0:00

Welcome to Truth Hounds, a production

0:03

of My Heart Radio. I'm

0:06

Anna and I've been unemployed

0:08

for two years now, so

0:10

i really have nothing going on. And

0:13

I'm Kyle and in middle school

0:15

I received the ward most Enthusiastic

0:18

to learn. So that makes me pretty

0:20

special. And that is what makes

0:22

us the perfect investigative duo.

0:25

We are two friends who love each

0:27

other very much. But what we love

0:29

even more is getting to the bottom of

0:31

mysteries. All mysteries, sure,

0:33

but small mysteries specifically.

0:36

Trust me, No mystery

0:39

is too small. No, no, no, Why don't you trust

0:41

me when I tell you we are ready

0:43

to sniff around? We are

0:46

the the Truth Hounds.

1:00

Yeah you

1:15

hear that? Can you

1:17

tell we're skydiving?

1:20

We are for you the

1:22

listener, But more

1:24

on that later. Let's listen

1:27

to that again, but this time, can

1:29

we get a record scratch at the end?

1:42

That's me right there, Anna, I'm

1:46

tearing us through the sky and I'm yelling

1:48

for Kyle. You're

1:51

probably wondering how we got here. How

1:55

two women at the height of their podcasting

1:57

careers end up falling from a plan

2:00

in Paris, California. Well,

2:04

in order to go there, we actually

2:06

need to go back. Sorry,

2:09

sweetie, And that's

2:11

where I come in. Welcome

2:17

to season two of The Truth Hounds.

2:21

Oh I'm Kyle. Hello.

2:32

Hi Kyle, Yeah,

2:35

Hey, Sanna, Hi,

2:38

Hi, how are you. I'm

2:41

doing good? That's

2:43

great. Do um do you want

2:45

to meet up? Yeah? I guess

2:48

for all time's sake, I'll be right there.

2:55

Hi. Oh my god, Hi,

2:59

it's a nice still good to see you. Look

3:01

at this today. Oh

3:03

my god, the birds are flying. It's

3:05

beauty. This is really beautiful. I mean this

3:07

is like this honestly

3:10

looks like a painting. Oh yeah, it looks

3:12

like if you walked out there and you would

3:14

hit a wall. Because I'm so sorry

3:16

to interrupt, but there's a butterfly. Did you see the butterfly?

3:19

No, I almost beautiful, like a beautiful,

3:22

gorgeous orange. Oh my god,

3:24

Oh my god, it really is a mate. This is

3:26

like I cannot believe we're looking

3:28

at this. It's just the

3:31

perfect beach day. It's

3:33

perfect beach day. We've got two guys fishing

3:35

rods. I mean this is amazing. Wow.

3:38

I really I missed coming

3:40

here with you. I know, we haven't been

3:42

back since the

3:45

end of season one, Season one. That's

3:47

right. I mean, we've seen each other, we've seen each other

3:49

every day, but we haven't been back since

3:53

oh my god, close of our season. But I

3:55

have to say that I was actually doing my

3:57

monthly expenses, and I think it because

4:00

we haven't been coming into the beach. It

4:03

was five hundred dollars less. Mm

4:06

hmm, I wonder why. Well,

4:09

no, it's because we haven't been coming to

4:11

the beach that I think that I

4:14

I actually saved five I guess

4:16

it could be that, yet, I don't know that it might be something

4:18

else, though I'm pretty sure it's that. Yeah,

4:22

I guess we'll never know. Um. Wait,

4:24

was there a cliffhanger? There was a cliffhanger,

4:26

wasn't there at the end of At the end of season,

4:29

we got that phone call from that guy,

4:32

and then we ended up not taking the investigation because we

4:34

don't really do murder stuff. Murders just

4:36

kind of not our things. Investigate a

4:38

lot of things, but murders just not want to investigate,

4:41

like why is the butterfly so big?

4:43

Why is the butterfly so free

4:46

and looks so beautiful in

4:49

the light? Man?

4:54

Are you gonna ask me how? I am?

4:56

Oh? Yeah, how

4:58

are you is I'm

5:00

not good? Why? I mean? This

5:02

is good. I'm glad to be back. My spirits are surprised

5:05

by that. I'm so excited to see Roman, our

5:07

sound guy. You know. But other

5:10

than that, I'm not good? Why

5:12

are you not good? I

5:14

honestly don't want to tell you because it's gonna it's

5:17

just really going to make you mad. Just

5:20

tell me what is it? Okay?

5:27

You know how our podcast is on iTunes? Yeah?

5:31

And you know how on iTunes people

5:33

can leave reviews. Yeah,

5:38

and you know how sometimes reviews can be bad. Yeah,

5:45

we've got a really bad review? What

5:50

what? Wait? What

5:52

was it? Was it? You

5:54

mean like a three star review? It's

5:58

not a three star review? Okay,

6:01

like two stars. I

6:04

don't want to break your heart. Okay,

6:07

just say it. We got a one star review?

6:09

What you got a one star, one star review

6:11

on our podcast? You can't. I

6:14

can't, I can't, I can't

6:16

even what did it say?

6:22

I'm going to read it to you. Okay.

6:31

I'm not sure why I gave this pot a try,

6:33

except that I couldn't accept that these two

6:35

actually had a podcast. Well they

6:37

do, and it's not good.

6:40

I listened mystified that it exists

6:43

to episode one before abandoning.

6:46

It wasn't informative or funny. I

6:49

just don't get it. I

6:53

don't know what to say. Are you okay?

