S2E6: We Were Promised Robot Maids and Underwater Cities, But All We Got Was This Lousy Smartphone

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Megan Bennett (00:00):
I'm Megan Bennett ,

Lesley Meier (00:01):
I'm Lesley Meier

and this is Gen X .
Women Are Sick of this Shit.

Megan.

Hey, how are you?
We're far away from one another.

We are.

I don't care for it personally.

It is what makes me think of did you watch during
COVID the David Tennant?
During COVID the David Tennant,michael Sheen.

Yes

, I do have a little bit of like.
I want to do that.
That's so cool Because theywere so fucking funny.

Can we do it without a pandemic, though?
That's the key.
Yeah, for sure.
I don't want one of those.

Odds are you and I won't live to see the next
pandemic.
I hope that's true
, that technically over the past you know there's
been like a pandemic everyhundred years, but we are giving
it the old college try.
We're really working on anotherpandemic To make things happen a

(01:00):
little bit faster than we didin the past.
Yeah, it's a good time.
We like it.
Hi, here we are on the internet.

Hi Lesley
Hi Megan, how are you on the?
internet.
It's a little weird.

I'm distracted by myself

got a lot of buttons to push.

Do you?
I'm just the pictures and the.
You know, I see a lot ofclients on the internet and I
like hide myself so that I amnot aware of this, but I thought
I should keep track and makesure I'm not doing anything.

Yeah, it's good, I can see you, you can see see
me, all the things.
So we're here, it's great, yeah, and there are people who are
listening to us who have no ideawhat the freak we're talking
about nope that's true.
Tell them what's up, yeah.
So we are uh.
Well, you are revamping thestudio, yeah, and getting us

(02:03):
some new cool shit in the studio, so we'll have like a new look
and a new feel.
The sofa was great, but it wasfunctional.

It was time.
It was time.
It's gonna be cool too, I think.
I think that's gonna be reallygood.
It was sort of like necessitybecause the you know we figured
the couch out, but it was.
You know, it had somelimitations.
Now we have a set.

(02:33):
I think that will be moredynamic.
That's fun, allow for moreinteraction.
It will allow for more cocktailmixing.

Excellent, I mean whatever you need.

We could bring a guest in.
They could take a stool with usif there are folks locally that
we want to chat with, and wecould maybe put a guest on a TV
screen and just have their headsitting on the set.
I didn't think about that, butthat's really fun.

We could do that.
That would be really fun.
It would be like the future.
That's the way forward machine.

That is the way forward machine, just to tease
our our gen expert, not anexpert main segment today.

Yeah, before we get to that, though, we've got,
um, we've got some other shit totalk about.

Right, we do yes, what is the bullshit and hot
goss for this week?

What is the bullshit and hot goss for this
week?
Well, so we lost Val Kilmerthis week, so I guess that is
our not really hot goss.
Well, I guess it's hot goss,it's gossip Sort of, but it's
gossip, but we know it's true.

Yeah, we really should probably just rename the
segment to who Died this Week.

We really should, because that's what we talk
about.
That is what we talk about,although I suspect at some time
we'll have a week where we don'thave somebody who just drops
dead.
I don't know.
Maybe, maybe not.
I don't know.

(04:16):
We'll find out in the future.
Al Kilmer passed away on April1st.
Yeah, I'll kill my Pestway onApril 1st, not an.

April Fool's joke ?

(04:31):
No, it was not an April Fool's joke.

Although it's interesting because the first so
I was in the Facebook group andI was putting some posts
through and I saw a couple ofthem of people talking about him
passing away, and then somebodyelse.
I was putting some poststhrough and I saw a couple of
them of people, you know,talking about him passing away,
and then somebody else posted,or wanted to post, that they
thought that that was not real,that they had heard that it was

(04:55):
a, an April fool's joke, so that, of course, made its rounds too
.
So but it was true.

(05:02):
It was true.

So well, so, but it was true, it was true.
Well, what do you in when youthink of mr val kilmer?
What, uh, what movies, what?
What springs to mind for you?
What was your favorite?

uh, oh, favorite I don't, I who knows?
Okay, so real genius yeah, hewas so fucking sexy in real
genius.
And laszlo hollyfeld is in realgenius yeah, statistically wins
all of the prizes in whatevergiveaway contest enters it.

(05:43):
It's so magnificent.
So much about that movie I wasabsolutely convinced was going
to be my college experience,like ice in the hallways.
Yep, that was going to happen.

That pool scene, the big party.

Yeah, popcorn, the popcorn in the house, god in
the tooth.
So pretty good stuff.
Uh, so that was one another oftquoted val kilmer film willow.
Yeah, mad morgan, you reallyare great and the dingo, ate my

(06:22):
baby, those two lines that, that, that that line is.

That line is like I.
In fact, I didn't even rememberthat that was from that movie.
That's hilarious because it'speople just say it all the time
yeah, and you're like why yeah,that's why I guess I always
assumed it was like a uh, Idon't know a paul hogan, paul
hogan.

(06:42):
Is that right?
Right, it would make sense.
Yes, you're correct.

But no, apparently it wasn't.
It doesn't make any sense inthat movie, but okay.

(06:54):
Well, I have like a list of probably five more.
I mean, Top Gun was probablyour generation's big Because
that was his that wasn't hisfirst movie, obviously, because
Real Genius was before that,right.
I don't think we should committo any particular timeline.

Not till we look this up, but if that's not true,
he looks much older in Top Gunthan Real Genius.
He looks much older in Top Gunthan real genius magic of
mystery.

(07:31):
Unsurprising, he was Swedish.
So there you go.
Not shocked about that.
Well, he was from California.
Okay, we're gonna go backwards.

He was Swedish by like Swedish.
His family is Swedish, I meanbecause he lived in California.
Okay, we're going to go.
He was Swedish by like Swedish.
His family is Swedish, I meanbecause he lived in California.
He grew up in California, yeah,yeah, because my cousin
actually went to high schoolwith him.
Oh, that's crazy.
She said he was an asshole.

