Latest / Kyle Meredith With... / Felicia Day on The Lost Daughter of Sparta, The Guild Movie Plans, and Finding Power Outside Hollywood

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Felicia Day on The Lost Daughter of Sparta, The Guild Movie Plans, and Finding Power Outside Hollywood · Kyle Meredith With...

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1:12
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's me Kyle Meredith.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Today, talking with the
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[SPEAKER_01]: Felicia Day.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I love when Felicia's here.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The last time she was here, we got to talk about her audible series, Third Eye.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, you know her from her web series, The Guild.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And Dr. Horrible, sing along, blog.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She popped up in super natural to name just a few things.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And now she has a brand new book.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's called the Lost Dutter of Sparta.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Let's read about it here.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Helen of Troy, Clitometra, Tumandra.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Three sisters, infamously cursed by the goddess of Aphrodite to betray their husbands, are known the world over.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But few know about the fourth sister, Philanoe.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Lost a historical record, all we know from ancient texts is that she avoided the curse placed on her family and was granted immortality by the goddess Artemis.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But why and how did this happen?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Now Felicia Day has determined to bring Philanoi to vivid life and fill the missing pieces in this graphic novel retelling.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Her story is a traditional hero's journey with a feminist twist.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Born as both a Spartan princess and with a wine-stained birthmark on her face, Philanoi is destined for a different fate than her sisters.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Her remarkable, but overlooked life is finally revealed in this clever and engaging graphic novel.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's perfect for fans of the Palace of Aeros and Lorraine Olympus Getting to talk with Felicia first about how where the idea came from as as I mentioned right there Philanoi she's mentioned once one piece of text and in 2,500 years no one has explored What her life might have been like Felicia day she had the calling
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[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to hear about how that idea arrived, how was sort of born out of the pandemic and insomnia, and maybe more importantly what she wanted it to say, it's a hero's journey, but it's also a feminist tale, especially written about a time where that was not that you did not have that type of talk going on at all.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it's very important not just to kind of look at that, but to have it in today's today's society and what's happening out in the world.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We'll also hear about the arts, the beautiful artwork that helps tell the story because it is a graphic novel.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And she's going to give us the update.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's just coming up on the 20th anniversary of the Guild and has a reunion movie in the works.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So all that's and more as we talk about the
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle Mirth with Felicia Day.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, how are you?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm dinner right.
4:01
[SPEAKER_01]: How you doing?
4:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Good.
4:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry for the confusion with the links.
4:04
[SPEAKER_03]: It wasn't me.
4:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought she stood me up, she's a horrible person.
4:07
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, I was, I'm always like super creepy early and then I'm always, I assume this actually about you, just from your, your presence online.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, this doesn't, she doesn't feel like a late one, actually.
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[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, she's a perpetually creepy early one.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yep, that's me.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate creepy early ones.
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[SPEAKER_03]: No problem.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I wasn't today, but I was sitting in that other room.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I believe you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I believe you.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We don't have any proof, but I'm just telling you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: let me congratulate you to talk about this beautiful book, The Lost Outer of Sparta.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This is such a great story and it's so beautiful with this artwork and everything.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, last time I was thinking when we talked, we were talking about third eye and that great audible series that people should definitely still check out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and this for me, this has sort of been, you know, the, the next chapter that I've, this, this fantasy world, not that they're connected to anything, but just, you know, seeing what you're doing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Because as I understand, like, this story kind of starts back in what 2020 that you just wanted to say.
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[SPEAKER_01]: What are you talking about this?
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[SPEAKER_03]: I started thinking about this in 2020, which feels so long ago, but I always think that we lost about three to four years of our lives during that time.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so, really, you know, it's a couple of years.
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[SPEAKER_03]: No, you know, COVID, the process of making a graphic novel is actually quite lengthy, because artists can't...
