"Midnight Train to Simpler Times: Keep Believing, Craving the 80's, & No More Assassination Attempts!"

Why the heck is EVERYONE obsessed with the 80s & 90s right now?

In this raw, heartfelt episode of Plate & Ponder: Empty-Nesting with Jen & Chris Fenton, we crack open ONE single verse from Journey’s legendary “Don’t Stop Believin’” — “Just a small-town girl, livin’ in a lonely world… She took the midnight train goin’ anywhere / Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit…” — and it unlocks EVERYTHING about why analog life felt so free, hopeful, and simple compared to today’s digital chaos. 

Then we go heavy: the third assassination attempt on Trump last night. We don’t shy away — we ask the tough questions: Why is this happening in America? How do we actually prevent the next one? 

But it’s not all serious. Jen puts Chris in the hot seat with ultra-specific questions to test how well he REALLY knows her after all these years (the answers are equal parts hilarious and adorable). We laugh, banter, roast the latest news, and remind you why empty-nesting together is still the best adventure. 

If you’re tired of the noise, craving real connection, and secretly wishing you could hop on that midnight train back to simpler times… this episode is for YOU. 

Hit play (follow, download, enjoy, & review). Feel the nostalgia. Remember why we still believe.  

#DontStopBelievin #80s90sNostalgia #TrumpAssassinationAttempt #EmptyNestLife #PlateAndPonder 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Oh yeah, here we are. Vibin'. This is a vibe and vibe and tunes, five tunes, five and tunes. It has been a bit since we have done a plate and ponder empty nesting with Jen and Chris Fenton, which is continues to be in 71 countries around the world. We are rocking and rolling, I gotta say. I mean, the amount of downloads we're getting is pretty intense, and um I do keep looking for that 72, but it's probably because we haven't recorded.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Well, that's because you're out of town.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

I was out of town in Nashville, which is one heck of a fun town to be in, and it makes me proud that I get to work down there in um the heartbeat of America, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

You know I've never been.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

It is pretty cool, I gotta say.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Um, are you gonna take me?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Uh I will take you happily there. Uh we gotta figure out a time to get you there because you are quite busy, as am I. That's true. So um here we are on a sunny Sunday evening. Um, we are cooking a little food for ourselves. We've been out pretty social um since I got back late Friday, and uh just enjoying a weekend uh pre uh kids coming home and and fully empty nesting, which is pretty nice. Ooh, what was that? I don't know. Did you just have an alarm go off of some sort? Oh, that was interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

I did, and what's funny is it was Harry Styles.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Ooh, Harry Styles watermelon juice or watermelon sugar. Watermelon sugar, which is um uh if you look into what that is, it's actually um would keep us off of the PG rating that we have.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Actually, that could be a good segue into our first topic.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Well, I think first of all, people like our little banter. So let me ask you this. What what did you do while I was gone?

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I worked. Okay, how was work? Uh work was fine. I had a few dinners, I had a board meeting.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Only board meeting for the school district here in Manhattan Beach.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

No, board meeting for my work.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Okay. Uh the board meeting.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

The charter school, exactly. That's the one board meeting I had this week. Last week I had three board meetings.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Um, I could tell you your board meeting would be very difficult if it happened to be a teacher from Torrance today.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Well, we're gonna talk about that, but you said we wanted to banter, so I have a I have a fun I have a few fun questions.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Can I just say um we had a really fun date night? You know, we had a really great date night. We try to have date nights once a week.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

And I will say we've been doing this since the kids were born. No joke. We were very lucky. We had somebody who helped take care of Kaylee and Dylan when they were newborns, and they lived with us.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

So um a shout out to Myrta and a shout out to Anna.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

They were to Florence was the baby nurse that helped, really.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

We had a baby nurse initially because we had twins. I mean, let's it wasn't like, oh, we're not gonna do the work appearance, but it was like we need them like schedules.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Florence was really adamant about us going out every week. And so when the babies were even one week old, you and I went to dinner on a date.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

