The Pitt’ Episode 14: A Breakdown of Dr. Robby’s Breakdown

Summary

The Prestige TV Podcast: Episode 14 Summary – "A Breakdown of Dr. Robby’s Breakdown"

Release Date: April 4, 2025
Host/Author: The Ringer
Episode: The Pitt’ Episode 14

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1. Introduction and Listener Engagement

In this engaging episode of The Prestige TV Podcast, hosts Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney delve deep into the complexities of Episode 14, titled "A Breakdown of Dr. Robby’s Breakdown." The conversation kicks off with a heartfelt acknowledgment of the numerous listener emails, highlighting the passionate fanbase surrounding the show. Joanna emphasizes the importance of these interactions, stating, “We love your emails” (00:17).

Rob Mahoney adds, “The people know what's up. They're passionate about this show” (00:38), noting that many listeners are professionals in medical fields or simply ardent music festival enthusiasts. The hosts discuss their approach to managing the influx of emails, promising a structured breakdown across multiple episodes to address topics like who is playing Pitfest 2025.

2. Listener Contributions and Personal Stories

Joanna shares personal anecdotes sparked by listener feedback. She reveals an emotional response to an email from Candace, an ASL interpreter, who corrected a portrayal in the show: “she was talking about... how deaf people participate in music concerts and festivals” (03:21). This moment moved Joanna to tears, showcasing the show's impact on its audience.

Rob complements this by highlighting the artistry of ASL interpreters at concerts: “Translating music is really where these interpreters get to cook” (05:06). The hosts underscore the importance of authentic, human-generated content, urging listeners to avoid using AI-generated responses.

3. Dr. Robby's Emotional Struggle

A significant portion of the episode focuses on Dr. Robby’s (Robbie) emotional turmoil. Joanna poses a critical question regarding a pivotal moment where Robbie loses control in the morgue: “How do you feel about the fact that it was Whitaker here?” (08:22). Rob responds thoughtfully, appreciating how Whitaker assists Robbie: “He gets Robbie on his feet” (08:42), while also acknowledging Robbie’s ongoing struggle to manage his emotions amidst chaos.

The discussion delves into Robbie's grappling with faith and his coping mechanisms. Joanna notes Robbie’s conflicted views on religion, mentioning his “Star of David necklace” and muttering prayers (09:40). Rob connects this to a quote from a listener, Timothy, about physicians carrying “a small cemetery” within themselves, seeking explanations for their failures (10:37).

4. Character Dynamics and Interactions

The hosts explore the intricate relationships between characters, particularly focusing on Robbie’s interactions with Whitaker and Gloria. Joanna highlights a moment where Robbie lashes out at Gloria, reflecting his deteriorating mental state: “We had a lot of people saying, have you seen Robbie? Where’s Robbie?” (14:06). Rob concurs, emphasizing Robbie’s “completely dysregulated” state (16:46).

They also analyze the dynamic between Langdon Santos and Robbie, especially during crisis situations. Rob expresses concern over how Langdon’s support might influence Robbie’s ability to continue giving grace, pondering the future of their relationship (19:22).

5. Episode Highlights: Mass Casualty and Measles Case

Joanna and Rob discuss key plotlines from Episode 14, including a mass casualty incident and a measles outbreak. Joanna references articles praising Episodes 12 and 13 for their Emmy-worthy execution, highlighting the meticulous research by medical advisor Joe Sachs (39:43). Rob marvels at the show's ability to maintain high stakes, stating, “The stakes are just amped up that much more” (41:12).

The measles case is particularly poignant, mirroring real-world outbreaks. Joanna connects the episode’s themes to current events, noting, “there is a massive measles outbreak happening in my home state in Texas right now” (43:46). Rob acknowledges the timely and direct messaging of the episode, appreciating its relevance: “Sometimes life is a little directly on the nose” (44:55).

6. Guest Appearances: Brad Durif

A highlight of the episode is the introduction of legendary actor Brad Durif as McKay's father. Joanna expresses enthusiasm for Durif’s casting, praising his versatility: “He can steal scenes... creepy, unsettling, comforting” (34:37). Rob echoes this sentiment, admiring Durif’s extensive body of work and his ability to bring depth to his roles: “He is one of my all time favorite character actors” (33:37).

7. Band Recommendations and Pitfest Setlist

A fun segment unfolds as Joanna and Rob venture into a four-part investigation to determine which bands could be headlining Pitfest 2025. They sift through listener recommendations, evaluating bands like Alabama Shakes, Tame Impala, My Morning Jacket, Willie Nelson, Hozier, and Wilco. Notable suggestions include:

• Alabama Shakes: Rob considers them “broad” but more aligned with other characters than the hippie vibe (48:08).
• Tame Impala: Seen as a fitting choice due to their versatility and broad appeal (48:28).
• My Morning Jacket: Joanna passionately recommends them, highlighting their engaging tracks (48:51).
• Willie Nelson and Hozier: Both are praised for their ability to draw diverse crowds, fitting the festival’s eclectic atmosphere (49:53; 50:22).
• Wilco and Thundercat: Discussed as potential fits, balancing traditional and modern sounds (50:01; 53:11).

Joanna teases an upcoming detailed analysis of these recommendations, promising an entertaining exploration of potential Pitfest headliners.

8. Reflection on Production and Writing

The hosts praise the show's production quality, particularly applauding the efforts of writers and directors in crafting intense, high-stakes episodes. Joanna highlights the show's innovative approaches, such as waterproof charts and slap bracelets, introduced by medical advisor Joe Sachs to enhance the realism of mass casualty scenarios (39:43). Rob admires the seamless integration of night shift doctors and the ability to dynamically rotate characters without losing narrative momentum (24:31).

9. Conclusion and Upcoming Segments

In wrapping up, Joanna and Rob reflect on the emotional highs and lows presented in Episode 14. They express anticipation for Parts Three and Four of their Pitfest investigation, aiming to conclude the mystery of the 2025 lineup. Rob shares a final thought on the necessity of human connection in podcasting, reiterating their commitment to authenticity: “We get the information in this episode... I would love to know if this is a prevalent or semi prevalent or a thing” (54:18).

Joanna reminds listeners to visit [e-mail] for contributions and teases the finale, promising a comprehensive closure to both Pit and White Lotus storylines on the next episode.

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Key Quotes:

• Joanna Robinson (03:21): “This is something that we want. We love and respect you. You can do whatever you want with ChatGPT... we’re looking for like human experience, human opinions, human thoughts and feelings.”

• Rob Mahoney (09:38): “This is someone who had to be coached by Robbie on how to deal with loss and how to keep moving and how to keep doing your job.”

• Joanna Robinson (10:37): “Every surgeon carries within himself a small cemetery where from time to time, he goes to pray.”

• Rob Mahoney (16:46): “He is mid breakdown. Completely dysregulated.”

• Joanna Robinson (43:46): “It's getting really scary out there because people don't want to vaccinate their kids against measles.”