6:56

No, I'm not okay. I'm so

6:59

sorry. I

7:01

mean, how are you feeling right now? Like do you want to take a

7:03

minute? Or how are you? Where's your heart?

7:05

Actually? I don't think I can investigate

7:07

anything right now. I just I think I need to. I

7:09

think I need to bounce and go

7:12

take care of myself. Well what if, yeah,

7:14

what if we just did some self care things?

7:16

And because I totally understand and I'm

7:19

actually being here, I go, sometimes it's important

7:22

to be around nature and beauty and stuff

7:24

and to do health care. Like

7:26

we'll just have to do that. We'll have to prioritize that.

7:29

Yeah, yeah, I just I gotta

7:31

go okay.

7:39

Season two, Episode one,

7:43

the criticism episode. It

7:46

was season two, but to

7:48

be honest, we couldn't

7:51

move past the one star review. The

7:57

annoyance of the review honestly became

8:00

a little third friend. Where

8:03

we went, it went,

8:06

what we did, it did

8:10

when we turned off the lights at night, it

8:13

was in bed next to us. Take

8:16

this day, for example, we

8:19

were supposed to meet up with the entire Truth Hounds

8:21

team. Me, Kyle,

8:25

and Adam are editor but

8:27

maybe you can remember him as Bernard from season

8:30

one. Anyway, we

8:32

met up with the team for a barbecue, but

8:36

instead of spending time together, turned

8:39

into a full blown bitch sash

8:42

between Kyle and I. How

8:49

can I make you love us? Yeah?

8:51

What what's it going to say? Or at least like us

8:54

enough to not leave a one star review

8:56

on our our fucking our workplace.

8:58

It's like literally literally like

9:01

girl feeding our the building that we

9:03

work on it and literally like fuck

9:06

this, it's like going into my office.

9:08

Once we started around, there was no

9:10

stopping us. Don't

9:12

just leave a one star review saying

9:15

blah blah blah. You know you relations

9:18

like being in a relationship. You have to be a good

9:20

communicator. Yes, you can't just say

9:22

you know what you're bothering stopped working

9:24

for me. You gotta say no. It's when

9:27

you specifically do this

9:29

thing, if you could do it

9:31

this way exactly, if you drop,

9:33

if you wash the day. Basically

9:39

what was bothering us? The most about this

9:41

one star review was that

9:44

it wasn't constructive. I

9:46

mean, it wasn't even specific

9:50

it was abstract at best. You

9:53

know, that's the thing about today's culture. It

9:56

feels like it's just made up of a bunch of

9:58

guys stay ending around saying

10:01

thumbs down, No way,

10:04

not for me. That's

10:07

backward. Just standing there doing

10:09

nothing, loitering

10:12

in front of a big poster that has a huge

10:14

X on it. Yeah,

10:18

I'm with Anna, that's

10:21

culture for you. Meanwhile,

10:24

back at the barbecue, poor

10:27

Adam was left to chop everything. Check

10:31

this out. You're going to hear him

10:33

in the background chopping

10:37

poor guy. Yeah.

10:40

We I want to

10:42

look at every bad review, Yes,

10:45

contact the person and

10:47

go what can I do for you? What

10:50

can we do in this show to

10:52

make it pop for you? For you?

10:59

It was clear that we had to do something about

11:01

this one star review. You

11:04

would get to the investigation stuff later. This

11:08

this was just something we had to do right then and

11:10

there. So

11:14

we left Adam Adam's chopping

11:16

and the truth Hound barbecue and we

11:19

did what we do best scheme.

11:23

The problem with this one star review that we received

11:25

on iTunes was that it only

11:27

listed some random user name. I

11:30

couldn't really do anything with that. We

11:37

couldn't even reach out to this hater and figure

11:39

out how we could change their mind about us.

11:43

We tried searching for the user name on Instagram,

11:45

but it didn't work out. There

11:48

was nothing. We did find

11:50

something that sounded kind of similar, but

11:54

it turned out to be just a random guy. We

11:57

wrote him anyway, just in

11:59

case he said sorry

12:02

if this isn't the right person, did

12:04

you happen to leave us a one star review

12:07

on iTunes? He

12:10

wrote back immediately and

12:12

said, I have never heard of you. Ah,

12:16

there was no tracking down this one star

12:19

reviewer hater. But you

12:21

know what, Anna, we could

12:23

always reach out to some of the other haters in our personal

12:26

lives and talk to them about the podcast.

12:29

I mean, I can think of a bunch of haters we could talk

12:31

to. Okay,

12:37

So, um my mom had really

12:40

strong opinions about the show. I

12:42

want her to be honest, so we're gonna maybe

12:44

not tell her we're recording right now. Hello,

12:50

Hi Mom, Yeah,

12:53

I'm at home. Um

12:55

Anna's here. Hi,

12:57

Hi Anna, how are you? I'm

13:00

good? How are you? Yeah? Kyle's

13:03

mom,

13:05

She's my girl. Um,

13:08

I know you had some kind of strong opinions

13:11

about what you heard. Your

13:15

meaning you want to interview me? Well,

13:18

I just caught up? Can you just tell dad

13:20

to not screen scream in the background? Though,

13:24

Honestly, when I told you I had a bunch of haters.

13:29

I was talking about my mom and my dad

13:32

and my aunties. But my

13:34

aunties weren't there because they're on Havahi

13:36

time. What

13:40

do you what do you want to know? God?

13:44

See, she already has an attitude, Kyle.

13:47

Her mom's my girl. Come

13:50

on, let's just hear her out. What

13:54

were your sort of um your

13:56

issues within When I

13:58

listened to podcasts, I

14:01

think of listening to it to keep me

14:06

stimulated mentally, and

14:08

I might have felt like it was a

14:10

podcast to

14:12

help me sleep.

