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Hello. You're about to drift into an episode
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of the Nightly, a podcast designed to
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help you unwind and relax. For the full phone free immersive light
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Enjoy.
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Hey there. I'm Wills.
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And I'm Josh. Welcome to the Nightly from Hatch, where your late night thoughts go to rest. Well, it's so nice to see you in the pillow fort.
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Per usual, it's amazing to be here in the pillow fort. It's my favorite place to be.
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It is almost too cozy. I may fall asleep right now.
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I know. I'm getting a little drowsy.
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I had a question for you because I feel like I've been seeing you posted on lineups, doing standup all over Brooklyn. And it's so funny because we hang out here in the pillow fort all the time and we chat several times a week, but I have not been running into you out in the world. So how have your live shows been going?
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I know I'm like, who, me? Who's booked me? I mean, I always think whenever I'm like, standup is so, like, in waves, like fits and starts kind of. But I'm hoping that I can keep the. The momentum that I have right now, basically. But it's going really well. I had one really funn show last week, which was actually my show that I host at Union Hall. And obviously you guys, everyone listening, if you're in Brooklyn, you should come out sometime. It's really, really fun. Basically, like, I've been doing this monthly show with my friends Vince and Marley for, I don't know, somewhere between four and six months. And it's been so fun. Like, the crowd is always, like, so warm. It's like the best vibe in the world. And I'm like, oh, my God. I just love doing this show. And so I decided I was like, guys, we need to, like, film it and make, you know where this is going. It's like, y', all, we need to film this because I want. I want some clips from this. And of course, the show on Thursday was, like, the strangest show we've ever had.
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Strange how?
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The audience was a little bit odd, I would say, just in terms of, like. Honestly, one of the times I knew things were going to be a little bit different than they normally are is that during the intro, we were, like, trying to ask the audience, like, does this resonate with you? Do you guys, like, does this connect with you? Whatever? And it was kind of, like, silent. And then we were like, are you guys there? And then people were like, snapping And I was like, okay, so we're gonna. It's gonna be a snapping night instead of a laughing night, maybe.
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Yeah, Snapping at a comedy show, it's like, it really brings the warmth and lack of judgment and occasional lack of laughter of a, like, slam poetry night to a comedy space.
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It was a slam poetry type of crowd. I. But it was just. I just. I had a lot of fun, though, still. Like, I wasn't, like, it wasn't a joyless night or something. And I feel like I had one of those nights where I was like. I also did crowd work during my set because, like, I was like, I just feel sometimes you just have to connect with the audience. I was like, I feel a little bit disconnected from you guys. Let's, like, see what's going on. And it was one of those things where I'm like, honestly, sometimes it feels good to do a show that is a bit more difficult to prove to yourself that you could, like, do it and still feel in control.
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Yeah, totally.
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So that was. That was really making me laugh. But I had an amazing time either way.
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I recently. I do this pretty frequently, but I was hosting a show with my friend Allison Leiby. We often work together, and we had to question for the audience. We'll occasionally do a bit where we have a specific question that we ask and we talk to the audience a little bit, and people are not eager to volunteer. And I always tell them, I go, you all are smart. Because what you know that a lot of audiences don't is that when a comedian asks you a question, you are not legally compelled to answer. There is nothing. You're not going to get in trouble if you don't answer. Nobody's going to kick you out. No, you. You. You can plead the fifth. You don't even have to at a comedy show.
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Yeah, you don't even have to plead the fifth. You can just remain. You can remain silent.
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It's. It's not. I'm. You don't have to let me make you do my job.
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Literally. Hey, I'm not a cop. Yeah. I mean, it's funny. I also was, like, the crowd work I did was with, like, just a woman who was insane, obviously. It was like, you know when you're like. It was a thing where she was making herself known, and I was like, you want to chat? So I. Let's chat. And it is like, the people who want to chat are often a little bit strange, is what I'll say. But also, thank God for them.
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No, I'm against them. I don't want to hear from them. I don't. I miss. Because I think, I think there's been like a light shift. Nothing, nothing cataclysmic, but I think there's been a light shift from even five or six years ago, people going, like, I don't want to sit in the front row. That's. I don't want to get made fun of. And now I. And I much preferred that to people being like, put me in the front. I got something to say.
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I know it's like, clip. I think it's like part of like, clip culture because so many people are watching these, like, crowd work clips online because that's what so many comics post.
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And they're like, I have a funny story.
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Yeah. Literally, they're like, I have something to say. I know. It is like, you have a song in your heart, my love.
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Like, and I think that's beautiful. And like, I really believe, like, everybody should have a space where they can participate in art.
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Oh, completely.
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Should have, like a venue for telling the stories that are urgent for them. I also believe pretty firmly that the time for that to happen for other people is not while I'm performing stand up comedy.