(08:03):
In high school yes.
Oh yeah, she was in theaterwith him in high school Swedish
boys in high school.
But here, here's cool while youlook that up while you, while
you figure out what the hell hisfirst movie was.
I will tell you what I think isthe most impressive thing about
him, asshole or not.
In high school he was theyoungest person to attend

(08:25):
Juilliard.
Oh my goodness, at the timelike the youngest person, so
that's cool.
Yeah, that's kind of a big deal.
So may have been a jerk in highschool, but still pretty damn
good actor.

(08:40):
Very talented yeah, did you watch the documentary about?

I did not.

(08:45):
No, I haven't yet so my spouse and I watched it.
It was really good.
Um, and they went into hiswhole phrase on a cracker, all
the words are going straight outthe mark twain stage.
Oh yeah, that he was doing okay, which was just moving as he

(09:06):
was.
I think he got diagnosed likeduring the opening of that or
something like that, like itstarted and then everything
stopped, which was fascinatingand he was incredible from the
clips that we saw in that.
Um and then, well, this is kindof a spoiler, but not like if

(09:27):
you watch it the whole thing isnarrated by his son but you
don't know until the end,because he sounds just like his
dad.
Oh, that's cool and it's it'sjust wild.
It was really really very good.
I had tons of empathy.
His um relationship with hisdaughter was very sweet.

(09:47):
I mean just them spending timewith him.

Yes, it was good.

(09:52):
It's literally taken me this fucking long I'm kind of vamping
to find this list.
Okay, top Secret was 1984, so11.
Real Genius in 1985.
Top Gun in 1986.
Yeah, so good.
Okay, so Top Secret was thefirst one.
Top Gun in 1986.
Yeah, so good.
Okay, so Top Secret was thefirst one.
Top Secret was first, oh, okay.

There you go, nick .

Rivers.

I like it Okay.
And then Willow was 1988.
The Doors 1991.
These are just my favoritesthat I'm pulling out.

You know my husband hates.
Jim Morrison so much that heactually hates Val Kilmer,
because of that movie.

It's a long way to go around just disliking
somebody but I dislike himbecause of that.
You did such a good job.
I hate you.
Uh, tombstone was 1993.
One of that's my favorite sogood batman 95, ghost and the
darkness 96, along with theisland of dr moreau.

Oh, yeah, oh.

I forgot about that one, and that's kind of
when I stopped watching ValKilmer movies.

Yeah, I would agree, that's yeah.

I think that's about when he dropped off Kiss,
kiss, bang Bang.
I feel like I have watched that, but I don't recall.

Yeah don't know.

But he went on to make you know a ton more movies.
Oh, he was in the Jay andSilent Bob reboot in 2019.
Didn't know.
And then, of course, pop GunMaverick, which just came out in
2021.
Yep, there you go.
That's awesome.
What's your most favorite of,or the one that you just enjoy?

(11:43):
It doesn't have to be yourfavorite what's your most
favorite of, or the one that youjust enjoy it doesn't have to
be your favorite, probably, asin I mean, going to school for
acting myself.

I think the one that I enjoyed the most was
Tombstone, because his, hisportrayal in that, in that
particular movie, was so good.
I mean, I really felt like thisguy's got tuberculosis and he
was a little snarky.
You know, it was exactly what Iand what I think that that

(12:14):
character, you know, that thatperson really was just, it was
perfect, so really liked thatand it was a I don't know.
That was probably my favoriteand I know I've seen Top Gun
many times.
It's been a long time sinceI've seen it, but that kind of

(12:35):
sticks in my head too.
But man, top Secret was just sofreaking funny.
Yes, that it's, I don't know,like bravo to him for that being
his first film and coming outstrong with comedy like that.
That's really hard to do yes.

(12:50):
Incredible range.
Right when you look at all ofthose movies like incredible
range yeah.

Yeah, he did sing the doors, all the stuff on the
doors himself, doors, all thestuff on the doors himself.
So he went to Oliver Stone andsaid, if I sing and you can't
tell the difference, you have tolet me sing on the film.
And Oliver Stone couldn't tellthe difference.
So he got to.
He got to sing actually on theon the movie instead of lip sing

(13:20):
.
Pretty cool yeah.

That movie came out as if it was 91.
I was graduating from highschool and going to college, yep
, and it was sort of like theepitome of like jim morrison's
so cool, val kilmer's so cool,like party band.
Do whatever you want, I'm thelizard king.
Let's go trip in the desert.
Yeah, yeah, yeah Didn't endwell.

(13:45):
Well, you know it's hard onyour body these things.
Yeah, it is.
It's hard to be a rock star andan actor, both, both and yeah.

So we will miss him.
I think that you know his, uh,his health struggle was was a
hard.
It was hard, it was hard towatch.
It was, you know, you see,somebody who was in Real Genius
and in the Doors and was kind ofthis hottie, hottie, go through

(14:21):
something that's just so hardand difficult and that, on top
of aging, you know, it's like ithits home a lot when you as you
, as you and you watch people oronce the you know, the super
hot, sexy sexies get old andpass away.
Oof, not fun.

And your body is your instrument as an actor.
So anything that impacts yourbody, your voice, your ability
to, move.

I like that he was still working on acting
without a voice.
That's pretty impressive, showshow much and how committed he
was to that craft?

yeah, his scene.
I watched his scene in um topgun maverick and it was really
touching with p and tom freeze.
It was good, they did a nicejob.
The instone you talked aboutthe tuberculosis thing.
I was reading just random shit.
Did you read about how he, like, did that scene?

(15:22):
No, oh, tell me, he laid on abed of ice.
He did what.
He did what he laid on a bed ofice so that he would mimic the
shivering and sweating of dyingof tuberculosis.
Oh my goodness, so that it wouldlook real.

(15:46):
So when you said that, I waslike I wonder if she knows that.

No, I didn't know that, but that's you know.

