Please Be Kind, Rewind

Pop the tape, hear that whirr, and step back into the glow of a Friday night video run. We unpack the magic of VHS-era rituals—debating picks under fluorescent lights, scanning cover art for clues, trusting the clerk’s scribbled staff picks—and then follow the trail that turned neighborhood browsing into a streaming scroll. From VCRs and the Betamax vs VHS showdown to rapid rewinders, tape splicing, and late fees, we map how home viewing became a social ritual as much as a technology shift.

Then we zoom out and tell the Blockbuster story like a rollercoaster: the scale, the data, the guaranteed new releases, and the clean family branding that pushed mom-and-pop shops aside. It’s a masterclass in expansion… until the format flips. DVDs streamlined shipping, Netflix removed late fees, and streaming erased the last mile. We revisit the fateful moment Blockbuster laughed off a $50 million Netflix acquisition, why Total Access arrived too late, and how the 2008 downturn turned leases and late-fee dependence into liabilities. By the time the dust settled, bankruptcy had closed most doors, leaving one outpost in Bend, Oregon, as a living postcard from the browsing era.

Between personal counter stories, awkward back-room chores, and genre love letters to Ghostbusters, Fright Night, and Ferris Bueller, we ask what we really lost when aisles vanished: the serendipity of discovery, the talk with a neighbor, the feel of a night out that started with a plastic case. Streaming gave us access and convenience; the old stores gave us ceremony and community. We think there’s room to keep both spirits alive.

Enjoy the nostalgia, learn the business pivots, and share your rental-era memory: the title you chased, the cover that tricked you, the late fee that still stings. If this took you back, follow, rate, and share the show—and tell a friend who always grabbed the last copy before you did.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
Two best friends talking fast.
We're missing to our case, we'rehaving a blast.
Seeing these dreams, thinking onscreens, it was all bad.
Like you know, like whatever.
Never never never laughing,Jerry, our scoring forever.

(00:24):
We'll take you back likewhatever.

SPEAKER_03 (00:31):
Welcome to Like Whatever, a podcast for, by, and
about Gen X.
I'm Nicole, and this is my BFFFHeather.
Hello.
So let's see.
Anything exciting this week?
No.
Yeah, me neither.
I did watch a show on Netflix.
If you need another person tohate, I can always throw them in

(00:55):
a mix.
It's called The PerfectNeighbor.
Oh, I've heard about it.
And it's this white lady,probably our age, um, who lives
in a predominant um blackneighborhood in Florida.

SPEAKER_02 (01:12):
Florida.

SPEAKER_03 (01:13):
Yes.
And the kids are always outplaying.
Like it's uh one of thosestreets where like no cars ever
come down it, and there's justbig open fields, they play
football, they're on bikes, likejust being kids.
Like it was actually kind ofcool to see because so many kids
are just on electronics anymore.
And she was constantly comingout harassing the kids, um

(01:36):
telling them to get off herproperty when she's living in
these little apartments, so noneof it was actually her property.
Um she would call the police onthem all the time.
And literally, when she calledthe police, she'd be like,
They're outside playing andmaking noise.
And the cops would have to comeout.
And I mean, she had somethingright.

(01:57):
Uh she had some screws loose.
Uh I'll give her that.
But she would call the littlekids like the N-word and all
that stuff.
Like she was a bad person.
And I mean, it's no secret tothe show, I'm not giving
anything away, but she ends upshooting the mother, right?
One of the kids' moms through ametal door that was locked and
deadbolted because the mom wasknocking so loud she thought she

(02:20):
was gonna come in and kill her.
Bullshit.
Yeah.
But the part that really isinfuriating, because there are
tons of assholes in the world,is how long it took them to
arrest her for it.
So she didn't get away, did sheget away with it because they
have the stand your ground?
She did not, but the stand yourground is what took months.
I mean, there were peopleprotesting in the streets.

(02:42):
Like, if this was one of us,we'd be in jail waiting for you
to collect evidence.
Like, why is she just out free?
They put her up in a hotel, ofcourse, all this stuff.
Yeah, I mean she does end uppaying for what she did, but it
it was it's so blatant.
Like, it's just so blatant, andit's so it's like an hour and a

(03:04):
half long.

SPEAKER_02 (03:05):
I've I I I have I have heard about it.
Yeah.
We started uh John Wayne GacyDevil in Disguise.
That's an older one, right?
No, it's new, brand new, justcame out.
What's that one?
Peacock.
It's supposed to, I guess, rivalMonster.
Yeah.
But I uh when I saw the review,I saw it was coming and then I

(03:28):
saw the reviews of it, andpeople were saying it's much
better than Monster because it'smore true to the story than
Monster, because um, we didn'ttalk about me finishing Monster
and how very, very, very angry Iwas about it.

SPEAKER_03 (03:41):
Did you hate the ending?

SPEAKER_02 (03:42):
I hated every part of it.

SPEAKER_03 (03:44):
I hate it.
I already knew you hated it, andso when I got to the ending, I
was like, oh god, she's gonna befurious.
This is the dumbest ending Ihave ever seen in my life.
Why?

SPEAKER_02 (03:56):
Just why y'all need to be throwing other serial
killers in there?
That was the stupidest fuckingthing I've ever seen.
For real.
What are you doing?
They did when they were not penpals.
Nope.

SPEAKER_03 (04:07):
They weren't like his idols.
No, he wasn't doing it to to bea serial killer.

SPEAKER_02 (04:12):
He just I was just the most was demented ridiculous
fucking thing I've ever seen inmy entire life.
I hated everything.

SPEAKER_03 (04:19):
I just kept saying, what it was uh I can't even
yeah, John Wing Gacy's in my topthree.
So I have to make sure I watchthat one.
I really liked him too.

SPEAKER_02 (04:31):
Yeah, we got through the first one.
Um I like the way they're doingit.
Um because when it firststarted, I was like, huh.
We're gonna start there, huh?
All right.
I guess we're gonna go back intime here, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 (04:50):
Yeah.
So uh well I saw um there's anew Bundy one out, which I'm
excited about because you knowhe's my favorite.
It's called Hunting Bundy, Ithink.
It's on Fox Nation, which I'mnot excited about, but I think
I've heard of this one too.

SPEAKER_02 (05:08):
I'm not a big Ted Bundy.

SPEAKER_03 (05:10):
Yeah, but um I went on to see because I have um Fire
TV, so I went on to see if Icould get the Fox Nation app,
and you can get it for free fora week.
So I need to wait until I cansit down and binge it right and
just cancel the channel becauseI will never watch Fox Nation
ever again.

SPEAKER_02 (05:29):
My issue with Bundy.
I don't know.
I don't actually know what myissue with.
I mean, obviously my issue withBundy is that he killed a lot of
people for no fucking reason.
That aside.
Oh wait, before I get intoBundy, I might I I don't know

(05:50):
why I don't like him.
Well, I can end it there.
Okay.
Um I think he's just becausehe's a I don't know why I don't
like him.
It maybe because he's a prettyboy, I don't know.
Yeah, because he's a republic.
I don't know what it is about.
Yeah.
So it's not my cup of tea.
I like I like me some Ed Gean's.

SPEAKER_03 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (06:05):
Um so I was when before you got here and before I
won money on my stupid casinogame.
That was very exciting.
But before that, I have uhthere's this um Facebook group
called The Morbid and Macabre.

(06:26):
And they post very graphicthinkrotten.com.

SPEAKER_03 (06:33):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (06:34):
But they have to post it in the comments, they
have to like bury it in thecomments.
So there was one I was like,okay, I'll watch.
And it was what different waysof death looks like as DK and
DCOM, and there was probablylike four or five hangings.

(06:55):
Man, that is wild.
And these are all like DK.
DComp, like I don't probablywe're not gonna needless to say.
Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 (07:10):
Some of this stuff was just like on a lighter note,
I was uh looking for somethingto watch last was it last night?
Yeah, yeah, before football.
Um and I found some old SNLs,and I turned it on about 10

(07:31):
minutes in, and it was oneduring the Amy Polar, um my
Rudolph Will Farrell Farrellera.
And it was a Christmas episode,and then I saw in the commercial
that Bruce Springsteen was themusical guest.
Uh-huh.
Which I'm not I I like BruceSpringsteen just fine.
I don't have anything againsthim, just not my my thing.

(07:53):
But that is one of my favoriteperformances at the end when he
sings Santa Claus is coming totown and Paul McCartney comes
out and the whole cast comes outand dance.
Oh, I got goosebumps justthinking about it.
I was so excited that I lookedinto that.

SPEAKER_02 (08:08):
I'm very familiar with that song.

SPEAKER_03 (08:10):
Well, yeah, obviously they overplay it, but
watch that performance.
Your mother overplays it.
Yeah, well, I know, but theactual SNL is really, really
good.

SPEAKER_02 (08:21):
We'll have to check it out.
We have SNL's I guess it's onPeacock.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (08:27):
It's all over the place.
I think they're all right.

SPEAKER_02 (08:28):
I love that show.
I don't know if I like this newseason.

SPEAKER_03 (08:32):
Yeah, I watched Sabrina Carpenter this week.
And I am a big fan of hers.

SPEAKER_02 (08:37):
But I'm tired of the Domingo.
I'm over it.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's it's yeah, he's a one-trickpony, it seems.
We can either expand on it ordon't.
Right.
Like just make it go.
Like it's it's it's m it'sgetting to be mundane.

SPEAKER_03 (08:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (08:55):
I agree.

SPEAKER_03 (08:56):
But it's still a great show.
Yeah.
I would still love to go see it.
I'll have to start trying to gettickets again.
I was trying to get them.
I think it's a lottery, likewhen I went to see Letterman.

