Victor Teran, Meridith Friedman, and Edgar Castillo (Crossover Writers)

Summary

One Chicago Podcast — Crossover Writers Roundtable

Episode Title: Victor Teran, Meridith Friedman, and Edgar Castillo (Crossover Writers)
Date: March 5, 2026
Host: Brian Luce
Guests: Victor Teran (Chicago Fire), Meridith Friedman (Chicago Med), Edgar Castillo (Chicago PD)

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Overview:

This episode offers a behind-the-scenes deep dive into creating the epic One Chicago crossover event, “Reckoning Parts 1, 2, and 3.” Host Brian Luce convenes three key writers from Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago PD—Victor Teran, Meridith (Meredith) Friedman, and Edgar Castillo—for a candid, often funny conversation about the sweat, chaos, and rewards of fusing three hit shows into one grand, three-hour television movie.

The writers reveal the daunting logistics, creative challenges, and moments of inspiration behind one of the franchise’s most ambitious undertakings—including whiteboard marathons, frigid outdoor shoots, wild stunt work, and emotional storytelling arcs that unite characters and audiences from all three series.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Pathways to One Chicago

• Meridith’s Journey to Med

  • Meridith began as a New York playwright earning half her living from theater and odd jobs, considering a return to teaching, before a leap of faith led her to TV. An unsolicited script reached Med’s showrunners, “and nine years later, I’m still here.” (04:51)
  • Notable Detail: She’s the second-longest writer on Med (after Steven “Hootsie” Hootstein). (06:05)

• Edgar’s Route to PD

  • Former community college professor, wrote scripts on the side, landed a job on FBI International, then was referred for Chicago PD after International’s cancellation. (06:27)

Planning the Crossover: Controlled Chaos

• Crossover Writing Room (07:43–09:10)

  • The process sprawled from three to five whiteboards, filled with diagrams of “planes and weird little drawings.”
  • Victor’s diagrams became a crucial storytelling tool, and a source of friendly teasing.

• Finding the Story: Planes, Boats, and Snow

  • The core concept began with a mysterious plane incident, an idea championed by producer Peter Jankowski, but the writers considered every possible form of transport (even a ship, which was nixed—“working around water is too hard.”) (10:00–10:24, 10:43)
  • The team faced freezing Chicago winter—thankful they didn’t shoot on water: “it would have been ice.” (10:36)

• Logistics and Scheduling (14:58–17:56)

  • Shooting was out of episode order, schedules overlapped, and continuity depended on script supervisors and assistant directors hopping between shows.
  • Shout-outs to production staff: “They busted their asses... and we couldn’t be more grateful.” (16:45)

Memorable Quote:

“We had a puzzle to put together… we were just doing brain gymnastics for a good two weeks.”
— Victor Teran (19:17)

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Crafting the Epic: Favorite Moments & Toughest Challenges

Chicago Fire:

• Favorite Scene:
  • Fire started in the morgue, with dead bodies and chaos—a sequence devised thanks to a drop-in idea from Steven Hootstein. (18:05)
• Biggest Challenge:
  • Constructing the investigative mystery, timing the information and reveals. “It just made my head hurt.” (19:17)

Chicago Med:

• Kick-off Excitement:
  • Med’s hour started with the carried-over tension from Fire, with actors bringing “layers to every interaction.” (21:48)
• Teaser Moment:
  • The “baby blanket” story was suggested by Med showrunner Alan McDonald: “He’s really good at the things that just crack your heart open.” (22:54)

Chicago PD:

• High Pressure Landing:
  • Edgar’s task: “land the plane” by tying together all plotlines as the final hour. Not enough time, but teamwork prevailed.
  • Wrapping up all questions and emotional arcs under the wire: “It’s just so hard... we were kind of up against it at the end and had to really like kind of dig deep.” (29:48)

Notable On-Set Anecdotes

• Super Bowl Hijinks (12:16)
  • PD took over the Med stages to celebrate with a “thousand wings”—Med and Fire actors weren’t amused!
• Morgue Madness (18:05, 46:53)
  • The unprecedented fire-in-the-morgue sequence, with actors crawling over bodies, “bona fide horror” not typical for these shows.

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The Anatomy of the Crossover: Blending Three Shows

• Writer Collaboration:
  • All pitched in on the story-breaking for all three episodes. The biggest difficulty: remaining true to each show’s voice and character boundaries. (13:10)
• Production Complexity:
  • Med and Fire teams had to adjust to each other’s styles and specialties, with unique stunts (car flips done old-school by pushing a Lexus with a rental Suburban at 50 mph! (24:09))
• Emotional & Physical Demands:
  • Largest number of locations and stunts Med ever attempted.
  • Continuity heroes and production staff received major praise for keeping order amid chaos.
• Flashbacks & De-aging:
  • A flashback sequence opening the third PD hour required de-aging tech—a rare narrative move for the franchise. (42:01)

Memorable Quote:

“We all have familiarity with each other’s characters, but we don’t know them as intimately as the writer of that show.”
— Meridith Friedman (13:10)

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Standout Scenes & Cross-Show Interactions

• Inter-show Pairings:
  • Victor relished writing for “badass, straight-shooting” Upton and Lennox, women from the other series, “who both get the job done.” (45:34, 46:22)
  • Edgar enjoyed writing for Dr. Archer of Med, who ends up in a hazardous suit (“PAPR”), a situation completely new to him. (44:43)
• Flashback Scene:
  • Recalling the responsibilities and grief following a tragic fire—guest actors in era-accurate costumes, emotional weight, and expert technical advice from Steve Chicorotis. (27:41)
• Subtle Touches:
  • Edgar wrote the “flower moment”—a young character tries to rescue a wilting flower, symbolic of his lost innocence and future trajectory. (43:46)

Memorable Quotes:

“One of the coolest things about all three hours is Victor was able to write genuine moments of horror…we just don’t do that.”
— Edgar Castillo (48:26)

“He finally had purpose…That’ll make you cry for all the firemen you lost.”
— Brian Luce, on a pivotal emotional scene (39:56)

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Favorite Collaborators, Teams, and Moments of Awe

• Shout-Outs to Key Crew & Departments:

  • Director Reza, line producer Demetra, production manager Eric—for achieving the near impossible: a real 737 and airfield access.
  • Chris Payne, special effects makeup, for “dead bodies,” exposure makeup, and sleepless dedication. (36:32–38:54)
  • Med’s Miranda’s performance with Dr. Charles (39:09); emotional scenes informed by real firefighter experience.
  • PD’s emotional flashback and de-aging tech: “I think that’s gonna turn out really cool.” (42:01)