And I'm but a horn went off in the house, and the kids started to sense we were about to leave. And I just remember they would grab our legs.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

No, no, when they were babies, when they were like infants, newborns. So we've been doing this, and uh, you know, Florence even suggested that uh we travel. So even when the kids were, I think, four or five months old, you and I went uh we went on a vacation. I think we went to London together.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Uh yeah, we did. I mean, we we had we we definitely really tried to balance well. First of all, when you have twins, things could turn into this massive blur, like just crazy.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Yeah, I don't remember probably zero to four or five. I really don't.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

I mean, the key the key thing that happened is we had a very um, I would uh, you know, like uh you think about the soup Nazi, we had a baby nurse, like like but she got the kids on a sleep schedule.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

She got them on a sleep schedule, and they were eating and they were sleeping eight hours a night.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

So like when she left six weeks after, yeah, she left after what? Like she would disappear longer and longer every day.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Well, we had her though for about two and a half months.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

I was gonna say six weeks.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

No, it was longer.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Did we really? Oh my gosh. Well, anyway, it was twins. Yeah, we had twins and we had them sleeping through the night. Um, I remember burping them on those donuts at the same time. Kaylee would always fake that she was drinking her milk, whereas Dylan would drink his in about two seconds and then try to drink hers. Uh, it was chaos, but we always did make it a point to get away uh for at least a few hours to go walk to Osteria Moza or you know, BLD or um what were some of the other places?

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Angelini.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Angelini, Osteria. Yeah, we had a lot of good restaurants. La Luna was there on March Mont. Um Mama Osteria, I think was there. And um what Patina? Was it Petina or um It was Providence? Oh, Providence, that's right. Patina's sister. Oh, and they had Toimec and they had uh Meisinger had a restaurant. Yeah, we uh I do miss that, but then uh the South Bay got pretty good too.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

I think it's absolutely comparable.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah, so we got we got lucky, and uh anyway, we we we got away for uh a date night last night, which was cool.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Well, it's funny. I I mean who are we getting away from, Flynn?

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Well, I got away from lacrosse. I was watching a lot of lacrosse yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yes, it is lacrosse season in the Fenton House. And uh And not Dylan's lacrosse season, it is everybody else's lacrosse season. So you are you are showing love to the sport in general.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yes. And um, I have a movie coming out uh this summer. We haven't announced the date yet, but we know the date. We know how many screens it's gonna be nationwide. It's gonna be pretty awesome, and we are in the thick of it, putting the trailers together, the key art, the posters, the website, all that stuff, rounding up the talent, getting them ready to promote. So it has been quite busy. Uh so you know, and hopefully once we announce it, I am going to be talking about that movie a lot on here.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

I have a feeling.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yeah. Well, it's a good film. I'm pretty excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Can I ask you some questions?

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Yes, I would love you to ask.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Okay, because you were gone a week. And yes, we had date night, but I still feel like, you know, you're coming back, and I I love this. So if you had to rename me based on my vibe, what would you pick?

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Uh Tiger.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Tiger, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Okay. Um not after Tiger Woods, just thank you for that pure clarity.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Tiger, you're just a tiger.

unknown 6:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

With a nice ass. Oh, sorry, did I say that wrong?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Um, if you had to buy me one thing to make me happy, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Uh, let's see. It would be either, well, uh, shoes or a purse. I hmm, I know a particular kind of purse that uh I would have to probably die trying to get you. Um, but I know that would make you happy. Uh, but I, you know, if I'm thinking about things that are a little more um affordable, even though they are considered aren't that affordable, but like shoes. I would get you shoes.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Okay. What's one thing I'm better at than most people?

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Ooh, um, kicking ass.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Thank you. But really, like what's one thing?

