RiverRun, 2026, Bonus: "Hotline" (w/Ricki Stern & Jesse Sweet)

"Fentanyl overdose is the number one cause of death for 18–44-year-olds. Fentanyl can be as inexpensive as a cigarette and more than 100 times more powerful than morphine.  As overdose rates rise and stigma persists, THE HOTLINE is not just a story about crisis—it's a story about listening. Grounded in real-world harm reduction efforts, THE HOTLINE is a film about connection in the darkest moments, the power of empathy, and the quiet heroes working in the shadows to keep people breathing, one call at a time."     ~ breakthrufilms.org

On a more serious note*, we decided to cover the documentary short film "Hotline" (2026), which won Honorable Mention in the documentary short film category at the RiverRun International Film Festival. It was co-directed by Ricki Stern and Jesse Sweet, who agreed to come on the podcast to talk about their most recent venture. 

If you or someone you know is battling an opioid addiction, help is available. Here are two resources which the filmmakers recommend: 

https://www.samhsa.gov/

The "Never Use Alone" Hotline: 1-877-696-1996

*The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the Nerdhat podcast or its hosts.*

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I saw some statistic that over a ten year period more people have died from opioids than in the Vietnam conflict. I mean, it it's like they're it's just horrendous the the amount of lives that are being lost on a regular basis by it.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Yeah. And it relates to overdose. You know, it it isn't even like alcohol long-term progressive things. It it's overdose. And I think that's why this project, this film, the hotline really stood out, is because there's the moment of life and death in opioid use is seconds to minutes. Where if you are someone who frequently uses, or you're someone who one time is using, or you're someone who has someone's handed you a pill that they say is sex, like clonopin or something, it could be laced with fentanyl and you could overdose, and and within minutes, you could die.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Nerdy.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Nostalgic.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Madly inappropriate. This is nerd hat. Nerd hat, I'm with late. Why am I robot?

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Nerdheaders, if you've been with us for a while, you know that we love to have fun on our podcast. But occasionally we do cover a film that is more serious. This is no exception. Hotline deals with opioid addiction, fentanyl, overdose, and death. So if those subjects are triggering for you, I recommend skipping this episode. If you or someone you know is struggling with opioid addiction, help is available. Here are two resources which the filmmakers recommend. First is SAMHSA.gov, that's S A-M-H-S-A.gov. That is kind of an all-in-one resource. You can look up your state, your county within the United States of America, and find local resources to help you in battling addiction. The other is the Never Use Alone Hotline, which is featured in the documentary itself. That number is 1-877-696-1996. That's 1-877-696-1996. Please reach out if you need help. Now on to today's episode. All right, nerdheaders. I am here with Ricky Stern and Jesse Sweet, who are the co-directors of the short documentary, Hotline. So that recently appeared you coming on to talk about your film. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. So Ricky, I I know this was not your first time in Winston-Salem, but uh Jesse, had you been to Winston before?

SPEAKER_03 2:44

This was my first time at Riverrun. I'd been to uh Winston-Salem like documentaries you're filming all the time. So I've done some filming at Wake Forest with some professors in the past. Nice. Okay. Yeah. But this is my first time at the festival.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

So well, Jill, Ricky, had you been to River Run before?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

I had not been to River Run. And in fact, I really haven't been to Winston-Salem for many years. But you're right. I when I filmed the trials of Daryl Hunt, we were filming in the 90s or then when Daryl was getting released early 2000s. But I haven't really been back in almost 15 or so years. And it's really changed. It's this happening, funky little cool, you know, coffee bars and all that kind of stuff all over the place. I just kept saying to Jesse, I was like, oh my God, this is like, look at that. They, you know, there's a little French pastry, you know, pastry shop here. It just radically changed. Um, but I'd never been to the festival and the heard a lot about it. And the festival is spectacular. It's really, I was so impressed with the audience. People are really coming to the screenings. The venues are really beautiful. It was a great experience.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Awesome. Well, welcome and welcome again, so to speak. So I know they were glad to have you all. And yeah, it's just I've been really impressed with the staff, uh, with the new executive director, Michael. So yeah, it's really cool things, I think, ahead for Riverrun. So was there, I know for the two of you, at least from what I saw on your IMDB listings, pretty much your entire careers have been kind of in the documentary filmmaking, whether it be features or or TV, is that accurate for the most part?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Or I have also worked a little bit in scripted very early in my career, and I took a time. I wrote some children's books for a while. Oh, nice. Yeah, animated. I'm illustrated. But mostly for me, it has been a documentary.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Aaron Powell I've mainly been documentary. I do some branded things here and there to kind of like fill the gaps. And I the one time I actually I did produce one very independent feature film with a lot of North Carolina School of the Arts people. So there's a little bit of Nate Meyer and David Gordon Green was an executive producer on it. It was called Seagirl Run. And I Nate Rowan directed it. Jane Ritzo also School of the Arts edited it. And that was, I don't know, that was a fun project with uh Adam Scott and Robin Tony.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Jesse, I didn't even know that.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