• Uncut Writers’ Camaraderie:

  • The trio traded jabs and warmth, candid about “throwing pencils” but ultimately grateful for each other’s expertise and creative trust in building the episode together. (20:14, 51:58)
  • Victor’s leadership as “captain of the ship” on a daunting crossover for first-timers Meredith and Edgar. (52:12)

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

On the process:

• “It grew to like five whiteboards with, you know, all three shows on them and diagrams of planes and weird little drawings.” — Victor Teran (07:43)
• “We learned Victor is a really great diagram maker and that’s a key, integral part of his process.” — Meridith Friedman (08:42)
• “As difficult as it was, it forced us to do something really different… that was part of the direction, like, let’s try to do one that feels different, a thriller, suspense…” — Victor Teran (11:03)

On the madness of the work:

• “I think my favorite moment is actually when our guys discover the bad guy’s in the morgue… the fire is bonkers, cause it’s in a morgue and there’s dead bodies and there’s up things flying through. Bodies.” — Victor Teran (18:05)
• “We waited four hours… I guess we’re not gonna have a car flip…and then it worked beautifully.” — Meridith Friedman (24:09)

On teamwork and gratitude:

• “Can I say ass? They busted their asses…” — Victor Teran (16:45)
• “Victor was definitely the captain of the ship.” — Meridith Friedman (52:12)

On character craft:

• “The emotional skeleton of this episode… was your idea… I still remember when you called me and said, ‘I’ve got this pitch. What do you think?’” — Meridith Friedman to Edgar Castillo (40:49)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Origins & Introductions: 04:51–07:46
• Breaking the Crossover Concept: 07:43–10:43
• Logistics & Shooting Chaos: 14:58–17:56
• Favorite Moments/Challenges by Writers: 18:05–23:30
• Stunt Stories & Car Flip: 24:09–25:32
• Flashback Sequence & Cross-department Teamwork: 27:41–29:02, 42:01–43:46
• Crew/Production Shout-outs: 36:32–39:09
• Favorite Characters to Write: 44:43–46:22
• Lost Scenes/Alternate Plans: 49:11–50:29
• Reflections on Collaboration: 51:58–54:02
• Showrunner Praise: 54:05–56:01

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Tone & Overall Feel

The conversation is open, lively, self-deprecating, with inside jokes and plenty of gratitude for their colleagues. The writers are awed by the machinery behind the shows, proud of the new risks (genre elements, flashbacks, de-aging), and heartfelt about the personal and emotional stakes in these stories—both on screen and in the process of making them.

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Summary Table of Notable Quotes

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |------------|------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 07:43 | Victor Teran | “It grew to like five whiteboards with, you know, all three shows on them and diagrams of planes and weird little drawings.” | | 11:03 | Victor Teran | “…let’s try to do one that feels different, that feels a little more like a thriller, suspense type of story instead of a big sort of disaster action thing.” | | 18:05 | Victor Teran | “My favorite moment is actually when our guys discover the bad guy’s in the morgue… and the fire is bonkers, cause it’s in a morgue and there’s dead bodies.” | | 24:09 | Meridith Friedman | “…some stunt guy said we could do this old school and have the Suburban push the Lexus, and… it worked beautifully.” | | 39:09 | Meridith Friedman | “I thought Miranda did just an incredible job in the scene where Dr. Charles tells her that Macy didn’t make it.” | | 45:34 | Victor Teran | “I really liked writing Upton… and Lennox, who are both badasses in their own way.” | | 52:12 | Meridith Friedman | “Victor was definitely the captain of the ship.” |

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Takeaways

• Ambitious crossovers like “Reckoning” require intense, all-hands creative collaboration, endless logistics, and cross-departmental heroics.
• Writers relish the chance to stretch into new genres and character voices, supporting and trading off strengths.
• Each featured department—writing, stunts, continuity, special effects—was pushed to their limits to create a seamless, cinematic experience—and a “mind-blowing extravaganza” for fans.
• Moments both large (plane disasters, car flips, massive stunts) and small (a forgotten blanket, a wilting flower, a single tearful scene) worked together to make emotional storytelling possible at an unprecedented scale.
• The deep camaraderie and mutual respect in the writers’ room—peppered with jokes and modesty—underscore the complexity (and rewards) of TV storytelling on this scale.

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For listeners new and old, this episode reveals not just the “how” but the “why” behind an unforgettable One Chicago crossover.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Hey, I'm Brian Lucci, and this is the official one Chicago Podcast.

[C]

Action.

[B]

Welcome back, shy hearts. Last night we kicked the season back in gear with a hell of an episode. Not just a regular old episode, a crossover episode. It's hard for me to describe just how much sweat, tears and magic goes into these crossovers, so I called up the three genius maniacs who sat in a room together and turned these three TV shows into one seamless movie.

[D]

It grew to like five whiteboards with, you know, all three shows on them and diagrams of planes and weird little drawings.

[B]

Today, writers Victor Turan from Chicago Fire, Meredith Freeman from Chicago Med, and Edgar Castillo from Chicago PD talk about their crossover episodes called Reckoning Part 1, 2 and 3. And this podcast is going to be one giant spoiler, so make sure you watch it first, then you come back and we'll take you inside the kitchen to show you how this three part sausage got made. So don't go anywhere.

[A]

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[B]

welcome guys.

[D]

Thank you for having me.

[A]

Thank you.

[B]

Yes, you're way out in California and I'm stuck here in Chicago. But here we go. Victor, earlier this season we got to learn a lot of incredible stuff about you. On our podcast we talked about real life script you inspired for the show with Chicago Fire. But now I gotta introduce to the listeners these two brilliant little writers. Let's start out with Meredith. How'd you find your way into the writing world on Chicago Med?

[C]

Well, I was in New York writing plays and I was actually gonna go. I was sort of at a place in my career where I was earning like half my living from playwriting and the other half from odd jobs. And I was getting a little tired of that life. So I was gonna go back and teach, which is something I had done. I actually got offered a 10 year track teaching job in Indiana, but something inside me said, hold out. I think now's the time to transition to tv. And because I turned down this really great stable job, it kind of lit a fire under my butt of I gotta make TV happen. And about a year later, an opportunity came up to pass a script of mine to the showrunners of Chicago Med, who at the time were Diane Frolov and Andy Schneider. And I got extraordinary. I had never worked in television. I had gone to graduate school for TV screenwriting and playwriting, but I had never worked in tv, just in theater. And they took a total leap of faith and a chance on a playwright from New York. And nine years later, I'm still here.