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Stay Tuned: Join Joanna and Rob in the next episode for the final parts of their Pitfest investigation, uncovering the full lineup of Pitfest 2025 and concluding their comprehensive breakdown of "A Breakdown of Dr. Robby’s Breakdown."

For more insights and instant reactions to your favorite TV shows, subscribe to The Prestige TV Podcast on Spotify.

Transcript

[Rob Mahoney]

Foreign.

[Joanna Robinson]

Hello. Welcome back to the Prestige TV podcast feed. I'm Joanna Robinson.

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm Rob Mahoney.

[Joanna Robinson]

We are here to talk to you about the Pit, the penultimate episode of the Pit, episode 14. Rob, we've got a lot to cover. A lot happens in an episode, any episode of the Pit. I first want to just start by thanking everyone for their emails we got so we had so many Pit emails, Rob.

[Rob Mahoney]

The people know what's up. They're passionate about this show. Many of them work in medical or medical adjacent professions and others just have a lot of passion for music festivals. Joe.

[Joanna Robinson]

So prestige tvpotify.com is how you can reach us for, for any non specified show that we're doing. And that's where the Pit sort of has landed. We are going to cover this episode, episode 14. I just want to let you remind you all if in case you didn't hear us say it on the White Lotus pod, we are recording our episode 15 coverage in advance because I will be out next week. So you can still email us prestige tv Spotify.com we love your emails. They will not be read on the finale pod. And that is not personal slight. That is just logistics. So.

[Rob Mahoney]

But you told me you were willing to do a personal podcast in which you respond individually to every email we [e-mail] I feel so guilty when we.

[Joanna Robinson]

Can'T get to all of them. Here's what we're going to do though. We've got a. We had a ton of emails. I've broken them out over our 14 episode 14 and 15 coverage. So you'll hear some listener emails in 15. That's just because I'm saving them for that podcast. Chief among our emails that we got over the last week, Rob, are people weighing in on who's playing pitfest.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's frankly my primary concern at this stage in the season.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is energy you put out into the world.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

And the people have answered. My suspicion is that they notice that you like to wear extremely cool band T shirts when you podcast.

[Rob Mahoney]

Very generous.

[Joanna Robinson]

And so they're like, we gotta bring our A game for Rob Mahoney. So we're gonna come through with our Pit fist answers. Here's what we're going to do on the Prestige TV podcast. Just in case you're not tuning into this podcast just to hear me read a list of band names, we're gonna break this up into a four part Prestige TV podcast investigation. We've got four categories of Pitfest emails that we received. We will be reading Two of those categories this week, two of those categories next week. So that is, we're gonna break it up. And at the end of the, at the end of the day, Rob, I believe we will have gotten to the bottom.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think we will have.

[Joanna Robinson]

Who is playing pit fest 2025. Couple other email things that we got before we get into breaking down episode 14. Real quick, PSA at the top of the episode. And I'm going to do it until. Until things change. Please do not send us an email that you source from ChatGPT. This is not something we want. We love and respect you. You can do whatever you want with ChatGPT GPT in your own home. But when we put a call out to folks for emails, we're looking for like human experience, human opinions, human thoughts and feelings.

[Rob Mahoney]

Joe is already in the void. I am in my literal closet. We are desperate for human interaction.

[Joanna Robinson]

We want human contact, not chat. GBT answers. So just putting that out there, I got some very human answers to the fact that I misused the word enervate when I met invigorate and I shall never do that again. And also I want to apologize to our listener Vita and any Grey's Anatomy fan and specifically Sandra oh, for besmirching that show and saying that people did not ride on top of patients while doing chest compressions on that show. That they certainly did. And Sandra O's doctor, Christina Yang, who is actually generally one of my top five favorite fictional doctors, did it aplenty on that show. So I apologize for getting that wrong. I will atone for that. And then we got a really interesting email from a listener, Candace, who works as an ASL interpreter. And she was talking about in response to one of our other emails we got about people going to concerts when they are deaf and hard of hearing. And she says she's worked for 25 years as an ASL interpreter and has worked in festival settings like Pit Festival. Not uncommon, she says, for deaf people to go to music concerts and festivals. And she says I actually interpret musical performances at a consistent consistently once a month and in the summer it's more and something that Candace noticed that I missed in the episode when the Pitfest attendee who is deaf and his mother arrive that as he's being wheeled off he like very sort of almost out of frame signs ily, I love you which I missed. And when I read that in Candace's email I started to cry. So I just thought I would share that with everyone else. Else. Okay.

[Rob Mahoney]

I'll also say the asl interpreters at concerts, I would imagine. Look, I think there's a lot of ASL and asl any kind of translation work that's very literalized. Right? That's very. I need to get the substance of this. Translating music is really where these interpreters get to cook and these translators get to cook. And it's so impressionistic with ASL specifically that watching them do their thing is as entertaining in many cases as whatever is going on on stage.

[Joanna Robinson]

Are you thinking of anything specifically? Because I will let you know that I watched the entire Kendrick Lamar halftime show as interpreted in esl and it was amazing.

[Rob Mahoney]

Great.

[Joanna Robinson]

But yeah, I've had a really. I like. I find that, like, those particular, like. And it's not just concerts, because that's amazing. But I've also watched SL interpretations of, like, musicals. There's just, like, a lot of fun, like, dynamism that they put into those specific performances.

[Rob Mahoney]

It is a practical job of conveying meaning, but it's also a kind of performance whenever you get music or art involved in any capacity.

[Joanna Robinson]

Last but not least, the helicopter situation that we talked about last week as an ER reference. A lot of people emailed in saying yes and put your mind at ease. Twas this is an ER spoiler, we said at the end of last week's episode. Once again, we're here to talk about a helicopter incident that happened on er, a show that aired decades ago, but just in case. Twas the rear rotor blade that took Dr. Romano's arm. And you know that now because you watched.

[Rob Mahoney]

I have seen it.

[Joanna Robinson]

I sent you the YouTube clip. So you have seen it happen.

[Rob Mahoney]

See, I thought you were gonna allude to the other ER spoiler, which is apparently this guy who got his arm lopped off by a helicopter blade is then summarily crushed by a different helicopter at a different time, which. I gotta see that episode. That sounds insane.

[Joanna Robinson]

This time it's personal. I feel like it was just the very next season. They were just like, in a helicopter falls off the roof of the building and he's down on like ground level outside and gets crushed by a helicopter. This time it's personal. Okay.

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[Joanna Robinson]

Let's get into the episode. Let's start with you, a question that you posed last week when we saw Robbie sort of lose it, let's say in the, the de facto morgue in, in the peds room. And you were wondering who was going to find him and who was going to set him right.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

How do you feel about the fact that it was Whitaker here?

