Ep 369: Heated Rivalry
SARAH: Hey, what's up? Hello! Welcome to Sounds Fake But Okay, a podcast where an aro-ace girl (I'm Sarah, that's me.)
KAYLA: And the bi-demisexual girl, (that's me, Kayla.)
SARAH: Talk about all things to do with love, relationships, sexuality, and pretty much anything else we just don't understand.
KAYLA: On today's episode, ‘Heated Rivalry.’
BOTH: Sounds fake, but okay.
SARAH: Welcome back to the pod. I hope you all had a good break.
KAYLA: We're back.
SARAH: Did you join us in the mass psychosis?
KAYLA: Did you?
SARAH: Hey guys, remember how I mentioned Heated Rivalry before the break?
KAYLA: Mm-hmm.
SARAH: Hey guys, it got worse.
KAYLA: It got worse.
SARAH: It got so much worse.
KAYLA: It got worse.
SARAH: Anyway, how was everyone's break?
KAYLA: Mine was good.
SARAH: Aside from gay hockey, ignore gay hockey.
KAYLA: For now.
SARAH: For now. How was your break?
KAYLA: I became sick on New Year's Day.
SARAH: Charming.
KAYLA: And like just today was the first day that I was like, okay, the cold is like lifting.
SARAH: Mm-hmm.
KAYLA: And so, I've been sick for a year.
SARAH: You've been sick all year.
KAYLA: All year. My nose actually, like so the underneath my nose is like raw from like, you know, tissues and stuff, but the tip of my nose feels like actually bruised because like from rubbing my nose so much, like touching it feels like touching a bruise, hello!
SARAH: For a second, I thought you were gonna ask me to touch it and I was like, “homie, we're on a Zoom call.”
KAYLA: I wish you would, I love touching noses.
SARAH: And you could touch my chin.
KAYLA: I love touching your chin, I love to touch Sarah's chin.
SARAH: Apparently, I have a nice chin.
KAYLA: It's a good squishy chin.
SARAH: Squishy, apparently.
KAYLA: It is.
SARAH: Yes, I hope everyone else had a good holiday break. I hope you celebrated holidays if you wanted to, I hope you didn't if you didn't. I hope you punched your weird cousin if they deserved it.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm. I don't think I saw a single cousin of any kind because I was with Dean's family. We were supposed to see some of his cousins and then I don't think we did, I don't think I saw a singular cousin, maybe like a second or third cousin.
SARAH: I met some babies for the first time.
KAYLA: That's fun.
SARAH: My mom said she was very proud of me because I was playing with an ornament with a baby and I was like, “what do you mean you're proud of me for that?” And she goes, “the number of parents who don't understand that you can play with anything, it does not have to be a designated toy. If a kid shows interest in something, as long as it is not dangerous...”
KAYLA: Oh, yeah
SARAH: And I was like, “I thought that was obvious,” and she was like, “noooo.”
KAYLA: Well, good for you, I guess.
SARAH: So, shout out to me for knowing that you can, in fact, play with a baby with a leg lamp ornament.
KAYLA: I love that.
SARAH: She took a selfie on my phone, it was pretty good, actually. Do we have any housekeeping?
KAYLA: Not that I can think of.
SARAH: Me neither. Kayla?
KAYLA: Yes?
SARAH: What are we talking about this week?
KAYLA: This week we are, in fact, talking about gay hockey, Heated Rivalry.
SARAH: Can I just say? Okay, obviously, Heated Rivalry has been my newest hyperfixation. I have several right now, it's really overwhelming.
KAYLA: Yeah, it’s true.
SARAH: But this is the first time ever that Kayla has also had an interest in my hyperfixation at the same time that I have had an interest in my hyperfixation. And wow, it's great.
KAYLA: At the same time, it's crazy. And can I tell you something? I don't… I have a lot of feelings about Heated Rivalry, which we will get into.
SARAH: Mm-hmm
KAYLA: One of the strong feelings is a discomfort because I do not like being hyperfixated on things, it makes me uncomfortable, I don't like how it makes my brain feel.
SARAH: You could never be me.
KAYLA: And so like, I get to the point with things like this where then I have to actively start avoiding it because it becomes too much for me.
SARAH: Well, it's like when I realized that my brain acts the same when I'm really hyperfixated same as it does when I'm depressed.
KAYLA: I think that's part of what it is, is when I get anxious about something, it is that same level of obsession of constantly thinking about it, looking things up, always thinking about it. So, I think, yeah, it's similar how it feels bad in my body.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: So that's slightly distressing.
SARAH: I understand that.
KAYLA: So, like today… well, let's back up. Sarah, what is Heated Rivalry?
SARAH: Heated Rivalry is a television program created by Crave in Canada. Don't call it an HBO Max show, they hopped on the bandwagon the last minute.
KAYLA: It’s true, yeah.
SARAH: Respect our Canadian forefathers, foremothers, and foreparents whose tax dollars paid for gay hockey.
KAYLA: They did, yeah.
SARAH: Now, if you don't know this show, you don't know anything about it and you're like, “maybe I should watch it,” if you are sex-repulsed…
KAYLA: Do not watch it.
SARAH: This is not the show for you.
KAYLA: You could maybe watch the last two episodes.
SARAH: No.
KAYLA: Yeah, no, you're right. There's just less, it's not like there's none.
SARAH: No, you couldn't.
KAYLA: Yeah. No.
SARAH: You would have to… 30% of the pilot is sex scenes, I just want everyone to… if you watch the show, you need to know what you're getting yourself into.
KAYLA: Yeah, no, that's true, that's true.
SARAH: However, it's a really good fucking show.
KAYLA: It's a good show. There’s also a book version, like it's based on a book, so if that is better for you to take it in textually…
SARAH: Which I read the books… I didn't read the whole… it's like a series, but each book is about a different couple in the same universe.
KAYLA: Yeah, like the characters show up in the other books, and some of the events overlap, one of those deals.
SARAH: Yeah. So, I've only read the two books about these two characters who are in the show in Heated Rivalry, but I read them before I watched the show, and Kayla read the first book literally today.
KAYLA: I finished it today. I watched the show first, and then I finished the book today, but also when I see… like, I've seen a lot of TikToks where people post just pages from the books, and I don't scroll away, I just read them. So, I already know everything that happens in the second book anyway.
