Deaths, Donations & our 80s Obsession - Goodbye to 2025!

Lesley & Megan here! Thanks so much for lending us your ears twice a month! Thank you to everyone in the Facebook group, our sisters in L.Y.L.A.S & everyone who has sent a comment or a text along the way. We really do have fun creating this pod twice a month. It is a labor of love and we hope that it helps you remember all the nostalgic random shit in your mind-tunnels as well. We will be back in the first quarter of 2026 some time. We are gonna take some time off to rest and re-charge & see what else we can remember. Peace & Love!

A candy cane cold open turns into a clear-eyed look at public grief, internet conspiracies, and how Gen X learned to hold two things at once: humor and heartbreak. We honor the lives and legacies of Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner, soap legend Anthony Geary, and Buck Rogers star Gil Gerard, while pushing back on the frenzy that fills the gap before facts do. The tributes are thoughtful, the memories are specific, and the message is simple—slow down, remember well.

Then we go full Hawkins. With clocks, bridges, and portals as our breadcrumbs, we map a Stranger Things endgame that feels true to the show’s 80s DNA. Our working theory: the Mind Flayer breach lands, the team loses ground, and the only fix is a time reset that prevents Henry’s flaying—restoring lives at the cost of relationships we’ve grown to love. We weigh the emotional math of that choice against a darker 80s twist and unpack why satisfying finales honor the rules they’ve built. Expect deep cuts, from Goonies and Poltergeist to St. Elsewhere, plus a reality check on why some endings are infamous for a reason.

We also trade New Year touchstones—corned beef and cabbage, black-eyed peas, “white rabbit” for luck—and that unmistakable Gen X pragmatism about amateur night. And because community matters, we share a year of member-powered donations to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood, Indy Pride, WFYI, the ACLU, and Second Helpings, funded through LYLAS memberships and merch. Want in on movie nights, book club, and real-time chats off the algorithm? Join us at genxwomenpod.com.

If this mix of smart nostalgia, cultural critique, and bold TV theory hits your swe

Chapters

• 0:00 Peppermint, Banter, And Time Travel Jokes
• 4:10 Celebrity Deaths And Conspiracy Backlash
• 10:20 Rob Reiner’s Legacy And Tributes
• 16:20 Soap Icon Anthony Geary And TV Drug Ads
• 24:40 Gil Gerard’s Farewell And Nostalgia TV
• 31:20 Local Politics, Redistricting, And A Quick Break
• 35:20 Community Plug: LYLAS Social Club
• 39:20 Deep Dive: Stranger Things Predictions

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

I'm Megan Bennett. I'm Leslie Meyer. And this is Gen X Women Are Sick of This Shit. Hello, Megan. Well, hello Leslie. Good evening. How the heck are you? I'm just groovy. I got candy cane stuck in my teeth. I think that all ridges, but ruffles. Sucking candy cane out of my teeth.

Lesley: 0:29

Or the candy cane has ridges. In your teeth? We're eating candy. I don't feel it though. Because it's December and these are seasonally appropriate treats.

SPEAKER_00: 0:45

They are. I do like to stock up and have them all year long. Not gonna lie. I I do like a good candy cane.

Lesley: 0:52

I can make a yummy drink with a candy cane.

SPEAKER_00: 0:54

It's just a peppermint white Russian.

Lesley: 0:56

It's very tasty. You made me one last year.

SPEAKER_00: 0:59

Yes. And then you use candy canes and crunch them up on top of the whipped cream that goes on top.

Lesley: 1:04

It was gee, that was delicious. Shwe bowls. Shady balls. So good. As of the day of airing, this is episode is coming out on the 27th. But we are recording it obviously before that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:20

Pre that where candy canes are still in style and fashion.

Lesley: 1:23

They are still in fashion. And we we're like doing some time traveling because I mean when I said nobody's really died recently, I'm sure it's fine. Did we invoke a curse or something?

SPEAKER_00: 1:38

I think the irony of you saying that we've invoked time travel when I'm gonna tell you things later.

Lesley: 1:44

I know that's so fun because we're talking about you know, things that haven't happened yet on the 27th, like Christmas. Oh, how is your Christmas? Great. I think it was great. We're talking about when we go into, you know, who died this week, we'll be traveling backwards in time. So we hope that you can just all hang in there with us on this time travel journey forwards and backwards.

SPEAKER_00: 2:09

Well, we just want to make sure that we're not missing and not paying tribute to people who are important and big big stories broke. And so it's like, you know, it's things we need to pay attention to. So that's why we're doing it. Yeah. Famous last words too, like never say.

Lesley: 2:27

It's fine. Nobody's ready. Everything's fine. I mean, we did also say people generally die closer to Christmas.

SPEAKER_00: 2:34

That's true. That's true. Like, well, and yeah, I know.

Lesley: 2:39

Yeah, so nothing really, I mean, it got really cold, super fucking snowy for a minute, and then it got really warm, and then it rained for like 24 hours, and then it got really cold again. And tomorrow it's gonna be like 50 degrees.

SPEAKER_00: 2:52

And it's supposed to be in Indy, it's supposed to be like in the 60s for Christmas. Are you serious? Yeah, like 62. So get your jorts out to Indiana. I hope you got some jorts for Christmas. You can put them on and run around your yard.

Lesley: 3:10

You will be able to. So if you get a new swimming suit for Christmas, throw a pool out in the front yard in Indiana.

SPEAKER_00: 3:17

I do hope it's heated.

Lesley: 3:18

That's 68 degrees. We'll put the kiddie pool out, roll down your windows.

SPEAKER_00: 3:24

My sweet husband. My sweet husband's been like, oh god, all the dog poop in the backyard's gonna thaw out.

Lesley: 3:31

Oh truth.

SPEAKER_00: 3:32

I was like, Yeah, you gotta go clean that up.

