0:00

On the new podcast, The Turning Room

0:02

of Mirrors. We look beneath the delicate

0:04

veneer of American valet and the

0:06

culture formed by its most influential

0:08

figure. George Ballergin. He

0:11

used to say, what are you looking at? Dear,

0:13

you can't see you. Only I

0:15

can see

0:16

you. What you're doing is larger than

0:18

yourself, almost like a religion. Like,

0:20

he was a god. Listen

0:23

to the turning room of mirrors on the iHeartRadio

0:25

app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get

0:27

your podcast.

0:30

Hey, family. It's your boy, Michael Cowell. You're

0:32

the funniest man on the planet. I'm

0:34

excited to announce my new podcast,

0:37

Michael talks to air, body.

0:39

Don't get twisted. Not everybody. We'll be

0:41

interviewing some of the greatest artists in the game.

0:44

From actors musicians and comedian discussing

0:46

some of the best topics. But most importantly, we're

0:48

gonna be doing a lot of laughing, have a lot

0:50

of fun, and talking that talk. Listen

0:52

to Michael Thompson, everybody on Monday,

0:55

Wednesday, Friday on the iHeartRadio

0:57

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

0:59

get your podcast.

1:02

Monster X is headed to iHeartland

1:04

for two days only at State Farm Park.

1:07

Catch Monster X playing some of your

1:09

favorite songs, including their single

1:11

day. Head

1:16

to the State Farm neighborhood to play the

1:18

Snow fall fight challenge to win a limited

1:20

edition in game monster x hoverboard

1:22

for your avatar. Don't miss monster

1:24

x and iHeart Lane on roadblocks. Friday,

1:27

February tenth at seven PM eastern. Learn

1:29

more at iHeartRadio dot com slash

1:31

iHeartland.

1:44

Warning. The following episode includes

1:46

mentions of metaphysics, unitarian

1:48

church activity nights, math,

1:50

and younger siblings. Sensitive

1:52

listeners, take care.

2:03

For me, astrology is obviously

2:05

a family thing. As I've said before,

2:07

it's this ambient background noise

2:10

that leaves its way into your life in

2:12

important moments. But it's not something

2:14

that my family owns. It's

2:16

a vague part of our identity, but

2:18

not really the backbone of it. So

2:21

last year while we were researching the show, my

2:23

producer, Mitra stumbled across this incredible

2:25

story. A friend told her that

2:27

there was this woman in California who learned

2:29

astrology from her mom, who learned

2:31

it from her mom, and it just

2:33

kept going back for generations. It's

2:36

the type of thing you might hear about in India, but

2:38

a lineage of astrologers

2:41

I had never encountered such a

2:42

thing. So I asked Mitra to make some

2:45

calls. And before long, we

2:47

were talking to Jan Kumboletta

2:49

Kettler. I'm a third generation astrologer.

2:52

I'm a Capricorn who's a Phases moon

2:54

and Leo

2:55

rising. My name is Monika

2:57

Kigler Kajas, and I'm a fourth generation

2:59

astrologer. I'm a son

3:03

I'm a Scorpio Moon and the Libra

3:05

rising.

3:06

Yeah. We definitely we connect on

3:08

the Leah vibe for sure. Now

3:11

Jan and Monica are really close and

3:13

they're a lot like they both work

3:15

in healthcare. Jan is a psychologist,

3:17

Monica is a nurse. They live near

3:20

each other in Northern California. And

3:22

when we get them on a video

3:23

call, it's uncanny how similar

3:25

their mannerisms are. But it's

3:27

astrology that really ties them together

3:30

and

3:30

also sets them apart. For

3:32

these two women, astrology isn't just a hobby

3:35

or even a passion. It's

3:37

what connects them to their roots. And

3:39

when Jan and Monica look up

3:41

at the night sky, they don't

3:43

just see the stars and planets traveling

3:45

across the cosmos. They see

3:47

their family story, past,

3:50

present, and future.

3:55

From CalideScope and iHeart Podcast.

3:58

I'm Mongia Chateekuru. Welcome

4:00

to Skyline Drive.

4:38

I've always been a seeker and

4:41

very interested in studying spiritual

4:43

things

4:44

That's Jan. She's in her sixties

4:46

and she kind of looks like a therapist.

4:48

She wears glasses, laughs

4:50

a

4:50

lot and HAS THIS

4:51

GREAT WAY OF PUTTING YOU AT EASE.

