The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Listening to Our Hearts with Ryan Neal

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

Listen to your Heart has finally arrived and Ben and Ashley are ready to break it down.Ben and Ashley talk to Ryan Neal (who is already a fan favorite) about his experience on the show. Are people there for the “right reasons”??Plus, we run through Bachelor hot topics including Kelley telling Ben and Ashley that she was locked in a closet by producers.And fresh out of the oven, our first “What’s Cookin Bach Nation”! Heather M. shares a recipe you’re going to love! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hi, my name is Enya Eumanzor. 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 internetcom and listen now 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. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Let's start with a quick puzzle. The answer is Ken Jennings' appearance on The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs. The question is, what is the most entertaining listening experience in podcast land? Jeopardy-truthers believe in... I guess they would be kenspiracy theorists. That's right. To give you the answers, and you still blew it. The puzzler. Listen on the...

Hi-heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're siblings. Like, you fight, you disagree. It's really hard to be in a partnership. You judge. Yeah, you judge each other. You lead differently. And we've gotten to that edge.

Hey, I'm Simone Boyce, host of the Bright Side. And this week, I'm joined by Hollywood Power Sisters, Aaron and Sarah Foster. They're getting real about boundaries, rejection. Plus, what's next for their hit Netflix series, Nobody Wants. this listen to the bright side on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast this is the ben and ashley i almost famous podcast with i heart radio i'm i cannot stop laughing right now i you guys i wish you could have heard uh the conversation that existed for about a minute and a half before the podcast started it's actually just screaming into her mic

a thousand different opinions about listen to your heart but we're going to save it because we need to bottle all of that opinions all of her energy so that we can talk about it with all of you hey guys it's another week of the almost famous podcast it's also the very first week that we're going to be covering the bachelor's new show on ABC listen to your heart Ashley what's up girl hey what's up not much I know that we have a lot to talk about when it comes to listen to your heart. But I think it's only best. First off, how are you doing? And how is your dad doing? Your dad is a doctor. He's an anesthesiologist. Why, I had a hard time saying that today. He's a big deal in his profession. I know he has been self-isolating, quarantining himself in the basement. And that was hard for you last week. How is that going? Just catch us up. Well, my dad is amazing. He is the head of his group. His anesthesia group. So he hasn't really been really in direct contact with the corona patients at the hospital. But there are like 150 at his hospital right now. They're sending more of the younger guys, anyone who's like not at high risk. My dad's, you know, 64. But he is the president of his group. So he makes decisions on behalf. of the whole anesthesiology group of over like 100 people and of course coordinates with the hospital so that's what's really you know the big stuff on his plate right now lots of important decisions he calls it downstairs in the basement his um like his like not headquarters but what would you call it if it was um like the army you had your like like basically he's bunker down there so he's like yeah like all these conference calls

and stuff like that. But thank you so much for sending him what you did and the sweet girl in our town that sent it over to the hospital for all the docs. Yeah, no, that's no problem. But it really is. We'll start out this podcast like we've done others. And we just want to say to any first responders out there, anybody that's in an essential workplace and that is serving those in need right now, thank you.

From the grocery store, checkouts to the doctors to your garbage pickup. All of those people are doing incredible things during a really crazy time. And so just from the almost famous podcast, if you know, if you know somebody who is still working and somebody who is investing a ton of their time into helping us right now, please just say thank you. You don't have to say it's from Ashley and I, but just say thank you to them. I know they will need it. I know that there is a lot of chaos. But as usual, we want to think those people.

We want to love on those people, but we also want to continue to bring you the highest quality pop culture and Bachelor-focused content. And that's what we're going to do today. Hey, this is an episode about Listen to Your Heart. But before we get started, Ashley, let's take one break. And when we come back, there's some hot topics in Bachelor Nation that I know we're dying to discuss. Hey, we'll be back with the Almost Famous podcast first episode of Listen to Your Heart. 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. Hola, it's Honey German, and my podcast, Grazacus Come Again, is back. This season, we're going even deeper into the world of music and entertainment with raw and honest conversations

with some of your favorite Latin artists and celebrities. You didn't have to audition? No, I didn't audition. I haven't audition in, like, over 25 years. Oh, wow. That's a real G-talk right there. Oh, yeah. We've got some of the biggest actors,

musicians, content creators, and culture shifters, sharing their real stories of failure and success. You were destined to be a start. We talk all about what's viral and trending with a little bit of chisement, a lot of laughs, and those amazing Vibras you've come to expect. And of course, we'll explore deeper topics

dealing with identity, struggles, and all the issues affecting our Latin community. You feel like you get a little whitewash because you have to do the code switching? I won't say whitewash because at the end of the day, you know, I'm me. But the whole pretending and code, you know, it takes a toll on you. Listen to the new season of Grasasas Come Again as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York state number, and we own you. Shock incarceration. also known as boot camps are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months.

The first night was so overwhelming, and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Janica Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcover podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time?

I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because. of who my mom is. Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard. And growth doesn't happen in comfort. It happens in motion, even when you're hurting.

All from one of my favorite spaces, the kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of the Overcomper podcast as part of the MyCultura podcast that, work 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 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. now listen to wisecrack on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts bachelor trending topics hey before we bring on our very special guests who are going to talk to us about the new show that the bachelor's created listen to your heart we're going to go through some of these topics that are heating up the news line chris harrison denies kelly's claim that Bachelor producers locked her in a closet for three hours. If you remember the reference, that happened on our podcast, the In-Death podcast with Peter Weber.

She mentioned that Bachelor producers locked her in her closet. Ashley, what do we know? Well, I know that when she said that on the podcast last week, that she was referring to an ITM to an interview room. You know, they're usually small padded rooms that you sit in for sometimes hours, doing an interview with and she was saying that they strategically put her in the interview room at certain times that she couldn't interrupt and they kept her in there longer so that you know she wouldn't have as much time with peter i understood what she was saying and i could have clarified during the podcast episode and i know you could have too bent but i guess we didn't we were kind

of really excited to have kelly on there we didn't want her to stop talking or to feel like we were kind of like calling her out at all so what chris is saying is correct chris ends up saying that Kelly, of course, was not locked into a closet. What she must have been referring to in that moment would have been an interview room, which, you know, sometimes, like, happen in, like, walk-in closet type rooms. It wasn't even, no, it wasn't even like a, hey, I don't want her to stop talking as much as I think both of us were like, hey, we know what she's referring to. Like, this isn't, this isn't, like, this isn't even a thing.

I didn't even catch it because I was like, oh, when she says closet, she's just, like, saying a room it wasn't like an actual like closet area i get it i get why she said it i understand why chris harrison wanted to give some clarity to the whole situation she wasn't locked in a closet she was locked in a room hey bachelor at waste production options amid uncertainty over claire crawley season obviously with uh the covid-19 sweeping over the globe the bachelor has paused production on the bachelor which should be filming right now actually as the bachelor producers come and say, Bachelorette is weighing option. What do they mean?