Lesley: 3:34

That is the best of winter. Is like side babe. Frozen little crusty. Frozen poops. So gross. So we're kind of just doing like a year-in review here today. We're gonna hit some highlights and some low lights and talk about some fun things. Maybe talk a little bit about New Year's Eve traditions from our childhood. Yeah. That we get to do a quick kind of like trip down. Did you stay up late or kind of things? Yeah, yeah. But let's start where we always start. With death and dying. And the shit that we're sick of this week.

SPEAKER_00: 4:13

I guess we're sick of people dying because it's been a it's been a rough road.

Lesley: 4:18

Like uh, there was a hell of a 48 hours, of course, for all of us Gen Xers, and you can't have possibly turned anything on and not heard about the tragic deaths of Rob Rainer and his wife, Michelle Singer Rainer.

SPEAKER_00: 4:36

Just incredibly tragic. It was. And and the thing that was, I think whenever a celebrity, whenever anybody of note dies, there's always like, I don't, it seems like there's more and more conspiracy theory crap that happens around stuff like that. Okay. So that window, at least on Facebook and Instagram and all those places, those windows of this just happened, this has been announced, and all the crazy ass speculation that goes along with it. Yes. Like, was it a political hit? Was it a, you know, I just it was really bad this time. And it was incredibly infuriating. So it was like, just can we let it play out? Yeah, just see what happens.

Lesley: 5:20

Just wait, just wait.

SPEAKER_00: 5:21

And then we can, you know, we can all be sad. Yes. And then we can like, you know.

Lesley: 5:26

Oh my gosh, that's so awful. Like the ability of people to go from, oh, that's so horrible, to this must be what happened. Right. Like that need to know or talk about or define right away.

SPEAKER_00: 5:37

And I am not going to pay any attention to a certain somebody's comments that they made about him because I thought that was fucking horseshit. Oh, oh. I mean, yeah.

Lesley: 5:48

There's no reason to pay any attention to a certain somebody's anything. That's true. It's just ridiculous. But yeah, disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

SPEAKER_00: 6:00

So yeah, we grew up with Rob Reiner, though. I mean, I was as a kid watching Archie Bunker and On the Family, and he was, of course, meathead. And then, and his dad, oh my God, like Carl Carl Reiner.

Lesley: 6:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 6:14

Who I freaking adored, who did amazing work. And I mean, everything, like the old stuff, of course, but then Ocean's 11, Ocean's 12, Ocean's 13, like Carl Reiner was amazing. And you could tell there was just such this fabulous love between him and his son. Yes. That one of Carl Reiner's last things that he did was Rob Reiner climbed into the bed that um in did you see it? Climbed into the bed that God, what's that's the kid's name? Why can't I think of his name?

Lesley: 6:49

I don't remember, but it's Princess Bride.

SPEAKER_00: 6:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is gonna bother me. And then in the middle of this podcast, I'm gonna shout out his name. But he crawls in the bed and and is like, read the, you know, he did the whole last scene from a princess bride with his dad. It was so cute.

Lesley: 7:06

It was so cute. I love that. I'm gonna look it up so that you can get it. Fred Savage. Fred Savage. God damn. Wonder Years. How bad am I? I'm sorry, I'm like really managing this candy cane. And there's a lot of mouth sounds flirt. So I apologize to anyone with misophonia. It's pretty rough right now. Yeah, adorable. He played the grandson. Not Carl Reiner or Rob Reiner, but Fred Savage played the grandson.

SPEAKER_00: 7:35

But but in this like little remake thing that was really cute. That was like one of the last things Carl Reiner did. Nice. And all the celebration, like the tributes and stuff from people. I know Carrie Elway did a he posted a picture of the director's chair and his chair from Princess Bride, like sitting right next to each other. Yes. Really sad in black and white, of course. Kevin Bacon had a like really lovely tribute that he posted. It was really sad.

Lesley: 8:05

So and like movies that just defined our entire like childhood, yes, adolescents, teenage dumb, 20s, like I mean, I remember watching All in the Family, and I was re-watching a clip. And like they were having sadly the exact same fucking conversations we're having about basic human rights right now. And I would argue much more straightforwardly. I mean, exact same conversations. So really important stuff. But of course, like Stand By Me defined. I mean, we I was the same age as the actors and the characters around when that movie came out. Sleepless in Seattle, Spinal Tap, which came out. I was only like 11, but I won a Spinal Tap album.

SPEAKER_00: 8:56

Did you turn it up to 11?

Lesley: 8:58

Uh-huh. I was 11 when it came out, and I turned it up to 11. But I remember winning like a copy of the record from like an auction at my weird school.

SPEAKER_00: 9:07

Stone Age. Uh-huh.

Lesley: 9:09

I did not know what it was, but I thought it was cool. I do still have that album.

SPEAKER_00: 9:12

Where the demons dwell. Princess Bride.

Lesley: 9:15

And of course, Michelle Singer Rainer was an American photographer and film producer, incredibly talented.

SPEAKER_00: 9:23

In her own right. In her own right. So very sad. And he will be missed. And I'm sure there was amazing projects in the works that we will, you know, we'll be hearing about probably.

Lesley: 9:36

Yeah. Yeah. That is incredibly tragic. And then, like, literally on the same day, we got information about an actor that was very important to you.

SPEAKER_00: 9:46

Oh, from a sci-fi, my little from a sci-fi heart your soap opera days. Oh, we were gonna uh that way. That's the same day. That's the same day.

Lesley: 9:55

Yeah, they both passed on the same day on the 13th.

SPEAKER_00: 9:58

Yep. Anthony Geary from General Hospital. Yes. He was Luke of Luke and Laura fame. I think anybody who is a uh General Hospital fan probably was waiting with bated breath in hopes that Helena Cassadine really didn't do Luke in on the ski lift in Switzerland. But it looks like she did. And he won't be back. So we're pretty sad. But he he died of complications from surgery. So no idea what that surgery was. None of my business. But he will be incredibly missed. And I know that it always takes a few months before because they record so far in advance. Yeah. So it'll probably be a few months, and I'm sure there will be something, some little Easter egg or something on General Hospital that will be. Okay. Yeah, it won't. I mean, he's technically he was technically dead on the soap opera, so there's not really a reason to do it, but I suspect there'll be some anniversary of something, something, something.