(15:52):
Talk about method dude Sucks, don't do that.
But that's you know.
Talk about method dude Sucks,don't do that.
Well, yeah, hope he got paid afew extra bucks.
We'll talk off the show aboutthe Island of the Island.
There are a couple of movieslike Art Imitating Life, life

(16:12):
Imitating Art.
I just thought that they wereso interesting when those two
movies came out.
Okay, but anyway, uh, rip,we'll love you, val kilmer yep,
miss, we'll miss him no well.

So I think we also need to know what we're
sick of this particular week.

(16:36):
What shit are we sick of this week?

I don't know man, what are you sick of?
I feel like I'm a broken record, so I'm sick of all the shit
all the time.
But what about you?

Oh, you know I'm sick of people being sick.
Oh, you got January.
My, you know our dear producerhas been sick I think three
times in three months.
Uh, I have had a cold but justlike in general, like in my work
, I noticed people have beenmore sick than ever in that and

(17:14):
I had a conversation with mytrainer and my trainer also said
, like cancellations and justpeople have been like repeatedly
sick, just, and all the thingslike norovirus, you know regular
old flu COVID floating aroundthere still, I mean just the
cold viruses in general are justmore mutated and awful and I'm

(17:39):
sick of wait times to getdoctor's appointments.

That is a and that keeps getting longer and
longer and it's I worry aboutthat a lot actually, because
just reading in the group, thenumber of women who are waiting
for big appointments andimportant appointments, you know
, like your health care from acouple weeks ago, yeah, but

(18:07):
people waiting to be seen forthings like that, right, like
that's scary, you cannot wait.

But yeah, just, even if you've got a cold,
having to wait sucks and likethe clinics and things are kind
of fill-ins for little stuff butyou're spending two, three,
four hours waiting like at aminute clinic or something like
that.

Yeah, to be seen.
Around 47 million other germsyou know Right, and then you go
in with something, you come outwith something else.

It's a two for one deal.
Two for.

So the wait times are rough and I think that that
, like doubly, is concerningBecause we're not treating
science very well right now andit makes doctors nervous to be
doctors yes, my doctor quit thehospital system so we have to

(19:04):
pay a monthly fee basically forher to be my doctor still, which
is fine, yeah, so she doesn'tuse insurance anymore, so we pay
for me and my daughter.
Both my husband's got insurancethrough his work, so it works
out differently.
But he yeah, my doctor hasdecided that she can't do the

(19:29):
rules that insurance puts ondoctors.
Right, like you have 20 minutesand then you have to be out.
You cannot spend a momentlonger with them.
You've only got this amount oftime.
So diagnose and get out.
And my doctor is very loquaciousand likes to have long
conversations and likes to digin on what the heck's going on

(19:51):
with me and with her patients.
So she's stopped that and insome ways it's so far.
I think it's been really goodbecause I literally could pick
up my phone and text her if Ineed anything, like hey, I need
another prescription for blahblah, blah, she can call it in,
I just text her for it.

(20:11):
Oh, wow, it's pretty nice.
I mean and I think we haven'ttested this yet, but I think I
can take the fee, that monthlyfee, and have my HSA pay for it.

(20:26):
Okay so there's a fee like if you look at like so there's a
fee, like if you look at like anout of pocket deductible, is it
higher than equivalent?
You know deductibles can beanywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 a
year, I think it's.

It feels like it's less than that.
Okay, so you know, and withthat I could go see her in
person, you know, anytime Iwanted to, or I could do a
virtual appointment with her,okay, pretty much anytime we
needed.
So so it's pretty nice and Iguess I would say, if you're
having trouble with a doctor andtrying to get in in a

(21:08):
traditional environment, if youcan afford to do that money
upfront like that, then it mightbe a good option for some folks
.
I've heard more and more ofthat happening.
Yeah, I definitely have heardabout it.
With specialized medicine, Iknow there's a hormone
replacement specialist in townthat went away from the

(21:31):
insurance model and only doesthat pay for service model.
Seems to work really well forthem too.

(21:40):
That was similar for my psychologist who did my ADHD
diagnosis.
This person explained to methat their whole practice left
insurance because insurancewouldn't allow them to do the
test that would actually giveyou an accurate diagnosis.

Unbelievable.

(22:00):
Testing was so limited and by the time they got done
implementing it, spending allthose hours and then doing the
interpretations, they werelosing money.
Like it would cost them moneythen to follow up with the
patient and go through all ofthe interpretation and and it
still wasn't covered, like thetests that they really needed to

(22:20):
do still weren't covered inaddition.

Yeah, I mean if you next time you're in the
doctor like if you're in adoctor's office and they're
still working with insurancecompanies check your watch and
see when you get in there andwhen they leave the room and how
long you actually have withthem.
Because this hormonereplacement doctor that I was
talking to, he said that theinsurance companies literally

(22:46):
will deny your payment if you'renot in and out within 20
minutes is at least for himthat's how it was, and so you'll
see like doctors get up andwalk towards the door and have
their hand on the doorknob andyou're like still having a
conversation with them andthey're they're talking to you
as they walk backwards out thedoor, kind of thing.

(23:08):
That's just that's not.
That's not good medicine,that's not great.

(23:13):
So that's stressful for them and not good for us.

Right, Right.
And it's not the doctor's faultthere, you know they.
They have rules that they haveto adhere to.

(23:22):
Heck, yeah, it sucks, yeah, okay, well, that's.
That's a tiny nugget of whatwe're sick of today.

I think that's a pretty damn good thing to be
sick of Now.

(23:31):
that's a pretty damn good thing to be sick of.
Right now, that's what I'm sickof.
Damn it.

Gen X Women Are Sick of the Shit is supported by
Lylas Love you like a sis A GenX Women's Social Club.
What's Lylas Megan?
Lylas is our off platform, offthe books of faces, off all of
the other traditional socialmedia.
It is our space and place forGen X women to come together,

(23:56):
have conversations, meet eachother.
It's a social club.

(24:00):
It is a social club.
It's a membership-based club.
Memberships are $10 a month.
That does help support us ingrowing the platform.
We purchased a platform thatwould host a network of women so
that you could come togetherand meet each other in real time
.

