Will This Be On The Test?

This week Mattie was jealous of all the attention Austin got for his solo episode, so she decided she had to do one too.

Mattie tells us all about the second woman to try to assassinate Gerald Ford, Sara Jane Moore. This happened just two weeks after Squeaky Fromme made her attempt.

Sara Jane Moore was and is an enigma. Even the people closest to her didn't know what was fact or fiction, and we deal with the most unreliable narrator ever on an exciting, extra-long episode that Austin thinks a ghost tried to keep us from releasing.

Buckle up, this one is a trip.

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We had a little bit of equipment trouble this episode and are going to have to re-record.

Mattie and Austin are sorry for any delay, but this episode was bonkers and absolutely worth the wait. Our topic is truly insane.

This week we get down to business, and by get down to business we mean Austin talks about a squirrel and Mattie buys a stock.

Then Austin tells us about The Amber Room and his get rich quick scheme of finding a legendary lost Russian treasure that was stolen by Nazis. A plan that is about as likely to work as winning the lottery.

and Mattie goes into the psychology of why we love horror movies and how liking them doesn't turn you into a psychopath.

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Mattie is back with a topic this week and she channels her rage into a scathing look at the racism, sexism, and transphobia rampant in school dress codes.

Then Austin tries to lighten the mood with a listener suggestion topic. But unfortunately, the topic is Nazis and the time they tried to overthrow the government in 1923. 10 years before Hitler became the German Chancellor.

We also talk about the inauguration, what kind of reality TV we think Barack Obama watches, and hear Austin do his incredibly bad Obama impression. 

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This week Austin went a little bit overboard with his research and we decided to, for the first time, have a deep dive into a single subject.

Austin is very excited to bring you a line-by-line analysis of The Last Great American Dynasty Written by Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner from the 2020 album Folklore. He didn't know this song was about a real person and he just had to know more.

and it turns out that he learned a lot more. like he took 10 pages of notes a lot more. So enjoy this extra-long segment about Rebekah Harkness, the boys, the ballet, and there being no accounts of her losing on card game bets with Salvidor Dali. Who is not Dolly Parton like we thought when we heard the song.

Sources:

Blue Blood By Craig Unger

USA Today

Wikipedia

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After a long week, Mattie and Austin jump headfirst into trying to distract ourselves (and as a bonus, all of you!) from the horrific events that took place in D.C.

Austin starts us off by talking about a war that wasn't exactly caused by a Football match, but it sure did escalate things. He also mentions a sports thing and you can hear Mattie get immediately annoyed.

Then Mattie talks about James Madison. Husband to the much more interesting Dolly Madison, and President of the united states the last time people stormed the United States Capitol. 

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This week, we really get down to business this year and dive right into our topics. then we go on a series of epic tangents to make up for it.

Mattie tells us all about Stockholm syndrome and how it is a very real thing, but also not a diagnosis at the same time. Then we talk about Stockholm syndrome in pop culture in the only way we know how By analyzing made for TV Christmas movies.

To follow this, Austin talks about a great New Years' topic from the long ago and forgotten age of 1999. Mostly about how crazy people were about Y2K and all the ways the world was going to end. 

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After watching a ton of Christmas movies last week Austin overcorrects and talks about the real-life sci-fi horror monsters parasitoid wasps. Seriously, you may have read a little about them, but there is just so much to this, and Austin was not prepared.

Meanwhile, Mattie talks about the history and psychology of New Years and why she hates most parts of this stupid arbitrary holiday.

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Happy Holidays from Mattie and Austin!

This week in a very merry episode we dig into the background of some holiday traditions and it gets weird.

First Mattie goes into two traditions where you go door to door around Christmas; Wassailing, which is like a combination of a pub crawl and caroling, and Mari Lwyd the Welsh horse skull that challenges you to a rap battle. 

Meanwhile, Austin talks about Mistletoe. including the plant's strange biology, why you shouldn't use it in pranks, and how if you have ever been grossed out by people kissing under the mistletoe how much worse it could've been.

And because we can't get enough Christmas this week, check out our blog, where we are watching every Lacey Chabert Christmas movie we can get in a very special event we are calling The 10 Days of Chabertmas!

In this week's episode, Austin talks himself out of wanting to go camping by telling a survival tale that is almost too bumbling to be harrowing. Mattie, who is allergic to everything outdoors,  has better survival instincts than Yellowstone explorer Truman Everts and she gets lost in Target.

Then, in a burning rage, Mattie discusses a current event where an opinion piece declares that only medical doctors should call themselves doctors and dares to attack Dr. Jill Biden. Mattie gives us the history of Doctors and details the kind of work that goes into various degrees.

We also talk about Hallmark Christmas movies and discuss our plans to write a blog about our personal favorite star, Lacy Chabert, in the 12 Days of Chabertmas. a very special not 12 day-long dive into whatever Lacy Chabert Hallmark movies we can get our mitts on. It is going to be wild. Or at least medium spicy.

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Mattie's Sources (Read with caution. Some are awful.)

Wall Street Journal

New York Times

Washington Examiner

The Daily Beast

Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster Twitter

NPR

Online Etymology Dictionary

Wikipedia: Doctor (title)

Wikipedia: Doctoral Degrees.

Franklin.edu

AcademicPositions.com 

Indeed