Episodes

Waiter? Fact-Check Please!

Hello and Happy Tuesday! Today’s episode is a veritable hot-topic pie. We revisit last week’s episode by talking even more about powerful women in history as well as women today making history. We discuss the merits of California’s anti-plastic straw law, gush about Daylight Saving Time, marvel over the migration of millions of monarch butterflies, and update our stories on Coco Chanel and Jane Fonda with facts. Gasp. Then we “rrrrrrrrrrrrrr” hard-right turn into a full rant and FREAKING rave over the Lori Laughlin/Felicity Huffman/college admissions scandal (so much so Kris runs out of air mid-sentence). Then we wrap it all up with a spoonful of St. Patrick’s Day trivia. All the while wondering about the large amount of construction taking place below us during the entire episode. Question of the day: IS the construction downstairs actually the cover-up of a murder scene? You’ll just have to listen to find out. But first? Kym quacks us up with a mom-joke.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
These ducks are gonna drop a beat right here.

Links and more information about what we talk about in today’s episode:

  • Investigative journalist Hal Vaughan’s biography about Coco Chanel, Sleeping With The Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War, can be found here and here. The New Yorker article interviewing Mr. Vaughn about the book can be found here. In that article, Mr. Vaughan states that Chanel was backed by the powerful Wertheimer family, which helped her reestablish her business in France after World War II.
  • The coffee Kris mentions is: Death Wish Coffee and we dare anybody to try it first and let us know what you think because Kris is a scaredy-cat (but may still have to try it anyway).
  • The Washington Post article about Jane Fonda can be found here and another article here and quotes from Ms. Fonda about those events here in a Snopes article.
  • A must-read Forbes article about the college admissions scandal with 30 facts that SHOULD highly disturb you can be found here. Some of the truly disgusting facts? Parents of high school students allegedly paid about $25 million total to help their children get admitted to various colleges and universities and the alleged scheme has been ongoing since 2011. Among those who have been charged: 33 are parents, 13 are coaches and associates of ring-leader William “Rick” Singer (based in Newport Beach, California) businesses, including two SAT and ACT test administrators. Schools impacted by the scandal are: Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Boston University, Northeastern, UCLA, USC, University of Texas at Austin and Wake Forest. GRRRR with a capital GRRRRRR!
  • Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate-change activist you should be watching, is 16 years old. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
  • Chloe-Mei Espinosa, the anti-plastic straw advocate from Southern California and another powerhouse you should be watching, is 12 years old. More information can be found here, here, and here.
  • Yes. Kris understands a spade on a deck of cards and a shamrock do NOT look alike. A club on a deck of cards and a shamrock do. #facepalm #hangheadlow.

Check out our “Waiter? Fact-Check Please!” episode on  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, SpotifyOvercast, Libsyn, Pocket CastStitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

© The Mugly Truth 2019 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2019. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com.
Photos courtesy of WordPress free library.
Episodes

Please Don’t Eat the Children

TMT_Ep36_IGPhoto

Happy Tuesday and Happy National Tell a Fairytale Day!! That’s right, February 26 is all about celebrating fairytales. Naturally Kym and Kris have chosen to take what’s lovely and beautiful and seemingly happy-ever-after and turn it on it’s morbid little head. Because if you really believe all those Disney happy endings, honey sit down, because the truth is downright scary. AND mugly.

First of all, the fairytales we all know and love have been around for centuries (the oldest known tale called “The Smith and The Devil” is believed to be 7,000 years old!). Among the most well known set of stories published in the early 19th century were by librarian brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm as a way to prevent the stories of their Germanic heritage being lost forever. Prior to that, most tales were passed down in oral tradition as moral teachings and guidance. Apparently, telling children not to wander into the forest for fear of being baked by a witch was a great way to keep them playing in the front yard.

But beyond just moralizing opportunities, the tales were a snapshot of the social norms of the day. The value (or lack thereof, let’s face it) of women and children, the struggles of day to day existence, famine, disease…many of the stories we fawn over today as lovely and feel-good really were quite gruesome. So much so that over time some storylines actually became omitted. (Do you know what the ugly step sisters actually did to get that damned slipper to fit?? DO YOU??)  We’ll warn you now…many include the deaths of women and children and there seemed to be just a smidge of cannibalism going on. Remember, famine.

Interesting side-note: according to this article History of Fairytales, by Susie McGee, the oral origins of the stories made famous by male authors like the Grimms, Hans Christian Andersen, and Charles Perrault, “[go] back much further than the 17th century, and many of these stories are actually just retellings of age-old tales, many created by women and retold throughout history” and “women typically created fairy tales with a distinct purpose in mind-to protest the societal constraints that were placed upon them and to emphasis their own rights as women in a man’s world.”

 Hmmm. 

Mostly the takeaway is we’re REALLY glad we’re 21st century women and that our kids have no idea how great their lives are.

Speaking of grim, those brothers are the ones mainly responsible for the rest of the world learning about Little Snow White, The Golden Goose, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Brave Little Tailor, The Pied Piper, and Rumplestiltskin.

