June 1, 2025 • 12 mins
Loss and celebration dance together in this heartfelt episode as Kerry shares the peaceful passing of her mother. "Mom not only taught us how to live, but she taught us how to die," she reflects, finding beauty in farewell while honoring her mother's memory. The conversation shifts to birthday celebrations and childhood treasures—from vintage Fisher Price trains to nostalgic Wheel of Fortune watches—revealing how we cling to physical reminders of our past.
The true magic happens when our listener community takes center stage. Jason solves the longstanding mystery of "Felagone," confirming the traditional Pittsburgh dish that validates Chrisy's childhood memories. Meanwhile, our global audience continues to surprise us, with Pakistan emerging as our second-highest country for downloads. This unexpected cross-cultural connection leaves us wondering how our stories of American family dysfunction resonate so strongly halfway around the world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
DJ Nick (00:07):
Welcome to a special, thankful Sunday edition of the
Dysfunction Junkies podcast.
We may not have seen it all,but we've seen enough.
And now here are your hosts,keri and Chrissy.
Kerry (00:21):
Hi everybody.
Well, that was a greatintroduction, dj Nick, you
switched it up on us, caught usoff guard, thank you.
Well, I'm Kerry,
I caught myself off guard,
you did catch yourself off guard.
Chrisy (00:38):
I'm Chrissy,
Kerry (00:40):
yes, and this is a Thankful Sunday episode and we
do have so much to be thankfulfor.
But first, in a little bit ofsad news, we'll talk about
little sad things and then we'lltalk about some great things.
So my mama passed away lastmonth.
So she passed away verypeacefully, surrounded by all of
(01:01):
us, and had a beautiful funeralfor her.
I want to reach out to all ofthose who knew that was going on
and sent condolences and cardsand messages and everything.
After some time, we can getinto more dysfunction about
funerals again.
Right now, I just wanted tosend a thank you out to
everybody on the passing of mymom.
(01:23):
So love you, mama.
I hope you're looking down fromheaven and laughing at our
podcast.
Chrisy (01:28):
So just from talking with you through the whole thing
, I have to say there's a lot ofadmiration for your mother,
because I really do think thatshe really did this the way she
wanted she did.
Kerry (01:39):
She did.
Chrisy (01:40):
You have to admire somebody who does that.
Kerry (01:42):
We said at her funeral that mom not only taught us how
to live, but she taught us howto die, and I completely believe
in that.
So, yeah, so that was a littlesad part last month, but we've
also had some good things.
I'm also very thankful for allthe birthday wishes from DJ Nick
and Chrissy.
I got some wonderful cupcakesthat were just gourmet.
(02:05):
So thank you for that and thankyou for the upcoming gift
that's being shipped.
Chrissy had got me a Wheel ofFortune watch back in high
school, and DJ Nick found one oneBay, so we're just waiting for
it to arrive.
I can't wait.
I'm so thankful.
Chrisy (02:23):
Amazing.
I'm trying to think ofsomething.
He never buys me anything frommy iPad, probably because I
already still have it.
He can't find it.
Got my Big Will still.
Got my $6 million man dollstill.
Got your prom dresses?
Got my prom dresses still.
I got to really think aboutsomething that real.
(02:44):
My mom, when I was real littleI used to love my one of my
favorite things was the FisherPrice train.
Oh and we're talking 1970s.
Yeah Well, my mom, probably 20plus years ago, probably close
to 30 years ago, she foundanother one of these and she so
I have that too.
Kerry (03:02):
Yeah, it's pathetic, everybody.
I am so sorry, so you need tothrow something out so that DJ
Nick can find it on eBay for you.
Chrisy (03:10):
Yeah, oh, he'll love that.
Bring back Hill's departmentstore.
Kerry (03:22):
Wow, we've had a lot of listeners that have been
following us and we've got somethings that they found for us.
Chrissy, tell us about the bigfollow, follow on a woman.
What are we not this?
Chrisy (03:34):
is so, Jason.
Thank you.
Wonderful that he was able toshoot me a message.
He miraculously found Felagone,which is actually pronounced, I
guess, Felagone.
Kerry (03:49):
Felagone.
Chrisy (03:50):
And it's spelled pretty much like F-A-L-I-G-O-N-E
Felagone.
Yeah, I guess I don't know, andit's actually Pittsburgh thing
which does make some sense butthey do say it's now.
See, I thought it was from thearea that my grandmother was
from in italy uh-huh but theyreferenced because it's actually
(04:12):
a youtube video and you canwatch them make this item.
That and it was in wasn't evensomething.
That was sort of like it.
Yeah, it was, was it?
