Kid Nation - Laurel McGoff

Alicia and Meredith head back to Bonanza City with Laurel McGoff, two time town council member and gold star winner. 
 
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
So first, let's dig it off.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh no, no, no, true, you'll never guess, so sidebar.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Yes, And also I feel like I shouldn't have to
remember everything I know. Actually I have to talk about
this everyone.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, I'm Alicia and I'm Meredith, and this is also podcasts.
We have a very exciting guest for everyone, as you
know on one season Wonders. We recently covered kid Nation,
a show where kids are forced to go to New
Mexico in the desert. They did it for all of

(00:39):
lent Basic anyway, one of our favorites from the show, Laurel,
was so kind enough to agree to an interview, and
she was absolutely lovely to speak to.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
We had the best time with her. We were both
cracking up.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I think we're best friends.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
She was so funny. That is what's coming to you today.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
We hope to honestly keep interviewing the people of Kidnation
because it's honestly such an interesting experiment that happened. Yes,
but Laurel is our first and we I think that
was the best it could have been, was Laurel being
number one in our hearts.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
She was incredible. So here's the interview.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Amazing, Well, thank you so much for joining us. Absolutely,
thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
You were a very long awaited guest, someone we really
wanted to speak to. Definitely one of our favorites from
the show.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
The only two time council member or two time in
a row council member.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
It's hard to remember.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
It might be such a like a because we're going
to talk about you as like a twelve year old
just so crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Right, so if you're ever like, I don't remember, right.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Right, right, right, and then all season because this had
just be the worst thing in the world, I would
have cracked under the pressure of kidnation.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
But I was like Laurel somehow makes it through. She's
Boston strong.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
So since episode the only one not crying all the time,
and I was.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Like I would have. There was a lot of crying.
There was a little dramatic for sure. Producers edited you
so well. Then they were like, she looks like she's
so together. Oh I wasn't crying. I was saying, everybody
else was crying.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Oh, you were so put together.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Thank you. It was amazing. I don't yeah, I don't know,
but thank you. So we must know.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Because Meredith and I we were probably the same age
as you when you were going on the show. I
didn't watch it as a kid, but Meredith did. And
then we do this thing on our podcast where we
do one season Wonders and we watch a show that
only had one season and talk about it, and so
Meredith was very like, we must watch this show.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
You're gonna love it.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
And so it was so easy for me to to
like put myself as a twelve year old and be like,
what would have happened. But then we started talking and
I was like, how come our parents didn't get us
on the show?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Show? So, Laura, I have to know how you got cast.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Because Meredith and I we wanted this for ourselves.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
I understand it was a It was a great experience,
and a lot of people have said that to me
that they wish they could have done something like that,
and I wish too. I think it was so much
fun and something that every child, maybe not to that extreme,
but every child I think should have some sort of
experience like that at a young age of spending time,
you know, safely, like living on their own or trying

(03:29):
to rough it for a little bit. I think it
can be really beneficial. But this is a very long
answer because every person that got cast in the show
had a very different specific way of getting cast, Like
it wasn't And this whole process started in like two
thousand and four, two thousand and five, I believe, Wow,
I didn't get on and start auditioning until two thousand

(03:51):
and seven. But there were kids and families, and you know,
they had been scouting this and storyboarding this, I guess
you could say for years before it like finally came
into fruition. So they were scouting kids for like all
different reasons. There wasn't a There wasn't really Internet wasn't

(04:11):
as popular obviously as it is now, So it wasn't
like there was backstage dot com or like cattle call
postings or you know, so it wasn't really like, hey,
come down an audition if you want to be on
a reality show. They weren't really looking for like child actors,
or they weren't really looking for kids who wanted to
be like in the industry, if that makes sense. That

(04:34):
wasn't the goal more like a survivor as far as
their casting went, where those people were more just like
kind of like we just love this idea and we
you know, they would probably do it even if there
weren't cameras there. So they picked kids that were like
really really like student leaders or boy scouts, girl scouts,

(04:55):
obviously beauty pageant, anyone who was like a child who
exceeded at something in their own sort of community, if
that makes sense. Yeah, so like there's that kid that's
all you know, wins the Science Fair every year, or
I think Andre was a spelling bee champion spell that's how,

(05:17):
you know, not looking to be on TV. They were
just like, oh, this might be an interesting personality. They're
looking for interesting personalities, if you know, more so than
like people that wanted to become famous. Whereas now I
think that's all reality television is. It's a completely different ballgame,
and it wasn't that back in two thousand and seven.
You know, people will create personalities to get on a

(05:39):
reality TV show, to get a blue check mark, and
that's like their goal. Whereas I think this is just
a time that doesn't exist anymore in media and entertainment,
Like it just doesn't for me. Funny, I actually grew
up doing like acting. I was in theater. Yeah, I
was in theater productions. I had was taking voice lessons,

(06:01):
I was in community theater. I had done professional theater,
so sort of like just in my community though nothing big,
and my brother begrudgingly would would do it as well.
We were definitely like outgoing. The word I use because
it's the only word I can think of to use,

(06:21):
is like ballsy. Like we were very like we love
you know, we had no problem walking into a room
and shaking hands with adults and like engaging in conversation,
and we were extremely charismatic, and we were like almost
politician y like if that makes sense at very young ages.
We really we could work a room. So we ended up,
you know, kind of falling into theater and acting. He

(06:45):
hated it, of course, but he was really good at it.
So he ended up coming with me on an audition.
So I went and auditioned for a PBS show called
Fetch with Roff Uffman. If you guys ever heard of
that show, Oh my god, I have, Okay, So I
went to audition for that when I think I was ten,
ten or eleven, and my brother was like dragging his

(07:07):
feet coming along with me to the audition. My mom
made him, and since he didn't care if he got
it or not, he went in there and just started
saying like unhinged things in the audition room, and the
producers loved it and he got cast on the show,
and I was devastated. So my brother was on season
one Affect with ruff Ruffin when he was twelve years old.

(07:29):
And then I that had filmed in the summertime and
filmed in Boston on all different locations around the New
England area, and I was ten and it was my
summer of going from I think fourth to fifth grade
or maybe third to fourth grade, I forget what grade
that is. And my mom would take him to set
every day. It was like an actual studio where they
would film, and I would beg to go with her

(07:49):
and I would just sit on set and like watch
the cameras and everything happening, and I was I loved it.
I absolutely loved it. And I kept asking the producers like, hey,
can I be on? Like can I be on an episode?
And they were like who is this child? Like go
what are you doing here? But A came for yourself.
I was very persistent and they were like, all right,

(08:11):
throw her in and I got on two episodes. I
got on two different ep amazing. Yeah. And then so
I don't know who I thought I was. But it
worked out and my mom ended up becoming friendly with
one of the producers on the show, just like Facebook friends.
She Facebook had like just come out and she made
a Facebook and became friends with this woman. And then

(08:34):
after that, I'm sorry, this is such a long answer,
but it's like the way it makes sense. After that
was fifth grade, went to fifth grade, normal year. Sixth
grade started off normal. Then on my twelfth birthday, which
is January twelfth, so this is the time period, so
it was January twelfth, two thousand and seven, my mom
got a phone call from Kathy, who was the woman

