Christmas in Connecticut

Today, we bring you our holiday epic from last year. When Arnold Schwarzenegger decided he wanted to direct a feature film, the choice of material was obvious: He would remake a 1945 holiday classic. Easier said than done. 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is Jacob Goldstein. When you're a business owner interested in expanding to new markets, there's a lot to consider and countless questions to answer before making the call. The most important one being, are you ready? That's where ChatGPT comes in. Give it a goal, add your files, and ask chat to help you map out different scenarios for the future of your business. So when growth is on the table, you've got an expansion plan ready to implement. Get started today at ChatGPT.com.

• 0:28Malcolm Gladwell?

  We spend hours deciding what to buy, but there's a split second decision that can make or break a sale. Do you have the trust to hit buy now? Agentic commerce is testing that moment more than ever. And that's where PayPal comes in. With 25 years of checkouts, 400 million consumer accounts globally, and the benefit of purchase and seller protection, all of which make sure wherever a purchase starts, it ends with trust. Built for payments, growth, and agentic. PayPal Open, built for all business. Visit PayPalOpen.com.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  Purchase and seller protections on eligible transactions only. Terms apply. See PayPal.com/risk-management for details.

• 1:15Speaker 00

  This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem? Running a business is hard enough. Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. That's software overload. Odoo is the all-in-one platform that replaces them all. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR. Fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow with your business. Thousands have already made the switch. Why not you? Try Odoo for free at O D O O dot com. That's Odoo dot com.

• 1:51Malcolm Gladwell?

  For I don't know how long, maybe 12, 13 years, I've worn a Whoop band on my wrist. I started doing it because I met the founder of Whoop at a conference. He heard that I was a runner, and he said, oh, you'll love this. It's perfect for athletes. And he was right. I've worn one ever since. Every time I work out, I see how hard I worked, how long I need to recover. I wake up in the morning, and I get a complete picture of how my sleep went, which helps me understand the kinds of things that lead to a bad night, and the kinds of things that lead to a good night. It's sleek, long-lasting battery, and now with AI looking at all my numbers and coaching me. Whoop is a winner. New members can try Whoop with a 30-day free trial before committing to a membership.

• 2:36Malcolm Gladwell?

  That's whoop.com for your free month of Whoop.

• 2:46Malcolm Gladwell?

  Bushkin.

• 2:49Malcolm Gladwell?

  Hello, hello. Malcolm Gladwell here. Last week, my colleague Ben Nadaf-Hafry brought you the story of the contested authorship of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," otherwise known as "The Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem. Christmas episodes have become a bit of a tradition around here, so I thought I'd bring you an additional piece of good cheer this morning. Our epic episode from last year about Arnold Schwarzenegger directing a made-for-TV Christmas movie that goes wildly off the rails. And if you're thinking to yourself, "What? This is what you brought me for Christmas? A rerun?" Yes, I did. And if you keep listening, you'll find that my antipathy to Christmas runs very deep. What am I doing right now?

• 3:34Malcolm Gladwell?

  Probably sunning myself in Boca and informing my children that 12 days of Christmas is 11 days too many. What's Ben doing right now? Ask Norman Rockwell. But first, listen to this. Christmas is one week away. And how am I celebrating? With restraint and circumspection. In the Gladwell family, we do a mid-century modern Christmas. Spare, elegant, minimalist. Lots of the baby Jesus in a tasteful Scandinavian leather and rosewood manger. No Santa, no reindeer, no elves. Not so for my colleague, Ben Nadaf-Hafry.

• 4:17Malcolm Gladwell?

  The Gladwells impose a dollar limit on gifts, like price controls in some socialist state. The Nadaf-Hafrys spend months thinking of what to get one another. The Gladwells buy a tree at the last moment, and would be happier if we could just move the whole operation outside, around the Douglas pine in the backyard. Ben's family has a tree, a little model village covered in snow, and his father's vintage electric train set, plus a little metal tree with ornaments that's up year round. So when I told Ben that I had never watched It's a Wonderful Life, he was stunned. Then he reached out to me, as the good Samaritan did to the traveler lying bereft by the side of the road. "How could this be?" he asked me gently.

• 5:01Malcolm Gladwell?

  Because, as you can imagine, for the Nadaf Hafreys, It's a Wonderful Life is a sacred text. Then Ben told me another story about what, in his mind, is an even more important Christmas tale. A story that he regards as the apotheosis of all Christmas movies. A story not in a film, but of the making of a film.

• 5:29Malcolm Gladwell?

  Welcome to Revisionist History. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. Today on our show, Ben Naf Hafry relays, for the very first time in history, the truly screwy story of the making of the oddest Christmas film of all time. Trust me, you have never heard this story before, ever. Nor have you ever seen the movie in question, unless you're a member of the extended Nadaf Hafry clan, or were recently incarcerated in a state that limits prisoner streaming access to obscure television movies of the 1990s. But when you listen to what follows, you're going to ask yourself the same question I asked myself when Ben first told me this story. How did I miss this?

• 6:16Speaker 03

  Unlike Malcolm, I am a great lover of Christmas movies. Every year, as soon as Thanksgiving's over, I'm firing up The Bishop's Wife, Miracle on 34th Street, or It's a Wonderful Life. And then there's my favorite Christmas movie, a little less famous, the 1945 romantic comedy, Christmas in Connecticut. I've watched it pretty much every year since I was little. Barbara Stanwyck plays a magazine columnist who's famous for entertaining on her grand Connecticut farm. She's known as a great cook. It's the end of World War II, and her magazine's publisher has an idea for a great feature. She'll host a returning war hero for Christmas on her farm. There's just one problem. It's

• 6:58Speaker 03

  all a lie. She doesn't live in Connecticut. She lives in a tiny apartment in New York, and she has no clue how to cook.

• 7:07Speaker 04

  My farm? Oh, yes, my farm.

• 7:11Speaker 04

  Oh, my phone.

• 7:12Speaker 05

  And he wants to see you right away to arrange it.

• 7:14Speaker 04

  Arrange it? Are you crazy? Where am I going to get a phone? I haven't even got a window box.

• 7:18Speaker 05

  That's just it. We'll have to stall him off. You know what a stickler he is for the truth. If he ever finds out we've been making all this up, he'll fire the both of us.

