38: Ariel and Stef unpack the continuation of a beloved series with X-Men 97, exploring its impact from therapy to education. They discuss nostalgia’s role in healing trauma and connecting with students, the nuances of characters like Rogue and Storm, and how X-Men’s diversity and inclusion themes resonate today. Tune in for a journey through the past, present, and future of one of the most iconic superhero teams.

Download free some hand-dany worksheets on social and emotional learning and healing that are X-Men themed:

Summary of HPOE38:

37: Hosts Ariel and Stefanie embark on a journey through Disney’s culinary delights, from the treats at the Food and Wine Festival at California Adventure, unexpected finds at Disney Channel Nite, to the surprising food merchandise. They navigate the rising prices, sustainability efforts, and the art of indulging at Disney parks. This episode invites listeners to a broader conversation on food and fandom.

Summary of HPOE37

00:11 – 00:17
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Happiest Pod On Earth. I’m Stef. I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my

00:17 – 00:20
students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

00:20 – 00:27
And I’m Ariel, a licensed therapist who uses clients’ passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental illness.

00:27 – 00:31
Here at Happiest Pod, we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

00:31 – 00:37
Why? Because we’re more than just Stefanie, and we expect more from the mediums we consume. Speaking of consuming, what are

00:37 – 00:38
we discussing today, Steph?

00:38 – 00:46
What a perfect word to describe what we are talking about today. We are talking about food, specifically Disney food, obviously.

00:46 – 00:52
But I feel like this is a long time coming. We have not touched upon this. Despite the fact that we’ve done multiple panels

00:52 – 01:02
at Comic Con about food and its impact culturally, socially, mentally, physically, I mean, everything. Food is life. Right?

01:02 – 01:03
That’s the saying. Yes.

01:03 – 01:10
And then we did a presentation at Geek Therapy’s tags on using food in the classroom and using food in the therapy and talking

01:10 – 01:18
about ways to address individuals who might have various forms of eating disorders or individuals who want to embrace the

01:18 – 01:19
culture of their food, but they don’t know how.

01:19 – 01:27
Mhmm. Food itself has many different dimensions. I mean, people love it. They make livings around it. We love to consume it.

01:27 – 01:35
It brings people together. I mean, as you said, I talked about how food in the classroom and food when it comes to translating

01:35 – 01:41
what it means for kids is so important as they grow and develop, and their relationship with food too. So I think it is fitting

01:41 – 01:47
as we are coming into the spring season now here in California, and specifically

01:54 – 02:03
in in as, like, something to drive people to get to the parks, which has definitely worked on me. Yes. Okay. So starting with

02:03 – 02:10
the park specifically, right now we are during the middle or just starting food and wine festival, which I don’t think we’ve

02:10 – 02:12
talked about on the show before. Correct?

02:12 – 02:19
No. We haven’t. We’ve done many different events that are very similar to Food and Wine, but correct me if I’m wrong, everyone

02:19 – 02:26
out there, and, you know, my to my cohost as well. I feel like food and wine festival was kind of like the genesis of people

02:26 – 02:33
coming to the park specifically to have specialty foods, specialty wine and beverage, especially since California Adventure

02:33 – 02:40
in itself. I think going with the theme of California and how we are, what, the largest in the United States of America, and

02:40 – 02:46
that we have such a large culinary scene. We have many celebrity chefs who live out here and make a living out here. They

02:46 – 02:52
really wanted to capitalize that with the California theme. So, you know, you see there’s a winery in the middle of the park.

02:52 – 03:00
You can drink alcohol in the park. There’s specialty restaurants like the Trattoria, which is Italian inspired. You have different

03:00 – 03:05
areas of the park where you can get different sorts of regional foods that you wouldn’t otherwise find at Disneyland.

03:05 – 03:14
And this year’s theme is it’s avocado time, avocado shaped like clock. Interestingly, though, there are not many avocado items

03:14 – 03:21
or that that’s not the main ingredient in most of the dishes, at least what we saw on the menu and what we tried. I don’t

03:21 – 03:27
remember, like, avocado being so featured, and yet that is the theme and that is the merchandise. Which yeah.

03:27 – 03:32
I think this is the first time they had a hard theme for Food and Wine Festival. Normally, it’s just, here, come try regional

03:32 – 03:37
foods. It’s happening. And for all of you who don’t know about the Food food and wine festival, basically, every single year,

03:37 – 03:44
they line the main veranda, the main street of California Adventure Park. They line them up with these little booths that

03:44 – 03:50
you can purchase small kind of tapas like items, very small. You can share them if you want. But, yeah, the food and wine

03:50 – 03:57
festival gets you certain dishes that you can use the little tabs to redeem. It does exclude alcohol, and it does exclude

03:58 – 04:04
some other dishes that you would have to go to the restaurant to get. So it’s not just the little booths that have themed

04:04 – 04:11
items, but also the restaurants that already serve things like in San Fransokyo or the plaza in the back, the garden plaza,

04:11 – 04:16
I think, but not necessarily with the little sip and saver pests. A lot of rules.