[B]

Oh, I didn't realize you were there. Nine years you've been with the show nine years. Who's the longest?

[C]

Hootsie or Hoot is definitely the longest. Hoot's been here since the very beginning. I'm the second longest.

[B]

What's Hootsie's real name?

[C]

For those kids listening, his name is Steven Hootstein. But I think Hootsie is perfect and I hope he hears this.

[D]

Never heard that one.

[B]

All right, Edgar, we're gonna jump over to you. What about you? How'd you join this crazy wolf circus?

[E]

I'm coming off of FBI International, which was another wolf show that got canceled, unfortunately, and I was on that one for three seasons. Before that, I was a community college professor at a tiny place you'd never heard of, and I was writing scripts in my spare time and I was able to get representation off a couple things that I wrote. And they submitted me to Matt Olmsted and Derek Haas for International and yeah, rest is the rest.

[B]

Oh, wow. So basically what we want to do in this podcast, which is hopefully everybody listening really enjoys, is we want to take you three incredible mind, put them all together, and we're going to talk about the crossover. Basically, bottom line, how bananas it is to make one. How exhausting, how special, how amazing, but how it's all rolled up into this three hour, mind blowing extravaganza. I don't know if anybody in the world knows how tough this is except you three, because I know that they're coming at you double barreled million questions. Basically, if you three could just jump in, like, of how difficult it was to like break it compared to a different episode.

[E]

Victor, I think you should start given that this is your second crossover.

[C]

Yeah, Victor's done this twice, which is insane.

[D]

Go around in two years. I said never again after the last one. And then I was recruited to do another one. And at least I had the experience from last season to draw upon, which was helpful because it is tricky. We were given a little bit of a concept this time around, which was helpful in certain ways and not helpful in other ways. Not helpful only because it was quite a challenging concept that we were tasked with trying to make work. And then we just had to sit in a room with three or four. It grew to five whiteboards with, you know, all three shows on him and diagrams of planes and weird little drawings.

[C]

And yes, we learned Victor is a really great diagram maker and that's a key, integral part of his process to understand the story. And so we've grown very fond of Victor's little diagrams.

[D]

That's a great detail for podcasts.

[B]

I gotta draw too.

[D]

Put our diagrams in the show notes.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

What was the concept you were trying to solve with Victor's diagrams? Was it just a plane?

[D]

Yeah, it was a plane. It was. Let's figure out how to do something with a plane that we could make work within the scope of what we do. Obviously, we're sort of limited by what our purview is because we're the fire department and we're the doctors and staff at Med and Chicago pd, so they're not involved in everything. And getting involved in a story that was about a mysterious plane incident involved figuring out how we would. How our characters could intersect with that particular incident. And so, yeah, that's where we started.

[B]

Was it always a plane or was it did. Was there something originally you guys had. And it got poo pooed down.

[E]

It was every mode of transportation. I think we went through every.

[C]

There was definitely a boat. There was a boat.

[D]

There was a boat at one time. Yeah, there was a ship in an early incarnation of it. And a ship proved to be completely unworkable. And it's just. It was too much working on water. Working around water is too hard. And.

[C]

And thank God, because we shot this thing. Well, we're still shooting this thing in one of the coldest winters I've experienced in Chicago, which has already been brutal. But if we were in water at the same time.

[D]

Yeah, it would have been ice.

[C]

That's true.

[B]

It wouldn't have been the open airfield. Couldn't have been too much fun. Right? You were out there.

[C]

I did not. That was on the fire hour, so I didn't experience that, but I feel like I got my fair share of cold.

[B]

All right. Getting back in the making this thing. Who decided the catastrophic event that rippled through all these shows?

[D]

Well, none other than Wolf Entertainment's Peter Jankowski.

[B]

Oh, wow. Peter.

[D]

He was inspired by, like, the kernel of an idea. We kicked it around last season for a minute, and then we ended up doing the, you know, in the trenches. We ended up doing the subway thing, but I think he still had this kernel. And so it was in the early sort of spitballing concepts. He threw that out there. And we took it as a challenge to try and make it happen. And I'm glad we did because, you know, ultimately, as difficult as it was, it was it forced us to do something really different. And that was part of the direction, you know, at the outset was like, let's try to do one that feels different, that feels a little more like a thriller, suspense type of story instead of a big sort of disaster action thing.

[B]

I'll tell you this. You were in the last one. I worked at 2. This one, to me, felt huge. I've never been on a set with so many other actors. Like, usually it's like you get these crosses. One or two. We had all of Fire and all of Med together. Here's a little behind the scenes. We screwed them out of super bowl like you wouldn't believe.

[D]

Oh, man. We're in hiding because of it.

[B]

Yeah. Super bowl night, Chicago PD took over the Med stages and. And we set up two big TVs, and they production was cool to us. We ordered like a thousand wings, and we had just a good time. All TV set up everywhere. It was ironic because all the PD guys came in first because of scheduling and got out, and then all the Med and Fire people got stuck. So a pate that wanted to kill us. Oliver Platt wanted to kill us. Taylor was there, and they were looking around and they were like. Herman was like, wait a minute. There's not one PD person here. None. So I think that's gonna ripple through a few things too. How did you guys figure out who was gonna write each part of the story? And was there ever a point where one of the shows was gonna start before the other?

[C]

You know, I think in wanting to do something different this year, there was talk of maybe starting with the Met Hour, but that's just challenging in a crossover. You know, you usually need to start with a big event, and that's hard to do, and then immediately get into the medicine. So we very quickly decided we were gonna keep the format that's been done in previous crossovers of Fire, then Med, then pd. And we always knew that we would write our own hours, but we were very involved in the breaking of all three hours, which was immensely helpful. You know, when you're breaking story with characters from another person's show, you know, we all have familiarity with each other's characters, but we don't know them as intimately as the writer of that show.

[E]

That, to me, was the biggest. This is my first crossover, so now I haven't done it before. I didn't realize how hard it would be. And one of the things that I learned was how different the shows are from each other. All part of the same universe, obviously, but just very different types of shows. And the characters are different. And so, yeah, like Meredith was saying, it was really helpful to. All of us are in the same room, all of us working on the same story, writing a three hour Movie, essentially.