• 7:26Speaker 03

  Chaos ensues. It's a classic screwball comedy and a total delight. But the thing I really want to tell you about in this episode is what happened after I discovered, quite by accident, that there was a remake of this favorite Christmas movie of mine. An action-packed, star-studded, joke-filled, really very different version of the original, made for TV and directed by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. A kind of shocking twist, if you ask me. I mean, why would the Terminator take on Christmas in Connecticut? So I did what any good Christmas fiend would do. I talked to a dozen people about something that happened 30 years ago for way too many hours to get the real story.

• 8:11Speaker 03

  And I discovered in the process what I have come to regard as the greatest Christmas tale of all time.

• 8:19Speaker 06

  I've told this story many times. I've never told it on the record. It's a, it's a big story. So if you've got the time, I will, I will tell it to you.

• 8:26Speaker 03

  That's Stan Brooks. In the early 1990s, he was an independent made-for-TV movie producer.

• 8:33Speaker 06

  So I'm developing movies and a friend of mine goes and gets the job at TNT. And I make the very first movie for him.

• 8:40Speaker 03

  TNT launched in 1988, at the start of the cable television revolution. Then, as now, cable was expensive, but it was growing. The whole game was trying to raise awareness to get people to sign up. And with channels running 24/7, there was a lot of space to fill, which led to a boom in made-for-TV movies. Stan's first film on TNT was a big success, so he got another bite at the apple.

• 9:06Speaker 06

  And he calls me, he goes, what do you want to do next? So they said, in a million years, would you ever let me do a remake from the MGM library? Because that's what Ted owned. And he said, yes, just pick one.

• 9:16Speaker 03

  Christmas movies always do well. And there was one Stan loved, Christmas in Connecticut.

• 9:22Speaker 06

  And I know the Barbara Stanwyck movie. And so I said, well, this could be a good one. It was right as Martha Stewart was exploding. I thought, well, what if this is Martha Stewart? What if she's on TV and has an empire and it's all fake? And so they loved that take. And so off we went to the races.

• 9:39Speaker 03

  He got a writer to work up the script.

• 9:42Speaker 07

  In television, it was, it was great because you could get your stuff made.

• 9:45Speaker 03

  This is Janet Brownell, one of the all time great bards of TV movies. Writer on Eloise at the Plaza, 12 Dates of Christmas, Days of Our Lives, and the uncredited rewrite of Tim Allen's The Santa Claus, all Brownell. She loved the original Christmas in Connecticut.

• 10:02Speaker 06

  It is.

• 10:02Speaker 07

  It's charming. And in fairness to me, the original draft was very close.

• 10:09Speaker 03

  Janet wrote the draft of the script for Stan's remake.

• 10:12Speaker 06

  And we turn it in and they go, this is good. This is good. We need a Christmas movie. So now I have, and I'm, I have a, a nice little Christmas programmer and nothing more.

• 10:22Speaker 03

  It's the middle of 1991. In Hollywood, Janet and Stan's low budget television movie remake isn't really the sort of thing to get people talking, but they're making progress. He's got the old school movie star Diane Cannon cast in the lead as the Martha Stewart character and an offer out to a director. And then one day, his phone rings. His assistant says it's a big Hollywood agent named Lou Pitt.

• 10:50Speaker 06

  Now, understand, I'm in the television movie business. These guys are never calling me. So if they do call me, it's never good. And, uh, and he, he gets on the phone and he says, you have a director for your Christmas in Connecticut movie? And I said, uh, well, almost, yeah, we have an offer out. And he said, okay, well, if he doesn't say yes, I want to consider my client. And I go, okay, I'm waiting to hear the name. And I go, who? And he goes Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I burst out laughing.

• 11:24Speaker 08

  Oh, he was, he was totally shocked.

• 11:26Speaker 03

  Lou Pitt, legendary agent to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• 11:30Speaker 06

  That's hilarious, Lou. No, seriously.

• 11:32Speaker 08

  Is this a joke? Is this a joke?

• 11:35Speaker 06

  He goes, no, seriously. I go, well, I'm Schwarzenegger's not doing a Christmas movie for TNT.

• 11:42Speaker 03

  To be clear, Arnold had just finished shooting James Cameron's epic Terminator 2.

• 11:47Speaker 09

  Hasta la vista, baby.

• 11:50Speaker 03

  Terminator 2 is the one where Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a killer cyborg sent from the future to protect young John Connor from a different killer cyborg also sent from the future to kill him. As you can imagine, such a plot necessitates a lot of elaborate production work. It was movie making on a scale that was practically unheard of, especially in Los Angeles.

• 12:11Speaker 10

  The production actually changed the course of a river to shoot high-speed chases in the extensive flood control channels of Los Angeles.

• 12:19Speaker 03

  Anyways, back to Stan and Lou, the agent.

• 12:23Speaker 06

  I go, Lou, why on earth would Arnold Schwarzenegger, he says, well, here's why.

• 12:29Speaker 03

  Arnold Schwarzenegger was 44 years old. He had two kids. Nobody is an action hero forever. Maybe it was time to explore some alternatives.

• 12:39Speaker 06

  And so he, he was kind of tired after T2, and he said to Lou, I would like to direct a movie.

• 12:47Speaker 08

  The directing thing was kind of out of the box, out of left field.

• 12:50Speaker 06

  And they said, well, okay, we'll put together a big feature. And he goes, no, no, no. I want low risk. If I do a terrible job, I don't want anyone to be upset. I don't want a big budget and I want it to be family friendly because I don't want anything to be controversial, nothing. I just want something very simple and the only one that fit the bill was Christmas in Connecticut. So I said, okay, I'll, I'll, I'll call you if this guy passes. And I hang up the phone and I'm forced to like parts jumping out of my, I go, what?

• 13:20Speaker 08

  And, and I said, yeah, I'm serious. I read it. I think he'd like it. So get me an offer.

• 13:26Speaker 03

  Stan gets the green light from the executives at TNT. There's some negotiating and they offer Schwarzenegger 100,000 bucks. And then one night, Stan's phone rings.

