Podcast Trailer: I Couldn't Throw It Out

I COULDN'T THROW IT OUT - TRAILER

Song
I couldn't throw it out
I had to scream and shout
 
Michael
Hello Sally Libby!
 
Sally
Hello Michael Small!
 
Michael
Okay, this is our trailer.  So we've got five minutes to explain our podcast.  How are we gonna do that?
 
Sally
Well... you could share some clips from upcoming episodes.
 
Michael
But we haven't finished them yet.
 
Sally
I won't tell if you don't.  
 
Michael
Okay!  Let's give it a whirl.  The thing is... For my whole life, I've been saving things that I thought were really important.  But now, nobody wants any of it.  So I gotta TRY to start throwing it out. This includes the 15 years of interview tapes when I was a reporter for People Magazine.  The best one was my 1985 interview with Joni Mitchell.
 
Sally
Which is why we're starting our first season with it.
 
Michael
Right.  Joni was SO brilliant and SO open. At one point, we were having dinner at a coffee shop in Malibu, and I asked why she kept changing her musical style, even though she was criticized for it.  As usual, she had a very good answer.
 
INTERVIEW CLIP

Joni Mitchell:
What would you do if you got killed off, if you were loved, then hated?  What would you do after that?  Would you go back and kiss ass?  Or would you pander to them?  Or would you just say, "Be true to yourself?"
 
We talked more about that in the first of two episodes with Joni.  Then there are the people I interviewed when I had no clue that they'd ever be famous.  I'm pretty sure I did the first-ever interview with Kiefer Sutherland when he was 16-years-old and starring in his first movie.  He told me what happened when he decided – at the grand age of 15 – to move out on his own:
 
INTERVIEW CLIP

Kiefer Sutherland:
Parents are very very wonderful with this thing.  You tell them something, they say, "No way, forget it."  You do it and they say, "Are you all right?"  So I did it and they phoned up and asked me if I needed any help.  And my father helped me out. And my mother helped me out.
 

Sally
I liked the interview with Eazy-E that you did for your book about rap music.  When did that come out?

Michael
The book?  That was 1992.  Of all the rap stars I interviewed, I felt the strongest connection to Eazy-E.  Which may seem strange, because he led the gangsta rap group N.W.A.  – and, let's face it, I'm no gangsta.  Anyway, one of the stories he told me was about the way he experienced racism in the business world.
 
INTERVIEW CLIP

Eazy-E:
I'd meet somebody and tell them who I am and they'd say, "You're Eric Wright?"  And they'd be surprised because I'm Black and young and everything. Like one company I went to one time.  And they said... I went up there and I said I'm here to see such-and-such for a meeting and they said, "The messenger boy is here." I said, "Okay. I'll be the messenger."  So I sat out there.  And then they came out and they're "Hi how you doin'?" And they told the lady who I was and she said, "Oh would you like this?  Would you like that?  I'm sorry.  I thought you was the messenger."
 
Sally
I think you're misleading our listeners a bit.  Not every episode involves celebrities.  What about the episode where you tried to throw out the cards and letters that you got after donating a kidney.
 
Michael
That was 2014.  And my wife Cindy – who got that extra body part I didn't need – she still has perfect kidney function today.
 
Sally
Yay!
 
Michael:
But even though Cindy and I met when we were 18, I was STILL surprised to hear her perspective about those years before the transplant.

INTERVIEW CLIP

Cindy Ruskin
You know that in college and in high school, I really didn't think I was going to make it.  Or even in my early '20s.  My parents were expecting me to die.  I just didn't think I had a chance.  I lived as if I were going to die.  I never lived as if I had a future.  And I took crazy crazy risks.  And I'm really sorry that I dragged you along on some of them.
 
Michael
While we're getting personal, don't forget the family history that I pulled out of my boxes.
 
Sally
That involved more drama and sadness than I expected.  Those TWO terrible accidents with your grandfather!
 
Michael
And the weirdest thing is – without those accidents, I might not even be here today.  
 
Sally
Then you wouldn't have saved all those boxes of stuff.
 
Michael
And we'd have no podcast.
 
Sally
Then no one has to listen to our first season. 
 
Michael
Sally!  That's not the goal of a trailer.  The goal is to make people WANT to listen. 

Sally
Okay.  Listeners!  You will get great joy and entertainment from hearing us try to throw out 58 years of stuff!
 
Michael
Or at least that's what we're hoping.  In the first episode, we explain why we HAD to create this podcast. Then, every week in the summer of 2022, watch out for new episodes of...

Sally
I Couldn't Throw It Out! 

Michael
Yeah!
 
Song
I couldn't throw it out
I have to scream and shout
It all seems so unjust
But still I know I must
I have to throw it out