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[SPEAKER_03]: draw, you know, super fast.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, and also contracts and COVID and all sorts of other delays, personal.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's just, this is the right time to release this book, and I am really excited to get it out there because the Odyssey is coming out this summer.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, time to there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Look at that.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It was not a plan.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Believe me.
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[SPEAKER_03]: This thing was supposed to be out at least maybe two years ago, at least one.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So, but I think it's really nice.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And one of the reasons why I wrote this book is that I
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[SPEAKER_03]: adaptations of Greek mythology and Greek characters with a feminist spin, Cersei, thousands ships.
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[SPEAKER_03]: There's so many of them that are just so wonderful, bringing a new perspective on a world and characters that I love and making me think about them in a different way.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So that was kind of...
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[SPEAKER_03]: Not top of mind, but it was one of the reasons why I started reading a lot of like actual ancient writing and mythology and things like that.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And through those deep dives on long and somnatic nights, because my daughter was a toddler and broke my brain, I stumbled across this character and I wanted to write her a story because she actually only has one line in history and I wanted to give her more.
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[SPEAKER_01]: that's incredible which by the way I like that you actually talk about the insomnia and the whole concept within this book at the end of it because that really does give so much insight to how you found this in that part of it right there that this person this girl had one line written her
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[SPEAKER_01]: and what's incredible about that is because Greek mythology is something that people obsess over and it has been picked apart so much and how how at 2500 years and no one has thought that's the next one on the list.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, it's really interesting, you know, I started by reading just mythology and stories and then I was like you really haven't read the Odyssey or the Illyid since college if you read them well at all back then and because I had insomnia it was the most interesting thing that I could read that wasn't exciting you know I'm saying there's no there isn't a cliffhanger that's like I don't get I can't sleep what's going to happen to Agma mom you know no offense it is in grossing but it's intellectually fun and also I would read it on my Kindle and
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[SPEAKER_03]: So I would like click on names and deep dive into the lore and kind of rabbit hole from there to philosophies, philosophers and other writers and things like that.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's how I got through to Fielanoi, the hero of my story.
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[SPEAKER_03]: She's actually the youngest sister of Helen of Troy.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And my initial interest was, what do we, what more do we know about Helen, because she's been written about for thousands of years.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But how do we really know who she is?
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[SPEAKER_03]: She's always a different interpretation in everybody's mind.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And I hadn't seen someone write a book about Helen, because I think she's just so big and monumental.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's like a lot to tackle.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I would hope Madeleine Miller one day does it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But
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[SPEAKER_03]: through kind of looking at Helen in her life.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I found this one excerpt from Hessiids catalog of women, which is like, I think 300 BCE, this guy just wrote about all the ladies, it was a women line somewhere.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It was catalog, it was a catalog, no binders, but catalogs.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's a old reference, wasn't it?
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[SPEAKER_03]: It wasn't.
8:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow, yes.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It was.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Wow, I'm dating myself.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So the catalog of women, and it says clearly that, you know, the mother of Kletem Nestera and Timondra, and who is the mother of Helen Troy, had this daughter fill in no way, and it was one line about her, and it was so intriguing to me, I was like, wait, what?
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[SPEAKER_03]: She went and I want to give it away because it's like the heart of the story in the ending.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But I was so fascinated and immediately I looked up and I found one blog entry on her that was just about how we don't know anything else about her.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so that just, I don't know why I was so excited about kind of inventing a story for her that was super personal to me because you know with COVID shutting off the world,
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[SPEAKER_03]: I was able to be brave enough to write a story that I think did not think Hollywood would have anything to do with.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It was not something I could pitch to TV and they'd be like, great, go with it, or even making a movie.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Nothing.
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[SPEAKER_03]: There was no way that this was going to be useful to the world that I was in, but I was cut off from it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so that allowed me to give myself the space.
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[SPEAKER_03]: and the bravery, you know, to be able to write something really a little bit different, and I'm so gratified for it because it's the past I want to be on for the rest of my life.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll be right back right after this.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back.
9:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle Mears with Felicia Day.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And let's talk about that story, too, because she sort of banished from her parents because of a birthmark.