Yeah, they're thinking about renting out a whole entire resort for about five weeks during July and August. It would be kind of like Bachelor in Paradise or Bachelor Winter Games as far as the size of the production and the size of the resort. And when I heard this, I go, oh, five weeks of filming. That's about three weeks less than what the normal Bachelor or Bachelorette would get, which made me a little bit sad for Claire. Then I started thinking, okay, well, if you cut out the travel time and you cut out all the time so you have to like walk around and shoot footage looking pretty in a foreign city, you're actually probably going to get just as much time with the guys as you would during a normal season.

Ashley, I have the opinion of this. As somebody who's been the bachelor before, there is nothing that sounds better to me than at five hours expedited experience. I am happy for Claire. She's going to be able to feel and see and experience the things that she wants to while at the same time not having a bunch of the dragging, tiresome weeks that typically exist. So I think this is a great idea. So even in L.A., when you have dates in L.A., you got to get ready. You go take the limo, like an hour, hour and a half.

That's travel. Then there's a whole bunch of hurry up and wait. and I do think that doing it at one resort is going to take away a lot of the stress and travel, and she could be more well-rested. Yeah, I like it. I do feel like this is a pro for Claire. I would love to see this happen. And I'd also be intrigued to see what kind of connections can be made in five weeks.

Who knows? I mean, with Claire, she's emotional. She wants to find somebody. I don't think it's, you know, a crazy idea that she could find her match in five weeks. Honestly, if it's, if it is like Paradise, there's been more successful couples ratio-wise coming on Paradise, right? That's right. No, that's right. Than the main franchise.

Speaking of Paradise, an investigation into whether or not Bachelor in Paradise is happening this year. We don't know, but Cosmopolitan has an article that says, hey, we wonder if Bachelor in Paradise can even exist. with the current environment that we have. Yeah, so you guys can go and read the Cosmo article. There's no, there's like no facts about it. It's all speculation. And based off of my reading of it and the fact that they're probably going to be filming the Bachelorette in July and August and it'll be airing in the fall,

makes me feel like this paradise is definitely not going to happen. Because if Claire's season starts airing in September, so it'll air from through September to, you know, let's say late October, early November or something like that. And then normally the Bachelor starts filming in late September. I don't think they're going to forego or delay a Bachelor season in lieu of having a Bachelor in Paradise season. I think we're going, this is an assumption of my part, looking at the timeline.

I think they're going to have to resume Bachelor in Paradise in 2021. And the thing is, you're going to have. one season of the bachelorette um to choose from when it comes to the guys part of the cast and then you're going to have two seasons of the bachelor's girls for bachelor in paradise which means that the cast will be amazing um as far as like drama and quality goes but it's going to be really hard for the girls to get cast on that show because there's going to be such a selection to choose from. Yeah, I mean, I think, and there's so many great women for the Paradise show coming off of Peter's season that I don't think we're going to have any trouble kind of recruiting them

to be here next year as well. I think we have a deep cast who it really, really hurts is the Hannah's season of men. I think they might get pushed to the side because I have a feeling that the Claire season will be great. Hey, this is a big headline, one that we've watched. the rest of these are massive. Chris Harrison said Hannah Brown has been shipping herself with Tyler Cameron for quite some time. Well, Chris has obviously not been shy during this quarantine. He's been out talking to people and promoting the show and doing his live show. And I've enjoyed it.

I enjoy seeing him and Lauren together. But he does say that Hannah Brown has been shipping this. Is this a positive comment? Where is this coming from? It's a positive comment. He basically said it looks like thinking. are working out for them. I'm not going to define their relationship for them. I don't exactly know what's going on, but based on the looks of it, I'm happy for her because this is something

that I've known that she's been wanting for a while. Next topic is Heather Cameron says Stranger showed up his house from Hawaii hoping to join quarantine crew. Yeah, this is pretty weird. Yeah. Explain. I mean, we saw it on Instagram stories. I was following along. I don't know how they found his address, nor do I understand why they thought they were invited in. I never saw the person. So explain what we saw an experience and what we think this was. So, of course, we've seen Tyler and Hannah and the quarantine crew putting a lot of content out on social media on TikTok. And it seems like someone figure out his address and people and it's out there for some woman from Hawaii to fly during a time like this to Florida, stand outside his house by the fence, I think, and with her dog in two suitcases, asked to be invited into the quarantine cruise house. Truly nuts. Tyler, of course, goes on to kind of beg his following for a little bit more privacy and respect.

It was also interesting that Tyler said that his brother called him to tell him what was going on at their house, which begs the question, where was Tyler? Yeah, it does beg the question. I mean, here's the thing, is all of us who have been on the show have had experiences that we either talk about or don't talk about, that we share or choose not to share. It's not uncommon for people to show up or people to sit outside of a house. It just feels like now more than ever, we're highlighting when this happens, and especially during a current, during a quarantine time, I don't know why they showed up or what their expectations were, but it happened. But not crazy. I mean, Tyler is not the only one this has happened to. But Colton Underwood might be the only person this has happened to. Colton has been in the headlines recently. Um, multiple times. I mean, in the last two weeks, think about the stories that we've seen Colton's name pop up. He, uh, he's been around. It says Cassie Randolph gave Colton Underwood a quarantine haircut and it's really something. We saw pictures. There's zero chance that this wasn't on purpose. So I don't get why this is a story. Oh, well, first off, I think the photos are photoshopped. If you guys go to Colton's Instagram, type it. Colton haircut into Google. You'll see what we're talking about.

He basically has the old man haircut where the Homer Simpson, you know, where the hair only, oh, it's not Homer. But you know, that haircut that dads have because the only grow hair on this. George Costanza. There you go. Perfect. Perfect. So his hair looks like George Costanza

right now, but I believe it's Photoshopped. The funny thing is, since this haircut was documented on Instagram, not in its entirety. Okay. Basically, they should, show how bad Cassie is with the with the scissors or what is it called was the little shavers called yeah like the trimmers the tremors so they show how bad she is with it and then he comes with this very photoshop looking picture uh showing his bald head with the hair on the sides and since they posted this i think it's like five days ago colton hasn't showed himself on his

Instagram on Cassie's Instagram without the top of his head blocked by an emoji or something and everything else that he's posted on his Instagram has been pre-recorded. So we'll see if it's an actual haircut or not but I don't think so. He does this for fun for yeah, of course. Yeah.

Well, I saw that he claimed that it is real. So like he is claiming that it's real. Here's my thought. Is if it is like you would have had to take a straight razor to make it that shiny and smooth. Like he would have had to shave that to the scalp and so I don't know what's going on here except that shop yeah if it's photoshop and he's

claiming it's real then you know is it a headline is it just supposed to be funny who knows but it's it happened bachelor nation it's now time for us to break down the very first episode of listen to your heart and who better do it well than one of bachelor nation's most favorite people Ashley, I Canetti. Oh, you're part of this too. Come on. It's 50-50. Hi, my name is Enya Emanzor.

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. Hi, I'm Jenna Lopez and in the new season of the Overcomfit podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time?

I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because of who. who my mom is. Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard. And growth doesn't happen in comfort. It happened in motion, even when you're hurting. All from one of my favorite spaces, The Kitchen.

Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of the Overcomfit podcast as part of the MyCultura podcast network. on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hola, it's Honey German, and my podcast, Grasas Come Again, is back. This season, we're going even deeper

into the world of music and entertainment with raw and honest conversations with some of your favorite Latin artists and celebrities. You didn't have to audition? No, I didn't audition. I haven't audition in, like, over 25 years. Oh, wow. That's a real G-talk right there.