(08:55):
she befriended on Fetch with Rouff Ruffman, and she was like, Hey,
this is such a long shot, but we're I'm working
on this new show. We don't know what it's going
to be called yet. We're calling it the Manhattan Project.
So that was the name before kid Nation, they called
it the Manhattan Project. And I know, I know, And
she was like, we have like thirty eight I think

(09:17):
thirty nine kids cast. We're looking for one more. Does
Laurel want to come in an audition? I know she
liked theater and I know she you know, didn't mind.
We just need someone to basically fill the call sheet.
They were like, we're just trying to get as many
people in here as possible. Do you want to just
come in and do it? And I was like, yeah,
you know, that sounds really cool. And I had no
idea what the show was about. I had no idea

(09:37):
what we were doing. I said, what do I have
to do? She's like, it's a reality show. We're gonna
So they called me on the phone and I ended
up talking with the producer for like three hours, just
about She just asked me questions about myself and kind
of similar to this, like I was just yeap, yep,
yep in a way, and twelve year old me talking
about politics and talking about George Bush and how he

(09:58):
was going to be the downfall to Americans, talking about,
you know, the Iraq War and how it's a disgrace
to you have American soldiers over on on Iraq soil.
Twelve year old I don't know who I thought. I
probably just parroting something I heard off CNN, Like I
didn't know what I was saying, but I sold it.

(10:18):
And she was like, Okay, great, let's continue this conversation
come to this studio in Boston. We're going to continue
and interview you there. And like it wasn't an audition,
they were just trying to see my personality. So I
go into this small studio in Boston, me and three
producers and same thing, just a camera and they said, okay,

(10:40):
I remember what I was wearing. It was Hollister pink
T shirt with spells on it. It felt very cool, love it. Yeah,
it was my Avrilavin era And they were asking me, yeah,
same thing, just like a camera, asking me questions about
myself and about my family, what I thought, my opinions,
my you know again, my personality and they said, okay, great.

(11:01):
They called me like two weeks later and February vacation
of two thousand and seven, which is like in the
fifteen like probably fifteen February fifteenth to twentieth area. They said, okay,
we've narrowed this down now to sixty kids, and we're
going to fly all of you out to Malibu to
come to CBS Studios and you know, finish this process again.

(11:23):
The whole time, my parents don't think I'm getting it.
They're like, this is a we just did this because
you were we were bored on a Sunday. We were like, yeah,
let's go audition for a TV show. This could be fun.
So it wasn't until I got called out to go
to California. Then they were like, oh shit, like she
might get cast. And they immediately were like backpedaling. They
were like no, no, no, no, no, no no, We're not doing this.

(11:44):
This was supposed to just be like a fun little,
you know, interview process for you exercise. Like we didn't
think this was going to go anywhere. And then my
mom was like, you know what, let's take the trip
to La Like, let's just go. They're paying for it,
and so we and fly out to La. We go
to CBS Studios, which is somewhere in downtown La. I

(12:04):
don't know. I don't I'm not familiar with California as much.
And I interviewed with less Moonvez, who was the head
of CBS for a long time. God yeah, I didn't
know who it was. And then my mom was like,
that's less Moonvez And I was like, is that a disease? Like,
I don't know what's a less Moonvez? You know, I
mean not saying.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
That he was working on this project.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
He was yeah, I interviewed with him directly. We actually,
I think got into an argument about politics at some point.
I got into an argument with some hardcore conservative Republican
at one point who was like forty, like a forty
year old man, and I was like, I don't know, Yeah,
I don't know who. I thought, once again, who did
I think I was? And then that was February. We left.

(12:50):
My mom and I are looking at each other like
that was a crazy process. We're never going to think
about this again. But that was fun. And then I
got the call a few weeks later and they were like,
we want you to be on the show your cast. Wow,
holy shit. So it was that is the longest answer
I'm looking at the time, I think I was for
twelve years. I thought that it was amazing because, like.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
You said, like so many people had different experiences like
getting us on the show, Like we read some research
about a few and like have learned about a few people.
So hearing kind of the different stories between them all
is fascinating. And your personality showed through immediately clearly, like
you had to be a frontrunner, even if they weren't
telling you.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
That, right right apparently, Yeah, So that was, and then
they called me. So filming started April first, two thousand
and seven. You guys missed school. We missed whole.

Speaker 5 (13:42):
Day though, Like I would have thought you were joking
with me.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
No, no, dead serious, But just to like put it
into perspective, I got the first phone call learning about
this thing in January and then I was in the
desert April first. So it was so fast, and yeah,
it was. It was really really difficult for my parents,
particularly my mom, to like agree to do this.

Speaker 5 (14:07):
Did you have to convince them? Like once you got
the oh, what was that conversation like with your parents?

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Well, I got the call and they were like, huh no,
like you're not We're not letting you go to New
Mexico for forty days by yourself. And because they weren't
allowed to speak to me, it was you know reality
TV show rules. They were like, you know, we know
the horror stories. This was also the time of Lindsay
Lohan and Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. I was in
I was I could see the paparazzi from my hotel

(14:33):
window when Britney Spears was shaving her head and hit
the and beat the that's what we were auditioning for Kidnation.
When that was happening down the street when Britney Spears
shaved her head and then beat up the car with
an umbrella, we could see the paparazzi and we were yeah,
like it was so that all of that was happening
while our parents were like no, They're like no, no,

(14:53):
that could be you. And you're not shaving her head.
You're not flashing. Remember when Paris Hilton was like flashing.
Her approach was like the car yeah, and they were like,
go do your homework enough. No, Like I'm twelve. I
was like, but listen to me, listen, but please, And
then I looked at my mom and I said, if

(15:13):
you don't let me do this, I will regret it
for the rest of my life and I will resent
you for the rest of my life. Why pulls out
the mean, you know, the daughter card and she was
like oh, yeah, yeah, and she was like okay, fine,
and yeah she let me go very begrudgingly. Was a
anxiety ridden mess the whole time, and then even afterwards

(15:34):
was really nervous because she said, you know, I am
basically giving the world permission to judge my daughter, and
I have no control over it, and that's really hard.
And she's like, it's not that, I don't think. I
don't think that you're gonna embarrass us or do anything.
She said, it's not that, but they're savvy producers. They
can manipulate the whole situation and make it look totally

(15:54):
you know. She was just really really rightfully so very nervous.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
We watched this as adults, and I was like, it
feels weird judging children.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
It does, Yeah, it is, because.

Speaker 5 (16:07):
I mean since we were the same age, we could
judge you guys. But right like, what was happening on
the show? Now who you are as a person?

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, I kept saying, like at twelve, it's I get
where they're coming from.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
And I'd be mad if I was twelve, exactly. And
also like I thank god every day that I didn't
nothing was caught on camera that was Sue too, like
horrific because all of us were doing embarrassing things at twelve, thirteen, fourteen.
I mean, if anyone had a camera following them, they
would you would find a moment where you did something
stupid or said something ignorant, or because you're twelve and

(16:43):
you don't know, you know, so just you know, I
appreciate people having some grace with children.

Speaker 5 (16:48):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely, and we we actually, like we
watched the whole season. We did watch even the Vice
documentary kind of the Dark Side, And I know production
was kind of brought up into that, especially with like
Olivia saying, you know, sometimes they would like taught you
guys and tell you guys to do things, and obviously
it's edited where you know, you guys being told to
do things like looting the town isn't shown and it

(17:10):
just looks like you guys are looting the town.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
And so what was that relationship like with production?

