This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. Chris Harrison and Lauren Zeema coming to you not at home today. We are on the road yet again, getting away from that Texas heat. We are well, I'll say this, we're very close to Canada. We're up here a little vak with some friends, and we have had such a crazy week to the point of I hope Els can get through this podcast today because well, her singing voice was used elsewhere here.
I am. This is the first time I'm talking this morning. I wow, I have got to look in I got to get something right. I need to be educated on how to use my voice. Also, I don't know if anybody else does this, but I overbook myself. I had our trip that we took to celebrate your birthday with friends.
Yes, say, I say, I am partly to blame for this.
Well, I mean it's your Then I flew home Delp.
And your voice was kind of going after that birthday. It was.
And again I'm doing something wrong, Chris says, I'm speaking out of my throat and not my diaphragm. I don't know how as someone who is a broadcast journalist for years I'm not better at this at this point, so this is a failure of me on my body.
But what really threw you over the ledge was well.
Then I went home to help Taylor pack up for college and do some shopping for the new school year, and then I flew to Mexico for my annual sorority sister reunion girls trip. We do it every year. I highly recommend if you've got great friends from college or high school, or just any great friends in your life. Oh my god listening, make a pact that you will do it one trip together every year and that unless major unforeseen circumstances happen, you will not miss this trip.
So we do that every year. We try to do it in a different city every year so that we experience something new together. It's been so good for us to maintain our female friendships and our sisterhood, which is just so important in life. We look forward to it every year.
I've said this before and I'll say it again. One of the most incredible things about you is this group of friends, these women you have surrounded yourself with the bond. Y'all have the love, y'all give each other, the support, y'all give each other and the success of this group doctors and lawyers, you name it emmy winners. But I love that this group fiercely protects itself and you guys have been doing this for so long. It's really a special thing.
Well they made it even more special this time because they turned one of the knights into a surprise bachelorette party. There was myself and one other bride, so we had two bachelorette parties. And yeah, I mean, listen, when you've got fifteen women talking and then you add in some like screaming and singing all weekend, this is how I've ended up sounding. So I'm sorry, but no regrets. And then you want to talk about overbooking yourself. We've now
added on to it. We're on a little couple's trip right now. This is a blessed life. It's been a wonderful summer. I feel very lucky to have lost my voice for so many great reasons.
But let's go back. I want to just gloss over this bachelorette party. Was this? Did you know going into it that the girl they were going to kind of surprise you with some things, because they came with some gifts, some fun things.
Well, we had two brides, yeah, and it was myself and my friend, and I actually was part of the idea of surprising her.
How funny.
I got balloons and I kept saying, I do not want to do a bachelorette party, Like I don't. This is not that I'm against it. I'm not against the bachelorette parties. They're awesome. I'm have been married before, and this group of friends had celebrated me before, and I wanted it to be about my other friend who this is her first time getting married. Let's do a bachelorette
party night for her. So I had actually gotten balloons and I thought that's what we were doing, and then they kind of surprised me with oh, it's also about you. They had it's a dual bachelorette party, so she and I were both surprised. They had had some tattoos made with your face on them.
I did get a video one night and it was one of the girls putting a tattoo on LZ and I'm like, wait, what is that. I click it and I zoom in. I was like, oh my gosh, that's my face.
It was wonderful. We both put we all put both of your faces on various parts both guys faces on various parts of our bodies. It was the perfect bachelorette party because it didn't lean I'm not too into the like I don't want a stripper, It didn't lean into the Penis Straws world of bachelorettes. It was just fun silliness, and we went out and danced all night long and
had the best time. And it was kind of the perfect outing actually, because we ended up at this restaurant seated next to two other bachelorette parties and a bachelor party, so we kind of all united into a swirling force of bachelor energy and batchel energy and it was wonderful.
That's amazing, and I'm glad to know this is where the line is drawn. Penis Straws, Well, let's.
Talk about it. If you are, first of all, I don't even know are you having a bachelor party?
