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Raised By Her Podcast
Raised By Her is a mother–daughter podcast exploring the lessons, love, and lived experiences passed down through generations. Hosts Ro Nita and Donnica share honest, intergenerational conversations about womanhood, identity, family, and leadership - and the wisdom we inherit (and sometimes challenge).
Part humor and all heart, Raised By Her is a reminder that every generation has something to teach—and that the stories that raise us continue to shape who we become.
Raised By Her Podcast
Thanksgiving Traditions, Family Stories & Wicked Movie Review | Raised By Her
Thanksgiving stories, Wicked Part Two, and why The Wizard of Oz still hits in 2025 — we’re covering it all on this episode of Raised By Her. 💚🦃✨
This week, Ro Nita and Donnica open with a cozy (and hilarious) look at Black family Thanksgiving traditions: fried vs. smoked turkey, mac & cheese rules (Velveeta is banned 😅), how grandmothers cooked everyone’s favorite dish, and the emotional weight of hosting. They also talk honestly about navigating holidays after loss and preparing for “that one relative” who brings chaos every year.
Then we dive into a rich, emotional breakdown of Wicked Part Two, The Wizard of Oz, friendship, identity, and “otherness.” Ro Nita shares memories of watching The Wizard of Oz as a child on a black-and-white TV, while Donnica explores why the Wicked universe still resonates: the politics of Oz, how fear is used for control, and what it means to stand in your truth when misunderstood.
We also unpack:
- Why Thanksgiving can be beautiful and hard when you’re grieving
- How to set boundaries and protect your peace
- What Oz represents (the “perfect place” vs. joy in the journey)
- How adulthood can still make room for play and creativity
- Why so many women see themselves in Elphaba and Glinda
If you’ve ever felt like the “different one,” navigated shifting friendships, or tried to hold both gratitude and grief this season, this episode is for you. 💛
⏱ Timestamps:
0:00 – Welcome back & Thanksgiving hosting check-in
0:35 – Our favorite Thanksgiving dishes (and mac & cheese crimes 😂)
3:10 – The wildest Thanksgiving recipes we’ve heard
4:20 – Grandma’s stuffing, oyster dressing & big family traditions
5:00 – Kentucky trips, hunting season & childhood memories
6:30 – Hosting out of love vs obligation
7:10 – Beautiful dishes, no dishwasher & Black women making holidays happen
8:10 – Holidays, grief & handling stress
8:40 – How to deal with that relative at Thanksgiving
9:15 – A hilarious text strategy to avoid being asked for money
10:40 – Happy Thanksgiving & well wishes
10:47 – Our Wicked Part Two movie date: first reactions
11:20 – Why we still love the original Wizard of Oz
12:00 – Why this story keeps getting retold (Oz, The Wiz, Wicked)
13:30 – Professors, Oz, and what keeps this story timeless
16:00 – Wicked, friendship & how relationships evolve
17:30 – “Otherness,” confidence & accepting who you are
20:10 – Villain narratives, public perception & truth
22:20 – Fear, activism & why some people can’t “stay and fight”
24:10 – Real-life story: betrayal, apology & taking the higher road
27:20 – Vibrating higher vs staying stuck in hurt
28:01 – Why Wicked makes grown women cry in the theater
29:05 – Is there really a “place of happiness”… or is it the journey?
30:15 – Lion, Scarecrow, Tin Man or Dorothy – who are you right now?
31:00 – Using Oz as a metaphor for college, goals & adulthood
33:00 – Why this story still works in classrooms & culture
35:02 – Movie theaters, streaming life & “no place like home”
35:45 – The Wiz, soundtracks, and holiday music in the house
36:33 – What Oz represents to us now
37:06 – Reimagining adulthood so play still exists
38:16 – Are you still playing as an adult?
39:18 – Full-circle mother–daughter moment & closing reflections
🎤 New episodes every week. Honest conversations between mother and daughter on family, womanhood, and navigating life across generations.
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Welcome back to Raise by Her. Feel free to like and subscribe. It is Thanksgiving weekend. It is. Or week, I should say. We still have some prep to do. We do. We do. Or you do, because you're hosting.
SPEAKER_01:I am. This is my year to host. You have hosted for the past two years. So I've been grateful. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, you but you enjoy hosting. I mean, you you're ready for it.
SPEAKER_01:I I'm getting ready for it.