Except that they use, like, redbell peppers in theirs and we
always use green.
But other than that, the dough,everything and the way they
describe it is perfect.
I couldn't have found anythingmore perfect to explain what
(04:33):
this was.
So I guess I feel reallyvalidated that this wasn't just
some imaginary thing that, likemy family had made up.
And it does make sense with thePittsburgh thing because even
though we grew up in Youngstown,a lot of my family roots are
from the Pennsylvania-Pittsburgharea.
My grandfather's family livedover in Zillionople which is
(04:55):
outside of Pittsburgh.
So I highly recommend going onYouTube and looking for this
video, because I just thought itwas just so great, and so thank
you for finding that I finallyhave a good explanation as to
what it is.
Kerry (05:11):
it was always hard to explain maybe we can see with
our social media people if theycan uh post that yeah, I, I
would like to, but I want to besure that we can.
We can do yes absolutely so,but who else have you heard from
?
Chrisy (05:26):
well, hey, out there natalie fingers, she always
lovely she comes through with uh, after listening, she has some
information or remarks or memoryand I mean she is so part of
this whole thing.
She gets like it's almost likeshe was here with us during this
(05:46):
whole thing, I mean she sounderstands dysfunction.
It's making her, unfortunately,I think, have a little bit of
PTSD, but she was horrifiedabout the birthday episode.
Oh, because you had mentionedthat you had a birthday, or
maybe more than one birthdaythat was forgotten.
(06:07):
Uh-huh, her birthday waschristmas eve.
She's a christmas baby but shedidn't seem bitter about it.
Kerry (06:14):
Sounds like they seem to be able to keep yeah, her, well,
I guess, if you're going tohave a birthday on a holiday,
christmas eve would be a goodone, because, I mean, everyone
in the world celebratesChristmas Eve.
Whether you're celebratingSanta Claus or Jesus or whatever
you know, people arecelebrating.
So yeah.
Chrisy (06:33):
Well, I'm wondering, because we have our birthdays
when they are and that's justthe way it is.
So you having your May birthday, me having a June birthday, we
can't understand what that wouldlook like.
Right, we say jokingly that wethink we would be cheated, yes,
but the people who actually havebirthdays during that time
period, they seem, at least fromwhat I hear from, like Natalie,
(06:55):
yeah, is that they didn't feel?
Kerry (06:57):
Right.
Chrisy (06:57):
But then, on the other hand, they also don't have it to
compare to where they had abirthday.
That was enough distance from amajor holiday like that.
So thank you for that, natalie,and her really sadness for you.
Kerry (07:11):
Thank you, she really did feel bad.
Chrisy (07:14):
And then we have some new cities.
Yes, we do, which we love tohear Terre Haute, indiana,
wexford, pa and Indiana PA.
I know.
Kerry (07:25):
That city number's growing Click, click, click.
Yeah, okay, but this is what Igot to talk about.
Okay, our newest country,pakistan.
They're like our number twocountry now.
Their downloads keep click,click, clicking.
They're, they're loving us inPakistan.
I want to know these people.
I want to know the story.
I want to know how they foundus.
(07:45):
I want to know who's listening.
Is it a guy?
Is it a girl?
Is it young women?
Is it older women?
Are they?
I just want to know the wholething.
Pakistan, please reach out,please, please, please.
Chrisy (07:56):
I would really love to know what they're connecting
Like.
What is really meaning?
Kerry (08:00):
to them.
Yes.
Chrisy (08:02):
Resonating.
Kerry (08:02):
What's resonating?
Yeah, what's resonating.
Chrisy (08:05):
I hope they're listening because they're enjoying this,
or are they just really offendedby us?
Either way, we like thelistening, all right.
Kerry (08:13):
So dysfunctionjunkies at gmailcom, reach out to us.
Yes, and what's funny is whenthe Pakistan numbers started
coming in, I looked up thecities and the one city was like
way at the north and then, likean hour later, a city way down
south, not close to each other.
So it's not like one person wasmaybe listening to an episode
(08:34):
and then traveled to work in alittle different town.
You know like it's twodifferent.
Are they related?
Are these two people related?
You know like when this firststarted and now we're starting
to see these other ones.
So did they start a trend?
Are they sharing it with their?
I want to know.
This is mind boggling to me,but then it's such an honor and
I'm just so curious, so thankful.
Thank you, and please, all theother countries, ireland and
(08:58):
Ireland's number threedownloading on it.
So Ireland, all of this, all ofthe countries.
I am absolutely amazed.
Sometimes you can kind offigure that we had the Ireland
you know talked about StPatrick's Day, and then we
started seeing the Irelanddownloads.
