December 4, 2025 • 33 mins
This week on Earsay, we're diving into Remain: A Supernatural Love Story, a genre-bending collaboration between M. Night Shyamalan and Nicholas Sparks. Kal sits down with author and podcast host Dana Schwartz (Noble Blood, Hoax!) to explore this atmospheric tale of an architect who falls for a beautiful young woman named Wren…while unraveling the mystery of her death.
Together, they discuss how two masters of their respective genres surprisingly complement each other and geek out over the intimate details that make books feel alive — from ATM passwords to beef bourguignon.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Earsay, the iHeart and Audible Audiobook Club, where
each episode we dive into a different audible title with
your favorite podcast hosts and special guests. I'm Calpen, host
of Here We.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Go Again, and I'm n Helm's host of Snapfoo.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
How you been?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Pretty great? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Not to go right to the weather, but it's been
raining for a week in Los Angeles and I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So I was also going to do weather and say
that when it's in the forties, like it's been in
New York, I feel colder than when it's in the twenties. Interesting,
which is a weird thing. I just like my nose
is always cold for somebody. It's a big nose. To
be fair, A.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Lot of heat dissipates from your nose.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Is that?
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Exactly? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Interesting? Are you a winter person like?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I love being outside and doing stuff when it's sunny,
But there's something about when it's rainy or snowy or
overcast where I feel like, ooh, I get to stay
inside and that makes me happy and then I can
listen to a great audio book.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
What a nice segue. I am a fan of snow.
To answer your question, but that is a is a.
That is a brilliant segue, because when you and I
first started doing the show, we promised that we'd be
getting into like really fun titles push the limits of
the audiobook format. But we're delivering on that promise today
with a really unique title. This is the metaphysical romance
(01:31):
slash thriller Remain, a supernatural love story, co authored by
Nicholas Sparks, who also wrote A Walk to Remember in
the Notebook, and m Night Shyamalan, the director known for
his twisting supernatural thrillers like The Sixth Sense and Signs,
and for Remain, they teamed up.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
On both sense though, hold on, can we just talk
about sixth cents for a second.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Let's just do a whole the whole podcast now.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Was Did anyone spoil that for you?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
No? Did there before you saw it?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
No?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Thank god.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I feel like that was one of those ones.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I don't know if you remember when No Way Out
came out, the Kevin Costner thriller from back in like
the nineties early nineties, there was this famous incident where
Johnny Carson spoiled it. Oh no, because by the way,
he's Russian, and that's like the big reveal at the
end of No Way Out, which is a phenomenal movie
(02:24):
that I just spoiled for any listeners, But yeah, sixth
Sense is one of the best twist endings in movie history.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Sorry, I just had to had to get there.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I'm glad you went there, and I'm glad that nobody
spoiled it for other of us, because that was the
whole enjoyment. So for remain These two teamed up on
both the novel, which is out now, and a film,
which comes out in twenty twenty six. The story follows
architect Tate Donovan, who checks himself out of a Connecticut
psychiatric facility after the death of his sister, and he
(02:57):
takes a job designing a vacation home for a friend
an old house nearby. The atmosphere in this house is
immediately spooky. Early in his stay, a young woman named
Wren appears doing yoga and kind of behaving pretty much normally,
and he's like, oh, I didn't realize there was someone
else who was also going to be staying in this house,
(03:17):
and then she vanishes in front of his eyes, and
Tate soon finds out that someone named Wren ready died
in the house. Two years before, and he's pretty sure
that this is her ghost who's trapped between the friendly
daytime Wren and a very terrifying nighttime version. So Tate
(03:39):
has heard before that the spirits of those who died
with unresolved issues remain here and ed. While he is
trying to unravel the mystery of what really happened to Reren,
he's also falling in love with her.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Get at it, you're saying it's a ghost romance slash.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Oh, this is cool.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
It is.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I'm very taken in by this, and I have to say,
it's such a trope of ghost stories, but.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
It's so good.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
The thing of like where you meet a character or
and then someone else says, like, what.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
They've been dead for ten years?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
It's like always so chilling.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I love that. My favorite one of those is large
Margin Pee Peep's Big Events Exactly.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Yes, what a perfect, perfect use of that trope. Well, caw,
this one's a doozy, have fun with it.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Take it away, thanks man. Yeah, yeah, it'll be great.
So here to talk about remain with me is an
American journalist, screenwriter, and author of five books, most recently
the Gothic romance novel Immortality, a love story. She also
writes and hosts Nobel Blood, a historical weekly podcast for
iHeartMedia about the dark side of monarchy, which is also
(04:58):
known as monarchy. Dana Schwartz, Welcome to ear Say, it's
a pleasure to have you join our club today.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Thank you so much for having me. I love a
book club.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I love a book club, and I love one that's
like this. Are you generally a fan of like thrillers, mysteries,
like ghost stories. What's your usual book club reading diet.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
This time of year? I do get into thriller's, mystery,
horror books. I love horror books. I love Sharlie Jackson.
I want a book that's going to scare me, especially
when right now we're recording this, I'm in Chicago and
like the wind is whipping against the window and I'm like, yeah,
this is the mood. Give me a cup of tea
and a scary book and I'll be thrilled.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I love the physical interaction with what you're reading, so
like when my big nose and hands are cold because
it's the end of November, Like, bring me something dark
and I'll just totally immerse myself in.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
That's great. That's it. I The problem is I live
in Los Angeles now, and so so many times I'll
be like wanting to get in a horror mood and
it's like seventy five degrees and so yeah, yeah, So
you need a book to really do a lot of
the have a lifting there. The atmosphere it needs to
be great.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
That's fair, although you can get into the forties occasionally
on the rainier days. I'm trying to be generous. So
this audiobook is the result of a very surprising collaboration
between m Night Shamalan and Nicholas Sparks. I'm a fan
of both of them obviously. How effectively do you think
the book balances this like healing love story with the
(06:35):
aforementioned terrifying spooky elements.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
I love that these two men collaborated. It made me
so happy.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah. Same.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
I will say when I first like told people, I
was like, oh, I'm listening to this book and it's
like m Night Chamalan and Nicholas Sparks. People were like, huh,
because I think that sometimes people only know m Night
Shyamalan as the sort of horror whist guy and they
don't really pay attention to the way that his books
also have like very earnest emotional depth, like they're about
(07:07):
family a lot of the time. And I think people
who haven't read Nicholas Sparks maybe only think of it
as like, you know, surface level romance because they haven't
read these books about like actual characters. So I think
that they actually went really well together in a surprising way.
It was delightful.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Was there a part that you liked the best, like
spooky versus the balance of like the love stuff.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
I go spooky, I like, I like the ghost stuff.