04:16 – 04:33
Yeah. Which I think is a a little the marketing, is I feel like this year, it’s expanded even more in more tiny booths. I

04:33 – 04:39
think last year, I don’t remember as many booths. You can correct me if I’m wrong, but I just feel like it it’s grown in the

04:39 – 04:46
amount of options. It’s that you don’t have to go up to the booth to order your, like, each individual item. You can just

04:46 – 04:52
find 1 booth, order them all there, take your tickets, and go retrieve them, which is such a time saver. Because when I f...

36: Venture ‘Beyond the Screen: Disney Leveling Up’ in Episode 36 of HPOE. Ariel and Stef navigate Disney’s groundbreaking move into developing a gaming metaverse and the company’s history with games, in general. This episode explores the fusion of iconic Disney storytelling with the interactive world of gaming, highlighting the potential for new adventures and connections. A thrilling exploration of Disney’s digital expansion, offering a glimpse into the future of entertainment for gamers, Disney aficionados, and digital explorers alike.

Learn more about the military charity Stack Up: https://www.stackup.org/

Summary of HPOE36:

Ariel Landrum 0:10
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Stef. I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

And I’m Ariel, a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:28
Here at Happiest Pod, we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Ariel Landrum 0:32
Why? Because we’re more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. So Stef, what are we going to be discussing today?

Stefanie Bautista 0:39
Well, we are actually recording in a very special place. We are recording at Stack Up Studios here in Los Angeles…

Ariel Landrum 0:47
At their Phalanx House.

Stefanie Bautista 0:48
At their Phalanx House, right. But this place is very special, because it is very video game centric. And that’s what we are going to be talking about today. So Ariel, can you give us a little bit of background about what Stack Up does here?

Ariel Landrum 1:01
Absolutely. So stack up is a military charity supporting active and veterans service members in the US and abroad. They also support anybody who is connected, who has like government connections that would also be deployed to like DoD members. And they do things like air drops, where they drop gaming equipment, and geek culture events at this spot. Specifically, they do peer to peer mental health support for veterans. And they do volunteer teams that engage with veteran outreach and community betterment. And here at the Phalanx House. They have a variety of different events, especially around the holidays for service members who may not have family in the area. They have like a D&D night, they have Year’s Eve and Christmas parties or Thanksgiving, they’ll be having a Super Bowl party here. And so it’s really wonderful nonprofit, and they embrace gaming and geek culture. So obviously a really good partner with a Geek Therapy. And we are in their one of their podcasting rooms, recording today.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01
Yeah, I mean, I wish I could kind of take a snapshot of all of this stuff, because there’s a lot of amazing things here that a gamer would only dream of having just accessible to them. I think that this is a great way for veterans to kind of connect with the things that they love. Kind of like how what we talked about here at Happiest Pod on Earth, I think the things that make us happy, and the things that make us whole and human and all those good things. You need to connect those to yourself every so often, depending on, you know, even if you’re a veteran, even if you’re an educator, even as a therapist, you got to connect to the things that you love. And I think getting back to those roots, especially for people who have been in very traumatic situations such as veterans, it’s really important to rehabilitate yourself, especially after your duty is done. Special thanks to Stephen and his crew for letting us use this space and setting us up today. Because this is amazing. And we’re very happy to be here.

Ariel Landrum 2:55
And for those of you who might not be aware of oftentimes, when Stef and I are recording the podcast, we are not in the same room, we are actually seeing each other through zoom. And so this is the first time that we actually have gotten to record in person.

Stefanie Bautista 3:07
Yeah, like in, in face to face with each other. Which is awesome, because we have very many, many conversations with each other in the car or when we’re hanging out. But whenever we’re recording, we actually are not in the same room together. So this is actually going to be very exciting because we can actually have a real conversation.

Ariel Landrum 3:27
Yes, yes. And so today because we are here at stack up and we are part of Geek Therapy, there is one a geeking genre that we have not stepped into or talked about and that is video games.

Stefanie Bautista 3:39
That’s right. I would not claim myself as an avid avid gamer. However, I still play video games, whether it’s on my phone, whether it’s on my switch that like I let die and then revive again every week. I still video game and I know Ariel you game too, right?

Ariel Landrum 3:56
Absolutely. And I think that goes to there’s actually no official definition of what a gamer is, except for it’s a person who plays games, whether for fun or professionally. But in the you know, in the media socially, in our zeitgeist, we tend to think of gamers, really people who do parse first person shooters often male, like that’s the image we have in our mind. And video games. There are a variety of video games, there’s cosy gaming, there’s sandbox play, there’s a lot of ways to do video games that isn’t just first person shooters. And when it comes to the Disney genre that does sort of help meet the middle for individuals who may not be excited to do first person shooters, but they want to do maybe puzzles, they want more world building, they want expansion even with the I would say some of their older school games that were very difficult. It really captivated like a...