[D]

Yeah. And trying to blend. I mean, you're right, Edgar. Trying to blend the voices of the three shows so that there's not jarring turns within an episode. When you're shifting from one show's characters to the other, that's always a challenge. And I think we tried to act like a little mini writers room when we were breaking it.

[B]

Yeah, but you're right. Like, each episode has their own little story, but each character too. Like, there's things that some of these characters wouldn't say or wouldn't do. And we also had the pleasure of shooting out of order.

[C]

Yeah, we shot Fire went first, and then Med started, I think, like a week later, shooting, and then Petey. We overlapped a bit in the shooting, but with all the schedule changes, like you said, Luch, we all overlapped. Overlapped a little bit. So, yeah, it's tricky. What was really helpful is they decided to bring over an ad from Fire.

[B]

Oh, he was great.

[C]

He was great. Brian and Kara, who's the script supervisor on Fire, and they ended up going through all three shows. So once they were done filming Fire, they joined us on Med, and they're gonna see it through on pd. And they really helped with making sure there was continuity between the three episodes. So they were there. Like, for instance, Med picks up very soon after the Fire hour. And so they needed to make sure, okay, this was placed here in this scene, and these characters were here and just made sure it followed logically what we had already seen on screen.

[E]

I think probably a shout out is merited to all the people behind the scenes. Cause it's just such a massive endeavor. Right. Like, even scheduling all the actors, all

[D]

of it is just, you know, here's the other thing. They didn't get to prep last season's crossover. I think they had a good extra three weeks to prep. And this season, for whatever reason, we were kind of breaking right up until the end. And then we had the holidays. And so they maybe got an extra week to prep this insanity of bringing a plane to an airfield and bringing the crew out to this airfield that's an hour outside the city. And the insane amount of logistics. So Edgar's right. These guys busted their. Can I say ass?

[C]

Do it.

[D]

Busted their asses on it's not 8

[C]

o' clock on a.

[D]

For a long time. And we couldn't be more grateful to those guys.

[B]

You're right. It was the ads that were able to say, okay, Abatha's working today at 6 in the morning. And then we got her at 9 at night, we got a quick turnaround, and that was happening, and everybody was just doing it. You know, they were showing up and we're working all the weekends. It was bananas.

[C]

I was amazed that everybody had such a great attitude too. I have to shout out two people on the. I mean, everybody on the Med production, But Rick LeFever Jr. Our stunts guy, and Adam Bore, our locations manager. They had a huge task in the Med hour. Cause we had more locations than we have ever done on medicine. We've had more stunts than we've ever done. And so I reached out to them both after to thank them, and they said it was so exciting for them. Like, it was really an exciting challenge for our production team. So even though it was hard work, I will say the attitude on set was really good. It was really good vibes the whole time, which was great.

[B]

All right, let me jump into this. Let's start out with you, Victor. What were your favorite moments and your biggest challenges of your part of the episode?

[D]

I think my favorite moment is actually when our guys discover that the bad guy's in the morgue. And there's a whole morgue sequence. And one of my favorite things about that. I'm gonna give a shout out here. We were banging our heads against the wall, trying to figure out how to get a fire started in this place. Because we wanted to have a fire incident. And we were going back and forth, and Hootstein, Stephen Hootstein just came in and hung out with us for. We were just. I don't know why he even came in that day, but we started pitching him through where we were. And he's the one that came up with, hey, what about if the guy's in there? And anyway, stuff like that happens. And it's really fun when somebody comes in and gives you an idea that turns out to be something really. Because I think that that moment's gonna be really fun for the audience where they realize something and then this fire breaks out. And the fire is bonkers. Cause it's in a morgue and there's dead bodies and there's up things flying through. Bodies. Yeah, it's cool. That's my favorite thing.

[B]

What was your biggest challenge?

[D]

The biggest challenge was the thing was truly a puzzle to put together. Um, and was. It was like the brain work of the three of us just putting the investigative puzzle together in the right way so that we could try to give the information we wanted to. To give at the. At the right times while holding back the big reveal that comes out at the end was. I felt like we were just doing these, like, brain gymnastics for a good two weeks, trying to figure it out, and it just made my head hurt. That was the biggest challenge, and Edgar loved every minute of it, as I remember it. I'm not gonna say Edgar ever stormed

[C]

out of offices talking about it.

[D]

I think Edgar threw a pencil at me at one point.

[E]

A lot of this is coming to me. I just want to make it clear all three of us were in the same boat.

[D]

That's true.

[B]

That's true.

[C]

Same plane.

[B]

Were you excited? You know, I know they're not from your show, but were you excited to have Jesse Lee and Tracy?

[D]

Yeah, I worked with Tracy on my. Well, it wasn't my first episode. It was my second episode, but it was my first real episode that I wrote for real and got to go to Chicago for, and she was in it. It was fun. Felt like a little bit of a full circle thing for me. And they're both great, and I knew it would be a huge kick for the audience to see them together.

[C]

It's been cool, even just seeing the Twitter reactions right now to that they're gonna be on the show. People are losing their minds.

[D]

Yeah. And I will say I was a little bit not skeptical, but I knew it was gonna be a challenge to have such an insane thing going on, the investigation and all the jeopardy of it, and still somehow be able to have little moments between them where they're engaging with their past as a couple. And I got to do none of that in my episode, thank God. But Meredith and Edgar did a marvelous job. I thought of, like, weaving just those subtle little moments between them that made the whole thing work really well.

[B]

I thought you, Meredith, you picked up right from where Victor was, where. So the reveal was halted at the end of the fire hour. How was that for you?

[C]

Oh, it was so exciting. It was such an exciting way to kick off the Met hour. And I will say, Luch, you were very instrumental in crafting sort of that first interaction between them and making sure it felt true to Jesse's character and how he would respond to an active shooter. It was very exciting. That moment made the teaser for the crossover, which was quite cool. And also, the two actors themselves, they know these characters so well. I was on set with them the last two weeks, and they just added so much texture and so many layers to every interaction they have on screen. Every scene they're in together, I will say, is quite exciting, quite electrifying. You know, they come in with a lot of tension between the two of them and watching them navigate it while at the same time, you know, dealing with this very intense case is. Is a really exciting watch.

[B]

It was like effortless how they. Like when Lennox got involved and like, you were here and you're there, like everybody's working together as one. That baby blanket.

[C]

Who.