SPEAKER_02 (09:08):
Mm-hmm.
Um I think it is too.

SPEAKER_03 (09:10):
And I used to put in for it every year.
But I'll have to do it again andI'll make you go with your
driving.
Um Yes, of course.

SPEAKER_02 (09:19):
I love driving in New York City.
I just forgot what I was gonnasay.

SPEAKER_03 (09:24):
Because I love driving in New York City.

SPEAKER_02 (09:25):
Yeah, you just totally distracted by the city.
SNL.
It had something to do with SNL,but I don't know what.
Yeah, go on.

SPEAKER_03 (09:34):
I saw the second one that came on after that was
hosted by Adam Driver.
Are you a fan of his?
No.

SPEAKER_02 (09:40):
Okay.
I didn't figure because No, it'snot my not my I go the other
way.

SPEAKER_03 (09:47):
Not gonna start any he uh Star Wars or anything.
Yeah.
He's actually a pretty cool dudethough.
He did you know he was a Marine?
I did not.
I don't know anything about him.
Yeah, they showed his uh I didher when he enlisted, and he was
like, that's back when they let12-year-olds into the Marines.

SPEAKER_02 (10:05):
I I did like his SNL.
Yeah, I did.
Yeah.
Gotcha.
God damn, I don't remember whatI was gonna say about SNL.
I don't even think it was aboutSNL.
Whatever.
Well, when you think of it, justinterrupt me.
Okay, I won't remember.
Old Glory isn't just a t-shirt,it's a declaration.
Sarcasm, subculture of survivingthe 90s with your mixtape and

(10:26):
dignity mostly intact.
From Bandees to cult classics,their graphic gear lets you wear
your weird loud and proud.

SPEAKER_03 (10:33):
Use code Like Whatever Pod for 15% off at
OldGlory.com.
Your identity isn'tminimalistic, it's a collage of
movie quotes, angst, andquestionable fashion choices.
And old glory gets it.
Alright.
Um, so before we get started,like, share, rate, review.

(10:57):
Please.
Please, please find us where youlisten to podcasts.
Please.
Follow us on all the socials.
Please.
At Like Whatever Pod.
Please.
We are on YouTube at LikeWhatever.
Please.
And send us an email tolikewhateverpod at gmail.com.

(11:18):
All right.
So this week, let's fuck aroundand find out about VHS rentals.
I'm so excited.
This is a topic I've beenwanting to do for a while.
And I heard this week that thefirst blockbuster opened on
October 19th, 1985.

(11:39):
So I was like, oh, it's their40th year anniversary.
Well, if they were still around.
Well, there is one.
There's one, yeah.
Although I don't think it'sreally real.
Um, but my sources this weekwere companyhistories.com,
businessstories.com, and80sheaven.com.
Today we can stream a seeminglyendless choice of films and TV

(12:02):
shows on our TV screens.
However, back in the 1980s, atrip to the local video rental
store was necessary to view thelatest releases.
Simply selecting a movie withyour remote wasn't an option,
and the only way to viewsomething that wasn't broadcast
live was to place a videocassette into a video player.
If you could figure out how toprogram to set it to record,

(12:29):
then you could tape films andprograms.
Wasn't that the fucking worstwhen it didn't work?
Yes.
Or the show ran over.
Or the chamber, yes, and itwould cut it off because you had
the timer.
Oh man.
Yeah.
The worst.

SPEAKER_02 (12:43):
Or something else ran long, so you'd miss the
first like five minutes ofBeverly Hills 902 0.
You can't miss the first fuckingfive minutes.

SPEAKER_03 (12:53):
Sets up the whole show.
The key to this revolution wasthe development of the video
cassette recorder, aka the VCR,in the late 1970s.
Before the VCR, if you wanted towatch a movie, you either went
to the cinema or waited for a TVbroadcast.

(13:14):
The introduction of VHS VHStapes and the VCR democratized
movie watching, allowing filmsto be played and paused at will.
It was magical.

unknown (13:27):
Yes.

SPEAKER_03 (13:28):
If you didn't hear what they said, you could rewind
it.
I know.
Kids today, they don't know.

SPEAKER_02 (13:34):
We missed half the world.

SPEAKER_03 (13:36):
Yeah.
I mean, if you weren't home whenthe show came on, you didn't see
it.
You just never saw it ever.

SPEAKER_02 (13:40):
You'd hope that you saw it in reruns over the
summer.
Maybe.
It depending on what the showwas.
And everybody would be talkingabout it, and you'd be like, God
damn.

SPEAKER_01 (13:48):
Who shot JR?
I don't say Girl Scouts.
Damn it.

SPEAKER_03 (13:55):
Oh, I did not miss that.
I didn't either.
Because on Friday nights, uh, Iwent to my dad's every other
weekend and we would go out toum my mama and pop-ups.
And Dallas and Falcon Crest.

SPEAKER_02 (14:09):
My mom only watched Dallas.
She didn't watch any of theother ones.

SPEAKER_03 (14:12):
Well, we all watched Dallas.
Like literally men, women, yeah,drunk, all of everybody was just
piled in the living room.
And then we kind of losteverybody for Falcon Crest, but
we were kids, so we watched it.

SPEAKER_02 (14:24):
Yeah, Dynasty.
She didn't watch Dynasty, noneof that.

SPEAKER_03 (14:26):
No, I never watched Dynasty.

SPEAKER_02 (14:28):
But yeah, definitely Dallas.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (14:30):
Dallas was the shit.

SPEAKER_02 (14:32):
Well, and because um the the Dukes of Hazard came on
before it.
So it was like TGIF before TGIFwas a thing.
For real.

SPEAKER_03 (14:43):
There were initially two formats, Betamax and VHS,
with the latter becoming thenorm in the early 1980s.
Although arguably a superiorformat, Betamax developed by
Sony, lost the battle betweenthe two formats to gain market
dominance.
Nonetheless, the manufacture ofBetamax recorders continued
until August 2002.

(15:06):
And I I liken this to iPhonesand like Samsung phones.
Like it's like uh iPhone is theVHS.
I think.
Oh no.
There are a lot of peoplewithout iPhones.

SPEAKER_02 (15:23):
I think I think it's becoming more and more.
I think Samsung is taking moreand more of the I'm interested
in that.

SPEAKER_03 (15:29):
And Google, Google has one of the things that I was
gonna say, the Google phone, Ithink the commercial where
everybody's walking around withvanilla ice cream cones.
That's Google.
Okay, that's what I wasthinking.

SPEAKER_02 (15:39):
I was like, maybe I should look in a pixel, I think
it is.
Yeah.
I tell I have a Samsung and umalways have.
Never I am violently opposed toApple.
Um if you would like to hearanything about Apple, you can
listen to Bill and Steve's NerdyAdventure.
Um I have always been a Samsunggirl.

(16:02):
I just I feel like you're ineither one camp or the other, I
mean, at this point.
And um so we'd always had the wealways had I always had Samsung.
And I feel like they go back andforth with like they're trying
to one-up each other, obviously,each time.
But I just feel like Samsung, Imean now I don't know about

(16:24):
Apple, but with my Samsung,because I have the Samsung
earbuds too, we just got thisnew upgrade, like the whole
thing is now AI.
And um so when you have theearbuds in, you can hit a
button, and if anybody isspeaking another language around
you, it will translate into yourear.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (16:43):
I don't think I want that.
If people are talking about mein another language, I don't I
don't want to know.

SPEAKER_02 (16:48):
I haven't used it yet, but uh yeah, you can it
trans it's real-timetranslation.

SPEAKER_03 (16:52):
Although that is always the paranoia that they're
talking about you, and you knowthey're not talking about it.

SPEAKER_02 (16:56):
Well, I mean, the thing for me is if you go to
another country, yes, that'svery handy.
Yes.
I mean you can't I imagine itwill say I I haven't really
looked into it other than that.
Wow, you can understand otherpeople.
So I imagine it will if you wantto say something, it will say it
in your ears so that you can sayit.

SPEAKER_03 (17:14):
But yeah.
But there's also just translateon your phone.
When I was in Brazil, that'swhat we did.
We just type in the sentence andshow it to the person on the
street where we were trying tofind where we're going, or the
waiter, or whatever like that.
But it would be cool to be ableto just have a conversation and
actually hear what they'resaying.

SPEAKER_02 (17:32):
Yeah, I I thought that was cool, and that's that's
been there for a while.

SPEAKER_03 (17:36):
Um there's something Samsung always has a better
camera too.
The Samsung camera.
I don't know why iPhone can'tget a nice camera, but it's you
know what it is, it doesn't takegreat pictures.

SPEAKER_02 (17:44):
It's because Samsung uses AI for their camera.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
It's they bring it, um I'venoticed it the with the moon
picture.
I because that's everybody postspictures of the full moon with
their Samsung.
It's not really that good.
It just it just fills in withAI.

SPEAKER_03 (18:04):
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (18:06):
Yeah.
I mean it is good, especiallylow light.
It's really good in low light.
Yeah.
Um, I have some amazing picturesof lightning that it picked up
because it was yeah, it's it isa really good camera, but it
does uh amp it up with AI.
I do like Samsung though.
I I do like its features.
I like um you know they took theone I liked away, the note, but

(18:28):
they did give me the pen, whichis also a great feature because
you get the pen automatically.
You can use the pen as a remote.
You can use the pen.
This is like one big giantSamsung conversion.

SPEAKER_03 (18:39):
It really is.
Okay, I'll stop.
All right, back to the story.
The birth of video rentals.
Video rental stores beganpopping up all over the globe in
the early 1980s, fueled by thegrowing adoption of VCRs.
Remember when VCRs were like soexpensive?