Lesley: 10:57

Are you still an active watcher of that soap?

SPEAKER_00: 11:00

I am.

Lesley: 11:00

I record them.

SPEAKER_00: 11:02

So you'll know. I will. I record them. This is a this is here, this is probably too much information. No, no, no. I don't really I don't know when I'm gonna watch like when I would watch them otherwise. But at night, if I take a shower, I will take my iPad and I will put it in the bathroom and I will have it on the counter and I will turn it up very loud. I will play my recorded episode of General Hospital. Miley take a shower. Sure.

unknown: 11:29

Do it.

SPEAKER_00: 11:29

It's okay. And then I secretly want like some way to fast forward because I get to the stupid commercials. And I'm like, damn it, hurry up. I don't care about my I don't care about mesothelioma and do I need a car attorney because of a truck accident. No, I do not right now, currently. And without any life alert commercial, I mean Right. Like there's nothing entertaining. There are so many drug commercials during soaps. Are there oh my God, for drug like for diseases that you can't even like you can't pronounce, right? And you you have no idea what they really do, what's happening to these people. But clearly enough people have it that they have to run a commercial.

Lesley: 12:11

And that they'll like get the medication and the medication side effects are a better option than when you hear the symptoms that they're treating. You're just like, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 12:20

Here's what I want to know. I want to know why when you're listening to the to the side effects, it's like, you know, stuttering. I'm making this all up, brain damage, death, or dis or or like you know, I don't know.

Lesley: 12:35

Yes, may result in death.

SPEAKER_00: 12:37

But death is never the last one. Oh no. It's like you would think that would be like the end, but no, no, no. It's like blindness. You know, I don't I don't know. It's I'm making a lot of death. And blind. But it's it's never, for whatever reason, they never end with death. But it may cause blah blah blah, blah, blah, blah. Death or blah blah blah.

Lesley: 12:54

And you're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, stop. Back up. But death isn't the final. What was what was the one before blah blah blah? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Anyway. You'll get rid of your moderate to severe plaxoriasis, though. You can, apparently.

SPEAKER_00: 13:08

But you might also be dead. You might. It's okay. But you also could get, I don't know, Lyme disease or something on top of it. I I have no it's just bizarre.

Lesley: 13:17

Well, some things are really we don't I I have no more words to say, actually.

SPEAKER_00: 13:22

I just got entirely unfunny and there are places in the in the world where you can't legally advertise drugs on TV.

Lesley: 13:30

Oh, like any medications. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 13:33

Yep. I would like to live in those places.

Lesley: 13:36

Why are we? We shouldn't really buy them from TV commercials anyway. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 13:40

Like we're supposed to go from our physician? I guess we're supposed to be like massive hypochondriacs and be like, oh no, no, no, doctor. I'm pretty sure I have. I mean, we already knew that. S def a schnump schnittemer. Type three. I'm gonna need this drug right now.

Lesley: 13:59

I'm okay if the second to the last thing is death. It's fine. I mean, if it happened once, we have to report it. It may not happen to you. It only happened one time. Okay, oh my gosh. But those weren't the only two people who did. No. Also.

SPEAKER_00: 14:17

Because they come in fucking threes.

Lesley: 14:19

Your little sci-fi heart and mine grew up watching.

SPEAKER_00: 14:24

Buck Rogers. Buck Rogers from the 25th century. Is that right?

Lesley: 14:28

25th?

SPEAKER_00: 14:29

I'm looking at you, producer Tim. 25th. He's nodding, yes. Yeah, so Gilgerard, Buck Rogers.

Lesley: 14:36

He died on December 16th.

SPEAKER_00: 14:39

His wife, I wanted to share this because I thought this was really sweet. His wife got on his Facebook account. And so you can find it. It's it was posted December 16th at 9 23 p.m. on his account. Okay. And it says, this is Janet Gerard Gerard, Gerard Gil's wife. Just to clarify, I was by his side when my husband passed away this morning in hospice care. Below is the message he left. If you are reading this, then Janet has posted it as I asked her to. My life has been an amazing journey. The opportunities I've had, the people I've met, and the love that I've given and received have made my 82 years on the planet deeply satisfying. My journey has taken me from Arkansas to New York to Los Angeles and finally to my home in North Georgia with my amazing wife Janet of 18 years. It's been a great ride, but inevitably one that has to come to a close as mine has. Don't waste your time on anything that doesn't thrill you or bring you love. See you out somewhere in the cosmos.

Lesley: 15:41

Aw. That's enough. So that's perfect. Yeah. So, you know, hop online, watching Rogers. Enjoy yourself. Look at Gil Gerard with his very open shirts.

SPEAKER_00: 15:56

There is a picture of him with gold lemade pants. If you just Google him.

Lesley: 16:01

Did we look this up one other time? Uh huh. I thought we did. This sounds very familiar.

SPEAKER_00: 16:07

Gil Gerard. He did have some wicked good chest hair. Is that Jamie Lee Curtis? Yeah, that's Gil Gerard, Jamie Lee Curtis.

Lesley: 16:14

And Bob Ryders in the 25th.

SPEAKER_00: 16:17

Everybody has to start somewhere. And Jamie Lee Curtis. They are like amazing. They like started right there. I mean, she's no Wilma, but she's cute. Very cute. She's no Wilma, but she's very cute.

Lesley: 16:30

Well, should we take a quick break? Are we sick of anything?

SPEAKER_00: 16:35

I'm sick of so much. I don't even know where to start.

Lesley: 16:38

We're sick of all the things, but like Indiana said a big no to the redistricting.