You know it's funny, I am now what You don't even know. You don't know what's been happening since you've been gone. But I have figured out yes, a kind of essentially, I'm having a bachelor party.
Wow, this is breaking news.
As really is. I know, I meant to surprise you on this podcast.
So are you planning your own ish?
It all kind of happened in this beautiful kind of culmination.
Oh beautiful. It was a beautiful culmination.
It was a gorgeous it came together and I'm like, I'm like, this is what I want. Because I'm not a penis straw guy either. That's where I draw the line. And so, no, I didn't want to have a bachelor party. I'm not going to go. You know, I'm not a Vegas guy. You know that I'm not. I don't want to go to the clubs. I'm not that guy. If I went on a golf trip with my buddies or maybe go fishing or something great. But I really didn't want to take a trip just to do that. So
it just didn't make sense to me. But last week, as you know, I'm having suits made for all the people in that'll be kind of part of our wedding party, and so started making calls and it just turns out we all need to be in the same town to get these suits made, at the place where I want to get the suits made, which you'll find out later. I'm not going to divulge that yet, but we're all getting suits made. And I said, well, befo're in town.
There's a ballgame the night before. The Dodgers are in town. So all the guys that are going to be a part of my wedding party are flying into Dallas. We're going to go to Rangers Dodgers baseball and then we're going to go have suits made. And that's just going to be my bachelor party.
Wow. Well, are you sure you don't want to go out in Mexico and dance all night and get on a table and dance and lose your voicemam.
And this is just a small group, by the way, very so it is really none of my friends per se. It's more family. So my brother Glenn is coming up, Joshua obviously coming over from TCU, and actually Glenn's son Sam will be there. And your little brother John, my brother is going. Your brother's going, Oh.
My god, I'm really just learning this. Okay.
John is flying in and he will be a part of this crew and we're all going to go to the ballgame and then we're going to get suits made.
All that really warms my heart.
It's going to be awesome. It's all all my guys, you do.
Weeby little Dad having your bachelor party at a baseball game.
Well it was sad, but it was it's what I want. When I started putting it together, you know, my brother just kind offhand mentioned, oh, hey, Rangers are into you know, the Dodgers are in town. Let's go to the Ranger game, which were diehard Texas people from growing up in Dallas. And so I called all the guys that were going to be a part of the wedding and I was like, I knew Josh could make it, and my brother had to fly up and your brother, hopefully we're crossing our fingers.
He's a phenomenal lawyer. He may have a trial starting that day, so he's literally he's a daytime decision. If he he doesn't think it's going to go to trial. And so we have a plane booked and he's ready to go, and so hopefully John's going to make it into But that's it. Are those are the guys in my wedding party. And I was like, that's all I want, That's it.
And that's so sweet. It I didn't as you were saying those names out loud. I really didn't expect you to say my brother, just because your brother and Josh are both in Texas and I thought they just travel up easily, and I figured you'd coordinate with my brother to do something in LA. So thank you for including him.
That's right, Well, I love him. I love your family, and it's one of the great things about you. One of the things I think we love about each other is that we have such great families around us. Yeah, they're crazy, it's it's family, but at the same time, we love them fiercely and they're amazing. And it's been fun to be a part of your family and get to be more a part of your family versa.
I was with people before who didn't who wouldn't have automatically done that? Who would have made it? And not that you can't make your bachelor party about you, but who would have I don't know. I was with someone before who didn't always think of my family, and I didn't realize it until kind of too late in the relationship, when we were already very committed to each other. And
I that's something I should have looked for sooner. I'm not family doesn't always get along, but are you with somebody who will think of your family, want to care for your family, do the right thing with your family. So that really warms my heart.
It's gonna be fun. I'm looking forward to it, despite how geeky it is. It's gonna be really fun.
Well, let me ask you a question. Huh, say, well, just generally, where do you fall on strippers with bachelor and bachelorette parties?