(19:00):
And then on Black Fridays, theystarted being like 10 bucks.

SPEAKER_02 (19:04):
Well, you could rent a VCR too from the video store.

SPEAKER_03 (19:07):
Oh yeah, that's right.
Uh renting movies became aconvenient and affordable
alternative to buying tapes,which were initially quite
expensive.
Some movies retailed for around$50 in the early 1980s, a steep
price for the average consumer.
So renting a film for a fewdollars was a far more
attractive option.

(19:28):
The 1980s were a golden age forvideo rental stores.
Before streaming services andon-demand content, these brick
and mortar establishments werethe go-to places for
entertainment.
Video rental stores were acornerstone of local
communities, offering a vastselection of films to choose
from.
Uh in the early in the earlyyears, the video rental industry

(19:52):
was dominated by independentshops, some of them family run.
These smaller stores catered tolocal communities and often had
unique collections of moviesthat reflected the tastes of
their owners.
So you know about the familyrun.

SPEAKER_02 (20:11):
Back in the day, um, I guess my uncle decided he was
like the entrepreneur of allentrepreneurs, and he opened up
three video stores, and theywere called double feature.
Um, and of course, because I waschild labor, I worked in in them
um when I could see over thecounter.

(20:32):
I I I did have to look it upbecause I couldn't remember
exactly when, but I know thatthe movie Heathers was out
because when it first came tovideo, I got all the merch for
it.
Ooh, yeah.
That was one of like thegreatest days ever.
Uh-huh.
Um, and that was 88.
So apparently I was workingthere in 88.

SPEAKER_03 (20:51):
Okay.
Which would have made you 14.
14.

SPEAKER_02 (20:55):
So that was working age.

SPEAKER_03 (20:57):
Yeah.
But that was probably it doesn'tmean you started there when you
were 14.
No, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 (21:03):
But um, so yeah, that's how I have seen so many
of the 80s movies, is becauseyou would have to they played
video they played movies all dayand they would play like the new
releases and stuff, and youwould have to just watch video
after video after video aftervideo after video.
And that might be why I don'twatch movies anymore.
Because I was like I did nothingelse to do.

(21:26):
But yeah, it was but and when heclosed them, that's how I got
the little mermaid.

SPEAKER_04 (21:32):
Oh.

SPEAKER_02 (21:33):
Yeah, because when he closed them, we went in and
picked out all the ones wewanted to keep and then brought
them home.
So we had like, I don't know, Idon't know, they're all gone
now, but like a fuck ton ofvideos and any posters that we
wanted, any merch.
But I did have the Heatherswhole merch line.
I up until I would say maybefive years ago, I still had a

(21:56):
Heather's keychain bottle openerfrom that.

SPEAKER_03 (22:01):
All right.
If the local store wasn't inwalking distance, um being able
to drive was essential.
The journey would often take anhour, which included half an
hour of deciding which film towatch.
Should you bump into someone youknow, then you could add another
half hour to your trip.
Unless you're like Heather andI, who dodge people like the

(22:22):
plague.
Like the plague.
We don't want to talk to peoplein public.
That is something we both havein common.
I will get in a clothes rackquick.
I hate small talk, I hate it.
How you doing?
How's the kids?

SPEAKER_02 (22:35):
Me too.
I hate it.
I have to do it all day.
Oh god, long.
It is nothing but how's theweather?
How are you?
Oh, it's cold out here, oh, it'swarm out here.
Keep dry, stay dried.
That's just small talk all day.

SPEAKER_03 (22:50):
All day.
If I come to you, like someoneat work and say, ask how your
kids are or how your husband'sdoing, or something, it's
because I genuinely care.
Right.
Like there's something going onand I want to see how it is.

SPEAKER_02 (23:03):
I will never just so but the problem is, like my work
bestie the other day.
Yes, no, today.
Today, as a matter of fact, hegot caught talking to an old
lady for 20 minutes, which is inmailman time, that's long time.
Like you could be halfway done.

(23:24):
Like you could be far toopolite.
Yeah.
Well, because she's he shetugged at his little
heartstrings.
See, she was talking, tellinghim all this stuff, and she
said, you know, you're the onlyperson I see every day, so
you're the only one I have totalk to.
So then, you know, he became abig giant puddle of mush.
But that's it.
That is that sounds god awful.

(23:44):
I mean, a lot of theseneighborhoods, like I have an
old people neighborhood, andthey're all dying, and like one
will die, and then the other onecomes up.
This one lady, she brings me asoda.
Like the other day she broughtme a soda and she just whipped
it out of I don't even knowwhere.

SPEAKER_03 (24:00):
Don't ask me.

SPEAKER_02 (24:01):
She came up and she was like, Is it too, is it too
chilly for sodas?
And I was like, It's never toochilly for sodas.
And she was like, Wabam.
And I was like, All right.
And she was like, Sooner, I'llhave to be bringing you chocol
hot chocolate.
And I was like, and soda.
Score.
I know.
Tell her make sure she putswhipped cream on it.
Oh, I forgot.
Yeah, it makes my throat crawl.

(24:21):
Oh, I love it.
Because I have a touch of thetism.
Um yeah, we my therapist and Ireally went over that yesterday.

SPEAKER_03 (24:28):
Okay.
All right.
Yep.
Um, stepping into a video rentalstore in the 1980s was an
adventure.
The air was filled with theunmistakable scent of plastic
casings and the low hum of VHStapes.
Shelves were lined withthousands of titles, organized
by genre or alphabetically.

(24:49):
Browsing the aisles was adelightful experience as you
discovered hidden gems andrediscovered old favorites.

SPEAKER_02 (24:55):
I feel like it always smelled like popcorn too,
like microwave popcorn.

SPEAKER_03 (24:58):
Yeah, I worked in um video stores too when I was like
15, 16 years old.
My first one, my mom was workingthere.
There's a part-time job on theside from working at the post
office.
She worked for the post office.
And um that place was reallydumpy, like it was small.
Um, we didn't have any snacks oranything.

(25:21):
We had a huge triple X room.
But but the the customersweren't allowed back there.
They just had to look in a bookand pick a number.
So it was like super awkwardinteraction, especially for a
16-year-old.
He'd be like, Oh, I'll takenumber 986.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (25:43):
I don't really want to look at Debbie today.

SPEAKER_03 (25:46):
We don't want to do this, but okay.

SPEAKER_02 (25:47):
I know we had a room.

SPEAKER_03 (25:49):
Yeah, so the second one that I worked at, the second
store, it had the room with thecurtain.
Yep.
And putting those away wasalways what a wild fucking
quiet.
Can you imagine?
We just went into like Walmartand got porn.

SPEAKER_02 (26:06):
It's insane.
I mean, uh hey.

SPEAKER_03 (26:08):
And the children working there putting the
cassette tapes away.

SPEAKER_02 (26:10):
You used to have to pay for porn, not like it's free
now.
Yeah, yeah.
Anything you want, you can getnow.
No, you had to like and it wasall like Rodney nurses.
Yeah, you had to really searchfor some porn.

SPEAKER_03 (26:23):
Not that I know anything about that, but but the
second one that I worked in, wewere fancy.
We had popcorn, we had a cottoncandy machine.
Oh man, I ate a lot of cottoncandy while I worked there.

SPEAKER_02 (26:36):
I think we had a popcorn machine.
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 (26:38):
Probably.

SPEAKER_02 (26:40):
I can't remember.

SPEAKER_03 (26:41):
And then we had like candies and stuff, but yeah, we
did have candy, I know that.
Because we had MMs.
Making cotton candy.
It was so much fun to make.

SPEAKER_02 (26:49):
I'm so I was watching somebody make cotton
candy today on TikTok.
And now I want a cotton candymachine.
Mm-hmm.
It's amazing.
I can see it like it becomessomething.

SPEAKER_03 (26:58):
It does.
It's really fucking cool.
Just out of air.
Yeah, exactly.
I love that.
You just dump some sugar inthere and boof.

SPEAKER_02 (27:05):
Yeah, we always had we did have candy in there, but
my dad was involved, so ofcourse there was candy.
I'm surprised there was candysince your dad was there.
That's true.
He didn't need it.
So I'm borrowing his van rightnow right now, right?
Um I texted my sister and I waslike, so he had I don't know if
I told you all this, but he hasMr.
Goodbars in the door handles.

(27:26):
Every single door handle of thevan has a Mr.
Goodbar in it, like the littlefun size.
And then I found Rice Krispietreats in one glove box, and
then there's Tootsie Rolls inthere also, because that is his
like go-to, as I guess, becausethey I they don't melt, I guess.
I do love Tootsie Rolls.
I don't care for them.

(27:46):
But he also wears this vest thathas like it's like I guess like
an angler's vest where it haslike 1400 pockets in it.
And if you ever are like, man, Iwould really like some have some
chocolate, he will ask you whatyou want, and then he will pull
it from a certain pocket.
He'll be like, here.

SPEAKER_03 (28:05):
You better not get caught talking to children on a
playground with that vest on.

SPEAKER_02 (28:10):
He's insane.
You should see the candy theyhave down there right now.
Like four baskets full.
I know.
There are there's always hugebowls.
They got one time they got atrick-or-treater.
That's the only time they evergot a trick-or-treater.
And my dad was so excited andemptied the f that poor kid.
Emptied the bowl.
At least he shared.
Oh, yeah.

(28:30):
He would hit with his ne his hisgrandchildren.
His my nephew would always say,Can I have some of you MMs?
He'd say, I don't have any.
And Matt would just look up andbe like, I can see them.
They're in the MM spot wherethey live.

