Side Part Thursday on a Wednesday | Episode 2

A surface-level discussion of two Gloriavale cult docs, hot yoga, optometry for some reason, and listener email. Nobody can force you to listen!

0:00 - 14:12 Intro & listener emails
14:12 - 20:21 The Vault
20:21 - 36:45 Gloriavale and babies
36:45 - 50:06 Escaping Utopia & hot yoga
50:06 - END Optometrist, Fallout & more hot yoga

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hey gang. Um welcome to Forehead Corner. It's uh your girl side part Thursday, although when this comes out it'll be a Tuesday, so um sorry for the confusion. Um today I'm gonna talk about um several different things and um and not a whole lot of well-organized thought. I I tried that, not not my wheelhouse. Um I do want to talk about um the emails I've gotten though about the podcast because the first episode came out. Um and um also just up top say you can send me an email making requests about things you'd like to hear on the podcast at um forehead cornerpod at gmail.com. And then there's also a Patreon, no pressure to subscribe. Please, please don't pressure yourself to subscribe. But if you want to, um it's forehead corner pod at Patreon, or it's Patreon slash forehead. I don't know, actually. You just have to search forehead corner pod, I think, and it'll pop up. Um and I am recording as always at Sides and Sounds studio um with Jason Crow, who is a casting director and loves working with creative people, um, helps people with auditions and pod is like records podcasts here and he's great, highly recommend. Um okay, let's get into listener/slash viewer mail, because I'm not sure if they watched on YouTube or um listen to it, just listen to the audio. But so the first one I got last night, I don't want to say a lot of detail about it because it was from a teenager, and um, but it was a teenager who is moving somewhere new, doesn't know anyone her age, is going to be starting a new school, and asked if I had any advice. And it honestly it hit me in the heart. Um, I love kids, teenagers are much more emotionally vulnerable than most adults think they are, because teenagers can also be really mean. I'm by no means am I saying I would be like a high school teacher or even go someplace where a bunch of teenagers are hanging out and be like, hey, they're just vulnerable kids. I'm safe here. I'd be like, no, there's someone's gonna make fun of me and hurt my feelings. But that doesn't mean they're not vulnerable, which is side note. Sorry, I'm something in my throat. You know what's in my throat is that I had a smoothie with dairy in it, so complete failure to plan on my part. That's what I had for lunch right before we started recording. Um, the thing about teenage the reason that many women and who and thanks god some men, um adults get angry and grossed out by adult men who are interested in teenagers is because of that emotional vulnerability. They are still very much emotionally, in many ways, children. Again, and also I've raved about euphoria before. That is also why I love the way Sam Levinson wrote and directed Euphoria, because um there he's he showcases how emotionally vulnerable teenagers are. I know in one framing, you can say it's a show about high school kids doing drugs and having sex, and there are high school kids having sex and doing drugs in it, but it every character in it, it's about their emotional vulnerability. Anyway, the all that is saying that this email got me in the heart because all I want to do is help this girl. I don't actually know how. That's a problem, but I will um I will talk to my therapist about what can I say that would be helpful. Um, and I I was like, if I have I don't know if there are teenagers, like high school age kids who follow me on TikTok. I know Gen Z is the largest uh audience on TikTok, I think. And probably them next to bots, they are probably the majority of my followers on TikTok. But I don't know if there are like college-age Gen Z. But I was like, maybe I could ask without giving any identifying information and also checking with her first. Maybe I could ask on TikTok, be like, hey, are there any high school kids that follow me that would want to like in some way reach out to this girl or join a group chat and like so she has a little support group moving if it's hard it'll be hard to be a new kid at a high school. Anyway, but then like I always have ideas that backfire. That's one of my calling cards, as I think I have a great idea, and it's and I don't anticipate the um is it the butterfly effect? I don't know if that's what it is. Anyway, I'll talk to my therapist and and how about I'll talk to some people with kids, ask their opinion. Speaking of what wait, so that's um speaking of people with kids, I am gonna talk about estranged parents later. One in particular on TikTok. I don't know her name, so I'm not gonna call her out, but I I I bummed myself out listening to a bunch of her TikTok videos yesterday on my long drive home rush hour. And um I just have a bunch of dumb opinions about it, so I'm gonna talk about it later. Okay, so that was the first email, and it really there was like about an hour when I got it last night. There was about an hour where I was just um feeling incredibly sad, and also I'm realizing that the fuck-ass GLP one that I'm on, the highest, the high dose I'm on is I think interfering with my antidepressant. One of the signs that I've learned over the years, I'm 58, I started experiencing clinical depression when I was 13. One of the signs that I've learned to recognize is when I start thinking that I can feel other people's vulnerability and sadness when I when it's like I every interaction, including