Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries - Heart Starts Pounding Wrapped!

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

What was HSPs most downloaded episode? What was my favorite episode to make? Which one scared me the most? This is the Heart Starts Pounding Wrapped Report! Subscribe on Patreon for bonus content and to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society. Patrons have access to bonus content as well as other perks. And members of our High Council on Patreon have access to our after-show called Footnotes, where I share my case file with our producer, Matt. Apple subscriptions are now live! Get access to bonus episodes and more when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Follow on Tik Tok and Instagram for a daily dose of horror. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to a very special year end edition of the Heart Starts Prounding podcast, a podcast of horrors, hauntings and mysteries, a postmortem episode, some might say. I'm your host, Kayla Moore, and today I'm actually joined by the show's producer, who's normally behind the scenes, Mr. Matt Brown. Hello. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me to the show. So Matt does a lot behind the scenes. I think maybe people don't realize how much it takes

to actually produce the show, but there's a lot that goes into it with the research and actually putting together the episodes and the sound design and everything. So Matt's been doing a lot of the behind the scenes work on the show. Yeah, I kind of oversee those things and then assist in editorial process

and all that kind of stuff. So today we just kind of wanted to talk a little bit about a year in review for the show, some of our favorite episodes to work on, some of your favorite episodes. I have some exciting stats on the show that I wanna share with everyone. And then we also just wanted to share

some of our top recommendations for the year of movies I loved and documentaries. I just wanted to end on some things that you guys can go watch after this that I really loved from 2024. That's great. So to start, Matt, I was going to ask you what you thought the most popular episode was,

but you're the producer of the show, so you know what the most popular episode was. I do're the producer of the show, so you know what the most popular episode was. I do tend to look at the statistics, yes. So the most listened to episode of the year is- Okay, does the audience, do you think, we'll see if they think they know before you call it out. Yeah, I'm curious. So think about what you think

maybe the most popular episode was this year. It is one of the urban legends episodes, which are a favorite of mine to make. Yeah. Urban legends, folklore. Urban legends and folklore tend to be the most popular. And it was the Australia episode of urban legends. That was a crazy episode. That was such a good episode because as everyone knows a lot of really scary stuff happens in Australia. Yeah, everything in Australia is scary.

All of the normal things that shouldn't be scary are scary in Australia. It's just because so many things can kill you instantly. Yeah, there's a lot of like poisonous things and big spiders, something's going on over there. But the stories we found for, if you don't remember, we found like the shark arm case Yeah, yeah The shark arm case was insane because I was actually doing the research for that episode

And I think there's like at least one or two full books on that and I think I read a couple of books on it And I don't know if you want to go through kind of recap what that story was for those who haven't listened in case in case anyone has the urban legend in the area is that someone captured a shark and put it in a tank on land for a bunch of people to come see. It's like an amusement park, right? Or an amusement park. And as a bunch of kids had their little hands pressed

up to the glass, the shark threw up and it threw up a human arm. And that led to a cold case investigation. And that is exactly what happened. This was back in the early 1900s. Not a lot of stuff to do. No, so you go to the amusement park with your family. You're like, hey, this is a great idea for a family outing.

But at the amusement park, someone thought of the bright idea of let's just catch a shark from the ocean and put it on display for people to see. It's a good attraction, yeah. Not realizing like sharks get incredibly sad when you do that. Yeah, I think that, so I remember reading, that's what they thought had happened

because this shark was being very lethargic. So they're like, ah, he's just sad that he's in the cage, not like ill because he ate a person. He's just a little down. Yeah, right. Or a person's arm. Yeah, right, right, right. But then it ended up that he got sick

and it launched into this whole cold case investigation. That was one of the stories. Yeah. There was also the story of the button man. Right, right. The man who makes buttons out of antlers. A very real person who lives in the brush. Yeah, there was actually, in the research in that,

there's actually a New York Times article where a journalist went around and talked to all these people who knew the button man. So it's like at some point there's this urban legend of a guy but then also a lot of people disappeared and then also this person was a real person. My favorite part of that story is that people were disappearing in the area and everyone was like oh maybe the button man has something to do with it and the cops went to him and he was like oh I was the last person to actually see these people that disappeared, let me help you.