SARAH: Yeah. Well, yesterday, our beloved friend Dalton King, he was like, “do I need to read Heated Rivalry before reading The Long Game, because I just want to know all the spoilers?” The Long Game being the second book. And I was like, well, it's quite true to the... like the series is really true to the books, but you would be missing out on some stuff if you didn't read it first, and then I was like, do you want me to just give you all the spoilers? And he was like, “kind of.” So, then I just gave him all the spoilers, and then he was like, “wow, I think I have to read it now.” And I was like, “yeah.”
KAYLA: Yeah. I mean, when I was watching the show, you gave me some spoilers, which a lot of them I already knew, but at one point I was getting... I just remember I was getting very distressed, and you were like, “well, do you want me to tell you…” and I was like, I need to know if it's a happy ending or if I'm going to be like upset, and you gave me a small synopsis of the ending, which was helpful, I love when Sarah watches things and then tells me about them. Even when Sarah... Okay, because we were talking about Sarah has had many hyperfixations that I'm not on the bandwagon on. Like, in college, she was really into Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I didn't watch that TV show. So, she would watch it, and I would leave the dorm to do homework while she watched it, and then I would come back, and she would just tell me what happened that week. And I was like, this is great, I don't have to watch it. She just tells me, and I watched the show.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: So...
SARAH: Anyway, okay, Heated Rivalry, it's a television program based on books by Rachel Reid, I learned yesterday that that is a pen name.
KAYLA: Oh, all right.
SARAH: Her real name is like Rachelle Goguen or something.
KAYLA: Oh, all right.
SARAH: It is about hockey players who play professional hockey, who are rivals, who are the two top draft picks, who be fucking.
KAYLA: They fall in lust.
SARAH: Exactly.
KAYLA: And have to be secret about it because you can't be gay at hockey with our...
SARAH: The NHL has never had an out hockey player.
KAYLA: Yeah, that doesn't really surprise me. It does not surprise me, unfortunately.
SARAH: There's only one out hockey player in professional hockey, and he's in one of the lower leagues.
KAYLA: Ooh, interesting.
SARAH: And of course, this is men's.
KAYLA: Yeah, I'm sure, women are different.
SARAH: With women, all gay.
KAYLA: Like most women's sports, it's quite different, I think.
SARAH: All gay.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: But it's a show about this, and there are a lot of sex scenes, but...
KAYLA: Very explicit, not fade to black.
SARAH: No. Butts.
KAYLA: Butts.
SARAH: Lots of butts.
KAYLA: Lots of butts.
SARAH: But it is a really excellent television program. And so, here today on this podcast, we are going to talk about Heated Rivalry.
[00:10:00]
SARAH: One, why people like it from the aro-ace perspective. Two, who was watching it. Because the media likes to say certain things, but I don't think all of those things are true. And luckily, the actors and the creators are aware and thoughtful, and we love them so much.
KAYLA: And we love that.
SARAH: [kissing sounds] Sorry, I had to give a fourth kiss for Rachel. I gave one for... And wait, one for Francois. Wait.
KAYLA: I can't even... Okay.
SARAH: Don't worry about it. Okay, so let's begin, why is everyone fucking obsessed with this show that has so much gay sex in it?
KAYLA: It's a good show. It's a good show.
SARAH: It's also… the context of this is crazy because like, think about our political landscape right now.
KAYLA: I know. I know.
SARAH: And… I'm trying to decide how direct I should be with this. Let's just say that in my working context, we were... Someone passed on a project because it was essentially too gay.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And then this happens.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And this is literally all anyone could talk about.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: So, what the fuck is going on here?
KAYLA: I think it coming out at this particular moment is maybe part of it because I think it is a celebration of queer joy, but it does not shy away from the fact that queer joy is difficult.
SARAH: Yes.
KAYLA: But like no one is dying, the AIDS crisis is not here, we are not... You know?
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: Like there is a happy ending. And so, I think that is part of it. And I think also just like this sort of gay representation has never happened before.
SARAH: Not really, no. So, the interesting thing about all of this is… so, the showrunner is a guy named Jacob Tierney, he's a gay man. The books were written by Rachel Reid, who is a bisexual woman who is married to a bisexual man and my favorite fun fact is that she reads all of her books aloud to her husband so that he can basically tell her if they're realistic or not.
KAYLA: Which we love.
SARAH: Incredible! Incredible! And then the two leads, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, who first of all pulled from oblivion, they're complete unknowns.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And they're so fucking good.
KAYLA: Which I think that's part of it too.
SARAH: And they're insane, and they're obsessed with each other, and it's beautiful.
KAYLA: They're besties.
SARAH: They're besties for the resties. But all of those people… first of all, it's authentic because a gay man adapted it. And he was very, very true to the book, which does not always happen in adaptations.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And in this one, it very much paid off.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: But all of them are so dedicated to showing this queer story in an authentic way.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And then also for Hudson, who plays Shane, Shane is canonically autistic, it's not said like aloud in the text or in the show, but all of the creators have confirmed that he is autistic. And Hudson Williams, the actor, has been like, “yeah, my dad is on the spectrum and I pulled a lot from him for this role.” So, like excellent autistic representation because it's not just like awkward…
KAYLA: Yeah, it feels very real. I mean, I think that's the whole thing, it’s the whole thing feels real.
SARAH: The whole thing feels so real.
KAYLA: Like it's this very… like with romance text and like media like this, it's often, it feels very like… like, of course, when is this happening? Right? When are star hockey rivals like fucking, right?
SARAH: Right.
KAYLA: Like, it's a ridiculous premise.
SARAH: Secretly for years.
KAYLA: Right, like 10 years. It's a ridiculous premise, but it feels very real.
SARAH: Mm-hmm
KAYLA: And that is what… I was having… I was telling Sarah I had a big Heated Rivalry-day today because I finished the book and then both of the actors today, the day we're recording this, had like big media days.
SARAH: Locked in, fucking busy.
KAYLA: Yeah. They were like doing a bunch of like radio stuff and TV stuff, whatever. And so, it was like all over my TikTok. And so, I was just inundated with it all day. And first of all, I hate being hyperfixated with things because I don't like how it makes my brain feel. But I also… I was trying to describe to Dean like why… I'm just getting… I get so emotional about it. But I think A, I have issues with becoming too emotional about media, which I need to speak to a therapist about.
SARAH: Hehe, I thought you graduated from therapy.
