MFM Minisode 508

This week’s hometowns include a child ouija board story and a junior high underground DVD rental empire. For our sources, please visit https://www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3UFCn1g. Head to social media to share your favorite moments from this episode. Instagram: instagram.com/myfavoritemurder http://instagram.com/myfavoritemurder Facebook: facebook.com/myfavoritemurder http://facebook.com/myfavoritemurder TikTok: tiktok.com/@my_favorite_murder http://tiktok.com/@my_favorite_murder Send your hometown stories to [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. Join the Fan Cult to access ad-free episodes of My Favorite Murder. Members also receive merch store discounts, exclusive audio and video content and more! Visit www.fancult.supercast.com http://www.fancult.supercast.com/ to join. Shop for My Favorite Murder and other Exactly Right merchandise here: www.exactlyrightstore.com https://www.exactlyrightstore.com. Rate, review and follow My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you like to listen. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This is exactly right.

• 0:07Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency?

• 0:10Speaker 01

  Please help us. They're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets. 911 Nashville returns.

• 0:17Speaker 02

  It's a homicide detective down here.

• 0:19Speaker 03

  Three bodies on the ground.

• 0:20Speaker 01

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 0:23Speaker 03

  Hell, sin swarms upon you and upon your people.

• 0:26Speaker 02

  That's one of the plagues of the Bible.

• 0:27Speaker 03

  And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  Brian Phillippe, 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Whether you're buying, renting, or selling, Zillow can help make your someday today. To help find a home that fits where you are in life, or that apartment that's a little closer to where you want to be. Zillow has the right information, tools, and support to help turn your future home into a reality. Because someday starts today. Visit zillow.com/today to get started.

• 1:02Speaker 04

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• 1:46Karen Kilgariff?

  Hello.

• 1:47Georgia Hardstark?

  Hello.

• 1:48Karen Kilgariff?

  And welcome.

• 1:48Georgia Hardstark?

  To my favorite murder.

• 1:50Karen Kilgariff?

  The minisode.

• 1:52Georgia Hardstark?

  That was so thoughtful of you and heartfelt.

• 1:55Karen Kilgariff?

  You know what it is? It's because we get to record this from home.

• 1:58Georgia Hardstark?

  I know.

• 1:59Karen Kilgariff?

  So I'm looking at Georgia sitting in a big rattan chair in a sundress, where it's like, we're going to run out of this record and just go be in the day.

• 2:06Georgia Hardstark?

  No makeup on. That's so nice. Hold on. But immediately, Mo Elvis, oh my God, I just called Mo Elvis. Immediately, Mo is bugging me.

• 2:14Karen Kilgariff?

  Mo, get in here. We need you for this record. How is he?

• 2:17Georgia Hardstark?

  He's a jerk.

• 2:19Karen Kilgariff?

  Is he high maintenance?

• 2:20Georgia Hardstark?

  He is, and I love it. All right. Do you want to go first?

• 2:25Karen Kilgariff?

  Sure. This is kind of lovely. The subject line of this email is "Hero Guide Dog Story from 9/11."

• 2:31Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, dear.

• 2:32Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. So it says, "Hello. I'm writing this on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and I listened to Karen's story about the 88th floor heroes yesterday. And if you want to listen to that, it's episode 549, 'Let's Action,'" which is also our new British New Wave album. Okay, so it says, "I wanted to share the story of a hero from the 78th floor, a yellow lab named Rozelle." Oh, no. "Michael Hingston, who has been blind since birth, was working at his desk on the 78th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower when the first plane hit the building above him. His three-year-old guide dog Rozelle was asleep under his desk. She calmly guided Michael to stairwell B despite the fear, confusion, and smoke that was starting to fill the air.

• 3:17Karen Kilgariff?

  Over the next hour, Rozelle led Michael and about 30 other people down 1,463 steps to safety."

• 3:26Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 3:28Karen Kilgariff?

  "She calmly guided him around obstacles and debris just as she was trained to do. Michael says that he repeated over and over throughout their descent that she was doing a great job. He wanted to reassure her that he was okay because he was sure that she could sense the panic around him. At one point, they came up to a woman who was having a panic attack in the stairwell. They stopped to comfort her, and Rozelle gave her kisses. Then she got back to her task." Can you imagine just a horror show? And then suddenly, there's just a dog there licking your face?

• 4:00Georgia Hardstark?

  I would, like, I mean...

• 4:02Karen Kilgariff?

  I would grab that dog's scruff and never let go.

• 4:05Georgia Hardstark?

