Eva Benefield (on surviving the Black Swan Murder)

Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert experts on expert. I'm Dan Shepard. I'm joined by Lily Padman. Hi. Today we have Eva Benefeld on and she is a true crime survivor, author, influencer, and founder of Ghost Cowboy Apparel. She has a new memoir out called Ghost Girl Surviving the Black Swan Murder. So Eva is the daughter of the victim of the Black Swan Murder. This is a wild story. Wild. The wildness had begun long before the official wild. Yes. Yes. She's been through everything. Please enjoy Eva Benefeld. Thank you. I'm Dan Shepard. How are you? How are you? Hi. Nice to meet you. Welcome. Thank you. Sorry. I know you were early. Sorry, who made you wait? I was, well, I was like early once today. I was late to the airport this morning. The layover was 10 minutes. Oh, no. I don't know how it happened. It said 53 minutes. I was like, okay, I have time. Oh, that's so stressful. I wasn't stressed out until I realized that we were boarding when I got there. Then I was like, well, I don't even be stressed anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, cheese. Yeah. I woke up late this morning and New York wasn't bad. LaGuardia wasn't bad. And then I think I flew into LAX maybe once before. Oh, really? Yeah. I used to go to San Diego a lot, but I haven't really spent a lot of time here. Are you going to be here for a little bit? No. I'm going back to Charleston and Laura. Well, you don't get to buy room. Did you find today? I flew in today from New York. I flew into New York yesterday. Okay. You flew all over Charleston, New York yesterday. Here, Charleston. What time did you take off? I took off at, but no, we boarded at 550. Oh, New York. Oh, this is miserable. Do you feel terrible? So I woke up at 4.15 yesterday to get the airport to go to New York. Okay. I got to bed at like 10.30 last night, but I woke up at 4.15, and I was like, I have 20 more minutes. I'm just going to sleep until, you know, the driver text me, did not. It was 5.15, because I was waking up all night, like, oh my God, I have to go. I hate them. And you recently slept in Pesturi duty, too. That was a couple of years ago, so you did your research. So you kind of have a pattern of, yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, no, I don't. I wake up at 5 or 6 every day. Hatch alarm clock. Oh, and it like rises slightly. It's a hatch alarm. It's life changing. Tell me about it. Let's do an ad for them. Yes, I would love that. It's just an alarm clock, and it's a sound machine, too, because I love my rainstorm. Yeah. And then it lights up over the course of like 10 or 15 minutes, and it gets brighter and brighter, and the music gets louder and louder, and then you wake up. Gently, gentle wake up. Well, my fear would be, it would be the proverbial frog in hot water being brought to a boil. You know that old adage. Yeah. That if you slowly and incrementally raise the loudness, I might just get used to it as I was sleeping. Does that make sense? It's supposed to be like hitting, shaking out of, I know, but it's bad for your sister. Yeah, I like it. I'm scared. You know, wake up with some accordus oil. Sometimes now I wake up before it starts really going on. Oh, you do. Yeah, do you pick a song or is it a sound you wake up to? It's a sound. I have retro alarm clock. Oh, okay, so it is a little bit. Yeah, I'll get your attention. Eva, right? Yes, Eva. I'm dyslexic, so I'm like, yeah, that's definitely Eva, but then I'm like, also, who knows? Eva, I get all variations. And when I see Eva, I hear Eva. Did you like that? That was a big elementary school thing. Did people play you on the playground with saying Eva like that? Oh, yeah. They did. Yeah. This is like Monica was trying to hide her indianness and then then it like back them came out, which are too young and all about, but it was a huge movie about a young Indian girl in England learning to play soccer. And I really exposed me because it was like, oh, she looks like that girl. So she must be indian. She wants to be a great soccer player. Yeah, obviously. So you grew up in Charleston. You're born in 2001? Yes. The book, one of the characters is kind of the low country is what we call it. Yeah. Explain the low country to us. Have you all ever been there or anywhere in the low country? I've been to Charleston so, so long ago, but yes, I've been there once. And it feels like your time traveling. It's like the most charming. It does. It's kind of like the beach, but we have the beach there too, but it's marsh. It's not rocks and the only rocks we have over the jetties and that's for sediment moving and stuff. And then you smellplough mud at low tide. You can hear little fiddler crabs rolling around everywhere and you'll see mudminos and it's just serene and quiet and peaceful and hot and humid. And it's beautiful. And historic as hell. It's probably like among the oldest cities still thriving. Oh, yeah. Is it Isle of Palm? Is that near it? Yeah, that's where I live. Oh, that's where you live. Yeah. Yeah. Where does Danny McBride live? So he lives on Sullivan's. My favorite restaurant's on Sullivan's. He also frequents there. So I'm seeing him all the time. Is it exciting? Kind of. I mean, everybody that's local is like, oh, it's Danny. Yeah. Do you know Bab and Bob Miller? No, I don't think so. That would be so cool. I mean, they live in Isle of Palm. I feel like I'm saying it wrong. Welcome to my world. Every time I say something. Every time you say a word, you can say IOP and I'll know the rest of it. Okay. Perfect. Yes. That's one of my best friends growing up parents and they moved there 10 years ago. They love it so much. I'm sure if I was running around, if you showed me a picture, I would see them. Yeah, it's small, right? It's small and I'm an avid runner. So I will run into people in like Mount Pleasant or downtown. And if I talk to them, I'm like, oh, yeah, I live on all the palms. I'm like, oh, my God, I've seen you running. Yeah, that's me probably. You're like the local forest calm. I think so. Yeah. So you have a pretty idealic childhood at the start. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about your relationship with mom and dad. I know they differ. But yeah, just tell me about that a little bit. Brought up like any other southern household it was loving. It was my mom was just a sweet heart and gentle and kind, wouldn't hurt a fly. And she talked a lot. My dad was very quiet, very chill. So she was talking all the time and he would just let Renee talk, church every Sunday and just you can't complain. Brothers and sisters. Two half brothers. Okay. So they're 14 and 11 years older than me on my mom's side. Got it. So she had already had a marriage? Yes. Again, I didn't grow up in the south. I grew up in the heathenest north. Divorce was like, who wasn't? Was that an issue? I think so. My mom side of the family didn't really like the idea of it because divorce is just not especially when you're a very avid churchgoer. It's kind of frowned upon. And I also still to this day don't really know all of the things about that marriage about what they thought of my dad. I also don't get to see them very often. They're upstate South Carolina. But I also I think it's just been kind of hush hush. Nobody wants to talk about it. So it's just the elephant in the room sometimes. Yeah. And you were so young when she died that I'd imagine too. There would have been many, many conversations about her previous life in her opinion when you were old enough to like understand all those details. Right. But also in the south, you don't really talk about your dirty laundry. I'm from Georgia. There's just a lot of like we're sweeping that under the rug and not really back then anyway. It's still now. When I was young, my mom, she was very picky about the moms that she would hang out with. And I would always ask why because I would have friends and she really wouldn't hang out with their moms. She was like, you'll get to an age where you'll understand. And one day I got to the age where I understand, like once everything happened with my dad, I could hear the parents talking. I could understand and pick up on especially in Charleston, South Carolina. It's a little pretentious sometimes. Yeah, totally. We can sweep things under the rug very easily if we have to. Yeah. Okay. So tell me about the morning when you're 14, you're fixing to go to school and you and mom have a little disagreement. Tell me about that morning. So I was a brat. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I was 14. I was moody. My dad was out of town. I'm almost taking me to school. She was a talker and I just did not want to talk. So we were in the car and I just was kind of being a brat and she dropped me off and I got out of the car and she was like, love you and I slammed the door and I walked inside and I also now realized I had very bad anxiety going to school. I didn't know that it was anxiety until later, but every morning it was like a stomach ache and kind of shaky and I didn't realize until now. I'm like, oh, that was freaking out a little bit every day before school. So I was just kind of in my own little world, slammed the door, went to school. That was that. What was happening at school? Do you suppose that was giving you anxiety? So I just switched from a smaller school to it's the second largest school in South Carolina. Oh wow. So it was a big culture shock. I was private up until middle school and I went into a smaller public school for middle school, but it was still just a huge change seeing all of that. So I think it was that a little bit that just kind of threw me for a loop every day. Yeah, a humongous high school. Yeah. As is scary. So after school, you're expecting mom to pick you up. That was the routine. And she did not answer her phone. I was waiting at the carpool line and she's 10c'd be late. She could have been late to her own funeral and it would have been normal. So I was like, okay. I'm gonna give her some grace, but then 30 minutes went by and still nothing. I tried calling or I tried texting her and just nothing. - At no moment where you're like, oh, I slammed the door, she's teaching me a lesson. Was there any part of your brain that was like, oh, maybe she didn't pick me up on purpose? - No, my mom was never one to hold a grudge. I probably had texted her earlier that day. I know I was texting in the group chat with her and my dad first period that day, so I didn't think she was holding anything against me for that moment. - Right. - So how did you get yourself home? - A friend from the private school, she switched that school to. I was like, hey, can you give me your right home 'cause my mom's never been found, so her and her mom took me home. - And when do you start getting nervous when you get home? - I show up to the front door 'cause I didn't have my key knocked on the door. She didn't answer. And every spring and every fall, she loved fashion. She had so many clothes, she had two of the same item and almost every single thing. Some with tags on it still went like a problem. - Was her name Monica Pat? - Yeah, exactly. (laughing) - She switched her closet out. She had a huge walk-in closet and then she put everything in tubs and she would be up until two, three in the morning. - Yeah. - Switch her closet out. - Yeah, it's almost wintertime. We gotta get the fur out. - Oh yeah. - So I was like, okay, maybe she's just sleeping 'cause she was not answering and I went knocked on the door, didn't hear anything back and at that point, my friend's mom was like, hey, let's just go get some dinner and then come back. So we went to Chick-fil-A, sat down, got some dinner. - You left. - I went back, still nothing. And the house, their room was to the left of the front door behind some bushes. So I went and I crawled into the bushes and their lights were off, but also still not that unnormal because my mom hated overhead lights. She liked natural lights. So I was like, maybe it's getting darker out. So she just wants to circadian rhythm and I saw kind of a silhouette and I didn't really want to make anything out of that, but I went to my friend's mom and I was like, hey, something's wrong. I think we need to get in the house. I mean, it was just us three girls, so we went across the street to the neighbor and the neighbor he and his wife came out and he's huge tall dude and went and just busted the door down. - Are you first to go in? I had to imagine it's your house. - I went in briefly and I kind of looked and I went back out and my neighbor went back in. My dog, Sally, he was the sweetest golden retriever you'll ever meet in your entire life was mean. He was being mean to my neighbor so he came out and said, hey, you need to come get Sally. He'll bite me. And so I went and I got Sally and that's when I saw my mom. So I took Sally out and my neighbor, I waited a few minutes. My neighbor came back out and just shook his head at my friend's mom and his wife. And so that's when I kind of knew okay. - Something happened. - Things not good. - Oh no. - I was sweet of Sally though that he was like, she can't protect herself right now. I had to keep everyone away from her. - I've never seen him like that. And to this day he's never, never been like that again. - Yeah. - So what is it like to find mom that is terrifying as your first hope like we just need to get a real hospital? - Did you like run in when they were taking their head? - No, I didn't want to see that. I just knew, you know, at that point. Yeah, I hadn't answered anything if she was even mildly unconscious. She probably would have came to eventually. - Oh right, right. I had a gut feeling and I knew. So I just kind of got up because instinctually, I think everybody started calling my sister-in-law and 911 and everything. I was like, I know what's about to happen. I don't want to see the gurney. I'm going to go to the other house. - Yeah. - So I went across the street, sat down. - Had she had any health scares prior to that? - No, you know, greens, powders are a big thing now. She was on that in the 90s. Like she was healthy, always working out, always going on runs and walks, drinking her protein shakes, you know, like the quest chips. She was having a special order of those from the old brand that used to own it. - Oh my gosh. - She was into quest chips back then? - Yeah, I remember I was like five or six she was going on advocate.com and getting quest chips from advocate. - Oh my gosh. - Yeah, always very, very healthy. - Yeah, crazy unexpected. - So that was just the furthest thing from what I got back. - And she had 75% blockage in an artery? Is that the conclusion? - Yeah. - So she had a heart attack and died. - Yep. - And you're 14 and you're at a new school and your dad's out of town. How long does it take for him to get home? - He got home. It was middle of the night that night. - It was the same day. - Yeah, my sister-in-law and my mom's ex-husband came to pick me up. And so we went over to my brother's house and I did my homework and went to bed and then my dad woke me up probably two or three in the morning. Were you in a state of shock at that moment? - I think so. I don't think I really ever had like a full grief moment. I think that I was just so shocked and I was at school for three days. That was a Wednesday. I was out Thursday, Friday, went back Monday. Just tried to get back to normal. - And were people urging you not to do that? - Not really. My dad and my brother and my sister-in-law were just kind of like, do what you would ever want to do. - Yeah, right. - Yeah. And how was your dad taking it? - He, I think, held it together for me. I didn't see him really break down until our funeral, which was a couple days later, but that was the only time I saw him break down. And he would console me when I came to him about it and just say, I miss her too. I don't think that he wanted to show me that he was mourning. 