Speaker 3 (17:16):
So it was I think different for every again, different
for every person. I think certain people had different reactions
to it, to production and to directors and producers. I
think just understood it a little bit more because I
had been doing theater since I was four years old,
so I you know, ten years kind of or eight

(17:37):
years at least, being around directors, being around producers. I
had done commercials, I had done voiceovers, so I was
used to being around adults. And what I will say
is adults in the industry, I think it's gotten a lot,
a lot better over the years as people have started
to talk about it more and more. But there's definitely
a line that gets crossed when you have children in

(18:01):
the arts kind of were the arts, but you know,
in media working with adults, because typically kids like that
are a little bit precocious, who have like a natural
attraction to want to be on TV or want to
you know, they're typically socially mature, and sometimes adults can
forget that they are, even though they're having conversations and
they're hanging out. And I'm not saying anything inappropriate or

(18:22):
anything like illegal or anything like that, but there were
definitely some conversations I probably shouldn't have been having with
grown ups, just about like, you know, we shouldn't be
hanging out where this is it. Yeah, we're a little
too buddy, buddy, and this this feels like we're friends.
And but I was used to that because that's how

(18:44):
it was in the theater world, and you know, it
was normal for a ten year old to be hanging
out with a twenty four year old, and as strange
as that sounds, it was just normal.

Speaker 5 (18:54):
You've got the double dynamic of like production versus like
the person in front of the camera and then.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
Child to old exactly.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
Both of those are unique relationships, so then to combine
them makes it even that.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
More complicated exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
So I think it's a goal, but like.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
No, morally, what do you feel like, you know, encouraging
an adult to do something different on like on in
front of a camera, is it feels a little bit
easier better than like encouraging a child to do something
that they probably want to do and they're very impressionable at.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
That age, right, absolutely, And I think I going into it. Also,
I had watched a television show get filmed to produce,
like with watching my brother when he was on Fetch,
So I knew that, like there was a goal at
the end of the day, even though it was a
reality show. Even though they wanted it to be authentic,

(19:47):
I understood it was a show. So I kind of
played into it. If they wanted me to say something,
I would say it. Like I got that it was
a show and that people, you know, they would never
feed you lines, they would never say this exactly, but
they would try and engage a reaction out of you,
or they would see things to cause you to react
a certain way. And as I'm older. Looking back, I

(20:10):
now see the issue with that, But at the time,
I was like, oh, yeah, they're doing their job. They're
trying to make a show that makes perfect sense.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah, two thousand and six is also so different than
where we are in like twenty twenty four too. Right
right at the time, I too would have been like fine, yeah,
and I've read a lot of parents too, where like, yeah,
I mean, this is just the industry.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
It's exactly exactly we were. Weren't as educated, I think
as we are now, so I look at it differently now,
but yeah, it was it was could it could toe
the line of this is uncomfortable?

Speaker 6 (20:43):
Yeah, speaking a little bit more on like the production
of everything, because obviously we'll only see what's going on
in front of the cameras, But like, how was it
with you know, adult supervision behind the cameras, Like we're
cameras up twenty four to seven, What was the actual
feeling of it, like for.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
You, So cameras weren't up twenty four to seven, There
were no cameras or like hidden or cameras placed in
our bunk rooms, so there's very very little footage of
us sleeping in our rooms, which I think is good.
Probably good, yeah, yeah, probably for the best. They would film.
There would be camera crews walking around outside and walking

(21:23):
in and out of buildings, probably from like six thirty
in the morning to nine thirty at night, I would say,
and then and then production would shut down for the night,
and then they would all go back to their hotels
and we would be freezing on the ground in wood
in cabins who were like people there at night though,
like every what was that like?

Speaker 5 (21:43):
As like a bunch of children in a town.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
So tell me if you would be comfortable with this,
because now I am an adult and I am actually
older than the woman, the female producer who was assigned
to our Let me explain every bunk green boys, green girls,
red boys, red girls, blue boys, blue girls, et cetera.
Everyone attached to your bunk that they never show on
camera was like a tiny house that a producer slept in.

(22:09):
So I don't know if they had, right, I don't
know if they had experience working with children. I don't know.
If they were like mandated reporters who also doubled as
production crew, they must have had some sort of background
with children, maybe working with children in the industry. I
don't know, but they agreed to be on set twenty
four to seven, and they had in their houses that

(22:31):
were attached to our houses. They had space heaters, they
had beds, they had big, big heated blankets.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
No.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
I could not do that knowing that feet away there
were ten year olds shift a ring on the floor
and they were just like, good night.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
That's the thing.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
There were some parts of the production and we really
discussed this when we watched the Dark Side Vice documentary
that you know.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
There's so much that I haven't watched that I do.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
I recommend, I recommend it.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
It's not anything like brown especial.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Because you experienced it.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
But it brings like the conversation again of like, yeah, okay,
so we have kids, go do this Survivor esque type
of show, but how much do we leave them to
the elements.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
Versus like their kids? What do we help out?

Speaker 2 (23:24):
And we discussed like probably giving the kids like a
cot to sleep on so we're not on the ground would.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
Have been better, or like.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
TV experience, if you can sleep.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
It'll still be uncomfortable, like yeah, no, prisoners were given
better conditions than we were. Yeah, the people who sign
up for Survivor are adult and typically have trained for it.
They have trained, they can make fires, they want to
do this. Yeah, you were like no mplication, like wearing

(23:54):
up boots and going to Hollister Like this was not Yeah,
And I think even at one point it snowed and
I was like, did they even bring their window coats? No? No,
we were crazy freezing, so they didn't. They were making
this up as they went. Is kind of how I feel. Yeah,
because the first few days so like the first few

(24:15):
I remember thinking the first night whole partedly convinced in
my head, I was like, I'm I might die here,
Like I might actually die here. It was so cold.
I was shivering holding Taylor as she's sobbing, and I
was like holding a tears someone else is crying. It
was so bad, making folder seizing, freezing, And then like

(24:38):
the next over the next few days there were some changes.
We didn't get beds or cots, but some production assistant
went to Walmart or something, and then all of a
sudden everybody had like sleeping bags. So we went from
sleeping on the wood to with a blanket to sleeping
on like a sleeping bag, and then we got thermal blankets.

(25:01):
So they gave us those but still on the floor.
Still And then the only thing that they would do
is once a day would they would feed us lunch.
So we would get fed once a day, but it
was like a you know, blooney sandwich on Apple the
production lunches. No, they had craft services that we weren't
allowed to eat see it. We could see it.

Speaker 5 (25:25):
That's what would be hard, is like seeing real food
touch it.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
And then like think of it that most of the
producers were around our age. Can you imagine looking eating
churros were everywhere. I don't know why there were so
many churros on that goddamn set, but eating looking at
like a nine year old like please, can I have
a bite, and being like there's some porridge over there,
bitch like there It was yeah, because that's.

Speaker 5 (25:51):
Even cool to do to a kid who's like eating
in normal life, to eat it like a in front
of a child, because any sweet treat I can't imagine
be like because you guys want to well you weren't starve,
but you start for like real.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
Food, yeah, and like that wasn't made.