I like the problem solving, sort of like the detective
when when not to jump ahead, but when we get
sort of into detective mode, that's when I was clicking
into gear. I'm like, grease up my Hercule Perro mustache,
let's have some fun.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You touched on like a thing that So I've auditioned
for a couple of Mni Chamlan movies. I obviously have
not gotten them otherwise.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Because he's always casting himself.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
That's now his cast are always wonderful. But in reading
his scripts, like you know, because you read it a
year or year and a half before you see it
on screen, and the depth of characters, like you were
saying always really jumps out at me, where everybody gives
him the rightful credit for the spooky stuff and the twists,
But when you're prepping a scene as an actor, it's
(08:19):
all about character arc and grounding it somewhere, and all
of that is there in a way that I think
is not often recognized the way it should, because he's
phenomenal at building relationships and characters.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
I'm an m Night Shamalan defender. I feel like there
was sort of that fallow period and then maybe the
visit came and people got back on board. But I
just want to be on the record that I was
on board the whole time.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Good Were there any of Shamalan or Nick Sparks's previous
works that this reminded you of?
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Ooh, you know what. I don't want to spoil the
Notebook for anyone who hasn't read or seen The Notebook,
but you know, I will say, like, that is a
book with ast that like it unfolds over the course
of the book. So I think if you haven't read
The Notebook, you might have been surprised that Nicholas Barks
is also out here doing a twist.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
At the end of the audiobook, there is a very
exclusive conversation between the authors. So if you're a nerd
for process like I am, which clearly I guess we
all are if we're listening to this podcast, but you
find out that Nicholas Sparks is a total horror nerd
and that Shyamalan wasn't going to direct the movie version
of this at first but decided he wanted to work
on something earnest and healing like this. There's such little
(09:36):
interesting like tidbits of people's creative choices.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
I also, I don't know if you saw Knock at
the Cabin, which is a very interesting movie and it's
based on a horror book. And again not to it's
so hard talking about m Night Shamalan movies and horror
books because I don't want to spoil anything for people
who haven't read Slash seen them. But I will say
if you haven't read the book, it's a different sort
(10:03):
of twist and energy to the movie. And I think
m Night Chamalan in his adaptation of the book that
became Knock at the Cabin gets at this sort of
like family tragedy drama where you are in a tight
enclosed space like sort of a haunted house in a sense,
and trying to figure out a mystery.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
That is one of the projects I auditioned for and
loved the script, and then obviously read the book before
the audition. Two was very cool to see that sequence
of how something goes from literature to on the page
and then what he does off the page.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
It's fascinating. I mean, I don't want to get too
far away from the book, but I'm someone I've written
some books, I write screenplays a lot of the time.
I really find it fun and interesting when an adaptation
can actually be an adaptation like its own work that
stands on its own. I think the strong adaptations aren't
(11:01):
the ones that are literal or like directly close to
the source. Sometimes I see people on the Internet who
are angry that like the movies based on books they
love aren't exactly the same or don't have the exact
same plot, and it's like, well, the book already exists.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I mean, I agree with you one hundred percent. It
did the film adaptation of a wonderful book called The Namesake.
But jimplea heary years ago, she wasn't is one of
my favorite authors before I had the chance to work
on the film, and I thought, which was a nice
compliment to Mirer and I ares directing that were people
who were like, why did she skip full decades from
the book? And I was like, because this camp be
(11:37):
a nine hour movie. You have to pick and choose
when you adapt. And so it's always also very cool
to hear like not just when people are questioning why
something was changed, but when like their favorite part of
the book is not in the movie.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
I mean, it's amazing also now that you're in a
mir and Air movie, Who's now the Queen mother of
New York?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
The Yeah, well the first Family, the first mom of
New York. Yeah, it's it's insane. And as a New
York and somebody who's heavily biased, it is very cool moment.
Did you happen to look up who's playing who in
the upcoming film version of this or did you use
your own imagination?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
I didn't. Has it been announced? Did I miss it?
Speaker 1 (12:11):
It has?
Speaker 5 (12:11):
So tell me?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Okay, so you had a clear picture of the characters before. Okay,
So I will tell you and then tell me if
you think it fit. Who was in your head? So
Tate Jake Chillenhall.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Yes, Okay, that's perfect.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, perfect casting, right. Wren is Phoebe dinnerver.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
Oh from Bridgerton, Yes, Stephanie and Bridgerton totally.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
And then Nash. Going back to your earlier observation, Nash
is played by Emat Shamlin.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Yep, yep, he's doing it. He's doing it.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I did not audition for this.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Well because he already cast it.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. The emotional heart of the story lies
in Tate's attempts to help Ren, and Ren exists in
two forms, the beautiful, oblivious daytime Ren and then the
insanely terrifying nighttime Wren, who repeatedly relives the trauma of
her death. Why does Tate believe he must save Wren
(13:12):
to save himself?
Speaker 5 (13:14):
I mean, I will say I personally wanted to shake
Tate and just be like, you should have just listened
to your sister. Your sister knew what she was talking about.
I mean, she gave the best advice. And I think
that Tate knows that he's someone who's kind of been
selfish in his head and getting over the grief of
his sister and helping Wren is going to be the
(13:35):
thing that kind of helps him be able to move on.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Did the logic resonate with you?
Speaker 5 (13:40):
His logic, well, okay, I don't know if this is
what you're looking for in the answer, but I will
say something that I picked up on is I also
think he was fully helping her because she was pretty
like this is a hot girl doing yoga and like
tight white yoga pants, and he's like, I don't know,
for some reason, I just have to help her. Uh,
And I'm like, yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
This is a great insight into like, oh, when the
movie comes out, like just like checking that then being like, yeah,
that's visually seeing that that might be what it was.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
I don't know that that's what I'm reading.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
One of my takeaways from this was like, you know,
it's so overused, but truly everybody processes trauma and grief
so completely differently. And I'm with you on the like
just wanting to shake him, And then in my head,
I'm like, I guess you just process it in that
way for yourself, in a way that I maybe don't.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
And you know what I also respected with Tate is
that he didn't even though I, as the reader like
kind of knew. I'm like, this is a fictional book. So, look,
ghost surreal, that's a thing that's going to be happening.
But he as a character obviously doesn't know that he's
in a book, and so he really is. He makes
sure he does some problem solving in a way that
(14:54):
felt very true to how a real person would act
in this situation.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So for the listener, Tate ultimately believes that Wren was murdered.
He starts investigating the three potential suspects that are based
on Wren's account of betrayals and heartbreak. They're no spoilers.
One her abusive husband Griffin, whom she was divorcing, Two
her business partner Nash, who she was suing, and three
(15:19):
her friend Dax, who was obsessed with and stalking her. So, Dama,
did you prefer the grounded small town detective work through
all this or the spooky supernatural scenario.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
Oh that's a good question. I think I liked both.
I liked the balance, But I thought that these characters
were really well developed and grounded, like everyone felt really real.
All of Tate's friends, like his work as an architect,
I thought was interesting. I mean, that's also part of
it is I'm like such a dork reading this book
that I'm like, yeah, tell me about this twelve bedroom
(15:54):
house you're building.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well, I mean, but that kind of stuff, built to me,
builds the full scope of who somebody is. Yea, even
if it looks like, oh this is this is relevant
or irrelevant to moving the plot along like that, anything
that really builds the lives of these people is very full.