I like to keep a couple of things.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Did you even talk about that?

SPEAKER_03 5:05

I did. I know. It was a bit?

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Did I remember? Did I forget? No, I don't think I did.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

So majority of your time in that, but obviously filmmaking in general. And uh the question I like to ask as you were growing up, you know, college age, et cetera, was there a particular film, or maybe it was a TV series, something that grabbed you and made you say, I would like to do that. Like I would like to be a filmmaker, I would like to make these types of films, or was the process more gradual for you? And you guys can take turns answering that.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

You want to go first, Jesse?

SPEAKER_03 5:37

I'll go about that. Because I remember when I was in college, I did a an internship for the Telluride Film Festival. And I went out there and saw the Errol Morris film Fast Sheep and Out of Control. It was that summer. And that was like kind of like mind-blowing like documentaries can do that. They're not all polar bears and nature shots. It's like they can be apocalyptic and funny and scary and exciting and cinematic. And that really was a documentary. And I remember being out there and that being like, oh my God, and can you do that for a living? And I like that was one where it was just like kind of opened my eyes to like what's possible to do and made me very I don't know if I left the theater and was like, and I'm gonna be a documentary filmmaker. But it certainly got me excited about documentaries in a way I hadn't been before.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

It's interesting. You know, it's so funny. I was gonna say Errol Maris as well. If you if you said films, I mean, I always say for me, the Wizard of Oz was just one of those mind-blowing experiences that I when I first saw it, I was like, is she dreaming? Is this like it just brought me into like the fantasy and the everything about it, even now when I see Wizard of Oz, I just can't get every time I watch it, it's something different. Anyway, I know that sounds stupid, but but I was gonna say, Errol Morris, because the Temple Grandin documentary about, I think it was called Stairway to Heaven.

SPEAKER_04 6:56

Something like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Something about where she she creates that circular maze for the cows to go through so they don't feel anxiety as they're going to the slaughterhouse. I watched that movie and I was and it was beautiful. And I think I even shot in black and white or whatever it was. I just thought same thing, like the this character-driven film, something about that as a documentary. And then there's a couple other films of Errol Morris that really struck me. But from my background, I I was more doing theater. And so what I liked about documentary or and what I tend to try to focus on is character and what motivates someone in the same way you would have an arc of a character in a scripted film or an arc of a character in a play, this narrative arc. I'm always looking for that in the stories that we're telling. For me as a woman, getting in coming, you know, getting into film, documentary way back then, was just an easier way into telling stories visually because Hollywood was still very closed off to it was an old boys club and might still be, but you know, it was not even looking for women's directors and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Okay. So both he influenced by Errol Morris and displaying my ignorance, I had not heard of him yet. Now it's possible I may have heard of one of his films, but that's a realm for myself that I need to dive more into documentaries. I've been thinking about that more recently, actually. So I'll keep that.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

He probably did one of the first, what what do you would call almost true crime in um what was it? His one.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Thin Blue Line.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Thin Blue Line. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

1988, I'm seeing here.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yeah, yeah. That's what the maybe one to watch first because it really set sort of a a pattern for t a new way of telling a story about I mean it's a a conviction that then he re-examines in this documentary, or I don't know if it was a conviction, I can't even remember, or like an accusation, right? Or police bungled maybe on purpose. But anyway, it it it really was before true crime was true crime. And I I think he would probably not like me to compare it to true crime, but whatever.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Yeah, I I know so many people are waiting in that pool nowadays, especially in the podcasting world.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

And I I noticed, sorry, this is maybe uh it just made me think of it. I noticed in looking at Breakthrough Films and just at the about page. So obviously you both worked there, and I think Ricky, you were involved in founding it, is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 9:26

I started it in 1990, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

So I noticed that among the many awards that you all have either been nominated for or have won that there were two Peabody Awards. And if I'm not mistaken, that's related to radio productions, is it not? So have you or am I am I wrong?