Speaker 5 (26:09):
Yeah, and what was that like to like have to
cook every day? So we saw Sophia be like the cook,
but was she the one really leading the charge day
after day to like make something.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
He's not gonna let them starve. She was gonna let
them starve. And yeah, she got it into a routine,
got it into a rhythm, taught some people some things
that they they figured it out, and yeah, every every
day it was a little like let's see how this goes.
Sometimes you would get on the good side of a
producer and they'd you know, throw a bag of chips
at you or something. But that was about it. I mean,

(26:41):
did you Yeah, just so.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Weirdly enough, we also saw though, like I think her
name's Divide, she would like fry potatoes and she got burnt.
And then like there was the d K with the
bleach drinking incident that he talked about on the vice.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
This was very dramatized, y'all. But then like some of
the stuff all of you were doing.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
It was like jump into this pile of beans like
head first, then like with open cans, and I was
watching it, going, this cannot be.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
Safe for kids. How are they not getting injured? No? Oh,
we were, we were. I knew. I saw a girl
and a sling in the background, I did. I had
a boot on my foot at one point, yeah, yeah,
and I twisted my ankle. Were the hardest working people
on this show that Actually, if you want to hear

(27:33):
something crazy, this happened to me about five years ago.
So I was twisted my ankle somehow during the looting
thing when they made us all loot and everyone was
going crazy, I had twisted my ankle in the chaos.
I got a boot on my foot and I never
thought about it again. Went to my insurance about five

(27:55):
years ago. They never paid it. CBS never paid for
my little injury at twelve years old, and at like
twenty four years old, they were like, yeah, well we'll
write it off at this point, like you don't have
to pay it, but no, CBS never paid us. What
the heck. They just slapped that onto my credit score

(28:18):
to deal with in my twenties.

Speaker 5 (28:21):
Oh my god, I'm like, so after shots of Canation
are still with you today?

Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yes, yes, I mean I'm not surprised, but like, yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Okay, well I would love to get into like some
fun things that did happen on because it did look
kind of fun. I mean, if I was twelve, i'd
be like this, how'd you get selected for town council?
Was it just because you were kind of naturally a leader?
Or did they pick kids who wanted leadership positions? So
I remember how that happened.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
I have no idea. They didn't really tell us. They called, Yeah,
they called me, I'm guessing here, maybe like let's say
March tenth, and said, okay, your cast. Then they called
me like March fifteenth, and they said, okay, we're gonna
fly out March thirtieth. You're actually gonna fly out like
March twenty second, because we want you to be on
the town council. We picked you and three other people

(29:13):
to be on the town council. And I was like,
what was that extra time?

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Like what did you.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
Doing that extra time? Then? So they flew out me, Mike, Taylor,
and Ae to New Mexico. We stayed at some like
kind of shitty hotel motel actually for like four days,
and they wanted us to kind of get to know
each other, but we weren't allowed to ask each other
personal questions. So Taylor flew into New Mexico first, so

(29:41):
she was we had to call her girl one for
four days. And then Mike flew in second, so he
was boy one. I flew in third, so I was girl.
I was girl too, and Are flew in fourth, so
he was boy too. So for four days it was me,
Mike Taylor and Are Girl one, Boy one, Girl two
and boy too walking around to downtown Santa Fe with

(30:05):
these like twenty three year old production assistants. And they
were just like glorified babysitters, like you guys want to
go mini golfing, like we were like, I don't know sure,
Like they took us mini golfing, They took us to
the movies, We got ice cream, we went shopping at
someplace in New Mexico. They didn't know what to do
with us. I don't know why, really, I don't know
why they flew us out so much earlier. But they

(30:27):
wanted us to form a like they didn't film any
of this, Like they just wanted us to form.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Like a b but not bond too much.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
But not bond too much. Why we couldn't know each
other's names, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Because you're like, I can't wait to sit next to
Boy two in the literary theater.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
Literally, And then finally after we flew off the helicopter.
We filmed getting off the helicopter and they were like, okay,
you guys can introduce yourselves to each other now, and
then we.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Were like, like it was at Barry though, Taylor would
always be girl one to me.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Oh oh, she became Taylor. No, she became the beauty
queen that didn't kill chickens very quickly.

Speaker 5 (31:02):
Taylor is also another strong personality that is very true.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
She crazy. I don't care what anyone says. She is
an icon. She is. I think she's a feminist icon
and I think she should be taught in schools to
little girls because I think she is someone that most
ten year olds should aspire to. Because she had no
problem and I'm gonna I'm gonna curse, excuse my language. No,
I'm ten years old. She looked at a fifteen year

(31:28):
old boy and said, go fuck yourself, I'm not listening
to you. Really iconic, that's so true, conic like go clean,
No like that, Taylor. Taylor got on my nerves.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
But I remember watching that episode and being like, why
the fuck are all these older boys.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
Bullying this girl? She's getting out to them. She said,
they're going I don't feel like yes, yes. Now when they.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
Tried to like trap her in the bunk room and
we were like, this is going too far, and I
think you came in and were like, we're not doing that.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
We are not.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
Oh I remember that. I was like, just let her go.
You guys had a spark to her. I will give
her that, Yes, not fucking around. Yeah, And I'm not
close with Taylor. I don't really keep up with Tate,
like we're not friends. But there is a part of
me that's like, you're a little bit of a bad
bitch like you kind of were kind of were. So
I do respect her. I have the I respect her

(32:26):
like I respect Margaret Thatcher, you know what I mean.
Like I'm terrified, disgusted by, but also very impressed by.
You know, it's it's a very it's very confusing. Yeah,
I get it. Yeah, Okay. Episode one.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
I watched it and I texted Meredith and I said,
there has to have be so many crushes on this
show because all these young tweens are just like going
to an undisclosed location without their parents and there's boys
and girls and like all of that stuff, and Laurel
I have to know where there crushes and they just
didn't show it up.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
Oh my god, I was dating everyone was dating. You
love it? Did you have a tea?

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Please?

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Do you have a crush? Well, there were many first
kisses that were had. Whoa, I knew it. I knew it. Meredith,
Oh my god, this is going down.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
Why do you think about anybody's first kiss happening though?

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Well, they were all thirteen, you know it happened.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
I mean, I mean it's kind of cool. This is
my only cool thing in like the Romance Department is.
My first kiss was in the New Mexican desert under
the stars, looking at the mountains. Romance, Nicholas each your
goddamn how like Roman? Yeah? Was it awful? Yeah? But
like it was an iconic setting, So I will never forget.

(33:50):
I've never had a kiss that in a beautiful setting
like that. Sense, So romance is dead. It just go
if you want to spice up your life.

Speaker 5 (34:02):
Were kids in the desert to get iconic omens?

Speaker 3 (34:07):
But yeah, there was Greg was making out with everyone.
I definitely I knew it.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Corse, I knew it.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
I said, this kid, he's a bad boy. Well he
was all the girls. He was fifteen and he was
a ninth guy. Yeah, like you know, it's a it's
a big difference. My first kiss was with Blaine, which
was kind of I would have had a crush on Blaine.
Wow that he was so sweet.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
You're iconic for that because at twelve, that would have
been my crush.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
I clocked him. I clocked him in at the hotel
when we were all auditioning. I called him surfer boy
to my mom because again weren't allowed to know anybody's names,
and she was like, you need to stop following him.
I was like, it's cute, like surfer boy, Like I can't. Yeah,
he was scouted because he was a model for Abacrombie.
It makes sense.