SPEAKER_00: 16:43

I'm not sick of that. That was nice. So yeah. Yeah. Do you want to talk about that? I mean what happened to that? I mean, you just kind of didn't.

Lesley: 16:50

It shocked everybody. I mean, I think we all felt kind of like doomed. And they were like, no. I mean, we're our Senate, not our house, our Senate. We're so Midwest.

SPEAKER_00: 17:00

We're so red.

Lesley: 17:02

But we're like so Midwest that we're just like, no thank. Oh, no thanks. The Indiana Senate went, oop, oop, no thank. Yeah. So pardon me. Oop. That was let me scoosh on by you. That was a good thing that made us happy. And maybe no, we can do this other stuff kind of like at the end of our like topic review. But that we are transitioning from Who Died This Week into something about.

SPEAKER_00: 17:32

Yeah, I wanted to I wanted to talk about some other dying things. Okay. All right. But but like maybe happy. No, not really. I could be happy. I think it's gonna be happy. Anyway, we'll be back. Gen X Women Are Sick of the Shit is supported by Lilas. Love you like a sis, a Gen X women's social club. What's Lilas, Megan? Lilas is our uh off platform, off uh the Books of Faces, off all of the other traditional social media. Uh, it is our space and place for Gen X women to come together, have conversations, meet each other. It's a social club. It is a social club.

Lesley: 18:08

It's a membership-based club. Memberships are$10 a month. Um, 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.

SPEAKER_00: 18:27

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

Lesley: 18:37

We 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. Trivia nights once a month. We have a live text chat. Four prizes, even. For prizes. That's true. Um, we the space is able to host like 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.

SPEAKER_00: 19:30

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 Lightlass. You can learn more about it at genxwomenpod.com. Leslie. Megan. I have become an addict. I feel like I need a 12, I need a 12-step program. An addict. To get me through Stranger Things.

Lesley: 20:15

Ah, you are a Stranger Things.

SPEAKER_00: 20:19

Addict. An obsessive. Yes. And I came to it late.

Lesley: 20:23

Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 20:24

Came to it late. My daughter sat my husband and I down. This is probably after, I don't know, it might have been like the third season or whatever. And she was like, You guys need to watch this. I swear you're gonna like it. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah, blah. No, I won't, no, I won't. And then I was like, holy shit. And then I was able to binge three seasons, which is great. And then had to wait for four and freaking loved four. And then have been waiting for five.

Lesley: 20:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 20:52

And so I I think because we're so close to the end now. Yes. And after this comes out, we will have already had the second of three.

Lesley: 21:04

Right. We will be much further down this road. Yes. Have a lot more kind of final destination information.

SPEAKER_00: 21:11

Right. So we can kind of think about and talk now about our predictions for how this thing's going to end.

Lesley: 21:19

Yes. You have predictions. I do.

SPEAKER_00: 21:22

You have no prediction.

Lesley: 21:23

No, I don't care. I just want to find out when I watch the show.

SPEAKER_00: 21:26

So am I going to ruin it for you if I tell you what I think?

Lesley: 21:29

I'll forget.

SPEAKER_00: 21:29

Because I'm 99% sure I'm right.

Lesley: 21:31

I've already watched the show and I forget most of it. So I mean it's seriously. Well, okay. I hold it on these things for like five seconds.

SPEAKER_00: 21:39

Just enjoy it and then let it go. That is so Buddhist of you.

Lesley: 21:42

I just don't like retail.

SPEAKER_00: 21:43

Like I'm living in the moment.

Lesley: 21:44

I mean, it makes it like in the moment, I'll be like, oh yeah, that, that, that. But like there's more information, more content comes in the next day. This is a gift of ADHD. I have one spell slot. It just gets replaced every time I need the new spell. That's fair. It's fine. Whatever pops up into my brain is what is present in that moment. I mean, that's okay. All right. It works. It's great. I mean, I if I were to sit down and like start watching an episode, I would be like, oh yeah. But like my memory scaffolding is usually attached to like visual things. Okay. So this is why I buy souvenirs. I always buy a Christmas ornament because then I remember the trip and the place that we went and everything that we did. But if you were just to say, like, remember when we went to South Carolina? So and that's fair. Like, I mean, yeah, but not specifically. What did we do?

SPEAKER_00: 22:31

That's fair. My memory is very much like that. And I think the reason that I'm holding this in my brain is because it's because I'm re-watching.

unknown: 22:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 22:40

Like and I just am starting to like, I'm I'm fed so many of these theories all the time. And I'm like, no, that doesn't seem right. That doesn't, no, you're close, but but you're missing X, Y, and Z, right?

Lesley: 22:50

It's sort of like it's a hyperfixation. It probably in this way confession. There was a time when I could tell you absolutely any statistic having to do with Diane Fossey, the woman who studied the girls at the foot of the In Kong Hills. I could tell you anything because I had to do a speech on her and I became obsessed and I read like 50 books and I could talk about her for that's fantastic. Right now, I don't remember shit. I mean, you remember the base of the mountain. Oh yeah, foot of the In Kong Hills. But that's also in Out of Africa, which we know is a Isaac Denison. A big hit of yours. Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The fact that I remember any of that information is all because I really liked Diane Fossey at one point. I still do. It's just not all retained in the memory banks.

SPEAKER_00: 23:40

Fascinating.

Lesley: 23:40

Here we are.

SPEAKER_00: 23:41

Well, so like I said, I came came late to this one. Yes. Right. And so now I've had to go back and I've watched before season five dropped, I re-watched season four.

Lesley: 23:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 23:53

Which gave me all of the fabulous Eddie story line. Oh, yes. Which is heartbroken that he's gone, I don't think he's gone forever. There's been all kinds of like conversation that they've interviewed the actor, they've interviewed, you know, they've talked to the Duffer brothers, they've talked, you know, they're like, everybody's just a little bit too coy about the whole thing. Like when they say, you know, is Eddie coming back? And the Deffer brothers go, well, Eddie's not, Eddie will not be back as a live character.

