Heavyweight Check In 2

This is an iHeart podcast.

In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal.

T-Mobile knows all about that.

They're now the best network, according to the experts at OoCla Speed Test, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

That's your business, Supercharged.

Learn more at supermobile.com.

Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the US where you can see the sky.

Best network based on analysis by UCLA of Speed Test Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

The wait is over.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the next up live music finals are here.

On September 26th, TikTok Live and iHeartRadio bring you the biggest night in live music discovery.

Streaming live from the legendary iHeartRadio Theater in LA.

The top 12 artists hit the stage for one career-defining performance.

The judges will crown the winner and you'll help choose the People's Choice Award.

Don't miss it.

September 26th, 7 to 9 p.m.

Pacific.

Follow at TikTok Live underscore US and watch it all go down.

Only on TikTok Live.

There's more to San Francisco with the Chronicle.

There's more food for thought, more thought for food.

There's more data insights to help with those day-to-day choices.

There's more to the weather than whether it's going to rain.

And with our arts and entertainment coverage, you won't just get out more, you'll get more out of it.

At the Chronicle, knowing more about San Francisco is our passion.

Discover more at sfchronicle.com.

Pushkin

Hello, Kalila.

Hi, Jonathan.

Let me try Stevie.

Hello?

Hello.

Hi.

Are you guys ABR?

Yeah.

What does ABR mean?

Alex Bloomberg rules.

Always be recording.

That's right.

How are you guys?

Um, okay.

My update, I guess, is that my since we last

did this, is that my roommate has left to go be with her family, so now I'm in the apartment by myself.

It's like a weird

moment where everything that brought people to New York is like sort of gone or on hold.

And like you're left with only the terrible part, the worst part of living in New York, which is like paying a lot to be in a very small room.

Yeah,

Stevie, yeah, I'll ask you the question that is on the minds of all Americans, minds of the world, yeah, during these troubling times.

How was your blind date?

Oh, yeah, my blind date.

Uh, it was fun, it was fun.

Um, what did you guys do?

We, um,

we, we just, we actually just like hung out and talked for like three hours.

And the thing that was so nice about it, honestly, yeah,

because it was like in the context of like a first date and like completely getting to know a person and there are all the questions, it was like three hours where we like essentially didn't talk about

the virus.

Like, I think sometimes it's nice to acknowledge that things aren't normal and to like hold that in your mind.

But there was also something really nice about like this semblance of like normalcy.

You know, of which there's, you know, so we're getting in, we're getting all these emails, and there's been this one guy, I don't know if you noticed, who's been sending us like a poem a day.

Yeah.

This guy named Kieran Lennon.

And he had this line at the end of one of his poems that I really liked, which was, that kind of speaks to what you're talking about in a way, where he says that, you know, today

was more normal than yesterday, not because it is, but just because it was as strange as yesterday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've, you know, been spending a lot of time with Auggie, which is great.

And so I took his tricycle out of the garage and, you know, we had the whole alley to ourselves.

So I thought maybe I could teach him how to use a tricycle.

Fun.

He's more into making the sounds, like motorcycle sounds.

He was trying to teach me how to do proper motorcycle sounds, which is something that I've never been very good at.

He's like talking

without your mouth open.

Like this.

Is that good?

You're close to doing it,

the way that he understands all of everything that's going on is we've been talking about it in terms of germs because he understands that, you know, like about how you have to wash your hands before you eat because of germs.

Right.

And, you know, but occasionally he'll ask, well, you know, why can't he see his grandparents?

And we say, you know, we have to be careful about the germs right now.

And he says,

you know, well, well, we'll see them when the germs go away.

And there's something just so

simple and unconfused about it.

As always, with a kid, you're always like trying to meet them on their level.

And in this case, it just forces a kind of optimism.

Like there isn't a version of the world where

things don't work out.

Everything makes me emotional lately.

Like, it's like my emotions are coming out in all kinds of weird ways.

Yeah.

Yesterday, I like I put there's this like piece of classical music that you guys would know because it's very famous.

It's this like prelude to this Bach cello suite that I just think is like so beautiful.

It's like two and a half minutes.

And it was sort of like stuck in my head on my run, so I like put it on to listen to it and it just like made me cry, like, just like ball.