SPEAKER_01 9:39

There's Peabody Awards are also for documentaries. They have their own Peabody sections. Yeah. Well, Jesse and I, so I I did start it. I worked with a filmmaker named Annie Sundberg on many of my projects. And then Jesse and I have worked on many projects, and then he works on things separately. It's kind of that type of well, people are doing it all different ways, but for us, I think just having the ability to tell stories when we want to tell them is is really drives us versus starting a company where you're constantly having to, you know, have a lot of overhead and it it's tried to keep it lean and mean so that we could do projects. And and very much like the Hotline, which came up very spontaneously, the our short film about the opioid, opioid crisis, but through this very intimate storytelling through this hotline, we just were able to just go and do it with friends and film it and not have to raise significant funds, which you would if it were a feature, just because there's just at a certain point you're shooting so many days. A short, and I think Jesse and I are both sort of trying to get it into in the student body, just like go do a short because it's its own challenge. It has its own way of storytelling, just like a short story in some ways, but it allows you to tell the story quicker, faster with less funds up front and can be very effective.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Now, with that topic, I mean, obviously fentanyl addiction is one that's been in the news. I mean, I've certainly heard of it in the news. I've not dove that deeply into researching it myself. How did you all come to choose that particular topic? You said it kind of happened spontaneously. Was there someone that you said someone just kind of recommended it or?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

I'm gonna let Jesse speak, but I'll just say very briefly. I just because it it did come, I I did listen to a radio show, and um the never use alone is this uh um 800 hotline that is run by volunteers. And I was listening to this radio program telling the story of it, and it was so moving. I tracked down the guy who started it and asked if I could meet him on a Zoom with some of the people, and very quickly they said, Yes, you can come do this, you know, a film, which I knew was going to be a short, a short about it. And I personally have lost people to overdose and uh have several family members who are EMTs and encounter overdose very often, and Narcan has saved many people, and mentioned it to Jesse. Jesse and I had just finished Nature of the Crime, which is about the parole process for HBO. And this is a hard subject. And it so I just thought if Jesse were interested, it would be a project to do together. It's always nice to have a partner and something that is emotional and tough, and you're entering people's lives in this very difficult time. So and then I'll pass it to Jesse to say why he said yes.

SPEAKER_03 12:31

As soon as Ricky shared it with me the concept and sort of told me about the people involved, I was definitely all in because I had directed a couple of years ago part of a Netflix series called The Business of Drugs, which it was a six-part series, and it sort of took almost like a freakonomics look at narcotics and said, There's so much judgment involved. What if we like looked at what are the financial decisions that are driving this? We think it's like, oh, this underworld, which it is in some ways, but it's also people making rational economic choices based on what's ahead of them. And what's what's driving the sale of drugs and rise of drugs is no different than what's driving Walmart's stock prices or Amazon's efficiency campaign. And so it was a fascinating look into this world, but it was very clinical in a way. And you know, while doing it, I did one of my episodes was actually on opioids. And so I was interacting with people who were using or had used or were in it, but we kind of didn't tell that side of the story, which felt just because of the format, it didn't fit into that. And it it had been something I'd been interested since then. Like Ricky, I knew people who had been battling with addiction problems and and felt like that was something that I did want to look at at some point. And this seemed like a perfect opportunity when Ricky brought it up. So I was very sort of, you know, it's having such a devastating impact on our country and the world in general that it feels like one of those things that everyone who can be talking about it should be talking about it because the carnage is just truly horrible. And and the way these people in our film are dealing with it, you know, I think we both found inspiring and compassionate and really changing the the paradigm of it. So I was excited from the second I heard about it.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Yeah, I was um I was not aware. I saw the statistic and that really stood out to me that it is the leading cause of death for people aged 18 to 44. Do you know the number of deaths per year? I know CDC data maybe is not as reliable as it used to be in recent days.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