  Smooches for days.

• 4:07Karen Kilgariff?

  Please. Okay. "Michael also calmed his colleague, who had started to panic at some point, saying, 'If Rozelle and I can make it down these stairs, so can you.'" Yeah. "Rozelle, her human, and their entourage made it to the lobby just as the other tower collapsed. Rozelle, unfazed, led Michael to the entry of a subway station." All the way out, all the way out into a subway station. "Later that evening, when they made it home to New Jer-"

• 4:35Georgia Hardstark?

  They made it home? I was ready for this to end horribly.

• 4:40Karen Kilgariff?

  "Later that evening, when they made it home to New Jersey, Rozelle grabbed her favorite toy and started playing with their other dog as though it had been a totally normal day on the job."

• 4:50Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 4:51Karen Kilgariff?

  There were, of course, many other hero dogs that day. Another guide dog named Salty, also a yellow lab, guided his human down to safety. And so many search and rescue dogs worked through the rubble in the days and weeks that followed. So sad. But I wanted to share Rozelle's story with you and listeners. She might be the goodest girl ever.

• 5:12Karen Kilgariff?

  Rozelle, it's such a good name. "I have no personal connection to Rozelle or Michael, but I am especially struck by this story because I'm a puppy raiser for the Seeing Eye. The Seeing Eye is the oldest guide dog school in the US." I didn't know that. There's like one that was first. I mean, obviously. I didn't know things could, if they were the first one, that that would mean they were...

• 5:37Georgia Hardstark?

  I mean, it makes sense to be like, that's just the thing. Not like, how did it start?

• 5:41Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes. It's just suddenly. I guess I was thinking there was just the one. Okay. "It's not the school where Rozelle was trained, but all the guide dog schools rely on puppy raisers to get their future guide dogs a good start in life. Seeing Eye raisers get puppies around seven weeks of age, and we have them until they're around 12 to 15 months old. At that point, we have to give them back, and we are unlikely to ever interact with them again if they're successful in their training." "It's a heartbreaking but beautifully rewarding task. Part of our job is to safely expose our puppies to as many sights, sounds, and environments as we can so that they are ready to guide their future person through any situation. I'm amazed by what guide dogs do on a day-to-day basis,

• 6:27Karen Kilgariff?

  but to think that a goofy, playful little puppy I could raise could go on to be as heroic as Rozelle? Well, I'm not crying, you're crying."

• 6:38Georgia Hardstark?

  It's literally what it says, well then.

• 6:40Karen Kilgariff?

  "Thank you for everything you do and the human and animal stories you allow us to share. Stay sexy and become a puppy raiser, Lizzie."

• 6:48Georgia Hardstark?

  What was the name of the company again?

• 6:50Karen Kilgariff?

  The Seeing Eye.

• 6:51Georgia Hardstark?

  Because if you have depression and you get a puppy who needs you to take it out to as many opportunities to learn as possible, can you imagine how important and life-changing that would be?

• 7:06Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, because I think it's such a good way to go. It doesn't have to be about you to be important. And if you can't, if you can't go, oh, nothing I'm going to do is worth it.

• 7:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 7:16Karen Kilgariff?

  But isn't it worth it for that precious little dog that needs that training?

• 7:20Georgia Hardstark?

  And then you've got like 15 months ahead of you that are the most important of someone else's life, so...

• 7:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 7:27Georgia Hardstark?

  That's amazing. What a great email.

• 7:29Karen Kilgariff?

  But then the heartbreak, like...

• 7:30Georgia Hardstark?

  I know.

• 7:31Karen Kilgariff?

  To be able, the same with people who foster dogs.

• 7:33Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 7:34Karen Kilgariff?

  They're just, they're in it for the big picture.

• 7:37Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally. It's incredible.

• 7:39Karen Kilgariff?

  That was great. Thank you.

• 7:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, great email.

• 7:44Georgia Hardstark?

  All right, well, let's just jump right into a Ouija board email. How about? Go in the opposite direction.

• 7:50Karen Kilgariff?

  Because that's what this show is.

• 7:52Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay. "Hello. As a new listener, I'm currently obsessed with your podcast. I know, I listen to it in the car and while walking my dog. Well, it's a themed episode.

• 8:01Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh.

• 8:02Georgia Hardstark?

  "My dog is very happy because my walks are longer than usual as I like to finish an episode during the walk." So it's like a two and a half hour. The dog's like, Jesus. Okay. "I just finished listening to episode 378 about the Ouija board murders. You asked for Ouija board stories. Do I have an interesting story for you? When I was about seven or eight, my grandparents, my mom, and my aunt were all playing cards. This was the early 70s, so I was left to my own devices to entertain myself and keep out of the kitchen where they were playing Pea Knuckle."