SPEAKER_00:Getting ready for it. Yes. So what are your favorite sides? Or like what's your favorite dish, I guess, for Thanksgiving?
SPEAKER_01:Um, well, I always like yams, any kind of yams. So whether they uh sweet potatoes or east. Sweet well, sweet potatoes and yams. Both okay. But the the same kind of uh brown sugar and all the fixings that go into it. A lot of cinnamon and have you heard of butter.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Oh, you you you're nodding like it's okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, yes, there they are. That is a trend. Uh it tastes okay. Some people put some people put marshmallows on top and brown them uh as a part of the the dish. Some people use uh pecans.
SPEAKER_00:I mean it's it's when I see that I refuse to eat it. You don't like marshmallows? Not on my sweet potatoes or yams.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay. I'll have to remember that. Let me see that. Yes, I I can't.
SPEAKER_00:You're not subjecting me to it.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, no. Um and I I really like this cranberry salad that has a lot of things uh mixed in, and that was one of your dad's favorites to uh the cranberry salad. And it has uh crushed pineapple and it has um chopped celery and it's made with jello. And um, so you know, it's kind of cool that. And of course, the turkey and the dressing, salad and yams are what you go to.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, but turkey is so like my favorite's fried turkey.
SPEAKER_01:As soon as I had the fried turkey, I was like, Oh, I know that's I know my brother fixed fixed it that was one time. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Your brother might told it one time, and I'm addicted.
SPEAKER_01:It was good.
SPEAKER_00:So um my husband's now smoking turkeys though, and so um he did that last year and it was good too. So I was like, okay.
SPEAKER_01:So that's what we're going to have because he said he was bringing the turkey.
SPEAKER_00:So well, he wanted to do um or is going to do two different turkeys because he, you know, the different flavors and injecting the different spices.
SPEAKER_01:Husband loves to cook as well.
SPEAKER_00:So uh you will have two turkey options.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, all right. That sounds good.
SPEAKER_00:And I always always take salmon because we have folks that don't uh necessarily eat um poultry and good stuff, like the mac and cheese, the grill.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I am making the mac and cheese. I'm I'm making like you. I am I'm well crazy. You're asked you asked me what I liked. Well, you know. Yeah, yes, because um we have mac and cheese a lot, so that's not just a Thanksgiving dish.
SPEAKER_00:Uh I feel like that's one of the most popular though, right? Like people think about the mac and cheese, then they are saying.
SPEAKER_01:I use I use different kinds of cheese when I do the mac and cheese. That's important. And so uh so I'm fixing. And what are you fixing to bring for Thanksgiving dinner?
SPEAKER_00:Well, actually, before I get into that, I wanted so I was at a conference um earlier this week, and so we were talking about Thanksgiving dishes, and I heard some troubling things.
SPEAKER_01:Um, about the dishes?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, because you know, so we're talking about our favorite dishes and what people do. And when you bought a we were talking about mac and cheese, somebody said that they use Velveeta.
SPEAKER_01:Oh no.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Oh and I had a it's not real cheese. It it snowed on my face. They were like, what? And I was like that. That was not the worst thing I heard. Somebody said that what they really enjoy about their Thanksgiving is the stuffing. I was like, oh well, tell me more about your stuffing. And they put egg in it. You heard me right. They put egg in it like you have like egg and like fried rice and stuff.
SPEAKER_01:So are they using it as um the maybe to help to put the egg in it?
SPEAKER_00:I've stopped listening after they told me that. I was like, I don't think that this conversation can just maybe it helps the bond.
SPEAKER_01:It helps the bread. I'm just trying to think it's foolish. Was it a recipe? Did you ask about the recipe?
