S1 Ep38: A Gray Walks in LA

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The views and opinions expressed by hosts and listeners on The Astonishing Dead Letter Office are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Astonishing Legends Productions, The Astonishing Legends Network, or any affiliated entities or guests. When something unexplainable happens to you, it can make you feel isolated or alone. 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, Gray's Walk in L.A. Well, between the two of us, sir, we have probably spent a combined total of at least four decades of our individual lives in Los Angeles, I think. Oh, yes. For good or bad, I've been there longer than I have in the town where I grew up, which shall remain still at this point nameless. But, yeah, I got there right after college. I transferred down to go to USC, and that would have been 1986, 87. Okay. I think over the summer of 87. So, yeah, long time. Yeah. And I know it well, and I know exactly where this story takes place. Yeah, so do I. And I myself lived there from 94 to 2001, and moved away right after, as in five days after 9-11, and then went back and lived there from 2010 to, like, 2000, I don't know, 17, something like that. But so, a lot of time there. We're the ancients. But for real, in that time, you and I both seen a lot of strange stuff, because L.A., like New York, is one of those cities that, especially when you're younger, you're out and about in strange, unfamiliar places at all hours of the night. You see all kinds of wacky stuff. You do, but I think what's interesting with L.A. compared to New York is the geographical compression. Yes. And what I mean by that, that's actually a cinema term, speaking of film school, is that when you look at the movies, it's like, oh, here's Starsky and Hutch. Take your favorite cop duo, and they're downtown busting some perps, and next thing you know, they're at the beach. And so I've had friends that have come visit it. It's like, hey, we want to go do that. We got a car. We're going to go do this. It's like, can we take Wilshire from downtown all the way to the beach? It's like, well, you can. I'm not sure you want to do that because it's going to be, no, it'll be fine. It's like, listen, I've lived here a while. I'm telling you, it's going to be a long drive. It'll be fine. We'll see the sights. It's like, okay, go ahead, knock yourselves out. And then I see them for dinner, like, oh my God, that took forever. It took all day. It's like, yeah. And also wasn't super rewarding. No, no. I mean, there's terrific sections of Wilshire, but like, yeah, it's just, it's a very spread out. So when you're talking about seeing weird stuff, it's all over the place, and it's very happenstance. And you can get into trouble like any place else. And when people say like, oh, isn't that dangerous? Like, well, like New York's got, you know where to avoid. Yes. And we're not to be at, at the wrong place at the wrong time. In New York, I would say, you see more weirdness. I've been there a handful of times and it's like, it's more concentrated. It's all day long and all night long. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like you could just like, oh, you want to see some weirdness? Go around the block there. Yeah. LA. Oh, you want to see some weirdness? Yeah. It's a 15 minute drive, but go here. It's like, you'll see something strange. So yeah, in that case, it's a different vibe and feel, but like any big city, it's full of people, all with their various problems. Yeah. And their various dark secrets and hidden weirdnesses. Yeah, that's true. And you and I both have stories that are not suitable for broadcast. No, that's true. But to my knowledge, neither one of us has had one like tonight's dead letter. I can't say that I do, but I've seen many, many strange people. But I will say, I think you and I have felt lately that we're hearing more and more about things hiding in plain sight. Yeah. Not just UAP craft, but beings as well. I was walking my dog late one night around 1 a.m. in mid-December in Los Angeles. La Brea and Third to be exact. The streets were pretty empty and practically zero traffic, as is the case in the lead up to Christmas. I noticed a homeless person standing motionless on the sidewalk ahead of me, which made me slightly nervous. I contemplated crossing the street to avoid them, but they didn't appear to be an overt threat, so I stayed my course. I kept my eyes on the ground ahead of me, and as I passed this person about three feet away, I turned my head to look, and to my utter astonishment, I saw the face of a gray alien staring back at me. I instantly averted my gaze back down to the pavement and felt a visceral chill to the bone. The appearance was a typical gray, but the skin was dark and ashy-looking, like a black leather catcher's mitt that had faded with age. Speaking of a catcher's mitt, I later concluded it resembled the alien in the baseball episode of The X-Files titled The Unnatural. I told myself, Renee, look back up and verify what you saw, or else you will regret it. I wondered in that moment, what if it's only a Halloween mask or those novelty alien bug-eyed sunglasses? So against every fiber of my being, I forced myself to look back up, and instead of a cold, slender, gray