0:00

This episode is brought to you by Progressive, where

0:02

drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on

0:04

average. Plus,

0:07

auto customers qualify for an average

0:09

of seven discounts. Quote now at

0:11

progressive.com to see if you could

0:13

save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company &

0:15

Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of

0:17

$744 by new customers surveyed who

0:19

saved with Progressive between June 2022

0:21

and May 2023. Potential

0:24

savings will vary. Discounts not available in

0:26

all states and situations. Hey,

0:30

does anyone want to learn French with me? Because I've decided

0:33

in 2024 that I want to learn French. And

0:35

thankfully, I have Rosetta Stone. So you better hop on and

0:38

so we can learn French together. Rosetta Stone

0:40

has the amazing True Accent feature, which is so

0:42

helpful, especially in French. You get feedback on how

0:44

well you're actually pronouncing words. Plus, they have 25

0:46

languages to choose from. So if you're not going

0:48

to learn French with me, I'm sure you can

0:50

find some other people who will learn a language

0:53

with you. But I'm on the French team this

0:55

year. Come on, folks. Join me. Don't put off

0:57

learning that language. There's no better time than right

0:59

now to get started. For a very limited time,

1:01

and that's why we drink listeners, can get Rosetta

1:03

Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. Visit

1:07

rosettastone.com/drink. That's

1:09

rosettastone.com/drink. What?

1:22

Hi. I'm covering my mouth so you can

1:24

finally start this without me just

1:27

screaming unnecessary things. I

1:29

looked at my own reflection. I thought you made

1:31

a face like The Scream by Edward Munch. Oh,

1:34

I just took one look and I just couldn't

1:36

bear it any longer. You stopped in your tracks.

1:39

Yeah. Oh,

1:41

well, I wanted to, I was

1:43

trying to have, you have

1:46

your moment before I just monopolized

1:49

the experience. Happy Groundhog's

1:51

Day. Oh, thank

1:53

you. Um, big day.

1:56

I practice privately. Or

1:58

what's it? I practice privately. Is

2:03

there, do we have a result on, did

2:07

he come out? I have no idea.

2:09

The billboards in Ohio or the signs about the

2:11

highway said you need to buckle your seatbelt and

2:14

avoid road rage. Happy Groundhog Day. And I

2:16

said, okay. I don't. A lot

2:18

of messages. I feel like a lot of PSAs

2:20

just all chipped in on the one billboard. You

2:23

should have seen when Taylor Swift was coming to

2:25

town, every single sign

2:27

on the highway, like those emergency

2:30

alert signs were like T-Swift puns.

2:34

I thought it was hilarious. A lot of people were very irritated,

2:36

but I thought they were great. Oh,

2:38

I would have loved that. I love a

2:40

pun. Somebody in that office is a

2:42

millennial who's having the time of their lives making

2:45

these signs. I feel like for

2:47

Groundhog Day, we could have done a lot of puns.

2:49

I feel like Poxitani Phil. There

2:51

should have been a rhyme. By now,

2:54

he's got to have a rhyme. I think the

2:56

joke was like Groundhog Day. I mean,

3:00

I just thought for a second and probably I'm

3:02

butchering it, but it's like, it's Groundhog Day again.

3:06

Don't get angry on the road. I don't

3:08

know. It was something, it was like about the

3:10

movie Groundhog. I don't know. Sure. Anyway,

3:14

why do you drink this week, Emmothy? Let's dive

3:16

into it. Let's really get into the nitty gritty.

3:20

Well, I drink a root beer

3:22

at 10 a.m. or whatever. Oh, that's new.

3:26

Well, I

3:28

am trying to – several

3:32

elements are involved in this,

3:34

but the main one is

3:36

that for Christmas, I requested

3:38

from Allison's family. My

3:42

algorithm knows me so well. They have

3:45

been posting about a root beer club

3:47

where you can pay for an

3:49

annual membership, and every month they'll send you a new

3:51

creative different root beer. There's a box for everything. I

3:54

know. So I asked Allison's family for

3:56

it for Christmas, and I accidentally had

3:58

a lot of fun. have creating a

4:00

bit of an overstock in my fridge

4:03

so I really gotta get into the

4:05

root beer. Yeah I feel like that's not

4:07

for the faint of heart that's not for like the average root

4:09

beer lover you got to be like... you

4:11

gotta be like... Well I'm really a cream soda

4:14

person but they only had a root beer

4:17

crate membership which is fine I still I like root

4:19

beer I just have a it's not my

4:22

top in my top three but I

4:24

want to learn to like root beer because anytime I've gone

4:27

to one of those like like

4:29

rocket fizz or old-fashioned soda shops

4:32

they have you been to a rocket fizz you know I'm talking

4:34

about like they've always got

4:36

such a an array of

4:39

soda specifically root beer and

4:41

I always want to know what they're all about but I'm too afraid

4:43

to buy all of them so this

4:45

will help me figure

4:47

out which ones are actually good and

4:51

so anyway this one is Philbert's

4:54

draft root beer. Well

4:56

the name alone. Love

4:59

it. And

5:02

I'm I am very excited about this one

5:04

and the reason I drink some root beer

5:06

right now is because Christine

5:08

made me sub as soon as I woke up

5:11

this morning. I didn't mean to make you cry.

5:13

Please Christine sent me a four minute voice

5:16

message about how wonderful I am so I don't

5:18

know what she thought was gonna happen but okay

5:20

right you didn't mean to. Trying to

5:23

share some perspective just

5:26

share some perspective that I've had.

5:28

I've been going through a transformational

5:31

phase and I think we I think a lot of

5:33

people are I don't know if it's like the

5:35

moon I don't know if it's Mercury I don't know if

5:37

it's just the year 2024 but there's been just a

5:41

shift in my thinking and I felt

5:43

like I needed to to get you that voice

5:46

demo before before I forgot. It plopped

5:48

out of your head. It plopped

5:50

out of my head into your tear ducts

5:52

I guess. It fell right in

5:54

there. Nothing but net. No,

6:01

it was very kind. I really I needed

6:03

the pick me up and and I

6:06

know it wasn't like specifically about how wonderful I am

6:08

But the sidebar of it all was that I had

6:10

I had helped you in some part of your journey

6:13

You did very lovely and and

6:15

you really did so I mean wow it's

6:18

rare that a reason we drink is like a full

6:21

on tears reason but Nice.

6:24

It was I also woke up only minutes before

6:26

we recorded. I Did

6:28

warn you I said you don't have to listen

6:31

this right when you wake up So I

6:33

wanted to make sure but I guess you did it anyway. I

6:36

sure yeah, of course Yeah, well I saw a four-minute voice

6:38

message and I went well I have to know what this

6:40

is about And

6:42

then and then all of a sudden we were

6:45

supposed to record I was like, whoa Wow, how do I get the tears

6:47

off my face? So this is really bad. So Proud

6:49

to report I am someone where This

6:52

is like the only really pretty privilege I

6:54

have across the board is that when I

6:57

cry you can't tell after a few minutes

6:59

Whereas people their faces a big puffball for

7:01

the rest of the day. So nice I

7:03

look like my eyes have been I've looked

7:06

like I've put my face in a bowl

7:08

of ragweed Or

7:10

whatever whatever people are allergic

7:13

to Like

7:17

shoving my face into Gio's armpit for an

7:19

hour Just like

7:22

a face full of dander, you know Yeah,

7:25

I look like anyway, that's another reason why

7:28

I drink because I don't have a lot of you know

7:30

Those types of privileges that that's certainly one of

7:32

them. I don't people envy that about

7:34

me I like to say just because I cry so often

7:36

my face is at practice. So that's

7:39

just what your face looks like always Actually

7:42

just puffy and full of tears so when I do

7:45

cry, you know, stasis is just like puffy

7:47

tear stained Yeah, why do you drink Christine?

7:50

Oh, thank you. What do you dream? I fucking hate

7:52

root beer is my first thing I want to say It's

7:55

my least favorite. I can't stand it. I can't well,

7:57

actually you're not alone. It's I went to be There

8:00

was a pop-up museum called the Museum of Disgusting

8:02

Foods and Root Beer has since its

8:06

creation has been one of the top five most

8:08

disgusting foods to come out of the US and

8:11

nobody outside of the US can

8:13

like tolerate it. I can see why it's

8:15

divisive. It

8:17

tastes like toothpaste to me. I feel like

8:19

I'm drinking sparkly toothpaste and it makes me want

8:21

to throw up. I just cannot stand the stuff.

8:23

My brother loves it. Just so

8:26

not my thing. I would like to

8:28

do a like some sort of study

8:30

on people with the cilantro gene and

8:32

a root beer gene because I wonder

8:34

if because I have the cilantro gene

8:36

where cilantro is just fucking disgusting and

8:38

it really if I'm being honest any

8:40

single herb out there is disgusting to

8:42

me. Any any any

8:45

green that we're using. Basil's

8:47

fucking foul. I can't tolerate it. You

8:49

know like pesto? What? Anything

8:52

that people use as a garnish or

8:54

as like an aromat like a I

8:56

don't know like an herb. I

8:59

just fucking I can't stand them. Really? Root

9:01

beer is pretty good. I mean my mouth has to be broken. Too bad

9:04

I signed you up for the Herb of the Month Club. I

9:06

hope you're talking about weed so I can just send it right

9:08

back to you. Well

9:10

that's what I meant. I've sent myself Herb of the Month

9:12

Club. My bad. Well

9:16

I drink because, thank you for asking, I just

9:19

as we sit down. I ran

9:21

inside from arriving

9:23

home after my first therapy appointment

9:25

with my new therapist. Do

9:27

we like her? Dab dab. She's

9:30

the best. Fucking love her. Please

9:33

talk to her about your like dabbing in 2024.

9:37

Well she's always just like a nine year old son so she'll

9:39

probably be like please stop. I don't want to see

9:41

this in my office. She's like I've seen this on

9:43

my child. Why are you doing it at 32? It's

9:45

not for grownups. No she's great. She was

9:47

so validating. I

9:49

feel like I teared up a

9:51

bit which as you know is rare now that I'm

9:53

on the left and I think it's because I felt

9:55

very just like ugh finally. Like

9:58

someone who says they're a quote. safe

10:00

space but like actually feels like one.

10:03

And not to say the other places I've

10:05

been to weren't. I just felt like maybe

10:07

I wasn't suited for that

10:10

safe place or I

10:12

didn't exactly mesh with

10:14

the person. And I kind of explained

10:16

like my past therapy experience.

10:18

And one thing I had trouble with

10:20

is that the person I used

10:22

to see, even though we

10:24

aligned on all the right things

10:26

on paper, I always

10:29

felt very criticized after I left. And at

10:31

first I thought, you know, maybe that's a

10:34

me thing. Like maybe I'm projecting, but then I noticed

10:36

she would roll her eyes a lot when I talked.

10:39

Why? What in the world? I'd be

10:41

like, girl, you need therapy. What the fuck is

10:43

wrong going on? Right? And I felt like, okay,

10:45

she's like, I just genuinely felt every single day

10:47

like, man, she is fucking over me. Like she

10:49

does not want me here. Who

10:51

was, when was this? Was this like? This was when

10:53

I first moved to Cincinnati or to Northern Kentucky. So

10:56

this would have been like 2020, 2021. It

11:00

was like when I was pregnant. What's your name? I want

11:02

to fucking beat her up. No, I can't. No, I can't

11:04

go. That has to be rule

11:06

number one in therapy. It's like, don't roll your eyes at

11:09

somebody when they're telling you their problems, when they pay you

11:11

to tell you their problems. Shut the fuck up. I'm so bad

11:13

at her. Yeah, okay, thank you. Cause I

11:15

felt like, you know, maybe I'm just like reading into things,

11:17

but then today I went in and I was like, oh

11:20

my God, this is like night and day. And I said,

11:22

like, I actually feel like I can speak

11:24

to you without worrying that like

11:27

I'm going to go home and like doubt everything I've

11:29

said. Like I was getting to a point with

11:31

my old therapist where I would like kind of like,

11:34

which is a huge red flag in therapy,

11:36

like hide the truth or something, or like

11:38

try to say what I thought she wanted me to

11:40

say. Like it was a very toxic relationship we had

11:43

and we ghosted one another. So I think it was

11:45

mutual. If the eye

11:47

rolls will be anything. How did you find this one?

11:49

Okay, this is where I give a beautiful shout out

11:51

because she had a little dropdown menu and she's like,

11:53

oh, how did you find our practice? And I was

11:55

like, you're going to have to hit other because this

11:58

is like not on your dropdown list, I promise. Oh

12:00

my god, was it like on a rhyming billboard

12:02

with a pun or something? Was

12:05

it, did she share part of her billboard with

12:07

Puck's Johnny Phil? I was

12:09

watching the movie Groundhog Day. No,

12:11

I had

12:14

lamented on a past podcast episode with you about, it

12:16

was like the end of an episode and I said

12:18

something like, man, I've just really

12:20

struggled since ghosting my therapist, which is the

12:22

one I was just talking about, to

12:25

find somebody that I really feel I can mesh

12:27

with. And somebody I

12:30

guess emailed in and said, hey, I

12:32

no longer go to this practice, but

12:34

they are wonderful, very open, very

12:37

LGBT friendly and so I thought, okay, I'll

12:39

look into it and I just, I don't

12:41

know, I guess Megan

12:44

or Katie or somebody forwarded it to me on Slack and

12:46

I went, well, I might as well just like take a

12:48

peek. And I opened their website and I was like, this

12:50

just feels right. So I sent them

12:52

an email and they just matched me with someone

12:54

who said they thought I'd be a good match.

12:56

And yeah, so thank you

12:58

to the person who emailed. You probably

13:00

know who you are because it's a

13:02

very specific thing that you've sent. So

13:04

thank you. That's

13:07

very sweet. And she said, indeed, that is

13:09

a new one and I do not have

13:11

a dropdown option for that, for podcast. Yeah. Thank

13:14

you. So, like, yeah. Yeah.