#35: Step into a world where play and healing intertwine in Episode 35 of HPOE. Ariel, Stefanie, and special guest Maria delve into the transformative power of play therapy. Discover how Disney villains can become tools for empathy in therapy and how engaging with our favorite stories and characters can foster healing and growth. This episode is a heartwarming journey into embracing our inner child through the magic of play, offering insights for therapists, educators, and Disney lovers alike.

Register for the “Play Therapy: To Infinity and Beyond Conference” taking place at Disneyland and the Dinseyland Hotel from March 5-10th, 2024 here: https://www.anewhopetc.org/playatdisneyland

Summary of HPOE35: Unlocking The Healing Powers of Play

Ariel Landrum 0:03
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod On Earth. I’m Ariel, I’m licensed therapist who uses clients’ passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:13
And I’m Stef, I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn more about themselves and the world around them.

Maria Laquerre-Diego 0:20
And I’m Maria, I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist and registered play therapist who tries to find Disney and pop cultural references in everything for therapy.

Stefanie Bautista 0:29
And here at Happiest Pod, we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Ariel Landrum 0:33
Why? Because we’re more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums that you consume. So what Disney experience are we talking about today, everybody?

Stefanie Bautista 0:41
Well, we do have a special guest the welcome Maria, thank you so much for being on the podcast with us today. Maria, do you want to share a little bit about what you do as a play therapist? If no one knows what a play therapist is?

Maria Laquerre-Diego 0:52
Sure, sure. So as a registered play therapist with the Association for Play, which is based on in California, I incorporate the powers of play. And often what it comes down to is those moments that we don’t have the words to articulate what we’ve gone through, regardless of age. Play allows us to process and share those experiences with someone who’s trained to interpret play as communication.

Ariel Landrum 1:20
That’s really interesting, because I know, and I’m curious for you, I’m an art therapist, and we have very specific way in which we view art that’s different than using art therapeutically. So how do you use play as a play therapist versus a therapist who plays with their client?

Maria Laquerre-Diego 1:35
A great question, because we don’t just play with our clients. So play therapy is a model that goes on top of and includes your theory of change. So play therapy is a large umbrella, someone might be a narrative play therapist really focusing on storytelling and the powers of story, doing narrative work, but inner weaving their use of play techniques. Or they could be a solution focused play therapist or ecosystemic play therapist, right. So your theory of change will remain in play therapy is just a model that helps make the interventions more fun. And it removes the requirement to be in our brain and in our vocal space. So often, it can be really hard to talk about the hard things. And so having someone trained on the other side of the couch for you, who doesn’t need you to say the words but can give you alternate ways to express those things. That is that’s play therapy.

Stefanie Bautista 2:34
I love that in education play is a big part. But as teachers, it’s always like, “You have to stop playing now. Because we have to learn.” And it’s just like, the kids perspective is always like, “When are we allowed to play when are we going to play?” And I think this way, it’s kind of flipping the narrative a little bit and saying that, you know, we are learning through our play, but not necessarily saying you know, play as like a reward or whatever. Like it’s a way to express yourself in a way to communicate through play, because everybody talks about how body language is so important. That’s very important when it comes to play to because you are then using how you react to certain situations, how you’re interacting with other people, and how you’re doing decision making, as you know, a kid through play. It’s it’s really cool. I really love that.

Maria Laquerre-Diego 3:17
Yeah, great. Yeah. And yeah, play is learning, right? We are learning through play we have from the very I mean, when we think about infants, what what do we do we play peekaboo, right? We talk and sing songy voices that doesn’t need to go away. And so I’m, I’m excited also to talk about like using play with adults because it’s, it’s very much geared and marketed that play therapy is for children. But I use it with adults, I do it in couples counseling. It’s really helpful anytime. You don’t have the words necessarily or it’s too hard to vocalize.

Ariel Landrum 3:50
Well and for any of our listeners who have been listening to our episodes for a while episode 24 When we talked about Disney Villains we actually mentioned Maria and her talking and training on how to use villains and therapy as something that’s affirming as opposed to pathologizing.

Maria Laquerre-Diego 4:08
Love. Thank you so much. Was that from the TAGGS? That has really ...

#34: Join Ariel and Stefanie in a magical evening under the stars for Episode 34 of HPOE. Relive their enchanting experience at the Disney Animation Studios The Concert at the Hollywood Bowl, celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary. From the melodies of the LA Philharmonic to the emotional resonance of Disney classics, immerse yourself in their journey through this musical extravaganza. This episode is a blend of nostalgia, joy, and insights into creating inclusive experiences for all Disney enthusiasts.