So, as as you guys know, so after our last check-in episode where we asked for people to write in and just let us know how they're doing, we got so many just really nice, generous emails from all over the world.

And so you guys started calling a few people who you felt especially curious about or connected to.

And I called a couple of old friends and among them,

Dr.

Jackie Cohen.

Jackie Cohen.

That's right.

An old standby.

She's not just like an intro to a show, you know what I mean?

She's a real person.

She, she actually, she called me.

Oh.

Which was, which was really kind of nice.

Yeah.

I mean, I had left her a message, but she returned it, which, you know.

Well, baby steps.

And she was even kind of nice to me.

Hi, Johnny.

Hi.

How's it going?

She's been working at a coronavirus clinic in Montreal.

And so we talked a little bit about that.

I take these short histories and then I swap their throat and then I swap their noses and that's it.

And then I tell them we'll call them in two days.

So there's testing in Montreal?

There's lots of testing.

It started already a couple of weeks ago.

But what does it feel like?

Yeah,

it feels like it feels like it feels like I'm, well, lately we've just ramped up the numbers of swabs that we're doing.

And so it feels like I'm on an assembly line working at McDonald's.

I mean, it's just like out comes these trays and you just grab the tray and then you go to the next person.

And so you just have to sort of move it along.

They're really trying to pick up the speed.

And you have to gown up and down between each patient.

So the gowning, the gowning process is what takes long.

The rest is super easy.

And do people come to you sometimes nervous, worried, anxious?

Oh my God, they're always really anxious.

Yeah.

A, they're anxious, and B, when I call them up and tell them the results are negative, because I've been calling everybody back to tell them the results have been negative, it's as if they've just like won the lottery.

They are so happy, like they're, they're like this palpable relief through the phone.

Does it feel good to make those phone calls?

Well, part of me, I mean, part of me feels like, you know, happy to tell them the good news.

On the other hand, I'm thinking, I mean, it shouldn't be the worst news to get

that you have coronavirus because you know, eventually a lot of us are going to get it.

And it's just feeling like it's so stigmatized at this point.

So I'm hoping people are going to be psychologically be ready for a positive.

and she even thinks that like she'll probably end up getting it eventually well at some point at some point I probably will because of the work you're doing

well yeah I mean we're we're healthcare workers we're frontline

at some point

uh and then she had to go make dinner gotta get I've got to get dinner on I've got to get dinner on the table okay I've got a life

Before she could blow me off the phone,

I really

wanted to tell her that I

was

just

really impressed with her.

You know, we joke around a lot, but I really do think that Jackie is one of the most selfless people I know.

But, you know, of course, I said none of that to her.

Instead, I just kind of said something, you know, typically sarcastic,

you know, over the top.

uh just to kind of gross her out.

I would like to be the first to thank you on behalf of Canada.

Stop talking about that, okay?

You're just embarrassed.

Are you going to bravo me now?

Are you going to bravo me?

You're going to bravo me.

So I also talked to someone I have a long-standing relationship with.

I talked to my brother.

Hey, this is Tristan.

Hello, Tristan.

It's Kayleigh Holt speaking.

Hey, what's up?

How much?

How are you?

Oh, pretty good.

Just driving home in the rain, you know?

He's still working.

He is in Iowa.

He works at a car dealership.

He sells cars.

Are you guys still open?

We are still open,

which I feel I feel two ways about.

They sent out a memo the other day being like, you know, your safety is our number one concern.

I want to work.

It's going to be tough to make ends meet if I'm not working.

But don't tell me my safety is your number one concern because if it was your number one concern, you would close us down right because all non-essential stuff is supposed to be closed down, right?

But our service center auto repair shops are considered essential.

Oh, so we're using that loophole to stay open and we'll probably stay open until the governor herself comes down and personally closes us down.

And people, the crazy thing is people are still out shopping for cars.

I was going to say, I can't imagine anyone is buying a car right now.

Lots of people are.

Lots of people are.

Most of the people I talk to are still still flying to shake hands and are you shaking hands with people i am yeah

they're like yeah the media is just blowing this way out of proportion and you know i'm in sales i can't tell them they're a moron and they're endangering themselves and everyone around them yeah the past week it's like okay today's the day where we're just not gonna see anybody and people just keep showing up

So I just got really kind of scared for him thinking of him shaking all those people's hands.