13:17

Well, that's very lovely. And I know exactly what

13:19

you're talking about with my current therapist. It's the

13:21

first therapist where I look forward every week to

13:23

going. And now also can

13:26

I ask how old your therapist is? Yes.

13:30

I would say I don't know totally,

13:32

but probably like mid to late, like mid

13:34

thirties, maybe like my. Yeah. Yeah.

13:38

I don't know if it's something like this is a

13:40

maybe it's something I had to wait for until I

13:43

got to this age, but I never had

13:45

a therapist my age. And this

13:47

is the time I've had a therapist that we're only

13:49

like a year apart or something. And

13:52

obviously, since I was a kid, I've gone to people

13:54

since who were older than me. And

13:56

I don't know if maybe like culturally, like

13:58

generationally, we just weren't clicking. That's interesting.

14:03

But my therapist is 30. And

14:09

so she's a year younger than me, which actually feels weird

14:11

that now I'm going to someone who's probably younger than me.

14:14

I know. That's funny. That means

14:16

we're old because now... I

14:18

know. The professionals in our lives are

14:21

just going to get younger as we get older. I

14:23

know. That I don't totally love. But

14:27

no, it's just so weird. And also she's so

14:29

different. Every

14:31

single therapist I went to before was kind

14:34

of like an old white

14:36

girl. I

14:38

feel like I've said this to you before and I've

14:40

said this to everybody, that I was

14:43

intentionally looking for someone, part of marginalized

14:45

communities, who had different insights than I

14:47

do about the world and how

14:49

things work and what systems are in place. And

14:53

I wanted someone who wouldn't coddle me. I wanted someone

14:56

who wouldn't hold my hand.

14:58

I wanted someone who'd call me out on my bullshit.

15:00

And I have just noticed across the board that all

15:02

my other therapists were very quick to let

15:05

me feel like the victim in places. And I

15:07

wanted someone who was going to be like, eh,

15:09

you fucked up. So that was... Really?

15:12

Oh, I'd rather die. But I'm so glad because I

15:15

feel like there are people who are

15:17

better with that form of treatment

15:19

that I'm not one of them. I

15:21

know. It's been very useful.

15:23

And also she's very anti-capitalist. She's

15:25

super feminist. We align

15:28

on all the same politics stuff. One

15:30

of the first conversations we had was,

15:32

do our morals align? Because how... And

15:35

also, it shouldn't be her job to walk

15:37

me through things if I'm confused.

15:40

It just all worked out very well. So I

15:43

know exactly what you mean. I've never had the,

15:45

ah, someone's actually going to help

15:47

me. Versus I'm just... You actually

15:49

get it. And I feel like

15:51

I can actually open up fully

15:53

without worrying how this will come

15:55

across. Yes. And

15:57

again, I've only been to One appointment so far, but... I'm

16:00

telling you I was like okay this

16:02

oh oh and then they edwin triangulate

16:04

her but she was like. I

16:06

look around and there's like all these pictures

16:08

of moss and she goes oh, I'm getting

16:10

a moth tattoo soon. And I went

16:12

knows that look at my are

16:15

such as. Well like I don't need

16:17

to say oh what's that? What's your freeze

16:19

your say irrefutable proof but our for you

16:21

to go through. With

16:23

the that that's enough for me. Oh yeah.

16:26

I will primary how another tear inducing

16:28

voice memo later about how you have

16:30

also in you and your therapist have

16:33

inspired. Me to go out and ask our

16:35

podcast listeners for therapy recommendations. Son is under

16:37

work and I mean I found mine on

16:39

Tic Toc South which by the really feel.

16:42

I. Mean I saw thought out. I literally in

16:44

the search bar went like but

16:46

millennial. That nz that they are conversation was

16:48

you said that I said i wish I

16:50

could do that for Northern Kentucky and somebody

16:52

emailed and said here this is your response

16:55

to. Your search query as I say by

16:57

either your kindness or chai to into the

16:59

search or yes yes And. No.

17:02

I. It's it's It's such

17:04

a relief and to know that I found Hunters

17:06

icons like she's kind of already got to be

17:08

cool or at least savvy like she's she's at

17:10

a diner. yeah and I'm but this so we're

17:12

cause I don't sort of follow her to that

17:14

enough. that was part of me was like i

17:16

don't want heard of find. Myself Started with

17:18

no, I learned Rinds. Yeah. feels a

17:20

little blurred lines like you don't know what's the.

17:23

Protocol. Is yeah yeah of also I don't

17:25

want her to like look at and am I took

17:27

socks and be like well let's unpack this one to

17:29

well watches Who has so many fucking. What's this

17:31

girl? Christine? You need to get her out of

17:33

your fucking life. See the toxic. See.

17:36

Of all said but then every time she she

17:38

posts like really funny. Took socks about their

17:40

be like I. O N n

17:42

she's like with as you know what she's. Doing

17:44

with sex? Talk about it. They're all for. A

17:47

I'd I'd like them a lot. I'll on them to

17:49

privately but I'm afraid to like them and sell the

17:51

when they show up on my screen. I'm like man,

17:54

I really want to. Give. you the validate

17:56

when it is a ledge or wants you to

17:58

know that i'm seeing them suicidal Anyway,

18:01

so I'm glad hers is about mental health both ways

18:04

this time. I'm proud of us,

18:06

Em. Was mine? Why

18:08

did I drink this week? Root

18:10

beer, I think. Okay.

18:13

Mental health. Just

18:16

kidding. I think you actually said because of the voice memo I sent

18:18

you. Oh, yes. I

18:22

wanted to make it seem silly that it was just root

18:24

beer, but it was more than that, I promise. No,

18:26

no, no, you're totally right. Yes,

18:29

okay, so we're both happier than we were last

18:31

week. Wow, what a change. And

18:33

it's Friday, you know? Wow, what

18:35

are you doing tonight? Anything fun? Oh

18:38

my gosh, one of my best, best friends, whom

18:40

you know, Alyssa, just got engaged and is

18:42

in town with her fiancé. So I'm gonna

18:45

give both of them a squeeze. And

18:48

I'm meeting her fiancé's family as

18:51

well. She's coming with her parents, I think,

18:53

which I didn't know. As

18:56

in Alyssa's fiancé, Maddie is coming with her parents,

18:58

and so I'm gonna meet the whole fam. And

19:01

I'm very excited we're gonna get pizza, and

19:04

she's gonna meet, Alyssa's gonna meet Leona for

19:06

the first time. Oh my gosh. I

19:09

know, can you believe it? Is

19:11

it weird for you when your own childhood friends are

19:13

meeting, like she's not a baby anymore,

19:15

that's a full-blown little kid. It's incredibly

19:18

weird. World's colliding. Her

19:21

name moved back pretty quickly, like

19:24

pretty close to when Leona was born, so

19:26

she's had enough interaction that they know each other.

19:28

But with Alyssa, I'm like, man, this is weird

19:30

that you don't know my offspring yet.

19:32

I know, yeah, that is weird. But

19:34

today's the day. Gang's

19:37

all here, okay. Let's hope they

19:39

get along. Is

19:42

your child asking questions on their homework you don't

19:44

feel equipped to answer? I think

19:46

your child is too shy to ask questions

19:49

in front of the entire class, but they

19:51

can get extra help and positive feedback with

19:53

IXL Learning. IXL Learning is an online learning

19:55

program for kids. It covers math,

19:57

language arts, science, and social studies.

20:00

IXL is designed to help them really

20:02

understand and master topics in a fun

20:04

way with positive feedback. This program will

20:06

improve your kids' grades. Back by research,

20:09

kids using IXL are scoring higher on

20:11

tests. From studies done in almost

20:13

every state in the country, the kids who

20:15

had IXL are consistently doing better. And one

20:17

subscription gets you everything for all the kids

20:20

in your home pre-K to 12th grade. If

20:22

your child is struggling, this is the smartest

20:24

investment you can make, and a month of

20:26

IXL costs less than an hour of tutoring.

20:28

Additionally, IXL is used in 95 of the

20:30

top 100 school districts in the US. Make

20:35

an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now.

20:37

And then that's why we drink listeners can get

20:40

an exclusive 20% off IXL

20:42

membership when they sign up

20:44

today at ixl.com/drink. Visit ixl.com/drink

20:46

to get the most effective

20:48

learning program out there at

20:50

the best price. This

20:53

time of year, your entertainment options can feel

20:55

a bit limited. Whether you're trying to avoid

20:57

icy temperatures outside or finally relax after a

20:59

hectic holiday season, one of the best ways

21:01

to spend an evening, in my opinion, is

21:03

having a good old-fashioned movie night at home,

21:06

or in our case, just binge-watching

21:08

all of the dark and disturbing

21:10

TV shows Blaze My Love. So

21:13

to take your home theater experience to the next level,

21:15

you have to try Burrow. I'm a

21:17

burrow convert. I love my burrow. Em and I

21:19

have loved our burrows for years. We have one

21:21

at the end. That's why we drink

21:23

apartment too. And now there's Burrow's Opera Media

21:25

Console. It's everything you've ever needed in a

21:28

media console built with your entertainment in mind.

21:30

It's sized for TVs ranging from 50 to

21:32

75 inches. It

21:34

can house the largest soundbars, video game consoles,

21:36

and internet routers, no problem, and all at

21:38

the same time. And my favorite part? It

21:41

handily keeps those devices out of sight behind

21:43

its acoustically transparent front. Ooh la la. The

21:45

Opera Media Console is incredibly easy to get

21:47

in your home. All of Burrow's stuff is,

21:50

which I love. They have a painless online

21:52

shopping experience, simple assembly, and free shipping to

21:54

your door. It's kind of

21:56

hard to get an entertainment center to look right

21:58

and to actually function as well on

22:00

top of looking good. And that's why I

22:02

was so impressed when Burrow came out with

22:05

the Opera Media Console. I think it's pretty

22:07

ingenious. Check out Burrow's Opera Media Console and

22:09

all their incredible furniture at burrow.com/drink and get

22:11

15% off your Burrow

22:13

order when you do. That's burrow.com/drink

22:15

for 15% off your

22:17

Burrow purchase. burrow.com/drink. Let's,

22:22

let's pop into my story, Christine, so you

22:24

can go get your pizza with your little

22:26

baby. Yay. Okay, so

22:28

mine, we just talked about Baba Yaga with

22:31

her little bird, her little legs in her

22:33

birdhouse or whatever it was. You gotta love

22:35

her. You gotta love her.

22:37

I have another Baba for you. Another

22:40

Baba? Another Baba, which

22:42

if you remember is translates to grandmother and

22:44

it's sometimes a title that you have to

22:46

like, it has to be earned or you have

22:49

to, your reputation has to precede you in a way. I

22:51

see. It's like an elder, a term for like an

22:53

elder that you respect maybe? Okay.

22:55

I think so. I mean, it's fair to say. So

22:59

this is the Baba Vanga prophecies.

23:02

Prophecies. So the Baba Vanga prophecies, this starts in

23:04

1911 on January 31st. So

23:14

we just hit the anniversary of this. Baba

23:17

Vanga, who, or she's,

23:19

she's originally born with the name Vangelia

23:23

Pondeva Dimitrova.

23:30

And she's born that day. So

23:33

happy birthday, girl. In

23:36

the Republic of Macedonia. And

23:39

her father was a political activist. Her mom was

23:42

a farmer, which I love in 1911. Her

23:44

mom had the more like what seemed as the

23:47

masculine role and her dad had what seems more

23:49

like the feminine role. Wait, so her dad- Like

23:51

in terms of jobs. What was the job?

23:54

The dad was a farmer? No, mom was a

23:56

farmer. Oh, whoa. Which feels

23:58

like dad would be the farmer. And

24:00

then father was the, I guess

24:02

political activist is kind of gender neutral, but between the

24:04

two I would have thought mom's a political activist and

24:06

the dad was a farmer. Yeah, that's what I

24:08

thought you said. I like totally twisted it. Interesting.

24:12

I said it to your face and your brain still went – that's not

24:14

right. And so it said – And flip it. So

24:20

she ends up being a mystic,

24:23

a clairvoyant, a suit-sayer,

24:27

and there is no documented line of

24:29

this going through her family. So Baba

24:32

Vongo ends up being – she's the first

24:34

person in her family for this.

24:37

What do they say in Game of Thrones? First of her

24:39

line or first of her family? Yeah, first of her name

24:41

or – yeah. Yeah, something like that. So

24:45

from the start, this little

24:48

girl, Vangelia,

24:51

currently, she

24:54

has a pretty miraculous entrance.

24:56

She loves the theatrics. She's

24:59

born prematurely and extremely fragile,

25:01

and everyone says don't

25:03

even get attached to her. She's not going to make it. She's not going to make

25:05

it. She won't get attached to that. Well,

25:08

her parents did not get attached, and they

25:10

waited two months for her

25:12

surviving before they even named her. Oh

25:16

my gosh. That's so sad to think about

25:18

that you'd have to really genuinely not get

25:20

attached. As soon as she

25:22

was born – I guess it was

25:24

a home birth – they placed her

25:26

under a wood stove to keep her

25:28

warm until she passed. Oh

25:31

my god. That is the saddest thing I ever heard.

25:34

But then, a la Miley Cyrus, she

25:37

says – I'm back,

25:39

motherfuckers! Oh, she's not

25:41

done. I thought she came in like a wrecking ball. Never

25:43

mind. She said, these sisters are trying

25:45

to kill me, but I'm back. Okay, so –

25:47

or whatever the video is. Yay!

25:50

So she said, oh, you thought I wasn't

25:52

going to make it. Haha. I'm here.