SPEAKER_00:I wasn't interested in hearing any more from that woman after she told me that she puts eggs in her stuffing.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So um your my great-grandmother, your great-grandmother, my grandmother did not put eggs in. No, but she always had oyster stuffing, and that was uh an absolute uh favorite of hers. But the grandchildren didn't necessarily like it, but we always had to taste a little bit of it. And so we talked about, well, yes, yes. I mean, you know, it's grandma, we're gonna um, but Thanksgiving's always been a really special time. Not only is it the sort of beginning of the winter season, but I remember as a child going to Kentucky, and your grandfather would be ready for hunting season. So all of my uncles and um my mom's uh brothers and they would all get together, and it was the beginning of hunting seasoned me a lot in um in Kentucky, and so they would have all these um hunting guns and all be piled in the car as we travel from Ohio to Kentucky for the Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like that's all and I know that I've had many a conversation with um some of the men in our family and my uncles and older cousins, but I I really just feel like it's only appropriate to hunt if you are going to, in fact, eat what you kill.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's what they did. Okay, yes, they were they were hunting rabbits and um squirrels and pheasants and come back. Uh I don't know. I I I don't remember eating I don't think you were alive actually at that particular time. So I so you didn't, yeah. They didn't have the critical knees. Yes, no, no, you didn't, uh yeah, at that particular time, but uh but pheasant and I mean it was like a fun male bonding activity that I remember from from dad and everyone. So I think about that too. And then um my grandmother was up all night cooking and she had some of everything. So when you talk about meals and when you talk about what it is that families would eat, she had everybody's favorite, and you know, she had 11 kids, and then we had like bunch of the grandkids. And so things that we all said we liked, she would make sure that we had them at Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00:She enjoyed it. She did. Okay, that's good because I hear I hear mixed reviews. I hear some people do it out of obligation um because they know that's what their family wants and they want to show up in that way, but they find it to be exhausting and hard work on top of everything else we're doing in life. Um, or folks, like you just mentioned, really enjoy it, but it's one spectrum or the other. And so when I hear people talk about hosting Thanksgiving and all that they do, my my response is some version of that's amazing. I hope that you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I know that your um your great-grandmother enjoyed it, and I believe your grandmother enjoyed it as well because they liked preparing for the family, they liked entertaining, they liked doing all the different things, the preparations. And Grandma Jones, your great-grandmother, um, liked using all of her dishes. And because she had beautiful dishes, she worked for uh wealthy um white families, and they would give her their sets of dishes, and she would then bring them home and she would use them for her family. But she we didn't have dishwashers way back then, so we would all have to wash all the dishes. But the tables were beautiful, the dishes were beautiful.
SPEAKER_00:But that's probably how they stayed kept for all these years because they had yeah, the hand washing and yeah, the the violence of a dishwasher.
SPEAKER_01:Well call it the violence of a dishwasher. Dishwashers like progressive. Yes, well, I mean, in order the water, the water is is good, but really good times with cousins and and just the relationships and talking. And then there was football, football, football, football. And uh so that's kind of cool too.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, it's a big deal for us. We enjoy the holidays, but I also know the holidays are really stressful for a lot of people too. I mean, it's gonna be hard for us because we've had a lot of loss in our family. Yeah, and so um we it it's it's great, but it's also just hard.
SPEAKER_01:It is hard because you begin to think of the loved ones and uh as their favorite dishes and the fact that they are no longer um with us. Um and we also have to be able to adjust to change, and change is hard too. So that that's difficult. Stress. How do you handle stress? What is it that you're supposed to do? So there are a couple of uh, I don't know, suggestions that people make. Don't try to be perfect, just just go in and be you and do you, and also have a strategy for that relative that you know is going to cause some kind of controversy. Oh, yeah. You know, that will always bring up something inappropriate, or you don't know what they're going to say. So they just make sure you have a reaction already prepared. Like, you know, you may not want to get into that now or change the subject or whatever.
SPEAKER_00:I heard this really funny antidote on social media. So um obviously everyone's preparing for Thanksgiving. And so an uncle sent uh this text message to the family chat and said, Hey, this is just a really challenging time. Um, if you all can, would you mind sending me some money? And so the person who was writing this for he didn't specify. Oh okay. I just wondering, okay, I guess it's a question I've asked. Okay. But this person um so then reached out uh separately to his uncle and was like, hey, um, I understand. Send me your bank information, I'll send you something. And he was like, Oh no, no, no, I just sent that to everybody so they wouldn't ask me for anything. I'm really good.
unknown:Oh no.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So I mean, in in your spirit of different strategies, I guess it's just works for you, you know, you're he came up, he came up with his strategy for him.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow. That's like okay, all right. So that's a little different.
SPEAKER_00:It was different. It's probably why it caught my attention.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, I wonder if he's gonna show up.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I think so. And I probably nobody will ask him for anything. I think it's it might work. Maybe maybe this person will post an update. Okay, okay, but that's good.
SPEAKER_01:That's very interesting.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I thought so.
SPEAKER_01:But uh anyway, we're looking forward to to getting together.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so happy Thanksgiving to everybody.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, happy Thanksgiving, and may you travel safely and enjoy family and friends and just have a blessed day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, have a blessed day. So this weekend, we were both really excited to go see Wicked. Yay!
unknown:Yay!