In a safer space right than a traditional social
media platform and a much morepersonal space.
So what do we do there, lesliewe?

(24:29):
host movie nights where we live stream some of our
favorites as they are availableto us for group watches of films
from the 70s, 80s and 90s.
We host a space for a monthlybook club.
We host trivia nights once amonth we have a live text chat.

Four prizes even.

(24:53):
Four prizes.
That's true, the space is ableto host weekly text chats so
that you can kind of check in inreal time with people.
I would say the criticaldifference between kind of what
this space is and any othersocial media space that I've
experienced is that it is active.

(25:14):
You will have to engage in itor be engaged in it by other
people, so it's not like apassive consumption thing.

It's like making connections, yep, and if that's
what you're looking for theopportunity to meet other people
, to find people who are maybein the same similar spaces as
you are.
Like-minded, Same time phase oflife, navigating all of those
transitions, then this might bethe right place for you.
So check out, lylas.
You can learn more about it atgenxwomenpodcom.

(25:45):
Oh my gosh, okay.
So I have a question for you,leslie.
Yes, ma'am, I'm ready.
I want to know when you were awee tot or, you know, a teenager
or?

somewhere in between A tater tot.

What did you think this world was going to be
like in?
Like the year 2020, you know,or like the year 2000,.
You know, because I'm thinkinglike when we were in elementary
school, the year 2000 or theyear 2020 was a really long,
long way in the future.
Yeah, it was, and you know, wewere watching all these spacey

(26:29):
movies and stuff.
What did you think your lifewas going to be like?

(26:42):
So I have a really specific memory of a science project that
I had to do in middle schoolsome time and I went to a really
unique middle school.
I went to a Montessori school,so like grades were big, I don't
know.
So it was like six something,whatever, and it was um, what
did you think like your city ofthe future would be?

(27:04):
Okay?
And mine was underwater and Iremember like drawing this like
bell jar thing that would likesink down in the ocean and it
had like multiple floors and wecould see outside and see all
the ocean life all around us andit was really complex.

(27:27):
It was like where the waste wasand how we would cook and how
we would deal with like air, andI had like a complex system of
like tubes that would go upabove and then down below, and
but I was convinced that we weregoing to live underwater, which
is the opposite of outer space.
It's inner space.

It's inner space, baby.
That's cool.
I love that you like figuredout the air, the air handling
system in the underwater worldyes, I can kind of see this like
pencil drawing that I did.

(28:00):
Yeah, it was cool and like because we had to know how to
grow food in there and like Iknew if you needed to like cook
something you'd have to be ableto ventilate, like smoke you,
you know, you'd air particulatesand stuff, and it was like
multiple floors.
I mean, I, I wouldn't besurprised if I don't have it in
a box somewhere, cause I'm alittle bit of a like nostalgia

(28:24):
paper.
No, I think that's cool.
So that's what I imagined.
Okay, that's the first thingthat comes to mind.
What about you?
What was the future?
How far in the future was thefuture?

Well, I mean, I remember like thinking, how
morbid is this.
I remember thinking, well, Iwonder if I'll live to see 2030.
You know, like my God, if Ilive to 2030, that makes me
really old, absolutely.
Like oh shit.
Like I look at the calendar nowand I'm to 2030, that makes me
really old Absolutely.
It's like oh shit.
I look at the calendar now andI'm like, well, fuck me.

(28:58):
So who knew?
But I remember, for whateverreason, 2030 was like the magic
number that I was like, if Ilive to that, I'm old.
But I never got so detailedlike that.
You had a whole city plannedout.
I think I let walt disney dothat for me.
Oh, but yes, I expected aflying car.

(29:21):
I expected like hoverboards anda flying car, and I'm still.
I'm still a little pissed,honestly, to be to be completely
honest, I am not happy aboutthe fact that we do not have
flying cars.

(29:35):
I feel so many cartoons the jets flying car, yeah, yeah,
star wars, land speed flying caryeah yeah, do we have one?

no, we do not.
And in fact, do you rememberwhen that stupid Segway scooter
thing was coming out?
Do you remember that thing?
Yeah, do you remember how theymarketed those?
No.
So they made this bigannouncement that the

(30:09):
transportation of the future wasgoing to be unveiled, and it
was this big hullabaloo and thisis.
I mean, this was like I don'tknow 20 years ago or whatever,
when they did this and I waswatching that and I was thinking
, oh, they're going to unveilthe flying car and I was so
excited and then it was afucking segue it's like so

(30:43):
stupid, they don't make them.
No, no, they just no.
I think they make them for like, like you can't go buy one now
and and that was like.
That was like gonna be the thing, like you were gonna buy that
and then they were gonna have tolike rebuild roads to
accommodate the segway.
Like there was this whole thingabout that which was so dumb,
because we want to ride like amotor, yeah, like you're gonna

(31:04):
ride, like just push forward andlike not fall in your, I don't
know anyway super stupid butthey still have them.
I know you can.
You can do like tours and indifferent parks, like in city
parks and stuff like that.
I think they've got them in DCand I know they've got them in
Indian, like White River StatePark, so you could go do a half

(31:24):
an hour segue tour, of which 20minutes of that is you trying to
learn how to stay on the thingwithout falling off Right.
Did you ever ride one?
I have.
Yeah, they're dumb Like truly.
I hope I'm not offendinganybody who is like a massive
fan of the Segway.
I love Segways.

(31:55):
I'm in a Segway gang Not until 2030.

Then we can join the Segayn leggings, because
we'll be in the future andreally old.
Yeah, so stupid, but anyway, Iexpected a flying car uh, yes,
agreed, I mean, I still bitchabout it.

(32:11):
It was what was advertised.
Flying cars If we look at theJetsons, flying cars, robot
maids, robot maids, space dogs,yeah, Like a little.
You just float around in space.
Yeah, what else?

(32:32):
Well, I mean, you promised.

We had Buck Rogers.
We had Battlestar Galactica.
We had buck rogers.
We had battle star galactica.
We had star wars.
We had um star trek, star trek,oh, freaking star trek.
Like we should be able to likebeam from one space to another
space.
Right, couldn't I be able tolike beam to London for lunch or
something?