And it was like very helpful in the investigation and had nothing to do with it. Yeah, yeah. You're like, oh, let's go ask the button man. And you're like, surely that's an urban legend. Like, no, he's real, we talked to him. He is a real guy, but very eerie nonetheless. So I'm looking forward to exploring more of the shenanigans

that happens in Australia. I think that was also popular because we have a lot of listeners in Australia. Yeah. It's probably like number two or number three. It's like the US, the UK and Australia. I think Sydney is like our third largest city. Yeah. So shout out to everyone down under who listens to the podcast. We have to do a tour there at some point or something, some sort of Hearts Arts pounding event. Happy summer Christmas to everyone. Yeah. Happy summer Christmas, Australia. Yeah, happy summer Christmas, Australia.

Okay, I'm going to ask you, what was your favorite episode to work on this year? I think my favorite one. Well, okay, so there's two. I think probably my favorite was the woman who fell from the sky. Oh, Juliana Kopka. Mm-hmm. That story is wild. That's another one that I read a book for because I was still at that point kind of doing research. That's when our process with Heart Starts Pounding, right, is you kind of did literally every part of it yourself for quite a while and then we got a sound design person on

and then it's, I would kind of do something until we could get a system in place to actually like get someone else to do it. And so that was a period, like the Juliana story did a lot of reading and research, watched the Werner Herzog documentary about that as well. And it's just a crazy, again, I don't know if you want to recap it for those people who haven't listened

to that episode. I mean, she fell out of a plane. That's really the crux of the story is this 17 year old girl got on a plane in Peru with her mom and the plane fell apart in the sky, it got hit by lightning and she fell out and she survived. And then had to get out. Yeah, fell out of a plane.

At 10,000 feet and then had to get out of the rainforest, back to safety. The whole story is so wild. I think about it every single time I fly. I have cursed myself. Yeah, I do remember we took a flight after that and you were like, oh, this is the row that Juliana was on.

And I was like, it's a great thought. Great thought to be on when you're on a plane. Every time I see that, that window seat that she was in. Yeah, it's like row 17, I think. 17F. Yeah. Not a good sign. You'll be fine.

Everyone's gonna be fine. Flying was very dangerous in the 70s when this happened, especially over the Andes. And we're okay now. But that was a great one to do. Yeah, what about you? What was your favorite to kind of dig into this year? I was trying to make a list

and I wrote down almost every episode. But I will say highlights were I really enjoyed doing the Pennhurst episode. Pennhurst Asylum? Pennhurst Asylum because that is such an important history that a lot of people don't know about. It ties into the history of disability rights in America and also has some really spooky ghost stories in the meantime. I love the stories that blend dark history that we can uncover and ghost stories. That one just really had all of it. That one was very interesting to me.

Then I also wrote down, I really enjoyed doing the Dark Summer series. And having kind of a framework to do episodes. And within that, the Olympics episode that we did. Oh, right. Was probably the most interested. The most random St. Louis quasi Olympics. The Olympics no one has heard of. Yeah.

That Otabanga, his story was so interesting. So that one, that was a highlight for me, being able to. It was like, what if the Olympics were held at a carnival by amateurs? Yeah, right, right. That's like the whole vibe of that. They're like, oh, let's do some experiments, some testing. We have a bunch of like racist science that we can try out, like horrible stuff.

But part of that episode, I really loved hearing the firsthand accounts from the people who were in the human zoos. Right. Because it wasn't horrible for all of them all of the time. And some of them had like weird moments of laughter and like inside jokes with each other. Like it was just really interesting hearing more of their perspective and building them out as like real people.

Yeah, right, right. And then it was our least popular episodes of the year by a wide margin, but I did like doing the Dark Hollywood series. Oh, right. Dark Hollywood, which was back in the spring. That was the first sort of themed series. Back in the spring.

I get very like inspired by things I read and listen to. And in the spring, I was just consuming a lot of like old movies and I was listening to, You Must Remember This, Karina Longworth's podcast about old Hollywood and just getting like, we were living in LA and we were leaving LA. So I was getting like really nostalgic for LA things.

And I was like, let's just do dark Hollywood stories. I think for anyone who lives in LA, like you get a little sucked in by the kind of noir crime-ishness of it. At some point in your stay, right? We were both there 10 years. Yeah, and now we're in Austin. And I did the episode before we lived in Austin of it at some point in your stay, right? We were both there 10 years. Yeah. And now we're in Austin and I did the episode before we lived in Austin on if there's a

serial killer here. The rainy street. And now that I'm here, everyone talks about it. Everyone really thinks that there's something going on in the city. So I want to explore that a little bit more. Here's some more stories from people. I was also going to ask what episode scared you the most this year?