14:16

I'm sorry, can we play that again?

14:20

Help me sleep?

14:24

Was that your dad in the background

14:27

saying the podcast helps them sleep?

14:30

He said sleep? Yeah,

14:34

I'm sorry. He wasn't even in the same

14:36

room, but he so clearly

14:38

knows what your mom is talking about. When she says

14:41

the podcast is boring that he

14:43

yells out the word sleep to

14:46

finish her sentence. I

14:48

told you that they were absolute haters. All

14:51

I have to say is thank god my auntie's

14:53

from Hawaii aren't there. And

14:55

by the way, I didn't appreciate that my dad

14:57

was attempting to dunk on us from the other side of

15:00

the room. I'm sorry,

15:02

but if you're going to be seeing stuff like that, come

15:04

face me like a man and come to

15:06

my side of the room.

15:11

Okay, could you put dad on the phone

15:13

and can we hear him what he thinks? Um?

15:20

Hi, Hi, Hey,

15:24

So what was your problem with our

15:26

podcast? I

15:30

think it just needed more energy?

15:33

What do you mean more energy? Though? You

15:36

know it's like when

15:38

you're talking, you're very uh

15:42

clinical academic.

15:47

I think when you listen to the radio, you

15:50

want people who are going to energize

15:53

you. Damn

15:57

kyl are you Okay? I

15:59

didn't know you had it so tough. Every

16:02

day I face adversity. So

16:06

we wrapped up the call. Okay,

16:10

Well, um, there's a lot to work, that's

16:12

a lot to work with. This is really helpful.

16:15

Um, I'll call you to chit chat

16:17

about other stuff later. Well,

16:20

you know, when you said you wanted

16:23

to talk, I thought it was going to be a

16:25

very expensive call. Oh

16:29

my, what are you trying to?

16:31

Oh my, you're that is so

16:33

funny, messed up? You're

16:36

so yeah, that's like you thought I was gotten

16:39

to some trouble. Well,

16:41

you know what, in a way, it's the most expensive call

16:43

because it's it's really a creative endeavor.

16:45

On the line, Anna

16:48

stopped trying to make it better. I

16:51

just thought, yeah, I know you

16:53

thought my mom was your girl. Well

16:57

she's actually a hater, and so is

16:59

my dad. Ad Damn,

17:02

so is your dad. Indeed, so

17:10

we had talked to a couple of haters from my life

17:13

and they told us that basically the podcast

17:15

was boring. I'm

17:20

sorry, but what are

17:22

we even supposed to do about that? Be

17:25

different? People? Drive

17:28

a car real fast, record

17:31

the podcast while jaywalking in Times

17:33

Square. Well, any

17:36

second, the big ball will drop for New Year's

17:39

and you've lost your friends and

17:42

you realize that you didn't agree on a designated

17:45

spot to meet in case this very thing would happen,

17:48

and your phone is at two percent and

17:50

you don't know if you'll get to kiss the cute guy from

17:52

work here. It's have

17:54

such unrealistic expectations,

17:57

they are literally crazy. You

18:02

are spiraling. You

18:04

know what, I've got a podcast hater

18:07

in mind. I

18:14

know things are getting really good, but

18:16

we have to take a break for some ads.

18:20

And the ad break is over back

18:23

to it. You

18:29

know what, I've got a podcast hater

18:31

in mind. Maybe we could

18:33

talk to them and see what we could

18:35

do to improve Oh

18:39

really, who check

18:42

this out? You know?

18:44

With Wait?

18:47

Who with

18:50

my really good friend? Oh

18:53

yeah, wait with uh,

18:56

you're really good friend? Who happened to write the smash

18:58

it Contemplating suicide?

19:00

Exactly? Just

19:03

to refresh your memory, here's that smash

19:05

hit contemplating suicide. Hit

19:09

it, want

19:12

some blazing suicide?

19:21

And then remember the remix hit

19:24

it, Yeah,

19:29

catlazing suicide whole

19:35

time, and

19:39

remember the acoustic version hit

19:42

it contemplate

19:47

suicide. My whole I

19:51

want to contemplating

19:54

suicide. I wanted my

19:57

whole li Yeah,

20:01

but wait, what's the problem?

20:04

I love those tracks. They're smash

20:06

hits. Why is what a

20:08

hater? Yeah? And those smash

20:11

hits sounded great on our podcast, not

20:13

that he would know anything about that. Wait,

20:16

what are you saying under your breath? He's

20:19

a hater because he doesn't listen

20:21

to the podcast. Oh

20:23

my god? Yeah,

20:26

you see what had made Wit a

20:28

hater was that he hadn't

20:30

even listened to our podcast, despite

20:33

having been heavily featured on it. I

20:41

had never confronted him about that, but

20:44

I knew it was time. If

20:46

we were going to confront with we

20:48

couldn't just use our normal approach. We

20:52

would have to implement a system,

20:54

you know, like a process for

20:57

approaching your haters, but

21:01

haters who might also be dear

21:03

friends. Step

21:06

one of the system.

21:08

We didn't want him to feel accosted.

21:11

Typically when we call people to

21:14

accost them, Kyle and I

21:16

are together in a room.

21:18

Think about how difficult it would be if two

21:21

people called you from one room

21:23

and put you on blast. I

21:26

mean, you would immediately feel ganged up on.

21:29

So that is where step

21:31

one comes in. Kyle and

21:33

I would still put Wit on blast, but

21:37

we would call him from separate rooms.