Oh, yeah. We've got some of the biggest actors, musicians, content creators, and culture shifters sharing their real stories of failure and success. You were destined to be a start. We talk all about what's viral and trending with a little bit of chisement, a lot of laughs, and those amazing vivas you've come to expect.

And of course, we'll explore deeper topics dealing with identity, struggles, and all the issues affecting our Latin community. You feel like you get a little whitewash because you have to do the code switching? I won't say whitewash, at the end of the day, you know, I'm me. Yeah.

But the whole pretending and cold, you know, it takes a toll on you. Listen to the new season of Grasas Come Again as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The Super Secret Festi Club podcast season four is here. And we're locked in. That means more juicy chisement. Terrible love advice. Evil spells to cast on your ex. No, no, no, no.

We're not doing that this season. Oh. Well, this season, we're leveling up. Each episode will feature a special bestie, and you're not going to want to miss it. Get in here! Today we have a very special guest with us. Our new super secret bestie is The Diva of the People. The Diva of the People.

I'm just like text your ex. My theory is that if you need to figure out that the stove is hot, go and touch it. Go and figure it out for yourself. That's us. That's us. My name is Curley. And I'm Maya. In each episode, we'll talk about love.

friendship, heartbreaks, men, and, of course, our favorite secrets. Listen to the Super Secret Bestie Club as a part of the Marco Tura podcast network available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness, the way it has echoed and reverberated throughout your life, impacting your very legacy. Hi, I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the profound and powerful stories

I'll be mining on our 12th season of Family Secrets. With over 37 million downloads, we continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. I can't wait to share 10 powerful new episodes with you, stories of tangled up identities, concealed truths, and the way in which family secrets almost always. need to be told. I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests for this new season of Family Secrets.

Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the first week, first episode ever of The Bachelor. Listen to your heart. Hey, Ashley and I were very pessimistic when it comes to our... expectations for this show. We thought, oh my gosh, we really got to talk about this. But once again, the Bachelor surprises us. Chris Harrison and the Bachelor crew, I would say I'm going to give it a, on a scale of A to F. Ashley, I'm going to give it a B, but I think you might have a little stronger opinion. And I want to hear why. Okay, well, I'm going to say the B plus now.

I'm not going to give it an A yet, but I just really enjoy these characters, see, very warm right off the bat like I was really connecting to them quickly of course during packages I was like still can't believe I'm watching this and I want to be honest with you guys about um how hesitant I was towards this show because I think that a lot of you out there listening to this may not have watched it and I want you guys to go on Hulu and give it a whirl because it's the um previews don't do it justice I just love the fact I just don't, I can't exactly put my finger on it, but it gives me the feelings that American Idol used to where like somebody opens their mouth and sings and you're like, oh my God, goosebumps.

And then it gives you the relationships and the romance that you want from The Bachelor. So it's a really fun melting pot for me. That's right, Ashley. I mean, this is the next chapter in the Bachelor franchise. history. It's going to be something we talk about for the next few weeks. It's going to be something we break down. One of the things that the intro from the very beginning is they're really leveraging the celebrity guests that will be on this show from Jason Maraz to Kesha to Tony Braxton to Andy Grammer to Pat Monaghan, Ashley Simpson, Ross, Evan Ross, Rita Wilson, Jewel, and

Tateggs. I mean, they got a huge list of celebrities and musicians come on and do this. So I read all of this weeks in advance and I thought okay is this just going to be you know like kind of like a voice type show we're just going to be singing the whole time but there was the element of love thrown in and so far it's worked right I mean love really was the the storyline and in at least in the first episode music in my opinion took a back seat even though it was there totally but it took a back seat to the love oh yeah so that's why I think you guys are going to like it more than you think you are because the previews show like a lot of, it seems corny. It seems really, really cheesy.

But then when you watch the first episode, you're like, oh, this is just like watching Bachelor in Paradise. And I'm starting to learn about these people and I'm getting to know them quickly and I'm attaching myself to my favorites quickly. Ashley, so let's walk through this for a few minutes on what we saw on the show. From your experience as not only a music fan, but also somebody who has participated in multiple bachelor shows. Let's walk through what you think's going on here.

First off, we meet the 20 single men and women. The one thing that I did not enjoy, which I get why, is most first episodes, we really get to know everybody that's showing up to the mansion. We definitely did not get to know that now. Like it felt like they were rushing in characters at the very end, being like, and here's this person and here's this person without really ever getting to know them,

it was very clear to me who was going to be staying and who was going to be going after the first episode based on who they were showing. Very, very clear. Was anybody eliminated from the group of people that had packages? I don't think so. And normally we see packages from people

who are eliminated night one. I agree. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is they haven't yet, I don't think figured out the character development. It felt like they had too many people for a first night. especially with the format that they were trying to do it in. Here's the thing. We lost probably the one character I was most intrigued by

when it comes to just entertainment was the dude. The funny guy. With a funny guy that was like just cringy. Like, cringy's the best way to say it. I wanted him around a little bit more just because I thought he was going to add an element of like intrigue. But here's the part that they're going to struggle with, which is the same thing they struggled with at Winter Games,

was drama will not come from competition within the house. It seems like it's going to come from inside relationships. Like there will be relational drama, but there won't be I don't like you, I don't like you, which I actually, as a viewer, appreciate more because I don't want to see two people fighting. It's not fun for me. I'd rather see the drama come from,

hey, I love you or I like you and you don't like me. Totally. That's going to be the only drama. And that is my favorite kind of drama. Yeah, it is. Well, so we see all the people. Spirian drama. We see everybody show up to the mansion.

Chris Harrison introduces himself. He introduces this show. We have a decent idea of what the show is going to be. Can I just say that before watching this episode, I think you and I both agree that we were like, how did Chris do the show? I can't believe Chris agreed to do the show. And then I watched it.

And I was like, oh, now I get it. Yeah. I mean, I do believe his role on this show will be even smaller than it is in the Bachelor and Bachelorette. But it works that he's there. So all the contestants show up. Chris Harrison introduces himself. The mansion is wide open.

We understand the concept of the show is it's going to be a dating show to pursue love through music and to highlight a bunch of really talented musicians. One of the things that we learned very quickly was that there's going to be musicians from all different genres of music and different talent levels, different experience, et cetera. But there were a few people that really stood out to me. Ashley, I know the people that stood out to you and we'll save. I think your favorite for you to announce here as I throw it to you because we have him on the podcast today.

Ashley, somebody I really appreciated and enjoyed was Gabe. I don't think Gabe got enough play. I really want to see more of Gabe. I think he's a good looking dude. He seemed nice. But we just didn't see a lot of him. Another one that stood out to me, I think, was Trevor. I was a Trevor fan.

I think he showed himself to care, which is big. And finally the one that stood out to me was Jamie. I think Jamie is definitely going to struggle because she's going to get the most attention from the guys. I think that's going to be hard for her. But those are three that stood out to me right away. What about you?

