The Birds in The Wildflowers, The Alien Void, & The Blockbusters

This week we have a VERY special guest: Valerie's cat, Gromy! He makes his official podcast debut! Keep an ear out for his tiny little chirp, you really don't want to miss it.

Trigger Warning: This episode includes a discussion about the death of baby birds. If you'd rather skip that part, you can jump from 15:00–21:00.

This week, we're catching up after Laurel's family visit. Her brother and his family came all the way from Colorado, and it was such a nice time together. We swap stories from their visit before getting into one of the sweetest (and saddest) moments of the week.

Laurel shares the story of finding two baby birds that had fallen from their nest and were being attacked by ants. She tried everything to help them, but sadly their injuries were too severe. She talks about how she gave them a gentle goodbye and by placing them in a little leaf boat, covering them with flowers, and sending them down a creek and giving them their final blessing. We like to think they ended up somewhere peaceful, surrounded by wildflowers.

Things lighten up a bit when Laurel tells Valerie about Point Nemo, something she learned about from her son…before that? She had no idea this place even existed. We get into all the wild facts about the most remote place on Earth and Laurel comes to what she feels is the only reasonable conclusion: it has to be an alien headquarters. Valerie is fully on board with Laurel…this time.

Then we head to Hollywood, where Valerie talks about taking the boys to see The Odyssey, why she loved it, and why she thinks it's definitely headed for awards season. That leads into a chat about all the movies we're excited for, including Laurel completely losing it over Practical Magic 2. If you've been listening for a while, you already know Practical Magic isn't just her favorite movie...it's basically her personality and the entire structure of her being.

As always, thanks so much for hanging out with us this week. If you liked the episode, please like, comment, subscribe, and leave a review wherever you listen.