[B]

Please tell me who came up with the baby blanket that I cried.

[C]

I will tell you who came up with it. That is one Mr. Alan McDonald, the showrunner of Chicago Med. That was his biggest note when he read the Met Hour. He said, I have a pitch for you involving Macy's baby blanket. So that is all Alan McDonald. He's really good at the things that just, you know, crack your heart open.

[B]

Yeah, he's a real jerk when it comes to that. In your episode, the baby was born. Am I right? Cause it's like a three hour movie. I'm trying to track everything.

[C]

The baby is delivered in the met hour by Dr. Hannah Asher and paramedics Novak and Violet, the three of them. And boy, are those actresses terrific, because that was a really complicated scene to shoot. You're in the back of an ambulance with three actors doing a pretty complicated medical procedure. And they nailed it. And they did it with a smile on their faces. Yeah.

[B]

And with guys with guns outside the ambulance. That was a cool little twist you had in there. Was there anything that blew your mind? Like when you seen it come together for your hour? I'm just curious. Out of everything that happened, was there anything? Was like, holy shit?

[C]

Yes, there was a huge one. So in the Med hour, as I mentioned, we do this big car chase, and in the end, the car flips, and we don't do that a lot on Med. And so we're in the command van and we've got the car and it won't even turn on. It's literally. It'll turn on, go a few feet, and then it putters out. We're like, oh, no, what are we gonna do? So we spend four hours trying to fix this car. It will not be fixed. And I wish I knew his name. There was. There was some guy we had flown in, some stunt guy, and he said we could do this old school and you could have the Suburban push the Lexus, and the Lexus will be in neutral and the Suburban will push it at 50 miles an hour and sort of give it a little bump at the end and then it'll fly off on its own and flip. And we all sort of watched with bated breath and it worked beautifully.

[D]

You just blew my mind. I don't think I knew that you had done that.

[C]

Yes. We waited four hours. We all were tearing our hair out. We're like, all right, I guess we're not gonna have a car flip. I said, oh, it's the coolest thing. We gotta flip the car. And then. And not only that, you know, oh, this is real behind the scenes. The Suburban was a rental, so we could not get a scratch on the Suburban or we would have been in trouble. And they pulled it off beautifully.

[D]

And you never met the. I like the production. This is how stretched thin we were. Is. The product skimped on the insurance when they rented the car, so they had to return it without a scratch on it, because otherwise we would have gotten dinged.

[C]

Well, and there was a moment when this idea was pitched. It had to be signed off on by our line producer, Nikki Delone. So I could see Nikki was really thinking about. She said, go for it.

[D]

We didn't get the insurance.

[C]

And it looks. You'll see. It looks awesome.

[B]

Meredith, you were there when they filmed in a bullpen?

[C]

Yeah, I was there for all of the med filming. Yep.

[B]

Can you tell us about that, how it felt like different waters?

[C]

Oh, it was so cool. I mean, just. Cause on Med, we're on set so much so even to go to a different set and the bullpen on PD is so iconic. And we were with basically, you know, almost the entire PD cast in there. It was really cool. It was just. I mean, probably my favorite part of working in the crossover was working with you, Luch, and working with Chick from Chicago Fire.

[B]

Oh, I love Chick. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Just.

[C]

It was like getting to write for two new shows, which, you know, is a great experience for a writer. I don't really consider myself an action writer, so to get to stretch in this way, but do so, you know, with very knowledgeable gentlemen like yourself was a really fun challenge for me.

[B]

I told everybody I could how much fun I had working with you guys on this legit. I mean, it was just so much fun to collaborate. It really was, and go through it just trying get it right. You mentioned the guy that has to be mentioned, Steve Chicorotis, who is one of the producers on Chicago Fire, who actually started out as just a tech advisor like me. He's the guy who actually got me my job. I got to talk about the scene. We did the. We did the flashback, and I, I. You all three had to write that. Baby. It was a paita. You know what I mean? Here's a Painter. Here's Voight, here's McDermott. And we had the old uniforms. Yeah. And I call them McDermott. You call them. What is this? English class?

[D]

He's McDermott.

[B]

It's fine, Dermot, whatever. Mallory, you know what I'm talking about. It's Pasqua. All three of them there, they got chalk on, their names written. It was gorgeous. And Chick walked with each firefighter, like every tool, and set up the whole thing, the entire thing. Where the trucks went, how the firemen would go, how the fire was worked with Dave Green, our special it. He orchestrated the entire scene with Chad Saxton, our. The director and our executive producer. And it was just. Holy. And you had a p who had her. She jumping out of the ambulance. It's as b cold. We got two heaters on her. Everybody wants to get out of there. But it was a beautiful scene. It was like. That was the three worlds coming together. And there was no cops there. Except Jason Beghe.

[D]

Yeah. For reasons mysterious that will be revealed.

[E]

Well, the other. The other cool thing about it was the costumes and set deck and everything. Like, they. They made sure, like, everything was, like, era specific from 25 years ago. All the equipment at Med, all the firefighter stuff, all the clothing that the, you know, civilians were wearing, I think they, like, really keyed in on that and, you know, just gave it some texture.

[B]

That was awesome. It goes right to you, Edgar. What was the fun part, the difficult part for you, wrapping up the whole movie? Cause you had to answer all the questions. And I know that these two guys held your hands, but, I mean, you really got. I don't want to say the f. You got screwed, but let me hear it.

[E]

I mean, it was all hard, obviously. I mean, the tough part was that the first. Breaking the first hour was such a monumental task and just took so much of our time that by the time we got to the second and the third hour, it was like we were running out of time. And so specifically, they left you like

[B]

a dog in a room by yourself.

[C]

Good luck, Edgar. I'm sure you'll do great.

[E]

No, I'm, like, super indebted to Victor and Meredith for, you know, for helping me out and everything in coming up with the. All the stuff in the third hour and writing it and everything. But, yeah, that was probably the hardest part is like, it's just so hard, you know, I just. We cannot properly convey to your audience how difficult the task it is to break this three hour movie, essentially. And, yeah, we were kind of up against it at the end you know, and, and had to really like kind of dig deep and, and land the plane. Land the plane.

[C]

So to speak. A little plane humor.

[D]

Dead inside. Completely 180 people's worth of dead inside.

[C]

We were too.

[B]

We gotta take a quick break, but when we come back, more from the three writers of this year's enclosure. Incredible crossover episodes.