I saw some statistic that like over a 10-year period m more people have died from opioids than the than in the Vietnam conflict. I mean, it it's like they're it's just horrendous, you know, the the amount of lives that are being lost on a regular basis by it.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Yeah. And it relates to overdose. You know, it it isn't even like alcohol long-term progressive things. It it's overdose. And I think that's why this project, this film, the hotline really stood out, is because there's the moment of life and death in opioid use is seconds to minutes, where if you are someone who frequently uses, or you're someone who one time is using, or you're someone who has someone's handed you a pill that they say is X, like clonapin or something, it could be laced with fentanyl and you could overdose and within minutes, you could die. And so the the thing that was so compelling about this hotline is there's no judgment, there's no effort. I mean, they will provide resources for people who have substance abuse and who want to try to get off of it, but they're not going to force you. And what opioid, frequent opioid users say is I would have taken it regardless. Like there's you can't convince me in a moment when I'm gonna take a hit. And so they're just there to say, if you do overdose, we will call a 911 on this national 911 hotline. We will get a an EMT there, EMS will be called, and hopefully you'll have a second chance. And so that was the thing. And the thing about the statistics that it is the leading cause. It's the overdosing because there is such an unregulated. And now I don't know if you you know, but the federal government has just cut hotline funding, federal. This does this program doesn't have federal funding. It's a volunteer, but they've cut all federal funding to hotlines, to harm reduction organizations and to things like needle exchange. And I think the fear is within community of people who work with people who have this substance issues, is that it you will have higher rates of mortality.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Aaron Ross Powell I can only imagine, yeah, if there's not as much access to help. And given the nature of the approach that this particular organization takes, is have they encountered some controversy? Because I know there's others who I mean, obviously there's some who want to take a more punitive approach to dealing with this and criminalize it. And that just doesn't seem to do any good at the end of the day. But has there been a lot of um I don't know what the right word? Have there been complaints that they've had to deal with, like from local authorities or things because of their approach? Have they been maybe accused of being enablers at times?

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yeah. Jesse, I think you want to answer.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

Yeah, I mean I think we I think you see there's a pendulum that swings back and forth between are we going to treat addiction as, like you said, a punitive, uh, a criminal offense that should be dealt with with the criminal justice system, or is a medical issue that should be dealt with by how do you help keep people alive to get them to a point where they can make a decision to stop using. And I think a while ago, certainly like Reagan era, like all in on war on crime, I think there was a moment where there was more openness to this is a medical issue, how can we give people help? And I think it feels like it's swinging back. And because of that, like I don't want to say that Ricky might know more than me, that they've had someone like try to shut them down or anything. I think there's just a stigma that they confront kind of a regular basis, like as you said, like where you're basically giving people the green light to use. And you're you're you're kind of holding their hand while they do it and helping them through the process. And it's just a stigma they have to deal with every day. I imagine so.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah. And I would say one of the moms, there's a mom in our short film who helps out on the hotline, and her son has struggled with substance abuse and has had an opioid addiction and tells the story of basically he had an injury and he was given some opioids. So he was medically provided with them immediately for him. He felt better, just was one of these drugs that he was, I'm I'm gonna get this. And the mom talks about where she feels there is a stigma even in having substance abuse, where her son is sick, but she doesn't have, she can't talk about it. If she says if he had had cancer, everyone would be there for me, supporting me. But to live with someone who's her child who has a substance abuse, who who she's had to bring back to life. She's had to be there for him. It's so painful and so out of control. But there is so much judgment around it. And that's what we found so moving about all the stories and meeting the people who are manning and women the hotline is that they're just there to say, I am here to support you. I care about you. I don't want you not to be alive. And I'm going to let you use your drug, and I'm going to call an ambulance if you need it. And two people in the film found that experience so powerful for them, they've stopped using one woman, both of them, it's been a year. One of them has overdosed on the hotline. And he just just the compassion and the care of the people who and he even says the EMT, this was someone, the police came, they didn't. It was a uh state that has um what is it called?

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Good Samaritan.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Good Samaritan Good Samaritan laws, North Carolina, good Samaritan laws. So you don't get arrested if you call in someone who's had overdose or drugs, the cops aren't there to penalize you or arrest you. They're they're there to also help save a life. It's very powerful. So even though you could say, well, you're enabling them because you're on a phone with them and you're providing this safe place for them to take their drugs because call the ambulance, it's actually had a very positive impact on many people, not just the two in our film, to have a chance to have a second chance.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Yeah, I noticed the I cannot recall her name right now, but uh the one lady that Heather was now volunteering said she had called it what something like 150 times before eventually getting clean herself and Well I think one of the things you realize when you start talking to people is the people trying to get through their day.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