'Cause I think he wanted to stay strong. - Yeah, how did you and dad's relationship evolve after? - So we were already pretty close. I was always kind of tagging along the lows and helping with house projects and doing whatever. And we just got even closer. That was like nine months of pure fun. He kind of did whatever I wanted to do. - Yeah, you kind of have leverage at that. - Yeah, so I mean, I remember I had been begging to go to San Diego for so long. And I think a month after that, he was like, so guess what, we're going to San Diego. - Yeah. - No way. - It's like anything I can do to help cheer her up. - Yeah, and also just let's live life. Were you carrying a guilt over your last exchange? - That weighed on me for a little bit. And I mean, the more I talked to my dad about it too. 'Cause he knew that was something. I can't keep a secret. I can't tell a lie. So I just immediately went to him. I was like, this is the last interaction we had. And he was like, you know that that is not what your mom would remember you by. - Exactly. - Or you should remember your mom by that meant nothing to her. - Yeah. - And as a parent of teenage kids, that's standard is. - They're just randomly like terrible to you for no reason. - You're fine. It's just the way. - Yeah. - Quickly go like, no, I didn't do shit. This is just happening. - Yeah. - When did the Bible versus every morning start? - I think it was towards the end of my high school career. Because I could drive. I was out of the house a lot. He mentioned it a couple times. It hurt him a little bit when I got my first car and could get out of the house because I was never around anymore. That was something that he brought up in two different conversations we had about Ashley, which was like you're never home anymore. I miss you. As soon as I gave you your car, you were just gone. - Yeah. - And so I think that was kind of his way of connecting after that. - Well, sorry, what is the Bible for? What, I don't know, what is that? You just did it every morning. - Every morning he sent her a Bible verse. She always woke up to a Bible for years. - Oh, that's lovely. Okay. - Yeah, which later comes into play. - Oh, I got it, the circle moment. - Yeah. So during that nine months after your mother died, you did specifically ask him, do you think you'll ever remarry? - I asked him the night that he came home after my mom died. That was like my first question. He gave me the whole spiel of like I've seen a lot of death and I'm here for you and we'll get through this together. And then I asked, are you gonna get remarry and have kids? And he said, no, I mean, it was like probably three in the morning. - Yeah. - He was just blown in from Texas and he was like, I don't think so, no. - Do you understand what his job was? He was a consultant for defense contractors. Do you know what was kind of? - I think. - Yeah, it seems like an abstract job to have your hands around as a kid. - He had some crazy technology. He was a brain guy. Encryption was his forte. So he was doing a lot of encrypting on some crazy government projects and kind of consulting the military and just anything that needed protecting. He'd have like prototypes of stuff I'd go to his office and I was 10. I didn't really know what I was looking at, but I remember some of it. I can't even wrap my head around it now. So nine months later, he's in Florida, right? Where he meets Ashley? - Yes, yeah, they did meet. - He was at a dinner or something. - Yeah, something in Palm Springs. - Palm Beach? - Palm Beach, is that it? - Palm Beach. - Palm Springs is here, okay. - But she was working for the Trump campaign. - Yeah. - So definitely, she was probably in Palm Beach. She was probably in Palm Beach. - That was definitely it. - Okay, so they met. Now, this is crazy, right? This is a little chunk as wild. - Yeah. - They met and then 13 days later, they got married. - Yeah. - And she's 24 and he's 54. - Yep. And you are 15? - 15. - Okay. - Explain the first time you are made aware of Ashley. - So we were in the car, he was picking me up from school 'cause I couldn't drive yet. I was 15 and so he picked me up and he always had his conference calls on speaker. And he picked me up from school. We were on the way home, conference call on the speaker phone and I hear them talking about this conference that they were gonna have the next weekend in North Carolina and they said, "Doug, are you gonna bring your girlfriend?" - Oh, man. - And I was 15. So that week or two prior, I had seen him kind of night and bed on his phone like sitting a heart emoji or you know, like a kissy face. So I just kind of put two and a together and I was real quiet at first when he got off and he said, "What's wrong?" He said, "Why don't they talk about your girlfriend?" He said, "Oh, they got me confused with another guy." It's not me. Thank you. I saw you texting a hard emoji to someone last night. It's not my girlfriend, we're just friends. I said, "We'll have y'all gone out to dinner." And he was like, "Yeah." And I said, "We'll have you kiss." And he was like, "Yeah." I said, "So good." Oh, dating y'all. Yeah, you're like, "We're gonna be friends more than friends." Yeah. So it's exactly what they said on the phone. Yeah. So I was like, "Okay." That one, I didn't really know what to say. I was just like, "Hey, I trust you. If this is making you happy." Right, 'cause you don't have any ID issues 24. You don't have any ID anything about them, right? No clue. Kids have varying opinions, right? I've talked about this when my own daughter is like, "Okay, so if I die," was mom allowed to remarry. Funnily enough, the verdict was, "Mom can remarry, but I can't." Yeah. Okay. So, I don't know why it's that way. But at any rate, also between the two of them, there's a much different reaction to that. Right. So I'm wondering, would it have been your wish that you're dead, never dated again? Or were you like, "He needs a date and not be lonely?" I don't even know where I stood at that point. I feel like I was annoyed. But I didn't think that I would go any further than that. One second, he's single, next second, he has a girlfriend. It wasn't introduced in any sort of slow way, like, you know, start bringing her over. And this is a friend. And then it was just kind of boom, we're dating. I think that if it had been that way, I would have been a little more pushing against it. Like, "Hey, no, this isn't cool." Yeah. But just because I had no choice but to kind of react. I mean, like, "Oh, okay." I didn't get a change. Well, in none of the scenarios I modeled out with my own children was anyone allowed to date within nine months. I think even with mom being allowed to re-marry, it was like a couple of years. I'm glad I just heard that she was dead yet. So I was kind of like, "Exactly, that's all I want." Yeah, you're dealing with such upheaval. This is interesting. I have a friend who has been through a similar thing. Her mother died. And then her father, he married very, very quickly to also kind of like a pretty young and very fast sort of random. It's more common than he would think. I've heard a lot of stories since then. People were like, "Yeah, men just re-marry a lot faster." They can't handle it, yeah. What's funny is as I'm learning this story, 'cause by the way, I didn't follow any of this, right? Like, I wasn't aware of the Black Swan murder. Okay, yeah, it was a blind. Yeah, I don't want to any of those shows. I don't want 48. Now I've seen 48 hours of research in you, but I had no clue that that had happened. So when I'm first finding out that your dad married this woman 13 days later, I'm going, I need an explanation. Right. My conclusion, tell me if I'm completely off base, which is like, she's sending him naked photos and stuff. She's very sexually engaged, and he's very religious, and he can't have sex with her if they're not married. So literally this thing is like fast-passed, just to have sex. Well, so here's also something I don't think that she was as religious as she made out to be to my dad. I think that she just was like, if that's what it's going to take, then I'll get married right then and there. You know, like in her head, she wasn't saved, but outwardly she was like, yeah, I'm a Christian too. So we have to. Oh jeez. It only worked to her benefit to fast-pass it. Which again, I try to resist my poking at religion, but therein lies one of my issues, like, what are we talking about? You got to get married, and you got to make some crazy decision to appease. When people do it that fast, 'cause I have friends that are getting married now, I'm like, we're 25. Yeah. That's true. I have time. You don't know these people? Exactly. You don't even know you yet. Really? Our brains are just starting to develop. Exactly. When did you meet her? The next day. After the wedding, the secret wedding. Wait, yeah. So I wasn't even at the secret wedding. They were dating, and then the next day, they were still dating, but I met her. And then the next day, to my knowledge, they were married. So it was like three days, I thought the introduction, and then the next day, yeah. Yeah, explain the introduction. I think you said that you anticipated them going like, okay, so we're gonna be dating. And then your worst case scenario is like, God, did he propose to her? Yeah, so the next day, he was like, actually, shoes in town. Let's go pick her up from the airport. I said, okay, so I went and got in the truck, and we went and picked her up from the airport. And he was just kinda making the small talk for us. He's like, she's a ballerina and teaches children, and she's done this and done that. I was like, okay, cool. Were you shocked by the fact that she was nine years older than you? I didn't know the exact age. It just kinda went over my head at that point. I don't really remember the rest of that day. I know it was just kinda small talk, and I think they went and did their own thing, and I went and hung out with my friends. The next day, I was getting ready to go to my friends house, and my dad came upstairs, and he was like, you need to come downstairs, and we need to have a family chat. And it struck me a little weird that he said, family chat. - Yeah, yeah. - Why don't you get the non-family member out of here? - Exactly, you mean me and you? Yeah, we can do that. - He said, no, I think we all need to go downstairs and talk, and I said, I don't have anything to say to her. Y'all are dating good for you. The only thing that I would go and sit downstairs for right now with her is if you were gonna say you want to propose. And those words came out on my mouth, and then the next second, he said, we're married. So I wasn't legally allowed to drive my car without an adult with a full license yet, so I got in the front seat, made them both get, it was a two-er-g-brangler. So they had to go crawl into the back seat. - Oh my God, how sad and sad it was. - It's such a real, I was angrily driving over to my friends house. They took my car, and I was just at my friends house. - Oh my God. - And this is a lot to process. - Had your dad displayed any previous kind of rash and pulse of decisions, or is this completely out of character? - That was so out of character. I mean, he was usually very slow and meticulous and thought about everything. - He's a new encryption for Christ. - Yeah. - Yeah. - The biggest life lesson I learned up until that point was measure twice cut once for him, 'cause I was always doing home projects. So he was always very meticulous about decision-making. - Whoa. - Yeah. - So I'm going to say this. This is also interesting. Your friend moves into your house. - Yes. - Tell me about that. - So that was in the fall, right when school started when I found out about Ashley and my dad. She moved in that December, right after Christmas. I was at a lacrosse kind of showcase thing up in North Carolina, and my dad and Ashley were there. We all went together, and I was in the middle of a game, but I stepped out off the field, and I saw that she had texted. She was like a friend that I had in school, but never out of school. That was freshman year, so we were in sophomore year now. And we were still in touch, but never really hung out, and she had called me a bunch of times and texted me. I called her back, and she said, "Hey, this is really last minute in random, "but I need somewhere to stay. "Can I stay with you?" And I said, "Yeah, sure, why not?" So I asked my dad, and my dad was like, "I mean, we have three extra bedrooms upstairs. "Y'all have at it, so we went and picked her up. "She moved in." - Wow. - Stay tuned for more armchair expert. If you dare, we are supported by all state. Checking all state first could save you hundreds on car insurance. Not checking that your keys are actually in your hand before you close the car door. Have you ever stood in a parking lot full of sun, staring at your keys sitting right there on the seat four inches away and completely useless to you? It's a very specific kind of humbling. Yeah, checking first is a good idea. 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Yes, that was pretty quick. I would say that I started realizing I didn't have her way, so she would go to my dad. And my dad would be like, well, you've got to do this, 'cause Ashley, you know. And your dad wanted her to step in and be a motherly figure 'cause you didn't have one anymore. Right. But she wasn't a good match for that role, right? I mean, again, she's nine years old. Exactly. She was eight years old, both of my brothers are married and I'm very close with my sister-in-law, my oldest brother's wife. She had moved in right after my mom passed to kind of help with house stuff and my dad was out of town a lot still traveling so it was me and Bev, and she taught me everything that I needed to know at that point in my life. And I was like, you know, I'm good, I don't need another 20-something year old, I have Beverly. So I was nice to Ashley, but as soon as she started to put her foot down about certain things and say, well, no, I'm gonna tell your dad or you have to do this, or I'm gonna take your car away. The first time she threatened the car, that pissed me off, and I was like, no, we're not doing that. And were you afraid of confrontation or no? - Not really. - Okay, so you would fight back in those moments? - Kind of, I'm not a confrontational person, but I will get my punches in when I can, you know? So I'm gonna push over. - Yeah, so if she said something, I'd try to be polite about it at least until if she kept pushing, that's when I'd just kind of be like, no, I'm not doing that. - Yeah. - And as this wild experiment is running its course, what are you noticing in the nature of their relationship? It's super all over each other. Love you, love you at first. Very much, PDA all the time, it was disgusting. - Yeah. As time went on, it was Ashley just bitching about something constantly. And my dad just kind of sitting there and taking it and listening. He even said this or somebody said this. And my dad was quiet and chill. So he just kind of take it and not say anything. - He's like, "Get me back to my encryption." - Yeah, exactly. I'm about to hang off this. That's why he's out of town all the time. - Yeah. - So then she started going with him. - What was the event that led to him firing the gun in the house? - I wasn't home. Neither was my friend that moved in with us. I think what had happened was she was upset about something. And I mean, when she got upset about something, she was in his ear just non-stop. And I think at that point, from my understanding, it was out on the counter or he was cleaning it or something and she just would not stop. And he got frustrated and just shot it up into the roof. And that's her app. - Part of the thing they bonded over Monica when they first met is they both love guns. - She had like multiple guns on her the night they met. - She was a publics one time, just me and her. And she made a comment about a gun. And I was like, "Are you packing?" And she pulled up her shirt and showed me. I said, "We are in public." - Yeah. - And Mount