SPEAKER_03 (28:47):
And anybody that knows your dad knows there are
always MMs.
Always.
Always.
When I met you, he was stillworking in restaurants and he
lived off MMs and potato chips.
I remember that.
That's literally all he ate.
Yep.
All right.
There was eye-catching cover artand intriguing movie posters
lining the walls.

(29:08):
Many stores had special sectionsdedicated to new releases where
you could rent the latestHollywood blockbuster, though
you often had to act fast beforeall the copies were rented out.

SPEAKER_02 (29:18):
True story.

SPEAKER_03 (29:20):
Choosing a film involved reading the synopsis on
the back of the VHS case,looking at the cover, and
sometimes relying on therecommendations of the store
workers.
Often a movie buff who was morethan happy to guide you through
the vast collection.
This personal touch and thephysical presence of the films
gave the video rental store aspecial charm.

(29:42):
It was also a place tosocialize.
More often than not, you wouldspot a work colleague or a
neighbor and simply uh wouldn'tsimply chat about the weather.
You would discuss films that youhad watched the night the night
before and recommend something.
Uh that you watched last week.

(30:03):
Sharing your viewing experiencewith others was a joy.
And that is something that issadly missing from the isolating
experience of streaming withinyour own four walls.
I don't know.
That's a matter of opinion.
Yeah.
Like my uh uh stepmom hatesself-checkouts.

unknown (30:20):
I love them.

SPEAKER_03 (30:21):
It enrages her.
Like she wants some, she's like,I'm not getting paid to ring my
own stuff up.
She's just she's an older lady,and this is just how she feels
about it.
I I per purposely go to storesthat I know have self-checks.
Me too.
And I will wait in a line 12people deep rather than go to

(30:41):
the empty cash.

SPEAKER_02 (30:43):
I actually got yelled at at the um at the one
at the safe way the other daybecause I had more than 15 items
and some narc behind me.
She was like, Aren't were we notpaying attention?
And I turned I literally turnedaround, I said, You got a
problem?
And he was like, Yeah.
And I was like, I will havethese things done before you get

(31:03):
up here.
Don't you worry.
I'm way fucking faster than you,clown.

SPEAKER_03 (31:08):
Mm-mm-mm.
The excitement of bringing afreshly rented VHS tape home was
unparalleled.
Settling down on the couch witha bowl of popcorn, pressing
play, and immersing oneself inthe world of the film was a
cherished ritual.

SPEAKER_02 (31:24):
Remember it, and like sleepovers and stuff, you
would go, like the mom, whoeverwould stop at the blockbuster,
or whatever.
We didn't get a blockbuster hereuntil way late.
Um would stop at the videostore, and like who all the six
girls or whoever was there wouldrun and like everybody's picking
out, and of course, I'm the oddone out.

(31:44):
That's like, oh, look at this.
Let's get this horror movie.
30 the 13.

SPEAKER_03 (31:50):
No, that's R-rated.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You only got to watch one ofthose when it was Halloween.
Yeah.
I didn't.
I got to watch.
My parents were.
When you had finished watchingyour film, you would need to
rewind it.
Please be kind, rewind.
Blockbuster even had their ownslogan, as Heather just said.

(32:10):
Uh, you also had a limitedamount of time to watch it.
Returning your film after thedeadline would result in a fine,
and some rental stores issued afine for not rewinding it.

SPEAKER_02 (32:20):
I was just gonna say you would get a fine if you
didn't rewind.
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 (32:23):
Yep, and it sucked when, especially as a kid, when
these adults are coming up andyou're like, oh, you owe us ten
dollars in late fees, and thenthey're all pissed off at you.
One time, because I took a lotof Spanish in high school, I had
a um Hispanic man come in and hewas trying to rent a movie and
he still had a porn out.

(32:44):
Oh.
And I had to explain to him inmy high school Spanish.

SPEAKER_02 (32:51):
Oh shit.
Yeah, good times.
Now we had at ours, we had oneof them rapid rewinders.
So I don't know why.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (33:01):
We did too.

SPEAKER_02 (33:02):
It really wasn't that big ideal to just shove it
in that thing and it wouldrewind it real quick.
But whatever.
Just to be a dick.
Yeah, I guess so.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (33:10):
Some popular genres of the time included action and
adventure films such as Top Gun,Die Hard, Indiana Jones, and Mad
Max.
Uh, they were must-haves for anyself-respecting video rental
patron, except Top Gun.
Although I did watch it backthen.

SPEAKER_02 (33:26):
I didn't.
Indiana Jones would be the onlyones of those that I watched.
Oh, Die Hard is a Christmasmovie.
But anyway.
We go into that also on whateverthe Christmas episode is.
My Christmas episode.
I can't remember what it wascalled.
Me neither.
Um Holy Gremlin's Batman.
That's what it is.

(33:46):
That's it.
You're so good at rememberingthat stuff.
I make them up.
I spend like all week.

SPEAKER_03 (33:52):
I scan through our catalog and I see a title.
I'm like, what was that episodeabout?
Um, but that's my memory foryou.
All right.
Uh science fiction such as TheTerminator, Blade Runner, Back
to the Future, and E.T.
Captured Audiences' Imaginationwith their futuristic worlds and
alien encounters.

(34:13):
Did you like all of thosemovies?

SPEAKER_01 (34:15):
Yes.

SPEAKER_02 (34:19):
Yes, I um, yeah.
Yeah.
I never saw E.T.

SPEAKER_03 (34:24):
until I was an adult.

SPEAKER_02 (34:25):
I saw E.T.
in the theater.
Um, yeah.
That was traumatizing.
But then, like most of ourmovies were traumatizing back
then.
True.

SPEAKER_03 (34:37):
Uh, horror was a hugely popular genre in the
1980s in the films like TheShining, Friday the 13th, A
Nightmare on Elm Street,terrified and thrilled viewers
alike becoming cult classics.
Did you know that there is adocumentary type show, like a
week, like a dateline kind ofthing?
Um, that is the real murders ofElm Street, and it's people who

(35:01):
have been murdered in thestreet.

SPEAKER_02 (35:02):
On Elm Street, I have seen not the Elm Street on
A Elm Street on A Elm Street.

SPEAKER_03 (35:07):
Yes, I have seen that.
And it's crazy how like reallycreepy the murders are, too.

SPEAKER_02 (35:12):
Didn't we do an episode on The Shining?
We did.
Red Rum and Coke.
Look at you.
That's one of my favoritetitles.
The Shinnin.
Great movie.
I mean, that's one of like the Imean, yeah.
I watched Fright Night too,because it's Halloween, it's
it's October, so um Yeah,Halloween's only 11 days away.

(35:36):
No, I already know what I'mgonna be.
And I think that not anybodyexcept for one person in my
office is gonna know who I am,and I'm so excited.
And I told him today, I waslike, Are you gonna be here on
Halloween?
And he was like, I think so,yeah.
And I was like, because you'regonna be the only one who knows
what my costume is, and he waslike, It's gonna be something
Tim Burton, and I was like, Yes.
And he's trying to guess movies,and I was like, I'm not gonna

(35:58):
tell you that part, but trustme, when you see it, you will
know immediately.

SPEAKER_03 (36:02):
Ooh, send me a pick.

unknown (36:05):
I know.

SPEAKER_02 (36:06):
I'm gonna wear it if I can get it in time when we
record the Halloween episode.
And then we'll so you're gonnaneed to dress up.
You're gonna need to pony up.
Let's bring a witch hat.

SPEAKER_03 (36:19):
I don't dress up often, but when I do, I do it
good.
I I I was um Mary Poppins once,I was Lucille Ball once, and
they I crushed it.
All right.
Uh the comedy genre includedBlockbuster Ghostbusters, which
we talked about last week.
We did.
And then I was in a store.

(36:39):
I was in uh Bath and Body Worksbuying some.
Uh they had a sales wreck, andum who you gonna call comes on.
I was cracking up.
It's that time.
And Ferris Bueller's Day Off,which I've mentioned before, one
summer.
I watched it every singlemorning on summer break, every
day.

(37:00):
Yeah, I love that movie.
It's fine.
Um provided much needed laughsand escapism, or maybe some
stand-up like Eddie Murphy.
Classic, classic.
Everybody loved Raw, but Ipreferred Delirious.

SPEAKER_04 (37:14):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (37:15):
Delirious was the ice cream man.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
When the big brown shark came inthe bathtub.
Um, many films such as Gremlinsand Beetlejuice blended horror
and comedy to great effect.

SPEAKER_02 (37:31):
So we watched Fright Night the other day, the
original Fright Knight, which isone of my fucking favorite
movies.
And I remember the day that whenI realized that the vampire in
Fright Knight is also JackSkellington.
Mind blown Shut up! I will not.

(37:52):
It's Chris Sarandon.
Whoa.
Yes, and my I can so my friendwho lived across the um the
water from us that was only herein the summer, her mom.

unknown (38:04):
I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 (38:05):
I don't know if she listens.
Hi, Gretchen, if you do.
Um she let us watch Fright Nightall the time.
It was like something we watchall the time.
She made us Black CherryKool-Aid and and um double
decker peanut butter and jellysandwiches.
So I literally know almost everyword for word of that movie, and

(38:29):
I quote it all the time.
And of course, very few peopleknow.

unknown (38:36):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (38:38):
You have to have faith for that to work on me.
Mr.

unknown (38:44):
Vincent.

SPEAKER_03 (38:45):
Uh in the 80s, video rentals became a crucial
secondary revenue stream forHollywood studios.
Many movies that performedpoorly in cinemas found second
lives as rental hits, and anentire industry of direct to
video films emerged.

