The Bechdel Cast - Fargo with Julia Prescott

Episode Date: January 26, 2017

Is it time for another episode of this here podcast? Oh, yeah! Did Caitlin and Jamie invite comedian Julia Prescott to chat about Fargo? You betcha! Is Marge Gunderson a swell character? You're darn tootin'!(This episode contains spoilers)Follow @juliaprescott on Twitter! While you're there, you should also follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @hamburgerphone   Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early and 100% ad-free, subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project.

All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister? Or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller

from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, They're just dreams. especially alongside some of my favorite chefs and foodies like Benny Blanco, Jake Cohen, Lighty Hoyt, Alison Roman, and Ina Garten. So I started a free newsletter called Good Taste to share recipes, tips, and kitchen must-haves. Just sign up at katiecouric.com slash goodtaste. That's K-A-T-I-E-C-O-U-R-I-C dot com slash goodtaste. I promise your taste buds will be happy you did. On the Bechdel cast, the questions asked if movies have women in them. Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands or do they have individualism?

The patriarchy's effing vast. Start changing it with the Bechdel cast. Hello and welcome to the Bechdelcast Oh wait, I meant to do it a different way Let me start over, okay Oh hey, oh hey there And welcome to the Bechdelcast Oh, welcome to the Bechdelcast

Hey, I'm your host, Caitlin Durante I'm Jamie Loftus Oh hey, hey there That was a little bit New York Yeah, it's really hard I thought I would do better at this accent. We'll lean into it. We'll figure it out. It's foreshadowing

of the movie we're going to be talking about. This is so clever of us. I know. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But before we get into that, we're going to just tell you a little bit about what the Bechdel cast is. What is it? It's a podcast where we talk about movies,

but specifically, they're female characters. Oh, yeah. We pick a different movie every week, and we just talk and chat. And then we also, at the end, when we remember, we decide if it passes the Bechdel test. That's right. Which has everything to do with whether there are two female characters who speak to each other about something other than a man.

There's a variation of it where the female characters have to have names. Depending on the movie, we take it easy on some and really go in on the others. Sure. Yeah. We can be ruthless. Yeah. And if you're wondering, hey, who are these two people? Yeah.

Why do, why do they get to talk about this? Who or whom? Well, yeah. I wonder if anyone ever is like, which one's talking? Oh,

these, there's two ladies and they're both, their voices are too shrill. I can't. We're brunette white ladies. We're the same lady. Yeah. Fine.

But yeah, I'm the one. It's me, Caitlin. It's me. And I, I have a lot of credentials. One, I have made several student films, at least three of them. Also, I do have two degrees in film. Oh my god.

I don't like to bring it up. I don't. This is like the 50th time. Well, you know, the people want to know. The people are want to know the people they're asking to know i used my degree this week which is pretty amazing my radio degree i know i never get to use it because it's an irrelevant medium but i used it this week i wrote some promos for a radio station hey there you go it took three years but i did it did they pay you for it uh? Uh, we'll see. We'll see if they come through. In theory, they should. Yeah. If you do work, you should get paid for it. Yeah. I have

one degree, but I used it this week. So you're much further ahead than I am. Swish. But without further ado, let's introduce our guest. Yeah. She's a very funny person. She's a writer. She's a comedian. And her name is Julia Prescott. Hi. Hi. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for coming. Yeah. So you've brought us a movie that we're going to be talking about. I'm so excited. Tell us what it is. Well, first and foremost, I must say my degree. I have a degree in film studies from Chapman University. Interesting bit of trivia about my degree. I have a degree in film studies from Chapman University. Interesting bit of trivia about my degree.

I got into film school with an essay on the Coen brothers. Got out with a thesis on them, baby. Oh, yeah. They sandwiched my education. Oh, this is perfect. Yeah. I'm so excited to talk about this movie. I did rewatch it, but I did feel before I rewatched, I was like, do I need to? Because I feel like I know it so well. It's just one of those movies. And then I also watched the TV series that it was based on.

I haven't seen that yet. I've heard it's very good, though. It is such a treat. The movie is Fargo. Oh, yeah. The movie is Fargo. The movie is Fargo, which they probably knew is fargo the movie is fargo which they probably knew because it's i'm guessing on the the episode listing yeah well no we should keep everyone in suspense they have to listen to know what movie we're talking about can i just say can i just say something while i'm thinking about it i didn't say my name yet oh yeah you should see your name

oh boy now i feel very I feel full of hubris. But my name is Jamie. Okay, let's keep talking. That accent is super fun. Oh thanks. I feel like I'm a real sponge for accents. I'll be in Canada for like half a day and everything will be like, oh yeah. I couldn't stop doing it this afternoon.

I watched it this afternoon and then I came right here. I was feeling real Marge. I couldn't stop doing it this afternoon. Like, I watched it this afternoon, and then I came right here. I was feeling real Marge. I was channeling. Oh, you betcha. It's a kind musicality. Like, there's, like, a real fun cadence to it that just, it opens the world up to you. Yeah. That's how I feel.

But, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, to answer your question from before. Well, the reason why I brought this movie is because this movie had always stuck out to me. I think that for Coen Brothers fans, they love Raising Arizona. They love the big Lebowski. You know, they love other ones. But I feel like this is a lot of Coen Brothers fans.

Like, first, this is the big drama movie that they really latch on to and at least that was the way it was for me and i was always a really big fan of film noir i actually originally wanted to major as a cinematographer because i was like really into black and white cinematography i was really obnoxious 18 to 19 year old. That's how it works. But I got really into film noirs and then, you know, got into Coen Brothers movies, which is neo-noir. And the way that they do it in this film, I think, is just it's a spicy meatball. Yeah. It's perfect. We were talking earlier about how it's virtually flawless.

Yeah. Everything about it. There's not a dull moment. Yeah. It's so good. And it's full of limp-dicked men and women who are doing their best.

Yeah. A bunch of incompetent dudes and a bunch of very competent, well, not a bunch. One especially very competent woman. I feel like that's a trend in a lot of Coen Brothers films in general, though. You see that with Raising Arizona and the character

of High. You see that with a lot of their other films. It's sort of like the action of the story begins with an incompetent man spinning a lie that just gets them deeper and deeper and deeper. And of course we see that in this movie with Jerry Lundegaard played by William H. Macy.