Oh, does he have any Purel?

Yeah, he he says he has hand sanitizer at his desk and I'm like, are you doing it every time you shake someone's hand?

And he's like, yeah, I'm trying to.

So Stevie,

who did you talk to?

Yeah.

So I talked with a woman named Lexi.

Just to give you a quick heads up.

I'm just having some like pretty heavy contractions, but I really wanted to talk to you.

So if I stop talking or if my voice sounds weird or if like I have to mute you for a a second, it's because I'm screaming.

Wait, wait, Lexi, Lexi, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

She is like 40 weeks pregnant right now.

Her due date is March 27th, which is four days from now.

That's very, yeah, very, very pregnant.

Like about 10 minutes into the call.

I work for this music management company.

Sorry, I'm having a contraction.

Wow.

Did you feel like you were going to have to like guide her through the delivery of her of her child over the phone?

I honestly, like, listening back to the tape is like painful.

I was like, you got this, Lexi.

Like, we can do this.

What do you need?

Oh, my God.

Okay.

You got this?

I'm going to hang on one second.

Are you sure?

The terror in my voice, I'm sure, was doing a lot more harm than good.

But yeah, so the interesting thing about Lexi is

she

had never really like thought she wanted to be a mom,

but is with this partner and it was important to him and to them and their relationship.

And so it was sort of like a decision she made knowing that, but maybe not a decision she would have made otherwise.

It's this weird moment where like already she has so much fear around it and complicated feelings.

And then like on top of it, she's like about to give birth in the middle of a pandemic

yeah it's scary you know like she's she's scared

but on the other hand

there's sort of been

uh an evolution in how she's feeling about it it's a real weird thing for me to say because

you know

a month ago I would have been terrified because I don't know anything about babies and and I don't I am I'm afraid to be alone with this with this baby but now it's almost like

here's an external thing that isn't the state of the world that you have to focus all of your time and energy on.

It's

almost comforting, and

maybe this is a good thing.

Then I spoke with someone who's already a parent, a woman named Rachel.

And Rachel and her husband, Drew, are having a really different experience of this period of social distancing than I think a lot of us are.

So Rachel is the mother of three out in Colorado and her youngest son, Johnny, he's three and a half years old.

Johnny is like a major daddy's boy right now.

And since Drew is working from home, he's very excited about that.

So Johnny has this very rare condition called

ACTA 2.

And it means that he is incredibly immunosuppressed.

Like he's just always getting sick and they have to be really, really careful.

So like for Rachel, social distancing isn't new.

Like the first thing you see when you get to their front door is this sign that says like, please do not enter if you've been sick or like around someone who is sick.

You know, like Johnny can't go to preschool because it's just like too much exposure to germs and they often like.

can't don't end up going to like parties they get invited to because it's like just too risky like um that's that's just like the reality of how they live.

And so like right now with COVID, like Rachel says people have been reaching out and are being really supportive, but it's like for Rachel, it's almost like frustrating in a way.

You know, people are like, hey, can I go to the store for you?

I know it's probably hard right now, but I'm like, going to the store is always hard for me.

Like all the time, because I'm always weighing like, can I go right now?

Okay, if I go at like 7.30 in the morning,

then it's probably going to be quieter, and I won't have people like there won't be as many people, and the carts will be clean and available.

And I can have time to clean the cart even more, and people won't like look at me funny and be like super judgmental that I'm crazy.

Yeah, and that's the thing that Rachel is sort of like hoping that, like, after people have gone through what,

you know, like what we're, what we're going through right now, yeah, uh,

that there will just be like a greater empathy and understanding of not just our family, but like so many special needs families.

Because

whenever everybody else turns back to normal life, like we'll still be doing this.

The last call I made, I phoned this woman, Emma, who works at a zoo in Arizona.

And the zoo is obviously now shut down to the public, as most things are.

But she's continuing to work and like take care of the animals.

The animals have been just behaving differently.

I can tell they're like, what is this?

Why?

What's going on?

You know, like for the for people right now, it's a time of like increased anxiety.

But for the animals, like it seems like kind of like they're more relaxed and she's seeing the animals like play a lot more.

Oh, because there's nobody there.