[Rob Mahoney]

I actually feel pretty good about it for two different reasons. One, he gets Robbie on his feet, but that's about it. Right. Robbie is mobile but still full on, breaking down in real time and not dealing well. And I would say actively avoiding many of the situations that are happening on the floor. There's lots of stuff going on. He's like, yeah, I can't deal with that right now. I'm not going to deal with you right now. I'm going to zero in on the things that I can control that are very tangible, that are very specific right in front of me. That feels true to the circumstances. And also, I mean with Whitaker specifically, the idea that ultimately this is someone who had to be coached by Robbie on how to deal with loss and how to keep moving and how to keep doing your job. We love to close a loop, Joe. I am a sucker for that kind of storytelling.

[Joanna Robinson]

So when he repeats Robbie's words back to him, that's when they got me. That landed for you.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes. The follow up conversation sold it for me as much as anything.

[Joanna Robinson]

Here's a couple things I liked about that. Number one, you know, something we haven't really talked about much with Robbie is his faith or lack thereof, which he, you know, he talks about. I'm not even sure I, I believe in God, but we see him clutching the, the star of David necklace and muttering the Shima prayer. And this is something that I thought was really interesting. I. I was going back through, and I asked some people who remembered ER better than I did. I was like, was John Carter? I know I knew that he wasn't Jewish, but I was trying to remember if John Carter on er, Noah Wiley's character on er, if he was Christian or Catholic. His family is very, like, Kennedy coded. I was like, are they Catholic? Is this come through? And the answer is no, that there is no sort of, like, religious connection to Dr. John Carter and ER. So, however, this show is conceived as a continuation of John Carter or not.

[Rob Mahoney]

Which is, we should say, again, not er.

[Joanna Robinson]

Legally.

[Rob Mahoney]

Legally speaking, this is not er.

[Joanna Robinson]

Er. And legally speaking, this is not a John Carter performance. So this added aspect of his Jewish faith, which he both has and doesn't have, I thought was a really interesting shading on the character.

[Rob Mahoney]

I really liked so much of what Noah Wylie is bringing to this breakdown. Yes, they can get real cartoonish in movies and on tv. Sometimes when characters have to have these moments, they can either get way too loud, way too expressive, or way too kind of crumbly, mumbly, in a way that just doesn't feel emotionally true. And I think the idea of Robbie shutting down, a guy who has seen a lot, who has experienced a lot, even today, to say nothing of the rest of his career, having to find a moment of some kind of clinging faith, regardless of what he actually believes or actually thinks, in kind of a more neutral, sobering moment. I found that to be really effective. I also thought we got a great email from Timothy, who was talking about how there's this quote that many physicians know regarding the sort of, like, graveyard of patients that they've lost. And the quote is this. Every surgeon carries within himself a small cemetery where from time to time, he goes to pray. A place of bitterness and regret where he must look for an explanation for all his failures. And that's Rene Lariche, who, like, that's such a great concept. And it's clearly the idea that they're tapping into more so at the end of the last episode than here right now. He is praying, trying to find peace and stability, to just, like, get on his feet. But the last time we saw Robbie, he was muttering through all the events of the day, all the people he had lost, all of the cases that had kind of gone awry.

[Joanna Robinson]

Right?

[Rob Mahoney]

And this is. This is, again, just one day on the job, one shift. And this is the kind of processing he has to do to be able to. To continue on with that.

[Joanna Robinson]

I also like, to your point that they didn't make it. Like, Whitaker shows up with a pat answer and everything's fine. No, when Whitaker pulls him to his feet and then Robbie shoves him away, Yes, I really liked that moment.

[Rob Mahoney]

And Whitaker's assessment, too, is quite frank, which is, we are fucked if you do not come out here. Which is true. Like, he's just being honest about it.

[Joanna Robinson]

And, you know, they start calling Robbie captain, which have they been calling him that all season?

[Rob Mahoney]

Maybe here and there.

[Joanna Robinson]

I feel like it was really ramped up in the last year. Here, the end, like, once the mass casualty starts, I feel like this idea of, we're a MASH unit, you're our captain, really starts to come through. And another thing that I really liked is when Whitaker basically winds up in there because he loses Rochambeau to Santos. And when he comes back out with the blanket and she asks him sort of like, what'd you see in there? Or whatever, and he doesn't say anything. And, you know, I believe that Whitaker won't, like, of all the people define him, I think Whitaker is like one of the few. You know, there's a few other, like, maybe Dana and like, whatever, who wouldn't gossip about what he saw there. But I also like that, in that before he goes in there, or even in the direct aftermath before Robbie, like, pulls himself together and watch. Walks out, we get a lot of people saying, have you seen Robbie? Have seen Robbie? Where's Robbie? Where's Robbie? Like that. You can't even leave for five minutes without everyone. If you're like. And we. We experienced this early in the season when the man can't even go to the bathroom at a certain point in his shift.

[Rob Mahoney]

So I still have not ruled out bladder infection. You know, a lot of things are going wrong for him right now. Like, this man could have a uti. He could have some stuff going on. Yeah, he's gonna have to get checked out. But I have two questions about this whole sequence, Joe, for you. One, how differently does the end of season one go if Santos wins? Rock, Paper, Scissors. And it's, I would say the intern at this point with the worst bedside manner, the worst doctor to patient relations. What happens if she has to treat?

[Joanna Robinson]

Sink all the ships, Santos.

[Rob Mahoney]

You know, some things are just meant to be. And I think Whitaker was meant to win that game.

[Joanna Robinson]

Do you have another question for me?

[Rob Mahoney]

Did we get the clown in the ER just so he can call this whole thing a fucking circus? Did we reverse engineer the clown just for that line.

[Joanna Robinson]

I really hope not.

[Rob Mahoney]

I hope not, too, but I hope not. Look, it just. It felt like that's what they were trying to set up the whole time.

[Joanna Robinson]

I'm going to say this. I didn't include in my official roundup, but we got more than one email intimating that perhaps Insane Clown Posse was playing at Pitfest. And that's how a clown wound up in the yard.

[Rob Mahoney]

That's not what a Juggalo looks like.

[Joanna Robinson]

No, I'm not at all what a juggle looks like.

[Rob Mahoney]

Now, if you told me Dr. Robbie, some years ago had a had a Juggalo moment, I'd buy it.

[Joanna Robinson]

You see it?

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay, demographically, I buy it.

[Joanna Robinson]

Part of what happens here in the immediate aftermath is that Robbie goes back on the floor. Gloria is glorying as she does. And I gotta say, Gloria in her pink blazer has been an irritation all season. Yep. A rather frequent visitor to the floor in a way that seems implausible over the course of an ordinary shift. But here in crisis mode makes a lot more sense for all of the sort of logistics and PR that she has to do. Robbie explodes at her, which I think is. But, like, in terms of how they use Gloria this season, I think we all had a moment early in the season where we're like, enough of the Gloria Robbie interactions. But I have to say, if she just showed up here at the end to sort of like, be the functionary of the emergency situation Robbie lost at her, I think that would be harder for us to roll with than Robbie being like, all day with this shit, Gloria, leave me alone. And Dana and Jack clock it immediately. And what do you think of this explosion? Like, this is. This is the. We had the. The freak out and the breakdown, right. But this sort of explosion. We've had the. We had the Langdon confrontation, but this felt like, you know, this is just a much more public version of that Langdon interaction. What did you think of this?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think we're setting up throughout this episode a lot. A lot of occasions in which Robbie is having an inappropriate emotional reaction to something. Because, again, he is not post breakdown. He is mid breakdown.