They're not going to a party and using at night. It's like once you once you go down this path, like people are using five times a day. You you know, if you're gonna be Because of the withdrawal.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Because it's but that's why they're using it five times a day. You're withdrawing every couple hours. Yes. And the withdrawal is like the worst flu you've ever had.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

It was just like that's where her life ended up before you know she was luckily able to make these decisions.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Aaron Powell I was thinking a bit about kind of pivoting a little bit to your approach to storytelling within this film. How did you all settle on the approach of there's no voice over narration, I notice, and there's not even any audio from a questioner. It was just you're hearing the people's stories, you're kind of zooming in to their lives with the overhead shots, and then you zoom in and it's just very intimate and you're just hearing from them. That was a somewhat unique approach, at least amongst the documentaries I've seen. So I'm curious what the process was of kind of coming to that decision. Like this is how we're gonna structure it.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Well, I th I think we wanted it to feel very observational, and we wanted to literally feel like you could zoom in. To any window on any street in America. And you may find this because it is an epidemic. And it is, it crosses all socioeconomic divide. And there were people calling in from their cars from Brooklyn to the hotline we happened to be in Tennessee, where one of the calls was being answered, or calling in from their parents' bedroom in California. And so we wanted to put the viewer in this sense of just give you a portrait of what it's like to both be someone who is addicted and feels this need, and then someone on the other side who is a nameless, faceless person who's there to basically save their life. And it's such an incredibly tense, emotional, heightened moment. And we wanted to people to experience that so that these conversations can come out of it. So we can start to talk about why people use what can be done, how to help support. And there's no sort of solutions in the film. It's really just a provocative look to spark conversation. And Jesse?

SPEAKER_03 23:12

And I think one of the other like stylistic structure of decisions we made early on was how to treat the phone calls themselves and the importance of the audio recordings. Because as you know, we we do go pretty heavy on them because we realize that's the power of the film in a lot of ways, the voice, this conversation that's stark. It's a caller and an operator. And for 10 minutes, literally, lives are on the line. And really kind of in some ways finding the key conversations, which there were a lot of them, and figure out what are the key ones that sort of illustrate different aspects of the story, and kind of anchoring the story, the other the film and its its structure on that, and stripping back a lot. So it's really visuals are pretty stark. You're in the call and it is as immersive as possible. Not to be gratuitous and say, look at this horrible moment, but to really say this is the reality of people's lives on a daily basis and pull you into both what they're doing and how these calls are having a huge impact in helping them.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Now I noticed this was not directly unless I missed it. I didn't see it being directly addressed in the film that the uh the first gentleman that that appears on screen. Did I pick this up correctly that he had either adopted or took in the daughter of someone he knew who had overdosed?

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Was that Mike founded? Sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

He was the founder of the organization.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Yes, he founded it. He talks about his best friend, this woman, who he had this child with, his daughter, and she was using he was also someone who had died several times from overdose. He had had been an opioid user. And she he recorded her phone call so he could play it back to her to s to show her how out of it and how scary it it was for him. And within the next time she died overdosing on a on a call that um he didn't record, but but you know, they didn't know that she had Narcan in the bathroom and she overdosed and she died. And so for him, he came up with this idea that you should never use alone, which is the 800 hotline number, never use alone. And because that had he been on the line with her, had he been able to call and have someone there, uh, he felt like there was a way that he could have helped her. And then now his daughter, the her daughter lives with him.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Yeah. I thought that was that's pretty cool that he was who him to take her in. I I can imagine it's always a tough decision about whether to include a a child or not in in a documentary like that. But I think that definitely connected me to that story. I mean, obviously, having children myself and some around her age, just seeing the impact. And yeah. So yeah, thank you. Thank you all for for working on important projects like this.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

Well, the one thing I'll say about the family is I think we we were both compelled, both for this and the the reason on kind of the flip side we included Vanessa, who's a mother to someone who's a user, is like what you realize and what illustrates, I think, is this isn't just something that's affecting individuals, but it's rippling through communities. And it's gonna affect the mother, the daughter, the friend, the neighbor. That this is really this opioid addiction is like an infection that once it gets in, it's it's just kind of ripping through communities, and it's gonna require that sort of community-wide approach to deal with it as well, because that's the type of problem it is.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

Aaron Powell Yeah, obviously there's the hotline itself. And are there any other resources that you all ran across in your research that you would recommend places for people to get help or maybe more like re I don't know, free hub centers or some dedicated to that?