SPEAKER_00:And how did you like it?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I loved it. I loved it. It was wonderful. Agreed. Yeah, it was well done, it was well thought out, it the characters are strong. I was not happy last year when we got to a certain point, and then stay tuned for a year. No, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00:I mean I wonder if they shot it all at the same time.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, I don't know the answer. I don't know the answer to that. But what did you like most about it?
SPEAKER_00:I really, really enjoyed it, but I actually like the first one better. Really? Yeah. I mean, but it's like, you know, if I had to rank it on a scale of one to ten, I would give the first one a 10 and the second one a nine. Okay. So I mean, it just um, but I mean, I enjoyed the music, I enjoyed um the storytelling. I don't think I I've ever seen Wicked on um on the stage, like in theater. So this is the story was all somewhat new to me. I I, of course, have watched The Wizard of Oz several times. Um, but I know Wicked's a bit of a different story, and so I didn't quite know what to expect. Um, and we won't do any spoilers, of course. Right. But um, it was just it was an excellent continuation of the themes that I think resonated with so many of us in that first one, and they concluded it nicely.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you mentioned the Wizard of Oz, and uh, as you know, that is my favorite fairy tale story of all time of all times. And when I had an opportunity to understand what wicked was going to be about, I wasn't sure I was really interested because it's focused on the wicked witch of the West. And so in the original Wizard of Oz, we're focused on the characters and Dorothy and Hoda. Dorothy, yeah, yes, trying to get back home uh to Kansas and the Scarecrow and the Lion and the Tin Men and their relationship and their friendship. So that whole storyline that was created was one that just really resonated with me as a child for some particular reason. I don't know exactly why, but I do know that it was a big deal when it would come on television, black and white TV, on a little small TV screen, and uh it was Sunday nights, and they would advertise it, and it was just something that I looked forward to as a little girl, and we just really got into the got into the storm.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like there's been a really nice continuation of the core of that story, because you have like the Wizard of Oz, and then you have The Whiz, and then you have Wicked. There might be some other ones that I don't even know about, but I just each are related to the same core um storylines, but are told in a very different way.
SPEAKER_01:You're right. I had a chance to attend a seminar online, a Zoom seminar from my college. They sent out this invitation for alums who really like uh The Wizard of Oz and wanted to talk about the storyline and what's happening now with uh with Wicked. And so there were six professors uh who gave their perspective of why it is still now all these years left.
SPEAKER_00:That's an elective, I would take. Well, yes.
SPEAKER_01:So I could go back in many years. But the the uh representatives were from various departments, uh, communications, of course, theater, of course, women's studies, uh, black um black history, black studies. Um so all of the different professors were talking about why this storyline has made it throughout uh the decades. Uh and so originally it was written in the um the early 1900s and as the the wizard of oz. And then the storyline then became uh the movie in uh I think it was in 1930 something. And so, and then it went on to the other generations and that that you talked about. So they were talking the professors were talking about going from the book and then going to stage and then going to screen and why it's important to develop the characters in a certain way. So, do you remember who the Dorothy character was in um in the movie of The Wizard of Oz?
SPEAKER_00:The oh god, the Wizard of Oz? No, no, this is way before my I should just say no.
SPEAKER_01:No, it's not Judy Garland, Judy Garland, Judy Garland, Judy Garland, and the names are recognized. Okay, and uh it was one of the starring roles that that she had because she really did Dorothy justice. She killed it, she killed it, and so uh and and she she had a beautiful voice, and so it it all worked. My favorite song, one of my favorite songs, is of course Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it really, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And that came I didn't realize that it came from the Wizard of Odd, didn't make that connection for a number of years. I just always really loved the song, and so the the storyline just really renated with generation after generation after generation.
SPEAKER_00:Are you adding new favorite songs uh from now that we've seen the totality of this new Wicked? Because I feel like this the songs were incredible.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Um, in addition to the the singers and the actresses, but I mean the particularly in those last this latest one, um, whatever that last song was about like friendship and everything, I it was just so powerful. But that was my favorite theme of Wicked overall, I think was what what is that favorite theme? It was um the storytelling of friendship and how complicated friendship it can be and how it can evolve over time. And then, you know, you go through changes and the other person goes through changes, but there's still like connection points. And just I was like, oh, that's that's real.
