S1 Ep22: Bunny in a Tuxedo
FS 5Astonishing LegendsMar 25, 2025
Summary
In this episode, Taylor recounts a surreal family legend involving a giant, tuxedo-clad bunny rabbit encountered by her mother and later by herself. The strange sightings raise questions about shared experiences, family secrets, or perhaps even paranormal phenomena. This bizarre tale invites listeners to ponder the uncanny and the nature of reality itself.
Key takeaways
- 1A childhood encounter with a giant, tuxedo-clad bunny rabbit in a friend's shower.
- 2Taylor's own sighting of a similar figure as a child.
- 3Possibilities of a family secret or shared hallucination.
- 4Questions about the nature of reality and uncanny experiences.
Source
▸Transcript
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But trust us, you're not. For over a decade, you've been sending your strange stories to Astonishing Legends. And now it's time for our fellow legenders to hear them too. Join us weekly in Blanket Fortiana as we dig through your intriguing messages to the Astonishing Dead Letter office. Tonight's episode, Bunny in a Tuxedo. This week's Dead Letter comes from Taylor, a listener since 2020, and it's a doozy. She shares a family story originating with her mother's childhood in 1960s New York that involves a bizarre but well-dressed, well, house guest. Bizarre is an understatement, my friend. We're talking about a story so strange it makes Bigfoot look like a garden gnome. All due respect to garden gnomes. We love them, so please no visits from any live garden gnomes. Yes, no visits from the gnomes. It begins with a seemingly ordinary detail, but the implications, well, those spiral into something truly unexpected. And then there's Taylor's own childhood memory. Yeah, a memory that echoes the story from her mother's past in a way that makes you wonder if some things are truly connected, and perhaps even across generations. Is it a family secret, or a shared hallucination, or something far more uncanny? Hi, Scott and Forrest. I've been listening since 2020, and you all are one of my absolute favorites. I really like the new Dead Letter episodes, and while listening to the Grimace in the Woods show, I was reminded of a weird story or anecdote my mom told me as a kid. So I asked her about it again to make sure I had the details correct. When my mom was young, six or so, she says that her best friend down the street had a giant man-sized bunny that lived in her parents' shower, and he wore a tuxedo. She said that they both saw him multiple times, and he spoke to them. She doesn't remember what he said, but he was friendly, and they weren't scared of him. This was in the mid-1960s in New York. My mom lived in Washingtonville, and they lived in a few houses that were very old, even back then. A house they lived in when my mom was a teen had a lot of strange occurrences that could be seen as paranormal, and I can write in another day with all of those. But the Grimace story reminded me of my mom's story, which then reminded me of my own weird story. When I was roughly four, we lived in a two-bedroom apartment, just my parents and me. One night, while laying in my bed trying to fall asleep, I distinctly remember looking through my bedroom door into the hallway and seeing a man dressed as a large bunny walking past my door into my parents' room. Now, I know what you're thinking. This could have been my dad or my mom, for some reason I'd rather not think too hard about, dressed as a bunny. Yet, I have told this story to my parents, and they deny that it was them. I think that it's weird that I saw this. I could have been dreaming, of course. But then I started thinking about my mom seeing a large, man-like bunny who spoke to her and her friend, and I just thought it was kind of a weird coincidence, and maybe it could be connected? Maybe. Probably not. I often thought maybe this large bunny that my mom and her friend saw was her friend's dad being a weirdo, or someone else in her family being a weirdo, but my mom swears it was a real bunny with fur and everything. The Grimmest story sparked my memory, and I just had to share it with you guys. Thanks again for the awesome entertainment and knowledge you guys provide. Taylor. I have a few questions that you may not be able to answer. I love this story, by the way. Oh, and by the way, something else I did not say. This came to us in 2025. This is the first of one of our new ones. This came in January of this year. So we wanted to let folks know, even though we got a lot of older stories to get through, this one was from just a few months ago. That's right. Mentioning how they liked the DLO. So glad to hear that. And it's getting its reach out there slowly, but surely. So, but thanks folks for the support and certainly send your stories in. We have a long ways to go with this. So anything is welcome. But in regards to this, yeah, I do have a few questions and comments. So just to clarify here, because I thought this was interesting about the story. So her mom, around six years old or so, she and her friend who lived down the street, they swear that there was a giant