125 - Airplane! (feat. Bernie Wagenblast)

I can’t believe I didn’t see this episode in the backlog sooner, it’s my dad’s favorite movie of all time (aside from War Games) and I definitely didn’t appreciate it enough when he forced us to watch it as teenagers. There’s an innate urge to automatically be annoyed with anything your parents show you to try and get you to like it as much as they do. Now I need to actually sit down and watch it again lmao

Also, Bernie is an astonishingly good guest, kudos to her. Also, as a latino with two first names and two family names, I thought "nobody is going to have my same full name" and now I have to spend a few minutes day to click on the buttons saying "no, I am not a co-author of that paper"

As an Italian speaker, it is quite weird to hear that "Stewardess" is shocking as the female coded term. In Italian a woman flight attendant was called a "Hostess", and a male attendant a "Steward", so the time when the former did not outnumber the latter 9 to 1, and airlines had to find a gender neutral term, was really revolutionary.

god I love Bernie's laugh

Don’t know if you noticed, but Jonathan Banks from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is running the radar at the airport - “900 feet up to 1300 feet: What an asshole!”

I had the most surreal experience like 2 weeks after this episode went up and i got to it, and it was Bernie herself just showing up at a trans oriented vocal coaching group and being herself. I was alt-tabbed so when she started talking my brain was simply pinging "Wait, I know that voice. Wait, Bernie? No way," Surreal as all hell, and she's so cool.

I have Thoughts, but they're mostly about Hailey. Long ago, the first podcast I ever got into was I Don't Even Own A Television, a podcast about bad books. Airport was one of the books they featured. One of the things that brought up that I thought was pretty fascinating was how Airport ( along with James Bond, and some other work by English authors ) got some degree of popularity by just depicting a life beyond that which the ( very poor, post-war ) British public could even imagine. If you read Bond, for instance, there is a lot of time spent talking about food and other luxuries. After years of rationing, Food Porn was good business in Britain. Same with things like air travel- or just general life for people 'above the station' of the common man. It's interesting to me how so many authors like Fleming, Hailey, and Ludlum kind of occupied the same space in different genres- asshole men doing asshole things for asshole reasons, and how thoroughly they poisoned the well of 'dad fiction'. It wasn't really until Clancy that things shifted from 'holy shit that's terrible AND boring' to mostly just boring.

Bernie's early transition sounds so much like my own. I remember being shocked by how beautiful I looked in FaceApp edits and meekly buying a women's scarf off of Amazon. Very powerful and emotional hearing her talk about her experiences.

As an Iowan, I’m obligated to say that the Anita Bryant pie thing happened in Des Moines. Feel the need to say that because it’s one of the only cool things to happen here.

Best Horse Corner yet!

I live in St Louis where our train only goes between the airport and Busch Stadium, had no idea who Bernie was, but she is a DELIGHT and i hope she comes back to the pod soon

When Bernie did the train voice complete with the exactly-timed pauses I waved my arms around like an inflatable tube man

it's weirdly funny, like airplane is probably my favorite comedy, but words can't describe how happy i got during the commercial when i recognized Bernie as the announcer on the PATCO Speedline

I could've SWORN the horse corner story was going to end with "She turns to him and says, 'Neigh (Nay).'"

Another trans listener here crawling out of the woodwork to say how much I love you guys and your work! (my favorite pod <3) And Bernadette was such a joy to have on and bounce off of y'all ^^

Police Squad also used the Airplane! formula, adapting scripts from the 1950s TV show M Squad, which was the edgier competitor to Dragnet and also Lee Marvin's big break as a leading man.

When I heard how recently Bernie had socially transitioned I was amazed at how well she had transitioned her voice already knowing how challenging that can be. Being a professional VA makes so much sense there, made me really happy how she owns all the forms of her voice. She is hilarious and I hope she can come back for future appearances!

I can't imagine the pain of knowing you are trans all of your life and choosing to remain closeted for so long. So happy to hear Bernie tell her story and hang out with y'all.