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[SPEAKER_01]: As I said, you know, she's got the red on her face.
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[SPEAKER_01]: and they say it's a curse because Greek mythology, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a curse and nicely done.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But she's banished.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And as you're saying, it becomes a very personal story because, you know, as she grows up, she really wants to become perfect for everybody else.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's the basis of what's pushing her in this story.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This is the most obvious part of the question, but did you have things that actually did influences, as you talk about a personal story, like, where does this come from?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Well, there's a couple different reasons.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, the Hollywood thing is kind of one.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Like, just the fact that I for a long time was like, so eager to please other people that I was betraying myself.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I was leaving stories and paths untread because of that wouldn't be useful to the business.
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[SPEAKER_03]: That's a little bit of it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I was also a homeschool kid and, you know, just like Phelanoa, I grew up a little bit in isolation.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I felt like an outsider and I wanted to belong really badly.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And in going into the world, especially, moving to Hollywood and trying to make it in this business, I found a lot of institutional things, especially toward women,
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[SPEAKER_03]: that I didn't understand.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't understand how they were seeing me through their eyes the way that they were because I didn't see myself that way.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And yet I let the way they saw me and the way they wanted to use me influenced my decisions about what I did.
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[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, I wanted to please them so much that I would leave myself behind sometimes.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And when I got this chance during COVID, it kind of paused and reflect, I was like, wow, the happiest I've been is when I go outside the system and follow my heart and write the Guild the Web series, or I write third eye, or these are the things that give me the most joy, and I'm most proud of.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So why, why, what is it that I keep chasing?
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[SPEAKER_03]: What do I think I'm going to get with these people who only love me, conditionally?
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so I wanted to kind of pass that
12:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, this is an all ages book, but it's appropriate for 13 up and because I see a lot of young younger people who come up to me and like my work and I see how vulnerable they are, especially if they're a part of a marginalized group and especially right now when, um, you know, there are a lot of societal
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[SPEAKER_03]: things that are telling people what they should do based on their outsides and I don't think that's fair to anybody.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It sells us all short and I wanted to give people the bravery to persevere to surround themselves with people who make the feel braid and to fight back because you're worth it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You're worth being able to be who you want to be and who you are and what you want to do with your life despite not being useful to other people.
12:43
[SPEAKER_01]: It's crazy that we're back here, like progress, right?
12:47
[SPEAKER_01]: It's supposed to be progress.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And here we are at a time when, once again, being different is weaponized.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's hard.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And religion is part of this because this is a mythology.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know, these are gods, right?
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so I think in a sense, it's a strange thing that a religion can be used in many different ways.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And interpreted in many different ways.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And right now, it's being interpreted in one way, but you know,
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's not, it doesn't have to be like that, especially if you go back to actually the original words.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So I think it's really interesting to be able to tackle that and also just give empower people to stand firm, right?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Because you kind of have to get angry to push back.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Because I think that's what we're experiencing on one side of it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You've got to get angry to push back.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Because one person's at war.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You kind of have to go, I mean, you know, you can't just sit there, right?
13:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And I don't want to be like, you know, I actually find this story.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's very feminist and it's about a young girl and a lot of institutional things in society that make women betray themselves a little bit or feel like they're not important.
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[SPEAKER_03]: They don't need to deserve to be loved for who they are, but they're function in other people's lives.
13:58
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think this can apply to a lot of people.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I've heard from a lot of my friends, but we'll wait in my friend who is a medical actor writer as well, and he read it and he said, this is very resonant with me because I grew up in a certain way trying to please other people, you know, and this is, this is a journey that I think a lot of people can take from it because the,
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[SPEAKER_03]: The greatest regret is to betray yourself and yet every single day we're encouraged to do that.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Children are the most creative, wonderful kind people in the world.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You got to teach hate, you got to teach self-hatred, you have to teach all these things to kids, and getting a perspective where you don't actually have to buy into these things is very important.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So at what point did you realize what the story is?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm sure as it's not easy to create something from a blank page, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: No, no.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you center it on this person.