• 13:37Speaker 06

  I pick it up and I hear Sam Brooks, yes, please hold for Arnold Schwarzenegger. And now I'm serious, I can see my heart beating. And he goes, hello, I go, uh, Arnold, are you the guy with this Christmas script? I said, yes. He says, it's fantastic. I'd love to direct. I go, okay. He goes, but I have to shoot in Los Angeles and I have to do it in these days. And I go, and I have some notes on the script. I go, okay, can you be here in an hour? And I go, uh, no. He goes, can you be on Wednesday? I go, yes, I could be there on Wednesday.

• 14:13Speaker 03

  He goes over for a meeting at Arnold's offices in Santa Monica.

• 14:18Speaker 06

  So now I'm going to be on Wednesday and you walk in and there's this giant lobby. And the first thing you see is the exoskeleton, the metal thing with the red eyes from Terminator. So there's no doubt, I mean, the posters are up on the wall, but there's no doubt when you walk in and you see this seven foot thing. You go, oh crap, I know where I am. My heart's beating and I go in and he's in his office, which is massive. And it's like, you know, size of a football field. And he's on one, you walk in on this end and he's on the other end. So you gotta walk past all the, you know, the props and stuff. And then he's at a big, huge desk with a big giant chair.

• 14:59Speaker 06

  And behind him is a bookshelf, but with all of the Mr. Universe awards, not film stuff. It's all his bodybuilding awards. And I remember we were going through the script and I said, hey, I want to use the restroom. And he pointed to me by putting up his bicep and pointing it like this. His bicep comes, he goes, this dot what? And I go, was that just to show me your bicep? And he goes, I have to show you know, the guns whenever I can. And I was really, okay, so this guy definitely has a sense of humor by himself.

• 15:36Speaker 03

  They sit down. Arnold has notes on the script.

• 15:39Speaker 06

  He, he wanted more humor and a little more jeopardy. And so we, we added in like this, like sort of big action sequence at the beginning where he rescues the kid.

• 15:50Speaker 03

  And all of a sudden Janet Brownell, who wrote the original script for the remake, is looking at a very different movie.

• 15:58Speaker 07

  The whole thing took this like 180 degree turn at that point. It was just like, what is... And Stan just did not want to lose him. And I'm like, okay, I truly don't see this. But if it gets a film green light, I don't give a shit.

• 16:17Speaker 03

  Arnold wants them to get someone else to come in and punch up the script.

• 16:21Speaker 06

  He wanted more humor. And as it happened, my best friend in the world had written Commando.

• 16:26Speaker 03

  Commando, the 1985 action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which the critic from the LA Times referred to as a, quote, "gory crowd pleaser" and a "glorified fireworks display."

• 16:39Speaker 06

  And Arnold loved them and said, "You think you can get him to do a comedy pass?"

• 16:44Speaker 03

  Jeff Loeb, the friend who wrote Commando, gets hired to do the rewrite with his writing partner.

• 16:49Speaker 11

  We walk in, he's sitting on a, on a white couch. Baby is literally the length of the biggest limousine you've ever seen in your life. And he has his feet up on this white porcelain marble table. He's got a big cigar in his mouth and scripts all around him. And he doesn't say hello. He doesn't introduce himself. He doesn't do anything. He just, the first thing out of his mouth is, "So what have you guys been doing since Commando? Clearly not going to the gym."

• 17:25Speaker 03

  I just have to say, everyone in this episode is going to do their own Schwarzenegger impression, which is good because even though we couldn't land an interview with him, I feel like he's here with us in spirit. Anyway, they settle in and start rewriting the film Commando style.

• 17:40Speaker 07

  So that's where things kind of went off the rails for me personally. Cause it's like, okay, this is becoming a completely different thing. It just Schwarzeneggerized into like this thing that was bigger than life.

• 17:53Speaker 11

  I mean, she just did an amazing job. We didn't make any real big structural changes. That's all hers. But a dialogue pass and, and go through it and try to find more of Arnold's vision.

• 18:10Speaker 03

  They start burning through the script. A big job for any director is giving notes on the rewrites. Schwarzenegger was calling in help from his director friends, including legendary comedy director Ivan Reitman, the guy who did Ghostbusters. Everyone was working to realize Arnold's vision.

• 18:28Speaker 11

  Now, you have to understand that on Commando, he would do this all the time. He would go, I have a great idea. Listen, this is what I want to do. When the guy comes at me, I want to throw a buzzsaw at him and it chops off his arm. And then I'm going to pick up his arm and punch him in his face with his old arm.

• 18:48Speaker 11

  And we would go, well, we like the buzzsaw part. Can we just do the buzzsaw part? So like, our job is not to go, and maybe that's not going to work. Our job is to make it work. And it doesn't help that the next day he would say, OK, we're doing really well. We're really getting there. It's really coming to where I want it to be. So I gave it to Steven and Steven talked to me last night. And he says, I have to really be careful of that. And this is what I want you to do. And again, I'm like, is Steven the guy at the gym? Is Steven, who is Steven? And then suddenly, as you go, you know, as he starts to sort of talk more, you go, he's talking about Steven Spielberg.

• 19:32Speaker 03

  This was beginning to look like a train nobody would step in front of. Back at TNT, the executives had a dim sense of what was going on.

• 19:40Speaker 12

  It's not, it's not how it's done now.

• 19:43Speaker 03

  Lori Pose Manteer, one of the TNT executives.

• 19:46Speaker 12

  Whether you're famous or not as a director, that doesn't happen to let somebody go and change things as much as for change.

• 19:54Speaker 03

  Meanwhile, they've cast the rest of the film. Joining Diane Cannon would be Hollywood screwball legend Tony Curtis, probably best known for playing opposite Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. Along with him would be ex-country music star Kris Kristofferson. Here's TNT's senior vice president of production at the time, Nick Lombardo.

• 20:13Speaker 13

  Even when they cast it, I thought, well, that is the weirdest cast I've ever heard of. I mean, the idea that these people fit together made no sense at all. I mean, Diane Cannon and Kris Kristofferson in the same frame, it makes A Star is Born, when he's holding Barbra Streisand, look organic.