Lesley: 24:26

Right. Could be a zombie.

SPEAKER_00: 24:27

So what does that mean, right? Like, so, but I also think that was kind of a misdirection, too.

Lesley: 24:33

It could also just be like the guts in the wall, like when people are, you know, yeah, like I guess.

SPEAKER_00: 24:39

I guess, maybe. He got killed by bats. Like Barb. There's a whole like the titles of the upcoming episodes have been broken down as to what they mean. The one that I think is the key is an episode called The Bridge, which is coming up. Oh yeah. And is that the bridge to Terabithia, you think? No. I think it's the Rosen something something bridge. It's the time bridge, right?

Lesley: 25:04

Oh, interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 25:05

So everything having to do with Stranger Things revolves around clocks and time. Right. Right. So we've we've seen Henry's clock in his house. We've seen, you know, the fact that there are 12 kids. We've seen like original 12 experiment kids. Yeah. We've seen, you know, like talk of the the time travel. There was a whole big piece of um back to the future that was that played in episodes. In fact, in in the last episode, they talk about uh fixing the flux capacitor at some point. So there's all kinds of like little time nuggets. So I am pretty sure that they are going to end up that big, there's a big like red blobby thing. You've got the big round protected space in the upside down that you can't get to. Okay. Okay. That we learned is round, like a clock. They're taking 12, 12 kids, right? Like hours on a clock. Each one will be positioned in a spot and they will create a portal. And that portal is going to go to a different dimension where the mind flare can come through to the upside down. Oh. Which gives them an easy access to our world, right? Sure.

Lesley: 26:29

Okay. So And if you've played Dungeons and Dragons, this tracks, this feels mind flares are.

SPEAKER_00: 26:35

A Mind Flare is a bad dude. Really bad. Not a great time. So I think it happens. I think they do not stop the mind flare. They do not stop Vecna. The mind flare comes through. Okay. All things go to shit. Yes. Right? We probably lose a character or two. Probably Steve. Yeah. It's probably gonna happen.

Lesley: 26:58

Steve and Dustin together.

SPEAKER_00: 27:00

Maybe, maybe. Maybe, maybe. But I think Dustin's gonna. I uh I don't know. And I think that the remaining characters then are going to have to go back in time and fix some shit. Oh, interesting. So Henry, okay young Henry. Yes. There's a whole like storyline that that kind of spurs from the play that is running in London right now.

Lesley: 27:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 27:26

He is at some point in his youth runs into these these this cavern, right? Which is where Max and Holly are currently like hiding out. And he is scared now as an adult to go in there. Right. Right. So he's terrified. So something happened in there. And according to the play, he gets flayed inside those cabins. Or at that the caverns.

Lesley: 27:49

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00: 27:50

So my thought is that they go back in time, they're actually able to stop Henry from going into that cavern. Therefore, he never gets flayed. Therefore, the experiment never happens. Okay. Right. So Jane, 11, grows up as Jane with her mom. Right. You know, who is not fried. Right, right, sure. And then the whole last 40 minutes of the last episode is basically them back in regular time, but slightly different, right? Like because Eddie's alive. He's probably playing Dungeons and Dragons with the kids because that wouldn't have changed. Sure. If he 11 never met Mike. Would never met any, but they would know all of this.

Lesley: 28:34

They would know that this is a good thing. No, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00: 28:36

I think once you, if you go back in time and you come back, like you've erased that history.

Lesley: 28:41

No, that's what I mean. Like they would know that the relationships they have throughout the whole course of the show would be gone.

SPEAKER_00: 28:47

Won't exist in the same way. Yeah. Which I think would be really heavy, don't you? Like Mike. Mike and Eleven, like having to be like, this is it, we're done. Yeah. Eleven would never have met Hopper. Right. No, none of that will happen. Hopper wouldn't. And I'm guessing that Joyce and Bob would probably be together. Because why wouldn't they? Right. Right.

Lesley: 29:08

But how does that fit with Eleven's sister?

SPEAKER_00: 29:13

Oh, I think she's just she's probably off with, you know, her she's probably with her parents. She never got zapped. Number eight, you mean?

Lesley: 29:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:20

Yeah. I why she'd probably be back at home. She never brought got zapped and pulled into the program. Okay. So poke holes in it. What do we think? Or as or as I think as Dustin would say, holes? Holes? Any holes?

Lesley: 29:36

I have, I don't know. I mean, like, I have not thought about it at all. Yeah. So I have no theories. We'd have Billy Baby. Whatsoever. Ooh, I don't know. That's a good thing. I mean, he's he only became good because it was so bad. Like he became scared about his sister when he was like about to be gutted.

SPEAKER_00: 29:57

Yes. And that last his last season before he got messed up was he was hitting on Mike and Nancy's and Holly's mom. Yeah.

Lesley: 30:09

And was gonna have like the affair. Mrs. Wheeler. Mrs.

SPEAKER_00: 30:11

Wheeler. So maybe she said no. Maybe that happens.

Lesley: 30:15

She said no. She made her decision before she was like, I'm so sorry, I just couldn't go. Blah blah blah. You're a child, which is true.

SPEAKER_00: 30:21

Yeah. But I don't know that Max would be hanging out with the kids. No, necessarily. So many things would be wrong.

Lesley: 30:30

So anyway, it feels it feels very 80s to end it that way, to like have it all go just kind of be like back to normal, but not like regular Hawkins normal. And is that true? Like, do people have like a sense of something being weird or a sense of something being off? But you just kind of like go on and about your day. You're like, oh well, this feels strange, but okay, cool. Let's go hang out. Probably just feels totally normal. So Barb would be alive. Barb would be alive. She could come back. She's gonna have cameo.