Just being a total bumbling idiot. I feel like you could, I mean, with the exception of No Country for Old Men and some of their later works aside, you can count on any Coen Brothers movie where in the first five or ten minutes, if a plot is enacted of deceit or some sort of

get-rich-quick scheme, you know that it's not going to work out at all because of this character's own misgivings yeah like their ineptitude is going to get in the way and you know and it's going to be very entertaining because they're going to have like sort of a folksy approach to it that is like very every man which i find really interesting yeah and with jerry from moment one like he's late to the first scene and then you're just like oh this guy does not have it he doesn't have it together right yeah yeah and the way that he's interacting with these two mob

guys is so i mean it's it's indicative of where he comes from culturally with like you know fargo north dakota and just being very like you know oh hey how you going oh hey you know like just being overly accommodating but it also speaks to like his own ineptness of being a man, which is really what drives his plot and is like a central theme in this film. And they do it in the first five fucking minutes. It's crazy. It's so good. Yeah.

It's so well written. It's so well directed and acted. I know. And the way that they cast it, too. I mean, they do this for every one of their movies. They're so great at finding these amazing character actors. But I was just thinking about this. Even in the scene with the two escorts that Marge interviews to find out more about Steve Buscemi's character and Peter Stormare's character.

They are such a specific kind of like north dakota trashy girl and like these aren't actresses that i've seen in any other movie and i don't think you know i didn't check their imdb but i'm willing to bet they weren't in a lot of things but they just they acted so well and they were so real and it just like enhanced everything yeah well we just found out right before you got here that jean the first thing she was ever in was fargo because she's from there wow really yeah because i was like i don't recognize her from anything else and uh from what i can tell she's the only like main cast member who is like absolutely from there which makes you know yeah her accent checks out it's what is she what has she done after this she was was in Drop Dead Gorgeous and Pleasantville.

Yes. I love Pleasantville. Those are two of my favorite, like one of my favorite movies. Yeah. But her first thing ever was Fargo, so they must have just plucked her out of there. I remember she was the pork products girl in Drop Dead Gorgeous. Yeah. Yeah.

I just love it. I work here now. God, that fucking movie is one of the best movies of all time. I haven't seen that movie in so long. It's so good. I've never seen it. Oh my god, it's so good. It was directed by one of the members of the state and it was written by this woman

who, I don't know if she did a ton of movies after that. It was her first feature film. And there's actually a whole BuzzFeed article written by Louis Peitzman that goes into the behind the scenes rise of the cult of Drop Dead Gorgeous and talks about drama on set and how it just kept changing due to studio notes, etc., etc.

But it's actually out of print on DVD. So if you can find it on eBay, I highly recommend snatching that up. And shout-out to Pitesman. I know. What a doll. He kills it. Well, that's the podcast. And shout out to Pitesman. I know. What a doll. He kills it. What a great. Well. Wow.

Okay. Well, that's the podcast. And I think that's all we have to say. I usually, to everyone's dismay, spend a few minutes describing the story of the movie that we're talking about. Yes. Just for anyone at home who doesn't need a refresher, who hasn't seen it before, or just likes my hilarious take on what that movie is about. So this is a story where we first, initially the central character is Jerry Lundegaard, played by William H. Macy. And he goes to these two criminal, professional criminals,

and he's like, yo, kidnap my wife because I'm in financial trouble and we're going to do this whole fake ransom thing. But we both get paid out because my wife's husband or I'm my wife's husband. That's what he said. My wife's father is wealthy. Right. So like, yeah, cool. Good idea. And then we meet his family and his wife and his father-in-law.

And the second you meet his wife, you're just like, don't kidnap this woman. No, she's so nice. She's so precious at first it sounds fun to kidnap a lady and you're just like oh maybe you know because I feel like we're conditioned to expect like oh maybe she's mean maybe she's like maybe we're not gonna love

her the first time she opens her mouth but like she's the most precious you're like don't who could want to lay a hand on this woman in a negative way? And I felt so sad for her in just seeing her in her homemaker life of sitting on the couch and watching daytime TV and knitting. I was just like, oh, girl. And she's so clearly settled. I'm like, how did they meet?

Maybe that's another season of Fargo. Really? Because I just, I don't know. Whenever I see her, I'm like, I know for sure you could have done better. Yeah. Than Jerry. Yeah. Yeah.

So then we learned that Jerry's a very dishonest car salesman. He's a flaccid human being. He's a flaccid human being. Yeah. That's a great way to describe him. Yeah. No-weenus. His wife gets kidnapped.

They go off to take her to the lake. But before that, a cop pulls them over and some murders happen. And they're like, oh, crap, this didn't go. Things are not going as planned. Jerry, we need more money. And he's like, oh, no, I don't have any more. He couldn't even handle the first demand. Yeah.

So things start to go awry. Then after these murders happen, we meet Marge Gunderson. She's a detective and she starts investigating these murders and she connects a few things back to the dealership where Jerry works and she starts to question him. questioned by police officers. And things keep heightening and some violence happens. More people get murdered, including Jerry's father-in-law. They take her to the lake. And then it ends with Marge finding the foot in the wood chipper.

And she finds the tan Sierra. Oh, that's the car! I saw that! Be careful, Marge, be careful. I'm gonna send some car. Oh, that's the car. Be careful, Marge. Be careful. I'm going to send some car. And then she shoots the bad guy in the leg. And she's like, yo, all this for a little bit of money, you stupid idiot. She's so great.

She really is. And then she goes home to her husband, Norm. Oh, Norm. Who's flaccid in all the right ways. Oh. Well, before you said that, I was going to say that it reminds me so much of me and my fiance. Not like that, though. I think he's an artist

and so I was teasing him like, you're painting your duck paintings. You know, Han. We're just sweet to each other in a similar way. That conversation at the end with the sweet three-cent stamp. And she's like, well, that's good, though, because people need those stamp. And she's like, well, that's good though because people need those sometimes.

And he's like, okay. I do find myself in situations where he's sort of down in the dumps about something creatively. I do find myself finding the cadence of Marge going, yeah, but you're better than them, hon. Yeah, but you're better than them. Everyone needs that person.