Pleasant South Carolina. There's nothing here that's gonna harm us. It was just kind of a weird flex. I think she thought it was cool. - Like tough for something. - Well, also she's campaigning for Tron. But she's really kind of the prototype. - Yeah. - She's very typical. - All the boxers. - Trunk girl. - Yeah. - Yeah, loves guns. Has multiple guns on her. - Oh boy. - It's 24. - Okay. - God, I would of course love to know her entire childhood how we end up as her. - I know. - It's so tempting the whole time I'm learning about her to really assign her a lot of different personality disorders I know about. She feels very, very borderline personality. - I think it was either that or history on it. - Yeah. - It was whatever Amber Hurd has. It was the same as what we discovered. Because she either thought your day was a savior or that he was evil. - Like evil killer out to get us all. - Yeah, those were the two options on the table. He's everything or he's nothing. Okay, so in '17, so at this point they would have been together for I guess a year and a half or something. - Yeah, something like that. - She has to have a ballet studio. - Right. - Once again, this feels very transparent. I hate to sound so judgmental. But it's like she wanted to open an international ballet company that would be really inclusive, meaning it would have all these people that normally wouldn't have gotten taken to a ballet company. IE, she never got to, you know, it sounds like she's trying to figure out a way where I'm going to create a version where I would have been there. - Yeah, that was exactly it. She wanted that, I think she didn't make the cut for ballet. - Yeah. - And so she wanted this ballet company. And my dad wanted to give her the entire world on a silver plot. I was like, okay, let's make it happen. And he was smart and he knew how to pull together investors and make things happen fast. So that's what he did. - Wow. - Yeah. - So they start this ballet company and lots of ballerinas fly from all over the world to come audition and become members of this. - And she's like running, yeah. - But she mostly doesn't even show up. Oh, tell me. - She was very there the first few months. It was towards the end when she wasn't showing up as much anymore after they announced the pregnancy. So that's when she was starting to have bad pregnancy and so she wasn't showing up to the ballet things anymore. Another thing that I think happened is some of the investors and my dad probably. And I also, do you have to take this with a grain of salt because I tried to stay out of it as much as possible. - Sure. - But for my understanding, my dad and the investors realized, hey, she kind of acted like she could run this entire thing but she can't. Let's pull somebody down from New York that actually knows what the hell she's doing. So they pulled down this woman who started running things appropriately and trying to get things pulled together more properly than she was. And I think that she did not like the power being taken away from her. So she started acting out. And that's when she just vowed herself. - At this moment, and you're getting older and wiser and more savvy, right? Are you assessing this as like, oh yeah, this is just a gold digger using my dad to execute all of her dreams? - Yeah, kind of. I mean, there was a day that my dad came home with a duffel bag of cash. And I just kind of looked at it and I asked him, I was like, what's that, where'd you get that? And he said, he didn't say much about it. It's for the ballet. I said, okay. And then he said, just don't take snapchats of it and just show your friends. We don't want people knowing this is in the house right now. - Oh, geez. - Yeah, it's okay. You're like, what? Were you like, get me out of here? It's time for me to be out of here. - I was just so enthralled in my own lives. - Yeah. I just was kind of letting them do whatever they wanted to do. And then I was trying to make it through high school. - Yeah. - And do you think you were running as fast as you could a little bit to stay focused on things that wouldn't have you thinking about the fact that your mom died? - Yeah, I was always out hanging out with friends or at lacrosse practice or just doing anything that I could to get away. I started going to the gym every morning before school and then had lacrosse practice after school and it was always, yeah, you didn't want me there. - It's funny and sad that your dad would accuse you of kind of deserting him when in fact, he brought a force into your house that would make you leave. No one was going to hang around and sit around a table and act like this is the dream family scenario. - Right, yeah. And I was holding a grudge against my dad for so long about that. And he would always deny and I'd be like, well, you left me or you're resenting my wife. So he used that line a couple times while you're resenting my life. So, you know, why should we do this? Or be nice to you or whatever? Not that my dad was ever mean, but why should she be nice to you if you're resenting her? Until it was after she left that I think he had come to a moment and was like, oh, Eva, that must have really hurt 'cause he eventually came to apologize and that's all I was looking for. - Yeah. - It was some sort of apology. - He got sucked into this vortex at a very vulnerable time for him as well. - Yeah. - It's another high horse I'm tempted to sit on, which is like I watch the Anthony Bourdain documentary and it's so heartbreaking. - Yeah. - And yeah, it falls in love with this really young woman. He gets really insecure. It's a very bizarre relationship. I've seen so many men, older men who get with young women if they can't handle it. - Yeah. - It's not good for them. - It's just like a distraction in the honeymoon stage and you know, he was like, this is great, nothing's wrong. - She's hot. - And then he's in too deep. - Yeah. - And he owns a fucking ballerina company all of a sudden. - Right. Yeah. - Like what the hell? - Yeah. - So the pregnancy, did they wait a while to tell you about that or how do you learn that she's pregnant? And I can't imagine you are excited about that. - Yeah. - 'Cause that means she's around permanently in some sense. - Yeah. So me and my friend that had moved in, we're sitting in my bed and they came up into my room and they were like, hey, we have an announcement and my dad framed it like you are gonna have a baby sister and y'all are gonna share birthdays. 'Cause her due date was right around my birthday. That was the worst way to see me. - Oh my God. - That was so male of him. He didn't realize like, no, I already feel less important 'cause he's right. And now my birthday is not my birthday. - Yeah. - It was great news. - And or naming her Eva and you're going away. - Actually, you're being sent off. - Yeah. - You don't exist anymore. - So after she got pregnant, this kind of escalates the craziness. Yeah, getting pregnant. I guess in order, I think what seems most relevant, plot-wise is she moves back to Florida with her mom at some point. How do we go from getting pregnant? We have an announcement to her moving down. - She was going back and forth a little bit more just because she was having a bad pregnancy. And then eventually, one day asked, where's Ashley? And my dad said, oh, she's having a really bad pregnancy. We decided that it's best for her to be taken care of by her mom. 'Cause my dad was traveling so much still. She was just down there in Florida and that was that. And then I came home one day from school and her car was gone in all of her weird little hot glue seashell pictures off the walls were gone and a note was on the bed. - And what did the notes say? - I have no idea. I just remember my dad reading it and looking crushed and just going silent. I actually left the house when I found all of that and I was going over to my sister in the house because I was like, I don't want to be around that. - Yeah. - And she said, no, turn around, go be with your dad. So I went and I turned around and he just, he went very quiet. - Where you like, what happened? - I don't even remember if words were exchanged rather than she's gone or she left me. - Oh, Jesus. - Yeah, so at this point, I'll add that the ballet companies now get shut down. It costs Doug like a hundred grand. - Yeah, so it's increasing. - She now lives with mom. - And she's pregnant still. - Yeah, she's pregnant. And now she starts this narrative that she's pretty convinced Doug killed Eva's mom. - Yes. - Oh my God. - Yeah, she did that along with, he's out to kill me and her and he's beating me and he's beating her and poisoning me, yeah. - He's like figured out in her mind that he had poisoned Eva's mom and so now he's poisoning me. - She was pulling medical records for my mom. She was trying to get the grave, Doug, yeah. I didn't know that again until after, but I knew about the poison stuff. It was like a really weird thing while she lived with me was they were obsessed with teas. We had a tea drawer and I was an avid coffee drinker and my dad for so long which was another weird thing that I picked up on because it was always coffee with my mom every morning coffee. And then all of a sudden the coffee's gone to teas there and every kind of eclectic weird tea you can get and he would send her boxes of tea down the floor or take them to her and so she eventually came to the conclusion, oh these teas must be what's poisoning me That's why I'm having some. such a bad pregnancy. - Oh, my God. - So she started going to the doctors in Florida and they would run all these tests and they couldn't find anything. So she would go from doctor to doctor to doctor and try and get them to run more tests and do more labs because she was convinced until one of the doctors fired her as a patient and they said get out of my office. Nobody was fitting her narrative and her agenda so she was getting mad. - Would you agree that she's now significantly less stable than she was when she arrived? - Yes. - So did you have any kind of theory on what was the catalyst for that? Do we think it was like being pregnant and hormones? - Now more than ever, I think that she just stopped getting her way as much and you can only play that part for so long before you start to get frustrated with the outcome. And so I mean, it just happened to her in prison. She got put into what's the word solitary confinement. Yeah, because she assaulted a cop in prison and they moved to a new prison in January. So I think she was probably playing like pretty nice girl and then wasn't getting her way still and got frustrated and assaulted a cop. Same thing. - Oh, man. - Okay, so now it's getting really, really dicey for your father because she's starting to accuse him and call people and child protective services now getting involved. And your father is under the weight of these accusations. She has the baby and Monica immediately starts hyperbaric chamber treatments to rid her and the baby of the poison that her dad-- - It went to 25 treatments or something. - They let her-- - 26 consecutive days, 40 hours of treatment. Yeah, there's a video of the pictures of the baby in this hyperbaric chamber so that she can get the poison out. - It almost sounds like psychosis like Cohen. We had someone on who was, he has like a schizophrenic adjacent disorder and led all the psychosis, it kind of sounds like that. - Yeah. Well, that's what these situations leave all of us with is how much did she herself leave? How much was just evil calculation? - I think it was both. I think it was evil calculation to start and then she just got to a point where she started to believe it because she said it so much. - Yeah. - Did you think her ultimate goal was, oh, I'm gonna get a divorce and I'm gonna take his money? - I don't know. - I think at that point, he did not have a lot of money and it was becoming very apparent. - He had just dumped a ton of him. - Right, yeah, I mean, at this point, he was still paying the medical bills for the kid and he was paying for her, he was paying for her mother and for me and then for himself. He was just spread so thin. - I'm trying to think of the different things that happened during this time, but he wants to see the baby. She will not allow that. And then there's a hearing and in this hearing, he has to basically prove he has not been poisoning her and that none of these allegations are true. And in fact, that is the outcome, thank goodness. - Yeah. - What grade were you in at that point? Are you like a senior maybe? - I was around junior, senior year. - As your senior father go through this stuff, how is it landing on you? Are you urging him like just let this go? - It was back and forth for a while. He kept me out of a lot of it because I didn't find out that there was over 10 allegations made against him in this time. There was a period where CPS did get involved and I moved out into my brother's house for six months and then I moved back. That was right at the end of my senior year. And I moved back in with him and he was just keeping me kind of out of it 'cause I had asked him to at that point. I said I don't wanna know what's going on. They were trying to reconcile and they'd be together at one point and then she would do something again and cops would show up at the door and another allegation. He called me at one point and he was like, hey, I just need you to kind of, I had to speak to someone on the phone just to care for a reference. You know, this is my dad and he's a great guy and he would never hurt anyone. - Right. - He did that one hearing. I don't know if that was senior year I think it was and the judge said there's not a centel of evidence that proves that Doug is guilty of any of this. This is ridiculous. - Yeah. - He was probably pretty embarrassed by all this, too. I can't imagine he wanted you to know. He knew he married a girl after 13 days and he knows what a disaster it has been and he didn't necessarily want you to know she's now accusing him of trying to kill her. - He knows he's got a bit of embarrassing. - Yeah, all right. So I went and visited. At this point he had met the baby. They were back together. He was living in Florida. This was second semester of my senior year because he got me an apartment in Charleston and he moved to Florida. So there was Christmas where he asked me to go meet my half-sister for the first time and I went down there and I stayed with him in his apartment and I met the baby. And so this happened twice. We went to church and she was wearing a body-con sparkly sequin dress that went up to her butt cheeks and stilettos into the late night service in Sarasota, Florida. And her mom and the baby and my dad and I walked in. The baby started crying. I was overwhelmed. I had to go step out in the hallway and her mom and her followed me out there and cornered me and they basically were saying, "Why are you crying? Did your dad do something?" You know, he's out to kill us. - Oh my God. - The mom was said, "Here's my number. I'm writing it on a piece of paper. Don't put it in your phone because he can hack our phones and he can get my number and he'll kill me." And I literally looked at her and I said, "Fuck off." - Good. - At that point I had had enough. I said, "My dad is not a killer." He didn't kill me. He didn't kill my mom. Went back into the service, finished the service, went to bed and I told my dad at that point but I don't think they'd really registered what exactly 'cause I was kind of just like they just were being really weird and annoying. Fast forward to Easter of the next year. He asked me to go back to Florida again. So I did and we were all shopping before dinner and Ashley and her mom pulled me into a corner of the store that had a huge speaker. So I guess nobody could hear them. But again, same thing, your dad tried to kill me. He tried to kill your mom. He was gonna kill us all. And again, I just said, "Leave me alone." - Yeah. - Like I don't know. So the next morning I told my dad, I said, "Hey, I can't do this anymore." This