SPEAKER_00: 31:01

You know, I'm guessing that Nancy and Steve probably would have broken up. They probably wouldn't be able to do it. Oh, he wouldn't be. Steve would have been like Steve. Steve probably would have gone to college. And he would not have his redemption arc. Yeah. Steve and Robin will be friends. Steve and Robin wouldn't be friends. Robin might never have come out of the closet. I don't know.

Lesley: 31:17

Oh, that's something I'd okay. We'll find out.

SPEAKER_00: 31:21

Do you do you like it?

Lesley: 31:22

I think it's a good theory.

SPEAKER_00: 31:23

Producer Tim? How do you feel? It's a it's a he's he's taking it in.

SPEAKER_03: 31:27

He's like I mean it's an interesting theory.

SPEAKER_00: 31:32

Okay. I gotta say, I like it better than everybody dropping dead.

SPEAKER_03: 31:38

I have a slightly different one.

SPEAKER_00: 31:40

Okay. Wanna hear it?

SPEAKER_03: 31:44

So everything about the show is 80s, right? And there were a lot of big shows that ended in the 80s. And some of them were so memorable, and not because endings were great, sometimes bad endings were more memorable. I think it's a saying elsewhere.

SPEAKER_00: 32:04

You're gonna have to go deeper on that because I don't I wasn't a saying elsewhere person.

SPEAKER_03: 32:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 32:09

I never watched that movie.

SPEAKER_03: 32:10

So I know it's a TV show, not a movie.

Lesley: 32:13

Uh wait, there was a movie. Um was that The Hospital?

SPEAKER_03: 32:17

Yeah.

Lesley: 32:18

Okay. I'm thinking of Saint Almost Fire.

SPEAKER_03: 32:20

Yes.

Lesley: 32:21

Didn't watch that either.

SPEAKER_03: 32:22

Sane Elsewhere ran for many seasons. Denzel Washington, that's where he first got noticed. He was the series regular. When the show came to a close, it turned out that it was a nonverbal child's uh imagination looking at the entire show. That like hospital was in the middle of the snow globe.

SPEAKER_00: 32:47

Oh that's a little mindfuck.

SPEAKER_03: 32:49

So here's what I think.

SPEAKER_00: 32:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 32:52

If they're gonna pull a full 80s, which they're a little young, the duffers are a little young to pull this.

Lesley: 32:59

We'll send him a note. No, but like I see how it works out. You could do that.

SPEAKER_03: 33:03

Yeah, no, but I I think Will goes missing.

SPEAKER_00: 33:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 33:08

I think his mom never recovers.

SPEAKER_00: 33:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 33:14

I think she invents this entire reality, this entire thing.

SPEAKER_00: 33:19

Oh, to like get her son. See, I don't like this.

SPEAKER_03: 33:25

No, it's terrible. But if you're gonna do the 80s, go full 80s and pull a scene elsewhere. And so, like the the the head, the center of all of this, where all of this the you know the the building and it the research facility and Hawkins, it's the mental institution that they had to put her in. Oh, that's mean. Where she is playing all this out trying to get her son back.

SPEAKER_00: 33:55

No, I can't go with this. I can't, I can't abide. I can't have Joyce in a mental hospital. That's what I would do. That's what you do. I says a lot about it.

SPEAKER_03: 34:06

And you know, the 80s are really when child abduction became very forefront in everyone's mind.

SPEAKER_00: 34:15

Yeah. I don't know. I feel like we did that though, with him being like abducted.

SPEAKER_03: 34:19

No. But that's the that's the point.

SPEAKER_00: 34:22

Yeah, yeah, I get it. I get it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 34:24

So I think I don't like it. No, well, it's not like it. It's not there to be liked. But again, if you think about the endings of great shows, the endings sometimes are famously not liked.

SPEAKER_00: 34:41

Because that's true.

SPEAKER_03: 34:42

Because the reality is there is no satisfying ending.

Lesley: 34:47

Yeah, fair. Everybody's gonna have opinions, right?

SPEAKER_03: 34:50

So why try?

Lesley: 34:51

It's gotta be better than Game of Thrones, though.

SPEAKER_00: 34:54

I mean God, anything is better than that. That was the worst ending ever.

SPEAKER_03: 34:58

There's that one, there's the ending of what's the other one?

SPEAKER_00: 35:02

That was a crime. Oh, it's so bad. I invested, we invested so many hours into that show.

SPEAKER_03: 35:09

The end of Lost.

Lesley: 35:10

I never watched Lost. That's yeah, that's one of the equivalents. It's just like I mean, we should I mean we can keep going. No, but like the whole end of that series, just the last few seasons.

SPEAKER_03: 35:21

All of that is to say you get a lot of freedom.

SPEAKER_00: 35:25

Yeah, if you have a smoke monster.

SPEAKER_03: 35:28

By by saying this is all part of Joyce's fractured psyche.

SPEAKER_00: 35:34

I don't know. I don't think I I have so much more respect and props for the duffers and for what they've done, as smart as everything is. Like, and and we, you know, I know we were talking too about like just the just how 80s it is and how it makes you feel as a kid who grew up in the 80s, which I think is why this is speaking to me so much, right?

Lesley: 35:59

So many 80s movies are referenced in like shops or just in bits of action that we've seen. The costumes, 11's costume, in when she's training. Oh my god, yes, like Brandon and Goonies. Hundred percent poltergeist references. I mean, the whole pool thing, just people going into the pool. I mean, we just, you know, there's always bodies.

SPEAKER_00: 36:22

Well, literally, Mike, no, Will, in the last episode of this last sec of the first part of season five, that's one piece of the whole thing that bothers me, and I could have a little conversation with the duffers about. I don't know what to call it, like section one of season five or section two. It's like, what the fuck am I supposed to call this? Anyway, but Will, like literally, as he can see the demogorgans coming, he turns and says, They're here. Yeah. Like, and I'm just like, oh, dude, yes, yes.