face of an alien, I saw a very round face of a middle-aged African-American woman with sad eyes. If it was a mask, there was literally no time to take it off without me noticing. The immediate impression I got was that this being was sick, and it didn't realize it had dropped its psychic mask and let me see its true self. So it threw up its human mask. I spent the next day or so questioning what I saw, and contemplating all the ways that I may have duped myself. Some trick of the light as I approached this person. Some underlying paranoia. I have always had an interest in UFOs, loved shows like Unsolved Mysteries, The X-Files, but I have never been paranoid or delusional about it, or experienced anything close to this incident. I have seen some odd lights in the sky that I attributed to military operations at Edwards Air Force Base, but nothing I could claim was E.T. I searched online for any other people who have had similar encounters, but I couldn't find anything. After some time, I felt 98% confident that what I saw was my imagination. But then I wondered if that is merely a self-defense mechanism that our brains rely on when we are confronted by something unnatural. What if it wasn't a trick of the eye? What if I saw exactly what I think I saw? As for my feeling that this creature was sick, I can't tell how much of that was my imagination or whether it was some sort of empathetic thought transfer. But I can tell you that feeling was immediate. I didn't feel physically threatened and my dog didn't react either. If it was indeed alien, I felt sorry for this creature. Like it was living and hiding and in solitude. If there's any place on planet Earth for an alien to hide, the streets of Los Angeles are as good as any. Renee. After these messages, we'll be right back. Exploring the unknown is what makes Astonishing Legends so much fun. But when it comes to dinner, nobody wants surprises. Marley's Spoon helps you eat well without overthinking it. Each meal is chef-designed, made with quality ingredients, and balanced so you feel good about what you're eating. With over 100 recipes to pick from every week, there's always something new to try. Whether you're in the mood for a comforting classic or something a little more adventurous. Marley's Spoon adapts to your life. From breakfast to dinner and even those in-between snack moments. The subscription is simple and flexible so it fits your schedule no matter how busy things get. Go to marleyspoon.com slash offer slash pod 45 for 45% off your first order and free delivery. That's right. 45% off your first order and free delivery. That's marleyspoon.com slash offer slash P-O-D for five. This is Sophia Bush from Work in Progress with Sophia Bush. Check out this special moment we did on our show presented by eBay. When I was living in Chicago, I took part in my first ever giant charity sale and I was able to auction several items from my personal closet on eBay. They were items that marked huge moments in my life and in my career and though I was ready to pass them along, I also wanted to make sure they were going to someone who would love them. One of the things I loved the most about doing this with eBay is there was a way for everyone to shop. It wound up being so much fun to see where each and every item was going where it was going to be loved. And in passing items along like that, authenticity really matters to the person who's getting them. That's why I love eBay's authenticity guarantee. They weren't just listing my items, they were verifying them, making sure something was genuinely from where it claimed to be, in this case, my closet. To listen to more, check out the full episode wherever you get your podcasts. Find what you love, sell what you don't. eBay. Things people love. And now, back to the show. That was a really good letter. I enjoyed that letter. I like how it's presented and how it's written. I like how matter-of-fact she is about it. We've had stories where there was a dog. This dog apparently didn't factor in, didn't react. But it is interesting to me this idea of you see something and you look back and it's different. And we've got all kinds of stories like that from the invisible mantis creature on the river or whatever. But this idea of a mask, it's late at night, maybe this being, if you believe any of this at all, was just trying to relax or couldn't take the energy to keep up the mask, both literally and figuratively. Yeah, I love it. Well, you already heard this before. I ran this story by you because it was one of my picks, one of my finalists for our collection of Halloween listener stories. And so, we held on to it and I said, we've got to tell this story at some point or we're going to use this story for something because, and again, I mean, obviously, there are selfish reasons as well because Scott and I, I know exactly where 3rd and La Brea is. It's actually a big kind of a crossroads section of LA, their mid-city Hollywood. And I used to work close to there. Yeah, it's not far from the Grove. But 3rd and La Brea, I've been there many, driven through many, many hundreds of times and know exactly where that is and just the feel of it too, especially around the holidays, late at night, there's not a lot of activity. Again, not like Manhattan where, you know, there's