Like the I'm trying to think of it like a
(16:15):
comp example when you're actually doing a movie, like the
research that you put into your characters that nobody will
ever see, right, Like there's a casual mention that this
dude's a doctor or an astronaut or whatever, and the
movie is not even about that, or the books not
even about that. The attention to detail that you put
into that prep, which is what I like about books,
Like going back to the Namesake, I remember my character's
(16:36):
ATM password was in the book. Like it's little intimate
details that are you'll never see in a movie, totally irrelevant,
but in a book or audiobook you get those little
nuggets that you know, just make you feel connected to them.
I think the mystery in the Haunted House itself deeply unsettling. Yeah,
(16:58):
which spooky scene or moment resonated with you the most
in the audio format.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
Oh okay, you know that actual scene that did scare
me as I was listening to it was the first
bathroom scene. I don't know if you remember, but it's
like he's not entirely convinced that Wren is supernatural at
this point. It's the first time we see night Ren.
And it was so unexpected that there's such violence to
(17:25):
that scene that like, up until this point, we've been
having like a great time where like on you know,
this beautiful like tourist island, biking around, building a house,
talking about scones, and then we just get this like
pretty sudden scene of violence that I was like, Okay,
we're in the game right now.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I don't disagree at all. I've just found night right
overall to be incredibly like the feeling of like, when
do you get the chills for no reason? Yeah, I
felt like the lead up to that feeling. I didn't
actually get the chills, but that like very unsettling feeling
that lives in your skin. Is was that for me?
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Yeah? Oh god? And it's also like, to me, there's
something so visceral about the fact that it was in
a bathroom. Like not to get all psycho, but like
a bathroom is a very vulnerable place, like you're in
the shot. It's a place that you want to be
like private and alone. I mean you're like literally naked
sometimes I think you're You're very unprotected. And so there
is something to me, very visceral about an act of
(18:28):
violence there that I was like, woof.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
That's a great way to put it. And now I'm
going to do the thing that you do when you're
twelve years old and check behind the curtain every time
you walk into the bathroom. Everyone, Yeah, all right, we're
going to take a short break, but we will be
right back. Okay, Dan, We're going to do a few
(18:52):
quick fire questions now in a segment called plot Twist.
Oh great, it should be fun. I like these questions,
all right ready. Tate believes that Wren beckoned him for
help and that he had somehow done the same to Ren.
Have you ever experienced a connection with someone in your
life that felt preordained or guided by a mysterious force?
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Oh god, I mean that's such a I should say
my husband that we met because it's just sort of
that like perfect timing that we met and came together.
He and you know how we met, and this is
I'm not flirting, but I do have to say this.
He invited me on his podcast, Oh no way, and
then we fell in love.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
How cool is that?
Speaker 5 (19:37):
That's how it happened.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
So your first convo was public.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
Our first convo was public, and a friend actually as
like a wedding gift, gave us, like the usb of
that actual conversation.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
What was the topic of the pod?
Speaker 5 (19:51):
He has a podcast called All Fantasy Everything, and they
like fantasy draft sports style things that aren't sports. And
I drafted and we were afting non Disney animated movies
and I am sort of like a movie snob, and
like he's a comedian. All of his friends are comedians,
Like they don't take it seriously, and I like, I'm
a very competitive person. I was like, I am doing
(20:13):
this podcast and I'm here to win this non winnable game.
And I also think my flirting style was just like
being mean to and so I think listeners were just
like even in the comments of that episode, like on Reddit,
people were like, oh, Dana is so mean to him,
Like they did not get along. And then we like
(20:33):
immediately had chemistry and got married.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
That's a great sentence. My flirting style was just being
mean to him.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yeah, that's what that's her boy's flaming.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Right. Uh, that's a cool that's a cool answer to that.
All right, back to back to this audiobook. So before
Tate's sister Sylvia died, she gave him cryptic guidance, urging
him to strike up a conversation with a stranger. Be
open to the idea that it happened for a reason.
If you could receive one prophetic message to guide your life,
(21:03):
what kind of guidance would you seek. It could be
from beyond. It doesn't have to be Well.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
See, this is the problem, because if I knew what
type of guidance I needed, then I wouldn't need it.
I need someone else to give me the guidance, although
I will say not to shoehorn in a little personal
anecdote again, I did get some guidance from you, from me,
from you a lot several years ago. I was, fun
(21:30):
fact a presidential scholar when I was in high school,
and I flew to to DC. WHOA, and you gave
a speech to all the little bright eyed, bushy tailed
presidential scholars you are probably like in the Eisenhower thing. Yeah, yeah,
telling us you know, the children are the future and
(21:52):
to dream big.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Oh my god, was like twenty ten.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
It was twenty eleven. Yeah, and so there there was
some advice I got, I got to from you, and
now here I am. I would say all of my success,
everything I've done up until this point, is probably thanks
to that speech.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I'll take it. That's definitely a lie because I remember
we were not allowed to be creative or emotional in
any speeches we gave as government employees, which was like
the most ludicrous rule ever.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
No, we were, I will say for the kids. We
were all thrilled.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Oh still, well then I feel good about that because
that was one of those like you're very excited just
from the staff perspective, like, oh wow, you're serving your country,
you're working in the White House. And by the way,
we all know that you're an author writer in your
actual career that you're taking a break from for a
year or two, but like you're not allowed to use
those skills here. I'm like, okay, great, yeah, fine, but
(22:47):
that's so funny. Okay, I'll take it.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
We were there, Yeah, the meeting of the minds again.
It's happened to again.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
So I am with you on the on the like,
what would you want advice for? It's like, at the
highest level, it's just advice that you don't need. In
my case, it's also like, I am terrible at time management,
so I don't even think I need some omniscient advice
about it. I just need to like take a couple
hours to read a book about it about time management.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Honestly, what I think the advice would be, and it's
advice that I already know and I'm just not capable
of doing, is just like, hey, spend less time on
social media. It's not good for your brain, like read
read books.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Getting rid of Twitter on my phone a couple of
years ago was the best decision. And then I have
so many filters on my Instagram feed that it's mostly
dog videos and stand up comedians. But the stand up
comedians are like not political stand up comedians, so it's
kind of great.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
I am not on Twitter anymore, and I was like, great,
imagine how much time I'm going to get And I
just immediately replaced all that time with Instagram and TikTok okay.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Wren loved cooking, Yeah, and teaches Tate how to make
beef bor. I can never say this word beef boorg gyg.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
You have to say it like Julia Child. That's the
way to do. Yeah, nailed it.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
You're right, it works. Bredd left cooking and teaches the
Tait how to make a beef borg.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
I don't want to be rude because you are a
professional actor, but your Julia Child is veering a little kermit.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, just because I feel like that's less offensive.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
Okay, the kermit does make a delicious.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Before you know it probably does.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Yes, Yeah, he's gridded everything.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
So Tate admitted he would probably look like quote an
archaeologist lifting potato sacks if he tried to dance, and he,
I mean, even struggles with doing laundry. What is your
domestic strength and weakness.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
I don't want to I don't want to brag, but
I'm like, I bake a lot. I'm like a I'm
a real tweaker. I'm in charge of the pies for Thanksgiving.