21:42

That is to say that we would each

21:44

get comfy in different rooms with completely

21:46

different vibes, and we would

21:49

call Wit and put him on blast. Right

21:51

before we called Wit, we strategized,

21:54

and please keep in mind we were in

21:56

separate rooms recording

21:59

during we gentle. Yeah, yeah, of

22:01

course, I don't want to be I don't want

22:03

to be evil. No, no, no,

22:06

So we go. Are you somewhere comfortable?

22:09

You hear that?

22:12

That is step two in our system,

22:16

to remind you Step one, if

22:19

there are two people delivering the bad news. They

22:21

should be in separate rooms to

22:23

sort of lessen the venom of the bad news. Two

22:28

step two, That is, before

22:30

you actually deliver the bad news, you

22:33

should always make sure the person who

22:35

is receiving the bad news is somewhere

22:37

comfortable. Think

22:40

about it, what

22:42

if they're carrying a lot of groceries up

22:45

some long, windy stairs right as you tell

22:47

them the bad news. We

22:51

strategized a bit more about how to ease them

22:53

into the bad news and

22:55

practice the types of things we would say. Well,

22:58

first of all, you that's such a great job for

23:00

a podcast. Yeah, we wanted

23:02

to thank you. I

23:04

wanted to thank you, and we hope you know that

23:06

you have a little fan base. Just

23:08

a reminder, bad

23:11

news was that we were going

23:13

to put him on blast and

23:15

once again, the thing we

23:17

would be putting him on blast four was that by

23:19

not listening to our podcast, he

23:22

was actually being a hater. That's

23:25

really weird. Okay, I'm gonna call

23:27

him. It's okay, We're gonna be gentle. Hello

23:37

high Way, I am here with Kyle.

23:40

Hi h.

23:44

I guess he just ran out of hellos, so

23:47

not enough hellos to go around. Thank

23:51

you so much, for getting on the phone. Are you in a

23:53

comfortable place. I'm on the couch

23:55

next to a small dog. Yeah,

23:57

oh that's really nice. Sounds fair,

24:00

jaffee. Okay,

24:02

good, he was comfy. We

24:05

were almost ready to deliver the bad news.

24:07

But now

24:11

it was actually time for step three. Step

24:14

three, bring up something positive.

24:18

We wanted to make sure that he was feeling fabulous,

24:20

you know, before we tackled him to the ground.

24:25

I mean, we just want to say, what a what a

24:27

great job you've done for our

24:29

show. Um,

24:34

your songs are some of what

24:36

I think our listeners love the most

24:38

about our show. Oh

24:41

really, yeah

24:44

that's good. You have a you have a nice

24:46

old hand base. Oh

24:50

that's cool. Wow.

24:54

He was on top of the world, right

24:58

where we wanted him. Yeah.

25:00

It was a beautiful sight. But

25:04

now it was time to take him

25:06

down with our last

25:08

step. That's

25:11

right, it was time for step

25:13

four. So to recap

25:16

the steps. Step

25:18

one we called went from separate rooms.

25:21

Step two we made

25:23

sure he was comfy. Step

25:27

three we made

25:29

him feel fabulous, and

25:32

now, without

25:35

further ado, step

25:39

four. Now,

25:42

step four is harder to explain, but

25:44

I'll try. It's like this, rather

25:52

than call out someone for being a hater. Directly,

25:55

you gently lead them up to the accusation

25:58

of being a hater, but along

26:00

the way you make yourself

26:02

tripp on a little curb like an idiot.

26:06

Then when it's time for

26:08

the big accusation, you go,

26:11

look, I think you might be a hater.

26:14

But then again, I just dripped in a little

26:16

curb like an idiot, So what do I know?

26:20

Thanks? Anna, that

26:22

was awesome, but maybe

26:24

a little confusing. I'm

26:28

worried you may have lost some people along the

26:30

way, so I'm going to try

26:32

to give a clearer example. Okay,

26:37

let's say I took Anna's car out

26:39

for a devilish little joy riding and

26:43

crashed it into a telephone pole and

26:45

returned the car door house without

26:48

telling her about the crash.

26:52

What Anna could do using the fourth

26:54

step, she could

26:56

go, Now,

26:59

I'm not saying you crash my car, and

27:02

what do I know, I'm an idiot,

27:05

But I'm kind of feeling like my car got

27:07

crashed again.

27:10

I'm not saying it was you, but

27:14

I am saying you took my car out in

27:16

one state and

27:18

brought it back in this condition. So

27:21

by process of elimination, I'm

27:23

feeling like it's you, and

27:26

I say that with love. But

27:29

then again, I am a

27:31

little idiot, so maybe

27:33

I'm wrong. Okay,

27:38

so now you know, step four, back

27:42

to the phone call. The

27:44

next thing that I say, it's

27:46

not an attack, Okay,

27:50

it's not Okay,

27:52

I'm ready. Now I

27:54

get the feeling. This is not an accusation,

27:57

it's an attack. It's just

27:59

a feeling. Um

28:01

that this is just a feeling. So

28:04

maybe it's actually wrong, but I get

28:06

the feeling that you don't actually listen

28:08

to our podcast, right,

28:12

Oh my god. It's so hard to deliver

28:15

bad news, even if you know

28:17

the person is comfy. It's

28:19

really hard. You did a really good

28:21

job. Hey, I'm just glad

28:24

we had the system.