always something going on except for Sunday mornings which are weirdly quiet and peaceful because everyone's still in the club until it closes at 6 a.m. or they're rolling out and they're totally wrecked. So, and the shopkeepers are spraying the streets down with water. It's kind of a peaceful thing as the sun's coming up. So, anyway, but LA has a very specific vibe late at night. So, the vibe is there and then the subtleness of the story in that it's just a flash of a moment and you think you saw that but I also understand that feeling too. It's like a lot of my little things that happen to me that are weird that you end up questioning yourself about later. You always say like, oh, actually a lot's happened to you. It's like, yeah, I don't know though. It's like afterwards it's like maybe I did imagine that because maybe that is a self-defense mechanism as Renee says that it keeps us going so we're not, again, fearful and up all night being scared of this kind of thing in this encounter or why do go back and not have that experience again because it's odd but just that flash there. So, what you were talking about is that I do believe that if you're thinking about it to me logistically, mechanically, how this would work, it's not so much like we see in the movies. Remember when morphing technology came out with special effects and movies and TV and then it was all the rage and everyone was doing in their stories and features. it's not so much the physical change in an instant of the face but maybe your perception of it. Right. So as you walk by you have perceived the defenses were down and this creature was sick or not feeling well or just off its game or just in an unguarded moment and again that must be physically exhausting to do that all the time but it is your perception of that it's implanted into your head like a screen memory. Right. It's kind of a things you walk by nobody notices because that signal is being beamed out from this being and then for a moment it drops and you see what it really is and then it notices you noticing and it's back up again and again you wouldn't notice somebody like that it's just very a common person on a common street and you see that every day and you don't think twice about it and so it's a good disguise but how does that work? So rather than the flesh changing and changing color kind of octopus-like for a moment it's a little brain signal for you to see something else dropped and you saw what it really was and in this case so Renee it's like I know that episode well it's one of my favorites just because of the setup and also the baseball team was called The Grays a little inside joke there but it's got some guest appearances there Daniel Duchovny as Piney M. Emmett Walsh we always love him and I guess a younger before we know him but I really love his acting Jesse L. Martin as Josh Exley so anyway the idea is that there's somebody kind of hiding in plain sight and just functioning in society in an episode The Unnatural and here they're just here and if you're wondering like it's funny some people do kind of have an opposite or skeptical view of this would say like well why would an alien be sick I mean they're much more advanced and it's I thought that too and then I remember talking to psychic medium Jim Hunt who we've had on the show it's like do you think that there's like alien ghosts around like I don't know and he said well sure if they're here obviously by now some have probably died and you're in this realm and so your spirit could also be wandering around like humans if you believe in ghosts he certainly does I believe in spirits in an afterlife and he said yeah he said I think I've come across spirits psychically that were not of this planet let's say so you can call them alien and it's like if they're here they're not perfect beings why wouldn't some be sick why wouldn't some not be functioning correctly even if they were androids or biological creations they're not all gonna work perfectly and there you go some was having a malfunction due to feeling bad and I love that it's such a bit of a touching story as well that you felt sadness for this thing maybe it's on a mission it's stranded here and it can't get back and it's just sick and not feeling well it doesn't want to be here and it can't catch a big break in movie so it's having to wait tables it's trying to just get down to Melrose where there's more shots and people right but no it's just it's an interesting little tale of just a fraction of a moment that lasts with people forever especially with Rene he's always gonna be thinking about that and I'm glad they looked up I'm glad they turned around and gave it a second glance because you would have regretted it yeah and I don't think dogs always react to everything too it's like think about the the laughing Indian our friend Mark right his dog had no reaction to something he clearly heard well yeah there might be a difference between being an alien and being a threat it could be like yeah I see the aliens all the time but they don't scare me that could be the dogs that's what I'm saying different things and they may see ghosts all the time and it's like well they don't really bother me and it's like but these ghosts I don't know and then I see the ghost of grandma and I get excited yeah