like a an email from someone who I don't know, can make me feel like, oh my god, people are people are so lonely, they're hurting so much, they're so vulnerable. I gotta, and then I'm like, hang on, who who are we who are we talking about? Because it sounds like you, and it sounds like you when your antidepressants not working. That's what I think is happening. Anyway, I did feel I did spiral a bit with heartbreak for this girl last night, and then um I went back and looked at the email account again, and this is the second, so after that very emotionally intense email from this teenage girl, I got a second email for the podcast, and it's um the subject line is this is not a death threat, and the body of the email has one sentence, and it is can we get a fart noise sound effect for future episodes? And um, I don't know if this person would want me to say their name, so I'm not going to, but I will say if they listen to this, a hundred percent yes we can get a fart noise for future episodes. I am on it. They sell little um like I have that little air horn that I forgot to bring in today that I got on TikTok. I'm not, and by the way, I'm not I'm not on TikTok shop as a seller. I don't, I'm not this isn't a commercial. But I love the little air horn I just searched on there, and they do have little machine little toys that make fart noises. So you're goddamn right we can have a fart noise on this podcast. I will I will order that. And then um, and then the last one from last night is um someone asked me to talk about um my role on hacks and my experience uh on my role on hacks and on the show, and also have I watched it and what do I think about it? So I was um I actually did work a day on hacks for this final season. They just had their final season, but they had to cut me out um because they because they always have to cut people out of stuff. And it I it was such a short scene and it wasn't integral to anything. It was just because I was on season two, they had me come back as that character who's the HR um the HR director where um Meg Stalter and Paul Downs work, the agency, I think Barbara is the name. She's so season two, they had me be the HR director, and um, and then they had me come back on the final season and just just to do one scene just to have that character back for the final season, but then they ended up having to cut the scene. Um, but my my experience working on hacks was uh delightful. Um season two was I know the last the first episode of the podcast that came out yesterday, June 24th, I talked a lot about the grief I was going through when we were shooting euphoria. So I just burped. Listen, I went to hot yoga this morning. I had to have a smoothie and a chocolate chip cookie that was about that big. And I've gotta be honest, if it isn't at least that big, why even bother with a cookie? Is how I feel. Um, but that was my lunch because I went to hot yoga, and that's why I just burped. And I did try to make it, I mean, I think I succeeded in making it not loud, but let's not pretend you didn't just see me burp. Um hacks season two. I worked on it. My dad's um memorial was on a Saturday, and I went to my week of or a few days of shooting hacks season two that Monday. So two days after my dad's memorial, I worked on hacks, and I on that Sunday, I was like, this is a huge mistake. I love this show, I'm gonna be terrible on it because I am grief stricken and literally just had my dad's memorial. Um, and I should have said I can't do it. And I was dreading it, and then I got there and it was like, they treated me like um, I have to say, about hacks, the showrunners and producers and the crew and the actors, they treated me like I was a series regular and I was doing a guest role. And that that just isn't probably the norm for TV shows. Like when you when you work as a guest actor on a TV show, a lot of times, no one's ever mean, but a lot of times you're like, yeah, I'm the there was a there was a piece of fuzz flying. Um you feel like, yeah, I'm like the um, you know, new kid at school and I don't fit in, and they all know each other and like each other, but they treated me, they were so nice. It was such a um sweet and comforting experience to have right after my dad's memorial. And also I laughed so much because they encourage improv and riffing. Meg Stalter. I have a hard time, and I know this is true of a lot of people that work with her. I have a really hard time being in a scene with her and not laughing at every line that she says. And she improvises a lot and is brilliant at it, and it was so fun, and I just love her to death, and um it just was a great time. Um, so that was my experience of working on it, and then um, do I watch the show and what do I think of it? I do watch the show and I love it. I I love it, I love their sensibility, I love that um it's really, really funny, and it also can make you cry. And um, and I just think it's a wonderful show. Okay, so the answer of the email, except for the most probably morally important one, which is the teenage girl who's moving. I have no answer for that yet. I will though. And all of a sudden I'm short of breath. Um, can you imagine, can you imagine being short of breath just from sitting on a couch? I it's it isn't right, and I don't I don't approve. Um Okay. I there are now um gonna be three episodes of this podcast in the vault on Patreon because um there have been three episodes that I simply don't want to unleash on the general public. Um and um the last one I did, which is what we recorded two days ago, was about Gloria Vale, this religious cult in New Zealand, because I saw I watched two documentaries about