Mine, when I was thinking about it, I wrote down something I wasn't expecting. Yeah, wait, what did you write down? You go first. So, by scared, I mean the one where as I was doing the research and writing, like as, I mean, true to the show, like my heart was pounding. It was actually the Chi-Jong family episode.

Oh yeah, South Korea. Because I was trying to write the perspective of the woman who was trapped with the family as they were killing and eating people. And I just kept getting so scared for her, even though I knew she was going to be okay, just living in that house and trying to understand what she must've been feeling and seeing. And that really, I think, cause being trapped is one of my biggest fears. Yeah, that episode, another one I did the research for, so I spent a lot of time in that world.

That, when you can't understand something, I think that's what makes it really scary. And I think it's so hard to relate to, even though there is context for why they did what they did. You're like, this doesn't, one, they didn't want to be human and they kind of said that they weren't human. Yeah, they wanted to be devils.

Exactly. And so you're like, this is, I have no way to relate to this. I can't really rationalize it. Yeah. So yeah, that was a really, really creepy episode. And I get scared when I, yeah, when you don't understand a person's mindset

because then it feels like you can't stop them. Yeah, right. It's sort of like Jason or something. It's unstoppable force. Right, there's not really rhyme or reason. So like they could attack you at any moment. Yeah, I'm trying to think of what would have been the most scary for me out of that.

And I don't know, maybe like amusement park horror in the dark summer. And I say that because I'm already scared of like being decapitated on amusement park rides. For those listening, you can't tell, but Matt is six foot nine. So he is already a risk whenever we go do anything. park rides. For those listening, you can't tell but Matt is six foot nine. Right. So he is already a risk whenever we go do anything. Yeah. So if I, if I can't verify that Shaquille O'Neal has ridden a ride, I probably am just not going to go on it. He's been on it. It's safe. So it's fine. Yeah. You have to like look at as you're going on the ride, like

are there photos of celebrities? Are there any basketball players in here that have been on this ride? Yeah. But I think we talked about that at the time because I spent a lot of time at Six Flags over Texas. I grew up in North Texas and we would spend like all summer there when we were like in junior high and high school and I think someone did die like later on one of those rides because it was just got so rickety and so violent, like people would shake so violently. So I think that is maybe,

that's such a practical fear to me. And then realizing like you talk about with like Schlitterbahn, these are all places and names of places, things I grew up with. We're like, these have not been like inspected that much. Right, right. And you know it as you're going to the park, that's not been expected.

Like that was one thing that was- Well, I didn't, but now I do, so thank you. Interesting to learn about wooden coasters, how fast they decay. So I got a lot of listeners that emailed me afterwards that were like, oh my gosh, I didn't even think about that. I just figured like the wooden coaster at my local theme park was really rickety.

I didn't realize it's because it was literally falling apart. It hadn't been fixed in years. So if you're on a wooden coaster and it's bouncing around a lot or you're being shaken a lot, like it's because the wood is decaying and you have to repair it. That was the Texas Giant, which was at the time the largest, I think, wooden roller coaster in the world. And it was great when it first opened.

And then by the time I graduated high school, we were like, this is not right that right anymore. Yeah. It was shit. You just get like your well, this is not right that right anymore. Yeah. Oh, hands down, no. You would just get like your head, like your brain jostled loose. Yeah, it's not. That's, it's so bad for you.

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But how about a Crosstown delivery? McCain's Sure Crisp Fries are designed to go from fryer to container to carrier to passenger seat across town during rush hour down a shortcut that wasn't all that short to a doorstep before they hit the table. And that first bite? The crispiness speaks for itself. I was going to say something. I'm kind of in line with just hearing from listeners a lot. I do Hear from people who are featured in episodes and family members of people who are featured in episodes I kind of wanted to share that with someone really recently with With the runewald family, right? Yeah, I heard from one of the brothers Yeah, they heard the episode and they talked about it and that was really cool to hear from them. I heard from Coco who was in the stalking episode. She was the one being stalked by Rebecca. Right. So Coco lives in Venezuela and

she sent me a message on Instagram that said, hi, Kaylin, I'm Coco. You mentioned me in your podcast episode about the Rebecca case. I wanted to thank you for sharing my story and specifically for sharing it in a professional way. To be honest with you, it's been a very difficult journey to share my story with the world. And I sincerely appreciate when someone talks about the case in a respectful and honest tone, which I think you did.

I just wanted to reach out to you and let you know that I'm very grateful and I liked the episode very much. I'm a huge true crime fan, ironically, and you have a new listener. My best regards, keep up the good work. Also, if you want to know anything out of the record on my experience, I'm here to help, or I'm here to share.