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[SPEAKER_01]: When at what point does it finally start to snowball and you see where this is going?
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's really interesting, like I am not a fast writer.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it didn't take me six years to write this, but certainly I am not like somebody who's going to write a book every three months.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I wish I had that.
15:07
[SPEAKER_03]: That and be able to sleep on a plane instantly, those would be my two superpowers, okay?
15:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Right faster, sleep on a plane instantly.
15:14
[SPEAKER_03]: But for some reason, you know, I did a lot of research, which was very fun, and I sort of played around with what I felt really angry about, because there is a lot of anger in this.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But not in a like, I want to get you, it's just like, how dare you tell me I'm not enough, right?
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[SPEAKER_03]: And that's what I think what I was feeling a lot of.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's kind of infused in the fact that I wanted to
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[SPEAKER_03]: To not only allow my lead character to feel strong at the end, but everybody, I wanted to collect it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I want to include the audience.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I want to give hope and strength and a little bit of anger that you're right for, you're worth fighting for.
15:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Because we fight for a lot in this world, but we don't realize that a lot of it's not even for our own benefit.
16:01
[SPEAKER_03]: There's kind of a lack of truth in everything we do because if the world, the world,
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know, everything from social media, AI, societal, you know, pressures, all of it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Like, it can all be changed to a dime, you know, and I think that's really important to realize that you have a lot more power over your voice and yourself than you realize.
16:22
[SPEAKER_03]: It was kind of a lesson to me, but also a lesson to my daughter, because I'm my best advocate for myself when I think about parenting my daughter well, because it's, again, it's hard to put yourself first.
16:34
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, it was a process, but I kind of was able to hang what I wanted to say on a lot of interesting characters that I had just collected in my Perusings, and some of the monsters she's encounters are the most fascinating to me and adding another layer to them as well was really interesting to me and subverting because I always lived subverting.
16:54
[SPEAKER_03]: And creating a hair of journey that would stand alongside, you know, Heracles and the Asios and Perusias and Jason, who all of whom are terrible to women, by the way.
17:03
[SPEAKER_01]: and we'll be right back right after this.
17:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back, it's Kyle Mears with Felicia Day.
17:09
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was those monsters that I was going to bring that up to because you almost have to do quotes monsters, right?
17:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly.
17:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Give them layers and one of them is extremely heartbreaking.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It won't give away that story, which I just still didn't see coming.
17:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's great.
17:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Good.
17:29
[SPEAKER_03]: If you start coming, that would be boring.
17:30
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a big compliment.
17:31
[SPEAKER_01]: But I did, I love what you did with, you know, the, the opposition, you know, the, the obstacles.
17:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, the excellent use of rule of threes here, you know, three bunchers and three.
17:44
[SPEAKER_03]: I won it well at first of all it's video game rules, but second of all it's here at journey rules and I did crap I took the here at journey and there are a couple of really interesting books about the heroin's journey out there that I read as well which I was like oh this is a different version I mean Joseph Campbell was not actually very complimentary to women he was like oh they're they're they're not the hero they're kind of the prize at a sense I mean I'm not
18:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Please don't quote me on that.
18:07
[SPEAKER_03]: There is a quote that's much better that you can look into.
18:11
[SPEAKER_03]: But you know, it is interesting the different ways that my character navigates her heroes journey and what she discovers versus a guy who would be, you know, they would be going out to fight and kill monsters and things like that.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's a different approach and I'm just a little oppositional.
18:28
[SPEAKER_03]: I took the rules and then I decided to break them all because that's just what I always do.
18:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
18:33
[SPEAKER_01]: No, that's what made it.
18:33
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what made it interesting.
18:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I say that once I picked it up, it was very hard to put it down.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I read it in two settings and just, you know, because again, as you said, like it is perfect for a young teenage, especially, you know, famous during everything that.
18:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll, but I'll echo will, like I could see so much of what I needed to within that story.
18:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
18:57
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I, I think that's universal, you know, in reading my daughter all these fairy tales, which are sitting on the bed.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So, maybe you, you said in there that your daughter knew the Odyssey before Daniel Tiger.
19:08
[SPEAKER_03]: She did, yeah, there's these little mith books where they had these adorable little like Modusa comb your hair, you know, they're so cute, and then I got like an Osborn's, you know, kind of simplified version of Heracles' Hercules' story.
19:23
[SPEAKER_03]: And so these stories were, she grew up with them, and she really, really loves them.
19:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And when I told them to her, I realized, oh, these are...
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[SPEAKER_03]: not for children.
19:33
[SPEAKER_03]: They're not for adults, they're for everybody.
19:36
[SPEAKER_03]: These are supposed to entertain everybody around a fire or in a tavern or like whatever the equivalent was in ancient Greece.
19:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And they were religious stories as well.
19:45
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, you know, the journey is kind of simple.
19:50
[SPEAKER_03]: And that way, the message and the meaning, I think, comes out clearly.
19:55
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it was important to me to make it accessible to everyone that everyone could take something away from this.
19:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Because it is a universal truth that we all should be able to be who we are and be loved if you're who we are.
20:05
[SPEAKER_03]: That doesn't feel like as any age or gender or background to it, hopefully.
20:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, and I also want to pick up because you got the illustrations.
20:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It's that was Rowan McColl and she's so great.
20:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, look at just these because so this is this is the color palette right red white black that which once you read the story you totally understand that but But but how great of you all to realize so what what's that part of this story like oh what if we only use red.
20:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, it was, I think it was my idea, but I'm not going to claim a 100% credit.
20:38
[SPEAKER_03]: I knew that we couldn't do a ton of colors, and I didn't want them to be.
20:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And the fact that she does have this port wine stain on her face, I was like, well, we have to have that have a color, we have to.
20:49
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was, I use the excuse of writing to go to Greece and look at a lot of, I take a lot of reference photos and explore a lot of ruins and also go to the fabulous museums there, especially on Crete.
21:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Do not,
21:01
[SPEAKER_03]: skipcrete.
21:03
[SPEAKER_03]: It was my favorite place.
21:04
[SPEAKER_03]: And of course they have the red pots, you know, it's more of a terracotta orange, but we kind of settled on this pantone that's kind of a mix between blood, you know, like a burgundy and a terracotta, to be able to have that universal splash and have the pallet that was so faithful to the art that they made back then.
21:24
[SPEAKER_03]: So I, and I will say that Rowan is an incredible artist.
21:27
[SPEAKER_03]: I found her after looking through
21:29
[SPEAKER_03]: over 1,000 people in a list of visible women hashtag on Twitter that's Kelly Sudakonic, who's Chromic Royalty.
21:37
[SPEAKER_03]: She sent me her Excel spreadsheet and I found Rowan through that and her decisions about the red were it was all her and she put them in every single place that really
21:47
[SPEAKER_03]: draws your eye and use it so judiciously and I love the way it came across in her style of artistry which is again, ageless and timeless and so kind of raw in a way that I loved.
22:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm co-signing on every bit of that right there because that's the other part that draws you in.
22:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean it's such a great book.
22:07
[SPEAKER_01]: and and I know it's not the only thing that you got going on right now we're transition sick here uh because Bailey uh came out with the end of the year uh as I put because Hollywood wouldn't yes I I got mad at Hollywood this is my bet my fuel is my anger uh
22:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Not, not mad, but just defiant.
22:26
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess defiant.
22:27
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, well, you won't let me start in this movie.
22:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to record it as a very professional podcast and sell it for $2.99 and it's done very well.
22:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Thousands of thousands of people have downloaded it and it's really funny.
22:39
[SPEAKER_03]: It's very our rated.
22:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So you can get the book for your teenager.
22:43
[SPEAKER_03]: You might want to think twice about the Bailey.