25:54

Idiot. So she

25:57

survives two months in. Her parents are like, okay, we got

25:59

it. maybe we're gonna name you Vangelia

26:04

which I hope I'm saying that right Vangeliva,

26:09

but it means good messenger or

26:11

gospel. Okay,

26:13

that's a good foreshadowing.

26:16

And then only when she's

26:19

seven, or no sorry, when

26:21

she's three her mom dies.

26:24

Oh no. Then her dad goes

26:27

to fight in World War One. Oh no.

26:30

So by three she's like, she's

26:33

definitely had something that either of our therapists

26:35

could walk her through. And

26:38

her and her brother end up

26:41

being taken in by a neighbor just

26:44

because it's like well you don't have parents.

26:46

It takes a

26:48

village so come live with me. By

26:51

the time she's seven, her dad

26:54

returns but he remarries

26:56

to kind of this like low-key

26:58

awful woman and keeps

27:00

running the farm. Okay, I

27:03

mean it sounds like the

27:06

Cinderella story with with

27:10

Hilary Duff. You

27:13

know what's so weird is I actually looked up a

27:15

picture of Baba Vanga and she looks oddly like Hilary

27:17

Duff. Wait, you're lying to me. I am lying to

27:19

you. I don't fucking know. And

27:24

what's so weird is Chad Michael Murray shows

27:26

up later which is crazy. That's enough for that.

27:29

That's enough of that. Thanks anyway. Take a swig

27:31

of your nasty ass juice and

27:33

keep going.

27:36

In a Cinderella story was there when she sang

27:38

that song Let the Rain Fall on like on

27:40

her own record did they play that in the

27:42

movie? I feel like I don't

27:44

recall. You kissed on the football field and I remember

27:47

there being rain. Anyway. Listen,

27:49

I don't recall. I'm so sorry. I will. I'll

27:52

tell you one thing I know for sure is

27:54

after this episode I will be listening to Hilary

27:56

Duff's discography. So it's an excellent choice. I

27:58

would argue one of the best for a

28:00

Friday evening. Thank you so much. It's

28:03

Giving Friday. Her album never

28:05

never hit on a different day. No.

28:10

Not quite like they do on Fridays at

28:12

least. So anyway, Baba Vanga slash Hilary Duff,

28:14

her dad returns from war and they run

28:17

the farm together, but in

28:19

her town they heard her

28:22

village ends up under new

28:24

rule and her father gets

28:27

arrested for his political activism.

28:29

And I will say

28:32

this is not his first time being arrested for this.

28:34

It seems like he is a bit of

28:36

a career criminal in terms of political

28:38

activism. In 1921 he was

28:44

released again and

28:47

so now at 20 she's 10 years

28:49

old now. He's released and he works

28:52

as a shepherd and doesn't

28:54

pay the bills the same way. The whole family kind

28:56

of falls into poverty so they have to

28:58

move and the whole family moves. So even

29:00

like her cousins, her uncle moves, and

29:04

her stepmom is still terrible. She treats the

29:08

kids like staff rather than kids

29:10

and she has obvious favoritism towards her

29:12

own children. I'm telling you did I

29:14

not say does she have a tanning

29:16

bed that she likes to lay in?

29:19

Is her name Jennifer Coolidge? Lip

29:22

fillers? I mean bring it on. I think

29:24

I just might. In 1923 Vanga is 12

29:26

years old now. She is hanging out outside

29:35

with her cousins in the field because in

29:37

1923 there was just nothing else

29:39

to do. I mean in 2005 in

29:41

Ohio there was also nothing else to do so I get

29:43

it. History repeats

29:46

itself. So

29:48

hanging out in a field playing hoop and

29:50

stick or something and all

29:53

of a sudden there's stormy

29:55

weather and

29:58

a tornado gets a Bruin.

30:02

Here's what happens. Her cousin, cousins,

30:05

they make it inside the house,

30:07

but apparently Vongra doesn't run

30:09

as fast as them. I don't fucking know. She didn't make it inside.

30:13

Homegirl gets picked up by the

30:15

Twister. No! What? A la fucking

30:18

Dorothy. Just spinning around

30:20

in there. The

30:24

tornado passes through the town, still

30:26

holding Baba Vongra. Think

30:29

of the guilt of these little cousins, by

30:32

the way. Yeah, not wanting to

30:34

hold her hand and drag her in with

30:36

you. And they just make a human chain

30:38

of people all getting dragged up in this

30:40

Twister. Eventually

30:44

they go running looking for her after the storm

30:46

clears near them. They tell their parents that everyone's

30:48

looking for her. They assume she's dead. It's weird

30:50

that her little cousin gets sucked up in a

30:53

tornado. Sorry, Mom and Dad. Yeah.

30:55

It sounds like the stepmom wouldn't have cared though. It sounds

30:57

like she really doesn't care. True. She's like, you

30:59

did exactly as I asked. Thank you. Right.

31:01

So the cousins are obviously

31:04

panicked and are looking for her.

31:06

This is the second time

31:09

now where people are just going to expect

31:11

that Baba Vongra is going to die. She's not

31:13

with us anymore. She's not in the

31:15

room. And

31:18

they ended up finding her a half a

31:21

mile away. She got carried a

31:23

half mile by this tornado. She's

31:26

only really battered and her

31:28

clothes are torn up a little bit. Is

31:32

she motion sick? Berry.

31:34

Had to be. I would

31:36

be. I am just thinking about it. Just

31:38

twirling. Twirling, twirling for half a mile. Here's

31:42

the problem though. She has

31:44

a really hard time opening her eyes because

31:47

so much debris from the tornado hit

31:49

her in the eyes. Oh God. Which

31:52

is like one of those things that like I never

31:54

even thought about, but of course you would have to

31:56

keep your eyes closed. Don't turn it over. That would

31:58

be really traumatic. your eyes if

32:00

you survived that. Yeah. I think

32:02

her eyes like I'm guessing here,

32:05

but I imagine with the

32:07

the way the rest

32:09

of the story goes, it sounded like it

32:11

was just debris in her eyes, but I

32:13

wouldn't be surprised if like a fucking like

32:15

fence hit her on the face or something

32:17

like right. It's it's it's like a

32:19

cow. You know, there's always a cow cow. I

32:21

was gonna say the cow too. It's astounding.

32:23

It was only debris, but I imagine like

32:25

all the dirt and grit would probably be

32:27

also hard so hard to wash out of

32:29

your eyes and going 100 miles an hour.

32:31

It's probably just slicing your eyes up. Oh,

32:34

terrible. So I say all that

32:37

because she ends up needing to

32:39

get surgery to fix her eyes after this. Oh,

32:42

jeez, which by the way,

32:44

1923 eye surgery, I would literally never

32:46

want I can't even imagine. I

32:49

surgery I barely got lasek this last

32:51

past year because I was nervous. I

32:53

mean, you got it in 2023, literally

32:56

100 years after she had eye

32:58

surgery. And she paved the

33:00

way so that I could see better.

33:02

Thank you. Baba Vanga. I

33:05

really can't I don't even know what it

33:07

means to get eye surgery in 1923. Like

33:09

what I don't even I really

33:11

Oh my god, I can't even imagine. It's like I just

33:13

I don't want to even know. It feels like it would

33:15

just be a fun experiment for the doctor

33:17

more than anything. You know, yeah, it

33:19

feels like they just hired an evil

33:21

scientist who was like, yeah, I'll

33:24

cut into a child eyeballs.

33:27

So imagine like, let's just sense we're on like

33:29

a mental health kick today. Imagine

33:31

the trauma of barely surviving

33:34

your birth and people just assuming you for dead.

33:36

So there's got to be some sort of disconnect

33:38

there. Like two months in, she probably

33:40

was not getting like skin to skin or anything, like

33:42

just feels like there's not a bond with her parents.

33:44

Then her mom dies at three, then her

33:47

dad goes to war, then when her dad comes

33:49

back, he's married to an evil woman. And then

33:52

on top of that, she has to uproot her life

33:54

because they're poor now and they go live somewhere

33:56

else. And then homegirl gets picked up by a tornado. And

34:01

then she has to get surgery on her eyeballs

34:03

as a child like without an aesthetic You know

34:05

it was without anesthetic you like survived the fucking

34:08

tornado And then they're like anyway now lay down

34:10

we're gonna cut open your eyes like I would

34:12

yes I would literally be like I'm

34:15

I'm 12, but I've checked out like let's I'm

34:17

out me back in the tornado I don't want to be

34:19

in part of this anymore Like

34:22

I just feel so it's I

34:24

can't even I don't even know what part

34:26

would What do you talk

34:28

about first in therapy? It's all you would

34:31

have to really really do a

34:35

Multi-weekly appointments I think to get to

34:37

that to get Never

34:39

you'll never truly be done

34:42

with her now. Oh certainly not and

34:45

this is by 12 So she's

34:47

only 12. She still

34:49

has the rest of her life to go to she hasn't

34:51

even hit puberty. You know poor thing

34:54

She ends up getting eye surgery The

34:56

family cuz remember they're poor they can't afford eye

34:59

surgery They are selling whatever they

35:01

can just to get her eyes corrected

35:03

to the best way possible But

35:06

they couldn't afford the best treatment so whoever they did

35:08

get the eye surgery I feel like it was kind

35:10

of like a great value version of the eye surgery

35:12

because no No, no even

35:15

after her treatment Within

35:17

four years. She was completely blind anyway

35:19

I Would

35:21

have you just said that point you're like I

35:24

should never have even gotten it Yeah,

35:26

it's like it was like thank you for giving

35:28

me four extra years, but I imagine if the

35:30

surgery I don't know if it was a bot surgery I don't

35:33

know if that was like a good if I was a

35:35

right ass and like that was the best I could have

35:37

hoped for yes, maybe that was the norm. I don't

35:39

know like if I found out

35:41

I was gonna be blind anyway, I'd be like let's just Don't

35:45

stab me today. Yeah, I

35:47

don't know. I don't know I don't but at the same time Cuz

35:49

I yeah, I don't want to say oh well She

35:53

shouldn't have gotten four extra years of her vision. I

35:55

mean, I don't it's not my place to say but

35:58

but I just to know that But

36:01

you just got surgery on your eyes,

36:03

you hope that, okay, that better have been

36:05

fucking worth it. And now immediately your vision's

36:08

deteriorating to a point where only

36:10

two years into those four years, she

36:12

still can technically see, but she's on

36:14

her way. And within two years

36:16

they knew, like, oh, eventually she's going to be fully – not

36:19

just vision impaired. She's going to be living in the

36:21

dark. This girl, man. And

36:24

she – I mean, they sent her

36:26

right away. They had to have known that it wasn't

36:28

going to last forever because right away they sent her

36:30

to a boarding school for students that

36:32

are blind. While

36:35

at school, though, she fell in love with a boy – a

36:38

wealthy boy, by the way. Ooh-la-la.

36:41

He proposed. Oh, my.

36:44

And then her dad said, no, you

36:47

can't. You know

36:49

what? Dad, it doesn't sound like you

36:51

have great taste in women, so – You know what?

36:53

Not your fucking place. One. Two.

36:55

I mean, we could talk

36:57

about toxic masculinity 100 years after

37:00

this, so this – I feel like this story

37:02

is just almost expected at

37:04

this point. Yes, definitely. But he

37:07

said, I don't want you getting married. First of all, someone

37:10

wants to be with your daughter and loves her,

37:12

and it's wonderful. And also they met at a

37:14

school for the blind, so they know each other's

37:16

experience and they can help each other through things. Yeah.

37:21

Perfect situation. Also, he's

37:24

wealthy, which I'm sure is a concern of

37:26

the dad, I would think. Who has been

37:28

in abject poverty this whole time, you would think, like,

37:30

that would be helpful. Exactly. A bonus. He

37:33

said, well, you're stepmom. She recently died. I

37:35

need you to raise her kids for me. I

37:39

forgot. This stepmom is just too much. Even

37:42

in death, she's fucking things up. Exactly.

37:44

Like, you know she did that out of space. Sorry.

37:49

I could not even say that with a straight face. It's a

37:51

terrible thing to say. But I just

37:53

picture, like, in the Disney version of this, she's like, ha

37:55

ha. Now I really got to – Yeah, exactly. It's like,

37:57

I'll run away and everyone will have to take over my

37:59

house. with my own

38:02

children my offspring yeah so

38:04

she so stepmom dies she ends

38:06

up having to turn down the love of

38:08

her life which like by the way let's remember that was like the

38:10

only good thing that's ever happened to her it's

38:13

horrible that's really sad it makes me sad

38:16

and she goes to raise her half siblings in her

38:18

own town and at this point becomes

38:20

a bit of like a mentor

38:23

in her village teaching kids

38:26

how to sew and embroider I feel

38:29

like she's kind of just become like the

38:31

village home-ec teacher and the irony is so

38:33

that one day they can grow up and

38:36

go be on their own which she was forced

38:38

out of for yeah wasn't even

38:41

allowed to do yeah by 28 full-blown

38:45

spinster I'm sure yeah right she's a lost

38:48

cause am I right well

38:50

here's the third time where she

38:52

should have died in somehow dead

38:55

end she died from in or she almost

38:57

died from inflammation of the lungs which at

38:59

the time was its own like

39:03

disease or sickness like that was like

39:05

you could just die from that I don't think they

39:07

had awareness that that was a symptom of something like

39:10

oh I see I see so

39:12

there's no record of what

39:14

she actually nearly died from just

39:16

right the the side effect that almost

39:19

killed her wrong with her lungs yeah

39:21

so it could have been a flu

39:24

or something but anyway she

39:26

almost died from inflammation of the lungs

39:28

which like how inflated and inflamed do

39:30

your lungs to be terrible terrible terrible

39:32

and they didn't have x-ray

39:34

machines back then like how bad are your

39:37

lungs that they know that your mom they

39:39

didn't have x-ray machines considering they had eye

39:41

surgery I'm like what

39:43

was their x-ray like they just like cut you open

39:45

and look inside and say okay we didn't Apple

39:47

was an x-ray yeah yeah an

39:50

exacto knife um so at 28 that

39:54

she almost eyes she survives again I feel like you

39:56

know what something's happening when I'm holding this group here

39:58

because it feels like my version of holding a bottle

40:00

of beer and I feel like I'm at a bar

40:02

with you and I'm like, and then this bitch and

40:06

then you'll never believe what happened next. And

40:09

then I had to hear from a buddy down the road, but

40:11

she survived. She made it. Meanwhile,

40:14

all I have is this fucking, I can't even put in

40:16

this screen because it looks so gross, but Blaze made me

40:18

overnight oats with chia seeds. How

40:20

do we feel about overnight oats? I fucking

40:23

love them. Always have. But I know they're

40:25

very divisive. So I know that everybody. Well,

40:27

I just think some people are like not

40:29

into oats or oatmeal at all. But

40:33

I like it. I

40:36

love a porridge. A

40:38

porridge? Interesting. I don't know if I've ever had

40:41

a porridge. Well. Well,

40:43

oatmeal falls under the umbrella of porridge, right?