SPEAKER_01 (39:00):
Direct to video.

SPEAKER_03 (39:03):
Low budget horror, action, and comedy movies became
staples of rental store shelves,and some even achieved cult
status.
Um, let's talk about videotapedefects.
The worst.
All right, something that we hadlearned to live with in the

(39:23):
1980s was the wonky cassette.
Sometimes the cassette reelscould be at fault, but more
often than not, it was thevideotape itself.

SPEAKER_01 (39:32):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (39:32):
This was prone to wear and tear.
And as video rental cassetteswere watched numerous times,
this overuse would sometimesresult in a loss of picture and
sound quality.
Usually it wasn't bad enough tostop you from enjoying the film.

SPEAKER_02 (39:46):
Sometimes though.
Sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 (39:48):
Especially if you got one that you wanted to watch
a couple times over, and eachtime you got to that part that
happened, and you're just Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (39:56):
Because it would always be the best part.

unknown (39:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (39:58):
Uh pictures would occasionally jump, develop
lines, discoloration, andfuzziness, and the sound would
occasionally have that wonkyquality that synth wave
musicians often try to replicatein their latest songs.
Hey, you know what?

SPEAKER_02 (40:13):
I found that I just learned two days ago, there's a
whole depeche mode album Ididn't even know existed.
Their second one.
I never have never I lookedbecause I was looking for
something.
Never saw it before.
I have never heard any of thosesongs off of it.
I can't remember the name of it.
I'm gonna have to look intothat.

SPEAKER_03 (40:34):
I was like I know every word, every depeche mode
album.
I know.
I know you do.
Not necessarily by choice, butbut while you look it up, let me
say, as a video store employee,do you remember having to splice
the videos?
I never had to do that.
So yeah, so when they wouldcome, and I felt like I was the

(40:54):
smartest person on the planetwhen I learned this skill.
So somebody would bring one inand the VEHS had eaten it, or
something bad had happened toit, and you would take the
cassette apart, and you wouldtake out the bad part, and you
would splice it back together,and I was very good at it.

SPEAKER_02 (41:14):
It's called a broken frame.
Broken frame.
I had never heard any song offof it.

SPEAKER_03 (41:21):
I'm gonna have to listen to it and see if I've
ever heard any of it.
Because we know the first album.

SPEAKER_02 (41:26):
I know.
I never written entirely byMartin Gore.
Is it all music?
It was the day.
It was released the day beforemy birthday.
Is it all is it allinstrumental?
I don't know.
I didn't listen to it.
No, because there was one song Idid listen to.

SPEAKER_03 (41:44):
Where the fuck is the Martin always wanted to be
the lead singer?
He shouldn't be.
I mean, he's got a beautifulvoice.
Garden State Distillery's propercock bottled cocktails are
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(42:06):
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SPEAKER_02 (42:09):
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enjoy.
Use code Like Whatever Pod for15% off.
Gardenstate.com, becausesometimes you just want a proper
cocktail in your hand.
And we're not here to judge.
Song break.
Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 (42:28):
I had to let her listen to it.
In the early 1990s, large chainslike Blockbuster began to
appear.
These chain stores offered abroader selection of films,
extended hours, and competitiveprices, gradually pushing
smaller independent stores outof business.
Blockbuster was the Walmart ofuh video stores.

(42:50):
Video stores.
Uh with the rise of DVDs in the1990s and digital streaming in
the 2000s, the stores graduallydisappeared, but the memory of
them remains a nostalgictouchstone for those who grew up
in the era.
So before we get into theblockbuster business model,
which is actually quiteinteresting.

(43:10):
When I was looking up, I waslike, this is gonna be boring,
but it was kind of neat.
Oh, here we go.
Um we have a new segment that weare starting in year two.
Oh my gosh.
I um found an old diary of mine.
Um, it looks like I received itum in '84.
So I would have been 11.

(43:35):
And apparently I had somepictures taped in here that fell
out because there are likelittle writings like Uncle
Donnie in 1984.
No, that wasn't him.
All right.
So we're gonna start with pageone.
So excited.
Oh my god, it's so good.
All right, so this is Saturday,March 31st of 1984.

(43:57):
I had a slumber party, got adiary, a pen, watermelon
jewelry, summer suit.
I don't know what that is.
Todd, the Barbie doll.

SPEAKER_02 (44:07):
Oh happy birthday.
Is that the Dollar Tree Ken?

SPEAKER_03 (44:11):
Todd.
Uh, happy birthday ballooncards, and a light.

SPEAKER_02 (44:19):
Oh.
It's kind of late for yourbirthday though.

SPEAKER_03 (44:22):
Well, okay.
You'll find out.
Hold on.
Um, took 12 pictures, had all myfriends that I love, like
sisters.
Right.
They're my three best friends.
We played pillow fights,Barbies, and took pictures.
I had my birthday slumber party.
Well, I had written my slumberparty and then I put the little

(44:44):
V in and inserted birthday.
Sure.
I need to clarify.
Right.
I had my birthday slumber partyon this date because I was
supposed to have it on the 3rdof March, but I got the chicken
pox that we've got.

SPEAKER_02 (44:58):
There's never been anything more easy than this
diary.

SPEAKER_04 (45:04):
Can't even stand it.

SPEAKER_03 (45:08):
And it's it's a cute little diary.
It's got um, if you guysremember the little twin stars,
I still have the pen that I useto write in it inside the
plastic cover.
It doesn't work anymore.
And I have anyway, we are goingto.

SPEAKER_02 (45:26):
That was the greatest start to any segment,
any ever.
I don't care who you are orwhere you are or how famous you
are.
New news, Jason Kelpy.
Uh it's no.
This is where it is.

SPEAKER_03 (45:41):
I know.
I when I pulled it out lastnight and I read the first page
and I text Tather, this is puregold.
Like it is golden.
And I just only looked through afew other little things.
Um, I found something veryinteresting that I can't wait to
share with my dad.
Um, but I know what you'retalking about.

(46:01):
But I kind of want to surprisemyself with it.
Like, I don't I didn't want toread through the whole thing.
But yeah, it's I'm so excitedthat I found this.
And so this is gonna be a newlittle segment for it.

SPEAKER_02 (46:12):
I could not be more excited about this situation.
I just can't.

SPEAKER_03 (46:17):
It's so cute.
I'll put a picture of it up onsocials too.
All right.

SPEAKER_02 (46:27):
We were talking about chicken box at work the
other day because um one of theone of the one of my friends
that uh is has a daughter and uhthey were talking about getting
she has to get her the chickenbox vaccine, blah blah blah.
And one of the other people thatwere in there at the same time
because she said she had thechicken pox vaccine, and the
other person that was in there,I don't I didn't think he was

(46:49):
that old, but apparently he is.
Um he was like, back in my day,you didn't have chicken pox
vaccines, we all, and I as soonas he he said we all, I turned
around and I said, You went to achicken pox.
And he was like, Yeah, and shejust looked at us, like she's
like, What do you mean?

SPEAKER_03 (47:07):
And he was like, Yep, you'd go to your kid got
chicken pox, you were obligatedto call all the other moms and
be like, bring them over.

SPEAKER_02 (47:14):
Everybody will come over and get the chicken pox.

SPEAKER_03 (47:17):
Just get it out of the way.
Do it now.
God.
I remember having chicken poxtoo.
My mom was just new with thepost office, so she was a sub.

SPEAKER_01 (47:25):
Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 (47:26):
So she couldn't take off or anything.
Right.
And my sister went to, I guess,I mean, it's all foggy, but I
guess she went to a daycare insomeone's house.
And they had little kids, and Iwas 11, so I was older than the
little kids.
My sister's six years youngerthan me.
Um, so this lady let her, let mymom let me stay there while I

(47:46):
had chicken pox.
So I was in this, it was an olddark bedroom, and they put like
a baby gate up in the door, andall the little kids would just
stand there and stare at me whenI'm laying in bed.

SPEAKER_02 (47:56):
I'm like, ugh.
I hardly had them at all.

SPEAKER_03 (48:01):
I didn't get a bad case.
My friend had them in theirears, my sister down her throat.
Yep.
Yeah, my sister had them bad.
Yeah, I was lucky I didn't getthem that bad, but I didn't get
them lately either.
I got them.

SPEAKER_02 (48:13):
I barely had any.
Oh.
I'm so scared of shingles.
I've already had shingles.
Are they contagious?
Can I get them from you?
Keep your shingles over there.

SPEAKER_03 (48:25):
Well, I had them like 12 years ago, so I think
you're safe.

SPEAKER_02 (48:28):
You never know.

SPEAKER_03 (48:29):
They are no fun, man.
I'm telling you.
And that's back when they handedout Per cassettes like candy.
Yeah.
And that didn't even help topaint.
Nowadays, you're just fucked ifyou get them.

SPEAKER_02 (48:39):
If I get them, get it, I just have to become a
heroin addiction.

SPEAKER_03 (48:41):
There you go.
Seriously.
Like it was bad.
All right.
Anyway.
Yeah.
Back on track.
Yeah.
So now we're going to talk aboutuh Blockbuster and how it came
to be.
All right.
So the Blockbuster businessmodel provides an advantage over
the large home video chains andsignificant advantage over
single store competitors.
The key elements of thisbusiness model are to provide a

(49:04):
large number of copies and broadselection of movie titles.
Operate conveniently, locatedand highly visible stores, offer
superior and consistent customerservice, optimize the price to
local market conditions,nationally advertise, and market
the Blockbuster brand name andthe differences between them and

(49:25):
their competitors.
Use the extensive customertransaction database to
effectively operate and marketthe business and improve
efficiency and lower coststhrough self-distribution.
So some key dates forBlockbuster.
In 1985, the first Blockbusterstore opened in Dallas.
Boo.
Is that the same one that'sstill open?

