The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Dirty Rush: Pinning Your Hopes On…

Episode Date: November 9, 2025

The truth about getting pinned. Call us at 844-278-RUSH (844-278-7874) or email us at [e-mail]. Follow Dirty Rush on Instagram and TikTok.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Dirty Rush, The Truth About Sorority Life. With your host, me, Gia Judice, Daisy Kent and Jennifer Fessler. Hey, it's Daisy Kent back on Dirty Rush. You guys, my mind is blown by all of these stories about pinning. We had so many callers call in and they're also different. Some of them are crazy.

So we're going to dive back into this and talk more about these pinning ceremonies, what they mean from school to school and just learn some more because I literally had no idea this is what pinning was about. How are you doing, Christina? I'm doing great. Thank you. We've been getting kind of people's takes on what a pinning is or how it happened at their school. So I'm curious, what was your pinning like or what did it all entail? Mine was actually kind of different, not the stereotypical traditional pinning.

Okay. I was a senior at Cal when I met my husband now. Oh, I know, cute, huh? 30, almost 30 years. Oh, congrats. that's amazing. Thank you. We, uh, so we started dating our senior year and, and to be honest with you, I'm not sure why originally he, we used to do pinnings on during Monday night meetings and it was usually a surprise. Members of our fraternity, you know, we kind of filter into the meeting and it was

really cute that way. Yeah. Anyway, but ours, I don't know if it was because maybe we hadn't, we'd only been dating, maybe six, you know, eight months or something or I know that a lot of our friends were in different sororities and fraternities. And so we had. planned this graduation party with our parents and some of our friends that were in different houses. Oh, so fun. We were hosting it at a, you know, nearby hotel. And so I did, unbeknownst to me, he decided to go ahead and pin me there. So his friends, like some of our, you know, one set of his best friends from home were there that didn't even go to Cal. Oh, that's special. Yeah, a couple of his friends for fraternity and a couple of friends that were in different fraternities.

And then one of, you know, a couple good friends of mine that were in my sorority. And again, a couple that were in different sorority. So it was really cool to kind of have a big group there. But I think what was so strange about my pinning is that my parents were there, my aunt and uncle were there. So did you know you were going to get pinned before it happened? No, we were, it was just really a graduation party. We, you know, just stereotypical party, round tables, dinner, bar, right? Yeah.

And then one of the, it wasn't even my husband. And it was one of the other guys stood up and, you know, started giving a speech. And so I was called to the, you know, kind of the front of the room. And they started bringing me flowers, which is a traditional part of the pinning. Usually a pitting when the guys come into our, I guess it was usually our dining room, they would all bring roses. So they would hand the person. Everyone would have a single rose.

And so the guys did that. And then, of course, my husband now had a big bouquet of roses. So that was obviously really cute. So at your school, was it if, like, because I've heard like a different, like different kinds of pennies and what they mean at different schools, was yours like, if a guy pins you, does that mean? Is it kind of like a like before engagement thing or like they want to be with you forever? Or what does it come like what does it necessarily mean at your school? Well, that's, you know, that is so interesting. And I was trying to think back truthfully to remember everything because it's been a few.

But I think, you know, I don't think we were 100% thinking engagement right at that minute, but I think most people that were willing that ended up getting pinned were clearly pretty serious, right? Yeah. Because you kind of had to stand up and say, you know, I want to put a, you know, my fraternity pin on somebody. So it was kind of, I guess, a precursor maybe. Yeah. But I guess we hadn't really discussed at that point, you know, getting married or engagements or anything. I just had a thought of like twilight when like how the wolves like imprint on someone.

I'm like, this is kind of like that. So how long after you got pinned did you guys get engaged? Oh, let's see. It was probably, it was maybe less than a year that we were really young. Oh my gosh. That's so great. I know. That is wild.