KAYLA: I did, but now I'm like, “maybe I need a different type of therapy.” I don’t know. I just get… girl, I was like, literally, I sent Sarah a screenshot, I was researching like ‘neurodivergent, why is television too intense for me to watch?’ Like, ‘why can I not separate my emotions from television?’ It's like actually a problem, anyway. What I think is upsetting to me is how authentic the…. okay, I don't know how to describe this, it's a happy story, right? It has a happy ending, though there are difficult times through it that feel very realistic.
SARAH: Season two is going to be worse, baby.
KAYLA: I know, I know, I'm so frightened. But that's what like makes my heart ache is because it is a very realistic portrayal of two people who cannot fully be themselves and that issue is not resolved when they fall in love.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: Like a lot of romance books, especially like, I think new romance books, I've seen a lot that write very clunkily around like, oh, I have all this trauma from like my father or I was like abused and they like… the authors write, they say it, they don't show it, if that makes sense. Like it is a very non-nuanced way of a character just being like saying out loud, I was abused and so here are my symptoms and here's my trauma, just like not realistic, that's just not what people are doing in real life.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: And then they find this magical relationship and it heals them and then they're able to like work through their problems and it's like magical; that's not how anything works.
SARAH: And that's the basis of a lot of the pain that we're going to see in season two that's in Book 2.
KAYLA: Right. And like, that's what makes my heart hurt for this is that like, these are very realistic issues that like take our tribal hockey superstar shit away, this is like very real, and it does not… these issues do not get fixed magically when you fall in love with someone.
SARAH: And they're coming from two very different directions.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: You have Ilya who is from Russia with a horrible family and a tragic backstory with his mom. And like if he comes out publicly, he can never go back to Russia.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Like he is the captain of their hockey team. Now, if you think about it canonically, later on Russia actually can't compete in the Olympics, but….
KAYLA: Yeah, but listen, we can't think about that.
SARAH: But like he… you know, if he is out, and he's also bisexual, so like he doesn't have to end up with a man, but then he falls in love with a man. So, it's like, mh.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And if he's out, he can literally never go back to his home country.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And then you have Shane, who has like perfect parents, loving, amazing, fantastic, but he still represses so much of himself. And so, it's just like two very genuine portrayals of two very different queer experiences coming together in one relationship.
KAYLA: Yeah. And like I said, it just feels like a very authentic queer representation. I think so often in queer media, it's either like these deeply tragic coming out stories or just like everyone is like out and gay and everyone accepts it and it's like great.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: And this feels just more realistic, which is crazy because the premise is stupid.
SARAH: And it's also not… again, I don't want to harp on coming out stories because there are many of them and they're lovely, this isn't really that.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: There is an arc for Shane that is that, but he has already been fucking Ilya secretly for years by the time. So, it's not really a… it's more of like a, oh, I guess maybe we should just accept this. But like the entire time, Ilya knows exactly what he is.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And he's just like, yeah, this is who I am, whatever. The problem is not what I am, the problem is the politics of hockey and also of Russia and also of, you know
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Anyway, it's an excellent show.
KAYLA: It is.
SARAH: A lot of the discourse around the show has been around who watches the show and who is big fans of the show.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: So, as I mentioned, it was written by a bisexual woman, most of romance is written by women.
[00:20:00]
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: Most of M/M, like male Achillean romance, is written by women and it is mostly consumed by women.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: The fact that like a gay male audience was brought into this was only via the show, it was not so much via the books, it was just because this became such a big thing.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And a lot of the takes they have are the worst ones, quite frankly. Now I'm just thinking of the bad takes that I've seen white gays on the internet have.
KAYLA: Don't go there.
SARAH: So, the audience for these books before they were the TV series was primarily women and in large part queer women and queer AFAB people, they weren't all identifying as women, but mostly AFAB.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And when you hear the mass media talk about this show, they talk about women being into it. And they talk about it as if it's like a weird fetishization thing, like the way you think about straight men and lesbians.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And they kind of make that comparison and they act like it's the same, but I don't think for the most part that it is.
KAYLA: I don't think so either.
SARAH: And luckily, the creators and the actors agree with us.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And so, they're constantly setting the record straight, which thank fucking God.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: But that is what I really want to get into, it is like, who is interested in this and why. Because I am an aro-ace person, why am I watching this show that the pilot is 30% sex?
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: I'm a sex averse…
KAYLA: Like they get into it immediately. I think to me, and I've seen a lot of people, like this is not an original thought, I've seen a lot of people talking about this. And maybe we've talked about this before with like women consuming like gay male romances. Is traditional romance media, rom-com books, whatever, is like a man and a woman, right? And so, as a woman, you cannot consume that media without kind of putting yourself in the place of the woman. And women are not treated well anywhere, ever. So, if you want to consume romance and not have to worry about the politics of being a woman, the only way to do that is by reading two gay men. And then you're just consuming it and you are not putting yourself into it at all.
SARAH: And like you could say, well, oh, if you want to remove gender dynamics, you can read something sapphic or you can watch something sapphic. First of all, there's less of it. Second of all, the politics of womanhood is still there, whereas for M/M stuff…
KAYLA: I'm not in the room.
SARAH: I'm not there.
KAYLA: It's not me.
SARAH: I think that's definitely part of the reason why I am generally way more drawn to like M/M fiction than sapphic fiction.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Not that I'm not like… it's not like I won't read sapphic fiction, like, hell yeah, fuck it up. But I'm definitely drawn more to M/M stuff because I, as a sex-averse asexual, for me, the sex aversion is regarding myself, I don't want myself a part of that. And if it's M/M, there is no universe in which I could be a part of, like that is so separate from me.
KAYLA: Yeah, your anatomy is not in the room.
SARAH: I'm not even there.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And that, I prefer that, because it has nothing to do with me. But you still get to experience this romantic saga, like you get to be in the world of romance and sex and whatever, but it has fucking nothing to do with me, and that's great.
KAYLA: Yeah, you can take yourself more out of it. I've also seen a lot of TikToks of women being like, it is like confusing to them in a gender way because they're like, “I want to be loved in a way that a man loves a man.” Like they're like, “I am a woman, I feel like a woman, but I want to be in a relationship like this, where dynamics is a man loving a man.” And so, I've seen people talk about like, it's just a different power dynamic because they're both men. So, you don't have the power dynamics of, well, one of you is a man and one is a woman and so that is supposed to mean certain things. Like you're just maybe on a more even playing field.
