S2E6: We Were Promised Robot Maids and Underwater Cities, But All We Got Was This Lousy Smartphone

We reflect on what we thought the future would be like when we were kids, compared to the reality of our current world.

• Tribute to Val Kilmer, discussing his iconic roles from Real Genius to Tombstone
• Expectations vs reality of technology—where are our flying cars and robot maids?
• Childhood predictions about life in the year 2000 and beyond
• How Gen X believed in a future of improved health, environment, and space exploration
• Memories of nuclear war fears and Disney's optimistic visions of tomorrow
• Five Minutes of Fame: Amy's adventure meeting Henry Rollins in Dublin
• Sharing backstage stories of meeting celebrities after concerts

Join us next time in our newly renovated studio space, complete with a vintage 70s home bar for mixing cocktails on set.

Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Introduction
• 3:36 Studio Revamp and Changes
• 8:11 Val Kilmer Tribute
• 24:30 Childhood Future Predictions
• 36:48 Where Are Our Flying Cars?
• 49:24 Five Minutes of Fame: Henry Rollins
• 56:09 Backstage Celebrity Encounters
• 59:14 Episode Wrap-Up

Transcript

Megan Bennett: 0:00

I'm Megan Bennett,

Lesley Meier: 0:01

I'm Lesley Meier

Megan Bennett: 0:02

and this is Gen X. Women Are Sick of this Shit.

Lesley Meier: 0:10

Megan.

Megan Bennett: 0:11

Hey, how are you?

Megan Bennett: 0:12

We're far away from one another.

Lesley Meier: 0:15

We are.

Megan Bennett: 0:15

I don't care for it personally.

Lesley Meier: 0:17

It is what makes me think of did you watch during COVID the David Tennant? During COVID the David Tennant, michael Sheen.

Megan Bennett: 0:25

Yes

Lesley Meier: 0:25

, I do have a little bit of like.

Lesley Meier: 0:35

I want to do that. That's so cool Because they were so fucking funny.

Megan Bennett: 0:36

Can we do it without a pandemic, though? That's the key. Yeah, for sure.

Megan Bennett: 0:38

I don't want one of those.

Lesley Meier: 0:40

Odds are you and I won't live to see the next pandemic.

Megan Bennett: 0:43

I hope that's true

Lesley Meier: 0:46

, that technically over the past you know there's been like a pandemic every hundred years, but we are giving it the old college try.

Lesley Meier: 0:56

We're really working on another pandemic To make things happen a little bit faster than we did in the past. Yeah, it's a good time. We like it. Hi, here we are on the internet.

Megan Bennett: 1:13

Hi Lesley

Lesley Meier: 1:13

Hi Megan, how are you on the?

Lesley Meier: 1:17

internet.

Megan Bennett: 1:19

It's a little weird.

Lesley Meier: 1:20

I'm distracted by myself

Megan Bennett: 1:24

got a lot of buttons to push.

Lesley Meier: 1:26

Do you? I'm just the pictures and the. You know, I see a lot of clients on the internet and I like hide myself so that I am not aware of this, but I thought I should keep track and make sure I'm not doing anything.

Megan Bennett: 1:41

Yeah, it's good, I can see you, you can see see me, all the things. So we're here, it's great, yeah, and there are people who are listening to us who have no idea what the freak we're talking about nope that's true. Tell them what's up, yeah. So we are uh. Well, you are revamping the studio, yeah, and getting us some new cool shit in the studio, so we'll have like a new look and a new feel. The sofa was great, but it was functional.

Lesley Meier: 2:13

It was time. It was time. It's gonna be cool too, I think. I think that's gonna be really good. It was sort of like necessity because the you know we figured the couch out, but it was. You know, it had some limitations. Now we have a set. I think that will be more dynamic. That's fun, allow for more interaction. It will allow for more cocktail mixing.

Megan Bennett: 2:44

Excellent, I mean whatever you need.

Lesley Meier: 2:49

We could bring a guest in. They could take a stool with us if there are folks locally that we want to chat with, and we could maybe put a guest on a TV screen and just have their head sitting on the set. I didn't think about that, but that's really fun.

Megan Bennett: 3:06

We could do that. That would be really fun. It would be like the future. That's the way forward machine.

Lesley Meier: 3:29

That is the way forward machine, just to tease our our gen expert, not an expert main segment today.

Megan Bennett: 3:32

Yeah, before we get to that, though, we've got, um, we've got some other shit to talk about.

Lesley Meier: 3:38

Right, we do yes, what is the bullshit and hot goss for this week?

Megan Bennett: 3:46

What is the bullshit and hot goss for this week? Well, so we lost Val Kilmer this week, so I guess that is our not really hot goss. Well, I guess it's hot goss, it's gossip Sort of, but it's gossip, but we know it's true.

Lesley Meier: 4:00

Yeah, we really should probably just rename the segment to who Died this Week.

Megan Bennett: 4:04

We really should, because that's what we talk about. That is what we talk about, although I suspect at some time we'll have a week where we don't have somebody who just drops dead. I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know.

: 4:16

We'll find out in the future. Al Kilmer passed away on April 1st. Yeah, I'll kill my Pestway on April 1st, not an.

Megan Bennett: 4:29

April Fool's joke?

: 4:31

No, it was not an April Fool's joke.

Megan Bennett: 4:33

Although it's interesting because the first so I was in the Facebook group and I was putting some posts through and I saw a couple of them of people talking about him passing away, and then somebody else. I was putting some posts through and I saw a couple of them of people, you know, talking about him passing away, and then somebody else posted, or wanted to post, that they thought that that was not real, that they had heard that it was a, an April fool's joke, so that, of course, made its rounds too. So but it was true.

: 5:02

It was true.

Megan Bennett: 5:15

So well, so, but it was true, it was true. Well, what do you in when you think of mr val kilmer? What, uh, what movies, what? What springs to mind for you? What was your favorite?

Lesley Meier: 5:20

uh, oh, favorite I don't, I who knows? Okay, so real genius yeah, he was so fucking sexy in real genius. And laszlo hollyfeld is in real genius yeah, statistically wins all of the prizes in whatever giveaway contest enters it. It's so magnificent. So much about that movie I was absolutely convinced was going to be my college experience, like ice in the hallways. Yep, that was going to happen.