Yeah, I was definitely thinking that Jamie, the way that they edited her from her package to being the first one in the mansion, that she is definitely going to be one of the major players of this season. And I think that the love triangle between her, Trevor, and Ryan is going to be the biggest storyline. I think she's going to go back and forth a lot.

It definitely seemed like she had the most physical chemistry with Trevor, but I think she's going to have more of an emotional connection with Ryan throughout the weeks. What do you think? I mean, I just don't see how Ryan sticks around for that. Like, it doesn't feel like Ryan's a type of guy that's going to just, like, get, he's not going to be broken up with ones and want to come back. back into the mix. And if he does, I think you're going to see a lot of heartbreak come alongside of it. I mean, here's the thing, Ashley. You're a big Ryan fan and we have Ryan on the

podcast today. Ryan will be coming on Ryan Neal from the Bachelor Nation, Listen to Your Heart. We'll be coming on the almost famous podcast today later on the episode. We'll talk to him about everything. Listen to your heart. You guys, I feel like Ryan is the guy and I'm going to keep bringing up my obsession with American Idol because like it was a real big chapter in my life guys like it was my life it was what made me look for like every week was I got a present on Tuesdays and one day Wednesdays back in the day because of American Idol and getting to see my favorite perform it was just a present and now I feel like watching Ryan perform is going to be kind of the same way like I just love that kind of voice that he has and

there's like a certain drama and like broadway appeal to him that i also am really into so yeah big big ryan supporter over here and of course i understand the appeal that trevor has at the beginning of the episode i was like oh Trevor's the hot guy in the house i get it Trevor's hot guy everybody's gonna want to be with Trevor and then i got to know Ryan more and hear his voice and And I was like, oh, no, never mind. Dark horse right there. And Katie Perry was once in love with Trevor. If you remember right a few years ago on American Idol,

Trevor was the man who made headlines because Katie Perry made it very clear that she thought he was something else. Well, Ashley, our listeners will have now watched the episode. They have now processed if they like it or not. It's true. And there isn't a lot of behind. in the scenes right now. This is like every season. It's the first episode. We know we're getting out of it. Now, tell our listeners what they should be, what are you hoping they can look forward

to for the rest of the season. What what storylines are you watching? What things are you engaging into? What drama are you possibly interested in before we bring Ryan on the podcast? I think there's not going to be a ton of movement with the couples. I'd say like maybe two or three couples move around. I think that Jamie is probably going to get some news next week that Trevor is kind of a player and the kind of guy who has cheated in the past and she said that she was, you know, always with cheaters in her relationships and it was something that she was trying to get away from. I think she's going to try to get back with Ryan and we'll see how that goes because Ryan is now with Rudy, if you call it with Rudy, having gotten her rose.

I think other couples to watch out for include Julia and Sheridan. I really liked them. They were cool. Sheridan seems like super sweet. Mel and Gabe, I think Gabe has a great voice. Can't wait to hear more from him. Same with Bree and Chris. we heard Chris at the piano a lot and he's awesome but we still haven't heard

Bree sing yet and she said that she was going to like try to woo him with her voice and let's see what other couples we don't know much about Becca and Danny yet at all they totally flew under the radar in this episode and then we got to see what happens with Matt because Matt was with Rudy the entire episode until she totally called him out on basically having bad bachelor behavior because the guy spoke too soon about the moves that he was going to make as far as who's going to take on the date.

And we see Cheyenne, who we didn't get to know at all, pick Matt. So there's going to be a couple people in the house that we don't know who they're going to end up with. A couple singles floating in there. Well, just give a quick overview here. The couples coming out of this episode

where Savannah and Brandon, Mel, and Gay, Becca, Danny. Chris, Cheyenne Matt, Julia Sheridan, Jamie, Trevor, Rudy, Ryan. Well, Ashley, final question for you. As this season continues, how much of it do you want to see the love stories and how much of it do you want to see music? And then at the same token, how many of these people are legitimately talented musicians? Because you do know music well and you love music well. How many of these people do you believe are very talented? I think there are probably 25% of people in the house that are very talented.

Like, not the kind of talent you're going to see at your local pub playing on a Saturday night. You know, I think there's a couple, I'd say 25% exceptional talent amongst this group. I would agree. Well, hey, to sum it up, Ashley and I both will continue watching, listen to your heart. We, I can't say I am a fan yet. would say she's a fan. I'd say I'm on just walking the line between, hey, this is going to be good or hey, I don't know yet. But most people I've talked to you have really enjoyed the show. They've actually really bought in and found it entertaining. And what better time to explore

a new kind of binge show than during a time that we're all in self-isolation. I mean, it works out. Well, hey, actually, Ashley, you and I can talk about listen to your heart all day. We can go back and forth on expectations, on what we assume is going to happen, on the love stories that might exist. But, I mean, who better to talk to than Ryan Neal? You're, you know, one of my favorites, one of Bachelor Nations favorites. Let's bring him on the podcast. Right after the break, we're going to have Ryan Neal talking everything. Listen to your heart. 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, psycho babble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now.

Hey, sis. What if I could promise you, You never had to listen to a condescending finance bro. Tell you how to manage your money again. Welcome to Brown Ambition. This is the hard part when you pay down those credit cards. If you haven't gotten to the bottom of why you were racking up credit or turning to credit cards, you may just recreate the same problem a year from now.

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Hi, I'm Janica Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcover podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because of who my mom is. Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard.

And growth doesn't happen in comfort. It happens in motion, even when you're hurting. All from one of my favorite spaces, the kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of the Overcomfit Podcast as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A foot washed up, a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was.

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Grazacus come again, is back. This season, we're going even deeper into the world of music and entertainment with raw and honest conversations with some of your favorite Latin artists and celebrities. You didn't have to audition? No, I didn't audition. I haven't audition in, like, over 25 years.

Oh, wow. That's a real G-talk right there. Oh, yeah. We've got some of the biggest actors, musicians, content creators, and culture shifters sharing their real stories of failure and success. You were destined to be a start. We talk all about what's viral and trending

with a little bit of chisement, a lot of laughs, and those amazing vibras you've come to expect. And of course, we'll explore deeper topics dealing with identity, struggles, and all the issues affecting our Latin community. You feel like you get a little whitewash because you have to do the code switching? I won't say whitewash because at the end of the day, you know, I'm me.

But the whole pretending and code, you know, it takes a toll on you. Listen to the new. season of grace has come again as part of my culture podcast network on the i heart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast all right guys i'm very very stoked we have ryan neal on the podcast i was so excited i looked at our rundown yesterday and i thought that we had the guy from idol um you know oh my god what was his what's his what's his uh Trevor i thought Trevor was on the podcast today. And I was like, oh, okay, duh, we have Trevor. That makes sense. Like, he was on American Idol ABC. Like, they're going to throw that one in first. But then I saw, like,

an hour ago that we had Ryan. And I was like, oh, my God, I'm going to fan girl so hard right now. Hi, Ryan. Oh, my gosh. Don't you want the energy? Am I overwhelming for you? No, no, no. It's, it's welcoming for sure, you know, being cooped up, not being able to talk to too many people. So not like a Zoom caller, so you're not a Zoom caller. Okay. Yeah, we're going to get into the way that you like being alone a little bit later. But right now, we're recording this on Monday, guys. You know we get the screeners. I want to tell Ryan that his life is going to change in a matter of hours. How do you feel about that? Yeah, I'm ready for everything. I think. I don't know. I don't know if I'm truly ready for. I mean, you guys would know better than I do for sure. But yeah, I mean, whatever, whatever comes with it. What do you expect tonight to look like for you on social media? You know, obviously, I think I'll probably get more followers.