SARAH: And in the book, it's a little bit different, but in the TV show, if you think about like the dynamics of like, and then manga and anime and that sort of thing, there's always one who looks really feminine and is tiny and then there's one who's huge and hulking and whatever. The actors are the same size as each other, like they're the same height, they're the same build. They don't look at anything like each other, unlike Scott and Kip who look like twins.
KAYLA: They do look a bit similar, but that's okay.
SARAH: But they don't have that obvious, like, oh, that one is the bottom and that one is the top. We talked about bottom and top dynamics before, I had a very long conversation about this last night with Dalton King about all the issues in the gay community with that.
KAYLA: The topping and bottoming, yeah.
SARAH: I want to have him on the podcast.
KAYLA: We need to have him back because the thing you sent me that he said, I was like, “what are we doing? What are you people doing?”
SARAH: It's insane. He lives such a different life than me.
KAYLA: Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
SARAH: But like there is no obvious like, oh, that one must be the bottom because they’re more femme.
KAYLA: That's the girl one, yeah.
SARAH: Like they are equally as dominant as players. They're literally like one, two draft picks and they're constantly like trying to one-up each other to like be the better one.
KAYLA: Yeah, like just huge athletic men
SARAH: They're physically the same size and so you look at them and it's not like, oh yeah, I know what their dynamic is.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: The interesting thing is that one of the good things about this fandom is that stupid arguments about top and bottom dynamics aren’t allowed.
KAYLA: It can't happen because it's already decided.
SARAH: Because it is so clear and canon what the characters' preference…
KAYLA: Preference, yeah
SARAH: And like hard lines are, that like you can't even be like… like, I've seen a couple of fics that have like swapped them and people have been like, “what is this garbage?”
KAYLA: Ew, yucky.
SARAH: “This is not right.”
KAYLA: Yeah. Well, because… and then the author does a great job of like the character set boundaries of like, this is what I'm into. Like it's also just like… it's just good sex representation. Like talking about… like there is a lot of sex in the book and the show and it is explicit and it gets right into it in the show, but it's all… it's like… it's good. Like it feels safe and caring and good.
SARAH: And there has been some discussion that people think it's obvious that this was written by a woman, because of the yearning, because of the type of sex that is shown, because it is from a female gaze of what women would want a sexual relationship to look like. And there are some like gay men who are like, “oh, that's not realistic,” which fucking first of all, sit down, let me tell you something… Siri, I wasn't talking to you.
KAYLA: She said, “hello, I'm listening.”
SARAH: There have been many arguments online, with real people, about this, that fucking guy from I Love LA. But basically, a lot of people are like, “that's not how real gay men have sex,” to which one of the actors, love you Francois Arnaud, he plays like one of the… there's another couple in the show and he plays half of it. And he plays, a hockey player also. And he's like, so you expect that closeted, professional hockey players are going to have the same kind of sex as like, sceney gay guys in LA? Like, you think that?
KAYLA: I mean, truly
SARAH: Of course, they're not going to have the same kind of sex. Like, what are you talking about?
KAYLA: Not everyone is having like Troye Sivan poppers in the club LA scene, we're not all doing that.
SARAH: Right. Like, oh, I'm sorry, they're not on ketamine, they get drug-tested, like what?
KAYLA: Well, it's also just like, there are so… like, who are you to say how all gay men… because you're right, like closeted, like hockey superstars, a closeted man in like fucking Kansas City, like not, what are you saying? What a privileged take.
SARAH: Yeah. I saw a tweet that went viral where someone was like, “I can tell this was written by a woman because they use condoms.”
KAYLA: No, no.
SARAH: And people were like, okay, okay, whoa, whoa, whoa. First of all, at the very beginning, this spans a lot of time, like 10 years. At the beginning it's 2008, most of it takes place in like the 2012 to 2018 window, Prep was not as widespread then.
KAYLA: And you're telling me a closeted 19-year-old professional hockey player was like, “hey mom, can I get on Prep?” Hello!?
SARAH: Exactly. HIPAA laws, whatever. One of them is in Canada, I'm sure they have equivalent HIPAA laws in Canada.
KAYLA: Yeah.
[00:30:00]
SARAH: Notwithstanding, you're telling me that 18-year-old Shane Hollander.
KAYLA: He's not getting on Prep.
SARAH: My neurotic flower…
KAYLA: He will not do that.
SARAH: Do you think he is trusting a doctor to be like, “hey, I'm taking it up the ass, can you get me on Prep?” No. He would never.
KAYLA: He would just never do that.
SARAH: He would never.
KAYLA: He would simply never be doing that.
SARAH: He would never. So, like, yeah, of course they're fucking using condoms and they're practicing safe sex and there's a lot of like consent that happens in the books and also like in the show.
KAYLA: I don't remember if it was a quote from Jacob Tierney or maybe it was Francois that was like, “this isn't a documentary, I'm not showing you Shane douching in the shower.”
SARAH: Yeah, that's a…
KAYLA: It's just like not… like, people like, hello!
SARAH: Guys!
KAYLA: And also like, what a stupid… because like it's a TV show and a book. Obviously, it's not going to be real life accurate, but you're not seeing me complaining about like this other rom-com I'm watching like, oh, this is not how people hook up. Obviously, like it's...
SARAH: You think the hockey is accurate in this show either?
KAYLA: Truly. Like people come on.
SARAH: There's actually not even that much hockey in the show, there's very little.
KAYLA: There’s really not, they didn't have the budget.
SARAH: They didn't have the budget.
KAYLA: They did not have the budget to be doing hockey.
SARAH: You can also tell that like Ilya especially was written from the female gaze because he is a fuck boy, he is.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: But he's a very respectful fuck boy.
KAYLA: Yes.
SARAH: He's not going to fuck you over, like he is a respectful boy.
KAYLA: It is funny because as I was reading it, even more so in the book, it's like, oh my God, he's like fucking all these women and he has all these like fancy sports cars and whatever.
SARAH: A stupid orange sports car.
KAYLA: And I was just reading it and I was like, “this is not he,” I was like, “I understand what you're trying to get across to me, but like, no.”
SARAH: Yeah. It's just like everyone's perception of him is so different from how he…
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: He's just a little soft boy on the inside, but he talks a big talk.
KAYLA: Yes, he does, that's true.
SARAH: And then on the inside, Shane is just a little gay boy. And on the outside, he's just a polite straight Canadian boy.