that also is that was on a Jim Harrell's campfire and I love a lot of these are kind of touching stories the dog reacting I think it was at a funeral and I always remember this because they would play this big goofy dog and you know family dog and they would do this thing where they would kind of squeeze his butt they'd go pinchy pinchy and he'd kind of dance around and get excited and hop up on you and he loved it and they were at a funeral and the grandmother passed and suddenly they felt I think they sensed a presence of like like mom and the dog started doing the pinchy pinchy dance yeah maybe she was doing it and he was just like hey that's funny that tickles so anyway but getting back to the story it's yeah this is fascinating in that they're obviously if they're going to be here I'm sure there's some walking around and then if you go make the stretch to the alien human hybrid thing is that I thought this was kind of funny and fascinating one theory is that the hybrids are among us but also being taken to populated urban areas like Disneyland to train in understanding and adapting to human behavior and so it's not out in the remote woods or it's always at somebody's farm and some farmer seeing this stuff they're all over the cities and there's a presence there you just don't notice it you know it's funny you talk about the morphing technology that was that was invented by PDI I don't know if you remember the Pacific data images that's right I certainly do yeah they they did that for the 1991 the most prominent use of it was Michael Jackson's video for black or white if you haven't seen that in fact I saw clips from that making the rounds on Instagram just a week or so ago because kids these days can't believe it's not AI but it's not AI it's technology that they developed for films like Willow and Terminator 2 at PDI there's these powerhouse companies in LA that would just create something from nothing when it was needed for a big budget film back then right the other thing that kind of fascinates me is how no one really talks about music videos anymore but back in our day when MTV started we had music videos and the thing is being serious here is that they were pioneering a lot of technology film wise because you had great directors like Michelle Gondry and others that were using the latest kind of visual techniques and special effects I was thinking of Godly and Cream remember that video where they morphed all the people yeah and to be fair by the way Gondry was very much practical he did almost nothing he shot it like for real that way but he did invent frozen time that's what I was thinking of is that just quickly for folks that wonder how that works is that it's a great practical idea of I think for the Rolling Stones music video is that you take like 120 digital SLRs lined up on a track around something and you basically all have them shoot a single frame and then when you put those all together it's like motion pictures except you can go around a subject and it appears up there frozen in time frozen motion hence and so yeah that was all happening and this I wish there was a photo well nobody has a GoPro going full time on your walks but maybe you should and would the camera even pick that up because then to my theory is that would it just show the alien all the time or would you see the human there and it's a good question or would you just see some mist because that's our other theory remember like sometimes cameras just pick up an unidentifiable unintelligible fog or mist where we see something else or we see black smoke and then but we see a person that's like Max Kelso's story that we refer to frequently he actually texted me today and was asking about Monster Fest 2025 he's like I can't find anything on it and it's like yes they're not doing it this year but yeah where he and in fact I believe we ran Max's junk tour appearance on Patreon in our main feed or we're about to so if you haven't heard that look for that if you're subscribed to the show you will have gotten it already by now anyway probably but what are other people why aren't other people seeing it because maybe nobody's seeing her maybe it looks different to other people maybe it's invisible maybe it's a mist to someone else and it's only presenting itself to you maybe Renee has a gift that gave her an ability to observe this being whatever it was or maybe it allowed itself to be observed of course the initial incident was she thought she saw this and then praise to her for step two of looking again step three might have been going over and saying hello and finding out a little bit more about that person yeah I know I mean which but you know it's easy for me to say I'm walking around at third in La Brea at one in the morning not sure I would have done it so well no that gets to right what we were saying before I have noticed a change over the decades of being I mean it's always been the case what we were just talking about you don't want to draw necessary attention because oftentimes it's not good or you're going to get dragged at least into a long story that is going to you know you try to be polite and trying to extricate yourself from but certainly if somebody obviously if somebody seems that they need help you know try and get them help we'll get the authorities