(32:52):
Yes, we are woefully behind on the beaming I want to be able
to beam.
Because that was, I mean,solved all of our problems.
If we would just get thatsorted.

Certainly our travel issues would be limited,
although I suspect, like withmillions of people beaming to
millions of places, there's likethere's gonna be like particles
that get crossed and then youend up like with somebody else's
eyeball or I don't know.

(33:24):
It's like mr mrs, potato head little parts out and I imagine
them mixing with like did youever play the cootie game when
you were a little kid?

there's like potato heads and cooties, yep
you get a like antenna hangingout of your ear strong kind of
like.
We're like sort of a cootieantenna hanging out of your ear
hole.

(33:50):
There you go we know what happens if we beam.
We turn into the fly.
We've watched that movie.

Yes, you turn into the fly.
You do not want to do that.
I mean, if we're going to beam,I hope we get the technology
right.

(34:04):
So the future.
I think also that we werereading some kind of reflections
from kids in the 80s about.

Yeah, I found some on Smithsonian Magazine
that were really cute, like anarticle that somebody had done,
and some of these kids, likethis kid, Marty, was age 10.
And he said in the year 2000,we will have all round buildings
, we will have a robot teacher,a robot maid and all workers
will be robots too.
A robot teacher, a robot maidand all workers will be robots

(34:37):
too.
We will have a pocket computerthat has everything you can name
and we'll be able to push abutton and get anything we want.
So we do have pocket computers,right, We've got like our cell
phones that are pretty pocketcomputer-like, Although Surrey
is woefully inaccurate or likewoefully lame compared to like
what I expected.
Oh, absolutely In the year 2025.

(34:58):
You can't actually just ask Siri questions and have correct
answers.
It's basically like here'ssomething I found on the
internet, but you're going tohave to click it and read it to
get the information and I'm likeI'm fucking driving, siri.
That's why I'm asking you thisquestion right, right.

Or like I'd like you to put something on my
calendar and then remind.
Like you can't chain, ask sirito do things.
So like it's not really a it'snot really a helpful assistant,
it's just like handle more thanone task Right Like thanks.

(35:33):
It's just as linear as human beings yeah.
Siri Right.

Siri, can you help me with my ADHD?
This one's kind of fun.
This was Tim, who was also 10in the year 2000.
Everybody might be walkinginstead of riding in their cars,
because there might be a gasshortage by then Cars give out a

(36:00):
lot of pollution.
Or there might even be electriccars instead of gas cars.

(36:06):
Hey, got that one right.

The year 2000 may send ladies to the moon to
explore and look and see ifthere are people living on the
moon.
I like that very specificdifferentiation that it's women
who are doing the exploringthey're going to send the ladies
to find the people on the moon,because we don't trust sending
the gents, or maybe we justdon't like ladies so much and

(36:29):
we're just trying to get rid ofthem and send them to the moon.
He said also, when you work,you will push buttons and robots
will come out and do the workfor you and there will be lower
prices and taxes.
I hope.

Oh well.

(36:46):
There were some pretty good.
I found a few and I think theseare kind of things that I
thought about as a young person.
In the future, we'll all behealthy, right, like we'll be
well, there'll be a cure for thecommon cold, saving people from
cancer.
We'll live for like 150 years,this young gentleman said.

(37:11):
Medical facilities and growthwill double the current size to
handle the aging population.
And this is a very complicatedsentence, cosmetic and genetic
advancement.
But they just assumed like, ofcourse, we're going to take
better care of people, right,we're going to be healthier,
we're going to be activelyworking to help people, people,

(37:37):
and I find that very ironicgiven our current climate where
we seem to be activelyundermining these things.

Yeah, absolutely, I mean, I really did think.
I remember thinking as a kidthat we would have a longer
lifespan.
Yeah, absolutely, like we'dlive to be 150 years old, right,
yes, yeah, that's not happening.
No, I'm not kidding.
I'm not getting my fuckingflying car.
No, flying car, and I coulddrop dead at any second, so

(38:00):
that's great I mean technically.

(38:01):
I guess that's always true.
I guess that's right, I'm deadat any second.

Um, there were a lot of predictions for, like
john, this nuclear war reallyinfluenced our thinking about
the future uh, I know it did me,but yeah, like I'm flipping
through some of these readings,what some of these kids said,
like we all should be talking totherapists because, holy shit,

(38:31):
like we were really terrified ofof nuclear war.
It was everything in the backof our minds.
I mean, we had drills at school, right we?

had all that shit.

And then we had movies like war games, yeah.
And then we had other movieslike the day after tomorrow.
Do you remember that thing?
So that was, um, it was like alike a TV special, I think, or
it was something I don'tremember.
I don't think you saw it inschool.
I think it was like a TVspecial, okay, and it was

(39:05):
literally like the day after anuclear war happened and
horrific, like scary, scary shit, and a kid was like the, the
main character in that.
So crazy.

(39:20):
I probably watched it, I probably just don't remember it,
which I'm finding reallyamusing right now.

Well, and I hope that you don't remember it.
I hope that you're.
It's not.
You're not carrying that aroundwith you.
I was always petrified that wewere going to get blowed up,
like that was always in the backof my head.
But that's partially due towhere we lived, because growing

(39:48):
up we lived near the NavalAvionics building in
Indianapolis which mygrandmother, when we would drive
by that would remind meliterally every time we drove by
it that it was on one of thetop places that would get nuked
if we were going to have anuclear war.

(40:08):
Grandma, what the fuck?
What are you doing?
I would say maybe one thingthat we've done like weren't
there like supersonic planes fora little while, like supersonic
flight, we had the Concorde,yeah, we had the Concorde yeah.
Does that?

still do its thing.
Nope, concorde's been retired.
What happened there?
I don't know All the futures inthe past, I don't know man, I
know we're going backwards.

(40:35):
Get in your cave, leslie I'm sorry, I will draw some shit on
a cave wall.