SPEAKER_01:It's real, and it is one of what they call the subtitles of what has really resonated from the very beginning with the Wizard of Oz, all the way through the storylines, because the relationships that the characters had to each other were special relationships, and also the insecurities that the characters had came through with the various um during the various generations as well. But then being able to now have Wicked, where you're talking about strictly the female relationships and the challenge of good and evil is a part of the theme.
SPEAKER_00:And what truly is good and what truly is evil.
SPEAKER_01:And where does it come from?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, if you think about the storyline for those who have seen Wicked and a little bit, we don't, yeah, we don't want to spoil it, but but just really thinking about how the characters developed and what their connection was. And in spite of real life situations that happened with women and female characters at the very end, it was just well done.
SPEAKER_00:And then also the road to developing your confidence. Like one of my favorite things at the end of the first wicked was that very last song and that moment where oh no, her name just escaped me.
SPEAKER_01:The green woman with the wish Alphaba?
SPEAKER_00:Alphaba. Um, Alphaba kind of came into her own and then flew away at the very end. Not this last one we saw, but the very first Wicked. Um, and that song about kind of finding your confidence and growing into who you are, and this is who I am, and I am me, and it is what it is. I was like, yes, work.
SPEAKER_01:And the fact that some individuals turned on her and who she thought really cared about her, individuals who had come into her life and her existence, and going to Oz was going to be able to make her life so much better. And yet, that's not what happened at the end of the first one.
SPEAKER_00:And oh man, that's just so relatable, though. Like you have this goal, you have this thing that you've been working for and like fighting for for a really long time. You get there and you're like, oh, this is not what I thought it was.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, I've got to pivot. And and actually the uh the professors on the um seminar that I that I talked to indicated that what was so great about her character, Cynthia You can just call her Cynthia.
SPEAKER_00:I don't remember that.
SPEAKER_01:The verbal. No, okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:You just call her Cynthia. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he will have to help. Um but her her character was strong, but it represented what the professor said was otherness. It's like it you are who you are, but you're not like everybody else. You can be uh different, and your otherness can be what sets you apart. But what makes you special, what makes you unique, what makes you move into those areas that you really need to develop in yourself. And people just have to accept you for that after you have accepted yourself, and that's what that scene that you described, I think, represents.
SPEAKER_00:Or not, and that's okay too.
SPEAKER_01:What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00:Was the wicked witch of the west ever really accepted? No. Again, no spoilers, but but it was still okay. Her her very best friend accepted her. Yes, yes, her best friend accepted her. But literally the rest of the world. You know, they had their own reactions. But I was but again, what I said was that but that was okay. At least from my perspective, it's okay.
SPEAKER_01:It was meaningful, but she was created to be, I think, a character that represents you being the best who you are, regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of what people are thinking about you. That's what I believe.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I think we're saying the same thing because what I what I'm hearing you say is that like what other people think can be a factor, but it's not the main determinant of yeah, your own confidence in your own life. And that's that was my point. Like, yes, her best friend accepted her, but the rest of the world didn't accept her, but that was okay.
SPEAKER_01:Someone was creating also this false image of her. The madam character was just making sure that there was that reaction. Yes, because what she said, the madam character, um, she said, Well, you have to have an evil for the good to be for the good to be there. So, so the good witch Glenda needed to have the other side. And that was a moment of kind of realization because Glinda didn't want to be known in that way because of her best friend. But at the end of the day, for that moment, she had to accept that.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, she didn't have to, but she she had she was on her journey.
SPEAKER_01:As women are.
unknown:As women are.
SPEAKER_00:As women are. Yeah, she had choices to make, yes, as we do.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and and then they had the very interesting uh love relationship, which which was created, I think, in a whole different kind of way.
SPEAKER_00:Now that wasn't a part of the original Wiz Wizard of Oz, and yet it was a storyline that people Yeah, I think people related it, you know, and I realized movies only like two, only two and a half hours, which is a long movie. Both were long, but I did feel the length of each of them. Um, but she got she got over that that male um piece in the second one uh faster than I think probably a lot of folks would have.
SPEAKER_01:You're saying it would probably take a woman a little longer to be able to, you know, 15, 20 minutes to get over the recovery from the situation. Yes, yeah. So but all in all, when we think about not only what wicked is, uh it's very relevant to our political situation today because of the characters that were taking place in and the conflict that was taking place in Oz, and you have talking animals, and you have all of the different individuals who were trying to come together and make sure that they were all protected in a certain way. And yet, politically there was a split, and it was just a really well-done conflict in the midst of everything.
