Welcome to Part One of our 3-part descent into the bizarre world of Jerry Brudos — but honestly? This episode is only like… 40% true crime and 60% absolute side-quest chaos because we recorded on LAUREN’S BIRTHDAY and everything went straight off the rails IMMEDIATELY.

To start, Lauren’s husband makes yet ANOTHER cameo, but this time he’s suffering from a very specific kind of short-term memory loss where he cannot, under ANY circumstances, remember what Courtney got Lauren for her birthday… even though it was literally said 45 seconds prior. He also hosts a solo Funyun party, spiritually and physically, while the rest of us are just trying to hold the episode together with duct tape and vibes.

Meanwhile, Lauren confesses she is deeply, spiritually, cosmically obsessed with Marcus — an alien worm creature from some VRChat fever dream? A kindred-spirit connection so strong we’re concerned she may leave Earth entirely.

And then — THEN — Lauren has a full existential crisis because she finds “something chewy” floating in her drink… only for us to discover it’s the cherry she herself put in there and promptly forgot existed. We nearly had to stop recording to recover.

As for Jerry Brudos? Yeah, we talk about him too. Kind of. In between approximately 47 unplanned tangents, a debate about whether alien worms can be romantic partners, and the Great Cherry Scare of 2025.

Strap in. This one is a ride.