Speaker 5 (34:58):
It all checks out, doesn't I didn't even think about
you seeing all the kids, you know, when you guys
were auditioning, so you do have a visual being like, oh.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
I'm very I'm intrigued. I was him, and I think yeah,
we were all kissing each other. I had kissed DK.
Me and him used to lock lips sometimes, like just out,
Oh Greg, I'm I think Greg. I think he got
us all. Who else?

Speaker 2 (35:23):
I gotta ask Michael. My other crush would have been Michael.
I knew Bond boys everywhere.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
Blaine was like the football player that I was obsessed with,
and then Michael was like the artsy boy in the
corner who would write you a poem and that you
would mentally like ultimately fall in love with at the end,
do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, h He
was so smart and we would have these like great
long conversations. He was like such a hippie and he
introduced me to like nature hippie healing and I was like,

(35:53):
I don't know what's going on, but this is amazing,
and like.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Michael I twelve would have had my heart my god,
yeah yeah, let me look at that tree.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
Wasn't a stoner obviously, but he had a stoner personality,
if that makes sense. And I was like, this is
the coolest kid I've ever met. And he was like
peace in love, man, let's hug the trees like and
I was like, fuck, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
It's kind of cool though that like, cause I mean,
in normal school, you have a crush on someone, but
then you like are always like nervous around them, whereas
you guys.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Were like unshowered to work together. Never looked worse in
my life. And it was it's plastered on the internet
twenty years later. But I love that you got you
were I love that you're like, what happened? I'll hold
the hands with Michael.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
But then we have a town to run to get
back to business, Michael.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
We could have a we could have a root beer
float at the saloon.

Speaker 5 (36:47):
But yeah, it was some song by day, floating in
the in the saloon.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
By night, dancing on tables by night.

Speaker 5 (36:54):
Wait that brings up the saloon? Did they encourage you
guys to treat it like it was a real bo
because car bombs and like doing Taylor was doing like shots.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
Yes, we knew, like I I obviously had. I don't
think i'd ever seen a bar room like. I had
seen it in restaurants, but I didn't know. I was
in sixth grade, like, but as soon as I saw
the shot class, I was like, oh, yeah, people do
shots with them. So we were like playing around and
they were like, I mean, what content of just a
bunch of.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Shots of root watching you guys take the shotglass and
drop it in fans a bob, Oh my god, we've.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Showing the parents.

Speaker 5 (37:37):
When they showed up, I was like, oh, this is incredible.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
It was the greatest TV I've ever seen, Laurel. You can't.
It will never be made again, and it's a shame.

Speaker 5 (37:48):
That just naturally happened. Like production wasn't like, hey, this
is how you do an.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Irish car bomb.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
No, Greg, Greg showed us. Greg taught us. Of course,
of course he did. And he was like so many lies.
He showed up on his fourth life. That's the only
way I can describe it.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah, he kept saying not to make this about Greg,
but he was extra hilarious because he would be like, yeah,
I could do this challenge.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
I've worked construction before, and then like, oh I could
do this. I've done plumbing. Oh I know how to
butcher a chicken in a union like this, this kid
has had seven jobs, he's got a mortgage to pay,
he's very basically he's got white kids. It's a whole thing. No, truly,
I was like this blue collar worker Greg keeping the

(38:39):
town alive because everything, like there wasn't anything that he
couldn't do, you know, And and my theater kid ass
was kind of like useless in so many situations. But yeah, sorry,
I don't even know what we were talking about. But
Greg taught.

Speaker 7 (38:59):
Us the Green team kind of struggled, which is crazy
because you guys, that was the team I from the
jump was like, that's what I want to join.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
They got Laurels Sophia and we sucked and I was like,
they can't.

Speaker 5 (39:20):
Do you sucked at competitions, suck, which the worst stuff
right right.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
We were like the because I think we were all
just like vibing. We were kind of the team that
was just like we were just like we were. It
was just all vives, like we were just we got
to run the town. We're probably not going to win this,
so what we all love each other, We're going to
hang out. And we were like very well liked in
the town that people would give us money and people
would buy us things. So it amazing.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Yeah, it makes so much sense, yes, because.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
We're spending a lot of time at the bottom. Oh yeah,
like the bottom bottom, Yeah, the bottom bottom bottom, but
ering for money. That was very funny and that was
just a social experiment on her part. She just did that.
She was always she might be a genius, honestly, like
she is one of the smartest people I've ever met.
She truly was too smart for the show because she's

(40:13):
smarter than production. How can I cause drama in this time? Yeah?
And she would do social experiments.

Speaker 5 (40:20):
Thank god, because that made the show interesting, like all
of our little bits that were happening, like I cannot
imagine what they would do without those, And.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
Those were all her as far as I know, Like
nobody told her to do that. She was just like,
I yeah, I'm kind of bored, Like let's cause some problems.
So that was great.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
But then Laurel, unfortunately Michael took your spot on Town Council.
It was you honestly relieved a little.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
Bit, a little bit, a little bit it was more.
I mean it was a bit more, I will be
honest of like at that point, kind of like an
ego thing and a little bit of the glory. And
I was twelve, and it was kind of cool to
be in charge and then be realized like that definitely
felt really good. So it was the one thing about

(41:06):
Town Council is we had to get up very early
to read the journal every day or something, or to
do our the fakes, the fakest thing like we would
see the producers like typing it and like, well, you
know you're writing it, Like we can tell it's your handwriting. Like,
so I was relieved for that because we had to

(41:27):
get up at like six every day in the and
it was super cold in the mornings in the desert,
and at twelve, puberty and sleeping in is you know, key,
And you know, I was happy to step down in
that sense. But it was really I loved Michael. I
knew he would do such a good job. It was
just like, oh, this hurts my ego a bit, and
I'm a little embarrassed. But once that like faded within

(41:50):
a couple hours, I was fine.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Well, probably for the best, because that town council was
a mess with Blaine and Gregg up there and DK
and mine. God, which angered me because I was like,
the fact that we elected four boys on this town
council should not be legal.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
Let's start, there's where's the woman? Where? Yeah? I think
I think Sophia should have been on town council. At
one point, I think Olivia would have been very good
TV if she was on town council. Round two, I
was pro Olivia. Oh I love Olivia. Yes, yeah, yeah,
but you did win a gold star. I did must

(42:29):
ask did you get a check or did you keep
the star? I didn't know enough about gold, the price
of gold or anything like that, and they didn't ask
our parents. They were smart and asked us and they
were like yeah, They're like do you want the gold
or do you want the money? And I didn't That
didn't make any sense in my I was like, what

(42:50):
do you mean I want the money? Like I don't
you know? And they said, okay, we'll give you a
gold like a star trophy that's not real gold, and
then you can have the check. And I was like, okay,
I think a nice Yeah. So it wasn't worth anything, but.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
I mean I had like I would love to have
that memento.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
Oh I still have it. Yeah, my and my parents place,
like it's still there. I still have the green bandana
actually too. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
My mom was trying to do a.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Thing where like she was like, let's see how long
we can go without washing your clothes, and then the
rooms just started to smell and she was like, wait,
we need to wash this. Once I came home and
I was like this might be a bio hazard. You
really need to wash that. So the bandana has been washed.
But yeah, I still I do have like a star
trophy and Jared's necklace that he made with I still

(43:44):
have that. Yeah. I wondered that because it's Bananza City
two thousand and.