40:45

I guess so. What about cream of wheat? That would

40:47

be like a porridge. I

40:50

don't think I've had cream of wheat.

40:52

That would be like my childhood. Oh,

40:55

it's like the same thing, I think. Well, no, it's

40:57

a little different, but they're similar. I

40:59

fucking love Farina. Yeah, I

41:01

feel like my big thing growing up

41:03

when we'd go to my grandma's in

41:05

Austria was cream of wheat with chocolate

41:08

shaving, milk chocolate shavings. Oh my God.

41:10

Oh my God. Oh my God. I feel

41:12

like I feel like only

41:14

people who play hoop and stick are

41:16

people who like whose mouths melt at

41:18

the idea of cream of wheat with

41:20

chocolate shavings. Literally Farina, but it's us.

41:25

Good. I just had it when I was, um, when

41:28

I went to, um, Thanksgiving

41:30

for my, with my aunt and my

41:32

uncle, they make a meme Farina,

41:34

they make a famina and it

41:36

was delicioso. They're

41:39

basically a really, they're very

41:41

similar. Apparently. Okay. Well, then I probably

41:44

like, yeah, it'll

41:46

be my, my old people meal. Cause I'm already eating it.

41:49

So melt some German chocolate onto that

41:51

bad boy. Oh, good. It's really good.

41:53

Is Ritter sport a German chocolate? Sure

41:55

is. I think so. At least it might be Dutch.

41:58

Sometimes I get them mixed up, but let me check. The

42:00

light blue one, the alpine milk. It

42:03

does something to me. And then the brown one

42:05

with the little biscuit in it. Oh my God,

42:07

take me out. That's my personal favorite,

42:10

the biscuit one. They're

42:12

the only two I like. I've tried all of them and the

42:14

brown one and the light blue one are my two favorites. Yeah,

42:18

they are indeed a German brand. I

42:20

just confirmed. Oh, I love

42:22

them. The light blue one I have in

42:24

my freezer right now. Ooh. Yummy. Maybe

42:27

I eat some of that while I listen to my Hilary Duff later. That's

42:29

gonna be a good day. Friday party. Okay,

42:33

so back to my, we're in a dive bar. I'm

42:35

holding my beer. So we're

42:37

talking about cream of wheat like all guys at

42:39

dive bars do holding this beer. Okay, let me

42:42

get back into it. Then

42:44

this little girl's supposed to die. She

42:46

survives for the third time now with her stupid

42:49

lungs. They sometimes- These are like

42:51

nine lives, yeah. Yeah, it

42:53

really is almost like she's a cat. According

42:56

to Vanga, while she was

42:58

sick on her death bed, which I

43:00

will say a lot of people, even

43:02

personal friends of mine, if

43:05

you are that close to death, that is

43:07

when a lot of people have a moment

43:09

where because they're on the other side are

43:12

so close to the veil in between worlds,

43:15

it ignites something or they've seen

43:17

too much and it stays with them when

43:19

they come back to Earthside. And

43:23

it's the beginning of them

43:25

having some interesting spiritual skills.

43:28

I have absolutely heard that. I've

43:30

heard that very often about

43:33

people who, yeah, either die on the table during

43:35

surgery or have a near death experience and they

43:37

come back to Earth and are like, my

43:40

entire view on life has changed,

43:42

like their whole prospect and their whole

43:44

view of the world changes. One

43:47

of my friends who is very gifted

43:49

in this stuff, she died

43:52

on the table 12 times before

43:54

college, it's

43:56

like a really intense spleen disorder.

44:00

I mean, oh my god. After

44:02

12 times, she's like, oh, I've, like,

44:04

there's nothing I haven't tapped into at

44:06

least once probably. I mean, she's a

44:08

medium, right? So it's like, she's clearly

44:10

connected something somewhere. Well I

44:12

say all that to say, Vanga is

44:15

now on her third attempt to reach

44:17

heaven, I guess, and

44:19

she survived, which

44:21

means now three times she has, I

44:24

don't know how close to death she was during

44:27

the tornado one. I mean, it was definitely a trauma.

44:29

I would say very fucking close. I'm just gonna

44:31

say it. I don't know if she died and

44:34

then like came back or anything, but I do

44:36

know, I do know as a premature baby where

44:38

they literally thought she was gonna die, maybe she,

44:41

I don't know, added all together, she's

44:44

having spiritual experiences after this because while

44:47

she was sick, while

44:49

she was sick, apparently she

44:51

saw, oh, I forgot to mention this forever

44:53

ago, it was like one of the most

44:55

important bullet notes and I walked right over

44:57

it. During the

44:59

tornado, I'm so sorry, I totally

45:01

just went over this one, during the tornado,

45:04

her eyes are like all fucked up, she doesn't know

45:07

where she is, her cousins are looking for her while

45:10

she's just kind of sitting there and I

45:12

assume waiting for death to happen, apparently

45:15

spirits come to her, oh,

45:19

and tell her you are going to

45:21

have the gift of clairvoyance and you're

45:23

going to have the gift, you're gonna

45:25

have powers, spiritual powers after this.

45:28

And this is inside the tornado. Either

45:30

inside the tornado or now she's like on

45:33

a field somewhere waiting to be discovered. On

45:35

recovery, okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. So

45:38

oh yeah, and that is an

45:40

important bullet. Like wildly important and like

45:42

I mean also the symbolism of like

45:44

as she's losing her sight, someone

45:46

is telling her she's going to gain a new sight.

45:49

Interesting point, yeah, so she is having a spiritual

45:51

experience then too then. And that happened

45:53

at 12 and then everything else I've set

45:55

up until now going to school and having

45:57

the surgery, going to school, now becoming like

45:59

a village mother, that's

46:03

all happened, but she hasn't had any gifts up until

46:05

that point. I think when she had that

46:07

kind of moment with the

46:10

spirits, she probably looked back and felt like

46:12

I was clearly going through a fucking trauma or

46:14

I was like, hydrated or something. Or maybe

46:16

I hit my head. Or maybe I'm just remembering or it

46:18

was just a weird dream. Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot

46:20

of ways to write it off. So I think she kind

46:23

of stayed closed off to it. She was like, oh, that

46:25

was weird and then just didn't never put energy towards it.

46:27

Right. Now that she's lying on

46:29

her deathbed for the third time with this lung thing,

46:31

the spirit approaches her and

46:33

says, hey, girl, remember me, I told you I'd

46:35

be back. And

46:39

I don't know. This is where things get problematic.

46:41

They start getting problematic. It

46:43

starts immediately with the fact that this spirit

46:46

is an ancient warrior. I don't know what

46:48

that means. It's vague enough for me

46:50

to have some concern. I don't know what it

46:52

means. I'm worried about it being like, I mean, is

46:54

this an indigenous person? Is this like, I

46:56

mean, she lives in Macedonia. I could just

46:58

be a Macedonian warrior. I hope so.

47:02

It starts getting problematic. So I'm already.

47:04

You just don't know where the line

47:06

is. I'm

47:08

already primed to be like, so this

47:11

is the beginning of that. So an ancient

47:13

warrior, let's hope it's an ancient Macedonian warrior. Apparently

47:17

his spirit shows up. He visits her. He

47:19

says that he's here to watch over her

47:22

and help heal her through her lung infection.

47:25

And it was at this moment, once

47:27

she recovered, that the gifts she

47:29

was told about at 12 years old are starting

47:31

to come to the surface. Aha.

47:34

Okay. Vanga begins to see

47:36

spirits and they really appear at random.

47:39

She really has very little control over

47:41

it. She starts hearing voices out of

47:43

nowhere. And on top of that,

47:45

she can now allegedly go into

47:48

trances and allow spirits to speak through

47:50

her. And

47:53

she can see the future. Oh,

47:55

casual, casual. She

47:58

could also focus on a particular person. This is

48:00

the wildest part to me. She could focus on

48:02

a particular person and see their entire life from

48:04

birth to death So she could

48:06

look right at you and know what's gonna happen

48:08

like that movie was that big fish. What movie

48:10

was that? Where she's where

48:13

he sees a big fish. She shows him how he dies

48:15

and he's on the toilet. I Don't

48:18

know You're

48:22

talking about right Cinderella story or

48:24

something Right Hillary

48:27

is not just her discography her filmography is

48:29

I mean clearly very diverse. Yeah So

48:35

Vanga can now focus on people her her

48:37

clairvoyance is probably one of her biggest gifts Very

48:40

cool, but a lot of other random visions would

48:42

come to her without any control Allah that's so

48:44

Raven just kind of like they would hit her

48:46

and she and they would be kind of out

48:49

of context So she didn't know what she was

48:51

looking at And Her

48:55

powers she kept them for it kept she kept them

48:58

a secret for a year She was afraid of

49:00

people thinking she was mentally ill which is

49:03

the first thing I thought because I was like this girl is like

49:05

She definitely hit her head in that tornado She's

49:10

been through it she's like living in poverty

49:12

she's raising kids. She doesn't want to re-emitize

49:14

in many ways like And

49:17

also like just in general. She's living a life She

49:19

didn't really want like she maybe this is like her

49:21

way out is to like create this like fantastical story

49:24

Or you know what it could be real

49:26

it could not be real, but it could be real.

49:28

We don't know yeah When

49:32

she Did finally tell

49:34

her closest friends and family it was difficult

49:36

for them to believe her until a bunch

49:38

of her predictions started coming True, and they were like

49:40

oh, there's no way you could have known that I

49:43

love They wanted Bongo to

49:45

share her gift with the world, but she was

49:47

very hesitant and did not like the idea of

49:49

fame She didn't want to like she

49:52

didn't want the attention so she kept it quiet for

49:54

a long time But in

49:56

1939 she has a vision about World

50:00

War II. Oh, I knew you

50:02

were gonna say that. And that her

50:04

country was going to join the war

50:06

in two years. So she said, 1941,

50:09

we're gonna join. And also,

50:11

like, I don't know psychologically

50:14

where this falls, but having lived through

50:16

World War One as a child, she

50:18

was probably so fucking scared of a

50:20

whole other world war that maybe... Yeah,

50:22

well, and her dad was gone and

50:24

it was her... she was alone. Yeah.

50:26

Yeah. So I

50:28

don't... for people who are doubtful

50:31

about her, you know,

50:34

she could have maybe just been predicting like one of

50:36

her greatest fears and just saying like, I hope

50:38

this doesn't happen. And then it did. For her

50:40

to like have said like, the year

50:42

and that her country would be joining, it's a

50:44

little more specific. So some people fall into the

50:46

camp that she was telling the truth. Right. I

50:48

could see both sides of that.

50:51

Yeah. It freaked

50:53

her out so much that she did not want

50:55

to scare anybody else because she knew what it

50:57

was like having already lived through a world war.

50:59

So she kept quiet about it. One

51:03

day while out though, apparently,

51:06

again, could be mental illness, could be miraculous.

51:09

We don't know. One

51:11

day while out, a spirit of an

51:14

old man possesses her and speaks

51:16

through her and tells

51:18

that vision that we are going

51:20

to be joining World War II in 1941 to

51:24

just anyone who's walking by this apparently... Oh

51:26

no. Okay. So she's like, I'll keep this to

51:28

myself. And they're like, the hell you will.

51:30

And then they just force her to say it.

51:32

Okay, gotcha. I feel like some ghost was

51:34

like, I literally just... I

51:36

just told you that... I just

51:39

told you this is gonna happen. Why aren't you

51:41

telling people? Where?

51:43

Yeah. I get... I mean, yeah. Okay. So

51:45

poor girl. She's like, I don't even have

51:47

any boundaries in my own brain anymore. Sure.

51:50

Yeah. And

51:52

the story spread because at

51:55

the very least, a quote,

51:57

crazy girl was on the side of the street. like

52:00

predicting things, saying that we were going to join in

52:02

World War II, blah, blah, blah.

52:05

And so it was kind of like a local gossip

52:07

tabloid story. But then the story spread

52:09

again years later when that prediction

52:12

came true. And

52:14

all of a sudden she was like in the

52:17

limelight of, oh, she could sense something.

52:20

Maybe she knows more things. And very quickly

52:22

she grew an audience. Other

52:26

people knew, especially during such

52:28

an unprecedented time, that if

52:30

they went to Vonga's home,

52:33

then maybe they could get some guidance. Because remember

52:36

World War I and World War II, or was it

52:38

World War I, World War II, or yes,

52:42

it was those two, I think. The

52:44

two World Wars were the times where a

52:47

lot of places had massive

52:49

spikes in spiritualism because so

52:51

many people died that

52:54

everybody was just desperate for an answer

52:57

about where their son was or where their husband

52:59

was or if there were any messages. Uncertainty

53:02

and fear, yeah. So it does totally

53:04

make sense that you would be seeking

53:06

guidance. And

53:08

if everyone else is already kind of talking about spiritualism,

53:10

it's not as woo woo to say like, oh, I'm

53:12

going to go talk to this Vonga girl who already

53:14

predicted things before I was even into

53:16

this kind of stuff. So

53:19

many obviously thought she was a liar or that

53:22

she was in cahoots with the

53:24

devil. Others

53:26

thought this was a miracle from God. To

53:28

those who did believe her, she was known

53:30

to be a comfort during a scary time

53:33

who reassured visitors and she brought them peace.