SPEAKER_00:And I felt like that discussion around uh fear was a real one too, when the animals were saying, you know, we're maybe this is a quick spoiler, but like, you know, we're out and they're having a conversation with Alphaba, who's like, you know, you have to stay and fight. And they were like, We get it. Maybe that's like a you thing, that's not an us thing, because of like where we are, what our past experiences are. I'm like, that's just it's a conversation I hear, obviously, not in that way, but again, the theme resonates because fear is a real thing that people deal with.
SPEAKER_01:And being able to understand why the other person was fearful, that was what Ephoba was trying to do. She was trying to make sure that they made you scared, they created the situation for you to be scared, but you don't have to be because, because, because.
SPEAKER_00:And it's worth it to fight.
SPEAKER_01:It is worth it to fight. And then we had the the Oz character who was who that's why I said it's just very relevant today in terms of how people manipulate the story and the storyline and how people say what it is they need to say at a given time just to be able to get the support that they need. And yet, at the end of the day, you really know deep down inside what's going on if you can get that far.
SPEAKER_00:Do you have a story from your personal life that you feel like you were like, oh, this is why this resonates in this way? Like, regardless of whether it's the Oz or it's the Madam or the best friends relationship?
SPEAKER_01:What I've learned in my years of sort of going through life is if you show up who you are and you do the right thing, regardless of what other people are doing, at the end you feel better. I I do have a person that I worked with um who was actually one of my high school teachers. And then later, when I was a producer of television shows, I chose him to be the host of a TV show that I was doing. And the show um was actually in I was working for the public television station then and it went national. And then my host decided that he wanted to be um more of a star. And so he stopped following uh directions. He decided he was going to do it in the way that he wanted to do it, and he really turned on me and uh the way that we had developed the show. Years later, another situation. Um I got a phone call from him and he wanted uh some tickets to a concert, and all the tickets were sold out for his granddaughter. And that was the first time that he he said to me, Um, I know that uh we didn't end well, and I apologize. Yeah, really. Um but this is what I need. If you don't give them to me, I understand. Oh I understand. And I said, No, um, I will give I'll give you tickets for your granddaughter to be able to go to this this concert. And I appreciate the fact that you did apologize, but um it was it was a difficult situation, and I carried it much longer than I should have. I carried it for years because it was a prominent individual, but it hurt me to my heart that he he turned on me.
SPEAKER_00:But I mean that's that's real. That's that, yeah, yeah, that's life. I mean, I often talk about the fact that you vibrate higher because I don't know if I would have had he would have had to find his tickets for his granddaughter somewhere else.
SPEAKER_01:I had several people what when I say, guess who called me and uh and apologized for what he put me through? And they they said, Well, what did you do? And I said, You know what I did. And they go, Yeah, we know what you did. You know what you did. But you didn't have a phone call, and I would have gone straight to voice. No, no, no. We we we get to a point in life in your 70s. Oh, no. At that point, I was in my 50s. But where you really want to resonate at a higher level because you know it didn't take anything away from me. It truly did not take anything away from me to say, Yes, I can do this for you. And I know it took a lot for him all those years later. He remembered though. I used to wonder, do you remember what you did?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, to even know what you did. Yeah, yeah, it impacted.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes. I don't know if he knew how it impacted, but he he knows what he did. And uh, but the fact that it happened, and then I was able to tell some folks who were around me then and still around in my life, and they go, Wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I was right, yeah. I I just meet blasting like she just she just vibrates higher.
SPEAKER_01:I work on being enlightened here, I'm like very nice.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes, yes, yes. So there there are stories, but that's okay. You know, it's it's all good. Ultimately, it is yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I just um I think so many people in that uh theater with us, like the the movie ended and there was just like silence and sniffles. Um because I just it's just so relatable across the board. And so thank you for sharing that story. Um and it's just a cool movie. I'm glad that a good movie came out because I think as I've complained on previous episodes, that I feel like it it's sometimes tricky to find really good content and I'm constantly on search for it.
SPEAKER_01:So I And it was good for families because uh in the movie theater there were families there, fathers and daughters and sons, and there were teenagers there, and then there were grown women who were friends. And so I think it it's across the board. I want to know what you think Oz represents.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, what do I think Oz represents?