to get them help certainly if you see that but not saying that to ignore people but Scott and I know it's like you got to be careful because like I said I think in this case with the subject you're probably okay but there is a I would say nowadays there's a lot of violence that comes with this so I would be careful with how you approach people but in this case I think I would have I would have maybe tried to talk to them or just said hello like hey how you doing you're okay yeah yeah I'm just kind of reflecting on my course of seeing people on the street but anyway now getting back to this it's like I like the story for several elements just because again the tone the sadness the emotion to it you don't often hear those aspects of it usually it's very threatening you know it's like they showed up as monkeys and I didn't want to go and right now I'm looking at the saw coming down from the ceiling you know yeah in this case it's a very human touching moment with a non-human of course when you look at the possibilities for what may have happened here whether Renee could have been mistaken or misread the situation although she seems very sure of it and is very in her story very specific about how I know that this is what happened and again as we say on the show and on our main show we're not going to tell you what you saw we don't think that's a cool thing to do when people share stories with us you have to wonder on a deeper level if this goes way beyond just being a mask you have to wonder if there's some kind of coexistence happening within that being maybe it's way more complicated than anything we would understand or maybe Renee just mistook some light play and shadows and she saw that for a different reason and it wasn't how the person really appeared but then that begs a new set of questions which is really why does she think she's seen greys on the street well yeah I liked your idea though of some kind of cohabitation and not being able to wrap our heads around that that's one philosophical thought experiment for me personally that I've always wondered about and we've talked about this since we began the show is that how we function is that we think we can understand everything like look we're adults we've been to college we can understand difficult concepts most of them or at least try to get a foothold about what a concept or some mechanics or how things work but then there's there must be look it's like I think it's hubris and ego to think like you can we understand everything we just haven't discovered some things there are things and the processes and ways of I guess the reality works that we cannot comprehend and motivations and thinking of other beings that are not human and therefore we we can't even wrap our heads around it of just we get it's that cockroach like how do you explain yourself to a cockroach what is a cockroach what do they you know obviously I think about this when flies or insects buzz right for you like don't you see that I'm gonna I'm gonna swat at you yeah or I have this plastic tennis racket that's got a battery in it that's gonna zap you like there's no concept of that I think you're just you're maybe an animal to them or some large thing but obviously not that dangerous because you're flying right at my face again that's instinctual it's animal it's insect we can as higher beings hopefully we can understand what's going on there but can they understand what's happening with us and does it matter it's not a level like it's not even that important I mean there's a survival instinct of course but from our point of view a really advanced being maybe thinking in ways that we can't even comprehend and don't make sense to us and so there's no logical way we always try to do that is apply logic to this like well that doesn't make sense why would they do that it's like you try to apply human logic to that like don't it's the hat in the can like don't it's a comedy joke don't try and unravel this thing it's not going to make sense to you and it's like why would it and I know that's how we comfort ourselves and get by in the world as we try to make sense of things and see patterns I think that's called apophenia perhaps post hoc ergo propter hoc translating from the latin after this therefore because of this so well that happens so then this must be the cause of that where it doesn't necessarily follow at all but that's how we survive is that again don't go in bear cave you go in bear cave you do not come out so you know not to you know to be cautious and approach things and so that's what keeps us safe you see a strange being don't engage because you don't know where they're coming from but why are they here what are they thinking how does that process work it may be something like you said I thought it was interesting it may be something we cannot understand you need to be evolutionarily higher to understand it because to us it seems cruel or unusual or nonsensical but to them it makes perfect sense and they have their own motivations oh apophenia that's a nice word it's a I think that was a singer in the 80s yeah apollonia that's an interesting idea the other thing I wonder about is in this scenario I'm not entirely certain that we're not the cockroaches no offense Renee not saying that to you but maybe the the being