53:37

And I just wanted to put

53:39

this in that she

53:41

was not very... Because

53:45

I also don't know where I stand on

53:47

her having all these predictions, especially during a

53:49

time where it was a very

53:53

lucrative time to be trying

53:55

people. People were

53:57

really relying on her word. She could have... She

54:00

could not be legit. But she

54:02

never asked money of people. Like

54:05

the wildest request she had was that

54:09

she would ask people sometimes to sleep with an item under

54:11

their pillow. That way it was like close to their mind

54:13

and then she could use it in

54:15

her readings to like be connected to them. Like

54:17

there was one where a guy

54:20

had to like sleep with sugar cubes under his pillow

54:22

and then bring the sugar cubes to their appointment. But

54:25

she never asked for money. Put some in her tea like thank

54:27

you for that. Exactly. Honestly I think

54:29

she just

54:33

needed to borrow a cup of sugar and

54:35

like didn't know how to passport. But

54:37

this is a moment where I at least

54:40

say she didn't ask for money from people

54:42

ever. She did not add some validity to

54:44

me for me at least. And

54:46

also I mean I don't know how real this is or if

54:49

this is a story but it sounds like she didn't want people

54:51

to know for years. She didn't want her own family to know

54:53

for years. She knew she would be deemed crazy. I don't

54:55

know. As

54:57

my QAnon friends would say do your

54:59

own research. So. Your

55:02

QAnon friends. LOL. Don't

55:05

talk about me like that. I'm just

55:07

kidding. Yeah. Can you imagine if I

55:09

had a QAnon friend? Anyway. Okay. I

55:11

know. I was like wait can you clarify because I

55:14

don't think that that's real is it? If

55:17

it is they know not to tell me about it I

55:19

guess. So people began to see her

55:23

as again not just some other figure in

55:25

her village where she was helping out like

55:27

the local kids but now she's seen as a

55:30

mother figure to many people because she's helping

55:32

give peace to them. And so this is where

55:34

she gets granted the name Baba Vanga or Grandma

55:37

Vanga. Also

55:39

I think I don't know what age she

55:42

was but I feel like she was way

55:44

too young to be a Baba Vanga but

55:46

true but she is a spinster. So that's

55:48

true. You know what once you've hit 20 if you're not

55:51

married you are you might as well be a great great

55:53

grandma. You're in

55:55

AARP for sure. I'm

55:57

in AARP. I know you are. my

56:00

friend. I love it the benefits man.

56:04

Everyone I tell they're like don't you have to

56:06

be 65 and I'm like that's what they want

56:09

you to think. But anyone's actually 55 I remember.

56:11

Oh 50 parts. My parents had a small crisis

56:13

when the mail started coming in but yeah

56:16

no M's in it. I'm in it you can

56:18

be in it too. Here's

56:21

an eerie example of one of the

56:23

times where she was maybe her predictions

56:25

were true. So this

56:27

is in 1942 and I

56:31

forgot to look up how this is

56:33

pronounced T-S-A-R is that Zarr? Zarr

56:36

yeah. Boris the third of

56:38

Bulgaria. He fucking heard about her

56:40

and was like I am heading my

56:42

way over to Bonga. I want to see what is going on what

56:44

is what's the future look like for me

56:46

and my rule like what how are things

56:48

gonna go. Bonga tells

56:52

Zarr Boris the third. August

56:55

28th get ready for her she will

56:57

be coming soon and

57:00

on August 28th homeboy died of a heart attack.

57:03

Oh she was was death okay

57:05

like his new love interest another tornado oh

57:08

no just death okay so vague which by

57:10

the way this is a reminder that if

57:12

you do believe in mediums and you do

57:14

like to go to appointments whatever they say it

57:16

could mean anything yeah

57:19

it's hard because it's like yeah it's vague I

57:21

mean it sounds like she was right on the

57:23

money with the date so

57:25

that's something but yeah it's kind

57:27

of a little bit one of those reminders that

57:29

like her visions were also out of context

57:31

she probably only got like August

57:34

28th which you know if

57:36

she's telling the truth on all this you know but it

57:39

would mean that like he came

57:42

to ask about his rule and

57:45

she got a date and maybe assumed that that had

57:47

something to do with it but it was really like

57:49

the spirits maybe saying oh he's not even gonna make

57:51

it past August 28th like the rule is not what

57:54

he needs to be concerned about yeah

57:56

he needs to I don't know get his

57:58

cholesterol under control or something Yeah,

58:00

yeah, yeah, so at 31,

58:03

okay, so yeah, so

58:05

she's definitely not a Baba age Oh

58:08

elderly got it the fact that we could

58:10

be Baba's is crazy So

58:13

at 31 what a soldier I think his name's Dimitar

58:18

Dimitar Dimitar dimitar

58:23

Didn't meet the meter the meter I Don't

58:26

know This Bulgarian

58:28

soldier shows up and

58:30

he wants a reading from her Because

58:33

his brother has recently died and he wants

58:35

the names of the men who killed him.

58:37

Oh Okay, this is

58:39

getting a little dicey Bonga

58:42

tells him the names before he even sat down

58:44

because he hadn't even made the request yet as

58:46

soon as she saw him She knew what he

58:48

wanted and said here are the names, but

58:53

God is going to Punish

58:55

the killers she's basically saying karma's real

58:57

don't get involved karma's coming But

59:00

she said God is going to punish them I'm only

59:02

telling you their names so that way you get to

59:05

be a witness to God's punishments But you do not

59:07

get to enact the vengeance and you do not get

59:09

to I'm not condoning

59:11

violence and You get I'll

59:13

tell you the name just so you can sit on the

59:15

sidelines and watch and enjoy as they suffer Let me guess

59:18

he didn't listen. No, he

59:20

listened. Oh, he did. He was

59:22

so taken by her boundaries that

59:26

he fell for her very quickly and They

59:30

fell in love shut up But

59:33

guess what miss baba Vanga who can see all

59:35

she did not see that he had a wife. Oh She's

59:39

blinded by love. You know what I mean.

59:41

Uh-huh. Yep. Yep. Yep But

59:44

he leaves his wife for her and then

59:46

Vanga and her sister both move in with

59:49

him and his family and they adopt Two

59:51

children together. Holy shit So

59:53

they moved quick Right

59:56

and they can which always I've always wondered if

59:59

you're a media And if you're a medium,

1:00:01

please write in. I hope I'm not asking an ignorant question,

1:00:03

but with true, good intentions, like,

1:00:06

if you're about to fall in love with somebody, how do you not just do

1:00:08

a reading on that? How do you... I know

1:00:10

a lot of people have like a block where they

1:00:12

can't do things for themselves, but if you're... That's

1:00:15

what I usually hear when I ask people that question

1:00:17

is like, you... Because

1:00:19

I've talked to one medium who

1:00:22

said even people in her own family,

1:00:24

like she just doesn't access or can't

1:00:26

access because it's too emotionally

1:00:28

close that she can't tell what's

1:00:32

like her emotional stuff and

1:00:34

what's like an outside source. I

1:00:36

was told by one medium, so I don't know for other people. Interesting.

1:00:39

I wonder if you have a similar trauma

1:00:41

to me and Christine where you're really good

1:00:43

at compartmentalizing emotions. Like, can you put your

1:00:45

feelings aside and then do a reading on

1:00:47

yourself? I wonder too. Yeah, I wonder. I

1:00:49

wonder. I'm sure it changes, right?

1:00:51

Like, depending on the person. I mean, just because that

1:00:54

one medium I spoke to said that maybe I imagine

1:00:56

there are others who can access. I don't know. Yeah.

1:01:00

If you're someone who actually

1:01:02

does possess the abilities and you

1:01:04

have any insight to this, I

1:01:06

would love to hear it. I would love to know

1:01:10

if you were able to look in and kind

1:01:12

of cheat the system. I'm like, oh, I know how this is going

1:01:14

to go. Or in the opposite way of like, oh, I see how this

1:01:16

is going to go. We got to... This is not

1:01:18

going to work. Uh-oh. Yeah. And

1:01:21

that's the reason not want to

1:01:23

see certain things, right? I

1:01:26

don't know. Anyway, I'm curious.

1:01:28

But yeah, I was like, maybe

1:01:30

Vanga saw two kids with this guy and was like,

1:01:33

oh, he'll do. And then

1:01:35

like never even realized he had a wife because at

1:01:37

the end of the day, that part wasn't important

1:01:40

because it would get solved. Anyway.

1:01:43

A lot of questions though. I'm curious as

1:01:45

well. We've all been

1:01:47

there trying to fit everything we think we might

1:01:49

need for a trip only to end up with

1:01:51

the suitcase bursting at the seams and then I

1:01:53

end up sitting on it and inevitably breaking the

1:01:55

zipper. But we're in a new era now because

1:01:57

we have base and with base, there's room for

1:01:59

everything. If you need 15 pairs of

1:02:01

underwear for a weekend trip, no problem. Can't

1:02:03

decide between a few pairs of shoes? That's

1:02:05

always my problem. Bring them all with BASE.

1:02:08

BASE was created by actress Shay Mitchell to

1:02:10

make sleek and affordable bags, luggage, and accessories

1:02:12

designed to help you travel effortlessly while still

1:02:14

looking fashionable. BASE is thought of everything you

1:02:16

could ever want in a piece of luggage.

1:02:19

360 degree gliding wheels, a cushioned handle,

1:02:21

built-in weight indicator, washable bags for your

1:02:23

dirty clothes, genius, and all the interior

1:02:25

pockets you need to keep organized. Plus

1:02:28

they have the cutest colors and multiple

1:02:30

sizes depending on what you're looking for.

1:02:32

I have the Weekender bag in black.

1:02:34

It's amazing because you can keep your

1:02:36

shoes underneath, which is a game changer.

1:02:38

Eva also has the Weekender in this

1:02:40

adorable green color, but she also has

1:02:42

one of the Rolling suitcases in the

1:02:44

same green, and she shows up looking

1:02:46

so like spring and fashionista. I don't

1:02:48

know. I've never seen any luggage like

1:02:50

it. Right now, BASE is offering listeners

1:02:52

15% off your first

1:02:55

purchase by visiting www.basetravel.com. Slash

1:02:57

drink. Go to www.basetravel.com. Slash

1:02:59

drink for 15% off your

1:03:01

first purchase. That's www.basetravel.com.

1:03:04

Slash drink. Explore

1:03:06

new possibilities, pleasure zones, and find

1:03:08

your vibe at funlove.com. funlove.com

1:03:11

is a leading online retailer of sensual

1:03:13

health and wellness products, offering a wide

1:03:15

array of premier brands of toys, lingerie,

1:03:17

and accessories. I know I've talked about

1:03:19

it before, but we received the most

1:03:21

lovely gift basket from Fun Love. First

1:03:23

of all, I didn't know what it

1:03:25

was at first, and then when I

1:03:27

pulled out a vibrator, I

1:03:29

thought, oh boy, this is not

1:03:31

your everyday fruit basket. There was

1:03:33

everything, I'm telling you, from sexy

1:03:36

perfumes to toys to

1:03:38

vibrators to lube. I

1:03:41

mean, I gotta say, it's like a

1:03:43

one-stop shop, okay? If you go to

1:03:45

funlove.com and you're looking for maybe a

1:03:48

romantic evening, either with a loved one

1:03:50

or with yourself, they've got what you're

1:03:52

looking for, I can promise you. So

1:03:54

what are you waiting for? Explore, discover,

1:03:56

indulge, and make love fun by visiting

1:03:58

funlove.com. And if you... in Arizona or

1:04:01

Colorado, check out one of their 18

1:04:03

store locations. Hey, maybe I'll stop by

1:04:05

when I'm in town. For a limited

1:04:07

time, save 30% off your first order

1:04:09

by entering code ATWWD at checkout. Go

1:04:12

to funlove.com and use code ATWWD at

1:04:14

checkout to save 30% off

1:04:16

your first order. Visit funlove.com

1:04:18

today. So

1:04:21

he left his wife, they adopt two kids, they all

1:04:23

move in with each other, and they continue

1:04:26

to have visitors through the end

1:04:28

of the war and even afterwards because

1:04:30

people still love going to Vanga and

1:04:33

a lot of them would, she

1:04:35

never charged anyone for a reading no matter what,

1:04:37

but people

1:04:40

often tried to gift her something as a

1:04:42

thank you and that usually meant that they

1:04:44

got a lot of fruits and vegetables and

1:04:46

butter, which like, you

1:04:48

can pay me in butter, that's cool. Sure,

1:04:50

I'll take it. But

1:04:54

any resource they could bring, they would try

1:04:56

to pay her or some people did pay

1:04:58

her in money, but like that

1:05:00

wasn't expected and they never turned anyone

1:05:02

away if they couldn't pay. That's really

1:05:05

nice. Yeah, so

1:05:07

one source actually dubbed

1:05:09

Vanga the patron diviner

1:05:11

of lost soldiers because

1:05:15

she allegedly helped clients locate several

1:05:17

bodies of missing soldiers that were

1:05:19

lost in war so that they

1:05:21

could be brought home for burial.