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No, of course. Well, it's not while I'm doing my art that I'm sharing with the world.
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Yeah, that's my turn. That's my turn. That's all.
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It's like, guys, just give me. Just give me a minute.
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No. I might have told this story on the show before, but the most notable time in my life was that I saw this was. I mean, this was years and years ago. And I was on a show opening for a very funny comic, my friend Mike Traval. And Mike does a lot of crowd work, but there was a woman in the audience who was alone but wearing a tiara, which is like a very specific energy. Right. That's not like a leave me alone energy.
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I will say it's my birthday energy. That's a. I want attention.
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Energy alone is like a key factor of this.
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Exactly.
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And he very deftly would talk to her a little bit and then pull away so that the show didn't just become like a two person conversation, but over the course of his, I think 30 minutes on stage, maybe 25, he teased out that she was celebrating her divorce. Right. She's out by herself, celebrating her divorce, naturally. Which is loud, of course.
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Oh, my God. It's encouraged.
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And her husband had left her, which is unfortunate for her brother, which is complicated. And the two of them, this was In Massachusetts, where. I don't think marriage equality had passed in Massachusetts yet.
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Right.
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But certainly it was a friendlier place to be a gay couple than where they moved to, which was.
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Okay.
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Oklahoma.
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Oh, okay.
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Yeah.
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They're like, I need to go live my truth in Oklahoma.
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My truth lives in Oklahoma.
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That is really interesting. That is reminding the T. Ara I understand, I guess now is emblematic of the divorce. I will say that is like, to me, that is so pickup artist coded, where they're like, wear a fascinator piece.
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Oh, that's so funny. That's really funny that she was trying to do the thing, like, peacocking.
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She literally was. She was peacocking.
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Yeah, she was lady pickup artist, literally.
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But. But the target is the stand up on stage.
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Yeah.
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Or maybe. Maybe some other people, too.
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I pitched. This is. This is, like, such a stupid bit, but years ago, I tried to pitch a web series about a woman who is a pickup artist who is like, love. I don't know. Just tell him you'll sleep with him.
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She's like, hey, I just. I have some idea. It's her. What is it called? The Book? The Game? Is that what the book is called? The Game? It's like, just the one page. Just tell them you'll sleep with them.
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Yeah, that and then Vit was just, like. It, like, was 100% successful. And, you know, sometimes she was trying tricks, but sometimes she was just got tricks, as in, you know, gambits and tricks. Isn't sex work necessarily?
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Not necessarily.
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Yeah. Hey, I don't want to rule anything out for this fictional character that never existed.
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She is her own woman.
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Yeah. She's living, laughing, loving all the way to the bank. And. Anyway, sorry, I've been really rambling.
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No, I. Look, that's the point of this. That's the whole point of what we're doing here, and I love it.
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Yeah. Well, what's been. What's been on your mind?
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What's been on my mind? Well, I wanted to share, of course, the news that I think many people have heard that we can talk about is, you know, Zoe Kravitz and Harry Styles are engaged.
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Yeah.
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It's happening.
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A beautiful couple.
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I mean, the. Almost the most beautiful couple. Well, he. You know, let me not. I love Harry Styles, but let me.
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No, no, no.
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I just think she's doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I. Of course, Harry Styles is like. But I'm not gonna say he's the most beautiful man in the world. I'm not gonna say that. Okay, look, it's just not. It's just not my story.
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Well, if he weren't a giant musician, he would be in, like, the normal, handsome guy zone.
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Yes. Complete. Yes, Completely. Completely. He's attractive, obviously, and I'm not trying to deny that, but she is, like,
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no disrespect to Harry Styles, obviously.
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Zoe Kravitz is an otherworldly beauty. We can all agree, extraordinarily beautiful.
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Yeah.
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And, yeah, they're engaged. And I was looking into it a little bit. I think it's pretty. I mean, from what. My understanding of what. How, like, news, pop culture news outlets work is that if people reports it, it's basically the truth. Like, people is kind of like how celebrities disseminate information, basically. So it's like people's. Like, a source told us. It's like, that's legitimate. Someone from the celebrities team is, like, pushing this out in, like, a PR way.
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People is to celebrity relationships as TMZ is to celebrity deaths.
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Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.
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Because I feel like, weirdly, that's become kind of a bar to clear. Right. Like, tmz. I don't necessarily like everything they say. I'm not like, oh, I'm on board. But I think when they're like, this person has sadly passed away. I'm like, well, they're really dead.
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Yeah, I think so too. And so people reported it. They said that they've been. I also was like, how long has this relationship going. Been going on? They were first spotted together. Like, the first news broke, like, eight months ago. So it hasn't been that long. Because sometimes I feel like. Sometimes I'll think, like, oh, my God, they just got together. And then I'll look at, like, a timeline. It's like, these people have been dating for, like, four years.
