TRANSCRIPT The Evidential Medium (Part 2)

Transcript

music
									
“Oh No, Ross and Carrie! Theme Song” by Brian Keith Dalton. A jaunty, upbeat instrumental.
carrie poppy
									
Hello, welcome to Oh No, Ross and Carrie!, the show where we don’t just report on fringe science, spirituality, and claims of the paranormal—but take part ourselves.
ross blocher
									
Yup, when they make the claims, we show up so you don’t have to. I’m Ross Blocher.
carrie
									
And I’m Carrie Poppy, and today—
ross
									
Hey, Carrie Poppy.
carrie
									
Oh, hey Ross!
ross
									
Wait, who’s this person over here?
carrie
									
We brought a very special guest.
ross
									
Mister Drew Spears.
carrie
									
Mister Drew Spears!
drew spears
									
Hey guys, thanks for having me. Glad to be back.
ross
									
Yeah, welcome back to the show. It’s been—
drew
									
The live show.
carrie
									
The live show, yeah.
ross
									
—many episodes that you’ve been on the show.
carrie
									
Oh, yes. True. But most recently, took some homeopathy. How have you been feeling?
drew
									
Oh boy. I don’t think I’ve been sick since having that homeopathy, so I can’t say it didn’t work.
carrie
									
That actually would mean it didn’t work, because remember you took too much, and—
drew
									
I did take too much.
carrie
									
—she warned us not to do that.
drew
									
I took a lot. Took a lot of those.
carrie
									
Yeah. You ate like thirty of them.
drew
									
They definitely weren’t just sugar pills.
carrie
									
Also, some things have happened between then and now.
drew
									
Uh, yeah.
carrie
									
Drew and I are back together, Ross.
ross
									
Yay!
drew
									
That’s true, we are in fact back together.
ross
									
That explains all the kissing earlier.
drew
									
Yeah, glad to be back together, glad to be back on the show.
ross
									
I think our listeners are happy to hear this.
drew
									
You know, I hope so. If not, question why you have such a strong opinion about two strangers’ personal lives. But no, everyone was very sweet when we separated, and everyone was respectful of boundaries, and that was very heartening. So, congratulations for cultivating a fanbase that were not weirdos about that. Remarkable in this day and age.
ross
									
And if any of you are weirdos about it, you can take it up with me.
carrie
									
Yeah, write to Ross directly—
ross
									
Please. Please and thank you.
carrie
									
—if you’re a weirdo, in general. Write to Ross, really, I don’t want it. Anyway.
ross
									
Hey, yeah, what are we here to talk about?
carrie
									
That’s not the only thing we do with Drew, not just us both kissing on him. We also take him to psychics.
drew
									
Yeah, this was my first ever psychic that I had been to.
carrie
									
What?
ross
									
Really?
drew
									
Yeah, I mean, at least a live medium show, but we went and had my palm read once by someone at the state fair early on when we were dating. But other than that, I have never been there in person.
carrie
									
Wow, that’s wild.
ross
									
I’m glad that we could expose you to a psychic.
drew
									
It’s very interesting. I have a lot of thoughts, but one of the first things was, Cindy Kaza’s tour has so many stops at Improvs, and as someone who works in comedy and also was a club comic in my late teens and early twenties and worked Improvs, it is an interesting pulse check that on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, apparently live comedy is not drawing as well as a medium. First thing I was kind of shocked by, place was packed. This was probably like two hundred people.
ross
									
Solid audience.
drew
									
Very solid for a Tuesday.
carrie
									
And when Drew days The Improv, he means the comedy theater The Improv, which usually does not have improv in it. It has stand-up comedy.
drew
									
Yeah, the nationwide chain. It kind of functions—there’s the original Improv in California, and then there’s almost like franchise-y chains, where people will own a couple of different ones in a given area. When I was performing in Florida, someone owned some around the coast of South Florida that I would kind of do the loop on. So I would imagine if she’s doing a lot in the greater Southern California area, she probably has gone on this loop, and they know that she’s a draw, so.
ross
									
And what she’s doing is a form of improvisation.
carrie
									
Yeah, fair.
ross
									
Gotta say that. But we mentioned that we were going to go back and see her in our last episode.
carrie
									
And we were all ready to go that Saturday to Brentwood.
ross
									
Yup, we had put in reservations. Hold seats for us in Brentwood.
carrie
									
We’re going to be there, because Brentwood, as we all know, is a town in Los Angeles.
ross
									
It sure is.
drew
									
Brought into fame by the O.J. Simpson trial, in which—
carrie
									
And murder.
drew
									
—and murder. Alleged murder. He was found—
carrie
									
Well, they definitely died. Someone murdered them.
drew
									
The murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. He was found not guilty in a court of law.
carrie
									
Wow, you just pulled those names right up.
drew
									
Yeah, I mean it’s the most famous court case in the last hundred years.
carrie
									
Would you have been able to do that? I could never remember, especially—
ross
									
I would have gotten Nicole Brown Simpson. I would have struggled for it, but I could have gotten Ron Goldman.
drew
									
But, yeah. Brentwood, the place where they used to call blowjobs Brentwood Hellos during the trial.
ross
									
Oh.
carrie
									
Wow.
drew
									
This was in the FX series.
ross
									
I was not tapped into that.
drew
									
A Brentwood Hello is what they would call a blowjob in Brentwood, Los Angeles, which is where we thought we were going.
carrie
									
For a blowjob. But—
ross
									
This is all to say, we’re not crazy. We saw Brentwood, and we thought, oh yeah, we can drive to Brentwood.
carrie
									
Easy-peasy.
ross
									
Turns out there’s a Brentwood, California up between like, Stockton and—
carrie
									
Yeah, bay area.
ross
									
—San Francisco.
carrie
									
And it’s five and a half hours from us, and we realized this—
drew
									
We were literally putting it in the GPS—
carrie
									
I was putting it in my GPS, like how long will this take? What?
drew
									
Damn. Constantly, this GPS is fucking up.
carrie
									
At first I thought, does it think I’m walking? Okay, I’ll fix it. Oh, no? What?
ross
									
Yeah, I started by naming the comedy club, and I guess it was the only one by that name, and so it was suggesting a plane flight. [Carrie laughs.] Wait, what? And this is the day of the event, and I hadn’t noticed you texted me already. So I’m looking at directions like, “This is a problem,” and so I go to message you, and I see you’re already saying, “Uh, yeah, we can’t do tonight. It’s a little far.”
carrie
									
But, fortunately, she was coming back down south to do a gig at another Improv, this one in Ontario instead of Oxnard. So we’re trying to hit every Improv that begins with than O.
ross
									
Ontario, CA.
carrie
									
Yes, which could also be Ontario, Canada.
ross
									
We had to double check it wasn’t giving us plane tickets to Canada.
drew
									
She also had one on Wednesday in Irvine, so that’s like—
carrie
									
Yes, but that doesn’t start with an O.
drew
									
Yes, that’s why we didn’t go to it.
ross
									
How fortunate are we that she gave a show here, and then she goes up to Brentwood, gives a show there, and then she comes back to us.
carrie
									
She comes back for us? Come on. Thank you Cindy. Oh, and by the way, I have a message for you: hi.
ross
									
Hi. This was a long drive again, but in the opposite direction. Thankfully Carrie was driving. I could snooze in the back.
carrie
									
Oh yeah, you took a nice long nap.
ross
									
Ugh, it was great.
carrie
									
We piled in my orange Prius.
drew
									
Hatchback.
ross
									
Prius C.
carrie
									
No, it’s not a hatchback.
drew
									
Your Prius is a hatchback.
carrie
									
My Matrix was a hatchback.
ross
									
I would have called the Prius C a hatchback.
carrie
									
What?
drew
									
Yeah, a hatchback is anything that’s not a typical trunk.
carrie
									
Alright.
drew
									
It may be another several months before I’m allowed back on the show. [Ross and Carrie laugh.]
ross
									
Yeah, it’s a hatchback.
carrie
									
Alright. Okay.
ross
									
I have one, too.
carrie
									
Yeah, I’ve sat in that trunk.
ross
									
Oh yeah, that’s right. So, we get there, and this is the—
drew
									
The Improv in Ontario, California, at the Ontario Mills shopping mall.
ross
									
Let there be no confusion as to where we were and where Cindy Kaza was.
carrie
									
That’s where you should drop your little GPS pin if you follow everywhere Ross and Carrie go.
ross
									
And this was a momentous day. We’d rescheduled to September 11th.
carrie
									
Yes, maybe you’ve heard of it.
drew
									
We were speculating whether or not it would come up in the show itself.
carrie
									
And whether she would talk to people who died that day.
drew
									
Or on any September 11th.
carrie
									
So, I like to define our terms on the show. I’m guessing most people know what we’re talking about, but just in case. In the United States on September 11th, 2001 there was a very famous terrorist attack where two planes were flown into the World Trade Center, and it killed what, like 3,000 people?
ross
									
Yeah, over 2,000.
crosstalk
									
Drew: If you choose to believe the government lying. Carrie: If you believe the official story.
carrie
									
I felt that coming out of your mouth as it happened.
ross
									
But we do.
drew
									
It definitely happened.
carrie
									
Yeah, yeah. It happened that— it happened pretty much as they said. But, anyway, we wondered, okay. A medium on September 11th, she might be talking to some of those 3,000 people.
ross
									
And we’re fighting traffic to get there, so yet again, we ended up in the back of the room. It was a full room, it was very impressive. 250 people, maybe.
drew
									
I would say yeah, 200-250. Definitely was sold out, no vacancies. Super no vacancy. But even with being in the back, we had an excellent sightline. That Improv is spread out in a very, I would say, not very advantageous to comedy way, where it’s very seep but then narrow and then kind of curves in a way, so you can never really see the entire audience at once. That’s just a personal pet peeve of mine, as a performer.
ross
									
But yeah, it was very similar to the last venue, because it was owned by the same people, had the same menu, and same situation where you had a bunch of tables with people sitting around. But I like that they left the lights on this time.
carrie
									
Well, at the other one, the lights were higher than usual for a show. But yeah, this one they were just like, let’s just flip the switch on and leave it.
ross
									
I kept waiting for them to dim down the lights and they didn’t.
drew
									
I understand why, and it’s, I’m sure, so that Cindy can make better eye contact with the performers, and probably also read what they’re doing facially and make some assumptions based on the way they look and how she’s going to read them. But for ambiance, it was kind of a letdown. I wanted something a little spooky, like have the lights down, kind of a seance-y type vibe.
ross
									
It was definitely a tradeoff in ambiance, yeah.
drew
									
John Edwards, yeah.
carrie
									
Yeah, there’s definitely a bunch of different styles. Some of them do the spooky thing, but I’d say it’s not really in vogue that much anymore.
ross
									
In vogue is a good way to say it, because I think more recently there have been a lot of people like Theresa Caputo who eschew traditional dark room and the gauze and the other trappings of a seance, and now it’s Hollywood lights and bright colors.
drew
									
Well, maybe not even spooky, but just from an ambiance of an audience member, I like to be in constant darkness.
crosstalk
									
Ross: Yeah, I get it. Carrie: Mhm. Yeah, I get it.
ross
									
So as we were sitting down one of the last available tables, I was bumping shoulders with this man sitting next to me, looked over at him and said, “hey, you excited for tonight?” and he said, “eh.” I said, “oh, okay, brought here against your will?” and he was sitting next to his, I don’t know, significant other I would assume, and, “eh.” It’s like, alright, it’s okay, you don’t have to say anything. [Carrie laughs.] But I was already really curious. Okay, what’s this guy’s deal, what’s his perspective on this? But he clearly was not excited to be there. He wasn’t excited to have a conversation with a psychic. I’m guessing he was there because his girlfriend or some such wanted him to be.
carrie
									
And this time, we had, I think, a higher preponderance of men than at the last Cindy Kaza, though definitely still outnumbered by women.
ross
									
Interesting. Yeah, okay. And definitely a racially diverse room.
carrie
									
Mhmm. So, we had brought something with us.
drew
									
This is really good.
ross
									
Carrie sent me a picture of this beforehand. This is brilliant, it was a great idea.
carrie
									
Well, thank you. I made BINGO cards for each of us.
ross
									
BINGO.
carrie
									
We each had two BINGO cards. One BINGO card had names from the top 100 names of the last 100 years from social security, and the other had things she had read in the last show for other people, just to see if she—
ross
									
A combination of names and traits.
carrie
									
—yeah, are these things she trots out a lot, guesses she’s found work. So.
ross
									
Yeah, just to see how much does she play this same show over and over again, or is she really led by the spirit. So I had picked out the yellow cards, I had options on my BINGO lineups like Scotty, Richard, Sue, Susan, Sammy or Sam, Charlie, Scooter, Anna, Hank, heart attack, Catholic, falling out with a brother, bullet casing, Mary or Maria, young man murdered, happy birthday, my favorite dead person says hi, chronic anxiety, overdose, a boat, that kind of stuff. Tracheotomy, that’s a good one.
carrie
									
Okay, I had orange. One of my sheets had names like Thomas, Gary, Karen, Melissa. The other one with things from the last show had Francis, Patrick, Marge, Gretchen, Anne, compass, dementia, heavy smoker, war veteran, hypochondriac, lawsuit, agent orange, lung cancer, cosmetologist, psychic child, lawyers, nurse, dead person says hi. I put that one on everyone’s.
drew
									
That was a free spot.
ross
									
We got so close to agent orange in this one. So close.
drew
									
I had your usual preponderance of boring names that were popular over the last 200 years, and then things like super fast death, sleeping pills, blood cancer, misdiagnosis, Mary or Maria, dead person says hi of course, dead person with good morals, dead baby.
ross
									
I highly recommend this for anybody going to a psychic show, to have these BINGO cards. It was hilarious.
drew
									
It was very funny. Definitely kept me engaged the entire time.
ross
									
Yeah, because then you’re really paying attention. What’s she going to say, do I have it?
carrie
									