• 8:32Karen Kilgariff?

  Pea Knuckle is like, perfect.

• 8:35Georgia Hardstark?

  "While wandering around the house, I found an old Ouija board upstairs in a closet. My grandmother was from the Appalachia Mountains and was pretty superstitious. I had heard about the Ouija board and was told not to mess with it. Being unsupervised, I did what any kid would do. I pulled it out of the box and started asking it questions." She's seven or eight years old.

• 8:55Karen Kilgariff?

  All alone.

• 8:56Georgia Hardstark?

  An Appalachia, somehow that's like, you know, it's so haunted.

• 8:59Karen Kilgariff?

  It's just all these, you know, creatures kind of in their shadows around her.

• 9:03Georgia Hardstark?

  Witches and ghouls. Okay. "After having the board talked about by my family, I felt pretty let down. The board answered my questions, but I felt the answers were all wrong. I remembered thinking the board made no sense, and I didn't know what the fuss was about. About that time, there was a break in card playing, and my aunt found me with the Ouija board on the floor of the bedroom. She went out to the kitchen to tell my mom and grandparents that I was playing with it and that I knew I shouldn't be. I told them I was sorry and wouldn't do it again. I told them it was a stupid game anyway. They asked me why I thought it was stupid. I told them that I asked the board, 'When will I die?' It says, 'I was only seven. It seemed like a natural question to ask.' I said the board answered with the date of February 10, 1919.'

• 9:49Georgia Hardstark?

  My family let out an audible gasp. I should probably mention to you that I'm named after my great-grandmother, the mother of my grandmother that owned the Ouija board." The date the Ouija board gave, it's the date that my namesake died during the great flu epidemic of 1918. My favorite.

• 10:09Karen Kilgariff?

  What a great example of how kids don't know shit.

• 10:12Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally. It just kept talking to me, and I was like, this isn't working. Literally communicating with you.

• 10:17Karen Kilgariff?

  It's telling you, it's predicting the past and the future.

• 10:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Right. "I was only seven or eight, so how would I know? I wouldn't. All I know is I never saw that board again in my grandparents' house. Fuck, yeah, they burnt that thing."

• 10:30Karen Kilgariff?

  They burned it.

• 10:31Georgia Hardstark?

  "Stay sexy and keep Ouija boards hidden away or supervise your children during family gatherings, D she/her." That's like a weirdly specific answer, but like, an exact date of her namesake.

• 10:45Karen Kilgariff?

  And do you think, as opposed, like, the first thing I thought of, which is just me trying to write a horror movie, but it's like, because that was a child by herself?

• 10:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 10:55Karen Kilgariff?

  It's like, oh, sure, I'll communicate with you.

• 10:58Georgia Hardstark?

  Or just a child, totally. Like, yeah, like any child who doesn't have expectations either way.

• 11:04Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 11:05Georgia Hardstark?

  I think for sure.

• 11:06Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. There's no reason to lie if you didn't think the board was going to do anything.

• 11:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally. This game is stupid. It doesn't work because it's only telling me.

• 11:14Karen Kilgariff?

  When grand, when great-grandma's death date was.

• 11:19Karen Kilgariff?

  My great-grandmother.

• 11:20Georgia Hardstark?

  For whom I was named.

• 11:25Speaker 07

  911, what's your emergency?

• 11:28Speaker 07

  Please help us. They're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 11:32Speaker 01

  911 Nashville returns.

• 11:35Speaker 02

  What's a homicide detective doing here?

• 11:37Speaker 03

  Three bodies on the ground.

• 11:38Speaker 01

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 11:41Speaker 03

  Hell, since swarms upon you and upon your people.

• 11:44Speaker 02

  That's one of the plagues of the Bible.

• 11:45Speaker 03

  And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 11:48Speaker 01

  Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 11:55Speaker 00

  Whether you're buying, renting, or selling, Zillow can help make your someday today. To help find a home that fits where you are in life, or that apartment that's a little closer to where you want to be. Zillow has the right information, tools, and support to help turn your future home into a reality. Because someday starts today. Visit zillow.com/today to get started.