And I know it sounds like, oh, you're saying this because you're fiance sitting right next to you. I am not a stripper guy, never have been, never will be. I just I don't I feel comfortable. I don't love it. I've never loved it. I've been, I've been to a strip club before, but god, it will probably thirty years ago, twenty thirty years ago. I just it's never been my thing. I went to one when I was my first quote
unquote bachelor party, when I was in my twenties. What it was like twenty two, twenty three, and I just I don't know, man, I just don't get it. Yeah, I just don't. I just don't get it.
I did have a friend who had what is maybe the best possible scenario for a surprise stripper for her bachelorette party. She is a Harry Potter fan like me. Oh god, and our friends hired a stripper. I actually could wasn't there. I couldn't make this bachelorette party. But our friends hired a stripper. And the guy said, it was the first request you'd ever gotten of this kind. They asked him to dress up like Harry Potter.
I'm shocked that that's the first time he's been asking.
I am too, actually, because all the Harry Potter readers, the millennials are getting married now, the people who grew up on Harry Potter. But he had the cape, he came out to the movie theme music, he had a wand there's a lot of wand jokes you can make there. But I loved that it was kind of funny. I think that's the way to go to me at a bachelor bachelorette party is, if you're gonna do it, is it funny? Is there? Is it quirky in some way?
I was just thinking about it because you just included my brother on your super dweepy dad vibes bachelor party. And there was a bachelor party that we were near when we were out last weekend. And the groom's brother in law was there, meaning like the brother of obviously his future wife, and I actually I didn't ask them, And now I'm sitting there thinking, I wonder if they
had a stripper. Is that not a little weird if you are the groom and a stripper is there, and like, as the brother in law, you're like, that's my sister's future husband. I don't know, there's there's some there's some dynamics there.
It would for sure be weird if I was sitting with Andrew, who's married to your sister, John, your brother, and I and my family at a strip club or in heaven. By the way, the strip club is even one thing hiring a stripper, where like someone comes to your house and it's like a bunch of dudes just sitting around staring at someone in a living room. Not not my thing, but that would be really weird sitting there with your brother, like, yeah, my arm around him doing shots? What do you think?
I don't get it. Maybe there could be something I'm missing. I think it's something that feels a lot more acceptable when you're really young getting married. The older you get, the more it feels icky and zero I'm so glad, so so glad. I think my friends knew me well enough and my other friend to not go down that road at all.
I'd be interested to know if the what the average is now like has that waned over the years? Is that something that we did more in the seventies, eighties, nineties, early two thousand, Like, are kind of the millennial crew getting married now? Are they imbibing in this as much that.
The Harry Potter stripper is the only one I know of my friends who did it?
Or is it just gotten weirder now?
With right it's just how nerdy and awkward? Can we make it tough?
To segue from love and strippers to some sad news for some friends of ours. Jason Tarctic Caitlin Bristow broke up announced their breakup last week, and it's you know, it was being rumored about for a bit. We even had a tabloid reach out and contact us and said, do you have a comment. This is before Jason and Caitlyn ever had a chance to break the news themselves
and talk about it. It was, you know, being put out in the press and stuff, and so we obviously politely told this person to go f off and no comment, but.
Is there a polite way to do that?
We didn't say, f Off, I kindly request you kissed my butt. No, but very sad news. You know, both of them are friends of ours, and it's always interesting when these things happened because it happening publicly. They were a very public couple, obviously coming from my bachelor Bacherette family world and getting together, and I love them dearly and I like them together, and I was so excited when they when they got engaged and shared in that news.
And then when the demise happens of a couple like this, it is a public but be just as equally personal, especially for us, and so it's a very difficult line to walk when yes, we've all opened our lives up to a certain degree, but at the same time, these are also just two people that we know and we love and we respect and we wish them well, and we know their hearts are breaking and broken right now.
