around. I will admit, I think I was wrong on that thought. I actually think she is interested in Devin, which is interesting because he hasn't exactly portrayed himself that much. differently than some of the other guys. He's made some stupid decisions. He says some really stupid

stuff. He's been hostile at times. Yet somehow he's continued to kind of connect with Jen in a way that others haven't yet. She said something exactly like that at the end of the day and she was just like, we have this connection I can't explain. And I mean, I saw it all throughout the date. But I think as a lead, sometimes I'll watch these conversations that they have at the nighttime portion. And You can tell when she's just kind of like, and tell me more about that. And how did that make you feel? Oh, that's so tough, which you're genuinely like concerned. But with Devin, she was sharing, like, stories about her dad and feeling abandoned.

And I was like, whoa, she really trusts him. She's really showing a completely different side to just Devin. And I was shocked. But I loved it. I think they have a great connection. and now, like you said, I am interested to see how far he's going to go. I'm very intrigued to see how far he is now going to go. Well, that is all the main points and the main storylines from episode four.

Rachel, anything that stood out to you this episode that we did not cover. I don't think so. Besides me becoming a Devin Apologist, that's about it. Maybe that would be the title of this podcast. Rachel becomes a Devin Apologist. All right, your top three after this week, change it all from last week? so no i still have dylan jonathan marcus number one but i did i put devon number four because i think that is her number four so yeah he made it onto the list i would still agree marcus and jonathan

though feel in my mind even though maybe we don't see as much as them as we expect they still feel like to me based on years of watching the show and years of experiences uh of seeing people go on dates they still feel far and beyond the front runners. To me, I know they want Sam M to be that person. I'm just not there yet. I just don't. I'm having a hard time believing it. Well, next week, we're going to watch to see if Matthew is actually invited back on this show.

We are probably going to see a rose ceremony since we didn't this episode. So we'll have a lot to break down and talk about next week. Rachel will not be here. Rachel, thank you so much for joining us for being a part of the Almost Famous podcast these last two weeks. you have been an incredible guest host, an awesome fill-in. And I cannot wait to have you back at some point to help us out and to continue to update us on all the cool things happening in your life. So with this, we're going to take a moment of appreciation for Rachel.

Thank you. So honored to be here. So honored to fill in for Ashley Ben. It's always a great time. We're going to be hanging out a lot more. Yeah, we are. Until next week, I've been Ben. And I'm Rachel.

We'll talk to you soon. Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast on IHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon.

This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't. don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Yumanzoor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you.

But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Why are TSA rules so confusing?

You got a hood of you. I'm take it all! I'm Manny. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And we're best friends and journalists with a new podcast called No Such Thing, where we get to the bottom of questions like, like that. Why are you screaming? I can't expect what to do. Now, if the rule was the same,

go off on me. I deserve it. You know, lock him up. Listen to no such thing on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. No such thing. I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious. In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Nett and I discuss flight anxiety. What is not normal is to allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do, the things that you were meant to do. Listen to therapy for black girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

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