Wilhelm_Grimm _and_Jacob_Grimm_1855_painting_by_Elisabeth_Jerichau-Baumann
Wilhelm Grimm (left) and Jacob Grim, 1855, painting by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann. Photo from Wikipedia. This photo is in public domain.

Frontispiece and title-page
Frontispiece and title-page, illustrated by Ludwig Emil Grimm of the 1819 edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen). Source: Toronto Public Library and Wikipedia. This photo is in public domain.

Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Deutsche Sagen (German Legends) included stories such as “Pied Piper of Hamelin”, shown here in an illustration by Kate Greenaway. Artist: Kate Greenaway (1846–1901) Engraver: Edmund Evans  (1826–1905) Photo from Wikipedia. This photo is in public domain.

But they’re not the only ones who you know about even if you don’t know you know them. Mm-hmm.

In France, Charles Perrault created the classic Tales of Mother Goose including a version of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, as well as Puss In Boots, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, and Bluebeard. In Denmark Hans Christian Andersen gained fame with The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, and many others.

Clearly, ticking off popular Disney movie title after movie title after movie title, one doesn’t have to look very far in today’s entertainment industry to understand how far-reaching the legacies of these stories have been.

Don’t even get us started on how all the happy-ending purty la la renditions have caused a whole generation of people to expect unrealistic life arcs. Which makes them easily offended. Which makes life annoying a lot of times. There’s no scientific data to back that statement, we just feel VURRRY strongly that that is accurate. Just an observation.

We ARE glad certain huge movie makers are creating better female characters who are heroic, brave, and can save their own hide and a couple other people’s as well. And they don’t necessarily have to marry anyone in the end either. You go Elsa and Anna!

Anyway. Hey. Look. Looklookie here. Listen. Don’t mind us. Have we mentioned we’re getting older and hormonal? OF COURSE we’re going to find the bitching in the pudding (by the way, the story behind Jack Horner is kind of cool)…but don’t let us ruin a perfectly amazing opportunity to crack open your favorite Beauty and the Beast illustrated book and read it to a loved one (including yourself) if you’re so inclined. Because truth…mugly truth that is…be told, we’re suckers for happily ever after, so bring on the sanitized versions dear friends. Let’s all d’awwww together.

For more information on the articles cited in this episode and blog post please visit the following:

How the Grimm Brothers Saved the Fairy Tale by Jack Zipes

History of Fairy Tales by Susie McGee

The True Stories Behind Classic Fairy Tales by Valerie Ogden

And, if you’re motivated, unlike Kris, to write your very own fairytale, feel free to check this article out: Exploring genre | How to write a fairy tale

Check out our Please Don’t Eat the Children episode on  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, SpotifyOvercast, Libsyn, Pocket CastStitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

© The Mugly Truth 2019 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2019. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com
Photos courtesy Wikipedia commons and public domain.

 

Episodes

Saint Valentine’s Day

beverage breakfast close up cocoa
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

D’awwwwww LOVE!!! Isn’t it…lovely? And here we are smack in the middle of the loveliest week of the year. Saint Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Can you feel the energy? The warm, soft fuzzies? The excitement of a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, maybe a box of nummy bon bons, and the anticipation of an ahhhh-maZING dinner and maybe some “dessert” (know what we mean wink nudge???). Isn’t this beautiful day the perfect way to show your special love just how important they are to you and you cannot wait to snuggle up on them with all the giddiness that comes with those butterflies you still feel for him/her like you’re a danged teenager all over again?

OR maybe you’d rather tromp through a dank meadow of mildewed crabgrass with a handful of dead, black daisies and hurl them at the first person who offers you even a stick of gum let alone a Godiva nut-chew. Maybe you want to break that heart-shaped box into a million pieces like yours has been SO many times!!) Maybe you’re just waiting for 11:59 p.m. on February 14th to turn…the…hell…over! MAYBE – yeah JUST MAYBE!! – you think SAD old Single Awareness Day can go eff itself and Valentine’s Day – aka VD muahahahahahaha! – should be banned!

Yes!

YES!

YESDOIT!

Ok Kris. Settle down. 

Regardless of how you feel about it all, today’s episode will offer up some fun facts about this day of feels. Did you know, for instance, its bloody and somewhat violent origins? (And extra points for a correct guess on which civilized empire started it all.) Who the very first Valentine was? Do you know in which plays Shakespeare mentions St. Valentine’s Day? Any idea why your favorite conversation heart candies are scarce in 2019?

holiday sweet conversation hearts
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

And there are BIG numbers surrounding this one day of the year (it isn’t even a season for crying out loud!). We’re talking Billions (with a capital B) of dollars spent on sweets, flowers (mostly roses), dinners, jewelry, and lingerie. Millions of pounds of chocolate are produced, as are billions of those cute itty bitty heart chalk candies (let us remind you: except for this year – GAH!) which we adore almost as much as candy corn (and by we, we mean us)

Kym and Kris have some ideas about what you can do to save some bucks if you choose to celebrate, and encourage those who are not in a relationship right now to be completely and 100% a-okay with that.

(((((It’s just ONE measly single day a year! We can get through this!)))))