is the second time they've tried to convince me of that. I don't want to be around them anymore. And he said, he's like, "That's it, I'm done." I have tried again and again and again to show this woman that I love her and there's nothing wrong with me. I'm gonna pack up my card, I'm leaving too. And I said, "No dad, the baby is about to be here to open her Easter basket. I don't think you should leave. You need to have that experience with her. She's old enough to remember that." So I told him to stay. I said, "I'm gonna go to Charleston. You can come back tomorrow." And he stayed and he didn't come back. So that was like a moment that I could have been like good for you leave and I didn't. - But your reason was so kind and generous. - Also, even if he had come back with me that weekend, he would have been back. - Oh, yeah. - Yeah, there was no breaking this cycle without something radical. - Yeah. - Were you feeling abandoned? I mean, you're in high school and you're living in an apartment and your mom's gone. - Not really. I thought it was cool. - Oh, then you had an apartment. - Yeah. - That is kind of cool. - I had a triple early out which meant I only had one class. So I almost didn't graduate because my attendance record was so bad that year or that semester. But at the time, it was in Mount Pleasant. It was in the neighborhood that my best friend and my boyfriend at the time lived in. And so, I mean, everybody would just come over after school. - Yeah. - My dad passed through a lot. So I would see him once or twice a week going to North Carolina and home from North Carolina. So I didn't feel too abandoned and I also, I mean, I texted him all day every day. I called him all the time. He was still my best friend. - Yeah. - So we were always talking and hanging out. You know, I was still super close with him. - God, have your own apartment and a boyfriend. - It is exciting. It was fun. - We had some point during this, I guess, post Easter. She decides, okay, we're gonna be together. We all need a fresh start. Let's all move to Maryland. - Yes. So that was my freshman year of college, actually. - You have the worst first year of college if anyone have ever heard because it's 2020. - So that was going into my sophomore year. I graduated high school 2019. I didn't continue college after that because I told my dad, hey, I'm not letting you pay tuition for me to cheat online school. Like, that's not gonna happen. I didn't know what I wanted to major in yet. - Yeah. - So it was gonna be a gap year. COVID hit right at the end of my freshman year. - So they have this plan that they're going to move to Maryland and your father goes over to the house to help pack? - Yeah. The floor to have. - The floor to have? - Yeah, so he had his apartment, he packed it up. She was living with her mom. He went and packed up their house and had a big U-Haul in the driveway. She had three guns loaded, one in the pantry, one in a laundry basket, down on the floor, and then one in a closet in different rooms. And there's a baby. - There's a baby walking around that is a toddler now and can reach into a hamper. - Oh, this security of that is just fucking ghastly. - He was in the room and she just shot him and killed him. She shot him, didn't hit him enough to kill him immediately. I think he hung on for about two hours before he fully passed. But she waited 15 minutes. She went over to the neighbor's house. There was like 15 minutes in between him getting shot and the cops getting called. So before the cops even arrived at Detective Arrived on scene, her lawyer was already there and she just kind of left him to bleed out. I think she was hoping that he was going to bleed out so he couldn't say anything. - Yeah, so he was shot through the leg, in the arm, but the one through the arm had entered his body and went into his chest. Then she went over to the neighbor's house and basically tells the neighbor, "Oh my God, he was assaulting me. I had to kill him. It was self-defense." Now this feels very calculated. I don't think she wanted to be evaluated with her delivery on 9-1-1, so she delegated it basically. So now the neighbors got a report what happened. And 10 minutes before it happened, the mom and the baby went down to the little park nearby right before it happened. Oh wow. I mean, all these guns around, and I mean, the fact that it wasn't pre-meditated is hard to believe it. Everybody knows you keep your guns in your safe. The safe probably should be the first thing to go in the U-Haul, so it's like, why was there one in a backpack in the closet? That is so crazy. I will add this. We left one detail out, which is your dad at one point at the height of this did write a letter to the Sheriff's Department accusing Ashley of having a split personality. So it seems like there was a moment where he kind of accepted what he was dealing with, but then, of course, they reconciled. Yeah. And he always had most positive attitude to whenever I was dealing with anything, he was almost projecting his false positivity onto me, so I think he just wanted to believe this isn't happening. Yeah. Yeah. So you start getting concerned obviously the following morning, because normally you would have woken up to the text of some scripture. So the night before I text him, we're on five, and I'd said, hey, we're out at the sand bar. I sent him pictures of what we were doing. We're on the boat. And the next morning, I went to go text him or check his text and talked to him, and he hadn't sent me a Bible verse. So I thought that was kind of weird, but I also knew some mornings he woke up at like four and started his day at four o'clock and had a meeting at five or six. So I knew that happened sometimes, and he would always get back to me and say, I'm sorry, I had a meeting. There was a couple of times. He's like, I did a double workout today. So it was a couple of hours. I was like, okay. So I didn't let it get to me at first, and then another hour went by and still nothing. I also have all the text on my phone. If you kind of pull it to the side, you can see 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 30 minutes. And then the text started turning green. So I knew something was wrong. I started googling car accident, I texted Ashley. I said, hey, have you heard from him recently? I haven't heard from Sarni yet worried. God, the trauma. Did she respond? Did she respond again? No, she didn't. I don't even know if it went through or not. Because I remember feeling so stupid for even reaching out, tried to lead it, but I called my friends and all of my friends are like, Eva, you have anxiety. You do this when we don't answer fast enough. You know, it's probably just your mom. I called my sister-in-law and she lived five minutes down the road from the job that I was supposed to start that day. And so I went over to her house, hang out. And I was telling her and she was like, Eva, you have nothing to worry about, everything's fine. He'll get back to you. And we were sitting in there in the living room and I got the call from my uncle. And I was both my uncles on the phone. I don't know if they were together or they just patched each other in at the same time. Yeah, he said there had been an accident. And I said, what happened? And he said, your dad's been shot. And my initial reaction was he's dead and she killed him. And so that's what I said. I was like, is he alive? He said, no. And I said, she did it. Didn't she? And he said, yeah. Oh. So that was that. Oh, my God. Okay. Now, well, that's simply not enough for you to go through. So now we've got to have a media circus. Yeah. What do you do with that? Is it this same kind of kind of shutdown? I really can't even process what this is. In that moment? Yeah. My uncles were talking and talking and talking and I said, hold on. And I set my phone down and I looked at my sister-in-law. They had their newborn. And she put the baby down on the couch and I crawled up into her lap. And I just looked and I said, I don't have parents. Oh. And she said, I know she was crying. I wasn't crying. I was in shock. But I had friends down the street because it was in the same neighborhood that my apartment was in too. And we were all going to hang out after my shift. So I called my friends and I said, hey, are y'all still there? I drove over there. I couldn't even get my foot to fully step down on the pedal because my foot was shaking so much. And I sat down on the porch and my friend, he was like my best friend and he said, what happened? And I said she killed him and everybody just kind of looked at me and they said, all right, what are we doing tonight? You know, what are we going to do? We had plans tonight. Are we going to continue the plans? And I said, I would like to continue the plans. I think that it's about to get pretty hairy with the media. Yeah. Yeah. Boy. I mean, by the way, at 19 this would be my solution. Like, I don't even know what your solution of them. I would have been drunk very quickly. Yeah, I was drunk shortly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, let's wait too much. Yeah. Yeah. Let's add that to the mix and see if that helps. Okay. So how soon after does the first bit of media attention start? I mean, within a couple hours, there was a local news doing the estranged wife, shoots husband in Sarasota, Florida. And then a few weeks later, maybe we got some calls from some bigger media than it just kind of snowballed from there. And part of me, that would be exciting in some way, like, oh my God, news are calling me. That would be an exciting element for me. Having had nothing spectacular happened to me, I might have initially been like, I don't think that I ever felt excited about it. I just kind of said yes to everything. I didn't ever feel nervous. So I just kind of kept doing it. And you know, I think that my family, my dad's brothers and my family were just kept saying you're doing such a great job. You know, you're so well spoken, you can really hold your own for your dad. And that's when I was like, you know what, yeah, people need to know that he was a good guy. And he needs to have some justice. And this doesn't make me nervous. So I'm just going to keep doing it. Yeah. You're representing your family well. Right. So this turns quickly into, yeah, media attention, TV specials, tabloids, social media scrutiny. Yeah. Like the full storm takes off. And I think you can sense people, they want an emotional performance from you. Yeah. Because it was very tabloid. It was very. Yeah. Young woman, older man. Yeah. And the daughter that's left alone, there's always these tearjerker questions. I could sense that they wanted some sort of emotional reaction online for the clickbait. Yeah. Oh. And did you feel like stubborn? Like, I'm not giving them that. Not really. I just can't cry in front of people. Yeah. I wouldn't say numb to it, but it doesn't really phase me. I can talk about the most gruesome things I've dealt with this entire time. And I think the other side, the media likes that because everybody wants to know I wasn't intentionally feeding into it. I'm just like, well, I'm an open book and I don't have an issue talking about it. Yeah. But it's also a very heightened experience to turn on the TV and see yourself on it. Yeah. Well, it wasn't weird. I remember the first. It was a CVS 48 hours that I did and it came on the TV and I was like, the camera does add 20 pounds. That's all I can think about. So, honestly, it wasn't really exciting for me to see myself on TV. I was more annoyed at some of the media was still trying to paint my dad in this terrible light. So I was like, okay, I have to keep going. I have to try. Right. Intertaining the notion that it was self-defense movie. Right. So, was she in jail? Was she down? Did she get yours on house arrest? Oh. Yeah. She was in jail for like 10 days or something afterwards. She got put on house arrest. When do you start making TikToks before the trial or during the trial? That was 2020 when it happened. I started my first TikTok that I made about it was December, January of 2020, 2021-ish. I woke up with millions of like thousands of comments, millions of views. Wow. And then within a week or two I had 200,000 followers. And explain the TikToks you were making? At that point I wasn't really doing a whole lot of talking on TikTok, but I had used a sound or two that just was fitting of like mom died, dad remarried, boom, dad murdered. So it wasn't a lot of context and I think that was just enough for people to comment what the fuck. Right. What did I just watch and then replay it and then the algorithm picks up on it. So it just got very widespread. Wow. Very quickly. Wow. Yeah. And you are mostly exploring some dark humor throughout all of this. Oh, it was all jokes. The only time I didn't joke about it was explaining it, but even then I just joked about it. So what else am I going to do? I feel like I'm watching a playbook of exactly how I would have handled it, to be honest. Like, yeah, my immediate reaction to heartbreak sorrow, everything is a joke almost immediately. I'm almost in the middle of watching something horrendous and I'm already this is my defense mechanism. Yeah. I cracked jokes all the time about things I probably shouldn't, which is not great. But my friends and I I stayed over at my friends house for probably a week after all of that happened the night we got drunk and then we just kind of continued the party for a week. And at that point, the orphan jokes started rolling around because it was like, well, you was out at like our orphan, she's just hanging out on a couch and they didn't care. They wanted me to, but the orphan jokes came on within days. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever you need to do to survive something like that, like no one can judge it. Stay tuned for more armchair expert if you dare. We had the most horrific event happened in our respect for the people involved. I won't even detail, but suffice say we had roommates and I was with three of them and we got this completely tragic bit of information. I received it first and I had to go tell my other two roommates who were with me out of town. But at the end of explaining it to him, I already had a joke and then they're all so fucked up too because we're all from fucked up houses. They were right on. It's like that's just how we did it. - It's funny, I mean, you have to laugh. - Yeah, that was my approach. But I also would be juggling with that, often feeling guilty that I wasn't having the reaction everyone thought I should. - I did, that happened with my mom too, is I never really had this breakdown. And I think after the murder happened, I was kind of waiting to see, am I gonna crack? 