We know they're sad, and Lauren and I have been through divorces, we've been through breakups, so we are old and wise enough to know it's a brutal time for them and it's never easy, and so I would My only thing before I toss it to you would be please. I'm not saying don't talk about it, because I know it public and people will continue to talk, but just have some grace and have some love in your heart that these are two human beings that are actually going
through something that's pretty brutal. No one really needs your snide comments right now, no one. You know, if it doesn't seem to help the world, then maybe don't put it out there. But I just want to send them our love.
Yeah. It's always amazing to me when you can see like someone split on Instagram and the comment will be you know, I hate her, or I hate him or no Bay's It's always interesting to me when people feel like they just need to connecue or.
She should have done better anyway, or you can do better. Why.
Yeah, you know I I I hated hearing this, but I think they both handled it so well. I thought that their statement was really beautiful, they posted pictures together. I thought the way they put it out to the
world was really really mature and just eloquent. So I don't know where they'll both go from here, But I also, I guess commend them on this realization at this point, because I have had friends before where it's really hardier on the engagement train, and once you are on that road, that roller coaster of you're engaged and you're starting to play in a wedding and everybody's asking you when the
wedding is and how things are going. If you are having issues in your relationship, it can be really difficult to recognize that and pause because of this forward momentum you have and because you don't want to disappoint people and you've made this commitment and you don't want to be embarrassed and get out of this. So I've had that happen to friends, and then I've had friends who have realized, you know what, I shouldn't go down this road. I should not take that extra step and get married.
I'm not ready for that. This isn't right. And I don't know anyone who's regrets I did that. So if this was the decision that they needed to come to, and I just really commend them because I think it takes an extra amount of bravery when you have not just gotten engaged, but publicly announced your engagement. And again
they've handled it really really gracefully in the press. So yeah, I know that they're both going through a really rough time, and I think that we just want to send them our support.
Yeah, hopefully they will continue this grace and that that mutual statement was wonderful and I'm glad to see. I would expect nothing less from either one of them. Jason's a gentleman, love Caitlin, and you know, I think inevitably people go, oh, what side are you on? I'm on team Jason and Caitlyn. I love them both. I wish them both well, and I know they are both struggling through this and so it's not easy, and we both
will be there for them. And you brought up a really good point because I was thinking about us and our marriage, our upcoming wedding, and people have asked us for the last couple of years when you're getting married, what's the date? What's going on? And it's such a point of pride and excitement for me right now. Hopefully it is for you too. But I was thinking immediately about Jason and Caitlin once I heard this news of the opposite would be true if every day people are
asking you, when are you guys gonna get married? What's going on. You know, we can't wait, and if you know behind the scenes things are not going well, what A just exacerbates the cut, right It just it's pouring salt in the wound day after day after day and just makes it that much harder. And it's one of the pitfalls of being public and opening your life up the way we all have. But anyway, I love them and we wish them the very best.
It's a reminder, you know, of like that, these stories, I don't know, they're painful, they affect real people. I was completely blown away this week when I saw the headline about Sandra Bullock's longtime partner dying, Brian Randall dead at fifty seven after a private three year battle with the horrible disease ALS. And I was completely blown away, a because the news was shocking and sad and tragic, horrible.
But then I remembered that only a few days before, I had seen a headline in US Weekly, and that headline was Sandra Bullock and Brian Randall on the Rocks having cooling off period while living apart. A source told US Weekly, I have it here. The chances of reconciliation are a long shot. According to the insider who adds that Bullock fifty nine and Randall fifty seven have been cordial amid their on off romance and that they hit a bump in fall twenty twenty two. So say it's
on a Monday. US Weekly runs the headline that Sandra Bullock and Brian Randall are cooling off and in an on off relationship, and a few days later, the true
news is revealed that he has died. And I was thinking to myself, as a member of the media, my guess of what went on behind the scenes here is maybe you know, someone said, God, we haven't seen them out together in a while, maybe there's rumors of a breakup, and then you get an insider who says they know what's going on, but probably obviously doesn't really know what's going on, or you know, I know that in some cases, I'm not accusing US Weekly of this, but some really
tabloidy publications will truly just make up, just fabricate source quotes, And this was a case to me of just a reminder that you cannot believe everything you read.