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

HPOE34

Stefanie Bautista 0:10
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod On Earth. I’m Stef . I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:19
And I’m Ariel, I’m a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:27
Here at happiest pod, we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why?

Ariel Landrum 0:31
Because we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. So what Disney experience are we dissect interface Stef?

Stefanie Bautista 0:39
So it’s definitely an experience and it’s a experience that’s kind of very specific. If you live in Los Angeles. I had the pleasure of actually being Ariel’s date to the Walt Disney Animation Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It’s called Walt Disney Animation Studios, The Concert. I thought that this was just, you know, one off Disney event. But of course, why did I forget that it was Disney’s 100th anniversary. So they’ve been celebrating all year since last September or August. And of course, this is one of those promo events. Part of course, you know, they have concert series and everything like that, but this was very Disney 100-forward, which was great. Just to give you a little bit of background. The LA Philharmonic is the resident at the Hollywood Bowl for the summertime. They hold lots of different concerts, classical music concerts, pop music, concerts, reggae concert, hip hop concerts, but the LA Philharmonic they do, they’re scheduled there. And during the winter, they go to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Even though they’re at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. They don’t specifically do Disney things. It just happens to be that way. But I thought that it was really interesting that we went to a Disney Concert, not at the Disney Hall, but at the Hollywood Bowl? You know? Fun times! It covered a wide range of just Disney animation movies. So we didn’t see any live action movies. We didn’t go into Star Wars. We didn’t go into Marvel. This was strictly old school animation. And a lot of people were really excited for that, right?

Ariel Landrum 2:07
Yes, yes, I was definitely excited. Originally, I had bought the tickets as a package deal with my partner and another couple as way to go on a couple of date, given the SAG-AFTRA strikes going on right now, my partner is not working because he works in transportation. And he’s a 399. So they aren’t striking, but they aren’t crossing any picket lines in solidarity. And he found a job and he had to take the job in order to you know, make any money.

Stefanie Bautista 2:37
Make a living.

Ariel Landrum 2:38
Make a living. And the job doesn’t again cross the picket line. But it did involve him going all the way to Texas and being gone for like a whole month. And as a result, I needed to find a new date. So of course, I asked Stef…

Stefanie Bautista 2:52
Thank you!

Ariel Landrum 2:52
And then her friend Liz, and her husband, Benji, he was like, “Well, if you know her partner isn’t going and you have a friend coming out of town. Her name’s Dawn, how about you make it a Girl’s Day?” So we all four of us went and saw Disney Animation and even dressed up?

Stefanie Bautista 3:07
Yes, we did. We all tried. Well, me I tried to Disneybound they had their wonderful Disneybound outfits planned out, because Ariel had bought these tickets months in advance. So Ariel if you want to go first because mine was very last minute.

Ariel Landrum 3:23
So I had bought a dress that had a purple scallop top, and a very green, light green bottom. So you know, Ariel The Mermaid, and long dress covered my feet. And halter tops so no straps. And the scalp shaped did look very much like the seashells and that’s that’s what I were. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 3:46
Yeah, it was beautiful. I love that. And it was such a steal. Right? You didn’t even spend a lot of money on it.

Ariel Landrum 3:52
No, it was like, you know, talk about fast fashion. It was about six or seven bucks. So I figured even if it’s not like that cute, maybe I could like put pins on it. Or I could put like a cardigan like maybe I could make it look better than $7 but it did not look like dollars.

Stefanie Bautista ...

#33: Explore the unique roles of Disney sidekicks as they dissect how these beloved characters from classics like ‘The Little Mermaid,’ ‘Cinderella,’ and ‘The Lion King’ relate to mental wellness. Engaging discussions reveal how these animated companions, could don the titles of emotional support animal or service animal. Unravel the therapeutic significance of these animal sidekicks, blending childhood nostalgia with a deeper understanding of mental health support.

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

HPOE33

Ariel Landrum 0:11
Hello, everyone, welcome to The Happiest Pod On Earth, I’m Ariel, a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:21
And I’m Stef, I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:28
And here at Happiest Pod, we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Stefanie Bautista 0:33
Why do we do that? Well, because we’re more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums that we consume. So what Disney experience or Disney topic are we discussing today, Ariel?

Ariel Landrum 0:44
We’re going to talk about the famous Disney sidekick animals

Stefanie Bautista 0:49
Sidekick animals!

Ariel Landrum 0:50
Usually, we see them accompanied with princesses. But now we’re just seeing them more and more in general, with a variety of characters.

Stefanie Bautista 0:59
And we all know we have our favorites, right? If you go off the top your head my the will obviously the first one that comes to mind is Flounder just because he’s cute. He was like, you know, the best friend that always got your back always was just like your number one fan. And you know, we identify a lot of these sidekicks so readily with whatever princess or whatever main character that they themselves have become main characters in their own right. Much like we love our pets, me and Ariel are big animal lovers, and we do have pets of our own. We wanted to talk about the relationship between the sidekicks, these animal sidekicks and their main character, their friend, or whoever, and categorize them in a way that’s a little bit more suited to the real world with Ariel’s help.