I know I have children that are that age now and it's funny to think that we were already engaged and married. And so it's very funny. That is so funny. Do you have any kids that are like in college that have done like the pinning thing? No, I mean, both our kids have graduated from school and no, they did not do the pinning thing. So I don't even know. Is that something that's that's still going on? Is it still popular now? It was funny. We've talked to a few people today. Like one college's pinning was like a roast. So like the guy and the girl would be like, oh, like we want to get pinned. And then everyone in their fraternity and sorority would roast each other and then yeah i was like this sounds like a horrible idea and then there was another we just

talked to a couple and they had graduated recently um and they did like a pinning but it was like the girls went and did like went on a party bus did their thing the guys went on their party bus and then they met up but the girl didn't know she was getting pinned and then they were all kind of just like drunk partying and she'd be pinned. So, yeah, it's changed. The one I remember the most truthfully is some of our best friends from school. And they had a much more traditional pinning. It was very cute, though.

We even snuck in for them. We snuck in her, she has a twin sister. And then he had a sister from Southern California that flew up. And so they had been hiding in the sorority house so that she didn't know that they were there. Yeah. And so that was super fun. And then, of course, I think there was, as far as the parting, I think he, I think our friend did buy maybe a keg or something. We had a party after, you know, but.

Oh, that's so fun. But it was really fun in that situation for her to have some of the siblings around as well. Oh, definitely. Do most people get pinned, like, when they're a senior? Yeah, definitely senior. And it was pretty rare. And I don't know if that's a California thing. I don't know.

I mean, I feel like maybe in my first. four years as a member um i mean i'm i'm trying to think it's definitely i can count on one hand how many pinnings there were so it wasn't a super thing okay that's kind of cool it makes it like special definitely um and then when you were at the sorority house and like your friends got pinned that or when you experienced one that was at the sorority house was everyone like dressed as a specific way or like have to wear like a certain color where they're like candles and stuff. I'm like envisioning. Yeah, I know. In our house was,

we're fortunate. We have such a beautiful home and it's big. And so we, our pinnings usually were held on Monday night because that's when we had to be dressed in, I mean, kind of nicer clothes, not, you know, nothing fancily. And again, we're Berkeley, so we're not that

probably proper. But if rumor had gotten out that there was maybe a pinning or something, people might look a little bit nicer. But we typically did at least have skirts or dress on of some sort and so it was during dinner or right after dinner that kind of did the guys but the guys definitely would have sport coats and they looked way better than most of us because it was mostly a surprise you know for the girls yeah yeah and it was I remember if you know when you were freshman and sophomore you know a lot of times you really didn't even know the senior very well anyway you know in the house and so it was kind of fun that they would all these people coming in and you're just just sitting in awe kind of admiring the whole process. Oh, for sure.

Like, you're probably like, I hope that's me when I was seeing. You're like, I can't even imagine right now. That's so sweet that we, honestly, we haven't heard a story yet of somebody that's like been pinned like this and then it all like transpired into all this. So that's great. I'm so happy for you guys. Well, the funniest thing was you said about engagement, Mike, because we did it at this graduation party, my aunt and uncle, everyone was there. And so my aunt literally thought we were

getting engaged. And we were like, no, no, no, no, no, no. They're like, it's happening. It's happening. They're like, no, she's getting thin. No. No, I know. So I do remember that feeling of like, no, we're not ready to be engaged. You know, like that's not where we are yet. That is special, though, that you had everyone there that you like really care about though. And now like, I'm sure being married, you said 30 years. Yeah. Yeah. And, like, looking back on that, that's got to be so cool. Well, you know, it is cool. Like, I just, to refresh my memory, I did pull out an old scrapbook just to see a few

pictures to remind myself. But yeah, I mean, all the people there were still super good friends with, and it's kind of an interesting, you know, fun. I love that. So do you have, like, pictures from the day when that happened? Yes. So I was kind of into scrapbooking a long time ago, and so my sister had made, taken all the pictures from it um and and put some in into a little scrapbook for me uh that's amazing

i love that but you know what else funny fact the one the other pinning that i was telling you about they got married the same year and so they're about to have their 30 year anniversary as well oh wow i know so maybe pinning works maybe that's the key go berkeley i know who would have thought i love that uh well thank you so much christina for being on here and sharing that with us. On the podcast Health Stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night. Yes, I'm Dr. Priyanka Wally, a double board certified physician. And I'm Hurricane Dibolu, a comedian and someone who once Googled,

Do I have scurvy at 3 a.m? On Health Stuff, we're talking about health in a different way. It's not only about what we can do to improve our health. but also what our health says about us and the way we're living. Like our episode where we look at diabetes. In the United States, I mean, 50% of Americans are pre-diabetic. How preventable is type 2? Extremely.