He was, especially when they posted that he was on his deathbed.
When they posted that Sandra Bullock and Brian Randall were in a cooling off period and in an on off relationship. He was in the last days of his life, he was dying and he had hidden this private battle with als. And it's so hard. I mean, I was an entertainment journalist and I always tried to report things out and to not go with rumors, and to fight against people, even in my own office, who wanted to run something
that I didn't think we should run. But you know, it's hard, I mean, especially I think of red carpets. There were, for sure times when I asked people questions that my boss has wanted me to ask. And you know, looking back, I didn't know what somebody was going through privately. So having been on the other side of it, I have a different empathy for it now. And empathy is the word, humanity is the word.
And you're right, you don't know what people are going through. And I saw, you know, as soon as Jason and Caitlin mentioned and posted that they were breaking up, the inevitable picture shows up online. That picture that if you've been through a public divorce, you've had this. I've had it with my ex wife, and that is picture of you and your significant other with the proverbial torn page down the middle, and.
You know, like they've literally created it.
They've created the graphic of the torn page between you, and it's like, it's so it's laughable if it wasn't so sad. And you and I went through that when we were going through the craziness with Bacher Batzorette. Stuff of sources said, insiders say, and a lot of times, like you said, they will just make things up because what they really want is for you to rebut that and then that creates a story. So the people that started the story will then take what you said and
write another story. And now this story has legs, and so it just keeps going and going. And I think the Sandra Bullock story is a great testament to how sad it can be sometimes that that was wild. I can't believe they did that.
Well, let's talk about somebody who is putting it all out there herself on the record via her music, Kelly Clarkson, She has this is my instinct, My gut instinct is that I love it. But I wanted to talk to you about it because you've been through a very public breakup obviously. Kelly Clarkson went through a public divorce, and she has now started changing the lyrics to her past songs to reflect on her divorce. And the latest one is the song Piece by Piece. The song was about
her ex husband, Brandon Blackstock. It was about how Kelly's own father had disappointed her in her childhood and Brandon had showed her what a real man could be. But now they've split up, and.
So the literal tune has changed.
Yes, so one part of the song that she changed was she had sang in the past, he never walks away, he never asks for money. He takes care of me. He loves me. She's now changed it to I just walk away when they ask for money. I take care of me because I love me. Here's what I love about it. She has changed the lyrics in a way that is reflecting her own independence, reflecting her confidence in her self. And look, look, I'm not for bashing your ex in public. But also I was singing in this case.
How can she keep singing this song when she is going through a heartbreaking, monetarily painful, devastating divorce right now? How that song is one of her biggest hits. Her fans want to hear it and I can't imagine being in her position. You've got to sing this song that was praising your ex husband and.
Now you're getting half the money.
Well no, I mean, and now she's in such a different place, Like imagine if she hadn't changed the lyrics, continuing to sing his praises when she's going through what she's going through. So I understand why she needed to adjust the lyrics a little.
And you're right, it's kind of that curse because it's such a big hitch song that you can't just cut it out of your set list. People will be disappointed if you don't have that in your settles.
What do you think should she have.
Get just get rid of the get rid of the song?
Oh you do think she should?
Yeah, you know I heard. I saw it was in Vegas and I saw some video of her and she really it was aggressive the way she kind of went after him, and I know she's It's wonderful she has this avenue to express her feelings in emotion. I found it kind of funny too. Her interesting, I guess, not funny, And just to hear her lamenting the fact that this guy's getting so much money that she has to pay her ex, and I'm like, welcome to the you know,
welcome to the club. It's like every you know, every marriage has one side that's you know, probably going to give more than the other.
Yeah, well she did. She also had changed the lyrics maybe you're referring to. She did the song A B, C D E f U and that was not one of her songs, but she changed the lyrics to the song. I mean, first of all, she's singing F you yes, and she said F you and your dad and the fact that you got half and my broken heart turned that into art F you and your view from the Valley I bought too. Yeah, so that is Yeah, that song she didn't have to have on her set list.