• 12:20Speaker 04

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• 12:51Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay, well, let's stay in the family theme. I'm not going to read you the subject line. It says, "Hello Karen, Georgia and everyone." It's exactly right. "I grew up in small-town Indiana in the 90s. My cousins lived in another tiny town, and we loved to visit them and have hours of unsupervised exploration of the ancient barn in their backyard, the amazing old-fashioned penny candy store a couple blocks from my aunt and uncle's house. Oh, and yes, the endlessly fascinating, very busy train tracks that we had to cross to get to and from said penny candy store with pockets full of change from our terrifyingly inattentive parents."

• 13:27Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh my God.

• 13:29Karen Kilgariff?

  What an opening paragraph.

• 13:30Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally.

• 13:31Karen Kilgariff?

  They've just set up, they've set up the danger. They've set up, it's foreshadowing. It's everything we need.

• 13:36Georgia Hardstark?

  Nostalgia. We've got it.

• 13:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Yep. "On this particular day, six-year-old me, my three-year-old sister, and our one- to two-year-old baby cousin decided to make the trek to the candy store with full permission and pocket change from our parents."

• 13:48Georgia Hardstark?

  You can't walk. They're called toddlers because they toddle across a train track.

• 13:54Karen Kilgariff?

  I mean, ours was not train track. It was just a slight hill, straightaway. But from age like four and five, we were walking to the corner store.

• 14:03Georgia Hardstark?

  The jaywalking across busy fucking streets we would do in suburbia as children.

• 14:09Karen Kilgariff?

  Hey, we made it. Hey, hey, we made it.

• 14:14Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay. "My mom called, 'Look out for your sister,' as we headed out, but that was it." Thanks for the advice. "We made it to the store, spent our change on Tootsie Rolls, Gumballs, and Spree's, and began the trek back home. We approached the train tracks and hear the telltale sound of a train horn, signaling that a train is approaching the town. This part of Indiana was flat as a board and full of cornfields, so we could see the train coming from probably over two miles away. But it was already rather close at this point. My six-year-old mind decides, 'Hey, we can make it.'"

• 14:50Georgia Hardstark?

  Fuckers.

• 14:51Karen Kilgariff?

  So stressed out.

• 14:52Georgia Hardstark?

  I am too. I'm just thinking, fucking...

• 14:54Karen Kilgariff?

  Stand by me.

• 14:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Stand by me, yes.

• 14:57Karen Kilgariff?

  "My six-year-old mind decides, 'Hey, we can make it,' and I grab my baby cousin's hand and sprint over the tracks. I assume my sister's behind us."

• 15:05Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh my God.

• 15:06Karen Kilgariff?

  "But as we're hearing and seeing this enormous speeding train getting closer and closer, I look back and see my terrified baby sister frozen in place, all caps, on the other side of the tracks. 'Look out for your sister,' echoes in my six-year-old mind as I stare wild-eyed at my sister, so close yet so far away. And all I can think is that my mom would kill me if I left my baby sister on the other side of the tracks by herself while the train was speeding by. So I made the decision and beckoned to my baby sister to run across the tracks." That's all caps. "To run across the tracks." "The train horn is blaring wildly.

• 15:51Karen Kilgariff?

  The sound of it is deafening. The tracks are vibrating with the speed and size of this metal monster hurtling toward us with no sign of slowing down. And my baby sister looks at me, looks at the train, and sprints across the tracks. I catch her as she crashes into me, and I instinctively shield both her and my baby cousin with my tiny body as, seconds later, the train hurtles through. And I remember being so close to it that the wind from it whipped our clothes and our hair, and the clanking, clanging metal hurtling by, and that blaring horn screaming on and on."

• 16:29Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, the train conductor was livid, I bet. Heart attack.

• 16:34Karen Kilgariff?

  Probably like, "I want to talk to the mayor right now. What are these children doing?" "It took me, all caps, years to think of that moment without feeling abject terror and imagining all of the what-ifs that could have so easily happened that day. What if she had tripped as she ran?" Yes, my God. "What if she had hesitated a half a second?" Okay, I have to stop and just say this. This is why everyone from my generation, Gen X, is so fucked up. Because when you were six years old, you had to make adult decisions with no fucking help, and you got in trouble if you did it wrong.

• 17:10Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 17:10Karen Kilgariff?

  And so shit like this where you're like, "She can't stay over there. She's got to come over here." The worst decision of all time because you're six. It's so fucking unfair.

• 17:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. You're put in charge of what adults should be doing.

• 17:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes. And they have the gall to be like, "You raised this child wrong in this emergency situation. I'm so mad for this person." Okay. "What if she tripped as she ran? What if she hesitated a half a second longer? Her tiny body and her terrified face staring..." Also, it's her sister trusting her sister to go.