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Uh just getting stuff done. You get I'm I'm a multitask. Like your motto, nice ass gets shit's shit done, was was definitely a motto that you lived up to.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

And I think I still do.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

I think everybody on the boards that you're part of, when you were running the school board here, it was that way. And I'm not just blowing smoke. I'm I'm telling you, you were uh pretty unbelievable. And I don't think anybody would disagree. You might have been actually too hardcore for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Well, I am hardcore.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yeah, you can be.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

I know. Yeah, so my kids say that. Okay, I'm also I'm we're cooking potatoes tonight. We're having uh burgers, we're having some salads.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

We're having burgers with no seasoning on them.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

No, they do have seasoning, but I am moderating the salt because I want to make sure you stay healthy.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Yes. Um, should I be taking my blood pressure?

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Actually, maybe you should. But okay, if I was if I was a potato, because I'm making potatoes, um, how would you cook me?

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Well, you wouldn't be a sweet potato. You would be definitely not a sweet potato. More of a uh like a like a russart potato? Yeah, um, I think you'd be a fingerling uh potato because you're you're are those like the weird skinny guys? Well, because I don't think of you as like a big baked potato. You just don't, you know, so how would I cut you a stuffed potato? Um I well, we particularly like to go to Paris, so I'd French you. French fry you, I guess. Did I say that wrong? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Oh well, we try. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Um I guess my father-in-law does listen to the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

I'm sorry, less. Shall we move on?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Yes. What's another question?

SPEAKER_01 8:52

No, without that can be, I mean, I have more questions. Yeah, I want to hear a couple more. I want to hear a couple more. I want to hear a couple more. Okay. Um, here's one. Okay. What's one thing I do that makes ordinary days better?

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Uh what is it that you do to make ordinary days better? Well, I would say, I mean, you you are very motivated in the morning, as am I, but sometimes one of us is a little more sluggish than the other getting out of bed. But you you spring out of bed, and so do I, and and you get the coffee going, and I love that. So um that really kicks off the day in a great way. And uh, I would also say that you're always if if if we're both home uh at dinner time, you make a fantastic meal.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Thank you. Okay, what's my most lovable contradiction?

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Most lovable contradiction? Wait, give me an example. What is it?

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Well, I don't know, it's a question, but like uh you know how I'm I'm like a tiger, I'm like really aggressive, but that's a lovable trait because I'm overly protective, I'm super loyal. So like a lovable contradiction like that.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Yeah, there's uh oh well, you get upset at me for not hearing you when I'm like in the closet and you're seven rooms away. And I would say that you um got up a little irritated at me when I was trying to talk to you when you were seven rooms away and in in the closet. Yet I I I um yeah, I just go with that.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

You can be So I hold you to a high standard.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

You hold me to a very high standard. You do you know there are times when you um eat things and you're you're chewing in a way that's like annoying, but I don't say anything.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Okay, this is a what is worse, kind of like a would you rather almost when Dylan comes home? Flynn barks incessantly whenever Dylan eats. Dylan could be eating dinner, Dylan could be having a protein shake, Dylan could be having chips. It does not matter. Flynn barks and barks and barks. So is that noise worse? Or this morning was it worse? You were eating a banana with peanut butter on it, and it just made that like I could hear it across the kitchen. I think I actually plugged my ears with my fingers because I couldn't listen to it.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Well, first of all, the peanut butter that you've gotten me has zero salt in it and zero anything that's bad for you. So it just consuming it requires every bit of saliva that's in your mouth because otherwise it turns to like uh chalky cement.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Oh, but I did it to keep you healthy.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

You did. You did a great job at that, so I really appreciate it. So um, so there you go. So maybe we um move on from the questions into uh what else?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Uh well, maybe we should talk about what happened at the correspondence center last night.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Uh yeah. Well, how in the You know what's even weirder is is the fact that we were at a restaurant where you could see the bar, right? Like you could see the bar across um the room. And whatever sports was on.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

I forgot.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Whenever it happened, there was no cut to footage. We didn't find out about it, and I don't think anybody did in the restaurant until probably a good hour and a half later after the news came out. So I find that sort of odd, and I will tell you that I remember the exact same thing happening when uh Butler, Pennsylvania called.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

I called you. I was like, oh my god, Chris, did you just hear somebody tried to assassinate the stuff?