Do I have it?
ross
									
And the guy sitting next to me, he was very keenly aware of me filling out this BINGO card, and very interested in what was going on.
carrie
									
So I thought I had come up with this idea, but we found out that some people are doing this—and this is clever also—they’re doing it with cold reading techniques.
ross
									
Mhm. Yeah, having a bunch of common things that a psychic or a cold reader might say, like “sensing there’s a wound in the head area”.
carrie
									
“You had an accident involving water as a child.”
ross
									
Right. So, we should make some standard issue psychic BINGO cards, people can take to their performances.
carrie
									
Yeah, that’d be fun, too.
drew
									
That’s a great idea. I think bingo is such a clever idea because you kind of—
carrie
									
What? I guess, thank you.
drew
									
—is, very clever, and it was interesting because as a first time person at one of these events, how much, like, bingo kind of mirrored what she was doing? I mean we can kind of get into it, but I was like “Okay,” because I had heard from you all that her last performance didn’t go so hot, so I was like, “What’s this gonna be like?” And then seeing the performance and seeing how she gathered information and honed in on people. It was very reminiscent of Bingo in which you would float out a bunch of different ideas and people would be like, “Oh, I think that’s me!”, and then it would be like, “Well, not yet, that’s not it.” And then just like “Oh wait, that’s that and that!” And then she has enough to like, go in on.
carrie
									
Bingo!
ross
									
That was a big debate, if we get a bingo, do we yell out “Bingo!”?
carrie
									
Do we say “Bingo”?
ross
									
That’d be kind of fun!
carrie
									
We’ll find out. So, she came out and she did her usual intro. I say “usual” having only seen her once before, but probably.
ross
									
But I’ve seen enough interviews and snippets that I know this is her standard introduction shit.
drew
									
And boy, nothing than when you’re going to see a live show than twenty minutes of rules.
carrie
									
[Laughs] Yeah, she has a lot of rules.
ross
									
Fair.
carrie
									
She’s pretty entertaining how she dishes them out, though. And she did ask who had seen her before, so we got to raise our hands that time. Well, Ross and I did. And then a waiter came and asked for our orders and we were like, “Oh, cool, we’ll all share some dishes.”
ross
									
It’s a two item minimum, so we just ordered a ton of appetizers.
carrie
									
Just like: “What’s vegetarian on the menu, we’ll have that!” And, I think we’re all in agreement about the worst item.
drew
									
Oh, I didn’t even touch the worst item—
ross
									
No question.
drew
									
—so, I can’t speak to it, but it looked terrible.
carrie
									
On the count of three:
crosstalk
									
Ross and Carrie: [in unison] One, two, three; nachos!
carrie
									
Holy shit!
drew
									
How do you fuck that up?
carrie
									
What was wrong with those?
ross
									
Okay Improv of Ontario, fix these nachos.
carrie
									
Yeah, you know what—
ross
									
Please, sir, plan it.
carrie
									
if you take nothing else—
drew
									
So many. So many chips.
carrie
									
Well, you didn’t even have one?
drew
									
No, I didn’t have one, they looked terrible.
carrie
									
Well, then let us tell you about them.
drew
									
Okay. Yeah. Please.
carrie
									
Okay, so the cheese was cold and like, plastic-y.
ross
									
The bean-like material was this insipid sauce.
carrie
									
What was that? It was like—
ross
									
I’m not sure what it was—
carrie
									
—bean goop. Like a bean spread.
ross
									
—but it had the same consistency as the cheese, and they were both just kind of lumped together—
carrie
									
Both of which are like, the consistency of diarrhea.
ross
									
With a few tomatoes sprinkled on, and some jalapenos.
carrie
									
And guacamole that didn’t even taste like avocado, I don’t know what was in it.
ross
									
It was like two dollars to add the guacamole and it was just that little lump in the middle of— oh, we added a dollop of guacamole.
carrie
									
Ugh, and it was bad!
drew
									
As someone who had been paid my fair share of performing in Improv food back in Florida, this was really substandard, and granted, they’re not really doing a menu for vegetarians or vegans, especially where we were pretty deep into the valley, but it was lackluster.
carrie
									
Oh my God it was so bad. If you only take one thing from this series—
ross
									
These are tough problems that we’re facing.
carrie
									
—the nachos are bad at the Improv Ontario.
ross
									
For you, our listeners.
carrie
									
Alright, so—
ross
									
Bunch of other appetizers, though.
drew
									
We had six appetizers. It was honestly too much, but when you’re not drinking at a place like that, you have to order food.
ross
									
That was dinner.
carrie
									
Though, the hummus, quite good.
drew
									
Hummus quite good. They had a good Caesar salad.
carrie
									
And the pretzel sticks. Anyway, that’s not why we’re here. [Ross laughs.] So, she goes through her thing, and of course the first thing we have to do is give applause for the big man himself...
crosstalk
									
[Everyone in unison] God.
carrie
									
So we all clap, and she’s like, “I believe in God so much!” I try to think of like, when I believed in God, if I would have said, “I believe in him so much.”
ross
									
Let me state the degree of my belief.
carrie
									
Yeah. It sounds disingenuous.
ross
									
I have such a high degree of certainty in God’s existence. I believe in him so much.
drew
									
And she does later on explain that, oh yeah, I can see Jews and all different kinds of people, faith is faith, and even people who are agnostic or non-believers, they’re up there.
carrie
									
Even them.
drew
									
Even them. Skeptics. But when she’s talking about God, I sure did get a classic Christian God—
carrie
									
Oh, one thousand percent.
drew
									
—big long beard, on a cloud, no bottom half.
ross
									
She doth protest so much.
carrie
									
I think this also might come back to the ‘why isn’t it creepy anymore’ thing. I think she probably knows and Theresa Caputo knows, okay, a lot of my audience is these women 40 and up—
ross
									
Can’t afford to alienate them.
carrie
									
—who are in America, and so are largely Christian, so I have to find a way to make this very palatable.
ross
									
And if they’re cool with syncretism and blending their religious belief with this weird oddball thing, so be it.
drew
									
Yeah, I would be curious to see how much she leans into the God aspect in different regions.
carrie
									
Oh yeah, that’s interesting. Yeah, tell us if you go see Cindy Kaza in Texas.
drew
									
Trust me, she will be leaning into God in Texas if she’s there.
ross
									
So, she teaches us about how she performs and how we need to be alert and paying attention and claiming our loved one and the piggybacking thing, so all of that was in play again.
carrie
									
So, if you haven’t listened to part one—
ross
									
Go back.
carrie
									
Go back, because this will be confusing. But, yeah, she told all those same rules, and then she started with her readings.
ross
									
She also had us applaud for all of the dead people who were here in attendance.
carrie
									
Oh, right, yes, yes.
ross
									
So we applauded for God—
carrie
									
Applause for God. Applause for dead people. Which is also how I end a night, you know? When the day is over and you’re exhausted, I’m like, “God, all my ancestors, woo!” [Carrie applauds lightly.]
ross
									
That reminds me, I was just reading Jenna Miscavige’s Beyond Belief, about being raised in Scientology; and she was talking about how all the time after the end of every session they would get up in school, and they would—
carrie
									
Banjos.
ross
									
—they would do the three cheers and clap for L. Ron Hubbard, and he’d have his picture in every room, because— If you are currently in a place and there is a picture of the same person in every room of the building, you might be in a cult.
carrie
									
You might be, and you may not.
ross
									
Good chance.
carrie
									
Unless that person lives here and is like, your son.
ross
									
[Laughs] Right, right. I should say, a large image of just that person. I was trying to think of that, too, like, I work at Disney, and I was trying to think of how many pictures of Walt do we have around? Not that many, and not that big. It’s not a cult
carrie
									
There you go. Okay, so the first reading was a dad coming through. She was getting the name Bonnie, presumably not the name of the dad. She could sense that there was weed smoking, maybe a heart attack, someone who had trouble breathing, is anybody matching with this? And a woman with an orange shirt was sitting kind of near the front, and—
ross
									
Yeah, like, “Everything sounds right, except for the Bonnie.”
carrie
									
Yeah. “Don’t know a Bonnie, but yeah, I do have a dad who had a heart attack.” Okay, is there anyone at the table then who knows Bonnie? No. But there was a woman who had a grandma named Bonnie.
ross
									
So we were starting off pretty much like the previous performance. Like, okay, no strong hits here, everybody’s like, kind of, you named like seventy-five percent of something that sounds kind of like me. Eh.
carrie
									
Right, and she did connect to the pot thing. She said, “Well, okay, the night before my dad passed, the family—” Well, she actually just said we smoked pot, I don’t know if that was the kids, I don’t, who knows.
ross
									
Yeah, and that felt like a pretty strong hit, actually, at that moment.
crosstalk
									
Drew: Yeah, I was— Carrie: Heh heh heh, strong hit. Drew: Heh heh. Carrie: Heh heh heh, 420. Drew: Exhale.
ross
									
I do think that is a good thing. Like, if I were to do a live reading now, I would incorporate the pot smoking, because it sounds a little edgy, not something you would normally talk about.
carrie
									
Well, it’s also one of those like, hidden commonalities, right? You just need someone to admit it, because I looked it up, twenty-two percent of Americans currently use cannabis, so a quarter of the room.
ross
									
Wow, yeah.
carrie
									
So you just need someone in that quarter to also know a Bonnie, and have a dead dad.
ross
									
Right, and the—
carrie
									
Good odds.
ross
									
—average statistic is we all know about 150 people pretty well. So, yeah, your odds of knowing someone fairly close to you who has smoked pot, even if it’s not yourself, it’s good. It’s solid.
carrie
									
Then she says, “I see your dad with a drink,” and she’s like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like in his last few days he had a drink after many years of sobriety.”
ross
									
So, yeah, okay. That was a solid connection. Nothing too mind-blowing there, but okay.
carrie
									
It’s interesting, now that I think of it, we would could it as a hit if you’re like, “Oh yeah, he was sober, he used to drink.” We’d be like, that’s a hit. And if you said, “yeah, he did drink,” we’d be like, that’s a hit. It’s kind of one of those no-lose—
ross
									
It’s only if he’s a teetotaler that you have a miss, which is probably pretty rare.
carrie
									
Yeah, and even then, maybe she’d be like, oh, so he really—
ross
									
“Seen the drink because he really doesn’t like the drink.”
carrie
									
Yeah, “He really controlled it in this life, but in the afterlife he’s loosened up, you know?”
ross
									
A good psychic can easily bend that. Then you have to ask, wait, what are these drinks in the afterlife, how does this work?

									
[Laughs] Right. Okay, so then she asks, “Do you have a brother in the living?” And she’s like, “No.” “How about Joe?” “No, I don’t have a brother named Joe.”
ross
									
Yeah, who’s Joe?
carrie
									
But her dad’s brother-in-law was named Joe.
ross
									
Oh, phew.
drew
									
We all know how close we are to dad’s brother-in-law.
carrie
									
They’re always coming through to talk to you, yeah.
ross
									
At this show, yeah, they really elbow their way into the conversation. But it was particularly hard to connect with a Joe, it should be easier.
carrie
									
Yeah, because we looked it up before. It’s like the third most common name.
ross
									
Very common name.
carrie
									
Super common. Yeah, it’s interesting that like, we don’t see any super uncommon names being hits.
ross
									
Next we had something that was kind of a wild transition. She had sensed someone who had been shot, so bringing in the drama, okay. So there was a woman kind of in front of us, maybe a little to our right, who said, “Okay, that’s me. My son was shot.”
carrie
									
He got his vaccines.
ross
									
[Pauses, then laughs.] So Cindy said, okay, well— oh, we haven’t described her tonight, by the way. So Cindy, what is she wearing this time? Who is she wearing?
carrie
									
She is wearing Zara, maybe? Something like that. It was like—
drew
									
Classic black cocktail dress, yeah.
carrie
									
Was it a cocktail dress? I think she had— okay, so she had some sort of unitard type thing, because there were cutouts around the hips.
ross
									
Yeah, this was interesting, and that made me think, how do you put this thing on?
carrie
									
It was a unitard with something else pulled on.
ross
									
There must have been some sort of hinge or joint or something where she had to connect the two pieces.
carrie
									
Okay, here’s what I think done happened. So you got pants—
ross
									
This was a genuine mystery for me. How did Cindy get into that outfit?
carrie
									
Okay, so imagine it starting out as basically just pants. You put on the pants—
ross
									
Black pants.
carrie
									
—then there’s this flap in front that you put up over your front, tie around the neck and the back—
ross
									
Oh, this sounds so complicated.
carrie
									
—creating a cut-out effect—
drew
									
A jump suit.
carrie 
									
—at the hips.
drew
									
It’s a jump suit with a little bit of a cut-out. Or a classic black cocktail dress.
carrie
									
No, it’s not a cocktail dress in any sense.
drew
									
I would describe it as a cocktail dress.
carrie
									
So, that’s interesting.
ross
									
Anyways. Now the people can picture, and again she has very pale skin, red lipstick, and dark hair that’s mostly up in a bun, but there’s this long bang that covers half of her face.
carrie
									
Yeah. Little wavy. Okay, so, back to the someone who’s been shot. [Ross laughs.] So, a woman in the audience recognized that as her son. Cindy’s like, “oh yeah, totally, it’s your son. He’s saying, you were really there for me, you bailed me out of jail more than once.”
ross
									
That really touched her, and that’s a really strong thing to say, that you got him out of jail multiple times. That’s pretty specific.
carrie
									
That could have easily not been a hit.
ross
									
That resonated, and the son was saying from the other side, more than just hi this time. He said, “Mom, I’m a badass over here, and I’ve got your back.”
carrie
									
Yeah. Okay, and then Cindy says someone got away with murder around the son’s passing.
ross
									