What I said draw some shit on a cave wall.

(40:46):
That's all you got and leave it for the future.
When they look back and they'relike, man, that was so long ago
and I was like, no bro, we hadlike computers and shit.
Yeah, I was drawing in my cave.
It's cool we were this close.
Uh, this article on paleofuture, the history of the
future about the 80s, there'sthis little section on

(41:06):
government and this young mansays people with big investments
will have more say in governingthe city through big-time
politics.

Oh, oh, ouch.

(41:19):
Okay, nostradamus, we were forecasting oh, this one's good,
this one's good.
The governor will be a wild andcrazy old man with a robot to
enforce all his laws and acomputer to control all human
thoughts.
Oh, my God, but it's not thatfar off, dear God.
I just thought it was funny,but but I really I thought that

(41:47):
like the future was going to beabout technology improvement,
ease to life, health, longerlife, environmental restoration,
just finding ways to notBecause we grew up, we're the
acid rain generation, we're thenuclear generation.

Hole in the ozone , all the things.

(42:05):
Recycling needs to happen.
Yeah, the hole in the ozone.
Stop using fucking hairspray.
We got rid of styrofoam.
We got rid of papergrocerycdonald's.

Mcdonald's the big blt, you know got rid of
that shit.

(42:25):
So the assumption was we're gonna have a healthier,
healthier, better planet wherewe're like this is the future.
We're gonna take care of thingsso that we can live for a long
time, and space exploration, ofcourse.

Right, right, we would have.
I did expect that we would havea colony of some sort somewhere
, I mean the space station, cool, right, yeah, I guess I thought
that we would have a colony onthe moon or a colony on probably
, you know, maybe Mars.
I guess I thought that we wouldhave a colony on the moon or
colony on probably, you know,maybe Mars, I guess.

(43:00):
It's the most popular planet.
It is.

It is and probable that there was water
there at some time, so you know.

(43:10):
Yeah, but definitely there would be a small group of people
living on the moon at thispoint.
Yeah.

We also should have had technology to do things
like blow up asteroids if weneeded to Like.
Remember all those movies wherean asteroid was coming and they
could figure out a way to blowit up in mid coming at you, we
don't even have a decentspaceship.

(43:32):
Really no, Not truly no.
Where's my X-Wing fighter?

If I can't have a flying car, honey, you can't
have an X-Wing.

(43:43):
Come on, I know we can't.
I mean, there are lots ofcomments we could make about
rockets not being able to evenmake it to Well you know, but
globally even there have beensome not great recent rocket
launches.

it's like we can't really figure it out which
is wild, because we alreadykind of figured it out I know
and now it's a real scienceperson would like call in and be
like ladies.

(44:11):
Let me explain this to you.
So so you hear you theorizing,but let me chat with you about
this a little bit and explainastrophysics.

And Jess.
Here's why.

(44:27):
Here's why you can't have your flying car.
This is why.
This is why we can't have nicethings, Because we're the
experts at it.

You know, like I mentioned Disney, yeah, so in
Epcot, right, that was supposedto be the world of the future,
right.
So I mean, I grew up goingthere and I remember when that
opened and I was like, oh well,here we are.
We're like, we're ready, thisis it.

(44:59):
Now we just need to make moreof this.

(45:01):
Yep, we're seconds away from it all happening.
What's the ride?
The round?
Oh, it's like the classic.
Oh my God, do you remember?
We got that little piece of fanmail from she's yelling at us

(45:22):
right now, going I know all thewords that you can't remember
the carousel of progress.
I love that?
Yeah, cause her letter was likeI know what you're trying to
say.
I'm like please just inject itinto my brain.
Yeah, carousel of progress.
I thought that that was sofreaking cool yeah, it's still
there.

It's still fabulous.
I mean, that was a, that wasfrom a um a world's fair.
It was like the 1960, 1970, 68,68 world fair, something like
that.
Okay, yeah, so that.
And then it was moved.
So disney created that for theworld's fair and then it moved
to epcot after that.

(46:03):
So oh, that's cool, I did notknow that, or if I had not
retained that bit of historythat's awesome to know so epcot,
experimental prototypecommunity of tomorrow, which
never quite saw, you know whatit was supposed to be, but
that's okay because he diedafter it.

(46:23):
Oh he died before he died,before magic kingdom opened in
disney in in florida okay, likefive, five years, I think,
before it actually opened.
So he never saw Epcot.
But they do have the originalmodel that he was working from.
I think that's on theTomorrowland truck.

(46:48):
Now I'm losing my words again,damn damn, damn.

(46:51):
I like what you're talking about.

Like the little people mover, the people mover,
you can go through and see it.

Yes yes, yes.

(47:00):
So Megan Bennett, leslie Meyer From 1980 till now has been 50
years.
No, however many years 40 years, 40 years 40 years.

We are 40 years from 1980.
45 years.

(47:19):
So what will the future be in 45 more years?
Like, what's the next future?
Oh wow.
And this year is going to be adifferent answer, probably than
any other year.

Yeah, I don't, I don't know Like I feel a part of
that is.
I feel so cynical right nowabout everything in the world
that we live in and life ingeneral, so it's really hard for
me to to think of anythingmagical and special outside of.

(47:55):
You know, just getting throughthe next four years and I just
think we're taking we are takinga huge step back with science,
yes, and that's it's going tohurt us moving forward.
So I don't know, I don't know.
I think we've got so manypeople in this country who would
be very happy just living inthe fifties again, right, for

(48:17):
all of the things that thatmeans.
So I don know, I just I don'tknow.
I don't have any predictions.
I hope, I hope aliens come, Ihope we have aliens I hope we
have aliens.
I hope we have aliens and Ihope they're nice and I hope
they don't want to eat us andotherwise you, I hope for aliens
?

(48:35):
Maybe not.
I don't think we'd be veryhealthy we're really full of
like.
You know, there's so manypesticides on Earth Going to
have a bowl of people and theydon't want genetically modified
foods.
So you know, I don't think so.
You know what it's like.
We get some organic people.