[Joanna Robinson]

Regulated. Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

Completely dysregulated. I think this one is really important. I also think the beginning of the measles case, we start to unpack here, is also very important because it's so clear that Robbie is right in terms of the medicine, and it's so clear that he is wrong in terms of the way he is talking to these patients. Like the parents of this patient and having that dynamic, I think is really crucial to show sort of the frustration of where you're building to in hour 14 of a 12 hour shift.

[Joanna Robinson]

A key part of this breakdown that is happening for Ravi over the course of episodes is the Jake factor. Right. Obviously his inability to save Leah. But the fact that we see several times this episode, Rob just clocks Jake.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

Without even talking to him. Right.

[Rob Mahoney]

I would say actively steers around him for the majority of this episode.

[Joanna Robinson]

After she sees this explosion, Dana goes to Jake. That's what she see. Like her move after seeing Robbie explode is to go to Jake and. And hug him and cry. The next thing she does is pull Langdon out of a case. And we don't see her do it, but clearly she pulls him out of a case and asks him to talk to Jake. And so Langdon goes up to talk to Jake at Dana's behest. And then Robbie gets to see Langdon stick up for him to Jake and say if he couldn't save her, nobody could. Did this feel genuine to you from Langdon, or did this feel manipulative at all? Knowing that Langdon knows that he has to make up some ground with Robbie?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think it probably is genuine. You know, there's pretty much universal respect for Robbie as a doctor. And if anything, people were trying to, like, ward him away from doing too much in a crisis circumstance. Like he was going so far above and beyond treating Leah as he would any other patient, but they're having to get him to move on. That said, this exchange makes me super nervous about how Robbie, who is watching this exchange with Langdon and with his kind of like surrogate adopted kind of stepson.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

And the amount of leeway he may be willing to give Langdon for talk frankly, like, talking him up in a difficult moment, like, Langdon gives Robbie, in talking to Jake, a lot of grace. How much grace is Robbie then willing to give Langdon for everything that has happened over the back half of this.

[Joanna Robinson]

Season, how much grace do you want him to give Langdon?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think that depends on what Langdon wants. You know, if, like, I'm concerned based on just the bits and lines of dialogue, many of which are Langdon originated. Right. Of like, oh, this is only a problem if you report me. This is only a problem if you make it a problem. I would like for Robby to treat this with the seriousness it deserves. I would not like to see Langdon just showing up for work tomor as if nothing happened. That would be a. I think a huge blemish on overall, like the. The kind of honor and respectability that we've seen in Robbie throughout this season. I. I don't believe him to be that kind of character, but these are crazy moments and incredibly charged emotional times, and I don't know what his takeaway from that is going to be.

[Joanna Robinson]

I think it's in order to help diagnose how we feel about that. It helps me to look at the Langdon Santos interactions. Langdon and Santos, though they clocked each other, did not really have to directly interact because Santos was in the yellow zone and Langdon was in the red zone. And, like, they were not interacting. But you can't keep Santos down. And she's bored with the yellow zone. She's born with the clouds. Where's the blood and the blankets? She's like, I'm gonna go find something more interesting.

[Rob Mahoney]

What can I stick a tube in?

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah. So this cyanotic is a. Is a term that. A new term that I learned. This positively blue kid shows up from Pitfest, was saved by the brother of the woman whose husband died in the previous episode. He's a Navy corpsman, and he had been running around Pitfest saving people for the last couple hours before he collapsed himself and becomes his own case. I just want to point out we got an email from a listener, Nate, who also was a Navy corpsman, who said, I appreciate them portraying how some medical people really shine under pressure in the situations. As someone with adhd, it is how I'm wired. I'm much calmer under pressure and feel anxious when things are slow and calm. So Nate was a former combat medic, is now a doctor, but was talking about that sort of personality. But it was so funny because, like, I had just read his email, and he's like, I was a Navy corpsman. And then this guy is like, I'm a Navy corpsman.

[Rob Mahoney]

Next time on the Pin. Here's a Navy corpsman.

[Joanna Robinson]

Exactly. Okay, so Langdon and Santos show up in the room at the same time from different entrances into the same room. I love. I rewatched this a couple times. The way they choreographed this, because you're following Langdon in. So Langdon's on the search for a case. So he walks in, and just, like, from the other side of the room, we didn't see her coming, necessarily. Santos walks in, and you're like, oh. And then in. In the middle of this dynamic, we have Dr. Parker Ellis, who we've just met, who's on the night shift with Dr. John Shen. Aisha Harris. I really, really like her. This is, like, we talked about the impression that Dr. John Shen made last week. I really, really like the Dr. Ellis ingredient in here because she's someone who clocks the problem. Right. And is, like, kind to Santos. An ear for Santos, but not in the toxic way that the surgical consultant was earlier this season for Santos.

[Rob Mahoney]

Not in the what's your sign? Kind of way.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah. Gives her a Kit Kat, but also is like, get the fuck up. You know, like, we gotta. We gotta figure this out. And him. Him calling her Bright Spark in that way is just like. I don't. I was just like, Just one of.

[Rob Mahoney]

One of the most disrespectful things you can say to somebody as far as I'm concerned.

[Joanna Robinson]

Five minutes. BrightSpark. I was just like, Jesus Christ. Like, get it together. Do we think. Here's a really important question I have for you. Do we think Dr. Santos, who is. How old is she?

[Advertisement Speaker]

Can I.

[Rob Mahoney]

Can I guess where you're going?

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

That she would make a Wayne's World joke?

[Joanna Robinson]

Does she know Party on, Wayne? Does she know Party on, Wayne?

[Rob Mahoney]

That was 100% a Gen X writer speaking through a Gen Z actor. That is. That is 100% what happened there.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay, great.

[Rob Mahoney]

I do think overall, though, the Langdon part of this to me is a lot of we are getting to the point of being post mass casualty event.

[Joanna Robinson]

Right.

[Rob Mahoney]

We're easing back into a sense of er. Normally, things are slowing down. You know, Dr. Ellis is not only working with Santos, but we're back into teaching mode a little bit. It's a little bit of like, what do you think here? Let's walk through this, help diagnose this, and we'll kind of correct you as we go. And that's such a key part of it. But overall, as we're doing that, the fact that we're also seamlessly incorporating all of these night shift doctors in a way that is very ER to me. Right. It's like you can just sort of gradually turn over the cast. And here's four doctors I just really like spending time with right off the bat. And if that's not just proof of how successful a formula this is, I don't know what is. You can plug and play all kinds of people in these scenarios, and as long as they are interesting characters relative to each other, you're gonna get fireworks every time.