Speaker 5 (43:49):
Seven, like every like those sold out immediately and like
people like my family, and I was like, I would
hold on to that.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
I'm kind of I would. Yeah, everything, I.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Still have it. We can talk about Jared in a
minute too, because he's also gonic. If anyone could look
at Kidnation and be like someone needs a spin off show,
it's hard, it's absolutely one dred percent. Jared was the best.
But yeah, sorry, so yeah, the producers knew what they
were doing, although I don't know why they would care anyway.
They were like, do you Laurel at twelve years old?

(44:22):
Do you want the gold star? Or do you want
to check? And I was like, I don't know the check,
and so I picked the check.

Speaker 5 (44:28):
I bet they only had so many real gold stars,
so they probably probably the money.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Take the money, take the money, take the money. Yeah,
but a few people did take the gold. I think
Alex took the gold. I think Greg took the gold.
Of course, Alex took the gold. Price of gold a
nine years old bad kid, yeah he yeah, so yeah,
so I took the check stupidly. No, I would have
done the same thing. Yeah, totally. So you get back

(44:57):
after Kidnation, did people in your and watch it or
like at school watch the show? Is it bad? Was embarrassing?
It was a combination, like I knew it was coming,
but like I mean, think about it, at this point,
I was in seventh grade, arguably the most uncomfortable year
of like your existence. I feel like thirteen is just

(45:20):
the wor sting. It's just awful, and you know, and
I was struggling with like not struggling, but you know,
going through puberty and trying to feel comfortable in myself
and then going through that kind of self esteem plunge
that I feel like every girl goes through in middle
school where you used to be, like you know, in
fifth grade, you were vibrant and full of life and

(45:41):
full of courage and full of and then all of
a sudden you start to like grow boobs and you're like,
nobody look at me, nobody talk to me. I'm a
shell of myself. So I think I was going through
a little bit of that. And on top of it all,
I was on TV every Wednesday night and everybody watched it.
And then I went to school on Thursday morning and
everybody would talk to me about it. So it just
thought it was cool. Did no one think it was cool?
I thought it was cool, but it was still I

(46:01):
was still thirteen, and you know, I was still like,
nobody look at me. And then everybody was everything exactly exactly,
and you know, it's it was just such a weird
thing to like try and navigate. I knew. I was
socially aware enough to know that, like, if I was
always talking about it, people would not like that. It's true,

(46:23):
like I show up about it. Oh, I knew, right,
because I had also grown up doing like theater, and
I learned very early on, even from like five and
six year old girls, like if you were talking about
your accomplishments, especially in a way of like I'm on
a TV show, I'm on stage, everybody's looking at me.
I you know, I had already dealt with mean girls

(46:45):
tearing you down. I had already dealt I already knew
if you're in the spotlight as a girl, other girls
are gonna destroy you, and that's just come. So I
was very aware of being extremely humble about it and
never speaking about it unless someone asked me a question
about it, and if someone did ask me a question
about it, quickly answering it and changing the subject, because

(47:05):
I wanted.

Speaker 5 (47:05):
To have like giving them information, not bragging. You're like, okay,
I will answer your question.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Me and of course exactly, And of course all I
wanted to do was be like, look at this fucking
amazing thing that I just accomplished. But I was, you know,
a thirteen year old girl living in two thousand and
seven America and being confident about yourself was like basically illegal.
So I just had to shut up about it. So
it was definitely hard because I people did have questions

(47:32):
and it is your classmate and your friend that's on
this TV show and like, but I knew like, and
people still made fun of me and still talked about
me behind my back. And still, who does she think
she is? She thinks she's so much better than us,
Like she's on this show and now she thinks she's
this big celebrity. I mean, of course, of course, cour
I mean the girls on Danian Mints talk about it,

(47:52):
like girls people are vicious.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
How did your parents react to it?

Speaker 3 (47:57):
They weren't really phased by it. I don't know. Probably
they were not a great at it. I think that's true,
but yeah, they were. They would sometimes watch things and
be like did you really do that? And I'd be
like yeah, and they're like, wow, that's crazy. But they
also it was sort of like this thing that we
weren't trying to focus so hard on because also at
this time there were online message boards and our parents

(48:18):
were just getting slammed people accusing them of being stage parents,
of being neglectful, of being abusive, of being so even
though we were also proud of it and it was
so cool, it was like this unspoken thing that we
never really wanted to talk about because no matter what
we said, like, people were looking to tear you down
for it, yeah, do you know? Like And for me
with my experience, it was especially boys. Boys were a

(48:41):
lot meaner to me than the girls were. And I
think it's because I was, Yeah, I got tormented by
a group of boys with that show was on, because
I think in their minds they were extremely insecure and
I came across as this confident girl and they hated that.
Oh and they hated it smart and they hated it.

(49:02):
And I was the people that believe me after the
show was actually boys instead of girls, which I always
found really interesting. But yeah, it was it was difficult
to navigate for everybody, for me, for my parents, because
it had never been done before. I mean, we were
the predecessors to dance moms, like Kidnation walks, though dance

(49:24):
moms could run, you know. That was like at the
second reality show with children and kind of that, you know,
in that ideology. But it was hard. It was really hard,
and the only thing I do remember from that time
was constantly telling myself to never talk about it, never
draw attention to it, and if someone brings it up,
answer the question, move on, actually ask them a question

(49:45):
about themselves so at least your you know, turn it
back on them so that they God forbid anyone thinks
you think you are better than them.

Speaker 6 (49:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
That was like the big thing that's so hard. It
was really hard. It was constant monitoring myself at like thirteen,
fourteen years old. It was hard, crazy, Yeah, and no
matter what, you would walk away and people would be like,
in the fact that she thinks she you know, so
I couldn't win either way, so it doesn't didn't matter. Yeah,
kids are brutal kids are brutal. Yeah, do you regret

(50:15):
doing Kidnation? No? Okay, well it's the best thing that
ever happened. Okay, great, we are fans. It wholeheartedly shaped
me into the person that I am today. One percent amazing.
I learned a lot of really good things. Do you
keep in touch with anyone from the show? Oh yeah,
I'm going actually to New York City to see Morgan

(50:38):
in Hamilton. I did see she was in Hamilton. She
in Hamilton, So me and Kennedy are planning a trip.
We're going to go down to New York and see
her in Hamilton. DK is also like a superstar. We
still keep in touch. His music career is blowing up
to anyone listening. Please, Oh God, can I plug him? Yeah,
I'm gonna plug. I'm gonna plug DKs.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
I plug him all the time because my mom and
brother watched Chicago Fire.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
And I'm so good on Yeah that's DK, Daniel, Kyrie,
k y r E. Look him up. His music career
is popping off, and we love DK and he's amazing.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
I love this Suprice I'll have for your castmates.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Absolutely get that bag and I will help you get
it because then you can give me part of the bag.

Speaker 5 (51:20):
Was it weird to go from a show that like
that was a time where like we didn't have the
social media we have now, right, And so you left
thinking like, oh my god, I'm never going to see
these people. Maybe I can mail letters, will like swap phone.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
Numbers, and then like we have changed aims.