I've already kind of started to see that increase a little bit. So probably that, probably more DMs and, you know, weird DMs and whatnot. So, yeah. Now, do you know how many girls are going to be tweeting at you and at Jamie that she made a horrendous decision? in picking Trevor over you. I mean, yeah, we'll see. I don't know. Was it a horrendous decision, though?

It was a horrendous decision. And I hope that we get to see her admit to this mistake later in the season. I'm sure we will. But I just got to talk to you about your amazing. I got to pause you here, though, Ashley. Yeah. Why was it a horrendous decision? Because Ryan is just,

seems like the genuine nice guy. They had a great, like, conversation flow. I felt comfortable for her talking to you. I felt a little bit nervous when she was talking to Trevor. I'm thinking that Trevor is like, he's just, he's got player written all over him. He's too smooth. But, like, you are endearingly smooth. Like, you have it.

Like, you have it. Okay. And Trevor's the kind of guy that you think. He's like the. he's winning the race of course in the beginning but you are the ultimate underdog and the far more talented person you are so much more talented than him i felt so bad for him when he tries to sing like the other john mayor song after you sing gravity on their date because you slayed it and he sounded like your average guy in a bar like that isn't a star that's a smooth guy in a bar um did he sing a john mayor song oh yeah oh you don't even know yet in private time you guys are like privy to all this information hey Ryan I don't know if you realize this but Ashley's a fan of you hey I'm likewise okay are you a bachelor fan I saw that you said somewhere on social media

that you were like I know this is crazy but I am now a part of bachelor nation I said that because I don't want to hurt any feelings here but I've I've never seen a full episode. Prior to coming back from the show, I watched like the last three or four of Peter's season. But that's not like a knock on the show. I'm not like a big TV guy in general. To be honest, like I'll have like Hulu or Netflix sometimes and the other times my TV is literally like unplugged. So I'm not a big follower of anything in particular. So yeah, it was crazy for me to do this. You're the kind of guy that has a home studio and spends all this time in the home studio and you like being alone with your music i do yeah i do um it's a it's a but i also like

i'm i'm a i'm a hermit in some ways but i love going out and being with a ton of people and like dancing and just just letting loose and having fun so um i'm kind of bipolar in that way okay um i need to tell you before i like get down to actual serious questions that the produced i talked to two producers after watching the show telling them that I really liked it and I'm going to I've been honest this entire podcast. I didn't expect to like the show. I thought I was going to have to watch it for work, but I truly enjoy it. It is like The Bachelor Meets American Idol and you, watching you sing in that studio made me feel like I was watching a contestant on American Idol back in American Idol's heyday because there's something different about American Idol now. It just doesn't do it the way it did

for me and like the aughts and you just you're somebody that I got very musically excited over you have the most amazing voice and you um I'm very picky about my music I'm very picky excited over you also right okay so I'm very picky about my music but when I do when I find a voice that I like like I love it like I get really passionate over it. So watching you sing gravity for that first time, and like you opened your mouth with my mom and I were like, holy shit, this kid. He's got it. All right. But enough flattery. I just, well, actually not not yet. I'm not going to cut off yet because I talked to two producers after the show. And one said that when she found you at the auditions, she goes, oh, wow, that's like the next Harry Styles. And she could be right. Okay. She could be right. And then the other one said, oh, Ryan, he's such a great guy. he's like too, way too sweet to be on reality TV. So you got two really nice compliments. Awesome.

Very awesome. So tell us about how you got involved in trying out for the show. How you even heard of it? Yeah. Last, I believe it was last August. I was just kind of sitting in home and I, you know, just like had a random comment on one of my Instagram videos from someone. And it basically just said, hey, you know, I'm part of a team casting for a new ABC show next year. We think you'd be a good fit. And I'm like, yeah, right. You know, didn't even really

pay too much attention to it. I thought it was going to BS, social media, what, why not? And so I Googled his name and I'm like, oh, like he had an IMBD page. I'm like, oh, it seems legit. So he emailed me. And then next thing, no, he's like, hey, where's this? the nearest market to you, the nearest big market. And so for me being a Detroit person, it was Chicago. So they're like, hey, can you come out in a few days to Chicago and, you know, meet us up and see where things go? I'm like, yeah, for sure. I had a wedding that weekend up north in Michigan, my buddy Mike, and I came down. It was about a six-hour drive and met them up in a hotel room and sang some songs for them, interviewed. And they're like, hey, would you like to come to

LA. And to be honest, at that moment, I had already kind of made it. I was very proud. I didn't think I thought there'd be like 1,500 people at this hotel and just like craziness. And they asked me to go to LA and that was a month later, went out to LA, did that whole thing, interviewed, played for them. And then a month after that, I got a call that I made it. That's awesome. I figure that you probably were like, great, like, I want to get my music out there. This will be really great for my career. But how did you feel about the love component of the show? Yeah, I, you know, since it was a new concept and it's, you know, never happened before. I was a little unsure off the bat just with it being attached to the franchise. And I, you know, it's, the bachelor's a part of

American folklore now for the past almost two decades. So it's familiar with the concept, but I didn't know how the show would work. And I'm at a point in my life where I was really looking for somebody to spend the rest of my life with and hopefully vibe musically and that would be cool because I've never dated a musician. You know, he thought that would be great. So I said why not? And just kind of went for it. Now, you've been in music for about nine years, right? I mean, I've been playing, yeah, I've been playing most of my life. I started playing guitar like 15 years ago and then kind of writing songs after and just kind of picking up various instruments along the way. Has it been how you've made a living?

Not fully yet. So up until this past December, I was working for an ophthalmologist doing eye testing on patients. So people would come in and if they had like glaucoma or macular degeneration, there's a few different tests for that. And I basically take pictures behind people's eyes. So that's how I was making my living for the past few years. I got my degree in IT and communication. So I worked in HR, but all along, you know, gigging at night and, you know, doing that whole thing. So it's only been since December that I've really been doing it full time, you could say.

Now the girl, you dated a girl and you broke up recently. You were together for two years? Yeah, we broke up last, it would be like 15 months or something. like that. Has she reached out to you since finding out that you were on the show? No. She probably will after she shoots tonight episode and the girls that are going to go after you. I don't know. We'll see. What kind of personality type were you hoping to find the house? We obviously see that you hit it off with Jamie and I'm rooting for you and Jamie hard, but was there anyone else that had your eye that first night or was it going to kind of be Jamie all the way?

Yeah, you know, it's funny, I, well, for me, you know, walking in the house and with me being the first guy, that was a complete trip. I mean, I was not expecting that at all. I was expecting a bunch of people and walking into almost like a mini party already. So walk in, the place is vacant, and she was the first person that I saw. And immediately I had a connection with her, you know, physically she's beautiful. She seemed really peppy, outgoing. going. So that was an instant attraction for me. And she seemed like a lot of fun. But there was also, you know, as the days went on, I had a connection with Rudy as well. She's really cool.