• 20:29Speaker 03

  So, armed with one of the all-time weirdest, most stacked casts in the history of film, a comparatively small budget of $3 million, a slot on an upstart cable network, and a script based on a 1940s screwball comedy that's been punched up by two of the writers behind a big 80s blockbuster, an Austrian former bodybuilder, fresh off his repeat performance as a time-traveling cyborg, prepared to direct his first Christmas film.

• 20:54Speaker 06

  You don't, as a TV movie producer, ever get near anything this hot, ever. You just don't.

• 21:00Speaker 14

  I mean, we're all a little nervous about the whole thing, you know, because it's like you're playing with matches and, you know, "Oh yeah, let Arnold direct this," you know, it's like, for us, $3 million was a lot of money.

• 21:14Speaker 07

  I don't know, I don't know, whatever, I was like, oh my god.

• 21:18Speaker 14

  He wanted to prove that he could be a director.

• 21:20Speaker 03

  And everyone was about to find out whether or not he could.

• 21:32Speaker 00

  This is Jacob Goldstein. With ChatGPT, you can do more than get answers, you can get things done. When you're running a business and looking to expand, you need a clear view of the landscape before making any decisions. ChatGPT can help you prepare. Connect your Google Drive, point to relevant files and reports, and ask it to research competitors, industry forecasts, and market signals. It can turn the findings into a strategic deck in your team's template that you can review before presenting to your leadership team. Growing a business is ambitious, and ChatGPT can help you do it with confidence. Get started today at chatgpt.com.

• 22:09Malcolm Gladwell?

  These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health, and we've all gone down an internet rabbit hole, exploring the latest health trends. Your social media feed is packed with wellness advice, telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep, but what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeart Media's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy-nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to health influencers, real people, and most importantly, doctors, to separate fact from fiction.

• 22:54Malcolm Gladwell?

  Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We spend hours researching products online and deciding what to buy, but there's a split-second decision that can make or break a sale. Do you have the trust to hit the Buy Now button? The way we discover and compare things is evolving, happening faster and influenced by new forms of intelligent advice. But the underlying trust question doesn't go away. If anything, it's more important than ever. That's where PayPal comes in. For more than 25 years, they've been a trusted way to pay.

• 23:36Malcolm Gladwell?

  And now PayPal can make the agentic era of commerce work for merchants, letting them maintain control of their brand, their customer relationships. So even as the way we shop changes, the moment that matters most still feels familiar and deeply dependable. PayPal is built for all business. Get started at paypal.com/business. Purchase and sell are protections on eligible transactions only. Terms apply. See paypal.com/risk-management for details. The new Petivity Smart Feeder for Cats turns everyday meals into meaningful health insights, helping you identify changes in your cat's habits and be more proactive about their health.

• 24:21Malcolm Gladwell?

  My cat, Biggie Smalls, is the most demanding member of our household. He has specific mealtimes, or he lets out a massive howl. And last night, I introduced him to the Petivity Smart Feeder for Cats. It took no time to set up. I downloaded the app, plugged it in, filled up the feeder with delicious kibble, and watched as my cat entered the digital age. Biggie, look.

• 24:47Speaker 15

  All curious at it, his first experience with high technology.

• 24:51Malcolm Gladwell?

  Tiny feline mind, blown. Check in on mealtime with a real time video feed and dispense food on demand even when you're away. In multi-cat households, the Petivity Smart Feeder for Cats uses facial recognition technology to track up to five cats. Visit P E T I V I T Y dot com slash cat feeder to learn more.

• 25:18Speaker 03

  Christmas in Connecticut, the remake, began filming about two months before Christmas in Los Angeles. Because Arnold Schwarzenegger had never before directed a feature film, though let the record show he had directed an episode of the TV show Tales from the Crypt, the production arranged for things to film more or less in the order they happen in the film. There's a lot less to keep track of continuity wise that way. But this also posed a problem. One of the anxieties of adapting a great work of art is figuring out how to make it your own. The 1992 made for TV remake of Christmas in Connecticut does this immediately by introducing its male lead, a park ranger named Jefferson Jones, mid-workout routine in his mountain cabin. If you're looking for signs that this is not your grandmother's Christmas in Connecticut,

• 26:02Speaker 03

  the sight of Kris Kristofferson as Jefferson Jones sweating after busting out some chin ups on a beam in his cabin is your first warning. A man on the television offers some brisk exposition while he cools down.

• 26:15Speaker 16

  In the last hour, experts predict this should be the biggest storm to hit the Rockies in the last decade. More than four feet of snow is anticipated to blanket the area in the next 48 hours.

• 26:25Speaker 03

  The phone rings. Another ranger is calling to tell Jones a kid has gotten lost in the blizzard. He has to go out and find him. This is the fabled action sequence Schwarzenegger had requested. They shot the blizzard on a soundstage. It's the moment Jefferson Jones becomes a hero, which is why he gets invited to be a guest of Elizabeth Blains for her Christmas special in Connecticut. It's gotta look epic. It's got to have that Arnold Schwarzenegger feeling. Unfortunately, Terminator, this is not. Here's Jim Wilburger, director of production.

• 26:57Speaker 14

  Yeah, there's a scene where Kristofferson, you know, suddenly has rescued the kid and you see him roll down this little hill of snow, which was shot on stage. And trying to make more of, more of it because there wasn't that much set for that little hill and. You know, and then suddenly you see all the people rush in to rescue. You know, I mean, this was just not good blocking.

• 27:26Speaker 14

  And, and that's, that's an experience.

• 27:29Speaker 03

  Schwarzenegger wanted jeopardy, but this kind of looks like a snowball fight gone awry. Jones stumbles over a very small hill, holding a child that looks like it might be a mannequin. He's groaning and yelling, but his lips aren't moving. So tough start. Luckily though, a lot of the film is set inside Elizabeth Blaine's fake Connecticut house, where she's shooting a Christmas special in celebration of Jones. The bulk of production happened there. So the whole crew set up at a house in South Pasadena for the real work. This introduced Arnold to the second problem of directing. Actor ego management and the issue of his trailer.

• 28:07Speaker 06

  Arnold's trailer was like a house on wheels. It was literally like you'd look at it from the outside and you'd say, wow, that's got all kinds of pop outs and the roof went up and everything. But when you got inside, it was literally like you had just walked into like the Greystone Mansion.