man-sized bunny that, well, he was found in the shower. I don't know if he lives in the shower. Well, the story says lived in the shower. He lived in the shower. I know. So it's her mom's best friend's house, which, you know, ostensibly, I think it's up the street or something, who knows. And this bunny lived in the shower and they saw him multiple times and spoke to him. Right, right. Okay. So that's an interesting aspect about this character, whatever it might be. And I'm sure the more bunkery types will say, like, it's always got to be a child's imagination. But I do firmly believe that children see things that are part of our unseen reality that are there because they haven't been told this is impossible yet. We often mention that. Everyone knows that. Dead relatives, whatnot, ghosts, spooks, bunnies, apparently. So this is a quite believable aspect if you're willing to believe in that, in that you have to be a child to tune that in. However, you could be Jimmy Stewart. And that is a terrible Jimmy Stewart impression, but you can be an adult sometimes. But if you are and you claim that, people think you're nuts. I lived next door to his nephew in New York. Oh, really? Oh, there you go. It was my next door neighbor. When Emily and I lived in New York, we had a place there on the Upper West Side while she was working at NBC. And our next door neighbor, the husband in the family, was Jimmy Stewart's nephew. Oh, really? Well, yeah, I'll bet. Our friend Harvey here. So the idea, though, is that, just to clarify, he's wearing a tuxedo. My first thought, of course, that flashed my mind hearing this story was the shining and the horrible visions there that Shelley Duvall was seeing. I won't go too far into that. People have obviously seen that. And that was a horrific man in a animal costume phantasmagoria. Yes. But this was nice. So that's what I like about this story. They weren't afraid of it. It spoke to them. I would love to know what it actually said to them. Yeah. If this wasn't just some child's imagination. I mean, it also could be, like I said, it's shared. So both kids saw it. That goes a long way. Yeah. And they could be making that up, I know. And it could be a shared folie à deux, envision kind of nonsensical childhood thing. And possibly, again, with the aspect, I mean, it was a child, though, of a tuxedo, really, except seeing that in the 60s, you probably saw a lot more of them on TV. And so that could be pop culture influenced, sure. Yeah. And then the connection here is that our author, roughly around four years old, sees or remembers seeing what she describes as a man dressed as a large bunny. Right. I mean, I'm parsing words here, but I want to get this correct. It's like now she's thinking, or maybe that's her imagination or what she perceives at that age, at that time of night, like, oh, that's got to be mom or dad or somebody, an adult dressed as a bunny going into the hallway and into their bedroom. Yeah. Which I like that aspect because it's like, the first thought is like, oh, it's a six foot tall bunny, of course. No. Right. It's got to be a human dressed or man. Yeah. And then I love that she says, quote, now I know what you're thinking. This could have been my dad or my mom, for some reason, I'd rather not think too hard about. So for all the folks out there who are going to email us and say, they're furries. But I just don't think that's what's going on here back in this day and age. And also, if you were, as a parent, like, if you're going to do that, I feel like you close the kid's door before you walk by. You know? Yeah. I don't, I'm not going there. Not in my mind. She didn't want to go there. I don't think we should go there. Just reasoning, though. But what I find curious about the letter is that, you know, she asked her parents, hey, was that any of you? And they, of course, denied it. But I do wonder, once she told her mom that that's what she saw, or it was asking that, if the mom made the connection of like, hey, is that the same rabbit that me and my friends saw when we were kids? Yeah. So there's not that detail. And maybe the mom didn't even want to bring that up because, you know, why stir up that bunny hatch nest? Why go down that rabbit hole and bringing it up to a four-year-old? So who knows if there was a connection or if it was just not thought of? Because I also believe you may not make that connection because that's another aspect of the paranormal of like, just from personal experience, there are things that I hadn't connected until years later. Like, oh, you know what? Maybe that was connected with this. Yeah. And it's just your mind not wanting to go there maybe, or you're just not thinking about it. So I thought that was fascinating, but this bunny didn't speak. And as far as I could tell, was not, it was seemed more of a costume perhaps, or that was the perception rather than as her mom described. No, this was a real rabbit with fur and it spoke to them. That's also interesting in that, no, to the kids, her mom and her friend, it wasn't someone in a costume speaking, it was actually a rabbit or a humanoid rabbit, but