Podcast: Play in new window | Download () | Embed
Jack is going off to law school. So the gang sits down to reminisce on his time at NDRN, share a few stories from behind the scenes, and hear a joke from Stephanie that gets a good laugh out of us.
Full transcript available at: https://www.ndrn.org/resource/ndr-august25/
Jack Rosen:
Like we have any sort of agenda for today, so just sort of going to get what I get. Turn that into a podcast, I guess.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Sure.
Michelle Bishop:
And that’s different from any other episode because…
Jack Rosen:
It’s not, it genuinely, I guess is not, I suppose at some point we’d have a guest and questions we thought we should ask them.
Michelle Bishop:
Oh.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I’m the guest and I have the questions. I don’t know.
Jack Rosen:
I’m pretty sure you’re not the guest.
Michelle Bishop:
It’s fine.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I’m pretty sure Jack is the guest.
Jack Rosen:
I’m sort of the guest.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
What?
Michelle Bishop:
Wait what?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
This episode is for Jack, isn’t it?
Jack Rosen:
It would be very funny if we just made it the Stephanie episode, even though we’ve done like two of those.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
No. That would make me feel like such a bad chicken nugget.
Jack Rosen:
Even though we’ve already done-
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
This is all about you.
Michelle Bishop:
We already did a Stephanie wedding episode.
Jack Rosen:
We did a whole one about you getting married.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
We’ve already done a bunch of episodes about me doing chicken-nuggety things like, come on.
Michelle Bishop:
Oh, that reminds me. My mom wants to hear about the legally blind Uber driver.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I forgot that I slipped that into an episode.
Michelle Bishop:
Yeah, she’s still listening and she has some follow-up questions.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I love this.
Michelle Bishop:
Well pack might have to address that at some point.
Jack Rosen:
Well, Stephanie, do you want to address it? I mean, let’s give the people what they want, I guess.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yeah, I guess we can give the people what they want.
Michelle Bishop:
Yeah, we have one listener, so we should probably follow up on that for her.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yeah, no, that makes sense. And Carol, thank you so much for being a dedicated, loyal listener to this wonderful podcast. So I will give a slighter Cliff Notes version just so it doesn’t take up the whole hour. So I am waiting for a car outside of, I can’t remember which Metro stop it was, but I had to go get something, and so I just figured I’d take an Uber home from the Metro because that particular Metro was a lot easier to get a car and it would only be a 20-minute ride. Okay, fine. This is what I’ll do. And so I get out of the Metro station, I’m trying to find my driver or whatever, yada, yada, and I can’t even remember his name. Maybe we should just call him Bob for anonymity. I am bad at saying that too. But yeah, so Bob pulls up in some sort of Toyota of some sort and I get in the car and we start driving and I noticed that I’m hearing a lot more horns, but I’m just not thinking about it because it’s rush hour DC traffic.
And then we started, he was like, “You know, I’ll be honest with you, I’m legally blind. I can only see out of one eye.” And I was like, “Oh, okay.” And I’m just trying to think of some of the things that he said, but he said different things that were essentially low vision, blind hacks or what have you. I’m trying to remember the specific hacks, but honestly, when he said, “I’m legally blind,” I was kind of like, “Huh, Jesus, take the wheel. Please get me home safe.” So it was a wild ride. No, that was not an intended pun but we can make it a pun.
Jack Rosen:
So you’re saying he might’ve had limited vision in the one eye?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yeah, potentially. But, he said that he was only legally blind, he was legally blind or totally blind out of one eye, and then he could see out of the other eye just fine.
Jack Rosen:
You don’t sound convinced he could see just fine out of the other eye.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I’m not.
I don’t want to say it. Jack has to say it.
Jack Rosen:
I don’t want to say it. Michelle, kick us off as always.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yeah, Michelle, you do that. Yeah.
Michelle Bishop:
Why is it always me? Okay.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Because you’re such a good public speaker and I’m really sad right now.
Jack Rosen:
We’re already dealing with enough change. I don’t want to deal with more. Could you please kick us off?