[E]

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[B]

We're back diving into last night's crossover with Victor from Chicago Fire, Meredith from Chicago Med, and Edgar from Chicago pd. We were talking about the best parts of the final PD hour and I needed to know who came up with my favorite scene. I'm talking about the surprise explosion, almost losing Upton, and then the fire in Thomas Myers building.

[D]

You know what happens when we're doing these things is that at various points we're talking high level and trying to figure out really broad moves. And sometimes we'll sit there and ask the question, like, how do we get fire character? How do we bring fire characters into this moment? Because they're not always naturally going to intersect. So that explosion in the PD hour, I think started as let's get fire involved somehow here. Cause they're falling out and they need to be more, you know, like we gotta keep them all involved. That's the whole point of the crossover is for the shows to keep crossing over. And so. And then once we started talking about It. It was like, oh, yeah. And then we built all the story elements on top of it. And sometimes you come up with that idea and then realize that it answers a lot of story needs for you here in Chicago.

[B]

We thought the writers were screwing with us because we. We did all these med scenes, right? And then all. All this PD scenes were on the. The med hour. And then fire had this thing going with all the cops. You know, we. Everyone's like, They're. They're screwing with us. This doesn't make any sense. We had to build a bird stage. You know, we did this whole fire thing for the flashback with Voight, and they're like, we don't do this. We don't. We are not good at this. And all our guys had to shave, which was fun. Seeing Victor, our camera guy, he's all shaved, all baby faced. So we were teasing each other there. Yeah, this one. This one was a hell of a good time.

[D]

That's right. You have to explain that part, Luch, because they have to shave for our audience. This might be inside baseball stuff. That's interesting. You can't have hair. The facial hair. When you go into the burn stage, they're shooting around live fire, like, and so they. You can't. You don't want to get singed or whatever, so you have to be covered up in certain ways. That's what you're talking about, right?

[B]

Yeah. No, I'm so happy that you. You said it. Because, like, I don't have any knowledge in it at all, except my wife, who's the costume designer. Erica Lucci has to. Everything has to be cotton. So every time that. Oh, they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests. This person's going to go in the fire. All the FBI guys are going to go in there where they can't have plastic jackets. Voight's going to be in there. He's going to be wearing a hat. Everything has to be, like, fireproof. I didn't know any of this. I didn't even step on that stage because it stunk, and I had my nice clothes on, so I didn't want to shave. No, I didn't want to shave either. I didn't want to get rid of the Santa beard, but it was. The things we learned from each group was amazing. Like, Meredith, you know it. We don't know any of these medical terms.

[C]

Yeah, I did. There was some moment Lennox was having to spout out a bunch of medical terms, and Severide turned to her and she said, God, I'M so glad I don't have to say what you're saying right now. So it really does. You know, it's funny. Cause I feel like Chicago Med gets. We're kind of called Club Med. Cause we're mostly inside, you know, it's a very gentle place to work. But I feel like the other cast, we got some real, like, street cred from them just in how difficult it is to do the medicine and the medical terms. So that was. That was very exciting for Chicago Med.

[B]

This is for all three of you. What's a detail from the episode that you want to do? A shout out, basically, that another team pulled off that impressed you so much? It could be anybody. It could be casting, stunts, design, costume directing, anyone. We'll start with the fire end. Mr. Victor.

[D]

There's so many shout outs we could give. I'll say two people. First of all, our producing director, Reza is pretty amazing. He's kind of incredible and so cool under pressure. The fact that he retains any sort of sanity and any sort of positivity through the amount of work that he has to do is truly mind boggling. And getting all that plain stuff and figuring out the logistics of, you know, I mean, it's all of them. Rez is amazing. He's an amazing director. He can do action like nobody's business. But he also pays attention to trying to get the emotional stuff, like the little intimate details. And I think you're going to see all of that come together, especially around the plane stuff. But Demetra and Eric and everybody that had to put the logistics of this airport plane thing together, Honestly, it was on.

[B]

And not to interrupt you, but Demetra is the.

[D]

Oh, Demetra is our line producer. Eric's our production manager. These guys and Reza, our producing director, they're a kind of troika of production genius that come together and they figured out how to get us a 737 and an airfield. And I didn't, I honestly think, like, right up until probably a couple of weeks before, I was like, this is going to fall apart at any moment. I was sure that somehow it was just all going to fall apart. And they pulled it off. The other guy who had to work his ass off, Chris Payne, our special effects makeup guy, who had to come up with this. All the insanity of the way the substance affects bodies and prepare all these different levels of looks for the different levels of exposure and the time of exposure and then the dead bodies. And I don't think this guy probably slept for the last Month. And he is incredible at his job, and his name is Chris Payne, which is really funny to everybody. So.

[B]

All right, now it's over to you. Meredith, what's a detail from your episode? Do you want to shout out to another team member something that impressed you or. And even a time for something that you wrote and you were like, okay, man, they outdid this.

[C]

You know, I think there were some just beautiful scenes between cast members from different shows. I thought Miranda did just an incredible job in the scene where Dr. Charles tells her that Macy didn't make it.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[C]

And I will say, it was so sweet Chick came to set that day to watch it, even though it wasn't like we were battling a fire. It was just a very emotional scene. And in the writing of that scene, Chick had shared a lot about his past experiences and the guilt you can feel when you lose a team member and the burden it puts on your shoulders. So I think he just came that day to watch and support Miranda, and she really knocked that scene out of the park.

[B]

I was there when the mom approached her in Edgar's hour and told her, yeah, that'll make you cry for all the firemen that you lost and had. Like, it's not your fault. She finally had purpose. That you, Edgar, you get help writing that one, or was that all you? I'm not teasing. I'm not being facetious, but that sure got a lot of help.

[E]

So much help. Yeah, no, they did a great job on that one.

[D]

Edgar is surprisingly sensitive. It's incredible. He's got this tough as nails exterior, but deep down, he's very gooey and sensitive.

[E]

I think you're projecting.

[D]

No, that stuff is beautiful, Edgar.

[B]

It was pretty. It was where it happened all the crossing. Go ahead, Meredith.

[C]

I have to give Edgar a shout out that he. You know, the emotional skeleton of this episode was this whole thing was your idea of this kid who was in a fire and Voight had saved him. And it sort of led to this 20 year grudge against the first responders in Chicago. And I still remember when you called me and you said, I've got this pitch. What do you think? And I said, I think it's really good. I said, you should pitch Victor it. And then that really became the emotional arc of the crossover.