22:46
[SPEAKER_03]: But I finished that, and then I am working in about a couple of weeks.
22:51
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to be launching the Guild Reunion Movie Kickstarter this summer to run the summer, but signups will be starting in a couple of weeks, and that's going to be my focus for quite a bit, because I'm very excited.
23:00
[SPEAKER_03]: The script is done, and we had a reading, and it's great, and I'm just excited about it.
23:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, to be excited about something that's been in your life for, you know, a couple decades now, I guess.
23:11
[SPEAKER_03]: It'll be 20 years in 27.
23:12
[SPEAKER_03]: That's why I want the movie to be next year, yeah.
23:15
[SPEAKER_01]: To find new life.
23:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, was that always the hope the movie?
23:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Well you know I started working on a musical version in 2020 again 2020 was a big turning point for me that's it's it's pretty interesting a couple of a lyricist and composer approached me to option the Guild for a musical you know COVID made it a very slow process although musicals are a very slow process a book writer came on Alice and who's great
23:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And I've been producing this for many years.
23:41
[SPEAKER_03]: We did a reading last year.
23:42
[SPEAKER_03]: We just did a reading in London.
23:44
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's a lot of interest to perhaps stage it next year.
23:47
[SPEAKER_03]: We will see exactly what this plans happen.
23:50
[SPEAKER_03]: But in the back of my mind, about starting a couple of years ago, I was because of the play, I was invigorated again about the characters.
23:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, the 20th anniversary is coming up.
24:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to make a big deal out of it.
24:01
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to book in, you know, sort of the,
24:04
[SPEAKER_03]: the DIY of it.
24:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I'm sure I'll always do it, but I really would like to celebrate the show in a way.
24:09
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I started planning a couple of years ago.
24:12
[SPEAKER_03]: So all last year I was kind of tinkering with the movie alongside was finishing this.
24:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And then, yeah, now we're going to do the movie.
24:20
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know, man.
24:21
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm at a good place.
24:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I love making my own stuff and I'm so grateful that fans support it because that's the only way I can do it.
24:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's I mean, that's I think we're all impressed by that.
24:31
[SPEAKER_01]: The fact that as you say, you know, you go through the Hollywood machine and for some people, once they're on the other side of that, they're like, that's it.
24:41
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all I got.
24:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And for you to go like, I'm a creative person.
24:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And I can still find new ways to bring all of my ideas to life.
24:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's huge.
24:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I think everybody should have that confidence in themselves.
24:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, listen, we're in a world where art and carmers meet and are very incestuous.
25:01
[SPEAKER_03]: And the business of course, because we have to pay bills, because we're a very capitalist society and we need money and things are very expensive.
25:10
[SPEAKER_03]: The pressure to make things popular in the eyes of other people is huge.
25:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And yet, you know, that might not be leading you to the best.
25:19
[SPEAKER_03]: outcome.
25:20
[SPEAKER_03]: It might not be leading you, the idea that you need to make it successful.
25:23
[SPEAKER_03]: It might not be leading you to the idea that would make you most successful because you're chasing success.
25:29
[SPEAKER_03]: You can't manufacture success.
25:31
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't make my book a New York Times seller.
25:34
[SPEAKER_03]: I would love it.
25:36
[SPEAKER_03]: But the graphic novel category is mixed with the kids.
25:39
[SPEAKER_03]: So dog management on there for 18 years.
25:42
[SPEAKER_03]: So who knows?
25:43
[SPEAKER_03]: But all I can know is that I did my best work and this is a story I had to get made.
25:48
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I was able to get through that troublesome middle and I was able to overcome my boredom with it and then get back into excitement about it when the pencils came in and then I was able to cut words up until last November because I thought the panel was a cleaner this way and so.
26:04
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, this is so exciting for me to be faithful to myself, which is the theme of the book as well.
26:11
[SPEAKER_03]: In letting something out to the world that only I could tell, only I could tell this book, the way, even if you wrote a feeling no I story, it would not be the same as mine, and that's what's beautiful about it.