KAYLA: And what are we supposed to do about it? I think something I really enjoy about what they did in the show is that the first four episodes are extremely sex-heavy. Like three sex scenes an episode, like just constant, just like all the time. And then you get the last two episodes…
SARAH: It slows down
KAYLA: And there's like maybe one or two scenes an episode because you're getting to a point where like, spoilers, I guess, but like this is the natural progression of a romance, like they fall in love and it becomes more about the relationship dynamic than just the sex. And it's so like, I just love that they did that because they got all of these people in who are obviously like, oh my God, like show on HBO where there's this like a ton of sex, like hot guys, whatever. Obviously, everyone is talking about that.
SARAH: Right.
KAYLA: And then you get into it and then you're like, oh, this is a well-written show with like cinnamon topography, excellent music, acting incredible, like editing, everything, like it’s just… it’s a good…
SARAH: It's a fucking shame that it's not eligible for the Emmys, is what it really is.
KAYLA: Yeah. Like it easily could have been… They could have made this so bad. This could have easily been so cheesy, acting terrible, low, like… and it was low budget, but just like only… clearly only for the sex of it, like only for the shock value. It so could have easily, easily, easily been that, but they made it like an actual heartfelt, like well-written thing.
SARAH: Jacob Tierney has talked about how he treated it like a film, he treated it like cinema.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And you can tell that with like the cameras they chose, like they didn't have a good budget, they didn't have a high budget, they had like a Canadian TV show budget, but they did use really nice cameras to create like that super cinematic, like, this is cinema feel.
KAYLA: And it feels like that.
SARAH: It does
KAYLA: It's what stresses me out because I can't watch TV because it feels too real. The Internet told me I'm hyper empathetic.
SARAH: Oh, good for you.
KAYLA: Which feels like a very pick me thing to be.
SARAH: I'm like the opposite of that, where I don't know what to do.
KAYLA: Mm
SARAH: Anyway…
KAYLA: Great.
SARAH: But Jacob Tierney has just talked about how he approached it with the intention of it being very cinematic. And he approached it with the intention of like, yes, it's a smutty book, but he was treating it reverently. And he was like treating it with the respect it deserved. And so, it became this fucking masterful TV show.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And I've also seen some discourse about how some actors are like, “oh, I don't want to do a romance, it'll be like the end of my career.” But it's like, no, if you do a romance and you take it fucking seriously, then it's fucking art.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Like, it's only trashy if you let it be trashy.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: If you let it come across that way.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Like this is art cinema.
KAYLA: Cinema, yeah
SARAH: Like, yes, they're fucking just… not even friends with benefits, rivals with benefits for like six years.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: It's so good
KAYLA: I also think it's interesting just from like, I don't know, like the sex perspective of like… obviously, they're having sex to have sex, right? But I've also seen people make the point of like, these are two people who do not talk about their feelings. And so, they are expressing that physically because that is the only way they know how.
SARAH: They’re communicating through it, yeah
KAYLA: And so, from like an aspec perspective, I think it brings up a really interesting way of looking at sex, of like sex can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people, it's not always just like sex, do you know what I mean?
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: Like, it's not…
SARAH: Like it is just an action you do and we've said that before, and that is true.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: But it's like you can just like give a quick little hug to your neighbor or you can have just like a really intense hug with your best friend. Like, it's the same action but the intention and the meaning of it can be different.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And you can communicate… like it's… the show is a lot about… it's about communicating physically through sex, but also just like with like affection. And like there's… Jacob Tierney has talked about like he was a little bit worried that the actors were coming across as like too affectionate too early. But then he was like looking at it and he was like, no, this is so fucking good, I can't not use this, like it's so fucking good.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And so, like as a result, you see them being way more comfortable physically with each other when they are not there at all mentally yet.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And like you can see that like they are physically ahead of where their brains are.
KAYLA: Brains are, yeah. I just think it's a really nuanced look at sex and what it can mean and what it can look like, which I just think in media you don't usually get because you'll get like, you know, one sexy maybe. And so, the benefit of there being like…
SARAH: And it's like the culmination of everything and it's supposed to represent everything.
KAYLA: Yeah. I think that's also the really nice thing, kind of what I was talking about earlier of like not everything is resolved just when you like fall in love and that's the end.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: Like, especially knowing what I know about Book 2 and Season 2 is like I think that's what's frustrating a lot about romances is that it's just like it ends and then it's supposed to be like happily ever after, you never see a realistic look at like relationships are hard.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: And so, I think that's what's nice too is you see a lot of different phases of both the sex and the relationship of like it doesn't just… you don't see it just once and then it's like, oh, it's you never know how it is again, you know?
SARAH: Well, it's like the universal experience that everyone seemed to have with Book 2 that I also had where I was like, “oh, book two is less smutty.” And then you look at the breakdown of chapters that have smut in them and it's actually more smutty, you just don't remember because it's also more emo.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: So, you know, there's that
KAYLA: I'm really afraid
SARAH: It ends well
KAYLA: I literally know all of the bad things that happen, already.
SARAH: Well, and also speaking of it ending well and you saying that like part of the draw of it is that like it has a happy ending, it's not a tragedy. That was something that for the creators was so important to show that like queer joy. Yes, there is queer struggle and boy howdy is there, but like there is so much queer joy to be had
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And even though the world is awful and there are certain cultures, whether those are like ethnic cultures or like hockey culture, it is so profoundly straight and so profoundly homophobic to the point that like at one point the NHL was not letting people use rainbow tape on their sticks, insane.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Also, wait, sorry, this is like a pivot, but in one of the interviews I saw that Hudson did today, the one that's coming out tomorrow…
KAYLA: I know, I’ve seen it, I know exactly what you're going to say, it has come across my desk, I'm aware.
[00:40:00]
SARAH: Well, for our listeners. He was asked about like, has he heard from professional athletes who are closeted and currently playing professional sports? And he said, yes, he's heard from hockey players, he's heard from basketball players, he's heard from football players and he's heard from baseball? Soccer? There was a fourth sport, I don't know what it was. And like the author gets like emails from people and like sometimes she'll pass them along and like he'll get DMs from people and like he didn't expect it to be so profound.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And did you see that there's a professional… it's not like one of the main sports you think of, but it is a professional sport.
KAYLA: Okay
SARAH: He is… Argentinian? And he is gay married to the prime minister of the Netherlands.
KAYLA: Oh my God, work!