actually a physical rabbit with fur and just a well-dressed, well-heeled Tony. So if this is, let's say the mid-60s in New York, there are cultural and pop culture influences and film cinematic influences that could have informed this possibly as kids, although I'm not sure that kids would be watching it. But the other thing that came to mind, of course, was the motion picture Harvey with Jimmy Stewart. Right. And the, I'll just read the description here just from the wiki here. Harvey is a 1950 American comedy drama film based on Mary Chase's 1944 play of the same name, directed by Henry Coster and starring James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Charles Drake, Cecil Calloway, Jesse White, and a few other folks you're not going to remember. The story centers on a man whose best friend is a puka named Harvey, a six foot, three and a half inch, that's not precise, or 1.92 meters tall, white, invisible rabbit, and the ensuing debacle when the man's sister tries to have him committed to a sanatorium, which is generally what happens when you claim that you're in constant contact with an imaginary friend. However, I turned you on to this idea of the puka. Now, one of the first times I'd heard, let's say, in one of those ghost shows was in the show Spooked Ireland or Haunted Ireland. And it's a ghost hunting show. Really good, I thought. That's a great show. Right. And so created by Andrew Blackwell and Iona MacDonald with Vogue Williams, Chris Fleming, I think he's the psychic, Evelyn Hollow, we often talk about her, our good friend Gled has met her, and Ryan O'Neill. And so they have tremendous locations that are just gorgeous and spooky, and they always get a lot of great evidence. And I think that's one of the darker things that came up on an EVP for them that was some kind of shadowy, spectrally thing that was out in the brush and they got a bad vibe from and they asked it where it was. And I think the word that came back in the EVP was puka. But I had no idea until we just looked that up that that was what Jimmy Stewart was supposedly interacting with. And that entity from its wiki description here, the puka, Irish for spirit, ghost, plural puka, puka, old English for goblin, also different spellings, p-w-c-a, p-o-o-k-a-h and such, and just p-u-c-k, is a creature of Celtic, English, and Channel Islands folklore. Considered to be bringers of both good and bad fortune, they could help or hinder rural and marine communities, pukai can have dark or white fur or hair. The creatures were said to be shape changers that could take the appearance of horses, goats, cats, dogs, and hares. They may also take a human form, which includes various animal features such as animal ears or a tail. So that's fascinating here in that, I mean, this rings a lot of bells and checks off a lot of boxes here for a lot of entities we've heard about. One, the trickster aspect that can either hurt, hinder, or be neutral about you. Shapeshifters, skinwalkers as an aspect, including aspects of natural and more normal animals, but also, yeah, horses, goats, dogs, and rabbits. So I'd seen the film years and years ago as a young kid and hadn't since then, but I do wonder if that image had influenced the image of whatever specter or thing was in the shower. Yeah, that's a good question. And you wonder too, like there's a family connection here, which is always interesting to me. You wonder if there's something going on on a spiritual level that connects through the family or maybe even a, you know, I don't know, some kind of genetic predisposition to seeing things like this. That's another box check. There's often a family connection. These are generational experiences quite often. Something similar will pass down to a child or skip a generation. Talk about the shining. The grandmother has the shine and then it skips a generation and that psychic ability or whatever it is passes to the grandchildren. And as I mentioned earlier, P-U-C-K, well, you know that from Shakespeare, Puck. Yeah. So we know Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream. And we also know Puck from the real world San Francisco, 1994, for those of you that are old enough to have watched that. But here's the interesting thing about Puck and this whole idea and the Pucka, right? You said it's Irish. It's got Celtic roots in it. Okay. Right. And it's origin. So I just wanted to mention, and at this moment, I have an email out to Taylor who sent this email to us. And she had given us permission to use her first name. I'm still wondering if she's going to let us use her last name. I don't know. I just sent an email about it, but her last name is Nelson. And I wanted to point out that the surname Nelson is a patronymic name, meaning son of Nell or son of Neil, with roots in Irish and Gaelic. And it's an anglicized version of Scandinavian names like Nielsen, my favorite singer, and Nielsen, like the Nielsen ratings and other Nielsens, N-I-L-S-E-N. But it is a Scotch-Irish surname with Gaelic roots. Yeah. And there is a connection there that means for Taylor and possibly Taylor's family. Now, this is the thing. You