Michelle Bishop:
On this very special episode of National Disability Radio, we say goodbye to our pro-host extraordinaire, Jack Rosen, who is leaving NDRN to go to law school. Yay, Jack. We need an applause. We’ve never had an applause. Can we-
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I know I keep saying that. Oh my gosh. But seriously, Jack, we’re going to miss you so, so, so much. And you have been an amazing pro-host with the most.
Jack Rosen:
I also have bad news. I definitely did not have enough time left to add in the applause, but…
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap clap, there. I’m trying not to, oh man. That made me sound facetious. I might have to-
Jack Rosen:
No, we’re keeping that in.
Michelle Bishop:
That’s definitely staying in. The part where Stephanie was very salty with you is definitely staying in. This is still the most professional podcast in the business.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yes, it is.
Michelle Bishop:
We pay the big money for the good effects.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yes.
Jack Rosen:
But thank you Michelle. I am sad to be leaving NDRN. It’s been five years here. I started back, for those who don’t know, I started back in 2020. It was actually pretty early COVID. It was May the fourth, because I’ll always remember it’s Star Wars Day.
Michelle Bishop:
Yes. You started-
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
May the fourth be with you.
Jack Rosen:
And it’s funny, NDRN was pretty much the last job interview I had at the start of COVID because nowhere else in the world was hiring. And I interviewed with Michelle and David Hutt and our former ED for a position on the voting team, and I told them at the time like, “Hey, my background is really in politics and comms. I’m a person with a disability. I have ADHD. And I’ve received services throughout my life for it, but I don’t know a ton about the disability rights movement, but I’m willing to learn.” And I got lucky enough that they decided to take a chance on me.
And so for the first two years I was here, I worked for Michelle helping get out the vote in the role that our friend Monica is in now. Then about three years ago, I switched over to the communications team, and one of my first projects there was that we had this podcast they wanted to restart and for, God, yeah, three years now since, we have been putting this out together, meeting once a month, usually meeting twice a month because we’re disorganized and what we do is create a podcast episode and then every time forget to do the intro and outro to it. A little behind the scenes, we have never recorded one of those in the same time we’ve recorded the interview.
Michelle Bishop:
They have to know because sometimes one of us just isn’t .there
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Or is sick or something. Thank you-
Michelle Bishop:
For part of the episode, how come Stephanie was in the interview, but she wasn’t there when they did the intro?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Right. They have questions.
Michelle Bishop:
We’re super good at this.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
We have all the questions. We are sorry guys. Sometimes we have migraines, sometimes things happen in life.
Michelle Bishop:
Also, Stephanie made us start the podcast.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I did not.
Michelle Bishop:
That was 100% Stephanie. I was the only host that was left, Justice and Erica were already gone. And Stephanie was like, “I want to host a podcast. We need to do this podcast.” And then they were like, “I guess Jack has to do it and produce it.”
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
So what you’re saying is that I made Jack and you do this against your will.
Michelle Bishop:
Yes.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
No.
Jack Rosen:
You definitely added a significant chunk of my workload. This is one of my core responsibilities.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I’m sorry.
Michelle Bishop:
We remember it the same way. It was totally Stephanie.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
It was not.
Jack Rosen:
I kind of think it was you Stephanie.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Lies, slander, blasphemy.
Jack Rosen:
I know Michelle did not want to start doing this again.
Michelle Bishop:
Another episode.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I kind of made it worth it with my awesome jokes, right, yeah?
Michelle Bishop:
Oh, um…
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
No?
Jack Rosen:
I’ve enjoyed Michelle’s reaction to them a lot. When did we, now I’m wondering when we started adding the puns. I think it was-
Michelle Bishop:
From the beginning.
Jack Rosen:
It wasn’t the first episode. I’m looking right now. It was the second one Stephanie.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
It only took me one episode.
Jack Rosen:
It took you one episode, and then on the third one we added, I believe Stephanie’s iconic sound.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yes.
Michelle Bishop:
For Stephanie’s Joke of the Month. Everyone else needs to know what we are living with over here with Stephanie and the puns.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I’m sorry that you guys have been personally victimized by me for almost four years now.