it, and I tried to have it be the way good podcasts are, people who do deep dives into subject matter, who talk about who have like watch something or read something or do a lot of online research and then have a bunch of notes and they organize it into an interesting story. I tried to do that, couldn't, I my brain doesn't work that way. And if it did, I honestly think that I by this point in my life in 58, I would have been a high-paid executive assistant. Like I could have been one of those women who um starts out as like an admin assistant and then works her way up to like making six figures as an executive assistant to some really smart, um rich CEO. The reason I think I could have done that if I had a different brain uh with as far as organizing stuff is because I love taking care of people and um and I love uh fake nails, and I can't I don't have them on right now because I don't know if it'll work with hot yoga. I think I th I bought all these lovely press-on nails from TikTok, and I had been wearing them and clickety clacking on everything, and then um with hot yoga I think they would just I'm afraid they would you'd sweat them off and then you're then your nails are popping off. It's already. I am gonna talk about hot yoga later. Um the most important thing if you're interested in in the benefits of hot yoga, the most important hurdle is that you have to decide to make peace with being disgusted throughout the class by yourself and everything else that's happening. Um, it is worth it. I can tell you, my brain feels so good after I do it, and my body feels good, and I love it. It's my it's my favorite kind of exercise, but you know, I don't want to add to the already gross cauldron of soupy materials, and then it's like, and there's your there's your fucking your your press-on nails. People are having to look at your press-on nail pop off. What if it pops off and hits somebody? Um, because you have to do a lot of um postures where you're like grabbing your foot and kicking it out and like you know, um you your hands slip sometimes. You or it's you know, you can't you lose balance and you have to let it go, and I could see it just popping. Anyway, I kind of forgot. Who was I? What was I? Oh, Gloria Vale. Okay, I'm just gonna do a quick overview because the Gloria Vale episode where I talk about a bunch of the terrible details is actually gonna be in the vault, which you can listen to if you I think tier two tier two of Patreon. Yeah. Um okay. Well, and there's only two tiers, five dollars and ten dollars. And for five dollars you get the bonus episode every and this is not a promotion. Please, please don't think I'm pressuring you. You sir oh it's not it's a piece of fuzz. I was um side note, uh I texted Jason, I texted you to say I was ten minutes away, and then it was longer because there was a spider when I opened my car door. And I got in a fight with him, and I'm so glad I didn't kill him. Um, but he wouldn't get the fuck off my car, and I kept trying to anyway. Um and again I forgot what I was talking about. Some Gloria Vale? Oh the vault oh Patreon. Okay, no prush, Patreon $5 tier one, you get the bonus episode every week, and you get the main episode with no ads. Now, now some people are saying, um in my ear, I've I'm remotely I have uh an entire uh audience of people in my ear, and they're saying, ma'am, uh your episodes are ad free now because you don't have any advertisers. And to that I say, you are correct, you cracked the code, and I may never have advertisers, in which case what? Oh, Uber Eats coming at me with an ad. Speaking of ads, um, a pop-up on my phone. Uh anyway, just you know what? Five dollars is support you, so you're getting a bonus episode and you're supporting the the podcast and you don't have to. And $10 bonus episode, ad free main episode, and access to the vault. And does this sweeten the pot? What's in the vault is shitty episodes I didn't want to release. So if that doesn't make you want to spend ten dollars supporting the podcast, I don't know what will. Um, okay. Gloria Vale. I the first documentary I watched was on Netflix. It's called Devotion, Obedience, or Betrayal. Very misleading, I think deliberately so. I can't prove it. I might be able to prove it if I had done the research, but I simply uh I couldn't, I can't, I can't do it. Um, and I and I was just saying I could be an executive assistant a minute ago. Anyway, I forgot why I went on that tangent, but um it sounds but from the title like it's gonna be an expose of a religious cult. And it is the subject of the documentary is this religious cult, but it is very much trying to make them seem like a well-intentioned, mostly good community of, yes, a very uh kind of fundamentalist, traditional, conservative Christian community with very defined gender roles. Um, but they try to make it seem like, but it's what the people there want it. Everyone is free to go if they don't like it, and it's just people who want to live like that. And why can't we there they have this really likable couple, and it's like, why can't we just live the way we want to live? It's not hurting anyone, and we like it. And they they highlight all the great things about living there, and they there are little red flags throughout, and they do also. Interview people who've left the cult, including the son of one of the sons of the founder and a granddaughter of the founder, but and they make references to abuse, but they don't ever go into it. And so it leaves you, and believe me, no one really enjoys hearing about the specifics of abuse, but by having them say stuff like, Yes, there was there was abuse, um, it makes you it's the same