So you kind of figure, okay,something resonated, something
you know popped up Pakistan.
I'm just so amazed.
Chrisy (09:16):
Yeah, come on other countries get on the stick.
Kerry (09:19):
Right, right, and we're still waiting for more states to
show up.
So you know, we're stillneeding a little bit of the New
England states, we still needsome of those northern middle of
the countries.
Yeah, but we're growing, I meanstate by state, city by city
country by country.
Chrisy (09:35):
That list of cities that we have is overwhelming and in
a good way, Like yeah, Iprobably never thought about
that many different placespicking up on us.
Kerry (09:47):
So I know it's been great , it's been such an honor that
people get us, they're gettingit, they're coming back for more
.
But I do have to say it waskind of funny talking about some
of the you know people that arelistening and stuff my sister,
my one sister specifically, whenshe listened to the birthday
episode she actually tested,texted me and said oh my gosh, I
(10:09):
now have anxiety over yourbirthday Because she didn't
realize how my crazy, verydysfunctional brain was working.
And she's like Okay, now I'mlike chrissy and I'm having
dysfunction over, or anxietyover, your birthday it spreads.
Chrisy (10:25):
I'm really good at like causing panic and anxiety yeah,
I have a gift for that.
Kerry (10:32):
So dj next shaking his head very aggressively over
there.
Chrisy (10:36):
Well, the way I work is if I'm feeling that which I do a
lot my whole goal is to getsomebody else to feel that,
because then it sort of absorbsit from me and then I can watch
you Transfer it to them, Itransfer.
I like to transferuncomfortable, unhappy feelings,
so it helps me.
Kerry (10:55):
So we are so thankful we got some episodes coming up.
Chrissy, you want to talk aboutanything that we've got coming
up in our future episodes here?
Yeah, we've got weddings.
Weddings.
We've got Father's Day comingup Father's Day, which is
Chrissy's birthday time too.
Chrisy (11:13):
I don't have any anxiety about like.
I know because it doesn'tmatter either way to me guess,
hey, you go into these thingswith no expectations.
There ain't nothing to bedisappointed about true true, so
and when you plan?
Kerry (11:28):
it all yourself.
So yeah and we will haveanother flashback friday coming
up.
Um, we're going to be flashingback to one of our original
episodes, the elephant or thezoo.
So for those of you that aremaybe a little bit new and maybe
haven't gone back and listenedto some of the original episodes
, this will give you a littleinsight into our foundation, of
our dysfunction, how we grew upin our different family
(11:50):
lifestyles and how it hasaffected us growing up.
We've got some exciting thingsahead.
Chrisy (11:55):
Definitely All righty.
Kerry (11:57):
Well, again, here's another thankful Sunday, so
we'll be looking forward totalking to you again this week.
See you Wednesday.
See ya.
Welcome to a special, thankful Sunday edition of the
Dysfunction Junkies podcast.
We may not have seen it all,but we've seen enough.
And now here are your hosts,keri and Chrissy.
Kerry (00:21):
Hi everybody.
Well, that was a greatintroduction, dj Nick, you
switched it up on us, caught usoff guard, thank you.
Well, I'm Kerry,
I caught myself off guard,
you did catch yourself off guard.
Chrisy (00:38):
I'm Chrissy,
Kerry (00:40):
yes, and this is a Thankful Sunday episode and we
do have so much to be thankfulfor.
But first, in a little bit ofsad news, we'll talk about
little sad things and then we'lltalk about some great things.
So my mama passed away lastmonth.
So she passed away verypeacefully, surrounded by all of
(01:01):
us, and had a beautiful funeralfor her.
I want to reach out to all ofthose who knew that was going on
and sent condolences and cardsand messages and everything.
After some time, we can getinto more dysfunction about
funerals again.
Right now, I just wanted tosend a thank you out to
everybody on the passing of mymom.
(01:23):
So love you, mama.
I hope you're looking down fromheaven and laughing at our
podcast.
Chrisy (01:28):
So just from talking with you through the whole thing
, I have to say there's a lot ofadmiration for your mother,
because I really do think thatshe really did this the way she
wanted she did.
Kerry (01:39):
She did.
Chrisy (01:40):
You have to admire somebody who does that.
Kerry (01:42):
We said at her funeral that mom not only taught us how
to live, but she taught us howto die, and I completely believe
in that.
So, yeah, so that was a littlesad part last month, but we've
also had some good things.
I'm also very thankful for allthe birthday wishes from DJ Nick
and Chrissy.
I got some wonderful cupcakesthat were just gourmet.
(02:05):
So thank you for that and thankyou for the upcoming gift
that's being shipped.
