Boo-tox & Boundaries: Surviving Spooky Season with Sass w/ Guest Melanie Moses

Is the scariest part of your week the news… or your group chat?  When life’s a haunted house, joy is your flashlight.  This episode dives into ghosts, girlhood, and getting older—with filmmaker and spooky sisterhood sage Melanie Moses—and it’s way more treat than trick. 

🎧 This Episode Has It All (No Ouija Board Required):

🎃 Monster timing, bad manners – Melanie’s hot take on what horror movies get dead wrong
⚡ The ADHD audio hack – Why speeding things up might slow your brain down (in the best way)
🧴 Injectable intel – What she tried, why it’s different, and how it totally twisted her take on aging
👀 Spooky scams or sacred skills? – The one big question haunting the paranormal community
📰 Breaking news… or broken trust? – A media moment that made us both bite our nails
💔 When ghosts aren’t just in graveyards – The quiet collapse of a decade-long friendship
💅 One man, one pedicure, one perfect pun – A story that left us screaming (in a good way)
🧃 Joy as rebellion – What happens when a drag show becomes divine intervention
🧭 The unsung heroes of hard times – Not everyone’s marching, but someone’s making the muffins
🧠 Do your own due diligence – And why that’s harder (and more hopeful) than it sounds  

👻 Wanna hear how spooky stories, surprise Botox, and sacred truth-telling all wind up in the same conversation?

Hit play and find out. And hey—if this episode tickled your brain or hugged your heart, share it with someone who needs a little radical joy right now.   

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/radical-joy-with-james-bullard--5644728/support.

🌹🧡🟡🌳🔷🟪🤎🖤❔  ❤️🍊🟨💚💙💜🟤🖤❕❕
Take care of yourself, take care of each other, and breathe!  
❤️🍊🟨💚💙💜🟤🖤❕❕  🌹🧡🟡🌳🔷🟪🤎🖤❔  
Got something on your mind? James never runs out of things to say, so tell us what you want to discuss!   

Remember there is no shame in joy or for asking for what you need.  

Leave a review, send us a screenshot, and we’ll mail you a sticker! See you next FRIDAY for another dose of Radical Joy.  

James is not a therapist, but you’re not alone. If you're in crisis, call 988 for professional help.  

For non-emergencies, Psychology Today can connect you with support and therapists who fit your needs.  

This podcast and CLW Studios content are not therapy or a substitute for it. Guest opinions are their own.  

We're here for insight and encouragement but always seek professional support when needed.  

This episode was Produced and edited by Kerri J of CLW Studios

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello, friends, So happy to have you here with us
today at Radical Joy. If you've been here before, welcome back.
If this is your first time with us, we're glad
you're here. Each week, we're here with you talking about
things that weigh on our minds and hearts, hoping if
you're dealing with something similar, we can adjust our perspectives
as you listen. Hey, if you're struggling with something that
needs immediate attention, please know that help is available. Just

(00:34):
on nine eight eight nationwide in the US to reach
the Mental Health and Suicide Crisis Hotline. All of us
here at COW Studios believe that mental health is a
vital part of our well being. The more people we
meet and the more places we go, the more we
realize how important it is to make people aware of
the fact that there is no shame in enjoying the

(00:56):
parts of our lives that are incredible. Time for some
Radical Joy, and this week the three fingers pointing back
at us are for our guest, Melanie Moses. Melanie's a filmmaker, accountant,
and virgo. She currently lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her
partner and two ornery old dogs. Since twenty twenty three,
she has been leading a community that promotes and supports

(01:17):
women in the paranormal industry, called the Secret Society of
the Spooky Sisterhood. When work or her not so secret
Society aren't on the calendar, she takes a lot of
pride in spending time with her seven Wonderful Nibblings and
daydreaming about winning the lottery. Welcome, my dear. What a wonderful,

(01:39):
wonderful day to have you on our show.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here again.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Ah. I love getting our Oh I don't know if
I should repeat guests on the show. It's so nice
because these are people who lend their time and their
spirit to us so that we can sort of see
how they've been over the last x amount of time
since we spoke with them last. And so having Melanie

(02:07):
back is just such a treat, especially here whenever Spooky
Season is rap rapping at the chamber door, so it's
always nice to have that. And the part that I
love about this is the very small and brief chat beforehand,
because we get a chance to sort of like lay
out a plan and sort of get a direction about

(02:28):
where we want to go while we discuss things, and
I'm excited about today's episode number one because it's with
somebody that I know and love and trust and have
had on the show before. And number two because of
what she brings to the table and the candor with
which she discusses is very enjoyable for me. So, without

(02:48):
further ado, everyone please give a very warm welcome to
miss Melanie Moses. Welcome, Thank you, thank of course. So
things are going well.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Things are going well. It's been quite a year, but
things are going really well, especially because it's almost spooky season.
Can't complain about that.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Right, not a thing. The weather is cooling, everything is
turning into pumpkin flavors. We've got fun costumes, we've got
amazing decores. And who doesn't love a scary movie, right? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:24):
I love scary movies and I have not watched one
all year. This time I got to watch something.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Agree. I just got into Black Mirror again. I didn't
realize there was another season that I had not watched,
and that is seriously horrifying media.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
It's a lot, yeah, because it also like touches so
much on things that are going on in real life,
so it's kind of it's scary in a whole different way, right.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
And that's kind of sort of what I love. I'm like, Oh,
give me something with an element of reality to it
that really needs that. That'll send me under the covers
tonight before I go to bed.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Sure, right, are you like that with like slasher movies
and stuff too, because they're more realistic or you like
more paranormal, like uh, exorcisms and things like that? Where
do you fall?