Speaker 5 (51:33):
Oh my god, how was it reconnecting like once we
got more connected with social media?

Speaker 3 (51:38):
Oh it was, I mean it was. It was fantastic
because we all kind of followed each other because very
shortly after that we all got Facebook. So I think
I got a Facebook in like seventh or eighth grade,
So they were the first people I looked up. And
you know, we all kind of we've been following each
other our whole lives. You know, I've watched a Jay
graduate high school. I've seen Hunter graduate college. I've watched

(52:01):
Taylor get married, Greg's having kids, Blades of firemen, and myself, Like,
we've all been following each other and watching each other
for years, so I'm pretty well aware of what most
of them are up to. But it's been great to
like we all have this shared, very weird, very niche
experience that all was. I think for every single person

(52:23):
in some way was life altering somehow, and it definitely
made an impact I think on every single person, whether
positively or negatively. And that's something that nobody else will
ever understand. So we all have this. I have these
forty people across the country that we all have this
very shared experience that only we will understand. Of Like

(52:45):
if I look at them and say, like, remember the churros,
like they will know what that means. You know, No,
you don't remember them because we could meet them, but
like they were that you were looking at the turo
lack of them. Remember, none of us getting our peeriod
the whole time. Remember that because our bodies were shot,
were malnourished. Oh my god, do you remember that?

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Do you remember being.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
Constipated for fifteen days? Do you remember that? Do you
remember that? Wait, the bathrooms were was it really just
the outhouses? Yeah? Yeah, that was it. I would have vomited. Yeah.
And then we got a like five to seven minute
shower after every showdown because a lot of times we
could be like covered in beans, thank god, because you're

(53:31):
covered in beans and sweat, right, but like rub scrub
in those minutes because the water will shut off and
it is cold, terrib my god, would you ever do
a reunion? It's only like I love. If someone was like,
go spend another forty days in New Mexico, I'd be like,
let's do it. That's hilarious. Yes, adultnation don't know. Oh,

(53:54):
everyone would just be dry humping or killing each other.
I'm not quite sure how that would go. It would
be shocking, no, because everybody's all over the place on
the political spectrum. Now, there would be blood and it
was no, let's do it, let's do it. That's that's
so messy.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
The amount of times that George Bush got brought up
on the show, I was cracking up because I was like,
these eleven year olds are like so in tuned with
the world and like what was happening, which it was huge,
It was odd, yes, But there was one girl, like
one of Taylor's friends, that was like, I didn't like

(54:32):
that council member, but he was not as bad as
George Bush.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
And I was like, yeah, Kelsey was the one, the
one liberal and the tailorette crew, and I yeah, She's
like maybe not everyone's horrible.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
She had strong opinions and I loved them because she
was like, it's politically aware.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
She we all were. We all had that in common,
which I was like, maybe that was kind of af factor,
like we were all we all had a yes, an
awarement of like awareness of an idea of what's happening
in the world, and everyone had very different opinions because
it was kind of a showcase of like if you
go into this part of the country, you were going

(55:15):
to hear these rhetorics kind of being spewed. Like I
was from Massachusetts, you kind of got that vibe. Taylor
was from Georgia, you got that vibe vibe. Michael was
from Seattle, you know, you got that hippie vibe. Like
everybody was kind of a representation of where they were
from politically, education wise, personality wise. So I think they

(55:37):
the production did a very good job at that. But
we were all just spewing what we had heard in
our communities, Like none of these were really our own
formed thoughts yet. Maybe Michael and Sofia because they were
like fourteen fifteen, I was starting too, but I was
still kind of like, I don't know, this is what
my parents said.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
Yeah, we figured like the eight year olds who were
saying stuff we were like, there.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Had no idea. They had no idea, Like say Alex,
Alex was was probably had a New York Times.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
At that point.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
That kid had like a he knew all the different
religions and he knew polls, and I was like, this
kid's amazing. No, I believe there were a few geniuses.
I think Alex and Anja and maybe Jared. I think
they were the three that might have been yes, yes, yes,
I think they're actual like genius level. And then there

(56:25):
was me like, no, we loved you the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
Thank you good and we understand that like people are
given edits, but at the same time, whatever production has
of you they have to work with.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
That is true in a way. Not only did you
have a great edit, you were just a great person
on this show. Thank you. Sweet Charing towards the kids,
when Jimmy was like on his last leg, you were.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
There's a doctor now like amazing he saw that and
the vice thing, Yeah what.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
But just to plug yourself before we let you go.
What are you up to now? So I am currently
I'm starting a master's program soon. I am a special
education teacher. I absolutely love it. I work at a
local public high school. I'm special education, yes, and special

(57:22):
education we teach kids what's called life skills. So it's
a combination of children with either behavioral issues, mental health issues, disabilities,
educational disabilities, low IQ, whatever it may be, and we
basically teach them how to function in society independently. And
it's like the most rewarded. My brother did that, Oh really,

(57:43):
Oh that's autism.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
So he did Life Skills and now he's in he's
twenty five now, but he's still in a program that
helps like be more independent, you know, like being able
to call ubers or buses and like figure that out.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
Because at first, I think high school it was like
how to make change. But now we invite cards, so
they've on me that exactly. Like we went to the train.
We went on the subway the other day, and like
just learning all about the subway system and how to
add money onto your card, and you know, it's actually
really really like beneficial work. I really enjoy it. I've
been starting singing again, just at a local church that

(58:19):
I've been going to. I've been singing kind of with them,
and I'm in a strange period of my life. I'm
like kind of transitioning. I was living in New York
for so long and now I'm back here kind of
setting my life up again, and it's been going really well.
But no, I don't have anything to like plug necessarily. Okay,
plug yourself, we love it. You find me on Instagram.

(58:40):
I'm Laurel mcgoth on Instagram my first and last name.
I'm on TikTok. I think Laurel mcgoth eight. Yeah, you
can follow me there. I post a lot of gay things,
to be perfectly honest, gay content. Yeah, that's I'm obsessed
with Wicked right now. There, you're gonna see a lot
of games posted about that. Well.

Speaker 5 (59:00):
We're a big, like pop culture kind of podcast, especially TV,
and so a big thing we love to review is
just what we've been reading, watching and listening to lately.
So what have you been kind of consuming in the
pop culture sphere outside of Okay?

Speaker 3 (59:13):
So, I am a huge reader. I am a huge, huge, huge, huge,
huge reader, and I am going to be such a
basic girly pop right now. I'm loving I've just completed
Sarah J. Mass's whole sixteen book series. I've read all
sixteen books. Oh my god, it's all like series. Oh,
Throne of Glass probably is my favorite one. But listen,

(59:35):
Crescent City doesn't get the hype that it deserves. Akatar
gets too much hype in my personal opinion.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
I, you know what, honestly agree, and I think the
third Christ Pitty book got a lot more hate than
it should have.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
I really enjoyed the third press Lydia girly Lydia book.
She came in on the second book of like book
number thirteen of a sixteen book series, became everybody's favorite.
That's on my phone love. I loved her as behind.
I was you did like that. I really like a villain.

(01:00:08):
If there's a villain, I might go into it. Yeah,
so I was like, I'm kind of into her. And
then she turned not villain. I was like, oh, I'm
so into not only not villain, but like the most
moral person actually in the entire series.