I'm making two pies. I would say my my weaknesses
are like clean, like the deep cleaning. I can do
the tidy, but I'm not going to at like the
you know, knowing which chemicals you know to mix, and
(25:06):
I don't, you know, don't mix bleach or whatever. But
I'm good at baking. I'm pretty good at cooking.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
What do you bake? What kind of pies?
Speaker 5 (25:12):
I'm making a pumpkin and I'm making bear with me
a chocolate pinking a little outside the going alone nuts.
We're gonna try. We're gonna see how it goes. I
I host a book club and in person book club
with my friends in LA and that is my like
once a month, I will, you know, experiment with like
(25:32):
three new baked and I kind of do think at
this point more people are coming for the baked goods
than the best. What about you? What are your like strengths?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
My weakness very easily is laundry, which is such a
ludicrous thing to say, because there are machines.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
They make machines for that.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Now, Yeah, I don't, I'll never. It's not that my
whites turn different colors. My issue is that a lot
of stuff shrinks. So like, even when I watch stuff
on a delicate cycle, if it says you can wash
it in a machine, and even when I just hang
it up to like hang dry for some reason, like
(26:13):
things will shrink, and it's because that's because I end
up forgetting and putting it in the dryer.
Speaker 5 (26:21):
I think you blamed ghosts.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yes, ghosts for the reason totally. Ghost are definitely losing.
But on the plus, I'm a decent I'm a decent cook.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Yeah, what sort of things are real?
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I'm a big Mexican fan. I really like tacos enchiladas.
I have made the tacos from scratch too, just with
like from flour and all of that. It's a little bit,
a little bit labor intensive, but really delicious. Again, no
spoilers on this one. The murder mystery focuses on three suspects, Griffin,
(26:56):
the manipulative ex husband, Nash the embezzling business partner, and
DA's the stalker counselor. Which one of these characters would
you least want to meet in a quiet small town
like Hetherington.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Ooh, I'd say MANIPULDI ex husband. Let's go great, interesting
because I've watched a lot of sixty Minutes and I'm
always suspicious of a husband.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Okay, for me, it's definitely stalker counselor once you bring
stalker into it, because then that, especially in like a
horror world, that person shows up everywhere, and that person
also often shows up during daytime. Oh, daytime jump scares
(27:37):
are my favorite.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
I mean, m night Shyamalan, we're talking signs one of
the best daytime jump scares of all time. Yeah, yeah,
have you? I don't mean to get too personal, but
have you ever had a stalker that you've had to
deal with?
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Thankfully not to my knowledge?
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Okay, good? Have you not that I know of?
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I don't think I'm nearly I think I know unless
people have like an undue interest in royal history podcast,
I don't know who would be stalking more about James
the first.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Okay, last question before we go, What are you listening
to or reading right now?
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Oh? Amazing. I am reading this book called uh Mary
Toft or the Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer. I also
co host this podcast on iHeart called Hoax about historical Hoaxes,
and I had done an episode on this historical hoax
about this woman named Mary Toft, and then I read
that there was this novel about it that came out
(28:37):
a few years ago, and the novel is wonderful, So
that's very cool reading and.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Then what's what's next, like with your book club and everything.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
My book club right now is reading a book called
hum by Helen Phillips, and it's excellent. I love Helen Phillips.
She's a brilliant authors. She also has a book called
The Beautiful Bureaucrat that's great. And in terms of like
horror spookiness to get into the season, the book that
I had just read that was like my sort of
horror vibe was Slade House by David Mintel. That was
(29:08):
my like autumnal Halloween cool read. And if if any
listeners of this liked night Ren and wanted more like creepy, manipulative,
haunted house horror, Slade House great, really short, really fun.
What about you? What are you reading?
Speaker 1 (29:25):
That's a stellar recommendation. I am currently reading this book
Ocean Side Blues by The roof Butt, and next up
I have Kieran this sized book The Loneliness of Sonya
and Sonny.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
Oh God, that's supposed to be great. I haven't read
that yet, but that's like winning all the others exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I love to read, but I'm a phenomenally slow reader.
So I figured I showed you this this group of
book is like one hundred and fifty pages. I'm like,
let's tackle that. I've finished that before Thanksgiving and then
then dive into the real juicy Kieran.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
They say, oh, that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Well, thank you, Dana Schwartz. It was so excellent having
you on earsay I Heart an audible audiobook club with us.
Thanks for being a member of our club.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
Oh my god, thank you for letting me be a
member of the club. Do we have patches?
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Oh? We should get we guess do you guys have
patches for yours?
Speaker 5 (30:20):
No? But now I'm like, let's get podcast patches. Let's
get book club patches.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yeah. Oh man, Dana. Before we let you go, what
do you have out right now? And what's coming up
that we can look forward to?
Speaker 5 (30:31):
So I have two podcasts also with iHeart. One is
Noble Blood, which is a podcast where I talk about
royals and monarchs throughout history, a lot of murder, a
lot of going crazy, and that's just like a fun
history podcast. And then I have a new podcast called
Hoax Pax exclamation Point where I chat with my friend
Lizzie Logan and we just talked through our favorite historical hoaxes.
(30:53):
So that's a bit of a more casual conversational podcast,
but it is very fun. And then speak of book
collaborations and co authors, I have a new book coming
out in May called The Arcane Arts that I co
wrote with a friend of mine. It's under the pseudonym
sd Coverly and it's sexy magic thriller, murder mystery. I
(31:16):
actually think listeners of Remain might really like it, So
look up The Arcane Arts, pre order it from your
local bookstore, or listen to it on Audible.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Awesome, I love that. Well. Congratulations on all of the above,
and thank you for being here.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Thank you so much for having me Dan.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
It was a lot of fun. Now I'm looking forward
to seeing the movie even more. And of course you
can find the new audiobook Remain a Supernatural Love Story
at Audible. Thank you for tuning in to this episode
of Earsay the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. On the
next episode, ED, we'll be talking about the new full
cast recording of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer Stone. It
(31:58):
features a star packed cast which includes q Lori Rizamed,
Matthew mcfaddian and more. If you had fun with us,
today on Earsay, consider following the show wherever you listen.
Audible has the best selection of audiobooks, along with popular
podcasts and exclusive Audible originals, all in one easy app
and with unlimited listening time. Sign up for a free
(32:20):
thirty day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free.
Visit Audible dot com, slash earsay, Hearsay. The Audible and
iHeart Audiobook Club is a production of Iheart's Ruby Studio.
We're your hosts Cal Penn.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
And Ed Helms.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Our executive producer is Matt Schultz, with theme music and
post production by Marcus Pagala for Ruby Studio.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Our managing EP is Matt Romano, our EP of post
Production is Matt Stillo, and our production coordinator is Abby Agualar.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
And of course, a big thank you to our friends
at Audible. Don't forget. You can listen to what we're
listening to on the Audible app or at audible dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Sign up for a free thirty day Audible trial and
your first audiobook is free.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
Visit Audible dot com slash ear say.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Until next time, Thanks for listening.