Jack Rosen:
So yeah, after five years here, I decided it was time to make a little bit of a career change and I decided to go to law school. I decided, I’ll say hopefully a career change, but not necessarily a field change. The law school I picked out is one that has a disability law clinic and a strong focus on public interest. It’s sort of funny. It all comes full circle that I can remember five years ago telling you guys, I don’t know a lot about this, but I’d like the opportunity. And it was something I always vaguely wanted to do, disability rights, but I thought it would be like, oh, after I’ve had a corporate or a politics career, maybe I could give back that way.
And even then it was just vaguely I’ll do something to help people with disabilities, it wasn’t, I want to get into legally-based disability advocacy. And five years later I’m like, oh, when I’m looking at these law schools, I need to find one where I can go further in this field and expand my skill set and be able to do more here. So I don’t know, I’m sad to be leaving. I’m also grateful to you, Michelle, because it definitely changed my career trajectory in a way I never expected. And it is bittersweet. But we have shared probably too much of our personal lives on this podcast for three years now. So we figured really no other way to end it than with the podcast.
Michelle Bishop:
And we are three of the least interesting people.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Hey, rude. Everybody thinks I’m interesting.
Michelle Bishop:
No, Jack, we’re going to miss you.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yeah we are.
Michelle Bishop:
It has been a pleasure to work with you all this time. I’m glad we converted you into a full-blown lifelong disability rights advocate.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yes.
Michelle Bishop:
[inaudible 00:10:09] on you when you were young, scrappy and hungry.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
We did not throw away our shot as NDRN.
Michelle Bishop:
I’m going to quote Hamilton in this episode until we get sued because we have to get sued at least once.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
We have to get sued for Jack’s last episode.
Michelle Bishop:
We have to get sued at least once before Jack leaves.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Lawsuit, lawsuit.
Jack Rosen:
It’s been my entire goal while producing this podcast has been to get us sued. I’ve tried by-
Michelle Bishop:
We’ve tried everything. How many copyrights can we violate?
Jack Rosen:
We’ve tried to get Taylor to sue us. We’ve tried to get the cast of Hamilton. We didn’t do Disney. We’re scared of them.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I thought we did do Disney. Remember, we sang Let It Go?
Michelle Bishop:
We sang Let It Go?
Jack Rosen:
You know what, yes, we did do Disney.
Michelle Bishop:
I thought Jay-Z was going to sue us when I didn’t put him in my Top Five on the live episode.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh, on the live episode. I was like, wait, is going, how is Mississippi, Michelle?
Michelle Bishop:
It’s raining.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
The rain in Mississippi is annoying. It’s like extra humid.
Michelle Bishop:
Totally. All the time. Oh yeah. It’s humid. I’m not built for this.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
No, it’s extra humid.
Michelle Bishop:
It’s stormy. The whole time. So I haven’t really gotten to see the glory of your home state.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh, so sad. Yeah. Nope. You got to go to Keefer’s and Bulldog.
Michelle Bishop:
Okay, I’ll work on that.
Jack Rosen:
What is Bulldog?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
But Jack, seriously, we are very much going to miss you, and I just can’t thank you enough for being such a good coworker, colleague, friend, and confidant during my time at NDRN. And I know that you won’t be far, but yeah, it’s been amazing working with you. Whether we’re coming up with tweets or I’m bothering you with puns or all that good stuff. Oh, or that one thing that happened last year at annual conference], the getting kicked out of the bar thing, which probably should be.
Michelle Bishop:
That’s why-
Jack Rosen:
In our defense, and we’re not going to say which bar, they were being kind of ableist.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
They were totally being ableist.
Jack Rosen:
Can we tell the story on the pod?
Michelle Bishop:
Don’t name the bar. That’s definitely how-
Jack Rosen:
We’re not going to name the bar.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Is it bad that I can’t even remember what the name of that bar was?
Michelle Bishop:
Where was I even when this was happening?
Jack Rosen:
I think you must have been asleep. Wait, we can’t say where we were either, Stephanie.
Michelle Bishop:
Did you just call me old in the middle of a podcast episode. Where was I when you guys were at the bar?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Asleep, Michelle, you’re ancient.
Jack Rosen:
You were invited. Yeah, but I think we were there at like 11:30 at night.