SARAH: And he posted on his Instagram story today, basically being like, he felt really seen, particularly by in episode three, the Scott and Kip, because episode three actually like diverts to a different couple and sets something else up, which becomes relevant for the main couple later.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: And so, like episode three is a little bit… like, some people didn't like that they did… because it pulls from a different book.
KAYLA: Yeah, it basically does one whole book in one episode.
SARAH: In one episode, yeah. And I'll be honest, it's my least favorite episode, but it's still fucking good, it's just different
KAYLA: And it's important.
SARAH: Yeah, and it's important. But like he was saying that like he felt really seen by the struggle there of like wanting to be with someone, but like that couple is not two NHL players, it is an NHL player and a guy who works at a smoothie shop.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: So, like he was saying that like he felt really seen with all of that. And so, it has just been interesting, like people are like, “oh, this isn't realistic,” blah, blah, blah. And then you hear about the actors and the author and creators hearing from people who are like, this really resonates with me. And it's like, yeah, we're not… This isn't in the past yet.
KAYLA: Yeah, it's also maybe it's not realistic for you guy on your couch, but like professional athletes are like very famous people, it's like, that is a thing.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: But I think that's what I was kind of saying earlier about I think there's something about this particular moment it's coming out in that like this is needed. So many projects like this are being shot down, like media is becoming less and less like woke. Like we had a huge surgence of really great representation, you can like feel it going away and so the fact that this got put out and it is so in your face queer and it has a happy ending, like it's just… like, how could you not like that?
SARAH: It queer, one of the main characters is biracial and that is addressed in the show… it's addressed better in the show than it is in the books.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: In my opinion.
KAYLA: True.
SARAH: And so, like he's autistic, he's half Asian, he's gay and secretly fucking his rival and he's a Mr. Goody Two-Shoes.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And he's like, “oh, no!” Shane Hollander my neurotic flower. I mean Ilya Rozanov is my son and I would kill for him and die for him. He is my baby, I would protect him with my life, that's all. I don't want the Internet to think that I only like Shane.
KAYLA: I see.
SARAH: In fact, I do play favorites a little bit with Ilya, sorry.
KAYLA: I feel like Shane is my little baby.
SARAH: Great. So, you have one and I the other?
KAYLA: Great. Don't worry you guys, we've got them covered.
SARAH: We've got them.
KAYLA: Do not worry about it.
SARAH: Don't you worry. I don't even remember what I was saying, I got distracted.
KAYLA: Our little sons, our little tiny sons.
SARAH: And the actors are younger than us too, so I'm just like...
KAYLA: You guys I'm so worried about them.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: I'm so worried about them.
SARAH: Because they were pulled from oblivion, they got very famous very fast.
KAYLA: I'm worried they're getting Chappell Roaned.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: I'm just worried about their mental health, these my two close personal friends.
SARAH: My two close personal friends, Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams.
KAYLA: I’m just worried about them.
SARAH: I have a couple of friends who went to an event and like a book-signing thing that they did before the show came out. And so, it was like when like the fandom was still like fairly small.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And they were like, “wow, who knew that that was going to be the last opportunity ever?”
KAYLA: Yeah, truly. Good for them.
SARAH: Oh, the show was originally supposed to come out like in February. Like it was supposed to not even be out yet. I think it was supposed to be more on the Winter Olympics, but...
KAYLA: I saw something today that was like, what if they get Connor and Hudson to like go on like do stuff on Peacock for… Because they brought in like Snoop Dogg and like whatever.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: They bring in like celebrities to like commentate and do stuff.
SARAH: I'm sure CBC wants Hudson in Canada.
KAYLA: I was like, “you have to get them to do Olympics coverage. Please!”
SARAH: Joint CBC/NBC stream.
KAYLA: I’d just like… just send them.
SARAH: Please.
KAYLA: Send them to the Olympics, send them to the Met Gala, send them...
SARAH: I've heard inklings about Met Gala.
KAYLA: I have heard too. What's her face? Follows them on Instagram now.
SARAH: Donatella Versace.
KAYLA: Yes.
SARAH: Anyway. Oh, it was supposed to be in February. But then the trailer came out in October. And that was the first time I saw it, I saw the trailer. And I was like, “oh shit, this looks really good.”
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: But there was so much buzz around the trailer and then also they finally got HBO Max to sign on. They were like, “what if we released it earlier, like around the holidays?”
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And then they did. But then they had to like… it was like a last minute, trying to finish the episodes.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And they turned out fucking great.
KAYLA: And they did a great job and we got to go to the cottage on Christmas, so. Right after I went to Stranger Things for Christmas.
SARAH: I went to the cottage and the cottage only.
KAYLA: Well.
SARAH: Take that. Every time I see Ginger ale I'm like, “uh…”
KAYLA: I saw Ginger ale at work today and I was like, “oh, he's here! He's here!”
SARAH: I was in Michigan and we went to Michigan Grand Central which is the… it's in Detroit, it used to be like the Grand Central Station like the train station and then…
KAYLA: I haven't been to it since they like did the whole thing.
SARAH: Yeah, in the ‘80s it went defunct and then it was an abandoned building for 40 years.
KAYLA: What is it now? It's like a whole thing.
SARAH: Yeah, it's like a... There's like shops in there and then there's like a thing where you thing, thing.
KAYLA: I haven't been there
SARAH: It's very pretty, they had it all decorated for Christmas. I guess my aunt works in that building, like upstairs.
KAYLA: Oh, that's fun. I think they have apartments in that building too, maybe.
SARAH: Yeah. But… what was I… oh, I was there and we went into a store and like a lot of it is like Detroit-themed.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Like specifically.
KAYLA: Vernors.
SARAH: Vernors.
KAYLA: Do you think Shane likes Vernors?
SARAH: He probably drinks Ginger ale
KAYLA: Do you think Rose brought Shane Vernors?
SARAH: Yes, she did, Rose is canonically from Michigan. But in the store there was like a whole Vernors section because Vernors… the Ginger ale is a Detroit brand.
KAYLA: Yeah, I love Vernors.
SARAH: And I learned the oldest continuously operating soda pop in the United States.
KAYLA: Good, and it's fantastic, incorrect, it tastes so good, I can never get it. I actually have one mini can of Vernors that my friend brought back for me from Michigan forever ago and I drank like all the other ones he gave me but I haven't drank the last one, sometimes I'm like, “oh, this’s a special occasion, maybe I should drink it.” And I haven't, I don't know when I’ll ever drink it.
SARAH: So there was a bunch of Vernors stuff and I was like, “Shane Hollander, I see him everywhere I go.”