Ariel Landrum 1:47
Absolutely. So we’re gonna do some definitions first. And for some of you who may not know, part of one of the things that I do as a mental health clinician, is I can provide assessments to see if someone qualifies for an emotional support animal. That qualification needs to meet very specific criteria. And the first one being that the individual must have a mental health disability. The disability has to match the definition for a federal ADA, including that there are functional impairments. And it significantly limits at least one or more life functions. So I have to assess for all of those things. The other thing I have to assess is, if the emotional support animal has what’s called a Nexus that’s a legal term or a relationship, where their relationship with their owner mitigates or lowers the symptoms of that disability. So it’s a lot of assessing.

Stefanie Bautista 2:46
it really is something that I feel people have embraced a lot more in, you know, the past decade or so. And knowing through the pandemic, through all of these hard times that we’ve gone through, they really do make a difference in how we live our everyday lives, how we treat ourselves how we treat the world. Me as a mother, I know that having a pet around teaches my kids responsibility. And it also teaches them to care for, you know, animals and the things around them. So let’s get into it. We want to identify exactly what categories we’re working with, right?

Ariel Landrum 3:22
Absolutely. So we all know they’re sidekicks. But Stef and I were talking and it seemed like some of them serve more functions and purposes than the other. So with these definitions, keep these in mind as we’re we’re essentially rating and grading. The first one is a pet or companion animal. So this is an animal that provides leisurely companionship to its owner. They’re kept primarily for a person’s company, often an extroverted display, amusement or entertainment. They’re usually domesticated or have a domestic breed. And they have close daily relationships with humans, they are not considered an assisted animal. So in assisted animals an umbrella category. An assistant animals and animal that works, provides assistance or performs tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability. So an assistant animal is not a pet. Very big distinction.

Stefanie Bautista 4:19
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 4:19
Is not there for just leisurely enjoyment. An assistant animal is technically a working animal. And the difference would be that some working animals or livestock, so if you think of an animal that is agricultural, for labor, it will produce like eggs or milk or a wool. An assistant animal is sort of doing like a job so they could technically be a working animal.

Stefanie Bautista 4:43
Okay, that would include like a sheep dog, right that like herd sheep and things like that.

Ariel Landrum 4:47
Yep. But an assisted animal specifically, its work involves an owner or a certain relationship arou...

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#32: Join cohosts Ariel and Stefanie on their journey for Dapper Day outfits. Immerse yourself in the world of Dapper Day at Disneyland as they explore everything from dressing tips and theme ideas to personal experiences and the pursuit of the perfect outfit pieces. Dive into discussions on vintage fashion, body acceptance, and privilege as they talk about stepping out in style.

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

HPOE32
Summary

Ariel Landrum 0:10
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Ariel. I’m a licensed therapist who uses my clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma.

Stefanie Bautista 0:20
And I’m Stef, I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:26
And Happiest Pod is where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Stefanie Bautista 0:32
Why do we do this? Because we’re more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums that we consume, especially from Disney. So Ariel, what Disney experience are we discussing today?

Ariel Landrum 0:42
We’re gonna talk about Dapper Day.

Stefanie Bautista 0:47
It has been a minute since we’ve talked about anything. And right before we started recording this, I was 100% shocked that we haven’t talked about tougher day before, because it’s one of our annual traditions, I guess biannual because it happens twice a year, right? Yeah. And it’s one of the things that me and Ariel love doing at the parks. It’s one of the things that brought us together as best friends. And so I’m just like, “Why haven’t we talked about this befire?”

Ariel Landrum 1:14
Exactly! Stef, what is Dapper Day?

Stefanie Bautista 1:17
So Dapper Day. And this is open to interpretation, right? Everybody who’s listening, I know you guys have probably heard seen, or maybe even had friends who participated in Dapper Day, it’s a chance for everybody to come dressed at the park in their best outfits. So as you all know, Disneyland opened in 1955. And in 1955, the fashion was completely different. Everybody was in dresses, men wearing in suits. Even little kids didn’t wear athletic wear. They basically wore really cute things to the park, it was as if they were going out to a special event.

Ariel Landrum 1:51
And the park was more like a park, right? The rides were not as extreme as they are now.

Stefanie Bautista 1:58
It was more like going to a park that had amusement rides, much like a carousel at Griffith Park or pony ride or something like that. So basically, Dapper Day is a way for retro enthusiast, fashion enthusiast, and Disney fashion enthusiast to come together. It dressed up and their best in the park and basically takes a million pictures. Because you when you’re dressed up to the nines like th...