Like, for example, we have a group of painted dogs.

There are three of them.

What is a painted dog?

A painted dog is a African carnivore.

They're also called African wild dogs.

And so they've just been like romping around in the water during the day and like playing.

Normally they would kind of hang back and like, because they can be a little bit nervous around people.

Man, I got to look up painted dogs after this.

I feel like it's not often like as an adult that you like learn about a new animal.

So I'd be very excited.

Painted dogs.

Have you guys heard of them?

No, I haven't.

I'm going to send you guys a picture.

Oh, they really look like they're painted.

They look like they're like painted by like an abstract expressionist.

It's like a hyena and a panda bear had a baby.

It's like a dog that's wearing like one of those Mickey Mouse hats.

Yes, I was just about to say he has Mickey Mouse ears.

I was just about to say.

Yeah.

You know, this thing also came up while we were talking.

Like

she was talking about sort of what it's like to be a zookeeper and you have to do things to like manage the animal's anxiety and, you know, they're in an enclosed space and sometimes they need like certain like activities set up for them, or like different.

She had like more zookeeper-y terms for it, but like toys introduced to their environment to like keep them healthy and stimulated.

And it's kind of like now during the pandemic, like that's the situation that we're all in as humans.

We're kind of in captivity right now, we really don't have a lot of choice and control.

And so, if you kind of get lost in that, it can be really scary.

It's like we're the zoo animals, kind of, where we're in this ENCODE space and we have to figure out the things that are going to make it manageable for us.

We've been getting a lot of really

lovely, thoughtful emails from you guys, so please continue to send them to us.

We really enjoy reading them.

Also, you may be thinking lately about reaching out to someone who you haven't spoken to in a while.

And if that's the case and you'd like some interlocuting or just, you know, someone to talk, talk about it with and, you know, maybe help you make that call, please let us know.

You can email us or you can record a voice memo and send it to heavyweight at gimlet media.com

hello hi paul hi

good how are you uh you know hanging in there i know it's it's it's um i don't know it's it's been hard to like do anything actually even with all this time yeah i don't know like a lot of people are on facebook and they're all like being all productive, and I'm seeing like what they're working on and stuff.

And I'm like, man, I just feel like the exact opposite of that.

Yeah.

I just had a whole lot, but

all my work got canceled.

So I don't know what's going to happen after this.

Yeah.

It's pretty bad.

I think that's sort of why I'm kind of not practicing.

Sorry to make you practice when you're not feeling it.

Oh, no, it's good.

It's really

great.

It feels good.

Okay, good.

Well, are you ready?

to should I'm ready?

Okay, let me I'm just gonna okay, you're on speakerphone now.

Um I'm just gonna hit record and then I'll just play it through

Okay

And here we go

Fox One is now live.

It's the new way to stream all your Fox favorites all in one place.

That means NFL Sundays and college football games, breaking news with the Fox voices you trust, and your favorite shows streamed as they happen so nothing gets spoiled.

With Fox One, you get it all live.

Edge of your seat plays, jaw-dropping moments, and that feeling like you're right there in the action.

Start your seven-day trial today.

Offers are subject to change.

Go to Fox One for complete terms and conditions.

Fox One, we live for life.

Streaming now.

Ah, Smart Water Alkaline with Antioxidant.

Pure, crisp taste, perfectly refreshing.

Whoa, Whoa, that is refreshing.

And a 9.5 plus pH.

For those who move, those who push further, those with a taste for taste?

Exactly.

I did take a spin class today after work.

Look at you.

Restoring like a pro.

I mean, I also sat down halfway through.

Eh, close enough.

Smartwater alkaline with antioxidant.

For those with a taste for taste, grab yours today.

At the beginning of a busy morning with school drop-offs and commuting looming large, it could feel like you'll drive halfway across California.

For For Fuel Rewards members at Shell, that running around translates into savings at the pump.

Earn rewards on fuel, snacks, dining out, and more.

Earn 10 cents per gallon off when you reach platinum status with opportunities to stack rewards for even more savings.

Visit fuelrewards.com/slash join25 and sign up today.

At participating merchants and shell locations, limit 20 gallons, restrictions apply.

Visit fuelrewards.com for more information.

This is an iHeart podcast.