And so I did ask her some stuff, but it was off the record. But the gist of it is that everyone is doing much better. Yeah, that was an insane story. It's really cool to hear from her. And I think that was one thing you talk about in that episode is that the reason that there was some investigative movement on it was because it became such a big sort of social media thing.

Yeah, because Coco took to Twitter and was like, I don't know what to do with this. And so I'm just gonna tweet about it. And that sort of got picked up by a few news organizations. And then I think it was a listener. Yeah, it was, it was one of our listeners who sent me an email about it. So if you ever have a story that you're like, this would maybe make a good Heart, Heart, Prounding episode, please send those in. I read those emails and sometimes they do end up being episodes. So thank you to that listener. Thank you to Coco.

That was so brave of her to share that whole story. I can't even imagine because it was so scary. Like the videos and the audio that came out of that case was horrifying. So it was just, it was nice to hear from her. And yeah, I was just really glad to hear she's doing so much better. Yeah, I mean, we talk about that a lot, obviously,

when you're looking at topics to do for the show, and do you wanna talk about something? I think something you bring up a lot is, is there a reason for me to tell this story? Yeah. Beyond just, you know, shock value or, because other people are talking about it. Yeah, we're not salacious.

We don't wanna be salacious here at all. So I think it's really cool when you hear from people who are just trying to get the word out about things. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Who are just trying to bring attention to it. Yeah. So I have written down that this next segment, you're going to read reviews,

which I'm a little nervous about. Uh, okay. So there are a lot of, uh, reviews for Heart Shards Pounding, which we love. Thank you to everyone who leaves those. They are super helpful. That really helps. For some reason on the Apple charts, they really prioritize reviews. So that really helps us on the charts.

Yeah. I think they're like, oh, there's real people listening to this and that's helpful. So thank you to everyone who leaves those. I wanted to read one. This is from earlier this October, Maria True Crime Fan. So she loves the podcast. I love how the host tells the stories.

I get immersed into them and she makes time at work go by so fast. I wanna read that because I love seeing in the reviews where people listen to the show. Yes, yeah. So there's so many people that listen at work. There was another review and we read this several episodes back prior to doing the long haul trucking episode, So there are so many people that listen at work. There was another review and we read this several episodes back

prior to doing the long haul trucking episode, but a woman talks about her and her husband both, I think do long haul truck driving and listen when they're on the road. We have people who talk about how it makes time at the gym go faster. And I think we've talked a lot about road detecting society this year

and this idea of like the physical place that everyone sort of exists when they listen. And I think that's really cool to hear when you guys leave reviews and makes that like a little bit more real, which is something I know you've talked about as well. It's like, oh, there's real people. It's not just me talking into the abyss.

Yeah, that's kind of, this kind of leads to our next segment, but yeah, because I make this show just in the house, like for a long time it was just in the closet. So sometimes it's like, it just doesn't feel real that there's people that listen to it. I can see on the computer that there's people that listen to it,

but I never get like stopped in the street or anything. Yeah. But when I went and did a live show with Annie Elise this year, a couple people afterwards were like, oh my God, I listened to your show. And I was like, that's crazy. Will you take a picture with me? So I can document this moment that you're real.

That was really fun. Meeting people who listened to the show. Yeah, I actually, so I wanna read this other one from, this is from Reash613 who says, "'I love this podcast isn't telling the same boring stories that we've all heard a thousand times.'" So I wondered, first of all, thank you for that comment. But I wonder, maybe just talk about like

how you found these episodes and how you, I guess what excites you about getting to tell these stories and like how you kind of fresh angles in? Oh yeah, I get very interested in stories that I haven't heard before. Like one that I brought up was in the Italy episode, Italy, a Murder and a Mystery, I think it was called, but the Pietro Masso case,

that was like the Italian Menendez brothers. I just had never heard that story before and I really just found it in a bunch of old newspapers and from like someone telling me about it when I was like in Italy. So that was a cool one to explore. There's just a lot that's told out there and I don't always know what I can add to it if you can just go listen to another always know what I can add to it if you can just go listen to another show talk about it. So I try to do cases that aren't as well known ones that have action items if people are still missing or we're still like looking for stuff. And then a lot of the ghosty ones like, there's, I don't know, I just try to find ones that I feel really interested in and can find a new angle into.

Well, and it's funny because so many of the most requested episodes from listeners or from Patreon members when they're doing the suggested bonus episodes are things that every podcast has covered. So I think there is something to say, people just want to hear their favorite storyteller tell a story.