Speaker 1 (04:11):
All all all of it, literally all of it. Give
me the Gore, give me the hell Raiser with like
the a cult, give me the ghosties, give me the Poultergeisties,
all of it. I want all of it now. I
will say that that one, what was that one that
was like the h that was supposed to be sort
of like a paranormal mockumentary, not Blair Witch, but the

(04:32):
one paranormal activity could not be less impressed with any
of that. It was tedious. It made me wait forever
for something, and I hate it. Give me a monster immediately,
and I don't even need the whole monster, like you know,
like an eyeball or a shadow or a flash of light,
and I see the creature in the corner. I'm yours.
I'm hooked.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
I think I think is it the conjuring that does
that so well? I think there's always that little bit,
you know, just kind of one step ahead of you,
and the whole movie you're just like ready for it.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well, and amazing actors. Everyone in that film series is amazing.
Patrick Wilson, unbelievable. That amazing woman. I'm so sorry. I
don't know her name, but one talent.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
If you're a farmiga.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Ah, she's so good in literally everything I've ever seen
her in. And so you bring me a well written,
spooky something with actors that know how to put it
on a screen, Take my money, give me some popcorn,
and leave me alone.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yes, that's right where I'm at right now.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Bingo, and I don't even have any popcorn in the house.
I'm gonna have to remedy that tomorrow. Me and Netflix
are gonna get real tired over the next few days. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I was gonna say, it sounds like you've got your
weekend plan.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Now, I know, right. I didn't even realize that we
were going for that. I thought, yes, because you especially
know that we have streaming and you can get anything
and everything so easily and quickly.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, great, exactly what you want when you want it.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
I know, because my patience has grown so thin, especially
over the last few years, I was just like, immediacy,
that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Oh, yeah, I want it, and I want it now.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, and we paid to have that available, so which, yeah,
is honestly kind of a nice segue into talking about
these kind of things that, you know, the things that
we don't talk about, taboo type situations, and whenever you
kind of touched on that in the pregame, I was like, ooh,
I would love to talk about some of that with

(06:41):
you if that feels like the sort of thing, because
where I would love to start is sort of my
own like dirty little guilty confession kind of situation.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
My let's do it great. My attention span is shot
to hell. I don't wait for nothing. I can't wait
for nothing. If I'm watching a movie that I love
and it's taken too long, I'll hit that little gear
at the bottom and I'll crank that mother up to
one point twenty five or one point five. I listen
to Radical Joy episodes at one point two five.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
I do too. I listen to everything a little bit
faster and so fun fact, you said something about your
attention span there, and apparently that's something that's very helpful
for folks like me that have ADHD is to listen
to things at a faster rate because it like tickles
that part of our brain and it helps us to
focus on things instead of getting distracted. So I think

(07:35):
that's great that you mentioned that.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Wonderful, And I'll be honest, I've had several friends who
know me very well to reach out to me. It's like, so,
how's that undiagnosed ADHDDO. Well, me and my coffee are fine.
And while I journal, I listen to those ADHD focus
music programs on YouTube and they are wonderful, amazing.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, And I think a lot of us don't get
diagnosed until later. I was forty before I got diagnosed,
and it was such a game changer. It's something that
I think, especially for women, we don't get diagnosed earlier
because we tend to not be hyperactive in the same sense,
so we're not causing disruptions in class or we're not

(08:22):
you know, doing things to act out, and therefore our
teachers don't see it as a problem. And generally that's
the only way that people get diagnosed at a young
age as if it's causing a problem. And I know,
for me, until my doctor asked me all the questions
on the like questionnaire that she had to go through,
she was like, did this happen to you when you

(08:44):
were in elementary school? Did this happen? Did this happen
or not elementary school but a school in general. And
I started to cry because I was like, all of
these things happened to me, and they bothered me, but
they didn't bother anyone else. And so, you know, for example,
I would doodle on my papers instead of paying attention
to the teacher, and then they would call on me

(09:05):
and I'd be so embarrassed that I didn't know what
we were talking about because I had lost the thread,
you know. And I still did pretty well in school,
so it never was like a thing, but it should
have been. And I probably could have done better if
I had had the tools I needed to focus better.
So yeah, I think it's interesting A lot of us

(09:25):
don't get that. We don't talk about it, We don't
get those diagnoses until we're older because of stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Right, because just like you said, if it isn't a
problem for the community at large, it isn't really a problem,
or at least it's not perceived as such, especially pardon
me for saying among our women. Yeah, it is one
of those things where it still blows my mind to
hear reports back from friends or some sort of like

(09:55):
account of what happened while you visit your medical professionals. Crazy,
And then when we learn about these are like, oh, yeah,
we never did tests on women. We just tested all
these guys. We tested men for these procedures and these
problems and these diseases and these treatments. Was like, and
so few of these have any female representation at all.

(10:18):
I'm trying to figure it out, So so much of
this is starting at ground zero or just kind of
like feeling it out of the dark. Eh, let's try this.
Or my personal favorite, maybe you should just lose some.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Weight all the time. Oh my gosh, it's actually really
funny you say that, because somebody that I follow on
Instagram who I absolutely adore. Her name is Kelly Girardi.
She is an astronaut and a scientist, and she's brilliant,
and she has been very vocal and open about her

(10:48):
IVF journey, and she just recently she is I guess
I'm not a mom, so I don't know if I'm
going to get all these terms right. But she's about
to start her second trimester of her pregnancy with her
space baby, as she calls it, and she was going
through oh what do you call it when it plants

(11:12):
are fasciitisat right, And she was concerned that it wasn't
getting better, and she was experiencing more pain than she
thought she could have she should be. And she went
to the doctor and like you were saying, you know,
they were like, well, you don't really have any other
symptoms or anything that make us think that this could

(11:35):
be a different problem. You just kind of need to
ice it. And she had gained some weight quickly with
this pregnancy, which is not abnormal or strange, and her
doctor had let her know that wasn't an unhealthy thing
that had happened, and they said, well, maybe it's just
because you had gained so much weight so fast. Well,
she kept pushing and thankfully her doctor did listen to her,

(11:57):
and she had a sonogram on her calf or her
hard leg and found a huge blood clot. So it
could have been a really big problem for her had
the doctor not listened. And I think that's a great lesson.
And just like you said, it happens all the time.
You know, it happens a lot for women like constantly.