thing that happens with the stranged parent accounts on TikTok where they're they're like, My child is accusing me of things I didn't do. They're saying I was abusive. I know I wasn't perfect, but I wasn't abusive. And you're like, Well, there can be a difference of perspective on, you know, was that abuse or not, right? I mean, there's a there's a my my own personal feeling is you should never hit kids ever. In fact, it'd be great if we all kept our hands to ourselves, period, and didn't hit each other, unless it's self-defense. But if we were all keeping our hands to ourselves, we wouldn't need to be self-defense. But there is, of course, in the general population, there is the mindset of, well, if you occasionally hit your kid just to teach them not to touch a hot stove, which is a thing people love to say, and it's like, bitch, why don't you keep an eye on your kids so they don't reach out and touch the hot stove? That's what I did when my niece and nephew were toddlers. When they were, there's a there's a phase of toddler dumb where they are suddenly highly mobile and very fast. They go from babies, and I can't say enough about how much I love babies and kids. Um, and yes, I'll get back to the the fucking nightmare of Gloria Vale, but you've got your newborns, they've got a look in their eye like they know something, they're impossibly tiny and precious, um, completely dependent on you. For some reason, my niece already was making rules about what people could do. Her first rule was no hats. If you motherfuckers put a hat on me, you're never gonna hear the end of it. She was born on December 19th on Christmas Eve, five days later. They put a little baby, they uh people always put little hats on babies, partly to conserve the heat, you know, but they have like little caps, like little you you guys know what I'm talking about. It's adorable. They put one on her and she started screaming, but no, I guess they didn't know because it was like a lot going on. It's Christmas Eve. They didn't immediately connect that she was mad about the hat. So everyone, she started screaming and crying. I was like, oh no, does she need her diaper change? No, that's okay. She's hungry, no, she's not hungry. Carrying her, comforting her. We were all fighting to get a turn to be the one carrying her or pushing her stroller, holding her. I wish every human being was born into a world of adults fighting over who got to spend time with them. I think every human should have that. It's we all were like, you've been holding her for 20 minutes, it's my turn. But no one knew it was wrong, and then one of them took the my par one of her grandparents or her parents took the little beanie off her, and she immediately stopped crying. That was a long tangent. Let me get back, and no, I'm not yet getting back to Gloria Vale. I'm talking about kids. That's newborn. Some are feicier than others, and then you get to the infant with the first few months, and it's like, I can't handle how cute you are. Yes, high maintenance, high maintenance. They are completely helpless and dependent, but the maintenance they need is like feeding, clean diaper, and then they really just want you, they want to be carried around by someone who is emanating love. This, if you are holding a baby and what you're feeling in your chest is, I love this being so much, I love you so much, they feel it, and that's what they want. At some point, these guys and gals, these babies, they decide, I notice that you all are walking around. I'm gonna start walking. Now, some babies crawl, most do. My niece didn't, my nephew did. My niece didn't crawl, she rolled before she started walking. If she saw something on the other side of the blanket she was on and she wanted it, she would roll over to it. That phase, either crawling or rolling, yes, mobile, but not fast. When they start walking, which can be anywhere with her, it was seven and a half months, but can be anywhere from then that's early to like over a year. I mean around a year, babies start walking. Initially, not fast, wobbly, prone to falling. You gotta just be with them and protect them from sharp corners when they're like, I whoa. At some point, these little people become fast as fuck. And that is the phase when you have to just be keeping a constant eye on them because they will, it isn't that long of a phase, and they will get into the next phase where they are able to identify more of what's dangerous in the house, regardless of babyproofing. Like you can't remove a stove from your house. But that's the thing about people who are like, well, when a you know, if you're if you want to keep your baby from touching a hot stove, you have to hit them because they don't understand logic or whatever. It's like actually, no, you can simply not let your take your eyes off a toddler. You you are not supposed to. I mean, not to go super heavy and dark, but when toddlers drown in family swimming pools, it is literally moments of someone taking their eyes off them. And I am not saying that in a um, please know that I am not bringing up that horribly painful thing to say like parents, it's your fault. What I'm saying is, I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is that's how fast toddlers can get into shit. And you you just have to accept that for that window of their life, you can't take your eyes off them. And I know that's not easy if you're if you have more than one kid, if you're working from home. Um, and that's why baby gates were invented and um literal cages. And I'm not talking about actual cages, I'm talking about that you can have a baby g baby gate blocking off parts of your home, which we did with my