SPEAKER_00 12:27

I was with Grady Lee heading to uh dinner over by Georgetown Prep in Maryland, and we got to the place and there were there were televisions on. We were eating at a like a high-end um, you know, it was like a uh like a nice uh artisan pizza place or whatever. And uh there were there were TVs over the bar and sports were on, and there was like literally no cut-to footage of what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania. And obviously I was still learning exactly what happened, but it happened a good hour before. It's crazy to think that um assassination attempts on a president, and I know last night was a little less it was a little more ambiguous in terms of a direct assassination attempt, because I guess you know you could argue he was in another room and he never got a shot at our president or anybody in particular. Maybe he was there to sh, you know, get somebody else, or who knows? Like it's hard to find out. There was a manifest, I guess, where he was talking about the administration on the whole.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Well, in the writings, he reportedly referred to himself as a friendly federal assassin, but didn't specify that he was going after the president. I mean, it could have been J.D. Vance.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

That's a weird adjective to put ahead of federal assassin. Assassin, right? Friendly versus unfriendly.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Yeah, friendly federal assassin is what he wrote. Um, and he he expressed deep grievances against the Trump administration as well as religious groups. But that room was a big room. It was full of people from the left, from the right, you know, from cabinet to the media. So you're right, it's a little more ambiguous because it wasn't. We don't know if it was absolutely directed at Trump. I mean, I think we we can assume it was, but yeah, yeah, it's definitely a little I mean, Butler, Pennsylvania was an obvious assassination attempt.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

You could argue that golf course guy that was hiding there waiting for him was pretty darn close to an assassination attempt that was foiled. But he never took a shot because they got him in time. Last night, they got him before he got into the room. And I'm curious, like, whether they can actually can they press charges on him as an assassination attempt? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Like, what is here's what I think is gonna happen. So, first of all, the him that we are referring to is a man by the name of Cole Thomas Allen, and he's 31 years old, and he's from Torrance, California, which is in the South Bay. He worked as a um like a tutor, if you will. So in Manhattan Beach, we have something called Study Hut. He worked at something called like C2. It was it was in like a strip.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Yeah, but he wasn't your normal tutor either. He's really smart.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

He went to Caltech.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

I mean, Caltech, for people that I don't know, I th I believe it's between MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Caltech are probably the two hardest schools in the country to get into, mainly because you have to be a genius in STEM to even, you know, get whatever.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

No, I nobody's discounting that. But the fact that he had a gun, uh, I mean a handgun, a shotgun, knives, the fact that he took a ship.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Oh, he had multiple weapons?

SPEAKER_01 15:31

That's what it's saying.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Um, and so the fact that he took a train, right, instead of getting on an airplane, so he didn't have to disclose these weapons, the fact that he charged the ballroom, I mean, I think you're right. I I was it a direct assassination? No, but it does seem like he'll he'll be charged with something.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

The whole the whole thing is a a definite sad tram trombone on like uh the most amplified level possible, and it should be record scratch for where society is going where this is becoming something that seems to be a I mean, if it happens three times, is that a regular occurrence? And like who knows how many have been foiled or uh I mean it's just well that's what I asked you.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Is this I mean, is this president one that's had the most assassination attempts? I mean, I I don't know the answer to that.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Do you think it's the most fiery um rhetoric I've ever heard from both sides about anybody on the other side? I I would say I don't understand why people can't just like we're we have plate and ponder empty nesting with Jen and Chris Fenton, and we cover timely topics, but we don't get all knives and daggers about one side or the other. We're just talking about things that are are are part of the conversation, part of the zeitgeist that people are talking about at restaurants or among themselves or online or whatever. We somehow are doing it without making people have rancor and and complete feelings of violence towards whatever topic we're talking about, right? Like why can't people do that more?