4:54

MY MOTHER COMES FROM A

4:56

FAMILY OF SEEKERS, HER

4:58

FATHER ROMON, came

5:00

from a kind of a conservative middle

5:02

class family in Columbia, and

5:05

they were all very pious. They're from

5:07

the mountains. I wish I knew

5:09

what made him reject

5:11

Catholicism. I don't know

5:13

what it was, but my grandfather

5:15

kind of scandalize the family and

5:18

removed himself from the church and just

5:20

did not wanna have anything to do with the fallacies.

5:23

It's turn to the Century Columbia, and

5:25

Jan's grandfather gets deep into

5:27

metaphysics and

5:28

spiritualism. He went on his

5:30

own kind of spiritual journey.

5:32

And I found out later that he

5:34

also studied

5:35

astrology. His conservative family

5:37

is not happy about this, but

5:39

Luckily, his wife is more open

5:41

minded. When he married my grandmother,

5:43

she came from a more liberal

5:46

landowning family. And so

5:48

They were very interested in

5:50

mysticism, and they were very

5:52

intrigued with all his ideas. She

5:55

joins Ramon as he dives into

5:57

Rosa Crucianism, which is this belief

5:59

that there's secret wisdom, including

6:01

elements of astrology that's been handed

6:03

down from ancient times. So

6:05

that's how they raise their kids. Including

6:08

Mavel, Jan's mother.

6:11

Mavel turns out to be adventurous too.

6:13

She marries an American and moves thousands

6:15

of miles away to raise kids of her own.

6:18

But even in rural

6:19

Pennsylvania, she keeps the family

6:21

tradition alive and digs

6:23

deeper for understanding. When I

6:25

was in high school kind of in the sixties,

6:28

my mother started studying

6:30

astrology and

6:31

know, and mine was living in a small town,

6:34

but we were members of the unitarian church

6:37

and unitarians they're

6:39

very much uncomfortable with organized

6:41

religion and encourage a

6:43

lot of free thinking and so

6:46

our unitarian church had

6:48

all kinds of cool things going on. We would

6:50

have yoga teachers come

6:52

there. We would have dream groups there.

6:54

So an astrologer came to the

6:56

church My mom took a class

6:58

and I took the class with her. I

7:00

was like eighteen and

7:02

I was in college and I would then I would go

7:04

take astrology classes. And

7:06

I just absorbed it. I loved

7:09

it. You know, I always had these two

7:11

sides to myself. I had this, like,

7:13

kind of the spiritual mystical side

7:15

that I, of course, had gotten this

7:17

really strong hit for my grandfather

7:19

and my mother. Also had this

7:21

other side of myself that

7:23

was really interested in psychology

7:26

and

7:27

working as more of a scientist.

7:30

A scientist practitioner. Jan

7:32

put herself through grad school and becomes a licensed

7:35

psychologist, but she never stopped

7:37

consulting the stars. She

7:39

didn't wanna give up on that side of herself.

7:41

Along the way, she got married and had

7:43

Monica and Monica's brother and

7:46

For a while, Jan's mom lived with

7:48

them, seeing astrology clients

7:50

until her health declined.

7:52

And that It shaped

7:54

Monica's childhood in some pretty interesting

7:56

ways. As long as I can remember,

7:59

I would remember my mom

8:01

and my grandmother talking

8:03

about astrology, like, I feel like

8:05

I have a lot of memories of them

8:08

looking at the ephemeris and

8:10

talking, like, transits and

8:12

dates, and they were using

8:14

their femurist more for looking

8:17

ahead. For those of you who don't

8:19

know, The ephemeris is a

8:21

book of planetary

8:22

positions, and it lists where the

8:24

planets will be in the zodiac. So

8:27

basically, an ephemeris is a must have

8:29

tool in any astrologer's

8:30

arsenal. So ephemeris was

8:33

always by the toilet. Yep. So you can sit

8:35

down and be like, okay. So I

8:37

am just sitting here and I really need

8:39

to know when is the

8:41

freaking Venus and is that good

8:43

for me? So I would always look at this

8:45

and be like, what is this

8:47

stuff. And when I was

8:49

maybe about 789,

8:52

my mom would host astrology

8:55

seminars at our home in the living

8:57

room. It was a good sized crowd. It was like

8:59

ten to fifteen people would come

9:01

she would make these cool flyers, and then

9:03

she would distribute them out at the local

9:05

college. One thing that I

9:07

really remember is how we

9:09

always got our haircuts on a

9:11

water

9:11

sign. That's true. Once

9:14

in a while, if my hairdresser can't

9:16

see me on the right moon sign, I

9:18

have to subject myself to go on

9:20

the moons and check in

9:21

Gemini, but I try not to.