We do see that Rudy gives you the rose the end of the episode. So I'm wondering if that was just a platonic rose or that's going to turn into something. Yeah, we'll find out. But Rudy, I think myself and Rudy have such similar musical influences and styles and and um we vibe really closely musically um so so do we see people end up like breaking up and getting with somebody else because of their chemistry on stage and their music chemistry versus just like their romantic chemistry in the house do we see people like changing their yeah their couples just because they have better chemistry on stage than they do with the person that they coupled up with romantically in the house right um i guess you'll have to see uh right we've only seen one episode so far so um once

the music kind of gets rolling a little bit more i think you'll it's it gets interesting i can tell you that for sure now i've got another couple questions for you but first i want to throw it over to ben because I can dominate this interview fully. Right, I really only have a couple of questions. If we could sit down in chat. I mean, so here's the thing. From very untalented person to very talented person, I have one question for you.

Is it weird to sit down with somebody typically in your life and within the first couple days of knowing them say, hey, I wrote you a song and I'd like to play it for you? Or is that a thing that musicians do? funny you asked that because I never like I've never done that like I've never even with past relationships I would never even play them like a song one out like one on one the smaller the crowd the more intimidating the more weird he's not a jed guys he's not a jed I was I'm I've never been the guy to be like hey I hear me play you know like that's I shy away from that more

anything. So yeah, this was a really different experience for me and I didn't know how I would take to it. And that's almost one of the reasons why another reason I did the show is just to kind of open up more and learn more things about myself and push myself in that way because I'm very closed off in that way and kind of keep my music to myself. My EP is literally called up my sleep because I keep, you know, all my feelings and stuff just kind of buried until it's like ready. So yeah, it was very difficult for me off the bat. But I think as time went on, I was, you know, I learned more about my stuff and to open up more. Yeah, because, you know, it is the thing I watch and I was like, hey, I've never thought

about this. And like, if I knew of one of my friends saying, hey, I wrote my girlfriend a song, I have some friends who are musicians? Like, I think I would even be like, are you sure? Like, just let's, let's look through this. Let's think through this first. But it is the interesting thing about this show. Was it open, I mean, it is the show.

Like, it opens you up, as Ashley was saying, you know, not only is there insane amounts of talent on this show, but it opens you up with the environment to play music for each other with the connection of love. So they're so intertwined in this experience. I think to close off my thoughts, and I'll just let Ashley kind of take it from here is, Ryan, you know, you're obviously a smart guy, you're talented, you're not, it's not an isolated to you here. There's a many smart, talented people on this show that we've seen. Give us a little taste because we've, we've been on the show or ashton i have was it an awkward social environment at all to have all of you artists who typically hold things closer to your chest who are also very talented living in this house

trying to impress each other just give us an idea of what it was like living in it yeah you know what um to be honest i think it it almost made it easier that we all were musicians because that was like an initial an initial icebreaker um we talked about our influences and and like where we play are we playing at bars we play in clubs like you know do we have a band um and then once we all start started to sit down and just kind of jam with one another it that made it so much easier as opposed to um you know i can't attest for this but you know on on the shows you guys have done where everyone you could be a dental hygienist you could be a pilot or a construction worker you know there's no like middle ground um so i think it was a little bit easier for us to kind of find

that initial chemistry um you know myself even with the guys like It was really cool to have that companionship with everyone there and just kind of talk music. And that made it a lot easier, especially for the first night because I would have been more intimidated if we were just kind of like random people thrown together. Ryan, great job. After week one, I'm a fan of you as well. I haven't seen Ashley this giddy since she kissed her now husband in paradise. So this is a lot of fun for me. I love every second of this.

okay so I was going to say going up of what you were saying is that it like wasn't awkward for you guys because you had something to bond over something in common already when I saw your date with Jamie I was like this is like the least awkward date I've ever seen in bachelor nation history for the first date because you guys had like something to accomplish together you're like okay let's do this song it wasn't like all right so we got to figure out what to talk about from scratch because we have nothing to talk about in our surroundings, like a regular date. Yeah, and it almost wasn't like a, I'm going all out to try to like impress this girl. Like we're working together as a team to, you know, impress the viewers or whoever's there in the room or whatever. So it was like a like the team aspect of it helped me a lot because if I was just going on a random date to, you know, who knows and just trying to, you know, finagle that. it would have just been a little bit more awkward for me. So now that I had, we had the music, um, background and we could really speak our language on a date that was really cool.

It was, the date itself was like, I mean, for me, it was crazy. It was just evident that it's so much less awkward for you guys. Because for us on bachelor dates, you don't even know how to start a conversation because when you're like at a bar or something, you can like even talk about the surroundings or like make jokes about something. But on the bachelor, you're sitting in the. middle of a desert on a picnic blanket and you're like i don't know what to talk about right yeah i wouldn't do well in that situation i don't think um so it was nice to kind of always have that musical element

behind us kind of um guiding us along the way it was it was cool now what was weird is that chris harrison didn't exactly tell us how the show works in the beginning he told us that you know everybody has to couple up and the people that aren't in couples at the end of the week get eliminated very much like paradise but they but he never mentioned that people would be coming in and out um that there be new contestants and is that something that happens because we see in the scenes to the next episode that a girl walks in and she starts talking smack on uh Trevor and i'm not sure if that's a girl who's just coming in to start drama or whether this is a girl that's a musician and she's going to be now part of the group and somebody an option for somebody to give a

rose to right so every time we saw chris it was i don't know about you guys but it was always bad news oh he's very terrifying when you're actually on the show yeah yeah yeah i mean super surreal just seeing him in person and being close to him and then you know when he comes in the room it's kind of like this dark cloud and it's like oh what's going to happen yeah and then and then yeah every time he'd say something like like now what you know he'd throw this monkey wrench in the situation And yeah, the first episode, I think he mentions that people are going to go home. And then as time progresses, the stakes get higher. And, you know, the look on our face is after he announces news, just, it's just, it's crazy.

Because he throws stuff in the situation and we just completely out of left field, not expecting it. And it makes the situation a lot harder, a lot more pressure as time goes on. So, yeah, it's definitely going to be something fun to look forward to. So based on what you're saying, it sounds Ben, right? it's similar to winter games where we didn't have people coming in and out but there were certain stakes that needed you met each week in order for you to stick around yeah definitely I mean I think it sounds a lot like it and that's I mean that's the thing that is intriguing about to show to me is there are there's activities there's a purpose to being there outside

of love even you know like it's a very clear thing with the bachelor love is the purpose now we get that people might go on for other reasons but with winter games which we're was a competitive event, and then with, you know, listen to your heart, there is two really motives to be on the show. Let's not be crazy. Ryan, you went on the show not only to find love, we're not going to say you didn't, but also to build a platform to increase your career, which is music. And I think that's a great thing and something that we just should own and not act like it's not the case. Oh, 100%. I mean, anybody on the show that tells you, otherwise is, is lying. You know, there's, there's, there's a certain aspect to being asked to be on

a TV show, which is such an honor, um, that's like, why would, why would you turn this out? You know, unless you act like a complete idiot, I mean, it couldn't really be bad for you. Um, or maybe it can. I don't know. I'm speaking out. It's like, you guys know, like I said, better than me, but no, pretty much if you're not an idiot, it goes pretty well. Yeah. Right. So, you know, there, there is that aspect, of course. Um, um, but, but, but, you know, but, but, you're, But I truly think that the majority of the people were there really hoping to find someone that they can connect with and share a musical lasting relationship with. So it was good in that aspect that I think the majority of the people were quote unquote there for the right reasons as well. Are there right reasons on your show?