know, we only just now figured this out as we were going to record some of these talking points about this particular dead letter. So I don't know if she's going to let us use her last name. If she doesn't, well, maybe we'll keep all this and bleep it out. But if she says it's okay, you know, we can just say, hey, it's a Gaelic rooted Scotch-Irish surname. Is there a generational family connection here to Puka? Right. And some reason that her family in particular is seeing this. However, the thing that I don't know about Taylor is she could be married and she may have taken her husband's name possibly here. Also. Might not be any connection. We might be making leaps, but we might be hopping to conclusions. Oh, very nice. Jump to conclusions. Hey, folks. So I'm picking up a little bonus audio here by myself because Forrest isn't in the studio right now. But we did hear back from Taylor before we had to publish the show. And this update is interesting. Taylor was fine with us using her last name, but it turns out Nelson is her married name. So you might be thinking, well, Scott, you were all wrong about the whole Scott's Irish Gaelic connection to the Puka thing. But you'd be wrong. Listen to these emails she sent us. Well, actually, my mother is half Irish, and my grandmother was very proud of her Irish ancestry and made it known to most that she was Irish. And then Taylor wrote that she decided to look up the Puka because she hadn't heard about that. And she wrote us an additional note, which said this. OK, so I just did a brief search about Puka, and it says they can possibly either bring good or bad fortune. When my mom was nine, just a few years after she would see this bunny, her father died suddenly at only 46. So that's pretty interesting to me. Could this have been a Puka, an ancient being? All right. So we're going to return now to our previously recorded discussion in Blanket Fortiana. Well, I do have some Nelsons in my family, but it's N-E-L-S-E-N. We've talked about this before. And the family lore, or I guess, well, it's a cultural aspect of that is that it's always said that if it's N-E-L-S-E-N, you're descended from Danish stock, which those members of my family are. Or if it's N-E-L-S-O-N, it's more Swedish. So yes. But of course, there's a lot of mixing and mingling. Of course, you know, Anglo-Saxon, you've got a mix of Germanic and Briton and just a big mishmash of who's taken over who. And French, of course, with the Normans. Let's not get into that much ancient history, but it's a mishmash. And I do believe, though, that some of those traditions are passed down. But why? What's the deal here with that shower and the rabbit? And of course, it's such an iconic thing. People are going to think of Donnie Darko, also with Puck. You're going to think of, or I did Puck Wudgie. So what are all the connections between all this folkloric stuff? Well, I would say your folklorist would say there's a lot of borrowing and things get blended and it's a big telephone game all the way down through the generations and the blending of cultures. But what is this? Is this an ancient entity that just likes kids, wants to talk to them? What's it saying to six-year-olds? But I will say the thing that makes me feel better is that I also think kids can tell, or it's that instinct thing of self-preservation. But of course, you know, kids are innocent and they're naive and they don't understand the motivations of twisted adults quite yet. And if you're raised like I was, you're raised to respect adults and anything that seems of authority. And so, yeah, you can easily get out of trouble. But I say this about people who, when they see something, it's like, I don't know if I should be, I don't know if that is the ghost of so-and-so that I should be welcoming or entertaining because it's really them. And how do you know? Because things can take other forms. Shape-shifting, as we just said. Spirits, I believe, can pass themselves off as other things and often do for a laugh or something sinister. And the only thing I've learned after all these years is that you generally get a gut sense of if something is right or kosher or okay, or sometimes it's neutral. We've heard a lot of stories where people say, like, I got no vibe really off of this thing. It was just there. Or sometimes it's good. It's an okay thing. So who knows? Again, I mean, you're talking about the recollections of children. But in this case, yeah, I'm just fascinated. Let's for a moment say that this thing was real. What was the purpose? What information does it have? What can it tell me? Or why is it there? Is it to entertain? Is something posing as a giant rabbit in a tuxedo? Because they thought, well, this will be fun and funny. It's interesting to me because the connection to this Gaelic lore and these ancient stories and like you said, the trickster and the Pukwudgie or the Pukwudgie, as I heard a Native American pronounce it once. Why are all these things cross-cultural? And they even have, in this case, the same consonants and vowels and it goes back so far on different continents. There's got to be something