Michelle Bishop:
Okay. That’s worse. Could you tell people it was like 2:00 A.M. or something?
Jack Rosen:
Yeah. Stephanie and I were out, we were at the club. It was 3:00 A.M.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Everybody in the club getting, okay, I’m done. Anyway, it was 3:00 A.M. We were at the club in Nowhereville.
Michelle Bishop:
It’s 11:30, you know your Gen X bedtime does not allow you to be up past 10:00.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Low key. I go to bed at nine o’clock on the rag.
Michelle Bishop:
We need older people on this podcast.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh, come on. I go to bed at nine o’clock. I’m basically an oldish person now.
Jack Rosen:
I’m pretty sure your new producer is going to be my age, I’m pretty sure.
Michelle Bishop:
But if we’re getting the producer, I think we’re getting, she is a Swifty, so now it’s just going to be an all Swifty crew. So we look forward to the next episode of this podcast where it’s all about people with disabilities who love Taylor Swift.
Jack Rosen:
I may have warned her when I was telling her how to produce the podcast. I’m like, so for the first 20 minutes they usually talk about Taylor and then I turn the recording on after, so I don’t have to go through all of that because eventually we’ll just get to the podcast. But you got to let them go through talking about Taylor Swift first.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
<< Don’t say that I didn’t warn you >>
Michelle Bishop:
Nice.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I’m over here-
Michelle Bishop:
You don’t need to hear all my theories about when Rep TV was going to be dropped since it’s apparently never coming. So that’s fine. I have a little embarrassment.
Jack Rosen:
You have been predicting it for years.
Michelle Bishop:
I mean, some of the evidence was convincing, okay. Never mind. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine.
Jack Rosen:
Is she not now that she owns her catalog? I thought she would anyway.
Michelle Bishop:
She never actually recorded it, so…
Jack Rosen:
Really?
Michelle Bishop:
Yeah, she’s only recorded like a quarter of it, so I’m thinking it’s a no. There’s going to be Vault Tracks though, Stephanie Vault Tracks. We still have things to look forward to.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I love the Vault Tracks, honestly.
Michelle Bishop:
Right?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Nothing New is like my jam.
Michelle Bishop:
You know I saw that Live with Phoebe Bridgers.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I am-
Michelle Bishop:
Oh, this is already transitioning into a Taylor Swift podcast and Jack is still here.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Right? God bless it. I’m still so jealous that you got to see Phoebe and Taylor and you got to see Taylor three times.
Michelle Bishop:
Okay. Jack Antonoff also came out that night and Ice Spice. Anyway.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Hair flip.
Michelle Bishop:
We should probably talk about Jack or at least disability rights or something.
Jack Rosen:
At least the podcast, maybe?
Michelle Bishop:
The podcast.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
No. Let’s talk about Jack. This is the Jack episode.
Jack Rosen:
Okay. I guess we’ll do a couple stories from my time at NDRN.
Michelle Bishop:
Yeah, we need your favorite stories from your time at NDRN. Yes.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Don’t let either of us jack the episode from you.
Michelle Bishop:
Nothing illegal.
Jack Rosen:
Oh, come on Stephanie, that one was lazy.
Michelle Bishop:
Stephanie, did you really just say that?
Jack Rosen:
I have heard that-
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Don’t let any of us jack the, oh, come on. That was fun.
Jack Rosen:
Not giving you that one.
Michelle Bishop:
I don’t don’t know if I’m disappointed or proud of that one.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
You should be disproud-pointed.
Michelle Bishop:
It’s like 50/50. Anyway Jack, no illegal stories, please.
Jack Rosen:
No.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
We don’t want to get sued for that reason.
Jack Rosen:
Okay.
Michelle Bishop:
Yeah, there’s certain things we want to be sued for and certain things we should avoid.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
What are some of the funniest stories from your time at NDRN?
Jack Rosen:
Let’s think. I mean, yeah, as we alluded to, there was the time, Stephanie and I, at one of our annual conferences, we were out at an undisclosed location. It was very late. Michelle was in fact there earlier partying it up, but then she was like, “Hey, it’s 3:45 A.M. I got to get out of here before sunrise.”