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Like well, because our country is so divided right now. And that I will say is actually the one plus that came out of last night's uh attempted assassination is we watched a ton of news stations this morning. We watched Fox, we had CNN, we watched like the local news, we watched it all. And reporters who were seemingly, you know, liberal or seemingly conservative, people were coming together and everybody was commending and complimenting Secret Service for doing a really great job. Everybody was, you know, complimenting basically the safety and and what happened afterwards. So there was a little bit of a pat on the back from everybody, like go team high five, even if you don't like the other side.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Well, I've I mean if I'm Trump, I'm I'm patting them on the back constantly because it seems seems like there's there's definitely uh entities internally that maybe aren't doing their job because maybe they don't see eye to eye with them. I don't know. I mean I'm not trying to put on a tinfoil hat, but like if you look at the fact that they're allowing p normal people to stay in the hotel and have access to everything like that, uh when 2,500 well, there's 2,500 guests, but I would argue maybe a hundred of the most important people for the American leadership are all in one room. It's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Okay, but how do you you can't you can't shut down the hotel just for those 100 people? So who's paying for it?

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Well, I'm just the government? Well, the I mean, somehow if you're gonna do that, you gotta do it in a secure manner. I don't know what it costs, but it probably costs less than flying Air Force One to Mar-a-Lago, you know. I mean, just you I mean, imagine somebody brought a bomb into the hotel and had it in their room or whatever. I mean, look at what happened to Mandalay Bay in in Las Vegas. I mean, having access to a uh a building like that to anybody just seems crazy. Now, I don't know if it was just anybody. I mean, maybe this guy had to have a certain passport or you know, clearance to to get a room there. He couldn't have any marks on his record. Maybe they do some sort of search like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

That would be interesting to actually find out if on events like this, like the correspondence dinner, if there's an extra level of security and check-in requirement if you're gonna stay at the hotel during that week.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

I mean put it this way, I don't think anybody can just stay at the uh at the Beverly Hilton during the Golden Globes. I think you have to have heard of it. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

I disagree. What if you and I were from like Bumble Town, I don't know, Oklahoma, and we happened to book a vacation.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Well, first of all, the rooms would be so outrageously expensive to the normal person.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

I mean, what if we booked it a year in advance?

SPEAKER_00 19:46

I think I think it's probably the same price every year when when the Golden Globes happen, that would be my guess, you know. But regardless, he I think even in his manifesto, he he said how ridiculously insecu you know, unsecure the site was. I think that was part of what he wrote um I was hearing on the news this morning. So I don't know. But regardless, I mean, the fact that we have I would say somebody that um this isn't this wasn't like a traditional incel wayward soul uh you know uh radicalized um person with no future. I mean, this was a guy who graduated Caltech. Now maybe he was trying to find his way and was teaching, you know, uh tutoring, but uh I I was tutoring too with a Cornell degree, uh a Cornell engineering degree after college. So he might have been in that place and zone, and who knows? But I just he doesn't feel like that typical radicalized person, but it which makes me unfortunately believe that the normalization of violence towards uh the other side politically is becoming apparent, which I hope is not the case, but I'm just throwing that out there as an idea.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

You know what though? He does sound radicalized to me. The fact again, this is according to my research. I wasn't there, I don't know, I haven't, you know, I haven't interrogated the guy. But uh he has uh had a history of anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric, and he's done that on his social media. So perhaps there I mean we haven't looked at it, but maybe there's a past. Um he also made a small donation to the uh Democratic. Yeah, yeah. Which is, I mean, neither here nor there, but I I think that's we have lots of friends who say things on social media that that twenty years ago or ten years ago would be s would I I think would be seen as completely radicalized.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