(12:17):
But it's not just women, it's it's everybody that have
you know, that problem getting our doctors to listen to
us sometimes when we aren't exactly textbook situations.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yes, well I think too, you know, just to make
sure I throw love at the doctors, thank you for
all you do. We also understand that you guys have
a huge patient load because people continue to drop out
of the medical profession, and we got to we still
have to come up with something to make sure that
folks don't get overlooked because just like you're saying, this

(12:51):
blood cut could have been a serious issue.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's a great lesson of just
like if you have a patient who is telling you, no,
something is wrong. My body is telling me something is wrong, listen,
And same thing for you know, folks like me who
tend to be hypochondriacs. Trust your doctor sometimes too, because
they do know what they're talking about.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, honestly, well too, I was a very chubby young
man and so my pediatrician was always like, we got
to figure out something to get you either taller or leaner,
because where you are right now is just not healthy.
And I was like, well, I would love the taller
bit alas not so much in my in my choice

(13:36):
since yeah, so it always that was one hundred percent
valid for me, especially because I was definitely in the
obese category. But it was also one of those things
where my medical professional, not necessarily my pediatrician, but later
in life, was a very very heavy man. And it's
always so interesting to be like, Okay, you have the

(13:58):
expertise to tell me, yeah, it is a whole other situation.
Whenever the doctor is also dealing with the same situation.
It's Oh, as a child, you don't get it. Later
on you're like, it is. It is not as easy
as it seems. It is not so cut and dried
so right.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, And just because you know that doesn't mean that
you can fix it. It's not like you can just
snap your fingers and oh I get it now exactly.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
You know, you just never know people's situation. My h
it runs in my family a little bit. I know
that my several of my family members have been you know,
pretty pretty far overweight and things like that, and it
part of part of his genetics. Part of it is nutrition,
part of it is activity. You know, there's so many
things to play into it. We can't just say, well,
this poof your problem is completely this so totally, but yeah,

(14:54):
that's talking about the medicine. Bit of it is is
it's always such an interesting thing because I love my doctors.
I think almost every physician I've ever had have been
really attentive with and great, you know some of my
stuff I didn't know how to say it, you know.
And now with the Internet, we can go in with
some homework. Before some of it maybe a little bit

(15:17):
too extreme or too involved, and others you know, great,
you know this is what I'm dealing with, and this
is what I found, you know, a little guidance or
or whatever, and you can work together to get something done.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
Oh yeah, and I think you're exactly right, Like you
can go overboard. I have been guilty of being a
WebMD doctor myself and going in and saying, Okay, well
I have this horrible, terrible disease because WebMD told me so,
and then it really was just like I have a cold,
you know. But I've also had times where, for example,

(15:52):
this week, I went and got injections in my forehead
for the first time. I did something called Daxify, which
is a vegan version of botox. And I went into
this appointment and I said, here's what I read online,
here's what I'm thinking, here's how I feel about things.

(16:13):
But I also trust you because this is what you
do for your living, Like, you know this stuff, so
let's talk about it and make a decision together. And
I think in cases like that, where you go in
and you're informed and you have kind of an opinion
or how you feel about things, but you also trust
the professional to help guide you to the right decision,

(16:34):
that's the right way to use that information instead of
coming in like I'm probably going to die next week
what I read on the internet, right, and I didn't
even know. We've all done it.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Oh gosh, yes, Oh my god. Yeah. Because sometimes, especially
being a pain wimp, which I am, you go in
with something and you're like, and I don't get sick
very often, knock on wood. It's just one of those things.
You're like, I feel like I am going to turn
inside out starting at my navel. Help, yes, and they're like, okay, good, right,

(17:09):
And luckily everybody's known me, you know, pretty pretty well
by the time that I come in there with something
like that, Like, you're never none of anybody turning inside out,
so I think you're probably safe.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
But you're probably good on that one. Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Also vegan botox or vegan product like botox. I did
not know that.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
I am not a scientist, and I am not going
to purport to give you correct information about this by
any means, but apparently they're both neurotopsin which is going
to do the same thing and essentially like freeze your muscles,
but with botox. And I think the other one that

(17:56):
they use at this particular office is die sport. They're
made from or like derived from animal proteins, whereas Deaxify
is something that is not. I don't know where it
comes from or what the difference really is, but I

(18:17):
do know that it is vegan, which excited me. I'm
not a vegan myself, but I do think having stuff
like that available is really exciting. So that's why I
went with that one. I thought it was a good option.
I wanted to see if it worked. Although I have
nothing to compare it to.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
Well. To be fair, your skin looks absolutely staler. You
look stunning. Thank you absolutely, And I love that we
can talk about that so openly. Like I remember, like
back in the day, when someone got something like a
little refresh or lifted or what have you, it was
mom's the word. Nobody talked about it, and it was

(19:02):
so hush hush. And nowadays, let me give you the
car to my surgeon, or oh yeah, this clinic's just
right over here, and right now they're running a special.
You can get so many money. It's blah blah blah.
And I'm like, thank you, openness. I really loved this.
Keeping it to yourself. Number one, people aren't going to
believe you in the first place, telling fibbs for no

(19:25):
apparent reason, because nobody cares why. They just want to
know who if it looks good, they can go to gatekeeping.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
So we don't want that here. That's there's no place
for that. I feel like, you know, I was refreshed
by celebrities who spoke out about what they had had
done for a long time, but still a lot of
people were kind of quiet about it. And I feel
like in the last couple of years, it's really kind
of changed, and like people have been very open, Like

(19:55):
Kylie Jenner and Chris Jenner both decided to just put
it out there, and like Kylie was like, this is
what I asked for with my boob job, and Chris
was like, I got a facelift and here's who I
went to and here's what he did. And I think
that kind of shifted things. And I know for me personally,
almost everybody I know my age and I'm forty two.

(20:16):
I feel like almost everybody has been getting botox for
years and they've talked about it openly, like with friends,
but they would never like talk about it publicly, you know.
But it's silly. We all do it. So why is
this so hush hush?

Speaker 1 (20:32):
Agree, Why keep it in that little circle when everybody
could benefit from the information. The more we share, the
more we know, the.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Less shame when you share.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yes, thank you, because there's just no shame in it.
Everybody wants to look great. Everyone wants to look their best,
and we have these available to us, so great. I
don't think it's vanity to want to recapture some of
the best parts of your life if you have the
time and then and the resources necessary to get that done.

(21:02):
I do think that some people wait far longer than
is probably wise and then try to turn the clock
back into large a chunk, and it gives them a
bit of an artificial thing. We've seen those. We don't
love those. But like people who start relatively earlier, just
getting a little something here, a little something there throughout

(21:23):
maintain a much more natural esthetic throughout.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
Sure, like no one wants to look like you know,
they have their face all pulled back and nothing moves.
I mean, I'm sure some people do. No judgment if
that's your thing, But then you know, we look at
people like Helen Mirn, Helen, we know, girl, you've done it.
Sure she looks incredible. She's like eighty and she looks amazing.