• 28:22Speaker 14

  You know, it's probably almost three times as wide as a normal trailer. And that was, it was the length that became the issue. Diane comes in and she says, why is Arnold's trailer bigger than my trailer? Nobody's supposed to have a bigger trailer than me.

• 28:40Speaker 03

  Diane Cannon was the star of the film, but she was maybe realizing that this production was all about the director. Schwarzenegger, though, was dealing with other problems. Namely, he had chosen one of the hardest genres for his first major directing foray. Screwball comedy is like dancing on the head of a pin. It thrives on chaos, but it has to be a kind of controlled chaos. With his big personality cast, low budget, short timeline and hastily rewritten script, Schwarzenegger had an excess of chaos and a minimum of control. I mean, you have one somewhat disgruntled actress portraying fake Martha Stewart, and another who's a macho park ranger, but who for no apparent reason relays this backstory partway through the movie.

• 29:23Speaker 17

  Actually, before I moved to Colorado, I lived in Chicago. I grew up there. Taught comparative literature at the university for ten years.

• 29:32Speaker 18

  Really?

• 29:33Speaker 17

  I got offered tenure and head of the department, and it's what I thought I wanted. But then being caged in by concrete and crowds for the rest of my life.

• 29:44Speaker 03

  This is, I'm pretty sure, the only time in the entire film Jefferson Jones is passed as chair of the University of Chicago's comparative literature department is mentioned. And I love Kris Kristofferson, but most of the rest of his performance veers between stiff and oddly sexually charged.

• 30:01Speaker 14

  When he starts smearing the pine sap on her neck.

• 30:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, that, it's, it's, it's just kind of transcendentally weird.

• 30:10Speaker 14

  Yeah, well, not to mention his, two times he's like staring at her butt, you know, up close.

• 30:16Speaker 03

  There's an extensive shot of that.

• 30:19Speaker 18

  Wow, I bet you can't buy that at Glimmingdale.

• 30:22Speaker 17

  You're right.

• 30:24Speaker 03

  So you've got two characters who really just barely hang together. And then you have to direct them in tightly choreographed, zany sequences that have got to feel plausible, yet also hilarious. For instance, the scene with the baby. Remember, in Christmas in Connecticut, Elizabeth is a total fraud. She doesn't know how to cook, it's not even her house in Connecticut, and she's got this fake staged family with her, including a fake baby. She had to keep up appearances for the sake of her column. In the original film, there's a lovely scene where she and Jefferson Jones give her fake baby a bath. She, a supposed domestic goddess, is meant to bathe her child, which she suspiciously has no clue how to do. He steps in and does it for her like a total pro. It's part of why she falls in love with him.

• 31:09Speaker 03

  And because it's so well executed in the original film, we believe they're falling in love in this totally implausible moment.

• 31:21Speaker 04

  Oh, Roberto, she's eating herself. What'll I do?

• 31:24Speaker 19

  Well, it hurt her. They all do it.

• 31:26Speaker 04

  Oh, really? Oh, you'd make a wonderful father, Mr. Jones. You're, uh, you're not married yourself by any chance, are you?

• 31:35Speaker 19

  No, cards are stacked against me, I guess. Every time I meet a girl I like, it turns out she's already married.

• 31:41Speaker 04

  Oh, that's too bad.

• 31:43Speaker 03

  Now, this also happens in the Arnold Schwarzenegger version.

• 31:47Speaker 17

  Maybe we should finish up for her.

• 31:49Speaker 18

  Finish up what?

• 31:50Speaker 17

  A bath.

• 31:51Speaker 18

  You know what? I just had the most wonderful idea. How would you like to bathe her?

• 31:56Speaker 17

  Me?

• 31:57Speaker 18

  Sure, I think it'd be fun for you. Here.

• 32:00Speaker 03

  What happens next is the greatest travesty in the history of bath time. It's as if you gave two aliens a baby and said, "Give this a bath", not realizing that on the planet they're from, not only are there no babies or baths, but actually, there's not even water. Uh, what do you remember about that?

• 32:17Speaker 14

  Well, some of that was improvised.

• 32:20Speaker 03

  What happens is they just drench the baby in shampoo, and then they barely wash any of it out. On the bath scale, it's two rubber duckies out of 10. But the premise of the scene is that Jefferson Jones is crushing it.

• 32:31Speaker 14

  It was pretty hilarious, I thought, and also very clumsy.

• 32:37Speaker 14

  And they really gooped up the kid's hair. My god.

• 32:40Speaker 06

  I don't know. I'm sure the prop I put in too much shampoo.

• 32:43Speaker 18

  Here's some soap, sweetie.

• 32:46Speaker 18

  Here's a sock. Here's a duck.

• 32:48Speaker 07

  That's a director thing. I mean, that is a flat-out director fail. I mean, that right there.

• 32:53Speaker 03

  Like, retake the scene.

• 32:54Speaker 07

  Hundred percent. And there probably were three or four versions of that. That's the one he chose. You know, it's not like that was the only one.

• 33:01Speaker 18

  She sure likes that. You're awfully good at that for a bachelor, you know? You sure you don't have a whole slew of kids hidden somewhere?

• 33:07Speaker 17

  I nursed a couple of bear cubs till their mother came back.

• 33:10Speaker 18

  This is better than bear cubs.

• 33:12Speaker 17

  Can you see her beauty?

• 33:13Speaker 03

  It's like on SNL when the actors break and laugh. When Elizabeth's like, "I'm not sure if we got all the soap out", and Jefferson's like, "Well, we didn't". That's the true reaction, and it must be improvised. But then they go back to the scripted version, where Jones is doing a great job. Most of the people on set have some kind of moment like this.

• 33:32Speaker 14

  You know, the forest with the snow and the sleigh that comes along. And there's even one shot I noticed where you can see the wheels under the sleigh.

• 33:42Speaker 20

  I remember the day I was there, they were filming that scene where chaos erupts, you know, and the tree falls down and all that. We had to do that scene quite a number of times. It was as chaotic as the scene is, but behind the scenes, it was even more so.

• 33:59Speaker 13

  It's a little like opening a baloney factory for cultural, you know? It's sort of like, what's going on in there? Nothing good, nothing good. Don't ask anything.