niece, and she um she did figure out ways to convince us to let her out of the baby gate and then take off running. But baby gates and like play pens is what I mean when I say cages. Box them in, corral them in somewhere they can't get out of if you can't keep your eye on them. Back to Gloria Vale. They give you that Netflix documentary gives the impression that um that maybe it's not that bad. And then it does mention that the founder was arrested for sexual assault and convicted, sentenced to five years, only spent 11 months in jail. And when he got out, Gloria Vale took him back as their founder and he as their leader, and he remained in that position until he died. They talk, they mention that they don't really go into detail. Again, I don't want to hear details, but by just referring to it as a general, he was arrested and convicted of this, but didn't serve much time, and then they took him back. The the members who are still in the community who say, I don't think he did what they think he did. I think he was coming from a good place and it was misinterpreted, like there's nothing specific to counter that argument. So it leaves that impression that maybe he was misunderstood. And then there's one guy whose son is in the documentary, whose son has left the community. There's one other guy who was arrested and convicted of like something like 38 counts of child sexual abuse. And his son, who's in the documentary, refers to him as a pedophile. Um, and the members who are still in Gloria Vale refer to that man and the dozen other men in that community. They don't, they don't say it's a dozen, but the documentary reveals the the members who are defending it don't say there's been a dozen of these guys. They say there have been a few men who have been harmful and we didn't handle it. We handle it the way we thought was right and it wasn't, and so we've changed and we're not doing that anymore. So the end result of this documentary on Netflix is you think, well, I wouldn't want to live like that, but but they they seem to be trying to have addressed the problems, and people do want to live there, and it doesn't. There's a lot of footage of kids, little kids flying kites in slow motion on these beautiful green grass rolling hills. There's footage from when it was founded in the late 60s, early 70s of hippies, like young adult hippies on a merry-go-round playground, merry-go-round. There's like all this footage to show you what's great about it, and very little time spent on the harm. And it leaves you wondering, is like maybe they well, maybe they were had some bad stuff years ago, but they've addressed it and it's whatever. Um, and yes, the women all do wear the same dress. They all wear, it's like it people have called Gloria Vale like the real life handmaid's tale. Um, because they wear, they all wear the same, they wear uniforms and they have white head coverings. But instead of it being red dresses like the handmaid's tale, they're dark blue. Anyway, it leaves you, it left me feeling like I know something more is going on here, like the fact that they had footage of the kids at school, and there's really, really little kids, like three-year-old kids marching in formation. Like, you can't get little kids to all do stuff like that young of a kid, you can't get them all to do that without um authoritarian parenting. You can't get kids to march military style. Little kids, I knew something more was going on, but I you don't have anything to point to in that documentary. And you just end up thinking, like, well, maybe they people some people do like to be told what to do. Some women like living a life where my husband makes all the decisions, and some men like that. Some men like living in communities. I mean, this is like kind of what the military is like, too, is like there are the leaders and they tell everyone what to do. And there are plenty of men who also like being able to go, yeah, someone else is telling making my decisions for me because they're not saying this. This is my editorializing. Being a human is hard, life is unpredictable and scary, and it's hard, it's just hard to make decisions because every decision you might has a potential to be what ends up feeling like a mistake, and sometimes the consequences are painful. And for some people, if you're raised a certain way, and I was raised this way, and I'm not I'm not saying that to shit on my parents, because they did a lot of good things too, a lot, and I love them dearly. I had a good relationship. That wasn't me getting choked up, it was the dairy from the smoothie in my throat. I had a great relationship with them later in life, but I was raised to where if you make a mistake, you've done something horrible and you are judged for it and shamed for it. And so even if there's not an outer repercussion that's physically painful or materially painful inside of you is this feeling of I'm a terrible per person, I'm an idiot, I fucked up, and it's just awful. And that kind of growing up like that, which uh many really high control religions do put that on people too. Mine wasn't from a religious thing, it was just, I mean, my dad grew up really devout Catholic, so I think that's kind of where he got that. But you know, what a relief if you're an adult who is afraid to make mistakes and and hates yourself when you do. What a relief to be like, well, actually, I'm not making any of the decisions. Someone else is telling me. So I don't have I don't ever have to feel that way. Some people want that. I don't, but this documentary makes you feel like, well, I get it. Some people want that. And then, can I ask Jason, how long have I been talking?

