Halloween History: Rutabagas and Bonfires Keep the Ghosts Away

The veil gets thin, the bonfires glow, and the stories sharpen. We dive into Halloween’s tangled roots—how Samhain marked the end of harvest, why the living lit fires to guard their thresholds, and how carved turnips crossed the ocean and became pumpkins grinning on American porches. From Pomona’s apples to medieval soul cakes, we trace the rituals that turned fear into community, and memory into tradition.

We swap honest stories, too. One of us found freedom in costumes when “weird” wasn’t welcome the rest of the year; the other grew up in a strict faith that labeled Halloween taboo—only to become obsessed with its history. That curiosity takes us through the thin places: why ancestors who lived close to land understood cycles, why science keeps affirming old wisdom about forests and networks, and why a lantern’s small light still matters. We talk about how the U.S. remixed Halloween into big-box spectacle, how the U.K. sees it differently, and why Día de Muertos deserves reverent distance and deep respect as a separate, beautiful honoring of the dead.

Pop culture gets its due because the emotions are real. Coco, Soul, Inside Out, Frozen 2—yes, we cried, and yes, the music and color feel like modern rites. Those films give us permission to grieve, remember, and reclaim identity, just like a vigil does. Under the jokes about rutabagas scaring ghosts is a simple human truth: we make small, bright defenses to face the dark together. Come for the lore and the laughs; stay for the way Halloween still holds our names, our stories, and our need to belong.

If this spoke to your spooky heart, follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a friend who keeps the porch light on. Your five stars keep the lanterns lit.

Chapters

• 0:00 Disclaimer & Cold Open
• 0:37 Spooky Season Banter
• 2:29 Halloween’s Celtic Roots: Samhain
• 5:26 Rituals: Bonfires, Turnips, and Warding Spirits
• 8:28 Roman Blend: Pomona and Apple Games
• 9:48 Middle Ages: Soul Cakes and Early Trick-or-Treat
• 12:06 From Sacred to Social: The Shift
• 13:42 U.S. Reinvention: Costumes, Pranks, Candy
• 16:06 Personal Ties: Cosplay, Crafting, Belonging
• 18:08 Religion, Pagan Origins, and Curiosity
• 20:04 Nature, Ancients, and the “Thin Veil”
• 22:30 Modern Love: Aesthetics, Movies, Traditions
• 25:02 Memory, Story, and Why It Endures
• 26:16 U.S. vs U.K. Halloween Culture
• 27:12 Día de Muertos: Honor and Celebration
• 29:28 Pixar Tears: Coco, Soul, Frozen 2
• 35:20 Closing Rituals & Playful Farewell

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

Before we begin today's episode, we would like to share a quick disclaimer. The views, opinions, and statements expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast are their own personal views and are provided in their own capacity. All content is editorial, opinion-based, and intended for entertainment purposes only. Listener discretion is advised.

SPEAKER_01: 0:37

What's crack a lackin', Scooby-Snackin? And by Scooby-Snackin' I mean you sick little goons and goblins. Everyone knows what the most wonderful time of the year is, and no, it's not Sandy Claw season, because fuck that bastard. And no, it's not the forgotten one in between the greatest time of the year and another fun time of the year. That's right. We're talking about spooky season. Do it again. Do it again.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03

I was supposed to say Mufasa.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06

It is spooky season. Halloween. The one night of the year where all little freaks and geeks get to really be themselves and not get picked on. Or you know, the girl next door, she's feeling a little extra spicy. She can be the slut that's really deep down inside of her souls. Either way, we love it all. But before we get to the bastardized American version of the most joyous holiday of the year, I think we need to learn a little bit about it. Where it comes from, where it goes. Where did it come from? Cotton Eye Joe. I think you did enjoy that one.

SPEAKER_00: 1:49

It got me so off guard.

SPEAKER_01: 1:52

I don't I honestly I don't think I will ever top my very first episode that I drove. The topic is near to my house. Female orgasm. I don't think anything will beat that. Ever.

SPEAKER_00: 2:07

No, no, that was that was a pearl-clutching moment for sure in in the in the annals of this fucking podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 2:17

The annals of this podcast? Anywho.

SPEAKER_00: 2:22

Anyway, hi.

SPEAKER_01: 2:23

Anywho, I'm your host with the ghost and the most bib, Kyle. And here tonight is Angie. I didn't have anything creative to call for you. So hey Angie, how you doing tonight?