[Joanna Robinson]

So you say four doctors. So you're talking about Dr. John Chen.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

Dr. Parker Ellis.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yep.

[Joanna Robinson]

Dr. Jack Abbott.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

And are you including Dr. Emory Walsh in your four people? I really like in this situation. You know what?

[Rob Mahoney]

I am.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay.

[Rob Mahoney]

And I say that I'm detecting some skepticism from you, Joe. Are you not up on Dr. Walsh?

[Joanna Robinson]

It's a tough beat for Dr. Walsh. I think so. I don't know. I think. Well, we got an email. Okay, I will say this. So let's go to this Dr. Jack Abbott.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

Is teaching. Mohan is like, we should do this wildly experimental procedure.

[Rob Mahoney]

Here's a straw, here's a pencil, here's a couple paper clips. Drain all the blood from this guy's heart.

[Joanna Robinson]

You probably don't know a Waynesville reference or a MacGyver reference, but if you do know a MacGyver reference, this is what you should do.

[Rob Mahoney]

Maybe I'm a Gruber. We could only hope.

[Joanna Robinson]

Or maybe the MacGyver reboot. Who's to say? But Dr. Walsh is here, and her job as a surgical consult is to be the wet blanket to Jack's sort of, like, maverick attitude here. I don't mind that. I don't mind her as, like, a voice of reason. She's just being, like, a real dick about it as she's doing it.

[Rob Mahoney]

She is being a dick about it, but he's also not not being a dick about it.

[Joanna Robinson]

I know, I know.

[Rob Mahoney]

He's a real cowboy, for sure.

[Joanna Robinson]

I don't know if this is, like, internalized misogyny or whatever, but I was just like, Dr. Walsh, Jesus Christ. We did get the. Okay, we got an email from Dr. Sophie Chung.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

About how the emergency department is seen by the rest of the hospital. She has not gotten. She, like, wrote this email to us when she was, like, on episode six. So she's not. She's not here where we are at the end of the season.

[Rob Mahoney]

But Sophie, if you are here now, Hello. Thank you.

[Joanna Robinson]

Welcome. But this is what she wrote. She said the emergency department, the ED as a department, gets on by every other department in the hospital. They're experts in the first 15 minutes of taking care of everything, which means that they get a reputation for being a jack of all trades, master of none in the medical world. This is where Sophie, like, was. She says, if you ever go to a doctor party, you will gain instant rapport by going up to basically anyone and saying, the ed. Am I right? Unless, of course, the person you're talking to is ED trained. Sophie does have other caveats in her email where she's like, they do a lot of things that I couldn't do. Yes, as. But she was also. Basically, her point was, this show allows the ER doctors to do a lot more than ER doctors would ordinarily be allowed to Do. And she says the pit does not depict nearly enough consult calling for an academic center. The ED is way too cocky about making their own decisions about patients. At my hospital, the ED would never take care of even a small burn without calling burn surgery for us to come and evaluate. And the ED would never have the balls to discharge someone that surgery wants to admit would be begging for a lawsuit as well as burning bridges forever. So Sophie, Dr. Sophie Chung, sort of giving us this sort of pecking order at the hospital helped illuminate The Jack. The Dr. Abbott, Dr. Walsh dynamic for me. And I, and I. And I hope that, like, this is something. It feels like they've introduced here at the end of things because we had surgical consults throughout the season, but not quite like this. Not like this. This. This is a different dynamic. And, you know, it seems very personality dependent here inside of this situation, as do a lot of, you know, workplace conflicts. I. I liked the scene. I liked Dr. Walsh as. Hold on one second here. She's just. I might come to love her dickishness. I really like you. I got it.

[Rob Mahoney]

But, you know, I think what did it for me is as. As we're saying, we're kind of getting out of the mass casualty ER and into a more normal workflow. And one of the things we're starting to notice is that, oh, Dr. Abbott wasn't just improvising to meet the moment. This is just kind of who he is. This is how he operates. Yeah, he is a cowboy. And because of that, they are naturally going to get into it on more dedicated surgical consults versus, hey, let me just whip something together here in the ER in a way that, frankly, no other doctor, Robbie included, would probably do. I really like them together. I love the philosophical divide. I think they have pretty fun banter even when they are kind of both being dicks about it. It's a new dynamic in the room that I am already really coming to appreciate.

[Joanna Robinson]

So you, Rob, I think, feel like you're one of those people out there who's like, give us. Give us night shift. Give us the pit. Night shift. Is that what. Is that what you want?

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm torn. I'm really liking these doctors, but I think it's the mix that makes it go. And so maybe it's, you know, it's not night shift, it's holiday shift, where half the people have it off, but it's mixing and matching a little bit.

[Joanna Robinson]

Can I just say? Oh, yeah, Christmas. Christmas time.

[Rob Mahoney]

Dr. Shen's already off. He's already locked. He locked it down.

[Joanna Robinson]

Dr. Shen won't be there. Okay. This episode is brought to you by max. The Emmy award winning series Hacks returns this April. The new season follows Deborah Vance making a move from her Vegas residency to Hollywood showbiz. Tensions rise as Deborah and Ava try to get their late night show off the ground and make history while doing it. Starring Jean Smart and Hannah EinBinder, Hacks Season 4 is streaming Thursday, April 10, exclusively on Max. And don't forget to check out the official Hacks podcast on Spotify.

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[Joanna Robinson]

Part one of our four part investigation into Pitfest.

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay.

[Joanna Robinson]

Titled what is that hippie doing there?

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay. We got so many emails about this. Mike wrote in to say my assumption from the moment I saw him. He is a Deadhead who's been to 300 fish or dead concerts in 42 different states and he is at Pitfest slinging tie dyes and merch. Deadhead or no Deadhead, Jam ban or no jam ban. The merch pros who got their start in the shakedown street gotta eat. So he's. He's merch slinging is what is what Mike says.

[Rob Mahoney]

I respect it, obviously. Respect that. That whole line of work and the people who are traveling trying to make a living off merch. I think this guy though, is just there for the vibes. He's either there for specific acts or the vibes. I don't think he's working it.

[Joanna Robinson]

That is. Okay. That brings us to Sarah's email. Sarah says, so my dad is basically that guy.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

Loves all kinds of music festivals and specifically requests tie dye shirts for me for Christmas. His favorite kind of music to see is blues rock influence as well as bluegrass. He and my mom go to two to three festivals each year and are living their best lives. He also lives in Pittsburgh and has his medical card. So that's what Sarah said. Dave thinks the old hippie is working crew.

[Rob Mahoney]

He's a little old.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is what.