Megan Bennett: 5:58

That pool scene, the big party.

Lesley Meier: 6:01

Yeah, popcorn, the popcorn in the house, god in the tooth. So pretty good stuff. Uh, so that was one another oft quoted val kilmer film willow. Yeah, mad morgan, you really are great and the dingo, ate my baby, those two lines that, that, that that line is.

Megan Bennett: 6:27

That line is like I. In fact, I didn't even remember that that was from that movie. That's hilarious because it's people just say it all the time yeah, and you're like why yeah, that's why I guess I always assumed it was like a uh, I don't know a paul hogan, paul hogan.

: 6:42

Is that right? Right, it would make sense. Yes, you're correct.

Megan Bennett: 6:45

But no, apparently it wasn't. It doesn't make any sense in that movie, but okay.

: 6:54

Well, I have like a list of probably five more. I mean, Top Gun was probably our generation's big Because that was his that wasn't his first movie, obviously, because Real Genius was before that, right. I don't think we should commit to any particular timeline.

Megan Bennett: 7:16

Not till we look this up, but if that's not true, he looks much older in Top Gun than Real Genius. He looks much older in Top Gun than real genius magic of mystery.

: 7:31

Unsurprising, he was Swedish. So there you go. Not shocked about that. Well, he was from California. Okay, we're gonna go backwards.

Megan Bennett: 7:42

He was Swedish by like Swedish. His family is Swedish, I mean because he lived in California. Okay, we're going to go. He was Swedish by like Swedish. His family is Swedish, I mean because he lived in California. He grew up in California, yeah, yeah, because my cousin actually went to high school with him. Oh, that's crazy. She said he was an asshole.

Megan Bennett: 8:03

In high school yes. Oh yeah, she was in theater with him in high school Swedish boys in high school.

Megan Bennett: 8:13

But here, here's cool while you look that up while you, while you figure out what the hell his first movie was. I will tell you what I think is the most impressive thing about him, asshole or not. In high school he was the youngest person to attend Juilliard. Oh my goodness, at the time like the youngest person, so that's cool. Yeah, that's kind of a big deal. So may have been a jerk in high school, but still pretty damn good actor.

: 8:40

Very talented yeah, did you watch the documentary about?

Megan Bennett: 8:44

I did not.

: 8:45

No, I haven't yet so my spouse and I watched it. It was really good. Um, and they went into his whole phrase on a cracker, all the words are going straight out the mark twain stage. Oh yeah, that he was doing okay, which was just moving as he was. I think he got diagnosed like during the opening of that or something like that, like it started and then everything stopped, which was fascinating and he was incredible from the clips that we saw in that. Um and then, well, this is kind of a spoiler, but not like if you watch it the whole thing is narrated by his son but you don't know until the end, because he sounds just like his dad.

: 9:36

Oh, that's cool and it's it's just wild. It was really really very good. I had tons of empathy. His um relationship with his daughter was very sweet. I mean just them spending time with him.

Lesley Meier: 9:51

Yes, it was good.

: 9:52

It's literally taken me this fucking long I'm kind of vamping to find this list. Okay, top Secret was 1984, so 11. Real Genius in 1985. Top Gun in 1986. Yeah, so good. Okay, so Top Secret was the first one. Top Gun in 1986. Yeah, so good. Okay, so Top Secret was the first one. Top Secret was first, oh, okay.

Lesley Meier: 10:11

There you go, nick.

Megan Bennett: 10:12

Rivers.

Lesley Meier: 10:13

I like it Okay. And then Willow was 1988. The Doors 1991. These are just my favorites that I'm pulling out.

Megan Bennett: 10:24

You know my husband hates. Jim Morrison so much that he actually hates Val Kilmer, because of that movie.

Lesley Meier: 10:38

It's a long way to go around just disliking somebody but I dislike him because of that. You did such a good job. I hate you. Uh, tombstone was 1993. One of that's my favorite so good batman 95, ghost and the darkness 96, along with the island of dr moreau.

Megan Bennett: 11:02

Oh, yeah, oh.

Lesley Meier: 11:03

I forgot about that one, and that's kind of when I stopped watching Val Kilmer movies.

Megan Bennett: 11:09

Yeah, I would agree, that's yeah.

Lesley Meier: 11:14

I think that's about when he dropped off Kiss, kiss, bang Bang. I feel like I have watched that, but I don't recall.

Megan Bennett: 11:21

Yeah don't know.

Lesley Meier: 11:22

But he went on to make you know a ton more movies. Oh, he was in the Jay and Silent Bob reboot in 2019. Didn't know. And then, of course, pop Gun Maverick, which just came out in 2021. Yep, there you go. That's awesome. What's your most favorite of, or the one that you just enjoy? It doesn't have to be your favorite what's your most favorite of, or the one that you just enjoy it doesn't have to be your favorite, probably, as in I mean, going to school for acting myself.

Megan Bennett: 11:52

I think the one that I enjoyed the most was Tombstone, because his, his portrayal in that, in that particular movie, was so good. I mean, I really felt like this guy's got tuberculosis and he was a little snarky. You know, it was exactly what I and what I think that that character, you know, that that person really was just, it was perfect, so really liked that and it was a I don't know. That was probably my favorite and I know I've seen Top Gun many times. It's been a long time since I've seen it, but that kind of sticks in my head too. But man, top Secret was just so freaking funny. Yes, that it's, I don't know, like bravo to him for that being his first film and coming out strong with comedy like that. That's really hard to do yes.

: 12:50

Incredible range. Right when you look at all of those movies like incredible range yeah.

Megan Bennett: 12:57

Yeah, he did sing the doors, all the stuff on the doors himself, doors, all the stuff on the doors himself. So he went to Oliver Stone and said, if I sing and you can't tell the difference, you have to let me sing on the film. And Oliver Stone couldn't tell the difference. So he got to. He got to sing actually on the on the movie instead of lip sing. Pretty cool yeah.