Chrissy had got me a Wheel ofFortune watch back in high
school, and DJ Nick found one oneBay, so we're just waiting for
it to arrive.
I can't wait.
I'm so thankful.
Chrisy (02:23):
Amazing.
I'm trying to think ofsomething.
He never buys me anything frommy iPad, probably because I
already still have it.
He can't find it.
Got my Big Will still.
Got my $6 million man dollstill.
Got your prom dresses?
Got my prom dresses still.
I got to really think aboutsomething that real.
(02:44):
My mom, when I was real littleI used to love my one of my
favorite things was the FisherPrice train.
Oh and we're talking 1970s.
Yeah Well, my mom, probably 20plus years ago, probably close
to 30 years ago, she foundanother one of these and she so
I have that too.
Kerry (03:02):
Yeah, it's pathetic, everybody.
I am so sorry, so you need tothrow something out so that DJ
Nick can find it on eBay for you.
Chrisy (03:10):
Yeah, oh, he'll love that.
Bring back Hill's departmentstore.
Kerry (03:22):
Wow, we've had a lot of listeners that have been
following us and we've got somethings that they found for us.
Chrissy, tell us about the bigfollow, follow on a woman.
What are we not this?
Chrisy (03:34):
is so, Jason.
Thank you.
Wonderful that he was able toshoot me a message.
He miraculously found Felagone,which is actually pronounced, I
guess, Felagone.
Kerry (03:49):
Felagone.
Chrisy (03:50):
And it's spelled pretty much like F-A-L-I-G-O-N-E
Felagone.
Yeah, I guess I don't know, andit's actually Pittsburgh thing
which does make some sense butthey do say it's now.
See, I thought it was from thearea that my grandmother was
from in italy uh-huh but theyreferenced because it's actually
(04:12):
a youtube video and you canwatch them make this item.
That and it was in wasn't evensomething.
That was sort of like it.
Yeah, it was, was it?
Except that they use, like, redbell peppers in theirs and we
always use green.
But other than that, the dough,everything and the way they
describe it is perfect.
I couldn't have found anythingmore perfect to explain what
(04:33):
this was.
So I guess I feel reallyvalidated that this wasn't just
some imaginary thing that, likemy family had made up.
And it does make sense with thePittsburgh thing because even
though we grew up in Youngstown,a lot of my family roots are
from the Pennsylvania-Pittsburgharea.
My grandfather's family livedover in Zillionople which is
(04:55):
outside of Pittsburgh.
So I highly recommend going onYouTube and looking for this
video, because I just thought itwas just so great, and so thank
you for finding that I finallyhave a good explanation as to
what it is.
Kerry (05:11):
it was always hard to explain maybe we can see with
our social media people if theycan uh post that yeah, I, I
would like to, but I want to besure that we can.
We can do yes absolutely so,but who else have you heard from
?
Chrisy (05:26):
well, hey, out there natalie fingers, she always
lovely she comes through with uh, after listening, she has some
information or remarks or memoryand I mean she is so part of
this whole thing.
She gets like it's almost likeshe was here with us during this
(05:46):
whole thing, I mean she sounderstands dysfunction.
It's making her, unfortunately,I think, have a little bit of
PTSD, but she was horrifiedabout the birthday episode.
Oh, because you had mentionedthat you had a birthday, or
maybe more than one birthdaythat was forgotten.
(06:07):
Uh-huh, her birthday waschristmas eve.
She's a christmas baby but shedidn't seem bitter about it.
Kerry (06:14):
Sounds like they seem to be able to keep yeah, her, well,
I guess, if you're going tohave a birthday on a holiday,
christmas eve would be a goodone, because, I mean, everyone
in the world celebratesChristmas Eve.
Whether you're celebratingSanta Claus or Jesus or whatever
you know, people arecelebrating.
So yeah.
Chrisy (06:33):
Well, I'm wondering, because we have our birthdays
when they are and that's justthe way it is.
So you having your May birthday, me having a June birthday, we
can't understand what that wouldlook like.
Right, we say jokingly that wethink we would be cheated, yes,
but the people who actually havebirthdays during that time
period, they seem, at least fromwhat I hear from, like Natalie,
(06:55):
yeah, is that they didn't feel?
Kerry (06:57):
Right.
Chrisy (06:57):
But then, on the other hand, they also don't have it to
compare to where they had abirthday.
That was enough distance from amajor holiday like that.
So thank you for that, natalie,and her really sadness for you.
Kerry (07:11):
Thank you, she really did feel bad.
Chrisy (07:14):
And then we have some new cities.
Yes, we do, which we love tohear Terre Haute, indiana,
wexford, pa and Indiana PA.
I know.