[B]

Yeah, that was tough. Young Voight, you know, sitting out in front of that house knowing it's a meth lab, asking him just to wait a day because this drug is killing a bunch of kids. What I thought was so amazing is Voight Took responsibility. You know, he. Instead of like, you know, that. No, that's a call I made. It's called I put that in motion. And I have to. Yeah, that was. That was tough. All right, Edgar, it's your turn. What's the detail from your episode that you want to do? A shout out to another team that pulled off or impressed you. And what is one of your favorite scenes out of all of them?

[E]

So I think it's the same answer. The flashback sequence that opens the third hour. I haven't seen it yet, but I think it's gonna be really cool when they de age. We're just gonna get a glimpse of it, but they're gonna de age our kind of old guard actors. And through the hazy POV of the. The young boy, we're going to catch a glimpse of that. So I think that's going to turn out really cool. So what. I don't know who is doing it. I'm sorry, I don't know their names or what the department is, but I think they're going to do a great job.

[D]

De aging people find folks at, I

[E]

don't know where the aging incorporated one

[D]

of our post houses.

[E]

And then, yeah, writing that scene was also very cool because, you know, as I'm sure the viewers know on Chicago pd, we don't break pov, meaning that we don't watch the story unfold via the perspective of anybody that is not a member of the team. And so to just kind of like dive into someone else's pov, specifically that of a young boy, and try to humanize this person who will grow up to be a monster, was really interesting and challenging and also to just do a flashback, you know, something that we don't often do on the one Chicago shows. And yeah, that was really exciting as well.

[B]

Well, you know that there's these. All these little tiny little details, and that's where the devil lives is the little boy gets told to go throw out the garbage, and he's just in his normal home. And the next thing you know, he's like the bag's dragging down the hallway and you think everything's gonna be fine. And then he gets the flower. Whose idea? You killed me with that flower. Whose idea was the flower?

[E]

Yeah, I wrote that. And the idea behind it was to show that there is some sweetness in this young boy, right. That he sees this flower that still has life in it, just needs a little tlc and that he has that instinct to just kind of show the journey that he has undergone where now that instinct is gone. And, yeah, we thought it was a cool kind of a way to externalize, you know, who he is on the inside.

[B]

Yeah, it was. It was beautiful. And it was. It was brilliant. You know, here he is just walking with this flower that he's going to try to save, and it's just this little tiny thing, but, like, if you don't pick up on it, shame on you. All right, for all three of you, who was each of your favorite character to write for? Who you usually don't. I think you answered Meredith, but you could give us another one too. Let's start out with. Let's switch it around. Edgar, you got to go first.

[E]

I gotta go first. I would say Archer on Med. Yeah, he was just in such an interesting position throughout the third hour and knowing everything, Meredith told me about the character and about the actor as well, and kind of, I guess inhabiting the voice of a person who is in that kind of helpless position was. It was cool.

[B]

You know, he was in that suit, and it's so hard to see the facial expressions. What is that suit called? A papper or something? I'm gonna mess it up. Oh, I got that one, right?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Nothing to say about that one.

[D]

Victor.

[B]

Huh? I can't get a. Hey, atta boy.

[D]

Attaboy.

[B]

All right, over to you, Victor.

[D]

I have two. I'm sorry, I'm not gonna stick to one. I really liked writing Upton or for Upton. She's just. Actually, it's the two. It's the two ladies from the two other shows, Upton and Lennox, who are both badasses in their own way. I mean, my part of it was so much was so action and plot oriented that, you know, I didn't get to, like. We kind of saved all the emotional exploration for the later hours for probably obvious reasons when you watch the whole thing. But those two characters are just really fun to write. They're both like badass, straight shooting, no nonsense ladies that get the job done.

[C]

Yeah,

[B]

yeah. Lennox was all over that thing.

[D]

I mean, in the fire. Are you kidding me?

[C]

She had so much fun being in the fire.

[D]

It's badass that she's the one who figures out this guy is there and then is in there with severe blowing extinguish ambushers and trying to save people is really cool.

[B]

She found a bone saw and.

[D]

She found the bone saw. Yeah.

[B]

Can you tell me about that scene? Because that. That scene had like 19 things going on at once, you know, I mean, we're crawling over bodies.

[D]

Where were you when we were Looking for notes.

[B]

Yes. No, no, no, you. No, I'm saying it was. It was an amazing scene where all three worlds collided in this thing. And could. Could you tell us a little bit about it, please? How it all came together?

[D]

I mean, we wanted to sort of. One of the things that became clear is that we were starting from a place that was very different from how we normally start crossovers, which is, you know, again, in a suspenseful place as opposed to an incident. And, you know, one of the things I think the audience probably, or at least our hope, is that they were expecting a kind of bang at some point. Right. With this plane. And when they open it up, is it gonna blow up? When's the shit gonna happen? And it doesn't. And then you get to this final sequence in the story. And I think I felt at least the need to have some kind of real Chicago Fire insanity going on. And that's. And what's fun about the crossovers is that they tell us, and then they tell us we're crazy for thinking it. But initially they always say, just write. Just go crazy. Write the dream. Kind of no rules. And so that's what we did with that sequence. And somehow they were able to pull it off.

[C]

I've seen some footage of that morgue sequence and that. It is unbelievable looking. I couldn't get over it. Yeah, it's incredible.

[E]

Yeah. Honestly, the coolest thing. One of the coolest things about, I think the. All three hours is that Victor was able to write, like, genuine moments of horror.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

Into. Into the. Into. I mean, we just don't do that.

[D]

We never do that.

[E]

And so it was just awesome.

[D]

We all got to play in different fields, which is really fun than what we normally.

[B]

Action. The action was. Was flat when I read, because I. You know, when you get into your read and there could be another version. Another version. And you were like, for me, you want to wait because, oh, gosh, it's going to change and I'm going to be heartbroken. When I read some things came out of the earlier versions. Is there anything that you guys lost that you wish you would have kept? Or are you pretty happy with just how it ended?

[E]

This whole thing is in the memory hole for me. I don't even remember.