And I love that, especially Pennhurst. I think a lot of people have heard about Pennhurst, but I just wanted to find new stories within Pennhurst to tell like the people at the end who got married. And yeah, I don't know. I think there's totally reason to tell people's favorite stories again and just try to find new ways into it.

So one more review that I wanted to read, this is from earlier this year from Aspen Gal, can I get enough? I'm just gonna read part of it. She says she hasn't been listening since the fourth episode. Oh gosh, I'm sorry. And the show actually inspired me to dig into the history of Pitkin County, which is where Aspen courthouse,

where she works, and especially Ted Bundy's escape from the second story window. Oh my God, you're kidding. No, so that's a cool, I was actually in Aspen adjacent working on something like a year ago, because I had no idea Ted Bundy had any sort of like history there. And I was like, what crimes happened here

because that's what you do when you work at Heartsearch Founding, you say what bad things have happened in this place. And so that's really cool to hear that there are people who get kind of inspired to dig into the world around them through the show. And so that's really cool to hear that there are people who get kind of inspired to dig into the world around them through the show. I love that. If you are out there digging around because you're inspired because of Heart, Soul, and Spounding, please let me know what you're looking into and what you

find. I'm so curious. I do like, especially within the Patreon, I do see people who go to local graveyards and are looking at the stones and trying to do research on those people. Like I love that stuff so much. I get so excited by that kind of research. So please keep me posted what you find about him. I think that's the fun, like the idea of the rogue detecting society community

is like there, people are just interested in this stuff and it is following your dark curiosity. Yeah, all the way down the rabbit hole. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I'll give you your phone back. Thank you. Okay, do we wanna talk about some other just highlights from the year?

Yeah, we should. And then we'll get into some recommendations for the audience. So I have written down as my highlights of the year is doing the show with Annie Elise, the live show was great. Yeah, that was- I had never done a live show for Heart Starts Pounding before.

You were with Annie, that was Annie Elise's tour and also someone else was there with you, right? Kimberlea. Yeah, Kimberlea. Kimberlea who does true crime. Yeah. Yeah, so we just had a segment where we went and sat on stage with Annie

and talked about like recent true crime cases. We talked about the Menendez brothers and stuff. That was really interesting and it was fun to be on stage and I got to meet some of you guys. And then I just got to meet a lot of other podcasters and work with them too this year, which was amazing. So on January 6th, we have our episode with Psychopedia coming out. Yeah. So that's next week. Yeah, Monday. Yeah. That was awesome. I loved that so much. Yeah, Tank and Slater, I actually just went back

because I was going through the edit for the video. And that's just such an interesting episode. It's really cool to listen to their experience and some of their history and their backstory and Slater's whole family, the law firm and how involved they are actually like in true crime and working with victims. So that's a really cool, I definitely encourage you guys

to check out that crossover episode. Slater like, yeah, really inspires me with like the work that she, the real work she does in the real world. I absolutely love that. I got to meet Amanda Montel who does Cultish. Right, Cultish, the book, the podcast. Wrote the book Cultish and it sounds like a cult podcast. And then I did a travel episode.

Which I can kind of talk about now. You can kind of talk about that. That was last month. February, I did a travel episode last month with Two Girls, One Ghost. Yeah, so that was a really cool, everyone else you've kind of collaborated with is very true crime.

This was the first ghost collaboration. And boy, oh boy, are we doing it again. We talked about it afterwards. We were like, we're going to every haunted location in the country. We had so much fun. We talked to a ghost. Absolutely communicated with something in that house.

I cannot wait to share that episode with everyone, but that was like a huge highlight of the year. And we did that episode in Salem. Yeah. So. So I think we've mentioned probably at some point on the show you were traveling and probably people who were on the Patreon got a little insight

into what was going on. Yeah, I talked about it a lot on the Patreon, but I didn't say who it was with. So now everyone knows it was two girls, one ghost. Yeah. But that was fun. If you guys also have other shows that you listen to that you want me to collab with,

that's on my vision board for 2025 is just all of the shows that I'm a fan of. I really want to start working with them more. So I'm excited for that. The holidays are here. Ready to spread some sparkle? This season, give the gift that says, I love you, from People's Jewelers. They have styles to make your loved ones shine, from timeless diamonds and gemstones to stunning gold. It's the perfect way to show just how much they mean to you. Shop now at People's and find that special piece today. Let's celebrate love, friendship, and all the joy this holiday brings. Live for love with People's Jewelers. It's winter and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats.