Kerry (07:25):
That city number's growing Click, click, click.
Yeah, okay, but this is what Igot to talk about.
Okay, our newest country,pakistan.
They're like our number twocountry now.
Their downloads keep click,click, clicking.
They're, they're loving us inPakistan.
I want to know these people.
I want to know the story.
I want to know how they foundus.
(07:45):
I want to know who's listening.
Is it a guy?
Is it a girl?
Is it young women?
Is it older women?
Are they?
I just want to know the wholething.
Pakistan, please reach out,please, please, please.
Chrisy (07:56):
I would really love to know what they're connecting
Like.
What is really meaning?
Kerry (08:00):
to them.
Yes.
Chrisy (08:02):
Resonating.
Kerry (08:02):
What's resonating?
Yeah, what's resonating.
Chrisy (08:05):
I hope they're listening because they're enjoying this,
or are they just really offendedby us?
Either way, we like thelistening, all right.
Kerry (08:13):
So dysfunctionjunkies at gmailcom, reach out to us.
Yes, and what's funny is whenthe Pakistan numbers started
coming in, I looked up thecities and the one city was like
way at the north and then, likean hour later, a city way down
south, not close to each other.
So it's not like one person wasmaybe listening to an episode
(08:34):
and then traveled to work in alittle different town.
You know like it's twodifferent.
Are they related?
Are these two people related?
You know like when this firststarted and now we're starting
to see these other ones.
So did they start a trend?
Are they sharing it with their?
I want to know.
This is mind boggling to me,but then it's such an honor and
I'm just so curious, so thankful.
Thank you, and please, all theother countries, ireland and
(08:58):
Ireland's number threedownloading on it.
So Ireland, all of this, all ofthe countries.
I am absolutely amazed.
Sometimes you can kind offigure that we had the Ireland
you know talked about StPatrick's Day, and then we
started seeing the Irelanddownloads.
So you kind of figure, okay,something resonated, something
you know popped up Pakistan.
I'm just so amazed.
Chrisy (09:16):
Yeah, come on other countries get on the stick.
Kerry (09:19):
Right, right, and we're still waiting for more states to
show up.
So you know, we're stillneeding a little bit of the New
England states, we still needsome of those northern middle of
the countries.
Yeah, but we're growing, I meanstate by state, city by city
country by country.
Chrisy (09:35):
That list of cities that we have is overwhelming and in
a good way, Like yeah, Iprobably never thought about
that many different placespicking up on us.
Kerry (09:47):
So I know it's been great , it's been such an honor that
people get us, they're gettingit, they're coming back for more
.
But I do have to say it waskind of funny talking about some
of the you know people that arelistening and stuff my sister,
my one sister specifically, whenshe listened to the birthday
episode she actually tested,texted me and said oh my gosh, I
(10:09):
now have anxiety over yourbirthday Because she didn't
realize how my crazy, verydysfunctional brain was working.
And she's like Okay, now I'mlike chrissy and I'm having
dysfunction over, or anxietyover, your birthday it spreads.
Chrisy (10:25):
I'm really good at like causing panic and anxiety yeah,
I have a gift for that.
Kerry (10:32):
So dj next shaking his head very aggressively over
there.
Chrisy (10:36):
Well, the way I work is if I'm feeling that which I do a
lot my whole goal is to getsomebody else to feel that,
because then it sort of absorbsit from me and then I can watch
you Transfer it to them, Itransfer.
I like to transferuncomfortable, unhappy feelings,
so it helps me.
Kerry (10:55):
So we are so thankful we got some episodes coming up.
Chrissy, you want to talk aboutanything that we've got coming
up in our future episodes here?
Yeah, we've got weddings.
Weddings.
We've got Father's Day comingup Father's Day, which is
Chrissy's birthday time too.
Chrisy (11:13):
I don't have any anxiety about like.
I know because it doesn'tmatter either way to me guess,
hey, you go into these thingswith no expectations.
There ain't nothing to bedisappointed about true true, so
and when you plan?
Kerry (11:28):
it all yourself.
So yeah and we will haveanother flashback friday coming
up.
Um, we're going to be flashingback to one of our original
episodes, the elephant or thezoo.
So for those of you that aremaybe a little bit new and maybe
haven't gone back and listenedto some of the original episodes
, this will give you a littleinsight into our foundation, of
our dysfunction, how we grew upin our different family
(11:50):
lifestyles and how it hasaffected us growing up.
We've got some exciting thingsahead.
Chrisy (11:55):
Definitely All righty.
Kerry (11:57):
Well, again, here's another thankful Sunday, so
we'll be looking forward totalking to you again this week.
See you Wednesday.
See ya.
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