9:24

It's like

9:24

that's totally like when you're a little kid,

9:27

that's like one of the main things that

9:29

sticks out free. You're like, mercury's retrograde

9:31

and the moon's in a water sign so

9:33

I can get a

9:33

haircut. You don't

9:36

really know what it means.

9:38

For Monica, it was just this cool

9:41

way to grow up. And while it did

9:43

affect things like when she got her

9:45

haircuts, it was also just

9:47

something to pay attention to. Something

9:49

that felt like a fun, constant presence

9:53

until she realized she wanted

9:55

to dig

9:55

deeper.

9:56

Once I was a little bit older and

9:58

finished my masters, my mom and I would

10:00

meet and have lunches and we would go through

10:02

charts and we sometimes would look

10:04

at famous people too and like just kind

10:06

of nerd out on that. It it happens when the

10:08

student is ready. It's a

10:10

rich feeling of of

10:12

sharing something

10:13

deep, like the generational piece

10:15

of, oh, wow, I can I

10:17

can pass this wisdom on

10:19

now? But

10:20

not everyone in the family believes, at

10:22

least not entirely. Me

10:24

and my mom are the

10:26

believers of my daughter and my brother or

10:28

not. The one thing they

10:30

will participate in acknowledging

10:32

is Mercury Rachael

10:33

grade. Well, actually

10:35

though your dad has learned over

10:37

time. He will say, okay, we

10:39

gotta do some gardening. Let's we gotta put

10:41

some plants in -- Oh, yeah. -- and he'll

10:43

ask

10:43

me, what's the better day Do this

10:46

weekend or next weekend? And maybe

10:47

because astrology is so divisive,

10:50

it's created this unshakable bond

10:52

between them. There's people who are

10:54

very critical of it. Oh, you

10:56

believe in astrology? Oh, you think

10:58

the planet's like, make you

11:00

do this? And I'm like, Are you

11:02

kidding me? I was like, you don't have

11:04

anything about astrology. The planets

11:07

don't make me do anything. We're in

11:09

relationship to those planets. And it's a

11:10

place, okay, I'm not even gonna defend

11:13

astrology to people like that. You

11:15

know? Yeah. Right. Totally.

11:18

The way I see astrology is

11:20

it helps me understand my

11:22

relationship with the cosmos. It's

11:24

a very expansive broader

11:26

view. It helps me understand this world,

11:28

but then my place in relation

11:31

to this bigger thing.

11:32

Not a ton of people have this

11:35

depth of knowledge of

11:37

astrology. Our

11:38

relationship, I would already say, is very

11:41

deep because we have great conversations,

11:43

but this is just like another part

11:45

of our relationship that's super fun.

11:47

I totally agree. I feel that

11:49

we're very close in kind of

11:51

an intuitive energetic

11:53

way. We speak the same language. Mhmm.

11:56

When we were picking my wedding

11:58

date, we looked at the femurist,

12:00

like, we did nonstop where,

12:02

like, looking for

12:03

the right day. We chose

12:05

a moon in Libra

12:06

Day, which I think was --

12:07

Very smart. Very nice. For for

12:10

a wedding. Yes. That's the just thing is

12:12

you can't control everything, but you can

12:14

get some advice and

12:15

guidance, you know. I think

12:17

about my mom here, how

12:19

she has a lunar calendar of important

12:21

religious dates, and how that

12:23

triggers cycles of

12:24

prayer, of fasting, of

12:27

observance and joy. And

12:29

I guess that's true of any calendar.

12:31

How a New Year spurs resolutions? Easter

12:34

reminds us of rebirth? How even

12:36

Mondays and Fridays each carry their

12:38

own meaning in our lives. And

12:40

I think about procrastination, how

12:44

breaking something down into little tasks

12:46

can make it less overwhelming. How

12:49

maybe if your calendar or your

12:51

life is divided into

12:53

celestial moments of flow. Encouragement

12:55

to tackle your problems and to

12:57

be more social or introspective.

13:00

Maybe that makes life more approachable. And

13:03

then there are these other parts of their

13:05

faith and astrology that gives them

13:07

meaning

13:07

too. One thing that

13:10

is passed on is my grandmother's

13:12

ephemeris. I have it right

13:14

here. And there's a letter that she wrote

13:16

inside of it. And every time

13:18

I read it, I cry. And you can just

13:20

totally see her personality coming out

13:22

in her handwriting. Look at this.