Welcome to Earsay, the iHeart and Audible Audiobook Club, where
each episode we dive into a different audible title with
your favorite podcast hosts and special guests. I'm Calpen, host
of Here We.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Go Again, and I'm n Helm's host of Snapfoo.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
How you been?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Pretty great? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Not to go right to the weather, but it's been
raining for a week in Los Angeles and I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So I was also going to do weather and say
that when it's in the forties, like it's been in
New York, I feel colder than when it's in the twenties. Interesting,
which is a weird thing. I just like my nose
is always cold for somebody. It's a big nose. To
be fair, A.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Lot of heat dissipates from your nose.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Is that?
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Exactly? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Interesting? Are you a winter person like?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I love being outside and doing stuff when it's sunny,
But there's something about when it's rainy or snowy or
overcast where I feel like, ooh, I get to stay
inside and that makes me happy and then I can
listen to a great audio book.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
What a nice segue. I am a fan of snow.
To answer your question, but that is a is a.
That is a brilliant segue, because when you and I
first started doing the show, we promised that we'd be
getting into like really fun titles push the limits of
the audiobook format. But we're delivering on that promise today
with a really unique title. This is the metaphysical romance
(01:31):
slash thriller Remain, a supernatural love story, co authored by
Nicholas Sparks, who also wrote A Walk to Remember in
the Notebook, and m Night Shyamalan, the director known for
his twisting supernatural thrillers like The Sixth Sense and Signs,
and for Remain, they teamed up.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
On both sense though, hold on, can we just talk
about sixth cents for a second.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Let's just do a whole the whole podcast now.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Was Did anyone spoil that for you?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
No? Did there before you saw it?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
No?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Thank god.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I feel like that was one of those ones.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I don't know if you remember when No Way Out
came out, the Kevin Costner thriller from back in like
the nineties early nineties, there was this famous incident where
Johnny Carson spoiled it. Oh no, because by the way,
he's Russian, and that's like the big reveal at the
end of No Way Out, which is a phenomenal movie
(02:24):
that I just spoiled for any listeners, But yeah, sixth
Sense is one of the best twist endings in movie history.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Sorry, I just had to had to get there.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I'm glad you went there, and I'm glad that nobody
spoiled it for other of us, because that was the
whole enjoyment. So for remain These two teamed up on
both the novel, which is out now, and a film,
which comes out in twenty twenty six. The story follows
architect Tate Donovan, who checks himself out of a Connecticut
psychiatric facility after the death of his sister, and he
(02:57):
takes a job designing a vacation home for a friend
an old house nearby. The atmosphere in this house is
immediately spooky. Early in his stay, a young woman named
Wren appears doing yoga and kind of behaving pretty much normally,
and he's like, oh, I didn't realize there was someone
else who was also going to be staying in this house,
(03:17):
and then she vanishes in front of his eyes, and
Tate soon finds out that someone named Wren ready died
in the house. Two years before, and he's pretty sure
that this is her ghost who's trapped between the friendly
daytime Wren and a very terrifying nighttime version. So Tate
(03:39):
has heard before that the spirits of those who died
with unresolved issues remain here and ed. While he is
trying to unravel the mystery of what really happened to Reren,
he's also falling in love with her.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Get at it, you're saying it's a ghost romance slash.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Oh, this is cool.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
It is.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I'm very taken in by this, and I have to say,
it's such a trope of ghost stories, but.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
It's so good.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
The thing of like where you meet a character or
and then someone else says, like, what.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
They've been dead for ten years?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
It's like always so chilling.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I love that. My favorite one of those is large
Margin Pee Peep's Big Events Exactly.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Yes, what a perfect, perfect use of that trope. Well, caw,
this one's a doozy, have fun with it.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Take it away, thanks man. Yeah, yeah, it'll be great.
So here to talk about remain with me is an
American journalist, screenwriter, and author of five books, most recently
the Gothic romance novel Immortality, a love story. She also
writes and hosts Nobel Blood, a historical weekly podcast for
iHeartMedia about the dark side of monarchy, which is also
(04:58):
known as monarchy. Dana Schwartz, Welcome to ear Say, it's
a pleasure to have you join our club today.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Thank you so much for having me. I love a
book club.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I love a book club, and I love one that's
like this. Are you generally a fan of like thrillers, mysteries,
like ghost stories. What's your usual book club reading diet.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
This time of year? I do get into thriller's, mystery,
horror books. I love horror books. I love Sharlie Jackson.
I want a book that's going to scare me, especially
when right now we're recording this, I'm in Chicago and
like the wind is whipping against the window and I'm like, yeah,
this is the mood. Give me a cup of tea
and a scary book and I'll be thrilled.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I love the physical interaction with what you're reading, so
like when my big nose and hands are cold because
it's the end of November, Like, bring me something dark
and I'll just totally immerse myself in.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
That's great. That's it. I The problem is I live
in Los Angeles now, and so so many times I'll
be like wanting to get in a horror mood and
it's like seventy five degrees and so yeah, yeah, So
you need a book to really do a lot of
the have a lifting there. The atmosphere it needs to
be great.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
That's fair, although you can get into the forties occasionally
on the rainier days. I'm trying to be generous. So
this audiobook is the result of a very surprising collaboration
between m Night Shamalan and Nicholas Sparks. I'm a fan
of both of them obviously. How effectively do you think
the book balances this like healing love story with the
(06:35):
aforementioned terrifying spooky elements.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
I love that these two men collaborated. It made me
so happy.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah. Same.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
I will say when I first like told people, I
was like, oh, I'm listening to this book and it's
like m Night Chamalan and Nicholas Sparks. People were like, huh,
because I think that sometimes people only know m Night
Shyamalan as the sort of horror whist guy and they
don't really pay attention to the way that his books
also have like very earnest emotional depth, like they're about
(07:07):
family a lot of the time. And I think people
who haven't read Nicholas Sparks maybe only think of it
as like, you know, surface level romance because they haven't
read these books about like actual characters. So I think
that they actually went really well together in a surprising way.
It was delightful.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Was there a part that you liked the best, like
spooky versus the balance of like the love stuff.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
I go spooky, I like, I like the ghost stuff.
I like the problem solving, sort of like the detective
when when not to jump ahead, but when we get
sort of into detective mode, that's when I was clicking
into gear. I'm like, grease up my Hercule Perro mustache,
let's have some fun.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You touched on like a thing that So I've auditioned
for a couple of Mni Chamlan movies. I obviously have
not gotten them otherwise.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Because he's always casting himself.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
That's now his cast are always wonderful. But in reading
his scripts, like you know, because you read it a
year or year and a half before you see it
on screen, and the depth of characters, like you were
saying always really jumps out at me, where everybody gives
him the rightful credit for the spooky stuff and the twists,
But when you're prepping a scene as an actor, it's
(08:19):
all about character arc and grounding it somewhere, and all
of that is there in a way that I think
is not often recognized the way it should, because he's
phenomenal at building relationships and characters.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
I'm an m Night Shamalan defender. I feel like there
was sort of that fallow period and then maybe the
visit came and people got back on board. But I
just want to be on the record that I was
on board the whole time.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Good Were there any of Shamalan or Nick Sparks's previous
works that this reminded you of?