• 34:12Speaker 03

  So it was kind of hectic on set. And yet I think you can hear in people's voices how much they love telling this story. Pretty much across the board, this was a happy memory for the people I spoke to. Not least of all, because they never lost sight of just how improbable it all was.

• 34:29Speaker 11

  And then in the middle of all this is Arnold running around going, you know, move the camera over here. I do this over here. Let's go do this. No, I think it could be 10 times funnier. Come on. So there's Arnold's voice, you know, just bellowing out. And that was the other thing that I really remember was that while this is happening, while we're making this little tiny movie, he is in theaters with Terminator 2. And it's doing numbers that no one has ever seen before.

• 35:08Speaker 11

  And we were on set when it crossed $500 million. But when you're standing next to the guy who's the star of that movie and his major concern is whether or not is it in focus forehead? Let's go.

• 35:28Speaker 03

  The forehead thing, you're not the first person to bring that up. Several people mentioned to me that Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite put-down was to call someone a forehead. This actually made it into the movie when Elizabeth Blaine and Jefferson Jones get pulled over by the cops mid-sleigh ride. The one where you can see the wheels? This happens.

• 35:47Speaker 21

  Put your hands where I can see them. You're both under arrest.

• 35:50Speaker 18

  Oh, come on! Come on, you foreheads. Get them up. You what?

• 35:55Speaker 03

  This is actually a big part of why I love this movie. It has a kind of free jazz improvisatory quality to it. It's oddly self-referential and also very sweet. It's like how you can hear in someone's voice when they're smiling. That's how this movie feels. Because even at the risk of himself being labeled a forehead who couldn't direct the movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger was showing up every day and putting in his all. For the film buffs in the crew, it was a dream come true just to work with him or with a legend like Tony Curtis.

• 36:25Speaker 06

  You know, it was a trip to Oz that I knew was short-lived, but it was something I was gonna, you know, take in and enjoy as much as possible.

• 36:37Speaker 03

  After 20 days of shooting, the film wrapped. They had a party at Arnold Schwarzenegger's restaurant. It was around Christmas time, and they all got sweatshirts with the name of the film on the front.

• 36:47Speaker 14

  And on the back was a picture of Arnold with a Santa hat on, wearing sunglasses, and saying something about, I can't remember the full thing, but he used the word "you forehead."

• 37:06Speaker 03

  Later, Jim was kind enough to send me a photo of the sweatshirt. It said on the back, "More snow, you forehead." There's my Schwarzenegger impression. With the film in the can, post-production and premiere has loomed. That's after the break.

• 37:31Speaker 00

  This is Jacob Goldstein. With ChatGPT, you can do more than get answers. You can get things done. When you're running a business and looking to expand, you need a clear view of the landscape before making any decisions. ChatGPT can help you prepare. Connect your Google Drive, point to relevant files and reports, and ask it to research competitors, industry forecasts, and market signals. It can turn the findings into a strategic deck in your team's template that you can review before presenting to your leadership team. Growing a business is ambitious, and ChatGPT can help you do it with confidence. Get started today at chatgpt.com.

• 38:08Malcolm Gladwell?

  These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health. And we've all gone down an internet rabbit hole, exploring the latest health trends. Your social media feed is packed with wellness advice, telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy-nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to health influencers, real people, and most importantly, doctors, to separate fact from fiction.

• 38:53Malcolm Gladwell?

  Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We spend hours researching products online and deciding what to buy. But there's a split-second decision that can make or break a sale. Do you have the trust to hit the Buy Now button? The way we discover and compare things is evolving, happening faster and influenced by new forms of intelligent advice. But the underlying trust question doesn't go away. If anything, it's more important than ever. That's where PayPal comes in. For more than 25 years, they've been a trusted way to pay. And now PayPal

• 39:36Malcolm Gladwell?

  Can make the agentic era of commerce work for merchants, letting them maintain control of their brand, their customer relationships. So even as the way we shop changes, the moment that matters most still feels familiar and deeply dependable. PayPal is built for all business. Get started at paypal.com/business. Purchase and sell our protections on eligible transactions only. Terms apply. See paypal.com/risk-management for details. The new Petivity Smart Feeder for Cats turns everyday meals into meaningful health insights, helping you identify changes in your cat's habits and be more proactive about their health.

• 40:20Malcolm Gladwell?

  My cat, Biggie Smalls, is the most demanding member of our household. He has specific mealtimes, or he lets out a massive howl. Last night, I introduced him to the Petivity Smart Feeder for Cats. It took no time to set up. I downloaded the app, plugged it in, filled up the feeder with delicious kibble, and watched as my cat entered the digital age. Biggie, look. All curious at it. It's his first experience with high technology. Tiny feline mind, blown. Check in on mealtime with a real-time video feed and dispense food on demand even when you're away. In multi-cat households,

• 41:01Malcolm Gladwell?

  the Petivity Smart Feeder for Cats uses facial recognition technology to track up to five cats. Visit petivity.com/catfeeder to learn more.

• 41:17Speaker 03

  Before we get to the premiere of Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1992 Christmas in Connecticut remake, I want to tell you about something that happened earlier this year. Thank you all for coming. Thank you, Mitch, for coming down from Detroit.

• 41:30Malcolm Gladwell?

  Yeah, thanks for having me here.

• 41:32Speaker 03

  Malcolm interviewed Mitch Albom live onstage at the 92nd Street Y. Albom is the bestselling author of some ungodly number of books, but he's probably most famous for Tuesdays with Maury.

• 41:44Speaker 03

  He and Malcolm were there to talk about his new novel about the Holocaust, The Little Liar. They were warming up with some Mitch backstory about his time as a musician in New York.

• 41:54Speaker 22

  I tried the whole starving musician thing and I played in all the clubs around here on Monday nights.

• 42:00Speaker 03

  I was backstage at this event peering out. I hadn't read Mitch's book. I was up to something else.

• 42:08Malcolm Gladwell?

  Wait, we should probably do this before we get too far afield on the music thing. If you've been talking so much, you will note that behind you, there is a Korg.

• 42:19Speaker 03

  At this point, the audience of people who had come that night to hear the author of Tuesdays with Maury discuss the Holocaust, noticed the electric piano behind him.