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And she said, Johnny, the kids didn't come home last night. Along the central Texas plains, teens are dying. Suicides that don't make sense. Strange accidents and brutal murders. In what seems to be, a plot ripped straight out of Breaking Bad. drugs, alcohol, trafficking of people. There are people out there that absolutely know what happened. Listen to Paper Ghosts, the Texas Teen Murders, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time? You get Desi Arness, a trailblazer, a businessman, a husband, and maybe most importantly, the first Latino to break prime time, wide open. I'm Wilmer Valderama, and yes, I grew up watching him, probably just like you and millions of others. But for me, I saw myself in his story. From plening canary cages to this night here in New York, it's a long ways. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life, the moments it has overlapped with mine, how he redefined American television and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. This is the story of how one man,

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Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here we go. Hey, I'm Kelpen, and on my new podcast, Here We Go again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions.

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We have Claire and Kara here. So I've been talking to people all day about getting pinned and what that means. And I feel like at every school it means something different. And I heard you guys have kind of a unique story about getting pinned because you got pinned together. Yes. Is that right? Yeah. We had a double pinning, which was super fun.

our friends went all out and surprised us. So what, like, what did your opinion look like it? What all happened during that ceremony or party? I've learned it could be many things. Yeah, Kara, do you want to start? Yeah, sure. I guess I can kind of give an overview of the night from our perspective. Yes.

So it started out. It was something that's special that our sorority does is that it's always a surprise for the girls getting pinned so the boy knows about it um all their friends know about it the rest of the sorority does um and the way they surprised the girl is at dinner that night they'll have um we turn off all the lights and sing a silly song sort of and pass around a candle um so that happened to us at dinner at our sorority one night and they blow out the candle right next to you to the girls getting pinned so that's how we found out that it was our turn. We both looked at each other in the middle and we're like, what is going on?

We had no idea. We had genuinely no idea because also it's usually pinnings are between our boyfriends are both long distance. So it's usually only couples that are both at the school. So this was kind of a non-traditional one. So we really weren't expecting it. Yeah. So our boyfriends flew in and drove in for it, which was really awesome.

Yeah, we had no clue that it was happening. So our friends did a great job of hiding it and getting us to dinner because a lot of the time it's hard to get. We were seniors, so we didn't go to dinner at the house all the time. So they got us to go to dinner, which was hard to get us to do. And then we got there. So then what happens like when your boyfriend's like came in? Well, no. So the boys are not at the dinner.

So the dinner is just girls in the sorority. And they pass around the candle and blow the candle out. And then one of your friends reads a letter from the boy. Okay. And then they kind of dismiss everyone after dinner. And then you go back to your apartment or wherever and get ready. And the girls where a red dress, the girls getting pinned, wear red dress and all the rest of the girls were black dresses in the sorority.

So our friends had picked us out red dresses and everything, they had it all set up. It's literally like a mini bachelorette party. It is. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And we played like games with all of our friends came over, just girls. And then we went on a party bus to a bar or restaurant. like they choose different bars and restaurants per people but yeah we went to a bar with all of our friends on a party bus just the girls and then we go back to the sorority and that's where we do

kind of like a bigger ceremony and kind of the night has already kicked off but it kind of turns to a party that's so fun so why did you are your boyfriends like friends or did they know each other this was happening? So they've known each other just through us. Okay. Throughout this past year. And so our friends had been texting them for a couple months and we're like, we really want to make this happen. This would be so fun. They go to different schools. So my boyfriend just was coming kind of, he told him the date that he was going to be in town. And then Kara's boyfriend was able to come that same weekend. So they had planned all kind of. That's so sweet. And are you all? still together? Yes. Yeah, we are. Yeah. So the pinning is going strong, I guess. We, yay. Love that.