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Totally.
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The way that time completely collapses in on itself is, like, confounding to me. But they're engaged. I. We're happy for them. Like, rock on.
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I love. I'm so sorry to interrupt. You just really introduced two beautiful concepts side by side. You were like, anyway, Zoe Kravitz, Harry Styles and Gage. We're very happy for them. Time has no meaning. It is all collapsed into itself, moving along. And I love that we are giving more weight the beautiful union of Zoe Kravitz and Harry Styles.
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I'm like, y', all, we all know time is a flat circle. Let's talk about the engagement. This is what's important. But, okay, they're. They're engaged. And what I actually felt, like, compelled to share is that Channing Tatum has posted us a strange poem on his Instagram story that we can share here today.
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Yeah, I would love to hear this poem. This part I missed.
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Yeah. And this part is actually completely fascinating to me because I have. I've previously had a. A very specific interest in Chan Katum's Instagram. I forget when and why I was looking at it. Maybe like a couple years. I don't know how long. Once again, guys, time. It has no meaning. I don't know how long ago this was, but he just posts.
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I.
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The way that he posts is just so funny to me. Like, he. He posts a lot of selfies with basically the, like, Instagram filters on it kind of in a way that's really funny to me.
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Very, like, millennial 15 years ago.
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Yes. Completely. Yeah. When a sleuth. When it's like these people that you're like, they're. They're hot and cool or whatever, and then you go on their Instagram and you're like, that's just someone's dad. Like, that's just someone's dad. It's kind of. But also someone's dad who's, like, trying to be sexy. Anyway.
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Yep.
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So he posted this poem after the engagement. News broke on his story. He put his own text on the story, and it says, read only two, two dot dots in, like, a typewriter font. I'm just setting the scene. And then what he shared was a poem written by someone named John Rodell. I don't know if that's, like, a famous poet or not, because I don't
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know who that is either.
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The reason I don't know if this is a famous poet or not is because what he shared is a screenshot of a poem that someone had posted on Facebook as a store. As a. As a status on Facebook. Yes. So John Rodell, who might be. Who might be the most famous poet in the world or might just be someone on Facebook. But this is the poem that Channing said read when he. After the news broke, my brain and heart divorced a decade ago over who was to blame about how big of a mess I have become. Eventually they couldn't be in the same room with each other. And that's the whole. That's the whole poem. He's obviously in his feels. This is really reminiscent of me. To me also, when recently Giselle Bundchen stepped out with, like, a new guy and.
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Oh, and Tom Brady.
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Tom Brady posted a logic song on his Instagram story that was. Let's just say it was a cry for help. For sure.
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A real cry for help. Totally.
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But I do think. I think posting any logic song on your story might be a cry for help.
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If you always cry for help.
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Yeah, he was. He was down. He was down pretty bad. I'm. I'm endeared to stuff like this in the way that, like, it's such a human urge to want to basically, like, make your pain known when you're going through something. But it's just so funny when celebrities do it because it's like, you know that everyone's going to be talking about this and it's pretty embarrassing what you're posting. Like, it's not. It's one thing. If you're like, you could. I don't know, there's something else you could do that'd be like, people will post about this. Maybe it's like you post a thirst trap. That's tea. It's not. Whatever. But it's so funny to be like in your feels publicly. Posting a poem that a man wrote
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on Facebook, taking it from Facebook, like a screenshot of Facebook is like, that's tough behavior.
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I know.
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Which is also like, it makes him seem older than he is.
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Yes. Well, he's like 40 something.
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But that's too. I'm. I'm 40 something. And that's not.
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You think it's like boomer behavior.
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Yeah. Or like elder Gen X.
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No, I see.
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I see people my age know to either find the poem written somewhere.
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Yeah.
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In a nice font. Or to like go do. Do a canva mock up of it completely.
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You're like, let's do some reformatting.
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Yeah. And he's just going straight from Facebook, like clicking those two buttons together, like, post it, Crop it. Yeah.
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Literally.
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That's tough.
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It is tough. He also is standing in the long line of men who have dated someone and then their ex has immediately dated Harry Styles. Not Longline, but it's him and Jason Sudeikis. And I think both of them kind of crashed out.
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That one was a way worse crash out.
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You're right, Channing. It could be so much worse. He's just. He's just on. He's just playing in his phone. And I have nothing but the utmost respect for that.
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That story that got reported of him lying down behind Olivia Wilde's car because she has made. She made her special salad dressing and was taking it to Harry sty is harrowing. It chills my blood to think about.
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Do you want to elaborate for the uninitiated?
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Yeah. So this is a story about that Came out during the lead up to Don't Worry Darling, which was directed by Olivia Wilde and starred Harry Styles and Chris Pine, right?