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#31: In this episode of Happiest Pod, join Ariel and Stef as they recount their magical evening at Disneyland’s After Dark event, Princess Nite. Held for the first time at Disneyland Park on March 7th and 9th from 9 PM to 1 AM, this special event transported guests into a world of princesses and fairy tales. And don’t worry if you missed it, as Ariel and Stef provide an in-depth look at the experience so you’ll know what to expect if you decide to attend next time!

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

HPOE31
Summary

Stefanie Bautista 0:10
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Stef an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:21
And I’m Ariel, I’m a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and achieve mental wellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:30
And Happiest Pod is where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Ariel Landrum 0:34
Why? Because we are more than just fans and we expect more from the mediums we consume. So Stef, what Disney experience are we discussing today?

Stefanie Bautista 0:42
Well, it has been a while since we’ve talked about any sort of experience because we’ve been busy busy people lately. But somehow we both carved out time to attend Princess Nite, which is in the realm of after dark events that Disneyland hosts. Other events include Oogie Boogie bash, Sweethearts Nite, I know they did like a Throwback Nite a couple of years ago. So Princess Nite falls into that category. And basically, it’s all Princess themed. This is the first of its kind. And I know in a previous episode, I talked about attending Marriest Nites.

Ariel Landrum 1:17
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:17
Which did not get renewed this year. But in place of that me and Ariel decided, “Hey, let’s attend Princess Nite and see what it’s all about.” So today’s episode is gonna be all about that and what we think of this particular event and all the other night events.

Ariel Landrum 1:32
And I think this is a good time to talk about it not only because we love princesses, but also because it’s Women’s History Month.

Stefanie Bautista 1:39
Yes, it is.

Ariel Landrum 1:40
And so celebrating the heroic women of Disney.

Stefanie Bautista 1:45
And many of you guys know or maybe some of you don’t know that we have done a whole presentation on Disney Princesses and we have done a deep dive on what they mean to us what they mean to women everywhere and how we always want to challenge people to think about what princesses and you know what the role of women play in media, especially Disney movies, media, and you know, I guess music even.

Ariel Landrum 2:10
Absolutely. So in talking about Princess Nite, because you’ve gone to an after dark event, and this was my first one. How does it compare to Marriest Nites? Which is more holiday themed and so you have a different variety than a very targeted type of IP.

Stefanie Bautista 2:28
Yeah, I think the preparation for this one compared to Marriest Nites was a little bit different. There’s a couple stories that I’ve heard about Princess Nite not being popular when it first came out because I think it was released at the same time as Sweethearts Nite when they released the tickets. And Sweethearts Nite is the Valentine’s Day event that happens in February and that one sold out really quickly whereas Princess Nite did not. They kept advertising it on my Instagram ads. And so I was thinking, you know, maybe they didn’t sell out as fast as normal Disney events do. And normally you have to like be on your computer, getting the tickets like ASAP or else it’s you’re SOL basically. But that didn’t happen this time. And I know it. It was pretty open for a while and Marriest Nites was kind of the same thing. But I think going into Marriest Nites, because it is wholly Hollywood. It is holida...

#30: Pop culture conventions, where fans and geeks gather to celebrate their fandoms, are often the most anticipated experiences of the year. This year, Stef and Ariel were blessed with the opportunity to speak as panelists at both WonderCon and the mega San Diego Comic-Con. In this episode, they share the ups and downs of navigating pop culture conventions.

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

Stefanie Bautista 0:10
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Stef and educator who uses her passions and fandoms to help her students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:21
And I’m Ariel, I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:29
And here at Happiest Pod, we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Ariel Landrum 0:33
Why? Because we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. So Stef, what Disney Experience are we discussing today?

Stefanie Bautista 0:40
So it’s been a while since we’ve, you know, recorded and we’ve gotten back into the game. I know, as we always say, in our practices, mental health is number one. So we decided to take a little break for ourselves pay attention to what we need, the things that we need to do on our lives. But we went back into it full force with conventions. So it’s not necessarily a specific Disney experience. I think this is more of it encompasses everything that has to do with all geekiness all nerdiness anything fandom, definitely Disney is a big driving force in a lot of these things, because of all of its franchise acquirements. But conventions is our topic today. And we have done a lot of conventioning, haven’t we?

Ariel Landrum 1:27
Yes, yes. We have gone to a lot of conventions, I think maybe more you than me. Because I went to WonderCon and Comic-Con.

Stefanie Bautista 1:36
Yes. And I went to Anime Expo, which is one more than you.

Ariel Landrum 1:39
Yeah. And then we didn’t do Midsummer Scream because that’s always right after Comic-Con and I need like a break. And we are I know that both of us are going to try D23.

Stefanie Bautista 1:51
Yes, we are going to try with all of our minds and all of our Disney magic to do that. Because as you all have probably been seeing a lot of these in person conventions are coming back for the first time in 2022. So many people are eager, they’re willing to come back to the convention space to be with their communities, and also be with their tribes basically. And so what we’re finding is that a lot of these conventions are selling out. I know for myself, when I was preparing for Anime Expo this year, I did not realize that I was going to see many posts on Instagram saying they were sold out which is beyond anything that I’ve ever experienced before. I mean, for all of you con convention goers you all know that these things never sell out.