(21:48):
But she still doesn't look twenty. And that's okay, she
doesn't need to. She looks great, right, And.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
If she did at eighty, because she's been doing this
for sixty years, like she's been at it for a
long time, that would just be bizarre, Like that's a
death becomes her situation, you know, it's like what's going
on here?

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah. And two I'll say this because my buddy and
I went down a YouTube rabbit hole of just like
nineties amazing nineties old like television shows and whatever like
nine O two one oh and NOO's Place and Da
Da Da da Jason Priestley. Some folks simply do not
age well why And it is crazy to see some

(22:36):
people that just look absolutely amazing. They look their age,
they look great for their age. And then you see
some people it's like, oh my goodness, whats the story? Yeah, yeah,
leave it while you got it. You know, all you young,
beautiful people out there, anybody in the sound of my voice,
enjoy the beauty you've got, because you're not guaranteed tomorrow,

(22:59):
even with a great search.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
So yeah, exactly, exactly, And there's no shame if you
want to get a little touch up here or there,
you know, do your thing. And if you don't want to,
there's no shame in that either.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Truth well, and you know how many times have we
seen you know, pardon me, I'm gonna call myself out
on this. Some guy in a very delicate stage of
his life. Some call it a midlife crisis. I always
think that's kind of rude and mean. But like he's
feeling a little insecure, you know, he's starting to really
understand and realize his mortality, and so he will do

(23:35):
something ridiculous like earrings, or he'll get a ponytail or
a really fast, nice car. I was like, great, this
goes in the exact same category with any and all
of these kind of things. Pardon me calling it ridiculous,
that's not at all what I meant. If that makes
you feel great, do it, Pierce and Nippole. If you
want their papa, go for it. Nobody here gives a

(23:56):
hoot as long as it makes you feel good and
doesn't hurt anybody else.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Go get some bro talks.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
If that makes you happy, bro talks, please get out
of here.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, it's amazing. I one time was at the dentist
and there was a guy in the chair next to
me who I think had had some happy gas for
whatever he was doing. And he said that he and
his guy friends go to get pedicures once a month
and they call it toes and bros.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Oh my god, amazing.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
And I was like, I don't know who this guy is,
but he's my new best friend because that's awesome. Yes,
and I love that he just like openly said it
in the dentist's office too.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Well, not so openly because he was also affected from
the sounds of it, so he.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
Was out like it.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yeah toes and bros. That is amazing. I don't have
many friends around here I could get to go for
something like that.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
That is a hoot. It sounds awesome. I bet it
would be so fun just to sit and like I mean,
honestly the best part of the curas just sitting there
and soaking your feet in the tub.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Anyway, absolutely just kind of like letting somebody else pamper
you for a bit, you know.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah, I bet you.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
You're a lady on Instagram with her planner for shiatis
would love a massage and a hot tub with her
feet in it.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
Oh yeah, and she deserves it. She's great, Oh my gosh,
and I love she's just like you were saying earlier.
She's just so open about things, and it's very refreshing
because you feel like, you know, we were talking earlier
about a lot of the stuff that's going on right now,
and we don't know if we're getting the whole truth,
and we feel like people are keeping things from us

(25:37):
or you know, maybe not telling us the whole story
or switching the facts up on us a little here
and there, and so having somebody who's just so open
and forward about things is kind of refreshing right.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Now, I agree, And I think that's such a great point.
I love that so much. It's just it's become, honestly,
like the breath of fresh air after you've been in
the pool for too long.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
You know, you're just trying to see how long you
can hold your breath, and you came up, you know,
break the surface, and you're just gasping for it. You're
like that. It's not even that I have a hard
time digging around for the truth, because I think that
a lot of us are kind of used to that.
You know, you get one source and like, okay, well
this is kind of a great area, so let me

(26:26):
look around just to see what else I can see
to figure it out. Yeah, And having that openness just
given freely without having to dig or labor or just
beg or cajole for it, what a wonderful thing, What
a novelty. Right? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (26:46):
If only we were all more like that, I wish,
And you know, I think there's plenty of people who are,
and I think that's probably right now, something that draws
us to people just in general. And I think the key,
at least for me is finding people who we aren't
just refreshed because they're being blunt and direct and crass

(27:09):
because it's entertaining, but finding people who are doing that
and also telling us the truth that would.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Be great, Yeah, because I think that truth in and
of itself is relatively neutral. Like I don't find it
to be very rude or even have like a color
to it very much. It's almost like water, you know,
it's just like, no, this is just what it is.
This is what happened, Like objectively, I'm not trying to
spin it. I'm not trying to bias it. What I'm

(27:38):
just saying is this is the occurrence. This is the
video clip of it happening. I'm not telling you who
or what because I don't know that yet. We're still
waiting for more information. What was it? The Newsroom Aaron
Sorkin New series That was just absolutely incredible because they
often talked about things like that, because there was push

(28:00):
in one episode about them having the news first versus
having the news right, and the owner was like, no,
we're getting left behind. Everyone's calling it da da da
da and Jeff Bridges's character was like, we don't know
that yet. I'm still waiting to get the last, the
final confirmation. Then I will be happy to tell this.
But until I receive that last bit of information, I'm

(28:24):
not doing that. We have a reputation, we have a responsibility,
and I think that a lot of people don't take
that nearly as seriously as they should, especially in a
twenty four hour news cycle.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Absolutely, I don't know. Have you seen the film The
Post I think was the name of it. It was
Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. It was a Steven Spielberg.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Movie years ago.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Yes, yeah, I think it came out I'm gonna say
twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen. It was something I'm going, Oh,
I'm about to ruffle some feathers. I hope you're ready
for a little.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Drama, Ready for some drama.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
My two least favorite actors in this whole world are
Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. Okay, I think they both
seem like lovely human beings. I would absolutely love to
sit down and have dinner with either of them. But
I can't ever see a film with either of them