Another pretty specific...
carrie
									
Yeah. Got shot.
ross
									
We know he’s shot, so did someone get apprehended, or did someone get away with it? Someone got away with it, and she agreed with that. This was clearly a very emotional moment for the mom.
drew
									
Though a good hit, I mean, you guys are more the expert than I, this is 200-250 people, you’re already south selecting, because if you’re going to a medium on Tuesday, chances are there might be someone you’re connecting with the dead, chances are there might be some tragic son losses, things like that. The motorcycle thing, she brought up motorcycles a couple times, but looking around the venue, there were a lot of people wearing motorcycle stuff. I counted three or four people wearing Harley stuff. It’s very much in the culture around the valley, so.
carrie
									
We haven’t mentioned motorcycles yet, so.
drew
									
Oh, sorry.
carrie
									
No, it’s okay, but explain how she used that in this reading.
drew
									
She said, “Oh, I see a connection to motorcycles. Tell his biker friends to stay out of trouble.”
ross
									
Okay. Alright.
carrie
									
That’s like exactly what a mom would say. Oh, you hanging out with him? I’ve seen him. He wears all those leather jackets. You tell him to keep out of trouble.
ross
									
The psychic told me to say that. And there was like, a girlfriend in the mix.
carrie
									
Maybe speculation around her involvement. Didn’t seem like that matched up in particular to her.
ross
									
Do you know an Adam?
carrie
									
I don’t know him from Adam.
ross
									
Well, he’s doing great on the other side, so there you go. Whoever that is. [Carrie laughs.] It was so like, didn’t connect? Well, he’s doing great.
carrie
									
It’s the original Adam, and he’s doing fine. Then she asked if there would be a little girl as well in this.
ross
									
Yeah, and that was a miss. She was only making this reading worse.
carrie
									
Right? I know, like you were doing well, and then she adds this kid, and then gives her a name, Reighlynn?
ross
									
Yeah, that’s pretty specific, but you don’t get credit for that, because there was no connection. No one knew who she was talking about.
carrie
									
Well, don’t worry, she’s probably on her way. She’s going to be in the family.
ross
									
That’s right. You know, sometimes I’m a psychic. That’s right, so I see the past, I see the present, I see the future. So you know what? Get ready, there may be a baby on the way.
carrie
									
And now you’re obligated to name her Reighlynn.
ross
									
I wonder how many people have gotten their names because of the intervention of a psychic. I bet it’s a significant number.
drew
									
Oh, that’s interesting.
ross
									
It’s a non-zero number.
carrie
									
That’s how I got my name.
ross
									
Wrong.
carrie
									
You’re right. Then a Dorothy came through.
ross
									
Dorothy, or is it Dot?
drew
									
Not super similar names.
carrie
									
Oh, Dot’s short for Dorothy.
drew
									
Is it? Oh, I rescind my comment. [Carrie laughs.]
ross
									
It makes sense. I hadn’t thought of that before.
carrie
									
I think it was on my bingo card. I think that was my first hit.
ross
									
Oh, you had Dorothy? Nice.
carrie
									
Because Dorothy is both on the top 100 list, and she had used it in the last show. So a woman at a nearby table, near her, also knew a Dorothy, but not a Dot. She would not go by Dot.
ross
									
Don’t call her Dot. Jeez.
carrie
									
That’s fine, that’s fine. But you know, this Dorothy was wise, she was educated, she was really funny. Oh, you know what? She’s showing me a bloody mary with olives?
ross
									
They didn’t know what that meant. A bloody mary, huh? Okay, you know what, I’m probably picking up a Mary from somewhere else.
carrie
									
It’s probably just a Mary then. Do you know a Mary? No. Okay then. It’s a Mary—
ross
									
Is she covered in blood?
carrie
									
There’s a Mary from someone else that’s coming through in your reading as a bloody mary.
ross
									
That did not go well. She said, “okay, well she’s just cutting off Dorothy here, so maybe I need to move on.”
carrie
									
So someone else at a nearby table did know a Mary. But, she’s going to have to wait her turn, we’re still with Dorothy. So, back to Dorothy, okay? “She believes in God.” Well, she’s in the afterlife, I should hope so.
ross
									
I would believe in God too if I was in the afterlife.
carrie
									
“And I’m sensing that you have cancer in the family, do you understand that?” Could anyone say, no, there’s no cancer in my family?
drew
									
I certainly couldn’t.
ross
									
I could not say that.
carrie
									
I could not. But then she gets too specific. “And are people in your family getting tested for the BRCA gene?” “No.” “Are you sure?” “Yes.”
ross
									
[Laughs.] Something very specific, and if it had hit, that would have been a good hit.
drew
									
I feel like that would have been a good searching one. I’m picking up someone getting medically tested for the BRCA gene, maybe a history of breast cancer? Because that is a pretty common thing that’s going on.
carrie
									
And yet feels uncommon.
ross
									
The numbers would be on your side with that one. So, yeah, that kind of petered out, oddly. She said, “Okay, are you sure? Someone on the other side who had cancer? Okay, might want to look into that.” That’s her last saving grace, might want to look into that. And guess what, audience, I get credit for this future discovery that you’re just assuming happened. How many needless cancer screenings have been instigated by psychics? Also a non-zero number.
carrie
									
Probably a fair amount. Her style seems to be to tell you not to worry about it, though, which doesn’t seem like a great idea, either.
ross
									
Mixed messages.
carrie
									
Just maybe like, stay out of the whole other peoples’ health plans thing.
ross
									
You know, she’s not a doctor.
carrie
									
Now that’s true, and she does say so.
drew
									
A couple of times.
ross
									
We should have had a bingo spot for that. “I’m not a doctor.”
carrie
									
She doesn’t diagnose, but, does anyone know someone who got a mammogram recently?
ross
									
Oh, come on.
drew
									
In this room full of a big portion of women over the age of 40, I wonder if anyone’s gotten a mammogram?
carrie
									
Or knows someone who has. So anyway, this woman who’s still the sitter right now, she’s like, “Yeah, I do.” and she’s like, “Okay, Dorothy’s acknowledging that someone is getting a mamogram, but everything’s going to be okay. Don’t be scared.”
ross
									
Alright.
carrie
									
Okey-dokey.
ross
									
So, next she said, “Does someone know a John or Johnny near this table over here?” and she kind of gestures at another table.
carrie
									
Amazing that no one did.
ross
									
I know!
carrie
									
Amazing.
ross
									
I would just love for her to say, “are you kidding me? Everybody knows a John or a Johnny, you’re lying!”
carrie
									
I know, and she almost did that at the last show, with the— I forget which name it was, but she was like, “Really? None of you know—whatever it was—a Paul?”
ross
									
Which is tipping the hand a little bit.
drew
									
Do you guys think it’s going to get harder to read names for mediums as we get a larger, more diverse set of names?
ross
									
Oh, yeah.
drew
									
Like, these hundred names, a lot of them, like Dorothy’s not being used all that much. I mean, you do have some people who are giving their kids old fashioned names.
ross
									
But yeah, and maybe now, we never hear never from Bejohn, or Dejohn, or Leticia. Any name that’s slightly not Western.
drew
									
It’s still mostly like anglo names, or, like I think the most—
ross
									
Where’s our Muhammeds? There should be plenty of Muhammeds in the room. That’s the most common first name in the world.
carrie
									
In the world, but she’s in the U.S. so I understand her using a U.S. list. As long as that list keeps being updated by social security every year, it should still give you the best odds.
ross
									
My friend, Chris Kelly, whenever he has to guess somebody’s name, “Well statistically, Muhammad Chang,” because that’s the most common first name and the most common last name.
carrie
									
A good example of misusing statistics. [Everybody laughs.] Okay, so then, “If no one knows a John over there, okay, well somebody nearby must know a John,” and that same woman is like, “well, okay. My mom, Dorothy, and then my uncle’s John.”
ross
									
Now we’re just working to validate you, the psychic, and not actually to make any meaningful connections. But yes, we found a John, and a Dorothy.
carrie
									
Right, oh and then I guess someone else was like, “Oh, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.” This really like, Cindy started to get really excited and was like, “This is the craziest night of readings ever!”
ross
									
Oh, so many piggybacks!
drew
									
Two people in this room of 250 have loved ones who have had breast cancer. I mean, I lost someone that started with breast cancer last week, and I was waiting for the name to come up. So, like, she missed out on roping me in, unfortunately.
ross
									
You had a ready example, someone you could talk to.
carrie
									
Very, very common. You’re going to find someone who knows someone whose had breast cancer. Anyway, tell your mom that John is watching out about the breast cancer.
ross
									
That’s interesting, so—
carrie
									
John’s on it.
ross
									
—I’m picturing myself. I’ve died. I’m in the afterlife. I’m taking a break from standing around the throne and singing holy, holy, holy is the lord, God Almighty, and now I want to go back, I want to pay attention, I want to tune into what’s going on back on Earth. So I can pay attention to the breast cancer of my… niece?
carrie
									
I’m not even sure—
ross
									
What the relationship was.
carrie
									
Yeah. Something like that.
ross
									
I’m really concerned about her breast cancer.
carrie
									
I guess that’s—
ross
									
Am I going to do something about it?
carrie
									
Of the kind of things that these dead people come through to do, talking about cancer, okay.
ross
									
Alright, but yeah, I just don’t understand why this male relative is so invested in this.
carrie
									
Yeah, totally.
ross
									
Why is he looking at my breasts?
carrie
									
In what way is he watching out for me?
ross
									
Is he going to somehow change the outcome?
carrie
									
Yeah, right? We need to know that, if so.
ross
									
I feel like that says something about the afterlife.
carrie
									
But she said, “you know, probably everybody in your family is thinking about testing for the gene that would make breast cancer more possible.”
ross
									
At least this person agreed to that.
carrie
									
Yeah, everyone’s thinking about it, sure.
ross
									
Then she asked if there was gambling in the family. That was a yes. Okay, and some connection to mechanics. That didn’t get a quick response.
carrie
									
And she said, “Not by profession.”
ross
									
Right, because they would have given a very quick response if that had been a profession.
carrie
									
Right, more like working in a garage or a man cave, and then she’s like, “Oh yeah, he was a tow truck driver.” It was his profession.
ross
									
Yeah, so, oops, she had already filled the silence with more details that invalidated that reading, because, well, he’s a tow truck driver. You just said it wasn’t his profession.
carrie
									
Right, but we’re just going to plow on through that. So now we gotta go back to Mary, and let’s remember, we got to Mary because of the drink bloody Mary's.
ross
									
Oh goodness, there’s so many Mary's. But yes, so we’re coming back to that Mary.
carrie
									
The actual most common name of the last 100 years, Mary.
ross
									
This is a breaking psychic reading so far. We’ve got Mary. We’ve got John.
carrie
									
[Laughs.] So, who knows someone who loved to drink bloody Mary's? No one.
ross
									
Nope. Never heard of that.
carrie
									
Maybe there was someone who knew a Mary, or who was like, oh yeah, bloody Mary's, someone drinks those, and she said, “Well, do you understand a connection to dementia?”
ross
									
This is where I started to think, wait a second, she’s kind of hitting on this Mary, she’s older, she’s starting to have onset dementia or alzheimers, and I was thinking, oh, this is actually sounding a lot like my boss’ mother-in-law, Mary, who definitely did have those issues, and had to move into a home.
carrie
									
And now sees that her daughter in law’s current employee has come to a psychic.
ross
									
Yeah. So, I was thinking like, okay, I could kind of make a connection here. If Tracy was here, this would be perfect for her, but she’s not. She, by the way, is the one who had the dog Nala, who was read in our pet psychic episode so many years ago. But, yeah, she wasn’t there, so I wasn’t going to say, “Oh, my bosses mother-in-law fits that description perfectly!” So, not a hit. But we were assured, even though they couldn’t make a connection, Mary’s here. Somebody can claim this ghost.
carrie
									
There you go.
drew
									
But one woman did have a brother named Freddy and related to a Mary.
carrie
									
Yeah, so at some point Fred got pulled into this. It was like, “oh yeah, I know a Fred and a Mary.” And then—
ross
									
Is Mary catholic?
carrie
									
Yes, our standby question for Mary's.
ross
									
Yeah. Hey all you Mary's out there, are you catholic? Do you know a catholic?
drew
									
[Singing] Mary, Mary, are you catholic?
carrie
									
What is that?
drew
									
Like the song, Mary, Mary, why you buggin’?
carrie
									
Oh, I don’t know it. Okay, so now Cindy’s, you know, like, “Okay, this is all coming for you, it’s the Mary, the catholic Mary. So now I’m seeing sheet music, a piano, hymns.”
ross
									
Yeah, like she had a husband who plays the piano, also knows a Mary. Does someone have that old kind of piano that you had to put the sheet music on? Somebody grabbed onto that, like oh yeah, that resonates.
carrie
									
Yeah, so the person, the sitter, who was like, yeah, that’s for me. She has a husband who plays piano, and she knows a Mary.
crosstalk
									
[All together] Woah!
ross
									
Oh yeah, and tell your husband his dad says hi. I crossed that off on my bingo list.
carrie
									
And he’s doing well, and he likes his son’s music and he should keep playing music.
ross
									
This was a fun little added— sometimes Cindy will do this. So she’s ready to move onto the next person, but she’ll, wait, one more thing, she’ll turn back and say, “Oh, and don’t forget to water the plants!”
carrie
									
[Laughs] Yeah, or get your taillight checked, or—
ross
									
Yup, that happened as well. Some extra little thing, sounds specific but not really. I could make the plants thing work.
carrie
									
I definitely could.
ross
									
So, all of you out there, water the plants.
carrie
									
Water your plants.
drew
									
But specifically you, water your plants, and we know who we’re talking about.
ross
									
Yeah, no, you think we’re talking to someone else. No, it’s you. Water your plants. ‘Water’ you waiting for.
carrie
									