Yeah, so only the good parts. Shout out to Mike if you're listening. He knows. Yeah, I love that moment at the end with Marge. I mean, she's just so wise and she's so confident in her sort of matriarchal ways. And it's not like she's just kind kind but also smart. It's weird. It's like she can sort of succinctly boil everything down and get

the answers like earlier when she's questioning Shep at his shop and being like, you know, like I look into your background and you've got some infractions and you're on parole and I'm just thinking like you probably wouldn't want to be involved with like this being an accessory to crime now would you like you know she she's obviously playing a

detective game but there is still this like genuine like warmth to her and she actually cares about like she doesn't want people to go back on parole she doesn't want people to go you know commit crimes and go back into jail she wants the world world to be good. She's very nurturing. Yeah. Yeah. And one of the reasons this movie is so great is that she is such like a strong, multi-dimensional character. Yeah.

She's, like you said, smart. She's good at her job. She's really good at her job. She's very competent. She's like nice to a fault, but also like firm and assertive when she needs to be. Like we see the scene with mike yanagida and he's like very clearly trying to come on to her and she's like no i prefer it

if you sit over there i want to talk about that scene because that scene i don't know if you guys have found the controversy surrounding that whole subplot no because i was about to say i i think that with any other character that wasn't as well developed as her, that would be very distracting from the main action. But I loved that scene because you just want to be like, how would someone deal with this? I don't know. Right. Well, the Internet said a lot of people were saying like, why? You know, this film is so tidy in every other way. way but this one subplot of mikey and agita like feels like it comes out of left field a little bit

and it doesn't really give as much oomph to the motor of the plot as like some of the other aspects of it and you know like why is it even in there you know what does it do and i disagree i think that i mean i trust papa and papa cohen um i trust that they're gonna carry us on to that sweet good night they're just such competent directors so i know that I trust that they're going to carry us on to that sweet good night. They're just such competent directors. So I know that they know what they're doing. But I also, you know, feel like the Mike Yanagida character, everything has a domino effect of her investigation. So she gets the phone call from him and then knows that he's in the Twin Cities.

Then hears that, you know, the people that she's after went to the Twin Cities. Okay, great. So that gives me a little bit more incentive to go. Even though on paper you could say that, like, oh, is she, you know, thinking about, like, philandering on Norm? You know, but I don't think it's as complex as that. I think that she's curious to find out, like, you find out what this guy's life's been like. But I think that also that scene of them at the diner or the Radisson or whatever it is,

she believes his story of his wife. Yeah. Right? Right. And then immediately he confesses and says that that was a lie. So that simple... No, no. Oh. Oh, sorry. He doesn't confess. She finds out later

you're right but it's not long after but that whole process of her believing him and then realizing that she was wrong forces her to start to question some of her instincts previously and it actually leads her back to William H. Macy's character

to question him for the second time so it does connect back into the main point very insightful what do you have a thesis on the Coen brothers? William H. Macy's character and to question him for the second time. So it does connect back into the main point. It does connect. Very insightful. Good job. Do you have a thesis on the Coen brothers? I have a thesis on the Coen brothers. I majored in film studies. I thought that that was interesting because it was interesting to watch this movie in the context of

this podcast and really pay attention to the motivations of the female characters because there is sort of like a through line of like the idea of women settling for men that don't deserve them because i i feel like mike implies that when they're chilling at the radisson he's like oh you ended up marrying norm son of a gun yeah and and that makes it sound like he thought she could do better and i I mean, for anyone, that's enough to plant a, you know, it's a downer to hear the person that you married and are pregnant with,

someone you respect thinks is like a loser or whatever. But she and Norm have such a great relationship, and it's nice to see her go through that whole process of like, no, this is the right thing for me, and this is what I want. Well, I think you're tapping into something, actually, that I kind of picked up in this rewatch of,, no, this is the right thing for me. And this is what I want. Well, I think you're tapping into something actually that I kind of picked up in this rewatch of, you know, there is a moment when, you know, she is at the buffet with Norm and like one of her colleagues comes over and is like, oh, you're going to the Twin Cities, eh? And she's like, yeah, I'm going. And then Norm is kind of surprised. Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So there is

just a flash of a moment of her sort of exploring, has she settled? Just a flash of it. And I think that that's also a symptom of small towns in general. Like if you work in a small town, if you live in a small town, have I settled? Have I really seen my full potential? I think that there is a flicker of that that leads us to that Frank meetup. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I know. It's so hard not to do it. I wish that we had that moment with Jean because, I mean, I don't know. Jean's the other female character of any substance in this movie. And we, I mean, we don't really get to see much of her thoughts other than the fact that she's very clearly duped. Yeah, I wish, like, the one thing that I would have liked to have from this movie is at some point after her kidnapping that she would get to say something. Yeah. And I was bummed.

I mean, it was fun to watch her, like, run around like a chicken with her head cut off. Like, that's an amazing scene. And, like, tragic, but also but also like Buscemi was right. It's funny. Buscemi, yeah. Buscemi's character, good lord. I love him so much. He's so good.

I love how people keep calling him ugly. The entire movie. Funny looking. Funny looking. You know, just, but I can't describe how. Yeah, exactly. Rumor has it that in The Big Lebowski, the reason that everyone's always telling Steve Buscemi's character in that film, Donnie, to shut the fuck up is that he doesn't ever shut the fuck up in Fargo. Oh, that's funny.

I think I heard that a while ago. Yeah, that's hilarious. I thought you were going to be like, because he's dead, he shouldn't be talking. I'm like, oh, God. another thing about the big lebowski is a similar thing happens in the big lebowski it does with like the mike yanagida subplot and fargo with there's just like a character that feels tacked on but you're like i'm okay with this but like the the jesus character that oh my god what's oh yeah yeah um john tatura yeah yeah yeah's actually been, I've heard theories about like, what's that all about? There's a bar and I think, I want to say Germany, that is like themed.

It's called Lebowski Bar and the only drink they serve there is white Russians. I believe it. Yeah. In Los Angeles. Have you guys heard of Cafe Jack? The Titanic one. The Titanic. Yes.

I've never heard of it. Oh, I've been. And they serve like. It's great. What do they serve? It's like fried chicken and weird. Yeah, it's like deeply weird American food that is not that good, but worth it. Worth it.

For the experience. And then you go to karaoke afterward. It's a good time. Great. I very, very unapologetically love the movie Titanic. Yeah. I hope we do it on this podcast sometime because I love it so much.