SPEAKER_00: 2:34

Hey, I'm doing good. I'm I'm a little a little tired, a little slap happy, but I'm doing good. I made it through the day.

SPEAKER_01: 2:43

Okay. There you go. That's all we can ask for.

SPEAKER_00: 2:46

That's all we can ask for, right?

SPEAKER_01: 2:48

Exactly. I know as a fellow creepy summon a bitch, you've been itching and burning to talk about uh Halloween, and goddamn it, that's what we're gonna kind of do. We're just gonna have a little chit-chat and then chit-chat a little bit more. How's that sound?

SPEAKER_00: 3:05

That sounds great.

SPEAKER_01: 3:09

One more reason to love the Irish people and my Irish heritage is actually way back there is where our stories of Halloween begin. That's right, you fuckers. St. Paddy's Day is an American holiday, as where Halloween is a fucking Irish holiday. So I don't really know the year it started. I'm gonna ballpark and say like BC Times. Way the fuck back then. It's um Halloween is a derivative from the old Irish festival Sawin. Sawin? Yeah. Yeah, Sawin. That's what it is that's it. I know it's one of those ones because it looks like it should be spelled like sh it looks like it should be pronounced swarma, but it's not because Celtic and Gaelic. You know?

SPEAKER_00: 4:00

It actually looks like it should be Sam Samha Samhain.

SPEAKER_01: 4:05

Yeah, Samhain and Salmon or something like that. Or salmon or something.

SPEAKER_00: 4:08

It it definitely does not look like it should be pronounced Sawan.

SPEAKER_01: 4:13

Yes, exactly. Um but either way, it's kind of what Sawin was uh was kind of like the uh Ireland, Scotland, uh Normandy area, all around there. It was the end of the harvest season in the beginning of the winter. You know, the the the harvest and the um the fall solstice?

SPEAKER_02: 4:36

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 4:36

However it goes, all that? Yeah, all throughout that one, but also during that time when the night is the longest before before the day, before the before the dawn. That was when they felt that the the lines between this world and the afterlife kind of get blurred. And that's where a lot of the souls kind of cross over. You see that through many, many cultures. They all believe that um All Hallows Eve, uh the day of the dead, so on and so forth, they all share that same commonality. Is that not necessarily the dead coming back to life, like not zombies, there's no thriller happening here, but you know, the um those who have passed on can kind of come for a visit. A lot of the traditions in there is, let's face it, not all souls are good. All dogs go to heaven, but not all good people go to heaven, and some of the shitty ones kind of make their ways back, you know? So that's where a lot of the traditions of the jack-o'-lanterns and dressing up and trick-or-treat and bonfires, all that kind of stuff was used as protection from the evil spirits. So, like bonfires was exact, you know, people having their big bonfires to literally scare away, you know, the evil spirits because for whatever reason they're afraid of fire. Maybe because it's light, maybe because it's hot, maybe because both. Um, it would show it would light up the dark areas, the uh the boundaries, and it would keep them at bay to stay in the shadows, if you would. Uh jack-o' lanterns actually started as turnips because they didn't have pumpkins in Ireland, and they didn't have potatoes either, for at least a little bit.

SPEAKER_00: 6:17

So snuck and wolf shit about the potatoes.

SPEAKER_01: 6:22

No, I'm not, um, listen, I wasn't saying anything about you eating raw potatoes. I was talking about the potato famine. That's my one per list. So take that. It's a genocide that Mother Nature enacted upon the Irish people. Either way, they would uh anyway, they would carve faces and hollow out turnips. And it wasn't until they immigrated to the uh till they immigrated to North America, where pump were pumpkins were more native, and they decided to switch them because they are much easier, because for the most part, they're already pretty hollow. But yes, they would they would carve the faces into them little spooky scary faces and light them up. And same thing. More lights and scary faces and scare away the spirits. Costumes and dressing up, literally just disguising themselves so the spirits wouldn't recognize them or try to dress up as monsters to scare away the spirits. Which is really funny because there's a lot of people who have deep fears of um spirits and ghosts and supernatural, but apparently they're a bunch of fucking pussies because anything scares them, apparently. Just dress up and they're gonna be confused and they're not gonna know.

SPEAKER_02: 7:29

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 7:30

What the fuck? But um it's just yeah, you know, it's oh it's apparently just fire in a fucking rutabaga with a smiley face on it, and oh no, it's gonna go run for the hills. Like, what? Get the fuck out of here, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 7:42

Like fire, fire and a rutabaga.