28:27

It's not an attack because

28:30

it's just a feeling. And I say

28:32

it was love, and you're

28:34

still and you're still in that comfortable

28:37

spot, right, yeah,

28:39

Okay, it's not comfortable anymore after. That's

28:42

why this is

28:44

just we just it's just a feeling. So we

28:46

don't know if it's this. That's

28:50

why we call to just start, that's why we call.

28:54

Well, yeah, I know, I don't. I mean, I've listened

28:56

to some of it. I've probably listened to you

29:00

know, I'm not. I'm not a big podcast guy unless

29:04

must see like like

29:08

Christopher Nolan's getting interviewed about the

29:11

you know, the Dark Knight or something. Okay,

29:15

Okay, I've heard enough. We

29:17

had delivered the bad news, and now it's

29:19

time to make this phone call constructive

29:23

because remember that's what we were looking for,

29:26

constructive feedback from

29:28

our haters to make our podcast better.

29:32

And double remember that this wasn't even

29:34

technically an investigation. We

29:37

had just become obsessed with one bad

29:39

review and our egos were flapping

29:41

in the wind. What

29:44

could we do on our podcast that would

29:46

make you go, I

29:50

have to listen. I gotta, I gotta, I

29:52

gotta tune in celebrity interviews

29:56

bingo. But wait,

29:59

Kyle not ing, go we

30:01

don't know any celebrities? Oh?

30:05

I guess not, But

30:07

oh wait, I do know one? What about

30:10

John? Wait? Who's

30:13

John? I?

30:17

I

30:19

I Kyle? Are you lying

30:22

again? Okay?

30:25

We didn't actually know any celebrities.

30:28

But I thought on my feet maybe

30:31

there was a work around. I

30:34

had an idea and I ran it by wit Huh.

30:38

Okay, if

30:40

it were like a really really

30:43

good person

30:45

anger Nope, okay,

30:50

okay, never mind. We

30:53

got off the call with Witch shortly thereafter

30:55

and met up in the same room.

30:59

You know, after being apart in separate rooms.

31:03

That was really hard, so

31:07

we regrouped. Here

31:12

is what we knew so far from talking

31:14

to our haters. Our

31:20

podcast was boring and

31:23

there were no celebrities in it. It

31:28

seemed like if we wanted to placate

31:30

our haters, we would

31:32

have to make it more exciting and

31:35

have so many celebrities that

31:37

it would feel like celebrity whack a mole. Just

31:40

when you bought Meg Ryan on the head, Keenan

31:43

Thompson pops up, and just

31:45

when you're done bopping him,

31:47

well, here come the Olds and Twins. Honestly,

31:50

Anna, this sucks ass. Kyle,

31:55

I'm sorry, I'm feeling

31:57

very negativ o right now. Well

32:01

that makes perfect sense. I mean,

32:03

look at what we're doing. We're chasing

32:05

down our haters and we're giving them power.

32:08

We are wallowing and negativity.

32:12

Can I call an audible Ah?

32:17

Yeah, I think so. I

32:20

mean it is our podcast. We

32:25

need a new plan. We're

32:28

giving too much power to the haters

32:32

and obsessing over the stuff that they don't

32:34

feel works. Instead,

32:37

we should be giving that power to someone

32:40

else, people

32:42

who like us, you

32:44

know what I'm saying. Maybe

32:47

we hadn't found our audience and

32:50

there were more like minded listeners

32:52

out there. They should be

32:54

the ones with the power. So

32:58

here's an idea. Yeah, let's

33:01

talk to a podcaster with

33:04

a lot of listeners and ask

33:06

them how they got there.

33:11

Let's think of a successful podcast. Okay,

33:16

so what's a successful podcast?

33:20

Um? The mof m

33:23

hmm, I don't know that one. Oh

33:26

oh, Terry Gross, that's

33:29

a person mhm.

33:37

I remembered right then and there that I actually

33:39

did know someone, someone

33:42

who had been in the podcast game for three

33:45

years, and that's pretty

33:47

long. He

33:49

seemed like the perfect person for Kyle and

33:51

I to talk to, So

33:56

I gave him a call and

34:09

now an AD break. The

34:12

AD break is over. Andrew?

34:24

Yes, Hi, Hi, Dina

34:27

is Kyle? Hi? Hi?

34:29

Hi? Are you? Wow?

34:32

This was already off to a better start. I

34:35

mean, at least this guy said hi to me, no

34:37

offense wit. Um

34:43

we are recording just so you know right

34:46

now? Okay, damn,

34:50

he was good, No wonder he'd

34:52

been doing it for three years. Let's

34:55

go back though. We were

34:57

talking to Andrew, a comedian.

35:00

It and more importantly

35:02

to us, certified podcaster.

35:06

He hosted a podcast called podcast

35:08

but Outside it was cool

35:11

and honestly it was pretty

35:13

popular. We

35:15

figured he was pretty busy, so

35:18

we got right into it. So,

35:20

Andrew, what do you think the keys

35:22

to having a successful podcast

35:25

are? I

35:27

think the keys to

35:29

having a successful podcasts are

35:33

having an idea that is unique.

35:36

Oh oh, that's literally us.

35:39

Anna and I are as unique as they come,

35:42

or maybe even more unique as the ones that come.

35:46

Well, you know they are coming, and we're

35:48

going what else, Andrew? And

35:54

having an idea that is easy to understand.