So then we get the name Kathleen.
ross
									
Kathleen has a thyroid problem. So she got the Kathleen first, then failed on the thyroid problem. Nope, this Kathleen does not have a thyroid problem.
carrie
									
And Cindy lets you know, she’s not a doctor, but Kathleen should get her thyroid checked, even if she doesn’t have a known thyroid problem.
ross
									
It looks like I was wrong, but if you do some work, you’ll find I was actually right.
carrie
									
Mm-hm, get that checked. So then we have another piggyback.
ross
									
Oh, and there was a happy birthday message in there too, which I got to check off of my bingo list.
carrie
									
Oh, good.
ross
									
Happy birthday.
carrie
									
That person was impressed though. I think she said oh my God.
ross
									
Yeah, you’re right.
carrie
									
So now we’ve got a piggyback. Another audience member knows a Mary and a Freddy.
ross
									
How many times have we leveraged Mary at this point? So many people have Mary's.
drew
									
This is the craziest night yet, I’ve never seen so many Mary's.
ross
									
So many piggybacks.
carrie
									
Do you know any Mary's?
drew
									
Friend. Yeah, I have a couple of Mary's.
carrie
									
Do you have any Mary's, Ross?
ross
									
Yeah, I have Mary's.
carrie
									
Okay. I think I only know one Mary from college, but that’s all you need. Okay, so then she says, okay you, this new woman who knows a Mary and a Freddy, “Do you remember Joe or Joseph?” She’s like, “No, but Mary was a devout Catholic.”
ross
									
And one of the earlier Mary’s you were mentioning was Catholic. My Mary’s Catholic.
carrie
									
And Mary and Joseph.
ross
									
Those go together.
carrie
									
Then we count that as a hit.
ross
									
Yup, moving on.
carrie
									
Great.
ross
									
We associate those names together, ‘cause of Jesus.
carrie
									
Right. Then, okay, did Mary lose a child when she was younger? Like a dead daughter, someone who had a stillbirth? She’s throwing out all these different descriptions of the same thing.
ross
									
Which would connect for a lot of people.
carrie
									
Yeah, sure.
ross
									
And nope, not in this case. No, not that I know of.
carrie
									
Then she says, “I feel I’m correct, because she’s showing that.”
drew
									
Well, she goes back to stillborns or miscarriages quite a bit, and she’s like, “Well, you might want to research that.” It’s a pretty safe thing, just like, at least in the moment at this show, being like, oh, maybe someone in your life might have had a miscarriage and they didn’t fucking publicize it. You know? So it’s a pretty safe thing for her to be like, yeah, maybe there is a miscarriage, especially a dead person’s miscarriage, as though you can verify that, if they choose to not be super public about it.
ross
									
Because there’s a very good chance that happened, and it just wasn’t any of your business.
carrie
									
Or you’ll forget about this. It’s like a mail-in rebate. It’s like, uh, we promise, this will pay off for you, but I’m really planning on you forgetting it.
ross
									
But yeah, what really matters in this moment is that I retain credit as a clairvoyant.
drew
									
I want to speak to something just super quickly. In the moment, at this point I probably would have been like, oh she’s doing pretty good, because I’m not prone to honing in. But she’s going fast. We’re breaking this down, and so a lot of these misses you don’t really notice in the moment, or you move past it so quickly, that it’s just like, oh, I’m just going to keep on talking until something hits.
ross
									
Yeah, you’re right, the entire delivery of this type of reason is specifically calculated for us not to be able to do what we’re doing right now, which is to slowly unpack it and point out every little piece of what’s happening. Because yeah, it’s raining down on you so quickly, and there’s all these connections, and there’s all these little ways that she’s making even things that don’t hit sound like they’re hits, and yeah, you’re just kind of left with a blinding by science.
carrie
									
Totally, and our attention is so selective. Our brains are basically meant to only notice the thing that might kill you, so we’re always looking for the thing that is following the rule we’re trying to follow. Okay, I’m in the forest, I’m looking for the faces of jaguars. Okay, I’m at a medium, I’m looking for the things that seem mediumistic, and your brain just can’t look at anything else.
ross
									
Right. All of our senses are built to filter out data that is irrelevant. So little of our visual field is actually detailed information, and some of its filled in, and same thing with our hearing, we’re always filtering out stuff that’s just noise. So yeah, we’re just primed to do that, and so she’s giving us plenty of ability to only notice the things, or at least the sense, that feeling of certainty that this is all working well.
drew
									
And maybe you guys can take it to this, but there’s obviously the self-selection of what kind of audience is going to come to a show in Ontario, California. I look at this as a performer. You do crowd work, you use specifics. If I went to a comedy club further in the valley, has differences references that would hit than would hit at something in Hollywood. So there’s that, where it’s like, oh wow, someone had breast cancer, someone lost a son tragically due to gun violence. But then there’s the flattening of memory of the people who passed, where all these fun statistics of like, oh and you know, I see a drink because he liked to drink, or he was a little difficult, or she was sassy. There’s only so many different characteristics of dead older people, your dead grandparents. Like, you can kind of categorize it, we think these are all things specific to us, but oh I had a saucy grandma or I had a stoic granddad.
ross
									
Yeah, you have the situation where we’ve come in with a very specific purpose, to kind of observe what’s happening and compare it with statistics and how well you could guess these things, whereas everyone else in that room most likely is coming in because they’ve lost someone and they want to make a connection. So yeah, I think we’re representing a viewpoint that is very different from the headspace of everyone else in the room. That’s what you get, you listen to this show. Hope you’re enjoying it.
promo
									
[Fast-paced background music and a cheering crowd.] Jesse Thorn: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the match game! Our contestants: Nnekay and James from the hit podcast, Minority Korner. Nnekay & James: Hey! Jesse: I'll ask you questions in a rapid-fire round! Favorite character on a Shonda Rhimes show? Nnekay: Olivia Pope. James: Ooh, I said Olivia Pope's wig. [Buzzer.] Jesse: Ooh! So close! How do you feel about Disney? Nnekay: They need to pay reparations to Black people because Mickey Mouse was based off of blackface. James: I said get rid of the racist rides—Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain. [Buzzer.] Jesse: Who are you voting for in the primary? Nnekay: It's too damn early. James: I'm just getting to know these fools! [Buzzer.] Jesse: Ooh, no dice. What celebrity do you side-eye the most? James: Kevin Hart. Can we get a real apology for your homophobia? Nnekay: Justin Timberlake. James: Nipplegate. [Buzzer.] Jesse: Favorite superhero movie? James & Nnekay: Black Panther! Wakanda forever! [Ding ding ding ding ding!] Jesse: Congratulations! But you still lose. James & Nnekay: Now I'm side-eyeing you. Jesse: Catch Nnekay and James, the Wonder Twins of podcasts, on Minority Korner every Friday at Maximum Fun.
carrie
									
Okay so, coming back to Mary’s losing a child.
ross
									
Mary number six.
carrie
									
Yeah, maybe. This woman is still like, “I don’t know,” and she says, “I feel I’m correct because she’s showing that. Baby didn’t come to full term, something like that. Okay, wait. Do you know a Jess or a Jessie?” “No.” “Do you promise me?” And the woman’s like, “Oh gosh, uh…”
ross
									
I don’t want to find out later I was forgetting about my friend Jessie.
carrie
									
Right, and then she’s like, “I don’t know.” And she says, “Promise me. Promise.” What in the hell?
ross
									
Promise me you don’t know a Jessie.
carrie
									
I know, and now this poor lady’s like, “I can’t promise it. Maybe I’ve met a Jessie. I really don’t know.” And Cindy’s like, “We need to know. We need to know if Jessie lost a baby.” [Scoffs.] What?
ross
									
Why are we worrying about this invisible person no one’s met, and whether she had a baby or not?
carrie
									
And even if she did, she’ll know! What’s the problem here?
ross
									
Who is this for?
carrie
									
But, great news, someone nearby knows a Jessie and a Freddy. So Mary is saying that Freddy needs love and support right now because of financial stress, and then she lets us know, but she’s not a doctor.
ross
									
Wait a second. He’s under financial stress, but she’s not a doctor.
carrie
									
She’s not a doctor, so.
ross
									
Okay, she’s also not an alligator wrangler, but that’s just as relevant.
drew 
									
I hate when I go to the doctor and he diagnoses me with financial stress, and I have to go to the pharmacy and take all the antibiotics they give you for financial stress.
ross
									
And pay for them!
carrie
									
And do that fasting blood test.
drew 
									
Yeah, we gotta find a better way.
carrie
									
And that is why you should vote for Elizabeth Warren.
ross
									
But yeah, I think she just has that ready line, “I’m not a doctor,” and she threw it in the wrong situation there. I would love to see her paired up with Leonard “Bones” McCoy, from the original Star Trek, because his line was always, “I’m a doctor, not a farmer, Jim! I’m a doctor, not a psychic! I’m a doctor, not a…” So he could always respond with that, “Well, I am a doctor.”
carrie
									
[Laughs.] Okay, so now a young man comes through. He had an accidental overdose. Again. Very common story, someone in this room is surely going to connect to that, and indeed someone does. So a woman is like, “Yes, yes, I identify that.” I think maybe it was her son, though that wasn’t totally clear, and Cindy says—
drew 
									
It was someone living.
carrie
									
Yeah, someone living. And she’s like, “You need to call him, he needs love and support.” And there’s kind of a long pause, and then she says, “Well, I always do.” And she’s like, “You might do it often, but he needs it right now. But also don’t forget to get your taillight checked.”
ross
									
Oh yeah, that’s where the taillight checking came in.
drew 
									
And this is not connected to the name of a dead person, this is just like a fun—
carrie
									
Correct.
drew 
									
—just a floating, she’s just hearing a message and being like, “Hey does anyone know someone who OD’ed?” and it turned out to be someone alive, and being like, whatever spirits out there is letting you know.
ross
									
I noticed usually she’ll start with a name, and then if she gets the name then she’ll try to connect with an attribute or a situation, but if she starts with the situation or the relationship, like, if we’ve already established, “oh, I’ve got your father here,” it’s very likely she will not venture a name, because then she’s already narrowed herself down, she can’t go for the brother-in-law. Or when she does, she’ll say, “who is Jesse?” and then if you say, “oh, Jesse’s my father,” then she’ll be like yes, of course.
carrie
									
Right, or I’d be like, “I have a friend named Jesse. Jesse Thorn.”
drew
									
Or, like, sometimes she’ll be like, “I’m picking up someone who’s like a dad, but he’s like a father, or it’s a husband, he’s got husband energy.” It’s like, well my dad’s dead. It’s like, oh yes, I’m getting the husband energy because he’s very proud of being a husband, but it’s your dad.
carrie
									
Yup, I think that literally happened. Well, great news, guys, someone else has a Mary and a Jesse.
ross
									
I feel so bad for all the people with like, a grandfather named Horace. He never finds his way through to the medium.
carrie
									
Totally. He has moved on.
ross
									
Or Aloysius.
carrie
									
You know what, that would have been— so I’m going to spoiler a little bit. At the end of this, during the Q+A, I said, “So what can we, the living, do once we become the dead to get more clear contact with you?”
ross
									
Make your job easier.
carrie
									
She should be like, “Okay, name your kids Mary, John, Donald, David.” Yeah, that seems to be the way. Okay, but this other person knows a Mary and a Jesse, and she knows someone who ODed, and instead of what this should tell us: oh, wait a minute, everybody has these names, everyone—
ross
									
We’re playing a statistics game in this room.
carrie
									
Yeah, everyone has encountered these problems.
ross
									
This is the birthday game at large.
carrie
									
Right. Nope, instead, we’re going to be impressed. So she says she still sees this stillborn baby being held on the other side, so did Jessie have a miscarriage? No. Well, just so everyone knows, when babies die, they’re held with loving arms on the other side.
ross
									
Except when they grow up on the other side, which is something—
carrie
									
Oh right!
ross
									
—she says in other context. “Oh, I see them, they’ve grown up on the other side.” So what determines when you stay a baby and what makes you grow up?
carrie
									
Yeah! And should you be worried if your baby is still a baby?
ross
									
In the afterlife? Yeah, you could be headed for some serious strife.
drew 
									
I bet her gymnastics would be like, some babies stay a baby until the person who’s meant to raise them is now in the afterlife. So they’re right, and you’re going to rejoin this relationship with this baby.
ross
									
It’s so weird, because it seems like, for some people, they need this person to be old in the afterlife, because that’s how they remember them, but for others they need this person to be young in the afterlife, because that’s how they most interacted with them. This all feels very fluid, what your age can do on the other side. It fluctuates as needed.
carrie
									
I think she even told us at one point that the image she gets may be off because it might be, this person died in their 80s but he was at his most vibrant in his 40s, so I see him in his 40s.
ross
									
Yeah, very squishy.
carrie
									
Anyway, “Is Jessie trying to have kids?” “No, she just had a kid that turned one.” “Well, let her know the other side supports her getting pregnant again.” Okay, well, now she wants to know if this person knows who Paul is. No. “Okay, but—” And then Cindy—there isn’t just straight up like, no, I don’t know a Paul—she’s like, “Okay, but you should know that you’re a medium, and messages have been coming to you your whole life. You have dreams, you have premonitions. I know you’ve dreamed of people before they passed, and it scares you, but you’ve got this gift.”
ross
									
I think this person was agreeing to all that.
carrie
									
Yeah, and she did say— I love that she said that, “You dream of people before they pass,” because that just means living people—but the sitter said, “And after they’ve gone.” And she was like, yes.
ross
									