'Cause yeah, I immediately, my first reaction was, oh my God, my parents are dead. Second reaction was, oh my God, rent's doing three days. So I immediately had to start thinking, how am I gonna pay my bills? How am I gonna do this? The house mortgage fell on me. There were so many pieces to pick up that I was just left to deal with that I didn't have a second to sit down and think, oh my God, what just happened. - Yeah, you're 20 years old. - I was like joking, and then somebody was trying to serve me for the mortgage on the house. So it was like, I couldn't, you know. - Yeah, you didn't have the luxury of really, while we need to involve another parent, nurtured you, and letting you. - I put enough forward therapy. So I just kind of did what I had to do. - I think I always had a suspicion that if I were to let it break through, I would never recover. - That's why I haven't to this day gone to any sort of therapy. I went to a psychiatrist for like two weeks after the pre-trial 'cause I think that messed me up. I couldn't sleep for days after the pre-trial, but I was almost scared, everyone kept saying, well, maybe if talk therapy isn't for EMDR might, because that's what, if you just can't get it out, it's subconscious, and that is, I had a lot of like nervous system issues after that. It was coming out in different ways, so I thought maybe it is just a nervous system thing, but I didn't want to tap into that 'cause that's a can of worms that I don't know if I open it, what's gonna come out? - Did you have any autoimmune stuff? - Yeah, I had some autoimmune stuff. I had blood sugar dysregulation. I had just like the most random things, a lot of hormonal issues. - The body knows, the body doesn't get with the plane. Like, oh, where is it going to ignore this, and focus on something else, and run faster forward? - Yeah. - The body's like, no, you're not. - No, so that's what really got me into the health and wellness scene, and exercise, and just nutrition, because I had to figure out how to fakes all of that too. - So what was it about the pre-trial that was so disturbing? - So it was only one day, and it was basically whether or not it was gonna go to trial for murder, if it was out of self-defense or not, but it was one day, and they had all these, it was mostly evidence, just thrown up on the screen. And so all day they were going, this is evidence, picture number, this. You're about to see this, and then they would put it up on the screen, and then halfway through the day, or so, or towards the end of the day. She was anodonal came up to me and she said, "Hey, what we're about to put up on the screen, some of it might be graphic. If you don't wanna see it, we don't have to show it up there, but if you want media to see it, we have to show it." I said, "Well, I want media to see what she did to my dad." And there was like a couple times that I had seen a few more graphic pictures, but it wasn't anything with my dad in it. But I think something glitched or they didn't announce it because I thought, well, if they announce it, then I can just look down before I see it. They didn't announce it and just boom, dad's autopsy pictures, like chest up, eyes open, what on the face, like literally out of a horror movie on the screen, big screen. And so I looked at it, and it was almost like it couldn't look away, and then I looked down, and then I sat there for a second, and then I just looked at my best friend, and I said, "I have to go outside." I thought I was doing such a good job keeping it in, but there was kind of a door, and then a little space, and then another door out into the hallway, and I like wailed out, and before I could get outside, I told her like a day or two later. I was like, "You know, I think I really held it together." She said, "Oh, everybody heard that." It's okay that they heard that. That's the reaction of someone seeing their dad. - Yeah. - In that state. I did go to a psychiatrist for a couple of weeks after that, 'cause every time I closed my eyes for weeks after that, I couldn't fall asleep. - Oh, yeah, you should never ever have to see somebody love injured like that and hurt. How soon after that is the trial? - One year exactly, so that was July 2023, and then July 2024. - And in the book, that's kind of more agonizing than anything else, you know, the whole waiting for justice. - Yeah, the trials, it was also around the time, I don't know if you all are familiar with the Myrtle's. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - So that happened around the same time is my dad's stuff, and so, but that was going to trial a lot quicker, so I kept thinking maybe this is gonna go to trial pretty quick and I can get justice, and it just kept getting pushed and pushed, and they would file something else, and she switched lawyers, so they have to refile this. The pre-trial finally happened in 2023, and then it was a year, which is typical, I think, for the justice system to have a year later after the pre-trial, so it wasn't too far, but yeah, I was four years of waiting for this, which was gruesome. - You just were like, I've got to know she's going away. Was the anxiety of that? Like, I must know she's gonna pay for this? - Kind of, at that point, I don't wanna say I didn't care, but it had taken so long, and I had finally gotten my feet back on the ground, and my life set up, and I was heading in a good direction, and I was just like, you know, she goes to prison, she goes to prison, if she doesn't, I think that's what I told myself, also subconsciously, I was kind of hoping it would kind of just be over with, but it was also this weight on my shoulders of knowing it was gonna happen, and anticipating the outcome, the anxiety. - Yeah, it was just like a mental every day, I would wake up and think, oh, it still hasn't happened yet, you know, what's gonna happen when it does? - There's no closure. - Right. - Do you start between the pre-trial and the trial? Is that when you start your company? - Oh, yeah, I actually started, it goes cowboy in 2021, it kind of just took off very fast. - Tell me how did you get the idea for it? - It started randomly, I was working, doing social media for a company based out of Charleston, they had all in-house productions, they had the t-shirt printing machines, the embroidery machines, the shipping, I had a couple of funny, there was like memes, it was back when Kanye and Pete Davidson had their rivalry, so I hadn't had the website set up yet, but I had this idea for myself too, I just, I wasn't gonna make a t-shirt and sell it, but I was like, I'd wear a funny t-shirt with, it was like Kanye holding up stick figure drawings and he had crossed out Pete on it or something, I put that on the t-shirt, and I wore it in a TikTok, and it went crazy, I mean, it was like 120,000 views within a first couple hours, so I told my boss, they said, hey, should I put it up on the website? They had like an old website, they weren't using, he said, yeah, why not, and it did great, and I said, okay, if I do that again, he had thrown me like a grand or something, and I saw the sales, I was like, I don't know what kind of brand t-shirt we were using, like that blank was cheap, you know, he threw me chump change, so I said, if I do this again, I want 50% of the profit, he said, okay, if you do it again, and then I did it again, and then the third meme t-shirt went super crazy viral, and at that point I said, okay, I kinda wanna just have a stab at this t-shirt thing, and so I set up my own website, goes cowboy has no meaning behind the name, I actually don't love the name of it, but you know, it was just so random and people liked it. - We have a catch phrase in our description that we can't stand anymore. - Oh yeah, that's theness of being human. - Yeah, we don't like it. - Yeah, but you just got loaded, yeah. - It's too cute, yeah, that's something about it. - Everybody knows it, so I was an artist, and I didn't wanna get known for the pictures taken off of the internet and memes and stuff, so I just started using my TikTok every day, for 60 days I drew something, and I think that people really liked the fact that I could draw it, and then immediately go, put it on the printer and print the shirt, and then put it up on the website, so people would comment, you know, you should draw this, or you should do this kind of shirt, and this kinda color, or you should do this on a hoodie, or a crew neck, and so for two months straight, a new shirt every single day, and that series started picking up some heat, and that's just what took the company off. - Wow, and now you do all kinds of goods, yeah? What other things do you guys do? - You do sweatshirts, t-shirts, crewnecks. I do hats occasionally, it's kind of whatever I'm feeling. I do a new design every week, and yeah, it's just me back there in the warehouse, 'cause I split from that guy. We become business partners over a handshake. I was young, I was 21, I didn't really know what I was doing, and eventually I just was like, you know, this is all my art. I'm doing all of the work for this. I was giving him overhead to pay his employees to do the production for me. So I was just like, I'm gonna step away and do this all by myself. - Yeah. - And there was a little bit of a backfire on that. He said, no, and you're an employee, I said, no, I'm not. - Yeah. - So I had to take some legal action, which took about a year. So I wasn't ever able to really get into the lawsuit details, but I came home from the murder trial, and I immediately had to get on call with my two attorneys, because I was still dealing with this lawsuit. I was paying myself nothing, because I had to afford this lawsuit. - Yeah. - And eventually it settled, and that was kind of that. It's back, but I lost all of the employees. I had to start fresh with the production. So I got things back to like the volume that I was doing. - It was sale-wise, but it's just me back there. So now customers still think that it's like a full blow. - Teammate. - Yeah. - No, it's just me doing the back of a warehouse printing out the warehouse. - Wow. - Well, you have this theme recurrent in your book, which is creation is the best response to destruction. - Yes. My dad taught me how to paint and to draw. As soon as I can hold a pencil, I was drawing stuff, and I was always upstairs in my room, painting something or doing a craft, or that was just kind of how I like to spend my time as a really young kid. And then I got in the middle school, and I realized, you know, I'm actually kind of pretty good at the portrait thing. so I started doing more portraits and my dad was a phenomenal. artist. I mean, could paint anything you asked him to, just it was insane how good of an artist he was. And he taught me how to do all of that. And then it was an outlet for me. I would either go on a run or I'd go paint something that kind of just got myself out of my head. Yeah. So the trial, A, in the trial, when that finally happened, did you guys ever have moments? Did you guys lock eyes ever? No, she didn't look at me once. I think the first time I saw her was in the hallway. And I lost it because I had that one I hadn't seen her in so many years. And I had to run into the bathroom. I cried. I came back out. I was like, all right, let's do this. Ever since then, that entire trial, I was trying to stand right there and make her look at me. Her eyes were glued to the floor or glued to her little note pad in front of her and she was just scribbling away. Even during the victim's impact statement, she wouldn't even look up. Does demonstrations going on outside the court house? Oh, yeah. The purple people, they were all in purple because purple was the women's survivor, the domestic violence survivor color. That was a funny story. The last day of the trial, which obviously I support women and I wanted to get women on domestic violence situations. But we were against those people that were wearing purple and protesting the entire two weeks blaring Christian music. They had her child, my dad's child out there with a picture of her on a t-shirt screaming free my mom or something like that. This kid is six years old. She doesn't know what she's doing in some reporters shoving a camera in the kid's face. It was ridiculous. But yeah, the last day of the trial, my uncle wore purple to the court house. Really? Are you just like really just on accident? Yeah. Is he colorblind? Did you learn on that day, baby? Yeah, I guess that might have been his excuse that day, but no. Yeah. Isn't that so frustrating when you're like, I'm on your side technically. It was so hard to navigate that because at that point, like I had my own platform. I didn't want people to think that I didn't and I read it was not a nice place for me. It's not a nice white. Instagram and TikTok were great. All the comments had been so kind, but read it in Twitter. I could not. Now those are more toxic. People were saying I have my dad's eyes, but there was one that was like, she's going to turn out to be an abuser just like her father because they have the same eyes or something. I was like, really? You're really going to say that? I don't know. Also a lot of church supporters. I don't want to say that they had faked being friends with those people to kind of gain support in the community, but I kind of feel like that's something they would do. Yeah, I didn't want to look like a bad person bashing. Yeah, you're going up against like a woman's defense fund league coalition and the church and then you're the victim. It's really upside down. Yeah. Did you learn anything in the trial that was upsetting or you wish you just never learned about your dad? Because part of the defense is going to be them trying to paint your father as a terrible person and then you're going to inadvertently learn all kinds of stuff about your dad that maybe no one needs to ever learn. I didn't really not know anything. You know, everything was kind of already made aware to me before. There were text messages between them, some interesting sexy text messages that you'd rather not say. She's like, come on, dear. There was a couple reports where they talked about choking and all the sexual stuff they want to do. I'm just gross, but there was one thing he texted Ashley at one point that he had said, Renee doesn't exist to me or something because she kept freeing my mom. Oh, and he had said that like she doesn't exist to me anymore because he's got to pacify her. Yeah. That was a little gut wrenching because I mean, I'd always known my dad to just love my mom. And it wasn't true. Yeah, I know it wasn't true, but that's of course it's hard to see that. Yeah. Yeah, what did you learn about the power of charisma during that trial? I mean, everything. She just had her agenda set and she just would do anything to try and force the agenda. Like the alligator tears on stand. That's what everybody said when she was crying and she looked worse on certain days and she was dressing just the whole thing. She was playing a role. She's kind of built to play that. Yeah, she's been doing it. She's been playing a role for years. Yeah, and that's what I put in my impact statement. I said, you know, this is a role that you finally thought you were going to get and keep or something of the best performance of your life. That's what I said. And you know, she tried. Now post trial, you have some like reckoning to do. You've got to kind of figure out what's ahead. And I'm curious. She's convicted. Yeah. She got found guilty of manslaughter. So she got 20 years plus 10 years of probation, but obviously that could be shorter. It was five to one at first with the jury. She was going to get murdered too. But then all five came down to meet the one at manslaughter. I don't know the reasoning, but I was really annoying here. I thought it was murder one. It was premeditated murder. There was also reports that came out during the end of that that two different people had said that she had reached out about hiring a hitman, but it wasn't enough evidence to back it up. Yeah, to submit then. So were you expecting some closure or sense of relief once she was convicted and found guilty that did not come or did you not even expect it or tell me all the wave of emotions post trial? I was relieved post trial for sure, ready to get out of Sarasota and never have to go back. I kind of had done a really good job of giving myself the closure. So I wasn't looking to the verdict for validation, you know, because it was like, well, whatever she gets, my dad's dead. There's no bringing him back. And I already have everything that I need at this point. So I just need to figure it out on my own, but it did feel good to have that behind me. And even the next summer, because I had two summers in a row of anticipating some sort of trial, I was anxious for a little bit and I couldn't figure out why until I realized, oh, this is the first summer that I'm not dealing with my business in a lawsuit. I'm not dealing with a murder trial. It's just quiet. Yeah. And I don't have to deal with anything anymore. But that can also be scary. Oh, I was freaking out. My roommate at the time was like, well, maybe it's because like you just are not used to being comfortable. Yeah, just your arousal setting and the nervous system, the cortisol, like he had been living at a very, very heightened for