Lesley Meier: 13:22

That movie came out as if it was 91. I was graduating from high school and going to college, yep, and it was sort of like the epitome of like jim morrison's so cool, val kilmer's so cool, like party band. Do whatever you want, I'm the lizard king. Let's go trip in the desert. Yeah, yeah, yeah Didn't end well. Well, you know it's hard on your body these things. Yeah, it is. It's hard to be a rock star and an actor, both, both and yeah.

Megan Bennett: 14:00

So we will miss him. I think that you know his, uh, his health struggle was was a hard. It was hard, it was hard to watch. It was, you know, you see, somebody who was in Real Genius and in the Doors and was kind of this hottie, hottie, go through something that's just so hard and difficult and that, on top of aging, you know, it's like it hits home a lot when you as you, as you and you watch people or once the you know, the super hot, sexy sexies get old and pass away. Oof, not fun.

Lesley Meier: 14:44

And your body is your instrument as an actor. So anything that impacts your body, your voice, your ability to, move.

Megan Bennett: 14:53

I like that he was still working on acting without a voice. That's pretty impressive, shows how much and how committed he was to that craft?

Lesley Meier: 15:02

yeah, his scene. I watched his scene in um top gun maverick and it was really touching with p and tom freeze. It was good, they did a nice job. The instone you talked about the tuberculosis thing. I was reading just random shit. Did you read about how he, like, did that scene? No, oh, tell me, he laid on a bed of ice. He did what. He did what he laid on a bed of ice so that he would mimic the shivering and sweating of dying of tuberculosis.

Lesley Meier: 15:42

Oh my goodness, so that it would look real. So when you said that, I was like I wonder if she knows that.

Megan Bennett: 15:48

No, I didn't know that, but that's you know.

: 15:52

Talk about method dude Sucks, don't do that. But that's you know. Talk about method dude Sucks, don't do that. Well, yeah, hope he got paid a few extra bucks. We'll talk off the show about the Island of the Island. There are a couple of movies like Art Imitating Life, life Imitating Art. I just thought that they were so interesting when those two movies came out. Okay, but anyway, uh, rip, we'll love you, val kilmer yep, miss, we'll miss him no well.

Megan Bennett: 16:30

So I think we also need to know what we're sick of this particular week.

: 16:36

What shit are we sick of this week?

Megan Bennett: 16:38

I don't know man, what are you sick of? I feel like I'm a broken record, so I'm sick of all the shit all the time. But what about you?

Lesley Meier: 16:50

Oh, you know I'm sick of people being sick. Oh, you got January. My, you know our dear producer has been sick I think three times in three months. Uh, I have had a cold but just like in general, like in my work, I noticed people have been more sick than ever in that and I had a conversation with my trainer and my trainer also said, like cancellations and just people have been like repeatedly sick, just, and all the things like norovirus, you know regular old flu COVID floating around there still, I mean just the cold viruses in general are just more mutated and awful and I'm sick of wait times to get doctor's appointments.

Megan Bennett: 17:44

That is a and that keeps getting longer and longer and it's I worry about that a lot actually, because just reading in the group, the number of women who are waiting for big appointments and important appointments, you know, like your health care from a couple weeks ago, yeah, but people waiting to be seen for things like that, right, like that's scary, you cannot wait.

Lesley Meier: 18:15

But yeah, just, even if you've got a cold, having to wait sucks and like the clinics and things are kind of fill-ins for little stuff but you're spending two, three, four hours waiting like at a minute clinic or something like that.

Megan Bennett: 18:31

Yeah, to be seen. Around 47 million other germs you know Right, and then you go in with something, you come out with something else.

Lesley Meier: 18:41

It's a two for one deal.

Lesley Meier: 18:42

Two for.

Megan Bennett: 18:43

So the wait times are rough and I think that that, like doubly, is concerning Because we're not treating science very well right now and it makes doctors nervous to be doctors yes, my doctor quit the hospital system so we have to pay a monthly fee basically for her to be my doctor still, which is fine, yeah, so she doesn't use insurance anymore, so we pay for me and my daughter. Both my husband's got insurance through his work, so it works out differently. But he yeah, my doctor has decided that she can't do the rules that insurance puts on doctors. Right, like you have 20 minutes and then you have to be out. You cannot spend a moment longer with them. You've only got this amount of time. So diagnose and get out.

Megan Bennett: 19:43

And my doctor is very loquacious and likes to have long conversations and likes to dig in on what the heck's going on with me and with her patients. So she's stopped that and in some ways it's so far. I think it's been really good because I literally could pick up my phone and text her if I need anything, like hey, I need another prescription for blah blah, blah, she can call it in, I just text her for it. Oh, wow, it's pretty nice.

Megan Bennett: 20:14

I mean and I think we haven't tested this yet, but I think I can take the fee, that monthly fee, and have my HSA pay for it.

: 20:26

Okay so there's a fee like if you look at like so there's a fee, like if you look at like an out of pocket deductible, is it higher than equivalent? You know deductibles can be anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 a year, I think it's.

Megan Bennett: 20:44

It feels like it's less than that. Okay, so you know, and with that I could go see her in person, you know, anytime I wanted to, or I could do a virtual appointment with her, okay, pretty much anytime we needed. So so it's pretty nice and I guess I would say, if you're having trouble with a doctor and trying to get in in a traditional environment, if you can afford to do that money upfront like that, then it might be a good option for some folks. I've heard more and more of that happening. Yeah, I definitely have heard about it. With specialized medicine, I know there's a hormone replacement specialist in town that went away from the insurance model and only does that pay for service model. Seems to work really well for them too.

: 21:40

That was similar for my psychologist who did my ADHD diagnosis. This person explained to me that their whole practice left insurance because insurance wouldn't allow them to do the test that would actually give you an accurate diagnosis.

Megan Bennett: 21:59

Unbelievable.

: 22:00

Testing was so limited and by the time they got done implementing it, spending all those hours and then doing the interpretations, they were losing money. Like it would cost them money then to follow up with the patient and go through all of the interpretation and and it still wasn't covered, like the tests that they really needed to do still weren't covered in addition.