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Drive your ambition, Mitsubishi Motors. Okay, and then for this final segment, I just wanted to kind of name some documentaries and movies that I really loved this year. Yeah, because you consume a ton of stuff. I'm a consumer. Yeah, I'm a big consumer. We kind of have to, right?

It's part of like surfacing and curating the interesting stuff is you have to know everything that's out there. I also just love this stuff. Like I love watching the documentaries. I love horror movies. So I just watch a lot of them. And then Matt, you also watch a lot of these too

with me and on your own. So I had some highlights from the year. Let's talk about documentaries first. Yeah. I would say, so I'm gonna go backwards from four. I have four that I wanna talk about. Number four, I have Quiet On Set. Oh, yeah, the Nickelodeon documentary.

I did watch a lot of that. That one brought up some really heavy conversations that I'm glad happened. And I think that everyone's just been so curious about the Nickelodeon situation for so long that it was good to finally hear someone talk about it in a investigative way. Yeah.

Really, really sad, huge trigger warnings for that one. But if you have a deep, dark curiosity for like kids content, the dark stuff that goes on. Well, I think for so many people, like grew up on Nickelodeon, right? Oh, me, yeah. It was all those shows that I watched growing up. I think Millennials and going down to Gen Z probably both grew up on Nickelodeon, right? Yeah, it was all those shows that I watched growing up. I think Millennials and going down to Gen Z

probably both grew up on Nickelodeon because it was from the early 90s until like, really today it's still going, but I think was huge for so many of us growing up. It's sad to go back and think of watching those shows and loving those shows and knowing that some of those stars in the shows were suffering really badly is really heartbreaking.

But yeah, interesting if you have the stomach for it. And then number three, I have Into the Fire, The Lost Daughter, which is on Netflix in the US. Okay, I remember you talking about this one. You actually, we're just talking about it again recently, but what was the story there? Produced by Charlize Theron, which is really cool. It is a mystery about a missing girl.

Basically a woman has a daughter at like 17 years old and so gives her up for adoption. And then years later, like 34 years later, she finds out that that daughter she gave up for adoption actually went missing when she turned around 13 or 14. And the mom is like, well, what happened? And they're like, ah, we don't know. She ran away.

She was a 13 year old girl and she ran away. Come to find out there's a lot of weird stuff going on with the dad and the family she got adopted into. But what I love the most about the documentary is there's a larger story inside of the documentary about a serial killer, but it is really told from the perspective of the mother searching for justice and really focuses on the girl that went missing. Right, right. It's not just this deep dive into

the psychology of the serial killer. Yeah. And like what was going on in his twisted mind. He's kind of like a side character to the women of the story and I loved the way they told the story. And I don't wanna give too much away because the whole time my job is on the floor. It's called Into the Fire, colon, The Lost Daughter. I thought it was done so well. Yeah, that's probably one a lot of people haven't heard of.

Yeah, it didn't really come out to a bunch of fanfare on Netflix, but it's so high on my list, obviously. I watched a ton, and these are my top four. But number two is a very feel-good documentary in a way where you actually feel so good you cry the whole time. You're sad and happy the whole time. It's called The Remarkable Life of Ebeline.

Ebelene? Yeah, I-B-E-L-I-N. Okay, what is, what's that one? I don't remember that one. That one is about, I watched it, I don't think you were here when I was watching it because you would have seen me crying my eyes out. But it's about this boy who has a very severe form

of muscular dystrophy and dies when he's 25. By the time he passed away, he could only use his fingers. He really did not have control over his body anymore. And after he passes away, his parents were devastated because they lost their son, but also they didn't think that anyone would care because he didn't have a lot of friends. But they knew that he kind of kept this blog on and off. So they go to his blog, they log in, and they just type a message. Hey, his name was Matz.

Matz passed away. If anyone wants to contact us, here's my email. And they give the dad's email. And within, over the next like 24 hours, they get dozens of messages from people who were like, Matz was my best friend. Turns out he had this very vibrant life Over the next 24 hours, they get dozens of messages from people who were like, Mots was my best friend. Turns out he had this very vibrant life within World of Warcraft and this huge community

of friends. The documentary tells the story of Mots' life through what his character Ebalene was doing in the World of Warcraft world. They actually get animators to like animate the scenes out. So you see like this guy had love triangles and backstabbing friends and like all of this stuff, like all of the drama of every other person. It was just, he couldn't do it in his physical body. He was doing it in his online world and it's incredible.