is the elevated thing but here's the other thing who says and I don't know what this there's probably a term for this too but there's always this idea we've talked about it before it's like well UFOs not going to crash their technology so sophisticated we have everyone has this belief that if these things are real and you believe any of this at all they've got it all dialed in everything works right they've got the technology nothing ever goes wrong the everything is perfect and they're living their best lives as aliens or interlopers are doing you know and we're the lab rats or we're the cockroaches or we're the zoo and they're coming down here and doing whatever they need to do and they don't ever fall into the enclosure but the thing is if the universe works the way we think it does Murphy's law probably could apply across multiple dimensions and it could apply to this could be some sort of alien life form that is down on its luck or abandoned and I always think about James Fox's movie and that poor creature which is how I think of it that was on the ground in Virginia and seemed scared and was crouching against the wall like afraid for its life and and possibly completely out of luck in terms of existing too long beyond that moment after its ship crashed and it's running around in a village on earth where it had no intention of ever being yeah that's what I was thinking when you're discussing here James Fox's documentary the moment of contact and that it was described with the three girls that saw this thing in the field and they go to the field where they saw it it's locked up and they get in there and just exactly where it was crouching and I think about that and that you know again there's all these theories that what we're seeing these little beings are manufactured androids of sorts replicants done to do dirty work in the dangerous space travel business and and for cases like this when they do crash you don't want you don't want your your upper echelon beings put in harm's way you want them guiding these other beings and and we certainly heard lots of stories where that seems to make more sense you've created minions in a way but do they have feelings that are maybe self defense type things where they they can be afraid and can be cautious it does seem to be if you believe a lot of the abduction stories when somebody like Travis Walton starts acting up and throwing punches like okay we're we're out of the room okay we'll just come back when we calm down okay we'll see you in a minute and uh there's some self-preservation aspects to these creatures and you wonder like what are they feeling though on the other hand if it is a manufactured being it makes me think of the Simpsons episode with the robot uh things are going crazy and professor Frink's laboratory the robots on fire is like why did you program me to feel pain like why did you that's not helpful for me right but in the why is this thing uh crouching down but it did sound afraid uh it wasn't just running around like I'm in control of you puny earthlings it had fear of its life if you believe that and it's on a strange place and a strange planet and a stranger in a strange land and turned out to be a little toxic I think uh just by being what it was and the way it's engineered if you believe the story but in this case it's like getting back to the story I do wonder like then what are the feelings because that's another aspect of why I like this story so you're talking about the downed aircraft and it's like you know they're not perfect they make mistakes obviously some things we don't understand that don't make sense to us if you talk about Terry Lovelace's abduction experience and he said like they didn't get everything right like first of all I could still move my eyes just like in the Pascagoula case they didn't get that right I can still see you and move my eyes and I remembered a lot of this even though you tried to blank it out so your biotech isn't totally up to snuff secondly when you drop me off my socks are on sideways and my boots are loose and it's just like that's the comical part of a horrific experience in that you know it's like socks go on now over boot no put sock on first then boot and then why am I speaking monotone but they it's just like it's on side who cares just get them up get the socks on we got to get out of here same thing with Betty's dress from Betty and Barney Hill I think the dress was on backwards or the zip was ripped or something was yeah it wasn't fastened right yeah they or it had been unfastened like in a sort of yeah something we've heard that before the clothes are on inside out or on backwards it's like close enough what do we care it's like it doesn't matter to them to get it perfect it's not important to them like just get the clothes on we're out of here we got five more people to abduct tonight so let's let's get a move on and to us it's like oh no you're trying to commit the perfect crime you get everything perfect so you would never notice like no they they don't care about that apparently so here though like what's the motivation and you wonder though for me about the fear and the sadness of being stranded and deserted and and like who are these grubby people I gotta walk around you know and pretend to be one again no offense to