Ariel Landrum 2:35
I mean, with the exception of San Diego Comic-Con

Stefanie Bautista 2:37
With the exception of the big one. These almost never sell out. They’re usually still very niche communities that come together cosplay. But I think over the pandemic with the releases of so many platforms and so much accessibility to content. We’re just getting fans from everywhere. And it’s not a niche community anymore. As they say it’s cool to be a nerd now, right?

Ariel Landrum 3:02
It’s cool to be part of the geeky community.

Stefanie Bautista 3:05
It is it is so yeah, we attended quite a bit of conventions. We went into it. I know, both me and Ariel had been a little hesitant to be in the public space, especially since you know we are still in the middle of a pandemic. But we have been given some great opportunities, right?

Ariel Landrum 3:20
Absolutely. So So previously, before the pandemic, we would go to conventions every year, and on a different platform that’s been archived we actually went as press. And then even before that we were attendees. And even before that, I worked as a booth babe, which is somebody who passes out free things and stuff.

Stefanie Bautista 3:37
Ohh! Booth babe! Booth babe! I did not do that. I was always an attendee.

Ariel Landrum 3:43
So we have had many types of experiences of the convention. I think, the only experience that we haven’t had is being an exhibitor. I haven’t.

Stefanie Bautista 3:51
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 3:52
You?

Stefanie Bautista 3:53
But accidentally you were going to be an exhibitor this year at Comic-Con, right?

Ariel Landrum 3:56
Yes. And the other new experience that we had at WonderCon. And Comic-Con was we were panelists.

Stefanie Bautista 4:03
Yes. And I feel for us, it was just like a dream come true. I never thought that we would be at the level at this stage of I guess, in our geekiness that we would be presenting topics that people really wanted to hear about connecting with people who think just like us and share the same passions and fandoms as us and having some really meaty and meaningful conversations that lasts beyond the 45 minutes that they allow us to have.

Ariel Landrum 4:32
Yes. Being a volunteer or working at a booth working it’s essentially a W2 two or 1099 job you have to apply. When it comes to being a volunteer you also have to apply but usually volunteers. If you particularly San Diego Comic-Con because it’s so big. If you apply early and get approved, then you get passes for the whole shebang. So you end up not having to pay but you have to be prepared to work you have to be Be prepared to answer a lot of questions about the convention floor where things are about the panel’s. Really good volunteers who get chosen again next year are ones that create that connection and do the deep dive to learn about the convention and its size and where to walk around. But when it comes to doing something like press, being a professional, doing a panel, that’s it’s a whole other bar, where you have to, like, fill out paperwork, do a proposal. And when we had done it for press, you had to prove that you had a following you had people reading your content, or if you’re a podcaster, are listening to your podcast, or, you know, watching your YouTube channel, if you were saying that you were public, like a publication of some sort, you have to prove that. So for anybody who wants to have a press pass, if you don’t already work at a…

Stefanie Bautista 4:35
Like an established publication…

Ariel Landrum 4:48
You have to be willing to put in the work to make your own which means consistency, because that’s usually what garners the most attention.

Stefanie Bautista 6:02
Yes, definitely. And with those different levels, it’s kind of like, as an attendee, yes, you want to have fun a little bit. But when you have a purpose there, it’s all of a sudden, a different game, you have to make sure that you’re working having trying to have fun at the same time. But also, knowing that you have a responsibility there and knowing that you have to have a game plan coming in. Because when you’re making that jump from attendee to either volunteer or attendee to even press, you have to make sure that you’re getting what you need to get done. Because as you all know, who do attend convention...

#29: Ariel and Stef had the honor of interviewing the terrifying and regal Jessica who played Lady Tremaine at Walt Disney World. In this episode, we learn the joys, the frustrations, and the horrors of being a face character at the happiest place on earth.

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

Ariel Landrum 0:11
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Ariel, I’m a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:21
And I’m Stef, and I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Jessica Lady Tremaine 0:28
And I’m Jessica, also known as TramaineTok, I am a TikToker, Instagrammer and former Disney performer for several years.

Ariel Landrum 0:39
And at Happiest Pod, it’s a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Stefanie Bautista 0:44
Why do we do that? Because just like we’re more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume.

Ariel Landrum 0:50
So everybody, what are we discussing today?

Stefanie Bautista 0:53
Well, we have a special guest!

Ariel Landrum 0:56
She’s so special.

Stefanie Bautista 0:57
Thank you, Jessica, for joining us today. What an honor it is to have you and thank you for taking the time. And we are so excited to hopefully pick your brain a little bit about your experiences and you know, just another side of Disney that we personally do not have any idea about so.