35:59

Yet that's tough for

36:01

us, you know. I mean, we

36:04

do what we can and we're actually

36:06

trying to reel it in this season, but you

36:10

know, we aren't living by a log line. Oh,

36:12

I can explain what the show is about. Okay,

36:16

I would love to see you try. It's

36:18

about us and we're Kyle

36:20

and Anna, okay, and

36:23

um, we investigate

36:26

stuff, but sometimes we go to

36:28

the beach. Oh and

36:30

one time I rented a convertible. Oh

36:33

and we have a third friend, Rod. Oh,

36:37

you're right, damn

36:42

mm hm hmm okay,

36:44

wait, let me throw this one out

36:46

there. What if it is unique

36:50

and it's hard

36:52

to understand. It's hard to understand.

36:55

I mean, what about that this guy

36:58

was the expert. Well,

37:01

that's of what you need,

37:03

so whatever. Honestly

37:07

he was hurting her feelings. I'm

37:10

sorry, but what even was his podcast?

37:13

Like? What was his podcast? Was

37:16

it really so easy to understand? Go

37:19

ahead, explain it to us. My podcast

37:21

is called podcast but Outside, and my

37:23

co host Cole Hersh and I sent up a table on

37:25

the sidewalk at different locations outside

37:28

and the interview strangers who walked by.

37:31

That actually was really easy to understand. I

37:34

guess he really did know what he was talking about.

37:40

We decided to take advantage of the opportunity

37:42

and asked him what concrete things we could do to

37:44

make our podcast more popular. You

37:47

see, maybe if we gathered a big enough

37:49

crowd of listeners who were shouting our praises,

37:52

we would drown out the venomous whispers of

37:54

the detractors. So

37:57

this is a bit more of a you know, grassroots

37:59

approach. But if you see someone

38:01

who seems to be listening to a podcast, like let's

38:03

say they're walking down the street and it's pretty clear

38:06

that there's no music in their dear Suah,

38:09

you can totally ask them to take out any

38:11

here, bud and say, excuse me, are you listening

38:13

to a podcast? And they'll say yes, And

38:16

then you could maybe say is

38:18

it true town? And based

38:20

on your admittance, they'll

38:22

probably say no, and then you can

38:24

say, and then you can think, or is

38:26

it actually out of all your ideas,

38:29

I feel like to me, this is the most doable. Wait,

38:32

so we just do that probably

38:36

a hundred times as many times

38:38

as we can, because work for

38:40

you. I really, I really do think, you know. And

38:43

then you know, you could even

38:45

say if you you could even say, hey, if

38:47

you liked the podcast, after you said, you

38:50

can say, I would encourage you to

38:53

stop a jog or yourself. Yeah.

38:56

Kind of paves it forward, Yeah,

38:59

yeah, is like pay it pay it forward,

39:01

sort of passing on true

39:06

towns, passing. I

39:10

hope you guys, you know, find more ears.

39:14

Thank you. At that moment,

39:17

Andrew had truly become our brother

39:20

in pod. Our

39:22

spirits were high. This

39:25

was what it was all about, not

39:28

focusing on your haters, but focusing

39:30

on love and community.

39:38

Andrew had given us a gift. He

39:42

had told us that all we needed to do to

39:44

build a larger listenership was

39:47

to go out there and find our

39:49

community. That's

39:51

right. We would go outside,

39:55

seek out the runners, the thinkers,

39:57

the movers, step

39:59

face to face with them in their path,

40:02

get right in their face, COVID

40:05

be damned, and tell them we

40:07

are what you seek, whether

40:09

you know it or not. Listen

40:13

to the truth hounds. So

40:16

that's exactly what we did. We

40:19

walked out of our houses, got

40:21

into our cars, put the

40:23

keys into the Ignition Room

40:26

room, met up at a park

40:28

that's in between our two houses, and

40:30

marched right up to a man stretching

40:32

wearing air pods and no shirt.

40:36

We were going to make him a part of

40:38

our podcast community,

40:40

whether he liked it or

40:42

not. And then I said,

40:44

okay, if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. We're

40:47

together, he

40:50

does have headphones. We

40:53

we'll stand from here. We're really far. Excuse

40:56

me, are you listening to a podcast?

41:00

Okay, yeah, I don't think this

41:02

is work. I don't think this is gonna work. Honestly,

41:06

fuck off. I'm

41:10

sorry, not you guys, the listeners,

41:14

but this whole experience. I

41:16

am so frustrated. All

41:20

we wanted to do. Let's make a

41:22

good podcast, a great

41:24

podcast even, and then some

41:26

dumb funck piece of ship left us a one

41:28

star review. We can't even investigate

41:31

anything right now, and

41:34

worse, we can't even

41:36

look into it because

41:38

they didn't leave their name on the review, so

41:41

we can't even ask them nicely what

41:43

we could do to change and why they

41:46

don't like us. We

41:49

are obsessed, No, not

41:51

obsessed, we are possessed.

41:55

I'm not sleeping. Kyle just sits in her

41:57

Prius and her driveway for hours at a time.

42:01

So then we tried something

42:03

different. We tried to meet

42:05

some of our other haters, people

42:08

we did know, actually,

42:11

people who were really close to us, and

42:15

guess what, they had nothing

42:17

helpful to say. So

42:21

we thought, hey, we're being too negative and

42:23

we need to lighten up a bit. We

42:25

tried to talk to a successful podcaster who

42:28

could be like a mentor a big brother to

42:30

us, and he basically had

42:32

us accost people. But

42:34

we were desperate. I

42:37

mean, we love the podcast so much and

42:40

you guys, the listeners, we

42:43

love you so much. We would do anything for you.

42:47

So we went out there boots

42:49

on the ground. We talked to a

42:51

guy with air pods and no shirt on who

42:54

basically ignored us. It

42:56

made us feel lower than dirt. Basically

42:59

the whole part just stopped and laughed at us.

