Apologies Accepted

On International Women's Day in March of 2022, Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, issued a formal apology for the thousands of people Scotland burned at the stake from the 1500s to the 1700s.  Most of those people were women, and it seemed fitting to the First minister, as the first woman to ever hold the title, to apologize during international women's Month (it's every March, guys), on March 8th, International Women's Day, for all the women (and men) the government of Scotland murdered for turning into cats and spoiling ale.

We tackle the history of Scottish witches by examining the life of Isobel Gowdie, Queen of the Witches!  As a self-confessed witch in the 1600s, she is the woman who gave rise to witch lore and a voice to fairy lore.  Her life is largely unknown but her four confessions have withstood the test of time, fascinating scholars and witches alike for the last two hundred years.

Find out why, and hide the matches, when we explore witchcraft and State-craft this episode!

Kenny Shiels is the coach of the Northern Ireland's women's national team, and he has something he wants you to know about women.  Their emotions get in the way of their ability to play sports.  See, women are toooooooooooo emotional to play sports, and that is the hardest part about coaching women. His team lost 5-0 defeat to England, a loss which ended their chances at the Women's World Cup in 2023.  That's a pretty big deal in the soccer world.

After his comments to a press group, there was a bit of pushback from the soccer community.  Male soccer players recounted plenty of times they themselves cried during a game, and since the internet is now a thing and isn't going anywhere, there were quotes on the internet of Kenny Shiels himself admitting to almost thinking about sort of maybe tearing up kinda maybe sorta because of a football game.

Since we know nothing about sports, we turned to science!  Not even just science, but the big guns - neuroscience.  We break down the neuroscience behind emotions, as well as the history, and gender differences.  And with the help of Brain Science (a podcast by Dr. Ginger Campbell and pretty dang good!) we sound pretty smart explaining the shifting landscape of the modern science behind emotions.

He's back, this time with an actual apology.  When the hidden grave sites of 215 children were discovered in 2021 at a Residential school in Canada, the Pope expressed sorrow without expressing an apology.  Now it's 2022 and 1,700 children's graves later, the Pope apologized in person to victims and families of the Catholic Residential School system.  Residential schools were active until 1998 and the hidden graves of children are still being discovered today.  Some estimates go as high as 6,000 missing/disappeared children as a direct result of the Catholic Residential School system.

And although Pope Francis apologized, and promised to come to Canada in July of 2022, it turns out he need not have worried because 22 years ago, on March 12, 2000, the then current Pope, John Paul II, issued an apology on behalf of the Catholic church to echo across all nations and throughout all time: some Christians sinned and the church is sorry about that.

The apology of Pope Francis is a (yes, a and not an) historical moment for his followers.  Popes have been apologizing since 1965 for all sorts of horrible things - but this apology is different because it's not a proclamation, it's a first step in a who-knows-however-long-unfolding story of sorry that spans a hundred years and generations of Canadian children's short and lost lives.

If you haven't heard, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock across the face during the March 2022 Academy Awards.  If he had done cartwheels across the stage, naked and on fire, we couldn't have been more surprised.  Chris had made a joke about Will's wife's shaved head, and Will wasn't having it.  First he laughed, and then seconds later he strode across the stage and slapped Chris Rock, a comedian, across the face for telling a lame joke.  If only we all had such power - Look out, Amy Schumer! 

Will apologized for the incident twice, once a few minutes after the slap while accepting his academy award for best actor.  The second time on Instagram, a day later.  The first time he apologized to the Academy, everyone in the room, everyone watching on TV, Everyone in the world, everyone in the world excluding a certain Mr. Chris Rock.  The second time he apologized directly to Chris Rock.  Everyone in the world had a lot to say about it, everyone except Chris Rock who is keepin' it classy and writing a comedy show about it (probably, like how could he not).  The other person keeping quiet is a certain Mr. Will Smith who is reportedly hanging out in Dubai with a certain Prince of Dubai, a certain Prince who certainly is very, very, good friends with a certain Mr. Will Smith.  Certainly.

Anyway - Will justified his love of slapping by saying he was a fierce protector of his family.  Just like Richard Williams, the guy he portrayed in the film that was the reason he won best actor at the Oscars - he was fiercely protecting his wife's honor from low-level humor.  Richard Williams answered by condemning the violence and saying that Will Smith was in the wrong.

