This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast with iHeartRadio.
It's time for a little question and answer from the listeners in our audience. We always appreciate hearing from you. We have kind of one relational question Ashley, and then we have a few that are a little lighthearted, more bachelorette Bachelor focused. Let's start with a few bachelor focused ones and then we'll end with the relationship question that was sent to me via Instagram. Okay, we'll start with
this one. It's from Benny Ashley. If you had to pick your favorite Bachelorette season and your favorite bachelor season, who would it be? And it can't be the one you were on?
Okay, Well, my favorite Bachelorette season would be probably Caitlin's because I was fresh off becoming friends with Caitlin, so it was like watching a friend date all these guys. Obviously, my husband and one of my best friends came from that season, so you know, so many friends are from that season, and so it's just that it's just that's it. I thought that not just was the cast great, but it just was constantly interesting, entertaining, and you guys, just you all rocked it.
I loved it.
And then one that I didn't see from a personal angle was Emily Maynard season. I just lived for that season every single week as a fan.
Just I don't know.
I just loved Emily and I love the way she handled herself. She was just badass. Barbie love her Bachelor.
Season and that was not my own.
Ben, I'm not going to choose yours because I'm not going to suck up for that. I'm gonna say the one that is the most monumental to me was the first season that I ever watched, and that was Brad Wollmack's second season. A lot of that has to do with Emily because I just loved her and I was just so intrigued by the show. It's just something about watching the whole sequence of it through fresh eyes.
Yeah, it's fair.
So I don't know if it was Brad or like anything from that, or if it was just the first time watching My.
Favorite bachelorette season would go back to Andy Dorfmann. I don't know why, but that season stood out to me in so many ways, and I had so many big characters and so many twists and turns leading up to even the finale.
You watched it before you were on it.
Yeah, yeah you did, Okay, Yeah, but like really hardcore, like actually watch week to week.
Yeah. I don't know why. I think I was home with my mom. I don't know if it was when I had Mono in college or what, but I remember watching it consistently and being intrigued, like invested into the show. And I don't get that invested. I mean, I guess since I've been on it very often. So my favorite Bachelor season that it's tough. I haven't watched many. I kind of only watched.
The sides of what we're working it.
Well, that's what I was going to say. I didn't watch many before my time on the show, so I hadn't seen many. I mean I watched Souls' season because I thought it was valuable and important and I thought that was really good. However, I would say my favorite season would maybe be like everybody else's right Now and a little recency bias would be Joey's. I just think we needed right like we needed it now, and I think it really stepped up and filled a gap that was,
you know, very needed during that time. So I would say between those two, but those might be the only two I've watched. I mean, Chris's was probably the only one I watched for fun for fun before my time, So it's kind of hard for me to say. And I just think, for whatever reason, the Bachelor seasons in the last few years have been subpar quite.
Honestly, Okay, I got a question from Kendall, which contestant from any season would you think mate would make a great lead. I was always wanting it to be Peter Crouse, Like up until this year, I would have liked them to pick Peter Crouse like aka, like right now, like I wish he was currently the Bachelor, except for he just announced that he has a girlfriend and crazy. I met this girlfriend ten almost ten years ago at an event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was a Bachelor event.
I think she was just a fan there.
She was a local sports reporter and I was like, this girl, like I could see her on the show, like she she's got it going on. And then and I followed her. I don't know, we like hit it off at this event and she's one of like the thirteen hundred people that I follow And then all of a sudden, I saw her post about him and then him post about her just as recently as like ten days ago.
So who would you pick them?
Who would I pick now?
Yes?
On the market.
No, it's hard for me to even think of many people that are on the market.
Yeah, everybody who I would pick I think is off.
The market now, so Peter Krause. And then who would be the bachelorette choice for you? Oh?
The bachelorette choice?
This one's easy for me. I would love to see Caitlin Bristow running back.
Okay, fine, there you know, there you am.
I wish I could be interesting and unique and pick up somebody who you didn't just say, but that is that?
It would be it.
I would love to, especially with her sitting where she's at, knowing her personality.
She's a little taken, I think, too.
Well, true, good point, I even think about that she is. I also think that secretly there's been some recent seasons where some of those girls that we saw on Paradise would be great leads. The I forget her last name, but you know, is it jess geraldy? I think is how you can say. And I think some of her friends that she moved to San Diego with, I think could definitely be a lead or contenders to be leads. I think Victoria Fuller would bring a really funny season.
I think it would be pretty wild. She kind of had the Caitlin Bristow mentality, and I think that could be it could be fun. As far as MINGO.
Yeah, I'm very curious to hear this.
I mean, he's married and been married for a long time. I always thought Wells or Dean would have been great leads. I think they would have brought a really fun like vibe to the show. That you know, they both kind of do what they want when they want, and I think that was something important. So those would be like my men, leads that I would have loved to watch.