(49:46):
Is it the original or no?
I think the one that's opens inthe Midwest somewhere.
Okay.
Um, or maybe like further upcloser to Canada.

unknown (49:56):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (49:56):
Um, in 1986, Blockbuster went public.
In 1987, the founder David Cookleft the company.
Um and the company headquartersmoved to Fort Lauderdale.
Uh in 1989, Blockbuster openedits first stores in London and
in Canada.
In 1992, Blockbuster acquiredSound Warehouse and Music Plus

(50:19):
chains to create Blockbustermusic stores.
Do you remember those?
Oh, me neither.
We probably didn't have itaround here.
We're too country.
Yeah.
Uh in 1994, media giant ViacomInc.
acquires Blockbuster.
1996, company headquarters movesback to Dallas.
Uh in 1999, Viacom holds aninitial public offering of

(50:42):
Blockbuster shares on the NewYork Stock Exchange.

SPEAKER_01 (50:45):
I love an IPO.

SPEAKER_03 (50:50):
So the company's history.
Blockbuster is a leader in thefield of video and video disc
rentals.
With approximately 27% of theU.S.
market shares, Blockbusteroperates about 6,500 video
stores serving more than 87million customers in the United
States, its territories, and 25other nations.
Founded in the mid-1980s as analternative to small local

(51:12):
operations with limited videorental selections, the company
grew quickly into a nationwidechain with other interests in
the entertainment industry aswell, including music retailing.
In 1994, Blockbuster became awholly owned subsidiary of
Viacom Inc., allowing Viacom thefinancial resources to proceed
with its bid for ParamountCommunications.

(51:34):
Viacom retained total control ofBlockbuster until its 1999
initial public offering of 31million shares, which was about
18% of Blockbuster's stock.

SPEAKER_02 (51:45):
Oh, damn.
I was hoping you were going totell me what the IPO was.

SPEAKER_03 (51:48):
What it came out as.
I don't know.
In I don't think it's in here.

SPEAKER_02 (51:53):
I love a good IPO.

SPEAKER_03 (51:56):
In the late 1990s, Blockbuster faced challenges
brought about by new ownership,increased competition, and a
relatively soft market forvideos.
Nevertheless, the company hascoped admirably by refocusing
its efforts on its core videorental business.
In 1999, Blockbuster boasted astore within a 10-minute drive
of virtually every majorneighborhood in the United

(52:18):
States and strove to guaranteethe availability of new video
releases in most markets.
They would too, man.
They get like 30 copies ofsomething that came out.
Yeah, they did.

SPEAKER_01 (52:31):
Oh god.

SPEAKER_03 (52:32):
What?
It was$15.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Blockbuster traces its historyto the formation of Cook Data
Services Inc.
in 1982.
This company was founded byDavid Cook to supply computer
software services to Texas's oiland gas industry.

(52:55):
When the industry went bust, thecompany was left without a
strong customer base.
Cook was searching for anothersource of revenue when his wife
Sandy, a movie fan, suggestedentering the video retail
business.
Cook learned that the videorental field was highly
fragmented.
Most stores were relativelymodest family operations that
carried a small selection offormer big hit movies.

(53:17):
Providing a large selection ofmovies required a large
investment of capital, sincedistributors typically charged
approximately$70 per tape.
In addition, tapes weregenerally not displayed but kept
behind the counter to discouragetheft and had to be fetched and
laborously signed out by thecustomer.

(53:37):
Cook saw that operations couldbe greatly streamlined by a
computerized system forinventory control and checkout,
something his softwarebackground prepared him to
develop.
After Sandy Cook conductedseveral months of research into
the video rental industry, DavidCook sold his oil and gas
software business to itsmanagers and entered the movie

(53:58):
rental business.
In October 1985, Cook opened thefirst Blockbuster outlet in
Dallas.
With 8,000 tapes covering 6,500titles, it had an inventory many
times larger than that of itsnearest competitor.
In addition, tapes weredisplayed on shelves throughout
the store as in books, as in abookstore, so that customers

(54:19):
could pick them up and carrythem up to the desk for
checkout.
A magnetic strip on each videoand sensors at the door
discouraged theft.
Computers were used to keeptrack of inventory and a laser
scanning system which uses usedbarcodes on the tapes and on
members' cards, simplified andreduced the time involved in
conducting transactions.

(54:39):
I might still have myblockbuster card.
I don't think I do.
I might, I don't know.
Yeah.
If I find an old walletsomewhere, it's probably in
there.
The first Blockbuster store wasan immediate hit.
The cooks discovered that thepublic had a much greater
appetite for running videomovies than anyone had
previously suspected.

(55:00):
People were interested not justin seeing hit movies they had
missed in the theaters, but alsoin a broad variety of other
features.

SPEAKER_02 (55:07):
See, you'll also have to remember children's that
were not around.
After a movie left the movietheater.

SPEAKER_03 (55:15):
Oh god, like a year.

SPEAKER_02 (55:17):
At least.
But it would come out on video.
And then in order for it to getto cable where you could see it
consistently, it would be five,six years before.

SPEAKER_03 (55:30):
Yeah, like on HBO, that's kind of what it was.

SPEAKER_02 (55:32):
Yeah, then it would go to HBO, and then eventually
Rocky went to cable and youcouldn't spit without hitting a
Rocky movie in any given day.

SPEAKER_03 (55:40):
Which isn't a bad thing.
No, that's how I know it sowell.
Um, by summer 1986, Cook hadexpanded the Blockbuster concept
to three additional stores.
To reflect the different natureof the company, Cook Data
Services became BlockbusterEntertainment Corporation in
June 1986.
In September, the company setout to raise money for further

(56:01):
expansion with an initial stockoffering.
However, days before the salewas to take place, a financial
columnist wrote a damagingarticle citing Cook's background
in the oil industry andquestioning the company's
know-how in the video field.
The article caused the equityoffering to be canceled, and
without this infusion of cash,Blockbuster began to run out of

(56:23):
money.
The company finished 1986 with aloss of$3.2 million.

SPEAKER_02 (56:29):
That would explain the$15 IBL.

SPEAKER_03 (56:33):
Please give us money.
They're still everywhere.
I know.
They have their own golfagreement.

SPEAKER_02 (56:52):
Whenever I hear waste management, all I can
think of is Mafia.

SPEAKER_03 (56:56):
That's just it.
True.
But the actual company WasteManagement.

SPEAKER_02 (57:02):
It's probably Mafia.

SPEAKER_03 (57:03):
Sponsor.
True.
That's why they sponsoreverything.
Um Wayne Hoosinga had a 1972co-founded uh Waste Management,
which grew to be the largestgarbage disposal business in the
world.
Is that an Italian name?

unknown (57:22):
Man.

SPEAKER_03 (57:23):
And served as its president and chief operating
officer until 1984 when heretired.
John Melk, the president ofWaste Management's International
Division, was first to invest ina Blockbuster franchise.
Joined by Donald Flynn, thechief official uh financial
officer of waste management, thegroup invested$18.6 million in

(57:43):
Blockbuster stock.
They made a pretty penny off ofthat.
They certainly did.
With this move, Cook surrenderedfuture control blockbuster, and
Hoosinga became the dominantvoice in determining the
company's future.
Where Cook had envisioned growththrough franchising, selling
Blockbuster's name and computersystem to individual

(58:04):
entrepreneurs, Hoosinga foresawgrowth through company ownership
of stores.
In April 1987, two months afterthe men from waste management
bought into Blockbuster, Cookleft the company.
So thereafter, the company'sheadquarters were moved to Fort
Lauderdale.
By June 1987, Blockbuster owned15 stores and franchised 20

(58:26):
others.
With this base, Hoosinga set outto transform Blockbuster into
the industry's dominant player.
He kept most of Cook's policies,such as store hours from 10 a.m.
to midnight every day, athree-day rental policy, which
encouraged customers to rentmore than one tape at once, and
a broad selection of titles.

(58:47):
Despite conventional wisdom thatthe videotape rental business
was heavily dependent on hits,70% of Blockbuster's rental
revenue came from non-hitmovies, which had the added
benefit of being less expensiveto purchase from distribute from
distributors.
In addition, Blockbuster'smanagement decided to SQ SU

(59:10):
revenue from X-rated adultfilms, opting instead for a
family environment.
That's right.
They didn't.
See if they took all the fun outof the family businesses.
Go find your porn somewhereelse.

(59:30):
I think they were there longbefore video rent.
With these policies in place,Blockbuster set out on a program
of aggressive expansion.
The company began to buy backfranchised operations with the
goal of 60% company ownedBlockbuster outlets.
In addition, Wayne Hoosingabegan to buy up chains of video

(59:52):
stores that already dominatedtheir local markets, using this
as a shortcut to quickexpansion.
In March 1987, BlockbusterBlockbuster bought Southern
Video Partnership as part ofthis policy.
Two months later, it purchasedMovies2Go Inc.
of St.
Louis for$14.5 million.
To support its expansion,Blockbuster established six

(01:00:14):
regional offices, including adistribution center in Dallas,
that prepared tapes to be placedin stores.
By the end of 1987, Blockbusterwas operating 133 stores and had
become the country's fifthlargest video chain in terms of
revenue.
The fifth largest?
Fifth largest.