Michelle Bishop:
Thank you.
Jack Rosen:
Yes. But no, they double charged Stephanie at this bar. They were claiming the credit card transaction wouldn’t go through, it was bad. They just kept trying to talk to me and show me the receipt and I’m like, A, I’m not dealing with this. You guys figure it out, and B, you are just being wildly ableist to us right now.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
So ridiculous.
Jack Rosen:
But let’s see, what else? That one was wild just because I did not ever think in my years of working here, I would be not quite asked to leave, but certainly not asked to come back.
Michelle Bishop:
You did also ride in a self-driving car.
Jack Rosen:
We did-
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh yeah.
Jack Rosen:
We did record an episode from a self-driving car. That was when Raquel was on the pod. It was me, her and Marcia.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I think I was also leaving a bar if I’m correct.
Jack Rosen:
That one was. That was after when we all went out to a Mexican restaurant at the Phoenix conference and Marcia just, we ordered it and Marcia just sort of volunteered. She’s like, “Okay, I wanna come along and see this.” I’m like, “Okay, but you’re on the podcast.”
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
That is the trade-off.
Jack Rosen:
Yes.
Michelle Bishop:
I also wasn’t there. I’m never there when these things happen.
Jack Rosen:
I don’t know why you weren’t there for that.
Michelle Bishop:
Am I always sleeping?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
No.
Jack Rosen:
I feel like both of you weren’t there for the self-driving car one.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yeah, I wasn’t there because I had, we were doing a public policy team dinner, so that’s why I wasn’t there.
Michelle Bishop:
It was supposed to be for Stephanie, because-
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I know and I never got to ride-
Michelle Bishop:
Because it was supposed to be about self-driving cars for blind people.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I know. I never got to ride in it.
Jack Rosen:
Stephanie, they’re coming to DC.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I know. I’m so excited. Quinn on the other hand is not.
Michelle Bishop:
I’m pretty sure I saw one already.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yeah, they were doing test laps around our building.
Jack Rosen:
Yeah, they’re testing a ton out in my neighborhood. I don’t fully trust them, but I’m not going to lie, they’re cheap and convenient and I’ve had some bad Uber drivers in DC.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh Lord boy, do we.
Jack Rosen:
Let’s see. What’s another appropriate NDRN story we could tell?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Appropriate.
Jack Rosen:
Really appropriate.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Any stories from traveling for the documentary?
Michelle Bishop:
That’s why I’m not here for any of them. I might only be there for the stories that are inappropriate.
Jack Rosen:
I mean, with the documentary, this was funny. So we’re there and we’re getting towards the last day of our travel in, so yeah, we were in South Carolina. It was me, Monica, and a third person who helped make the documentary who’s a little more private, but shout out them. They helped a ton with it and taught me a lot about filming.
But anyway, so the three of us, we discovered early on that week that our last night there Katt Williams was going to perform and we wanted to go. We all wanted to go really bad, but as the director, I had to keep being the bad guy and being like, “Okay, Monica, we will, if we don’t have any interviews scheduled that day, and we have all these people we need to interview before we can leave South Carolina, we can’t blow any off to,” she didn’t want to blow any off, but I had to be, as I often am at NDRN the last few years, the person who says no to things, and I don’t know if that’s feasible.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
You guys don’t don’t know what kind of a bummer Jack is on a regular basis, y’all.
Jack Rosen:
And finally we got the last interview scheduled and we were so hyped. We all just went out to see Katt Williams together and it was the perfect way to end having worked together and been on the road for two weeks, traveling, filming, doing 10-hour days interviewing people.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
And it probably saved your friendship with Monica.
Jack Rosen:
Oh yeah. Even if she’ll never forgive me for the fact I didn’t invite her to a music festival with my friends. That’s a joke.
Michelle Bishop:
She’s still trying to get into that with you though, right?
Jack Rosen:
What?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Daily.
Michelle Bishop:
Into that festival, or is this a different one?
Jack Rosen:
She what?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
It’s a different one. There’s been two incidents.
Michelle Bishop:
There’s been two. Okay.
Jack Rosen:
Both times that I went to a music festival in Los Angeles I did not invite her to. It’s okay. You know I love you Monica, and we’ll go to the next one.
