The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Live from The Golden Wedding: Michelle Young and Jack Leius

Episode Date: January 5, 2024

Michelle Young and Jack Leius are hanging out with Ben the morning after The Golden Wedding with an inside look at their incredible love story! Have you heard the “invisible string theory”? You��ll become a believer after you hear how Michelle and Jack crossed paths before they ever met!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack, available now.

Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't let biased algorithms or degree screens or exclusive professional networks or stereotypes. Don't let anything keep you from discovering the half of the workforce who are stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time to tear the paper ceiling and see the stars beyond it. Find out how you can make stars part of your talent strategy at tear the papersealing.org. Brought to you by opportunity at work in the ad council. Have you ever wished for a change but weren't sure how to make it?

Maybe you felt stuck in a job, a place, or even a relationship. I'm Emily Tish Sussman, and on she pivots, I dive into the inspiring pivots of women who have taken big leaps in their lives and careers. I'm Gretchen Whitmer, Jody Sweetie. Monica Patton. Elaine Welteroth. Learn how to get comfortable pivoting because your life is going to be full of them. Listen to these women and more on She Pivotts, now on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in to All the Smoke Podcast, where Matt and Stacks sit down with former first lady, Michelle Obama. Folks find it hard to hate up close.

And when you get to know people, you're sitting in their kitchen tables, and they're talking like we're talking. You know, you hear our story, how we grew up, how I grew up. And you get a chance for people to unpack. and get beyond race. All the Smoke featuring Michelle Obama. To hear this podcast and more, open your free IHeart Radio app. Search all the smoke and listen now.

This is the Ben and Ashley I, Almost Famous Podcast with IHartRadio. All right, we are back for another almost famous podcast with me, Trista. And I'm here. It's Ben. Sorry, I was looking through these pictures. You know, we have this thing of pictures in front of us.

and I said it last night this is a very striking couple yes but Jack is one of those guys and I just want to see what his picture looked like on here it would be hard for him to not look good

like it's like he'd have to work at not looking good where I would have to work to look good that is not true every morning I look you know I have to tell you a story first off thanks for being here

both of you but unfortunately Jason Mesnick is no longer like here right now he had to go home early. So this is going to this story. I'm standing in line last night for my photo and I'm taking a picture and they're like, Jason smile for the camera and I was like, who's Jason? They're like, Jason smile for the camera. I was like, you think I'm Jason Besnick?

A guy 12 years older than me and six inches shorter, a guy that was the bachelor when I was 18 years Anyways, hey, thanks, thanks again for coming. Absolutely, thanks for having us. That was so funny. Yes, I commented on Jack's eyelashes the first night. Drop out of, yes. I was like, wow, your eyelashes are gorgeous. And to go off what you were saying, Ben, waking up next to him, are you kidding?

He looks like this 24-7. Like, it's like a beautiful thing and it's like, God damn. I really got to do like my skincare routine the night before. Oh, you have no way. I'm crazy. Michelle's the catch. Let's be honest. Michelle is the catch.

How does who you meet? Love it. So she has a good friend and her friend has a little brother who I know. And her friend's little brother posted Michelle in his story. And so I kind of just hit him up a couple times like, hey man, when are you going to introduce me to Michelle? And then so we were texting. Then we started texting about it and then hit him up this one night. And I was like being really serious.

Like, man, I'm really serious. Like, I don't think you're taking me seriously. Like, I really want to meet Michelle. Like you know what I mean like not like anything crazy but I thought you were joking yeah I was joking and I was like man I really want to meet her like she's beautiful and he was like you know what actually I think that'd be a good thing I think you guys would be like really cool and like vibe together and so um the next night I met her but here's the catch though here's the catch is that I had no idea any of this was going on okay and so I was with said little brother and my friend and we were just talking and we happened to like talk about being single and I said I have no idea how I'm supposed to meet anyone in Minnesota. Like my person is definitely not in Minnesota at this point. Like I got to fly. I got to start traveling more because they're not on the apps. Yeah. And like, abs make me feel like I'm going to be single forever. And so I asked, like, do you have any single friends? And thinking that I knew all of his friends. And he's like, actually, have I ever talked to you

about Jack? I'm like, who's Jack? And so he pulled up his Instagram profile. Love the fact there only five pictures because like I myself got an Instagram only a few years ago. And I was, he's really cute. And I actually started to blush and one of my other friends called me out on it. I'm like, I don't know why I'm blushing right now. So the whole table, we're sitting at like a Vikings boot camp practice, this event. And we're sitting there and everyone's like, aw, like all this different stuff. And I was like, is he, well, he's a good person? Like he's good looking, but like, is he a good person. Come on. Let's start going. Let's go for that. Right. What's the catch? What's wrong with him? I think is what I asked. He's like, no, I can't believe I hadn't introduced you. So in my world, I thought I brought

it up to this this person and then he also did the same thing it was like within like 40 stars the previous night I thought you were saying that someone said to you no he's interested in you I happened to ask I happened to ask and he slid it in so smoothly and I didn't know until we had been dating for like two three weeks when we actually figured out that we had asked about each other within like 48 hours however it happened it was really weird that's amazing yeah so the day that she saw my, like my profile, when she was at the Vikings practice, we met that night. And so, yeah. Clicked me. And we clicked. And then I think we spent the next four days together. And then we were just done. We were dating by Sunday. We were dating by Sunday.