Megan Bennett: 22:23

Yeah, I mean if you next time you're in the doctor like if you're in a doctor's office and they're still working with insurance companies check your watch and see when you get in there and when they leave the room and how long you actually have with them. Because this hormone replacement doctor that I was talking to, he said that the insurance companies literally will deny your payment if you're not in and out within 20 minutes is at least for him that's how it was, and so you'll see like doctors get up and walk towards the door and have their hand on the doorknob and you're like still having a conversation with them and they're they're talking to you as they walk backwards out the door, kind of thing. That's just that's not. That's not good medicine, that's not great.

: 23:13

So that's stressful for them and not good for us.

Megan Bennett: 23:16

Right, Right. And it's not the doctor's fault there, you know they. They have rules that they have to adhere to.

: 23:22

Heck, yeah, it sucks, yeah, okay, well, that's. That's a tiny nugget of what we're sick of today.

Megan Bennett: 23:29

I think that's a pretty damn good thing to be sick of Now.

: 23:31

that's a pretty damn good thing to be sick of. Right now, that's what I'm sick of. Damn it.

Megan Bennett: 23:35

Gen X Women Are Sick of the Shit is supported by Lylas Love you like a sis A Gen X Women's Social Club. What's Lylas Megan? Lylas is our off platform, off the books of faces, off all of the other traditional social media. It is our space and place for Gen X women to come together, have conversations, meet each other. It's a social club.

: 24:00

It is a social club. It's a membership-based club. Memberships are $10 a month. That does help support us in growing the platform. We purchased a platform that would host a network of women so that you could come together and meet each other in real time.

Megan Bennett: 24:19

In a safer space right than a traditional social media platform and a much more personal space. So what do we do there, leslie we?

: 24:29

host movie nights where we live stream some of our favorites as they are available to us for group watches of films from the 70s, 80s and 90s. We host a space for a monthly book club. We host trivia nights once a month we have a live text chat.

Megan Bennett: 24:52

Four prizes even.

: 24:53

Four prizes. That's true, the space is able to host weekly text chats so that you can kind of check in in real time with people. I would say the critical difference between kind of what this space is and any other social media space that I've experienced is that it is active. You will have to engage in it or be engaged in it by other people, so it's not like a passive consumption thing.

Megan Bennett: 25:22

It's like making connections, yep, and if that's what you're looking for the opportunity to meet other people, to find people who are maybe in the same similar spaces as you are. Like-minded, Same time phase of life, navigating all of those transitions, then this might be the right place for you. So check out, lylas. You can learn more about it at genxwomenpodcom. Oh my gosh, okay. So I have a question for you, leslie. Yes, ma'am, I'm ready. I want to know when you were a wee tot or, you know, a teenager or?

Lesley Meier: 26:02

somewhere in between A tater tot.

Megan Bennett: 26:04

What did you think this world was going to be like in? Like the year 2020, you know, or like the year 2000,. You know, because I'm thinking like when we were in elementary school, the year 2000 or the year 2020 was a really long, long way in the future. Yeah, it was, and you know, we were watching all these spacey movies and stuff. What did you think your life was going to be like?

: 26:42

So I have a really specific memory of a science project that I had to do in middle school some time and I went to a really unique middle school. I went to a Montessori school, so like grades were big, I don't know. So it was like six something, whatever, and it was um, what did you think like your city of the future would be? Okay? And mine was underwater and I remember like drawing this like bell jar thing that would like sink down in the ocean and it had like multiple floors and we could see outside and see all the ocean life all around us and it was really complex. It was like where the waste was and how we would cook and how we would deal with like air, and I had like a complex system of like tubes that would go up above and then down below, and but I was convinced that we were going to live underwater, which is the opposite of outer space. It's inner space.

Megan Bennett: 27:48

It's inner space, baby. That's cool. I love that you like figured out the air, the air handling system in the underwater world yes, I can kind of see this like pencil drawing that I did.

: 28:00

Yeah, it was cool and like because we had to know how to grow food in there and like I knew if you needed to like cook something you'd have to be able to ventilate, like smoke you, you know, you'd air particulates and stuff, and it was like multiple floors. I mean, I, I wouldn't be surprised if I don't have it in a box somewhere, cause I'm a little bit of a like nostalgia paper. No, I think that's cool. So that's what I imagined. Okay, that's the first thing that comes to mind. What about you? What was the future? How far in the future was the future?

Megan Bennett: 28:38

Well, I mean, I remember like thinking, how morbid is this. I remember thinking, well, I wonder if I'll live to see 2030. You know, like my God, if I live to 2030, that makes me really old, absolutely. Like oh shit. Like I look at the calendar now and I'm to 2030, that makes me really old Absolutely. It's like oh shit. I look at the calendar now and I'm like, well, fuck me. So who knew? But I remember, for whatever reason, 2030 was like the magic number that I was like, if I live to that, I'm old. But I never got so detailed like that. You had a whole city planned out. I think I let walt disney do that for me. Oh, but yes, I expected a flying car. I expected like hoverboards and a flying car, and I'm still. I'm still a little pissed, honestly, to be to be completely honest, I am not happy about the fact that we do not have flying cars.

: 29:35

I feel so many cartoons the jets flying car, yeah, yeah, star wars, land speed flying car yeah yeah, do we have one?

Megan Bennett: 29:49

no, we do not. And in fact, do you remember when that stupid Segway scooter thing was coming out? Do you remember that thing? Yeah, do you remember how they marketed those? No. So they made this big announcement that the transportation of the future was going to be unveiled, and it was this big hullabaloo and this is. I mean, this was like I don't know 20 years ago or whatever, when they did this and I was watching that and I was thinking, oh, they're going to unveil the flying car and I was so excited and then it was a fucking segue it's like so stupid, they don't make them. No, no, they just no. I think they make them for like, like you can't go buy one now and and that was like.

Megan Bennett: 30:48

That was like gonna be the thing, like you were gonna buy that and then they were gonna have to like rebuild roads to accommodate the segway. Like there was this whole thing about that which was so dumb, because we want to ride like a motor, yeah, like you're gonna ride, like just push forward and like not fall in your, I don't know anyway super stupid but they still have them.