years now. Yeah. You've got to like figure out how we're moving forward. And I know many of the reasons, but tell me some of the things that you focused on and became your path out of this whole chapter. I knew that I had built my platform up to this point. And when I had started posting the reason I kept posting was I wanted to help people because I'd get so many comments and DMs and people coming up to me and grocery stores saying, Hey, I'm dealing with this. And you helped me laugh about it. Or you helped me look at it in a different light. Or I got a comment the other day that said I'm dealing with something. And I'm going to start referencing your videos any time I start to feel alone. And that just made me feel so good because I had felt so alone. Sometimes I still do, none of my friends are doing the things that I'm doing right now or I was doing. And it's kind of scary, being like, I don't have a fallback plan. I'm doing this on my own. I don't really have a reference. You talk about how isolating the experiences because yeah, who on earth can relate to you? Really? Your boyfriend of three and a half years was urging you to like get over yourself. Get over it. Yeah. Get over it. Which ended that relationship. After my dad passed, I realized that yes, it was very isolating. And first of all, I mean, it was like a high school into college relationship. But he's told me when I was like get over it. And I realized we're just on different paths right now. You have your parents, you have your fallback plan. This is my plan B. This is my safety net is playing B unfortunately. We're down to that. Yeah. So I was just like, I just need to figure out what I'm doing. And it really just made me think, okay, we're just not meant to be together right now. You know, and I just need to figure out my life. Also, I didn't handle it with grace. I think I was like blacked out, not drunk, but just in a days of what is going on with my life right now. Yeah. I started posting on social media and just realizing I can help people feel less alone because I needed a me in that moment. And I didn't have a me. So I just kept doing that. And I built this community that made me feel less alone. I helped other people. And I wanted to finish the book and get that out there. Well, you have really good habits. You have art. You're creating nonstop. You have your business, which is great. Sully's still with us. Oh, Sully. Yeah. The dog is still with us. He's 13, but he acts like a puppy. So, oh, my gosh, he's been through a lot with you. I say that if he could write a book. Yeah, tell me how the ocean in Charleston and all those elements you've come to lean on and how helpful they've been. So right when I started writing Ghost Girl, I had just moved into my house on all palms. I started going down a really dark path. I mean, I was going out every single night, started my business. I was making money. I was doing all my own. I was drinking. I was partying. And then I had one terrible terrible terrible hangover. And realized that I need to stop doing this because it is not the correct. I'm blowing money. I'm waking up at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. every day or 1 p.m. like, yeah, not good habits. And I found this house and I moved out. And I had always my parents saying growing up, you know, we're going to move to the beach one day or we were always at the beach. We were always in the marsh. We were always doing something outside. And so I saw this house. I had bought a 1978 F 100 that I was rebuilding. And I sold that. Great. I loved that truck, but I sold it so I could afford two rents because I had my apartment in Mount Pleasant, and I found this house, and I had to have it. I sold it so I could afford the two rents to get rid of my old lease and move into this beach house, and I went dark. I got back to my old self of waking up early. I was getting back into shape. I was running all the time. I had sold it. I had my business, and I just kind of had a few friends in my roommate, and I just was out at the beach every single day, and I had the luxury of my own business. So if the UV was high, I was going to go tan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah, your Instagram is "Beatweach, weach, weach, weach, weach, weach, weach." Yes. I can tell that's like a huge source for you. Yeah, tomorrow the UV's in 11, and I'm out there. Oh, no. I love that you're chasing me. Here, it's hot. That is nice out here. Oh, it's so nice, but I'll be on an airplane. Oh, wow. So I wish I got to experience the outside today. It was great. We saw a post on Instagram today, and it said the UV is my stock market, checking it every single day. I tied my mornings. If I don't have to go to the warehouse, I'll be like, "Okay, wake up at five." I was up until recently training for a marathon, so it was an hour and a half every morning of running and then lifting and then doing this, so I'd be like, "All right, if I can finish all my things by 11, I can be on the beach by 11.30, and then I can go to the warehouse at three." That was like my summer schedule was in. That was a good existence. Yeah. Did you run on the marathon? No. Last fall, too, I had a different race, and I was actually supposed to be in Ventura last weekend to run it. But I tore something in my glute and it caused IT bands and drugs. Oh, yeah. And I got to a point where I could run on it, but not well. And at that point, I think I was so emotionally, work as busy. The book is coming out. Yeah. I have a lot going on. And my PT said, "I can expect you to run it, but come home injured even more." I said, "Why would I do that?" Yeah. I have a fall race that I'm planning on now. Nice. I love the voice of your book. It's very young, and I say that as a compliment. That's kind of the biggest thing I get. I really, really dig it, though. I'm really glad you aren't trying to purport to be some 50-year-old looking back on your life with all the answers. Like, there's something about all the current vernacular you're using. And just the way you're talking is very, very youthful book. I think like young people would love reading this book. I also started writing it in 2021. So I moved into the beach house, and then I started writing it. I mean, I was younger. And so I've kind of grown into it. And it's interesting. So I'll go back and read some of it and be like, "I wouldn't say that now." But it's good. Yeah. That moment really captures four years of my life and into now. It's almost impossible to believe that you're doing as well as you are. I mean, it's like I feel like I want in 10,000 people all these things could happen to. And you would still be functional in building and creating. It's crazy. Well, so my mom and my dad always said everything happens for a reason. And I had so many weird instances where that just kind of came to fruition after the fact that that was the biggest thing I just, I told myself for so long of like everything happens for a reason. It sucks, but it's supposed to happen. My brother, ex-military, I had him kind of in my ear, almost like David Goggins in your ear, just like suck it up, get through it. And so I did have this kind of war path of, you know, I'm just going to have relentless positivity. Yeah. It's just what's going to get me through. And then, I mean, obviously eventually I did start getting into the neuroscience of it all. And just how you can really train your brain to get through and stay positive. We're insanely resilient in your premium example, but it's fucking crazy. Yeah. I really hope everyone checks this book out. And I hope if you have a young girl in your life, you buy the book for her. It's called Ghost Girl Surviving the Black Swan Murder. Eva is a real pleasure to meet you. Yeah. Thanks so much for being willing to tell us this. It's great. Yeah. All right. Let's get you some UV. Let's try to get it 12. What's the Apex? Just a quick reminder that as part of our summer break, here's a rerun of one of our favorite fact checks. Two peas in an hour, Monica, I'm actually concerned. Oh. Oh, scary. That's a lot of pee. I only pee once a day. Yeah. I know. I mean, in two in an hour, you're like, one would think that's scary. But initially that part is scary, but then you get used to that. That's right. And then it's scary if she goes twice in an hour. Yeah. Well, I did think for a minute that I was getting a UTI, but I'm not. Okay. Okay. It's my mom's fault because she, um, should you be dirty underwear? Yeah. She does my laundry. No, she takes cranberry pills. She's been taking them for a long, long, long time and she like swears by the cranberry pills. And so I started taking them for a while. And then I stopped. And so when I was home for Christmas, she was taking hers and she said, are you still taking your cranberry pills? And I said, no. I'm not taking them anymore. And she was like, why you should, yeah, she's like, why you should take them, whatever. And I was like, I'm not taking them. And then on New Year's day, I called and we were talking about a resolution. And she said, what are your resolutions, cranberry pills? I was so annoyed. Wow. I was like, no, I'm not doing it. Like three or four days later, I was like, I think I'm getting crazy. Yeah. And I had to go pick up some good old cranberry pills. She'd be so happy, right? How could she not? I just told her I'm back taking the cranberry pills. I didn't tell her that. You didn't, man. No, I didn't. It was under duress. I did not. We have a guest on who's talking about throwing a birthday party. And I went on and on about how I don't want a birthday party. The episode is about how I don't want a birthday party. And we walked out of the garage from that interview. And I was like, that's weird, Kristen's got a man over in the swimming pool. A big man. Yeah, I did not notice it was air in it first. I was just like, she's got a man over. I saw a little bit of, there was a woman in the mix and I'm like, these are her singing friends. Friends over, yeah. Yeah. So then I come around the the hedges and I see my son's here, Sharon Beasley. Yeah. And I go. He's in the hot tub. My very first thought not to get too dark for the cherries, but this is our past. I'm like, the only time Aaron has ever shown up in California without letting me know he was coming was the day I opened my apartment. He had been drunk behind a car for a week and he had been smoking crack for five days. A tiny moment of, I think, I'm going to die or go get on an airplane and fly to my dad. He got on an airplane. So you thought something bad was, I was already sober for a year maybe at that point. Yeah. I just got a bit of a PTSD like, why would Aaron just be here without telling me he's coming? I think he feel better that he was in the hot tub and laughing. I said, surprise. And he goes, are you coming off of crack again? And I said, I'm here and I'm healthy. Oh. Really? I didn't really think that he was there too. But you never know. She might have been like, we got to get Aaron to catch this. Oh, God. It wasn't that really deep as I'm saying. I just had this really weird moment where this has only happened. One other time. So Kristen at that point had to acknowledge you're having a surprise party. I've planned a party and I brought Aaron and Ruthie here for the party. And then that I was really excited because I didn't have to ask anyone to come. I didn't have to get scared about that. There wasn't a bunch of time for me to worry about who's not going to show up because it was just going to be the next day, which was last night. It was perfect timing. She planned, she knew she was going to tell you, which I thought was a good plan, that there wasn't going to be a real jump out moment. And also Robin, I did great acting because during that interview, we all knew of course we knew. Did you feel so bad for me? Like, what a dumb dumb. He does. He's digging himself deeper and deeper. No, it's just like, oh, this is going to be a funny moment. But then I also was like, if he is then a mad, that this is happening or anxious, we had an interview scheduled the day of your party, which was yesterday. And it was scheduled for two o'clock, the party started at five o'clock. Yeah. And I was like, oh no. Okay, I think we should probably move up the recording. When is she going to tell him because he needs to have enough time to do his research? He's going to be mad if he doesn't have enough time to do his research and if he already does. So I'm going to react to everything. I'm already in terrible stuff about myself right now. He's going to be even more mad about it. He's going to hit people. He's going to hit the children. But you are very happy. Okay. My son's there. So I'm happy right away. Aaron's here. This is unexpected. I had just seen him a couple days before in Detroit. I mean, which was a surprise. Eric was last minute and so exciting was like, oh, I get to see Dad before my trip and get to pretend that it's the last night together. Yeah. But Aaron's only been here for 10 minutes, but boy, we've already had a very eventful trip. So yesterday, before the interview and the fact check that was moved up, I said, you want to go for a ride in the new station again, which Aaron was like, absolutely. So we went for a little rip around town. It was so fun. And then I was like, let's quickly, I think we can, before the fact check, we get some eggs. Up at Cafe 101, we pair a little park, the wagon on the street. We go inside. We sit down. for, I don't know, a minute and a half and a stranger walks in and he looks at me and goes, white car and I go, yeah, he goes, it's on fire. Horrible. And I just KTSD, too many fires in the city. I sprint out of the restaurant, I'm, I'm fully expecting it to be engulfed in flames. So he sprints outside, get to the wagon, turn off the smoke coming out of the hood, pull the hood pins, open it up, a wiring harness on fire, there's flames. I don't know how this worked, did you see this happen? The spit? Yeah. Yeah. I just went, I spit his heart as I could at the end of the fire and it went out, it went out. I might have a super power. I didn't know about it. I was just grabbing a fire extinguisher. I couldn't figure out how to pull the plastic pin off and by the time I got the pin I was watching him and he went, and the fire was gone, it's just smoldering. I don't know how that works. I do worry about that with fires, about using the fire extinguisher, because it's not something you can practice. Well, you should, I guess, I realize that. Yeah, I should know how to do this. Yeah, I know. I have one by my bed and I look at it a lot and I think I don't really know how. Yeah, you should get the safety off and everything here to go. It seems really simple and then also when you think about it, it seems really hard. It's a video of a Taylor Swift trying to use one in the kitchen and she's also like, what the fuck? She did a good job. She did end up doing a good job as she always does. Good job. Yeah. Was something on fire in front of her? Yeah, in her kitchen. Oh, yeah. It's almost running video. Yeah. And then I'm piecing the gather because there's now a woman behind the car who I guess was other parking or got in her car and then what became obvious is she must have got the hotel guy, but I do wonder how do we not just have the fires? It's like she would have been so incredibly, she might as well smoke coming up a car and I'm like, no, it's not my problem. Exactly. But yeah, everyone's on such high alert that I think she immediately, I think that's right. She's like, this whole area is about to, yes, in the night, I was then thinking like, oh, my God. What if I had set another round of fires in Hollywood? I mean, you've finally got Los Feelas. People have been like, that entitled bastard, why is he going to have these cars that catch on fire? New cars that keep catching fire. Yeah, he can afford a new one, but he bought an old one. He should be driving a lector, that wouldn't go on fire. You're near the end of it. Yeah, but you can drown in them, I