to that. And it's fascinating to me that, you know, if we keep seeing them and there doesn't always necessarily need to be a message or an idea. It's just like, you're going to see this as particularly if you're Irish or Scottish or whatever, or Native American, or your mind is opened to a particular form of spirituality. These are the kinds of things that you just see. Like when you go outside and you're that person that always sees the same bird over and over for some reason. Like maybe it's just part of your daily existence. These are just things that are there and too many of us aren't tuned into it. Yeah, I just wonder about, I think there's maybe an infinite, number of variations and appearances of these types of spirit beings or just spirit in general and entities. And it may be based a little bit on the perceiver, as we always say. It's like you have something that is posing as different things that is somehow related or more relatable to the viewer. So in this case, it's like our delightful guest who had the story from Maung-Yi on Rim. Yes. Remember in Arizona, it's like, okay, they just see a odd looking guy, I think in baseball camp, pretty normally dressed, old Davey outfit, you know, and they tell their Native friend, it's like, you saw Coyote. You saw the spirit. Or at least that's what they thought, just based on the description. It's like, well, it appeared as a normal dude, but with odd powers or gifts and in a very strange manner. But you wonder if that same being or entity appeared to a Native person 300 years ago, what would they have looked like? Or let's look at the connection possibly to the show that we had that got mentioned earlier here. It was our last show of 2024, the 10th episode of the Dead Letter Office, released on December 31st of 2024, called Grimacing in the Woods, the story that came from Libby, who wrote in because Libby, she had heard Terry Lovelace's story from the Devil's Den, where he was talking about tiny monkeys in his second book, Devil's Den, The Reckoning. And the monkeys that came into his room are dancing around. So he's seeing monkeys. Libby is seeing something that looks like a McDonald's character behind her house, Grimace. And then we have Taylor here seeing the bunny rabbit. There's an ongoing thing here. And I also think it's also a Terry Lovelace story about the two little girls who wandered off from the house because they saw a giant merry-go-rounder, a calliope, rotating in the back of their land, in the back of their farmland. And I also think about one of my favorite stories of all time that we've ever covered and lots of people have covered, when we had Rob Borfey on and we talked about Sam the Sandown Clown, which is like, I'm a clown. I've got this microphone. I'm very friendly and it's safe to talk to me. And it's not necessarily about pulling you in to scare you to death. It's about the recipient of the message and the filter that's coming. Because in both cases here in Taylor's story, Taylor's mom and her friend were little girls. And what can we see that's not going to scare the little girl to death? And then also Taylor herself was a young child. So all these children are seeing all of these things that don't seem threatening. Meanwhile, what do the adults see? The adults see Indrid Cold. He comes down in a lantern-shaped UFO that seems like a 1950s or 60s car, similar to what's on the road at the time, and gets out and is grinning from ear to ear and wearing a suit and a fedora that looks very right for the time. And smiling, which is a message of safety and happiness and don't be afraid, and says, do not be afraid. Is that just the adult version of the bunny, of the grimace, of the monkeys? Right. I mean, what do you think? Well, I don't think Indrid had a hat, although it had been raining. He did, it was described- Oh, I thought he did. Well, he's always portrayed with a hat in the pictures. Yeah, maybe a conflation with the hat men, men in black. Yeah, men in black, yeah. But to your point, he was described as having a suntan, of course, and a shiny outfit, some kind of a shiny jacket. But to your point here, there's also a story, and I believe it's from David Weatherly's Strange Intruders. It could be from Terry Lovelace's second book in the back with the stories. I think, though, it's from Strange Intruders about somebody seeing what they thought was like an Elmo, a live, real live Elmo figure out in the field, and then seeing more of them and more of them pop up, and then they got a bad feeling, like they're starting to advance and you better get out of there. And I don't think that person was a child at that point. I think, I'm not sure, I can't speak on that, but the point is, furry characters like this, some, the rabbit seemed unbranded, but not a spokes rabbit, not a mascot for a brand that's trademarked. But we've also heard a story, I think it was one of our Halloween submissions about Simi seeing a parade of Muppet-like characters come out of the TV. That's right, that's right. I forgot about that one. Yeah, so there's a long, not the most common thing you hear about, but certainly