Well, and I assume, you dreamt of them shortly before they passed.
carrie
									
Then they died, yeah.
ross
									
So stop dreaming about them.
carrie
									
[Laughs] Yeah, for real.
ross
									
Killing all these people. So yeah, she latched onto that name, Paul, and she was floating that around the audience. “Okay, is there a Paul with cancer, anyone? Very late stage cancer, very little time left?” and I thought, oh, okay. I need to be paying attention now, my dad is Paul and he has prostate cancer, and it’s gotten to stage four. So I’m listening carefully, and she starts to latch onto one person in the audience, and he has an uncle Paul, and Cindy says, “Okay, and he’s very social, he’s very active, he likes to get out there.” I’m thinking, okay, that’s not my dad. He’s more of a homebody, he helps out at church and stuff, but no one would describe him as very social. So I’m thinking, okay, well that’s not my dad. So this Paul, this uncle Paul that this guy in the audience has, is already passed, and she says, “Is it pancreatic or liver cancer?” and I’m thinking okay, that’s not him, we’re getting colder.
carrie
									
Then she says, “Somewhere down here,” and gestures to her lower abdomen.
ross
									
And she’s asking about an Allie, she’s also hearing an Allie, and I’m thinking, well, my dad’s sister, my aunt is named Allie. You got to meet her.
carrie
									
She said Al or Allie.
ross
									
Al or Allie, okay.
carrie
									
Your Allie is very delightful.
ross
									
See, that’s interesting. That’s me only remembering the Allie that connected with me.
carrie
									
Yeah, I remembered because my stepdad’s name is Al, so I was going to help you out if I had to, but then you borrowed my Al.
ross
									
So there we go, that’s a good example. I only remember hearing Allie, because I latched onto that. Wow, that’s interesting.
carrie
									
Drew, what do you remember about that moment?
drew 
									
I remember also being like, oh, Ross has a thing, Carrie you had your stepfather Al who has also had a prostate thing.
carrie
									
Yeah, that’s true.
drew 
									
So I was kind of curious where this was going to go, seeing you guys in action with the medium. So just definitely anticipating it, but also trying to do my bingo card. [Ross laughs.] Am I going to be able to bingo with her looking directly at me?
carrie
									
[Laughs] Well, I’ll let the audience anticipate with you, because it’s time to talk about cat litter.
ross
									
You know what, you’re right, it is.
carrie
									
Yeah. I love, I love cat litter.
ross
									
You do?
carrie
									
I’m a real litterhead, yeah.
ross
									
Well, I do have a lovely cat who is hiding somewhere in this apartment. She’s avoiding you and Drew, I’m sure.
carrie
									
Yeah, Evening Blocher.
ross
									
Evening is a scaredy cat, but she does appreciate a good litter.
carrie
									
Yeah. Oh, I’m with her.
ross
									
And you know what the best litter is? Arm & Hammer.
crosstalk
									
Carrie: Arm & Hammer— Ross and Carrie: —Cloud Control cat litter.
carrie
									
Oh my God, that is my favorite. I don’t have a cat, but if I did, I would love the cat, I would love the litter, but I wouldn’t love cleaning up the cat’s litter.
ross
									
Yeah, you’re right. That’s a problem. But, you know, I think you would like Arm & Hammer Cloud Control litter, because there’s no cloud of nasties here. There’s no poof of gross clay in the air every time you go to scoop stuff up.
carrie
									
Right, that magician cat effect.
ross
									
Right, it’s 100% dust-free, free of heavy perfumes, and it helps reduce airborne dander from scooping, so what happens in the litterbox stays in the litterbox.
carrie
									
So, if you are a litterhead like me, go and get new Cloud Control cat litter by Arm & Hammer. More power to ya. And while we’re talking about your best friend, Evening.
ross
									
Yes?
carrie
									
Do you have any best fiends?
ross
									
That’s funny you should say that. I have a game called Best Fiends. Yeah, this is a free download that you can get on your phone where you get this little cast of bug characters that help you. I’ve got my friend Temper. He’s green, he’s leveled up to five, see?
carrie
									
Nice, yeah.
ross
									
Howie, also level five. Not bad. Edward’s getting up there, he’s a mosquito. Then we got Quincy, level five as well, so yeah, I’m getting up there. Oh yeah, Brittle, that’s the purple one, and Tantrum. Tantrum is red, and tied to the little— hearts? Strawberries, they’re strawberries.
carrie
									
Temper and Tantrum, I like it.
ross
									
So, it’s going to sound weird the way I’m describing it. It’s fun, and I’ve been playing it for a while. I first started playing it when my phone was in German mode.
carrie
									
Oh, right.
ross
									
I changed the language on my phone to German for a couple of months, so it was kind of fun. All of these bugs were coming up and they had little pop-up dialogues and they were in German, so I’d have to sit there and really analyze, what are you saying to me, little insect?
carrie
									
That becomes two games in one.
ross
									
[Laughs] Yeah, so I eventually, around level 12, switched over to English, and it got a little easier after that. But you can figure it out even in another language, because you get a pretty good indication of where you need to draw the lines. It’s very much a strategy game, you’re clearing stuff, and then you’re earning points. If I try to describe it, we’ll get into a very long podcast about this game, but it’s fun. I’ve been having a good time with it.
carrie
									
I hear it’s got breathtaking visuals.
ross
									
It looks great, and it connects to your Facebook account if you want it too, and so it’s kind of fun. As I get to levels, it tells me, “Oh, you just passed Heather Henderson!” Like, ha ha, suck it, Heather! [Carrie laughs.] And hopefully this word will get to her and she’ll step it up and catch up. Then you can send each other gifts and stuff.
carrie
									
And it’s a casual game. Anyone can play. This could be your first game, and you could enjoy it. The first game you’ve ever played. You’ve never played tic tac toe, you’ve never played a word game, you’ve never looked for license plates from a certain state.
ross
									
Oh, what’s wrong with you?
carrie
									
You still will like Best Fiends.
ross
									
You will.
carrie
									
But it is made for adults.
ross
									
There is no like, adult theming or anything. There’s nothing inappropriate for children going on.
carrie
									
Oh, right, right.
ross
									
Just in case anyone was worried.
carrie
									
What level are you on, Ross?
ross
									
33 now.
carrie
									
Okay. That’s where Jesus dies.
ross
									
That’s right. Not in the game, we’re just joking because Jesus died supposedly at the age of 33.
carrie
									
That’s right. Best Fiends is a unique and exciting puzzle experience. The game updates monthly with new levels and events, so it never gets old.
ross
									
It is a puzzle game, so you have to put a little bit of brain power into it, and just think, okay, what is the most efficient way to be clearing these icons, because otherwise you’ll run out of turns and you’ll fail the level and have to try again.
carrie
									
And it’s got a hundred million downloads globally, because it does not require internet to play, so it’s great for traveling.
ross
									
Yeah, though I was already kind of impressed to see how many of my friends on Facebook already had it. So they’ve already got it.
carrie
									
So engage your brain with fun puzzles and collect tons of cute characters with this five-star rated mobile puzzle game. Download it free on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
ross
									
That’s friends without the r. Best Fiends.
carrie
									
Okay, so Ross.
ross
									
Yes?
carrie
									
You were saying that your father was matching with this description.
ross
									
Yeah, and you were encouraging me. Carrie was like, “Yeah, you should raise your hand, she’s talking about you!”
carrie
									
Come on, you can do this.
ross
									
I was like, “Well, it’s not a perfect match here. He’s not social.”
carrie
									
“So? She’s talking to the dead and it’s one who knows your dad.”
ross
									
“She said pancreatic and liver.”
carrie
									
“But she said somewhere down here just raise your hand.”
ross
									
So, when she motioned down here, I thought, okay, okay, well this is now sounding like enough of a connection. So I raised my hand, and she came to me and said, “oh, you have a Paul?” I said, “Yup, that’s my father.” I think I stated it in such a way that I said, he has cancer.
carrie
									
He has stage four.
ross
									
He has stage four prostate cancer. She said, “Oh, so he’s still living. Okay, that’s fine.” [Carrie laughs.] Thanks. Glad to know.
drew
									
That’s fine.
ross
									
Yeah, I’m glad to know that’s okay that he’s still alive. “And who’s Allie?” “Allie is his sister.” “Oh, wow, great.” So—
carrie
									
And someone nearby went, “Woah!”
ross
									
Yeah, so she’s now convinced, “Okay, we’ve made a connection here.”
carrie
									
So now she’s sighing and thinking, going, “Okay, okay, gotta connect,” you know, she’s got a modem booting up. “Okay, so this is interesting, your dad’s still with us.”
ross
									
“And Allie’s still with us.”
carrie
									
“And Allie’s with us. Okay, okay.”
ross
									
“Okay, so I don’t know what’s going on here. There’s a man here for sure.” So she’s still trying to figure out who is this person on the other side that we’re talking about, now that my dad is still alive, thank goodness.
carrie
									
Though I must say, she has tremendous working memory, that she can remember, oh, I said it was a man three minutes ago so I need to make sure I still say there’s a man coming through, but also your dad’s alive. I couldn’t do this.
ross
									
That’s true. She fails at it a couple times, but yeah.
carrie
									
But pretty amazing.
ross
									
Yeah, she’s fairly good at this. She says, “Okay, I sense there’s a military connection.” I said, “Well, he was a marine reserve.” And she was talking about a father figure, so I mentioned his dad was in the Navy. My grandfather fought in World War 2 in the Pacific theater. She said, “Okay, maybe it’s the dad’s dad. Is the name Paul passed down?” She thought maybe I’m Paul junior or my dad is Paul junior, but nope, that’s not the case. She said, “Okay, well, the military grandpa was a nice man, and he had a hard time expressing emotions.” I don’t know that’s true. My grandpa Dwayne was very loving, jovial person, very funny.
carrie
									
But good guess for a military grandpa.
ross
									
Of course, yeah. I don’t think he fits the mold of what that wording would suggest.
carrie
									
Call to mind, yeah. “Well, your grandpa needs your dad to know that he’s around your dad as he goes through this, and he’s around Allie, and he’s around you.”
ross
									
Okay. I was being generally encouraging, but not getting too excited about this. But yeah, I’m receiving the message. But then she asked me, “Do you know Robert or Bob?” and so I have to think about that, and when she says Bob, I think of Bop, my dad’s maternal grandfather. So different direction in the family tree, but kind of on that same branch. He was called Bop by everyone, and I thought, wait, was that short for Bob? I couldn’t remember in the moment. I said, “Well, we did have a Bop, I don’t think he was a Robert.” She said, “Oh, there you go. Well, he’s paying attention.” I don’t know why he would be. Later on, I looked this up, and his actual name was Thomas.
carrie
									
Oopsie-doodle.
ross
									
Yup. So—
carrie
									
Oh, you know what, he came through in the show a week ago. There was a Thomas that no one claimed.
ross
									
Oh, there you go.
carrie
									
So there you go.
ross
									
I should have grabbed him.
drew
									
He was like, oh, woah, woah. I’m Bop. They all know me as Bop.
ross
									
Right, which would have impressive, if you could get that, because that was what one of my aunts called him when she was young. She called him Bop. Anyway, so in that moment, she was like, “There we go, that’s him!” But now I realize that wasn’t Robert or Bob, it was Bop. Eh. Close. No cigar. Then she asked if I knew anybody named Kitty, and, not well.
carrie
									
Then she said it was someone who’s alive, you’re like, “Eh, not sure.”
ross
									
Oh, but Bob had a message for my dad.
carrie
									
Yes! This is exciting!
ross & carrie
									
[In unison] He says, “Hi!”
ross
									
So when I call my dad this Sunday, I’ll be sure to tell him, hey, Bob says hi. And then he’ll say, “Wait, who’s Bob?”
carrie
									
And you’ll say Bop! It was short for Thomas.
ross
									
Oh, my grandpa, okay. Alright. She moved on to someone else. I wasn’t too impressed, she wasn’t too impressed with my level of being impressed.
drew 
									
Yeah, you really reached a point where you just became monosyllabic. “Okay.”
carrie
									
Thank you.
ross
									
Thank you, yeah.
carrie
									
It also occurs to me that Kitty is a pretty clever one, because it’s a common enough nickname, and then if you’re wrong you can be like, maybe it’s just cats, does someone have a mother who was really a cat person?
ross
									
Mhm, that’s smart.
drew 
									
Or Kat, Kathleen.
carrie
									
Cats, the musical Cats.
ross
									
And Cindy will do that. She’ll get on a little clip where she’ll say, cat, kitty, Katherine, and she’ll just throw out those quick little alliterative guesses.
carrie
									
Mhm. Kit Kat bar.
ross
									
Yeah, and she’ll even do a little sashay with her shoulders as she’s saying it. She’ll punctuate things she’s saying with shooting a hand out in front of her and making a little gesture like a level right in front of her eyes, and she’ll jump it up and down. She uses little jerky motions sometimes that kind of go in a cadence with the words she’s saying.
carrie
									
Yeah. It’s kind of like she’s volleying a serve back to you. This, what about this, what about this? The way you’d hit a ping pong ball across a table.
ross
									
Kit, or a kitty, or a kit kat, come on, someone give me a break.
carrie
									
Someone in the audience is named Kit Kat!
ross
									
What?
carrie
									
Amazing! That’s her nickname. I could see her face very clearly, and she did not seem to give two shits about this.
ross
									
[Laughing] Oh really?
drew 
									
Oh, interesting, I didn’t have a good view.
ross
									
I gave one shit.
carrie
									
[Laughs] Okay, very good. Well, she was like, “I’m Kit Kat, yeah,” and then she takes another chip from her plate and is munching on it while this reading is happening. Cindy’s like, “Well, someone’s coming through who had bipolar depression.” Kit Kat is like, “Yeah, that’s my twin.” [Ross laughs.] “My dead twin had depression.” It was just very weird, it just seemed like—
ross
									
This is one of the better readings of the night and you’re like meh.
carrie
									
She’s like, “Eh, well, yeah. She would come through.” [Ross laughs.] But she says, “Okay, she’s showing me her big personality. She’s on the other side dancing in clubs.”
ross
									
What does that mean?
carrie 
									
I don’t know.
ross
									
Okay, the afterlife is geared in such a way that we have clubs that people visit, and you have to dance at them?
carrie
									