SPEAKER_01:Oz the place.
SPEAKER_00:Oz the place. I don't know. I'd have to give it some some real thought. That's not something that I've I've thought about in depth. So I can't um off the top of my head, I can't give you that answer.
SPEAKER_01:It's generally where people want to go in their life. They sort of think they want to get to Oz because this place is going to make us happy. We're gonna follow that yellow brick road and we're going to ultimately get to happiness. But the storyline says that what you ultimately decide to do is you find your own happiness. And she goes back home. Dorothy goes back home, and you know, she she finds her.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that's interesting. I don't know. I can see why people would say that. I don't know if at this point in my life I would have come up with that because I don't know that I think that there's a place of happiness. I think that there are goals that you can achieve and um it can provide for you whatever it is you're searching for, like in your in your life. But um, like I mentioned before, will that make you happy? I don't know. You know, does anybody really know? But one of the things that I know I try to focus on, in addition to the goals, is like trying to enjoy the the journey part of it. Because if you don't hit the goal until your 70s, 80s, 90s, I just think it would be really a difficult thing to to look back and be like, oh, that was so awful. I mean, I got to where I wanted to go, but and
SPEAKER_01:And so what the professors uh indicated uh when when they were talking about that is that that is ultimately what they believe that the original author uh of the the book um Frank Bond was uh trying to do. He was really trying to say exactly what you just said. Like it's the journey of life and it's the people that you met, and everybody is searching for something. So whether you're the lion and you're trying to get your courage, or whether you're the tin man and you're trying to get your heart, or whether you're Dorothy and trying to get home, or whether you're the scarecrow, I mean, each of the characters always was trying to get someplace, and there were always obstacles, which is what the wicked witch of the West represented.
SPEAKER_00:Which character do you identify the most with at this point in your life? Scarecrow, lion, twin man, Toto.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I I think I I represent the um the ultimate goal of uh Dorothy still trying to find how she can help because she was willing to help each of the other characters to get to get to Oz. Because the wizard was going to truly solve all of the problems. So I I I think probably Yeah, no, I can sit down.
SPEAKER_00:There's no right answer.
SPEAKER_01:Well, no, right, and I feel like for each person, each person of life. Right. Um because I love the the storyline so much, there was a project you did in high school where you used the uh Wizard of Oz theme, probably by my suggestion. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:I'm sure it was.
SPEAKER_01:Um, and you remember that at all or uh uh vaguely.
SPEAKER_00:Okay yeah, vaguely. You you probably remember it so much better than I do.
SPEAKER_01:Well, only because it was uh about the the journey through high school and then going on to college and being able to understand what college was going to represent for you. And so you needed to do something that illustrated uh your next steps uh in life. You needed to do something that was going to uh encourage you and be able to sort of tell a story to those individuals that you were uh who had given you the assignment. And so I suggested you take that uh particular theme and put a display together and and you did.
SPEAKER_00:I wonder if other people have done that because it's such a powerful story that hits on so many different notes. Um and you had the thought, and I kind of feel like if one person has the thought, uh, other people probably have the thought too. So I just wonder if other people have incorporated the Wizard of Oz into or Wicked or The Wiz, um, into their own projects, whether it's high school or college. CHD, I mean like the the themes are are deep and complex.
SPEAKER_01:They are, and um that is absolutely what we discussed um when in in the seminar. Yeah, this was um the the program was for anybody and everybody who wanted to uh to really tune in and to talk about it, but that's what the professors talked about. Uh and they talked about the fact that yes, there have been um many individuals who have explored it. There are lots of books that are out. Uh I wrote a paper when I was in college. Oh.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. What's like what what piece of the the story did it focus on? Do you remember?
SPEAKER_01:No, I don't. Sorry, I don't know I don't and I actually wished that I could have found the paper. I'm sure it's in some box somewhere. It should. Um, but uh one of the reasons why I I believe I wanted to do that was because I love the storyline so much and I could feel the fact that it was meaningful, but I'm not sure I I remembered exactly why. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think I would have listened to the wicked um soundtrack on repeat this week. It's just that good. I think I did that after the first one too, particularly that last song. And again, now now this last song, this last uh version, I'm gonna listen to that RP.
SPEAKER_01:That one made me cry because it made me um miss my my uh dear sister friend, you know, son. And and so yeah. So it was good.
SPEAKER_00:It was it was good.
SPEAKER_01:It was just wonderful.