Yeah. And neither of us are long distance now. So kind of no way. Yes. That's amazing. Yeah, I guess we could talk a little bit about the house part too, because that's kind of fun. Yeah. Tell me what happened there. So when you walk in, everyone in the sorority is there and then everyone who's with the pinning party, like on the bus comes in and they're like singing a song and they lift the girls up that are getting pinned um usually it's only one girl but for us it was two of us and they lift us up and we all sing the song and then the boys come and we do like a hundred second kiss outside with everyone around um and then we like sign our names in our sleeping porch which is kind of a fun tradition that our sorority had.

Oh, that's so fun. Yeah. And then if people get married, they come back and circle their names. That's the whole thing. Oh, no way. It's a really fun tradition because there's names going back in that room to like the 60s or I think the oldest one we found was from the 60s or maybe the 50s and there's tons of names with circles around them.

So it's really cute. That's so cool. Well, hopefully you guys can go back and put circles on it. Yeah. that's so fun and it's usually only seniors like the boy girl has to be a senior were there a lot of girls in your sorority that got pinned i think a lot i would say i feel like we had an above average yeah they happen like every quarter we have a couple per quarter usually so okay cool were there ever girls who like wanted to be pinned and were like pissed if they didn't

i think yeah i heard stories i feel like in past years yeah i feel like maybe it's people that weren't dating that long so they didn't know yeah like they try to choose I guess more serious relationships was there ever like a guy that like pinned a girl and then they broke up and then he would like pin another girl or are you only allowed to pin like one that would happen okay I was just like oh this could be tea there were people that were older that like were written in porch twice like we didn't know who they were it was way back. I don't know anyone from like our year or like while we were in college that that happened to, but we saw people's names in porch twice. Okay. So you can you can double pin if it goes

wrong the first time. Yeah. And specifically one of our friends' dads, his name is written up there twice, which means he pinned two different girls in the same sorority. And neither of them are in Neither of them are his wife. No way. So if someone breaks up, do they give, like, your pin back? We don't actually get a pin. It's kind of funny. Oh, okay.

You don't even do, like, an actual pin. Okay. Yeah, it's just written in sharp loop. I love that. Yeah. That's great. Okay, well, thank you girls so much for coming on. I love this story.

It's been fun because every story has been different, depending on like where people go to school and like what age they are. So it's been fun to hear all the stories. Okay, guys, thanks for listening into this episode. I hope you all learned a lot because I learned so much. But if you have any crazy stories or anything you want to talk to us about, call in at 844-278 Rush. That's 844-278 Rush. Or you can email us at Dirty Rush at iHeartRadio.com. Make sure you tune in to the next episode. Can't wait to see you guys again.

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On the podcast Health Stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night. I'm Dr. Priyanko Wally, a double board certified physician. And I'm Hurricane Dabolu, a comedian and someone who once Googled, Do I Have Scurvy at 3 a.m? And on our show, we're talking about. but health in a different way. Like our episode where we look at diabetes. In the United States, I mean, 50% of Americans are pre-diabetic.

How preventable is type 2? Extremely. Listen to health stuff on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. She said, Johnny, the kids didn't come home last night. Along the central Texas plains, teens are dying. Suicides that don't make sense. strange accidents, and brutal murders. In what seems to be, a plot ripped straight out of Breaking Bad.

Drugs, alcohol, trafficking of people. There are people out there that absolutely know what happened. Listen to paper ghosts, the Texas teen murders, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time. You get Desi Arness.

On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life, how he redefined American television and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Hey, I'm Cal Penn. And on my new podcast, here we go again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? Each week, I'm calling up my friends, like Bill Nye, Lily Singh, and Pete Buttigieg to talk about everything from the space race

to movie remakes to psychedelics. Put another way, are you high? Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast.