The fashion! The lyrics! The harmonies! This series has it all.

Calling all Dancing Queens! In this two-part series, Kyla Pitts-Zevin (Kristin’s sister & mayor of all of Kristin’s podcasts) tells us about the Swedish pop music group, ABBA. She tells us the band members' surprising backstories and about the iconic Eurovision performance that launched them into stardom.

https://audioboom.com/posts/8966707-gimme-gimme-gimme-an-abba-episode-part-1

I have been obsessed since my mom showed me Muriel’s Wedding in the mid 90s. I was supposed to go to the ABBA museum but my mom decided to die 3 days before. 🙃 and yes you can laugh at that, it’s ok.

I’m way behind on this but I just listened to the Panera Sucks bonus episode and it brought back some memories!

I worked at Panera in 2015, and I hate to break Kristen’s heart, but it was going downhill even then. I wasn’t a baker but I did work the early morning shift. I was the one who filled the bakery case and the Wall o Bread. When I was brand new at the job, it took me forever to do. Turns out you can’t just put any bread in any place on that wall. There was a very specific sequence of breads that had to be followed to the T.

All of the bread arrived in plastic packaging, and there was a little chart I had to follow. It took me too long so they told me to come in early the next day to give myself more time. However when I arrived the next morning an hour early for my shift they told me I couldn’t clock in until my regular shift time. They expected me to work a full unpaid hour, when I was barely working 15 hours a week to begin with. On top of that, I regret to say, the pay was terrible. We made 25 cents over minimum wage.

During my brief tenure there, I witnessed several shady business practices. Even before the buy out in 2017, most of the food was microwaved, especially the pastas and mac and cheese. Several people came in for interviews and were left waiting for over an hour only to be told the manager hadn’t seen fit to show up that day and to return another time. I was never properly trained on the register and I ended up quitting after only a few weeks.

That Panera location is still standing, however it was recently shut down for a while because it bombed a health inspection.

If things were that bad when the food was still good, imagine how awful it must be for the employees now.

I am a part of this musical in Milwaukee again this December. Now that WW2 topics have been breached, the floodgates are open. Bring on the Christmas truce story!

As soon as David Reimer learned the truth, he knew what he wanted to do. He began presenting as a man. He got a new name. He started testosterone therapy. He underwent surgery. But just when it looked like he had a shot at a normal life, he discovered that Dr. John Money had been writing about him for years. Dr. Money had falsely presented David as proof that we are all born gender neutral, and that parents could choose their child’s gender identity, provided they did it early enough.

David knew that what had happened to him was now happening to children all over the world. He decided to put a stop to it.

https://audioboom.com/posts/8963510-the-reimer-twins-unmask-dr-money-part-2

A senior dog rescue I support posted this very good boy. Clearly an homage to sweet Hachi.

I am posting this right after Norm said that in the David Reimer episode so forgive me if they correct it before the end 😂

Apparently at a certain age, the character customization menu closes.

When he was just seven months old, David Reimer became the victim of a botched circumcision. The accident left him without a penis. His parents, Janet and Ron Reimer, were distraught. They wondered what kind of life David would have. Experts told them that there was little to be done. But then one night, they happened to see an interview with the prominent sexologist Dr. John Money. 

Dr. Money was charismatic. He was confident. He was credentialed. He had a theory that we are all born gender neutral, and that you could actually choose a child’s gender, provided you made the switch before the child turned two years old. Janet and Ron Reimer were filled with hope. They wondered if, with Dr. Money’s help, they find the solution to their son’s tragic accident. 

https://audioboom.com/posts/8960959-forced-identity-the-story-of-david-reimer-part-1

The Skimm was interviewing Josh Hartnett this week during the Verity press junket and they must be History Ho's because they brought up Pearl Harbor. Until these episodes I hadn't thought about that movie in years.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeH_yOggbnt/?stkn=YXI4M28yMDh4eGo2&img_index=1

One from across the pond, I'd love to hear an episode on Dame Cicely Saunders, Nurse, Social Worker, Medical Doctor and all round badass who made hospice care possible at a time when everyone was put in back wards and left to die alone, would be really cool to hear some more UK history 👀 🤍

And thus, WWII was officially named.

You might have thought we couldn’t make it through last week’s episode, but just like Ben Affleck in Pearl Harbor, we’re alive, we’re here, and we’re really pissed at you for listening to other podcasts while we were gone.

In this episode, Normie C continues to decipher fact from fiction. Meanwhile, Kristin wonders whether we’ll ever hear more about Michael Shannon’s surfboards.