SPEAKER_00:So we left the theater happy and ran into people who um we knew, which wasn't a surprise because I think the theaters are playing it like every 15 calm day all the road.
SPEAKER_01:Are there other movies playing now during the well normally during the Thanksgiving season, they have a couple of blockbusters that they uh yeah that they will introduce and promote and market, but uh we weren't really interested in some of those.
SPEAKER_00:No, you know, I don't really or we don't really um go to the movies that often anymore. It has to be a real reason, like a wicked, that we don't just wait until it comes to streaming and watch it at home with our own food and our own comfort, and we can bring our dog and you know, like in all the it's just that I I can see how theaters might really be be struggling to and I and you know, we see how they have evolved. Yes, yes, uh yes, but still there's no place like home.
SPEAKER_01:Well, um, I did read that uh The Wizard of Oz is um being um not only watched more than uh any other movie that came out back in 1939, but uh they're still making money on it too. And the Wiz is currently um on a national tour. So, you know, stay tuned in your local city because they can go see the Wiz, which is a more cultural approach to the whole storyline as well.
SPEAKER_00:So the whiz is everything.
SPEAKER_01:So um, so move on down, move on down, move on down there sound attractive. I'm yeah, I'm just racking them up. I know, I know. So so we're gonna have a great Thanksgiving listening to that music and and being able to write you are big on playing music when it looks like into your home.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. It's something that I I do as well now, and it's it just it sets the tone, sets the mood.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it does, it puts you in, I think, a certain spirit. And having been in radio, of course, you know, I love music anyway. But um, and I just I think it uh allows you to move into another place quickly. You may get there, but this will help you get there quicker. So um, so I I think that's that's good. Awesome. Soundtracks, movies, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Anything else on our wicked experience 2025?
SPEAKER_01:I think that um for me, I'm going to not only listen to somewhere over the rainbow, but I'm also going to just take a moment to just reflect on all the different phases and stages, stages that I've had a chance to experience over the years. Because here I am in my 70s, really loving that storyline and impact that it's had in my life. And just to be able to think, wow, and they're still making it. So that's a pretty cool experience. And my childlike side is really enjoying that. So I just encourage you and everyone else to get in touch with that child side, that creative side, and just enjoy the moments.
SPEAKER_00:Does it have your child side though? I feel like it could be your adult side.
SPEAKER_01:It could be your adult side.
SPEAKER_00:Adults play. Not enough. Not enough, but they do. They do. I just I hear a lot of people talking about like getting back to like the child, and I was like, I understand the sentiment behind it, but I also really like the idea of just reimagining what adulthood can look like. Instead of like saying go back to being a child, just you know, evolve into the more playful, um, the more spirited, whatever your idea of being a child is, just incorporate that into um your adulthood. And so it's not going back to being a child, it's just reimagining what your adulthood is.
SPEAKER_01:That's an excellent, excellent way to look at it. And if you can really make sure that you do that, you encourage those around you too, to to play more and to experience more and to really touch that deep down inside your soul, that that creative child side. That's good. Yeah. So all right, I'm gonna see you want to want to see you do that.
SPEAKER_00:Let me be really specific about what that looks like. But I think the last time you were asking me about playing in the snow, and I was like, we have you know, that just came to mind, but I wasn't gonna say anything.
SPEAKER_01:I wasn't gonna put you out there, but yes, yes, specific in my play. So okay, so I will be asking you in the future how have you been playing? And and it'll look like what is it?
SPEAKER_00:And I'll be asking you the same question. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:So I can I can answer. Yeah. Yeah, you know, because I'm I'm all well there. I am.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you are.
SPEAKER_01:I am, so that's good.
SPEAKER_00:Um yes, well, thank you so much for doing the recap with me. It was an excellent movie, and I love being able to watch it with you and then get all of your perspectives.
SPEAKER_01:My my baby girl, because I went back to when you were a little girl and we first watched it together. You wouldn't remember that because I was a little girl. But things came out on videos, so you didn't have to wait till a Sunday night when it was. It was, yes, yes. But then I told you all the stories about how mommy really just enjoyed that. So I was able to now, years later, re-experience it with you at the movie theater. So that was awesome. I love that for us as well.
SPEAKER_00:All right. Well, if you enjoyed this episode, please feel free to like and subscribe. And we look forward to talking to you again next week. Bye.
SPEAKER_01:Take care. Bye bye.