(29:24):
and not be like, oh, that's Tom Hank's playing whatever character,
or the same thing with Meryl Streep. I saw the
Post only because I was going to see every Oscar
Best Picture nominee that year and it was the last
one and I had to do it right. It was
my favorite movie of the year. It was incredible and

(29:48):
both of them were absolutely genius in it. And one
scene I'll never forget this. I don't think this spoils anything,
but just in case spoiler alert, they are your old movie.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
We're fine.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
I mean right, people should have seen this by now.
But plus it's about a historical event, so hopefully people
know what happens anyway. But they're about to publish this
particular issue issue. Yes, I think it's the right word
of the newspaper. And there's this scene that just lives

(30:21):
rent free in my head, and it's the printing press
just pup, up, up, up up up uah, and it
goes and goes, and it's like, I don't know, it's
got to be thirty seconds of just that noise of
the printing press and you see the letters going on
to the paper and it is so tense that I
had marks on my hand from where I was sitting
clenching my fists, and that's when I was like, dang,

(30:43):
this is a good movie. But back to the point
where we were going with this originally, there goes my
adhd Okay.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Context is we.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Were talking about, you know, you have a reputation to uphold,
and you can't just put stuff out out there that's
not true just because you want to win and you
want to be there first. You know, it's important to
get it as quickly as you can for a lot
of reasons, but you also want to tell people the truth.
And that's really what the post was about, was how

(31:16):
where is that line ethically and is it more important
to get the story or to get the story right?
And yes, that one got me. That was a great film, highly.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Right, mind noted. I will rewatch. I'll put that in
the list. Not for spooky season, it'll be after, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Definitely, Yeah, it's a good November movie, fantastic.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
I'll need entertainment November as well, right. I think that's
such an interesting thing that we have to say it, Yeah,
that our media has a responsibility to tell the truth
as best as they see it. And it's now I
get it, like they made it very clear that it
becomes a gamble. You know, chances are very good this

(31:59):
is going to be the out come. We want to
get the scoop. We want to be the first to
put it out, and it's it's probably probably probably gonna
be right. Not a guarantee, but you know it's in
the high seventies. Yeah, and I think a lot of times,
and then if they get it wrong, there's always a redaction. However,
that thing is usually buried like page eighteen, bottom, tiny type,

(32:22):
like nobody ever sees that. And in the Year of
Our Lord twenty twenty five, to get many people past
the headline is a chore. Guilty, hand up, guilty. I
get what I need from the headline, and I just
go ahead and just take that as gospel wrong. You

(32:42):
need to know they put those headlines there to grab you,
and you should probably read much farther in to know
if that's actually what's going on.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, I mean, it could be the literal opposite thinking
that's actually happening, and they just wanted to put that
there because they knew that would make you click. You know, sure, absolutely,
it's hard these days, and I think that it's interesting
too to think about, like who does that responsibility fall
on That's something that I've thought about a lot with
Spooky Sisterhood, because we obviously deal with things that are

(33:16):
not black and white. There is a lot of people
out there trying to figure out what happens after we
pass on, But there's no science that is like, this
is exactly what happens when you die, right, And we
have people like mediums and psychics out there, and we
have people who are paranormal investigators and things like that.

(33:38):
And I've put a lot of time and thought into
what is my responsibility here to vet people and say, oh,
these people are legit? How how can I do that?
Because how can I say they're legit? There's no way
for me to know that. And so I've put a
lot of time and effort into saying, hey, these are

(33:59):
people I think are really interesting, but please do your
own due diligence. But in the media, where does that
fall Should we expect the press and the news to
give us all of the correct things? Where where does
the responsibility fall on me to dig into that article
that I just read instead of just assuming that that's

(34:21):
the truth.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
You know, that is an excellent question.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
I don't know where that line is to be well.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
I think that everyone takes a part in it. I'll
be honest. Since the television station and the news program
are both making just ungodly wads of money, I consider
that to be their responsibility professionally to provide the most
honest account of the goings on that they're talking about,

(34:50):
without slant, without bias. And I know I'm living in
a dream world when I even bring this up to
suggest it. It's just that I think that because they
are making so much money, and there is a point
where the greed of getting the scoop and or just
keeping people watching because that's what makes more money for
ad revenue, needs to fall to the fact that we

(35:13):
don't need twenty four hours of news a b we
need it told in such a way. So that is
this is what happened. This person did this thing, and
this was the outcome, and anything more you want to know,
Google is free. It's it's a pain in my butt

(35:33):
to try to use right now, this AI summarization do
Lali is the worst thing ever wrong, wrong, so wrong,
incredibly misdirected, misinformed, all these kind of things. I'm just like,
we are buried in so much useless information. Whenever it
used to be that we were spoiled for a long time.

(35:55):
We could google it, we could yahoo it, we could
bring it, we could do anything, and it would pull
up the top ten most credible probable answers to whatever
you would ask or look for. And that is no
longer the age in which we live.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Unfortunately, you are right about that.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
And and the thing is, I don't know if our
diligence caught up with that fact yet. Because we did
have it so easy for so long, why would I
want to work hard now? Whenever aim I could just
do this for me or YadA YadA, YadA, and like
all these kind of things, and in an effort to

(36:36):
be even lazier, we get the worst possible answer, the
lowest quality information, and people run with it, myself included, Like,
I'm not trying to put this on anybody, because I've
definitely been guilty of it. I am doing better because
now I know this is not a magic potion, this
is not some kind of like crazy solve everything situation. No,

(37:01):
you still have to do the legwork because once it
has done some of the crunching, you still have to
make sure that it is accurate.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
And you know what it used to be, Like we
were talking about that's the newspaper's reputation. Well, if I
pull something up on the internet and go tell everybody
that's the truth, now that's my reputation I have to
worry about too. Yes, you know, so we still should
want to have the right information before we go spewing
it and around everybody. But yep.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Well and two, I put something on the internet about
ivermectin a while back, whenever people were choosing that over
the COVID vaccine, and you would not believe the people
who came to holler at me about it is like
you may not like it, but my grandma and her
hairdresser and Shenman, she may have hear for FIFA. And
I just deleted it because I think that as as

(37:51):
as a person, my reputation on the line for information
isn't going to be. I don't mind that people don't
believe that because this is my take on it. Not
a medical professional. I just know we used to use
avermkner on the farm all the time when I was
a kid, because it's horse medicine. Literally. Now I know
there is a human gradient of it. I understand that