Oh, it’s like Defending Your Life!
ross
									
[Laughs] Which I have seen now.
carrie
									
Oh, it’s so good. Drew, have you seen that?
drew
									
I have not seen that.
carrie
									
What? Babe!
drew 
									
Yeah, I know.
carrie
									
We got to watch that. I just showed Drew So I Married An Axe Murderer for the first time.
ross
									
I haven’t seen that.
carrie
									
Ugh! [Carrie makes a strained noise.]
ross
									
I’m sorry!
drew 
									
I had to re-go over, I had seen So I Married An Axe Murderer, it’s just I was very young and it was on Comedy Central a lot, so I saw it in pieces.
carrie
									
You said you never saw it all the way through, Drew.
drew
									
Yes, that’s true.
ross
									
I have not seen it.
carrie
									
Oh, you gotta watch it. It’s very funny. You need to watch Defending Your Life.
drew 
									
I agree.
carrie
									
It’s really good. Maybe we’ll watch it tonight.
ross
									
But yeah, what is this? Do you need to be gainfully employed in the afterlife?
carrie
									
Right? Yeah, who’s running these clubs?
drew 
									
She explains the question of jobs. It’s just like, you kind of have purposes and you can help with things, but you don’t have jobs per say.
ross
									
Okay, so it’s your purpose to be dancing in a club. Whose purpose is it to be attending that club and watching you dance?
drew
									
Yeah, I don’t know.
ross
									
Okay. Alright.
carrie
									
This is kind of—
ross
									
Your loved one is a real spectator in the afterlife, watching the shows of many other accomplished people.
carrie
									
As I recall, the Bible says we do have jobs in heaven, and there are people who are kind of on the top of the social ladder, and people on the bottom.
ross
									
Really?
carrie
									
I think so. But that could have been something that a pastor told me and I nodded at.
drew 
									
Yeah, that would make sense for like, American Christianity, to be like, oh yeah and we’re all equal in Heaven.
carrie
									
We don’t suddenly get lazy.
ross
									
There’s still an economy.
carrie
									
There’s no welfare in heaven, okay?
drew 
									
The people who are big shots out on Earth are now big shots in heaven. It’s just like this very...
ross
									
Meritocracy.
drew 
									
Yeah.
carrie
									
Okay, but back to this twin. She said, “Was she self-medicating?” She said, “Yes, with alcohol.” Unfortunately, a common thing with people with mental illness.
ross
									
Munch, munch, munch, chip, chip, chip.
carrie
									
Right? “So just know that your sister’s with you, she’s okay.” She’s like, “Okay.” “Thank you for taking care of her family, she’s sorry she went that way, but she’s at peace.”
ross
									
So this is all pretty good so far.
carrie
									
Uh-huh. Then she’s like, “Do you know a Mario?”
ross
									
“Nope.”
carrie
									
“No? Okay, moving on. Do you know who would have suffered with cutting?” She says, “Oh yes, one of my sister’s daughters.” She says, “Okay, she’s watching what’s happening, and sending love to the daughter with the cutting problem.” Now, this sounds like a really good hit.
ross
									
Oh, yeah.
carrie
									
So then I thought, okay, how would I get this if I were a psychic? Okay, I guess I’d just know a lot about these different diseases, so I went and looked, and yup, there’s a 2010 study that shows that bipolar patients are more likely to self-mutilate than any other diagnostic group.
ross
									
Oh, interesting.
carrie
									
And bipolar, of course, runs in families, so reasonable guess. So let’s go back to Paul.
ross
									
But not my Paul, yeah. This is Paul Paul. This is someone who had a Paul, who—
drew 
									
And maybe was also named Paul? She kept on saying Paul Paul.
ross
									
Yeah, there was a double Paul somehow.
carrie 
									
Dad and son maybe.
drew 
									
Dad and son, and she was like, “Motorcycles are everywhere, bikes, maybe motorcycle— working on it.”
ross
									
“Yeah, Budweiser cans, and the posters with the hot ladies that you see in the garage, I see a bunch of those. Who is this guy?”
drew 
									
Then she was like, “Simple guy, likes beer, military.” And the guy was like, “Yeah, my Paul went to the military.” And she was like, “Vietnam, maybe PTSD,” and the guy was affirmed. That’s a pretty safe bet, if someone is the age of the sitter, then chances are father was in the military.
carrie
									
That’s when he was in the military, and when you’re in the military, you probably crossed the line, have trauma to deal with.
drew 
									
But the spirit never went to the doctor or took medication for the PTSD. The spirit acknowledges that he was wrong. He wants a woman with depression to know they could seek treatment. She was then like, “I’m looking for a Sara, no H.”
carrie
									
Oh right, that was interesting.
drew 
									
No H.
carrie
									
Because Sarah’s a really common name, Sara without an H, a little less common.
drew 
									
The guy doesn’t know, but the table does. She kind of goes back to anxiety and depression, asking for a Lillian, a woman is friends with Lilian at the table. Cindy says, “Grandpa is here. Be careful, or you may wind up pregnant.”
ross
									
Okay, yeah. Okay. That was—
drew 
									
Accidents happen. Big laugh.
ross
									
Good laugh line. Oh, that’s right, people have sex and they have babies sometimes!
drew 
									
But yeah, it’s like, okay, Lilian, Lilian. The woman was like, “I know a Lilian.” And she’s like, “You can tell Lilian that her grandpa’s here.” What if Lilian turned out to be like a twelve year old?
ross
									
Yeah. She took a guess, she got it right.
carrie
									
Or, like, someone who’s post-menopausal. Then it’s even weirder. But you get lost in this, and you forget this started with you looking for a Sara with no H, but you want me to tell the Lilian I know not to fuck around. Okay.
ross
									
That’s how quickly we move around in these readings. Again, this is all very fast-paced. This was where she went on kind of a patriotism kick.
drew 
									
Oh, yes. She went back to Paul, and she said, “It’s September 11th. Paul up in heaven is patriotic and he wanted me to let everyone know, God bless America, he was proud to serve, and he wants Cindy to speak on why we were grateful on 9/11.” Big applause break.
ross
									
Yay.
drew
									
How cool is it that she always— I mean, she connected with this ‘Nam vet who has PTSD who’s just like, “God bless America, proud to serve.” I wonder how often she connects with people who served who maybe regret serving or regret that—
carrie
									
Especially in that particular war.
drew  
									
—that particular war. Or if she’s talking about, I dunno. On September 11th, you’re telling me there’s no former military that speak to her about how fucked up things were in Iraq, or still being in Afghanistan, or destabilizing that area. No, it’s always, of course, “God bless America, proud to serve.”
carrie
									
Because we’re in Ontario, which is mostly Republicans.
ross
									
The next generation psychics can bring up those issues in Berkeley. [Carrie laughs.]
drew 
									
But then right after that applause break, she goes, “Does anyone have Dick in the family?”
carrie
									
[Ross laughs] That was so great. We all laughed at that.
ross
									
That got a big laugh, and she’s like, “Oh, I wasn’t even thinking of that, you all have dirty minds. Okay, but yes, Dick says hi.” Laugh, laugh, laugh.
drew 
									
Then she asks for bangs and a white jacket.
carrie
									
What? She asks for bangs and a white jacket?
drew 
									
She sees, like, a woman. She sees a woman with bangs and a white jacket.
carrie
									
Oh, in the audience.
drew 
									
Yeah. A significant other is coming through, a husband, asked if she lost the husband. Hospice death, Ronald, Ronnie, thanks for taking care of me. Who lost a husband to cancer? She fished for Ronnie, and someone was trying to claim a Robert. She was almost going to go with it, but said no, but then was like, “I’ll come back to you.” Even though it seems like she already found Ronnie.
ross
									
Yeah, so, I want the Ronnie because I put that out there and finally I got the connection, but you threw out Robert, so we’ll come back to you later and your Robert, why not.
carrie
									
Also, how clever is all of this that three people watching it like a hawk, who then transcribed the whole thing—
ross
									
That’s us.
carrie
									
—who are looking way more cynically at this whole operation than the rest of the room, we’re still having trouble trying to—
ross
									
—trying to decode what happened in that moment.
carrie
									
—figure out exactly what happens, yeah.
drew 
									
So she goes to the woman who claimed Ronnie. The husband comes through, or someone who identified as a husband.
ross
									
This was interesting, yeah. So she had made this connection with the woman and her dad, and she said, “Okay, so he was very proud to be a father, and for him family was everything, and he’s really grateful for the hospice, so that’s great that you set him up with that.” So that all seemed to be going pretty well, but then she said, “Okay, and I see he’s a very smart man. There’s stacks of National Geographics—”
carrie
									
Just everywhere.
ross
									
“I’m seeing, you know how that is, like all the National Geographics.” Then she says, “And Time Magazine,” because she’s not getting any immediate response to National Geographic, and yeah, we all know somebody who had the giant stack of those yellow, spined National Geographics.
carrie
									
I had them as a kid.
ross
									
That was always exciting, like oh cool, they’ve got the National Geographics. But no, this was not getting any kind of response whatsoever, and so she just started riffing on it. “Okay, well, he liked to travel, right? I’m seeing something about volcanos, and I want to go with volcanos,” and none of this is landing anywhere.
carrie
									
I think this lady did say she collects magazines.
drew
									
I think she said, “I subscribe to National Geographic, or I did at one point.”
carrie
									
“And I do travel.”
drew 
									
Because then she was like, “Your dad wants you to travel,” and she was like, “I already do.”
ross
									
Your dad is here saying, “Keep doing what you’re doing.”
drew 
									
“He wants to go to a volcano. Just remember I mentioned it.”
carrie
									
“He wants to join Scientology?” Okay. [Ross laughs.] Okay, so now we get the name Fran, maybe Francis, maybe Francine. Someone’s like, “Okay, I have a great aunt Francis.” Guess what she had to say?
ross
									
“Hi.”
carrie
									
“Hi.”
ross
									
“Hi.” And when Cindy Kaza tells you that your loved one said hi, she’ll lean forward, she’ll say, “Well, tell them Robert says hi,” and she’ll do that little hand motion where she’s kind of waving it in a semicircle.
carrie
									
That’s all, folks!
ross
									
Yeah. “Hey, what’s up, hi,” and then her hand will just sort of fan out. It’s pretty funny.
drew 
									
Cindy almost goes back to the person who was claiming Ronnie, then something popped up real quick. Charlotte’s Web, the movie, the name.
ross
									
Oh, Carrie got so excited.
carrie
									
Ugh, I love Charlotte’s Web! It’s so good!
drew 
									
So you would claim it just because you like the movie.
carrie
									
[Laughs] I’m a really big Charlotte’s Web fan! In the back!
ross
									
It’s a hit! You named a movie I like!
drew 
									
But you could do, okay, I see Charlotte’s Web, maybe the name Charlotte, maybe this is someone who likes spiders, maybe this is someone who likes pigs, maybe this is someone who likes farms.
ross
									
Maybe this is someone named E.B.
drew 
									
Or maybe someone who just read you Charlotte’s Web as a kid.
carrie
									
Someone who’s a real grammar nazi like E.B. White was.
drew 
									
Someone did say that their name was Charlotte, and then she honed in on—this was impressive—congestive heart failure, and the woman said yes.
carrie
									
It’s decent. I mean, you gotta remember, one of the top ways people die.
drew 
									
Okay. “Mom’s here. Mom’s a hoot.”
ross
									
Something about, “She really liked chocolate covered cherries. She loved those.”
carrie
									
Oh yeah, no response on that.
ross
									
Yeah, I’m sensing them all thinking, “Did she? Did she really like those? I think maybe we had them once and she liked them.”
carrie
									
“She certainly never said I hate chocolate covered cherries. I know that.”
ross
									
“I wish she’d told me she liked them so much. I would have bought them for her.”
drew 
									
Then she gave a general, “Mom could be a pain, but she appreciates what you did for her.”
carrie
									
Yeah, who could not say that about their parent?
ross
									
But that’s what we want to hear. That’s why we’re here.
drew 
									
Then she finally lands on neuropathy, like she imagined her mom not moving, and the woman says that her mom lost her legs.
carrie
									
Yeah, she said she had leg problems, because at this point we had established that she had COPD, which really inhibits your blood’s ability to go through your limbs, so not a bad guess.
ross
									
So then we had a young man come in, and he was Dan.
drew 
									
Cindy says, “I have a young man who’s coming in, like a son. I know he’s here. He’s shy. The name Dan. Do you know Dan on the other side?” An audience member knows a mom of a dead Dan, so Cindy wants—
ross
									
Oh, who’s not even here tonight.
drew 
									
Yeah, he’s good. He’s her brother.
ross
									
That’s always convenient, too, when you only have this tangential connection to the dead person, because then, eh, I can’t answer any of the specifics. It sounds right-ish.
drew 
									
So, an interesting thing happens. “He wants his former mother-in-law to know it wasn’t her fault. Do you know a Charles, a Carl in the living? Brother is sorry again.”
ross
									
Yeah, I got so excited when she called out Charles, because I had on my sheet, I had Charlie, and I really wanted to mark it off, because it would have completed two of my three-in-a-rows to make them four-in-a-rows. But she went for Charles, then she went to Carl, and she focused on the Carl, and she kept saying Carl. I was like, aww, I can’t cross off Charlie.
carrie
									
I can’t change a Charlie into a Charles.
ross
									
I can’t do it.
drew 
									
She ends it by just being like, “Your brother wants you to write a letter to your mother-in-law. You don’t have to say you went to a psychic, but just write a letter to be like, my brother is sorry, or was sorry.”
carrie
									
Aw, can you imagine getting that letter? God.
drew 
									
Your dead brother’s former mother-in-law.
carrie
									
It must also just suck for these people who are like, “Please, please, mom, come and talk to me.” The grandmother of a woman I work with has a message for her, but she’s not here, so I’m the closest thing. Okay.
ross
									