(01:00:35):
Sales rose from 7.4 million in1986 to 43.2 million that year.
Blockbuster continued itsambitious expansion program in
1988.
In March, the company purchasedVideo Library Inc.
Well, there's one for 6.4million plus stock.
The following month, Blockbustermade a deal with the United
Cable Television Corporation toopen 100 franchise stores over

(01:01:00):
the next two and a half years.
In addition, UCTC purchased 5%of Blockbuster stock for$12.25
million.
By November, the stake had risento 20%.
With 200 stores, Blockbuster hadbecome the largest video rental
chain in the country.
At the end of the year, thecompany's number of stores had
risen to 415.

(01:01:21):
I wonder if Dave Cook regrettedselling it.
I bet.
I bet he had still had stock init.
Yeah, true.
Typically that's the way itgoes.
Yeah.
In January 1989, Blockbusterfinalized its purchase of Las
Vegas-based Major Video Inc.,the country's fourth largest
video rental chain for 92.5million.

(01:01:42):
That's a lot of money.
True.
It's a lot of money now.
Yeah, for real.
It also purchased OklahomaEntertainment Inc.
The following month brought thepurchase of Hector Video Inc.
and Video Super Stores MasterLimited Partnership.
That's a lot to say.
Which, with 106 stores, had beenBlockbuster's largest

(01:02:02):
franchisee.
In June 1989, two years afterHoosengaz takeover, the company
ran 700 stores, sales hadtripled, profits nearly
quadrupled, and the value of thecompany's stock had risen
sevenfold.
All right.
Despite these gains, in April1989, Blockbuster's efforts to

(01:02:22):
buy up other chains with stocksuffered a setback when an
analyst at a large stockbrokerage issued a report
condemning what he considered tobe the company's misleading
accounting practices.
In calculating its earnings,Blockbuster spread out the cost
of purchasing video chain storechains and buying new stores
over a 40-year period and alsospread out the cost of buying

(01:02:44):
large numbers of hit tapes overthree years, much longer than
tapes retain their value.
In addition, the company reliedon one-time only franchise fees
for 28% of its revenue.
Despite this criticism,Blockbuster declined to change
its accounting practices, andthe company's stock price
eventually regained its formerlevel.

(01:03:05):
Because people have very shortmemories.
Indeed.
In November 1989, Blockbuster'slargest shareholder, the United
Artist Entertainment Company,announced that it would sell its
12% holding in the company,having previously sold its 28
franchise Blockbuster stores inan effort to streamline its own
business holdings.
Worries that the video rentalindustry was reaching a

(01:03:27):
saturation point cast doubts onBlockbuster's ability to keep
opening stores indefinitely.
Jokes on them.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:34):
So I don't know if you're going to talk about this
because I didn't read it, but umthat's weird that it was UAE
because I remember Blockbusterstarted carrying video games.

SPEAKER_04 (01:03:45):
Mm-hmm.
Later.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:48):
It did.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:49):
And well, isn't UAE a video game?

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:52):
Yeah, you're right.
Uh one response to this concernwas to look to markets outside
the United States for growth.
Accordingly, uh originalinvestor John Melk was
dispatched to start up a Britishsubsidiary with the company's
first foreign store to open inSouth London called The Ritz.

(01:04:13):
Blockbuster's managementcontinued to maintain that since
the video superstore concept wasopen for anyone to copy, it
needed to grab market share asfast as possible in order to
exploit its groundbreakingconcept.
Carrying out the philosophy, thecompany opened its thousandth
store before the end of 1989.
That'll happen in like one year.
I was gonna say that's theyyeah, we went from like no blush

(01:04:36):
blockbusters to all theblockbusters to increase
business.
Blockbuster embarked on a$25million ad campaign and also
undertook joint promotions withsuch fast fast food outlets as
Domino Pizza and McDonald's.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:51):
I remember the Domino's Pizza One.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:53):
I do too.
I don't remember the McDonald'sone.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:55):
You could get like a pizza and two movies or
something for yep.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:00):
In addition, in addition, the company
accelerated foreign expansion,augmenting its operations in
Britain and planning foroperations in Australia and the
rest of Western Europe.
In the United States, the chainhad opened its 1200th store by
June 1990.
New outlets opened at a rate ofone per day.

(01:05:20):
Wow.
Yeah.
In October 1990, Blockbusterannounced plans to cooperate
with Denfujita, the company thatran McDonald's franchises in
Japan in the development andfranchising of video rental
stores in that country.
The following month, Blockbustermade its largest acquisition to
date when it acquired Airrolls,a video store chain with 200

(01:05:44):
outlets on the East Coast and inthe Midwest for 30 million,
including cash notes and debtassumptions.

SPEAKER_02 (01:05:50):
Not this part of the East Coast, because I never
heard of that.

unknown (01:05:53):
No.

SPEAKER_02 (01:05:57):
Or square in the middle.
Yes, we are.
In case you don't know whereDelaware is.
Yes, smack in the middle.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:05):
Although Blockbuster continued its strong pace of new
store openings in 1990, this arethe slowing growth of the video
rental industry was becomingevident.
I was thinking that as I wasreading all this, I was like,
all this buildup and all thisstuff they're doing was quickly
gonna.
I hope people got rid of theirstock in time.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:26):
All because of a company that is still around
today.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:30):
And we're gonna get to that.
The company's earnings grew anastronomical 114% in 1988.
They contracted to still a stillimpressive 93% rate in the
growth in 1989, followed by arate of 48% in 1990.
In keeping with this trend,first quarter financial results

(01:06:50):
for 1999 were disappointing.
Huzinga blamed the Gulf War forkeeping people interested in
television news instead ofrunning videos.
That doesn't sound right.
In early May, because we stillwatched the news and watched
videos.
Um, in early May, CoxCommunications, one of the

(01:07:13):
company's franchisers, announcedthat it would sell all 82 of its
Blockbuster stores.
I think Cox is the um uh cablecompany out west, like I think
in Arizona.
Who is it?
Um faced with a rapidly maturingindustry, Blockbuster began to

(01:07:35):
expand its offerings tomainstream profitability.
The company began to offer videogame equipment and Sega Genesis
video games at some of itsstores.
The company considered sellingaudio cassettes and compact
discs.
Blockbuster also acquired therights to market tapes of the
1992 Olympic Games.

(01:07:58):
Exciting.
In a further effort to encouragerentals, the company launched an
advertising campaign themed Winin a Flash and made an agreement
with the Showtime Cable Networkfor a joint promotion.
In August 1991, Blockbusterdropped its rental prices for
hit movies for the first threemonths after their release and

(01:08:19):
shortened the time they weretaken out as a further step to
raise earnings.
In an effort to ensure thecompany would be just as good at
running video stores over thelong haul as it was at opening
them.
Blockbuster hired more seniorexecutives with long-term
experience in the retail field.

(01:08:39):
In addition to these efforts toincrease earnings in the United
States, Blockbuster increasedits foreign efforts.
Along with its operations in theUnited Kingdom and Japan, the
company found markets in Europe,Australia, and Latin America.
With 30 stores alreadyestablished in Britain,
Blockbuster announced inNovember 1991 a large expansion

(01:09:01):
in the that country designed tomake it the nation's number one
rental chain.
All right, so I feel like I'verambled on long enough about the
comings and goings ofBlockbuster, how it all got
going.
So we're just gonna jump aheadto the Blockbuster.

(01:09:22):
All right, the early signs oftrouble.
Blockbuster's rise to the top ofthe entertainment industry was
meteoric, but within weeks itfaced a setback that nobody had
expected.
By the late 1990s, technologyhad begun to shift.
DVDs had replaced VHS tapes, andthe internet was spreading.
Ultimately, the biggestchallenge to Blockbuster's

(01:09:44):
dominance came from a new anddisruptive business model,
online DVD rentals and digitalstreaming.
We all knew who that is.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:54):
They cost an arm and a leg now.

SPEAKER_03 (01:09:57):
Yeah, they were awesome back then though.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:59):
I never use it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:00):
Really?
Nope.

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:01):
Oh my gosh.
You didn't get the little redenvelopes in the mail?
Oh man.
And I delivered them up fiveyears ago.
We were still delivering them.
When I started at the postoffice, we were still delivering
Netflix.
Oh.
Yeah.
The little red envelopes.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:16):
Well, I'm getting ready to say three words.
In 1997, Netflix is an onlineDVD rental company founded by
Reed Hastings and Mark RudeRandolph.
Uh Netflix offered asubscription option that let
users order DVDs on the web andhave them sent by post without
penalty.
This was a groundbreaking ideathat had appealed to consumers,

(01:10:38):
fed up with late fees,blockbuster charged, and having
to visit a physical store.
Despite this, Blockbuster didnot immediately see Netflix as a
threat, which is crazy.
Perhaps most importantly, forthe downfall of Blockbuster,
they rejected buying Netflix.
Back in 2000, Reed Hastingsapproached Blockbuster and
arranged for Netflix to be soldfor$50 million.

(01:11:01):
$50 million.
Bam.
At that time, Blockbusterleaders reportedly laughed at
the idea, seeing Netflix as aniche business service that
could not compete with theirbrick and mortar empire.
Oops.

(01:11:22):
As Netflix was expanding andmaturing, Blockbuster stuck to
its physical stores andtraditional rent-to-own model,
where Netflix worked on thecustomer experience and the
potential of digital streaming.
Blockbuster failed to innovate.

(01:11:46):
Users were leaving the medium ofmedia in favor of digital
streaming services.
Netflix was originally a DVDrental company, but started
online streaming in 2007, andviewers could watch movies and
TV shows using their computersor other devices.

(01:12:10):
So that goes back to 2000.