Is that a term that comes up? Oh, yeah. Chris said it all the time. Oh, Chris did. Yeah, okay. You know, that came, not so much in our conversations. I think as time went on, people kind of mentioned it a little bit more, but, you know, my, I don't know, I don't know if I had like a core crew, but I would say, like, the people that I communicated most with on the show were all, like, in it for, you know, good, good mix, 50, 50 split. Like, obviously, you know, the going on a show is could potentially help you, but at the same time, not just doing it for that. So, yeah, I think it was a healthy balance.

Okay, great. I got a couple more questions for you before I let you go. I know I could probably pound you with questions for the next hour, but you'll come back, right? You'll come back even though I was, you know, too much of a fan girl on you. That's welcome any time. This is not the first time you've been quarantined or isolated to yourself. You also went to Nova Scotia and tell us what you did there. That's right.

So I was living in Nashville for about a year and a half. And when I moved home to Michigan, I'd always have this kind of fantasy of doing like a bonnie bear type renting a cabin in the middle of woods and just writing music and doing that. So initially, you know, I live in Michigan and I was looking up north and it was really pricey in the summer months to rent a cabin for a month. And I was just kind of, I moved the Airbnb map around. And I was cool with going to the desert, forest, whatever. So I kept moving it around. I saw this little plot of land out in the Atlantic. And I was like, oh, what is that?

And it turned out to be Nova Scotia. I contacted the family. And long story short, they were living in Costa Rica at the time, renting out their place. And I was initially supposed to go there for one month. And so I drove, it was about 22 hours. All my gear, I literally took my whole studio with me. And, you know, took a boat, a ferry over, and then set up for about a month. And then as it happened, the owner of the house needed to come back to fix the roof.

And so there was like a little guest corridor space that he was living in at the time. And so I thought he was going to be there for maybe a week, maybe two tops. He ended up saying there for six weeks. And for that inconvenience, that couple gave me an additional six weeks for free. Oh, wow. So I literally stayed in this. I mean, it was a beautiful house. And on the private lake in the middle of the woods, like 10 minutes from the ocean,

for the cost of like the nastiest motel of all time it was it was crazy like it was such a surreal experience and that's kind of what got me started producing my own music and I learned a lot about there just by myself and just kind of in that solitude did you eat so much locks and cream cheese while there no actually I don't think I ate that at all oh you know that that's what they're known for I ate like a lot of lobster and we went yeah it was just cool that guy taught his name was Jean Mark

he's from France and we had like fires and just the coolest guy and we'd hang out and you know thought we saw a UFO one night it was pretty gnarly but yeah it was a really I learned a lot out there about myself and just really got to focus on my music

and you know and put out the EP after that which was which was fun all right well last question who do you look up to who what artists do you look up to vocally and performance wise yeah so growing up where i did you know motown was such a big influence and i can see on your instagram yeah i think i think all time my favorite artist was probably stevie wonder um and like marvin gay kind of combination of those guys but i think more modern uh would be John Mayer. I started writing songs because of him. And as you'll see in this episode, I mean, for the viewers, we don't know what dates we're going to go on. We're giving these cards

and it's all, you know, it's all a surprise. So we walk into the studio and we're told we're going to Capitol and we're like, wow, this is crazy. And so Jamie and I are talking in the in the car before, like, who do you think it could be? And I'm like, like John Mayer. And, uh, Because, you know, being out in L.A., I know he lives there. And so we open up the door and gravity starts playing. And, like, my whole body just, it was just an incredible experience. And the week before that, I watched this documentary on John making his first album called Room for Squares. And the producer of that album is John Alasia, who ended up being in the room at that time with Michael Travis, John's old guitar player.

And I'm like, dude, I've known you for like 15 years. Like, I know who you are. Yeah, it was nice to see you know who is in that room. Recognize them. Yeah, they've been really awkward, if not. But, yeah, that was one of the coolest moments of my life, for sure. And I told him, I'm like, man, I was watching your documentary last week. Like, this is just unbelievable.

So, yeah, John's a huge influence on that music. Would you say you got musically excited in that moment? Oh, my God. Dude. Yes, you did. It was like the silly. I almost thought I died and was just like, in heaven I was dreaming at that point it was like the producers nailed it in terms of I don't know if they knew that I was going to be going on this date beforehand like I'm sure they did I'm sure they did their research but it was it was just too perfect in how that was set up and me being a first date and getting this extravagant date with Jamie and to perform with John and it was it was insane yeah Ryan I'll tell you what I was pumped for you one of the things is my fiancee is a huge Frank Sinatra fan and um oh yeah

Yeah, yeah. And Ashley and I've talked about it many times. And if you take everything else away, now obviously Ashley's married from the show and has a wonderful husband and the show has been great to me in so many different ways. But if you take nothing else away, you can look back on your experience being on The Bachelor.

And if you're there for any length of time, you're going to have experiences that will last you a lifetime. That will be stories that you tell when you're on your rocking chair at 70. And I saw that date for you. And I was like, if this isn't the coolest thing it's ever happened to Ryan, I want to live his life because this seems awesome. Yeah, 100% and that, you know, we still talk about that to this day, people in the group chats, like we're going to be telling our kids about these experiences

that we've had. And for me, for that to happen and it'd be so specific to who I am as a person, my background, it was, I can't explain it. It was unbelievable to go through. Awesome, man. Well, Ryan, we are excited to see you become a star starting tonight. Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate you guys, you know, being the first on the podcast. It's such an honor. You guys seem so cool. And I really want to, you know.

Thank you. You got, you know, friendship going in the future. I'd love to hang out with you guys. This whole corona thing ends up. And I'm in, I don't know where you guys live. Are you guys? We'll definitely see you. I'm in L.A.

Yeah, I'm a Denver guy. Now, Ryan, I will share my number with you through a producer here in a second. If you need anything from Ashley or myself, please don't hesitate to reach out. Enjoy this ride. Ashley and I always share this news. Don't let your head get. too big and also don't let it get too small during this time. Just enjoy it. Be yourself. Have a blast. Ryan, Neil, everybody from the latest episode of Listen to Your Heart on the Almost

Fismiss podcast. Thanks a lot, Ryan. 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 crime. 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. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change.

Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors, and you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Othrum, the Houston Lab that takes on the most hopeless cases to finally solve the unsolvable.

Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Janica Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcover podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because of who my mom is. Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did.

Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard. And growth doesn't happen in comfort. It happens in motion, even when you're hurting. All from one of my favorite spaces, the kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of the Overcomber podcast as part of the My Cultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What would you do if one

bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this. This was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs.

Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea. idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months. The first night was so overwhelming, and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Super Secret Festi Club podcast season four is here. And we're locked in.

That means more juicy cheesement. Terrible love advice. Evil spells to cast on your ex. No, we're not doing that this season. Oh, well, this season, we're leveling up. Each episode will feature a special bestie, and you're not going to want to miss it. Get in here! Today, we have a very special guest with us.

Our new super secret bestie is The Diva of the People. The Diva of the People. I'm just like, text your ex. My theory is that if you need to figure out that the stove is hot, go and touch it. Go and figure it out for yourself. Okay. That's us. We're in the head.

That's us. My name is Curley And I'm Maya In each episode We'll talk about love, friendship Heartbreaks, men And of course, our favorite secrets Listen to the Super Secret

Bestie Club As a part of the Michael Thura Podcast Network Available on the IHeartRadio app Apple Podcast Or wherever you get your podcast All right, while you're in quarantine And you're eating, eating, eating

To get your creative juices flown in the kitchen, we've created a new segment called What's Cooking, Batch Nation? What's cooking, Batch Nation? We're going to give you new recipes to try each week. We would love your feedback, of course, at Ben and Ashley at iHeartMedia.com. This week, we have Heather Martin on the podcast to give her bread recipe that she posted on Instagram yesterday. If you remember Heather Martin was the girl who had never been kissed, well, that was until the show. She's still about and around, but right now she is in self-isolation like the most of us, but Heather is staying busy. Heather, what have you been up to?

So I have been up to a whole lot of eating and that's pretty much it, guys. I literally, I've been the least productive I've ever been in my entire life. I feel like everyone's been like so productive doing so many different things. My whole family's here. It's like my two sisters are home and so it's been really, really fun. So we've got all like, have to hang out. But all we've done is like cook and eat and then sleep and then cook and eat train of shit. Amazing. Well, you made this really good looking bread on Instagram and we were hoping you can tell us how to make it. I just have to say that everybody's been baking that when we ordered cake mix from the grocery store, they've been out of cake mix. Like when does a

grocery store run out of this? Everything. They literally have been out of everything. I know that because when I was we were trying to make bread as we've been wanting to for like so long and the grocery store was out of east for like ever okay okay so we had we had to um we ordered it online okay um but yeah so do you want the recipe or do you want to make it or what else everything cooking with the bachelors it's like my infamous recipe that i um made uh yesterday world famous no it's been in the family for for decades but um no i just found it on pinches is literally like the first thing I found on Pinterest but um okay all I guess I'll start you should I start with ingredients or instructions or what how do you guys want to go about it let's start with ingredients moving into

instructions and then what I would love for you to do Heather is at the very end once the instructions are completed let's pretend that it's already been cooked talk to our audience because this is a podcast about what they're going to experience with their mouth fill of your bread all right Okay. So the ingredients. So start with the ingredients. So we do a third cup of vegetable oil and then two tablespoon of yeast. Baking yeast and not brewing yeast because that's what we we accidentally bought brewing yeast, which is totally different. But we ended up working, but it's, I think it's much better with baking yeast. And then a half cup warm water and then one egg for brushing on the bread at the end. Three tablespoons of sugar, two and a half tablespoons of salt, two cups.

cups hot water and six and a half cups flour. So that's the ingredients. And so it's really easy. So it's actually like, took us like 15 minutes to actually like get everything together before like the rising. So, um, so you start for the instructions, you start in like with a small bowl, you dissolve the yeast into one half cup of warm water and then you let that sit for 10 minutes. And then in a separate mixing bowl, you combine the hot water, sugar, salt, oil and flour. It mixed all the other. So basically like all the other ingredients you combine in a separate bowl. And then after 10 minutes, you add the yeast bowl to the regular bowl, mix that all up. And then you wait for it to start pulling away from the bowl to know it's ready.

So basically just mix it up, which is like a regular spoon. And then you let that sit for 10 minutes. And then after that, you just separate the dough into three pieces. And then you like roll it up like a jelly roll. And you shape them into little like French bread rolls or you can put them into like a regular bread tin. we did that and that was easier um and then uh you grease that you say make sure the grease the tin is greased and then you make three to four diagonal cuts like you know like bread cuts and then on top of that you brush the beaten egg on top of the dough and then you let it

rise for 30 to 40 minutes uncovered in a warm place so we just put it in the um oven at like 50 degrees and like let that sit for 30 minutes and then you just bake it at 375 for 18 to 20 minutes. Now, where can people see a photo of this? You're going to have to pose it to your Instagram story. Okay. I can post my Instagram story. I can send you as a link if you guys have posted in your notes of like the actual

recipe, if that's easier. Sounds great. Yeah. Send it to one of our producers. Thank you so much for the recipe. And I know that you hate this question. But they do say kiss the cook. Have you kissed anyone else since Colton?

It was always the first question I was waiting for this one. No, I haven't. I still have not. Damn it! All right, well, you guys, if you want to kiss Heather Martin or bake,

give her more recipes, please reach out to Ben and Ashley at iHeartMedia.com. Hey, Heather, we promised our audience. What are they going to experience with their mouth filled up with your bread? They are going to experience. So you open the oven

and just lofts out the best smell of just fresh baked bread, you feel like you just walk into a bakery. It just is the best now. It fills into our house and you just slice it. Nice warm, put nice softened butter on it. Best thing ever. Well, that's been What's Cooking, Batch Nation with Heather Martin. Heather, thank you for joining the almost famous podcast once again. Of course. Of course. Congratulations on the engagement, Ben, by the way. Thank you, Heather. It's so exciting. I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you. All right. I'll talk to you later.

Hi. Ashley, this has been a fantastic episode. A whole new chapter for us at the almost famous podcast as we have broken down. Listen to your heart, which is the next bachelor's show. You know, our chapter is changing as well. And what better time to do it than during a time of self-isolation. No better time. You guys, it's an hour and 20 minutes without the commercials. You should watch it. It really is going to be an exciting four weeks. This has been an awesome podcast. Once again, want to say thank you to Ryan Neal for coming on. We want to say thank you to the first responders and people continuing to work during this time and during the crisis. Also to Heather Martin for sharing her what's cooking batch nation insights. Ashley, we'll be back next week breaking down the second episode of Listen to Your Heart and also everything Bachelor Nation and pop culture. Ashley, with that, I've been Ben. I've been Ashley. Bye guys. Later. Team Ryan forever. Oh, boy.

Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcasts on IHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to 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. 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. Let's start with a quick puzzle.

The answer is Ken Jennings' appearance on The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs. The question is, what is the most entertaining listening experience in podcast land? Jeopardy Truthers believe in. I guess they would be conspiracy theorists. That's right. To give you the answers and you still blew it. The Puzzler, listen on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth?

Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number. a New York State number, and we own you. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're siblings. Like, you fight, you disagree. It's really hard to be in a partnership. You judge.

Yeah, you judge each other. You lead differently. And we've gotten to that edge. Hey, I'm Simone Boyce, host of the Bright Side. And this week, I'm joined by Hollywood Power System. sisters Aaron and Sarah Foster. They're getting real about boundaries, rejection, plus what's next

for their hit Netflix series, nobody wants this. Listen to The Bright Side on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.