SPEAKER_01: 7:45

You know what I mean? Like, meanwhile, it's it's a fuck it's a fucking spirit. It can like walk through walls and like do weird spirit shit, and it's like, oh no, a strawberry rhubarb pie, run away. Like, get the fuck out of here.

SPEAKER_00: 8:04

I'll remember how to take a rutabaga carved out, uh carved out whatever it's.

SPEAKER_01: 8:11

Next time you go ghost hunting, you're just gonna have a fucking oh, but a lot of your other fall traditions come from Halloween as well. But the same thing, just more um cultures and religions as they as they um would adopt in here and word got around. So like um the Roman Empire is where we get uh bobbing for apples from. Because when they conquered that territory, they brought some of their own festivals into the area. Uh there was uh they had their um their festival for uh it was the goddess of I think it was the forest, the forest, the trees, it was fruit, fruit and trees and whatnot. Um Pomona? I think that was the goddess. Yeah, it was whatever. They had a festival for the goddess of the fruit and the trees and all that other fun stuff, and kind of they're one of the harvests as well. And they would literally do that to like show their uh that's where bobbing for apples came from. They would literally just take a bunch of either apples and like throw them in like the rivers or whatever the hell it is, they would close their eyes and like put the trust in that she wouldn't let them drown and try to grab the fruit with their mouths. Literally, that's what it was. Only they would be a little bit more, they would like, oh you don't just hold on to the sides of the barrel and go for it. No, they would actually like tie their hands behind their back and like their legs and like throw them in the river and shit. I'm telling you, man, you you hear some you hear some stuff and you're like, how did we make it as a society? Like, oh, this is this is fun to honor the gods. Yeah, well, you might get a one-week ticket to meet some of them if it doesn't really go your way.

SPEAKER_02: 9:46

Right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:48

And then uh then we get into like the Middle Ages, is where trick-or-treating kind of comes through. So we're now more of the uh like the Anglo-Saxon traditions and the Norman uh traditions where it was the um they had to leave treats and goodies and nummies and all that fun stuff out for the spirits. Um and if they didn't, you know, they would cause all sorts of havoc. And it didn't have to be just random ones, it would be like, you know, their Uncle Herman didn't come back and they didn't have his favorite, you know, plate of Spitzel or something like that out. He's gonna like kill the goats or like spoil the milk and the cows or whatever the hell it is. So they had to like leave out little treats, and they or so that's where you get trick or treat. Because when the when the you know the the uh the the spirits are coming back, the the dead ones are coming back, and it was like, oh yay, I get a little treat. No treat? Okay, I'm gonna play a trick. And then they would just like you know, cause vandalism, which is fun.

SPEAKER_00: 10:47

Yeah, I know another thing that they did was um like in the medieval times, they would offer prayers for the dead in exchange for soul cakes. Uh which were like I think they were like spice little short breads, but yeah, soul cakes, and which I think is a fascinating idea. Like you just say a prayer and you get a cake for saying a prayer. I mean, sounds like a pretty fair exchange.

SPEAKER_01: 11:19

I just it it really depends. See, nowadays it sounds like because you have like Martha Stewart and like Ace of Cakes and like Cake Boston's other people, you have like cake cakes, but back then cake was pretty much anything that you just put and you just bake. So you know, we're also talking about like we're also talking about like the Middle Ages of like England before they went and conquered India and they had like spices, and before they decided what before they learned what sugar was. So it was pretty much just like flour, probably just like burnt flour was what their cakes were. That's it. It was just burnt flour. So maybe maybe it was exactly, exactly, just burnt flour. You said it this time.