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Yeah. And Florence Pugh.
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And Florence Pugh, yeah. The movie, I don't think was a huge hit.
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No, it was a lot.
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But the press tour was full of chaos. Like Chris Pine or Harry Styles. One of them made a spit on the other at a live event. Real chaos.
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Yes. That movie was so, like, the press around the movie completely eclipsed the movie, basically.
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Yep. But one of the big stories that came out was that when Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles were starting to date each other, it was while she had still been living with Jason Sudeikis, it sounded like. Or he certainly thought they were dating at the time. And so she made this recipe for salad dressing, like homemade salad dressing that was known to friends and acquaintances as a special thing that she would make. And she went to get in her car and leave to bring it to a function. And the story is that Jason Sudeikis laid down behind her car and was like, you'll have to run me over to bring Harry Styles your salad dressing suit. You two can carry on your affair.
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It's just hard. It's just hard.
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It was a bad thing to do. You shouldn't do that.
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No, you shouldn't do that. It is like, oh, my God. To be. It's just. He's down. It's like, you're down so bad at that point. It's just.
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You're down at sea level.
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You're literally down on the ground behind the car. Yeah. Huh.
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If you were carrying on an exciting new romantic endeavor, what would you bring as your, like, sensual salad dressing? What? Home. What? Homemade.
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My sensual salad dressing?
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Yeah. What would be your homemade farm to table aphrodisia? F to T. F to D. My
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F to D. Aphrodisiac.
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Back to F.
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Okay, let me think. I mean, the question I'm really answering is, like, what would I bring to, like, a potluck? Because I. I don't Romantically, I don't wheel and deal in salad dressings often. But my thing that I. That I like to make, which is like, I think it is impressive, but it's kind. It's not very. That. It's not actually that effortful, is pita bread. I've made homemade pita bread, and that's a good thing to bring. And I would. I mean, honestly, I could see myself bringing that to a romantic partner to. To woo them.
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Nice. I love this. Yeah, it's a. It's A versatile, A versatile bread.
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Yeah. Do you have one?
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I. When I started dating my now wife, we, I was like, let me make you dinner. And she was like, great, that's very nice.
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Yeah.
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And I was like, we'd. We'd been on a couple dates and I was like, I'll come over and make you dinner. And I was like, what about fish tacos?
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Oh, my God. That stress, by the way, like, that is something I. It's like if, if I'm making someone dinner that I'm dating, I'm making the basically entire dinner and then letting them show up right when it's ready. Because I cannot like the thought of going to someone's place and cooking there. I'm like, oh, my God, I'd be so overwhelmed.
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No, no, no. She was not welcome in my home.
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Yes, I remember this now.
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Yeah, she was. For listeners. I lived in like a place that was not really, like hospitable to guests and especially not women. Not because there was anything mean. It was just a mess. It was not a romantic location.
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No, no, no.
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And I made her these fish tattoos. I was like, what about fish tacos? She was like, oh, yeah, sure, totally. And I made her these fish tacos. And not only does she hate fish so bad move. It was like bad for her blood sugar. She didn't feel really. She made her feel really bad. Yeah. This is like a true swing in a mess. Just a big time, big biffed it. Big time.
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I've made you sick, which is amazing. And now I get to take care of you.
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Yeah, that's right. It was kind of Munchausen by Taco.
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Yeah, Munchausen by Taco and y'. All. And now they're married, so just try it. Okay, well, you know what? I think it's time for me to wind down and to say goodnight. And I want to say goodnight to you, Josh. And I think I also, I definitely want to say goodnight to Channing Tatum because he, I just want him to feel some love. I hope he can feel the love emanating from the pillow for.
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I think that's really beautiful.
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Yeah.
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So good night, Wills. And good night to the happy couple, Zoe Kravitz and Harry Styles.
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Yes, Sa.
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Foreign. To learn more about our phone free light and audio experience, head to Hatch Co. You can also follow us at hatchpodcasts.
Podcast: The Nightly
Hosts: Wills Pelton, Josh Gondelman
Date: May 3, 2026
In this cozy, witty episode of The Nightly, hosts Wills and Josh wind down together in the "pillow fort" and drift through late-night musings on stand-up comedy, the nuances of crowd work, and their reactions to the major pop-culture news of the night: the engagement of Harry Styles and Zoë Kravitz. They also take a playful detour into celebrity breakup responses and share personal anecdotes about romantic gestures, all wrapped up in the show's gently meandering, sleep-friendly style.
Wills shares about his recent monthly comedy show in Brooklyn (Union Hall):
Josh reflects on audience participation:
On unsolicited audience participation:
On celebrity breakups:
On coping in the spotlight:
Summary created by [Assistant] – perfect for catching up on pop culture or winding down before sleep!