• 42:27Malcolm Gladwell?

  And we have a request that you play one of your most famous compositions, which, you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about Cooking for Two, from the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger 1992 made-for-TV movie, Christmas in Connecticut.

• 42:48Speaker 22

  Yeah.

• 42:48Malcolm Gladwell?

  Can you?

• 42:49Speaker 22

  See the recognition?

• 42:51Speaker 03

  Yes, it was my keyboard, and yes, I had planted it there.

• 42:55Malcolm Gladwell?

  Mitch, no, no, this, for some reason, I have no idea, my colleague Ben is obsessed with this and really wanted us to do this. And I thought, how great would it be for you to sing one of our songs? Just like, just give us a little taste.

• 43:08Speaker 22

  Well, I have to tell you the story of the song.

• 43:10Malcolm Gladwell?

  Tell the story.

• 43:11Speaker 22

  Okay, so after I got out of the music business, I had a college roommate who went into the movie business.

• 43:19Speaker 03

  That would be Stanley M. Brooks, executive producer of Christmas in Connecticut. Stan and Mitch were roommates at Brandeis.

• 43:26Speaker 22

  And he knew that I was a musician, and he was making a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a producer, and Schwarzenegger was the director of Christmas in Connecticut, the remake.

• 43:39Speaker 22

  Sounds about as good as it was, I think. And, uh, and they needed, it's a song because she played, Diane Cannon, played the, uh, lead and she was a cook on TV or whatever. So the song had to be about food. And they wanted to use, um, Harry Connick's Recipe for Love or something like that, but they couldn't afford it. Yeah. So Stan calls me and says, "We need a song that's kind of upbeat about food. Uh, for Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie, can you do it?" You know? I said, "Well, when do you need it by?" "Thursday," you know? It was Tuesday, you know? So I just went and wrote a little song. And my wife is a singer, a fantastic singer. And, uh, I said, "Honey, can you sing this song?

• 44:24Speaker 22

  Because we don't have time to go find anybody else." And he listened to it and he said, "I like to bond with the girl." And that's how the song was chosen. Yeah, yeah. I want you to play it. I really think you should. So it went, uh... Now, remember it had to be about food. So it went, uh...

• 44:51Speaker 22

  Let's go to the kitchen. I got something fixing, appetizing and new. Here's a clue. We're cooking for two.

• 45:02Speaker 22

  They're inside the oven, something warm and loving. Friends would laugh if they knew. And it's true. We're cooking for two. Here's the accord of the bridge. I was a soup for one girl. Leftovers every night. Oh, but once I tasted your kisses. I was dining by candlelight. Here's a recipe for all the world to see. We take some me and some you. Then it's stew. We're cooking for two. I love you. We're cooking for two.

• 45:44Speaker 22

  Oh!

• 45:55Speaker 22

  That definitely ranks amongst one of the most embarrassing things I've ever.

• 46:00Speaker 03

  They planned to play it over the credits. With a Mitch album closing track in hand, Christmas in Connecticut was almost ready to debut. Most made for TV movies, you just put out on television, but not this one.

• 46:13Speaker 06

  First of all, TV movies don't have screenings. If we have a screening, it's like 10 people and you know, you rent a screening room somewhere like this was the big theater at the DGA, which holds, I don't know, 1,000 people, massive screen. And there's a huge red carpet and a, and a press line.

• 46:33Speaker 20

  We had two theaters going and they were filled.

• 46:36Speaker 06

  When I tell you that there's never been a television movie before or since that had a press line and he's walking down, working the press and like, you know, and I, and you know, the TNT publicity person, this is Stan Bros, the executive producer, Arnold.

• 46:50Speaker 03

  According to Stan, Ivan Reitman and James Cameron were there, along with a whole slew of Hollywood royalty. The screening was in LA. It was a media sensation.

• 46:59Speaker 23

  Watch out Hollywood, there's a new director in town and he's used to making a big impact, that is in front of the camera.

• 47:05Speaker 09

  When you act and you see such talented directors as I've worked with, it inspires you.

• 47:15Speaker 03

  Janet Brownell, the screenwriter, was not having such a good night.

• 47:19Speaker 07

  I remember sitting at the screening with my agent and I was like crying. I mean, I was like, oh my God.

• 47:25Speaker 03

  Why were you crying?

• 47:27Speaker 07

  Because I get so bad and my name is on this. My agent was very fast to get me a drink at that point. I just remember outside, there was kind of a Christmas themed sort of party and just like, I need to get out of here.

• 47:41Speaker 03

  But there was no putting the genie back in the bottle. TNT was running promos nonstop.

• 47:48Speaker 09

  I love romantic comedies, so I made one myself. Christmas in Connecticut. It's a romantic comedy. With all the trimmings.

• 47:57Speaker 24

  What in the world could possibly go wrong?

• 48:01Speaker 09

  Christmas in Connecticut, directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. You have a problem with that? A TNT exclusive premiere, Monday, April 13.

• 48:10Speaker 03

  I don't know if you caught that, but the film came out in April, one week before Easter. As one review put it, quote, "Don't ask me why a Christmas movie is premiering in April." As his then-wife Maria Shriver reflected, he just does. He's a big one on, "Don't think about it or talk about it, do it."

• 48:29Speaker 06

  And then he goes, "I think we want to screen it again. That was too much fun." I go, "Okay." I go, "I'll see if I can organize." He goes, "No, I want to screen in Washington with my friend Jack Blent." So now we all fly to Washington. And it was a who's who of Washington. And it was senators and members of cabinet. It was a seated dinner. And I remember my wife and I sit down. We were working in the room, so we sit last at our table. And the guy next to me has got like a dress uniform on. And I say, "Hey, Stan Brooks, I'm the producer." And he goes, "Hey, Oliver North."

• 49:05Speaker 03

  Oliver North of Iran-Contra fame. The film was a big hit in the Beltway. Suffice it to say, this made-for-television Christmas movie had an unusually big reception. But it also didn't really do much to establish Arnold Schwarzenegger as a director. The reviews were mixed.

• 49:22Speaker 14

  Well, I'm looking on IMDb right now. It's like, the rating is 4.8 out of 10, and they're not far off.