• 17:41Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally, totally. No, you're completely right.

• 17:43Karen Kilgariff?

  "Her terrified face staring at the oncoming train and then searchingly back at me honestly still haunts me to this day." Thankfully, when my sister and I finally talked about it years later, she appreciated my instinct to not make her feel abandoned on the other side of a moving train, but also confirmed it was 100% fucked up and could have ended in truly horrific tragedy. "The moral of the story is, 90s parents were fucking idiots." I'm reading off the page, listener. "The moral of the story is, 90s parents were fucking idiots, and six-year-olds are not qualified to make decisions about anything, much less the safety and well-being of even tinier children. Thank you for the incredibly wonderful podcast. I've been listening since day one. Aw, hi.

• 18:27Karen Kilgariff?

  And your voices never fail to bring me so much joy. Stay sexy, and don't let six-year-olds babysit or cross train tracks alone. Ruthie."

• 18:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Ruthie, I am sweating.

• 18:42Karen Kilgariff?

  We're all so triggered and PTSD'd out by that experience. I mean, mine was never a train. Mine was always some weird subtlety of, "You're not supposed to do that, but you're doing it anyway."

• 18:54Georgia Hardstark?

  Right. Or, "We're all jumping off this thing." And you're like, "I'm the littlest, but I can't be left behind."

• 19:01Karen Kilgariff?

  No, I can't be the crybaby. I was already the crybaby one time and not allowed to be the crybaby.

• 19:08Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay. This is totally different. Suggestive Georgia and Karen sounds playing through loudspeaker. "Hello, you lovely ladies. I don't have a hometown murder, per se, but I am a band teacher, and every day it feels like my sanity is getting murdered." Smiley face. "The school year has just begun, but I have already managed to embarrass myself in front of my high school marching band students. Right now, we are in the heat of marching band season, literally, so a majority of our rehearsals take place on the football field. The summer heat is absolutely miserable in the state I'm in, yet I find myself doing it again year after year." Dot, dot, dot. "I hooked up my phone to our Bluetooth speaker so that I could start, stop, by metronome without being tethered to it, which would allow me plenty of freedom to move around the football field

• 19:53Georgia Hardstark?

  and yell at children. My coworker was still at the band inside the school leading warm-up, so I figured now is the perfect time to test my connection. I tapped on the Spotify app icon and immediately, an MFM live show I had been listening to previously started blasting through the speakers on a football field. If you'd like to follow along, this was episode 537, live at the Paramount Theater, Seattle Night 2. The extremely tiny yet specific moment plays what sounds like a plaintive groan from Georgia, and then Karen softly whispering the name, Anthony." Can you play it, Molly?

• 20:35Georgia Hardstark?

  I don't know what it is.

• 20:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Anthony.

• 20:41Karen Kilgariff?

  Also, I've never heard you think that long during a show. You know what I mean? Like, hmm, have either of us ever considered anything for that long before speaking?

• 20:53Georgia Hardstark?

  No, that's our point.

• 20:54Karen Kilgariff?

  What's happening?

• 20:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. And that's playing on a football field in a high school. Of course, the speaker was on full blast, so those two sounds suddenly piercing my eardrums startled me to say the least. Not only that, but unattached to the context surrounding them, which was Karen's DB tuber bank story, they could sound somewhat sexual. And to a large group of teenagers, it's guaranteed someone will say something about it sounding sexual. With reflexes no slower than a cheetah's, I attempted to close Spotify, but instead of swinging up out of the app, I sent the playhead back to the beginning of that exact sound clip.

• 21:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Hmm.

• 21:32Georgia Hardstark?

  Anthony. For a second time, my ears were pierced with the loud groans and seductive whispers of our lovely co-hosts, their voice echoing through the football field. After sprinting over and killing power to the speaker, I looked up to see if anyone happened to witness that embarrassing moment. And sure enough, the entire 100-piece marching band was standing there, waiting to take the field for rehearsal. I was mortified. Instead of addressing it, rehearsal was started as normal, and nothing was said by the students. My coworkers avoided eye contact with me for the rest of the day. I have been a listener since COVID, and you've frequently accompanied me on walks, cleaning sprees, and home cardio workouts done in the bedroom of my second-floor apartment. Thank you for doing everything you have done to keep us sane through this tumultuous time.

• 22:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Your brand of humor is a beautiful combination of sarcasm, joy, and a healthy dose of darkness that has helped an entire community process and cope with all these atrocities we keep living through.

• 22:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Hmm. Wow.