SPEAKER_00: 12:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:06

Moving forward to it though, but same thing, just the the further you get into it, yeah, the the the closer you get to to modern day is where you start to lose a lot of the um, I guess, um sentimental or cultural feelings towards um towards Halloween. Like I said, at least I didn't learn this until like way, you know, typical child upbringing of Halloween is what I was raised on. So you didn't really learn that there was actually there actually was like a um it was very it was a very sacred holiday throughout Europe. It was taken very, very seriously. Um you know, not not you know, not crapping on it nowadays. It's fantastic, but it's just funny because it's it's seen as just a it's a fun, joyous, you know, you just get around and you just have a good time. As to where it was a bit more like um like a day of almost like a day of remembrance. You know, families would gather and they was just like, oh, you know, miss, you know, you know, you miss, you know, you miss your elder. So think of it like that. You know, you'd kind of think of like that one, like your family would get together and you would sit and you would talk and reminisce about it's almost like an in memorum that they do for like, you know, like the award shows and shit. You'd get together, you'd get together and you have some of your family's favorite recipes, and you know, this person passed away and that person passed away, and you would just kind of talk like that. But you know, you'd also have all sorts of fires to keep the evil spirits away like that. So it was rather nice, and now it's just it's fun. You know what I mean? I'm not saying it's bad, it's just it's it's fun now as to not as somber, which I think is a good thing. Um, but of course, you know, then you have, you know, it's it's all when it comes to America, is when it starts to get a little different. That's when you had the people when they first immigrated, they still brought that tradition over, and then they were like, wait a minute, so you you dress up to scare away the evil spirits? Well, what if I dress up like an evil spirit and like scare you and like trick you into giving me more stuff? You know what I mean? So so that's where another that that's where another belief that were um different types of costumes and scaring people in haunted houses and shit like that would come from was the jackasses who were still living. They would like dress up, pretend to be people's you know, family members, evil spirits, like whoo, abonnees are scrooge or whatever the hell. You know, they would all that kind of shit.

SPEAKER_02: 14:27

But uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:29

And now we just we dress up, we go knocking door to door, and we get all sorts of delicious, tasty num nums, and we get to be weird for like a little bit once a year, and it's socially acceptable.

SPEAKER_00: 14:40

I was gonna say socially acceptable. Some of us are weird all year round.

unknown: 14:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:46

If I could dump my purse for like a teeny teeny bit, I think that's why I always loved Halloween, was because this is like so cliched for like I feel like my generation to say, but I don't give a shit. Um I was the weird kid where like I had weird interests for like a long time. And um, you know, you you got made fun of a lot and you got picked on a lot, so you know, I've stopped being so open about it, but I still loved Halloween. Halloween was the one time of year where like you know, everyone was dressing up. So it's like it was weird if you played dress up like in May, but you do it on Halloween, like every you're fucking weird if you don't, you know what I mean? And you know, doing all certain things, so you know it's you know, it's it's little kid shit, except on Halloween. On Halloween you get the pass. And I always that's kind of where like my hobbies and like cosplaying and all sorts of other fun stuff started too, is because the costumes you got in the store were always really crappy and they were really expensive. And I grew up borderline poor as shit, so we couldn't really like afford like the really nice costumes. So I always made my costumes, I always like kind of thrifted them and put them together, and uh it was so much it was a lot more fun. I was able to keep that creative side of me alive through Halloween, so that's why it got really, really deep um uh with me and for me for the longest time, and now it's it's starting to get to the point where like no one's having fun with me anymore. They're like, yo, bro, you gotta dial it the fuck back. But we still have but we still but we still have a great time, and I'll never not love Halloween ever. It'll never stop.

SPEAKER_00: 16:20

I mean, you know, it's it's one of those things where like like I get it, but I never got to experience it, you know, as a kid. Because I mean we talked about it like a little bit in the last episode, but being raised in like a super, super restrictive religious family and organization and all that, it's um they hammered it pretty, pretty, pretty heavily that you know this was like the most evil of evils, you know, like Halloween was like worse than any of the other holidays.

SPEAKER_01: 16:58

Its roots are from paganism, so it makes sense that like the arch uh one of the arch rivals of that religion, like they would see it as the worst thing ever because it did start as a pagan ritual.

SPEAKER_00: 17:10

I will say one of the like one of the advantages though is that like they they would go heavily into like all of the origins of all of the holidays. Um what I did get from growing up in a J Dub household um was it was very steeped in all of the like the factual historical reasons for all of the holidays. But instead of like kind of backfired because instead of it like like me being like, oh no, that's something like I was like, oh really, that's fascinating. Please fucking cool.