Lesley: 36:54

There's so much good stuff in there. I guess if I were gonna have a theory, it would be more on the like, it's all just a DD game. Yeah. The whole thing. I mean, there's that too. There's like that piece that's just kind of fun. I mean, it you know, it it's fun.

SPEAKER_00: 37:08

I think that's kind of fun. You can you can buy the you can buy Eddie campaigns now for Dungeons and Dragons, which I think is fun.

Lesley: 37:15

That was so great. Okay, friends. So when you're listening to this, you'll know much more. We will know much more. Am I close? And we can place bets on our theories.

SPEAKER_00: 37:27

I would I I I'm gonna have to see if they are are betting in Vegas because now I want to know.

Lesley: 37:33

Put your theory up. I will 100%. Like tell me what the odds are. I wonder if you can add your theory to the odd chart. I bet you can and do it that way. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 37:43

So they're so this is the last podcast because I'm gonna get rich. That's it. We're retiring.

Lesley: 37:52

That's it. We because we placed a bet on the theory.

SPEAKER_00: 37:55

We placed a$2 bet on my theory, and I'm I don't want.

Lesley: 38:00

That would be amazing. So this will probably dominate most of our holidays and oh my god, 100%. So 100% hanging out in there.

SPEAKER_00: 38:09

I have to watch the first section of season five, whatever the fuck I'm calling that. And then act one into is it is are they acts?

Lesley: 38:17

That's what I call it. Act one. I think that's smart. And then three is always just like the day to model, they just resolve all the little it's two hours.

SPEAKER_00: 38:23

Well threaded two hours in movie theaters on on New Year's Eve. Like that's kind of cool. That's awesome.

Lesley: 38:29

Yeah. I'll I'll probably not be in a movie theater, but I will watch it. Yeah. Same. Speaking of New Year's Eve, yeah. We were gonna talk just briefly about New Year's Eve. Experiences slash traditions for Gen X people, if New Year's Eve was a thing, just kind of what you did with your family, what you did as a kid, if it got to be cool to do stuff on New Year's Eve at any point.

SPEAKER_00: 38:59

I can well, I don't know. I mean, I remember probably I remember staying at my grandmother's house. Okay. Because I'm I'm guessing my mom and dad were out doing something. Yeah. Um and or my mom was out doing something, my dad was out doing something else. Not together. Or someone else.

Lesley: 39:16

Some place.

SPEAKER_00: 39:18

But I I I remember being woken up, like, hey, hey, it's 11, you know, yeah it's uh it's 10 till midnight. For the gas. Right. Like that kind of thing. And I don't know, I'm sure it was like a big deal. I it's so not a big deal now. Like I feel I could care less about New Year's Eve.

Lesley: 39:40

I don't want to go anywhere.

SPEAKER_00: 39:42

No, I think we're gonna go to a friend's house and they're gonna do they they like to cook and stuff, so we'll probably do like a fun cook thing and be home at 11 30.

Lesley: 39:52

We'll be working because it's our anniversary. Oh at the bar. That's fine. Not our romantic anniversary, the bar anniversary, but it is the anniversary at The pub and we'll be open that night, so we'll be hanging out. That's fun. So otherwise, we would just be at home mostly. I think as a young person, similar. I mean, just New Year's Eve at home with the family, watching the ball drop and the musical acts and the countdown. Did Clark's rocking New Year's New Year's Rock in New Year's? Absolutely. So that was like, I remember doing all of that. Mostly probably just like being home with family. Probably in high school, we like kind of would go to friends' house or start to try to do that. Yeah, like junior senior year. But even then, we were usually at somebody's house. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 40:35

I was never a go out to a party kind of thing. Probably more in my twenties. I feel like I wanted to. Like I wanted to go to a big event where you got dressed up and when Harry met Sally moment kind of thing.

Lesley: 40:47

You know, do that kind of thing. I've never, never done that. And like when I was in my twenties and we were out frequently for New Year's Eve, it was because my then husband was playing shows, so he would be working and we uh it was always amateur night, and you really didn't want to like be out because nothing good happened after midnight.

SPEAKER_00: 41:06

That's right. And all the Yahoos would be out very that is a very Gen X thing to say. Yeah. Nothing good happens after midnight. I've all I've heard the bars. Nothing good happens after 3 a.m. Oh. But it's probably midnight.

Lesley: 41:20

Alcohol. The older I get to younger, the earlier in the night it gets. Midnight is like because yeah, and you really should just stop drinking at midnight. Just be done. Yeah, it's okay. Go home. Call a cab, go on. Just be done. So that's kind of what you know, those were our we didn't have like big New Year's Eve traditions. There was the corn the corned beef and cabbage on New Year's Day. Yes. Oh, we absolutely had that. Yeah. We had to have that. Black-eyed peas. It depends. I guess probably at some point I was at my grandmother's. So we would have done that.

SPEAKER_00: 41:49

We didn't do the black-eyed peas thing, but we did the corned beef and cabbage for sure. And then you had to do white rabbit, white, white rabbit, white rabbit. Yeah, this is I never knew this before knowing you. Oh, yeah. The the first thing you the first thing you say in the morning, you're supposed to do it at the beginning of every month, but it's doubly so on the first day of a new year. Okay. So the first thing you say when you wake up before anything else, before good morning, before whatever, is as you sit up, you say white rabbit, white rabbit, white rabbit. It's a British thing.

Lesley: 42:20

And what does that do for you? It's just good luck. It's good luck. Sets the stage. It's all good luck for the whole month. I think that should be the start of the Duffer Brothers next series, which will be sort of an Alice in Wonderland thing. There we go. Call him. Get him on the horn. Wakes up, get him on the horn three times, and then everything goes upside down. Changes. And then we'll see what happens. I love it. Little brief like year in review. Yes. Putting you on the spot, but I am going to give you a list. Remembering fun episode moments from this year. We have done a lot of episodes this year. I mean, we took January off, which we will do again. We may structure our season a little bit differently. We want to kind of keep this sustainable at some point. We're going to run out of 80s references to talk about. We've got a lot of history we can talk about. But we started again in February with Where's the Bean, which got a lot of downloads, over 2,000 on that one.