1:05:23

Holy shit. And she could even see

1:05:25

the soldiers' final moments and

1:05:28

bring closure to their loved ones or talk

1:05:30

to them about like their last memories. Oh

1:05:33

my god. There were even rare times

1:05:35

when Vanga's vision revealed

1:05:37

that the soldier was still

1:05:39

alive despite being told that he

1:05:42

was MIA and he was not

1:05:44

coming back and

1:05:46

she was able to reunite families and friends

1:05:48

with their soldiers. Oh my goodness. Do you

1:05:51

know how much investigation discovery would pay for

1:05:53

the rights to this show? I know.

1:05:57

Oh my god. And how much I would watch the shit out of

1:05:59

this show. Like oh, yeah, even if I

1:06:01

didn't know how accurate or valid it was.

1:06:03

No, yeah, it doesn't even matter. Like is

1:06:05

it legitimate? I don't know, but I still have to watch. No.

1:06:09

She so yeah, so she helps reunite people.

1:06:11

And there's actually one story where she told

1:06:14

a wife of a missing

1:06:16

soldier, like, hey, I know that they literally

1:06:18

came to your doorstep and said that he's dead or they sent

1:06:20

you a letter or something or

1:06:22

a pigeon sent you a telegraph. I don't know how

1:06:25

it works, but he is

1:06:27

alive regardless of what you've heard. He is alive

1:06:29

and he will be coming home. It actually won't

1:06:31

be for a while. He's doing something, but

1:06:33

he'll be back eventually. The

1:06:36

wife did not believe her and was like,

1:06:38

I've already grieved. I can't bear any false

1:06:40

hope and ended up getting

1:06:42

remarried. And a year later, the soldier came

1:06:44

home. Oh, drama.

1:06:47

But apparently that story became very popular of

1:06:49

like, you got to believe Baba Vanga because

1:06:51

she is going to tell you what's going on. That's

1:06:55

got to be a mindfuck. She

1:06:57

even continued to have strange visions,

1:07:00

but she never wrote them down. Most

1:07:02

of the records of

1:07:05

her visions were actually written secondhand

1:07:07

by her sister who kept track of

1:07:09

this stuff, which I like that the sister

1:07:11

was like, ah, we have to have receipts.

1:07:13

Like, this is crazy. Like somebody's going to ask. OK.

1:07:17

Yeah. And I'm not going to

1:07:19

be with the one looking like a cuckoo because

1:07:21

I'm telling them about your powers. Right.

1:07:26

In 1962, her

1:07:28

husband ended up dying and Vanga

1:07:31

moved with her sister to a

1:07:33

village outside of Petrich. Petrich,

1:07:35

Petrich, Petrich. Not

1:07:39

even five feet. The

1:07:41

Bulgarian countryside, I think. And

1:07:45

then in 1967, the

1:07:47

Bulgarian government was

1:07:50

like, we fucking have been hearing about

1:07:52

you. No way. I'm

1:07:54

going to hire her for

1:07:57

her abilities and give her an office in the

1:07:59

village. capital in

1:08:02

67 67 Wow

1:08:04

that's pretty incredible tell me this

1:08:07

is not the government department

1:08:09

like I know we all know how I

1:08:12

feel about politics in general but I would

1:08:14

drop everything and I would work for the

1:08:16

man for this department are you ready she

1:08:19

works for the department okay

1:08:21

it the Institute

1:08:23

of suggestology and

1:08:26

parapsychology I would

1:08:28

literally drop all of

1:08:30

my morals I'd be like I have to work

1:08:32

at the parapsychology department USA

1:08:37

USA so um I would

1:08:39

just be a screeching bald

1:08:41

eagle through those halls I'd

1:08:43

be like parapsychology

1:08:45

department oh my god

1:08:48

that's wild I love that they had

1:08:50

that they ends up going

1:08:52

she ends up working at the Institute of

1:08:55

suggestology and parapsychology where not only is she

1:08:57

hired and has her own office in the

1:08:59

capital but they also hire her several assistants

1:09:02

that just manage her appointments record her visions

1:09:04

and then they give her sister a salary

1:09:06

job as an assistant to okay well I

1:09:08

would like to be your sister in this

1:09:11

scenario and just yeah to hang out and

1:09:13

write things down for you I like

1:09:15

that I feel like that was part of the negotiation

1:09:18

of like I'll only do this my sister can also

1:09:20

have a job and I think yes sir is

1:09:22

now just like in charge of like lunch

1:09:24

break like she's like she has room to

1:09:26

negotiate that way like you bring my sister

1:09:28

on board otherwise I'm not giving you my

1:09:31

vision powers exactly so here

1:09:33

is the crux of it all though is

1:09:36

that just like what I would do she

1:09:38

absolutely gave up all of her

1:09:40

morals and

1:09:43

she sold out

1:09:45

and now because she's a

1:09:47

hired government employee

1:09:50

contractor basically yeah none

1:09:53

of her visions anymore were ever free she

1:09:57

absolutely like everyone had to pay

1:09:59

top dollar for a vision from her because she

1:10:01

was working for the government. And now she's like part of

1:10:03

like government secrets. Like she has like essentially top clearance, whether

1:10:05

or not they want to give it to her because she

1:10:07

can see everything. And

1:10:10

many of her clientele were high

1:10:13

profile politicians and celebrities. And

1:10:15

now this also gets kind of weird in like

1:10:17

government conspiracy ship where like, you

1:10:19

wonder like, could they just pay her to say anything

1:10:22

whether or not she saw it just to like, you

1:10:26

know, the world at bay or, or could she

1:10:30

lie and and we could just tell the

1:10:32

newspapers she said this so that way people

1:10:34

think of this.

1:10:36

The Bulgarian government now had access

1:10:38

to all the desires and

1:10:40

motives of all who came to see

1:10:43

Vanga for advice. So anyone that she

1:10:45

was working with outside of the government,

1:10:47

I guess, had to jot

1:10:49

down that they what they were

1:10:51

there for what they wanted to know. Another government

1:10:53

has intel on like all these

1:10:55

people's insecurities and fears and what's your they

1:11:00

also studied Vanga to try to

1:11:02

investigate the accuracy of

1:11:04

her prophecies. Over the

1:11:06

years, many famous people ended up visiting Baba

1:11:08

Vanga until her death in 1996, which feels

1:11:12

it feels weird that someone born in 1911. I

1:11:14

know it's like totally doable. But in my brain,

1:11:17

it feels so far removed from a time that

1:11:19

I was alive that for her to have died

1:11:21

when I was on earth was a child. Yeah,

1:11:23

that that always trips me up a little bit.

1:11:27

In the end, many insist that

1:11:29

Vanga was a fraud whose sponsorship

1:11:31

by the state was politically advantageous,

1:11:34

as well as kind

1:11:36

of like a

1:11:38

lure in for tourism. And

1:11:42

others think that she could have just been

1:11:44

mentally ill and none of it was

1:11:46

legitimate. But she got exploited anyway for

1:11:48

political agendas, and they took advantage of a

1:11:50

sick person. And either way, we

1:11:53

still don't totally

1:11:57

know how accurate or

1:11:59

how legitimate. she was but

1:12:01

she did have a lot of prophecies

1:12:04

go correctly

1:12:07

she accurately put out them

1:12:09

I asked earlier I thought because

1:12:12

I had missed I didn't let

1:12:14

you finish the sentence I when you said they were

1:12:16

no longer free I thought you were gonna say they

1:12:18

no longer came true and I was like oh my

1:12:20

gosh I thought the government

1:12:22

hired her suddenly like her spiritual guides were

1:12:24

like you sold out we're not giving you

1:12:27

any more fish now that would be the

1:12:29

by the way I can I give you a

1:12:31

weird shout out and mention things that you have not

1:12:33

mentioned on the show before always you

1:12:35

could say whatever you want Christine has been

1:12:39

dipping her toe into writing and has

1:12:41

been joining some writing posts yes

1:12:44

I have Christine that is a

1:12:46

twist that you should remember for a future story

1:12:49

because that's a great point is like oh the

1:12:51

spirits were like we gave you a gift and

1:12:53

you sold out and you're like yeah yeah people

1:12:55

are using it for war time I don't think

1:12:57

so you know that's a good twist Christine recently

1:12:59

did a I had to write with a prompt

1:13:01

that came with a twist there was a twist

1:13:04

at the end and it was

1:13:06

a very good story and everyone's like oh here's a

1:13:08

twist and I was like shit that's about

1:13:10

better to it remember that you

1:13:15

just was good your twist is that

1:13:17

at the well can I ever feel your twist yeah

1:13:19

it was that at the end the

1:13:22

person that he was like telling this whole story

1:13:25

to was being buried alive or he

1:13:27

was telling his victim as he was killing

1:13:29

him yeah yeah find out

1:13:31

that he's been oh man

1:13:33

that was good to have that the narrator was

1:13:35

the killer all along yeah right right right

1:13:37

yeah yeah yeah gotta love

1:13:39

it gotta love it yeah they gave me the prompt

1:13:42

thriller and I was like

1:13:44

yay and then I started writing and I was

1:13:46

like this is really hard to write a thriller

1:13:48

no I uh you

1:13:51

remember this as a motivation for your

1:13:53

future contests that you I love that

1:13:55

thank you thank you so

1:13:57

I do want to say some of the Reductions.

1:14:01

That. She. Has Yes please!

1:14:03

I would love to hear them. So.

1:14:05

And Ninety Ninety Nine. There.

1:14:08

Was a Russian city called Kursk.

1:14:11

And she predicted that Kursk.

1:14:14

Way. To be quote covered with water.

1:14:17

The whole world will weep over it.

1:14:19

Oh Shit. And. Kursk. Nothing

1:14:22

as that happening to the city.

1:14:24

By it within that when is that year

1:14:26

when she made. This production a very.

1:14:29

Famous Russian submarine also.

1:14:31

Named. Kursk say all hundred

1:14:33

twenty people aboard died. Oh

1:14:37

Shit. So this is

1:14:39

a reminder that even she doesn't understand the

1:14:41

context of a lot of her visions. just

1:14:43

the she heard the word kursk assume that

1:14:45

meant the city and not a the submarine.

1:14:48

I'm a policy a little bit unfair. that

1:14:50

or spiritual guide won't like say don't worry

1:14:52

this entire cities not going down though built

1:14:54

the I know and you'll understand some like

1:14:57

It's one of those conversations where. I.

1:14:59

Could sit for hours and

1:15:01

wonder like where is the

1:15:03

red tape Like why. Why?

1:15:06

Can't they give us more

1:15:08

for renewables? Is it the

1:15:10

at? are the rules or like? Are they following

1:15:12

rules and it's like just rules that we don't

1:15:14

understand because we're not part of that world are

1:15:16

like to? Can they not give any more Or.

1:15:19

Are they putting out as much energy as the already

1:15:21

can and like? Big, they don't.

1:15:23

Have any more room to. If.

1:15:26

Any more contacts and or know. Why

1:15:28

they're. Just. Summer! What

1:15:30

a wacky! That's a rave episode that would be when we

1:15:32

thought we are less a of a city but it was

1:15:34

actually a submarine and ever that are in and then they

1:15:37

all died and said i yet what what a wacky day.

1:15:41

That say you? Yeah, that's probably

1:15:43

wondering how the submarine drowned. I.

1:15:47

I feel like we should take advantage of

1:15:49

the the. The. Herb

1:15:52

of the Month club that I signed us up

1:15:54

for and the a success and a future date

1:15:56

because I think we'd have a lot to. us

1:15:59

to discuss Well, so I

1:16:02

agree. She also predicted

1:16:05

that the 44th US President would be a

1:16:07

black man. Why? She

1:16:09

was so specific. She

1:16:11

predicted Brexit. She

1:16:15

said major world cities would have record droughts

1:16:17

in 2022, and in 2022 many cities in

1:16:19

Europe declared official droughts. There

1:16:25

is kind of the thought

1:16:27

that in 1989 she

1:16:30

predicted 9-11 because

1:16:33

she – I don't know

1:16:35

any more context other than this, but

1:16:37

in her premonition she said, horror,

1:16:40

horror, the American brethren will

1:16:42

fall after being attacked by

1:16:44

steel birds. Well,

1:16:47

sounds pretty close.

1:16:49

I mean, eerie. Certainly

1:16:52

eerie. She

1:16:54

allegedly predicted the fall of

1:16:56

the Soviet Union, the Union

1:16:58

of East and West Germany,

1:17:00

the Chernobyl disaster, the date

1:17:03

of Stalin's death. And during

1:17:05

COVID, which she was not around for –

1:17:07

she died in 96 – but during COVID,

1:17:10

a longtime follower of Baba Vanga said, I

1:17:12

remember back in the 90s, and

1:17:14

there was one prediction she

1:17:16

always mentioned that always stuck with me, and I never knew what it

1:17:18

meant. But she said,

1:17:21

the corona will be on all of us. And

1:17:26

that being said, this is another moment where

1:17:28

it's an out of context, that's so Ravenvision.

1:17:31

How would you ever know what that meant? Well,

1:17:33

because corona in Bulgarian

1:17:36

means crown. And

1:17:38

so at the time when she made that

1:17:40

prediction, everybody thought that she was predicting that

1:17:42

there would be an invasion, that the crown

1:17:44

would be on all of us. But

1:17:47

an invasion never came, and so they were like,

1:17:49

well, I guess that was a false premonition unless

1:17:51

something else is to come. But

1:17:53

she probably in her vision heard the word

1:17:56

corona and didn't know what that meant. And

1:17:59

I mean, this is try some answers. But to

1:18:01

say on us all means like not

1:18:03

just on a certain nation or a certain like

1:18:06

no one nation is invading another Like we're

1:18:08

all struck by this Outself

1:18:10

force. Wow, that's really wild

1:18:13

She also predicted that around 2020 we

1:18:16

would use solar powered vehicles to replace

1:18:18

oil and gas extraction Which around that

1:18:20

time is when Tesla came out Not

1:18:24

not all of our predictions have come true, but

1:18:26

we you know believers can also say they just haven't come

1:18:29

true yet including a cure

1:18:31

for AIDS She's

1:18:33

predicted a radical change to Earth's orbit.