The episode wraps up with some pretty sweet stories about love. Because even though Kris sounds like a jaded cynic, she really does have a big lumpy heart full of hope. *sigh*

For more information on the podcast called Sweaty and Pissed (10/10!!), find them on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts, and visit their website here. For the NPR and BBC articles about the origins of Valentines, please go here and here. And for the Groovy Candies stats, go here. And finally, for the Good Housekeeping article about über-romantic stories across the world, go here and be sure to take a tissue.

Check out our Saint Valentine’s Day episode on  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, SpotifyOvercast, Libsyn, Pocket CastStitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

© The Mugly Truth 2019 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2019. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com
Photos courtesy WordPress free library, by Pexels.com.

 

 

 

Episodes

New Year Resolutions

2019
Photo by Rakicevic Nenad on Pexels.com Designed by Freepik

BRING IT ON 2019
Ciao 2018! Don’t let the door hit you on the tuchas! Hello 2019! Bring. It. On.

Happy Tuesday and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Goodbye 2018 you BEEEYOTCH. Today we talk about New Year resolutions. You either love them or hate them, you either keep them or break them. What are your resolutions for this year? Any money on the table on how fast you are going to wash your hands of them? Or do you have a wonderful, healthy strategy for helping you succeed in your life changes?

Today is all about the most common resolutions people make. We talk about the average time it takes for people to break their resolutions but also cover ideas about how to create realistic goals and the tools that are available to help keep you on track. So if you’re wanting to stop smoking, start working out, meditate, eat healthy, read more, learn a new skill, take up a hobby, fulfill a bucket list, lose weight, be more positive, travel more, get a new job, buy a house, save money….guess what: there’s an app for helping you with that.

We also talk about our own goals and strategies. Any bets on the first resolution we talk about NOT trying to do?

Hint: it’s fucking obvious, duh.

** side-eye **

But no matter what happens with our personal resolutions, we do resolve as your cohosts and cohorts to bring you 52 weeks of non-stop chatter, mispronounced words, creative facts, laughter, and lots of opinions. You’re welcome. SO…here’s to more coffee, more abstract conversations, and lots and lots of goofiness. Bring it on 2019. We are ready to meet you head on.

Good luck with your own goals, and we wish you all good health, beautiful love, joyfulness, prosperity, and friendship! We are excited to bring you a brand new year of fun and thank you for all your support!

Sparkler New Year's Eve
Photo by Kaique Rocha on Pexels.com

Check out our NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS episode on  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, SpotifyOvercast, Libsyn, Pocket CastStitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

© The Mugly Truth 2018 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2018. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com

 

 

 

 

Episodes

Riffing and Bingeing

MMMM Good to the last drop
Kris and Kym find coffee is good to the very last drop! Photo by Kimbery Sickel, @riverdeer at 500px.

Today we finally get around to alllll the wonderful (or as Kris likes to say over and over and over: FABULOUS) shows we’ve been binge-watching on Netflix and Amazon Prime (haven’t find one on Hulu yet, but we’re open to it!). That is, we get to it once we slog through all the talk about a spider using Kym’s leg as a buffet, how to cope with hot-flashes, the best way to decide when to get married, Kris’ guttermind moment (PLUS she thinks Eugene Levy is hot), and Kym came up with a really good tracker app but is using her bullet journal until someone develops her idea to make her fantastically wealthy.

Mood Tracker
Kym shares her love of all things bullet journaling with her October Halloween-inspired mood tracker.

Um..yeah, so once we get through all that (and probably even more), the discussion gets down to recommendations for obsessive boob-tube watching.

We cover some new, some old, and all are…ahem…fabulous. Some of our picks include Schitt’s Creek, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell and others go way back to re-watching hits like Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy, American Horror Story, and basically anything true crime.

And then we drop a nice surprise for our listeners (and future listeners) so keep your ears open and be ready to have some fun soon!

Oh, and SHOUT OUT TO CON ARTIST for being the FIRST PERSON to email us. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You deserve a freakin’ prize!

A small, so inexpensive, yet very heartfelt prize.

By the way: if you’re wondering whether it’s bingeing or binging (tomato, tomahhhto), the online dictionary says the word can be spelled both ways, so we just picked the one that looks less wrong. Seriously. Neither looks right so what are you supposed to do.

Check out the Riffing and Bingeing episode to find out which shows we recommend or just simply love to bits! Go on over to  iTunes/Apple Podcasts, SpotifyOvercast, Libsyn, Pocket CastsStitcher or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Then all you need to do is 1) subscribe 2) download and 3) listen! AND!!! 4) If you enjoy what you hear, please leave a rating and a review (pretty please?). The more subscribers and reviews we get, the more opportunities we get to grow this podcast and bring you richer content.

And don’t forget to follow us here at themuglytruth.com (click that blue WordPress Follow button on the right side of your screen) so you get notifications every time we post an episode blog! You can also follow The Mugly Truth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

© The Mugly Truth 2018 and © The Mugly Truth Podcast 2018. All rights reserved.
Intro and outro music, “Clever as a Fox”  by Espresso Music through premiumbeats.com
Location photo by Kimberly Sickel, @riverdeer at 500px