It is so incredible. I cried for 90 minutes, but I really recommend that to anyone who wants to watch that documentary. What was it called again? Just one more time? The Remarkable Life of Eveline. The Remarkable Life of Eveline, okay. And then number one.

Yeah, what is number one? You watched a lot. It's really, really dark, but again, I picked this for number one because it opened my eyes to a lot of stuff I didn't know about, and I feel much more informed as a person now, but tell them you love me. Oh, yeah, that one was crazy.

This is a Netflix documentary. It's about a woman who is a aid for a nonverbal autistic boy with cerebral palsy, and they form a relationship because of this new found, not new found, because of this type of communication that they're able to do together. And there are so many ethical questions that arise in this documentary.

Right, it's like assisted speech effectively. Yes, assisted speech. And so the whole time you feel one way during half the documentary and then you totally flip in the other half. Like it is very well done. It's Louis Thoreau. So he's just also got a very dark curiosity.

Louis Thoreau famously of, "'My coins don't jingle, jingle they fall.'" I like the way you wiggle wiggle for sure. Yeah, that's him. That's the guy. That's the guy that somehow made this incredibly insightful documentary. Yeah, he makes a lot of insightful documentaries,

but he is just really known for that now. Did you have any favorite docs of the year? We watch a lot of those. We have some overlap in our documentaries, but I think my documentaries skew towards sports. Yeah, we did watch the Michael Jordan. We did, well, I rewatched it. You rewatched it and I watched it for the first time

and honestly, incredible. Yeah, very, very good. So good. Now there are a lot of dark sports documentaries because- Oh, the Vince McMahon one that came out this year. Yeah, the Vince McMahon one which we were watching recently about WWE. Linda McMahon, okay, shout out Connecticut.

Yeah, Linda McMahon. Connecticut's own, right? Oh yeah, I don't know. Oh yeah, Pride and lived. Connecticut's own. Yeah. Right. Oh, yeah. Pride and joy. Yeah, so I have... Not probably. We can talk about horror movies. We can't talk about horror movies. That was another one that I had a couple recommendations. I also watched a lot of horror movies. I feel like I didn't do a great job keeping up with all of the recent releases.

It felt like it wasn't a huge year for horror movies, just maybe because of like production in the strike last year. Like it just felt like there wasn't like a ton of new stuff that came out. There wasn't one, I mean, I haven't seen Nosferatu yet. I think Nosferatu is the one that everyone is talking about but there wasn't one that everyone was freaking out over

before that, except for maybe Long Legs. I think Long Legs is the one that definitely stuck with me the most. Which Matt and I, well, yeah. Mostly because I'm traumatized from seeing it. I told Matt is not the biggest depraved horror fan. Like you like a fun horror movie. I'm a thriller. I like thrillers. I like a fun horror movie. Like the Conjuring. I'm a thriller.

I like thrillers. I like a fun horror. Sure. Yeah. I told Matt that there was a new Nicholas Cage movie coming out. I was like, great. Love Nick Cage. And I did not tell him anything else besides that.

This will be a fun evening at the cinema. Just one summer Eve, we went to the cinema and I sat down and I was like, oh no, what have I done? Like right away when sat down and I was like, oh no, what have I done? Like right away when it starts, I was like, oh no, what have I done? Because within the first three minutes, someone gets their head blown off. Yeah. Yeah.

I will say I do really like the directing and it was, I thought, shot really well and they had a pretty short shoot schedule and so I thought it was pretty impressive what they were able to pull off technically. So when I'm sitting inside, I'm trapped inside of a movie that I am like, I don't remember signing up for this. I really just try and pay attention to like the technical stuff. Yeah, the filmmaking.

Yeah, the filmmaking. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. This is shot on, cause they actually shot part of that on film. And then part of it, the most of it, I think is digital on the new ARRI. What did you think about Long Legs? Cause I did not put that on film and then part of it, the most of it I think is digital on the new Aerie. What did you think about Long Legs? Cause I did not put that on the list

of my favorites of the year, but I do, there's things about it I can appreciate. I think tonally it's fantastic. I think from a story standpoint, it gets a little confusing in the third act. It's a little muddy. I would say if the movie was like the first 20 minutes, the whole time, I would have loved it.

Yeah, yeah. If we spent more time like investigating the people, the families that were dying, like I thought that would have been great, but instead it kind of changes. Definitely very impressive. It was worth it for the let me in now and it can be nice song.