[D]

What did we lose? I mean, we had a different opening sequence.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

That could have been pretty fun. But it also, I think, was wisely cut. We were gonna start the episode with a foot chase. Two people you've never met before. I mean, this is. The other thing is, like, it's fun to try and break form and like flashbacks and de aging and so doing things that we don't normally do. And so we were starting the first hour with a criminal running from a random FBI agent, and we have no idea who it is. And it's a gonzo foot chase through the streets of Chicago and breaking through fences and going up to the L. And a train's coming, and then this guy's about to get on a train when Upton appears and knocks him over and arrests him. And that was gonna be Upton's introduction in the episode. But from a production standpoint, it was gonna be not enough bang for the buck. And also it was. It felt disorienting to start in that way. And so we ended up doing something different that was a little more character and grounded in the rest of what was gonna happen. And I think it was the right decision, but it would have been kind of cool anyway.

[C]

It was a cool sequence.

[B]

I remember last year they did the table read for all three shows. And Peter Jankowski had this quick speech before he says, listen, it's gonna be a three hour table read, but I just wanna let you guys know, like, we're investing in you. And this is gonna be hard, but it's gonna be worth it. And after listening to the table read for three hours, I was like, wow, this is. This is a three hour movie. And doing it the first time, it was just as. What I'm trying to get is it was just as exciting this time. And the story was great. You know what I mean? All three just melding in and all these different actors. And the breezeway felt alive. We had the super bowl party. Who wasn't working, who got canceled? Everybody trying to make it. This action. Going into that action scene, it was. It was like, I don't know, it was just awesome. For me, putting it all together. Is there anything that each one of you did that you was either a tear jerker or they helped you with or something on any of it as writers? Cause I know people have all these ideas of all these stories, and then it gets like, oh, God, there's too many chiefs. You know? And then finally when you get to sit down, like, Edgar's probably good at this, Victor's good at that. Meredith, is there anything that either one of you that you're sitting across from? I guess I'd like to say they

[D]

want us to compliment each other when we don't actually even like each other anymore through this process. So we'll find it within ourselves.

[C]

Victor was Definitely the captain of.

[B]

That's nice to hear.

[C]

Yeah. He definitely came in with the big ideas, and we. It was, I think, especially helpful for Edgar and I, having never done a crossover to have Victor leading the show because he'd done this before. He knew what was possible. He knew it was gonna be tricky. He knew what the pitfalls were. So, you know, having that leadership, I think, is so important on something like this, or it could just fall apart.

[E]

Yeah, for sure.

[D]

Well, I want to shout out a moment when I was like, thank God I got these guys, the two of them. We had to pitch it, like, seven times, I think, to different people, but we had the pitch for the studio, network, and I think it was the first time you did the first. The final thing, like we did. They wanted to know more about the character stuff, and so we kind of pitched the plot, and then we pitched some character stories, and then we had to put it together into something. And for the studio and the network people and who were all amazing listening to, like, they were so. They're the best audience. They were, like, awesome audiences, amazing listeners, and asked great questions, and. And so that's always a treat. But I want to say that Meredith and Edgar, it was like this moment where I felt for the first time. Oh, man. I feel it. I feel the emotions. When you guys were both talking about your character stuff, I was like, yes, I think this is going to work. I actually think this is great. And Edgar got the final word on it, and I remember you brought it down, you know, like, brought the plane in for a landing, and I was like, holy.

[C]

Yes. Edgar's a very poetic man.

[D]

Yeah, very poetic.

[B]

Wow. From. From your guys's perspective, too. Like, you. You have. You all have bosses. We call them showrunners in the business. We got Gwen Seagan. And in moving forward, how. How were. How were you guys showrunners helping you out with this? How instrumental were they with you guys with, like, they in it, too?

[E]

Gwen was for sure. Yeah. I would come to her with questions all the time and always had answers and very supportive. You know, she told me, you know, anytime I had any issues or questions to come to her, and I definitely availed myself of that.

[B]

Got it. All right. I only got a couple minutes left.

[D]

Can I just shout out my showrunner? I mean, are we all gonna.

[B]

Geez, I'm only kidding. Go.

[D]

Andrea Newman lives and breathes Chicago Fire. She knows the show at a cellular level that I will never understand. And so incredible. If I ever have a question about a character moment, she is the guide and the guru that can always tell me how a character of ours is supposed to act in any situation. And it's like second nature for her. And so she's my gut check always on everything on this show.

[C]

And to shout out my wonderful showrunner, Mr. Alan McDonald, you know, he comes at everything from emotion. And in a crossover, you know, it's a lot of action, but you wanna make sure the emotion doesn't get missed. And he really helped me make sure I was mining as much emotion as I could out of every moment. As I mentioned earlier, Macy's baby blanket was his idea and he just made that. Those character moments really shined in the Met Hour.

[B]

All of these showrunners and all these people put this together and then hopefully we'll do one next year.

[D]

Hopefully.

[C]

Hopefully.

[E]

See you there.

[D]

Hopefully. Yeah.

[C]

With three new writers.

[D]

Three new writers we will mentor.

[B]

Oh, no. We want you. So thank you very, very much for joining me on this lovely official One Chicago podcast. I can't thank you enough. And hopefully we'll keep kicking it. Talk to you guys.

[D]

Thanks for having us.

[E]

Thanks, Luch.

[B]

That was three of the coolest riders in the biz, Victor Taran, Meredith Friedman and Edgar Castillo, who wrote the pants off for this crossover. And like everyone else who worked on this thing, I hope they get a little map. One Chicago airs on Wednesday night at 8, 7 Central on NBC and you can stream it on Peacock. The One Chicago podcast is a production of Wolf Entertainment and USG Audio. The series is hosted by me, Brian Lucci. It's executive executive produced by Dick Wolf, Elliot Wolf and Steven Michael at Wolf Entertainment, Josh Block at USG Audio and John Yell Kastner at SpokMedia. Our showrunner is Derek John. Our producer is Maggie Dubrizi and our audio producer is Jason Mark. Video production by Bo Delmore. Coordinating production by Tess Ryan. Our production assistant is Montserrat Rodriguez with engineering, engineering and mix by Evan Arnett and original music by John o'. Hara. This series is produced by Spoke Media and distributed by Realm Production. Support for USG Audio by Josh Lalonghi. I'm Brian Luch. Thanks for listening and we'll see you all. Monster Energy. Everybody knows White Monster Zero Ultra. That's the og. It kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing. But Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava. And they all bring the Monster energy punch. So if you've been living in the white can branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe and every single. Every single one is zero. Sugar. Tap the banner to learn more.

[D]

Close your eyes. Exhale.

[C]

Feel your body relax. And let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry

[D]

that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh, my gosh, they're so fast.

[C]

And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry.

[D]

Namaste.

[A]

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