[Rob Mahoney]

So not to be ageist, but like that's heavy physical labor.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is what Jamara said. To your point, this is what Jamara said a similar thing. My guess on the old hippie is that he's friends with one of the festival staffers and literally just goes to any festival happening has been for decades. He's probably been working a bit for years. Maybe a former roadie who everyone loves and grew up with. I feel like they lovingly slide him a general access pass and he helps set up water stations or something early in the day. A vocational festival goer since early Newport days who just loves to celebrate peaceful gatherings of humanity. Bless him. So that's. That concludes part one of our four part investigation. What is that hippie doing there? So, yeah, vibes only possible. It doesn't have to be a jammy band or, you know, a Grateful Dead cover, Dead and Company or like anything like that. It can just be like, I love watching people watch music, enjoy music, I love new music, all of that sort of stuff.

[Rob Mahoney]

So it's also not challenging to find a band the hippie would be into. I think the difficulty of the needle we were trying to thread is who would Jake and Leah also be listening to?

[Joanna Robinson]

Well, please return for part two of this investigation. I now bring you to something I'm gonna call Nepo Daddy Corner. And that is.

[Rob Mahoney]

Fuck yes, Joe. Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

The introduction of legendary actor Brad Durif as McKay's father. And if you have not been following this, Dr. Cassie McKay, aka Dr. Bangs, is played by Fiona Durif, who is the real life daughter of legendary actor Brad Durif. She shows up very briefly, too briefly, I would argue. I would too, to play her father and get off this impeccable line. Chadwick, Harrison Ashcroft iii. Douchebag name for douchebag guy. Facts, Rob. Brad Durif. What do you want to say?

[Rob Mahoney]

Just one of my all time favorite character actors. Who else could play Dr. Bangs? Father. It was right there the whole time. I can't believe we never even talked about the possibility when we flagged Fiona Derf so early in the season. And the fact that I would love to see what the daughter of Brad Durif can bring to this particular show. I really liked her performance. I love seeing the two of them together. I love seeing Brad Durif in literally anything. And boy, can that guy play anything all over the place in terms of the performances he can potentially deliver. You may know him from One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. You may know him from Lord of the Rings. I know him from fucking Deadwood, first and foremost, where he is incredible on that show. Obviously Blue Velvet. Like he's. He's everywhere. And every time he pops up, look very memorable. Like a three or four episode guest star in the middle of a random giant TV show. Just can steal scenes. He can be creepy, he can be unsettling, he can be comforting. In this case, he can just be a perfect grandpa. I love Brad Duruff.

[Joanna Robinson]

I love that it was funny. Obviously. Yeah. Robin are a huge Lord of the Rings fans. So obviously Grima Wormtongue always delight to see him.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

But the fact that he's like Doc between Doc Holliday and Billy Babbitt and One flew over the cuckoo's Nest, I'm like, this is just a medical family. This is just like we love a hospital. We love, we love to practice medicine. We love, we love to do our best. Right.

[Rob Mahoney]

Also, Harrison, we should say we learned one more pertinent detail about Harrison, which is loves a carbonara. So this is a kid who just loves watching movies and eating pasta. And I have never found a more relatable character on television as far as I'm concerned.

[Joanna Robinson]

Absolute goals. Okay. So that's the good of the McKay.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

Here we get to the part that I feel like is so far to me less good, which is we are circling back on David. And this is Robbie. Dr. Robbie in I told you so. Beat that. I don't really love.

[Rob Mahoney]

What was that about?

[Joanna Robinson]

Seem right to me. Like, what's your. Yeah, what's your read on this? I thought okay, so. Well, actually before I get there, I should say in the mix with all the who's playing pitfest emails we got.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yep.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, we got a lot of who's the shooter.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

Conspiracy emails. Just yarn walling it up. And I, I appreciate the severance hangover that everyone has.

[Rob Mahoney]

Absolutely.

[Joanna Robinson]

I appreciate the like, who's dying Next week on White Lotus Energy that people have. I understand that the pits like throw your conspiracy theories in the. In the toilet. A, the shooter, someone you've never met. B, we even a line where it's like, do we know why he did it? Does it matter? No. End of. End of sentence. That's it. It's not David. It's not Doug Driscoll.

[Rob Mahoney]

We should say David has been exonerated. He is not the shooter. Definitively not the shooter. Shout out to David for just being a creep. Making a hit list and not a master.

[Joanna Robinson]

He still wrote a hit list. He absolutely did. And Robbie being like giving McKay this. This hardline told you attitude is bizarre to me. I. I can't really. I can't really square it other than to Say it's part of him just dissolving here at the end of this impossible shift that he's had.

[Rob Mahoney]

You know, I do think his patience has run thin, basically, across the board. And he is not being his best self. I would say ultimately, like, these conversations are Both he and McKay not being their best selves in terms of how they approach it in the room. Not deftly handled. But Robbie, to me, is worse because of this preliminary conversation where he is. He is doing the I told you so, and he's saying specifically, I suggested another way, sir. What is that other way other than don't call the police about the guy who made the list, like, do nothing was his plan. That's. That's not a better way. And for him to turn in, like, this idea of like, oh, now this is your problem to fix on McKay, I think is completely uncalled for. I take is hopefully what's meant to be a character beat for Robbie, who's just over everything and handing things off left and right, not able to deal, like, especially empathetically in the way he did earlier in the season. Because, yeah, he is. He is not on it here.

[Joanna Robinson]

One thing I want to say before we sort of circle in on what I think is sort of like the last major storyline is to zoom back to the previous episodes. There's a couple great breakdown articles out there about episode 12 and 13. You know, in the heart of the emergency and on Vanity Fair, David Canfield and Parade.com Mike Bloom, both great breakdowns of how they made this. That episode base based on the placement in vf. This is clearly an Emmys push from hbo, and who can blame them? But this is a. We want the Emmy for this episode sort of kind of article where they're talking to the director, the stars, you know, the showrunner, blah, blah, like, that's. That's what they're trying to be like. Look at the totality of the effort of. Of this episode. And when you. When you go to. So like, best director, best. Best writing and. And best series, like, you put one episode forward, so they're like, take a look at this thing that we accomplished. But something I thought was incredible that I didn't realize in reading those. Those two breakdowns was Joe Sachs, who's the. Who's medical, a top medical advisor on the show and the co writer, credited co writer of episodes 12 and 13, did a lot of investigation into mass. Mass casualties. Speaking to people around, you know, Columbine or the Las Vegas shooting or, you know, et cetera. Et cetera, and ask them questions like, what would you wish you had done differently? Or what do you wish had been available to you? Or all these sort of things. And so some of the systems that they put in place, including the slap bracelets.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

And the waterproof charts that they put on people's wrists, were things that Joe Sachs innovated for the show that hospitals don't use and perhaps crazy they could and should use. He was like, he was talking about how, you know, in like the Vegas shooting specifically that they were like riding on people's foreheads, writing on bed sheets. You know, how little tech is used inside of a like mass casualty triage situation like that. And I thought that was incredible. I'm like, what if the pit innovates? You know, ER medicine? Like that would be astonishing. And then also Amanda Marsalis, who is the director on the episode, was talking about, we clocked this, but in terms of having to have a 360 of everything that's happening in the hospital and having to have to be able to see Santos or Langdon or Whitaker or Mel or whoever else in the background. She said, she said like any error in the corner of the frame, a prop mishap, a missed shot, a flubbed line, required a full reset of everyone. And just the sheer undertaking of something like that where it's just sort of like if you mess a line you can't take again or whatever in a. In an easy setup, you just have to get like everyone back to the top and go again. And that's just. So I guess I'm doing some award season PR for them, but I just thought that was just a. Incredible.