• 22:28Georgia Hardstark?

  I have a feeling that history will look back upon you guys as a positive impact on our culture. Oh, my God.

• 22:35Karen Kilgariff?

  You know, what a nice... That's a nice thing to hear.

• 22:39Georgia Hardstark?

  I know, right?

• 22:40Karen Kilgariff?

  That's a nice idea.

• 22:42Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. Stay sexy and don't play MFM in front of your students, especially if the sounds Georgia and Karen are making are somewhat suggestive, A.

• 22:54Karen Kilgariff?

  Thank you, A. That's so true. Any noise, anything we were doing probably would have sounded suggestive in a high school.

• 23:04Georgia Hardstark?

  Right. Out of context, blasting.

• 23:07Karen Kilgariff?

  What I was hearing, and I have no idea what that... I can kind of remember the story, can't remember the moment.

• 23:12Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 23:13Karen Kilgariff?

  But what I think is, it was like one of those moments where we're trying to be philosophical about why people do what they do.

• 23:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Hmm.

• 23:21Karen Kilgariff?

  Right?

• 23:22Georgia Hardstark?

  Or maybe I was looking at a photo of him. Maybe there was like someone, we were looking at a photo, and maybe he was hot.

• 23:27Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 23:28Georgia Hardstark?

  I don't know.

• 23:29Karen Kilgariff?

  Maybe they really were detecting something that we ourselves can't see. Thank you. Have we humiliated you in front of your high school band class or any other one you teach? Please let us know.

• 23:45Karen Kilgariff?

  911, what's your emergency? Please help us.

• 23:49Speaker 02

  They're everywhere. We think they're murder warrants.

• 23:53Speaker 01

  911 Nashville returns.

• 23:55Speaker 02

  There's a homicide detective down here.

• 23:57Speaker 03

  Three bodies on the ground.

• 23:58Speaker 01

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 24:01Speaker 03

  I will send swarms upon you and upon your people.

• 24:04Speaker 02

  That's one of the plagues of the Bible.

• 24:05Speaker 03

  And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 24:15Speaker 00

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• 24:40Speaker 04

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• 25:09Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay, here's my last one. It says, "Billie Jean King, Gloria Steinem, and a Bridge of a Dad." And this was actually sent in... We just lost Gloria Steinem. I think everyone probably knows that. But if you didn't, Gloria Steinem died on September 2nd. Very sad. She was one of the first big, visible feminists, a woman who was saying, "It's a good thing to be a feminist. It's not bad." It helped a lot that she kind of looked like she was on Charlie's Angels with Farrah Fawcett. She was really an extraordinary woman and thinker and leader. And I'm not reading off paper right now. That's just, I just wanted to give her her due because we keep losing, you know, it's

• 25:53Karen Kilgariff?

  like, of course, we all are like, oh, my God, how do we lose Dolly? But we lose people all the time, and we never get to give kind of everybody their due. So anyway, so this email was sent in before Gloria Steinem passed away.

• 26:06Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay.

• 26:07Karen Kilgariff?

  All that is to say. So it starts, "Hi Karen, Georgia, and the MFM crew. I was listening to the episode where Karen read about Billie Jean King, and it unlocked a deeply buried, beautiful memory that brought happy tears to my eyes, and I wanted to share it with you. Growing up, my father, Richard, was a unique mix of traditional and progressive. I always considered him a bridge between the old ways and the new. He'd always wanted to be a sports writer and could regale absolutely anyone with his flawless encyclopedia-like sports stats. But he also had a massive heart for the shifting world. When I was eight years old, I got entirely used to him calling me into the living room every single time Gloria Steinem was on TV, pointing at the screen and telling me, "Listen to what she has to say."

• 26:51Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 26:52Karen Kilgariff?

  Naturally, when the media circus surrounding Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs started ramping up on our usual weekend sports marathons, my dad was locked in. The day of the Battle of the Sexes finally arrived. Because I was only eight, I can't tell you a single stat or play from the actual tennis match, but I will never forget what happened when it ended. From the far end of the sofa, the spot always claimed by my dad, I heard a small croak. I looked over and saw this man, born in 1930, wiping a genuine tear off his cheek. He looked at me, smiled, and said, "We just watched history. Remember this."

• 27:31Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God, I'm chilled.

• 27:32Karen Kilgariff?

  So good. He wanted me to know that the world was opening up for me, and he was proud to witness it. I hope that one day, women will no longer even need the bridges of wonderful men to get across, but I am so incredibly grateful that he was mine. Thank you for unlocking that memory for me. Stay sexy and listen to what Gloria Steinem has to say. Kathy in Massachusetts.