Megan Bennett: 31:09

I know you can. You can do like tours and in different parks, like in city parks and stuff like that. I think they've got them in DC and I know they've got them in Indian, like White River State Park, so you could go do a half an hour segue tour, of which 20 minutes of that is you trying to learn how to stay on the thing without falling off Right. Did you ever ride one? I have. Yeah, they're dumb Like truly. I hope I'm not offending anybody who is like a massive fan of the Segway. I love Segways.

: 31:55

I'm in a Segway gang Not until 2030.

Megan Bennett: 32:00

Then we can join the Segayn leggings, because we'll be in the future and really old. Yeah, so stupid, but anyway, I expected a flying car uh, yes, agreed, I mean, I still bitch about it.

: 32:11

It was what was advertised. Flying cars If we look at the Jetsons, flying cars, robot maids, robot maids, space dogs, yeah, Like a little. You just float around in space. Yeah, what else? Well, I mean, you promised.

Megan Bennett: 32:33

We had Buck Rogers. We had Battlestar Galactica. We had buck rogers. We had battle star galactica. We had star wars. We had um star trek, star trek, oh, freaking star trek. Like we should be able to like beam from one space to another space. Right, couldn't I be able to like beam to London for lunch or something?

: 32:52

Yes, we are woefully behind on the beaming I want to be able to beam. Because that was, I mean, solved all of our problems. If we would just get that sorted.

Megan Bennett: 33:08

Certainly our travel issues would be limited, although I suspect, like with millions of people beaming to millions of places, there's like there's gonna be like particles that get crossed and then you end up like with somebody else's eyeball or I don't know.

: 33:24

It's like mr mrs, potato head little parts out and I imagine them mixing with like did you ever play the cootie game when you were a little kid?

Megan Bennett: 33:36

there's like potato heads and cooties, yep you get a like antenna hanging out of your ear strong kind of like. We're like sort of a cootie antenna hanging out of your ear hole.

: 33:50

There you go we know what happens if we beam. We turn into the fly. We've watched that movie.

Megan Bennett: 33:56

Yes, you turn into the fly. You do not want to do that. I mean, if we're going to beam, I hope we get the technology right.

: 34:04

So the future. I think also that we were reading some kind of reflections from kids in the 80s about.

Megan Bennett: 34:15

Yeah, I found some on Smithsonian Magazine that were really cute, like an article that somebody had done, and some of these kids, like this kid, Marty, was age 10. And he said in the year 2000, we will have all round buildings, we will have a robot teacher, a robot maid and all workers will be robots too. A robot teacher, a robot maid and all workers will be robots too. We will have a pocket computer that has everything you can name and we'll be able to push a button and get anything we want. So we do have pocket computers, right, We've got like our cell phones that are pretty pocket computer-like, Although Surrey is woefully inaccurate or like woefully lame compared to like what I expected. Oh, absolutely In the year 2025.

: 34:58

You can't actually just ask Siri questions and have correct answers. It's basically like here's something I found on the internet, but you're going to have to click it and read it to get the information and I'm like I'm fucking driving, siri. That's why I'm asking you this question right, right.

Megan Bennett: 35:17

Or like I'd like you to put something on my calendar and then remind. Like you can't chain, ask siri to do things. So like it's not really a it's not really a helpful assistant, it's just like handle more than one task Right Like thanks.

: 35:33

It's just as linear as human beings yeah. Siri Right.

Megan Bennett: 35:39

Siri, can you help me with my ADHD? This one's kind of fun. This was Tim, who was also 10 in the year 2000. Everybody might be walking instead of riding in their cars, because there might be a gas shortage by then Cars give out a lot of pollution. Or there might even be electric cars instead of gas cars.

: 36:06

Hey, got that one right.

Megan Bennett: 36:08

The year 2000 may send ladies to the moon to explore and look and see if there are people living on the moon.

Megan Bennett: 36:14

I like that very specific differentiation that it's women who are doing the exploring they're going to send the ladies to find the people on the moon, because we don't trust sending the gents, or maybe we just don't like ladies so much and we're just trying to get rid of them and send them to the moon. He said also, when you work, you will push buttons and robots will come out and do the work for you and there will be lower prices and taxes. I hope.

Lesley Meier: 36:41

Oh well.

: 36:46

There were some pretty good. I found a few and I think these are kind of things that I thought about as a young person. In the future, we'll all be healthy, right, like we'll be well, there'll be a cure for the common cold, saving people from cancer. We'll live for like 150 years, this young gentleman said. Medical facilities and growth will double the current size to handle the aging population. And this is a very complicated sentence, cosmetic and genetic advancement. But they just assumed like, of course, we're going to take better care of people, right, we're going to be healthier, we're going to be actively working to help people, people, and I find that very ironic given our current climate where we seem to be actively undermining these things.

Megan Bennett: 37:40

Yeah, absolutely, I mean, I really did think. I remember thinking as a kid that we would have a longer lifespan. Yeah, absolutely, like we'd live to be 150 years old, right, yes, yeah, that's not happening. No, I'm not kidding. I'm not getting my fucking flying car. No, flying car, and I could drop dead at any second, so that's great I mean technically.

: 38:01

I guess that's always true. I guess that's right, I'm dead at any second.

Megan Bennett: 38:07

Um, there were a lot of predictions for, like john, this nuclear war really influenced our thinking about the future uh, I know it did me, but yeah, like I'm flipping through some of these readings, what some of these kids said, like we all should be talking to therapists because, holy shit, like we were really terrified of of nuclear war. It was everything in the back of our minds. I mean, we had drills at school, right we?

Lesley Meier: 38:40

had all that shit.

Megan Bennett: 38:42

And then we had movies like war games, yeah. And then we had other movies like the day after tomorrow. Do you remember that thing? So that was, um, it was like a like a TV special, I think, or it was something I don't remember. I don't think you saw it in school. I think it was like a TV special, okay, and it was literally like the day after a nuclear war happened and horrific, like scary, scary shit, and a kid was like the, the main character in that. So crazy.

: 39:20

I probably watched it, I probably just don't remember it, which I'm finding really amusing right now.

Megan Bennett: 39:25

Well, and I hope that you don't remember it. I hope that you're. It's not. You're not carrying that around with you. I was always petrified that we were going to get blowed up, like that was always in the back of my head. But that's partially due to where we lived, because growing up we lived near the Naval Avionics building in Indianapolis which my grandmother, when we would drive by that would remind me literally every time we drove by it that it was on one of the top places that would get nuked if we were going to have a nuclear war.

: 40:08

Grandma, what the fuck? What are you doing? I would say maybe one thing that we've done like weren't there like supersonic planes for a little while, like supersonic flight, we had the Concorde, yeah, we had the Concorde yeah. Does that?

Megan Bennett: 40:22

still do its thing. Nope, concorde's been retired. What happened there? I don't know All the futures in the past, I don't know man, I know we're going backwards.

: 40:35

Get in your cave, leslie I'm sorry, I will draw some shit on a cave wall.

Megan Bennett: 40:43

What I said draw some shit on a cave wall.

: 40:46

That's all you got and leave it for the future. When they look back and they're like, man, that was so long ago and I was like, no bro, we had like computers and shit. Yeah, I was drawing in my cave. It's cool we were this close. Uh, this article on paleo future, the history of the future about the 80s, there's this little section on government and this young man says people with big investments will have more say in governing the city through big-time politics.

Megan Bennett: 41:16

Oh, oh, ouch.

: 41:19

Okay, nostradamus, we were forecasting oh, this one's good, this one's good. The governor will be a wild and crazy old man with a robot to enforce all his laws and a computer to control all human thoughts. Oh, my God, but it's not that far off, dear God. I just thought it was funny, but but I really I thought that like the future was going to be about technology improvement, ease to life, health, longer life, environmental restoration, just finding ways to not Because we grew up, we're the acid rain generation, we're the nuclear generation.

Megan Bennett: 42:04

Hole in the ozone, all the things.

: 42:05

Recycling needs to happen. Yeah, the hole in the ozone. Stop using fucking hairspray. We got rid of styrofoam. We got rid of paper grocerycdonald's.

Megan Bennett: 42:19

Mcdonald's the big blt, you know got rid of that shit.

: 42:25

So the assumption was we're gonna have a healthier, healthier, better planet where we're like this is the future. We're gonna take care of things so that we can live for a long time, and space exploration, of course.

Megan Bennett: 42:40

Right, right, we would have. I did expect that we would have a colony of some sort somewhere, I mean the space station, cool, right, yeah, I guess I thought that we would have a colony on the moon or a colony on probably, you know, maybe Mars. I guess I thought that we would have a colony on the moon or colony on probably, you know, maybe Mars, I guess.

: 43:00

It's the most popular planet. It is.

Megan Bennett: 43:04

It is and probable that there was water there at some time, so you know.

: 43:10

Yeah, but definitely there would be a small group of people living on the moon at this point. Yeah.

Megan Bennett: 43:17

We also should have had technology to do things like blow up asteroids if we needed to Like. Remember all those movies where an asteroid was coming and they could figure out a way to blow it up in mid coming at you, we don't even have a decent spaceship.

: 43:32

Really no, Not truly no. Where's my X-Wing fighter?

Megan Bennett: 43:39

If I can't have a flying car, honey, you can't have an X-Wing.

: 43:43

Come on, I know we can't. I mean, there are lots of comments we could make about rockets not being able to even make it to Well you know, but globally even there have been some not great recent rocket launches.

Megan Bennett: 43:58

it's like we can't really figure it out which is wild, because we already kind of figured it out I know and now it's a real science person would like call in and be like ladies.

: 44:11

Let me explain this to you. So so you hear you theorizing, but let me chat with you about this a little bit and explain astrophysics.

Megan Bennett: 44:23

And Jess. Here's why.

: 44:27

Here's why you can't have your flying car. This is why. This is why we can't have nice things, Because we're the experts at it.

Megan Bennett: 44:36

You know, like I mentioned Disney, yeah, so in Epcot, right, that was supposed to be the world of the future, right. So I mean, I grew up going there and I remember when that opened and I was like, oh well, here we are. We're like, we're ready, this is it. Now we just need to make more of this.

: 45:01

Yep, we're seconds away from it all happening. What's the ride? The round? Oh, it's like the classic. Oh my God, do you remember? We got that little piece of fan mail from she's yelling at us right now, going I know all the words that you can't remember the carousel of progress. I love that? Yeah, cause her letter was like I know what you're trying to say. I'm like please just inject it into my brain. Yeah, carousel of progress. I thought that that was so freaking cool yeah, it's still there.

Megan Bennett: 45:42

It's still fabulous. I mean, that was a, that was from a um a world's fair. It was like the 1960, 1970, 68, 68 world fair, something like that. Okay, yeah, so that. And then it was moved. So disney created that for the world's fair and then it moved to epcot after that.

Megan Bennett: 46:03

So oh, that's cool, I did not know that, or if I had not retained that bit of history that's awesome to know so epcot, experimental prototype community of tomorrow, which never quite saw, you know what it was supposed to be, but that's okay because he died after it.

Megan Bennett: 46:23

Oh he died before he died, before magic kingdom opened in disney in in florida okay, like five, five years, I think, before it actually opened. So he never saw Epcot. But they do have the original model that he was working from. I think that's on the Tomorrowland truck. Now I'm losing my words again, damn damn, damn.

: 46:51

I like what you're talking about.

Megan Bennett: 46:53

Like the little people mover, the people mover, you can go through and see it.

Lesley Meier: 46:57

Yes yes, yes.

: 47:00

So Megan Bennett, leslie Meyer From 1980 till now has been 50 years. No, however many years 40 years, 40 years 40 years.

Megan Bennett: 47:14

We are 40 years from 1980. 45 years.

: 47:19

So what will the future be in 45 more years? Like, what's the next future? Oh wow. And this year is going to be a different answer, probably than any other year.