[Rob Mahoney]

So is it, is it PR if it's just true? You know, I think it's well identified that 12 in particular is just made for awards season. Right. It's great individual TV making in terms of the self standing episode. It pays off. So many things we saw all season long, our season long relationships to these characters. But it's just a marvel in terms of the way that it's made and the pacing of it is so unrelenting, even within a show that's already so unrelenting. I just can't express how impressive it is to have a show that already is at such a high gear and then you can just find another one. Right? You can just find that in a moment with an event like this and it feels even more dramatic. The stakes are just amped up that much more. I don't know what that means in terms of what you do in A season two and how you continue to sort of play with these ideas and crescendo the drama of a season two after something like this. But boy, would I love to see what they come up with.

[Joanna Robinson]

The last case that I want to talk about is the measles case. You already alluded to it. We've got Mel, like our favorite. Okay, I'll say this. My favorite daytime doctor, Dr. Mel King. My favorite night shift doctor, Dr. John Shen.

[Rob Mahoney]

John Shen's great. And then Rob the team up of the century.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah. This is just. What else could you want? I mean, the number of times two that John's like, seems like it's over. And then something comes careening into the ambulance bay. Great, great stuff from Dr. John Shen. But Mel doing this sort of like buttonhook second take, seeing Georgia, the younger sister of Flynn, the guy, the kid with the measles in the ambulance and looking down and seeing all the blood all over her and goes like, oh, oh, yeah, that's scary, right? That's scary. But we, we, because we've had this long term investment in Dr. Mel King and her story over this shift are have to be thinking about Mel earlier in this shift and how she had to interact with another young girl worried about a sibling and stuff like that. So we have to be thinking about that when we see her interact with Georgia. The, the little girl who's playing Georgia is incredibly good. A lot of great kid actors on this show. She's really, really good. And this is, you know, we already had like an anti massacre earlier in this season, but here we come with like anti vaxxers with a side of like Dr. Googling. And what do you think of this as one of the. I mean, we only have one more episode after this. Like one of the final cases for the season. What do you think of this?

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm not sure yet. I think at this point it is. I mean, it grabs your attention very quickly, right? Another child in peril being rolled into the ER after everything does seem to be whether Dr. Dr. Shen is right or not, like slowing down. Right. Like you're, you're getting at least back to normal. And all of a sudden here is a case that is not only incredibly dire for a young person, but also quite treatable if you move quickly and you follow the advice of your doctors. And this one is tough because, yeah, it does have some very heavy messaging overtones as far as doc. Not just measles specifically, but doctor patient interactions. You're right. Like the, the Googling thing is almost Its separate issue that's been shoehorned into this one. On top of it, though, obviously they're related and they like, do your own research kind of sense. I hesitate to say it's heavy handed though, when this feels incredibly timely. Unfortunately, there is a massive measles outbreak happening in my home state in Texas right now. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cases. I think it's already doubled the national total from last year in Texas alone. Holy hell. It's getting really scary out there because people don't want to vaccinate their kids against measles. And so, yeah, this performance, this character, it's a little directly on the nose, but sometimes life is a little directly on the nose. And unfortunately that's the timeline that we're living in right now.

[Joanna Robinson]

They want medical treatment, but they don't want medical advice. Is both one of those lines in this show that I'm like, okay, you just said the thing. But also I think it was like, pretty succinct, like a point. Well, and succinctly made. The last thing I will say in all of this again, you know, we have to wrap up a few things before the day shift gets to clock out. We've got one more. One more episode to go. But this moment with. With Mel, who has been dealing with this woman with PTSD whose husband died and gets to reunite her with her daughter.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

Is dealing with Georgia and thinking about, you know, other cases that she's had today, all this stuff. And she and Mel, who has been, you know, in a slightly neurodivergent seeming sort of way, like, you know, somewhat detached from the way that some of the other doctors have expressed themselves this season. And then she has this breakdown. I mean, she's in. She's had incredible compassion and all this other stuff, but she has this little mini breakdown and she apologizes and Robbie and I think this is what's important. I really dislike Robbie's interaction with McKay in this episode.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

And it can go right next door to this moment with Mel where he says that she's awesome and he's so glad that she's with them. And. And so that's what this show can offer us with any given character is like Robbie being a tremendous leader in this moment. No, being a tremendous leader in this moment. Yes. And he's both of those things in any given day.

[Rob Mahoney]

So I also think, as for a viewer, I would like to think I am better than this, but Joe, I am not. There's something so genuinely affirming about watching characters that we have spent so much time with all season, work hard and be told that they did a good job. And so it's like having this Robbie and Mel exchange. You get Mateo and Victoria, like him calling her a rock star. You get Abbott having this moment with Mohan too, of like, that was your save. You did that like big upping her.

[Joanna Robinson]

Too, because it was too risky for Jack to do it, maybe.

[Rob Mahoney]

So I was genuinely caught off guard by how meaningful those scenes felt.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

And I don't know what that says about me or what I'm watching on tv, but like, it. It feels part of the allure of the Pit is seeing people who care about what they do and are trying earnestly to be very good at it and occasionally get it right and do well and save lives. And in this case, like, be told, hey, you, you did it right today.

[Joanna Robinson]

Prestige tvotify.com if you want to tell Ron Mahoney that he did a great.

[Rob Mahoney]

Job podcasting or diagnose me however you would like, you know, whatever you hear there.

[Joanna Robinson]

All right, before we leave today, it is part two of our Pitfest investigation Time, in which I run a few bands past Rob Mahoney, and you tell me what you think of these suggestions. Amber, in response to quote, what act gathers this broad an audience at a music festival suggests the Alabama Shakes. What do you think of the Alabama Shakes as an option here?

[Rob Mahoney]

It is broad. Is it hippie broad, though? I think again, it's they feel more Leah Jake coded than they do hippie coded, if that makes sense.

[Joanna Robinson]

There's she says their rock, their soul and Brittany Howard singing live can make anyone have a religious experience. That sounds true to me. Okay. Joe and quite a few others suggest Tame Impala.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, this one kind of makes sense.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think a band that has had a long enough lifespan and kind of shifted genres and styles a little bit where the hippie could have been in early and also Jake and Leah late that make that tracks for me.