SPEAKER_01 26:55

If you go to the website, it's a federal website, SAMHSA, S-A-M-H-S-A. It has you put in your state, you put in your county, and it it lists whole different resources for some are harm reduction resources and some meaning that they don't require total abstinence. They have different ways for you to stay alive as maybe you're trying to get sober, you're trying to come off drugs, methadone and suboxin programs. And then there are some that are different, and they're not harm reduction, they're total abstinence project uh programs, but there's a whole range, and there's thousands of them around the United States, and that website can connect you to it. Yeah, see if you find it.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

So this is Sam SAMHSA.gov.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

So I see they have a crisis line there, and that can link you to the other resources.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

And then what is the official name of the organization that that runs the hotline?

SPEAKER_01 27:53

If you look up Never Use Alone, Never Use Alone. The film will be on HBO in the fall. We're working on possibly having some resources at the end of the film as well. So for people to but the 800 line for never usealone, they also will put people in touch with resources. The operators they have sent out, they have Narcan. Narcan is kind of expensive. And Mike will send you some Narcan if you want to have it. Uh it saves lives. So they're a great resource themselves.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

Yeah, it's not one to come up for me. But yeah, neverusealone.com. So most of our listeners are in the US, but we do have some internationally as well. Did you all run across is this a widespread problem internationally? Obviously, it's a big one here in the US, so I imagine it's probably growing.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

It is a widespread um and Canada, I think their statistics are very high as well. I know that there's some similar hotlines out of Canada that they've been talking about sort of sharing resources. But yeah, it I mean, opioid fentanyl, fentanyl poisoning. I don't know the statistics. It's a good question. We should look that up. But um, it's definitely um a crisis in in many countries.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Well, we're running up on our time here. Um obviously it's a very serious topic, and uh we do cover those from time to time on nerdhat, but we we typically like to end our interviews, not to pull away at all from from the topic we were just discussing, but just to end on a little bit lighter note. Uh, question we like to ask all of our guests is um basically, what's in your nerd hat? Is there whether it's uh whether it's a TV show, a film, maybe it's a novel, uh, it could be a Broadway play you saw recently. Is there something recently it just has got you so excited that you're sharing it with your friends, you're nerding out about it? It's like, oh, I love this, or maybe it's an escape for you at the end of the day. Uh just something you're really enthused about at present.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

I just went to see Rocky Horror on Broadway.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

And my friend Rachel Dratch is in it, and she's fantastic, and that is something to nerd out about for sure. She's great and it's a really fun show. That doesn't help as you're not able to come to New York and see it. Let me think about other Jesse. What are you nerding out about?

SPEAKER_03 30:08

Me and my kids, we've been like obsessively watching that show Company Retreat, which is like the follow-up to the show Jury Duty, which I think as a documentary filmmaker, appreciate that you know, what do you know the construct? Basically it's I'm not okay. So it's a comedy. It's so good. The original was it was about jury, and it's like one of the creators, I think, of Community or Parks and Rack, one of those shows. Okay. And so it seems like it's a documentary. Everyone's an actor except one person. And so they say we're gonna the first season was called Jury Duty, and they say the documentarians want to make a documentary about like uh jury duty, and everyone starts doing increasingly crazy, surreal things and saying, like, does the normal guy like figure it out or not? And the new one's about a company retreat where again it's this company, a hot sauce company, and they're on a company retreat and just everything goes wrong, and everyone's an actor, but one guy thinks it's a documentary.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

It's like the reverse of what Sasha Baron Cohen did with some of his movies. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Everyone else is there. Oh, that sounds fun.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

And I know Rocky Horror, like I know it's playing other places too, it's such a popular one. I think we had our local theater here did uh not too long ago, I think.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Oh, did they do the play or did they do players?

SPEAKER_02 31:20

We have some local, some local playhouses here, like the little Little Theater of Winston-Salem, and then there's a couple others, obviously the Haynesbrand Theater. I believe I remember hearing of them doing Rocky Horror recently, but but you said currently it's playing, is that on Broadway?

SPEAKER_01 31:33

It's uh it's a play on Broadway. I think it originated as a play, it became a movie, and now it's back to being a play. It's playing at Studio 54, the famous Studio 54 that was at one point a dance nightclub. And it's now back to a theater and it's great. It's yeah, it's getting a lot of attention. Uh it is where if you are someone who follows Rocky Horror, it's fun to go and see it live again.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

Yeah, and I I listened uh kind of leading up to this, I listened to your episode with Rachel Dretch on Woo-Woo, her podcast, where you talked about surviving death. And uh it seemed like y'all had a lot of fun and uh obviously got into some UFOs and all that fun stuff. Just yeah, fascinating stuff. I imagine that's probably a podcast you would recommend. Uh, do you all have any other podcast recommendations, ones that you love listening to?