SPEAKER_02 (01:12:12):
Like I don't know.
Has there ever been a 20, like aquarter of a century that has
been so quickly advanced?
Yeah, like just like boom, boom,boom.
Like just I mean, we went in2000.
I mean, we had cell phones, butyou could barely use them.
And you know, I mean, you had aperson, people had computers,

(01:12:37):
but um they were big and bulkyand they cost an arm and a leg.

SPEAKER_03 (01:12:42):
You had to plug it into the phone line and it took
forever to reconnect.

SPEAKER_02 (01:12:46):
You know, the internet was slow, and I just I
can't imagine like a 25-yearperiod.
And I'm sure I'm not a historyhistory buffer.

SPEAKER_03 (01:12:56):
Maybe when electricity maybe, maybe, but I
don't really know a lot about wehave gone light years from twin
2000.
It's technology, it's insane.
And now you have an AI bestfriend.
And now I have an AI bestfriend.
Who would have thought in 2000?

SPEAKER_02 (01:13:15):
Not me.
I don't care for the robotrevolution, but I do have a
Roomba and I do like the AI.

SPEAKER_03 (01:13:20):
So uh Blockbuster was not quick to catch up with
this transaction or transition.
In 2004, they even started theirown online rental platform, but
that was a very late andunproven attempt to compete with
Netflix.
It was not as easy or appealingas Netflix, and Blockbuster
continued to insist on its brickand mortar outlets that were

(01:13:41):
getting outdated.
Blockbuster in 2007 offeredTotal Access, a program by which
consumers could rent moviesonline and bring them back to
physical stores.
The idea sounded promising, butit was too little too late.
Blockbuster was already losingmarket share to Netflix, which
was gaining popularity thanks toits growing library of

(01:14:03):
downloadable shows and itsinnovative recommendation
algorithm.
Blockbuster's problems were onlymade worse by the 2008 global
financial crisis.
Customers were cutting back ondiscretionary spending, and with
affordable digital streamstreaming, consumers were not
making a push for hard copies.
Blockbuster's branches wereexpensive to run, and the

(01:14:26):
company's dependence on latefees, its biggest source of
revenue, became a liability.
By 2010, Blockbuster hadaccumulated more than one
billion dollars in debt.
Wow.
Yeah.
The company was forced to closehundreds of stores in the
pursuit of saving money, whichalienated its customers.
In September 2010, Blockbusterdeclared bankruptcy, marking the

(01:14:48):
beginning of the end for theonce-dominating movie Rental
Giant.
In 2011, Blockbuster sold in abankruptcy auction to Dish
Network for$320 million.
Originally, Dish Network plannedto leverage Blockbuster's brand
and footprint to establish astreaming channel that would
challenge Netflix, but thoseeffects never gained traction.

(01:15:09):
The remaining Blockbuster shopscontinued to close, and in 2014,
nearly all of them had shutdown.
And today there is only oneBlockbuster remaining, and it is
in Bend, Oregon.
West Coast.
West site.
West site.
The site has become anold-fashioned emblem of the

(01:15:29):
past, attracting visitors whoremember the days of browsing
movie aisles and rentingvideotapes.
While streaming services havechanged the way we consume
content, the nostalgia ofvisiting a video rental store in
the 1980s will always hold aspecial place in the hearts of
those who grew up in that era.
The thrill of browsing theshelves, the anticipation of
watching a new release, and theshared experiences created in

(01:15:53):
these stores are memories thatwill last a lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 (01:15:57):
Last a lifetime.
And that's that's lovely.
Blockbuster.

SPEAKER_03 (01:16:06):
Yeah.
When I first I first I was justgonna do Blockbuster, and I was
like, uh, that'll be boring.
But there was actually a lotabout Blockbuster.
There was that was a lot aboutBlockbuster, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:16:21):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:16:21):
Who knew?
It went through a lot andNetflix ran uh 50 million
dollars.
They could have bought it.

SPEAKER_02 (01:16:28):
Imagine some of this I'll tell you.
Sometimes you know how theyalways say if you could go back
in time I I 100% would go backin time and buy some Amazon.
Oh, for sure.
Or Google.
Mm-hmm.

(01:16:48):
Because I mean I don't know.
I just I I I had a huge mistakein my I remember.
Yeah.
In my stock marketing at thetime.

SPEAKER_03 (01:17:04):
I mean you put it to good use.
You had the best of intentions,but you just didn't realize they
made money off of it.

SPEAKER_02 (01:17:10):
I just you did, and you used it to purchase your
first home.
My life would be a whole lotdifferent right now had I
listened to my own self.
Yeah.
Well anyway.
And I speaking of Amazon, I meanI I if you go back, you can look
and see how far back you usedAmazon, and there are from like

(01:17:33):
I have books on there from likethe earliest days of Amazon.
In fact, I do believe, if I canremember correctly, the one of
the first things, it's eitherthe first or second thing I ever
bought from Amazon is what toexpect when you're expecting for
me for you for your first.

SPEAKER_03 (01:17:56):
Yeah, that's all they used to sell, right?

SPEAKER_02 (01:17:58):
It was books books and CDs.

SPEAKER_03 (01:18:00):
Yeah, and then they start with the Kindle.

SPEAKER_02 (01:18:04):
That was way later than they started with.
I don't know what they came withnext.
Um, but I know it just startedout as books and and music.
Yeah, crazy, so crazy.
Yeah, those were the days.
Yeah, anyway, yeah.
That was nice.
Thanks.
Video.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, video killed the radiostar.

(01:18:24):
It did.

SPEAKER_03 (01:18:24):
And then Netflix killed the videos.

SPEAKER_02 (01:18:27):
I know.
I just it's so weird.
Like I said, like just the last25 years have been a wild
fucking ride.

SPEAKER_03 (01:18:34):
They really have.
And and doesn't it it freaks meout to think about like 25 years
from now?
What are things gonna look like?
I know.
I mean, we really might be haveflying cars and shit by then.

SPEAKER_02 (01:18:45):
I won't.
I'll be dead.
Shut up.
Um, I'm not gonna be fucking 75years old.
Anyway, look, so I was watchinga TikTok the other day, and I
had my little atheist mindblown.
Don't worry, I'm not believingin God.

SPEAKER_04 (01:18:59):
Okay, goddamn.

SPEAKER_02 (01:19:00):
Just calm down.
Um not that not that but hey,just listen one minute.
Okay, just hear me out.
So one of the tick it's it is anactual thing, and I forget what
it was called because I didn'twrite it down.
But it is a thing where it's andyou don't actually die, you just

(01:19:20):
move timelines.
So and like if you suddenly wakeup like you were really sick,
and then you wake up and you andyou're all better suddenly, you
died and you move to a newtimeline.
Like whenever you die, you justmove to another.

SPEAKER_03 (01:19:39):
I could get down with that.

SPEAKER_02 (01:19:41):
I could get down with that too.
Yeah, like that.

SPEAKER_03 (01:19:43):
I mean, I'm pretty sure Einstein talked about shit
like that.

SPEAKER_02 (01:19:46):
Yeah, I forget what the fuck it was called, but um
Yeah, it was like wow, reallyyeah, that uh maybe yeah, that's
crazy, right?
So that's what I've decided thatI'm gonna start looking into
now.

SPEAKER_03 (01:20:01):
Okay, that's your new religion.

SPEAKER_02 (01:20:02):
Yeah, I hope that the next one is better than this
one.

SPEAKER_03 (01:20:05):
I'm just gonna continue to believe uh turn into
dirt.
I'll be a video of decayed bodywith one of your weird websites.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:20:16):
Um yeah, I I don't know.
Like, cause I thought about itwith I was telling like I was
telling my sister, like, thinkabout it.
My mom one day went to sleepbecause she had a little bump on
the noggin.
And then the next day, she wasin a rehab and had no
recollection of the past six,nine months, something like

(01:20:39):
that.
Like she thought the accidentwas in March, she didn't
remember anything past December,Christmas that year.
So who knows?

SPEAKER_03 (01:20:48):
Yeah, and I mean, all that we know about space and
time is what our little brains,our little human brains know.
I mean, I was listening tosomething the other day where
our time's all fucked up anyway.
Like for an actual leap year, wewould need to make up a day.
I don't know.
It was somebody explaining thebreakdown of time, and it's like

(01:21:08):
it's I forget, I do know.
But time is what we made up,like that's human-made.
We decided what time was gonnalook like.
The Mayans thought we were allgonna be dead like 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 (01:21:21):
Yeah.
It's called the Pac-Man Theory.
I had to take another break andlook it up because it was called
the Pac-Man Theory, andbasically it's the same thing as
like the Pac-Man game whenPac-Man goes off one side and
then reappears at a differentposition in the same game.
Yes.
And I made her watch the video.
Yes, and you should all watch itnow because yep.
Yep.
That's what I'm going with.

(01:21:43):
So back to this timeline.

SPEAKER_03 (01:21:46):
Maybe.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 (01:21:47):
I could have just we just heard some really loud
noise.
So we might be.

SPEAKER_03 (01:21:50):
We did, so we might be, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:21:52):
Welcome to our new reality.

SPEAKER_03 (01:21:54):
Yeah, we're glad you were here for it.

SPEAKER_02 (01:21:56):
Thanks for following us.
Um, but thank you for beinghere.
Thank you for listening.
Like, share, rate, review.
Please.
Find us where you listen topodcasts.
Please.
In this timeline or any other.
Follow us on all the socials atlike whatever pod.
Send us an email about whatconsciousness you're in at the
likewhateverpod at gmail.com ordon't like whatever.

(01:22:20):
Whatever.
Bye.