This is what happens when the evening is centered around affirming the skill of the reader, and not about actually connecting with your dead loved ones.
drew 
									
So she’s moving from Charles and Carl, and it’s grandpa on dad’s side, you would never buy into this, but he’s doing some sidekick stuff. So someone claims him, and Cindy says, “The daughter is already here, she’s five, six, she’s going into school, grandpa could be stubborn. He’s showing fight over his will, whole family divided, he’s sorry.”
ross
									
Oh that’s right, so we had this grandfather coming through to this family next, and then on your sheet, one of us had something about a will. Oh, I think it was on me. I had someone writing somebody out of the will. She was getting so close to saying that with this grandfather thing. Oh yeah, there was a dispute over his possessions, and I was like, oh, oh, mention the will, mention the will.
carrie
									
Say the word will!
ross
									
She didn’t.
drew 
									
But then he does. He says he sees the effects of what happens when you write someone out of the will.
ross
									
Oh! Let me see if I crossed it out on my sheet.
drew
									
Uh oh!
carrie
									
Bingo?
ross
									
Okay, I did cross out left out of the room. It didn’t make a bingo though. I have three in that column, one of them was that dead person and that’s almost black because I had to cross that out like seven times.
drew 
									
And that gets an applause break. It’s one of her better reads for the night.
ross
									
Definitely, if you haven’t gotten the sense already, this was a better night than the previous reading.
carrie
									
Much, much better.
ross
									
Yeah, I would have given the other one a D- or an F, whereas this one, a solid C+. Maybe even a B-.
carrie
									
Maybe. May-B-minus.
drew 
									
So there was two more last readings. It was Annabelle.
ross
									
Oh yeah!
drew 
									
So this was one of my favorite ones.
ross
									
Ugh, and I had an Annie on my sheet, and she was saying Annabelle. Ugh, the worst. But continue.
drew 
									
Annabelle, on the other side, a woman, very emotional. Cindy swore to come back to that table. Almost stops her from doing a reading, she’s like, don’t. And Cindy was like, “Okay, I don’t have to read you,” but then the woman was like, “Okay, you can.”
ross
									
That’s interesting, because Cindy tells us we can do that. We can stop her from giving us a reading if we don’t want to receive it, but no one ever really took her up on it.
carrie
									
Sounds like this person almost did.
drew 
									
First she says Annabelle is beautiful, and she sees beautiful hair. Then she sees maybe a dad behind her, and the woman asks Cindy, “Do you want to know who Annabelle was?” which is very interesting. I wonder if Cindy did pick this up.
carrie
									
Yeah, I said, “Oh, I bet it’s a dog.”
drew 
									
Yeah. “A man steps in behind her, dad maybe. Yes, the woman does have a dead dad. A cat runs by, white fluffy cat, kind of a cat? Lot of animals coming in. Dad’s so strong.”
ross
									
Oh yeah, when she said the white fluffy cat, the person was saying, “Oh, well, alright.” So you can tell they had a cat. “Oh, there was some white patching on the cat, so sure, okay, white fluffy cat.”
drew 
									
And Cindy immediately hones in. The woman is clearly like crying and very emotional. Cindy’s like, “You’re very intuitive. You’re very spiritualistic.” She always kind of discerns these, you might be a medium, to people who are clearly really emotionally involved in it. She also sees a Jack or a John, and the woman answered a little unenthused, and then Cindy was like, “We don’t have to talk about that. Uncle Jack, but maybe Jack Daniels, too, because I’m seeing your dad—” and that gets a little laugh.
ross
									
Switch to the alcohol.
carrie
									
Maybe it’s JFK. Anyway.
drew 
									
“It’s so interesting. Angels and feathers, this Annabelle.” And then she’s like, “Is there a connection to Hawaii? Her dad was Hawaiian.”
ross
									
That was pretty good.
drew 
									
Yeah, pretty good. “Spreading ashes in Hawaii,” and she was like, “My mother-in-law’s ashes is in Hawaii.”
ross
									
That was somebody else. She asked then if she had spread ashes in Hawaii, and that particular person she was reading didn’t respond to that, but then someone nearby said, “I spread my mother’s ashes in Hawaii.” Again, one of these things where all of us in the audience should be like, oh, maybe that’s sort of a common thing then that she’s using this. But, no, count it as a hit.
carrie
									
And then she says to that one, “Well, your father or mother or whatever wants you to know they appreciate you respecting their wishes.” Okay.
drew 
									
So then Cindy goes back to this woman and she’s like, “Okay, I’m seeing a young child on the other side, maybe 15 year old. The child grew up on the other side.” So once again affirming that you can grow up on the other side. This doesn’t really hit. She says, “Let me think about that. Liz or Liza, a sister. It feels like there was a miscarriage. Maybe Liz’s. So much love to everyone.” So she can that she kind of got cold. There’s not a Liz or Liza, there was not a child on the other side, there was no miscarriage. Then she’s like, “I see a birdhouse everywhere,” and she’s like, “We have a chicken.”
ross
									
Yeah, she’s sharing all of these little fleeting images and pieces, but we still haven’t solved the mystery of who Annabelle is, and finally—
carrie
									
“And now we see it. A bird cage. Yes, we have a chicken.”
drew 
									
The sitter says, “Don’t tell HOA.” There’s a laugh line, but Cindy’s like, “No, that’s true. Your dad wants to say that there’s a neighborhood full of snoops and don’t let the chicken get out because people will snitch on you.”
ross
									
Cindy’s referring to some busybody neighbor that you need to watch out for, because she’s going to tell the homeowner’s association.
drew 
									
Because dad wanted you to know that. Not that you had shared that piece of information with me a second ago.
carrie
									
And not that every HOA is a nightmare.
ross
									
But then eventually the sitter mentions that, “Oh yeah, Annabelle is a yorkie.” So yes, it was a dog all along.
carrie
									
I was so happy.
drew 
									
And then Cindy was like, “That makes sense. Yeah, your dad is with the dog, because all dogs go to heaven.”
ross
									
And I guess that yorkie had long, beautiful hair. But it did all work with the dog. It was consistent with the dog reading.
carrie
									
“All dogs go to heaven,” she literally said. Shout-out to my fellow Don Bluth fans.
ross
									
Yeah, Carrie got all excited. Don Bluth!
carrie
									
Don Bluth.
drew 
									
Someone tried to claim something and Cindy immediately shut them down and said, “Take the postcard.” Have you guys discussed take the postcard?
carrie
									
Yeah, no, that wasn’t mentioned in the first show. It was a fun little saying.
drew 
									
“Take the postcard.” It’s pretty much being like, “If you feel like some details of other people are not entirely clicking and things like that, just take the postcard,” which I think means anything I can say might be applying for you, and things may be jumbled. So it’s like kind of what I was saying about bingo earlier, she’s just encouraging you that like, I might be saying shit, so please grab a hold on it. She’s like, I may not be able to read it, but if you hear a detail that’s important for you, hold onto that, and that’s probably true.
carrie
									
Yeah, she’s sort of inviting you to find little places that match up without making her do a full reading and then take the postcard as like, okay, you got like a tiny, a mini message from the great beyond.
ross
									
And now the work is on you to go make a bigger message out of it on your own time.
carrie
									
And please credit me, thank you.
ross
									
Yeah, exactly. So next she wanted to go back to Mario. She had thrown that name out earlier, it didn’t really land, but she had been on the opposite side of the room for awhile, so she came back to our side of the room and said, “Okay, who’s Mario? Who’s got the Mario back here?”
carrie
									
All three of us—
ross
									
—had our own variation of a joke. Mine was, “I do know a Luigi.”
carrie
									
I said, “He’s pretty two-dimensional, but I know him.”
drew 
									
I think I just was like, “I’m seeing a plumber, but married into royalty.”
ross
									
[Laughs] “And he’s afraid of man-eating plants that comes out of pipes, does that make any sense to you?”
carrie
									
“He’s really into psychogenics, I see mushrooms.”
drew 
									
But the woman in the back claims Mario.
ross
									
Finally, someone claims Mario, yeah.
drew 
									
But there’s a young woman with Mario.
ross
									
Yeah, he was an uncle, and then Cindy asks, “Did he have a traumatic brain injury?” and she said no to that. That didn’t resonate. She said, “Wait, but my grandma has Alzheimer’s.” Cindy says, “No, no, that’s not what we’re talking about here,” and then tries to ask out who Sylvia is, or Sylvie. And apparently there was an aunt Sylvia.
carrie
									
Oh, okay, that’s a good hit. I mean, with the same person?
ross
									
I think so. Or it was someone nearby. She could have done a table shift.
drew 
									
Aunt Sylvia is here. Mario’s quiet. Cindy says, “Research whether aunt Sylvia knows a young woman with a head injury alive.” So we went from Mario, someone claimed Mario, and now it’s you should ask your aunt Sylvia if she knows a young woman with a head injury.
ross
									
Right, so let’s resolve the fact that I’ve just a string of misses and create a little bit of homework for you. I feel bad for these people being sent on these wild goose chases, especially that guy in the previous show who was told to sail off to New Zealand, I think, to do research.
carrie
									
On his genealogy, yeah.
ross
									
It’s like, really? Should he spend thousands of hard earned money, to waste time? I mean, it would be great to go to New Zealand—
carrie
									
Sure, sounds fun.
ross
									
—but let’s not have that be dictated by a psychic, and to have a task to go look up some weird, obscure thing about a relative that never happened.
carrie
									
When his great dream might be to go to Vienna.
ross
									
Right. Exactly. You go where you want to go.
carrie
									
You go, boy.
drew 
									
She asks if this person knows Chloe. No. But a woman tries to claim Chloe, and Cindy immediately gives her a take a postcard, because I think she’s realizing that her time’s running out. Takes a crowd pulse, checks time, and I was expecting her to do one last one and try to really nail it, but then she says, it’s QA time. She really should have done that right after the Annabelle read, because like, whether or not that Annabelle read was good, it really emotionally effected that woman.
ross
									
It was a better place to stop. Yeah, I think it just hit Cindy at that moment. Oh, I need to figure out what time it is, and then she realized it’s already been like an hour and a half. Crazy how time flies when you’re having fun, so.
drew 
									
So kind of, medium part ends on a whimper, in my opinion. But yeah, it’s Q+A time. I mean, you get a chance to finally answer questions about the afterlife. This is huge.
carrie
									
Yeah, this is where it occurs to me, like, I’m asking you to form a religion.
ross
									
Yeah, that’s true. Because people want to get hard information about, okay, how does the afterlife work? Because what you’re postulating with these visions you’re having tell us a lot about what goes on after we die. I love that one woman said that she kept seeing the number 818 all the time.
drew 
									
Yes! Oh my God, this was—
carrie
									
Adorable.
drew 
									
This was insane. She was like, “I see the number 818 all the time,” and Cindy was like, “Yeah, that’s numerology, and you know—”
ross
									
Phone calls from the greater Los Angeles area.
drew 
									
But the woman says, “I see it on my phone.”
carrie
									
Yeah, well she was talking about the clock, though. She said I notice when it’s on my phone.
drew 
									
Now, Ross alluded to it, 818 is the area code for Southern California.
carrie
									
Yeah, a lot of it.
drew 
									
Even if you don’t have it, you’re going to see it a lot.
ross
									
But I think either Cindy knew that, or she said, okay well, somehow we need to spin this off into something a little more arcane. She was saying, “Well, this could be a numerology thing, so 8+1 is 9, +8 is 17, 1+7 is 8. So 8 is your important number, so you really need to focus on that.”
carrie
									
Then told her to go find out what 8 means because she doesn’t know.
ross
									
We would ask our numerologist about this, but we probably won’t hear from him again.
carrie
									
He doesn’t want us to be his friend.
ross
									
No. No, that’s not happening.
drew 
									
And she lands on, you know, a lot of people see 11-11.
carrie
									
Well, our friend Mike Clelland really loves repeating numbers, ascending numbers, descending numbers.
ross
									
AKA The Owl Guy.
carrie
									
Right, symmetrical numbers.
ross
									
So then we learn that in the afterlife it doesn’t matter what your religion is. That all of them are equally represented. That’s not a barrier for Cindy.
carrie
									
Okay, what if my religion says that my religion is the only one? How the fuck do you deal with that, Cindy?
ross
									
They’re still all right somehow.
carrie
									
How does that work?
drew 
									
Yeah, she kind of alludes at a real soft platitude of everyone gets to experience that their own afterlife that they want and she just gets like—
ross
									
Well, isn’t that convenient, Cindy?
carrie
									
Isn’t that convenient, it sounds like how you make sure no one leaves here and never comes back.
ross
									
And guess what else is convenient, there’s no language barrier to mediumship. Doesn’t matter, she just gets her impressions free of language, and yet somehow everybody’s still named Mary and John and Joseph and Patrick.
carrie
									
Right, I was just thinking that. David. Yeah.
drew 
									
She got a lot of questions about how to hone medium skills and she was just like, “Don’t limit yourself to how the spirit world can connect to you. It doesn’t have to just be a reading. You can get messages in songs, and anything.”
carrie
									
Dreams. Dreams are big.
drew 
									
Someone asked why do some people come through and others not? And she’s just like, “Too many people. Maybe a private reading is what this person needs.” But she’s like, “Private reading. Sometimes I have a private reading and I can’t guarantee what you’re going to get. If I don’t read the person they want to read, I offer refunds and suggest going to a different person.”
ross
									
Oh yeah. She was being asked if she could give a private reading on the side, and she’s not doing that currently. She has been too busy touring. She’s all over the place giving comedy performances, so you can’t get a private reading with Cindy Kaza right now. Check on her website though, if she’s available in the future, she’ll post it.
carrie
									
She doesn’t bill it as comedy shows, right?
ross
									
No.
carrie
									
Just out of curiosity.
ross
									
Yeah, I’m just saying that because she keeps showing up at comedy venues. But she was saying that she has a list of other psychics she trusts that you can get one-on-one readings with.
drew 
									