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Ooh, you know what. I don't want to spoil the
Notebook for anyone who hasn't read or seen The Notebook,
but you know, I will say, like, that is a
book with ast that like it unfolds over the course
of the book. So I think if you haven't read
The Notebook, you might have been surprised that Nicholas Barks
is also out here doing a twist.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
At the end of the audiobook, there is a very
exclusive conversation between the authors. So if you're a nerd
for process like I am, which clearly I guess we
all are if we're listening to this podcast, but you
find out that Nicholas Sparks is a total horror nerd
and that Shyamalan wasn't going to direct the movie version
of this at first but decided he wanted to work
on something earnest and healing like this. There's such little
(09:36):
interesting like tidbits of people's creative choices.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
I also, I don't know if you saw Knock at
the Cabin, which is a very interesting movie and it's
based on a horror book. And again not to it's
so hard talking about m Night Shamalan movies and horror
books because I don't want to spoil anything for people
who haven't read Slash seen them. But I will say
if you haven't read the book, it's a different sort
(10:03):
of twist and energy to the movie. And I think
m Night Chamalan in his adaptation of the book that
became Knock at the Cabin gets at this sort of
like family tragedy drama where you are in a tight
enclosed space like sort of a haunted house in a sense,
and trying to figure out a mystery.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
That is one of the projects I auditioned for and
loved the script, and then obviously read the book before
the audition. Two was very cool to see that sequence
of how something goes from literature to on the page
and then what he does off the page.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
It's fascinating. I mean, I don't want to get too
far away from the book, but I'm someone I've written
some books, I write screenplays a lot of the time.
I really find it fun and interesting when an adaptation
can actually be an adaptation like its own work that
stands on its own. I think the strong adaptations aren't
(11:01):
the ones that are literal or like directly close to
the source. Sometimes I see people on the Internet who
are angry that like the movies based on books they
love aren't exactly the same or don't have the exact
same plot, and it's like, well, the book already exists.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I mean, I agree with you one hundred percent. It
did the film adaptation of a wonderful book called The Namesake.
But jimplea heary years ago, she wasn't is one of
my favorite authors before I had the chance to work
on the film, and I thought, which was a nice
compliment to Mirer and I ares directing that were people
who were like, why did she skip full decades from
the book? And I was like, because this camp be
(11:37):
a nine hour movie. You have to pick and choose
when you adapt. And so it's always also very cool
to hear like not just when people are questioning why
something was changed, but when like their favorite part of
the book is not in the movie.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
I mean, it's amazing also now that you're in a
mir and Air movie, Who's now the Queen mother of
New York?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
The Yeah, well the first Family, the first mom of
New York. Yeah, it's it's insane. And as a New
York and somebody who's heavily biased, it is very cool moment.
Did you happen to look up who's playing who in
the upcoming film version of this or did you use
your own imagination?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
I didn't. Has it been announced? Did I miss it?
Speaker 1 (12:11):
It has?
Speaker 5 (12:11):
So tell me?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Okay, so you had a clear picture of the characters before. Okay,
So I will tell you and then tell me if
you think it fit. Who was in your head? So
Tate Jake Chillenhall.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Yes, Okay, that's perfect.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, perfect casting, right. Wren is Phoebe dinnerver.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
Oh from Bridgerton, Yes, Stephanie and Bridgerton totally.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
And then Nash. Going back to your earlier observation, Nash
is played by Emat Shamlin.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Yep, yep, he's doing it. He's doing it.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I did not audition for this.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Well because he already cast it.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. The emotional heart of the story lies
in Tate's attempts to help Ren, and Ren exists in
two forms, the beautiful, oblivious daytime Ren and then the
insanely terrifying nighttime Wren, who repeatedly relives the trauma of
her death. Why does Tate believe he must save Wren
(13:12):
to save himself?
Speaker 5 (13:14):
I mean, I will say I personally wanted to shake
Tate and just be like, you should have just listened
to your sister. Your sister knew what she was talking about.
I mean, she gave the best advice. And I think
that Tate knows that he's someone who's kind of been
selfish in his head and getting over the grief of
his sister and helping Wren is going to be the
(13:35):
thing that kind of helps him be able to move on.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Did the logic resonate with you?
Speaker 5 (13:40):
His logic, well, okay, I don't know if this is
what you're looking for in the answer, but I will
say something that I picked up on is I also
think he was fully helping her because she was pretty
like this is a hot girl doing yoga and like
tight white yoga pants, and he's like, I don't know,
for some reason, I just have to help her. Uh,
And I'm like, yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
This is a great insight into like, oh, when the
movie comes out, like just like checking that then being like, yeah,
that's visually seeing that that might be what it was.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
I don't know that that's what I'm reading.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
One of my takeaways from this was like, you know,
it's so overused, but truly everybody processes trauma and grief
so completely differently. And I'm with you on the like
just wanting to shake him, And then in my head,
I'm like, I guess you just process it in that
way for yourself, in a way that I maybe don't.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
And you know what I also respected with Tate is
that he didn't even though I, as the reader like
kind of knew. I'm like, this is a fictional book. So, look,
ghost surreal, that's a thing that's going to be happening.
But he as a character obviously doesn't know that he's
in a book, and so he really is. He makes
sure he does some problem solving in a way that
(14:54):
felt very true to how a real person would act
in this situation.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So for the listener, Tate ultimately believes that Wren was murdered.
He starts investigating the three potential suspects that are based
on Wren's account of betrayals and heartbreak. They're no spoilers.
One her abusive husband Griffin, whom she was divorcing, Two
her business partner Nash, who she was suing, and three
(15:19):
her friend Dax, who was obsessed with and stalking her. So, Dama,
did you prefer the grounded small town detective work through
all this or the spooky supernatural scenario.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
Oh that's a good question. I think I liked both.
I liked the balance, But I thought that these characters
were really well developed and grounded, like everyone felt really real.
All of Tate's friends, like his work as an architect,
I thought was interesting. I mean, that's also part of
it is I'm like such a dork reading this book
that I'm like, yeah, tell me about this twelve bedroom
(15:54):
house you're building.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well, I mean, but that kind of stuff, built to me,
builds the full scope of who somebody is. Yea, even
if it looks like, oh this is this is relevant
or irrelevant to moving the plot along like that, anything
that really builds the lives of these people is very full.