SPEAKER_01: 17:52

Exactly. He was like, hey, tell tell me tell me more about this so we know to to to stay away from these the bad stuff, you know. Yeah, it's like it's like when it's like when uh it's like when God was first telling people about Sodom and Gomorrah. He goes, like, hey, tell us more about this one so so we don't just stay away from there. What what do they do there? What's orgy, how do you spell that? O R. Yes, we want to make sure to stay away from there. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00: 18:16

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I've just I've just always been like fascinated with with uh more so the history um in in the pagan origins of Halloween because I mean I I've always been like a firm believer, like not to get like religious about it, but being in like that that kind of religious, kind of cultist environment, and then you break away from it, there's like a lot of freedom in that, you know. It I I've studied a lot, you know, I've I've looked at tons of other religions and really done a lot of deep dives. And I really think like our ancient, ancient ancestors had a lot of things, I think more correct than a lot of Christianity does, um, because they were so attuned to like what is actually happening in the universe, what's happening with the, you know, with the earth and with with the spirits and what happens after death. And you know, they just were so attuned to think like what really is the truth about the the universe. Because they were out there, they were in it.

SPEAKER_01: 19:38

They were literally, they were in the world. A lot of those more organized religions, they they came from um in cities, so it's just stories that you hear. So it's like, oh, to whatever in the trees, this, oh, the trees don't have this, the trees don't have that. Well, how the fuck do you know? You're living in a fucking, you know, like a flat, whatever the fuck they call it. You know, you know, it's like it's like literally someone in like New York City trying to tell you what it's like living in the country who's never been out of fucking yonkers in their life. Like, you don't fucking know. Meanwhile, then you have the farm boy who's just like this is what it's like out here and all these other noises. I'm gonna listen to what that person says, it's like being out in nature a bit more than the other person. So exactly that, because because then they they just like they lived in the middle of the fucking woods. Like so, of course, of course, they're gonna hear this and see that, and it makes more sense. It's more no pun intended, it's more grounded that way.

SPEAKER_00: 20:28

Right, right. And what what tickles me more than anything is that when like science now will like you know the ancients would would tell you like like plants and trees, they they can communicate and they you know, and people are like, oh, that's pagan superstition. Well, science has proven that trees form like a neural network, you know, they can communicate with each other, they have a language of their own. I mean, there are there are trees that you know they they live symbiotically with each other to the point where they will grow so their limbs don't touch, so they can all share the sunlight. Like there's there's a communication there, and there's like an intelligence there that maybe we don't understand, and it's maybe not human intelligence, but like the ancients knew that you know the the people back in in in um Scotland and and all of those those really um ancient places. I keep saying ancient, but I don't know another word for it.

SPEAKER_01: 21:40

Really fucking old.

SPEAKER_00: 21:42

Really fucking old. Yeah, they they just had this way of knowing what's happening. And and I think that there is something to when they talked about like the veil between dimensions or what whatever you want to call it, I think there are times when the veil does get thin. You know, and I I don't know that necessarily like Halloween or you know, soin and all of that is necessarily the only time. I think there's probably multiple times throughout the year that that veil is thin. Um because I can tell you, like, you know, ghost hunting and stuff, I mean, there are times where you can go into a place, nothing happens. You can go back to a place months later, and there's a lot of lot of stuff happening, you know? Um, you know, the the the veil, it's it's just the walls get thin sometimes. And I don't know why. I don't know that anyone knows why. But um yeah, I I just I just love the history of Halloween so much, and and like just the the rituals that they would do are I just think they're so cool, they're so badass.

SPEAKER_01: 23:06

Oh yeah, and like plus and like the color schemes too. I mean, like, so okay, now we could just talk about like just the American bastardized version of it all so on so far. Like, come on, you get the fucking play dress up, you get fucking candy, you got sick fucking awesome movies, everything's just scary, the colors are great, everything smells like fucking apples, like dude.

SPEAKER_00: 23:27

Right, what's not the love?

SPEAKER_01: 23:30

Have I said one bad thing in the past 47 seconds? Like, are you fucking kidding me, man? Come on. And then also just with the love of that one, you get the absolute cinematic masterpiece that is the goddamn gift to the earth that is the cultural hermaphrodite that is the nightmare before Christmas, where you get to enjoy that movie not just year-round, but speci but particularly during the Burr month. Right because it is it celebrates equally the greatest holidays or the most the most popular holidays, I should say.

SPEAKER_00: 24:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 24:03

Like it's just you know, it's simple, it's it's just things like that, where there is still that almost anyone who has it has these uh great little stories of Halloween that they share, that they tell over and over again. And there was a lot of that because that's where Halloween started as it was you were gathering and you were sharing stories about loved ones and past and remembering. And at least for me, what I've noticed is that like there's still just when you talk about it, it goes, I can think of doing this on Halloween and that on Halloween, and it's just people's like, whatever, the the reason was there. You know, Halloween was the reason but Halloween was the reason why these memories were made because we did them on Halloween. So, in a way, it is still that very oldest and noblest tradition of Halloween, which is just that it is just remembering and continuing those stories for the next and however it is.