In fact? Yeah, and I would say uh friends of ours on the left probably say things that um you can get away with on the left because there seems to be a A bit, whereas on the right it might be seen as as much more threatening, and perhaps you could get it, you know, arrested for it. I don't know. But I do think the rhetoric um from what I would call normal educated people, because they happen to be friends of mine, but maybe that's a that's a sign that they're not normal. I don't know. But um yeah, I think people did you just put yourself down? Well, I'm just uh I don't know. I don't know. Am I normal? I guess I think you're normal. Um but it but let's let's um I don't want to dwell too much on it because it it does sadden me, and I don't know if we know everything yet, and I just you know, then there's also the other part where the you know there's certain contingency on the left that's saying it was all staged, which um yeah, coincidentally he's trying to get through a court that that halted his construction for a fully secure ballroom. Um that's ongoing right now. And I it seemed like the very first statement he said after this thing went down was like, see, you need my ballroom, or whatever, you know, is like whoa, okay, way to inflate that potential conspiracy theory. I mean, I as far as a conspiracy, I I could say the timing is very suspect, but the part that just wouldn't make any sense is so they somehow talked this guy into doing that? Whereas, like, I mean, the chances of him still being alive after pulling this off were probably one percent. So how how it's incredible that he wasn't shot and killed on the wrong.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Well, he was stripped down and obviously It was really a suicide mission, if you ask me. Maybe. I mean, I can I ask you a question? Yeah. Do you think Jeffrey Epstein was involved?

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Well, okay, so I if I really put on a tinfoil. I'm okay. Well, what I am gonna do is I'm gonna say, because we talked about it uh uh maybe last episode or the episode before, the attention span, this whole thing about like keeping any sort of news story around long enough to actually know what actually happened and have enough investigative time to actually figure it out and explain to the American people what went on. Like, this is gonna be just another example of that because not only do I think most people forget that the Ukrainian Russian war is even ongoing and actually worse than it has ever been right now. It is insane what's going on with the drone attacks, the missile attacks, how deep into Russian territory the Ukrainians are, how much the Russians are penetrating the Ukrainian borders. Anyways, so that's going on. Then you had the Epstein situation, which it almost seemed like it was completely gone, and then Melania brought it back for a brief heartbeat, but then it essentially disappeared totally again. So, so that where is that? I don't know. And then um it's almost like the Iranian war is is dissipating from people's consciousness.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

But it's not because airfare is going up, gas is going up, planes are canceling their routes, or they're getting or they're grounded. And I'm talking about in the US travel. So I don't think people are forgetting about it.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Yeah, I well, prices are gonna make it s remind people, or or maybe they'll deflect it onto something else that, oh, the reason there's uh is up because of the regulations or whatever it is. I don't know. But the uh you watch this attention span is really gonna get out of control, and I wouldn't be surprised if this thing that happened at the um correspondence dinner goes away in a matter of 72 hours also. So, anyway, it it brings me to a more fun topic, which I there was the perfect segue that you gave there, which was the fact that he took a train to Chicago and then took a train to New York. And it reminds me of the 80s. Yes, what was that? It was uh it was that don't stop believing. Remember that?

SPEAKER_01 25:54

I do. It was also made famous by the Sopranos, the last scene. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Well, yes. I thought that was how it closed out. Now, by the way, I'm I I don't know what the rules are. I should look into it because I am in the business, but um, you can't play, I would play the song for a long time without it.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

I think that could be uh considered sampling.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

I think that was just a sample. And so one of the things that we were thinking of is there is a huge um movement, uh, and I've seen it among um Gen Z and the younger generations also to you know sort of crave going back to the 80s and 90s, you know, that pre-digital space, that pre-social media space, when things were a lot more sort of Americana in a good way. And I'm not going back to the 50s and 60s pre-civil rights era. I'm talking about post-civil rights when love was out there, when you know, people rallied around the AIDS crisis and the epidemic that was hitting the gay community. You know, the fact that um it did seem um, and obviously I am I am not a minority, but it seemed like minorities were really um gaining their stride and and being taken care of in a very equal way. Fe uh feminism and and women also it felt like that was really coming alive in a great way. So anyway, the 80s and 90s were were a really interesting time, and in fact, it felt like people were happier. So we thought that maybe every episode or every few episodes, we sort of take a verse out of a out of a song that was you know iconic to those 80s or 90s and and sort of analyze just a verse, like and ask, well, what did that mean back then and why is it so interesting now? So do you want to read the verse that we were talking about? Or do you want me to read it and then you can analyze?