• 27:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God, Kathy, that was beautiful.

• 27:58Karen Kilgariff?

  Kathy, you're very lucky to have a dad like that. And there's so, there's so many... That's what Jim's like. He's like fiscal conservative feminist against his will. You know, he's like, that's his favorite thing in the world is an underdog story.

• 28:13Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally. That's beautiful.

• 28:15Karen Kilgariff?

  So good.

• 28:15Georgia Hardstark?

  I hate that I'm following it up with a trash teen story, but...

• 28:18Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, I think that's more like us. I think this is a nice pause, but, you know, let's get back to business.

• 28:23Georgia Hardstark?

  All right. Okay, my last one is a trash teen. "Hi Karen and Georgia. First, thank you both for countless hours of laughter, comfort, and making me feel like I'm hanging out with two friends. I've been listening for years, and when you asked for stories about the high school experiences or scams that shaped who we became as adults, I immediately knew I had one. The year was 2005. Netflix was still mailing DVDs, remember?"

• 28:48Karen Kilgariff?

  I used to have like 12 of them right next to the DVD player.

• 28:52Georgia Hardstark?

  I lived in an apartment building, and so at night, someone would put them in their, like, outgoing mail for tomorrow, and I'd take it and watch it that night and then put it out before early.

• 29:01Karen Kilgariff?

  That's really good. You were getting like double usage.

• 29:05Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, and I didn't even know what movie I was gonna... I didn't have to like make a decision about movies.

• 29:09Karen Kilgariff?

  You're like, oh, dinner, my dinner with Andre.

• 29:12Georgia Hardstark?

  Right. I was so broke. Okay. Blockbuster was king, and if you were a teenager who wanted to watch an R-rated movie, you had to find someone to drive you to the video store, hope they didn't card you, and then return the movie three days later before the late fees hit. Oof.

• 29:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 29:27Georgia Hardstark?

  I was a sophomore in high school, working 40 hours a week as a Subway, quote, "sandwich artist." And it says, "Yes, 40 hours, sometimes even more." My manager would write my overtime on personal checks, so we didn't have to acknowledge those pesky child labor laws.

• 29:42Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, that's right.

• 29:44Georgia Hardstark?

  Was I helping support my family? Nope, I just genuinely loved working.

• 29:51Georgia Hardstark?

  At 15 years old, I was making around 20 grand a year.

• 29:55Karen Kilgariff?

  Hell, yes.

• 29:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Did I save it for college? Absolutely not. Instead, my friend JoJo and I launched what can only be described as an underground, R-rated DVD rental business out of my backpack.

• 30:06Karen Kilgariff?

  You and JoJo?

• 30:07Georgia Hardstark?

  JoJo. I already owned a ridiculous DVD collection because, again, I had no bills and terrible financial priorities. Then I invested another 500 into the hottest new releases. I even laminated a professional-looking menu listing every movie available.

• 30:23Karen Kilgariff?

  What?

• 30:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Premium titles rented for $5. Regular titles were $3. No tax, no late fees. If someone kept a movie too long, I simply hunted them down at lunch every day until they gave it back. That's your business model.

• 30:36Karen Kilgariff?

  It's like a junior high blockbuster brought to you.

• 30:39Georgia Hardstark?

  High school blockbuster, yeah.

• 30:40Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes, high school.

• 30:42Georgia Hardstark?

  Business was booming. My fastest rentals, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers. Because you couldn't, I don't know if people know this, but you had to be 18 to rent our movies, right?

• 30:52Karen Kilgariff?

  I believe so, yeah. I mean, if they were hardcore about it, or if you lived in a town like I lived in, everyone knew what grade you were in.

• 31:00Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally. No one was like, fucking around.

• 31:02Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 31:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Eventually, my inventory became so large that I was using four full-size school lockers organized by genre. I even expanded into concessions by selling candy and microwave popcorn as add-ons. Honestly, I was accidentally creating the world's least legal student-run blockbuster. Within a few months, I was making about $100 a week. Everything ran flawlessly until one teacher, Mr. Stevens, spotted one of my laminated menus. I assumed this was the end. Surely, he'd take me straight to the principal, who would call my parents, who would shut everything down. Instead, Mr. Stevens quietly pulled me aside and said, "You need to stop this today." Not because he wanted to crush my entrepreneurial spirit, actually the opposite. He told me

• 31:46Georgia Hardstark?

  he admired the hustle, but he didn't want to see me get caught by administrators who absolutely would.