Megan Bennett: 47:33

Yeah, I don't, I don't know Like I feel a part of that is. I feel so cynical right now about everything in the world that we live in and life in general, so it's really hard for me to to think of anything magical and special outside of. You know, just getting through the next four years and I just think we're taking we are taking a huge step back with science, yes, and that's it's going to hurt us moving forward.

Megan Bennett: 48:08

So I don't know, I don't know. I think we've got so many people in this country who would be very happy just living in the fifties again, right, for all of the things that that means. So I don know, I just I don't know. I don't have any predictions. I hope, I hope aliens come, I hope we have aliens I hope we have aliens. I hope we have aliens and I hope they're nice and I hope they don't want to eat us and otherwise you, I hope for aliens?

: 48:35

Maybe not. I don't think we'd be very healthy we're really full of like. You know, there's so many pesticides on Earth Going to have a bowl of people and they don't want genetically modified foods. So you know, I don't think so. You know what it's like. We get some organic people.

Megan Bennett: 48:55

What they're going to get some organic people? Well, they're gonna. They're gonna get some organic people. They're only getting californians and people from oregon and people from washington.

: 49:02

Uh they're gonna have organic and in non-organic gm, gmo. Uh, soylent green, yeah, because green is people. That's right. I mean, you know it's been a long time since we have done a five minutes of fame.

Megan Bennett: 49:24

Oh, we should do one because we have one let's drop one in hi, my name is amy bragg.

Lesley Meier: 49:29

This is the story of how I got the fabulous picture of henry rollins that I posted in the gen x women Are Sick of this Shit Facebook group and the adventure that brought it about. In 1995, I made good friends with an exchange student from France who lived in my building. We became thick as thieves and when I dropped her off at the airport the next spring, through my ugly crying, my last words to her were see you in France. This little pipe dream of mine started to look like a reality when, the following fall, I had about $850 left over for my student loans just enough to cover my round trip airfare, which saving for was the biggest hurdle I became determined I'd make this happen. My mom, a math whiz, helped me calculate what I would need to save each week to get by on a $50 a day budget, which would have to cover lodging hello, $8. Youth hostel in Barcelona. Food hello. Open air markets with fresh meats and cheeses and baguettes to make sandwiches and any sous-vides I might want. Make sandwiches and any sous-vides I might want. Hello, t-shirts and ashtrays from cool pubs around Western Europe.

Lesley Meier: 50:40

Well, I worked as a waitress at a flash-in-the-pan microbrewery restaurant whose nighttime popularity started to wane. I was living in my first-ever apartment While the downtown restaurant maintained a thriving lunch crowd of suits who worked downtown, evenings were slow and I couldn't work the lunch rush because of school. So between rent and my shitty tips, I was saving zilch. So, with the blessing of my parents, who prioritized a college education above just about everything, at the end of the semester I moved back home, took the semester off and got a waitressing job at Red Lobster where I made bank. I remember every week I deposited $125 into my savings account and had plenty left over to party hard with my friends and co-workers. My parents gave me my rucksack and let's go Europe for Christmas and I think they paid for my year rail pass For my birthday. It was a cutting edge for the day. Little APX camera that took great pics, a detail that will be important to the story. So I did it, with a flight into Barcelona and out of Paris two months later and a year rail pass for everything in between. Off I went.

Lesley Meier: 51:50

But then, culture shock. In Barcelona, I famously whined to my mom they don't have air conditioning, it's hot everywhere, I stink, everyone stinks and everyone is speaking Spanish. I knew enough to ask for a beer, a cigarette in the restroom. Two days in, and I was over it and ready to leave, my mother told me if that's what you want to do, this is your trip, you paid for it and you can change it and come right back home. But I'm here to tell you if you do that, you are going to regret it for the rest of your life. And so I stayed. And how right she was. Anyway, while I was still going fucking nuts with culture shock, she suggested maybe my next stop should be somewhere where English is the native language.

Lesley Meier: 52:35

Enter next stop London, to catch a train and then a ferry to spend the week roaming around Ireland. My last stop there was Dublin. I had mentioned to someone at my youth hostel how hot I thought Henry Rollins was. Just randomly, we were talking about celebs we would like to bang, or something like that. A day or two later, one of them, who didn't even know who he was, told me that they had seen a big poster at a bus stop and that he was playing a gig there. In 10 days I returned to London to see those sites and mom again helped me out by springing for a concert ticket because I had no clue how to go about purchasing a ticket in a foreign land and this was in the super early days of the internet and a BritRail pass so I could see those sites and get back to Ireland. Anyway, when she bought the ticket, the salesperson refused to sell her a pit ticket for the wheel off so balcony it was. So I went back to Dublin 10 days later.

Lesley Meier: 53:32

Once settled into that youth hostel, I strolled around the vicinity of the show. I was by myself and wanted to make sure I could find the venue ahead of time so as not to miss any of the show Done. So then I went to a pub for a couple of beers and I think I saw someone in a black flag T-shirt. I'm shy, initiating conversation with strangers, so I put on my big girl panties and asked this person if they were on their way to the show, which of course they were. Turns out, this person and their group of friends were locals who had seen him at this venue multiple times. They told me they knew and then physically walked me by the exit. They said he always left through after the show.

Lesley Meier: 54:10

So I made my way outside to that exit and there wasn't a huge, huge crowd, but enough people that it clearly wasn't entirely a secret about this exit. And out he came, the sexiest man alive himself. I so wanted to be in the picture I took. But traveling solo I didn't trust anyone enough to hand them my fancy little camera and take the picture. I didn't want to relive the moment that Chevy Chase has his camera stolen in European Vacation. But Henry looked like he might break the said fancy little camera out of my hand if the flash went off. So once again I put on my big girl panties and asked if he minded if I took a picture of him. He said sure, but make it quick because my car is waiting. And just like that he gave the iconic Henry stare right into my camera.