unknown 36:44

Uh, 37 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Okay, some say too long. The other documentary I found about Gloria Vale that I'm really not going to go into a lot of is called Escaping Utopia. And um, I think what I need to do, and I'll try to remember, I need to first of all join Reddit because I go, I read, I look up stuff and I see it's being addressed on Reddit, and I read threads and comments, but I'm not, I'm, I don't have a an account, so I can't communicate with people. So I need to get an account on Reddit so that I can ask the person who posted the links for escaping utopia whether or not it's okay to share that because you can't see it on it. Used on Apple TV and Prime, Amazon Prime, and you could you might be able to see it on a British streaming service, but I'm not sure. But like you can't find it on YouTube or anywhere. And in this Reddit thread, um somebody just was like, Well, here's links, and you click the link, and it's a three-part documentary, and you can watch it online at these this specific link. And I would like to share those in the Patreon, but I actually want to ask the person who posted them if that's okay. Because there were only about a thousand views that I, from what I could tell when I watched it on the little window that opened on the platform it's on, it looked like there was around a thousand views for each of the three parts, which is not very much, which makes me wonder whether they do want people to share it uh widely. And when I say widely, I have one Patreon subscriber, and that is not a complaint. That is a I am so much appreciate this person. We haven't even posted anything on Patreon yet. God bless. I should have looked up their name so I could say it. Um, but then again, do they want me to say it? Or they would they rather say, ma'am, don't drag me into your into your podcast. I just want to listen to it. Um, but no, I'm gonna say to that person. Okay, that's Gloria Vale. The the escaping utopia is harrowing. It does go into detail. And also there's a woman. Let me just look up her name real quick. Don't panic. I promise I'm I'm finding it. Um I saw I heard her on uh oh damn it, I can't find it. Let me I think her name is Lily Lily something. Oh, I know it's uh here it is. Her name is oh no, it's Lilia Tar Awa. I know I'm mispronouncing that and I'm sorry, but she's the granddaughter of the founder of Gloria Vale, and on a podcast called um Cults to Consciousness, um, they interviewed her. The episode is called Daughter of Gloria Vale, My Life in a Religious Cult, and she talks about some of the horrible things, and then she's in both, she's in the no, she's in the Netflix documentary. I don't think she's in Escaping Utopia, but anyway, there was a lot of abuse, horrible abuse, and uh I'm not gonna go into it, but um anyway, that's the that's I did go into it on the Gloria Vale episode we recorded two days ago, but um I didn't do a good job of it, and it's just it's in the vault for people who who whose thing is how can I pay money for something that wasn't good enough to be free? Guess what I've got for you? It's a little something called Patreon Tier 2, the vault. Okay, um, I'm gonna talk about just a couple more things for this episode, main episode. Then we're gonna pause so I can run to the ladies' room because I did drink quite a bit of liquid after hot yoga. And some people are saying, um, Martha, I uh I don't need to know when you have to pee. Like that isn't really something people need to be talking about on a podcast. And but my thing is um how are you gonna stop me unless you show up here and grab this mic out of my hand and I'm not holding it, so okay. We did listener mail, we talked about Gloria Vale. Okay. I think Yeah. Um The hot yoga thing is that um so the first class I went to when I went when I first started going back uh two weeks ago, um somebody vomited in class. And I saw I talked about this on TikTok. It was my first class back after years of not going regularly, and someone whose mat was almost directly in front of me um uh suddenly turned to run out of the class, and before she could get out, liquid came out and she threw up. And the flooring is almost like a cork. It's like a spongy, it's not carpet, but it's not hard flooring. It's like a spongy flat. You know, there's no um like uh I forget what you call it, who gives a shit. Um, but threw up so and they cleaned it, and everybody's fine. She she was she ended up being fine, she came back to class after a few minutes of recovering. My heart went out to her, and also I say I'm saying this from the heart. Any one of us could have been that lady. It is so easy to get to the point of needing to throw up in a 90-minute hot yoga class. You have to really, you it's like it's not uh, it doesn't require the intelligence or the education or the temperament that being a pilot of a of a commercial airline requires, but it does require the ability