And somehow, Venus and Serena Williams are once again on the "Hollywood making you feel worthless" tour.  First Jane Campion told them that they don't compete against men so therefore they aren't really "competing" and then Will Smith slapped any chance they had at celebrating their father by using him as an excuse to slap a comedian for telling bad jokes.

And comedians everywhere are certainly afraid.

Jane Campion stuck her foot in her mouth at the Critics Choice Awards this year.  She was talking about how she had tried to play tennis and found it really hard.  She was funny and charming and self-depricating.  She was off to a good start.  Venus and Serena Williams were sitting right in front of her and she was paying them a compliment for their skills as professional athletes.  But, Jane said, as great as the sisters are at tennis, they don't play against men the way that she, Jane Campion, must compete against men in Hollywood.  There is not women's league of directors, no best female director category.  Just ol' Jane, slugging it out with the boys.  Everyone clapped and Venus Williams grimaced and became a meme for a hot minute until Will Smith slapped Chris Rock...we'll get to the slap apology next week, we promise.  For now, let's get back to Jane's apology.

The Williams sisters were at the Critics Choice awards because they were executive producers of a bio-pic about their father.  Their film, King Richard, was up for prizes and competing against Jane's film, The Power of the Dog.  Jane's comment was supposed to be about how hard it is for women in Hollywood to be taken seriously (or get jobs behind the camera).  Instead it became about tearing other people down to stand atop the shredded flesh of their humiliated bodies in order to grab prizes hanging just out of reach above your head.

Jane felt bad when everyone on the internet told her that she had diminished the Williams sisters' accomplishments.  Jane apologized and her street cred as a liberal speaks volumes - her remark was not intentionally racist and she is truly sorry for having misspoken.  Plus she didn't smack Chris Rock across the face so really can't we just let bygones be bygones.

No, Jane.  No, we can't.  We'll see you on this episode of Apologies Accepted.

In honor of Billie Eilish's nomination for Best Original Song this year at the Oscars, we are rereleasing our Billie Eilish episode.  Also it's Theo's birthday weekend and this is what he wanted and also Juliette had to drive really far and also Brent had his birthday last week and is still unwrapping gifts so...here we are with our first ever rerelease!  

Audio Note: Issues still exist but it's still a life-changing episode if your name is Billie Eilish.

A new album, new look, and old videos of Billie Eilish using an anti-Asian racial slur fueled the excitement in the Billie-sphere this month.  Arguably the most famous 19-year-old on the planet, Billie Eilish is a singer-songwriter-phenomenon who perfectly encapsulates Gen-Z angst.  She’s edgy and caring and nihilistic and full of hope, all at once.  She seemingly came out of nowhere and now has multiple music-industry awards, tens of millions of followers, and set new records across the internet.  Recently old videos of 13-year-old Billie appeared, showing her singing a song containing a slur against Asians, using a “blaccent,” and speaking in a gibberish-language that sounds a lot like a mock-Asian language.  Many of her fans were outraged and Billie was quick to act, offering heartfelt apologies directly to her followers.

But as we all know, the internet is judge and jury and holds a grudge.

Audio note: It’s not you, it’s us.

Disney has entered the culture wars, but only after first trying to avoid being drafted.  Florida has passed a law making it illegal to mention gay people in school.  The law is pretty broad and general, allowing any parent to sue a school district if information about gays is mentioned in class.  In Florida, Sally can have two mommies, but she better shut up about it in class.

Like all corporations, Disney donates money to politicians across the ideological spectrum.  Right, left, center, - if you're in politics then here's your Disney-money. Some of the anti-gay politicians got money from Disney and when word got out, Disney cast members started to publically speak out.  Disney, the corporation, said nothing.

The silence was notable.  Bob Chapek, Disney CEO, eventually came out (accidental pun and it stays!) against the law, saying that Disney was always against the proposed law but didn't say anything publicly because he wanted to work quietly, in super secret, from the inside. But he wasn't quiet about his apology for Disney's silence on Florida's "Don't Say (or grow up to be) Gay" law and to show that he fully understands the issue, he's suspended political donations to all Florida politicians until Disney can sort out the good politicians from the bad politicians.  Now everybody loses and nobody wins!