There is my mom, the first time I saw that movie, because I wasn't old enough to see it when it came out, but eventually my mom had the two VHSs for Titanic and she tried to convince me the movie was over at the end of the first VHS because the first half is so fun. Yeah.

And then at the end, it's the captain saying like, we hit an iceberg. And she's like, and that's the movie. And I was like, you're lying to like, yeah. And then that's the inciting incident pretty much.

Yeah. But it just happens to happen two hours. Yeah. I love the second half of the movie. I love the whole movie, but I really, to me, the second half of that film is just like, as soon as the iceberg, it hits the iceberg. I love the whole movie. To me, the second half of that film is just...

As soon as it hits the iceberg, I'm like, now it's getting good. I'm going to blow both your minds for a little bit. Last year, I think, on tour, I went to the Titanic Museum. In Florida? In Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. There are so many. I know. This one shares a location. Their sister location is in Branson, Missouri. And I lied and said that I was covering it for a Vice article. And they were like, that seems weird, but come on board.

And it was so bizarre and so fantastic. The kind of like roadside weird attraction that I just like salivate over. And when you go there, it's like, if you've ever been to Pigeon Forge, people in this room and also people listening, it is like hillbilly Vegas. So Dollywood's there, obviously. I love Dollywood. Yeah. Yeah. But then everything like leading up to Dollywood is like wax museums and like go-karts and like, you know, here's a weird boat ride. I don't know. And then here's like the Titanic

Museum and then a Walmart. And you show up and they give you a card and they assign you to somebody that was actually on the Titanic. And then you like walk through and have to figure out if you survived, which is like they do at the Museum of Tolerance, too. Yeah, that's how the one in I've been to the one in Orlando several times. The Titanic Museum there. Did you get to touch ice? I did get to touch ice.

Okay, this must be the same thing. It must be the same. It's awesome. I never live. And they have a kid area that feels weird. It feels inappropriate. Yeah, like, oh, this is the fun part. Like a playground.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they were so strict about taking photos, and I respected that. Yeah, I had, like, a digital camera when I was 15, and I went and I tried to, like, sneak it, but they were all blurry because it was a bad camera. But when you get into the room with a grand staircase, you're just like, this is it. It's a big moment. And I got my photo taken and I feel great about it.

Me too. I wish that I was alone. Weird looking. I am probably similarly weird looking. I'm seething with jealousy that you guys have done all this. There's one in Massachusetts too. It's so crazy. And also the gift shop is rude.

Can we agree? The gift shop is rude can we agree the gift shop's super rude but that said i purchased things i know i was contemplating getting a really rude t-shirt that said titanic 1912 i was determined property of like it's a gym shirt i was determined when i was a teenager to be on i think that they i'm pretty sure they did have like a centennial voyage oh boy because i used to i used to be really into titanic from like a like a historical perspective like it's not because i like the movie but it was and i would go out onto my roof every april 14th to 15th in that morning and i would sit there and just like think real hard about the losses that had transpired

I thought you were going to say like you spread out your arms and said I'm the king of the world but back to Fargo we've gone on a tangent we should do Titanic yes we should one of my thoughts is that a very interesting

happens in this movie that usually does not happen in any movie where the protagonist shifts from one character to another yeah take any screenwriting 101 class they'll tell you not to do that supposed to happen yeah at the beginning of the second act the coen brothers are very good at what they do they pull it off very well because we start identifying and relating to and like even feeling a bit empathetic toward jerry lundegaard uh he loses me the second i see his wife that was the thing it was like i like him in the first scene and then the second you

see gene you're just like yeah it sucks yeah absolutely yeah because like again like what you were saying earlier if his wife not to say that this excuses any kind of abuse but you know as far as like what we understand in in movies if the wife is like very shrewish and like you know quote-unquote deserving no one's deserving well you know i mean like it adds a little bit more validation to what he's struggling with yeah like we're conditioned to think or it just helps us understand why he would put the steps to do what he's about to do. Right. And it's just like, well, he must have a reason for. But he.

But she's so. It's just money. It's just money. And he's such a slime. She's wonderful. Yeah. The little monologue, the speech that Marge gives at the end to Peter Stormare's character should really be directed to Jerry Lundegaard.

To Jerry, yeah. But yeah, you do lose empathy for him pretty early on. But he's still the central character for a good half hour until the murders happen, the three murders in Brainerd. And then we meet Marge. Then you're like, oh, okay, she's the main character now. And then, oh, what a delight she is. I know, she's so fantastic.

Which we've already talked about but it's like the slimier jerry gets like he just keeps every scene you see him and he's lying to someone he's manipulating someone he's trying to get his way and he's so incompetent tantrum he throws multiple tantrums and every single time you're just like this is your fault yeah and also like i was frustrated from him from a from a criminal perspective of like you look so fucking guilty right now throwing a tantrum in your translucent office yeah what are you doing yeah well i mean like we understand you know the steps that he took to get to like this low place because he's such a terrible car salesman he he can't like yeah sell you know one feature on his car yeah when he's a true coat oh you're gonna

want that true coat it's like oh but you you didn't say it you know it's like and i understand who that outraged customer is i've seen them in life i've been them you know i understand jerry and yeah and And just like showing that, oh, he's lying. Like, oh, I'm going to go talk to my boss. And he just asked him about the game and then comes back. It just, yeah, everything makes sense. You're like, man, you shouldn't be doing this. And that's also, I'm not going to spoil anything with the TV series. You should definitely check it out. Both of them are works of art. They really are. Um, the first one has, um, Billy Bob Thornton in it as the bad dude.