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Why don't you read it and then I'll analyze it?

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Okay, so we just took one verse, which is from Don't Stop Believing, and it's just a small town girl living in a lonely world. She took the midnight train going anywhere. Just a city boy born and raised in South Detroit. He took the midnight train going anywhere. What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Of course I did some research.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Okay, but but also how does it move you?

SPEAKER_01 28:11

By the way, really funny. So I went to dinner with my friend Jen um on Thursday night. Or sorry, was it Wednesday night? Yeah, maybe it was Wednesday night. And we were talking about the podcast, and I'm gonna get back to the lyrics. She's like, I can totally picture you and Chris doing the podcast with your computer at your lap, and anytime a topic comes up, you feverishly typing into your computer to try and find facts. I'm like, that's totally true. So that's what I can do.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Okay, well, that was something that's let me tell you, that was something you couldn't do in the 80s and 90s. So what would you have been doing? You would have been like getting out no, you would have been on microfiche.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Oh lordy, pulling out the Encyclopedia Britannica, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Is that what that was? Or what was the whole bibliographies?

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Um So what's interesting is I don't know if you know, but the song, the title actually came from a little bit of uh, you know, the the keyboardist Jonathan Kane, he thought his music career was over, right? And so he called his dad and he's like, Should I give up? Should I come home to Chicago? And his father said, Don't stop believing or you're done. So that was a phrase that he wrote in a notebook, and he kind of sat with it for years until Journey began working on this actual album. So there was things like that. And then, you know, just Well, you know what?

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Just really quick on the don't stop believing, right? I mean, there is a movement for the the youth is are moving more towards faith again. Like there's there's definitely a in church going and and sort of uh the the faith side of whether it's Christianity or Judaism or whatever it is. So don't stop believing has to do with faith and and overcoming fear, right? So that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Well, and also uh that fate can be arbitrary to some extent because some will win and some will lose, but uh you're still believing, like you have control.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Life keeps lifing.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

It's almost like we talked about in pro uh Project Hail Mary, where he suddenly had this spark of, oh, I can actually survive this. Right. Um, and that was that hope, that faith that, you know, yeah, there's a lot of odds he has to overcome, but if he does it, he can get out of this.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

And the midnight train to anywhere, that symbolizes the ultimate act of faith, right? Because you're basically living your current life and you're getting on some train and you're going someplace else. You don't know where, you're going someplace else.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Yeah, and I think about um that don't stop believing and and the midnight train going anywhere. It it and I wasn't even thinking of this song. It was like uh, you know, was I was more into Pearl Jam or whatever it was when I graduated college, but I literally hopped in a car and spent eight and a half months traveling the country. I had no idea where I was gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Do kids even do that anymore?

SPEAKER_00 30:52

I don't know, but it was the greatest, uh, it was just the greatest adventure. And like it I had no like any money, I had to work odd jobs, like it was it was really amazing. Crashing on couches and different fraternities and university towns across the country and just trying to find a place where I wanted to set settle down and put roots in, you know. That was you know, so it was a that's so adventurous. It was a midnight train going anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

I don't I don't think I could ever do that.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Well, you know, there were a lot of kids who, you know, did the you know, they went the first time to Europe and they backpacked Europe for like three months, you know, and they stayed at youth hostels and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

And I did Europe. I, you know, I did a semester there and I was in Rome. Um, but it was very planned. I am not good with you know, take the midnight train to anywhere. That is not me. Hop in my car and just drive, not me. Like I need a plan.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