KAYLA: “I see him everywhere.” I've sent Sarah a couple of songs, I'll just be like listening to music and I'll be like, “this reminds me of my sons.”
SARAH: Yeah. Also, the music in the show bangs.
KAYLA: It's really good.
SARAH: You will never hear this song ‘All The Things She Said’ by t.A.T.u. or by the cover by the other people, you'll never feel normal about it again.
KAYLA: You'll never feel normal about it.
SARAH: Today I spent half of my car ride home stressing out about… what's the fucking name of this song? ‘I'll believe in Anything’ by Wolf Parade.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: I was so confused. If anyone knows what the fucking time signature that song is, there might be more than one, please let me know. I'm so confused, I've asked all my local experts but I haven't heard back from all of them yet.
KAYLA: What are you gonna do?
SARAH: Anyway. I think we need to stop.
KAYLA: Yeah
SARAH: In conclusion, an excellent television program, it's for anyone who is not sex-repulsed.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Don't watch with your family.
KAYLA: No. I feel like certainly someone has made an edit somewhere where you could just… someone get on, make the ace edit where you just like skip through the… you know.
SARAH: It can be like a silent film where like it cuts out the sex but then it gives the summary of like the emotional stuff that transpired.
KAYLA: Yeah, the important… yeah. Because there does… yeah, because important stuff does happen, I fear, during the sex.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: So, yeah you just need some… yeah.
SARAH: Sorry, I just remembered when he slaps him and that was improvised by the actors.
KAYLA: That's everything to me, it’s everything to me.
SARAH: Anyway! Anyway! Anyway! Truly, a freak for freak relationship.
[00:50:00]
KAYLA: And what are you going to do?
SARAH: It's a very good television program. The sex is what brings a lot of people in but the fact that it's just so fucking good is what keeps people in.
KAYLA: Yes, yeah.
SARAH: And a lot of the main original audience was queer women and remains queer women.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: No matter what the Internet says about straight women fetishizing. Look, sure, whatever.
KAYLA: I'm sure they're there, but it's not for them.
SARAH: Fujoshis, we love them. Or as my coworker says, she likes to watch boys go kissy kissy.
KAYLA: That’s stupid.
SARAH: And the whole world’s in a mass psychosis, everyone has become obsessed with it. It has gone well beyond the normal bounds of fandom and as a result it has become a problem because there are people who are suddenly in fandom spaces who don't understand fandom etiquette.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Which is becoming a problem, but that's a whole other topic.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm
SARAH: Anyway, an excellent program, it's about sex but it's not about sex. And I think it's a good way to think about sex as a storytelling device.
KAYLA: Yes.
SARAH: It's not about being salacious
KAYLA: No.
SARAH: It serves a purpose.
KAYLA: The sex is not there… because this is what we always complain about, right? It is when movies just throw sex in and it's like, this does not need to be here, this is clearly just so they can say there was like hot sexy shit in the movie or whatever.
SARAH: Yeah.
KAYLA: The sex is narratively important.
SARAH: Yes. They literally like don't communicate except through sex for like five years.
KAYLA: Yeah. And that's when you know the sex is good, am I right ladies?
SARAH: Well and Hudson one time was like, you know I think something that's appealing to this for women especially is that it's two men and because it's a relationship with two men they have to communicate with each other. Like because usually it's in a hetero relationship, like the woman has to be the communicator, but he's like, it's two men, they got to figure it out.
KAYLA: They’ve got to figure it out, someone has got to do it. That's funny.
SARAH: Very silly. But yeah, I think also not to be like, this is a study guide for aspecs everywhere to understand allos, because it's not.
KAYLA: No.
SARAH: But I do think there is something to learn and better comprehend. Like if you don't understand why sex is so important to people, I think this could be an interesting supplementary reading for you.
KAYLA: I think especially the book too like even more so I think gets into like the importance of it for those characters.
SARAH: Yeah. And like it's not just about fucking, it's about like intimacy and using and like physical communication and all sorts of things.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: So, I think it is like interesting supplemental reading to your understanding of why allos are so obsessed with sex that might help make things make a little more sense.
KAYLA: Imagine sex that means something in a piece of media.
SARAH: Wow!
KAYLA: I mean never before have I seen such a thing.
SARAH: Never.
KAYLA: Literally. Literally.
SARAH: Never heard of it. And it's not just as a Band-Aid for something.
KAYLA: That's what I'm saying, it's like literally shocking.
SARAH: Shocking.
KAYLA: Like it's actually like… it is such a… like, never before has sex been handled in media this way, I feel.
SARAH: You heard it here first, kids. All right.
KAYLA: We have to be done.
SARAH: We have to be done. What's our poll? Have you watched Heated Rivalry?
KAYLA: Have you watched it?
SARAH: Why not?
KAYLA: I want the aspecs perspectives on it and I want to know what we're thinking.
SARAH: Yeah, I want everyone's... I'm really curious if there's anyone who tried to watch it but like they just couldn't because it’s too sexual.
KAYLA: And that's so fair.
SARAH: And that's so valid.
KAYLA: And that's so fair.
SARAH: People have made edits of it that have been censored by the platforms upon which they've been posted.
KAYLA: I mean, yeah, because, yeah.
SARAH: I have rewatched many of the sex scenes though, just trying to figure out how they pulled it off because it looks so…
KAYLA: The aces…
SARAH: It looks real.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: And I'm like, “how did you do that? You look like you're fucking.” Oh, the other poll is, do you think me and Kayla would be good at having fake sex with each other on TV?
KAYLA: We just wouldn't. We just wouldn't. We just would not be good at it.
SARAH: I asked Kayla that and she said no and I was kind of upset about it.
KAYLA: I think that you agree, but you do agree with me, you know we couldn't do it.
SARAH: Yeah, but like I was so upset that you said that.
KAYLA: Well, I think we know each other too well, almost.
SARAH: I don't think that's it. Anyway. Yeah, that's our poll, have you watched Heated Rivalry?
KAYLA: And could we have fake sex successfully?
SARAH: Also, did you know that Connor's story who plays Ilya Rozanov does not speak Russian?
KAYLA: He does not know Russian even a little bit.
SARAH: He does a five-page monologue entirely in Russian.
KAYLA: Wild
SARAH: It is transcendent.
KAYLA: Okay, we have to stop.
SARAH: It is a war.
KAYLA: We have to stop.
SARAH: He doesn't speak Russian.