• 31:52Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 31:52Georgia Hardstark?

  So that afternoon, I shut the entire operation down. What a cool teacher who was like, "I like this."

• 31:57Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 31:58Georgia Hardstark?

  She's, I'm, fuck this.

• 31:59Karen Kilgariff?

  It's so smart. It's, it shows so much, like, ambition and, like,

• 32:03Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 32:03Karen Kilgariff?

  You can get it together to keep this organized.

• 32:06Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally. Oh, absolutely. Well, listen to this. After inventory costs, I'd made almost $3,000.

• 32:13Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, my God.

• 32:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Did I save any of it? Of course not. I treated my friends to Burger King, TGI Fridays, mini golf movies. I basically became the world's least responsible teenage venture capitalist. The funniest part is what came next. Today, I'm a human resources and employment law executive for a Fortune 500 company.

• 32:33Karen Kilgariff?

  Holy shit.

• 32:34Georgia Hardstark?

  I literally spent my career helping businesses follow labor laws, employment regulations, and company policies.

• 32:41Karen Kilgariff?

  You hypocrite.

• 32:43Georgia Hardstark?

  So I guess my biggest lesson was this. Entrepreneurship is great, just maybe don't start your first business by violating school rules, renting R-rated movies to minors, operating tax-free, and storing contraband inventory in four school lockers. You gotta learn somewhere, right?

• 32:57Karen Kilgariff?

  I know. And also, the tax-free part was really a plus.

• 33:00Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. Stay sexy and don't use your illegal child labor money to start a black-market rated R movie business out of your backpack. Nick, Florida.

• 33:09Karen Kilgariff?

  Nick, you're, you're just a monster of industry. Jesus.

• 33:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Do you want to come work for Exactly Right Media?

• 33:16Karen Kilgariff?

  I know. Nick, what's up?

• 33:19Georgia Hardstark?

  We need a, we need a whatever the fuck you do.

• 33:22Karen Kilgariff?

  We need someone that's just like, "I don't know, let's stand in the hallway and sell movies." Like, that's kind of what the industry is these days.

• 33:29Georgia Hardstark?

  Sell podcasts from, from school lockers.

• 33:32Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes. You could do it. It's a can-do spirit.

• 33:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Well, that's it, you guys. If you want to send your story, then do it at myfavoritemurder@gmail.

• 33:40Karen Kilgariff?

  We're taking anything anybody wants to convey.

• 33:43Georgia Hardstark?

  Truly.

• 33:44Karen Kilgariff?

  And stay sexy.

• 33:45Georgia Hardstark?

  And don't get murdered.

• 33:46Karen Kilgariff?

  Goodbye.

• 33:48Georgia Hardstark?

  Elvis, do you want a cookie?

• 33:57Karen Kilgariff?

  This has been an Exactly Right production.

• 33:59Georgia Hardstark?

  Our managing producer is Molly Smith.

• 34:01Karen Kilgariff?

  Our consulting producer is Kate Schellbach.

• 34:03Georgia Hardstark?

  Our creative lead is Allison Agosti.

• 34:05Karen Kilgariff?

  Our associate producer is Tessa Hughes and our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

• 34:09Georgia Hardstark?

  This episode was mixed by Leona Scolacci.

• 34:12Karen Kilgariff?

  Email your hometowns to [email protected] and follow the show on Instagram at MyFavoriteMurder.

• 34:18Georgia Hardstark?

  Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 34:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Or watch new episodes every week on Netflix. Search for My Favorite Murder, add us to your list, and hit the double thumbs up button.

• 34:31Georgia Hardstark?

  Goodbye.

• 34:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Calling all amateur detectives and podcast obsessives.

• 34:41Georgia Hardstark?

  Virgin Voyages' second True Crime Voyage sets sail March 20, 2027, for a five-night escape to Grand Turk and the Beach Club at Bimini.

• 34:49Karen Kilgariff?

  As part of the On Air at Sea collection, this immersive sailing brings together fan-favorite podcasts, including Disgrace Land, Buried Bones, and Wise Crack, for live recordings, behind-the-scenes access, exclusive meet-and-greets, and crime-themed programming that you won't find anywhere else.

• 35:05Georgia Hardstark?

  All aboard our award-winning, kid-free ships.

• 35:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Head over to virginvoyages.com/truecrime to secure your spot.

• 35:12Georgia Hardstark?

  Goodbye.

• 35:15Karen Kilgariff?

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• 35:51Speaker 07

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• 36:33Speaker 07

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