Terrifying. Just imagine, he's the best. I'd wear a vial of his blood. Yeah, me too. Can we get that on Etsy now? I feel like we can. With the divorce, maybe she's taking up hobbies. The main character

in the Fargo series, it's sort of a similar situation of William H. Macy's character, where instead of being a used car salesman who's inept, he's like an insurance salesman. So you kind of see like a similar pattern of like these kind of like, you know, emasculated men like trying to live up a life that, you know, they feel entitled to, but, you know, have no talent to achieve. I think one of the interesting male characters that I didn't think about a lot before this, like, rewatching was Wade. Wade is the dad. Wade. Because, I don't know, like, I remember the first time

I saw this movie, I was surprised at how sad I was when he's killed. Yeah. And that sort of took me off guard, because the whole time I was like, well, kind of every guy in this movie is an asshole. But he was a well-intentioned enough yeah he really cared about his daughter and getting his daughter back right but that said he also what did not sell me on him was that scene

in the diner where he's talking jerry and he's like well i don't want to give a million dollars like maybe i can give a half a million dollars oh yeah yeah and then like jerry is the real shit heel of that scene because he's like no no no you got to give all the money and he's lying but even like wade saying i don't know i just like tried to think i was like if my dad had a million dollars amazing first of all but like i would not want him to be haggling for my life right like that that bugged me yeah i mean that's what you want but also i guess i don't know you don't know the things i kind of sympathize with him in that moment a little bit too because you don't

know like the back and forth of of that kind of mental gymnastics of like are we even going to get what we pay for technically of like getting her back is she going to be okay we don't have any evidence that she's still alive we're definitely being duped in some way. Sure. It's fucking tough. It's, yeah. I mean, he's in an impossible situation. And you hate Jerry even more when you see Scotty crying in that scene. I know.

Like, what's going to happen to mom? He didn't even think about his son throughout all of this. No. In the parking lot, it's like, oh, yeah. He's like, all right, I have a son. Oh, Scotty. You literally see it occur to him that his son would, of course, be terrified. Which is like the most believable face that he gives to being grieved in the entire movie. So I was like, oh, well, good on you.

You at least got that scene, Jerry. Right. That's the one. Yeah. Oh, God. The scene that always raises my blood pressure is the scene right after uh he sees that gene has been kidnapped and he's practicing how to tell wayne i know the button on that scene is amazing because he's like working up this fake emotion to be like

wade it's jerry something terrible has happened and then he makes the phone call and then he's like you can see him like gearing up to be emotional and then he has to be like, oh, Wade guffs us in or whatever. Because he caught the receptionist or whatever. Yeah, which I mean can incriminate him too because they can go back and get the recordings from the

phone calls that he made to sort of see, I don't know, whatever. He's super fucking guilty. If I wanted to commit a murder, I've seen enough Dateline that I think I could get away with it. Yeah, you think so? Well, you're just like, he's making a lot of rookie ass mistakes here. Well, with Wade's character negotiating or haggling with the ransom, I think that actually kind of speaks to the duplicitous of his character of like him being this sort of like very shrewd very tough kind of character who we see this tender side when it comes to his daughter

being in danger but then that toughness and that kind of like unfair shrewdness comes back with him trying to haggle i think that that kind of shows the back and forth of his character, maybe a little bit. And we do see both sides of him of like, there are scenes where he's strictly a businessman and strictly a father and grandfather, like that scene where he is like, Jean and Scotty, you'll never have to worry.

I love that. That was when I really liked him. Cause I was like, yeah, fuck Jerry. Yeah. Yeah. And for how inept and slimy and terrible Jerry is, Marge is the op.

She's so fantastic. So, like, the first clue you get that she's good at her job is she and her colleague, I think his name is Lou, detective cyber or whatever. They're at the crime scene where the trooper and the two other people who witnessed the murder are all killed and they're all they're dead in the snow and he's like oh yeah the he must have uh started writing it down and then didn't get the whole license plate and she's like no she's like oh i'm not so sure about your detective work there yeah i love that she's like he's it was clearly a dealer plate and he's like oh yeah and even when she's correcting him it's not condescending right yeah she's so kind there's and i i feel like in a lot of movies i've like powerful females is often like

conflated with and she's also really mean yeah she's like she doesn't have friends and she's like she's a devil and she wears prada yeah yeah and it's like even in her relationship with norm it seems like a very equal partnership even when in my head i was like oh march you're like you're in charge right yeah but but she doesn't treat it that way and she's like genuinely very kind she cares about people and she's great at stuff and like i feel like you don't see that very often it's very easy to just say like oh oh, if you're good at your job, you're also bad at your personal life. Right. I think also with that particular kind of job, there tends to be, I think, like a misconception that you have to be detached from human emotions in that way.

Because you're seeing a lot of blood and guts. And you have to sort of come to terms with that and reconcile that in yourself that you're not constantly throwing up over or you're not bringing your work home in your brain, you know, to kind of have it live with you and haunt you. But she seems very adept. Yeah. That scene where she throws up, like she's about to throw up. And I was like, oh, is it because she's looking at a dead child? And she's like, no, it's just morning sickness. No, I just think I'm going to barf.

Yeah. I think a lot of cops in movies are portrayed as like, I'm a tough guy and everyone's guilty and to a proven innocent. Yeah. She just like hopes for the best in people. Yeah, exactly. She just like wants them to be good. She wants to clean up the earth.

And when they're bad, she's so disappointed. I feel like, yeah, that increases the impact of how disappointed she is at the end of the movie. You're just like, I, what can we tell you, Marge? Yeah. is at the end of the movie you're just like i what can we tell you march yeah i also want to talk about how like the her relationship with norm and how like the gender roles of their marriage are very reversed and that like he is a artist slash house husband i'm guessing like from what little we know about him he goes fishing he needs night crawlers yeah but he like makes her breakfast

yeah he brings her lunch. He's taking care of her in a way that, in meal providing, which is very stereotypically a woman's role. Yeah. But you're like, she's out there working, and you're making her breakfast. And it's just great. It's very sweet. Get me one of those. Yeah.

Ding, ding, ding. I got one. Yay! You won the lotto! Though Mike has never brought me lunch and has never- one of those. Ding, ding, ding. I got one. Yay! Though Mike has never brought me lunch and has never cooked breakfast. He didn't bring you Arby's in the middle of the day? He's never cooked me breakfast. I wanted to eat Arby's so bad.

So disgusting. When he says, I'll cook you eggs and then hawks up a loogie, you're just like, you know what? And she smiles. I know. She's's like that's my boy she loves him so much but he loves her too it's great yeah um something i wanted to i was thinking about the whole movie in regards to william h macy's character is i kept like drawing a comparison

in my head i don't know why to american beauty and how many things fargo does right that american beauty i think does wrong i don't i don't like that movie at all but it came out a couple years after fargo i think like 99 and uh it's all i mean they have a similar character of like the frustrated husband trying to blow off steam but the i don't know like i hate how american beauty you know paints kevin spacey is this very tragic figure and then you're just like no this guy's a fucking jerk yeah pervert yeah like there's no excuse for this person and the whole idea of like well life in the suburb is so suffocating and i don't know i'm just like shut the fuck up you're fine whereas like william h

macy's character is portrayed as what I view those types of people to be, which is like pathetic and kind of sad. Like, I feel like William H. Macy's character is like the frustrated husband who's trying to get his life together and is like punished fairly and portrayed fairly as like, this guy does not know what he's doing. He's certainly not the hero of the story. I don't know. Like, I couldn't stop thinking about American beauty and oh, no. And how I don't know. Like, it's always bothered me that Kevin Spacey is portrayed as sort of like a tragic martyr.