should say. Well, when they catch on fire, you can't go breathe anywhere near them, as we now find you know, that's the crazy part. Also, you know that horrible story, and I don't know all the details. So I don't, and it's very sad, but Mitch McConnell's sister-in-law drove into a pond. Yes, and a Tesla, and like couldn't get out and died. Oh. And I think it might have to do with that Tesla. It probably shuts down. Well, right, the door opens electrically, mechanically, or I think I don't want to be sued. I think there's a release on there, as well. If you had read the manual and practiced like a fire, it's in the door, it's right there. It's right there in the door, though. Oh, okay. Well, apparently people like came and tried, and they were there, and they couldn't. Yeah, I'm vaguely aware of that. Yeah, I probably talked about it before. I think you did. It was when you were wanting everyone to have a window smash. Yeah, now I have a lot of other smashers. Oh, nice. Aaron, I have an update for you. Hopefully. I think one of the last times you were here, we were talking about my running. Yeah. I remember this. Yes. And I want you to know, since then, a sign has been put on the yard, not by me. That says no. It says no dogs allowed slash no trespassing. I've already called it. You're congregating. It says something explicit. Really? No more of this. So it was solved. I thought you were going to bring up his chest hair, that's where I thought this was going to be. No. The last time you talked about having shaved his chest and how sexy he fell. Okay. So what's the update on that? Well, I just had my back shaved again. Are you making cash here? Cash here? Cash here? I should because it's an enormous amount of fur that comes off really quick. Aaron, I've never let you feel this. You know, but you'll be a very select group. Go ahead and touch that. Be really careful. You've been honest what you think about that. Oh. Oh my God. Is that not the softest thing you've ever felt? Can I sleep with it tonight? You're not blind, get me into that? No. Oh, careful. I know you've got to be careful. That is. It is cash here, isn't it? Sure is. Wow. And you know, now Delta's leg hairs are in there too. Oh, yeah. So we're getting it harvesting from my back and her legs. Oh, family. Maybe it can be a joint Aaron's hair because we can really get some movement on it. At the risk of hurting Aaron's feelings, Aaron has had dense body hairs whole life. He's a man. He's always been a man. I'm not. I've always not been a man. I've always felt like a pretteen or a woman next to him and he's always had a gorgeous burr Reynolds chest hairs and swears, 70. Okay. So you think it's coarser? I think it's coarser. Would you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, all I'm saying is the amount. Yeah. Okay. Well, you don't have to have cash, Mary. We can do mo hair for you. So Ruthie just shaved me again with a dog. You know, it's got a vacuum. I may have said this before, but I don't think I don't. It has a hose and you watch it accumulate in a chamber. This is so fun because that's why I really, I'm like, oh my god, I have so much hair like this much. Whoa. My back. Whoa. A Ruthie's super grossed out, if I, well, she can't touch the cash on her neck. Yeah. I know we're both getting hair now everywhere. It's maddening. But have you noticed where do you talk to our armpit hair? If you notice your armpit hair is like, will be two feet long sometimes. If we haven't talked about it, yeah, I've been chopping mine with scissors, yeah, same. I now give myself like a haircut in my arm, and then I have this very weird, I want, do you have this where it's like, I have it in my mind. It's supposed to be some length or else, why would it be that long? Sure. Because what I, I'm tempted to just like cut it as close to the skin as possible. So I have to do it less, but then I think aren't you supposed, is it going to be some length? I wonder that too. Can you just keep, like, grow it out just so we can see how long you've done? You're right. There should be video evidence of some of this. You know why I had to finally confront it other than like, maybe my kids pointed it out and I was embarrassed, but also, you can't even get your deodorant to the skin anymore. Sure. Because it just clumps up in your hair and then you have dingle berries in your armpit and you're like, what the fuck is going on? Why am I a mess like this? Red lot. Well, 50, you know, not airy. Yeah, not yet. Mmm. Not even close. That's six months. So it's like a party. Okay. Great. How about you guys talk about my party? Oh. It was a yacht rock theme. It was at my favorite roller skate rink, Moonlight Roller away. Yep. To name drop, Kimmel made the playlist as he's made me many playlists in the past that I love. Yeah. I've listed him to do that tons of blast from the past, a lot of my groundlings, friends, just an incredible, perfect group of people. My dad came all the way out from across town. Tom Hanson. I'm Adam Perry Lang made. Adam Perry. Little club. It was incredible. Yeah. Did you get on both of the meats? I just had the pork, the pork ribs. Yeah. So insane. How good were those? So good. And the cornbread was so good. Oh, it was dehampus. The mother figure was like, it was like up, what do you call it, cake, a spoon, pound cake. Pound cake. Yeah. I was delicious. I was really excited about that Adam Perry Lane of it all because most of my friends that were there didn't know about him and I don't know what their expectations were at a roller skating rink. How good the barbecue was going to be, but he is one of the best barbecue. He does these popups around LA and there's room fucking lines around the block. Yeah, and he's just there cutting ribs and a roller skating rink. Yeah. He's really sweet of him to do that. He's a very nice man. He is incredibly nice. I've also enlisted him to teach Kristen how to make crepes for Christmas one year, her birthday, I forget, and like got her all the machinery and stuff and now she knows how to make crepes. She's stuck with it. She goes through little phases. You know, there's no crepes for months and months and months and then there's crepes 10 days in a row. She cooked some compulsively. I hope so. I guess we got to talk about tomorrow. Well, exactly. You should bring that up. She would love to. I thought I had a craving for crepes like three days ago and it was 9 p.m. so I didn't think it was possible for me to get it, but I wanted it so bad. And then the next day I told her, I was craving them. She said, I'll make them for you. And then guess what the word was on word all today. Crepes. Plural or singular, singular, is that weird, that suspicious. So normally, this is Delta's birthday party is here every December and we always get the ring for two hours and it's always my commitment to skate as long as possible because it's such a unique opportunity, but the window of this party was 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and I was like, I don't. Oh, I got a backup. One other thing that happened, because I didn't know I was having a party, is that day before I rode the furthest I've ever ridden on my new road bike. I told you, I passed your house a couple of different times. Arm cherry sent me, I was even paparazzi, they didn't know it. - Oh! - Yeah, I went everywhere. I was down in the LA River, down past Spoke, then out in Glendale, then back again to Silver Lake. - So that whole day when I came out and he saw him in the pool, I was like, I went too hard, I can barely walk. And then she said, five to 10, we're skating. - Five hours. - Five hours of skating. And we're gonna skate, we're gonna skate hard. And oh, one thing I gotta ask people really went for it with the Yacht Rock theme, Aaron had an incredible outfit. - He really did. - Turnkey bought off a Amazon. - Yeah, it was perfect. - Yeah, it was great. - Captain Zythe. - It was white. - All white, all white. - Hat, pipe, the pipe really pushed it over. - The pipe was great. - I don't even know why it makes sense, but it doesn't. - I don't know, I can't like, I'm ragged my brain of where I've done some famous image of a captain with a pipe. - Love boat or whatever. - But again, I don't even think I'm love boat. That was happening. - What's the other one? Where they're all shipwrecked. - Gillian's island. - Yeah, Gillian's island. - And it's skippered in Smokapite. - Like, Gorton's fisherman have a pipe. - Oh, yeah, but again, that's a yellow rain sticker. - This is like man's yellow effect. We all just think we know these captains have pipes, but none of them do. - I don't think any of them do. - And how long has it been since you skated, Aaron? - Probably seven years. - Seven years. - I was a lot heavier and I, and you were at 320 at that. - Yeah. - And I remember, really, 'cause I was like, I'm gonna do this, and I was real wobbly. And then after a few laps, I was expecting everyone to be watching me, 'cause I thought I was that good, so fucking stupid. I'm like, oh, really, I'm just a fat guy. Roller's skating, and I'm old. - But you're waiting for them to notice how fucking cool you look. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Shoot, I didn't know you're old man. - I'm just gonna have fun with my fucking kids. (laughing) - To always you up on their shoulders. - They probably got beat up the next day. (laughing) - Well, despite that, you did quite well. And Monica, let me thank you in public, you have sat out the last two skatings. - I have, but then it was your birthday, and so I thought I got to do it for your birthday. - It's so sweet. - And did it, you did. - I did it, I did like-- - You did quite a bit of skating. - Like 12 laps, or something, maybe more fun than more. - I think more, 'cause you say, yeah, yeah. - I wanna say you have three different sessions, didn't you? - I have multiple sessions. I even, after eating, I put them back on. - And I learned today, earlier today, that you actually could go on up by yourself to do a little trial run like the garage in Tennessee. - I did when I learned to ride my bike. - Yes. - Yeah, I got a little nervous not having been on them for a couple years, and I was first to arrive at the party. And so I just went out on my own and did a little practice. - Yeah. - About my sea legs. I'm not good on them, and I don't, Ryan tried to help me. He was like, you know, go more side, side to side. I go more front to back, I guess. - Yeah. - And sort of my proprietary move. So I'm just not very good at it, but it's fine. - Hard to confirm you do not be good at it, but yes, you kill it. - I hate shit, though, let me say that. So, and then by the way, on the way there, I said, "Darren, okay, if you haven't gone in a long time, or prediction for you is, you think you're gonna be bad." And then you're gonna go out there and go, "Oh my God, I'm actually quite good." And then you're gonna get overconfident at the team and then that's on the big breath comes. And I had been skating for a good hour and a half, two hours at this point. I was very loose, I was feeling very confident. And I decided, you know what? As I skate by joy, 'cause she was high-fiving people on the sidelines, I'm like, you know, it's gonna be radicals. So I'm gonna blow by shooting the duck. - Oh, is that what you were trying to do? - Oh, did you think I just fell out of nowhere? - No, I knew you were doing something with joy, but I didn't know that was-- - So for people who don't know, shooting the duck, you like, you get on one skate and you bend down. I can't even bend down, I'm like, if I wasn't, where is he? Especially with the biking from the day before on the tour of the city. And I got halfway into this commitment and realized, I'm going down and I went down pretty hard on my hip. - Yeah, it's scary. - I got up, it's scary. - Luckily you were on the rank at that moment. - I was. - And you were right behind me, so you saw the whole thing. - I did. - Made it loud enough noise that I think most everyone looked. - I don't think so, actually. - I was skating, but I missed it. - Yeah, I kinda-- - I don't think so. - I'm not sure if I want, I wish you had, all right. - I was ahead, but of course. - You've skated up to me and you go, the fucking duck bit back. (laughing) - And I didn't even know that I had fun. - You got up really fast and you didn't look hurt. - That's the goal. - Yeah, but I knew you weren't. And you didn't, you hadn't seen, you were. You hadn't seen Fall Guy. - Right. - And so, have you seen Fall Guy? - I did, I did. - Oh, what a movie, right? - So good. - Every time this stunts over, they give the thumbs up. Like, I'm good. They're not good, they're backspoken, they're like, - Right. - So then I was like, I gave the thumbs up and for the people who had seen it. But you hadn't seen it. And then I felt compelled to try to explain to you my joke. - Yeah, I was in a back around-- - Yeah, I was in a good deal of pain. And I'd given you the thumbs up, and I needed you to know. That was it now. - You said, are you okay, and then you gave the thumbs up, and I was like, oh, are you okay? And then you had to come back and tell me what. In fact, it wasn't okay. - It wasn't okay. But I kept going. I was like, is it fractured, maybe it's fractured? Let's just keep going, there's nothing they can do for that. So you can put a cast on your head. - This is why it's really roller skating so tricky, because you have to commit if you're going to have fun and if you're going to be good. But then you will fall. So your shoes might-- - You're supposed to try to show off, like me. - Well, once you're feeling it, like everyone's going to try, and that's what I don't do. I just do half because I don't want to fall. And I don't fall, so that's great. - Yeah. - But that was very few falls last night. - Right. - In fact, kind of a shocking few falls, 'cause Delta's party the first few years, people were going out, really bad, people had risk injuries. It was like 20% of the dads were fucked up the next week. - On a fell last time. - Yeah, she went down pretty hard. I saw that. (laughing) - Got a great dose. - So you see it, and then you just like, you cattle away. - Look away. - Yeah. - Let them cut her on their own. (laughing) - Well, so that's a great, as you know, I like getting embarrassed. So when I fell down at the movies, you know, I was laughing hysterically. But the pain was so sharp, like I wanted to laugh, 'cause it's just embarrassing. I tried to shoot the duck. Joy watched the whole thing, her friends watching. She doesn't know me, so there's a new person. I've, at least Joy's my like sister. - Yeah. - I've known her for 12 years. It was painful enough that I couldn't actually get to the laughing part. I just got to, I can shake it. - You were so pretty big, but. - Well, I was performing. (laughing) I came on a retirement. - Wow. - And put on a real good thing. Then gave a thumbs up, and only two people got it, 'cause I thought everyone saw a fall guy. I didn't have it. (laughing) Stay tuned for more armchair expert if you dare. (upbeat music) - And then, Kristen, somehow, and I haven't even asked for the logistics, but our favorite treat in the world for Michigan is Saunders Bumpy Cake. For people who've never had Saunders Bumpy Cake, it is a chocolate, damp, devil's food cake base, and then these huge ribbons of Twinkie filling all covered in a fudge icing. (laughing) - Did you try it? - Yeah, I did. I hadn't had it before. I loved it. - Did you like it? - Yeah, I loved it. - You're not, that's not your thing. - Oh, fuck it. - Oh, okay. - Okay, okay. - It was really good. - We were kids, you didn't love chocolate. - Right, yeah. - Right, right, right. I didn't know. I had some for breakfast this morning. (laughing) And I fucking went nuts. I had my immune suppressant before the party, 'cause I knew we were gonna have Bumpy Cake and I so way too much. So I coupled the hip pain with, like, I made myself sick, but then I was like, you must get out and push through all of this to another couple hours of