Like the I'm trying to think of it like a
(16:15):
comp example when you're actually doing a movie, like the
research that you put into your characters that nobody will
ever see, right, Like there's a casual mention that this
dude's a doctor or an astronaut or whatever, and the
movie is not even about that, or the books not
even about that. The attention to detail that you put
into that prep, which is what I like about books,
Like going back to the Namesake, I remember my character's
(16:36):
ATM password was in the book. Like it's little intimate
details that are you'll never see in a movie, totally irrelevant,
but in a book or audiobook you get those little
nuggets that you know, just make you feel connected to them.
I think the mystery in the Haunted House itself deeply unsettling. Yeah,
(16:58):
which spooky scene or moment resonated with you the most
in the audio format.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
Oh okay, you know that actual scene that did scare
me as I was listening to it was the first
bathroom scene. I don't know if you remember, but it's
like he's not entirely convinced that Wren is supernatural at
this point. It's the first time we see night Ren.
And it was so unexpected that there's such violence to
(17:25):
that scene that like, up until this point, we've been
having like a great time where like on you know,
this beautiful like tourist island, biking around, building a house,
talking about scones, and then we just get this like
pretty sudden scene of violence that I was like, Okay,
we're in the game right now.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I don't disagree at all. I've just found night right
overall to be incredibly like the feeling of like, when
do you get the chills for no reason? Yeah, I
felt like the lead up to that feeling. I didn't
actually get the chills, but that like very unsettling feeling
that lives in your skin. Is was that for me?
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Yeah? Oh god? And it's also like, to me, there's
something so visceral about the fact that it was in
a bathroom. Like not to get all psycho, but like
a bathroom is a very vulnerable place, like you're in
the shot. It's a place that you want to be
like private and alone. I mean you're like literally naked
sometimes I think you're You're very unprotected. And so there
is something to me, very visceral about an act of
(18:28):
violence there that I was like, woof.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
That's a great way to put it. And now I'm
going to do the thing that you do when you're
twelve years old and check behind the curtain every time
you walk into the bathroom. Everyone, Yeah, all right, we're
going to take a short break, but we will be
right back. Okay, Dan, We're going to do a few
(18:52):
quick fire questions now in a segment called plot Twist.
Oh great, it should be fun. I like these questions,
all right ready. Tate believes that Wren beckoned him for
help and that he had somehow done the same to Ren.
Have you ever experienced a connection with someone in your
life that felt preordained or guided by a mysterious force?
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Oh god, I mean that's such a I should say
my husband that we met because it's just sort of
that like perfect timing that we met and came together.
He and you know how we met, and this is
I'm not flirting, but I do have to say this.
He invited me on his podcast, Oh no way, and
then we fell in love.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
How cool is that?
Speaker 5 (19:37):
That's how it happened.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
So your first convo was public.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
Our first convo was public, and a friend actually as
like a wedding gift, gave us, like the usb of
that actual conversation.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
What was the topic of the pod?
Speaker 5 (19:51):
He has a podcast called All Fantasy Everything, and they
like fantasy draft sports style things that aren't sports. And
I drafted and we were afting non Disney animated movies
and I am sort of like a movie snob, and
like he's a comedian. All of his friends are comedians,
Like they don't take it seriously, and I like, I'm
a very competitive person. I was like, I am doing
(20:13):
this podcast and I'm here to win this non winnable game.
And I also think my flirting style was just like
being mean to and so I think listeners were just
like even in the comments of that episode, like on Reddit,
people were like, oh, Dana is so mean to him,
Like they did not get along. And then we like
(20:33):
immediately had chemistry and got married.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
That's a great sentence. My flirting style was just being
mean to him.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yeah, that's what that's her boy's flaming.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Right. Uh, that's a cool that's a cool answer to that.
All right, back to back to this audiobook. So before
Tate's sister Sylvia died, she gave him cryptic guidance, urging
him to strike up a conversation with a stranger. Be
open to the idea that it happened for a reason.
If you could receive one prophetic message to guide your life,
(21:03):
what kind of guidance would you seek. It could be
from beyond. It doesn't have to be Well.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
See, this is the problem, because if I knew what
type of guidance I needed, then I wouldn't need it.
I need someone else to give me the guidance, although
I will say not to shoehorn in a little personal
anecdote again, I did get some guidance from you, from me,
from you a lot several years ago. I was, fun
(21:30):
fact a presidential scholar when I was in high school,
and I flew to to DC. WHOA, and you gave
a speech to all the little bright eyed, bushy tailed
presidential scholars you are probably like in the Eisenhower thing. Yeah, yeah,
telling us you know, the children are the future and
(21:52):
to dream big.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Oh my god, was like twenty ten.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
It was twenty eleven. Yeah, and so there there was
some advice I got, I got to from you, and
now here I am. I would say all of my success,
everything I've done up until this point, is probably thanks
to that speech.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I'll take it. That's definitely a lie because I remember
we were not allowed to be creative or emotional in
any speeches we gave as government employees, which was like
the most ludicrous rule ever.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
No, we were, I will say for the kids. We
were all thrilled.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Oh still, well then I feel good about that because
that was one of those like you're very excited just
from the staff perspective, like, oh wow, you're serving your country,
you're working in the White House. And by the way,
we all know that you're an author writer in your
actual career that you're taking a break from for a
year or two, but like you're not allowed to use
those skills here. I'm like, okay, great, yeah, fine, but
(22:47):
that's so funny. Okay, I'll take it.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
We were there, Yeah, the meeting of the minds again.
It's happened to again.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
So I am with you on the on the like,
what would you want advice for? It's like, at the
highest level, it's just advice that you don't need. In
my case, it's also like, I am terrible at time management,
so I don't even think I need some omniscient advice
about it. I just need to like take a couple
hours to read a book about it about time management.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Honestly, what I think the advice would be, and it's
advice that I already know and I'm just not capable
of doing, is just like, hey, spend less time on
social media. It's not good for your brain, like read
read books.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Getting rid of Twitter on my phone a couple of
years ago was the best decision. And then I have
so many filters on my Instagram feed that it's mostly
dog videos and stand up comedians. But the stand up
comedians are like not political stand up comedians, so it's
kind of great.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
I am not on Twitter anymore, and I was like, great,
imagine how much time I'm going to get And I
just immediately replaced all that time with Instagram and TikTok okay.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Wren loved cooking, Yeah, and teaches Tate how to make
beef bor. I can never say this word beef boorg gyg.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
You have to say it like Julia Child. That's the
way to do. Yeah, nailed it.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
You're right, it works. Bredd left cooking and teaches the
Tait how to make a beef borg.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
I don't want to be rude because you are a
professional actor, but your Julia Child is veering a little kermit.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, just because I feel like that's less offensive.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
Okay, the kermit does make a delicious.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Before you know it probably does.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Yes, Yeah, he's gridded everything.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
So Tate admitted he would probably look like quote an
archaeologist lifting potato sacks if he tried to dance, and he,
I mean, even struggles with doing laundry. What is your
domestic strength and weakness.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
I don't want to I don't want to brag, but
I'm like, I bake a lot. I'm like a I'm
a real tweaker. I'm in charge of the pies for Thanksgiving.