SPEAKER_00: 25:02

Yeah, yeah. I will say I I have recently found out that like it seems like the United States really, really goes way, way all out for Halloween, more so than a lot of other countries. I mean, I think because you know, we we have our we have our you know, what we call internet friends, right? But I was in an interesting conversation with some um some people from uh the UK, and you know, they just yeah, no, it wasn't those ladies, but it was somebody else.

SPEAKER_02: 25:43

Um Hey lady.

SPEAKER_00: 25:49

It was actually a man. What's up, bro? What's up, Chris? Um but anyway, there were there were some other people there from the UK too in the conversation. But anyway, the point is that they were talking about like how different the Halloween is viewed in the United States versus like the UK. Like even like we were we were doing a deep dive on like Spirit Halloween, the pop-up stores that everyone loves, right? Like they don't they don't have those type of stores in the UK. And they were just like, This is this is like a dream. Like we we wish we had stores like that. You just kind of forget like what do you expect?

SPEAKER_01: 26:39

They prefer their they prefer their guinness piss warm. The fuck do you expect?

SPEAKER_00: 26:44

But you know, it's just like I you just always think like Halloween is like this big thing, and I think it's a big thing because like it's part of like maybe American culture at this point that Halloween is what it is that you and I know it as. But like trick-or-treating and all of those kind of those traditions are not really big things in other countries, no, they're US, yeah. Yeah, and it but I think like also I I think one of the most beautiful um cultural um things is is the day of the dead. I absolutely love everything there there is about the day of the dead. I mean, just that that is such an iconic cultural moment once a year.

SPEAKER_01: 27:39

You you want to talk about you want to talk about you want to talk about something like yeah, we talk about this okay, Halloween is very, very different from um from Day of the Dead. It is very different. You want to talk about a you want to talk about a fucking bash. You want to talk about a goddamn party, you're talking about a fucking event. That that is huge.

SPEAKER_00: 28:03

Yeah. But like what it what an what an what a beautiful way to honor those that have passed. I think it's just I think it's such a beautiful thing in that culture to to have that and the way that they honor their the ones that have passed on. I just think it's just so beautiful.

SPEAKER_01: 28:25

Oh yeah. It's just and I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. I don't I don't give a flying fuck if this is insensitive or whatnot. I know it's not, but Coco is one of the greatest fucking Disney and Pixar movies ever made. I fucking love that movie so fucking much. It is so well done.

SPEAKER_00: 28:46

Just take your word on it. I've not seen it.

SPEAKER_01: 28:49

You haven't? Oh, it's fucking life-changing. It really is, but like I genuinely do have friends who are um Mexican and Latin American descent and so on and so forth. And they said he goes, like, not only that, like not only is it just a really good movie, but like they did an insane amount of justice to the actual of what it is like. Like they didn't undersell it, they didn't oversell it. Like they that's exactly what the um um Diela Mortas is like. Like the the whole fucking the whole fucking country shuts down. And the food and the music and how everyone does go to the cemeteries and all of that. It is so fucking serious. Like, just I cannot recommend that movie enough. Not only like is it just a really good movie, but too, but it just the cinematics of it, it's it's gorgeous. The colors, the lighting, all of it is just oh, to make me fucking cry. It's so so good.

SPEAKER_00: 29:45

You've you've sold me. I need to get I need to watch that movie now.

SPEAKER_01: 29:49

You do get get your tissues. You're gonna be boohooing like a motherfucker, but oh no. It's so worth it. It's so worth it.

SPEAKER_00: 29:58

Man, I'm telling you, I'm tired of. Crying at cartoons, though.

SPEAKER_01: 30:02

I love crying at cartoons. I really do.

SPEAKER_00: 30:06

Because the the last one that I absolutely lost my shit on and cried. I mean, like ugly cried with Souls.

SPEAKER_01: 30:16

Soul with uh with um Jamie Foxx.

SPEAKER_00: 30:21

Uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 30:23

The jazz musician?

SPEAKER_00: 30:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 30:26

Yeah. Oh, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_00: 30:28

That ripped me to shreds. And I'm like, I cannot stand crying at a cartoon anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 30:39

Oh, that's another, that's another. I was not expecting to be as hit as hard as that movie. Like it's it's a Disney movie, so you know there's already gotta be, like, you know it's coming at some point. But there's uh oh my god, it's gotten so oh my god, it's gotten so much worse for for Lauren and I since we became parents.