skating, it was a great, great party. - It was a lovely party. - And as I told you, what was really kind of novel about this party, 'cause I've had them in the past, I'm always, I get feeling really guilty, like Tom Hantz, he drove 50 miles across town through rush hour traffic to get to the party. And he's older. And then I'm out skating the whole time. And the whole time I'm like, I gotta go sit and talk to Tommy, drove all the way here. And then virtually everyone that's showing up, I feel like I should be talking in them for a half hour. And then I had this light bulb moment, where I was like, everyone here is a blast to talk to. When I look around, everyone's quite happy talking to whoever. I'm not needed here. I can stop feeling guilty about that. Did you have the moment where you were like, oh, all these people have collected? - Yeah, I tried to have that moment. I did. I was in the bathroom. And I actually even did my mantra for like two minutes. I was like, I really, I really want to, yeah, have that moment and see that. And then Tom Hantz and who knows me so well, he hugged me and he said, are you able to let any of this love in? And I said, I'm trying real hard. But also, I'm pretty sure everyone's here - Just 'cause Kristen invited them. (laughs) - If I'm being honest-- - Oh, silly. - I was so unfair. - I was so unfair to all of us. - To you, yeah, I mean-- - I'm to anyone who went. - No, I don't know, still that my residual low self-esteem or something, I don't know. - It was the funnest part I've ever been to. [ Laughter ] - And there's no fucking boost there, that's saying something. - Yeah, yeah. - I'm still riding on it today. - I got to push back a little bit. I guess you're not counting your birthday parties. Because Aaron's birthday is July 2nd, which becomes a 4th of July Aaron's birthday spectacular. It was often at his dad's farm. And it would be like a three-day party with 50 people camping. Those were fun. - Fuck, yeah. - Awesome. Those were damn good. - False work, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. But I'm happy you had it. - But I fucking have fun. And I have so much fun. - It was really fun. - So much fun. And I don't want you to get through wrong impression. I felt very loved. - Good, yeah. - I mean, when you were blowing out your candle, I looked around and I was like, "Oh, this is so lovely." - What I thought of many times is like, "You'd be hard-pressed to find a better group of 40 human beings." - So it was a really good group. I felt lucky that I had been collected over the 50 years. I was happy to be there. - Did you have a favorite conversation with anyone? - That's so many. I had one I can't repeat. - Oh, okay. - But it was the most memorable. - It was with Eric, yeah. - Oh, okay. - He's so open, though. - I can't, because it's not about him. - Okay. - I can't wait to hear that. - Jesus. - He never fails. Like, I think I know every. I think there's not one thing you can say that will get me. And man, man does he. I got to talk to Joy. I ate with her. And that was so nice. I hadn't talked to her at all. That's what now I was excited about that. I was working looking around, seeing people I love talking to each other. And watching you guys chat. I was like, "Oh, yeah. My sisters are chatting." - Yeah. - Yeah. And she was wearing all day glow, yellow, like 40. - Oh, yeah. - She was amazing. - Yeah, neon. Fish and ass. - So awesome. - We came up with my superhero name, because we were of course talking about spades. - Uh-huh. - And her friend, she was with us black as well. And she's like, "This is the upside-down world. They play spades. We don't play spades." And then her and I came up with that. My superhero name is The Appropriator. In my catchphrases, "I'll take it." I see something from your culture. I like, "I'll take it." - The Appropriator. - Oh, that's funny. - Really fun to talk to Nate. And talk to Nate in such a long time. - Yeah, again, if Nate talks at a party, one of my worried about anyone finding someone to talk to. How about you? Did you chat with anyone new that you? - We're like, "Oh, that one." - I loved catching up with all the, yeah, like the old groundlings. Your crew from back then. - Yeah. - Like I hadn't seen Ben, Pym loves to. - Yeah. -. Nap. - Yeah. - So that was all very fun and super comfortable. Like we all just dove into conversations that were fucking great. - Yeah, Ben sent me a text like, "I talked a lot while there weekly was so fun." - Yeah, it was great. - And at Vaxen, of course, probably stole the show. He was the same white outfit Aaron had, but his was short short. - Oh my God, yeah. - And he was very sexy on those rollers. - Oh, he was so athletic. - He was so cool. - He was so awesome. - Yeah, yeah. - Like I said, best party I've ever been to. - Oh, man. - Oh, man. - It's kind of your birthday, too. You get to take, you guys get to share birthday. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I felt like it. - Yeah. - Risen did a damn good job there. - She really did. - And she was very worried. She said, "Boy, he's really been talking a lot "and that he's very grateful. "He didn't have a party." (laughing) - And what a lot of-- - At least he had heard me say, like, four times between my birthday. And yes, she said, "I'm so glad I would hate "a surprise party." And the four-girl had planned a surprise birthday. - But what do you think now? - I know that it's happening. - No, I'm so happy. - Yeah. - And that just goes the show. I'm known better than I know myself in a lot of domains. - Yeah. - Like, yeah, I was delighted. Is it by as long as I didn't have to go through any of the-- - Yeah. - Anxiety of it all. It was absolutely delightful. - Would you have been upset if it was a real surprise? - I don't think so, but I just, I don't know how you get me to the role right now. - Exactly. - I think she would have had the time just so annoyingly curious about why would we be doing it. - Yeah, 'cause Panae wasn't gonna take you to the roleery. (laughing) - The only thing that had been planned and I had been tricked on is that Panae and Nate and I were supposed to have dinner that night. That was the big plan. - Oh. - And even like on Monday, I asked Kristen, "Can I go to dinner with Nate and Panae?" And she's like, "Yeah." I'm thinking she must have been laughing her buns off. The plan was coming together perfectly. And then so, I was both really excited about the party and then I was like, "Oh man, I was really looking for what I wanted to do at the day." And so we just decided we will also go to dinner next week. - Where are you guys going to Martin's? - I hope. (laughing) Hope we bring George Kittle with us. Aaron and I decided the best compliment you could give any guy is to say like, "Oh, I'd love to go to Morton's with that dude." Like if you don't know him. But you've seen him from afar and you go, "Fuck, I'd love to go to Morton's with that guy." - I mean, he is a great guy. (laughing) I like Dan Campbell. Can you imagine how I'm a fucking Morton's with that? - He goes directly to Morton's. - You don't stop. - You guys wouldn't even have to say it. - We get there and the food would be on the table. (laughing) - Was he equivalent? Is there equivalent of that for the Gales? - Oh, like the spa? (laughing) - No. - It doesn't look tanning. - I'll say the mall, I guess. - Oh yeah. - Shopping. - Yeah, go right to the mall with her. - I think I'd go shopping with her. - Like what do you want to do with Ashley and Mary Kate, the first thing you hang out? Besides two words. - Oh, my pants just fell off. (laughing) - I fell off it. I underwear a fellow. (laughing) I don't know if I can go shopping with them. That's confusing. - I imagine if I would be self-conscious if I were you, 'cause I'd be afraid. Everything I said I liked, you'd worry. They didn't think it was a good style. - Exactly. - I guess we would go to their store. - Okay. - And I think, what do you guys think I should get? I'll pay. They'll be like, I know you'll pay. We don't give discounts. - We don't fuck around like that. - And then they'd pick out some stuff for me and then we'd all go have martinis. They would smoke cigarettes, I wouldn't. - Oh, you'd be one of them. - No, I've never done it. Even for them, I won't. - Wow. - I'll roller skate for you, but I won't smoke a cigarette for you. (laughing) So I'm gonna go to bed early. (laughing) - Super early. (laughing) - Right away. (laughing) - Anyway, well, it was lovely, and I hope you feel a little happy today. - Oh, I do. Just, I took my immune suppressant, and I think I have a cold that came back, and I think I have a fractured hip, but also just be mean with gratitude. (laughing) - Yeah. - I felt hung over this morning. In fact, so many times, I don't know if you remember this. You remember I got like a really cool sweat suit for Christmas in a watch, and I was at your house. We were in the backyard, and I somehow fell and fucking split my lip like wide open. - When you were little? - No, and I was like home for Christmas, and our Christmas started at a certain time, and then we had stayed up till nine in the morning the day before, and then so I didn't wake up till five. So I got to Christmas Eve, our big family tradition. Quite late, and I just had to see (laughing) all these bloody scab on my mouth. - Oh, gosh. - Or, we had a lot of those. So anyways, when I woke up, I was like, I had a headache from you know, the cake, I'm sick, and my hip hurts. I feel like I was in here, as I was in 99 or something. - Okay, should we do a little just quick fact? - Some facties? - Yeah, this is for Reed Hoffman. - Okay. - You said that Martin Luther raised literacy rates from 3% to 95%, according to AI. - Okay. - While there isn't a precise percentage readily available to quantify how much Martin Luther raised literacy rates, historical research indicates that the Protestant Reformation, largely driven by Luther's teaching, significantly increased literacy levels across Europe, with some studies showing a difference of nearly 20 percentage points between predominantly Protestant and Catholic regions. Essentially, areas with the larger Protestant population had substantially higher literacy rates, but there's no percentage. - I'm clearly way off, given that percentage. - But you got it from weirdest people on earth. - Joseph Henrick. - Joe. - Jerry Hendrick. - Go back and listen to that one. Is our unemployment rate as low as it's ever been? The unemployment rate was 3.4% in January and April 2023, the lowest in 55 years. - 55 years? - So last time the unemployment rate in the US was this low was in the first five months of 1969. (buzzer) The average unemployment rate during the Biden administration was 4.1%, really low. - Yeah, very low. A lot of countries have 10% and above. - Yeah, 1984 did come out in 1949. - '49. - '49. But we think he rode it in 1948. - Yes, but he had said, read our guess. Now it was '48, which was clever, 'cause 1984 was a flip of '48. - And we still think that's true. - Yeah. - But it did not come out until '49. The price of Bitcoin today is $104,627. - Wow, wow, wow, wow. Aaron, did you watch that greatest high stock on Netflix? - Not yet. - Okay, well in a nutshell, these two, incredibly weird people. I don't feel bad saying that. Their names are Ilya Dutch Likkenstein and Heather Razzlcon Morgan. Yeah. So a bit of a clue in their names. And they stalled, stole. I always say stalled. That's one of my things. They stole 70. Yeah, there they are. Boy, that photo of him on the left. You might have Stockholm. Oh my God. Oh, it's not. Yeah, you're not happy for either of them, but they stole 72 million dollars in Bitcoin that they really couldn't unload. So they just they just held it. By the time they were arrested, it was worth 4.5 billion dollars. So it's the greatest theft in the history of the world. Oh my God. No, I have now worth 10.8 billion. Now we're 10.8 billion. It's 72 million. It was stolen from Bitfinex or Bitfinex. I don't know. And it's a Hong Kong based virtual cryptocurrency exchange. So that's Yikes. We've had friends that were involved in some thefts of that, right? Yes, we did. Well, that was of we have a friend that's a victim of a victim. That's what an AI. Yikes. A lot of money, which I can only imagine when it's worth now, because that was what five years ago. Yeah, I was. Oh, I have a thing marked here. So you made a car. You designed a car using AI and you decided you wanted to show it. I would love to. Well, I'd be want to put on the TV because you're so good at that. Yeah. Can you email me? I'm not going to send you one picture after that of a Ted Sears poster that I, well, there's two. There's three actually that I really like. Let's see. Oh, I'm going to send four things. Oh, my God. Because then I did something for our show. Exciting. All on AI. All on AI. I played around with some merch stuff on AI. That was fun. Ooh, okay. So. Right. So for the listener. Yeah. So I want a 15 passenger van for Nashville, because I assume we're always going to have so many people staying with us at any time. We go to dinner. We're going to need like tons of seats. So then I was like, well, I want a 15 passenger G van Chevy, but I want it to be John player paint scheme. I want it wide body. I just said, like not a ton of things. And it spit this one out. It's a bit three amazing ones. Look at that. Oh, yeah. That's the John player. Oh, delivery famous paint scheme. Is it interesting how they fuck certain things up? Like look at the grill. It's kind of going to say Chevrolet, it doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. It's weird. And they're like, there's normal letters on the tires and then weird abstract. And that's the third one. Look at that. Fucker. Can you imagine if I can. Or here's a weird thing. I did. Look. And I'm only noticing now that it's blown up that big. It's got two gas. Oh, it does. Yeah. Yeah, two fuel doors. That's weird. Right. Do you see that money? Yeah. A lot of gas for this. Probably knows I'm going to be my foot in the kitchen the whole time. Okay. Now go Rob to the other John player was a cigarette brand that sponsored Formula One and racing. And they have this signature black and gold. So then. Okay. So I said, make a make a poster for a beer brand named Ted Seagars in the style of Miami Vice. Yeah. I love this. Isn't that great? That's really cool. And again, as it say, it doesn't say Miami. No, but it's like not me. I almost makes you think it's like a Thai beer or something underneath. It's just squiggles kind of like high-roglyphics. Yeah. Okay. Now give me a beer brand, you know, Ted Seagars. I want a muscle car motorcycle and a muscular horse. This one is all that I think is rip. This is so funny. All right. And then I was like, what if a beer brand named Ted Seagars sponsored a hydroplane race boat? And it made that. Yeah. But what's on the side? Did you think it's a I think it's barley beer? Oh, probably. Yeah. Okay. All right. And then like this beauty. I'm ready. You're so ready. What'd you say? A crow with a cherry? Yeah. A crow with a cherry and its beak. Okay. But I had to do many to come up with this one. This one took a while. Did you see this? What's this? That's your invite for the party. Oh, I didn't see that. It says your rock rock. Right. Yeah. That's not an age. It's an arts. Why are eight? Yeah, you're right. And captains question. Well, there's always got sneakers on. Yeah. He's a jacked crow. There's no ahead and seen that. That's great. The masculinity. Oh, my God. That crow is scared. Is that other crow that's flying in the background? He's really flying to get the fuck out of there. I didn't really. She used AI for it. Oh, she must have. Well, that's that. That was it. Those are all the facts. Those are the bad. Fun AID tour. Yeah. Unless you're listening. I guess that'll all get cut out if you're. I was just thinking if you're a listening and you couldn't see that. Oh, go to YouTube and watch it. Y'all. All right. Love you. Love you. Love you. [BLANK_AUDIO]