She brought it in.
So that bothered you a little.
Bit, did It's just that seemed a little public and a little but I mean, the crowd went crazy and they supported her, and I get the showmanship of it all. But I'm like, I don't know, just not my style.
And but I've had this discussion with friends before who are going through divorces about when the woman has to pay something, and it's it is interesting. I'm not saying, you know, I guess It's just interesting because like, I had a friend and she's so shocked she's going to have to give her ex husband some child custody payments. And I'm like, I mean, babe, you if you were
a guy, you would have to. This is just the way to be both ways, right, And you know, California is a very fifty to fifty state when it comes to splits and custody and you're making more than him, and you're going to have to do it, and it is painful no matter which whether you're a man or a woman. But I don't think there's anything unusual that Kelly's gone through here. She had more money and she's got to give him some money.
The only thing that struck me is I always think, do you have kids? Yes, the answer is yes. Are they going to hear this at some point and understand yes? And so that's the only thing that always drives me is would I say something publicly knowing full well that my kids are someday going to hear that and it will shine a big certain light on me and their father or their wife or whatever their mom. So that's the only thing that kind of stuck with me. Can we talk about some better music news.
Please be about Taylor Swift.
Everything is about Taylor Swift. The world is about Taylor Swift. I put something out on social media the other day that do you even live in Los Angeles if you're not posting from the Taylor Swift concert this week?
I had a little fomo. Everybody was there and.
I everybody so far she did what seven shows? I believe she had previously had the record of selling out the Staples Center that's where the Lakers play down town. She had sold the most nights out, and then she did like six or seven nights at Sofi Stadium. This is, by the way, you're gonna love this because this is such a Lauren thing to post. I saw this one thing on social media and this girl had posted a picture of she was close to the top row of
the stadium. She's like, you know, what's not surprising is not that all these people are Taylor Swift fans. I'm shocked there's this many people that would go to a football game because it was in a football stadium.
How many people fit in so far?
Gosh, I'd probably say, if you fill the floor, I would have to guess it's upwards of sixty to eighty thousand people in those.
Oh good call, babe. I just looked it up. Seventy thousand people.
Yeah, And I don't know depending on where her stage and how much the stage cuts off that they can't fill the back behind it. But she has absolutely crushed it. And we've talked a lot about this tour, but when you think about the impact she's having socially, someone brought up the question of how big is this? And Billy Joel, who is absolute icon legend and has really spanned the decades. He's an older man, so he was around for all
the quote unquote legends back in the day. He said, the only thing he can compare this to is Beatlemania. The Beatles the greatest rock and roll band of all time, bar none. And that's the level he's putting Taylor Swift on. And I can't argue against that.
I don't want to argue against it. I mean she first of all, well, I don't know with Beatlemania, was that right when they first started? Was it throughout?
Could say it was during the British invasion when they it was when they came over to the States, they did the Ed Sullivan Show.
So in the beginning. Yeah, because what I want to point out here is Taylor Swift is fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years into her career at this point, and so that's what really impresses me is.
That she's just hitting her stride now, which is crazy to think.
Well, I don't think she's just hitting her stride, but I think that she's this stride is unlike anything else, she has continued to grow her career. Most people have peaks and valleys.
Or the one off album, or you change your style, or maybe.
You're really big as a teen idol and you continue playing those hits, but you don't necessarily keep growing your career. It's very odd. The old saying is it's not that hard to get famous, it is really hard to stay famous. And the fact that she is continuing to get bigger and better every single year. When she was doing these shows in La, I saw the La Times said that by the numbers her shows would become the most tiktoked
place in the world. She is expected to have sales reaching one point four billion dollars or more by the end of her full Eras World tour in twenty twenty four, which would exceed Elton John's record of nine hundred and thirty nine million dollars with his multi year farewell tour. So that's Elton John decades in doing his big farewell tour. Taylor Swift is still thirty three years old and doing a tour and she's gonna seemingly set the record.
