This is Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast more what you Hear weekday afternoons on the Drive. We've had Dana Schwortz on before for her podcasts Stealing Superman. She also podcasts Hailey Wood, but her newest project is it's a project of a podcast that tells incredible stories, stranger than fiction, tales about people, normal people doing extraordinary things. And Dana Schwartz is with us to talk about Very Special Episodes, a podcast heard on the iHeartRadio app and
everywhere you get podcasts. Dana, was this podcast born of your previous projects? It absolutely was. I've worked with Jason English, who is sort of the genius behind this podcast, like you said, on shows like Haleywood and Stealing Superman, and I think Jason and I share a love of just those
strange stories that make you go huh. And so every single episode of Very Special Episodes is one of those stories, like the exact fodder for a boring dinner party where you want to just say I heard the craziest story on this podcast. Every single one of those episodes of these episodes is one of those stories. You're also a writer of books, and it sounds to me like
your podcasts do what investigative books do. One story leads to another, to another to another, or there's a side story to a story you want to go back and visit. Absolutely, that's it. I've never felt a dearth of episodes. I also have this ongoing podcast that I've written for years called Noble Blood that tells little known stories about nobles from history, and people always ask me, Look, are you ever scared that you're going to run out
of episodes? And honestly, I just say no, because every time I research a new episode, that research gives me three new podcasts that go on the list of episodes to be done. There's just so many interesting stories out there. Where do you get that research bug? I mean, did you study law at some point? I didn't. I actually was pre med in undergraduate, and so I think I never shied away from doing hard research and work. But at the end of the day, I just love stories.
And that's why I love very special episodes, because every single episode is an incredible story. Like our first episode that just launched today is about how when they were filming the movie Titanic on their last day of filming in Nova Scotia. Someone and we still don't know who laced the chowder that they had for lunch that day with PCP. What yeah, and why. We don't know
why, whether it was just a prank or a disgruntled caterer. Again, we don't know who or why, but the cast and crew was basically poisoned with hallucinogenic drugs. They did not know what was happening. It sent the entire day into chaos. They had to go to the hospital. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, so we can laugh about it now. But it is a crazy story that you should go listen to. Cameron, how do you do that? Do what? Leo? I know, make your body
like rubber? Leo, You're supposed to be dying in the water. I'm dying all right, man. That does sound like a good story. So give me an example of maybe one of your one of the things you were researching in Haleywood, or maybe Stealing Superman, or maybe for one of your books that made you go, oh, I gotta go back and podcast about this. You know, there's an episode of Stealing Superman that then reappears in very special episodes. It's about a Superman collector in Illinois, and we're talking
a super super Superman collector who had his entire collection stolen. But as the police were searching for that, the comics community came together to sort of well deliver their type of justice. It's a story that is it makes you feel good but also question some people of why they do what they do. But it's a fascinating story of this little known incident in Illinois that we went down the rabbit hole when we were doing Stealing Superman and then had to revisit for
very special episodes. Very Special Episodes is the podcast and Dana Schwartz is the author and producer of it. You can hear it on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere you get podcasts. And any good researcher does love rabbit holes. They're not scared of rabbit holes. I'm constant trying to avoid them because they take up a lot of time. Yeah, but that's the good thing about a
podcast. We do all the research for you and then you get to listen to just the very best stuff, and then when you go and talk to your friends, you get to sound very smart. Is it more of a challenge to produce a podcast or to compose a book. Definitely takes longer to write a book, I imagine it does. Are there more disappointments writing a book than with a podcast? Yeah, I would say writing a book is a marathon. My last two novels were Anatomy, a love story, and
It's Equel Immortality, a love story. And even though they're fiction, they're about the sort of world of the dawn of surgery in nineteenth century Edinburgh, sort of that gruesome body snatching surgical world, so there was still plenty of research to be had there there was Have you ever stumbled across a story that you absolutely positively refuse to go any further on? Oh gosh, you know, I don't love true crime. I think that that's a area that other
people can handle. It just makes me scared. To be honest, I like history and I like stories that make you say, oh my god, that's fascinating instead of oh my god, I'm terrified. Yeah. I don't get the true crime I mean, we talk to a lot of people who are fans of true crime, and I'm not dissing the true crime genre, but I don't get it. I'd much rather, I'd much rather a really well told story than a checklist of deductions. Yeah, that's sort of where
I'm at. I want the unexpected, the interesting people who tried to achieve great things and failed, like the story of the Spider Man, Broadway musicals by Man Turn Off the Dark, or about the deadliest botany rivalry in history in Soviet Russia. Those are the stories that fascinate me. And also they
don't make me up at night because I can't sleep. And I don't know if this is a reflection on my love of musical theater, but every time I hear some of these new musical theaters coming out, like Spider Man the Musical, I keep making up songs in my head. Oh my god, what is that gonna sound like? You know? Yeah, well that was the question that they asked Bono and the Edge when they came came up with
the Spider Man Musical. Mean Girls has a musical out now, and I'm like, oh, I can only imagine, Well that's all about Oh gosh, Yeah, I want to see that one, but I have to wait until my husband's out of town. Yeah, how do you how do you rhyme with all of the with all of the slang in that movie? I don't know how you're gonna come up with a rhyme scheme. Danis Schwartz is the author and producer very special episodes the podcast heard on our iHeartRadio app and
everywhere you get podcasts. Thank you for the great stories, Dana, and for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven. And iHeartMedia presentation