I do think the 80s and 90s, especially this idea of, and I wasn't even really I wasn't planning on going to California. I was actually planning to settle down in Boulder, Colorado, because I loved the samples and Big Head Todd and the Monsters and a bunch of those bands that were out of Boulder, and then when I got there, I realized there were just a lot of overeducated people that were underemployed. Um, so eventually I made it out to California. But I think there was a big, like in the 70s and 80s and even 90s, this migration to California because California was seen as this like you know, heaven on earth or this land of opportunity and venture that was so different than the cities and the suburbs that we grew up on uh grew up in in the East Coast.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Well, Led Zeppelin did the song going to California, but that was in like 1975. So maybe it was a little before your time.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yeah. And I mean, and well, but even the 90s, when you think of one of the top pop songs, it was on the um uh was it the OC, the uh California Here We Come by Phantom Planet, you know. Yes, I think that was their only hit song, really.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

I went to school with the Phantom Planet guys.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

I know it was Sam Farrer and uh Alex Greenwald.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

No, I he didn't go to our school. No. I think Sam did. No. Oh yeah, Sam, Sam did, and Roman Planski's grandson. But he didn't go to Buckley.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Oh, he didn't? I think he went to Chia Coppola's uh si brother.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Brother, yeah. I think he went to baby called Jason Schwartzman. Yeah. But anyways, that was California. California.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

So yeah, I mean it was well, and then well, I remember coming out here thinking so many different things about what I thought LA was. I thought everywhere you were, you could see the Hollywood signs up on like a Mount Fuji in the distance. I thought it was gonna be smoggy, you couldn't even breathe. I thought every freeway was gonna be packed all the time, which they are a lot of the time, but not all the time. I thought, you know, the boardwalk in Venice was next door to the Viper room and the Sunset Strip, like they were all right next to each other. That that wasn't the case. And um, yeah, I thought everywhere you looked there were sound stages and studios, which um you gotta really look to find them. So anyway, it was just it was uh the eighties and nineties did feel like there was an innocence and this sense of adventure, this sense that you didn't always have to have a plan. You know, um you think about college, you know, college summer jobs in college, you didn't necessarily have to have that internship that teed up the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Like we've talked about that too.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

So anyway, a midnight train going anywhere, and I sort of love that idea. You know, like I feel like we're empty nesting now, and maybe the world is our oyster.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

And that's fine, but just going anyplace without a plan that makes me uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Yeah, but you even when we're in Copenhagen or we go anywhere, we're like, okay, lunch, we're just gonna wing it and see where we are.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Because that is a limited time that I can go unstructured.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

But it does get a little stressful for you if it goes on a little longer.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Sometimes that's the point. I mean, maybe that's one of my lovable traits, going back to the the what was it? Um, like the I don't know, contradictory the lovable contradictions. Yeah, maybe that's a lovable contradiction of mine.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

That's interesting. Well, anyway, I I hope people um DM me and and say, hey, we like this idea of going back to the 80s and 90s, those verses, because there is there's something about them that is telling in terms of what we were craving back then that is very relevant now.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

I love that. I think people should DM you songs, and then we can we can dissect and analyze.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

And I always loved the girl in the Rio video too, which isn't really all that symbolic, but her name was Rio and she danced upon the sand.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

Maybe that can be the next one.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Just like a river.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

I think I'm gonna go finish dinner now.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Um, so we are Plate and Ponder, Empty Nesting with Jen and Chris Fenton. We want to thank you all for tuning in. We are looking for number 72 as far as a market out there. So if anybody is in one of those countries, um please download, listen, follow, engage, enjoy, review, and DM us if you have ideas. Like this is an idea that sort of came out of the ether from feedback we were getting, and we'd love to get some more. Um, we are Plate and Ponder. We really um enjoy doing this show, and I am looking for a music song to get us out. And here we go some funky G Love.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Bye.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

Thank you all. Till next time. See ya.