to go. There's a bunch of different things I have to make sure uh I've paid attention to, or I'm going down. And in the going down in yoga and hot yoga is throwing up in front of people, which personally I have to um Um personally I'm like I'm so afraid of throwing up in people in front of people or in people. That's not right. Throwing up in front of people that um I never did it when I was drinking and I definitely involuntarily vomited while drinking, but not in front of anybody. That's not true. I did it a couple times in high school. I just remembered. Um but what I'm saying is no shame to people who throw up in front of people. I just am so afraid of it. Um because of then being like, oh my, I already am afraid that I'm a disgusting, that I'm a disgusting person. What a fun, what a fun topic for a podcast. Um that anyway, but it could be any one of us because you have to make sure you've eaten enough of a meal before taking this class that you don't get weak. Um, but you have to have eaten it like you have to time it out to where it's like two hours before the class, or that'll make you sick. Um I spurped again. Sorry guys. Um, you have to drink enough water to not get dehydrated because that really can make you throw up. The times that I had to just lie down in a hot yoga class and was down for the count was because I was dehydrated and it made me dizzy and nauseous. Didn't throw up though. Again, no shade to people who do. I'm just saying I have very few innate qualities that I would that I feel proud of. And at one very near the top of the list is you're not gonna get me to throw you're never gonna see me throw up unless you saw me in high school. But in high school, when you're drinking, it's and thank God Gen Z doesn't really want to drink as much as we did. So please, if you're in high school, don't take this as a wait till if you're gonna drink, wait till college so you don't have to deal with parents and sh getting in trouble. But when we used to drink in high school, it was the norm for teenagers back in the day who were bad, which I was. Um, you can't you can't you don't know how to um reg regulate, moderate, you don't know how much alcohol is gonna make you sick. So, and you don't have easy access to it. So when you get your hands on it, you're like glug, glug, glug as much as I can to keep this going. I love it. Does is that also because I'm an alcoholic? Perhaps. Anyway, if nowadays and from the time I was in my mid-20s till now, you're never gonna see me throw up in front of people. But again, it could be anybody. You gotta eat two hours before class, and it's gotta be something that will sustain you. You gotta be hydrated, but you don't want to drink so much water that you have to pee in the middle of class because the um etiquette of a hot yoga class is that you really aren't supposed to leave, and it's 90 minutes. So you can, no one's gonna stop you like they didn't stop the girl who had to run out who threw up. If you walk out because you do have to go pee, no one's gonna stop you, but it's frowned upon. And it's also there's precious little time spent resting between postures, and you don't want to miss that rest time because you had to go pee. Um, and then you also have to be conscious of how am I tolerating the heat? Because even if I ate appropriately and drank enough, if it's hot and humid enough, and I push myself too far, I'm gonna feel fine, and then I'm suddenly gonna want to throw up. I've completely lost interest in everything I just said, and so no hard feelings if you're not even listening anymore. I'm and I my favorite people to address in this podcast are the people who are not listening. I salute you. I the last thing I'll say about how hot yoga is for better or worse, the room the hot yoga room is a safe and supportive environment for bacteria, and you just have to go into it saying to yourself, remember not to touch your eyes at all during class. You are dripping sweat. So you have like you have to sometimes are you're down here. Why, you know, you don't necessarily enjoy your own salty, the water coming out of you as salty sweat. Gross. You don't want it getting in your eye either, but you really don't want to touch your eye. And guess who did? I did, and now I have red, and I don't know if it's an eye infection. I don't know if I bacteriaed my eye from hot yoga. And I, yes, I am gonna go to an optometrist, and yes, it's a privilege to be able to afford to get any kind of health care in this country because we love we love having having to spend money on health insurance and never being able to get the care regardless because they deny claims. So I'm really lucky because I am bad with money, which means that I'm simply going to pay out of pocket to go to an optometrist I went to before because my insurance won't cover it, and just go, hey, can you take a look at this? Did I is am I gonna go blind? And last thing I think, uh what, how far?