Michelle Bishop:
I do have a very special announcement to make for the After Hours Jack’s Goodbye episode. I have to say, you’ve been our producer for a couple of years now. We have frequently referred to as our pro host since you’re our producer, you’re our Gelman, if you will. Our producer who gets to talk during the episodes, not so much a silent partner as you first began. And so I want to say before you go, Jack, you are a host of the podcast.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
See, finally.
Jack Rosen:
I’m genuinely a little touched.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
We finally, we finally got you to admit it, Michelle.
Jack Rosen:
Finally.
Michelle Bishop:
That’s a very bad hatchet.
Jack Rosen:
After hosting episodes you haven’t been on.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Wait, Jack, are you crying?
Jack Rosen:
No.
Michelle Bishop:
No, but that’s how we’re going to tell the story, and then Jack cried. Also, the people need to know that we don’t actually hate each other.
Jack Rosen:
No. Michelle is like my mentor, she’s a friend, and she has been a mentor to me as I’ve entered a career in disability rights.
Michelle Bishop:
I’m like the sarcastic persona on this show, and I’m pretty sure everyone thinks that I’m mean, and I hate you guys, but we actually all get along quite well despite the fact that I’m apparently never there when anyone goes to the bar. But other than that…
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
We’ll make sure you’re there for the next one.
Michelle Bishop:
Thank you. I’ll probably be too tired, but I appreciate the thought.
Jack Rosen:
It’ll be funny. You’ll just miss my goodbye Happy Hour.
Michelle Bishop:
Oh.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I was going to say, are you going to miss that? Hopefully no.
Michelle Bishop:
No, I’m going to be there. I am, but that’s happy hour. That’s early enough so I can still get to bed on time.
Jack Rosen:
But thank you, Michelle. I appreciate that.
Michelle Bishop:
You do intros, you do outros, you help interview guests. Sometimes we make you read the guest bios because me and Stephanie just didn’t prepare, so I feel like at some point I have to let this go. We have to call you a podcast host.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yes, and Jack is always the first one to come up with questions if me and Michelle are like, ugh, blank canvas stares.
Michelle Bishop:
I don’t want to say me and Stephanie never prepare, but…
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
But… Jack holds us together.
Michelle Bishop:
Yeah, yeah. It’s all him.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
We’re going to miss that.
Jack Rosen:
My job is to wrangle everything together for the podcast.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yeah. If you recorded all of the behind the scenes conversations, I’m pretty sure the podcast would be an entire Taylor Swift album and more.
Michelle Bishop:
Honestly-
Jack Rosen:
It used to, remember the podcast used to be an hour long and after the first year. I just said, “I am not doing that anymore. I am spending like 15 hours a month on this podcast.”
Michelle Bishop:
I’m also pretty sure that’s why no one was listening. Who wants to listen to an hour-long podcast?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I don’t know. I listen to hour-long podcasts all the time.
Michelle Bishop:
Oh, I can’t listen to podcasts. I don’t even listen to our podcast. I can’t listen to disembodied voices.
Jack Rosen:
I got to be honest, I still don’t know other than your mom who listens to our podcast.
Michelle Bishop:
I have no idea.
Jack Rosen:
Please, if you listen, write in at podcast@NDRN.org and tell me why you do. I have never quite been able to figure it out.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh my gosh. Yes, please. We need encouragement. Or maybe not encouragement, if people are like, oh my gosh, get these ding dongs out of my newsfeed. I don’t know.
Michelle Bishop:
Yes, there’s a good chance. There’s a good chance that could be the responses. It’s been a tough year, guys. Maybe just the good stuff. Thanks. Podcast@NDRN.org.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yes. Retweet.
Michelle Bishop:
Also, Jack, if you just do a outtakes and bloopers episode and just go rogue and drop it on your last day so no one can do anything about it, I respect that.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I would totally respect that. That would be so fun.
Jack Rosen:
Pretty much-
Michelle Bishop:
How about all the outtakes of Southern Belle Stephanie cussing?
Jack Rosen:
Yeah, yeah.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Where are you going to find those?