Lesley Meier: 55:00

Of course we still developed film in those days. This was 1997. When I got home I developed about 20 or so rolls of APX film. I was worried that since it had been so dark at the exit of the venue that the picture of Henry wouldn't come out. But it came out, great, great and I was thrilled. But nowadays his spoken word is off the chain and his silver fox self is so sexy. He's so articulate and intelligent, which to me skyrockets his sex appeal. I would love to attend one of his spoken word shows, maybe catch him at the exit again and get a selfie with his silver sexy self, and maybe even show him the picture that I shared on the Facebook group and how this shy little 21 year old girl on the adventure of a lifetime managed to get it. Of course, a much shorter version of the story than I have told here than I have told here.

: 56:03

So, you I presume that you have done the backstage checking or meeting, meeting celebrities backstage after a show. No, no, no, I am too shy Really. Yes, well, yeah, I cuz I. Yeah, yeah, it's not even that's just. I mean, I think if there was likea big group of people I would go, but I don't like track people down, I'm sort of like oh, man that's your personal life and I.

: 56:25

You don't need me to be involved. If it's invitational, I will participate, but if somebody is like, come on, let's go buy, I'm like it was just too scary.

Megan Bennett: 56:37

Oh, my goodness, I mean, maybe that's just some of the shows that I went to. I don't know, like I always go back to the back door.

: 56:45

Well, and hang out.

Megan Bennett: 56:47

Yeah, I met some really, really cool people. So I met Johnny Marr, I've met, like both of the brothers from the Jesus and Mary chain. I've met, like both of the brothers from the Jesus and Mary chain. I've met. I met Debbie Harry. Oh nice, she did not like me. Oh no, no, no.

: 57:06

Sorry.

Megan Bennett: 57:07

Yeah, that was fine, whatever?

: 57:09

I still like her.

Megan Bennett: 57:10

You got to say hello, I still like her. My husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, and I went backstage with the band Material Issue. They invited us backstage so we hung out with them, which was really cool Although we have guilt issues because they wanted to go out and party with us and we were like we're going to go home, we're tired because we're old farts. Even then it wasn't, but maybe three or four months later that the lead singer committed suicide, so I'm like I've got all kinds of guilt about that. I should have been his best friend and it would have been fine. Um, oh my gosh. Yeah, I've got this. Yeah, giant list of people. No, dang girl.

: 57:53

I have been invited, like as an invitation, to go and hang out with people, but not because I was hanging out, it was like a pre gotcha and situation.

Megan Bennett: 58:05

Well, we'll go to some shows and I will drag you to the back door. I'll be like I don't.

: 58:10

They need to go make hot tea with lemon right now well then, we'll show up with hot tea with lemon.

Megan Bennett: 58:16

Here's some hot tea with lemon right now. Well then, we'll show up with hot tea with lemon. Here's some hot tea. We need hot tea. Well, this has been fun. This has been fun. It's weird on remote.

: 58:26

It is weird.

Megan Bennett: 58:27

It's weird remote, but it's okay.

: 58:30

This will be a it's our under construction episode and we're lamenting all that we did not get in the future that we were promised.

Megan Bennett: 58:41

Yes, in the future we'll be in person.

: 58:43

We will be in person and maybe we'll like mix a little martini kind of situation. It's a martini set. It's kind of a seventies. It's cool, it used, yeah, it's mad men ish. It is kind of a 70s. It's cool, it's mad men-ish. It is a little bit. So the thing that we found is it's a home bar and as far as I know, they used to be sold by Sears and Roebuck in the late 60s, early 70s, how about that?

: 59:15

And there was a second piece that would hang behind it. That was not with this bar, um, but I have found more on the internet and we got a good deal we did. So I'm super psyched and we're gonna dress it and we're gonna have a good time that is awesome.

Megan Bennett: 59:32

I can't wait to play with it. Me too, we'll do. If we have to record in the mornings, we'll have to do mimosas or something.

: 59:37

That's fine, we can. We can say, whatever time it is, that's right, we don't care, we'll make a like a longer space so that we can like have some preview time. We got to get warmed up, we got to. We'll make some more time for this next episode. It'll be good. Thanks for listening, thanks for joining along everybody.

Megan Bennett: 59:58

Yeah, super appreciate it. If you guys like this episode, please share it with friends. We would love that and appreciate that. If you've got comments, you can always leave us comments. We appreciate those too. Yes, if you have criticisms, keep them to yourselves, right?

Lesley Meier: 1:00:16

No, you can give it to those two.

: 1:00:17

I mean, if you're like you guys are a little quiet, like technical stuff, totally fine. If you're being snarky, you have been listening to Gen X. Women are sick of this shit. Hey Megan, hey Leslie, what do people do if they want to find us?

Megan Bennett: 1:00:34

Well, we have a website that people can find us on, and that is genxwomenpodcom. We also have a Facebook page. We have an Instagram account as well. We have a YouTube account where we put YouTube shorts and other little tidbits up there. We have a TikTok account.

: 1:00:55

I don't talk the dick or tick the tock.

Megan Bennett: 1:00:57

You don't tick the tock, I barely talk the tick. But I did put a TikTok up. We're explaining the internet to people again. That's okay. Though it's great, we need to know how the internet works. Can people buy merch? They absolutely can. We have a merch store on the website itself, and we also have an Etsy store too, which is pretty easy to find. It's just Gen X Women on Etsy.

: 1:01:22

And if you are listening to this podcast, presumably you found it somewhere. And while you're there, give us a review. Yeah, let us know what you think. Throw some stars at us, that'd be great. We'll take one, two, three, four or five.

Megan Bennett: 1:01:36

Ooh five, maybe ten, and also make sure that you are hitting subscribe so that you're notified whenever a new episode drops.

Lesley Meier: 1:01:45

Most important.

Megan Bennett: 1:01:46

We also have a five minutes of fame that I think we should tell people about too.

: 1:01:50

Hell, yes, we want to know your stories, your five minutes of fame stories. You can send those stories in on the website or you can call 1-888 GEN-X-POD and leave your story for us and we will play it live in our next episode.

Megan Bennett: 1:02:07

We'll listen to it on a little red phone, just like Batman.

: 1:02:10

That'd be cool, let's get a bat phone A bat phone. I think that's it. I think you're right. That'd be cool to get a bad phone a bad phone. I think that's it. I think you're right.