Right. And when he's just a fucking piece of shit. I have a theory about that. I think that so 99. There's also an article that came out a while ago, I think it's from AV Club, that talked about like the craziest year for movies in the 21st century was like 1998 or something

because it just was a huge year of Titanic and like The Phantom Menace. And it was just like, there was a lot of spotlight happening on feature films at the time. But American Beauty, I feel, is like at the epicenter of this trend of this sort of like i wouldn't say faux artsiness but definitely artsiness in the forefront and i think that it's attributed to the rise of the mid-budget movie through

miramax and through quentin tarantino and like that becoming more a part of like what the mainstream could be and that people were kind of opening their doors, at least the Academy was, to like films that maybe they quote unquote didn't quite understand, but like acknowledged as art. And I feel like American Beauty like perfectly epitomizes that. I mean, with just that drifting plastic bag plot of the most beautiful thing in the whole world. I mean, which we now roll our eyes because it's like first year art school bullshit yeah um but at the time i think was captivating a lot of people um because they didn't understand it and so i think that a lot of people attribute like good

art to something that they just don't understand right and that's something that i feel like is almost universally agreed does not hold up very much yeah oh yeah and and also with i don't remember the character's name but kevin spacey's wife in that annette benning movie yeah yeah yeah like she's portrayed i mean she's portrayed she's a developed character but she's still ultimately portrayed as like a shrewish person and i i'm just i don't know i'm like grateful that jean is not portrayed that way yeah yeah je Jean is doing her best. So is Annette Bening's character, but I feel like the story just paints her as sort of deserving. Jean's like, you're getting C grades.

She also just wants the best in everything. It caused her pain to tell her son he couldn't go out for hockey. I know. I know. You mentioned, like, whenever Marge is correcting her colleague on his, like, his police work, she doesn't do it in a condescending way. I know. I know. meets Jerry in his office. She's like, oh, you're the owner here? And he's like, no, I'm just the executive sales whatever. Yeah. She's like, oh, okay. And then he's like, my father-in-law, he's like clearly trying to like push blame off onto someone else. And she's like, oh, yeah, okay. Well, I'm a police officer. And it's like, she talks to him like he's so dumb. That's the second meeting, right? Or no, no, it's the first meeting. Yeah, no, I remember that.

She's amazing. And she's just like, you're an idiot, so I'm going to talk to you like you are one. I think it's the second meeting where she says something like, oh, this crime I'm investigating, the perps were driving a car with dealer plates, and they called someone who works here at this dealership, so it would be quite a coincidence if they weren't you know connected and it's she's just like it's so great how much she condescends to such a piece of shit that jerry lundegaard is and i love watching that scene because he is trying so hard to like be like i'm cooperating and you're like to be like cool and chill and he is just barely holding it together, that entire scene.

Yeah. Those long periods of silence. I'm like, well, you're done, Jared. Yeah. Like, you are so guilty. Like, you have no. I want to watch this guy play poker. Yeah.

Because he'd just be like. Can I say what my favorite part about that scene is? Yeah. It speaks directly to what I was saying earlier about being a cinematography nerd. Similar to in Psycho, we see Janet, what's her face's character's name, the main lady in Psycho. We see her in her like negligee at first and it's white and pure when she's like hooking up with her dude. And then later when she decides that she's going to you know steal the money from her boss and like run out her negligee is black to you know represent that she's now evil and she's corrupt she's turned so in a similar way um these two scenes if you face them together um the scene

of marge first visiting jerry in the scene of second one. So I feel like this was calculated and strategic from the filmmakers that there are vertical blinds in his office because in the first scene, they're open. It's bright. He's, you know, seemingly passing off this lie to her. It's totally fine. Second scene, the light is casting over the vertical blinds representing prison bars on Jerry Lundegaard's face and he's done for. And shortly after that, he sprints off, takes one of the cars, and she realizes, oh, he's gone!

He's fleeing the interview! Yeah, so that was a little bit of thing. That was like a little bit of trivia. Yeah, baby, I was like mmm, that's good. It just was so fun. I love stuff like that, and a little bit of trivia yeah baby i i was like yeah that's good like it just was so fun i love stuff like that and that's part of the reason why i wanted to go on that line of work and why i never will i don't know maybe there's time there's time yeah you can do anything we're women and we can do whatever we want i guess so i want to keep riding if they'll let me

they'll allow the final thing that i want to talk about unless If they'll let me. If they'll allow. The final thing that I want to talk about, unless I think of something else, is Marge does everything that she does while she's like seven months pregnant. So that's highly symbolic as well. Yes. Tell me of what. I shall. So, you know, here they are. They're basically, I mean, we'll get into if this passes the Bechdel test eventually, I'm assuming.

Nope, I've never heard of it. Oh, okay. What are you talking about? So this world is littered with dudes. It's lousy with dudes. And so Marge is really like this big female figure in that. Not just because there's not too many other people besides Jean that she can kind of rap with and like the other escorts, but they wanted to make her this like matriarch that sort of carried and saved this plot. And having her also be pregnant really enhanced that kind of maternal instinct that was a requirement for her instinct as a detective to get down to the case. It not only signified that she was a protector of this town,

a protector of justice, but she's literally protecting life and preserving life, and those are her motivations. She wants people to be good, so she's protecting life for their livelihood. She wants people to not die, so literally protecting life in that way and as she's seven months pregnant and like fucking doing it like a badass it just further proves that she's going to be the one that carries this yeah and and like the scene it's so like

interesting the scene where she looks at the dead child i know and she's seven months pregnant and then she's about to throw up and you're like oh that makes sense what does that happen but okay i remember right and and it's like but that to me is like a testament of like no she is really good at her job and she's able to compartmentalize accordingly yeah which is a superpower jealous it's a true superpower i believe not quite there yeah but and the fact that she's also like even though she is very pregnant and that's important to her, she's not compromising the job she's doing. Right. That's kind of dangerous.