(38:14):
because I tried to do just a little bit of
homework on it. I also think, personally, me my own opinion,
that is somewhat irresponsible, but that's just me going with it.
It's like, all right, so.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
I one hundred percent see that, and it's you know what,
maybe it does have its uses for people as well.
Apparently it does. Sure, cheering COVID is not one of them.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
In my opinion, it wasn't either, and that was where
that was going. It's just like so many people came
in to say that in their belief and estimation it
did help them with their symptoms, or it helped their
loved ones or whatever, and so I just deleted the
post and people got upset. They're like, well, why did
you delete that? Because you know you don't like having
open col conversation. I was like, I don't like putting

(39:03):
something on my representative page that has that kind of
talk about it. I will I will discuss this with
you anytime, But the stuff y'all were saying was so
far beyond any kind of reasonable conversation. I just decided
it wasn't worth it and deleted it.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Absolutely absolutely, And that's your right to set those kind
of boundaries on your page. It would be different if
you're going on to everybody else's page and saying take
it down. No one wants to hear this, right, we'd
like two, wouldn't we? On some pages? But oh mysh.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
The background conversations about you know, that kook in your neighborhood,
you like, I don't I, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
I am definitely that nosy neighbor though, so I would
be putting stuff about my kookie neighbor.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Which is fine if you earn it, burn it. I'm
just saying it's like, hey, some people feel that, but
for me, I don't know. Every once in a while,
I'll go, I I have a friend back in Alabama,
and he is so good about being so patient and
so kind and delivering source after source after source after source,
and no one feels like he's paying attention except for
his little pocket full of you know, blue dots. And

(40:16):
he and I have little conversations on the side and like,
I admire you so greatly because this numpty shows up
with this absolute ridiculous, terrible grammar, can't spell, zero punctuation,
and they want to be taken seriously about things concerning
either national security or policy or health care. It's like

(40:38):
you can't chew god man walk At the same time,
I'm so sorry you get to vote and you did.
Now like help please find something, or like so judge,
I'm so sorry, But it's just one of those things,
just like certain contributors to the conversation get different weights

(41:01):
of how much their opinions and their input and contributions
make to the discussion. And that's just that's where I
am with that.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
And it's hard to I think I'm someone who generally
tries to give people the benefit of the doubt, and
I can be patient for quite some time, so I
have a tendency to read stuff like that and instantly
want to comment and be like, that's an interesting point
of view. Can you give me some sources because I
would like to read some myself, And then it instantly

(41:32):
turns to like ugliness and name calling and never is
there a source reference and listen, maybe their source.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
And I'm going to be.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Honest with you, I lost my very best friend to
something like this. She's the best friend I ever ever had,
and during COVID she said she wasn't going to get vaccinated,
and that's her business. That's her right. I'm not going
to sit here and say that I would have stopped
being friends with her because she refused to get vaccinated,

(42:02):
because that's just not true. But I, as someone who
is I've had a phobia of needles for as long
as I can remember. I hadn't had a shot since
I was eight years old. And I was like, I'm
going to go get vaccinated because I felt it was
my job. And this again is my opinion. I felt
it was my job to help keep my community safe.

(42:26):
And I thought she and I were very similar minded.
I mean we've been best friends for a decade or
more at that point, and so she said she wasn't
going to get vaccinated, and I said, well, can you
tell me what's made you feel that way? And she
just shut me down. And I tried for several months
to get her to have a conversation with me, and
I was like, send me your sources, because this is

(42:48):
what I'm reading and it seems perfectly safe to me.
But if you're finding something else, tell me because I
would like to know as well. And I haven't talked
to her in about for maybe four or five years
now because of it. And again, you know, it wasn't
her opinion that was the problem. It was because she

(43:11):
wasn't willing to have a conversation. And I have that
problem a lot online, like you're saying, you know, I
have that problem of like, I'm trying to be patient
and understand your point of view, but you got to
give me something to work with here.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
You know, I'm on pins and needles. When you say lose,
is this like figurative or literal?

Speaker 2 (43:33):
So yeah, figurative. She is still alive. We are just
not speaking anymore.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
And so I kept pushing for a while, and then
at some point I was just like, all right, well,
when you're ready to talk, let's talk. But until then,
I think maybe it's best we go our separate ways.
And I haven't heard from her since. So it's been
probably close to four years since we've spoken last, and
I missed her terrible and I still care about her

(44:02):
and hope that she's doing well. There's no ill will there.
I'm still down to talk if she wanted to talk.
Of course, I kind of felt like people strangers on
the internet don't owe me that conversation, right, it'd be nice.
I would love it, even if people who are the
exact opposite beliefs and values and all of that wanted

(44:24):
to have a conversation, by all means, I'm open to it.
But when someone who's your best friend doesn't trust you
or feel comfortable enough with you to have a conversation,
there's a reason why. And I wish that we could
have had that opportunity for me to understand why.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
You know, Yeah, and that comes back to that openness
that we're having. Is that a question of you being
somewhat insecure about your decision? Are you uncomfortable discussing that
with me as your friend? Are you afraid that you're
going to lose me as a friend if you tell
me your whole belief and things like that, And and

(45:04):
that didn't even save their friendship for now at least,
you know, I don't want to say forever, but like
for now, it's just one of those things. You's like, oh,
I feel very similarly to the whole Charlie Kirk situation.
My goodness, the people that just came crawling out of
everywhere to talk about what a hero and of this
and then that and the other thing. I was like, Okay,

(45:26):
why what a man of thought, yeah, super, okay, great,
I would love to hear it because it's just one
of those things, and they would send me video clips
like great. At thirty seven seconds, he says that. At
two eleven, he says this, At two seventeen, he says this.
At two thirty six, he says this. I said, those
two things do not mesh. And I was blasted. It's like, okay, yeah,

(45:53):
all right, I I.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
The openness is not any great. I felt like with
that situation too, it was very If you don't think
that this is a travesty on par with the Holocaust,
then you are a horrible human being. And shame on
you for celebrating his death. No, I think killed for