I'm making two pies. I would say my my weaknesses
are like clean, like the deep cleaning. I can do
the tidy, but I'm not going to at like the
you know, knowing which chemicals you know to mix, and
(25:06):
I don't, you know, don't mix bleach or whatever. But
I'm good at baking. I'm pretty good at cooking.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
What do you bake? What kind of pies?
Speaker 5 (25:12):
I'm making a pumpkin and I'm making bear with me
a chocolate pinking a little outside the going alone nuts.
We're gonna try. We're gonna see how it goes. I
I host a book club and in person book club
with my friends in LA and that is my like
once a month, I will, you know, experiment with like
(25:32):
three new baked and I kind of do think at
this point more people are coming for the baked goods
than the best. What about you? What are your like strengths?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
My weakness very easily is laundry, which is such a
ludicrous thing to say, because there are machines.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
They make machines for that.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Now, Yeah, I don't, I'll never. It's not that my
whites turn different colors. My issue is that a lot
of stuff shrinks. So like, even when I watch stuff
on a delicate cycle, if it says you can wash
it in a machine, and even when I just hang
it up to like hang dry for some reason, like
(26:13):
things will shrink, and it's because that's because I end
up forgetting and putting it in the dryer.
Speaker 5 (26:21):
I think you blamed ghosts.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yes, ghosts for the reason totally. Ghost are definitely losing.
But on the plus, I'm a decent I'm a decent cook.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Yeah, what sort of things are real?
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I'm a big Mexican fan. I really like tacos enchiladas.
I have made the tacos from scratch too, just with
like from flour and all of that. It's a little bit,
a little bit labor intensive, but really delicious. Again, no
spoilers on this one. The murder mystery focuses on three suspects, Griffin,
(26:56):
the manipulative ex husband, Nash the embezzling business partner, and
DA's the stalker counselor. Which one of these characters would
you least want to meet in a quiet small town
like Hetherington.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Ooh, I'd say MANIPULDI ex husband. Let's go great, interesting
because I've watched a lot of sixty Minutes and I'm
always suspicious of a husband.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Okay, for me, it's definitely stalker counselor once you bring
stalker into it, because then that, especially in like a
horror world, that person shows up everywhere, and that person
also often shows up during daytime. Oh, daytime jump scares
(27:37):
are my favorite.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
I mean, m night Shyamalan, we're talking signs one of
the best daytime jump scares of all time. Yeah, yeah,
have you? I don't mean to get too personal, but
have you ever had a stalker that you've had to
deal with?
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Thankfully not to my knowledge?
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Okay, good? Have you not that I know of?
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I don't think I'm nearly I think I know unless
people have like an undue interest in royal history podcast,
I don't know who would be stalking more about James
the first.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Okay, last question before we go, What are you listening
to or reading right now?
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Oh? Amazing. I am reading this book called uh Mary
Toft or the Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer. I also
co host this podcast on iHeart called Hoax about historical Hoaxes,
and I had done an episode on this historical hoax
about this woman named Mary Toft, and then I read
that there was this novel about it that came out
(28:37):
a few years ago, and the novel is wonderful, So
that's very cool reading and.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Then what's what's next, like with your book club and everything.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
My book club right now is reading a book called
hum by Helen Phillips, and it's excellent. I love Helen Phillips.
She's a brilliant authors. She also has a book called
The Beautiful Bureaucrat that's great. And in terms of like
horror spookiness to get into the season, the book that
I had just read that was like my sort of
horror vibe was Slade House by David Mintel. That was
(29:08):
my like autumnal Halloween cool read. And if if any
listeners of this liked night Ren and wanted more like creepy, manipulative,
haunted house horror, Slade House great, really short, really fun.
What about you? What are you reading?
Speaker 1 (29:25):
That's a stellar recommendation. I am currently reading this book
Ocean Side Blues by The roof Butt, and next up
I have Kieran this sized book The Loneliness of Sonya
and Sonny.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
Oh God, that's supposed to be great. I haven't read
that yet, but that's like winning all the others exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I love to read, but I'm a phenomenally slow reader.
So I figured I showed you this this group of
book is like one hundred and fifty pages. I'm like,
let's tackle that. I've finished that before Thanksgiving and then
then dive into the real juicy Kieran.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
They say, oh, that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Well, thank you, Dana Schwartz. It was so excellent having
you on earsay I Heart an audible audiobook club with us.
Thanks for being a member of our club.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
Oh my god, thank you for letting me be a
member of the club. Do we have patches?
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Oh? We should get we guess do you guys have
patches for yours?
Speaker 5 (30:20):
No? But now I'm like, let's get podcast patches. Let's
get book club patches.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yeah. Oh man, Dana. Before we let you go, what
do you have out right now? And what's coming up
that we can look forward to?
Speaker 5 (30:31):
So I have two podcasts also with iHeart. One is
Noble Blood, which is a podcast where I talk about
royals and monarchs throughout history, a lot of murder, a
lot of going crazy, and that's just like a fun
history podcast. And then I have a new podcast called
Hoax Pax exclamation Point where I chat with my friend
Lizzie Logan and we just talked through our favorite historical hoaxes.
(30:53):
So that's a bit of a more casual conversational podcast,
but it is very fun. And then speak of book
collaborations and co authors, I have a new book coming
out in May called The Arcane Arts that I co
wrote with a friend of mine. It's under the pseudonym
sd Coverly and it's sexy magic thriller, murder mystery. I
(31:16):
actually think listeners of Remain might really like it, So
look up The Arcane Arts, pre order it from your
local bookstore, or listen to it on Audible.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Awesome, I love that. Well. Congratulations on all of the above,
and thank you for being here.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Thank you so much for having me Dan.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
It was a lot of fun. Now I'm looking forward
to seeing the movie even more. And of course you
can find the new audiobook Remain a Supernatural Love Story
at Audible. Thank you for tuning in to this episode
of Earsay the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. On the
next episode, ED, we'll be talking about the new full
cast recording of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer Stone. It
(31:58):
features a star packed cast which includes q Lori Rizamed,
Matthew mcfaddian and more. If you had fun with us,
today on Earsay, consider following the show wherever you listen.
Audible has the best selection of audiobooks, along with popular
podcasts and exclusive Audible originals, all in one easy app
and with unlimited listening time. Sign up for a free
(32:20):
thirty day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free.
Visit Audible dot com, slash earsay, Hearsay. The Audible and
iHeart Audiobook Club is a production of Iheart's Ruby Studio.
We're your hosts Cal Penn.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
And Ed Helms.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Our executive producer is Matt Schultz, with theme music and
post production by Marcus Pagala for Ruby Studio.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Our managing EP is Matt Romano, our EP of post
Production is Matt Stillo, and our production coordinator is Abby Agualar.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
And of course, a big thank you to our friends
at Audible. Don't forget. You can listen to what we're
listening to on the Audible app or at audible dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Sign up for a free thirty day Audible trial and
your first audiobook is free.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
Visit Audible dot com slash ear say.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Until next time, Thanks for listening.
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