we've heard a handful of stories. The more we talk about it, that's what I love about The Dead Letter and our main show and us doing what we're doing right now. It's like, how many stories are out there that people are not, they're not exactly going to work and telling their co-workers about this, you know, and they're not, and in some cases, thanks to paranormal apathy, it's not coming up at all. It's like the Koukowsky intruder, you know, Liz and Craig Koukowsky never told each other that their childhood home was haunted until they were out at a bar having drinks with friends, you know, years later. So, folks, if you're out there and you have a weird story about a furry creature or some cute, fun thing that you saw that shouldn't have been where it was, definitely send it to Dead Letter Office at AstonishingLegends.com because now I'm wanting to start collecting this. Well, it's a subset of the genre and you can see that, like, I think your overall point here is that the message is tailored to the recipient and the messenger is something that is maybe more welcome. But, you know, well, just our case in point, look at the movie Harvey, when something like that happens to an adult, your sister tries to have you committed. When it happens to a child, it's like, okay, well, that's a very fanciful story. And, you know, children have very active imaginations and often have invisible friends. And that's an aspect where I believe as far as invisible friends go, children could have something imaginary, you know, that's their friend. It's especially if you don't have a lot of friends, it fills the void. It's something your brain as a child is like, well, let's give you a friend, something to focus your energies and attention and affection on. And it may be done out of boredom and could be non-supernatural at all. And then now I've come to, and that's what I always believed before hearing all this. I just, I never gave it much thought, you know, imaginary, you know, when I was a kid, it's like, I don't remember having any other friends that claim to have imaginary friends. I was an only child, but I never had one. I was weird kids. Like I was just always entertained by myself. I was perfectly fine. And then of course we had friends on the, on the block where we live, but I never put that together where later on, I thought like, oh, a lot of times these imaginary friends are spirits. We're talking about Captain Howdy, Mr. Nobody, all these things we've come to hear about of like, and often they're not good, but sometimes it can be just, uh, an entity wanting some kind of interaction with the human, uh, the energy of the human spirit. So again, it's all very curious and, uh, but the rabbit I think is very iconic. Like I said, it's not a tall lizard and a tuxedo or tall, even a tall frog, like Michigan J frog. That might be a little scary. That, uh, a six foot tall reptile being that's talking to you. This is much more appealing to children because they're soft and fluffy and rabbits usually don't attack you unless it's the, that's, it's Monty Python and the Holy grail. The most curious things about this story is the connection though, from, uh, the mother seeing it to Taylor seeing it. And then, uh, what's the purpose? Because again, it was the rabbit or she didn't see the rabbit coming into her room. It was going into the mother's room. So like you said, is that the same rabbit? Does it still visit her? We may never know. Well, whether this was a shared hallucination, a family legend, or something far stranger, it reminds us that sometimes the most mundane parts of our lives harbor the most unexpected mysteries. Keep your eyes peeled and your long ears open listeners. You never know what might hop into your shower. The Astonishing Dead Letter Office is hosted by Scott Philbrick and Forrest Burgess and is executive produced by Tess Feifel. The show is edited and mixed by Sarah Voorhees-Wendel at VW Sound. The theme is based on the Astonishing Legends theme by Judson Crane at Founder Music, arranged by Alan Carissia, who composes all the other music in the show. Tommy Beaver Design created the logo. The announcer is John Bolton. That's me. Stories are lightly edited for length, content, and readability, but otherwise presented as they're sent to us. We're always looking for more Dead Letters. So if you have a story of your own you'd like to share, email it to deadletteroffice at astonishinglegends.com. Please include how you would like to be credited. First name only, first name last initial, anonymous, a pseudonym? Let us know. Due to the number of emails coming in, we often cannot respond, but we do read them all. No part of this show may be reproduced anywhere without permission. Copyright, Astonishing Legends Productions. Protein bars often feel like you're choosing between taste and nutrition. If it tastes good, you flip it over only to discover it's made with a whole paragraph of ingredients you've never heard of, or artificial sweeteners are doing all the heavy lifting. It's basically dessert in disguise. You shouldn't have to choose between tasty and nutritious. And that's what makes Aloha stand out. Aloha protein bars nail the delicious and nutritious. They're USDA organic and made with ingredients that actually grow somewhere. It's their whole taste that grows philosophy. Plant-based ingredients grown in the ground, thoughtfully sourced, and built to keep you satisfied. Their peanut butter cup bar has 14 grams of protein, 10 grams of fiber, and only 5 grams of sugar, which is wild considering how delicious it is. 