Yeah, terrifying. Make me go now. Yeah, maybe we'll just turn this into a musical performance. And I'll have to come back. Oh, I loved it so much. Okay, so- So what was on your list? If Long Legs was not on your list, what was on your list?

Okay, the best ones that I loved the most this year were the substance. Yeah, the substance was really, really well done. Just a fun romp the whole time. That's one way to describe it, it is. That is for anyone looking for a fun romp, maybe I think I would not go see the substance. Have you seen Bridesmaids, you know, the fun romp Bridesmaids?

Yeah, the fun romp Bridesmaids, just like the fun romp, the substance. It's like Bridesmaids if you had severe food poisoning and body horror. Yeah, it was bad. Yeah, yeah, the substance is like, it's more difficult watch, I would say. Yes, it is.

Not really a Fun Romp. But stylistically, like really cool style, like it's shot really in really interesting ways. You're like laughing and gagging and I like that in a film. And it also just felt like something different. I tend to like movies that just go for something different. I agree, I agree.

So I'm definitely a big fan of that. Which is why number one on my list after thinking about it a lot and rewatching it is Late Night with the Devil. Right, and that was Anna Kendrick star and produced, right? No, what are you thinking of? Oh, you're thinking of Woman of the Hour, which is also-

I am thinking of Woman of the Hour. Also, yeah, also a game show. Yeah, I'm sorry, I got the game show, that's a real world, true crime serial killer base. I was like, you know the game show horror movie? And you're like, yes. Yes, I do. Can you believe there were two this year?

But no, Woman of the Hours also on the list. I loved that one about Rodney Alcala, the serial killer. Also very much told from the perspective of the woman. Yeah. Not necessarily him. Amazing what happens when women produce things. Late Night with the Devil was David Dasmalchian, and he plays a late night host

and they're running out of money. They're like probably gonna get canceled after this. And so for Halloween. Let's bring on the devil. He's like, let's bring on. This is the same thing that happened with Australia with the shark. You just don't, they're like, let's bring on a shark and it'll save the company.

Yeah, right. I mean, we could fix the budget. Look at the budget. We could, you know, like just read tools. We should have better popcorn. No, what if we got a shark? Yeah. And we just put it in a tank and we had children pay three dollars to look at it.

What if we brought the devil onto TV? This is what happens when you just try to shock people. It doesn't go well, but it's very entertaining for the viewers. And so, yeah, that was that was also on my list. And then I had two honorable mentions of movies that didn't come out this year. They're both they were both recommended to me by the Talking Scared podcast when I was on the Talking Scared podcast. Neil told me about Horror in the High Desert and Wreck.

Wreck is a Spanish film. Horror in the High Desert is like a cove, like depths of COVID movie. They somehow shot this. Found footage. Both are found footage. Both are pretty freaky. So I enjoyed those.

Yeah, that's great. What are you most excited about for 2025 for Hearthsides Pounding? I think I'm most excited about... That's a good question. You go first. What are you most excited about? I was gonna make a joke of something like,

I'm gonna kiss a ghost or something. I do think I am gonna contact more ghosts through either investigations or just like romping around and like just doing that for the show. But for 2025, I'm excited to work with more shows that I like. I really wanna do more collabs. And I really want to like get very invested

and maybe do one story over a couple episodes and really entrench myself into a story. And so maybe playing with that a little bit. Yeah, I think what I'm most excited about is some of the kind of playing with formats and also playing with extra episodes, bonus episodes essentially for everyone. Right now we have a monthly bonus episode

for Patreon subscribers and Apple subscribers. Yeah. But we're going to be probably in February if we can get it all done by then at a kind of fifth monthly episode for everyone as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's I think kind of- More content. Right, so that's gonna be a little different format,

but I think it's gonna be a fun thing to play with. So that's what I'm most excited about. It's just like continuing to evolve the show. Yeah, definitely, definitely. And then actually we just filmed something a week ago. Yeah, we did. A couple of weeks ago. So that's really what I'm most excited about.

We can talk about it, yeah. But we can't talk about that yet. I'm excited for that to come out. Something filmed for you guys to watch and enjoy. Very excited. Incredible, great year. Good job, champ. We did it.

Yeah, we did it. And 2025 is gonna be even better. I'm so excited. Well, they did it, thank you. You guys did it. Yeah, you're the reason we exist. So truly, thank you guys. Good job, champ.

And we will see you, I mean, next week, 2025, but like we're back to our regular programming starting next week. January 1st. Happy new year, everyone. Happy new year, and enjoy the time with your families, guys. All right, catch you later. Bye. Bye. Bye.