• 49:30Speaker 06

  We, nobody had any, "Oh, my God, we're making It's a Wonderful Life."

• 49:34Speaker 03

  I realize I've had a lot of fun with this movie. And gun to my head, do I think it's good? No. But do I love it? Obviously, yes. Because it's so totally weird and overcommitted to its bit that it has a kind of joyfulness to it that honestly gets me in the Christmas spirit. And at its core, like the best Christmas films, the story behind the movie is a story of love and friendship between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stan Brooks. Two men brought together by a love of making movies. After the film, Stan and Arnold stayed in touch. Stan even moved into Arnold Schwarzenegger's office building. Their kids played football together. And even though they never made another movie together,

• 50:18Speaker 03

  their collaboration had one more act. Almost 10 years to the day from when Christmas in Connecticut began shooting, Arnold Schwarzenegger became the governor of California. At the time, there was a lot of hand wringing over an issue called runaway production. Lots of states had started offering tax breaks to lure films into shooting somewhere other than California. It had become a real problem for Hollywood as an industry town. And this was one of the crises Schwarzenegger would have to face in his new role as governor.

• 50:49Speaker 03

  Now, the way people talked about his becoming governor was the same way they talked about his becoming a director. So it only makes sense that he wanted Stan Brooks in his administration.

• 51:00Speaker 06

  So when he became governor, he was in about a year and he called me and he said, "How would you like to be on the film commission?" And I said, "Well, that's a dumb idea." He goes, "Why?" I said, "Well, because I don't shoot movies in California." I said, "I'm like the worst person you could put on the film commission because I take my movies out of state." He goes, "Oh, that's why we want you, because we want to try and pass the tax barrier."

• 51:24Speaker 03

  Stan joined the California Film Commission. And over the next few years, he was a key part of lobbying efforts to pass the tax credits that would make it easier to film in California.

• 51:34Speaker 06

  It was a hard fight. And so I ended up making a short film, a short documentary film, where we interviewed some of the families that left on why. And that ended up being more powerful than any speech we could make in their office.

• 51:48Speaker 03

  The first tax credits passed in 2009. They've been renewed ever since. So back to our original question. Why did Arnold Schwarzenegger direct this bizarre one-off Christmas film? I found my answer in a story Stan told me.

• 52:03Speaker 06

  He says to me one night, we finished around seven or eight and he goes, "What are you doing?" And I said, "I'm going home." He goes, "Maria's making dinner. You want to come to the house?" So, "Oh, yeah, yeah." So we both jump in our cars and we drive to Pacific Palisades. And at that dinner, I remember Arnold turned to me and he says, "You have bad taste. I don't understand. Why you don't do big features?" And I said, "To be honest, I didn't get in the business to make big, famous movies. I got in the business to make movies and I get to make two or three a year. If I'm in the feature business, I'm lucky if I make one every other year, every three years." I go, "I'm happy with my life." He goes, "Well, that's fantastic."

• 52:46Speaker 03

  This story really hit home for me because I get what that's like to just love making something, even a kind of improbably dense story about the making of the remake of a Christmas movie. It's like Stan said, if you love making movies or anything, it's just a gift to get to make more, even if they're maybe not the best, especially if it's clear how much fun you had making whatever it is you're making. So to close, let me just share one quote from the very last page of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, a passage about Scrooge after he's seen the light. Quote, "Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh and little heeded them, for he was wise enough to know

• 53:31Speaker 03

  that nothing ever happened on this globe for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset. His own heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him." Maybe Stan and Arnold didn't make It's a Wonderful Life, but it seems to me like their own hearts were laughing. So from all of us here at Revisionist History, happy holidays, you foreheads. See you in the new year.

• 54:03Speaker 03

  Revisionist History is produced by me, Ben Nattif Hafrin, and Lucy Sullivan, with Nina Bird Lawrence. Our editor is Karen Shakurji. Fact checking on this episode by Sam Russel, a resident Schwarzenegger fan. Original scoring by Luis Guerra, mastering by Jake Korski. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Special thanks to Sarah Nix, David Arnott, Linda Berman, Iris Grossman, and Scott Sassa. I'm Ben Nattif Hafrin.

• 54:59Malcolm Gladwell?

  Three, two, one. We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas. And a happy new year. Dreadful. Oh, my goodness.

• 55:22Speaker 06

  That was the worst. I couldn't imagine.

• 55:26Malcolm Gladwell?

  We spend hours deciding what to buy, but there's a split second decision that can make or break a sale. Do you have the trust to hit buy now? Agentic commerce is testing that moment more than ever, and that's where PayPal comes in. With 25 years of checkouts, 400 million consumer accounts globally, and the benefit of purchase and seller protection, all of which make sure wherever a purchase starts, it ends with trust. Built for payments, growth, and agentic. PayPal Open: Built for All Business. Visit paypalopen.com.

• 56:03Speaker 02

  Purchase and seller protections on eligible transactions only. Terms apply. See paypal.com/risk-management for details.

• 56:13Malcolm Gladwell?

  For I don't know how long, maybe 12, 13 years, I've worn a Whoop band on my wrist. I started doing it because I met the founder of Whoop at a conference. He heard that I was a runner, and he said, "Oh, you'll love this. It's perfect for athletes." And he was right. I've worn one ever since. Every time I work out, I see how hard I worked, how long I need to recover. I wake up in the morning, and I get a complete picture of how my sleep went, which helps me understand the kinds of things that lead to a bad night and the kinds of things that lead to a good night. It's sleek, long-lasting battery, and now with AI looking at all my numbers and coaching me. Whoop is a winner. New members can try Whoop with a 30-day free trial before committing to a membership.

• 56:58Malcolm Gladwell?

  That's whoop.com for your free month of Whoop.

• 57:02Speaker 25

  Let's talk about something everyone has an opinion on: healthcare. We all know it should work better than it does. Optum believes that too, and they're trying to improve it. They're helping healthcare teams and pharmacy services work together, like bringing primary care and prescription drugs straight to your home so you can stay on top of your health. Optum's also building technology that connects the whole healthcare system so it can better take care of the whole person: you. Optum is making healthcare work as one for everyone. See what Optum's up to at optum.com.