Speaker 7 (01:00:22):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
So, I've been obsessed with that, reading, reading, reading, reading
a lot. I've been reading ba Paris books. She writes
a lot of thrillers. I'm really in my fantasy like
Era is in.

Speaker 5 (01:00:36):
You guys are destined to be like best friends.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
I don't know if you could see it, but I
have like my fourth way, like Crescent City. That's what
my bookshelf looks like. I have all of them like
lined up. I had to go the life behind me, yes,
because I can't. I don't have any more space in
my bookshelf. Because she writes thousand page books like in
a weekend, so big.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
I haven't even bought her on a glass because where
am I going to put Kingdom of ash that's just
have you not finished?

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
No, I have to buy them to have them. And
like the book is this big, it's it's like I
think it's a thousand pages something like that, like a
thousand and thirteen and I ate them all or oh
I read it and I read it in a week.
That's not normal, not normal. So yeah, lots of start.
Him has lots of reading. What if I been watching
House of the Dragon. I've been watching. I just finished

(01:01:23):
the John Benet Ramsey new documentary one on Netflix, right,
the one on Netflix. I don't have egg, not going
to put any opinions out on there, but just well
it was the brother Oh that's what I believe you
said it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
I did it related to the documentary.

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
I heard that the dad like paid for that to
be made it's just a pr spin piece.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
It absolutely is. It makes him look like, uh yeah,
pretty much, which I don't know why out of the
blue he decided to do that, because it's not like
people were really I don't know, it's not like it's
been in the news recently.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Like people always talk about it. But yeah, there's no like.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
Major Spice, there's no major right right, Eagle will always
get chef.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
Which is a red flag to me. Oh, I've been
watching Abbot Elementary. I've been watching such a good show.
Have you guys watched English Teacher?

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Oh oh, that's the new show, right, it's become funny.
I haven't watched it's it's Abbot Elementary. If they could
say fuck and like it's the HBO Abbot Elementary, it's fantastic.
I highly recommend it less yes, and what else?

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
Do you guys have any recommendations. I've been going to
work and also doing school and trying to get a
second you know, so I've it's been a lot of
scrolling on TikTok at ten at night before I fall,
to be perfectly honest, Yeah, Padley, we're kind of there too.
We love reality TV, so anything Bravo. We like, you know, oh,
I forgot my life. I forgot about my entire life.

(01:02:53):
So yeah, vander pomp rip. Wait a second, why doesn't
Andy have the Kidnation cast on watch what Happens Live?
I feel like that would be.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
We talk about where we're big opinionated, you know, and
that kind of a vibe in that kind of move.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
Andy sometimes doesn't do reunions the way we want reunions done. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
I was like, hey, Andy, could you hire us to
do reunions and we'll bring the Kidnation cast on and
we'll we'll run that because we're.

Speaker 5 (01:03:21):
Well, we got to go to New Mexico. We gotta
go to the town and do it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
We gotta go to the town totel. Yeah, now I
take a council room. Well, now it's cursed because that's
where Alex was shooting. Oh my god, that's right now.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
It's Laurel.

Speaker 5 (01:03:37):
When you when your children's bodies stepped foot on there,
I think the curse started.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
That is very true. That is very true. We bothered
some indigenous Native American land, I'm sure, and now they're making,
you know, getting us back for all of that. I
don't know, but I am afraid to step onto that
if only the plaque was still there. Is it not there? No?
I think you guys chose not the plaque because I
was propos. Oh, you're right, you're right, we chose back.

(01:04:03):
I was Ryan reading that plaque.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
When you had that plot, and Alisha washed it. She
teared up, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
It was so beautiful. It was really beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
I was like, shut up, take the balloons. You guys
took the balloon thing over the city.

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
It's fair. I get the balloons were really cool. That
was really I didn't know when we were ever going
to get to go on a hot air balloon again, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
I yeah to valid yeah, And then I assume listening
to the Wicked soundtrack because that's all I've been listening.

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
To as well. It's the only thing I've been listening to.
Joonathan Bailey can't do any wrongs in my ears. He
never has in his life that he never will. He
never know will. But yeah, lots of uh secret lives
of Mormon wives. We went down that rabbit hole for
a while.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
Meredith did a whole series explaining all the background of
all the Mormon wives, and I still think it's on.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
Our TikTok is the best version to find it.

Speaker 5 (01:04:55):
I love timelines in my brain, like has to like
act timeline it out.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
She timelined all of them because when this show was
coming out, I went Meredith, who are these people?

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
And why are you telling me to watch the show?
And she was like, I'll explain and she just want
to TikTok and was like I'll do it. Yeah great.
So yes, to answer your question, I'm very much a
basic girl. I like Akatar and bravo at I'm nothing
to do. Welcome to the I'm not interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
That is not true that you are very interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
But then also is it basic? But it's not like
things are popular and a lot of people like them
because they're good. It's not basic why people like That's
not why people say, oh I don't like that because
it's popular. Well you're amazing. It's good. Yeah, right exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
It's called bonding. It's unity.

Speaker 5 (01:05:51):
Why do we hate unity?

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
I don't know people hate the last time this country
was united with scandal all So I just that that
was like it. That's that's an oj Simpson moment. That's
a nine to eleven moment. That's yeah, I remember where
you were, Mark, Yeah, I remember where it was. I
remember leaving. I remember I remember walking down the street

(01:06:14):
and my friend Well sending me the link to it
and being like I was in New York at the time,
walking down the street going I think I was coming
home from Yeah, I was coming home from work and
my friend sending me the link and I stopped at
my tracks and I.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
Saw James post about it, and I said, what the
fuck is going on here?

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
Yeah? Where were you? Were you in Chicago at the time.

Speaker 5 (01:06:34):
I was in Saint Louis at my parents' house because
I was like working remote traveling at the time, but
I was at my parents' house for a week. And
I remember I think I sent it to you, Alicia
on our like podcast thing, and we both stopped and
we were like, we got to talk about this right now,
Like I immediately.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
I was on my way to Liberty at Airport to
catch a flight to Chicago, and the worst three minutes
of my life was when all my stuff had to
go through security and I did in my phone and just.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Look like that my phone.

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
My phone died before I got on the plane and
I had to like borrow a strangers to be like,
can I text my mom to come pick me up
at the airport.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
But but really you were just looking up Scandabal. Yeah,
it was just like who's commenting on what? In text?
I was in like twelve different group chat.

Speaker 6 (01:07:17):
It was.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
Yeah, we were really brought together as a as a
as an earth, as a global global, as a world.
We were brought together. We were brought together again in
twenty nineteen with the end of Game of Thrones, and
then it happened again, Scandabal, and then I don't know
when it's going to happen again, if it will ever
happen again. But those were beautiful times in American history.

Speaker 5 (01:07:35):
They really were.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
Well, Laurrel, we are so thankful for your time.

Speaker 5 (01:07:40):
It was such a pleasure to get to know you,
hear about your experience with kidnation, where you're at now,
your love of all the things.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
We love, Yes very much for you. Thank you so much.
Thank you for letting me fully yap for an hour
and seventy minutes. You are still a pleasure and you
were twelve. You are still a pleasure to speak to.
Thank you so much. Thank you for talking. If you're
ever in Boston, let me know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
Would love It was such a pleasure.

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
Thank you, My Laurel, thank you,