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I mean, it is one of the most recognized collagen supplements out there. And there's a real reason it's so popular. It supports healthy hair, skin, nails, bones, and joints. Vital Proteins has become a part of my daily routine. I mix it into my morning coffee or my smoothie. It's really easy. You can't even taste it. And it fits right into my day so I can feel my best. For me, it's about staying strong and showing up fully every single day. It just fits into my life. I'm betting it will fit into yours, too. You can add a serving to your morning coffee, your tea, smoothies, or oatmeal into whatever you're already having. And it dissolves easily with a neutral taste and no extra steps. Like I said, it fits right into your life. People use it for different reasons, some for beauty benefits, some for joint support. But for me, it's all about building a daily habit I can actually stick to. And that's the key with collagen peptides, consistency. One serving every day to support your hair, skin, nails, bones, and joints. And right now, you can get 20% off your next order by going to vitalproteins.com and using promo code WIDEOPEN20 at checkout. Huge thanks again to our sponsor, Vital Proteins. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Hey, it's Jay Shetty from On Purpose. Check out the best of a moment we did presented by eBay. Music has always been one of my teachers. There was a vinyl record I used to play during a quiet, very formative season of my life. Late nights, no distractions, just me, the music, and my thoughts. Over time, life changed, schedules filled up, and somewhere along the way, that record disappeared. I didn't notice right away, but I felt the absence of what it represented. So I searched for that same vinyl, same version, the same cover, and I found it on eBay. When it arrived, I couldn't wait to listen. And when I finally did, the music was the same, but I wasn't. I heard it differently. I understood it differently. And that's when it really hit me. Objects can evolve us. They can remind us of practices we want to return to, of values we don't want to lose, of versions of ourselves that still matter. That's what I love about eBay. It's not just about buying things. It is also a place where you can let go of items that are no longer serving you, or that you no longer need. You can give items a new life, a new story with someone else. To listen to more, check out the full episode wherever you get your podcasts. Visit ebay.com to shop your favorite finds. Find what you love, sell what you don't. eBay. Things people love. Have you ever noticed that feeling your worst also seems to happen at the worst time in the worst places? Like sudden nausea at 9 p.m. when you're out of town. Really? Now? Fortunately, with Hartford HealthCare's HHC 24-7 app, you can get answers, diagnosis, prescriptions, even speak live with clinicians anytime, anywhere. So maybe there's never a good time to be sick, but at least the best care is always there. Download the app at your app store or hhc247.org. Success starts with your drive, and American Public University is here to fuel it. With affordable tuition and over 200 flexible online programs, APU helps you gain the skills and confidence to move forward. Whether you're changing careers, starting fresh, or pursuing a lifelong passion, our programs are designed for people who never stop. You bring the fire, APU will fuel the journey. Learn more at apu.apus.edu. Ever notice that feeling your worst also seems to happen at the worst time in the worst places? Like sudden nausea at 9 p.m. when you're out of town. Really? Now? Fortunately, with Hartford HealthCare's HHC 24-7 app, you can get answers, diagnosis, prescriptions, even speak live with clinicians anytime, anywhere. So maybe there's never a good time to be sick, but at least the best care is always there. Download the app at your app store or hhc247.org. Success starts with your drive, and American Public University is here to fuel it. With affordable tuition and over 200 flexible online programs, APU helps you gain the skills and confidence to move forward. Whether you're changing careers, starting fresh, or pursuing a lifelong passion, our programs are designed for people who never stop. You bring the fire, APU will fuel the journey. Learn more at apu.apus.edu. At CVS, it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night, and we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and, yeah, healthy snack. At CVS, we're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters, so visit us at cvs.com or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location.