Ariel Landrum 1:18
Yes, yes. Okay, so for our audience members, as Jessica mentioned, she is a TokToker. She is also a former face character at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. She’s also an actress and dancer for Universal Orlando Resort, and was a character performer even at SeaWorld in Orlando. So she’s going to share with us what it’s like to be a character at the parks and some of the do’s and don’ts in regards to character interaction.

Jessica Lady Tremaine 1:49
Awesome.

Ariel Landrum 1:50
So starting off the character you played with Lady Tremaine, who, for some of our audience members, in our villains episode, we talked about Lady Tremaine’s a very scary villain because she’s a realistic villain. Like I could see me walking up and actually interacting with somebody who has a very similar tendencies. Did you mean to be a Disney villain and specifically her? How does that sort of process go?

Jessica Lady Tremaine 2:14
No, essentially, the audition process is very generic. It’s what us in the entertainment industry would call a cattle call. So you go, there’s hundreds and if not 1000s of people at one audition, and they’re looking for kind of everything, or they’re not specific about what they’re looking for. And Disney is very good about being very ambiguous with what they’re asking for. So So I went to a general audition. So I was not setting out to be a villain. I didn’t even know that like, I kind of fit that type.

Stefanie Bautista 2:49
I guess that’s something you don’t really think about, like, which one? Do my features represent? I would. Now it got me thinking.

Ariel Landrum 2:58
Well, and even like that word, like type, like, how did they present to you like, “Hey, we think this is who you fit the best, or what you should be doing.”

Jessica Lady Tremaine 3:06
Well, I found out over the course of not only my audition process, but my callback process with which is what they call a face fitting. Essentially, I am you haven’t seen me in person, but I’m five foot 10. So I’m, I’m pretty tall. Um, they had me measured a little bit shorter. So I could do more fur characters, which we can talk about later. But so I’m very tall. I have a very long face with a lot of angles. So I have very strong jawline, very narrow cheeks. And I also have just like very long features. They were very particular about my eyes, my eyes are very large in relation to the rest of my features. And they really noticed me in the audition based on my facial expressions, I very extreme facial expressions, just naturally talking not even when I’m really turning it on. So that was kind of what I found out later was what they were looking at.

Stefanie Bautista 4:09
Interesting.

Ariel Landrum 4:10
I I’m like I’m hearing you describe your facial features and how detailed it is. And I’m I don’t even think I could describe myself in such detail, does it? I mean, I guess that’s part of being an actress. Like you have to kind of be able to really describe yourself and be able to understand what you might fit.

Jessica Lady Tremaine 4:31
Yeah, absolutely. And I will say that a lot of it comes from I mean, you’re therapist, it comes from a place of being criticized. So one of the most criticized industries is the entertainment industry. You know, I wasn’t just an actress, I was also a dancer. So I spent my entire life being told you’re too tall or you’re not thin enough or your proportions aren’t right. You know, all those said in polite ways are not really great to hear, but it resonates with you when you’ve heard it for so many years, so it’s easy for you to point it out.

Ariel Landrum 5:08
Okay. Okay. I think that’s really interesting to note that you have to sort of pivot your mind around what criticism is going to be because you’re stepping into a profession where it is part of the profession. There’s no real like, gentle way to say things. And I can see that being a level of self awareness, but also so like, do you feel like you have to have like a tough skin to be able to enter entertainment?

Jessica Lady Tremaine 5:35
Yeah. And actually, it it actually is helped with now being on social media. But when you especially are a villain, you are heckled from the moment you walk out onto set until the moment you walk back/

Stefanie Bautista 5:48
For sure.

Jessica Lady Tremaine 5:49
And it would happen to my face. Like I’ve told this story on my Tik Tok, where a dad told me, I was a size four at the time. And I’m 5’10”. So it’s pretty tiny. So I am, I was a size four, and a dad told me that I was fat and ugly, to my face in front of his wife and children, and a hashtag came out of it on a video that trended for a while, called “Cinderella is Savage,” Because my friend was Cinderella, my friend was Cinderella for at the time, and I told her, and she went over and said something to him. And I don’t know what she said to him. But he came over and apologized to me. So I don’t know what she said.

Stefanie Bautista 6:33
She said something.

Jessica Lady Tremaine 6:34
Yeah. So so. So so in order to cope, you have to either disassociate or something like almost have like an out of body experience? Because if you don’t, you’ll you’ll go crazy.

Stefanie Bautista 6:49
I mean, it seems like you use that as a strength for you. I mean, and that carries in your social media, because I mean, a lot of your followers do say, you know, you’re really brave for speaking up and speaking out on behalf of cast members. And I think that’s the most I mean, you can say that for any profession, but especially in a profession where you’re being scrutinized from every single angle, to be honest like that. I mean, I really appreciate it. I know all your followers do. And I mean, did that d...