43:02

I mean, the birds laughed at us. Do

43:05

you know what that's like? I

43:08

guess Andrew's plan really did work because

43:11

we really were building a community. It

43:14

was just made up of people who like to clown

43:16

on us. That's all, Hey,

43:25

Anna, not now? Oh

43:32

okay, you know what. This

43:35

wasn't working. Listening to your

43:37

haters doesn't work. Following

43:40

the playbook of a supposed success that

43:42

doesn't work. I

43:45

think that we should just throw out the playbook entirely.

43:48

There is no advice that we can seek or take

43:50

because what we originally set out

43:52

to do was to make a podcast

43:55

that is unlike any other in the world.

43:58

So this season, season two, you

44:01

know what, we need to go where no

44:03

other podcast has gone before. Hey,

44:06

Kyle, while you're there, what's

44:09

that quote about women? Kyle?

44:11

Since you're standing right there, what's that quote about

44:13

women? Um? Crazy

44:16

women? Right history? That's

44:18

right, Kyle, crazy women,

44:21

right history. We

44:24

are going to go skydiving for the podcast.

44:27

Um what and then

44:29

while we're flying high dropping from

44:31

the sky. Um, I'm sorry?

44:34

What we will yell the name

44:36

of the podcast, which

44:39

by the way is truth Hounds,

44:43

um, and maybe include

44:45

the season so they know what season

44:47

it is. You're right,

44:52

we will yell Truth Hounds

44:54

season two. I

45:03

didn't tell my mom because I know

45:05

that she would try to talk me out

45:08

of it. Yeah, I know that we we

45:10

really need this for a podcast. This

45:12

is really important, and I

45:14

don't think she quite understands that. She's just

45:16

gonna try to talk me out of it, so I could not tell

45:19

her. That's

45:22

right. We were driving to Paris

45:26

Paris, California to

45:28

go skydiving for

45:30

you the listener. We

45:33

felt good about it.

45:35

It was going to be expensive, but

45:38

you know what, it wasn't

45:40

about that. It

45:43

would be really cool if we were able to bring

45:46

Roman up there so you could have a boom mic when

45:48

he when he dives. But yeah,

45:52

I guess it was very It was very

45:54

expensive. So that would be

45:56

really expensive because this is a really

45:58

about it to reward of podcast. Yeah,

46:00

we would be paying him for we'd have to pay

46:02

for him to skydive, and his day rate

46:05

lost his day rate. Yeah, there's just that's a

46:07

thousand dollar day right there. Yeah, there's

46:10

just no way

46:16

financial setback or not. We

46:18

were thinking about you the

46:21

listener. We weren't even

46:23

that scared again

46:25

because it was about you the listener,

46:29

So we weren't thinking about the stuff you would normally

46:31

think about before you go skydiving. Honestly,

46:35

we were just having a great time together and

46:38

then the topic of

46:40

what we were wearing happened to come up.

46:43

Okay, wait, so I was gonna text

46:45

you today because as

46:48

I was leaving the house, I go, it's

46:51

never occurred to be where what do you wear

46:53

to go skydt as?

46:57

Because I thought, well,

46:59

yeah it did you

47:01

have like a little bit of like a not

47:05

to be not to be dark and twisted?

47:07

But what will you want to die in? But yeah, yeah

47:10

that's what I And also I go, you know what today,

47:12

I'm gonna use um

47:16

extra facial

47:19

product that's expensive. Your skin

47:21

looks nice? Yeah, because yeah, I go, what if I

47:23

don't come back? That is true? You

47:25

know? I actually, yeah, I changed

47:27

my T shirt a bunch because I was thinking about

47:30

what kind of statement I wanted to wear. So

47:32

before I was wearing a shirt that I'm wearing, I actually

47:34

was wearing a Saint Bernard shirt with

47:36

a dog because I was trying to make a statement

47:39

to my dog, like I love dogs.

47:41

I'm with dogs. I with dogs.

47:43

I love dogs. If there's anything people need

47:45

to know about me after I passed,

47:48

it's like dogs. Yeah,

47:50

okay, Like I love my dog, I'm

47:52

leaving him there in this world

47:55

not to be nerve. Okay.

48:00

Yeah, wow, I

48:04

don't think either of us had really thought this through.

48:08

Was there really a chance we could die and

48:11

I might never see my dog again? Um?

48:16

Yeah, I think that's a very real

48:19

possibility. But

48:22

this is for them, the listeners.

48:26

What do you mean by them?

48:29

Them? The

48:31

listeners? Who

48:34

is even them?

48:36

They are right there,

48:40

the listeners. We

48:44

had been so fueled by rage we

48:46

didn't even think about the fact we could literally

48:48

die skydiving for

48:51

podcast, for

48:54

you, the listener.

48:57

But it was way too late. We

49:00

were in Paris Harris,

49:02

California, and we were approaching

49:04

the skydiving place. Wait

49:16

on the road, Wait, that is high

49:18

up. I don't even see the plane.

49:21

Oh is that the know that the parish?

49:23

That is high?

49:24

Oh

49:26

my god? Here we are okay,

49:31

okay, we're here, We are here.