KAYLA: I know that.
SARAH: The extras on set would try and speak Russian to him and Ksenia had to be like, “he doesn't speak Russian, guys.”
KAYLA: He doesn't know that.
SARAH: “He's from Odessa, Texas.” Okay, what's your beef and your juice for this week?
KAYLA: Okay, my beef is I've been sick for a year, literally. I've been literally sick all year. My juice is that a new season of Traitors is coming out soon, I'm so excited and we've been watching some of the seasons of UK Traitors to prepare which we haven't seen, and here's the thing I don't understand, I would love if someone neurodivergent could diagnose me with what's wrong with me because I have such a hard time watching TV and movies because the emotions are too intense and it feels too real but I can watch reality TV and those are real people.
SARAH: Because you know it's fake.
KAYLA: And those are real people.
SARAH: But it's so contrived.
KAYLA: I know, I get it. I mean, it's very like overly-dramatic but anyway.
SARAH: Well, because fictional television is intended to feel as real as possible.
KAYLA: It’s supposed to be real, yeah, that's fair.
SARAH: I diagnosed you, there it is.
KAYLA: Thank you. And so, people are just having like… girl, like the reality show crash out of the like people are just the worst mistakes, I'm like it's fucking hilarious. Dean and I were like gagging at the TV just at the stupidity of these people. It's excellent television, you must watch Traitors.
SARAH: Great. My juice is Heated Rivalry.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: My other juice is that XLOV, the K-pop group, it was recently their one-year debut anniversary and they did like a little fan meeting and they were so gender-full, the amount of gender...
KAYLA: Gender-full.
SARAH: There is not a gender that they have that I don't want, you know, and they have different genders and I want them all.
KAYLA: All of them, yeah.
SARAH: I also want that Mingyu gender from that photo shoot he did that made me typo so hard on my Instagram.
KAYLA: I did see that.
SARAH: My beef is that I have too many hyperfixations right now and my brain is gonna explode.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: Because BTS is coming back.
KAYLA: Huge.
SARAH: They're announcing a tour like next week.
KAYLA: Uh-oh.
SARAH: Seventeen there's a subunit coming out with my fucking bias in it.
KAYLA: Uh-oh.
SARAH: Shit is going on. Now XLOV is being gender-full, I don't have time for that, okay? And Heated Rivalry is taking up my entire brain. My other beef is that I have not been able to write since I have gotten into Heated Rivalry because it takes up my entire brain.
KAYLA: But remember when you said that Heated Rivalry was like inspiring you to write?
SARAH: I wrote 384 words, I would like to correct myself, I've written 384 words in the past month and a half.
KAYLA: Oh no. Oh no.
SARAH: Yeah, the problem is… I was talking to my therapist about this today. The problem is that I know I need to write and I want to write. And it does inspire me like, oh, it is great art, that like makes me want to also create my own art, but more than that, I just want to read fan fiction.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: There's so much fan fiction, it's insane.
KAYLA: Yeah, I bet there is
SARAH: And it's so good. Except for that one that was AI that everyone called out.
KAYLA: Uh-oh.
SARAH: And the one that made Illya an IDF soldier, are you fucking kidding? Everyone was so mad at that.
KAYLA: Why are we…
SARAH: Jacob Tierney and Rachel Reid are both openly pro-Palestine. Also, Illya would fucking never, my polite fuckboy son.
KAYLA: What an insane thing to do.
SARAH: Anyway. It's just so much more interesting to just like scroll everything about Heated Rivalry.
KAYLA: Yeah.
SARAH: You know?
KAYLA: I do.
SARAH: Anyway, we have got to watch Hudson on Jimmy Fallon, it came out while we were recording this podcast, so we have to stop.
KAYLA: I know, we have a lot to do.
SARAH: You can also find us on Patreon, patreon.com/soundsfakepod.com if you want to support us…
KAYLA: If I watch it right now while you're doing patrons…
SARAH: I will kill you. I will hang up on you. Our $5 patrons who we are promoting this week are Lily, Lindsay, Mark Cornick, Mary S., and Mel McMeans. Our $10 patrons who are promoting something this week are Purple Hayes who would like to promote the musician Vinther, Quartertone who would like to promote World Central Kitchen & Doctors Without Borders, Barefoot Backpacker who would like to promote their YouTube channel rtwbarefoot, SongOStorm who would like to promote a healthy work-life balance and Val who would like to promote still never, still don't know and so, Val would like to promote having many other friends who are into Heated Rivalry and enable you constantly. And remember how I was like, I've never been in a group chat on Twitter and I'm really insecure about it? I'm in a group chat now.
KAYLA: Huge.
SARAH: We yell about yaoi.
KAYLA: Good.
[01:00:00]
SARAH: Our other $10 patrons are Alastor, Ani, Arcnes, Benjamin Ybarra, Clare Olsen, Danielle Hutchinson, Derick & Carissa, Elle Bitter, Eric, my aunt Jeannie, Johanna, Kayla's Dad, KELLER Bradley, Maff, and Martin Chiesl. Also did I tell everyone here that I had to make a second… not a second, like a 15th Twitter exclusively for yaoi?
KAYLA: It's dire you guys.
SARAH: It's pretty early on that that happened. Our $15 patrons are Ace who would like to promote the writer Crystal Scherer, Nathaniel White who would like to promote NathanielJWhiteDesigns.com, Kayla’s aunt Nina who would like to promote katemaggartart.com and Schnell who would like to promote accepting that everyone is different and that's awesome. Our $20 patrons are Changeling & Alex who would like to promote their company Control Alt Access, Dr. Jacki, who would like to promote having a job again, but I think I already said that, so maybe not, but you can promote two things this week, Jacki. Dragonfly, my mom, and River, and they all would like to promote the fact that on New Year's, my cousin was sitting talking to my sister-in-law, and I had my back to them, but I was close by and my cousin said to my sister-in-law, “not to profile you, but have you watched Heated Rivalry?” And I turned around so fast, and I said, “I watched Heated Rivalry,” and it genuinely scared my cousin.
KAYLA: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm
SARAH: That's what they would like to promote. Thanks for listening, tune in next Sunday for more of us in your ears. I hope you put Heated Rivalry in your eyes in the meantime, also your ears.
KAYLA: And until then, take good care of your cows.
SARAH: Put little VR goggles on them so they can be in Heated Rivalry on the ice.
KAYLA: Oh, no.
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]