That's weird. Thursday, dating by Sunday. Do you live near each other? Like, could you have ever crossed paths? Um, we, okay, so there's a lot going on. Have you heard about this? The whole, like, invisible string theory where a lot of times your soulmate or the person you end up with you've been in the same room multiple times like over the course of your life just got chills but you never but you've never met up into that point so we went through breakups at the exact same time we both were going through devastating breakups we were both in the same stage of our breakups as we were going through like not ready to meet somebody thinking we're ready to meet somebody and then those few steps back and we had gone like we go to all the same bars Minnesota is not that big um the lake he

grew up on. My family fish is on that lake 24-7. So we're just in all these different areas. I went to a football game that he was playing at and hadn't even known back when I was like a teacher. Right. Oh my gosh. So all these weird situations. Yeah. Okay. I didn't grow up on a lake. The lake was like down the street from here. So me and my friends were back there. You grew up playing there. We played there. We played there. Okay. Yeah. I don't. I don't, I don't I don't have a bowl or anything. I don't. No, but yeah. It's crazy. Crazy. That is, that's a beautiful story of the two of you together. It's been really fun to watch the two of you.

And obviously, Jack, I was telling you last night, you know, my wife came to a Bachelor event. Oh, geez, it was Paradise Wedding years ago for the first time. And she has a lot of fun at this stuff. She's got to know some of the girls and really enjoys that part. But this isn't her thing. Like she just kind of comes in, feels a little intimidated at times, getting better at that. And sits back and watches this whole madness go down. this was your first like bachelor of yeah um what did you what did you think like what's your

takeaway now when you guys wake up or when you start traveling back home you're gonna be like this was great this was awful I never want to do this again yeah you can go to all these things alone from the rest of your life um just break it down kind of your experience last absolutely I think well for I think Michelle kind of prepared me pretty well for this um but like overall I think it was like it went really smooth. I mean, I didn't have any, like, it was really fun, you know, and it was, it was a good vibe. It was definitely different, like, being around all the cameras and, like, you know, like the TV commercial buses like during the way. I was like, oh, my God.

Very unnatural. But overall, no, great experience would definitely do it again. As long as I'm with her, I don't think I could do this by myself, you know. I'll be a little overwhelmed. Man, I'm sure you're a little overwhelmed. But, yeah, no, it was, it was great. She showed me the ropes. Yeah, it was a good time.

I met a lot of great people, and I had some good conversations. So, yeah. Was it what you expected, or was it different? I think it was a little different. I was thinking more, like, I felt like more was going to, like, madness was going to go down. I don't know. I feel like it was very, yeah, like, I felt, but yeah, I do understand that. That was, like, control chaos.

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

Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet.

So do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Jennifer 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 Overcumper podcast as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 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 process. a year from now. When you do feel like you are bleeding from these high interest rates, I would start shopping for a debt consolidation loan, starting with your local credit union, shopping around online, looking for some online lenders because they tend to have fewer fees and be more affordable.

Listen, I am not here to judge. It is so expensive in these streets. I 100% can see how in just a few months you can have this much credit card debt when it weighs on you. It's really easy to just like stick your head in the sand. It's nice and dark in the sand. if it's scary, it's not going to go away just because you're avoiding it. And in fact, it make it even worse. For more judgment-free money advice, listen to Brown Ambition on the IHeart Radio 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. 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, got you.

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. Tristan and I were just talking this morning,

you kind of get used to the control chaos. Like somebody got engaged at a wedding last night. And like, that's crazy. You know, that's crazy. Yeah. Beautiful for them. we hope they're so happy. Like, that doesn't happen anywhere else.

Right. That's not a thing. And it's also, there's so many different parts of the wedding. So, be like, we were at the golden wedding lesson. We were literally physically in that space. And we heard everybody cheer. We were over here doing press. So we didn't find out that they got engaged.

Oh, still. From the internet. Yeah. We found out from the internet. I'm like, I literally texted Rachel. I'm like, look, or I showed her. I'm like, look at this rumor. And she's like, that happened, Michelle.

And I'm like, when? She's like, everyone was cheering. We had just stepped away to, like, do pressure to talk to somebody. So there's this whole circle. So, yeah, congratulations, but I had no idea. I learned from the internet and I was at the wedding. I'm like, that's crazy. We were just laying down last night and I was on like the Golden Bachelor, like Instagram page.