It's an open secret that children work for next to nothing and don't complain a lot.  That's why they make great workers, only it's kind of illegal in a lot of countries to employ children.  But don't worry because corporations have found the wonder of willful ignorance and plausible deniability, two factors that mean they can hire companies that in turn hire other companies that hire subcontractors who hire kids (and sometimes buy them) to work in factories, fields, and mines.

Tang Mingfang. a factory worker in China, noticed that FoxConn, his employer, had hired a lot of kids.  He was told the kids were having fun working as interns and learning all about how to make Amazon's popular Alexa, Echo Dot, and Kindle devices.  He was also told to shut his mouth and get back to work.  Tang decided to report the child labor violations and was sent to jail for two years.  He was beaten and imprisoned for reporting a crime against children.  He's out of jail now and has asked Amazon for an apology.

Jeff Bezos personally apologized from space and we are here to thank him for being such a hero.  OK, that didn't happen.  Plausible deniability means that one of the richest men on the planet also has to pretend he's one of the dumbest.

But it's not all evil billionaires and child workers, there are some real heroes of note in this episode!

Someone had a pretty-rotten-no-good-awful moment with a cop.  That someone was a guy named Martin Hyde.  If you don't know Martin Hyde, you are dumb.  Martin Hyde is a really important super big shot deal and everyone who doesn't know that is just stupid. He's friends with all the super powerful and important people in Sarasota, Florida (so yes, this is a "Florida Man" story) and everyone knows to respect Martin Hyde and treat him like the god-man he is.  So when Martin Hyde was driving at 57 miles an hour in a 40 mph zone and texting while driving...well, Martin Hyde attracted the attention of a woman who was just doing her job.  That woman happened to be a police officer, and she pulled him over for speeding and texting, in short, breaking the law. 

Martin Hyde may have broken the law, but she broke Martin Hyde's brain because never in the history of ever had he, Martin Hyde, ever been treated with such disrespect.  The police officer was wearing her body cam, and Martin Hyde was recorded having a very Martin Hyde moment in the middle of the street.  Threatening legal action, her job, her livelihood, and most important of all - letting her know she had disrespected him.

Fortunately for the world, and unfortunately for Martin Hyde, the body cam footage was released and the rotten moment went viral.  Within a few days, the video crashed his hopes of becoming a Congressman.  He decided to say sorry and apologized for the following:

Insulting a police officer while on duty

Threatening a police officer with the loss of her job for daring to stop him and issue a citation

Calling her supervisor ("I know him personally!") to report her

Asking a police officer if her nationality had anything to do with how awful she was

Being Australian

But it's all OK because Australia has issued a formal apology to the world for producing Martin Hyde, former congressional candidate.  But all is not lost for Martin Hyde, deserver of respect, for he is this week's apology on Peach Glen PA's least favorite podcast (and now Martin Hyde's least favorite podcast as well)!  We could not be more proud.

As rotten and bad as his day was, it did lead to perhaps the most amazing written apology-PR letter we've had the pleasure to read, and with all due respect to Martin Hyde's campaign team: Bully for you for producing such a fan-f***ing-tastic piece of text book perfect work.

Russell Simmons learned the hard way that some historical heroes are not to be mocked.  His YouTube channel had released a short 3-minute video skit of the Harriet Tubman Sex Diaries.  The comedic take was that she used her feminine charms to seduce her enslaver and captured the encounter on video, only to use it as blackmail and get his help building the underground railroad (which in the skit required a shovel and a command to "get digging!").

Of course, that's not how the underground railroad got started at all.  And a lot of people ranging from the NAACP to Spike Lee to thousands of black women let Russell Simmons know that the skit was both harmful and hurtful.  This was the only video that Russell Simmons every took down, and he explained why, in the form of a couple of apologies.

We have a take down of the apology and we also provide a look into the real life and historic achievements of the woman who will be gracing the front of the US $20 bill...in about 8 more years (heads up: Maya Angelou is appearing on US quarters this year).

Join us in our continued observance of Black History Month and honoring the memory and achievements of Harriet Tubman, a true American Hero.