What they're going to get some organic people
?
Well, they're gonna.
They're gonna get some organicpeople.
They're only gettingcalifornians and people from
oregon and people fromwashington.

(49:02):
Uh they're gonna have organic and in non-organic gm, gmo.
Uh, soylent green, yeah,because green is people.
That's right.
I mean, you know it's been along time since we have done a
five minutes of fame.

Oh, we should do one because we have one let's
drop one in hi, my name is amybragg.

This is the story of how I got the fabulous
picture of henry rollins that Iposted in the gen x women Are
Sick of this Shit Facebook groupand the adventure that brought
it about.
In 1995, I made good friendswith an exchange student from
France who lived in my building.
We became thick as thieves andwhen I dropped her off at the
airport the next spring, throughmy ugly crying, my last words

(49:53):
to her were see you in France.
This little pipe dream of minestarted to look like a reality
when, the following fall, I hadabout $850 left over for my
student loans just enough tocover my round trip airfare,
which saving for was the biggesthurdle I became determined I'd
make this happen.
My mom, a math whiz, helped mecalculate what I would need to

(50:17):
save each week to get by on a$50 a day budget, which would
have to cover lodging hello, $8.
Youth hostel in Barcelona.
Food hello.
Open air markets with freshmeats and cheeses and baguettes
to make sandwiches and anysous-vides I might want.
Make sandwiches and anysous-vides I might want.

(50:38):
Hello, t-shirts and ashtraysfrom cool pubs around Western
Europe.
Well, I worked as a waitress ata flash-in-the-pan microbrewery
restaurant whose nighttimepopularity started to wane.
I was living in my first-everapartment While the downtown
restaurant maintained a thrivinglunch crowd of suits who worked
downtown, evenings were slowand I couldn't work the lunch
rush because of school.

(50:59):
So between rent and my shittytips, I was saving zilch.
So, with the blessing of myparents, who prioritized a
college education above justabout everything, at the end of
the semester I moved back home,took the semester off and got a
waitressing job at Red Lobsterwhere I made bank.
I remember every week Ideposited $125 into my savings

(51:22):
account and had plenty left overto party hard with my friends
and co-workers.
My parents gave me my rucksackand let's go Europe for
Christmas and I think they paidfor my year rail pass For my
birthday.
It was a cutting edge for theday.
Little APX camera that tookgreat pics, a detail that will
be important to the story.
So I did it, with a flight intoBarcelona and out of Paris two

(51:45):
months later and a year railpass for everything in between.
Off I went.
But then, culture shock.
In Barcelona, I famously whinedto my mom they don't have air
conditioning, it's hoteverywhere, I stink, everyone
stinks and everyone is speakingSpanish.
I knew enough to ask for a beer, a cigarette in the restroom.

(52:07):
Two days in, and I was over itand ready to leave, my mother
told me if that's what you wantto do, this is your trip, you
paid for it and you can changeit and come right back home.
But I'm here to tell you if youdo that, you are going to
regret it for the rest of yourlife.
And so I stayed.
And how right she was.
Anyway, while I was still goingfucking nuts with culture shock

(52:30):
, she suggested maybe my nextstop should be somewhere where
English is the native language.
Enter next stop London, to catcha train and then a ferry to
spend the week roaming aroundIreland.
My last stop there was Dublin.
I had mentioned to someone atmy youth hostel how hot I
thought Henry Rollins was.
Just randomly, we were talkingabout celebs we would like to

(52:50):
bang, or something like that.
A day or two later, one of them, who didn't even know who he
was, told me that they had seena big poster at a bus stop and
that he was playing a gig there.
In 10 days I returned to Londonto see those sites and mom
again helped me out by springingfor a concert ticket because I
had no clue how to go aboutpurchasing a ticket in a foreign

(53:12):
land and this was in the superearly days of the internet and a
BritRail pass so I could seethose sites and get back to
Ireland.
Anyway, when she bought theticket, the salesperson refused
to sell her a pit ticket for thewheel off so balcony it was.
So I went back to Dublin 10days later.
Once settled into that youthhostel, I strolled around the

(53:35):
vicinity of the show.
I was by myself and wanted tomake sure I could find the venue
ahead of time so as not to missany of the show Done.
So then I went to a pub for acouple of beers and I think I
saw someone in a black flagT-shirt.
I'm shy, initiatingconversation with strangers, so
I put on my big girl panties andasked this person if they were
on their way to the show, whichof course they were.

(53:57):
Turns out, this person andtheir group of friends were
locals who had seen him at thisvenue multiple times.
They told me they knew and thenphysically walked me by the
exit.
They said he always leftthrough after the show.
So I made my way outside to thatexit and there wasn't a huge,
huge crowd, but enough peoplethat it clearly wasn't entirely

(54:17):
a secret about this exit.
And out he came, the sexiestman alive himself.
I so wanted to be in thepicture I took.
But traveling solo I didn'ttrust anyone enough to hand them
my fancy little camera and takethe picture.
I didn't want to relive themoment that Chevy Chase has his
camera stolen in EuropeanVacation.

(54:38):
But Henry looked like he mightbreak the said fancy little
camera out of my hand if theflash went off.
So once again I put on my biggirl panties and asked if he
minded if I took a picture ofhim.
He said sure, but make it quickbecause my car is waiting.
And just like that he gave theiconic Henry stare right into my

(54:58):
camera.
Of course we still developedfilm in those days.
This was 1997.
When I got home I developedabout 20 or so rolls of APX film
.
I was worried that since it hadbeen so dark at the exit of the
venue that the picture of Henrywouldn't come out.
But it came out, great, greatand I was thrilled.
But nowadays his spoken word isoff the chain and his silver

(55:24):
fox self is so sexy.
He's so articulate andintelligent, which to me
skyrockets his sex appeal.
I would love to attend one ofhis spoken word shows, maybe
catch him at the exit again andget a selfie with his silver
sexy self, and maybe even showhim the picture that I shared on
the Facebook group and how thisshy little 21 year old girl on

(55:46):
the adventure of a lifetimemanaged to get it.
Of course, a much shorterversion of the story than I have
told here than I have told here.