(46:18):
their beliefs. I didn't ever say that. I just said
I'd like to know why you feel this way, that's all.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
Yeah. Well, also, these people who are mourning this person,
mourning him, I was like, you don't know him. You
know the version of him that he gave to us
to consume. I said, but so many of you don't
know him. I think it's wonderful that you are so
torn up about someone who did die because of some
sort of political problem or conflict. I would also like

(46:51):
to posit that perhaps there are hundreds of thousands of
people like that in the world. Why this one gets
a flag at half masted and a riding air force
one or whatever else and a basically a funeral trump rally.
I'm ready, somebody tell me, because this is not an

(47:14):
elected official, this is none of this is not of that.
This is just a podcaster basically who who you know?
And and great, I think that it's wonderful that he
got people more in the political process. What I don't
want to do is try to make him out to
be some sort of saint when he's not. He preached

(47:35):
a lot of things from his microphone and his pulpit
that did not mesh with the way I feel, quote unquote.
Good Christians are supposed to be feeling and or supporting,
and people are gonna holler at me until the day
I die, and some of them probably wish that on
me for saying such a terrible thing. It's like, no,

(47:56):
it isn't a judgment. It's just listening to it as
a That's not in the book I read, that's not
in the read letters, that's not in the Guilt Edge.
That's just not it right, And so, but I mean there,
I've got tons of you know, examples of that in
the last however many years for that sort of situation,

(48:17):
and it makes me tired and it breaks my heart.
And it's one of those things too, is like, if
people want to turn it around and want to get
back on the right path, I love that for them,
and I am ready to welcome back with open arms.
Until then, please understand that I'm one hundred percent going
to stand here in point of finger and you can
say that is not it, that's not in the book.

(48:38):
That is a direct contradiction to the book. Yeah, and
it's just crazy.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
And that's with love. You know. I do that exact
same thing with love. And you know, I see a
lot of stuff online that's like, well, you get what
you voted for and blah blah blah and just kind
of ugliness. And then it's like people are starting to
see what's going on and go, Okay, this is not

(49:03):
what I voted for. Let me switch sides. But people
aren't opening the door to say, come join us, we
need you on our side. Come Instead, it's like, ew,
you voted for him, get out of here. And it's
I don't know that to me, also not very christ Like, like, yeah,
that's not what I grew up with either the I'm

(49:27):
not here to obviously preach and tell people what they
should believe or what they should interpret the Bible to say.
But the church I grew up with it was love everybody.
Treat everybody with respect, even the people who you think
don't deserve it. Sometimes they're the people who need it
the most, and you just treat everybody that way. So

(49:49):
for me, this has been a really rough time, and
it sounds like it has been for you too, where
it's just like it's hard to love your neighbor sometimes,
but that's what we're called to do. That's what we're
supposed to do. And even when I'm saying, hey, you're
not doing what you're supposed to be doing, it's said
with love and with open arms for you to come

(50:10):
on back.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Well.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
And I think that a lot of people need to
understand too that love does not equal pussy footing. It
doesn't equal me like sugarcoating everything that I say to you.
Please understand that my father was a rough hand on
me growing up in love and he says discipline. We
have differing opinions on some of those instances, and some

(50:35):
of that was it wasn't kind. But I was also
in a place where if I did not pay attention
to what he was trying to tell me, to the
information he was trying to give me, I could have
gotten really badly hurt. And there were times whenever I
had to be brought back with a less than kind
hand to make sure that I didn't get hurt or worse.

(50:58):
And I feel like that's a situation with here. Yes,
I still love you. Yes, you made a really stupid,
stupid decision because there were only hundreds of thousands of
people begging you to read what was on the page
in front of you. And I'm sorry. I don't apologize

(51:19):
for that because there were people doing that, and it's
just I get it. You wanted a winner, you wanted
a doub you, and you got it in name. And
then the things started happening just as we were trying
to tell you they would. And I have no need
to say I told you so. What I do need
is for you to understand that, please, from here on out,

(51:42):
whenever we try to warn you of something like that,
when you can use your very good sense and see it,
see it avoid this because this has gotten so far
that we're going to take years to try to dig
out of it.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
Yeah, and it's okay to admit that you changed your
mind or you feel that you were wrong. Maybe you
weren't wrong, maybe you still stand by that choice, but
you've changed your mind since then, that's okay. We can
all say that we've changed our mind about things or
have regretted things. We all can do that, and there's
no judgment there whatsoever. Well, yeah, I'm sure there is

(52:19):
from some people.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
There's absolutely some judgment not here. Ah good, And I
think that's definitely one of those things. Right now, it's
still very fresh. There's still a lot of people that
are suffering, and so it is very difficult to forgive
and love in the way that if we could have
done this from a place of safety and security for
a lot of some of our favorites. And so I

(52:41):
hope that that understanding will go in both directions, because well,
I'm said I was sorry, and I realize what the mistake.
I mean, yes, and I promise you that that matters,
that that definitely means something. What I'm saying is now
we can't take the time to hug you and you
and bring you into the fold of the way that

(53:02):
perhaps you want because we're too busy fighting for rights
and lives.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
Yeah, you gotta either jump on the line with us or.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
I cannot hold your hand. I cannot hold your hand.
Follow me. You're a whole grown ass person. Get in line,
do as we do, follow and help, be a help.
It's really really easy. I think what it isn't is pleasant.
It's super simple to see what it is and is

(53:32):
pleasant because you know, somebody makes this big epiphany and
they're expecting some you know, just to to hug them
and welcome into the fold. Like. We love hearing it.
And I would love it if we had the time
or the luxury of not feeling desperate or unsafe so
that we could offer that what I'm saying is great. Now,

(53:54):
grab a stick and get in love.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Maybe a gas mask in a milk, something.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
Like literally, help do something in this exactly. I like
that much better. That is a much more kind way.
I'm the one who goes for the stick, and he
was like, or maybe a gash master or some because
we don't want people getting hurt.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
There's a place for all of it. I have a therapist. Gosh,
this has been several years ago now, but I told
my therapist at one point, I'm overwhelmed because I know
that there's so many people that need my help right now,
and there's so much going on that I know. I
want to fight for the things that I believe in
and stand up for people who need it. And I