SPEAKER_00: 43:28

If you've not read that one, the bean is your clitorist.

Lesley: 43:33

And then our last year.

SPEAKER_00: 43:35

Spoiler alert, it's your clitorist.

Lesley: 43:37

If you didn't know, our last year holiday episode, we went through all the movies and all the you know, Christmas ornaments, decorations, all that fun stuff. That was super fun. I thought that this episode was really fun. Our Casa Bonita and themed immersive restaurants from the 80s, and what that was all. Oh my god, we had a lot of fun with that one. I enjoyed that. We still need our road trip to Casa Bonita. Right. Yes. It's I love seeing pictures get posted from that place. I think that's so awesome. But a fun episode for you, like as you're looking at the list.

SPEAKER_00: 44:18

Yeah, I mean, I would I would say earlier in the season that the the school's out one was fun. Oh yeah. We had three months off and nobody died. Yeah. For sure. That was pretty good. The Kermit is a Zaddy. This Kermit is Addy. And Kurt Loader would be my dad. Yes. Yeah, that was fun. It was old, not us. And the Friday night uh was for videos. Like we could talk about Friday night videos and we talked about MTV and 120 minutes and all of that. And that was really fun. Oh, the robot robot maids and flying cards. Yeah, we talked about a lot of fun stuff.

Lesley: 44:51

These are I mean, they were good. And the satanic panic device playground one we talked about.

SPEAKER_00: 44:56

We made some in-depth deep dive about like the history of it. And I think I think that that's kind of fun to do because you know you mentioned your, you know, your memory of things. Like things come and go. And if I don't, if you don't buy the souvenir, then things get lost. So I think doing a little bit more where we kind of talk about the history of things is is not a bad thing.

Lesley: 45:23

Yeah, those are fun. But we misremember too. Episodes are great. Yeah, did the Challenger disaster, the Reagan assassination, and those were more recent. Those are pretty fun. And then like our after school special.

SPEAKER_00: 45:35

Oh, Halloween candy when still.

Lesley: 45:36

And I know we're definitely gonna have the Gen X Lumber Party, the movie nights. Those are gonna come back because you owe me a movie.

SPEAKER_00: 45:42

I do owe you a movie.

Lesley: 45:43

So we're gonna do like favorite movies. We're pretty excited about that.

SPEAKER_00: 45:48

And I wouldn't say it's my favorite movie, but it's one that is full of fun. It is like a fun movie. That you will be like, and that I know you've not watched, and you will be like, I'm sorry. What the fuck?

Lesley: 46:01

Oh, yeah, that's right. That is absolutely true. I did not watch that episode. I cannot date. And we do want to mention just the like donations that we were able to do this year as a result of our supporting members in Lilas, Love You Like Assist, the funds that come in there. We are able to make and from merch sales of our website. We make a donation of a hundred dollars a month. We picked six organizations. So we did two months for each organization this year. And we made those donations, which has been really cool. We donated to the Center for Reproductive Rights. We donated to Planned Parenthood. We donated to Indie Pride. Nice.

SPEAKER_00: 46:43

We did Y WFYI, which our is our local PBS affiliate, the ACLU. Yes. So they can defend our rights. Thank you very much. And Second Helpings, which is near and dear to my heart. That's where I work. But it is a nonprofit that is dedicated to food rescue and hunger relief and culinary job training for unemployed and underemployed people. Which is amazing. That's very cool.

Lesley: 47:08

So next year we will come back with six new organizations that we're gonna donate to. We might do some repeats. We're just gonna see. We got really just lovely notes back, you know, from most places. Yes. And so thank all of you who support the show and support Lilas.

SPEAKER_00: 47:26

We are Lilas or buy us a cup of coffee. Yes. We've got we've got links for that. If you don't want to join Lilas, that's okay. You can buy us a cup of coffee with donation through the website because we have no sponsors. So it is us. This is how we do it. And we have merch sales too.

Lesley: 47:45

We do. So on our Gen X Women Pod website, you can always go to our Etsy store. We are going to be adding some different things to that to kind of refresh the designs a little bit. But things cost what they cost these days. So they're and these are like print on demand. So they get their chunk, like to printify Etsy, everybody. But there is enough that comes back that we're able to kind of like keep this little thing rocking in the which is really fun.

SPEAKER_00: 48:14

So that's kind of our year in review. I like it. It was a good year. It was. We should do it again. I think we will. But differently. I mean, uh let's get rid of 2025, just generally speaking.

Lesley: 48:27

Let's just see. I hate to say it, let's see what happens next. And hope. Let's close our eyes and cross our fingers. Things start to happen more betterly. More better would be good. More. 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?

SPEAKER_00: 48:52

Well, we have a website that people can find us on, and that is GenXwomenpod.com. 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.

Lesley: 49:13

I don't talk the tick or tick the account.

SPEAKER_00: 49:15

You know, tick the talk. I I barely talk the tick, but I did put a TikTok. We're explaining the internet. That's okay though.

Lesley: 49:24

That's great. We need to know how the internet works.

SPEAKER_00: 49:27

Can people buy merch? They absolutely can. We have a merch store on the website itself. And we also have an Etsy store too. So it's pretty easy to find. It's just Gen X Women. Etsy.

Lesley: 49:41

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. Pick one, two, three, four, or five. Ooh, five.

SPEAKER_00: 49:56

Maybe. And and also make sure that you are hitting subscribe so that you're notified whenever a new episode breaks. Most important. We also have a five minutes of fame that I think we should tell people about too.

Lesley: 50:08

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-GenX COD and leave your story for us, and we will play it live in our next episode.

SPEAKER_00: 50:25

Yep. Two or three. We'll listen to it on a little red phone, just like Batman. That'd be a bat phone. I think that's it. I think great.