13:24

I don't know what this is even about. Do you know

13:26

mom? The balance. Oh, those

13:28

lyrics from a song that she liked,

13:30

from the sixties, from the moody

13:32

blues.

13:33

Oh, okay. Okay. Well,

13:36

that's the letter she left in her ephemeris

13:38

to us. It's a really it's a good

13:40

song. It's actually good

13:42

music. I miss her.

14:16

Thank you so much for listening to Minisode.

14:19

Our little team here at Skyline

14:21

Drive has been dealing with a lot of life thrown

14:23

at us. So thank you so much

14:25

for your patience. Skyline Drive is a

14:27

production of kaleidoscope and

14:29

iHeart Podcast. This show is

14:31

mostly hosted and written by me. But

14:33

this Minisode was written by our wonderful

14:35

supervising producer, Mary Phillips Sandy,

14:37

and our excellent producer, Mitra

14:39

Bunchahi. Mark Lotto is my

14:42

very patient story

14:42

editor. Special thanks to Anna Rubenova

14:45

and Brum Chevroletau for their mighty

14:47

production assistance especially droop

14:49

on this one, and thank you to Botney

14:51

for the Beautiful

14:52

Score. The warning, I'm not

14:54

sure if you figured this out, but we managed to get

14:56

the amazing Darren

14:58

Mashiki to voice this week's warning. If you have

15:00

not listened to appearances, which

15:02

is one of the most spectacular

15:04

fiction podcasts ever made, I'm

15:06

not exaggerating. Go listen to

15:08

that right now. And as

15:10

for other episodes, the final two

15:12

episodes where we go to India, try to

15:14

locate a tiny shop full

15:16

of fortunes. Needs some beach astrologers, meet

15:18

my family, and so much more.

15:21

It is coming soon. Our little

15:23

team has been delayed by COVID and

15:25

COVID and the surgery on my son and more

15:27

COVID, none of which my astrology

15:29

mentioned to me, but I promise

15:31

we are hard at work on two

15:33

very beautiful episodes. So keep

15:35

your eyes peeled on this speed as we

15:37

conclude the series later this month.

15:39

Thank

15:39

you, Amar. Thank you, Dad.

15:41

Thank you to all of you for listening.

15:43

It really means

15:44

the world to me.

16:11

On the new podcast, The Turning Room of

16:13

Mirrors. We look beneath the delicate

16:15

veneer of American

16:16

valet, and the culture formed by its

16:18

most influential figure. George

16:20

Ballergin. He used to say,

16:22

what are you looking at? Dear, you

16:24

can't see you. Only I can

16:26

see you. What you're doing is

16:28

larger than

16:29

yourself, almost like a religion. Like, he

16:31

was

16:31

a god. Listen

16:33

to the turning room of years on the iHeartRadio

16:36

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

16:38

you get your podcast.

16:40

Hey, family. It's your boy, Michael Cowhey,

16:43

the funniest man on the planet. I'm

16:45

excited to announce my new podcast.

16:48

Michael talks to air,

16:50

body. Don't get twisted. Not everybody.

16:52

We'll be interviewing some of the greatest artists

16:54

in the game. From actors musicians and

16:56

comedian discussing some of the best topics. But

16:58

most importantly, we're gonna be doing a lot of

17:00

laughing, have a lot of fun, and

17:02

talking that talk. Listen to Michael talks

17:04

to everybody on

17:05

Monday, Wednesday, Friday on the

17:08

iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

17:10

wherever you get your podcast.

17:13

I'm Link St. Kirby. Sometimes I'm

17:16

on TV. I'm David Boorin. I'm

17:18

probably on TV right now. David

17:20

and I are going to take a deep dive

17:22

every week into the most exciting

17:24

groundbreaking and sometimes problematic

17:27

black conspiracy theories. We've had

17:29

amazing past notable guests

17:31

like Brannick How Goodman. Sam

17:33

J. Quinta Brunson and so

17:35

many more. New episodes are out

17:37

every Tuesday, many episodes

17:39

out on Thursdays where we answer

17:41

you the listener's conspiracy

17:43

theories. Listen to my

17:45

mama told me on the iHeartRadio

17:47

app Apple Podcasts or wherever

17:49

you get your podcast.