And if you saw the videos back in the day of Elvis concerts, of the Beatles concerts, you saw the manic crying and the screaming and these these were also heart throbs. And this is what I find interesting if you talk about how incredible a woman is doing this, is that she's not the heart throb, but you're getting the same emotion. You see the videos from these young ladies, girls, mom, they're bawling their eyes out. We had a friend who took her daughter to So Far. She sent us the video.
Her daughter was in tears, I mean beside herself with emotion. And our daughter Taylor, when I was taking her to school the other day, we were listening to Taylor Swift. Of course in the car. She goes, I would give anything, I would pay anything to go see this concert one more time.
It was so many told us she cried. We got her the tickets for her birthday and she cried when she went in Dallas.
So who has moved? What artist has moved millions and millions of people like this and been so successful. I don't know if you can bring one up. I don't know if the Beatles are even comparable anymore. It is, and that's well, She's scary to say because that is such a crazy bar that we're talking about.
She's been a brilliant combination of talent, emotional connection and marketing. And you know, sometimes I think she keeps really good people on her team. She's worked with the same publicist, Tree Payne for years and years and they really have built this brand and know what the brand is. And that brand continues to reach young people too. So she's continued to like she hasn't just come up with the young people when she was young. I still see twelve
thirteen year old girls screaming at Taylor Swift concerts. And she has also been so smart about making her tours an event. This isn't just I'm going on tour, I'm singing my songs. You know, She's branded this as the Eras Tour and that has created like the friendship bracelets and dressing up to go to the tour.
And she's done the pick your album.
Yes, she's done two surprise songs at each show, so.
She's very newsworthy. That was brilliant.
Yeah, well, remember on her last big tour she had the surprise guests. So on each tour over the years, she's thought, how can I continue to make the news with each show?
And I'm not saying that she is credited with coming up with all these ideas, but what I love about her is she is the boss. She is CEO, she is the chairman, she is the captain of the ship. She runs her business and obviously runs it like a boss. And then there was this other headline that came out last week about her, as if we don't love t Swift enough, that she gave a five million dollar bonus
to her truck drivers. Obviously massive sets, massive stages for this tour and trucks upon trucks, and this amounted to I think five truck drivers getting what was it, no, fifty truck drivers getting one hundred thousand dollars bonuses. So she donated five million dollars to her crew and to the guys you know, driving the trucks and moving these stages around and again just goes to show, you know, and I know you're like, look, it's a drop in
the bucket, it's a rounding air. She's making, you know, a billion dollars off this. She didn't have to do it. These people are already getting paid. It's their job. But she did it.
By the way, not everybody does it. There's a lot of rich people, a lot of rich men out in the world who don't do stuff like that, who just take take takes.
So good on you, Taylor Swift. And speaking of Taylor, before we go this week, there was quite an emotional journey that I just took again. Our daughter Taylor just went back to school. And I posted something online the other day of just, you know, sitting there. I was just packing up her cars. We're about to drive north up to TCU and I was just sitting there looking and it hit me. I was in the garage by myself, and I got a little tear. I'm getting teary eyed
again talking about it. Just the taking your kids to school, and I remember vividly doing this in elementary school. I remember junior high and the first high school and you know, the first trip with Joshua up to college and now Taylor at college, and this was a little different because you know, she now has a car. She's a sophomore in college and she drove me. I went with her, but she drove me up to college and we moved
all her stuff in. And it is awesome to see because, as I always say as a parent, if you do your job right, your job is to set them free, and they are independent, strong men and women and they go off into the world and conquer it and forge their own path. But that's also the gutting part of it is that there wasn't this big emotional goodbye. There
wasn't the anxiety that we had last year. Remember obviously her freshman year when she was like, hey, can you guys kind of swing by and say hi before you leave? And we did. There was none of that. She was just like, you know, her girls there, she has the lay of the land now and it was like bye, thanks Cia, And part of that warmed my heart, but part of it crushed me. But I have rarely gotten a response like I did on social media with people dming me of and it was the broadness of it
is what hit me. I'm just about to take my kids to kindergarten. I'm just about to drop my son or daughter at the University of Arkansas. Across the board, everybody was talking about this. It really hit a tune with everybody. And so it's just something that you and I have been through now with both kids, taking them to college, and wherever you are in this journey of taking your kids to school. It's about that time we're all heading back to school. And I know we also
enjoy that. I know there's a lot of parents out there like thank God, because dealing with your kids during the summer, trying to plan their lives and then live your life is not easy. But at the same time, I know we all have that little twinge in our heart.