1:18:36

She's predicted proof of the spiritual

1:18:38

world and Keep

1:18:40

dreaming girl, but she predicted world peace for

1:18:42

a thousand years, which what happens on the

1:18:45

thousand and first year I was gonna say

1:18:47

I Don't like that

1:18:49

one because that implies that I will live with anxiety

1:18:51

for those whole thousand Well, I won't be alive. But

1:18:54

you know what I mean? I feel like there would

1:18:56

just be this constant anxiety of like it's gonna end

1:18:58

any day now, you know she

1:19:02

Did predict that in around 200 years

1:19:04

we will officially make contact with? Extraterrestrials

1:19:07

and Hungary will be the first to do this

1:19:10

but jokes on her because we've already

1:19:12

made contact with extraterrestrials Which

1:19:15

that my tiktok was just covered with that footage

1:19:19

It's also said that next year this oh

1:19:22

no not next year because this is now 2024 This

1:19:27

Year, she predicted in 2024 Putin

1:19:29

will be assassinated by someone from his own

1:19:31

country. Oh Shit,

1:19:33

well, that's a very specific one. So keep

1:19:36

your eyes out. No, that happens. I'm

1:19:38

gonna get pretty freaked out. Yeah

1:19:42

she also said a Country

1:19:45

in 2024 a country will

1:19:47

carry out biological weapons tests

1:19:49

and attacks Which depending

1:19:51

on fuck who you talk to I'm

1:19:53

sure there's people out there who think it's already happening

1:19:55

or Also

1:19:58

that there will be a terrorist attacked on Europe

1:20:01

that there will be a huge economic crisis next

1:20:04

year. So buy your houses

1:20:06

now. Come on. I say

1:20:08

we got there

1:20:10

enough and she's like, I went through a fucking tornado. Don't

1:20:12

talk to me about going through it. Yeah. Yeah.

1:20:14

Yeah. She also said there would be a career

1:20:16

for a career. There would be

1:20:18

a cure for Alzheimer's and sometime this year

1:20:21

will be a cure for cancer. She

1:20:23

said, oh my God, 2024. She's

1:20:26

playing, she's playing my emotions real hard here.

1:20:28

Like I feel like on the one hand

1:20:30

I'm like, please God, let some of this

1:20:32

be true. I would love to find a

1:20:34

cure for AIDS and for Alzheimer's and cancer.

1:20:36

And then on the other hand, I'm like,

1:20:38

I don't know about this biological warfare thing.

1:20:40

And yeah, I don't think I like that

1:20:42

very much. Also again, if

1:20:44

you're someone who's a bit deeper

1:20:47

down the rabbit hole, you might say,

1:20:49

well, there probably already is a cure for cancer, but

1:20:51

big pharma blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But maybe this will

1:20:53

be the year that like the cure for cancer is revealed

1:20:55

to people. That's your Q and on friends. You can

1:20:57

talk to them about that. Well,

1:20:59

regardless of her validity, Baba Vanga is said

1:21:02

to have always had a deeply valued

1:21:04

love for nature and human life, over

1:21:07

wealth and greed. And I'll end on

1:21:09

a, on two quotes from her. The

1:21:11

first quote is, there won't be a

1:21:14

third, a third world war, but if

1:21:16

you continue polluting nature, it will destroy

1:21:18

us. If you continue to treat

1:21:20

mother nature like that, a day will

1:21:23

come when different plants, vegetables and animals

1:21:25

will disappear. First it will

1:21:27

be the onion, garlic, pepper, and then bees

1:21:30

milk will become poisonous. People will sow

1:21:32

wheat, but rye will grow. And then

1:21:34

the last quote is we all one

1:21:36

by one will go to the other

1:21:38

world, but planet earth and humanity will

1:21:40

remain our planet existed for billions of

1:21:42

years and will exist for many more

1:21:44

before an apocalypse, whether it's

1:21:46

written in stone, it cannot be changed

1:21:49

sooner or later. It happens. Oh

1:21:53

my God. And that's first of

1:21:55

all a reminder to not only drink

1:21:58

some water, you thirsty little rats. also

1:22:00

take your anti-anxiety medication. And

1:22:02

that's an either one today help. And

1:22:05

that is Baba Vanga. Oh gosh.

1:22:10

I was expecting another house with chicken legs and

1:22:12

this is not what I was prepared for. Not

1:22:14

what you signed up for. Not what I signed

1:22:16

up for. You know, I had

1:22:19

a fifth grade social studies teacher who

1:22:22

was obsessed with Nostradamus and instead of

1:22:24

actually ever doing work, he just

1:22:26

read us like the world's

1:22:28

most terrifying predictions. I

1:22:31

was in fifth grade when 9-11 happened and

1:22:33

so when that happened, basically

1:22:35

the entire rest of the school year was

1:22:37

him being like, and Nostradamus predicted this. And

1:22:39

now looking back, he was a little bit

1:22:42

off his rocker. But at the time we

1:22:44

were like, wow. And I would go home

1:22:46

and my mom would be like, what are

1:22:48

we paying the school for? You come home

1:22:51

and you're like, Nostradamus predicted like apocalypse. And

1:22:54

then we learned about the Mayan calendar and

1:22:56

how it was real. And now I'm like,

1:22:58

that man should not have been teaching history

1:23:00

to children. Can I be honest? When you

1:23:03

first said Nostradamus, I heard Nosferatu and I

1:23:05

was like, Oh my God. Like I

1:23:07

don't remember that, but not quite. Yeah.

1:23:11

I don't want to say the guy's name because

1:23:13

he was like an icon at my school. Like

1:23:15

he was that teacher who was like the cool

1:23:17

guy. But now looking back, I'm like, I think

1:23:19

we all had kind of a toxic relationship

1:23:21

with this teacher. I think

1:23:24

it kind of goes that way sometimes. And

1:23:26

I'm not sure if he's even still alive, but.

1:23:28

That's what I feel about the icon teacher at

1:23:30

my school. I'm like, is he okay? Because like,

1:23:32

yeah, he was like when I was there to

1:23:35

Google him. Yeah.

1:23:38

Yeah. Wowza. Anyway, so that, like I've just

1:23:40

always been, I think I was the only

1:23:42

one in class who was like desperately

1:23:46

fascinated by these stories, like about

1:23:48

Nostradamus and all that. And people just were like, I'm glad we're

1:23:50

not doing work. And I'm like, me too. But

1:23:52

also I want to know more about these at

1:23:54

the time. I think I would have been more of a

1:23:56

happy, I'm not doing work person, but in hindsight, I would

1:23:58

have been like, man, I should have really appreciated the stories

1:24:00

being told to me. Oh, I was

1:24:03

just in it. I was like a

1:24:05

conspiracy theorist, fifth grader. Like it was

1:24:07

crazy. I'm very glad that I

1:24:10

feel like he's kind of the kind of person

1:24:12

who would maybe have fallen to QAnon. You know,

1:24:14

like he was really into all the like offbeat

1:24:16

sources and how things aren't what they seem. Which

1:24:19

is wild. I mean, it's shocking

1:24:21

even today. I mean, I feel

1:24:24

like QAnon became part of our, you

1:24:27

know, became part of the air where all of

1:24:29

us kind of just know about it. And like it

1:24:31

kind of got forgotten. I think a lot

1:24:33

of people feel like they gave

1:24:36

up on QAnon. We're like, oh, well, there's just crazy

1:24:38

people in the world now. But like it's

1:24:40

wild. I'm still in

1:24:43

like the forums on Reddit and like people are

1:24:45

still losing family to QAnon and shit. Like it's

1:24:47

wild. And now with I mean,

1:24:49

even with freaking I was just talking to

1:24:51

my dad about it last night, like with

1:24:53

the the the chiefs and and Taylor Swift

1:24:55

and people are like the government has created.

1:24:57

I'm like, you know, relax,

1:25:00

my God. But just

1:25:02

like how it was like your icon teacher who fell

1:25:04

into it. I still think the scariest part about QAnon

1:25:06

is that some of the smartest people are

1:25:09

the people who fell into it because they really

1:25:11

were originally minded, open

1:25:14

minded and had genuine intentions

1:25:17

about doing their own research because they

1:25:19

didn't want to be swayed by anybody.

1:25:21

And it just they fell into like

1:25:23

the world's worst rabbit hole. It's it's

1:25:26

just yeah, it's just

1:25:28

wild. So I'm not surprised that like a teacher

1:25:30

who was like well respected might have taken a

1:25:32

turn, you know. Yeah. And I mean, I don't

1:25:34

know that about him. Like I genuinely don't. But

1:25:37

you may or may not allegedly. I could see it.

1:25:39

I could let's just say like I wouldn't

1:25:41

be shocking to me. There's there's some

1:25:43

people I don't keep in touch with anymore. And I

1:25:45

think about them like, I bet

1:25:48

I know where they ended up. Like I say, yeah,

1:25:50

you're like, I don't think I need to Google it

1:25:52

to find out. Right. Right. If I check

1:25:54

their Facebook, I think I know what their post would look

1:25:56

like. Oh, and this is the same teacher that

1:25:58

walked us through the entire. Elizabeth Smart kidnapping.

1:26:00

So like we were in his class like

1:26:03

as that unfolded and so it was a

1:26:05

weird year it was like 9-11 Elizabeth Smart

1:26:07

like I mean I don't did that happen

1:26:10

in 2001 I must have. It definitely happened

1:26:12

when we were children because all it did

1:26:14

was fuel any fire

1:26:16

my parents had about me being

1:26:18

kidnapped so. Yeah okay so

1:26:21

that happened oh to yeah so like that

1:26:23

probably that same school year and I just

1:26:25

remember being like fifth grade is a very

1:26:27

formative time all of a sudden for me I was

1:26:29

like this is a learning about the

1:26:31

world from a very weird guy. Yeah we had all

1:26:34

that in the DC sniper too so

1:26:36

they would teach us how to hide from God way

1:26:38

before it was like fucking normal.

1:26:40

Before it was cool. Before

1:26:43

it was like normal. Whatever kid was doing. Oh

1:26:45

my god it's horrible. Anyway

1:26:48

wow what a story Em. Thank

1:26:51

you for sharing that with me and everybody.

1:26:54

All right I have a story for

1:26:56

you today that is pretty wild.

1:26:59

This is a story and I'm curious to hear if

1:27:01

you know about it because it's been pretty pervasive

1:27:05

recently. It's the story of Natalia

1:27:07

Grace. The

1:27:10

curious case of Natalia Grace. Okay.

1:27:12

Oh I mean yeah but I like the

1:27:15

word play. You should be a writer and

1:27:17

like join a bunch of contests or something.

1:27:19

Yeah I should although that is the name of the documentary so

1:27:21

that is why I said it. Okay.

1:27:23

I did not invent that to be clear.

1:27:26

So that's the that's the show that came out

1:27:28

earlier this year. I'm sorry I think it was

1:27:31

end of 2023 that like rocked

1:27:34

everybody in the true crime world. So

1:27:37

this story and Saoirse put a really

1:27:39

good note up top here so I'm

1:27:42

just gonna use their words. This

1:27:44

story largely centers on dwarfism

1:27:46

and ableism. Okay. A like

1:27:48

discrimination against people with disabilities

1:27:51

and because the

1:27:54

vernacular here is important. I'm gonna also

1:27:56

quote this that the little people of

1:27:58

America organization LPA defines dwarf. as

1:28:00

a medical or genetic condition that usually results

1:28:02

in an adult height of 4 foot 10

1:28:04

inches or shorter among both men and women,

1:28:06

although in some cases a person with dwarfing

1:28:09

condition may be slightly taller than that. The

1:28:11

average height of an adult with dwarfism is

1:28:13

4 foot, but typical heights range from 2

1:28:15

foot 8 to 4 foot 8. And

1:28:18

according to LPA and several content creators

1:28:20

and writers with dwarfism, the preferred terminology

1:28:23

to refer to people with dwarfism is

1:28:25

person or people with dwarfism is

1:28:28

a little person, little people depending on

1:28:30

their preference. And LPA

1:28:32

also lists person or people of short stature

1:28:34

as a third option, and

1:28:36

people without dwarfism are referred to as

1:28:39

being average height. So that's currently the

1:28:42

preferred vocabulary to use. And

1:28:45

Saoirse also noted that they use several

1:28:47

organizations and different content creators and writers

1:28:49

with dwarfism to get as much of

1:28:52

an accurate insight as possible and good

1:28:54

faith. But of course, there are always

1:28:56

going to be exceptions. Not every group

1:28:58

is going to prefer the

1:29:00

same terminology, for example. Although

1:29:03

dwarfism is recognized as a legal

1:29:05

disability under the Americans with Disabilities

1:29:07

Act, ADA, some

1:29:09

people with dwarfism do not identify

1:29:11

as being disabled while others embrace

1:29:14

it. So there's a lot of – it's

1:29:18

just nuance, just like everything else, right? I

1:29:21

also feel like it should be mentioned just

1:29:24

in case one person who's listening doesn't know

1:29:26

this, that the M word is

1:29:28

a slur. Oh, big time. Big

1:29:31

time. I feel like it's checking how many

1:29:34

people don't know that. I

1:29:36

feel like I only surround myself with people who

1:29:38

happen to know that, but there have been times

1:29:40

where I'm like, you fucking don't know, but that's

1:29:42

like a big time. No, no. You

1:29:45

missed the memo. So in case someone

1:29:47

didn't know, I'm not trying to add

1:29:49

onto yours with the most obvious piece

1:29:51

and be the main takeaway, but

1:29:53

just in case someone doesn't know, the M

1:29:55

word for little people is beyond no-no.