Neither one of them would have taken it seriously.
No, and it would have been great.
Probably why they both weren't.
Yeah, it would have been awesome.
Yeah.
All right, hey, Ashley, we only have time for one more question here, and this is switching gears to a more kind of relational, more intimate question. This is from Michael and it was sent to me. He wanted us to talk about it, and so Michael, I am answering this question. He says, I'm from a small town in eastern Canada called Frederic Fredericton, very clickie town. Everyone knows everyone.
I grew up without any social skills until university and gain skills and confidence and friends when he was at university. I was not diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, so in small towns you get labeled. That's an important sentence. Been single on and off since mid twenties. I use dating apps, However, I get bored usually any recommendations on how to meet new people.
I don't know how you get over it. I think you probably get out there socially a little bit more. You probably, like you know, join some community things, You find more friends, and then the word is spread that you know, this guy's actually really cool, we were wrong about him all that, and then perhaps ladies or gentlemen, whatever you're into, will get you know the word, and
then you can start hanging out with bigger groups. And that's probably the best way of dating anyway, is meeting through groups and through friends.
I did see recent statistic now that eighty percent of people do meet online, and friends and family used to be ninety percent of the way that people met and that's dropped down to like thirteen percent here in the recent years and only going to get more.
So that's why he brings it up. Yeah, dating apps aren't the best for him.
I appreciate that Michael sent us this message. It means a lot that he trusts us with his advice, and I'm guaranteeing he's listening with a hopeful ear of what can he do. And I think actually touched on some really important things. Here's what I've learned in my you know, thirty five years on Earth. We all have something right
and there's really no way to quantify pain. There's different levels of pain, different levels of trauma, but we all have something that causes us to be different, and different is good. And so here's my first piece of advice. You got to own this difference, can be ashamed of it.
And so I think the more you advocate for people like you, I think the more that you surround yourself with friends, as Ashley said, and not that you're obsessed with talking about this, you know, diagnosis that you've had, but that you're not ashamed of it, because the truth is it is what makes you you, and so you own it so that it doesn't feel taboo. People can ask you questions about it, they can be curious about it.
That's half of what dating is anyways, right, is asking questions and getting to learn and understand somebody for who they actually are. I think the other way to your question of how you meet people, I think you pick a few things that you're really passionate about, and I think this goes It can be done in a lot of different ways. You can sit down at home and write down some things that really fire you up in life, that really gets you excited, and as Ashley said, you
start to join volunteer groups. You start to join community groups that are focused around these things. Maybe it's animals, or maybe it's you know, children's hunger, maybe it's all of those things, and you start to involve yourself in those activities because your presence, your time, and your effort are valuable. Those places need you and they need people
like you. So you get there because you're going to meet people with similar interests, You're going to be able to talk to them about the things that you're working on, and you're going to become a vital part of that community where people know you and they say, yeah, that person is such a good volunteer. For this great organization in this small town that we live in. I understand the social skills aspect. But here's the point. Here's the
thing that I know to be true. There is gonna be somebody, and I believe there's gonna be multiple people. They're gonna love you for who you are once they get to understand you, once they get to learn from you, once they get to hear you know why sometimes you need to step away and get in quiet because you get overwhelmed or whatever you know it is that happens to you. They're gonna be like that just makes Michael Michael, Yeah, Michael needs a break. That's okay. That to me is
the place that you can get to. But this first step, and I go back to it, is to get confident in the fact that yes, this is you, this isn't going to change, and to own who you are so that people can are to ask the questions that they need to ask, like hey, why do you you know hide out or why do you seem to get really angryly quickly and then feel so bad for it? Like they can start to understand this about you and they can start to fall in love with who you are
as a person this. I know it feels daunting, and I know it feels like you're looking, you know, through the window at everybody else who seems quote unquote normal, and you're like, I just want to be like them. Why can't I react the way they are? The truth is, once you get to know people, all of us have our differences, all of us have our thing. That's what makes the world.
Cool, beautiful. Answer, So good luck to you. I think I think he's going to do I think he's going to take your advice to heart.
Yes, it doesn't.
It will be easy, right, It's always well because like signing up for that stuff, becoming part of the community can be a little awkward at first, but once you're like immersed.
Yeah, then it's then it's like high flying. I mean it's kind of like you said when it comes to university. Right when you step into college, you're like eyes wide open, so scared, so nervous. Everything you can do, it's amazing everything. Yeah, weekend, you're like, I know all my favorite places, I know when people I want to join this, you know, it happens. It's just life and own it. Own the differences. Hey,
that's been another episode of the Almost Famous podcast. This is question to answer is a few fun ones and then one from Michael. The one from Michael is very special to all of us. If you're out there and you have some questions that you would love Ashley and I to talk through in the very you know, carrying way that we try, then please submit those questions to us. Until next time, I've been Ben, I've been Ashley.
See you.
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