Michelle Bishop:
Like one time that happened, probably.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I try not to curse on the recordings.
Michelle Bishop:
Or in real life, you say chicken nugget.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I know, but this year is a change in me. I don’t know. Look, I’m not trying to jack the episode away.
Jack Rosen:
Okay. A second time is lazy. This is like when you and Claire get all that mileage out of, I didn’t see you there.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh, come on.
Michelle Bishop:
That one never gets old.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
That one never gets old. Claire and I would bump into each other and we would literally go, “Oh, I didn’t say you there. Oh, neither did I.”
Jack Rosen:
No. You know what? That might be my favorite NDRN story that Claire once did that to me twice in a day though, and the first time I was like, okay, that’s hilarious. And the second time it was still funny, but I’m like, damn, you are using this line every time you bump into someone, aren’t you?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Honestly, it’s really funny when you’re out in public and you say it just to random passersby because they don’t know how to take it. Usually there are some folks that are like, “Okay.” And then of course there are the folks that it seems like they’re gobsmacked when they hear, “I didn’t see you there.” And then they realize that it was a blind person who ran into them, and then here comes the end of the world. << It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine >>
Michelle Bishop:
Oh, R.E.M can sue us.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yeah.
Jack Rosen:
You are really going for it on this one, Stephanie.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I am.
Jack Rosen:
I appreciate it. This is the send off I wanted. I can’t wait to be named in the lawsuit.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh my gosh.
Jack Rosen:
Oh wait. No, crap. Wait. No. I guess it’s okay because I’m doing this still as an NDRN employee, they can’t sue me personally. If I do come back as a guest, it can’t be one where I get sued. That’ll be a problem. Then they can go after me.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Fair enough.
Michelle Bishop:
We’re going to have you as a guest and just violate 30 different copyrights on that episode.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Just so that we can sing 80s music and Santana. I know Santana is not 80s, but I know that that was something I could never live down.
Michelle Bishop:
It is still too soon to talk about how you thought Smooth Criminal was a Santana song.
Jack Rosen:
Oh my God. That was still, just confidently telling that pun. Folks, if you go back and listen to, I don’t know which episode, but if you, let’s see if this will work. Can you find it? This one. Yes. If you Google Stephanie Flynt, Smoothie Criminal.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Wait, what? For real?
Jack Rosen:
Yes.
Michelle Bishop:
You can Google that?
Jack Rosen:
Everything’s transcribed for accessibility, so yeah, Google captures all of it.
Michelle Bishop:
Guys. We made it. We made it.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Man.
Jack Rosen:
In fact, if you google Stephanie Flynt, the fifth result is our recent episode. Should Stephanie get a Cat?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
And the answer is still no. Thank you for checking.
Michelle Bishop:
Oh, that reminds me. Tell Quinn, there’s this stray cat that keeps laying on my patio. I’m going to get a carrier and snag her and bring her over for you guys.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh gosh.
Michelle Bishop:
Yeah. I got a cat for you.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Don’t bring it to Quinn at our happy hour on Tuesday.
Michelle Bishop:
Okay. I’m bringing a cat.
Jack Rosen:
Michelle, you got to bring a cat to the happy hour.
Michelle Bishop:
Right?
Jack Rosen:
Stephanie, I think it’s like a Godfather situation. Stephanie can’t refuse to take that cat on the day of my Goodbye Happy Hour.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Well, of course not. That would be inhumane.
Jack Rosen:
Okay. That was a good one. I’ll give you that one.
Michelle Bishop:
That was pretty good. That was pretty good. Can’t lie. I’m impressed today and I kind of like all the puns with Jack’s name. I don’t know why he’s so salty about it. Probably because he’s been hearing them for like 30 years, but whatever.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Probably so. I wonder how many puns ChatGPT has. I’ll have to figure that one out and send that to you, y’all. I do have a fun joke.
Michelle Bishop:
I was going to say, how do we end this episode? This has been an episode of nothingness. There has to be a way to wrap it up, but I guess if there’s a joke…
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
There is always a joke. Okay. This is not an original. I actually got this one from Ms. Pencils Away, which if y’all like my jokes, you would absolutely love her. Oh my gosh, she’s so funny. And here we go. So what is Beethoven’s favorite fruit?