Well, it is dangerous. And she's not compromised. Like, she doesn't compromise in any regard ever. Yeah. Which is amazing. I know. She's incredible. She's the best. When we when pregnant women are portrayed in like movies and TV, it's almost always like they are cranky and hormonal.

And they're like, oh, what a delicate flower I am. Oh, I have to pee all the time. And I'm hungry and I will never be pregnant and I have not have been yet. So I have no idea what it's like. And I'm sure it is very uncomfortable. But like you can still carry on with your life in your job. Right. Being pregnant. But like it's almost always when you see a very pregnant woman on screen, it's like, oh, look how pregnant I am. And it's the only thing I can think about and talk about.

They're like sort of damselfied. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it's like barring medical conditions, most pregnant women work up until they give birth in their office often. I've heard. Oh, there's a Harman Town show happening. Dear God. Chills. Yeah. Chills. I'm like, why is a man yelling during our podcast? So I just love that she mentions it, but she's like, do you mind if I sit down?

I'm carrying quite a load. And that's pretty much the only, the most polite she gets in a way. Yeah. And the only time really that her pregnancy affects her performance. Yeah. Apart from the time that she kills over to almost barf. Yeah.

But then I love how she's like, Oh, it passed. And now I'm hungry again. Right. Right. And, and then she goes back to work. And then she goes back to work.

Yeah, she goes back to work. And then I love how many times you see her eating in the movie, too. It's so great. She's eating Arby's. You don't see her eating that. She's going to town on that buffet. The buffet. And then it's so representative of that region of these comfort foods, these heavy, heavy sausages.

Can we talk about the choice to make this murder plot in this folksy setting a little bit? Because I love that the Coen brothers did this, and I do think that it allows for that comedy to just sort of naturally happen. I mean, obviously it's mismatched to what the actions are. You wouldn't suspect. And I think that even in the tagline on the poster,

it was like a murder mystery, like a homespun murder mystery or something that sort of like, you know, let you know that this is going to be this offbeat, kooky kind of like, we don't know what we're in for. We're in way over our heads kind of town. And one would suspect that like a small town wouldn't have the resources to deal with solving a murder, but they don't have Marge. But I also I found so there's this book that I really like called The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers. And it is edited by Mark T. Kennard, who is this like really super boss film critic. But each chapter is like an assemblage of essays from different film critics. And so I forget the name of the gentleman who wrote a

chapter about modernity and noir in Fargo. but I found it really interesting because, of course, you know, any film genre is representative of social anxiety. You know, we see that a lot with science fiction. You know, science fiction represents social anxiety about, like, progress. And then you can kind of actually divide the genre into, like, two different chapters, pre-Cold War and post-Cold War. And that post-Cold War deals a lot with like nuclear attacks and like the fear of that. And that's like sort of what the menace is with it. And I feel like with noir, they kind of tap into that kind of social anxiety through modernity, because with that comes like you're making progress, but with progress, you are breaking off from the past. So with that becomes this loneliness and isolation and alienation.

And that a lot of noirs, especially ones that define the genre in the 40s, took place in like these urban cityscapes, which could be comforting, but also isolating as well. Because if you're like this one person walking around the cityscape, you've got these skyscrapers looming over you, making you feel like you can either like be protected by them or trampled by them. And so what the Coen brothers do and what, you know, they actually, what this author suggests, they kind of took a page from Orson Welles in touch of evil,

bringing the noir to the desert and to Mexico is that they are jarring the audience from what is known to be noir in the city. And by taking it to this like desolate landscape that's snow covered, you know, it's different than what we expect. But I also really love it because, you know, we know that there's a danger. The danger is lurking. However, everywhere we look, we think we see everything that there is to see. It's this blank canvas. You know, it's these large expanses of land.

Where could the danger be hiding? And I think that that was a very smart choice that they made to raise the tension of where is it going to pop out? What are we doing? And also the fact that it is snow covered, I feel like speaks to how flimsy the foundation of what all the things that we are to believe are resting on, the flimsy foundation foundation of what all the things that we are to believe are resting on the flimsy foundation of all the characters and their intentions and how it can change at any minute that to me was interesting yeah it's like a real maybe this is like a political climate thing that's influencing this but it seems like a real like american yeah movie and it's like a side of the country you don't see in movies a lot at all and it it almost feels like a non-judgmental depiction of like a very american place where

it's like yeah there are good people and there are bad people but it is what it is it's not necessarily making a very overt commentary on it it's just like presenting it in what feels like a pretty like cool and honest way that you don't see a lot yeah that's nice and i think that it being like this sort of more realistic environment like raises fears and people watching it that it feels closer to home than watching like two people buzz around a city it's not sexy crime fighters no one in this movie is particularly everyone is no one gets me horny in this entire movie exactly yeah exactly and the sex is also like the sex scenes that we see are not fetishized in any way they're not romantic in any way they're always too pushy they're always too pushy but also like the people that are having the sex don't seem to particularly enjoy it.

Oh, my God. I love the prostitutes dialogue in this where at some point she's like basically mocking Buscemi while she's like, all right, wrap it up. I'm loving this. Or no, she was like, I'm hearing bells. I know. And at dinner earlier. And he's nice. He's taken her to dinner like he, he's paid her for the evening.

They don't technically have to go out. They can just do what he paid her for. Being very delicate in my word choice. But, you know, he tries to relate to her and tries to have a conversation. And she, like, judges him. And, like, she's like, what are you talking about? Do you like this kind of work? Do you like being a prostitute? And she's like, what? you talking about? Do you like this kind of work? Do you like being a prostitute?

She's like, what? What a dumb question. Yeah. But that kind of leads us to the question of whether or not this movie passes the Bechdel test. There is allegedly some controversy. Apparently, which I did not know about. I, using my own, my dumb old brain, have decided that. You've got a great brain.

Oh, thanks so much. I have the best brain. I feel that. It's true. As far as I'm concerned, it does pass the Bechdel test because there is a scene where Marge is questioning the two young women who are women and ladies of the night about the two guys they spent the night with. Before they move on to that subject, though, they're talking about where the two women went to college and where they went to high school. And she's like, go Bears!