I and I get the twins, I think, but they're happy, They're good, and I would want that so much more than them calling me telling me they wanted to come home. So I feel so grateful for that. What is it what makes it so hard that drop off moment? For me?
It's weird. I get emotional just talking about this. You and I have talked about this this summer. I have had such a special gift given to me late in my career of this break honestly and leaving the Bachelor bacherette when I was traveling around the world NonStop. The sacrifice was I missed a lot of my kids. I have been so in trenched with them the last couple of years and enjoying them and just knowing that this is the last summer that our son Joshua was going
to be around. He'll get it, you know, we're going to see him, but it's like, this is the last summer he's really going to live with us as a student. He graduates this next May, and with Taylor we got two more. That's it, and that windows closed for me.
And I felt it in high school when they were going off to college, and now I'm really feeling it in college where my babies are all grows up and you know, they're taking flight, and I'm so excited to see Joshua and he's talking about what job he might get and taking that big leap, and I know he's you know, he'll get his own place and move on, and it just I don't know, man, When he goes to get a little cereal in the morning, I'm like, I just look at it and I remember him sitting
there in his high chair, and that stuff just kills you. It just it does. And I'm trying to keep it together right now. But as I said in the video that I posted, I don't know where these seasons are going, but I just they're going so fast, and I'm just I'm holding on for dear life.
It's also that if it feels like it went by fast, that means it went well, yeah, which is a catch. Twenty two. Well, you're such a great dad, and I'm I'm always so in awe of the kids that you've raised, the people you've raised, and I love it. I love seeing you know that you're the dad who will be at every movement and not miss any moment. And yeah, the kids.
Are so lucky to and thank god you were there because if Taylor had to go shopping with me for all the sorority stuff and the preschool, it would have been a nightmare. So and so it is awesome and it is special to see and this talking to you guys is always something that Lauren and I love. And Babe, you did a great job. You did a great job getting through this.
I this is horrifying. I'm so sorry for everyone. I had to listen to my voice like this. Somebody told me that I sounded like if you remember the Friends episode when Phoebe is sick and she has what she calls sexy flamah, and then actually she gets better and she misses the sexy voice. So maybe I'll feel that way, but I don't think so. I'm ready to talk again.
I'm gonna I want you to leave me messages.
Oh my god.
But before I say goodbye, we also so did a podcast last week. Go back and take a listen. Elsie. You weren't a part of this, but I know you listened to it. The doctor Mary Claire Haver, board certified obg yn. We had this amazing discussion about menopause. And I know people are like, wait, Chris, what are you doing talking about menopause? But we spent about an hour with doctor have and she went deep into menopause. I
think it was a fascinating discussion. I learned a tremendous amount and what I found astonishing is just how little a lot of women know about what their bodies are going through or what they're about to go through with menopause. So go back and have a listen to doctor Mary Claire have. I think we will talk more and more with her about this because it was definitely something that you guys really responded to, and so when you love something, definitely leave a comment. You can always find Elz at
Lauren z Ema on Instagram. I'm at Chris B. Harrison of course at the Most Dramatic Pod Ever, because we always love doing this and we love talking about the things that matter to you, and we'll do it again next time because we have a lot more to talk about. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the Most Dramatic Pod Ever and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.