I was like, man, somebody got engaged last night. I was like, you were just at a wedding. Yeah, we're like, why didn't they say anything? Because we just, like, we just hugged them goodbye. Yeah, we did. No, I was saying we said goodbye to them. Like, they didn't say anything. Maybe they just assume

that everyone They probably think we're holes because I'm so sorry Britting Cassina. Bray and Christina congratulations. What was your favorite moment?

Oh, the favorite moment is probably watching just Gary respond to Teresa walking down the aisle and just like the family aspect of the stories being told to like the small moments

you know right after the vows just because you could really feel the connection between them too and you could. could really feel the connection between the family and what they've seen and how they've watched the love grows. And so I felt like that was like the really human part of it. Like it was all human. It's all so many beautiful feelings. But it was really cool. And I got a little emotional. Yeah. No, it was, it was definitely authentic. Like you could see it in like Gary and Teresa's eyes.

So you can't fake it. You can't fake it. You can't fake it. You can't fake it. So it was definitely fun to watch. I really liked. I enjoyed, I enjoyed the wedding. So I got emotional. well said to give me you always do I do let him get me he was sitting right behind me and he's like

I heard him go Wells that got me Wells that got me Yes Wells brought me a hanky He did I said that I said that so he would give me

his hanky That was awesome It was when I was just like sitting there looking at Gary and thinking okay what a crazy situation he's just been in

for last year of his life he's in his 70s he's now national television. His picture has been everywhere. He's been celebrated. He's been criticized, which, you know, we can all relate with that process of like feeling hate and then feeling love and feeling hate again. It's very weird. And it was when his daughter stood up and said, like, people know you as like the golden batch, but we call you dad. And you can see this like, I mean, I'm not a parent, right? I don't, but you have kids, Trista. Like those moments where your kids

validate who you are to them, I can't imagine that. feeling especially after the pressures that he is just experienced true story well i i mean i just shared with you earlier that um so blakesley who you met last night or this weekend or whatever it is um she's 14 and a couple years ago we were we were hanging out in her room and she turned to me and she said mom you're my favorite of all of my friends and i was like oh my heart i'm so sweet i don't need any more in life like literally watch out my ovaries are kicking Hey, Chissa. I want that moment too.

So, like, seeing that, you know, seeing the daughters, yes, I get choked up with that kind of stuff too. That's amazing. It is very special. Well, the two of you, thanks so much for stopping in. It's great to see you both. Absolutely stunning, beautiful. It's been great to meet you this weekend. I hope it was super fun.

that if you, you know, when you come back to these events, that maybe it's just like less, you know, confusing. You're just like, no, these people are just normal people trying their best to do weird stuff. And I kind of hope that you feel welcome. Yeah. You know, like, I want to make sure that any spouses or people who aren't connected to the show

always feel like we are a welcoming, you know, group. Yeah, 100%. No, that's one thing I actually told Michelle when we got back last night. Like, I was just like, everybody was so nice and like took the time to have a conversation with me so it was super nice it is like such a big community

yeah yeah van really you know in between dancing yeah between dancing we'd be like totally showing us up how you doing I was feeling

I was feeling that floor last night that band was so good you were yeah I was amazing now I feel at my knees this morning uh huh my feet

my head my like my like six my head my head do the light All right. Well, we'll be back some other great interviews to come. But seriously, Jack and Michelle, thanks for coming in. Thank you. Thank you for having. I. Appreciate you for having. I. Appreciate you guys.

Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast on IHartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds some 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. Smokey the Barre. Then you know why Smokey tells you when he sees you passing through. Remember, please be careful. It's the least that you can do. Because it's what you desire, don't play with matches, don't play with fire.

After 80 years of learning his wildfire prevention tips, Smokey Bear lives within us all. Learn more at smokybear.com, and remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Force Service, your state forester, and the ad council. Have you ever wished for a change but weren't sure how to make it? Maybe you felt stuck in a job, a place, or even a relationship. I'm Emily Tish Sussman, and on she pivots, I dive into the inspired. sharing pivots of women who have taken big leaps in their lives and careers. I'm Gretchen Whitmer, Jody Sweetie, Monica Patton, Elaine Welteroth.

Learn how to get comfortable pivoting because your life is going to be full of them. Listen to these women and more on She Pivots, now on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Simone Boyce, host of the Brightside podcast, and on this week's episode, I'm talking to Olympian, World Cup champion, and podcast host, Ashlyn Harris. My worth is not wrapped up in how many things I've won because what I came to realize is I valued winning so much that once it was over, I got the blues and I was like, this is it. For me, it's the pursuit of greatness. It's the journey. It's the people. It's the failures. It's the heartache. Listen to The Bright Side on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.