Jack Rosen:
What?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Y’all got to guess first?
Jack Rosen:
Okay, let’s think Michelle. Beethoven’s favorite fruit. Do you want to hop on? My girlfriend’s sitting next to me and she thinks she figured it out.
Michelle Bishop:
Okay. what is it?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yes.
Speaker 4:
Peaches? Like an ear of something? A slice of something?
Jack Rosen:
No. You’re thinking of…
Speaker 4:
Mozart?
Jack Rosen:
No. You’re thinking of the painter who cut his ear off.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
No.
Jack Rosen:
Okay. What is Beethoven’s favorite fruit? I am stumped. Michelle, do you have anything here?
Michelle Bishop:
I got nothing.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
For real? Both of you?
Jack Rosen:
You think…
Michelle Bishop:
Nothing.
Jack Rosen:
Was a conductor, A composer.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Okay. Do you want me to put you all out of your misery? Wait, you have a guess?
Jack Rosen:
No, I got nothing. You stumped me.
Michelle Bishop:
Absolutely nothing.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Okay. What is Beethoven’s favorite fruit? Ba-na-na-nas, ba-na-nas. No?
Jack Rosen:
Oh, that was good.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Did y’all get it?
Michelle Bishop:
I can’t decide if that was amazing or awful.
Jack Rosen:
My girlfriend just walked away, just experiencing too many emotions from that.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh, I’m sorry.
Michelle Bishop:
You broke her.
Jack Rosen:
I really, really liked that one.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
I’m glad you like it.
Michelle Bishop:
It’s good. This is Jack’s episode, so it’s good that it was one that brought him joy.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
That was my hope. I’ve been saving this one for like a month. Because I heard it and I was like, “Ooh.” I’m kind of shocked none of you said kiwi, because that was my first thought.
Jack Rosen:
Why Kiwi?
Michelle Bishop:
Yeah. Why kiwi? What?
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Ki-wi? Ki, Beethoven.
Michelle Bishop:
That is such a stretch.
Jack Rosen:
I’m not getting it.
Michelle Bishop:
The key, like the key of.
Jack Rosen:
Oh, the key.
Michelle Bishop:
The key, like the key of.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yeah, like a key. A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
Jack Rosen:
Well, I guess I have a joke.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Yes. I’m so excited.
Jack Rosen:
I’m thinking how to phrase this. Let me think.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Michelle, you got to come up with one too now.
Michelle Bishop:
No, I did my cat tuna fish library joke. And you guys didn’t like it, it was a classic. I used my best material on you guys.
Jack Rosen:
Oh, I think I know.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
What is it?
Michelle Bishop:
Okay.
Jack Rosen:
What do you call putting out my Goodbye podcast two months after I’ve actually left NDRN? Incredibly on brand for us.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
It really is though.
Michelle Bishop:
That’s fair.
Jack Rosen:
Yeah. Sorry folks. If you’re hearing this, I’m already gone and I am possibly wondering, oh my God, how am I going to make it through law school? What did I do? Or, I’m having the time of my life. We’ll find out. I’ll be back sometime in the future to let you know.
Michelle Bishop:
So sorry folks. He’s gone. You’re too late to say goodbye to Jack. But, if you want to be the new producer/pro host of our podcast, email podcast@NDRN.org, and we’ll consider your application. Jack, one last time since you’re no longer here. Do you want to tell the people where they can follow us on social?
Jack Rosen:
You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Threads. If anyone actually uses Threads, I don’t know who does, but we’re on it. We’re on Twitter. I’m still calling it Twitter. I think we are maybe going to make a TikTok at some point, but-
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Oh yeah, don’t we use that?
Jack Rosen:
But that is no longer my problem. So the other member of the comms team, that is their problem. But if we’re on TikTok by the time this episode is out, Alden, if you’re listening, you should add it to the show notes.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Alrighty. Well, until next time folks, this is not goodbye. This is see you later.
Michelle Bishop:
For Michelle and Stephanie because Jack’s already gone. Bye guys.
Stephanie Flynt McEben:
Bye.