(54:36):
don't know where my place is in this. And I
don't feel safe going out, you know, to the rallies.
And I don't feel safe being the person who posts
videos online and stirs things up, like that's just not
who I am. And I feel so guilty about that
because people will get on you like, oh, you didn't
say anything on Facebook, you must be the opposite. No,

(54:59):
that's that's not the case at all. And what my
therapist told me, and it has stuck with me, is
that not every soldier in the war is on the
front line right Some people are delivering the mail or
cooking the lunches or their medics, or they're running the radios,
or they're driving the trucks. Like there's people back home

(55:21):
who are working in factories or tending to people who,
you know, they need people to watch their children while
they're deployed, like there's so many people involved to make
things happen, and not just in wartime, literally all the time.
It takes a community and a village, as they say,

(55:41):
to make things happen, right, So I think it's important
to remember that whether you're joining the side now and
you were on the other side before, you've been here
all along, or whatever the case may be, you don't
have to go fight on the front line. That's okay.
You want to be the person delivering the mail, well,
you can do that. You want to be the person

(56:02):
who brings people waters or sends postcards to encourage people
to vote. Whatever you can do, you should do. And
I think one thing that's really beautiful that's come out
of all of this is this sense of community and
like kind of getting away from having just like your

(56:22):
online life and all of a sudden, like it's important
now to talk to your neighbors and to go put
food in the community fridge or you know, do things,
bring blankets to the local shelter, whatever it may be.
We need people in our communities to help us through
this more than ever, right, And I think it's really

(56:43):
beautiful that so many people are seeing that and are
are encouraging each other to do things like that or
volunteer more, get the word out more. It's like that
part of this is unfortunate, that it's why it had
to happen, but it's beautiful to watch it happen, and
I'm so grateful it's happening.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
Yeah, And that's also a really optimistic way of looking
at it. And the thing where you know so many
things are disappointing or frustrating, angering, et cetera, to look
at the way on the other side of that coin,
how those who are here to support the good fight
continue to work together and build these communities and we
continue to get people from all sides of the discussion

(57:26):
to assist.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
Yeah. And I think it's easy for people to say
that being hopeful or positive and dark times is naive
or silly or childish or whatever, but truthfully, it's so
important because you have to keep that faith and that
hope to push through or people will start to lose

(57:49):
morale and people will start to I hate to say
lose interest, but you start to lose steam if you
just keep fighting, and at some point you can't anymore
unless you have people in your corner going, hey man,
it's okay, have some water, take a break. We got this.
We'll pick up where you left off. Don't worry about it.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
You know, Yes, in situations like this, keeping a joyful
attitude is honestly an act of rebellion, because it's so
easy to fall into something that's just like, well, you know,
everything just seems to be going wrong. How am I
supposed to carry on? How I'm supposed to do it?
Keeping a joyful And I'm not saying it's easy. What
I'm saying is that doing that is in itself an

(58:29):
act of rebellion.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Absolutely. Absolutely. It's funny you say that too, because about
a month ago, my stepmom came to visit me here
in Richmond and we went to a drag show. It
was a performance of hocus Pocus, like the musical basically,

(58:53):
and it was featuring some of the queens from RuPaul's
Drag Race. It was so inca credible and I have
to admit that, at age forty two, this was only
the second drag performance I'd ever seen. And at one
point we were sitting there watching the show, and I

(59:13):
was looking around the room and the crowd was so
happy and full of love and full of energy and
just cheering, singing along. And I'm now on lexapro so
I couldn't cry, but I felt like I could cry

(59:34):
just of the beauty of what was happening around us,
because right now everything does seem so dark. And it
did feel so rebellious to be in this room full
of people who were like, you know what, I'm taking
a break from it today. I'm going to go have
fun with my friends and sing along and dance and
wear beautiful clothes. And it was just it was everything.
It was medicine for the soul.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
It is. I support this. You cannot walk around in
a shadow the entire time. You have to spend some
time in the sun as well, and it feels almost guilty.
It feels like you're not doing enough. And I'm here
to tell you that could not be farther from the truth,
because you gather your strength when you're in that spot
of sunlight to go back to the darkness and fight

(01:00:18):
some more, and that is beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
You got to recharge those batteries, amen, oh bucket, all
those metaphors.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Every one of them, which everyone fits your boat best?
Do it? Saylee, yes, Bili, thank you so much for
coming to be with us on Radical Joy. I appreciate
you coming in. It's always such a joy to have
you with us.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
Thank you, it really is. I love talking with you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Thank you. Sweet No, I promise next I might be
much better with the technology.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
No, you're great.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Oh, Friends and followers first or forevers. If this is
your first episode, welcome We're so glad you're here. This
is not your first episode, welcome back. We are always
so pleased to know that something we're doing here at
Radical Joys CLW Studios is making a good enough impression
that you want to spend some of your time with
us every week. If you're kind of person who likes

(01:01:15):
to leave a review, please do so. Leave us five
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because word of mouth is easily the most effective and

(01:01:35):
best way that we could hope to reach more listeners.
People that you know in your life that might benefit
from what we're doing here at Radical Joy. As always,
thank you so much for listening, and please never forget.
We love y'all. Thank you for taking time to share
a moment of joy and hope with me. We're so
grateful you're here. If this is your first time, take

(01:01:57):
a moment to check out our archive. See if there's
something else in there that fires you up rekindles the
joy in you. Hey, spread the word. If you got
something out of being with us today, we welcome your
thoughts and suggestions. Now. I rarely run out of things
to talk about, but if there's something I haven't covered
that's on your mind or heart, I want to hear
from you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
To learn more.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
About me and CLW Studios, follow the links in the
show notes. Hey, don't forget. When you leave Radical Joy
a review, be sure to send us a screenshot. We'll
send you some kick ass swag to show our gratitude.
I am not a therapist or a medical professional. If
you're experiencing a mental health emergency, please call nine to
eighty eight to reach the National Crisis Lifeline. This content

(01:02:35):
and other content produced by CLAU Studios and affiliated partners
is not therapy, and nothing in this content indicates a
therapeutic relationship. Any opinions of guests on this podcast are
their own and do not represent the opinions of James
or CLA Studios. Please consult with your therapist or seek
WHAT in your area if you're experiencing mental health symptoms.
Everything in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes.

(01:02:57):
Only have a great one and we will see next
week for another dose of radical joy.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
Love y'all,