1:29:57

We don't do that. It's a big no-no. We

1:30:00

don't use that anymore. And I've just

1:30:02

given you several other options. So, you know, we

1:30:05

can all work and grow together. So

1:30:08

let's get into it. And you don't know the

1:30:10

story, correct? At all. Okay,

1:30:12

buckle up. Okay, here

1:30:15

we go. So Natalia Grace was

1:30:17

born in Ukraine on September 4th, 2003.

1:30:22

Although that date would

1:30:24

become hotly contested. Her

1:30:27

birth date would become hotly contested. Let's

1:30:29

just leave it at that. Her mother

1:30:32

gave birth to her at the hospital and did not

1:30:34

take her home. And

1:30:36

so Natalia was placed into an

1:30:39

orphanage awaiting adoption. She

1:30:41

was born with

1:30:43

spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita.

1:30:47

Yeah, I practiced. Good

1:30:49

job. Thank you. Spondyloepiphyseal,

1:30:52

I really hope I'm saying

1:30:54

that right. Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita

1:30:56

or SEDC. And among the

1:30:58

400, fun fact, types of

1:31:01

dwarfism, SEDC is very

1:31:03

rare and occurs in fewer than one

1:31:05

out of 100,000 births. Wow,

1:31:08

okay. So people with

1:31:11

dwarfism can be born to average height

1:31:13

parents and have average height siblings. In

1:31:15

fact, over 80% of children

1:31:17

with dwarfism have average height parents. And

1:31:20

according to the Children's Hospital of

1:31:22

Pennsylvania, most cases of SEDC are

1:31:24

caused by a new genetic mutation

1:31:26

of chromosome 12 in utero, but

1:31:29

it can also be a genetic condition.

1:31:31

So it can vary

1:31:33

by individual, but SEDC can affect

1:31:35

the skeleton, the muscles, the digestive

1:31:37

system, the respiratory system, vision and

1:31:40

hearing among other body systems. Dwarfism

1:31:42

and other conditions and disabilities

1:31:45

are, as we've just already

1:31:47

listed, a formerly commonly used

1:31:50

slur, because a lot of times

1:31:53

people who have disabilities

1:31:55

or other conditions like dwarfism

1:31:57

are considered inherently bad or...

1:31:59

different or just

1:32:02

othered because of their condition. But

1:32:06

with medical and social support and

1:32:08

accessibility tools, people with SEDC can

1:32:10

live just as happy and same

1:32:12

great quality of life as anyone

1:32:14

else can. Like same

1:32:16

with anyone with any

1:32:19

condition, if we give them the

1:32:21

right tools and the right access and

1:32:23

the ability to live as a human on this earth the

1:32:26

way that they were born. It

1:32:30

just deserves to be noted, I would say. So

1:32:34

Natalia was an orphan and she would

1:32:36

need the support of an

1:32:38

empathetic and proactive family who would be

1:32:40

ready to advocate for her care. So

1:32:42

of course there are additional,

1:32:48

like I'm trying to think of the right word, like there's

1:32:52

just a lot of responsibility. Yeah, you

1:32:54

would need to be prepared to offer

1:32:56

more support like medically speaking and so

1:32:58

on. So in

1:33:00

2008, Natalia was adopted by the

1:33:02

Saccone family in New Hampshire at

1:33:04

the age of five. Now

1:33:07

we don't exactly know what happened with

1:33:09

the Saccone family. Reports are pretty vague

1:33:12

and they have refused to comment in

1:33:14

any of the documentaries covering the situation.

1:33:16

So there's a lot of speculation out

1:33:19

there. Some of

1:33:21

the speculation is that the Saccones

1:33:23

were just unwilling or maybe unable

1:33:25

to financially support Natalia's complex medical

1:33:27

needs. Perhaps the Saccones

1:33:29

suffered some sort of major unforeseen life

1:33:31

event that caused them

1:33:34

to have to change Natalia's

1:33:37

home. But whatever

1:33:39

the case, they decided to quote

1:33:41

unquote rehome Natalia. Now I'm

1:33:43

gonna get into this very briefly. I have a very sore

1:33:46

spot about this. I

1:33:48

don't know why, it's probably just

1:33:50

because it's about children, but I've

1:33:52

watched several YouTube kind of exposés about

1:33:55

families that have adopted

1:33:57

children only to rehome them. And

1:33:59

it's... I'm uniquely horrible.

1:34:02

Situation A lot of the time. not

1:34:05

every time, but a lot of the

1:34:07

time. So rehoming adopted children is a.

1:34:09

A pretty big. Phenomenon in the

1:34:12

United States. like you might not realize

1:34:14

it. And that's because a lot of

1:34:16

times children will be adopted privately and

1:34:18

then when the parents feel like they

1:34:20

can no longer care for the child

1:34:22

or don't want to, they can turn

1:34:24

to Facebook. And. Literally.

1:34:29

Voice I had a good idea.

1:34:32

I know Facebook has come under

1:34:34

heavy criticism for allowing adoption group.

1:34:36

Were prospective parents post advertisements and

1:34:38

photos of their children looking for

1:34:41

new families? like I'd like an

1:34:43

animal. Like a puppy that was

1:34:45

born under your porch or something.

1:34:49

Yeah. Whoa. In

1:34:51

many states the courts do not even need

1:34:53

to get legally involved as isn't even an

1:34:55

illegal behavior. it's just how you guy know

1:34:58

he faced. When I can learn sign paperwork

1:35:00

it's a very low he I will sign

1:35:02

paperwork they basically poster child of a third,

1:35:04

meet the perspective family and then signed and

1:35:07

notarized the custody documents and. Then.

1:35:09

Bang Boom! Ah, animal much on i'll

1:35:11

eat even in the smoothest and show

1:35:13

mentioned later. but even in the smoothness

1:35:15

of these rehoming it's still a traumatic

1:35:17

event to be. Rehomed.

1:35:19

To a new family play like debate for your

1:35:22

for your parents are not want you yeah right

1:35:24

or or to not be able to care for

1:35:26

you or to just to see even change your

1:35:28

environment whether it's. Whether it's. Necessary

1:35:31

are better for the child or whatever.

1:35:34

aside, even like a divorce it's It'll

1:35:36

be traumatic because it's it's a it's

1:35:38

a major life event, even if it's

1:35:40

the smoothest, most healthy divorce possible, right?

1:35:43

So it's still. It's.

1:35:46

Still a rough. A. Rough experience and then

1:35:48

you know you get into the details of some

1:35:50

of these families. That are. Really

1:35:53

should. Go to prison, but whatever.

1:35:55

So. Adults who were adopted

1:35:57

as children have begun speaking al. And

1:36:00

I've heard some of these on you tube like these

1:36:02

kind of tell all. Experiences

1:36:05

from the people themselves. If experiences

1:36:07

are telling stories of being rehomed

1:36:09

multiple times. A lot of times.

1:36:12

parents who we home adopted children,

1:36:14

site behavioral issues, life changes, expensive

1:36:16

medical needs I think a lotta

1:36:19

time families. Who do this get

1:36:21

in over their heads and they don't

1:36:23

realize like how much bomb or or

1:36:25

you know it There's there have been

1:36:27

cases where the adoption the adoptive agency

1:36:30

is not up front about some of

1:36:32

the. You know,

1:36:34

either a disability or some of the.

1:36:37

struggles that the child is had or some

1:36:39

health issues and then. They. Move

1:36:41

in with the family and the families. suddenly like. To.

1:36:44

Overwhelmed and they had not been prepared for that.

1:36:46

So you know there's a lot of moving parts

1:36:48

that I'm. You make this obviously

1:36:51

very textured, but. It's

1:36:53

just have also very sad because in

1:36:56

what world like would you. Rehomed

1:36:58

your quote by a lot. Like

1:37:00

your biological child, it's almost like

1:37:02

you don't see an adopted child

1:37:04

as your real child because view

1:37:06

adopt them. But then there's also.

1:37:09

There's. Coffee Arts or there's like strings attached

1:37:12

you know. And so it's It's just

1:37:14

is A very I know that they

1:37:16

run the gamut. There's a whole spectrum

1:37:18

of like why it might be necessary

1:37:20

to rehomed some a child with special

1:37:22

lies needs. I understand that it's just

1:37:24

very sad when. Parents just kind

1:37:26

of know realize what they're getting into and

1:37:29

rehomed family. Are we? How much? How So.

1:37:32

Anyway, so imagine a faith, a group

1:37:34

a fully dedicated to giving away. Your

1:37:37

biological children because like the child is

1:37:39

having medical issues. Are you not a

1:37:41

mean? It's like it's It's just hard

1:37:43

to wrap your head around and. I'm

1:37:46

gonna redo adjust to give an idea. An example

1:37:48

of a real. A Haiti

1:37:50

and say these words together advertisement

1:37:52

for a child The submit on

1:37:54

Facebook. Quote. Born

1:37:57

in October of two thousand, this

1:37:59

handsome. Rick was placed from India

1:38:01

a year ago and is obedient and

1:38:04

eager to please. Oh

1:38:06

fucking. Vomits us. That

1:38:08

was opposed times. that was kind of. Giving

1:38:10

inflamed person. right? Okay,

1:38:12

so my next bullet is literally that

1:38:15

there have been cases expose where the

1:38:17

adoptions have led to human trafficking Know

1:38:19

which I mean it's not surprising, right

1:38:22

that as this one girl the her

1:38:24

name was key to a propeller and

1:38:26

she was adopted as a teenager from

1:38:28

Liberia and described as troubled and her

1:38:31

parents posted an ad three home her

1:38:33

online and signed her over the new

1:38:35

parents two days later where she was

1:38:38

immediately sexually abused the same night. So

1:38:41

it's just. Really, in fact, is is

1:38:43

says your family like if you're like

1:38:45

a. If

1:38:47

you are of sexual deviance, a

1:38:50

sex offender. In some way like you just

1:38:52

gotta face of marketplace and get a trying litter.

1:38:54

I mean literally. And look at photos like usually

1:38:56

like the dark web or some shit in the

1:38:58

Us face? It feels like it shouldn't be. Facebook

1:39:01

fucking Marketplace. I want a little a little handsome

1:39:03

boy who's eager to please and I can get

1:39:05

the right oh what I find odd. It's.

1:39:08

Really sick and and so many adopted

1:39:10

children have shared similar story the been

1:39:12

traffic through these rehoming ads on faith

1:39:14

but I'm so reminder now just to

1:39:16

give you all that contacts reminder that

1:39:18

this the counties are in a place

1:39:21

where they've decided to rehomed five year

1:39:23

old Natalia again We don't know why

1:39:25

I'm but. Because. They. Are.

1:39:27

Have kept a private that that is

1:39:29

what they decided to do. An array

1:39:31

posted about Natalia and a woman named

1:39:33

Judith Irving saw Natalia photo and just

1:39:36

fell in love with her right away.

1:39:38

And Judith is also a person with

1:39:40

dwarfism and felt like she was uniquely

1:39:42

qualified to be able to care for

1:39:44

this child and she wanted to give

1:39:46

Natalia a loving and affirming home. But.

1:39:49

Allegedly the Cyclone He asked you to

1:39:51

to pay twenty five thousand dollars out

1:39:53

of pocket in legal fees for the

1:39:55

adoption and she was like i cannot

1:39:57

afford that. And

1:39:59

so. Some people have criticized. You should be fucking thanking me

1:40:01

that I'm taking someone off your hands where

1:40:04

you should be going to jail for doing this. Yeah,

1:40:06

exactly. Yeah, I mean, obviously,

1:40:08

moving on. Moving on. But

1:40:13

I also want to be clear, that is just one

1:40:15

side of the story. We don't actually know the real

1:40:18

facts of this exchange or what have

1:40:20

you. Some people have

1:40:22

criticized the secondis, basically what you're saying for

1:40:24

attempting to sell Natalia instead of finding

1:40:27

a more affordable legal option to

1:40:29

process the adoption. But

1:40:32

we don't have the facts. We don't know what

1:40:35

the real costs were to rehome Natalia. So

1:40:37

this is all speculation. But

1:40:39

it was difficult to let go. And Judith said, in

1:40:41

my heart, Natalia is the daughter I never had, but

1:40:43

she just could not come up with, according to her,

1:40:45

the $25,000 they were asking for. So

1:40:49

two other potential parents who were also

1:40:52

little people flew to meet Natalia. But

1:40:54

according to them, something about the meeting

1:40:56

felt off. And one of them said

1:40:58

something was wrong with Natalia, but he

1:41:00

couldn't decide whether it was her or

1:41:03

just the whole adoption situation itself.

1:41:07

And he was already uneasy because as

1:41:09

he claims, the secondis had asked the

1:41:12

couple to reimburse them for medical expenses

1:41:14

that they'd already paid for Natalia's previous

1:41:16

procedures. So it is coming off

1:41:18

a little bit like several people have alleged

1:41:20

the secondis were asking for sums

1:41:23

of money to find the right home

1:41:25

for Natalia. And so this couple also

1:41:27

left and did not adopt Natalia either.

1:41:31

And that's kind of what caused people to

1:41:33

accuse her parents of attempting to profit because

1:41:35

two families who both were in

1:41:37

a similar situation, they were either little

1:41:40

people or had dwarfism and

1:41:43

they were willing to give her a

1:41:45

safe, happy home. And apparently, the secondis

1:41:49

didn't agree to the exchange.

1:41:52

So that's kind of where they

1:41:54

get criticized. Regardless

1:41:56

of the truth behind the secondis choosing to

1:41:58

rehome Natalia, she ended up with a

1:42:01

couple named Michael and Christine

1:42:03

Barnett who had three

1:42:05

biological sons named Jacob, Wesley, and

1:42:07

Ethan. Now this

1:42:10

is where the story turns into

1:42:12

like the melodrama of

1:42:14

the docu-series and the true crime and all

1:42:16