And at this point both Ross and Carrie have their hands up, because they have good questions, and she calls on Ross. Ross, what was your question?
ross
									
Well, first of all, does she agree that there are people out there that pretend to have the ability to speak to the other side, and what does she think when she sees that?
carrie
									
She can’t think that, because she says we all can talk to the other side.
ross
									
Right, but I— hm. That’s it. Catch 22.
drew 
									
Hypothetically though, even if someone could connect to the other side and isn’t cultivating it and is just being like, all bullshit.
ross
									
They cynically are pretending to when they’re not developing that ability. They’re not the piano virtuoso, but they’re pretending to be, I guess. Yeah, that’s a good point though. But yeah, she said, “Well, I hate when I see that. That makes us all look bad. I would stay far away from people like that.”
carrie
									
But you’re making her sound three times as confident as she was. You had thrown her. She was like, “[Stammering] Yes, sure, people do that, but like—”
drew 
									
It was very sweaty as a response.
carrie
									
Yeah, I think she soiled herself.
drew 
									
And then she’s like, how to prevent that, come to events like this, see us real. Like, continue supporting me.
ross
									
Alright, but you had a question. You got called upon a little later.
carrie
									
Yes, so I asked her, kind of piggybacking, if you will, on your question from the previous event—
ross
									
Yeah, she didn’t betray any knowledge of having interacted with us just a week beforehand.
carrie
									
So you asked at the previous event, do the ghosts or spirits or whatever get frustrated that they can’t seem to communicate very clearly through mediums? So I said, so, all of us here will be dead one day, what can we do to make it easier for us to communicate to someone like you?
ross
									
That’s a great question.
carrie
									
Thank you, thank you.
ross
									
She thought it was a great question, too.
carrie
									
Yeah, she had never heard it.
ross
									
She said, “Oh, yeah, I’m gonna have to meditate on this. Yeah, thank you for that question.”
carrie
									
Yeah, I wish I had thought in the moment to be like, “We should all rename ourselves Mary or Joe or John!”
ross
									
Yeah, I think all of us had, for each of our questions on both nights, like snarkier follow-ups we could have included.
drew 
									
Real case of staircase wit.
carrie
									
Oh, what’s that?
ross
									
Staircase wit?
drew 
									
Staircase wit is like the thing when you come up with the perfect line.
carrie
									
Oh, I’m glad that has a phrase.
ross
									
But in this case, we had the witty replies ready, but we didn’t want to be jerks in the moment.
drew 
									
She kind of gets a lot of like, “What’s heaven like?” questions and she gives very soft platitudes of like, “You know, I can’t really see the afterlife and what it’s like because we see things in duality and in such good bad kind of ways,” and she’s like, “I just experience a different dimensional connection, but I don’t actually know what the afterlife is like.”
carrie
									
Was this the same person who asked her if there’s a hell?
drew 
									
Someone did ask, I’m not positive, whether or not she gets messages from bad people, and she’s like, “There’s clearly a bad place—”
ross
									
She said there’s a flipside to everything, so yeah. There’s only good because we can compare it with the bad.
carrie
									
This is a huge revelation, Cindy. She passes all this off as if, ah, you know.
ross
									
Yeah, I don’t think she wants to accept all of the assumptions that are built into these answers that she’s giving.
carrie
									
The implications. Yeah, I agree, and it’s like, girl, you are building a religion. Own it or don’t.
ross
									
But she said, “Yeah, I do occasionally see glimpses of really terrible things, but I just don’t want to connect with those—”
drew 
									
She also says it comes in at a different level as the good people, so I think she says she can kind of dial down getting medium messages, and she’s like, “I only get intrusive ones at night when I’m a little more open.”
ross
									
She’s asked if they have jobs on the other side, so that question is put to her pointedly, and she answers that, “Yeah, well, people don’t do things like fix cars, but they do help people. They teach children. They do all these community-minded things.” What about the person that was dancing?
carrie
									
Oh yeah. Who is— okay, they don’t fix cars. Do they fix music equipment?  Because your clubs are going to need it.
drew 
									
One of my favorite questions was when someone asked, “How do you prevent yourself from blurting things out that you’re seeing from other people day in and day out?” and Cindy of course reiterates that she can kind of close up and prevent those kinds of things, but then Cindy has to explain to this person, like, social boundaries. She’s like, “Oh, I wouldn’t do that, because it would make the other person uncomfortable—”
ross
									
Fair enough.
drew 
									
“—and make me seem crazy.” She’s like, “So I’ve trained myself to not scream what I’m seeing at people.”
carrie
									
Mostly a good way to go, but what if you walk by someone and their grandpa comes in and was like, “I was murdered by her husband and you need to tell her!” and you’re like, “Nah, she’s going to think I’m weird.”
drew 
									
I was going to ask her about mediumship to solve crimes and whether she does that, but the idea came to me too late.
ross
									
It’s a very good point, like, “oh I should warn them about their impending death, but—”
carrie
									
“Eh, they’re going to think I’m a real kook.”
ross
									
“—they’re buying orange juice right now, and I really shouldn’t intervene, so, too bad about you dying next week.”
drew 
									
Loved ones feel or hear thoughts, so, they can read your mind.
ross
									
That’s a little frightening.
carrie
									
Cool, cool.
ross
									
Yeah, I was never thrilled about Jesus being able to see me when I was in the bathroom, but you know.
drew   
									
Isn’t it interesting how the messages are never about chiding you for watching porn or knowing that you’re planning an affair or you think racist thoughts. She never gets that messaging from people.
ross
									
I think that’d be a great schtick for a psychic though, to call people out on that kind of stuff, which makes me think I should become a psychic just so I can do that alternate routine.
drew 
									
Someone asks about angels, and she explains that that it’s different than spirits. Angels are employees of God or whatever.
ross
									
But she’s all for them.
drew 
									
Then she ends and she plugs.
carrie
									
So she’s going to be on the Travel Channel. You should go to her website, MediumCindyKaza.com, and come to more shows like this. She doesn’t do private readings anymore. Not right now. Thanks everybody.
ross 
									
Medium Cindy Kaza, K-A-Z-A, dot com.
carrie
									
[Singing] dot com.
ross
									
Promo code ohno.
carrie
									
[Laughs.] Yeah, I don’t think we need to rate this one, because we’ve done mediumship many times, but—
ross
									
Well, we’ve unpacked this performance pretty well, but yeah. I think we can sum up and say, don’t think she’s real, as a psychic.
carrie
									
Yeah. She exists.
drew 
									
Jury’s still out for me. I wouldn’t mind seeing a larger example.
ross
									
Hey, you did come on the better night. She did much better that night.
carrie
									
Okay. Cool, cool babe. I will say, though, the Improv appears not to serve hot drinks, so thumbs down.
ross
									
Psh. Boo.
carrie
									
Boo.
ross
									
But yeah, I had a good time going both nights; and I don’t know, I almost feel like we should make it a regular thing, any time Cindy Kaza’s in town. Go to Cindy Kaza’s show.
carrie
									
Yeah. Come find us at the next Cindy Kaza show that’s within, uh, 35 miles of Los Angeles.
drew 
									
That sounds doable. I could do that.
ross
									
Coming up, we’ve got a really fun interview with Susan Gerbic and Mark Edward. We kind of mentioned in the first Cindy Kaza episode that Cindy had mentioned these stings that some skeptical groups were doing where they would set up fake profiles and then expose a psychic for hot reading based on those fake profiles, so yeah, we’ll talk a little bit more about that next week.
carrie
									
It’s a good interview. Stay tuned.
ross 
									
That was it for her show. We went back out to the car and got some Starbucks and went home.
carrie
									
It was time.
ross
									
We didn’t talk to anybody else, we didn’t get their feedback on her, but it felt like the audience was more impressed tonight than they were the previous night. The guy next to her, he definitely seemed to enjoy me filling out my card, but he did not look impressed afterwards. He got up and looked like, okay, I finally get to go home now.
carrie
									
But speaking of other audience members, when I went up to the will call window to get our tickets, I thought that you, Ross, were still standing behind me, and the woman giving me my tickets asked me to sign something, and I said, “Surely,” and I signed it, and then I turned around and went, “Shirley!” with my hands in jazz hands, because I remembered your grandma’s name is Shirley, and the person behind me was not you.
ross
									
Well, if that had been a successful cold reading, they would have been like, oh my goodness, I came to talk to my grandma Shirley tonight, this is amazing.
carrie
									
I didn’t even need to go in.
ross
									
I didn’t even need to see Cindy, the crazy lady in line in front of me just turned around and yelled my grandmother’s name. “Shirley!” That’s pretty good. Alright, well, now that’s it for our show. Our theme music is by Brian Keith Dalton.
carrie 
									
This episode was edited by Victor Figueroa.
ross
									
Our administrative manager is Ian Kramer.
carrie
									
You can support this and all our investigations by going to MaximumFun.org/donate. D-O-N-A-T-E. And Drew, how can people find you?
drew 
									
I’m on Twitter @DrewSpurs. You can listen to my and Cait Raft’s podcast, This Podcast Is Self Care, available anywhere you listen to podcasts; and yeah, any live dates or anything like that, I’ll be posting it on Twitter, so come on out.
ross
									
Exciting. You can also support us by giving us a positive rating on iTunes or Stitcher or Overcast or wherever it is you get your podcasts.
carrie
									
The Next Door app.
ross
									
Doesn’t cost anything, except for a couple minutes. Just leave a five star review, and say this podcast read me to a T.
carrie
									
Or, the next time you have to sign one of those paper guest books, just write, “I really love Oh No, Ross and Carrie! It’s a really good podcast, you should listen to it.”
ross
									
Yeah. These are all good ideas. Tell your friends.
carrie 
									
And you can follow us on Twitter @ohnopodcast, or Facebook at Facebook.com/ONRAC.
ross
									
There’s so many pictures, there’s so many articles, there’s so many cool things you can do there. And remember—
speaker 1
									
Welcome back.
cindy kaza
									
What’s up, everyone.
speaker 1
									
Medium Cindy Kaza in the building.
cindy
									
I am here— in the building? We’re in the car.
speaker 1
									
We’re not in the building, we’re in the car. So what’s going on in the news, you got some skeptics out there or what?
cindy
									
No, it’s not about me.
speaker 1
									
No, I know—
cindy
									
Well, I guess—
speaker 1
									
But it’s interesting because it’s just like anything. So these guys are running around, tell me. Tell me the story.
cindy
									
So there was an article that came out in the New York Times, like, what day— today’s Friday? So I think it was like Tuesday or something. I don’t know. But, oh look, there’s already somebody posting the bible. Thank you, I appreciate that. I respect your opinion. But, um.
speaker 1
									
But we will say goodbye to you. Goodbye.
cindy
									
Well, it’s okay, it doesn’t offend me, but there was an article that came out which is coming from people who are going around and trying to prove that psychic mediums are all fake. Maybe not all fake. It didn’t say all psychic mediums. But what they’re doing is they’re going around and going to live events and setting up fake Facebook pages to see if the medium is using social media to research the people in the audience prior to the show.
speaker 1
									
Who has that kind of time?
cindy
									
I don’t know. I mean, I don’t, but that’s what I was talking to you about earlier. I’m so glad I work in the venues that I work in, because I don’t have access to the client list—
speaker 1
									
Correct.
cindy
									
—or the ticket list.
speaker 1
									
Yeah, you have no idea who’s going. I don’t even know who’s coming.
cindy
									
Yeah.
speaker 1
									
So that’s interesting, but the thing is, there’s probably some people out there that are doing it fake.
cindy
									
Well, of course. There are fakes everywhere.
speaker 1
									
There’s frauds in anything.
cindy
									
There’s fakes in any field, right? And there certainly are.
speaker 1
									
I mean, look at doctors. There’s people that impersonate doctors, and they do real surgeries—
cindy
									
That’s horrifying.
speaker 1
									
—and then they go to jail. That’s crazy. So there’s crazy people out there doing things like that all the time, but did they find anybody that was doing it? Were they valid in any of the circumstances?
cindy
									
Well, I don’t know. I mean, I’m not— I don’t know, because I didn’t see the research, I didn’t see any of the documents. It’s like, you know, they’re writing an article, and then you’re going on hearsay if that’s true or not. So I don’t even want to comment on that, but I think that talking about that sort of thing is really important, because skepticism, I think skepticism is good. People should be skeptical, and it’s a healthy thing. But not all mediums are frauds. [Laughs.]
music
									
“Oh No, Ross and Carrie! Theme Song” begins playing.
promo
									
Allie: Hi, I’m Allie Goertz. Julia: And I’m Julia Prescott, and we’re the hosts of— Allie & Julia: [In unison] Everything’s Coming Up Simpsons. Julia: Every episode we cover a different episode of The Simpsons that is a favorite of our special guest. Allie: We’ve had guest that are writers, and showrunners, and voice actors, like Nancy Cartwright. [Clip plays episode audio of Bart Simpson] Bart: I got a D-, I passed! Allie: And we’ve also had people that are on the Max Fun network already. Julia: We’ve had Weird Al Yankovic on the show. Weird Al: I was just struck by how sharp the writing is. I mean, that’s no surprise because it’s The Simpsons, but I mean like, you can’t say that about a lot of TV shows, particularly ones that, at that point, had been on the air for fourteen years. Allie: Find us on MaximumFun.org, iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Alright, smell ya later.
speaker 1
									
MaximumFun.org
speaker 2
									
Comedy and Culture.
speaker 3
									
Artist owned—
speaker 4
									
—audience supported.
About the show

Welcome to Oh No, Ross and Carrie!, the show where we don’t just report on fringe science, spirituality, and claims of the paranormal, but take part ourselves. Follow us as we join religions, undergo alternative treatments, seek out the paranormal, and always find the humor in life’s biggest mysteries. We show up – so you don’t have to. Every week we share a new investigation, interview, or update.
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