26:20
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think no matter how you pay your bills, no matter what you want to do with your life professionally, you should at least have some kind of creativity in your life that you're putting yourself out there in a way that nobody else could because that's being alive to me.
26:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's beautifully said, and we are going to get this on the New York Times best seller list.
26:38
[SPEAKER_03]: It's my dog man's great.
26:39
[SPEAKER_03]: My daughter.
26:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Dog man is great.
26:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Dog man's going to move me to, you know, listen.
26:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I'll wrap up with this to you've been learning Polish.
26:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Should we expect that to get worked into any of your projects?
26:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, but it's a thumbs up.
26:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I have been learning Polish.
26:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I will again last summer I started doing things for myself for fun and I started learning Polish after my grandmother passed early in the year as a dedication to her and just
27:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Learning a very hard language is really fun and it gives me excuse when I look to go on Instagram.
27:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I could just learn a Polish word instead.
27:15
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's just a really good habit to have and I carry it with me.
27:18
[SPEAKER_03]: I love reading very beginner Polish like baby books and I know I'm never going to be fluent but just learning it is really wonderful for my brain and I started taking oil painting classes.
27:29
[SPEAKER_03]: and that taught me a lot about my writing.
27:31
[SPEAKER_03]: It really made me a lot better writer just doing oil classes and knowing that you got to be in the process.
27:37
[SPEAKER_03]: You got to be constantly putting something down to be able to see if you need to change it.
27:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Because if you're like, I don't want to put a stroke down unless it's perfect.
27:45
[SPEAKER_03]: You'll never do anything.
27:46
[SPEAKER_03]: And that is something people told me for years about my writing and I never really absorbed it until I started oil painting class.
27:56
[SPEAKER_03]: my heart alive.
27:58
[SPEAKER_03]: And when I get depressed about anything, I'm like, you know what?
28:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Just go learn, just go learn a couple words.
28:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Two learn a couple words.
28:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, your problem solving leads the way.
28:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sleepy.
28:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll read Greek mythology.
28:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at this.
28:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got a book.
28:12
[SPEAKER_03]: It is true.
28:13
[SPEAKER_03]: I do have a novel proposal.
28:15
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm poking at it.
28:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And it does tie into another before bed subsession that I've been into the last couple years.
28:21
[SPEAKER_03]: But it'll be a while but for that's out.
28:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't wait till we're talking about that one as well.
28:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Great.
28:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Guild movie and whatever else you've got cooked up next, Felicia, seriously, it's always so great to talk to you.
28:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for making time for me again, Kyle.
28:35
[SPEAKER_03]: You're always delightful to talk to as well.
28:37
[SPEAKER_01]: My thanks to Felicia, the lost daughter of Sparta is available now wherever you buy books.
28:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to Felicia, thanks to you for checking on the episode.
28:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Do hit that subscribe button before you get out of here to keep up with all the interviews that I've put out every single week at Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR, WFPK.org.
28:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Consequence, YouTube for the video versions or anywhere you get your podcasts from.
29:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You can subscribe to Kyle Manitwith and please give this series a rating and leave a review
29:07
[SPEAKER_01]: After that, you can head over to WFPK.org, where I do a show Monday through Friday, starts 6 p.m. Eastern.
29:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It's 4 hours of classics from the 80s and 90s.
29:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You get great new music and indie and music and film news, bonus interviews.
29:21
[SPEAKER_01]: One of my recent shows features some classics and favorites from my morning jacket, Alison Russell, Dusty Springfield, Nina Simone,
29:28
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29:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Starts at 6pm Eastern at wfpk.org.
29:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Consequence, as you music and film news, you can also find me on any of the social media sites The address is always at Kyle Meredith.
30:00
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30:02
[SPEAKER_01]: That does it for another edition I'm Kyle Meredith.
30:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll see you next time Consequence podcast network
30:19
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30:22
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30:22
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30:27
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