So it's a sliver of a conversation, but to me, I would say that counts. Like most of the movies we have let pass, it passes on a technicality. Yeah, even though the whole reason why they're talking is because of these two guys. Right. I can see it both ways. Also, I feel like, and I'm purely speculating here, but I feel like the Bechdel test was designed to question whether or not the women, the assumption is that if they are talking about a man, it's because he's the romantic interest of someone.

Right. Yeah. Their purpose derives from that man. It is a work conversation. is that if they are talking about a man, it's because he's the romantic interest of someone. Right, right. Yeah, their purpose derives from that man. It is a work conversation. Right, yeah. So they happen to be talking about men, but it's in the context of a criminal investigation, rather than like, yes, we love these men. Oh, do they love me back? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I agree. I'm inclined to give it a pass just because... I mean, the Bechdel test is certainly flawed in that I feel like this movie is pretty unequivocally... It has amazing female characters, and maybe there aren't enough of them per se, but I almost feel like that's intentionally done in the case of this,

because Marge just is this force of good and badassness in a sea of flaccid men. She's so strong that I think she alone makes up for it. Right. Exactly. She's not, her purpose doesn't derive from a man and her self-worth isn't defined by how men perceive her at all. In fact, she doesn't seem to register it.

Right. She doesn't care. I mean, we see it for a flash when she gets all, you know, done up to see her old pal. But I think that that's just her wanting to have a break for a moment to like, you know, that's like a human. I feel like that. Yeah. It's such a human moment of like, I mean, any marriage, there comes a moment where there's

like that thought of like, oh, what if? And then she seems to pretty immediately snap back into like oh no i made the right decision yeah that's awesome to see almost i don't know yeah and i just think in general of of just like having an excuse to like i don't know not play act necessarily but just like to get gussied up and to to just explore a path for a night even if it's just a thought for a second. Right. Especially like with the,

she's about to become a mother and there's about to be this big change. It's almost like a last, a last kind of hurrah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. But then he was like, Oh,

I'm going to sit over here and put my arm around you. And then she's like, get away from me. Yeah. Well, that's a creepy fucking move. I don't know if you've been in similar situations where it's like super awkward never sit on the same side and i love how she passes

off as like oh i just don't want to have to turn my neck but it's like clearly yeah it's a front for how she like registered that as oh that was weird yeah go back you are troubled yeah right yeah he sounded so manic on the phone when we first hear him. Yeah. It's just bad. Well, I think now is the time where we, on a scale of zero to five nipples, we rate the movie based on

its treatment and portrayal of its female characters. This is our alternative to the Bechdel test. Yes. The five nip rating. Yeah. Who would like to go first? I can go first.

Sure. Yeah. I would give it, without knowing any precedent of how you've rated previous films and where you personally reside in the parameters of that, I would give it a 4.5. Because I would give it a 5 just on Marge alone. Because she's so iconic as a strong female character. And I think that a lot of people have referenced her through other characters written after this. As like sort of the goal of what you can achieve with like a woman who is in control. And is dynamic and interesting and all, and all of that stuff. However, you know, take away a 0.5 because a lot of the other female characters are escorts that we don't know too much about.

And Jean isn't really given a perspective. Unfortunately, I wish Jean had one more. I wanted Jean to have that moment. We know that she knits. I know, but there's more to her. There's more to her.

So yeah, unfortunately, 4.5. Could you, could you describe those nipples? Sorry, we should have, we should have, we usually's more to her. There's more to her. So, yeah, unfortunately, 4.5. Could you describe those nipples? Sorry, we should have. We should have. We usually describe the nipples.

They're like, you know, not like a deep flesh color. Okay. But like a mom about to give birth nipple. So actually, no, they are deep in color. Bursting with milk. And probably bursting with milk. Leaky nips. Leaky nips. Leaky nips that you don't want to see and you accidentally see it when you stumble into your mom's room a little too soon and you're asking what's for dinner.

That's the nip. I would have also given it a 4.5 nip rating. I'm just going to piggyback and steal your... Yeah, please. And this just might be true of that area of the country i doubt there's much diversity we don't see any women of color um it's nice that we see like all the women aren't these like hot hollywood look how hot i am everyone's just like nice and normal looking and uh it seems like a lot of tertiary characters were from fargo yeah probably i guess including

jean so yeah it's just probably that there's no diversity in this town that we don't see It seems like a lot of tertiary characters were from Fargo. Yeah, probably. I guess, including Jean. So yeah, it's just probably that there's no diversity in this town that we don't see any women of color. I like that Marge is like probably 40, late 30s. Yeah, yeah. Because women of color, women over the age of like 40 and 50 are even more poorly represented than white women. True. But yeah, so 4.5. Beautiful nipples.

I can't go on. I'm going to give it 4.5 as well because I love a good bandwagon and also I agree. Mine are going to be Marge nipples as well, but these ones are radiating beams of light.

Ooh, I like that. Just blinding beams. I feel like that's a future pop culture themed art show. Yes. There should be a Coen Brothers art show! Just a statue of Marge. But there are very strong lights where her nips should be.

That is something I would really make into a Facebook profile picture, I think. The highest compliment possible. That would be so good. Facebook profile picture, I think. Highest compliment possible. Well, there you have it. Fargo, cross the board 4.5. Love it. I think that's the best one so far. We did it. What an honor. Thanks for bringing us this great movie, Julia.

Thanks so much for having me. It's my pleasure. Is there anything that you'd like to plug? Where can people find you online? How do people follow you? Oh my gosh. You can find me at twitter.com slash Julia Prescott.

There I post my musings and my show dates and then I have a podcast about The Simpsons called Everything's Coming Up Podcast. You can find us at SimpsonsPod and on iTunes.

Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah. If you want to for joining us. Yeah. If you want to follow us, The Bechtelcast, you can do so on Twitter. They're cheering for us. Yeah, they are cheering.

You can follow us at Bechtelcast on Twitter. You can email us if you want, thebechtelcast at gmail.com. And we love you. We love you. Bye. Bye. Daphne Caruana Galizia And we love you. We love you. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unnerves the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early and 100% ad-free, subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus Plus channel available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous

about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In California, during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman

had done before, try to assassinate the President of the United States. One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nicknamed Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer, this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeart True Crime Plus, only on Apple Podcasts.