SPEAKER_02: 31:01

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01: 31:03

Like we watched Inside Out and Inside Out was fine. It was oh, and it was sweet. You've seen Inside Out, right?

SPEAKER_00: 31:09

I have not seen Inside Out.

SPEAKER_01: 31:11

Really? Okay, so I remember, but there's there's one scene where like same thing. There's another one, it's like the big boo-hoo part, it's kind of it's like the last act of the movie. And yeah, it was sad and whatever, but now we watch it like as parents, because like you know, the the movie, you know, it's like it all happens, like the little girl's emotions in her head and so on and so forth. You know, we have little girls. It hits us so much harder now.

SPEAKER_00: 31:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 31:34

Like seeing that and just oh, it's it's wild now. But um, we we kind of laugh about it now. I don't care. You anyone and everyone can judge me about this one. I don't even if you cut this out, I'll give a fuck. If you leave it, I expect you to kind of leave it in just to see if people fuck with me about it.

SPEAKER_00: 31:55

No during lockdown.

SPEAKER_01: 31:57

During lockdown, yeah. Um we we were watching Frozen 2. I swear to God, dude. We were we were not okay during that movie. We were not okay. So this was this before we had kids, same thing. We were still like, okay. Have you seen that one? Have you seen any of the fucking movies I've ran for this tonight? Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00: 32:24

I you haven't seen Frozen 2, got it. No, I think I have I no, I think I have uh was that the is that the one with the with the uh rock with the rocks with the rock with the big rock people?

SPEAKER_01: 32:40

With the big rock ones and the and the dam and going to the past, and essentially it was the movie the fifth element, but as told by Disney.

SPEAKER_00: 32:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty sure of, yeah. Okay, then I've seen it.

SPEAKER_01: 32:52

Personal opinion, Ion is better than the first. Either way. Um so when she gets to Ata Holland and she's there and she's singing the song Show Yourself, like dude, first off, shouts out Tidina Manzo. Love you, baby. Oh my god. Like, love her. The voice of a fucking angel. And that song is just like so it's so just powerful, and like, you know, it's a bit like, you know, exactly like show yourself, like be yourself. Like, don't, you know, same thing, like don't show their ways of like exactly born this way, be yourself, be comfortable with who you are, all empowering, right? For Lauren and I, we had we we had problems with that when we were kids, so it's blown on that heartstring a little bit. But there's that one bit like almost towards the song where it's like the big operatic or yeah, like the the uh the operatic type of orchestra part to it comes in, and she's seeing the memory and she's seeing like her mother singing, and she starts crying when she says, I am right, and then the big boom, and her mother is singing, and she's starting to cry, and so on and so forth. Lauren and I we're not we don't know that each other is like losing their shit at this time because we're just we're just about I I think I left out the important part. Um, we we were living with her parents at the time back in Connecticut. Our room was the finished basement. So it's like, so we're down there, it's just before dinner time, so it's like four o'clock, five o'clock, and uh lights are off. So we're just there and this movie's playing, and then as soon as literally like right as the song ends, her mom yells down, all right, dinner, all right, dinner, and we just pause it, we look at each other, and we're both fucking messies. We're both and we're like, that's a good time, that's a good place to stop. We're both we're both like our eyes are completely glassed over. We are fighting, dude. We are fighting the good fight to not just so we both go upstairs. So we both go upstairs, our mom takes one look at us and goes, what the fuck is going on? And we just start laughing as we're like bawling our eyes out, right? Yeah, man, once again, music, shit's powerful, man. Yeah, shit's powerful.

SPEAKER_00: 35:20

And with that, the fire is dying and the spirits are retreating. But before we vanish into the fog, like all good goals in the night, we ask you, dear listeners, to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts on whatever haunted corners of the internet you scroll through at 3 a.m., like, comment, subscribe, leave us a review, or you can leave us an offering. We prefer five stars or fresh blood, it's your choice. Uh, and if you feel something brushed past you after this episode ends, it's probably just us whispering thanks for listening. Until next time, stay strange, stay spooky, and don't forget to check under your bed. You're gonna say bye. Say bye, Kyle.

SPEAKER_01: 36:13

Trick or treat, smell my feet. Give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care. I will pull down your underwear.

SPEAKER_00: 36:23

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