unknown 50:14

Like how much time? Uh 51.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

Oh, okay. So though that's the last thing I'll say because it's about the optometrists, and then I'm and then we're gonna take a quick break, and then I'm gonna make the Patreon. So you don't need to know that at all if you're not subscribing to Patreon. What do you give a shit what I do after we stop this recording? Um, this optometrist, whose name I can't remember, but they were great. I know of them because when I was on Fallout season two as Representative Welch. Um, spoiler alert, if you are going to watch season two and don't know what happens, spoiler alert, fast forward. My character does get end up, she's a US representative who's fighting the good fight and then ends up being a head in a jar. And when she is ahead in a jar, um, they had me get these get fitted for these contacts that were like uh milky, cloudy. And um, and I they really I couldn't see through them at all. So it was actually really fun filming once I got over the um like I tend to feel like a gross person just walking around freshly showered in clean clothes with antiperspirant and body spray and brush my teeth and wearing makeup. I've always feel like maybe I'm just a gross person. That is from childhood, and please, we don't no one needs to not right now. I talked to my therapist about it and it's great. But so I always am worried about that and la about hot yoga. It's like, well, fucking everything in here is gross, so now I really don't have to worry about it. I will say I practice good hygiene so that my body is not adding to the disgust of the there's people's you like you'll your handle touch the floor because sometimes you do postures where you're over the mat instead of on it, and it'll be like a hair is on your hand, and it's 50-50 that it's not your hair, and you have to just be able to go. I'm when I enter this room, it's fucking disgusting, and I gotta just be I gotta in my mind be like, I'm job of the hut, I'm gonna lean into this disgusting environment for the benefits. Anyway, the way I'm right now, I took a shower right before I came, shampooed my hair. I'm fully hygiened out because I'm so uptight about it and not wanting anyone to be grossed out by me. On Fallout, when Representative Welch ends up with her head in a jar, they I got fitted for a um, they made a fake head. Forget what it's called, but they cast, they make a mold of your face and head. Uh very quickly, um, not an enjoyable experience, but the people who did it, and I wish I could remember the name of their business because I would recommend them, they did every possible thing they could to make it as untraumatic as possible. But if you have any kind of um uh PTSD, this is I think this is why they do they do it the way they do it, is to try and reduce this for people, but a certain level is unavoidable. When they do it, your eyes are closed and people are pushing this material onto your face and you and your chest, and um, and it's it's uncomfortable and it's feels a little scary because your eyes are closed. And so before they do it, the guy who's who's in charge is like, so here's every step of what's gonna happen. And he says, I'm gonna be touching your face like this, so you're not startled. Um, but they make that thing and it's gross, and then the day of shooting for the part where it's really my head in the jar, because they they had a table with the jar on a hole in the table. I crawled under the table and stuck my head up. I mean, I'm sorry, spoiler, certainly you didn't think I really had my head cut off. Um, and if you did, I'm sorry to have ruined the magic. But for that, for the part that's me and not the fake head, they put this silicone um prosthetic thing to make it look like my so I look the head is kind of decomposing. So I had all this silicone stuff on my head and all the special effects stuff that looked, it made me look so gross, and then the contacts were in. I'm out of breath, but I'm f this is the end. What guys, we're almost to the finish line. Don't panic. It ended up to being a blessing that those special contacts, which the reason I'm talking about them is because of the bacteria I might have in my eye from the disgusting bacteria emporium of hot yoga, those contacts made me blind and it ended up being a blessing because I was able to go, you know what? Yeah, I know I look really gross. Also wearing a wig, a short wig. No, no, they did my hair in an unflattering way. And also, they so you might notice that I have very thin eyebrows for these times because right now we're on the tail end of it being very fashionable for women to have eyebrows that are just brushed straight up, and then some people draw on even bigger eyebrows. I don't have the kind of delicate feminine facial features that can support a giant eyebrow. But this makeup team, um, because it's a period piece kind of, they did my eye, they brushed, so I had Leonard Lenid Brezhnev eyebrows, Russian oligarch from the 1980s eyebrows, uh, very unflattering hairstyle, and they did a great job of not criticizing the hair people. They it looked what it needed to look like, but it wasn't flattering. And then all this shit on my face looked like I was decomposing. It was like I can't see any of it because of these contacts. And they put them in, and then people guide you around the set. Anyway, that is an anticlimactic end. Um, I did get to work with Walton Goggins, and I will say, huge crush. Um, he's very he's he's attractive on screen, he's even more handsome in person. Um, I do fear that he was uh in the end disappointed by my acting ability, and I will say, me too, buddy. Same here. On that note, thank you. And he wasn't mean to me. It's just a vibe I got. Uh, you know me and vibes. Uh I'm suspect everybody of everything at all times, and that is how you stay safe. So thank you so much. God bless. I mean, I'm not religious, but uh thank you for watching or listening. And again, if you have any questions or suggestions, you can uh email me at foreheadcornerpod at gmail.com. So thank you.