[Joanna Robinson]

Joe writes the first couple Taemin albums have a garage roughness that could appeal to Robbie if he's a Gen Xer.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh, definitely.

[Joanna Robinson]

Perhaps stopped into some Pavement shows. The most recent albums.

[Rob Mahoney]

First of all, that's. Look, you don't need to bring Pavement into this. That's. We're getting into direct hit territory and I don't appreciate it.

[Joanna Robinson]

Rob, are you looking forward to Pavement movie?

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm looking forward to everything. Pavement all the time, Joe. That's where I'm living sounds.

[Joanna Robinson]

Right. The most recent albums, Currents in particular, have been major Touchstones for Young Millennials and Gen Z. Tracks on these albums are some of the most used and remixed audio on Tik Tok IG and YouTube ever. So yeah, Omar suggests, and I'm including this selfishly because I just really love this band. My Morning Jacket.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yep.

[Joanna Robinson]

Personalized recommendation for me, Joanna Robinson is the track Mita, which is like, if I play Megiddo once, I will play it 20 times in a row. That's how I feel about that song. Okay. Glenn suggests Willie Nelson and says I've been to a couple of his shows and they're the most diverse concerts I've been to. And unlike Fish and Dead and company, he does play festivals. So.

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay, Willie Nelson, very possible. I mean, clearly on the hippie end, I think maybe one, maybe Jake more than Leah, if I had to guess.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Kit, who has worked a concert venue in a mid sized city, says the most diverse audience they've ever seen. Hozier.

[Rob Mahoney]

This is a great call.

[Joanna Robinson]

Is Hozier playing Pitfest?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think. I think he is playing Pitfest. Is he the exact act we're looking for? Maybe. I.

[Joanna Robinson]

He.

[Rob Mahoney]

He does hit something that is valuable here, which is a broad like American Idol esque demographic appeal. Right. Like you're hit. You're hitting enough of the. Not just the quadrants, but like the sub genres and sub audiences that are going to bring a festival crowd together. I could, I could honestly see it. I'm not saying it's the hippie's first choice of act, but he sees Hozier on the headliners or like maybe, maybe the second headliners late in the day. Yeah, I think, I think he'd wander over and see what it's about.

[Joanna Robinson]

And it's the hippie, Jake and Leah and all the lesbians and they're having a great time with Hosier. Okay. Elizabeth likes to point out that we've had a lot of collabs recently between emerging pop artists and classics. You're Sabrina Carpenter plus Paul Simon, your Chapel Rome plus Elton John, your Lady Gaga plus Tony Bennett, et cetera, et cetera. She says, plus modern weed culture brings together icons like Billy Nelson and modern pop faves like Miley Cyrus.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, fair.

[Joanna Robinson]

Not to mention the neo folk movement where artists like Noah Kane are vaguely reminiscent of vintage Dylan. Point being, I could see an old hippie going for the vibes in the Puff Puff pass, even if his personal playlist differs from Jake and his girlfriend.

[Rob Mahoney]

So we've been focusing on the band and not the strain. That's what I'm hearing. We Just our eye has not been on the right ball.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay. All right, last two. Jennifer just points out that her kids, like, love the music of the 70s and 80s. She says her son's favorite band is Queen Sick.

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay.

[Joanna Robinson]

And she said, but they've also had.

[Rob Mahoney]

A more recent renaissance.

[Joanna Robinson]

She said, I'd like credit for that, but they're exposed to a lot of that music on Instagram, from reels being set to songs from that era. She votes for the Eagles, Aerosmith or Def Leppard. They're all touring. And I can totally see Hippie dude and Blonde Overdose guy jamming out to any of them. Okay, last but not least, Karen suggests Wilco.

[Rob Mahoney]

See, that's too Robbie and not enough Hippie. Or Jake and Leah.

[Joanna Robinson]

I. I disagree. I think hippies really like Wilk. I mean, it is dead center, Robbie.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, but I think straight up.

[Joanna Robinson]

I think hippies like Wilco. California stars.

[Rob Mahoney]

Look, if you're a hippie, please email us at prestige [e-mail] and let us know what you think of Wilco. I. I feel like they are a little bit more Gen X late Millennial.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay.

[Rob Mahoney]

So from her old millennial, I should.

[Joanna Robinson]

Say, all these options, you're going tame Impala. Is that. Is that.

[Rob Mahoney]

Can I proffer a couple more that we were emailed about?

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, please.

[Rob Mahoney]

Christopher emailed us with a full Venn diagram of Jake and Leah.

[Joanna Robinson]

I was gonna save this for next week, but I love it. Do it here. Yes.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, maybe we should tease it. I don't want to get ahead of your.

[Joanna Robinson]

The physical Venn diagram that we got is just incredible. So hit us with it.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, one of them I want to bring up because our producer Donnie Beacham also brought this act up last time after our recording, which is Thundercat.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

And I can. I can see us really finding the midpoint here with Thund. Donnie also brought up Doobie Brothers as a hippie interest. Hippie inclined or hippie interested band? I think that's a good one. But, yeah, I think overall the issue is, like, these sorts of festival acts are so much one or the other. And I am very compelled by Thundercat. Ultimately, the only other one that someone brought up in the emails that I had to think about was the Flaming Lips. Do the kids know about the Flaming Lips? Do they care about the Flaming. Do they realize, is what I'm asking you, Joe.

[Joanna Robinson]

Do they even know about Yoshimi? Like, what do you.

[Rob Mahoney]

I don't. Certainly not the Pink Robots. Maybe one of the two.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay.

[Rob Mahoney]

But, yeah, I'm not sure the kids are into the Flaming Lips, but vibe wise, I could see the hippie being along for that ride.

[Joanna Robinson]

All right, well, that has been part two of our Pitfest investigation. Stay tuned next week for parts three and four, the conclusion of who played Pitfest 2025. Anything else you want to say before we wrap up? Brad Dourif starring in The Pit, episode 14, Rob Mahoney.

[Rob Mahoney]

I have one more query to the listeners out there, which is we get the information in this episode that Whitaker was a theology undergrad into med school. Pipeline. Yeah, I've never heard of that one before. Like, obviously you don't need to be explicitly pre med. You don't need to be explicitly hard science theology is a new one for me. I would love to know if this is a prevalent or semi prevalent or a thing that people have encountered out in the world if you're in medicine. It caught my ear, that's for sure.

[Joanna Robinson]

Prestige TV, Spotify.com reminder. We will not be reading those emails.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, I will be. I'll be reading them and we'll talk about them.

[Joanna Robinson]

We will not be reading those emails aloud, but we will be reading them. We read all your emails. Thanks so much for sending them. Thanks to the full crew on this, the day shift and the night shift. On this podcast, Donnie Beacham for his excellent taste in music, Justin Sales and John Richter. And we'll be back for the pit finale and the White Lotus finale next week on the TV podcast feed. See you soon. Bye.