(56:03):
So, you I presume that you have done the backstage checking
or meeting, meeting celebritiesbackstage after a show.
No, no, no, I am too shy Really.
Yes, well, yeah, I cuz I.
Yeah, yeah, it's not eventhat's just.
I mean, I think if there waslikea big group of people I
would go, but I don't like trackpeople down, I'm sort of like
oh, man that's your personallife and I.

(56:25):
You don't need me to be involved.
If it's invitational, I willparticipate, but if somebody is
like, come on, let's go buy, I'mlike it was just too scary.

Oh, my goodness, I mean, maybe that's just some
of the shows that I went to.
I don't know, like I always goback to the back door.

(56:45):
Well, and hang out.

Yeah, I met some really, really cool people.
So I met Johnny Marr, I've met,like both of the brothers from
the Jesus and Mary chain.
I've met, like both of thebrothers from the Jesus and Mary
chain.
I've met.
I met Debbie Harry.
Oh nice, she did not like me.
Oh no, no, no.

(57:06):
Sorry.

Yeah, that was fine, whatever?

(57:09):
I still like her.

You got to say hello, I still like her.
My husband, who was myboyfriend at the time, and I
went backstage with the bandMaterial Issue.
They invited us backstage so wehung out with them, which was
really cool Although we haveguilt issues because they wanted
to go out and party with us andwe were like we're going to go
home, we're tired because we'reold farts.

(57:31):
Even then it wasn't, but maybethree or four months later that
the lead singer committedsuicide, so I'm like I've got
all kinds of guilt about that.
I should have been his bestfriend and it would have been
fine.
Um, oh my gosh.
Yeah, I've got this.
Yeah, giant list of people.
No, dang girl.

(57:53):
I have been invited, like as an invitation, to go and hang
out with people, but not becauseI was hanging out, it was like
a pre gotcha and situation.

Well, we'll go to some shows and I will drag you
to the back door.
I'll be like I don't.

(58:10):
They need to go make hot tea with lemon right now well then,
we'll show up with hot tea withlemon.

Here's some hot tea with lemon right now.
Well then, we'll show up withhot tea with lemon.
Here's some hot tea.
We need hot tea.
Well, this has been fun.
This has been fun.
It's weird on remote.

(58:26):
It is weird.

It's weird remote , but it's okay.

(58:30):
This will be a it's our under construction episode and we're
lamenting all that we did notget in the future that we were
promised.

Yes, in the future we'll be in person.

(58:43):
We will be in person and maybe we'll like mix a little martini
kind of situation.
It's a martini set.
It's kind of a seventies.
It's cool, it used, yeah, it'smad men ish.
It is kind of a 70s.
It's cool, it's mad men-ish.
It is a little bit.
So the thing that we found isit's a home bar and as far as I

(59:07):
know, they used to be sold bySears and Roebuck in the late
60s, early 70s, how about that?
And there was a second piecethat would hang behind it.
That was not with this bar, um,but I have found more on the
internet and we got a good dealwe did.
So I'm super psyched and we'regonna dress it and we're gonna

(59:30):
have a good time that is awesome.

I can't wait to play with it.
Me too, we'll do.
If we have to record in themornings, we'll have to do
mimosas or something.

(59:37):
That's fine, we can.
We can say, whatever time it is, that's right, we don't care,
we'll make a like a longer spaceso that we can like have some
preview time.
We got to get warmed up, we gotto.
We'll make some more time forthis next episode.
It'll be good.
Thanks for listening, thanksfor joining along everybody.

Yeah, super appreciate it.
If you guys like this episode,please share it with friends.
We would love that andappreciate that.
If you've got comments, you canalways leave us comments.
We appreciate those too.
Yes, if you have criticisms,keep them to yourselves, right?

Lesley Meier (01:00:16):
No, you can give it to those two.

(01:00:17):
I mean, if you're like you guys are a little quiet, like
technical stuff, totally fine.
If you're being snarky, youhave been listening to Gen X.
Women are sick of this shit.
Hey Megan, hey Leslie, what dopeople do if they want to find
us?

Megan Bennett (01:00:34):
Well, we have a website that people can find us
on, and that is genxwomenpodcom.
We also have a Facebook page.
We have an Instagram account aswell.
We have a YouTube account wherewe put YouTube shorts and other
little tidbits up there.
We have a TikTok account.

(01:00:55):
I don't talk the dick or tick the tock.

You don't tick the tock, I barely talk the tick
.
But I did put a TikTok up.
We're explaining the internetto people again.
That's okay.
Though it's great, we need toknow how the internet works.
Can people buy merch?
They absolutely can.
We have a merch store on thewebsite itself, and we also have
an Etsy store too, which ispretty easy to find.

(01:01:19):
It's just Gen X Women on Etsy.

(01:01:22):
And if you are listening to this podcast, presumably you
found it somewhere.
And while you're there, give usa review.
Yeah, let us know what youthink.
Throw some stars at us, that'dbe great.
We'll take one, two, three,four or five.

Ooh five, maybe ten, and also make sure that you
are hitting subscribe so thatyou're notified whenever a new
episode drops.

Lesley Meier (01:01:45):
Most important.

We also have a five minutes of fame that I
think we should tell peopleabout too.

(01:01:50):
Hell, yes, we want to know your stories, your five minutes
of fame stories.
You can send those stories inon the website or you can call
1-888 GEN-X-POD and leave yourstory for us and we will play it
live in our next episode.

We'll listen to it on a little red phone, just
like Batman.

(01:02:10):
That'd be cool, let's get a bat phone A bat phone.
I think that's it.
I think you're right.
That'd be cool to get a badphone a bad phone.
I think that's it.
I think you're right.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S2E6: We Were Promised Robot Maids and Underwater Cities, But All We Got Was This Lousy Smartphone

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S2E6: We Were Promised Robot Maids and Underwater Cities, But All We Got Was This Lousy Smartphone

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