SPEAKER_01 32:20

I do like Woo Woo. I like for podcasts, Rachel Drash's Woo-woo. I watch I listen to every podcast. How to choose one.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

There's so many, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Now I feel like I can't say a single one. What do you what do you listen to, Jesse?

SPEAKER_03 32:35

I will say my podcasts are kind of boring. Like I do a lot of New York Times podcasts. Like I do like a lot of like the daily and like decline. Uh and I'm I'm I go pretty deep in serial.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Serial is good.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Jesse, I just listened to that, the one you told me, wings win winds of change. Wind of change. Yeah. That's an excellent one for your audience.

SPEAKER_03 32:56

My favorite podcast of all time. Winds of Change. Just say the premise is about So the basic premise is um Patrick Reedner Keefe, the investigative journalist, gets a job, uh, a grant to like be inside the CIA doing research and starts hearing this rumor that the song Wind of Change by Scorpion was an operation run by the CIA to destabilize the Soviet Union and make people want freedom. And so he goes down this deep rabbit hole of was Scorpion really a CIA front? And it's just amazing in all. I think I've listened to that one now that I think about it.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Yeah, it's about halfway through it. It's so good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:34

Yeah, I I love a good limited series.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

What do you like, Richard? What is it?

SPEAKER_03 33:38

So I like a good limited series. I'm like you.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Yeah. What's your go-to podcast?

SPEAKER_02 33:43

Well, yeah, so I have I have different ones. I have some I go to just for laughs or to escape. Like uh there's uh how did these get made is is one that I enjoy just for kind of an escape. And but yeah, if I'm if I'm getting a little more serious or if I want to do some research, I I usually get something that's like MPR adjacent or kind of I really like the I haven't listened to their newest season, I don't think, but uh Reveal. Uh it's a really good investigative, like independent investigative journalism podcast. They kind of do some real deep dives into things. Let's see, there was another one. Shoot, my brains are on a blank through line. Through line, which I think is MPR, if I'm not mistaken. I like I like how they they trace the history from the past up until present present tense. Because yeah, I'm often wondering like how did we get here or or what's the origins of this? Or yeah, so they answer a lot of those questions. Yeah, so I I like to nerd out about those, but then I I love some good entertainment podcast and love some good audio dramas, like Q Code puts out a lot of excellent stuff, like full production with some mainstream actors too, really good writing. So yeah. I'm kind of all over the place. But uh, but yeah, I do often listen to the How Did This Get Made, and yeah, that's kind of my go-to escape podcast, I think, these days, at least here recently. So yeah. Well, thank you both so much. I know we went over just a little bit, but uh I've just really enjoyed talking to both of you and uh thank you for taking time to come on the podcast and congrats on getting the I know it was honorable mention with with River Run, and I'm sure you've gotten some other awards and will again in the future, getting picked up on HBO as well. So y'all look out for that. You say it's coming in the fall, correct? Hotline. So yeah, so listeners look out for that uh coming to HBO in the fall.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

Awesome. Great to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

The Nerdhat podcast was produced in partnership with Nerdhat Productions, which is owned by me, Richard Best. So it's produced by me. Wait, what is this music? Hold on just a second. Let me see if I can find my normal music. Hmm. There we go. Okay, so the Nerdhat Podcast is produced by Nerdhat Productions. Uh I want to give a big thank you to my co-hosts Will Boyer and Laura Morales. They have been such a big part of the success of this podcast. It would not be possible without them. I mean that sincerely. I would have quit a long damn time ago. Uh thanks also to all of our many collaborators and guests over the years, and most recently Elijah Miller, for giving us a new logo. While I was involved in creating it, I did not do the artwork. He did it, and it was amazing. So, the Nerd High Podcast was recorded by me, Richard Best, and edited by me, Richard Best, with a little bit of assistance from Riverside.fm. I appreciate that program. It has been very helpful for virtual recordings like on snow days, you know, things like that. You name it. Anyway, I digress. Until next time, nerds, nerdhatters, nerdhets, assorted nerd persons. Live long and prosper.