49:33

Okay, So at

49:40

this point you were

49:43

flipping out. But as

49:45

we said, it

49:47

was too late. We

49:50

were already filling out the waivers, you

49:53

know those things that say our families can't

49:56

sue the skydiving company if we you

49:58

know the

50:00

height, okay

50:06

sky duns. Yeah, I'm

50:19

gonna do right now. We're just gonna do two waivers and aline

50:21

we've heard a paper waiver on then we were

50:23

gonna do that this ip had over here or while those three

50:26

over there. Just make sure you spoil everything

50:28

exactly like it says in the driver's license. Multiple

50:30

last names, Zoll, your last names, christnas,

50:33

Zili, your first names. Um, if your just

50:35

isn't, if your current I just isn't

50:37

the same one of your driver license, use your current

50:39

pass. Okay, Oh

50:44

my god, Oh my god. And

50:47

then they made

50:49

it worse. We

50:51

had to watch a video of

50:53

a man saying that we

50:56

had absolutely no rights or say

50:58

in the mad if we you

51:01

know die. View

51:03

it very carefully and study

51:06

its promises, because once you sign it

51:08

isn't It is a finding contract, and

51:11

that contract is intended to

51:14

require that you give up forever

51:16

any and all claims you have under

51:19

the law. Not only is the finding upon you

51:22

once you signed, but it is also finding

51:24

to find your heirs, your family

51:27

and your representatives. We

51:41

have to take a break for some mats.

51:44

Back to it. At

51:51

this point, we

51:53

were really crapping in our under rus. You

51:56

have to excuse me. That

51:58

might be the last time I get to say

52:00

crapping. Honestly,

52:03

I didn't want to go. I

52:05

know we had this podcast, and

52:07

I know this was all for you guys, the

52:10

listeners, but I'm

52:12

sorry, I just don't

52:14

know if I want to die for you. I

52:18

mean no offense. I

52:22

mean, look at you and

52:24

you and you. You guys

52:26

are awesome, but

52:29

this is life or death, Kyle.

52:34

They just called our names out to suit

52:36

up and board the plane.

52:38

This was honestly so expensive that we couldn't

52:41

not go. Okay,

52:44

Well, we had signed the

52:46

waivers, watched a scary video

52:48

of a man, we said

52:50

our goodbyes. We

52:52

couldn't record while we were getting suited up

52:54

to go on the plane. But hopefully

52:57

this won't be the last time you hear from us, Okay,

53:01

just in case. Um,

53:06

it was an honor and a privilege to

53:08

get to make truth Hounds for you guys, the

53:12

listeners. Kyle, I

53:15

know that you don't like stuff like this, but I

53:19

love you, and my

53:23

only regret in life is that I

53:25

never got to meet Danny de Vito, though

53:28

I did get to meet a sun Ones he

53:31

actually liked by comedy. So um

53:35

any last words, Kyle, it

53:39

was an honor and a privilege to get to make

53:41

truth Hounds for you guys, the

53:44

listeners, Anna,

53:47

I love you, and I'm

53:49

sorry that I didn't

53:51

say it that much while I was alive. I

53:55

have two regrets in this life.

53:59

One and I never

54:01

got to be on the reality show The Circle. And

54:05

my other life regret is

54:07

that I never got a chance to invent

54:10

a baggy bathing suit. I

54:13

just think it's unfair that there's

54:15

no bathing suits that are baggy. Listen

54:20

out for us. Hopefully

54:23

we will be the ones who are falling

54:25

from the sky yelling truth Hounds

54:28

season two

54:58

two. Oh

55:05

my god, Okay

55:27

we're going so

55:31

now you know what we know. We

55:34

didn't die, We made

55:36

it. We got on a plane,

55:39

jumped out of it and yelled truth

55:41

Town season two. Well,

55:44

Anna, did I kind of lost

55:46

my ship? Honestly,

55:49

I threw open my mouth. I

55:51

was strapped to a guy from Brazil and he

55:54

was awesome. I actually

55:56

did shout truth Hound season two while I was in

55:58

the air. But the clip you

56:00

just heard, I was actually asking the

56:02

guy I was strapped to to also yell

56:04

truth down season two. He

56:07

didn't, but he did yell the second

56:09

best thing, which was and

56:13

I was trapped to a guy from America and

56:15

he was mean, no offense. When

56:18

I threw up in the sky, I held it in my mouth

56:21

until I reached the ground, because

56:23

that is how mean the guy who I was trapped to us

56:26

no fence. All

56:33

right, I'm

56:44

so proud of it. One

56:47

thing, my man,

56:53

I feel like, yeah,

56:56

it looked like a locale.

57:01

Next week, how

57:03

do you

57:08

graduate there? So

57:14

we went skydiving for

57:17

you guys the listeners.

57:22

Typically at the end of an episode we would

57:24

meet up at the beach to talk. But please

57:27

don't be mad. We were just a

57:29

little tired, you know, from

57:32

skydiving for you guys

57:35

the listeners. But hey,

57:38

will you do us a favorite? Can

57:40

you tell just one person about our show? It

57:43

would really mean the world. And

57:45

that way, if we went skydiving

57:48

for let's say five people, it

57:51

would have been worth it. And

57:54

Kyle, is there anything

57:56

you want to say to me? Maybe

57:59

something from the heart crazy

58:03

women? Right history

58:06

Cheers, Welcome

58:10

to season two. Hey,

58:15

if you like The Truth Hounds, please

58:17

subscribe to us and leave us a five

58:19

star review. Seriously,

58:22

it would really help us. And

58:24

honestly, you've got to start earning

58:27

your keep around here. And

58:29

as soon as you're done earning your keep, follow

58:31

us on Instagram at truth Hounds

58:34

and on Twitter at the truth

58:36

Hounds to participate in our investigations

58:39

and see behind the scenes footage and

58:41

bonus juicy content. Truth

58:44

Hounds is a production of I Heart Radio.

58:47

For more podcasts from i Heart Radio, visit

58:50

the i heart Radio app, Apple podcast,

58:53

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.