Renee so far we've covered a cockroach a grubby person no no I'm talking oh no no not Renee no I know I'm making a joke right right not the people around or or the subject that was seen it's just a sense of isolation and you know being alone in a crowd and that again it's a very human thing from something that may not have been human well Renee you know there are folks that say there are things all around us that we can't see not because of how our eyes work but because of how our mind processes the input from our senses which is just what we're talking about you know are these beings always out there and if we can't see them as you couldn't when you looked a second time is that because of how our brains work or because of something they are doing we might not learn that for quite some time but thank you for having the courage and the openness to share your story with us here at the astonishing dead letter office the astonishing dead letter office is hosted by Scott Philbrook 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 deadletter office at astonishing legends dot 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 the show may be reproduced anywhere without permission copyright astonishing legends productions exploring the unknown is what makes astonishing legends so much fun but when it comes to dinner nobody wants surprises Marley's spoon helps you eat well without overthinking it each meal is chef designed made with quality ingredients and balanced so you feel good about what you're eating with over 100 recipes to pick from every week there's always something new to try whether you're in the mood for a comforting classic or something a little more adventurous Marley's spoon adapts to your life from breakfast to dinner and even those in between snack moments the subscription is simple and flexible so it fits your schedule no matter how busy things get go to marley spoon dot com slash offer slash pod 45 for 45 percent off your first order and free delivery that's right 45 percent off your first order and free delivery that's marley spoon dot com slash offer slash p o d four five hello hello I'm Malcolm Gladwell host of the podcast smart talks with IBM I recently sat down with IBM's chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna and I asked him how can companies use AI to its fullest potential to create smarter business my one advice to them pick areas you can scale don't pick the shiny little toys on the side for example if anybody has more than 10 percent of what they had for customer service 10 years ago they're already five years behind it if anybody is not using AI to make their developers who write software 30 percent more productive today with the goal of being 70 percent more productive yeah wow so we are not asking our clients to be the first experiment on it we say you can leverage what we did we're happy to bring out all our learnings including what needs to change in the process because the biggest change is not technology it's getting people to accept that there's a different way to do things to listen to the full conversation visit ibm.com slash smart talks if data management is slowing down your business you need the Intuit ERP if one entity is here and one here and one here and one here you need the Intuit ERP if scaling your business feels like start starting starting starting starting over you need the Intuit ERP Intuit Enterprise suite is the AI native ERP solution that consolidates migrates and automates all in one place learn more at Intuit.com slash ERP 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 this is Sophia Bush from work in progress with Sophia Bush check out this special moment we did on our show presented by eBay when I was living in Chicago I took part in my first ever giant charity sale and I was able to auction several items from my personal closet on eBay they were items that marked huge moments in my life and in my career and though I was ready to pass them along I also wanted to make sure they were going to someone who would love them one of the things I loved the most about doing this with eBay is there was a way for everyone to shop it wound up being so much fun to see where each and every item was going where it was going to be loved and in passing items along like that authenticity really matters to the person who's getting them that's why I love eBay's authenticity guarantee they weren't just listing my items they were verifying them making sure something was genuinely from where it claimed to be in this case my closet to listen to more check out the full episode wherever you get your podcasts find what you love sell what you don't eBay things people love 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 HHC 247.org with the Venmo debit card a taco in one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking your rewards nice get up to 5% cash back with Venmo stash on your favorite brands when you pay with your Venmo debit card from takeout to ride shares entertainment and more pick a bundle with your go-tos and start earning cash back at those brands do more stash get more cash Venmo stash bundle terms and exclusions apply see terms at Venmo dot me slash stash terms max $100 cash back per month 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 you you you you you